Systems Alliance Reference Thread

Okay, so this is the product of mine and other’s musings and worldbuilding for the Systems Alliance. It’s...pretty damn big. Some of it is expansion on canon stuff, some of it is my wild imaginings, some of it is from other CDN members (thanks in particular to Mr_Sandman, who let me thrash out my ideas/ramble on about all this shit and gave me heaps of constructive criticism, SummitB, Ni, Gunny and everyone who contributed and edited (which is a pretty long list, you guys are the best)). Obviously this is just my vision of how things are, but I would advise people RPing Alliance military characters to have a look at Section Two(once it’s up), as it’s based on the advice of a lot of currently serving and ex-military folks here at CDN.

I welcome critique/comments/proposed modifications, though I’d prefer for people to talk to me before they edit it (when it does go on the wiki) simply because of the stupidly stupid amount of time I spent on it.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Section One: Military Vehicles and Spacecraft

-Large Spacecraft
*1: Dreadnoughts, Carriers and Cruisers
*2: Frigates and Auxuliaries

-Small Spacecraft
*1: Corvettes, Shuttles, Dropships and Fighters

-Ground Vehicles
*Armour and other vehicles

-In-Atmospheric Craft
*Drones and Gunships

-Misc

Section Two: The Alliance Military
-Structure, Rank and Regulations
-Jargon, Lifestyle and Relationships Between Members
-Doctrine, Composition and Operation
Section Three: Politics, Past and Present
-Citizenship and Population
-Structure of the Parliamentary Government
-Structure of the Military Government
-Domestic Relations
-Colonial Administration
-Foreign Policy
-Economic Policy
i told you it was fucking big

Introduction

The Systems Alliance is the representative body of Earth and all human colonies in Citadel space. Formed by Earth’s most powerful and wealthy nations, the Alliance has become humanity’s military, exploratory and economic spearhead. While relatively new to the galactic community, it has quickly become a power in C-Space, gaining a council seat after the Eden Prime War and forging the Pact with the turian Hierarchy and Urdnot Clan government. Prior to the Reaper War, the Systems Alliance was governed by a parliament based on Arcturus Station, the SA's original capital which was destroyed in the opening stages of the war with said parliament aboard. Currently, the Alliance is under martial law and is governed by the admiralty, led by Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett.


Systems Alliance Flag


Systems Alliance Marine Corps Symbol

b. Classes And Specialties
(All Sandy’s work here.)

Every single N operative attained their designation through some of the most grueling training and preparation on the face of the planet. Each and every man and woman of the Systems Alliance Marine Corps special forces division is capable, both mentally and physically, of fighting and winning in some of the most brutal and unforgiving environments in the galaxy. And this is, of course, discounting the fact that they are effectively transhuman supersoldiers, equipped with some of the best augmentations and genemods the Systems Alliance defense budget can procure. They are stronger than you. They are faster than you. They will outfight you, outman you, and outlast you. They are not, as sometimes depicted in the media, action heroes; stylishly diving away from explosions without looking back as a large numbers of somewhat addled doves take flight behind them.

They excel in asymmetrical warfare, in psychological tactics, in dirty and underhanded fighting. They do not exist to be worshipped. They exist to be feared.

N Units excel at long range recon, surgical strikes against an enemy's leadership, at destroying an enemy's ability to fight and covert retrieval.

Light Infantry: The N-class light infantry that comprises the bulk of the program are, in a word, adaptable. Members are taught and capable of field dressing wounds as well as some medics. Squads can survive off the land for weeks at a time, and maintain deep cover nearly indefinitely terrain permitting. They are swift moving, to call them “fit” is something of an understatement given the previously mentioned hellish training and augmentations. They are disciplined, hammered into a cohesive unit by their superiors and the nature of war itself. And, at the risk of sounding unnecessarily flowery are virtual masters of war: blades, unarmed combat, firearms, explosives, exotics, any given N-marine is expected to be proficient in each and every field. In short, they can travel fast and light over even the harshest terrain and still be able to hand anybody else their ass at the finish line.

Sentinels (Paladins): Serving as a Sentinel in the N’s is, on the surface, a thankless and almost masochistically grueling task. Specialists of this field must learn how to operate tech based combat applications such as condensate and napalm throwers, electrical blasts, and siphon matrices (which, contrary to the vids, are not as easy as point and shoot) in addition to honing their innate biotic talents. And then at the end? They are deployed in what is effectively a support role. But those who have actually served with these specialists, Sentinels are far from the mediocre engineers and barely decent biotics some consider them to be. For one a Sentinel is expected to be their squad’s anchor, a versatile, hardy point that the rest of the men can rally around. They are expected to be a jack of all trades, able to seamlessly switch from focused firepower to environmental control. And they are expected to be durable the often near invisible shields they deploy are hardly for show, they’re there to allow the Sentinel to weather literal storms of bullets and heavy weapons.

Heavy Infantry (Destroyers): Consider, for a moment, the strength, endurance, and finesse to wear a partially mechanized suit of power armor through jungle, deserts, urban wastelands, and mountains. Congratulations, you know understand why, even by special forces standards, the N’s heavy infantry units are somewhere between incredibly and insanely ripped. Their ablative plate can simply shrug off almost everything short of anti-materiel fire. Their tools, in turn, are LMGs, HMGs, Anti-materiel carbines that typically require mountings, and other heavy weapons. Organized into their own platoons and accompanied by attached engineer units, N-class heavy infantry is brought in when Alliance units need serious fire support.

Adepts (Fury): Walking biotic artillery. The Adepts, the Furies, summed up in three words. Protected by full NBC armored hardsuits like their fellows (because really, catsuits are not going to help you when everyone and their mother is gunning for the biotic) Adepts benefit more than most from the rigorous physical standards enforced on cadets, that being that their relative endurance as compared to most other biotic capable soldiers is decidedly high. Meaning that they can strip away cover, shock enemy ranks with gravitational and disruptor fields, and weaken armored targets much more rapidly and for much longer than their siblings in other branches. The fact that they’re gifted with some of the most cutting edge human produced Amp modules hardly hurts.

Engineer (Demolisher): Like their aforementioned brother units, N-class Engineers specialize in a form of “aggressive support”; ie. “if I blow you up, it’s easier for me to support my squad”. Typically carrying a bevy of decidedly nasty tech powers and grenades of all distinctions and flavors as well as mobile and nearly transparent drone constructs Engineers exist to be what essentially amounts to one man howitzers. This is, of course ignoring the fact that they are also capable of applying their capabilities in equally potent and much more subtle ways. See: supply pylons, high grade fabrication modules capable of generating ordnance and ammo given the proper inputs as well as recharging shield capacitors.

Vanguards (Slayers): Typically deployed to squads in troops of three or four (and lucky is the squad that has them in their ranks) N-class vanguards are essentially ambush units, designed and trained to devour enemy units. Shattering their formation. Carving apart their chain of command. Optimized for assault by virtue of the “blink” action, a capability granted by their networked implants that functions, in principle, much like a biotic Charge (minus the flashy dispersal of energy that is instead grounded out through the marine’s body and into the environment) they are, in a pair of words, stupidly mobile. Able to move through walls, across meters of space near silently and instantaneously. Able to draw their folding, collapsing blades and drive them through a target’s arteries in seconds (the perks of transhumanism), or unleash storms of hyperaccelerated metal shards and heavy biotic blasts Slayers are, more so than even their fellows, oriented around the concept of “terror”.

Infiltrators (Shadows): Organized in their own platoons like the Heavy infantry, Shadows are snipers and wetworks operatives. They work in pairs, attached to other field units or dispatched on their own to provide overwatch for a given situation, eliminate enemy officers or critical infrastructure, destroy enemy armor, lower enemy morale, and sow confusion and fear. Assassins in their fundamentals, these units are typically assigned with precision elimination of specific targets. Be it from a kilometer away as snipers, or from a foot away with a blade that is only now sliding out of the hilt and across the target’s throat. Even when cornered they are far from defenseless; capable of deploying what amounts to a tech shockwave the weapon literally tears up the environment and allows them to vanish in the ensuing chaos. Like the Furies or Slayers they (shockingly) wear actual armor, usually with an integrated cloaking module. Instead of something stupid. Like catsuits.

You've put a lot of work into this Nat. It's really cool, and the level of detail is something I'me sure would have helped a lot of stories more immersive, and will do so in the future. Thank you.

v. Military Units of Note
First Special Operations Division (1st SOD): Nicknamed the ‘N Division’, 1st SOD is the parent special forces unit, to which every N Marine and every member of the Navy’s Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) belongs.This unit is heavily decorated and highly regarded, attracting the best Marines, sailors and officers in the Alliance military. Post-war, however, it has lost its eccentric General Batbayar Nergui, its base of operations, most of its training facilities and is down to half strength. Despite this, it continues to operate effectively.

Taskforce India: There are probably more polite ways to describe Taskforce India than “Alliance hatchetmen” but, in all fairness, the pejorative has no small amount of truth. Founded in the flurry of military restructuring and augmentation that followed in the wake of the first Mindoir Incursions, amidst burning human colonial worlds and vanished populations, the group’s primary directive has always been one of preventative action and preemptive negation.

They specialize in counter-piracy operations, in quote unquote “aggressive counter-terrorism”, and what essentially amounts to wetworks missions. Ventures that primarily taking place in contested Alliance regions or relay clusters outright claimed by Terminus entities (though most of the actions are classified or denied by the Alliance government). They are one of the means by which the Systems Alliance effects regime change in warlordist states or private groups on their borders. One of the tools by which their parent organization smothers danger prior to its evolution to full fledged threat. Bombings, assassinations, captures, general removal. The Taskforce’s methods are as much psychological as they are practical. During the Reaper War these skills were turned to the extraction of VIPs and critical materiel from worlds under Reaper onslaught and elimination of indoctrinated factions including numerous operations against Cerberus itself.

But this is not to say that the N’s who serve under the authority of Major Su-jin Noh are a band of grim, faceless, testosterone powered suits of power armor. Given the extreme stresses placed upon soldiers in active combat, particularly those who are tasked with missions of highly sensitive and dangerous nature, it is both regular and encouraged for units to blow off steam when off duty and to seek help from each other. This has had the dual result of forming a reliable, dependable, and trustworthy support network for the marines of India as well as some truly legendary parties.

The Taskforce maintains two squadrons (approximately a six hundred men and women apiece not including support staff) each subdivided into six companies of a hundred each. Their duties post-war have largely revolved rebuilding from losses sustained over the course of the conflict and deployments to Earth and near-Alliance interests.

Taskforce Foxtrot: If Taskforce India is, essentially, an example of frontline N marines, then their sister division, Foxtrot, exemplifies and embodies the breed of “aggressive support” so favored by Systems Alliance covert forces. Founded in tandem with India, the bulk of Foxtrot’s membership is composed of support specialists: engineers serving as drone and mechanized unit field operators, heavy infantry in mechanized motive armor, scout snipers with extensive infiltration augmentations, and the like.

The taskforce have something of a reputation as freelancers in the special operations world. That is to say that, rather than specialization in a certain brand of operation (recovery specialists for example or “stabilizing” elements post regime change) they can, and frequently are, attached to squads and troops in Alliance zones of interest the galaxy over. Though, unsurprisingly, they are often deployed in conjunction with marines from their sibling group between which there exist close professional, structural, and interpersonal bonds.

At the risk of needless repetition, the term sibling is, indeed, apt. They are fiercely competitive even in a field where individuals are taught that only winners prosper. Staunchly loyal even in a community as tightly knit as SAMC special forces.

During the Reaper War, even as Arcturus station and the Foxtrot Headquarters came under direct assault, it was units from India that assisted in their evacuation and the extraction of civilians and civil servants. And later, during the covert orbital insertions of Benning and Cerberus counterambushes of India marines, it was units from Foxtrot that helljumped onto the planet’s surface and linked up with with their brother and sister N’s to tear into the supremacist group’s facilities.

Like India and, indeed, the vast majority of the N classification; Taskforce Foxtrot has sustained its share of casualties and replenishing it’s numbers back to full operational capacity is slow and grueling work even with the decidedly indomitable Major Kazimir Dragunov.

But, by all accounts, the annual joint-Taskforce Foundation Day Barbecue is still on and will, in fact, forever be on. Spending time with family is important after all.

109th Special Operations Aviation Regiment: (109th SOAR): The 109th SOAR is a special operations naval aviation force that provides shuttle and gunship support for the Alliance’s special forces and is permanently attached to the Marine Corps. Nicknamed the ‘Dragons’, its missions include attack, assault and reconnaissance and often occur at night, at high speeds and low altitudes. Operating Kodiak shuttles (including the majority of A class aircraft) as well as Mantis and Bengal gunships, this unit consists of some of the best aircraft and most experienced pilots in the Alliance Navy.

Fourth Airmobile Division:

‘First into hell’ is the motto of the Alliance’s Fourth Airmobile Division and in many ways this is true: every Marine in the division is air assault qualified and they are often the first dropped into battles to seize objectives and clear the way for other units. Paired with Shuttle Assault Transport squadrons, these Marines use fast-roping techniques or thruster modules on their armour, depending on the height they’re jumping from and whether or not gravity is present. This means that 4th Airmobile units can be rapidly deployed even when a landing zone isn’t available and minimizes the time a shuttle is stationary (and vulnerable) while deploying troops. This division is scattered all across Alliance space, primarily on ships where its Marines’ particular skills make them invaluable as quick reaction forces. Air assault units were often among the first to make contact with Reaper forces and took heavy casualties during the war, to the point that several battalions were disbanded after the Battle of London. Post-war, the Fourth is consolidating its remaining Marines and continuing its duties as the Alliance’s mobile, quick reaction force both on Earth and in the fleet. Along with such units as the 1st SOD, 2nd Infantry and 5th Frontier Divisions, the 4th Airmobile is a founding unit of the Systems Alliance Marine Corps.

vi. Misc
a. Gene mods:
All members of the Alliance military receive genetic modification by MarsGene, though these are more extensive on Marines than sailors. Standard gene mods include those that improve hearing, sight and the immune system and those that increase muscle density and bone strength, the last of which are needed to operate a military-grade hardsuit for any appreciable time.

b. Badges and Berets
In addition to compulsory parts of the Alliance uniform, Marines and sailors may also elect to wear badges and berets. The blue beret, symbolic of the SAMC in many eyes, is authorised for all Marines to wear once they’ve graduated from boot and may be accessorized with a divisional patch or simply worn with the Alliance insignia. In addition there are three other coloured berets that may be worn by Marines: the red or maroon beret, worn by Airmobile, the black beret which is worn by Armour and Recon and the tan beret, worn by N Marines. Navy personnel may wear caps, either the formal one with a short brim or a ship baseball hat. The exception to this are the CSAR Service and SOAR, who may wear both Navy headwear and the maroon and tan berets respectively.

Badges are only compulsory for the dress uniform where ribbons are required. Only three badges (not including the deployment badge) may be worn at any one time, usually in order of precedent. These badges include air assault, EVA, ICT and other such school badges and also the Combat Infantry Badge, Combat Action Badge (given to non-infantry personnel who have seen combat) and the Combat Medical Badge (given to medical personnel such as corpsmen who have treated a patient while under enemy fire). In addition to these badges, there are deployment badges, which consist of the unit insignia of the last unit said Marine deployed with to a combat zone.