Jack of Harts

The Republic of Texas Marine Corps began acquiring hypercapable small craft immediately after The War began. The F-12 Avenger was the first, followed quickly by the B-17 Valkyrie, and later by the A-10 Righteous Vigilante. They also forced through a rapid program to upgrade their older Savages and Vigilantes with Peloran-supplied hyperdrives. The new small craft lacked the range to be true interstellar craft, but the Hyades Campaign was a different matter. The stars of the Hyades Cluster core were far closer to each other than in the outside galaxy, allowing the Marines to send entire wings out ahead of the Alliance fleets on lightning campaigns to harass enemy bases and fleets. They sowed chaos and scattered confusion in their wakes, leaving star after star easy targets once the fleets arrived. The Marines embraced their new role as independent movers and shakers in the years and decades to follow.

The Republic of Texas Marine Corps’ ground pounder elements typically use a mix of armed cycles and jeeps for short-range transportation. Many transform around the pilot into small mechs to improve combat capabilities. Standard Marine mechs usually deploy for atmospheric insertion in an aerodynamic mode similar to other reentry vehicles. They then transform into mech mode upon arriving at the landing zone, whereupon they help to secure the zone for further deployments. Marine tanks represent the primary offensive and defensive firepower of any Marine battalion, and no major battle is complete without their input. Various close air support craft were always included in Pre-Contact Marine units, but modern gravtech integration changed everything. When every unit can fly at need, which ones hug the ground and which ones fly overhead to rain destruction down on the enemy can become blurred.

The Republic of Texas Marine Corps are not infantry. Ask them. They will be quick to disabuse you of that notion. They are Marines. They are trained to fight in space or on ground. They are trained in High Altitude Low Orbit drops from starships aboard assault shuttles, mechs, tanks, jeeps, cycles, or simply wearing the powered battle armor that is their uniform. When the fleets hold the orbitals, when the Army is planning an invasion, the Marines go in first to secure the landing zone, often in the face of planetary defense grids that do not wish them to come down alive. It is often Marine attack craft or starfighters that dive down with them, smashing the defenses or taking fire for their brothers and sisters. The Marines did this in countless small actions of the various brushfire conflicts out in the colonial regions that no major nation admitted went on. They ramped up during the Hyades Campaign and filled the skies with HALO Marine drops across the cluster.