Alternative, The Path to Victory

The Alternative Timeline is a tightrope to navigate. Ensuring the the completion of Alternative IV is no easy task, especially for those without clearance to know the specific details of the project. The slightest fumble could doom a player and party into the Unlimited Timeline (see folder: "Unlimited, A Failed Timeline"), but there are plenty of opportunities to fix things, and to setup the ultimate victory — though it may entail great sacrifice...

Sequence of Events

This segment focuses entirely on Takeru Shirogane.

@Takeru Shirogane arrives in the BETAverse on October 22, 2001. Rising with a lifetime's worth of exhaustion, he looks around his room. He recalls a terrible dream. About war and aliens, and a Migrant Fleet sending a measely 100,000 souls or so to a far off planet. Upon steeping outside, he realizes it wasn't a dream, and somehow he's back. He has faint memories of this world, certain events, and it seems like his body has retained whatever past training he received. Takeru steels himself for the events ahead, resolving to make a change this time. No matter what, he won't allow Alternative V to happen. But doing so requires making Alternative IV succeed, a project he has no knowledge of. He sets out towards @Yokohama Base towards a fateful meeting with @Yuuko Kouzuki...

What now follows is a series of world events

November 11: With @Takeru Shirogane remembering the approximate date of the BETA's invasion into Niigata from Sadogashima, he warned @Yuuko Kouzuki, and the attack was successfully predicted and intercepted. Special Task Force A-01 is involved in a secondary operation to capture live BETA specimens; the operation was a success, but resulted in the loss of 3 members. The 12th and 14th armored division of the IJA's Mainland Defense Force stop the assault at the Chuetsu and Kaetsu Provinces.

November 29: Stumped in her research, @Yuuko Kouzuki looks for a temporary distraction to reorient her thoughts and approach. A new Operating System for TSFs, the XM3, is put into practice. Making use of new concepts, developed by the Professor with the aid of @Takeru Shirogane begins demonstration tests at @Yokohama Base in absolute secrecy.

December 5 to 6: The 12/5 Incident, an attempted coup d'etat by radical members of the Japanese Imperial Army, involving numerous young officers and led by Captain Sagiri Naoya, commences with the assassination of the Prime Minister and several cabinet members. Answering to a formal request from the provisional government in Sendai, UN and US forces were dispatched, in concert with loyalist Japanese forces, with the intention of armed intervention against the coup forces. Actions taken by the Shogun in the aftermath of the incident eventually result in strengthened relations between the UN's Alternative IV program and the Japanese government.

@Yuuko Kouzuki, still stuck in her research devises a way to temporarily send Takeru to his original universe, in efforts to get the formulae she needs from her EXTRAverse self, a teacher at Takeru's school. If these formulae and equations are obtained, work may continue on Alternative IV.

December 10 to December 17: The @00 Unit is completed. @Sumika Kagami may be brought into the story.

Scheduling and planning for Operation 21st begins. The @Sadogashima Hive, Objective 21, is planned to be assaulted by a coalition of Imperial Japanese, COSEAN, and UN forces, in conjunction with the @XG-70 Susanoo and @00 Unit. If it succeeds, the 00 Unit will obtain data on all BETA Hives currently on Earth. Previously unseen BETA activity occurs, but this is put down to BETA unpredictability in the chaos of the battle.

In the aftermath of Operation 21st, a large BETA group numbering 40,000 individual creatures, survivors from the Sadogashima Hive, emerge from Machida, Tokyo, to attack @Yokohama Base. Even further previously unseen BETA activity occurs. After a brutal battle, the heavy damage to the base, and the inability to maintain the operability of the @00 Unit, causes Professor @Yuuko Kouzuki to make a formal request to UN GHQ to accelerate plans for the recapture of the @Kashgar Hive, Objective 01. Approval is obtained from the Alternative V faction with the conditions of allowing US forces to take charge of the capture of the Original Hive's G-element plant, and the immediate transition to Operation Trident (Operation Babylon) should the recapture of the Original Hive fail.

2002, Sometime after the New Year: Operation Ouka, the assault on the @Kashgar Hive, Objective 01 in the area of Western China begins. Simultaneous, distractionary attacks will be conducted against major Hives around the Earth, while A-01, the @XG-70 Susanoo, and supporting forces land on the Kashgar Hive from orbit. BETA now show obvious signs of tactical thinking in ignoring re-entry bombs and prioritising TSFs and re-entry destroyers over falling re-entry shells.

Dialogue is achieved between the @00 Unit and the BETA Superordinate being within the Hive. Humanity learns that the BETA are essetially organic terraformers and resource harvesters created by a silicon-based master species. The Superordinate is ultimately the command hub, or commander, for the entire BETA presence on Earth. With its death, the ability of the remaining BETA to learn and adapt to humanities tactics is exponentially reduced.

How to handle this setting, and the post-setting

The Alternative Timeline is a difficult path to maintain. One has to prioritize goals that help @Alternative IV. If, for any reason, trust is lost or the program is deemed as nonproductive, the @United Nations could move on to Alternative V, putting players right back into the Unlimited Timeline. Even in the event of victory, with the destruction of the @Kashgar Hive, Objective 01, the story doesn't end. At least not for anyone other than @Takeru Shirogane (he will finally return to his original universe, the EXTRAverse). There are still other Hives to take care of, and the post-story setting can involve attacking the remaining BETA Hives one-by-one, retaking all of Humanity's lost ground, pushing the BETA off the Earth, and picking up the pieces. Rebuilding. The wartime setting is tough, and losses (including NPC deaths) should be encouraged, but always with a sliver of hope or small chance of survival.