Suicide Commandos, Chryse Planitia Circa 2120 (Patreon)

 Airlock security feed, Eurozone Forward Life-Support Replenishment Post (FLRP), Chryse Planitia Front, Mars, Circa 2120, Untitled, Collected in "To Live to Die; The Credo of the Corporate Kamikazes", Alibaba Digital Publishing, 2339

"A pair of corporate suicide commandos wait in an airlock to deploy on what will almost certainly be their first and last mission. As the corporate wars of the 21st century ground into the 22nd and Martian terraforming heated the planetary surface the conflict zones expanded beyond the orbital and trans-orbital battlefields to which they had previously been restricted. Once again wars would be fought on the surface of a planet, though for first time in human history this planet would not be Earth. 

The first practical result of the automated atmospheric terraformers was to increase and moderate the surface temperatures at the equator, making it possible for humans to survive on mars without the need for significant insulation. Martian "space suits" were quickly reduced to a simple skintight plastic layer and breathing apparatus. As with all early technology seen on mars the reason for this came down to a single factor; weight. The cost of getting material down into the gravity well of the planet was still considerable during the second phase of the intracorporate wars, and as such all sides were eager to equip their planetside personnel with the absolute minimum weight of equipment necessary for them to survive long enough to inflict damage on the enemy. By the same token, removing personnel from the surface of the planet and returning them to their point of origin or another habitat was even more expensive, and in order to avoid incurring this cost many corporations almost simultaneously reinvented suicide troops. 

A variety of moral arguments regarding the desirability of soldiers who actually wanted to die being morally preferable to the alternative (soldiers that wanted to live) were made, most notably in what could only be described as a series of high production value snuff VS (Virtual Sensory) experiences created and distributed by XiCorp (Formerly known as China). 勇敢浪漫的火星女神 (trans. Brave Romantic Goddesses of Mars) was arguably the most effective recruitment tool of the war. It was one of the first known instances of sensory recording technology jumping from training and research applications into entertainment. The sensory inputs of suicide commandos operating in and around the Hellas Basin were originally captured as training tools by the XiCorp 3rd Martian Tactical Command and played to new recruits as part of the thanatophilic conditioning intended to prepare them to take their own lives on the battlefield.

When the Central Committee discovered that pirated copies of the final moments of their suicide commandos were not only making the rounds among other military personnel as a form of entertainment, but were the focus of a lively and profitable black market, the decision was made to try to capitalize the VS recordings. The resulting series of heavily edited recruitment VS proved to be wildly successful, and almost overnight XiCorp saw voluntary recruitment rates for their suicide divisions increase by more than 300%. Whether this is a testament to the efficacy of the recruitment propaganda, a statement about the extent to which XiCom's citizens were already brainwashed to be suicidally loyal to the corporate state, or an indictment of the miserable working conditions and complete lack of social mobility that was the lot of the average corporate citizen is still being debated to this day. What is certain, however, is that millions of young women were deployed to Chryse Planitia, Utopia Basin, Hesperia Planum, and a hundred other fronts who's names are still synonymous with futility and the loss of human life on an industrial scale. 

Looking at these two suicide commandos we can see many of the hallmarks that made these troops feared in their day, but also romanticized even now. Their gene-sequenced bodies are designed to be as attractive as possible, and their clear uniforms were intended to present a pleasing aspect to the enemy in the hopes of creating enough arousal / hesitation that the commandos would be able to use that moment of indecision to kill another enemy before being eliminated, or choosing to eliminate, themselves. Counterpointing their legendary beauty, their crude strength-enhancement cybernetics can be seen emerging from their skin and even their survival suits, in places. The corporate states that created them were more than capable of making such cybernetics imperceptible, but not without cost, and since these troops were intended to be expendable cost savings was the primary consideration next to maximizing damage output. Their weaponry - monowire blades and wrist-mounted pulse lasers - was clearly intended to maximize their combat effectiveness at point blank range where, even if the enemy was able to bring them down, the resultant explosion of their suicide packs would likely take the life of whatever enterprising enemy trooper had succeeded in killing the commando in the first place, transforming the act of killing the enemy into one of self-sacrifice. 

This aspect of the suicide trooper - that killing her is a form of self destruction - was another reason that the war on the face of mars increasingly came to be dominated by such troops. Normal corporate soldiers, still possessed of basic human instincts for self-preservation would often flee from suicide troopers rather than fight them. The logical counter to this problem was for combatants that were not already doing so to deploy their own suicide troopers, and within a few years the war for mars quickly came to be dominated by forces that could be relied upon to have neither the desire, nor opportunity to demand the investment in the fuel cost to bring them home. 

Another notable aspect of their appearance, the glowing red temples, served to notify their controllers that in addition to their worn suicide device, most commonly a significant quantity of high-yield explosive carried in their life-support packs, their implanted suicide device, generally a cortex bomb, was armed and ready. It also came to serve as a notice to enemy troops that killing the suicide trooper would result in a massive explosion that would probably take them with it, and as such came to be one of the most enduring symbols of the corporate wars. The fashion of sub-dermal illumination still popular among sensie stars, musicians, and guerilla politicians indisputably traces its origins back to this simple warning device..."   

Seologom, Bavmorda. Corporate Wars of the 22nd Century: Theory and Practice. New Shenzhen: Alibaba Digital Publishing, 2356. Neural Induction.