Legion Shipsuit

The Legion Shipsuit is an example of high tech field dress used by members of the Legion serving on board spacecraft. The shipsuit is a high end skinsuit worn by legionaries engaged in shipboard duties as a regular working uniform. As a uniform it is typically manifest as a black uniform with silver trim adorned with rank insignia and specialty badges for enlisted members. The chameleon surface can be altered under the control of the suit LCP (Local Control Processor) when circumstances warrant, such as to bright orange in rescue situations or woodland pattern when in the field planetside.
Suit control is effected through the touch display located on the suit's left sleeve. Certain suit functions can also be activated using touch switches located at certain points of the suit, for example a collar switch can be used to activate the helmet extruder.
As a high end skinsuit the Legion shipsuit includes the ability to extrude an airtight helmet and gloves for vacuum survival. The helmet includes a heads-up display (HUD). The suit has integrated communication and while it does not have it's own full sensor suite it can interface with internal ship's systems when worn on a Legion spacecraft or a CMC. It does have minimum temperature and atmosphere safety sensors, a multi-spectrum vision system and both general and spot lighting capability.
While not meant for use in high radiation environments, being an IVA (intravehicular activity) suit, shipsuits do contain both a low-g B/G harness useful for propulsion in microgravity and micro-g boots. This is to enhance their capability in shipboard damage control situations.
The suit is intended for use in the field in a wide range of habitable environments and so contains both an integrated heating and cooling system and the ability to extrude a cold weather hood.
Like most skinsuits the shipsuit contains a  re-breather  pack and a mini tank which gives 30 minutes of air. They also have an external connection to allow use with a small tank giving 12 hours of air or a fixed system for virtually unlimited air.

Space Combat extended

Space combat was been lightly covered in previous posts. Within the Highlands any ship-on-ship actions are primarily single ship-on-ship police or anti-piracy affairs conducted primarily by Ranger units on corvettes or schooners. From time to time a Frigate patrolling the border between the frontier and the Midlands might find itself engaged by a foreign vessel or multiple hostile vessels of a subordinate class.
Outside the Highlands, in the Midlands or the Wild large scale squadron, task force or fleet battles are much more likely. Such combat is very much different in scope and character from  single ship actions. While a Frigate embarks support craft and might deploy pinnace to act as scouts or pickets or even have fighting vehicles or battleriders to act as support craft they typically do not have the long range reconnaissance or Command and Control systems necessary to engage in fleet level actions.
During one-on-one actions vessels typically depend upon their own sensor suites to locate enemy vessels, direct fire control and engage enemies.
During fleet actions major combatants, such as dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts use pickets made up of destroyers and battleriders to deploy sensor nets, act as forward firecontrol nodes and provide support. To aid in this role destroyers tend to be light on energy weapons, but heavy on missiles. They primarily use railguns and light lasers in the anti-missile roll. Destroyers are small enough to employ relatively effective stealth and cloaking technology, like the more heavily armored battelriders.
In real space combat even the most powerful energy weapons are limited to 300,000 miles range. In subspace their range is a twentieth of that. At those ranges sensor response lags only a second. Missiles are effective at distances far beyond the range at which sensor response lags by minutes. Sensor nets can also be effectively deploy at distances which result in information minutes or hours old being the most recent data upon which response decisions must be made. Likewise large dispersed sensor nets can detect objects at distances so great that the information is an hour and a half old by the time the information reaches its control node.

Space Combat - Missiles

In the New Diasporia Universe, at TL A at any rate, space combat is dominated by the missile. Energy weapons, especially among the largest ships, are formidable weapons with very great ranges. In single ship actions, especially between relatively small vessels at very close range, energy weapons are very effective. In fleet actions missiles are the deadliest weapons.
The Legion has standardized on offensive missiles in 2 standard sizes, 250 mm 6 cf missiles and 500 mm 30 cf missiles. Other armed ships inside the Union tend to use these same missile sizes. Because much of the weapon technology of the nearer Midland worlds tends to originate in the Highlands these sizes are also common there,
The typical light missile is a kinetic kill weapon, primarily a heavily stealthed B/G engine with a mass of collapsed matter for a warhead and a brilliant compact computer guided by a sensor targeting array. Topping out at 700G acceleration and with an endurance of 15 minutes and a range of almost 2 million miles light missiles are formidable weapons, even against a target with a force field, if you throw enough of them at it.
Heavy missiles are even more versatile. Topping out at 1000G acceleration and with an endurance of 18 minutes and a range of 3 miles heavy missiles can carry a variety of payload packages, including nuclear and X-Ray laser warheads.

Viper anti-missile have a crushing 10,000G acceleration, but only have a 3 minute endurance, but they can still have a range of a million miles of powered flight. A heavy missile can deliver 10 Viper anti-missiles, extending the usable range of these lethal fire and forget weapons. They can also be fired from a gravity pulse launcher, which conveys an even higher initial acceleration, extending their range. Vipers typically contain a force field warhead which gives them an intersection cross section larger than their own size.
Unlike Vipers, light and heavy missiles are a combination of guided and fire-and-forget technology. Each missile contains a long range laser receiver that allows it to be controlled from its firing vessel or any other platform with the proper access codes. When the missile gets withing close range of its target an on board computer uses the missile's own sensor package to guide it to its target. A self-destruct charge allows the remote operator to destroy the missile at need.
Modified heavy missiles can be used to control other missiles in its flight allowing one laser guidance transmitter to control a barrage of missiles.
There are versions of both light and heavy missiles which have been converted into surveillance drones, ECM drones and even delivery systems for smart bombs, glide bombs and deadfall ordnance.
There are a variety of different sensor packages that can be used for guidance. Passive systems include radscanners, which can be used for Anti-Radiation Missile Homing (ARM), ladar homing, and neutrino homing,  and  PESA, good for Infrared imaging, Radar homing, and even optical homing. Multiscanners can be used to target particular targets based on human occupation or even to avoid them, as well as working in radscanner mode as above. In chemscanner mode particular ship locations or economic targets can be chosen. Gravscanner homers can lock onto force fields or the Barnes Manifold of a B/G engine.
For the cost in weight of a laser transceiver a missile can send telemetry data back to its mother ship. This slightly reduces its payload.
Because they can be remotely controlled missiles can be seeded in a location and be activated later. A missile's engine can also be turned off to allow it to drift further extending its range, though ballistic missiles are easy targets for lasers or railguns.

Legion Service

The widespread use of ANF has resulted in longer enlistments and a generally higher level of competency in the Legion. Additionally in has also resulted in a generally slower rate of advancement, as openings are not as frequent as they would be in a society with briefer lifespans and shorter enlistments. The continuing expansion of the Legion has somewhat alleviated the problem with upward mobility, though it is still common for a legionnaire of decent technical and military skill to spend years if not decades as a common trooper before being raised into the rank of non-commissioned officer. Most of the members of the Legion at the higher ratings have many decades of service.
Ships used by the Legion range from the giant 250,000,000 cuft Superdreadnought ship-of-line to the tiny patrol corvette. Just because most conflicts which the Legion is involved in tend to be "small-scale" on a galactic level doesn't mean that the vessels involved are "small-scale".
Since the Legion provides both space-going transport and planetary combat troops ships-of-the-line tend to embark all manner of combat craft, as well as advanced warsuits. Legionnaires on small craft often act as both spacer technical experts and planetary soldiers.
Because the Legion fulfils so many roles officers tend to serve in a wide variety of different types of billets over their careers, as do senior legionnaires. An energy field technician is likely to find himself serving his first tour in an engineering billet on a battleship; his second tour as a boat engineer on a System Patrol Boat; a third tour as a defensive shield technician in a Legion Ground Battalion and his fourth tour with a security detachment at a Union embassy. An officer can look forward to an even wider scope of possible assignments, including some diplomatic ones.

Warsuit

A Warsuit is an advanced form of power armor made with a laminate of nanomaterials, hyperdense armor and liquid metal. It is powered by a micro-fusion engine. Like the cybersuit it has a dynamic instant chameleon surface which can absorb light to charge the backup power cell, which can be used to make the suit even more stealthy.
Also like a cybersuit a warsuit is self-adjusting, allowing one size to fit all. It is designed to operate in a wide variety of hostile environments, including the vacuum of space and even subspace. It provides radiation shielding, climate control and total life support, recycling gaseous, liquid and solid waste to support extended use.
Nano-motors provide muscle amplification of the user's strength. Its smart materials construction gives the suit self repair capability, utilizing a nanotech liquid metal gel layer buried among its other layers.
The warsuit contains a contragrav/B/G harness and tactical force field. The former gives high mobility and the latter both increased protection and enhanced stealth. A tractor-pressor beam assembly gives the same capabilty as gravitic waldos or a gravitic screwdriver.
The integrated helmet includes advanced sensors, which can provide sight and hearing protection as well as enhanced vision and hearing. The suit includes multiscanner capability. The user is monitored by a biosensor system which includes trauma maintenance. The HUD allows integration of weapon targeting systems for a multitude of offensive systems. Most weapon systems have their own power supplies and integrate with the suit through encrypted ultra short range encrypted EM.
The tactical computer is integrated with both the suits sensors and the encrypted communication system to allow a warsuit to act as part of a distributed tactical sensor array, which can give a combat leader a more integrated tactical picture.
Warsuits are the standard heavy combat armor of the Star Legion.

Smart Gun

A smart gun is a gravity pulse weapon which fires smart ammunition. The most common caliber smart gun fires smart needles. The gun itself contains a laser targeting system and microcomputer. The user paints the target with the laser and the microcomputer programs the smart ammo to hit the target which has been painted. The target acquisition can be geographical, that is hit that spot on the wall or hit that bottle, or it can be objective, hit that large IR producing mass, which happens to be a man, even if it moves to a new location.

The gun itself fires the projectile using a gravity pulse. Most smart guns are not capable of firing a direct graviton charge at a target, though it is possible to have this feature added to any gun which fires Large Caliber Smart Ammunition (LCSA) or larger caliber rounds.
Larger caliber smart guns, those firing ammunition greater than 15mm, can also fire a greater variety of ammunition types, including the tangler, shot, APEX, and smart loads.
Combat Smart Weapons are versatile, multi-barrel weapons which can fire both smart needles and 20mm rounds, some of which are smart. The top barrel can also be used as a gravity direct fire weapon

The bottom barrel fires standard smart needle ammo. The weapon includes a powerful targeting laser for long ranges and a complex sensor package for a full range of targeting acquisition possibilities. It has a data link to allow it to be used with a combat helmet or cybersuit HUD system.
Combat Smart Weapons are the standard issue for Rangers and also used by Legionnaires, when not fighting in warsuits.

The Star Legion

The Star Legion is the main military of the Grand Human Union. It is a combined force under a single general staff. The head of the General Staff is the only serving officer holding the rank of Marshal. The marshal reports directly to the Defense Committee of parliament.
The General Staff itself is made up of the heads of the Directorates who hold the rank of Vice-Marshal. Each Directorate is made up of a combined force of fleet and planetary combat units with associated support.
Star Legion officers attend the Legion Academy at New Chicago and graduate with the rank of midshipman, which is a rank equivalent to a warrant officer.

Ranks
	Marshal
	Vice-Marshal
	Admiral
	Vice-Admiral
	Commodore
	Senior Captain
	Captain
	Commander
	Major
	Senior Lieutenant
	Lieutenant
	Ensign
	Midshipman
	Chief Warrant Officer
	Sergeant Major
	Master Chief Sergeant
	Chief Sergeant
	Sergeant
	Corporal
	Legionnaire

Because it is a combine force officers are expected to be proficient in many forms of warfare. Because it is a space force most officers have at least some proficiency in space craft operation, especially including piloting and subspace navigation. Many also have extensive knowledge of planetary ground combat and even such specialized fields as wet naval warfare and hostile environment combat.
Uniforms of the Legion are primarily black with silver trim. Various uniform types, excluding high tech field dress, include service dress, ceremonial dress and full dress. Officers also have a number of mess dress uniforms, which may be proscribed for formal occasions.
The Legion's insignia is a six point silver star on a white shield.

Service in the Legion often runs in families, especially among the officer corps. Many members of the Legion eventually move into positions in the bureaucracy.

In some ways the Legion tends to be more lax than many of the traditional militaries of the past. While cadets at New Chicago and in the recruit training commands are kept under strict military discipline, in the fleet itself it is neither uncommon nor against regulations for legionnaires and sous officier, that is, non-commissioned officers to be on a first name basis. The same is true within the warrant and commissioned officer ranks. Off duty fraternization is allowed, even between disparate ranks, as long as there is no direct line of command relationship.  Of course the general mood of public morality itself imposes a certain formality on individuals. 

The highly technical nature of modern warfare requires a very well educated and highly trained force. This is as true for the individual legionnaire as for the officer corps.

Religious orthodoxy tend to be especially strong among the officer's corps. Under the Great Compromise Muslim units are separate and do not have women serving with them, not even in a subordinate role. The General Staff tends to assign minority religious units to areas where they will be in an environment which does not conflict with their religious sensibilities.

Conflicts in which the Legion is engaged tend to be small scale, occurring mostly in the areas of the Midland/Highland border region, where  the expansion of civilization is most likely to run up against those who have a strong inclination to resist its expansion. The Highland government tends to bypass worlds which do not seek entrance to the Grand Union, but does not brook aggression against those who have sought union.