Earth Corps was originally concieved as a simple alien invasion scenario using concepts from the previous Dark Fire, but eventually became so much more. The story centers around the pilots of the Earth Corps, an emergency military organization established to fight off alien invaders. Sounds simple? Nah...
At the Earth Corps Bed Springs base, two freshly trained pilots, Rick R. Mortis and Rory "Rock" Stonewall duke it out in the simulators, before meeting their new teammates in the rec. room. That very day, an alien dropship lands in Las Vegas, deploying its troops. Earth Corps eagerly responds, with each pilot scrambling to be the first human to ever claim a kill of an alien mecha. This prize goes to Rick, who manages to down an alien Grunt. Earth Corps manages to capture the dropship, some of its crew, and a powerfull mecha, named the Raven, before it is recovered. In doing so, they discover that the majority of the aliens are identical to humans, yet there are still some truly alien creatures onboard. Rick gets into a fight with another soldier, Karen Stewart, over his bragging. One of the human prisoners, named Rebecca Jamison recovers and reveals herself to in fact be a captured and brainwashed human. A captured and badly injured cat-like alien recovers and manages to regenerate her lost arm, marking Earth's first contact with identifiable psychic abilities. She says her name is Darian and that she is a simple soldier.
Another alien attack is launched, this time landing in the city of Boston. The alien forces are overwhelming, and most mecha are destroyed, including Rory's commando, "The Monster." While trying to escape Boston, Rick and Rory encounter the Alien psychic, Marden Gryne. Despite his display of considerable power, they are not in thew least bit impressed, with Rick going as far as to declare that "He's wearing a dress!" They manage to escape, and other Earth Corps Units retake Boston.
| Getting some personal time in, Rory goes back to Boston to help his girlfriend, Ami Walker, pick her life back up after the attack. She proposes to him, and Rory accepts, but says to hold the wedding when it's all over... just in case she becomes a widow otherwise. Meanwhile, Jo, another Earth Corps pilot, has caught the eye of both Rick R. Mortis and superior, G. Carter. Both start vying for her affections. Rebecca |
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An early warning system detects alien dropships landing in the Nevadan desert. A squadron including Rory and Rick are sent out in Lynxes to recon the area. They discover that the aliens are establishing some kind of base or construction. A full scale attack is mounted on the site, but repelled with heavy losses including the base's C.O. They manage to get a better look at the site; the aliens are constructing a huge mecha, over three hundred meters tall! While Earth Corps recovers and resupplies, the mecha is completed and begins stomping towards the Bed Springs base. Lead by their new commander, Bruce Britain, Earth Corps launches a desperate attack on the approaching mecha, managing to cripple and then board it. The commander detonates the mecha and dies in the explosion, rather than have it captured. Rick and Rory's rivalry intensifies, and Rick finally manages to win Jo's affections.
While on leave with Jo in Los Angeles, Rick encounters Darian searching through city records. He follows her to a graveyard, and sees her paying her respects at a grave. Rick recaptures Darian who, in defense, asks to join Earth Corps. Despite huge protests, the charter of Earth Corps prevents any discrimination, so she is accepted. Lunch suddenly becomes straight salad sandwiches for weeks. An Earth Corps technician discovers that the Early Warning systems have been tampered with by someone on base - Darian is cleared of suspicion, as it was done before she returned. With the system back on-line, they detect dropships arriving and departing from a certain location. An alien base is discovered there, and Earth Corps launches a full scale assault. Durin the fighting, Darian is "rescued" by her ex-lover Terin and Rory's latent psychic abilities manifest themselves during combat with a Sprine. The alien forces are routed, and technicians begin examining the base.
| An alien attack on Los Angeles is thwarted, resulting in the capture of a fully intact alien dropship and a Sprine commander; after which Karen Stewart is noted to act suspiciously. They then attack both Portland and the Bed Springs base at once. Both attacks arte repulsed, although Rory is forced to use the captured Raven to |
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Contact is finally re-established with the moonbase. The moonbase had been out of contact since the first days of the war. The Bed Springs base staff are chosen to take the captured dropship to the moon to reinforce and defend the base there. Once there, they discover that the moonbase had kept all transmissions silent in the hopes of avoiding detection, but had to request aid and more supplies. They had also begun construction, on the last orders they had recieved, of a spacecraft to fight the aliens. The moon base is attacked, and although the attack is repulsed its communications and radar gear is heavily damaged. A second attack on the moonbase results in a resounding defeat and the capture of all Earth Corps forces. They are bought aboard the flagship for interrogation. Darian, stationed onboard the flagship, frees the captured soldiers and helps them to escape, fleeing with them. She takes with them her frind, a girl named Mimsy, who is the last survivor of her race. They are aided by a second captured dropship heading from Earth and equipped with a complement of new SVA-12 Vipers. A permanent force is established on the moon, and the Bed Springs base personnel return to Earth.
Once again on leave, Rick R. Mortis discovers that Tom Maxwell, who has seduced Jo, is Terin in human guise. He manages to beat the snot out of Terin before he escapes. Meanwhile, alien forces attack Boston, capturing the city while Rory Stonewall and Karen Stewart are on leave there. Marden demands that Earth Corps surrenders and hands over the Raven and Darian, or they will start killing hostages en masse. Rory and Karen are captured by alien patrols. The Bed Springs base uses their dropship, "Behemoth," to supposedly deliver the ransom; in reality it hides many of Earth Corps' finest including Rick R. Mortis and Bruce Britain. The trap is sprung, and with reinforcments from the other bases fighting breaks out all over the city. Rory and Karen escape, although Karen is very badly injured in the process. Rick R. Mortis leads the battle, destroying large numbers of alien mecha, blasting Terin's Vixen and displaying an amazing resistance to psychic attacks. The aliens are routed from Boston. However, upon examination by doctors, Karen is revealed not to be human, but a Sprine, genetically altered into human form.
The victory is, however, short-lived. The alien's flagship begins bombarding Earth Corps bases around the globe, beginning with the one located in Tokyo, utterly destroying the city. The Central Asian, African and Australian bases are destroyed with no survivors; the European base is destroyed with heavy casualties, and the South American, Pacific and North American (Bed Springs) bases are destroyed, but only after being evacuated. The Bed Springs personnel use thier captured dropship to assault the flagship, boprding it and wreaking havoc. Rick almost kills Terin before he can escape. Rory and Darian make it to the bridge and confront Marden Gryne. While Rory holds off his psychic attacks, Darian shoots him dead. Darian stops to check beneath his robe, and to everyone's surprise he is in fact wearing a pink lacy bra and panties! They turn the ship's guns on the rest of the fleet, then flee to the moonbase before it is destroyed by the other ships. Darian tells them everything about the aliens; that they are the Helgebard Empire, made from many different alien races that joined or were conquered by the galaxy-spanning empire. They also learn from Darian that a punitive fleet has been order to earth, with the capability of burning the whole planet to a cinder!
| The spacecraft, named Tokyo is completed, and launched with Earth Corps' best onboard to try and intercept the fleet, or assault the Helgebard capital to draw the fleet away from Earth. The ship drops into hyperlight speed, but half way through the trip a bomb detonates on the hyperlight engine room. To make matters worse, they find an imperial fleet waiting for them when they drop out of Hyperlight. The crew is forced to abandon ship via escape pods, landing on a nearby planet which turns out to be Felis, Darian's home. A group including Darian, Rory, Rick, Jo, Rick's technicians and Rebecca are then found by an Helgebard group lead by Terin. Rebecca turns on the Earth Corps personnel and Rory flees. Rebecca reveals herself to be "Nova," a psychic entity controlling the body of a former Helgebard slave. Terin strikes a deal with Rick that will, in return for Earth Corps' help in killing the Emporer of the Helgebard Empire and establishing himself in his place, Terin will give Earth its freedom and allow it to become a fully fledged member of the empire. Rick agrees and knees Terin in the balls as a sign of gratitude. Rory returns with a group of Felin hunters to rescue his teammates, and earns a hard bash on the head for ruining the plan. During the confusion, Karen takes Nova's spirit into her own body, and jumps from a waterfall to destroy it with her. They manage to find a pod which can get them to the Tokyo, and send one of Rick's technicians, Cassandra Blake, to the ship. She brocasts a series of battle scenes to the Helgebard fleet, showing the empire's mecha |
From Leonadas' Hull. |
The newly assembled Earth Corps fleet heads for the capital of the Helgebard Empire, Belter III. Formerly a planet of great beauty, it has since been converted into a huge capital city, administration, military and palace facility, covering the face of the entire planet! As they prepare for battle, Rick tells Jo that he truly loves her, and would give everything, even his treasured Una, for her. Jo is at a loss to respond, and says she will reply when the battle's over. The fleet breaks out of hyperlight over the capital, and begins pouring mecha of all kinds towards the defending forces. The Bed Springs personnel assault the capital facility directly. Rory forsakes Leonadas to fly the Raven, in which he defeats Terin piloting the Crow. Rick manages to defeat the Emporer's unique guard mecha, the Nightbird. They land their mecha, and Rick, Rory, G. Carter and Jo invade the throne room on foot. There they find the emporer, unguarded and injured. He tells them that the stability of the galaxy rests on his shoulders; if a planet and its population must be sacrificed to prevent widespread rebellion and chaso it is regrettable but neccessary. He is then shot dead... by Terin who has entered the hall behind them. They hunt Terin throughout the columns. He injures G. Carter, by is in turn critically wounded by Rick. Before Rick can apply the killing blow, Jo pleads with him to spare his life, as a sign that the fighting can at last stop. Rick agrees. Its capital fallen and emporer dead, the Helgebard Empire surrenders. Earth is saved. Afterwards is congratulations all round. Bruce is placed in charge of sorting out the remnants of the Helgebard army, Jo reciprocates Rick's feelings, and Rory goes home to Boston where a young woman is waiting for him. |
From Una Von Raxe's Hull. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rick R. Mortis:
Rick is young, brash, headstrong, obnoxious, rebellious, pushy, annoying, womanising and an all around pain. He's also (unfortunately) the Earth Corps' top pilot, and won't let anyone forget it. Rick started out as a full time "girl hunter", but quickly settled in with Jo. Rick is not terribly fond of aliens, and makes no secret of this. He called his Commando "Una Von Raxe" after one of his favourite comic characters.
Rory "Rock" Stonewall:
A stern and serious young man, rory is the perfect counterpoint to Rick's wild and brash nature. The two of them wind up being teamed together and a strong rivalry developes. Although rated as a technically superior pilot than Rick, he never managed to equal Rick's kill record, althoguh he is regarded as Earth Corps'. Being an avid student of history, he named his commando "Leonadas," after a Spartan hero.
Joanne Annabelle Masterly; "Jo":
Jko is a lively and flirtatious young woman, never taking life seriously. She aims to simply fool around and have fun in her life. Her father, formerly an English lord, put her into Earth Corps to teach her respect and a serious attitude. It instead brought Rick R. Mortis into his life, and far too many ulcers with him. She at first sees Rick as "just another of my guys," but eventually grows to love him.
Ami Walker:
A young, hard working woman, Ami works as a secretary in a firm. She never new her parents, and grew up in an orphanage. She met Rory in school, and they became fast friends and eventually lovers. She is quiet, frindly and determined, and very much in love with Rory.
Bruce Britain:
Transferred from the regular army on extremely short notice to head Earth Corps' Bed Springs base. Bruce tries his hardest to keep the wild pilots in line, with only minimal success. He was always overstressed and prone to fits of yelling at people. All in all, a good if amusing man.
G. Carter:
Carter served as the seargent at Bed Springs base, commanding a squad of troops in field operations. In theory. In practice, whenever a battle came around, pilots would generally wander everywhere leaving him alone. Stern, strict, and mostly fair, Carter was sensible and a bit puchy. He was Rick's rival for Jo's affections, but failed miserably. Never says what his first name is.
Karen Stewart:
Tough, violent and self-reliant, Karen was far from a model soldier. Always a loner, she kept secrets from everyuone on the base. The fact of the matter was that she was a Sprine (a six-armed brutish alien speciues) who had fled the empire and taken up refuge on Earth. Her genetic makeup had been changed to make her human. She eventually sacrificed her life to destroy Nova.
Darian Arnise Tarenden:
An Imperial officer, she worked her way up from piloting slave soldiers to her current position. As a Felin (cat-like humanoids), she has naturally high reflexes and awareness. Her planet was conquered by the empire in a single day; they were too primitive to even imagine such thiongs as aliens. While seemingly a model officer, she despised the emipire for there enslavement of other species and defected to Earth to help fight the Empire. Her companion was Mimsy, the last of a species that lived on Felis' twin planet, whose speech cannot be heard by humans.
Terin:
Overconfiddant, womanising and a braggart. And possibly the best pilot the empire has ever seen. Darian's former lover, and also a Felin, Terin adapted tpo the imperial way of life with ease. He abusedf his position of power, making occaisional trips to Earth to try and seduce Earth women. This brought him into conflict with Rick R. Mortis, and the two of them became bitter enemies; Rick hated Terin for seducing Jo, and Terin hated Rick for constantly defeating him.
Marden Gryne:
Balding, overweight, and possesed of powerfull psychic abilities, Marden Gryne served as an assistant to the fleet's officers. He however had abitions of his own, and ideas of his such as the Mobile Fortress and the taking of Boston all backfired. He hated and distrusted all non-humans, and barely managed to work with Terin. His robes were mistaken for a dress by Rick R. Mortis; it was later revealed that he wore women's underwear beneath them.
CVA-5 Commando:
The original, and for some time only mecha of Earth Corps, the Commando is the most famous mecha on Earth. Solidly built, it and all other Earth Corps mecha have variable weapons bays, allowing for easy modification, repairs and weapons changes. Piloted by all of the heroes of Earth Corps, it still remained very popular after the introduction of the Viper for its solid structure and high weapons capacity. Some notable variants are:
RVA-7 Lynx:
A small, light, and by all testimonies, useless reconnaisance mecha used by Earth Corps. The Lynx was poorly armed and only weakly armoured. It was figured that its speed and stealthy construction would keep it out of trouble, but this theory was proven almost disastrously wrong with the appearance of the Jackal.
SVA-12 Viper:
Built later in the war, the Viper was originally intended to be a mecha to work in space, outmaneuver all enemy mecha, and replace the Commando. In the end, it only managed to fill the air and space support roles, with the Commando remaining as the most popular mecha. Still, it made a significant impact on the war, with its use by some Earth Corps pilots forcing imperial pilots to re-think their well-honed strategies.
Grunt:
Imperial name: Slave Soldier. A very weak and poorly armoured mecha, the Grunt was designed for use by the Imperial slave corps. It was ridiculously over-armed although its weaponry only had a very limited operational duration, meaning that it was able to inflict heavy amount of damage for only a short time. It was outclassed by everything else, and soon disappeared from the conflict.
Buzzard:
Imperial name: Slave Fighter. The airborne counterpart to the Grunt, it was built along exactly the same lines with the same mission parameters. The casualty rate amongst Buzzards was even worse than amongst Grunts.
Sentry:
The basic soldier mecha of the Helgebard empire, the Sentry was churned out in enourmous numbers. Well armoured and of fair maneuvrability, it was lacking in its weak weaponry and inability to fly.
Rampage:
The juggernaught of imperial mecha, the rampage was heavily armed and armoured, and was even capable of stable flight. It was sorely lacking in maneuvrability, and its thruster array was found to be extremely vulnerable to enemy attacks. It also fared poorly in close quarters. The Rampage was often seen accomanying Sentry teams or double-teaming enemies with Jackals.
Jackal:
Originally designed only as a scout mecha, the Jackal's fair arnaments and excellent speed resulted in this design's frequent use on the battlefield. It was equipped with a small shield to protect agasinst heavy enemy fire, and had a powerfull thruster assembly enabling it to fly. However, the Jackal's armour was very weak and it suffered from a volatile engine.
Thug:
Imperial name: Guardian. A brutishly basic design, the Thug was originally built on a vastly upgraded Sentry frame and intended for use in defensive roles. Its twin autoguns give it incredible ranged firepower. However, commanders often ignored its failing and brought it into the midst of a battle, resulting in severe losses.
Gorgon:
Imperial name: Iron Rhinoceros. A commander's mecha equipped with a powerfull psychic amplification system. The Gorgon only rarely saw deployment, but when it did appear, it always made a significant impact on the battlefield. It was, however, flawed in that its pilots usually relied too heavily on their psychic abilities and had insufficient practice to pilot their mecha well.
Vigilante:
Imperail name: Iguana. A powerfull and deadly commander's mecha, the Iguana only showed up very rarely. It heavy armour and high maneuvrability allowed it to survive a very long time, and its hevy weaponry combined with the skill of the pilot allowed it to tear through formations of enemy units.
Hornet:
A sophisticated, but flawed interceptor design. The Hornet was originally designed by the empire to be a powerfull interceptor. However, it's poor range and severe dependace on ammunition saw it relegated to defensive or support roles.
Vixen:
Imperial name: Sniper. Lightly armed and armoured, but highly maneuvrable, the Sniper was designed for a close combat role and to emphasise the considerable natural talents of their pilots. A rarely seen variant of the Vixen replace the tail-mounted shock weapon with an autofire beam cannon.
Mongrel:
Imperial name: Carnage. A mecha design as old as the empire itself. The carnage was designed with heavy combat and destruction in mind. Its four-legged configuration mirrors that of the Kenkrit, the first alien race to join the Empire. Earth Corps pilots learned to deal with this machine quickly and fear its missile launcher.
Tomahawk:
Imperial name: Thunderlord. Designed solely for Sprine pilots, the Thunderlord filled a role of close support with incredible efficiency. Its hydraulics system was boosted to such an extreme level that a mere punch could seriously damage lighter mecha. It sorely lacked ranged weapons, but it had the endurance to take damage while closing with its enemy.
Nightbird:
A one-of-a-kind mecha designed using technologies gleaned from studying the Raven and Crow and assigned to guard the Emporer's palace. It was very heavily armed, maneuvrable, well armoured and piloted by one of the Empire's best pilots. It tore through a whole group of Commandos before being destroyed by Rick R, Mortis.
Raven & Crow:
Amazingly advanced transformable mecha discovered by the Empire on Felis' twin planet. They were deployed with the fleet sent to Earth for testing. The Raven was captured by Earth Corps and heavily examined. It was also piloted on two occasions by Rory "Rock" Stonewall. He used it to fight the Crow, piloted by Terin, and managed to destroy it the second time over Belter III.
Mecha Statistics for Earth Corps.
Earth Corps is part two in the Helgebard trilogy.