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| - In the early seventies, an astronomer located a cluster of meteors that would cross Earth’s path in the summer of ninety eight. Keeping this secret was the government's top priority. First, they did not want to panic the populace. Second, they saw it as a way to get the upper-hand against the Soviets. Building a meteor defense platform became the United States’ number one priority. It took 15 years to build the Citadel Starstation, a highly advanced orbital nuclear anti-meteor missile platform. The United States' Citadel Starstation was slated to be fully operational by March, just months before the meteors were believed to be arriving. Tensions grew with the coming of 1998, the Soviets charging that the space station was merely a military launching platform, alarming a number of nonaligne
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| abstract
| - In the early seventies, an astronomer located a cluster of meteors that would cross Earth’s path in the summer of ninety eight. Keeping this secret was the government's top priority. First, they did not want to panic the populace. Second, they saw it as a way to get the upper-hand against the Soviets. Building a meteor defense platform became the United States’ number one priority. It took 15 years to build the Citadel Starstation, a highly advanced orbital nuclear anti-meteor missile platform. The United States' Citadel Starstation was slated to be fully operational by March, just months before the meteors were believed to be arriving. Tensions grew with the coming of 1998, the Soviets charging that the space station was merely a military launching platform, alarming a number of nonaligned nations. Two weeks before Citadel was due for full operation, the station transmitted a distress signal. Undetected, a cloud of small meteorites preceded the main cluster. Though they were no threat to Earth, Earth's satellites were a different story. Immediately after the message was sent, most of the satellites orbiting the planet were swept clean from the sky, leaving the great powers blind. In military panic, each sent 90 percent of their nuclear arsenals skyward. Although the destruction was tremendous, it was not complete. Pockets of civilization remained, some even oblivious to the military exchange. The world of today is the antithesis of the clean, futuristic society that came before. Wasteland is a world in decay. The once glimmering cities of glass and steel lie in ruin. Rusted hulls of cars litter the urban environment as a reminder of the world that once was. The survivors of the cataclysm have banded together into small frontier communities. Not unlike the Wild West hundreds of years prior, the world of today is an age of rugged individualism; a society where the ties between individuals are loose and everyone is expected to look after himself and his own. Some towns have the benefit of a pre-cataclysm renewable power source, such as a small wind turbine or solar dish. In the midst of a technological dark age, few have the knowledge and means to recreate these power sources, making them coveted and often fought-over commodities. The few who have the know-how to maintain the old technologies are highly sought after and often command a lot of influence. On the same day destruction rained down from the sky, a company of U.S. Army Engineers were in the southwestern deserts building transportation bridges over dry riverbeds. They worked deep in the inhospitable desert valleys, surrounded by a number of survivalist communities. Located directly south of their position on that day was a newly-constructed federal prison. In addition to housing the nation's criminals condemned to death, the prison contained light industrial manufacturing facilities. Shortly after the cataclysm began, the Engineers, seeking shelter, took over the federal prison and expelled the prisoners into the desolate desert to complete their sentences. As the weeks passed, they invited the nearby survivalist communities to join them and to help them build a new society. Because of each community’s suspicions towards one another, times were difficult at first. But as time nurtured trust, this settlement - which came to be known as Ranger Center - grew to be one of the strongest outposts. Ranger Center even proved powerful enough to repel the hands of rancorous criminals who repeatedly attacked in attempts to reclaim what was once “rightfully” theirs. The citizens of Ranger Center, after first believing that they were the only ones who survived the nuclear cataclysm, soon realized that communities beyond the desert's grip had also survived. Because they had such success in constructing a new community, they felt compelled to help other survivors rebuild and live in peace. Toward this end, the Desert Rangers, in the great tradition of the Texas and Arizona Rangers a century before, were born. Wasteland 2 begins fifteen years after the events of Wasteland. As a team of Desert Rangers, you've vowed to restore order and justice in a land where there is none …but first you must survive. The wastes are expansive and unforgiving. The lack of water, intense heat, and zones of flesh-melting radiation are the least of your problems. Roving gangs, fanatical survivalists, twisted cultists, relentless synthetics and bizarre mutated creatures inhabit these lands, posing threats at every turn.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)