- For continuity-specific version of the Starfleet Marine Corps, see Marine.
The Starfleet Marine Corps, or SFMC, is the ground forces combat branch of the Star Fleet of the United Federation of Planets. (Starfleet International)
History[]
The Corps was organized alongside Star Fleet in 2161, and its earliest personnel were members of "MACO" units that served aboard various United Earth Space Probe Agency ships.
Training[]
Star Fleet Marines are trained at the Star Fleet Marine Corps Academy. This Academy's campuses are on the same grounds as those of the Star Fleet Academy's various campuses, and the campuses of both Academies often share faculties; some such campuses are "two-in-one" campuses that actually train personnel for both services at once.
All Star Fleet Marines are primarily rifle-wielders by training, and they are all issued phaser rifles of their own upon joining its ranks. They are then forbidden to allow those rifles to be more than two meters from their grasps during the course of their training.
All Star Fleet officers who accept assignment to Star Fleet Intelligence or the Security And Tactical Division of the Star Fleet Support Services Section are subjected to an accelerated course of SFMC training in a holographic environmental simulator program called "The Crucible." This program has the effect of subjecting the prospective Star Fleet Marine to the equivalent of four long years of SFMC training in the span of only two short weeks. The entire roster of Marine Strike Group No. 791, except for its founding Officer-In-Charge, then-Lieutenant FrioDraca, received its training as Star Fleet Marines in this manner. The finer details of the Crucible Program are, of necessity, classified information, but what can be disclosed about it without breaching regulations is that the Crucible Program enhances the survival skills in extremes of climate and environments of those who endure it.
The number of personnel who, after they accept assignments either to Star Fleet Intelligence or the Support Services Section's Security And Tactical Division, actually become Star Fleet Marines is actually quite small--out of every one thousand personnel who undergo screening for the Corps, no more than four such personnel are actually accepted into it; the remaining nine hundred and ninety-six all flunk the Crucible Program for various reasons. This .4% ratio speaks to higher standards than those of the old Earth United States Army Special Forces, or "Green Berets," which accepted no more than three of every one hundred, or 3%, of potential volunteers to join it. (Starfleet International)
Clothing[]
Star Fleet Marines wear distinctive uniforms with details that can be varied depending upon the wearers's duties and/or section assignments. The most recognizable Star Fleet Marine uniforms are the "Monster Black" uniforms, which for decades were their Class A-Prime dress uniforms. These, approved and first issued in the 2280s, accordingly resemble the 2280s officer uniforms except for having outer tunics whose color is black, rather than maroon ("blood") as those of regular Star Fleet personnel from the 2280s were, and which incorporate black berets on the wearers's heads. More commonly, however, Star Fleet Marines wear Class B uniforms which more closely resemble regular Star Fleet uniforms except for incorporating either the black berets or eight-sided visored black caps on the wearers's heads.
Star Fleet Marines are not allowed to wear their headgear indoors whenever they are not carrying weapons.
Philosophy[]
Star Fleet Marines maintain the motto "Semper fidelis," which is Latin for "Always faithful," that the old Earth United States Marine Corps, on which the SFMC is modeled, adopted very early in the course of its history. They so train and so serve in the hopes that the skills they acquire during their training will not be needed, in the same way that experts in martial arts develop their expertise with the knowledge that their usage of that expertise will be unnecessary, as expert martial artists never have to prove that they are such experts.
Corps personnel are always drawn directly from Star Fleet itself, as unlike the old Earth United States Marine Corps, the Star Fleet Marine Corps is actually part of Star Fleet, not its co-equal partner as the old Earth USMC was to the old Earth United States Navy.
Ordnance And Munitions[]
SFMC personnel, who are primarily rifle-wielders by training as stated above, employ a variety of such rifles. However, whenever a rifle would appear too conspicuous or too aggressive, owing in either or both cases to Prime Directive considerations, they are authorized to carry Type II "assault phaser" pistols, which were first issued in the 2280s and which customarily contain enclosed smaller Type I assault phaser units with two triggers, a blue one for stun and a red one for disrupt or dematerialize, inside them. (These have lower-capacity power cells and hence shorter effective ranges than their pistol mounts, with which they are more customarily employed to increase their overall power outputs and elongate their effective ranges, but they are just as capable of being deliberately overloaded to cause force chamber explosions. These then have narrower blast radii than their pistol counterparts.)
Other ordnance and munitions, including "data warfare" weapons which "datafighters" customarily employ, are available to Star Fleet Marines as their missions may require them to possess and employ.
| United Federation of Planets Starfleet Marine Corps elements |
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  SFMC Divisions • Marine brigades • Marine regiments • Marine battalions • Marine Companies • Marine expeditionary units • Marine Strike Groups |