DARK REIGN: THE FUTURE OF WAR Togra's Final Message History of the Conflict Biographies Unit Specifications Journal

Togras Final Message Centuries ago I left the Earth. Along with the other believers I set out to bring a new dawn to the age of man. I stood on the brink of a discovery that would change the very nature of existence. But, as usual, men do not see the doorways of history until they have passed through them. Ignorant and singleminded individuals attack that which threatens to disrupt their comfort, regardless of the good that may be born from that change. Our convoy was set upon by those who wished to steal my knowledge and exploit it for their trivial ends. But they did not understand. They will never understand. The new age will come even if it must incubate in the heat of their ashes. My ship was damaged in the attack, and I became stranded on an uninhabited planet. In time the heathens followed us away from Earth and polluted the entire galaxy with their petty squabbling and narrow vision of what power really is. Now I have become trapped by their war. A Freedom Guard base has been established on this planet, and Imperium assaults are coming more frequently. This probe will serve as a fail-safe should I fall victim to the chaos around me. If you are reading this then the worst must have occurred. The probe contains a dimensional portal that will deliver you to the place and time of my demise. But you must be prepared to stop it. Recorded in the data stores of the probe are a number of battles from the vast war between the Imperium and Freedom Guard. These battles will be presented to you as a series of trials which you will relive through a neural interface. You can engage in each conflict from either side, but you must complete them all. You must demonstrate that you are strong enough to defeat these armies. If you cannot, the dimension door will not be wasted on you. Fight well. Much depends on it. HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT Part I: The Decline of Earth Part II: The Pioneer Age Part III: The Marked Part IV: The Dawn of War Part V: The Desiccator Part VI: The Tograns Part VII: Objective

THE DECLINE OF EARTH In the opening centuries of the third millennium, Earth's population continued to swell at a staggering rate. By 2250 the planet held over 30 billion people. Earth's scientists raced to offset the strangling effects of population. Massive hydroponic agricultural domes dotted the landscape, increasing food production exponentially. Methods for large scale, economical water desalinization were developed. High altitude aircraft hovered at the crown of the atmosphere, releasing chemicals that slowly built up eroded areas of the ozone layer. In spite of these advances, the frenetic growth of humanity continued to strain Earth's resources to their limit. Pollution became unmanageable. Thousands of pounds of nuclear waste were set adrift in space every year. Air pollution was so severe in many major cities that in 2267 the European Environmental Council estimated that one of every nine urban dwellers died by the age of 30 from lung related diseases. Millions began living in massive urban complexes which contained air filtering and water purification facilities. These structures, as large as ten miles square, contained housing, commerce and entertainment for their occupants, and many people remained inside for years at a time. Wealth had become extremely polarized, and life was increasingly arduous for the majority of the populace who could not afford the safe confines of the complexes. Criminals banded together like small armies and in some areas had more control over the streets than the police. In 2314 most of the Earth's major nations allied to quell the rising tide of crime within their borders. The Global Commonwealth established a rudimentary dome colony on Jupiter's moon Io and began shipping

violent criminals there. Heavily armed Commonwealth forces seized criminals in the streets and poured them into processing facilities. After quick assembly line trials, those deemed "dangerous and irredeemable" were shipped to the penal colony on Io to live out the remainder of their lives. The experiment was extremely successful politically. An international regulatory body, the Jovian Detention Administration, was established and granted primary claim to all prisoners. The JDA also had an autonomous police force that by 2362 was the largest standing army in the world. By 2400 almost a million people were expelled to Io annually. Additional colonies were added on Callisto and Ganymede, as well as on Neptune's moon Triton. Although some felt that the enterprise had little to do with meting out justice and was simply an escape valve for population runoff, the program was very popular, and the JDA had come to hold more political and military sway than any single world government. In 2447 a rocket containing nuclear waste for deep space disposal malfunctioned and crashed near Bombay, killing over four million people in the first few months. Food stores were contaminated across the continent. Resulting worldwide famines led to widespread rioting and organized assaults against fortified urban complexes where food supplies were not seriously affected. The JDA, which by this time was the de facto global government, stepped in to suppress the uprisings, but it was becoming clear to world leaders that the future of Earth was bleak. Interplanetary colonization, however, was a dangerous and arduous affair. A large private campaign to promote colonization by the Ramsdell Corporation in the early twenty-third century had resulted in thousands of deaths and only a few scattered ramshackle societies. The prisoner colonies, while self-supporting, were barren, desolate outposts. Few private citizens were willing to confront the hazards of colonization. The acting president of the JDA, Edward Dalen, negotiated a deal with the residents of the four penal colonies. In exchange for exploring and colonizing new worlds for Earth's inhabitants, the prisoners would be granted their freedom. The prisoners were expendable and experienced at living off-world. Although counting on the off-world prisoners was less than popular, the citizens of Earth were willing to attempt somewhat desperate measures. Dalen realized that control of Earth's sole implement of colonization, in addition to the political and military influence he already wielded, would place the JDA in a position of near absolute sovereignty. Dalen also had no intention of ever releasing the prisoners. He knew they would never be accepted into the societies on the Earth-based colonies, and they were too independent and well organized to be given their own planet. They had shown surprising resourcefulness on the prison colonies. Rather than slipping into violence and chaos as expected, the prisoners had developed efficient, productive communities with the limited means provided them. Dalen knew this would make them able pioneers, but he also realized they would represent a threat to the JDA if ever given their autonomy. THE PIONEER AGE Scientists quickly located a number of promising host planets in Earth's sector of the galaxy. The Exploratory Corps, as the prisoner colonists were called, set out in massive cargo vessels, each the size of a large city, loaded with provisions, robotic terra-forming machinery, and enough genetic material to recreate self-sustaining ecosystems. Dalen provided the prisoners with only enough water for a few years so that if they could not prepare their planet for habitation within that time they would perish. Although some worlds proved unable to support life, and thousands of the Exploratory Corps died, a handful of worlds were soon ready and the first Earth settlers began to inhabit their new homes. The Corps, when finished with one planet, were picked up and transported to the next. The JDA moved into each new world and established themselves as the governing body and policing force. They assumed control of each planet's water supply and instituted water rationing. Some planets did not have large enough viable water sources to support their populations, so those worlds with excess water were required to give up their surplus. In fact, there was more than enough water, but the JDA's control of water distribution gave them unchallenged leverage over the individual governments established on each planet. The JDA began stockpiling the excess water in huge, asteroid-sized storage tanks orbiting a number of undeveloped worlds. The Exploratory Corps pushed deeper into the galaxy, with mankind trailing behind, seeping into every crack the Corps opened. Hungry from centuries of limited space and resources, the human race devoured the galaxy. Within a generation a hundred planets were inhabited. Within two generations, a

thousand. The JDA declared itself the official galactic government and was renamed the Imperium. Although some worlds chafed at the Imperium's continued dominion over all water supplies, none defied them. THE MARKED In 2507 a regiment of Exploratory Corps aboard an Imperium cruiser en route to a new colonization assignment mutinied, seizing the ship and abandoning the crew on an undeveloped world. The dissidents then took refuge on a nearby planet, Teron, whose populace had grown tired of the Imperium's ever increasing demands on their water supply. An Imperium fleet was quickly dispatched to the planet and determined the city in which the stolen ship had landed. Three regiments of Imperium infantry descended to the planet and seized the city. The ship was located, and the Corps members guarding the ship were tortured until they revealed the location of the rest of their unit. The remaining Corps personnel were tracked down and all were killed in an open courtyard. The Imperium left the city intact, but a sizable force of Imperium troops remained on Teron, and the planet's water ration was halved. The Imperium's ruling Directorate feared that similar incidents would continue to occur, and determined to institute a more decisive means of controlling the Exploratory Corps. Imperium geneticists had been developing enzyme keys which, when injected into the bloodstream, could crack and alter the DNA code of every cell in the body in a prescribed manner. Exploratory Corps personnel had been receiving periodic injections of these substances to improve their immunity to alien bacteria and other microscopic life forms encountered while colonizing new worlds. In response to the Teron incident, a new, more ambitious strain of genetic keys was developed which created a chemical clock in the brain stem that caused life functions to cease at the age of 25. These agents were systematically introduced into all Exploratory Corps members along with the standard immunity treatments. In addition, the changes in the genetic code made the left eye of each member of the Exploratory Corps completely black. In this way, the Imperium could easily identify Exploratory Corps members and make it nearly impossible for them to escape. In addition, the fact that they would only live to the age of 25 made it difficult to organize any sustained effort at rebellion. The scheme was more successful than anticipated. Within a few decades, the Exploratory Corps came to be known as the Marked and began to think of themselves as cursed. There were no further outbreaks of violence, and the Marked largely gave up hope of ever being granted their freedom. As the business of colonizing the galaxy became less risky and less vital, the Marked, who were now viewed as a separate caste from the rest of human society, were used to perform many of the menial tasks needed by humanity. In time, many among the Marked did not even believe they deserved to be free. THE DAWN OF WAR In the late twenty-sixth century, an extraordinary boy, Perigil Ilacas, was born to Marked parents. Living in the household of a noted educator, Lajos Cardat, for whom his parents worked as servants, young Ilacas spoke seven languages by the age of five and was versed in a number of sciences. As the parents approached 25, they made a deal with Cardat, who was sympathetic to the plight of the Marked, to raise the boy as his own. Only in this way could Ilacas continue his education. To pass the boy off as a citizen, his mark would somehow have to be removed, but the marks had been engineered to be resistant to removal, even by techniques such as tissue replacement. Once the new tissue was accepted by the body, the enzyme keys, which remained in the bloodstream of every marked human, would simply alter the new cells, and the mark would reappear. Cardat arranged for the boy's eye to be removed and replaced with a cybernetic replica, a procedure that was extremely expensive and, if discovered, would have resulted in death for all involved. By the age of 19, Ilacas had become a leading scholar in the field of genetics. Although he never told his adoptive father, the real motivation behind his study was to uncover the genetic basis for the mark. Ilacas eventually found the enzyme keys that were responsible for the differences in the DNA and deduced that these were man-made agents that had at some point been deliberately introduced into the Marked population. However, now age 22, Ilacas feared that he would not be able to discover how to counteract the keys in the few years he had left and feared also that if his research was ever uncovered by the Imperium, it would be destroyed. He decided to make his discovery public in the hope that other

scientists would join his endeavor or even that public knowledge of the fact that the mark was a manufactured product of the Imperium would force them to release his people from their genetic bondage. Within a week of the announcement, Ilacas, Cardat, and all those associated with his research were dead. However, news of the incident spread, and quickly small uprisings flared up around the galaxy. The Marked found support on numerous planets. Some viewed the Marked as mankind's pioneers who had delivered humanity from their doomed homeland of Earth. Some believed their subservience was unnecessary. Some simply saw an opportunity to throw off the yoke of the Imperium and reap the profits of their own bounty. Imperium warships were hijacked, complexes sabotaged, water convoys seized. Several planets, including Teron, raged into full revolt. The rebellion slowly grew more organized, and within a decade the Marked had become a dedicated revolutionary army. Calling themselves the Freedom Guard, they coordinated the efforts of a hundred insurgent worlds into a unified endeavor. Although outnumbered, technologically inferior, and lacking strategic strongholds, the vastness of the Imperium's domain worked to the rebels' advantage. The Freedom Guard struck at strategic targets and then moved on, never facing the formidable Imperium war machine head on. After years of trying to smother the growing tide of insurrection, the Imperium found itself facing full-fledged civil war. THE DESICCATOR In 2618 Imperium General Gregor Trilkin approached the Imperium's Ruling Directorate and requested permission to develop a new weapon. Tired of pursuing smaller Freedom Guard forces across the breadth of the galaxy only to engage them in inconsequential skirmishes, he wanted a potent new tool to turn the course of the war. Trilkin's arms research scientists had actually already designed a devastating new chemical weapon, a catalyzing compound that sheared the hydrogen atoms from water molecules. The compound then incorporated the free hydrogen atoms, thereby reproducing itself and continuing to divide any water molecules it came in contact with. The effect could be transferred through airborne water molecules and even through water in living organisms. One molecule of the compound could therefore consume all the moisture in an entire planet in a matter of minutes. The Ruling Directorate was hesitant to develop a weapon whose function was to destroy the very implement of their control, but Trilkin assured them that they would only need use the Desiccator once. Once its force was demonstrated, Trilkin claimed, the Freedom Guard would relent. Trilkin ultimately planned to use the weapon to seize control of the Imperium. With sole command of the Desiccator, the Ruling Directorate would have no choice but to submit to his authority. The Directorate Chairman, Albrach Boas, was aware of Trilkin's new weapon from several of his personal moles in Trilkin's command. He also suspected the general's intentions for the Desiccator, but needed someone to put an end to the war and knew Trilkin was the best man for the job. Trilkin was a ruthless and efficient tactician, but a predictable politician, and Boas felt he could deal with Trilkin after he had put down the Freedom Guard. THE TOGRANS The Togran Foundation was founded in 2382 by molecular physicist Alpheus Togra, son of Petrak Togra, the third and last Chancellor of the Global Commonwealth. Petrak's assassination in 2356 led to the Rubicon rebellions and ultimately to the demise of the Commonwealth. JDA president Grote Reber suppressed the rebellions in four short days without consulting any of the national governments involved. The JDA's position of global leadership was cemented. Reber negotiated the dissolution of the Global Commonwealth and the transfer of its remaining authority, mostly bureaucratic, to the JDA. Alpheus, only nine at the time of his father's death, studied under his mother, physicist Gisela Togra, who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 2349 for her neutrino reactor. By his early twenties Togra had surpassed his mother in reputation. His Foundation, which he established at the age of 35, was dedicated to the development of a new paradigm of human understanding of the physical universe. Togra rejected the five hundred year old reductionist approach to science. Togra believed that matter could be easily and permanently altered at the molecular level and steadfastly maintained that the necessary knowledge and tools to allow such conversion could be uncovered in his lifetime. Matter, he claimed, like all of reality, is more than a sum of its parts. His research focused on element 115, discovered in the outer planets in the early days of exploration of the solar system. Element 115 was the only stable member of the very heavy elements. Other elements over atomic weight of 92 undergo

spontaneous fission almost immediately. In addition, the "strong" force in element 115, the force that binds the nucleus together, was unusually powerful and similar enough to gravity that the force could be tapped and amplified and used to make a gravity drive for interstellar travel. The drive bent space in the same way that gravity does and actually pulled the destination point to the traveler. While the peculiar properties of element 115 were accepted by most scientists, none had been able to unravel its mysteries. Togra claimed that the element represented proof that our understanding of the nature of the physical world was flawed, and claimed that by unlocking the secret of element 115, he could transform Earth, even the entire galaxy, into a paradise. Although considered one of the great thinkers of his age, Togra's obsession with element 115 was mocked as yet another megalomaniacal attempt to turn lead into gold. Togra countered, "If I can tame the soul of matter, what need would I have for gold?" A man of considerable charisma and rare genius, Togra developed a dedicated following and became a spiritual as well as scientific leader. Togra claimed that the great scientists were simply discovering what the great mystics had always known in a less literal way. He believed that inquiry into the metaphysical realm was as important to mankind's development as scientific advancement. Many of the world's leading minds abandoned their own work to join the Togran Foundation. By 2387, Foundation members numbered nearly one thousand, and Togra's work on matter conversion was making great strides. Togra became increasingly withdrawn and secretive about the Foundation's research. He suspected that several Foundation members were leaking information to the JDA. Togra stopped accepting new members and expelled three Foundationers he believed were selling his secrets. He began working entirely alone, often fasting and meditating for days at a time. He was rarely seen in public and grew increasingly paranoid. In 2391, Togra confided to a few of his closest associates that he had cracked element 115's secret. Before Einstein it was believed that energy and mass, as well as linear and angular momentum, were each independently conserved; that is, none could be created or destroyed. Einstein showed that energy and mass were in fact interchangeable and united them under a single conservation law. Through his work with element 115, Togra found that linear and angular momentum were also equivalent to mass and energy, as well as charge, quark number, and several other variables. All of these, he claimed, are aspects of a single essence that obeys a single conservation law. The unusual nuclear forces of element 115 were due to the fact that the momentum of the electrons of its atoms was being converted to the "strong" force in the nucleus and back at an incredibly fast rate. Based on this discovery Togra was able, in a small scale reactor, to convert the angular momentum in the electrons of an atom of hydrogen into mass. He estimated that a single atom of hydrogen could produce as much matter as a fair-sized asteroid. He needed only to refine the process to make the reaction produce the desired element, and build a number of large-scale reactors to allow near unlimited matter conversion. He was certain, however, that the JDA was about to seize his research, and he decided to abandon his home planet and move the Foundation to an off-world colony. Togra claimed to have found a host planet near the galactic center on which a habitable ecosystem could be developed within a few years. Within a generation, he claimed, they could build their own heaven. Four hundred thirty-seven Foundation members, some of the world's foremost biologists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, doctors, and philosophers agreed to accompany Togra. Within a few months Togra organized a small expeditionary force of cargo vessels with light warship support. Togra had expected the JDA to resist the endeavor, but they seemed to view the departure of the Foundation as simply an opportunity to be rid of some of their most influential, outspoken agitators. However, as the Togran expedition reached the outskirts of the solar system, Togra's paranoia proved valid. An attack force of JDA ships ambushed the convoy, engaging the warship escort while cutting off Togra's ship and attempting to board it. Unknown to even the other members of the expedition, Togra was armed and prepared for the attack. He killed two JDA agents and placed a small explosive device on the boarding vessel. His ship was damaged in the explosion, but he managed to escape the skirmish, leaving the remaining Tograns behind. When the remaining JDA ships realized what had happened, they disengaged and attempted to follow Togra, but no trace of him was found. The Togran vessels, without their leader but unable to return to Earth for fear of the JDA, decided to continue on to their destination and hope that Togra would somehow find his way there. A few days later the Tograns received a garbled transmission from Togra. His ship was damaged beyond repair. His navigation systems were not functioning, and he had barely managed to ditch the ship on an unknown planet.

By the time of the Freedom Wars the Tograns were merely a curious anecdote in the Imperium's NeuroHistorical Archives. However, the Tograns had flourished on their new home planet. By genetically engineering offspring, they developed a society of more than one hundred thousand within a few generations. Most of the subsistence work was done by machines, and the need for government was minimal. To avoid pollution, the Togran industrial complex was maintained in massive factory vessels that orbited the planet. Togran society grew increasingly insular and monastic. The majority of the society's resources was dedicated to scientific research, and citizens did little but work, study, and pray. With disease all but conquered, the Foundation members survived for hundreds of years, pursuing the limits of human knowledge with a dedication approaching madness. However, although Togran technology far surpassed that of the Imperium worlds, the Foundation scientists had been unable to reproduce Togra's breakthrough in matter conversion. For generations the Tograns scoured the galaxy for their lost leader but found no trace of him. Togra eventually rose to a mythical status in Togran society, and his followers stopped searching for him. They believed that their lost prophet would return to deliver them without need of their intervention, but as the centuries rolled by, Togra did not appear. The war between the Imperium and the Freedom Guard raged across the galaxy, destroying everything in its wake. Eventually the war spread to the remote Togran home worlds. Although superior technologically, the Tograns had no experience with warfare and their society was crushed in the onslaught. OBJECTIVE As your planet and all you know is destroyed, you escape in a solitary scout vessel. Adrift in space you encounter a probe sent by Togra himself. The probe brings you a message from Togra and the ability to transport you back in time. Centuries earlier the planet on which Togra had crash landed, was consumed by the Imperium's Desiccator weapon. Unable to save himself, Togra sent out the probe with the hope that one of his followers would happen upon it and unlock the key that could save him. The probe can open a dimensional port that will transport you to the moment just before Togra was killed and provide you with the technology to create an army to defeat both of the warring factions, but the mechanism can work only once. If you are unable to accomplish the task, then history will continue unaltered and Togra's fate, as well as your own, will be sealed. The probe contains a number of recorded battles of the Imperium-Freedom Guard war. These battles will be presented to you as a series of trials. If you are unable to conquer them, if you are unable to demonstrate that you are worthy to fight the final conflict to save Togra, the probe will not transport you back in time. Togra will not allow his one chance for survival to be wasted. To save your society, to save your lost messiah, to save yourself, you must open the dimension door and alter the destiny of a galaxy. BIOGRAPHIES Jeb Radec Stiv Baator Gil Karoch Gregor Trilkin Gerhad Bantrill Benth Martel

JEB RADEC Jebediah Radec was born in 2588 to Marked parents in the Remus cluster. At the age of twelve he was assigned to new colonization duty after paralyzing a teenage boy in a street fight. The Pioneer Age was over, and planetary exploration was of marginal importance to the Imperium. Colonization remained a hazardous endeavor and was used primarily as punishment for members of the Marked class who resisted the regime, but whose crimes did not warrant execution. Radec was among the youngest to ever be assigned colonization duty. At 16, Radec escaped by sabotaging a nuclear waste facility on a colony near the Algo Rim and stowing away in an Imperium cruiser in the confusion that followed. Hundreds were killed in the fallout from the explosion of the waste dump, mostly members of the Marked crew that Radec worked with. Years later,

when Radec was questioned about the incident as a Freedom Guard commander, he said, "I won't fight for the freedom of any man who doesn't have the dignity to fight for it himself." The Imperium hunted Radec unsuccessfully for several years. When the Freedom Guard revolution began, Radec was smuggling black market goods on Teron, the heart of the rebellion. He led a mob of rioters who seized the capitol city of Borrud and captured and executed hundreds of Imperium soldiers. Shortly thereafter, a volunteer army was organized on Teron, and Radec was asked by Gerhad Bantrill to serve as a field commander for the region. Bantrill, the newly appointed Freedom Guard Synod councilor on Teron, was a respected statesman and former Imperium officer who had joined the cause of the revolutionaries. Radec accepted, confiding to Bantrill that his motivation was not justice but vengeance. His success as a military leader was remarkable. In spite of the urgings of his superiors, Radec always fought on the front lines with his men. He rarely lost a conflict, and as his military victories convinced the masses that the Imperium dominion could be challenged, the ranks of the Freedom Guard swelled. Within a year the Synod had placed him in command of the entire standing army. Within three years, he had taken control of the Synod. Throughout his career as a commander, Radec was known for his refusal to take prisoners. Radec's troops fought with barbarous ferocity, and some believed this was because his soldiers were more afraid of him than they were the enemy. Radec once offered to relinquish his command to any man that could best him in a fair fight, and he was taken up on the challenge several times until he threw one of his officers out the window of a forty story Command Center on Perlen. Radec lived well past the age of twenty five. Although members of the Marked did occasionally live past their twenty fifth year, it was extremely rare and generally provided only a few extra months of life. Radec's longevity caused many to believe that the commander was super-human. Others thought that the force of his will simply would not allow him to die until he had seen the Imperium defeated. STIV BAATOR Like most Shadowhand operatives, Stiv Baator was genetically engineered from donor DNA to be ideally suited for intelligence work. From birth he was property of the Shadowhand and was trained even as an infant to excel in basic pre-cognitive functions like hand-eye coordination, reflex latency, and pattern recognition. Even among the ranks of the Shadowhand, the galaxy's most efficient and remorseless soldiers, Baator was clearly superior. By the age of 18, he had committed countless assassinations and infiltrations without a failure. Some in the upper ranks of the Shadowhand worried that Baator was too good. They feared that were he ever to defect, there was no one in the ranks of the Imperium he couldn't kill if he chose to. Those that had worked with Baator understood that this was impossible. His loyalty was absolute. He was emotionless, single-minded, and barely human. Nonetheless, the Ruling Directorate instructed the Shadowhand to assign Baator to a suicide mission. He was injected with the enzyme keys that caused the Mark and was instructed to penetrate the Freedom Guard Command. Baator was successful, but the introduction of the Mark into his system meant that he would not live past age 25 unless a counteragent to the Mark was developed. GIL KAROCH Gil Karoch, one of the leading geneticists in the entire galaxy, was recruited by the Imperium Ruling Directorate to research new strains of catalytic enzyme keys like the one used to make the Mark. The Directorate secretly planned to develop more subtle keys that would make people more intelligent, but less willful and less concerned with their own well being. They could then introduce these agents into entire populations to make them more productive and easier to control. This would require a much more advanced type of enzyme than that used to produce the Mark. Geneticists had long been able to introduce catalysts that would alter an organism at the genetic level, and therefore carry the modification into the organism's offspring. However, a change like the Mark, which made the carrier die at age 25, was a basic addition to the genetic code. Altering an intangible entity like personality or intellect was a far trickier undertaking.

Many scientists believed that thoughts and actions could not be directly mapped to physiological occurrences. Karoch, however, had meticulously recorded long term neural firing patterns within individuals, and demonstrated that for any person a model could be extrapolated from the data that would predict behavior within reasonable statistical parameters. Karoch further discovered that the behavior models of family members were surprisingly similar. Clearly, personality was at least partially inherited. For almost a decade, Karoch attempted, with enormous Imperium funding, to determine the exact genetic underpinnings of human character. As Karoch approached what he was looking for, he learned of the Ruling Directorate's plans for his work. He uncovered several experiments where genetic keys had been developed based on his findings and introduced into Imperium soldiers to make them less concerned for their own safety. Karoch was appalled when he realized the magnitude of what could be done with his research. He secretly sabotaged his work and attempted to leak a cure for the Mark, which was also being developed under his direction, to the Freedom Guard. GREGOR TRILKIN Gregor Trilkin was the youngest of four sons born to a poor nuclear technician in a small cluster of planets near the galactic rim. Gregor's mother passed away when he was an infant, and by the time Trilkin was in his early teens, all of his brothers had died of radiation related illnesses. At seventeen, Trilkin left his father, who was institutionalized and almost completely senile, and joined the Imperium Galactic Fleet. During his basic training, Trilkin gained favor with his superiors by reporting several soldiers who were distributing contraband material to the cadets. Several days later, Trilkin was savagely beaten by the same soldiers, who were subsequently court-martialed and imprisoned. Trilkin demonstrated an immediate talent for military tactics and was offered a position as an instructor at the military academy on Shenton. He refused, requesting active duty, and was placed in command of a small company of Interceptor class light warships patrolling for smugglers near the Turndorf Nebula. Within a year, almost all smuggling in the region had been eliminated. Imperium law allowed for immediate execution of any individual caught trading illegal goods, but the provision was almost never exercised. Some regions survived on black market trade, and most policing officials simply ignored the practice. Trilkin, however, did not. He captured dozens of smugglers and executed them all. By the time the Freedom Guard revolution began, Trilkin had reached the rank of colonel. While many Imperium officers wished to avoid combat duty, Trilkin immediately requested front line duty. In the early years of the conflict, the Freedom Guard was poorly equipped and unorganized, and Trilkin dealt them crushing defeats whenever he was able to engage their forces squarely. What Trilkin lacked in tactical subtlety, he made up for with unflagging tenacity and merciless brutality. Trilkin was quickly promoted to general and shortly thereafter was the driving force behind The Purge. As the Freedom Guard began to enjoy its first military victories, pressure was high within Imperium ranks to find scapegoats. Trilkin accused several of his fellow commanders of being Freedom Guard sympathizers. Although there was no evidence to support his indictment, the men were discharged, and the phenomenon quickly spread. Eventually hundreds of high ranking Imperium officials and military commanders were accused of treason. Most of the accused were relieved of office, and a number were even executed. At the age of 32, after less than 15 years in the military, Trilkin was placed in charge of the entire Imperium armed forces. One of Trilkin's first acts in his new position was to commission the creation of a super weapon to put a final end to the Freedom Guard. A little over a year later, Imperium scientists developed the Desiccator. GERHAD BANTRILL Gerhad Bantrill was the son of an Imperium senator. At age 18 he joined the Imperium Army, but retired four years later shortly after an incident in the Calderine system when he ordered the slaughter of a group of Marked workers who had escaped from an agricultural labor colony. He then studied political and military history at the great University of Utrecht where he graduated with honors. Bantrill's family pushed him to move into politics, but he took a position as a professor at a university on Teron instead. Bantrill was a great orator, and his reputation grew within the intellectual community. At age 37 he was made president of the Central University Alliance and established the Great Library Cycle.

Unknown to most of Bantrill's friends and colleagues, he had become increasingly disenchanted with the Imperium regime and had organized a small group of politicians and intellectuals who were running an underground for escaped members of the Marked class. When the revolution began, Bantrill was still living on Teron, and he established the Freedom Guard resistance there. For this act a bounty was placed on his head by the Imperium Ruling Directorate, of which his father was now a member. Bantrill recruited the young Jeb Radec to lead his forces, and the two became good friends. Eventually Radec and Bantrill came to control the Synod and guide the fate of the entire Freedom Guard cause. While Radec was the military commander and had ultimate authority, Bantrill was the Freedom Guard's great orator and diplomat, and Radec entrusted him with all matters of negotiation and administration. BENTH MARTEL Benth Martel was the son of decorated Imperium General JT Martel. From early youth, Benth was trained in the finest military academies. In his late twenties, Martel published a treatise titled "Modern Ground Tactics." The volume was the first detailed analysis on the effects of hover technology on ground based engagement strategy, and it almost immediately became standard reference material for military officers around the galaxy. Freedom Guard Commander Gerhad Bantrill called Martel "one of the most remarkable military minds of our age." Martel and Bantrill faced each other in the siege of Resnick. Although outnumbered nearly four to one and without supplies, Martel was able to hold the city for over six weeks until reinforcements arrived. Martel was also one of the few Imperium Generals to ever defeat Freedom Guard Commander Radec in combat. Shortly after General Trilkin was placed in charge of the entire war effort, Colonel Martel was recalled from front line duty and was assigned to escort supply convoys. Although most of his colleagues understood that Martel had been reassigned because Trilkin feared his subordinate's reputation and ability, Martel accepted his duty without hesitation, stating "In the battle to preserve order, no role is insignificant." UNIT SPECIFICATIONS Freedom Guard: Infantry o Raider o Mercenary o Scout o Sniper o Infiltrator o Flak Jack o Field Medic o Mechanic o Saboteur o Martyr Freedom Guard: Vehicles o Spider Bike o Skirmish Tank o Triple Hover Rail o Tank Hunter o Sky Bike o Outrider o Hellstorm Artillery o Phase Tank FREEDOM GUARD: INFANTRY RAIDER Type: March Speed: Slow Weapon: Dobek Heavy Laser Rifle Range: Short Armor: Light o Rapid Armored Transport o Phase Runner Imperium: Infantry o Guardian o Bion o Exterminator o Infiltrator o Amper Imperium: Vehicles o Scout Runner o Plasma Tank o Tachyon Tank o Cyclone o Shredder o S.C.A.R.A.B. o Invader Troop Transport o Mobile Air Defense o Sky Fortress o Hostage Taker

"Raider" is the kindest of the labels employed by the Imperium Directorate to generally describe Freedom Guard ground units. Over time, it was a label that the standard Freedom Guard infantry came to wear proudly. Raiders were also the first units supplied with remote phasing transceivers. These devices allowed them to use the Freedom Guard's most revolutionary technology: solid phase transportation. "Phasing", as it is more commonly known, creates an electron field around a specified body or object, allowing it to "sink into" objects of low to medium density as if they were liquid. (A phase-equipped unit could not, for instance, phase into a steel wall, but could phase into the ground.) While the Freedom Guard devised a number of fighting techniques and technologies, the phaseequipped Raider remained the backbone of the Freedom Guard war effort for the duration of the conflict. MERCENARY: THE STORY OF JON BARD Type: March Speed: Slow Weapon: 10J Shoulder Mount Rail Gun Range: Short Armor: Medium

While greatly outnumbered and under-equipped, the Freedom Guard was not without its powerful benefactors. Indeed, it soon became clear to the Imperium directorate that for the Freedom Guard to produce material and soldiers at the rate they were demonstrating, they must be enjoying substantial outside help. And it was no secret that any of a number of large colonial manufacturing and shipping operations might well see the potential of the Imperium's loss of direct control over their day to day affairs as a positive development. It was in fact the case that one such large shipping concern did decide to secretly aid the Freedom Guard. They recognized that the principal thing the Freedom Guard lacked, other than equipment, was experienced fighters - and they knew just where to find them. Renowned for his feats of strength and cunning, the fiery Jon Bard had become a legend throughout much of the galaxy. Bard had been trained in the Imperium military and was in fact a young officer on a transport ship when he made the most fateful decision of his life. When his ship came into port in Peyrak, he found that several of the items being unloaded from the hold did not appear on his manifest. Upon investigation, he discovered several crates containing neat stacks of humans who were being shipped, frozen, to some nearby mining colonies. There they would drone away in caves in a condition of virtual slavery. Horrified by the discovery of this secret cargo, Bard ordered the crates reloaded. He then single-handedly seized control of the ship, killing the captain and physically throwing his crewmates out onto the loading platform. Once away, he "thawed" the captive passengers who instantly became his first followers. For years Bard and his group lived as fugitives and as such were forced to train themselves to always be prepared for combat. When they were approached by Encryton Shipping about joining the Freedom Guard war effort as guns for hire, Bard and his band readily assented. It was in fact Jon Bard who introduced the Freedom Guard to the effectiveness of the Rail Gun, and it was this type of weapon that Bard's Mercenaries used to deadly effect for the remainder of the conflict. SCOUT Type: March Speed: Medium Weapon: None Range: SN/C Armor: Light

The Freedom Guard Synod recognized early in their struggle against the Imperium that they would never be able to match their enemy's armored might. Instead, they focused their efforts on the development of alternate stealth technologies. An entire secret research facility, Ascension Labs, was constructed for this purpose. Their investigation of energized holoshielding produced a way to project a kind of 360 degree holographic image in a confined area, allowing units to "disguise" themselves as other objects. The image field is projected from a kind of special energy suit. The earliest models of these were distributed to troops involved in scouting and reconnaissance actions and permitted the wearer to "morph" into virtually any similarly sized inanimate object.

SNIPER Type: March Speed: Medium Weapon: 10J Site-fitted Rail Gun Range: Long Armor: Light

The Synod found it useful to develop a team of specialized sharpshooters to cut down on the Imperium's ability to spread out their infantry over a wide area. These Snipers were outfitted with the same "morphing" equipment as Freedom Guard Scouts. INFILTRATOR Type: March Speed: Medium Weapon: None Range: SN/C Armor: Light

Employing a hybrid of the Freedom Guard's earliest morphing technology, Infiltrators can create an "active holoshield" around themselves using a very specialized energy suit. The Infiltrator's device is sufficiently focused that it can create an image that exactly matches the contours of the user, allowing him take on the appearance of other people. This breakthrough was immediately put to the test by Freedom Guard intelligence agents, who used it to infiltrate the Imperium's hover research center on Malik. FLAK JACK Type: March Speed: Slow Weapon: Twin Hailstorm Chaff Launchers Range: Long Armor: Light

The Freedom Guard's ingenuity was constantly put to the test in their attempts to figure out new ways to create vehicles and weapons using the limited materials available to them. One of their more clever creations was a small anti-aircraft unit that came into being when in the middle of their attack on Ternalin, Freedom Guard general Lineas Drey, desperate to fend off marauding Imperium Cyclones, had makeshift chaff launchers strapped to the shoulders of Construction Rigs. This arrangement was soon standardized and the Freedom Guard continued to manufacture these "Flak Jacks" for the remainder of the war. FIELD MEDIC Type: March Speed: Slow Weapon: None Range: SN/C Armor: Light

The Freedom Guard did the best they could to save the lives of their wounded soldiers in their grim war against the monolithic Imperium. Field Medics were mostly volunteers with limited medical training who braved storms of plasma fire to get to injured troops and, if possible, return them to fighting condition. Many Field Medics drew criticism for a seeming lack of compassion when treating patients, but battle after battle of bandaging wounds and re-attaching arms could make anyone jaded. MECHANIC Type: March Speed: Slow Weapon: None Range: SN/C Armor: Light

While the Freedom Guard often ran up against shortages in men and armaments, one thing they had in good supply was skilled mechanics and field technicians. This was due in part to the fact that so many of the Freedom Guard's number were descended from the old Exploratory Corps, which through bravery and ingenuity colonized the galaxy. By necessity, members of the Exploratory Corps over the years achieved a high level of technical self-sufficiency, and this tradition has been carried on in the Mechanic Corps of the Freedom Guard.

SABOTEUR Type: March Speed: Slow Weapon: None Range: SN/C Armor: Light

A number of Freedom Guard mechanics actually had pre-war experience working on Imperium machinery and equipment. Their knowledge of Imperium construction technology meant in many cases that they knew precisely how to quickly damage Imperium facilities. MARTYR Type: March Speed: Medium Range: None Weapon: Concussive Plasma Detonator (variable grade) Armor: Light

It was in the Freedom Guard's desperate defense of their water processing facilities on Kendrick that the tradition of Freedom Guard suicide bombers was born. One badly wounded Raider, Kit Aphaus, considered his position as he crouched in a ditch waiting for the medics to arrive. What was the point of the medics risking their lives to get to him and then wasting their precious supplies on him? He was nearly twenty-five years old, and because he was among the "marked", he would soon die anyway. Then a desperate idea came to him. He had with him several of the concussion detonators he and his group had been hoping to attach to the bottoms of Tachyon Tanks as they hovered by. This strategy had failed, but maybe his new idea would work. If he was going to die anyway, why not take as many Imperium troops and vehicles as he could with him. With a defiant yell, he suddenly sprang up from his ditch with three detonators and ran screaming toward a mass of Imperium tanks and Guardians. His comrades looked up from their hiding places, fascinated and horrified by their own identification with the feelings that must have driven their friend to such a desperate action. Suddenly, there was a gigantic, bright plasma blast. The ground shook. Half dozen Guardians were strewn in pieces in the pass below, and a Tachyon Tank was flipped over on its turret. In response, a cloud of Bions and Guardians emerged into the pass like angry bees.\n\n "That's it!" cried the group leader, "We're goin'". Following his lead, each Raider deactivated his phasing transceiver and ran straight into the Imperium ranks. Several were cut down by Bion fire on the way, but many made it through. The massive explosion could be seen from the portals of Imperium ships in orbit above the planet. After the battle, Aphaus and his comrades were accorded the highest honors and were even designated as Martyrs for the Cause. In ensuing battles, a number of marked 24-year-old Freedom Guard soldiers followed their examples. These suicide runs in fact came to be seen as the most honorable way to die, and Freedom Guard Martyrs remained a serious base defense problem for the Imperium for the rest of the conflict. FREEDOM GUARD: VEHICLES SPIDER BIKE Type: On Special Wheels Speed: High Weapon: Two 30J Berrik Rail Guns Range: Medium Armor: Medium Propulsion: Duff 540G Lowpiper engine

Spider Bikes first appeared in the early days of the uprisings around the remote settlement of New Star Colony on Gilwoch in 2589. The Bikes were constructed to take maximum advantage of the steep grades of Gilwoch's rough, hill-rippled terrain. So successful were their relentless lightning raids that the Imperium, whose hover tanks were helpless to pursue the insurgents up the winding slopes, was forced to abandon Gilwoch for good three years later. SKIRMISH TANK Type: On track land rails Speed: Medium Weapon: Twin Arclaunch missile launchers Range: Medium Armor: Medium Propulsion: Hurveth 7.2 Rider

Eccentric tinkerer Ravor Hurveth was originally a designer of agricultural machinery on Teron in the years before the Freedom Guard uprising. As the war expanded, Hurveth was approached by his younger brother Jom, a Freedom Guard officer, about the possibility of developing some kind of armored vehicle that could provide sufficient support for his troops that they could stand and fight against Imperium Plasma Tanks. Hurveth agreed to try to put something together using parts from some of his heavytracked land clearing equipment. The result was the sturdy, versatile little Skirmish Tank, which Hurveth outfitted with twin rotating missile launchers. Many Skirmish Tanks came to be affectionately referred to by their drivers as "Hurveys". TRIPLE HOVER RAIL TANK Type: Hover Speed: Medium Weapon: Three 50J Berrik Rail Guns Range: Long Armor: Heavy Propulsion: Arenson Resistance Engine

Waveloader

While rumors had circulated for months in the halls in the Imperium Directorate that key schematics for a new style of hover vehicle had been intercepted by Freedom Guard infiltrators during the raid on Malik, Imperium commanders were nonetheless stunned when rail gun armed Freedom Guard tanks using hover technology suddenly appeared skimming over the sulfurous sludge of the Waerlmarsh lake on Teedan. The new Triple Rail Hover Tanks easily wiped out a squad of Plasma tanks that regularly guarded the convoys of Hover Freighters ferrying freshwater over the marsh to the central launch site in Hobeth. TANK HUNTER Type: On track land rails Speed: Medium Weapon: Fieldwall Spitcharger Range: Medium Armor: Medium Propulsion: Hurveth 7.2 Rider

When first introduced, Imperium Plasma Tanks boasted such great weapon range and such heavy armor that they often went into action without infantry or air support. They seemed virtually invincible. It was a year before the Freedom Guard was able to counter, but when they did, the results were dramatic. It was during the Imperium's Rehnnish counter-offensive that a column of Plasma Tanks on patrol in the narrow lanes of the "haunted forest" of Yepradii were suddenly overwhelmed by what one Imperium survivor of the encounter described as "rolling sheets of lightning". What wiped out the armored column was in fact a new kind of Freedom Guard vehicle equipped with a short range electrostatic weapon that crippled the Imperium's field absorption armor. These quick little scorpion-like monsters could be devastating in close combat, but their powerful weapon had extremely short range and was therefore most effective in confined areas. SKY BIKE Type: Aerial Speed: High Weapon: Twin Stip Mini-Missile Launchers Range: Short Armor: Light Propulsion: Airvorc Streamjet

Ravor Hurveth's Skirmish Tank design was so lauded that the odd little inventor was next asked to figure out a way to make a "flying Spider Bike". Hurveth's design was clean and elegant. The heavy wheels and spring axles were removed from the bike body, and strong, lightweight berrite wings were added. Common Streamjet engines, standard equipment on many recreational vehicles, were installed in the rear. The first models also carried rail guns, but their firing mechanism caused so much in-flight instability that they had to be replaced with high-velocity Stip missiles. OUTRIDER Type: Aerial Speed: High Weapon: Boardog Missiles Range: Short Armor: Heavy Propulsion: Airvorc Skywinder

In addition to the darting Sky Bikes, the Freedom Guard Synod determined they would also need some heavier aircraft to help break up columns of Imperium armor at long range. At first they were skeptical of the plans presented to them by Fenton Duchslyn, whose design appeared unflightworthy. A corps of brave volunteers was recruited to test pilot his odd fixed-wing fliers. Much to the Synod's surprise and relief, the new craft, though awkward looking, performed acceptably and easily pummeled their practice targets. The young pilots who tested them bound themselves together in a kind of fraternity, dubbing themselves "the outriders", and the name soon came to be identified with the aircraft themselves. (Many of these courageous young pilots were lost during the Freedom Guard's attempt to break the siege of Indra.) For the remainder of the war, Freedom Guard infantry hemmed in by Imperium armor would regularly call in airstrikes, knowing that the Outrider "cavalry" would soon be on its way to rescue them. HELLSTORM ARTILLERY Type: On track land rails Speed: Slow Weapon: K900 Range Warden Howitzer Range: Extreme Armor: Medium Propulsion: Duff C70 Crawler

It became clear after the advent of the Tachyon Tank that Imperium forces were best engaged at long range. During their successful attack on Corlbad, the Freedom Guard encountered little-used Imperium S.C.A.R.A.B.s (mobile heavy artillery), and it occurred to them that it made perfect sense for them to develop this type of long-range weaponry for themselves. The result was "Hellstorm" Artillery, which fired a rifled fragmentation shell that had an extremely wide area of effect. The Hellstorms are vicious from great distance, but move slowly and are very lightly armored, rendering them rather hapless targets at short range. PHASE TANK Type: On track land rails Speed: Medium Weapon: Newell Heavy Laser Cannons Range: Medium Armor: Light Propulsion: Duff C50 Grinder

The ultimate tool for ambushing, Phase Tanks were modified versions of the Freedoms Guard's earliest armored vehicle model, the T1 Reaper. Using the same phasing technology employed by Raiders and Barden Mercenaries, a group of them could completely nullify the range advantage of Tachyon Tanks by "popping up" right next to them. Relatively inexpensive, the Freedom Guard ended up producing large quantities of these little "barn roofed" tanks for much of the war. RAPID ARMORED TRANSPORT Type: On Wheels Speed: Medium Weapon: None Range: SN/C Armor: Medium Propulsion: Duff All-Terrain Rider

The workhorse of the Freedom Guard infantry, Rapid Armored Transports (more commonly referred to by their acronym, "Rats") can move over almost any surface, including water. (Special navigation fins were added after the first production run.) The Rats can carry up to five infantry units and use a technology similar to that used by Freedom Guard Scouts that allows them to optically "blend in" with the surrounding terrain. PHASE RUNNER Type: Underground Speed: Slow Weapon: None Range: SN/C Armor: SN/C Propulsion: High EDN Field Inverter

The highest achievement in phasing technology, the Phase Transport came into being as part of the Freedom Guard's strategy for breaking through the defenses of the Imperium's Desiccator research facility on Corlbad. Hezekiah Smith, chief of development at the Freedom Guard's secret Ascension Labs, is credited with having found the way to enable a vehicle to shift the active radius of its phasing shield and therefore allow it to move through "solid" ground. Phase Transports became extremely valuable

tactical tools, but could never be used in large quantities because of the tremendous expense of building the generators that were necessary to project the Transport's inversion field. IMPERIUM: INFANTRY GUARDIAN Type: March Speed: Slow Weapon: Issue 5 Standard Laser Rifle Range: Short Armor: Light

For nearly a century, they were known as "The Guardians of Order", "Guardians of the Order", or simply "Guardians". They were the colonial police force, a faceless symbol of Imperium policy and the will to enforce it. Equipped with masked helmets, powered body armor, and years of rigorous training, the Guardians are in appearance and action the embodiment of the Order's creed: "the many as one." BION Type: March Speed: Slow Weapon: Heavy Plasma Rifle Range: Short Armor: Medium

Bions, bionetic fighting "men", were originally manufactured by Insignus in small quantities and were intended to be anti-tank units and base guards. So effective were they in their first engagements, however, that they were soon being produced in large numbers. Bions are hard to bring down and are useful against infantry, armor, air units, and even structures. EXTERMINATOR Type: Hover Suit/March Speed: Medium Weapon: Roll-lock Disalunion Grenades Range: Short Armor: Light

At first Imperium engineers were uncertain as to how to make the best use of their new acid-based metal dissolving foaming agent. The advent of hover suit troops provided the perfect delivery mechanism. The foam was packed into pressurized grenades which explode into a cloud of burning acid upon impact. The term "Exterminator" was coined by Marshal Ignatius Arryat, who often referred to Freedom Guard Spider Bikes as "little insects". INFILTRATOR Type: March Speed: Medium Weapon: None Range: SN/C Armor: Light

It was some time before several arrogant members of the Imperium Shadowhand came to accept that the Freedom Guard had in fact developed technology that they were interested in acquiring. After being outwitted on Malik in the Freedom Guard Infiltrator's theft of hoverdrive technical specs, the Shadowhand determined to use similarly equipped units to gather technical information concerning some of the new Freedom Guard innovations. Powered holofield suits were rapidly developed, and disguised Shadowhand operatives made several successful acquisitions. Most of the technology stealing, however, was still carried on by the Freedom Guard. AMPER Type: March Speed: Slow Weapon: Biodarts Range: Short Armor: Light

On the cloud-shrouded world of Amataur there is a massive edifice that dominates one of the larger islands in the phosphorescent Regen Sea. Inside is one of the Imperium Directorate's most closely guarded secrets: the Arcundrel Life Research Center. Despite its benign name, it is rumored that the center is home to some of the most deplorable human research experiments ever conceived. Many of

the technicians who staff the facility are in fact products of some of the cybernetic research that is carried on there. (It can be fairly assumed that much of the research that went into the development of Bions took place at the Arcundrel Center.) It was the Shadowhand that initially suggested to the directorate that some of the Center's research into biotoxins might be put to good use on the battlefield. Soldiers who were badly wounded could be shot full of a kind of adrenal booster, giving them a burst of fighting energy. The boosters were toxic, and ultimately fatal, but the idea was appealing to the military because it meant that engaged troops could stay in the field longer. For the delivery of the required biodarts, the Shadowhand recommended using some of the cyber genetic creations that worked in Arcundrel. Accepting the Shadowhand's suggestions, the Imperium High Command soon put into action several teams of these tri-legged, half-human monsters. In time they found that the "Ampers", as they came to be called, could even be used effectively against healthy Freedom Guard infantry. Upon seeing these creatures in battle, Freedom Guard leader Gerhad Bantrill observed, "If any are still in doubt as to the justice and urgency of our cause, they need only see this horror and the infected character of our enemy will be made undeniably plain." IMPERIUM: VEHICLES SCOUT RUNNER Type: Hover Speed: Medium Weapon: DF Set Laser Cannon Range: Medium Armor: Medium Propulsion: Nebolite Micro-reactor

Precursors of their heavier cousins the Plasma and Tachyon Tanks, the original Scout Runners had been created as armored single-manned patrol craft to support light infantry actions during the Healean disturbance on Feisis nearly twenty years before the emergence of the Freedom Guard. Refined and refitted with a new propulsion system and special long-range scanning equipment, the Scout Runner is now the perfect tool for probing enemy defenses and uncovering the strike bases of Freedom Guard raiding parties. PLASMA TANK Type: Hover Speed: Medium Weapon: 3000P Plasma Cannon Range: Medium Armor: Heavy Propulsion: Ditanium Accelerator

Plasma Tanks became the principal symbol of Imperium enforcement during the early years of the Freedom Guard uprising. Their smooth black outline was the product of the streamlined design concept that was the trademark of their manufacturer, Insignus, and gave the tanks an especially cold, inhuman appearance. TACHYON TANK Type: Hover Speed: Medium Weapon: 5000G Tachyon Cannon Range: Long Armor: Very Heavy Propulsion: Ditanium Float Reactor

The most awesome war machine ever created, by Insignus for their Imperium clients, the Tachyon Tank, with its revolutionary field-absorption armor and powerful Tachyon cannon, stood as the unchallenged behemoth of the battlefield for nearly a year until the Freedom Guard was able to counter with new technologies of their own. Even when cut off or surrounded, the Tachyon Tank is far from helpless: the Imperium high command directed that it be outfitted with a powerful nucleonic disruption self-destruct mechanism to prevent its ever being captured and replicated. CYCLONE Type: Aerial Speed: High Weapon: Wat T11 Neutron Cannon Propulsion: Pulsipher Reverse Injection Core Range: Medium Armor: Medium

Small military aircraft had been largely unnecessary for the Imperium until the advent of the Freedom Guard insurgency. In 2609, Insignus, the Imperium's principal military engineering firm, offered a new design: a light, fast attack flyer that could break and spin at full running speed and come to a dead stop in mid-air. These "Cyclones" proved the perfect tool for chasing down swift Freedom Guard Spider Bikes as they scurried back to their hilltop hide-outs after raiding expeditions. SHREDDER Type: Hover Speed: Medium Weapon: Modified Quarry-saw Range: At contact Armor: Medium Propulsion: Nebolite Airmount

Perhaps the best example of the Imperium's twisted ingenuity, the Shredder existed in fantasy before it existed in fact. As legend has it, many years ago, unruly prisoners interred at the old Jovian Detention Facility were shipped off to work in the quarries on Callisto. Those who were captured trying to escape were said to have been slowly dismembered in front of the other prisoners with the huge circular saws used to cut out large sections of the rock. (While this may have never really happened, the stories were well known to generations of misbehaving children descended from the ranks of the old Exploratory Corps.) Imperium General Feileen Hextar decided it would be clever to revive these rumors as a prelude to the introduction of the frightening new anti-infantry weapon that the old story had inspired. Many of the earlier models of Hextar's new "Shredders" were in fact manufactured using re-tooled circular quarrysaw blades. These fiendish unmanned disks of death cut down scores of Freedom Guard Raiders in their first action on Teron. S.C.A.R.A.B. Type: Hover Speed: Slow Weapon: Tarl-lined Heavy Strike-cannon Range: Extreme Armor: Medium Propulsion: Air-cooled Accelerator

Ditanium

The S.C.A.R.A.B.s (Self Contained Armored Ranged Artillery Battery) were one of the earlier projects undertaken by Insignus. They were actually little used in the first years of the conflict because Imperium commanders had such difficulty identifying fixed Freedom Guard targets at long range. In the defense of Corlbad, however, they proved to be of great value when they were used for the first time in combination with new Imperium Recon Drones, which supplied them with the necessary targeting information. S.C.A.R.A.B.s were also the first vehicle to employ Insignus' experimental exoskeletal shielding. The shield provides extremely effective protection, but is impractical for use with tanks because it prevents movement and weapon fire. INVADER TROOP TRANSPORT Type: Hover Speed: Medium Weapon: DF Set Heavy Laser Rifle Range: Short Armor: Medium Propulsion: Nebolite Micro-reactor

A common sight in all the colonial administrative districts, these sleek hover transports could rapidly bring packs of Guardians to any spot where there was trouble. Modified at the time of the Freedom Guard uprising to include a heavy turret mounted laser rifle, the Invaders were often able to wade into ranks of heavily armed Freedom Guard Mercenaries and deliver their passengers into the center of the battle. MOBILE AIR DEFENSE Type: Hover Speed: Medium Weapon: Orbitran Stingers Range: Long Armor: Light Propulsion: Ditanium Accelerator

The new M.A.D.s came off the Insignus production lines just in time to help defend Imperium tanks at the siege of Indra against airstrikes by heavy hitting Freedom Guard Outriders. The M.A.D.s weapon is of the more curious employed by the Imperium: a charged, bladed orb that could, if scoring a direct hit, cut

an Outrider or Sky Bike to pieces. Most Insignus vehicles are equipped with hover capability, and the M.A.D.s are no exception. They are excellent for defending artillery batteries from sudden air attacks. SKY FORTRESS Type: Aerial Speed: Slow Weapon: Ariax Plasma Compressor Range: Medium Armor: Heavy Propulsion: Pulsipher Read Reactor

The Imperium High Command was determined to use every weapon at their disposal to ensure that their campaign to take Gunawan was successful. To this end, they unleashed their newest air terror, the "Sky Fortress". These massive ring-shaped behemoths float over the landscape as placidly as old-style dirigibles, but this image of tranquility is shattered when they let loose a discharge from their massive plasma compression weapons. Despite its tremendous firepower, the Sky Fortress is ponderously slow and makes an easy target for ground based Freedom Guard Flak Jacks who scan the skies searching for signs of these hulking monsters looming over the horizon. HOSTAGE TAKER Type: On Wheels Speed: Medium Weapon: None/Vivisection Range: Medium Armor: Heavy Propulsion: Unknown

Despite the fact of the Directorate's growing concern over the increasingly independent activity of the Shadowhand in Imperium affairs, Imperium field commanders continue to support the cooperative use of the Shadowhand's Hostage Taker vehicles in military campaigns. Their desire to continue in this relationship stemmed in part from their frustration in trying to find a way to respond to the suicide attacks of Freedom Guard Martyrs. Representatives of the Shadowhand had promised the High Command they had a way to serve the Freedom Guard a taste of their own poison. Few details were offered. When Imperium generals expressed their reservations, the Shadowhand responded by arriving uninvited on the battlefield with a whole platoon of these evil, body-sucking monsters. "Demonstrations" were first made of a small group of Freedom Guard prisoners being guarded nearby. Almost in an instant, each man was sucked into the dark maw of the hump-backed beast. The officer in charge was incensed. "We were going to question those people!" he protested. "Questioning?" responded the unnamed Shadowhand operative. "It is fortunate for the Directorate that our methods are not so primitive. If you want to know what they knew... Ah, yes. It's coming across just now." He handed his personal console to the dumbfounded Imperium commander. "And now, observe." He gestured toward the rear of the vehicle, where one by one the men who had so recently been sucked in suddenly emerged. Each had a kind of pack strapped to his back. They did not speak and barely even twitched as they stared blankly outward. "And now," intoned the operative softly as he gently struck a key on his console. Suddenly the prisoners' eyed shot fully open and each man spun on his heel and began running full speed out of the encampment and back in the direction of the Freedom Guard's base. Moments later, loud concussions could be heard from the same direction. The officer in charge smiled at the operative, and the partnership was born. JOURNAL Togran Calendar: 102-37, 2712 I haven't slept for days. When I close my eyes horrible images seize my mind, tearing at the very tissues of my brain. I see my brethren slaughtered in giant waves of fire that sweep across the horizon. I see their broken corpses and smell their seared flesh. I feel our planet shudder under the ominous weight of the invading armies. All I have known is destroyed. Everything is stripped from me but my life. Some base instinct, some mechanical, genetic obligation to survive at any cost carried me to my ship, drew me away from the burning carcass of my home. And now here, adrift in the silent oblivion, I have found my Messiah, and he wants me to save him.

Togran Calendar: 110-15, 2712 This game of war is alien to me. I fumble to command these machines, these tools of destruction. Control escapes me. They slip though my fingers like sand. But I will learn. I will master these weapons. I will bend them to my will. I am consumed with a motivation I have never known. A new force grips me, a diamond sharp spike of fire in the bowels of my soul. I now know the savage power of hatred. Togran Calendar: 121-25, 2712 I tried to circumvent the encryption key, but the probe's mechanisms are incomprehensible to me. In fact, it doesn't seem to have any mechanisms at all. The core of the probe is made up of some inexplicable form of matter. I hesitate to even call it that. It's opaque but somehow colorless. It seems to resist my gaze, as if it rests always in the blind spot of my eye. It has no texture or temperature. In fact, I am only aware I am touching it by a complete lack of sensation wherever I come into contact with it. It's almost as if the substance is actually denying its own existence. My instruments can detect no electric, chemical or atomic activity in the material. No light, no sound, no emissions, no motion, no energy of any kind. And yet somehow it has taken control of my ship. My power reserves are untapped. Life support continues to function although my entire onboard support system is off-line. The navigation systems no longer respond to my commands, yet the ship moves safely through space on its own. Not that it matters. It's not as if I have anywhere to go. Togran Calendar: 011-07, 2713 I wonder who Togra really is. I had always thought of him as a symbol, a mythical ideal. But now it seems there is really a man behind the ideas that have formed so much of my knowledge. Does he really possess the power that history claims he has? Togran Calendar: 012-24, 2713 I have found a routine here in my new world. I have explored every angle and inch of this ship. I have seen and heard all there is to see and hear. All my needs are silently and automatically tended to. Day and night no longer exist for me. I am never hot or cold, never bored or happy. I have survived so long on nutrient injections; I no longer remember the taste or texture of food. When I feel hunger I think only of the sharp prick of the needle. I rarely sleep. My universe is contained, predictable, homogenous. Except for my mission. Strangely I only feel alive in a neural simulation of battles that are centuries old. I am becoming my purpose. I am becoming Togra's tool. I will be his vengeance. Togran Calendar: 022-51, 2713 I am finding the answers I need. Both the Imperium and Freedom Guard have flaws that I can exploit. The Imperium's armies are strong and relentless. They seek to overrun their enemy with limitless force. To err against them means certain death. But they are predictable. I have watched them attack so many times I can feel when and where they will strike. While the head of the beast is missing me I am cutting off its tail. The Freedom Guard is cleverer. They have to be. Their troops move about the battlefield like apparitions. Their attacks are swift and precise. But they rely too heavily on trickery. When their deceits fail, they are vulnerable. And I am more resourceful an opponent than they have faced. Togran Calendar: 030-14, 2713 I have changed. All the peace is gone from my soul, and, to be honest, I don't miss it. The strength I once knew strength of will and patience has been replaced by a cheaper but more satisfying strength, strength of action, strength of deeds. I am no longer fighting to save Togra, or to save my way of life, or even to save myself. I am fighting simply because I enjoy it. Togran Calendar: 042-11, 2713 What will become of me if I succeed? Will Togra be able to send me back to my own time and place? Would I even want to go back? Or will all of this change history enough that my home will not even exist when I am through?

Togran Calendar: 061-03, 2713 Supplies are running low. I can survive only a few more weeks, I think. It should be long enough. I will succeed or die at these controls. Togran Calendar: 062-19, 2713 The end of all this is near. In a way, none of it seems real. It is hard to believe that I am going to travel through this wormhole or dimensional portal or whatever it is that Togra has devised for me. It is unfathomable that I am to lead an army into this great conflict, that my actions may alter the substance of time. Sometimes I fear that I have gone mad, that my body lies drooling and wracked with spasms, strapped to a bed in some institution while my mind conjures this whole lunatic phantasm of war and time travel and lost prophets. On the other hand, what is happening to me seems more real than anything I have ever experienced. Togran Calendar: 062-41, 2713 Galactic war and dimensional portals are all fine and good, but I could sure go for some pie. Togran Calendar: 062-42, 2713 I have found my way. I am honed, vicious, prepared. I feel their machines of war flow though me like my very blood. I can focus them to a knife's edge. Their implements are simple, their motivations transparent, their methods mundane. I can control their armies better than they can. I will strangle them with their own hand. I will fulfill my destiny.