Part 1

They had come so abruptly that humankind was wholly caught unwares and could not mount an appropriate response. The people's reactions were varied and carried an air of brewing confusion and chaos.

But, in a way, it seemed that what went on at the time was but natural. After all, it was then, at the dawning of the "true" space age, that mankind had finally arrived at the answer to one of the longstanding questions pondered upon ever since attaining greater knowledge about the vastness of the heavens.

We were not alone in the universe after all.

***

At first, they had no name. Nothing official anyway. In truth, they had already been called a lot of things.

UFOs, aliens, monsters, angels, demons, gods... The list went on and on. Culture and belief led people to different conclusions.

There were even conspiracy theorists who proposed that it was all an elaborate hoax staged by major world powers for heck-knows-whatever silly or absurd reasons they concocted.

But the sense of unease from facing an enormous "unknown" pervaded the whole of humanity just the same.

Then, before the people could properly make heads or tails of the situation, the attacks happened - just as abrupt and shocking as their appearance on Earth had been.

At first, it was a few major cities. Then it was several large military installations across the globe.

After the United Earth Federation headquarters was hit, mankind had finally come to from their collective dazed state and were forced to look at the reality before them.

This was all real.

And it won't be stopping anytime soon.

This was just the beginning.

Part 2

Amidst all the carnage and chaos of those first few weeks since "First Contact" and the subsequent attacks by the extraterrestrials, a certain organization emerged from relative obscurity. They called themselves The Olympus Initiative.

Previously known as a fairly run-off-the-mill global think tank, they proceeded to quickly and efficiently organize the remaining disparate forces of the UEF while providing them with the means to fight back - giant humanoid machines called Titan Armaments.

Later called T-Arms for convenience, these humanoid behemoths quickly became the first line of defense against the invaders.

They were comprised of over-technology that baffled the minds of even the greatest scientists and academics of that era.

***

The T-Arms were powerful. Exceedingly so. At least, they far outperformed even the most advanced weapon systems made by the UEF at the time. Utilizing the mysterious form of energy now known as "ether", the T-Arms spearheaded the counteroffensive against the aliens and gained more and more ground.

Normally, the world would have been wary of such an unprecedented display of force and competence from a previously unassuming and largely mysterious organization such as The Olympus Initiative. But mankind had truly been grasping at straws. Presented with an opportunity to save themselves, humanity did not dare to question or antagonize the ones who gave them hope.

Finally, after a fierce and desperate struggle, they had grasped victory.

Or so they had thought.

A great armada of alien ships suddenly warped out near Jupiter and proceeded to head to Earth to attack it once more. It was then that a transmission was relayed all over the world:

"Base primitives of this backwater planet, take heed! We are the L'Arcanus. And we hereby claim this sector in the name of the Supreme Scion T'varka Calganus Arcnartur.

Only two paths are open to you. Surrender... Or annihilation."

Part 3

The grandiose yet grim declaration heralded even more chaos with the threat of renewed attacks. The UEF forces were still reeling from the last battle and now they were unceremoniously thrust into another one seemingly more dangerous than the last.

The Initiative, however, was not fazed as much - almost as if they had anticipated such a development. Though it seemed that even they were not expecting things to happen so fast.

The enemy, now known as the L'Arcanus or Arc, resumed what was obviously a full blown invasion only hours after their ultimatum. Their forces were significantly greater than the first wave of attacks and humanity was pushed to the brink of despair once more.

It was then that the Initiative was finally forced to introduce another factor that once again turned the tide of battle - the EX-Seed.

Part 4

The EX-Seed were, in simple terms, altered humans. Their enhancements did not only range in the physical aspect. They also had their mental faculties and abilities greatly upgraded.

Their brains were "rewired" to better facilitate the precise control, handling and refining of ether which, in turn, greatly boosted the performance of the T-Arms they piloted.

The EX-Seed were like ultra fast, precise and efficient "processors" that unlocked the full potential of the weapon system known as T-Arms.

***

The imposing humanoid metallic "monsters" that the Initiative created ran primarily through the use of ether as a power source. It fuelled most of the T-Arm's main weaponry as well.

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Ether was a mysterious and almost unfathomable form of energy that was theorized to pervade the whole cosmos. Even humans carried ether within their bodies. It has also been called by numerous different terms in various cultures and served as a key component in several disciplines like martial arts and other esoteric or mystical practices. By properly utilizing it, people became capable of performing wonderful feats.

It had long been regarded as silly and resoundingly unscientific and was only prevalent in select cultures and popular fiction. But the Initiative had found a way to bridge the gap between two seemingly incompatible ideologies and came up with something entirely new and thoroughly revolutionary.

Part 5

Through a process that seemed to draw ether from the universe itself, the T-Arms attained unsurpassed power, speed and maneuverability compared to all other forms of advanced weapon systems.

Further heightening the effects was a newly developed material called mithrilite.

Almost 90% of a T-Arm's body was composed of mithrilite. It had high ether conductivity and served as the T-Arm's "bones", "muscles", "skin" and "nerves".

It made direct mental control (which was deemed far more efficient than regular piloting methods - given that the pilot had the appropriate training) feasible as it didn't put too much strain on the pilot's brain because of its innately high ether conductivity. It reduced the mental effort it took to directly control the massive humanoid machines by more than 60% as long as the pilot is capable of refining and providing an appropriate amount of ether.

It was a literal fusion of human and machine. It was something that was thought to have only been a pipe dream turned real.

Its durability also increased manifold if provided with enough highly condensed purified ether. Most modern ordnance at that time couldn't put as much as a dent on a properly ether-charged mithrilite surface.

Of course, this was just talking about weapons developed on Earth. Arc weaponry was still able to damage mithrilite reliably through repeated attacks. But it's defensive strength was undeniable all the same.

Part 6

However, all these benefits came with a heavy price.

The ether collected and stored by the T-Arm's power core still needed to be properly refined before being circulated to the rest of its body for peak performance. It was akin to unprocessed crude oil that was yet to be turned into proper fuel. The pilot is the one responsible for the refining process, as no successful method of fully refining ether through artificial means has been found.

Unfortunately, no normal human, no matter how highly trained, was able to simultaneously handle the tasks of refining ether, circulating it throughout the T-Arm's frame and piloting it, even with the reduced mental load from using mithrilite. There was also one's maximum ether capacity to consider.

There is a definite limit to the amount of ether one can circulate through one's body. The capacity differed from person to person. But it's certain that when one goes well beyond that limit, the results would most likely be disastrous. In the worst case, it could result in death.

The output needed to effectively run T-Arms can be said to be well over the maximum capacity of most normal humans. Because of this, the early T-Arms models released when the invasion began functioned through a kind of workaround so they can be fielded out faster by making normal soldiers as pilots.

Ether refining and circulation was left to the installed specialized OS utilizing an imperfect artificial purification and distribution system. The process was fundamentally flawed and the resulting ether was nowhere near as pure as when a human refines it. But it was sufficient enough for reliable T-Arms operation.

The T-Arm's weapons and equipment recieved similar treatment. The standardized charged sub-ether particle rifle functioned by storing unrefined ether on weapon "cartridges". The rifle forcefully agitates the ether particles and shoots them out in that state, resulting in a powerful, if somewhat crude, blast of energy. It was still inferior to properly refined ether blasts channeled directly from the T-Arm's power core, but it further reduced the load taken up by the pilot by functioning independently. This same principle (independent functions) was applied to all other standard T-Arms equipment.

But the shortcomings of these methods became readily apparent with the renewed Arc threat. The UEDF found it increasingly harder to deal with the attacks. The average performance and output of the enemy units obviously outstripped theirs by a fairly large margin. It was as if the first invasion attempt was but child's play and that, this time, they were finally getting serious. And so, the Initiative was forced to reveal one of it's foremost hidden cards.

This was when it all began for him.

It was the start of both an ephemeral dream and an agonizing nightmare.