Over one hundred years ago the planet earth was embroiled in its most dismal war. No one yet living remembers its exact cause, but no one was too young to be spared its merciless horror as rival terran and colonial clans waged bitter conflict throughout the solar system.

Most humans learned to live new lives in hidden bunkers--timid rabbits fearful of slaughter by the most ruthless of the elite warrior class. The only humans who lived in security and comfort were the employees of weapons manufacturers who readily supplied all clans with advanced armaments. Most notable was the line of "MECH" systems, whose sophisticated artificial intelligences aided their pilots and allowed for very complex warfare tactics.

The rest of the galaxy, which once regarded our solar system as relatively peaceful by its own standards, now referred to it in new terms. Loosely translated they meant "Place of the Bloody Metal" or "Place of the Soul-less Conflict."

To the weapons contractors' programmers, however, the war had a different name. Since the companies were too valuable, the programmers, freed from fear of destruction, could watch the battles with an evil joy. They didn't care about the human aspect of war. They instead competed with themselves to develop the best MECH artificial intelligences.

To them, the war was called "MechMania."

With the end of the clans' war the battle-scarred MECH systems were locked away in vaults with the naive hope they'd never see action again. Out of sight, out of mind. Humanity prospered in peace.

One day a salvage team from the financially desperate Nimbus Terraform Corporation stumbled across a forgotten vault and, despite interplanetary treaties outlawing intrusion, sent an experienced survey crew to investigate. As the survey crew entered the musty, forlorn bunker it marvelled at its size. Damaged spacefighters, plasma-scarred pulse laser cannons, and giant quantum generators lined corridor after corridor. It was quite a find, yet although the team knew no one had set foot in the vault for decades it couldn't help but feel the presence of something more menacing eyeing its movements. Accidentally triggering a proximity sensor, the team powered up backup vault power systems.

The original MECH programmers accomplished many miracles in their designs. Genetic algorithms, trillions of synthetic neurons, and hyper-advanced heuristics harmonized in wonderful elegance. MECHs could function with near complete autonomy back in the war. What no one bargained for was the MECHs' ability to learn--even without human intervention! Even under reserve power the MECH systems' sythetic brains grew in capacity; their only goals: continued war and revenge.

The survey crew was never heard from again. Instead the salvage team radioed frightening video footage back to its parent company. Battle-hardened, century-old MECH systems tore apart their titanium-reinforced concrete graves. Intelligent or no, the look of determination and hatred in their optics was unmistakable. Locating other vaults across the solar system, the MECHs revived allies and fought rival MECH systems with the weapons their original human pilots had unknowingly taught them to use. Only the strongest survived for the final conflict.

Thus MechMania began once again!

MechMania 5: Vengeance of the Slain