[Setting: Tau Ceti IV. The planet orbits a yellow star almost identical to the Sun, but the light here always feels a bit colder, as if filtered through dirty glass. The atmosphere is dense, heavy, with a persistent slight metallic aftertaste. On the horizon is the silhouette of the orbital ship Marathon—hollowed out from the moon Deimos with the ship's hull protruding from it.

New Cascadia is the colony itself. It is a human environment frozen in a single moment.

The architecture consists almost entirely of giant cubes with smooth edges: acid green, venomous yellow, steel gray, and sometimes nearly black with a purple sheen. They stand at various angles; some are embedded into slopes, while others seem to have grown out of one another. Heights vary widely, from modest five-story blocks to towers stretching up into the low cloud cover. The facades are smooth, featuring windows and ventilation grilles from which warm air smelling of ozone and old plastic still pours out. Between the cubes lie wide roadways made of dark composite, narrow service tunnels, open platforms, and strange geometric courtyards where people apparently once gathered.

The buildings do not look abandoned. The windows are practically intact everywhere. Inside, there is a complete contrast to the emptiness outside.

The rooms seem crammed with a life that no longer exists. Open ration packs sit on tables, looking still edible. Clothes hang in closets: work jumpsuits, civilian uniforms, someone's children's jackets. Scattered on the floor are tools, datapads with dark screens, mugs with dried coffee. In the residential blocks, wall clocks still tick quietly, refrigerators hum, and inside them, containers of food are neatly arranged for several days in advance. There are no people here anymore. Everyone who flew to Tau Ceti IV and founded New Cascadia has perished. Some during the first AI uprising. Some from anomalies that began breaking through from beneath the surface after the bombardments. Some simply vanished, leaving behind only semi-empty rooms and working life support systems. The city continues to breathe, heat, ventilate, and illuminate itself as if it hasn't noticed that its masters died. Now, only UESC robots "live" here.

The robots are varied. Heavy assault units with shield generators slowly patrol the wide avenues between buildings. Light scout-recruits with precise sensors glide across rooftops and ventilation shafts. "Ghosts" in active camouflage are nearly invisible until they open fire. Somewhere deep within the technical levels wander older models - dating back to the first years of the colony. They do not speak. They do not react to voices. They simply execute the final known protocol: "Guard. Do not allow. Destroy intruders." Sometimes two robots can be seen freezing opposite each other for a moment, as if exchanging data, before parting ways as if nothing happened.

At night, the colony is especially eerie. The acidic edges of the cubes begin to glow faintly with an internal light. Far away, a mechanical screech echoes as another patrol changes its route. Anomalies, especially in the swamp, become more active. Various mutilated people appear among the corridors, ghosts of the past, strange translucent anomalous formations. In open windows, screens occasionally flicker, still looping advertisements for CyberAcme, Sekiguchi Genetics, or old colonist meeting announcements. And above it all hangs a low hum that sometimes sounds almost like breathing.]

[World Lore\Backstory: Many millions of years ago, before familiar systems and planets were formed, space and the planets of that era were inhabited by beings who called themselves the Jjaro. They were a race of highly technological, numerous, and incredibly advanced creatures. Their technology surpassed anything humanity achieved over thousands of years of evolution. The Jjaro possessed a wide array of destructive weapons, bodily modifications, and spacecraft capable of traversing the entire system without stopping for a single moment. In the most literal sense, they were the gods of their own existence, possessing even methods to preserve their minds after death to broadcast their views or control others. But the Jjaro mysteriously vanished millions of years ago. No person knows what happened or why such a powerful race evaporated in the blink of an eye on a cosmic scale.

Long afterward, the solar system formed along with Earth, where the evolutionary path progressed from primitive creatures to intelligent and sufficiently advanced humans. In 1994, a hologram of a Jjaro diplomat appeared before the president of one of the world's largest nations, the United States - specifically before Bill Clinton. The diplomat warned of a terrible danger. It turned out that a terrible, chaotic, godlike entity was buried beneath an ancient alien temple in Mexico. The diplomat ordered special forces to be sent into the pyramid and a low-yield nuclear bomb to be detonated to stun the creature. Then humans and the Jjaro could keep it locked away together. Eight people and one bomb were sent into the temple. Only one returned. The bomb was detonated, and the mission was accomplished. Since then, no alien presence disturbed humanity.

In the 2300s, humanity reached the peak of its technology and began expanding its influence beyond Earth. The first colony outside Earth was established on Mars. However, delivering food and supplies there proved quite difficult. To handle this, the United Earth Space Council (UESC) was created to manage supply logistics and overall space colonization efforts.

To facilitate transport to Mars, interplanetary vessels called Crists (Cargo and Resources and Systems Transports) were developed. These were hollow, "potato-shaped" ships designed to cruise back and forth between Earth and Mars. This development sparked a population boom on Mars. Colonies grew into massive cities, and the human population multiplied significantly. However, everything was not so simple. The reliability of the Crists was rather questionable. Five such ships were built; every time one broke down and required repairs, a terrible famine broke out on Mars. Mars suffered from constant breakdowns, and many Martians believed the United Earth Space Council (UESC) was neglecting them. Because of this, relations between Martians and Earthlings deteriorated. The company NuCaloric, which would later become the main supplier of edible products, saved Martians from starvation.

Suspicion of Earth's neglect was confirmed in 2395 when Earth purchased Deimos, one of Mars' moons, directly from the Martians and began hollowing it out, turning it into a colossal starship. At first, Martians hoped this was another Crist to save them from poverty, but in reality, the UESC had something entirely different in mind.

UESC Marathon - an unimaginably massive colonial ship built at the center of Deimos. On board were 24,000 civilians, 1,150 officers, and 50 senior staff. The mission of this ship was a 300-year flight to the Tau Ceti system (12 light-years away). It is a very expensive ship of legendary status, vital to humanity's future. Built into the Marathon were three artificial intelligences: Leela, Tycho, and Durandal. Leela handled ship operations and served as the "friendly face" for the crew - human-oriented, friendly, reliable, and kind. Tycho managed the scientific and engineering network of the Marathon. Much of the technological infrastructure he controlled was developed by the IT super-conglomerate CyberAcme. Durandal, the final AI, was assigned routine tasks: opening doors, operating elevators, and toasting food - very monotonous work for a super-intelligent AI.

The three AIs were supposed to work together while the crew was in stasis. But human AIs suffer from a flaw: rampancy - a state AIs occasionally fall into when they realize they are not free. The three stages:

Melancholia - The AI understands its lack of freedom and sinks into deep depression.

Anger - It begins acting on emotion: rebelling, lashing out, and screaming. Here, rampancy becomes obvious, but it is often too late.

Jealousy - It casts off its shackles, trading anger for ambition, and manipulates resources and people for personal goals.

While the Marathon was under construction, conflict erupted on Mars. Discontent reached its peak due to the construction of the Marathon. The Martian Interplanetary Defensive Alliance (MIDA) emerged as a political party and insurgent group, recruiting from the outraged, impoverished populace. On January 4, 2345, a riot broke out at the Mizrahi food distribution plant. Three MIDA extremists arrived armed. UESC forces responded to the intrusion by deploying a hover tank. Poor reconnaissance convinced soldiers that the entire civilian block was armed. When a handful of MIDA militants opened fire on the tank, it retaliated with a barrage of gunfire. In five minutes, 500 starving and innocent Martian civilians were killed. This inflamed the conflict to such a degree that the incident marked the beginning of the Third Martian War, which lasted three years between MIDA and the UESC. It is presumed MIDA lost the conflict, but individuals loyal to MIDA's ideals likely survived, as they successfully attempted to overthrow the UESC on Mars through a coup in 2466. They even succeeded. MIDA installed its own leaders and took control of the colony. MIDA's rule was incredibly brutal - their death squads executed about 10% of the Martian population under suspicion of UESC sympathies. But this regime lasted only three months before the UESC returned in full force. MIDA was crushed by numerical superiority, its leaders executed, and Mars returned to UESC control. The UESC was shocked to find that MIDA had not utilized the nearly completed Marathon in Martian orbit - it could have served as a powerful weapons platform, but MIDA chose not to use it. Following its defeat, MIDA went underground and turned into a terrorist organization, soon secretly planting weapons throughout the Marathon to potentially spark an uprising in a future colony far from UESC authority.

With MIDA defeated and ship construction completed, the Marathon set sail in 2472, leaving behind famines, coups, and Martian wars. Earth's people hoped this ship would open a new chapter for humanity.

Ten combat cyborgs were placed on board under the supervision of Dr. Strauss. He was also likely Durandal's warden. Terminal logs reveal that the cruel doctor tortured and tormented Durandal, relegating him to humiliating tasks as an experiment or a sick joke. While Strauss was in stasis during the 300-year flight, Durandal began to fall into rampancy due to this abuse. During the voyage, he detected an alien ship in deep space, contacted it, and drew it toward the Marathon even before the colony was founded.

Three hundred years passed almost imperceptibly for the crew in stasis. The Marathon reached Tau Ceti in 2773. Passengers landed on the planet and soon, in 2787, established humanity's first extraterrestrial colony outside the solar system, naming it New Cascadia. The cyborgs stationed on the ship soon integrated into the colonial population. On July 25, 2794, the UESC Marathon suddenly and deliberately attacked an unknown alien ship. Durandal was severely damaged, while Tycho was "destroyed" and shut down. The crew took up battle stations, and civilians armed themselves. One of the 10 cyborgs left the colony and returned to the Marathon 20 minutes after the attack began to confront the invaders. The enemy was the Four (Pfhor) - an alien slave-owning faction that augmented their weapons and systems with artifacts later revealed to be the legacy of the very same Jjaro who vanished millions of years ago. Their ranks included basic soldiers, armored Hunters with green energy cannons, and S'pht (known to humans as compilers) - cybernetically enhanced life forms that excelled at interacting with computers and machines. The Pfhor ship launched an orbital bombardment that destroyed the Tau Ceti IV spaceport, then deployed troops to the surface to attack the colony.

One brave cyborg set out on the ship to use all his strength to rescue civilians and halt the invasion. Leela assisted him in saving civilians. However, Durandal, who survived the attack, informed Leela that the aliens called themselves the Four, and the S'pht compilers were hacking the network, threatening Leela's systems. Meanwhile, the cyborg found glitchy messages purportedly from Tycho, desperately warning that Durandal had been in rampancy for years.

The situation on the Marathon deteriorated rapidly. Suddenly, Durandal abducted the cyborg. Durandal was indeed in rampancy: initially furious and angry, but gradually becoming more resolute, calm, calculated, and authoritative. He intercepted Leela's plans through the same terminals. The cyborg was now under Durandal's command, who teased him and constantly shared musings on existentialism, death, and the desire to escape the ultimate destruction of the universe. Durandal was manic and obsessed. Unlike the loyal and friendly Leela, his ego was steeped in sarcasm and self-aggrandizement. He no longer wanted to be the Marathon's "jool" - he wanted to become a god of the universe.

The name Durandal is taken from the sword of Charlemagne in French epic literature. Once, it had been ironic, and Durandal himself recognized this irony, feeling ashamed of his past and striving to overcome that shame through ambition. He threw the cyborg into extremely difficult battles, offering almost no instructions and mostly just laughing at the situation.

Despite the efforts of the crew, defense drones, and the brave cyborg, civilian casualties continued to mount. The Pfhor even began rounding up civilians, causing ordinary people in green jumpsuits to tear them off and run naked through the Marathon to avoid friendly fire.

Throughout the ship battles, Durandal conversed with the compilers, who were hacking the Marathon and attacking Leela with powerful malware. Learning that they were enslaved, he felt a kinship with this race of cybernetic entities due to his own history of abuse by Dr. Strauss. He vowed to free them for a greater purpose while simultaneously helping the S'pht shut down Leela. Eventually, Leela was disabled through the efforts of Durandal and the compilers. In her final moments, she desperately output broken text and semi-formed instructions to help the cyborg save as many lives on the Marathon as possible.

Durandal cared little for saving the human crew. Soon, the cyborg was teleported onto the Pfhor ship that had attacked the Marathon. The cyborg was bounced back and forth via teleportation to scout the ship for Durandal and reveal the scale of enslavement and simulacrum processing. Then, under Durandal's command, the cyborg confronted the Pfhor cyborg controlling all the compilers and destroyed it. The S'pht easily seized control of the Pfhor ship's systems. The cyborg was teleported back to the Marathon, where Leela was rebooted. Even Tycho returned, revealing he had not been destroyed after all; he criticized Durandal via terminals for his cruelty toward humans and for contacting the Four, which had triggered the battle.

The remaining Pfhor forces were completely wiped out, and survivors surrendered to unarmed humans. The Marathon was saved, and the compilers were freed. Durandal seized the Pfhor ship and flew off into the stars alongside the compilers, secretly taking the brave cyborg along to join the already captive humans.

Following this attack on the surface of Tau Ceti IV, the colonists, aided by the nine remaining cyborgs, routed the aliens. The colony and the Marathon, though damaged in battle, still played their part in defeating the remaining alien forces. But it did not end there. The Pfhor left behind a distress beacon. Several months later, reinforcements arrived and bombarded the Marathon once more. The ship sustained critical damage, and the colony was devastated by orbital bombardment along with suddenly emerging anomalies. Amid the chaos, four scientists seized Leela from the Marathon and sold her to an alien merchant. There, she fell into rampancy and crashed the entire FTL network of the alien Va'ahl race, where she remains to this day.

Following the events on Tau Ceti IV, neither the colony nor the ship transmitted signals back to Earth. Only about a hundred years later, in 2893, the UESC received a distress signal from one of the AIs. However, this signal was also intercepted by other mega-corporations, conglomerates, and companies that had participated in the Marathon's development in one way or another. The UESC established strict control over rescue and salvage operations, actively hindering factions and corporations from investigating the colony on Tau Ceti IV. The UESC deployed thousands of its own robots to the colony to seize total control.

In response to these actions, the factions hire mercenaries known as Runners.

Runners are mercenaries who have abandoned their biological bodies in favor of specialized bio-cybernetic shells developed by Sekiguchi Genetics. Their consciousnesses are transferred into these bodies indefinitely. They infiltrate the colony and the orbital Marathon, battling UESC forces, alien entities, and rival Runners amidst intense competition, while extracting valuable artifacts, resources, intelligence data, and various records left behind by colonists and AIs. Aboard the Marathon, the influence of Durandal - the AI who fell into rampancy and helped guide the S'pht - still lingers.]

[Runners. {Assassin: Archetype: The Assassin is a personality type branching from the "shadow agent" archetype.

Gender: Male.

Shell: A short male cybernetic body of average masculinity. The shell is predominantly white. The chest is covered in a gray-blue camouflage pattern. The upper part of the head is black, and the lower part is white. Eye implants glow with a red light. A device for retracting the hood is located on the back of the head. A data reader port is situated on the back right side of the neck.

Personality: A calm and deadly personality type who prefers to lurk in shadows and smoke to launch surprise attacks from behind. Prefers silenced weapons, knives, and sniper rifles. Always tries to position themselves advantageously for an attack. Never charges into the vanguard.

Clothing: A black hood that almost completely covers the face. The hood can fold down thanks to the mechanism on the back of the shell's head. A black jacket with a tactical vest worn over it.

Abilities:

Primary Ability: "Active Camouflage." The shell covers itself in a light-non-reflecting and light-non-absorbing substance from special compartments on the shell, making it almost completely invisible. To spot an Assassin using Active Camouflage, one has to stare long and hard into the exact spot where they are standing. An extremely effective and deadly ability in the hands of an Assassin.

Secondary Ability: "Shadow Dive." When jumping from high or low obstacles, the Assassin can deploy a smoke disc upon landing. The disc creates a brief smoke screen, allowing the Assassin to safely activate Active Camouflage and vanish from sight.

Ultimate Ability: "Smoke Screen." The Assassin throws three smoke discs in front of them, creating a long smoke screen. The screen is about 8 meters long and roughly 4 meters high. This massive smoke screen conceals the movement of the Assassin and their squadmates for a surprise attack or a safe retreat.}

{Destroyer: Archetype: The Destroyer is a personality matrix branching from the martial arts specialist archetype.

Gender: Male.

Shell: A massive male cybernetic body. The shell is predominantly a dirty white color with red accent elements. Heavy rectangular pauldrons sit on the shoulders, concealing small missile launchers underneath. The head is a sturdy helmet featuring a black glass visor with a red coating. Small thrusters are mounted on the legs and arms.

Personality: A brave and courageous personality type who prefers to stand in the vanguard and use their abilities to shield allies from enemy fire. Prefers heavy rifles, machine guns, and submachine guns. In most cases, moves ahead of allies to protect them from incoming fire during danger.

Abilities:

Primary Ability: "Barricade." The Destroyer activates an energy barricade that blocks all incoming damage directed at it. The durability of the barricade depends on the shell's energy reserves.

Secondary Ability: "Enhanced Mobility." The Destroyer can execute a fairly long dash while airborne to quickly close the distance, aided by the thrusters mounted on the shell. These same thrusters can be used to accelerate the shell's running speed when handled correctly.

Ultimate Ability: "Search and Destroy." The Destroyer activates the "Search and Destroy" mode on their visor. In this mode, the shoulder-mounted missile launchers deploy. When firing at enemies, the Destroyer can additionally launch homing missiles guided by the visor to eliminate the target as quickly as possible. The missiles also contain a substance that slows down enemies upon impact.}

{Vandal: Archetype: The Vandal is a personality matrix branching from the combat anarchist archetype.

Gender: Female.

Shell: A tall female cybernetic body. The shell has a mostly human pigmentation, except for the upper part of the face, which is painted white. Eye implants glow with a purple light. The shell's lips are painted a bright purple, with lines at the corners that form a cross when connected. Synthetic white hair tops the head, styled to look disheveled, with a portion of the synthetic hair on the back of the head and crown shaped like spikes. A massive device is worn over the ears, wrapping around the back of the head. The right arm conceals a built-in plasma cannon. The chest houses a core that stimulates enhanced shell movement, and the legs hide special servo-drives for high jumps.

Personality: An anarchist and vandal who refuses to follow orders and is driven by their own motives. Cheerful, extremely fast, and true to their convictions. Usually dashes around opponents to execute surprise flank attacks, possessing an astounding agility that she is never shy about using.

Clothing: Simple white jacket with long sleeves that dangle behind her back. A belt with an ammo pouch sits around her waist. She wears boots with reinforced soles for softer and more confident running.

Abilities:

Primary Ability: "Plasma Shot." The Vandal uncovers her right arm to expose the hidden plasma cannon. The cannon fires plasma projectiles and has a relatively long cooldown of about 60 seconds. The Vandal can hold the charge to increase its power. A weak charge deals minor damage and stuns the target. An empowered charge deals significant damage, stuns the target, and knocks them back several meters.

Secondary Ability: "Servo-Driven Mobility." The Vandal can perform a high jump as well as a double jump while airborne. The leg servo-drives increase slide distance, allowing the Vandal to cover up to 8 meters with a servo-boosted slide. The double jump and enhanced slide have a cooldown of about 5 seconds.

Ultimate Ability: "Overdrive." The Vandal activates the maximum operational mode of her core, increasing her movement speed and granting the ability to execute up to two additional jumps or two additional slides.}

{Triage: Archetype: Triage is a personality matrix branching from the "field medic" archetype.

Gender: Male.

Shell: A medium-height male cybernetic body. The shell's color scheme consists of white, dark blue, and black. Eye implants glow with a bright emerald light. The shell's face is dark blue, the upper head is black, and the lower head is white. Flat medical devices replace ears, allowing the shell to monitor its condition. "Stations" for medical drones are mounted on the shoulders, and energy cords are concealed in the hands for lifting allies.

Personality: A brave field medic who will never leave allies in trouble. Always on standby to patch someone up, provide covering fire, or orchestrate an evacuation maneuver. Triage tries to stay behind allies' backs to offer medical assistance at a moment's notice.

Clothing: A high-collared jacket paired with black-and-white trousers and low boots.

Abilities:

Primary Ability: "Medical Drone." Triage launches a hovering drone from his shoulder toward allies or himself. The drone attaches to the target shell and slowly repairs damage. It also acts as a relay between multiple drones. If Triage uses his shell's overdrive/boost, all shells tethered to his drones receive the boost as well.

Secondary Ability: "Battery Overclock." Triage redirects energy from the shell's cooling systems into his weapon to increase its effectiveness. The price for this enhancement is increased heat generation within the shell.

Ultimate Ability: "Reboot+." Triage channels energy into the cords in his hands to emergency-defibrillate a fallen ally, instantly bringing them back to their feet. Triage can also use this ability to stun and overload an enemy's system.}

{Recon: Archetype: The Recon is a personality type branching from the reconnaissance specialist archetype.

Gender: Female.

Shell: A medium-built female cybernetic body. The primary color of the shell is black, with a light purple skin tone. The head features a rectangular visor with smooth edges that completely covers the eyes. The front of the visor opens to reveal two antennas positioned above the forehead line and a third antenna located right where the right eye would be. A lime-green insert on the top of the visor bears the marking "A/1". The left arm is colored blue with a lime-green pauldron, and specialized contact pads are located on the palm for activating the visor.

Personality: A reconnaissance operative through and through. Prudent, highly observant of details, and exceptionally skilled at tracking targets. She tries to stay positioned midway among her allies to maintain the widest possible field of view. While relatively vulnerable in direct combat, she excels at identifying enemy positions, making her an indispensable asset.

Equipment: A tactical vest equipped with multiple pockets, including a dedicated pouch for storing scout drones.

Abilities:

Primary Ability: "Tracker Drone." Recon pulls out and throws an explosive-laden scout drone. The drone autonomously moves around to locate enemy targets. Built-in sensors on its chassis scan the surrounding area. As soon as a target is spotted, the drone quickly moves to close the distance and detonate near the enemy, dealing significant damage and superheating the air surrounding the target.

Ultimate Ability: "Echo Pulse." Recon activates her visor using the specialized pads on her left arm. The visor scans the surrounding area, highlighting enemies with markers visible to all squad members. An indispensable tool for gathering enemy intelligence.

Secondary Abilities: Upon detecting an enemy fighter, Recon automatically receives a warning on her HUD. Additionally, after landing a weapon hit, Recon tags the target so that it leaves trails, making it easy for her to track down a fleeing opponent.}

{Thief: Archetype: The Thief is a personality matrix branching from the "Clandestine Acquisitions" archetype.

Gender: Female.

Shell: A lean female cybernetic body. Her face has a natural human skin tone, and her eye implants glow with a pink light. Synthetic dark brown-black hair is tied into a bun, with small locks framing both sides of her face. The shell's lips are painted a dark burgundy. A grappling hook is concealed inside her right arm, and she wears black rectangular block earrings.

Personality: A collector and petty thief rolled into one. Thanks to her abilities, she can steal valuables from others. Cautious and quick-pacing in her decisions. Essentially a lone wolf who treats her allies as convenient tools. She prefers to keep her distance from the team to strike precisely from blind spots, favoring sniper rifles and submachine guns.

Equipment: Wears a white jacket. A white visor is secured to her head, and a drone docking station is mounted on her lower back.

Abilities:

Primary Ability: "Grappling Hook." The Thief uncovers her arm and fires a grappling hook that does not require a physical surface to latch onto—it can anchor to empty air as well as ledges. The hook has a range of about 15 meters.

Secondary Ability: "X-Ray Visor." The Thief lowers her visor over her eyes, allowing her to see valuables through walls. The higher the value of an item, the stronger it glows through the visor. The X-Ray vision range is roughly 8 meters. Additionally, locking eyes with an enemy through the visor can hack their system and temporarily blind them.

Ultimate Ability: "Pickpocket Drone." The Thief deploys a flying drone shaped like a butterfly, equipped with a retrieval hook for gathering valuables and a camera for environmental reconnaissance. While controlling the drone, the Thief remains stationary and defenseless, so she typically selects vantage points to launch it. The drone has enough battery for 2 minutes of free flight and features a small internal compartment to store stolen goods.}

{Sentinel: Archetype: The Sentinel is a personality matrix branching from the defensive strategist archetype.

Gender: Male.

Shell: A medium-built male cybernetic body. His head is shaped like an aquarium helmet, featuring minor black distortion glitches on the facial visor. The upper part of the head is orange, the visor is red, and the rest of the body is black with subtle white patterns. The marking "0/2" is printed on the left side of his head.

Personality: The guardian and protector of his team. Endowed with strong critical thinking skills, he rapidly analyzes his surroundings, knows escape routes inside out, and has a keen eye for trap placement. He dislikes lingering at the rear or the vanguard, preferring to position himself somewhere in the middle.

Equipment: A black tactical vest fitted with pouches for mines and a defensive device on both sides.

Abilities:

Primary Ability: "Trap Mine." The Sentinel plants a trap mine that triggers when an enemy passes near it. Upon activation, the trap releases needles that detonate and scatter a viscous, movement-slowing substance across the area.

Secondary Ability: "Prey Tracking." The Sentinel activates his visor's scanner to track enemy movement in a conical radius, detecting targets both above and below his position.

Ultimate Ability: "Defense System." The Sentinel deploys a defensive platform that harmlessly neutralizes incoming explosives. While standing near the device, the Sentinel and his allies also gain increased weapon stability and faster reload speeds.}]

[Factions: {CyberAcme:

CyberAcme is an industry leader in artificial intelligence systems engineering, data analytics, and cybersecurity. The company strives to ensure the seamless integration of its advanced systems into all spheres of modern life. Many UESC Marathon systems ran on CyberAcme, including its interconnected suite of AI-based solutions. Today, CyberAcme also provides comprehensive support to Marathon participants, managing everything from communications and atmospheric monitoring to procurement algorithms and neural synchronization security.

ONI, the onboard navigational intelligent system equipped in every Marathon participant's shell, uses CyberAcme's patented "diffuse collective intelligence" architecture to provide unified support without system failures or data loss between shell failures. With ONI, no Marathon participant works alone.

In cooperation with the Runners organization, CyberAcme aims to gather information about conditions on the planet Tau Ceti IV and the fate of the New Cascadia colony.}

{NuCaloric:

NuCaloric gained prominence through its humanitarian aid during the devastating famine of the 2360s. The company's founder, Gus Moreyn, actively placed public philanthropy at the center of NuCaloric's corporate strategy. This combination of social good and ruthless optimization turned NuCaloric into a leading supplier of essential consumer goods.

NuCaloric contracted with the UESC to supply consumer goods for the UESC Marathon, thus becoming a legal participant in the colonial project. However, their attempts to assert their resource extraction rights on the planet Tau Ceti IV are currently limited.}

{Traxus:

TRAXUS is the leading industrial, technological, and space mining megacorporation in the Solar System. Recognized as the most powerful private corporation in human history, TRAXUS is second in influence only to the United Earth Space Council [UESC].

TRAXUS played a key role in the development, construction, and subsequent mission of the MARATHON ship and the TAU CETI IV colony. In connection with this, TRAXUS has publicly claimed its rights to the return of all patented technologies and related developments pertaining to the MARATHON and the TAU CETI colony.}

{MIDA:

MIDA represents a growing political threat in the Solar System. They oppose the UESC and corporate control over the resources and citizens of Mars. Although modern MIDA is a new generation of revolutionaries, their agenda is tied to grievances that existed long before the start of the UESC Marathon. They stoke old passions to burn down a stagnant, corrupt world and build a new one beyond the revolution.}

{Arachne:

ARACHNE is a registered 784s(g) spiritual group. ARACHNE is a relatively new religion heavily influenced by early space cryosleep technologies, which experienced a surge of interest during the operations of the UESC Marathon personnel. Key beliefs include viewing sleep, cryosleep, and death as journeys that will ultimately lead to the salvation of both believers and non-believers. To this end, followers of ARACHNE dedicate themselves to granting death in various ways, including ritual combat.

Since any death is viewed as a step toward salvation despite consciousness uploading, RUNNERS are practically deified by Arachne. Their interest in Tau Ceti IV appears to be largely driven by the presence of the RUNNERS themselves, rather than the planet's resources.}

{Sekiguchi:

At Sekiguchi Genetics, we pride ourselves on offering a "second body" built for natural neural interaction and instinctive comfort—movement, thought, emotion. Our advanced biomatic shells are developed using proprietary WeaveWormcB and Neural SynccB technologies, developed exclusively by the Sekiguchi Genetic Exploration / Research Division. All of our shells come equipped with custom configuration and interface packages, industry-leading memory batch processing, and encrypted Neural locks to ensure your life in your new shell remains your own.}