Military Assault Command Operations

Military Assault Command Operations

Military Assault Command Operation, orMilitary Assault Command Ops, commonly abbreviated as "MACO", pronounced "MAY-ko") was aUnited Earth organization that existed as a part of theUnited Earth Military during the2150s, prior to the founding of theFederation. The MACOs were not associated withStarfleet. As of2153, MACO tactics and technology were two to three years more advanced than those of Starfleet, but their combat expertise was initially limited to simulations conducted onEarth. (ENT: "Harbinger";Star Trek Beyond)

Themilitary officer who oversaw the MACOs wasGeneralCasey. (ENT: "The Expanse") MACO posts includedAtlanta,Georgia and theJanus loop. Training posts includedWest Point inNew York, as well asJupiter Station forzero gravity/rifle training, andLuna forsurvival training. (ENT: "The Xindi", "Anomaly (ENT)", "Harbinger", "Hatchery", "The Council")

A detachment of troops commanded byMajorJ. Hayes was assigned to the Starfleet vesselEnterprise NX-01 fora mission into theDelphic Expanse in2153.AdmiralMaxwell Forrest was surprised thatCaptainJonathan Archer had requested military officers aboard his ship. (ENT: "The Expanse") When the MACOs first came aboardEnterprise, they certainly felt like outsiders, tasked to integrate with the ship's Starfleet contingent. (ENT: "Countdown") The MACOs saw their first action six weeks into the mission; inSeptember, Hayes and a six-man team rescued Archer,CommanderTucker, andKessick from the clutches of atrellium mining planet. (ENT: "The Xindi") By the end of their time in the Delphic Expanse, none of the MACOs aboardEnterprise felt like outsiders anymore. (ENT: "Countdown")

Following the foundation of theUnited Federation of Planets, the organization was disbanded, with personnel being offered Federation Starfleet commissions on a discretionary basis and possibly offered commissions in other agencies in the Federation. The Federation Starfleet, just as with its United Earth predecessor, continued to distance itself from the notion of being amilitary organization, causing deep conflict for at leastone former MACO who donned aStarfleet uniform. (Star Trek Beyond)

Combat timeline[]

2153 September[]

• Rescuing Captain Archer and Commander Tucker from a Trellium mining planet (ENT: "The Xindi")
• Trying to fend off anOsaarian boarding party (ENT: "Anomaly (ENT)")
• Battling on theLoque'eque homeworld (ENT: "Extinction")
• Trying to fend off aXindi-Reptilian boarding party (ENT: "Rajiin")
• Providing escort forEnterprise officers on theSeleya (ENT: "Impulse")

2153 October[]

• Providing escort forEnterprise officers on theXindi-Arboreal colony (ENT: "The Shipment")
• Providing backup on aHuman colony in the Expanse (ENT: "North Star")

2153 November[]

• Taking backEnterprise fromTriannon hijackers (ENT: "Chosen Realm")

2153 December[]

• Guarding the prisonerDegra (ENT: "Stratagem")
• Providing combat training forEnterprise officers (ENT: "Harbinger")
• Containing aSphere-Builder test subject (ENT: "Harbinger")

2154 January[]

• Assisting Captain Archer in a possible mutiny situation (ENT: "Hatchery")

2154 February[]

• Raiding anIllyrian vessel (ENT: "Damage")
• Providing escort forEnterprise officers inside aDelphic Expanse sphere (ENT: "The Council")
• Recovering EnsignHoshi Sato from a Reptilian vessel (ENT: "Countdown")
• Assisting in destroying theXindi weapon (ENT: "Zero Hour")
• Repelling a Sphere-Builder boarding party (ENT: "Zero Hour")
• Accompanying Archer to a meeting withVosk on1944 Earth (ENT: "Storm Front, Part II")

2154 May[]

• Escort and guard for the prisonerArik Soong (ENT: "Borderland")
• Attempt to fend off anAugment boarding party (ENT: "Borderland")
• Attempting to take backCold Station 12 from the Augments (ENT: "Cold Station 12")

2154 November[]

• Escort and guard ofTellarite delegation (ENT: "Babel One")
• Boarding theRomulan drone ship (ENT: "Babel One")
• Attempting to fend off aKlingonAugment boarding party (ENT: "Affliction")

2154 December[]

• Escort of Lt.Malcolm Reed (ENT: "Divergence")

2156 to2160[]

• MACOs participate in theEarth-Romulan War (Star Trek Beyond)

2161 (October)[]

• Ambush ofkidnappers onRigel X, just prior to the formal treaty signing that created theUnited Federation of Planets (ENT: "These Are The Voyages...")

Appendices[]

Related topics[]

• MACO personnel
• MACO ranks
• MACO uniform and equipment

Appearances[]

Background information[]

The MACOEnterprise mission patch depicted amakoshark. ("Countdown"text commentary,ENT Season 3 DVD) The mission patch was designed by Scenic Art SupervisorMichael Okuda. (Star Trek: Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier, p. 217)

The patch was later used during the production ofStar Trek Beyond, modified to feature the name of theUSSFranklin rather thanEnterprise. The MACO patch was stenciled on the sides ofPX70 motorcycles used in the film[1] and was printed onto T-shirts given to the cast and crew.[2]

Regarding the disbanding of MACO,Star Trek Beyond co-writerDoug Jung once noted, "I thought it'd be kind of interesting[....] You can make some modern analogies in terms of like theCIA, which is – you're asking these people, you're training them their whole lives to see the world one way, and then you say, 'Oh, by the way, you're now obsolete, but we'd like you to do[this other thing].' It's tough."[3]

Apocrypha[]

Thenovelization ofThe Expanse states that Captain Archer was initially uncomfortable with the notion of military personnel serving aboardEnterprise but reconciled himself to the idea, given that it seemed as if the MACOs would be beneficial to the search for theXindi weapon. The same novelization also suggests that MACO be pronounced "Mah-co" rather than "May-co", despite the latter being the commonly usedcanon pronunciation.

In theRomulan WarPocket ENT novelBeneath the Raptor's Wing, the "O" in MACO stands for "organization" instead of "operations", making the MACOs' proper title "Military Assault Command Organization".

According to the novelThe Needs of the Many, MACOs continued to exist into the25th century.

InStar Trek Online, the MACOs are an internal branch of Starfleet focused on infantry and ground combat operations. MACO personnel use standard, naval-derived Starfleet ranking structure,rather than the army/marine style. They first appear in-game alongside the Klingon Honor Guard as part of Task Force Omega, a specialized cross-faction unit formed to fight the resurgentBorg Collective, and MACO-affiliated characters appear in other ground-based tactical scenarios further into the story, usually in sections featuring combat against enemies such as theVoth,Vaadwaur, andTzenkethi. Starfleet-aligned player characters can obtain specialized MACO armor and weaponry, as well as cosmetic player titles such as "MACO Commander", implying that MACO membership is more of a subclass of Starfleet officer than an independent organization.

External link[]

• Military Assault Command Operations atMemory Beta, the wiki for licensedStar Trek works