Branches

Administration of the CCD armed forces is located in the Kremlin Arsenal Building.

Districts

The ground and air forces of the CCD military are distributed among a number of military districts, each subsisting within the seven current Dominances. These districts constitute the Joint Strategic Commands for each Dominance. The Navy consists of a number of fleets organized by geographic location. Headquarters for each Dominance’s districts is located in the Dominance capital. The Custody of Defense is located within the Kremlin walls in Moscow.

Note that many of the military command posts in and around Moscow are linked by special underground metro lines. The Moscow Kremlin regiment reports directly to the Executive Office of the Ascendancy rather than the Custody of Defense.

The Ascendancy is advised by a group of chief military staffs representing each branch of the armed forces, special forces, and intelligence. This council is known as the Collective.

Rank

CCD specific ranks

Enlisted members and non-commissioned officers follow modern day NATO-style military ranking systems. Likewise, the non-line commissioned officers (such as medical officers, lawyers and chaplains) train and operate similar to modern day NATO protocols.

Senior officers consisting of Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel and Major follow NATO-style hierarchies.

Supreme officers of the armed forces, however, follow rank structures owing back to the days of Russia:

Marshal of the Army is a war-time position only and bearer of the Arc of the Marshall – a single crescent medal worn around the neck made of gold and diamonds and signifies the badge of their rank.

Equivalent deck ranks exist for naval and coastal forces.

Noted members of the Collective

Uniforms

Upon reorganization from the ASU into the CCD, shows of military unity and strength were vitally important. The Ascendancy’s order was to approach the design of the CCD military with a philosophy that paid tribute to Russian heritage but was not overtly Russian. Furthermore, the design of the uniforms needed to be adapted to fit the wide range of climate and conditions within CCD borders.

Symbols and designation

Otherwise, stripes, ribbons and stars constitute uniform designation of rank in CCD colors. Plain shoulder epaulets are sported by Privates, Airmen and Seamen. Plain bars are worn for ranks of senior NCOs (small horizontal from Corporal/Senior Airman/Leading Seaman to Sergeant/Staff Sergeant/Petty Officer increasing by seniority, large horizontal for Staff Sergeants, Flight Sergeants and Chief Petty Officers, and vertical bars for Starshinas and Ship CPO’s), mirroring the Imperial Russian Army and 1970s Soviet Army insignia.

Design

The main requirement for the CCD uniform is practicality. The CCD’s uniforms were created by well known designers. The shirts and high-collared jackets have no outside pockets, an impractical design to begin with as soldiers were not allowed to carry anything in them. The service caps are short, mimicking design of the early twentieth century. The shape of the papakha (the tall fur hat) remains the same. There are double-breasted duty-dress and parade-dress uniforms (army gray, air force and naval black) each with gold, black, or orange epaulets.

Other

Generals wear gold embroidery on their cuffs, collars and caps similar to a Soviet Union design. Air force generals wear leather coats. The leather jacket of the ordinary pilot is shorter, but also fur-lined and with a fur collar. Sailors have white dress uniforms ornamented with black and orange depending on rank, while air force personnel have pale gray dress uniforms and “little wings” on their service caps.

Boots and shoes are made of a high-quality, soft natural leather. Field boots are made of soft waterproof leather and lightweight soles lined with antibacterial layers. Both are very light.

Camouflage is now made of membranous materials and light synthetic insulation. The colouring of the camouflage is also different so as to distinguish the military man from fisherman, hunters, foresters and the like. The colour is dark green with small mottles.

Special Forces

Highly-trained special forces operate as members of para-military Intelligence, branches of the armed forces, or for the Executive Office of the Ascendancy.

Intelligence

CDPS

Custody Domestic Protection Service is a domestic police force that blends detective skills with intelligence operatives. A subdivision of theirs is the Ghost Bureau, and is comprised of only a few hundred people. Their main mission is complete “deniable” operations. If the Vega’s are Black Ops, the Ghost Bureau is the shadow cast by those operators.

Noted member: Ivan Sarkozy, Drayson

CSS

Custody Security Services consists of two main branches. The primary is Directorate Group Alpha aka, “A”, and is a force of Special Purpose about 250 strong. They are incidental in resolving hostage crisis situations, however their primary entitlement is to prevent and respond to terrorist acts as well as conduct some covert operations. The second branch is Barrier praetor. They are the Ascendancy’s direct security detail, also deemed Special Designation “Barrier” based off the praetorian guard that protected the Caesars of ancient Rome. They are of an unknown number of agents.

Noted former member: Alric Rainer (Former GSG9)

Dominance specific groups

NSG, the National Security Guard is set within the armed police forces formerly of India. They are known for high-tech anti-terrorism outfits and brilliant feats in safeguarding the unity of the region. The NGS is currently deployed in counter-terrorism activities and provides a second line of defense.

GROM, Operational Maneuver Response Group is a unit of the former Polish Armed Forces, reknown for quick responses, consummate combat capabilities, and team spirit. They work anti-terrorist activities in the region.

GSG9, Border Police Group 9 is a unit formerly of the German Federal Police force. They are deployed in missions of hostage taking, kidnapping, terrorism and extortion.

Military

Assault Team Vega, aka, “Vega’s”

These guys are literally “off the grid,” and work black operations. Under their designation they have primary missions consisting of: counter terrorism, close protection, and special reconnaissance. Otherwise, they conduct lower intensity operations and handle emergency situations. About 1000 strong.

The White Knights

The Knights are the elite, light infantry shock-troops. Airborn-qualified and tough as nails, they can either support higher units like the ZARS or conduct raids on the enemy themselves.

The Spets

Whereas most of the training regimens of militaries around the world are designed to teach, the CCD’s Special Purpose Regiments Spets equivalent to the U. S. Green Berets, endure punishment daily throughout their training. They may quit anytime they want. Based off the old Soviet Spetsnaz, the Spets want only the best, pain-hardened, battle-loving killers. They spar with the express goal of injuring each other, breaking ribs, fingers, vertebrae, healing only long enough to get back on their feet and complete the training. They are typically deployed for reconnaissance or house-to-house close quarters combat, but are also employed as extremely formidable bodyguards for high-ranking politicians. They claim that they are not taught to ignore pain, since that is impossible. They are instead taught to enjoy it. Their primary missions are typically special reconnaissance, direct action, and internal defense within foreign nations. In the event that there is no local resistance to the enemy, the Spets infiltrate and soften up the enemy by “neutralizing” as many of its officers as possible. This usually involved sniping and throat cutting.

Noted member: Leon Corlinson

Executive Office of the Ascendancy

ZARS

The Zenith Advanced Reliancers fall under the direct jurisdiction of the Executive Office of the Ascendancy. They are uncontested number one heavy-weight champ of special ops. They do not report to any military branch or to Custody Intelligence. The operators of operators, the crème de la crème; these guys are the absolute tip of the spear. Regardless of whether the CCD is at war or not, the ZARS are the only group of special operators where direct close contact with the enemy is a guarantee upon recruitment.

They recruit from among the CCD’s highest special operations units including the Spets, Knights, Vegas and even CDPS. Once accepted, these men literally cease to exist. It is said they work hand-in-hand with the highest of paramilitary and intelligence agencies, but little is known about their specific missions. Their primary task is to conduct counter-terrorism missions, counter-insurgency, direct action and national intervention operations. Unknown number of members.

Noted member: Ryker Petrovic, Julie Reed

Rods of Dominion

The Rods of Dominion operates independently of the known military and intelligence branches. They are under direct command of a single leader.

Technology

The downside with equipping an army is that you can’t just run down to the local tank store and buy a thousand new tanks. It’s all built on-demand, which is generally why less influential countries buy their equipment second hand (ie: most of Africa). Instituting a single standard of tech and equipment across all the CCD simply isn’t feasible.

Due to the order of countries joining the CCD, most of the equipment and standardization is based on Russian models. However, with the acquisition of Europe, the CCD gained some awfully pretty toys and techs considering Europe consists of most of the planet’s First World countries. For instance, the Germans are known for great tanks, the French have designed some brilliant helicopters, the British have some of the best naval tech in the world, etc. Plus, they all have professional armies that would be a bit of a struggle to blend into the CCD template.

Now luckily, most of that would have been liquidated in the economic squalor Europe suffered in the pre-CCD climate. The uniform is great. Give a man a good uniform and he’ll do almost anything for it. The incorporation of orange should be enough to draw away from the Nazi’s over-use of straight cut uniforms, so shouldn’t be an issue there. Otherwise black or gray are the base color for all of the armed forces.

Firearms and ammunition

A standard rifle. 7.62mm caseless ammunition is ideal. Caseless ammunition works by eliminating the need for the cartridge, which holds the primer and powder usually needed to propel a bullet. These can be fired via electric trigger (ie: Metal Storm style weaponry), gas propulsion (ie: compressed air), or even magnetic propulsion (ie: rail weaponry).

Examples of caseless ammunition weaponry have been in play since the 1970s, but have never really caught on. Metal Storm is probably the newest incarnation of this, but the downside to this is the ammunition needs to be stacked in series, making for long, narrow magazines or barrel loads and therefore an awkward assault rifle design.

Rail gun

A rail gun is designed to incorporate two parallel beams connected to a built in power supply. When a conductive projectile is inserted between the rails, it completes the circuit and essentially will behave as an electromaget. Given enough of a power supply, the subsequent current produced creates tremendous force on the projectile which is then capable of tremendous speeds (20 km/s). The heat generated from the propulsion of the object is enough to erode the rails themselves, therefore, a rail gun must be manufactured by an extreme heat-resistant materal. Overheating remains the primary cause of defect or misfire to this day. However, by firing at greater velocities, railguns have greater range, less bullet drop, faster time on target and less wind drift, bypassing the physical limitations of conventional firearms.

The greater kinetic energy and decreased time on target associated with increased launch velocities, when coupled with non-traditional rounds, allow a single railgun to effectively attack both airborne and land or sea based targets. he feed mechanisms of a conventional firearm must move to accommodate the propellant charge as well as the ammunition round, while a railgun would only need to accommodate the projectile. Furthermore, a railgun would not have to extract a spent cartridge case from the breech, meaning that a fresh round could be cycled almost immediately after the previous round has been shot.

The first rail guns were used by large warships and submarines of the British navy where nuclear powered systems could handle the increased consumption of power. By the mid 2030’s, a similar technology, but miniaturized, power source rendered hand-held rail guns possible.

Gas propulsion

A far less expensive and lighter load than the power supplied circuit of rail gun technology is the gas propulsion system. Again, each magazine would have the needed compressed gas, but it would be lighter then the rail gun tech, and probably about as quiet, since there’s no gun powder exploding with each pull of the trigger. However beside the rail gun, the gas propelled firearms simply cannot compare in terms of sheer force and speed.

Vehicles

Infantry level equipment is the easiest to mass produce. Vehicles are harder. Likely, most countries would maintain their existent military vehicles, with long-term procurement and training plans to switch to whatever the CCD plans to field as it’s mainstay equipment. One problem there, though, is that the CCD ranges a very wide range of topography and environment. Equipment that may be ideal in Russia would be less so in DV due to the heat and sand. So it may be more likely that each Dominance would have unique but comparable fleets of vehicles that are better suited to the area.

Ballistic armour

• Based off research into animal and insect carapace, leading to breakthroughs on molecular bonding and structure to create next-generation body armour, moving away from kevlar and ceramic plates.
• Self-healing rubber layers help body armour to maintain shape and some sense of durability if cracked or broken.
• Liquid armour works on the theory of a shear thickening fluid that is liquid under low or normal pressure and solid under high pressure. This liquid is made with polyethylene glycol and the solid part is made of nano-particles of silica. This liquid is soaked into all the layers of cloth or kevlar vest for underarmor vs outerarmor respectively.
• Basic powered-armour system employing electroactive polymers (EAP muscles) for enhanced load-bearing capacity and endurance enhancement through assisted movement.
• Hermetically sealed, providing ideal NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) protection, and a air-scrubber allowing 48-hours of fresh air in a hostile environment.

Uniform

Counters thermal and digital imaging, actively changes colour/shade to blend with surroundings.

Incorporates thermal wiring which draws electrical energy from body head. Not able to keep portable batteries fully charged, but does help prolong battery life.

Insulating wiring helps to diminish the effectiveness of tasers.

Colours range from camouflage, black or gray, with incorporation of CCD orange, the relevant Dominance Symbol, or the Ascendancy’s double crescent.

Electronics

• Dummy AI systems, capable of remote-hacking wireless-capable electronics. This can be used to access camera, comms, and logistic feeds on hostile soldiers with near-peer equipment, and in preventing similar enemy systems from doing the same.
• Active-adapting ECM systems capable of isolating enemy comms frequencies and jamming them.
• Ultralight battery system can be charged off convention AC and DC currents, via body heat, and by solar energy.
• Enclosed, ballistic plate visor with HUD protects the face and throat. Built in cameras and imaging systems (IR, night vision, optic and/or digital zoom) allow the soldier to see through an otherwise featureless armoured plate mask, and grants protection against flash/bang style attacks.
• EMP hardened electronics provide limited protection against EMP weaponry. Dependent on distance and strength of source.
• Vitals read out
• Dead-man switch scrubs the database and fries the electronics. Can either be set to automatic and/or remote trigger if a soldier is captured.
• Laser communications (direct point-to-point; PING Photonics) for squad level ‘untraceable’ communications or conventional crypto-loaded radio communications for squad and battlefield level comms.
• Water and weather protected electronics, to withstand water to 25 meters or prolonged exposure to the heat and sand of desert environments or extreme cold of arctic regions.
• Integrated Wallet (as a PDA style computer) and Land Warrior system.

Mission specific equipment

• Built in loudspeaker for crowd control
• Shoulder mounted floodlights
• Heavy-weapon servo harness designed to ease the load with heavy weapons and allow for more accurate hip-fire option, a military adaptation of modern movie-grade camera harnesses
• Coolant system designed to draw body heat away from the body for operations in high-heat environments or a heater system to encourage heat-retention in extreme cold regions.