United Colonies of Earth Defence Force



"Quoquo modo destinavit, In omnem terram'"

-Common UCE saying, Latin for 'At any cost, Through any means.'

Overview
The UCEDF is humanity's main military, comprised of Air Force, Marines, Navy and Army as well as the SPECWAR Division, or Special Warfare. It was formed over 300 years before the events of the Human-S'pher war, and remains one of the longest-surviving factions to date (Even longer, if it's roots are traced all the way back to the end of the Second World War.)

History
The UCEDF was formed in 2265, two years after the First Contact War. It was adapted from the UNCE before it, and had been formed as a result of war with extraterrestrial species. In this reformation, it underwent a massive overhaul in how the military was structured.

First Contact
In 2221, Humanity first made contact with the Collective- an alien alliance of several species. The Collective had been at war with another empire, the Thanatus, and had been fighting for nearly two centuries. For 59 years, humanity adopted the policy of not interfering in extraterrestrial affairs, but instead merely watching. In 2260, the Thanatus attacked a human colony named Refuge, due to the vast numbers of aliens who settled there after their worlds had burned. This provoked the UNCE into retaliation, swiftly taking back Refuge and taking the war to the Thanatus. The Thanatus, already battered and beaten by a two-century war, stood no chance against Earth's nearly untouched fleets. By 2263, the UNCE had a solid grasp of the Thanatus homeworld and, despite cries from the galactic community, decided not to reduce the planet to ash. These events alone quickly established the UCEDF as the dominant military of the galaxy.

From this point, humanity would continue to gain power and respect, restructuring the UNCE to the UCE in 2265, and accepted into the Collective. 35 years later, in 2300, Humans would be accepted as a member of the Assembly, and began to use this influence to gain massive scientific upgrades, making human armies even better in combat than before until in 2327, humans would finally be voted for full rule of the assembly.

The Imperium
Due to the Collective having nearly no military left after the Collective-Thanatus War, humanity assumed the role of galactic peacekeepers fairly quickly. This also elavated the new species' status in the Collective Council, and eventually gaining full control of the government. Once in control of this government, the Collective was soon renamed to the Imperium, the direct 'Order Of Species' in which was dictated priority in the galaxy of every species.

Already largely influenced by the Five, the UEG's interests lay in humans. Many worlds populated by humans were rebuilt, and almost all decisions made benefited or acted in human interests in some way. This led to several Outer Worlds never being rebuilt from The War and still lying in states of destruction. This, coupled with some bitter resentments from the refusal to obliterate the Thanatus, led to some hatred towards humans in several worlds, culminating in the rebel organisation UOS- or Union of Species, a fairly small (But Growing) faction whose ulitmate goal is the removal of the UEG from power, a movement that has not gone unnoticed.

PROJECT: EXODUS
With this resentment in mind, a 'Safe Haven' was devised for construction in 2432 called EXODUS- a 'nuclear bunker' in the event of a full scale uprising throughout the colonies. This Project was disguised as 'The Next Big Colony', or 'Earth 2.0'. The building of this colony allowed a large portion of the total budget to be allocated to the completion of the system, which would eventually become more powerful than Earth itself. It was commonly described as 'The Ultimate Fortress', and designated Human-Only, furthering UOS claims of human bias.

The S'pher
In 2654, after over two centuries of power, the UCE felt secure in their power. The limitations and controlling of extraterrestrial armies and navies allowed UCEDF troops to dominate on any military front, including skirmishes with the UOS. This theory was proved false when a small fleet of 13 unidentified ships appeared just outside the orbit of Neptune, bypassing several defenses in place to stop unauthorised access to Sol. After 2 hours of hailing, the HomeFleet First battlegroup of 40 EVISCARATOR-Class frigates went on the offensive, attacking the ships. Within 5 minutes of contact, the 1st Battlegroup was ash. Emerging from the rubble were 13 unscathed warships, newly dubbed Neptune-Class Warships. But this was only the beginning, they began to move on the science station on Europa, before eliminating the station from the surface of the moon. However, one ship was destroyed by combined fire on the smallest part of the ship, later revealed to be the Singularity Reactor that obliterated the ship it was powering. This attack then left a single message-

"We have waited in the Dark Space for millenia, watching and waiting. We are judge. We are Jury. We are Executioner. And your sentence has been decided."

Earth defenses were placed on Threat Level Omega as ships of all types from any nearby system was called to answer the call of the UCEG. This included many alien warships that continued to pile in those of the Imperium and those of the S'pher. This eventually culminated in fleets numbering in the thousands for the S'pher, and just over one thousand for the Imperium. However, the new enemy had yet to unleash ground troops, and they had only encountered light frigates of the UCE fleets, all heavier ships were still blockading Earth.

Two weeks of uneasy peace passed, before the Unknown Enemy struck with an attack force that outnumbered Imperium ships almost three to one as the First Battle of Earth began, and would continue for two years until the UCE retreat to Exodus. Curiously, all nonhuman soldiers were left untouched except in retaliation, sonn leading to many alien troops abandoning the conflict and leaving human fleets and armies almost defenseless against the onslaught.

Seventy Years of War
The UCE had been crushed, its fleets obliterated at Earth. The removal of the UCEG had spurred the galaxy into chaos as suddenly, restrictions were removed and all galactic laws were now not policed. What remained of the Imperium collapsed as several species refused to get involved, with some official militaries even stating their alliegiance to the Outcast, who suddenly found themselves as the 'New Government'. Old grudges suddenly sparked agin as the galaxy was plunged into a state of war and chaos.

On the UCE frontier, many colonies were attacked throughout the next few decades, though nothing on the scale of Earth but nontheless, destructive. The UCE soon managed to pull their armies and fleets together and almost draw a parallel. It would almost be a 50/50 chance of a win on some battles as the S'pher strength was soon revaled to be in numbers and shock tactics- rather than military strategy.

Curiously, no other species were attacked in this war by the S'pher, bar one which held a particular resentment for nearly all species in the Imperium; The Thanatus. This new discovery caused an uneasy alliance to form between Thanatus and Human soldiers as they fought against their collective enemy and to stave off extinction. The Earth was kept under occupation, though massively changed by the events.

Second Battle of Sol


In 2702, a campaign on a galactic scale, named OPERATION: RECLAMATION was launched to reclaim the UCE Lost Resources. This campaign began with Earth, partially of need to retake the homeworld, and partially to restore morale in allied troops who had begun to fear total extinction. This would eventually be a success, partially due to the S'pher fighting a New threat on the borders of the galaxy, and partially due to renewed tactics and military strength. after the Reclamtion, Earth was soon left partially abandoned as a wasteland, after the events of both battles had left almost the entire planet uninhabitable. Exodus was soon renamed New Earth.

Military Organisation
The UCEDF is divided into five main groups; Army, Navy, SPECWAR, Air Force and Marines. Each of these is divided into sub-divisions.

Army
The UCEA (United Colonies of Earth Army) Is divided into a further three groups of Colonial Police, Armoured Corps and Infantry Corps. The Army is usually the first line of defence on a planets surface due to it's permanent garrisons. The Colonial Police is largely dedicated to policing cities and and generally supporting Army Troops in the event of an attack. The Mechanised and infantry Corps are more heavily armed and generally use higher-grade weponry and vehicles. An Army Garrison of at least five Legions is stationed on every colony known to contain a significant human population as per the Terran Defense Doctrine of 2465.

Navy
The UCEN (United Colonies of Earth Navy) is the backbone of the UCE military. Divided into three divisions; Sowrd, Shield and Dagger, it commands all ships under UCE rule of both water-based (Wet) and space-based (Exo) ships. The Marines are generally stationed on Navy installations as guards against boarding actions, though the Navy's strength in fleet engagements means that this is generally uneeded. The codenames Sword, Shield and Dagger refer to the activities conducted by each type of ship, being Offensive Engagements, Defensive Engagements and Stealth Engagements, respectively. However, Dagger is mainly used in the company of SPECWAR assets, rather than direct military.

Marines
The Marine Corps are generally referred to as 'Elite Infantry'. The Marines are rarely recruited from civilians, instead being picked from existing Army soldiers. They are in the EXOWAR, CENTURION, HEVARMCORP and STORMTROOPER corps. EXOWAR is based around Zero-G combat, usually in space or on otherwise low gravity installations and boarding actions. CENTURION troops are the 'Best of The Best'- They are almost always the most trusted and equipped troops the UCE has to offer. However, they are almost always personal bodyguard of VIP's and assasins for the most  High Value Targets. A Centurion in combat is often seen as an extremely rare event. They automatically outrank all Field Officers and SPECWAR troops. STORMTROOPER units are advanced infantry, generally sent in where regular army units fail. They are standard infantry recruited from exceptional Army performers. HEVARMCORP- or Heavy Armour Corps are the step between Centurions and the Army's fully mechanised units, and often desribed as 'Living Tanks' due to the suit's operation of connecting with the pilot's nervous system and using those brainwaves to operate.

Air Force
All bombers, fighters and helicopters (As well as any other small craft under UCE jurisdiction) fall under the Air Force. AF, like the Marines, is often stationed on Navy capital ships, but is often stationed Army ground bases for ground support purposes. They fall into Exo Command, Terran Command and Transport Corps.

SPECWAR Division
SPECWAR is the R&D, Intelligence and other unconventional warfare division of the UCE. They are home to the DRAGONFIRE and PHOENIX soldiers, often specialising in stealth operations and other Black-Ops activities. XPERWAR and GENEN-R are science divisions devoted to strictly military technologies; XPERWAR being the main Research and Development and GENEN-R being Genetic Engineering Research, for creating creatures designed for combat. Alpha-five is the final division of SPECWAR, being so top secret, it is not even known about to the UCEG.

Weaponry
UCE weaponry varies throughout the different branches of the military, though much of these weapons are ballistics-based, despite the existence and availability of energy weapons. This is due to a number of factors, the first and foremost being that with the arrival of the S'pher, human strategists thought that war would be won quickly and rushed all RepulsorCraft and Energy Weapon technologies to the Core to do this. However, the foe was underestimated, and all of these weaons were either abanoned, captured or destroyed by the various species that prowl that area of space. However, reclamation of several high-end factories and schematics has seen a slow re-emergence of energy weapons amongst the Marines.

A list of all UCE weaponry- past and present- can be found here.

Vehicles
Much like the situation for weapons, many current vehicles are primitive compared to those employed by humans before their fall from power. One such technology is Repulsor Technology, which allowed craft to fly faster than any others before them and have more agility, effectively combining VTOLs with jets. Similarly, this technology was being used to create advanced Combat Walkers, Hover Tanks and Camoflage Plating, which can adapt to a colour scheme generated to suit an environment. Unfortunately, these vehicles are largely used by alien troops, with several such as the 'Helltex' and Challenger becoming signature vehicles of some factions. However, the abundance of treaded and wheeled vehicles has left the UCE a large fighting force, even though they are significantly disadvantaged on the battlefield.

A list of all UCE vehicles- past and present- can be found here.