EMIRATI INFANTRY

The Emirates don’t have a real standing military, but if someone tried to describe them as if they did one it might look something like this.

Faction: Emirate Retinues

Stat Block

Primary Skills: Gunnery (Small Arms), Survival (Subsistence)

Secondary Skills: Awareness (Battlefield), Melee (Knives), Melee (Unarmed), Athletics (Throwing), Medicine (First Aid)

Squad Organization:

Emirate retinues lack any sort of real standardization, and their composition can vary wildly depending on the Emir they serve under. Attempting to classify them would be an exercise in futility.  

Uniform: There is no standard Emirati dress uniform. Each Emir’s troops have unique uniforms—if their Emir bothers to keep them supplied.

Main Weapon: Skavara Heavy Industries Sk40 Close Assault Rifle

An assault rifle that mounts a powered blade on top of the barrel, allowing it to be used as an effective melee weapon at the cost of making aiming almost impossible. Bizarre and impractical even by Emirati standards, the Sk40 is common solely because the Ethereal Guard was equipped with them by the order of Oliver Masao, prompting a scramble to imitate by status-obsessed Emirs. (Medium Carbine, Purpose-Built, Vibro Bayonet, Off-Balance 2) 

Sidearm: Grass Gun 

An open-bolt “zip gun” that can be built out of common materials, the Grass Gun’s plans have proliferated throughout the Emirates over decades of rebellions, to the point where the gun will seem to appear almost spontaneously in times of unrest. It is inferior to other weapons in every way except one: availability. (Heavy Machine Pistol, Unreliable, Purpose-Built, Inferior Weapon, Dumb Weapon)

Melee Weapon: Javari Munitions JBA Combat Knife

A decent combat knife balanced to allow throwing, this weapon would be utterly unremarkable if not for the fact that it has remained in production throughout the multiple obliterations of the ESE’s military production capacity, making it the most prevalent mass-produced weapon in the Emirates essentially by default. (Light Throwing Knife)

Specialist Armor: Artisan Guard Armor

These is a common trend for Emirs to have a personal elite guard equipped with uniquely fitted suits of Turtleshell armor crafted by artisan armorsmiths. This is hideously inefficient compared to just ordering armor in bulk, but this is completely intentional—successfully equipping a large force of armored troops with such a laborious process is a demonstration of an Emir’s wealth and power.  (Turtleshell, Custom Fitted 2)

Support Weapon: Devil Dawg

The nasty older brother of the Grass Gun, the Devil Dawg is a small antitank rocket that can be constructed out of household materials, which has the added bonus of making it very hard to distinguish from random industrial debris. A tendency to fail to launch and explode in the operator’s hands has not stopped insurgent groups from stockpiling them in the hundreds. (Light RPG, Dangerous, Unreliable, Concealable, Dumb Weapon)

Support Weapon: Mancatcher

A simplistic design for a small net-firing gun that can be assembled at home. It was originally distributed throughout human trafficking rings to assist in the capture of slaves, and was adopted by some Emirs’ troops for the same purpose. (Light Net Gun, Concealable, Inferior Weapon, Dumb Weapon)

Officer’s Weapon: Skavara Heavy Industries Sk7 Vibrofalchion

A cleaver-like vibroblade produced using altered tooling meant for Gear vibroknives recovered from Skavara. The Sk7 is actually quite effective for melee combat, and one of the few Emirati-made weapons that will be used even when foreign alternatives are available. (Medium Vibroblade, Reliable)

Extra: Supply And Demand

Emirati Retinues primarily use imported MILICIA or Paxton equipment, with the materiel listed in this article being mostly supplemental.