Human soldiers, even the best of special forces, cannot compare to the Precursors' genetically modified and cybernetically enhanced warriors, clad in plasteel power armour and covered by hyper-resistant smart fibre skinsuits. In 1968, within one of the best-preserved precursor sites controlled by the FSRD, what turned out to be a timer expired, releasing the contents of a previously unidentified cryovault. From it emerged what was believed to be the last living Precursor, consumed by the madness of hundreds of millennia in stasis, and decades of war. A whole company of FSRD agents was lost in attempting to contain it, failing their mission with the escape of the alien into the Oceanykan wilderness. Shortly after, reports of similar sightings began springing throughout the country, placing the FSRD in full alert for an alien insurgency. All awakened precursors seem to have lost their sanity, though their tactics and reflexes remain as sharp as they were hundreds of thousands of years ago. After an aerial search campaign and the loss of several hundred servicemen, miraculously, a single individual was captured and placed on bleeding-edge medical, psychiatric and psionic therapy. The creature's sanity was successfully restored after months of treatment.
January 1st, 1970 is marked by the first conversation between a living precursor and an FSRD xenobiologist.
"Where are the others?"
It is unknown if precursor soldiers have awakened in the past, but the existence of working particle carbines seems to point towards that conclusion.