A/N before we begin, Remember, If you recognise it, I probably don't own it. Mass effect belongs to BioWare and Microsoft.
.°
MILITARY REPORT
The military of SoCon is divided into 2 major branches, The Navy and the Army. Separate from these is Cerberus the primary espionage and intelligence gathering organisation of SoCon. Cerberus is headed by The Illusive Man, which is a title given to whomever is incharge of Cerberus. The Position of Illusive Man is not permanent and changes through REDACTED.
Following is a breakdown of the Military Branches under SoCon.
Navy
Chain of Command from highest to lowest is as follows:
Lord Admiral
(leader of the entire Navy, sits at the parliament)
High Admiral
(They are the ones who handle the actual day to day running of the navy)
Admiral
(Incharge of an entire Battlefleet)
Rear Admiral
(Same as a normal Admiral but is incharge of logistics of an entire Battlefleet. Plus providing reinforcements and backup. They usually don't enter combat in the early stages.)
Commodore
(Incharge of a Flotilla. Flotillas are any collection of ships that cannot be classified as a fleet)
Captain
(In charge of a ship)
Commander
(In charge of a Frigate or a Corvette)
Lieutenant
(Second in Command after the Commander)
Sub Lieutenant
(Responsible of the handling of a specific function on the ship. Eg: incharge of Engineering, Incharge of Food, Incharge of the Communications etc)
Crewman
(The most basic rank in the navy.)
Further divisions have been rendered meaningless as advanced computing allow for ships to be have full effectiveness even when crewed by as less as 5 people for a Frigate sized ship. [1 pilot, 1 engineer, 1 comms, 2 gunners]
Currently in our naval doctrine the classification of ships is as follows:
Drone. 30 cm - 10 m
Fighter. 20 m - 50 m
Corvette. 150 m - 250 m
Frigate. 250 m - 400 m
Destroyer. 400 m - 600 m
Cruiser. 700 m - 1 km
Battleship. 1 km - 3 km
Titan: 3 km - 6 km
Super-Carrier. 5 km -6 km
Dreadnought. Any ship bigger than Super Carrier
We use a three pronged attack strategy:
Small and fast picket ships move in close to the enemies in multiple 3d attack vectors and open fire with energy based broadside mounted weapons.
Carriers stay back and release swarms of fighters and drones to carry out bombing runs on enemy ships, target point defence guns, and harry enemy fightercraft.
While our capital ships provide cover fire, while engaging larger targets, from afar and/or from close.
And lastly our dreadnoughts snipe the largest enemy ships from afar with their powerful spinal mounts.
While all ships have spinal mounts, ships below cruiser weight rarely use them beyond the initial phase of a battle. Broadsides are the primary go to for dealing damage.
Motto
ABSOLUTE VOID DOMINANCE
Army
The Army can be largely divided into 2 Major parts, the planet bound PDF and the Naval Marines. Irrespective of branch they share the same rank structure.
Lord Commander
Field Marshal (ceremonial role given during wars)
General
Lt. General
Major General
Brigadier
Colonel
Lt. Colonel
Major
Captain
Lieutenant (divided into 1st & 2nd for Marines)
Sergeant
Private
And besides this soldiers have a grading system called the N-Type classification. It goes from N-1 to N-7 with N-7 being the highest and therefore consists of the very best SoCon has to offer. It measures the skills, talents and capabilities of individual soldiers, and is usually assigned at the end of basic training camp. Increasing of one's rank is possible through taking a ranking test and is encouraged. Biotic abilities being fairly common, have no special rank/designation. But every squad usually has atleast one biotic.
Tactics
The PDF and Marines differ vastly in terms of tactics.
The PDF specializes in large scale prolonged combat situations. PDF taskforces can operate for durations Spanning Decades even without external reinforcements. This is possible because most PDF deployments are large scale and have a rapid buildup of infrastructure in the combat region itself. This rapid buildup, grants them a massive industrial ability independent of supply lines thus They can replenish their resources on the spot. Their strategy usually involves overwhelming the enemy using Artillery, tanks, orbital bombardment and swarms of cheap expendable drone fighters, before sending in heavy Infantry and normal infantry. All the while sending special forces squads to wreak havoc and sabotage the enemy lines. Only 1 out of 7 soldiers are Delta Biotics or stronger.
The Marines specialize in quick response, rapid deployment and shipboard combat. A marine taskforce can usually last only a few years without external reinforcements. This is because unlike PDF taskforces, Marines are not provided the necessary resources to build infrastructure in combat zones by Themselves. This, while shortening unaided combat durations, allows them a level of mobility and maneuverability that the PDF do not posses. Capable of changing locations and wrapping up all deployed infrastructure in a matter of days. They use specialized, highly trained squads, to target important locations alongside swarms of drones to provide blanket fire. They also use heavy and mechanized units, but not to the extent of the PDF. They also do not use land based artillery, instead relying on precision orbital bombardment. 6 out of 10 Marines are Biotics.
Orbital insertion is carried out in 2 methods, using drop pods and landing ships. Both methods are utilized by both branches depending upon the situation.
Motto (Some units have special mottos)
PDF: Duty, Courage, Honour!
Marines: For those we cherish! We die in Glory!
Special Forces.
Special Force Groups are the Elite attack units of the SoCon Army, and both branches field their own special forces units. Soldiers need to have an N- rating of 5 or more to apply.
The Special forces group fielded by the Navy and the Marines is called The U.R.S.A. (Unit for Reconnaissance and Special Actions)
The special forces fielded by the PDF is called The Dawn Units.
The B.H.U.T (Behind-the lines operations and Unconventional Tactics) Unit is the Most Elite unit and operated independent of both the Army and the Navy. Instead, it reports directly to the Council of Five, comprising of The Lord Commander of the Army, the Lord Admiral of the Navy, the President, The Prime minister, and the Illusive Man.
—-~~-xxxxxx—-xxxxx—-xxxxx—-~~-
A/N
Good God! Thinking up names for special forces that haven't been taken is HARD!
Anyway, the word "Bhut" is an Indian word meaning malevolent spirit/Ghost/Demon. I chanced upon it while looking for words that end with UT.
Ursa is Latin for Bear.
As for Cerberus, in cannon, they do way too dumb stuff to deserve such a cool name. Cerberus is the Guard Dog of Hades! (the place and the guy!) Hercules had to wrestle the damn thing for one of his labours! And even if we ignore that, It's a literal THREE HEADED DEMON HOUND! It's supposed to be cool, not cartoonishly evil!
So anyway, I'm gonna make Cerberus competent, and the first step, is to make it an official organisation. Second step, is to make sure Jack Harper is NOT the illusive man. Atleast for now.
Oh he's also not going to be inroctrinated like an idiot, and Cerberus won't pull Deus ex machinas out of their asses every other week… Good God I hate TIM! He, alongside Cerberus, is like the writer's self-insert power fantasy/plot device… something needs to happen but can't make up a reason? Cerberus did it! Need someone to find a dead reaper by calculating the trajectory of a railgun shot fired millennia ago? Cerberus!
Want someone to invent literal necromancy and respawn? Cerberus!
Need someone to pull out a certain mcguffin without justification? CERBERUS!
Need someone to cause a tragedy to the hero' team? GOD DAMN CERBERUS!
Let's just ignore cosmic drift, laws of cusality, or the laws of our made up universe! Cerberus can just pull Deus ex machinas out of it's ass!
And don't even get me started on TIM! The only god forsaken response he has to problems is cartoonishly evil and basically throwing money at it… money he just seems to spawn out of his arse!
Sorry for the rant. I just really really hate TIM.