Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Use a cool custom species.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: 'Anti-partisan' warfare, terror unit.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Akrut, Hope Falls, The Valkyrie's Diary, Dominion of Light, Republican Guard, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Tephrike, Humanity's Blade, Akk Dog.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Official name is Aquila Legion. Hawks of the Savage Fief is a blatantly racist nickname that's popular among the Vaderites.
Affiliation: Humanist People's Party, Disciples of the Vader, Darth Eisen, Tephrike, KEC.
Classification: Infantry.
Description: The Akrut are a warlike species of lithe, avian humanoids. Organised in clans, they are technologically primitive, about on the level of the average Tusken Raider or Gamorrean. Some have figured out space travel to a degree, but they rely on other species to help maintain and crew their vessels. Those clans who have left their homeworld make a living as raiders, hunters, pirates and mercenaries. Their society is built upon mental and physical might. However, while not technologically advanced, they are smart and cunning. Moreover, they can absorb traits from other species by consuming their biomass, specifically the hearts, livers, and brains of other beings. In doing so, their physiology is able to adapt favourable features from those they consume.
Some Akrut tribes have ended up on the remote, war-torn world of Tephrike. Many live a nomadic existence there, eking out a living as raiders and hunters. The fractious nature of the planet, which is divided between riven factions, has given them ample employment opportunities. The Vaderites are one such employer. On first sight, this appears bizarre, since the Disciples of the Vader are a human supremacist Sith cult who regard humankind as the master species. Aliens, by contrast, are held responsible for the outbreak of the Gulag Virus. Per Vaderite dogma, they are only fit to be exterminated or enslaved.
However, practical necessity has forced the Vaderites to make use of some aliens. It is a classic strategy of divide and rule. Thus their military employs alien auxiliaries. These formations are generally given unglamorous jobs such as garrison duty, rear echelon security, forlorn hope charges and clearing inhospitable areas of partisans. The Vaderites treat them poorly and only give them second-rate equipment. They are also not particularly concerned about their survival.
Discipline is generally poor in these units. But it is better than being 'resettled' in a reservation zone or starving to death in a Humanist Protection Army prisoner of war camp. The Vaderites make an effort to exploit tensions between different alien species. The Akruti have always existed on the fringes of Tephriki society, so they have few ties to the species the Vaderites seek to persecute most viciously, such as Twi'leks and Mon Calamari.
The Vaderites use them for tracking and counter-insurgency. There mere rumour of their coming might be enough to dismay the enemy, whilst their skills at tracking and ambush would also be very helpful. They regard the Akruti as a terror instrument...and at the same time as validation for their own barbaric, human supremacist ideology. In short, they encourage their auxiliaries to fight savagely and commit atrocities to both sow terror among their enemies...and at the same time provide a 'justification' for the Vaderites' own crimes since they obviously 'prove' that 'xenos' are savages.
The Aquila Legion is a formation of Akrut auxliaries. The Tephriki are fond of bombastic names and the riven factions like to inflate their numbers a bit. It also serves a psychological purpose. The Vaderites have given it the blatantly racist nickname Hawks of the Savage Fief. The bulk of the members of the unit are Akava, or warriors. These are the Akrut most suited for combat. Among the Hawks, the Akava devour Mon Calamari, Rishi and Trandoshan flesh when they become adults. This allows them to acquire a watered down version of the favourable traits these species possess. Thus these warriors acquire wings and can breathe underwater.
Trandoshan biomass gives them improved strength and a watered down version of the lizard people's regenerative abilities. Combined with the Akrut's own natural abilities, this makes them very good ambush predators in swamplands. The Gnarlacki, or Meat Guide, act as shamans, chefs, pathfinders and medicine men. They possess a curious genetic abnormality that allows some Akrut to taste flesh and accurately determine what benefits and detriments the clan would gain by consuming that particular species. This rare ability means they are held in high regard by their fellow Akruti. Killing a Gnarlacki is regarded as a sacrilege.
The last group of Akrut in the group are Mokori, or the Penitent. These are criminals who have been punished for their crimes by being forcibly fed the meat of animals. These tend to be criminals of the highest order, but they also include Akrut from other groups who fought against the Hawks' leaders or were punished by the Vaderites for desertion, mutiny or looting without official sanction. The Mokori are cursed to be non-sentient creatures. Some have been fed Akk Dog flesh, forcing them to walk stooped on all fours and giving them an appearance that resembles canines. They have been cursed to live as non-sentient creatures. They possess sharp claws and razor-like teeth, as well as tough scales on their bodies, but usually require a small degree of guidance from a tracker who directs them like a hunter might direct his hounds.
They are fast and possess sharp claws. However, they require guidance from a tracker. Other penitent have been fed Reek hearts, livers and brains. As a result, they have soared in size and muscle mass. They are not as big as actual Reek, but are larg enough to serve as war mounts. However, while tough and strong, they have lost their sentience. As such these beasts require guidance from a handler, who usually rides them while armed with a heavy weapon.
The Vaderites often employ the Aquila Legion against Republican Guard partisans. The rebels often hide in swamplands and forests. These are areas the Vaderites are reluctant to enter themselves. The Hawks often work together with the KEC's Special Task Groups or the Order Police's Reserve Police Battalions. The latter are paramilitary formations composed of human reservists that are deployed to combat partisans and police the population of occupied territories. They have been responsible for ethnic cleansings, genocide and other crimes against sentience.
Vaderite policy for combating partisan activity follows the rule of 'striking such terror into the population that it loses all will to resist'. Soldiers and police have been absolved from responsibility for brutality against civilians. Indeed, they are expected to shoot any 'xenos' who 'looks askance' at the Humanist Protection Army. Anti-partisan warfare is often a smokescreen for xenocide. As one Vaderite general said, if a Humanist soldier is attacked and one kills all the Twi'leks or Mon Calamari from a nearby village, one has certainly wiped out the perpetrators or at least the ringleaders. In alien majority areas, the entire population might be labelled as complicit and responsible for actions against Humanist forces. When a village accused of sheltering partisans or hiding weapons is targeted, usually ony those deemed useful labourers are spared by the Vaderites, while the rest of the inhabitants are brutally murdered.
The Vaderites assign human officers to provide 'direction' to the Hawks. Commanding 'xenos auxies' is generally considered an unpopular posting, especially when one has to serve with 'savages who look like animals and do not know how to dress properly'. This applies even more so when it comes to avian cannibals. The Humanist officers like to think of themselves as 'honourable gentlemen', even when they order mass killings of civilians. Plantation owners and factory bosses have started to use the Hawks' grim reputation to keep their slave labourers in line. Indeed, Vaderites like to embellish the unit's crimes or blame it for atrocities committed by human troops since 'no human would ever do something this vile'. Vaderite officers like to complain about the Akrut stealing. This is accurate, but the Akrut have plenty of reason since payment is irregular and the humans sometimes plain refuse to supply them with adequate gear.
For their part, the avians resent the generally arrogant, patronising humans, and view Force-Users with a mixture of fear and suspicion. The Vaderites have learned to take advantage of their superstitious beliefs. However, while the Aquilas are given inferior equipment, they are cunning trackers and hunters. Indeed, they are better at fighting partisans than some of the 'racially pure' prestige units of the Vaderites' military. However, the lack of respect they receive from the 'humies' has led to desertions and cases of mutiny.
Jacob Kostas acts as the human overseer of the 'Legion'. He considers himself to be a bit of a 'xenos expert' and an authority on using 'barbarians to fight barbarians'. Kostas promotes the view that the war cannot be won without using xenos to fight other xenos. Kostas likes to accompany his men in the field by piloting a gunship. He is fond of operatic music and smoking cigars. When fifty-one soldiers from the 9th Infantry Regiment, who had been stationed at a small town called Barangia, were killed in a Republican Guard attack, the Humanist press called it a massacre.
Assembling a mixed force of regulars and auxiliaries, Kostas ordered the March across Somar, giving the order to shoot anyone 'capable of bearing arms'. To punish the population and deprive the rebels of support, food was cut off. The population was given the choice between starvation and death or submission. Soldiers burnt down homes, shot people, livestock and draft animals. Only a tiny fraction of the people killed by his men were actually partisans. His command routinely reported more 'enemy casualties' than weapons that had been captured. Kostas lacked the manpower to maintain a permanent military presence, so he ordered to turn the land into a howling wilderness. He was dubbed 'Howling Jacob' by the press.
Ethon Turul is the senior Akrut leader of the formation. The avians are organised in clans, and he considers himself the chieftain of his people, holding the title of Tar. However, the Vaderites hold his leash, which is something he resents. Warriors have joined him for a variety of reasons. Joining the Vaderites has given them certain privileges and exemption from forced labour. Others are motivated by the opportunity to settle grudges with rival species like the Mon Calamari and Gungans or the Guard and the chance to loot and pillage. Quite a few are ex-POWs who joined to avoid being sent to a Vaderite POW camp, which are notorious for starving alien prisoners to death.
Ethon is one of them. He became a chieftain with Vaderite support, and they have promised to make him a Tel, the Akrut's rough equivalent to a king. The Vaderites' promises are worth very little. He has augmented his forces with 'volunteers' drafted from Vaderite concentration camps. The Vaderites have rewarded his efforts with trifles and baubles and a semi-autonomous chiefdom. As a deterrence against sedition, Ethon force-fed Reek flesh to a challenger.
Raggaa serves as the leader of the Hawks' Gnarlacki. He oversees the punishment of the penitent and makes sure they are put to good use. Being a Gnarlacki, he is able to possess the traits of more species than is typical for an Akrut. Raggaa occupies a status akin to that of a shaman, seer and medicine man. He cultivates an air of mystery, but secretly hates what his people have become. They were supposed to be conquerors, but have now been reduced to doing the dirty work of weak, brutal humans who treat them as inferiors. It is said that he receives visions from his ancestors. The Vaderites have noticed his grumbling, but the Akrut regard killing a Gnarlacki as a sacrilege. One Vaderite has suggested arranging an accident and pinning the blame on someone else.
The Akrut are dangerous and talented in their niche, but the Vaderites are reluctant to give them more advanced equipment and supply trains have been irregular. This has compelled the Akrut to turn to looting to make sure they have enough gear. Fortunately, they have strong stomachs and can eat virtually anything, including rocks and trees when out of combat. The Legion is considered an auxiliary unit of the KEC, the praetorian guard of the Humanist Party. This is ironic since the KEC regards itself as a racial elite that only allows 'pure' humans to join. However, they also have manpower needs, though ideological purists quibble about being dishonourable to use 'savages'. The idea that the KEC possesses a shred of honour is absurd since it runs extermination camps.
Since they are not humans, the Akrut have a separate table of ranks and cannot formally join the KEC. They receive inferior gear and are paid a lot less. Moreover, each rank counts as one lower compared with the 'real' KEC. This is justified with their auxiliary status, but above all reflects the Vaderites' racism, since it means that even the KEC equivalent of a Private can boss an NCO in the Legion around. When on campaign, the Legion is always billeted well away from the human troops, and given inferior accommodations.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Medium
Unit Availability: Uncommon
Unit Experience: Trained
Equipment:
Armor
- Blast Vest
- Gas mask and basic helmet.
- Kinetic Armour
- Outland Rifle with scope
- Scatter Gun
- FC-1 Flechette Launcher
- Stouker Concussion Rifle
- Fyr Asault Carbine
- J-301 Pulse-Wave Saboteur
Support Weapons:
Melee Weapons:
Misc:
Combat Function: The Aquila Legion is primarily used for anti-partisan warfare, force recon and search and destroy missions. They excel at operating in swamplands and similar terrain that is difficult to navigate. As a general principle, they favour hide and fade attacks, and ambushes. They are good at tracking foes, trapping them and catching them in crossfire between sharpshooters.
If needed, they will use their Mokori to disrupt enemies and throw their lines into disarray, employing these beasts like living weapons. The Vaderites' brand of 'security warfare' and 'bandit suppression' is plain barbaric, and so the Hawks are routinely used to carry out massacres and spread fear and terror among alien populations deemed 'uppity' in order to cow resistance. The Vaderites have deliberately mixed up untrained and battle-hardened units for 'training' purposes. This has increased the Legion's manpower, but also lowered the overall power of the unit. The Vaderites view this as a feature, not a bug for the simple reason that an elite mamluk corps might have an eye to set up their own real fief in the jungles.
The warriors are brave, but not mindless zealots eager to get themselves killed for their human masters. If clearly outmatched in a battle, they will retreat, and if feasible try to lure the enemy into a trap or if this is not an option reevaluate their tactics. The Hawks are quite adept at using their grim reputation to make enemies afraid or cause them to lose control, such as by nailing prisoners to trees. When an allied soldier tries to take his dead or dying comrade down, he discovers that he has been booby-trapped. This mirrors tactics used by the Guard's partisans.
They may operate in concert with rear area military units from the Vaderites' regular army, the police or the KEC that are responsible for suppressing insurrections - usually via deportations and massacres of prisoners of war and civilians. The Hawks are good at irregular warfare, but suffer in pitched frontline combat. They lack the know-how and equipment to take on a conventional force head-on. However, they are in their element employing guerrilla warfare. The Hawks may also be employed to guard forced labourers.
Strengths:
- As a group, these Akrut prefer to consume Rishii, Mon Calamari and Trandoshans. Mon Calamari can breathe underwater, Rishii have wings and Trandoshans are very strong and have regenerative abilities. The Akrut have acquired watered down versions of these traits. They also benefit from their own natural regenerative properties. This makes them difficult to kill, though not impossible and makes them good at amphibian operations, fighting in swamplands and forests.
- Cunning, and fierce, they excel at irregular warfare, and ambushes. The warriors are stealthy and mobile, since they are not weighed down by a long baggage train.
- Primitive. The Akrut are not technologically advanced and the Vaderites have no desire to change this since they want to make sure the xenos stay in their place. As a result, the Hawks lack an understanding of sophisticated technology or flight without evolved wings. They are not pilots, and they do not have slicers. Their weapons are effective, but simplistic and crude.
- They lack armoured vehicles, aircraft or artillery, and are dependent on support from allies. The Vaderites are very reluctant to give them heavy weapons, for they fear that their auxiliaries could turn on them. Thus they are at a disadvantage if they have to go up against mechanised forces, unless they are able to lure them into a trap and ambush them.
- The Vaderites are human supremacists and regard the Akrut as inferior beings. They are given free reign to plunder and devour 'useless eaters', but given the unglamorous, difficult jobs. The Hawks are not stupid, and poor treatment has led to disciplinary issues.
The outbreak of the Gulag Virus sent Tephrike spiralling into chaos. Its federal government imploded and warlords, Jedi, Sith and rebels vied for power. Prolonged warfare brought great devastation to the planet. Benign intentions turned to evil over time. Jedi who sought to restore order and reunite the planet fell to the darkness they claimed to oppose, while still believing that their intentions and actions were good. In so doing, they were corrupted by their power. Believing that they alone could lead Tephrike out of the darkness, they created a theocratic dictatorship.
The Republican Guard, a faction that glorified the Old Republic and staunchly opposed Force-users, was founded by disgruntled clone slave-soldiers and racial minorities that declared war on the tyrannical Force cults. The Disciples of the Vader were created by a fallen Jedi Knight. Thrust into command at a young age, he fell to the dark side. A vision convinced him that Darth Vader had chosen him as his champion, for Vader had experienced apotheois. He chose the name Darth Malitia, and was able to assemble an army that became a serious threat to the Dominion. His dark crusade was halted at Palmyra, Tephrike's old capital. But victory came at a staggering cost for the Dominion. The Vaderites survived and created their own state.
However, while their 'Imperium' is built upon a foundation of human supremacy and subjugation of non-humans, it still has to make use of alien collaborators, both willing and unwilling. There are simply too many aliens to dispose of. More often than not, only limited human forces are available to guard the alien labourers who do the menial or dangerous work. Moreover, hunting down partisans in the forests and swamps is dangerous and there is little glory to be won. If it can be outsourced to expendable auxiliaries, human casualties will be reduced and morale on the home front will not be aversely affected.
As casualties soared and the war ground on with no end in sight, pragmatic Vaderites began to set up xenos auxiliary units. The Vaderites were comfortable with arming species they considered too primitive and 'savage' to conspire against them, such as Gamorreans, Houk, Trandoshans and Gungans. Twi'leks, Bothans and Mon Calamari were part of the 'Great Enemy' and thus could not be armed. The Aquila Legion was composed of an unusual species called the Akrut.
The Akrut tribes had existed on Tephrike for a while, but remained largely neutral, while using what chance they could get to raid and plunder. Clan Turul was one of them. But they started fighting the Republican Guard when the partisans and refugees protected by them were driven into the swamplands the avians called home. The Priapat Marshes were virtually impassable to major military forces, which was why the rebels decided to use them as a sanctuary. The wetlands were regarded as an unhealthy area and a focal point for dangerous diseases. The Akrut perceived the influx of foreigners as an intrusion - and as a target of opportunity. The partisans sought to coopt groups of Mon Calamari, Gungans and Trandoshans in the area, with whom the Akrut had a rivalry. Some tribes aligned with the partisans, and those that did not were targeted. Clashes soon erupted between both groups.
The wetlands were dreaded by the Vaderites, but bombing the marshes did them little good. The Guard used the near-impassable marshes to hide weapons, and other assets. Vaderite pilots soon came to fear the dreaded Harpies. In response, the Vaderites launched a brutal campaign of 'bandit suppression'. For a while, the Vaderite administration entertained the fantasy of draining the marshes, 'cleansing' them of their 'degenerate' inhabitants and resettling them with human colonists.
But this plan turned out to be highly impractical. Initial contact with the Akrut was very hostile. Branding them as savages, the Vaderites killed many or took them prisoners. However, the avians knew the lay of the land and the humans suffered heavy casualties. The Akrut could not meet them in open battle, but they could ambush and pick off isolated convoys, patrols and small outposts. The Vaderite troops resorted to the use of chemical weapons and sought to erect a cordon around the marshes to prevent the refugees from leaving, aiming to starve them out.
Many of the lightly armed, mobile rebels were able to elude their heavy columns, and the Vaderites routinely inflated the number of partisans killed when they were in fact massacring civilians. However, bombings and use of chemical weapons caused great devastation and the death toll was high. It was Pausanias Kasadares, a KEC general and former Republican Guard commander, who suggested training and leading the Akrut. He claimed to be a 'xenos expert' and showed some 'concern' for the Akrut.
He recruited Ethon Turul in a prisoner of war camp. To motivate him, Kasadares showed him in visceral detail what the Vaderites had done to the Twi'leks by showing him a mass killing site. With his help, Ethon became chieftain and brought his men over to the Vaderite cause as auxiliaries. The Akrut joined the Vaderites reluctantly to stop themselves being next. Even though the Vaderites did not really want their marshes they would exterminate them just because. What followed was a brutal, savage campaign. The auxiliaries were not burdened by a long baggage train and, unlike the Vaderites, did not fear the wetlands and had good tracking skills. They were very effective at locating and storming hidden Republican Guard bases and refugee camps. By now many partisans had been weakened by disease.
Of course, the Vaderites took credit when the auxiliaries managed to locate and eliminate a major partisan stronghold in the swamps since it would be unacceptable to admit that they had required the aid of cannibalistic 'savages'. The Aquila Legion was systematically employed as a terror unit to terrify rebel soldiers and civilians alike. Moreover, they were employed for false flag operations that the Vaderite ministry of propaganda would proceed to blame on 'xenos terrorists'. Ethon received a certain degree of autonomy and nominal self-rule and self-governing powers under the supervision of human officers. He was appointed head of an autonomous district.
The auxiliaries played a major role in Kostas' March across Somar. When appalling conditions in Hope Falls, an 'autonomous xenos reservation', led to rebellion, the Aquilas helped suppress it. The 'Legion' was expanded, though the Vaderites continuously gave its members inferior equipment and made sure to mix veteran and inexperienced units together because they feared than an elite mamluk unit would emancipate itself. Poor treatment of the auxiliaries sparked desertions and a mutiny. To make an example of them, the mutineers were turned into Penitent. The Aquila Legion continues to serve the Vaderites for the time being, seeing action against Dominion and Republican Guard forces. However, tensions are brewing.
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