Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To provide a specialized unit type to protect Silver Jedi Concord holdings from the Bryn’adul
- Image Credit: Mixture of images edited by yours truly including Awaiting Orders by Lord Hayabusa357, Aeon Wallpaper by Avitus12, and Open Skies wallpaper
- Role: Aerial Mechanized Infantry: “Thunderhead” Battalions act as a rapid response force, using Avril Aerial Cruisers and Transports to rapidly transverse across a world before the majority of its troops dismount to engage in ground combat.
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Silver Jedi Concord, Lucerne Labs, Lucerne Personal Defense, The Bryn’adul Invasion of Silver Jedi-held Yurb
- Unit Name: Silver Jedi Concord Eastern Aerial Mechanized Infantry “Thunderhead” Battalions
- Affiliation: Silver Jedi Concord
- Classification: Aerial Mechanized Infantry Battalions
- Description: Formed to protect the citizens of the Silver Jedi Concord from future Bryn’adul incurions, “Thunderhead” Battalions are an unusual amalgamation of local defense force troopers, refugees, and synthetic soldiers all equipped with some of the latest anti-Bryn’adul fighting technology that ride into battle onboard large, aerial transports and cruisers. The use of such large aerial vehicles allows the troops to rapidly transverse the battlefield to react quickly to the fast and often unconventional movements of the Bryn’adul while it also provides its infantry with exceptional direct fire support. On the ground, the infantry of a “Thunderhead” Battalion use advanced power armor and high-powered element-focused weapons to take advantage of known vulnerabilities of the various species that make up the Bryn’adul horde. While sometimes derided for having a strategy succinctly summed up as “Coming there the fastest with the mostest”, the Thunderheads shock value of speed, exotic arms and comprehensive power armor do make them a worthy foe of the Bryn’adul horde.
- Unit Size: Large (~1000 soldiers - ~800 infantrymen; ~200 vehicle crewmen/administrative staff)
- Unit Availability: Uncommon
- Unit Experience: Trained
- Equipment:
- Battalion Vehicle Manifest
2 Avril Aurek Aerial Cruisers
4 Avril Besh Aerial Transports
2 Avril Cresh Aerial Missile Cruisers - General Troop Equipment
Myrmidon series Synthetic Soldiers (~50% of unit’s manpower)
Gundark II-class Power Armor (All organic troops and synthetic soldiers)
Typical Thunderhead Infantry Squad layout with equipment - Command Element (1 organic squad leader, 1 Myrmidon-series Synthetic Soldier heavy gunner)
1 Squad Leader (1 Coldstream CryoBan Rifle, 1 Silver Talon series Vibroblade)
1 Heavy Gunner (1 LPD-19 Shockwave Missile Launcher, 1 Silver Talon series Vibroblade) - Fire Team Aurek (4 organic infantrymen)
2 Riflemen (1 Firespear Rifle with CryoBan and Incendiary Rounds, 2 Coldblast CryoBan Grenades, 1 Fire Rain Incendiary Grenade, 1 7-PrG Proton Grenade each)
2 CQC Specialists (1 Firespray Shotgun with CryoBan, Incendiary, and microgrenade shells, 2 Coldblast CryoBan Grenades, 1 Fire Rain Incendiary Grenade, 1 7-PrG Proton Grenade each) - Fire Team Besh (4 Myrmidon series Synthetic Soldiers)
2 Riflemen (1 Firespear Rifle with CryoBan and Incendiary Rounds, 2 Coldblast CryoBan Grenades, 1 Fire Rain Incendiary Grenade, 1 7-PrG Proton Grenade each)
2 CQC Specialists (1 Firespray Shotgun with CryoBan, Incendiary, and microgrenade shells, 2 Coldblast CryoBan Grenades, 1 Fire Rain Incendiary Grenade, 1 7-PrG Proton Grenade each)
- Battalion Vehicle Manifest
- Combat Function: Thunderhead Battalions primarily act as a rapid reaction force, using the swift mobility of their aerial transports to quickly cross battlefields to bring in large amounts of firepower and heavily armed infantry to fight at key locations. This use of large aerial vehicles lends an unusual duality, with its commanders having not only to think about ground combat, but aerial combat as well. Most the battalion’s aerial tactics trace their lineage to bluewater and space navies, as the Avrils largely function as capital ships. Typically, the pair of Avril Aureks along with an Avril Cresh lead the battalion’s movements, as they are dedicated weapon’s platforms that can unleash a high amount of firepower at a variety of foes that the battalion may encounter. The other Avril Cresh typically remains behind with the transport version to provide defense against fast-moving aerial assets such as airspeeders and starfighters. Once immediate aerial superiority has been achieved, the Avril transports and their guardian Avril Cresh move up to the initial group and begin their own operations, which typically involve dropping off their infantry and providing direct fire support against enemy ground assets. Aside from being transported via air, the infantry’s organizational lines are fairly similar to that of other infantry, with typically a high ranking field grade officer in command directing a chain of subordinates in a typical top-down fashion. On a squad level, the Thunderheads have been particularly been trained and equipped to fight the high intensity shock troops of the Bryn’adul, the Baedurin. To that end, all ground troops wear Gundark II Power Armor designed to give them temporarily the physical strength to equal those beast-like aliens, as well as provide an artificial fortitude against their assaults. Almost all weapons wielded by the Thunderheads have an intentional elemental focused nature in order to take advantage of the Baedurin’s and Aeravul’s known weaknesses to cold and heat respectively. By doctrine, riflemen in each fire team are supposed to thin out enemy numbers at long distances, paying particular attention to kill or cripple enemy leadership. If enemies get close to the fire team, soldiers armed with shotguns, cryoban rifles, cryoban wrist sprayers, elemental grenades, and vibroblades provide a hefty, close range punch. A heavy gunner directed by the squad leader typically fires on tactical high value targets, including enemy leadership, vehicles, and fortified positions. Almost all of the squad’s synthetic soldiers, weapons, and other equipment can function in technological deadfields that the Bryn are known to create. Typically one fire team is composed entirely out of synthetic soldiers, which allows it to be used as an entirely disposable force for costly assaults or suicidal rear guard actions. Experience from fighting the Bryn’adul on Yurb, along with those who have fought the Byrn’adul on their now devastated homeworlds, has lent a particular strain of paranoid planning to take place in almost all Thunderhead Battalions, and most officers have contingency plans for worse case scenarios, along with a healthy respect for known Bryn’adul ruses, such as the Distorter’s attack on the shield outpost on Yurb. Thunderhead officers are known to take time to analyze past Bryn’adul tactics or seek out rumors of new Bryn’adul technology and tactics in order to better make these contingency plans.
Strengths:
- Overwhelming Strength: Thunderhead Battalions have fairly high power to size ratio. Its Aerial Cruisers and transports wield considerable firepower almost equivalent to that of an armor battalion, while individual infantry within the Thunderheads not only wield fairly powerful weapons, but are equipped with cutting edge power armor.
- A Plan for Anything: Thunderhead Battalions’ leadership cadres are notorious for making well-thought out back-up plans suited to their operation’s environment and practicing sudden shifts in movements and tactics during field exercises. Combined with a penchant of leadership trying to predict possible Bryn’adul plans and tactics, Thunderhead Battalions tend to react rather well to rapidly changing conditions on the battlfields.
- Over-Specialized: Thunderhead Battalions were specifically formed to fight the Bryn’adul using specialized equipment and tactics. While likely to be effective against the Bryn’adul, the specialized features of the battalion are not particularly well-suited towards fighting more conventional forces. As an example of this, the personalized shielding used by the Battalion’s infantry is particularly oriented towards withstanding deflecting strong melee and kinetic weapon attacks – most conventional power’s soldiers prefer to use blasters instead.
- Large Targets: Avril aerial cruisers and transports are rather large targets on the battlefield, being several times larger themselves than the typical heavy walker or heavy battle tank used by conventional forces – this is further exacerbated by the units operating in the sky, where there is typically not much cover or concealment. On the ground, Thunderhead infantrymen are noticeably larger than most of their counterparts due to wearing power armor.
The rise of the Bryn’adul threat lead several militaries and think-tanks within the Silver Jedi’s sphere of influence to begin studying how to defend against the alien marauders. As more worlds fell to their onslaught and more was learned of them, this research initiatives intensified to the point that practical field trials of new equipment and tactics were started just before Yurb was attacked. Yurb itself provided a proving ground for some of these new technologies, but it was found that being haphardly dispersed across the battlefield did not prove to be an effective match for the highly mobile and cohesive Bryn’adul formations. Studies of that battle along with an increased political will provided the impetus to create dedicated units to defend against Bryn’adul incursions. One of the first of these units was largely a brainchild of a joint Directorate-Antarian Ranger efforts led by Admiral Quee to establish a highly mobile but heavily armed mechanized infantry unit which could rapidly respond to the quick and unconventional movements demonstrated by Bryn’adul forces. The original “Thunderhead Battalion” was formed of this partnership: the Lucerne Labs consortium provided most of the units vehicles, personal equipment, and synthetic manpower while Antarian Rangers supplied the actual training of organic personnel and fitted the battalion into its existing military structures. Not only were local soldiers recruited, but the original Thunderhead Battalion also made a point to recruit significant numbers of refugees displaced by the Bryn’adul. Not only did the regiment with a highly motivated pool of manpower that already had some experience in facing the Bryn’adul, but it also provided employment and benefits to a population that otherwise wasn’t entirely economically self-sufficient. The Thunderhead Battalion was deployed to Yurb to engage in mop-up operations and to secure Bryn’adul assets and wreckage left on the world. It has since become permanently stationed on that world, but it has served as the standard organizational template for a large number of other battalions in the Silver Jedi Concord military which are listed as “Eastern Aerial Mechanized Infantry Battalions” on Sector level Orders of Battle. Since that designation, while accurate, is also a mouthful, most people simply refer to them as “Thunderhead Battalions”. Thunderhead battalions are almost common on worlds near Bryn’adul space, but become rarer and rarer the further away one gets from those tense regions due to the battalions’ dedicated nature of fighting the Bryn’adul.
