As humanity ventured into space, the need for military protection was evident from the start as old, Earthbound conflicts traveled into space as well. Despite the proud traditions of the United States Air Force and the Royal Air Force, the traditions of both the British Royal Navy and the United States Navy held sway. The Alliance Navy would control the empty vacuum of space as the proud navies of the two sponsor nations had once controlled the seas.

Planetside combat roles would be filled by the Army as well as duties normally assigned during peacetime to National and Home Guard units. The need for elite, Special Forces led to the merger of the Navy Seals, Rangers and British SAS into the Alliance Special Forces.

The U.S. Marine Corps, ever protective of the Corps, simply declared themselves the Space Marines and continued to perform all the duties normally assigned to Marines such as Embassy guard duty.

Eyeing a chance to increase their reach, the Marines took control of the Navy’s Shore Patrol, the military police of that particular branch of the service. As would be expected, an intense rivalry developed between the Shore Patrol and the Military Police of the Army. The typical mindset of the Marines rubbed off, the result of which was for the Shore Patrol to adopt the belief there was no need for Military Police. They were more than up to the job of performing any and all tasks and duties typical of any military police force.

Old rivalries die-hard and this is certainly true in the Alliance military. The Space Marines, who often refer to themselves simply as Marines, hold the Army in somewhat low regard, though professional respect is extended to the Special Forces. As per the typical Marine mindset, Special Forces are regarded as Army grunts who would have been good enough to be Marines, nothing more.

Conflict can at times flare up between the Navy and the Marines who still resent the idea they are merely the infantry of the Navy. In turn, the Navy resents the attitude of its Marines that the Navy is merely a taxi service for the Corps.

Perhaps the most distinguishing difference between the members of the three services is members of the Army and Navy, upon retirement or discharge view themselves as ex-Army or ex-Navy. The Marines possess a radically different mindset, yet another hold over from the U.S. Marine Corps. There is no such thing as an ex-Marine. Once a Marine, always a Marine, they simply are no longer on active duty.

Like their historical ancestors, the Alliance found it wise to make use of the talents, skills and let’s be honest, the singularly focused military mindset, of the professional German military. Prussians trained the American revolutionary army and the doctrines of the Wehrmacht heavily influenced the American military of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.

Related by bloodlines, and having used German mercenaries in the past, the British leaders of Alliance found it wise to take advantage of German skill and hired many of them as the Anglo-Saxon efforts  to advance American and British fortunes in building their empire in space.