Xyon National Guard

The **Xyon National Guard** (**XNG**) is the primary military service branch of the Xyon Armed Services. Consisting of volunteer personnel drawn from all corners of Xyon, the XNG is the paramount military force responsible for conducting combat operations across the planet, and ensuring that the country's national security interests are resolved. The National Guard is the largest of the three military forces under the Xyon Armed Services' purview, and is modestly-equipped by Mikaean standards. Though easily more powerful and more advanced than any military force on Earth, the XNG is notably ill-trained and disciplined, negating much of its numerical and technological superiority. All XNG activities are managed through the Directorate of Defense, as well as in conjunction with the Bureau of Internal Investigation, which is responsible for aiding the National Guard is resolving conflicts across the planet as well as on Earth.

Established in 3842 YM, via the adoption of the Blackstone Constitution, the Xyon National Guard was founded with the explicit intent of providing the federal government with a combined armed force to ensure national unity and enforcement of executive authority. The XNG decisively ended the ongoing Shadow Wars between the various households of Xyon, and various other interested parties in the conflict, and restored federal authority across the planet. The XNG was later incorporated into the Xyon Armed Forces eight years later in 3850 YM. Later on, the XNG was called upon the resolve a series of disputes between House O'Neill and House Kordan, preventing either side from re-establishing armed militias and potentially sparking a new global conflict. As of the current era, the Xyon National Guard has proven instrumental in combating various terrorist groups, insurgencies, and acts of rebellion throughout Xyon, and has successfully proven itself as a force of unity and stability.

As of 3985 YM, the Xyon National Guard had a budget of ∇3.931 trillion (US$7.831 trillion) allocated to it via the 3985 YM Xyon federal budget. Alongside the Obsidian Guard, the Xyon National Guard has robust power projection capabilities, and is capable of both protecting Xyon while projecting a long-term physical presence on another planet. The ground forces of the XNG are the largest of the three branches, and the most prestigious of the services. The XNG's army has hundreds of military bases on Xyon, and dozens on Earth, its moon, and several other planets where combat and environment training are conducted on a routine basis. The aerospace forces consist of thousands of aircraft, while its navy has control over both its interstellar and terrestrial fleets, and is subdivided as such. The navy maintains a vast fleet of warships for interstellar combat, though it has yet found need for its vast arsenal.

## History

### Formation

On the lead-up to the adoption of the Blackstone Constitution in 3842 YM, the government of Winter Kane acknowledged that it was time that the federal government be authorized to have a military force of its own to prevent any similar clandestine conflict such as the Shadow Wars from ever happening again. Prior to the National Guard's creation, the government in Blackstone had relied heavily upon the good graces and cooperation of the High Patrons to donate their own private militias to the temporary needs of the state to combat threats to the country. A provision provided for in the Treaty of Chernaya, the allowance of private household militias to the High Patrons were seen as a sign of good faith by the first Supreme Director, Keane O'Neill, as a means of gaining the support of the patriarchs he had just defeated in the Unification Wars. As a consequence, the federal government had no central military force it could rely upon, and all of the households maintained their own paramilitary organizations, which they utilized frequently throughout the century-long period of global instability. Overall, the federal government existed in name, but had no means of enforcing its right to rule anywhere on Xyon.

The Faith Militant of the Black Cross Church had been volunteered by Reverend Mistress TBD to Supreme Director Kane as a means of cementing federal authority, as she had found the violence and corruption across the planet intolerable. However, this gesture of kindness itself revealed yet another glaring issues for Kane. The religious institutions of Xyon themselves possessed paramilitary forces, and were likewise more powerful than the federal government itself, making it impossible for Blackstone to operate independently, and making unification nothing more than a farce. Likewise, criminal organizations with regional authority had more power than the Supreme Director in Blackstone, and routinely made sure the people knew. As such, upon the ratification of the Blackstone Constitution, all armed groups across the planet, from the households, to the religious institutions, or private militias, were forced to disarm, as a new military force was organized by the state. This new military force, known as the Xyon National Guard, would serve as the permanent armed forces of the state, and the sole protector of Mikaean sovereignty.

The XNG was unique in that it would draw from all Mikaeans regardless of household, religious affiliation, or social standing. Any form of discrimination, then rife all throughout Xyon, would be banned at all levels of the military. Likewise, it would serve as the melting pot for all Mikaeans to join, allowing them to swear their allegiance to the state rather than to their household or to the Church. Because of its revolutionary ideals, the National Guard gained wide support from throughout the general population, and millions of Mikaeans swarmed to the volunteer centers setup by the state to train and induct new members. Because of its popularity, Kane's new national military force was able to avoid being stamped out by organizations that felt threatened by the XNG, as it would naturally resolve in a public backlash against them. By end of the year of it formation in 3842 YM, the Xyon National Guard had inducted some two and a half million Mikaeans into its ranks, granting it a degree of strength in the face of its new mission, to maintain the peace and enforce the federal government's will across the planet.