Astral Vanguard Mission Grade

Due to a tighter budgeting of equipment during peacetime, the Astral Vanguard has a system of mission priority which accords units and individuals with different 'tiers' of equipment allowances and mission options. Soldiers are given grading based on experience, reports from superiors and the results of standardized testing at regular intervals. Non-combat personnel tend to have slower increases in Mission Grade, but are often moderated up to the units they are supporting in order to retain status.

Missions Allowance represents the most advanced or strategically important assignments accessible to a soldier at a given mission grade. Restrictions on assignment options prevent rookie forces from being dispatched on high risk missions, and keep inexperienced technicians away from cutting-edge technology.

Classification represents the level of propaganda and secrecy surrounding operations set around a given priority level. Divulging information on patrols and garrison duty do not present clear-cut dangers to national security, but soldiers in long-term campaigns out of system may expect personnel messages to their loved ones to be subject to censure and tampering if the subject matter is considered to be sensitive information.

At higher priority levels, participating in a high-priority unit garners increases in payscale as compensation for the censure that follows the increased classification level.

Equipment allowances are essentially the maximum resources afforded to a given soldier or unit. Experimental Solanii technologies are not put in the hands of raw recruits, and aces serving in backwater garrison forces cannot requisition resources that are not required for their posting.

Astral Vanguard soldiers with A Priority represent the cream of the crop, having demonstrated their ability to carry out missions of high difficulty and long term strategic importance. While it is possible for a less skilled soldier to receive a Priority B through luck and experience, Priority A ranking requires a formal evaluation by the upper echelons of command.

• Dueling: The Astral Vanguard has a firm belief in the swift resolution of combat, and pitting a single unit against another in fair combat is considered the least damaging way to determine battles. When pressed into a corner or faced with a scenario of attrition and collateral damage to a valuable area, it is preferable for many Vanguard commanders to request a duel and pit their duelist against one of the enemy's choosing. Being selected as a unit's duelist is a great honor, and places the individual in a position of great prestige and immense responsability. The victor is afforded the right to define the terms of surrender or retreat for the opponent. The specialty of the Temple Guard.
• Black Operations: Although regimented and humanitarian by design, the Astral Vanguard is still a military force with a mandate to preserve the safety and sovereignty of the Commonweath at any cost. Operations not permitted by traditional military or civilian law, that might damage public opinion or cause unrest, may be carried out under the deep shroud of secrecy and public misinformation by the elite members of the military. The specialty of the SOF.

B priority represents hardened veterans and rising stars in the Astral Vanguard, given equipment that is second only to the top members truly elite units such as the Special Operations Forces and Temple Guard.

• Test Pilot: The Astral Vanguard depends on preserving a technological advantage over its enemies to preserve peace in its operational sector. Test Pilots for VANDR and VAHIN weapons platforms are selected from top flying aces and elite infantrymen, while military engineering consultants are often mechanists with decades of experience or taken from the lower levels of the military brass.
• VIP Protection: High-ranking diplomats and government officials often carry a number of bodyguards in their entourage, but for trips between worlds or into rebellious provinces, they are given an escort of Astral Vanguard infantry and frame divisions for the greater hazards these regions may present.

C rating is the standard priority for blooded frame runners and infantry, as well as any member of the military sent out on long term campaigns to the further reaches of the home system or further yet, to other systems. It is generally easier to receive a C priority than losing it.

• Officer Training: Without highly specialized officers providing expertise and leadership, Astral Vanguard would be little more than a coalition of colonial militias. Officers are often recruited from promising recruits or 'Mustang-ed' into field officer positions from a warrant officer position with a contractual agreement to seek training at a later date.
• Out-System Campaign: Out-system campaigns are tours of duty with expeditionary forces or any assignment that places the soldier away from the home system for a period of more than 2 standard weeks.
• In-System Campaign: In-system campaigns are protracted tours of duty away from a main starbase or planetary garrison for a period of more than 2 standard weeks.

D ranking is the starting tier for recruits, as well as soldiers with unfortunate or less than respectful careers. Most do not spend more than a few months on D priority levels and generally do not return to them without good reason.

• Patrol: Any single sortie for a period of several hours for the purpose of confirming the security of a region of planetary or orbital aerospace.
• Garrison: Remaining on permanent standby at a major planetary airbase or orbital starbase.
• Enlisted Basic Training: Many recruits have fond memories of basic training, of the camaraderie, calm reassurances of instructors and lessons to exceed one's limitations through effort. A volunteer force such as a Vanguard maintains a large number of 'lifers' with decades of experience who retire to act as advisers at the various military academies. Others are liaisons for corporations assigned to field positions or become officers, and only go through training as a necessity.