Editing BattleTech (section)

===Mechs Just Got Real===
The introduction of the ''Mackie'' shifted the focus of military development away from interstellar Warships back to ground forces. The Terran Hegemony was able to prove that the 100-ton BattleMech was far superior to conventional ground vehicles (interestingly, the Terran Hegemony's main battle tank was <s>the Israeli Merkava</s> named Merkava but utterly unrelated to the Israeli tank of the same name), allowing a single man to destroy formations of opposing non-'Mechs. Of course, the rest of the Inner Sphere wanted the same capability, and in 2355 the plans for the BattleMech were stolen (as usual, the writers don’t realize that stealing a design is pointless if you don’t know how to build all the parts...like myomer (Myomer that was already a popular material throughout the Inner Sphere, used in the IndustrialMechs before the Mackie was even a concept). ). The Age of the BattleMech had begun.

During the next hundred years, as the Great Houses vied for supremacy and founded the nucleus of the future Successor States, the Terran Hegemony was able to exert great influence as the most technologically-advanced and neutral of the great powers. This would lead to the creation of the '''[[Star League]]''' in 2571, a grand union of all of humanity's interstellar nations. While ostensibly created for the purpose of uniting mankind and keeping the peace between the stars, it was also a massive power play by Terra to secure the raw materials it needed to maintain its technological edge and once more bring mankind under Terra's dominion. In keeping with the feudal society that now dominated mankind's worlds, the position of First Lord of the Star League was invested in Terra's ruling House, the Cameron dynasty.

While Hidden Wars would plague the Star League throughout its reign, no conflicts were fought between its members as long as the Star League Defense Force kept the peace between factions. Terra's hoard of advanced technologies were shared freely among the worlds of man, and a new Golden Age descended.

It all came to an end in 2766. The last of the Camerons was assassinated by Stefan Amaris, a power-hungry politician from the Periphery, the ring of interstellar nations that had refused to join the Star League and had been conquered for their trouble. Claiming the mantle of Emperor of the Star League and Director-General of the Terran Hegemony, Amaris was immediately denounced by the commander of the SLDF, Aleksandr Kerensky.