The Blood Hound
- Intent: To codify the Churi of War, a giant squad of birds used in the field of battle.
- Image Credit:
- Top header here (couldn't find the original one I'd initially used without the text), edited by
Scherezade deWinter
. - Category headers by
Scherezade deWinter
.
- Top header here (couldn't find the original one I'd initially used without the text), edited by
- Role: Infantry
- Permissions: n/a
- Links:
- Unit Name: Churi of War
- Affiliation: Agents of Chaos
- Classification: Infantry
- Description: The Churi of War are exactly what they sound like - they are a giant mass of Churi (flightless birds), covered in armor from beak to tail, shooting lasers out of their forehead, who take over a field of battle, causing mayhem and destruction wherever they go. The birds are large, capable of reaching 2 meters in height and 1.2 meters from shoulder to shoulder and can reach over 50 kilograms in weight. A single bird might be cause for concern because woe is he who trusts a large bird on its own, but together they are a phenomenal thing to behold, fierce, strong, and completely lacking in anything that might resemble elegance.
- Unit Size: Large
- Unit Availability: Common
- Unit Experience: Trained
- Equipment:
- Armor of Doom
- Beak of Doom
- Band around their left ankle (elaborated on in Ecological Devastation in strengths).
- Combat Function: The Churi of War's function, essentially, is to cause mayhem. The birds are released all at once, sent forward by the drive to get away from cramped spaces and sometimes electrical zaps received to steer them in the right direction. In the early days, each Churi moved on its own, as an individual, the lasers coming out of their Beak of Doom at random intervals, shooting at wherever the bird's head happened to be pointing at that second. Currently, the birds are being trained. While usually still looking like a hot mess (intentionally!), sometimes a few of the birds will be seen flocking together and standing as one, forming something akin to a testudo formation that adds to their protection as a whole. In a recent upgrade, the Churi of War received a band around their left ankle which includes a small needle that can be put to protrude from a distance; the substance released into their bodies will then make them have violent diarrhea, leaving the field of battle in true chaos behind them.
- Strength in Numbers - One Churi isn't very threatening, but thousands can make a grown man chit his pants. These Churi are usually released in the thousands, making them a terrifying presence on the field, sometimes for all sides involved.
- Chaos - These birds, most of them running around without a pattern, shooting their lasers randomly, have the potential to sew chaos on nearly any field of battle.
- Cheap - These birds are dirt cheap. It's hard to imagine running out of them.
- Ecological Devastation - The band around the Churi's ankle pricks them and releases laxatives into their bodies. Given the fact that the Churi are native to Endor and have had little expansion into other planets (if any at all), leaving their feces behind, especially in the form of diarrhea given by thousands of birds, can seriously mess with the ecosystem of a location unless properly removed.
- Uncontrolled - While the Churi do have trainers, and some of them do display better control, these birds are, at the bottom line, uncontrolled and free to do almost as they please.
- Open Belly - The gear worn by the Churi protects their tops, sides, front, heads, and tails, but generally leaves their stomachs and legs exposed. A financial calculation of how much more gear would cost vs how much birds cost had come up with an equation that made stomach/legs protection un-financial.
- Short Term - These birds can't hold it for more than a few hours without a water source.
The Churi of War, unlike many other things brought forth either by Whimsy or Agents of Chaos, did not start as a joke. The intent had been completely serious from the get go, a result of brain storming of several of the Firsts who wanted to add more ways of combat to their namesake.
Scherezade deWinter
, who had previous experience running Kaadu farms on Naboo, was given the control to build the birds' habitat and training progression. Somewhere in the middle of the Scintilla, a cluster of civilian spheres were put together, attached to each other and still mostly apart from the rest of the construct in terms of connections, the insides of which were altered to suit the Churi's native biological requirements in terms of soil, air, and natural growth. Food, initially, had been imported from Endor, but the expectation is that within a year or two, the spheres would grow all the required food on their own without any requirement for external aid aside from expenses to keep the spheres themselves running.
The first use of the Churi of War during a raid on Quarantine World III was branded a success. Regardless of the outcome (the thread is still happening as this submission is being written), the birds did exactly what they were meant to - sow chaos, cause confusion, and keep a lot of people wondering what the krak. This early version of the birds were almost completely untrained, and many of the lasers they shot ended up almost hitting the Agents of Chaos as well. The agents active on that mission reported they'd had a blast.
When the team returned to the Scintilla, they brought back notes and suggestions from what happened on the battlefield.
Jai'galaar Gred
, a Mandalorian that joined the Agents of Chaos in its earlier days, was brought in to oversee the birds' training and the numerous trainers they'd brought in to help with that. The churi continue to be trained at present, but it's doubtful they will ever become fully trained soldiers. For now, Agents of Chaos are more than happy to have their birds of chaos, and they are certain to fulfil a grand role in upcoming wars.
Hope to have it ready soon.
