The Terran Military is separated into two services: Navy and Army. Each has some degree of overlap with the other—the Army maintains a fleet of transport ships and the Navy maintains a force of Marines. This overlap has led to repeated calls over the years for the two services to be combined into a singular service. These calls keep running into the brick wall that is Terran High Command, which is quite content to maintain two distinct service branches and the two separate budgets this provides.
There is very little tension between the two branches. By and large, each one knows that the other has a distinct job to do and that only by maintaining frictionless cooperation can both jobs get done.
Every Republic ship has, at a minimum, one Army officer, usually as their Intelligence officer. Some larger ships trade out a Marine detachment for an Army unit.
This flows both ways—many Army bases have at least one Naval officer to act as a liaison, and larger bases maintain a squadron or wing of fighters. Despite the Army maintaining a transport and supply fleet, more often than not, the Army will dispatch units onboard Naval vessels, especially when there is a major action being planned.
For example, when the Charlemagne invasion was being planned, the Army deployed their forces onto both Kali-classes and the four Fortress II-class battleships.
The Republic Army is comprised of three service branches and is mostly utilized in ground operations, though there are units cross-trained in more traditionally Marine operations such as boarding actions and zero-g combat.
Ground Command is the army proper—the infantry and mechanized combat units. This also includes transport operations. When you think of the Republic Army, this is what you are thinking of.
Ground Command is headed by a General and operates out of Earth Station. They report directly to High Command and are directly tasked by High Command in return. This branch is responsible for every single planetary or orbital base used by the Army.
Every Sector in the Republic has at least one major base, and High Command is striving for an Army presence of some sort in every populated system in Republic space. This goal continues to be pushed back in priority as wars with the League keep breaking out.
This service branch is the backbone of the Army. The old saying "An Army marches on its stomach" is no less true now than it was on old Earth.
Logistics Command handles the sourcing, storage, and distribution of food, munitions, spare parts, and anything else the Army needs to continue functioning. They also handle the cargo vessels that the Army utilizes. They are, essentially, an entire division of quartermasters, and they're damned good at their jobs.
Commonly referred to as Terran Intelligence, this branch is made up of the spies, spooks, agents, and handlers that form the boots-on-the-ground side of the Intelligence apparatus. They operate directly with Naval Defense Command, and together the two groups have managed to build up an entire shadow army and navy that is completely off the books and outside the purview of High Command.
Terran Intelligence is, largely, an obfuscation in and of itself. Roughly 60% of those who work in Intelligence have no idea what is happening behind the scenes and in the shadows. They either operate as though they are part of an organized criminal syndicate, or they are political appointees who coast by on their looks or connections.
Of the remaining 40%, about half are actively working to secure and protect the Republic. The rest have either been co-opted by an outside force (if they aren't agents of that force in their own right) or they are using the power and connections that a position in Intelligence gets them to pursue their own aims and grab whatever wealth or power they can.
The Navy has an internal organizational structure that can best be described as "complicated."
Underneath the Republic level, there are three command structures in place, and all three of them are constantly competing for direct control of the ships under their purview. Often times, a ship or fleet may find itself under the nominal command of three to four different command structures whose aims are frighteningly disparate.
Sector Command is perhaps the easiest of the three to grasp. Each of the five Sectors in the Republic has its own Naval Command element overseen by an Admiral. In theory, any ship operating within a Sector is to be considered at the disposal of Sector Command, so long as any orders given by Sector Command do not contradict those issued by High Command.
In practice, a few courtesy practices have emerged:
Each Sector has at least two Fleets permanently assigned, along with at least a dozen individual ships of various sizes. If a situation requires immediate aid beyond Sector Command's resources, it should be brought to High Command's attention. In reality, High Command prefers Sector Commands to deal with issues on their own. Captains often receive guidance from High Command to make themselves available to Sector Commands as often as reasonably possible.
Fleet Command operates out of High Command and directly executes their orders and directives. They decide which Fleets and ships are assigned to which Sector, outpost, or base. They also directly task Captains and Admirals with their orders.
On paper, Fleet Command comes above Sector Command. In practice, they are closer together than either would like. Sector Command has historically had a bad habit of co-opting ships and fleets for their own tasks. In response, Fleet Command took to assigning uncooperative Sectors with the worst Fleets and Ships.
Eventually, after a League raid during the Third Interstellar War penetrated deep into Republic space, High Command stepped in and forced everyone to play nice. They reinforced that Fleet Command handles all assignments and deployments while Sector Commands police and protect their Sectors. Both are under High Command's watchful eye.
This has mostly worked out, though Domovoi Sector continues its fairly heavy-handed practice of co-opting ships whenever it likes. Considering their proximity to Freelance space, High Command and Fleet Command both allow this to continue. In fact, Domovoi is the only Sector with three Fleets assigned at all times.
If Sector Command and Fleet Command have a begrudging respect and understanding between each other, no one has any respect or understanding for Defense Command.
Defense Command is a holdover from the very beginning of the Terran Republic. Originally, this branch was the internal policing branch. That role has been taken over by Terran Intelligence and Sector enforcement agencies, leaving Defense Command without a clear role in the current balance of military power.
Their continued existence is, quite understandably, a point of confusion for just about everyone attempting to navigate how the Terran military functions. This institutional confusion seems to be the point, at least from the perspective of outside viewers.
Defense Command can, at any time and for any reason, pull a ship or fleet off of their assigned tasks and redirect them at will. They can co-opt and deploy any military asset at a whim, and they seem to take a perverse joy in derailing the plans of those in authority at the Sector level and under. The only ones they do not deliberately meddle with consistently are orders originating from High Command.
In reality, Defense Command is the group tasked with watching the watchmen. When they pull assets off a mission and retask them, they are frequently attempting to cause chaos to shake traitors out of command positions. To Defense Command, anyone pursuing anything beyond the goals of the Republic using Republic assets is a traitor.
Defense Command works tightly with Terran Intelligence, and together the two forces operate dozens of black sites and maintain both an army and navy that are completely off the books and outside the normal chain of command.
The only command structure considered "temporary" is command at the level of individual Fleets.
A Fleet is officially defined as a collection of four or more capital ships grouped together under a single commander and tasked with accomplishing a singular mission. Most often, a fleet commander is an Admiral, though technically that commander can be as low a rank as Captain in some situations.
There is some debate as to the difference between a "battlegroup" and a Fleet. No easy answer has emerged, though many suspect that because a Fleet is a clearly specified organization requiring clear assignment and labels, the term "battlegroup" differentiates between an official Fleet and an unofficial grouping of assets on similar tasking. Largely, the answer seems to be that having multiple terms exists to obfuscate operations.
Fleets maintain their own internal chain of command—ship Captains answer to their Fleet Commander instead of whichever Command they are currently tied to. That Fleet Commander then answers to the Command level.
Effectively, most Fleets are treated like exceptionally large ships.
Fleets are almost always considered temporary formations, though the Sixth Fleet and the Tenth Fleet (assigned to Sol Sector) have been in continuous existence since the late 2280s.
Historically, Fleet Idents are randomly assigned numbers between 1 and 500, with restricted Idents or those currently in use removed from the pool. Fleet Command keeps Idents roughly tied to the task—invasion and assault Fleets tend to use numbers in the 400-500 range, while Sector Fleets are almost never any number out of the double digits.
Currently, there are only three Idents restricted from active use:
First Fleet is always spelled out and is only activated to serve as a funeral escort. To have your body escorted by the First Fleet is considered the greatest honor the Fleet can give. It is reserved for Lord Admirals, Lord Generals, Premieres, and anytime the number of bodies being transported exceeds two hundred Terran soldiers or sailors.
The last time in living memory that the First Fleet Ident was assigned was after the Charlemagne Disaster. In that case, a dispensation was granted to allow First Fleet honors to be extended to enemy combatants and without physical bodies to transport.
Any ship that serves in the First Fleet is allowed to add a silver stripe to their paint scheme and a silver star to their patch.
[REDACTED]
The 438th was the Ident given to the Bulawayo and Moskva battlegroups when they were combined into the invasion fleet aimed at Charlemagne. As a memorial to the Disaster, the number was stricken from available Fleet Idents.
Anyone who served in the last 438th may always use that Ident number as part of their standard address (e.g., "Captain Meera Yen, 438th Fleet, Captain of the TRS Cairo"). This memorial allowance is also the only concession ever granted to deserters—if they served in the 438th, they may always claim that Ident until the day they die.
No long-term, functional government exists on its military alone, and the Republic is no different.
The taxation branch of the Terran Republic, and also the branch responsible for ensuring the basic benefits are delivered to every citizen.
The RRS operates on a flat tax structure, specifically because it benefits wealthier members of society. However, in place of tax write-offs, wealthy individuals or corporations can elect to pay an additional percentage of tax for favored status with the government. This is often pitched as insurance against audits, as favored status removes one's name from the audit rolls.
As a result of such a blatantly manipulatable system, the government rakes in funds from those who don't want their books examined closely.
The RSS is equal parts secret police and investigation bureau. They operate primarily at the Republic, Sector, and Planetary levels, though all Regional and Local Law Enforcement Mediators are considered to be within the RSS chain of command.
A holdover from the ancient Soviet Union on Earth, the Psychotronics Institute was originally developed to research mind control, telepathy, telekinesis, and other parapsychological and paranormal effects.
The Institute has managed to continue their existence largely thanks to Focus. Though most researchers and subjects at the Institute have no idea what Focus is or how it works, enough people have gotten close enough to the truth to make some progress in identifying potential candidates and activating their abilities—or at least that's what they claim.
Something like 80% of the Institute's subjects end up either catatonic or psychotic. 15% end up with some aspect of their innate Focus ability uncovered at the cost of their sanity. These subjects tend to be used as human weapons by the Institute, who will drop them in a population center (any population center, even a Republic one) and wait to see what happens. Historically, these subjects tend to be classified as serial killers and dealt with accordingly. Occasionally, the Institute will retrieve them for further research, but typically, they aren't expected to survive.
The last 5% of subjects are those who have a greater degree of their innate Focus abilities brought to the surface and who suffer only "minor psychological impairments" as a result of the Institute's experiments. These successes are typically held at the Institute as research subjects, but some of the more effective, or more violent, subjects are delivered to Terran Intelligence to be crafted into more precise human weapons.
The entire Republic system is designed to be easily corruptible and infiltrated by the Zealots. That's why it's so byzantine. Terran Intelligence is the easiest place to identify the rot growing inside the Republic.
At the time of writing, there have only ever been discussions of four people inside Terran Intel:
Of these four, two were political appointees, one is a Zealot, and two are actually working for the good of the Republic. This whole thing is doomed to failure by design.
So far, Defense Command has worked without too many incidents. Recently, however, cracks have started showing in the facade of Republic unity, and more often than not, it's a Defense Command ship or an Intel agent at the center of the crack. Those in the know are beginning to believe that both groups have been fully infiltrated and suborned by the Zealots.
If you've been paying attention, the math on the First Fleet doesn't add up. Charlemagne was 50 years ago from the "current day" of the RFI story. Surely at least one Premiere has made it to the normal transfer of power in that time?
Yes—two Premieres have come and gone since Charlemagne. However, the first was not allowed to arrange for the power transfer to occur off Earth, as no one wanted that person given the honor of the First Fleet. The second, being a legitimately humble individual and widely understood to be the only reason why the Republic didn't fall to pieces in Charlemagne's aftermath, didn't feel worthy of the honor and refused the offer.
There needs to be more than two retired numbers. We'll figure this one out when we need to. Until then, assume something horrific happened to this Fleet that was bad enough that the Ident is considered cursed.