Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Firemane.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Arctic and mountain warfare specialists.
Permissions: ARGH gear available per this thread. Permission for all ArmaTech gear and all other subs made by Laira Darkhold's writer here. Permission to use Tricks of the Trade submissions here.
Links: Valkyri, Vinterbound, Winter Is Coming, Some Like it Hoth.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Whiteout Company
Affiliation: Siobhan, Firemane, House Kerrigan-Alcori.
Classification: Infantry
Description: Whiteout Company is a crack unit of Valkyri soldiers employed by Firemane Industries. Valkyri come from a harsh world of ice and snowy tundras. Hard worlds breed hard people, and they are no different in that regard. The members of the unit have left their homeworld to seek their fortune in the stars. In the process, they have also adapted modern technology that is generally not available on their comparatively underdeveloped home planet. However, they have not wholly cast aside their roots. Instead they have become masters of mountain and arctic warfare. This makes them the perfect unit to deploy to worlds such as Hoth and Belsavis.
Rather than death charge foes, they leverage the terrain to surprise, trap and ambush opponents. They scoff at notions of this being 'dishonourable'. Death in battle may send a valiant warriot to Beornskald, but someone who blindly rushes into a fight without forethought and expects to be rewarded with paradise is a fool. Members of the group learn the value of patience from early-on. Warfare is a team effort, not a one-man show, so cohesion and discipline under are stressed during their training. Each soldier must look past his or her desire for personal glory and work as part of a unit.
Moreover, they are taught how to cope without relying on advanced technology, as it can often break down in the arctic. They excel at tracking, trapping, sharpshooting, hunting, mountain climbing and reconnaissance. The members of the group have a preference for high-powered slugthrowers, rugged blasters, daggers and light armour, which is worn with camouflage paint or colouration.
Outside of their duties on the battlefield, Whiteout Company also provides cold weather and mountain warfare training to allied forces. Firemane's Tygaran allies often call them the White Ghosts, which refers to their uncanny ability to become one with the snowy tundras that spawned them. Whereas many of the people of the galaxy tend towards agnosticism or some form of Force worship, the Valkyri have a polythetic pantheon. This is a commonality with the Eldorai and their cousins. How devout the soldiers of Whiteout Company are varies though.
While Valkyri, the members of Whiteout Company are not followers of Midvinter's present monarchy. They embrace the warlike culture of their ancestors, and dislike Jedi due to their pacifism. They view the Jedi's claims of being servants of the people not rulers with deep suspicion. However, they obviously do not share the xenophobia of more traditionalist Valkyri, since they are presently working for foreigners.
Whiteout Company's members tend to come from minor and less prestigious tribes that had reason to seek contact with outsiders. Some of their members were exposed to the outside Galaxy after being raptured during the Netherworld Crisis. A good number of them are veterans of the great battles against the Vinterbound, a species of undead animated by dark sorcery, and fought against the Sith Order's assault on Midvinter.
The unit is commanded by Bjørn Bergman, a Valkyri warrior who used to be a minor chieftain on his homeworld. Forced to step up at a young age, after his father perished in battle and rose as one of the undead, he had to navigate both feudal politics and protect his people against the Vinterbound. Bjørn left Midvinter after the civil war, and built connections with the space people. These helped him become the commander of the unit after gathering a group of Valkyri disenchanted with what they saw as stagnation on their homeworld. His tribe was a small one, and so Bjørn has become known for his use of unorthodox tactics. He disdains notions of honourable combat.
His right hand is a female Valkyri called Ulfhild. For much of her youth she was considered odd, as she manifested an ability to use the Force, though she did not quite understand her gift at the time. Some saw her as blessed by the gods, others as cursed, as she could read others' thoughts and often seemed to possess disconcerting insights. Ulfhild was raptured during the Netherworld Event. Bjørn encountered her on Alderaan, where he was hunting Yuuzhan Vong. Her Netherworld experiences had driven Ulfhid more than a little mad, but also deepend her connection to and understanding of the Force. She has received some training from Order of Fire adepts.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Medium
Unit Availability: Unique
Unit Experience: Elite.
Equipment:
Armour:
Rifles:
- Magnetic Repeater
- Shatter Rifle
- Bolt-Thrower
- Outland Rifle (with scope)
- MkI Bolter
- DC-19 Stealth Carbine
- Voxyn Charric Rifle
- ACS-205 Advanced Dual Weapon System
- ACS-202 Vanquish Light Repeating Blaster
- Shatter Pistol
- A280 CFE
- Cylix Bolt Pistol
- FWG-5 Flechette Smart Pistol
- Pinprick Needler
- Sonic Stunner
- Hold-out Bolter
- ACS-208 Wrist Tensor
- ACS-207 Cryo-Ban Gun. All variants.
- ACS-207 Aerosolblaster
Misc:
- Rifle Silencer. APE Boltgun Ammunition.
- Devastator Multi-Purpose Mine. Grenades. Flex-5 Detonite Tape. Det-Packs.
- Monofilament net. Molecular Stiletto
- Military rations, skis, thermos, camouflage net and tents, insulating kama, Grappling Hooks, micro-cords, no-shows. Rifle Silencer.
- Firemane Force Suppression Devices.
- Taozin Amulet
Combat Function: The members of Whiteout Company are Valkyri and thus benefit from the racial strengths of these people. They are very strong, tough and have a natural resistance to the cold. However, contrary to the stereotype, the men and women who make up the unit are not simple-minded brutes. Rather than relying on mere brute strength, they are experts in ambush, survival, cold weather and mountain warfare.
This makes them excellent for military operations in arctic conditions. Mountain warfare often occurs in cold weather or on terrain that is affected by ice and snow. It requires a special type of approach. Setting up bases, maintaining supply lines and so on is a lot more difficult, imposing a particular strain on troops. This especially applies to those not used to such an environment.
Blizzards, icestorms and the like can ground aircraft and impede vehicles. They also mean that troops will have to operate under conditions of poor visibility, even if they possess military grade scanning equipment. They can disrupt transmission, prevent aerial reconnaissance and reduce the reliability of artillery bombardment. Moreover, daylight is reduced. Exposed soldiers also succumb to crippling frostbite. The soldiers of Whiteout Company are very good at leveraging their people's natural cold resistance, as well as the fact that they are used to fighting in icy wastes. They are skilled at outflanking more heavily armoured troops that are limited to roads and thus less mobile. To this end they advance over frozen, untracked end, whole using little technology and few vehicles.
Aside from using the snowspeeders of yore, they are also great skiers. Their doctrine stresses the importance of night operations and using skis to penetrate the enemy's rear areas. Their use improves the mobility and agility of the group. Coldness is not a barrier, but a welcome opportunity to wear down, weaken and destroy 'summer armies'. Outfitted with camo armour that allows them to blend into their environment, they can ambush, circumvent and harass their opponents.
They are very good at leveraging geography, staying silent and retaining mobility. Indeed, they prefer to attack during the long arctic nights. This can force an opponent to remain on guard all the time, which can be a blow to morale and overall combat readiness. They have no qualms about targeting an enemies' supplies, such as food. Their expertise at traversing and fighting in mountainous terrain makes them well-suited for alpine warfare. They are expert trappers and trackers. Whiteout Company is not above targeting field kitchens and camp fires. It may not be 'honourable', but soldiers need warmth and nutrition in the cold, so it is logical to deprive them of it.
They are also fond of laying traps under the icy sheets lakes in cold climates may turn into. Moreover, they like to turn ice crossings into traps for walkers and tanks. Thus frozen bodies of water may be turned into death traps, forcing opponents to seek alternate routes, where snipers and heavy weapons' operators lie in wait. When they engage an enemy in close quarters, the soldiers will seek to leverage their natural strength and tenacity. However, they use ambush tactics rather than charging enemy strong points head-on. They make frequent use of skis to stay mobile. Whiteout Company fights as light infantry, which means it lacks integrated heavy support.
A few members of the unit are Force-Sensitive, though this is only a minority. Their Force-Sensitivity tends to manifest in Force Sense skills, Weather Sense, Force-enhanced marksmanship and reflexes and the ability to use Tapas to stay warm in even the coldest environments. Broadly speaking, their Force skills are supplementary rather than the core of their skill set. This obviously limits what they can do, but also means that they are not caught off-guard if deprived of their powers.
Strengths:
- Being Valkyri and natives of Midvinter, they have a natural resistance to the cold. Even outside of their sealed armour, they can cope with temperatures normal humans would be liable to freeze to death in. Moreover, they are very strong and hardy.
- The members of the unit are the exact opposite of simple-minded berserkers with no discipline. They are experts in ambush, survival, arctic and mountain warfare.
- The tradeoff of being so attuned to cold climates is that Valkyri are not keen on warm temperatures. When outside of their sealed armour, they have a hard time in hot and humid conditions. An example would be deserts, jungles and the like.
- Mobile infantry force and thus do without heavy integrated support, requiring support forces. This especially concerns things such as tanks, bombers and the like.
Whiteout Company was founded by a Valkyri warrior called Bjørn Bergman. He was the chieftain of a minor tribe that dwelt in a remote region of Midvinter. Life was hard, and this forged hard people who were fierce in protecting what was theirs. Aside from feuds between clans and the struggle against elements, they also had to contend with the Vinterbound. Bjørn was rather young when he became chieftain.
One day his father did not return from a hunt. When Bjørn and a search party found him, he had risen again as one of the undead, and the son had to kill him. Menaced by the Vinterbound, Bjørn took the unorthodox step of making deals with offworld traders who occasionally came to the planet, acquiring primitive rifles and mines, though the price was steep. The Vinterbound lacked the sophistication to use modern weapons, but their numbers were always replenished by fresh corpses. Though controversial, Bjørn led his people on a trek away from their native lands, but the casualties were high. Head-on confrontation would do them no good against the undead. They needed teamwork, strategy and more potent weapons.
Bjørn's tribe was small and so he backed Beorlund the Bold. Beorlund had been an advisor of of the previous High King Threign. However, after the King passed away, he usurped the throne and Thrand, son of Threign and legitimate successor, was forced into exile. Bjørn did not like Beorlund much and disagreed with his isolationist policies, but he was the king and his main concern was his tribe.
Thus he supported the Beorlund, nicknamed the Usurper by his opponents, during the civil war. It ended with the victory of Thrand Dawnbringer, who became the new High King. Bjørn and his warriors had fought bravely, though not very honourably. They were a small group and he wanted to preserve them, so they used ambushes, feints, camouflage and the like. But he had no desire to enter Beornskald over a feudal quarrel. Thus he laid down his arms and bent the knee. However, his brother, who had backed the rebels, challenged him and secured control of the tribe, which led to a split.
Bjørn and his people took advantage of the end of the anti-outsider policy to get into contact with outsiders and travel. Lacking knowledge of spaceships and spaceflight, he bartered with outside merchants so that they would take him aboard one of their 'sky long-ships'. It soon turned out that while the outside Galaxy differed from Midvinter in many ways, it was also quite similar in those that mattered. The people who lived in the stars were people like the Valkyri, but with different traditions and languages and, in many cases, more advanced technology.
This also exposed him and his crew to new political and social ideas that were at variance with those that held sway on his homeworld. Bjørn and his group became sellswords, offering their battle skills to those who could pay them with coin or technology. This brought him in contact with into contact with a group called Firemane Industries, who at the time were expanding their influence in the region of space they called the Tingel Arm. Bjørn took an interest in their technology, adapting it to suit Valkyri needs. The group proved its capabilities in mountain and arctic warfare, participating in several campaigns. However, he was given leave to return to Midvinter after learning that the Vinterbound was marching on Fafnersvik, a settlement located on the tundras to the north of Tháinbroek. Thus he and his crew fought alongside a mixed group of Valkyri warriors, volunteers from the Silver Sanctum Coalition and Silver Jedi.
The battle was a victory, though it came at a cost. After having seen the stars, the exiles found themselves even more out of step with conditions back home than before. He recruited a group of Valkyri, many of them from his tribe, who like him had come to see the planet as stagnant and distrusted the influence of the Jedi. Bjørn became their leader due to his bravery, tactical knowledge and connection with the space people. The newly-formed Whiteout Company was put under contract by Firemane, seeing action in several engagements, such as on Kaeshana, against Xioquo insurgents and on Hoth. On the last battlefield, they participated in heavy combat against the First Order, fighting alongside Galactic Alliance and Firemane troops.
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