BetaForce

Alpha Force were the finest heroes the world had ever seen. For over two decades, they had protected us. Collectively they had saved the world too many times to count, often thwarting some scheme or plot at the last minute. Like most teams, they had their arch nemesis. Unifer.

Their battles were epic and together they were the titans of their age. Alpha Force, the greatest heroes and Unifer the greatest villain. Each time they fought, the fate of the world hung in balance and the course of history was changed. No matter how complex the scheme, Alpha Force foiled it. No matter how many times they beat him, Unifer would always rise from the ashes to once again threaten world peace.

Until the unthinkable happened.

Until the day the Unifer won.

March 4th 2010, after two years in hiding, Unifer launched an assault on Washington DC. Using an army he had raised seemingly out of nowhere, local heroes and military forces could only hold him at a standstill as his forces besieged the centre of the capital. Finally, at 17:02 EST, Alpha Force arrived on the scene. For the next two hours the heroes fought their enemy in what was quickly becoming one the greatest super battles in history. Then Unifer made his appearance.

Confronting Alpha Force in the middle of the National Mall, by the ruins of the toppled Washington Monument, he smiled and awaited his foes. As the heroes prepared to strike during his customary monologue, Unifer simply glanced at the news crews that had arrived on the scene. Ensuring that the cameras were broadcasting every second of what was to follow, instead of launching into a prepared speech; he smiled and pointed his fist at the heroes. A beam of brilliant white energy shot out and enveloped Alpha Force. In an instant, the world's greatest heroes were shredded and slaughtered live on television; their deaths broadcast to a stunned world.

Gloating over his victory, and with his forces now standing unopposed, he turned to the cameras. With a small wave to the viewers, he pressed a button his wrist and every computer on the planet crashed.

The world plunged into darkness and chaos as power grids failed, communication networks were knocked out, and the delicate technological infrastructure of civilisation crumbled. Flashes of light in the sky heralded the next phase in his plan as EMP weapons secretly deployed into orbit detonated disabling all unshielded electronics. Hardened military systems were naturally immune but they had already been compromised. The same self-aware electronic lifeform that had seized control of civilian computer networks had co-opted the military ones. Crippling the secure communications channels, Medusa quickly cracked the launch codes for the world's nuclear deterrents. As an object lesson, the cities of Mumbai, Karachi, Delhi, Shanghai, Moscow, Sao Paolo, Seoul, Istanbul, Mexico City, Jakarta, New York, Tokyo, Lima, Beijing, Cairo, Tehran, London, Bogotá, Lagos and Hong Kong perished in nuclear fire, killing some 179 million people. With the world's twenty largest cities destroyed, Unifer threatened to unleash nuclear destruction on the rest unless the governments of the world surrendered.

With the armies of the world paralysed and with Unifer in almost complete control, resistance quickly crumbled. Within 18 months, the world was his and a new order, The Unity had been born.

It is now forty years later. All the old heroes are either dead, imprisoned or in hiding. Few still remember the glory days when you could look up into the sky and see the likes of Centurion, Patriot, Defender and the rest of Alpha Force and know that hope, freedom and justice were more than just words stricken from lexicon.

Unifer rules the world with an iron fist imposing martial law. The Unity proclaims “One World, One Vision, One Voice ... A World That Works”. Summery justice and televised executions keep the populace in line. Keep your heads down, obey the law, and don’t make trouble. These are the rules people live by now. Many have now forgotten the old world; they only remember the chaos and fighting of the Unification War. The world still bears the scars of the biological and chemical warfare used by the old regimes and the terrorist atrocities caused by the resistance before it was crushed.

However, the world is not without hope. A new generation has grown up in this brave new world surrounded by decaying remains of the old. A new generation raised on the stories of great heroes and epic battles. A generation that refuses to believe the propaganda and struggles to uncover the truth. A generation determined to taste freedom at any cost.

The old heroes failed, time for someone new.