Browncoats

This is the nickname for the human militias resisting the UAP takeover of the outer worlds of 34 Tauri.

 

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Table of Contents:

  1. Introduction
  2. Milestone Years
  3. Numbers
  4. Individual Members of Note
  5. Gear
  6. Locations
  7. Carrying on the Righteous Fight
  8. Inaccurately Labeled Terrorists
  9. Regarding the Inisfreeans
  10. History of This Webpage
  11. 2024 May:  Diet
  12. Images

 

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Introduction:

The pro-confederate/independents/secessionist military force, nicknamed the ‘Browncoats’ for their namesake G.I. long-coats, was the main army/military which fought against the Alliance / Core worlds in this war.  It has been re-dubbed the ‘Dust Devils’ after losing their/that campaign during the Unification War.  The following information on this webpage covers what was published/disclosed about that organization during and immediately following the fighting.

Browncoats (now Dust Devils) do not typically harass Union of Allied Planets (UAP) reconstruction forces each U-Day.; instead, they sabotage soft targets throughout the (core worlds’) border and (34 Tauri multi-system edge) fringe worlds, where their lingering influence remains significant.  

Although virtually without any space-faring military vessels to speak of, the Dust Devils have retrained themselves to rapidly adapt and re-fit any salvageable or commandeered vessel for their purposes, making them some of the best field engineers, mechanics, pilots, and covert and clandestine operators in the Verse.

Further details on the planets who fought for independence (i.e. which the Browncoats defended) can be found here.

 

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Milestone Years:

  1. formed/founded:  2505
  2. invasion of the Core worlds:  2507
  3. defeated/disbanded:  2511

 

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Numbers:

Few specifics were given about the actual population of this organization, or of any of the worlds and other places featured/debuted in Firefly, so “best guesses” / estimates follow.

  • total personnel/serving:  ~millions (~2.5, thus ~.005 of 1% of the 34 Tauri human population) –For reference, the USA’s average ratio of citizens to service members was .4 of 1%.
  • active duty:  ~2,000,000
  • reserves:  ~400,000
  • combatants:  ~200,000
  • support:  ~1,800,000
  • WIA:  millions (most from exposure and sickness, not direct action)
  • KIA:  hundreds of thousands
  • MIA:  tens of thousands
  • remaining active after the war:  thousands

For the whole war (not just Browncoats/secessionists):

  • KIA:  6,200,000 (more than 2/3 of those died from disease, though, not fighting)
  • and since ~2,500,000 were Browncoats/secessionists, ~3,700,000 Alliance personnel/people were killed during this war

 

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Individual Members of Note:

 

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Gear:

Browncoats used whatever they could get their hands on, basically.  They almost always had less-advanced weapons and other issued items than their enemy, the Alliance soldiers/forces.  Sometimes they salvaged, stole, and “dumpster dove”, ending up with “mixed & matched” sets of clothing, uniform articles, makeshift body-armor, you name it.

The few times you’ll see any of them using advanced/sophisticated weapons or other gear is usually shortly after they took it off the corpses of Alliance troops/units they managed to defeat.  The trouble with this is that… most of the time, none of them had any schooling or training in how to use that level of tech’.  You can guess at the results of trying to field it, especially in the heat of battle/s.

 

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Locations:

Planets they started with:

  • Hera
  • Persephone
  • Shadow

Planets which joined them:

  • Beaumonde
  • Bellerophon
  • Beylix
  • Boros
  • New Melbourne
  • Verbena

Planets contested:

  • New Kasmir

Planets lost:

  • Beaumonde
  • Bellerophon
  • Boros
  • New Melbourne

Planets still contested:

  • (all which were once seceded/independent, especially the first/main three)

Planets they did not have a presence on:

  • Ariel
  • Greenleaf
  • Londinium
  • Miranda
  • Osiris
  • Sihnon

Planets they are still/again trying to reclaim/liberate:

  • (all which were once seceded/independent + any which have expressed interest since the war/reconstruction)

*Not all locations are known, as the information presented in the few episodes of the Firefly show which made it to television was spotty at best.  From what was presented/published, there were secessionists and Browncoats all throughout 34 Tauri, even on some of the Core worlds right next to the strongest Alliance worlds.

 

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Carrying on the Righteous Fight:

There are still millions, if not a few billion, spread out in 34 Tauri who believe the side of the secessionists was the right/righteous one (though only thousands of their number are former service members; Browncoats turned/redubbed Dust Devils).  While far fewer than during the war/Browncoat days, there are still a significant enough number of these people who keep fighting as best / whenever they can.  It may be the next generation/s of them which finally sees some interplanetary ground recovered.

Dust Devils no longer have proper military bases or other facilities from which to muster and launch operations; all the planets they once had full support from… have been/remained occupied by UAP forces.  Today, Dust Devils train wherever they can find a vacant or abandoned house, factory, silo, bunker, warehouse, or complex.  Their units are always mobile, nomadic, and outwardly rag-tag, due to the total disbandment of their official units, and the strict UAP monitoring of all those who used to contribute to their supply channels and trains.

It is very difficult to carry on this fight these days, so those who do are exceptionally talented and/or informed and/or lucky.

 

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Inaccurately Labeled Terrorists:

The UAP labeled anyone still fighting after the treaty/ceasefire… a terrorist, as you might expect.  That made it a lot easier to keep pursuing and detaining them even after many worlds regained most of their pre-war ‘normalcy’/rights.

Dust Devils see themselves as the military version of ‘checks and balances’, as well as brave rogue-operators who are daring and skilled enough to stand up to the ever-present threat of governmental monopolies.  While some have resorted to actual/obvious terrorism, most are still just desperate patriots from their respective homeworlds.  Even the ones committing actual terrorism these days, of course, see only the other side as the ‘real’ bad-guys/terrorists.

Dust Devils are also the only line of defense for most of the worlds farther from the Core (the innermost planets and moons of the 34 Tauri multi-system where the remaining post-Unification-War military forces have focused their reconstruction and security efforts).  Border and Fringe worlds were largely left to fend for themselves, creating a natural power vacuum that was immediately filled by the combination of disbanded Browncoats in need of work, and colonies in need of protection from gangs, pirates, and the newly-forged and haphazardly-rampaging Reavers.

No one receiving help/protection from Browncoats / Dust Devils sees them as terrorists.

 

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Regarding the Inisfreeans:

Inisfree doesn’t give much thought to how the humans and their descendants cast out into The Abyss (Hell; Outer Space) are faring.  Inisfree’s job/purpose is to protect the Earth and other good worlds/realms from such primitive monsters.  Still, being able to relate to, at least, the desperate and lengthy struggle for independence and sustainability that the Browncoat/seceding planets of 34 Tauri went through, the leader of the Inisfreeans (me; High King Auzdein von Himmler) mostly just makes perfected ‘copies’/clone-variants of their sexiest females, rather than acquiring/capturing/kidnapping them all (as is the case on most other human-colonized/occupied/invaded worlds).

 

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History of This Webpage:

In ~July of 2019, I (Auz) happened to be scrolling through my/this recently (re)built website when I noticed one of the webpages needing lots of attention (in this case, needing to be started / filled in with content) was this one.  I added the sections “Introduction”, “Carrying on the Righteous Fight”, and “Inaccurately Labeled Terrorists”, but did not finish editing/polishing them up, thus the ‘incomplete thoughts’ they had for ~4 years since then.  Then, due to lots of traveling, relocating, and very interesting encounters confirming my writing was actually spells/commands manifesting, I all but forgot about this webpage, never checking it until now (July of 2023).

This year, after re-trying the same bad Chinese “restaurant” where I’ve been waiting and trying to establish a foothold out here in the Rocky Mountains wilderness, I happened to end up re-checking this same webpage I did after first trying that restaurant in 2019.  What are the odds?  I’m glad I did, though; I’m not put off by the initial deja vu or repeat/loop/s anymore, as this webpage really needed one more pass to look good / read well.

 

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2024 May:  Diet

omnivores due to brainwashing to keep all human subjects/colonists in 34 Tauri more manageable; busy with cattle and diseases, shorter lifespans so they don’t become like demigods centuries later, etc.

 

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