The year is 2758 and the near complete megastructure known as Sanctuary embraces the Sun. This gargantuan, multifaceted metal-platform now shelters over a trillion lives. Alas, Sanctuary is far from the idealised paradise it was meant to be. Great chasms of serrated metal teeth gnaw hungrily into the vast expanse of space – evidence of the Mooncrash and countless ongoing battles. War ravaged shells of cities stand exposed to the darkness of space, looming over scorched earth and barren wastelands – painful reminders of better days, long past.
Despite Sanctuary’s turmoil, not all is consumed by warfare. The vastness of Sanctuary has allowed some of its inhabitants to escape the chaos surrounding them by retreating into unmarred cities of technological marvels surrounded by nature's bounty. Such brilliant havens stand testament to humanity's will to survive.
The seed of this conflict can be traced back to the year 2554. Humanity's past mistakes had chased them to the stars – pollution and overcrowding threatened Earth and its colonies with extinction. IVY, the first artificial sentience, which had originally aided in the colonisation of the solar system, proposed the construction of the Dyson Sphere: a man-made paradise fueled by the warmth of a star. This synthetic nirvana was named “Sanctuary”.
In 2647 a new subspecies of human, dubbed the Chosen, was created. The Chosen were selected from the brightest and most influential members of society. Remaking their bodies into highly advanced metallic forms, their organic brains were converted to liquid light energy matrices, granting them physical immortality. Intelligent and ambitious, the Chosen came to rule most of humanity with a detached benevolence.
Over the next century, resentment among the natural human citizenry toward the Chosen’s political dominance grew and festered, resulting in protests, social unrest and in some cases, outright civil war. Finally in 2741, a coalition of disenfranchised civilian and military organisations formed the Earth Defence Alliance (EDA) to oppose the Chosen's stewardship. The EDA's fiery rhetoric quickly gained them support amongst the natural human population, causing an even greater divide between the two cultures.
Sanctuary neared completion in 2758 as the ever-growing tensions between the EDA and Chosen reached an all-time high. A controversial and duplicitous plan to move and assimilate the Earth’s moon into Sanctuary was implemented. As the Moon neared Sanctuary, disaster struck. It failed to slow down, continuing unabated on a collision course for Sanctuary. The resulting Mooncrash was catastrophic, extinguishing billions of lives.
Considering the Mooncrash to be a deliberate attack, the EDA and Chosen declared war on one another, sparking the greatest conflict in human history – the Great Solar War. The resulting military action was unlike any other in its savagery, bringing untold destruction and devastation upon humanity’s paradise.
Now, as the stalwart EDA fights tooth and nail against the cutting-edge Chosen, a new threat emerges. Sanctuary’s AI caretaker Ra has repurposed Sanctuary's worker bots to create the Guard, an implacable robotic army determined to protect Sanctuary through the forceful pacification of the warring factions. As the great Solar War reaches its peak, which faction will you pledge your allegiance to? Will you lead your side to victory, or will you face annihilation?