Post by Insano-Man on Sept 24, 2018 9:27:43 GMT -5
Ready to Serve
The Armed Forces of the Garrant Commonwealth is the sixth largest and fifth most powerful military force in the known galaxy, functioning as an effective example of a modern light infantry fighting force. However, the Armed Forces are much more than a simple military arm of a nation; they function as an integral part of the Commonwealth's government work force, fulfilling the roles of laborers, city planners, and state-appointed merchants. These additional tasks give the personnel of the Armed Forces valuable experience and helps create strong bonds between the servicemen and the populaces they are organized to defend.
From Humble Beginnings
The Armed Forces were officially founded as the Commonwealth's military in 700 A.F., very shortly after the individual states of the Garrant continent united. While the manpower of the individual militaries of these now-allied constituents was easily ready to defend the new nation together, the states retained much of their standing forces for themselves. The meager assortment of troops pooled together would be hardly capable of defending the Commonwealth, let alone a single state.
Indeed, soon after its formation, the Marroli Empire, now dwarfed by the amalgamated states, attacked the fledgling Commonwealth in its most vulnerable state. Were it not for the city-state of Junholdt dedicating its full military force - which was easily the strongest on the continent - to the incursion in Cehoma, the Commonwealth would have lived only a short year before being shattered. Thankfully, the states comprising the new nation were jolted into action by the failed attack, bringing the bulk of their armed forces together into a force far more ready to stand their ground for the growing Commonwealth. With the turmoil of the North Praetorian Republic's downfall ahead of them, it would be a wake-up call the nation had sorely needed.
In 731 A.F., the North Praetorian Republic dissolved under the pressure of three wars on two fronts and a revolution brewing in its capital. The first democracy on Anchorage split into five different successor nations, each at eachother's throats, with much of the mighty People's Army now at the wills of ambitious officers ready to carve their names into history as the new leaders of their homeland. Some turned on former allies of the Republic, lashing out as raiding bands and pirates.
The Garrant Commonwealth would be one of those former allies, having proven itself as a valuable trading partner to the Republic prior to its breakup. Over the next twenty-six years, former Praetorian soldiers would attack merchant vessels, raid seaside towns, and harass Naval Forces logistics. In almost every case, the Armed Forces proved itself an indispensable tool, both in defense and reconstruction. It was during these troubled times that the value of soldiers functioning as state-contracted laborers proved itself to the government of the Commonwealth, officially handing the Armed Forces the task of assisting civilian projects in 741 A.F.
It was in 745 A.F. that the Praetorian Federation had been brought together through fire and sword, Company Captain Albert Drücker leading the United Praetorian Army in an overwhelming victory against his competitors and the successor nations. Shortly following his rise to High Commander of the Federal Guard in June of that year, friendly relations began again between Praetoria and the Commonwealth. In an attempt to bolster ties between the two nations, the Commonwealth offered its support with the Armed Forces to aid - much to Drücker's surprise - the reconstruction effort. When the High Commander accepted, his astonishment was furthered, as much of the Infantry and Cavalry Forces were skilled and experienced laborers by the time of the Federation's rise to prominence.
In 821 A.F., Anchorage as a whole experienced an ice age, brought on by two planetary events. First, the degenerative gas giant Barrow, believed to be a comet by the astronomers of the time, had narrowly missed Anchorage, drawing its orbital path away from the system's star. Additionally, this brought the planet further towards the path of the other gas giant in the system, Soldotna, the gravity well of which drew Anchorage even further away from Faith. Temperatures on the planet plummetted to record lows, making agriculture all but impossible in most territories.
The ice age, known somewhat ironically as the Burning Winter, led to the Ice Wars which embroiled the planet for some two hundred years to come, leading to the period's nickname. Former allies quickly turned on eachother to support their dwindling populations, warring for arable land and unfrozen water wherever they could be found. The Commonwealth, being the third largest nation on the planet at the time, was no exception, being attacked numerous times by the Vannikil Sovereignty, Second Marroli Republic, and Jarronheim. It was during the First Ice War that the Garran Armed Forces were given a rude awakening; their lack of experienced personnel, paltry training exercises, and focus on peacetime work alongside civilians left them with a fighting force almost completely unprepared for a world war. Additionally, there were few rifle divisions within the Infantry branch at the time, leaving the Commonwealth behind the rest of the pack in adopting the resurgent technology of firearms.
Time and time again, even the most skilled Garran officers met crushing defeats and terrible setbacks as they tried to keep pace with the invading forces. All in all, the capital city of Cehoma would change hands at least six times before finally returning to Garran control for good. In the end, the Armed Forces achieved a pyrrhic victory in pushing back their aggressors; nearly 80% of their manpower had been depleted and those remaining were left with little equipment to divide amongst themselves.
Fortunately, however, it was another bullet to the ear and not to the eye for the Commonwealth, so to speak. Had this state persisted for a single more year than it had, Timolnilya - the predecessor to the Timosi Soivetet Republic - would have seized on the Armed Forces' weakness and shattered what was left of the country. Before the plans could be executed, however, the Federal Guard of the Praetorian Federation landed at least six hundred thousand reinforcements on the Garrant continent, the nation's military once more a proud and mighty fighting force ready to meet the challenge of fighting on ten fronts at once. With its manpower only growing as the Ice Wars continued, ensuring the Commonwealth's survival was not only possible, but necessary; the food and water imports from their chief trading partner were absolutely essential in maintaining their standing forces, let alone their stagnant population.
As guardsmen watched over Garran cities, the Armed Forces slowly recovered to its previous strength. With proper training and equipment easily possible for the defiant nation, the Commonwealth quickly leapt at the opportunity to earn valuable experience for their personnel. A request was made to the Federation that Garran troops be mixed in with Praetorian soldiers on the Marroli front in order to give their soldiers a proper live fire battlefield education without tripping over their limited numbers in the process. While eager to accept the help and somewhat interested in how effective Garran troops could be, the Federation was skeptical; after suffering such crippling losses to smaller nations such as Jarronheim, would Commonwealth troops be able to keep pace with the Federal Guard?
It would prove to be so. Fueled by vengeance, trained and equipped to the highest standard the Armed Forces could provide, Garran infantrymen continually met every challenge with as much effort as was necessary and thensome. They would push themselves and thoroughly impress their Federal handlers until the conclusion of the Federation's part in the First Ice War in 841 A.F. More than satisfied with their performance, the Federation returned the Commonwealth soldiers to their homeland, who took with them enough combat experience to see the Armed Forces through the next three Ice Wars.
In 874 A.F., the Second Ice War - sometimes known as the First Marroli War in the Commonwealth - began when the Second Marroli Republic crossed the southern border of the Garrant continent and began seizing cities for itself, claiming the settlements had been built on top of land that rightfully belonged to their ancestors. This poor excuse expectedly failed and the Commonwealth retaliated, soon finding itself caught in a trench warfare stalemate just behind its own border. As the Federation joined in - compelled to aid its ally and hungry for Marroli land - the war began to swell, old enemies of Praetoria jumping in on the side of the Second Republic. Learning from history, however, Timolnilya sided with the Commonwealth and Federation, pitting Anchorage's three most powerful nations against practically the rest of the world.
While the Marroli front was a resounding success, pushing post-war borders back some forty kilometers into Republic territory, the Timolnilya side of the conflict was almost the opposite. As the Federation was unwilling to devote troops to defend its greatest rival and a country it had been at war with many times in the past, there was little stopping other nations from tearing its military apart. While the Garrant Commonwealth had intended to support Timolnilya, the Marroli front soon proved to be its overriding concern, as the rising casualty count pulled more and more troops from Timolan positions back to the homeland. When the war finally ended in 900 A.F., Timolnilya had lost almost a third of its territory. This polarized the nation against the Commonwealth and Federation for centuries to come, enraged with the fact that its supposed allies had profited from a war that had nearly cost it its independence.
However, Timolnilya's military lay in shambles at the war's end, while most others - save for the Marroli, who had begun the war - were satisfied with their spoils. As Anchorage began to drift back into its normal orbital path, the ice age came to its decline, slowly allowing the planet to return to its more livable state. This gave the planet a rest from the almost incessant warring brought on by the lack of food and living space.
Though, there were still two Ice Wars left as it would still take quite some time for the planet to fully settle back into its previous state. The Third Ice War dawned almost a century later in 1005 A.F. with the Timolnilya attack on the Federation's capital of Praetoria. A resounding failure set the war upside down before it could truly start, with the Federation repulsing the assault and chasing the remainders of the naval force back to Klav on the Sovonnes continent. As more and more nations joined the fight, the Third Ice War once more reached worldwide proportions, seeing conflict in Timolnilya, the Federation's border with the Horrstok Empire, the Garrant mainland, and the Second Marroli Republic's northern border.
The Armed Forces were more than ready to meet the challenge, having reorganized the Infantry, Cavalry, and Naval Forces to properly support eachother. During this time, the Rangers had been organized as Infantry support divisions to work alongside the Cavalry, the former soon proving itself to be the most powerful and versatile general infantry the Commonwealth could train. It was with these men that the Armed Forces would finally solidify the Commonwealth's place as a valuable military ally to the Federation, that bond continuing to this day.
As the war continued, the Armed Forces came to an unfortunate realization; technology was advancing and, once more, they had not fully kept pace. As bolt-action rifles and motor vehicles returned to mankind on Anchorage, the Cavalry of the Armed Forces found themselves effectively obsolete at the midpoint of the war. With the Rangers proving themselves far more effective and useful than the standard rifleman of the Infantry Corps, the Armed Forces once more restructured themselves in 1019 A.F. The Rangers found themselves as the bulk of the military, while the Cavalry were reorganized into the Vehicle Corps, mounting primitive jeeps and trucks with the "rotary rifles" - effectively a series of breech-loading rifles circled together to create a complicated, belt-fed Gattling gun - of the time. The unproven Vehicle Corps was fielded with moderate success in tandem with the Ranger Corps in 1031 A.F., allowing the officers at the head of it to build experience before fighting independently. When the Vehicle Corps finally did take to the field of battle by itself in 1033 A.F., the results were quite possibly one of the primary reasons for the conclusion of the conflict; Vehicle Corps units proved themselves as powerful harassment tools, often catching enemy infantry by surprise from behind their defensive lines. With the effective leadership of seasoned Armed Forces officers, the few remaining stalemates the Commonwealth had been fighting against quickly turned into victories. Expectedly, the Vehicle Corps easily outperformed enemy cavalry, solidifying their place and completely retiring the remaining mounted units in the Armed Forces to little more than parade duty.
The Third Ice War ended in totality in April of 1034 A.F. with the dissolution of Timolnilya under the internal pressure of revolution and the steady loss of territory to the combined forces of the Praetorian Federation, Garrant Commonwealth,
Jarronheim, and the Fourth Reign of Horrstok. The Second Marroli Republic, beaten once more, swore silent vengeance for the final time, using the end of the war to build its forces back up for nearly fifty years.
The Fourth Ice War, beginning in 1089 A.F., would prove to be the final and most conclusive conflict of the Burning Winter. It would also prove to be the most predicted, as tensions began to mount quickly as the Marroli Republic readied itself for a military conflict of worldwide proportions. While still frigid towards its longtime neighbor and nemesis, the Commonwealth attempted to defuse the upcoming war as best it could, its own military unprepared for a fight with the now-titanic Marrolan Republican Guard. As diplomacy floundered in its opening steps, the Commonwealth once more sought aid from its nigh-invincible ally, the Praetorian Federation.
However, in a unique turn of events, the Federation was willing, but unable to assist. From 1071 to 1087 A.F., the growing discontent with the practically autocratic High Command necessitated the Federation act in the interest of public relations, forming together what would be the modern peacetime government. By the time the war began, the Federation was unready for a modern armed conflict. With armored vehicles and automatic weapons once more the standard, the Federal Guard found itself only superior in numbers. Federal armored divisions would not fully come into play until four years into the war, despite proving themselves in the defense of their homeland when the Timosi Soivetet Republic invaded in 1090.
Seeing itself as alone and unable to talk the Marroli into peace, the Commonwealth immediately began to prepare for war. With its economic power and the loyalty of the people behind it, the Armed Forces would be driven harder than it had ever been driven before, replacing the Vehicle Corps with the Mechanized Infantry & Armored Vehicles branch in 1080 and forming the Stormtroopers just before the outbreak of the war in 1088. The Rangers and Naval Forces were nearly tripled in size by 1085 and completely re-equipped to modern standards.
But it was not just the Armed Forces that would see progress. The ancient and almost invisible External Intelligence Office would undergo an almost complete restructuring. By the time of the invasion by the Marroli Republic, the Commonwealth maintained at least two hundred and ninety spies and informants among the highest echelons of the Republican Guard's command structure. Countless more had embedded themselves into civilian political posts and everyday life. It was these invisible hands and ears that would be the deciding factor in the war, as well as the primary cause for many notable political blows against the Commonwealth. Most pointedly was that of the Marrolian prime minister's assassination near the end of the war by Delta squad of the 1st Stormtroopers. While this shocking turn of events ruined the Republican Guard's morale until the Republic's dissolution, it would also stun the rest of the world with the hidden ruthlessness of the Garran government.
Further showing its rage, when the war finally ended in 1098 A.F., despite international pressure in the increasingly-globalized Anchorage, the Commonwealth claimed Marroli territory as its own once the war had finally been won. As rangers deployed to quell resistance and safeguard the conquered lands, the external opposition to the Garran occupation was met with a single, blunt answer; deal with it or you'll be the next in line. While much of the Anchorage nations were disgusted with this turn of events, the conclusion of the Second Marroli War - as it is known in Garran history - would thoroughly impress the Federation once more. The ruthlessness and military success of its chief ally, particularly against its most hated enemy, were notches on the Commonwealth's belt High Command would show praise for centuries after the war.
Indeed, centuries worth of praise may very well have been necessary to maintain the high opinion of the Armed Forces the Federal Guard held, as it would be centuries until the next major armed conflict involving the Garran military. Small skirmishes, both against Marrolian rebels and in support of the Federation during its few conquests on Anchorage, would be all that the Rangers and Stormtroopers could draw experience from for years to come. It would not be until 1340 A.F., when an Ollenhall ship crash-landed on Anchorage, that the Commonwealth would have a chance to re-establish its name as the leader in quality troops on Anchorage.
This short and bloody conflict, in fact, would necessitate that. When the ship touched down in Garran territory, eighty kilometers from the town of Arganan, its distress signal brought a full company of power armor-clad Ollenhall expeditionary troops, equipped with technology no nation on Anchorage could claim to field. While the nations of Anchorage were no strangers to space - the Commonwealth itself having established a self-sufficient colony on the planet Juneau on the opposite side of the system - the small and technologically outpaced space navies of the time found themselves in an engagement that would strain them to their limits just to defend their own orbital territory. Over two hundred and thirty vessels were lost driving the Ollenhall ships from orbit, the total fleet size of the attacking ships numbering in just over a dozen.
The ground war proved far more successful. With diplomacy out of the question within the first week, the survivors of the crash were quickly overwhelmed by the rangers dispatched to secure the crashed vessel. When the company of Ollenhall troops landed not long after, the bewildered Commonwealth had alerted the Praetorian Federation and Vannik Confederation, the former of which lending troops in response. While outnumbered nearly twenty to one, the Ollenhall marines would prove how significant a technological advantage can be. A week of fighting left four hundred guardsmen and over two hundred rangers dead, where Ollenhall losses are expected to be only forty-one. In the end, the marines were driven back into orbit and finally home with the retreating expeditionary fleet, while the shocked nations of Anchorage, now with three Ollenhall wrecks to comb through, scrambled to find out just what had happened.
The most significant result of this conflict would be - somewhat unsurprisingly from a historical perspective - the reverse-engineering of the gluon seperation matrixes for faster-than-light space travel. However, for the Armed Forces, the experience against significantly more advanced troops gave the Commonwealth's military the tenacity and preparedness for conflict on an interstellar scale. The officers involved in the almost skirmish-level engagement were rounded up to relate their experiences to drill instructors across the country, often in front of the recruits undergoing their training. Many of these officers - encouraged by pay raises and benefitting the Armed Forces as a whole - became instructors themselves, most teaching at officer's academies and acting as war game directors. By the time the Commonwealth found itself at war with opponents such as the Verinen and Celdskon Alliances, while its experience was plainly lacking, the small amount of preparation the conflict with the Ollenhall gave its military would show in its first few engagements. The success of the Rangers and MIAV would shine above the rest when wars of that caliber erupted, maintaining the Commonwealth's image of an economic superpower with more than enough bite to back up its bark.
While they were more ready than the other nations of Anchorage, the Armed Forces did not emerge triumphantly onto the interstellar stage. The crippling defeats at the hands of power armored infantry and lopsided casualty counts of the first contact wars with the Celdskon Alliances did more than enough damage to the feeling of pride in the Garran military.
The "inoculation" of the Invasion of 1340, however, gave the Rangers the strategic and tactical thinking necessary to establish themselves as a qualified, modern light infantry fighting force, bringing much of the harassment and fluid warfare strategies that are so well known today to the forefront of the Armed Forces' battle plans.
Branches
The Armed Forces maintains seven full branches and the "half-branch" of the Stormtroopers as of 2203 A.F. Many branches have been retired, replaced, renamed, and - in one extraordinary case - wiped out throughout its long and storied history. Currently functioning branches will be listed before those that are now defunct.
The Rangers
The Rangers are the general infantry, mechanized infantry, marines, national guard, and martial police of the Commonwealth, serving as an effective and capable example of a modern light infantry fighting force.
When not deployed to a combat theater, rangers are most often used as construction workers, police officers, and other various tasks that take advantage of their military training.
Capitalization of the term "Rangers" is subjective. When referring to an individual serving under this particular branch of the Armed Forces, ranger(s) is left uncapitalized. When referring to the branch itself or something related to the branch, it is capitalized. In example: "We had a ranger come down yesterday, said thirteen battalions were headed our way. Let Tactical know to be ready for them, we're going to have some Ranger colonels in our command tent soon enough."
The Rangers have previously been known as the Ranger Corps and are a direct descendant of the Infantry Corps they replaced.
The Mechanized Infantry & Armored Vehicles Divisions
The MIAV is the primary vehicular component to the Armed Forces' ground operations, operating everything from bulldozers and minesweepers to infantry fighting vehicles and armored cavalry.
When not on combat duty, MIAV crewmen are used for civilian duties much in the same way rangers are, albeit - expectantly - as the drivers and equipment operators for their particular assignments. Additionally, they are often employed as traffic coordinators and communications specialists.
MIAV personnel, regardless of their post, rank, or assignment are referred to as crewmen, owing to the nature that almost all personnel in the branch will have most likely served aboard a vehicle at some point during their career.
The MIAV is the modern successor of the Vehicle Corps, which succeeded the Cavalry branch during the Third Ice War.
The Stormtroopers
The Stormtroopers, while technically under the Rangers branch of the Armed Forces, are often considered as a full component of the Garran military rather than a simple subgroup. They function as the special forces and covert operations personnel of the Commonwealth, performing a smaller range of duties than other Armed Forces units.
Stormtroopers are primarily used as coordinators and supervisors for civilian projects developed by rangers. They are also employed as search and rescue personnel and special police, owing to their elite grade of training.
Stormtroopers are referred to on the same basis as rangers; adjectives and references to the organization itself are capitalized, while personnel references remain lower case.
The Space Navy
The Space Navy, most oftenly referred to simply as the Navy owing to the Naval Forces' obsolescence, has undoubtedly become one of the most important branches of the Armed Forces since the beginning of the modern colonial age. Control of space, off-world supply routes, and the ability to offer direct support to troops involved in ground offensives has marked it the single most vital and instrumental arm of the Garran military.
Naval personnel are, second to rangers, the most regularly repurposed troops in the Armed Forces. It is not unheard of for entire merchant fleets to be under the command of the Space Navy or even entirely staffed by naval crewmen. The array of militarily unrelated tasks given to Navy personnel are as numerous as their combat assignments, but all relate to the staffing or maintenance of space ships or stations in some shape or form.
Space Navy personnel are referred to by a wide variety of alternative names, ranging from fleetsmen, expeditionaries, and the somewhat erroneous label of seamen.
The Airwatch
The Airwatch are the Commonwealth's planetside aircraft pilots and off-world strike craft pilots. It functions as what some would refer to as "the Navy's sword", owing to the modern Space Navy's reliance on close-insertion strike craft carriers. Additionally, Airwatch personnel are tasked with piloting the limited fleet of Commonwealth reconnaissance drones and guiding remotely controlled munitions aboard Space Navy vessels.
Like the MIAV, Airwatch personnel are typically tasked with coordinating traffic and overseeing communications, though unsurprisingly oriented more towards air and space traffic and communications than their land-based counterparts.
Airwatch staff are most often referred to as airmen or - usually in reference to officers - watchmen.
The Naval Forces
The Naval Forces are the smallest branch of the Armed Forces and some question its modern legitimacy as a full branch of the military. It is, for the most part, confined to Anchorage, and its fleets of aging ships are rarely used for much more than ceremonial purposes.
Civilian work is almost unheard of in the modern Naval Forces, as most personnel assigned to it are usually distinguished Space Navy personnel who are no longer fit to serve aboard a space vessel or in normal military operations. In the distant past, Naval Forces staff were used in much the same way as modern Space Navy fleetsmen were used, albeit in a seaborne rather than spaceborne fashion.
Naval Forces personnel are, unsurprisingly, referred to as seamen, though fleetsmen and the mildly pejorative nickname of "retirees" are often used to refer to them.
The Infantry Corps (Defunct)
The Infantry Corps were the predecessor to the modern Rangers branch and represented an unremarkable infantry component in the Commonwealth's military prior to their replacement. The force maintained during peacetime, however, was unusually small and conscripted troops were most often used to fill in the unit gaps during wartime. Following the Ice Wars, the practice of conscription - as well as the Infantry Corps - became practically unheard of in Garran territory, up until the Tsarova Contact War.
Infantry Corps troops were used in the same fashion as the modern day Rangers in regards to civilian assignments. However, owing to their small peacetime size, the non-military work was usually at a bare minimum.
Infantry Corps personnel were most often called infantrymen or footsoldiers, aside from corpsmen, which was a general term for Armed Forces personnel when most branches held the word "Corps" in their title. Corpsmen is now infrequently used in a historical sense, as its most readily understood meaning is often that of a Tsarova Worldcorps soldier.
The Infantry Corps were officially disbanded and subsumed by the Ranger Corps in 1020 A.F. during the Armed Forces' second restructuring in the Third Ice War.
The Armed Forces of the Garrant Commonwealth is the sixth largest and fifth most powerful military force in the known galaxy, functioning as an effective example of a modern light infantry fighting force. However, the Armed Forces are much more than a simple military arm of a nation; they function as an integral part of the Commonwealth's government work force, fulfilling the roles of laborers, city planners, and state-appointed merchants. These additional tasks give the personnel of the Armed Forces valuable experience and helps create strong bonds between the servicemen and the populaces they are organized to defend.
From Humble Beginnings
The Armed Forces were officially founded as the Commonwealth's military in 700 A.F., very shortly after the individual states of the Garrant continent united. While the manpower of the individual militaries of these now-allied constituents was easily ready to defend the new nation together, the states retained much of their standing forces for themselves. The meager assortment of troops pooled together would be hardly capable of defending the Commonwealth, let alone a single state.
Indeed, soon after its formation, the Marroli Empire, now dwarfed by the amalgamated states, attacked the fledgling Commonwealth in its most vulnerable state. Were it not for the city-state of Junholdt dedicating its full military force - which was easily the strongest on the continent - to the incursion in Cehoma, the Commonwealth would have lived only a short year before being shattered. Thankfully, the states comprising the new nation were jolted into action by the failed attack, bringing the bulk of their armed forces together into a force far more ready to stand their ground for the growing Commonwealth. With the turmoil of the North Praetorian Republic's downfall ahead of them, it would be a wake-up call the nation had sorely needed.
In 731 A.F., the North Praetorian Republic dissolved under the pressure of three wars on two fronts and a revolution brewing in its capital. The first democracy on Anchorage split into five different successor nations, each at eachother's throats, with much of the mighty People's Army now at the wills of ambitious officers ready to carve their names into history as the new leaders of their homeland. Some turned on former allies of the Republic, lashing out as raiding bands and pirates.
The Garrant Commonwealth would be one of those former allies, having proven itself as a valuable trading partner to the Republic prior to its breakup. Over the next twenty-six years, former Praetorian soldiers would attack merchant vessels, raid seaside towns, and harass Naval Forces logistics. In almost every case, the Armed Forces proved itself an indispensable tool, both in defense and reconstruction. It was during these troubled times that the value of soldiers functioning as state-contracted laborers proved itself to the government of the Commonwealth, officially handing the Armed Forces the task of assisting civilian projects in 741 A.F.
It was in 745 A.F. that the Praetorian Federation had been brought together through fire and sword, Company Captain Albert Drücker leading the United Praetorian Army in an overwhelming victory against his competitors and the successor nations. Shortly following his rise to High Commander of the Federal Guard in June of that year, friendly relations began again between Praetoria and the Commonwealth. In an attempt to bolster ties between the two nations, the Commonwealth offered its support with the Armed Forces to aid - much to Drücker's surprise - the reconstruction effort. When the High Commander accepted, his astonishment was furthered, as much of the Infantry and Cavalry Forces were skilled and experienced laborers by the time of the Federation's rise to prominence.
In 821 A.F., Anchorage as a whole experienced an ice age, brought on by two planetary events. First, the degenerative gas giant Barrow, believed to be a comet by the astronomers of the time, had narrowly missed Anchorage, drawing its orbital path away from the system's star. Additionally, this brought the planet further towards the path of the other gas giant in the system, Soldotna, the gravity well of which drew Anchorage even further away from Faith. Temperatures on the planet plummetted to record lows, making agriculture all but impossible in most territories.
The ice age, known somewhat ironically as the Burning Winter, led to the Ice Wars which embroiled the planet for some two hundred years to come, leading to the period's nickname. Former allies quickly turned on eachother to support their dwindling populations, warring for arable land and unfrozen water wherever they could be found. The Commonwealth, being the third largest nation on the planet at the time, was no exception, being attacked numerous times by the Vannikil Sovereignty, Second Marroli Republic, and Jarronheim. It was during the First Ice War that the Garran Armed Forces were given a rude awakening; their lack of experienced personnel, paltry training exercises, and focus on peacetime work alongside civilians left them with a fighting force almost completely unprepared for a world war. Additionally, there were few rifle divisions within the Infantry branch at the time, leaving the Commonwealth behind the rest of the pack in adopting the resurgent technology of firearms.
Time and time again, even the most skilled Garran officers met crushing defeats and terrible setbacks as they tried to keep pace with the invading forces. All in all, the capital city of Cehoma would change hands at least six times before finally returning to Garran control for good. In the end, the Armed Forces achieved a pyrrhic victory in pushing back their aggressors; nearly 80% of their manpower had been depleted and those remaining were left with little equipment to divide amongst themselves.
Fortunately, however, it was another bullet to the ear and not to the eye for the Commonwealth, so to speak. Had this state persisted for a single more year than it had, Timolnilya - the predecessor to the Timosi Soivetet Republic - would have seized on the Armed Forces' weakness and shattered what was left of the country. Before the plans could be executed, however, the Federal Guard of the Praetorian Federation landed at least six hundred thousand reinforcements on the Garrant continent, the nation's military once more a proud and mighty fighting force ready to meet the challenge of fighting on ten fronts at once. With its manpower only growing as the Ice Wars continued, ensuring the Commonwealth's survival was not only possible, but necessary; the food and water imports from their chief trading partner were absolutely essential in maintaining their standing forces, let alone their stagnant population.
As guardsmen watched over Garran cities, the Armed Forces slowly recovered to its previous strength. With proper training and equipment easily possible for the defiant nation, the Commonwealth quickly leapt at the opportunity to earn valuable experience for their personnel. A request was made to the Federation that Garran troops be mixed in with Praetorian soldiers on the Marroli front in order to give their soldiers a proper live fire battlefield education without tripping over their limited numbers in the process. While eager to accept the help and somewhat interested in how effective Garran troops could be, the Federation was skeptical; after suffering such crippling losses to smaller nations such as Jarronheim, would Commonwealth troops be able to keep pace with the Federal Guard?
It would prove to be so. Fueled by vengeance, trained and equipped to the highest standard the Armed Forces could provide, Garran infantrymen continually met every challenge with as much effort as was necessary and thensome. They would push themselves and thoroughly impress their Federal handlers until the conclusion of the Federation's part in the First Ice War in 841 A.F. More than satisfied with their performance, the Federation returned the Commonwealth soldiers to their homeland, who took with them enough combat experience to see the Armed Forces through the next three Ice Wars.
In 874 A.F., the Second Ice War - sometimes known as the First Marroli War in the Commonwealth - began when the Second Marroli Republic crossed the southern border of the Garrant continent and began seizing cities for itself, claiming the settlements had been built on top of land that rightfully belonged to their ancestors. This poor excuse expectedly failed and the Commonwealth retaliated, soon finding itself caught in a trench warfare stalemate just behind its own border. As the Federation joined in - compelled to aid its ally and hungry for Marroli land - the war began to swell, old enemies of Praetoria jumping in on the side of the Second Republic. Learning from history, however, Timolnilya sided with the Commonwealth and Federation, pitting Anchorage's three most powerful nations against practically the rest of the world.
While the Marroli front was a resounding success, pushing post-war borders back some forty kilometers into Republic territory, the Timolnilya side of the conflict was almost the opposite. As the Federation was unwilling to devote troops to defend its greatest rival and a country it had been at war with many times in the past, there was little stopping other nations from tearing its military apart. While the Garrant Commonwealth had intended to support Timolnilya, the Marroli front soon proved to be its overriding concern, as the rising casualty count pulled more and more troops from Timolan positions back to the homeland. When the war finally ended in 900 A.F., Timolnilya had lost almost a third of its territory. This polarized the nation against the Commonwealth and Federation for centuries to come, enraged with the fact that its supposed allies had profited from a war that had nearly cost it its independence.
However, Timolnilya's military lay in shambles at the war's end, while most others - save for the Marroli, who had begun the war - were satisfied with their spoils. As Anchorage began to drift back into its normal orbital path, the ice age came to its decline, slowly allowing the planet to return to its more livable state. This gave the planet a rest from the almost incessant warring brought on by the lack of food and living space.
Though, there were still two Ice Wars left as it would still take quite some time for the planet to fully settle back into its previous state. The Third Ice War dawned almost a century later in 1005 A.F. with the Timolnilya attack on the Federation's capital of Praetoria. A resounding failure set the war upside down before it could truly start, with the Federation repulsing the assault and chasing the remainders of the naval force back to Klav on the Sovonnes continent. As more and more nations joined the fight, the Third Ice War once more reached worldwide proportions, seeing conflict in Timolnilya, the Federation's border with the Horrstok Empire, the Garrant mainland, and the Second Marroli Republic's northern border.
The Armed Forces were more than ready to meet the challenge, having reorganized the Infantry, Cavalry, and Naval Forces to properly support eachother. During this time, the Rangers had been organized as Infantry support divisions to work alongside the Cavalry, the former soon proving itself to be the most powerful and versatile general infantry the Commonwealth could train. It was with these men that the Armed Forces would finally solidify the Commonwealth's place as a valuable military ally to the Federation, that bond continuing to this day.
As the war continued, the Armed Forces came to an unfortunate realization; technology was advancing and, once more, they had not fully kept pace. As bolt-action rifles and motor vehicles returned to mankind on Anchorage, the Cavalry of the Armed Forces found themselves effectively obsolete at the midpoint of the war. With the Rangers proving themselves far more effective and useful than the standard rifleman of the Infantry Corps, the Armed Forces once more restructured themselves in 1019 A.F. The Rangers found themselves as the bulk of the military, while the Cavalry were reorganized into the Vehicle Corps, mounting primitive jeeps and trucks with the "rotary rifles" - effectively a series of breech-loading rifles circled together to create a complicated, belt-fed Gattling gun - of the time. The unproven Vehicle Corps was fielded with moderate success in tandem with the Ranger Corps in 1031 A.F., allowing the officers at the head of it to build experience before fighting independently. When the Vehicle Corps finally did take to the field of battle by itself in 1033 A.F., the results were quite possibly one of the primary reasons for the conclusion of the conflict; Vehicle Corps units proved themselves as powerful harassment tools, often catching enemy infantry by surprise from behind their defensive lines. With the effective leadership of seasoned Armed Forces officers, the few remaining stalemates the Commonwealth had been fighting against quickly turned into victories. Expectedly, the Vehicle Corps easily outperformed enemy cavalry, solidifying their place and completely retiring the remaining mounted units in the Armed Forces to little more than parade duty.
The Third Ice War ended in totality in April of 1034 A.F. with the dissolution of Timolnilya under the internal pressure of revolution and the steady loss of territory to the combined forces of the Praetorian Federation, Garrant Commonwealth,
Jarronheim, and the Fourth Reign of Horrstok. The Second Marroli Republic, beaten once more, swore silent vengeance for the final time, using the end of the war to build its forces back up for nearly fifty years.
The Fourth Ice War, beginning in 1089 A.F., would prove to be the final and most conclusive conflict of the Burning Winter. It would also prove to be the most predicted, as tensions began to mount quickly as the Marroli Republic readied itself for a military conflict of worldwide proportions. While still frigid towards its longtime neighbor and nemesis, the Commonwealth attempted to defuse the upcoming war as best it could, its own military unprepared for a fight with the now-titanic Marrolan Republican Guard. As diplomacy floundered in its opening steps, the Commonwealth once more sought aid from its nigh-invincible ally, the Praetorian Federation.
However, in a unique turn of events, the Federation was willing, but unable to assist. From 1071 to 1087 A.F., the growing discontent with the practically autocratic High Command necessitated the Federation act in the interest of public relations, forming together what would be the modern peacetime government. By the time the war began, the Federation was unready for a modern armed conflict. With armored vehicles and automatic weapons once more the standard, the Federal Guard found itself only superior in numbers. Federal armored divisions would not fully come into play until four years into the war, despite proving themselves in the defense of their homeland when the Timosi Soivetet Republic invaded in 1090.
Seeing itself as alone and unable to talk the Marroli into peace, the Commonwealth immediately began to prepare for war. With its economic power and the loyalty of the people behind it, the Armed Forces would be driven harder than it had ever been driven before, replacing the Vehicle Corps with the Mechanized Infantry & Armored Vehicles branch in 1080 and forming the Stormtroopers just before the outbreak of the war in 1088. The Rangers and Naval Forces were nearly tripled in size by 1085 and completely re-equipped to modern standards.
But it was not just the Armed Forces that would see progress. The ancient and almost invisible External Intelligence Office would undergo an almost complete restructuring. By the time of the invasion by the Marroli Republic, the Commonwealth maintained at least two hundred and ninety spies and informants among the highest echelons of the Republican Guard's command structure. Countless more had embedded themselves into civilian political posts and everyday life. It was these invisible hands and ears that would be the deciding factor in the war, as well as the primary cause for many notable political blows against the Commonwealth. Most pointedly was that of the Marrolian prime minister's assassination near the end of the war by Delta squad of the 1st Stormtroopers. While this shocking turn of events ruined the Republican Guard's morale until the Republic's dissolution, it would also stun the rest of the world with the hidden ruthlessness of the Garran government.
Further showing its rage, when the war finally ended in 1098 A.F., despite international pressure in the increasingly-globalized Anchorage, the Commonwealth claimed Marroli territory as its own once the war had finally been won. As rangers deployed to quell resistance and safeguard the conquered lands, the external opposition to the Garran occupation was met with a single, blunt answer; deal with it or you'll be the next in line. While much of the Anchorage nations were disgusted with this turn of events, the conclusion of the Second Marroli War - as it is known in Garran history - would thoroughly impress the Federation once more. The ruthlessness and military success of its chief ally, particularly against its most hated enemy, were notches on the Commonwealth's belt High Command would show praise for centuries after the war.
Indeed, centuries worth of praise may very well have been necessary to maintain the high opinion of the Armed Forces the Federal Guard held, as it would be centuries until the next major armed conflict involving the Garran military. Small skirmishes, both against Marrolian rebels and in support of the Federation during its few conquests on Anchorage, would be all that the Rangers and Stormtroopers could draw experience from for years to come. It would not be until 1340 A.F., when an Ollenhall ship crash-landed on Anchorage, that the Commonwealth would have a chance to re-establish its name as the leader in quality troops on Anchorage.
This short and bloody conflict, in fact, would necessitate that. When the ship touched down in Garran territory, eighty kilometers from the town of Arganan, its distress signal brought a full company of power armor-clad Ollenhall expeditionary troops, equipped with technology no nation on Anchorage could claim to field. While the nations of Anchorage were no strangers to space - the Commonwealth itself having established a self-sufficient colony on the planet Juneau on the opposite side of the system - the small and technologically outpaced space navies of the time found themselves in an engagement that would strain them to their limits just to defend their own orbital territory. Over two hundred and thirty vessels were lost driving the Ollenhall ships from orbit, the total fleet size of the attacking ships numbering in just over a dozen.
The ground war proved far more successful. With diplomacy out of the question within the first week, the survivors of the crash were quickly overwhelmed by the rangers dispatched to secure the crashed vessel. When the company of Ollenhall troops landed not long after, the bewildered Commonwealth had alerted the Praetorian Federation and Vannik Confederation, the former of which lending troops in response. While outnumbered nearly twenty to one, the Ollenhall marines would prove how significant a technological advantage can be. A week of fighting left four hundred guardsmen and over two hundred rangers dead, where Ollenhall losses are expected to be only forty-one. In the end, the marines were driven back into orbit and finally home with the retreating expeditionary fleet, while the shocked nations of Anchorage, now with three Ollenhall wrecks to comb through, scrambled to find out just what had happened.
The most significant result of this conflict would be - somewhat unsurprisingly from a historical perspective - the reverse-engineering of the gluon seperation matrixes for faster-than-light space travel. However, for the Armed Forces, the experience against significantly more advanced troops gave the Commonwealth's military the tenacity and preparedness for conflict on an interstellar scale. The officers involved in the almost skirmish-level engagement were rounded up to relate their experiences to drill instructors across the country, often in front of the recruits undergoing their training. Many of these officers - encouraged by pay raises and benefitting the Armed Forces as a whole - became instructors themselves, most teaching at officer's academies and acting as war game directors. By the time the Commonwealth found itself at war with opponents such as the Verinen and Celdskon Alliances, while its experience was plainly lacking, the small amount of preparation the conflict with the Ollenhall gave its military would show in its first few engagements. The success of the Rangers and MIAV would shine above the rest when wars of that caliber erupted, maintaining the Commonwealth's image of an economic superpower with more than enough bite to back up its bark.
While they were more ready than the other nations of Anchorage, the Armed Forces did not emerge triumphantly onto the interstellar stage. The crippling defeats at the hands of power armored infantry and lopsided casualty counts of the first contact wars with the Celdskon Alliances did more than enough damage to the feeling of pride in the Garran military.
The "inoculation" of the Invasion of 1340, however, gave the Rangers the strategic and tactical thinking necessary to establish themselves as a qualified, modern light infantry fighting force, bringing much of the harassment and fluid warfare strategies that are so well known today to the forefront of the Armed Forces' battle plans.
Branches
The Armed Forces maintains seven full branches and the "half-branch" of the Stormtroopers as of 2203 A.F. Many branches have been retired, replaced, renamed, and - in one extraordinary case - wiped out throughout its long and storied history. Currently functioning branches will be listed before those that are now defunct.
The Rangers
The Rangers are the general infantry, mechanized infantry, marines, national guard, and martial police of the Commonwealth, serving as an effective and capable example of a modern light infantry fighting force.
When not deployed to a combat theater, rangers are most often used as construction workers, police officers, and other various tasks that take advantage of their military training.
Capitalization of the term "Rangers" is subjective. When referring to an individual serving under this particular branch of the Armed Forces, ranger(s) is left uncapitalized. When referring to the branch itself or something related to the branch, it is capitalized. In example: "We had a ranger come down yesterday, said thirteen battalions were headed our way. Let Tactical know to be ready for them, we're going to have some Ranger colonels in our command tent soon enough."
The Rangers have previously been known as the Ranger Corps and are a direct descendant of the Infantry Corps they replaced.
The Mechanized Infantry & Armored Vehicles Divisions
The MIAV is the primary vehicular component to the Armed Forces' ground operations, operating everything from bulldozers and minesweepers to infantry fighting vehicles and armored cavalry.
When not on combat duty, MIAV crewmen are used for civilian duties much in the same way rangers are, albeit - expectantly - as the drivers and equipment operators for their particular assignments. Additionally, they are often employed as traffic coordinators and communications specialists.
MIAV personnel, regardless of their post, rank, or assignment are referred to as crewmen, owing to the nature that almost all personnel in the branch will have most likely served aboard a vehicle at some point during their career.
The MIAV is the modern successor of the Vehicle Corps, which succeeded the Cavalry branch during the Third Ice War.
The Stormtroopers
The Stormtroopers, while technically under the Rangers branch of the Armed Forces, are often considered as a full component of the Garran military rather than a simple subgroup. They function as the special forces and covert operations personnel of the Commonwealth, performing a smaller range of duties than other Armed Forces units.
Stormtroopers are primarily used as coordinators and supervisors for civilian projects developed by rangers. They are also employed as search and rescue personnel and special police, owing to their elite grade of training.
Stormtroopers are referred to on the same basis as rangers; adjectives and references to the organization itself are capitalized, while personnel references remain lower case.
The Space Navy
The Space Navy, most oftenly referred to simply as the Navy owing to the Naval Forces' obsolescence, has undoubtedly become one of the most important branches of the Armed Forces since the beginning of the modern colonial age. Control of space, off-world supply routes, and the ability to offer direct support to troops involved in ground offensives has marked it the single most vital and instrumental arm of the Garran military.
Naval personnel are, second to rangers, the most regularly repurposed troops in the Armed Forces. It is not unheard of for entire merchant fleets to be under the command of the Space Navy or even entirely staffed by naval crewmen. The array of militarily unrelated tasks given to Navy personnel are as numerous as their combat assignments, but all relate to the staffing or maintenance of space ships or stations in some shape or form.
Space Navy personnel are referred to by a wide variety of alternative names, ranging from fleetsmen, expeditionaries, and the somewhat erroneous label of seamen.
The Airwatch
The Airwatch are the Commonwealth's planetside aircraft pilots and off-world strike craft pilots. It functions as what some would refer to as "the Navy's sword", owing to the modern Space Navy's reliance on close-insertion strike craft carriers. Additionally, Airwatch personnel are tasked with piloting the limited fleet of Commonwealth reconnaissance drones and guiding remotely controlled munitions aboard Space Navy vessels.
Like the MIAV, Airwatch personnel are typically tasked with coordinating traffic and overseeing communications, though unsurprisingly oriented more towards air and space traffic and communications than their land-based counterparts.
Airwatch staff are most often referred to as airmen or - usually in reference to officers - watchmen.
The Naval Forces
The Naval Forces are the smallest branch of the Armed Forces and some question its modern legitimacy as a full branch of the military. It is, for the most part, confined to Anchorage, and its fleets of aging ships are rarely used for much more than ceremonial purposes.
Civilian work is almost unheard of in the modern Naval Forces, as most personnel assigned to it are usually distinguished Space Navy personnel who are no longer fit to serve aboard a space vessel or in normal military operations. In the distant past, Naval Forces staff were used in much the same way as modern Space Navy fleetsmen were used, albeit in a seaborne rather than spaceborne fashion.
Naval Forces personnel are, unsurprisingly, referred to as seamen, though fleetsmen and the mildly pejorative nickname of "retirees" are often used to refer to them.
The Infantry Corps (Defunct)
The Infantry Corps were the predecessor to the modern Rangers branch and represented an unremarkable infantry component in the Commonwealth's military prior to their replacement. The force maintained during peacetime, however, was unusually small and conscripted troops were most often used to fill in the unit gaps during wartime. Following the Ice Wars, the practice of conscription - as well as the Infantry Corps - became practically unheard of in Garran territory, up until the Tsarova Contact War.
Infantry Corps troops were used in the same fashion as the modern day Rangers in regards to civilian assignments. However, owing to their small peacetime size, the non-military work was usually at a bare minimum.
Infantry Corps personnel were most often called infantrymen or footsoldiers, aside from corpsmen, which was a general term for Armed Forces personnel when most branches held the word "Corps" in their title. Corpsmen is now infrequently used in a historical sense, as its most readily understood meaning is often that of a Tsarova Worldcorps soldier.
The Infantry Corps were officially disbanded and subsumed by the Ranger Corps in 1020 A.F. during the Armed Forces' second restructuring in the Third Ice War.
