On Aryatis and her dominions, all male citizens aged 18 to 40 are to be registered for the army, but the actual core of the fighting force, the Legion, a professional, elite corp, still functions on the basis of volunteering, for the time being. This, in addition to the awareness that not everyone is fit physically and/or mentally for active duty, has led to the creation of a lowkey symbolic branch of the military : militia coast guards. Those are to only ever be deployed in an outlandish scenario where the Legion has been wiped out or stranded, the battle fleets destroyed or otherwise disabled, and the home planet is defenseless and under imminent assault, likely by a foe against which capitulation might lead to a fate worse than death. So on paper, the military would still have sizeable available manpower to be deployed even in a worst case scenario. In short, this unit, maintaining a “garrison” in every city-state, is by no means expected to perform, but the bureaucracy would rather have an empty frame and call it a safety net, than no safety net at all. The psychological effect on the populace, but also on the commanders, has been measured, and they have determined that it's not neglectible; not only do civilians feel slightly safer, but society's also slightly more stable as a result of having this common experience shared by many of them. That's for the point of view of the civilian population. As for the Legion, their officers tell them that yes, THEY, the legion, are the only defense force, that the militia coast guards are utterly useless. This makes them more motivated and adds to their sense of pride. There's been criticism of it by overzealous patriotic journalists who questioned whether or not in even a tiny capacity, it made military commanders softer. But what do they know about war?

Registration day : inspirational speech, brief medical exam, skeletal amount of physical and gun safety training, showing of patriotic movies. Rest of the year : four hours of mandatory training per month (twelve if you're unemployed), medical checkup every three months. Recruits get the day off of work and also are awarded a free meal, as well as a package of promotional military rations. If by chance a vocation arises from this, it's completely possible to move from the militia coast guards to the Legion. Has it ever happened? Three or four times yes. But in general? It's commonly recognized that despite the benefits (which they can use to mix up their diet of TV dinners) the guys don't want to be here and neither do the instructors, and that's okay.