Derecho

Previously…

PREVIOUSLY…

Gideon Rayne, a young orphan from the Rainbow Zone, is one of a small group selected to join Kaoteck as part of the experimental ‘Cobra’ programme. The youngsters are subjected to chemical alteration and given futuristic suits of armour with the capability to materialise weapons from quantum lockers stored on their backs. Sadly, not all of the newly christened ‘Cobra team’ survive the alteration process.

Meawhile, signs of dissent start to appear in Aloysius Kroll’s highly ordered society, causing the despotic leader to become increasingly paranoid. Because of this, the Cobra team are sent into the slum-like district known as ‘The Factories’ as a show of force. Unfortunately, the mission ends in disaster, leaving two more of the Cobras dead. Following a tip off, an enraged and reactionary Kroll dispatches the survivors — Gideon, Fan and Kristy — to the Frozen North, in a bid to eliminate what he believes to be the instigators of the civil unrest sweeping the country.

Upon their arrival in the North, the team fall under attack and are soon separated, unable to communicate with each other due to the interference from a nearby atmostpheric event called ‘the maelstorm.’ Injured, and with his armour badly damaged, Gideon meets an unlikely ally named Claws, who leads him to an underground town which the residents have christened ‘The Metro’.

Whilst searching for his missing team-mates, Gideon discovers that the Cobras have been misled by Kaoteck. The town’s inhabitants are peaceful and are hiding out in the North for fear of being sent to the Factories as Kroll’s indentured servants.

Just as he is about to make his escape from the underground town, Gideon is captured once again. This time by a mysterious woman called Isolde, and her fiery daughter Gwendolyne — both of whom wear a version of the supposedly top-secret C.O.B.R.A. armour.

A brutal battle ensues in which Isolde is fatally wounded and Gideon is reunited with his friends. It transpires that Isolde is the creator of the incredible quantum technology that powers their suits, and that she escaped from Kroll after he started weaponizing the technology she had created for altruistic purposes.

As she is dying, Isolde reveals how she knew Gideon when he was a child, and that it was Kroll who was responsible for the death of his parents. She explains that Gideon was kidnapped at a young age and experimented on by Kroll, who had wanted to take advantage of the youngster’s latent compatibility with the neural interface required to operate the COBRA armour.

Whilst this is happening, Kroll reveals to Archer — his second in command — that the Cobras are vital to his plans to visit the Enclave, a shadowy organisation who guard the last stock of intercontinental weapons on the planet. Despite having his own reservations about Kroll’s leadership, Archer conceives a daring plan to bring the Cobras back to Kaoteck.

When the rescue team arrives, the Cobras are left with a difficult choice — reveal the existence of the innocent people hiding in the North, including Isolde and Gwendolyne. Or return to Kroll, knowing he has deceived and betrayed them.

Aware she is near death; Isolde trusts them to make the right choice and sacrifices herself to buy them time. Her people hold off the rescue team, while Gwendolyne helps the Cobras to fake an armour malfunction, allowing them to return to Kaoteck without arousing Kroll’s suspicion. She promises to find them when the time is right.

After they are safely back in the Kaoteck pyramid, a seemingly suspicious Kroll informs Gideon that, once they are recovered and their armour repaired, the Cobras will be placed at the forefront of a brutal crackdown on the population.

Gideon and his friends find themselves in need of a way to plan their escape, whilst under the ever-watchful eye of Aloysius Kroll and his powerful A.I. assistant, ADA…