Glory
Dahomian Glory
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Submit the company Glory is in charge of.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Rangers. Dahomian light infantry company as part of Firemane's forces.
Permission: ARGH gear available per this thread. Permission for all ArmaTech gear and all other subs made by Laira Darkhold's writer here and here. Firemane obtained a supply contract that allows it to use Fire for Effect gear here. Permission to use Tricks of the Trade submissions here. CD-X Cryptologic Key available for Firemane per this thread.
Links: Dahomey, In Time.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Alpha Company, 3rd Dahomian Rangers Batallion. The Glory Hounds.
Affiliation: Glory, Firemane Industries, General Devotion.
Classification: Light Infantry.
Description: The denizens of the remote planet Dahomey have long been a fixture in the ranks of Firemane. This pre-industrial world regressed during the Four Hundred Year Darkness due to isolation and strife. Many of its natives lived as hunters and gatherers, while warlords fought for control. Outsiders were attracted to it due to it by its gold and, sadly, its people, many of whom were enslaved. The strife came to an end due to the intervention of the fledging Omega Pyre. Tegaea Alcori, at the time Vice President of the mercenary company, and her associate Siobhan Kerrigan led the liberation forces.
Though there was understable resentment about being a foreign power's colony, several Dahomians were eager to grasp the opportunities the change had offered them, rather than being passive subjects. Thus many Dahomians joined the ranks of the Protectorate's soldiers, and signed up for Firemane Industries after it was founded. The small planet has supplied Firemane with soldiers, general officers and administrators. General Devotion, the chief of staff of Firemane's ground forces, is a Dahomian career soldier. She distinguished herself in the struggle for liberation and later became a driving force in the push for modernisation on the planet.
The Glory Hounds Company is one of these units. It derives its name from Captain Glory, its current commander and a veteran of Dahomey's tribal wars and several Firemane campaigns. Speaking of the name, the Dahomians have a curious way of naming their children, since around their tenth birthday they assign them a descriptive name that embodies their personality and is different from their birth name. As a result, the Hounds have a bit of a reputation for being prideful and fixated on martial glory, though their courage cannot be doubted. The same applies to their Dahomian patriotism. Many still retain a deep connection to their homeworld and former members of the company are well-represented among the ranks of a Dahomian veterans' association. Some former officers of the unit have become leaders among their people after retiring. Of course, this also has its critics, who view it as a way for Firemane to exert influence on Dahomey by building a clientele. This is accurate.
Like its parent battalion, the 3rd Dahomian Rangers, it is a highly mobile light infantry formation that can be deployed rapidly into conflict zones. The Hounds are trained to carry out raids, personnel recovery missions, spearhead operations by securing bridgeheads and performing airborne assaults into enemy territory. Due to their Dahomian heritage, many are excellent trackers and are skilled in asymmetrical warfare. Their equipment and training also increase their ability to combat hostile Force-users, despite their lack of preternatural powers.
The company has also assumed a bit of a mentoring role for Qadiri Sepoys serving Firemane. The Hounds have often been assigned to train them in the use of modern weapons and tactics. Despite the growth of a Dahomian Diaspora, ties are very important to Dahomians and this is reflected in the composition of the Hounds, who tend to be recruited from the same clans. Unsurprisingly, many are members of Glory's own tribe, the Adegoke. Ties of tribal kinship are still quite important to the Dahomians. This enhances unit cohesion, but can also be the cause of unfortunate rivalries with other Dahomian units. The Glory Hounds are a company-sized unit, organised in platoons and squads. They receive training in reconnaissance, direct action, sabotage, marksmanship, melee combat and demolitions. They are skilled in knife combat and hand-to-hand combat. They are also trained in Terä Käsi, which enables them to defend themselves against mental attacks.
Glory is an experienced soldier with over a dozen years of field experience, both in guerrilla and conventional warfare. During that time she's operated on several battlefields in a variety of roles. Thus she has a good understanding of tactical leadership and command, along with lower level logistics and supply skills. She is not afraid to lead from the front and is very fixated on physical fitness. While generally quite balanced, experience has hardened her. She lacks empathy for many of her enemies and can be quite brutal when called. Moreover, Glory is quite ambitious and prideful. While not someone who would carelessly throw lives away to satisfy her ego, she is quite interested in attaining martial glory and furthering her own career.
Glory is about as Force-Sensitive as a plank. In other words, she cannot use the Force. However, she is unimpressed by Forcewielders, particularly those who flaunt their mystical powers and believe they are entitled to special treatment because of them. She enjoys knocking them down a peg though. Lady Kerrigan has a tendency of assigning Force-Users who are gifted but need an attitude adjustment to her to train and give them a better understanding of military life. Glory has a competitive relationship with her fellow Dahomian Major Tempest. Unlike her, Tempest is a Force-User. She is also from a clan Glory's had a rivalry. The days of strife have passed, but the two are not especially friendly.
COMBAT INFORMATION
Unit Size: Medium
Unit Availability: Unique
Unit Experience: Elite.
Equipment:
Armour:
- Spectre Scout Armour. Commlink uses CD-X cryptologic key.
- Mk 2 Bolter
- Mk 1 Bolter
- ACS-202 Vanquisher Light Repeating Blaster
- Magnetic Repeater
- Shatter Rifle
- ACS-205 Blackblade Modular Rifle.
- Reaper Plasma Shotgun
- ACS-205 Advanced Dual Weapon System
Sidearms:
- Cylix Bolt Pistol
- Vornskr Revolver
- SSK-5 Icon Blaster
- Shatter Pistol
- SP-2
- Uproar Blaster
- A280-CFE Blaster
- Sonic Stunner
Wrist and Under Barrel Weapons:
- ACS-207 Aerosolblaster
- ACS-208 Wrist Ion Beamer
- ACS-207 Cryoban Gun.
- Wrist Bolter
- ACS-208 Wrist Tensor
- Under-Barrel Sonic Blaster
- ARGH Flamer
Misc:
- Access to ACS-602 High Explosive Specialty Ammunition for slugthrowers.
- Firedancer Landspeeders and Yazgid IFVs.
- APE Boltgun Ammunition
- Ghoush-class Orbital Landers for insertion. Alternately they have access to ACS Modular Drop Pod.
- Misc equipment such as wedding, climbing and digging tools, military rations, medkits, lifeform scanners and demolition sensors, det charges. CN-15 camouflage netting.
- No-show (mission-specific).
- Neural band
- Grappling Hooks.
However, the Glory Hounds only carry a few heavy weapons and lack heavy combat vehicles. This can be a disadvantage in pitched combat against well-organised enemies. Moreover, they are only one infantry company. In larger engagements the Hounds would operate alongside other Dahomian Ranger units or function as the light infantry element supporting a force of regulars. They might be deployed to harass an enemy before the main assault commences, or utilise infiltration tactics to emerge in the enemy rear area and bypass enemy front-line strong-points, possibly isolating them for a follow-up attack by troops with heavy weapons. This obviously requires a high degree of planning and coordination, as otherwise they risk being cut off from allied forces.
To increase their mobility and give them some additional firepower, the Hounds have access to Yazgid IFVs. These serve as troop transporters and can provide fire support. These infantry fighting vehicles are fast, have decent armour and are solid support platforms. The Yazgid is strong against infantry and light vehicles. However, they are not all terrain and vulnerable to tanks and artillery strikes. Against a tank’s main weapon the Yazgid’s armour is just not sufficient. Its one-shot anti-tank missile is its only real defence against them. The Yazgid has only limited defence against air attack, limited to a scrambler and a chaff launcher along with a single shot missile. In addition, the Hounds can utilise landspeeders for patrols and recon.
Drop pods enable them to pull off surprise attacks and possibly bypass enemy forces. However, the pods are obviously vulnerable during transit and only allow minor course directions. Given their Dahomian heritage, the Glory Hounds excel at tracking, jungle warfare and combat in arid environments. The Hounds are Non-Force-Users, but are trained in Anti-Force-User Tactics and have access to potent Force hunter gear such as bolters, shatterguns, shotguns and sonic weapons. This allows them to fight space wizards, though this is not their primary mission profile.
Strengths:
- Rapid deployment, elite light infantry formation. Well-trained, highly mobile and experienced soldiers. Due to their Dahomian heritage they are particularly skilled in recon, camouflage and tracking. They are skilled marksmen who empathise discipline and precise over blazing away.
- Their arsenal includes potent anti-Force-User gear and they are trained in tactics to fight space wizards.
- Being light infantry, they empathise speed, mobility and rapid strikes over heavy armour and firepower. This can be a disadvantage, especially in prolonged battles or against heavy armour.
- Lack heavy combat vehicles.
Like most inhabited worlds, Dahomey was hit hard when the Gulag Virus ravaged the Galaxy and brought interstellar civilisation to its knees. Planets like Dahomey were unsustainable without access to galactic markets. The virus and the anarchy it caused led to a cessation of trade, as no one shipped food to Dahomey or bought their minerals. The result was a demographic collapse and a general breakdown of society.
When the plague finally reached the planet via the last few traders the result was horrifying. By the time contact was reestablished, only fifteen out of eighty people were left. This huge population drop led to and was helped by the formation of warlord bands who fought over the scarce resources. Communities ventured into the wastes to escape, forming groups there, some of which have not been re-contacted. This includes the mythical Amazons, who supposedly were formed by women determined not to be oppressed by men.
The natives of Dahomey grew up in a long period of isolation and technological regression. This did not mean they were primitive or savages. Quite the opposite, it meant that they adapted to their home environment perfectly. With no higher technical knowledge available they used what they could on their own underdeveloped world. This meant that weaponry returned in large part to basic melee and ranged weapons which could be made and maintained.
Many of its natives lived as hunters and gatherers, while warlords fought for control. Outsiders were attracted to it due to it by its gold and, sadly, its people, who often ended up as slaves. When the Long Night passed, a company called the Independent Mining Corporation established a presence on Dahomey. They quickly established rights to the world, buying tonnes of gold in exchange for weapons, technology and food. The warlords grew and extended their reach, enslaving the survivors to profit for them.
Glory was born into one of the many tribes scattered across the planet, away from the capital city Abomey. Her people called themselves the Adegoke. Under the leadership of their chieftain Ambition, they became one of the most prominent tribes on the planet. Her father was a relative of Ambition and one of his vassals. He had fought alongside the King and aided him in his rise to power. This made her the Dahomian equivalent of local nobility. Though not the heir, Glory was raised with a strong sense of duty and responsibility. From an early age, she learned how to fight, follow orders, track wild animals and hunt them.
She had limited contact with offworld merchants, who traded guns and baubles for gold that was so abundant on Dahomey. Her tribe used these tools to gain an advantage of rivals in Dahomey's endemic tribal wars. A naturally curious, driven girl, Glory picked up some Basic and marksmanship skills from a Zabrak mercenary employed by the Independent Mining Guild. She distinguished herself in an attack on the Kraal of a rival tribe. However, things soon became less rosy. Ironically, it was the homestead that belonged to Tempest's tribe.
However, Ambition grew more and more unbalanced. The charismatic leader turned into a harsh and dangerous tyrant. He sought to subjugate the other tribes and became extremely capricious. When Glory's family grew critical of him after his armies suffered a defeat in a battle against rebels, he called in an IMC air strike to remove them from the picture. Young Glory joined the rebels led by Devotion. Betrayed by his own brothers, Ambition was killed. However, his death left a vacuum, which foreign oppressors were intent to fill.
As the IMC strengthened its hold on the planet, its demands became more rapacious and many of its officers made no bones about the fact that they considered the 'primitive' natives to be inferiors due to their lack of advanced technology. Glory herself was once captured by the warriors of a rival warlord and handed over to an IMC officer as a “prize”. She managed to escape after stabbing him with a knife and eventually return to her people.
Glory fought bravely when foreign mercenaries and their native allies attacked, but it was futile. Her people retreated into the wilderness, fighting a guerilla struggle. These years shaped her into a tough, hardened woman as she led daring raids with a small commando of young fighters – child soldiers like her, but at a cost. Her outlook became increasingly bleak and cynical, matching her people's prospects. Glory distinguished herself when a pan-Dahomian rebel coalition that transcended triban lines lured an IMC force into a trap by feeding them false intel and destroyed them. There she led a squad of Adegoke warriors. She fought against the IMC mercenaries and later the troops of General Amherst. He had originally been dispatched with the mission to put an end to the abuses, but ended up becoming a warlord who usurped the IMC and repressed the natives.
Finally, Omega Pyre mercenaries swooped down from the sky and unseated the warlord General Amherst. Their arrival led to the abolition of slavery.The planet reaped the benefits of corporate investment, opening up new opportunities for the natives, though the commanding heights were occupied by foreigners. But Glory was reluctant to accept the new régime, seeing it as another form of foreign rule. But her people had little appetite for continued struggle, and so the elders and her mother decided to make an accord with Dahomey's new rulers.
Glory joined a native militia and later participated in the Omega Protectorate's conquest of Gehenna, distinguishing herself in combat against the savage Bando Gora Reavers. Meanwhile, Dahomey transitioned into a parliamentary democracy. Its first democratically elected prime minister was an Adegoke, though her ascent to high office was marred by criticism that she had 'accommodated' the IMC for too long before joining the resistance against the imperialists.
The Glory Hounds came into being after the formation of Firemane. Glory applied for a job in its rapidly expanding paramilitary division. One of the officers of the corporation's paramilitary division remembered her from Gehenna and she was soon hired. She was soon put in command of a new Dahomian Ranger Company. They acquired the nickname the Glory Hounds. Glory recruited heavily from the friends she had made in the Dahomian native forces, especially from among her own tribe. Such tribalism has led to criticism from Firemane officers, but is far from atypical. The Adegoke came close to dominating Dahomey and while Glory came to see Ambition as a capricious tyrant, she is proud of her tribal heritage.
The Hounds were drilled in the tactics the Dahomians had originally employed to resist foreign invaders. This was combined with Firemane's own tactical doctrine. Being a corporation, Firemane does not field vast armies on the scale of galactic superpowers, as that would not be cost-effective. Instead it focuses on small elite groups, supplemented by larger forces of native sepoys recruited on the remote worlds it has influence on. The Hounds saw action during the Netherworld Event. This cataclysmic event caused great disruption across the Galaxy. Moreover, most of Firemane's leadership was raptured.
The Hounds had been on a mission far away from the centre when headquarters suddenly stopped responding and some of their own vanished. Slavers and Bando Gora cultists took advantage of the chaos, carrying out raids on vulnerable worlds. The Hounds helped protect Firemane installations in Levantine space, fighting a hostile corporation on Etti IV. When they were able to return to the rim, they helped defeat slavers trying to raid Dahomey. The Hounds would return to Wild Space when Firemane crushed pirate groups on Arkas and discovered the lost elf world of Tygara, which for a while became the home of Eldorai fleeing the destruction of Kaeshana. They were heavily involved in battling the Xioquo, a hostile race of drows. They led several raids into Xioquo territory to gather intelligence and free slaves.
Bloodletting aside, the Hounds also assumed a mentoring role for some of the native Tygaran troops recruited by Firemane, especially for the Qadiri and the Vashyada. Until the coming of the sky people, the native elves had been unware of life outside of the Galaxy. Their own tech level was fairly primitive. Given their own experiences, the Hounds could relate. Thus they gave them a better understanding of modern tech and taught them how to use modern weapons and tactics.
They were also part of Firemane's reclamation efforts on Dahomey when the corporation returned to the planet. This allowed them to reconnect with their roots and recruit. The Hounds participated in the Battle of Kaeshana, where they worked with Eldorai insurgents to launch raids against First Order forces and disrupt lines of communication. However, they were ultimately forced to withdraw when Alliance forces left the planet. In the aftermath, they were part of the Firemane forces that put down the failed Cadalthor coup on Tygara. The perennial intrigue of Eldorai nobles did not endear the space elves to the Hounds.
They saw action on Dxun, where they cooperated with a task force of Free World Coalition Rangers, including Laira Darkhold. They were dispatched to eliminate a Sith cult that had taken root on the moon. They were ambushed by Sith fanatics and a Smoke Demon. Unable to defeat the latter with conventional weapons, they left it to Laira and a Qadiri fire acolyte called Hazani Jai Bysara, who had been assigned to their unit to learn more about the Galaxy. Glory and a few Hounds used their jet packs to appear in the rear of their foes and take them down while their comrades laid down suppressive fire.
Glory tortured a captured zealot to find out the location of their base, which was hidden in a waterfall. There was a degree of distrust as the leader of the Hounds felt that a Knight of Alderaan accompanying the task force was keeping secrets from them. They battled the Sith fanatics in the caverns, facing regular zealots and dark side adepts. In the end part of the cave was collapsed via a combination of demolition charges laid by the Hounds and terramancy on the part of Darkhold. The remaining cultists were later finished off.
The Hounds were active during the Krolis War. This was an internecine Qadiri conflict about who should be Saoshyant, the (nominally) supreme religious leader of the race. Semiramis Shahbânu, the ambitious Qadiri ruler of the Amikarese Empire and Firemane ally, wanted a candidate who would support her efforts to bring all Qadiri under her rule. The League of Krolis opposed her aims, seeing it as an attempt to centralise power. Semiramis petitioned Firemane for aid, citing her long years of fealty and willingness to give up slavery, a practice common among the Qadiri but odious to her patrons. After some hesitation, Lady Kerrigan decided to back her.
Led by Sahali Jai Bysara, High Mistress of the Sistren of the Eternal Flame, the League sought to avoid a pitched battle, realising that Firemane would be able to exploit its technological superiority in such a situation. Instead they fought a guerilla war, intending to wear down Firemane forces and disrupt their alliance with Semiramis. Sahali rightly guessed that it was not a bond cast in iron and that it might be possible to cause a rupture This made the conflict rather costly for Firemane.
Having expected a short war, the corporation was forced to adapt. The Glory Hounds launched long range penetration patrols into enemy territory. In addition to scouting and reconnoitering roles for their parent formations, they provided terrain-assessment and tactical or special security missions, undertook recovery operations to locate and retrieve prisoners of war, captured enemy soldiers for interrogation and intelligence-gathering purposes and mined enemy trails. They also helped train and lead allied militias.
The fighting was rather brutal on both sides, as unconventional wars tend to be. It also pit them against their former comrade Hazani, who had sided with her mother Sahali. The Hounds fought alongside Siobhan when she was finally able to meet the League in a pitched engagement. The League had committed its forces to battle against the will of Sahali, who had been forced to acquiesce to the demands of nobles who felt her scorched earth campaign was proving ruinous to their interests. The Hounds fought bravely in the battle, reinforcing Siobhan after her gunship crashed due to a storm.
The battle ended in defeat for the League, though Firemane and Amikarese losses were significant. Sahali was later betrayed and murdered by her former allies, who hoped to ingratiate herself with Siobhan. However, upon being presented with her head, Siobhan was outraged, for she had come to respect her former foe. She personally fried the ringleader with Force Lightning.
The remaining conspirators were captured and sent back to the Sistren for execution. The remains of Sahali were also returned for a proper burial. The League capitulated. While the treaty was favourable to Semiramis, Siobhan forced both sides to accept a compromise candidate as Saoshyant. With this conflict concluded, the Hounds now look to the future. Glory is an ambitious woman and intends to continue her rise through Firemane's military hierarchy.
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