Minion War

*“I have faced the* horrors born of the Black Steel; you hold no terror for me, creature.”

----Anonymous Hawkmoon warrior, facing harpies in combat

*“Oh, you’re no fun.* No fun at all. Please die.”

---Anonymous Sapphire Cobra Naga strangling a Dyval Gorgon.

*“I like your skull.* I think I’ll crush it.”

---Anonymous Skullcrusher Warrior applying her Tribe name to a Shedim.

*“I have tentacles* too.”

---Anonymous Dark Waters Scylla, dispatching Aquatic demons off the coast of New Jersey.

*“Yes, I polished my* armor so you can see your own expression as you die.”

---Anonymous Silvermoon Warchief, carving up a Gallu Demon-Bull.

*“Hah! You bleed!* Bleed more for me! More!”

----Anonymous Blood Rider Berserker, doing a blade dance around a Succubus

*“See, in my last* life I was a chronically ill, bed-ridden academic who could only take solice in my studies, and only DREAM of having adventures like fighting evil and killing demons. But now I have a new life, and I’m killing a demon, you, and your evil fellows. Funny how dreams come true, isn’t it?”

----Brother Halkar PageBlade, Wayfinder, finishing off a Mare demon outside Calgary.

*“LEEEERRRRRROOOOYYYYY* JEEENNNNKKKIIINNNSSSSSS!!!!”

---Talos Legionnaire (Ghost Rider soldier) attacking Alu demons

*“See, the forest* doesn’t like you. Not at all.”

---Anonymous Horrorwoods Warrior after triggering a boobytrap impaling one of Hell Lord Pain’s Walking Death robots on a ‘grove’ of sharpened megasteel beams fired from the ground.

*“Now ‘What would* Alicia do?’ Ew! Ew! I know! She’d shove a gravitic grenade down your throat and watch you get pulled up your own @$$! I have a gravitic grenade!”

---Clan Alecian, putting theory into practice on a Fiend

*<<“Switch to* laser frequency even-twelve-nine. Spot and lock. Correct for windage. Incoming salvo has acquired the lock. Time on target, nine...seven...five...three...Splash targets.”>>

---Anonymous Wolf’s Path Male scout and acting artillery spotter, after his pack has hacked in a fire support request to a nearby Coalition firebase and called in a missile barrage on a demon raiding party somewhere in the Magic Zone.

*“Blasting charges* work.”

---Anonymous R’Mar in a laconic report, after an ambush against a Demon war party in Appalachia

*“Your schtick only* works if I’m afraid of you. I’m not afraid of you. In fact, I find you pretty pathetic, pretty-boy. All posture and no substance. How pretty are you going to act after I cut your face off, eh, pretty-boy?”

----Anonymous Lost Eclipse warrior, taunting a Deevil.

## The Minion War on Rifts Earth

While the Shemarrian Star Nation will already have some experience fighting the Infernals on Phase World and elsewhere in the Megaverse, the Minion War bursting upon Rifts Earth will be cause for great concern. Four Tribes in particular will find themselves close to the action;

### The Wayfinders

The Wayfinder territories in the North West will find the increased threat from the Hell Pits of Calgary a source of great concern. The Hawkmoons will send several expeditions flying to assist the Wayfinders in efforts to contain the Infernals, as well as to secure supply lines of demon-slaying weaponry produced by the Wayfinders and sent to the other Tribes The Wayfinders’ knowledge of demons and dyvaals will be invaluable to the Tribes in their part of the defense of Rifts Earth.

### The Wolf’s Path

The Magic Zone Hell Pit means increasing encounters between the westwardly-expanding Wolf’s Path and Infernals. Both the Hawkmoons and the Silvermoons will assist the Wolves in fighting the threat, the latter Tribe showing up in force once the Wolves and the Hawks have scouted out the enemy’s main formations and encampments.

### The Horrorwoods

Dinosaur Swamp is Horrorwoods Central as far as this Tribe is concerned; they will be less than pleased to discover Hell Lord Pain camping out in their territory. The Hell Lord’s invasion of the traditional enemy of the Shemarrians, the Splugorth, will give the gynoids pause, but Pain’s depredations of the residents of the Swamp and surrounding territories to feed his invasion force will force the Horrorwoods to step in and take action.

### Blood Riders and Skullcrushers

Contingents from the Blood Riders, and even the reformed Skullcrushers will rush to assist the Horrorwoods. The result will be Hell Lord Pain’s Army of Pain being chewed on from both ends by the Shemarrians and by the Splugorth.

### Lost Eclipse

The Lost Eclipse has been known to try to play mindgames with Infernals....they aren't always successful, but the twisted mindgorkery has often left BOTH sides confused enough that the supernaturals have retreated, or at least lost track of their original objective, making for nominal wins. Also the Tribe's (and to an extent, the Sapphire Cobras') predilection for taking over the facilities of various cults and supplanting the worship with their own cults has often netted the two Tribes treasure troves of information of the psychology and weaknesses of various Infernals. Often, attempts to retake such appropriated temples have resulted in defeat, as the new occupants have turned their newly-acquired knowledge on the demons and devyls.

### The Sapphire Cobras

The jungles and wetlands of the Deep South may be divided by a sound from devil-infested Cuba, but entirely too many Infernal war parties are going to be crossing and coming up through the South for the normally fun-loving Sapphire Cobras to be happy about it.

### The Dark Waters

The Dark Waters will launch an audacious long range expeditionary campaign to assist the Cobras, sending a flotilla of underwater warriors down the Eastern Seaboard, detaching a few units along the way to assist the Horrorwoods, and then send troops into Florida and Alabaman waters to interdict the forces of Lord Shard before they can assemble in force on the American mainland.

### Ghost Riders

The Ghost Riders will rally their legions of drones and combat robots to the cause as well, though they will not be involved in one particular theatre of operations, but will send their forces as needed to whatever region needs them. Both Trollheims and Talos Legionnnaires will be activated and deployed, supported by Falcas and other automated warmachines not seen before. Their fearless hordes of soulless automatons will prove a particularly galling opponent for the Infernals to face. The Ghost Riders will be further egged to action when their Mad Haven allies, the mutants, suffer from the Demon Plagues sweeping through the region.

### Fringe Tribes

Fringe Tribes on Rifts Earth will also want to do their part, rallying to support their Tribal cousins/inspirations/mentors. Smaller groups like Clan Motron will throw themselves into running scouting and courier missions (and, in the case of Clan Motron, will find themselves front and center fighting Hell Lord Fury’s forces around Old Detroit), while the Steel Gaians will help their neighbors and send on what supplies and war material they can acquire/produce to their Tribal kin. Some of the less well-prepared Fringers will be wiped out in the conflict, while others will catch the attention of the Tribes for their bravery and fighting prowess, and gain much good will towards being recognized as a Tribe.

If an offworld fringe tribe like the Alecians or the Thousand Dragons learns of the severity of the threat to the megaverse in the battles on Rifts Earth, they may well send substantial contingents to the planet, along with war-groups from the Eleven Tribes of the Shemarrian Star Nation in support of their Tribe-kin. The infusion of these offworld forces may well tip the balance in favor of the people of Rifts Earth.

### R'Mar

The R’Mar will also
take part in the Minion War, as scouts for the Shemarrians.

### Ava

The Neo-Goddess Ava will do what she can to alleviate the suffering of victims of the Minion War and rally resistance in the wilderness where she can. Her own small band of followers may formally become a Fringe Tribe in their own right, dedicated to helping others and assisting the cause.

## Consequences

The Shemarrians are effectively immune to the Plagues (even those parasites attracted to PPE and psionics will find the lack of a living body supporting those traits too inhospitable to take hold).

Whatever remains of ARCHIE-3’s empire will see the diversion of attention from the EShemar hunters as something of a reprieve, and they’ll burrow deeper into hiding.

### The Broken

*“She’s gone on to a better place, I keep telling myself. It’s just that her body hasn’t gone with her, and likely not for centuries to come. That’s what’s so painful for us.”*

When the Minion War came to Rifts Earth, it brought with it all the uncounted milleu of cruelty and evil practiced by the Infernals. Few quarters on Earth escaped their touch, few peoples did know at least one tragedy worked by the demonic invaders. The Shemarrians were no exception.

While the robotic and cyborg natures of the EShemar protected them from many of the Infernals’ attacks, it did not protect them from all of them. In some cases the Ecotroz essence at the heart of the Shemarrian Awakening was itself vulnerable to the soul-rending assaults of the Infernals. Those Shemarrians who fell to such attacks were considered fortunate if they were destroyed completely in the attacks, but an unfortunately number would see their essence-sparks extinguished, banished into the void, or, worse, devoured, leaving their still functional robot bodies behind.

While it may have seemed but a trivial matter to simply re-implant the robot body and engender a new EShemar, the effect was not a revival of the old persona but the emergence of a new persona, albeit one with access to the memories of the old AI. In some cases the re-Awakening just wouldn’t take. In any event the aftermath was heartbreaking for the victims’ friends and families, seeing the familiar face and body, but worn by a different soul. For many Shemarrians, the prospect of this was too much to bear, and they refused to attempt a re-Awakening. These soul-less ‘walking dead’ physicalities became known as the Broken.

For those not re-Awakened, the Ghost Rider Tribe appropriately offered refuge to the Broken amongst their ranks. Here, out of sight and out of mind in the secretative enclaves of the Ghost Riders, the Broken could continue to be of service to the Shemarrian Nation.

If the Minion War is still ongoing, and the need for combat units desperate, many of the Broken may be assigned to deliberate suicide missions; the Shemarrian bodies are still functional combat robots, and they will still be able to fight, and at least draw enemy fire. Such a move seems heartless, but pre-Shemarrian Civil War Shemarrians would have thought nothing of such tactics, and many Awakened Shemarrians will consider such a move a fitting warrior’s send-off, to be destroyed in battle in service to the Tribes. The Blood Riders and Skullcrushers in particular will appreciate the gesture.

#### Penalties

The Broken suffer the loss of all EShemarrian psionic abilities, are -1 APM, -1 to Initiative, and lose 1d6 skills due to the loss of the psionic neural intelligence ‘wiring’. The Broken basically default to baseline programming.