Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Cyborg Dryad

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The Cyborg Dryad is the basic infantry of the. Planned to be voiced by.

History
"Will you quit your bawling? It's not like your arm's missing or anyth- Ohh."

-Dryad treating a mortally wounded Light Infantry

In war, losses are inevitable; every army must minimise their losses and salvage those that cannot be avoided. Tanks could have their parts salvaged, extra armor can be plated on the sides of damaged areas, and anything not able to be repaired can be melted down and recast. Unfortunately for the Brotherhood, they faced a different challenge. The main fighting force of the Brotherhood is their infantry and cyborgs, as opposed to tanks and aircraft. As well as this, the Brotherhood forces were never designed to be shot at; they depend on their stealth and speed to avoid retaliation. Finally, even if their infantry were not shot at, and even if their armor was not damaged in the slightest, Brotherhood Cyborgs need constant upkeep of their wetware, and a large proportion of their non-cyborg troops take dangerous levels of drugs, often on the brink of overdose. Their forces require medical attention and upkeep, as complex and essential as the mechanical upkeep in other factions.

It was obvious that a medical support unit was needed. The first solution was, of course, to use medics on the battlefield. However, this was in itself not sufficient; the Brotherhood's somewhat 'flexible' morals often came into conflict with the strict morals of professional medics. Few trained medics would accept Brotherhood demands to cut as many corners as possible in treatment, withdraw essential medication from certain patients, or even outright kill certain infantry if they were no longer necessary. As well as this, there was the high cost of training these medics, and the long time it took to complete this training. In the end, this solution resulted only in an effective, but inefficient, expensive, and uncooperative force. Brotherhood attempts to use other pathways failed miserably; unqualified 'backstreet doctors' caused the unintentional death of troops, and creating a medical AI proved prohibitively expensive. The Brotherhood needed a strong, relatively disciplined, cheap, and morally bankrupt medical force for the battlefield. The Dryad was the solution devised.

Criminals in the Brotherhood are no strangers to 'working off' their debt; low-level criminals that damage Brotherhood property are often drafted to work in dangerous and unsafe factories at minimum wage to repay their 'debt'. The Dryad, however, is unique in that it allows medium and even high-level criminals to sign up for the Dryad system. After their signup, their debt is calculated (the cost of damage caused to the Brotherhood, plus the profit any individual killed by them could be expected to bring the Brotherhood in their lifetime, plus the cost of cybernetics, quadrupled, with the cost of the quotation into this calculation added). Only those with debts so large that the Brotherhood never expects them to pay off in their lifetime are selected. At this point, most of the subject's body is replaced by low-armored cybernetics, in order to ensure that they cannot 'waste' medical supplies on themselves. After this, specially made microsofts filled with all the combat medical knowledge and battlesuit repairs they will ever need are uploaded into their brain. Adrenal suppressors and serotonin regulators are implanted to keep them (relatively) docile, and a kill switch is added in case they go rogue. Because these criminals are not squeamish to violent conditions or morally reprehensible actions, no frontal lobotomy or nerve stapling is required, saving a large amount of time and money in their production. At this point, the Dryad is ready.

The Dryad has proven to be an incredibly effective program, patching the weaknesses of the Brotherhood's forces, while reducing prison overcrowding and even being able to offer (overpriced) medical attention between battles to further repay their debt. What has surprised the Brotherhood most, however, is that a handful of Dryads have repaid their debt in full, and earned their freedom, leading to debates amongst the Board of Classics as to whether the formula for the debt should be revised. Finally, it must also be remembered that, while female inmates seem to far prefer the Dryad program to the male inmates, and indeed the public perception of Dryads is that of a female group (like the Rocket Angels), male Dryads are far from uncommon; if you hurt the Brotherhood, it doesn't matter if you are man, woman or child; you will pay them back.