An enterprising young group of Technowizards has studied both the Ley Line phenomenon and the mystic spell of ley line transmission to produce a company that is truly revolutionising the way towns communicates. The Technowizards have developed devices that allow communication via ley lines in much the same way as telegraph, telephones, videophones, and the Internet revolutionised communications between the cities of the world in the 1900s through to the coming to the Rifts.

Since the Rifts shattered the earth’s civilisations and the debris field prevented any new satellites being launched; the Earth is amazingly blind when it comes to the goings on even 500 kilometres away. Only an extremely small percentage of the various armies, civilisations and settlements would have gone unnoticed if an active satellite network were still in place. Of course, unbeknownst to the most of the earth, there is an active satellite system in place; however, they are mostly hunter-killer satellites and communications systems for the orbiting space stations.

For centuries, the Earth has relied on word-of-mouth, unreliable short-wave radio, complicated repeater stations for conventional radio and couriers for delivering information. But the four young entrepreneurs who would develop LeyCOM studied the available magical options for communications. They studied stone magic, pyramid communications, scrying pools, ley line transmission and also poured over the few available technical manuals concerning pre-Rifts communications technology. Within four years of careful research, LeyCOM was born.

LeyCOM is a company dealing with communications. They hope to install a LeyCOM pyramid in most large townships in the New West. The Coalition States fears this development. Their spies have brought back stories of a mostly reliable, magical communications system that will link settlements distanced much further than the Coalition’s superior technology could hope to reach.

The Coalition’s complicated combination of Laser towers, radio repeaters and microwave transmitters can only reach outposts 1500 kilometres away from any major communications station. This means that valuable resources must be spent garrisoning large installations sending, boosting and receiving transmissions that reach it’s destination only 75% of the time. Ley Line Storms, sudden ionisation of the atmosphere, random rifts, sudden relocation of hills and mountains (it’s happened!) all contribute to unreliable long-range radio communications. A remarkable example of this is the tale of the lost 3rd Coalition Attack Regiment sent to mop up a demon holding. The entire regiment was lost in 91 P.A with absolutely no indication on how it happened. In 102 P.A, Comcentre Charlie received an entire running commentary from Lieutenant Kelvin of the 3rd C.A.R of the massacre. The screams and railgun fire in the background finally solved the 11 year mystery. The automatic recording is now part of the Coalition Academy curriculum.

LeyCOM is an amalgamation of technology and magic that makes Technowizards specialists in their fields. The pyramid way stations they build have no magical properties whatsoever, it is just a marketing gimmick. The way stations must be manned by a psionic or mystic who encodes the message, be it voice or fax and sends it to the appropriate way station via Ley Line. Voice to Voice and even Video to Video is possible, however prohibitively expensive. Small parcel delivery is also possible using their phasing service, but again this is very expensive and only meant for emergencies.

Expense is LeyCOM’s main hurdle. The Technowizard conglomerate had spent a fortune in research, training and materials to slowly build their infrastructure. Three hundred years of having no telephone has not made the people jump at the chance to call someone. The fact that townships have had to rely on supporting themselves for centuries meant that not many people knew anyone outside of the town. The first to use the service were the traders and other businesses. After about eighteen months, the service really started to take root in the lives of businesspeople. Townships could trade with one another at a level never before achieved since the coming of the Rifts. The LeyCOM creators were very pleased at the outcome and forecast a massive improvement in earnings within the next five years.

LeyCOM pyramids are a franchise of sorts. An interested psychic or retiring mystic can apply for a position at a new township (of course it has to be near a stable ley line, the main restriction for this mode of communication). LeyCOM sets up the business and the successful applicant then pays the directors a percentage. Since hard currency is rare, a barter service is in place. If the "Franchisee" can live off the goods bartered and then send the percentage via Ley Line Phase to head office.

LeyCOM’s main liability to success is the Coalition States. As far as Chi-Town is concerned, knowledge is power. If the CS does not hold that knowledge, then it is illegal. Images such as the Indian Sidewinder SAMAS reaching areas north or East of the New West would be damaging to the Coalition’s claim that it built the SAMAS power armour. Also, rival factions and armies, whose opinion of magic is much more lax, could use the incredibly long-distance network to coordinate anti-Coalition strikes. It is a standing order to destroy any LeyCOM pyramid and it’s operator. This has meant that LeyCOM has had to go underground in some settlements. Businesses are eager to keep the lines of communications open.

This prefabricated building is a standard S.D.C structure that doubles as the place of business and the operator’s home. The following equipment is stored in the two-story building. The upstairs section is the living area.

Size: Base - 6m (19ft), Height - 6m (19ft)

S.D.C: 500 A.R 16 per side.

Power source: Conventional solar panelling for household purposes, Ley line power for the Technowizard devices.

A large, box showing most of the circuit board and wiring with a microphone and speaker system. It looks like a homemade crystal radio set. Upon closer inspection, an antenna cable can be found leading from the pyramid and can be tracked all the way to the nearest ley line. Clever placement near a nexus boosts transmission capability two hundred percent! Also various peripherals are attached to the Transceiver.

Transmission Charges: Can send one hundred transmissions because of the channelling effect of the Ley Line.

Spells needed to recharge: Ley Line Communication, Telepathy, and Ley Line Phase. If a Psionic operator needs a recharge, for an additional percentage, a new crystal is sent via LeyPOST.

The dangers of Ley Line Transmission are carefully explained to all new users of the LeyCOM service. While Ley Lines are basically stable in respect to location, they do tend surge and flare. While LeyCOM is proud of its re-routing service that bypasses disrupting activity, there is still an 20% chance that the transmission, parcel or person could be lost! The favourite example that LeyCOM operators tell customers is the time a farmer got the message that his sister had died two months before it was actually sent. LeyCOM operators from both pyramids had to ensure that both parties did not know of the future and filtered the two transmissions from the farmer’s sister in the two months before her death. It was this example that ensured that ALL LeyCOM messages were time and date stamped. LeyCOM is proud of their 80% reliability and often make sure people know that 80% is way better than the roughly 40%, long range radio gives.

LeyCOM is developing portable versions of their equipment. Of course the nature of the planet means that rentals is out of the question. Portable versions of a LeyPHONE would be insanely expensive for the common person. Also their range for Ley Line transmission would be limited to about twenty kilometres from a Ley Line before a small computer voice calls, from the handset, "LeyCOM regrets that you are out of handset range."

 Mercenary groups would find this equipment extremely useful.

The LeyCOM pyramids are mostly located in the New West. While it is a long way from being a way of life for townsfolk, it is slowly gaining acceptance as a viable tool. Twelve Pyramids have been destroyed on the Coalition fringes. LeyCOM is trying to work out how to make a viable business in these areas, without alerting the Coalition or its sympathisers.

While there would be an incredible market if LeyCOM went overseas, as of 106 P.A, they are trying to crack the American Market first.

Another way to play LeyCOM: BattleTech enthusiasts may decide to make parallels to ComStar, the semi-religious communications network. If the GM wishes to run them as a secretive mystic sect, then the ComStar model would be appropriate. Maybe an ultra-secretive church has sprung up promising instantaneous communications. Depending on the GM’s view on the Coalition, maybe Prosek will allow a church to be constructed near Chi-Town, as they are quite useful and extremely secretive of their methods. Of course, yet another way of playing LeyCOM is to ignore the whole Ley Line concept and just have the company discover a series of Satellites still operational! This method, in the author’s opinion, isn’t as fun as the Ley Line concept.

Rifts: Dark Days: News filtering in about the Nightlords, weird goings on throughout the Coalition and the spontaneous appearance of Were-humans (Nightbane) could sprout up a communications revolution.