Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Sub a fun unit.
Image Credit: Here. 'New Conglomerate female medic' by Hebime. Found on hebime.deviantart.com.
Role: Recovery and medical treatment of allied personnel and civilians in humanitarian and combat situations.
Permissions: ARGH gear available per this thread. Permission for all ArmaTech gear and all other subs made by Laira Darkhold's writer here. CD-X Cryptologic Key available for Firemane per this thread. Permission to use Tricks of the Trade submissions here.
Links: Keetael, Draethos, Qadiri, Vashyada, Gand.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Guardian Search & Rescue Group. Firerescue
Affiliation: Siobhan, Firemane, House Kerrigan-Alcori, Order of Fire.
Classification: Combat Search and Rescue Infantry Unit.
Equipment:
Armour:
Rifles:
Sidearms:
Wrist and Underbarrel Weapons:
Melee Weapons:
Misc:
- Grappling Hooks, No-Shows. Rifle Silencer, misc. scanning equipment and sensors and scuba diving equipment.
- Grenades.
- Taozin Amulet
- Enligtenment Stage 2 Communicators.
- BCC BC-11 Comlink.
- Standard medical equipment, including medkits, rebreathers, medical scanners, vibroscalpels, laser scalpels and laser cauterisers. Backpack contains numerous bandages, antibiotics and bacta products.
Description: Guardian Search and Rescue is a Firemane special operations unit charged with extracting wounded or endangered personnel in hostile conditions. An example would be rescuing downed pilots who have been shot down behind enemy lines, but it can also cover rescuing someone crippled by an improvised explosive device, someone who is in an asteroid base where an oxygen fire has broken out or the crew of a ship that is adrift in space after a hyperspace malfunction and much more. They measure their success in how many lives they have been able to save on a mission.
The group is nicknamed Firerescue. Its members do triple duty as trackers, healers and marksmen. The medical and physical aptitude requirements are gruelling. This is only natural since they are deployed straight into a combat zone to evacuate wounded personnel and provide them with emergency medical treatment. Cross-training with other special operations units is common. They must not only be able to fight and track, but also assess the injuries of the wounded, stabilise and move them. Oftentimes they have to provide medical treatment while under fire. They are trained to quickly develop a plan of action, factor in the terrain and ground cover. Once they have gathered all the information, they spring into action. The nature of their work requires them to be skilled in evasion techniques, but also be expert marksmen.
Their duties often require them to operate in hostile or remote environments. Scuba diving, boarding, skydiving, mountaineering and climbing are part of their curriculum. They are also capable of performing high-altitude drops. Aside from extracting wounded cormades, the Firerescuers also can perform civilian rescue operations. This can involve rescuing civilians during natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes.
Given their skill as medics, they can operate alongside other special operations units. They are lightly armoured and armed, but very good trackers and marksmen. They forego heavy weapons to stay mobile, as it is not their job to engage tanks or large formations of enemies. However, they are more than capable of protecting the wounded under their care if need be. The unit includes both Force-Users and Non-Force-Users. Their Force-Sensitive members focus on cerebral skills such as healing, tracking and Sense abilities. There are no gender or species restrictions. The unit has a core of healers with Non-Force-Using soldiers as escort and support.
However, certain species are overrepresented in the group. There is a significant number of Vashyada, Qadiri, Gand and Draethos. All these are species with very good survival skills. The Gand in particular are highly skilled trackers, using the shamanistic traditions of the Gand Findsmen. Their exoskeletons also make them extremely tough and possess regenerative traits. The abilities of the Findsmen allow them to locate and track their quarry. Indeed, they can locate people over vast distances by auguring signs they receive through their religious rituals.
Vashyada hunters are skilled trackers, physicall hardy and make great healers. The Qadiri have inherent navigational talents, which is great for piloting and finding your way throuh an hazardous environment as well as search and rescue operations. Moreover, they are tough for elves. Qadiri members tend to be devotees of Myrkash, the desert elves' goddess of compassion and healing. Draethos have strong telepathic abilities and a hunter tradition. Several members of the group used to serve among the Order of Fire Hospitallers, the healer and combat medic unit of the Order. Given what a harsh taskmistress the Chief Apotheracy is, their time in the corps has probably been a good preparation.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Small
Unit Availability: Rare
Unit Experience: Elite
Combat Function: Firerescue is a special operations unit that, as the name implies, is responsible for recovering allied personnel that need to be saved from a dangerous environment, such as a combat zone. An example would be locating and recovering an allied pilot who was shot down behind enemy lines. Or recover a soldier crippled by a land mine or improvised explosive device. They locate, recover and provide medical treatment to allied soldiers. They are trained in high-altitude drops, piloting, scuba diving, mountain climbing, marksmanship, boarding operations and medicine. Thus they can not only recover allies, but give them emergency medical treatment, even prior to evacuation. They are also trained in survival and evasion techniques.
They can also carry out rescue operations in space, such as when an oxygen fire breaks out in a moon or asteroid base and the people inside need to be recovered. Moreover, they receive training equal to that of special operations units. This means they can more than hold their own in combat, though their primary duty is recovery and medical aid, not battle. They are trained in the use of jet and jump packs as well as para-wing gliders. They are very good at blending into their environment and remaining undetected by hostile forces. Every member of the unit receives some training in piloting. This ensures that the specialists and their quarry are not left stranded if something happens to the pilot.
They are also experts at tracking, which helps with their task. Their Force-Sensitive members specialise in Force Sense and especially Force-based tracking techniques. Life Sense is also a common power. It enables Force-Sensitive members to sense the life of a being they are looking for. Moreover, they can determine the target's presence and identity, along with their physical condition. Force Track enables them to use the Force to help find their target. Someone very specialised in this ability can pick up trails that are several days old, while an acolyte could only discern something that has passed through within the last few minutes. Some can even practice a form of farsight that gives them the ability to track their quarry over vast distances. In that regard, one could compare their Force tracking abilities to those of Keetael adepts.
Moreover, Force-Sensitive members are trained in Force Healing and Hibernation Trance, which supports their duties as medics. However, their focus on tracking, farsight, precognition and healing means that Force-Sensitive members of the unit do not train a lot in more combat-based Force powers. Their telekinetic powers are negligible, they do not shoot bolts of lightning from their fingertips, summon fireballs or create quakes. Broadly speaking, if engaged in combat, they will mostly fight akin to light infantry. For obvious reasons, the members of the unit forego heavy weapons such as missile launchers and rotary cannons, as these would slow them down.
Strengths:
- Elite recovery specialists and medics. They are highly mobile, great at tracking and can manage trauma patients and provide emergency medical treatment.
- Force-Sensitive members excel at Force-based tracking techniques, healing, hibernation trances and Sense abilities.
- They are special operatives, not frontline assault troops. Lightly armoured and armed, they suffer in pitched combat or against armoured vehicles, as they forego heavy weapons such as anti-tank missile launchers. Their job is to get in, extract allied personnel in need of rescue, keep them alive and get out, not engage in big battles.
- Force-Sensitives focus on powers that aid tracking, healing etc. They fight mostly fight like elite NFUs and lack the hard-hitting powers often associated with FUs. They also forego lightsabres.
Firemane was started as an arms manufacturing and mining concern, but also branched out into Private Military Contracting. This was no surprise since both ladies had been among the founding members of Omega Pyre, a mercenary company that became a government called the Omega Protectorate. Initially, its military forces were rather modest and consisted of a mere four infantry companies, with some limited naval assets, gunships and dropships. However, they expanded as the company grew in power. A small mercenary force turned into the private army of House Kerrigan-Alcori, charged with protecting the family's manifold interests and expanding its influence.
Once it had become a megacorporation, the company was able to field larger forces and equip them well, but it was not economical to try and match the forces of an instellar government in terms of size or fleet meterage. That would have probably left even the biggest corporation bankrupt. Instead it focused on gaining an edge through advanced technology, discipline, mobility and skill of its soldiers.
This has also made the rescue of Firemane personnel in need quite important. At heart Firemane is a megacorp and its troops are rather diverse. It cannot count on nationalistic or patriotic sentiments an interstellar government might be able to use to motivate its soldiers. Most of its soldiers fight for a good paycheck above all. The knowledge that there are specialists out there who will come to save them can be quite encouraging. Moreover, its troops represent an investment. Thus it cannot be afford to be cavalier with casualties, unlike the Galactic Empire of yore. Of course, in the end 'no one gets left behind' is more of a reassuring, motivational slogan than an accurate reflection of reality.
The Guardian Search & Rescue Group was facilitate the recovery and rescue of allied personnel in hazardous combat situations. It came into being in response to Firemane's recent campaign on Tephrike. This planet had experienced a profound social, political and economic collapse during the Four Hundred Year Darkness. Here, the Dark Age had never ended. The Dominion of Light, a totalitarian Jedi theocracy, vied for power with the Disciples of the Vader, a cult of human supremacist Sith who worshipped Darth Vader as a dark god, and the Republican Guard, a rebel movement inspired by the ancient Rebel Alliance that reviled Force-Users and sought to place power in the hands of the common people.
After initial skirmishes with Firemane, the Dominion sought accommodation. Firemane dispatched a delegation to its capital to initiate negotiations. However, an extremist faction in the Dominion's regime regarded this as heresy. Firemane's delegation came under attack. Elpsis, one of its members and the adoptive daughter of Firemane's ruling couple, was captured by the Jedi Inquisition. She would be subjected to physical and torture in a Dominion black site called Serene Springs.
When the Dominion betrayed Firemane, a number of pilots who had been flying overwatch were shot down. One of them was Laira Darkhold, a Resistance operative allied with Firemane. She and a rag-tag group of Resistance and Firemane pilots managed to avoid being captured by the Dominion, but were forced to flee into the jungle. Firemane carried out a bombardment of military and infrastructure targets in the Dominion's capital city. Moreover, an ad hoc task force was formed to search for downed pilots.
It was led by Natiyra, a Vashyada renowned as a ranger and tracker who rescued people from the Dark Heart, a dark side nexus in the deep forests of Yarkul. Natiyra followed the trail of the downed pilots. They were able to locate Laira's crash site. The Alderaanian and her group had vanished deep into the jungle, but the rescue team was able to find other pilots. The blew up the wreck of a Firemane starfighter to keep the Dominion from using it. Overwhelming Dominion attacks forced them to stage an evacuation and kept them from penetrating further. Laira and her friends ended up being rescued by the Republican Guard. Firemane formed an uneasy alliance with the Tephriki rebels.
Natiyra and her group were involved in the assault on Fortress Purity, a major Dominion citadel. The Guard had tried to seize it during the Netherworld War and failed. The battle was a bloody one, despite Firemane's advanced technology. The Dominion used a weather control machine to negate Firemane's air power. Many Firemane dropships crashed due to the storm or suicide attacks by Dominion kamikaze pilots. As a result, many Firemane soldiers were scattered across the battlefield. Many Dominion troops fought fanatically, and they made ample use of Force-Users. Natiyra and her group were deployed to rescue downed pilots and soldiers in critical condition. She led her team to rescue a group of Firemane pilots and crew who had been shot down and come under intense enemy fire. A Firemane gunship had already been shot down and destroyed. There was fierce fighting in both the air and on the ground. Natiyra conducted a fast insertion into the crash site, exposing herself to enemy fire to assist the wounded survivors.
She and her soldiers cleared debris, provided emergency medical treatment to the survivors, and extract dead and wounded Firemane crew from the wreckage. In the process the exposed themselves to enemy fire and grenades. The first transport that had come to evacuate them had to pull out after its engine was damaged. Heavy small arms and mortar fire made it unable to save the saviours. For the next hour, Natiyra and her comrades attended to the wounded and held off enemy attackers. They hacked splints out of snarled vines and built improvised stretchers. Three times Natiyra broke cover to locate and provide emergency medical treatment to Firemane soldiers who had become casualties in the engagement. Her sister, who had served under her, was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade and Natirya was injured by a sniper. Finally, they were relieved. A Qadiri fighter pilot who had been drafted for the mission was able to pilot a Ghoush transport through the storm. After Firemane and the Guard managed to seize Purity, the task force received commendations for its valour.
Upon the expeditionary force's return to Firemane centre, Tegaea Alcori recommended that the task force be made a permanent fixture. Siobhan agreed, and it received the name Guardian Search & Rescue Group. Firerescue soon became more popular. Regardless of the name, its members would soon be deployed in a variety of engagements. However, its remit was not limited to military operations. Though a business at heart, in practice Firemane has assumed many of the functions commonly associated with a government. This is partly because it often operates on the far rim. On Tygara, Firerescue airlifted hurricane victims and provided emergency relief. The town they were deployed to had been flooded. The Firerescuers used their transport ships and tracking skills to search for trapped survivors. In the process, they rescued people from bridges, rooftops and flooded buildings. Their dedication saved many lives.
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