Story (Astral Chain)

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## Setting

In 2078, humanity is on the brink of extinction. The population has retreated to The Ark, a bustling megacity atop a man-made island. Humanity found sanctuary on the Ark until a recent surge in corruption occurred. The world is currently under attack by inter-dimensional lifeforms called Chimeras, which reside in the Astral Plane, an alien dimension that is made up entirely of cubed, crystallized data and corruption. Chimeras wreak havoc, abduct civilians into the Astral Plane, and spread Red Matter that corrupts living things and humans. To combat the Chimeras, the Neuron Police Task Force is employed. They utilize Legions, submissive chimeras that have been bound to an officer via a psychic chain, and use it in combat and for investigation purposes. Only a select few are chosen to use these Legions and are capable of combating chimeras.

The player takes the role of one of two twin police officers, who join Neuron as new officer recruits. The player-selected sibling has a custom identity, whereas their opposite-gender sibling becomes Akira Howard.

## Plot

    Shortly after joining Neuron, the Player and Akira are called to respond to an aberration attack, but are attacked by Chimeras. They are saved by Neuron officers Maximilian Howard, Alicia Lopez, and Jin Wong, who wield Legions. Yoseph Calvert, Neuron's commander, assigns Legions to the Player and Akira, giving the Player the Sword Legion and Akira the Arrow Legion. Afterwards, the twins are both recruited into Neuron's Special Task Force, Legionis. During their first assignment the Player is sucked into the Astral Plane. The rest of the team go after them but, due to prolonged exposure, the officers lose control over their Legions. As a result, they break free and go rogue. The Player is the only one successful in rebinding with their Legion, however is unable to take care of the others. Max holds back the other rogue Legions and ultimately sacrifices himself to ensure the rest of the team escapes. When they get back, Yoseph announces that the Aegis Research Institute was attacked, including the Legion production facility. As a result of losing the Legions and being unable to produce more, the Player is the only one with access to a Legion.

The Player is sent on more missions to respond to Chimera attacks within the Ark and eventually recaptures the rogue Legions in the process. The twins are then met with another threat: Jena Anderson, a former ARI top scientist and Yoseph's former pupil, who is directing Chimera attacks and loathes UNION, the Ark's government. She incapacitates and critically wounds Akira while evading capture. She then gives the Player critical information on a data card, and leaves.

The Player is led to investigate Zone 09, a corrupted and quarantined section of the Ark where access heavily restricted, even to Neuron officers. The Player goes undercover and explores Zone 09 with Harold "Hal" Clark in the form of a heavily-modified police drone, an ace programmer within Neuron's technical division, and in the process discovers the government developed a drug called Blue Evolve, which allows humans to fight Chimeras with super-human strength. However, it turns humans into Aberrations; as a result, the UNION stopped administering the drug with no formal reason. After battling one of Jena's chimeric creations, a homunculi, they are saved by Akira, who has obtained a new Legion after successfully recovering from Jena's attack. Although saved, the Player is caught for entering Zone 09 without permission and is jailed for insubordination. Hal then goes into hiding to avoid the same fate.

More Chimera attacks force Neuron to release the Player in order to combat them. Jena then declares a large attack on the Ark, announcing her goal to save the remnants of humanity by merging Earth with the Astral Plane. Here, she explains that the Astral Plane serves as a data collection of humanity, and ultimately the world with be "brought back" to this dimension. Afterwards, she manages to infiltrate Neuron and take Yoseph hostage. The twins arrive to rescue him, and Jena consumes a vial of Blue Evolve to enhance her strength and prevent them from stopping her plans. During the battle, the Player ends up fully merging with their Legion and loses control, attacking Akira in the process. Jena then sacrifices herself by distracting the Player, telling them that this is the true form of their power. After her defeat, Yoseph summons the Ravens, a newly created task force of Legion users led by Akira, and orders them to kill the Player, causing them to fall off the severed overpass.

The Player wakes up back in their human form and discovers that they have been rescued by Hal and Olive Espinosa. All of them are currently situated in a hiding place in Zone 09. Hal explains that Yoseph has completely replaced Neuron with the Ravens and is are hunting the Player, Hal, and even Olive. They then plan to rescue and retrieve Brenda Moreno from Neuron, however in the process, the crew are confronted by Akira and their Ravens. They attempt to convince the Player to return to Neuron, but are ambushed by the Ravens. The Ravens later reveal themselves to be clones of Akira. They attack them, causing Akira to also unknowingly merge with their Legion and lose control. To stop them, the Player consciously merges with their own Legion and manages to knock Akira back into their senses.

In an attempt to uncover and stop Yoseph's plans, the twins infiltrate the ARI, however it is suddenly abandoned and full of Chimeras. They discover many clones of Akira in the cloning facility before finally finding Yoseph at the rooftop. He then sacrifices the Ravens to create the ultimate Legion, Noah, and merges himself with it, with the intention to absorb all life on Earth to ascend and become a god, his ultimate goal. Akira ends up being absorbed into Noah whilst trying to protect the Player. The Player then battles Noah and weakens him enough to allow Akira to temporarily seize control of Noah's body. This allows the Player to destroy Noah, but in the process, Akira is destroyed as well.

The destruction of Noah is followed by the decreasing number of Chimera attacks and gate sightings across the entire Ark. This places a new hope on humanity, to which they consider abandoning the megacity and repopulating Earth. Alicia and Jin reorganize Neuron, and Olive takes position as interim commander. Neuron continues to investigate the last few Chimera attacks that continue to surface on the Ark. It is then revealed that a single clone of Akira survived the final fight, and through Brenda's treatment, is planted with traces of the real, deceased Akira's memories from their Legion.