SSMD Chads Rise Up - Adds some additional marine lore regarding the SSMD/SSRM and Visegrad

[dessysalta]

Lore Impact (Small/Medium/Large): Small-Medium

Species: Human

Short Description: Introduces a new division of the marines with respect to the 1MRB, changes how the Visegradi NDF incorporated into Szalai's navy, and adds some additional text to the Mandates page regarding these two things (specifically the SSRM). Also gives the Wildlands Squadron a mention on the SSRM page.

How will this be reflected on-station?: Expands upon existing SSMD/SSRM/Visegrad (and to a degree the SMC/SAF) concepts and points a little more towards the Wildlands Squadron, and provides greater (and more importantly, relevant) material to pull from for ex-Sol or ex-military characters, or those who would be affected by them.

Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: Most of it was left up to speculation beforehand, and while these things can be inferred it's nice to have them in writing. Also adds yet another place of origin for Squadron PMCs and gives them additional depth past "I was in the 103rd/104th/etc. fleet" or "I'm a political refugee that doesn't really have a choice." Also allows me to solidify Kira Vasquez's battalion without linking an entire document of names and sounding like a crazy person over Discord so people can get in on SSMD action.

Do you understand that the project may change over time in ways you may not foresee once it is handed over to the Lore Team? 
Yup!

Long Description:

For the Solarian Armed Forces page, another Notable Marine Formation:

Spoiler

7th Marine Regiment

The 7th, often referred to officially under the pseudonym "Szalai's Cloudburst," first began as the regiment often if not always attached to the 1st Middle Ring Battlegroup, assigned as any needed boots-in-the-vacuum or, rarely, planetside. While the 7th is generally taken as average in comparison to the greater Armed Forces, they are elevated by position and proxy of serving alongside the 1MRB, most having led the primary assault on Visegrad against Secessionists and solidifying it under the Southern Military District's (what would eventually dissolve into the Southern Reconstruction Mandate) control and influence. While often seen as either a group of wearied men that served Sol even in hellacious conditions, they are sometimes misconstrued as abnormally loyal patriots used to quell free-thinking campaigns by any remaining Secessionists on Visegrad, or those who have a more liberal view of how the planet and by extent its military should be.

Having only recently been tipped overwhelmingly in their favor and number, though never considered a minority group within the regiment for obvious reasons, the majority of soldiers within the 7th are Visegradi or hail from and serve the surrounding area or systems, primarily ex-employees of the Visegradi National Defense Force. Prior to use on and around Visegrad, the battalions within such as the not-quite-infamous Heaven's Devils and Beowulf were specialized in quick response force (QRF) work and were the primary deterrent against pirates, defecting Solarian Navy Personnel (link to the SFA section of the Wildlands page), and other threats.

For Visegrad's Defense & Law Enforcement section; there are a couple takes here in case the lore team prefers one over the other, or both of them.
In case of simply replacing the last paragraph of this section:

Spoiler

Following the SSMD's supersession by the SSRM, Szalai's government have reformed and reinforced the founding NDF with those who previously had worked under it alongside well-trained, highly efficient marines and retiring naval officers, the grip and strength the National Defense Force once had in full view and pushed even further than it had. 

In case of rewriting it altogether:

Spoiler

Like many Solarian worlds, Visegrad had a System Defense Force. Created from the remnants of the Visegradi People’s Security Service, the Visegradi National Defense Force maintained much of its original power due to its influence among the Regionalists - it was still responsible for all policing on the planet, with militarized officers patrolling the streets and forests. This resulted in a degree of discomfort with some sympathetic to the Secessionist cause, who felt it too strongly echoed the repressive past of the planet. Many outspoken Secessionists even claimed that the surveillance network of old was never dismantled, and instead was kept in place to serve both the NDF and Alliance Strategic Intelligence. The Defense Force also fielded a number of patrol ships, some even rating destroyer classification, though the objective for this force was primarily protecting commerce in-system.

In spite of remaining loyal to the Alliance after the collapse, the NDF was disbanded when Szalai’s fleet took control of Visegrad; the admiral had no interest in taking the risk of allowing a parallel military organization to exist alongside her own. Those who seemed faithful to her goals were incorporated into her forces, and those assessed as being unreliable or outright seditious were dismissed at best, and detained with the Secessionists at worst. Ever since then, marines and sailors of the SSMD had taken over all policing and law enforcement on the planet and in-system—though this is slowly being phased out in favor of a slightly less militaristic force that will eventually reform the founding NDF, now reinforced with additional supplies, training, and ex-military officers and enlisted personnel. The timeline for this is often commented as being "dodgy at best" by Szalai's government, given the nature of Visegrad's location and circumstances.

More information about the current priorities of Visegrad's (former) NDF can be found here (link to the SSRM's military section).

For the SSRM:

Spoiler

The SSRM has more local military forces at its disposal due to the presence of the First and Sixth Middle Ring Battlegroups—entities regarded as the best forces in the Middle Ring prior to the civil war’s outbreak, though most Navy and Army forces dispatched to the Mandates are stationed in the Northern Reaches, which has led to some discontent amongst forces in the Southern Reaches. These troops, many of them having fought since the beginning of the civil war, wish to finally receive large amounts of Solarian reinforcements and to return to a kind of normalcy. But with the Northern Reaches recovering from a devastating conflict these reinforcements may be months—potentially years—away.

Most of the forces within the SSRM's military can be found as any one or mixture of three things: a Visegradi, a former SSMD soldier, or a former SPG soldier, with combinations of the lattermost two being impossible due to the former distance between the defunct successor states. Native soldiers, that is to say the mentioned three traits, find themselves in a chaotic grab-bag of posts and positions to live up to and stand by, typically within the Southern Reaches but repeatedly ripped from these checkpoints or patrols in favor of the ongoing reconstruction and reintegration of the Northern Reaches and its more urgent areas to fortify. Foreign soldiers, such as the barbarically small amount of aid the Alliance has to offer to the Southern Reaches, are left even worse in this bureaucratic development hell, with some reporting spending as little as six hours within the South before being redeployed to the North.

Most recently, the Wildlands Squadron has been offering PMCs and soldiers in the hundreds to both the South and the North, somewhat alleviating the poor conditions and state of being the military is in, but the contractors within the Squadron pass on that a lack of pay due to the stressful environment Visegrad and Sankt Frederick behold contribute to many PMCs suddenly and abruptly leaving their posts, terminating their contracts, or even hitching rides on independent ships.

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by dessysalta
klaudia and i should kiss

[Shimmer]

I think there might be some confusion here because of how the military page is worded. (https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Solarian_Armed_Forces#Notable_Navy_Forces)

There are two naval forces that use 'the 1st', we have the 1st Battlegroup which is a force based out of Sol, initially comprised of mostly Lunans until Courtois' reforms added fleets like the 25th to this battlegroup, doubling it in size.

Then there is the 1st middle ring battlegroup, which is Szalai's force and went on to form the SSMD which alongside the provisional government formed the reconstruction mandate.

 

The 1st marine division serves the 1st battlegroup, made up of primarily Lunan working class, "Its marines are primarily recruited from the Lunan working class and are generally looked down upon by the upper and middle class Lunans which serve as the 1st Battlegroup’s officers", they have nothing to do with the 1st MRB.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Shimmer

[dessysalta]

35 minutes ago, Shimmer said:

IThere are two naval forces that use 'the 1st', we have the 1st Battleground which is a force based out of Sol, initially comprised of mostly Lunans until Courtois' reforms added fleets like the 25th to this battlegroup, doubling it in size.

Then there is the 1st middle ring battlegroup, which is Szalai's force and went on to form the SSMD which alongside the provisional government formed the reconstruction mandate.

1. Live dessysalta reaction.

Spoiler

2. I'll reformat this sometime within the next day to be a proposal for a marine division that served with the 1MRB.

[Farofafeijao]

4 hours ago, dessysalta said:

1. Live dessysalta reaction.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

2. I'll reformat this sometime within the next day to be a proposal for a marine division that served with the 1MRB.

My suggestion, as another SSMDbro, would to create a small paragraph in the SSRM of the Solarian Reconstruction page about the former units of the Visegrad Defense Force that became Marine and Army units after the VDF integrated into the SSMD, and the SSMD integrated back into Sol. I think that would achieve the same goal you set with adding another paragraph the 1st Marine Division.

[dessysalta]

That ought to do it. It's ready now.