Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: NPC antagonist. Expand on Tephrike.
Image Credit: Here. Here.
Role: Clone troopers, antagonist.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Into Darkness, After Darkness, Tephrike, Diona, Cassius, Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Tephrike, Jedi Inquisition, Cassius, 400-Year Darkness, Firemane Industries, Netherworld Crisis, Republican Guard, The Valkyrie's Diary, Diona, Rhea, Darth Eisen, Palmyra's Wail, The Jango Fett Sanctified and Most Bountiful Facility for the Stable Production of New Adherents, Vortanstad.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Valiant Crusaders of the Light. Or just Crusaders for short
Affiliation: Grand Army of Light, Dominion of Light, Battlemaster Mahtara, Tephrike, Windian Jedi Order, Mace Windu Thought.
Classification: Combined arms.
Description: The melodramatic, needlessly long name aside, these troops comparable to the Jedi-led clone trooper units deployed during the Clone Wars. Like the clone troopers of yore, the Crusaders are indoctrinated slave-soldiers who have been bred to fight and not been a choice in the matter. Fittingly, they wear armour that resembles the suits used by their predecessors, though it is camo painted to enable them to blend. Tephrike's long isolation and distortion of records has led to some rather interesting views on history. For instance, the clone troopers are educated to believe that Jango Fett used to be a dreaded Mandalorian Crusader. However, the great Jedi Master Mace Windu was able to convince Jango to give up their barbaric ways.
Having seen the Light under the Jedi Battlemaster's tutelage, he agreed to become the genetic donor for an army of soldiers and peacekeepers that would protect civilisation against the coming Darkness. The heroic clone troopers fought many battles alongside their Jedi Generals. Unfortunately, they were betrayed by the Dark Lords and their evil stormtroopers. However, now they have been reborn. The entire population of the Dominion has been raised to believe in the true faith of Light, and so it shall never fall. Darkness has risen, and Light to meet it. One day Ashla will prevail and its followers will build a great kingdom of heavenly peace. That is the party line, at least. This fanatical mind set has been the cause of numerous atrocities and sentient rights violations.
The Crusaders can operate in a variety of environments, and are deployed as mechanised infantry, employing combined arms tactics. They are better suited to frontline assault and defence than dealing with insurgents who use asymmetrical warfare and avoid pitched engagements. If one were to judge things on the basis of Dominion propaganda, one would get the impression that virtually all of its battles are fought by clone troopers led by valiant Jedi generals. In truth, the Crusaders are a component of the Grand Army of Light, but only one among many and do not even constitute the majority of its troops. That would be impractical for numerous reasons. Most Dominion soldiers are actually conscripts who have been brought into the world through natural procreation into of being grown in a laboratory. However, the Dominion does not like these 'Randoms' much and thus empathises the role of its clone troopers, who are regarded as being more pure. This is not necessarily indicative of actual appreciation, as Jedi Generals like Kennobi can be very unfazed about heavy casualties among clone troopers.
The Crusaders use a variety of genetic donors instead of relying on a single template. The top one percent of the Crusaders are used as donors for more exclusive units. The Dominion calls this the Blessed Lineage Project and considers it a great honour to be cloned. The Jedi do not quite understand or acknowledge that just because someone has the same DNA as a famous soldier does not mean they will be one, too. On average clone troopers still have shorter life spans than is typical for members of their species, though new developments in medical technology are supposed to improve this. While the clones are being gestated, they are exposed to mental conditioning to make them more obedient. The brainwashing continues after they are decanted. By the standards of Tephrike, the Crusaders have a lot of firepower and can call upon heavy fire support such as air strike artillery. They also have their own force of combat engineers. Their education promotes religious zealotry and unwavering obedience to the Dominion.
Participation in religious ceremonies to honour Ashla, which has been essentially deified, is part of daily life among the Crusaders. Society in the Dominion is highly collectivist and anti-individualist, yet inevitably soldiers form bonds with others in their unit. This applies in particular to clones from the same line, but those from different ones have been known to fraternise. Simply necessity forces the government to tolerate this, as it is vital for cohesion. But at the same time it uses political officers and stool pigeons to keep an eye on the ideological purity of its troops.
But as with soldiers everywhere, the determination not to let their comrades down is an important factor that motivates the troopers more than ideology. The primary unit of the Crusaders is the Chapter, which comes equipped with its own officers, medical, logistics and other support units. Some Chapters can look back at a long, storied history and have retained a high degree of cohesion, with their own idiosyncracies, traditions and stories of victory and loss. In such a case, service has become tradition for specific genetic lineages, as old soldiers retire or move into different roles and the next generation takes their place. Others are essentially amalgamations, resulting from under-strength units being merged together.
Political officers called Confessors are assigned to the high levels of the army and to units smaller than the battalion level. Their job is to monitor officers, conduct propaganda and ensure the soldiers' loyalty to Mace Windu Thought. In the old days, the Confessors could veto an order from a military commander. This led to resentment and heavy-handed political meddling. This has been abolished now and Confessors are subordinate to military commanders. Confessors are exhorted to inspire frontline troops with deeds of valour. Many do, in fact, live up to this. The Vaderite army routinely executes any captured Confessor.
The shooting of retreating soldiers, while still on the books, is relatively rare. Most are simply sent to a penal unit. Confessors have been used to curtail looting and abuse of the civilian population in newly-conquered territories...but also in making sure the soldiers are not 'tainted by unwholesome beliefs'. They may also be given authority to oversee the recruitment of new soldiers in occupied or fringe territories where the inhabitants have not yet adapted to the benevolent order of Ashla. It is common practice that the Confessors assigned to a Chapter never belong to the same template as the soldiers they're supposed to monitor.
Some aspect of life among the Crusaders seem archaic. For example, soldiers are routinely issued spades. Trench warfare is archaic in the greater galaxy, but very much a thing on Tephrike. Once troops cease advancing in hostile territory, they tend to dig holes deep enough to stand in to protect themselves. These spaces evolve into sophisticated systems of connected trenches. These can come to resemble mono-productive mini-towns and villages, even featuring areas of production and rest. Officers check them for proper ventilation, nutrition, heat and so on, and use them to disseminate propaganda. It is also common to give soldiers bayonets and train them in their use. Bayonet charges are very archaic in modern warfare, but bayonet training cultivates courage, aggression and readiness for close combat. Moreover, while only of situational use, under the right circumstances a bayonet charge can be demoralising for the enemy.
Tephrike is not connected to the galactic HoloNet and the army frowns on comm use for personal purposes, so writing letters is a way for soldiers to maintain a sense of self. As a concession to maintaining morale, mail to and from the army is free of charge. Of course, letters are censored. Censors home in on military secrets and signs of anti-Dominion attitudes. They also scour letters for clues about the soldiers' needs and mood among the rank and file and officer corps. However, soldiers have found ways to hide their true thoughts about their superiors, and situation on the front line using coded language.
The Dominion has a set list of government-approved hairstyles, but some clone troopers managed to break away from that. This applies in particular to those stationed on the front line or in remote areas. Individual tolerance of this obvious sign of nonconformity varies. Clone troopers receive their own names instead of simple numerical designation, but the name is very similar to that of the template. Indeed, it usually only varies by one letter or two. This reflects the highly collectivist ideology of the Dominion, which disdains individualism. It is not uncommon for the soldiers to come up with nicknames that give them a greater level of individuality. Clones receive occupational surnames such as 'Soldier', 'Technician' or 'Pilot'.
The Crusaders are led by Jedi Knights who belong to the incredibly militant Windian Jedi Order. In contrast to the clone army of yore, the Jedi commanders tend to be clones, too. One weakness of the Crusaders and the Dominion's army in general is that training is quite rote and the chain of command is very top-down. An empowered NCO corps is the backbone of any modern army, as an officer may have theoretical knowledge of military doctrine, but an experienced sergeant actually knows what works in practice and what one can realistically demand from the troops. An officer may put a plan together, but it is an NCO who implements it, fights with junior soldiers on the frontlines and holds the unit together. But the Dominion believes Jedi are luminous beings, and so officers are often burdened with tasks that NCOs are better equipped to handle. This has made the army less flexible.
Fortunately, the Grand Army has by now abandoned the absurd practice of giving command positions to Padawans, as this policy led to idiotic decisions and disproportionately high casualties. The Crusaders are also undergoing a process of reorganisation to empower experienced rankers as NCOs. This decision has proved unpopular with Jedi who insist that 'luminous beings' need not heed advice from 'crude matter'. As a result, one finds Jedi commanders who are competent, but also foolish gloryhounds with delusions of invincibility. Attrition is proving helpful at weeding out the latter due to their penchant for death charging at the head of their troops to display elan. Jedi are a minority among the Crusaders though. The media focuses on Jedi leading daring assaults, but many Crusader units do not have Jedi members or are only assigned them on a temporary basis.
The Jedi's level of skill and their abilities vary, though they focus on the Core Powers. Lightsabres are incredibly rare on Tephrike, and so Jedi warriors use Force-Imbued Blades and other enchanted melee weapons instead. Jedi who serve among the Crusaders are given training in company and small unit tactics and taught to fight as a group instead of as lone wolves. The soldiers can use their firepower to pin enemies down or flush them out of cover, while the Jedi use their mystical powers to shield them from enemy fire, anticipate enemy actions and engage foes in close quarters.
Moreover, they boost the morale of the soldiers. They follow the principle that no Jedi fights alone, but as a unit and in cooperation with the clone troopers, applying a strategy of hammer and anvil. Jedi are now also being heavily discouraged from running off in front of their unit, as it is a good way to die from slugthrower fire or an artillery strike. The Windian Jedi Order is incredibly militant and does not subscribe to the pacifist notions of certain Jedi orders. To the Windian Jedi, those who defy the Dominion are heretics who must be purged. To kill the Sith or the rebel is not a sin, it is the pathway to oneness with the Force.
Zoica Confessor, a Mirialan, is part of a somewhat new strain of clones designed to enforce Mahtara's dictates. The Battlemaster found that many of the old Confessors were too closely tied to the crazy old Grandmaster so had them replaced with new clones to fill the role. Zoica is one of the competent Commissars. She has been programmed with a profound understanding of psychology. She overlooks minor infractions and works to improve conditions for the soldiers as a sop to improve morale. At the same time, she ruthlessly executes cowards, deserters and traitors. She is actually inspiring in battle, which reduces the chance of desertions or routs occuring in the first place. Soldiers under her will not count days, they will not count miles; they will count only the number of Vaderites, rebels and Firemane mercenaries they have killed. Zoica is gathering evidence to be given official sanction to terminate an overconfident, excessively prideful human Jedi commander called Cimon whose death charging keeps resulting in 'victories' with 50%+ average casualties.
Jedi Niobe is a Togruta Jedi knight who very much believes she is serving the Light and banishing the darkness. She fought at Purity and went toe to toe with one of the offworlders. She duelled a Force-Using Qadiri warrior and prevailed despite her unfamiliarity with her foe's elemental Force techniques. However, she lost a hand. A bad Jedi warrior speechifies about the Light and gets soldiers killed while death charging like a fool. A good Jedi warrior empowers the NCOs to do their thing, motivates the troops and uses her preternatural powers as force multipliers. Niobe is a good Jedi warrior. She has recently taken on a Padawan whose master was killed at Purity.
Mikaelos Officer is a human clone officer who was put through the most extensive training and conditioning that the Dominion has. He is a strong supporter both of Mahtara and the new techniques. His career almost came to an end because he was too critical of the 'Force-guided wisdom' of a pompous Jedi, but Mahtara coopted him for precisely that reason. A keenly logical, humourless and incisive man, his skills of analysis and processing are helped by his abilities drilled into him. He leads by example, skill and calculation. He is not loved by his soldiers...but trusted because they know he is competent. He is the equivalent of a brigadier general. Andros Soldier serves under him. He is a tough Twi'lek NCO who fought at the Battle of Purity, going up against Firemane soldiers and Republican Guard partisans. He kept his squad together when all hell broke loose and survived the encounter, but suffered some nasty facial scars and burn marks. He drills his squad hard but is fair. Andros feels intense hatred for Vaderites.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Medium
Unit Availability: Uncommon
Unit Experience: Veteran
Equipment: Not a list of something every soldier would carry, but of what's available in general.
Armour:
- Clone Trooper Armour. Camo-painted to match terrain when in the field.
- BR-4 'Baleful Bantha' Blaster Rifle
- DC-15S Blaster Carbine
- Slugthrower Rifle
- Submachinegun
- Scatter Gun
- P-301 Pulse-Wave Sniper Rifle
- J-301 Pulse-Wave Saboteur
- Imperial Heavy Repeater
- DC-15A Blaster Rifle
- Verpine Shatter Rifle
- Verpine Shatterpistol
- Enforcer Pistol
- FWG-5 Flechette Smart Pistol
- Hard-Sound Gun
- ATA Pulse-Wave Blaster
- DC-17 Hand Blaster
- Foce-Imbued Blade. Limited to Jedi. Non-Force-Users are forbidden from utilising this sacred weapon.
- Vibroblade
- Vibrobayonet
- Vibroknife
- Model MGL-1. Generally mounted on a rifle as an under-barrel grenade launcher when used.
- CSPL-12
- FC-1 Flechette Launcher
- CR-24 Flame Rifle
- E-Web
- Machine Gun
- PLX-1 Portable Missile Launcher
- Model 201 Mortar System
- Grenades, Mines.
- Jedi Utility Belt.
- Climbing, welding and digging tools.
- Armoured Personnal Carrier
- AAC-1 Speeder Tank
- TX-225 GAVw "Occupier" Combat Assault Tank
- HAVw A6 Juggernaut
- BARC Speeder
It will typically respond with brutal force to partisan attacks. Taking hostages, carrying out extrajudicial executions, shelling civilian habitations to terrorise the population - all these things are on the cards. The Crusaders are a tenacious force willing to take heavy casualties. Even when they are on the defensive, Dominion commanders are taught to attack. Thus they will attack resolutely and with determination, being more than willing to take risks to regain and maintain momentum and the initiative. In contrast to many galactic battlefields, trench warfare is still very much a thing on Tephrike, and thus something the Crusaders are trained in.
They are more mechanised than the average Dominion force and will thus spearhead major offensives, seeking to use their firepower and training to pierce enemy defences at a decisive point, while being supported by more numerous, less valuable forces that are deemed more expendable. One tactic that has been devised by Crusaders when facing foes with aerial superiority is to 'hug' the enemy. That is to say moving as close to enemy positions as possible. This is a response to combating the Vaderites and, more recently, Firemane. When on the defence, doctrine emphathises the use of strong points instead of maintaining a traditional, rigid line. In line with combined arms tactics, assault groups are backed up by tanks where possible and coordinated with them and with artillery on assaulting operations
By the standards of Tephrike, the Crusaders have a lot of firepower and can call upon heavy fire in form of artillery or air support from allied units. Their use of armoured fighting vehicles gives them a certain degree of mobility, though these are not available for every unit. They also have their own force of combat engineers. However, the clones that constitute their rank and file are practically produced on the assembly line and often do not have a long life span. Their education promotes religious zealotry and obedience to the Dominion. As mentioned, the Crusaders include both Non-Force-Using soldiers and officers as well as Jedi. These Jedi view themselves as martial knights whose duty is to vanquish foes of Ashla, so they tend to be skilled in combat. However, their level of competence as officers varies. It is worth noting that not every Crusader unit will have Jedi available, though propaganda broadcasts give the misleading impression of them being omni-present.
Force Abilities (Force User Units Only): As in the Grand Army of the Republic, Jedi serve alongside the 'mundane' clone troopers, though they constitute a small minority. The Jedi crusaders focus on the core powers, especially Force Valour, various applications of telekinesis, and physical enhancement. A select number may be able to utilise Force healing with varying degrees of proficiency, though this is not universal.
Strengths:
- Brave, disciplined and tenacious. For all the many flaws of the system they serve, the Crusaders are dedicated soldiers, and especially tenacious in defence. This is a force willing to take high casualties. They have heavy firepower by Tephriki standards, though many of their weapons are old by galactic standard.
- Presence of Jedi allows for combined arms tactics, as they integrate their esoteric abilities into an overall battle plan.
- The Crusaders focus on conventional engagements and thus may have trouble adjusting to enemies utilising unconventional warfare tactics.
- Quality of Jedi varies. This refers to their military training and expertise as officers. They are all brave and skilled in the Force, but some still cling to the unfortunate habit of death charging to show elan.
Centuries ago, the Jedi Council created the Grand Army of the Republic to save civilisation from collapse. Jango Fett, once a feared bounty-hunter, renounced the barbaric ways of the Mandalorian Crusaders. Joining his new brother-in-arms, Jedi Master Mace Windu, he agreed to become the genetic donor of the clone army. Pairing military discipline with unwavering devotion to their Jedi Generals, the clone troopers waged a relentless war on darkness. They destroyed warlord armies and crime syndicates, freed slaves and brought peace to worlds on the outer rim that had been lost to darkness.
Their Jedi Generals were always where the first was the hottest. However, in the hour of victory these valiant paladins were stabbed in the back. For the Jedi Council had realised too late that there was a phantom menace in the heart of the Republic. Darth Sidious had swayed the Senate, using the Senators' fear of their corrupt machinations being exposed by the Jedi. Realising that the fate of the galaxy was in the balance, Master Windu staged a coup to cleanse the Republic of corruption. However, this noble effort was thwarted by Sidious' followers, for the Sith Lord unleashed his Stormtroopers. A young Jedi called Anakin Skywalker succumbed to temptation and helped the new Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights.
That is the story as the Dominion tells it. Centuries in the future, it has assembled its own force of clone troopers to wage a 'war on darkness'. The Gulag Virus sent Tephrike spiralling into chaos. The planet was plagued by disease, starvation, racial strife and poverty. The Jedi assumed a protective stance, trying to wrest some order from chaos. Eventually they were driven to the point of staging a coup, overthrowing the planet's last nominally democratic government. What was supposed to be an temporary emergency government gradually evolved into a totalitarian theocracy. Uprisings broke out across the planet. The Jedi junta found itself fighting warlords, the Republican Guard rebels and Sith cultists. The junta turned to cloning under the reign of Tyian Kree, second Jedi Lord of Tephrike.
The Dominion started using cloning as an emergency measure, repurposing laboratories left behind by now defunct genetics companies. It could provide the army with soldiers and the factories and farms with labourers. Moreover, it was a form of population control. Often given only basic flash training and fed a heavy dose of propaganda, the new clone troopers proved to be fanatical soldiers, though also prone to acts of suicidal bravery. Confessors were introduced to maintain discipline, acting as a check on the authority of officers. Twin threats emerged in form of the secular Republican Guard and the human supremacist Disciples of the Vader. Both would become the perennial enemies of the Dominion. The early clones were produced on the assembly line, using medical facilities originally used by genetics companies to run tests on and clone beasts.
As a result, they were flawed. This was demonstrated during the siege of Red Coral City, when some of them defected to the fledgling Republican Guard after fragging their officers. Disease and lack of provisions had taken a heavy toll on the army. The war with the Vaderites, led by a treasonous Jedi who had fallen to the dark side after being visited by the apparition of 'Vader' in a fever dream, forced the Dominion to accelerate its programme. Clone troopers, often with little training and basic gear, were rushed to the front as the Dominion faced a serious threat to its existence. A Jedi commander called Mahtara proved crucial in organising these early formations and ensuring their combat effectiveness, with the help of a Zabrak mercenary called Kozon Bok. Genetic donors had to be diversified. It became common to use the genetic material of particularly meritorious conscripts.
The fledgling Crusaders participated in the suppression of the Vaderite uprising in Vortanstad, where they helped put an end to savage, anti-alien pogroms carried out by the Stormtroopers. However, most of the fighting there was actually done by conscripts and militias, as the bulk of the clone troopers had been rushed to the Palmyra front. There an apocalyptic battle raged between Vaderite and Dominion troops that would ultimately turn the capital into an irradiated, cursed wasteland tainted by the dark side. The Tephriki would know it as Palmyra's Wail.
The clones fought bravely in this battle. The brutality meted out by the Vaderites stiffened their resolve, as they could not expect a surrender to be honoured. Confessors administered commissar justice at gunpoint, for there could not be a step back. Fierce attrition at least had the effect of giving them moe competent Jedi leaders, and forcing promotion by merit. Deserters were summarily executed or sent to penal units. Kozon, one of the leaders of a crack unit of clones, fell during the battle. By the time the Dominion dropped a special bomb on the city to prevent the Vaderites from completing a sorcerous ritual that would've created a tear in the fabric of reality, the city had been devastated by months of shelling and fierce house-to-house fighting. Entire city blocks were levelled. Looting became common place.
Despite Mahtara's withdrawal order, some clone trooper units were unable to retreat in time as they had been assaulted by enemy forces or their communications had been cut off. As a result, they were still in the blast radius and perished. Some of these soldiers would rise again as zombies, Ashspawn or were trapped in the cursed ruins as ghosts. It was a demoralising experience for surviving clone troopers when they beheld what fate had befallen their fallen comrades. Unable to cleanse the nexus, the Dominion settled for containment, erecting a fortress to keep zombies and demonic abominations out and prevent the Sith from harnessing the place's power.
The Crusaders had sustained heavy casualties, and the corps had to undergo a process of reorganising itself and replenishing its losses. However, the cloning programme remained in place. The new generation of ideologues that took charge of the Dominion regarded clones, whose minds could be moulded by the blessed teachings of Ashla while they were still being grown, as more 'pure' than 'Randoms', who could have all manners of aberrant traits. Less recognised was the sacrifices millions of said 'Randoms' had made to save the Dominion.
As a result, programmes to select and clone the best minds and soldiers were systematised under the framework of the Blessed Lineage Project. Kozon was one of those who were selected to pass on their genes, allowing him to 'live on in death'. A cloning facility was built in Nexus City, the new capital. The respite was brief, for in the coming decades the clone troopers would be deployed against rebels, Vaderites and other foes. The Crusaders helped suppressed peasant revolts that broke out in response to the ruinous collectivisation policies imposed by the regime. Said policies had led to famine. The Dominion's own minister of peace - the equivalent to a defence minister - was among the critics, having been shocked by the plight of the peasantry. But he was purged as a leader of an 'anti-Ashla Clique' and forced to retire.
The regime of Ashla that was supposed to serve the people was forcing them into a second serfdom. Clone troopers were considered more reliable than locally recruited conscripts, many of whom came from rural areas, as they had little connection to the natives. The failure of collectivisation to build a land of plenty led to the Cultural Revolution. Backed by the Grandmaster, the Blue Guards, a radical paramilitary social movement composed mostly of students, Padawans and young Knights, occupied the Jango Fett cloning facility. They saw it as their duty to dismantle Tephrike's pre-Dominion past and crush all opposition to its rebirth as a theocratic utopia. The clone troopers received confused orders, as parts of the security forces backed the Blue Guards, but others opposed them. Ideological training was stressed.
Jedi Leontia, Grand Marshal of Victorious Harmony, implemented the Grandmaster's dream of a society united in worship of Ashla, and purged of all traces of reaction, among the clone troopers and other branches of the military. For a while, even ranks were abolished for being in violation of the spirit of Ashla. Ironically, Leontia was a sceptic of the Cultural Revolution, and avoided talking about it outside of public speeches. When pressed, her statements were brief and ambiguous. For long periods of time, she lived in seclusion.
It was all part of a plan to survive the turmoil. When a clone commander close to her was in danger of being purged, Leontia sent a letter advising her to be passive, passive and passive again. Following the Grandmaster's lead, she exhorted the Blue Guards to smash the four olds. She publicly called for a period of turmoil in the Grand Army. Military academies, including those dedicated to training clone officers, were ordered to dismiss their classes and enable their students to participate in the Cultural Revolution. Some officers and Confessors were even beaten to death. Some students took the instructions to heart to such an extent they broke into the offices of the ministry of peace, and abducted Leontia's deputy chief of staff. Senior officers in the Ministry of Peace were purged.
Leontia's relations with the Gang of Three, a clique of hardliners who directed the Cultural Revolution, deteriorated when they tried to interfere in military matters. Privately, Leontia made initiatives to moderate the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. Leontia saved Mahtara from being persecuted by the Blue Guards by persuading them that the retired Jedi Master was the Marshal's follower. Mahtara repaid Leontia's aid by giving the Marshal effusive public praise, but was compelled to write a formal apology after Leontia complained to the Grandmaster that this was inappropriate.
The Grandmaster approved of the clone army's perceived spiritual purity, enhancing their influence in society. Clone officers were seconded to ruin government offices and state-owned companies to spread the spirit of the collective and guarantee political loyalty. Once the Cultural Revolution started in earnest, the Army was not allowed to intervene in what emerged as a civil war between the various factions of Blue Guards and Blue Rebels. Instead it was ordered by Grandmaster Tsal Te Mong not to oppose the revolution, even though its arsenals were being looted.
However, the revolution grew out of control. At this point the military was the only functional organisation left. Eventually, Tsal Te Mong became suspicious of Leontia, who died in a mysterious plane crash after being accused of plotting a coup. The Cultural Revolution was brought to an end when a cabal led by Mahtara instigated carried out a purge because it had gotten out of hand. The Crusaders were among the primary forces deployed to disarm the Blue Guards and other suspect groups. Being tasked with disarming - or eliminating - rebellious Jedi left its mark on the clones. Their masters were fallible. At this point the military was the only functional institution left, which greatly strengthened its influence. Its officers became important stakeholders. This included leading clone commanders.
However, they retained the system that made janissaries out of those troopers beneath them. Clones received a thorough flash conditioning so that they would be able to understand the world they were born into and would awaken with the right ideological mind set. Retired clone officers moved into important positions in state-owned enterprises and administration. This contributed to the creation of 'clone dynasties'. Many subsequent Grandmasters were puppet rulers. When Grandmaster Kalija tried to break out of the gilded cage and exercise true power, she was quietly eliminated by being confined to the temple. Since then few Grandmasters left the palace after being put into power.
The Crusaders participated in General Kennobi's campaign of subjugation against independent Mon Calamari settlements. One underwater city was destroyed with shaped charges in order to set a salient example. However, Dominion troops were targeted by partisans in the swamplands. The campaign exposed the downsides of the politicisation of the army. Dominion troops had superior firepower, but were inflexible and rote. Their solution to resistance was an excess of kinetic firepower, accompanied by brutal 'reprisals'. Confessors were empowered to curtail desertions. But without support and lacking supplies, the rebels could not beat the Dominion's troops. The Dominion deported many Mon Calamari, forcing them to leave their homelands so that they could be controlled. The leader of the Mon Calamari rebels, a man called Aruunzeb, swore bloody vengeance. He joined the Republican Guard and inflicted a grievous defeat on the Dominion's water fleet.
Crusaders fought bravely when war with the Vaderites renewed. Clone troopers and regular soldiers engaged in vicious urban combat with Darth Lachesis' elite KEC divisions during the battle of Chazowa. The Dominion troops managed to encircle the Vaderites, though they could not prevent their breakout. The Vaderites utilised chemical warfare, using rabies as vector for a virus that would cause the victims to attack and eat the flesh of the uninfected. Bound and gagged prisoners were infected, then released behind enemy lines. Their deployment caused chaos, though they also attacked Vaderite soldiers. The clone troopers were better equipped to protect themselves, but many regulars and militia were not. Chazowa later fell to a Vaderite counterassault, though the clones inflicted heavy casualties. The Crusaders spearheaded the Dominion's response to the Vaderites' Operation Citadel that ended with a Vaderite defeat.
The war between both sides was characterised by immense brutality. The Vaderites had vilified clones as inferior copies and parodies of sentient life, something they had not done during the first great war. Moreover, many Dominion clone troopers were aliens, and thus particularly hated by the Vaderites. Prisoners were rarely taken on both sides and when they were, they were generally treated poorly, being given starvation rations and used for forced labour. As the Dominion troops advanced, aliens who had suffered on the Vaderites welcomed them as liberators...but others fought them, realising they had traded one form of tyranny for another.
Dominion clone troopers carried out retaliations against Vaderites after liberating a death camp. The guards had long abandoned it after learning Dominion troops were close, but not all prisoners had been 'evacuated' in time. Those that remained were more skeletons than sentient. Many fled in primal terror upon seeing soldiers. Some died shortly after gourging themselves on food the soldiers had provided, before the medical officer imposed strict rationing. The clone troopers discovered mass graves of such scale even hardened Crusaders were shocked. The humans who lived in a nearby settlement denied any knowledge of what happened. A purge was carried out.
Grand General Korsun Soldier, hero of the Battle of Destiny against the evil Vaderites and highly respected military theoretician, was one of the rising stars of the Crusaders. At the time he was Deputy Minister of Peace and Chief of Staff of the Grand Army. However, as time went on he started to have 'immoral' thoughts and even arrested a Jedi Padawan for punishing a 'disrespectful' officer. Therefore, the Council performed a double cross on him and denied him reinforcements, even ordering a supporting unit to withdraw, so Korsun lost a battle. He was then removed from command and 'voluntarily confessed' to wanting to overthrow the Council in league with the Republican Guard, for he had manifested Aruunzebist tendencies.
The Netherworld Event left virtually no planet untouched. In the blink of an eye, trillions of beings vanished across the Galaxy. With so many high-ranking officials, including the Grandmaster, gone, the Dominion was thrown into disarray. Some clone troopers were participating in live fire exercises or active combat in the wilderness when suddenly several of her superiors and comrades disappeared. Fearful and superstitious, they believed it was a machination of Dark Side demons. But it was no isolated incident. People had vanished across the Dominion. Riots had broken out. Some zealots, believing the end of days was at hand, instigated purges. Others welcomed the rapture, proclaiming that the Light was rewarding with followers by allowing them to achieve oneness with the Force. The troopers were pushed into a law and order role, trying to keep the peace in a world that had gone tupsy-turvy. However, they were soon dispatched to the front lines.
The rapture had been a blow to the Guard, but it recovered faster than its rivals. It helped that it did not have Force-Users in its ranks. Republican Guard partisans rose up in revolt. Dominion soldiers and officials were murdered, government buildings set aflame and population centres shelled. Clone troopers who had been decanted fairly recently were rushed into battle to replenish the losses sustained by the rapture. Casualties were high, as the new recruits had received minimal training and many senior leaders had been raptured. Fierce combat in urban environments and the jungle ensued.
Some clone troopers mutinied, turning their guns on the loyalists in order to desert or defect to the rebels. The Republican Guard poured in soldiers, as its partisans were joined by regular soldiers. Where they went, Jedi and their followers - both real and imagined - were slaughtered. At risk of being cut off and encircled, Dominion troops had to execute a breakthrough. Delays and the refusal of high command to countenance it meant that by the time it was carried out, many soldiers had died and they had to leave most of their heavy equipment behind. With the regular army in disarray, clone troopers, regulars, militia and Jedi warriors were often integrated into ad hoc battlegroups.
The Vaderites, ostensibly now under the leadership of a faction of 'Light Sith', had entered the war and launched an all-out invasion of the Dominion. The Vaderites were obviously also weakened by the fact that the Force had been thrown out of balance, but they were not the ones fighting a two-front war. The Dominion high command refused to yield territory, issuing the infamous 'not a step back order'. The Army of Light should not only hold the line, but drive out the Sith. It came to head at the Battle of Grimwater Swamp. To illustrate the nature of this engagement, at one point certain Dominion generals seriously considered dropping a tactical nuclear missile on the enemy. When later asked what the battle was like, one clone trooper called Synthia Vao who defected to the rebels simply called it hell. Amidst the massive downpour, the ground turned to mud and swamps so the wounded drowned and the dead were buried and uncovered by bombardments. The vermin gnawed on the flesh of the dead and dying alike. Soldiers were ripped apart by land mines and artillery. With both Sith and Jedi weakened by whatever was causing the Force to respond in strange and unpredictable ways to their commands, the bulk of the fighting was done by 'mundane' soldiers on both sides.
The Vaderites tied captured Dominion soldiers and alien civilians to posts in the path of the attackers, so that when Synthia and her fellow clone troopers got close the bombs strapped to them went off. It made the Sith happy to see the prisoners turn to red mist, or to force the attackers to do it for them. This was against the teachings of their new leader, but the Vaderite commander was a traditionalist and far away from headquarters. Again and again, the Dominion troops were thrown against the Vaderites. Periods of intense, bloody combat were followed by weeks in the trenches and the mud. Both sides made ample use of chemical weapons.
When some Dominion soldiers tried to retreat during a fight, they were mowed down by machine gun fire from Inquisition 'blocking squads'. The Crusaders succeeded in seizing a Vaderite command post using infiltration tactics after they managed to obtain a map showing the position of Vaderite troops. They used the Vaderite artillery guns to shell enemy forces.However, reinforcements were slow to arrive. The long bombardments had devastated the ground badly and the swampy terrain made it difficult to bring up large forces. Moreover, dissonances in command did not help.
Jedi General Akosa took offence at the clones showing independence instead of following her strategic genius and cashiered their commander, who was already in trouble for having broken off a suicidal frontal assault. Soon the Vaderites were able to regroup and launch a counterattack. The clone troopers at the command post defended themselves fiercely, but had to fall back and stage a fighting retreat. The Vaderite counterattack eventually tired itself out after making limited gains. General Akosa now ordered a full-scale assault on the enemy. Some officers protested against the order. Even a few Jedi voiced misgivings about it, seeing it as folly. However, they were shut down. In the words of a Sergeant Vao 'a gargantuan effort to march forward very slowly and get mowed down so that Akosa can get a Council seat'. In her words, the clone troopers were nexu led by donkeys. The charge was a bloodbath.
Neither the Vaderites nor the Dominion were concerned about casualties. Instead they threw unit after unit into the meat grinder. Entire units were, essentially, swallowed, chewed and spat out. The muddy, blood-soaked and swampy battlefield became a charnel house. Sithspawn war beasts clashed with primitive war engines. In the end, the battle had achieved nothing except gaining the Dominion a few miles of worthless ground. Entire units had been decimated in the fight. The dead lay in unmarked mass graves, if they were lucky enough to receive a rudimentary burial in the first place. However, the Dominion's strategy had changed. Under the leadership of Battlemaster Mahtara, the Army of Light had implemented a scorched earth strategy. Now the Dominion was taking advantage of its larger territory and greater reserves of manpower and materiel. Everything that could be of use to the enemy was to be destroyed if territory could not be held. Meanwhile, the Dominion's intelligence service skillfully exploited infighting in Vaderite high command to split their enemy. Of course, common soldiers only had limited insight into what high command was planning.
The soldiers were deployed to Fortress Purity, a crucial citadel on the way to Nexus City. The Republican Guard had tried to fool the Dominion into thinking that it intended to strike elsewhere, even going so far as to arrange for a faux battle plan to fall into enemy hands. The deception operation would have succeeded, were it not for the efforts of a young comms operator and code breaker called Mara Technician. And so when the Guard attacked Purity, they were confronted by a large army led by General Kennobi. Nonetheless, the battle was a bloody one. The rebels knew that they had to win here or their offensive would fail. They harassed Dominion troops with nightly assaults. Their combat engineers dug tunnels beneath the Dominion lines to carry out surprise attacks. However, they also appealed to the Dominion clone troopers and militia via loudspeakers, urging them to defect and break their shackles.
Unfortunately, General Akosa was still in charge of a brigade belonged to. After one bloody assault after the other, the soldiers under her command were ordered to charge out into the open. A unit of clone troopers decided to improvise and come up with a plan that actually worked. Instead of attacking the enemy head-on, they used one of the tunnels to outflank them and tricked the rebels into thinking they were on their side. The plan worked, but Akosa punished the soldiers for disobeying her 'Force-guided' orders. She later led a suicidal death charge that got most of her soldiers killed. It was for the benefit of the Dominion when one of her soldiers fragged her. The rebels had sustained heavy casualties and running low on supplies.
Bunglers like Akosa had cost the Dominion, but it had more bodies to throw around and better logistics. And it was getting reinforcements. Jedi Dione, commander of the Ever Loyal Vanguard and an actually leader unlike Akosa, rallied loyalist clones troopers and led by example. The Republican Guard fought fanatically, but it was running out of reserves and supplies. With the Force no longer out of balance, the Dominion could deploy its Jedi more efficiently. General Kennobi used his Battle Meditation to reinvigorate tired troopers. Brutal fighting ensued when crack Republican Guard partisans tried to push through a tunnel their engineers had dug, appearing in the midst of the loyalists to knife them to death after blowing up part of their defences. But the Dominion was too well-entrenched, and finally their counter-assault broke the Guard's line when they managed to bring up tanks. The Guard had come close to storming Purity, but the battle was a defeat. The rebels had to fall back to Salona and then even further, fading into the countryside and the seas.
Many years later, there was a second battle at Purity. This time the Dominion lost. The reason for this was the intervention of Firemane. At first Firemane Industries had initiated negotiations with the Dominion. A moderate faction led by Battlemaster Mahtara sought accommodation with the outsiders, believing they could be used to their advantage. However, a group of radicals led by the Grand Inquisitor Antonius and the Grandmaster viewed this as treason. A Firemane delegation was ambushed by the extremists. During the course of the fighting, Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori was captured.
Firemane went to war against the Dominion. It bombed the Jedi Temple and had to deal with Dominion retaliation in form of Force-enhanced nuclear missiles. Firemane and the Republican Guard entered an uneasy alliance. Both sides strongly distrusted one another, but each had something to gain from working together. Firemane had the firepower, while the Guard had the numbers and local knowledge. Thus Firemane landed ground forces to assault Purity. These operated in cooperation with the Guard. Realising that she could give the Grandmaster enough rope to hang himself, Mahtara ensured that troops loyal to her did not reinforce the Fortress. As a result, some Crusader units were 'delayed'. However, the battle was very bloody. The Guard was reluctant to commit its full force, as it had failed at Purity once and did not want to risk decimating its troops.
Moreover, the rebels distrusted their allies, who had many Force-Users in their ranks. Firemane rained destruction upon Purity with air and artillery strikes, but many Dominion troops held out in their underground shelters and trenches. While kamikaze pilots assaulted Firemane troops, clone troopers and militia engaged the invaders in brutal trench warfare. Firemane transports were lost to kamikaze pilots. To negate Firemane's airpower, the Dominion activated a weather control machine to summon a storm. Faced with fierce fighting in the forest and trenches, the allied forces rallied, but had to deal with often fanatical resistance from the defenders in the trenches. A massed Dominion armoured assault, supported by infantry and light artillery, almost overran the scattered attackers. Finally Republican Guard committed his full force to the battle after being pressured by Firemane.
This stabilised the front line. One of the bloodiest fights occured on Broken Rib Bridge, a large hill that Firemane, Resistance and Republican Guard troops had to storm. Aside from dealing with mentalists, they also faced suicide bombers, Jedi snipers and the elite Jedi Vanguard. Meanwhile a mixed force of Firemane and Force Dead Republican Guard commandos managed to discover a tunnel that led to the heart of the base, but were assaulted by clone troopers and elite Jedi warriors. A group of Qadiri aeromancers were able to redirect the storm. When the allied forces had broken through the Dominion's defensive lines, General Kennobi sent a force of Younglings on a suicidal death charge to cover the retreat of his officers. Then he committed suicide. In the end the Republican Guard raised the Starbird banner upon the fortress. It was a grievous blow to morale.
The fall of Purity triggered a coup in the Dominion's capital. The Grandmaster was assassinated by the Council, which then sent secret communications welcoming Mahtara and her followers into the city - and ordering the army to disarm and arrest the Jedi Inquisition, whose leader was accused of having been an agent of the 'Star Sithspawn'. The Grandmaster's death was blamed on Firemane bombing. Following what was perceived to be the legal chain of command, Crusader battalions placed the city under lockdown, occupying government buildings, communications towers, radio stations and other vital infrastructure. The headquarters of the Inquisition was shelled with artillery to smoke them out.
With new leadership, the Crusaders have undergone a process of reform. All too vocal followers of the old regime have been puged, officers and rank file who distinguished themselves at Purity promoted. The 'Force-guided' vision of the Jedi knights is now to be balanced by military acumen and professionalism. At the same time the Crusaders find themselves engaged in a war to the knife with rebels. The Dominion got a reprieve, as Firemane withdrew its forces after the battle due to concern about getting bogged down in a war with no end in sight. Yet even as reforms were ongoing, troops had to be rushed to Vortanstad to blunt a rebel offensive. The battle soon ground down into a bitter stalemate.
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