TabletopGame Confusing.
I didn't get the attraction of the setting.
The problem is, its try to be many things, use too many settings and ideas at the same time in an amalgamation that, Frankly, it doesn't work. Either the military swallow the mystic, the mystic swallow the Horror story or the Hollow story get swallowed by the badass adventure.
Too many chef ruin the soup, indeed.
It has most plotholes than asteroids and the Grimdark of the setting produce Darkness Induced Audience Apathy and record time.
I stopped trying to make sense to the story and what it get was so alien, so 90's, dark emo generation X as to be kind of silly.
Beats me why this kind of settings had so much effort or fans. Seems kind of masochist to swim in such dark, depressing settings but that just this Troper.
The reccommendation: see the setting, get one faction or idea that you like and throw away the rest.
TabletopGame Can't Blame Ya, Antiguo...
As one of the later moderators of the series, I have to agree somewhat with Antiguo. There IS a whole lot of emo Gen-X angst here that really doesn't need to be. Believe it or not, I think Tech Infantry was created to "simplify" the White Wolf universe (which is what we were all playing in college back in the '90's), add a sci-fi element (because it's hard to get players to switch game systems), and fought Bugs (because the Starship Troopers movie was coming out).
In the later e-mail game, the appeal was that it was a continual storyline. You ran into characters you did before, you were affected by what your old characters did last season, and you could explore different character concepts and plots... all in a dark future that could be as wacky as you wanted it to be. The multiple storylines were probably pretty hard to follow, too, come to think of it.
Which is why when you start a new season, the past is prologue, and only appears as references to old seasons. That's how we're able to get new people in... but the fans are pretty low numbering, unless you're actively playing.