Jen'kaar Unit (Lit. "Shadow Swarm")

[Darth Caedes]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create an undead class of pilot, turning zombies into space menaces...!
• Image Credit: Images from Warhammer 40k: Deathwing | Photoshop: Me
  • Black & White
  • Yellow & Brown
• Role: The Jen'kaar serve as a mass-deployable strike and interceptor pilot force for the Corpse Fleet of Korriban. While individually limited, they become devastating when linked to Jen'koshū Dreadlords, acting as coordinated extensions of their will.
• Permissions: N/A
• Links:
  • Wraithglider
  • Jen'ari
  • Jen'koshū

GENERAL INFORMATION

• Unit Name: Jen'kaar Revenants
• Affiliation: Darth Caedes
• Classification: Pilot
• Description: The Jen'kaar Revenants are reanimated pilots, drawn from the corpses of the Jen'ari horde and subjected to a process of Sith alchemical reinforcement and ritual integration with improved droid intelligence. Each Revenant is little more than a reanimated husk, wired into its starfighter through cyber-organic rigging constructed with the use of vexthorite, star iron, and existing technologies such as the cognition throne. Unaided, their minds retain only the most primitive of flight instinct, paired with a drive to hunt and destroy living targets, while still benefitting from the oddly synchronistic and distressingly coordinated minds of their Jen'ari cousins.
  
  While alone they exhibit only rudimentary tactical awareness (relying instead on pack/horde tactics), the true threat of the Jen'kaar manifests when they are bound to a Jen'koshū Dreadlord, an undead Sith spirit with the ability to link and control entire hordes of lesser undead. Under such an influence, Jen'kaar wings fly with unnerving precision, executing complex strike maneuvers and coordinated kamikaze attacks which belie their individual simplicity.

COMBAT INFORMATION:

• Unit Size: Large
• Unit Availability: Common
• Unit Experience: Trained
• Equipment: Jen'kaar Wraithglider
• Combat Function: The Jen'kaar Revenants function as a shock pilot corps, designed for mass deployment in naval engagements. They are best used in overwhelming numbers, flying in swarm-like formations which imitate the cunning horde mentality of their grounded cousins, the Jen'ari.
  
  In isolation, a Jen'kaar pilot will exhibit straightforward behavior: pursue target, disrupt or destroy, repeat. They are easily baited, lured, or outmaneuvered by skilled pilots. However, when linked to a Jen'koshū Dreadlord, they exhibit remarkable synchronicity and a kind of cruel, ominous tact.
• Force Abilities: Despite having been raised from the Dark Side sorceries of Darth Caedes, the Jen'kaar do not in and of themselves possess any inherent Force capabilities. Interestingly, and despite this, their presence is known to have a discomforting affect on those sensitive to the Force, and can even become disturbing to those more or less attuned to the Light Side. In many instances, vexthorite is used in the construction and 'raising' of the Jen'kaar, granting them a utility with certain Force related talents. For instance, the Jen'kaar have an unnerving ability to detect Force sensitives as well as Force-use on the battlefield.

Strengths:

• Expendable and Readily Replaced: As reanimated corpses drawn from the vast graveyards of Korriban, Jen'kaar are inexpensive to produce and easily replenished.
• Unliving Stamina: Free from most mortal requirements, the Jen'kaar can occupy a single role/rank/position indefinitely and without rotation. This allows for a degree of crew efficiency and lowered personnel numbers unmatched by many living fleets.
• Dreadlord Synchronization: When linked to a Jen'koshū Dreadlord, their battlefield performance increases dramatically—gaining direction, coordination, and a tactical finesse which far exceeds typically attributed undead behavior.

Weaknesses:

• Minimal Autonomy: Without external control, Jen'kaar display only base-level instincts and primitive flight logic, making them predictable and vulnerable to experienced opposition.
• Force Suppression Vulnerability: The necromantic rites which sustain the Jen'kaar rely on ambient dark side energy. Exposure to Force-null zones (such as those created by ysalamiri fields, voidstones, or anti-Force technologies) can render them catatonic, unresponsive, or in extreme cases, cause spontaneous deanimation.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

Following the reanimation of the Jen’ari with the sorcerous Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut, Darth Caedes identified a unique opportunity: the corpses of former Sith pilots, navigators, and gunners still haunted by fragmented instinct. These bodies, while incapable of traditional command roles, retained just enough facility with repetition and tattered memory to fly again.

Thus the Jen’kaar Revenants were born—ritually gutted and reforged into flying cadavers, augmented with Sith alchemy and droid intelligence, jacked directly into vessels such as the stripped-down Wraithgliders of the Corpse Fleet, and loosed like flocks of carrion birds onto their prey.

After a series of successful initial deployments, the Jen'kaar have become a staple in Caedes' campaigns, and a potent tool of terror, forcing enemy fleets to expend precious resources against seemingly endless waves of the dead.