ROYALIST ALLIANCE ARMED FORCES Uniforms

        The varying RAAF uniforms relate quite closely to those in use by House Steiner and House Davion troops thanks to the influence that those two great houses have had on the Royalist Alliance. 

        Just as in any military organisation pride in the uniform is vital for promoting camaraderie and espirit de corps within the RAAF. Although every different branch of the RAAF, down to individual brigades and vessels, has important heritage that the RAAF Quartermaster Corps tries to honour it is nevertheless necessary for there to be a happy medium in order to prevent uniform designs becoming too fanciful. In order to keep regiments and the adminstration happy the RAAF has adopted a simple and functional wardrobe that can still be modified to fit the needs of individual commands.

Officers

Officer uniforms in the RAAF are almost indistinguishable from regular soldiering garb when in the field. Officers wear the same standard uniform as the soldiers they are commanding. Only the shoulder epaulettes and a small rank insignia on the front of the officer’s helmet or cap show the officer’s status. During times of heightened danger most officers will dispense with the bright epaulettes and rely on the rank patches alone to display their rank.

There are two reasons for blurring the line between officer and regular soldier. Firstly, it tightens the bond between an officer and his men. The RAAF administration prefer not to emphasise an officer’s superiority but rather they want the officer to concetrate on the responsibility of his position. Secondly it is far more difficult for an enemy sniper to pick out a units officer if he is dressed no differently from any other soldier on the field.

Officers usually carry a more specialised piece of close-combat equipment into battle than the standard commando knife. Many will include a standard issue vibro-rapier or similar blade with their field uniform.

Infantry

The standard issue uniform for regular soldiers consists of olive green under-garb covered by a loose-fitting camouflaged step-through body-suit. This will be coloured according to the terrain in which the unit will be fighting, and thus will vary in tightness and thickness to adjust to differing environments. Over this different grades of body-armour can be worn, most commonly protective knee-pads and a light flak-jacket to keep a soldiers burden down and manouverability up. Heavy black leather boots are worn as standard and as a matter of pride these boots are kept well polished no matter the situation or environment. A wide, heavy-duty leather belt holds the whole ensemble together and has attachments for affixing various smaller pieces of soldiering equipment, such as canteens, grenades and knives. Soldiers in the infantry are assigned the Mark XXIII tactical helmet as part of their field uniform. Based on Star League designs the helmet can stop a gyrojet shell dead and is also packed with communications equipment and other sophisticated electronics. Some soldiers, mostly officers, wear soft cloth caps such as favoured by high-ranking officers and technicians either through tradition, eccentricity or pure foolishness.

Soldiers wear a solidly built back-pack carrying all their other equipment such as camping tools and weapons maintenance gear.

Fighter Pilots

AeroSpace pilots (or “Jockey’s” in the Alliance) rate among the most elite armed forces personnel in the RAAF alongside Naval officers and MechWarriors. Royal Flying Corp pilots are nicknamed “The Space Knights” and on the whole tend to emulate those fighter pilots of the First World War, fighting by their own eccentric chivalric code.

Thanks to their tradition as free-spirited, strong willed aviators, pilots tend to shirk almost all uniform codes. Dispensing with most of the finery one would expect to accompany such a prestigious role, the pilots wear only a simple g-suit in order to protect the pilots during high speed manoeuvres. A very light olive green jumpsuit is usually worn over the top. Some pilots wear sheep-shin jackets either over the jumpsuit or instead of. Badges denoting the aircraft flown by the pilot and his or her squadron are sewn into the upper arms of the jumpsuit.

Customisation of the base uniform is very common. Aside from the g-suit which is a requirement pilots have been seen wearing the afformentioned bomber jackets as well as cricket jumpers, Hawaiian shirts, cowboy boots and hats, shorts and sandals and even pyjamas worn underneath the g-suit for extra warmth.

Pilots also try to eliminate all vestiges of rank from their uniforms, thinking it “un-sporting” in the extreme to lord rank over one another. After all, pilots tend to know everyone else in their squadron and what their rank is. The only thing really considered important is the number of kills bagged by each pilot anyway. Jocks keep track of these by symbols ironed onto their cloth caps.

MechWarriors

       As the elite of the RAAF the MechWarrior Corp is steeped in heritage and history. However these loyalties and and traditions are often divided between the cult of the MechWarrior, regimental attachment and regional loyalties. Thus the MechWarrior’s uniform is designed to reflect all these varying loyalties as well as the ‘Warriors own independence.

Keeping a ‘Mech pilot cool enough to fight is the basic function of the RAAF MechWarrior’s garb. Access to Star League data and manufacturing techniques within the Alliance has helped in the battle to keep a ‘Warrior cool in the hell of a ‘Mech cockpit. Outwardly resembling an AeroSpace pilots g-suit and being similar in weight and bulkiness, RAAF MechWarriors wear a modified version of the standard SLDF MechWarrior Combat Suit (or MCS). The MCS is a full-body unit and comes with a light-weight neurohelmet for control of the ‘Mech. Most pilots keep their helmet stowed in the cockpit of their ‘Mech. The neurohelmet is based on old Star League designs and not only provides the neurolink between man and machine but it also fully encloses the pilots head when worn. The helmet constantly provides fresh air from the cockpit’s life support system through a set of connecting lines. These lines also link the helmets communications gear into the ‘Mech’s powerful radio systems. When these lines disconnect abruptly for any reason the neurohelmet’s internal systems automatically take over providing breathable air through a 6-hour internal supply, and 12 hours of communications time using the small integral communicator which has a 6-kilometre range.

The MCS provides the wearer with a powerful intergrated cooling system to combat the high temperatures inside a BattleMech cockpit. This cooling system is similar to that found within a typical 31st century cooling vest but is much more refined. The intricate networks of capillary tubing through which coolant fluid (or freon cooled ice-cold water depending on the ‘Mech) flow to keep the MechWarrior from overheating are designed into a close-fitting, flexible undersuit. The outside of the suit is covered by a strong, heat-resistant polymer layer that protects the pilot from the rough and tumble of BattleMech combat. This layer offers limited protection from shrapnel as well but not to extent of the original Star League MCS. A rigid combat vest is worn over the chest whilst in the cockpit to further protect the ‘Warrior. On the vest, rank symbology and an identifier are stencilled onto the right breast and badges showing the Unit and the Royalist Alliance insignia. Rank epaulettes can be affixed to the shoulders of the MCS but cannot be seen over the combat vest. Aside from the optional epaulettes the MCS does not support any iconography.

Outside of the cockpit MechWarriors wear the MCS but without the combat vest, instead donning what are called a “MechWarrior’s tracks”. This two-piece tracksuit combines features of the foot-soldier’s uniform (in that it comes with a heavy tool belt) and the AeroSpace jockey’s jumpsuit, although it is even lighter in weight and bulk than the jumpsuit to make covering the MCS with it comfortable. Medals, ribbons and a name badge (with a rank added) are sewn onto the right breast of the tracksuit jacket while Unit, national and ‘Mech badges are sewn onto the left. MechWarrior tracksuits tend to accumulate a lot of anything provided it can be stuck or sewn on. As such a long serving ‘Warrior will have tracks literally covered with personalising items. This versatility is a nod to the cult of the MechWarrior which highlights each soldiers individuality.

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