Azorian Echo

GLOMAR NCND-3 Reactor

Also known as the Azorian, it is a high-energy dimensional tap reactor that has a permanent malfunction. Rather than being shut down and dismantled for parts, it has been moved to a new location and reactivated. The reactor generates a modest amount of power, far less than DTR of its size should, but it has a knack. Azorian is a thief. The reactor can steal things from other places, the difficulty being that it has no real ability to aim or be guided, and whatever it grabs has to be small enough to pass through the event horizon it generates.

For the most part, Azorian has stolen rocks, ice, water, trash, and other general debris in the 1 to 1.5 meter, and 200-500 lb range. What has been fascinating about this is that under laboratory analysis, many of the objects it brings back are non-terrestrial, not of this earth. The disturbing thing is that many of these objects are very obviously from 'an earth' even if it isn't Azorians. This includes things like books and printed materials that aren't in any known language, spent ammunition casings in odd metals, and calibers no manufacturer produces.

Azorian is stealing things from other realities.

Author's Note:

GLOMAR NCND-3 exists in the Cosmic Era, and it is a foundational piece of tech. In the mainline CE, GLOMAR-3 doesn't work. It powers up, it cycles through its start-up procedure, the fail-safes kick in, and it powers down, nothing happens. In the alternate reality where GLOMAR works, things have gone a slightly different route, and it's much worse than the mainline CE.

The Dire Need

Welcome to Fort Hughes, the lot of you have been conscripted into a fight that is not your own. This is unfortunate for you, but essential for us. Over the next three weeks, you are going to be put through a grueling series of challenges to prepare you for what comes next. You are going to be soldiers to help us in the fight for our survival, the very planet's survival.

A lot of you have questions, and I will answer a few of them. But let me give you the short version and then we can do a few minutes AMA. About six years ago, the Guizhou attempted to create their own version of a Dimensional Tap Reactor, and I am sorry to say that their attempt was highly successful. So successful, in fact, that they allowed a hostile alien intelligence to enter our world, and bring with it their own army. They are here to conquer Earth and add it to their collection. We have been fighting them with every weapon we have at our disposal and to high effectiveness. Otherwise, we would not be having this conversation.

Yes. We have used thermobaric devices, atomic devices, nuclear devices, biological agents, chemical agents, and things that are not officially acknowledged by any remaining world government. We have discovered that the viral agents the invaders created do not work on humans from alternate dimensions, this would be you. Their bioweapons, mind control powers, and other non-physical methods cannot harm or touch you. Their claws and teeth are another matter.

Each of you will be equipped with a suit of Guardian armor, a multi-function Z-5 auto rifle, and a few other useful pieces of kit.

Life in the Death Corps

Azorian Echo is a government project that conscripts people from other Earths to join the remaining nations of their Earth. Those who are capable of fighting are trained, equipped, and sent to the front lines. Those who cannot fight are moved to supporting roles. Reproductive techniques are being explored as the genetic protections of alternate reality humans seem to have a level of hereditary, and there is a desperate need to replenish the human race on their world.

The conscripted legions are held together through fear and coercion. Attempts to defect or run away are met with brutal discipline. Executions are public, conscripts either fight the alien storm and die on their feet, or they are caught and executed in front of a crowd of their peers. Morale is low, dissent is high.

The War Effort

Azorian Echo is working.

The Death Corps legions are retaking lands lost to the Storm. The aliens have two advantages, sheer numbers, and biological weapons. Human technology is superior to theirs, and in close quarters, the protection of a Guardian Suit is more than enough to stop claws and teeth. Most Death Corps soldiers lost are lost to swarming tactics, and units that maintain defensive cohesion survive, compared to most human casualties prior to Azorian Echo were from alien plagues, viral weapons, and psychotronic abilities. Psyker bugs are getting splattered by humans abducted from different Earths, and most have little to no reactance to their bioweapons.

A number of humans who have been conscripted have brought superior technology and understanding to the Azorian Echo program. Some technologies that have been on the drawing boards for years are functional, or even antique on some other Earths. This has seen a haphazard surge in technology, further increasing the technological advantage humans hold.

While many Death Corps members find their way to an unpleasant demise, as their advantages over the bugs are at the cellular level, a good number are finding things improving. Many formerly normal people, mundanes, average joes, are finding courage and confidence. The need to repopulate and the offset in male versus female fatalities have seen advantageous opportunities for men who survive combat to return and either enjoy robust sex lives or settle into more traditional familial roles. The women who survive the corps find themselves being courted by wealthy and high-ranking men looking to improve their family gene pool. A few form their bonds, choosing to shun Azorian Earth people for those who were abducted instead.

Usage:

Azorian Echo is a basic plot built around the Isekai genre, a stranger in a strange land. Rather than being a thumb of a weeb being tossed into a fantastical magic realm, it's regular people who have been grabbed and pulled into a futuristic world on the brink of genocide. The setting itself is formulaic enough, the theme has been done in films like Oblivion (2013), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Battleship (2012), Battle: Los Angeles, Skyline, and the rest of the desperate people with guns versus ravening alien hordes bent on conquering Earth genre.

The functionality is that the Isekai'd victims of Azorian Echo are able to resist the basic weaponry of the invaders, the viral and psychotronic weapons, leaving the aliens to fight these new humans in hand to hand, or digging out their own primitive beam and slug thrower weapons. The battlefield is level, but the humans have advantages in firepower and armor. Azorian Echo has the entire big bag of ludicrous gats out for everyone to use, and even dumb weapons are being given a chance to work. The aliens have numbers and ferocity on their side, but they're taken aback, they aren't used to having to be furious, they're game plan is always to wipe out opposition with their species engineered bioweapons and mind control devices.

The characters have room to tell their own stories inside the narrative of fighting a bug war.

I would use this as a one shot game, let players make characters without telling them what they need, other than mundane, no magic, whatever time and Earth setting they want, without cooperating. That way, when the squad is assembled on Azorian Earth, they aren't a cohesive unit yet. Alternate timeline characters can appear and that's half of the fun.