Kyriaki
Dark Phoenix
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Chemical warfare, skirmishers.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Mahtara, Force Dead, Cinder Guard, Fort Vigilance, Republican Guard, Sithspawn, Palmyra's Wail, Tephrike, Duststalkers.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Death Head Legion. The name is poetic licence. In truth they are a lot smaller than a legion and operate in small detachments. Nicknamed the Toxin Avengers.
Affiliation: Ashspawn/Reborn, Tephrike, Disciples of the Dust.
Classification: Infantry, Chemical Warfare.
Description: The dead do not rest easily in Palmyra's Wail. This once proud city is now a radioactively contanimated husk dotted with ruins and cursed by a dark side nexus. The air is full of ash, freak weather patterns are common and rainfalls can be acidic. It is populated by ghosts, undead, Sithspawn and other creatures. But not all undead who are reanimated by the Wail's dark energies lose their mental faculties and become ravenous, mindless beasts. A select number are able to retain their sentience. They are capable of reason and have the memory and motor skills to use weapon. They call themselves the Reborn, though to Tephriki at large they are known as the Ashspawn.
Their nature is poorly understood by most Tephriki. Not the least because none of the present regimes have an interest in anything other than vilifying them. The Disciples of the Vader see the undead as creatures to be enslaved; the Dominion of Light rejects them as abominations spawned by a dark nexus; the Republican Guard regards them with a mixture of pity and hostility due to them being Force constructs, for it fears the Force due to all the misery its cultists have brought to the planet. Palmyra's Wail has been under lockdown for centures. First the Dominion tried to keep the horrors inside and exploiters out, now the Republican Guard. Neither has been able to purge the nexus.
The Death Head Legion is a melodramatic name for a small force of Ashspawn soldiers who specialise in the employment of chemical warfare and ambush tactics against the living. Their name is derived from their symbol - a stylised skull. Trained in surgical strikes, delaying actions and ambushes, they specialise in the use of toxins, chemical weapons and the like. The use of such weapons takes advantage of the fact that the undead cannot be poisoned, gassed or fall sick. Their skill set makes them a good fit for raids, though they lack the numbers and heavy armaments for protracted frontline combat. The Ashspawn do not have large numbers, so the swarm tactics typically associated with undead are not practical for them. Moreover, they actually value the lives of their own people.
The attitude of the legionaires is considered rather morbid even by other Ashspawn, which is also reflected in their name. It is deliberately over the top, not the least because they are far smaller than a legion and do not operate as a single, cohesive unit. Moreover, Tephriki are fond of bombastic names. It has the side-effect of deceiving the enemy by embellishing their numbers a fair bit. Not all of their people are comfortable with their tactics. The legionaires are lightly armed and armoured, relying on subversion and subterfuge rather than heavy armour and firepower. They don gas masks because while they cannot be gassed, mustard gas and the like can still affect their eyes. Like all Ashspawn, they are Force-Sensitive, but their Force abilities are not the core of their skill set.
The Dominion and especially the Vaderites made ample use of chemical weapons during the apocalyptic battle that turned Palmyra into a blasted hellscape. Some of the older legionaires have once fought on opposite sides...but death unites them because they are now considered abominations by all the riven factions of the mortals. Others are civilians who perished during the cataclysm, but had a certain expertise in the use of chemicals, engineering and the like. Blood-crazed lunatics are not welcome. Old veterans among the Death Head Legion may look a bit patchwork, since the undead revenants have a habit of carrying out 'transplants' by taking body parts from corpses if they have say lost a limb, eye or a digit. This only makes their appearance more unsettling for their foes should they catch sight of them.
Antonios Christoglou is a veteran legionaire. In life he was a human. His father was an innkeeper and an ill-tempered, violent man. Christoglou had artistic aspirations and blamed the world's descent into chaos on an absurd galactic xenos conspiracy. Motivated by patriotic fervour as well as the prospect of bed and board, he joined the Vaderite's army. Initially he served as an infantryman, then after his company was decimated, he was given the position of regimental runner. His war experiences made him aloof, and withdrawn, though prone to conspiracy-laden ranting when provoked. As a regimental runner, he spent much of his time behind the front lines in relative safety.
He displayed a callous, frankly sociopathic indifference to the suffering around him in his letters to his landlord and his family. Unfortunately, then he had to fight in the hellish battle of Palmyra. There, he displayed reckless bravery and was wounded twice. There, he was blinded by a gas attack. Christoglu was hospitalised in a frontline hospital when a mushroom cloud rose over Palmyra. Like so many others, he perished in the atomic firestorm. But unlike most, he retained his mental faculties when the dark magic reanimated him. It was quite a shock for him. Scorned by his former comrades, he ended up with the Ashspawn. While still a raving conspiracy theorist, the shock of his awakening has caused him to shed his virulent speciesism. He looks rather patchwork. One of his eyes was taken from a corpse, and his right arm was salvaged from a broken battle droid.
Niziad was a Cerean clone in life and is one of the legionaires who didn't perish during the cataclysmic destruction of Palmyra. Instead she was a chemist and civilian researcher, who was given the task of designing chemicals which were supposed to help people recover from trauma. In truth the substances were meant to mind control citizens in the Dominion. However, the chemicals were more toxic than assumed. There was a leak at her workplace, and the Dominion covered it up because it could not admit failure. Niziad was able to escape isolation. Her research facility was not far from Palmyra's Wail because it was also studying the preternatural fallout. Moreover, this meant it was out of sight, out of mind. Having heard of the Ashspawn, she fled to the ruined hellscape. After all, she was already fated to die anyway. So she used what time she had to give them information. Upon her death she was resurrected and now helps develop new mixtures.
Zohwan Vinag is one of their senior leaders. In life he was a Duros and a fighter for the Dominion during the Palmyra campaign. He was notorious for his willingness to employ terror tactics and unleash chemical weapons, advocating a massive strike on the enemy. But the price was deemed too high at the time. The irony that the Dominion proceeded to drop a preternatural nuke on the city to stop the Vaderite ritual is not lost on him. He was killed in the final battle, but was revived and is filled with hatred for the Windian Jedi.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Small
Unit Availability: Rare
Unit Experience: Veteran
Equipment: This is a list of what's available overall, rather than something every single soldier would carry into battle all at once.
Armor
- Blast Vest, Kinetic Armour, basic helmet, gas mask. They don't have to worry about breathing because they're undead, but don gas masks to protect their eyes from mustard gas and the like.
- Outland Rifle (with optional scope)
- Scatter Gun
- Acid Stream Launcher
- Dart Rifle (variable chemical payload)
- Bolt-Thrower
- J-301 Pulse-Wave Saboteur
Support Weapons:
Melee Weapons:
Poisons:
Chemical Weapons:
Combat Function: The Death Head Legion are a formation composed of Ashspawn soldiers who specialise in using chemical weapons. As undead, they are immune to them...and unlike the typical zombie they retain their sentience and mental faculties. They do not need to breathe, and are not affected by radiation. Moreover, they do not feel pain or tire because they are undead. So long as it's not caustic gas they can freely unleash mustard gas among their own people, though they wear gas masks to protect their eyes as they don't care about breathing. All of the legionaires are Force-Sensitive, though they use their Force abilities more in a support capacity. Their tactics would be a combination of first gambits or suppression. So they might unleash their weapons before an attack to drive enemies out from cover or to protect an advance. Alternatively they are useful to suppress an enemy's reinforcements or delay their attacks. Soldiers from the Death Head Legion will often work together with Duststalkers or Ashspawn necromancers.
Tephriki troops do have sealed suits like stormtrooper armour, but these are not available for all troops. Even regulars do not always have them. Militias will generally have to make do with flak vests. And even for those that have that kind of sealed suits of armour, those take damage throughout a fight. Palmyra's Wail is radioactively contaminated, but a full hazmat suit and protective gear is poor for fighting. Moreover, some gasses can corrode metal. The toxin troopers can get creative with what they use. At the very least they can force units to use rebreathers which have limited air, and provide gas, which also diminishes visibility. Force-Using foes can use breath control, but even that can be overwhelmed and in any event diverts Force energy that could otherwise be used for other purposes.
They are also fond of using toxins which work on skin contact, as well as weapons with poisoned darts. They mainly would target enemy mooks and conduct surgical strikes. One of their methods on commando operations is to sneak into an enemy barracks or recruitment centre and let off their toxins, poisoning the enemy soldiers...then blame their enemies. To that end they will also, for example, poison food and water supplies. However, the 'Death Head legionaires' are relatively lightly armed and armoured, which poses a problem in protracted engagements because they lack heavy armaments. When faced with superior numbers they will retreat and seek to undermine the enemy rather than engage them in direct combat.
Force Abilities (Force User Units Only): The Death Head Legion is composed of Ashspawn. All members of this species are Force-Sensitive on some level and possess inherent telepathic abilities. All of the legionaires receive training to protect their minds from Force-based manipulation. Such a thought shield is particularly pertinent because the nexus is deceptive and manipulative. It has spawned the Ashspawn, but it is not their friend.
The soldiers specialise in Force Slow, Force Cloak and Force Sense abilities. They use telekinesis, but in a support capacity rather than in a flashy brute force manner. For example, they might utilise it to manipulate the wind so that gas goes the way they want. Alternately they might draw upon telekinesis to manipulate the environment and create obstructions, blocking the paths of enemy soldiers and funneling them into a kill zone, or conversely remove an obstruction in their own path so that they can infiltrate an enemy position. And, of course, to manipulate someone's breathing and air supply. In other words, their command of telekinesis is focused on subtlety and subversion rather than raw power. Force repulse style attacks that cause mass carnage are not part of their repertoire.
Strengths:
- Unconventional warfare specialists, focusing on using chemical weapons and toxins. They excel at using them for surgical strikes, ambushes and area denial.
- Highly tenacious due to Ashspawn racial traits, as they do not feel pain, tire or need to breathe. Unless the brain has been destroyed, everything connected to it can continue to function, even if the only thing left of them is a severed skull. It is pertinet to note that while they cannot bleed out or feel pain, their bodies still rely on a standard understanding of biology. For example, broken bones and torn tendons will not hurt them, but do hamper their movement.
- They are all Ashspawn, a Force-Sensitive species originally spawned by cataclysm. Being within the Force null zone generated by a Ysalamiri weakens them. Due to the nature of their origins, Force Light can weaken or potentially damage their physical bodies.
- Not equipped for direct assaults on heavy fortifications, heavily armoured infantry or open combat with tank formations and the like. They are specialist ambushers, not frontline assault troops and lack integrated heavy support. No heavy weapons or tanky armour. Moreover, both individual units and the overall force are small and easily outnumbered.
Like the Ashspawn or Reborn as a species, the Dusstalkers are children of the apocalypse. The great battle between the Dominion of Light and the Disciples Vader turned Tephrike's former capital into a radioactively contaminated, cursed hellscape. The cataclysmic struggle spawned a dangerous darkside nexus, for the land had been irrevocably tainted. Moreover, the dead had been unable to pass on. Many lingered on as spirits. But this was not the end, forthe dead - both Jedi and Sith, soldiers and civilians - rose from the mass graves and charnel pits. Some say it was on the third day after the cataclysm. Most had lost their sentience and been turned into mindless abominations. But a select few had retained their sentience.
The Tephriki called them the Ashspawn. The first reaction of many reanimated Dominion and Vaderite soldiers who had retained their mental faculties was to try and rejoin their old formations. But they were all labelled unnatural and tainted. The Dominion tried to purify the nexus, and, when that failed, to contain it by building a fortress and a containment wall. The existence of these dark parodies of life was a cause of shame to the Jedi. And the Vaderites only saw slaves to exploit and regarded Palmyra's Wail as a source of dark power to harness. Condemned in undeath, the Ashspawn started to get organised to protect themselves from these threats.
The Death Head Legionaires attribute their origins to a battle at an old chemical plant in the wastes outside the ruined city. The plant had been used for industrial purposes. By then the worst of the radiation had cleared. In those days, the Dominion of Light still sought to cleanse the nexus and, as they saw it, redeem it. Undead, whether sentient or not, were bastardisations of life.
A party of Ashspawn scouts and Duststalkers returning from a raiding expedition found themselves cornered and under attack. Owing to the tight Dominion cordon around the city, the Ashspawn party was very small and found itself outnumbered and outgunned. However, the Ashspawn realised that the gas did not affect them in the same way as the living, and so they set it off. In the chaos the scouts managed to flee and return to the ruined city.
The loot they had managed to retrieve as welcome, but in the aftermath Ashspawn officers also studied the brief skirmish and drew lessons from it. Experts amongst the Ashspawn were found afterwards to man a fulltime unit of soldiers who specialised in chemical warfare. The melodramatically named Death Head Legion was the result. Supposedly the eventual symbol of the unit was derived from a hazardous wastes sign one of the soldiers had seen in the chemical plant.
The Death Head Legion would be called into action when Darth Blitz, the self-proclaimed 'lord of death', boldly and arrogantly sought to conquer the nexus. The legionaires helped decimate his crazed minions with chemical weapons, sowing chaos among their ranks or disabling them. They utilised caustic weapons, poisoned darts and gas that could corrode metal against his more heavily armoured warriors. However, while they took part in scouting parties and the occasional raids, attempts at a sustained breakout failed due to the Dominion cordon.
This changed during the Netherworld Event. Tephrike was thrown into chaos, and the defences around Palmyra's Wail were weakened. But a new threat arose in form of the Republican Guard, which contested control of the nexus. Unlike the Vaderites, the rebels did not want to harness the power of the nexus, for they considered the Force to be a malevolent, eldritch entity. Instead they wanted to contain the dark power inside it and prevent anyone from using it. But they had no sympathy for the Ashspawn, whom they regarded as abominations. On a rare incursion outside of the waste, the legionaires assaulted a rebel outpost by infiltrating it to release gas and chemicals. The legionaires were dressed in stolen Dominion uniforms and armour to sow confusion among the enemy.
However, as the Republican Guard consolidated its position around the old Dominion base, and deployed the heavily armoured Cinder Guard, the legionaires had to adapt, for they could not face them in a pitched engagement. Moreover, the Netherworld Event also caused turmoil in the nexus, attracting demons and mindless undead. Those who were already dead were not susceptible to the legionaires' weapons, but they proved their mettle against demonic beasts in a brutal battle that ironically saw them fighting alongside the rebel troops.
