Muv-Luv Quest Background For Those New

	Something I really can't do in story with it making it an infodump borefest (And that in character, you wouldn't know about the Alternative Plans) is give the background context to those without much knowledge of Muv Luv and all its spin-offs, so I'll give you a quick rundown here instead.

	After WWII, at least in this alternate timeline's version, other than a non-occupied Japan the Cold War kicks up as normal, and the space race happens a little early. Like a good decade early really. Viking 1 hits Mars in 1958, we're building moon bases in the 50's, we're developing mech like things for extravehicular operations for space travel, and shit's looking pretty good until we find out we're not actually alone in the universe. Viking 1 goes quiet, after getting images of something alive on the surface of Mars. The scientific community goes absolutely nuts, and we start sending more probes, finding that whatever these aliens are, they've built some kind of structure like a termite mound on Mars, and are building more. The first Alternative project kicks up under a different name at this time, Alternative I. The best and brightest try to figure out a way to communicate with the new 'Martians' as after all, they may be intelligent.

	The problem is that we really don't have enough information on them, we get nothing out of it. Besides, they don't seem to have spacecraft or space capability, so we just ignore them, shoving them into the category of 'something to deal with later.' Then we meet them again, on the Moon. And they're not friendly at all. Now dubbed BETA (Beings of Extra-Terrestrial origins Antagonistic to the human race), they quickly move for the US Moonbase. It's 1967. US Space Corps end up fighting their first war on the Lunar surface, our construction mechs retrofitted to carry heavy firepower on the lunar surface as a stop gap method as the US funnels resources to holding the only Moon base the world has, the UN Security council agreeing to share spaceborne assets in this fight against the BETA. The success of these units starts a program on earth that will eventually bear fruit. By 1972, the first Tactical Surface Fighter (our mechs) is reaching its final stages of development, and will prove to be one of the critical and possibly species saving developments borne of the Lunar War. Alternative II is also established, any hope of friendly communications dropped with the aliens suddenly seeming hostile. Instead, samples from the Lunar War are analyzed, the objective being to study the biology of the aliens to discover weaknesses and potentially where they came from.

	The Lunar War was complicated mostly by logistical issues and the environment of the moon. Potentially, we could have kicked them off of the moon given more time. The BETA didn't give us time, and on April 19th, 1973, a hive launched from Mars touches down in Kashigar, in the Xianjing province of the People's Republic of China. With the US military tight lipped on just how dangerous these aliens could be, the Chinese attempt to storm the hive and secure any technology the aliens might have. The other UN security council members offer forces to aid, but the Chinese Communists refuse, intent on keeping the spoils to themselves. In doing so, they nearly doomed the entire human race. Despite initial success due to aggressive air support that bombs the hell out of the hordes of aliens pouring out of the hive, the offensive grinds to a halt. The reason is simple: the BETA brought something new, the Laser-Class alien. Obliterating the PLAAF over the area within days, without air support the PLA is forced to retreat. Panicking, the Chinese ask the Russians to assist, and the Russians do, trying to stem the tide but it was too late. Overwhelming the hastily erected defenses the BETA are only stemmed for the moment by the employment of tactical nuclear weapons by the Soviets and Chinese as the world starts to mobilize. Alternative III is authorized, a soviet backed measure involving the use of Soviet Espers to attempt to discover just what the aliens are here for and why. By 1974, the BETA break out of their containment zone moving westwards towards the Middle East. There's no stopping them this time.

	Pakistan falls, then Iran as the BETA smash through the unprepared militaries of the region. The Himalayan Mountains keep India safe for the moment, but the BETA manage to press all the way into Anatolia by the end of the year. On July 6th, the US gives everyone in the world a delayed fireworks show. Having withdrawn from the Moon since the BETA made landfall, the US Government is under no illusion of the threat faced by the BETA. When a BETA hive lands in Athabasca, Canada the US high command doesn't hesitate, informing the Canadian government that they would be employing nuclear weapons to destroy the threat with or without their approval. Luckily, that part of Canada is sparsely populated, because the nuclear apocalypse that engulfs the area is fucking incredible. Strategic and tactical nuclear bombs and missiles engulf the surrounding area, leaving nothing left alive or standing, and incidentally irradiating a good chunk of northern Canada. The US recovers what they can out of the hive, starting research projects with them as their projects meant for the Lunar war finally get shown off to the world.

	First, the mundane non mech stuff: The United States withdraws from any sort of 'superweapons in space' treaty or agreement, and with cooperation from everyone in the UN turns their space station into what is basically Ronald Reagan's Star Wars dream come true. Prototype lasers, ICBM's, and probably a fuckload more are added to the thing, along with a network of defensive satellites aimed at protecting the continental United States from another landing with the side benefit of keeping eyes on BETA activity and allowing the space station to have targeting data on any incoming object towards the planet. The purpose of this entire Strategic Defense Initiative is to prevent the BETA from reinforcing and to monitor the Moon. And in that, it's successful. Even till the present day in quest, 2005, there hasn't been a single interplanetary landing by BETA due to this platform. The US also starts to open its research to the UN and enters into a defensive agreement with Japan, hoping to secure the Pacific from any sort of BETA incursion.

	On the mech side of things, we see the first, the F-4 Phantom, enter full scale production. Developed from those armed construction mechs from earlier, the Phantom is capable of flight, heavily armored and armed with a specialized rifle that merges a shortened 105mm artillery piece with a massive 20mm chaingun, both caseless. Alongside this, it's capable of melee combat against the BETA with specially designed mech sized knife, and more agile than any unit on a tactical level that humanity has at the moment. This 17 meter tall death machine is the grandfather of every Tactical Surface Fighter and Tactical Surface Attacker in the setting, with more variants than you can shake a stick at. Hell, your first time flying even in training was probably in one of these things, and they're still used by a wide number of militaries in updated forms. The US sells these things to pretty much anyone and everyone. With Air Forces pretty much rendered without a need for a fighter and even high altitude bombers vulnerable to Lasers, the Phantom is the only thing really capable of replacing its role and provides UN forces much needed mobile firepower to supplement their mechanized forces. The US even sells it to the Soviets.

	After this, shit really goes south. The BETA break through the Caucasus mountains and around the Caspian Sea, pouring into the southern USSR at breakneck paces. Eastern Europe, at least east of Poland is soon overrun. By 1977, the BETA have breached the containment in Kashgar, and punched into the north part of India. Moscow falls, the Soviet government relocating to the Far East. Iraq, Syria, and Israel all evacuate into the Sinai as Anatolia is nearly fully overrun, and fall themselves soon after. Alternative III starts producing some results, with people noticing a 19 day 'order delay' on the part of BETA maneuvers and begin accounting for it, changing the strategic situation . Alternative III though really has its success in 1978, during a massive counterattack into Eastern Europe by NATO and Warsaw Pact forces known as Operation Palaiologos. During the assaults into Belorussia, a Soviet TSF unit was able to infiltrate into a hive, streaming back vast amounts of data on hive construction, layout, BETA activity, and combat records from the unit during its run inform design of TSF's the world over. The unit was wiped to a man within hours. Palaiologos failed to dislodge the BETA from Europe or Russia, and soon cut the USSR off from the rest of the Pact Forces. Europe's days were numbered.

http://i.imgur.com/K20mTPZ.jpg  <---- Basically a map of the defense line situation in Europe in 1980

	Poland falls the next year, but buys time for a series of defenses along the Oder-Neisse line to be constructed, and from here buys Europe more time to fight back. The last real natural defense line before the Elbe, the two rivers are held by the East Germans with UN and Warsaw Pact support for four years, and a huge chunk of the population dying just to buy time. As soon as they fall however, Western Europe follows soon after. 1984 is a year of major success on the part of the BETA, as they occupy the Scandinavian Peninsula, start to overrun West Germany, fully occupy the Middle East, and begin to press the Indians into the sea. Compounding this, Western China starts to fall, despite major efforts by UN forces to hold it. The rest of the decade is similarly gloomy for humanity. France and West Germany fall soon after Scandinavia finally falls the next year, and with that the European Union is forced to evacuate to Iberia and the British Isles. The Isles themselves weather wave after wave of BETA assaults but Iberia is inevitably overrun, defensive lines along the mountains finally falling in 1989. The subsequent years would see the total occupation of Europe aside from the British Isles, and a slow but inevitable grinding down of the Soviets and Chinese in the East. Western Alaska is leased to the soviets for use in fighting the BETA by the US, though they establish a nuclear 'Red Line' where if the BETA reach, the entire area is going to end up like the new Canadian wastelands.

	Alternative III is canned in 1995 after finding out that the BETA mentally, do not consider humans as living beings. Alternative IV comes soon after, and it is this project and its results that will turn the tide, and are focused on in the Muv-Luv VN, so I won't go into too much detail besides the results when it comes up. The BETA make landfall in Japan in 1998, but a concerted effort by Imperial Japanese, American, and UN forces press them off the island in early 1999, and provide a chance for the capture of a freshly made BETA hive in Yokohama, along with a test of a new weapon developed by the Americans: the G-Bomb. The test is a success, and secretly another Alternative proposal is drafted up heavily involving them. Alternative V, while never implemented, proposed simply G-Bombing the entire planet after evacuating as many people as possible off planet into colony ships to be sent off in the hopes of providing humanity a means of survival while the rest fight to the last to reclaim Earth. By this point however, it is estimated that approximately 50% of the population from the start of the invasion worldwide has died.

	The last few months of 2001 sees Alternative IV come into its own and succeed fully, resulting in the destruction of a hive on Sadogashima Island, followed by a destruction of the first hive in Kashgar in a massive worldwide operation known as Operation Ouka. Ouka was a massive strategic victory for humanity as a whole, despite heavy losses. BETA losses were extremely high, and the BETA command structure sent into disarray, allowing two more hives to fall in 2002 and 2003 respectively, and preparations by NATO and the absorbed forces of the Warsaw Pact began to be made for the recapture of Europe, nearly two decades after the continent was practically abandoned. UN support is remarkably minimal, primarily due to the success of evacuation operations from Europe and the US for the first time fully throwing its weight into a fight.

This is where you come in. Your unit made landfall on June 6th 2005, marking the start of the largest invasion in history, supported by the largest collection of naval and air assets ever collected.