Union Army Corps

The Union Army Corps is the ground-based branch of the Solar Union military. Where the Union Naval Corps patrols the open black and the Orbital Guard operates within habitats and vessels, the Army brings the fight to the surface of planets and moons. However, in the age of spaceborne combat and orbital habitats, the Army finds itself more often as an engine of government than an engine of war.

Personnel

The Army draws from the widest pool of applicants of any branch of the military. For most civilians seeking citizenship, the Army provides the easiest route; deployments far from home are uncommon, entry criteria is lower, and Army positions tend to lead to civilian-sector positions in turn. As a result, though only a small portion of the Army is permanently deployed in garrisons or for combat purposes, large percentages of any given Union planet are either actively serving in the Army in non-combat positions, or are part of the Army reserve program.
Many public offices fall partially or completely under the umbrella of Army staffing. For example, the Engineering Corps is responsible for the construction and maintenance of most public utilities and communication backbones, while military physicians supplement civilian healthcare. Others are managed through the Army but staffed largely by civilians, such as Internal Security. As such, the Army is the branch with the most direct contact with the Union populace, and more often the focus of propaganda efforts and recruitment drives than the Naval Corps or Orbital Guard.
The two unfortunate drawbacks of the Army's integration with the civilian sector are the fragmentation of units and the layers of bureaucracy holding the system together. When units serving in the civilian sector are deployed for combat, large gaps are left behind, in rare cases eliminating entire levels of management in smaller organizations. Squads are typically divided up and separated to prevent this issue, as well as only activating those squads whose members are able to leave; however, the resulting structure builds an ad-hoc organizational system above the platoon level.

Recruitment

Unit Structure

The lowest level of Army organization is the seven-man **squad**. The standard infantry squad consists of: * Squad leader: Usually a corporal, the squad leader handles communications with the platoon and generally carries a (placeholder) rifle. * Designated marksman: Paired with the squad leader, the designated marksman carries the F20L flechette rifle. * Two pairs of grenadiers and riflemen: Each grenadier carries a (placeholder) with grenade launcher, while the rifleman carries a (placeholder). * Hazard Suit: The Hazard operator's loadout varies according to the mission objective, but typically includes a medium machine gun or an anti-armor weapon, such as (placeholder).
Variant squads exist depending on the role; for example, fire support squads often consist of three to five Hazard suits operating without standard infantry, serving in longer-range fire support.
Directly above the squad, the typical infantry **platoon** consists of three squads, plus a platoon sergeant, platoon commander, and two additional Hazard suits equipped for indirect fire support.
The **company** is the highest level of permanently-fixed organization, above which the hierarchy is mutable according to the needs of the Union. Each company consists of three platoons, plus company support staff and headquarters.

Equipment

Uniforms

Unlike the Naval Corps and Orbital Guard, a vacuum suit does not typically make up the base layer of Army uniforms. Only a subset of the Army is trained for operating in full vacuum situations; however, the vast majority can operate in partial pressure situations and with compromised air supplies. Instead, Army non-combat uniforms largely resemble those of early- to mid-21st-century militaries, while their combat uniforms are far more advanced.
The typical service uniform for the Army is similar to the Naval Corps' over-layer, consisting of a two-tone brown and tan jacket and trousers, complete with raised collar and breast pockets. The uniform also includes a black shirt as an underlayer and black shoes. For those in noncombat situations, this is the uniform most often employed.
[Utility dress]
[Mess dress]

Battle Dress

"Battle dress" refers to the armored suit worn by soldiers deployed in the field. Typically, each soldier is issued two sets of battle dress, one designed to fit over a vacc suit and one that fits directly over the soldier's underlayer. The two components of battle dress are the traditionally-styled helmet and the form-fitting, armored body sleeve.
The body sleeve of battle dress is built out of tough layered fabrics, impregnated with magnetorheological (MR) fluid and shear thickening fluid. Passive protection is granted by the shear-thickening layers, hardening immediately on response to impacts. The MR fluid layers, on the other hand, are more useful for active defense and for improving the user's abilities; regions of the suit can selectively harden to resist impacts, or joints and smaller areas can be hardened to stabilize aim or provide a harder strike in hand-to-hand combat. Control of the MR fluid is handled over Link, typically via the user's access jack.
The helmet is quite simple compared to the body sleeve; though the helmet is full-face and forms a CBRN-protective seal with the body sleeve, it is otherwise little more than a lightweight mid-21st-century ballistic helmet. Heads-up display integration is handled through the user's Link rather than any helmet-based display, as is communication. The visor of the helmet offers flash and laser protection, and interferes little with the user's field of view; however, it also is less damage-resistant than the rest of the helmet by necessity. When using the vacuum suit-designed sleeve, the helmet is omitted entirely, using the vacuum suit's own helmet instead.
Overall, battle dress offers a far more flexible solution than previous armor designs without compromising defensive ability. All actively-deployed Army units have outfitted their units with battle dress; however, some reserve or garrison units still make use of traditional body armor while the Army's manufacturing plants continue production.

Individual and Crew-based Weapons

Vehicles

Typical Combat Load

Type

Military, Army

Parent Organization

Solar Union