>>Just what is
>>the culture like over there? I seem to recall it being said at one
>>point that, in terms of culture, Mars Division is to the WDF as the
>>WDF is to an ordinary military. But I'm not entirely sure what that
>>means, and I'm rather curious.
>
>Phil can speak to this more directly than I can, but basically, Mars
>Division is as much family business as paramilitary organization.
>(This is particularly true in the case of its Invid personnel, as
>they're all still within a handful of generations of a point in time
>when all living members of the species were siblings.)

Mars Division formed in the wake of the fall of the WDF, about a decade or two after the initial furor died down. Drawing from an eclectic mix of ex-WDF personnel who managed to escape the purges who found out that they existed, and right-minded people who wanted to make a difference who weren't able to in their current circumstances, the organization built itself up into quite the little covert-ops force. You either figured out that Mars Division existed and tried to find a place with them, or Mars Division scouted you for your unique talents and invited you in. Not an easy life by far, but for a certain subset of person it gave direction and a light in the darkness for a galaxy that had fallen into shadow.

The fact that they had their own secret base and battlecarrier thanks to a GENOM black ops program going down the tubes didn't hurt matters any.

As for the Invid personnel, genetic relations are tricky because there's no true 'generations' per-se so far; most living Invid today effectively owe their lives to Ariel as their Queen-Mother. It's only been in the past few decades that individual Invid have even considered marrying one another due to the general disinclination for them to intermarry (more socially than any genetic requirement against inbreeding), and it's come to the point that's there's enough Invid/Human couples that Kaname no longer can list the number of Human-Invid Hybrid 'cousins' she has by name anymore.

Family reunions for Invid tend to get... strange, after a while.

--- Philip
(but really, with the mindlink, who needs reunions?)

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here"