Lostech

This article is about the word. For the RPG sourcebook, see LosTech: The MechWarrior Equipment Guide.

Overview

A portmanteau of lost technology, the word Lostech in the BattleTech universe generally refers to technological advances that existed during the Star League era, but were lost in the Succession Wars that followed. It is typically used as an adjective, but can also be used as a noun (often spelled LosTech). As a noun, it can either mean LosTech as a historical event or situation (the technological decline of humanity throughout the Succession Wars), or denote any item that is associated with lostech.

As a defining aspect, LosTech cannot be produced anymore under current technology levels, except occasionally by automated facilities which are invariably LosTech themselves. Often the working principles of lostech items are not even understood anymore, in any case the secret of their production is lost. This became a growing problem as more and more vital industry, including automated factories, collapsed from maintenance shortfalls, because nobody knew how to properly maintain the mysterious machinery or simply for a lack of spare parts. In the dark days of LosTech, only scavenging and improvization kept any advanced technology working at all.

Many lostech items function without requiring the user to actually understand how or why they function. This has given rise to the religious attitude some have to advanced technology, seeing it as a sort of magic, and the rise of ComStar from telecommunications service to a religious order, and even more so the Word of Blake zealots. Many ComStar adepts actually believe that their prayers are just as important for the proper operation of machinery as operations procedures from the manual. The concept of "repair prayer" has become a running joke that some still take very seriously.

History of the technological decline

As a concept, LosTech is often used to describe the loss of technological knowledge over the course of war.

Bombing into the stone age

In the early Succession Wars, all parties deliberately sought to destroy the enemy infrastructure. Amidst the overall ruthless mayhem that obliterated whole worlds, factories, shipyards and starships were prime targets. Humanity as a whole literally bombed itself back into a proverbial 'stone age,' and the Successor Lords realized too late that the damage was beyond repair.

Preserving Lostech

When it became apparent that the ability to build and maintain essential technologies was fading away quickly, irreplaceable civilian assets became regarded as non-combatants through an informal agreement. ComStar was accepted as a neutral caretaker of the interstellar communication network. As lostech items, even those of strategic value, were generally kept out of the fighting, combat became more and more ritualized in the fashion of medieval battles or even duels through the Succession Wars. In order to prevent damage to urban or industrial areas, battles were arranged in outlying regions. Defeated opponents were allowed to withdraw, and captured MechWarriors were ransomed. This development went hand in hand with the establishment of feudal societies, also reminiscent of the middle ages.

Still, the wars raged on. Although infrastructure was not a designated target anymore, collateral damage still occurred and by the early 31st century, many vital technologies were LosTech. Complex systems such as BattleMechs, JumpShips or Hyperpulse Generators became lostech as a whole as most of their individual components such as Fusion Engines or Kearny-Fuchida Drives became unavailable, their working principles lost. Many colonies were doomed because declining shipping deprived them of their food and supplies imports, others because vital life support technology such as water and air purification systems failed or were destroyed, rendering whole worlds uninhabitable.

Holy Shroud

An aggravating element was ComStar, who evolved into a mystical, pseudo-religious order. They pursued a secret agenda and actively sought to quell technological rediscoveries and advancements in the Successor States because they felt they alone should have control over advanced technologies, for their ultimate goal to guide mankind to the light. In this they went so far as to wage a clandestin wars against all other factions' technology, culminating in Operation Holy Shroud, a series of murders and sabotage aimed at the brightest scientists and facilities outside of the order.

The Helm Memory Core

Several research facilities were established in an effort to recover some of the lost technologies. The process was helped along significantly following the recovery of a Star League library core on the planet Helm by the Gray Death Legion and its subsequent dissemination throughout the Inner Sphere in 3028.

With the gradual rediscovery of lost technology, its sacrosanct status eroded away. Military commanders were increasingly prepared to accept crippling losses to their 'Mech and armor units, knowing that once again, they could be replaced. It was more of a coincidence that there were few large wars following the aftermath of the Fourth Succession War. Except for the War of 3039, which was cut short and saw few real clashes, all Successor States preserved their strength and concentrated on building up their militaries with newly discovered advanced technology. For a time at least, their everlasting feuds were largely reduced to border skirmishes and small actions.

For the first time in centuries, technology was on the rise again, and an upswing made itself felt throughout the Inner Sphere.

Clan invasion

When the Clans invaded in 3050, the Inner Sphere became highly motivated to recover lost Star League technology to counter the invaders' technological advantage, and an influx of Clan technology gave another technological boost. In addition, the mutual threat of the Clans enforced a hitherto unknown level of cooperation between the individual successor states. Technology exchanges and envigorated trade further accelerated the rediscovery of lost technologies and even the evolution of a few new ones.

It seemed as if LosTech could be overcome after all. By the 3060s, the Inner Sphere had re-established a technological knowledge base that approximated the technological state of the Star League era. However, due to the thoroughly ramshackle state of their ailing industries, application of recovered knowledge was lagging behind the technological improvements by a long shot. Overall, the Clans still enjoyed roughly two centuries of technological advancements over the Inner Sphere.

Jihad

The pendulum swung backwards again in 3067, when the ultra-reactionary ComStar splinter faction, Word of Blake, launched their Jihad across known space. With the deliberate objective to quell the technological advance, and to pit as many factions against each other as possible, they used sabotage, orbital bombardments and weapons of mass destruction on a grand scale to undo the hopeful developments of the previous decades.

When the dust settled after the Jihad, many industries across the Inner Sphere had been devastated by the intense fighting. With the subsequent formation of the Republic of the Sphere and Devlin Stone's demilitarization of the new nation, many arms producers in the Republic made 'sword-to-plowshare' conversions. IndustrialMechs experienced a rise in mainstream applications during this period of relative peace.

Dark Age

However, the Republic would face a new technological setback when 80% of the interstellar HPG communications network was rendered inoperable in 3132 by a concerted effort including system viruses, sabotaged components, and coordinated attacks against ComStar facilities. These events pushed humanity back into its darker days and set the stage for what is called the Dark Age, where LosTech once again haunts humanity.