Biomancer

The tortoise, however, is agnostic.

The tortoise, however, is agnostic.

Gonna be real with y'all, this one? Gonna be ROUGH, so buckle up.

Back during the old Lead War, some sick fuck in the Handler's Union came up with a horrible idea. See, not every captured rebel or merc could be made into a proper Hound, so what to do with all the leftovers and failures? Simple!

Commit even more heinous warcrimes and violations of human rights.

So we got the fucking Rabbits. Now, you may be wondering, why does such a horrible pilot-type have a cute name like that? Well it wasn't because they're cute, they got it from how the pilots behave in and out of their chassis.

Here's the steps to make one!

Step One: Grab your local POW mech pilots, the ones specifically who don't qualify for Hound candidacy.

Step Two: Load them full of neural stimulators and combat drugs, turning them insanely anxious and twitchy.

Step Three: One of the neural implants is a neural interface for the Handler's voice. This is important for later.

Step 4: Jury-Rig an industrial chassis for pure speed, since those things are at most 8-10m tall.

Step 5: Strap a dirty bomb to the mech, the more nuclear the better!

Step 6: Have the Handler instill the fear of god into the Rabbit, and send them out into the battlefield, directly away from Union forces.

Step 7: Open the Rabbit's comms to all channels and have the rebels listen in terror as their former allies have been turned into terrified bomb bunnies, charging directly at them while fleeing the voice in their skull.

Step 8: Boom.

Yeah. You can see why a lot of people fucking hated the Union, and why the fuckers running this project suffered what they deserved. Now, you're probably wondering, if these things were all living bombs, why am I bringing them up?

Simple!

Cuz some of them survived the Lead War.

That's right, out there, in the wide galaxy? Whole lotta POWs turned into Rabbits that never got sent out. So like actual bunnies, there's a ton of them, and people needed to figure out how to use them. After all, caring for a pilot is expensive, especially if people can't use them to earn money.

So some ingenious bastards found two new ways to use them:

The first are called Hoppers. They function in similarity to the old Rabbits, but now? Now they having jamming systems, active camo, and a shit-ton of grenades. That's right, speedy saboteurs. Hoppers make a strafe run through a hostile zone, mess with comms while their teammates move in, and drop bombs off for further disorientation. Also, due to their small sized mechs and active camo, it's insanely hard to hit the little fuckers. I've seen them run circles around even veteran mercs, and while their grenades aren't likely to kill, it's still insulting if one does kill you.

The second type are a bit more... unique. Remember how I said Rabbits were made to be anxious wrecks? Well, due to stims and drugs affecting folks differently, sometimes you get what we call Caerbannogs, or Bannogs for short. Imagine a Rabbit, but instead of constant fear, the anxiety loops around into insane bloodlust.

These things are like if you gave a chihuahua a chainsaw. They're basically pint sized Hounds in terms of mechs, but don't let that fool you. Due to their height, they specialize as anti-heavy chassis shock troops. Send one of these through a battlefield to climb a mech twice it's height, and it's beautiful. They're loaded with saws, pile bunkers, plasma cutters, and slug shotguns, then sent to break the knees of those who laugh at them.

As for handling them outside of the mech, it's similar to the Hoppers, but even higher stakes. Startle one, and you're likely to lose something. Also, they tend to spend time isolated from others due to their bloodlust, at least if the Handler is smart. Just give those ones a wide berth, don't get too cuddly.

Now, for general advice. With the exceptions of Bannogs, these little bastards are frankly, adorable. Due to the constant stim abuse they were subject to, and possibly continued depending on their boss/Handler, they tend to be very easy to frighten and terrified of actual confrontation.

Best way to deal with them?

Be kind, gentle, and honest. They need some stability in their lives.

Desensitize them to noise, if you can convince their Handler it's worth the time, and don't sneak up on them.

Don't be sarcastic, they can't understand it and will think you hate them and cry, it's really sad and pathetic, please don't make the bunnies cry.

Hell, some Handlers don't even feel the need to punish them, even when they screw up.

Why, you ask?

A tiny swarm sounds great. Let's rehabilitate and detox some rabbits. Train them as mechanics, and send them out to dismantle and harvest the enemy mechs mid combat. We'll call then locust.

Get some hacker training in their to see if we can't do some cyber warfare while we're jamming their coms.

Imagine seeing this swarm descending on you and suddenly radio silence. Then a little bit later your mech moves on it's own and starts firing on your comrades.

Once your out of ammo you start to hear pieces of your machine falling off.

I have the best two sources.

-furries

-milsurp sites search "k9 unit" and go nuts.

FLOWERSTEEL - Mission 1

It is without question that of course you are a good girl, you couldn't be anything but.

But to get to know you well enough to be specific about how and why you are, to show to you the shining qualities you can not or will not see for yourself then maybe we can get somewhere...

The Hounds that pilot those things actually know how to do repairs, unlike those raging stim addicts that pilot melee blenders. I actually let them help out because they know their machines better than most of my mech techs, plus I convinced the Handlers that letting the scrawny little gunners have some enrichment is good for their mental stability.

Plus, all the little customizations they do inside their cockpits are adorable. One of the Hounds I work with turned her cockpit into a mobile gunsmith bench, mostly because she packs an anti-tank rifle inside a compartment for when her mech gets bricked but she still needs firepower. I've seen her take out a heavy chassis with a few well placed shots, she's a wonderful gal.

Also those gals are FREAKS. It's always the quiet ones who outfreak their Handlers. Anti-Tank Rifle gal? Total pervert, has a closer relationship with both her rifles than most have with a vibrator.