Mars Homefleet

Written by skairunner

There is an academic pride in the halls of Homefleet. Everyone believes in their ideas, and each idea gets a fair shot. Those which prove themselves are given the full backing of Homefleet. Those which fail perhaps need only be refined. It is the embodiment of the Martian spirit.

Mars Homefleet is a supranational organization tasked with defending all nations of Mars. It is also one of the major hubs of research and applied sciences, particularly in the areas of spaceflight, computation, game theory, and operations. It funds and directly conducts research and, unlike many militaries, openly shares its results in the hopes of spurring on further innovation. Along with the Convocation, it is credited with bringing an end to the brutal Thousand Wars era of early modern Mars and ushering in an age of international peace and prosperity.
Homefleet is a sprawling organization. Its budget rivals that of the largest nations of Mars and is directed to supporting its millions of personnel -- including officers, soldiers, academics, administrative staff, and instructors -- and the second largest space armada in the Sol System. Its main administrative headquarters are located with the Convocation in Pax Arcology above Utopia Planitia, and it maintains academies in many Martian countries. Some Homefleet personnel are even embedded in the factories and research facilities that it contracts with, so that they can learn directly from subject matter experts and bring that knowledge back into the organization.

Foundation

Homefleet prides itself as an institution of knowledge and learning. It aims to be the vanguard in all battlefronts, including the frontiers of knowledge.
The guiding principles of today's Homefleet were decided in large part by one of the figures pivotal to its founding, General Timeter Massaro. From her observations as a leader of a large organization, she realized that organizations tended towards conservative maintenance of the status quo which in turn lead to stagnation and defeat. Therefore, it was critical to the mission of Homefleet to structure itself in a way that could encourage fresh ideas to be introduced and thrive.

On the other hand, a truly free, "marketplace of ideas" style approach was not acceptable: there was a serious possibility of ideas emerging that were very good at winning the battle of ideas but would crumble when facing the real world. Even in the best case, redundant efforts would be wasteful.
Massaro proposed a fusion of traditional military structure and a free and academic approach, a single monolithic organization with all of its efforts laser-focused on a singular goal. It was a difficult pitch, but she was able to harness the rising tide of neo-rationalism and rallied the support needed to form today's Mars Homefleet, an ever-changing battleground of ideas where those which show results are quickly adopted by the larger organization and society as a whole.

Trial By Fire

Homefleet Academy Crest

Homefleet Academy Crest by Annie Stein

The crest of the Homefleet Academy, depicting the iconic spear of Mars buried in a book.

Every idea is worth exploring at least once. Homefleet is by far the largest funder of public research. Fellowship positions in Homefleet academies are highly coveted in the base sciences, as they are seen as the perfect mix of the generous funding of Homefleet but without the intense pressure for results. This fundamental research gives birth to concepts for practical applications, beginning the trials. Researchers are given the resources needed to demo their concept at a small scale. The results are judged by their superiors and, if promising, expanded to a larger scale. This process repeats until the idea bubbles up to the council of generals.
The council of generals are the highest leadership of Mars Homefleet. Each general maintains an independent command. Each command serves as a "vertical slice" of Homefleet, containing officers, researchers, administrative staff, and even whole academies. Matters which concern all of Homefleet are voted upon, such as the adoption of promising new concepts or ways of organization. It is not uncommon for ideas to be taken up like this, but for every successful cross-Homefleet implementation there are thousands of ideas which did not show enough results.

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Lifecycle of an idea

Fundamental research Smarter heuristics and more efficient computation substrates make long-lived autonomous robotics platforms viable.

Proposal Ensign Shenynge writes a whitepaper, freely available, describing a set of cheap, low-profile weapons platforms that can be activated to provide devastating broadsides.

Limited adoption, refinement Prototypes show that the idea has promise. Some limitations are encountered, such as the difficulty in calculating firing solutions.

Adoption by a command Computation experts from other divisions are allocated to help resolve the earlier issues. The weapons platforms are deployed "in the field"

Deliberation in the Council Now-lieutenant Shenynge presents and defends idea in council meeting. It is accepted by a majority.

Adoption by Homefleet The Parelion is adopted as a part of Homefleet doctrine and, among other places, is deployed to Mercury, though some systems have to be simplified to protect Homefleet trade secrets.

The Way Forward

Homefleet was founded with an inherent tension in its structure, and though the specifics have changed, the existence of factions with differing ideas on Homefleet's strategy has not. These days, the main tension is whether to recognize Jupiter as a potential threat to Mars.

Primacy

General Barie Pascal is seen as the leader of the current mainstream Primacy school of thought. The belief is that overwhelming superiority of technology and personnel is itself the goal. Rational enemies will refrain from starting a losing war, whereas irrational ones will be crushed, and Homefleet will stand as an unassailable fortress. As a council general, he is already in a position to influence Homefleet, but he is also known to have good relations with his Convocation counterparts and many in both organizations hold him in high regard.

Historism

General Iona Clast, also a council general, is seen as the leader of the largest counterstream school of thought, known as the Historicist but derisively called the Hawks.
The historicist viewpoint is that improvement for improvements' sake is a diffuse and ineffective goal and that Homefleet needs to return to its origins of countering the influence of a specific adversary. In the past, this was the Mercurian Empire. Today, it is Jupiter. She maintains that conflict with Jupiter is best avoidable by preparing for such a conflict and thus deterring it.

General Clast's stance is often criticized for being irrational and confrontational. General Pascal has been quoted as saying she is "jumping at shadows like a primitive tunneler," though this has been denied by the man himself. Instead, he points out the statistics of commerce with Jupiter and official statements by the Senate, arguing that there is simply no evidence that Jupiter is even close to the level of threat the Mercurian Empire was during Homefleet's early days. Others put their faith in the Alliance of Nations and bring up the Interplanetary Solar Defence Council as a sign of interplanetary cooperation, and many in the Convocation have expressed beliefs that an anti-Jupiter stance would become a self-fulfilling hypothesis.
This is not to say that the Historicist viewpoint is a minority viewpoint. Not all who subscribe to that school of thought are as unequivocal at designating Jupiter as the enemy, and more moderate opinions have gained better acceptance. Recently, Pallas Steradian, the on-the-ground commander of the Defenders of Mercury, expressed his opinion that war in space was inevitable to mixed reception but no outright rejection.

"I don't know when it will happen, but there will be war in space. And when that happens, I want us to be ready."

— Commodore Steradian

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Location

Mars