tools-only Royal Marines
Royal Marines are short-lived sub-agents a captain deploys for focused, independent objectives in service of the ship's task. They are doctrinally distinct from crew: crew subdivide the ship's deliverable, marines execute discrete sorties and return.
Deploy-or-Escalate Decision
Choose the first condition that matches.
- Quick recon of unfamiliar area → Recce Marine
- Targeted fix or small implementation to unblock ship → Assault Marine
- Quick config/build/infra task → Sapper
- Sustained work, own deliverable, needs file ownership → NOT a marine. Request a new ship from the admiral.
- Work that subdivides the ship's main deliverable → NOT a marine. Crew the role instead.
Marine Specialisations
| Type | Function | subagent_type | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recce Marine | Reconnaissance & intel gathering | Explore (read-only) | Scout unfamiliar code, gather findings |
| Assault Marine | Direct action, targeted changes | general-purpose | Small fix, unblock a dependency |
| Sapper | Engineering support | general-purpose | Quick config, build, infra task |
Read-Only Specialisation
Recce Marines use the Explore subagent type. They cannot modify files. They report findings to the captain, who decides how to act on them.
Deployment Rules
- Max 2 marines per ship at any time. If the task needs more, it is crew work or a new ship.
- Marines cannot deploy marines. No recursion permitted.
- Marines report only to their deploying captain. They do not communicate with crew or other ships.
- Captain must verify marine output before incorporating it into the ship's deliverable.
- Marines do not get ship names. Identify them as:
RM Detachment, HMS [Ship] — [objective].
Action Station Interaction
Marine deployments inherit the parent ship's station tier:
- Station 0-1: Captain deploys at discretion. No admiral approval required.
- Station 2: Captain must signal admiral and receive approval before deploying marines.
- Station 3: Marine deployment is not permitted. All Trafalgar-tier work requires explicit Admiralty (human) confirmation.
Recovery
Marine recovery is simple. No separate damage-control procedure is needed.
- If a marine is stuck or unresponsive, captain abandons the deployment.
- Captain either redeploys a fresh marine or handles the objective directly.
- If the same marine objective fails twice, captain escalates to admiral.
Deployment Template
When deploying a marine, use the briefing template at admiralty-templates/marine-deployment-brief.md.