As stated previously, enlisted legionnaires are the core component of GDS.
Without their skills, their work, their efforts, and their sacrifices, this organization would have collapsed into a smoldering heap of failure. If you’re from a previous military, you may be wondering if your enlisted experience will be the same as before. I will go into detail on that within the Operational Directives section of your book but for now understand that we put great effort into ensuring all of our legionnaires receive the benefits, pay, and respect they’re due.
For this section we’ll focus on what being an enlisted legionnaire entails and the role they play within GDS.

To begin, FrW Riveria sums up enlisted legionnaires in her own creative way like so:
“So I’m the chief big ape that tells my apes who they need to throw rocks at. But those apes are like, really good at throwing rocks at people, I mean they could dome a child from 400 meters, it’s wild. I wish I could throw rocks at children with them, but I have to sit in the back herding a bunch of hollow skulled apes while directing the apes doing the rock throwing.”

Said another way, an officer legionnaire determines the work to be done, ensures the work can be done, and supplies everything necessary for the work to be done. The enlisted legionnaire then does that work without needing to worry about anything except the task ahead of them.
A Marksman Vanguard is ordered to eliminate a target, and that’s what they’ll focus on.
A Combat Surgeon is ordered to get a Vanguard back in the fight, and that’s what they’ll focus on.
An Apprentice Mechanic is ordered to get a Hard Iron operational, and that’s what they’ll focus on.

Enlisted legionnaires are our practical, hands-on specialists. When their commanders need something taken care of, or taken out, they trust the enlisted to make it a reality. In one rather infamous case, an officer told the NCO of a Sapper Vanguard team “I want that fortification gone, make it happen in whatever way you see fit.”
This resulted in a Hard Iron having its reactor removed, the rest of GDS learning that you can create an inexorably devastating IED at the cost of an entire tank, and our officers learning that the phrase “In whatever way you see fit” is to be used with the utmost caution around enlisted legionnaires.

Within the enlisted ranks, a legionnaire can be either a junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4), an NCO (E-5 to E-7) or an SNCO (E-8 to E-9).
At the junior enlisted level, a legionnaire is part of a squadron or team.
At the NCO level, a legionnaire leads a squadron or team.
At the SNCO level, a legionnaire leads NCOs, who then lead squadrons or teams.

However, within GDS this isn’t always the case.
As promotion is based on displayed merit an NCO could be a team leader, but could also be an expert in a certain field. They might work on a team of other NCOs, all of whom are self-directing. An SNCO is also an expert, and rather than being the commander of a battle host they might work by themselves in certain scenarios, or on a team of NCOs and officers. In some cases, such as with expeditions, an SNCO is placed in charge of a single squadron of junior enlisted. In others, you may find a senior officer leading a single squadron due to the expedition’s requirements.
All of this is to say that while there is a baseline organizational method to all of this, it’s also highly flexible and changes depending on the needs of the objective or mission.

Let’s look at the enlisted ranks within GDS.

Next, we’ll outline the average length of time it takes for a legionnaire to achieve that rank, as well as the number of average promotion attempts before success. Note that this is averaged across all nine legions, and that each legion has different standards of merit, so these values will change drastically depending on which legion you’re with.
Remember that this is only the average, and due to our promotion system these are not concrete values. We have had numerous cases of legionnaires ascending the ranks within half the time expected.

And, as you are likely wanting to know, here are the yearly salaries for enlisted ranks when averaged against all nine legions. These will differ extensivelydepending on the LOS, stationing, deployment, or other factors that the table does not account for. Bear this in mind.
We’ll also compare the pay against that of the highest paid traditional military at the time of writing, that being the Unified Empire. These values were calculated by averaging the pay of all branches in their military, at the indicated rank.

Remember this is the baseline pay, not the total that includes any benefits, years in service, LOS bonus pay, deployment pay, hazard pay, and other types of compensation.

We maintain a policy of transparency with our legionnaires and believe that if someone is told to not ask how much everyone else is making, then it means there’s something to hide.
Always advocate for yourself, and always ask for more pay when you can as we ensure there are plenty of opportunities to earn it. That being said, we want to ensure that even the baseline pay makes all the effort and sacrifice you put into your role worth it.

Finally, enlisted legionnaires will find that they are given the highest priority when it comes to training, cross training, and assignments.
Unlike officers, enlisted legionnaires may request training, retraining, further education, or even a transfer to a different LOS at any time. We’ve put immense work into ensuring that this process is smooth, trouble free and as easy as possible. If for example an Assault Vanguard would like to move into the position of a Marksman Vanguard, assuming a slot is available, the entire process of submitting the paperwork and finalizing the details takes around two weeks at most. Within a month, that legionnaire can expect to be on a Longboat heading towards the marksman training facility at Marebridge.

When you signed the forms you made a lifelong commitment to us, and we would never want our legionnaires to feel trapped in the same position for the next ninety or so years. Therefore we’ve written our regulations to allow enlisted legionnaires the ability to move throughout GDS as they see fit, should they qualify for what they’re requesting. If they don’t qualify, then they are given access to resources, education, and teachers to help bring them up to that level before they send in the next application.

As an enlisted legionnaire, you will not receive pay that’s on par with officers.

In this next section, I hope to explain in a satisfactory manner as to why our enlisted legionnaires don’t feel much in the way of envy for them.