the shape of things to come

30 LIGHT YEARS
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
—Excerpt from “Battle Technology: The Evolving Face of Tactical
Warfare”, an essay by Hauptmann-General Tulka Garner, Kommandant
of Sanglamore Academy, 11 March 3071
For almost a millennium, humans have journeyed into the far
reaches of space, colonizing thousands of worlds and forming starspanning
alliances. Empowered by the technologies of fusion engines,
their spacecraft carried them light-years from home, to alien
worlds teeming with resources and easily bent to their will beneath
the treads of mighty machinery and human ingenuity. From these
humble beginnings grew the six vast star empires that made up the
Inner Sphere—empires that would unite under the Star League, to
bring even the far-fl ung worlds of the Periphery into their fold.
But even as humankind expanded into the depths of space, colonizing
and settling hundreds of planets, political divisions and petty
jealousies led to wars that raged across the stars. Even the fi nal unity
of the human race under the fi rst Star League began in the fi res of
war, and humankind’s subsequent “Golden Age” saw no end to these
unrelenting confl icts.
To wage these titanic struggles, humanity once more turned to technology,
and employed an arsenal of weapons ranging from small arms and
tanks to aerospace fi ghters and spacecraft. Then, at the peak of the twenty-fi
fth century, the most fearsome weapon of all emerged: BattleMechs.
Gigantic, often-humanoid war machines, these walking tanks could fl atten
cities with an arsenal of heavy weapons and could overcome almost
any terrain imaginable. Ever since their debut, BattleMechs have ruled
the battlefi elds, changing the face of armored combat forever.
In 2781, the aftermath of a bloody war between General Aleksandr
Kerensky, Protector of the Star League and commander of its Defense
Forces, and Stefan Amaris—usurper of House Cameron’s Terran
Hegemony and ruler of the Rim Worlds Republic—left the fi rst Star
League in ruins. Three years later, as the greedy lords of the fi ve remaining
Great Houses each declared themselves the heirs to the Star
League and yet more war loomed, Kerensky’s forces—claiming the
vast majority of the highly advanced Star League Army—left for parts
unknown with the bulk of the League’s mightiest WarShips.
Soon afterward began the Succession Wars: three hundred years of
relentless fi ghting waged at fi rst with terrible weapons of mass destruction
and devastating WarShip fl eets. These wars ravaged hundreds of
worlds, cost billions of lives and destroyed the industries and infrastructure
that had once supported all of humankind. Precious, irreplaceable
technologies were lost, until the House Lords found their ability to wage
war endangered, their mighty WarShips gone, their dwindling armies
maintained by scavenged parts. By the thirty-fi rst century, the desperate
Successor States had fallen into a pattern of endless raids and counterraids,
forming alliances, jockeying for power and the resources to keep
their remaining weapons of war functional and deadly. Determined as
ever to rule a reborn Star League in their own names, the House Lords
assumed the greatest enemy they would ever face was each other.
They were wrong.
As the Inner Sphere sank into barbarism, Kerensky’s followers built a
new society in the harsh environs beyond known space. They developed
a rigid caste system, designed to produce the ultimate warriors, hone the
greatest scientifi c minds, focus the skills of technicians and laborers. For
nearly three hundred years, the separate castes of Kerensky’s Clans were
LEGEND
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Map compiled by COMSTAR.
From information provided from the COMSTAR EXPLORER CORPS
and the STAR LEAGUE ARCHIVES on Terra.
© 3067 COMSTAR CARTOGRAPHIC CORPS
Anti-spinward
Coreward
Rimward
Spinward
unifi ed by one burning ideal: that when the time was right, they would return
home and reclaim the Inner Sphere. They would become the “saviors”
of humanity, rebuilding the Star League in their own image.
In 3048, the warlords of the Clans decided the time had come to
launch their invasion. With their powerful OmniMechs and immensely
strong battle armored infantry, they drove straight toward Terra, humanity’s
birthworld. Planet after planet fell to the Clans in less than fi ve
years, as their advanced technologies rolled over the jury-rigged war
machines with which the Inner Sphere leaders still fought each other—
until the shell-shocked Successor States fi nally united against the threat,
and ComStar’s army—blessed with the hoarded legacies of the nearly
forgotten Star League—helped battle the Clans to a standstill.
With the return of the Clans, an arms race ensued, the renewed
threat of total war sparking an explosion of new technologies and the
recovery of lost techniques. The struggle to reach parity with the Clan
juggernaut stumbled only where politics and internal rivalries kept
the Great Houses apart—rivalries to which even the once-neutral
ComStar fell victim. In the fi fteen years after ComStar’s victory over
the Clans on Tukayyid, the cycles of war and technological growth
accelerated in the Inner Sphere, enhanced by the desperate alliance
known as the Second Star League. Meanwhile, in the Clan homeworlds,
the descendants of the original SLDF rushed to maintain their
own lead, determined to win the next Great War with the corrupted
Spheroids, even as minor wars and battles raged across the stars.
In 3067, following the devastating FedCom Civil War, the weary
leaders of the Great Houses met on Tharkad and declared the Second
Star League a sham. Their resources overtaxed and their armies weakened
by surges of fi ghting, they declared themselves unable to support
the loose alliance. They disbanded the Second Star League—and
unwittingly unleashed a maelstrom.
The pseudo-religious Word of Blake—splinter group of ComStar,
the self-appointed protectors and controllers of interstellar communication
and advanced technologies—saw their imminent ascension into the
new Star League as the glorious fi rst step toward a new Golden Age for all
humankind. Having prepared for this moment in secret for fi fteen years
with terrible new weapons and incredible new technologies, they reacted
to the disbandment of the League with swift and vengeful anger.
So began the Jihad: a Sphere-wide war that has pitted every faction
against one another and even against themselves, a new age of
unrelenting warfare where victory goes to whoever has the biggest
and best weaponry. Now, as the Great Houses and Clans battle one another,
war is everywhere. Armies of tanks and men clash beneath skies
clouded by scores of aerospace fi ghters and descending DropShips.
Combat vehicles hold the lines to cover the advance of infantry, while
battle armored troops dare to oppose BattleMechs—those mighty
avatars of walking death that still lord it over the modern battlefi elds.
The tools of modern armored combat open a wide range of possibilities
for the armies of the Inner Sphere and the Clans—in a universe
where life is cheap, but technology isn’t.
HOUSE MARIK (FREE WORLDS LEAGUE)
ECONOMY Open Capitalism
MAJOR FACTORY
WORLDS OVERVIEW
Amnity, Andurien, Atreus, Gibson,
Irian, Kalidasa, Kendall, Keystone,
Lopez, Marik, Shiro III, Stewart,
Tematagi, Thermopolis, Wallis
ICONIC CORP Irian Technologies
ICONIC MILITARY
UNITS OVERVIEW
C-Bill
Exchange
.89
Perseus (M75), Awesome (M80),
Hermes II (M40), Ontos (V95),
Stingray (F60), Achileus (BA)
First BattleMech Icarus (2470)
First Battle Armor Achileus (3057)
GREAT HOUSE