Cat's Paw

**Key Features** | »» Machine gun w/ AA mount»» Rifles for self defense»» Varied equipment»» Uniform (depends on country)»» Blissful ignorance

*"So this is where our missing MG teams went……"*

- Harold G. Moore
## Tactical Analysis

* **Unwitting Cat's Paw:** Soldiers duped into fighting for the Foundation, Cat's Paws usually come in three-man teams, two of which are armed with rifles effective against infantry but little else.

* **Anti-Air Fodder:** The third member usually carries a heavy machine gun, which can be set up to attack aircraft passing through, while his teammates use their rifles, and rifle grenades, to protect him from enemy ground attacks. The anti-aircraft mounts Cat's Paws use tend to be unstable when the gun is fired at low angles, so the HMG cannot target enemies on the ground.

* **Clueless:** Being unaware of who they're really fighting for, Cat's Paws don't benefit from any buffs or healing provided by other Foundation units. In addition, as essentially mobile defences, they cannot gain heroic upgrades.

* **Expendable:** Cat's Paws are, like every D-Class, rubbish troops, but fortunately they have the advantage of being completely disposable; they don't cost anything to train, only requiring a few cash to buy their ammunition, and trained almost instantly. After all, someone else was responsible for the training and equipment.

## Background

Throughout the centuries, whenever the Foundation has a task that requires military force to be accomplished that doesn't involve classified materials/threats, their preferred method is to get someone else to do it. There are many reasons for this. One of the reasons is that manipulating someone else into doing it is far less likely to expose the Foundation's existence than if they were to send in Foundation troops. Another is that the Foundation doesn't need to risk the lives of their *own* men.

This method continues to be used today. While the soldiers duped into fighting for the Foundation no longer fight with swords and arrows as they did in earlier centuries, they still bear the same name: **Cat's Paws**. Cat's Paws are, as the name implies, unwitting soldiers of local militaries sent to carry out dangerous task, completely unaware of whose purposes they are fulfilling. They are tricked into fighting on the Foundation's side by Foundation sympathetic superior officers, falsified orders, or various other means, and help to provide mass to Foundation forces. Cat's Paws are kept in the dark about the strange forces they fight alongside, often explained away as secretive branches of whatever country's military they serve in. The Foundation has no need to train and arm them, meaning there is little to no cost to deploy them in a battle.

In right time and right place, anyone could become an unwitting Cat's Paw: an Industialist thinking he's cooperating with one of the SSDS spheres, a Spy tasked to investigate bizarre Scavenger activities in the Balkans, a Domain pilot desperately trying to fawn on his new "chosen commander". But the most utilized and consumed type of all Cat's Paws, to the point they are now rarely seen among their own ranks, is heavy machine gun teams.

Given their superb performance in World War II, HMG teams were kept in every major power's army throughout the Cold War. However, World War III is very different from the last one, while HMG teams are not. With a forward firing arc, they can now easily be flanked and destroyed by anti-infantry vehicles, which are much faster thanks to engine improvements. Tactical artilleries have become more agile and accurate too, making the long setup/teardown time a death sentence for MG crews. Having suffered huge casualties, HMG teams were soon pulled from the front lines and benched to AA guard duties, which they did with mediocre efficiency because their weapons can do little damage to thick-skinned airships like (spartakusverse faction airship), while thin-skinned jets are too fast to manually aim at. Gradually most commanders largely ignored their existence and wouldn't take a second look at an order requesting their transfer to another command. On the other hand, the Foundation is in constant need of AA capability to engage the increasingly annoying Scavenger helicopters. No wonder HMG teams have become the most iconic ones among all kinds of Cat's Paw manipulated by the Foundation. For similar reasons, foot-mobile anti-tank guns along with their crews could be easily "acquired" and allocated to the most heated battles.

Cat's Paws, no matter which kind of them, are generally considered cannon fodders and not given support or medical attention by Foundation forces. They usually aren't expected to survive a single battle, and those who do are often killed off in Foundation to preserve the secrecy of the Foundation, who are okay with letting others die in place of their own elite, highly trained operatives. A small portion of survivors will be given the opportunity to join the Foundation if they're deemed worthy enough, of course, refusal will be met by death to keep their secrecy.

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