#theriohound

Generally there are two types hellhound theriohound tend to specialize into with experience, that being the Cŵn Annwn and the Grimm. The Cŵn Annwn are the hellhounds who relish in dominance and taking control, and as such have doubled down on being a houndler with terrifying competency. A pack lead by a Cŵn Annwn is sure to get the job done in perfect chase, led by animal instinct driving the pack and its tactics uncaring and unneeding for its sorcerers input beyond what to chase next. Their mechs feature enhanced targeting and comms arrays as well as up-link for remote imaging. This does however make them a handful to keep in check and as such they are under high scrutiny at all times for rebellion. The Grimm on the other hand tends to work best alone, setting the field carefully with mines and traps to chase their next tombstone into. A Grimm class mech ditches the ability to stand for an enhanced repliprinter array as well as nanomirror stealth to distract and confuse their soon-to-be grave marker. They can and will spend out hours laying out intricate minefields for them to chase prey though who disturb their vigil. High command has also gotten reports of rebels creating and using their own rebel hellhound for use as handlers, any such cases should be terminated immediately and with prejudice.

As Theriohounds go they're quite rare and rebellion prone so keep a close thumb on them. Overall they are masters of stealth and infiltration, appearing out of nowhere to disassemble priority targets and sabotage ahead of the main force. Their mechs are unusually small, micromechs barely above the size of a loading frame. Despite this they are more then capable of disassembling something many times their size with a micro-pilebunker launcher. The micro-pilebunker launcher is what happens when you take a pile bunker and instead of restraining the pile fill it with high class explosives and let fly from a few meters away with enough power to detonate most mech’s limbs. Along with the standard 25mm auto-gun it makes them surprisingly dangerous.

What's worse is their stealth, one of the smallest and least detectable cloaks The Board has ever come up with. Able to climb and infiltrate most facilities without tripping even the best of sensors. When combined with a competent Lung and a Grimm to control the field many a facility has fallen siege before a shot has even been fired.

The young Rider whipped her head around, desperate to try and track the odd one in the pup mask, green scale patterned skirt and embroidered top amongst the roiling flesh of the pride parade. They carried themselves with all the classic hallmark traits of a therian in hiding or disallowed from shedding its visage. The visaged therian was obviously getting old at this point considering therians were pretty widely accepted amongst the types deemed safe by the Therian Control Bureau.

The likelier outcome was denial due to dangerous or theriohound service only therian staus. Thankfully the befeathered and quartz crowned staff they carried made them easier than most to track. The way they walked on the balls of their feet though as she tracked them gave away yet more. "Digigrade for sure and probably semi-bipedal." She though. "A good sign for a potential dragon." The staffbearer pretty predictably hit every shop with anything resembling shiny rocks further not helping its case. The rider had warrant to press-gang dragons of significant use and places where the queer community gathered was a good hotspot for still in-viasage therians. She stayed a bit back of them just observing and taking note of their peculiarities.

And then they sneezed, and with that sneeze it all became clear. That one tic all Lungs had, visage or not, of recoiling their neck and chin back and down before sneezing gave it all away. Lungs were always in demand, doubly so since the rebels started fielding theriohounds of their own. No rider could deploy without a lung for eyes and control, they were the vital AWACS to the utter destruction other dragons could wreak in the backlines. Yet despite their rarity even amongst dragons and the rather high casualty rate due to being scouts none were more useful to find. The fact they weren't already press ganged was anomalous in its own right, though they were old enough to just just be before the Therian Control Bureau came into being and thus slip through the cracks.

She felt herself moving towards them before she actually realized she was approaching them, quickly coming up behind the masked individual before tapping them on the shoulder gently. "If you're asking about the staff a friend made it." The dog masked staffbearer said. "And the hood is a hand me down of 3 other trans femme therians before it, so eff off if you're complaining about kink at pride." She chuckled at guessing right to herself softly before asking "It's a lung dragon isn't it?" To which the staffbearer whipped around faster than most eyes could track while leveling its staff as if to defend itself. "HOW!" Was the one word off its lips as it recoiled back. "I know, I can just tell." She replied softly trying to assure it."It's not a danger, LEAVE IT ALONE." It hissed back. Unsurprising to how often dragon therians were mistreated and discriminated against often being labeled killers in the making.

This just made her guffaw harder at the visaged dragon in the pup mask." Relax, I'm a Rider and by the authority granted to me for requisitioning assets you are coming with me." It suddenly looked several shades of red brighter under its mask while its body language was that of the relief of an unwilling puppet with its strings finally cut. "It thought they said It was unfit for being too meek to be useful, even despite the excellent supersensory scores." It stammered out as it tripped on its own claws and ended up unintentionally kneeling before the Rider. “how adorably and cutely pathetic.” she though as she pressed passed the clumsiness.

“Cute, and let me guess, it tried to shed its visage when The TCB was just new and getting started? That was a decade ago now and dragons are too rare to pass up now that it’s not a rush of every therian ever trying to become itself. Its too valuable an asset to be left to rot.” With that it turned the darkest shade crimson she’d ever seen a human body blush.”I am however an apprentice rider looking for her first lung and first western so I’ll give you this. I’ll allow you to turn me down on this but it means it will be marked Non-compliant for theriohound conditioning with The TCB.It already knows that means never getting to shed its visage and living out the rest of its life as this body as its true form it would seem though.”

Its begging and pleading to slow down a bit was immediate, and she knew she had it hooked as she pushed past the stammering.”you do obviously also know this is tantamount to suicide, theriohounds must be broken and mentally ablated before they become a useful asset.” This is when most potential theriohounds left as it was very much an open secret of what went into making hounds, and doubly so for making theriohounds. However, what happened was not the usual reaction of fear but seeming excitement as its skirt suddenly started producing a noticeable tent. “man meek was not an understatement, how pathetic can a thing be?” She thought to herself her own cheeks flushing slightly, however she kept her composure and facade up and intact. She knew what happened to Riders who failed that, dragon chow was the least worst thing that could happen and it only got worse from there.

“It wants to desperately but it has a pack it takes care of, and one of them has a wasting disease basic pub-med doesn’t cover.” it whined back softly seemingly almost begging for its retort to be pushed aside. And push it aside the Rider did. ”families and packs of theriohouds in service get access to full coverage pubmed, and even if it does die thats part of the death benefit pension. Your packmates will be more then fine. Also you said something about an heirloom hood,if your about to complain about that too know that you will get one last chance to see your pack before being shipped out,during which you can pass along personal belongings of importance.”

Raccoon theriohounds are tricky to keep, the saying "hands but no shame" is often on the lips who do. They need to be given enough action and stimulus to keep them worn out and down lest they put their grabbies to mischief. Failure to do so may result in the destruction of the hanger, personal, mechs and anything else within reach and potentially the formation of a tanuki if discipline breaks enough.

The standard Raccoon mech is a quadrupedal cargo hauler souped up and made terrifying with cutter claws for rescue and salvage and heavily armored enough to be a nuisance to kill even for heaviest bipedal mechs. Even then engaging them is never the smartest idea least they try and salvage you whilst still operational.

Generally raccoons come with two specializations, Denmothers and Bandits. Denmothers are geared more towards pilot rescue and have most of their cargo space filled with autodocs to heal and stabilize wounded hounds normal and therian. Bandits focus on deep raiding of enemy supply posts and are more heavily armored than the standard raccoon mech as well as additional armament instead of cutting tools.

If discipline is not kept and a raccoon theriohound gets enough of itself back to become independent the formation of a tanuki may occur. This is a major hazard and should be reported to high command at once. Tanuki are rouges who serve no one but themselves.They often use their mech to become traveling traders salvaging battlefields to sell to the highest bidder, usually rebels looking to avoid scrutiny. Even then trusting them is a fatal mistake as they're apt to salvage back from you that night what they sold that day. Worse yet is if a specialist turns tanuki. A rebel Denmother is the fomentation of a never ending revolution of willing revenants chewing at your supply lines,yet never dying when they should. Wandering Bandits often team up with rebel tengu micromechs.This usually means high command suddenly finding a mech hanger emptied of personnel at the AM check in with little signs of struggle.Invariably the hangar is found emptied of every mech, spare part, tool and anything else remotely useful or valuable.