| "They said invading the Earth would be easy." | |
| "They were right." | |
| "They said the humans would lay down and die." | |
| "They lied." | |
In an ultimate irony they could never appreciate the Legion attacked on New Year's Eve Day, A.D. 2000 as millions of people around the Earth celebrated the end of one millennium and the beginning of the next. Their attack began by launching a dozen multiple warhead antimatter missiles from deep space. The missiles entered the Earth's atmosphere from above the North Pole and spread out from there. Within minutes the bus missiles had launched submunitions. Within one hour, 17 of Earth's largest centers of finance, politics and culture had vanished forever.1
Twenty-four hours later, seven Legion city-ships - massive vehicles six miles across and carrying millions of Legion aliens - landed in the ruins of the Earth cities.
The war had begun.
In 1990, a Meeranar diplomat discovered Earth and later that year a peace and trade agreement was signed. Although there were those on Earth who resisted, the free exchange of ideas, culture and technology improved life for both peoples. For the first time in Earth history, there was global recognition of something beyond the Earth. The new perspective forced humans to think of themselves differently. A single world government became a real possibility.
In 1998., a&.nbsp;Meeranar diplomat landed on the Legion homeworld. He died a slow, horrible death. Later that year, the Legion discovered the Meeranar homeworld. Through desperate maneuvering and political strategy, the Meeranar managed to convince the Legion they were more powerful than they were. Through the most subtle and devious methods a few highly placed Meeranar leaders pointed the Legion at Earth, convincing the Legion that the Humans were relatively weak and harmless. The Meeranar, of course, were well aware of how many powerful superbeings the Earthlings had and hoped that the Legion would become embroiled in a bitter struggle with the Humans. Once that struggle had begun, the unscrupulous Meeranar leaders used the "attack on our Human allies" as a reason to launch an attack against the Legion. Though the technology of the Legion is significantly greater than that of either the Meeranar or the Humans, the Legion are outnumbered about 1000-to-1.
The Humans of course know none of this. They have had very little contact with the Meeranar since the assault, as the Legion have blockaded the Earth. One thing the humans don't know is that they are winning the war. It's a bloody tenuous position which could be unbalanced, but overall the humans are winning. Naturally, since they can do very little damage to the Legion inside tir ssive city-ships, they believe they are losing.
1 It would have been 18, but a Brazillian kamikaze pilot managed to destroy the missile headed for Sao Paolo. [Return]
Acknowledgements: The Earth Under Siege campaign setting by Morpheus Unbound is a direct result of ideas and material developed by Charles Brewer in 1991. Charles was inspired by StarChilde Publications' character "Legion" as published by them in Justifiers RPG: The Insidious Campaign (© 1990 by StarChilde Publications).