The Vortex Rifts Mechanoids



 Corumbrun Alliance History
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Game Background

As part of my Rifts campaign I needed to develop a transferred robot intelligence for a new player character. The robot had to come from a high tech culture and something had to happen that would cause the intelligence/soul of the character to be transferred into the robot. In addition I also wanted to give the players more information on the swarm depicted in the dreams they'd been having - I do not necessarily follow the Palladium timeline and things progress at a pace I dictate, which is why the campaign is now upto January 1st 102 P.A. (as of 22/04/2002). This entailed the character coming from a race that had met the Mechanoids and survived.
So I made up the race (name only at this stage), some background, and had the robot rifted to Earth as the result of a reactor explosion. Thrown into the mix was the sudden reappearance of a Mechanoid Mothership in the system where the robot/character was from. And here I left things

Now at the RPG Club I help run, we've been playing Mechanoids as part of the rota for a few years. The Game is run on a modified Gideon-E scenario from the 1985 print of "The Mechanoids®" (two of us are lucky enough to have copies). At the start of this year (2002) we started another seven week slot of the game, and four weeks in a few ideas started to circulate in my brain. What follows is the intro to what I've called Rifts Mechanoids, but before I get into that, there are a couple of things I need to clear up first.

1) Rifts Mechanoids is not the Mechanoids on Rifts Earth, but I am using the Mechanoids from Rifts Source Book2.

2) Rifts Mechanoids is a mega-damage game, using my revised ratio of 1M.D.C=10S.D.C, my armour rating rules, initiative rules, the optional range combat rules from Rifter11, and a modified version of the new range combat rules introduced by our Mechanoids G.M.

3) All the races are new and humanoid. Magic exists but is equivalent to the level of magic in Beyond The Supernatural. Psionics are uncommon but accepted, as are a subset of the super-powers from Skraypers/Heros Unlimited (2nd Edition). Occasional dimensional visitors are accepted, mainly Atlanteans, Titans, and Rahu-men. Humans are super-rare and dragons are unknown - at least their presence is to 98% of the population. Technology is prevalent, and highly advanced - equal to or above that of the Naruni from Phase World. There is no known connection to the Three Galaxies or Phase World.

And
4) This site will only develop as I run the campaign, so you'll all have to be patient as I don't want to give too much away to the players - who are quite capable of finding this site and reading it!

I hope you all enjoy what is to come.

Corumbrum Alliance History

About 650 years ago three of the races that now make up the Corumbrum Alliance achieved viable FTL space travel and began expanding. The first encounters were between the Qovgem and the Corum, about 605 years ago. After a few minor clashes the Corum and Qovgem settled into a state of uneasy truce and minor border infractions, and the Qovgem turned their attention elsewhere. In the meantime the Shybutto had encountered and subjugated the Thakoz, and were busy expanding their empire towards the Qovgem.

A mis-jump by a Qovgem exploration vessel, about 450 years ago resulted in the discovery of the Thakoz home world, and a very close encounter with a Shybutto system defense frigate. Severely outgunned, but significantly more maneuverable and faster the Qovgem managed to stay out of range long enough to make hasty repairs on the jump drive and jump away. What followed was 50 years of war as the Qovgem fought to free the Thakoz from the Shybutto tyranny. It was a war neither side could win. The Qovgem whilst technologically superior couldn't match the resources of the Thakoz, and the Thakoz couldn't inflict a decisive enough blow to end the war as they were by now fighting on two fronts. In the end the war degenerated into a very uneasy stalemate with frequent border raids.

Realising they couldn't win and that with time they would be overcome the Qovgem began negotiating an alliance with the Corum. Unknown to all three, the swarm, later identified the Mechanoids had been infiltrating the galaxy for over 100years. The Mechanoids discovered the Shybutto first and slowly began destroying their colonies. An arrogant warrior race the Shybutto refused to stop the war with their inferiors until it was almost too late. By the time they sued for peace with the Qovgem and Corum, only 23 of their colony worlds remained intact, and by the time the Mechaoids left this would be reduced to a palty 7.

The Qovgem were on the verge of signing the alliance when they first encountered the Mechanoids. To the Mechanoids the Qovgem were like a red rag to a bull. Virtually identical in appearance to their creators the Mechaoids stopped their attacks on the Thakoz and threw every thing at the Qovgem. 20 Qovgem worlds and 14 Corum worlds fell in the first 5 years (the Shybutto had lost over 90 in the previous 15 years) as the now allied Corum and Qovgem fought to slow the Mechanoids. Five more years of warfare saw the loss of another 12 Qovgem worlds, 8 Corum worlds, and 7 Shybutto worlds, but the advance had been slowed and the Corum and Qovgem were now only losing 2 worlds a year between them. Seeing the destruction wrought by the Mechanoids and with them now attacking Shybutto worlds, the Shybutto sued for peace with the Qovgem and Corum, and the Corumbrum Alliance was formed.

Fifty long years of warfare followed, then one night 203 years ago the Mechanoids no longer attacked. Instead they turned tail and bolted for their mother ships. Hundreds of thousands died in the initial rout, and millions more followed as they fought passage for their motherships to escape. When the Corumbrum mamanged to corner a mothership less than 1% of the attacking forces survived the encounter.

It had taken the Mechanoids 160 years to devour 10% of the Corumbrum Galaxy. It took just three weeks for them to leave.

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Rifts®, The Mechanoids®, Megaverse®, Beyond the Supernatural®, Heros Unlimited® and Palladium Books® are registered trademarks owned and licensed by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books, Inc.

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© 2002 Kevin Siembieda; © 2002 Palladium Books®, All rights reserved world wide.
No part of this work may be reproduced in part or whole, in any form or by any means, without permission from the publisher.
All incidents, situations, institutions, governments and people are fictional and any similarity to characters or persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.