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Humanity
In the hours after an alien ship crash-landed on Earth, proving that mankind is not alone in the universe, seven ideological factions came into being, each a Covert Group with their own vision for humanity's future. The Resistance
In general
"We must not only defend human lives from the aliens; we must ensure those lives remain worth living."
The Resistance believes that, whatever the aliens' intentions, they must not be allowed to gain a foothold on Earth, and that humanity must protect its independence at all costs.
- Blue Is Heroic: The Resistance is the default heroic faction, and has blue as their color of choice.
- I Did What I Had to Do: At worst, the Resistance is willing to look the other way when it comes to more questionable wetwork, if it means achieving its objectives. It’s made clear, however, that it takes no pleasure in such actions and would pursue more morally acceptable options when given the chance.
- Dragon-in-Chief: Rather than taking power for itself, the Resistance prefers to serve as prominent advisors to national governments. At most, gaining considerable influence over countries, without actually usurping control from the ones in charge.Commander Fiona Ayoade: Never forget that the true power in any kingdom is not the man on the throne, but instead those who quietly stand at his shoulders.
- Enlightened Self-Interest: To bolster humanity's chances of surviving the extraterrestrial threat, the Resistance makes an effort to convince various countries that cooperating with one another in fighting the Hydras, and giving support to the Resistance itself, would serve their own national interests in the long run.
- Everyone Has Standards: While the Resistance deals equally with NATO-aligned organizations and militia groups opposed to them, it draws the line at outright terrorists and cartels. Moreover, while willing to turn a blind eye on some of the sketchier methods done by themselves or by proxies, its members refuse to sink to excessive methods and committing war crimes in order to achieve victory.
- The Fettered: The Resistance is one of the most restrained factions in the game, sticking firmly to its professed mission as much as possible and lacking any other ulterior motive. As such, it doesn't interfere too much into political, scientific or economic affairs unless absolutely necessary, as exemplified in its motto:We must not only defend human lives from the aliens; we must ensure those lives remain worth living.
- The Generic Guy: Unlike the other factions, they don't really have any distinct ideology beyond "drive the aliens out of the Solar System". This is deliberate on their part, as they don't want to assert themselves too much on the rest of humanity.Commander Fiona Ayoade: Our goal is not to change the world. Our goal is to stop the alien invasion, and nothing more. Human society will be transformed by this conflict -– that is inevitable -– but the nature of that transformation is a matter for individual countries to choose for themselves. If we can protect our world, and preserve the independence of our species, that is enough.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The end-game of the Resistance involves shutting down the wormhole device in order to stop the invasion dead in its tracks. Those who take part know that it's practically a suicide mission, but nonetheless sacrifice their lives to ensure that their loved ones get to survive.
- Occupiers Out of Our Country: They want to drive the aliens out of the Solar System, protecting their homes, countries, and ultimately all humanity.
- Properly Paranoid: Within hours of the alien arrival, the nascent Resistance is making plans to fight back if they turned out to be hostile. Its members are far from thrilled to be proven right.
- Realpolitik: Firmly believing in the idea that mankind wouldn't realistically just put aside their differences, the Resistance has to rely on realistic geopolitics in order to get the various national powers to cooperate.Commander Fiona Ayoade: You'd think a threat this big would finally make us abandon old grudges and band together, but humanity always finds a way to hurt itself, doesn't it?
- Theme Naming: The Resistance names their small warships after mythological heroes, medium ships after attributes (Dauntless, Indefatigable), large ships after battles, and stations and habitats after historical commanders.
- You Cannot Kill An Idea: The Resistance can become a full-fledged rebel movement should either the Servants or the Protectorate succeed in subjugating humanity. Uniting national remnants and the last pockets of organized opposition, it can re-emerge and strive to reclaim Earth, or die trying.
Commander Fiona Ayoade
- Beneath the Mask: For all of Fiona's jadedness and realistic assessments, there's still a spark of wide-eyed optimism and a hope for a better world, however deeply repressed those might seem."You'll frown at my ignorance and romanticism, but look, if one good thing comes out of all this mess, it's getting to tell my kids that every spaceship has a tiny star at its heart."
- Cincinnatus: Fiona would rather step aside and return to her children the moment the Resistance's objectives are achieved. The Resistance's ending suggests that she does live up to her word.
- Do Not Go Gentle: In spite of her own cynicism, Fiona has little time for defeatist or nihilistic rhetoric, if her comments are anything to go by.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Defied. Fiona is all too aware of what fear and hatred can do to the human psyche if left unchecked. Thus, she's keen to make sure that humanity wins the war while still keeping their humanity.
- Knight in Sour Armor: She is a very jaded officer who has no illusions about the challenges faced by humanity, and is explicitly described as a political realist. These don't stop her from answering the call to protect Earth and heroically fighting back."There's a them, and there's an us. Always has been, as much as we kid ourselves that somehow we've become more enlightened over all these years of blood and suffering."
- Mama Bear: She's mentioned as being a mother of two, and that part of her motivation is to ensure that her children would live safe from any extraterrestrial menace.
- A Mother to Her Men: As jaded and bitter as she is, she cares a lot for her subordinates and operatives. While not afraid to send them to certain death if there's no other choice, she also will do whatever it takes to maximize their chances of survival.
- Patriotic Fervor: Downplayed. Her profile and many of her quotes show a clear love for the United Kingdom, though she treats others from across the world with equal respect. These are also reflected in how some of the Resistance's facilities are named in honor of British figures like Winston Churchill.
- Properly Paranoid: Even in the event of the Servants or Protectorate succeeding in their plans on handing Earth to the Hydras, she has contingencies in place to rally surviving nations and rebel movements around the Resistance.
- Red Scare: Defied. Having grown up amidst the anti-communist hysteria of the Cold War, she has no intention of letting fear of the aliens turn the nations of Earth into paranoid police states."That senator's demand that we deploy rifle companies to patrol the suburbs for aliens is foolish for so many reasons, not the least of which is that they may not be sent home when this is over."
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Thanks to her background and experience, Fiona has established contacts within NATO and various organizations across the globe. She's not afraid to use these ties to the Resistance's advantage, especially when it comes to bypassing red tape.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Fiona believes that through good intel and outwitting the Aliens before the first shots are ever fired, humanity can stand a chance. The Resistance's end game mission is precisely about that - destroying the wormhole device long before the aliens can bring their invasion fleet, thus winning the war by denying enemy the option to escalate the conflict. It is entirely possible to wrap the game as the Resistance before the aliens even start suspecting anything off on Earth."Information is our greatest weapon, bar none. If we know enough about what we're fighting and where, we can win wars before even a single shot has been fired."
Humanity First
In general
"They are not 'lifeforms' or 'xeno-sapients.' They are demons incarnate. They and the traitors who support them will face our judgment."
Xenophobes who see the aliens as a threat to human supremacy and want to exterminate them.
- Absolute Xenophobe: To the letter. They want to exterminate the aliens and all those who support them.
- Biological Weapons Solve Everything: In their ending, they use these to wipe out the aliens.
- Cult: Has shades of this; their leader regards the aliens as "demons incarnate" and rejects any notion that they might be people who happen to belong to another species.
- Destructive Savior: Humanity First will do whatever it takes to save mankind, even from itself, up to and including the use nuclear weapons.
- Guilt-Free Extermination War: Humanity First certainly thinks it's in one. And in its ending, it succeeds in not only wiping out the invasion force but also unleashing a pathogen that will doom the Hydras and their subjects to extinction.
- He Who Fights Monsters: If Humanity First succeeds, mankind itself becomes no better than the invaders, becoming a xenophobic, militaristic empire in the making not too unlike the Hydras themselves.
- The Horseshoe Effect: Despite their goals being completely opposite of the Servants, their actions and what they're willing to do in pursuit of their goals are remarkably similar, as they're the factions most willing to wage war, both display cultish behavior, both particularly harshly punish dissent, and both are flagged as "extremists", giving them certain brutal options in events that other factions do not get and are willing to work with international terrorists like Al Qaeda and proactively engage in nuclear warfare (rather than only deploying nuclear weapons as a defensive measure against the invasion of one of their countries).
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Humanity First's professed goal of stopping the extraterrestrials by any means necessary eventually devolves into mass xenocide and assuming de facto control over humanity for their own good.
- Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Downplayed but present. They recognize that their "eggheads" are important and vital contributors to the cause, and provide them with the resources they need. But that doesn't stop Col. Castillo from complaining to the player about them, or telling them to "stop whining" when they complain that Humanity First's penchant for More Dakka means there's not much left of the bodies they bring back. Castillo also doesn't respect Project Exodus at all, considering their attempt at an ark to be a "science project," albeit one that produces militarily-useful research.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Fittingly for such a vicious faction, their warships tend to have aggressive-sounding names: Battleaxe, Armageddon, Tormentor, etc.
- Properly Paranoid: Like the Resistance, its members were completely right to be suspicious of the aliens' intentions.
- Red Is Violent: Both their ships and their sigil are blood-red, and they're easily the most belligerent faction.
- Species Loyalty: As the name suggests, Humanity First upholds the supremacy of mankind as paramount, albeit to an excessive degree. Anyone seen as cooperating with the aliens or otherwise standing in their way is seen as traitors, if not having forfeited their own humanity.
- Theme Naming: Humanity First names their small warships after weapons and tools of war, medium ships after types of warriors, large ships after "scary things" (Erebus, Ragnarok), and stations and habitats after mountains.
- The Unfettered: They will do whatever it takes to achieve victory. Including using biological weapons to commit xenocide against the Hydras.
- We Have Reserves: They won't hesitate to throw as many of their own at an enemy as they could spare if it means securing victory.
- World War III: They are quite likely to start lobbing nukes at Servant-controlled nations, should they get the chance.
- Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": Defied. Humanity First's members consider the eradication of the Aliens to be paramount and in their ending, succeed beyond their wildest dreams.
Colonel Hanse Castillo
- At Least I Admit It: Hanse Castillo is as much a militaristic warhawk as he is a Sociopathic Soldier, and he proudly takes this in stride.
- Beard of Evil: He's a Sociopathic Soldier with a thick goatee.
- Cold Ham: His lines can be quite grandiose, but he hardly ever raises his voice.
- Colonel Badass: Extremely dark example. Castillo was given special operations training and it shows; his kill tally consists of innocent civilians and defenseless prisoners far more than it consists of anybody able to fight back, but nobody doubts his rank or his credentials. Which is also why he is able to go toe to toe with the established leaders of the world and the aliens as a Colonel, and do so on equal footing.
- Combat Pragmatist: He considers all options on the table, no matter how dubious or reprehensible they are, in seeing victory through, damn the consequences. So long as mankind emerges victorious, everything from inciting global conflict to wiping out the Hydras with bioweapons is fair game.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Invoked and lampshaded in one his tech quotes."Maybe you've seen the films. Sadistic drill instructors demanding the impossible of poor, good-hearted men. You think it's inhumane. You think it won't be like that here. But by God it will, because even one weak link gets everyone killed."
- A Father to His Men: A dark example. As ruthless and sociopathic as he is, he does genuinely care for the men under his command, and won't waste their lives needlessly. That said, he's also not afraid to sacrifice them if the situation calls for it, in the name of saving humanity, or rather his selective definition of it.
- Fragile Speedster: Appropriately for a former guerrilla warfare advisor, he has a number of quotes where he claims that speed and agility is the key to victory, especially in a lopsided conflict like the one against the aliens:"It is not about who hits hardest. It is about who moves fastest. Though even that will get you killed if you have not planned exactly what to do once you get there."
"Sir Francis Drake didn't defeat the Spanish Armada by building even bigger ships. He won by overwhelming them with smaller, lighter boats. It's as true today as it was in 1588: if your ship is too slow to turn, you're doomed."
"Do not seek to be the elephant. Become instead the mosquito, which pierces its mighty hide, which laces its blood with disease, and which cannot be swatted away by its feeble tail."
"It's not about who has the biggest gun. Sometimes it's not even about who's got the most guns. Often, it simply comes to down to who can reload fastest." - The Generalissimo: Unconventional The Man Behind the Man variant. The "Good Colonel" is much lower ranked than most examples and prefers to operate from the shadows to some degree rather than ruling directly, but he is a bellicose, egotistical, militaristic totalitarian of vaguely Hispanic American (most likely Argentine) origins.
- Irony: The man who earned his infamy serving as an anti-communist war criminal during the Dirty War commands a totalitarian, mass murdering, trans-national ideological conspiracy identified with the color red.
- Jerkass Has a Point: As excessively militant and sociopathic as he is, he nonetheless makes some very valid points about conducting military operations and training against an ostensibly superior opponent. Justified, given his credentials and experience, however brutal they are.
- He also is one of the only faction leaders who are most on-point as to what the Aliens want for Humanity, and happily exploits the disillusionment and trauma of the initial invasion to recruit in droves.
- Karma Houdini: He committed war crimes in Buenos Aires during Operation Condor, and proudly admitted as much in court, but was acquitted.
- Laughably Evil: He has been tried for war crimes long before the first signs of the alien activity. He also has the most "down-to-earth" quotes, including some of the most entertaining ones in the game.
- Misaimed Fandom: In-universe, he's a big fan of Magneto."Technically, he's more of a super-villain, but he's still my favorite. He's a survivor, he's uncompromising, and he does whatever he must to achieve what he believes in. Cool Helmet, too."
- Not Even Bothering with an Excuse: Castillo makes neither any qualms or excuses regarding his actions, and takes pride in what he believes as being honest. Even if that involves committing atrocities and heinous war crimes.
- Older Than They Look: Although he doesn't look a day over forty, he fought in the Falklands War in 1982, so in 2022 he must be pushing sixty at the very least.
- Sociopathic Soldier: Castillo places very little value on human life, seeing people as tools to be used and expended as needed. During his war crimes trial in 2015, Castillo proudly declared that War Is Hell and that he did what was necessary to neutralize a potential threat, and mocked the court for their idealism. That being said, he still considers humanity worth fighting for and will not throw his own men's lives needlessly unless there's no other option.
- The Unfettered: The only things beyond Hanse Castillo involve tolerating the existence of Aliens and any humans who sympathize with them. Recruiting from terrorists and criminals alike (including his former ideological Communist enemies)? Done in droves. Nuclear war? He'll push the button. Xenocide is the goal; the methods are just a matter of convenience.
The Servants
In general
"They are here to cleanse our sick world. The aliens are our saviors, and all who oppose them are enemies of the future."
A cult which openly worships the aliens and wants to help them conquer humanity, believing they'll cleanse the Earth of sin.
- Belief Makes You Stupid: Defied. They worship the Hydras, but they aren't stupid enough to think their initial, rather insulting, offer was really the best humanity could hope for.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Initially brushed off as delusional zealots and traitors, the Servants can not only wind up being a legitimate threat but they get a considerably better deal with the Hydras than the Protectorate could ever pull off.
- Church Militant: As the Servants become more aggressive in advancing their plans, they become progressively more militarized. By the end, they've evolved into a fanatical cult backed by a core of professional Gas Mask Mooks. Even after using mind-controlling pheromones around Earth, said troops are still relied on to crush any lingering resistance to the Hydras' rule and to protect the Servants' leadership.
- Cult: A pro-alien religious movement that venerates the invaders and wants humanity to submit to them, which only becomes more pronounced as time passes.
- Day of the Jackboot: Downplayed in their ending. While the Servants ultimately resort to Gas Mask Mooks to enforce the Hydras' will, they otherwise maintain a superficially hands-off approach unless something forces their hand. Given that a sizable portion of humanity would have already been brainwashed into embracing their new order, it helps keep up the facade.
- Everyone Has Standards: The Servants find the aliens' initial terms of surrender insulting and successfully negotiate better ones.
- Evil Is Easy: The Servants have the designated easy campaign. This is in part because the aliens will take actions that benefit the Servants and in part because most of all of their goals can be achieved with very little technological investment or interplanetary development (both of which are extremely time consuming) and are instead mostly dependent on succeeding at the earth politics game.
- The Extremist Was Right: Downplayed, in that it's only in regards to the Protectorate and Initiative, but their ending has humanity as The Dragon to the Hydras, as their willingness to actually talk with their masters instead of reflexively appeasing them led them to realize that the Hydras' initial plan was outright cruel; they successfully leverage their loyalty to negotiate a better place for humanity in their empire.
- The Horseshoe Effect: Despite their goals being completely opposite of Humanity First, their actions and what they're willing to do in pursuit of their goals are remarkably similar, as they're the factions most willing to wage war, both display cultish behavior, both particularly harshly punish dissent, and both are flagged as "extremists", giving them certain brutal options in events that other factions do not get and are willing to work with international terrorists like Al Qaeda and proactively engage in nuclear warfare (rather than only deploying nuclear weapons as a defensive measure against the invasion of one of their countries).
- A Lighter Shade of Black: They ultimately turn out to be this compared to the Protectorate and the Initiative - they may want humanity subservient to the aliens, but they still care for humanity as a whole and want the terms of subservience to be favorable to mankind. So while they believe that the aliens are the path to mankind's ascension, they actively work to make sure this happens.
- Like a God to Me: They believe the aliens are akin to divine figures worthy of worship and are actively planning to ensure their takeover succeeds.
- Mass Hypnosis: The Servants in their ending arrange a large public event with which to spread mind-controlling pheromones around Earth, leaving mankind completely at the mercy of the Hydras.
- Servant Race: If the Servants prevail over the other factions and the alien conquest of Earth succeeds, humanity won't merely become literal servants, but rather the respected artist and diplomat "caste" of the alien empire, effectively becoming The Dragon to the Hydras.
- Take Over the World: The Servants don't want to do it themselves, but rather help the aliens take over.
- Theme Naming: They name their small warships after mythical beasts, medium ships after phenomena (Aurora, Derecho), large ships after mythological figures, and stations and habitats after monuments.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: The Servants will do just about anything to achieve their goals specifically, a place of honor within the Hydras' interstellar empire.
- Voluntary Vassal: Compared to the Protectorate, the Servants not only want Earth to welcome the Hydras with open arms and praise but in the process, also seek to give humanity a higher, more favorable position within the hierarchy itself. Though it involves spreading mind-controlling pheromones, their plan turns out to be more successful than the Protectorate's Vichy Earth arrangement.
- The Unfettered: Played With. On top of all but worshiping the extraterrestrials and seeking to have all mankind submit to them with open arms, they'll go above and beyond to see their vision realized. In contrast to the nominally more measured Protectorate, however, they negotiate for more preferable terms with the Aliens as the initial ones come off as too insulting for them.
- World War III: They are quite likely to start lobbing nukes at Humanity First-controlled nations, should they get the chance.
Superior Judith Howell
- All-Loving Hero: Query whether the term "hero" applies, but many of her quotes and lines during a Servants playthrough paint her as this. She wants humanity to grow stronger and wiser together, and believes serving the aliens can facilitate that. Even after the Hydra deliver their terms of surrender and she finds them unsatisfactory, she insists on negotiating for better terms, arguing that the Hydra need a race to serve as their conscience. In the Servants' victory message, she expresses excitement at the prospect of humanity coming into contact with other alien races and bringing their unique cultures and perspectives with them.
- As the Good Book Says...: Some of Judith's quotes are paraphrased lines from and allusions to the Bible."Sisters and brothers, I remind you the Lord said, 'Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?' It is our destiny, our right, to embrace the marvels He has seen fit to provide us. The Enemy would have you believe this is playing god, but nay. We are taking dominion of our world, and claiming our rightful place at His right hand."
- Beneath the Mask: While on the surface she comes off as a looney who believes in the aliens' benevolence despite their obvious violence and bad attitudes, while playing as the Servants she admits to the player that she only allows her followers to think she's all-knowing and has the aliens pegged even though she isn't really and doesn't, and demonstrates that she has a more realistic and holistic view of why they are invading even before making first contact.
- Cyanide Pill: She orchestrated, or at least contributed to, the mass suicide of members of the Eternal Source cult in Arizona. While the charges against her were ultimately dropped for unstated reasons, one of her tech quotes confirms her involvement.
- Erudite Stoner: She's a shrewd and charismatic cult leader, but "substances" come up a lot in her bio. Her quote on the Quantum Computing tech, from a social media video "delisted due to suspected use of banned substances during recording":"The cat is in the box. The cat is alive. The cat is dead. The cat is not in the box. All cats ever born are in the box. The box does not exist. The box is a cat. You are the cat."
- A God Am I: While she never considers herself as such, she eventually begins preaching about how herself and humanity ought to take their rightful place as if they're a close second to God.
- Hidden Depths: For all her zeal and obsession with "substances", Judith is shown to be remarkably astute and more self-aware than she lets on. She's able to figure out quite a bit of Hydra history just by talking with them and noticing what kinds of agents the "emissaries" don't bring.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Subverted. You'd think she was this, given she's the leader of an alien-worshipping cult in a game where the aliens are not benevolent, but despite being a drug-taking evangelist and self-help guru (or maybe because of it) she's actually quite astute when it comes to figuring the aliens out. Her early impressions of the aliens and their reasons for invading are the closest to the truth out of any of the faction leaders, lacking the naivety of the Academy or the irrational hatred of Humanity First, and once she makes contact with the aliens, she correctly identifies their lack of a civilian base and extant culture after their encounter with the Salamanders as a key cause of their violent paranoia and manages to successfully argue for humanity have a place alongside the Hydra in their campaigns not as slaves or Battle Thralls but advisors and negotiators, realising that this is what they need.
- Money Is Not Power: Some quotes of hers under research preach this, saying that people should focus on developing themselves to be happy with who they are rather than seek out wealth and fame.
- Morality Pet: When the Hydra deliver her their initial terms of surrender, apart from finding them unfavourable, she realises their trauma and paranoia caused by the destruction of their homeworld has made them callous and cruel, and argues that humanity should strive to restore their faith in other sentient beings by having a closer relationship with them than mere slaves, teaching other races to love them and by extension, the Hydra to love their subjects.
- No Place for Me There: Judith is aware that she would likely be assassinated even after brainwashing much of the planet, hoping instead that her vision would be vindicated. That doesn't stop her from maintaining an army of Gas Mask Mooks and heavy security, however, as an insurance policy to ensure said vision actually pans out.
- Not Brainwashed: Judith Howell has a remarkably high resistance to the pherocytes. She believes it is her willingness to serve that protects her. Whether she's right or wrong is ambiguous, but either way, it allows her to think clearly, make observations, and even argue and debate with the Hydra while standing unprotected in their presence.
- Principles Zealot: Judith is absolutely convinced that the Servants’ path forward for mankind is the best and only way. As such, she settles on nothing less than complete victory over all opposition.
- Properly Paranoid: Even after mind-controlling much of the planet in the ending, she maintains her army of professional Gas Mask Mooks and heavy security, wisely realizing that there would still be those who would try to mount a resistance movement.
- Self-Made Man: Judith Howell's tech quotes mention she grew up on a farm and (if she is to be believed) spent much of her early life pitching in on the labor. She's also a college dropout. Yet despite all this, she competes as an equal with multibillionaire tycoons, seasoned diplomats, and high-ranking military veterans.
- Sinister Minister: She combines Christianity and New Age elements with near-veneration of the Hydras, while making considerable use of her Baptist upbringing in how she leads the Servants.
- Vindicated by History: An in-universe example, as Judith believes whole-heartedly that sooner or later, mankind would adopt her way of thinking and embrace their extraterrestrial brethren. Whether willingly or as brainwashed zealots.
The Protectorate
In general
"We cannot fight a war that will result in our extinction. Our only hope is to understand what the aliens want from us and determine how to satisfy them without losing our independence."
Led by a former UN Peacekeeper, the Protectorate wants to appease the aliens to avoid a devastating war.
- All for Nothing: The Protectorate's end-game turns out this way. Despite ambitions of negotiating a conditional surrender, the Protectorate ultimately buckles under pressure and carries out the Hydras’ demands to the letter. The only "consolation" is that they're still given power over mankind, at least for so long as the Hydras are content.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: The final step in the Protectorate's plan amounts to this. After orchestrating an "accidental" misfire that wipes out the UN Headquarters and much of New York, it steps in to assume a position of leadership amidst the public's confusion and shock a la the bombing the Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then proceeds to sign a conditional surrender with the Aliens to end the war.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The Protectorate's plan of a conditional surrender to the Hydras does technically succeed, with itself serving as Earth's rulers on their behalf. This comes, however, at the expense of having to accept and enforce just about all of their demands. Even that hard-won sovereignty is hinted at as being much more tenuous than its members are willing to admit.
- Dirty Coward: The Protectorate is seen as a group of cowardly bureaucrats by factions like the Initiative, with its actions over time further adding fuel to those accusations.
- Dramatic Irony: Despite the Protectorate's pretensions of professional superiority and seeking a dignified conditional surrender with the Aliens they wind up accepting a deal from the Hydras that even the Servants consider too subservient and demeaning to humanity.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- The Protectorate is the only pro-alien faction that refuses to associate with international terrorist groups.
- As the Protectorate starts Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, some of its members either grow disillusioned or join the other factions such as the Resistance (for more idealistic members) and the Initiative (for more cynical ones). Evidently, they're unwilling to be complicit with what its leadership are willing to do in the name of appeasing the Hydras.
- First Contact Faux Pas: The Protectorate attempts to arrange a diplomatic meeting with the aliens, with the help of Lavrentiy. This goes horribly wrong, with some of the attendees getting killed over being resistant to pherocytes, while those who try to escape being silently dealt with by the Protectorate to prevent word of the incident from reaching the public.
- Genre Blindness: The Protectorate hopes that the aliens will be reasonable, civilized, and enlightened even when they detect their heavily-armed battlefleet in the outer solar system. They insist that anti-alien xenophobes are to blame for the alien abductions until the evidence becomes not just strong, but undeniable. Even then, they equivocate and are more concerned about the potential diplomatic fallout than the fact that people are being abducted. They are every Wide-Eyed Idealist and Obstructive Bureaucrat in the genre, without any self-awareness.
- Government Conspiracy: The Protectorate is led by bureaucrats and politicians who will exploit government institutions and even the United Nations to push their agenda.
- Humans Are Diplomats: The Protectorate desperately wants to believe that it represents the best bureaucratic and diplomatic aspects of humanity. It also tries to leverage this to broker a conditional surrender.
- I Did What I Had to Do: The Protectorate genuinely believes that its plans of arranging a conditional surrender are for the greater good, even if the rest of humanity will hate its members for it. Not only does it install orbital weaponry to keep Earth contained in its ending, but its leadership will even stage an "accidental" misfire on the UN Headquarters, taking out the entirety of New York City, in order to destroy any organized opposition to alien hegemony.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: The Protectorate starts out as cautious but reasonable bureaucrats who want to avoid a war with an interstellar species. They want to prevent as much human loss of life as possible, and preserve everything humanity has built. It doesn't take long for them to fall into denialism and authoritarianism, dismantling everything they claimed they were trying to protect to appease the aliens.
- Kill Sat: Their endgame has them building a fleet of these in orbit to suppress anti-alien activities.
- Les Collaborateurs: To a lesser extent than the Servants — they believe that the aliens cannot be beaten and therefore doing what they want is the best option, with themselves serving to lead humanity on their behalf. As if to reinforce this point, the Hydras even send an "advisor" named Lavrentiy to serve as their direct liaison and eventually, co-ruler of Earth.
- Make It Look Like an Accident:
- Towards its ending, the Protectorate resorts to framing the destruction of the UN Headquarters by its orbital weapons platforms, taking out New York in the process, as an accidental misfire. This not only eliminates the remaining bureaucratic opposition to Earth's new benefactors, but also conveniently wipes out anyone who could know the truth about humanity's surrender.
- This is foreshadowed much earlier when the Protectorate attempts to arrange a First Contact meeting with a diplomatic delegation. This goes horribly, with the surviving delegates captured before they could reveal what actually happened to the public, while the Protectorate comes up with a convenient cover story.
- Puppet King: Even if the Protectorate succeeds, its rule in practice is to be more of a glorified rubber-stamp for the Hydras, with Earth's nominal sovereignty hanging by a very thin thread.
- Propaganda Machine: To further ease humanity into accepting a conditional surrender to the Hydras, the Protectorate pulls no stops when it comes to media spin and tries to paint the extraterrestrials in the best light possible. This also extends to covering up any inconvenient details that could inspire resistance to its Vichy Earth.
- Take Over the World: The Protectorate wants to take control of Earth's orbitals and forcibly pacify the Earth, preventing a space development that would threaten the aliens.
- The Quisling: The possibility of the aliens razing the Earth terrifies them enough that they'd rather negotiate a conditional surrender behind everyone's backs than risk fighting the invasion.
- Theme Naming: The Protectorate names their small warships after cities, medium ships after regions (Manitoba, Siberia), large ships after landmasses, and stations and habitats after historical leaders.
- Vichy Earth: Despite their initial hopes, the Protectorate is forced to accept this outcome rather than the non-aggression pact they'd hoped for.
Commissioner Kiran Banerjee
- 0% Approval Rating: Despite his credentials and esteemed track record, his support within the Protectorate becomes progressively more tenuous, with his endorsement of the Hydras' demands only making him even more unpopular and forcing him to resort to authoritarian means to maintain power. Eventually, he decides to appoint his trusted Commander as co-ruler of a Vichy Earth alongside Lavrentiy before retiring.
- Ambiguously Gay: Kiran's long-term partner is named Ifechi. "Ifechi" is a gender-neutral name of Nigerian/Igbo origin.
- Became Their Own Antithesis: Kiran Banerjee started his political career as a protestor, being shot by a police officer while protesting forced sterilization by the authoritarian nanny state in control of his home country of India during The Emergency of 1975-77
. He then went on to become an active humanitarian leader, ultimately rising to the UN. By the end of the Protectorate campaign, he has formed his own authoritarian nanny state in subservience to the Aliens and has obliterated the UN as well as a sizable chunk of New York City. - Bread and Circuses: He believes that the aid and technological advances that the Hydras will provide to the Protectorate’s Vichy Earth would eventually win the public over, or at least distract them enough from entertaining dissent.
- In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves: A recurring theme in his tech quotes. It's implied that he sees selling out to the aliens as a necessary evil to avoid humanity destroying itself."Yes, knowledge is power, but power for what purpose, Ifechi? I want to believe that the more we learn, the more we grow. But the older I get, the more trouble I have shaking the feeling that we are dangerously close to the forbidden fruit of myth."
- Knight in Sour Armor: Kiran has a very cynical view of human nature, but has nonetheless spent decades of his life advocating for human rights and world peace. However, it's implied the armor is beginning to crack by the time the game begins.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Even after securing victory for the Protectorate and guaranteeing mankind's nominal sovereignty under their new overlords, he wisely opts to retire in India. Partly due to having worn himself out over the hefty price paid, and in part due to having no real support left even within his own organization to be a credible puppet.
- Married to the Job: It's implied that his humanitarian work is straining his relationship with his partner."Forgive me, Ifechi. I can happily talk to anyone for hours about how to improve society, yet sometimes replying to a simple email feels like the hardest thing in the world."
- Rule of Symbolism: In the Protectorate's ending, Banerjee's last act before resigning is to obliterate the United Nations, the peacekeeping institution he'd served faithfully for decades, completing his Protagonist Journey to Villain.
- Sanity Slippage: As the Protectorate campaign progresses, his communications to the player become more and more erratic, with odd asides hinting at his doubt and uncertainty.
- Was It Really Worth It?: Even after handing power over to his trusted Commander and Lavrentiy, Kiran can't help but wonder whether the Protectorate is really doing the right thing. No matter how much he tries to convince himself.
- You Are in Command Now: After overseeing the final completion of the Kill Sat system and Earth's surrender to the Hydras, he decides to retire in India. Though not before tasking his trusted Commander with ruling Earth alongside Lavrentiy.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Even as the Hydras become more cordial and amenable due to the Protectorate’s actions, Kiran can't bring himself to feign joy over what that's entailed.
The Academy
In general
"We believe we can join them as brothers and sisters if we only convince them we are worthy."
Idealists who aspire to form an alliance with the aliens for the benefit of both species.
- All Your Powers Combined: Part of why the Academy's game is so tough is they need this to succeed. They have to draw on elements of almost every other faction's storyline: they need the diplomatic levers of the Servants and Protectorate, the Initiative's in-depth study of pherocytes, and the Resistance and Humanity First's war machine. Their own storyline reflects this, with them outright getting information from sympathizers in other factions and synthesizing it for their own endgame.
- Character Development: The Academy goes through a distinct arc in their playthrough. Early on, the Academy's wide-eyed idealism results in them bleeding supporters and even gets some of their operatives killed. As events progress and the Hydra's goals, psychology, and history become clearer, they maintain those ideals, but recognize they'll need a big stick if they want to live up to them.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Downplayed in that militarily defeating the Hydras does not automatically make them see the Academy's point of view, but inflicting substantial military defeats upon the Hydras and making it clear that continuing to prosecute war against humanity will lead to the Hydras' own demise is necessary (just not sufficient) to make them even consider the Academy's proposal of an equal and possibly even friendly relationship.
- Determined Defeatist: Much of the Academy's leadership jumps ship for the Protectorate or Resistance when it becomes clear the aliens are intent on conquest. Those who remain are this: they know they've chosen a very hard path, and they know history may remember them as nothing but foolish idealists, but they're ready to see it through anyways.
- Early Game Hell: The Academy gets an extra dose of early game hell - in addition to all the regular challenges any other faction would face, once the goals of the Hydras are realized, they take a large hit to global public opinion and suffer roughly half of their control points being cracked down for an entire year, meaning they give the Academy no benefits and are very easily taken by other factions. Arguably just as bad, even if the Academy manages to avoid losing too many control points and manages to fill their control point cap again, when those cracked down control points come back online, they can find themselves far over their cap and forced to abandon many nations or suffer many valuable control points again being easy pickings for the other factions in addition to suffering massive influence costs.
- The Extremist Was Right: Upon discovering the Hydra peace faction, they promptly acknowledge they are going to need to do some dirty politics in order to pave the way for their ascension to leadership of the aliens and create a possibility of peace. Their ending shows it paid off, though even the Academy notes that it is still a fragile one.
- The Fettered: At least initially. The Academy is notably the only faction in the game that absolutely refuses to stick its fingers into organized crime under any circumstances.
- Golden Ending: Arguably. The Academy is by far the hardest faction to play as, considering their massive loss of support and control points early in the game, alongside having one of the most brutal and expensive victory conditions on top of that. However, in return, you get what can be considered the morally best ending: you have saved Earth and the aliens; you've ended a cycle of violence that began with the almost complete genocide of the aliens long ago, found peace, finding peace with interstellar life will probably boost Earth's prosperity, you have all but united Earth in the process, and you did it without resorting to mass murder. There is, however, a price to peace. You’ve only taken the first steps toward a ceasefire that could either collapse or lead to something more. It's ultimately up to the player to decide whether idealism is worth the uncertainty - but as they point out, simply proving peace was possible was probably far harder than maintaining it will be.
- Good Is Not Soft: At the end of their campaign, they're not afraid to use the threat of a potentially extinction-causing bioweapon as leverage to broker a peace with the Hydras.
- Humans Are Diplomats: They are the diplomatic human faction, seeing themselves as both pro-human and pro-alien.
- Knight in Sour Armor: They evolve into this over the course of the campaign, believing peace is possible, but realizing it needs to be backed with power.
- Long Game: The Academy also aspires to elevate human civilization in the long run under its auspices. It's thus more likely to endorse policies and research that, while impractical immediately, would pay dividends down the line.
- Mutually Assured Destruction: Their ultimate plan for forcing the Hydras to listen to their peace factions and think about accepting humans as a peer power - they steal the plans for the Humanity First biophage and broadcast a warning to the Hydras they will use it if the Hydras don't open peace talks, and demonstrate they can sneak it to their homeworld. This successfully spooks the Hydra leadership into realizing conquest of Earth is not worth it, and they acquiesce to the Academy's demands.
- Reluctant Warrior: The Academy initially seek peaceful communication and cooperation with the aliens. When it becomes clear the aliens have other plans, the Academy's leadership doesn't give up this hope. They just decide that the peace treaty will have to come after humanity has proven it won't be beaten into submission. This gives them the hardest goal in the game: they have to simultaneously fight the aliens back while spending resources on opening up communication and finding anti-war factions among the aliens to make peace with, and meanwhile beat every other faction in the Solar System into submission to ensure that they don't mess with the peace.
- Science Hero: The Academy is led by a scientist and has a strongly academic, scientific bent. They're also perhaps the most idealistic faction in the game, even as they acknowledge this idealism is likely to lead to them becoming "a footnote in history".
- Theme Naming: They name their small warships after land animals, medium ships after scientists, large ships after explorations (Enterprise, Odyssey), and stations and habitats after famous artists and philosophers.
- The Unfettered: The Academy is gradually pushed into accepting no limits in its aim of proving humanity's worth as an equal to the Aliens. Whether it's bringing the entire planet under its influence, whether people like it or not, or doing whatever is deemed necessary to convince the Hydras of mankind's good intentions, just about anything goes. Downplayed, in that they are very clear that "convince of good intentions" means there is by necessity lines they can't cross, if only for pragmatic and diplomatic reasons.
- We Can Rule Together: Inverted. The Academy wishes for humanity and aliens to become allies as they believe that cooperation with aliens will benefit humanity. However, unlike the Protectorate and the Servants, the Academy wants to have an explicitly equal relationship with the aliens.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: They start off as this, convinced that any starfaring civilization will have developed past the need for wars of conquest. This doesn't last past the first time the aliens shoot at them, and they avert this for the rest of their campaign - they're still idealistic enough to believe there is a deeper story, but even the loyalist factions who remain grimly recognize they will need to back their diplomacy with force. They turn out to be entirely right that a galactic civilization wouldn't invade without comprehensible and sympathetic motive.
Chancellor Li Qingzhao
from 2014-2017.- Bold Explorer: She definitely has a passion for space exploration."As a teenager, looking at the night sky, my mind raced with possibilities as I wondered 'What if?' Now, as a woman effortlessly transitioning from station to colony to warship, I consider, 'How far?'"
- Child Prodigy: Her academic record was good enough to earn her a visit to the International Space Station when she was a teenager.
- Emperor Scientist: As the Academy is pushed into accepting no limits in proving humanity's worth as an equal to the Hydras, Li Qingzhao begins taking up more political and military power to ensure that her plans succeed. That said, she's not actively seeking to rule over humanity.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Despite her enthusiasm for space travel, she regards Project Exodus with thinly-veiled contempt, seeing them as Dirty Cowards abandoning their homeworld in its greatest hour of need.
"Leave Earth, if you must. We will safeguard humankind ourselves."- As much as she personally respects and admires the Hydras, she considers the Servants and especially Judith Howell's plans, as not only illogical, but morally beyond the pale.
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged: She was born with two club feet, a birth defect where one or both feet are rotated inward and downward. Despite the pain they cause her, she credits them with forcing her to spend a lot of time reading and studying as a child, making her the Science Hero she is now.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Shares her name with Li Qingzhao, considered one of the greatest poets in Chinese history.
- Patrick Stewart Speech: A lot of her quotes express joy and awe at the progress humanity has made over the millennia, and her hope that war, poverty, and bigotry will likewise be overcome in the future."Coming together despite our differences is not easy. Staying together is a never-ending struggle that spans generations. What we are building is difficult, but that makes it worthwhile. Ultimately, we are what we do when it counts."
The Initiative
In general
"Every circumstance is an opportunity. Our test is to recognize and seize it."
A cabal of corporations and industrialists who want to exploit the alien crisis to amass wealth and power.
- 0% Approval Rating: Being comprised of corporate magnates and government elites with sketchy backgrounds, the Initiative is considered one of the least popular factions in-universe. In fact, nobody in the public actually supports their vision for the world. At the same time, however, it uses this to its advantage, purposefully invoking its members’ public notoriety to better conceal its actual plans. So instead of seeking public support for the Initiative's goals, they cultivate support for "various exploitable ideologies" that play into their hands. This also explains why they opt to run humanity from the shadows in their ending, despite brainwashing the populace.
- Apathetic Citizens: The Initiative garners the most support from the "Undecided" among the population and seeks to cultivate this globally through modified pheromones in order to subtly cement its grip over humanity by the ending.
- At Least I Admit It: Played With. The Initiative's members are up-front about their notoriety and self-interested goals of taking advantage over the unfolding situation humanity faces itself in. This also allows the Initiative to conceal its true plans, especially as the organization becomes more cohesive and discreet.
- Biological Weapons Solve Everything: In their endgame, the Initiative uses biological weapons to enslave the aliens along with the sum total of human civilization.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: With what passes for their ideology, this is a given. Soren Van Wyk makes no attempt to pretend he's anything other than this.
- Defector from Decadence: Over time, the Initiative begins attracting disillusioned members of the Protectorate, who consider the former's opportunism and plans to ensure global power far preferable to the latter's increasing subservience to the Aliens.
- Dragon-in-Chief: To a much more controlling extent than the Resistance. The Initiative has a preference towards either propping up puppet governments as proxies or serving as advisors to figureheads under its payroll.
- Enlightened Self-Interest: The Initiative's more ostensibly humanitarian efforts, and eventually its pushback against the Hydras, come across as this at best. It just so happens that it's in the best interests of its members to not only thwart the extraterrestrial threat, but also ensure that there's an Earth worth profiting and secretly assuming control over once all's said and done.
- Even Evil Has Standards: As much as the Initiative is more concerned about profits and control, its members would rather that humanity, or more accurately themselves, be the dominant force rather than submitting to the Hydras. It also knows that simply milking the planet dry isn't good business.Chairman Soren Van Wyk: He who controls the water controls the world. That's where we're headed now. But hell, even I know that a dying world isn't really one worth controlling.
- Eye of Providence: Featured in their emblem.
- Friendly Enemy: The Initiative gets along rather well with much of Humanity First, due to their mutual interests in seeing mankind as the dominant force amongst the stars though the Initiative ultimately wants to enslave the Hydras rather than kill them all. It also has cordial ties with Project Exodus, both due to corporate connections and seeing the latter faction as a convenient dumping ground for those wouldn't fit in with the Initiative's new world order.
- Genre Blindness: Downplayed. Its members are opportunistically taking advantage of the chaos to fill their pockets and to accumulate more power. Even as the organization becomes more cohesive and develops more of an identity, it's not until they're forced to defend themselves from Hydra attacks that they treat the extraterrestrials as anything other than a means to consolidate more control and they’re quick to catch on. They're a nascent corporate/government conspiracy straight out of Metal Gear and Deus Ex, thrust into an Alien Invasion setting.
- Government Conspiracy: To a degree. On top of industrialists and corporate executives, the Initiative includes high-ranking members of government within its ranks and makes a point of utilizing (and bribing) institutions to get its way.Chairman Soren Van Wyk: Trillions of dollars, just sitting up there, yet still the regulators drag their heels. Maybe it's time I treated the President to another golfing weekend...
- The Illuminati: Downplayed, initially. The Initiative has many of the more mundane trappings of an Illuminati-like organization, from the Eye of Providence in their emblem to their members being comprised of elite magnates and with their own agenda. Yet rather than anything truly sinister, they're just openly interested in taking advantage over the chaos to strengthen their wealth and power. By the end, however, they're well on their way into becoming the Illuminati outright as they control both Earth and the aliens from the shadows.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: The Initiative, being comprised of corporate tycoons and others from high places, start off simply as self-interested opportunists who openly see a mutual interest in profiting off from the turmoil resulting from the discovery of an interstellar race. As time goes on, however, they begin consolidating themselves through subterfuge and authoritarian means to secure their growing power, and eventually become a full-blown shadowy conspiracy, running humanity and controlling the Aliens with none the wiser.
- Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Downplayed. Its leadership includes members of prominent organizations and military-industrial concerns who are all too happy to lend support to their R&D divisions. That said, they're much more concerned with whether the resulting advances are good for consolidating more power and control, or otherwise benefit their financial bottom line, than anything else.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: The Initiative's modus operandi in a nutshell. Their response to the discovery of sapient alien life in the solar system? Figure out how to make a profit from it. Early on, it's mentioned one of their schemes is selling snake oil cures to an alleged alien disease. And while other factions seek to convert people to their own ideologies, the Initiative's "followers" are described as having "various exploitable beliefs". Later on, this is taken to its logical conclusion, with the Initiative seizing the opportunity to not only control humanity from the shadows, but also enslave the Hydras.
- Mass Hypnosis: Downplayed. The Initiative not only uses modified pheromones to enslave the Hydras in the ending. It's strongly suggested that said pheromones are also used to brainwash the rest of humanity, albeit just enough that few if any realize this at all, allowing it to rule Earth from the shadows.
- Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy: What they start out as. They gradually coalesce into The Illuminati in all but name.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: In contrast to the other factions, the Initiative couldn't care less about the Aliens, unless they directly threaten its interests. So long as its members get a hefty piece of the action amidst the turmoil and become the shadowy puppet masters of mankind, it's all fair game.
- Pragmatic Villainy:
- Even the rapacious Initiative will put some effort into stopping Global Warming and generally maintaining order. Though this is more to mitigate potential opposition and to consolidate power than anything else. This is exemplified by its motto:
Every circumstance is an opportunity. Our test is to recognize and seize it.- The Initiative is also all too happy to help Project Exodus launch its arkship, not simply for the corporate kickbacks or as a backup insurance policy in case things go bad. It's also because it's easier to have Project Exodus act as a convenient dumping ground for potential troublemakers and others who wouldn't fit in with the Initiative's nascent new world order, than having to dispose of them.
- Rather than wiping out the Hydras, the Initiative considers it more practical and profitable in the long run to just enslave them, effectively having free interstellar labor at their beck and call.
- Propaganda Machine: The Initiative firmly believes that the media is a powerful weapon and an effective means of control. As such, it wastes no expense exploiting and manipulating public opinion to its advantage.Chairman Soren Van Wyk: Fake news, misinformation... It doesn't matter what they call it. The simple truth is that the powerful do it, and the powerless cry about it. And that is why the powerless will never, ever become the powerful.
- Realpolitik: Compared to the Resistance, the Initiative doesn't really care much about culture or political leanings in its dealings with various nations. So long as the government is malleable enough, and the right people are bribed off or put in place, it's more than happy to work with anyone, and to toss them aside as quickly if they're seen as useless.
- Take Over the World: The Initiative begins by just wanting to profit from the chaos, but its end goal is to take over both the Earth and the aliens, running the former from the shadows while making the latter glorified slaves.
- Theme Naming: They name their small warships after fish, medium ships after rivers, large ships after water bodies, and stations and habitats after explorers.
Chairman Soren Van Wyk
- Amoral Afrikaner: Soren is a Boer who made most of his fortune from arms dealing. It's little coincidence that the Initiative's ending has the Aliens enslaved in what amounts to a glorified apartheid arrangement.
- Bad Boss: He is notorious for his poor labor practices in-universe. It's Played for Laughs in-game, with a lot of his tech quotes consisting of him either treating his underlings quite badly, or threatening to.
- Beard of Evil: Not as pronounced as Castillo's, but it's there.
- Bread and Circuses: Explicitly invoking South Africa's Zef counterculture, he believes that so long as people get what they want, preferably at minimal expense to his bottom line, they will accept whatever the Initiative has in store. And if they don't, they could always be bought off in one way or another.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even by the standards of the Initiative, there are certain lines that Soren won't cross. As much as he gives little regard for the lives of his underlings, he won't waste them needlessly. Moreover, in spite of his arms dealing, he would rather intimidate or bribe enemies into submission rather than having to actually fight them, considering direct combat a last resort.
- Jerkass Has a Point: For all his Bad Boss tendencies, some of Soren's quotes show that he does have some rather valid and pragmatic points that ultimately benefit the Initiative in the long run, such as how innovations need to be both groundbreaking and financially viable to stick."Ingenious. Now, if you figure out a way to make it better, I'll give you a raise. If you figure out a way to make it cheaper, I'll promote you all."
- Karma Houdini: Despite being criticized by activists over his labor practices and arms dealing, which have led to more than a few high-profile court battles, Soren has a knack for getting away with his antics, often with none the wiser."You're kidding, right? I could set a puppy on fire on live TV, right, and it wouldn't change a bloody thing. That's how much they love me."
- Laughably Evil: He's a Smug Snake who gleefully abides by every Corrupt Corporate Executive stereotype, and his unapologetic lust for power — and lack of concern for the lives of his underlings — makes his lines very memorable and amusing.
- The Sociopath: Human life seems to hold no value at all to him. That said, if his quotes are anything go by, he’s not one to waste lives needlessly, either.
- Shadow Dictator: While Soren could make himself emperor of the world if he wanted to by the ending, he's content pulling the strings from the shadows with none the wiser.
- Slave to PR: Soren leverages his charisma and corporate connections to maintain a popular image in the public eye that manages to be seemingly immune to close scrutiny.
- To Win Without Fighting: Played With. Viewing bloodshed as a last resort due to being too wasteful, he considers it much more prudent to either pull the right strings, intimidate foes to submission, or have others do the dirty work for the Initiative."Genghis Khan was a short-sighted fool. All that might, all those weapons, yet instead of leasing it to others and reaping the rewards, all he could think to do was shed endless blood and sweat in the pointless pursuit of an empire."
- Villain with Good Publicity: Despite his sketchy credentials, Soren maintains a generally positive PR image among governments and corporations alike, which he uses to further entrench the Initiative's reach.
- War for Fun and Profit: While Soren isn't fond of pulling the trigger himself, he is mentioned as having made a fortune in arms dealing. Appropriately, the Initiative has a knack for Playing Both Sides to both fill its coffers and strengthen its influence.
Project Exodus
In general
"It has always been true that we must leave the cradle if our species is to survive. If these aliens are indeed hostile, the time to go is now."
Spurred by fears that the aliens will wipe out humanity, Project Exodus is an attempt to build The Ark so that mankind can flee to another solar system.
- The Ark: Their goal is to build one of these to carry some of humanity to a new solar system, abandoning Earth to the aliens.
- Beneath the Mask: Project Exodus' leadership, especially Khalid Al-Ashgar, don't relish how they're doing everything they can to hide how only a relative handful of Earth's population have a chance to survive their Homeworld Evacuation plan.
- Bittersweet Ending: Project Exodus manages to launch their ark just in time to sally forth to a new world. For Khalid Al-Ashgar and those fortunate to get onboard, however, they take a moment to look back melancholily at Earth one final time before setting off for their destiny.
- Determined Defeatist:
- While Project Exodus is happy to cooperate with the Resistance, it considers the latter's efforts to be futile against the Hydras. It nonetheless has genuine respect for the faction, whether due to pragmatic considerations of buying time for the arkship to launch safely, or for its members' tenacity in spite of seemingly hopeless odds.
- Project Exodus itself has resigned to the idea that mankind is doomed to lose against the extraterrestrials, and that leaving the Solar System altogether for a new home is the only option. That doesn't stop even members who don't have a spot in the arkship from giving their all to give the endeavor as best of a chance as possible.
- Everyone Has Standards: They may not expect the Earth to survive, but they still will not work with terrorists or cartels, full stop.
- I Did What I Had to Do:
- Project Exodus tries to maintain a public image of being a group of enterprising dreamers and scientists seeking to push the boundaries of space exploration. This is both done to gradually ease humanity into the idea of escaping to a new homeworld and conceal the fact that only a handful of the human population will realistically be able to leave.
- Despite differences with the Initiative, it's generally willing to cooperate with them in exchange for additional funds and resources for completing its arkship. Given that said arkship's launch would conveniently make the Initiative's plans of instituting a new world order easier by removing many who'd potentially threaten it from the equation altogether, this can wind up being a mutually-beneficial arrangement.
- They gain access to the Externalized Costs technology, which is a social tech that improves Project Exodus' ability to reap Spoils from the countries of Earth to fund their operations. They're not planning on sticking around, and the suffering of Earthlings is a regrettable necessity if it lets them escape.
- Heroic Sacrifice: They consider those who choose to say behind as doing a valiant service to mankind, buying precious time for the faction to finish its arkship. If Project Exodus does manage to launch said vessel, it's all but stated that any members left behind will try to buy more time by taking out as many Aliens as they can before dying.
- Homeworld Evacuation: Project Exodus considers fighting the aliens to be hopeless, and are instead building The Ark to leave the Solar System entirely. Though the resulting arkship can only carry thousands at most and the launch is made potentially at the skin of its teeth, Project Exodus can nonetheless succeed, giving humanity another chance at civilization.
- Necessary Evil: Whatever discomforts its leadership have over hiding the full truth and ramifications of their plan to leave Earth Project Exodus purposefully plays up its image of being explorers and scientific pioneers to both garner support and slowly ease the wider public into its real purpose.
- Reluctant Warrior: Given Project Exodus' aim of escaping Earth, the prospect of fighting the Hydras is seen as a last resort, if not a suicidal measure. That said, it will still use armed force to buy more time for the arkship to launch successfully and even afterwards, any members left behind will take down as many of the extraterrestrials as they can before the inevitable.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: They want humanity to deal with the alien invasion by evacuating as many humans as they can from Earth to another planet outside of the Solar System where the aliens won't be able to reach them.
- Theme Naming: They name their small warships after birds, medium ships after astronomical objects, large ships after famous ships, and stations and habitats after astronauts.
Director Khalid Al-Ashgar
- Bold Explorer: Very much so. Traveling to the stars has been his dream for many years, long before the alien crisis suddenly made it viable.
- Honest Corporate Executive: Downplayed. In contrast to Soren Van Wyk, Khalid is much more ethical in his business practices and is genuinely friendly to his subordinates. This doesn't stop him from having to both make less savory decisions and cover up the murkier ramifications of Project Exodus, even if it's for the greater good.
- It Is Beyond Saving: Several of his quotes indicate that he'd given up on saving Earth, which he calls a "miserable poison world", long before the alien arrival.
- Let the Past Burn: Downplayed. While Khalid takes preserving humanity's culture and history into account, he also considers Project Exodus' end-goal as a perfect opportunity to start from a clean slate. Hoping that perhaps this time, mankind will not repeat the same mistakes.
- No Place for Me There: Defied. Despite the stringent "standards" and selection criteria for the would-be colonists, the ending reveals that Khalid had saved a spot onboard for himself, evidently unwilling to stay behind and watch Earth burn.
- Science Hero: Khalid certainly sees himself as one, given his fascination with space exploration and genuine intelligence. At the same time however, he purposefully plays this up to garner more support from both investors and the intelligentsia towards Project Exodus.
- Take That!: Throws shade at Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in one of his quotes."The online shopping guy and the electric car guy can squabble over Mars all they like, but that's just selling humanity short. Trust me, we can do so much better."
- Vindicated by History: In-universe, Khalid believes that while the rest of humanity may view Project Exodus as either a frivolous waste of time, or a bunch of cowards for abandoning Earth, his vision of a new home in the stars would prove them all wrong.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Khalid believes that Project Exodus will not only find a place in the stars safe from the Hydras, but also give humanity a chance to start over and build a fairer, brighter future. As time passes, however, the costs of his dreams begin to weigh more heavily.
Other
The Aliens (SPOILERS)
"Hydras"
The dominant alien race, and the ones masterminding the invasion.- Aerith and Bob: The Aliens in general are given little more than clinical and military-style designations. Notable exemptions to this are Lavrentiy, the Hydras' main advisor to the Protectorate and co-ruler of Earth in its ending, and Rudi, the Hydra the Academy abducts. In the case of the latter, the Academy does find out his name in his native language, but since it involves sounds humans can't replicate without technological assistance, they stick with "Rudi".
- Alien Invasion: Are waging one of these on humanity.
- Aliens Steal Cable: The Resistance surmises that the Hydras have almost certainly intercepted transmissions from Earth and read just about everything humanity's ever written.
- Aliens Steal Cattle: Downplayed Trope - in the earliest stages of their invasion, the Hydras abducted a wide variety of earth wildlife including livestock, but this phase only lasted about 9 days and was just to get a broad picture of earth biology. By the time the player pieces this together, the Hydras have already moved past this and general human abduction and towards targeted human abductions.
- Alternate Company Equivalent: When their motive is revealed, their slaving ways, sympathetic motives, and belief that other species can only interact as master and servant or mortal enemies makes them very similar to the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za.
- Back from the Brink: The Hydras went from facing almost certain extinction at the hands of the Salamanders to forging their own Hegemonic Empire.
- But What About the Astronauts?: When their homeworld was wiped out by the Salamanders, the only survivors were those off-world.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: Hydras produce pherocytes that relay their emotional state. This includes a distinct tell when they are saying something they consider false or deceptive, which humans that attempt communication with them soon identify. They are physiologically incapable of lying without the pherocytes giving them away.
- Cthulhumanoid: They're a race of bipedal Starfish Aliens with red tendrils dangling from their mouths.
- Day of the Jackboot: Territories directly occupied by the Hydras are implied to be unpleasant places to live in general. Though this has less to do with intentional malice and more as a consequence of the Aliens overseeing xenoforming operations, as well as prioritizing their own kind over the surviving human population.
- Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us: The reason they're attempting to subjugate humanity. Their experience with the Salamanders taught them that any technologically-advanced civilization is too dangerous to leave to their own devices.
- Dying Race: It’s eventually discovered that the Hydras not only have a comparatively low population but also an even worse birth rate, suggesting that they’re not far off from extinction if given the right push. One that Humanity First is potentially capable of making.
- Evil Chancellor: Lavrentiy, the Hydras' appointed advisor to the Protectorate, becomes co-ruler of a Vichy Earth alongside the latter's representative.
- The Extremist Was Right: They think all other life will try to enslave or genocide them again. If you're playing as Humanity First or the Initiative they're completely correct.
- Guilt-Free Extermination War: Played With. Even the most militant Hydras aren't keen to wipe out humanity, as they view a servant race as a nice bonus for their new homeworld. That said, they see little trouble in killing whole swathes of the population, so long as there are still enough left alive to be made into servants.
- He Who Fights Monsters: After the leading alien barely prevented an extinction event of their own, the Hydras become xenophobic and militarist like their oppressors. They even make use of their mind-controlling abilities to enslave other alien species they encounter.
- Hegemonic Empire: The Hydras are revealed to control one on an interstellar scale. In addition to their space colonies, they lord over a hierarchy of other extraterrestrial races they've conquered, including the very Salamanders that tried to wipe them out in the first place.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: The Hydras' pherocytes, which allow them to brainwash their targets, can wind up being used against them. Whether as the basis for lethal bioweapons by Humanity First, or as a potent brainwashing tool by the Initiative.
- Invading Refugees: Downplayed, as they have other space colonies, but the Hydras are so intent on getting Earth because it is prime for being xenoformed into conditions similar to their own dead homeworld. It's why even the peace factions only seriously consider a non-aggression pact at the barrel of a gun; until the Academy shows the aliens humanity's conquest will result in their destruction, the appeal of finally having a homeworld with a compliant servant race of natives is just too much for them to pass it up. It doesn't help they're understandably xenophobic.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: The Hydras are generally called by rather clinical designations or military code. Whether it's due to humanity having no idea what their actual names are, or simply don't care, either way.
- Meaningful Name: It's no coincidence that the Alien advisor to the Protectorate shares the same name as infamous Soviet figure Lavrentiy Beria. Lavrentiy, coincidentally, becomes one of the most powerful leaders in the Protectorate's Vichy Earth, with implied leverage against his erstwhile co-rulers.
- Mind Control: The Hydras are revealed to possess pherocytes that allow them to mind-control any opponent in close proximity to them. They also eventually resort to using brainwashed human captives to serve as spies with no one suspecting them until it's too late. Fortunately, the effect isn't permanent and eventually wears off.
- Mysterious Purple: The color associated with the aliens, whose intentions are (initially) unknown but sinister.
- Never Be Hurt Again: It's eventually revealed that the Hydras are the survivors of a genocide enacted by the Salamanders, and that their belligerence toward humanity and other sapient species is their way of ensuring that they are never threatened by invasion again.
- Puny Earthlings: How they measure up to humans is... complicated. It soon becomes clear that the Hydras are tough. Early in the game, you find out that a typical member of the species is two meters, or about 6'6", tall on average. They have multiple redundant organs, a majority of which must be taken out rapidly to put them down with anything other than heavy machine gun fire. And their pherocytes allow them to effectively Mind Control other creatures just by proximity. However, they have no natural weapons beyond simply using their bare hands, they lack humanity's endurance and natural throwing ability and proficiency with simple weapons like clubs and spears, and it's noted that a human of the same size would be all-around stronger than a hydra. Essentially, their physiology makes them much more durable than humans and faster on flat terrain, but they're less suited to melee combat and climbing or traversing rough terrain. There is also one particular weakness that comes up later, and is especially important to Humanity First's win condition: though long-lived, they have a low population and very low birth rate, leaving them extremely vulnerable to plague. Humanity First uses this to engineer a bioweapon to destroy them.
- Purposefully Overpowered: Downplayed. The Hydras field technology and weaponry that are generally superior to whatever serves as Earth's equivalent, though not so overpowered as to be impossible to counter. That said, even a fully state-of-the-art human fleet would have to tread carefully when facing down its Alien counterpart.
- The Remnant: As powerful as the Hydras are, they are all that remain of a much larger civilization. The ones seen by humanity all stem from the handful of survivors who were off-world when the Salamanders wiped out their home planet.
- Saying Too Much: The first Hydra interrogated by the Resistance unwittingly reveals the existence of the wormhole gate in the Kuiper Belt that they're using to supply their invasion forces.
- Scary Dogmatic Aliens: They have no interest in anything other than conquering and enslaving humanity. When the Academy informs a captured Hydra that humanity does not wish to be enslaved, the Hydra's reaction is amusement. Subverted, in that it turns out that Hydra was simply morbidly amused, as that was how the Hydras felt about being invaded. Later in that same playthrough, the Academy discovers there's actually a large Hydra peace movement that is openly doubtful of their continuing conquest being healthy for the species. The goal of the Academy quickly becomes sabotaging the dominant political faction of the Hydras so that the pacifists take control and are hopefully more amenable to a non-aggression pact - which in their ending works about as well as it possibly could have.
- Spare Body Parts: They have plenty of redundant organs, making them very difficult to kill. Hence the name assigned to them.
- Starfish Language: Played with. Because the Hydra use pherocytes to express emotions, their spoken language is simpler than an Earth language. Even words without a direct translation can be figured out with a brief explanation. A conversation with any emotional aspect requires pherocytes, but figuring out how to make and interpret factual statements is easy for factions who care to do so.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Initial assassinations of alien operatives requires this. It takes far, far more firepower to kill an alien than it does a human, and leads to the first corpses available for study being heavily damaged. Once xenobiologists figure out where all the redundant organs are, you unlock easier methods of attack.
- Tragic Villain: Their backstory portrays them this way. They were once a peaceful race who evolved to commune with and form friendships with other lifeforms on their homeworld, but most of them were wiped out in a horrific Orbital Bombardment by the Salamanders, leaving only the most technically-minded of them alive due to being off-world. They subjugated the Salamanders soon afterward, but the brutality of the act, combined with the fact this was their first encounter with non-Hydra life, led to them becoming paranoid that all life in the universe would also try to wipe them out or enslave them, so they decided the only recourse was to proactively enslave any other race they came into contact with and force them to confine themselves to their homeworld. The Academy storyline makes clear that this is not a universal belief, however, and a growing number of Hydra wish to sue for peace and partnership instead, but it takes quite a bit to get them into a position where they can successfully advocate for this.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: They were invaded by an even more vicious and homicidal empire than they are now - while the Hydras just want to conquer humanity so they aren't a threat, the Salamanders tried an unprovoked extermination that they were only lucky enough to survive due to having a bunch of space colonies and discovering their pherocytes are Mind Control mediums on other species. It's little wonder they're so afraid of uncontrolled alien life.
"Salamanders"
A reptilian species used by the Hydras as shock troops.- Absolute Xenophobe: Before being enslaved, they tried to wipe out the Hydras out of paranoia.
- Always Chaotic Evil: They don't come off well at all, being psychotically violent on a compulsive level and responsible for effectively wiping out at least one other race out of nothing but petty, spiteful bigotry.
- Asshole Victim: Their current state as unwilling slaves is horrible... but given they wiped out most of the Hydras for no other reason than xenophobia, prompting the survivors to become the despots they are today, they definitely made their own bed on this one.
- Genocide Backfire: In the past, they tried to exterminate the Hydras. They succeeded with their homeworld, but the survivors managed to regroup and conquer them in return, reducing them to Slave Mooks.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: The Salamanders were once a mighty alien race that conquered the Hydras' homeworld. Now, they're little more than Slave Mooks to their former victims.
- Lizard Folk: Humanoid reptilians.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: It turns out that, prior to being enslaved, the Salamanders conquered the Hydras' homeworld and exterminated the population out of rabid xenophobia. The trauma of losing the majority of their people and culture is what drove the surviving Hydras to become the militaristic slavers they are now. Even after capturing one, your science team notes that the prisoner seems to lack much emotion beyond psychopathic rage.
- Slave Mooks: They do not serve the Hydras willingly.
"Griffins"
An avian species, rarely sighted on Earth.- Bird People: Hence their name.
- In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves: According to a captured Hydra, the Griffins nearly wiped themselves out with biological weapons before being conquered.
- Lightworlder: The Griffins evolved in a low-gravity environment and can't function well on large planets like Earth.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Capturing one will reveal it to be a hapless pilot who is scared out of its mind and clearly isn't violent by nature. Interrogating the Hydras reveal that they actually saved the Griffins from destroying themselves, and even beyond the pherocytes seem to genuinely respect Hydras.
- Voluntary Vassal: Unlike the Salamanders, the Griffins willingly surrendered to the Hydras and in exchange appear to hold a higher position within the alien hierarchy. Their relatively respected standing within the Hydras’ empire also foreshadows what the Servants ultimately strive to replicate for humanity.
