Seswenna Aeternum
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATIONIntent: Elite infantry force of the Eriadu Ascendancy
Image Credit: Tac Vest Scout Trooper Battlefront II Mod, Directions by HawkeAssault, The Scout by Shane Molina, Galactic Hunters - Scout Troopers by Charles Urbach
Role: Elite infantry of the Eriadu Ascendancy
Links: Vandar Tarkin, Eriadu Ascendancy, Scout Troopers, Carrion Plateau, Eriadu, Tarkin family compound, Ranger School, Eriadu Army Troopers
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Eriadu Rangers, 'Carrion Troopers', 'Tarkin Troopers'
Affiliation: Vandar Tarkin, Eriadu Ascendancy
Classification: Elite Infantry, Special Forces, Recon
Equipment: Betaplast Scout trooper armor, ARC-9965 blaster rifles, TL-50 heavy repeaters, E-11 blaster rifles, E-22 blaster rifles, E-11s sniper rifles, T-21B targeting heavy blaster, E-10R blaster rifles, EE-4 carbine rifles, Pulse Cannons, A280-CFE blasters, DLT-19D heavy blaster rifles, DLT-19x targeting blasters, SE-14r light repeating blasters, EC-17 hold-out blasters, F-Web heavy repeating blasters, Baradium-core code key thermal detonators, Stormtrooper rations, Water purifiers, Flare sticks, Grappling hooks, Camouflage tents, Long-range comlinks,
Description: Eriadu Rangers, sometimes referred to as Carrion Troopers or Tarkin Troopers are the small but exceptionally trained force that make up the elite infantry of the Eriadu Ascendancy, similar to Imperial Stormtroopers. They carry the nickname 'Carrion Troopers' because each and every one of them has gone through grueling training on the Carrion Plateau, to shape them into skilled survivalists and ruthless fighters. They are the finest soldiers the Eriadu Ascendancy has to offer.
COMBAT INFORMATION
Unit Size: Medium
Unit Availability: Rare
Unit Experience: Elite
Combat Function: Eriadu Rangers serve as elite infantry for the Eriadu Ascendancy, and as such are shock troops and vanguards in addition to scouts, assassins, and snipers.
Strengths:
+ Exceptionally Trained: Each and every Eriadu Ranger has survived harrowing training on the Carrion Plateau, where they are pushed to their physical and psychological extremes, with the intent of ensuring only the most skilled survivalists and ruthless warriors become troopers. They are remorseless fighters who do not hesitate to pull the trigger when ordered to do so, and are unwavering in their loyalty to Vandar Tarkin.
+ Survivalists: All Rangers are capable of surviving on their own in the wilderness for extended periods of time.
+ Symbol of Power: White-clad soldiers such as stormtroopers have been a symbol of authority and power for centuries, and the simple display of such symbols can cow weaker enemies to submission.
Weaknesses:
- Lightly Armored: While Eriadu Rangers wear scout trooper armor made of betaplast, a more durable material than plastoid, it still leaves much of the wearer's body unarmored.
- Small Numbers: The Eriadu Rangers number only about 200, and squads typically only consist of 4 to 10 members, making it easy to outnumber them. Even at their largest deployment level, platoons of about 40, they would still be fairly easily outnumbered.
- Long Training Times: The training for Rangers is long and arduous, making it more difficult to replace sustained losses, especially of whole squads or, Force forbid, platoons.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Eriadu Rangers, also going by the nicknames 'Carrion Troopers' and 'Tarkin Troopers', are the blade with which Vandar Tarkin uses to carve out the Eriadu Ascendancy. Recruits are selected from humans who live in the villages near the Tarkin family compound, and much like stormtroopers are measured against a standard of height, weight, and physique. Training takes place in the Tarkin family compound in the initial stages before moving to the Carrion Plateau, ensuring only the best become soldiers. Before enduring Ranger Training, all prospective Rangers must first pass Basic Army Trooper training, detailed here.
For the purpose of training and preparing his forces, Vandar Tarkin has militarized sections of the Plateau so that exercises can be carried out. The purpose of Ranger training is learning to soldier as a combat leader while enduring the great mental, psychological, and physical fatigue of combat.
Initial Ranger training focuses on physical fitness and squad fundamentals, and takes place at the Tarkin family compound. Recruits are first tested on their physical capabilities; pushups, sit-ups, and chin-ups in perfect form, in addition to a 5 mile individual run on in under 40 minutes.
Following this, training is moved to Camp Wilhuff on the Carrion Plateau. Trainees must be able to calmly overcome fears of heights and water first. They must calmly walk across a beam suspended high in the air above a body of water before moving to a rope crawl and dropping to the water, jumping into the pond, and remove their equipment while beneath the water. For the final portion of height and water training, recruits must climb a seventy-foot tower and pulley down to the water into the pond, all without any sort of safety harness.
Land navigation training is next, one of the most difficult parts of Ranger training for many. Trainees are given geo-coordinate locations and must navigate to them without using any kind of light or night vision systems, as they will be expected to conduct patrols following this discipline later on in the course.
The next segment of training takes place at Camp Romodi, another camp established by Vandar on the Plateau. A 2 mile buddy run is first, followed by an obstacle course featuring the "maggot pit": a 25-meter shallow pit of mud covered by razor wire which must be traversed multiple times on one's back and stomach. Following this, recruits must go on a twelve mile run in full gear in the trails around Camp Romodi.
A pair of Rangers navigating the jungle of the Carrion Plateau
After the march, combat training begins, consisting of rapid instruction on troop leading procedures, patrolling, demolitions, field craft, and basic battle drills focused towards ambush and recon. The fundamentals of combat operations include battle drills such as reacting to different forms of enemy contact, breaking combat, and crossing hazard zones. With this finished, the trainee then prepares to move to the next phase of the course, taking place at the Carrion Spike.Trainees arrive at Camp Jova at the Spike, and here they receive instruction on military mountaineering tasks, where the stamina and commitment of the Ranger trainees is stressed to their extremes. The rugged terrain, severe weather, hunger, mental and physical fatigue, and the psychological stress the trainees encounter allow them to measure their capabilities and limitations and those of the men and women they will be serving alongside.
In addition to combat operations, the trainees receive four days of military mountaineering training, learning knots as well as the fundamentals of climbing, ending in a two-day exercise at Mount Veermok, to apply the skills learned thus far. During the field training exercise, trainees must put these mountaineering skills to use in a mock mission including moving crossing mountains, vehicle ambushes, raiding communications and mortar sites, river crossing, and scaling treacherous mountainous terrain.
An Eriadu Ranger during the waterborne phase of training.
After the conclusion of training at Mount Veermok waterborne training ensues, focusing on the continued development of the Ranger's combat skills, this time in aquatic environs. Rangers receive instruction on waterborne operations, utilization of TIE fighter boats, and crossing bodies of water of different depths, from streams to lakes and rivers. Practical exercises at platoon level performed in swampy terrain test the trainees’ ability to operate under extreme mental and physical stress. This training further develops the trainees' ability to plan and lead small units during independent and coordinated operations against well-trained enemies such as foreign commando units.
While experience in locales firsthand provides the best training, Eriadu does not possess all the biomes Rangers might encounter in the stars beyond, so the Maximilian Veers building in the Tarkin family complex is also home to simulation chambers used to recreate desert and winter scenarios that Eriadu is incapable of providing.
Finally, Rangers are trained in vehicle operation, from landspeeders and swoop bikes to walkers and starfighters. They are taught all of the positions in vehicles crewed by multiple people so that if one of them gets taken out his brethren can take over with a minimal loss to vehicular efficiency.
Those that complete the grueling training emerge as hardy, vicious survivalists, and their shared experiences on the Plateau instills a strong sense of camaraderie among units. Squads are often named after predatory animals, such as Acklay Squad, Veermok Squad, Gundark Squad, and Taozin Squad, among others. The Rangers are the finest troops in the Eriadu Ascendancy, and what they lack in numbers they more than make up for in discipline, training, and sheer efficiency. Operating in small, tightly-knit units of highly trained soldiers, the Rangers are capable of accomplishing tasks that seem daunting to larger, lesser-trained forces such as the Eriadu Army Troopers.
The Eriadu Rangers serve as the most poignant symbol of Vandar Tarkin's authority on the world, wielded through application of the Tarkin Doctrine. For hundreds of years, the white armor of stormtroopers and their countless variants has been seen as a symbol of power, and the threat of Ranger deployment has already cowed several Eriadu villages into compliance with Vandar and his Ascendancy. Now Vandar's eyes are on the capitol, and the Rangers are gearing up to take the city, either by threat of force or, failing that, the application of it.
Because that is the Tarkin way.
This is a great submission and just this tweaking is all that's needed to get it approved.