Bandor Kre'fey
Naval Intelligence
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To flesh out Bandor Kre'fey's marine complement in a way that demonstrates his "dirty" political alliances and means to an end philosophy.
Image Credit: Original image("Mercenary" by shenfeic) found here, image modifications by yours truly
Role: Light Infantry / Marines
Links: Bandor Kre'fey's bio (de facto commander)
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: 31st Light Infantry - "Coruscant's Redemption"
Affiliation: Bandor Kre'fey, Galactic Alliance Armed Forces - Galactic Alliance, Coruscant
Classification: Light Infantry / Marines
Equipment: Breather Blast Helmet, Blast Armor, GLC Firelance Blaster Rifles, HOB heavy repeating blasters, DX-2 Disruptor Pistols (unofficially), utility vibroblades, C-22 Fragmentation Grenades, Nacht-5 Smoke Grenades, Cyduct E-23 Booster with Haladreshin/Bacta (officially) or Carsunum (unofficially), Rampart II Shield Generators (one per squad), miscellaneous common infantry equipment (average comlinks, rations, medpacs, packs, etc).
COMBAT INFORMATION
Availability: Unique
Deployment: Mass
Strengths & Weaknesses:
Urban/Close Quarter Combatants: The 31st excels at close quarters combat in artificial environments, such as metropolises and the insides of starships. Nearly all of the 31st grew up in the slums of Coruscant during its rule by the One Sith. A good number of them had affiliation with the One Sith militia and/or underworld street gangs, which shows in their frequently brutal and dirty tactics.
Favored Foe: The 31st has been extensively educated and drilled in the observed tactics and equipment of First Order stormtroopers, in hopes that many of these former street killers would take to fixate their nefarious craft/obsession on the Alliance's most deadly, common enemy.
Fast: Colonel Ramt officially put out a doctrine emphasizing speed of action and rapid maneuvering. This is probably the only thing actually put into practical use by their "commander", and most members of the 31st practice lightning strikes and raids at a unit level, along with quick draw and rapid reloading drills on the individual level. This has also led to more of a shoot first ask questions later psychology.
Volume of Fire: The 31st carries an unusually large number of HOB heavy repeating blasters in their ranks: it's not unusual for a squad to not have one, but two of these blasters. This means that they can produce a high volume of fire that is frequently a centerpiece of their low level unit tactics.
Wildcard (+/-): One never reals knows what a member of the 31st is going to do. Their daring, and sometimes spice-fueled, antics can cause them to do incredibly brave or foolish things. The frequent use of spice often makes them more susceptible to influence by those who able to use the Force.
No Heavy Weapons: Like many light infantry units, a premium was placed on carrying relatively light weapons to enable relatively quick individual movements. This means that they do not have heavier weapons needed to take on most combat vehicles (ground or air), fortifications, or demolition tasks.
Dregs of Society: While recruiting from street gangs, former One Sith militias, and other urban neverdowells has made them prime close-quarters fighters, it also brings with its own sets of problems. Most of them bend the rules, cause civil disturbances, and prone to creating "diplomatic incidents" while on leave. A lot of shady deals have followed them from their former street life, making them more susceptible to being bribed, blackmailed, and their movements known to enemy intelligence through bounty hunters and other street contacts. Drug use, especially spice, is not uncommon within the 31st.
Figurehead Leader / Corrupted Ranks: Colonel Ramt is the 31st's leader in name only. His leadership has largely been rendered void by a complex web of unofficial work relationships entirely unrelated to official ranks held by their members. Because of this, orders do not progress top-down in a timely manner, and the 31st has generally been viewed as "unresponsive" or "insubordinate" by other units in tactical exercises. Bandor Kre'fey has been able to unofficially sway the 31st to act through unofficial favors and providing other unorthodox motivations, but his ability to quickly direct them in action is best described as "erratic".
Lost in the Woods: The 31st's membership, almost entirely having grown up and lived in Coruscant, is not remotely proficient at working in any sort of natural terrain. Things that would be common-sense for most people in the great outdoors, especially natives of a world, are not common-sense for them. As an example, they are easily confounded by natural obstacles, such as navigating through dense forests. Another example would be bodies of water, as most of them don't know how to swim.
History
The 31st's initial planning and formation is murky, mired by sliced, redacted, and missing documentation. What is known is that it started as a joint project between the newly formed Coruscant planetary government after its liberation from the One Sith and the Galactic Alliance military. Colonel Ramt, a once prominent officer in the Galactic Republic, was tasked with taking persona non grata offworld and turning them into useful soldiers. The initial draftees of the 31st were convicted violent criminals and former members of the One Sith militias. It was hoped that a chance for a new life, along with the chance for expunged criminal records, could turn these people into a cohesive and credible fighting force. The Coruscant government hoped to clean up their streets shipping them out, and the Galactic Alliance military was supposed to get experienced and hardened combatants. A win-win situation for all involved. But this idealism was short-sighted, and there were not sufficient social controls put in place to fully break members of the 31st from their past lives on the dark, dank streets of Coruscant's underworld.Within three weeks of its inception, Colonel Ramt was maneuvered into a compromising situation by a new recruit with ties to the Black Sun. Subsequent blackmail and bribing has largely turned him into a figurehead rather than a leader. Most of his command staff was soon similarly corrupted, "disappeared", or transferred out, leaving different draftee cliques in actual control of their unit. Old street gang and militia ties soon developed into a new chain of command that is nothing like that of the official organizational chart. A loose council of draftees, led by a former Black Sun vigo, now directs the day to day operations using their officers as figureheads.
While the council is smart enough to maintain a semblance of day to day order, it is not able to separate its members' more base habits from their past lives on the streets. Soldiers of the 31st continue to engage in illicit practices like using spice, drinking, scams, smuggling, gambling, and other illegal activities. These actions and debacles have colored the unit's reputation ever since. Most of Colonel Ramt's superior officers have found the unit useless, hard to control, and generally more of a hassle than its worth. But political necessity meant that couldn't simply disband it. Planetside stationing of the unit drew the local crime rates up and emboldened the local underworlds, leading to central GAAF authorities stationing the unit in space. While this isolated them from the local underworld, the members of the 31st responded by simply creating their own. Brothels, spice dens, bootleg distilleries, gambling dens, and a whole host of illegal operations began to appear on their ships. Because of this and the disturbances it caused with the vessel's professional crews, superior commanders generally tried to rid themselves of the unit as quickly possible.
Eventually, the 31st found its way into Bandor Kre'fey's command. Seeing fellow pragmatic opportunists, and with some less than savory ties to the underworld himself, the bothan managed to worm himself into the unit's unofficial command structure. He orchestrated a coup d’etat that replaced many of the more obstinate members of the council with those that he could influence through favors, coercion, and other less than legal means of influence. While he still does not have direct control of the unit as he should through simple military rank and position, he has been the most successful commander of the group so far. Kre'fey takes great pains to offer the 31st a variety of motivations, both "carrot" and "stick", to keep the group collectively under his control. He frequently turns a blind eye to "soft" criminal operations on his ships (such as bootlegging), reasoning that it will give them more motivation to better protect his ships. Likewise, he has quietly and unofficially encouraged plundering and taking war trophies from enemy government sources, reasoning that it will encourage their aggressiveness in battle.
Equipment
The 31st Light Infantry has typical equipment for their type, wearing simple blast armor and breather blast helmets that provides them with reasonable protection from a variety of threats while still enabling relatively good individual mobility. Their standard issue Firelance blaster rifles were likewise chosen just as much for their combat performance as for their weight. While the blaster rifles are the primary weapon of the individual trooper, the primary weapon of the squad is actually the HOB heavy repeating blaster: each eight man infantry squad within the 31st has one or two of these weapons. These armaments are rounded out by typical grenades and utility vibroblades found in use by many soldiers. Each squad also typically has one or two portable Rampart II Shield Generators, which are typically used to protect the repeating blasters. Perhaps more unusually, each soldier in the 31st is issued with a Cyduct E-23 interdermal auto-injector. These injectors were originally assigned to the group in order to help adapt them to working in space, with Requilisant injections initially being provided to help them in zero-G environments, and Elisinandrox solutions being provided in the case of high radiation exposure. However, the unit's doctrinal emphasis on speed, and the daily lack of need for Requilisant and Elisinandrox solutions soon turned the E-23s being turned into stimulant and medication injectors, using Haladreshin, and bacta, as needed for injuries. The rest of a 31st trooper's official personal kit is relatively common gear such as comlinks, rations, medpacs, packs, and the other basic necessities. Unofficially, however, many of the 31st's troopers augment their kit with less than legal items that have followed them from the Coruscant underworld. A large number of troopers continue to carry small, personal weapons like the DX-2 disruptor pistol, and/or carsunum spice and other illicit drugs, which can be injected by the E-23. These personal possessions can potentially make the 31st more effective in certain situations than they should be on paper, or conversely make them more of a liability. Kre'fey has so far allowed the 31st to keep and use most of this contraband with the implied understanding that their use needs to be discrete and not public knowledge. Those soldiers who do find themselves having trouble keeping it discrete soon find their items confiscated and in the use by those troopers who do know how to be keep things under wrap.
Tactics
The 31st's doctrinal focus has been on speed and volume of fire, which is reflected at all unit levels. Component battalions and companies of the 31st are known for being able to relatively quickly through urban terrain (when they want to) in large part to due their limited amount of equipment, which for the most part is designed to specifically be relatively lightweight. Tactical maneuvers are also highly influenced by street fights and turf wars they engaged in on the formative years on Coruscant, which results in a focus on short, savage strikes, massed firepower, and dirty tricks. On the individual squad and platoon levels, the heavy repeating blaster is the centerpiece of most tactics, with the idea that maneuvering is supposed to support the blaster's high volume of fire. This abstract doctrine manifests in practical tactics like using blaster rifle fire to drive targets into the fire lanes of concealed repeating blasters. Another way this is manifested is the use of small fire teams of rifle and disruptor equipped soldiers moving to quickly seize ideal spots to set up repeating blaster nests. The 31st, especially before it became fully corrupt, was extensively educated and trained on known First Order stormtrooper tactics and capabilities. The unofficial chains of command within the 31st have since encouraged these studies, largely as a practical matter to simply surviving their tour of duty before their criminal records can be expunged.Deployment
The 31st Light Infantry Regiment is found almost exclusively in Bandor Kre'fey's commands after being shuffled from one commander to the next. There are several commanders within GA High Command that hope that sequestering the problematic unit with a "problematic" commander like Kre'fey will see one or the other destroy the other. If that doesn't happen, they can at least console themselves that they have isolated them from the more mainstream and proper commands. Kre'fey understands this all too the well. On vessels where the 31st and its crews couldn't come to brokered "understandings", he has introduced buffer areas crewed by Marinus Droids, which act as impartial go-betweens between the ship's crew and their onboard guardians. These actions have largely allowed areas occupied by the 31st to turn into "anything goes" areas rife with illicit activity. A diplomat coming onboard might find their diplomat suite turned into a brothel, whereas an enemy boarder might find that what's supposed to an innocuous storeroom on the diagram has been turned into a bootleg distillery guarded by some rather paranoid and trigger-happy troopers. This has given Kre'fey's ships a certain reputation within the GA fleet, with such monikers as "barrels of chaos", the "Wild West", and "dens of inquinity" being applied to his ships. Kre'fey has tolerated these activities with the implicit understanding that such activities must be "victimless" and be "cleaned up" before any ranking official visit that could imperil his command leadership position. The 31st's leadership has largely followed this, understanding that their lifestyle would be much more difficult under another commander.The Coruscant planetary government has been exceptionally pleased using the 31st to get rid of unwanted people, leading them to lobby to form other units in addition to the 31st. These requests have so far been denied or blocked by the GA government because of the 31st's failure as a traditionalmilitary unit. However, by some careful legal maneuvering, the Coruscanti government has been able to form cadet units under the 31st's bureaucratic organization. On paper, these are supposed to be temporary groups that supply replacement troops to the main 31st Regiment. In actuality, these "temporary", "holding" and "training" units are often as large and permanent as the main 31st Regiment itself. Consequently, while officially a "Regiment", the 31st is actually several orders of magnitude larger. All cadet units of the 31st have thus far been assigned to Bandor Kre'fey's fleet.
