Walking Weapons Platform
91st Saying: Big is GOOD
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: A small fire team of Houks plus one droid. Very Heavy Weapons and Mobile Fire Support in a small unit.
Image Credit: Mass Effect Game | Image One | Image Two
Role: Often attached to other units as a fire support team, or sent to crack armored targets and installations.
Links: Houk | Vertigo | SJO | FFE
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Houk Heavy Fire Support Team
Affiliation: The SJO, Antarian Rangers, Vertigo and the 91st Infantry
Classification: Infantry. Houk Fire Team.
Equipment:
Carrying two main weapons, two backup weapons, one melee weapon, as well as grenades and tools.
Main: HST 1E Exterminus Mortar | Furutaka Heavy Repeater | Ventooine Electromagnetic Plasma Gun | OS-GG1 Blaster Chaingun | LPD 17 Hammerstrike Grenade Launcher | Chalacta AM Rifle | PLX-4 Missile Launcher
Backups: MRS-1, DS8k, Jacknifes, Vonginator, Ranger Flame Thrower, Ranger ID, Rangers Shotgun, MM 1B Fly Swatter Shoulder AA, CB1-Icebreaker
Melee: Rangers Combat Knife, Vibroaxes, Vibroswords, and Force-Pikes
Grenades: Frag, Cryoban, Incendiary, Ion, Stun and Smoke.
Armor | Tools | Support Equipment
Aegis Class Armor
XJ9 Hololinks
Rangers Multi-Tool
Fixed Position Shields
Rangers Grapple
MM-40 Thermal Charge | Detonite Breaching Charges
Combat Medkits and Bacta Patches
Large Durasteel Plating and basic engineering tools for digging in fortifications.
Droid Support x 1
Ranger Biot or Marinus Series Droid
Support Craft
Luna Trooper Transport or LRAD OR | Escorted by Bobcats
When one Houk is never enough.
Description: Wearing the Emblem of the rangers on their midnight blue power armor. This ultra heavy unit stomp across the battlefield like towering 7-9ft tall giants. Houks naturally don’t lack strength or power, being one of the strongest species in the galaxy due to raw muscle mass. They are certainly not fast when carrying the amount of gear they do for their role. Often several large weapons for each member. The fire team is usually attached to a larger front line or artillery unit to give them support, lay suppressing fire down or take out a hard armored target, such as a bunker from a distance.
Coming equipped with missile launchers, high fire rate weapons, mortars, and rifles. The Houks tend to leave an area of devastation when used and are best suited to open field combat, not urban areas. They can function in urban engagements but tend to be less effective when they have to consider civilian casualties. The Houks would certainly get into a building, just usually with some collateral damage.
They are not reckless, just large, and carry a lot of area effect weaponry. Most of them are very well trained and calm under fire. The walking walls of muscle do have less of a temper than a Wookiee but will settle their problems violently when pushed. They prefer an indirect approach as a culture, meaning they will prefer to set up their large gun emplacements somewhere unexpected, and then start firing to catch an enemy in a crossfire for example. They also often bring a single droid to use to set up these ambushes or misdirections.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Small
Unit Availability: Uncommon
Unit Experience: Veteran
Combat Function: All-Round Fire Team Support. Both for anti-personnel and anti-armor with some anti-starfighter capability. Their goals are usually to cover other troopers from a fixed position, knockout hard targets or breach installations. They prefer setting up in crossfires and ambushes, or hitting an enemy when they are not expecting it.
Strengths:
- Lots of Equipment, strong armor, shields.
- Houks are hardy and have a natural strength comparable to a Wookiee.
- Veterans
- Houks are not hard to hit. They are 7-9ft tall walking giants, kitted out in bulky armor.
- Heavy and slow moving.
- Small units of three plus droid. Though they can be as few as one.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
As the SJO worked in and around the old Hutt territories reforming and assisting nearby worlds, several Houks volunteered for service. Small amounts of Houks were accepted at first to see how they worked out in combat, Vertigo encouraged several of his mercenary friends, and reluctantly became an ugly poster-child for the recruiting ad. Apparently, he headbutts better than anyone on the team. The SJO found having the Houks in small fire teams supporting the main advances worked out well, as it left the Houks in their element. They exchange fire like familiar family insults over a dinner table, often initiating it from their choice of position.