Greetings all! I can proudly say that we are now on day five of holding on to third place in the Nerdist contest. Our position is far from secure, however. The fourth place contender is tenacious, and second place keeps dodging our attempts to overtake them. At the moment, we are only three orders away from falling back down to fourth, and I don’t like that margin. I also don’t like not being in second place, and right now only five new orders stand in the way of seizing that coveted spot for ourselves.
We can get there, no doubt. I haven’t played all my cards yet. But we definitely need as much support as we can muster! Remember, keep sharing our content, keep telling your friends and family about it. If you’ve already ordered a copy, find one other person you know you can convince to do the same. If everyone who’s already ordered a copy got just one other person to do it too, we’d be in first place right now.
I’m planning on launching an incentive for you soon, so stay tuned. But don’t wait for it! We’re so close to taking second and securing our place on the final leaderboard, I can taste it. It tastes like victory.
I like victory.
You know who else likes victory? Our protagonist: Jacob Sicarius! He might like victory a bit too much, in fact. Let me take a moment to introduce him to you all....

Jacob Sicarius

General Jacob Sicarius stands as one of the most respected, and most decorated, soldiers in the entire Expansionary Coalition.

Enlisting in the Coalition Marine Corps  at the age of 18, Jacob showed great promise from the very beginning of his military career. His coordination on the battlefield was exemplary, and his dedication to every mission was second to none. His tenacity in the field earned him a reputation among allies and enemies alike.
Jacob’s excellent combat effectiveness swiftly earned him placement with the Razorbacks: an elite commando unit specializing in particularly hostile combat arenas on the Coalition’s frontier worlds. As part of his initiation into this elite unit’s ranks, Jacob was implanted with a CE 1500 Erymanthos cybernetic AI implant named Proteus. Proteus enhanced Jacob’s already formidable combat abilities well beyond the range achievable by any normal human being. Though all members of the Razorbacks were implanted with an Erymanthos, none seemed to work quite as flawlessly together as Jacob and Proteus.

Shortly after Jacob’s younger brother Lucas joined the Razorbacks, the team was deployed to a contested strip of land on the perilous desert world of Buyan. Tensions between the Expansionary Coalition and the Colonial Hegemony had risen to the point of open armed conflict, creating a localized war on the frontier world’s constantly shifting habitable zone.

The conflict between Coalition and Hegemony troops lasted several months. During the latter days of the conflict, Jacob’s dropship was shot down near the trailing edge of Buyan’s habitable zone, leaving both him and his brother badly wounded and the rest of the squad dead. Acting quickly despite being crippled by the crash, Jacob managed to save himself and Lucas from Buyan’s deadly day cycle by burying them both alive, protecting themselves from the lethal heat and radiation emitted by one of Buyan’s paired suns.

When they were rescued by the rest of the Razorbacks during Buyan’s brief second night cycle, both men were on the verge of death from exposure and blood loss. Jacob’s injuries were more severe, requiring extensive cybernetic reconstruction, including both legs below the knee and his left arm at the elbow. Both men were decorated for their bravery in surviving the ordeal, and both were given the option to retire with honors. Lucas took this option, but Jacob refused.

Jacob remained with the Razorbacks for another two decades, eventually becoming their commander. Many further engagements left Jacob with injuries that required further cybernetic replacements, and he had some of his existing replacements enhanced to increase his combat effectiveness.

Despite never losing his edge in battle, Jacob’s continued promotions led to his seeing less and less time in the field. He proved to have a natural gift for strategy, which was further enhanced by Proteus. As a general, he became a master tactician, and helped the Coalition come out on top in many subsequent conflicts with the Hegemony and numerous other hostile nations.

As a reward for his service to the Coalition, Jacob was selected to be the commander in chief of the Coalition’s planned colony on the newly discovered resource-rich planet of Bella Rosa. Though reluctant to leave the field of battle for good, and more reluctant still to embark on the one-way 150 year journey away from civilization as he knew it, Jacob eventually accepted the position.

Submitting himself to a long sleep in cold stasis aboard the colony ship Somnambule, Jacob found himself dreaming…of war.