Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Firemane and make use some untapped resources.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Garrison force and rear echelon security. Construction.
Permissions: ARGH gear available to Firemane per this thread.
Links: HK-36, The Inner Circle, Choir of Angels, Qadiri,
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Ironfire Division.
Affiliation: House Kerrigan-Alcori, Siobhan Kerrigan, Firemane, Bharria Jai Ahquala.
Classification: Droid Infantry.
Description: Droids have long been a staple of galactic warfare. The reasons are not hard to find. They do not tire, feel fear or demand a raise. Or need to be paid at all. Lacking squishy organic bodies, they are stronger than humans. From a certain point of view, it can be argued that using them is more humane, as it means less organics die. However, time and again organic civilisation has faced the dilemma that making droids too smart and becoming too dependent on them can lead to those machines eventually rebelling and trying to topple their makers.
Firemane does not have many droid units. Most of its forces are composed of organics. The Ironfire Division is large, but only a small part of its military. It is composed of droids developed by the Abregado-Rae Guild of Hammers, a long-time Firemane business party and subsidiary. Its founder, the eccentric droid HK-36, was a comrade in arms of Siobhan Kerrigan for many years before he vanished from known space.
With Firemane's leaders being ARGH's custodians, it is only natural that they would take advantage of its droid designs. However, events such as the Clockwork Rebellion have made Siobhan disinclined to yield significant military control to machines. Rather than being a main assault force, the Ironfire Division is composed of drones that are used for garrison duty, rear echelon security and similar tasks. Thus they free up organic forces. Likewise, the battle droids can perform tasks such moving supplies, digging trenches, setting up field defences and so on.
Droids do not get tired and cannot be bribed, so these mundane, but vital tasks are a good fit for them. Moreover, they are not cruel. The droids are commanded by organic officers drawn from the ranks of Firemane regulars. This ensures that command authority remains in the hands of flesh and blood beings. Another reason is that Firemane utilises substantial forces composed of elves who are unused to droids and might thus be disconcerted by 'metal golems' in command roles. The machines are programmed to be absolutely loyal to Firemane. Hence they do not possess free will. Droid rights' activists have complained, but their claims have been dismissed. Besides, enough people remember OMNI's Clockwork Rebellion. If need be, the droid forces can also be deployed on the frontlines. This can save organic lives.
The Ironfire Division's main duties are unglamorous, but important. This applies in particular to a protracted campaign, in which Firemane has to not just take, but also hold territory, garrison bases and so on. Each platoon has two Ghoush transports; one for the troops themselves; the other for their vehicles. The transport ships are piloted by organic pilots. Likewise, technicians are attached to the force. Recently, Herakles Construction Drones have been added to the division. These are dedicated construction droids that can operate both in the void of space and planetside. Herakles drones are explicitly designed for large-scale construction projects. This means the division can both defend and build.
The Ironfire Division is commanded by Lieutenant General Bharria Jai Ahquala, a Qadiri noblewoman from Khajwar. Bharria first came into contact with the outsiders when the Eldorai Matriarchy dispatched a diplomatic mission to the distant Qadiri realms. She was the Nawab of Surana, one of the states the delegation visited, and handled the negotiations in the name of her Queen. The Nawab struck up a friendship with Vaena Askari, who back then was an Angelii junior officer.
Bharria is an enthusiastic inventor and organiser. She is multilingual, and composes poems in Zandri. She also made herself a name for her patronage of architecture. The noblewoman was fascinated by the sky people's toys, but recognised that they were just extremely advanced versions of the machines the Qadiri and their Xioquo enemies already had, rather than magic. Moreover, while she was no radical abolitionist, she was unenthusiastic about slaves and quick to set hers free. These factors motivated her to learn all she could about them and make an alliance with them. Putting a forward-thinking Qadiri in charge is also good marketing. Now she has some machines to play with and things to organise. Being a general, she is able to tour the various outposts. Bharria has brought many of her retainers with her. Thus the force has also become a way for Qadiri from her homeland to learn about modern tech and become knowledgeable in using it.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Large
Unit Availability: Rare
Unit Experience: Trained
Equipment: IDs can only use Abregado-manufactured or common stationary weapons. Weapons not in those categories are only used by organics. The other droids use their in-built weapons' systems.
Droids:
Armour:
Primary Rifles:
Support Weapons:
Sidearms:
Vehicles and Ships:
Melee Weapons:
Misc:
Combat Function: The primary combat function of the Ironfire Division is a defensive one. It takes advantage of many advantages droids have over organics. Unlike flesh and blood soldiers, droids do not get tired or bored. They also cannot be bought. They work day and night, do not have romances, get pregnant or demand vacations. Or need to get paid.
All these traits make them great at guarding outposts, supply depots, buildings and general sentry duty. By contrast, corruption and boredom might set into and ruin an organic unit if it is assigned to guard an outpost far from trouble. The Ironfires allow organic manpower to be used for other purposes. A typical duty for them would be guard the supply lines and depots for an advancing army. They can also guard and patrol territory that has been secured by Firemane forces. Thus they can guard important roads, river crossings, and provide rear echelon security.
Safe supply lines are particularly important during protracted campaign, which means they must be protected against enemy attacks and raids. Aside from protecting, the division can also build, as construction droids have been assigned to it. The droid force does not operate in a vacuum, as their deployment as a garrison force and rear-area security units requires cooperation with other military units, such as field troops. This is particularly pertinent when they have to counter insurgents operating in the rear area. In that capacity, they will cooperate with other Firemane forces.
Of course, they can also be deployed offensively. The Ironfire Division is large, meaning that droids can be deployed in swarms. Firemane is, to put it plainly, not fussed about droid casualties. One might note that even the HK droid who designed the Infantry Drones did not consider them to be on the same level as his kind due to their primitive intelligence, likening them to animals. Access to Hover Spider Drones allows them to cross significant distances quickly, enabling them to keep up with advancing allied forces. It also gives them fire support. 'Landships' can also be assigned to the unit. These are essentially weaponised sandcrawlers that can transport troops and vast amounts of cargo, but also make good battering rams. However, while fast and well-armoured, they lack agility and are poorly armed.
The Ironfires are equipped with potent weapons. Other than normal Infantry Drones, the unit also has specialised droids such as a droideka variant called the Scorpion, which can be dangerous even for Force-Users, especially since they have more advanced weapons than their ancestors. The division is commanded by organic officers, who provide ingenuity simple machines might lack. Heavy fire support is provided by Mobile Weapons' Platforms. These droids vary in size, depending on the model, and are thus very versatile. They are roughly comparable to the spider droids of yore, though their large variant is essentially a a walker tank.
Strengths:
- Numbers. Hordes of droid infantry drones are a cheap and reliable source of numbers, and with their equipment they can be deployed quickly and easily. There are not many units available, but these units are very large. Moreover, they are well-coordinated and able to work as a group.
- Ironhide. Machines are tough, durable and combat efficient. They do not know pain or fear. Moreover, the Ironfire Division has modernised droidekas and organic officers, who provide a flexibility common drones might lack. Scorpions are fast, shielded and ideal infantry shredders. Mobile Weapons Platforms provide heavy fire support. Their heaviest variant is essentially a heavy walker.
- Garrison force. Garrisoning suits droids far better than organics. They are great at guarding outposts far from trouble where boredom and corruption might ruin an organic garrison.
- Access to construction drones. These can not only set up small outposts, but engage in large-scale construction projects, including even shipyards.
- Drones. While more advanced models such as droidekas are available, most of the Ironfire Division is composed of Infantry Drones. These lack the ingenuity and intelligence of say assassin droids. Rightly or wrongly, Firemane does not trust independent droids that think for themselves. IDs can follow their programming and carry out simple instructions, but they are not complex thinkers. The most extensive plan they can follow is run or walk and shoot.
- The standard banes of a machine, namely ion, electricity and EMP still affect the IDs. They have shielding to protect them, but are are a lot more vulnerable once it has been overcome.
- The Infantry Drones' limited intelligence also affects which weapons they can use. They are only able to really use weapons manufactured by ARGH and common stationary weaponry like E-Webs or stationary machine guns. This, of course, still gives them a potent arsenal. But it becomes a problem if they run out of ammunition, as they cannot pick up and use any gun that happens to be lying on the ground. Moreover, the IDs are drones too big to use additional armor suits, which means they are less versatile.
- Construction drones are obviously not combat designs and thus poorly armed.
Siobhan's interactions with droids have long been variable. The three droids she worked with closely were called Moira Skaldi, Maelion Liates and HK-36. Incidentally, all three were assassin droids and part of the Omega Protectorate. Moira and Maelion worked for military intellignece, and were HRDs, though the former was actually unaware of her true nature for most of her time with the Protectorate. HK-36, meanwhile, was, as the name implies, an HK droid and rose to become an officer in Omega Pyre and a Baron, then briefly head of state of the Protectorate. The two HRDs eventually left the Protectorate after the Battle of Gehenna and founded Archangel. While officially a legitimate droid maker that manufactured HRDs, it was actually a front for a genocidal machine cult that wanted to wipe out all organic life.
As part of its schemes, Archangel created clones of Siobhan and Kaelin Isandros, a Sith Assassin and vicious enemy of the former. They also conspired with Darth Shadow, another old rival, to try and murder her once. Understandably, she did not like them, to put it lightly. HK-36, on the other hand, remained a comrade in arms and the two had many adventures together, such as when they fought a Mechanical Dragon during the Battle of Gehenna. This remained the case after Siobhan and her wife Tegaea left the Protectorate's leadership to found Firemane.
When HK-36 vanished from the world of organics, he left Siobhan and Tegaea as custodians of his company, ARGH, giving them access to its designs. This arrangement persisted after his return to known space. Siobhan grew more distant towards the eccentric droid when he and his allies founded a droid and cyborg-centric faction called the Metal Lords, as she disagreed with their policies, such as the decision to set up a feudalistic droid government on Denon, an organic ecumenopolis, and neighbouring worlds. They continued to do business though.
After the dissolution of the Metal Lords and HK's disappearance, Firemane continued to utilise ARGH designs. This mostly related to infantry equipment, while its droids remained largely untapped. Owing to past experiences, Siobhan was sceptical of droid armies. Not only had she had to contend with Archangel intrigues, she had also experienced the occupation of Fondor during the Clockwork Rebellion. Here and there, droid forces were used, such as part of the garrison of Fort Kerrigan on Tygara.
Therein lay a niche droids could fill, especially after Firemane increasingly assumed a quasi-governmental role on certain worlds in the far rim or found itself engaged in protracted campaigns. Concern about overstretch was one of the reasons why Firemane contended itself with measured gains during the Tephrike campaign and declared the operation a success after it had satisfied itself with giving the Dominion of Light a bloody nose. Thus it remained a punitive expedition to punish the Jedi theocracy for its treachery and rescue the captive Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori.
The Ironfire Division was proposed by Colonel Destiny, the chief logistics officer of Firemane's General Staff. She was a member of the Inner Circle and a protege of General Devotion, Firemane's Chief of Army Staff. This helped give her words weight. Fittingly, several of the issues the unit was supposed to help deal with were logistical in nature. Lacking many organic weaknesses, droids were an ideal garrisoning force.
Because very intelligent droids could become too smart to control and decide to purge their organic creators, the unit would be officered by organics. The unit would have the firepower to participate in the heat of combat, but be a support force above all. A pragmatic Qadiri noblewoman called Bharria Jai Ahquala was chosen to lead the division. She was a political appointee, but also a capable organiser and tech enthusiast. Unlike many Qadiri, she understood that droids were machines, and not golems or metal demons. It was at her initiative that construction droids were assigned to the division. This allows the force to engage in larger-scale construction projects. In that regard they would often work with the Disciples of the Stone, a crack unit of Kar'zun combat engineers.
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