Campaign

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The Campaign is one of the two main game modes of ADACA. It is a linear, story-driven campaign divided into three Episodes. The player takes the role of Jessy Thorn, a conscript who is awoken from their cryogenic sleep on the planet Adaca by Dr. Chops, generations after the ship was left stranded on the planet.

Episodes

Main article: Chapters

The Campaign is divided into three Episodes. These are Episode One: Derelict, Episode Two: Exclusion Zone, and Episode Three: Castaway. Episode One primarily serves as an introduction to the world and the Freescrappers, while Episode Two and Episode Three revolve around the Calico Valley Exclusion Zone and KN-033, respectively.

Story

Episode One: Derelict

In the Campaign, the player character is Jessy Thorn, a convict who is charged with causing $40,000,000 worth of damages in company property and sentenced to 20 years' conscription with Maahes Private Military. However, once awoken from their cryo-chamber, Jessy is greeted by Dr. Chops, who replaced their arm with a prosthetic that can grab and hurl object after finding it severely atrophied. Exploring the derelict remains of the ship, Chops explains that the ship had been abandoned for generations, and that the descendants of the ship's former crew formed a co-op, the Freescrappers, and founded a town around it, IronWood Lake; in addition, he also states that Cairo, the AI core of the ship, had been stolen a long time ago. Making it out of the derelict, Jessy arrives at the town, finding it under attack by the Police. After repelling the attack, Chops directs them to another Freescrapper outpost, where refugees from IronWood are being sent to. Along the way, Jessy encounters forces of the Conflux, a tech-cult worshipping a machine-god known as the Chimera. Arriving at the outpost and getting acquainted with their newfound allies, Jessy wakes up to a large beam of light coming from the Calico Valley Exclusion Zone, where Chops had been previously seen heading. Kelly enlists the help of Jessy to find Chops, and meet another hostile force in the form of the New National Militia, a mercenary group contracted to explore the Zone. Jessy gets separated from Kelly at the entrance to the mine that had been used for excursions into the Zone, as the unstable ground collapses beneath them.

Episode Two: Exclusion Zone

Now alone inside the abandoned mine, Jessy has to find a way out and reunite with Kelly. Escaping the mine and encountering several strange things within the Zone, Jeessy finds Kelly in a Conflux cell. Now reunited, the two find a radio station and contact Chops through it, who explains that the god the Conflux worship is Cairo, combined with a powerful artifact from the Zone, and that he has the ability to control it though its admin codes, which he has kept since he arrived at IronWood Lake. Once inside the Power Plant, the two directly confront Chops and with Cairo, who states that the powerful artifact is something known as the Calico Object, a device designed to manipulate reality to the most fundamental degree. Seeing the danger the Calico Object poses, Kelly and Jessy head to its chamber to destroy it, while Chops stays behind to defend them from the Police, resulting in a catastrophic explosion. Jessy is then apprehended by the Police in the wreckage, while Cairo is seen being lifted away by a Police ship.

Episode Three: Castaway

A few weeks after the events at Calico Valley, Jessy wakes up in Police custody and is greeted by the Detective. Breaking out of prison, Jessy comes across Cairo again, who offers them assistance in exchange for their own, pointing Jessy to a train they need to catch. Now a fugitive, Jessy makes it to the train, which arrives at an NNM-controlled sky dock. Jessy boards one of the mercs' ships, which later gets fired upon by the Police and crashes on the island of KN-033. There, Jessy discovers another Salvo Industries compound and finds Lexi Abrams, who is looking for Doctor Chops, and says his most likely whereabouts is in a place on the island known as the City with no Architect. Having made it deep into the City, Jessy kills the Detective, and meets Lexi, Chops, and Cairo again. Cairo congratulates Jessy for being the most subservient unit under its command, and offers them a position with its employer, the choice of whether or not Jessy accepts it being up to the player.