Star Army Combat Search And Rescue

The primary task of Combat Search and Rescue units (also known as Rescue Jumpers) is to venture into potentially hostile or denied territory to recover lost personnel such as downed aerospace crews before an enemy or local forces can and return them home safely. Because of their unique set of skills, RJs often find themselves deployed in a variety of other contexts. In many cases this can mean medevac under hostile fire. As the only medically specialized special operations discipline, their members may often find themselves deploying alongside or embedding with other special ops units to augment their capabilities. During peacetime, they are often involved in humanitarian deployments or training other SAR/EMS units civilian or otherwise. While not part of their official duties, RJs are often the first to put medical, rescue, or survival gear through its paces in simulated field conditions. This can either take the form of testing recent official Star Army acquisitions or taking a more ground up approach and testing gear from civilian sources or that they themselves have fabricated.

Modern Combat Search and Rescue sits in a somewhat strange place as an occupation. While, administratively, they are considered part of the Star Army Emergency Services MOS, a large part of their technical training is handled by Star Army Medical Administration. Unlike standard Star Army EMS personnel, CSAR units were never support personnel primarily operating in and around bases and ships. The necessity for them to forge out to the frontlines and beyond required them to develop a range of skills beyond their fellow 18S’s. By the YE 43 formation of Star Army Special Operations, CSAR units had already existed in a functionally separate world from their non combat siblings for ages. Since the formation of SASO, CSAR personnel are either tasked as standalone forces or as part of larger SASO operations.

In YE 45.8 the Star Army phased this occupation out in an effort to streamline its list of occupations¹⁾.

If a Star Army soldier wishes to become a Rescue Jumper, they must graduate from Kyūen School (Combat Search and Rescue School). At nearly two years, Kyūen School is one of the longest special operations training schools. Their training is as much technical as it is combat focused. Like with every SASO discipline, Rescue Jumpers are expected to combine a wide variety of skills to perform missions outside of the capability of similar conventional units. Because of this, even after Kyūen School Graduation, a RJ’s training never truly ends. Alongside training exercises organized by unit commanders, an RJ is expected to continue their education as an individual. This can either include honing their core skills of search and rescue, combat, medical treatment, and survival, or it can include broadening their skill set. To achieve both of these results, a RJ is encouraged to cross train with other MOSs, civilian groups, and allied military personnel. Additionally they are encouraged to attend formalized courses when available. Useful additional skills for a RJ include but are not limited to: biology, chemistry, demolitions, maintenance and repair, rogue, and vehicle operation.

The minimum rank for this occupation is Santô Hei and the maximum rank is Taisa. By the end of their nearly two year training, most junior enlisted will have earned a promotion at some point before becoming full Rescue Jumpers.

CSAR personnel tend to refer to themselves as Rescue Jumpers or RJs because of their preferred method of combat insertion by orbital drop. The flower of the RJ is the Peony which symbolizes good fortune, bravery, and honor. RJs see themselves as bringers of hope and good fortune on the battlefield. RJs often get bright, intricate tattoos in the traditional style that prominently include the peony symbolizing a devil may care attitude in the face of adversity.

During the rare times a full Rescue Jumper finds themselves in Class As or Class Bs they wear EMS Green chest panels however, officers who hold medical degrees are permitted to wear Medical Teal. All RJs can and often do choose to wear their Medic Diamonds.

Traditions of Star Army Combat Search And Rescue

Any Rescue Jumper who happens to be at Fort Hikari during Kyūen School Graduation will make an effort to attend to welcome their new comrades into the fold. They like to take newbie RJs out the NAAFI for drinks and the beginnings of their peony tattoos. The senior RJs always make sure to bring a drug to counteract alcohol’s blood thinning properties.

RJ’s have another tradition that toes the line between hazing and bragging rights. Shortly after reporting to a new CSAR unit, the new member will be encouraged to visit the range (with witnesses) and fire five rounds from the standard issue kinetic rifle for power armored troops, while unarmored. This is done while standing, but some more forgiving units will allow the shooter to brace the weapon on something. The shooter’s group is scored and the score is added to the unit’s rankings. A RJ can challenge again at any time within reason to move up and down the list. There’s no real reward beyond bragging rights and the occasional free beer from somebody lower on the rankings. When more than one CSAR unit is stationed together, they often pit their soldier with the best ranking against each other for bragging rights.

For the purpose of operator security, RJs in the field usually go by callsigns. More often than not, the callsign is slightly insulting or comes with an embarrassing story attached.

• Chop Shop: Field hospital
• Eyes and hands inspection: To diagnose something using your senses and training as opposed to relying on (or along side of) diagnostic equipment.
• Five fingers and five toes: Uninjured. It is an intentional miss count of the normal number of fingers most humanoids have.
• Flesh Mechanic: Doctor
• Preventative Medicine: To take out a threat before one of your side are hurt. Direct action. Kinetic solutions.
• Type (Insert birth year) Eyeball: The first piece of surveillance equipment invented. The eyes. Simply put, to scope something out without the use of fancy surveillance gear.

Rescue Jumpers have access to all silver card SASO gear, however the following are the equipment they're most likely to use. This list is by no means exhaustive. As with other members of the special operations community, CSAR units have more freedom to source specialized equipment than regular army units.

• Armor
  • Type 41 Hard Suit Standard armor for non-power armored operations
• Power Armor
  • Ke-M10 Modular Combat Armor System Ke-M10 Combat Rescue Loadout
• Weapons
  • Star Army Rifle, Type 41 Standard weapon for non-power armored operations
  • Ke-M2-W3703 Special Operations-Derived Combat Knife combat and utility knife. Many CSAR operators will claim to have used them for surgery. There isn't documented proof of this application. Claims often include fire and or whiskey.
  • Ke-M4-W4000 Power Armor Automatic Rifle - 40YE Primary power armored infantry rifle.
• Drones
  • EM-J5-1a - FARS SAOY often found on the fire team level for minor scouting and assistance
  • Variable Configuration Mission Adaptive Drones Primarily Terrain, Aerial, and Space models used to aid in search and rescue, enhance situational awareness, carry gear, or provide fire support.
• Ground Vehicles
  • Type 30 Akira-class Hoverbike often used for reconnaissance and SAR in low intensity conflicts
  • Light Surface Terrain Vehicle, Type 42 easily air mobile fast reconnaissance, SAR, utility, mobile fire support.
  • Type 30 Surface Terrain Vehicle troop mover and general utility vehicle. Also used for mobile fire support
• Aerospace Craft
  • Ke-T2-1c 'Okii-Neko' Aeroshuttle covert insertion and hot LZ extraction.
  • Kuma T8 Medevac Shuttle as it says on the tin. Often sporting aftermarket armaments such as door mounted Aether Gatling Rifle and advanced sensor packages
  • Skylyte/T11 Tanuki sporting an upgraded sensor package for ground hugging flight and identifying ground targets. This is a preferred workhorse of CSAR units.

A beginning Rescue Jumper will have learned around four of the specific skills taught at Kyūen School with Knowledge (Medical) and Knowledge (Search and Rescue) being mandatory.

Familiarize yourself with search and rescue procedures, basic first aid, combat, survival and evasion. Some useful resources can be found at Medical Guide ⚕️ and SAMA Working Group Forum Thread. Additionally there are a number of freely available real world first aid and search and rescue manuals and resources. Be on the lookout for the publication of Star Army equivalents.

(If available, we can use struct to automatically list characters in that occupation)

Locked 0ut created this article on 2022/09/24 15:04. Triple Peony Pin by Locked 0ut

• This was approved by Andrew in this thread.