Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry

In the far future (about 6000 AD), Humans have colonized the whole galaxy and divided into the Galactic Union and the Deague, two groups that are presently at war with one another. Both groups have created sub-lightspeed drives to enable realistic interplanetary travel, enabling ships to cover large distances in a significantly shorter subjective time (due to Time Dilation). Strains, short for Strategic Armored Infantry, are mecha that make up the Union's most powerful army, and "Reasoners" are the pilots that fly them. A potential pilot needs a Mimic, a device merged with brain cells removed from the Reasoner before birth, in order to become a Reasoner. If the Mimic is injured or destroyed, it cannot be repaired. The Deague use swarms of tiny automated attack fighters known as Tumors rather than Strain technology.