ARMAGEDDON Trooper Corps

The ARMAGEDDON Troopers are an elite group of soldiers bred to do whatever is necessary to achieve total victory at whatever cost. They wear advanced ARMAGEDDON Suits, which allow them to fight like mobile tanks and passable starfighters. They are in all ways superior to standard front line troops, or even crack shock assault troops. Grown from superior genetic stock than the regular clone troopers and trained with far more grueling and lethal techniques, the ARMAGEDDON Troopers (referred to after this as A-Troops) are lethally effective even without their robotic companions.

"The ARMAGEDDON Trooper Corps is the most hard-core band of fierfeks that you'll find in the military. The Corps maintains a proud, unique heritage and teaches its own language to its inductees.  Many in the regular military (myself included at times) feel that the ARMAGEDDON Trooper Corps is proud and haughty, and they are right.  However, it is for the most part tolerated because the A-Troopers have an excellent combat record.  They have participated in every major war over the last 300 years, whether it be against Sith forces or simple pirate raids.  Not to mention that since their founding, there has never yet been and ARMAGEDDON Trooper taken prisoner." Taken from the Memoirs of Admiral George S. Warrick, GFFA Navy, 34th Line Fleet, ret.

Training
Genetically, each A-Troop is enhanced before his life begins. The genome is perfected so that every measurable physical and mental trait, such as endurance, strength, and memory, is almost four times baseline human maximum. All A-Troops have a universal recipient and donor blood-type. The A-Troop’s life spans are lengthened to an average of 250 years. Also, other species genes are incorporated into A-Troop DNA making it more complex than standard human DNA. A-Troops have many advantages because of this, among them extreme cold resistance, nictitating membranes over their eyes, retractable 2 cm razor sharp claws in place of fingernails with small poison glands at the base which can pump neurotoxin through hollows in the claws or not be used at all, the ability to change skin color like a chameleon, increased tolerance for pain and a resistance to going into shock, the ability to slowly re-grow lost limbs, the ability to consciously change their metabolic rate, and a need for only about 3 hours of sleep out of every 24 (as babies the A-Troops still need 6 or 7 hours out of every 24). In addition to all this, all five of their senses have been augmented to animal-like sharpness, and they have been given a sixth sense. They have an electrically sensitive lateral line running down either side of their torsos from the armpit to waist. This allows them to literally see electromagnetic fields such as those emitted by deflector shields, radar installations, anti-intruder security systems, and all animal life. All of these genetic traits except the enhanced vision, smell, and hearing are dormant and do not render the A-Troop sterile.

Unlike standard clone troops who are grown on Kamino, A-Troops are grown on Port Frederick, which is the ARMAGEDDON Trooper Corps Headquarters. Each A-Troop is grown in a standard cloning tube under similar conditions to the standard clone, only for three factors. Whereas regular clone troops take approximately 4 months to complete gestation, the A-Troops are grown at a standard rate of 9 months to reduce irregularities. Much like honeybees do, A-Troops are grown in an enhanced nutrient bath, specifically with an excess of protein, calcium, growth hormones and the mental developmental stimulant Havinathol-5. This makes their bones and muscle tissue stronger, makes them larger, and decreases reaction time while increasing IQ. Finally, the droid brain that is to be constructed into the A-Troop’s ARMAGEDDON Suit is linked into the A-Troop’s developing brain to create an intuitive “link” similar to that shared by identical twins. A-Troops are grown in batches of 1600. All their training is done together, and once they see real combat, each squad is made up of individuals from the same group. Batches are started once every three months, so new A-Troopers are inducted into the ranks every three months.

Once gestation is complete, the babies are sent to the A-Troop school, which is the first of three phases in their formal education. For the next 6 years, they will spend 8 hours a day plugged into data transfer helmets and spinal musculature stimulators. 4 hours each day will be devoted to appointments with doctors, psychiatrists, developmental specialists, and other professionals who will guide and assist the development of individual A-Troops with a case-by-case method. 4 hours of each day are left for free time. The other 8 hours are used for eating and sleeping. Once their sixth birthday arrives, the A-Troops have the equivalent knowledge of a PhD in astrophysics, exobiology, medicine, history of warfare, electrical, mechanical, aeronautical, and chemical engineering, and law. In addition to their considerable knowledge, they have the physical bodies of extremely athletic ten year olds.

Upon completion of school, the six year olds are shipped from Port Frederick to Gepusath, a vicious world with predators of every shape and size, fierce hurricanes and electrical storms. The entire planet is reserved for A-Trooper training. This is the first of three phases in their informal training. With no prior training, they are shoved out the bay of a drop ship at 12,000 feet with nothing but a parachute and fatigues into the bush on the southern continent. They are told only that they must make it to the extraction point at the north-pole. The journey is grueling, usually a third of any group do not make it. It usually takes about 2 years to reach the northern shore of the barren, rocky southern continent, swim or make a raft to cross the 67 kilometer wide ocean straight, climb over the mountains, struggle through the desert (wider than the Sahara) cross the vast grasslands and swamps, make it through the dense jungle and then forest, and push across the tundra and icecaps to the extraction point, which is a standard garrison base. All the while the A-Troops must contend with giant flying predators that can track them the entire way north, pack-hunting fish in the lakes, rivers, and the ocean straight, tiny stinging poisonous insects, a gamut of surface beasts with sharp teeth, claws, and dripping saliva, and seasonal hurricanes with wind speeds greater than 300 km/hr that penetrate far inland. Plant diversity is astounding, and while in most places there is more than plenty to sustain as many A-Troops as may pass through, the problem lies in figuring out what is safe to eat. To make matters worse, as one moves north on Gepusath, the plant life changes, so the same lessons must be relearned several times. A-Troops that come back in groups are watched closely during the next phase of their training for potential leadership skills.

For those A-Troops that survive and make it back to the extraction point, they are allowed a relative time of peace if they arrived early. 8 hours of calisthenics per day and then free time until all the stragglers have arrived. Then the real training begins. Phase two of their formal education is a standard military training environment on Port Frederick. They are subjected to the most intense boot camp conditions that the sadistic trainers can think up. Casualties are to be expected in A-Troop training. Training includes teambuilding exercises, drill, calisthenics, target practice, hand to hand techniques such as mixed martial arts and wrestling, field camouflage and stealth, psychological warfare, the development of a chain of command among the A-Troops, and the development of their own form of sign language that only they can read. (The last item is not officially on the list of training objectives, but it is the responsibility of the commanding officer to accidentally “let slip” the idea in informal conversation with a trainer when an A-Trooper is within earshot). The boot camp environment lasts until they are 16. At this stage in their development, each A-Troop looks like an Olympic weight-lifter, and can literally run circles around champion sprinters. They are now 7 feet tall.

After boot camp, the A-Troopers are brought to the volcanic world of Mustafar for the second phase of their informal training. Mustafar is a small world caught in the tidal pull of two gas giants. The average surface temperature is enough to burn exposed flesh, and a third of the world is covered in oceans of boiling lava. Like Gepusath, Mustafar was bought by the military for the sole purpose of training A-Troopers. The A-Troopers are given 3 days worth of water and a few ration cubes, and outfitted in a standard suit of clone trooper armor. They are told that they must find a way to the extraction point as a team, which is an antique Lucrehulk-class cargo ship orbiting one of the gas giants, and left on the surface. The planet is riddled with fake mining installations guarded by B2 battle droids, Droidekas, and Dark Trooper phase-2s. They were all built for the A-Trooper’s benefit. In each of these installations is a hangar with food, water, and a derelict freighter. The A-Troopers must first figure out that these installations are even on the planet and that they have a way to get off of it, mount an attack with no weapons to secure one of the mining installations, repair the freighter within, and fly it manually to the space station. (Because nowhere on the entire planet is there a navicomputer). The only problem is that no one installation has all the parts to repair its freighter. The parts can only be obtained by raiding other installations as well. The elapsed time from drop off to docking with the station averages 7 weeks. If a group is still on the planet when the next group is scheduled to come through, the next group is simply dropped onto the other side of the planet, and the group behind schedule receives 6 months of additional boot camp.

For the A-Troops that make it back, there is a surprise waiting for them at the space station. Their completed ARMAGEDDON Suits, arrayed in formation on the hangar floor. Each A-Trooper is allowed to enter his suit for the first time and talk to his companion droid brain, which he has not talked with since before boot camp. The final phase of their formal training is upon them. Four years of intensive training with their suits follow back on Port Frederick, during which the A-Troops learn how to literally take apart and put back together their suits. They learn advance combat strategies and tactics and apply them in simulated combat. They learn to fly in their suits and utilize starfighter maneuvers for dogfights. They learn how fly ground support and escort. They learn how to drop in hot at a 90 degree insertion angle over an enemy held world in the face of missile and laser fire. They learn how to land on the hull of an enemy vessel, blast a hole to the interior, board it and singlehandedly kill everyone on board then overload the reactors and set it on a course for another enemy ship.

When the A-Troops have completed their formal training with the ARMAGEDDON Suits, it is time for the final phase of their training: Phase 3 of their informal training. This training is conducted on Port Frederick, or more specifically, in a computer network. Each A-Trooper is plugged into a virtual reality matrix. The entire class is then subjected to a mock battle, the exact same as the simulated battles they have fought for the last four years, only this time if they die in the battle, they die for real. The A-Troops are not told what to expect, only that this is their final test before seeing actual combat. In the simulation, they are all onboard a cruiser engaged in a pitched fleet battle over a contested world. The captain calls for ARMAGEDDON assistance. They all suit up and debark to dogfight the enemy starfighters. After a few minutes of this, they will begin to realize that the fight is for real and that their teammates are actually dying. That is where a noticeable switch in tactics always occurs, usually trying to slice the simulator code. However, there is no way to do this, and a trainer then breaks over their group frequency and tells them so. The enemy then pulls back to the planet. The captain comes over the group frequency and tells them that the enemy is guarding a command center on the planet and that they must land and knock it out. The A-Troopers must insert into the atmosphere hot and destroy the command center. While they are on the ground, however, the cruiser is destroyed by an enemy force that hyperjumps insystem and then lays siege to the planet. The A-Troopers must hold out for a month on the planet until friendly reinforcements arrive. Once this happens, they are unplugged from the simulators.

The A-Troopers have now completed training. There is a large ceremony held at the Academy on Port Frederick where each A-Trooper is officially commissioned into the ARMAGEDDON Trooper Corps. Out of the original group of 1600, usually less than 600 remain in fighting shape for this moment. Those that were permanently wounded during training but can still function are also commissioned as support personnel. There are usually around 100 of them. After the ceremony, the A-Troops are given 64 days of leave to go wherever they please and are ordered to report back to Port Frederick at the end of that time. Almost always, the graduating class tours the sights of the galaxy as a group and sticks together for the duration of their leave. Upon reporting back, they are immediately shipped to the frontlines, wherever they are needed. All A-Troopers must serve a minimum of 100 years in the military (recall their long life spans). After that, they are free to remain in the service or enjoy the rest of their very long lives on a substantial bank account the military created in their name at the start of their lives. This is to somewhat repay them for the abuses they suffered at the hands of the military during training and from the enemy during combat. Most A-Troops choose the latter and retire to some remote world far from conflict to live out the rest of their lives in quiet solitude or to start a family.