When Starbot left the New Sparta Ally system it had in its possession TPMs, the small number of TPM-2s it had were lost in a mysterious factory explosion, but it still has a stock of TPM-1s. Unfortunately for Starbot they cannot work out how to make new ones and NS will not supply them with any more. With total stocks now below 200 all use of the missiles in exercises and tests has been stopped and most missiles have been placed in a strategic reserve.
Dr Forbidden says its no surprise Starbot has been unable to reverse engineer the technology. "Its incredibly difficult to reverse engineer an alien technology. We've had Dino worm drive technology for a number of years now, and have made some changes, but a great deal of how the drives work is still a 'black box', we know it works but don't know why. Reverse engineering and integrating utterly alien technology is the hardest task any engineers and scientists face."
Its thought also the nature of the Starbotian mind, which lacks the ability to "think outside the box" like organics also contributes to the inability to build TPMs. Its thought they have made a request to the NS for more TPM-1s though NS have yet to respond.
