Chrono legionnaire

"Never Existed!"

- Chrono Legionaire removing tanks

The Chrono Legionnaire was a high-tech Allied soldier who battled the Soviets during GWWIII. The legionnaire's suit and weapon were based on the Chronosphere's technology.

The Chrono legionnaire could erase enemies from history using his special rifle, freezing them in time as he methodically erased every trace of the unit from the time stream. While being erased, targeted units were not present in any time stream, and were therefore invulnerable to all weapons. Chrono legionnaires could chronoshift across entire cities and "erase" buildings and soldiers, making it appear to Soviet commanders that their units had simply disappeared. Deployed in squads of 5 or more, they could decimate a Soviet base by chronoshifting past defenses and erasing the base from within, having some legionnaires attack buildings while others defended the squad from any counterattacks. 

One desperate tactic used by Allied commanders involving the Chrono legionnaires was to use a Legionnaire to target one's own buildings when under attack by either very powerful enemy forces, or superweapons. Although the legionnaire would invariably die, the unit he was targeting would be immune to all damage during the attack, and, upon the death/retargeting of the legionnaire, the structure would shortly return to the timestream, exactly as before. Caution had to be taken to make sure that the legionnaire did not accidentally erase the structure, however.

Due to the need to make the chronoshift device compact enough to be man-portable, the generators in the suit were insufficient to allow for constant timeshifting. Although the legionnaire would be instantly thrown into the time stream, reappearing in the desired location, it took time for the legionnaire to reform completely. The longer the jump, the longer it took for a legionnaire to fully re-enter the time stream. This weakness gave the Soviet troopers a much-needed chance to take him out. However, if one were to use the Chronosphere superweapon on this unit, the Legionnaire would by-pass the time it took to phase in and, like vehicles, would be instantly teleported unlike most infantry that simply died. Also, erasing anything other than infantry, such as vehicles or buildings, took a significant amount of time. Chrono legionnaires needed escort while they erased targets, as they could only erase one unit at a time. If a commander micromanaged a legionnaire, however, he could stave off some attacks by rapidly shifting aim between targets, as after having been hit, targeted units took some time to return to normal. This technique would fail to destroy anything, however. Chrono Legionnaires could also "hop" short distances into the enemy base, thus bypassing the shifting time stream and allowing the legionnaire to close his distance between him and his target with impunity. As such, the legionnaires were easily countered by anything while shifting back into the time stream, and were also vulnerable to groups of enemies, including the inexpensive GIs, attack dogs, initiates, and conscripts. Yuri forces could also take advantage of the Chrono legionnaire time shift, capturing legionnaires as they jumped in using any sort of mind-control abilities. Alternatively, a Commander can simply place 5 Legionnaires into a Battle Fortress, which would concentrate the fire of all 5 Legionnaires on one target, instantaniously removing it regardless of it's size.

It was not seen in RA3 but Special Agent Tanya had a teleporting device similar to it. Cryo Legionaires replaced it in its role.