Mawite Legend
Legion of the Leech
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To incorporate lore from a prior dominion, and to give the Brotherhood thematic ground forces.
- Image Credit: Edited image from The Unknown Regions Saga Edition RPG sourcebook
- Role: Heavy Support
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Lugubraa, Explume Minor, BotM Dominion of Crakull
- Unit Name: Legion of the Leech
- Affiliation: Brotherhood of the Maw
- Classification: Heavy Infantry
Description: The Legion of the Leech is one of many Lugubraa mercenary armies, though it operates more like hired auxiliaries to the main Brotherhood forces than a traditional Lugubraa horde. It consists of multiple support units, each led by a Lugubraa who has survived to over fifty years old and reached its second cognitive kick-start. These veteran officers keep their voracious, dull-witted subordinates in line, and even guide them through fairly advanced (for Lugubraa) maneuvers such as ambushes and tactical retreats. Thanks to the constant stream of plunder from the Brotherhood's raids and conquests, they are unusually well-equipped for a Lugubraa mercenary band, enabling them to excel at both short and medium range - and to take significant punishment before going down.
- Unit Size: Medium
- Unit Availability: Uncommon
- Unit Experience: Veteran
- Equipment: Heavy Repeater Slugthrowers, Fragmentation Grenades, Vibroblades, Blast Armor
Combat Function: An ordinary Lugubraa horde would fill the role of shock troops or overwhelming waves of conscripts, but the Brotherhood has the Moon Children for that. Instead, the Legion of the Leech acts as auxiliaries, providing heavy fire support from the flanks while the main force charges in or holds its ground in the center. Armed with heavy repeaters and explosive grenades, the Legionnaires are extremely deadly at medium range, capable of rapidly chewing through light and medium armor with their potent arsenal - and even bringing down heavily-armored targets with concentrated fire. They are also incredibly fierce in close-combat, using both wickedly sharp melee weapons and their own lamprey-like jaws to more literally chew through their foes if they are charged - or forced to charge.
- Hunters and Survivors: Lugubraa are extremely difficult to mislead or evade; they lack eyes entirely, but their other senses more than make up for it. Sensory organs on the sides of their heads can detect heat signatures, while other external organs emit echolocation pings, and their thick skin detects sound vibrations; as a result, they are acutely aware of their surroundings in multiple ways at all times. They are also incredibly hardy. They can survive in vacuum and thin or even poisonous atmospheres practically indefinitely, and can even digest inorganic matter such as rocks to gain the nutrients they need to survive. Their heavy, blubbery epidermis helps protect them from serious injury, and the Legionnaires expand on this with blast armor. As a result, they can withstand incredible punishment.
- Infantry-Shredders: Units from the Legion of the Leech are outfitted specifically to provide close fire support on the flanks of a charging marauder host, and they do this job well. Their heavy repeaters are extremely effective against most infantry armor, and certainly annihilate flesh with ease. Their grenades only add to their destructive potential, sending out waves of shrapnel in deadly bursts that can shred tightly-packed formations. If enemies close in to melee range, the Lugubraa continue to excel, fighting with both their natural weapons and well-honed blades. This allows them to support the army's flanks, preventing it from being easily caught in pincer movements or outflanking maneuvers.
- Officer-Dependent: Each detachment of Legionnaires is led by an officer, a Lugubraa that has lived to be more than fifty years old and thus undergone the species's second cognitive kick-start. Only these officers have any head for tactics; their underlings can understand and carry out simple orders, but without the tactical control of an elder, they are little better than half-sentient pack hunters. If a detachment's officer is killed, the unit will rage out of control, losing communication with the main Brotherhood host and attacking the closest enemy in a savage frenzy until they are dead or victorious. Since Lugubraa must reach such an advanced age to become officers, those who are killed are very difficult to replace.
- Anti-Infantry Only: Legionnaires are extremely deadly against infantry, but they carry no heavy weapons. Neither their heavy repeating slugthrowers nor their frag grenades are effective against vehicle armor, nor are any of their close-combat weapons suited to taking on anything more enclosed than a speeder bike. As a result, they must rely on the support of other units if they are countered by enemy armor. Additionally, their weapons are limited to mid-range at the longest, making it possible to pin them down from long range without the possibility of their firing back if an enemy possess long-range weapons.
Millennia ago, the Croke Reach was wracked by civil war. The diminutive aliens fought each other, colony against colony against homeworld, always jockeying for influence. In an effort to gain an advantage, one side or another - it was long enough ago that no one remembers who did it first - hired a vast horde of Lugubraa, terrifying predatory organisms that worked for fresh meat as much as for material wealth. The more the Lugubraa fed, however, the more they multiplied, and soon they became so numerous that the Croke could not possibly control them... or feed their hunger. The Lugubraa turned on their employers, ravaging both the worlds they'd been hired to capture and the planets they'd been sent to defend. Some worlds were eventually cleansed of their presence. Others, like Explume Minor, fell completely and were never recovered.
During the Brotherhood of the Maw's conquest of the Croke Reach, envoys were sent out to recruit the Lugubraa of Explume Minor, as they had proven themselves excellent Croke-killers. As a result of the planet's long settlement and consumption by the Lugubraa, the planet had produced an unusual number of elders of the species, who formed a council to receive these visitors from the stars. The recruitment efforts were successful; the Brotherhood offered fresh warfare, with a generous share of the meat and plunder allocated to their new alien auxiliaries. Not all of the Lugubraa population chose to leave on the voyage of conquest, but those who did formed the Legion of the Leech. Unusually for the strange and violent species, the Legion was more an organized mercenary company than a ravening horde, a result of the elders' influence.
Outfitting the Lugubraa for war took significant time. The aliens were trained and equipped on Lao-mon, honed by hunting the planet's deadly predators, before being deployed to the front lines. This training was not completed in time for many of the subsequent battles, and the Legion did not deploy to Mar'Zambul, Csilla, or Ilum. They did arrive in time to participate in the great raids on the Sith dominions, supporting the core of the Brotherhood forces. It was the first time they had seen combat away from their violent home star cluster, but far from the first time they had known battle. After generation upon generation of war, both with the Croke and among themselves, they were veterans in the art of bloodshed - particularly the elders, who had the cognitive capacity to learn beyond simple martial skills. They were ready to wreak havoc upon the galaxy.
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