Intelligence Summary #16: Bongolaan's Brute Battalion

 

Stardate: Fiday, 104-130 ABY/Tarsan Intelligence Service (TIS)

Subsector: Shannekam

 

Since his Imperial-sponsored New Year's Eve Coup, President Bunda Akhtar has rapidly consolidated power through legislation and executive directives.  However, Bongolaan's new leader has also employed more ruthless--and less legal--methods of tightening his control over the planet.

 

One scheme to circumvent the Imperial limitations on autonomous planetary militias within the Empire, Bunda Akhtar has raised several "civic organizations," for the supposed benefit of the populace.  One such group is the Citizens Against Counter-Revolutionary Activities (CACA).  However, the beings of Bongolaan have another name for this band of thugs:  The Brute Battalion.

 

CACA/The Brute Battalion is a paramilitary force that serves as President Akhtar's private group of bounty hunters.  So far the group has not yet been sanctioned by the Galactic Bounty Hunter's Guild and none of it's members get an official salary.  Instead, members receive payment upon job completion from various "concerned citizens," who've posted bounties against anyone on the Enemies of the State List--which continues to grow almost daily.

More than likely, the source of the bounty payments originate from Bunda Akhtar, or from his inner circle of planetary ministers.

 

 

The Brute Batallion is led by Roten Lardas, the tubby Trandoshan seen in the center of the above image.  While often refered to as "Rotten Lard Ass" by the Bongolaanian citizenry, no one laughs at this play on words. 

 

Those who are charged with committing minor infractions can expect to be sentenced to one year of forced labor on one of the planet's gabaki plantations.  They are discharged automatically upon completion of their sentence--provided they survived this stint of "community service."

 

Rumors have also spread throughout the subsector that indentured servitude is not the only punishment inflicted upon those who've earned Akhtar's displeasure.  There are unsubstantiated reports of victims being fed into gabaki shredders, similar to the one pictured below...

 

 

 ...or tossed into the Bongodile Pit, which was recently built within the Presidential Palace compound.

 

 

Those who perceive such a grisly fate is in store for them, put up a desperate fight and even commit suicide, rather than be captured by henchmen such as Lardas and his brutes.  Due to such firefights, it is said that the life expectancy of a Brute Battalion trooper is short.

 

While the members of the Brute Battalion have considerable combat skills, the group as a whole is not a cohesive fighting unit.  Garrisoned in maniple (company)-sized units throughout the major cities, the Brute Battalion is said to be comprised of malcontents ranging from those who supported former President Zeveg Bharzi, to anyone merely harboring anti-Imperial sentiments.  Whatever the reason, such individuals have probably been deemed a security risk and are unable to find work until they prove their loyalty to the People's Democratic Republic of Bongolaan and the Empire.  In addition to being a band of government contracted bounty hunters, the Brute Battalion also doubles as a penal unit.

 

So far, the Brute Battalion has limited its activities to the Bongolaan System.  This may change in the near future as the unit and its members gain more operational experience.  If this occurs, TIS operatives may be contacted by battalion members wanting to defect.  However, be aware of the possibility that such an individual may be a double agent posing as a deserter. 

 

GM's Note:

 

Roten Lardas is represented by the figure of Gha Nachkt in the Star Wars Miniatures collection.