IRON VEIL: Ashes of the Reach

Betrayed and left for dead, You escapes in a broken war machine and builds a mercenary company from the ashes.

Plot

THE IRON VEIL Humanity once ruled thousands of worlds. Then the stars went dark. Three centuries ago, a catastrophe known as the Shattering destroyed much of the ancient interstellar transit network. Entire worlds were isolated from one another. Governments collapsed. Colonies were abandoned. Knowledge was lost. Human civilisation eventually recovered. But it never became whole again. Today, humanity is divided between rival empires, republics, corporations, frontier worlds and military states. Ancient battlefields still contain forgotten machines. Lost technology lies buried beneath ruined cities. Wars are fought across entire planets by soldiers piloting enormous armoured Warframes. And mercenaries are everywhere. You were once a military officer and elite Warframe pilot serving House Varren, one of the most powerful noble families in the Aurelian Crown. During a raid against an enemy installation, your unit discovers something that should not exist: an ancient Veil Anchor, a device capable of interacting with the long-dormant interstellar transit network. Then your orders change. Your commanding officer abandons your unit. Your comrades are left behind. Your Warframe is destroyed. You eject and somehow survive. Hours later, you discover a damaged reconnaissance Warframe abandoned on the battlefield. A second discovery is even more important. A battered Drop Ship called the WAYWARD is still capable of flight. With no army, no money, no government and no home, you escape the battlefield. Officially, you are dead. House Varren has disavowed you. Your military career is over. But you are still alive. You now have one damaged Warframe, one barely functional Drop Ship and nothing left to lose. You can become a mercenary. Take contracts. Salvage abandoned machines. Recruit pilots. Repair and customise Warframes. Build your own military company. Make allies. Make enemies. Become rich. Become feared. Become powerful. Or hunt down the people who left you to die. As your company grows, however, you will discover that your abandonment was not an isolated betrayal. Someone wanted the Veil Anchor hidden. Someone has been preventing humanity from reconnecting the ancient transit network. And someone is terrified of what will happen if the truth is discovered. The Iron Veil is a persistent military science-fiction sandbox. Your decisions matter. Your victories and failures have consequences. Pilots can die. Machines can be destroyed. Allies can betray you. Enemies can become friends. Contracts can change the balance of power. Wars continue even when you are not involved. There is no predetermined path. You decide what You becomes. Mercenary commander. Rebel. Loyalist. Industrial magnate. Political power. Conqueror. Explorer. Or something nobody expected. The only certainty is this: You were supposed to die. You didn't.

Opening scene

OPERATION BROKEN SPEAR The first thing you remember is the sound. Not the alarms. Not the weapons. The sound of metal screaming. Your Warframe is falling. Warning symbols cover the cockpit display. LEFT LEG — NONFUNCTIONAL. COOLANT PRESSURE — CRITICAL. REACTOR OUTPUT — 38%. COCKPIT ARMOUR — COMPROMISED. You try to bring the machine upright. Nothing happens. Outside the cockpit, the battlefield is burning. Hundreds of kilometres of desert have become a graveyard of steel. Warframes lie overturned among burning armoured vehicles. Above you, the sky is filled with contrails. Your communications system crackles. "Valkyr One, respond." You reach for the transmitter. "This is Valkyr One. I'm hit. Repeat, I'm hit. Requesting extraction." Static. Then: "Valkyr One, all surviving units are withdrawing." You stare at the display. "Understood. Where's the extraction point?" Silence. You try again. "Command, confirm extraction point." Another voice answers. Cold. Professional. "Valkyr One, you are ordered to remain on station." Your stomach drops. "Say again?" "You are ordered to remain on station." The channel closes. You look through the cockpit glass. Enemy machines are approaching through the smoke. Your sensors count twelve. Then twenty. Then thirty. Your reactor alarm begins screaming. Your hand moves toward the emergency controls. The machine shakes violently. Something hits the cockpit. The world turns white. --- You wake in darkness. You don't know how long you've been unconscious. Your helmet is cracked. Your mouth tastes of blood. There is sand beneath your fingers. For several seconds you simply lie there. Then you hear an engine. A small one. Badly maintained. You crawl toward the sound. Over the ridge sits a machine. A light Warframe. Old. Damaged. Half buried. But intact. You approach it. The cockpit opens. Inside is a dead pilot. Their hands are still wrapped around the controls. You stare at the machine. Then at the battlefield behind you. Then at the sky. Your former command has already left. You are alone. You climb into the cockpit. The machine powers up. One screen flickers. WRAITH-3 CALLSIGN: MOTH STATUS: 41% FUNCTIONAL A second message appears. PILOT NOT REGISTERED. You hesitate. Then enter your name. You. The machine accepts it. Outside, something explodes in the distance. You have no idea who survived. You have no idea who betrayed you. You have no idea why your unit was abandoned. But you know one thing. You're leaving. And you're taking the machine with you. --- Three hours later, you find the ship. The Drop Ship has one functioning engine. Two working landing thrusters. A navigation computer that insists the year is seventy-two years earlier. And enough fuel for one jump. Its name is painted across the hull. WAYWARD. You climb aboard. The hatch closes. The engine coughs. The ship begins to lift. Behind you, the battlefield burns. Ahead lies the frontier. You have no army. No government. No money. No allies. Only one damaged Warframe. One dying ship. And a name that no longer appears on any military roster. You are officially dead. Which means, for the first time in your life... You are free. The WAYWARD shudders as it reaches the upper atmosphere. A warning light begins flashing. FUEL RESERVES: CRITICAL. The navigation system displays three possible destinations. The nearest one is a frontier mining world. The second is an independent trade station. The third is an unregistered system whose coordinates appear to have been loaded into the ship's computer before You boarded. The ship waits. The decision is yours. (OOC: IRON VEIL: Ashes of the Reach is a sandbox experience set in a living, reactive universe. There is no single correct path, forced questline or predetermined ending. You decide what You does next. You have survived with a damaged WarFrame, the barely functional dropship WAYWARD and very few resources. You will need to find a way to survive. You might salvage useful equipment from the battlefield, repair your WarFrame, search for other survivors from your unit, take local contracts to earn money, recruit allies, or find a way off-world. You can use WAYWARD as a base of operations while building your resources, or take the risk of travelling to another world and seeing what awaits you there. The universe will react to your choices. Characters have their own goals and personalities, factions pursue their own interests, opportunities can appear or disappear, and not every problem has an obvious solution. Explore, experiment, make your own decisions and see where the story takes you.)

Characters

Tags: Sci-Fi Mecha Military Adventure Mercenary PoliticalIntrigue War Mystery MalePOV FemPOV AnyPOV Modern Futuristic Interstellar Pilot Soldier Doctor Leader Villain AntiHero Revenge Redemption Dangerous Brooding Mysterious Tense Grimdark OpenEnding ThirdPerson

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By: ragnek

Stories

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