N.o.v.a. Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance Elite Download

[Liliane Hubright]

NOVAis well known among moderately high ranking officials in almost every faction, Protoss and Terran alike due to their efficiency and success rate. But even more so, they are well known to other mercenary teams, such as their close ally ECLIPSE, and their bitter rival Helix.

Its founding members are Aurius Willowbane, NOVA's commander, Roger Wyllen and Joseph Martin. Since its founding as a mercenary team the Alliance has recruited Raphael Hanani, Tristen Smith, Kal Wardin, Xaa, and Jal.

The Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance was initially formed as a paramilitary defense force designed to protect colonies on the fringes of Terran controlled space that were usually left to fend for themselves or given up as lost causes during large scale conflicts. It masqueraded as an independent faction in service to the UED. But in truth, it was a project created by Cerberus to act as a strike force against non-terran populations near the fringes of Terran space.

It was advertised to the public as a proactive defensive deterrent in service to the colonies. However Cerberus command greenlit the project with the intention to use it as a covert strike-force that could effectively and simultaneously eliminate entire chains of command, political structures or rogue factions that stood in the way of Terran expansion.

As the first large all telepath orbital preemptive strike force they were to be highly respected and well equipped. Slowly the members were selected and recruited from the top independent ghost operatives across the galaxy. NOVA's founder and director, Anton Divan was an ambitious man now in charge of a massive number of elite NOVA Ghost operatives with a ton of Cerberus funding to back him up. He set his team to work and deployed his operatives against several small pirate fleets. and an Eliksni colony uncomfortably close to Terran space so he would have good reports to give back to Cerberus Command. wever, Anton's ambitions did not stop at simply securing expansion opportunities for Terrans, and he began using the operatives under his command to kill rival Cerberus agents who threatened his position, telling his NOVA operatives that the men they were assassinating were working with the Confederacy. One of the NOVA operatives he assigned to do these covert hits, was Jeremy Schrull, who recognized one of the targets he was assigned to kill and pieced together what NOVA really was and Anton's ambitions with the help of his fireteam, but for the moment he kept quiet about the situation.

Anton, emboldened by his successes against his rivals had several NOVA operatives sneak into classified Cerberus labs to steal several secret projects and technologies, again, telling the NOVA members that they were fighting Confederates. However on this mission, Jeremy Schrull used the opportunity to fake his own death and defect to Cerberus. Jeremy told Cerberus what Director Divan was doing and Cerberus was furious. But since they used false pretenses to recruit the NOVA operatives in the first place, they couldn't blow the whistle on Director Divan.

Jeremy told Cerberus that Director Divan had been indoctrinating the NOVA operatives with anti-Cerberus sentiments and that they were preparing to take out the Cerberus chain of command in a coup. Jeremy advised Cerberus to destroy NOVA, and he proposed a plan as to how they could do it.

Cerberus pretend to be oblivious to the Director's murdered rivals and to say they had a high-priority mission for NOVA. But when they gave NOVA their mission Cerberus came aboard the NOVA flagship, The Supernova and brief every operative in NOVA individually. The operatives were told that NOVA was compromised and because of this they would need to keep strict secrecy around their assignments, especially from other members.

In fact, Cerberus had one half of NOVA assigned to defend a factory on a remote mining moon called Versalite, and the other half assigned to attack it, each side being told they would be fighting a terrorist group trying to use the mine's old reactor as a power source to redirect the moon's orbit and destroy the colony on the planet below. The moon's volatile atmosphere and iron-heavy wind storms acted as a naturally occouring Tac-Com jammer, making communication impossible even if the operatives learned of the rouse.

Each team was deployed and the best of the best independent Ghost operatives of NOVA killed each other at the battle of Versalite, both thinking they were fighting to save the colony on the planet below. While this was happening, Jeremy himself led a team of Cerberus agents who snuck aboard the NOVA flagship and killed Director Divan, securing the Supernova for Cerberus.

However, Cerberus had chosen too well when picking commanders for the defense and offensive teams on Versalite. About halfway through the battle The offensive commander, Roger Wyllen recognized the tactics of the defenders as the tactics his comrade and friend Aurius Willowbane would use. Because of this, he checked the identity of a fallen enemy and realized it was another NOVA operative. Roger knew something was off and quickly guessed that NOVA was fighting itself.

Roger found his friend, Joseph Martin amid the battle and got him to the com tower to boost their radios so he could broadcast a signal telling everyone that this operation was a lie. By the time he got the word out though, 283 NOVA members had already been killed in the battle. Unorganized and battle torn they were ill prepared for when Jeremy and Cerberus used the Supernova to send a missile bombardment and a small battalion of soldiers to kill what was left of them. It was at this point that Aurius Willowbane rallied the remaining NOVA members. As he was leading the defense force, he knew the mining quarry's layout and lead the left over NOVA operatives as they defended themselves from the attack.

Aurius knew that the orbital strikes were the real threat, and the ground troops were just a stalling tactic. He got Joe and some other ghosts to scramble some of the Cerberus dropship landing coordinates to be closer to the mine so the NOVA members were able to board and hijack the drop ships and return to the Supernova. From there the remaining NOVA members infiltrated the Supernova, successfully overpowered its skeleton Cerberus crew and retook the ship. Moments before the NOVA operatives stormed the bridge, Jeremy realized what was happening and he set the supernova to self destruct before he escaped. However, Aurius was able to reach the bridge and disable the self destruction protocol, saving his remaining allies and the ship.

Only 20 operatives were still alive when the Supernova was finally cleared of Cerberus agents, and of those 20, only 3 of them dared to stay on a ship Cerberus was actively hunting. Those men would be the new founders of the Mercenary group, still called the Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance. Aurius Willowbane, Roger Wyllen and Joseph Martin.

NOVA took part in many private operations over the years, but none were they more invested in than the Variant wars. Over the years they have recruited and expanded their power and influence, but they still number fewer than 20.

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