EoK Penal Divisions

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

*"And I turned twenty-one in prison doing life without parole.*

*No-one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried.*

*Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading, I denied.*

*That leaves only me to blame 'cause Mama tried."*

-Merle Haggard, "Mama Tried"
The EoK Penal Divisions are a fan-faction made up of criminals and rejects. The EoK Penal Divisions are expensive but effective amphibious units made to be expendable soldiers.

## Background

### Royally Screwed

South Korea has technically been in a two decade war with North Korea, since their only peace agreement has been a cease-fire that hasn’t officially been made into a peace (a common joke in diplomatic circles is that it’s not a peace treaty unless you go to Paris for the conference). This has devolved into a massive fortified border on both sides, lined with mines, watchtowers, and patrolled for miles by both forces' militaries.

What South Korea didn't have was money. The rest of the Allied member-states were typically able to afford the cost of high technology, or at least a well-equipped military force. The Joseon Empire has primarily been backed by the Empire of the Rising Sun during the Korean War, and the Japanese are now assisting South Korea in producing high-tech goods. The hope is that eventually, these products will manage to become strong competition against Western products, not stained with the stigma of being made by the Japanese. Until then, the Empire of Korea has to make do with second-hand Allied equipment simply to arm it's troops.

As can be imagined, this has left South Korea desperate for a trump card to play in it's defense. Suffice to say, there was little. The only real claim that South Korea had was that it held back North Korea from taking everything else. Then North Korea started a border conflict, and a new resource was uncovered. It turned out that many of South Korea's best soldiers were arrested and convicted of crimes during their military service. Ethnic Japanese-Koreans convicted of defending themselves from being killed languished in stockades alongside demolitions wizards who got a little too happy in making their creations while off duty. Capitalizing on this newfound resource, the South Koreans quickly took a few leaves from the Soviets' own flak troopers and the 'Browncoat' programs of the Contingent.

Rallying all kinds of prisoners ranging from petty thieves to hardened gangsters, the newly-christened "Empire of Korea Penal Divisions" graciously offered them a chance to serve their respective sentences (and even get pardoned if they survived long enough) while being of service to the country at the same time. The offers were largely successful, as various criminals willingly turned themselves in for various reasons, such as giving aid to their families or going around killing people they didn't like in a legal setting, or more. Actually, the higher-ups within the EoKPD found that the homicidal tendencies of captured killers and the kleptomaniacal urges of convicted carjackers can instead be put to good use especially in all kinds of operations, even if not everybody comes back alive afterwards.

Despite skepticism by other Allied member-states and members of the Japanese Diet due to doubts if this so-called "ragtag bands of misfits" will be able to stop the Red Menace just to the north of them, the EoK quickly shoots them down by noting how serving one's country and their sentence both can be a more preferable fate than living the rest of their sentence cryogenically frozen at somewhere. The prisoners themselves are locked and ready for any operation they are tasked to do, most likely because they have only three outcomes: seeing their families again, ending up six feet under, or languishing in their personal cells.

## Cutpurses and Criminals

*"[**CENSORED**] you."*

- Unknown South Korean Penal Marine, when asked what he thought of his service in Vietnam.

### Deathmatch Reinforcements

**EoK Special Operations Regimental Combat Force**

As the Penal Divisions themselves are expendable as far as Korean military officials are concerned, the EoK SORCF make their appearance after the Penal Divisions have softened the enemy enough for the SORCF to mop them up. Capable of supporting the convict soldiers, they serve as the primary strike team for the EoK to hit hard at the weak points of their enemies.

## Behind the Scenes

The Penal Divisions are inspired by war movies like the Dirty Dozen and Kelly's Heroes, involving misfit criminal troops who manage to succeed against all odds.