In addition to extraordinary weaponry that allows players to do things previously only imagined, each side of the conflict, Pacifica and the Atlantic Alliance, boast soldiers with powers beyond those of ordinary men. Genetic augmentations provide Pacifican forces with amazing abilities, while Atlantic Alliance soldiers like Briggs counter the threat with the more "traditional" method: cybernetics. The differing states of superhumanity result in balanced yet stylistically different combat tactics that have never been seen before.
At the age of nine, marauders overrun the houseboat one night, plundering its supplies and setting it on fire. Despite fighting back as best he can, Jet is tossed into the deadly currents and left for dead. Never giving up, Jet washes up on the nearby shore of the Mississippi, watching as the only home he’s ever known disappears in flames. Orphaned and homeless, Jet sees first-hand how the strong can prey on the weak, and commits himself to never being weak again.
Brody heads north to the outskirts of what was once St. Louis, Missouri, becoming the youngest member of a vigilante group that protects a small agricultural community. There Brody proves himself to be one of the scrappiest and most innovative fighters. Excelling in explosives, his reputation as a fighter is sealed when at 12 he improvises the detonation of a grain silo, taking with it a large militia raiding party. Despite his growing notoriety, Brody’s emotional wounds refuse to heal. Keeping to himself, he throws himself into the defense of the community, whose reputation for repelling attacks has become legendary. For the first time in memory, attacks cease and life begins to settle into a predictable routine. Until one day a mysterious new armed force arrives, more heavily armed than Jet or his allies have ever seen. Immediately thinking the community is again under attack, young Jet attempts to defend the community as the mysterious new army begins to surround it. Eventually a man from the “raiding party” emerges under a white flag – Roy Lawrence, a Major in the Army of the Federal Government. Jet has never seen a man like him, nor heard words like the ones he promises: stability, security, honor. Brody chooses to lay down his arms, and the other fighters quickly follow his example.
Recognizing a boy with a good heart and no family, Lawrence brings Jet back to the East Coast and raises him as his own son. Jet, never having seen a city that wasn’t in ruins (let alone experience the luxuries of modern life such as running water, electricity, and plentiful food), is awed by his new home and lifestyle. Yet, his commitment to protecting the weak carries with him throughout his youth and at his own request, Lawrence has him enrolled in a military preparatory school. Upon graduation, Jet immediately enlists in the Army, serving directly under his adoptive father.
Lawrence personally leads the northern flank and in 2153, already several years into the campaign, he and his forces finally reach St. Louis. Battered and bruised from fighting with countless militias and gangs unwilling to give up their regional powers, Lawrence and his men attempt to secure an agricultural compound on the outskirts of the city, only to find themselves outmatched and pinned down by a level of guerilla resistance they’ve never encountered before. Lawrence calls in for support troops to surround the area, hunkers down, and waits for a reply. No one is more surprised than Lawrence when a 13-year old boy calmly emerges from the smoking debris, holding a battered federal issue assault rifle and a remote trigger for explosives placed all around the compound, which Lawrence and his men have inadvertently taken a position directly over. Hastily, a truce is declared as Lawrence convinces the boy that the Federal Government is there to protect his community, in fact all of the communities in the area. The attacks will stop and lives can finally be lived like they were in the past, as the Eastern Forces and their recovery contractors restore the technological infrastructure lost during the calamity. The boy surrenders and his comrades follow.
Unmarried and childless, Major Lawrence takes the young boy (whose name he learns is Jet Brody) back to the east coast with him, eventually enrolling him in a military prep school at the boy’s request. Upon graduation, Brody immediately enlists, serving directly under his adoptive father, who has been newly promoted to the rank of Colonel. For a time, Lawrence hopes that his son will get to enjoy a world of peace and prosperity. Reconstruction of the Midwest is now in full swing. Uprising and revolts have been quelled across the plains as law and order are restored. But soon Lawrence realizes there is an even bigger threat looming ahead. One that is even worse than the hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes the world has become familiar with. What he fears is a man-made disaster…
One of the earliest evolutionary “improvements” gifted to many children of the Pacifican bloc is a rudimentary subsonic communication ability. However, on a trip to the National Zoo in Washington D.C., Mariko discovers her abilities are far more advanced and that she is actually able to affect the animals at the Zoo. Her uncle, a trainer for specimens on loan from the Tokyo Zoo, notices the anomaly and works with the terrified Mariko, teaching her to control and refine her unique ability. With the permission of her parents, Mariko spends summers with her uncle, intensifying her growing passion for animals and the engaging scientific field of subsonic communication.
When faced with her parents return to Japan, Mariko elects to remain in America to further her education in the sciences. Believing that if she can find the frequencies used by animals to communicate with each other, then surely the people of the East and West can learn to communicate and co-exist in peace. This idealism leads her to work in a university as the head of subsonic, inter-species communication research group. Only later does she discover the project’s true purpose – to develop a genetic super weapon capable of carrying out a deadly first strike attack against a distant enemy.
As the country veers towards civil war, Mariko sets out to stop the weapon she has unknowingly helped create, knowing it could mean the end of her career and perhaps the end of her life. Along the way she meets a man who holds the key to her success. That man’s name is Jet Brody.
Graduating at the top of his class, like the famed generals MacArthur and Lee of the past, Sheridan is commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and is assigned to the Pentagon to help coordinate domestic operations. Sheridan soon marries and is well on his way to following the roadmap of a distinguished officer and family man. With the arrival of twin daughters, Sheridan’s future looks bright, but tragedy strikes at home. His infant daughters are diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder – a 1 in 10 million chance mix of genes from their parents. Even in the 22nd Century, there are illnesses that can’t be cured…at least by conventionally accepted means. Realizing that a cure for his daughters will never be found on the East Coast, Sheridan resigns his commission and moves his family to the West Coast, where the federal ban on genetic research is ignored. There he makes use of the best geneticists he can find. It is a race literally against time, but ends up being a futile one: his daughters die within days of each other. Six weeks later a cure is found.
Shell shocked, Sheridan joins the California State Militia and never looks back, not noticing when his personal life beings to fall into ruin, and not even when his wife leaves him. Sheridan rises quickly through the military ranks, restoring order in the West after the Crisis of 2145-46, and impressing Western politicians with his impassioned pleas for investing heavily in genetic research and development and using that research to build a defensive fighting force unlike any other in the world. While the Midwest is in chaos and the East tries to keep itself from falling apart, the Western states thrive under the fervor of genetic research and biotechnology, largely due to Sheridan’s fanatical insistence in pursuing genetic research and modifications. By 2150, the “Pacifican” Army is equipping its soldiers with genetically engineered symbiotic armor and other modifications that enable the “Combined Western Militia” to run faster, jump higher, and go days without food and water. But while the Federal government gets a handle on reconstruction in the Midwest, a political movement slowly gets underway with the goal of repealing the emergency States Rights Act and returning to a pre-disaster Union.
For years the East and West have grown extremely suspicious of each other, but have someone managed to hold together a tenable diplomatic relationship. All this changes, however, when the East begins to pass legislation effectively revoking the rights of genetically modified citizens. Sheridan convinces the Pacifican states that the law is a direct affront to not only their way of life, but also the freedom of all genetically enhanced people in the world. His pleas do not fall on deaf ears and the Pacifican politicians in Congress leave Washington and immediately set out in declaring their sovereignty. Faced with a rift that could tear the entire country apart, the Atlantic Alliance threatens war…and Nathan Sheridan promises to lead Pacifica to victory.
Fracture is scheduled for release in North America on October 7, 2008 (Oct. 10 in Europe).
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