Original Archive Date: TCD 183-241
Last Modified Date: TCD 490-087
The Colonial Defense Forces (CDF) is a military organization tasked with the security of the Three Colonies. Their reduced human population and nascent manufacturing capabilities require the CDF to specialize in speed and lethality over sheer numbers.
CDF headquarters, manufacturing, and training facilities are located in high orbit above Aegia. Formally known as Aegia Prime, this military installation allows for rapid deployment to all colonial settlements and the ever-expanding colonial frontier.
History
The CDF was established via Council edict on TCD 003, three years after the survivors of Dead Earth landed on Respitia. Darrel Murphy, a senior Marine from Delta Company, became the first commandant of the CDF. Given his close relationship with the Twelfth and his own numerous acts of valor in humanity’s flight to the Cradle, he was a natural choice and received near-unanimous support.
While long dead, to this day Marines still refer to Murphy simply as “the commandant.”
A near-total draft was instituted soon after, enlisting every survivor between the ages of thirteen and sixty, to fill critical logistics and fighting roles in the Navy and Marine Corps. Only the rescued daxed refused to serve, lingering on at the edges of Respitian society. Without the Twelfth to lead them, they rebelled against the draft, likening service in the CDF to Concordat slavery.
For well over a century, the fledgling colony of Respitia was effectively a military organization.
With no manufacturing capabilities of their own, the CDF depended entirely on tech hounds of the loyalist pack fleets and their Concordat prisoners to help turn their captured Concordat slave ships into colonial habitats and a picket fleet to defend Respitia in high orbit.
The CDF soon proved to be a potent defense, repelling a Concordat assault on Respitia in the First Concordat War lasting from TCD 091 to TCD 102. The Concordat’s stunning defeat was largely due to the Daxed Corps, newly formed in TCD 093 only when the fall of Respitia looked to be inevitable. With legions of Found daxed at their command, the CDF struck back at the remaining Concordat ships and destroyed them all1.
This victory brought renewed hope to the tired Respitian colonists. A peace dividend soon followed. Salvaged Concordat technology grew the CDF’s capabilities and, with the founding of Aegia and Vestia, brought on the Three Colonies’ first Golden Age. The establishment of the first colonial corporate charters soon followed, expanding the colonies’ industrial base.
With the Concordat threat eliminated, the CDF became an all-volunteer force in TCD 151, easing the Three Colonies’ wartime footing and bringing a sense of normalcy for the first time in colonial history.
The CDF remains the largest employer in the Three Colonies.
Structure
The following branches comprise the CDF:
The Colonial Defense Navy is responsible for the assembly, maintenance, and deployment of all spacefaring naval assets. They also manage all civilian and military orbitals including industrial and commercial stations. The Autonomous Weapons Division is the newest naval department. Their experimental AI-powered combat drones represents a seismic shift in the way the Navy and CDF fight.
The Colonial Defense Marine Corps are humanity’s elite warfighters. They still embody Commandant Murphy’s focus on speed and lethality, operating in small units with exo heavy weapons support. The Marine Corps primary tactics involve drop ship landing operations against ground and space-based adversaries.
The Daxed Corps serve as the CDF’s mechanized armor. Their strength and regenerative capabilities make them functionally immortal. This gives them significant staying power even under heavy assault. More specialized daxed also serve as medical technicians, logistical support, and shipboard security.
Colonial Intelligence is the eyes and ears of CDF command. They provide Navy and Marine Corps leadership with the disposition of known hostile vessels, maintain massive datasets on enemy capabilities, and regularly review and test CDF defenses for weaknesses. With the failed insurrection often referred to as The Polite War (TCD 347 – TCD 354), CI operatives also conduct massive surveillance and counterintelligence operations on all civilian communication channels2.
Disposition
Total number CDF personnel: Classified
Primary Staging Grounds: Aegia Prime
Primary Manufacturing Facilities: Aegia Prime
Primary Training Facilities: Aegia Prime
Commandant of the CDF: General Brentan Gregg
Colonial Defense Navy
Total Navy Personnel: 294,602
Active Ships in Service: 74
Mothballed Ships: 14
Ships Under Construction: 3
Colonial Defense Marine Corps
Total Marine Personnel: 143,883
Divisions: 6
Regiments: 18
Companies: 274
Deployable Fireteams: Classified
Deployable Exos: Classified
Colonial Defense Daxed Corps
Total Daxed Personnel: Classified
Divisions: Classified
Regiments: Classified
Companies: Classified
Colonial Intelligence
Total Intelligence Personnel: Classified
External Threat Monitoring: Classified
Internal Social Optimization: Classified
1. Rumors of surviving Concordat ships escaping to the Cradle’s eastern reaches persisted for many years after the war. Multiple reconnaissance missions failed to turn up any evidence supporting those rumors, and so the CDF declared the archenemy defeated in TCD 117.
2. Colonial Intelligence is often mistaken for a political organization given its many connections to Council operations. Over the centuries, multiple inquiries into their activities have failed to turn up any evidence of political or governmental interference. Please consult authorized tac net archives to learn more about Colonial Intelligence’s mission.
