| abstract
| - Some troops are enhanced by special armor created from engineering a device that extracts energy from the Crystal, resulting in augmented supersoldiers. The test soldiers from this project are known as "freaks" as they tended to lose their sanity. Milites captured many Lorican survivors from the remains of their homeland and brainwashed them, transforming them into living weapons of war, reducing them to shells into which the imperial army has poured an insatiable bloodlust. Having lost autonomy, the brainwashed Loricans follow orders without question. The most popular among them is Supersoldier Akkad, one of the Ultima Bomb survivors who tried to protect the Black Tortoise Crystal from falling in the empire's hands. The imperial military's dreadnoughts are officially designed as "airborne warships" and have been included as the empire's primary source of aerial firepower ever since the founding of the imperial air force. Unlike the dominion military, the empire utilizes its airships to provide air-to-ground offensive support as well as transport magitek armor and soldiers, so these craft are bigger and more heavily armed than the ones employed by the dominion. At the onset of the war, the empire's main strength was its fleet of Warrior MAs that could handle regular dominion legionaries, but lose against the dominion's Eidolons. In response imperial scientists devised the heavily armored Colossus and the airborne Helldiver MA models, which in turn helped spur the development of other models which would aid the anti-dominion offensive, namely the Dáinsleif operated by the l'Cie Qun'mi fitted with a prototype crystal jammer, and the prototype Gabriel, General Qator Bashtar's MA, equipped with a magic shield capable of neutralizing the dominion's spells. The crystal jammer was invented by Marshal Aulstyne himself, and cuts the opposition forces off their Crystal. This weapon does not work against Class Zero whose cadets use magic independent of the Vermilion Bird Crystal. The prototype version could only be operated by a l'Cie, but a more advanced model is developed that can be operated by mortals. The Ultima Bomb is the empire's ultimate weapon, able to annihilate entire countries if set off. The bomb detonates over the Black Peristylium was augmented by the l'Cie Qun'mi, and one that explodes over Ingram airspace doesn't seem like it had equivalent power leading to speculation about the the real potential of the prototype weapon. The military is led by Marshal Cid Aulstyne who can even deploy White Tiger l'Cie to do his bidding because he holds the White Tiger Crystal hostage. Numerous generals work under him to lead the campaigns on the ground.
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