6
Sample file
Sam
ple
file
II Designers 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 projectwe noticed that it was a very logshyical 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 socishyological underpinnings of the Starblade saga
So as we worked we tried to keep these three ideas in mind bull 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
bull 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
bull It is up to the players to form a third renegade group the Starblade Battalion This groups goal is to avoid the extremes presentshyed by the opposing sides in this war and hopefully offer an alternative phishylosophy They must gather the outcasts of this society and form a moveshyment 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 0-937279middot78middot1 PRODUCT MK 1211 PUBUSHED BY R TALSORIAN GAMES INC PO BOX 7356 BERKELEY CA94707 USA Copyright 1996 by R Talsorian Games Inc Mefrfon Zelareg and Storbode 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
Sam
ple
file
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 SACs Space Forces 55 The Pleiades 64 Living in the Pleiades 74 Mektons in the ODF 88 The ODFs Space Forces 103 The Starblade Battalion 110 Tech ampEquipment 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 ampGraphic Design Mike Pondsmith Mark Schumann Benjamin Wright
David Ackerman-Gray
Interior Design Mike Pondsmith
Cover amp 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
GT Washington
Mecha Design Brian Gilmore
James Milligan Mark Schumann Benjamin Wright
Design Works Mark JL Simmons
Sam
ple
file
I
bull A History of the Human Expansion
- Dataweb Entry 2Ul00203 by Leona Fak Web University Primus 4
Tbull 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 simultaneshyous 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 peoples craniums) radically acceleratshyed 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 caled The Cyberpunk Age for its violence rampant technoshylogical 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 activshyity 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 develshyoped 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
bull The Ecocollapse By 2070 the Earth faced complete ecological disaster Two hundred years of careless
industrialization and pollution had devastated the Earths 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 delinshyeated 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 lions share of industry
Sam
ple
file
Dateline May 3 2068 increased acidity in the rainfall in Canada as well as Norway and other Scandinavian counshy
tries has resulted in almost complete defoliation Petrochem the Mlrlds 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 worlds ecosystem as a whole is yet to be determined The United Nations has called for ameeting of the worlds 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 contamshyinated 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 bubshybling up from the ground such as this park in Volgograd
The Russian government has since announced that 80 of its water supshyply has been so contaminated and they have begun to negotiate to purshychase crops and water from other countries
Sam
ple
file
--- ---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 500 am EST What the pilot thought was middot 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 immedishyately dispatched to the scene to control the blaze It was extinguished by 1200 am
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 EEGs 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 Earths 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 remshynants of the Cyberpunks dubbed ravshyagers 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 processshying towers to clean up the air suppleshymenting these structures with geneticalshyly engineered strains of algae and kudzu Similar programs were enacted to restore enough of the lost animal species
- EJLJJJ to rebuild a viable ecosystem
Sam
ple
file
II Designers 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 projectwe noticed that it was a very logshyical 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 socishyological underpinnings of the Starblade saga
So as we worked we tried to keep these three ideas in mind bull 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
bull 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
bull It is up to the players to form a third renegade group the Starblade Battalion This groups goal is to avoid the extremes presentshyed by the opposing sides in this war and hopefully offer an alternative phishylosophy They must gather the outcasts of this society and form a moveshyment 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 0-937279middot78middot1 PRODUCT MK 1211 PUBUSHED BY R TALSORIAN GAMES INC PO BOX 7356 BERKELEY CA94707 USA Copyright 1996 by R Talsorian Games Inc Mefrfon Zelareg and Storbode 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
Sam
ple
file
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 SACs Space Forces 55 The Pleiades 64 Living in the Pleiades 74 Mektons in the ODF 88 The ODFs Space Forces 103 The Starblade Battalion 110 Tech ampEquipment 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 ampGraphic Design Mike Pondsmith Mark Schumann Benjamin Wright
David Ackerman-Gray
Interior Design Mike Pondsmith
Cover amp 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
GT Washington
Mecha Design Brian Gilmore
James Milligan Mark Schumann Benjamin Wright
Design Works Mark JL Simmons
Sam
ple
file
I
bull A History of the Human Expansion
- Dataweb Entry 2Ul00203 by Leona Fak Web University Primus 4
Tbull 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 simultaneshyous 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 peoples craniums) radically acceleratshyed 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 caled The Cyberpunk Age for its violence rampant technoshylogical 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 activshyity 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 develshyoped 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
bull The Ecocollapse By 2070 the Earth faced complete ecological disaster Two hundred years of careless
industrialization and pollution had devastated the Earths 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 delinshyeated 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 lions share of industry
Sam
ple
file
Dateline May 3 2068 increased acidity in the rainfall in Canada as well as Norway and other Scandinavian counshy
tries has resulted in almost complete defoliation Petrochem the Mlrlds 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 worlds ecosystem as a whole is yet to be determined The United Nations has called for ameeting of the worlds 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 contamshyinated 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 bubshybling up from the ground such as this park in Volgograd
The Russian government has since announced that 80 of its water supshyply has been so contaminated and they have begun to negotiate to purshychase crops and water from other countries
Sam
ple
file
--- ---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 500 am EST What the pilot thought was middot 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 immedishyately dispatched to the scene to control the blaze It was extinguished by 1200 am
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 EEGs 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 Earths 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 remshynants of the Cyberpunks dubbed ravshyagers 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 processshying towers to clean up the air suppleshymenting these structures with geneticalshyly engineered strains of algae and kudzu Similar programs were enacted to restore enough of the lost animal species
- EJLJJJ to rebuild a viable ecosystem
Sam
ple
file
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 SACs Space Forces 55 The Pleiades 64 Living in the Pleiades 74 Mektons in the ODF 88 The ODFs Space Forces 103 The Starblade Battalion 110 Tech ampEquipment 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 ampGraphic Design Mike Pondsmith Mark Schumann Benjamin Wright
David Ackerman-Gray
Interior Design Mike Pondsmith
Cover amp 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
GT Washington
Mecha Design Brian Gilmore
James Milligan Mark Schumann Benjamin Wright
Design Works Mark JL Simmons
Sam
ple
file
I
bull A History of the Human Expansion
- Dataweb Entry 2Ul00203 by Leona Fak Web University Primus 4
Tbull 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 simultaneshyous 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 peoples craniums) radically acceleratshyed 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 caled The Cyberpunk Age for its violence rampant technoshylogical 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 activshyity 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 develshyoped 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
bull The Ecocollapse By 2070 the Earth faced complete ecological disaster Two hundred years of careless
industrialization and pollution had devastated the Earths 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 delinshyeated 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 lions share of industry
Sam
ple
file
Dateline May 3 2068 increased acidity in the rainfall in Canada as well as Norway and other Scandinavian counshy
tries has resulted in almost complete defoliation Petrochem the Mlrlds 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 worlds ecosystem as a whole is yet to be determined The United Nations has called for ameeting of the worlds 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 contamshyinated 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 bubshybling up from the ground such as this park in Volgograd
The Russian government has since announced that 80 of its water supshyply has been so contaminated and they have begun to negotiate to purshychase crops and water from other countries
Sam
ple
file
--- ---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 500 am EST What the pilot thought was middot 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 immedishyately dispatched to the scene to control the blaze It was extinguished by 1200 am
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 EEGs 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 Earths 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 remshynants of the Cyberpunks dubbed ravshyagers 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 processshying towers to clean up the air suppleshymenting these structures with geneticalshyly engineered strains of algae and kudzu Similar programs were enacted to restore enough of the lost animal species
- EJLJJJ to rebuild a viable ecosystem
Sam
ple
file
I
bull A History of the Human Expansion
- Dataweb Entry 2Ul00203 by Leona Fak Web University Primus 4
Tbull 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 simultaneshyous 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 peoples craniums) radically acceleratshyed 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 caled The Cyberpunk Age for its violence rampant technoshylogical 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 activshyity 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 develshyoped 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
bull The Ecocollapse By 2070 the Earth faced complete ecological disaster Two hundred years of careless
industrialization and pollution had devastated the Earths 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 delinshyeated 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 lions share of industry
Sam
ple
file
Dateline May 3 2068 increased acidity in the rainfall in Canada as well as Norway and other Scandinavian counshy
tries has resulted in almost complete defoliation Petrochem the Mlrlds 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 worlds ecosystem as a whole is yet to be determined The United Nations has called for ameeting of the worlds 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 contamshyinated 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 bubshybling up from the ground such as this park in Volgograd
The Russian government has since announced that 80 of its water supshyply has been so contaminated and they have begun to negotiate to purshychase crops and water from other countries
Sam
ple
file
--- ---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 500 am EST What the pilot thought was middot 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 immedishyately dispatched to the scene to control the blaze It was extinguished by 1200 am
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 EEGs 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 Earths 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 remshynants of the Cyberpunks dubbed ravshyagers 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 processshying towers to clean up the air suppleshymenting these structures with geneticalshyly engineered strains of algae and kudzu Similar programs were enacted to restore enough of the lost animal species
- EJLJJJ to rebuild a viable ecosystem
Sam
ple
file
Dateline May 3 2068 increased acidity in the rainfall in Canada as well as Norway and other Scandinavian counshy
tries has resulted in almost complete defoliation Petrochem the Mlrlds 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 worlds ecosystem as a whole is yet to be determined The United Nations has called for ameeting of the worlds 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 contamshyinated 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 bubshybling up from the ground such as this park in Volgograd
The Russian government has since announced that 80 of its water supshyply has been so contaminated and they have begun to negotiate to purshychase crops and water from other countries
Sam
ple
file
--- ---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 500 am EST What the pilot thought was middot 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 immedishyately dispatched to the scene to control the blaze It was extinguished by 1200 am
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 EEGs 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 Earths 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 remshynants of the Cyberpunks dubbed ravshyagers 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 processshying towers to clean up the air suppleshymenting these structures with geneticalshyly engineered strains of algae and kudzu Similar programs were enacted to restore enough of the lost animal species
- EJLJJJ to rebuild a viable ecosystem
Sam
ple
file
--- ---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 500 am EST What the pilot thought was middot 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 immedishyately dispatched to the scene to control the blaze It was extinguished by 1200 am
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 EEGs 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 Earths 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 remshynants of the Cyberpunks dubbed ravshyagers 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 processshying towers to clean up the air suppleshymenting these structures with geneticalshyly engineered strains of algae and kudzu Similar programs were enacted to restore enough of the lost animal species
- EJLJJJ to rebuild a viable ecosystem
Sam
ple
file
