A good motto for a fictional space military.

[VarrusTheEthical]

Good Afternoon SDN.Net

As the title would suggest, I've been brainstorming an official motto for the military services that exist within my universe.

One motto that I like is "No Hostility in Peace, No Mercy in War". In the interest of full disclosure, I didn't come up with this on my own, but derived(stolen?) from a line I read Howard Stark said in the Ultimate Iron Man comic that struck me as being pretty badass.

Now I know that there are plenty of real world military motto's out there to mine as well. My favorite being the RAF's "Through Adversity to the Stars"

Now to give some context, my setting takes place in the 30th century, where pretty much every system suitable for life within a 100 light years has at least token habitation. FTL space travel has existed for about 700 years by this point, and I assuming the existence of efficient terraforming. FTL is "slow", only able to move about 100c relative to the point of departure, so FTL travel is measured in months and weeks.

There are three major groups in the setting. The first is the Earth Federation, which as you would guess, controls the Solar system, along with seven nearby inhabited star systems. It is the largest interstellar government in the setting.

The next is the League, which is a collection of about a dozen sovereign star systems that have joined together to oppose the Earth Federation out of fear of being forced to join. The League would be analogous to NATO, a political and military alliance rather than an actual government.

The last group is "everyone else". The majority of inhabited systems are unaffiliated with either either the Federation or the League. Those that are in close physical proximity try to stay out from under foot, while more distant ones feel that they are too far removed to care.

[Title edited ~NL]

[Rabid]

Could you give us more informations on how this military is supposed to act during a war, what are its core values, etc... ?

"No Hostility in Peace, No Mercy in War" : the "no mercy" bit suggest that your military does not take prisoner of war, and makes them pass for murderous assholes in general. It also give the impression that they couldn't care less for civilian collateral damages. I don't know if it's what you're going for...


Edit : what do you think of "Payback's a bitch" ?

[VarrusTheEthical]

Could you give us more informations on how this military is supposed to act during a war, what are its core values, etc... ?

"No Hostility in Peace, No Mercy in War" : the "no mercy" bit suggest that your military does not take prisoner of war, and makes them pass for murderous assholes in general. It also give the impression that they couldn't care less for civilian collateral damages. I don't know if it's what you're going for...


Edit : what do you think of "Payback's a bitch" ?

Well I was thinking of having the "No Mercy" motto apply to an elite space faring private military contractor. One of the systems that is part of the League is a very cutthroat corporatist culture that also happens to be the mercenary capital of my setting. I think that the aforementioned motto would be great for a PMC that comes from such an environment.

Since the Earth Federation's military, the creatively named Federal Space Forces, is similar to a typical western military in terms of values, and I was thinking of using the RAF's motto as the basis for theirs.

But since my setting has a diverse number of individual space faring militaries, I wanted to have a pool of mottos that I could draw upon. At least without overly plagiarizing from real world military mottos.

And "Payback's a bitch" would certainly work for one of the League militaries, or perhaps for an individual warship.

[Rabid]

Here have some another coming from the French Foreign Legion :

"Legio Irus Actica" (The Legion is our Strength)
"Legio Patria Nostra" (The Legion is our Fatherland/Home)
"Honneur et Fidélité" (Honour and Fidelity)
"Marche ou crève" (March or die ; unofficial)

Another one I just invented right now :

"Forward is the way"

For the paratroopers or orbital drop units, or bombing squads, a classic :

"Death from above"

[spaceviking]

How about just a list adjective "Honour, blank, blank"

Though personally my favorite slogan is "Every man a riflemen "

[VarrusTheEthical]

The Space Forces do have a slogan that goes "Everyone's a spacer".

[Eternal_Freedom]

"Fortune favours the bold"?

[Night_stalker]

Defensor-Vindex?

He who dares wins?

Fortune favors the brave?

If you want a decent Latin motto, I use this website:http://www.inrebus.com/latinmottogenerator.php

[Purple]

My advice would be to NOT think of a cool motto all by it self. If you want a proper one you should not be looking at what sounds cool but at what kind of message the unit wants to convey to its potential customers/opponents. For a mercenary unit I imagine it would be some equivalent of telling them they are getting their moneys worth or some slogan like you see on automobile commercials.

[Kingmaker]

Private Military Company motto: Caveat Emptor

[PREDATOR490]

I have always been really fond of the Royal Scots Motto:
"Nemo me impune lacessit" = "Nobody harms me with impunity"

Not too hard to blur it a little into since I have actually heard some translate it as this = "Noone Provokes us with impunity"

"No Remorse, No Retreat"
"Peace Through (Superior Fire)Power" - C&C Nod

Big list of mottos:
British
USA

Should be enough there to either take or inspire a self-made motto.

[Batman]

The 160th SOAR comes to mind-'We own the night'. They're wrong of course, I do, but I think it's reasonably appropriate for a spacegoing military. After all, about the only time you can see the stars is at night, and since they travel among the stars...

[VarrusTheEthical]

The 160th SOAR comes to mind-'We own the night'. They're wrong of course, I do, but I think it's reasonably appropriate for a spacegoing military. After all, about the only time you can see the stars is at night, and since they travel among the stars...

I could see the Federal Space Forces as I've envisioned them being arrogant enough to take that as a motto. Something to think about, certainly. I think I'll dig through my thesaurus to find a suitably cool world to replace "own" with.

[Batman]

What's wrong with 'own'? It essentially says space is theirs to do in as they please.

[SpaceMarine93]

Per aspera ut triumphi

"Through adversity, we will triumph"

[Ford Prefect]

One motto that I like is "No Hostility in Peace, No Mercy in War". In the interest of full disclosure, I didn't come up with this on my own, but derived(stolen?) from a line I read Howard Stark said in the Ultimate Iron Man comic that struck me as being pretty badass.

The baton of the Marshal of France has the inscription 'terror belli, decus pacis', which basically means that.

[spaceviking]

Big list of mottos:
British
USA

Should be enough there to either take or inspire a self-made motto.

I really like list like that, but some of those mottos are god awful.

[Shroom Man 777]

The 160th SOAR comes to mind-'We own the night'. They're wrong of course, I do, but I think it's reasonably appropriate for a spacegoing military. After all, about the only time you can see the stars is at night, and since they travel among the stars...

Space Communists/Aliens are a superstitious cowardly lot.

[Crateria]

"No Retreat, No Remorse"

"Fortitude, Strength, Duty"

In the name of the moon, we will right wrongs and triumph over evil. (and that means you!)

I am Sailor Moon of Borg. In the name of the moon, I will assimilate you!

[Ugolino]

"Let's go and get our throats slit!"

[Nephtys]

I always thought the SAS had the best motto. 'Who dares, wins'. It's a bold statement, yet doesn't just go out and say 'we're tough rar'. It implies it.

[Simon_Jester]

Yeah, you don't want something that sounds like an exercise in huffing and puffing and chest-beating. The motto should hinge on the group's reputation, not be an exercise in proving "we're the best REALLY WE ARE why don't you believe me?"

[The Yosemite Bear]

"War is our Art"0works best for some sorta space monk spartan types...

[Ahriman238]

"The Meek Can Inherit the Earth. The Rest is Ours."

If you cited, and don't mind being really uncreative, you could rip off R. R. Martin, he gave the Great Families a few good ones, "Blood and Fire" "Ours is the Fury" "Unbent, Unbroken" etc.

If you want to be REALLY uncreative, you will find almost any quote about war by Winston Churchill, George Patton or Dwight Eisenhower can be made, sometimes with some tweaking, into a passable slogan.

A lot of individual unit slogans are based on in-jokes. Most of these are short cryptic statements. "Stardust" seems oddly appropriate in that vein.

Or you can always go for the ironic, I always thought a Special Forces group should employ the old mocking line for the Honorable Artillery, "Invincible in Peace, Invisible in War" takes on a much more frightening tone in that context.

[Forgothrax]

To rip off the OP, try "Understanding in Peace, Unflinching in war."