《Paladin》Previously on Paladin
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Humanity has lost the war against an Alien race known as the Assimilators.
The Assimilators crash-landed in Siberia in 2021, and within a few years had come to dominate the planet through sheer numbers and ruthless force. Now, the last remnants of humanity live in scattered communities across the United States.
Samuel Lewis is an engineer working in a top-secret facility in the plains of eastern Colorado. It was responsible for manufacturing state-of-the-art mechs known as Paladin Mobile Infantry Suits, and Sam was stationed there just months before the war ended. The bunker kept him safe from the Assimilators, but he lost his family, his friends, and everyone he’d ever known to the Assimilators. With him was a hyperintelligent pseudo-AI named Adelaide. He named his home Camelot.
For months, Sam kept himself isolated in the bunker, refusing to accept the reality of the outside world. Several groups of Assimilators passed by him, but none found his location. However, a group of survivers chased by Assimilators passed by Camelot, and though he had the ability to help them, he let them die instead, fearing that he would be discovered.
After that, he threw himself into training to pilot a Paladin, swearing he’d never let people he could help die again. He became the first person that was qualified to pilot the Paladin Mobile Infantry Suit. Shortly after his graduation, another group of people appeared on Camelot’s sensors, also being attacked by Worms (Mary, Mike, and Wade). This time, Sam didn’t hesitate to save them, wiping out the Assimilators. The group turned out to be from Sterling, a town in North-Eastern Colorado. It was his first-time above ground since entering Camelot.
Adelaide turned out to be an alien that lives in information and is essentially immortal, discovered in the wreck of the first spaceship that fell to Earth.
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While he was fixing the satellite dish that connected Camelot to the outside world, Sam encountered a group of slavers. They attacked him, and after he killed their leader, the chips in their brains self-destructed, wiping out the rest of the slaver group.
Sam met scouts from the Red Eagle mercenaries (Aaron, Rebecca, Allie, Jackson, and Tom), who were operating near Camelot. The scouts were looking for an Advance Team, which turned out to be the group of people that Sam let die. The Advance Team had been chased by the Assimilators, and buried an encrypted ‘black-box’ that most likely detailed why they were being hunted. The box has yet to be decrypted.
Shortly after that, Sam picked up a distress signal from a town known as Fort Morgan, that was being attacked by another group of slavers. Sam destroyed the group, and saved Fort Morgan. He transported the remaining prisoners to Sterling.
Sam became close to the scouts from the Red Eagles, and ended up being hired by them for a mission to investigate an odd location. The location turned out to be an unfinished Assimilator hive, which erupted while the Red Eagles were studying it. Sam fought a Hive Lord, delaying it and preventing it from hunting down the Red Eagles. He was hurt during the engagement, requiring saving from Adelaide who piloted the gunship known as the Merlin. The Hive Lord was relatively unscathed.
Badly injured, Sam was returning to Camelot when he happened upon Camille, the love of his life who he thought had died on the day humanity had lost the war. She had escaped from the Assimilators and had been living in a small town, looking for Sam.
Sam, Camille, and Adelaide realized that the software sensors they had been using were outdated, and would not be able to discover hidden Assimilators. Therefore, they organized a mission with the Red Eagle scouts and Mary to go to Denver in order to retrieve the advanced Paladin software. During the mission, Rebecca was injured. Having no other choice, Sam brought the team to Camelot in order to treat Rebecca, revealing the fact that the base existed.
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After Adelaide upgraded Camelot’s sensors with the software that had been retrieved from Denver, Camille discovered that a large group of Assimilators was approaching Sterling. Sam has gone to help them out, and asked the Red Eagles to help as well. Commander Berston, the leader of the Red Eagles, refused to help. The Red Eagles scouting team, in violation of their orders, had planned to go to Sterling, but they never arrived.
Now in Sterling, Sam (in his newly made Assault Paladin) has to face down the massive Assimilator horde with the help of Adelaide, Camille, and roughly 2,000 militia from the town.
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