Reaper-17

"The Cult of Reaper, the darkest, guiltiest secret of the Visitors. A death cult veiled in the trappings of religion."

- Kane

Reaper-17 is a sub-faction of the Scrin. They are the 17th (and most violent) sect of the Cult of Reaper. Like the rest of the cult its goal is to aggressively destroy anything that hinders progress. This sect specializes in ground warfare.

Among the Scrin, Reaper-17 is an outcast sect of the Scrin society. They self-mutilate their bodies and are heavily mutated. Their insanity, violence, and cruelty is perhaps a result of excessive Tiberium infusion. Their first (confirmed) contact with humans was when Nod launched a strike to recover the Tacitus from GDI ZOCOM in China.

History
Little is known of the history of Reaper-17. It is known that Reaper-17 is a subsect of a wider religious phenomenon within the Scrin known as the "Cult of Reaper", a violent religious sect that seek to destroy anything that stands in the way of the Scrin. It is also known that Reaper-17 are the most violent of subsect of the Cult. Their excessive self-mutilation led to them being treated as outcasts by the rest of Scrin society. Nevertheless, they are an important part of harvesting operations, due to their strength and brutality, in case the indigenous population resisted more than expected.

At least one contingent of Reaper-17 forces was sent to Earth during the Scrin invasion. Reaper-17 forces arrived in China just as Nod was about to recover the Tacitus from ZOCOM during Operation Tacitus Interruptus. Before the Reaper could lay waste to the area, however, Nod forces made their escape.

Combat doctrines
Focusing on heavy armour, more powerful weapons, and better-protected harvesters, Reaper-17 utilizes few aerial units and does not make use of the Mastermind. Reaper-17 lacks any subfaction-specific infantry unlike the other subfactions.

Units
The Reaper-17 arsenal is mainly composed of upgraded versions of more conventional units.
 * Shard walker: an improved version of the regular gun walker, the Shard Walker is able to take more punishment and is stronger than its standard counterpart.
 * Shielded harvester: a more reliable version of the regular Scrin harvester, equipped with a light force field.
 * Reaper tripod: a Tiberium-mutated version of the Annihilator tripod, using its Tiberium-charged Conversion Beam, the Reaper Tripod packs a punch with a green laser that can tear through even the thickest armour.

Structures

 * Growth stimulator: when placed in the middle of a Tiberium field, the Growth Stimulator increases Tiberium regeneration and provides a constant flow of additional resources.

Support powers

 * Shock pods: deploys three veteran squads of shock troopers to the designated location.

Upgrades

 * Conversion reserves: allows the Reaper tripod and the Devourer tank to store more Tiberium to use in their conversion beam.
 * Shard launcher: gives Seekers and plasma missile batteries more powerful Tiberium shard weaponry to replace the plasma disc launchers.
 * Blue shards: gives shard walkers and ravagers powerful blue Tiberium shard launchers to replace their weaker green shards.

Intel sources
Scrin Intel.