When The Eagles Go Marching

Service Guarantees Citizenship!

- Motto of the American Foreign Legion

The First ‘New Mareland’ Division

First To The Fight…

Formed shortly before the war with MARESOC the American Foreign Legion or AFL was initially intended to be a single division of former New Mareland soldiers who wished to help reclaim their homeland but only under their own flag. This was in the early days of MARESOC’s rule where the goal of any future invasion would be liberation instead of annexation. It was only after the years went by with all but the most die hard Marelanders considering themselves American by this point and the complete lack of anyone from the old New Mareland government who wasn’t already in the US Government or dead in Big Sister’s frequent purges.

Before annexation was officially put on the table the 1st New Mareland Division was only at a few hundred members. In terms of numbers the 1st was barely a regiment let alone a division. As the years went by the 1st started to ‘Americanize’ just like their fellow ponies & griffons. Their Lila Rifles had long since been replaced by American M-14s and CAR-15s. Their old uniforms had been replaced by the camo uniforms of their human comrades custom made to fit a pony or griffon’s body. Their commanding officer, Velvet Solar, even enlisted in the new US Military Academy at Canmarea to receive what would be her first general’s star.

By the time of the invasion the division had Americanized enough that freeing their former home from the tyranny of MARESOC wasn’t their single end goal. While more than a few wished to see New Mareland restored, even more wanted it to join the United States. The US by that point was no longer a strictly human nation with non-humans making up a significant portion of its population and its government. Several Department Secretaries were ponies and numerous ponies & griffons were in Congress. New Mareland which was experiencing a severe economic depression and had willingly allowed MARESOC to get too powerful was seen as a failed state by even its own citizens.

The 1st was transferred to the Northern Front shortly after the capture of New Hoofington and its docks by US Forces. Due to the speed in which MARESOC forces collapsed the 1st only participated in one real battle before the war’s end. This would be the Battle of Hoovesplain, MARESOC’s final stronghold. The division would be the first US military unit to enter the bombed out city leading to the division adopting the motto ‘First To The Fight’.

This motto would prove to be prophetic because over the next few years the 1st New Mareland gained a reputation as a very aggressive force which paired well with the Foreign Legion’s general Velvet Solar who was an offensive oriented commander with a love of skirmishes, ambushes, and audacious attacks.

The Second ‘ENCLAVE’ Division

God Bless America and No One Else…

When the Union of Free Beings declared its independence many NCR laws became null & void. The Union readopted some like the NCR Draft though not without some tweaking. One law that didn’t see readoption was the law proclaiming all members of the Enclave to be enemies of the state and war criminals. After accepting Judah Kreiger’s squad as refugees, many former NCR citizens were finally able to get a look at the Enclave Boogeyman, the fear of which nearly saw them go to war against the United States.

The sight of a beat up old Vertibird, Follower of the Apocalypse, and a small group of old people was not what people expected. Under NCR law these people were to be executed for war crimes. Union lawmakers quickly decided that such a law was completely unethical since finding out if any individual or squad actually committed war crimes was pretty much impossible due to the total loss of Enclave records and lack of NCR reports. Not only that but the law also included people like Arcade Gannon who was an infant during the Enclave’s appearance.

So after writing it into law the Union promptly informed the NCR, who had been demanding the release of Krieger’s squad for a trial, that their law proclaiming all Enclave members as war criminals was unconstitutional and therefore would not be enforced in Union territory. The Union was completely unaware of the effect this would have across the wasteland.

Numerous Enclave members hiding across NCR territory would read about this in the papers and realize two things. One was that the Union wouldn’t shoot them on sight. The other was that there was a reformed United States through the portal in a world completely untouched by nuclear war.

Within a month of the story being released Vertibirds would start flying into Fort Gateway. Enclave members would offer everything from their vertibirds, to power armor, to crates of energy weapons to pay for either citizenship in the Union or more commonly passage to the United States.

Not wanting to wait to become full citizens of the nation they had long considered their birthright and destiny, many soldiers joined the Foreign Legion. These Enclave soldiers would form the Second Division of the Foreign Legion.

Due to already being familiar with many American tactics and weapon systems, Enclave forces required little in the way of retraining. That doesn't mean there weren't a few issues. Due to their divergent histories guided missiles and other such munitions were far less prevalent in the Enclave’s United States. Not only that but Enclave battle doctrine did not recognize noncombatants and soldiers were encouraged to target medics and other personnel that would normally be off limits.

Enclave soldiers would have to be retrained to recognize & avoid harming noncombatants along with a crash course in both the Geneva Convention and the Canterlot Accords. Once this retraining was finished the Second would become the Foreign Legion’s heaviest hitters. They would swiftly become infamous as a fast and hard hitting force due to their power armor & liberal use of helicopter assaults.

While initially aloof the Second Division eventually developed a bit of a friendly rivalry with the 1st New Mareland. The Enclave, somewhat understandably, has a not so friendly rivalry with the 3rd and 4th Divisions. Their commanding officer, a former mercenary by the name of Douglas Granite, has so far been able to keep the peace.

The Third ‘Steel Knight’ Division

Ad Victorium (To Victory)

Due to the NCR and later Union’s monopolizing of the portal to Equus there has been little interaction with the Brotherhood of Steel. The faction was officially in a state of war with the New California Republic. A war that they are currently losing. By the time the NCR began using the portal both the Lost Hills and Mojave Chapters had been driven to their bunkers by the numerically superior NCR. The other chapters across the wasteland were either unable or unwilling to send support.

After the Union declared its independence and evicted the NCR from Fort Gateway the Brotherhood made contact. Officially it was to establish diplomatic relations with a new wasteland power. Unofficially the Brotherhood hoped to strongarm the Union into handing control over the portal in exchange for protection.

Unfortunately for the Brotherhood the Union had recently signed arms deals with both the US and Equestria. The Brotherhood party of 20 power armored Knights & Paladins and 8 Scribes were met with a small yet modernized force consisting of aircraft and tanks. The now very intimidated Brotherhood instead managed to negotiate a trade deal in which the Brotherhood would trade tech for resources & foodstuffs.

Back at Lost Hills the atmosphere had become very hostile. The Union’s rapid militarization beyond what most wasteland powers were capable of had permanently put them out of the Brotherhood’s reach. Power Armor and Energy Weapons were powerful assets but even in Pre-War times they weren’t war winners. The Brotherhood had been defeated by foes in the past. Either through superior numbers which the Lost Hills & Mojave Chapters experienced with the NCR or the small Maxson Chapter of Colorado in their war with the Hangdogs. They had also been defeated by unexpected tactics & weaponry. One of the early Elders had been felled by a knick from a simple poisoned weapon and Paladins of the Mojave Chapter had been annihilated by the artillery of the Boomers in their belief that tribals didn’t have anything to defeat Power Armor.

Such incidents had become worryingly common in recent years and many had begun to see the writing on the wall. Maxson’s Brotherhood of Steel which had been founded as the best hope of humanity was beginning to die. Destined to be swallowed up by the powers surrounding it unless they adapted.

The bunker quickly began to split into different camps. There were those who wanted to adopt the ways of Lyons and start openly recruiting. There were those who saw the exiled Midwest & Texas Chapters as perfect examples saying that the Brotherhood should get in the business of nation building.

Then you had the Old Guard and Followers of Elijah. Elijah's Followers believed that all their problems stemmed from common wastelanders having tech that was too good for them. Only by reducing the wastelanders back to a simple hunter-gatherer existence like in the decades after the Great War would the Brotherhood be able to not only survive but thrive. Because without the Brotherhood humanity would surely destroy itself in another nuclear war.

While Elijah's Followers were planning the outright collapse of what little civilization remained, the Old Guard was little better. Their goal was to simply do nothing. The Codex was penned by Roger Maxson himself, it was perfect. At least until it wasn't…

All it took was for one scribe to notice something odd as she cleaned old comm logs. A series of correspondences between Lost Hills and Appalachia. She knew there used to be a chapter there. Upon listening to the logs she heard the founder Roger Maxson expressing his views. Views that too her shock was in line with those of the exiled Elder Lyons. Something that may have well been in the Codex but changed after his death. She was a part of the group that supported Lyons ideals so the existence of these tapes was to her the greatest vindication. So she discreetly put the logs on every terminal, pip-boy, and holotape player in the bunker.

Within hours every group was shouting at the other. There were many who were angry their founder's ideals were buried even if they personally didn't like them. The Old Guard was under fire for lying and trying to protect an idea Maxson himself didn't believe in. When Elijah's Followers hissed that the logs were probably fabricated guns were drawn.

The resulting fight, while short, led to hundreds simply leaving the bunker after grabbing everything of value they could carry. Some went east with either the Midwest or Capital Wasteland as their end goal. Some joined the NCR or other wasteland nations. A few went to found their own chapters. A majority however went to Fort Gateway.

They were rushed through immigration despite being clad in power armor and having arms full of energy weapons. The Union could not resist having hundreds of combat trained Brotherhood Knights & Scribes at their disposal. Unfortunately most of them would go to the United States.

The United States from this alternate universe while lagging behind in some areas was arguably more advanced than the Pre-War United States at least in a couple of industries. A Scribe when shown a modern computer chip and Sony Walkman remarked ‘how is that possible?’ while a Knight looked quite taken aback when shown footage of a battle in WW3 with guided munitions being fired by everything from tanks to infantry. While not possessing their world’s skill in AI or Robotics the sophistication of American computers could not be ignored.. Brotherhood Scribes when shown the features of a military base’s Apple Macintosh PCs (a model released mere months before the nuclear war) they immediately began coming up with ways to improve the machine.

Some of these Scribes would go on to found the Knight Computers company which would rapidly become the first tech giant of the reborn United States filling the position once held by now defunct companies like IBM, Apple, and Microsoft.

The Brotherhood’s paladins and more than a few knights would join the foreign legion forming the third division. This division would be mostly made up of power armor wearing paladins while being supported by knights in recon armor or armored vehicles. What they lacked in numbers they made up in raw offensive capability. General Jeremiah Sawyer, a decorated hero of WW3, would say that with only a handful of Brotherhood Knights there is no force on the planet he could not uproot.

The Fourth ‘Bear’ Division

Bears on the Prowl

The United States would see large amounts of immigration from the Union of Free Beings once relations between the two of them normalized and started to blossom into an alliance. When the Union began to allow people from their world to cross over it was inevitable that many would find their way to the United States. The new president of the NCR, Grant C. Hayes, looked back on the old United States nostalgically and wanted the NCR to become its proper successor. He was personally fascinated with this new US beyond the portal.

NCR Newspapers were filled with (sometimes embellished) tales of the US beyond the portal. Calling it a beacon of Democracy in the other world and haven for all who lived under its banner. Despite the change in administration the NCR was still undergoing an economic recession and some unrest among the populace. Plus there was the fact that the Pre-War United States was still looked upon with fondness by many wastelanders. Therefore it shouldn’t be a surprise that many NCR citizens wished to immigrate to the Union or United States.

The Bear division is built along NCR military lines with most of its soldiers having been former NCR Troopers or Rangers. That meant massed assaults by infantry with little motorized or mechanized support. Bears typically engaged their foes from the safety of trenches or heavily fortified positions. When they do have to go on the offensive it is with heavy artillery support while their troops move forward with slow methodical marching fire.

Out of all the Foreign Legion Divisions their casualty rates tend to be the highest which both the 2nd and 3rd divisions say ‘is typical for the NCR’. This high attrition rate is offset by the fact they are the largest in terms of numbers with many former NCR citizens wishing to fast track American citizenship with military service.

The Fifth ‘Draco’ Division

Flames of Fury!

Dragons despite being fairly isolated both globally and diplomatically still make sure they are connected with worldwide events. This is done via the large amounts of dragons present in the militaries of nearly every major world power.

While too prideful to admit it, the fact that the dragons were in a state of national poverty was no secret. In this industrialized world of guns, tanks, and planes the dragons still made due with medieval armor & weapons. With little to no economy to speak of it should be no surprise that many young dragons sought employment in other lands. With dragon culture sometimes outright encouraging aggression, many dragons found employment in mercenary organizations, pirate crews, and in foreign legions. The American Foreign Legion was no different possessing a full regiment of dragons.

The 5th are unique among the foreign legions seeing how they are technically mercenaries. Dragons sign on for a five year contract with the US Military. Upon the contract’s end the dragon would receive their pay and US citizenship to go along with it. In the event of the dragon’s death their pay will be sent to their family or spouse. It was this last stipulation that made the US Foreign Legion popular for dragon mercenaries.

It was very common for mercenaries to be denied payment in the event of death. Even when promised nations very rarely gave any money to the merc’s families. Due to the loner nature of dragons only mercenary groups with very high levels of camaraderie would raise a fuss.

Citizenship in the United States wasn’t a bad bonus especially since it extended to immediate family members. The Dragon Lands were a terrible place to live. Any dragon would admit that (though they’d get angry if a non-dragon said so). Dragon immigration was very controlled in many nations so one that was willing to give them citizenship was something not to be passed up. Upon the creation of the foreign legion the dragon population in the United States would steadily rise. Experts predict that if current trends continue in a century there would be more dragons in the US than all other dragon nations combined.

As a fighting force the 5th is a highly aggressive predominantly infantry force. They are a force that has taken the phrase ‘Attack! Attack! Attack!’ to their very heart.