Description

It is over 200 years since the first of the terran colonists landed on the uninhabited and unsuspecting planet of Neo-earth. Humans have begun to establish a new history of wanton destruction and unbridled creativity. The Singularity rift that eventually will lead to the establishment of a utopia is centuries away in the future. The fledgling nation of U.S.N.A. originally set up by the North Americans of old earth is fast becoming one of the most powerful of the industrial states.

As nations formed and the population began to be settled the media was there to cover it. Whenever a settler put a spade in the ground, wiped out a species or did something horrible to another human being a camera was there. The media became the chronicler of the pioneering years, and more. To forget the hardships of day-to-day living the Neo-earthlings immersed themselves in all forms of entertainment sims, V.R. and finally real combat TV. Beginning as fighting matches between professional athletes it quickly evolved to include audience participation. Teams of home viewers roamed across elaborate battlegrounds beating the snot out of each other for the sake of entertainment. These "teams" eventually became fighting orders with their own particular combat styles. As long as TV audiences could see a New Texan housewife savagely mauling an accountant from Maine with a pain-wand each week real combat TV continued to be a success.

Nobody knows exactly when FENRIR (Fusion Engine Non-Robotic Intercept Raider) was invented. Originally developed as support for conventional army forces, they began to be used in the frontier areas and in civilian "control" situations. The executives of the NABC (Neo-American Broadcasting Corporation) weren't slow to adopt this new technology and use FENRIR in their real combat events. Unable to construct artificial battlegrounds of a sufficient size the media networks purchased the ruins of Harmony, the former capital of the USNA state of Piermont that had been destroyed during the conflict with the Ontarians. In this city-sized arena the combatants now range across the landscape in giant FENRIR machines dealing devastation to the opposing team(s). The ultimate televised combat sport is born!

In PIKE: City arena each person controls one of the four major real combat "teams". The object is to crush the opposition while putting on the most entertaining show for the cameras.