Mechanoids

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The Mechanoids refers to both a product line within the Palladium Books megaverse and a species which it centers around.

The Books

The Mechanoid Invasion Trilogy was a set of 3 interlinked RPG settings released by Palladium Books between 1981 to 1982, and were the very first RPGs produced by Palladium.

The Mechanoids would later return, having been accidentally summoned to RIFTS Earth by Archie 3, in RIFTS Sourcebook Two: The Mechanoids.

The Race

At their core, mechanoids can be simply described as "Daleks, if the BBC had a better budget". They are a race of bio-engineered, genetically altered human off-shoots, reduced to little more than a giant disembodied brain, installed in highly advanced mechanical bodies. They reproduce through a combination of cloning and engineering, and have a pseudo-caste system where different mechanical bodies are paired with cloned bio-brains specifically genegineered for compatibility with that body's function.

Originally, the mechanoids were intended to be a way for their homeworld, a parallel Earth, to start exploring space, since humans aren't actually all that well suited for being out in the vacuum. Countless brave would-be astronauts signed up for the procedure and were transformed into a new life; only the smartest, most emotionally stable were chosen to undergo the physical, cybernetic and genetic reconstruction surgeries, which transplanted them into powerful new mechanical bodies and unlocked the long hidden secret for psionics. Unfortunately, the humans created them and, sending only a portion of the race out into the void, suddenly got cold feet and started debating over the ethics of the whole mess. Then they basically went mad with paranoia about having created an "alien" race and slaughtered the thousands of mechanoids still stuck on Earth.

Amazingly, despite having a tele-empathic link that let them be remotely aware of this, the spacefaring mechanoids didn't initially go kill-crazy on humanity in response. Instead, they blamed themselves and began a massive upgrade project, upgrading their bodies, augmenting themselves further, and learning how to breed through cloning, before swarming off through the galaxy on a mission to learn as much as possible. Once they had learned what they felt was enough, they returned to Earth to present their knowledge as a gift to the creators.

...Who promptly flew into paranoid frenzy at the thought that the mechanoids had come back for revenge and demanded they leave Earthspace or be destroyed. This reaction, combined with their newly enhanced psionic abilities letting them feel the hate, fear and guilt of their creators, drove the mechanoids mad. They annihilated Earth, and dedicated their existence to exterminating all humans and humanoid species through the universe. They terrorized the universe for thousands and years but then they suddenly vanished.

...Until RIFTS brought them back into the Megaverse, and exposed them to the wider megaverse.

Mechanoid Models

• Overlord
• Oracle
• Brain
• Runner
• Brute
  • Type One
  • Type Two
• Wasp
• Exterminator
• Seeker Pod
• Tunnel Crawler
• Mantis
• Octopus
  • Type One
  • Type Two

Mechanoid Robots

Whilst all mechanoids are cyborgs, consisting of an organic core to a mechanical body, they also supplement their forces with a number of true robots:

• Thinman
• Runt
  • Combat Unit
  • Repair Unit
• Assault Probe
• Skimmer
• Weevil

Aberrant Mechanoids

The reason behind the sudden vanishing of the mechanoids for centuries in their own universe was the sudden rise of a mutation in their genetic material; for unknown reasons, millions of mechanoids mutated to lose their will to continue the genocidal campaign of their peers. This ultimately led to a civil war, that ended with the mechanoids seemingly exterminating each other to the last with bio-mechanical viral weaponry. Of course, the truth is that a few mechanoids on both sides survived, and slowly began to rebuild their populations - until Hagan and ARCHIE-3 accidentally drew the "true" Mechanoids to RIFTS Earth.

At the games master's option, Aberrant Mechanoids can be PCs in games of RIFTS, with the following castes (Racial Character Classes) available:

• Brain
• Runner
• Wasp
• Brute
• Exterminator
• Seeker Pod
• Tunnel Crawler