Alternity Campaign: Task Force Saber

The Story

The situation becomes worse late in the 21st Century when the earth is struck by a massive cosmic object.  The resulting Great Impact decimates a large portion of Antarctica and plunges the world into an environmental crisis.  Flooding and global atmospheric change cause great physical and economic destruction worldwide.  The catastrophe worsens just a few months later when Tokyo is destroyed by what is reported as the Second Great Impact.  Across the globe it is the multinational corporations that step in to salvage humanity, selling more “service contracts” to clean up the environment, provide the terrified populations with food and water, and rebuild damaged cities.  The corporations are capable of succeeding in this daunting task only by producing an enormous workforce of advanced androids.  Although they existed prior to the “Great Impact”, androids were limited in number and ability—prohibitively expensive and with only primitive artificial intelligence.  But within a year after the “Second Great Impact”, robotics corporations such as Gen-Tech make incredible leaps forward in android technology.  Within a decade after the “Second Great Impact”, highly intelligent androids of amazingly diverse design (some looking more like machines or vehicles and others nearly indistinguishable from human beings) are found in every city.

Although humanity gladly accepts androids into the labor force long enough to repair the global damage and rebuild the economy, many humans resent their widespread infusion into the world population.  Anti-android violence breaks out.  In many cities around the world, secretive anti-android militias are formed to kill androids and sabotage their production centers.  At the same time the violence increases (and perhaps because of it, some argue), androids around the world suddenly begin going crazy, randomly attacking humans and causing tremendous damage (especially those androids designed for a military capacity).  Radical anti-android militias band together to form the United Front of Man (UFM); within weeks androids begin coordinating attacks against human cities.  Denouncing this United Android Rebellion, frightened cities call upon the United Nations and the corporation defense forces to take action.

Although corporate military forces make some effort to defend the cities and are even seen fighting groups of rebel androids, individual androids are still going mysteriously berserk.  National governments even begin to wonder if some of the multinational corporations are involved in the android rebellion—or are maybe even behind it.  The United Nations Security Council secretly orders NATO to form a covert military force to carry out black-ops missions against renegade androids—and renegade corporations.  The result, established with secret funding from every national government remaining in the UN, is Task Force Saber.  Armed with the latest, most expensive military technology (some of it pirated from corporate military forces and improved by loyal government scientists), Task Force Saber is an elite military strike team made up of the best military officers from all member nations.

The secret weapon of Task Force Saber is cybertech, the process of merging human physiology with advanced electronic technology.  Reportedly based on android design data stolen from Gen-Tech or Micro-Tech, cybertech provides Task Force Saber with soldiers who possess enhanced android power along with human creativity and emotions.  All officers serving in Task Force Saber are individually funded by their national governments.  Required to rent equipment and pay for all technical services, an officer can no longer serve in Task Force Saber once funding is gone.  Led by a commanding officer (who holds the rank of Brigadier General) appointed directly by the NATO General Staff, all officers in Task Force Saber are considered members solely of that organization and receive their ranks and promotions from the task-force hierarchy.  All new recruits begin at the rank of Second Lieutenant, but they can be promoted to other standard ranks up to Colonel.
 

Timeline

Player's Guide to Task Force Saber -- Characters, Funding, Technology and More General Knowledge
Gamemaster's Guide to Task Force Saber -- The Plot Line (if you will be a PC in a TFS game, do not read this)
 

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