Here is a brief overview and timeline of the current UFO:AI plotline. DO NOT read this if you don't want to be spoiled on every major plot point that's being developed for the game.
TIMELINE
- Roughly 1,000,000 years ago
On a remote planet in our galaxy called Antares, a viral life-form is engineered in a bio-weapons lab of one of the largest nations on the planet. This blood-borne organism -- not a real virus, but behaving like one -- has a unique property: it possesses a psionically distributed intelligence, each living organism making up a tiny part of a larger brain. With its psionic abilities it is capable of completely controlling the body of whatever lifeform it infects.
The politicians of this nation begin using the virus to subvert Antareans of opposite viewpoints. They are able to control the infection due to the virus's initially limited intelligence, possessing a device that allows them to control infected hosts through the virus. As the Antareans begin reverting to the virus more and more for political expediency, it starts to grow in power and intellect.
- Roughly 999,999 years ago
The virus gains enough intelligence to become self-aware, developing a will of its own as well as a powerful need to grow and survive. It starts to think of ways to shake its masters' control. In the shadows, it begins using its hosts to subvert innocent Antareans. It is cloak-and-dagger work; the virus spreads by directly injecting intended hosts with infected blood. Meanwhile, the Antarean state grows more and more totalitarian, absorbing other nations into itself with the help of XVI -- which is now using them to gain more hosts.
- Roughly 999,997 years ago
The virus manages to infect the first of its masters. With his knowledge and direct access to the other rulers, the rest of the masters quickly suffer the same fate. Within two years after this event, the virus takes possession of 98% of the planet's population. Conflicts and resistance cease as the hive mind assumes dominance over the planet.
- Roughly 998,000 years ago
Antares has become overpopulated to the point where the planet's resources cannot sustain the growing number of hosts anymore. Yet the hive mind must keep growing, this is its most basic instinct and its only desire. It sees only one way out: up.
Strip-mining the planet's remaining resources, the virus starts to build a massive starship in orbit around the alien homeworld, on which to transport its hosts to other sources of metal and energy in faraway star systems. It has a reason: The ark must be big enough to house the entire planetary population of hosts. All of them are coming along.
The viral mind cannot voluntarily divide itself for more than a few days, much like a sane human being wouldn't voluntarily lobotomise himself. After a few days the XVI organisms in the hosts' blood will begin to mutate and resist reassimilation into the original mind, growing their own new mind instead. If left alone, these could grow more powerful than the original whilst outside supervision, and would undoubtedly come into conflict with the original over the same resources. The original is well aware of this and has no intention to be anything but number one.
- Roughly 997,980 years ago
The ark is complete and sets out at sublight speeds to the next star system, intent on finding new resources to maintain the host population and producing new hosts so that the hive mind may keep growing.
- Roughly 860,000 years ago
Just like on Antares, population growth is now straining the ark's resources. The travel time between star systems is taking too long; shortfalls and famines loom on the horizon. The hive mind sets itself to finding a solution. It eventually invents the wormhole FTL drive. The ark can now travel to new resource centres in weeks instead of centuries; a new fleet of scout UFOs is sent all over the galaxy to find hot spots.
- Roughly 859,500 years ago
For the first time in its long trek, XVI finds another inhabited planet, bearing an intelligent species -- Ortnoks -- in its Dark Ages. The virus quickly sees the potential for acquiring millions of new hosts, lots of resources, and a workforce that requires no special equipment to breathe the atmosphere.
After mapping the Ortnok genome and adjusting for their physical irregularities, the virus spreads across the population in a matter of weeks, and strip-mines the planet down to the crust in order to maintain itself. When it resumes its nomadic trek, it takes the Ortnok hosts with it, leaving only a barren, lifeless shell.
- Roughly 700,000 years ago
The virus develops a powerful psionic projector device, an offshoot of the wormhole FTL technology, allowing itself to maintain its hive mind over colonies several lightyears away. Unfortunately, the hard limits on the projectors' range restricts the virus to merely ravaging several systems at a time.
- Between 700,000 years ago and present day
The alien ark has grown to unimaginable proportions. In its endless craving for hosts and resources, it has stripped virtually every resource-rich planet and asteroid in the galaxy. It leaves only destruction and despoilment in its wake.
Somewhere along the way, the hive mind realizes it has consumed all that it can in this galaxy. It is faced with the same old dilemma; find a new source, or face its own lobotomy. This time it decides to transport itself to another galaxy. In order to do this, it needs to tear a vast wormhole in spacetime to get to the destination galaxy.
- 12 December, 2083
The intergalactic wormhole device is nearly finished, mere months away from completion, and the hive mind is getting ready to take the leap into richer pastures. However, the last few recon patrols bring back news of new planets in several hitherto unreconnoitered systems in one of the outer spiral arms of the Milky Way. Only a handful of the planets are interesting, but one -- surprisingly -- is inhabited by a primitive spacefaring species. The hive mind, still eager to grow, decides to annex this species before moving on.
That planet is Earth.
- 3 May, 2084
Initial attack on Mumbai.
The aliens' objective is to harvest humans for study, in order to decipher our genome and with that information adapt the virus to be able to infect humans. To this end they perform gruesome experiments on dead and live humans and use nasty equipment in the field, such as the Bloodspider. The Kerrblade is the alien harvesters' primary autopsy tool.
=====Key events after the start of the game=====
(Exact dates of these events depend on the player and difficulty setting. The chronological order is always the same.)
- PHALANX scientists realize that the aliens are controlled by a hive mind.
- The virus (dubbed XVI by PHALANX researchers) starts infecting the population of Earth. In the background, a biological war breaks out; vaccines versus mutated XVI strains.
- PHALANX scientists discover the true nature of the alien mind.
- First alien base is discovered and assaulted. Immensely powerful psionic attacks emanating from the base's psionic projector cause soldiers to destroy the device in a panic.
- Bases are discovered to serve as hive mind nodes and central points for XVI spread. Assaulting bases becomes a priority for PHALANX.
- The alien mind begins shifting its focus from infection and subversion to retaliation and destruction, attempting to keep PHALANX from becoming a threat to its goals on Earth. UFOs start attacking suspected PHALANX installations and performing air raids on population centres to force PHALANX responses.
- A Carrier UFO is shot down and its FTL drive is recovered in a difficult tactical mission.
- PHALANX scientists reverse-engineer the alien FTL technology. Using this technology, a manned PHALANX scoutship visits distant worlds, long since raped by XVI. This leads to the discovery of the bulk of the backstory.
- Using alien FTL technology, the location of the mothership is discovered.
- Distressed by PHALANX's new FTL capabilities, the hive mind further ramps up its military and infection efforts on Earth, committing more resources to the fight. XVI spread increases rapidly.
- A failed PHALANX assault on the alien mothership reveals a powerful gravitic shield surrounding it.
- New images and sensor data from the assault allows PHALANX scientists to discover the aliens' wormhole scheme.
- PHALANX develops a plan for assaulting the mothership and destroying it by way of sabotaging the wormhole device.
- Destruction of one of the mothership's shield generators by means of an FTL tactical weapon. This allows a PHALANX FTL dropship to slip through the shield and dock.
- Destruction of the mothership by triggering the wormhole device inside the shield.
