Year 9 - Rainbow Six

Year 9 of Valeyard6282's Rainbow Six: Siege operator concepts comes- as always- with four new factions and two new maps.

This year brings operators from Ukraine, Finland, The Netherlands, and China.

New maps are the nighttime field of satellites in the new map "Observatory" and the skyscraping red tower cranes high above the clouds of Shanghai. Added operations are Operation Gelid Star, Operation Snow Shower, Operation Blue Hornet, and Operation Cold Front.

New operators are Karatel, Kistka, Clairvoyant, Ghost, Autopsy, Spitfire, Komodo, and Lei.

BERKUT - Ukraine
The Ukrainian CTU, BERKUT is the Squad of Militsiya of Special Assignments. BERKUT offers Rainbow their best: Karatel and Kistka. Karatel uses a tactical shotgun to become a new hard breacher while Kistka shatters bones belonging to the attackers. Both Ukrainian operators are strongly focused on breaking bones. Karatel's rock salt rounds will break every bone in your body before killing you, and Kistka's tripwires will crack your legs before you even know what hit you. BERKUT is brutal in their own way.

Karatel
Karatel is an attacking operator. His name means "Punisher" in Ukrainian. This is precisely what Karatel does. He punishes- not always using lethal force. He'd rather beat you have to death with beanbag shot and rock salt than just put you down. He takes pride in knowing you're feeling the pain. Karatel- like Capitao and Zofia- gets two unique ammo options for his gadget. Karatel actually has two shorty pump-action shotguns slung over his back in dual sheathes. One shotgun is loaded with rock salt rounds and the other is loaded with solid steel slugs. Karatel is a beast. He carries his primary weapon, a secondary weapon, a secondary gadget, and two shorty shotguns on his back. The rock salt shells are less-lethal ammunition. They're meant to stun and concuss the targets instead of killing them. The slugs are designed for hard breaching- like a hard breaching Buck. In reality, Karatel's shotgun is a tactical shotgun in every sense of the word. It has countless unique, tactical ammo types from steel slugs and beanbag rounds to flashbang rounds and tear gas shells. Let's get into the rock salt.

These rib-cracking rock shells knock back someone a few feet when they're hit by one. They don't collapse like they were Airjabed, but the victim is knocked back like they got hit by a train- made of rock. The damage taken by the rock salt rounds is a 25 on a close-up body shot and a 75 on headshot. It can crack every single bone in your body but it won't kill you. When hit by the rock salt, you receive a concussion effect like a Grizmot. Your vision doesn't wobble as much, but it blurs. Dust gathers around you when you're hit- as the shell is filled with rock salt- and this can also compromise your vision. A tradeoff, is that the rock salt rounds don't have good range. The farther away you are, the less damage is dealt and the severity of the concussion isn't nearly as bad at longer range. Think of the rock salt rounds as concussion shells for a shotgun. A bonus is how cool it looks to shoot someone in the back with a torrent of splintered rock.

Now, let's talk about the solid steel slugs. In reality, the steel slugs supplied to Karatel's shotgun are capable of punching an engine block out of a car. Not putting a hole into an engine block, slamming it out of the vehicle. These slugs are like shooting a full-on train out of the shotgun. These shells are designed to make Karatel a hard breacher- kind of a hard wall variant of Buck. He essentially is Buck in a lot of ways. The steel slugs make slightly smaller holes in the walls- because they're not buckshot- but their steel form punches a pretty big sightline into the metal walls. Karatel could shoot a few of these in a vertical column and open up a pretty effective doorway by blasting the reinforcement's with metal slugs. Opening doorways and sightlines in the exact purpose of this hard breacher. The steel slugs will blow a Castle barricade in one go, making him a good counter to the door-jamming defender. Karatel can even use his slugs to destroy Tachanka's precious LMG. The slugs have excellent, excellent range for the obvious reason that they're slugs. A hit in the body will be an instant trip to a DBNO state. A headshot is lethal with these steel rounds. Both of Karatel's shotguns hold four rounds. Neither can reload, so Karatel has four hard breaching shells and four rock salt shells for stunning. The rock salt shotgun has a pre-equipped reflex sight and the slug-loaded shotgun is equipped with a red dot sight for precision. Karatel has 2 armor and 2 speed. His symbol is a wave of rock salt.

Karatel has two options for his primary weapon:
 * M4-WAC-47 (Assault Rifle) - New generation Ukrainian assault rifle that is a mix of an M4 rifle and an AK-47 design.

Karatel has two options for his secondary weapon: Karatel's Gadgets:
 * RPK (LMG) - Hulking LMG loaded with a curved 30 round magazine.
 * Fort-17 (Semi-Automatic Pistol)
 * MP-412 REX (Double-Action Revolver) - .357 Magnum, top-break double-action revolver with a heavy barrel.
 * KS-23M (Primary)
 * Flashbang or Breaching Charge (Secondary)

Kistka
Her name means "Bone" in Ukrainian, and Kistka uses her FRACTURE 7 tripwire to break the bones of the attackers. Kistka is a defending operator and a new, bone-shattering trapper. Kistka's tripwires more "trap" you than hurt you. When tripping over the wire, it snaps and wraps quickly and tightly around your right leg. It wraps so tightly that it begins to slowly crack the bones in your leg. Quite an effective and painful trap. When running through, you hear a snap and then a crack as your bone begins to break as the near-invisible wire lashes around you. After being got, an animation plays. You look at the adhesive device that the wire shot from attached to the nearby wall. You gaze at it and see a pair of wire cutters crudely duct taped to the device with a note reading "Udachi"- "Good luck" in Ukrainian. The trapped attacker grabs the wire cutters and starts to cut the cord. The animation takes a while, with looking around and also prying at the wire to cut. You can actually break free, but it's unlikely that you'll survive the long animation. Kistka is notified when a wire is tripped and a good player will know exactly where someone fell for it. If you do break free before Kistka finishes you off, you are left in a DBNO state when you break free. Kistka leaves her victim with a way out- with the whole idea being she can kill you before you can use her gift to free yourself. She toys with her victims, gives them a tease of life before snuffing it out forever. Kistka synergizes well with Smoke. Smoke could place a VX cannister right by a FRACTURE 7 and when someone's caught- Smoke can activate the canister and send a trapped attacker to a blistering, toxic death as the struggle to escape. The wire traps you, slows you down, and breaks your bones. Good thing she left a way out. As if that matters. Kistka has two tripwires. Kistka has 1 armor and 3 speed. Her symbol is a bone shattering.

Kistka has two options for her primary weapon: Kistka has two options for her secondary weapon: Kistka's Gadgets:
 * ASh-12.7 (Assault Rifle) - Russian .50 caliber equivalent bullpup battle rifle. Fires in semi-automatic and has little range- but high stopping power comparable to a shotgun. Equipped with a ten round mag..
 * SR-2 Veresk (SMG)
 * Fort-17 (Semi-Automatic Pistol)
 * MP-412 REX (Double-Action Revolver) - .357 Magnum, top-break double-action revolver with a heavy barrel.
 * FRACTURE 7 (Primary)
 * Nitro Cell or Impact Grenade (Secondary)

Observatory
In a remote dirt field in the Ukrainian country side, a massive field of satellites and an observatory building serve as a diamond in the rough. It's now under siege by an approaching convoy of White Masks. Enter BERKUT.

SIU - Finland
The Finnish Police Rapid Response Unit- or the SIU- strike like specters, deploying and infiltrating at a rapid pace. They are Finland's defense and will stop at nothing to end terrorism on the home front. They always get the job done. If that means freezing in burning, razor-sharp snow than so be it. This is Operation Snow Shower, and Rainbow enlists Clairvoyant and Ghost into their ranks. Clairvoyant turns the defender's crutches against them in a new and initiative way while Ghost is the attacker no one ever sees coming. These two new attackers are a force to be reckoned with.

Clairvoyant
Clairvoyant is an attacking operator. She uses her "Blackhat" program that she deploys from a military-grade laptop. The Blackhat virus infects electronic gadgets placed by the defenders to make them hostile. Clairvoyant can infect Kapkan's EDDs, nitro cells, Jager's Magpies, Smoke's VX canisters, Ela's Grizmots, Lesion's GU mines, Mute's signal jammers, Kaid's Rtilas, or Bandit's batteries. She can hack a total of three items at once and can jockey around the hack between different deployed gadgets. For example, if Clairvoyant hacks one of Kapkan's EDDs- any defender who crosses it will be blown into oblivion. If she hacks Kaid's Rtilas, the electricity generated will arc out at the defenders instead of the attackers. She can allow her team to assault through a booby trapped doorway while simultaneously making it dangerous for the defenders with lifting one finger. The actual hacking process has a lengthy 15 second animation, and a menu pops up for the player to toggle what gadgets to hack. The whole process is obstructive and lengthy, so you're always at risk while hacking. When Clairvoyant hacks a remotely detonated device, she can't choose when to detonate it. So if she hacks nitro cells or Smoke's VX, they detonate just a few seconds after the hack. If she hacks Mute's jammers, Mozie could fall victim to losing his drones to his own teammate's jammer. Clairvoyant loses one of her three hacks when a device is detonated, but not when it's destroyed. So she can't hack a third device after one of her hacked ones is used, but if the defenders break it she can just hack another. Any rogue device is pinged with a red marker for ten seconds after it's been hacked, but after that- good luck. Clairvoyant has 2 armor and 2 speed. Her symbol is a circuit board.

Clairvoyant has two options for her primary weapon: Clairvoyant has one option for her secondary weapon: Clairvoyant's Gadgets:
 * RK 62 (Assault Rifle)
 * SAR 21 (Assault Rifle) - Classic bullpup rifle of Singaporean origin. Fed with a 30-round magazine.
 * OTs-38 (Double-Action Revolver)
 * Blackhat 4 (Primary)
 * Claymore or Smoke Grenade (Secondary)

Ghost
Ghost is an attacking, shield-using operator. Ghost's Aave 39 Retroreflective Defense Shield- or the Aave 39 RDS- provides an attacker with the possibility of going invisible with a sort of active camouflage. Ghost's shield is a unique shape. It has side cover just like Montagne's, but is shorter like Blitz's. So Ghost's shield is the same size as a normal shield, but gets the slight side protection too. When Ghost activates his ability, he activates the shield's retroreflective panels. This reflects the environment onto the shield and its side panels, making Ghost completely hidden by a false image of what's behind him. Imagine an invisible wall, moving forward with a dangerous assailant behind it. That's who Ghost is. An attacking Vigil- but this time invisible to the human eye, not the electronic one. Ghost can sprint with his shield hiding him, but the image will have a tougher time registering the environment and the image will be choppier and look very unnatural. When standing still, Ghost is rendered almost completely invisible- but if you see the end of that hallway look like it's approaching, run. Ghost's shield makes a very loud noise when activated and shut off- so he's not the best at sneak attacks, but better at intel and recon. Ghost cannot use his sidearm while wielding the shield in front of him, just like how Clash can't arm herself when using her shield. Ghost can put the shield on his back and activate it there too, making him hard to see from behind and get the benefit of being able to use his revolver. If the shield is on his back, however; the image will be much choppier because of the awkward angle the cameras are positioned in. The retroreflective panels can be activated for double the duration of Vigil's camera jammer but are on a longer cooldown between unlimited uses. Ghost's shield can be easily disabled by Blackout with Pulse, Maestro, and Spitfire also being able to easily locate him. can both easily locate him. Ghost has 3 armor and 1 speed. His symbol is a human silhouette from the shoulders up, but all choppy and distorted kind of like Vigil's icon.

Ghost has one option for his primary weapon: Ghost has one option for his secondary weapon. Ghost's Gadgets:
 * Aave 39 RDS
 * OTs-38 (Double-Action Revolver)
 * Retroreflective Panels (Primary) 
 * Smoke Grenade or Flashbang (Secondary)

M-Squadron - The Netherlands
Also known as BBE or the Unit Interventive Mariners, the M-Squadron is elite Dutch special forces consisting of only the trained marines of the Dutch Marine Corps. M-Squadron brings Rainbow a veteran medic and a hot-headed rookie. Introducing Autopsy and Spitfire. Autopsy uses medical knowledge to identify foes while Spitfire uses flying drones to stun the enemy. These two new defenders are two of great contrast- one male, old and wise; and a female, young and cocky.

Autopsy
Autopsy is a defending operator. Autopsy can go to the corpse of any fallen teammate and preform an animated, visual scan of their wounds. Once completed, Autopsy's HUD displays the identity and precise loadout of the operator who did the killing and then pings them like an Alibi ping so Autopsy can begin his hunt of revenge. Autopsy's HUD also displays the current health of the operative as well. The information on the HUD can be closed off with the gadget button and is inaccessible after that attacker has perished. Autopsy can only hunt one person at once, and if he preforms another scan, the previous information is lost- save the health of the operator which is displayed for all to see on the operator symbols at the top of the screen. Autopsy has 1 armor and 3 speed. His symbol is a scalpel.

Autopsy has two options for his primary weapon: Autopsy has one option for his secondary weapon: Autopsy's Gadgets:
 * CAR-15 (Assault Rifle) - Rapid-fire cut-down assault rifle that functions just like an SMG despite a larger caliber. Equipped with a suppressor for stealth.
 * BPSG 500 (Pump-Action Shotgun) - Mossberg 500 converted into a bullpup format for a compact alternative to a longer shotgun.
 * Glock 19 FA (Machine Pistol) - Highly customized Glock 19 machine pistol with a 25-round drum and a stock.
 * Medical Evaluation (Primary)
 * Claymore or Flashbang (Secondary)

Spitfire
Spitfire is a defending operator who uses her "Hornet Drones" to stun attackers. She has two small flying Hornet Drones. These drones are small and can fly, allowing Spitfire to place them in high-up places for new angles previously inaccessible. The Hornet's small size and movement versatility makes them even better at getting new angles than Echo's Yokai is. Spitfire is kind of a defending Twitch. Her drones have four darts each they can shoot that deal 5 damage to attackers and slow them down to a very slow speed for ten seconds. Darts can stack on slow speed, but the second dart only adds another five to someone already hit, and the third another two, and a fourth another second. This means if one Hornet unloads all its darts into one person, it will deal 20 damage and slow them down severely for 18 seconds. This might sound bad, but it only slows them one speed level below their current level and doesn't allow them to sprint for the duration. So three speeds become twos, twos become ones, and ones become half speed that was previously only applied to Goliath. Spitfire has 2 armor and 2 speed. Her symbol is a hornet.

Spitfire has two options for her primary weapon: Spitfire has one option for his secondary weapon: Spitfire's Gadgets:
 * BADT TANKER (Assault Rifle) - Hard-hitting, select-fire, PDW carbine.
 * BPSG 500 (Pump-Action Shotgun) - Mossberg 500 converted into a bullpup format.
 * Glock 19 FA (Machine Pistol) - Highly customized Glock 19 machine pistol with a 25-round drum and a stock.
 * Hornet Drones (Primary)
 * Nitro Cell or Bulletproof Camera (Secondary)

SLCU - China
While the SDU safeguards Hong Kong alone, the Snow Leopard Commando Unit does the same for the rest of China's republic. Tasked with bomb disposal, urban riot control, and counter terrorism jobs like anti-hijacking. They were named after both Arctic wolves and leopards who are adaptable to survive in the most extreme temperatures, locales, and scenarios- just like China's best operatives. The SLCU brings Rainbow Komodo and Lei. Komodo uses a Chinese cutting-edge laser rifle for his unique gadget while Lei uses an indoor grappling device to expand roaming options for the defense- especially viable high above the clouds of Shanghai on the new map, Crane.

Komodo
Komodo is an attacking operator. He is armed with an experimental laser rifle. Powered by a battery, the rifle shoots an invisible beam. When the laser hits a surface, it is instantly carbonized. A flash of white light and a crackling sound accompany the impact. When shot at a soft wall- the laser vaporizes a medium-sized sightline into the wall. Bigger than Maverick holes, but still quite small. So defenders can tell who they're dealing with, Komodo's sightlines have small crackling flames around the edges of the hole while Maverick only leaves blackened material behind. If Komodo fires the laser rifle at a person, a quick fire effect occurs as the victim carbonizes and essentially burned to a crisp in a split second. When hit, you lose 10 damage per second for five seconds. If Doc heals you before the process is over, it stops once healed. The rifle has a fifteen second cooldown between shots and is single-shot, so the battery must be changed after each shot on top of a lengthy cooldown of the weapon. Komodo has four batteries. Komodo has 3 armor and 1 speed. His symbol is the profile of a Komodo Dragon.

Komodo has two options for his primary weapon: Komodo has two options for his secondary weapon: Komodo's Gadgets:
 * QBZ-95 (Assault Rifle) - Chinese bullpup assault rifle.
 * Sidewinder 500 (Pump-Action Shotgun) - Mossberg 500 converted to take a 10-round drum.
 * Type 77 (Semi-Automatic Pistol) - Super-compact semi-automatic pistol.
 * HP9-1 (Pump-Action Shotgun) - Shorty shotgun with an optional foregrip and a caddy for extra shells.
 * ZKZM-500 (Primary)
 * Frag Grenade or Breaching Charge (Secondary)

Lei
Lei is a defending operator. Her names means "Thunder" in Chinese. Lei puts down a circular device on floors. The device works similar to one of Mira's black mirrors. The device uses a red laser that spins around the interior circular unit. The red laser cuts through the floor- cutting a circular hole. The round cut-out will topple out- leaving a perfectly round, laser cut hole behind. An arm on the ring than unfolds so its end is in the exact center of the hole. The device on the end of the arm shoots an ultra-strong cable in both directions. The cable uses a blunt piece on the ends to punch a hole into the next floor below and the ceiling above before deploying pistons to root it into place like a reinforced wall does. This cable can now be interacted with by only defenders. Defenders use a special hook that only they have to hook onto the cable to slide down it. Attackers cannot interact with the cable, further rooting it in as a new vertical roaming option for defenders. It can be hooked onto to, and climbed up as well. Lei can place another unit at the bottom of a previous one to make a super-long cable as well. If the ceiling that the cable is attached to is destroyed, the entire device becomes useless. Climbing up it and sliding down it makes a lot of noise, so defenders should know Lei's cable isn't a sneaky roaming option- just a viable one to get around fast or make a quick escape to a different floor. Lei's cable is called the Phoenix 9- named after the mythological creatures of Chinese myths. Lei has three of her cables. Lei has 1 armor and 3 speed. Her symbol is a phoenix.

Lei has two options for her primary weapon: Lei has one option for her secondary weapon: Lei's Gadgets:
 * CF-05 (SMG) - Chinese SMG fed with a 50-round helical magazine.
 * Hawk XY10 (Automatic Shotgun) - AR-15 style auto shotgun fed with a 20-round magazine.
 * Type 77 (Semi-Automatic Pistol) - Super-compact semi-automatic pistol.
 * HP9-1 (Pump-Action Shotgun) - Shorty shotgun with an optional foregrip and a caddy for extra shells.
 * Phoenix 9 (Primary)
 * Impact Grenade or Deployable Shield (Secondary)

Crane
A new map set high above the clouds of Shanghai- in an under construction skyscraper with a massive red tower crane serves as one of the main spawns for the attackers, with the attackers forced to go down the frosty gelid metal steps or rappel down- the clouds hundreds of feet below.