Misc Antarean Imperial Army

United League Army

The AIA

Suffering in much the same way as the Antarean Imperial Space Navy, the Imperial Army has an overwhelming deficit of raw troop numbers. Though the initial victories of the war gave the fledgling Empire a solid base from which to recruit additional manpower, the actual training process has been both slow and costly. As a result, new troops are entering the field and at a depressingly slow rate. In the meantime, the Imperial Army has been forced to rely on its allies and mercenaries for assistance in attacking, garrisoning, and supporting many worlds. In addition, many of the “ruling” families in the Empire control vast private resources (including security forces) which would be quite valuable to the Imperial armed forces if turned over. However, the opposition of these families to the power of the new Emperor has made such a notion a virtual impossibility.

In the beginning, the regular army was supplemented by the planetary armies of all the new member worlds. These troops were then re-distributed across the whole Empire, and at present make up a bulk of the Regular Army, supplemented by literally hundreds of thousands of new recruits which began training during the League Pullback of '980. After this point, any units which are assigned strictly to planetary defense (eg; Militia, Planetary Guard, Security forces, etc) were given the designation of Auxiliary troops and fall under the jurisdiction of the regular army. Supplementing these forces are mercenary units, which the Empire is forced to rely on, until its military training programs catch up with the demand for more troops to garrison border/problem worlds.

Much of the army uses powered armour to one degree or another.

For detailed information on hierarchy, see Antarean Star Empire Ranks

The Imperial Regular Infantry

The Regular Army is composed of men and women from across every planet occupied or officially pledged to the Emperor. Because the "Federation" army was only drawn from 17 planets (though all densely populated) it was not nearly large enough to initially occupy every world that suddenly got dumped on it when the Empire was reformed. The Regular Infantry quickly grew in size, along with the Empire. Well trained, the Imperial Regulars are the foot soldiers of the Empire. They are unusual in that they are the Empire’s unit with the smallest number of second spines implanted.

The Imperial Guard

The Imperial Guard are elite units that pledge their loyalty directly to the Emperor himself. They are removed from the regular Army chain of command and are used as shock troops to pummel enemy worlds into submission or to guard highly valuable people, objects, and locations (for instance, the Emperor himself). Guard units are assembled by Legions, numbered 1 through 100 (though there are actually only 43 active Imperial Guard units in the new empire, the old Empire always maintained exactly 100, so the number stuck). The First Legion is always assigned to Antares prime, the rest are spread out across Imperial Space). The bulk of the legion is legionnaires, while the most elite members belong to the "Heavy" Guard, and generally act as the point of any Legion's strike.

Each Legion is commanded by an Exarch. The Legion is broken up into a non-standard number of Cohorts (usually greater than 10) which are each commanded by a Petrarch. Each cohort is comprised of Septs, the smallest operational unit of the legion containing exactly 7 Legionnaires, or Cents (short for Centurions). The active number of Septs in a cohort is variable but never falls below 10. So if you do the math, a small (or short) Legion is comprised of:

1 legion = 1*10+ Cohorts = 10*10+ Septs= 1*10*10*7 Cents = 700 Men A typical Legion is actually several times larger than that (around 4000-5000 men at their peak), but is usually dispersed over many systems.

The only ranks capable of assigning legions besides the Emperor and the Praetor are High Exarchs, which are also directly appointed by the emperor and out rank nearly all military positions.

The Imperial Auxiliaries

These forces are simply sanctioned system Militias, rarely outfitted or trained directly by the Empire. they equate to the ULA's Garrisons in purpose and deployment, except that the men are drawn from the local population.

This is a double-edged sword for the Imperial Army, as while it strengthens morale and eliminates desertion, the basic training and standard of troops is often below par.

The Imperial Irregulars

Being so short of manpower, it was only natural that the Empire would turn to mercenaries and security firms to pad out its roster. The Irregular divisions are hired guns placed under the overall command of an Imperial army staff officer.

The Imperial Engineers

The Engineer's tasks are many and varied. The AIA's Deployment and Support needs are tended by the logistics divisions, while the Tech divisions maintain the intricate Tactical Neural Network hardware present in most Antarean military equipment.

The Irae Dei

The Imperial Army's most clandestine Black Ops unit. A recent addition to the Imperial forces, this unit is trained under the supervision of the best and most elite members of the Army and comprises some of the most dangerous soldiers in the Empire. As opposed to the Imperial Guard, the Irae Dei are a highly mobile offensive unit and are rarely squandered on body-guarding or support roles. Their training is in covert assault operations of all kinds - swift, brutal, and absolutely silent. Their purpose is to be an independent source of ground intelligence for the Empire's Army and Navy.