Firebat

The firebat was a type of terran infantry specialized for close-quarters combat, an armored assault trooper armed with arm-mounted flamethrowers and attached to marine squads to clear enemies at short range. Fielded first by the Terran Confederacy and later by the Terran Dominion, the firebat was devastating in tight quarters and remained a fixture of terran infantry tactics until the Dominion's marauder supplanted it in frontline service.

Role and equipment#

Firebats were armored assault troopers, often attached to provide support for marine squads. Particularly devastating in close-quarters combat, they were typically armed with dual arm-mounted flamethrowers and wore heat-resistant, fireproof armor similar to a marine's but noticeably heavier. The firebat's fuel tanks contained a large amount of hydrogen, which made both the trooper and the weapon notoriously unstable on the battlefield, and the vulnerable tanks had to be protected during an advance.

Firebats predated the Guild Wars and were fielded by the Confederate Marine Corps to help expand Confederate interests. During the Guild Wars, the experimental CMC-230 XF power armor was fitted with jet packs and issued to flamethrower infantry, earning the nickname "firebat" that attached to the troopers themselves. The jet pack system suffered reliability problems and was eventually scrapped, though a non-jump ground variant continued in production. During the Great War, Confederate firebats were equipped with wrist-mounted Perdition flamethrowers and CMC-660 combat suits, and after the Battle of Adena firebats adopted a leaner, more streamlined powered armor. United Earth Directorate firebats carried the C-140 "Epyon" Plasma Incinerator Cannon.

Recruitment and service#

As with marines, many firebats were recruited or conscripted from "culturally challenged" persons, who underwent neural resocialization and received aggression inhibitor implants as part of training. Firebats were almost exclusively composed of resocialized criminals and psychotic pyromaniacs. Under the Confederacy they were infamous as high-risk, unstable individuals, and older personnel manuals recommended the exclusive use of resocs or pyromaniacs for firebat duty. Even so, volunteers were not unheard of: in the Confederate Marine Corps, a candidate had to have a Preferred Experience Base of at least three months of combat experience to become a firebat.

The Terran Dominion continued to use firebats after the fall of the Confederacy, and its personnel manuals claimed, against the unit's older reputation, that its firebats were "stable, reliable soldiers."