Story
The fiction behind the X series is provided in the games themselves and in four novels by series fictional writer Helge Kautz: Farnham's Legend, Nopileos, Yoshiko and Hüter der Tore (The Keeper of the Gates). Farnham's Legend is available in English.
Over the course of the 21st century, mankind experimented with wormhole technology and successfully built jumpgates in space between Earth and Mars paving the way for the colonization of the solar system and interstellar transport. A jumpgate was shuttled to Alpha Centauri in an attempt to claim a foothold in interstellar space. Even before the gate left the solar system scientists discovered that many objects classified as black holes showed the characteristics of artificial wormholes. There were alien jumpgates which the human constructed gates could connect to. The Terrans had discovered the X Universe, a seemingly uninhabited collection of star systems connected by a vast network of large, bi-directional jumpgates.
Puzzled by the lack of intelligent life within this network but driven by their curiosity and the urge to colonise the new worlds the Terrans ventured into the X Universe intent on expanding their territory. Terraforming machines were created and dispatched to terraform planets into habitable worlds. The Terraformers were self-replicating spacecraft, governed by a simple artificial intelligence. During a software update several flaws were introduced into the Terraformer fleet and distributed between them causing a radical change in behaviour. The Terraformers replicated and attempted to re-terraform colonised planets, causing the planets to lose their ability to support human life. In an attempt to halt the Terraformers the Terrans became embroiled in a war with their creations. No colony was able to defend against the attacks and mankind was pushed back to the Sol System where the Terraformers launched an attempt to destroy all life forms and terraform all of the inner planets.
In a daring attempt to save the solar system, a group of ships, led by Nathan R. Gunne, lured the Terraformers through the gate into the X Universe. The Earth gate was then destroyed, trapping the Terraformers in the X-Universe and cutting Earth off from the rest of the network.
The X-series is set more than 750 years after these events. A single Terraformer craft appears in the solar system using an apparently experimental gateless jumpdrive. The Terrans reverse engineer the device. In its maiden flight, the X-Shuttle, piloted by test pilot Kyle Brennan, is accidentally transported into the X Universe. Unlike before, this part of the network is inhabited by several space faring alien races and the descendants of Nathan R. Gunne's fleet. The Terraformers are attempting to get to Earth and Kyle must stop them.
Read more about this topic: X (game Series)
Famous quotes containing the word story:
“So every journey that I make
Leads me, as in the story he was led,
To some new ambush, to some fresh mistake:
So every journey I begin foretells
A weariness of daybreak, spread
With carrion kisses, carrion farewells.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“And now, dear little children, who may this story read,
To idle, silly, flattering words, I pray you ne’er give heed;
Unto an evil counselor close heart, and ear, and eye,
And take a lesson from this tale of the Spider and the Fly.”
—Mary Howitt (1799–1888)
“Wit is often concise and sparkling, compressed into an original pun or metaphor. Brevity is said to be its soul. Humor can be more leisurely, diffused through a whole story or picture which undertakes to show some of the comic aspects of life. What it devalues may be human nature in general, by showing that certain faults or weaknesses are universal. As such it is kinder and more philosophic than wit which focuses on a certain individual, class, or social group.”
—Thomas Munro (1897–1974)