Xyon Armed Services

The **Xyon Armed Services** (**XAS**) are the combined military forces of Xyon. The XAS consists of three parallel military forces which each fill a distinct role for the defensive needs of Xyon; the Obsidian Guard, the Xyon National Guard, and the Vanguard for Peace and Security. Each force maintains their own organic air, land, and sea components, though with varying degrees of capability and equipment based on their differing areas of operation. The Supreme Director of Xyon is the commander-in-chief of the Xyon Armed Services, and is the absolute authority over all missions and operations undertaking by the armed forces. The Supreme Director is supported in this role by the Director-General of Defense, who serves as the overall peacetime commander of the military, and sets military policies and allocates the budget for the XAS. Finally, the Chief of the General Staff is the highest-ranking military officer within the armed forces, advising both the Supreme Director and the Director-General of Defense on military strategies and personnel needs within the Xyon Armed Services.

Founded in 3850 YM, the XAS was established as a means of consolidating all of the permitted military groups on the planet under federal authority. All of this came eight years after a period of global instability and rampant crime and violence across the entire planet. With the various High Patrons of Xyon's households attempting to reassert their authority over the planet, the government in Blackstone under Supreme Director Winter Kane, with support from the paramilitary forces of the Black Cross Church, was able to force the patriarchs of Xyon to accept a new constitution for Xyon, which empowered the federal government to maintain a centralized military force under its direct control, and disbanded the household militias they maintained in defiance of Blackstone. Since the formation of the military more than a century and a half ago, the Xyon Armed Services have proven instrumental in combating crime, terrorism, insurgencies, and separatism throughout Xyon, and gaining a level of trust with the public as a melting pot for Mikaeans of all backgrounds, and a bulwark against government corruption.

Though much debate on the need for a massive military force has continued to be held throughout the government, media, and the general population, the XAS continues to be a well-funded and highly-trained institution. As of 3985 YM, the Xyon Armed Services had a strength of some more than 36 million active military personnel, making it the largest military force on record. Likewise, the XAS has an equally vast budget, at $0.0 trillion as of the same year. The XAS has more active personnel than all military forces on Earth combined, as well as a military budget which dwarfs that of even the largest military budgets on Earth by a factor TBD. In terms of power projection, with the advent of spaceflight and faster-than-light travel on Xyon, the Xyon Armed Forces have the capability to send troops to and occupy entire planets if the need calls for it. With the presence of more than twelve million Mikaeans on Earth as of 3985 YM, the XAS maintains a network of military bases on Earth's moon, where some quarter of a million soldiers of the three service branches are permanently stationed. In all, the XAS is the most powerful military force in existence, and puts its resources to use to protect Xyon and its interests wherever they may be found.

### Formation

The Xyon Armed Services were established on 1 Mikaeon 3850 YM per executive order by the Supreme Director, TBD, eight years after the adoption of the Blackstone Constitution by Xyon. The rationale for the organization's creation came from the infighting between the various military forces of Xyon, namely between the Obsidian Guard and the Xyon National Guard, both of which sought to determine which of the two had operational primacy on the planet, as well as access to the increasing resources and funding of the newly-formed centralized government in Blackstone. Seeking to bring an end to the disputes and a potential civil war, Supreme Director TBD signed an executive order instructing the Directorate of Defense to establish a unified military force that would direct both of the militaries of Xyon, and likewise establish a clear and concise hierarchy that both formations would be subordinate to. In doing so, TBD made sure to establish a clear boundary between the operational commands of both forces; the Obsidian Guard, in keeping with its traditions throughout the centuries, would maintain its presence in the Capital Region, while the Xyon National Guard would be prohibited from maintaining a presence there, though it would have operational command over the defense of all the other regions on the planet. With that, the creation of the XAS helped to bring both sides of the armed forces together, while simultaneously ensuring neither side would interfere in the affairs of the other.

## Deployments

### Current debate on existence

There has been much debate as to the need for the Xyon Armed Services to remain active on a planet with no hostile neighboring powers or major conflicts worth fighting. Established right after a major internal crisis that nearly resulted in a civil war, the XAS has been at arms for the last 250 years, without any major force to oppose it. The vast budget of the military has been criticized, along with all the purchases for military hardware and equipment, some of which, invariably ends up in the hands of the very people the military has vowed to fight. Likewise, the equally vast size, some 36.5 million active personnel, employed by the military has boggled the mind of some politicians and activists. However, in spite of the criticism of its size, budget, and lack of purpose, the military establishment as well as members of the government have provided a series of explanations that go into detail as to the rationale for keeping the military. The first and most obvious one, and the one reasonable for its creation in the first place, is the aim of preventing the return of patrimonial households on the planet. Prior to the unification of Xyon, all of the Mikaean nations were – or were made up of – vast patriarchal families known as households, each with tens of millions of Mikaeans loyal to a single man who was their biological father and absolute ruler. These households waged numerous wars which devastated Xyon, and only ended following a global unification war.

When the weak Treaty of Chernaya government took over all of Xyon following unification, it lacked a unified military and security force, allowing the patriarchs of the households to police themselves. As a direct consequence of this, the clandestine Shadow Wars began; leading to a series of crime waves, protests and riots, assassination attempts, and the death of a High Patron following an attempt by one household to spark a conflict in the Eastern Region of Xyon. Indeed, a series of skirmishes between the households' security forces had been commonplace across Xyon, and it was still highly dangerous to cross into another household as a non-native, and attacks on Mikaeans from other households was rife throughout the planet's feuding houses. The Shadow Wars only ended when the federal government and the Black Cross Church crushed the fighting and forced the Blackstone Constitution through the Supreme Federal Congress, mandating the creation of a unified military and police force, and disbanding all paramilitary forces and militias with loyalties to the patriarchs and the local governments. With that act, one of the last vestiges of patriarchal rule had been extinguished, though only after a century of instability.

The second reason was the formation of organization rebel and terrorist groups across the planet, unhappy with unification and the mandated association and non-discrimination against other Mikaeans. Separatist groups, religious fanatics, political ideologues, and hate organizations, all formed after unification, and took part in the violence that marked the first half-century of unification on the planet. Without an organized force to combat them, the terrorist groups murdered tens of thousands, and the federal government was powerless to stop them. When the military and security forces were established, the reign of the rebels had been curtailed almost overnight, as soldiers poured into hotspots and areas of conflict, and crushed the fighters. Though some estimated fifty terrorist organizations are known to remain active across the planet, thanks to the actions of the armed forces, these groups rarely reach the interior regions of population and industry on the planet, and have been mostly confined to the rural and underdeveloped areas of Xyon.

The final reason for the formation of a military was the threat of the feral and houseless Mikaeans, whose numbers grew rapidly during and following unification. Beginning with the ferals, prior to unification, feral Mikaean accounted for 1-2% of all females spawnlings across the planet. However, due to a lack of resources and the physical and mental stress on the patriarchs – directly effecting the health and quality of their eggs – saw the number of ferals as a percentage of the spawnling population increase to 3-4%. This directly resulted in the feral population increasing by the millions, due to longstanding rules that feral spawnlings cannot be killed by Mikaeans due to their age and innocence. As a consequence, feral attacks exploded when these youth reached maturity, and entire cities were targeted in the attacks. As for the houseless, with many households expelling members of their ranks for serious crimes such as murder, rape, and torture, among other violations against their own sisters, the number of houseless increased, leading to vindictive attacks against their own families.