Imperial Marines

[warellis]

Is it an FTL drive with no range limit other than fuel or something or does it have some sort of limit in range due to something like say 2300 AD's stutterwarp radiation buildup or or Mass Effect's mass effect drive static charge?

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by warellis

Is it an FTL drive with not range limit other than fuel or something or does it have some sort of limit in range due to something like say 2300 AD's stutterwarp radiation buildup or or Mass Effect's mass effect drive static charge?

Well, eventually you'll run out of fuel. Radiated heat can't escape from the warp bubble, which could give you cooling troubles in time, but you could address that by switching off and switching back on again. But basically: it's slow, but range is not otherwise limited.

[warellis]

Considering the slow speed of the FTL drive, are Imperial Marines like put in cryo sleep until the ship is near the target or something? Cause 3 light yeers a day is pretty slow considering the size of the Empire.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by warellis

Considering the slow speed of the FTL drive, are Imperial Marines like put in cryo sleep until the ship is near the target or something? Cause 3 light yeers a day is pretty slow considering the size of the Empire.

The Empire is about 350 light-years across, which means that it takes about two months to travel from Sol the the periphery. The Empire has 22 divisional HQs in systems about 110 light-years from Sol, which means that colonies are at most about eighteen days, on average fourteen days, from Imperial reinforcements. That means that if something untoward happens on a planet and the Imperial Resident sends to Sector HQ for marines, warships, medical teams, or even advice no possible response can be expected sooner than, typically, four weeks. Perhaps as much as five.

That is way too long to wait for a hostage rescue or even decisive war-preventing counter-terror or strategic sabotage operations. Necessarily, there have to be marines in every inhabited system ready for emergencies. The numbers vary according to the level of threat and the level of danger. On average you have a company of marines per inhabited world stationed in the Imperial Residence in the "public duties" rotation, and on average the Imperial warships in system carry two platoons in the "fleet protection" rotation. So for emergency deployment there are marines within hours, not weeks, of any trouble spot.

Not counting time in warships while on fleet protection rotation, marines undertake long space journeys when they are being redeployed and when they are being deployed from divisional HQ to a war zone (in the "sector reserve" rotation). These journeys are typically two weeks duration.

Now, people can't be woken from hibersleep instantly. It takes hours to become fully conscious, and people are left feeling weak and sick and mentally compromised for about two days. Which means that if you put troops into hibersleep you need barracks &c. to accommodate them in while they recover. It would be practical to put marines into hibersleep while you were transporting them to relieve the garrison on a world at peace. But you would do that in a colony ship or something. If you were sending marines to a planet where they would have to recover before landing the troopship would need both a full set of hibersleep compartments and a full set of bunk accommodations, and that redundancy would be wastefully expensive. Marines assault carriers do not have hibersleep compartments, or not many.

So, no. Highly trained elite special ops commandos resent being shipped in meat lockers. Travelling in hibersleep is for migrants and Imperialised colonial troops being sent places for peacekeeping and other grunt work.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

So, no. Highly trained elite special ops commandos resent being shipped in meat lockers. Travelling in hibersleep is for migrants and Imperialised colonial troops being sent places for peacekeeping and other grunt work.

I know what a couple of weeks of travel on a Naval vessel looks like to a Marine: an opportunity for extra training.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I know what a couple of weeks of travel on a Naval vessel looks like to a Marine: an opportunity for extra training.

And as you are going to a world most of the unit have never been to before, there's plenty of stuff to train up on. Culture, geography, current affairs…. Your platoon sergeant wants you at peak fitness, the colour-sergeant wants you acclimatised to the breathemix and gravity, the quartermaster-sergeant wants your kit checked and adjusted, and the sergeant-major has organised a roster for indoor Rugby on the drill deck.

Besides. You can't put marines in hibersleep. How would they play Rugby on Sunday?

[Agemegos]

I've been worrying more about marines officer insignia. The system I have at present is based on a European system: company officers have one, two, or three stars; field officers have a symbol for their grade (a crown) and one, two, or three stars; the three lowest ranks of general officers have a distinguishing symbol for that grade (a baton crossed with a sword) and one, two, or three stars; and the highest ranks of general have a distinguish symbol for that grade (crown above and a crossed baton and sword) and one or two stars (with a third star available for a potential O-12 rank).

My choice of a baton crossed with a sword to distinguish general officers is that that is the insignia of a general in the British and most Commonwealth systems. My system looks enough like British insignia to be confusing. The thing is that a crossed sword and baton doesn't necessarily look niftier than a crown, and perhaps my field-grade officers look lower-ranked than my generals. I'm thinking of swapping the O-4 to O-6 insignia with the O-7 to O-9 insignia.

But perhaps that is really confusing for someone used to Commonwealth norms. Another thought I had was to add a crown to the O-7 to O-9 insignia to make things super-clear. That makes them the same as what I now have for O-10 to O-12 insignia. But I could move those up by replacing their crossed-baton-and-sword symbol with the crossed-batons-on-a-laurel-wreath found in British field-marshal insignia. The only problems are that (a) generals' insignia might be a bit busy, and (b) my brigadiers end up with Commonwealth-style generals' insignia and things only get more grandiose from there.

Here is a table of the different possibilities, with British insignia for comparison. What do you think?

[johndallman]

Well, these are Imperial Marines, so perhaps the Crown should be the highest-ranking marker? Since you want it to be more systematic than British ranks, and not confusing how about:

O-1 to O-3: 1-3 stars.
O-4-to O-6: New symbol, with 1-3 stars.
O-7-to O-9: Sword & Baton, with 1-3 stars.
O-10-to O-12: Crown with 1-3 stars.

My own choice for the new symbol would be a comet, but it depends on what sorts of actions those officers actually command.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Well, these are Imperial Marines, so perhaps the Crown should be the highest-ranking marker?

Or perhaps they should all wear it.

Since you want it to be more systematic than British ranks, and not confusing how about:

O-1 to O-3: 1-3 stars.
O-4-to O-6: New symbol, with 1-3 stars.
O-7-to O-9: Sword & Baton, with 1-3 stars.
O-10-to O-12: Crown with 1-3 stars.

Hmm. Good idea. I'll give it some thought.

My own choice for the new symbol would be a comet, but it depends on what sorts of actions those officers actually command.

Of course there certain amount of routine counter-terrorism and security, and boarding & inspection. But the real stuff is brief, high-intensity, kinetic operations against soft or surprised targets for strategic sabotage, special recovery, hostage rescue, and targeted killing. Flaming grenade?

[Agemegos]

If I could find a depiction of the Royal Engineers' grenade-with-seven-flames badge in a similar stye to the rest It might do for a comet.