It was only natural when the technology for bipedal mechanical walkers was completed that it would be co-opted for military use. They quickly became known as Military Walking Systems, or just Walkers for short. Development of Walker technology continued at a brisk pace, but America (which had absorbed Canada by this point) quickly took the lead, developing fusion reactors small enough to fit inside their Walkers.
Europe took notice of this development and of America’s military buildup, and thus started to quietly build up their own forces. However, America struck before they were ready, attacking Europe and parts of Asia, quickly overwhelming several areas. As America’s might was greater than expected, the European leaders realized that they were unlikely to win a protracted war, and formulated a plan to end it quickly, deciding that it was better to sacrifice a nation to prevent American tyranny from ruling the world. A desperate attack against the American mainland disabled their uplinks with their satellites, leaving them blind to the massive nuclear salvo Europe then launched. America and Canada were virtually destroyed, their soldiers abroad left stranded and without a home.
Thirty years later Europe had recovered and is now known as the UEG, or United European Government. South America and most of Africa has fallen into anarchy, Australia virtually isolated itself after the global economy collapsed, Egypt formed a new empire for itself, corporations rule vast areas of Asia, much of the Middle-East has been conquered by Egypt and the UEG, and Japan has started to expand to the mainland to claim resources for itself. With the world in such a state, there is plenty of work for mercenaries, and thus their numbers started to rapidly grow. A neutral Agency was founded to provide facilities for the mercs to use so long they followed certain rules, and thus keep track of them. Many mercenaries took advantage of this, willing to deal with some restrictions in order to save a significant amount of money. Others though remain independent even though it meant that it was more difficult to find work that paid decently.
However the political situation did not remain stable for long, war broke out between two of the corporations in Asia, Tiger Enterprises and Guan Yu Corporation. They fought over an American Walker factory that was discovered intact on the Pacific coast of the former United States. Initially it looked like Guan Yu might have the advantage, but their betrayal of a pair of mercenary units that they had hired to find the facility in the first place meant that the Agency had blacklisted them from hiring any more of their units. That combined with the fact that Tiger entered into an alliance with the New Egyptian Empire and the Middle-East Coalition meant that the tide turned before long. On the eve on what would have been Tiger’s victory over their enemy, Australia invaded and swiftly took out what was left of Guan Yu and pushed Tiger back until they controlled all of the territory that had been owned all of the now destroyed corporation. Soon after there were rumors of a pair of former mercenaries leading an army of the desperate and idealistic across the ocean to South America, but without any solid communications with the continent no one has any real idea what may have happened over there.
Things quieted down after that other than some small skirmishes with the different factions tested the military abilities of Australia and vice versa, but even those soon became fewer in numbers as the global economy started to recover. Almost another thirty years has passed since then and tensions are running high as a mysterious unit nicknamed the Shadow Battalion has been raiding both military and civilian targets in the territories of all the factions with no real goal that anyone can figure out. All of the major powers want the unit found and destroyed, but they all suspect each other of supporting the Shadow Battalion. None of them have any success in dealing with the rogue unit and casualties continue to mount, leading some people to want to take matters into their own hands.