Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To provide a unit to further flesh Admiral Quee's marine forces in the Silver Jedi's 4th Fleet with more character
Image Credit: https://www.deviantart.com/pinkuh/art/Halo-ODST-Final-135540711 "HALO: ODST Final" by Pinkuh at Deviantart
Role: Shipboard Marines
Links: Admiral Gir Quee, Silver Jedi, Hoplite series Synthetic Soldiers, Massiff Blast Armor, Vornskyr Blast Helmet, Myntor Personal Shield, KG-2 Grendel 10mm Assault Ripper , Stormfire Heavy Repeater , Hailstorm Flechette Carbine , C-22 fragmentation grenades, 7-Prg Proton Grenades , Bantha Modular Load-bearing System
Unit Name: 3rd ISAF Marine Regiment – "The Argent Crusaders"
Affiliation: Gir Quee, Silver Jedi 4th Fleet
Classification: Marines (shipboard infantry)
Equipment: Hoplite series Synthetic Soldiers, Massiff Blast Armor (each trooper), Vornskyr Blast Helmet (each trooper), Myntor Personal Shield (each trooper), KG-2 Grendel 10mm Assault Ripper (4 per squad), Stormfire Heavy Repeater (2 per squad), Hailstorm Flechette Carbine (2 per squad), 3 C-22 fragmentation grenades (each trooper), 2 7-Prg Proton Grenades (each trooper), Bantha Modular Load-bearing System (each trooper)
Availability: Unique.
Deployment: Mass
Strengths & Weaknesses:
Wolfpack Fighters: On a squad level, the Crusaders are trained to operate in closely synchronized and complementary actions with each other and with Jedi. As an example of this, some battle drills emphasize coordinated movement with Jedi, using a Soresu practioner's mastery of that art to better improve the odds of their advance. Another example would be flushing a target out of hiding into the fire vector of another squadmate.
Resilient: Crusaders are equipped with reasonably protective armor, but even more importantly, personal shielding. This helps make Crusaders exceptionally resilient under direct fire from the enemy.
Initiated (the Force): The Crusaders are made up of Ysanna refugees from Ossus and Hoplite Synthetic Soldiers with knowledge cartridges containing Ysanna lore. They consequently have a solid, practical understanding of the ways of the Force, including an understanding of various force powers, lightsaber combat styles, and some practical folklore and experience in fighting with and against Force-users. This includes methodologies on how to resist mental manipulations such as mind tricks and the use of projectile weapons against lightsaber wielders.
Things Fall Apart: Crusaders rely heavily on group-based tactics. As members of a squad are lost to combat or separation, individual fighting abilities notably begin to decrease more so than the typical infantrymen.
Tepid Leadership: The leadership of the Crusaders rest in Jurai Khyson and other members of the elder council of Clan Tyren. The council is more concerned with ensuring that their culture and clansmen survive rather than act courageously and efficiently on the battlefield. This has lead to a mismatch of priorities for training and several exasperated exchanges with their superior, Admiral Quee. It is virtually impossible for Admiral Quee to order them into offensive action, such as boarding hostile starships or conducting planetary assaults. If ordered to do so, Colonel Khyson stalls, delays, or otherwise makes such attacks impossible to practically execute. Admiral has resigned himself to using them purely as a defensive unit.
Unstealthy: While Myntor Shields make the Crusaders enduring elements on the battlefield, they also make them exceptionally easy to detect even when not in direct visual contact. The shields can easily be heard from a distance by the natural ear, and their power signature is easily detected by many scanners and sensors.
History: Many Ysanna migrated with the Silver Jedi during their exodus, which was only heightened when Ossus fell under the Sith Empire's sway. A Ysanna chief among them, Elder Khyson, gathered volunteers among the refugees and petitioned the ISAF to form an army with the implicit understanding that it would be used to retake Ossus from their enemies. His request was denied. However, the ISAF did counter offer him to form a small cadre of Ysanna volunteers that would form a core of a regiment positioned at the ISAF's eastern region. Khyson agreed, viewing it as a possible step towards realizing his goal of a force capable of reclaiming Ossus. He found himself unexpectedly working with Admiral Quee, who to form the first ISAF regiment equipped heavily with Hoplite Synthetic Soldiers. This has resulted in an unusual fusion of traditional Ysanna warrior arts and projectile weapon skills combined with biomechanical soldiers from Lucerne Labs. Initial training of the combined human-droid unit was based on several of the Ceraluen's asteroid stations, which serve as the home port of the Silver Jedi 4th Fleet. As their competency improved, they were further pitted against the Ceraluen Royal Grenadiers and the 1st Directorate Jump Troopers Regiment in various tactical exercises. While severely mauled in these war games by these more elite units, the 3rd ISAF Marine Regiment emerged from these experiences as a much more cohesive and disciplined force. Several small skirmishes against raiders have solidified the Argent Crusaders into an experienced and professional force, even if its one that tends to shy away from fighting.
Equipment: The 3rd ISAF Marine Regiment do not fulfill a particularly specialized role, leading to their equipment being chosen as a result of negotiations between Colonel Khyson and Admiral Quee. Troopers are all equipped with blast armor and helmets that provides them with good protection that is only amplified by integrating personal shield generators into that armor, as Colonel Khyson is highly concerned about keeping his fellow clansmen alive to eventually resettle Ossus. In order to take advantage of their skills with projectile weapons, the 3rd ISAF is almost exclusively equipped with slugthrowers. Following Directorate practice, each squad is made up two 4-man fireteams lead by a squad leader. Each fire team has two soldiers equipped the tried and true Grendel Assault Ripper, while the third carries a Hailfire Flechette Carbine and the fourth carries a Stormfire Heavy Repeater. The grunts of the marines also carry a large number of grenades, whose application is highly informed by their matches against the Ceraluen Grenadiers.
Tactics: Khyson's determination to have as many of his clansmen to survive to fight and resettle Ossus has largely informed their unit's tactical doctrine. At a strategic level, this led to preference for strategic planning for defensive fighting, with troops relying on central stockpiles of supplies and equipment along with prepared fighting positions within assigned ships and installations. On a lower level, most planning focuses on defensive movement, such as planning different routes within their vessels to evacuate and move to prepared fighting positions. Squad level tactics focuses on establishing prepared fighting positions with overlapping fields of fire, typically with synthetic soldiers placed in forward positions. This allows the Argent Crusaders to conduct fighting withdrawals if needed with a minimum risk to losing native clansmen in battle. In terms of individual fighting tactics, the Argent Crusaders focus on using suppressive fire from their firearms punctuated by judicious use of grenades. Fire team doctrine assumes that the Rippers provide steady, suppressing firepower which then allows Flechette Carbine and Stormfire Repeater wielders better opportunities to accurately employ the unique abilities of their weapons based on the situation at hand. Unlike the Royal Grenadiers, the Crusaders use their grenades not so much for personal close quarter combat, but as controlled charges, either as traps or to alter the environment. Personal shielding also plays a large role in their attacks, with most troops choosing to use a double envelope of ray shielding, which provides a high amount of protection against blasters, lightsabers, and other energy weapons while allowing them to freely use their own weapons without having to worry switching particle shields on and off.
Deployment: The 3rd ISAF Marine Regiment is found almost exclusively on the ships and space stations of Silver Jedi's 4th Fleet under the overall command of Admiral Quee. However, because of their Ysanna heritage, it is not uncommon to see small groups of them at Jedi temples and refugee camps in Silver Jedi space, where they may be visiting friends and other relatives or are involved in Ysanna cultural events.
