Bellator, Venator, Salvator
Chapter 3: Interlude: The Confederation and its military
Previous Chapter Next ChapterYear of founding: 2472.
Type of government: Senate.
Current head of government: President Bragor Mactus.
Core empires (those with a voice in the Senate to represent them): Gazam Sorek , Zaurak Principate, Terran Union, Älf Kingdom, Zoklap Tzak (League), Kadren Cabal, Nivac Republic, Darf Systems, Othilad Monarchy, Aimtroog Consensus, Nifog Clans, Clans of Kharan (formerly Protectorate of Kharan) and Katdir Republic.
Main
The Confederation (and not Confederacy, as many call it) is a Federation that was technically formedin the year 2472 by two fledging empires, the Terran Union and the Gazam Sorek (gazam word for Commonwealth), to better fight off an enemy force. After defeating their common enemy after a costly war, both factions decided to maintain the Federation due to the perks they saw on it. Hundreds of years later, the Confederation is now a powerhouse composed of a dozen core member empires and twice as that in non-core members. Despite this, the Hegemony, a smaller empire, managed to hurt the federation seriously due to its blitzkrieg and its liberal use of WMDs
Military capacity
The Confederation's military is composed of three main branches: Defense Armies (tasked with the defense of Confederated planets and captured worlds), Assault Corps (the main attack force, with some space capacity) and the Navy (troop transport, air support and space).
Defense Armies (also called planetary defense garrisons) is , in a nutshell, a non-uniformed branch made up entirely by the armies of the member government whose main task is, as said before, the defense of worlds belonging to Confederated species. Although they do have spacecraft and can be part of an assault force, they mostly fight to defend the planets they're posted in, and their ships are used mainly to transport troops and materiel and, in the case of attack, to hold out for the arrival of reinforcements. The Defense Armies are the branch that hires bounty hunting services the most. We'll talk about bounty hunters later
Assault Fronts are the largest branch of the Confederate military, and unlike the defense garrisons its made up of all member empires of the Confederation, wich each species having a role on it (therawyrms and zoklaps are heavy infantry, humans and darf are the bulk of the troops, älfs are specialists and psionic troopers, and so on). The Fronts are, in turn, made up of several sub-branches:
-Regular troops: the most common sub-branch, made out entirely of infantry, specialists (snipers, combat medics, heavy
weapons and common special forces) and others (military police, drill sergeants...).
-Heavy infantry: a combinated sub-branch made up of power armor users and large species that serve as the shock troops
of the Confederation.
-Super soldier program: also known as Gene Warriors, this division-sized army is basically the special forces of the special
forces, which each Gene Warrior worth as much as 30 troopers. They are called in when the situation calls for special
handling. The Gene Warriors had their own super soldier equivalent in the Centurions, an all-therawyrm regiment of 'hyper
soldiers' with psionic capabilities, but the Hegemony War took out most of them, with less than thirty surviving the conflict
and only one still alive at this point.
-Engineer corps: responsible for logistics, vehicle maintenance, demolitions, communications, clearance of obstacles,
entrenching, countermobility (placing mines for infantry and vehicles) and route opening for assaults. Some of these jobs
can be carried out by heavy weapons and heavy infantry, but the engineers are the ones that make sure its done
-Psionic soldiers: called by some Psionic Warriors, this small but powerful brigade istrained in the use of psionics to lower
enemy morale, decimate infantry and other uses, although due to this they can only wear light armor to use their powers
effectively. They're also skilled in the use of melee weapons to fight in close combat, which thanks to abilities like psionic
barriers and enhanced reflexes doesn't suppose a big problem to them.
-Mechanized corps: basically the vehicle depot of the Front: armored fighting vehicles (tanks, IFVs, AA vehicles and self
propelled artillery), reconnaisance vehicles, electronic warfare and ambulances. Combat mechs had been deployed in the
past, but their failure rate made the Assault Fronts discontinue the entire branch.
-Air corps: dropships that bring the troops from the ships in space to the worlds below, strike craft that provide air
superiority and bombing runs, and gunships that provide heavy support to troops with problems.
The Navy is the smallest yet most powerful of the three branches, with more than thirty thousand vessels currently in use. Its ships are classified as:
-Corvettes: smallest proper capital ships, whose main job is fight in swarms to attack enemy ships in point blank range.
Further classified as interceptors (electronic warfare), missile boats and picket ships (essentially larger dropships)
-Destroyers: larger ships whose main task is to intercept and destroy strike craft, missiles and torpedoes, although they can
engage other capital ships if the situation requires it. Further classified as gunships (support for corvettes) and artillery
ships (exchanging their main ship-to-ship armaments, and most of their point defense weapons and autocannons for
kinetic batteries to bombard worlds).
-Cruisers: ships of the line, these vessels and the main fighting force of the Navy. Further classified as light strike craft
carriers, torpedo boats (for when missile boats aren't enough) and troop transports (able to land directly in a world's surface without difficulties).
-Battleships: weighing millions of tons (yet still able to fly inside a world's atmosphere, although with difficulty), these
behemoths are the third largest vessels in the Confederate Navy, used as heavy ships of the line (using large weapons such
as plasma cannons, kinetic launchers and such), space artillery and heavy strike craft carriers . They don't have further
classifications, but can swap armaments when the situation requires it (like swapping hangars for a spinal-mounted
weapon, like a mega cannon, to breach a starbase's shields). Despite their power, battleships require the support of other
ships due to their larger profile and slower sublight speed, which makes them vulnerable to swarms of corvettes.
-Titans: even larger and rarer than battleships, these kilometer-long monsters are exclusively used to destroy
battleships and other titans with large weaponry and ion cannons (capable of destroying entire fleets and small
continents), although this leaves them at the mercy of large swarms of corvettes just like battleships (that said, if they can
bring their weapons to bear the swarm would be instantly destroyed.
-Colossus: the largest, rarest (only one of these things exist) and most controversial Confederate vessel, this ships has
enough firepower to destroy an entire world with a single strike of its World Cracker beam, regardless of size. Naturally,
many outside the Confederation (and some outside it) have protested against its existance.
-Starbases: armed starports used to defend a Confederal planet or watch over a taken one.