MSGRPG News

Time for our first user-input event! lol

Today we're going to create the full designation of the Seraph and the units on board. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure about the organization levels or what we need! So that's what our lovely members are here for.

The Seraph will rarely be dealing with problems and such as the only ship in the area. It's typically part of something bigger. I'm assuming Fleet (like the 8th Fleet that helped Archangel descend to Earth) with a number of other ships, but if there's another level above that, we'll need one of those too.

Help decide on the name for each level, right down to the Seraph's MS and Infantry groups. (Like how the Phantom Pain was the 81st Autonomous Mobile Group, etc.)

You don't have to go into much detail about other ships in the group, but suggestions for the classes that should make up this group and possible names are being considered.

The only restrictions are:
1. The ships should be timeline appropriate. Remember it's July CE71. Meaning most of the newer ones from Destiny will be unavailable.
2. The entire list from top to bottom should be original (or only mentioned in passing within canon). This will give us the freedom to decide on how the ship influences the storyline while still keeping most canon intact.

Well there are Fleet and Battle groups...not entirely sure which you're wanting. so I'll focus on hte fleet part as well as Roster. Mainly i'll focu on command staff and pilots only unles a mechanic or something comes around

3rd Experimental Ops "Task force Echo"

LCAM-00XA Seraph

Captain: TBA

XO: BA

--------------

Commander/White coat: Stratos, Triton

Stratos Team:

Red Coat: Charlotte Saint-Claire
Red Coat: Ansel Visca
Red Coat: Kite Ishma

(Space)
1x Nazca class

3x Laurasia class

(Earth)

2x Petrie class

(Sea)

4x Vosgulov class

This is farely accurate. As for waht Mobile suits are on board well...it varries but if you want I can send a list of the common uses ammong the ships...mainly the ground forces.

This post has been edited by Saiga on May 8 2012, 01:48 PM

Technically, ZAFT doesn't use the term "Fleet", as their forces are organized into many small, independent squadrons as opposed to massed military forces, although no one said we couldn't have that...

44th Terrestrial Armour Corps ‘Cerberus’

The 44th Terrestrial Armour Corps ‘Cerberus’ is a combat group formed shortly after the April fool’s incident in C.E70, April 1st. The unit is based at and operates out of ZAFT’s Carpentaria base, charged primarily with the defence of the base, the Australian continent, as well as the surrounding territories under the Oceania Union. Cerberus as a functioning unit carries six separate squadrons under its care, in part due to the important role it plays as the security force of ZAFT’s primary terrestrial base. Named after the watchdog of Hell, the three heads of the Cerberus represents past, present and future; metaphors for the unit’s highest given duty to safeguard ZAFT’s primary terrestrial base and means of resupply for the entire expedition forces. It is also because of this that the unit only operates DINNs, GOOhNs and TFA-2 ZuOOTs, instead of standard GINNs used by other terrestrial forces worldwide. Because the unit also functions to protect interests of the ZAFT-aligned Oceania Union, Cerberus Squadrons are sometimes deployed missions on foreign soil; which may include attacking strategic targets of value or thwarting advances of EA’s naval forces.


Due to the specific, although rather vague nature of the unit’s function, the Cerberus has six separate squadrons under one unified command, each squad is equipped with around twenty to thirty pilots depending on their role within the unit. Squad merger arises when more important situations call for several squads to be deployed in tandem. A Squadron is usually made up of two Vosgulov class submarine carriers, filled with 6 DINNs and 4 GOOhNs (or the newer ZnO). The unit is also equipped with one Lesseps-class land battleship, the Joachim moored at Carpentaria and serves as the unit’s mobile HQ.

Equipment in use by Cerberus

• One Lesseps-class land battleship, the Joachim
• Multiple Vosgulov-class submarine carrier, two vessels form one squadron
• VoLPHAU, primary transport carrier for over-continent operations
• AMF-101 DINN
• UMF-4A GOOhN
• UMF-5 ZnO
• TFA-2 ZuOOT
• TMF/A-802 BuCUE [Mission Specific Procurements]

Why should the Seraph be part of a well-organized fleet? Perhaps during the initial preparations and awaiting its operational orders, Carpentaria Base is attacked, and the Seraph has to deploy with only a skeleton crew.

In this case, the boat would operate autonomously (much like White Base, the Albion, and all the other incarnations of the "single MS carrier" concept in Gundam) until it could rendezvous in the Anzac Theatre of Operations (Australia/New Zealand) with a carrier group requiring significant manpower.

In the meantime, however, we could have veteran MS pilots from Bloody Valentine rendezvous in their MS en-route to orbital insertion, and commence training the newly graduated crewmen and officers.

In the meantime, however, the Seraph could fight a "low intensity" war, like a guerrilla war with a mobile element, constantly retreating from superior numbers of OMNI forces. The Seraph crew would have to adjust their operations plans to take advantage of ambushes, and quick raids against smaller OMNI forces for supplies and human intelligence.

*shrugs* it's an AU...does it really matter?

Doesn't truly matter since it's an AU, Saiga. Though from a drama and plot development stance, I would argue rushing the Seraph into battle ill-equipped without any specific operating instructions or chain of command would be far more interesting.

Apparently you already have the Stratos team picked out. Since that leaves three unassigned pilots, hmm... we need some other team commander of a White Coat rank to fill the 8th pilot gap, or a Red Coat needs to be given the junior varsity.

I knew Jojo theoretically graduated the Academy early, and Rai is completing her Fourth Year (literally walking in the commencement just a couple weeks after her deployment to Seraph), though apparently Theodore is a fairly squared away veteran. Clearly he could take command of the junior varsity, and handle orders.

Edelbach Team:

Red Coat: Jojo Kaguya
Red Coat: Rai Watanabe- Specialist: Sniper, Counter-insurgency, Reconnaissance
Red Coat: ???

Though something does come to mind... Can we pick and make our squadron/team badges and nicknames? Going by the Edelbach team, we'll be mistaken for either a bunch of auto parts salesmen, or a German catering service.

Actually that was just a rough draft. It only consisted of the approved characters at the time. Assuming this ship is operated like every other ZAFT team. The pilots will be under one commander, possibly an XO for a second team, but that depends on how large the group gets.

Apparently you already have the Stratos team picked out. Since that leaves three unassigned pilots, hmm... we need some other team commander of a White Coat rank to fill the 8th pilot gap, or a Red Coat needs to be given the junior varsity.

I knew Jojo theoretically graduated the Academy early, and Rai is completing her Fourth Year (literally walking in the commencement just a couple weeks after her deployment to Seraph), though apparently Theodore is a fairly squared away veteran. Clearly he could take command of the junior varsity, and handle orders.

Edelbach Team:

Red Coat: Jojo Kaguya
Red Coat: Rai Watanabe- Specialist: Sniper, Counter-insurgency, Reconnaissance
Red Coat: ???

Though something does come to mind... Can we pick and make our squadron/team badges and nicknames? Going by the Edelbach team, we'll be mistaken for either a bunch of auto parts salesmen, or a German catering service.

There wasn't a rule saying that squadrons had to be named after the team leader. Going by the situation, it was pretty much only used to identify squadrons from one another, since mobile suit pilots probably got shuffled around pretty often when they restructure teams.


Also, Theodore is although considered a pilot right now, the Raptor isn't approved, and his main function is still as infiltrating infantry (as and when required) so rather than leading a team, he should be filling the 7th or 8th independent unit (since Stratos is a 3man wing, i suppose the other team would be another 3 too)

As Ansel is basically a white coat he'd be in charge of the other three man team and someone else would be on Triton's team. However given how the ZAFT command seems to work Triton's still in charge of basically in charge of everything. Captain only is in charge of maintaining the ship while all military action would be handled by Triton much like how things were run on Rau's ship.

Proposed Squadron Patch for the LCAM-00XA Seraph Mobile Suits:



The VFC-71 "Night Stalkers" are a unit of mixed mobile suits. Primarily a post-Academy advanced training squadron, this unit's focus on orbital space missions such as ACM training, carrier operations, and command officer training serves as a final qualification before junior officers move into other arms of the fleet. VFC-71 was originally stationed on the Laurasia Class "Hornet", under PLANT Supreme Council orders, the squadron was reassigned to LCAM-00XA Seraph.

With the acquisition of the LCAM-00XA Seraph, the Night Stalkers serve as an auxiliary force on stand-by for orbital insertion and counter-offensive operations against OMNI forces. With the limitations on keeping manned mobile suits at Alert 5 status, ZAFT's use of auxiliary forces to supplement PLANT patrols and civilian security operations proves a logistically sound strategy.

Change to VFC-71 Night Stalkers Background

As an attempt to build morale and further standardize teamwork in ZAFT mobile suit structure, civilian members of the PLANT Supreme Council, along with several high ranking officials, deemed it necessary to adopt a squadron name and structure other than the classic team leader name basis used up to this point in the Bloody Valentine War.

As a result, and with the direct input of certain members of the Seraph crew, the squadron VFC-71 Night Stalkers was developed. The actual squadron patch, drawn by Rai Watanabe, and submitted to command for approval, was accepted as of June 27th, EC 71.

The final morale-boosting results, including keeping scorecards for OMNI kills, will be later evaluated by high-ranking ZAFT officials for potential use on Nazca and Laurasia mobile suit units.

Overall the idea is good and solid, but it should only really need to go through the National Defense Committee, which appearntly does have civilian members considering Ezalia Joule is a member of it.

Other then odd wording it's good, it's rather odd to consider the ZAFT Naming structure classic compared to the much older 'modern' military naming structure.