OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: Unit for Kaida.
- Image Credit: Here. By Ahmed Mahope.
- Role: Force warriors.
- Links: Angelii, Eldorai.
- Unit Name: Hicanati.
- Affiliation: Shadow Knights, Kaida Taldir.
- Classification: Infantry.
- Seraphim Assault Armour, Verpine prototype energy shield.
- Seraph battle shield.
- Crossguard lightsabres or lightsabre-pikes.
- Optional: Lightsabre shoto.
- Talon Vibrodagger.
- Blaster pistols, Sonics, Cylix bolt pistol, Verpine Shattergun or Magnetic Revolver.
- Wrist Bolter. MM9 rocket system.
- Vac blade launcher.
- Optional: ZX miniature flame projector Two wrist weapons max per soldier.
- Holdout bolter.
- Knuckle plate vibroblade.
- Thermal Detonator, EMP Grenade, Dioxis Grenade, Flash Grenade. Thermal Imploder, Sonic Imploder, ABC scramblers, smoke grenades, frag grenades, Dampener aerosol. Thermite charges (mission-specific).
- Misc equipment such as lifeform scanners, medkits, cyanide suicide pills, individual field disruptors, Force-focusing visors, Ghostwave communicators, communication wave descrambler, Whisper jetpacks.
- Availability: Unique.
- Deployment: Limited.
Strengths & Weaknesses: Crack unit of Force-Sensitive infantry. Broadly comparable to Guardians, but with a strong emphasis on elemental abilities. They incorporate use of lightsabres and traditional Eldorai infantry tactics, using battle shields. In terms of skill level, most of them are Knights, but a few are Masters. They focus on offensive and defensive telekinesis, as well as the elemental abilities of ice, fire and earth. Moreover, they are proficient in tutaminis and physical enhancement powers. They are characterised by high morale, discipline under fire and zeal. Rather than indulge in lone wolf actions, each soldier is conditioned to incorporate their powers into the overall battle plan. Teamwork is strongly emphasised.
They are able to enter a Force meld to increase unit effectiveness. This is a strong ability, but a double-edged sword. A great disturbance in the Force could overwhelm the melding participants as they received the pain through their enhanced senses. If the pain is caused by the minds the melding participants were touching, it could have very negative repercussions for the participants. Ysalamiri will obviously deprive them of their preternatural powers, whilst Voidstone weakens Force use. If they are in the middle of a mind meld and are suddenly deprived of the Force, the sudden loss will not just be very disorientating for them, but also painful. They would still be able to fight, but this is something a canny opponent could exploit. Skill-wise the unit is composed of experienced Knights, and some Masters.
However, they lack heavy combat vehicles. This can put them at a disadvantage when confronted by heavy armour or heavy fortifications, despite their preternatural powers. Being focused on combat in close quarters, they forego long range rifles, squad automatic weapons and heavy weapons such as rotary cannons or anti-tank missile launchers. Aside from their melee weapons, they carry sidearms, wrist weapons and grenades. Depending on the battlefield, this can be a notable disadvantage. The Hicanati are not meant to take on hordes of tanks or other heavy armoured vehicles. Snipers would be a particular problem for them while on the move. Thus they would require support from conventional units or Force-users with a stronger focus on far range combat. The unit is also fairly small, which limits how many of the warriors can appear on the battlefield at any given time. Thus enemy forces that are unable to match them on a one-on-one basis could overwhelm them through sheer force of numbers as attrition sets in.
Battle shields can provide protection in a pitched fight, but a shield wall is also rather slow-moving, vulnerable to flanking attacks and bombardment. It also cannot stop turbolasers, tank cannons, missiles and so on. Though they train extensively with ysalamiri, being deprived of the Force would rob them of their biggest advantage, leaving them more vulnerable to canny attackers.
Description:
Kaida's life has been defined by the decades she spent as a soldier of the Eldorai Matriarchy. As a member of the elite Angelii corps, she fought on the front lines of the Matriarchy's wars. When she was young she dreamed of becoming one of these valiant soldiers and attaining honour and glory on the battlefield for the motherland. She got her wish but, as always, reality turned out to be a lot less romantic. Being a junior officer who led from the front, she shared the dangers and anxieties of the troops in the trenches. She also cultivated a mounting anger and prejudice levelled at those in staff headquarters far from the bloodshed, at the military and political bureaucracy, at the 'foppish, corrupt' aristocrats, 'incapable' politicians, and at those she rightly or wrongly saw as shirkers, profiteers, wreckers and sloths at home. Her exposure to the Matriarchy's state secrets, as well as her role in burying them, sharpened her political antennae. This, along with prolonged contact with outsiders and service abroad, made her realise how delusional the Eldorai's belief in their goddess-given racial superiority was. Command gave her experience in leadership and organisational matters. The Eldorai Exodus and, a few years later, the occupation of Kaeshana by the First Order contributed to her radicalisation.
She reached the end of her long road of disillusionment with the powers that be after the Serenade Incident on Arkas. There she came to the aid of Firemane when a town inhabited largely by a mixed community of aliens and Eldorai exiles went dark. Without awaiting orders from headquarters, she participated in the mission to determine the cause, only to discover that the town had fallen under the sway of a zombie hive-mind. Assaulted by unusually intelligent, adaptive zombie hordes, Firemane and Angelii soldiers suffered heavy casualties, but were able to destroy the town's anti-air defence systems. For the greater good, the entire town had to be bombed to prevent the spread of the zombie virus. After she and her surviving soldiers had escaped the island, Kaida was placed under house arrest by the Eldorai military. When the Grand Seraph, a stalwart soldier, offered her protege the chance to go into exile and avoid a politically charged trial, Kaida instead chose to fake her own death and flee. On the way, she ruined the career of Lady Valriya, who was the Crown's appointee to the Angelii and the one pressing charges against her. Unbeknownst to the Star Queen, an actually decent person, Valriya had secretly abused her power.
Kaida's path led her to the Shadow Knights, a group of Eldorai dissidents. She saw some things she liked: their martial ethos, radical survivalism, militarism and commitment to self-reliance. There were also things she did not like, such as pervasive factionalism, ideological hairsplitting and racism. Against these highly negative images, she idealised the front community, the solidarity of the soldiers in the trenches, leadership resting on deeds rather than status and the blind obedience that this demanded. It is probably a good thing that Kaida is not in a position of political leadership and lacks the ambition for it. A regime run by her would be most unpleasant, to put it mildly.
Regardless, in the span of two decades, the Eldorai had been humiliated and forced to flee their homeworlds. Now most of them were a race of nomads and vagabonds. Foreign invasion and oppression was one reason. However, in Kaida's opinion, the largest portion of the blame had to be assigned to the Eldorai themselves. They had been indolent, weak and deluded. They had slept while the rest of the Galaxy moved on, naively believing that the Goddess Ashira would keep them safe from harm. They had become dependent on foreign patrons. In order to avoid subjugation, the Eldorai needed strength and discipline. They could no longer be constrained by outdated traditions and archaic ways of thinking. The struggle against foes such as the Kraal raiders and the Archangel machine cult forced the Shadow Knights to evolve and become a more cohesive force, at the cost of an internal schism that resulted in elements of the movement splitting off to pursue their conflicting ideological visions. Kaida did not mind this because she considered the separatis to be deadweight, especially since several of them were Ashiran clericals, while others she labelled as anarchists.
The ice lady focused her energies on setting up a new military unit that was supposed to be an example to the rest of the Shadow Knights. After proving herself in battle, she had enough clout to found it. Thus the Hicanati were born. Translated into Basic, their name means the Able Ones. They represented Kaida's chance to put her own spin on the Angelii by updating their tactics, giving them lightsabres and the training to use them. As an Angelii, Kaida had been trained to use the Sarix, the traditional Eldorai energy sword, but switched to a lightsabre after seeing its effectiveness during her time as a soldier of the Omega Protectorate. Thus she decided to apply the lessons she had learned and make the unit a more 'modern' force.
The Hicanati combine proficiency with lightsabre weapons with traditional Eldorai combat tactics. The Eldorai possess a higher than average Force affinity than humans. Whereas the figure for humans is unstated, the figure for Eldorai is about one in a thousand have some minor Force ability. Usually this manifests itself simply as empathic or persuasive, but rarer individuals have stronger affinity with the Force. It is the law both in the Eldorai Matriarchy and among the Shadows that all Force-Sensitives must receive training to control their powers. Most are allowed to leave and pursue a vocation of their choosing once their training is complete, though they are lightly monitored by the state. But those with stronger powers are conscripted into the military. In the austere society the Shadow Knights seek to build, Service guarantees Citizenship. Pensions are paid to the families of those who have performed the ultimate sacrifice for the motherland.
Recruitments efforts for the Hicanati were focused on ex-Angelii from the Valora's Chosen, Kaida's old unit. But they also recruited former Dark Eldorai insurgents and members of the Eldorai's cousin races. Having served as a trainer for units of Tygaran Sepoys, Kaida had experience in dealing with them. Some were true believers, others career soldiers who could not imagine putting the sword down, others sought prestige or wished to undo the decades of humiliation the elf races had suffered. All were obliged to swear a solemn oath to be loyal unto the death. There would be no room for cowards, glory-hounds or opportunists. Or those Kaida judged to be such at any rate. Kaida is said to have greeted recruits with the words: "Soldiers, you have not come here to live. You have come here to die. In the time it takes us to die on the battlefield, we will become an example to the soldiers who will take our place." Conveniently, this speech works no matter whether they die with honour or fail. In the case of the former, they become an example to follow, in the latter an example of what not to do.
A brutal selection process weeds out those deemed unsuitable to wear the uniform. In keeping with Kaida's opinion that the Eldorai have been complacent, the training programme really tries to push them. Eldorai are more agile and dexterous than humans, but have a lower pain threshold and a faster metabolism. Thus recruits are expected to go without food carrying heavy weights and then have to fight against droids. Said droids are equipped with force pikes and stun blasters with the pain settings amped up, homing in on another Eldorai weakness. Use of sonic weapons is also popular. As Kaida is fond of saying, pain is just weakness leaving the body. The unit is open to the Eldorai's Tygaran cousins, so the training programme is also designed to push them hard. Xioquo are exposed to the sun and bright lights, Qadiri to the cold. Live fire exercises, intense survival courses and simulated, very realistic interrogations where the recruit is made to believe that anything short of killing is on the table are also part of the programme. The latter is supposed to prepare soldiers in case they are captured and subjected to torture by a real enemy. Of course, interrogators are not allowed to do anything that would permanently ruin a good soldier, but aside from that they are supposed to bring recruits to their breaking point.
The Force soldiers are trained to function as a team and incorporate their preternatural powers into the overall battle plan, instead of indulging in lone wolf actions. The Hicanati still practice corporal punishment, with a preference for flogging or caning. This form of judicial punishment is common in the Shadow Knight forces, but many consider Kaida's zeal for applying it to be a bit extreme. Unsurprisingly, she dismisses such claims. The punishment room where soldiers are punished for lack of discipline or other misdeeds is unofficially known as Kaida's Gym. Kaida, who is as stoic as she is humourless, strongly dislikes the nickname, but it has stuck.
Pending secondary approval. 
