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This is something that I needed to post somewhere. I just wrote it today as part of some brainstorming I was doing for some Star Trek fan fiction ideas that I had, but I don't have anywhere else to put it and it isn't really in its final form yet.
Star Fleet Marine Corps: Deltaverse Version
Organizational Plot Notes
The "Delta Universe" or "Deltaverse" alternate reality, one of four different alternate universes seen in my "Star Trek: Dark Reflection" fan metaverse, presents a much more militarized vision of the uniformed services of the United Federation of Planets. This is in line with the Deltaverse being based on the "new timeline" that was created by Nero's incursion of 2233, and the subsequent events depicted in the 2009 film, "Star Trek," directed by J.J. Abrams, with a much more militaristic Star Fleet, significantly larger and more heavily armed starships and more advanced technology and weapons.
The Star Fleet Marine Corps still exists in the Delta Universe, but they are presented a bit differently. The Marines are by far the smallest, most elite and most overtly militant of the Federation's uniformed services. Though they bear the term "Star Fleet" in their name, use the traditional Star Fleet delta shield, wear uniforms derived from those of the regular Star Fleet and serve the United Federation of Planets, they are in many ways their own entity, separate from the regular fleet in everything from their regalia to their mentality and service culture. This has led to some organizational "culture clash" between the two sister branches. The more "utilitarian" naval personnel often accuse the Marines of being "pompous," "paranoid," "high-strung," "as narrow-minded as they are over-specialized" and "too aggressive." Some Star Fleet admirals have argued that the presence of such a heavily militarized offensive fighting force is an impediment to the Federation's ongoing efforts to establish diplomatic ties to all of its neighbors because "offering one hand in peace while keeping an unsheathed sword in the other hand looks like hypocrisy." The Marines, however, are quick to point out that diplomacy often fails; diplomats could have done nothing about Nero's Incursion of 2258 and have continued to be useless in resolving the ongoing Federation/Klingon "cold war." They are equally quick to accuse their shipboard brethren of being so wrapped up in "running errands" that they forget they're also a navy and are a vital part of the Federation's war strategy.
This controversy is a result of the two services' roots. Incorporated in 2161, the regular Star Fleet is directly descended from the United Earth Space Probe Agency (Earth Starfleet) of the 2140's and 2150's. This was a para-military organization, essentially a militarized N.A.S.A. Though it used a command structure derived from the then-extant United States Navy and United States Coast Guard, its purpose was overtly non-military: to explore the cosmos and gather scientific information to advance human knowledge, to promote human colonization of space, and to start building a diplomatic presence for United Earth in the interstellar spacefaring community. Today, the regular Star Fleet still considers its primary mission objectives to be peaceful exploration and scientific research, enforcement of spacefaring laws, humanitarian aid/search-and-rescue, regulation of commerce and diplomacy. Although the modern Star Fleet is a true, fully armed military with powerful offensive capabilities and even a contingent of heavily armed security divisions that can act as light infantry, due to this "Coast Guard"-like service culture, its uniformed members are very reluctant to think of their branch as a "navy." While they'll admit that fighting wars is part of their duty, they prefer to think of the act as "defensive deterrence." They approach the onset of war with sobriety and reluctance instead of the open enthusiasm the Marines would show, symbolized by service members changing from their bright red tunics into stark, somber raven-black uniforms during a conflict.
The Marine Corps, on the other hand, is a whole other animal. Though the present organization was chartered in 2161 along with the modern Star Fleet, the Corps can also trace its origins to the 2150's. However, they claim descent from a different group of United Earth service members: the legendary troopers of the M.A.C.O. - Military Assault Command Organization. While the U.E.S.P.A. focused on peaceful exploration, the M.A.C.O. was formed by the United Earth government as a unified military - an outgrowth of the old United Nations peace keeping forces - to maintain the fragile spirit of international peace and cooperation that emerged from humanity's near-destruction in World War III and, more importantly, to protect the planet from potential extra-terrestrial threats as United Earth prepared to take the next step forward and join the interstellar community. They were originally organized as highly mobile, light to moderately armed, expertly trained ground troopers, stationed in bases on Earth itself and in United Earth space stations and colonies. But when the Xindi war erupted and all of United Earth's uniformed services were pressed into combat, the M.A.C.O. began stationing units aboard U.E.S.P.A. starships, acting much like marines during Earth's Age of Fighting Sail. The M.A.C.O. went on to distinguish itself, forging a legendary reputation of valor, professionalism and esprit de corps in the Xindi War and the Earth/Romulan War that followed it. When the United Federation of Planets was incorporated into 2161 and the miltiaries of all member worlds fused to create two unified services, Earth's M.A.C.O. combined with similar infantry forces among the Federation's other founding members and was rechristened the Star Fleet Marine Corps. The S.F.M.C. is very proud of its M.A.C.O. heritage; to this day, "M.A.C.O." is still considered an acceptable synonym for "Marine," and Star Fleet Marines freely refer to themselves as "sharks," a tribute to the M.A.C.O. insignia - as well as a riff on the age-old Marine nickname for sailors: “squids.”
As a reflection of these differing roots, the Marine Corps maintain many different doctrines from their naval counterparts. They frequently use different standard-issue equipment; for example, their Communicators, though generally of the same "flip-top" antenna design as those used by the regular Star Fleet, are more compact and damage-resistant, as are their Phasers and Tricorders. All three pieces of equipment have been redesigned to minimize redundant controls and ensure that the devices can be easily manipulated by Marines wearing hand gear such as gloves or gauntlets formed from self-replicating armor; therefore, Marine engineers tried to minimize or eliminate the fancy "touch screens" and "holographic displays" preferred by shipboard officers and use multifunction locks, switches, triggers or rocker buttons whenever possible. On the other hand, the Starfleet Marine Corps' pride in its heritage can be easily seen in its more ostentatious service/undress uniform designs. While both the regular fleet and the Marines changed to a double-breasted, belted tunic with bloused trousers and a color-coded mock turtleneck a quilted collar by 2275 and use the same system of rank pins, the Marines adopted their own, more complex system of color coded shirts and uniform tabs as well as a group of less-formal "fatigue" blouses for everyday work use.
There are three main classes of formal Marine Corps uniform: Class-A (undress), Class-B (full dress) and Class-C (diplomatic dress). Class-B & Class-C uniforms are very ornate affairs. They are made of a thicker, shinier fabric than the undress tunics and reserved for different kinds of official functions, with the Class-C uniforms being required for Marines on headquarters or diplomatic duty. The Class-B uniforms are blue, a reference to the famous "dress blues" of the 20th century United States Marine Corps, while the Class-C uniforms, unique to the S.F.M.C., are green-and-buff, the uniform colors of the Continental Marines of 1775. Dress uniforms are worn with a sword; enlisted Marines generally carry a small sword while officers are issued a traditional Mameluke style scimitar, but Star Fleet maintains that officers may customize their uniforms to honor their culture and Marines may commission a different dress sword than the regulation ones. However, there is also an official regulation in the S.F.M.C. demanding that all Marines be of at least intermediate combat proficiency with their dress swords, something never seen in 20th century Earth militaries where the sword had become little more than a symbol. Many of the Federation's 150 members are self-professed "warrior races" that still actively use long blade weapons in battle, and they insisted that it was only logical that Marines be proficient with any and every weapon issued to them, even the ceremonial ones.
The Class-A (undress) uniform is the standard service uniform of the Marine Corps, worn on duty at ships and facilities whenever a Marine isn't expected to engage in heavy field work or active combat. At first glance, it looks like a black version of the red Class-A undress tunic used by the regular Star Fleet's officer corps; it is made from largely the same pattern, though it finishes slightly higher at the bottom and uses much of the same insignia in the same places. Rank insignia is pinned to a color-coded shoulder strap, "pips" and "squeaks" indicating 1, 5, or 10 years of service are worn on a separately color-coded sleeve band, a special security code transmitter is pinned to the rear of the shoulder strap and finally, a large officer's badge is worn on the chest with a miniature one worn above the sleeve band. However, the Marines wear a stylized globe-and-anchor patch on one arm and a shoulder board on the opposite shoulder; this shoulder board features a button bearing the Great Seal of the United Federation of Planets on one end, and a special "Star Fleet Command" badge indicating the wearer's department (usually Military for Military Assault Command Organization) on the other. Unlike the regular Star Fleet tunic which features a black belt, Marines wear white belts with brass buckles. The undershirt and shoulder strap are color-coded to represent the general category of the wearer's rank, with colors for General Staff, Company Officers, Field Officers, Warrant Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Enlisted Personnel. However, the shoulder board, a slash on the shoulder strap, the sleeve band and the front belt loops are all colored a particular shade of deep green. This feature is shared by all Marine uniforms and the green color was quickly dubbed "Marine Green" - it symbolizes the spiritual brotherhood shared between all Marines, no matter what their race, gender, rank or job may be.
It was a conscious decision to change from the more neutral-sounding "Military Assault Command Organization" to the much more traditional "Marine Corps." The new name connected the Star Fleet Marines with thousands of years of Earthen military tradition, a long-established "warrior ethos" and the philosophy of training a specialized, elite fighting force for a particular kind of combat. The word "marine" literally means, "of/from the sea" and historically, the first marines on Earth were maritime infantry troopers, often ground troops stationed aboard warships as a means of discipline (many sailors in the old Earthen sailing navies served against their will because Navy service promised bad conditions and wasn't very lucrative and, therefore, were at constant risk of desertion or mutiny), protection against enemy boarding parties, snipers who could shoot down enemy officers and crew from the ship's fighting tops, and most importantly, raiding parties that could storm ashore to take enemy land installations or board enemy ships to capture them.
As time went on into the late 19th and 20th centuries, Marine Corps worldwide began to develop their own, specialized doctrine of warfare: amphibious littoral combat and the Marines as a separate armed service, relying on, connected to, supported by but otherwise independent of their parent Navy came into its own. Much of the amphibious warfare doctrine of this time period was pioneered by the United States Marine Corps during its World War II actions against the forces of Imperial Japan. In conjunction with Naval air support and capital ship bombardment, transport ships would offload Marine infantry in specialized landing craft, and the Marines would establish a beachhead on the shore, fight their way inland, defeat enemy resistance and seize the contested territories, which would often eventually be more permanently occupied by the U.S. Army. Toward the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries, the Marine Corps' doctrine changed again as they took on peacekeeping, nation-building, police and humanitarian roles in addition to their combat duties and adopted a more specialized, first-strike, rapid-deployment philosophy. By this point, the Marine Corps became the only branch of the armed forces that could be ordered into action directly by the American President, and be ready within 72 hours, instead of having to wait for Congress to issue orders. They were also put into a much higher position of cultural honor, becoming the only branch of the American armed forces given the privilege of transporting the American President by helicopter and furnishing security guards for America's diplomatic establishments.
Much of the organizational rules and operating procedures of the 21st century U.S. Marine Corps went into the creation of the United Earth Military Assault Command Organization when it was incorporated with the formation of the U.E. government after a general armistice ended World War III in the mid-21st century, and are still maintained, only in a larger scale, in the present-day Star Fleet Marines serving the United Federation of Planets. Today's organization still maintains and emphasizes the same, Spartan-like "warrior ethos" that the American Marine Corps held so dear, trains its troops to the same exacting levels of marksmanship, independent thinking and fighting ability, and maintains the same aggressive philosophy of being perpetually ready to launch an attack "anywhere in the quadrant" within a moment's notice - as like the U.S. Marine Corps, the Star Fleet Marines still have the distinction of answering directly to the Federation President without needing the U.F.P. Legislative Council's approval. They are a first line of defense and an offensive strike force, not a police department or a standing army.
The idea of a specialized offensive force with a dedicated warrior philosophy and a particular set of tasks sets the Marine Corps apart from the Star Fleet Security Force's armed guards divisions, which have largely taken over the Marines' traditional role of being shipboard security guards, enforcers of discipline and anti-boarding deterrents. This is important, because the Marines take pride in the separation while ignorant Federation civilians often confuse the two groups with one another.
While the Marines look outward along the Federation's borders and either engage or prepare to engage the forces of other powers that could be hostile toward the U.F.P., Star Fleet Security staffs ships and space stations, engages in peace keeping and humanitarian operations, functions as a military police force and conducts investigations where needed, develops and maintains the fleet's armories and acts like the Star Fleet's equivalent of a S.W.A.T. team, engaging in armed counter-terrorism and anti-piracy operations. Such internal affairs are considered "housekeeping" by the Marines and are not part of their duties. This explains why most regular Star Fleet ships do not carry Marines on board, but maintain armed Star Fleet Security guard companies instead.
The Star Fleet Marine Corps uses a small detachment of starships, generally of Frigate, Destroyer or Cruiser hull types that are specifically designed as troop transports. These "commando starships" are owned and operated by the regular Fleet and staffed with regular Star Fleet crew, although Marines are often trained to handle the basic jobs required of an average naval crewman (E-1). While the Marines are the Federation's premiere infantry force, they are still more of a "shock trooper" formation than a standing army, intended to breach enemy defenses and secure ships, star bases and planetary facilities but not hold them for any longer than a few months. The idea is that in the event of war, once the Marines have captured territory, they will eventually rotate out and Star Fleet Security troops will permanently occupy the captured positions. This frees up the much smaller Marine Corps to continuously be on the offensive, while allowing the task of fortification and long-term occupation to be handled by a group with greater manpower and more appropriate equipment.
The ground forces of the modern Star Fleet Marine Corps are generally organized in a manner loosely resembling that of the late 20th century United States Marine Corps, with a number of large divisions stationed at ground installations and Star Bases spread throughout the territory of the United Federation of Planets; each division, in turn, is made up of four regiments (three infantry, one artillery/heavy weapons) and supported by a dedicated logistics group of three regiments that's designed to keep the combat division supplied and maintained. In addition, Star Fleet Marine Corps troop ships can carry "expeditionary units" (E.U.'s) of varying sizes, each composed of a Command Element, a Logistics Combat Element, an Aerospace Combat Element (largely composed of modified Marine Corps Assault Gunships and Attack Shuttles), and a Ground Combat Element. Some smaller troop ships (usually Frigates and Destroyers) downsize or eliminate the Aviation Element and downsize the Logistics and Command Element but troop compliments are usually fairly standard depending on the hull size and internal space of the starship.
More recently, however, Star Fleet Marine deployment doctrine has begun to change with the advent of the "Mirror War" between the Federation and the Terran Empire, its aggressive, ultra-nationalistic, racist counterpart from a parallel reality code-named the "Beta Universe" or "Betaverse." Star Fleet Command was quick to recognize that the invading Terran forces were far more technologically advanced and possessed much larger, more powerful starships and troops enhanced with drugs and cybernetic attachments. A force to be reckoned with, the "Betas" were able to push an entire alliance of Alpha and Beta Quadrant miltiary forces to the limits of their endurance despite the allies having superior numbers when fighting together. This scenario caused a radical shift in Star Fleet deployment strategy, which began to emphasize mobility, versatility, advanced weaponry and unconventional (commando) tactics. In late 2293, Star Fleet resurrected an old legend of the WWII United States Marines: a small group of special operations units nicknamed the "Marine Raiders."
The Star Fleet Marine Corps redesignated an inactive 3,000-man regiment and reorganized it into two battalions composed of "independent" light infantry companies, stationed aboard a number of the regular Star Fleet's most technologically advanced and longest-ranging starships. These dozen or so vessels, usually heavy cruisers and battle cruisers, possessed great speed and moderate to heavy armament, allowing them to operate independently over great distances at high speed, qualities that made them excellent for launching lightning raids on important Terran targets. The Raider units' exploits were a key part in the Federation's efforts to turn the tide of the war, capturing a number of prototype Terran warships and weapons development facilities, freeing allied prisoners from Terran bases, destroying Terran dry docks and destroying, crippling or even seizing the special star bases the Terrans needed to create the regions of unstable space they used to jump between universes.
Marine Corps Commissioned and Warrant Officer Cadets are trained at the same Star Fleet Academy system of campuses. The main campus is built on the site of the old Presidio, an abandoned United States Army Base in San Francisco, California, but satellite campuses and special training annexes are located throughout the Federation. Potential cadets can enroll in the service academy campuses as undergraduates, enter Star Fleet through J./R.O.T.C. programs in grade school and colleges or, in some cases, licensed professionals can commission directly if they can provide special services needed by the Corps. Warrant Officers are single-track career specialists and technical leaders in their fields of expertise occupying a niche in the chain of command between enlisted Marines and fully commissioned officers.
Previously, these men and women earned their positions by rising through the enlisted ranks and proving their knowledge of their particular specialty, but with the advent of the war against the Terran Empire, Star Fleet found itself at a terrible loss for trainable specialists and created pilot programs at the Academy campuses in conjunction with grade school J.R.O.T.C. positions. These programs allowed J.R.O.T.C. cadets in high school aiming to go to the Academy as undergraduates who showed more interest in Warranted technical, personnel or logistical specialty fields than in leading combat formations to go directly into a 3-year Warrant Officer training program and graduate as basic Marine Warrant Officers, bypassing the need to spend over a decade gaining enlisted experience. This program came under heavy controversy because it went against the idea of the Warrant Officer as a promoted enlisted Marine with working knowledge of their field and their department, but the Marines faced a horrific attrition rate throughout the war and the pilot program successfully ensured that there were enough trainable specialist-leaders to keep vital positions filled. (It was assumed by Star Fleet Command that the intense 3-year training program, combined with the near-constant learning environment of front-line combat would make up for the experience that a Warrant Officer candidate would otherwise have gained through enlisted experience.) After the war ended and the special conditions that necessitated this pilot program were no longer in place, the program was terminated and Warrant Officers were again exclusively recruited from the ranks of experienced enlisted personnel.
 Shaolan Lu · Mon Nov 14, 2011 @ 02:26am · 0 Comments |
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