"We show up when you’re already bleeding out. We’re not here to save you—we’re here to make sure someone else dies first."

— Anonymous transmission

Origins and Mystery

The Underdogs are a paramilitary company with no known provenance, patronage, or ideological leanings. Unlike other mercenary outfits, their entire identity revolves around a single paradox: they only intervene on the side that is already losing. They offer their services cheaply—too cheaply, to the point that their continued existence and deployment defies economic sense.

No one knows where they are based, how they are funded, or what their long-term goals may be. Governments and analysts speculate endlessly:

• Hellfire Cabal Theory: Some claim they are an offshoot of the infamous Hellfire Cabal, leveraging Redspace connections to field their illegal reliquary-powered synths. But the Underdogs lack the Cabal’s memetic flamboyance and terror-branding; they make no claims, no threats, and no declarations.
• House Kosse Theory: Others point to statistical patterns: after conflicts where the Underdogs appear, House Kosse is often quick to offer rebuilding contracts, aid, or infrastructure support. Many believe the Underdogs deliberately create humanitarian crises for Kosse to exploit. But the House disavows any ties, and the profits still fail to explain the cost of their synths.

The truth remains concealed. The Underdogs are neither mercenaries in the conventional sense nor terrorists in the traditional mold. They are a weaponized mystery.

Conduct and Tactics

The Underdogs are infamous not for restraint but for reckless pragmatism:

• Collateral Damage: If the enemy is holed up in a cabin, collapse it. If they hold a resource, salt it. If civilians are too close, they are “acceptable losses.”
• Partisan Brutality: They revel in asymmetrical warfare—booby traps, kamikaze drones, sudden artillery barrages, and ecological sabotage.
• Attrition as Strategy: Their goal is not merely victory, but maximizing casualties on all sides, ensuring scars that linger long after the conflict ends.

They never commit in large numbers. Instead, they deploy in trios of human troopers, each commanding a dozen combat synths. These deployments are small, but surgical, and capable of bleeding much larger armies dry.

The Combat Synths

The hallmark of the Underdogs is their unique combat synths, seen nowhere else in Human Space. They are humanoid but satyr-like, with digitigrade “unguligrade” legs for speed and curling antenna-horns that double as high-power radio arrays.

Construction

• Frame & Chassis: Forged from Carbexene, a diamondoid alloy more common in starship hulls than on infantry. Almost impervious to conventional arms.
• Mobility: Can sprint at 50 mph with uncanny agility. The Momentum Redirection Matrix allows them to pivot midair or sidestep anti-vehicle missiles.
• Power: Reliquaries—illegal Redspace-tethered quantum batteries that provide vast energy at the cost of instability. They frequently explode when destroyed, taking nearby enemies (and allies) with them.
• Sensors: Equipped with full-spectrum sensory arrays (X-ray, IR, chemical, psi receptors). This allows them to detect hidden combatants and even unshielded thoughts.

Armament

• Heavy Particle Blasters: Weapons normally mounted on Vehicles. The Underdogs use them freely against infantry, bunkers, and armor alike.
• Integrated Claws: Monoatomic Carbexene blades for close quarters, retractable but devastating.

Self-Destruct Protocols

• Synths detonate upon destruction, preventing salvage or study.
• When human Underdog troopers are found dead (rare), their bodies liquefy into acid via bespoke implants.

Strategic Impact

Wherever the Underdogs arrive, one can expect:

• Massive casualties, often out of proportion to the strategic gain.
• Resource devastation, through scorched-earth tactics.
• Unanswered questions, as their surviving troopers vanish without a trace.

Hiring them can give a desperate side a 60% chance of turning the war around—but it guarantees devastation that persists for generations.

Reputation

To their enemies and allies alike, the Underdogs are a double-edged sword. They are not saviors; they are a force of entropy in military form.

"Nobody ever won prettier with the Underdogs. They just made sure the other guy lost uglier."

Underdog Combat Synth – Specifications

Frame

• Carbexene — ST: 12, DX: 8 | Weight: 140 | Cost: $4,000
• Intensive Microservos — +4 DX | Weight: 20 | Cost: $8,000

Power Supply

• Reliquary — Max FP: 14 | Weight: 6 | Cost: $5,000 | Notes: Unstable, illegal in PSC
• Emergency Power Coil — 1 hr backup | Weight: (inc.) | Cost: $3,000

Chassis

• Carbexene — DR 35(10) | Weight: 50 | Cost: $350,000 | Notes: Can’t wear armor
• Ray Shielding — DR 10(2) vs energy, DR 0(2) vs others | Weight: (inc.) | Cost: $20,000

Manipulators

• Hands — DX+0 | Weight: (inc.) | Cost: $500
• Monoatomic Carbexene Claws (retractable) | Weight: (inc.) | Cost: $500

Motivators

• Unguligrade Legs — Basic Move: 12 (Enhanced Move 1, Enhanced Dodge 1) | Weight: (inc.) | Cost: $4,500
• Momentum Redirection Matrix — +2 Dodge, pivot agility | Weight: (inc.) | Cost: $12,000

Sensory Equipment

• Extreme Low Band Imager (X-ray) — Weight: 1 | Cost: $4,000
• LADAR (IR, scanning) — Weight: 5 | Cost: $4,000
• Visual Spectrum Imager — Weight: 1 | Cost: $2,000
• Chemo-Destroying Sensor (Smell) — Weight: 5 | Cost: $2,300
• Gustator Appendage (Taste) — Weight: 1 | Cost: $800
• Psi Receptor (Brainwave detection) — Weight: 5 | Cost: $16,000
• Radio Receiver — Weight: 5 | Cost: $150
• 360° Vision — Weight: (inc.) | Cost: $2,500
• Spectral Overlay Module — Weight: (inc.) | Cost: $6,000
• Negative SI Filter (Perception +3) — Weight: (inc.) | Cost: $3,500

Comms

• Radio Communicator — Range 3 miles | Weight: 4 | Cost: $200
• Vox (audible speech) — Range 10 yards | Weight: 1 | Cost: $40
• Directional Vox (focused sound beam/disruption) — Weight: (inc.) | Cost: $12,000

Cooling System

• Grade D — HT: 12 | Weight: 40 | Cost: $1,200

Weaponry

• Heavy Blaster — 8d(6) corrosion + radiation | Acc: 10+4 | RoF: 1 | Shots: 15(6) | Range: 1200/3600 | ST: 10 | Bulk: -6 | Rcl: 5 | Weight: 20/2 | Cost: $40,000

Totals

Total Weight: 307
Total Cost: $494,690