Editing Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (section)

==Synopsis==

===Setting===
Space-race victories in the ''Civilization'' series conclude with a journey to [[Alpha Centauri]].<ref name=Shah2000p1>[[#Shah2000|Shah (2000)]], p.1.</ref> Beginning with that premise the ''Alpha Centauri'' narrative starts in the [[22nd century#Video games|22nd century]], after the [[2060]] launch of the United Nations colonization mission "Unity" to Alpha Centauri's planet Chiron ("Planet").<ref name=SMACManual1999p2>[[#SMACManual|Reynolds (1999)]], p.2.</ref> Unbeknownst to humans, advanced extraterrestrials ("Progenitors") had been conducting experiments in vast distributed nervous systems, culminating in a planetary biosphere-sized presentient nervous system ("Manifold") on Chiron, leaving behind monoliths and artifacts on Chiron to guide and examine the system's growth.<ref name=Shah2000p3>[[#Shah2000|Shah (2000)]], p.3.</ref> Immediately prior to the start of the game, a reactor malfunction on the Unity spacecraft wakes the crew and colonists early and irreparably severs communications with Earth.<ref name=SMACManual1999p3>[[#SMACManual|Reynolds (1999)]], p.3.</ref> After the captain is assassinated, the most powerful leaders on board build ideological factions with dedicated followers, conflicting agendas for the future of mankind, and "desperately serious" commitments.<ref name="SMACManual1999p3"/><ref name=Rosen1999>[[#Rosen1999|Rosen (1999)]]</ref> As the ship breaks up, seven escape pods, each containing a faction, are scattered across Planet.<ref name=Tito2005p1>[[#Tito2005|Tito (2005)]], p.1.</ref>

In the ''Alien Crossfire'' expansion pack, players learn that alien experiments led to disastrous consequences at [[Tau Ceti]], creating a hundred-million-year evolutionary cycle that ended with the eradication of most complex animal life in several neighboring inhabited star systems.<ref name=Primap286>[[#Prima|McCubbin (1999)]], p.286.</ref> After the disaster (referred to by Progenitors as "Tau Ceti Flowering"), the Progenitors split into two factions: Manifold Caretakers, opposed to further experimentation and dedicated to preventing another Flowering; and Manifold Usurpers, favoring further experimentation and intending to induce a controlled Flowering in ''Alpha Centauri''{{'}}s Planet. In ''Alien Crossfire'', these factions compete along with the human factions for control over the destiny of Planet.

===Characters and factions===
The game focuses on the leaders of seven factions, chosen by the player from the 14 possible leaders in ''Alpha Centauri'' and ''Alien Crossfire'', and Planet (voiced by Alena Kanka).<ref name=SMACManual1999p246>[[#SMACManual|Reynolds (1999)]], p.246.</ref> The characters are developed from the faction leaders' portraits, the spoken monologues accompanying scientific discoveries and the "photographs in the corner of a commlink – home towns, first steps, first loves, family, graduation, spacewalk."<ref name=Edge2006p1>[[#Edge2006|Edge Staff (2006)]], p.1.</ref> The leaders in ''Alpha Centauri'' comprise: Lady Deirdre Skye, a Scottish activist (voiced by Carolyn Dahl), of ''Gaia's Stepdaughters''; Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang, a [[Chinese Legalist]] official (voiced by Lu Yu), of the ''Human Hive''; Academician Prokhor Zakharov, a Russian academic (voiced by Yuri Nesteroff) of the ''University of Planet''; CEO Nwabudike Morgan, a Namibian businessman (voiced by Regi Davis), of ''Morgan Industries''; Colonel Corazon Santiago, an American militiawoman (voiced by Wanda Niño) of the ''Spartan Federation''; Sister Miriam Godwinson, an American minister and social psychologist (voiced by Gretchen Weigel), of the ''Lord's Believers''; and Commissioner Pravin Lal, an Indian surgeon and diplomat (voiced by Hesh Gordon), of the ''Peacekeeping Forces''.<ref name=SMACManual1999p246/><ref name=SMACManual1999pp11-13>[[#SMACManual|Reynolds (1999)]], pp.11–13.</ref>

The player controls one of the leaders and competes against the others to colonize and conquer Planet.<ref name=Rosen1999/> The Datalinks (voiced by Robert Levy and Katherine Ferguson) are minor characters who provide information to the player.<ref name=SMACManual1999p246/><ref name=SMACManual1999p111>[[#SMACManual|Reynolds (1999)]], p.111.</ref> Each faction excels at one or two important aspects of the game and follows a distinct philosophical belief, such as [[technological utopianism]], Conclave Christianity, "free-market" [[capitalism]], militarist [[survivalism]], [[Chinese Legalism]], U.N. Charter humanitarianism, or Environmentalist [[Gaia philosophy]].<ref name=Shah2000p2/><ref name=DD898p2>[[#DD|Train (August 11, 1998)]], p2.</ref> The game takes place on Planet, with its "rolling red ochre plains" and "bands of lonely terraformed green".<ref name=Edge2006p2>[[#Edge2006|Edge Staff (2006)]], p.2.</ref>

The seven additional faction leaders in ''Alien Crossfire'' are Prime Function Aki Zeta-Five, a Norwegian research assistant-turned-cyborg (voiced by Allie Rivenbark), of ''The Cybernetic Consciousness''; Captain Ulrik Svensgaard, an American fisherman and naval officer (voiced by James Liebman), of ''The Nautilus Pirates''; Foreman Domai, an Australian labor leader (voiced by Frederick Serafin), of ''The Free Drones''; Datajack Sinder Roze, a Trinidadian hacker (voiced by Christine Melton), of ''The Data Angels''; Prophet Cha Dawn, a human born on Planet (voiced by Stacy Spenser) of ''The Cult of Planet''; Guardian Lular H'minee, a Progenitor leader (voiced by Jeff Gordon), of ''The Manifold Caretakers''; and Conqueror Judaa Maar, a Progenitor leader (voiced by Jeff Gordon), of ''The Manifold Usurpers''.<ref name=Shah2000p2/><ref name=SMAXManual1999pp11-13>[[#SMAXManual1999|Train (1999)]], pp.11–13.</ref><ref name=SMAXManual1999p49>[[#SMAXManual1999|Train (1999)]], p49.</ref>

===Plot===
The story unfolds via the introduction video, explanations of new technologies, videos obtained for completing secret projects, interludes, and cut-scenes.<ref name=Shah2000p1/> The native life consists primarily of simple wormlike alien parasites and a type of red fungus that spreads rapidly via spores.<ref name=Shah2000p2>[[#Shah2000|Shah (2000)]], p.2.</ref> The fungus is difficult to traverse, provides invisibility for the enemy, provides few resources, and spawns "mindworms" that attack population centres and military units by neurally parasitising them.<ref name=Tito2005p2>[[#Tito2005|Tito (2005)]], p.2.</ref> Mindworms can eventually be captured and bred in captivity and used as terroristic bioweapons,<ref name=Primap277>[[#Prima|McCubbin (1999)]], p.277.</ref> and the player eventually discovers that the fungus and mindworms can [[Group mind (science fiction)|think collectively]].<ref name=Primap277/>

A voice intrudes into the player's dreams and soon waking moments, threatening more attacks if the industrial pollution and terraforming by the colonists is not reversed.<ref name=Tito2005p2/><ref name=Primap281>[[#Prima|McCubbin (1999)]], p.281.</ref> The player discovers that Planet is a dormant semi-[[Sentience|sentient]] hive organism that will soon experience a metamorphosis which will destroy all human life.<ref name=Shah2000p4/><ref name=Primap282>[[#Prima|McCubbin (1999)]], p.282.</ref> To counter this threat, the player or a computer faction builds "The Voice of Alpha Centauri" secret project, which artificially links Planet's distributed nervous system into the human Datalinks, delaying Planet's metamorphosis into full self-awareness but incidentally increasing its ultimate intelligence substantially by giving it access to all of humanity's accumulated knowledge.<ref name=Primap283>[[#Prima|McCubbin (1999)]], p.283.</ref><ref name=Primap284>[[#Prima|McCubbin (1999)]], p.284.</ref><ref name=Primap285>[[#Prima|McCubbin (1999)]], p.285.</ref> Finally, the player or a computer faction embraces the "Ascent to Transcendence" in which humans too join their brains with the hive organism in its metamorphosis to [[Divinity|godhood]].<ref name=Primap287>[[#Prima|McCubbin (1999)]], p.287.</ref> Thus, ''Alpha Centauri'' closes "with a swell of hope and wonder in place of the expected triumphalism", reassuring "that the events of the game weren't the entirety of mankind's future, but just another step."<ref name="Edge2006p2"/><!--  As time passes, Chiron begins to awake and intrude on the player's dreams, eventually giving a player the chance to "transcend" or join "Planet" through technological research and the construction of the massive project, "The Ascent to Transcendence".<ref name = "book">{{Cite book|title=Journey to Centauri|first=Mike|last=Ely|work=Firaxis Games}}</ref>-->