Ok, as I just created a SFM toon, that will NOT be in the fleet, but associated with it, I tried to create a Marine Force. Feel free to comment if you think I'm wrong.
Starships:
Emissary Class: Troop/Armour Transport
Intrepid Class: Landing Ship Assault. Similar to a LHA/LHD
Atrox Class: Marine Fighter Sqaudrons deployed here.
In Atmosphere:
Argo Class: Heavy Transport/Gunship
Danube Runabout: Troop Carrier
Yellowstone Runabout: Armour Carrier
Delta Class Shuttle: Medevac
Peregrine Fighter: Tactical Fighter Bomber
Ground Force's:
Marines'
Macos'
Argo Class Light Recon Vehicle.
Unicorn Class Infantry Fighting Vehicle
Minotaur Class Main Battle Tank.
This is based on what I found on google regarding current RM/USMC inventroy. Yes I made Unicorn and Minotaur up. WIth all the ground battles, I find it hard to think that Starfleet does not have an Armoured Division.
I like the idea!
Don't forget the green division color
..wait, then what's MACO?
MACO serves as the Special Forces, like the Rangers or the SBS.
Things get fuzzy when you trickle into soft canon. Though I've never read a book that mentions Marines, there are the Starfleet Ground Forces (which uses something close to the US Army ranks), Hazard Teams (ship to ship Special Forces), MACO, and probably a dozen others mentioned outside of the shows. The only thing the Tv shows ever mentioned was Starfleet Ground Forces and MACO. But I see no reason why there can't be a marine division, obviously like most militaries that have multiple branches that attack on the ground they would be specialized for a specific type of warfare/operations (such as the establishment of a beachhead) but in the end they get used just the same as the others (MACO, SFGF, etc.) when situations call for it.
I think it's a neat idea.
I think it's a neat idea.
Lets just get this one thing out of the way right now. There will NEVER be an Infantry Fighting Vehicle called the "Unicorn". That will never happen.
But back to STO and your character idea, I'm less curious about what ship is being used as troop carriers and more curious about two things:
A) What is the command/rank structure for your character and how do you see that fitting in with TFA and
B) How do you plan on RP-ing the character.
I'm just trying to get a feel for how you plan on this character working.
But back to STO and your character idea, I'm less curious about what ship is being used as troop carriers and more curious about two things:
A) What is the command/rank structure for your character and how do you see that fitting in with TFA and
B) How do you plan on RP-ing the character.
I'm just trying to get a feel for how you plan on this character working.
I run out of Greek Mythology. Call the Unicorn the Medusa Class IFV
In regards to Command Structure, the toon is a Sergeant, so he will be inferior to pretty much everyone.
I see it as being like the Modern Marine Ranks, ie Captain in the SFM is equivalent to SF Captain, with a Lieutenant Colonel being evuivalent to a Commodore, and a General being an Admiral. Starfleet Ranks, not fleet ranks.
In regards to RP-ing the toon, he is a 2nd Lieutenant aboard the USS Iwo Jima, an Intrepid Class Assault Ship in charge of 3rd Platoon, 8th Company, of the 2nd Assault Regiment, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Dante Medici. The Iwo Jima is part of the 4th Assault Fleet, stationed at K-7. In regards to how he can be on the base at any time, Argo and the 4th Assault often run ops together? I dunno, need advice on that.
But, yeah, that's what I got.
In regards to Command Structure, the toon is a Sergeant, so he will be inferior to pretty much everyone.
I see it as being like the Modern Marine Ranks, ie Captain in the SFM is equivalent to SF Captain, with a Lieutenant Colonel being evuivalent to a Commodore, and a General being an Admiral. Starfleet Ranks, not fleet ranks.
In regards to RP-ing the toon, he is a 2nd Lieutenant aboard the USS Iwo Jima, an Intrepid Class Assault Ship in charge of 3rd Platoon, 8th Company, of the 2nd Assault Regiment, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Dante Medici. The Iwo Jima is part of the 4th Assault Fleet, stationed at K-7. In regards to how he can be on the base at any time, Argo and the 4th Assault often run ops together? I dunno, need advice on that.
But, yeah, that's what I got.
I'm completely down with more people playing marines. I think they provide an interesting element to Starfleet. Ages ago, this came up in a Trek RPG play-by-email group that that I was involved in. I'll copy/paste the email I contributed to that discussion with below. You'll have to forgive the poor nature of it; it was written during a portion of my life where my love of the parenthetical had reached staggering heights.
I don't add this because I think you should change anything you wrote, Marcus. Everything you wrote seems fine to me, and applicable to what you can actually do in the game. I'm just tossing it in to provide more to the conversation and help add to your template.
Also, I concur regarding the MACO; they're a special forces sub-branch, analogous to the Army Rangers or the Navy Seals.
So, marines in Starfleet are absolutely canonical. They actually appear in a few Deep Space Nine episodes (most notably in the season 5 episode 'Nor the Battle to the Strong') and through large portions of Enterprise. There are also several novels that involve them, extrapolating on their gear, function, and status. But as with all novels, they're considered soft-canon at best -- applicable only until a show or movie disproves them.
What is known canonically; nearly all marines are non-commissioned officers. There are very, very, very few marine commissioned officers. Most of the marines are commanded at a threshold level by tactical/command-track naval personnel, and at the break level (platoon, squadron, team, ect) by sufficiently ranked non-commissioned marines. The Starfleet marines have their own rank system, though one that is roughly analogous to Starfleet. Much as how the US Marine Corp and the US Navy use different rank structures, though they are both technically part of the same military branch (though I've known several marines would argue that -- but woe is to them, their checks are still signed by the Office of the Navy). This comparable rank structure allows marines, in peacetime, to transfer into naval ranks and billets to finish out their 4-year contracts.
Fun fact, this is what Chief O'brien did. He was a Starfleet marine (though throughout the DS9 series, they're never referred to marines directly, but instead as 'soldiers') and a fairly high-ranking one at that. O'brien's soldierly career comes up several times in DS9, even leading to him once being declared in 'court' as an 'expert on combat'. After the Cardassian war he transferred his rank and billet to the naval side, becoming an engineer (which was discussed in the episode 'Empok Nor').
Starfleet Marines share some equipment and responsibilities with their naval counterparts; they do /not/ seem to have their own ships, by most accounts. At least, not in the traditional sense. There are no ships commanded by a marine. All starships in Starfleet are run by the navy. However, there are (again, referencing DS9) ships that are basically 30 or 40 naval officers and up to 1000 marines, designed as first response vessels. Those ships tend to be older and smaller, but fast and well-armed. Otherwise, they serve aboard starships alongside naval officers, same as everyone else. Though they do have their own uniforms, in peacetime they tend to wear the naval-line uniform and act as additional security personnel on starships. It isn't stretching credulity all that much to assume that of all the various gold-shirts that eat it in the TNG/DS0/VOY run, some or many of them were actually marine non-coms. During wartime they tend to wear their special uniforms, particularly when about to perform a ground assault. Marine commanders tend to wear green uniforms and accents, while marine grunts tend to wear red uniforms and accents. They all use the same phasers and personal ground equipment, naval officers and marines.
Marines do have specialty short-range and ground craft, however. They have armored troop shuttles that are distinctly separate from anything the naval end uses (they aren't runabouts, nor standard shuttles). The name and class of these troop-movers is never disclosed in the various series themselves; they're simply referred to as 'hoppers'. There's a novel (though I forget which, I'm sorry) that explores this further, saying that the hopper is it's own type of craft with several variations. Some can transform themselves into a command staging area, while others become ground-based, mobile armor. Others provide air support, ect. The same novel also suggested that the Peregrine-class was originally a marine design.
There's a template, but feel free to play around with it! Have some fun!
I don't add this because I think you should change anything you wrote, Marcus. Everything you wrote seems fine to me, and applicable to what you can actually do in the game. I'm just tossing it in to provide more to the conversation and help add to your template.
Also, I concur regarding the MACO; they're a special forces sub-branch, analogous to the Army Rangers or the Navy Seals.
* * * =/\= * * * =/\= * * * =/\= * * * =/\= * * * =/\= * * * =/\= * * *
So, marines in Starfleet are absolutely canonical. They actually appear in a few Deep Space Nine episodes (most notably in the season 5 episode 'Nor the Battle to the Strong') and through large portions of Enterprise. There are also several novels that involve them, extrapolating on their gear, function, and status. But as with all novels, they're considered soft-canon at best -- applicable only until a show or movie disproves them.
What is known canonically; nearly all marines are non-commissioned officers. There are very, very, very few marine commissioned officers. Most of the marines are commanded at a threshold level by tactical/command-track naval personnel, and at the break level (platoon, squadron, team, ect) by sufficiently ranked non-commissioned marines. The Starfleet marines have their own rank system, though one that is roughly analogous to Starfleet. Much as how the US Marine Corp and the US Navy use different rank structures, though they are both technically part of the same military branch (though I've known several marines would argue that -- but woe is to them, their checks are still signed by the Office of the Navy). This comparable rank structure allows marines, in peacetime, to transfer into naval ranks and billets to finish out their 4-year contracts.
Fun fact, this is what Chief O'brien did. He was a Starfleet marine (though throughout the DS9 series, they're never referred to marines directly, but instead as 'soldiers') and a fairly high-ranking one at that. O'brien's soldierly career comes up several times in DS9, even leading to him once being declared in 'court' as an 'expert on combat'. After the Cardassian war he transferred his rank and billet to the naval side, becoming an engineer (which was discussed in the episode 'Empok Nor').
Starfleet Marines share some equipment and responsibilities with their naval counterparts; they do /not/ seem to have their own ships, by most accounts. At least, not in the traditional sense. There are no ships commanded by a marine. All starships in Starfleet are run by the navy. However, there are (again, referencing DS9) ships that are basically 30 or 40 naval officers and up to 1000 marines, designed as first response vessels. Those ships tend to be older and smaller, but fast and well-armed. Otherwise, they serve aboard starships alongside naval officers, same as everyone else. Though they do have their own uniforms, in peacetime they tend to wear the naval-line uniform and act as additional security personnel on starships. It isn't stretching credulity all that much to assume that of all the various gold-shirts that eat it in the TNG/DS0/VOY run, some or many of them were actually marine non-coms. During wartime they tend to wear their special uniforms, particularly when about to perform a ground assault. Marine commanders tend to wear green uniforms and accents, while marine grunts tend to wear red uniforms and accents. They all use the same phasers and personal ground equipment, naval officers and marines.
Marines do have specialty short-range and ground craft, however. They have armored troop shuttles that are distinctly separate from anything the naval end uses (they aren't runabouts, nor standard shuttles). The name and class of these troop-movers is never disclosed in the various series themselves; they're simply referred to as 'hoppers'. There's a novel (though I forget which, I'm sorry) that explores this further, saying that the hopper is it's own type of craft with several variations. Some can transform themselves into a command staging area, while others become ground-based, mobile armor. Others provide air support, ect. The same novel also suggested that the Peregrine-class was originally a marine design.
There's a template, but feel free to play around with it! Have some fun!
Is he a Sergeant or 2LT?
As far as Ranks go, I understand you are applying ground forces ranks. I think there is a precedence for this in ST TV shows. I saw one with a Lieutenant Col once. Though, your comparisons might be a bit off. Captain = Lieutenant, Lieutenant Colonel = Commander. 2Lt = Ensign.
I understand the last part, best of all. That makes sense that your assigned to a unit stationed at K7. That was really my intend with question A.
So, you see him showing up for RP events and such, then?
As far as Ranks go, I understand you are applying ground forces ranks. I think there is a precedence for this in ST TV shows. I saw one with a Lieutenant Col once. Though, your comparisons might be a bit off. Captain = Lieutenant, Lieutenant Colonel = Commander. 2Lt = Ensign.
I understand the last part, best of all. That makes sense that your assigned to a unit stationed at K7. That was really my intend with question A.
So, you see him showing up for RP events and such, then?
He's a 2LT. And at some point yeah, If we can find a way to include the Iwo Jima or the 4th Assault Fleet.
Sounds cool
I've actually already used Starfleet Marines in my own past roleplays, my character Xygor'khan was previously a Starfleet Marine Platoon officer, before he moved down the Engineering / Operations path that lead to command. Though I treated it more in the sense of the traditional Royal Marines rather then the United States Marine Corps. In that they are essentially the professional Infantry Fighting Arm of Starfleet. Fighting in direct face-to-face combat “to close with, and destroy the enemy”. More in the so far established trek canon that Meashka mentioned. In that the Starships are handled by the Naval arm of Starfleet. Marines serving on them as their face-to-face combat specialists, or in tandem with boarding actions, or Terran level operations. Only using the small landing craft and various ground combat support craft that would be utilized in such operations.
I've actually already used Starfleet Marines in my own past roleplays, my character Xygor'khan was previously a Starfleet Marine Platoon officer, before he moved down the Engineering / Operations path that lead to command. Though I treated it more in the sense of the traditional Royal Marines rather then the United States Marine Corps. In that they are essentially the professional Infantry Fighting Arm of Starfleet. Fighting in direct face-to-face combat “to close with, and destroy the enemy”. More in the so far established trek canon that Meashka mentioned. In that the Starships are handled by the Naval arm of Starfleet. Marines serving on them as their face-to-face combat specialists, or in tandem with boarding actions, or Terran level operations. Only using the small landing craft and various ground combat support craft that would be utilized in such operations.