Beyond Operation Crimson Stone includes six miniatures:
For Nomads: Engineer Tomcat with MULTI Rifle and Light Shotgun, Wildcat with Spitfire, and Vostok with Mk12 (a plastic miniature from Corvus Belli's new plastic line).
For Ariadna: Kosmosoldat with AP HMG, one Scot Guard with Marksman Rifle and William Wallace, the hero of Ariadna.
The outstanding success of the Sputnik series reaffirmed the confidence of the Nomad Military Force in the tactical use of Combat Remotes. However, the story of the Sputniks was not yet concluded. The distinctive modular design of these remote units gives them a wide range of room for improvement that allows them to evolve and adapt to new needs that may arise from current changing operating environments.
Therefore, all the experience accumulated by the Nomad Military Force in the use of the first models of Sputniks—Tsyklon, and Lunokhod—has been applied to the second generation of these tactical remotes, known as Vostok. This designation code continues the tradition of using legendary names from Russian Cosmonautics as a subtle way to prove that the main source of funding for this program is the Tunguska Struktura.
The Nomad Military Force had found that under certain operating conditions, the Sputniks lacked the robustness and firepower necessary to guarantee their survival. As the Paradiso conflict escalated, the Nomad troops became increasingly involved in scenarios of total war, where it was necessary to possess greater resistance and more varied weaponry. These were the challenges Praxis engineers had to face with the second generation of Sputniks. They had to increase the structural robustness of these Remotes without compromising the magnificent speed and capacity of movement of the original series. This forced them to implement an improved powerplant that, although more powerful also increased the weight of the unit, which was a problem for maintaining the vertical movement capacity of the first Sputnik models.
Nevertheless, Praxis engineers were able to apply the obtained achievements of neomaterial research during the development of the third generation of Zond Remotes. These innovative alloys made it possible to lighten the weight of certain components of the powerplant of the second Vostok prototype, as well as other structural elements of that Remote. The result was a remote unit that could match its predecessors in speed and agility, but with enhanced damage resistance capabilities and a superior offensive payload.
Though, the start of production of the Vostok was delayed due to an incident in the last phase of testing of the second prototype. In an act of sabotage and industrial robbery, a Yujingyu mixed commando team entered the development facilities of these Remotes. The security detachment was unable to contain them but gave engineers enough time to put the Vostok prototype they were testing into motion. This Remote confronted the entire Yujingyu commando team, thwarting its attempted robbery, although it was destroyed in the process. At that level, the Yujingyu sabotage action had been successful, forcing Praxis engineers to build a new prototype.
However, they added certain modifications to this new model in regard to the original from notes taken from the recordings of security cameras during the Yujingyu raid, which served to improve its performance against moving targets in closed environments. After a new battery of tests, the Vostok went into production, being deployed just in time to participate in the last phase of the Third Paradiso Offensive, precisely the type of stage for which it had been designed.
There is demonstrated that it is a worthy heir to its predecessors, capable of keeping the Nomad Nation at the forefront of Remote design, although, in this case, with some involuntary help from Yu Jing.
TOMCATS, SPECIAL EMERGENCY AND RESCUE TEAM
WILDCATS, POLYVALENT TACTICAL UNIT
ARIADNA
ARMATA PROYEKT-4 KOSMOSOLDATS
Space knows how to kill you, and it can do it in many different ways, and that is something it has in common with the Kosmosoldats. In the Human Sphere, the words "Ariadnan astronaut" always caused much hilarity, since they brought to mind awkward people in old-fashioned suits, that is until these troops were first brought into action and they shut everyone’s mouth. Actually, there were several indicators suggesting that the Ariadnans would make good astronauts, or as they say, cosmonauts.
Ariadna's space program is developed in Mat’, and therefore it has a strong Kazakh influence, hence the use of Russian cosmonautics terms. This is one of the facts that the ignorant citizens of the Sphere should have taken into account before they started laughing.
Traditionally, Russian cosmonauts have been considered and respected as true national heroes, much more so than astronauts in the West. Only the finest could become cosmonauts, true heroes who would do their duty despite the odds against them, which included not only the most hostile of environments, but also a political class and a bureaucracy that often became their worst enemies. But they all knew that the stars can only be reached through hardship, and that challenges are the way for humanity to better itself. The Kosmosoldats draw from this stoic and spartan tradition—a philosophy that is burnt into them not only at the Leonov Center for Cosmonautical Instruction, but also at school and through the mass media since childhood—and they are its worthy successors.
Nevertheless, this cosmonaut tradition is not the only reason why Ariadna can make good cosmonauts; there is another that should be obvious to everybody. Space may be the most hostile environment man has ever faced, but all Ariadnans are used to living in a hostile environment, for there are few places in the entire Human Sphere that are more dangerous than planet Dawn. So, no one should let themselves be fooled by prejudice or by the look of their suits, because these men and women seem to be made of coiled barbed wire, tough and with an iron will, and they won't stop for anything or anyone.
Because it is indeed true that Kaztec (Казтех) has excelled itself with its Armata Proyekt-4, armoring vacuum suits and applying all the experience gained in previous projects such as the Ratnik. Still, by Human Sphere standards, this vacuum armor is antiquated, even if not obsolete. However, despite all the high technology and cool, innovative design available to the other powers, when you are out there fighting for your life, it takes much more than hologame tactics and advanced gadgets to survive and prevail. It takes a warrior spirit, a fighting mentality, and lots and lots of firepower. And the Kosmosoldats have an abundance of all this.
THE SCOTS GUARDS, 6TH CALEDONIAN INFANTRY REGIMENT
