Luminary

**Key Features** | »TC-X? Destabilizer Rifle»TC-X! Nullification Baton»'Buceador' protection suit»Astrojaunt transpatial apparatus»Gold sun emblem (Humanotheist origin)

## Tactical Analysis

* **From lands of light and madness**: Available only via protocol, Luminaries are armored battle suits that excel at disrupting and messing with enemy units. Their primary weapon of choice is the Destabilizer Rifle, a long-ranged device that, instead of outright damage, creates areas of warped space-time that decrease the fire and movement speed of units caught in them. Such areas are hard to detect from without, making them stealthed.

* **One step behind and two steps ahead**: By using the Astrojaunt apparatus, Luminaries can teleport to any area within the range of the secondary, allowing for quick retreats, sudden ambushes, or forward recon. In addition, they have the Nullification Baton to protect against infantry who try to come too close, allowing them to knock them back without damaging them.

* **Eclipse of the mind and soul**: The Luminary is a difficult opponent to slay, having the ability to teleport as well as their weaponry to defend themselves with. Use of blast and area of effect weapons work best against them, as they remain just as vulnerable to these types as any other soldier.

* **Rejection and substitution**: The Heroic Luminary is a supportive terror on the field with the addition of a Distortion Beacon. Nearby infantry and vehicles receive special armor types that greatly increase their protection against conventional damage types, giving them enhanced survivability.

## Background

*HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO OUTRUN ME........WHEN I AM ALREADY HERE?*
- Luminary captain, teleporting into and ambushing a squad of fleeing soldiers.
To survive as a military veteran in the Technocratic Combine is a great honour. Men and women tested and found worthy in the flames of war in the name of peace have doors opened for them that others will never earn the chance to have. Such veterans may retire and pass on their teachings to the next generation of soldiers, or rise to Supervisor status and determine the course of battle from a loudspeaker instead of a gun. Others will attach to various civilian Councils, using their knowledge and experience to give a soldier's point of view to issues related to their fields. And there are some for whom the war became more than just a way to bring about peace, those who's minds were changed - but not broken - by what try have seen and done. There are some veterans who are willing to do more than die for Utopia: they would defy heaven and earth in order to see a universal harmony for mankind.

It is these veterans who are invited into the ranks of the Luminaries.

The Special Operations Unit known as the Luminaries are the guardians of tomorrow. Each one sworn to secrecy on pain of utter oblivion, they are amongst the few who are aware of the Astrogate project, for they are the ones that guard it. Formed in order to explore and protect the bold new frontier that potentially lies before them, the unit of thirty men and women are kept stationed constantly on both Earth and the newly-claimed planet of Tlalocan in rotating shifts of ten. Equipped with the newest and finest of equipment, plated in precious metals and worth an entire MBT each, they are always watching, always waiting, and constantly vigilant. And should a Supervisor with the right amount of authority, permission, and materials request for aid, then on occasion one may see the Luminaries in direct combat. It is a sight few forget, no matter how hard some of them may wish to do so.

The Astrogate program unleashed a wave of new theorems and ideas about the nature of the universe and reality, and the weapons and equipment gifted to the highest of soldiers of the United Technate exploit such equations in the crudest way possible. Specialized protection suits designed for differences in atmospheres and even chemical compositions between planets are custom-fitted for each Luminary, fitted with monitoring equipment, chemical stimulants, and extra layers of armour to grant them protection against the worst that the environment can throw at them. Large backpacks containing miniature Astrogates are attached to their suits, allowing them to manipulate the space-time proportions of the area and 'jaunt' to far off locations in the blink of an eye.

Their primary weapons are enormous, one or two-handed engines known as Destabilizer Rifles that unleash barrages of artificial, rapidly decomposing elements and then charge them in such a way as to warp the local dimensional topography. Men, vehicles, and terrain find themselves stretched into two, five, and eight dimensions in a matter of seconds in a way that nauseates anyone who stares at it, and while those inside may not feel anything time and space itself temporarily break down in such a way as to render attempts to move or attack vastly more difficult. For close ranged ambushes or defence, the Luminaries turn to their Nullification Batons - enormous sceptres affixed with an internal generator and studded with exotic materials that disrupt living flesh and inanimate metal alike, removing the area temporarily from reality entirely and usually mangling whatever comes back. With such weaponry, the Luminaries may cause havoc and disarray amongst enemy lines, as they warp reality itself to serve their cause in the name of Utopia.

Together with their training, experience, and equipment, the Luminaries unflinchingly serve the United Technate as minor gods of war, the appearance of one on the battlefield an instant morale boost to their allies and a foreboding sign to their foes. Yet there is something else that resides with the Luminaries now, and it is something that even the most brilliant of scientists working in the Program cannot explain. Something about their ability to walk in between time and space, to manipulate reality with a pull of the trigger, to travel in the places that others cannot tread, is changing the Luminaries. They speak with inflections unknown to any dialect on Earth, their eyes seem to stare at things only they can see and pass over people physically present, and their movements are almost as if they were moving at the bottom of an invisible ocean, slow and steady as they part the non-existent waters. It is of little surprise to others in the Program that many of the Luminaries have thus turned to the growing Humanotheist sect, often acting as major spokespersons and converters to the so-called "religion of people".

In these dark times, more and more plans are being made to expand the role of the Luminaries, including the development of a device known as the Distortion Beacon for active Luminary-front line soldier cooperation. By actively distorting the flow of time around the Beacon, incoming projectiles are slowed as they enter into the radius, allowing nearby infantry or units the ability to brace for impact or attempt to avoid the projectile altogether. Though it cannot fully mitigate damage taken or prevent infantry from being hit, the increase in reaction time alone can greatly reduce the chance of serious wounds or casualties.