Fast forward a few thousand years into our future. We''re a technological race that has explored a large many number of worlds and settled on what we could. It''s the typical Mack Reynolds United Planets deal.
Anyway, scientists discover traces of a very disturbing nanological quasi-machine that exists inbetween the stars. A sort of Borg-like shared-subconscious super-virus which infects humans and turns them into Something Other. Of course, they are scared out of their mind by this discovery. Think Pod People and the typical "oh no, the commies!" paranoia of the 50''s.
So, they tinker. Human nanotechnology exists, but isn''t as advanced as whatever built this new nano-virus. So, we can take the virus apart, but can''t quite put it back together as it was. So, we incorporate some of this alien technology along with our own, and create a handful of soldiers destined to fight against this spreading menace.
They are half-human, half-alien, and are immune to the nano-virus. The side effect of this merge gives them pretty immense powers, and they make a quite effective weapon. However, they are force-grown in a tank and their brains are imprinted with personalities instead of letting the neural tissue develop its own natural connections. As you can imagine, this makes them unstable and almost child like, even though they possess adult bodies.
Things go fine, until one day they snap and decide they have all had enough of being treated like elite ubersoldiers, and break out their prison. Sadly, in the process of escaping they accidently trigger the planet''s self-destruct mechanism, a prototype that would later be installed on many human worlds. (Just in case the nano-virus managed to get a major foothold and couldn''t be fought off.) Planet goes boom.
Guiiiiilt. They wallow in this. Meanwhile, about a thousand human worlds gear up to the task of hunting them down, since they have been painted as wanton killers by their surviving creators. Most of these creatures are killed off, except for one who manages to survive.
At this point, my idea diverges quite significantly from yours. The last remaining super-soldier drifts from planet to planet in disguse, searching for a way to forgive himself while running from his artifical destiny. It''s a more touchy-feely sort of personal redemption kind of story. Meanwhile, humanity grows more and more besieged by these nano-virus converted humans and our sphere of influence begins to shrink.
Maybe this Sephiroth sort of character is created in a similiar manner, but instead of wallowing in self-doubt and wishing his super-powers could have fallen to someone else -- He relishes it, and wants more, moooore, mooooooooore. His horrible, lab grown past could be used as a justification for this, though as pointed out this makes him a bit cookie cutter.
Or maybe he views humanity as raw material for him to experiment upon, or even incorporate into himself? Honestly, it''s hard to work within the "just like Sephiroth" style here without making him seem like a typical Final Fantasy "I just wanna be evil" kind of villian.
Actually, now that I think about it, the incorporate idea sounds kind of neat. What about this Sephie clone hounds the main player of the game, because he wants his memories/DNA, to merge with him and make him a real, complete human being?
You could even have a cheesy ending where he finally manages to succeed in sucking whatever he needs out of you, and then falls over. You run up to him, stab him in the heart, and surprisingly he expires just like a normal person, while muttering, "I am now finally human..." The end.
Remember, when you want to toss rules out the window, rely upon nanotechnology. It''s the magic of science.
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- 2D/Pixel Artist - 3D Artist - Game Programmer - Ulfr Fenris[[ Gaping Wolf Software ]] [[ GameGenesis Forums ]]
