Marines

Starfleet Phaser Battle — Starfleet personnel were capable of fighting in ground combat, but were additionally supplemented by the Starfleet Marine Corps

Klingon Warriors — A detachment of Klingon Imperial Marines form a boarding party

Marines are a type of naval infantry force that operate in space, supporting a space navy, similar to their ancient namesakes who operated in marine zones. They are usually stationed aboard starships, serving as the principle defence force of a vessel. A typical task of such infantry is the boarding of enemy vessels, forming a boarding party, to destroy a particular ship's system, or more rarely, capture that vessel.

History[]

Ssessekh — Gorn marine infantry were known their their strength but were slow and ungainly; they were less individually effective but dangerous in numbers

During ship to ship combat, if an enemy's shields could be depleted, a transporter beam could then be used to board an enemy vessel. This was a standard tactic among all the political powers of the 23rd century, such as the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, Gorn Confederation, Hydran Kingdom, Sha'Kurian Ducal Territories and Lyran Star Empire. The one notable exception was the Tholian Assembly, who could not board enemy ships due to their extreme environmental requirements; this also conversely protected their ships from hostile boarding actions due to their innate environmental inhospitability for carbon-based life.

Most ships of that era had a complement of marines assigned to them, who had to be carefully shepherded, lest their own vessel's number of defenders depleted, leaving their critical systems vulnerable. The task of a boarding action would be for infantry to disable or damage enemy ship's systems; for example being transported into the engineering section of an opposing vessel to damage their engines. Among systems that could be targeted were warp drive, impulse engines, tractor beam control, life support systems, security systems, shields, cloaking device or medical facilities. (TOS video games: Starfleet Command, Starfleet Command II: Empires at War, Klingon Academy)