Confused by reports of fighting in America between seeming everyone? Don’t be ashamed! The battles ongoing in what was once the South/Southeast portion of the United States are, to put it bluntly, a huge mess. This article intends to clarify matters at least a little bit.
Factions:
The Regime: The evil empire is playing defense in the South.
-Bases: Phis and Son form the westernmost cities definitively under Regime control. New Orleans, Dallas and Houston are heavily influenced by the Regime, but not officially part of it. The Company Facilities in those cities answer as readily to the Pantheon as they do to their masters.
-Forces:
- The Sixth Fist are a relatively immobile unit focused on defense. They generally occupy Regime cities and coordinate the local Ultras in protective actions. Their mobility is limited to the Regime’s primitive conventional means (helicopters and automobiles for the most part). Their fighting capability is excellent, and like all Fists they are immune to attrition.
- The Third Fist are a mobile strike force generally focused on assailing Pantheon positions. Leveller’s hydrokinesis provides them exceptional maneuverability so long as they remain active in coastal regions. Third Fist generally operates independently of other Regime assets. They have more destructive capability than the Sixth fist, but lacking Fader’s invincibility they must be more careful of enemy retribution.
- The Knights of Purity’s Second Crusade is deployed to this region, comrpising several hundred humans armed with equipment and melee weaponry augmented by Refiner’s blessings. This unit is predominantly deployed to deal with suspected resistance efforts in Regime cities, or in terror attacks on civilians in the no-man’s-land.
- Phis and Son have garrisons of a small number of Regime Ultras, perhaps several dozen each. These Ultras are not trained in any particular military techniques, beyond the general savagery of Regime existence. They have experience fighting with the Pantheon, and should be expected to perform about on par with its Ultras.
-Leadership:
- The Sixth Fist are third in command in this region, and predominantly deploy their forces in an attempt to conserve the Regime civilian’s lives. What little offence they do undertake is generally better considered and more successful than their superiors.
- The Third Fist are second in command, and concern themselves with destroying enemy assets. Their true purpose appears to be entertaining their master, which makes their actions more predictable than one would expect.
- Subtracter is nominally in charge of Regime forces in this region, when she flies down from Shington to take charge. She generally prioritizes expanding the Regime’s grasp, ‘taking’ enemy cities or conducting terror raids deep behind the front lines.
The Pantheon: Our enemies are also the Regime’s enemies.
-Bases:Forth Worth is Quetzalcoatl’s fortress, and her men generally return there between raids to the east and south. Laredo is the Pantheon’s other stronghold in the area, divided in allegiance between Thor and Krishna.
-Forces:
- Quetzalcoatl has several hundred Ultras under her command, and more flock to her banner every month. These Ultras are predominantly lacking in actual combat experience, but observations indicate that she has acquired several renegade Union military personnel and put them to work training her mob.
- Thor has approximately a hundred Ultras. His recent defeats at Subtracter’s hands have seen his forces dwindling, leaving him for more successful commanders or simply departing the war zone entirely. Nonetheless, he remains the most experienced commander that the Pantheon has in this area, and his forces have the most battles under their belts.
- Krishna’s Ultras number between Thor’s and Quetzalcoatl’s, but where their troops are locals Krishna’s are veterans of the Union conflict in Asia. Zeus and the rest of the leadership council are believed to have sent or exiled her from that area, but the purpose and circumstances of this development are unknown.
-Leadership:
- Quetzalcoatl is mostly an unknown quantity. One would expect an untried commander to do poorly, but she has met success so far. She seems to have a knack for avoiding the obvious mistakes. If she can avoid drawing Prevailer down upon herself she will probably continue to be successful.
- Thor’s simplistic tactics and strategies would have brought about crushing failure against any enemy less predictable than the Regime. Even against an enemy hamstrung by their leader’s manias he has achieved little. Personal power aside, Thor must be accounted a poor commander.
- Krishna was a successful and respected commander in the Union conflict. Given that she faced an actual integrated military force in that campaign it is logical to conclude that against the Regime’s rabble she should encounter great success, if she can avoid assassination. Rumor has it that she has some kind of Ultra Wisdom.
Aside from the two major factions, there exists minor military efforts by the following organizations:
-Union forces: Our leaders have confirmed that our observers play a limited role in the Regime’s southern front. It is believed that they take advantage of the chaos to eliminate war criminals from either faction as they become vulnerable. Our elite Ultras, employing superior technology and cooperating with trained human professionals, are without question the most effective units of their size in the region.
-KEM kill teams: The human hate group ‘Kill Every Monster’ has its sympathizers and supporters in every region. In this open war zone they can discover their targets and launch attacks with far less repercussions than they’d suffer in civilized zones. A number of Ultras on both sides have fallen victim to their ambushes.
-Resistance cells: The human inhabitants of both the Regime and the Pantheon have no love for their oppressors, and from time to time take quasi-military action to relieve their situations. Their lack of military hardware and Ultra support means that they are predominantly only able to perform recon work, but these courageous men and women should not be underestimated.