Yaanari Military

The Yaanari League is an amalgamation of slaver guilds who maintain control using the state apparatus to enslave any of their own species; only the politically entrenched and the financial elite are safe from the clutches of the guilds, to stay ahead of their rivals however, the powerful families need a source of income other than the products of factories. For this reason every Yaanari family with any power has some member in the military, as being part of the military is an easy way to gain new slaves... whilst every family has someone in the military however; only the elite become leading generals, the lower families are forced to contribute their own forces and leaders to whichever family has the greatest control of.

## Hierarchy

* **The Matriarch:** The matriarch is the overall commander of all the forces her family can muster; Matriarchs are from the wealthiest and most powerful families and so are also the ones most capable of raising troops when needed. There is no military qualification needed to be a Matriarch, only sizeable wealth, as such while this position is technically the head of the military... they are often not suited to command. In fact the Matriarchs view war as a business affair; where they hope to profit from the conflict by gaining slaves, which makes them poor leaders. Due to the fact that there are several powerful families within the Yaanari League, there are also often more then one Matriarch; since they both hope to profit from conflict they will see the presence of another Matriarch as a threat and compete,
* **The Caracals:** Traditionally, only one Yaanari serves directly under the Matriarch; the Caracal is usually part of same dynasty of the Matriarch to ensure loyalty and 'efficient' use of the slaves. This rank is essentially a generals rank, except again, those who hold this position are generally incompetent in military affairs. A Caracals does little more then look at maps and move figures around most of the time and at best will actually formulate a plan of attack, rather than a plan of what to do after they win.
* **The Black Scales:** It is here where any sense of military competency begins to formulate, the black scales are the sub-commanders of the Caracal (of which there are between 3-20, depending on how many families are serving under the Matriarch) these black scales are given an objective by the Caracal and left to their own devices. Whether these sub-commanders work together or not is left to be figured out amongst themselves; sometimes the objective is unachievable and the black scales will pressure one amongst them to go first and demonstrate the futility of their command. Besides this, Black Scales are often seeking to gain favour and to do this they must achieve a degree of success, the less loses they take and the more slaves they capture go towards advancing their own personal stature.

* **The Red Scales:** The secondary sub-commanders and often the ones with the greatest degree of competence; a red scale is expected to personally enact the manoeuvres and strategies of the Black Scales, because this is where their own lives come under threat it is also where most holding this rank begin to verse themselves in military strategies, hoping to increase their own chance of survival.
* **The Rest:** Red Scales are usually the lowest ranking unit in the Yaanari hierarchy as the command structure beneath these ranks is too fluid and variable to be categorised as a structure. Most commonly seen beneath a Red Scale are 'Green Scales' but what a Green Scale commands varies from a few soldiers to tank battalions, often dependent on her own personal wealth.

The structure may seem unreliable and flawed. That's because it is horrendously appalling; competition within the ranks is rampant and separate armies often butt heads over who gets the spoils before the battle even begins. The only redeeming quality of this structure is that the lower ranks tend to be more competent military experts than most other military officers of equivalent ranks in other militaries.

Also, a rank is given dependant on the individuals power rather than merit; due to this, progression up the ranks is nigh impossible. The amount of slaves and wealth an individual would need to acquire to boost his families stature would be staggering; ignoring the problems of slaves being stolen from each other, or officers being assassinated for their money, it would still be a tall order. As such, military incompetency is rooted firmly in the top echelons of the military.

## The Strose Mikai

The flag of the Strose Mikai varies depending on which Matriarch they serve; there have been so many over the years that they tend to become bland and uninspiring

* **Strose Mikai:** 'Yaanari for 'warrior slave'. The Strose Mikai make up the majority of Yaanari military as slaves are the most plentiful; despite their slave status, they are given a large amount of trust. They are expected to operate tanks & planes in the field of battle and manage logistical vehicles when not fighting; this has been attributed to the elevated status a slave enjoys in the military, a slave is treated with a modicum of respect by the Yaanari and enjoys better food, housing and even healthcare. The best slaves are even selected to 'inseminate' female Yaanari sometimes (Better explanation on that here).

* **Strose Vivalent:** 'Warrior of fortune'. These are warriors for hire and are often much better equipped and suited to warfare than a slave. Mercenaries often flock to Yaanari armies as their specialist services are always in high demand, the Yaanari military will often purchase as many mercenaries as possible and lump them together into a whole new branch of the army (In a similar fashion to the Carthaginian Empire of old earth)
* There are no Land, Air or naval branches per say, a slave army is simply given tanks and fighter jets and left to sort it out themselves. Such is the way when your commander is simply looking for profit

### **Equipment**

A slave soldier is guaranteed four things; a meal, a gun, the whip and a short service time. the Mikai are outfitted with whatever scrap fabrics come out the factories; a slave's armour is not designed for his species or sex but is just a loose mess of amour bits that the slave is expected to organise to best suit themselves, a slaves gun is however quite mediocre, the weapons they receive are usually of decent quality and dependable (Though usually this is because the gun design is stolen from others). Beyond this however their is no further standardisation.

## Slave **Army Doctrine**

The military is largely a mass of trained slave infantry and tanks; with artillery guns being operated by paid professionals and specialist tasks being relegated to hireable mercenaries. The greatest strength of this military is that they posses both a hammer and a scalpel, and their doctrine reflects this. While by even a Yaanari's standard a slave army is considered a second rate force, this does not deter them from being the most widely used force. However they know that in comparison to the other armed forces in the galaxy, there slaves will not stand up in any fair fight, so military doctrine revolves around making slave armies into immovable walls of firepower whilst the mercenaries and special forces inflict the greatest tolls of damage.

In offense, a favourite tactic that is utilised is to set up a defendable frontline in front of the opposing enemy positions; the enemy, expecting the Yaanari to use mass infantry tactics, do not attack the Strose Mikai and instead opt for heavier defence. The Yaanari continue to fortify their own front line until the battlefield resembles the appearance of a ww1 battleground (Trenches, forts and a no-mans land). The slowly increasing enemy presence forces the defenders to do one of three things:

1. Fall back: If the defenders stay too long while the enemy are allowed to increase their size and strength, all the while the defenders are whittled down by artillery and mercenary raider groups, then a single Yaanari charge could break the defence... If he defenders do this then the Yaanari have won ground without loses.
2. Reinforce: To counter a growing enemy presence more infantry and tanks are called in... If the defenders do this then the Yaanari intensify artillery barrages in the hopes of inflicting more damage, if the enemy remain then other sections of the Yaanari military can advance as the enemy reserves are already tied down.
3. Attack: The defenders may hope to shatter the offence by routing the masses of Yaanari infantry... This is what the Yaanari hope for; the Yaanari will feign retreat and abandon their tanks and fortifications. The enemy will then ether pursue the 'fleeing' enemy or settle in the Yaanari's fortifications.
	* If the enemy pursue the Yaanari then troops hidden in secret tunnels will burst out of their hiding places and back into their defensive fortifications and the fleeing forces will turn to fight the enemy - The enemy now caught in the open field between an assaulting force and a defensive position (Which conveniently have guns built into the back of them) will be gassed and harassed, taking as many slaves as possible -
	* If the enemy take the forts and trenches but do not move; the Yaanari continue to feign retreat, after 2 hours however the abandoned tanks will explode. The initial explosion is a distraction; gas begins to pour into the forts and the hidden troops will burst out, at the same time the Yaanari assault the defensive position.

While any of the above is taking place, specialist mercenaries are let loose across the fronts. It is very much a manner of throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks; it may seem expensive, but the Yaanari League operates on a no result no payment basis... given that most mercenary companies do not achieve 'results' the costs are actually quite low for what they get.

This doctrine is designed to minimise casualties and maximise potential captives and is largely successful against unprepared armies; however the doctrine assumes two things, firstly is that the Yaanari have a greater amount of troops, secondly is that the enemy is not robotic, The strategy falls apart without the masses of infantry to occupy the defences, the hidden tunnels and maintain assaults on other fronts; and gas is not very useful against robots... or anyone wearing a t4 mask (Something that Commonwealth soldiers did possess... before they traded infantry for masses of robots that is)

In defence the doctrine is almost exactly the same; except on the defence the Yaanari have built intricated webs of tunnels and trenches to create a guerrilla warfare type landscape, and the Yaanari are not above using freshly captured slaves as shields (there are images of slaves being tied around tanks or strapped to boats and video footage of slaves being thrown in front of advancing tanks to slow them down... in the event the tank does stop, half the time the slave was actually a solider and had anti-tank ordinance strapped to them)

> *"Such is the way of a slave; there bones make fine substitute for mud, and tank crews don't enjoy cleaning it out of their treads as much"*
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A greater elaboration of the slave forces themselves is detailed in this article