Festerruman Sachiel
The Warmaster
OUT-OF-CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a military unit for the Pact of Apophis
- Image Credit: Perfected Commando
- Role:
- Heavy-Duty Division-Strength unit designed to excel in battles of heavy attrition in difficult terrain or environments.
- Permissions: All equipment is open-market
- Links: None
- Unit Name: 89th "Taskforce Mirial" Mechanized Division
- Affiliation: The Pact of Apophis, Warmaster Sachiel, and the Sith Order
- Classification: Combat Engineers.
- Description:
A roving warband of moronic madmen wandering the wastes in decrepit vehicles belching smoke and constantly on the verge of falling apart. That is what many of their enemies laughed at when they saw it. And they all perished the same: crushed under the threads and wheels of Taskforce Mirial.
Where other Pact formations have failed in the face of supply issues and impossible terrain, the scavengers of the Taskforce have flourished. The division boasts the highest concentration of Combat Pioneers in the Sith Order who are skilled in every aspect of their job. These Pioneers are proficient in constructing vast fortifications, blasting apart obstacles, and repairing captured vehicles in a fraction of the time other units might take. City districts can be turned into unassailable bastions, kilometers of highway demolished, and vast minefields lain in only a few hours.
However, what they are truly masters in is improvised warfare. The pioneers of Taskforce Mirial are capable of conjuring up improvised weapons of all kinds such as bombs and artillery from junk. While many of these weapons appear ramshackle and slapped together they are no less lethal than their counterparts fresh off the factory presses. Their repairmen can salvage almost any burnt-out wreck, friend or foe, from the battlefield and return it to its former glory. Many vehicles of the Taskforce have been reported destroyed only for them time and time to return with a fresh coat of paint and with a greater appetite for vengeance.
The average Pioneer is no slouch in combat as well. They are entombed in their heavy environmentally-sealed armor often augmented by a heavy blaster cannon strapped to their shoulders. Wielding satchels full of explosives and overpowered thermal detonators they can blast their enemy from all but the most stalwart positions.
- Unit Size: Medium
- Unit Availability: Uncommon
- Unit Experience: Trained
- Equipment:
- Ranged Weapons
- Vehicles
- Combat Function:
Taskforce Mirial functions as a high-endurance unit for the Pact that can be thrown into the most hostile environments with no regard for their logistics tether. The longer, the more grueling, the more attritional the battle the more dangerous they become. No matter the meat grinder they are thrown into, the Taskforce always emerges out the other end somehow stronger with their ranks bolstered by captured vehicles and equipment.
When fighting with other Pact or Sith units Taskforce Mirial takes on a support role, constructing forward deployment bases and field fortifications while preparing to act as reserve. Their improvised artillery can be fielded in massive numbers allowing them to drown their enemies in a deluge of explosives. Due to their skill and high endurance, the 89th is often assigned to sieges.
- Improvisation: The Task Force is capable of turning piles of scrap and junk into lethal weapons and vehicles.
- Endurance: Capable of sustaining themselves from captured equipment, their tenacity is unmatched. Where other formations may collapse in the face of losses and attrition in a matter of days, the 89th can prosper for years. Despite appearing to be crushed time after time on the battlefield, Taskforce Mirial always comes back.
- Engineers: While adept in most forms of combat, they are not masters of conventional warfare like their brethren in the 82nd "Screaming Demons" Voidborne Division or Specialized Skillset of the Death Brigades.
- Vehicle-Centric: Equipment is easy to replace, manpower not so much. This has forced the 89th to largely rely upon vehicles and heavy equipment to make up the bulk of their fighting strength. However, if they start taking infantry losses their ability to maintain this fighting strength rapidly drops off.
An ad-hoc grouping of shattered Pact divisions formed in the aftermath of the disastrous Battle of Mirial where the Pact saw its first devastating defeat at the hands of the vaunted 34th "Hellstompers" Walker Battalion. Several regiments and the 2nd Armored Division were battered and cut off from planetary evacuation as the war went south for the Sith Order. It would have seen its utter destruction if not for Chervertim-Colonel Asenath rallying the scattered units after executing Ennenhim-General Thuen Neraddur for incompetence.
Through sheer force of will he beat off several attacks in a masterful tactical withdrawal into the deep deserts where the pursuit was ended. Even months after the battle had officially ended Taskforce Mirial was capable enough to launch deep raids into Mirial Industrial Areas and defeat several Alliance attempts to snuff them out. Asenath was able to maintain his forces using ramshackle improvised vehicles and captured Alliance weaponry. Eventually, the Taskforce escaped Mirial after seizing a starport long enough to evacuate a majority of Pact personnel.
