Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Saranga

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The Saranga is an Elonan field infantry. Planned to be voiced by.

Tactical analysis

 * I shot an arrow into the air: Firing proximity-fused autocannon rounds straight up into the air like the flak cannons of old (or the Voshkod), Saranga teams provide vital anti-air protection for the Frontier Corps in battle.
 * Silver linings war tactics: Knowing that enemy aircraft aren't able to target them as effectively, soldiers nearby move more swiftly since they aren't busy looking for cover as they move.
 * Do you feel a spark too: Saranga gunners are also given agni shells instead of normal flak rounds. Allowing agni crews to both damage aircraft as well as deny the sky. They can also finally adjust their tripods to allow them to target ground targets.
 * What goes up: The saranga teams are sadly not able to do much against armored ground targets or ships off the coast. They also have a noticeable setup time, meaning a commander needs to know where he's going well in advance.

History
"Only a prisoner to debt."

-Unofficial Saranga motto

The mass of men and women who join the Sultanate's Army typically do so because they need the cash. They join to pay off mortgages, loans, and farm expenses. They have families to feed in the cities, or cows to make a profit off in the country. Of course, for Elona, these men have a purpose in the military. Many of these men who fall into debt are actually reasonably intelligent, and as such would be wasted simply throwing them into the same meat grinder battles that sepoys are meant for. Instead, many of these debtors-to-be become saranga crews.

The saranga is basically a scaled-up grenade launcher with a proximity-fuse airburst shell. This makes the saranga a deadly weapon against aircraft, which are still thinner-skinned than most light tanks. Utilizing a shell with a radio receiver at the nose, the shell bursts when within 100 meters of any signal. This means that the saranga crews can put out a decent rate of fire and still be effective against enemy aircraft, helicopters, and blimps especially. Their vulnerable frames and canvas skins make them ducks for the saranga crews to knock out of the sky.

These crews have been put through more than their fair paces in Clique-owned Sequin, where crop dusters frequently bomb Elonan convoys and movements with hazardous chemicals. Posted along these routes, the saranga teams have dropped nearly half of the Clique's Su-17s in the region, as the vast majority of their fighter aircraft are reserved in case another Desert Rage.

The crews of the saranga pay the dangers of their work little mind, since they're still getting paid and still free to think for themselves. Drawing comparisons to Voshkod flak troopers, the saranga crews have noted that for all the Union's bluster about equality for all men and the glory of revolution, they have an awful lot of prisoners carrying their flak cannons.