In the year 2273, the Solar empire was tearing itself apart.
A plan was devised to find a new home. Those who wanted to escape to a peaceful future disguised their venture as a mining operation and promised great fortune. Soon the massive ships were on their way. After five hundred years traveling through space, disaster struck. The flagship, the Glorious Future, exploded unexpectedly, killing all aboard. The blast damaged three other colony ships - the Argonne, Enterprise, and Halisson. Their crews awoke early from cryosleep to find communications cut off from The Ark, the fifth undamaged ship.
Chaos reigned as agents sabotaged systems, viruses struck and a power struggle to take control took over each ship. Over generations, the isolated ships developed their own societies, and factions emerged: the theocratic Holy Corporation, the militaristic Gear Breakers and the anarchic Metal Punks.
Hardened after centuries of meager space travel and infighting, the factions finally arrived at their destination, the planet Kerberos, and managed to maneuver their ships into low orbit. Some of the wreckage of the Glorious Future, having been latched onto the Gear Breaker’s vessel, broke off and collided with the planet. Its massive fusion drive detonated on impact, causing planet-wide devastation. The remaining destruction spread across the planet, and the bits of automatic terraforming machinery that survived began to do what they were programmed to do: fabricate. Fabricators sent out nanobots to collect metals, silica, and carbon and build industrial factories and cities. Over the last few hundred years, the automated mining and manufacturing systems the factions carried across space for the betterment of humankind have been redirected to a more ancient endeavor: War.
The Gearbreakers are a group of technologically-enhanced humans originating from an engineering vessel called The Halisson. Soon after the awakening, a deadly virus struck the great vessel. Decimating the population and forcing them to start replacing their human bodies with synthetic organs. Early versions went mad, but over time the transformation process was perfected to ensure their survivability.
The Gearbreakers developed a highly logical, efficient, and regimented society centered around technology and AI. emotion and free thinking were deprioritized. Criminals were often killed or lobotomized for the supposed greater good. They lost part of their humanity but advanced technologically.
The Gearbreakers refer to themselves as "Mankind" but their society differs greatly from that of unmodified humans. Underground societies exist to allow free thinking and innovation outside the strict societal rules. Higher ranked members have more cybernetic replacements, with leaders being almost full cyborgs. Their clothing and style reflects their utilitarian, militaristic culture. What they lack in numbers they make up for in intelligence and ruthlessness
Soon after the Awakening resources grew scarce aboard The Enterprise, giving rise to a ruthless corporate religion - the Holy Corporation. A strict caste system emerged, with clerics and executives ruling the masses below. Corporation rituals reinforced divisions, turning workers against each other to maintain control. Revolts were crushed through fear and torture. Followers were conditioned to resent those slightly better off rather than blame the powerful minority profiting most.
The majority of the crew toiled endlessly in the depths of space, subordinate to Holy Scripture that now dictated their bleak lives. Strict dress codes separated the classes, with royal robes and suits for the elite lording over the ragged coveralls of laboring parishioners. Enforced ritual masked the inequity and hardship of a majority living in artificial scarcity to benefit the privileged few.
The Holy Corporation maintained dominance through suspicion and hatred for anyone not at the very bottom of their society.
Aboard the ship The Argonne wandered the remnants of humanity known as the Metal Punks. They were the products of desperate genetic and cybernetic experiments intended to ensure their survival after the cataclysmic "Awakening." Their labs and do-it-yourself attitude had allowed them to modify themselves extensively, though now they were far from human. Their fractious population of mostly females clung together out of necessity, overcompensating in style to maintain fierce individualism.
They decorated themselves wildly in armor, animal prints and bondage gear, marking their bodies extensively with tattoos and augmentations. Though prone to conflict, the Metal Punk "People" ultimately relied on each other for support and survival.
Their ranks were plagued by sterility, cloning failures and genetic degradation, yet their drive to endure kept them unified. Each clan identified through vibrant aesthetic modifications designed to uphold their distinct status among the patchwork of subcultures aboard The Argonne. They sailed through space as cybernetically-enhanced aberrations, their humanity long sacrificed but their punk attitude still flying high.
The central government on Earth struggles to maintain order in the outer rim as resource scarcity threatens the survival of humankind.
From this chaos emerges an incredible new technology
Capable of creating almost anything from raw material, this technology would finally allow humans to colonize worlds outside their star system.
A suitable planet TRM-175 "Kerberos" is selected a thousand lightyears away, and the best and brightest are recruited for this covert mission. 5 massive colony ships are commissioned to begin their thousand-year voyage, their crew sagelt asleep in cryostasis
The flagship “GLORIOUS FUTURE” is lost forever. At near lightspeed, the EMP burst also reaches three of the sister ships. Roused from cryostasis, the remaining crews face the prospect of living out a one-way thousand-year journey.
Over the generations, the three damaged ships evolve brutal new societies: the theocratic HOLY CORPORATION, the despotic GEARBREAKERS, and the anarchic METALPUNKS.
Generations of speculation and blame solidify their hatred and distrust for each other. And the longer they spend in space, each facing their own unique devastations, the more they diverge from one another.
Meanwhile, the final ship "The Arc" continues undamaged towards its destination, the last remaining "Earthers" oblivious to the brewing conflict...
A metal rich planet at the other end of the galaxy. The ships have arrived after a thousand year journey. And with the original mission now but a distant memory, the factions that have evolved over a millennia in isolation are about to descend upon an alien planet extreme consequences.
Feel free to contact us at hello@metalcore.gg, check out our Litepaper, and stay tuned for our upcoming newsletter for news, development updates and community events.
Join Our discord
.svg)