Colonial Military Authority

Colonial Military Authority
Formed:	2310
Affiliation:	Unified Earth Government
Branch:	Colonial Administration Authority United Nations Space Command
Type:	Armed forces
Role:	Colonial protection
Engagements:	Insurrection Human-Covenant War

The Colonial Military Authority (CMA), occasionally known as the Colonial Military Administration or the Colonial Military, was a military organization created by the Unified Earth Government in 2310. Its original mission was to serve as the controlling body for UNSC ships and ground forces reassigned to colonial protective operations. However, over the years its role gradually became usurped by the United Nations Space Command. The CMA, when combined with the Colonial Administration Authority and other agencies, were collectively referred to as the Colonial Authority.

Mission

The Colonial Military Administration was originally responsible for patrolling and protecting the Outer Colonies, while the United Nations Space Command defended Earth and the Inner Colonies. Due to widespread corruption and many officers sympathetic to the Insurrectionists within its ranks, the CMA's role and powers were largely taken over by the UNSC. The CMA became responsible for minor operations in the colonies after its takeover by the UNSC, such as guarding military installations and riot patrol.

Military departments

The CMA is divided into numerous service branches, responsible for operations throughout the colonies.

Navy

Main article: CMA Navy

The CMA Navy traditionally only held a limited military role for the majority of the organisation's history - with the Navy instead tasked more towards search-and-rescue, anti-smuggling, and trade restriction enforcement. Unlike their counterparts in the UNSC Navy, they rarely had a close integration with their respective Marine Corps, and thus found their warships ill-suited to conducting joint-operations. Following the CMA's dissolution, the CMA Navy are now primarily used to oversee navigation beacons and remote fuel depots - though maintain a sizeable force of system defence corvettes and destroyers.

Marine Corps

Main article: CMA Marine Corps

The CMA Marines were, in their heyday, considered the primary peacekeeping force for the colonial frontier, though have since mostly been absorbed into the UNSC Marine Corps. They were used for both military and law enforcement operations, coordinating militias, and safeguarding critical infrastructure such as space elevators and power plants.

History

A CMA tilt-rotor craft in the middle of search and rescue operations.

Origins

The Colonial Military Administration was formed alongside the Colonial Administration Authority in 2310, by the Unified Earth Government. Originally, the CMA was charged with taking control of all United Nations Space Command vessels and ground forces that were reassigned to defend humanity's colonies. Colonial protection was seen as a ceremonial function that was largely intended to appease the colonists' fears of pirates and marauders in human space. The UNSC determined that a separate command to administer these activities and operations of little significance would suffice. As such, the UEG assigned the CMA to uphold these tasks. On April 13, 2321, the original supersoldier program was established with the Colonial Military Administration. However, poor results led to the Office of Naval Intelligence putting the project on hold.

At the time of the CMA's formation, the UNSC's Naval Command and Unified Ground Command were convinced that their own resources were better spent on operations within the Sol system, and left the interstellar colonies to be protected by the CMA. However, as humanity's colonies began to expand and started to take on vital roles, NAVCOM and UNICOM attempted to disband the CMA and usurp its role on several occasions. Despite this, the colonial command was uncompromising and insistent on protecting their territory. The CMA's founding charter—approved by the UNSC—gave the organization little room for external maneuvering. In spite of the many efforts taken by both sides to take sole military command of the colonies, by 2400, NAVCOM and UNICOM were both operating within the Inner Colonies alongside the CMA.

Expansion to the Outer Colonies

As NAVCOM and UNICOM continued to encroach on the Colonial Military Administration's control, the CMA began to move to the recently established Outer Colonies. Making the Outer Colonies their province, the CMA began assigning a majority of its military forces on frontier worlds. Most of the CMA's personnel were recruited from the Outer Colonies, and the organization's soldiers believed themselves to be humanity's "frontiersmen" and considered themselves to be exceptionally bold and adventurous compared to their UNSC counterparts. The Unified Earth Government's colonies continued to expand and, with the CMA at the forefront of this expansion, the colonists were aided with "taming" their worlds. In sparsely populated areas, the CMA protected citizens from lawlessness. However, tensions began to rise throughout the Outer Colonies as the CMA increased trade restrictions and taxes.

In the late 2400s, as the Insurrection began across the various colonies, tensions developed within the UEG's hierarchy. The CMA's control over the Outer Colonies and already strained relationship with the rest of the UEG led to several of the organization's soldiers sympathizing with the Insurrectionists and the plight of the colonists. However, the soldiers of UNICOM and NAVCOM continued to hold more allegiance to Earth and the Inner Colonies. On January 29, 2491, ONI and the Colonial Military Administration secretly relaunched the ORION Project in order to quell increasingly violent insurrections. Although the initial results were costly, ONI deemed the project "adequate".

Decline

Main article: Insurrection

In June of 2494, secessionists within the Eridanus system began a campaign of violence against the Unified Earth Government, using equipment supplied by traitors within the Colonial Military Administration. The CMA-equipped rebels performed a violent, well-planned, and efficiently executed campaign against Eridanus II that heavily impacted the planet's shipping industry, and ultimately taking control of the world. The Eridanus Government petitioned the UNSC for aid, and HIGHCOM dispatched a battle group in January of 2496 that crushed the rebellion, though not so conclusively as to avoid continued dissent. By this time, the aging HMG-38 heavy machine guns in CMA service began to be replaced throughout the frontier, with the