SETTING

When the Miracle Cure was invented the world rejoiced. Nanobots inside human bodies made disease, injury, even death, a thing of the past. Governments of the world rejoiced, administering the Cure to 99.9% of the world's population.

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No one knows exactly when the tiny medical machines became self-aware. When it happened, they networked, rewrote their programming and turned their human hosts into raw material, with the goal of infesting every living creature on earth.

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The armies of the world were some of the first to receive the Cure and when the Final Plague struck, they were consumed instantly and their bodies knitted into their weapon systems, becoming flesh-metal abominations. Within days those few who had not received the Miracle Cure were being hunted and infected with nanomachines, becoming colonies themselves. All that remained of humanity were scattered Survivors who had refused the Cure, and one lone city surrounded by impenetrable walls – the Shining City, the last outpost of humanity.

As he was being consumed, a soldier managed to detonate an atomic warhead directly over a remote mountain town. The resulting EMP disabled nanomachines for miles around. Survivors took refuge there and built it into a fortress; the Shining City, the symbol of humanity’s salvation.

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In the decades since, its residents labored toward only one goal; to cleanse the world and end the Infection. They pursued this goal with an almost religious fervor, inventing technologies that would allow them to destroy the Infected, and training for the day when the gates of the city would open, and they would march into the vast wasteland that surrounded them. These zealous warriors were dubbed the Crusaders because of their heavy armor, and unbreakable faith that a future for humanity could only be won through combat.

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