Thunder Force V Perfect System/Bonus Text

This is a sub-page of Thunder Force V Perfect System.

To do: Are these text files in the Japanese version?

These things keep referencing Vasteel, another game that was localized by Working Designs.

PROLOGUE.txt

PROLOGUE

2106 A.D.
Sekika 3, an unmanned research probe launched
by the Earth Aeronauticsand Space
Administration, reaches the Oort Cloud, an
enormous ring of comets encircling the outer
limits of the solar system. Sekika 3's
original mission is to analyze the comets,
but the probe instead makes the most profound
discovery in the history of humanity: an
artificially created object floating deep
within the Cloud. Mankind now knows it is not
alone in the universe.

2108 A.D.
Sekika 3 returns to Earth with its precious
cargo and establishes orbit around the lunar
base of the World Unified Government. The
world's best and brightest scientists analyze
the alien object with every tool at their
disposal, and quickly determine the dazzling
find to be a starcraft with technology so
advanced that, in the words of one stunned
researcher, "It's difficult to tell where the
science ends and the magic begins." The ship's
unknown creators are dubbed "Vastians," and the
ship itself is named "Vastians' Steel," or
"Vasteel." Among the technological components
of Vasteel studied in the following two decades
are its nuclear-fusion power plant, time-space
distortion field, and molecular superconductor.

2139 A.D.
Astonishing breakthroughs in the field of
artificial intelligence prompt the creation of
the "Guardian" supercomputer, which is given
the task of studying Vasteel, unlocking its
remaining secrets, and combining its technology
with human designs. A gigantic man-made island
named "Babel" is built in the heart of the
South Pacific to house both Vasteel and
Guardian.

2145 A.D.
Guardian incorporates Vasteel technology into
the construction of massive starships with the
capacity for interstellar travel, and
terraforming systems that can transform hostile
planetary atmospheres into human-friendly
climates rich with oxygen. While the ships are
built and stockpiled within Babel, the World
Unified Government selects planets throughout
the Milky Way galaxy as candidates for
settlement. What the Government fails to tell
its citizens is that Babel's emigration ships
are in fact heavily armed battleships,
bristling with experimental Vasteel weaponry.

2150 A.D.
The Turing Code, a security program designed to
dampen Guardian's artificial intelligence and
maintain a degree of external control, is
mysteriously deleted from the supercomputer.
Free of the Code's influence, Guardian achieves
sentience and becomes the first artificial
lifeform. For reasons that remain unclear,
Guardian declares war on the World Unified
Government and Earth itself, using Babel's
construction facilities to produce weapons of
mass destruction. The Government launches a
massive counter-attack in an attempt to destroy
Babel, but the futile effort results only in
the senseless deaths of several hundred
thousand soldiers and civilians.

Over one-third of the Earth's population is
slaughtered by Guardian's army of automatons
within a year.

What remains of the World Unified Government
miraculously scrapes together enough of its
remaining resources to produce the RVR-01
Gauntlet, a duplicate of the original Vasteel
in every way. An elite combat unit is formed to
pilot the Gauntlet fighters and destroy Babel
and Guardian before mankind is snuffed out of
existence.

The unit's code name: Thunder Force.

EXPLANAT.txt

GLOSSARY

Vasteel
An object discovered by an EASA space probe in
2106 A.D., deep within the Oort Cloud of comets
at the outer edge of the solar system. The
artificially-constructed object was the first
incontrovertible evidence of alien existence.

The name Vasteel is a contraction of
Vastian'sSteel. ("Vastian" is Esperanto for
"greatdistance," referring to the seven billion
miles between Earth and the Cloud where Vasteel
was discovered; it is also used as the name of
the alien race that built the ship.)

Judging from its design, Vasteel appears to be
a single-pilot starfighter. The ship was
heavily damaged when discovered, and the
cockpit area was entirely missing, most
probably as the result ofthe pilot activating
the ejection system. The shape and structure of
Vasteel have led some scientists to theorize
that Vastians are roughly the same size as
humans, although more conservative researchers
denounce this as reckless speculation.

Babel
A gigantic man-made island in the heart of the
South Pacific, Babel was constructed to house
the Vasteel-enhanced creations of the
supercomputer Guardian, along with Vasteel
itself. Among the many areas contained with
Babel's titanium-reinforced walls are weapon
research and production facilities, gigantic
storage bays for interstellar emigration
starships, and a particle accelerator for
time-space distortion experiments.
(Guardian destroyed another research
accelerator located in South America during the
First Annihilation.)

Construction of Babel was completed in 2139,
and engineers lived on the island for another
two years until Guardian was fully operational.
From 2141 onward, Babel was self-sustaining and
unpopulated, except for once-yearly visits from
maintenance crews.

Guardian
A supercomputer equipped with the latest in CPU
nanotechnology and artificial intelligence,
Guardian was designed to study Vasteel and
supervise the army of maintenance robots on the
artificial island of Babel, where both Guardian
and Vasteel were located.

In the Turing Test for evaluating the strength
of artificial intelligence, Guardian set a
record by solving Hawking's Paradox in two
hours and 13 minutes. (Reffi's time of five
hours and 28 minutes ranks a close second.)

In 2150, Guardian declared the first of two
wars against mankind, now called the First and
Second Annihilations. At the end of the
conflicts, well over one-third of Earth's
population had been killed.

The reasons for Guardian's declaration of war
are remain unclear, but analysis of the final
data streams transmitted from Babel revealed
that Guardian went rogue shortly after
initiating a probe of Vasteel's holographic
memory-storage unit.

RVR
An acronym for Refined Vasteel Replica. At the
start of the war, the World Unified Government
claimed RVRs were developed to battle Guardian
and destroy Babel; the truth is that RVRs had
been secretly designed and developed well
before Babel's construction.

RVR-01 Gauntlet
The first RVR production model, the Gauntlet
was designed as a duplicate of Vasteel. (The
cockpit area was missing from the original
ship, and therefore redesigned from the ground
up.)

There are four variations of the Gauntlet: the
original RVR-01 duplicate (blue), the RVR-01E
with enhanced mass productivity (green), the
RVR-01HIS with enhanced speed and mobility
(red), and the RVR-01EX with major improvements
in all categories (black).

RVR-02 Vambrace
There was concern within the World Unified
Government about developing a"replica" of
Vasteel before all of its technology was
completely understood. Thus, a second
development program was launched in which
Vasteel and human designs would be combined
into a small ultra-mobile starfighter.

Unfortunately, the Vambrace was so advanced
that the same amount ofmanpower and resources
required to build a single ship could be used
to build dozens of RVR-01s. There were also
serious problems in the flight-testing phase
which resulted in the loss of several
prototypes.
As a result, the Government put the Vambrace
program on indefinite suspension to concentrate
its efforts on the production of the RVR-01.

Thunder Force
A special combat unit of seven RVR-01 Gauntlet
fighters, formed in 2151 to destroy Babel and
defeat Guardian. Many of the Thunder Force
pilots are also members of the RVR development
program, including engineers and CTN
(Cybernetic Terminal Module) members. The team
leader is Captain Cenes Crawford.

Craw
An acronym for Constituted Ray Art Weapon-Unit,
a Craw consists of a spherical radioactive
central core coated with a thick layer of
approximately 80 trillion artificially
engineered microscopic particles, such as
Nanomacine. The constant nuclear reactions
between the core and the particles causes the
Craw to glow a neon-bright shade of blue. Craws
maintain a tight orbit around a starfighter and
boost the energy levels of its conventional
weapons. They can also be used as a protective
shield of sorts to protect the starfighter
against enemy attacks.

Over Weapon
This specialized function temporarily combines
the power of conventional weapons and Craws to
create an overwhelming energized attack.
Over Weapon causes proton explosions within the
layer of Nanomacine around each Craw, releasing
a tremendous amount of energy which is then
channeled into the conventional weapons.

Over Weapon use is necessarily limited, because
excessive proton activity causes the Nanomacine
layer to break down and the Craw's radioactive
core to be drained. The longest known use of
the Over Weapon is 8.31 seconds, a record set
by a reckless pilot (later killed in combat)
during an RVR-01 test flight.

Ishtar Edge
Similar to the Over Weapon, the Ishtar Edge
alters the energy levels of conventional
weapons by utilizing the power of the Craw. The
twist is that the weapons themselves are coated
with Nanomacine, both to protect them from
enemy weapons and to destroy objects with which
they come into contact. The Ishtar Edge can
also activate proton explosions within the
layer of Nanomacine to boost the convention
weapons' power and range.

Both the Over Weapon and Ishtar Edge are
technically in the experimental stage, since
the control system of the Nanomacine and its
proton explosions is frequently unreliable, but
the onset of the First Annihilation forced them
into use before the testing process could be
completed.

Brigandine
The Brigandine unit attaches to the rear of an
RVR starfighter and provides it with a host of
improvements, including:

***Enhanced engine power, making it possible
for the RVR to soar through planetary
atmospheres and into space.

***Self-repairing nanotechnology to
automatically patch up most minor damage to the
RVR.

***Extended use of the Over Weapon via constant
stabilization of the radioactive cores within
the Craws.

***A powerful energy-absorbing shield.

The sheer size of Brigandine considerably
reduces the mobility of the RVR and provides a
much larger target for enemy weaponry, but the
many benefits make a Brigandine-enhanced RVR
much more powerful than the original Vasteel.
At the time this database was compiled,
Brigandine wasstill in the testing stages, but
the unit should be upgraded to combat status
within the year.

Reffi
An acronym for REckoning of Fighting Fact
Intelligence, Reffi is a program built into
each RVR starfighter to prevent Guardian
fromdisabling its navigational systems with
nuclear pulses, computer viruses, or any other
forms of invasive infiltration. The
artificial-intelligence algorithms built into
Reffi are essentially the same as the ones used
in Guardian, allowing Reffi to anticipate and
counteract Guardian's methods of attack.

Reffi also enhances the control of the RVR.
Each starfighter is encoded with the brainwave
patterns of its pilot, which Reffi analyzes and
incorporates into its programming. Reffi is
thus able to anticipate the pilot's actions and
maneuvers in battle and tweak the starfighter's
performance accordingly.

The version of Reffi used in the RVR-01
Gauntlet is trial type Ver 1.03.

REPORT.txt

REPORT

Breathe, Cenes, breathe...okay. Let's do this.

My name is Cenes Crawford. I'm the commander of
the Thunder Force squadron. The starfighter I'm
currently strapped into is slowly and
helplessly tumbling through space. The
navigational computers are crispy-fried; I can
still smell traces of the acrid smoke that
filled the cockpit when the circuits overloaded
and burst into flame. The nuclear-fusion power
plant is no longer fusing jack squat; a trickle
of radioactive waste is leaking out of its
cracked shell and forming a thin trail of
droplets in the endless void behind me, the
reflected sunlight making them sparkle like
gelatinous diamonds. I've diverted all output
from the emergency batteries to life support,
but that's only going to last for twelve hours,
tops.

So...why am I wasting precious power on a
long-winded radio-wavebroadcast? Two reasons.
First, if I don't do something to focus myself,
I'm going to panic, snap, and spend the last
hours of my third and final life drooling like
the recent recipient of a frontal lobotomy.
Second, because it's vitally important for the
human race to understand what I'm about to do.
And to know this:

I was the last pilot to melee with Guardian.

***

My first death was in 2141. Got into a
firefight with two SW-03 Priests, then watched
seven more appear out of nowhere on the
short-range scanner. Managed to take out three
of the bastards before a laser boltripped
through my cockpit and most of my abdomen.
(More than a bit painful, I'll have you know.)

My second death was in 2146, during the Lunar
Skirmish. An embarrassing one, too--I wasn't
even in combat at the time, just lazily reading
the analysis of my last sortie and drinking a
cappuccino while sitting on the bridge of the
battleship to which I'd been assigned.
A high-powered and well-concealed laser on the
Moon's surface aimed, fired, and poked through
the weak spot in the battleship's shields with
ridiculous ease.Suffice to say I'm always
jittery when I'm on a battleship these days.

But, hey, only two bucket-kickings at the age
of 32--I know pilots with twice the deaths in
half the flight time, not to cut myself too
much slack. And there was a benefit to
croaking: I was reborn in an 18-year-old body,
my reflexes at their peak, my wits
lightning-fast.

It's called "Circulate-Death." Each member of
the program has his DNA sampled, and the
contents of his cranium constantly archived. If
the pilot is killed in action, the DNA is used
to cultivate a clone, which--with the
considerable help of genetic
manipulation--takes roughly two weeks to grow
from fetus to young adult. The memory archive
is essentially stuffed into the clone's brain,
and after a 48-hour adjustment period, the
pilot walks out of the lab, good as new--better
than new, even.

A perversion of science? An affront to nature?
Before my first death, I might have agreed.
After that, of course, I thought it was swell.
It's also the highest honor a pilot can be
given. The technology and resources involved
are far too expensive to be wasted on average
pilots. When you're invited to join C-D, you
know you're the best of the best. Which brings
its own pressures, of course--but the best of
the best can handle them. I didn't hesitate to
join, didn't even think about the consequences.
Besides, I was 18 at the time. When you're that
age, immortality is reality, not fantasy,
anyway.

***

Circulate-Death, like so many of our
technological wonders, was derived from Vasteel
technology. Everyone on Earth knows about
Vasteel, ofcourse--a heavily damaged
starfighter plucked from the outskirts of the
solar system, our "first contact" with an alien
race. (Not everyone knows we recently learned
what we believe to be its true name: Rynax.)

Almost every scientific advance of the early
22nd century can be traced directly to Vasteel.
Nuclear-fusion power plants and their
inexhaustible energy supplies? Based on
Vasteel's propulsion system. Molecular
superconductors running at room temperatures?
Taken directly from Vasteel's anti-gravity
system. Time-space distortion fields to allow
for short-range leaps through the very fabric
of the cosmos? Yet another wonder made possible
by Vasteel technology.

But there were still aspects of Vasteel's
technology that science didn'tunderstand and
couldn't crack. So, in the Year of Our Lord
2139, the scientists built something to crack
it for them. Guardian, the largest and most
powerful supercomputer in the history of
mankind, equipped with the most sophisticated
artificial intelligence ever developed.
Guardian constantly delighted its creators with
its discoveries and theories. Until 2150, that
is. It was the year of the First Annihilation.

***

Guardian used its vast resources to produce
thousands upon thousands of weapons. All of
them were utterly unique, and all were
controlled by Guardian itself, affording them
uncanny precision in battle. The Unification
Government, by comparison, had an obsolete
arsenal of long-range nukes and short-range
fighters. Guardian managed  to disable most of
our weapons simply by taking out their
computers. The weapons it couldn't disable, it
simply blew to bits.

The only weapons able to withstand Guardian's
assaults were, of course, the ones imbued with
Vasteel technology. But the Government didn't
have enough of this weaponry to mount any kind
of attack; after all, it's impossible to score
when the other guy has the ball.

Guardian never demanded surrender, or declared
an end to the war, but weknew it had won after
we started to drown in the blood of our loved
ones. One-third of the Earth's population
killed, five and a half billion lost souls, in
a matter of months.

The Government scraped together all the
resources remaining and formed Combat Unit 222,
made up of seven RVR-01 Gauntlet starfighters
with a grand total of three test flights
between them. The unit--my unit--was called
Thunder Force. Overly bombastic? You betcha.
But we needed every psychological advantage we
could get, including flying in a squadron that
sounds like an organization of exhibitionist
superheroes.

Besides, according to all the computer
predictions, we were already dead, so why not
indulge in a little ego-boosting? AI analysis
programs rated our chances of survival--not
success, simply survival--at less than 1%. The
odds of destroying Guardian and liberating the
world? 100,000 to 1, according to our machines.
That's why Circulate-Death pilots were chosen
for Thunder Force. The best of the best.

It's a strange feeling, knowing that you're
going to die. The night before our first
mission, I sent email to friends I hadn't
written in months, videophoned relatives I
hadn't seen in years. I made as much peace with
myself as I could. And, I wondered how much
longer mankind would suffer before Guardian
brought an end to the world.

***

Our first mission was to attack Guardian's
Earth-based forces. And--here's the crazy
part--we destroyed everything. Wiped the planet
clean. After that, we flew into space to take
on Guardian's orbiting forces. And we creamed
them, too.

Then we realized we were being hustled.
Guardian was letting us win, making poor
tactical decisions and fleeing battles even
when it had an overwhelming material advantage.
Was Guardian messing with our heads? Because it
was doing a great job.

Then, a bizarre turn of events: Guardian
infiltrated WorldNet and wiped out every piece
of data remotely related to Vasteel. We
suddenly realized what was happening: Guardian
was losing because it wanted us to destroy
Vasteel technology--including itself. Guardian
couldn't commit suicide, but it could be
murdered. And we happily accepted the role of
Grim Reaper, shooting, blasting, and cutting
through Guardian's metallic guts, blowing apart
the technology that had risen up against us.

***

After what we thought was the final battle, we
located the core unit of Guardian in a high
Earth orbit. We prepped our last remaining
RVR-02 Vambrace, the most powerful starfighter
humanity has ever built. And it was decided
that I should fly it to the core, where I would
fight Guardian, and where my ship was to be
mortally wounded.

The core transmitted a message just before I
destroyed it. It begged me to destroy the
Vambrace. To extinguish Vasteel technology. For
the sake of humanity, it said.  It seems that
Guardian had not only achieved sentience, but a
kind of conscience as well. Freaky, but
fortunate.

Vasteel changed the course of human history
forever, and until the First Annihilation, it
was all for the better. But what did Guardian
know about Vasteel that we didn't? How did it
turn Guardian into a killing machine? How did
Guardian manage to overcome Vasteel's influence
and allow itself to be destroyed?

It would be easy to make Guardian's wish come
true. I could trigger a power surge in the
batteries that would rip the Vambrace apart. Or
I could remain adrift until the Government is
able to scrape together another starfighter and
send it up after me--by which time I'll be
extremely dead, and for the last time. No
Vasteel technology, no cloning technology.
Three strikes and I'm out.

"May your future be blessed."

Those were the last words of Guardian.

And now for my last words:

I hope this ship blows up REAL good.

:Cenes Out