CMA Marine Corps

The CMA Marine Corps were the branch of the Colonial Military Authority tasked with ground operations.

History
The CMA Marines were generally considered the "tip of the bayonet" for colonial peacekeeping and counter-terrorism operations, both military and law enforcement in nature. They were additionally deployed to work alongside and coordinate Colonial Militia operations safeguard critical facilities such as power planets and space elevators. The Marines typically did not have a close relationship with the CMA Navy unlike their counterparts in the United Nations Space Command, with the Navy's ships considered generally ill-equipped for deploying and supporting CMA Marine operations. Nonetheless, the CMA Navy did operate a few ship classes suited for this role, with the used to support long-term CMA Marine expeditionary operations in the Outer Colonies for months at a time.

The CMA's fall from grace in the latter half of the 25th century saw the CMA Marine Corps largely dissolved, and most of their remaining personnel absorbed into the UNSC Marine Corps. Many CMA personnel of the era harboured greater loyalties to the then-growing colonial independence movements, and many of these trained warfighters instead defected to the Insurrectionist cause - forming the backbone of the rebel force during the Insurrection conflict. By 2525, the CMA as a whole had been sidelined into redundancy so much that most of its equipment was fully obsolete and its remaining personnel given only two weeks of boot camp before being shipped out - described by former-Marine Gage Yevgenny as "enough to teach you how to use your weapon, salute, march, and drive a Warthog before they booted you right on out there." During the Human-Covenant War, the CMA became responsible for minor operations in the colonies after its takeover by the UNSC, such as guarding military installations and riot patrol.

Equipment
The CMA Marines operated a variety of equipment, much of which was shared with their fellows in the UNSC's Armed Forces. Much of their equipment was sourced from Vakara GesmbH, who furnished CMA forces with a huge range of equipment from material used in building prefabricated bases to tactical drones to infantry firearms.

Infantry equipment
The CMA Marines operated the HMG-38 heavy machine gun as a premier heavy machine gun and its modernised "Monitor Rifle" heavy automatic rifle modification from 2338 to 2495, alongside Misriah Armory's M247H machine gun. A major mainstay tactical rifle employed by the CMA Marines was the VK78 Commando, a weapon introduced in 2494 to replace the older HMG-38s - which had since been refitted throughout the CMA in a "Monitor Rifle" configuration. The CMA employed other weapons commonly employed by UNSC forces such as the M7 SMG.

CMA Wyvern gunships employed M328 light machine guns and M413 heavy machine guns.

Vehicles
In 2321, the CMA became the first military organisation to formally bring the M12 Warthog into service. Some of the CMA's early Warthogs employed the M65 Gauss cannon. For larger troop-transport capabilities, the CMA employed the M88 Bison. The Scorpion and SP42 Cobra were also employed by the CMA for heavier firepower, with the latter introduced in 2497 to supplement the former as a light tank during Operation: CHARLEMAGNE. Ultimately, most Cobras were inherited by the UNSC, though their production was discontinued.

The CMA Marines operated air cavalry units, and employed the MV-29 Wyvern gunship for this purpose. The JOV-99 Kestrel was another vehicle in CMA service, presumably by the Marine Corps.

Alongside standard vehicles, the CMA Marines operated drop pods, with the M8823 Human Entry Vehicle seeing use by the CMA starting in 2461.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Evolutions
 * Dirt