MACO fleet?
- Thread starter Baxten
- Start date
Truthfully, it's hard to figure out the worldbuilding for the 22nd century with Enterprise, since so much of what Berman and Braga wanted to do got overruled by Paramount and UPN and the stuff they did manage to get in there was ignored when Manny Coto took over in the fourth season.
Does the USMC have its own ships? No. They get moved around on US Navy ships. Does the Navy have ships specifically designed to move Marines? Why, yes they do.
Likewise, it would be logically that MACO doesn't have their own ships, but rather Starfleet ships would have MACO on-board and even have ships designed as troop ships to move large MACO units (brigade or battalion or more) when the need arises.
Likewise, it would be logically that MACO doesn't have their own ships, but rather Starfleet ships would have MACO on-board and even have ships designed as troop ships to move large MACO units (brigade or battalion or more) when the need arises.
This is my personal theory about ENT branches. Earth Starfleet was the Advanced NASA and non-Military service, while the MACOs were the military branch of Earth. The Intrepid along with the Delta ships that protected the Enterprise during its retreat to Earth were MACO ships. They seem more like a military-designed ship in an era where there was no shielding on Earth ships. They were smaller, more compact, with less hull space, and more maneuverable. The Enterprise in Broken Bow was lightly armed.
During the Earth-Romulan War, both branches were merged into a unified Starfleet branch.
During the Earth-Romulan War, both branches were merged into a unified Starfleet branch.
Pre-Romulan War, I'm not so sure Starfleet would have any dedicated ships in service for ferrying MACO units. At least not MACO units numbering any larger than a few dozen.
After the Romulan War began, though, my head-canon could see Starfleet requisitioning some E.C.S. freighters and converting them to be MACO transports. Starfleet might win over E.C.S. reluctance by guaranteeing that they would A) replace any freighters destroyed in combat, and B) upgrade the warp drive and weapons systems of any E.C.S. freighter pressed into service.
By the war's end, there might be some purpose-built MACO transports operated by Starfleet to replace potential losses, perhaps designed to be converted back into civilian use once the war concluded, and transferred to E.C.S.
After the Romulan War began, though, my head-canon could see Starfleet requisitioning some E.C.S. freighters and converting them to be MACO transports. Starfleet might win over E.C.S. reluctance by guaranteeing that they would A) replace any freighters destroyed in combat, and B) upgrade the warp drive and weapons systems of any E.C.S. freighter pressed into service.
By the war's end, there might be some purpose-built MACO transports operated by Starfleet to replace potential losses, perhaps designed to be converted back into civilian use once the war concluded, and transferred to E.C.S.
Given that Earth Starfleet doesn't use transporters like they do a century later, I imagine that the MACO transports would be akin to basically carriers with all that auxiliary craft landing the MACOs. Ok, I got the imagine of the Earth-Romulan Wars being fought with ships similar to the Rodger Young from Starship Troopers.
^ There's no evidence of that.
Even if your not keen to exasperate over making sure the Romulan War conforms to what Spock described-atomic weapons? STL ships? I'd still say there was no ground combat as no one saw what the other looked like.
Maaybe there was commando action in inhospitable border world's where armored federation and romulans troops engaged in combat yet covered with protective or camoflouge gear meaning they didn't know exactly what the other looked like. But even's that's a stretch.
More likely in my opinion is that the limitations of Warp travel in the mid 22nd century meant that conflict was conducted over vast distances with occasional use of closer automatic or remote controlled drone ships. Basically after a Federation victory(they don't gain much) the Romulans give up and a treaty is signed. More hawkish elements in the Federation who want to push on to the Romulan homeworld are shot down with the reason being higher than acceptable casualties.
Maaybe there was commando action in inhospitable border world's where armored federation and romulans troops engaged in combat yet covered with protective or camoflouge gear meaning they didn't know exactly what the other looked like. But even's that's a stretch.
More likely in my opinion is that the limitations of Warp travel in the mid 22nd century meant that conflict was conducted over vast distances with occasional use of closer automatic or remote controlled drone ships. Basically after a Federation victory(they don't gain much) the Romulans give up and a treaty is signed. More hawkish elements in the Federation who want to push on to the Romulan homeworld are shot down with the reason being higher than acceptable casualties.
Exactly this.
Actually I believe there is some precedent for that. At one point in TOS I think Spock had mentioned that through the entire war, no one had ever seen what a Romulan actually looked like, and the treaty negotiations ending the conflict were conducted entirely by subspace radio. We do know from Beyond that MACO were involved in some fashion, but it was never explicitly state how they fit into the Earth forces fighting the Romulans.
The way I see it, either Romulan ground troops wore helmets (like we saw them do on TOS), in which case they could easily disguise themselves, or perhaps they just got Remans to fight their ground battles for them.
Maybe Atomic Weapons refers to Romulan orbital bombardment? I think the romulans use some kind of atomic reactor to power their FTL drives.
Come to think of it the MACOs make way more sense in the mirror verse, they might be a part of a different chain of command-parallel army as it were. In intra-ship intrigue and backbiting the loyalty of MACOs would determine who becomes captain and who gets tossed out of an airlock.
In wars the Terran empire would drop down MACO detachments to kill slaughter and conquer alien worlds.
I imagine they also served to keep any ambitious lieutenants in line.
In the prime verse they aren't as oriented to "Kill the alien!" As much as they are protecting the interests of early Starfleet. They have better weapons, training and so on. And according to canon ridiculously high standards. Which makes sense as they are tasked with defending human explorers in the infinite frontier just as humanity is getting its feet wet in space. I imagine you have your SAS, Seal Team 6, and various national equivalents being put through intense training where only the best of already the best of the best were accepted and then intense training with high dropout or failure rates.
In other words they are the best most elite troops tasked with protecting human lives and interests.
In wars the Terran empire would drop down MACO detachments to kill slaughter and conquer alien worlds.
I imagine they also served to keep any ambitious lieutenants in line.
In the prime verse they aren't as oriented to "Kill the alien!" As much as they are protecting the interests of early Starfleet. They have better weapons, training and so on. And according to canon ridiculously high standards. Which makes sense as they are tasked with defending human explorers in the infinite frontier just as humanity is getting its feet wet in space. I imagine you have your SAS, Seal Team 6, and various national equivalents being put through intense training where only the best of already the best of the best were accepted and then intense training with high dropout or failure rates.
In other words they are the best most elite troops tasked with protecting human lives and interests.
They use an artificial singularity.
So Macos are like the Praetorian Guard?
In the MU yes, they make or break ambitious captains and admirals.
And in the PU to they are the best humanity has to offer when it comes to asskicking.
And in the PU to they are the best humanity has to offer when it comes to asskicking.
Spock's line from TOS "Balance Of Terror":
"As you recall from your histories, this conflict was fought, by our standards today, with primitive atomic weapons and in primitive space vessels which allowed no quarter, no captives. Nor was there even ship-to-ship, visual communication; therefore, no Human, Romulan, or ally has ever seen the other. Earth believes the Romulans to be warlike, cruel, treacherous... and only the Romulans know what they think of Earth."
Seems to indicate that even as of 2266 neither the Romulans nor the four founding Federation races ever seen one another. This would make direct ground confrontations highly unlikely. I suppose the Romulans could have sent Remans to fight ground battles in their stead, but Spocks statement also implies that the war was fought - seemingly on both sides - in (by 23rd century standards) primitive space vessels. So it's possible that while MACO units were not involved in ground combat, they likely served as armory officers on Starfleet vessels - among other duties - during that war.
You could also interpret his line regarding "no ally has ever seen the other" to include Remans. Perhaps Earth were aware of the Remans in some capacity, but like the Romulans, had never actually seen one face-to-face, and because of the lack of understanding the internal nature of the Romulan Star Empire, considered the Remans to be "allies" of the Romulans, without realizing that they were a subservient slave caste.
"As you recall from your histories, this conflict was fought, by our standards today, with primitive atomic weapons and in primitive space vessels which allowed no quarter, no captives. Nor was there even ship-to-ship, visual communication; therefore, no Human, Romulan, or ally has ever seen the other. Earth believes the Romulans to be warlike, cruel, treacherous... and only the Romulans know what they think of Earth."
Seems to indicate that even as of 2266 neither the Romulans nor the four founding Federation races ever seen one another. This would make direct ground confrontations highly unlikely. I suppose the Romulans could have sent Remans to fight ground battles in their stead, but Spocks statement also implies that the war was fought - seemingly on both sides - in (by 23rd century standards) primitive space vessels. So it's possible that while MACO units were not involved in ground combat, they likely served as armory officers on Starfleet vessels - among other duties - during that war.
You could also interpret his line regarding "no ally has ever seen the other" to include Remans. Perhaps Earth were aware of the Remans in some capacity, but like the Romulans, had never actually seen one face-to-face, and because of the lack of understanding the internal nature of the Romulan Star Empire, considered the Remans to be "allies" of the Romulans, without realizing that they were a subservient slave caste.
