Firework Mistress

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

 **Key Features** | »Many boxes of rockets»Fireproof garment»Strike-anywhere matches»Fireproof gloves»Victory sign display stand

*"Fire in the sky!"*

- Firework Mistress
### Tactical Analysis

* **Mortar duty:** You might not view fireworks as a reliable source of AA, but with enough modifications, the things do tend to knock your aircraft from the friendly skies, and are also able to do the same as any 16-year-old kid, only slightly better: aim their fireworks at ground targets, which allows them to use their rockets like mortar rounds and bombard structures, it is better to not underestimate these cloned soldiers and their payloads.

* **Pretty shots:** The Firework Mistresses also carry a surplus of normal fireworks originally used to celebrate victories. But it turns out their colourful display of lights and sound are also enough to briefly distract anyone who witnesses it. Letting their forces get into attack range while they’re distracted.

* **Handle with caution:** Firework Mistresses aren't exactly suited for fighting at close range; their anti-air rockets can't hit surface targets, and their mortar rockets are designed for structures and were never meant to be used against units.

* **Just a show:** Do note that Firework Mistresses are also rather tough for a mortar infantry; their planar shield worn under their dresses make them rather bulletproof, while also being a small enough target that anti-tank weaponry will have trouble hitting them.

### Operational History

#### The Firework Poem

**This poem is often told to newborn clones as they're being indoctrinated into their chosen role.**

*The Girl sits in her house,*
*She brushes her hair straight.*
*Bandits left fireworks after their battle.*
*She only wants to live in peace.*

*Behold! Great buzzards in the sky!*
*They cause great storms of fire.*
*Villages and houses are rent to dust.*
*The Girl does not want this fate.*

*She takes the fireworks the bandits left.*
*She brings down a great buzzard.*
*Her place in the woods is saved.*
*But even now she is not protected.*

*From the North comes poisonous winds,*
*From the South comes biting dust,*
*From the West comes waves of fire,*
*From the East come rivers of acid.*

*Later a clone finds her in the red forest,*
*The large trees reach to the ground.*
*She is an old woman living in the buzzard’s corpse.*
*She is skilled with fireworks, but cannot be born again.*

*She dies in the clone's arms, her hair falling out.*
*But the clone wishes her to serve the Viceroy.*
*Her life is twisted by the evil air around her,*
*Yet her fireworks are needed to bring down wicked birds.*

*The clone despaired of ever birthing her.*
*He looked in her iron safe, and there was her brush!*
*He took her hair to Jade Emperor Peak,*
*And the Girl uses her fireworks again!*

### Behind the Scenes

* The unit's look is inspired by Toph Bei Fong from *"Avatar - The Last Airbender"*.

### Just the Stats

 **Armour Type** | Infantry/Shield

 **DPS** | 50

 **DPS** | 25

## Festival Queen

 **Dev. Status** | Conceptual

 **Key Features** | »Many, many boxes of rockets»Noble garment»Waterproof lighter»Fireproof gloves»Victory sign display stand (with celebratory fireworks)

### Tactical Analysis

* **True aim:** Gathered from the surviving female population rendered sterile, the Festival Queen is an expert in long-ranged explosives in the Atomic Kingdom. Their fireworks modified as flares that lets them scout the area ahead and mark targets for additional damage.

* **Solar flare:** Like their clone counterpart, Festival Queens can launch less lethal fireworks. However in their case the firework explodes in a giant flash that temporarily blinds enemies who are too close.

* **Focus fire:** Like every officer unit, the Queen also commands the Mistresses and other clone units, letting them fire faster and more accurately.

* **Premature detonation:** And like all officers, the Queen is completely incapable of dealing damage and is just as vulnerable to death at the hands of the Kingdoms enemies when they realize she's on the field directing the bombardment.

### Background

*It makes no sense.*

*Human beings are all individuals, even the minds of identical twins have their own unique and identifiable brainwaves and patterns of thought. Radio programming can only do so much, clones should be able to think on their own on some deep level. What has the Atomic Kingdom found out then?*

*Their fireworks specialists seem to be a prime example of this. They need to know everything about what they do with their explosives, and education, even limited education, breeds intelligence and thought. But they don't have it. Either they keep the conscious mind occupied using these same radio transmissions, or perhaps they are conditioned like Soviet conscripts. I can't fathom how they haven't gone mad from this treatment.*

*Thankfully, this has made it clear who are the real survivors of China. Where the majority of these specialists are clearly just the cloned remains of China's women, their leaders show a level of independent thought and show the wherewithal to order these clones to fire on enemy positions and to fire their distracting fireworks. They exude a palpable aura of leadership that clones seem to gravitate too, and on their death the cloned forces appear to revert back to whatever base programming is beamed into their heads via radio.*

*As comforting as this is, I sense that we cannot attempt subversive strategies as in the Eastern Bloc states or the Middle East. The clones are too homogeneous, the survivors loyal to the death. It's by simple luck that our own agents have managed to infiltrate their society. It's almost like an anthill; the clones scurrying about at the orders of their queens.*

- Private journal of Maj. Lydia Winters

## New Year Marine

 **Dev. Status** | Conceptual

 **Key Features** | »Many, many, many boxes of rockets»Noble garment (waterproof)»Jade torch»Fireproof gloves»Happy new year sign display stand

### Tactical Analysis

* **Fires in the Sky:** The few firework soldiers formed from the majority of female survivors to protect their people on their grand journey, the New Year Marine is an amphibious, hard-hitting siege and anti-air unit thanks to her firework launcher firing in a barrage rather than single.

* **Flashes of green:** Unlike her cloned "sisters". The New Year Marines rockets are not only waterproof and can fire at sea, but her warheads also contain packets of Antimatter, eradicating most objects on impact, and one-shot tractor beams that tether themselves to their target, giving their rockets some tracking ability to hit fast units.

* **Nuclear winter:** The New Year Marines training, armouref hazmat suit, also authorises her to fire “Hou Yi” rockets. Compared to their other rockets the Hou Yi is a mini-nuke that explodes once it reaches an optimal height, dealing less damage compared to a ground impact but hits in a much larger area, including aircraft that get too close.

* **Burnout:** And like her "sisters", the marine versions still suffer from susceptibility from infantry, heavy artillery, and massed assaults while costing four times as much. Though her much heavier armour means she can survive much longer.

### Background

As has been pointed out, space in PEQAN PIES isn't exactly a sane place. The Allies, Soviets, and Kingdom all have carved small fiefdoms around our pale blue dot, circling in their satellites and stations. Of course, the dangers of space mean that these installations need to be armored, protected, and supplied constantly from Earth. So when the Atomic Kingdom planned for their departure, they planned for almost everything. The Marines have been trained to be the most skilled of any soldier on earth, the greatest warriors of the new Kingdom formed from brave volunteers who will not be locked within the sleeper ships crypods. They will guard their brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters on the long journey, and they have the ability to deal with almost anything.

Except for that first hurdle; trying to escape Earth.

The Kingdom's leaders know that once they start their grand mission the nations of the world with space capabilities will strike. The Allied Torchships and the Soviet cosmonauts would swarm the Kingdom's star fleet, attacking the ships and threatening the entire course of the Kingdom's survival off Earth. This led to the decision to train select numbers of survivors in the ranks of the Mistresses, as anti-air specialists ready to kill whoever stood in the way.

While they understand the reasoning behind the decision, many of the survivors going on the trip feel that slowly, more and more of their own are worthlessly risking their lives for something a clone could do. Always with a justification, always with a reason. They petitioned the Viceroy for answers as to why they keep training more of their people to fight and risk *their* lives, and each time the Viceroy managed to deflect these petitions with the reasoning that space was dangerous, too dangerous for the aristocracy’s to go alone.

This had led to grumblings among some of the nobles. They won't fight the Viceroy, never. But each day more of their brothers, sisters, sons and daughters are being trained to fight in a war that risks their lives before their exodus. An exodus promise for all of them to escape.