This investigation is sponsored by Paradox Interactive.
When the Star Union collapsed, its thousands of worlds fell into a dark age of sedition
and savagery.
The light of civilization vanished, and the promise of justice, stability and progress
quickly forgotten.
For 200 years, the survivors were forced to endure the unimaginable, adapting to the chaos
or perishing in the attempt.
There are some however who emerged from the ashes of the Cataclysm unscathed, some for
whom the Star Union is not a half-forgotten cautionary tale, but a fresh and vivid source
of pride.
Human civilization might have fallen, but its most adamant defenders remain.
Now they have returned, and ruined worlds will once again feel the might of the Vanguard
Expeditionary Forces.
At the height of the Star Union, the Vanguard represented some of the empire’s most capable
military forces.
Deployed at sub-light speeds beyond the frontier, they were responsible for establishing new
colonies and outposts before eventually creating a new spatial rift to link them back to the
network.
The effects of time-dilatation meant that many expeditionary fleets were ignorant of
the Cataclysm entirely and remained trapped on the worlds they had settled by void storms
they could not explain.
Only when these subsided did they learn of the fall of the Star Union and their new status
as its last defenders.
While the loss of their nation has undoubtedly been a severe psychological blow, the Vanguard
are uniquely qualified to restore the Star Union.
Preeminently a military force accustomed to acting autonomously, its commanders are more
than capable of operating a military government.
Maintaining this strict military hierarchy has allowed the Vanguard to preserve its effectiveness
and avoid the slide into corruption or barbarism that swept across the rest of the galaxy.
While individual commanders might operate the Vanguard in different ways, all-encompassing
military control remains at the center of their new societies.
Everything from civic infrastructure to food distribution is dictated by various military
authorities, a necessity when additional resources and reserves cannot be anticipated.
Every citizen has some level of integration into the Vanguard’s military structure with
those not directly serving in the armed forces instead acting within paramilitary militia
groups or as civil servants.
Such measures never would have found success amongst the materialistic and extravagant
citizenry of the Star Union, but even before its fall, the Vanguard exemplified a different
sort of character.
Its soldiers and pioneers eschew senseless luxuries, embracing instead a culture of self-reliance,
preparedness and individual accountability.
Its members were recruited from adventurers, wanderers, thrill seekers and outcasts.
It is with some measure of irony then that if the Star Union is restored, it will have
been done so by many who rejected it to begin with.
Every element of the Vanguard is designed to fulfill its combat requirements, based
around the same basic components that have defined human military planning for centuries;
ground, sea, air, and orbital forces.
At the center of Vanguard military doctrine is a somewhat paradoxical relationship between
automated drones and human involvement.
The Vanguard have inherited the Star Union’s reliance on drones to supplement their comparatively
small population and act as force-multipliers on the battlefield.
These range from microscopic nanites to the towering Drone Carriers, enormous mobile walkers
capable of deploying swarms of automated machines for engineering, medical or combat purposes.
Even the Kir’ko, a hive-minded race of insects never approached the capabilities of these
drones, prized by the Vanguard for operating with perfect exactness and without human emotion.
Vanguard commanders might aim to remove the potential for a troubled conscience on the
battlefield, but they also recognize the advantages of passion and willpower.
While most roles in the military could be automated, the presence of human soldiers
inspires the greater populace and enables them to sympathise with the price of war.
For these reasons, men and women constitute the bulk of the Vanguard’s forces, whether
serving as infantry, crew in tanks and aircraft or aboard its warships.
Vanguard strategy is based around the concepts of rapid maneuverability and operational flexibility.
Once contact is made with enemy forces, assets can be quickly dropped down from orbit to
reinforce friendly units.
While heavier elements like laser tanks and walkers can engage the opposition directly,
assault bikes and gunships are adept at performing hit and run attacks or operating on the battlefield’s
flanks.
A myriad of orbital and aerial strikes complements these forces, but with orbital infrastructure
in an overall state of disrepair, there is a renewed reliance on naval power to support
ground operations and to clear hostile oceans of pirates and sea monsters.
Every measure will be necessary, for on thousands of worlds the skeletal remains of the Star
Union have been plundered by opportunists, secessionists and worse.
Above the derelict skyscrapers of the Union’s greatest cities however, the lights of landing
craft can now be seen.
After two centuries, the Vanguard Expeditionary Forces have returned.
Thanks to Paradox Interactive for sponsoring this investigation into the expeditionary
forces of the Vanguard.
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