Kite Warrior

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

 **Key Features** | »Personal kite»Anti-Matter sticky bomb»Tractor beam generator»Standard flight gear»Plenty of ropes

*"I can see your house from here!"*

- Kite Warrior
### Tactical Analysis

* **I love flying:** Kite Warriors strap themselves to kites in order to fly above the battlefield, therefore acting more as planes then as infantry, flying close to aircraft to attach antimatter bombs.

* **I wanna hold you, for 2 seconds:** Kite Warriors use their tractor beams to pull enemies up into the air near them, and then let them plummet to their death below. They also use these tractor beams to pull themselves towards the aircraft to attach their bomb.

* **Lights in the sky:** Kite Warriors also carry a number of paper lanterns filled with unstable plasma. These lanterns float in the air acting like arial mines before the plasma inside eventually consumes the lantern.

* **Let's go hunting for birds:** In order to keep flight the Kite Warrior planar shield generator is smaller, making it weaker so the Kite Warrior must avoid anti-air at all costs. Their tractor beam is also only strong enough to lift infantry, and they need to get close to an aircraft to attach their bomb.

### Operational History

After the razing of China in an inferno of atomic hellfire, the survivors were lost, scattered, and alone. Different groups dealt with this situation in different ways. Some stayed where they were, waiting for help to eventually arrive. Some attempted to rebuild what they lost with what materials they had. But many groups tried to cross the atomic wastelands through any means possible. Such a journey was, suffice to say, unbelievably risky. In the middle of a desert that should contain nothing but glass and dust, it is not uncommon to find a lone body, practically mummified by the hot, dry weather, and the radiation killing any decomposing microbes. The amount of people lost to making these desperate journeys after the bombs fell is incalculable. But there is a reason behind what seems to be madness. Fallout was just a shift of the wind away; those trying to rebuild their homes risked losing everything to radiation sickness killing all food sources and causing horrific deaths. Those waiting for help often ran out of something in their wait, whether that was food, water or simply patience. And even those thought shielded from a radioactive death risked death from innumerable sources. Roving bands of thugs roamed the land, using the nuclear apocalypse as a blank check for mayhem. Military forces would take advantage of communities, forcibly taking supplies, loot, and even forcing conscription on locals. The once beautiful wildlife had become mutated into unrecognisable forms, the kind that can only be imagined in nightmares. Escape seemed the only solution.

Thus, escape attempts became more common, even as the death count rose. Every possible method of escape a sane mind could devise was tried. People would walk on foot for weeks, hoping to avoid radiation pits. Vehicles, either previously owned or 'acquired', were used to transport people as far as they could by land, air or sea. A series of tunnels had been dug in certain areas during the war; despite the dangers inside them, it was hoped they would be less than the dangers on the surface. Of course, for some people, such possibilities were not possible. And thus, desperate survivors turned to every possible method of escape an insane mind could devise. Many of the more shocking results have become so famous or infamous, that it is rumoured they have been permanently recorded and preserved by Starfleet themselves, as precious artefacts to the human spirit. A village was found to have welded pots and pans into impromptu suits of armour, hoping it would stave off radiation poisoning. A broken truck was found, shot from an impromptu 'catapault' in a hope to cross the Yangtze river. A group of survivors even tried to intentionally antagonize a Blue Chinese base, in the hope of destroying, repairing, and comandeering a helicopter. One of the most famous attempts, however, was that of the 'kite villagers'.

One village that had chosen to wait had paid the price; fallout had blown their way. What had been a sizeable village, relatively untouched by the war, became a ghost town, inhabited by only 10 survivors. Miles from even the nearest village, they turned to their impromptu leader for help. Their leader had made kites in their town, and she was good at her job. Setting to work, she was able to design a set of 'kites' for her and her companions. Like Yuan Huangtou, they took to they sky on a kite, but like Yuan Huangtou, their trip was to end in disaster. Crossing the shattered, radiation-scarred wasteland, one by one the villagers fell. Starvation, radiation and sheer exhaustion claimed victims until only two were left. Their leader still survived, and their youngest member, a soldier stationed in their village, were all that remained. Drifting desperately, they flew together until they saw buildings unlike they had ever seen before. Both dying of radiation sickness, their skin so blistered that witnesses say they barely even appeared human anymore, and touched down, believing themselves to be in paradise. Both retold their story, before dying from the effects of their incredible trip.

But it was not to be their final flight. The Watchmen in this Green Chinese base managed to extract a biological sample from the two and sent it, and their story, to Starfleet. Chinese scholars worked for weeks, designing a new kite for infantry to fly on. Using material from the Bird of Prey's wings, they made a small ion propulsion that would propel a clone in a similar manner to a slow kite. But tests with a multitude of clones failed to yield results; Starfleet soon concluded that only the pair that had inspired the new kites could properly fly them. Cloning them anew, they once again took to the sky, to help another group of survivors undertake their legendary trip to the stars.

## Erlang Shen

 **Dev. Status** | Conceptual

 **Key Features** | »Ceremonial kite»Radio backpack»Tractor beam generator (supercharged)»Fashionable flight gear»Plenty of ropes (handmade)

*"Lifting you up, dropping you dead!"*

- Erlang Shen
### Tactical Analysis

* **Eye in the sky:** Eunuches taught how to manipulate the kites used by the cloned warriors, Fengbo are known as fearless leaders willing to draw their forces into the jaws of death and survive. They have all the advantages of the cloned kite warriors, as well as the flexibility of thought to survive extended battles. Though unarmed, since their communications equipment is heavy, they are heavily armoured.

* **Do you even lift?:** Significantly more powerful compared to the standard. The Erlang Shen are able to either lift two infantry at once, though a design flaw makes it so that that their target will not be injured from the fall when their tractor beam deactivates.

* **Illuminate the sky:** Erlang Shen also carry dozens of anti-air lanterns which they can deploy in whole clusters to blockade the skies.

* **They Cut the String:** Of course, this makes the Erlang Shen just as tempting targets as their ground-pounding counterparts, the additional weakness of being unarmed.

### Operational History

Like all clones, the Kite Warriors need someone to set their example. While they're trained already to respect and defer to all officers, on the field it's hard to hear commands being shouted at you when you're a few hundred feet up. As before, command needed to be given to non-cloned survivors, preferably the sterile eunuches, but the problem was that teaching someone to put their faith in a machine barely bigger than a man to act as a flying device isn't very comforting.

## Fengbo Marine

 **Dev. Status** | Conceptual

 **Key Features** | »» Custom-made kite»» Nuclear crossbow»» Tractor beam generator (multiple)»» Custom-fitted flight gear/spacesuit»» Ridiculous amount of ropes (handmade)

*"The skies are our domain!"*

- Star Marine
### Tactical Analysis

* **We'll Kite Them to Death:** Brave volunteers that are put through an even more hellish training regiment compared to the Fengbo (with an absurdly high injury rate, but no fatalities) as they're meant to protect the Aristocrats as space marines. The Star Marines are one of the strongest marine soldiers of the Atomic Kingdom. Speeding across the skies and blowing apart aircraft with a “crossbow” that fires a death ray capable of blowing up most aircraft in a single shot while their pressurised space suits makes them significantly tougher and can breath in the vacuum of space.

* **One moment in heaven:** Equipped with the most powerful man-portable tractor beam made. The Star Marine can easily lift multiple infantry and vehicles, or a single tank, with ease, before throwing them toward the enemies for devastating damage.

* **Set the sky alight:** Carrying dozens of anti-air antimatter lanterns the Star Marine can completely deny the skies to the enemy.

* **What holds the kite:** Of course, the process to make a single Star Marine is a lot, making them the most expensive units behind the Marine Captain and the commandoes, and should not be thrown away like most clones. And for all of their firepower, their shield and armour still remain as (relatively) fragile as a Kite Warrior.

### Operational History

It is known that an infantry which can fly can provide a rather versatile and powerful asset, even more so in the void of space where everything needs to be sealed against the cold vacuum. And the Kingdom knows full well that once their ships launch they’ll need men and women who can operate outside the ships to defend against the Soviet cosmonauts and Allied space troopers. And, though they hate the very concept, created a new marine branch based off the Kite Warrior, one which bore the highest dropout rate of the marine branches.

Kite Warrior marines, known as “**Fengbo**” after the Chinese god of wind, must first prove themselves in a series of tests designed to strain the applicant's courage to a breaking point. They must wrestle down mutated cattle with bare hands, face down court eunuchs in a series of mental trials, and finally must go against a Marine captain in single combat. Each test monitors the aristocrats focus under pressure, and when the tests are finished, they must take them again, this time being rapidly jerked about by tractor beams. If they can keep their focus through this section of testing and are still willing to continue, they move on to flight training. They use trainer kites to conform themselves to the motions of kite flying, and eventually move on to simulated combat with infantry and aerial enemies. The process is long, and often suffers from a high drop-out rate.

By the end of the training, only a fraction of the original aristocrats that signed up have made it through the gruelling obstacles. They must finally retake their entrance test, with their unpowered kite attached to their back. By this point, the kite is merely a natural extension of their bodies, and on completion, a Fengbo will power up their pack, and ascend with them into flight, into the skies and soon into the unknown of space.