Melanemia: an abnormal condition in which the blood contains melanin.
Melanin: any of various black, dark brown, reddish-brown, or yellow pigments of animal or plant structures (such as skin or hair)
Induced Melanemia: medical term given by Clan science for changes in hematopoietic processes by prolonged necrosia exposure. Typically characterized by distinct darkened plasma tissue as a result of excess free-floating pigment and the need for advanced dialysis treatments to prevent acute renal failure.
As Clan Goliath Scorpion were driven out of the Homeworlds and began to settle in Castilian space as the Escorpion Imperio, there was great awareness for the need and capability to covertly project force against enemies both within the Imperio's borders and without. With the morale of his Warriors critically low and the newly-conquered Umayyads and Castilians ready to revolt at any moment, Khan Colin Yeh and Loremaster Sargon Ben-Shimon drew on the earliest days of their Clan's history and quietly began to gather resources to form a special forces unit to accomplish tasks too dishonorable for the flagging Touman and requiring more firepower than the over-extended Watch could concentrate on it's own.
Agreeing that the Seeker movement, with their skills for independent action, careful management of limited resources, and aptitude for 'thinking outside the box,' would make for the perfect pool to recruit from, both Scorpion leaders knew they had to be exact in who to select for this conceptual force. Seekers by their nature were also very independent-minded, and almost all of them took their mantle to quest and roam to discover and return relics to their Clan rather than hunt dissidents and quietly slay enemies of the Scorpions.
In this, Khan Yeh placed his trust in Sargon Ben-Shimon to select the right Warriors for this purpose. Selecting as his first choice the aging Star Captain Dareen Arbuthnot, the Loremaster found a Seeker whose Codex was rich with Quests to locate resources and information that would benefit the entire Clan instead of curiosities to fill the Temple of Nine Muses. With exploits including locating a DoME facility whose databases detailed a number of advanced terraforming procedures, or the quest to locate the hydrogen ice-rich asteroid field known as the Roebisson Rapids in a system near St. Jean mentioned in the logs of the SLS Roebisson, Arbuthnot demonstrated admirable qualities to lead the Loremaster's project.
Though the Seeker initially balked at the thought of doing thinly-veneered Watch work, Sargon Ben-Shimon is rightly remembered for being as ruthless as he was cunning. He insinuated that Dareen's advancing age could justify the label of solahma, guaranteeing an end to the advanced medical care she had been receiving for several years for prolonged necrosia exposure. Faced with either continuing to serve the Clan albeit in a honorless capacity or to die a shameful death to wasting disease, Dareen Arbuthnot became the first commander of the Melanemia unit, so-named for the medical condition of blackened blood that can take place given enough exposure to necrosia, which so-happened to be the same malady affecting her.
Ben-Shimon also selected several other Warriors from across Chi Galaxy to serve the Clan's greater purposes, including dezgra, the unsuccessful, the uninspired, and solahma. None were eager to give up their previous stations regardless of their own failures or disgraced standing, for if the Crimson Seekers represented the zenith of the Seeker movement, the Melanemia represented it's nadir. Each Warrior had to discharge their various familiars and charges and selflessly place the Clan above all in swaering what would come to be called the Black Rede, sworn to the Loremaster of the Goliath Scorpions to do whatever was necessary to preserve the Clan. Coercion, as was the case with Dareen Arbuthnot, was not unknown in these efforts.
The Melanemia's earliest operations were against domestic rebels fomenting dissent among the Umayyad and Castilian peoples. Particular fervor was applied to tracing the rumors claiming the Umayyads were descended from the Not-Named, with the Seekers following a trail of leads to a Clan Coyote Watch operation which was successfully eliminated. Other tasks included covert reconnaissance raids against the Hansa, the elimination of a Word of Blake remnant force stranded near Hanseatic space, and locating Green Ghosts raiders after an attack on Valencia in 3085. The Melanemia answered only to the Loremaster and (to a lesser extent) the Khan, with even Connor Rood unaware of their existence and activities until he succeeded Colin Yeh in 3086. It was Rood who named the unit the Blackbloods upon learning of their existence, and he quietly attached them to Chi Galaxy as they searched for Ice Hellion survivors. Though many Hellions were able to return to Clan society, others were not, and the Blackbloods removed several of the most far-gone from the equation.
For more than six decades, the Melanemia unit was at the vanguard of shadowy actions against the Imperio's neighbors and subjects alike. Personnel turnover was, at times, atrocious thanks to several factors but mainly from medical complications from prolonged necrosia use's frequent comorbidities and combat losses, especially as the Blackbloods rarely grew to more than a Star in size. It was this former point that Loremaster Sargon Ben-Shimon sought to redress via alternative means in the 3090s, not by increasing the size of the unit, but by augmenting it's capabilities. At the suggestion of a newly-inducted Seeker, Ben-Shimon petitioned Connor Rood for access to the stores of captured Society materials that the Scorpions had captured during the Reavings and brought with them to Nueva Castile. Though loathe at the thought of these instruments in service to his own Clan, Khan Rood begrudingly agreed. He acknowledged the impressive force modifiers they possessed on the battlefield in the hands of the rogue Scientists' undertrained lackeys, and knew such tools were better used in the Scorpions' interests as opposed to moldering in heavily-secured caches.
Thus, where once SLDF, former Blakist, and even Spheroid designs once served, Melanemia MechWarriors strode out in OmniMechs configured to the reviled Z load-outs boasting Nova CEWS, iATMs, and Improved Heavy Lasers. Several salvaged Society OmniMechs were also located and quietly restored to functionality, including an Osteon, a Septicemia, and a pair of Cephalus. Though thought irreplaceable, the Khan and Loremaster were quickly justified in their reasoning when the Blackbloods used this hardware to destroy more than two companies of bandits nestling along a key supply route to several new Scorpion colonies. Another strong showing came less than a year later, when Melanemia and Star Adder Watch forces fought to the death over the wreckage of an evacuation DropShip that crashed outside the Veil of the Protector during the Scorpion Abjurement. The Blackbloods Star used their Society equipment to it's fullest to best three times their number in Adders. Intercepted transmissions indicated the Star Adders thought they were dealing with an actual Society cell rather than a Scorpion unit, to the great satisfaction of the Loremaster.
The unit's activities in the years leading up to, and during, the Hanseatic Crusade are not clearly known. The Blackbloods had slowly become more insular and their reporting less detailed by this point in time, a fact that was missed by their handlers with the grand undertaking against the Hansa beginning to take form. What is known is that Loremaster Kalara Yeh granted a petition from Star Captain Meridiana Scott to allow for independent activity, ostensibly to help the Watch force take advantage of time-sensitive opportunities without waiting for word from the Khan or Loremaster.
In truth, the unit had long-since become an asset for the Society elements that remained embedded within the Scorpions after their Abjurement. Unknown to any in the Clan's leadership, the Society had long enjoyed considerable influence within elements of the Seekers movement, quietly guiding influenceable young Seekers to ristar status through the bait of forgotten caches, archives, and relics whose locks the Society alone possessed the keys for. Many fell to these temptations over the years prior to the Abjuration, and the practice continued albeit on a considerably smaller scale afterwards. By the 3110s, every Seeker in the Blackbloods was such a Warrior, and though they still served the Imperio and later the Empire, they also covertly did the bidding of the rogue Scientists. Whenever a Grunt Caste patrol stumbled upon a hidden lab, or another Watch or Seeker group saw or discovered things they shouldn't have, elements of the Blackbloods were quietly sent to handle the problem. Having become experts in misdirection, these attacks often appeared to be the work of pirates, malcontents, or the HDF, and often at the hands of just one or two Warriors while the bulk of the unit was completing tasks set for them by their official handlers.
Scorpion Watch group MELANEMIA "The Blackbloods" c. 3140
Star Captain Meridiana Scott - Custom Summoner configuration
Star Commander Agmar Myers - Timber Wolf Z
MechWarrior Saleem - Septicemia E
MechWarrior Shanada - Stormcrow Z
MechWarrior Lucien Kirov - Osteon Prime
Yeoman Aliyha - Cephalus Prime
Yeoman Sturgess - Cephalus Prime
Point Commander Radovan Baba - Elemental (Fire) Point
