Hadron Corps
Flag and Seal
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The Hadron Corps
From the Skies
Airbase Altus, 24°S 90°W
Hadron Corps Standard
2,853,536 sq km (17th)
911,328 sq km (31.94%)
1,919,808 sq km (67.28%)
22,400 sq km (0.78%)
359,715,268 (10th)
385/sq km (6th)
+2.281%
Stratocratic Military-Republic
Skylady Stella Mordan, Grand High Marshal of the Aerial Control-Support Service
Rictritt Cairn, High Admiral of the Aeronaval Service
Mescor Lein, High Chancellor
of the Civil Secretariat
2 PT
Aerinian
Aerinian aero (₳) (AER)
NST -7 to +8
Introduction
The Hadron Corps (/ˈhædrən kɔr/) is a Post-Tempest Novalunar faction. Like its Ante-Tempest predecessor, the Hadron Corps was the first amongst its peers to establish itself, recovering from the Tempest and its wake of destruction far quicker than any other polity on Novaluna and immediately setting out to reverse the calamity the Tempest had wrought.
However, with continuity between the worlds of Novaluna almost entirely severed by the Tempest, the Hadron Corps founding mission to reunify Novaluna and reestablish the mission swiftly came to naught; the other incipient nations of Novaluna were loth to relinquish power solely on a mandate of status quo ante. To a degree accepting this new political reality without abandoning its mission of Novalunar unity, the Hadron Corps too came to grow and adapt to this novel state of affairs. In a world that, far contrary to its vision, began to brim with division and enmity, the Hadron Corps retreated into a militarism with which it was comfortable and familiar. And just as its peers began to change far beyond recognition, so too did the Hadron Corps and its purpose; it would now attempt to leverage its immense military might into bringing this violent and fractured world to heel, through alliance, coercion, or destruction if so necessary.
Centuries past its founding, it remains a premier—albeit far from uncontested—military powerhouse and one of the most prominent actors on the international stage, having almost single-handedly constructed the present system of standardised, normalised international affairs and law and formed one of the largest systems of pacts, alliances, and ententes ever to exist on Novaluna since the Tempest. While its somewhat transactional approach to mutual defense treaties has seen it often derided as a glorified, nation-sized mercenary company, it nevertheless remains true to its own unique form of liberal militarism, seldom seen elsewhere on Novaluna.
Much of the Hadron Corps' military strength stems from its unique territorial distribution—it owns several insular bases all across the moon—its system of universal quasi-conscription that blurs the lines between civilian and soldier, and its highly advanced and proprietary military technology. Most prominently, it is the sole user of Cirrus drives, mechanopsionic devices hybridising power generation and countergravity propulsion, allowing the Hadron Corps to lift and suspend tremendous quantities of mass above the ground with relative ease. With this technology, the Hadron Corps has become a self-described ouranocracy, basing much of its noncombatant infrastructure and almost all of its military equipment in the sky, including its famed and feared armada of airborne war vessels, the largest of which are flying ultra-dreadnoughts carrying enough firepower to level entire cities.
Etymology
As with many Post-Tempest faction names, the Hadron Corps as a contiguous term dates back to before the Tempest; Hadron was the
callsign of a military corps formation stationed on XCL-I SkyFortress, the first military unit to recover and reform in the aftermath of the Tempest and begin the reconstruction of XCL-I. To retain organisational unity and discipline under such extreme, exigent circumstances, Hadron Corps absorbed the remnants of other units under its command; while it initially took on the neutral, overarching name of Emergent Command, its prior name stuck and was eventually adopted as the formal name for the entirety of the polity that emerged from Hadron Corps' efforts.
The demonym Aerinian has a later origin, when it became necessary to distinguish active-duty combatants—typically identified by their branch of service or otherwise defaulting to Aerine—from all citizens of the Hadron Corps. Aerinian thus stems from this latter term, and furthermore gave rise to Aerinia, an uncommon poetic name for the Hadron Corps as a whole, which is sometimes used by advocates of reforming the Hadron Corps to become a fully civil polity.
History
Quite without question, what distinguishes the Hadron Corps from all the rest of Novaluna is, in the face of all the calamity the world can throw at it, a character of sheer indomitability. From the moment of its inception, this spirit of pure, potent invictus in the goals and values the Hadron Corps commits itself to has defined its role in the world of Novaluna post-Tempest, unfailingly placing it centremost in the defining events of Novalunar history as well.
The ante-Tempest Novalunar colony of XCL-I SkyFortress was no more fortunate than the rest of its contemporaries in the ravaging it suffered during the Tempest. And yet, though it was decades before many of their civilian brethren could recover a semblance of civilisation, the military men and women once of SkyFortress would not deign to stew in inaction amongst the chaos. Within only months, the entirety of the SkyFortress remnant had reformed and reorganised under the authority of the former military colony's best-preserved corps formation, and after no more than two years of tireless work did the Hadron Corps establish itself as the first polity to arise from the ashes of the apocalypse.
Its grasp upon the tenuous strings connecting its to its ante-Tempest past far stronger than most, the Hadron Corps immediately set about implementing a host of contingency plans, all designed around the overarching goal of reviving the mission and peoples of Novaluna One. Fanning out across the world in fleets of ships salvaged and repaired from the wreckage, its first step towards this goal was to establish military bases worldwide, from which it could then deliver aid, assistance, and if need be, military-backed order. Yet in this capacity, at this critical moment in history, much in spite of its efforts it failed. Though its relief initiatives saved many lives and garnered many allies, as the Hadron Corps discovered in those years, the world it sought to restore was too far gone to ever recover.
For the purpose-driven Aerinians, this revelation was something of a crisis in and of itself, a rebuke to what had until then been its raison d'être. Stricken by this, for a time the Hadron Corps withdrew, disillusioned with the twisted new order shaping up before it. Yet this was not a retreat nor an admission of defeat, merely a period for reflection, reassessment, and eventually, reengagement, for when it did reemerge, it was with a new cause to fight for. With its power, hard and soft, the Hadron Corps would reunite this shattered world and reanimate the essence and spirit, if not the original form, of Novaluna One, whether it be across years or centuries.
Geography
The Hadron Corps is the most widely-dispersed polity on Novaluna, claiming and enforcing sovereign territorial jurisdiction over a vast multitude of small islands anchored by military bases, far beyond its home archipelago, as well as three large orbital installations that further cement its position as a truly international power and extend its power-projection capabilities to a much greater extent than any other faction's.
The arid chain of islands to which it is native, however, is known as the Stratus Islands, and is generally held to comprise three principal regions; Stratus Major, the largest and centremost of the islands, on which is the Aerinian capital of Airbase Altus; the Strata Minora, the various smaller islands surrounding Stratus Major; and Nubilus Island, a small island to the west of Stratus Major sometimes considered separate from the rest of the Stratus Islands. Given the high-tropical and low-subtropical location of the archipelago, most of the islands experience a hot desert climate (BWh) or hot semiarid climate (BSh) despite their pelagic location. The northernmost two islands are notable exceptions; as they are closer to the equator, they experience tropical seasonal (Aw) and monsoon (Am) climates.
Government & Politics
The Hadron Corps, to a largely accurate degree, characterises itself as a stratocratic military-republic, meaning that the military and civilian functions of the government are legally intertwined to the point of inseparability; the state and military are the same entity by law, civil and military noncombatant service are virtually indistinguishable, and nearly all of the Hadron Corps' officialdom is drawn from the ranks of its national service branches and organisations. Nevertheless, its designation as a military republic remains important and nontrivial, thus distinguishing it from a military dictatorship or junta; the state's remit, though broad and not particularly democratic, is bound by a well-enforced constitution known as the Ventus Code, and much of its civil governing power is channeled through an edifice of power-checked technocrats and elected representatives, although the highest reaches of power are held by meritocratic appointees. Ultimately, the government of the Hadron Corps stresses that sovereign legitimacy is derived from two sources; the Aerinian people, and the Corps' stated mission, both codified in the constitution, rather than any singular leader.
The highest post of office within the government of the Hadron Corps is the Superintendent. Although they are constitutionally bound to act in the service and interests of the Hadron Corps, its people, and its mission, and may be obstructed or even removed from their post for failing to do so, beyond these judicially-defined limits the Superintendent has ultimate authority over all arms of the government, civilian and military alike. As with most other high officers of the government, the Superintendent is almost always chosen from the top echelons of subordinate services, usually the branches of the military, and appointed by a purpose-convened council simply termed the Appointive Panel. Due to the Hadron Corps' power and influence on the international stage, the Superintendent is frequently regarded as one of the most powerful and important political figures in the world.
Directly below the Superintendent are two other "ultimate" posts in the Hadron Corps' government; the Supreme Commanding Officer (abbreviated to SCO), who exercises command of and responsibility over the Hadron Corps' military combatant and auxiliary noncombatant forces, and the Secretary-Premier (SecPrem), who presides over the Civil Secretariat, the bureaucratic body directly responsible for governing and administrating all of the Hadron Corps' quasi-civil sphere besides. Their respective authorities second only to the Superintendent, they and the various hierarchies of institutions and subordinates at their command handle the bulk of mundane tasks posed by their areas of responsibility, while the Superintendent typically focuses on matters of greater importance. As with their superior, they are appointed by the Appointive Panel when the post opens up for whatever reason, with the SCO picked from the Hadron Corps' highest military leaders and the SecPrem chosen from the top bureaucrats of the Civil Secretariat.
A custom of title appellation exists within the Hadron Corps to distinguish the merit of exceptional individuals. High is given to a former ranking member of the military services or servant of the civil secretariat to denote their promotion to one of the aforementioned three highest posts in the Hadron Corps, appended to their former rank in the service from which they are formally retired. For example, a High General of the Aerine-Terrestrial Service would apply to a Superintendent or SCO who, though no longer still technically a ranking general of the Aerine Service, formerly was one prior to their promotion. Grand, another august title of merit, is given to people who have served at least fifty distinguished years in one or multiple branches of service, irrespective of their current position. The title Skylord or Skylady, which typically precedes the recipient's personal name rather than service title, is awarded to both military and civilian persons recognised for having performed an especially great or heroic service to the Hadron Corps.
Foreign Relations
Pursuant to its ultimate goal of reuniting humanity on Novaluna, in addition to its hard-power militarism the Hadron Corps is the main architect of a large string of diplomatic alliances, pacts, and ententes collectively constituting a political, economic, and military bloc accounting for a significant share of the world's population and economic output. Known semi-formally as the Organisation for Novalunar Integration (ONI), it is the largest intergovernmental alliance in Novalunar history since the Tempest, although internally it is a heterogeneous mix of agreements, treaty alliances, and informal associations ultimately centered on the Hadron Corps as its crux, rather than a singular organisation with a formal, codified structure. Nevertheless, most such agreements feature a number of major elements in common, primarily related to mutual defense and co-operation as well as a degree of direct and indirect recompense for the Hadron Corps' provision of military assistance. Though opponents of ONI's structure deride it as transactional rather than principled in nature, thus making the Hadron Corps a glorified mercenary company, joining ONI is nevertheless contingent on a number of preconditions, chiefly a commitment to the tenet of Novalunar unity as well as a certain level of societal and economic freedom. Current signatories to ONI are the New Moon Republic, Zenith Foundation, Regenesis Society, Arc-Angel United, Deepreach, Hammerscape, Neonymphonia, Exclave Vistora, and Subpole Alpha.
Outside of ONI, the threats posed chiefly by the perennially belligerent powers of the Solarian Covenant, the Praxoid Hive, and Grailsphere, as well as the newly (and extraordinarily) menacing Ash Crest Necronet, all in association under the Black-Green Pact, have sharpened the incentive for as wide a berth of allies as possible. The Hadron Corps has thus struck circumstantial alliances with the Sunstruck Realms, Citizen's Combine, Freewater Confederation, Heart of the World, Golden Immortals, and Oasis Mirage. Furthermore the Hadron Corps entered detentes with another two of its historical enemies, the Dominion of the North and the Altaterra Empire, in exchange for withdrawal of military garrisons near the former's territories and a blank cheque for the latter to invade and annex Reignholds and Grailsphere under certain assurance; given the military might of these two former opponents as well as the collective strength of its alliances in and out of ONI, the Hadron Corps consider these to be extraordinary diplomatic accomplishments, at last raising the possibility of an organised front strong enough to contain the Necronet's threat.
Science & Technology
The Hadron Corps considers technology to be a critical aspect of maintaining its military edge, the breadth of which have always been narrow in the face of constant arms-racing against rival powers. Towards this end, it not only maintains a very high and steady pace of military research and development in-house, but also outsources and seeks external innovation to a far greater degree than any power of comparable military might. Through its broad system of alliances, the Hadron Corps maintains several lines of technology-sharing, most prominently with the extremely productive R&D apparatus of the Zenith Foundation, Arc-Angel United, and Exclave Vistora.
The best-known example of uniquely Aerinian technology is the Cirrus drive, a design of mechanopsionic device capable of creating a countergravitation force typically in the opposite direction but of variable magnitude to the force of gravity acting on the point of channeling. Due to its remarkable efficacy in lifting extremely large masses, on the order of naval warships in its early incarnations to entire cities by later developments, with relatively little external power input, the Cirrus drive fast became an irrevocable part of the Hadron Corps in its every facet. With the Cirrus drive, the Hadron Corps was able to apply the doctrines of expeditionary naval surface warfare in which it once specialised to all terrestrial environments, vastly expanding its strategic reach. Yet even after lifting the near-totality of its dynamic military infrastructure into the air, the Hadron Corps did not stop; where its ships first went, its military bases and even civilian cities partially followed, until it truly became a civilisation with its primary basis in the sky.
Elsewise, however, the Hadron Corps is characteristic by relatively little technological radicalism, especially in the military sphere, preferring iterative improvements and refinements to existing technologies and the doctrines that stem from them, an approach that has served it well thus far over the course of its endeavours. One of this approach's most salient manifestations is in Aerinian weapons technology, notable for being decidedly unexotic; rather than make use of such novelties as, for example, sclerophotonics (hard light) as the Solarian Covenant does, weapons of the Hadron Corps remain largely projectile in nature (hence their reputation of an inordinate fondness for large-calbre cannon). Many innovations, chief among them in plasmatics and high-energy particle physics, have nevertheless improved the performance metrics of Aerinian bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles well in line with their more exotic peers. The method by which these projectiles are accelerated, however, is novel and unique to the Hadron Corps; unpowered ballistic projectiles are propelled by a combination of electromagnetic accelerators (coils or rails) and expanding bursts of magnetically confined plasma within the weapon receiver and barrel, while powered projectiles such as rockets and missiles utilise similar principles with magnetoplasma motors. Although downsides include high energy costs, the power and reliability these designs afford see them incorporated into nearly all weapon systems of the Hadron Corps, infantry and vehicle alike.
In addition to those, the Hadron Corps does make fairly extensive use of plasma and particle-beam based technology, including the various technologies based on the Nimbus system. These are also known as Hadron Cannons, massive weapons firing high-volume, magnetically confined streams of extremely high-energy particles, and Hadron Shields, devices projecting variable-density bubbles of ionised matter (although, despite the name, the compositions of these particle mixes include more than just hadrons, and nor are they true plasmas despite quasineutrality).
Central to the organisation of the Hadron Corps, both in and out of war, is the unified, networked supersystem of computers running a distributed artificial intelligence program known collectively as the Cumulus Tactics, Strategy, and Logistics Engine (TSLE), known typically as just Cumulus. Developed in concert with Vistoran experts and derived from the Vocis kernel, Cumulus is a highly advanced coordination AI tapped into the vast majority of Aerinian infrastructure and used to optimise tactical, strategic, and logistical decision-making in aid of present war efforts. Though most individual commands are still assessed and executed by human personnel in the command chain, Cumulus plays an integral role in recommending courses of action, coordinating those actions with other parts of the military, and, if need be, assuming direct command of military and civilian infrastructure in emergent circumstances.
Military
Though it is by a margin thin and tenuous, the Hadron Corps nevertheless maintains the most sophisticated and powerful military force on all of Novaluna and beyond. Given its unique and unprecedented role in defending both itself and its allies and advancing an agenda of universal peace and security under one military hegemony in a hostile and militarised world, the Hadron Corps considers its powerful and capable military to be a vital and fundamental aspect of its existence. As a result of this, the Hadron Corps' military force is both central to its very essence and pervasive through all the facets of its nature; in effect, the Hadron Corps and its military are synonymous, to the degree that no official separate term even exists for its military force as distinct from its civilian elements, only for its different branches of service, not least because even its civilian elements are only viewed as noncombatant contributors to its military.
Organization
Structure
The Hadron Corps military, in pursuit of optimal operational efficiency, is organised along fairly conventional lines heavily drawn from the military structure of its predecessor entity, and thus in turn from the militaries of Old Earth. Authority is organised along a rank-determined direct chain of command, with members of each rank exercising authority over a predetermined unit and in turn reporting to their immediately superior commanding officer under normal circumstances. Only at the highest echelon of rank does this relationship change; although each branch of service has a First Officer wielding some organizational authority over their respective branches, wartime operation is chiefly conducted by officers of a Secondary Command rank, who have full jurisdiction and joint command-and-control authority over a geographic or functional sphere of command and who report either to the Supreme Commanding Officer (SCO) or directly to the Superintendent, bypassing branch chiefs. Breaking chain of command is ordinarily discouraged in general practice, but is considered acceptable in justifiably unusual situations.
Branches of Service
Numerous formal department, bureaus, and agencies exist under the aegis of the Hadron Corps' government, and all are seen as contributory directly or indirectly towards the Hadron Corps' military endeavours. Nevertheless, five such divisions, broadly equivalent to military branches of service, are seen as the "core" constituents of the Hadron Corps' proper military force, as they encompass nearly all of the Hadron Corps' combatant soldiers.
The Aeronaval service, or Aeronavy, is responsible for crewing and operating the Hadron Corps' vast fleet of aeronavs, used to great effect in every major confrontation and project the Corps' military might across the world entire. As the aeronavs are the uncontested cornerstone of the Hadron Corps' strategic doctrine, the Aeronaval service is often regarded as the the most august and prestigious of the five branches, being the bedrock on which all the other branches and indeed much of Aerinian society rests. Partially because of this, but primarily due to the sheer tonnage the Hadron Corps' aeronaval fleet commands, the Aeronaval service is the best-funded branch of the Corps' military, apparent in the incomparable might and glory of its fleet.
The Aerine-Terrestrial service, often truncated to the Aerines, encompasses the bulk of infantry and frontline materiel forces expected to engage enemies in terrestrial and quasi-terrestrial settings. Trained to deploy en-masse from transport aeronavs in a manner akin to more conventional marines, and proceed on the ground in combined-arms formations like a typical land army, the Aerines wield a wide variety of personnel-level equipment as well as numerous capable military landcraft so as to most effectively combat enemy land forces in concert with the Hadron Corps' signature aerial tactics. Rightly admired and feared for the toughness, resolve, and lethality of its members, Aerines bear the brunt of warfare on their shoulders.
The Aerial Control-Support service, known otherwise as the Aerial CS service or even Air Force by outside parties, is the branch responsible for maintaining the Hadron Corps' operational air supremacy in any theatre of conflict, conduct ground support for Aerine ground forces, and operate and protect logistical supply lines. Comparable to a conventional air force and equipped with numerous highly advanced aircraft (as distinct from aeronavs), the Aerial CS service lacks the reputational prestige of the Aeronavy and fierceness of the Aerines, yet is nevertheless regarded as a critical pillar of Aerinian military doctrine due to its role in protecting and supporting fellow forces as well as striking with speed and power against the enemy.
The Aerinian Security service, elsewise just the Security service, is a multifaceted branch responsible for defending the domestic Aerinian sphere against threats within and without. Variously comparable to a gendarmery, constabulary, and security agency, the Aerinian Security service is responsible for many elements pertaining to domestic security, from basic policing activities to counter-terrorism, COIN in occupied territories, and directly defending Aerinian people and infrastructure from external attack. Although it does not engage opposing militaries directly except in times of emergency defense, its roles as guardian and police amongst active-duty servicemembers in the field make its presence important and known.
The Aerospace Strategic service, also called the Aerostrat, commands the bulk of the Hadron Corps' "major strategic assets", including its arsenal of strategic WMDs, the near-entirety of its space-based military infrastructure, its intelligence services, and its cyber warfare units. It also exercises joint command and coordination of the other branches' special forces and psionic warfare units, conducting many aspects of warfare that do not involve direct engagement in combat. Though its "background" role lacks the same apparent gravitas as the other branches, with many of its servicemembers being moreso technicians than soldiers, it is nevertheless of vast importance to Aerinian war efforts due to its control of potent facilitative measures.
Personnel
Ranks & Chain of Command
Service Branch | Aeronaval | Aerine-Terrestrial | Aerial Control-Support | Aerinian Security | Aerospace Strategic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ultimate Command | Superintendent | Superintendent | Superintendent | Superintendent | Superintendent |
Superior Command | Supreme Commanding Officer | Supreme Commanding Officer | Supreme Commanding Officer | Supreme Commanding Officer | Supreme Commanding Officer |
Primary Command | First Admiral | First General | First Marshal | First Inspector | First Commissioner |
Secondary Command | Fleet Admiral | Field General | Force Marshal | Fort Inspector | Front Commissioner |
Tertiary Command | Admiral | General | Marshal | Inspector | Commissioner |
Quaternary Command | Lieutenant Admiral | Lieutenant General | Lieutenant Marshal | Lieutenant Inspector | Lieutenant Commissioner |
Quinary Command | Commodore Admiral | Brigadier General | Commander Marshal | Provost Inspector | Overseer Commissioner |
Division Command | Colonel | Colonel | Colonel | Colonel | Colonel |
Division Sub-Command | Lieutenant Colonel | Lieutenant Colonel | Lieutenant Colonel | Lieutenant Colonel | Lieutenant Colonel |
Brigade Command | Commodore | Brigadier | Commander | Provost | Overseer |
Brigade Sub-Command | Lieutenant Commodore | Lieutenant Brigadier | Lieutenant Commander | Lieutenant Provost | Lieutenant Overseer |
Regiment Command | Major | Major | Major | Major | Major |
Regiment Sub-Command | Lieutenant Major | Lieutenant Major | Lieutenant Major | Lieutenant Major | Lieutenant Major |
Battalion Command | Captain | Captain | Captain | Captain | Captain |
Battalion Sub-Command | Lieutenant Captain | Lieutenant Captain | Lieutenant Captain | Lieutenant Captain | Lieutenant Captain |
Company Command | Lieutenant | Lieutenant | Lieutenant | Lieutenant | Lieutenant |
Company Sub-Command | Sublieutenant | Sublieutenant | Sublieutenant | Sublieutenant | Sublieutenant |
Platoon Command | Ensign Officer | Sergeant Officer | Warrant Officer | Constable Officer | Petty Officer |
Section Command | Corporal | Corporal | Corporal | Corporal | Corporal |
Enlisted | Private | Private | Private | Private | Private |
In Training | Cadet | Cadet | Cadet | Cadet | Cadet |
Special & Psionic Forces
The Hadron Corps places a lower doctrinal emphasis on special operations than other polities even of comparable strength, preferring to leverage its substantial advantages in conventional warfare instead. Nevertheless, each branch of service maintains their own division-allocated special forces units, all of which are known for being well-equipped, well-trained, and highly capable in their respective unconventional warfare missions. While all branches of service possess a special-forces division, command of said divisions typically falls under the remit of the Aerospace Strategic service to promote force interoperability.
Very similar principles apply to units incorporating psionics-capable beings; while the Hadron Corps does not make nearly as much usage of psions as many of its peers, where applicable it happily accepts psionic combatants and where opportune it deploys them widely and effectively.
Organised by their branch of service, the Hadron Corps' principal special warfare divisions are:
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Aeronaval Service
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Aero-Marine Special Amphibious Force (AMSAF Blue): AMSAF Blue is the chief operator of the Hadron Corps' Air-Sea hybrid infantry, craft, and logistical support materiel, extending the Hadron Corps' military might beneath the ocean surface.
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43rd Transfer Vanguard Division (Forty-Threes): The Forty-Threes comprise the specialist shock troopers prepared specifically for spearheading the boarding and invading of major airborne enemy targets.
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Aerine-Terrestrial Service
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Rapid Deployment Strike Force (Lightning Force): Lightning Force are the Aerines' principal rapid-deployment front-line units, capable of mobilising and deploying into high-intensity combat anywhere in the world within hours of activation.
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Line Infiltration Group, Infantry (Aerine Marauders): The Aerine Marauders are specially trained and equipped for deployment far behind enemy lines, and are capable of conducting effective asymmetric warfare without logistical support.
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12th Shock Division, Armour (Brawler Division): Brawler Division encompasses a number of highly skilled ground mech operators assigned to conduct unconventional operations, often alongside other special-operations forces.
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Aerial Control-Support Service
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1st Aerial Hybrid Division (Vultures): The Vultures are all Aerial CS pilots with clearance to pilot the powerful Str-12 Atash hybrid GA aircraft and mech, so distinguished by the skill required to safely and effectively crew it.
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Personnel Rescue and Recovery (Pararunners): The Pararunners specialise primarily in airborne recovery, rescue, and medical treatment of Hadron Corps personnel in hazardous or high-intensity combat environments.
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Aerinian Security Service
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Hadron Corps Internal Security Units (ISUs): The ISUs are COIN-oriented internal security forces akin to SWAT teams, to be deployed in highly dangerous situations in the domestic and quasi-domestic spheres.
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Aerospace Strategic Service
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Military Intelligence - Field Reconnaissance (MILINT-RECON): MILINT-RECON is an intelligence agency tasked with gathering and analysing information for use on the battlefield, and counteracting enemy attempts to do the same.
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Special Psionic Section (SPS): The SPS contains all individuals party to the Hadron Corps' biopsionic warfare endeavours, from frontline deployment to indirect engagement with enemy biopsionic infrastructure and technology.
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Equipment
Aeronavs
Axiomatic to the Hadron Corps' doctrine of military power projection are its gigantic flying war vessels, known colloquially by many names but officially termed Aeronavs. Powered and borne aloft primarily by Cirrus drives, aeronavs serve the relative function of naval warships, transporting and deploying troops, equipment, and vehicles to the battlefield in vast quantities and acting as heavily armoured gunnery platforms for weapons too massive to transport by other means. With tonnages ranging from the thousands to over a million, the Hadron Corps' aeronavs are among the largest airborne devices ever built, and fielded in numbers that exceed most rival surface navies they allow the Hadron Corps to maintain a certain military supremacy, distributed all across the world yet in no place diluted in sheer strength.
Given their keystone role in the Hadron Corps, aeronavs are very frequently the subject of the Hadron Corps' most notable cutting-edge technological innovation. In and of themselves, as tremendous levitating military platforms, they demonstrate the power and versatility of the Cirrus drives that enable their existence. Furthermore, they were the testbeds of the Nimbus system and its many derived military technologies, and certainly remain the most prominent carriers of the system's most famous permutations. Nevertheless, at the same time they are often held to be emblematic of the Hadron Corps' "traditional" approach to weapons and warfare; in spite of their flight, aeronavs are rightly regarded as continuations of a "battlewagon doctrine" stretching far back to the dawn of industrial warfare on Old Earth. Embracing this fact, aeronav direct armaments typically consist of (sometimes extremely) large batteries of heavy cannon and missile artillery, often embracing improvements to these technologies yet rarely departing far from the concepts.
Aeronavs active under the Hadron Corps' Aeronaval Service are classified by role and tonnage, with each aeronav class in turn activated within one of several available "flights" that determine equipment loadouts.
Orbital Stations
In pursuit of its goal of a substantial, if not dominant military presence across all relevant theatres of warfare, the Hadron Corps maintains significant amounts of military infrastructure beyond the confines of Novaluna's atmosphere, in orbit and beyond. While the true crux of its spaceborne military might rests in the close system of alliances with other spacefaring powers it has forged, the Hadron Corps nevertheless lays claim to a number of prominent war assets in Novaluna's exosphere, chief among which are its three Hadron Corps Orbital Stations (HCOSs), massive orbital installations designed to both project power back onto Novaluna's surface and directly combat space-based enemies. Although the Hadron Corps' in-atmosphere aeronav fleet continues to underpin the rest of its major military doctrines, the increasing importance of outer space as the main battlespace for decisively dealing with the Solarian Covenant has seen the Hadron Corps' space warfare programs increase in importance, size, and funding, a trend encapsulated in plans to launch a fourth HCOS, the HCOS Halcyon.
Vehicles
Although not as grandiose as the famous aeronavs, the other military vehicles of the Hadron Corps are nonetheless impressive in their own right for the feats of engineering they represent, to say nothing of the understated yet vital role they play in the Hadron Corps' martial efforts. They are the foremost method by which the Hadron Corps engages enemy forces, especially in the many circumstances where bombarding them from above with aeronav munitions is not a viable approach, and have long been the difference between success and defeat in numerous battles.
Prominently, many designs of combat vehicle used by the Hadron Corps feature what is known technically as "variable configuration", denoting the ability to greatly alter their geometry and transform between two or more forms with enough speed and reliability to apply while in the midst of a fight, often to the degree that the distinct forms are almost unrecogniseable as the same vehicle. One such vehicle is the Str-12 Atash, famous for its usage by the 1st Aerial Hybrid Division, an elite Aerial CS Service contingent best known by their moniker, the Vultures. The Atash is capable of transforming between a heavily armed ground-attack airplane and a semi-humanoid mech, hybridising the roles of AS strike and heavy airborne shock armour. This design philosophy is applied to varying degrees in most Hadron Corps vehicles, from walker-VTOL dropship transports to tank-static fortifications.
Infantry
As with the rest of the Hadron Corps military, the equipment used by Hadron Corps infantry is characterised by hewing to older principles of design, even if some of the fundamental technologies underpinning them is deceptively cutting-edge. Infantry small arms and other man-portable weapons are almost universally kinetic-ballistic in nature, firing bullets, slugs, shells, and missiles at high velocities or with explosive payloads in order to damage targets. Some designs of weapon using purely plasma or other energetic mixtures of charged particles have been miniaturised enough for use by infantry, but their performance is regarded as inferior to longer-running, more dependable designs.
Power armour is standard-issue for all infantry soldiers of the Hadron Corps and many other servicemember classes besides; most standard service editions are based on a single template consisting of a multi-layered undersuit on which numerous modular units can be attached. Common additions include a variety of actuator exoskeletons and armour plating sets, as well as computational and communication suites that link each and every soldier with the military-wide Cumulus TSLE. Myriad other armour additions and loadouts are available for more specialised roles, with the suit in effect serving as a hub to which all of a soldier's other peripheral equipment is connected.