collected during play, when enough are collected Iji gains a level. Each level she gains allows the player to use an upgrade station to increase one of Iji's seven skills by one level. These skills include physical traits such as strength and health, as well as abilities such as close-quarters combat and computer cracking. Iji's jumping ability and armor can both be improved twice each during play if players can find their power-ups. Plot The player controls Iji, who in opening cutscenes accompanies her little sister Mia as they are shown around a science facility by her father. She notices activity in the clouds, and suddenly the sky is lit by beams of light. When the game resumes, months later, Iji awakens to find that she has been modified by a team of researchers using alien nanotechnology, making her a cyborg soldier. Via a loudspeaker, her brother Dan explains that the area was struck by a space-to-ground weapon called an "Alpha Strike" wielded by aliens called "Tasen". This, and an ensuing ground invasion, killed nearly every human in the facility, including their father and sister. Dan advises Iji to try to convince the Tasen "Elite" leader, known as Krotera, to leave. On her way to Krotera, Iji discovers the invasion is worldwide. Further on, she discovers a scout team of a different alien species, the "Komato", who Dan explains is an "interplanetary peacekeeping force". Iji encounters Krotera, who tells her that this was the last Tasen colony, and that they had come to Earth to escape the Komato. He is then killed either in direct combat with Iji or by an underling sympathetic to humanity's plight. Dan advises Iji to continue on to a Tasen communication area nearby, in order to send a distress call to the Komato. The Komato Imperial Army, led by General Tor and Iosa "The Invincible", arrives and engages both the Tasen and Iji with genocidal intent, inflicting heavy losses. Iji navigates through the chaos to the roof of the complex and is confronted by the Komato Assassin Asha; after she defeats him, he teleports away. Iji meets with Dan, who reveals that the Komato are planning to destroy the planet's surface in an attempt to annihilate the remaining Tasen. Dan urges Iji to destroy the Phantom Hammer—a device that will destroy the shields currently protecting Earth—in order to secure time before the Alpha Strike. Iji