The Southern MILICIA

BIRDS OF PREY Vulture to ground team gamma. . . picking up a signal 300 meters to your left. Veering to intercept. Looks like. . . looks like a Hunter, no smoke. Over. The comm crackled and hissed with a hundred similar transmissions, as the searchers fanned out across the shifting sands of the southern Badlands. Tristan glanced up at the crystal-clear sky, and shifted his grip on his handhold slightly. He leaned back against the side of the truck, letting the spitting comms fade into the background as the transport swerved to follow the directions from the air support. Vulture... a pretty apt call sign. The aerial recovery team tended towards that kind of sarcasm, almost seeming to revel in their positions as scavengers of the dead and dying. Just the kind of useless drudge job the MILICIA loves. This was his first time on recovery duty, heading out to “rescue” the downed Northern pilots for interrogation and the dead Southerners for heroic burial. The radio crackled again, and Marta leaned out of the driver’s window to holler at the troops hanging on to the sides of the transport. “Vulture says it’s just beyond that ridge. . . half-buried under the sand. She thinks it hit a sinkhole. You’re off now — take shovels!” With that said she slowed, and the team bailed off, Tristan barely managing to stifle a yelp as he hit the ground with his shoulder first. A couple of the team laughed as he struggled to his feet below the weight of his gear. “Take it easy, kid!” Tris turned as Benny strode up to him. “You’ll get the hang of the drop soon enough. It just takes some practice.” The larger man was beginning to show signs of gray in his hair, but the strength in his arm as he slapped Tris on the back made the rookie stumble and almost tip over again. “Come on, rook. Time to teach you what can opening is all about.” Benny took off at a quick trot, catching up with swiftly moving group with ease. Tris reshouldered his pack, and broke into a run.  The Hunter was indeed half-buried in the sand, its legs plugging the sinkhole that had opened up to trap it. The sand swirled down around its bottom half, slowly trickling into the MacAllen tunnels below. The team was already setting up, the huge shears and saws fitted with their power-packs. Tris shivered slightly when he dropped his pack and took a good look at the still, silent metal corpse. It lay, bent at a strange and unnatural angle, one arm all but severed, wires — veins and arteries — falling casually across the heated rock. A crunch of metal echoed throughout the area, and Tristan ran to add his weight to the straining and groaning machinery. The cockpit began to wrench open, but the jaws of life stopped, with a scream of tortured gears. Benny shouted with rage, and Tris made a mental note of some of the more interesting terms as he scrambled up the outcropping to clear the fallen stones off of the Hunter’s canopy. The debris fell easily, and Tris dropped back down onto the rock as the team popped the cockpit open. He glanced down at the Gear once the canopy fell clear, and the bile rose in his throat. The pilot lay within the wreckage, her body as twisted and broken as her Gear. She was. . . had been. . . young, not more than 25 cycles. Blood streaked her face, her helmet in shards. Her arms were. . . wrong, somehow, bent in more places than should have been possible. Her eyes — they must have been blue, once — stared up at him blankly, stared through him. She looked, a little, like his sister. Tristan staggered backwards, his chest heaving and throat closing. Stumbling blindly past the crew, he caught his foot on a cable and toppled to the ground. Curling into a ball, he retched and heaved, praying for someone to erase the sight that seemed etched on his eyes. He heard a voice, faintly, in the distance. Benny. “Figures. Why do we end up with all the soft ones?"

The Southern MILICIA - 1.1 The Interpolar War is in full swing, with forces from both confederations clashing across the planet in an attempt to establish a foothold in enemy territory. The task of taking on the invading Northern forces falls primarily to the multinational force known as the MILICIA (an acronym which stands for MILitary Intervention/Counter-Insurgency Army). The MILICIA is made up of soldiers from all the Southern leagues, and although poorly equipped and trained, their large number make them a force to reckon with. Though they are normally used to quell disturbances and do other tasks deemed beneath the national armies, the Southern command prefers to see them out of the way, just to avoid possible sympathies with the locals. Besides, they might just weaken the Northern forces enough that the South can win the war easily; the utter destruction of the MILICIA in the process would be a small price to pay.

HISTORY - 2.1 MILICIA is an acronym which stands for MILitary Intervention/Counter-Insurgency Army. The MILICIA serves a very different role than the Northern Guard, its closest counterpart on the other side of the planet. The MILICIA is really little more than an auxiliary force to the South’s real military power, the Southern Republic’s army; however, unlike the Republican military, the MILICIA recruits troops from all four Southern leagues. Some of its men are conscripted to serve, others join willingly — some￾times as their only way out of misery, sometimes because they cannot be accepted elsewhere due to personal failures or shortcomings. The shape and function of the force has changed very little since its formation two hundred cycles ago: today, as then, the MILICIA soldiers are used to staff border outposts and perform counter￾insurgency duty in the three vassal leagues. In many ways, they are the Allied Southern Territories' first line of defense. During peacetime, the MILICIA is composed of roughly twenty-five legions and tens of thousands of base personnel, though this number has gone up and down (mostly down) during the past few months due to the brutality of the fighting in the Interpolar War. Despite being considerably larger than the Northern Guard, its near-mirror counterpart on the other side of the planet, poor morale and a lower ratio of armored vehicles to infantry hampers the South￾ern MILICIA. Once all the variables have been taken into account, most military analysts agree that the Southern patchwork armed force is only roughly as powerful as its Northern opponent. With the outbreak of the Interpolar War, the MILICIA has been integrated into the Southern Republic’s military structure, as are all other Southern armies, and placed under Republican control for the duration of the conflict. Southern Unification [TN 1681-1685] - 2.1.1 The MILICIA did not come into being until after the formation of the Allied Southern Territories in TN 1681. The brutality of the fighting around some of the city-states had severely affected the combat readiness of the Republican army, and headquarters were at a loss to supply the required troops to pacify the territories of the Republic’s new “allies.” As the Southern Republic lacked the manpower to police its new territory it was decided that each League would have its own security force to deal with internal problems; the underlying threat of the Republican military was deemed strong enough to ensure that most peacekeepers would be expedient in their tasks. These forces would become known as the Milices Régionales, or local militias. The convoluted military agreements signed by the Southern powers after the formation of the AST granted the Republican Army numerous powers over the Milices, making them as a whole subject to the orders of the Council of Prefects, the policy-making body of the Republican Army. A Republican soldier could pull rank and issue orders to any Milice soldier of equal or lower rank. The most lastiung effect, however, was that the Republican Army reserved the right to transfer any of its soldiers to the Milices as a means of punishment, which would lead to an unjust reputation that would take decades to change. The Merchant War [TN 1686-1688] - 2.1.2 The first large scale deployment of the units that would eventually form the MILICIA occured during the conflict now known as the Merchant Wars, which pitted several leagues againstr one another over trade concerns. The Milices were used at first as cheap cannon fodder, a good means of getting rid of rebellious troops. Their unexpectedly high performances throughout the conflict, however, led the AST to reconsider the Milices' status. By TN 1695, most Milices had been reorganized under a new designation, the MILitary Interven￾tion/Counter-Insurgency Army. A peculiar love-hate relationship soon formed between the Republican Army and the new corps; accord￾ing to the high-standards of the SRA, partially based upon the MILICIA’s unsavory reputation and the ranks filled with the Republican Army’s washouts and criminals. Because of this, Republican soldiers had little respect for the AST’s troops. St. Vincent War [TN1723-1729] - 2.1.3 Two hundred years after Earth abandoned its colonies, the Terranovan states were involved in their most devastating war ever. The war started simply as another skirmish between opposing units in the sandy wastes of the Badlands. The prize was the medical cargo of the St. Vincent, an old medical cargo ship lost since the first days of exploration. Unfortunately, the battle unleashed a bioplague upon the unsuspecting planet. The St. Vincent plague was highly sensitive to hormone levels in its host. Unable to survive in adults, the plague infected and killed over ten percent of Terra Nova’s children within a month. Public grief and pain sent massive forces into the Badlands as furious Northerners sought revenge against the South. Though the MILICIA forces tasked to break the Northern onslaught were more numerous, they barely managed to hold their own against the nearly-fanatical Northern forces. The conflict, which would go down in history as St. Vincent’s War, continued for six cycles before the economies of both demoralized confederacies collapsed.

2.1.4 - Sandstorm Strikes [TN 1896-1905] The St-Vincent War was followed by a period of relative calm, with only border skirmishes and the occasional skirmishes taking place in remote areas of the planet. A state of cold war existed between the two polar confederations, both busy licking their wounds from the conflict. The South in particu￾lar was kept busy by the occasional outburst of unrest within its borders, most of which were quietly quelled to avoid further dissention and present a unified front to the rest of the world. By the late cycles of the nineteen century, however, the situation on the home front had stabilized once more, allowing politicians to look beyond their borders. Though many of the disputes were settled through diplomacy and backroom deals, tensions over control of the planet and its easily accessed resources led to conflict once again. The brushfire warfare in the Badlands, which soon became a convenient arena to settle disputes and trade conflicts, soon increased in intensity. While the planet did not lack wealth, the former colonists were still unsure of their production means on the largely untamed border planet, even after so many centuries of work; it was usually easier to take from one's neighbors than to invest time and money in new developments. These confrontations in the desert started some of the better known legends about a select few MILICIA regiments, and many of the modern units proudly boast of their achieve￾ments during this troubled period. The Sandstorm Strikes also confirmed the reputation of the south￾ern force as an unconventional mix of incompetence and heroism. Strangely, while most Republicans saw the MILICIA as a career dead-end, others saw in it unlimited opportunities, unrestrained by the tight web of tradition and duties placed over the national armies. Prefect Arland Longchamps was one of those soldiers, a man who rose through the ranks from humble beginnings at the MILICIA War College to a key post in the Terranovan Headquarters during the War of the Alliance. They softened the rough image of the MILICIA and improved its standing, though not much, with the arrogant soldiers of the SRA. 2.1.5 - War of the Alliance [TN 1913-1916] The War of the Alliance was a shining moment for the MILICIA, which allowed them to prove themselves to the other military forces on the planet. By TN 1913, the two polar confederations were on a crash course towards a catastrophic world war. The militaries of both polar states were at their peak in manpower, equipment and training. Earth waded into the middle of this snake pit, unaware of the extreme political instability present. The War of the Alliance had begun. In the summer of TN 1913, the CEF fleet landed over 400,000 troops near the equator and, lacking detailed information about Terranovan military installations, proceeded to bomb Terranovan cities from orbit. This only succeeded in enraging the planet’s governments, resulting in the North-South alliance and the launching of a massive counter-offensive against the fleet. Anders von Breslau, Field Marshal of the CNCS and commander-in-chief of the Alliance, appointed Prefect Longchamps as his senior advisor, sealing the new alliance between North and South (Longchamps would die 37 days before the end of the war to save von Breslau from an assassin’s bullet). Part of the Colonial Expeditionary Force’s land troops drove due south into the Mekong Dominion’s petroleum-rich lowlands. While the MILICIA defenders did not prevent the invasion of their territory, they did manage to field enough troops to completely bog down the Earth advance by the end of TN 1914. For the next two Terranovan years, the fronts along the Ashington-Mekong corridor barely moved despite dozens of offensives by both the CEF and the Terranovan defenders. The opening of a third front by the Peace River Army shifted the balance of power in favor of Terra Nova’s defenders. The war officially ended in TN 1917 with the Earth fleet’s return to Terra Nova to acknowledged the planet’s independence and pick up the survivors to go home. The War of the Alliance had a strange side effect in that both the Northern Guard and the Southern MILICIA, which used to have very different operational structures, now resemble each other very much. This was due to the unparalleled degree of cooperation and fraternization within the ranks of the two groups, which forced the high commands on both sides to adopt similar structures and procedures to facilitate resupply and support. 2.1.6 - The Interpolar War [TN 1936-?] Alas, the new détente was not to last. Reverent Hutchison’s assassination in TN 1935 was the spark that ignited the new conflict, but the MILICIA was prepared for war well before that. The Southern Republic had long term plans for the planet, and the MILICIA was one of the tools required to bring that plan to fruition. The MILICIA was quickly ordered into battle at the forefront of the Southern war effort. The force, however, is starting to suffer from morale problems; many of the officers and troopers are old enough to have served during the war against Earth, and they are leary of fighting their old war comrades. The rate of desertions has increased significantly since the start of the war, and the high command are wondering how far this will go before they have to implement drastic disciplinary policies.

Structure of the MILICIA - 2.2 The MILICIA is really little more than an auxiliary force to the South’s real military power, the Southern Republic’s army. It has been organized into easily-manageable regiments with troops recruited from all four Southern leagues. Southern national forces are some￾times rotated for a tour of duty within the MILICIA, usually for training purposes or when there is a shortage of manpower in a given region. These assignments are not popular, however, and are thus avoided whenever possible. During wartime, the MILICIA is fully integrated into the Southern Republic’s military structure, as are all other Southern armies. Military Ranks - 2.2.1 Commissioned personnel include general officers, senior officers and junior officers, all of whom have been formally trained in the art of war, tactics, bureaucracy and leadership in order to organize and manage the army in time of peace or war. Non-commissioned personnel includes senior and junior NCOs, who are essentially enlisted personnel who have been promoted and assigned more respon￾sibilities to assist commissioned personnel in the performance of their duties. Enlisted personnel is what composes most of the armed forces, and includes all manner of infantrymen, specialists and various support personnel. The commissioned officers are essentially those who give the orders. The highest ranking among them, the general officers, include the Consul and Prefects. Of all the officers in the MILICIA, they are the ones most concerned with large-scale movement of troops, supply lines and policies within the armed forces. While several of their duties are of a political nature, several high-level officers, especially Prefects, remain attached to the duties that bring them closer to the men they command. Under the command of the general officers, the senior officers (commandants and lieutenants) command regiments and battalions, deciding what company receives what mission and how to best apply the orders they receive from above. They are the highest ranking officers who interact with enlisted personnel face to face. As such, they not only represent the general officers with their men, but also do the reverse.  Commissioned Officers Category Rank Role Curian Officers (AST only) Lord Protector Supreme Commander Lord Chancellor National Supervisor Lord Councilor Legion Supervisor General Officers Consul Commander-in-Chief Prefect Legion Commander Senior Officers Commandant Regiment Commander Sous-Commandant Battalion Commander Junior Officers Lieutenant Company Commander Sous-Lieutenant Platoon Commander Non-Commissioned Officers  No CO would be complete and efficient without a skilled NCO. The latter acts both as a counselor and an assistant, offering advice and suggestion to the CO on how to best use the men under their command to perform their duties and achieve their goals. Senior NCOs (major, adjudant and sergent) operate on a regimental, battalion or company level. They are the enforcing of the commander’s authority, and they are directly responsible for disciplining the men under their supervision. Their long cycles as enlisted personnel have given them valuable experience and earned them an enviable reputation, one which is not without perks. While NCOs must obey orders from their commanding officers, they are often given more latitude as to how to carry out these orders. Junior NCOs include sergent and sous￾sergent, personnel who have been promoted because of their leadership abilities and their excellent performance (at least in theory).  Non-Commissioned Officers Senior NCOs Major Legion NCO Adjudant-Chef Regimental NCO Adjudant Battalion NCO Sous-Adjudant Company NCO Junior NCOs Sergent Platoon Commander Sous-Sergent Section Commander Enlisted Personnel Caporal Escouade Commander Sous-Caporal Specialist Soldat Infantryman Major Sergent Caporal Lord Protector Consul Commandant

2.2.2 - Military Units The building blocks of a military organization are military units. Units vary in size from 10-man escouades to 200,000-man task forces. The South has assembled task forces composed of multiple divisions. The exact size and composition of each task force depends upon the task the unit must accomplish. A task force is normally commanded by either a consul or a well-respected prefect.  Legion Legions are the largest military unit maintained by Southern militaries during peacetime. Legions are commanded by a prefect. On average, legions are composed of about 20,000 troops, but this numbers varies with the units composition. The Southern MILICIA usually fields twelve to fourteen Infantry Legions, six Cavalry Legions and six to eight Border Legions.  Brigade Brigades are the smallest standard military unit capable of independent actions for extended periods of time. The core fighting group varies according to the type of brigade. In addition the their core units, brigades usually have one to two thousand additional troops scattered across support units, such as Artillery Regiments, Engineering and Service, and a Military Police Platoon.  Regiment Militaries are rich in traditions and history. It is at the regimental level of organization that this subculture is consolidated. Regimental traditions often include variations on official uniforms, rituals to commemorate past events and regimental emblems and songs. Southern regiments are normally commanded by a sous-commandant. The size of a regiment can vary greatly, but generally consists of three battalions and a command section along with support troops.  Battalion Battalions are infantry units of about the same size as Gear or armor regiments. Southern battalions are normally commanded by a sous commandant. Whenever battalions are part of an infantry regiment, the officer is called a sous-commandant de battalion. The sous commandant of an infantry regiment is called a sous-commandant de régiment and has the authority to pull rank on the former.  Compagnie Compagnies are the highest level of organization where the commanding officer is still slogging along with his troops instead of issuing orders from within a separate command section. This gives company commanders lots of battlefield experience. Southern companies are occasionally called centuries and are commanded by a lieutenant.  Platoon Infantry companies normally break down into three platoons of about 40 soldiers each. This is the largest type of unit where social bonding between soldiers is frequent. Infantrymen in the same platoon normally know each others' names and life stories, and usually share a strong sense of camaraderie. A Southern platoon is commanded by a sous-lieutenant or a sergent.  Section Sections are units just above the cadre/escouade level. They consist of between 20 and 30 soldiers and have a powerful camaraderie. Sections are normally the smallest unit sent out on patrols. Southern sections are commanded by sous-sergents. A Gear section consists of three cadres. Occasionally, one or more of these three cadres will be a specialized cadre.  Cadre Cadres are the smallest unit of military vehicles. A cadre normally consists of three to five vehicles. Southern armor cadres are under the command of either a sous-lieutenant or a sergent. Southern Gear cadres are commanded by a sous-sergent. Gear cadres come in five common types: general purpose (GP), reconnaissance, fire support, strike, and commando.  Escouade An infantryman’s escouade is his family away from home. A escouade is typically made up of ten soldiers, two of which are equipped with heavy weapons. Occasionally, unusual escouade types can be found. Light armed reconnaissance escouades and specially armed sniper escouades can also be found. Southern escouades are led by a Caporal.

2.3 - RECRUITMENT AND ADVANCEMENT Most of the regiments in the MILICIA’s table of organization are permanently attached to the AST armed force. There is a program whereas regiments and units from the national southern armies may be assigned to a MILICIA task force for a certain period of time varying from a few weeks to a few cycles, but most of the troops are under the MILICIA’s permanent table of organization. This thus require the force to periodically recruit manpower to supplement its ranks as they are depleted by personnel mustering out or becoming casualties of battle. Despite the army's bad reputation, enrollment in the MILICIA remains a popular option for the disaffected youth of the Southern leagues, especially in the poorer regions. The military becomes their ticket out of poverty and often out of the area as well, allowing them to see the world and learn skills that they would otherwise not have been able to acquire. Lack of connection or knowledge prevent them from enlisting in the regular armies of their leagues, but the MILICIA has no such requirement: if you can hold a rifle and survive the training period, you are in. 2.3.1 - Recruitment Centers The MILICIA has a few recruiting centers in the main city-states of the South to allow potential recruits to get in touch. MILICIA recruitment centers, unlike those of other military forces, are few and far between, and generally lack the polished “military glory” looks that are often deemed necessary to attract recruits. The personnel at each center take a very down to earth approach to new recruits, letting them know what awaits them. Faded and torn posters on the walls extol the virtues of the southern alliance and the strength the member-states derive from it. The centers are staffed by ex-soldiers or bored bureaucrats, who often take numerous breaks and are notoriously slow to fill the necessary paperwork. Background checks are mostly done by automated systems, as the requirements are much more lax than the national armies and there are more pressing matters to attend to. Bribes are uncommon, but generally only cautiously welcome. Intelligence agencies like Les Témoins sometimes take an interest in the recruiting centers, seeing them as a wide-open entry door for malcontents, agitators and foreign agents. 2.3.2 - Advancement Advancing through the ranks is not particularly easy in the MILICIA, since officers are constantly brought in from the outside either for a tour of duty or for permanent assignment (i.e., punishment). Officers are particularly heavily scrutinized. Incompetent officers are promoted laterally, assigned to important-sounding duties where they can do the least damage. Competent soldiers and officers, on the other hand, are noticed and encouraged, but are rarely promoted since there are so few openings. Often, truly exceptional individuals will often receive offers to transfer to the SRA or another armed force instead of going up the ranks, unless they are perceived as troublemakers or have many enemies in the military hierarchy. Ranks, Advancement and Salaries Commissioned Officers # Cycles* Salary Tax Consul 8 80,000 D 50% Prefect 6 67,000 D 45% Commandant 5 54,000 D 45% Sous-Commandant 5 45,000 D 40% Lieutenant 4 34,000 D 35% Sous-Lieutenant 5 25,000 D 30% Non-Commissioned Officers. # Cycles* Salary Tax Major 4 20,000 D 20% Adjudant-Chef 4 34,000 D 35% Adjudant 3 25,000 D 30% Sous-Adjudant 2 20,000 D 20% Sergent 2 18,000 D 20% Sous-Sergent 3 15,000 D 15% Caporal 2 13,000 D 15% Sous-Caporal 2 10,000 D 15% Soldat 3 8,000 D 10% * This is the minimum number of cycles that must be spent at this rank before earning a promotion. Exceptional individuals may reduce that amount by 25-50%.

y AST Visigoth MBT Armor Class 10 Cargo Hit Points   116 Crew 3 Damage Threshold 71 Keel/Beam Speed Cost Air Quality fresh Weapons Actions y Main Gun 140mm MAGISTER II Ranged  Weapon Attack: +4 Hit:  184 (28d12+2) piercing damage HEAT. 3d12 fire + 4d12 piercing (7d12 total) secondary damage within 6 hex (12 meter) explosion area. Large Gun - Disadvantage to score a direct hit on Gears & individuals. A Normal hit does Secondary damage only. 40mm HAC Autocannon Ranged  Weapon Attack: +4 Hit:  54 (8d12+2) damage