Post by Ichibey on Mar 7, 2022 16:27:00 GMT
A Bureau Expeditionary Force established in New Calendar Year 0156. In the wake of the dimensional incident known only as the Collision, TSA Investigators were deployed to various Unadministered worlds in this unexplored universe to reconnoitre them for potential contacts and threats. Unadministered World #626, known to its inhabitants as Earth, was found to possess a sizable population of violent and destructive magical entities. Invisible to those without magical potential, the creatures are an elusive but significant threat to the planet’s population, and potentially the multiverse itself. A small minority of the indigenous sentients actively combat this threat with esoteric magic-like powers, and call them “Hexes”.
The Bureau has collectively labelled these creatures “Threat Object-682”. Although this term is the norm in formal documents, the personnel attached to the Expeditionary Force have taken up the natives' nomenclature of “Hexes”.
Pursuing its mandate of maintaining peace and order across the multiverse, the TSA Board of Directors implemented Special Directive Theta-11: the elimination of this threat without alerting the planet’s local governments. For this, they established a Mobile Expeditionary Force, MEF Theta-11. This force would consist of the Bureau’s most advanced warship and her escorts, her complement and crew, and dedicated operations personnel. Though the ship and crew themselves were selected by the Board, all non-crew or complementary personnel involved in the Expeditionary Force would be volunteers to participate in this high priority mission.
Announcements were blasted across the PUBNET, the public service Trans-Dimensional Network managed by the Bureau. Every corner of the Administered Multiverse would hear of this call to arms. Soon, Volunteers would come from all walks of life. From the Bureau’s own highly gifted Elites, to Freelancers searching for a new profitable contract, to just-hearted Knights from the Belkan Sanktkaiser Church. The ranks swelled with volunteers.
Within six months, Mobile Expeditionary Force Theta-11, the “Hex Hammer”, was deployed to high Earth orbit in a stealth holding pattern to begin operations. Fabrication Drones have been deployed to the Asteroid Belt and uninhabited planets to harvest resources for on-site supply manufacture. Orbital Agriculture Stations facing the sun have been built to feed the personnel long-term with genetically enhanced rapid-growth crops and meat cultures from a number of different livestock types. They are here for the long haul and they know it.
Due to the sensitive nature of the mission, the Board has entrusted overall command to one of the TSA’s most decorated officers: Admiral Vectra Schtuegert, a veteran of several major inter-dimensional conflicts. From her flagship, the Iskandar, she executes the Bureau’s Directive with the finesse and watchful eye of a Belkan Sword Eagle.
This vigilance is crucial. The Fleet's Mana reserves, used by their Trans-Dimensional Jump Drives, have been depleted from their long journey, and a jump to the nearest Administered World would require the reactors to generate Mana for a whole year.
In short, they are a long way from home, and only have each other to rely on. That said, they are not averse to recruiting locals with sufficient magical potential to their cause. This is standard Bureau operating procedure, which has proven effective time and again. After all, the most powerful Aces in history were not born on Administered Worlds, but were recruited from a planet just like this one.
What your average group of Volunteers might look like if you mashed all the classes together.
Hex Hammer is a Bureau Mobile Expeditionary Force, defined as "a temporary, self-sufficient Armaments Services formation established to perform long-term operations in distant regions to fulfill the objectives of a Special Directive".
Their sizes vary depending on the Directive's requirements, but they tend toward greater resource consumption than the usual Bureau Investigation Unit's three hundred or so personnel. Most MEFs formed are at least on the scale of an Intervention Squadron: one capital ship, such as an Intervention Carrier or Battlecruiser, as well as her escorts, including multiple Investigation and lesser Intervention ships. This easily represents over ten thousand personnel.
Given the specific requirements of Special Directive Theta-11, Hex Hammer's allocated human resources amount to twenty thousand personnel. These staff the unique NSX-class Intervention Dreadnought Iskandar, her escort of Investigation Frigates and Intervention Cruisers, the expeditionary Field Bases, and a number of specialist vessels and facilities, such as prefabricated research stations. In addition to this number are over two thousand volunteers who chose to partake in the mission.
Personnel, the enlisted and commissioned forces assigned to the Expeditionary Fleet form the bulk of Hex Hammer's membership. They man and maintain the ships, Field Bases, and other assets, serving as the Expedition's backbone.
The focal point of its operations, however, rests in the Volunteers. Many are from outside the Bureau. And while a good number of them might be Bureau Personnel in their own right, the difference is that rather than being assigned to come here, they chose to do so of their own will. Selected through a grueling screening process by Hex Hammer's Volunteer Commission, only those deemed with the most ability, potential, or determination, were allowed to join. As such, even the weakest Volunteer is capable of facing up against a squad of Enforcement Troops, and with time and experience, could defeat even a Strike Team of Tactical Mages.
While overall command and major, specific objectives are dictated by the Admiral, Volunteers are allowed more leeway. Yes, they receive missions from on high. But they are also free to pursue the general goal of eliminating the Hex threat on their own initiatives. So long as at the end of the day, they report their daily activities to the Volunteer Commission.