The Confederation

Attack Squad

Although they now held complete control over their new ‘Confederation’, the Council continued to experiment and advance its practices away from the public eye. Its members knew well the hatred the people held for technologies that twisted living flesh. The narrow defeat of the Tin Men at the Gragon Line was enough to bring more high-ranking officials to their side, allowing the Council to press ahead with plans to create a new hybrid of metal and flesh—something that might have tipped the scales against them had they not secured this new allegiance.

The earliest versions of this creation failed spectacularly. Systems broke down, synthetic organic materials rapidly degraded, and entire garrisons found themselves attacked by their own Attack Squads. The machines appeared to descend randomly into madness or self-destruct without warning, taking entire squads with them. For some time, the intricacies of biological processors and synthetic systems proved insurmountable. Then came a sudden breakthrough.

Later iterations proved far more reliable, although they were rarely deployed alongside other forces for extended periods. These new versions were faster and more agile than their predecessors, their forms resembling humanoids more closely than the designs of the Tin Men. Their organic components were concealed beneath armour and appeared far more lifelike than before. Fast and lethal, Attack Squads were deployed to quickly dispatch entrenched enemies.

Armed with multifunction grenade launchers and Hypercharge Talons, they were the last thing many of their victims would ever see. The Talon itself was a triumph of Confederation technology, causing those it struck to erupt into supercharged debris capable of passing effortlessly through armour and shielding alike.

Although the Attack Squads proved invaluable, rumours concerning the reason behind their dramatic transformation spread like wildfire throughout the Confederation. Even today, children are told a cautionary tale about those who commit the greatest wrongs against the Council: that they are taken away in the night and changed, condemned to serve forever as mindless machines.