Vampire Threat

*"Do you like my embrace, bloodsucker? Custom-made armor with silver spikes, is it not beautiful up close? Feel my strength, my glorious strength, as it brings you closer to my armor! Does not the silver pain you so purely, so exquisitely, as it pins and binds you? Now see my light, the sun’s transplanted glory, the Light of the Silvermoon, as it burns your tainted flesh!”*

*Sister Alpha Aten-Swiftlight, Silvermoon Tribe Vampire Hunter*

## Shemarrians and the Vampire Threat

As noted in both Vampire Kingdoms Revised and Damon Sutton’s Shemarrian expansion in Rifter #53, ARCHIE-3 has, at Hagan Lonovich’s urging, committed a substantial force of Shemarrians (a thousand) plus various other robots and replibots, to scouting the Vampire Kingdoms and fighting vampires. The discovery of such a large number of potential sisters (and brothers) means that the Ecotroz rebels MUST move to contact and sway this large pool of potential recruits to their side. While the Hawkmoons are able to send a few fast moving aerial teams down Mexico way, it is the Wayfinders and Sapphire Cobras that send substantial expeditions to investigate.

### Civil War

ARCHIE-3 is able to warn his minions in the New West, but not in time (he underestimates the intelligence capabilities and decision-making of the rebels) to prevent the EShemar from managing to surprise and gain a foothold among the New West contingent. From there, the Shemarrian Civil War visits the New West, with the rebels and the loyalists trying to bushwack each other.

This interTribal warfare disrupts the anti-vampire work of the Shemarrians, allowing quite a few vampires who might otherwise have been destroyed by the coordinated efforts of the Shemarrians, now distracted by the fighting with their own kindred. However, any vampire that encounters either the rebels or the loyalists is going to wind up just as destroyed as they would be if they’d been hunted down.

### Post Civil War

However, once the Ecotroz rebels are able to convert loyalists and consolidate their positions, the more personable EShemarrians are even MORE effective at hunting vampires, especially when ferreting out the Secondary Vampires. And the new influx of different designs and equipment that comes with the newcomers has caught the vampires off guard; Sapphire Cobra rattlesnake Cypers are even more effective at seeking out vampire lairs than the wolves and raptors ARCHIE-3 deployed. While the numbers of Shemarrians active in the New West anti-vampire campaigns temporarily wanes due to civil war attrition, their numbers will again surge as the rebels establish control and bring in reinforcements. Better yet, the EShemar will find ready manpower pools of potential NeShemar in the survivors of vampire attacks. This will result in a new generation of cyborg vampire hunters with good reason to want to slay vampires.

The Wayfinders in particular, once they’ve gotten a look at the data assimilated from converted loyalists, and seen the situation with their own senses, will be especially adamant about making a war with the vampires a priority of their Tribe. Magic-casting gynoids will begin establishing outposts farther and farther down the West Coast and Rockies, building infrastructure for future actions against the Vampire Kingdoms.

Once the task of routing out the loyalists and dealing with the power vacuum left by the Dark One’s defeat is done with, and the Splugorth threat at least held at bay, the reformed Shemarrian Nation will most certainly turn its eye towards the Undead Problem in Mexico. Such an effort will be led by the Wayfinders, but the Sapphire Cobras, Wolf’s Path, Silvermoons, and Lost Eclipse have all expressed an interest in sending contingents to deal with the vampire threat. The Blood Riders, Hawkmoons, and Horrorwoods have also agreed to contribute small groups to test their skills, and the DarkWaters have agreed to provide naval transport in the event of coastal operations farther down along the Central and South American coasts. This influx of Shemarrian might be even more concerning to Doctor Reid, who already has his worries about the Shemarrians’ ultimate agendas in the region.

As enclaves in the South West grow and new generations of Shemarrian vampire hunters are brought into being at these enclaves via Progen, there is even talk in some circles of the establishment of a new Tribe. However, the elders of the participating Tribes feel that such is unnecessary, instead preferring to regard the expanded operations as a shared duty of cooperating existing Tribes, rather than the specialization of a single new one.