Marine Drop ship

Marine Drop Ships

Orbital planetary assault by infantry troops is a concept not only a few space faring civilizations ever considered and even fewer have dedicated units to do so.

Among the civilizations that do Planetary assaults by dropping troops from orbit are the Nul, the Perharians, the Botnaars, the Y'All and of course Terrans. (none of the currently known Galactic Council species do Planetary Assaults this way)

Terrans used this form of combat from the first years of their ascent and have been the driving force creating the United Stars Marine Corps and the Orbital Assault Units of the United Stars Army. The Union Marine Corps has perfected the art of Planetary Assault over the many centuries into a fine tuned art form that is perhaps the most feared form of attack by all Union Enemies. The very idea of heavily armed soldiers dropping from the skies to take a planet by force is very intimidating.

To facilitate the United Stars Marine Corps Planetary assaults and Deep space Infantry action ( Boarding and infiltration missions) the Corps developed their own space ship class, the Drop Ship. The term comes from the fact, that Infantry is dropped from the ship onto the planet surface.

The drop or deployment phase is highly automated with revolving drop shaft roller, robotic suit loaders and of course Battle Dressers. In addition to that comes the rigorous and hard training of Union Marines, that is second to none.

Shown here is a Marine Corps Planetary Assault and landing Craft. This is an Anchor Class MCPA and in front is the famous USM – Chesty Puller[1]

[1] By traditional convention only the Navy may have ships. Space going vessels of the Army and the Marine corps are not called ships [2]. Also the USS prefix is exclusively used by the Navy.

[2] Noteable exception are Marine Drop ships and the gigantic DS-Beach Head transporters as they are big and Translight capable. However these ships have Navy personnel for ship operations and a United Stars Navy Captain.