Pathfinder (Blue Alert)

**Key Features** |  » FG-49 7.62mm Carbine » Underslung Bren-3 9mm » Starlight scope (monocular) » Distinctive "Tommy" Helmet » Grey Jackets (name giving)

*"Jumping out of a perfectly functional plane would usually be considered a sign of insanity."*

-General William Slim instructing the first Pathfinders.

### Tactical Analysis

* **Bullets for the front**: Faster on their feet and faster firing than the Peacemakers, Pathfinders are a highly mobile form of suppression and basic infantry with FG-49s modified for a high rate of fire to force an enemy's head down and to provide an advantage in infantry firefights. Their fast, highly concentrated firepower also makes them ideal for paradrop missions; which is why they and their rocket toting counterparts are preferred for airborne assault missions.
* **Even more bullets!**: The Pathfinders can also activate special underslung revolver submachine guns to provide even more firepower at close range, though after being used the submachine guns need to be reloaded. This sends even more bullets down range; ensuring no one is keeping their heads up, and they always open up these assaults with a rifle grenade to flush enemies out of cover to be cut down.
* *Light* **infantry**: Pathfinders do not do well against heavy targets, and will almost certainly be cut down in a fight with them. And even with their rocket using counterparts by their side, Pathfinders are fragile targets who will probably not survive in the face of artillery fire, dedicated anti-infantry vehicles, and battlesuits.
* **A great sucking noise**: The best Pathfinders are selected to trial a new Vacuum rifle grenade that makes the opening to their attacks even more lethal as the grenades are effective against virtually all targets while their rifles are replaced with spectrum weapons that can cut through armour more easily.

### Background

The story of the Pathfinders begins with King-Emperor Edward VIII's mandate for fast moving troops who can quickly deploy across Britain's vast Empire and engage any foe. With Fuller backing the demands of his liege, there were none in the army who would dare object. The task would thus fall to the rather young maverick William Slim who had found his career often frustrated by the conservative hierarchy of the British armed forces, and leapt at the chance to step out of the shadow of one of the world's oldest war machines.

He was intensely interested by the Italian futurist government's investments into paratrooper formations, as well as the insights into the form made by the Soviets, Germans, and Americans. He sought for, and received permission from the Kaiser himself to form his idea for a new unit that would be able to strike behind the lines or reinforce positions at alarming speeds. Slim envisioned them being able to open up new fronts against the Communist enemy, to quickly secure vital points such as fortresses, bridge controls, and power stations or quickly provide reinforcements to areas in dire need of fresh manpower. These Pathfinders were trained as special forces, not to fight on their own but rather quickly arrive where needed or serve as a means of enveloping soldiers who thought themselves safe.

First tested in colonial wars and wars of revolution and reaction throughout the first cold war, the Aerotroopers (and their communist counterparts) were impressive enough to be copied by the other armies of the Alliance and Edward ordered a unified command for an Alliance wide paratrooper corps. Thus the Pathfinders were born; as a means of expressing the Alliance's airpower over the enemies of Capitalism and Europe. By Edward's decree, they would have Land Rovers, ultralight cruiser tanks, and small French artillery pieces as well as lightweight Rocket PIATs and assault rifles to bring as much punch to the fight as possible; and would come to a fight with both parachutes and gliders to ensure the enemy would have the damdnest of times trying to prevent their assault from landing.

It would not be until the second world war that Slim's Pathfinder units would get their hands bloodied as the Allied Blitzkrieg was launched all acrossthe world. The pathfinders were the first to be sent into the fray, with paratrooper teams penetrating deep into Communist territory in the opening waves of the assault to seize strategic points for the Alliance's military and to immediately cut supply lines and secure staging areas for the wider alliance military. Enormous paradrops would be conducted to launch assaults on installations as deep into America as New York City to try and distract America from committing more troops to Europe and Asia while others would land at dams to prevent their destruction and seize their electricity generation capabilities for the Alliance.

While the Comintern pushed back hard and American Rangers, German Fallschirmjaegers, and Soviet VDV troops would quickly challenge the Pathfinders with more than a few battles involving Communist and Capitalist paratroopers paradropping into the same area; the experiences learned in the second world war would be valuable for the further expansion and refinement of the peacekeeper corps. With the Alliance hit hard by the second world war when the Comintern penetrated deep into Alliance territory and brought the battle to their own homelands and were only driven back by all out and desperate counter offensives, the Pathfinders were looked at as a way to also rapidly defend Alliance territory; and so Slim found himself with even more funding for his project. Though he would eventually retire to let younger commanders take the reins, his legacy on the Pathfinders was inarguable and the corps would add another epithet to the Red Baron's list of them; "Dad Slim".

In the third world war, the Alliance once again opened with massive paratrooper formations, this time attacking with even greater furor and fire as they sought to overwhelm the giants of the global communist movement with all out offensives. Even as the initial Alliances began to stall, Pathfinder divisions would find themselves deployed far beyond their borders and supporting defensive operations against increasingly vicious communist counter offensives; earning them the title of "aerial firefighters" for their constant movement from one theatre to the next. However the sudden attack of the Axis and the betrayal of Epsilon proved to be devastating to the corps. Unprepared for the kind of conflict they would find against the Axis and the Epsilon bloc, the Pathfinder corps suffered heavily; particularly against the Guardians of Monarchy who supported Japan as the Alliance's air force was put to the test by the fantastical flying machines of the aristocrats who were all to happy to cut the Pathfinders down before they ever touched the ground and Epsilon's murderous gatling guns could shred them whether they were in the air or not.

It was the pathfinders who spearheaded the assaults on Mt.Fuji and Kemp Land just as surely as they helped to put pressure on Metropolis in the UASR and fought to take the Ruhr earlier in the war. These assaults would devastate the corps who had to be the first to test the teeth of the enormous defenses prepared for them. It is estimated that the survival rates of the pathfinders throughout the war were only thirty percent, casualty rates that may have been acceptable in Thornley and Fuller's alliance, but not ones that Manning was willing to accept. He decreed a number of reforms to the Pathfinder corps and how it was deployed to try and reduce casualties; including the provision of improved body armor and investment into better weapons to help protect their lives, as well as closer coordination with tactical bombers and fighters to ensure that more soldiers would survive the paradrop.

# Rocket Pathfinders

 **Key Features** |  » PF65 Light 66mm Multipurpose rocket launcher » Sprint AA missiles/Dragon HEAT rockets » Lightweight Body Armor » Model 69 night vision device » Surly Attitude (Well Jaded)