Stephen's LEGO ® Colonies
UML Survey Corps
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The Marine Corps
The mission of the Marine Corps is to protect the minifigs from internal or external assault, enforce the law, and provide emergency aid. The Marine Corps has a post at every colony and many mining stations as well.
The face of warfare has changed considerably. The use of weapons of mass destruction is no longer tolerable. War is now fought with the precision of a surgeons laser scalpel, the objective and only the objective is hit. They even have rules for warfare. Wars are usually only found on newly found colony worlds where corporations are scrambling to stake out as many resources as possible. Occassionally these skirmishes get out of control and the marines are called in to level the playing field, ie kill everything that doesn't immediately surrender. Recently, however, small conflicts have been breaking out on some colony worlds over idealistic thinking. This is a major concern of the UML and the marines are likely to be sent in almost immediately.
The advancement of minifig into space has not gone unnoticed. Several alien races have been contacted but no permanent relations have been established. The UML is concerned about the possibility of war with other races and maintains a reserve defense force for such a contingency. The UML forces are currently on the alert for raids from the UFO's. These aliens have far superior technology but much smaller numbers. Typically, they utilize androids to do their fighting.
The Technology of War
The advent of man portable lasers, laser point defense systems, and advanced electronic counter measures have reeked their havoc as well. A single man carries enough fire power to destroy nearly any vehicle he can see, yet his advanced armor and small size make him a difficult target to overcome. Laser point defense systems combined with ECM have massively limited the size of the weapons. Anything over 30mm in diameter that flies more than 50m will be destroyed before it makes contact. The net result of all of these advances is that the infantryman again reigns supreme on the field of battle.
The only vehicle to survive in direct combat is the frame, a modified cargo loader that replaced the forklift. The frame is bipedal, giving it incredible mobility, and is capable of carrying a large amount of ordnance. Frames are multifunctional, they can be used as loaders and converted within minutes into assault or defense configurations by simply changing out the arms. This adaptability combined with their high degree of mobility and relatively small size for their power has kept them on the battle field where all other armored vehicles have been antiquated.
Organization
The marines are deployed on class 4 UML starships. The fleet of starships is organized into groups of five ships called flights. Each flight contains four attack ships and one support ship.
Each attack ship has three assault shuttles, four marine drop pods, two frame drop pods, and three assault pods. The drop pods are jettisoned directly from the starship and have limited self guidance capability, allowing them to deliver troops to a planetary surface or an asteroid in deep space. Each marine drop pod holds two squads of five marines each. Each frame drop pod holds a single frame with spare ordinance. The assualt pods can be mounted on the assault shuttle for supporting ground offensives once the point defense systems are down or for attacking other craft in flight.
The support ship in each flight carries one standard shuttle, an engineering vehicle, a personnel carrier, five containers of food and supplies, a field hospital, a command center, a gas generation module, and a fusion power module. A support ship is capable of supporting a full marine flight for two months in the field, should they live that long.
About the Author
Copyright 1997 . This page last updated: December 28, 1997.
This page created and maintained by Stephen W. Gabriel.
Write me at sgabriel@wi.rr.com