Military SciFi?

Hello! I'm doing a military sci-fi.

What kind of military "set" are you working on? There's a lot of environments for military, especially time periods which is incredibly important.

Military Sci-Fi (click banner!)
Times written during class: 2
Times dreamed about: 4
Missions Failed: 0

I was thinking Futuristic, seems like it might be easiest to jump into, since creation of weapons/ranks/squads, etc. would seem easy. I am pretty savvy about my History, so that shouldn't be an issue, but main plot ideas and maybe the creation process might get a bit overwhelming, lol.

Yeah, I understand what you mean!

Here are some questions I'd think about for a plot:
- Is the military government sponsored or private company?
- How far in the future is this going to take place?
- Which country will you be basing off of?

I mean, obviously there will be a difference between (and I just learned these terms recently LOL) NATO nation standards and weapons (US, UK ...) and Warsaw Pact nations (Russia, Czech ...)

Depending on the country you decide to base it off of, you can determine futuristic enemies and issues. Maybe US v Pakistan, Iran, or Syria. Maybe even Saudi Arabia.

I would recommend going to Barnes n Noble or Borders and checking for books like Firearms Manuals and that kind of thing, as well as looking for tactical books. I got some books specifically for what I based mine off of (Special Forces) but you may find some other books more useful.

Military Sci-Fi (click banner!)
Times written during class: 2
Times dreamed about: 4
Missions Failed: 0

Yeah, for sure.

Was thinking of having it be "based" (we'll use that word loosely, lol) around US Military. I was thinking small units, maybe just following one unit, which seems most realistic. Was also thinking about a more scifi threat, such as extra terrestrial, but maybe something not as corny, lol.

I am! I'm doing a futuristic military setting in an intergalactic war. Which I know sounds cliched, but I swear it's better than I'm making it sound@

My story will include a heavy amount of military activity, powered armor, artillery, light fighting robots, etc. It will be entirely planet based, due to poorly executed terraforming and intergalactic warfare creating orbital debris and blocking out any chance of returning to space for a few hundred years. Said terraforming also populated the planet with monsters intent on eating humanity, and both human factions landed with propaganda blaming the others for various atrocities, including their current situation. Cue rapid fabrication of military hardware.

Formality is somewhat relaxed, and weapons are anything the colonists can lay their hands on, but military training is mandatory for all citizens.
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My only note for traditional science fiction warfare is that if you're thinking of doing semi-realistic combat in space, please remember that it is really, really big. Even around small planets. Laser weapons have effective ranges of at least several miles, possibly tens of thousands. Spacecraft, even allied spacecraft, should never need to be close enough together to crash against each other in a combat situation, though wreckage will eventually become noticeable navigational hazard. Of course this makes warfare a bit more boring, so you may want to go ahead and abandon realism for the sake of excitement.

Edit: How did I forget to hit submit there anyway? o_0

2056, World War III, Aliens attack, the nations of the earth are currently fighting and thus there are difficulties in working together.

To go in deeper there is a lot more to it. It focuses around a US Marine during this time period. The aliens don't appear hostile immediately, and there are lots of plot twists about it. As I write it I'll be posting each completed chapter in my novel excerpts so you can keep up with it if you want. That's all for now, I can tell you a whole lot about guns...

I have written military science fiction in the past. This year it is gangster science fiction, but the plot involves a gangland fight over armored steel for selling to the space Navy vs. a rival gang that wants to sell it to the enemy space Navy. In the past I used pykrete armor for the starships, but with a cheap source of armored steel I will have in my story, that will be phasing out.

I'm doing Military Sci Fi, I've been looking into the old 60's-70's military sci-fi, like Haldeman(sp?) and Heinlein, so yah, that does mean there's a thinly vieled reference to Vietnam and the Cold War, but I swear I'm trying to be original and realistic. So the story is only taking place around one world, an attempt to cure my headaches surrounding relativity (Asprin is expensive!) it's mostly focusing on the lengthy and tortured occupation of a world following its invasion, plus a little clunky exposition surrounding the politics of the war, I actually had some questions which would fit in well here aaaand I forgot all of them, genius! :D

2007: 0 words :D
2008: less than 0 words
2009: Clear schedule, happier mood, suicidal eagerness, 50,000 words or bust! D:

Are the majority of Military SciFi writers using aliens/other beings as main antagonists? Or using humanoids as baddies? I am super confused about that, lol.

Well, there's still fighting among the nations of earth as they're fighting this threat. But the aliens are very similar to humans, but most of the time don't fight themselves. They use biogenetically, or biotechnologically, I'm really not sure which. But anyway, they use insectoid beings thatare created in labs as their primary attack force.

I'll have some military SF in my story, but not much. Given the nature of my 'story' (really a collection of novellas linked by a common character and chronology, with an overarching plot thread), I'll have a space battle between space fighter craft. That's about as far as it gets, since the protagonists job involves helping to decide whether an invasion is actually warranted (she's a sort of investigator).

2009 - Have Starship, Will Hitchike (Working Title)

I figure I want someone on the front lines, and probably want me MC to be a Pvt. in the military, since it would be easiest to tell the story that way, start when he is thinking about joining, boot camp, first battles, etc. Just need to figure out some other things, like names for companies, an AU name for the United States (like in Starship Troopers, it's the United Citizen Federation), and some characters.

So is power armor a good idea? Or basic military unit uniforms, trying to think of something in between.

Mine are using other humans ... no aliens, etc. It only takes place about 10 years into the future and includes some newer technology. (Which is also a reason I was confused on which genre it'd go in -- ha!)

Whether or not to use power-armour should really depend on what kind of situation they will be in. Mine don't always wear uniforms, but then at some times they wear dragon armour or kevlar. Or something more techie. Wouldn't it be kind of silly to wear power armor if they're trying to do stealth missions?

Military Sci-Fi (click banner!)
Times written during class: 2
Times dreamed about: 4
Missions Failed: 0

Very true, never thought of that. I am also thinking humanoids, I figure that they could be exploration teams who are sent to a planet and never come back, consumed, and are now bad guys...hope that works and doesn't sound corny, lol.

I'm not entirely sure what the definition of military sci-fi is, but I have a feeling mine would fit into that category... combat only occurs between spacecraft though, there are no planets on which decisive battle between soldiers is possible. The story begins at the end of a 9000-year cold war between (non-humanoid) aliens and a human dictatorship.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"You are God in this universe you create, so act like one. BAM! There I said it."

Athlaos

I have a back story that there is a mysterious force that is destroying civilizations through out the galaxy (including Earth)

Always do your best but never ever think that you are the best cause then, you would stop improving

While not technically Mil-Scifi, my crew is mostly made up of ex-members of the military of my Mil-Scifi universe from previous stories. The military units use ranks and unit designations of the US Military but many of its traditions, purposes, and name are based on the French Foriegn Legion. The ruling goverment is the United Galactic Conferderation and the Legion is made up of aliens as well as humans.

The grunts wear uniforms similar to Scout Troopers from Star Wars to help with mobility but they have some leg armor. You can see the Legionaires face through his visor. I have specialized troops with power armor but use them rarely. I also have cyborgs, ranging from having just a prosthesis to the only thing 'human' left is a brain plugged into a fighting vehicle.

Have fun and good luck in November-Bob

Sweet! I came up with a basic plot: Mad Scientist terraforms his own planet (Basically a massive asteroid) and tractor beams in other ships in his orbit to create a massive fleet. Living on the asteroid caused people to become deformed and crazy (like Reavers from Firefly). That army has been building, and my AU Earth is building it's own army to stop the threat. Hope it goes well, since I only have a bare bones plot done, and writing starts soon, lol.

It depends on how you design the power armor. Look at the game Crysis. It's pretty much form fitting; It really just looks like muscles overlayed onto the soldier. Even Halo's armor works for stealth missions. It's compact, whisper quiet, and lightning fast.

Then, of course, you can opt to turn your troops into human bulldozers. Literal tons of bulky armor plates will stop pretty much anything.

It all depends on what fits into your universe's technology. Go with what you like.

Outside of NaNo, I'm writing a Halo fanfic using my own made up characters. It takes place during Halo 3 and involves a UNSC marine and a former Covenant elite stranded together and forced to work with each other to survive. I'm using only my own characters, because I've never read a good fanfic that used any main characters. It's the best thing I've written so far.

On the subject of power armor. Since mine is near future I have to stick with likely realities for near future. So there's the 2020 armor. Named so because they expect it will be ready for service in 2020. You can find a picture of the 2020 armor at this link http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/04_01/robocop0904_468x591.jpg . This is supposed to be power armor of the near future.

Hehe, I didn't think that Crysis was happening at the same period of time that my story was. Unfortunately, I'm doing my story somewhat realistically (counter-insurgency, special ops, all that jazz... just got a book on elite forces combat techniques) and with how slow armor seems to be advancing I don't believe there'd be like armor like that in 2020. But don't quote me on that! :)

Military Sci-Fi (click banner!)
Times written during class: 2
Times dreamed about: 4
Missions Failed: 0

Hehe, I didn't think that Crysis was happening at the same period of time that my story was. Unfortunately, I'm doing my story somewhat realistically (counter-insurgency, special ops, all that jazz... just got a book on elite forces combat techniques) and with how slow armor seems to be advancing I don't believe there'd be like armor like that in 2020. But don't quote me on that! :)

Military Sci-Fi (click banner!)
Times written during class: 2
Times dreamed about: 4
Missions Failed: 0

I'm doing a military sci fi/espionage novel this year. It's the second of a series focusing on black-ops contractors in a real-world setting. The first novel is currently under consideration at a couple agencies, so here's hoping.

Best of luck to everyone.

I too am planning to write in the Military Sci-Fi sub-genre. I am going for a distant location/time angle with my setting being a star system that was colonized by STL(Slower Than Light) ships from the not too distant future. I do plan to have several variants on powered armor show up but they are going to be varied in nature and capability as the various (all human) factions are varied in resources and tactics. I am primarily focusing on the events around a single protagonist but hope to "show my work" in the tactics/psychology of the conflicts that flow around the main story. I finally decided to do Military Sci-Fi over my other ideas as I felt that my current life events (deployed to Iraq) would bleed through anyway so I might as well use it.

I'll quote you whether you like it or not! (lol)

We already have all the necessary tech, we just have to figure out how to put it all together in a practical package. Raytheon has built a powered exoskeleton that moves perfectly in sync with the operator, giving them twice their normal strength. It still has power issues, but those are being solved with a system that uses its own motions to generate electricity. We have the nigh-indestructible (yet somehow rejected by the army) Dragon Skin body armor. We have liquid armor which is extremely lightweight (and liquid) yet becomes rock solid with any sudden impact (bullet, knife, etc.). The Russians have built a super-compact nearly recoilless submachine gun. Computers keep getting smaller and smaller, so a helmet with an onboard computer and heads up display projected on the visor might not be out of the question. Stats like power consumption or even the ammo in your gun could be beamed to your helmet instantly. We already have similar tech for fighter pilots. Satellite or UAV imagery could provide real time info on everyone's position on the battlefield.

Most of this is stuff I found on youtube.

And this.

http://xkcd.com/652/

We're already in the future. Except for the extra planetary activity, this genre may soon cease to be SciFi. Maybe even before 2020. Who knows?

I don't believe that dragon skin or liquid armor is considered power armor ... I understand that power armor is something like that exoskeleton you were first talking about. Cause I was including things like dragon skin and liquid armor, although it's not too cost effective for the time.

Military Sci-Fi (click banner!)
Times written during class: 2
Times dreamed about: 4
Missions Failed: 0

Got my synopsis done, feel free to read and get back to me on it!

Sounds good to me. Just one thing though, where you say 'newly graduated Sergeant', do you mean a sergeant fresh out of Command School? Because the rank you go to once you're out of command school is Lieutenant, on rank above Sergeant. Sergeant is the highest achievable rank without going to command school.

Oh, and your story takes place one year before mine starts ; )

Not sure if this counts, but the MMC (and his redshirt brother) of my post-apocalyptic story is supposed to be a descendent of a military force who basically buckled down in a bunker and got comfy when the (profane word for faeces) went down, who preserved some of their traditions and passed their training down from generation to generation. I'm not sure how much I'll be focusing on this, and it's primarily a backstory element and an excuse to give my character martial arts skills, marksmanship training, that sort of thing. However, I've already decided that technology has been blown back to pre-industrial levels (no matter how good a shot this guy is, he's still using a home-made musket), and it's gonna be a plot point that the faction of evil cultists (who are decidedly not organised like a proper military) have access to a single automatic weapon.

It occurs to me that I'm probably in the mindset for writing military SF, having recently played through Halo 3: ODST and watched Aliens twice in the past month, but I've put far too much thought and brainstorming into my post-apoc concept to ditch it now. :P Suppose there's always next year...