Dryad Support Armour

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*"Will you quit your bawling? It's not like your arm's missing or anyth- Ohh."*

- Dryad treating a mortally wounded Auxiliary
## Tactical Analysis

* **Working off your debt**: Ex-criminals forced to repay for their crimes against the Syndicate, Dryads are responsible for keeping your expensive battlesuits in tip top shape.

* **CLEAR!**: Dryads can also revive normal infantry, though only for a costly sum. Depending on the unit in question it may be better to let him die.

* **Reluctant Medic**: As former criminals, Dryads cannot be trusted with weaponry and are thus are totally unarmed.

* **Debt cleared**: Experienced Dryads are those who fully paid back their masters, such individuals generally choose to take off and find work elsewhere.

## Background

In war, losses are inevitable; every army must minimise their losses and salvage those that cannot be avoided. Tanks could have their parts salvaged, extra armour can be plated on the sides of damaged areas, and anything not able to be repaired can be melted down and recast. Unfortunately for the Syndicate, they faced a different challenge. The main fighting force of the Syndicate is their infantry and battlesuits, as opposed to tanks and aircraft. As well as this, the Syndicate forces were never designed to be shot at; they depend on their range to avoid retaliation. Finally, even if their infantry were not shot at, and even if their armour was not damaged in the slightest, Syndicate battlesuits need constant upkeep of their wetware, and a large proportion of their non-cyborg troops take dangerous levels of drugs, often on the brink of overdose. Their forces require medical attention and upkeep, as complex and essential as the mechanical upkeep in other factions.

It was obvious that a medical support unit was needed. The first solution was, of course, to use medics on the battlefield. However, this was in itself not sufficient; the Syndicate's somewhat 'flexible' morals often came into conflict with the strict morals of professional medics. Few trained medics would accept Syndicate demands to cut as many corners as possible in treatment, withdraw essential medication from certain patients, or even outright kill certain infantry if they were no longer necessary. As well as this, there was the high cost of training these medics, and the long time it took to complete this training. In the end, this solution resulted only in an effective, but inefficient, expensive and uncooperative force. Syndicate attempts to use other pathways failed miserably; unqualified 'backstreet doctors' caused the unintentional death of troops, creating a medical AI proved prohibitively expensive, and giving Auxillaries basic first aid microsofts only helped them requisition more drugs for their own personal use. The Syndicate needed a strong, relativley disciplined, cheap and morally bankrupt medical force for the battlefield. The Dryad was the solution devised.

Criminals in the Sprawls are no strangers to 'working off' their debt; low-level criminals that damage Syndicate propery are often drafted to work in dangerous and unsafe factories at minimum wage to repay their 'debt'. The Dryad, however, is unique in that it allows medium and even high-level criminals to sign up for the Dryad system. After their signup, their debt is calculated (the cost of damage caused to the Syndicate, plus the profit any individual killed by them could be expected to bring the Syndicate in their lifetime, plus the cost of cybernetics, quadrupled, with the cost of the quotation into this calculation added). Only those with debts so large that the Syndicate never expects them to pay off in their lifetime are selected. At this point, most of the subject's body is replaced by a low-armoured battlesuit, in order to ensure that they cannot 'waste' medical supplies on themselves. After this, specially made microsofts filled with all the combat medical knowledge and battlesuit repairs they will ever need are uploaded into their brain. Adrenal surpressors and seretonin regulators are implanted to keep them (relativley) docile, and a kill switch is added in case they go rogue. Because these criminals are not squeamish to violent conditions or morally reprehensible actions, no frontal lobotomy or nerve stapling is required, saving a large amount of time and money in their production. At this point, the Dryad is ready.

The Dryad has proven to be an incredibly effective program, patching the weaknesses of the Syndicate's mercenary forces, while reducing prison overcrowding and even being able to offer (overpriced) medical attention between battles to further repay their debt. What has surprised the Syndicate most, however, is that a handful of Dryads have repaid their debt in full, and earned their freedom, leading to debates amongst the Board of Classics as to whether the formula for the debt should be revised. Finally, it must also be remembered that, while female inmates seem to far prefer the Dryad program to the male inmates, and indeed the public perception of Dryads is that of a female group (like the Rocket Angels), male Dryads are far from uncommon; if you hurt the Syndicate, it doesn't matter if you are man, woman or child; you will pay them back.