Sword and ShieldFor centuries, the mighty Third imperium was defended by the most powerful, sophisticated fighting vehicles ever created by humanity. These vehicles of the Imperial Army and Marines provided security and reassurance as humanity expanded to bring life to the stars and defended them when those stars instead returned death. The Third Imperiumdid not win all of its wars, but it did grow to become the largest interstellar society ever known, through the ingenuity of its explorers and builders, and the courage of its soldiers.Ad then, tragically, the people of the Imperium turned these most powerful weapons onto each other destroying all that they had together built over a millennium of progress. When the irresistible force of Imperial attack met the immovable object of Imperial defense, the shock rocked the galaxy, and all that this great society had once been, all that it still had promised, all was gone.Except for one last spark of hope.The RegencyAll was gone of the Imperium except for one isolated outpost, a frontier backwater called "the Marches," barely one-tenth the size of the Imperium. Facing their destruction, these people resolved to carry on the promise of the dead Imperium and preserve its heritage for the future.Here, in the new Regency, Imperial armed forces did not fight each other, because humanity, finally aware of its fragility, faced the darkness around it with unity, and the might of the former Imperial armed forces rallied to the banner of the Regency. Once again the most powerful destructive forces of humanity were pledged to its protection, not its destruction.Now, for the first time in the history of Traveller, a single book, the Regency Combat Vehicle Guide, presents the primary combat vehicles of the Regency's "Thunderbolt," its planetary armed forces and its two main branches: The "Sword" of the Regency Marines and the "Shield" of the Army.The SwordThe sword, or more properly, the cutlass of the highly trained Marine assult forces is weilded by pure TL-15 forces equipped with such vehicles as the legendary Imperial Marine Grav APC, Imperial Marine Fire Support APC, Imperial Assult Gun, the Norris Battle Tank, and the Imperial Meson Artillery Vehicle.The ShieldThe Army's forces provide the major mass of the Regency military power, and are expressed by such vehicles as the TL-15 Imperial APC and its Fire Suppor, Command, and Fire Direction General variants, the TL-15 Heavy Grav Tank, the TL-14 Trepida gravtank family, and a variety of support units, including the Imperial Artillery Vehicles, Point Defence APDs, Nuclear Damper Carries, Grav Sled, and Imperial Recovery Vehicle.
