FACTION
JADE DOMAIN MILITARY

In the steaming hell of Southeast Asia's mutated jungles, where the very air pulses with spores and the screams of the dying echo underneath the dense dark jungle canopy, the Jade Domain stands as a monument to humanity’s sheer willpower. Here, in this nightmarish hell, the jungle devours countless thousands of lives each year as entire clone armies march to their doom with mechanical precision. They protect the Jade Domain’s cities and its sprawling sap harvest operations from the Neo-Cong, the Jade Domain’s sworn enemy, their life expectancy on the battlefield often measured not in years but in hours.

The Domain itself is a sprawling network of fortified cities and fortresses carved from the hostile jungle, their concrete walls weeping with condensation and fungal growth. In the Jade cities, massive factories churn out equipment and supplies, while in the fortresses an endless stream of fresh clone soldiers arrives, delivered by the Prime AI's massive land trains. The air thrums with the constant hum of machinery and the distant thunder of artillery, punctuated by the inhuman shrieks of the jungle's predators.

At the heart of this war machine are the Jade Domain Troopers - clone soldiers bred specifically for this green hell, their bodies engineered to survive what no human was meant to endure. Fresh from the birthing tanks, these warriors emerge with the pallor of artificial wombs still clinging to their skin, their minds pre-loaded with tactical knowledge but lacking the wisdom that only comes from experience they will likely never live long enough to gain.

The Life of a Jade Trooper

A Jade Trooper's training begins the moment she draws her first breath outside the birthing tank facility. Within hours, she's processed through orientation chambers where a Jade Trooper’s purpose is burned into her consciousness through neural downloads. The process is brutally efficient - tactical formations, weapon handling and jungle survival protocols flood her synapses in a torrent of information that leaves many convulsing on the steel floors.

Those who survive the neural conditioning are equipped with the Jade Domain's standard kit: lightweight composite armor designed for mobility and to give the Troopers at least the illusion of some level of protection, an assault rifle and emergency rations that provide some essential nutrients.

The first deployment is always a shock. Despite the neural downloads, nothing truly prepares the clones for the assault on their senses. The jungle's humidity hits like a physical blow, immediately soaking through their gear. The cacophony of alien sounds - the chittering of mutant insects, the distant roar of predators, the whisper of carnivorous plants - creates a symphony of menace that sets nerves on edge. The very air seems alive, thick with spores that make breathing an act of faith.

Jade Troopers operate in platoons of around 40 troopers, though these units rarely maintain full strength for long. These platoons are parts of companies, which are in turn parts of battalions. Their missions are straightforward in concept but nightmarish in execution: seek and destroy Neo-Cong positions by simply advancing until they encounter resistance. The Jade Domain's strategy is one of overwhelming numbers - if one unit is annihilated, two more will take its place.

Combat in the green hell defies conventional military doctrine. Enemies emerge from apparently empty jungle, arrows and bamboo spears whistling through the air with deadly accuracy. The jungle itself fights both sides - carnivorous vines snare the unwary, hidden pit traps claim the careless, and toxic spores turn simple wounds into agonizing death sentences. Many troopers die not from enemy action but from the environment itself, their bodies dissolved from within by aggressive fungi or torn apart by predators lured in by what they perceive to be an abundance of fresh meat.

The Rhythm of War

The endless conflict has developed its own terrible rhythm. Dawn usually brings the sound of dropships delivering fresh reinforcements to forward positions, their engines seemingly struggling against the thick, humid air. The new arrivals can be identified by their wide eyes and pristine equipment - they still believe they might survive. Veterans, those rare few who have lived through more than a few engagements, move with the mechanical efficiency of those who have accepted their fate.

Command posts buzz with activity as officers - most often clones selected for leadership roles during the birthing process - coordinate the day's operations. These commanders know that most of their orders are death sentences, but the Jade High Command’s logic is inexorable: maintain pressure on the Neo-Cong, regardless of cost. Casualty reports are filed with bureaucratic precision, the numbers so large they lose all meaning.

The jungle between the opposing forces has become a graveyard of epic proportions. Bodies lie where they fell, quickly claimed by the voracious ecosystem that transforms flesh into fertilizer for plants that grow ever more aggressive and cunning. Some troopers report seeing hybrid creatures - things that were once human but have been absorbed into the jungle's twisted embrace, their eyes still holding fragments of consciousness as they stalk new prey.

Tools of War

A Trooper’s equipment reflects the Jade Domain's calculated approach to warfare. Every piece of gear is designed for mass production and easy replacement - because the troopers themselves are just as disposable. Their assault rifles fire caseless ammunition to reduce weight, though the weapons corrode quickly in the jungle’s humid conditions. Body armor prioritizes mobility over protection, just enough to maintain a trooper’s belief they might somehow survive the jungle, but too little to actually stop most firepower the Neo-Cong might deploy against them, including primitive spears and arrows.

Communication equipment crackles with static and interference from the jungle's electromagnetic effects, making coordination a constant challenge. Officers and radio operators carry beacons that transmit their vital signs back to command - not for rescue purposes, but to provide high command with accurate information where units have been lost.

Medical supplies are basic but effective, including broad-spectrum antifungals and emergency stims that can keep a wounded trooper fighting a little bit longer before succumbing to their injuries. The best that most wounded Jade Troopers can hope for however is a quick and merciful death at the hands of her comrades, when capture by the enemy or consumption by the jungle’s predators seems inevitable.

Fresh clones arrive in massive land trains from the Prime AI cloning facilities far to the north of the Jade Domain. The freshly manufactured troopers disembark in formations ready for battle. Within hours, they're processed through the deployment pipeline, assigned to units, and moved to forward fighting positions where they replace troopers that died just the day before.

The psychological impact of the relentless cycle of fighting and dying is devastating for Jade Domain Troopers. Veterans develop a certain blank stare, their emotions numbed by exposure to constant death. Veterans have learned not to form lasting bonds, knowing that today's squad-mate will likely be tomorrow's casualty. Over time, most Jade Domain Troopers develop a nihilistic fatalism, fighting with reckless abandon because they know death is inevitable.

Command Structure

The Jade Domain’s military operates under an efficient hierarchy. At the apex stands the Jade Queen herself, often advised directly by the emissaries of the Prime AI. She gives orders to the Jade High Command, advanced clones bred specifically for command roles, their minds enhanced with tactical processing capabilities that allow them to manage the complexities of the Jade Domain’s endless war against the Neo-Cong. The Jade High Command strategises in terms of acceptable loss ratios and resource allocation, viewing individual platoons and sometimes even entire larger formations as expendable assets in the vast calculations of an endless war of attrition.

Below the Jade High Command, field commanders oversee the network of military fortresses, forward operating bases, regional operations and coordination between large-scale formations.

In the jungle, the Jade Domain’s divisions usually operate broken up into independent battalions. Any larger formations are simply too unwieldy to coherently operate in the jungle - and anything smaller than a battalion would likely be lost in a day. Officers of these units maintain order through a combination of programmed obedience in the Troopers and brutal pragmatism. Officers in the field understand that their role is not to take ground or preserve their troopers' lives, but to ensure maximum attrition of the enemy, no matter how - even if at the expense of their own units.

The Enemy They Face

The Neo-Cong represent everything the Jade Domain is not - chaotic, unpredictable, driven by fanatical devotion rather than military logic. Where Domain troopers advance in formation, the Neo-Cong flow like water through the jungle, appearing from nowhere to strike with bamboo spears and improvised explosives before melting back into the green maze.

This asymmetry creates a unique form of warfare where technological superiority means little. A trooper's advanced rifle is useless against an enemy they cannot see, while their armor provides scant protection against bamboo spike traps and poisoned arrows. The Neo-Cong's intimate knowledge of the jungle gives them advantages no amount of neural programming can counter, turning every engagement into a desperate struggle for survival. Only those Jade Domain Troopers lucky enough to have survived their first few encounters have a chance to develop any kind of experience that matches that of their Neo-Cong enemies.

Life between missions

Between combat missions, Jade Troopers rest and re-equip in the Jade Domain's military fortresses. These sprawling complexes combine military and industrial efficiency, their cramped barracks housing thousands of soldiers in conditions barely suitable for human habitation. The air circulation systems struggle against the jungle's oppressive humidity, creating a perpetual fog of condensation that breeds exotic molds and parasites.

Medical facilities operate around the clock, processing the endless stream of wounded. Medical staff work with assembly-line efficiency, triaging patients with cold calculation. Those likely to return to combat effectiveness receive treatment, while most others are “disposed” of to free up resources for more viable cases. Knowing this, most units in the field only retrieve lightly wounded comrades, administering swift mercy to more seriously wounded comrades, to spare them the horror and indignity of dying in a medical disposal bay.

On rare occasions, units that have endured extraordinary hardship but have also proven their worth, may find themselves with a limited time permit to enter one of the Jade Domain cities, which are usually off limits to them. Here the Troopers see and experience for the first time the life that awaits them after five years of military service when they gain full Jade Domain citizenship - although not many live to see that day. Usually for the first time, theTroopers immerse themselves into the pulsing nightlife of a Jade City, and even though some establishments bar Troopers for fear of violence, the sisters-in arms nonetheless own the street of the city for just one night.

The Cycle Continues

Each day in the Jade Domain’s high command begins with the processing of casualties. Losses of the previous day are tallied, replacement requisitions filed, and new deployment orders issued. The statistics are so routine that they lose all connection to the suffering on the ground, as entire companies, divisions and forward operating bases are swallowed up by the neverending war.

Land trains with fresh replacements arrive at Jade Domain fortresses with clockwork precision, disgorging their cargo of pale, wide-eyed clones who are thrust into a meat grinder they cannot comprehend. Veterans watch these new arrivals with blank stares, seeing only tomorrow's casualties. The jungle waits beyond the protective walls, endlessly patient and forever hungry, ready to claim its daily tribute of flesh and blood.

In this green hell, where cold strategic calculation meets the chaotic brutality of nature, the Jade Domain Troopers march toward their predetermined fates. They are the disposable soldiers of an endless war, their brief lives flashing by in heartbeats and muzzle flashes, their deaths an almost inescapable certainty. Yet still they fight, because it is what they were made to do, and in the steaming depths of the jungle, their neural programming and camaraderie to their sisters are all they have.