[Prince Charon]

Not perfectly satisfied with this, but I don't see a way to improve it right now:

Royal Irari Armed Service

Before First Contact, this was simply the Irari Armed Service; the royal charter was granted shortly after the British establishment recognized that yes, this was really happening. Historically, the service was founded by merging the remaining military forces when the world government was formed, and mainly existed to assist police in the event of riots or other large situations that they could not handle, assist search-and-rescue workers after disasters, guard things that it's dangerous to let non-experts mess with, and so on. The IAS Space Corps was created as a 'just in case' measure when the idea of alien invasion was considered both plausible and something that it could be possible to defend against (which is to say, shortly after the wormhole map was discovered and the physicists agreed that what they could get out of it made sense), and was expended when off-world colonies started gaining significant populations. It was not given much consideration beyond that until exploration vessels started failing to return, after which it was expanded a fair bit more.


Ranks

The Irari mostly do not have formal military ranks (or, you might say that they have very few of them, but lots of numbered appointments). Rather, one is assigned to a position in command of some number of troops and robots (along with vehicles and other equipment), while being part of a larger hierarchy. The 'ranks' given below are mainly examples and general descriptions, though the titles translated as 'overseer,' 'foreman,' 'specialist,' adjutant,' 'manager,' and 'administrator' are consistent, and could be considered equivalent to formal ranks if you stretch the definition a little. There are few promotion ceremonies in this service, beyond moving from Trainee to Overseer or Specialist, and Student Manager to Manager (basically graduation ceremonies), or assuming the positions of Chief Adjutant of the Armed Service or General Administrator of the Armed Service. Likewise, moving from command of a larger group to command of a smaller group is often not a demotion, just a different position (and indeed, the position may be more prestigious and better-paid, even if the number of individuals one commands is lower).

Insignia generally consist of the abbreviated name of one's appointment: for example 'F.17' (a foreman in charge of seventeen Irari, and however many robots their subordinates are in charge of) or 'M.108' (the manager of a company-sized unit of one hundred eight Irari and some number of robots - potentially five hundred or more, though this would be very rare due to the need for adjutants and junior managers to do bureaucracy, and specialists to keep the robots going, keep vehicles working, check for hacking, and so on, which reduces the total number of overseers available); the words for 'adjutant' and 'administrator' do not start with the same letter in the dominant Irari language, which helps. The commander and senior-most adjutant of a unit important enough to have its own name will have the unit's abbreviated name in their insignia, rather than the number of people in the unit; e.g. the Administrator of the Field Artillery Corps would have something like 'A.FiArCo.'

Rank 9 [45]

General Administrator of the Armed Service

Rank 8 [40]

Administrator of two hundred thousand

Rank 7 [35]

Administrator of fifty thousand

Rank 6 [30]

Administrator of ten thousand

Rank 5 [25]

Administrator of two thousand

Rank 4 [20]

Manager of five hundred

Rank 3 [15]

Manager of one hundred
Manager of thirty


Courtesy Rank 3 [3]

Student Manager


Rank 2 [10]

Chief Adjutant of the Armed Service (w/Courtesy Rank 7 [7])

Adjutant of two hundred thousand (w/Courtesy Rank 6 [6])
Adjutant of fifty thousand (w/Courtesy Rank 5 [5])
Adjutant of ten thousand (w/Courtesy Rank 4 [4])

Adjutant of two thousand (w/Courtesy Rank 3 [3])
Specialist Grade 5 (w/Courtesy Rank 3 [3])

Adjutant of five hundred (w/Courtesy Rank 2 [2])
Specialist Grade 4 (w/Courtesy Rank 2 [2])

Adjutant of one hundred (w/Courtesy Rank 1 [1])
Specialist Grade 3 (w/Courtesy Rank 1 [1])

Specialist Grade 2
Foreman of twenty

Rank 1 [5]

Specialist Grade 1
Foreman of five
Overseer of twenty

Rank 0 [0]

Specialist Grade 0
Overseer of five
Overseer of one
Trainee (no insignia)
Robot (no insignia)

In the field, an 'Overseer of five' is in charge of five robots, while a Trainee is not likely to be in the field at all, and is learning to work with and command robots, as well as lead other Irari, and learning other needed skills. A 'Foreman' is in charge of other Irari (and sometimes directly commands a small number of robots, usually no more than three), who may themselves be in charge of some number of robots, while a 'Specialist' is a technical expert of some variety, and might or might not be in charge of any robots, or have direct command of any other Irari.

The word for the commanding officer of a vehicle is generally translated as 'Commander' in English, and may be applied to someone of just about any rank.

The honourary title of 'Administrator-in-Chief' was created by the Irari after studying British military culture, and was offered by them to the Empress Elizabeth of the House of Windsor (Queen Elizabeth II) as 'Administrator-in-Chief, Royal Irari Armed Service Academy' and 'Administrator-in-Chief, Royal Irari Armed Service Space Corps.'

Uniforms consist of standardised (and thus recognizable) harnesses, as well as, when needed, environmental suits or combat armour (of which there is some overlap).

There is some debate over whether the RIAS will be phased out over time, to be completely replaced by British services. The Irari are all for it, while the British are largely rather reluctant, for a variety of reasons.


Thoughts?