Chupacabra

**Key Features** | »Sharp nose (attuned to blood)»Spiked paw greaves»Lean body structure (spine is ridged)»Mo-2C canine gas mask»Feralness (mostly bred out)

## Tactical Analysis

* **El Perro Asesino:** The Chupacabra serves as the Combine's animal scout, being fast enough to cover land quickly and keen enough to sniff out hidden units. Though it is less bulky and tough than other animal scouts, and is no more quicker than any other normal canine, it can still rip apart enemies with its specially-fitted armoured front paws.

* **Stalkers of Tindalos:** With only sporadic reports of its existence until recently, it is no surprise the Chupacabra is well suited for disguise and hiding and thus while standing still it will quickly become stealthed. While this is of little use versus other animal scouts, against unwary infantry it can mean a quick - and unseen - death.

* **Its brambles are worse than its bite:**

* **No One Escapes the Hounds:** With a special diet based partly on hematophagy, chupacabrae are particularly inflamed by the scent of blood. Should they successfully kill another living being they will become even faster in their movements and attacks - for a time. Though Chupacabra must be vetted first since said diet could make them too aggressive or kill them.

## Background

*"Rurff, rurff, AHH-ROOOOEEEEEEEE!"*

- Chupcabra howl, roughly translated by GIs as "Hell"
### Under Revision

The chupacabra *(Canis Terrorum)* is a species of canid native to the remote or wild areas of Central America. Although smaller than wolves, their overtly aggressive and ruthless behavior makes up for it, allowing them to hunt larger prey, human included, with great ease. Contrary to popular belief, they are carnivorous, not bloodsuckers, but they have a tendency to bleed out their prey before taking them down, which may have created the perception that they liked their blood. For long, this species had been thought to be a myth, partly due to their sickly look that makes them look like malnourished coyote, and partly due to their outstanding aggressiveness, with many confirmed kills once the species had been had been recognized and clarified and countless more that have been speculated throughout native lore and data taken from the Spanish, and later Central American archives.

The official discovery was made in a Southern Mexico valley. This particular location, the "Valle de los gritos" as the locals knew it, was known as the valley where demons roamed, with this belief in mind the Technate government ordered to push into this jungle, to discover if there was any truth to this and, if there was, to make contact with these demons and see what could be learned from them.

This expedition, part of the Project Myth Examiner initiative, is considered an outstanding success,even though of the 20 strong expedition only 6 members returned, half of them badly injured, they managed to capture a live specimen, among other discoveries, which quickly attracted the attention of the world's biologists.

It quickly became discerned that another characteristic of this species was their ultrasonic howl, which possesses a mesmerizing property capable of stunning its would be prey for a short amount of time, it was also discovered that, while this particular valley had an exceptionally large population, the species existed elsewhere, normally preying on unsuspecting travelers going through remote inroads, and that their normally solitary nature would make capture of other specimens somewhat easier.

This species quickly captured the attention of the Eugenics program inside the Technate that, to prove the worth of their practice, quickly set out to breed a domestic variant of this species, though this program has met varying results, most of them disastrous, it has attracted the attention of the Humanitarian Guard, which found value in an animal scout that is effectively fearless and that can naturally paralyze enemies with a scream.

While the breeding program has brought many complaints from Allied agencies and Continental sympathizers, who among other things suspect that it's actually encouraging the already outstanding aggressive behavior of this species, it has been kept going, with a large approval of the Technate government and, to the despair of the Humanitarian Guard's enemies, the Chupacabra has found its place into their ranks.

### Inventory

**Weaponry:**

* Spiked paw greaves
* Claws
* Teeth

**Protection:**

* Escaupil ballistic canine vest
* Mo-2C canine respirator mask

**Equipment:**

* Handler leash and harness