More like Borg crossed with UAVs. Real K'kree, but manufactured/modified
at an early age to add bio-mechanical integral communications, combat drug
injectors, and command/control/communications gear, including operant and
classical conditioning modules to force them to do things against their
nature, like cram into cramped troop transports for long periods. The
armor that you see on them (in the TNE t-shirts, maybe other stuff since
then) is not permanent, but put on before battle, but there are permanent,
surgically implanted attachment points for the armor on their hips and
shoulder girdles. So while they are "real" K'kree beneath the behavior
control, they can be forced to do lots of things like charge and fight to
the last man beyond what they would normally do. But if you were able to
jam the tactical net you could degrade the control circuits and allow them
to behave more naturally. They don't have an actual virus personality
resident in each one, but are commanded/controlled remotely by vampire
control systems.
Weapons would be basically anything they can carry, but given their mass,
they would lean toward heavy autocannon, grenade launchers, plasma and
fusion weapons. Each K'kree would typically have one major weapon on each
side, attached to the shoulder girdle on either side, and could add
weapons in their hands. These weapons would be like the Aliens "smart
gun," aimed by HUDs inside of the faired-in helmet. The weapons would not
be like Borg where they replace the hands, because hands are too useful to
be used for flexible tasks.
There would also be specialized K'kree "biotanks," like Engineer vehicles,
self-propelled artillery, missile launchers, and some which might carry a
tactical operations center which would house an actual virus/vampire
personality. In that case maybe there is more direct virus/vampire control
over the brain and central nervous system, but not necessarily.
They are used as Lucan's Vampire Army shock troops because they already
have a native, intelligent ability to fight well, are large, with a great
load-carrying capability for armor and weapons, but that can be "enhanced"
by the ability to control them more directly in tactical situations. Their
masters would also attempt to manipulate their concious minds by showing
them whatever kind of motivating propaganda they can come up with to make
them hate their enemies, trying to blame them for the K'kree's slavery.
"If you kill them, you can finally be free."
So these K'kree are tragic figures, all the more so, since the free K'kree
outside the curtain will hate them for what they have become and wish to
exterminate them for this travesty against K'kree values. Within the
enslaved K'kree, there would be an oral tradition, coming from captured
free K'kree impressed into the Robo-K'kree forces, to pass on and keep
alive true K'kree culture among the robo-K'kree, so there would be a kind
of K'kree underground within the ranks, or rumors of it.
The Ithklur, although renowned as K'kree fighters, will rapidly develop
compassion for them, as the robo-K'kree are the perfect example of a
formerly free people turned into twisted, tortured slaves. The Ithklur
will not get a lot of satisfaction out of battling their old nemesis this
way. The Ithklur enjoy fighting opponents who are strong enemies, and who
hate the Ithklur as much as the Ithklur hate them, but that's not what's
going on here. These K'kree are fighting because they are forced, and to
Ithklur that invokes more compassion than righteous warrior spirit. This
compassion will manifest itself in two predominant ways: killing the poor,
tortured K'kree as swiftly as possible, putting them out of their misery,
and after battle, stripping them of all their gear so that they can at
least be "free" in death. (Think of the pasty, bruised complexion of
Picard after being de-borged, or Darth Vader at the end of Return of the
Jedi, with their fur all worn off in patches beneath the armor.) There
would be, time permitting, a story where a group of Ithklur, moved by this
compassion, attempt to liberate a unit of K'kree and free them from their
vampire control. This would be early in the robo-K'kree-Ithklur contact,
so these pen-raised K'kree won't even know who the Ithklur are and they're
supposed to hate them, so they could make some common cause and fight as a
combined unit, freeing more robo-K'kree and becoming a force-multiplier
for the RC ground troops, as they can tap into the robo-K'kree tactical
net. So one of the ironies of the Black Curtain fighting would be Ithklur
and de-borged K'kree as comrades in arms, which could eventually feed into
an entree for improved Ithklur-K'kree relations after the war, or at least
result in a group of K'kree survivors that are not accepted by the free
K'kree, but are allies of the Ithklur. Unfortunately, the K'kree
underground within the robo-K'kree would remember the Ithklur as
traditional enemies, so there would be conflict here between K'kree who
want to free their own people and K'kree being freed by outsiders.
> So tell us about the K'kree when they boil out from behind the Black
> Curtain. How did you guys envisage them? Are they still K'kree? Are they
> robots? Are they Borg? How many of them are there? What weapons do they
> have?
>
> --- In , dcndcn13@... wrote:
>>
>> No worries. I just threw that, "at GDW" bit in there because I have been
>> asked that question several times before. I'm here to share and bore
>> people, so I have to keep up my sharing and boring people.
>>
>
>
>