Kampftier

The term ***kampftier*** (Galactic Standard: *Battle animal*) is a Stadtverisch word used by the Menschlicher Sternenstaat to refer to animals of both terran and xenological origin that are used for law enforcement and military duties. Despite the intense dedication of the military and various police forces towards the utilization of battle droids as supplementary forces to human and xenoi infantry, the deployment of animals has been favored as a cheap and effective alternative for many economically-strained organizations such as colonial police, or for resource-strained groups such as the Sternenstaat's variouspolice tactical units.

## History

Battle animals within the Sternenstaat originate from the use of Terran dogs on Vera and other related star systems of the Veran Star Confederation for search-and-rescue and policing duties for law enforcement. They also saw wide use in the Confederate military during the First Human-Kizankai War, where canines were used to rescue civilian survivors of catastrophic urban attacks and to aid in tracking rogue Kizankai organisms. The rise of the Menschlicher Sternenstaat and the subsequent purges against criminal and subversive elements in society necessitated the use of numerous canine units to track down and/or subdue targets of the state.

Even with their prior uses, however, they saw limited use in the Second Human-Kizankai War due to the sheer scale of its interstellar warfare and planetary invasions. Dogs were used in conjunction with drones and hunting parties to track down and eliminate hidden enemy targets on planetary surfaces, or to sniff out possible traps and deployed for scouting duties.

As the Sternenstaat expanded its stellar territories across the Nauticus Sector, explorers and military personnel encountered wide varieties of xenofauna with endless niches and speciation. Over time, it became commonplace for colonists to tame local fauna in niches similar to that of canines for use as attack or sentry creatures (the most common of which being the *irigoins* and *callelepi* xenoi animals). Many law enforcement and military organizations started official taming and reproduction programs for these creatures, and sought to use these ferocious beasts on the frontlines of future combat.

The Civil War of the State saw the heaviest use of *kampftier* in wartime, with over a billion dogs, irigoins, callelepi, and other canine-esque xenofauna being deployed in sentry or attack positions between the two sides, with nearly as many injuries or fatalities due to the precariousness of modern combat. However, the intensity of the civil war allowed both sides to find ways to adapt the *kampftier* to the turbulent wartime conditions, with the standardization of flexible body armor, sensor uplinks, and even military-grade cyberization for battle animals. The end of the civil war yielded a combined, powerful stratagem for the usage of *kampftier* that would persist to the present day.

## Training

The training of *kampftier* greatly vary upon the type of species in question. Human researchers have found that Terran dogs and subsequent breeds that rose on the Staat's colonial worlds have the best natural ability to heed to human commands and become cognizant of humans as an object to guard - mainly due to the two species' shared origins on Earth. However, dogs are also the weakest of the available battle animals, with irigoins being the most powerful and callelepi being a strong mid-tier animal.

The training for xenofauna employs the hybridization of their natural, xenoi behaviors with the required objectives of human handlers and strategists. This is accomplished through intense psychological training in order to bring the creatures closer to a "Terran mode of thinking", in addition to applied cybernetics. These procedures can take up to a month to fully complete for one animal, but is usually done in large batches at dedicated animal training centers that then export their fully-trained *kampftier* to clients such as the *Staatsschutz*, *Staatswehr*, *Nationales* *Verteidigungsamt*, or law enforcement organizations.

## Uses

All *kampftier* given to military or paramilitary organizations are discriminated in duties based upon their abilities, either natural or artificially applied. Many dogs, cyberized or otherwise, find themselves acting as sentries to installations or as helpers to human soldiers and medics due to their biological similarity and behavioral familiarity to mankind. Powerful xenofauna such as irigoins are often folded into dedicated assault formations due to their morale damage value and ferocity in combat against enemy soft-body targets. Callelepi are used alongside dogs for search-and-rescue or tracking operations due to their fast speeds and intense olfactory capabilities.

*Kampftier* under law enforcement are geared towards assisting officers in apprehending targets or assisting in quelling rebellious or riotous activities.