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II Designer's Infro

Welcome to Starblade Battalion. This book has a unique history. Starblade started out as a straight-forward science fiction mecha world. We imagined ahuman culture polarizing along two modes of thought: One reacting to the collapse of

the biosphere with astatic. ecofascist platform; the other more dynamic, but carrying many of the same destructive policies that have so damaged our Earth. There was to be no real black or white to the situation, but rather a complex scenario where both sides had valid ideas and serious flaws.

While we were developing this project.we noticed that it was a very logical extension of the Cyberpunk 202rP world we had been working on for years. It only seemed natural to use the depth of background and history we had at our fingertips there to help flesh put the early history and sociological underpinnings of the Starblade saga.

So as we worked. we tried to keep these three ideas in mind: • This world came from the Cyberpun~ history and technology

base. The links and nanotech-based bioware ("Livemetal") are highly advanced descendants of the cyberware from CP202rP ("Dead-metal"). The Dataweb is a highly sophisticated info-sharing network which is derived from the Net. Everyone has a datalink implanted by the age of 17 and can access the Web. The Mecha themselves are simply extensions of the ACPA that are standard milspec hardware in 2020. The large scale myomers proved even more efficient on larger exoskeletons. While this new world is very different, its roots can be traced back to the Cyberpunk Age.

• Both sides are extremist. Solingen GmbH. the largest interstellar megacorp and descendant of International Electrics and other eura-corps. has an ambitious plan to gain control of the colonies and mold them into a state in which the Megacorps can flourish once again. It is willing to use both a secret army and propaganda-blasted colonists to gain this end. The USSA. while ostensibly nice guys. are too draconian for their own good. The Gaian leaders are fanatics whose rigid ideals do not always translate well into the real world. Both are creating awar for their own reasons.

• It is up to the players to form a third. renegade group: the Starblade Battalion. This group's goal is to avoid the extremes presented by the opposing sides in this war and hopefully offer an alternative philosophy. They must gather the outcasts of this society and form a movement which can find a way of preventing either government from locking humanity onto a path that will destroy either its environment or its spirit.

Now you and your players can shape the fate of the human galaxy for the next two hundred years. Choose wisely ... and. more importantly. have a hell of a good time. -The Starblade Team

ISBN II: 0-937279·78·1 PRODUCT: MK 1211 PUBUSHED BY R. TALSORIAN GAMES, INC. P.O. BOX 7356, BERKELEY, CA94707, USA Copyright 1996, by R. Talsorian Games, Inc. Mefrfon Zela® and Storb/ode BaHoIion'" are trademarlcs 01 R. lGlsorian Games, Inc., All Righ15 Reserved under the Univenal Cppyright Conventions. All situations, govwnmanlJ and people herein are fICtional. Any similarities portrayed herein without satiric intent ora strictly coincidental.

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Introduction . ...................... 2

From Chaos to the Cosmos .......... 4

The Battle of the Northern Rings . ... 10

Earthspace. ...................... 13

Living in Earthspace . .............. 22

Mektons in the SAC . .............. 37

The SAC's Space Forces ........... 55

The Pleiades . .................... 64

Living in the Pleiades ............. 74

Mektons in the ODF ............... 88

The ODF's Space Forces .......... 103

The Starblade Battalion . .......... 110

Tech &Equipment. ............... 126

Mekton Z Errata ................. 133

Index for Starblade Battalion . ..... 135

Credits Created By

Michael MacDonald

Mike Pondsmith

Mark Schumann

Benjamin Wright

Written By David Ackerman-Gray

Edward Bolme

Steven Douglas

Jim Parks

Mike Pondsmith

Mark Schumann

Craig Sheeley

Benjamin Wright

fdiling Mark Schumann

Janice Sellers

Barrie Rosen

Chris Williams

Derek Quintanar

Layout &Graphic Design

Mike Pondsmith

Mark Schumann

Benjamin Wright

David Ackerman-Gray

Interior Design Mike Pondsmith

Cover & Logo Design Mark Schumann

Alex Okita

Front Cover Illustration John Staton

Colored by Tony Del Grosso

Back Coyer Illustration Alex Okita

Interior Art Malcolm Hee

Mark Schumann

John Staton

G.T. Washington

Mecha Design Brian Gilmore

James Milligan

Mark Schumann

Benjamin Wright

Design Works Mark J.L. Simmons Samp

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I

• A History of the Human Expansion

- Dataweb Entry 2Ul0.02.03 by Leona Fa/k, Web University, Primus 4.

T• The Birth of Fire

he End of the Second Millennium was a traumatic time for Humanity. The ! economic collapse of the major national powers and the rise of the

Megacorporations had resulted in complete social chaos. The simultaneous development of a prototypical Dataweb (a crude VR system called the

Net, and early man-machine interface links (achieved with dead-metal processors and radio modems surgically implanted in people's craniums) radically accelerated dataflow and encouraged the dissolution of traditional methods and mores, which, in turn, created further anarchy. There was a brief popular movement for individual empowerment led by independent adherents to the new technologies (called Cyberpunks in the old parlance), but that bright spot was somehow lost in the political riptides of the time. The period from the turn of the century until the early 2040s is often cal/ed 'The Cyberpunk Age" for its violence, rampant technological and sociological experimentation, and general lack of stability.

By the end of that era, the Megacorporations, such as International Electric, Militech, and PetroChem, stood alone as the only groups capable of large-scale organization and activity. They soon consolidated their power and went on a rabid campaign of development to every corner of the globe. Their influence spread as their search for raw materials and new markets finally reached out to the early orbital habitats and beyond to the asteroid belt. They erected huge city-buildings called arcologies, made Interface Links more accessible and useful. developed advanced exoskeletal systems (the precursors to modern Mektons), and spread the Net as far as Mars. But, while they represented some measure of structure and control in aworld gone wild, they also sponsored a rapacious mentality of consumption, waste, and lack of social responsibility. They plundered rather than planted, and used rather than integrated. Thus the next crisis the world faced was predetermined by the corporations' very nature.

• The Ecocollapse By 2070, the Earth faced complete ecological disaster. Two hundred years of careless

industrialization and pollution had devastated the Earth's biosphere, along with nearly four-fifths of its native flora and fauna. The skies were black with smog, the oceans choked with algae and mutant fish . The globe had been sterilized by pollution and waste, with nearly every area of habitable land covered by sprawling cities. Degenerate animals, resistant to the acid rain and industrial toxins, ranged through the shadows of those cities, and new plagues swept the world, killing millions before they could be brought into check (see Dataweb References for details).

Out of this catastrophe arose the first group to challenge the corporations' authority in fifty years: the Ecological Emergency Government. The EEG was an alliance of the few remaining national governments, joined together to try stem the tide of ecocollapse before the planet was rendered entirely uninhabitable. They resurrected the old United Nations forum (previously abandoned when terrorists nuked New York in 1997) and delineated a set of policies to prevent further erosion and lay the groundwork for rebuilding the biosphere. These proposed measures were necessarily harsh ... especially on the Megacorps, who controlled the lion's share of industry.

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Dateline: May 3, 2068 increased acidity in the rainfall in Canada, as well as Norway and other Scandinavian coun

tries, has resulted in almost complete defoliation. Petrochem, the 'Mlrld's leading manufacturer of grain alcohol fuel has been hard hit by these crop failures. Both forests and croplands have suffered, and "rain warnings" to keep people inside during the heaviest acid rains have been instituted. Schools throughout these countries now have rain drills to teach children what to do in case of potent rainfall.

What affect this will have on the world's ecosystem as a whole is yet to be determined. The United Nations has called for ameeting of the world's top meteorologists and ecologists in Geneva later this month.

OATAWEO REfERENCE I - RADIOACTIVE WASTE

Dateline: September 12. 2072 Recently, the world learned that the

Russian watertable has been contaminated by radioactive waste, which has been pumped underground for over one hundred years.

Last week, the Russian government released photos of blasted stretches of land with toxic waste literally bubbling up from the ground, such as this park in Volgograd.

The Russian government has since announced that 80% of its water supply has been so contaminated, and they have begun to negotiate to purchase crops and water from other countries.

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--- ---OATAWEO REFERENCE

~ ATLANTIC ABLAZE

Date1ine: March 23. 2074 An Orbital Air transport aircraft

reported an unprecedented sight while on a routine flight this morning at 5:00 a.m., EST. What the pilot thought was · simply the light of dawn turned out to be twenty square miles of tirestorm.

The US Department of Meteorology speculates that a lighting strike from a storm at sea ignited a thick layer of petrochemical pollutants floating upon the surface of the ocean.

Coast Guard vessels were immediately dispatched to the scene to control :the blaze. It was extinguished by 12:00 a.m.

When the Megacorps forcibly resisted (they had their own limited military forces back then), the EEG activated the remaining national armies over which they had control and launched the Unification Wars. To the EEG, the crisis demanded that every facet of global society be brought under the strict rules of population control, recycling, pollution control and ecological management. There was no room for negotiation. Countries and corporations alike either adhered to the EEG's principles voluntarily or were forced to comply. Ultimately, the Megacorps were forced to withdraw to their orbital colony strongholds to nurse their wounds and sue for peace.

So despite the odds, the Unification Wars achieved their goal; the polluters and despoilers were stopped, and the first steps towards reconstruction brought to bear. For the millions dying in fetid toxic waste dumps, lashed by the horrors of mutated viruses, the EEG brought new hope and a chance at survival; enough that soon almost all organized opposition fell apart.

By 2090, the wars had all but ended. The remaining individual governments of Earth were officially dissolved in 2092, as the EEG was declared the unified authority overseeing the long and difficult road back from self destruction. The corporations which had sided with the EEG early on were given preferential placement in the newly formed Economic Council. and all corporations were forever banned from having armed security forces of any kind.

The EEG soon began a radical program to recover the Earth's ecology. All remaining resources went into converting existing arcologies into Zeniths (Zero Emission, No-Impact Terrestrial Habitats) and creating new Zeniths into which the population would be moved.

Criminals and others who simply refused to join the system (some of them remnants of the Cyberpunks, dubbed "ravagers" by the media) were denied entry to these sanctuaries. They were left to die in what few sprawling cities that were not bulldozed in preparation for eco-renewal. Alongside the Zeniths, the EEG built gigantic atmosphere processing towers to clean up the air, supplementing these structures with genetically engineered strains of algae and kudzu. Similar programs were enacted to restore enough of the lost animal species

..............- E!.JLJJ::....:J to rebuild a viable ecosystem.

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