War machines moving across the battlefield have always been a combat multiplier since the time of the catapult. In the worlds of Galaxy’s Edge, none were more terrifying to legion troops than those used by the Savage Fleets.
Drones, vehicles, and more terrifying, their legions of Savage Marines and warbots, stomped across multiple worlds to capture or kill the native population. As legion R&D struggled to find a counter for the sheer magnitude of the autonomous forces they faced, a host of researchers captured a natural scientific effect and weaponized it.
After general Tyrus Rechs abandoned the United Coalition of World’s war effort to wage his own campaign, scientists from across known space were quick to pick up the effects of his weapons on Savage Equipment. Of particular note were the weapons of mass destruction favored by the fallen general. During military engagements where Rechs took on the savages alone, setting off low-yield tactical nukes had adverse effects on savage forces all across the operations area.
As the wars progressed, the observations led to the creation of the first ion rifles. Firing a beam of ionized particles toward their target, these weapons disrupted electrical equipment to such an extent, they changed the nature of warfare for both sides in the conflict. Bringing a robot or Savage Marine to a battle was foolish when one side could fire weapons to force mass shut downs along the force.
Eventually, the tech was miniaturized, leading to the creation of the energy disruption pulse grenade, or ion grenade for short. Sometimes called bot poppers, just tossing the device in proximity to the target could disable the energy distribution centers for most bots. While not all mechs were destroyed, the grenades could force hard resets on equipment with an electrical power source. HUDs failed, bots fell still, and even the vaunted Savage Marines had to dip into their technical wizardry to conjure up hardened defenses against the weapon.
When Republic engineers began creating ion cannons and missiles for use against capital ships, the Savage Fleets were forced to withdraw. It would do them no good to assault a planet, only to have a coalition flotilla show up with ion weapons that could send them burning into the atmosphere.
For more on ion weapons and their effect on savage creations, check out Galaxy’s Edge!
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