Welcome...to the future.  It is the year 20XX.  The place is Earth..but not as we know it.  This is Earth after man cracked open genetics and made it possible to do things unimagined before by man...<br/><br/>Man improved himself...and thus destroyed himself, by meddling in the affairs of powers of beings that man had dismissed long ago as...well, mere myth.  That destruction came in the form of the Immortals, who were the highest of men - those whose genes allowed genetic alteration so that they could live forever, merged with the then-largely mysterious abilities that some called magic, some called physics, but all called power.  Power over fire, over creatures, power immense.<br/><br/>But power comes with a price - that power warped the minds of the Immortals, and turned them into megalomaniac superhumans bent on (depending on the Immortal) extinction or enslavement of the human race.  Through their science and technology - Nechronica - they created creatures of old, to serve them, to fight humans.  They established their domains - the Cities of the Eternal - and slowly, slowly began to grind man into dust, wiping towns, cities, metropoli off the map.<br/><br/>Men seemed doomed to destruction by their own hubris.<br/><br/>But Man did not perish - they lived, because out of the West came the Wild Bunch - seven Men, who bore themselves power, a power that opposed the Immortals.  If the Immortals were powered by the Dark (as was often claimed by those that had managed to survive an encounter with them), then they were powered by the Light - the Sun.<br/><br/>The Wild Bunch defeated many of the Immortals, driving them back and saving Mankind from annihilation.  No sooner had the Immortals retreated, however, than the Wild Bunch vanished, leaving behind only a prophecy in their wake...<br/><br/>"When the Sons of the Sun, and the Maidens of the Moon, shall come together and unite...only then will the Dark Age see sunrise."<br/><br/>It was fifty years ago that this happened.  And since then, mankind has managed to rebuild...<br/><br/>Man now lives in seven mega-cities, scattered across the world - these are the Cities of the Earth.  Each city was named for one of the Wild Bunch.  Of course, when you only know the names of half the men that were called such, naming them can be difficult.  Which is why each city was given, in additional to its original name, it's Founding Name, another one.  This is the name that the cities (presuming the name was not good enough to begin with) go by to the citizens that live there - the Citizens' Name.<br/><br/>You're probably asking yourself by now, "Who were these Wild Bunch?  What were their names?"  Well, I'll tell you...<br/><br/>The first group are the Three - those whose names are known.  Each of the Cities named for them never received a second name, but instead are called by their Founding name to this day..<br/><br/>Their leader was Cheyenne, he did the vast majority of speaking to the people they met.  The town that bears his name lies far from where our story begins - as the legends say, Cheyenne is the city farthest into the West, the last place where the Wild Bunch were seen until they disappeared into the frontier - the first City of the Earth.<br/><br/>The other man who spoke to the surviving mass of humanity was Doc Hartford.  Of all the seven, Doc was the noblest and wisest of the Bunch - he taught men the secret to fighting the Immortals and their Nechronica-born monsters, by harnessing the Sun's power not into themselves, but into things crafted by hand - what man came to know as SolTech.  Hartford's City lies between all the rest - the fourth City - and is considered the great place for craftsmen of SolTech.<br/><br/>The third man never spoke directly - but someone overheard him speaking to Cheyenne, and from that his name was learned.  Sartana - the man in the black hat and coat.  The City called Sartana lies just East of Hartford - fifth of the seven Cities.<br/><br/>The other Four - the Nameless - were identified by things that they carried.  Each of the Cities named in their honor was given a Citizen's Name, since...well, you'll see.<br/><br/>The second City belonged to the one they called the Knight - so named for the image of the familiar chess horse on his gun-rig.  Knightsville - or Boonetown, if you live there - has produced some of the finest soldiers that SolForce (you'll meet them in a bit, folks) that the Cities have ever known.<br/><br/>The sixth City belonged to the one they called the Rifleman - so named for the amazing skill that the man possessed with said weapon by witnesses - or North Fork (even though there is no South Fork), should you have lived there).<br/><br/>The last city belonged to the one that carried a noose at his side, to go along with his sidearm.  The Hangman - or San Venganza - lies farthest to the East, in the land of the Immortals, where shadows lie.  It said that no one goes there, unless one has to.<br/><br/>Our story concerns, however, the third City - named for The Marshal, identified by the silver star he wore - San Miguel.  At least, for the moment.  Keep this at the front of your mind, reader, you'll hear from it again.<br/><br/>Now, as I said before, Doc Hartford taught men how to fight the Immortal-created monsters - and that was the beginning of SolTech, the things that men use these days to fight their omnicidal foe.  In the fifty years since the Bunch rode West to the frontier, mankind's understanding and development of SolTech has developed greatly.  Of major importance to us are three SolTech innovations.<br/><br/>The first is the Wall of Light - the great shield used to protect each of the seven Cities from attack and siege by the armies of the Immortals.  Without the Wall, mankind could not have lived in any City further East than Hartford.  Not for as long as they have.<br/><br/>The second are the commonplace SolTech weapons that are carried by the soldiers of SolForce - the defense force established for all Cities in their early days, when the Wall of Light did not yet exist and there was a need to defend the Cities from the predations of the Immortals.  Sidearms, rifles, you name it, it probably has a SolTech equivalent.<br/><br/>The third - and most direct - is the Lightspeed Frame, SolTech's most powerful innovation.  It's the Frame - and their group within SolForce, the Ligthspeed Defense Battalion - that concerns us the most, for the purposes of this story.<br/><br/>So, now that the stage is set, let us begin our story, as we meet one of the chief protagonists of it, someone who is unaware of the great destiny that lies before them.  One of the drivers of a Lightspeed Frame, who has been - today - dispatched by her commanding officers to stop by the home of one of the more esteemed families of the city...<br/><br/>________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________<br/><br/><strong>Third City of the Earth, San Miguel</strong>