The Marauders are moving through the Northern tunnels, destroying everything in their path. No one knows why their war machine suddenly awoke, rolling towards the Central Hub with vehement intent. Rumours spreading from Scavenger territories speak of an even greater threat beyond the Southern Marauder clans, driving the pirates North in search of safer chambers to establish their bases. Higher-ranking officials of the Eridonian Council of Order are tight-lipped regarding the situation as citizens of the Central Hub become increasingly more anxious about their future.
Several formerly independent Scavenger clans hailing from the Southern tunnels have been driven north, towards ECO territory, and are desperately appealing to the Council for protection. One such clan, known simply as Yellow, was at the forefront of the first Marauder assault; forced to abandon their recently established settlement in the Earthway Space Port Tunnels, they moved North - towards the Central Hub like so many others.
The Yellow clan operate one of the last remaining 'Tunnel Rigs'; massive machines created from converted Pre-Fall Highway Trucks of the old Cargo Tunnel Highways, laden with supplies and living space for a hundred people as they flee the vicious pirate assaults in search of safety.
During this troubling time, the once completely isolated world of the Eridonian Underruins will be exposed to the harsh reality of the surface and beyond that, space. The Aquarian Terran Imperial States has sent an expeditionary force into the Lower Tiers for the first time in centuries, vowing to rid the vast sunken metropolis of criminals and scum once and for all.
But the Marauders might not be the only enemy in the ruins, as ATIS prepares to face an existential threat from a force that threatens humanity's very survival in the Cluster. The sheltered world of the Underruins will soon become the battleground of inter-stellar powers that will decide humanity's place in Aquarius.
Perhaps the keen scavenging ability and extensive knowledge of the underruins possessed by the Scavenger Clans will be of use to ATIS, or perhaps the incumbent superpower of the world above will forge an alliance with the self-proclaimed descendants of the Eridonian Government itself; or, perhaps, old hostilities may re-surface as fractures develop in humanity's resolve.
One thing is known, however.
Times are changing.