Pentagon

The Pentagon is the name of the headquarters building for the United States Military. AKA the Department of Defense It is also used colloquially to mean the command structure of the United States Military. This is specifically at the level of military action, decision making and policy. The Highest Ranking person who works out of the Pentagon is the "Secretary of Defense" - the President's hand-picked underling who runs the whole thing.
At the Pentagon, an utterly fantastic amount of self important paper shuffling and administration work goes on.
The Pentagon viewed Project High Ground lustfully, They still contend they should be in charge of the anti-asteroid phaser batteries. An argument they are winning. Said batteries are just as useful for anti-ship anti missile, or anti-satellite work.
The Pentagon is still trying to get control of the Warp Drive Project on the basis of national security. They argue that the WDP is discovering important technologies that should be the secrets of the United States, not given to the world at large. With this tech the USA could rule the world, as it should. They are backed generally by Team Red congress critters and the Military-Industrial Complex. To date the President and enlightened congress critters have held them off.
The Pentagon got reamed in The Shop trial. The head of The Shop was a third rate nobody in Transport command. Several multi-star generals were taken down as a result of the hearings and trial.
The Pentagon has two Challenger Class Cruisers space craft building. These are the first generation of ships with gravity and guns. The USS Francis R. Scobee is the first ship. The Air Force and Navy are tussling over who gets to run them. Who am I kidding, it is a knock down drag out no holds fight. Space Command keeps trying to get someone's attention. It wants to have real guns too.
==Threats==
===Traditional===
The US military is in the unique position of beating the bushes for a conventional threat to the US to obsess over. With the largest military in the world, the breakup of both the USSR and China there is no one to fight. The vultures are circling looking to rip the Pentagon budget apart. New technologies are both helping and hurting the military cause. 
Currently the only real conventional threat to the USA is pirates. The Navy is dealing with that. The Army has been pushing for a wholesale invasion of Somalia. A case they are slowly winning as the pirate problem increases. 
Islamic militants and rogue states are fading from relevance. With a rock solid missile defense what bombs Iran or Iraq have are meaningless. North Korea is history Add to that the Arab spring and the middle east is looking inward. There just isn't much in conventional terms that is a military grade threat to the peace.
===Aliens===
The Pentagon is hopping around like a frog on a hot plate over aliens. The Space Force has gotten all the starships.
Teleporters make national and border security efforts into a joke. Worse the USA does not control the Teleporters. It also has no chance of controlling them. 
The ADF Improbable and the ADF Rubicon keep the Brass awake at night. They are up there...in space...being powerful and not theirs. The Ane Confederation is a bundle of contradictions. Powerful, but not powerful, has high technology it is willing to share, but not much of it. The fact that the Ane are actually two bodies is not really sinking in. The Ane History Scouts have the super high tech, the local Ane do not. The Pentagon wants control of this resource. 
Orions are a real concern and a legitimate one. They have attempted one raid already. If the Ane are of two minds the Orions are not even close to that. This is becoming clear with the interrogations of the Orion survivors. One house may want you dead while another is crawling in your lap. 
The Qzin are also a threat, but one they are prepared to handle. The approaching slow ship is no longer approaching. The Orions apparently tried to contact it to the detriment of all.
===Cyber===
This is a no joke real war. However a war that cannot be fought with bullets. The US has taken a hit in the gut with the demolition of the DEA databases by Poncho Vi. The cause of drug interdiction has been set back decades. AI is a threat to which the Pentagon has yet to find a defense. The nature of politics being part of the problem. 
So far the reaction has been to isolate and armor. US governmental computers are being put in bunkers, real and virtual. The DoD is working from internal intranets that do not have gateways open to the Internet. If a computer has internet access it does NOT have DoD intranet access. If on the DoD intranet it does NOT have Internet access. Violation of this is a crime under the Military Code of Justice and can get you a nice room at Leavenworth.
They are not risking DMZ computers. The system is in full paranoid mode. Removable devices once used outside the intranet system are considered tainted and cannot be used in house again. Getting a file into the Intranet is an exacting process that involves a separate system to check the file for traps, place it on clean media and then you can move it sneakernet style into the system. Wireless is verboten. Cat 6DoD mandatory. Armored shielded cables with a layer of "reactive" armor. You cannot get inductive traffic off one and if you pierce the casing it shorts and fails.
===Outsiders===
Outsiders with strange powers make them nervous as well. It is a really stressful time to be a top ranking officer. The problem with outsiders is magic. Not only is the very concept hard to get passed ossified upper Brass brains, but no one knows what to do about it, how to defend against it, or how to get your own.
Outsiders have magic. Magic that can turn men into rats and back again. Magic that can heal, and magic that can destroy. Wiggle your fingers and say strange words and stuff happens. That cottage in the Poconos is sounding better by the day. Barely credulous study groups are looking into the matter.
==Branches==
===Air Force===
Hard hit by new technology. President Russel has declared the USA is getting out of the nuclear club. Bombers are a thing of the past, heck, most of the inventory is a thing of the past. A kid with a steady cam and a modified colt phaser can shoot down an F22. The smart part of the Air Force are angling to be the service that controls space craft. Dinosaurs are trying to protect useless turf.
===Army===
Changing. Anti-gravity is a game changer. No more choppers. Tanks and APCs will fly. The Army is getting lean and staying mean. Under Russel the over all force is shrinking, but is well leveraged by technology.
===Coast Guard===
Undergoing the least changes of any of the armed forces due to technology. Their mission is unchanged. Maintain free navigation of the US waterways including maintaining channel markers. Conduct Search and Rescue for sailors in distress. They will be getting a boost from the new technologies in terms of tools. 
===Marines===
Looking for ways to attack from space, put boots on the ground and hold it. They will start pressure suit training as soon as a Marine worthy pressure suit can be designed. The logistics and problems of orbital skydiving are being examined.
===Navy===
With the "joke" played on the USS Ronnie Raygun the Navy has been divided into two camps. The dry Navy that wants to be the controlling entity in space, big ships require crews, not pilots. Then there is the wet Navy that itself has two camps: Those that insist that old technology is still relevant and those that realize the mission has changed. The former are being eased into retirement. It might be aboard one of the new Navy retirement homes made from an aircraft carrier. The other branch is looking for new ways to do the defense by sea and anti piracy missions. 
Subs are still relevant as phasers cannot reach them. The Boomers are history. With the death of "the bomb" they are useless white elephants with fission reactors in their guts.
Surface warships that have a role in anti-sub or anti-pirate missions will remain. The two carriers currently on the ways have been halted for a redesign. Fission is out, fusion is in. Those ships that are being kept are being refitted with fusion electric drives. The aircraft carrier fleet will undergo a drastic reduction. 
Everyone is affected by the new technology. The Navy is getting as many people as possible familiar with starship operations.
===Space Command===
Currently located in the Cheyenne Mountain facility outside Colorado Springs. Formerly SAC operations. President Russel is moving the dry Navy and the Air Force into this command for a unified space structure. 
Space Command Ships 
Challenger Class Cruisers 
*USS Francis R. Scobee -- It is conducting training operations. It is impulse only.
*USS Gregory B. Jarvis -– Their first warp drive ship. 
Columbia Class Cruisers
*USS William Cameron McCool -- USA -- Launched 2015
*USS Michael P. Anderson -- USA -- Launched 2016
*USS Missouri -- USA -- Launched 2017
The Solar Patrol is not part of the United States Space Command.
==Personnel==
*Secretary of Defense -- Leon Pottella The 23rd and current United States Secretary of Defense, serving in the administration of President Robert Russel since 2011. Prior to taking office, he served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. An Italian-American Team Blue politician, lawyer, and professor, Potella served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993. He is the founder and director of California State University's Pottella Institute, served as Distinguished Scholar to Chancellor Charles B. Reed of the California State University System and professor of public policy at Santa Clara University. (Not in the know, not trusted)
*Major Cy Craig -- (Air Force) Crusty old test pilot that likes kids,likes Plane bunnies better, LOVES kids that are plane bunnies.
*Brigadier General Cody Fulson -- (Air Force) Headed the meteor crisis strike force. Not much in the know, but not totally out of same.
*Major General Harland H. Hardhead -- (Air Force) A DOD straight shooter that was recruited into Bureau-13 after the Meteor Crisis. An honest man with a deep streak of Missouri mule. Grizzled hair, pipe chomping, chin forward don't get in his way cross between Omar Bradly and Nick Fury.
*Major Fenton Mark -- (Army) Situational and intelligence expert.
*Major General Thomas McAdams -- (Army) Washington DC A trusted and long time link to the military, General Thomas McAdams is an outstanding expert with weapons use and acquisition for the Bureau. Much of the Bureau's heavy hardware comes from one of his supply units in Utah or Colorado. McAdams is a firm believer in the work of Bureau 13 since his daughter was saved from a band of cultists. He fronts McAdams marauders, a team of special forces trained in dealing with unusual circumstances. 
*Gunnery Sergeant William McCoy. -- (Marines. Bureau 13) Ice blue eyes, sandy hair, square jaw, firm handshake. Aw-shucks down home southern type with a taste for Jennifer Ashby's camp cooking. Seen in the VC-Centaur game.
*Major Carl Miner -- (Air Force) A-Bomb expert, looking for new work.
*Captain Mark Morgan -- (Air Force) Former Major that had to explain how he got on the Edwards flight line buck naked, and where the chopper he signed out was. Tried to block Steven Ashby and Therilan from taking "The Beast". Therilan saved his bacon and then he got pissy about it. 
See also: Military-Industrial Complex
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