The year is 2711. Incredible advance in physics have been made, technology has reached a point where a time-traveler from the year 2010 (a virtually impossible feat as crossing time-lines is a really bad idea) would find it indistinguishable from magic.

Until a few hours ago, everyone on Earth was happy. But not the colonists on Mars, ungrateful wretches who were supposedly struggling with the vast debts their ancestors had accrued. Nobody said colonization would be cheap and easy, but that's another story.

War has not been declared for over 300 years. Development in weapons technology has gone the way of analogue radio, windmill design, and nuclear fission.

Now, the colonies have attacked.

World-wide disarmament has left our planet virtually undefended. Our force-field systems ensure that the colonists can't just nuke the place from orbit, but they are useless against close-range fighters. The only warships left on Earth are two behemoth-class destroyers. Ridiculously expensive, impractical, and virtually indestructible, these vessels have been mothballed in museums; one in New York, and the other in a secret location not far from where you sit.

You have been chosen. You aren't perfect for the job, but nobody is. Post-ambulant society does not have pilots.

Your perverse interest in pre-mindlink arcade games means you are one of the few people on the planet with the muscular skills to handle the ship's primitive control system. And as fitness fanatic (who can walk half a mile without losing breath), you are the only person in this city who can climb the steps to reach the cockpit.

You must reach New York, destroy the first wave of colonist invaders, and secure the second ship. This will buy our planet enough time to begin the construction of a new fleet.

We have scrambled their communications systems (our defense matrix is not entirely useless), so they won't be able to attack you en-mass. Their ships are smaller, cheaper, and inferior to yours, so you have a chance.

Unfortunately, our scramblers will also disable your communications when you reach the city, so you will be as blind as you are. And be warned, the ships motion is not very steady. It's fast, and it's powerful, but it can't fly straight. Nor can it fly very high, these vessels tend to hover several meters above ground level. But so do the colonist ships - they seem to have poached designs from a similar error.

If you fail, our planet will be at the mercy of the colonists. Do you really expect them to show us compassion?