Icarus Miniatures: Galactic Marine Artwork

Icarus zeigen ein neues Artwork, aber leider immer noch kein Green.

Galactic Marines

The Galactic Marines are the elite warriors of the Alliance Army. They are among the best soldiers in the galaxy and are rightly feared throughout known space.

History

Formed by humanity in 2406 following the first Nexus war, the Galactic Marine Corps was created as a way to have a highly trained, elite force of soldiers that could be deployed to the harshest warzones.

There’s still much controversy over the recruitment age of the marines. Standard enlistment age is 18 for all other services. Almost every year the topic of marine recruitment age is discussed in the galactic council. So far, however, the outstanding success rate of the marines has kept the voters on their side.

Training

Prospective Marines begin their training at age 15. Recruits are formed into 5-man fire teams based on the results of a series of personality tests. Fire teams are designed to include a range of personality types to keep the squad balanced.

The training process for Galactic Marines is particularly brutal, and every year Alliance Command commissions an independent body to conduct tests to make sure the training doesn’t get out of hand.

Only 9% of recruits end up graduating to become full marines; the rest give up during the various stages of the recruitment.

The first trial a newly formed fire team will go through is to be dropped into a remote region, along with 4 criminals convicted of violent offences. The criminals are told if they can capture the children, they can go free. This is a lie, of course, but each year there are still hundreds of criminal volunteers.

The first trial is designed to force the recruits together, and if possible, help identify a natural leader in the group.

Though the criminals are never given weapons, there have been dozens of cases where they have managed to seriously injure or kill a candidate while attempting to capture them.

Recruits can choose to leave at any point during recruitment. Voluntary withdrawal is the cause of the majority of Marine dropouts.

The second stage of the recruitment process is training. Here, recruits learn the basics of war; weapon handling, movements, how to navigate etc. This process lasts for a period of 12 months, with each recruit being given training in demolitions, battlefield medicine, and piloting.

The Gauntlet

Once basic training is complete, recruits then progress onto the Gauntlet. This is a 6 month exercise designed to simulate the worst conditions of an active theatre of war.

Based on the south continent of Stonewall, the Marine training world, recruits are dropped into a hot zone with 3 days provisions, the same as they would be on an active mission. They will stay in this warzone for a period of 180 days, and will largely have to find their own food and water.

The “enemy” in this warzone is made up of combat drones, and Stonewall is the only place in Alliance space where such units are legal. The drone force is controlled by a combination of artificial intelligence and a staff of over 500 service personnel in the northern continent, who co-ordinate the drones movements and campaigns.

The drones use live weapons, and are ordered to terminate the recruits from the moment they enter the combat zone.

Recruits receive their orders from a rear operating base, the one location in the region where the drones will not attack, though recruits are never told this.

Many recruits are killed during the Gauntlet, and many more choose to withdraw during their time in, what has affectionately become known as, Hell. Two in three recruits will not graduate from the Gauntlet, they will either withdraw, or they will be wounded or killed.

The gauntlet shows recruits the harsh reality of campaign life; squads are regularly cut off from reinforcements, and it’s not uncommon for a squad to spend weeks in the field with no support.

At the end of the 180 day “tour”, recruits are relieved and returned to the main facility in the northern hemisphere. They are giving a 7 day rest period, during which they will attend no less than four medical exams to ensure they are mentally and physically stable.

During this week, the final opportunity for voluntary withdrawal is given. Recruits are informed that if they wish to leave, they will be free to do so each evening. This final stage claims about 15% of the recruits who have made it to this point.

Those who remain attend a graduation ceremony on the 8th day, where they officially become part of the Galactic Marine Corps.
Graduates are given a period of 60 days leave prior to deployment to visit family etc.

When they return, they have a week of re-introduction training before being sent on to active duty.

Security

Because of the drone population in the Gauntlet, the Alliance is always vigilant of cyber-attacks and URC spies. Recruits are screened to ensure they are not androids, and the cyber-security for the Gauntlet is the most sophisticated in the galaxy.

Alliance engineers estimate that roughly seven hundred thousand cyber-attacks are made against the Gauntlet systems every single day. If an enemy of the Alliance was able to take control of the Gauntlet, they could potential kill every prospective marine on the continent, which would seriously impact on the Alliance’s military machine. There is also the risk that a co-ordinated attack could spill out from the combat zone and endanger the entire planet.

Because of this, the Gauntlet has been the birthplace and testing bed for a large portion of the Alliance’s most advanced technologies. The first disruptor was built by a marine in the combat zone. She used it to break the connection between the drones and their controllers, giving the marines in her area time to regroup and launch a major offensive on a drone facility. It is widely regarded as one of the most impressive engagements the Gauntlet has seen.

Quelle: Icarus Miniatures