Reaper-17
Original name: Reaper-17*Affiliation:* Scrin*Organisation:* Cult of the Reapers*Type:* Religious sect / heavy military force*Speciality:* Ground warfare, heavy armour and Tiberium weaponry*Iconic units:* Reaper Tripod, Shard Walker, Ravagers*Doctrine:* Total destruction of obstacles to the harvest*Known adversaries:* GDI, Nod*Conflict:* Tiberian Dawn*Status:* Unknown after 2047 Reaper-17 is a sub-faction of the Scrins specialising in ground combat and firepower. It constitutes the 17th and most violent branch of the Cult of the Reapers, an extremist sect within the Scrin civilisation.
The Reapers believe that anything hindering the Scrins’ progress must be eliminated without hesitation. This philosophy makes them the specialists in destruction amongst the various alien castes.
Their behaviour is considered extreme even by Scrin standards. Members of Reaper-17 are known in particular for practising severe bodily mutilation and undergoing profound physical transformations linked to their exposure to Tiberium, or Ichor.
Their violence, cruelty and fanaticism may, in fact, be exacerbated by this excessive Tiberium Infusion. Their practices have gradually turned them into outcasts within their own civilisation.
Despite this marginalisation, the Cult of the Reapers remains particularly useful to the Scrins. When an indigenous civilisation puts up more resistance than anticipated during a harvesting operation, its warriors provide the strike force needed to eliminate that resistance.
This role explains the presence of Reaper-17 within the expedition sent to Earth in 2047. The Scrins discovered that humanity was still very much alive and capable of putting up considerable resistance to their harvesters.
Unlike Traveler-59, Reaper-17 does not seek to infiltrate or enslave its adversaries. Its doctrine is based on direct ground assaults, supported by heavily armoured machines and weapons that harness Tiberium directly.
This philosophy explains, in particular, the absence of Masterminds from its arsenal. The Reapers’ beliefs also lead them to abandon some of the Scrin’s traditional aerial capabilities in favour of more powerful ground forces.
The symbol of this doctrine is the Reaper Tripod, a specialised variant of the Annihilator Tripod. Like the Devourer Tank, it can absorb Tiberium to temporarily increase the power of its weapons.
The Conversion Reserves upgrade allows these Tripods and Devourer Tanks to store more Tiberium, further increasing their destructive potential.
Reaper-17 also employs the Shard Walker, a specialised version of the Gun Walker whose weapons directly fire shards of Tiberium.
The Blue Shards technology takes this philosophy even further by replacing the green Tiberium projectiles of the Walkers and Ravagers with much more powerful blue Tiberium.
Even its Harvesters reflect the faction’s aggressiveness: unlike ordinary Scrin Harvesters, those of Reaper-17 are equipped with a protective Force Shield, enabling them to continue operations in heavily contested sectors.
Conversely, this obsession with ground power severely limits its versatility. In particular, Reaper-17 forgoes mind control as well as several of the most powerful air units available to conventional Scrin forces.
Its first confirmed encounter with humans occurred during the Third Tiberium War, when Reaper-17 forces intervened in China as Nod attempted to recover the Tacitus held by ZOCOM.
The alien intervention turned the operation into a three-way battle. Reaper-17’s forces were also seeking to seize the Tacitus, whilst LEGION attempted to recover the artefact for Kane.
ZOCOM is ultimately defeated, but Nod fails to retain possession of the Tacitus. Alexa Kovacs’ intervention enables the GDI to recover the artefact, postponing its definitive acquisition by Legions until 2052.
The fate of Reaper-17 following the failure of the 2047 Scrin expedition remains unknown. There is no way of determining whether the faction left Earth, whether some of its forces remained there, or what role it might play in the invasion announced by the Overlord.
Reaper-17 thus represents the most brutal facet of the Scrin: a sect of mutilated, Tibérium-saturated extremists, tolerated by their own civilisation because their violence becomes extremely useful when a population refuses to submit to harvesting operations.