Mission 1:
Tarsus Academy
On a dreary morning in Chicago, a helicopter lands on top of the Tarsus Academy, a training center for special agents. Several scientists run up to the aircraft and quickly board, and one is clutching a cylinder with a purple fluid inside of it.
Inside, the administrator, Leila Nassif, receives word that the "infusion" has left, and the trainees have been told to evacuate. As they discuss a possible terrorist threat, a man dressed in a cloak walks out into the middle of a busy street, holds up a device in his hand with the same purple liquid and detonates it, causing a wave of nanites to begin sweeping through the city, destroying everything in its path.
The academy trainees and staff evacuate on a helicopter just before the building itself is destroyed, and they wonder if the entire city was just destroyed to get at them...
Later that day, the helicopters land in Seattle. Nassif says that they're not equipped to fight a war, but her project director says they need to change the terms of engagement. At the same time, one of the trainees steps out of the helicopter and looks at the horizon, eyes shining bright purple...
Tropes:
- Action Bomb: The terrorist who detonates the nanobomb.
- Action Prologue: The game starts out with an action scene where the staff of Tarsus Academy evacuate as Chicago is destroyed by a nanobomb.
- Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain: The opening shot exemplifies this, transitioning from what looks like a circuitboard to a helicopter landing on top of the futuristic Tarsus Academy in the middle of a storm.
- Doomed Hometown: The city of Chicago barely gets a few seconds of screentime before being reduced to ashes by the bomb.
- Grey Goo: The game begins with one of these being detonated, which causes the entire city to be reduced to ashes.
- Just in Time: The last trainee leaps onto the escape helicopter just before the Academy is consumed by the nanobomb.
- Outrun the Fireball: Nassif and the project director barely manage to outrun the oncoming nano-destruction by leaping into an elevator and it going faster than the speed of the destruction.
- Title Drop: During the project director's remarks as the trainee exits the helicopter in Seattle.We're going to change the terms of engagement. It's our war, not theirs. We don't need cities or armies. We have the cells of human bodies. An invisible weapon, for an invisible war.
