Far back in Mankind's history, during the dawn of the Age of Technology, humanity forged out into the stars with hope and trepidation in their hearts, seeking to extend their dominion over the vast and mysterious gulfs of space. Sublight Long March colony ships soared out from the human homeworld, tiny motes of life drifting through the vast tracts of unexplored space. When the Long March colonists settled their assigned worlds, upon making planetfall they quickly discovered that many of these worlds were often inhabited, either by monstrous predatory beasts or sentient alien races that resented the sudden appearance of these invaders from beyond the stars. To protect them against all of these terrible threats, the colonists had their Standard Template Constructs -- miracles of technology