Manual - Pandora: First Contact - Proxy Studios

“Sir? We barely survived that. Will we get support from theother colonies?”Suleimann shook his head, mute. The researcher looked grim.“Sir, with respect. If that’s what I think it is, we’ll need it.”The researcher pointed to the hills and proffered her binocs.Looking through them, Suleimann saw one of the great xenostructures that had seemed so dead when they arrived. Itssurface roiled like a wet balloon and split, birthing a new squadof the insectile monsters. “Mother of...” he muttered, and ranfor the stairs, leaving his clipboard spinning in his wake...***At the end of the 20th century, war got expensive, fast. Whena single-shot dumb missile costs more than a small town, youcan’t just fire them at anyone – but the Western powers did,fearful of losing even a single soldier. Most first-world soldiersnever got within a mile of a living enemy, and their autonomousdrones.Meanwhile their developing-world opponents cobbled togethercountertech from video game consoles, how-to guides on 4chanand sheer bile. It was asymmetric warfare to the nth degree,one side using money, the other lives.For the West it got tothe point where a singlesoldier’s death wasa tragedy – so it wassimpler to hire veterans,mercenaries and theinsurgents themselves.The corporation thatfronted all this –31