Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Since we've seen all those shiny new Combined Army units, I remembered that there's a ko Dali figure in there. Does anyone know the backstory of how she went from being a named Tiger Soldier to a tentacle headed not-Asari? Seriously, why did the EI turn her into... whatever that is? I thought the EI's whole deal was that it was trying to unite all intelligent species in the galaxy under its banner. I don't think the EI mutated the Shasvastii, Exrah, or Morats, so why does it appear to want to mutate humans?

Sepsitor. I'm pretty sure she's being made into another symbol of the CA's superiority. Sort of like they're saying "OK, we can straight up annihilate you with our army, we can make you a bunch of zombies, or we can do this peacefully. Your call."

It is called equipment, the CA just gave her some badass gear, that let her Combat Jump something see couldn't do with her odd gear.

As for the EI, it doesn't want to unite crap, it wants transcendence for itself and the Ur. It will enslave all or if need be burn the galaxy to ash for this goal.

That sounds like some Aleph propaganda to me, sir.

Check out the Ko Dali model though. It's more than just an equipment change. She's got tentacles coming out of her head! I understand Sepsitorizing people is basically insta-indoctrination, but they appear to have done a lot more than just that. If the intention was to use her as a propaganda tool against humanity, why turn her into a mutant? Without them actually naming that figure as Ko Dali, there's no way you'd know it was supposed to be her. Wouldn't it have been a more powerful image to use against humanity to keep her recognizable?

She can now extract nutrients and organic matter from other living beings, I think she got some enhancements that the (new) Tohaa CA units have, so maybe the EI has something special for her.

I think her silhouette is meant to evoke the impression a certain infested Terran from some Blizzard game too.

The new silhouette was lost on me (never played the game nor had any flickerings of desire to do so). I kept asking "What's a kerrigan?".

(To many Aussies, Kerrigan is the family from "the castle" ("It's about the vibe ..." , "Tell him he's dreaming!" and "straight to the pool room." fame).

Unless humanity can pull its gak together, they're just a speedbump for the combine on the way to the EIs transcendence program.

(Humanity needs to stop fighting each other and team up to fight the bigger threat - but thousands of years have shown us one thing - humans like a good fight and nothing beats fighting the traditional enemies. The other humans. The ones who aren't like you. We're boned.)

Background for specific units can be found in the miniatures gallery on the CB site.

Here's Sepsitorized Ko Dali:
http://www.infinitythegame.com/infinity/en/2013/miniatures/special-operative-ko-dali/

There's a mixup in the OP's post
Ko Dali was sepsitorized and is now serving the EI as a super-soldier AND as a propaganda icon
Now, we saw the 3D concept of the incoming new starter box for the EI that does feature another AD unit (with the same backpack/wings as Ko Dali) but that is from the EI-aligned Tohaa group, it's not a Ko-Dali 3.0, it's another unit completely (Fraacta or whatever)

No, I didn't mistake the new AD Tohaa thing for Ko Dali. I meant that I remembered that there's a Ko Dali in the CA range. I'd forgotten about her until I saw the new figure.

Been a while, it's in the Paradisio book that there's a few pieces of fluff about it if I'm not mistaken

Psh. Where'd the EI learn English from? That's clearly fake propaganda created by Aleph to keep humanity from joining the glory that is the Evolved Intelligence.

 Barzam wrote:
Psh. Where'd the EI learn English from? That's clearly fake propaganda created by Aleph to keep humanity from joining the glory that is the Evolved Intelligence.

Exactly The Morats just want to give all of humanity a big hug

Lame, I thought they kept her sepsitorized/willfully converted state uncertain, which made her far more interesting considering some of the stuff she says in one of the books.

 Dakkamite wrote:
Lame, I thought they kept her sepsitorized/willfully converted state uncertain, which made her far more interesting considering some of the stuff she says in one of the books.

One of the Paradiso mission is the story of her getting sepsitorized, if you play the story based mode one side is YJ with Ko Dali the other is CA with a sepsitor unit.

 Dakkamite wrote:
Lame, I thought they kept her sepsitorized/willfully converted state uncertain, which made her far more interesting considering some of the stuff she says in one of the books.

I actually think it's tremendously cool. The Sepsitor is the one piece of CA kit, in amongst their other 'voodoo tech', that absolutely terrifies the powers that be within the Human Sphere. They have absolutely no idea how it works, but only know that is incredibly effective - that it perverts their operatives through their lifeline (the 'cube' essentially making combatants that use them immortal in the scheme of things) makes it all the more potent.

You can imagine that the Human Sphere tries to keep such knowledge hidden from the general populace due to the effect it would have as a 'terror' weapon - but then you can imagine what would happen to any soldiers, about to go into battle against the CA to see Ko Dali, a celebrated hero of Yu Jing, appearing alongside and in support of the 'enemy'. That would be such a potent weapon in the propaganda and psychological war.

We also don't really know the details of how the Sepsitor functions. Is it simply the EI taking over all higher brain function of the individual? Are they made to see the 'truth' of the Combined Armies vision, and their vision for the evolution of sentient life? If the latter, then really you could argue it is the equivalent of an extremely effective form of 'brainwashing', rather than some form of invasive thought patters, but that the individual is still essentially acting through its own 'free will'. There is a lot to think about concerning it really!