Fiction:Drakodominatus Tyranny/Army

The army of the Drakodominatus Tyranny, formally known as the Archostrategon, is along with the Navy and the Installations, one of the proudest organizations of the Tyranny and one of the organizations responsible for the Tyranny's massive growth and reputation as an extremely powerful military juggernaut. It is in charge of all land-related combat duties, such as subjugating planets in order to exploit their resources and conquer their populations as well as crushing the land forces of enemy empires in order for the Tyranny to gain land dominance. It has done so for almost 300 years with brutal efficiency and power, greatly expanding the domain of the Tyranny.

History
The history of the Archostrategon is written on the pages of the universe by the ink of blood dripping off the quill of the Tyranny's will. It's roots can be traced to the Drakodominatus Wars of Unification, were it served as the Tyranny's main instrument in subjugating other nation states. During the last of these wars, it served as the weapon which the Tyranny used to over a decade long period, batter the Drakodominatus Republic into submission. During this period it evolved from what in Terran terms is Napoleonic Warfare, to trench warfare, to mechanized warfare, to an army that was capable of fighting effectively in the nuclear wasteland that was Demogorgon Prime. During these periods, it was not thought of as an invincible juggernaut as for most of the war it was evenly matched with the Army of the Republic. While it evolved drastically in both tactics and technologies, the stalemates and later victories of the war were written in the application of raw power and new technology to the destruction of the enemy. More than any other thought, the belief that brute force and raw power was the deciding factor in military engagements carried on with them through their existence.

Perhaps the Archostrategon began to gain it's current reputation when the Tyranny had first contact with an alien race. While the sublight vessel, a massive investment in the Tyranny's resources at that time that brought the Drakodominatus to the first world they colonized was only able to fit an armored brigade, the Drakodominatus were quickly able to dominate and terrorize the local population through their skill at arms, biological superiority, and technology. Drakodominatus tanks, adjusted to their massive frame and tempered by the brutal war of unification as well as their troops, similarly experienced and powerful were able to overpower the local civilization. It was then that the Drakodominatus thought that as far as they knew, they were the strongest and smartest race in the Gigaquadrant, and thus the belief that they were the master race, one of the most obvious Dominatus facts in existence, came to be. It was also then that doctrine fully stagnated until the last stages of the Great Tyranny War, as they merely thought that raw power alone applied equally over the entire front would be enough to defeat any enemy.

Drakodominatus strategy then was marked by the view that individual troops were rather expendable, and though they were well armed, it was not uncommon to see frontal charges of Drakodominatus. This was due to the fact that it would take a few generations for the Republic's last vengeance weapon to take effect and induce near sterility amongst the Drakodominatus race, and during this time they bred explosively. Furthermore, their forces were continually improved by the increasing eliteness of their troops as well as the new technology which they received from Installation 1. They had expanded throughout the entirety of the Acheron Region when the cataclysm of the sterility plague rippled through their race, forever altering their genetic code and rendering them almost unable to reproduce. Their population capped at just over 100 billion Drakodominatus, and never increased past that point. Then, Tyranny planners made sure to emphasize quality over quantity to an enormous extent and expansion momentarily stopped as the entire population was educated to be as proficient as possible in academic and military aspects. After this, equipped with a new perspective which saw Drakodominatus life in a far less replaceable way given the decreased birth rate, they began conquest anew.

During the conquest of the rest of their colonies in Mirus as well as their extragalactic expansion during their days as the Drakodominatus, their doctrine of raw power applied everywhere never changed, as it was working splendidly, and the Drakodomiantus believed that so long as they kept their technical edge over their enemies, they would be able to defeat them at least on the ground. Drakodominatus ground forces expanded the Tyranny to over 200,000 systems by the time the Culling took place. This cut down the amount of Drakodominatus from slightly less than 100 billion, to 1 million. It killed 1 in 100,00 Drakodominatus for each Dominatus, though some historians contend that the Tyranny grew more powerful as each Dominatus was worth more than the rest it killed. During this period, the Dominatus began a series of military reforms giving each of the adults among the million Dominatus authority over both the ground forces and naval forces they were to create.

The Archostrategon's priorities shifted from expanding into creating a more massive army in order to fill the hole left by the death of the vast majority of their population. This was done by two initiatives, the Hephasteus Initiative which improved their vehicles and creates numerous synthetic troops such as the Myrmidons, Chiliarchs, and Arcani in order to serve as the armored hammer and anvil respectively of the Dominatus's new forces. The other initiative was the Eris Initiative which spearheaded the creation of the Overseers, genetically enhanced and cybernetically enhanced supersoldiers biologically hardcoded for loyalty cloned from a template taken from the Gigaquadrant's most fearsome races. The Dominatus would lead these and serve as the ultimate shock and awe weapons of the Tyranny, serving to enhance their already fearsome reputation. Stories had single Dominatus conquering entire planets by themselves and wiping out entire enemy armies out singlehandedly. The scary part is that their fighting prowess, the result of a lifetime of war and advanced technology was such that some of these rumors were true. During the War of Hyperspace, Dominatus were able to taken on DCP troops even though the DCP at the time was vastly more advanced.

Following the resolution of this war, the Dominatus began rapidly expanding in all sectors, and by 2791 had an empire of a million systems, a feat of empire building and growth hitherto thought impossible by others. Having reached a borderline tier 1 technology level in aggregate, being more advanced in some areas and less advanced in others, and equipped with legions of overseers, armadas of powerful land vehicles and uncountable numbers of Myrmidons, the Tyranny's Army was at it's peak at this time in it's numbers. It's reputation was that of an unstoppable military juggernaut, with some of the most powerful supersoldiers and warmachines in the Gigaquadrant as well as one of it's most expansive armies. Indeed, during the Great Tyranny War, this reputation was proven to be true under certain conditions.

During the Great Tyranny War, the Tyranny was initially on the offensive, and it's troops showed their brutality and power in their initial offensives against the Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth. Well-equipped and with orbital dominance, during these phases, the Archostrategon crushed almost everything before them without mercy. However, later on the campaign, chinks in their armor appeared and were mercilessly exploited. The AGC learned that Dominatus doctrine did not extend beyond merely applying force and was reliant on a well oiled logistical train that was easily disrupted. Disruption of this train affected both the Supremhydron and the Archostrategon, and encircled Tyranny garrisons as well as unsupplied Tyranny troops found themselves ruthlessly destroyed by the AGC. In Borealis, the Junction proved that in their home galaxy, with the Tyranny devoting the bulk of it's troops elsewhere in a multifront war that the Tyranny could be beaten albeit difficultly, through brute force. On worlds on which the Archostrategon fought, the two titans collided pitting their nigh-unstoppable ground forces against each other. However, due to the unprecedented numbers of Junction synths as well as Junction orbital superiority as well as Medusa not giving reinforcements from Mirus, this led to the Archostrategon losing. Furthermore, the assimilation of some Dominatus as well as the creation of an "Overseer Mark 2" made sure that the Junction had troops as capable as the Dominatus for the former, and troops capable of beating overseers one one one, albeit with difficulty for the latter. [add Milky Way Stuff When Done]. In order to meet these challenges, Dominatus led by Stahl shifted the Archostrategon to defensive posture and explored different tactics on all levels of battle as well as the idea of combined arms battlegroups and spearheaded the development of new units such as the Heavy and Super-heavy categories of vehicles, all of which would be used to devastating but not war-changing effect during the Mirus Campaign.

[add mirus campaign]

The complete and utter defeat of an army as powerful as the military behemoth of the Archostrategon gives many lessons to the military theorist, general, general staff officer, military researcher, politician, and average soldier. One of these lessons is the importance of good logistics, especially with an army as specialized and extensive as the Archostrategon. Perhaps another is the importance of combined arms battlegroups in order to maximize the effectiveness of an army's constituent components in battle. Maybe one of the most significant is the fact that political leaders, unless excellent generals in their own right should never interfere in battle when more experienced minds are at work. However, the most important is this - even with forces with gargantuan amounts of raw power, that tactics and doctrine aside from merely applying these power equally do matter, and that a force should learn effective tactics and strategy before it is too late to make a difference by using them. Anyone can learn from the Archostrategon. From their strengths, learn what to emulate. From their failures, learn what to avoid.

Organization
The Archostrategon is divided into 3 groups, Dominatus Command, Overseer Command, and Synthetic Command which is subdivided into Infantry Command and Warmachine Command. They are organized in that Dominatus Command serves as a kind of general staff in that it controls the movements of the other 2 Commands. At the beginning of the Post-Culling reforms, each constituent Strategon of the Archostrategon were uniform in composition in that each was under the command of one Dominatus with the corresponding breakdowns in numbers for other units. However, this changed as the war went on, and during the Mirus Campaign, after Medusa Heimdall by was dealt with by a group of Dominatus, the organizational structure was divided into the Chimera-Strategons which were ad-hoc combined arms battlegroups with different unit compositions. Properly deployed and properly supplied, these Chimera-Strategons could only be dislodged by sustained oribtal bombardment or truly overwhelming numbers, as they incorporated an excellent combines arms approach in which the differing strengths of Dominatus units were utilized in order to negate any weaknesses that each constituent unit might individually have. However, by this time, the war was too far gone that even this major organizational change could not help the Tyranny once it was fully perfected.

The Archostrategon is controlled by a kind of general staff called the Drachonian, composed of the 10 Dominatus Drachons, their foremost warriors and commanders led by the Archon himself, the foremost among them as selected by the Tyrant. THe Draconian coordinates the strategic movements of the Archostrategon on the highest level possible. Lesser ranking Dominatus Commanders, Overseers, and Synthetic AIs control operations on lower scales of battle. Synthetic are general subordinate to Overseers who are subordinate to the Dominatus. Synthetic AIs can inhabit any of the chassis, from infantry to vehicles and can be saved at the end of the battle if their data is transmitted in time. However, an Infantry AI will have to readapt if copied over to a Warmachine AI and a Warmachine AI will have to adapt if transferred to a different type of Warmachine. The highest rank of Synthetic AI is Marshal, and Marshals are generally in the chassis of powerful Dominatus warmachines for those in the Warmachine Command or modified Chiliarch bodies for Infantry Command. Rank is determined by experience, given by the initial protocols and the learnings of the Synthetic's adaptive AIs. Higher Rank AIs have larger scopes of knowledge and are more creative. Furthermore they often develop unique personalities which are emergent from their programming. The highest ranking Marshals wield power similar to that of the Overseer Dynasts but still less than the Dominatus.

Doctrine
The doctrine of the Archostrategon centers around one piece, the raw power of it's forces. Dominatus forces are universally armed and armored, with the exception of Myrmidons and Arcani, to a very fearsome extent. Dominatus forces are also known for their level of specialization in their task to the detriment of performance in others. In performing a singular task, they are virtually without peer. However in the situation of the battlefield, which requires multiple things to be balanced and executed simultaneous, they are at a disadvantage with regard to this. Dominatus utilize combined arms only in that all the firepower possible is brought to bear on the target as until the later stages of the Mirus Campaign of the Dominatus War, they did not use combined arms battlegroups. Furthermore, their troops almost universally have a size advantage on other empires, and thus carry more armor and arms, however this is at the tradeoff of being less maneuverable. Particularly notable in the Archostrategon are the Overseer supersoldiers, the unending waves of Myrmidons, the massive vehicles of each category, and of course, the Dominatus themselves. While the raw power of the Tyranny's armed forces generally makes it hard to notice, the land doctrine employed by the Archostrategon is quite primitive by the standards of the Gigaquadrant. This is because due to the biological advantages as well as the technological advantages that the Dominatus generally possessed over their enemies, they could get away with using mere brute force in order to defeat the enemies they fought. Thus, it is arguable that there doctrine has actually atrophied since the start of the Drakodominatus Wars of Unification. In the words of some empires, the Dominatus solution has always been to find a bigger stick to beat something up as opposed to using the same stick to hit it from another angle. Metaphorically, due to the absence of many such sticks in their later wars against the Gigaquadrant, they have lately been catching up on tactics that the other empires have used for a long time.

Equipment
As of the Great Tyranny War, the equipment that the Archostrategon uses is some of the most advanced in the Gigaquadrant. With the exception of the Myrmidons and Arcani, their troops are defined by an intensive quality approach which coupled with their massive industry, allows for an exceedingly well equipped yet extensive army which emphasizes firepower and protection. The Archostrategon's weaponry generally works around the principles of particle weapons, plasma weapons, and kinetic kill weapons, though some starship grade weaponry can be seen mounted on their Super-Heavy vehicles and Behemoths. Furthermore, in mockery of each of their races, the Overseers carry enhanced racially unique weapons which definitely make their presence felt on the battlefield. The Dominatus themselves carry weapons created with their eldritch technology and are often as powerful as Main Battle Tanks in long range armament. Armorwise, the non Arcani and Myrmidon units can count on having powered armor as well as personal shielding, with non-recon vehicles carrying large amounts of armor based on the Standard Armor Material Mark 2 of starships. Their forces are generally very quick due to this emphasis on heavy armor and heavy firepower. They communicate through an integrated digital "telepathy" system which allows for coordination on all levels of battle, from small tactical adjustments for Chilliarchs with respect to small unit tactics as well as pincer movements and encirclements on the strategic scale. The Archostrategon is also marked by it's extremely wide variance of units and thus equipment, which leads to correspondingly hard logistical difficulties in supplying it.

Recruitment & Training
The Tyranny takes a very distinct approach to the recruitment and training of it's forces. Recruitment and training differ for each of the three main types of Dominatus forces, mainly the Dominatus themselves, the Overseers, and their synthetic units. Recruitment-wise, all Dominatus are trained during their years in the Dominatus academies, which have a giant focus on war and technology. Combat-wise, Dominatus are exceedingly well-trained by their graduation in all facets of combat as both commanders and warriors. Overseers are "recruited" when they are created on the Overseer Citadels, or Overseer homeworlds, each of which each overseer creed has one of. They are trained when the data from their template is uploaded to them and also given training after their creation to make them even more elite. Training-wise, Overseers are equivalent to the special-forces of many other races, and their incredible brute power, second to the Dominatus, makes them even more brutal. Synthetics are created synthetically and receive "training" through their initial combat protocols. However, they are put through combat exercises and learn more and become more lethal when their adaptive intellignece adopts to more scenarios or gets patches. Some beasts from Demogorgon Prime are also used by the Archostrategon and can be controlled as war assets on a high level as the Ultima Serum has granted them some sentience.

Rules of Engagement
The Dominatus Rules of Engagement are quite simple - there aren't any. Dominatus regularly use nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons as well as other forms of atrocious weaponry regularly when attacking worlds without any compunctions. Dominatus do not treat civilians as non-combatants and generally the focus of their land assaults is subjugating them and turning them into biodrones so that they can be put to work as quickly as possible. Prisoners of war are generally only taken either to be tortured either for fun by the more sadistic Dominatus, or for interrogation, or as some other kind of bargaining chip. Otherwise they are converted into biodrones. They only resolutions in combat aside from the complete domination of the enemy forces if it has already been decided by the Drachonian that that would be the optimal strategy. Otherwise, the Archostrategon operates without mercy or remorse.

Infantry
The Infantry of the Tyranny is composed of robots, cyborgs, supersoldiers, monsters from Demogorgon Prime, and most feared of all, the Dominatus themselves. These infantry work in collaboration with vehicles, or by themselves in ship boardings in order to crush the enemy. Dominatus infantry are quite polarized in design and doctrine. On one hand, there are the Dominatus and Overseers, supersoldiers feared by the Gigaquadrant who are renowned for their quality but are especially in the case of the Dominatus very rare. On the other hand there are the Myrmidons, who crush the enemy in a flood of numbers. By any measure though, even without their armored support they are a force to be reckoned with. For information on the infantry of the Archostrategon, refer to Database INF.

Vehicles
With the power of the Dominatus's biomechanical monstrosities and supersoldiers, it may appear to other empires that they are a mostly infantry based army. This is quite far from the truth, as Dominatus strategy concentrates simply upon overwhelming power deployed along the entire front. For this reason the Tyranny's strategy also focuses on the tremendous firepower brought on by mechanized war. Furthermore, their vehicles are created such that even though they may not be able to outmaneuver the name, they are able to overpower hem head on. Armored Vehicles development was spurred on by the declaration of war on the Tyranny by the Junction and the DCP, and in order to attempt to preserve Dominatus land superiority, the Heavy and Super-Heavy Classes of vehicles were created. Furthermore, in preparation for defensive fighting in the Mirus Campaign, then Drachon Wolframicht Stahl commissioned the creation of tank destroyers. While it seems that the Behemoths were a consequence of this, this is not true as they were originally created by Medusa as technology demonstrators and as siege units for important fortress worlds in the Gigaquadrant. For information on the vehicles of the Archostrategon, refer to Database VEH.

Quotes
"Better stay away from those Overseers..."

- W'tze of the Waptoria Alliance of Species

"Better get on their good side..."

- A Mardor

"Upon any assault by Tyranny forces, the planet in question, client, colony, or homeworld, is to be counted as lost. The objective is to secure enough individuals to allow for a stable breeding population to be brought off of the planet and established elsewhere."

- Official Aeoneonatrix Policy

"Interesting tactics. Their mastery of war is beautiful and grotesque at the same time."

- Gridlock of the Zarbania Powers

"Heheeh. They where fun to fight, a great challenge. Right before we delivered the nail in the coffin."

- of the Ugandalorian Crusaders

"The Tyranny's war machine is like few others in the gigaquardant. Organised, cruel, merciless. Their movements across a galaxy are like a foul tide sweeping all and leaving ruin in its wake. Make no mistake, their forces are like a nightmare to those who stand against them."