Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy is a real-time tactics

Real-time tactics

Real-time tactics or RTT is a subgenre of tactical wargames played in real-time simulating the considerations and circumstances of operational warfare and military tactics...

 video game developed by Blue Tongue Entertainment

Blue Tongue Entertainment

Blue Tongue Entertainment Pty. Ltd. was an Australian video game developer founded in 1995. It was acquired by THQ on November 17, 2004, and remained an internal development studio of THQ until its closure in August 2011...

 and published by Microprose

MicroProse

MicroProse was a video game publisher and developer, founded by Wild Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982 as Microprose Software. In 1993, the company became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte and has remained a subsidiary or brand name under several other corporations since...

 on October 28, 2000. The game is based on both the 1997 movie Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers (film)

Starship Troopers is a 1997 American military science fiction film, written by Edward Neumeier , directed by Paul Verhoeven, loosely adapted from Starship Troopers, a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It is the only theatrically released film in the Starship Troopers franchise...

and the book Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers is a military science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and published hardcover in December, 1959.The first-person narrative is about a young soldier from the Philippines named Juan "Johnnie" Rico and his...

by Robert A. Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...

.

Plot

The game is divided into three acts following the player's Mobile Infantry platoon from the start to the end of the war.

Act 1

On October 18, 2369, the player's platoon is first deployed to Klendathu at the start of the war only for the mission to end with a general retreat. The player's platoon, however gets stranded during the evacuation and is forced to deal with Plasma bugs to facilitate extraction, while saving any allied MI squads in the area. Shortly after Klendathu, on November 23, 2369,
the player's platoon is sent to Zegema Beach to extract a supply convoy in the area. Shortly after Zegema Beach, the player's platoon is deployed to the Arachnid Quarantine Zone in Dentana to save the local civilians in the area, while capturing a live Arachnid specimen in the process on January 20, 2370. The last two missions for this act take place in Planet P on February 28 and March 1, 2370, where the player is deployed to secure Whiskey Outpost while capturing further bug specimens. The act ends with the player's platoon in a cave labeled "Bug City," where the player's platoon facilitates the capture of the Brain Bug.

Act 2

Five months have passed since the capture of the Brain Bug, and Arachnid Egg Fall Clusters have been attacking various planets in Terran-controlled space. The player's platoon was tasked with escort missions for Internal Security's officer Major Alexander Bishop, while repelling an Arachnid invasion of Mars, attempting to recapture a colony called New Wellington from the Arachnids for morale purposes, as well as learning the true nature of how the Arachnids were able to efficiently attack the Terrans especially with a key food processing facility and the loss of two key military research bases. Bishop and the player's platoon is deployed to Axel 6, a small mining outpost with very little strategic value to exfiltrate the commanding officer of the base as a potential witness. Major Bishop and the player learn that a high-ranking Federation officer, Colonel Holland, has been leaking intelligence of the major Terran bases to the Arachnids via the captured Brain Bug, in hopes of uniting humanity with the bugs. Bishop and the player's platoon succeed in killing Holland and the captured Brain Bug while saving scientists who were witnesses to Holland's treachery. Despite the nature of Holland's behavior, the Terran Council decide to cover up Holland's death for morale purposes and finish the battle.

Act 3

As of September 20, 2371, the Federation has managed to create new weapons and technology for use against the Arachnids and has begun a counter-offensive against the Arachnids to ensure the end of the war. The player's platoon was tasked with rescue missions for stranded Mobile Infantry troopers on Planet P, as well as students from a military academy used to train Psychics on the planet Sirius 3, and recovering ancient teleportation technology on Planet G. Shortly after the success of the mission, the player is sent to Klendathu for the second and last time to search for an Arachnid Queen. Utilizing psychic troopers to track the queen, as well as reverse-engineered teleportation devices for extraction, the player's platoon fights through arachnid forces to plant Nova bombs in the hive and manages to escape the cavern before it explodes. The war ends on New Year's Day of 2372, with the Terran military celebrating their victory.