Marsilion Armed Forces



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Formed during the Second Infinitas War out of volunteers from citizen, village, and captured or deserted Trade Union soldiers alike, the Marsilion Armed Forces serve the Democratic Government of Marsilion as a defense and civil engineering force, guarding Marsilion and it's myriad metro area settlements from attack. The combined Marsilion Armed Forces contain about 1500 individuals, many of which are from the village populations in the Marsilion Metro Area.

History
After Saber invaded the town of Marsilion midway through the Second Infinitas War and decapitated the Trade Union's government, killing or arresting all Trade Union officials, the short-staffed militia quickly set about creating a new army to serve, guide and create the democratic state they planned to set up. Thus was the birth of the Marsilion Armed Forces.

The fledgling organization was forced to hit the ground running, as the war was still on, and it's newly created state was still at war with it's neighbors. At first it was made up of a combination of volunteers from Saber along with those mercenaries under the Trade Union that were willing to serve those they had been fighting against. With the experience of said mercenaries, and arms pilfered from the Trade Union's supplies, they were able to train and equip a new force without losing much of the experience of the Trade Union's old army.

This is not to say that the force is organized similarly to the Trade Union; many changes were made. The army patterns itself on the organization of NATO member states from most Earthlikes, particularly US forces, including their ranking system, and lacks the near-feudal system that the Trade Union used.

Since it's creation, the new, more united Armed Forces have had a number of successes, particularly in the Arcford campaign. Fighting equivalent numbers - or, many times, being outnumbered by - Fighter forces, Army staff used combined arms tactics and high troop quality to sweep through stronghold after stronghold and thoroughly pin and shatter the opposing forces, taking the town in under two months of fighting. Despite this, the Army tends to suffer from younger, less experienced officers.

Since the Arcford campaign, the fighting has died down under process of diplomatic talks, but the Army remains ready to strike, and rumors of small scale covert operations continue. The Army's force goals for peacetime are approximately 1000 to 1500 combat personnel.

Army
Marsilion's army consists almost entirely of well-trained volunteer troops. It's leadership looks upon militias and reservists as for the purposes of defending the home front, and generally only sends volunteer forces abroad. When in times of war, the Marsilion Guard and the Marsilion city militia are placed under their command chain should it be necessary.

Your average Army soldier possesses a bolt action rifle, a steel helmet and a low-cost uniform with a flecktarn-like pattern. While some parts of their equipment are patchwork here and there, they are recognizable as being part of the same service easily.

For a list of the equipment the Army operates, see this page.

Air Corps
Technically not yet a branch in and of itself but still part of the Army, due to it's small size, the Air Corps is responsible for the operation of all mechanical aircraft in service, as well as maintaining and building runways.

The Air Corps currently operates the FG-2 Bandicoot as it's sole air unit, with development into other airframes continuing.

Navy


Marsilion, as a coastal town, all but requires a navy, and has had at least some form of one since the town was founded. The navy has traditionally existed as a separate entity from the Army through all powers that have controlled Marsilion, and has always had somewhat of a "cowboy" reputation, with small gunboats often flitting about with extremely aggressive and daring crew and officers.

For the most part the majority of it's vessels are small pinnaces or wooden gunboats armed with recoilless rifles or other compact weapons such as short barreled iron cannons loading surprisingly modern rounds. It possesses several frigate-sized, all-metal, semi-modern vessels, consisting of the Tobin, and her sister ships, the Freedom, Aegis, and Repulse, as well as two other vessels under construction. These warships are short duration by Earth terms, but have more than enough time under power to make it around the island and back again or take part in a blockade, unlike the smaller vessels.

The Navy also operates a handful of shore defense guns along the coastline, established once during the First Infinitas War and again during the Second Infinitas War, where they remain up to the present day.

Jobs
The young Armed Forces is always recruiting. Check the military section of the Jobs link, as there's quite a lot of them available in the armed forces.