Youth Corps

The Youth Corps is a branch of the Shukara Volunteer Navy that revolves around the ability to allow Kits, or Children, to serve their Kingdom. The Corps is treated more as a militia, than a full-fledged military unit, but can be activated as such.

It is currently under the command of Navy P'Iurebe Cereti Xesuna, with E'Leuyte Violane Uitene serving as his XO.

Motto: We fight for what we believe in, we cause the enemy to underestimate us, we make the enemy look over their shoulders, under each rock, in each alley, we cause the enemy to slow down. We are Legion.

The Youth Corps are known better under the name of V'kaste Legion's

Originally set up during The Great War (Neshaten), the Corp's main purpose is to allow the military to quickly respond to threats within their own borders by sending the Youth Corps out to investigate and determine the strength of enemy numbers and equipment. Despite being younglings, they are provided with the best possible equipment to accomplish this job.

All equipment is downsized for the use by Kits, including all weapons such as rifles, pistols and swords, while heavier weapons can't really be downsized due to their weight factors. Some vehicles, such as light tanks, are made usable by Kits, while the same applies to light fighters and scouts.

They have a different rank patch for the Enlisted ranks, but after which their ranks are the same as those used in the regular navy.

The Youth Corps was created originally in the Era of War Year 734 by a ten-year-old Kit named V'kaste. V'kaste was found, along with thirty-one other kits, fighting against a Pacifist Military Unit on the world they had all grown upon.

When the group was found, the military that found them nearly mistaken them for being enemies due to them brandishing weapons, both salvaged from their own forces and those of the enemy, but also homemade. The group was taken off-planet and returned to the safety of inner space, but despite being away from the front lines, V'kaste and the kits she had fought with for nearly ten weeks, who had all grown very close together to become a new family of hers, had all tasted battle and war and wanted to return to fight for the Federation.

V'kaste initially approached a group of military officers about the prospect of allowing her and her fellow orphans to take part, but naturally, people thought it was a crazy and insane idea and the word was never passed on to military high command. This changed when V'kaste and her friends smuggled themselves aboard a military transport that was bound for the outer colonies, during this trip the transport fell under-siege by a Pacifist Raiding Party.

While the pacifists fought the crew, they were completely unaware that they were being flanked by a group of kits from behind. The battle onboard the transport lasted for several hours, with the Pacifists losing ground from 'behind', and never once realizing that they were losing this ground to Kits until the very last minute when the boarding ship was destroyed and a group of pacifist soldiers spotted a kit returning through the boarding hatch. The rest of the pacifists gave up, realizing that there was no more reason to fight now that a Neshaten rescue fleet had arrived to render aid.

V'kaste and her kits, although scolded severely, was later thanked by the transport captain - who admitted that he and his crew wouldn't have survived without their help. Two months later, this captain became V'kaste's sponsor and helped her convince High Command to establish the V'kaste Legion. This was considered a victory to V'kaste and her friends, all of which just wanted to serve, having lost their parents in the war and feeling there was nothing more for them to really do.

For six months, the Legion grew very quickly in strength, Orphans kits from around the Federation, having heard of the creation of a military unit for Kits to fight the Pacifists, quickly flocked to the capital to join. Within those six months the unit had grown from a mere thirty-one to a staggering forty-one thousand and kept on growing, the military realized very quickly that they were underestimating just how many Kits in the federation truly wanted to fight and how many wanted to serve. The restrictions on military enlistment, which had originally been set to twenty-six, was reduced to sixteen.

V'kaste never lived to see her unit on through the war, she was killed six months after it's creation during the battle in the outer rim worlds. But her legacy lived on, even after the Great War had ended, her unit had secured its place in history as something that the Pacifists hadn't counted on. Thanks to the Legion, the Federation was able to buy themselves many years of preparing for the worst-case scenario, and eventually, the evacuation of their people to another corner of the galaxy.

Even after the Great War was over though, V'kaste's Legion was still a glimmer in the eyes of many adults, some of which had served in the Legion when they were kits. When the Neshaten resettled, the Legion was reformed, and Kits were once again allowed to serve in their military - now under a Kingdom, and no longer a Federation.

Any kit may join the Legion, although the default joining age is twelve, as long as a Kit applies themselves, they can actually join as young as eight. Kits can join right out of primary school, or even, while they are in primary school as long as they can prove that they can be an asset. Because of this, there are many kits who are already in the Legion when they graduate.

Many of the equipment that the Legion's have been heavily modified for their stature, this includes rifles, pistols, swords, light tanks, light interceptors, and even some vehicles. This is because the Neshaten learned from the previous war that if you restrict equipment to a group of soldiers eager to fight, it could end up killing them.

The training that Kit's get is no different than that of what those in the Navy get. Kit's are drilled rigorously, they are taught, just to name a few, how to fire weapons, drive vehicles such as light tanks, fly scouts or interceptors that are designed for their stature, and also how to navigate terrain.

After basic training, Kits go on to career and technical training, which essentially serves as 'secondary' education to them so even though they didn't go to a secondary civilian school, they are going to a secondary military school.

However, Kit's who join the Legion 'before' they graduate from primary school can actually attend career and technical training alongside their primary education during vacations or while school is out. This helps prepare them for when they do eventually graduate from primary and become a full-fledged legion member.

Soldiers of the Youth Division progress in rank at a slower rate than those in the normal navy, this has to do with the military's continued protection over a Kit's well being. Regardless, however, Kit's can't progress above the rank of a W'Xesna without showing leadership skills and maturity that are equal to those of an adult of a similar rank, however, this is also because most Kit's will never reach an officer rank during peace-time due as promotions are much slower to get due to the lacking of combat or any events to test their skills on.

The absolute highest that a Kit can progress to in the officer's tree is that of a E'Leuyte. The only other way they can go beyond this rank, is if they are field promoted by a starship's Shipmaster.