Chimeran Tower

The Holar Tower in Iceland.

A Chimeran tower is a monumental spire-like structure that stands over hundreds of feet tall. Mistaken by humanity to be constructed by the Chimera during the Chimeran War, the towers were in reality built almost 60 million years ago on Earth and were left buried since the Chimera's inexplicable disappearance from the planet.

Description

Chimeran towers in England linking up to the hub tower in London, as shown in the Resistance 2 trailer "Twisted History".

The Chimeran towers were built on Earth by the Chimera's progenitors, the Pure Chimera, millions of years ago before humanity even existed. The tower network were made to create a bridge between Earth and the Pure Chimera's home planet, and to terraform the planet into a colder climate that is habitable for the Chimera. The towers were shut down and retracted underground after the Pure Chimera were forced to abandon the planet following a catastrophic war against an unknown alien race. Some of these towers happened to be buried underneath present day major cities such as New York City, London, and Paris.

Each tower comprises a single continental network, which is linked with every other major network via several larger towers known as "hub towers". These hub towers powered the network via nuclear fission and emitted an arc of energy that form a nexus, a "spatial distortion bubble," around Earth which would channeled into a hub tower that opens a wormhole to the Pure Chimera's planet. The hub towers were heavily defended by the Chimera, as the destruction of a single hub tower would result in an explosive chain reaction that destroys a local tower network.

Four British soldiers, including Stephen Cartwright (pointing), and Nathan Hale (barely omitted offscreen to the far right) encounter a dig site for a Chimeran tower in Nottingham.

The towers were also specifically designed to alter the planet's climate by gradually cooling the surrounding area and making it more suitable for Chimeran organism, whose bodies emitted tremendous body heat than normal human beings. The towers were further used as production facilities and command centers by the Chimera; Chimeran vehicles and advanced strains such as Angels and Widowmakers were made in the towers. After the events of Operation Morning Star, the Chimera extended the use of the towers as conversion centers to manufacture more advanced troops for their ongoing war effort.

Resistance: Fall of Man

Stephen Cartwright and Nathan Hale finding a tower in Somerset.

Since the Chimera's return following the Tunguska Event, the invaders focused their main goal in excavating the tower network during their expansion across Earth. Initially, humanity erroneously believed the towers were constructed by the advancing horde, until the British military tried to seal off a Chimeran tunnel nexus in Nottingham on July 12, 1951 during Operation Shear.

Lieutenant Stephen Cartwright and Sergeant Nathan Hale later discovered an excavated tower in Cheddar Gorge, and changing everything humanity knew about the Chimera's origins. Hale soon discovered that the Chimeran power conduits, which were scattered all over the country, were linked to the towers. Hale entered a tunnel in Bracknell and followed a conduit for several miles until reaching the hub tower known as C-03 in the London borough of Lambeth.

Hale concluded that destroying the A-0 tower in central London will kill all the Chimera in Britain and relayed his theory to Captain Rachel Parker. On July 14, British and American forces launched a massive assault on the London tower during the Battle of London, in which Hale infiltrated the tower and reached its reactor core, in which he subsequently destroyed its reactor rods and caused to overload. The resulting explosion destroyed the hub tower and created a chain reaction which further destroyed the entire tower network throughout Britain, and killing all the Angels residing in the towers. Due to the Chimera's hive mind dependency on the Angels, all the Chimera in Britain died out within minutes.

Resistance: Burning Skies

One month after the liberation of Britain, the Chimera invaded the east coast of the United States and presumably dug up the hub tower in New York City. Rogue SRPA scientist Richard Gorrell attempted to use a tower, called the Conversion Tower, near Union City, New Jersey in capturing human beings from a nearby Protection Camp and creating a underdeveloped Leviathan, and controlling it with Gray Tech components.

Tom Riley and Ellie Martinez traveled to the Conversion Tower by Carriers in rescuing the abducted victims, among them were Tom's family Natalie and Rachel Riley. However, Natalie was infected and Tom was forced to euthanize her from being converted. Ellie evacuated the survivors while Tom tried to stop Gorrell, who failed to control the Leviathan. Tom battled and killed the Leviathan by incinerating it in the tower's power core, and inadvertently causing the tower to go unstable.

Resistance: Retribution

Concept art of the Paris hub tower.

Following on the events of the Battle of London, British and Maquis forces worked together in destroying the Paris hub tower in order to liberate Western Europe in Operation Overstrike. On September 6, 1951, Major Cartwright led an assault on the Paris tower and subsequently destroyed it, successfully causing a explosive chain reaction that destroyed the tower network across Western Europe.

British and Allied forces continue to push through the continent over the next two years and become locked in a desperate battle to try and destroy a hub tower in Warsaw. While standing in the shadow of the ruined St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, Grayson encounters a large Chimeran tower greatly overshadowing the human architectural achievement in its gaze.

Resistance 2

By the events of Resistance 2, within a span of two years, the Chimera under Daedalus aggressively expanded across Asia, Africa, and South America in their pursuit to excavate the dormant towers.

On May 15, 1953, Daedalus led the Chimeran fleet to assault the United States in order to activate the known and hidden towers in America. Daedalus' flagship breached a section of the Liberty Defense Perimeter to activate the hub tower at Bryce Canyon. After the events in Bryce Canyon, Echo Team traveled and secured Chicago, allowing Dr. Fyodor Malikov to deactivate the Chicago tower. However, Daedalus remotely reactivated the Chicago tower from the Holar Tower in Iceland. Afterward, every fully excavated tower on the planet are activated into channeling arcs of energy into the sky. SRPA attempted to breach the Holar Tower and eliminate Daedalus, but only to be repelled with heavy casualties.

In the co-op campaign of Resistance 2, Specter Team was tasked in destroying Chimeran reactors in Bryce Canyon during Operation Crucible which, on June 9, 1953, resulted in destroying several Chimeran towers in the region similar to Nathan Hale's action in the Battle of London. In Operation Wrath of God, Specter Team was also tasked in disarraying the Holar Tower and preventing Daedalus from constructing the Prometheus Weapon.

On June 26, following the fall of the LDP, Daedalus led his forces to the Chicxulub crater in Mexico to excavate a massive tower located at the very center of the crater; the Chicxulub tower had served as the main conduit of the entire tower network. Daedalus had his fleet positioned around the crater to channel the energy of the tower network to the Chicxulub tower. The remnants of Echo Team and SRPA tried to prevent the Chimera's plan from succeeding by destroying the fleet with a fission bomb. Although the fleet was destroyed, the aftermath revealed that Daedalus had succeeded in fulfilling his purpose in bridging direct physical contact with Earth to the Chimera's home planet.

Resistance 3

The New York City tower that was used in bridging the wormhole to the Pure Chimera's home world.

The events that transpired at the Chicxulub crater revealed that the fission bomb caused a massive power surge through the tower network toward the hub tower in New York City, in which it created a wormhole to the Pure Chimera's planet. Furthermore, the New York tower appeared to act as a central hub for the entire tower network as it maintained the network to cooling Earth in order to make it more hospitable for the Chimera and further endangering the human race with extinction.

The New York tower was deemed the greatest Chimeran threat at the time, in which SRPA and the remnants of the United States military launched an desperate all-out assault on the tower. However, their attack was overwhelmingly crushed.

In August 1957, former Sentinel Joseph Capelli was recruited by Dr. Malikov to destroy the New York tower. Despite the odds, Capelli with help from Remnants leader Charlie Tent boarded and maneuvered a Terraformer into colliding the tower, permanently sealing the wormhole and disrupting the tower network's power flow, causing them to revert the climate change. This gave humanity an advantage to finally defeat the Chimera.

Known Towers

Tower C-3

By May 1953, there were a reported 58 known towers that were excavated across the world, including hub towers and excluding others that had been destroyed over Britain and Western Europe.

Europe

• Paris, France [Hub] (Destroyed by Cartwright's task force in Operation Overstrike)
• Warsaw, Poland [Hub] (Destroyed in the Battle of Warsaw)
• Germany
  • Gerolstein (Destroyed presumably in the aftermath of Operation Overstrike)
  • Bonn (Destroyed presumably in the aftermath of Operation Overstrike)
• Prague, Czechoslovakia (Destroyed presumably in the aftermath of Operation Overstrike)
• Moscow, Russia
• Holar, Iceland [Hub] (Mass Disarrayed in Operation Wrath of God)
• United Kingdom (All known towers are destroyed by Nathan Hale in the Battle of London)
  • Birmingham
  • Bristol
  • Cambridge
  • Cheddar Gorge
  • Dover
  • Leeds
  • Liverpool
  • London
    • Kingston upon Thames
    • Lambeth (Known as "C-3")
    • Richmond
    • Southwark [Hub] (Classified by British Intelligence as "A-0")
  • Manchester
  • Norwich
  • Nottingham
  • Sheffield
  • Somerset
  • York

North America

• Chicxulub crater, Mexico (Unknown; presumably destroyed in Operation Black Eden)
• United States
  • Big Scrape Copper Mine, Nevada (Discovered by accident on May 27, 1934)
  • Bryce Canyon, Utah [Hub] (Destroyed by Specter Team in Operation Crucible)
  • Chicago, Illinois [Hub]
  • Grand Junction, Colorado (Destroyed in Operation Crucible)
  • Marble Canyon, Arizona (Destroyed in Operation Crucible)
  • New York City, New York [Hub] (Destroyed by Joseph Capelli in 1957; responsible for opening the wormhole to the Pure Chimera's homeworld)
  • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Rapid City, South Dakota
  • Union City, New Jersey (Destroyed by Tom Riley during the battle against the Leviathan)

Gallery

The "A-0" Tower in London.

The Chimeran Tower in Somerset.

The London Tower, some seconds before its destruction.

Core reactor concept art by Brian Yam.

Trivia

• The Resistance: Fall of Man towers are more jagged and resembles to pieces of scrap metal than in Resistance 2, where they are completely excavated and appear more hexagonal, neater, and appear to be made by a different, brown-like metal substance.
• According to Rachel Parker, the towers were excavated on-site rather than built. This suggest the towers remain buried but raise to ground level upon activation, which was described by Henry Stillman as having "telescoped out of the ground."