Extensive background incoming
Be all of humanity, sheltering from the howling devastation of weather and strange ghostly alien monsters outside the last surviving fort
Be unsure how many years it's been, only know the number of forts because we call ours fort 16
There may have been others, but the first we know anything about was founded by people who called it fort 5, so they must have known of others before them. That one, we remember only the name, and a vague location, said to be in the Winterlands north of where we now take shelter
Apparently the ghost aliens of that time were fire based, and the snow was an additional barrier to protect our fragile civilisation
forts 6 to 9, we don't know much more about, fort 10, though, is where the Cult that guides us really took shape. It's where Helena was born, and where her powers were discovered
Helena, also known as Angel-Lena or An-helena, can regenerate, and her lymphocytes can be harvested and transfused into others to give them the strength to fight the ghost aliens
It's wrong, to do that to her, to harvest her, but she allows it when it is necessary
The process is now codified. If a fort falls, An-Helena cannot be killed, and she takes those few survivors her powers can protect to a new location, and there a fort is built. A judge is chosen, and given the name Nuncio - meaning speaker, or announcer, or herald. Nuncio is given sufficient white cells to become immune to aging and disease, and his watch begins
The temple is set up, Nuncio sits behind the altar and observes the progress of the fort
Once it is strong enough to survive without Helena suffering further, Nuncio announces that Helena will no longer be harvested, that the white cells we have in storage will have to be sufficient now
It is said that in the far distant future a fort will be strong enough to stand forever, and Helena's misery will finally be over, the ghost aliens will be defeated, but how that might come about none can say
But in these days of blood and horror, eventually every fort has fallen, and Nuncio's table at the centre of the strongest point is crushed under the collapsing ruins. By design, the altar is underneath the fort's central supports
Fort 16 was decreed to be strong enough two generations past, and as always we started with hope and power, but now, the end seems near
Be me, an acolyte of Angelena, with psychic powers enhanced by the Lymphocyte infusions
Be my team: a robot sentinel with heavy laser, and a tech-genius scavenger human with cyber-enhancements
Been fighting the ghost aliens since the day of our adulthood ceremony. Once we could push them back, but it's been a stalemate for a couple of years now as we start to lose more people than join the fight
Discover a ghost alien mobile stronghold on a long range scouting mission - it's moving towards fort 16. Investigate as much as we can, but have to run when the robot's weapon is disabled, the tech genius is badly hurt, and I am out of energy to heal them
Deliver the bad news, a strike force is assembled, the last hope of all mankind
The strike force marches out, we are left to guard the fort and recover in so much as we can
Be us, waiting anxiously
See a vast light through the storm, a mighty fire... this does not bode well
The shattered remnants of the strike force make it back just ahead of the biggest army of ghost aliens we have ever seen
Have no choice but to throw all of mankind off Helena's cells and plunge 16th fort through the announcers table.