A Comparison of Army Structures of the Protectorate and the Empire
Despite the difference of their ends and means regarding military conflicts, the army structures of the Polaris Empire and the Trade Protectorate Treaty are similar in many regards. Infantry, the Queen of Battle, still forms the foundation of both militaries, despite the theorists' claims of it being bound to become obsolete - this isn't going to happen as long as it is not total annihilation the armies pursue, but conquest.
The main branch of imperial armed forces is the line Armored Infantry - the result of prolonged genetic, educational, and medical research. The line infantrymen are not fully human; beginning their existences within the cloning machines of imperial military bases, they are meticulously culled, with specimens found subpar eliminated without remorse. Educated in the basics of warcraft, the clones receive medical augmentations: comm and tracking devices, hormonal control microservers, and narcological implants intended to, when required, inject painkillers and stimulants transforming the trooper into a fearless, unwavering berserker. Fully prepared, the clones enter the line regiments.
The Protectorate uses a different approach concerning infantry units. As the Protectorate has to defend more frequently than it conducts offensives, its strategists and politicians have devised the concept of "local armies". On planets where a strong resistance to possible imperial incursions is desired, local militia units are formed, equipped with Protectorate gear. In the Protectorate General Staff parlance, such militia divisions are commonly referred to as "scythemen". They're often helped by officers tasked with control and general command duties; each Protectorate embassy has a military representative whose tasks include raising such regiments in times of need.
A state must also have assault forces. The Polaris Empire uses regiments of human drop troops in such a role; their prolonged training makes them into soldiers as excellent as clones, but their fully human minds allow them to solve tasks much more sophisticated. The drop troops' job is to land onto planets and hold the drop sites, allowing the line units to arrive later and build on the initial success.
Protectorate assault forces consist of cyberinfantry able not only to make the initial drop, but to conquer the entire planet by themselves too. Each unit is commanded by a human officer, using an implant to directly communicate with his subordinates. While somewhat inert and cognitively limited, the cybers are superior to imperial lines and drop troops in many other respects: easier to keep supplied, better at shooting, and much harder to disable due to titanium plating many times more durable than imperial body armor.
The next level of military organization is special forces. The Empire possesses units intended to reinforce the main strike forces and to occupy conquered planets: the forces of the Financial Tribunal, also known as tribunators, resemble military police. They fight alongside the clone infantry and drop regiments, but their main strength is neither numbers nor fanaticism - it is their wide arsenal of offensive and defensive wargear and vehicles.
The Protectorate uses dedicated bases to raise specfor teams, tasked with supporting the main forces and sabotaging the enemy. Trained in all sorts of infiltration and stealth drops, specfor teams surgically strike at the opposing forces' positions and objects; they destroy bridges and missile installations, attack military towns and facilities deep behind enemy lines.
Of the seven known cases of tribunators and Protectorate specfor meeting in direct combat, four happened during imperial army landings and were won by tribunators. It is, however, known for certain that it was a specfor team who destroyed the main drop trooper training base in the 32nd sector, despite all the tribunators deployed to protect it...
Every army needs a commander. In the Empire, members of the Imperial Legion fulfill that role. Every legionary is a superb warrior and an outstanding strategist entrusted with the finest machines and huge armies of infantry, drop troopers, and tribunators. Legionaries rarely fight on foot, commonly opting for powerful battle vehicles instead. Such warmachines are masterpieces of military technology, allowing their pilots to survive at the epicenter of a nuclear blast, destroy targets tens of kilometers away, and burn small cities to ashes. In addition to that, legionaries use similarly well-protected and well-armed personal spaceships for interplanetary travel.
Of course, legionaries are still vulnerable and mortal like any human; history keeps a number of cases when a legionary has been killed in action. However, defeating even a single legionary has always costed the enemy dearly. When the dictator of New Okinawa, instigated by Protectorate advisors, had suddenly attacked then-allied imperial forces, his armies managed to kill a legionary - losing more than two thousand soldiers when fighting him and as many again in the self-destruct blaze of the warmachine.
The only worthy competition for the legionaries are Protectorate advisors. Unlike their rivals, advisors do not rely on brute force; they are agents of influence, and their tools are bribes, blackmail, persuasion, and lies. Every rebellion on an imperial planet, every act of sabotage, every assassination of a person important for the Empire - there are advisors behind that.
Despite the fact that direct combat isn't their primary task, advisors are still excellent fighters; their bones house forcefield implants, useful both in offense and defense. Unlike a legionary's common appearance being that of an insane technician's nightmare, advisors are handsome and charismatic. Their trademark piece of equipment are silver-colored cloaks, which are parts of their forceshield protection as well; another testament to the Protectorate's higher tech opposed to the Empire's troop numbers and strength. Advisors have nonetheless fallen victims to the Empire many times, but at a great cost every time.
There's a semblance of a third force in the Empire-Protectorate confrontation: the Space Knights, a sect that has arisen at the very dawn of human expansion. While their earliest history is unknown, most researchers believe them to be descendants of independent space explorers. Seemingly fragmented, the Space Knights are actually a strong and monolithic organization. Powerful warriors, they have participated in almost every major war during the last thousand years; often at opposed sides, but never against each other. A distinctive feature of a knight is his monomolecular sword - a weapon of pure high-durability crystal cutting alloyed steels as easily as flesh. Both the Empire and the Protectorate have tried many times to uncover the secret behind these swords' manufacture, yet it remains a mystery; such a sword disintegrates upon its owner's death, and there was never a knight taken alive. The Knights are quite vindictive, and many officers both imperial and Protectorate have lost their lives after unsuccessful attempts to capture a knight.
Guided by motives known to nobody else, the knights participate in the great war on both sides; even the Empire, ever disdainful for mercenaries, accepts their services, as mere presence or absence of a knight can turn the tide of battle.
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