Ok, maybe a stupid question, but I have to ask: Let assuming there would be a major/big/gigantic offensive of all (or at least the most) human factions against a CA force or position. As far as I understand the background in the moment, each faction would command their own forces. But would there some sort of high command or a commanding general?
Historically, Command of Joint Human Sphere forces has been provided by the O-12, mostly because that's actually acceptable to everyone. So you'd find that O-12 would provide high command but they'd be surrounded by G-5 officers of various types.
There very few I knew of O-12, let me think of it as an sort of space-UN, and it operatives come from the different factions. So now let assuming that the UN-general, ups sorry O-12-general is from ALEPH, would the Nomads really follow it orders or more likely search for options to boycott it?
The O-12 planet, Concilium, actually houses the majority of Aleph's infrastructure, and the Bureau Toth oversees both Aleph and all other (most always renegade) AIs. I think it would be unlikely that an Aleph commander would be put in charge of operations involving Nomads, for the same reason it's unlikely a serving PanO commander would be given an operation involving Yu Jing forces. O-12 is a combined diplomatic and military organisation and such a faux-pas just isn't likely to happen. It will come down to individuals though, pre-secession JSA are probably more likely to work with PanO than the Imperial Service, and especially pragmatic Nomads would likely work with Aleph forces to accomplish mutually beneficial goals.
Basically whoever is appointed as Supreme Allied Commander: Paradiso Theatre of Operations, is going to be an O-12 senior military officer whose appointment is acceptable to all of the G-5 and Minor Nation powers with troops on Paradiso. ALEPH is a little unusual amongst the powers involved because even though ALEPH aspects are legally considered O-12 citizens, and are basically O-12 agents, the appointment of an ALEPH aspect as supreme commander likely would be unacceptable to the Nomad nation, so that wouldn't happen. The situation of O-12 Bureau Agents is a little complicated. Many of them are still citizens of PanO or Yu Jing or whatever, and are "on loan" to the O-12 to give specialist assistance and a broad base of resources, because all the factions want to be seen as enthusiastic and supportive of O-12. So you end up with foreign officers doing a lot of jobs in the O-12 structure, trying to curry favour with their parent faction (or maybe not, perhaps they are genuine believers in international cooperation). However, these agents tend to be relatively short term in that role, are cycled through, and are not actually O-12 citizens. It's a posting from the PanO military command for example, rather than your actual career, and you eventually get reassigned to the Hexahedron or whatever. The majority of people actually on Consilium are O-12 citizens, because it's a nation as well as an organisation, as are the majority of people actually making up all of the various O-12 departments, especially in command positions. Some of these people are from Great Power habitats, perhaps you are from NeoTerra and you move to Consilium to whatever reason, and get O-12 Citizenship, join one of the Bureaus as your job etc etc etc. Many of them are from minor nations as well, and many of them (probably most these days) were born O-12 citizens. If you prove your loyalty to the O-12 rather than your past nation, then you may well reach very high command positions (just like how if you're born an O-12 citizen you still need to be trusted with serious authority to get all the way up there). But when it comes to whoever is placed in overall command of something like Paradiso, you'll get an actual O-12 citizen, a senior military officer in its structure, who is politically acceptable to all the G-5, which probably means originally from somewhere acceptably neutral and hasn't said or done anything in the past to offend or cause suspicion from any of the major players. So yeah, the O-12. Kind of complicated. Cool though.
Essentially the O-12 would be a UN but with teeth, to achieve it they have their own army, their own citizens and their own home system, when a crisis of that magnitude happens, O-12 hosts a joined command and the armies under O-12 send their own command stuff to the council both Saladin and Sun Tze have been part of such high commands and have devised joint operation plans involving forces that are not their own.
Well as for a topic, should there be a "lore" section on the forum ? Or is it somehow against CB policy (fluff being "paid" content) ?
Also remember that the O-12 is the owner of the TransEtherea corporation, which operates the Circulars. As the Circulars are the main legitimate method of interstellar communication and transportation (both passenger and freight) and are very profitable to own, the O-12 has a massive economy which brings them huge amounts of money. (The main illegitimate forms of transportation, i.e where they don't ask questions about who you are, what you're up to, what you're taking, and there aren't any customs checks beyond "is it dangerous to the ship?" would be the Nomads, which is why the Nomads are crazy powerful and influential beyond their size. Services like that are so risky and require such high level understanding of smuggling, identity fraud, IFF faking etc that only Nomad Nation Groups with the use of the Arachne system can manage it, and they charge a lot.) Imagine if the UN owned the biggest international shipping and rail companies in the world, in order to preserve the sanctity of international travel. They'd be swimming in cash. Well, the O-12 does, and it makes them very powerful. And of course the status quo is preserved by the polarised nature of the Sphere; PanO can't seize the Circulars because everyone else would kick off, and vice versa. So they all have to go along with it, the O-12 uses soft power to maintain its position, and everyone else tries to get their favour.
Trust me, I've noticed that, apparently for my next lent resolution I need to lower my salt intake ;) Also noone is in rush, it's not that situation with IA ;P
@Solar Nomads use circulars like most other nations and this is a big advantage to them in the O-12, while they do not give money for Aleph they pay a substantial bulk of the circular fees and since so much money come from Nomads O-12 takes notes of their demands. There are ships who can travel without circulars, but they are few and most are military belonging to the big nations. While I never thought about it I think customs and customs checks happen on each planet/ orbital not in circulars O-12 does not seem to care what they carry as long as it has payed and it is not hazardous to the ship.
The fluff is actually really well written for the most part. It's a good read for the background. It isn't very character driven either which I quite like. Fluff tangent, do we actually know which Onyx Force is attacking Paradiso? I know it's been revised quite a bit over the years, so I assume it is an OCF!
Yes. For example, Eisenhower was Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, SACEUR. He got to deal with the politics of Montgomery and Patton and De Gaulle's egos, while also having to win the war. As I understand the Infinity fluff, it's likely that Saladin or Sun Tze would be placed in overall command of a Joint Operation. Joan of Arc somewhat less so, since Joan is more of an Inspiring leader on the battlefield than Saladin or Sun chess masters. But honestly, the overall lead in the fight for Paradiso is a naval commander like Nimitz. The ground battle is to clean up whatever the naval blockades don't get.