Stan Bundy's world of Riftech (version 2.0) - WIP
Dec 5, 2013 4:36:12 GMT
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RIFTECH:
An Alternate Campaign Setting Combining the Robotech and Rifts RPGs.
By Stanley S. Bundy
Version 2.0.x (Lots of revision and new stuff to come)
Introduction:
This work is based on the following premise:
What if the events of the middle part of the Macross segment of Robotech (episodes #13-27) happened (on the average) six weeks earlier than they did in the series/original RPG (the Tom Bateman/Tommy Yune Timeline is not only dead wrong, it would have resulted in a total cast kill several times), culminating in Dolza's attack taking place on the Summer Solstice of 2011?
What if such an attack triggered the eruption of ley lines and rifts on the Robotech Earth?
The resulting planet would be far different from both ancestral RPGs worlds, yet retain certain elements of both. In fact, the post-apocalyptic nature of both RPGs makes their combination even seem natural. The following work is a result of this combination.
Note: I mean no infringement on the rights of Palladium Books by the creation of this rules supplement. In fact, one must have most of the Robotech and Rifts books, as well as the basic books for Beyond the Supernatural, Ninjas & Superspies, and either Heroes Unlimited or TMNT in order to run a Riftech campaign, which means that many users of this supplement will have to buy more Palladium products, increasing the profits of Palladium. BTW, Harmony Gold can kiss my shiny metal ass....
I dedicate this work to Kevin Siembieda, whom I accidentally acquired my copy of Robotech RPG Book One from at Marcon 23, and to Miles, David, Danny, Brian, Glenn and Jimmy, my Riftech Guinea pigs.
Chronology
Note that, based on the chosen start date for a particular campaign, events listed may be altered by the GM. Events marked "*" are usually unalterable, except by radical player action.
Early June, 2011*: Max and Miriya's duel and marriage (Episodes #24-25).
Late June, 2011*: Breetai sends Exedore as an emissary to the SDF-1 (Episode #26). Dolza's fleet arrives, and bombards the planet on the Summer Solstice. Ironically, the Zentraedi used landmarks as aiming points, and one of the first objects destroyed is the Gateway Arch in St. Louis; this prevents the rifts that later occur there from bonding with it(and becoming permanent}. Many other monolithic sites are also hit, and much Protoculture-originated energy is pumped into the Earth's ley line network, along with the P.P.E. of the 5 billion persons killed by the bombardment. The ley lines flare, causing further natural disasters that kill half of the remaining population.
At least 10 Zentraedi ships are downed not by Grand Cannon fire, as would be first thought (it hadn't opened fire yet), but by other-dimensional Nazcans, on a pilgrimage to their ancestral home and in a perfect position to take advantage of the line surges to activate ALL of the Nazca line creatures!
At the same time as the first attacks began hitting Earth, scientists in the Robotech Research labs at Hiroshima were activating an experiment, based off data returned to Earth by their colleague Emil Lang. The project was an attempt to teleport/fold an object point-to-point inside a planetary gravity well. Instead, all of southern Honshu (from Kobe south to the straight between Honshu & Kyushu) and the island of Shikoku "disappear". Actually, the land masses end up in the astral plane, replaced by other-dimensional counterparts from a parallel Earth, which were already lifeless (later dimensional investigation proved it to be from the Macross: Do You Remember Love? universe, which had been been wiped out by Zentraedi forces in late 2009). The cities are stranded in the astral plane, bordering their previous location, but with time passing 1/1000 as fast as in the real world. None of the cities are actually hit by the attacks.
At the Grand Cannon, the power readings go off the scale, and this power is put to immediate use against the fleet, until damage causes it to shut down. Unlike its "normal" Robotech counterpart, the complex survives, but radiation leaks cause it to be abandoned, along with a mistaken belief that the cannon triggered the ley lines, held by many for years afterward. The cannon personnel evacuate to the deepest levels, and are rescued by Skull Squadron after the battle. The Cannon is more effective than the original history's Cannon (due to the energy influx), setting the stage for a more decisive victory over the remnants of Dolza's fleet by the combined forces of Breetai and the SDF-1. After the battle, 98% of the Zentraedi are dead, and most of the 2 billion Zentraedi survivors were either crewmen aboard the surviving ships or elite mecha pilots. Even so, only 5 Zentraedi ships were left that were completely spaceworthy. The SDF-1 was severely damaged, and it sets down in a blast crater along the US/Canada border, while the surviving 50,000 Zentraedi ships were corralled at Lagrange Point Five. The crew of most were pulled off and placed aboard those ships still capable of planetary landing. Those 5000 ships were landed in the Southlands; most would never fly again. Those left in space were stripped of useful equipment, and were landed by skeleton crews around the SDF-2's lunar construction site.
July-August 2011*: To help end the worldwide famine, one of the first acts of the post-attack RDF is to send technical teams to the moon to retrieve the nutrient processors from the downed ships. This, combined with the micronization of all non-essential Zentraedi personnel (those not serving as Fighter Pod, Officers Pod or Power Armor pilots, and doubling as construction workers), most of the remaining human populace survives. A planetary census reports a population of 3.3 billion, 60% of which are Zentraedi. The world's climate is a major worry for the RDF and surviving governmental fragments, as the Grand Cannon's firing, gravitational effects from the fleet, and possible other factors (orbital wobbles from Atlantis reappearing, for example) had shifted Earth's axis of rotation from the middle of the Arctic Ocean, to the sea between Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya - added on top of the volcanoes' ejecta,and the loss of Panama and re-emergence of Atlantis throwing the oceanic currents into chaos, no two climatologists could agree on the final impact.
Dr. Lang and Exedore discover that those ships that landed on ley lines(at this point, still known only as "those mysterious blue energy bands") are using only about 50% of their Protoculture than normal. Further research confirms that the ley line energy is virtually identical to Protoculture energy as it comes out of a power matrix (as opposed to how it is actually utilized - most mecha on both sides converted most of that energy into electricity for various subsystems).
The Incan Gods wake up/return to Earth, and set up the new Empire of the Sun to aid the descendants of their original worshipers.
September 2011*: Reports from Mexico indicate that the Yucatan Peninsula has disappeared, yet is still accessible by land only. Other reports come in concerning the return of Atlantis - from where, no one knows, as the island continent's contours bear no resemblance to the pre-attack sea bottom. Only passing surveys are made initially, as more pressing concerns are present than studying a lifeless continent.
Miriya Sterling becomes ill at a party, discovers that she is pregnant.
On the Autumnal Equinox, the first rifts open, bringing both mages (mostly shifters) and demons. Some of the mages actually contact authorities, but most of the things that come through the rifts are hostile. Hundreds of civilian lives are lost in the next few days, mostly in New Detroit, where several rifts open inside the city limits. Two ley line walkers and a shifter aid the RDF in the subdual of a demon horde at a rift in the Calgary ruins, north of New Macross, and learn of Earth's inexperience in dealing with magic and psionics. The ley line walkers remain to instruct others in the use of magic, while the shifter goes for reinforcements.
Zentraedi capture and hold part of Atlantis from the Splugorth forces, who had been in the process of invading when discovered on the Equinox. Over two million Zentraedi are killed in the process, compared to ten million Kydian and Kittani soldiers. The attack from beyond is aborted when a partially functional Zentraedi monitor (incapable of reaching orbit) was flown over from North America, and fired its reflex cannon through the largest rift, tearing a wide swath through the city on the other side (and, unbeknownst to the Zentraedi, killing the Splugorth ruler of that planet). Florida, Cuba and Puerto Rico are occupied by the Zentraedi in order to keep a constant watch over the Bermuda Triangle area, as the Bahamas and Bermuda were rendered uninhabitable by the Triangle's dangers, while the RDF finally starts exploring the ruins on the dead continent, thinking they might have a connection to the invasion. This battle results in a large number of captured weapons both magical and technological, the latter resulting in many crash programs to reverse engineer the energy weapons and armor technology.
The rifts on Atlantis continue to open a few at a time, sporadically, as the Splugorth send scouting forces to attempt to establish a beachhead, making ruins exploration a hazardous detail. However, the human and Zentraedi forces guarding the archaeologists quickly adopt weapons taken from their fallen foes to fight the invaders.
October 2011*: More other-dimensional mages and psychics arrive, act mostly as advisors for the RDF. Those Zentraedi having the hardest time adapting to Terran society are offered clemency in exchange for joining the "demon" containment force on Atlantis. Azonia, who was becoming disenchanted with micronian lifestyles, is given command of these forces, which boosts her morale considerably. Eventually, she convinces Khyron to join her group, planning on leading their forces through a rift to conquer whatever lies there, and caring less what happens to the Earth afterward.
November 2011*: Two-month-old reports from the Yucatan reach New Macross, hinting at the existence of vampires, which are generally dismissed by the RDF.
December 2011*: As the Solstice nears, researchers find True Atlantean survivors hidden in the few surviving nexus control pyramids, including several Stone Masters (though, so much time had passed that some of them had aged almost 20 years). The stories the Atlanteans relate are horrifying, of a magical disaster that eventually ripped Atlantis from reality over a period of several centuries, with the eventual failure to prevent the loss of the continent resulting in its evacuation, even as demonic and vampiric forces repeatedly tried to invade. In the end, the defense of the nexus points kept the evacuation from being completed, and anyone that didn't get put into stasis in the pyramids were killed by the continent's transition into a realm unable to support biological or supernatural life. On the bright side, the demons and vampiric intelligences that didn't flee in time were destroyed as well. A race against time starts, as the Stone Masters attempt to construct small control pyramids on the nexus points that had lost their pyramids during the disaster and resulting supernatural wars. Only the nexus points not sealed by a pyramid and networked into the surviving Pyramid control networks could be used by the alien invaders, whom the Atlantean survivors were not familiar with.
On the Winter Solstice, aware that someone was closing off their attack vectors, the Splugorth attempt to invade again, this time not opening rifts from populated areas on their side. A battle rages for the last week of 2011, before the last Kittani and Kydian forces are broken.
January 2012*: As more and more of the pyramids are repaired on Atlantis, attempts are made to recontact the colonies established by the Atlanteans. The other-dimensional links are non-functional, apparently changed from the other end as a security measure. The link to the Atlantean base on the moon worked, but the base had been abandoned after what appeared to be a battle against some sort of mechanical foe damaged much of it. The bases on Mars were found to be intact, and functional, one at each corner of the two ley line triangles on the red planet, but only one had a link to Earth. One portal destination proved to be on Venus, and was open to that planet's atmosphere. Nothing in the RDF inventory could survive more than minutes there, but the Stone Mages were able to determine that it was meant only to be used with multiple layers of magical protection, and only for short periods (its purpose was not immediately apparent, but would be discovered later).
Most disturbing were the two extra-solar colonies that were able to be reached. The Alpha Centauri colony, Eleuqeria, was overgrown by a jungle of plants originating from Earth, apparently the landscaping and cultivation gone wild and evolving over 10,000 years of isolation. Various animal life native to Earth was also present, including the smilodons that had been native to Atlantis. But, the people were gone, with no indication of where.
The other colony, Kudos, was orbiting Epsilon Eridani, on a world that was very young geologically, and apparently was being terraformed when its disaster occurred. The arrival point was in a crater, half-filled with mud, broken masonry and cut stone. Something had utterly destroyed the city here, apparently from orbit. The area that had been settled was pock-marked with eroded craters that had been made by an orbital bombardment with meteoric iron slugs the size of mecha. The most advanced lifeform of the area appeared to be a form of lichen that had been engineered to turn rock into usable soil, and the oxygen level was considerably lower than what had been present during the colony's operation.
Exploration out from the site found one other set of structures - three artificial mesas, in an enclosed valley that had its own microclimate. In it, Earth trees and grass grew, and small animals lived, but were unable to survive outside the valley. Inside the mesas, were a set of greenhouse structures with magical light and irrigation, that had apparently been started up when the portal to the planet was opened. In the greenhouses, atmosphere approached Earth normal, and the explorers could remove their helmets. The plants growing there appeared to be self-animated, and resisted efforts to take samples, though when one explorer jokingly asked for a sample, a branch with leaves and flowers fell at his feet. Each mound had a passage to its roof, where monuments were set up, one statue per mound, with their own plaque. All told of the accident on Atlantis unleashing an minor "old one" on the planet. The battle was fought for years, before the technological caste of the society managed to forge cold iron railgun slugs from asteroids, that were fired from magical and technological ships in orbit, slaying the horror - something that many had thought was impossible. However, doing so left no place to live for the surviving population.
Each statue had their own continuation from this common story. The statue of an Atlantean mage told of one faction, that was going to attempt to return to Earth. According to the Stone Masters rescued back home, that group never made it back, having made that attempt centuries before Atlantis finally disappeared.
The second statue was that of an tattooed Atlantean warrior, armed with both magic and tech. This faction's plaque indicated that they believed they were too near Earth for their people to survive the disaster there, and that they were going to go further into deep space to look for a new world.
The third statue was of a deformed, almost-crablike humanoid. Its plaque indicated that the Old One had cursed a substantial part of the population into a transmuted form, that required magical energy to survive - and could not be reversed. Unlike the later Atlanteans who spent over a thousand years fighting the undead on Earth after the disaster, most of the population had only their clan tattoo, and were easy prey for the transformation. Ashamed of their deformity, and believing that the chaos on Earth would prevent their survival, they chose to outfit some of the ships with the magical plants (growing new crops in the mounds until the ships had enough to be self-sufficient and renewing), and left in a different direction from the warriors, to find their own way, and hoping to find a god-like being able to break the curse of an Old One.
On returning home, one of the RDF personnel (who was being instructed in magic by the elves and Stone Masters, but was just barely capable of spellcasting by this point) found that he had been "adopted" by one of the purple dog-like critters from the mesas that had been caretakers of the plant, as his familiar.
March 2012*: The Zentraedi launch an assault of over 40 million troops (with mecha and ten air-capable Salan Scout ships) through the Atlantean rifts on the Vernal Equinox. They are never heard from again. Either they were defeated by what lay beyond the rift (believed to be a Kydian homeworld), they reached the wrong destination and couldn't come back, or Azonia led them to the world they were looking to conquer, leaving the Earth to care for itself. The Zentraedi they left behind (including the wounded that didn't make it to the rifts) were not privy to Azonia's plan, so they cannot support any of the theories. Other than the loss of equipment, few were sad to see them gone.
At the same time that the Zentraedi were attacking the Atlantis rifts, vampires from the Yucatan attack the UEG forces in south Mexico, trying to drive into and gain a foothold in the drier parts of Mexico. They are beaten back, thanks to a series of magical rainstorms, but at a great cost. Two million persons are killed, and few wounded are to be found on the field when dawn breaks.
New Tokyo is founded on the shores of the new bay resulting from the combined forces of the Zentraedi attack and the natural disasters resulting from it, as what was not vaporized of the old city was washed away by tsunamis (note that just the gravitational effects of the arrival of Dolza's fleet was enough to trigger early the earthquake that occurred in our timeline in March 2012, even before the bombardment and the effects of the magical reawakening).
May 2012*: Dana Sterling is born in New Macross. Rick Hunter and Lisa Hayes are married, followed shortly thereafter by Kyle and Minmei. The first Zentraedi nations are founded, consisting of communities in the wastes that sprang up as anti-demon units around major ley line nexus Points located in hostile environments.
June 2012*: More mages arrive, setting up Earth's first school of magic (for the military). Over half the students are Zentraedi, since they were already prone to believing in magic. Zentraedi mages tend towards Technowizardry, as their programming made many of them consider working on tech as arcane an art as magic.
Mages identify the Flower of Life brought from Kudos as a ancient Terran magical lifeform, created to serve as a living P.P.E. battery in magic-low areas. However, the presence of "free" P.P.E. (ley line energy) within 100 miles inhibits its growth.
September 2012*: Dimensional Beings(D-Bees) continue to arrive in larger numbers each time the rifts open. Some are hostile, some are helpful; but most are indifferent, seeking only a new home. Chief among these are the Amaki, who settle in the remnants of Argentina, to supplement a small colony of theirs that was rifted from a world in their dimension, to Earth.
October 2012: The Zentraedi that settled what remained of Florida and Georgia take advantage of the reappearance of Mesozoic lifeforms in their nation and, after some culinary experimentation, begin commercial ranching of dinosaurs for their meat and skins. By 2016, the majority of the ranches' sales are out of state.
December 2012*: Another major vampire offensive succeeds in cutting off travel through Central America. All roads through southern Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador are destroyed (making the supply of the military and scientific bases established at the new Straits of Panama dependent on sea travel), and the vampires have full night-time control of the area between the ruins of Veracruz and the still-inhabited mountains in Nicaragua.
A shifter on maneuvers with the RDF in the southern Honshu wastelands accidentally blunders into the displaced Hiroshima. After discovering that only 12 hours had passed for the city between the Zentraedi attack and his arrival, he quickly contacts the acting government and tells them he would go for help. They don't believe him at first, but his disappearance from his jail cell gives them hope someone will free them from the void. By the time he escapes, it is April 2013; three hours in Hiroshima had been 4 months in the real world.
June 2013*: The first true space missions in two years (i.e. not dependent on travel through rifts) are launched. The ley lines on the moon, Mars and Venus are more apparent from orbit than they had been from ground level, or from Earth. While they are nowhere near as active or widespread as their Earth counterparts, their intersections prove to correspond to all of the known Atlantean off-planet colonies and research facilities in the solar system. Even ley lines in space are discovered, linking each planet and major moon (1500km or more diameter) to the sun; these lines cause the planetary alignment ley line energy surges. The mysterious magical gate constructs linking Mars and Venus, originally a mystery as to their nature, are found to have been the infrastructure built of an ambitious Terraforming project meant to make both worlds livable, that the Atlanteans never activated for more than test purposes (the project having been aborted by the disaster on Earth).
Roy Hunter is born to Rick & Lisa in New Macross. The parents take the month off, and so remain behind on Earth, while the Sterlings and Claudia Grant go on an important mission out of the solar system.
Breetai takes Earth's only spaceworthy Zentraedi flagship and leads a mission to capture a Robotech Factory Satellite at the beginning of the month. He returns victorious at months' end, not having to fire a shot, having used mages, psychics and baby Dana Sterling to show "his" control over Protoculture. The Satellite is put into Earth orbit, where other-dimensional technowizards, their Zentraedi students, and Robotech scientists begin repairs and renovation of the entire vessel. Commander Reno and his men are relocated to Brazil for reeducation and assignment to the demon containment forces.
The shifter who had discovered Hiroshima, having formulated a plan with the help of several hundred other mages (most of the RDF mages in training, as well their instructors and an extended family of mages who came to Earth just for the mission), implements the plan on the summer solstice, bringing the two sections of Japan back onto their true world. However, the stress of the ritual kills 60 of the mages involved, and 20 more are displaced into the Macross Movie universe with the land that returned there. After a week of negotiation, Japan joins the UEG, their importance being all the more obvious since only a dozen or so weapons from orbit had struck before the region phased into the Astral Plane, and most of the cities and rural areas of the region remained intact, and their volcanoes no more active than they had been before 2011.
December 2013*: A vampire assault on Mexico City results in the death of Seloy Deperra Leonard. Obsessed with the death of Seloy and the near-death of his son Hirano, Anatole Leonard organizes the Armies of the Southern Cross, an independent military force. Unlike the Robotech RPG ASC, this force welcomes Zentraedi, D-Bees, psychics and mages, as its purpose is fighting the supernatural forces from the rifts.
March 2014*: A ley line walker on tour of the SDF-1 engine room senses the presence of the Protoculture Matrix, which is soon recovered. With it, several Pollinators emerge from the nooks and crannies of the ship as well. To their shock, they discover for once and for all that the source of Protoculture is a variant of the plants left behind by the destroyed Atlantean colony on Kudos, just as the Pollinators are a variant of the same "alien" lifeform guarding the plants there. The implications of this revelation are argued for the rest of the decade.
The New Slavic Republic secedes from the UEG, claiming that body concentrates too much on the Western Hemisphere's supernatural problems and not enough on the problems of Eurasia and Africa. At first, the move seems counter-productive; but it is soon revealed that the NSR is receiving technological assistance from another dimension (the Federation from the TMNT Guide to the Universe) via a rift. Eventually, the NSR's technology will surpass that of their benefactors, as they are a much more open society, and quick to buy, steal or reverse-engineer anything that the UEG nations come up with, as well as any of the high-tech societies that were rifted in (such as in Patagonia).
Following the lead of the NSR, the Confederation of Patagonia secedes as well. Patagonia is made up of a number of new states, as Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay were all effectively destroyed by the natural disasters that accompanied the Rifts, even more so than the Zentraedi bombardment. The member states of the Confederation are Santiago, New Patagonia (the areas called Cordoba & Achilles in Rifts, only without the mutant animals), the alien Amaki colony/nation of New Babylon, and the Southern Alliance (a federation of humans whose cities were displaced here from a dozen different Earths and a couple non-Earths, that had to work together to survive in an area that, until their arrival, had not had cities at all, and had gone unnoticed by RDF relief forces for almost a year).
June 2014*: The rift-gate system linking Mars and Venus is activated by the RDF, linking the two planets atmospheres' via multiple rifts. The result is both planets initially have a higher atmospheric pressure than Earth, but the air is still unbreathable, though the truly toxic components from Venus (the sulfur compounds, etc.) are filtered out in the process. The heat from the air rifted in from Venus also melts the ice in Mars' polar caps and beneath the surface, boosting Mars environment even more. The areas within Mars' ley line nexus triangles turn out to be environmentally controlled by the stations at the nexus, and the earlier visits (and monkeying with the controls) had resulted in those regions becoming Earth-normal environments (as they had been in Atlantean times) by the time the main project was started. They are unaffected by the atmospheric chaos outside the triangles, much to the surprise of those involved in the restarted Terraforming project. To speed things along, Mars Base Langdon is set up in one of these areas, allowing the base to function without the atmospheric regulation required years earlier by Sara Base. Efforts are made to try to bring in Kuiper belt objects to provide water for Venus.
Traditionalist Japanese (who blame the disasters of 2011 on technology) flock to the Kyoto area, and set up the New Japanese Empire, after Amaterasu appears at the Millennium Tree there, and delivers a child said to be the true heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. The Empire secedes on good terms from the Republic of Japan, with the only hard feelings being over technology use. Another group, calling themselves the Ichto, also secede, on only slightly less good terms. The primary problems the humans of Ichto had with the Republic and the UEG was their acceptance of aliens and D-Bees. Still, many residents of the Republic and Ichto crossed the border in their daily commutes, with the major dissent being on the political, not personal, level.
The last few remaining native inhabitants of Hokkaido wake up the morning of the Solstice to find themselves (and their belongings) in one of the "treehouses" of the Kyoto Millenium Tree, with notice that the Japanese gods now claimed that island for their home.
July 2014*: The ASC is officially recognized by the UEG as a sanctioned non-political military force for combating the supernatural, based out of Mexico City. However, all military assaults versus the vampires so far have been at best draws, as the Yucatan Peninsula is unreachable by air or sea and the military's casualties often end up as reinforcements for the undead.
Oni attacks on Honshu increase, and the last of the coastal settlements of mainland China fall to demon attacks from the "Hells" rumored to be inland. In a strange parallel of 1948, the Chinese who escaped from the demon offensive flee to Taiwan/Formosa, which had been totally depopulated by the events of 2011. A few inland kingdoms survive in China, defended by mystical warriors and martial artists. However, none of these kingdoms choose to participate in world affairs.
August 2014*: The first chunks of ice bound for Mars arrive and are broken up in the atmosphere, as a small-scale test of what was to come for Venus. Upon completion of the ice bombardment in October, the planet is seeded with simple lifeforms, followed by the Flower of Life in March of 2015. The Flower of Life is used due to its fast maturation rate and its amazing soil rejuvenation capabilities, paving the way for total ecosystem implantation in 2017.
September 2014*: Whole ice asteroids are slammed into Venus. After the bombardment is completed in December, the engines that had brought the ice to Venus (which were removed before the chunks were hurled at the planet) and those from the Mars ice project were relocated and set on the surface and turned on maximum power, having been oriented during placement to further speed up the planet's rotation. These would run until their fuel supply was exhausted a year later, by which time the planet's rotation period was 60 hours, albeit still in the opposite direction from the rest of the solar system's planets. These efforts also reduce Venus' atmosphere down to levels normally associated with Earth Himalayan mountaintops, though the melting ice (and resulting water vapor in the atmosphere) slowly raise it back up to something more like Colorado mountaintop air pressures. The gates back to Mars were occasionally reopened for short periods, bringing the pressures on both closer to Earth sea level.
The SDF-2 is finally launched, having been extensively modified from its original specifications. It leaves for Tyrol under the command of Captain Claudia Grant, accompanied by Breetai and his flagship. Henry Gloval, now retired, is aboard the SDF-2 as an ambassador, while the SDF-1 "Bridge Bunnies" and their Zentraedi husbands double as both the SDF-2's bridge crew and part of the diplomatic mission. Prior to the launch ceremonies, Rick and Lisa Hunter are promoted to Brigadier General and Rear Admiral respectively upon Gloval's departure/retirement, and are left in charge of the Earth RDF. (Note: in this universe, the REF will never exist as such.)
April 2015: First post-Rifts sighting of the Pucarans in South America.
August 2015: Magic use increases among Earth's populace, and the number of evil mages increases as well. A conflict between the ASC and the necromancer Lazlo Zand results in the near-destruction of Monument City by hordes of demons. Zand is believed to have died in the destruction, along with his mercenary ally T.R. Edwards, but no bodies were recovered.
The first openly hostile magocracy, the Ohio Valley Federation of Magi, is formed in New Evansville, and its first action is to declare war on its xenophobic neighbor, the independent Duchy of York. York, located around Cincinnati, is ruled by a person who claims to be Prince Harry of the United Kingdom, who was on a tour of the US when the Zentraedi attack occurred. York's wealth is in its technology (including an intact GE aircraft turbine plant), and its military equipment salvaged from nearby Wright-Paterson A.F.B. and Fort Knox, Kentucky. The war, viewed by many as symbolizing Earth's struggle versus the supernatural, ends in a stalemate in late 2016, with both sides agreeing to a truce similar to the one between the pre-Global-War states of North and South Korea. However, the fierce debate on whether one side or the other should receive assistance from the UEG cripples that governing body. (In the end, neither side was assisted).
January 2016*: The Flower of Life is introduced on Venus. Druids and Elemental Warlocks begin working on the soil of Mars to make it more suitable for other plant life, bringing in thousands of elementals to assist. Some of the elementals take it on themselves to open portals to the elemental plane of water to more rapidly hydrate the planet, much to the confounding of planners (who were constantly having to adjust plans when new lakes - or even seas - appeared from nowhere). By April, the "troublemaker" water elementalists have moved on to Venus, which requires a lot more work just to get much of the surface down to a temperature where water won't boil.
Rick and Lisa Hunter have their second child; a girl, named Andrea after Lisa's mother. Lisa's father, who had resigned as a result of the debacle that led to Earth’s attack, dies two days later.
Dana Sterling is found to be psionic. She is the first known master psionic to be born on Earth of parents native to the Riftech dimension, though numerous lesser psychics and mystic mages had seemingly occurred spontaneously from long-term exposure to Protoculture equipment and use of the Atlantean Stone Pyramid system.
April 2016*: The first psi-stalkers born to Earth-native parents are identified as such. At first looked upon as abominations, they soon become highly prized by the ASC and other forces that combat the supernatural. In fact, in 2018 the ASC would institute an adoption program for psionic children of all types, which would raise the psionic children to become ASC operatives upon reaching their mid-teens.
November 2016: The first reports of an insectoid race living in the Rockies come in, followed shortly thereafter by a bloody conflict that "ended" in December, only to be repeated every year or so as the creatures decided to attack New Macross again.
The ASC contracts ZMI (Zentraedi Military Industries), a group of Zentraedi operators (as the Rifts O.C.C.) and technowizards based on the Factory Satellite, to design light and heavy ground mecha, ground unit power armor and flight-capable power armor for its forces. See the Mecha/Robot Conversion Tables for the types. The first field units were shipped to the ASC in July 2017.
February 2017*: The UEG, torn apart by the infighting over the OVFM/York war, ceases to exist as a planetary government, and reorganizes to function similar to the old United Nations, while remaining trustee for the as-yet unreclaimed wasteland areas and the space colonies. For procedural purposes, the RDF and ASC are each given a seat in the new body, with the RDF's role being defined as the UEG's space defense force and law enforcement arm, while the ASC would be the Earthbound anti-demon military force.
April 2017*: Final atmospheric modifications are made on the terraformed planets, and 1000 of the ships that had landed on Earth six years before are repaired enough to travel to either Mars or Venus, in order to plant higher lifeforms (plant and animal). Half the crew was micronized, while the other half remained full-sized in order to plant adult trees, but were micronized upon completion of this task. Mars is stocked with temperate and subarctic lifeforms., Venus is implanted with rain forest, savanna and desert ecosystems in the areas away from the many active volcanoes, and the influx of tens of thousands of cubic miles of liquid water from the elementals' work appears to have kick-started Venus' long-dormant plate tectonics. Despite all this work, the most common higher lifeform by far is still the Flower of Life, and only about 3-5% of each planet gets terraformed per year.
January 2018*: 400 of the ships from the Mars mission return to pick up permanent colonists. The ships were subsectioned to carry about 250,000 micronian-sized passengers each. Once the ships returned to Mars, they were unloaded, shut down and cannibalized. Another 50 of the ships had already been done this way, to prepare the colony ships. The remaining 50 ships were kept as a planetary defense fleet. The planetary population was around 100 million, 60% of which are Zentraedi, and 0.5% are D-Bees.
The Patagonian Arcology of the Southern Alliance (a city that was rifted in from a much higher-tech Earth) introduces Cybernetic, Bionic, Juicer and M.O.M. technology to Riftech Earth. This is hailed by some, condemned by others (such as the RDF and ASC). They do not become common in South America until 2020, and aren't licensed to Japan and the NSR for study until 2023 (characters with these O.C.C.s can start play in those areas in 2025). It takes until 2030 for these systems to become commonplace in areas outside these three areas, and they are illegal in most UEG nations (other than Japan) and areas served by the Southern Cross.
July 2018*: Venus is colonized in much the same manner as Mars, except that dinosaurs were brought along and given free reign on one continent.
February 2019: The first report from the Tyrol expedition comes in. The fold trip took 4.5 years, and the Robotech Masters had already left for Earth. Over the next nine months, contact is made with the other Inner Sphere worlds. It is theorized that something related to Earth's magical condition may have caused the fold issues, which were not present before the Rifts erupting, and were not experienced with folds between Tyrol and its former client worlds. In other words, Breetai had been very lucky when he brought back the Factory Satellite.
Larhold numbers become a real threat (previously only a nuisance) to the Patagonian Confederacy. Disputes on how to handle the Larhold result in the hardliners in Santiago pulling their nation out of the Confederacy, in order to implement their more violent measures (which only escalates the fighting).
November 2019: Breetai reports that Optera has been abandoned, and warns Earth that the Invid were probably on their way as well.
January 2020: The Invid arrive and take over Venus, killing a third of the population and enslaving another third. The remainder of the population retreats into the jungle and begins using guerilla tactics against the Regent's forces. The Regis seems to be more interested in studying humanity than killing it, and instead primarily enslaves and experiments on humanity. The UEG decides not to immediately attack Venus, as it would jeopardize the slaves, and Earth was overmatched as well. Both Earth and Mars begin a military buildup, but Earth has to divert its attention to a rash of dimensional invasions that begin in March. Ironically, under the Invid, the terraforming of Venus increases to a level where all the land surfaces are relatively Earth-normal by 2029 (albeit equatorial deserts and temperate forests near the poles, with everything else equivalent to the Earth tropics).
June 2020: The Dakir settle their Megaversal Legion in a remote Andes valley, allowing the Legion to contact the UEG only once, to let them know that trespassers would be shot.
February 2023: The very-illegal Achilles Project is exposed. Many of the mutant animals settle in enclaves away from humans in remote areas of Patagonia, but the mutant cats disappear into the Brazilian jungle, as if on a mission.
April 2024: The Otomo Shogunate, having armed itself on the open market, declares its independence from the UEG. This is seen as a slap in the face to the organization, which had helped administer the region since its inception as a refugee camp in 2012. The Shogunate (and its weapons company H-Brand), become a thorn in the side of the RDF, the rest of Japan, and the Southern Cross from their environmental and sales practices.
September 2025: The Tyrol Expedition returns to Alpha Centauri with representatives from Tyrol (Cabell and Rem) as well as the other worlds of the Inner Sphere (the Sentinels listed in the Sentinels RPG), and those personnel not critical to ship operations are sent with the dignitaries back to Earth via the Pyramid in the once-abandoned colony. Cabell, Lang and a team of scientists and technowizards begin work on trying to figure out a fold system less susceptible to Earth's high-magic surroundings, as the SDF-2 folds in small steps back towards Earth to determine how far the disruptions of fold-space extended. After two months, it arrives outside the heliopause, and discovers that the potential fold disruption effects extended to the heliopause region. This leads to regulations requiring that Earth's space fleet not fold until more than 20 billion miles from the sun, just to be safe.
The Regent, having sensed a fold near the solar system for the first time since his own arrival, sends raiding parties against Earth and Mars every few months. Slowly but surely, losses on both human planets mount, as the Invid can replace their losses more quickly than their foes, and the Invid, having a hive mentality, are much more suicidal, with many of the human ships being lost to kamikaze attacks. By 2029, only the SDF-2, Breetai's flagship and two scout ships remain over Earth, while Mars forces have been reduced to six landing ships and three scouts.
The Regis, having studied human specimens over the last five years, begins sending simulagents to the other two planets to study how normal humanity functions. The Mars simulagents are usually discovered quickly, but several of the Earth simulagents are not. Unfortunately for the Regis, they usually stop reporting after 2-5 reports, and eventually even the best agents stop reporting after six months. Very little changes in the space war, until 2030.
October 2028: The Republic of Japan, having made intensive studies of Zentraedi cloning technology, announces the perfection of its medical clone system. The system allows the cloning of a body from any existing DNA (such as the genetic material of a borg's brain), and the transfer of a mind's knowledge into the clone's brain. This technology, which could be used to correct DNA flaws in the sample before cloning, made most hereditary diseases curable, not to mention the implications for reversal of cyborg and juicer conversion. However, (officially) the Japanese refuse to augment persons by adding psychic powers (that weren't already present) or increasing attributes other than what would be possessed by a healthy body. The process does become popular with Zentraedi seeking to remove long-term genetic damage from their years in space, and in some cases to actually remove the special traits that make them Zentraedi, to become more like native humans (such as removal of non-Terran skin pigmentation).
December 2029: The Robotech Masters arrive, and the Invid rise from Venus to meet them. A massive space battle ensues, and two of the Masters' ships are destroyed, as well as all of the Invid heavy ships. The Regent's forces limp back to Venus, while the remaining four of the Masters ships (if there were more, they didn't successfully defold) deplete over 90% of their Protoculture reserves in the battle. Three of the ships make it to Mars, push their way past the defense ships and land outside Langdon; they then took the base by force. The fourth Tyrolean ship, the Masters’ own, limps to Earth, crashing in Alaska. None would ever fly again.
Down the Road: In the 2030 world of Riftech, few things are certain. However, a few questions will be asked by the players and astute GMs. These date/group matters will be up to the GM to play with.
When will the Naruni open up shop on Riftech Earth? I suggest 2025, but the RDF and ASC aren't interested in buying from interdimensional aliens (except maybe to copy them, and the Naruni won't allow that).
The Archons (South America 2): The Archons' fold troubles will be much worse here than in Rifts. Their fleet will be scattered over three decades, rarely more than one ship arriving at a time. Some will arrive as early as 2014, with the majority of the fleet arriving in 2032 over a period of several weeks (and stray ships will pop in sporadically for another decade). They will typically be more of an issue for Mars and Venus after terraforming, than for Earth, as Riftech Earth's forces will be so much more substantial than that of Rifts Earth as presented in Mutants in Orbit, that not even the most suicidal Archon ship captain would try to run that gauntlet prior to the 2030s. After 2030, though, all bets are off, as the Archons will have the largest fleet in the system when the bulk of their fleet finally arrives in 2032
When will the Megaversal Legion revolt against their Dakir masters? In Riftech, it happens in late 2030. However, the Legion's humans feel too altered to fit in with the people of the Earth they now reside on, and will rarely interact with the outside world, unless attacked. A few may venture out, but not with their vehicles or PA. Instead, they will stay on the market in other dimensions as mercenaries, hoping to find their way home. Some might even approach Japan to see about converting themselves back to unaltered humans after retirement.
And the things from Rifts Underseas? The Tico and her escorts are completed for the ASC Navy in 2028. by this time, the Navy will have lost several of her other ships to activity from the monsters in the Underseas and Lemuria books. Tritonia is founded in 2020, and is the first major non-land base of the ASC Navy. The Lemurians' presence is first suspected around that time, as well. The Sea Titans are transformed in 2030, and it is partially in response to the threat that created them that the Lemurians begin to reveal themselves. 2030 is also the year that the level of sentience and magic use by marine mammals come to the attention of the human governments, thanks to the Lemurians and Sea Titans.
The Achilles Neo-Humans won't reach adulthood until 2040. The Amphibs are Achilles creations as well, and end up being moved to Tritonia initially after they are discovered.
ARCHIE-3, as described in Rifts, won't exist (no project in Maryland, no Splugorth incursions into North America, etc.), and his designs end up falling under the ZMI umbrella (if they are ever made). However, it's possible that an analogue of the ARCHIE program as it existed pre-Rifts might result on Riftech Earth from attempts to replicate Zor's EVE technology.
NEMA (Chaos Earth) didn't exist either, and its tech is far too advanced initially for inclusion (will mostly be post-2020 designs, if not post-2030). But, the ROSCOE suits will be produced for the RDF & ASC as early as 2013 (just lower M.D.C.). However, Chaos Earth's demons, magic forms, and other phenomena are part and parcel of the first few years after the Zentraedi attack, even if Yellowstone didn't erupt. Feel free to convert the NPCs of that story line to US Military or UEDC (with RDF tech), if you want to run a NEMA-like campaign.
The NSR is a fusion of the Rifts NGR and the Robotech RPG (1E) EBSIS, set just a little further east (though they'll be moving into Germany quickly, as the climate shifts occur from the new poles. Most everything else will remain as in the NGR books, except the society will open up more to Norse-type D-Bees as Human Federation influence wanes. If Victor Lazlo pops in from his 1980s disappearance, it will be in the 2020s or 2030s. Switzerland is still inhabited, but a land besieged by the initial Gargoyle invasions (which are being supported by the Splugorth).
The cybernetic nations of Russia as in Rifts will never exist. However, the mystical elements of that setting will, though many of them fleeing the advancing ice sheets of the new North Pole region. Siberia will quickly become what it was BEFORE the thaw in the Rifts story occurred.
Psyscape, the Federation of Magic's more innately evil elements, GAW, Merctown, Char, Arzno, the Colorado Baronies, and the independent cities of the Mississippi valley are up to the individual game master to determine if or when they occur. El Paso and Ciudad Juarez also fit into this category, since Mexico doesn't fall immediately (and in fact, is still an active battleground for the ASC against the undead in 2030, though mostly depopulated from the supernatural threats and the many volcanoes). None of the Mexican/Central American Vampire Intelligences outside the Yucatan are where Rifts says they are, though they are still present. If Reid's Rangers come about, they will have a much different origin (ASC castouts?). Grizzly Carter is, in fact, one of the first D-Bees that shows up back in 2011-2012, and will have been a long-time ally of the RDF by 2030, under his Palladium name (like most of you, I ignore the rewrites to remove the PFRPG elements of Rifts done out of the misguided interpretation of "rights issues" for things like films).
Much as the Gargoyles in Europe, the Lizardmen of Lagarto are a Splugoth proxy much more than in Rifts. All of the other supernatural dangers of South America are still in play (though Colombia is still in the rebuilding process, and the technological weapons of Colombia, Peru and Patagonia will take until the 2020s to show up - the GB-7 will NEVER exist).
China is as it is in Rifts, though a little colder, and a lot nearer the time of the Rifts. As a result, the politics of the demons is at an earlier state, and the secret facility lost in the magical caves is a Robotechnology research facility, studying stuff stolen from the SDF-1 during the rebuilding (possibly originally attached to the Anti-unification "terrorist" forces), and won't be reattached to the world outside until the 2020s or later.
The Tundra Rangers also get changed into a UEDC or Canadian facility, much like what is suggested for NEMA, and whether it gets displaced and comes back, or just never leaves, is up to the game master. I suggest a few lost months, that spare it from the natural disasters, before it pops back in.
An Alternate Campaign Setting Combining the Robotech and Rifts RPGs.
By Stanley S. Bundy
Version 2.0.x (Lots of revision and new stuff to come)
Introduction:
This work is based on the following premise:
What if the events of the middle part of the Macross segment of Robotech (episodes #13-27) happened (on the average) six weeks earlier than they did in the series/original RPG (the Tom Bateman/Tommy Yune Timeline is not only dead wrong, it would have resulted in a total cast kill several times), culminating in Dolza's attack taking place on the Summer Solstice of 2011?
What if such an attack triggered the eruption of ley lines and rifts on the Robotech Earth?
The resulting planet would be far different from both ancestral RPGs worlds, yet retain certain elements of both. In fact, the post-apocalyptic nature of both RPGs makes their combination even seem natural. The following work is a result of this combination.
Note: I mean no infringement on the rights of Palladium Books by the creation of this rules supplement. In fact, one must have most of the Robotech and Rifts books, as well as the basic books for Beyond the Supernatural, Ninjas & Superspies, and either Heroes Unlimited or TMNT in order to run a Riftech campaign, which means that many users of this supplement will have to buy more Palladium products, increasing the profits of Palladium. BTW, Harmony Gold can kiss my shiny metal ass....
I dedicate this work to Kevin Siembieda, whom I accidentally acquired my copy of Robotech RPG Book One from at Marcon 23, and to Miles, David, Danny, Brian, Glenn and Jimmy, my Riftech Guinea pigs.
Chronology
Note that, based on the chosen start date for a particular campaign, events listed may be altered by the GM. Events marked "*" are usually unalterable, except by radical player action.
Early June, 2011*: Max and Miriya's duel and marriage (Episodes #24-25).
Late June, 2011*: Breetai sends Exedore as an emissary to the SDF-1 (Episode #26). Dolza's fleet arrives, and bombards the planet on the Summer Solstice. Ironically, the Zentraedi used landmarks as aiming points, and one of the first objects destroyed is the Gateway Arch in St. Louis; this prevents the rifts that later occur there from bonding with it(and becoming permanent}. Many other monolithic sites are also hit, and much Protoculture-originated energy is pumped into the Earth's ley line network, along with the P.P.E. of the 5 billion persons killed by the bombardment. The ley lines flare, causing further natural disasters that kill half of the remaining population.
At least 10 Zentraedi ships are downed not by Grand Cannon fire, as would be first thought (it hadn't opened fire yet), but by other-dimensional Nazcans, on a pilgrimage to their ancestral home and in a perfect position to take advantage of the line surges to activate ALL of the Nazca line creatures!
At the same time as the first attacks began hitting Earth, scientists in the Robotech Research labs at Hiroshima were activating an experiment, based off data returned to Earth by their colleague Emil Lang. The project was an attempt to teleport/fold an object point-to-point inside a planetary gravity well. Instead, all of southern Honshu (from Kobe south to the straight between Honshu & Kyushu) and the island of Shikoku "disappear". Actually, the land masses end up in the astral plane, replaced by other-dimensional counterparts from a parallel Earth, which were already lifeless (later dimensional investigation proved it to be from the Macross: Do You Remember Love? universe, which had been been wiped out by Zentraedi forces in late 2009). The cities are stranded in the astral plane, bordering their previous location, but with time passing 1/1000 as fast as in the real world. None of the cities are actually hit by the attacks.
At the Grand Cannon, the power readings go off the scale, and this power is put to immediate use against the fleet, until damage causes it to shut down. Unlike its "normal" Robotech counterpart, the complex survives, but radiation leaks cause it to be abandoned, along with a mistaken belief that the cannon triggered the ley lines, held by many for years afterward. The cannon personnel evacuate to the deepest levels, and are rescued by Skull Squadron after the battle. The Cannon is more effective than the original history's Cannon (due to the energy influx), setting the stage for a more decisive victory over the remnants of Dolza's fleet by the combined forces of Breetai and the SDF-1. After the battle, 98% of the Zentraedi are dead, and most of the 2 billion Zentraedi survivors were either crewmen aboard the surviving ships or elite mecha pilots. Even so, only 5 Zentraedi ships were left that were completely spaceworthy. The SDF-1 was severely damaged, and it sets down in a blast crater along the US/Canada border, while the surviving 50,000 Zentraedi ships were corralled at Lagrange Point Five. The crew of most were pulled off and placed aboard those ships still capable of planetary landing. Those 5000 ships were landed in the Southlands; most would never fly again. Those left in space were stripped of useful equipment, and were landed by skeleton crews around the SDF-2's lunar construction site.
July-August 2011*: To help end the worldwide famine, one of the first acts of the post-attack RDF is to send technical teams to the moon to retrieve the nutrient processors from the downed ships. This, combined with the micronization of all non-essential Zentraedi personnel (those not serving as Fighter Pod, Officers Pod or Power Armor pilots, and doubling as construction workers), most of the remaining human populace survives. A planetary census reports a population of 3.3 billion, 60% of which are Zentraedi. The world's climate is a major worry for the RDF and surviving governmental fragments, as the Grand Cannon's firing, gravitational effects from the fleet, and possible other factors (orbital wobbles from Atlantis reappearing, for example) had shifted Earth's axis of rotation from the middle of the Arctic Ocean, to the sea between Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya - added on top of the volcanoes' ejecta,and the loss of Panama and re-emergence of Atlantis throwing the oceanic currents into chaos, no two climatologists could agree on the final impact.
Dr. Lang and Exedore discover that those ships that landed on ley lines(at this point, still known only as "those mysterious blue energy bands") are using only about 50% of their Protoculture than normal. Further research confirms that the ley line energy is virtually identical to Protoculture energy as it comes out of a power matrix (as opposed to how it is actually utilized - most mecha on both sides converted most of that energy into electricity for various subsystems).
The Incan Gods wake up/return to Earth, and set up the new Empire of the Sun to aid the descendants of their original worshipers.
September 2011*: Reports from Mexico indicate that the Yucatan Peninsula has disappeared, yet is still accessible by land only. Other reports come in concerning the return of Atlantis - from where, no one knows, as the island continent's contours bear no resemblance to the pre-attack sea bottom. Only passing surveys are made initially, as more pressing concerns are present than studying a lifeless continent.
Miriya Sterling becomes ill at a party, discovers that she is pregnant.
On the Autumnal Equinox, the first rifts open, bringing both mages (mostly shifters) and demons. Some of the mages actually contact authorities, but most of the things that come through the rifts are hostile. Hundreds of civilian lives are lost in the next few days, mostly in New Detroit, where several rifts open inside the city limits. Two ley line walkers and a shifter aid the RDF in the subdual of a demon horde at a rift in the Calgary ruins, north of New Macross, and learn of Earth's inexperience in dealing with magic and psionics. The ley line walkers remain to instruct others in the use of magic, while the shifter goes for reinforcements.
Zentraedi capture and hold part of Atlantis from the Splugorth forces, who had been in the process of invading when discovered on the Equinox. Over two million Zentraedi are killed in the process, compared to ten million Kydian and Kittani soldiers. The attack from beyond is aborted when a partially functional Zentraedi monitor (incapable of reaching orbit) was flown over from North America, and fired its reflex cannon through the largest rift, tearing a wide swath through the city on the other side (and, unbeknownst to the Zentraedi, killing the Splugorth ruler of that planet). Florida, Cuba and Puerto Rico are occupied by the Zentraedi in order to keep a constant watch over the Bermuda Triangle area, as the Bahamas and Bermuda were rendered uninhabitable by the Triangle's dangers, while the RDF finally starts exploring the ruins on the dead continent, thinking they might have a connection to the invasion. This battle results in a large number of captured weapons both magical and technological, the latter resulting in many crash programs to reverse engineer the energy weapons and armor technology.
The rifts on Atlantis continue to open a few at a time, sporadically, as the Splugorth send scouting forces to attempt to establish a beachhead, making ruins exploration a hazardous detail. However, the human and Zentraedi forces guarding the archaeologists quickly adopt weapons taken from their fallen foes to fight the invaders.
October 2011*: More other-dimensional mages and psychics arrive, act mostly as advisors for the RDF. Those Zentraedi having the hardest time adapting to Terran society are offered clemency in exchange for joining the "demon" containment force on Atlantis. Azonia, who was becoming disenchanted with micronian lifestyles, is given command of these forces, which boosts her morale considerably. Eventually, she convinces Khyron to join her group, planning on leading their forces through a rift to conquer whatever lies there, and caring less what happens to the Earth afterward.
November 2011*: Two-month-old reports from the Yucatan reach New Macross, hinting at the existence of vampires, which are generally dismissed by the RDF.
December 2011*: As the Solstice nears, researchers find True Atlantean survivors hidden in the few surviving nexus control pyramids, including several Stone Masters (though, so much time had passed that some of them had aged almost 20 years). The stories the Atlanteans relate are horrifying, of a magical disaster that eventually ripped Atlantis from reality over a period of several centuries, with the eventual failure to prevent the loss of the continent resulting in its evacuation, even as demonic and vampiric forces repeatedly tried to invade. In the end, the defense of the nexus points kept the evacuation from being completed, and anyone that didn't get put into stasis in the pyramids were killed by the continent's transition into a realm unable to support biological or supernatural life. On the bright side, the demons and vampiric intelligences that didn't flee in time were destroyed as well. A race against time starts, as the Stone Masters attempt to construct small control pyramids on the nexus points that had lost their pyramids during the disaster and resulting supernatural wars. Only the nexus points not sealed by a pyramid and networked into the surviving Pyramid control networks could be used by the alien invaders, whom the Atlantean survivors were not familiar with.
On the Winter Solstice, aware that someone was closing off their attack vectors, the Splugorth attempt to invade again, this time not opening rifts from populated areas on their side. A battle rages for the last week of 2011, before the last Kittani and Kydian forces are broken.
January 2012*: As more and more of the pyramids are repaired on Atlantis, attempts are made to recontact the colonies established by the Atlanteans. The other-dimensional links are non-functional, apparently changed from the other end as a security measure. The link to the Atlantean base on the moon worked, but the base had been abandoned after what appeared to be a battle against some sort of mechanical foe damaged much of it. The bases on Mars were found to be intact, and functional, one at each corner of the two ley line triangles on the red planet, but only one had a link to Earth. One portal destination proved to be on Venus, and was open to that planet's atmosphere. Nothing in the RDF inventory could survive more than minutes there, but the Stone Mages were able to determine that it was meant only to be used with multiple layers of magical protection, and only for short periods (its purpose was not immediately apparent, but would be discovered later).
Most disturbing were the two extra-solar colonies that were able to be reached. The Alpha Centauri colony, Eleuqeria, was overgrown by a jungle of plants originating from Earth, apparently the landscaping and cultivation gone wild and evolving over 10,000 years of isolation. Various animal life native to Earth was also present, including the smilodons that had been native to Atlantis. But, the people were gone, with no indication of where.
The other colony, Kudos, was orbiting Epsilon Eridani, on a world that was very young geologically, and apparently was being terraformed when its disaster occurred. The arrival point was in a crater, half-filled with mud, broken masonry and cut stone. Something had utterly destroyed the city here, apparently from orbit. The area that had been settled was pock-marked with eroded craters that had been made by an orbital bombardment with meteoric iron slugs the size of mecha. The most advanced lifeform of the area appeared to be a form of lichen that had been engineered to turn rock into usable soil, and the oxygen level was considerably lower than what had been present during the colony's operation.
Exploration out from the site found one other set of structures - three artificial mesas, in an enclosed valley that had its own microclimate. In it, Earth trees and grass grew, and small animals lived, but were unable to survive outside the valley. Inside the mesas, were a set of greenhouse structures with magical light and irrigation, that had apparently been started up when the portal to the planet was opened. In the greenhouses, atmosphere approached Earth normal, and the explorers could remove their helmets. The plants growing there appeared to be self-animated, and resisted efforts to take samples, though when one explorer jokingly asked for a sample, a branch with leaves and flowers fell at his feet. Each mound had a passage to its roof, where monuments were set up, one statue per mound, with their own plaque. All told of the accident on Atlantis unleashing an minor "old one" on the planet. The battle was fought for years, before the technological caste of the society managed to forge cold iron railgun slugs from asteroids, that were fired from magical and technological ships in orbit, slaying the horror - something that many had thought was impossible. However, doing so left no place to live for the surviving population.
Each statue had their own continuation from this common story. The statue of an Atlantean mage told of one faction, that was going to attempt to return to Earth. According to the Stone Masters rescued back home, that group never made it back, having made that attempt centuries before Atlantis finally disappeared.
The second statue was that of an tattooed Atlantean warrior, armed with both magic and tech. This faction's plaque indicated that they believed they were too near Earth for their people to survive the disaster there, and that they were going to go further into deep space to look for a new world.
The third statue was of a deformed, almost-crablike humanoid. Its plaque indicated that the Old One had cursed a substantial part of the population into a transmuted form, that required magical energy to survive - and could not be reversed. Unlike the later Atlanteans who spent over a thousand years fighting the undead on Earth after the disaster, most of the population had only their clan tattoo, and were easy prey for the transformation. Ashamed of their deformity, and believing that the chaos on Earth would prevent their survival, they chose to outfit some of the ships with the magical plants (growing new crops in the mounds until the ships had enough to be self-sufficient and renewing), and left in a different direction from the warriors, to find their own way, and hoping to find a god-like being able to break the curse of an Old One.
On returning home, one of the RDF personnel (who was being instructed in magic by the elves and Stone Masters, but was just barely capable of spellcasting by this point) found that he had been "adopted" by one of the purple dog-like critters from the mesas that had been caretakers of the plant, as his familiar.
March 2012*: The Zentraedi launch an assault of over 40 million troops (with mecha and ten air-capable Salan Scout ships) through the Atlantean rifts on the Vernal Equinox. They are never heard from again. Either they were defeated by what lay beyond the rift (believed to be a Kydian homeworld), they reached the wrong destination and couldn't come back, or Azonia led them to the world they were looking to conquer, leaving the Earth to care for itself. The Zentraedi they left behind (including the wounded that didn't make it to the rifts) were not privy to Azonia's plan, so they cannot support any of the theories. Other than the loss of equipment, few were sad to see them gone.
At the same time that the Zentraedi were attacking the Atlantis rifts, vampires from the Yucatan attack the UEG forces in south Mexico, trying to drive into and gain a foothold in the drier parts of Mexico. They are beaten back, thanks to a series of magical rainstorms, but at a great cost. Two million persons are killed, and few wounded are to be found on the field when dawn breaks.
New Tokyo is founded on the shores of the new bay resulting from the combined forces of the Zentraedi attack and the natural disasters resulting from it, as what was not vaporized of the old city was washed away by tsunamis (note that just the gravitational effects of the arrival of Dolza's fleet was enough to trigger early the earthquake that occurred in our timeline in March 2012, even before the bombardment and the effects of the magical reawakening).
May 2012*: Dana Sterling is born in New Macross. Rick Hunter and Lisa Hayes are married, followed shortly thereafter by Kyle and Minmei. The first Zentraedi nations are founded, consisting of communities in the wastes that sprang up as anti-demon units around major ley line nexus Points located in hostile environments.
June 2012*: More mages arrive, setting up Earth's first school of magic (for the military). Over half the students are Zentraedi, since they were already prone to believing in magic. Zentraedi mages tend towards Technowizardry, as their programming made many of them consider working on tech as arcane an art as magic.
Mages identify the Flower of Life brought from Kudos as a ancient Terran magical lifeform, created to serve as a living P.P.E. battery in magic-low areas. However, the presence of "free" P.P.E. (ley line energy) within 100 miles inhibits its growth.
September 2012*: Dimensional Beings(D-Bees) continue to arrive in larger numbers each time the rifts open. Some are hostile, some are helpful; but most are indifferent, seeking only a new home. Chief among these are the Amaki, who settle in the remnants of Argentina, to supplement a small colony of theirs that was rifted from a world in their dimension, to Earth.
October 2012: The Zentraedi that settled what remained of Florida and Georgia take advantage of the reappearance of Mesozoic lifeforms in their nation and, after some culinary experimentation, begin commercial ranching of dinosaurs for their meat and skins. By 2016, the majority of the ranches' sales are out of state.
December 2012*: Another major vampire offensive succeeds in cutting off travel through Central America. All roads through southern Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador are destroyed (making the supply of the military and scientific bases established at the new Straits of Panama dependent on sea travel), and the vampires have full night-time control of the area between the ruins of Veracruz and the still-inhabited mountains in Nicaragua.
A shifter on maneuvers with the RDF in the southern Honshu wastelands accidentally blunders into the displaced Hiroshima. After discovering that only 12 hours had passed for the city between the Zentraedi attack and his arrival, he quickly contacts the acting government and tells them he would go for help. They don't believe him at first, but his disappearance from his jail cell gives them hope someone will free them from the void. By the time he escapes, it is April 2013; three hours in Hiroshima had been 4 months in the real world.
June 2013*: The first true space missions in two years (i.e. not dependent on travel through rifts) are launched. The ley lines on the moon, Mars and Venus are more apparent from orbit than they had been from ground level, or from Earth. While they are nowhere near as active or widespread as their Earth counterparts, their intersections prove to correspond to all of the known Atlantean off-planet colonies and research facilities in the solar system. Even ley lines in space are discovered, linking each planet and major moon (1500km or more diameter) to the sun; these lines cause the planetary alignment ley line energy surges. The mysterious magical gate constructs linking Mars and Venus, originally a mystery as to their nature, are found to have been the infrastructure built of an ambitious Terraforming project meant to make both worlds livable, that the Atlanteans never activated for more than test purposes (the project having been aborted by the disaster on Earth).
Roy Hunter is born to Rick & Lisa in New Macross. The parents take the month off, and so remain behind on Earth, while the Sterlings and Claudia Grant go on an important mission out of the solar system.
Breetai takes Earth's only spaceworthy Zentraedi flagship and leads a mission to capture a Robotech Factory Satellite at the beginning of the month. He returns victorious at months' end, not having to fire a shot, having used mages, psychics and baby Dana Sterling to show "his" control over Protoculture. The Satellite is put into Earth orbit, where other-dimensional technowizards, their Zentraedi students, and Robotech scientists begin repairs and renovation of the entire vessel. Commander Reno and his men are relocated to Brazil for reeducation and assignment to the demon containment forces.
The shifter who had discovered Hiroshima, having formulated a plan with the help of several hundred other mages (most of the RDF mages in training, as well their instructors and an extended family of mages who came to Earth just for the mission), implements the plan on the summer solstice, bringing the two sections of Japan back onto their true world. However, the stress of the ritual kills 60 of the mages involved, and 20 more are displaced into the Macross Movie universe with the land that returned there. After a week of negotiation, Japan joins the UEG, their importance being all the more obvious since only a dozen or so weapons from orbit had struck before the region phased into the Astral Plane, and most of the cities and rural areas of the region remained intact, and their volcanoes no more active than they had been before 2011.
December 2013*: A vampire assault on Mexico City results in the death of Seloy Deperra Leonard. Obsessed with the death of Seloy and the near-death of his son Hirano, Anatole Leonard organizes the Armies of the Southern Cross, an independent military force. Unlike the Robotech RPG ASC, this force welcomes Zentraedi, D-Bees, psychics and mages, as its purpose is fighting the supernatural forces from the rifts.
March 2014*: A ley line walker on tour of the SDF-1 engine room senses the presence of the Protoculture Matrix, which is soon recovered. With it, several Pollinators emerge from the nooks and crannies of the ship as well. To their shock, they discover for once and for all that the source of Protoculture is a variant of the plants left behind by the destroyed Atlantean colony on Kudos, just as the Pollinators are a variant of the same "alien" lifeform guarding the plants there. The implications of this revelation are argued for the rest of the decade.
The New Slavic Republic secedes from the UEG, claiming that body concentrates too much on the Western Hemisphere's supernatural problems and not enough on the problems of Eurasia and Africa. At first, the move seems counter-productive; but it is soon revealed that the NSR is receiving technological assistance from another dimension (the Federation from the TMNT Guide to the Universe) via a rift. Eventually, the NSR's technology will surpass that of their benefactors, as they are a much more open society, and quick to buy, steal or reverse-engineer anything that the UEG nations come up with, as well as any of the high-tech societies that were rifted in (such as in Patagonia).
Following the lead of the NSR, the Confederation of Patagonia secedes as well. Patagonia is made up of a number of new states, as Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay were all effectively destroyed by the natural disasters that accompanied the Rifts, even more so than the Zentraedi bombardment. The member states of the Confederation are Santiago, New Patagonia (the areas called Cordoba & Achilles in Rifts, only without the mutant animals), the alien Amaki colony/nation of New Babylon, and the Southern Alliance (a federation of humans whose cities were displaced here from a dozen different Earths and a couple non-Earths, that had to work together to survive in an area that, until their arrival, had not had cities at all, and had gone unnoticed by RDF relief forces for almost a year).
June 2014*: The rift-gate system linking Mars and Venus is activated by the RDF, linking the two planets atmospheres' via multiple rifts. The result is both planets initially have a higher atmospheric pressure than Earth, but the air is still unbreathable, though the truly toxic components from Venus (the sulfur compounds, etc.) are filtered out in the process. The heat from the air rifted in from Venus also melts the ice in Mars' polar caps and beneath the surface, boosting Mars environment even more. The areas within Mars' ley line nexus triangles turn out to be environmentally controlled by the stations at the nexus, and the earlier visits (and monkeying with the controls) had resulted in those regions becoming Earth-normal environments (as they had been in Atlantean times) by the time the main project was started. They are unaffected by the atmospheric chaos outside the triangles, much to the surprise of those involved in the restarted Terraforming project. To speed things along, Mars Base Langdon is set up in one of these areas, allowing the base to function without the atmospheric regulation required years earlier by Sara Base. Efforts are made to try to bring in Kuiper belt objects to provide water for Venus.
Traditionalist Japanese (who blame the disasters of 2011 on technology) flock to the Kyoto area, and set up the New Japanese Empire, after Amaterasu appears at the Millennium Tree there, and delivers a child said to be the true heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. The Empire secedes on good terms from the Republic of Japan, with the only hard feelings being over technology use. Another group, calling themselves the Ichto, also secede, on only slightly less good terms. The primary problems the humans of Ichto had with the Republic and the UEG was their acceptance of aliens and D-Bees. Still, many residents of the Republic and Ichto crossed the border in their daily commutes, with the major dissent being on the political, not personal, level.
The last few remaining native inhabitants of Hokkaido wake up the morning of the Solstice to find themselves (and their belongings) in one of the "treehouses" of the Kyoto Millenium Tree, with notice that the Japanese gods now claimed that island for their home.
July 2014*: The ASC is officially recognized by the UEG as a sanctioned non-political military force for combating the supernatural, based out of Mexico City. However, all military assaults versus the vampires so far have been at best draws, as the Yucatan Peninsula is unreachable by air or sea and the military's casualties often end up as reinforcements for the undead.
Oni attacks on Honshu increase, and the last of the coastal settlements of mainland China fall to demon attacks from the "Hells" rumored to be inland. In a strange parallel of 1948, the Chinese who escaped from the demon offensive flee to Taiwan/Formosa, which had been totally depopulated by the events of 2011. A few inland kingdoms survive in China, defended by mystical warriors and martial artists. However, none of these kingdoms choose to participate in world affairs.
August 2014*: The first chunks of ice bound for Mars arrive and are broken up in the atmosphere, as a small-scale test of what was to come for Venus. Upon completion of the ice bombardment in October, the planet is seeded with simple lifeforms, followed by the Flower of Life in March of 2015. The Flower of Life is used due to its fast maturation rate and its amazing soil rejuvenation capabilities, paving the way for total ecosystem implantation in 2017.
September 2014*: Whole ice asteroids are slammed into Venus. After the bombardment is completed in December, the engines that had brought the ice to Venus (which were removed before the chunks were hurled at the planet) and those from the Mars ice project were relocated and set on the surface and turned on maximum power, having been oriented during placement to further speed up the planet's rotation. These would run until their fuel supply was exhausted a year later, by which time the planet's rotation period was 60 hours, albeit still in the opposite direction from the rest of the solar system's planets. These efforts also reduce Venus' atmosphere down to levels normally associated with Earth Himalayan mountaintops, though the melting ice (and resulting water vapor in the atmosphere) slowly raise it back up to something more like Colorado mountaintop air pressures. The gates back to Mars were occasionally reopened for short periods, bringing the pressures on both closer to Earth sea level.
The SDF-2 is finally launched, having been extensively modified from its original specifications. It leaves for Tyrol under the command of Captain Claudia Grant, accompanied by Breetai and his flagship. Henry Gloval, now retired, is aboard the SDF-2 as an ambassador, while the SDF-1 "Bridge Bunnies" and their Zentraedi husbands double as both the SDF-2's bridge crew and part of the diplomatic mission. Prior to the launch ceremonies, Rick and Lisa Hunter are promoted to Brigadier General and Rear Admiral respectively upon Gloval's departure/retirement, and are left in charge of the Earth RDF. (Note: in this universe, the REF will never exist as such.)
April 2015: First post-Rifts sighting of the Pucarans in South America.
August 2015: Magic use increases among Earth's populace, and the number of evil mages increases as well. A conflict between the ASC and the necromancer Lazlo Zand results in the near-destruction of Monument City by hordes of demons. Zand is believed to have died in the destruction, along with his mercenary ally T.R. Edwards, but no bodies were recovered.
The first openly hostile magocracy, the Ohio Valley Federation of Magi, is formed in New Evansville, and its first action is to declare war on its xenophobic neighbor, the independent Duchy of York. York, located around Cincinnati, is ruled by a person who claims to be Prince Harry of the United Kingdom, who was on a tour of the US when the Zentraedi attack occurred. York's wealth is in its technology (including an intact GE aircraft turbine plant), and its military equipment salvaged from nearby Wright-Paterson A.F.B. and Fort Knox, Kentucky. The war, viewed by many as symbolizing Earth's struggle versus the supernatural, ends in a stalemate in late 2016, with both sides agreeing to a truce similar to the one between the pre-Global-War states of North and South Korea. However, the fierce debate on whether one side or the other should receive assistance from the UEG cripples that governing body. (In the end, neither side was assisted).
January 2016*: The Flower of Life is introduced on Venus. Druids and Elemental Warlocks begin working on the soil of Mars to make it more suitable for other plant life, bringing in thousands of elementals to assist. Some of the elementals take it on themselves to open portals to the elemental plane of water to more rapidly hydrate the planet, much to the confounding of planners (who were constantly having to adjust plans when new lakes - or even seas - appeared from nowhere). By April, the "troublemaker" water elementalists have moved on to Venus, which requires a lot more work just to get much of the surface down to a temperature where water won't boil.
Rick and Lisa Hunter have their second child; a girl, named Andrea after Lisa's mother. Lisa's father, who had resigned as a result of the debacle that led to Earth’s attack, dies two days later.
Dana Sterling is found to be psionic. She is the first known master psionic to be born on Earth of parents native to the Riftech dimension, though numerous lesser psychics and mystic mages had seemingly occurred spontaneously from long-term exposure to Protoculture equipment and use of the Atlantean Stone Pyramid system.
April 2016*: The first psi-stalkers born to Earth-native parents are identified as such. At first looked upon as abominations, they soon become highly prized by the ASC and other forces that combat the supernatural. In fact, in 2018 the ASC would institute an adoption program for psionic children of all types, which would raise the psionic children to become ASC operatives upon reaching their mid-teens.
November 2016: The first reports of an insectoid race living in the Rockies come in, followed shortly thereafter by a bloody conflict that "ended" in December, only to be repeated every year or so as the creatures decided to attack New Macross again.
The ASC contracts ZMI (Zentraedi Military Industries), a group of Zentraedi operators (as the Rifts O.C.C.) and technowizards based on the Factory Satellite, to design light and heavy ground mecha, ground unit power armor and flight-capable power armor for its forces. See the Mecha/Robot Conversion Tables for the types. The first field units were shipped to the ASC in July 2017.
February 2017*: The UEG, torn apart by the infighting over the OVFM/York war, ceases to exist as a planetary government, and reorganizes to function similar to the old United Nations, while remaining trustee for the as-yet unreclaimed wasteland areas and the space colonies. For procedural purposes, the RDF and ASC are each given a seat in the new body, with the RDF's role being defined as the UEG's space defense force and law enforcement arm, while the ASC would be the Earthbound anti-demon military force.
April 2017*: Final atmospheric modifications are made on the terraformed planets, and 1000 of the ships that had landed on Earth six years before are repaired enough to travel to either Mars or Venus, in order to plant higher lifeforms (plant and animal). Half the crew was micronized, while the other half remained full-sized in order to plant adult trees, but were micronized upon completion of this task. Mars is stocked with temperate and subarctic lifeforms., Venus is implanted with rain forest, savanna and desert ecosystems in the areas away from the many active volcanoes, and the influx of tens of thousands of cubic miles of liquid water from the elementals' work appears to have kick-started Venus' long-dormant plate tectonics. Despite all this work, the most common higher lifeform by far is still the Flower of Life, and only about 3-5% of each planet gets terraformed per year.
January 2018*: 400 of the ships from the Mars mission return to pick up permanent colonists. The ships were subsectioned to carry about 250,000 micronian-sized passengers each. Once the ships returned to Mars, they were unloaded, shut down and cannibalized. Another 50 of the ships had already been done this way, to prepare the colony ships. The remaining 50 ships were kept as a planetary defense fleet. The planetary population was around 100 million, 60% of which are Zentraedi, and 0.5% are D-Bees.
The Patagonian Arcology of the Southern Alliance (a city that was rifted in from a much higher-tech Earth) introduces Cybernetic, Bionic, Juicer and M.O.M. technology to Riftech Earth. This is hailed by some, condemned by others (such as the RDF and ASC). They do not become common in South America until 2020, and aren't licensed to Japan and the NSR for study until 2023 (characters with these O.C.C.s can start play in those areas in 2025). It takes until 2030 for these systems to become commonplace in areas outside these three areas, and they are illegal in most UEG nations (other than Japan) and areas served by the Southern Cross.
July 2018*: Venus is colonized in much the same manner as Mars, except that dinosaurs were brought along and given free reign on one continent.
February 2019: The first report from the Tyrol expedition comes in. The fold trip took 4.5 years, and the Robotech Masters had already left for Earth. Over the next nine months, contact is made with the other Inner Sphere worlds. It is theorized that something related to Earth's magical condition may have caused the fold issues, which were not present before the Rifts erupting, and were not experienced with folds between Tyrol and its former client worlds. In other words, Breetai had been very lucky when he brought back the Factory Satellite.
Larhold numbers become a real threat (previously only a nuisance) to the Patagonian Confederacy. Disputes on how to handle the Larhold result in the hardliners in Santiago pulling their nation out of the Confederacy, in order to implement their more violent measures (which only escalates the fighting).
November 2019: Breetai reports that Optera has been abandoned, and warns Earth that the Invid were probably on their way as well.
January 2020: The Invid arrive and take over Venus, killing a third of the population and enslaving another third. The remainder of the population retreats into the jungle and begins using guerilla tactics against the Regent's forces. The Regis seems to be more interested in studying humanity than killing it, and instead primarily enslaves and experiments on humanity. The UEG decides not to immediately attack Venus, as it would jeopardize the slaves, and Earth was overmatched as well. Both Earth and Mars begin a military buildup, but Earth has to divert its attention to a rash of dimensional invasions that begin in March. Ironically, under the Invid, the terraforming of Venus increases to a level where all the land surfaces are relatively Earth-normal by 2029 (albeit equatorial deserts and temperate forests near the poles, with everything else equivalent to the Earth tropics).
June 2020: The Dakir settle their Megaversal Legion in a remote Andes valley, allowing the Legion to contact the UEG only once, to let them know that trespassers would be shot.
February 2023: The very-illegal Achilles Project is exposed. Many of the mutant animals settle in enclaves away from humans in remote areas of Patagonia, but the mutant cats disappear into the Brazilian jungle, as if on a mission.
April 2024: The Otomo Shogunate, having armed itself on the open market, declares its independence from the UEG. This is seen as a slap in the face to the organization, which had helped administer the region since its inception as a refugee camp in 2012. The Shogunate (and its weapons company H-Brand), become a thorn in the side of the RDF, the rest of Japan, and the Southern Cross from their environmental and sales practices.
September 2025: The Tyrol Expedition returns to Alpha Centauri with representatives from Tyrol (Cabell and Rem) as well as the other worlds of the Inner Sphere (the Sentinels listed in the Sentinels RPG), and those personnel not critical to ship operations are sent with the dignitaries back to Earth via the Pyramid in the once-abandoned colony. Cabell, Lang and a team of scientists and technowizards begin work on trying to figure out a fold system less susceptible to Earth's high-magic surroundings, as the SDF-2 folds in small steps back towards Earth to determine how far the disruptions of fold-space extended. After two months, it arrives outside the heliopause, and discovers that the potential fold disruption effects extended to the heliopause region. This leads to regulations requiring that Earth's space fleet not fold until more than 20 billion miles from the sun, just to be safe.
The Regent, having sensed a fold near the solar system for the first time since his own arrival, sends raiding parties against Earth and Mars every few months. Slowly but surely, losses on both human planets mount, as the Invid can replace their losses more quickly than their foes, and the Invid, having a hive mentality, are much more suicidal, with many of the human ships being lost to kamikaze attacks. By 2029, only the SDF-2, Breetai's flagship and two scout ships remain over Earth, while Mars forces have been reduced to six landing ships and three scouts.
The Regis, having studied human specimens over the last five years, begins sending simulagents to the other two planets to study how normal humanity functions. The Mars simulagents are usually discovered quickly, but several of the Earth simulagents are not. Unfortunately for the Regis, they usually stop reporting after 2-5 reports, and eventually even the best agents stop reporting after six months. Very little changes in the space war, until 2030.
October 2028: The Republic of Japan, having made intensive studies of Zentraedi cloning technology, announces the perfection of its medical clone system. The system allows the cloning of a body from any existing DNA (such as the genetic material of a borg's brain), and the transfer of a mind's knowledge into the clone's brain. This technology, which could be used to correct DNA flaws in the sample before cloning, made most hereditary diseases curable, not to mention the implications for reversal of cyborg and juicer conversion. However, (officially) the Japanese refuse to augment persons by adding psychic powers (that weren't already present) or increasing attributes other than what would be possessed by a healthy body. The process does become popular with Zentraedi seeking to remove long-term genetic damage from their years in space, and in some cases to actually remove the special traits that make them Zentraedi, to become more like native humans (such as removal of non-Terran skin pigmentation).
December 2029: The Robotech Masters arrive, and the Invid rise from Venus to meet them. A massive space battle ensues, and two of the Masters' ships are destroyed, as well as all of the Invid heavy ships. The Regent's forces limp back to Venus, while the remaining four of the Masters ships (if there were more, they didn't successfully defold) deplete over 90% of their Protoculture reserves in the battle. Three of the ships make it to Mars, push their way past the defense ships and land outside Langdon; they then took the base by force. The fourth Tyrolean ship, the Masters’ own, limps to Earth, crashing in Alaska. None would ever fly again.
Down the Road: In the 2030 world of Riftech, few things are certain. However, a few questions will be asked by the players and astute GMs. These date/group matters will be up to the GM to play with.
When will the Naruni open up shop on Riftech Earth? I suggest 2025, but the RDF and ASC aren't interested in buying from interdimensional aliens (except maybe to copy them, and the Naruni won't allow that).
The Archons (South America 2): The Archons' fold troubles will be much worse here than in Rifts. Their fleet will be scattered over three decades, rarely more than one ship arriving at a time. Some will arrive as early as 2014, with the majority of the fleet arriving in 2032 over a period of several weeks (and stray ships will pop in sporadically for another decade). They will typically be more of an issue for Mars and Venus after terraforming, than for Earth, as Riftech Earth's forces will be so much more substantial than that of Rifts Earth as presented in Mutants in Orbit, that not even the most suicidal Archon ship captain would try to run that gauntlet prior to the 2030s. After 2030, though, all bets are off, as the Archons will have the largest fleet in the system when the bulk of their fleet finally arrives in 2032
When will the Megaversal Legion revolt against their Dakir masters? In Riftech, it happens in late 2030. However, the Legion's humans feel too altered to fit in with the people of the Earth they now reside on, and will rarely interact with the outside world, unless attacked. A few may venture out, but not with their vehicles or PA. Instead, they will stay on the market in other dimensions as mercenaries, hoping to find their way home. Some might even approach Japan to see about converting themselves back to unaltered humans after retirement.
And the things from Rifts Underseas? The Tico and her escorts are completed for the ASC Navy in 2028. by this time, the Navy will have lost several of her other ships to activity from the monsters in the Underseas and Lemuria books. Tritonia is founded in 2020, and is the first major non-land base of the ASC Navy. The Lemurians' presence is first suspected around that time, as well. The Sea Titans are transformed in 2030, and it is partially in response to the threat that created them that the Lemurians begin to reveal themselves. 2030 is also the year that the level of sentience and magic use by marine mammals come to the attention of the human governments, thanks to the Lemurians and Sea Titans.
The Achilles Neo-Humans won't reach adulthood until 2040. The Amphibs are Achilles creations as well, and end up being moved to Tritonia initially after they are discovered.
ARCHIE-3, as described in Rifts, won't exist (no project in Maryland, no Splugorth incursions into North America, etc.), and his designs end up falling under the ZMI umbrella (if they are ever made). However, it's possible that an analogue of the ARCHIE program as it existed pre-Rifts might result on Riftech Earth from attempts to replicate Zor's EVE technology.
NEMA (Chaos Earth) didn't exist either, and its tech is far too advanced initially for inclusion (will mostly be post-2020 designs, if not post-2030). But, the ROSCOE suits will be produced for the RDF & ASC as early as 2013 (just lower M.D.C.). However, Chaos Earth's demons, magic forms, and other phenomena are part and parcel of the first few years after the Zentraedi attack, even if Yellowstone didn't erupt. Feel free to convert the NPCs of that story line to US Military or UEDC (with RDF tech), if you want to run a NEMA-like campaign.
The NSR is a fusion of the Rifts NGR and the Robotech RPG (1E) EBSIS, set just a little further east (though they'll be moving into Germany quickly, as the climate shifts occur from the new poles. Most everything else will remain as in the NGR books, except the society will open up more to Norse-type D-Bees as Human Federation influence wanes. If Victor Lazlo pops in from his 1980s disappearance, it will be in the 2020s or 2030s. Switzerland is still inhabited, but a land besieged by the initial Gargoyle invasions (which are being supported by the Splugorth).
The cybernetic nations of Russia as in Rifts will never exist. However, the mystical elements of that setting will, though many of them fleeing the advancing ice sheets of the new North Pole region. Siberia will quickly become what it was BEFORE the thaw in the Rifts story occurred.
Psyscape, the Federation of Magic's more innately evil elements, GAW, Merctown, Char, Arzno, the Colorado Baronies, and the independent cities of the Mississippi valley are up to the individual game master to determine if or when they occur. El Paso and Ciudad Juarez also fit into this category, since Mexico doesn't fall immediately (and in fact, is still an active battleground for the ASC against the undead in 2030, though mostly depopulated from the supernatural threats and the many volcanoes). None of the Mexican/Central American Vampire Intelligences outside the Yucatan are where Rifts says they are, though they are still present. If Reid's Rangers come about, they will have a much different origin (ASC castouts?). Grizzly Carter is, in fact, one of the first D-Bees that shows up back in 2011-2012, and will have been a long-time ally of the RDF by 2030, under his Palladium name (like most of you, I ignore the rewrites to remove the PFRPG elements of Rifts done out of the misguided interpretation of "rights issues" for things like films).
Much as the Gargoyles in Europe, the Lizardmen of Lagarto are a Splugoth proxy much more than in Rifts. All of the other supernatural dangers of South America are still in play (though Colombia is still in the rebuilding process, and the technological weapons of Colombia, Peru and Patagonia will take until the 2020s to show up - the GB-7 will NEVER exist).
China is as it is in Rifts, though a little colder, and a lot nearer the time of the Rifts. As a result, the politics of the demons is at an earlier state, and the secret facility lost in the magical caves is a Robotechnology research facility, studying stuff stolen from the SDF-1 during the rebuilding (possibly originally attached to the Anti-unification "terrorist" forces), and won't be reattached to the world outside until the 2020s or later.
The Tundra Rangers also get changed into a UEDC or Canadian facility, much like what is suggested for NEMA, and whether it gets displaced and comes back, or just never leaves, is up to the game master. I suggest a few lost months, that spare it from the natural disasters, before it pops back in.