A Short Guide to the Bubblegum Crisis:

In the first quarter of the twenty-first century, Dr. Katsuhito Stingray perfected the single greatest development in the history of robotics, creating true artificially intelligent machines -- robots that verged on the edge of sentience. They were referred to as Boomers.

Unfortunately, a sequence of events, among them the death of Dr. Stingray in a "tragic accident" and a catastrophic earthquake that devastated Tokyo, left control of this new technology -- and indeed, much of the global economy -- in the hands of the huge, multinational Genom corporation. Genom has been referred to as the "Genetic Organism (designed by a) Noisy Multinationalist", and compared to a human genome -- the basic element of life. By the early 2030s, the corporation has become the basis of life in Tokyo and around the world, placing a stranglehold on the human spirit that seems unshakable.

But in any age of darkness and tyranny, there are always those willing to stand against the night. In the rebuilt, renamed MegaTokyo of the early 2030s, the foremost of these postmodern heroes are a group of mercenary vigilantes in super-powerful battlesuits -- the Knight Sabres.

The Knight Sabres were formed by Sylia Stingray, daughter of the late Dr. Stingray and beneficiary of his scientific knowledge. Her cold, often emotionless demeanor hides a passionate will to avenge the misdeeds that Genom has perpetrated using her father's technology -- although in her more rational moments she realizes that Genom's destruction would mean the end of the world in most respects, and that the function of the Knight Sabres is truly to strike a balance and counter the worst of the corporation's excesses. She is beginning to realize that she views the Knight Sabres, and all of MegaTokyo's innocents, as her children.

If Sylia is the brains of the Knight Sabres, then Priscilla "Priss" S. Asagiri -- retrothrash musician and motorcycle enthusiast -- is the burning heart of the group. Priss lost her family in the great earthquake, and has suffered other, even more painful losses since then, as a direct result of Genom and rogue boomers. She has a deathwish that is only somewhat balanced by her ferocious will to live, a will that has allowed her to walk and fight though pain that would cripple a normal man. It has been said that she hates the world ... but not nearly as much as she hates herself, for living in that world.

Somewhere in between these two poles of emotion and rationality lies the personality of Nene Romanova. She is brave, resourceful and intelligent. She is also silly, naive, and overly cute. Her contribution to the forces of the Knight Sabres is her tremendous aptitude for computer and other information-age technology. As an office worker for MegaTokyo's ADvanced Police, she views her work for the Knight Sabres in a much more romantic light than the others ... which leads to conflicts, especially between herself and Linna. But beneath their bickering is a deep concern for one another.

Linna Yamazaki rounds out the four Knight Sabres. A former dancer turned aerobic instructor turned stock broker, she is the most concerned with the realities of the Knight Sabres' function as mercenaries and vigilantes. Punishing the evil and defending the innocent are all well and good, as long as they put bread upon the table. Linna, perhaps more than any of the others, could give up the fight if it became clear that it was hopeless. To her, it is ultimately a job -- one she enjoys and that is necessary, but not a crusade against the forces of darkness, or a mission from God.

The Knight Sabres battle in extremely advanced battlesuits, called hardsuits, each equipped with powerful weaponry -- Priss' signature weapon is her railgun, Sylia favours a pair of so-called "laser swords", Linna is expert with her monomolecular ribbons, and Nene ... uses a laser (her suit is actually optimized for sensors and communications gear) -- which can be augmented by the use of a motoslave -- a motorcycle which can combine with a hardsuit to form a large robot-like vehicle that is more than capable of combat with the boomers that Genom and other parties use to prey on the innocent.

Although the efforts of the Knight Sabres have only barely checked Genom's power, it has been suggested that a heroic fate awaits them ... and that it is their destiny to become the greatest legends of the Twenty First century.