June news just arrived at your FLGS and our online store. Discover the background of the miniatures inside: Teutonic Knights, Karakuri Special Project, Fraacta Drop Unit, Mukhtar Active Response Unit, Shaolin Warrior Monks and Wild Bill, Legendary Gunslinger. What are your favorites?
TEUTONIC KNIGHTS
The Order of the Teutonic Knights of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was created through papal bull on the eve of the NeoColonial Wars. Their mission was to become the spearhead of the Holy Mother Church in warzones and border territories, to defend the sacred rights of the NeoVatican Church by force of arms. The Teutonic Knights were headquartered on Paradiso, where they took part in the NeoColonial Wars, and have subsequently distinguished themselves with bravery in the fight against the alien Combined Army. It is unusual to see Teutonic Knights outside Paradiso, although there are plenty of rumors about them all around the Sphere. They are said to be grim and somewhat brutal, and that their base of operations is far from the command center, far on the Northern Front, and that they single-handedly guard the border. It’s also said that the Teutonic Knights are characterized by their unwavering faith and their frenzied warrior fervor and that they are most fanatical in combat. In order to preserve such a lofty reputation, the Order’s discipline is marked by its harsh discipline. Its members are provided with the best physical training, valuing hand-to-hand combat above all else, as the ultimate goal of every member of the Order is to obtain glory in battle.
After the fall of Strelsau fortress-monastery, when a weakened Teutonic Order needed to reinforce its depleted ranks, only the Magister Knights were able to live up to the high Teutonic standards. The conditioning these warriors are subjected to is not only physical but also mental. It requires a kind of strength and determination that many would consider suicidal, but which is actually the result of an extreme notion of bravery that can only be found in medieval epic poems. Teutonic Knights fight like desperate men who do not know danger. They usually greet their enemies with a volley at a short distance, and then without missing a beat, they charge into close quarters, attacking with their swords and pistol-whipping the enemy, displaying such rage and frenzy one would think they were a legion of furious lunatics unable to stop until they’ve littered the entire battlefield with the dead bodies of their adversaries.
The Karakuri are autonomous robotic military units. Due to their special characteristics, they are considered multi-purpose assault troops, also capable of carrying out actions aimed at suppressing revolts and mutinies in the conflictive Japanese regions of Yu Jing. As shock troops, their mission is to carry out attacks in the most dangerous areas of the battlefront, moving imperturbably between the crossfire, ignoring any damage, and instilling terror in the enemy with their unstoppable advance.
The Karakuri Project was the great challenge of the Japanese industry: the standard, the figurehead of the innovative capacity of Japanese technological companies within the industrial veil of Yu Jing. The challenge was to design a more agile and resistant remote combat unit with an artificial intelligence sufficiently developed as to not need a field operator. The Project was baptized "Karakuri" because that was the name automated Japanese dolls received during the 18th and 19th centuries. These mechanical marionettes, extremely beautiful and technically precise, served to surprise and entertain their spectators' thanks to the motions of their hidden mechanisms. Just like their namesakes, current Karakuri is a truly stunning technological prodigy.
A new stage in the evolutionary progress of war machines. Modern Karakuri has also been designed to surprise. They have an invisible arsenal hidden in secret compartments located throughout their body: from small arms to an anti-tank projectile. All of their systems and weapons have been miniaturized, compacted, and assembled aspiring to a maximum volumetric reduction. The result is an ultra-sophisticated android creature, a hybrid between woman and machine. With its reinforced steel body, its wasp-like waist, its long legs, and its variety of hidden weapons, the Karakuri end up more feared than beautiful, the erotic nightmare of any combat cyborg.
If you were to ask a Fraacta what their unofficial motto is, she would say, with a savage smirk on her face and a spark in her eye: “Always Careless”. No one can deny that the entire modus operandi of this unit is predicated on wanton recklessness. By definition, the deployment maneuvers of any transorbital drop unit are a dangerous proposition, and airborne troops are regarded as perhaps the most audacious out there. But the all-female drop unit of the Sygmaa Trihedron takes it one step further. I can’t disclose classified information, so here’s an analogy: the Fraacta don’t just dive directly into the deep end of the pool, they dive backward with their hands tied behind their backs, with the bravado you’d expect from a star stunt performer.
When they jump from the vacuum of space into the hell of a battle, with only their instincts and the sensory feedback from their drop symbiont as a guide, they feel invincible. While the crackling of their flight instruments still rings in their ears like an unbridled symphony, they are possessed by the certainty that they can achieve anything. There is no question that, with that blend of training and talent, and symbiont gear like that, you can afford the luxury of a little boldness. The Trihedron High Command frowns upon that kind of imprudent behavior, but what can you threaten them with? In their jump symbionts, the Fraacta are like goddesses of evil: something beautiful, and terrible to behold. Something treacherous. Something on edge. Something that must be stopped.
Officer Analyst Paul Harlow, Psi Unit of the Bureau Aegis, O-12. Liaison Group of the Paradiso Coordinated Command. Fragment of a conversation recorded during a break in an information session.
The prestigious Mukhtar (the Chosen Ones) Active Response Unit is made up entirely of members of the Saeiqa (Lightning) Program. This is a Supersoldier Program that has a strict and severe selection process: it only admits Ghulam veterans who have participated in several campaigns and who know many dirty tricks. However, despite the exceptional physical conditioning granted by the Saeiqa Program, the effectiveness of these troops is not based on their bodily improvements, but on their tactical skills, a knowledge acquired the hard way—the worst way of all. The Saeiqa Supersoldier Program only targets veteran troops with an impressive campaign record who also belong to units disbanded for having suffered too many casualties to rebuild them.
This recruitment system generates a group of hardened soldiers who have been part of regiments whose cohesion as a unit has been broken. They are troops who appreciate being given the opportunity to strike back at their enemies. This forms a core of very experienced soldiers with well-demonstrated loyalty and great tenacity but above all a group very familiar with the concept of revenge. They all have outstanding bills to collect, and the firm determination to do so. Their history as Haqqislamite professional soldiers has marked them with fire and has made them very clear on a number of things: that the enemy is out there, that there are battles to be fought, comrades to avenge, and people to protect. That’s why the Mukhtar are always ready and prepared. That’s why they always answer the call of duty. And that’s why they will always do everything necessary to fulfill the mission.
The StateEmpire Army has been able to integrate Shaolin warrior monks by virtue of an old treaty between the Wan Hou Monastery and the Yu Jing Government. In this treaty, the Wan Hou Monastery promised to provide the Yu Jing military with a mobile attack force in exchange for funding and tax exemptions. Shaolin monks practice Zen Buddhism and are outstanding martial artists. As the entirety of their training takes place inside their monastery, they are less than stellar with firearms, but in hand-to-hand combat, they are nigh unbeatable.
The strict discipline and rigorous training of their temple make them instinctive fighters, fast and deadly. In combat, a Shaolin monk is always ready: he clears his mind and moves without inertia, prepared to spring in any direction. The Yu Jing Army uses the Shaolin as light assault infantry, spearheading attacks to break and disband enemy formations, a task they carry out with equal parts breathtaking beauty and lethal efficiency.
Everyone knows Wild Bill, the gunslinger of legend, the great Bahadur, champion of Aristeia! on several occasions, the shining star who dominates the Hall of Fame of the greatest sport-spectacle in Maya’s history. But who knows the man behind the myth? Few facts about Wild Bill are known for certain, and the always inscrutable duelist has never made an effort to clear his misty past. He was first a select USARF scout, sharpshooter, and Antipode hunter in Tombstone, then an AEC watchman, and then a bounty hunter in Tartary. It was there that he came into contact with the mining companies from Haqqislam, operating under license from Matr, which would catapult him to the stars. It was in the worst zones of the Mars-Saturn and Human Edge circuit that Wild Bill forged his well-known reputation among the Human Sphere’s most dangerous men and women. But it was also here where the rumors of him being an illegal Recreation of the historic Wild Bill started, rumors that Wild Bill’s smile doesn’t deny or debunk.
From there he made his jump to the HexaDome, all by himself and without any manager or sponsor, and to his meteoric rise to stardom, as bright as his two guns, Agnes and Jane. After several years at the top, Wild Bill seemed to lose some interest in the competition, embarking on promotional tours that would see him return to places from his past where he’d inevitably end up getting himself into trouble, only to shoot his way out. He’s always known how to take promotional advantage of his USARF service as a point man extraordinaire, unlike his collaborations with the Janissary Corps against human trafficking networks, which he takes very personally and of which he barely talks about. This increasing activity keeps him further and further away from the HexaDome, especially after accepting Hannibal’s invitation to join the ranks of the Foreign Company. The elite mercenary group has become a new source of revenue, entertainment, and promotion for Wild Bill, and comfort for his fans who now enjoy his exploits in the Foreign Company while waiting for his return to competition. But this gunslinger seems increasingly comfortable on the dangerous side of the Sphere, and as long as the USARF needs another valuable convoy protected or the Janissaries some slaver network dismantled, Wild Bill won’t hang up his guns.
