Raiders

The Raiders are a new military program and unit which is part of the Imperium's modernization efforts. It features a more advanced doctrine and technology.

A Raider is a highly trained, educated genetically and cybernetically enhanced Human Soldier at its core with various systems which exponentionally increase efficiency.

The Raiders are focused on mobility and speed rather than armor and feature thinner, lighter power armor but with a myriad of more modern and advanced systems such as an integrated AI assistant, sensor-scanners, servo-motors, HUD, visual systems, active camouflage, a shield generator, cloaking fields and integrated personal teleportation Link Kits, among other things.

The Raiders Power Armor enables hyper-mobility with inbuilt thrusters both in space and on planets with or without atmosphere as it calibrates itself using the integrated AI assistant. A Raider outmaneuvers enemies as they are meant to avoid fire rather than tank it, and are able to move much faster than a Legionary. They are able to move and react incredibly quickly and can dodge projectiles being fired at them.

Training to achieve this level of agility and response is arduous, as they must learn to hone their near-precognition levels of senses to be incredibly effective, while being extremely perceptive of an enemy's movements.

The Raiders use a advanced type of melee weapons made of Hardlight. These are not permanently solid but can be adjusted by thought to the limits of the used system. For example a common setup is a Hardlight Blade Emitter on the vambraces of the Soldier, giving him advanced tactical capabilities in close quarters combat or for utility as a tool.

**Raider Equipment**

Apart from their advanced systems maybe the most notable factor is that each Raider works together with a **light Battlesuit** making them a fully mechanized unit.

The soldier is also accompanied by a **personal tactical sentinel drone** to further assist him in battle which is stored within the Battlesuit when not needed. The drone is used to spot and mark enemy units, and also comes equipped with tranquilizer and EMP rounds to disable enemies.

Both the Battlesuit and Power Armor of each Raider features a integrated Teleportation Link Kits which enable them to be targetted by a teleporter on a Imperial Warship without any further infrastructure with improved accuracy, speed and range. Using the advanced Teleporters on modernized heavy Imperial Warships larger numbers than before can be transported via Teleportation more quickly. This is a tremendously powerful tactical capability and is used to launch rapid strategic surgical strikes onto High Value enemy targets and other objects or persons of interests. They can also be used to rapidly send reinforcements or to quickly extract a force from danger.

**Raider Power Armor**

The Helmet does not have a weakpoint like the lenses of Legionary Power Armor. Instead the entire Helmet is composed of almost the same thickness of armor, and the HUD and Visual Systems are put directly in front of the pilots eyes and assisted with neuralink. AR builds a HUD with any needed information, which can be further customized with thought and voice control.

Advanced Composite Materials give the armor higher protective capability for its thickness, while offering much higher mobility and agility. A Raiders Power Armor does not have as much Protection as a Legionary, but it has more Protection than armor with the same material composition as Legionary Armor but the thickness of raider armor.

**Incursor-class Battle Suit**

The Incursor-class is a light battle armor suit which is linked directly with the soldier's neural system and has the option to either fight by its Raider, or have the Raider enter the battle armor to offer superior protection and easily engage enemy heavy armor.

Like the Raider it features built-in shield generators, stealth fields, active camouflage and personal teleportation Link Kits.

The Incursor has the ability to wield the heavier weapons, commonly a heavy assault rifle and a heavy plasma cannon mounted on its back. Further weapons include lascannons, missile launchers, grenade launchers, heavy gatling guns, heavy long range precision anti-material kinetic mass accelerators and more.

The smaller arms on it are usually reserved for the soldier to also use smaller weapons, however it can still use them even without the soldier.

The Battlearmor features powerful jetpacks same as the Raider, giving it the ability of flight, advanced maneuverability on planets and in space.

**Comparison to Legionaries**

The Raider System and Doctrine is far younger than the Legionaries, but is steadily gaining traction as it is refined and made more efficient, as well as gradually expanded in production number. In the current State the Raiders are steadily growing in number and their Importance to the Imperial war effort, but ultimately the Emperor plans to keep them both as equal parts of the Imperial Legions, the Raiders being his Sword and the Legionaries his Hammer.

The Raider system is generally much more expensive but costs are expected to be reduced as time goes on, production numbers are increased, processes are refined and streamlined and technologies are made more accessible and cheaper.

Another distinguishing factor over the Legionaries is that both the Raider and his personal Battle Armor is fully rated for submarine warfare, as the jetpacks enable full mobility underwater. This gives them a valuable tactical ability as many habitable worlds can have oceans, seas and lakes which may become a object of war, for example if the enemy has facilities underwater. Furthermore ocean worlds may exclusively feature submarine and aerial warfare where Legionaries could not normally be deployed, or not reach every needed area.