infantry combat would be pretty cool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3elwDp1tC0Ah yes, the exciting life of a NAUC infantryman. Visit the lovely Zentragothic Front, where the miserable weather is matched only by the misery of your comrades as you are sent to fight a foe who vastly outclasses you in terms of equipment. Assuming you aren't killed through a brick wall by snipers several blocks away, stomped into dust by armored exoskeletons, incinerated by experimental energy weapons, flattened by off-site fire support, ground into gristle by their heavy armor, lynched by civvies, or picked off by aerial drones; you may get to give your life attempting to secure that tech for your own researchers.
Perhaps you would rather be deployed in Mercana, fighting the Huitzitlaotani? I mean, at least they're somewhere around the same tech level, right? Well, yes, but the problem there is the terrain. Most everything to the south, where the majority of the fighting is happening, consists of either open dunes fit only for armored warfare, or ruined cities that make for some of the most brutal and bloody infantry stalemates seen in the war. Plus, if you get wounded and are captured by the Zentragoths, you'll just be sent to your average internment camp. But the Huits practically wrote the book on prisoner brutality. The comfortable treatment Steele and Dax received is reserved for people with valuable skills. Ace pilots are hard to come by, but infantry grunts are widely available.
tl;dr NAUC infantry get a raw deal and probably wouldnt be very fun to rp
besides, most of the story planned out already regards the adventures and misadventures of the air crews you've set up