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Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda
Ok, so let's assume we've got a space elevator, a number of recreational and medicinal space stations in LEO, and some serious asteroid mining outposts who have declared themselves to be an independent entity from all Earth nations.
What kinds of special ops assignments might emerge within this milieu? I'm looking for something that requires a small, elite force and that's going to force my protagonist to confront the enemy pretty much face-to-face.
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Hi Nancy
I'm going to repeat some of what's already been said, but it's a long thread so I apologise in advance for not referencing/acknowledging others' individual posts.
Firstly, I doubt very much that a military arm would emerge *in response* to such a milieu. Rather, they would be leading the way with commercial entities following. As such, the military structure would already be in place to respond to such events.
Re: the independent mining colonies, that would very much depend on who they belonged to in the first place, then add in the geopolitical situation of the day. eg if Mali owned Asteroid 123 which subsequently has sought independence, who will be on which side of the argument? Perhaps Panama are in a power struggle with Mali over something else so they will support the colonists. Thailand might have a lot of economic interests with Mali which gives them special concessions with respect to the resources on the asteroid and thus have an interest in Mali retaining power. Have a look at current and historical fights over territory. A lot of the time it will be a case of your enemy's enemy is your (temporary) ally. Think the American War of Independence, WWII - in particular outside of Europe - why did Japan ally with Nazi Germany?, current disagreements over the Falklands/Malvinas, Taiwan, various parts of the Caucasus...
What if it's an entirely corporate-owned entity? Do national governments have an interest in getting involved? *Can* an asteroid belong entirely to a company without also being designated as part of a nation? What sort of security force does the company maintain or contract?
Note that the colonists *must* have reasonably powerful allies - they need them to get supplies back and forth, and to maintain trade (and therefore cashflow).
Re: Military units. First, remember that the US military is not the only one in existence.
Depending on which country(ies) you decide are involved, the military units might differ. Especially consider cultural and political differences - the way the US military operates is no doubt different to the way the Chinese military operates. Even similar cultures can have significant differences - the Australian military has many differences to the US military. Whether it's a separate SPace Force or a branch or Joint Command of the current ones is less relevant I think than how it will operate within your prevailing culture.
Re: Military missions. Consider how military action has changed over the last 200 years. Hand to hand (or sword to sword? - and yes I know that's more than 200 years ago...) has significantly reduced in favour of remote warfare. Drone warfare is in relatively early stages now, but in 200 years will there still be actual people sitting in those starfighters? Or will they be sitting in a comfortable control room somewhere playing advanced computer games? ::waves to Ender::
In order to get more personal interaction you want to be able to justify why the whole place isn't just blown up from space. It might be smuggling an important individual or piece of equipment in or out of somewhere, or a black ops assassination of a rebel leader. It would be worth doing a bit of research into what current Special Ops units do (in a broad sense obviously :P )
Re: Space elevator. That's an interesting one. It sounds like there is only one, which straight away raises access, security and competition issues. As a monopoly, it will have a lot of enemies, regardless of whether it's government or commercial. Even if commercial, there will be a lot of government issues depending on where it's situated, especially if there are internal political disturbances. When the USSR broke up there were quite significant ramifications as some of the more significant military bases were outside of Russia, and in newly sovereign nations seeking to ally themselves more closely with the West.
Best of luck, and hope this is useful!