TCE Specialist Rank Insignia by @fragmented_imagination (B Sanders)

Specialist rank pins for Tremor Command of Ekim. They are roughly equivalent to warrant officers found in Earth militaries, however their function is quite different. Specialists are not appointed by warrant, as this aspect does not exist in most Jarvian military bodies. Instead, specialists are personnel who have vocational or special training in a technical field or are a career soldier with enough experience which should qualify them as officers but do not have the education requirement. The rank is conferred upon them by order of the higher command echelons of their respective services (or, in the case of Starlight Command, by a special division within the general staff). This often applies to technicians or machinery operators or even those with cultural knowledge (such as linguistics or local customs) of a given area of operations. This also applies to educators in the Tremor Command Officer Academy (or any service academy), soldiers who have been serving long enough to educate officers through field experience.

S-1 Sudū "Specialist" is considered an enlisted rank, hence its appearance similar to enlisted insignia. Any enlisted soldier can become a Specialist, although it rarely occurs any lower than Corporal (E-4) and only converts an enlisted soldier below Second Sergeant (E-6) through special technical training while serving in the military. Once attaining High Sergeant (E-7), a soldier can convert to a Specialist and change their MOS to training other enlisted. They can also switch to a career position at High Sergeant [assuming that they do not meet qualifications to promotion to Sergeant of Command (E-8)] and essentially put themselves at a permanent desk job.

S-2 through S-4 are known as "Special Officers" because their ranks often confer them special positions that, without their technical training, would otherwise be filled by an officer rank. Special Officers, as well as Specialists, are often put in command of a group that can often include a mixture of officers and enlisted. In this situation, seniority is often determined by assignment rather than rank, and Special Officers do not have to submit to direct orders from officers they have been assigned to command. Still, Special Officers are subject to direct orders from officers outside of command, but this generally comes with a warning that ignoring the Special Officer can be incredibly hazardous. The Special Officers are arranged as:
- S-2: Xarūdh Sū "Special Officer One"
- S-3: Xarūdh Vwai "Special Officer Two"
- S-4: Xarūdh Shes "Special Officer Three"

Seniority among Special Officers is often determined by years in service rather than the rank; the rank is often conferred depending on the internal organization of whatever specialty field the officer is a part of. For this reason, Special Officers often wear their service pins with their standard duty uniforms more than officers or enlisted.

Like the officer and enlisted ranks, the modern ranks for specialists are derived from a previous system devised to appear difficult to distinguish at a distance. S-1, being derived from enlisted ranks, uses a gold disk in the standard wear because of the darker blue disk used in the previous system to help distinguish a specialist from other enlisted. It was the presence of this disk that inspired the larger disks used in modern ranking pins, as Specialists at one point realized that their rank pins, not appearing to be standard enlisted or officer rank, left enemy snipers scratching their heads. S-2 through S-4 are squares turned 45 degrees which imitate officer rank pins. With the division of standard wear and low-visibility field wear, the cuts in the rank pins were changed to gold so that a Special Officer could be readily identified. Not practical for field use, but it often helped cadets in the Academy identify who could make their lives miserable (officers) and who could make their lives absolute hell (Special Officers) from a distance.

Tremor Command enlisted ranks
Tremor Command officer ranks

© 2023 B Sanders