Edge was a young mercenary, part of a team that had been hired to guard an Imperial excavation site out in the Frontier. They had been stationed there for many months already, without their services really being called into action; very little had ever happened at the site. During one bleak day in Imperial Year 119 though, the workers finally disturbed a hostile monster within the ruins; Edge and his fellows were immediately called down into the excavation to deal with the beast.

At the same time, floating through thick clouds, the battleships of the Black Fleet made their way to the same excavation site; the Black Fleet was an elite unit of the Empire’s military forces, commanded by a man named K. F. Craymen. Craymen had recently gone renegade however, and he had taken the Black Fleet under his own personal control, in order to further his own goals.

At the excavation site, things were not going well for Edge and his team. The creature had turned out to be a powerful pure-type monster rather than a weaker mutated one, and it was all but immune to their weapons. Running for a more powerful gun that had been dropped on the ground, Edge tried to take the creature on alone.

During the battle, Edge inadvertently found what the Empire was in the middle of excavating from the dormant ruins. It appeared to be a girl, but her white skin and white and black armour made her look more like an Ancient Age relic than a human being. She seemed to be sleeping - or rather, she seemed to be in suspended animation - in a cavity in the wall.

Staring at this mysterious girl, Edge was distracted almost long enough for the monster to overcome him; coming to his senses though, the young mercenary was able to take out the platform that the beast had lumbered onto, plunging it into the darkness below. Edge, his friend Rhua, and their Captain had barely survived the conflict, and they hobbled out of the ruins.

When they reached the surface, the mercenaries found themselves confronted by Craymen and his loyal henchmen; believing them to be allies, Edge and his companions went to them for help. To Edge’s horror, one of Craymen’s men - a laughing maniac known as Zastava - raised his gun and shot both Rhua and Edge’s Captain at almost point-blank range. He was going to take Edge out as well, but Craymen’s orders stayed his hand; the Black Fleet had no such time to waste. When Edge revealed that he had seen the girl within the ruins though, he was knocked unconscious with the butt of a gun and left on the cold rocky ground.

When Edge finally awakened, the ships of the Black Fleet were moving steadily away, carrying the mysterious girl - still encased and sleeping - with them. Edge futilely went to pursue the departing ships, but he was instantly confronted by Zastava on a thin platform over a yawning chasm. This time there was no one to hold Zastava back, and he shot Edge square in the chest; the boy’s limp body tumbled backwards and down, falling into the depths of the excavation.

To divert the Empire while he went about his search, Craymen had arranged for an immensely powerful detonation to take place in the Imperial Capital; the explosion occurred soon after they departed from the excavation site, levelling the entire city. The Emperor knew that Craymen must be the man responsible however, and the deaths of all those people were as unimportant to him as they were to the Black Fleet. Travelling in his massive flagship, Grig Orig, with much of the Imperial Fleet in tow, the Emperor set off in pursuit of Craymen.