Work In Progress Warriors of Kerstas

[Darth Strosius]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To flesh out the military arm of the Dark Wonosa Cult and the soldiers of Alisteri Haxim.
• Image Credit: This picture here.
• Role: The rank and file soldiers of the Dark Wonosa Cult.
• Permissions: N/A
• Links: Alisteri Haxim. Dark Wonosa Cult

GENERAL INFORMATION

• Unit Name: Legion of Kerstas / Kerstas Legion / Legionnaires
• Affiliation: Dark Wonosa Cult, Darth Strosius , Sith Order
• Classification: Infantry
• Description: The Legionnaires of Kerstas are an unwavering and fiercely loyal unit of fanatical and zealous volunteers. United by the cult, led by their High Priest, and all clad in matching black armor and with their namesake Ur-Kittat word emblazoned on their left arms, the Legion may first appear as some sort of fairly militarized police force were it not for their brutal and decisive attitudes in combat. They follow orders without question and with great reverence, never aiming to maim or stun their opponents and instead always shooting to kill. Small in number yet well organized and uncompromising the zealots of the Legion represent the very best and most dangerous of their cult.

COMBAT INFORMATION:

• Unit Size: Small (About two dozen Legionnaires)
• Unit Availability: Common
• Unit Experience: Recruit
• Equipment: All warriors are clad in the standard issued Kerstas Legionnaire Armor for defense, but their armaments differ greatly. The vast majority of the soldiers are equipped with blaster rifles, blaster pistols, and vibroknives of varying make and model. The rest usually have blaster carbines instead of rifles or are assigned to operate some sort of defensive weaponry or in a non-combat role and are equipped with only a blaster pistol for defense.
• Combat Function:
  • Tactics: Typically the main tactics of the Legion, due to their small size and limited equipment, consists mainly of two doctrines. Basic small unit tactics for defense and stormtroop/infiltration tactics for attack. Usually led by their High Priest into battle, the strategy of the Legion is brutal and fast by sheer necessity. Attrition and large battles are too costly, so quick and decisive actions that result in heavy enemy casualties are their only options.
  • Interactions: The Legion can only really act alone in terms of skirmishes and small battles between squads of infantry. Their lack of equipment, training, and numbers means that their combat actions are very limited. Having said that they do act well as the rear guard, reinforcement, and shock troops of larger armies where their focus can be concentrated on a singular task.
• Force Abilities (Force User Units Only): N/A

Strengths:

• Zealous: Almost each and every member of the Legion is a true believer of the cult's religion and doctrine, or is at least fanatical about the cult's people, and as such the tenacity of the soldiers within the Legion is by far their best and most abundant quality.
• Trained: Although lacking in both sufficient facilities and equipment for training throughout most of the cult's existence, the Legionnaires have still been training since before the fall of the Sith Empire and continue to drill and train whenever not on a mission or recovering from training. Years of hard work and dedication from the veterans of the Sith-Imperial Legion has kept them ready to be called upon whenever they are needed to perform.
• Motivated: As with many facets of the cult, the Legion understands well that it is one of the few things keeping the cult alive. Without their protection only the High Priest and the Sith-Imperial veterans would be able to defend the rest of the Dark Wonosa Cult from their numerous enemies and threats. As such each member of the Legion is united in their purpose and intent that everything that they do is done to keep their family and friends safe.

Weaknesses:

• Homemade: Their armor, equipment, and training altogether may have made for a decent fighting force but the regular rank and file of the Legion are hardly natural soldiers. Consisting entirely of volunteers and with relatively weak equipment they are more equivalent to a band of well organized gangsters than a real combat unit.
• Skirmishers: The limited real combat experience that the Legion boasts includes almost entirely small scale skirmishes with pirates, smugglers, and other criminal groups. Most often these skirmishes are also launched using total surprise to overwhelm an unprepared enemy, meaning that any sort of attrition or real resistance is relatively foreign to the Legion.
• Militia made Soldier: Although they have outgrown their initial roots as a militia, this transition to a properly organized and somewhat properly equipped unit is fairly new. Even as training and drills are being done to try and catch up on the disparity, the Legion has a long way to go before it can be considered a cohesive military outfit.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Beginning from some of the earliest and first members of the Dark Wonosa Cult, the roots of the Kerstas Legion had always been present as a large number of Alisteri Haxim's first cultist recruits outside of the initial refugees were Sith-Imperial Legionnaires that he had fought with in the Third Imperial Civil War. The true beginning of the Legion however can be traced to when he first instilled the tenant of Kerstas, revenge, in his cult's doctrine and subsequently began training the Warriors of Kerstas as a militia group for his cult.

When the Sith Empire fell and the cult fled to the stars aboard the Altorius the militia had yet to see any real battle still, but more and more remnants of the Sith-Imperial Legion that had fled alongside the rest of the cultists joined in and helped to establish proper training regiments and drills for the militia. The recovery and salvaging of various Sith-Imperial supply storages, caches, and even criminal equipment provided the first real weapons for the Warriors of Kerstas to train with as well.

Although reluctant to send the militia into any combat, mostly using his veteran Sith Legionnaires whenever he needed support, Alisteri would allow the militia to undertake some limited operations and mission over the course of the cult's Dark Pilgrimage. Mostly what they did was cleaning up pockets of resistance left behind by their High Priest and their veteran counterparts but even the small victories that they achieved emboldened them and gave them valuable experience under fire.

The transition from militia to proper military unit was a very gradual, and still somewhat ongoing, process as equipment and training became as standardized as the cult could manage. Sometime before the cult's acquisition of a scrapyard on Formos the militia would finally be rebranded from the Warriors of Kerstas into the Legion of Kerstas to better reflect their new status as a dedicated military unit. Wearing this new name and their new uniforms with pride, not to mention having a new home on top of it all, was by far the largest boost to moral that the new Legion had received in their existence thus far.

Declared by their High Priest to be the continuation of the Sith-Imperial Legion and the first line of defense for the cult, the Legion of Kerstas stands as a fierce and resolute band of soldiers. Far from mighty and unconquerable but with passions that burn as hot as any star, the Legionnaires will see the will of their High Priest and their cult made manifest at any cost.