Total Assault (Saga)

This article is about the Total Assault Series, including information on its origins, its legacy, its evolution, and its conflict with other franchises, one of the most popular being the 'Total Assault - Halo War'.

Beginnings
Total Assault was brought into existence when in 2010, on November 29, the book, simply titled, 'Total Assault' was released by American writer Ambrose Compton. The book was about a ship and her crew going to recover an alien weaponshipment from an alien ship of aliens known as the Zodiac. Supposedly, humanity has been at war with them for 15 years, and the war started in 2081, making the book take place in the year 2096. The ship is known as the Blood Well, and the story is about the crew encountering an alien creature up until this day, July 3, 2096, was considered only to be a myth.

Total Assault (Novel)
The book is about the crew of a ship known as the UEM Valhalla. In this book the UEM are supposedly an alliance of different military factions, UEM stands for United Embassies Military. Humanity has been at war with an alien covenant known as the Zodiac, and they are fighting a loosing battle. Captain David Shepard is ordered by General William Cutter to investigate a floating Zodiac Planet Killer known as The Blood Well to search for Zodiac weapons that they can use against them. Shepard and his crew dock at the ship found in orbit around a planet known as Tamria. When they board the ship, however, it is completely deserted, and dead bodies of the aliens known as Arians are found everywhere. The Arians are supposedly the Founding Fathers of the Zodiac, and are thus so dubbed Purists by the Humans. Falser, one of Cutter's head crewman, finds a dead Arian, and brings him aboard the ship. Cutter notices that the Arian appears sick, and, Donahue, the Science Officer, notices a malformity in the Arian's Pituitary Gland, and that the creature might be 'infected' with some form of Virus, or Parasite. About an Hour later, the Arian begins to mutate, and the infected alien breaks out of the Med-Lab and escapes into the Valhalla's air-duct system. The 6 crewmembers, Shepard, Falser, Donahue, Miller, Fetch, and Lambert go on a search for the Arian, to kill it before it destroys their engines, which is where they find out that it is headed. When they get to the Engine Room Antechamber, Lambert is killed by it, but they find out that it has mutated beyond recognition. It has grown tentacles and extra flabby skin and had grown tendrils out of its face, its head had been enlongated into a point, and it had no visible face. The Parasite that had infected its Pituitary Gland had morphed its body into a killing machine. Miller managed to drive the creature off by activating the heat jet. They try to shut off the Engine Room automatically, but the Heat Jet fried the control panel, leaving the only alternative being to enter the maintenance shaft and close it manually. Unfortnatly, it is connected to the Air Ducts. Donahue volunteers to go in. He goes in alone. Donahue manages to close off the Engine Room, but is killed by the Creature soon after. The 4 of them split into teams of 2, prepping the Shuttle for Evac, realiing that the creature was inside the Engine Bay when it was shut, in there with Donahue. Fetch goes with Miller, and Shepard goes with Falser. Miller and Fetch went to grab the fuel reserves whil Shepard and Falser went to close off the Evac Bay. While Millet and Fetch are getting the fuel, they are attacked by the creature, which had mutated further into a massive gelatanous blob of swarming Parasites copied from the original. Shepard and Falser rush to the scene but on their way there they are contacted by an Entity, known only as The Entity, or TE. TE tells them that the creature onboard their ship is descendant of a race of creatures responsible for the fall of a might Empire of beings known as the Havonians who supposedly created the Universe and Universes that they (Humans) call home. TE calls the creature, the Spawn. TE then tells them that they must stop the creature and that it is very vulnerable to extreme temperatures. Shepard and Falser enter the Fuel Cell room to find the butchered bodies of both Miller and Fetch. Shepard and Falser realise that they must kill the Spawn before escaping. Shepard devises a plan to lure it into the freezer and lock it in, with the temperature gauge locked on negative. They find the spawn in the showers and turn on the showers on hot to lure it out. The spawn then follows them, as planned into the freezer. But when they try to exit, the spawn attempts to follow them. Falser tell Shepard to go and get off the ship and that she'll hold it here. Shepard then leaves and Falser shuts the door. Falser is devoured alive by the swarm of spawn while she locks the temperature and the creature(s) freezes and explodes, and the sudden drop in temparature causes the ship to explode. Shepard is left drifting in space at the end of the book, and little else is known what happens.

Reception
The book's reviews went quite well, and Compton was about to write a sequel when he was approached by major gaming company 'Epic Games' who offered to make it into a game. Compton suggested making the game 3 years later and revolving around the Human-Zodiac war.

Sequel
The second book, titled 'Total Assault 2' was supposed to be made following the chronicles of Captain Shepard, but Epic Games approached Compton telling him that they would like to make the book into a game. But Compton, thought it would be better, if they made the sequel into a game. The Sequel was renamed 'Total Assault: Ultimate Conflict', and would not revolve around Shepard at all but around a new cast of characters known as the Melchizadek Special Warfare Group (MSWG).

Total Assault: Ultimate Contlict (Video Game)
The game starts off at UEM controlled planet known as Adonias. The player has to defend the ship UEM Gnashbone Fury from Zodiac boarding craft. In this game the common enemies are the Zodiac forces, and in this one, apart from the book which only had one race (The Purists (Arians)) This one features many different Zodiac races, such as the Drones (Taurians) and the Banshees (Sagittarians). After this, the player is given control over most of the MSWG (5) Characters, Davian, last of the Titan I Super-Soldiers, Ivy, one of the Second Generation Titans, Jon, ex-assassin, nearly blind, Cody, ex-mercenary, and Hunter, and finally Nathan, a confused super-genius with a helmet capable of converting brain-waves into a powerful energy beam. The 5 of them are stuck onboard the ship as it is caught in a 'Worm=Jump' made by a nearby Zodiac Combat Carrier later to be revealed as 'The Vast Expanse'. When arriving on the otherside, the forces of the Fury are found drifing around a massive planetoid later to be revealed as Haven. The forces are attacked by the ship again and the player if forces to defend the ship again. Afterwards the ship attempts to land while ejecting the Melchizadek before-hand. The 5 of them land on the artifact and find Captain Grigg and defend him from the Zodiac but are captured and taken onboard the Combat=Carrier itself. When this happens, a distress signal sent by Grigg is heard by a group of Titan 3 Super Soldiers and the entire 5th Fleet. The Fleet arrives at the Haven, but is followd by a second fleet of Zodiac. Meanwhile, the fleet lands and sends out forces to aid the Expanse, and the UEM fleet sends their forces planet-side. The small band manages to fire an EMP disruspting the energy in the ship, also causing the energy barriers containing the prisoners to shut down. The MSWG escape and rescue Commander Steinbrug and the Commander and Captain rendevous at a sructure known as the Apex Wall. A Wall surrounding the structure which surrounds a structure known as the Apex which in-turn surrounds, a Havonian artifact known as The Eye. Steinburg finds this out by un-encrypting a date terminal at the wall which reveals alot of infomration on the species that built the haven. The Zodiac call them the Harbingers, and they supposedly built the Haven to protect all life in the Galaxy from something known as 'The Coming Storm'. The Zodiac believe it is a weapon created to destroy life, not protect. The UEM's pritorites then shift, protec the Haven. The MSWG are sent to secure the Fury's crashsite. The MSWG fight their way through the Zodiacforces inclusing a Ravager (Cancerian) a massive beast like alien capable of running through 3 feet of steel unscathed. When they get to the crash, they are met by 2 deranged officers that flew in with the 5th Fleet. Triton and Trenton. Triton and Trenton say they are following Adrean now, a member of the Grendel, and she is of Queen rank. The Grendel are a faction of Titans that broke off from the main UEM forces. They say she is investigating something the UEM over-looked, and that they are taking charge now. Triton tells Davian and Jon to back off, and then Jon remembers something, Triton was the one that blinded him. When they refuse to back off, Triton and Trenton attack them. Davian and Jon manage to fight them off, and execute them. They secure the crashsite, but the ship collapses trapping the 5 of them inside a sort of 'Facitlity' benath the ship. There they fall out of contact with the hig comamnd. They then encounter... THe Spawn. The Spawn are divided into several stages. The Small SeedSpawn. The WarriorSpawn. and the MegaSpawn. They are then contacted by an ancient AI known as The MetaTron. The MetaTron states that it was left behind by The Harbingers to maintain Havens function. The MetaTron also calls itself 'Lord Lycan', Lycan being short for Lycanthropy, the study of transformation, this is a foreshadowing of what is to come. The MetaTron controls all of the machines, including Attack Drones. The Metatron uses the Attack Drones to help the Melchizadek fend off the Spawn and also helps them get out of the facility. It then travels with them to a UEM Stronghold and helps them defend it. Then, it is hit by a stray Sludge bolt and it malfunctions and begins attacking the UEM and Zodiac alike. It then states it made a horrible mistake by serving such wretched parasites such as organics. It then says that Life was a mistake, an accident, and that is must be un-done. Soon after, the Grendel begin to turn against the UEM, lead by Adrian. It is then up to the UEM to get to the Apex and recover the Eye before Adrian does, when they ask why, Commander tells them that The Eye has the power to control the Space-Time Cotinuum, and that Adrian wants to use it against the UEM. The MSWG then lower the barrier and smash through the Zodiac barricades to get to the Apex, The Zodiac who are trying to contain the Spawn, want to keep the Humans from relieasing them from the Apex. But, the Melchizadek manmage to get through their defenses which inclused 3 more Ravagers. The 5 of them team up to smash through the Zodiac defenses and are attakced by Jamey Kyle, a Titan 3, who is in servitude to Adrean, and is defending the Eye, well the lift that leads to the chamber the Eye is in. They find out Adrean is already at the Eye, and Davian and Nathan are seperated from Ivy Jon and Cody. The 2 of them have to team up to defeat Jamey and as soon as they activate the lift to the Eye Chamber, they are attacked by Attack Drones. They manage to kill them and when they arrive in the chamber, they are confronted by Adrean, who has been horribly mutated into a Spawn/Human hybrid. She says that she is trying to form an alliance between humanity and the spawn, and by doing so that she will save more human lives than ever existed, but before she could do so that she had to give The Eye to The Spawn. She knocks out Davian who charges her and Nathan shoots her. Nathan and Adrean fight, and Adrean slaps Nathan';s weapons away and begins to choke him. She then tells him that he is putting all of humanity in jeopardy and for that he must die, she is then momentarily distracted by Davian moving, attempting to get up, and looks back and gets a face full of Nathan fist and is knocked to the ground. Nathan then gets up and says, 'Kiss my ass'. He then overloads his helmet, and it begins a chain reaction, and all of Haven begins to fall apart. Davian thinks fast and leaps for the Eye, grabbing it, and jumping out of the Apex, and landing in a Rhino jeep,. Davian uses it to escape, and all of the others meet him at the EEV. And before they escape, Davian drops the Eye, but they escape, and The Eye is destroyed along with The Haven.

Reception
TAUC, as it is abbreivated, got good reviews, conflicting even with the mighty Halo franchise. It was realeased on May 3, 2014. Another game that was realised on May 1, a mere 2 days before it, was Halo 4. Halo 4 outranked it by a mere .02 points. TA scoring a 98.2 and Halo 4 scoring a 98.4 It was considered the closest shave in gaming history. This would be a start of the Franchise wars.

Franchise Wars
Lemme say this, BUNGiE was pissed. They would have never though Halo would be dying, but, it just wants as popular anymore, not with Epic Games and the new SpIn Games that Ambrose was fomring to work on the TA series. And was releasing TA2 next year in 2015. BUNGIE then began working with Neil Blomkamp on the Halo 2 movie since the Halo Combat Evolved movie in 2010 of february was such a success. Sure enough, the Halo 2 movie and the Total Assault II video game are both scheduled for a October, 2015 realease.

Total Assault II pre-production
Ambrose Compton would be leading the Spin Games team with support from Cliffy B and the Epic Games team on TA2.

Total Assault II
Total Assault II would pick up 3 months in June of 2099. The MSWG have arrived at the defensive grid surrounding the Border Colonies onboard one of the Stations known as Troy. The Zodiac attack Troy Station band by planting a bomb that the UEM nick=name the Trojan Horse. The MSWG sucessfully dsiable it. The 4 charcaters, Davian, Jon, Ivy, and Cody are returning from TAUC, along with 2 new ones, both playable. Zack, Ivy;s father and Davian's hated stepfather who left Davian and Ivy behind forcing Davian and Ivcy to take care of each other at a young age, which is why Davian joined the Titan Project in the first place, for money to help raise Ivy. His life was sewpat out from underneath his feet. And ther is Shawn, a figure from Jon's past, he also helped train him, but Shawn had gone bad, and Jon hated him. Soon after the repulsion, an unrecorded ship arrived from a wrom jump. Davian is sent onbaord to serach for srvivors. He is attacke dby spawn. And he escapes. Soon after, more spawn controlled ships arrive, and are soon recognised to be ships under spawn control arriving from the remains of The Haven. Unfortunately, by this point of time, the Zodiac have located Earth and controlled 3 of its major cities, including, New New York, New Chicago, and New Cairo. New Cairo is curently the sight of the UEM captiol. The MSWG, now 6 memebrs, is sent in to re=take the city, along with a hardy group of Strikers. They arrive and help Strikers and Sgt Hicks clear a path to the main bridge leading to the main city. During this, they encounter a new Zodiac, the Scorpions, also known as Fiends. The Purists then arrive along with yet another new type of race known as the Geminians or Scarabs, small insectile crtures. Along with them is the massive Scarab Queen. The MSWG chase the Queen across to the far islands where she is finally gunned down by a ship in orbit. The whole earth shakes as a massive Zodiac Planet Killer smashes through the ODG and lands in the desert. They find out that the pk is known as the Spindle Shrine. And that aboard it, are the leaders of the Zodiac races themselves. The story then switches to what is happneing onboard. The Purist high Inquisitor, the leader of the attack on The Haven, known as Avisto, is held responsible for retrating. They suspect him of going rogue. Avisto is nearly executed, but is let off thanks to the Purist Deity, Kluutak. Each race is ruled by a Deity, and each race rides in a 'Legged Chair or Throne' The UEM are unaware that they killed the Scarab Deity. Avisto is given a chance for redemption by Kluutak privately. He tell him that the Spawn have landed on Earth, and that they call for his attention. Kluutak tell him that he must not let the Abomination, as they call it, destroy the humans planet, that it is they, The Zodiac, who must destroy them and cleanse the universe of the human race. Avisto lands helps a Purist unit destroy the Spawn outside of the City odf New Cairo. Avisto is then contacted by Ragnarok, Fiend Deity, who tells him that theyt are a desecration to the Zodiac and they must be destroyed. Avisto and his team, upon entering the city, are then attacked By Feinds and Avisto then corners Rangarok at a pier on the beach who tellS aVISTO out of fear that he is 'on his side'. Avisto tells him that if that were true, the war between the Scorpions and the Arians would have never happend eons ago, and if that were true, he would not be standin here before him. Rangraok then tells him if he hadnt come to Earth, he would have the cahnce to meet such amazingf creatures. Ragnarok then stpes aside and Ivy strides up the pier. She then kills Ranarok's bodygaurds and teams up with Avisto and together they defeat the rest of the Fiends. Ragnarok escapes, but Avisto and Ivy are knocked out and taken onboard the Spindle Shrine by Kluutaks troops. Avisto awakes to see Ivy in a containment cell. Avisto tells Kluutak how the human hlped him. Kluutak suspects that Avisto is a rogue when he says ,"What if they're right about Haven?" Kluutak orders him to be removed. Kluutak then looks out of his bay port to see a Haven. The Spindle Shrine has arrived at a Second one. The UEM sees this as a second chance. The story goes back to the Melchizadek and Davian as the UEM fleet follows the Shrine through a Worm Jump. Upon arriving at the other side, they see the Second Haven. Zack intends to rescue Ivy, but Davian insists on doing it himself, and then finally Jon budges in and says it would be better if they worked together, a role Davian usually fills. Fleet Admiral Moore says that tyhey should land on the haven first and foremost, saying that a Oracle Deity by the name of Malice had landed on the Haven and was preparing to attempt to 'reverse' its defense process by destroying it. The Admiral reverals that thisd would infact cause it to 'destroy' rather than protect. The Admiral tells them that they have a second chance, but they hacve to stop that Diety first. Davian, alon with the other 4 are dropped to clear a landing zone for the Ravens. They then infiltrate the cntral Harbinger ruin, free some prisoners and kill Malice. Soon after, they are contacted by a hologram of The Metatron. It says that is is only using the Spawn to kill off life, at which point it will then reverse the defenses of the 21 Haven units speard across the Hovana and destroy everything that remains, including all ogf the Spawn, and then the Havona speher wwould finally be devoid of wretched organic life. Davian vies that he will destroy the Metatron even if it takes him to his last breath. The 5 of tyhem then prepare, using Malivce's passage, to infiltrate the Srhine itself to bring back Ivy and stop Kluutak from destroying the Haven. The travel through 6 towersw looking for Ivy but find nothing.They then must rescue 6 strikers in holding cells and get to the lower floors where Kluutak is, it is then believed he is trying to manufacture his own army of Grendel, seeing that the Grendel are now part of the Zodiac, and the very foundations of the Zodiac are spliiting due to the recent conflictions between the different races, mainly the Fiends and Purists. The battle goes back to Avisto, who has rebelled against Kluutak and the Zodiac. Kluutak has also formed his own group of Zodiac, which only consist of Purists and do not agree with the Fiends but do not agree that the Humans are right, Avisto's team or group is against bothe the Zodiac and Kluutak. Avisto is back on Earth and is trying to stop Ranarok from destroying Earht. HT believes he has gound a weapon beneath the city of New Cairo. He finds out that the Purist Deity, Dark Energy, has ordered Ragnarok to fire the weapon buried beneath New Cairo to destroy the second Haven beofre Kluutak does. Avisot finds and kills Ranarok with the help of the Cancerians (Ravagers). Back on The Shrine, Davian, Zack, Shawn, and Cody, and Jon, are still searching for Ivy, fighting all races of the Zodiac, Purists, Drones, Banshees, Ravagers, Grendel, Scarabs, andf Feinds. Zack and the others manage to find Kluutak, and they all rush at him, but only Zakc is left standing. Zack tells him that he wants his daughter back, amd Kluutak gives him a choice between Haven, and Ivy. Zack chooses Ivy, but Azkc tries to stop Kluutak but Kluutak destroys Haven II anyway. Out of rage, Zack manages to kill Kluutak, who falls down the maintenance shaft of the Srhine. Zakc, however, suffers mortal wounds, and later dies in Davians'; arms. The Shrine auto-pilots back to Earth, and Ivy manages to Escape. she realises that she has been infected with a mutant virus manufactured by Kluutak, and the cure is in the veins, of Alexandria. Ivy manages to kill Alexandria using dormant Arian DNA, in her blood, upon Zakc;'s dying words he tells Davian that Ivy is part Arian, as is he. Ivy 's new awakened DNA has now caused her hair to turn black aswell. The game ends with the UEM fleet arriving at a mysterious planet, leaving it open for a 3rd game.

Reception
The Halo 2 Movies' reviews were mostly good, aswere the revies for TA2. The TA Saga that was once only slightly behidn the Halo saga was now directly equal with it. BunGie was growing ancy, if they did not act quick their series would die. And they also learned that TA3 would be coming out in 2017 of Jan.uary