The Story
- The story is revealed in parts during the missions and is also included in the Mission guides as "background information". This section describes what happens during the game. If you want to discover the story yourself while you're playing, don't read on.
THE SITUATION:
It is 95 years after the first Syndicates fought for control. (This refers to the original Syndicate game.) An oppressive peace has reigned, but the controlling Syndicate, EuroCorp, hasn't been idle. Not only have they been upgrading the computer control Chips embedded in people's brains, but they have also set up a research team to find out how they can utilise more of the brains they control.
Based in Reykjavik, Iceland, for the purposes of secrecy, C3 (the Cybernetic Cognition Conference) started as a group of ten top scientists, lead by Paul Vissick, carrying out experiments into mind-expansion. If anything, they were too successful. By trying their own newly-acquired mental enhancement technology, nine of the ten C3 members drove themselves insane. Nevertheless, they saw the repression of the Syndicate who funded them and decided to counter it by setting up the Church of the New Epoch. They are generally referred to as "The Nine".
Only one member -- Paul Vissick -- resisted the madness of total understanding. After an explosion in Reykjavik, he left C3. He starts leading a group called the Unguided. He knows what the Church is planning and he's aware of the approaching Cataclysm. But he's no fan of EuroCorp, so he won't throw in his lot with them. In fact, he's leading his group of free-thinkers to their own destiny. They have their own ideas about the future of the planet and they, too, are willing to fight to the death for them.
The Nine became determined to overthrow the EuroCorp Syndicate by recruiting people to their new religion. Their thinking was so advanced that they compiled it into a large document called the Codex (written by their leader called Chodak) along with theoretical designs for an entirely new system of weapons, far more advanced than anything EuroCorp possessed.
The first thing The Nine's Church did was to introduce a computer virus into the Utopia global control network, which the Syndicate uses to "guide" the population. Chips failed in droves, and suddenly the masses saw the world for what it was. The Nine were there, ready to snap them up into the Church of the New Epoch. Their Indoctrinators, the Church version of the Persuadertrons, were virtually overheating with the numbers of new converts they were attracting.
Thus begins the war for the minds of the Global Asylum Earth. The Church is arming their disciples with ever more advanced weaponry and the Syndicate is fighting back with highly trained troops and upgraded vehicles, weapons, and strategies of their own. The Syndicate simply wants to restore order, but The Nine, being clinically insane, have a master plan... on the moon.
EuroCorp AI centre in London first deals with syndicates who declared themselves independent from EuroCorp after the strike of the Harbinger virus. Through Jennifer Tasks, they can locate some "Gel Data" scientists, who used to work with Paul Vissick. The last Mission of Paul Vissick in Reykjavik becomes common knowledge, and by sending agents to that city, EuroCorp can recover the Codex.
A EuroCorp meeting with professor Drennan, meant for study on the Codex, turns into a fiasco when his aide Lucy de Saxo kidnaps him. EuroCorp agents can bring him back, and after some unsuccessful persuasion attempts they can kill the aide. Afterwards, it's revealed that she was an undercover agent for EuroCorp, but in the end, she joined the Church.
EuroCorp at Bahrain can destroy the "Unguided" revolt, but Paul Vissick disappears and will never be heard of again. (That's for the next game, I suppose.)
In Colombo, the Church's objective becomes clear. With an orbital elevator they intend to destroy Earth while they are on the Moon. In the final mission, EuroCorp can prevent this, regain control of the elevator, take a shuttle to the moon, and kill The Nine.