Everimperial Army

The Everimperial Army is the official military force of the Everempire and the largest armed force in the Afterlife. It is more commonly known as the Imperiat, Imperialis Militariat, or Imperialis Militarat (IM).

The exact strength and organization of the IM is unknown. As nobody has ever seen the entire Imperialis Militarat, how powerful the IM is can only be down to pure speculation. The largest known unit size is an Army, of which two are known, each containing around 100 Million personnel. Each Army is organized by 10 Militarats, each responsible for a geographical region. Each region is operated upon by 10 Kommands separated by specialty, which are then split into 10 Corps or Chapters, often with a more defined specialty (similar to how tracked cannons are a specialty of heavy tanks). These Corps/Chapters are then split into 10 Regiments or Regaliums, which are all able to act independent of one another and operate autonomously approximately between 50,000 - 100,000 personnel. These are subsequently broken down into Brigades of 10,000, Companies of 5,000, Platoons of 1,000, Shifts, Squadrons, or Societies of 100, and Informal groups of 10-20. The exact organizations and sizes of units vary based on religious, social, or political allegiances. There are units massively over or under-manned, either by choice or due to losing members during wartime.

The most conservative estimate places the entire Imerialis Militarat at 2-10 Armies, giving them an estimated force of 200 million to 1 billion personnel.

Most IM units are under the influence of oligarchs from their home region. This has lead to some variation in the quality, equipment, and training of Imperial troops, depending on the competency and level of dedication from these oligarchs. As a result, the IM has always had an issue with corruption, with some oligarchs funneling money from funding their regional units into their own pockets to buy luxury items and fancy mansions in Heaven's luxury district. Some oligarchs go as far as to supplement the Everempire's propaganda with their own, effectively becoming warlords with their own personal army. These issues massively affected the performance of the IM during the Heavenly Invasion, when large swaths of the frontline devolved into in-fighting as oligarchs set their troops against one another for control over invaded territory and stolen riches, while other units were immediately massacred, having been ill prepared for the reality of an all-out war.

High-ranking officers often get their position artificially, through connections or family allegiances rather than leadership ability. These officers almost always receive extra privilege and benefits, along with a near absolute immunity to prosecution by military court. This, along with a social stigma against any sort of progress or reform that might replace the traditionalist conservative culture of Heaven has led to a rigid command and social structure largely unchanged from the birth of the Everempire. Some units carry on their legacy from the old knights of tens of thousands of years ago, during the nomadic human era.

The IM also has an overall lack of combat experience and combat-effective equipment. Since they have never fought a major war until the Heavenly Invasion, most of their gear is more flashy and stylistic than practical. Most of their vehicles are designed for intimidation and show than for fighting, and often display engravings, massive towers, excessive weaponry, and hanged corpses of the victims of the Everempire. Infantry gear can be similarly outdated, with some entire units still using swords in battle. However it is important to mention that the wide variability of organization, equipment, and training means that there are always units that are highly competent with cutting-edge equipment to make up for units still using equipment that is impractical or obsolete.

Despite these flaws, the IM is the best-equipped army in the Afterlife. Most units have access to gear such as night-vision and thermal-vision monoculars, augmented reality headsets, holographic sights, laser-guided missiles, personal drones, and more. The IM also boasts a massive tank feet, with newer models such as the MGP "Power" alongside older models like the HCT "Tradition" Tracked Cannon, up to building-sized gargantuan megastructures like the TCT "Saviour". The IM has the largest air force in the Afterlife, and frequently uses heavy bombers and unmanned drones against its targets, military or otherwise. the IM features around 20 Special Forces Corps per Militarat, ranging from highly-trained airborne units such as "Angels" to genetically modified human one-man-armies wearing tank amour and wielding artillery pieces as sidearms, known as "Castle" units. Most of these special forces variants were developed by a military laboratory in Starlight, often known as Floor 0. They all have their flaws and weaknesses, but are generally some of the best of the IM's troops. The two most iconic features of the IM by far remains their drone systems, which frequently uses unmanned drones in anything such as assassination to combat, from operating tanks and heavy gun turrets, to forming billion-strong protective shields that instantly detect and block enemy projectiles, forming a virtual forcefield around the IM's vehicles, ships, and facilities. The second most iconic IM feature is their use of insanely large megastructures as walking facilities. One such example is the Gate, a moving network of walls, defensive bunkers, and gun platforms around the size of a small country. The gate was used in the Heavenly Invasion to defend its conquered territory from any force capable of gaining ground from the IM. It was raided by a massive joint-operation force of Unity Special Operations Command Soldiers, UAF ground and air forces, and Tartarus Militia troops such as the elite Recoverat Raiders. Even then did they only manage to cripple the Gate and not fully destroy it. The IM does not have a navy.

The tactics of the IM during the Heavenly invasion involve destabilizing and conquering countries in order to strip them of all available resources while either forcing the inhabitants into slave labour or slaughtering them to prevent dissent. In less-inhabited regions, the IM will promote and defend colonies or Everimperial settlements, which are often civilian or Imperial-aligned militias forming military bases on enemy territory. In the event that one of these colonies is attacked or an enemy force is encountered, the IM will order allied nations, companies, and right-wing militias to launch suicide attacks on the enemy as a first wave, in order to probe the enemy's weak points while using non-IM troops as disposable cannon fodder. If a threat cannot be handled by non IM troops, either a smaller IM force will be dispatched to wipe them out, a special forces team will be dispatched to carry out critical strikes to weaken the enemy, or an IM occupation force will land, set up a permanent base of operations, and begin to systemically exterminate all life in a massive radius. Only a threat that has beaten 2 IM attack waves will warrant a full-scale assault, in which the IM uses a disproportionate amount of force on threats to send a message on anyone else that dares to oppose them. An enemy force of 1000 soldiers will be countered with a million.

Often, an opposing force will be destroyed before even seeing a second wave. In the Heavenly Invasion, less than 1% of enemy military forces even saw an Imperial soldier, much less fought the IM and lived to tell the tale. The vast majority of fighting done during the Heavenly Invasion was will allied countries, Friendly or hired groups such as the Cassowary PMC and Syndicate, or right-wing militias such as the Obscurum CBRN or Patriot Guard. 2LT Artemis Vickers of the Tartarus Militia's Recoverat noted that up until they fought the third wave, almost 3 years after the outbreak of war, nobody in either the UAF or Tartarian Military even knew what an Imperial soldier looked like. To the enemies of Heaven, the IM is shrouded in mystery more than anything else. This is compounded by the IM's equipment and tactics of unmanned warfare, widespread extermination, and chemical weapons, which are almost never seen elsewhere. Many forces simply resorted to irregular warfare to combat the IM, striking from hidden locations against Imperial colonies or military outposts.

Ultimately, the IM would be it's own downfall. Their failure to learn from strategic blunders, often losing millions of soldiers to bad planning and faulty intel, and ineffective command structure rendered them into an ineffective military force that only succeeded due to sheer numbers and technological superiority. As the years went on, the IM would become hopelessly cut off and overextended as they desperately tried to break through the increasingly stagnant frontline. Constantly infighting lead to the IM becoming fractured, as quarrels over resources and ammunition turned the friction between regiments into armed clashes, which damaged the IM's integrity.