Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunder the Gold
What are *your* ground forces? The local forces on Midchilda, who are never deployed off-world, or the infantry of the TSAB, which is deployed to other worlds?
If it's the first, then obviously the Navy needs the most and best stuff, since they have to go everywhere, be everywhere, and face anything. First response, initial defense, and front lines.
If it's the second, why the hell aren't the ground forces just a branch of the navy? Considering that Midchilda was a space-faring civilization BEFORE the TSAB was founded and organized.
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Hmm....
I always had this image that the Ground forces consists of several components. You have the stationary units: enforcement, Defence and the logistics that accompanies those. They also assist with other groups such as rescue squads in the case of disasters( as with the airport fire). Aside from each Administrated planet's own forces there's a branch that acts relatively comparable to a nations infantry, deployed on other worlds when the TSAB has no other option to maintain order, or when requested by the government of a planet in order to maintain order.
Most likely each world's military force was absorbed into a single machinery during the formation of the TSAB. After all, with a history of warfare it seems logical that those worlds already had a military standing even before the TSAB was founded.
The TSAB Navy seems to act as a whole different organ, tasked with both maintaining order in space and the Dimensional sea. From what I guess they tend to rely on their ability to reach the site of an incident quickly, before using their high rank mages to cut most problems in the bud. The Navy's branch of investigators acts pretty much as the national services in contrast to the ground forces local enforcement, taking jurisdiction when it looks like a investigation leads off-world.
Do not expect the Navy to participate in long-term missions, compared to the Ground forces they lack the required logistic troops to enforce their might for a long period. Their gameplan is to swoop in, get a good look, do their job and finish up, preferably in less then a few weeks.
Long term peace missions are not their thing, thats ground forces stuff.
Of course, the problem for the ground forces is that, while both do a good job, the Navy's result are much more in the media. After all; safeguarding a world or having a peace-keeping mission on another world is wonderful but doesn't make very interesting news. A sudden raid on a forbidden research lab on the other hand, thats news! And because the Navy is made up of such high level mages it doesn't take long before their names become well-known, spreading the image of the Navy as the "modern, world-changing job" while the Ground forces's hard but less known work goes without attention because they don't have high-rank mages for most of their work.
I mean, just look at them: Noble Enforcers, Heropic Aces and the lot : traveling on spaceships as brave Navy members go boldly as they protect the law in space , hunt down interplanetary criminals and discover strange new worlds and civilizations.
Meanwhile the ground forces are.... pretty much going nowhere. They do their jobs, and pretty well, but.... there's no action that draws your teenage mage who is looking for a calling. The Navy might not have desired their popularity but as a result they are getting both a lot of support and young volunteers from the people of the TSAB. Meanwhile the Ground forces can only look on as the cycle continues: Highly qualified mages join the Navy, which can continue to impress, which increases their popularity.
Everyone wants to be a jet fighter-pilot, but who wants to be a cop?