Matter Of Perspective: Resogun

Science fiction is littered with stories of humans engaged in a war with different races, whether biological or mechanical. Every time we’ll discover the reason why war broke out and often it’s because humanity was attacked first or was threatened in some other way. It’s very rare for a story to begin with showing the human race as the aggressor or the more powerful of the sides but it could be argued that Resogun is such an example. There’s no obvious narrative present in the game, all you do is navigate a circular level wiping out different ships, dodging their attacks, and rescuing humans. The question raised though is why are the humans being taken?

One way to look at it is that Acis, Ceres, Decima, Febris, and Mefitis are prisons and the humans that are contained are prisoners of war. With the amount of surveillance and security these five locations these are either the top prisons they opposing force have, or they’re the last outposts left. Either way that would mean that the humans that are imprisoned would be key members of human society, captured in a desperate attempt to slow down the efforts of the advancing human military force which would be very powerful.

We know the human force is powerful because one ship is able to take down a whole fleet. Across the five locations you control a single ship against hordes of enemies, and even if the mission is failed a majority of those ships are destroyed. It’s clear that while the opposing force has the numbers, the human forces have access to much more powerful weapons and equipment. Some of the alien forces don’t even have guns to fire, instead looking to crash into the human ship to stop the massacre. It’s likely quite a few of the alien ships may be drones but mixed within would be actual piloted ships, those that fly in formation and react more naturally to the human ship’s movements.

Imagine being part of the force that’s ordered to fight off one human ship after already knowing their power. A ship so powerful that hundreds, if not thousands of your comrades have been killed by it. You’d have some fear going into this battle using a tactic that just isn’t working, but the higher ups have no other plans. They’re throwing everything and everyone to stop the annihilation of their own species. A military with options wouldn’t go near this tactic, but one that is desperate will do anything to stop the slaughter.

There have probably other solutions considered with one of the most obvious options being to use the transporters planted by the humans. These gates act as the rescue ports for the freed humans with them being instantly sent back to a safe zone. These are only active if a human is freed, and probably with confirmation from the pilot so as to stop any incursion. However the alien engineers have probably studied and found a way to trick the gate to function for them. In fact the plan was likely used at least once, but the forces were pushed back. If there’s one ship in the warzone wreaking havoc, just imagine how many are waiting on the other side to stop an invasion force.

So if that’s a failure a final way to take out the ship is to be build super weapons, one that can withstand the force of the Nova Bomb. That bomb is the one that can be used to clear an entire wave of ships in one go, perfected enough to not affect the firing ship. The aliens haven’t had time to replicate such a powerful and efficient weapon, but larger ships that have the power and fire rate to protect themselves while destroying the human ship. If successful the humans have to pull back for a bit to reassess the new threat, which in turn gives a bit of breathing space to regroup and up defences.

However, failure means annihilation or subjugation. With each destroyed super weapon comes the price of lost ships, lost resources and a lost base. The final is the biggest blow because it is likely the humans would move in, clear out any remaining resistance and launch new offences from there while gaining access to more technology. As each base falls, so does the morale of the alien forces and the population they are trying to protect.

Once the human victory after the Battle Of Mefitis is confirmed, all is lost. Within a  matter of hours you can just see the human military storming the alien home planet and taking it quickly, setting up new governments to take control. The human empire rises while the alien military is dismantled. However this would start a new phase as the defeated let their hate brew and a revolution breaks out, something to happen on land and maybe a place where the locals have much better odds.

That’s something for another time though.