Pack Animal

"***PAWOOOOOOOOOOOOO!***"

- Pack Animal deafening fellow soldiers on deployment.
## Tactical Analysis

* **Baby Elephant Walk:** A noble animal hailing from the greener pastures the Indian Subcontinent has to offer, the Pack Animal is an impromptu transport for the Frontier Corps, that doesn't mean it transports troops of course, but rather, the supply they so badly need.

* **Pachiderm Package:** Of course, offering supplies on the go during a heated battle sometimes won't really offer much of an effect and that's why these tusked warriors bear extra cargo, as they've got the necessary supplies to establish outposts on the frontlines.

* **Gentle Giant:** The fact that these are not combat animals cannot be stressed enough, they will fall fast and quickly against even the poorest of combatants, so they must be kept alongside other units if you don't want to waste precious animal life.

* **Elephant Graveyard-shift:** As a non-combat unit, Pack Animals don't see much in the sense of promotions.

## Background

Despite the usual vision the public has of India, that of sprawling cities, millennia-old and packed with people everywhere, collapsed highways competing with the modern skyscrapers being built overnight throughout the entire Commonwealth, the truth is that India as a nation is actually still severely rural. A large section of the subcontinent is not connected through the main metropolis nor highways through the nation. Poor dirt roads that wouldn't support the toughest of cars, tanks or most other exotic vehicles that have seen the light of the day in the past decade.

For a large portion of the population, traditional means of transportation, of harvesting and of tiling are still used, not a tractor nor a truck in sight, just old bullocks carts, mules and, of course, elephants, the noble giant that's native to this continent.

What brought this fact into attention of the Frontier Corps was when it was time to start conscripting soldiers for the defense against the Imperial Offensive, many times, volunteers were but farmers, people having never met, nevermind driven a vehicle, they were simply more comfortable having their supplies carried around by these willy pachyderms and, to the surprise of some more neophyte commanders, it actually was effective.

Where trucks couldn't arrive and carryalls weren't available (and certainly not cost-effective) the good old elephants could do the job just fine, sooner rather than later, these animals became part of the Frontier Corps. Of course, no one but the most bone-headed would suggest bringing these creatures to battle, many had laughed at a Japanese prisoner even fearing the idea of it, for the truth is, the elephants are deeply afraid of loud noises and gunfire, they'll serve their masters well, but will rather shy away from combat.

As the war came to an end and the Frontier Corps were deployed on simpler, "peacekeeping" missions in territories recently incorporated or, even worse, overseas, it came to attention that there simply wasn't the budget to deploy the trucks that'd provide the supplies and provisions soldiers so badly need, what was available, however, was elephants.

As counterintuitive as it was, given the amount of food a regular Indian elephant normally needs to intake, the handling and the weight these animals could carry through even the roughest of terrains made these deployments surprisingly cost-effective, handlers being happy to take care of their grey friends for a slight increase in salary, which in any case was much cheaper than providing for the fuel and mechanical acumen needed to keep trucks moving.

Not just *any* elephant would do of course, those who wish to serve can only be the best of the best, these elephants must go through excruciating tests, having horns played close to their Stockades so they can get used to loud noises as they happen on the battlefield, docility being put to test by having them carry small, bratty children provided by local communities through long work hours and making them run on fields infested by mice so their bravery can be properly measured.

After this, the few and proud creatures who manage to pass these trials with flying colours can be called as the cream of the crop, the providers and saviors of every soldier put in harm's way, but most importantly the most exotic measure of cost cutting being present on the Indian Commonwealth at the moment.