Author Notes:
Welp, I am suddenly back with a back-to-back OBOM chapter and yet another visual guide update. Really, I am on a roll with OBOM output, haha. Properly because it's so easy to go off a rail with the series.
As per usual, thank you for reading, enjoy, and do check out the helpful links below for further goodies!
https://www.patreon.com/Heartbreak117
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Heartbreak117
https://discord.gg/cVZxJ29ruh
https://www.webnovel.com/book/reich-marshal-of-the-belkan-reich_23809095505377305
https://www.webnovel.com/book/in-the-grimdark-sector-with-a-system_31596105108346205
https://www.webnovel.com/book/my-soul.-occupied-body---please-the-other-me...!_35377211308783905
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/2271569/reich-marshal-of-the-belkan-reich/
https://photos.app.goo.gl/waZgkRa3UQhqKQBi9
https://postimg.cc/gallery/5fQs4Fv
Visual Guide
Humvee Survivable Combat Tactical Vehicle:
- https://postimg.cc/rDD2H6Hx
- https://postimg.cc/WddcyRy8
Marine Amphibious Combat Vehicle:
- https://postimg.cc/K11hWXWD
- https://postimg.cc/688xPsPC
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Perhaps we should ask the question of how to organize our military first and foremost?" A Doll with short gray hair interjects, her arm raised and a chocolate chip cookie in her mouth.
That Doll named herself Kokona when she first came, and she was picked by Reizen to be her adjutant, owing to her apparent and instinctive expertise in handling military and security affairs. For a Doll, she's a bit on the shorter side, but that doesn't mean she is a slouch in the physical department. Reizen once said that Kokona is reigning undefeated among the Dolls in terms of fighting prowess. So, in her off-duty time, Kokona serves as an instructor for Dolls seeking to enhance their combat mentality.
Kokona's question comes at an appropriate point in our discussion, since we do need to figure out our military doctrine first to determine our vehicular usage.
"That is indeed an important topic for us to concern ourselves with." I nod in Kokona's direction, grabbing a cookie from the one big plate we all share on the meeting table.
The cookies actually come from military rations, by the way, and we are eating them to replenish our sugar levels... Actually, only Reizen and I require sugar. The Dolls, in particular, other than directly connecting to a charging port, consume high-energy food to convert it into power to maintain an optimal activity level.
Reizen, after wiping her mouth with a tissue, adds. "Militarily speaking, we have only ever assigned Dolls to the role of Marines and Military Police alongside the associated military logistics position. The positions in the Army, Air Force, Naval, and Naval Aviation remain unfilled. In fact, I do have a question of my own..."
"Do we really need an Army as a service branch?"
Reizen's serious query causes all of us to look at her in contemplation, with me representing everyone in asking her this.
"Now, where did this even come from, partner?"
Reizen nods, calmly explaining.
"You must have noticed that Kokona and I drafted a number of Dolls into service as Marines and Military Police, having them act as a defensive force and security garrisons on Everlight, roles that should have correlated to the more traditional Army and law enforcement force. This is a deliberate choice arising from having learned of the nature of Arcadia as an archipelago planet and the mindset of our Syncra Ascendancy as a faction. Since we consider ourselves a splintered faction, and Arcadia offers less landmass than ocean, meaning warfare will highly likely be expeditionary and interventionist in nature, do we really need a standing Army when the Marines, given the right resources, are perfectly capable of doing the Army's duties and even more? Without the Army, we will prevent the bloating of the Ascendancy's power structure, simplifying command, control, and resource management."
"In other words," Kokona interjects after she finishes chewing her cookie. "What Chief is saying is that the Marines are in a position to replace the Army in its entirety, and only the Army. It's expected that the other service branches will remain untouched, as their duties are not so easily overlapped."
"That..." The word comes from Iris, whose eyes and expression show her putting serious processing power into the matter. "Huh... They may actually have a point, Umbra. Technically speaking, the Marines can do whatever the Army is born to do as long as they have enough power and resources invested in them, just like Reizen said. Additionally, we are literally cooking up a faction on the fly; we literally can create a Marine service branch that does whatever the heck we want from the get-go. The naval theme of this world is so glaringly obvious already; why not just go with the Marines all the way and ditch the Army, right?"
I can't stop myself from quipping this when I see the girls in the room actually leaning into Reizen's idea. "Are we seriously having the boots-on-the-deck being all crayon eaters?"
Of the people in the entire room, only Iris and Kokona seemingly understood the reference, with the latter laughing. "Oh, goodness gracious, that reference is so freaking old! Like it's 20th-century old!"
Apparently, Kokona's databank has that tiny bit of trivia in it; who would have guessed?
Iris, in particular, shrugs with hands spreading outward.
"Practically speaking, ditching the Army will do us both short-term and long-term benefits anyway. We don't have the manpower to have Dolls fill positions in both the Army and the Marines. We can only pick one service branch if we're to run a tight ship. Again, given the oceanic nature of Arcadia, even if there are some continental-sized landmasses out there, warfare will be conducted far away from home, and the Marines are the sole logical option in doing so."
"Fair enough." I nod at last, although my heart has already settled on accepting Reizen's proposal a while back. "Then let's proceed with scrapping the Army, effective immediately. And with that happening, let's now focus on equipping our Marines with the best we can reasonably give them."
The others in the room nod one by one as we go on to throw one proposal after another, scrapping and accepting them on the fly as we form the bone, blood vessels, and meat of the Syncra Ascendancy Marines as a fully fledged service branch. It's gonna be a tall order, alright, as our Marine force will be vastly bigger than the United States Marine Corps in the 21st century.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We have already touched upon the topic of infantry weapons. It should be easy enough to incorporate them into the Marines' inventory." Iris says after some time spent outlining the military structure of the Ascendancy Marines. "Vehicular-wise, for heavy-duty ground logistics, we have the Rovers acting as a one-size-fits-all trucking option. As much as it weirded me out to see a logistics truck capable of amphibious operations, I must admit that what Umbra and Aurea worked to create the Rover as a modifiable and upgradeable logistical platform has saved us a lot of time. However, that still leaves many more vehicle slots unfulfilled if we are to arm the Marines properly. Glaringly obvious, we are lacking actual utility vehicles to back everything else."
"In that case, why don't we just tear another page of the Eternal Reich's playbook?" Another Doll, in charge of base logistics, interjects from the side.
I look over to see a small-statured Doll with obvious cybernetic implants visible on parts where her porcelain-colored skin should have covered them. According to Vi, the name of this doll with black hair and glowing silver eyes, the visible implants are part of her mechanical charm, which I can't seem to disapprove of because there's a certain beauty to it. As a matter of fact, there are Dolls that proudly display their mechanical, artificial nature if it doesn't affect operational efficiency, calling it their point of pride and whatever else. The funny thing is, they really do manage to pull a perfect ten on showcasing their brand of synthetic beauty, so I have come to respect their choices because their varied desires and thoughts only make them feel more alive than ever.
And I do need my faction to be alive, thank you very much.
But back to the point, when Vi said we should take another page out of the Reich's playbook, she meant that we should procure some vehicle designs from the Reich's era-spanning inventory. Of the many choices that Iris goes on to show afterward, it takes no time at all for me to immediately hit the green light on the Reich's version of the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, famously known as the Humvee, to be accepted as the Ascendancy's multi-faceted utility vehicle.
Due to my vote and the agreement of the others, Iris then picks a version of the Humvee that should be most acceptable to our current and future needs.
The basis of the Humvee Iris chose, more or less, can be equated to the 21st-century version of the Humvee Survivable Combat Tactical Vehicle, SCTV for short. In essence, this Humvee offers MRAP-level protection alongside a vastly maneuverable and modifiable chassis. The basic version is a four-passenger armament carrier, but it can be configured as a nine-passenger troop carrier, air-defense vehicle, flatbed cargo truck, or field ambulance... You can mod this Humvee into whatever thing you can imagine, much like how the so-called freedom fighters tend to mod their Toyota pickups.
Suffice to say, the Humvee never goes out of style, no matter the world. Hilariously, in the Eternal Reich, the Humvee as a name continues to exist in the 26th century, borne by similar-looking utility platforms with vastly different internals and upgrades.
"From my knowledge," Iris says. "The Humvee can be powered by pretty much any powerplant known to mankind. There have been versions of it being powered by hydrogen, and they achieve a remarkable logistical profile in an environment with easy access to water. It's easy for me to design a high-efficiency hydrogen engine alongside a Solar/Saline Actuator that is capable of converting up to liters of fresh, brackish, or salt water into hydrogen quickly and efficiently, and it can even draw water from atmospheric condensation. As for any detritus, it can be automatically compacted and then manually disposed of by the crew."
"Sounds great." I nod agreeably at what Iris is painting. "We should have no trouble manufacturing the hydrogen engine that you're speaking of, right?"
Iris replies quickly.
"Not that I can see, at least. We did manage to create the Dolls and are in the process of building the Revival Hub with what we have at hand. The equipment we have is extensive enough to build something as simple as a hydrogen engine. In fact, I would have settled for Mana Engines, had we had things like Runic Engraving machines to create Psionic machinery and a working Void Reactor to give us an endless source of mana."
"I see..." I nod thoughtfully before asking. "Are you able to outfit your high-efficiency hydrogen engine to other vehicles?"
"Technically, yes." Iris nods before adding. "But it's a risky and unironically inefficient venture if you try to stick hydrogen engines onto something too large, however. If you're interested in expanding hydrogen engine utilization, then I can create two separate designs, one for fossil fuel and one for hydrogen fuel, for each vehicle that is to be accepted into service. Then we shall pick which version is feasible for us later."
"Sounds like a plan, let's continue then." I agree to her suggestion.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Of course, we Dolls are heavier than a normal human male due to the metals that make up our bodies." Vi says, leading Kokona to further expand her point. "This means any vehicle that is to be made must take our weight into account. So we can't have an Armored Fighting Vehicle that has lacking horsepower and buoyancy. The last thing we need is a ship-to-shore trip being our last due to an inadequate troop carrier sinking halfway."
"That's a legit concern." I turn to Iris and Reizen with a worried look. "We did take this into account, right?"
Reizen nods silently, whereas Iris replies with a thumbs-up.
"I have been working with that in mind from the very start. The data I have shown to you all has already taken weight into serious consideration. So you do not need to worry about producing something that the Dolls are unable to pilot or drive in the future."
I sigh in relief, feeling fortunate that Iris and the others have picked up on something I missed. I then notice something out of the current proposal for an amphibious combat vehicle. It's literally named Amphibious Combat Vehicle, a name that is very much straight to the point and harkens back to its counterpart in the 21st-century US Marine Corps vehicle. What interested me the most is the fact that its overall capability is slightly beyond what the USMC vehicle can perform, even with the Dolls being taken into account.
The ACV is a modular platform, featuring the survivability of a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle, including high ground clearance and a V-shaped hull, with the ability to drive with wheels blown off. It used "in-line" drive technology that enabled all four wheels on each side to pull together much like the way a track does. This demonstrated ability, when combined with a higher ground clearance and central tire inflation system, substantially closes the maneuverability gap and results in equal or better maneuverability than tracked vehicles. Amphibiously, the proposed ACV is a vehicle capable of self-deployment from ships and travel at speeds of 13–15 knots while carrying a 3-Person crew and a maximum of 17 passengers, depending on the variant. And because it's meant to be modular, the ACV can fit whatever mission package or weapon module we can throw on it. Already, I can see it being a command vehicle, a personnel carrier, a mobile hospital, a recovery vehicle, and even an anti-armor fighting vehicle... All of which retain its amphibious capability, though some will sacrifice troop-carrying ability for a dedicated mission module or additional firepower.
In other words, the ACV shall be the mechanized backbone of the Ascendancy Marines. I see no reason to decline the proposal, and when Iris says that it is possible to equip a hydrogen engine on the ACV to save our diesel and oil for something else, I agree immediately on the spot. But the ACV alone is not gonna be enough to make our Marines a truly menacing fighting force. If the ACV is the torso of the Marines, then what remains lacking is the armored fist that can dish out the hardest punch.
It's time to decide what manner of tank we should give the Marines to play with.