Infantry:
Year 2100 tech level:
Militia Platoon: Colonial militias formed the backbone of local rebellion ground forces. Using non-automatic rifles that could be legally civilian owned and locally produced, militias could form in the far off colonies at a moments notice even while under Terran Alliance blockade.
Sniper Squad: Using a single squad of infantry to act as a sniper team has a long tradition in warfare, as well as in civilian law enforcement. Lightly armed with Sniper Rifles and Revolvers, sniper teams range from elite special operations rangers, police units, or simple sport hunters.
Mortar Platoon: Modern vehicle sensors have been able to detect and destroy mortars since before mankind left the solar system. Despite this limitation, against infantry based forces a mortar platoon is a premier long ranged fire support unit when the massive collateral damage of field guns is a concern. Mortars against military vehicles are only effective at less than 300 meters, as the standard countermeasures take at least that long to defeat an incoming round.
Technical Squad: Little more than a converted truck, the 3 ton Wheeled Technical mounts an improvised incendiary mortar and a couple of rifles. While not much of a threat, the agile technical is often used in large numbers. The high cost of a technical is somewhat offset by the damage a rapidly moving wheeled vehicle can cause in an urban environment as it created fires with the inferno mortar.
Superheavy Howitzer: This militia squad makes use of the Stabilized Near Impervious Penetrating Explosive Round (SNIPER) Artillery system. An unguided shell is immune to ECM interference, and by using a tungsten outer casing the incoming round has a high heat resistance to the automated energy intercept sensor systems that all vehicles use to detonate mortars and missiles. The tungsten outer casing also serves as a good penetrative material, giving the SNIPER anti armor capabilities that can even pierce low tech BAR 4 armor when the round explodes and sends heavy tungsten molten shrapnel across a 90 meter area. The damage of this heavy tungsten shrapnel is much higher than traditional explosives of an equal amount—the SNIPER round of 100kg is rated as twice as lethal as a simple1000kg HE bomb. Like a tiny shaped charge can make a copper cone into a deadly anti tank molten spear, the SNIPER round is 20 times more effective at damaging infantry and vehicles of an equal weight in just explosives. The main weakness of the SNIPER is that the range is slightly reduced compared to the THUMPER—intercept systems can deliver more energy to the larger round and knock it from the sky a few kilometers closer than the smaller THUMPER; the SNIPER is near impervious to intercept systems, not totally impervious after all. All told, the SNIPER round is fairly low tech if you have access to the materials and know the shaped charge science, so even colonists using 1950 traincar superheavy howitzer guns can make use of the phenominal round.
Year 2200 tech level:
Modern Rifle Platoon: The modern assault rifle fires caseless high stopping power rounds, accurately at a terrifying rate. A common round is the low velocity 16 gram .45 cal caseless, which trades the long range and high velocity of a traditionally brass jacketed round for devastating stopping power. A single squad of modern rifles have the stopping power of an entire platoon of older lower tech rifles. Against armor, Modern Rifle Platoons use very light rocket launchers/under-slung grenade launchers.
Modern Heavy Platoon: A variation on Rifle Platoons, Modern Heavy Platoons upgrade the very light rocket launchers/under-slung grenade launchers for twice as many light rocket launchers/ rocket propelled grenade launchers. This greatly impacts the units mobility, but for defending entrenched positions or setting up ambushes, the Modern Heavy Platoon can engage from twice the distance thanks to the heavier weaponry.
Modern Mobile Platoon: Another variation on the Modern Rifle Platoon, the Modern Mobile infantry carry the same weapons as the Rifle Platoon, but are equipped with Roll frame All Terrain vehicles (RATvee). At only 100kg per soldier, the RATvee incorporates a small roll cage to protect the user if the ATV tips over, while also allowing a single soldier to right the vehicle after a crash.
Humvee Squad: A standard wheeled 6 person vehicle, the Humvee mounts a support machine gun to support the embarked rifle infantry. At 6 tons fully loaded, the main advantage of the Humvee is more protection from small arms compared to a RATvee, though keeping 6 soldiers in close proximity means that more are injured when taking anti vehicle weapons fire. A Humvee is sometimes more survivable against a cannon round than an APC, as cannon rounds over-penetrate the Humvee only injuring a few crew, while the same cannon round can critically fragment and spalls if it penetrates an armor plate, maiming everyone inside.
LanSe Team: A Land and Sea (LanSe) vehicle is a 5 ton rigid hull inflatable craft that is light enough to double as a hovercraft on land, carrying a team of 5 soldiers at a time. Originally designed as beaching craft for wet navy commandos, the LanSe is a very popular craft for any military unit that needs to fight in the water from the land or vice versa. The most common LanSe Team configuration mounts a 40mm automatic grenade launcher to support the teams rifles.
Light Attack Vtol squad (LAV): The last dedicated missile platform before the cutting edge LRM makes all prior missiles systems obsolete, the 7.5 ton Light Attack Vtol suffers from just how powerful integrated missile countermeasures have become in the 23rd century. With laser designation defeated back in the 21st century via laser spoofing systems, and radar guided missiles defeated by battlefield wide jamming, only wire guided missile technology remained 'unhackable' on the modern battlefield--for the 240 meters it took before vehicle sensor systems detected and defeated the large missile. Purpose built as a Wire Guided Missile delivery system, the Light Attack Vtol can literally crawl along the ground before popping up to shoot a missile, unlike larger helicopters which cant be moved safely along the ground closer than 5 meters or so. The Light Attack Vtol carries 10 of the large wire guided missiles, and the 8.5 million price tag is offset by the large surplus of missiles from generations past. A 3 barrel sniper cannon acts as a backup weapon, for supporting friendly infantry with low collateral danger close fire support while remaining outside the range of the modern auto rifle. A popular variant mounts an Automatic Grenade Launcher in place of the missiles--affectionately known as Air Wolf, this grenade toting Vtol is certainly the future of the LAV design once the free surplus of Wire Guided Missiles is expended. Despite all it's flaws, the LAV is a very accurate and reliable design when compared to contemporary military support vehicles. Only the experimental advanced fire support being tested on the 2300+ Terran Alliance support vehicles can match the visually guided missile accuracy on the ecm jammed modern battlefield.
Infantry Fighting Vehicle: A 13 ton tracked vehicle, the modern IFV mounts a medium rifled cannon, a pair of support machine guns, and carry a crew plus integrated rifle infantry capacity of 7 soldiers. While not as fast as some other support vehicles, Infantry Fighting Vehicles have exceptional situational awareness, making them more agile, easier to hide, and harder to hit than heavier, better armored tanks. The IFV pays for this by having to stop to shoot the main gun and only carrying limited ammunition. In addition, the light armor only protects against small arms, so any anti tank attack is likely to take out the main gun and wound several crew.
Colonial Marine Platoon: After several colonies and jump ships were lost, the Terran Alliance was forced to provide escort and support for all colonies and their ships during the great exodus. With hundreds and hundreds of colonies and the Terran economy already straining to support building the thousands of jump ships required, the Colonial Guard was formed with almost no budget but expected to perform as a space-based version of a Terran coast guard. With funding low, the Colonial Guard forces of the 23rd century had a non-standard force organization using smaller units and squads. While Terran leadership justified this by saying that the Colonial Guard was not designed as a military fighting force but a civilian support force, the Colonial Guards themselves constantly struggle to make due with shoestring budgets and critical manpower shortages. The Colonial Marine Platoon is the standard rapid response force of the Colonial Guard. At only 16 members, the Colonial Marine Platoon is armed with the standard caseless autorifles, and each of the 4 squads is supported by either a flamethrower or automatic grenade launcher. As xenoplanetary trained forces issued space suits, Colonial Marines can operate in vacuum, trace, tainted and toxic atmospheres. All the specialized training and combat spacesuits the Marines need to carry for xeno operations have exorbitant price tags of over 5 million per 16 man platoon—10 times higher than the larger 28 man Modern Rifle Platoon. Due to this, Colonial Marines are stretched thin in their mission to support colonist forces, but are often the only line of defense on many low hospitality worlds, asteroids, and civilian ships suffering depressurization after jump accidents.
Year 2300 tech level:
Terran Shocktroops: The so-called elite Terran Shocktroops make use of the personal (and extremely expensive) jump packs, along with miniature laser rifles and automatic grenade launchers. While these troops are very mobile and have increased lethal range thanks to the high tech laser rifles, the cost of outfitting a single Shocktroop platoon could equip an entire regiment of Modern Rifle infantry. The use of high cost elite troops like their Shocktroops combined with the Terran Alliance needing to transport their military across interstellar voyages is a major factor in the political battles of expansionist versus isolationist ideology on Terra.
Terran Exomarines: The hostile environment 4 man Exomarine squad make the Terran Shocktroops look absolutely affordable. Exomarines are outfitted with the finest and most expensive gear possible: Experimental Blazer rifles favored in Free Worlds space, automatic grenade launchers, vacuum zero-g Marine training, and Hostile Environment armored exosuits with integrated jump packs (Further upgraded in 2315 to experimental Marine Environment suits); even the soldiers themselves are cybernetic modified with pain shunts to feel no pain. The goal of a Terran Marine Exosquad is to instill terror with an implacable, almost inhuman boarding force that makes surrender seem preferable to fighting—several encounters with pirates have demonstrated the Exomarines time and again, a fact spread widely in propaganda pieces.
