THE WAR ON TERRA FORCES -

HUMANS

"Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognise this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an Alien threat from outside this world. And yet, I ask you, is not an Alien force already amoung us?"

Ronald Regan

ATTACHMENTS & WEAPONRY

Fielding a Human force in battle is a tactical commanders dream. Humans have the broadest choice of attachments to draw from, more so than any other force. It may not be immediately obvious what purpose every attachment serves, however you will quickly learn that each one is designed to be effective in various situations and/or against specific enemy attachments.

The Humans standard weaponry is arguably not the strongest, however each weapon is designed for a targeted use and when used tactically can be incredibly effective. As with the choice of attachments, the arsenal of human weaponry is vast, with well over 30 different weapons that can be equipped.

View more Human pictures HERE.

HUMAN FACTIONS

The Human force is broken down in to 8 main factions which are spread across Earth as well as several other celestial bodies in the Helius Sector. Factions that cover larger territories are broken down in to sub-factions, of which there are 15 in total. They all have their own distinguishing colour schemes and unique iconography displayed proudly on their armour and vehicles.

Learn more about the different Human factions/sub-factions HERE.

COMMAND STRUCTURE

As well as numerous enlisted Captains and Veterans taking charge of solders at the localised attachment level, there are 5 tiers of officer command in the Human force.

TIER 1 - MAJOR

A Battle Forged Veterans first step up as an officer would be a promotion to Major. Each Major is there to command and lead a small force into battle. The number can vary depending on the conflict, but would usually consist of anywhere up to 100 soldiers.

TIER 2 - VETERAN MAJOR

The next level up consists of Veteran Majors. Each Veteran Major is tasked with taking charge of all the soldiers of a particular faction/sub-faction that are stationed on the celestial body that they are in command of. This means that each faction/sub-faction has a Veteran Major for every celestial body they have a presence on.

TIER 3 - COLONEL

Colonels are promoted above being tied to one celestial body and are put in charge of an entire sub-faction. Each sub-faction has one Colonel overseeing all aspects of their training and operations. It is not uncommon for larger sub-factions to have more than one Colonel in order to spread the workload and command them more efficiently

TIER 4 - GENERAL

The second highest ranked commanders are the Generals. There is one General placed in charge of each faction. Their main responsibilities consist of ensuring coherent planning and organisation across each of their faction's occupied worlds, as well as ensuring compliance within any sub-factions that fall within their faction's remit.

TIER 5 - FIELD MARSHALL

The top rank a Human soldier can hope to achieve in their career is Field Marshall. Field Marshalls are charged with overseeing the military tactical endeavours of the entire Human force. The position used to be held by just one person, however after his retirement the decision was made to appoint two Field Marshalls in order to better serve the ever growing and outwardly expanding settlements.

COMPETITIVE PROMOTION

Due to commercial cloning subsidisation for military personnel it's now very rare that any high ranking officer retires their post. However, this doesn't mean that promotions and position exchanges don't take place. Any officer that has served in their current position for at least 5 years can register to raise a challenge against any officer in the command tier directly above their own. Although it is not compulsory, it is customary and more or less expected that the superior officer will accept the challenge.

The two commanders are then pitted against each other in a series of increasingly difficult simulations created in a specialised military version of Reality Plus. Each task is designed to test specific elements of command and once all simulations are complete an overall score is given out of 660 for each commander which is generated by the system's AI.

The commander with the highest point score is then declared victorious. If the lower ranked commander loses his challenge, then they remain at their rank and cannot raise another challenge for a further 5 years. The successful higher ranked commander retains his rank and cannot be challenged again for 2 years.

If the lower ranked commander wins his challenge, then he is immediately promoted and subsequently replaces the higher ranked officer. The losing officer is offered either a demotion to a lower command tier or an honourable discharge.

If the lower ranked commander is victorious, but both commanders final scores are within 10 points of each other then the higher ranked commander can demand the challenge is performed again. This is only allowed once per challenge raised and therefore the result of the re-match is final, regardless of how close the final results.

This process means that all commanders are encouraged to continuously train and improve their abilities, while ensuring that the officer pool only contains the best of the best that the Human force has to offer.

INSPIRING PRESENCE

Historically, commanding officers were usually kept away from kinetic military action, dealing mainly with training and administration. Another change brought on by the advent of cloning was to allow commanders to join the forces on the field to help integrate their experience and tactical knowledge into the battle. That's not to say that they would always be present, however having achieved their rank by proving themselves in combat they would quickly become the most influential and decisive boots on the ground.