Settlement Defense Front

"Make no mistake, we will rip you from the history books. Every last trace of you gone! You will know loss. We will be the architects of your pain, we will build monuments to your destruction. The whole world will bear witness to this, our ascension. We will blot out your skies, we will bury you in darkness. Know this and know us. We are your enemy. We are the Settlement Defense Front."

- Caleb Thies

The Settlement Defense Front (SDF), or SetDef, are the main antagonistic terrorist faction in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. They fight against the UNSA and SATO.

Overview
SetDef is composed of off-world insurgents who seek to control the solar system. They see themselves as the true inheritors of the solar system, and believe their way of life to be "stronger, more pure," than the people of Earth.

In SetDef's mind, living off-world has made them more worthy of ruling the solar system, while those who reside on Earth are weak "fat cats," living off the bounty of the off-world colonies.

They value functionality over style, an attitude reflected in everything from their ships to their weapons and armor, which is modular, with everything designed to protect them from the harshness of space. They have re-purposed service robots into military roles, adding to their legions of troops. For SetDef, a true victory would mean the utter cessation of all planetary resources reaching Earth. They are willing to kill civilians, soldiers, and anyone who gets in their way.

Origins
The origins of SetDef lie in the 'gold rush' period of planetary colonization, when colonists first began leaving Earth. The Front was first created as a means of enforcing martial law on off world colonies. Thirty years before the events of Infinite Warfare, SetDef initiated the "Secession Wars", in which they won sovereignty over Mars.

Europa Incident
18 hours before their attack on Geneva, Set Def launched an attack on a SATO weapons facility on Jupiter's moon, Europa. Although deal heavy casualties by a SCAR "clean up crew", and losing much of the physical contents of the base, the mission was a success, as they were able to eliminate all defenders and retrieved much of the weapons data SATO kept stored on site.

Attack on Geneva
During the annual Fleet Week Parade held in Geneva, the SDF launched their attack. A sleeper-cell agent hijacked Earth's planetary defense system, AATIS, destroying the majority of SATO's fleet in moments. This was in conjunction with a ground assault launched on the city, seeking to take out the world's leaders and other attendees. While the initial attack was repelled after chasing the SetDef fleet into orbit, the Olympus Mons "dropped" into Earths orbit, dealing significant damage to the SATO fleet, resulting in two ships surviving, the Retribution and Tigris.

Society
The influence of SDF rule extends, but it is limited to, Mars, Titan, Eris, and several other Jovian moons. Their society is largely authoritarian and social status is based largely on individual citizens' loyalties to the regime.

SDF society is also heavily influenced by state run propaganda, as the state sponsored propaganda center, the "Veritas", controls much of the spread of information within SDF territories, going so far as to block out any UNSA transmissions to SDF space. Gun ownership is mandatory within SDF territory. The SDF also maintains force labor camps to gather more resources to fight the UNSA.

Military
The SDF is deeply militaristic, requiring all of its citizens to attend 15 years of military service beginning at age 12. The SDF has 900% more soldiers, per capita, than the USNA and holds a fleet powerful enough to challenge it. In terms of technology, the SDF is at, if not greater than, the technological level of SATO's military.

The SDF is not above using unconventional warfare and committing war crimes, however, as back pirates who attack USNA carries with resources bound for Earth and their Attack on Geneva left thousands of civilians dead. They also possess some weapons of mass destruction, as a SCAR team discovered on a SDF cruiser on Venus.

The SDF military uses many ranks from the Russian Navy, suggesting their influence. Many high-ranking officers, such as Salen Kotch himself, are of very young age, suggesting that promotions are much faster in the SDF military.

Leadership Members:

 * Admiral Salen Kotch
 * Vice-Admiral Caleb Thies
 * Vice-Admiral Vlad Derhachov

Known Soldiers:

 * Captain 3rd Rank Bradley Fillion
 * Sr. Lieutenant Attila Zalanyi
 * Sr. Operative Akeel Min Riah
 * Jr. Lieutenant Cesar Magana
 * Colonel Young Kim
 * Captain Taras Emin
 * Major Nicholas Rado
 * Lieutenant Serozh Sarkisyan
 * Captain 1st Rank Oren Emin
 * Captain 1st Rank Khosi Siyada
 * Jr. Lieutenant Andrew Hawryluk
 * Lieutenant Matthew Tovar
 * Sr. Lieutenant Omar Gatica
 * Captain Lieutenant Radoslav Barkov
 * Lieutenant Sang Yup Kim
 * Lieutenant-Colonel Damien Nichols
 * Wing Commander Ivan Perez
 * Captain Hari Khalsa
 * Captain Rion Jones
 * Captain Yenal Kal
 * Sr. Lieutenant Khoa Le
 * Sr. Lieutenant Suresh Malakar
 * Sr. Lieutenant Taylor Kurosaki
 * Lieutenant Rulon Raymond
 * Jr. Lieutenant David Schorn
 * Lieutenant Tom Szakolczay
 * Lieutenant Sergio Gil
 * Lieutenant Karl Drown
 * Jr. Lieutenant Moudy Hamo

Trivia

 * When designing the SDF, Infinity Ward took inspiration from Soviet and British designs from the 1960s. They're a "functional first" aesthetic in terms of their design.
 * After an update on the Nuk3town multiplayer map a spaceship can be seen flying by in the cut scene a logo of the Settlement Defense Front after the "NUK3TOWN OFFLINE" message appears and Caleb Thies would read his quote out loud. This was changed back to original end cut scene following the reveal of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.