Jumper Trooper

Jumper Troopers are a specialised infantry type deployed by the armed forces of the Republic Of Germanistan. They are utilized in air-to-air combat aswell as as shock troops against fortified enemy positions. Jump Troops are equipped with a rocket pack and melee weapons. They use their rocket packs to jump off an airborne unit (usually, they are deployed from the Asgardet flying fortress) and cross distances of several hundred meters before the pack is exhausted. If they reached their target succesfully, they then use their neko-te-like grappling claws to cling to the target aircraft's hull and tear holes in it. Their grappling claws are then used as weapons against the crew of the aircraft. As a desperate measure, they also resort to attacking their enemies by flying into them with a rocket boost.

Unlike troops equipped with Jetpacks or Backpack helicopters, the Jumper Trooper's rocket pack offers very little control over the direction of flight, and there has been no interface included to affect the navigation. This and the lack of wings turn the soldier into a living artillery shell during flight. High losses have been reported from faulty distance calculations leading to the rocket pack depleting its fuel before reaching the target, since thrust is provided only for about 30 seconds.

Like many of the alternate technologies developed on Eden-IV (like the use of armored animals as main battle tanks), the development of the rocket pack used for these troops rather than equipping them with Jet packs stems from the utter lack of fossile fuels and substitutive chemicals on the planet. The only substances available burn very fast and make good as rocket fuel, but are useless to fuel jet engines (or motors, for that matter). The only depot of fossile fuels on the planet, created by the shells of dead Khyrrick, was in the hands of Romera before that country's occupation by Germanistan.

Due to the limited carrying capacity of the rocket pack, the soldiers have nothing more at hand than their grappling claws and extensive training in close combat. A soldier of this class must be in perfect physical condition to grapple onto a flying aircraft and demolish it in flight, as well as successfuly using a simple melee weapon against enemy troops armed with firearms. These soldiers receive special training in close combat, and only the best are picked for this class. Still, among those that manage to reach the enemy aircraft, casualties are high if facing a large crew aboard the enemy craft. When used against large, slow airships, casualties from missing the target are quite low, but those from combat are high, since airships have large crews. Smaller, faster targets with limited crew are easier to take on once reached, but are harder to reach. Against jet aircraft, Jumper Troopers are essentially useless. Jump Troops are only deployed were there is no way of getting the mission done by the use of other forces. Due to their high cost and low succession rate, even at extensive training, it is only a better option to use them if no alternative is present.

Jumper Troopers played an important role during Operation NESTOR. There were also late war experiments of creating a medium-range cruise missile by strapping a series of time-fused rocket packs onto a large tube stuffed with explosives - see Project HAMMER. This weapon was also used during Operation GREIFF and Operation NESTOR and the subsequent defeat of texan forces along the Theide by destroying the bridges across the river and finally annihilating the Texan base west of the river.

Thrust Duration:

• 30 seconds

Lift Weight:

• 90 kilograms, maximum

Weapons:

• 2 Nekote grappling claws

Control System:

• Trigger button for activation of rocket thrust, no directional control

Cost per Unit:

• 125,000 G-Credits

Deployment:

• Extremely Rare