A brief history of the Navy - TheGiraffe3/Endless-Sky-Creators-Handbook GitHub Wiki

Original text, by mOctave

• Introduction
• Preface
• Capital Ships of the Navy
• The organization of the Navy
• Appendix 1: List of Navy bases

This is my best attempt to provide a lore document for the Navy. It’s also meant to serve as a 31st-century reference work in its own right. Not everything written here is necessarily true in the timeline that <first> <last> experiences. In general, everything that I’ve written prior to the Fifth Southern War should match up with current lore and the path of the game. Beyond that point, minor changes should occur. For one, in this universe the Free Worlds were unable to achieve more than partial autonomy. For another, the pattern of casualties and the names of ships are unlikely to match those experienced by the player—although they are, for the most part, technically possible. Because it is intended as a period reference work, this document may be slightly slanted in non-technical matters. It was written from the perspective of a Paradise Worlder about fifteen years after the start of Endless Sky, which naturally gives a distorted view to the universe. It also is somewhat incomplete, so I may add to it in the future. Hopefully, though, it is still a useful document despite its slant, current state, and big red stamp that says “SPECULATIVE LORE: NOT CANON” I’d also like to give a special thank-you to everyone who read this and provided feedback on it prior to me publishing it to the universe, especially TheMarksman, who single handedly saved the Navy from the errors of respecting NCOs and having a couple million MPs. Without further ado, I present, “A Brief History of the Navy.”

by Preben Botha

The author would like to thank all those who have contributed to this manuscript, especially the editors at Hestia Publishing, the hardworking personnel of the Navy Public Relations bureau, and those at the Museum of Military History on Luna. I would also like to thank all those who took time out of their days to read this work before it went to print, and before any editor was willing to accept it. Your work has truly made a difference in the quality of the finished product.

There is no organization in our galaxy so powerful, so glamorous, and so fundamentally misunderstood as the Navy. The premier branch of the Republic’s military, it appears to us a fundamental constant in the universe, a protective shield against rebellion and barbarism. This, of course, is not the case. The Navy is neither unchanging, nor a perfect paragon of virtue, nor a simple band of thugs. Rather, it is a long spear, a long shaft of bureaucrats and quartermasters, shipbuilders and police officers, secretaries and manual laborers, all working tirelessly to hold up the small, steel arrow that is the galaxy’s elite fighting force. It is this spear which holds the enemies of democracy at bay, this spear which proclaims the Republic’s sovereignty over all of humanity, and the spear’s long shaft which keeps the head from stabbing its wielder. This is the real Navy.
Preben Botha, Hestia, 3028

Considering the present combat ecosystem in the galaxy, one where large warships predominate and small ones are nearly useless against any foe larger than themselves, it is easy to criticize the Navy for its reliance on small and outmoded designs. However, it is important to realize that the power gap between small and large warships was once much narrower, and that it is only widening with time. For most of galactic history, wars were fought with heavy missiles and lightly armored ships. This was the case not because of any policy, but simple fact. Take the typical modern sidewinder missile, often considered relatively harmless compared with today’s larger ship-killers. Although it contains only a “small” explosive charge, it is easily capable of punching through around half a meter of aluminum ship hull—or the equivalent mass of steel. Even the typical laminate hull of titanium and graphene used for warship armor by the Navy in the 29th century would not have been able to withstand a direct hit by any but the smallest missiles in use at the time. Of course, there is no great difference between the armor of the 29th century and that of today. Modern warship armor has about half again the impact strength per unit of mass, but that is not a significant difference considering the fact that the average explosive yield of military missiles has increased by 85%. Rather, the difference primarily lies in the mass of armor used, and how it is used. Modern armor tends to be made up of eight or nine layers of approximately 30 cm of titanium-graphene armor “shells.” Each shell is separated by a primarily ablative layer which regulates heat but which is also spongy in nature. These layers are of little use against a missile hit, but they are very effective in dissipating the force of an impact to the cell surrounding them. Thus, the typical missile hit destroys only one or two layers of shell, leaving the rest untouched. Since even the most sophisticated modern missiles are unlikely to land direct hits on the same piece of a ship’s hull, modern naval warships can now withstand several consecutive missile strikes before their shells begin to fracture completely. Why then, you may ask, did the Navy not build more heavily armored ships two centuries ago? The answer to this question is actually very simple. With each layer of armor, mass increases immensely. This is generally not a problem during takeoff and landing, like it was a millennium ago, thanks to repulsor engines (although large warships typically have to be equipped with massive generators and batteries to allow them to run both their repulsors and shield generators simultaneously) However, up until the invention of high efficiency “stardust collectors” a century and a half ago, most ships were still powered solely by internal fuel supplies. Even with the most efficient internal fuel supply setup possible, there is an upper limit on the amount of total thrust that an engine can produce, where added fuel follows the law of diminishing returns. Naturally, this is an ever-increasing limit, but it still explains why humanity has been restricted to the use of either small or lightly armored ships for so long, and why even now interstellar freighters can scarcely keep up with demand. There is also another reason why warships of two centuries ago were limited in size, and that is shielding. Prior to the Alpha Wars, electric shielding was considered by physicists a pipe dream pursued only by science fiction authors. While such shielding was theoretically possible—and had even been demonstrated at the Solar Expo on Luna in 2368—such shielding involved enormous magnetic fields that precluded their safe use on manned spacecraft and rendered any autonomous spacecraft inoperable. Even after workable shielding systems were developed in the Deep during the 2450s, they typically remained too small to do more than delay a single concentrated ship-killing laser for around three minutes. At best, the very heaviest systems (such as were typically found on early Leviathans) were capable of dissipating two missile explosions before they collapsed. Often, this delay allowed the superior weapons mounted by a Leviathan to come into play and destroy its attacker, but victories often became pyrrhic as subsequent missiles evaded anti-missile defenses even after the ship that launched them was obliterated. For this reason, the early Navy was justifiably concerned about the construction of large warships with heavy shield systems. Without an orbital anti-missile platform to defend such capital ships, the best Naval analysts estimated that each engagement would result in approximately four Navy personnel dead for each pirate, and a loss of approximately six times the credits sunk into shipbuilding. Since at the time the Navy was stretched extremely thin, covering an ever increasing number of systems across millions of light years, orbital anti-missile defenses were impossible, and so the Navy opted to retain their previous strategy of using fast and nimble light warships (precursors to the modern Gunboat and Rainmaker) for patrol work.

As shield technology matured, the Navy began to change their strategies slightly. They continued to typically avoid capital ships because of their inability to produce effective armor, but as the Republic’s rate of expansion slowed and anti-missile batteries were constructed around the majority of planets near Earth, the Navy eventually ordered the design of the Lhotse-class frigate. Eighteen of these ships were laid down, and fourteen were completed, the other four being cancelled after the Navy’s budget was slashed in 2792. These ships were generally considered the first true “Warships” of the Republic, and were the inspiration behind the Syndicate’s Protector and Vanguard of the 29th century. Capable of matching the firepower of any ship but a Leviathan—a model usually employed only for planetary defense, and only in the Paradise Planets and Far North—the Lhotse class proved invaluable in defending the core systems of the Republic from pirate raids, and all but eliminated piracy from the galactic center. Nonetheless, the frigates were predictably vulnerable when away from an orbital firebase, and nine of them were destroyed when used in anti-piracy missions between 2795 and 2813. A brief record of the ships in the class follows:

Ship	Laid Down	Commissioned	Fate
RNS Lhotse	3 April 2788	12 September 2788	Lost on anti-piracy patrol in the Dirt Belt, 12 September 2813
RNS Kilimanjaro	6 May 2788	29 January 2789	Lost in a training exercise 13 June 2806, Fomalhaut
RNS Denali	6 May 2788	16 April 2789	The subject of what is generally considered the 29th century’s greatest war film, the Denali sustained heavy damage in the Battle of Dragontooth, suffering a total loss of combat ability. Remarkably managed to return to Sol, although the journey took two weeks. Was written off by the Navy Yard and decommissioned on 29 August 2808. Preserved to this day in Earth’s Museum of Galactic History.
RNS Matterhorn	14 August 2788	24 December 2788	Retired 4 August 2825. Sold for scrap 17 November of that year.
RNS Olympus	23 September 2788	1 June 2789	Lost in a raid on Gienah, 30 April 2804
RNS Vesuvius	23 September 2788	16 June 2789	Lost in the Battle of Io, 26 May 2793, Sol
RNS Fuji	1 February 2789	30 July 2789	Lost in a raid on Ipsing, 15 February 2795
RNS Wutai	1 February 2789	12 January 2791	Lost on anti-piracy patrol in the core, 7 February 2804, after engaging a hostile, apparently alien warship. Remarkably, the ship’s logs survived completely intact, making them the earliest description of Korath raiding ships made by Navy personnel.
RNS McClintock	16 July 2789	4 May 2790	Lost in the Battle of Dragontooth, 4 August 2808, Orvala
RNS Elbrus	30 May 2790	20 November 2790	Lost on anti-piracy patrol in the Far North, 18 January 2799
RNS Clemenceau	2 January 2791	13 June 2792	Lost in a raid on Nunki, 5 April 2802
Hull FLH-12	8 June 2791	N/A	Sold for scrap 19 November 2792
RNS Augusta	1 October 2791	6 March 2792	Retired 26 September 2830 after repairs to combat damage sustained in the Rim uncovered major structural flaws. The last surviving ship of her class, the Augusta was preserved in the Navy Honour Yard on Geminus. Unfortunately, she was destroyed in the July 4 bombings.
RNS Karjiang	11 November 2791	19 April 2792	Lost in the Battle of Dragontooth, 4 August 2808, Orvala
RNS Lagginhorn	11 November 2791	23 July 2792	Lost in the Battle of Featherweight, 8 June 2811, Mebsuta
Hull FLH-16	18 February 2792	N/A	Sold for scrap 6 July 2793
Hull FLH-17	23 February 2792	N/A	Sold for scrap 19 November 2792
Hull FLH-18	29 February 2792	N/A	Sold for scrap 8 October 2793

Although the Lhotse class acquitted itself well in planetary defense, it quickly eliminated its niche use because of its sheer effectiveness. In the class' forty years of service, more raiding pirate vessels were destroyed than in the previous two hundred years. This became one of the largest factors contributing to the Space Renaissance, as for the first time merchants could operate starships without needing a fleet of heavily armed escorts and scout ships. This also effectively ended the caravan era. The Navy's response was only natural. During the 29th century, only two new classes of frigate were laid down (compared with nine classes of gunboat, eight classes of missile boat, and sixteen classes of intrasystem fighter). These frigates were generally identical to those of the Lhotse class, although they boasted slightly heavier armament, better engines, and progressively better shielding systems. In addition, the Columbia class was equipped with a complete ship-portable anti-missile system of no fewer than eight turrets, which decreased its armament but allowed it to be used for raids and patrols at a low risk.

Nanshan-Class Frigate

Ship	Laid Down	Commissioned	Fate
RNS Nanshan	25 January 2814	31 November 2814	Retired 13 June 2871. As the flagship and last surviving ship of her class, the Nanshan was preserved in the Navy Honor Yard on Geminus. In 3006 she was removed from the Yard and auctioned off to a private business tycoon on Hestia. As such, she was not present during the July 4 bombings. In 3019, she was sold to the Museum of Military History on Luna, and is currently the oldest warship in their possession.
RNS Korbu	2 April 2814	16 June 2815	Disappeared during an anti-piracy patrol in the core along with her entire fleet, sometime between 9 and 13 May 2851.
RNS Trivor	23 November 2814	11 June 2815	Lost on anti-piracy patrol in the Rim, 12 September 2844
RNS Makalu	5 June 2815	29 October 2815	Lost in a border skirmish with the CCOR, 9 June 2818
RNS Jaya	7 August 2815	30 December 2816	Lost in the Battle of Tarazed, 7 June 2826
RNS Foraker	20 July 2816	7 March 2817	Retired 8 December 2860. Sold for scrap 26 October of that year.

From 2865 until 2908, the Republic did not commission a single new frigate. This was due to a variety of factors, the most prominent being the growth of the galactic mercenary sector. As the price of spacecraft was falling near the end of the 29th century, and their combat survivability and maneuverability were increasing thanks to shell armor and the stardust collector, a growing number of private captains joined mercenary fleets or operated as solo mercenaries. During this period, the Republic became increasingly concerned with civil works, and so opted to employ a mercenary fleet alongside the Navy, to reduce the costs associated with shipbuilding and large-scale personnel management. This mercenary fleet soon grew to outnumber the Navy, until by 2880 the Republic had on its payrolls a mercenary fleet of six hundred interceptors and light warships to match the Navy's outmoded fleet of one hundred twenty gunboats, eighty-five missile boats, ten escort carriers, and three frigates. In 2906, this resulted in disaster, as a mercenary captain by the name of Helsinki Zhukov led his force of fifty-seven ships in an attack on Earth. As the other mercenary captains refused or were unable to engage their fellow, the Republic watched helplessly as the traitor cut a swath through the gunboats of the First Fleet. He was only eventually stopped by the orbital defenses of the Sol system itself, and after the Siege of Sol, which lasted eleven days in January 2907, he eventually agreed to terms of peace whereby he would be exiled to the CCOR. This incident finally caused the Republic to begin to attempt to rebuild the Navy, dismantling the vast majority of its mercenary fleets except those needed to use as a training cadre for a temporary militia (which was to take the place of the Navy until it could be brought back up to strength). Over the course of the next fifty years, no fewer than eighty-five frigates were commissioned. I shall not endeavor to list them all here, save for a few of the most notable, to avoid death by publisher. These frigates belonged to five different classes, and these I will attempt to describe. The Allegheny class was the first class of “light frigate” of the kind which is common today. Designed for patrol work rather than planetary defense, the Allegheny class relied heavily on modern shield technology and its five shells of armor. Between 2908 and 2930, a total of thirty-nine of these ships were built. The Allegheny class was soon followed by a heavier frigate class known as the Crillon class. These were the precursor to modern cruisers, and were intended primarily for planetary defense, mostly being garrisoned on Geminus, Hestia, Farpoint, and Earth. At the time that the RNS Crillon was constructed, in 2910, it was the most technologically advanced warship ever produced, requiring custom tooling to be designed for the Geminus naval yard. By the time the last ship of the fourteen in the class was commissioned (RNS Huascaran in 2924), the class was already outdated, although its eight shells of armor continued to keep it in use until 2982. Although the Crillon class was successful in its role, this role was considered fairly niche by the Navy, and so no more “heavy frigates” were constructed. Rather, the Crillon class was followed by the Murrumbidgee class, a type of ship nearly identical to the Allegheny class save for heavier armor (six shells), and two extra guns, bringing its total up to four. Eighteen ships of this class were built and commissioned between 2926 and 2935 before they were replaced by the Potomac class. The Potomac class is perhaps the most famous class of frigate ever commissioned by the Navy. Although only three were built, each of these three was equipped as a fleet flagship, carrying an armament of eight guns and two turrets. Although this may not seem extraordinary, the Potomac class was designed specifically as a light frigate, not a heavy warship. This heavy firepower, mixed with the engines typically featured on a light warship, made the Potomac class invaluable in the final battles the Republic fought against the CCOR. However, this also led to a prohibitive cost for each hull, the reason why only three were ever completed. The flagship, RNS Potomac, was laid down on 21 June 2934 and commissioned on 8 October 2935. After a brief shakedown period, she was assigned to Southern Command, where she led the 16th Light Fleet in anti-piracy patrols. From January 2936 until May 2939, she was credited with 18 interceptor kills and 4 warship kills, with a total tonnage of more than six times her own. The most notable of the Potomac’s battles took place during the Battle of Lesath on 2 March 2939, where the 16th Light stumbled across a raiding fleet of some twenty pirate vessels. Although hopelessly outnumbered, the Potomac managed to hold off against the superior pirate force until reinforcements arrived, by which point her armor had been reduced to a single shell and she had achieved three kills, including a Bastion. After May 2939, she was reassigned to the 3rd Heavy Fleet, which was at the time based in Alniyat. The Potomac was heavily involved in both the battles of Men and Thuban, earning a place on the Honor Lists. After the defeat of the CCOR, she was retired to the mostly ceremonial Earth Fleet, where she served until her decommissioning in 2968. As she was not the last surviving ship of her class at the time, she was preserved in the Museum of Military History rather than the Navy Honor Yard, where she can currently be found in long-term storage. The second ship of the Potomac class, the RNS Hudson, was laid down on 11 August 2935 and commissioned on 9 January 2936. She was assigned to independent patrol duty based around Maelstrom, where she ended up being one of the first ships to survive solo combat with a Korath raiding party (although, needless to say, she was not able to actually destroy the raider). When the Maelstrom base was closed in 2939, she was moved to Farpoint, and was lost when the base was overrun in June 2942. All in all, she obtained five Korath fighter kills, nine pirate interceptor kills, three pirate warship kills, two of the latter occurring in the battle for Farpoint. The final ship of the Potomac class, the RNS Missouri, was laid down on 6 December 2936 and commissioned on 12 February 2938. She was assigned to the 3rd Heavy Fleet in Alniyat the day after the outbreak of the Fourth Southern War, on 25 April 1938, where she distinguished herself in combat with the CCOR. After the war ended, she was transferred to the Military Logistics service, serving as an “armored courier” in frontier systems in the Far North. The Missouri was decommissioned on 3 July 2971, and sold to a private film studio on Hestia. She was eventually scrapped in 2998 when the studio went under. The fifth and final class of frigate to be commissioned by the Navy in this period, the Halys class, was completely unremarkable except for the fact that it was the last time the Navy changed their general hull shape for a frigate. Abandoning the “tapered triangle” shape of the previous six classes of frigate, the Navy instead opted for a flatter and more aerodynamic design very similar to the one in use today. Although not quite as robust as the traditional form factor, this model proved to be far cheaper to produce and operate, as well as allowing for more freedom of mobility within the ship due to a decreased need for stairs. Thus, the RNS Halys was launched in 2941 after a total construction cost of 18.6 million credits—or 23% the cost of the RNS Potomac. Naturally, this cost continued to decrease, and the eleventh and final ship, the RNS Devi, cost only 7.9 million credits in 2956.

By 2955, the Navy had managed to achieve humongous increases across the board. Under five separate commands, the Republic’s main military branch boasted no fewer than 2500 gunboats, 1200 missile boats, 400 corvettes (a type of heavy gunboat designed for planetary defense operations), 65 frigates, 31 escort carriers, and approximately 9000 fighters and drones, along with sixteen planetary defense stations. This was approximately a twenty-fold increase in gunboats in fifty years, and a fifteen-fold increase in total firepower. In the process of this expansion, the Republic had finally succeeded in vanquishing the CCOR, and had disbanded its militia. However, this rapid growth came at a tremendous cost to the taxpayer. Compared with an annual budget of 4.2 trillion credits in 2906, the Naval budget of 108.9 trillion credits in 2950 appeared almost excessive. When the CCOR was defeated in the Fourth Southern War in 2951, policymakers immediately began to criticize the expenditure of eight percent of the galactic budget on a single branch of the military. Needless to say, few policymakers could accept such exorbitant spending in peacetime. Thus, in 2956, High Admiral Alyn Starre was appointed to the command of the Navy, and tasked with cutting annual expenditures back to 50 trillion credits in less than five years while maintaining a similar degree of combat readiness. To do so, Starre made several sweeping changes, as follows. Firstly, Starre conducted an analysis of the orbital forts currently being operated by the Navy. He found that, of the sixteen forts, twelve were approaching end of life and would need to be refitted in order to continue operations—a cost estimated at 700 billion credits. Furthermore, none of the forts were in a location where they were likely to see significant combat, which meant that they created a drain of approximately 1.2 trillion credits a year on finances, mostly due to the cost of transporting enough supplies to the stations to support the thirty thousand personnel in the forts, and the manufacture of niche spare parts. Therefore, the first act of Starre’s budget campaign was to axe orbital fortifications entirely. Beyond orbital fortifications, Starre found that the highest drains on the military budget were: Research and Development — 41.1 trillion credits per year Logistics — 14.8 trillion credits per year Repairs and Construction — 5.6 trillion credits per year Personnel — 2.9 trillion credits per year Intelligence — 2.4 trillion credits per year Of Research and Development costs, approximately 25 trillion credits were dedicated to the design of new ship classes. These included four new gunboat classes, three new missile boat classes, six new corvette classes, two new frigate classes, and three new classes of capital ship (dubbed the “Destroyer,” “Cruiser,” and “Carrier.”) He immediately issued an ultimatum to the R&D teams announcing that they had one year to prove the viability of their ship designs. Of the eighteen teams involved, only five managed to meet the deadline: one class each of missile boat, corvette, and frigate, as well as the Cruiser and Carrier. The other teams were disbanded immediately. Simultaneously, Starre tasked the Intelligence department with conducting research into the survivability and cost-effectiveness of the different ships in use by the Navy at the time. The study concluded that the new corvettes in use by the Navy were practically useless, and that even frigates were too light to be effective as a capital ship, and that “further, heavier warships may be necessary to preserve the security of the Republic.” In response, Starre ceased construction on all corvette models in 2958, and began to decommission the hundreds in service beginning in 2960. In doing so, Starre streamlined the design efforts of the Navy into three channels: light patrol craft, fast-response frigates, and heavy capital ships. Of the five designs that had proved viable in 2957, he ordered that four be built: the Rainmaker-class missile boat, the Amazon-class frigate, the Condor-class cruiser, and the Nihal-class fleet carrier. Each of these hulls had a production cost measured as a fraction of their predecessors, allowing him to construct two hundred Rainmakers and six hundred Amazons in his ten years as Navy commander-in-chief, as well as twelve Condors and five Nihals. Needless to say, I will not attempt to list every ship in these classes. Full lists are available to the public in either the Encyclopaedia Galactica on Alexandria, or at the Museum of Military History on Luna. However, a brief summary of the Condor and Nihal classes may be worthwhile:

Condor-Class Cruiser

Ship	Laid Down	Commissioned	Fate
RNS Condor	15 July 2959	18 September 2960	Destroyed on the ground in a pirate raid against Farpoint Naval Base, 30 October 2991.
RNS Albatross	31 October 2959	18 November 2960	Lost on an anti-piracy patrol in Nunki, 4 June 2967.
RNS Raven	1 November 2959	15 January 2962	Retired 1 March 2992. Sold for scrap 10 December of that year.
RNS Golden Eagle	12 February 2960	2 May 2961	Retired 28 February 2998. Auctioned (de-armed) on the civilian market in June of that year as part of the Navy’s efforts to raise funds for a new class of surveillance drone. Sold for approximately 35 million credits to a stockbroker on Martini. Current whereabouts unknown.
RNS Osprey	29 May 2961	6 September 2962	Lost in a high-atmosphere crash with a civilian long-haul freighter, the Takasago, over Silver, Vega, 1 May 2983.
RNS Kittyhawk	10 July 2961	6 September 2962	Retired 10 March 2998. Auctioned along with the Golden Eagle and the Vega in June of that year. Purchased for approximately 29 million credits by the Smithsonian Museum, on Earth, who currently has it on exhibit beside the 20th century airplane of the same name.
RNS Kingfisher	8 September 2961	24 April 2963	Lost in a border skirmish against pirates in Alnitak, 16 August 2978.
RNS Skysweeper	20 October 2961	12 December 2963	Retired 24 July 2999. Sold for scrap 16 September of that year.
RNS Peregrine	11 January 2963	23 December 2964	Refitted July 3006 as a logistical support auxiliary. Suffered repeated damage as a result of engagements with Free Worlds raiding parties in the Fifth Southern War, and was retired the day after the final defeat of the Pug, 14 October 3021. As the final surviving ship of her class, the Peregrine was preserved and is currently located in the Military History Museum on Luna, although she is not on exhibit as of the time of writing.
RNS Wood Duck	11 February 2963	27 November 2964	Lost in a border skirmish against remnants of the CCOR, 28 December 2995.
RNS St Helens	11 February 2966	19 September 2967	Stationed on Geminus when the Free Worlds declared independence, the St Helens was lost in the July 4 bombings, 3014.
RNS Nevado	28 August 2966	28 April 2968	Lost in the Battle of Kornephoros, 10 January 3017.

Nihal-Class Fleet Carrier

Ship	Laid Down	Commissioned	Fate
RNS Nihal	24 June 2959	21 August 2960	Retired 4 May 3008. As the flagship and last surviving ship of her class, the Nihal was preserved in the Navy Honour Yard on Geminus. Unfortunately, she was destroyed in the July 4 bombings.
RNS Vega	8 October 2959	3 January 2961	Retired 14 April 2998. Auctioned along with the Golden Eagle and Kitttyhawk in June of that year. Purchased for approximately 45 million credits by a private citizen in the Syndicate. The Vega was eventually lost in 3010 when its owner decided to demand tribute from one of the pirate planets in the core.
RNS Aldebaran	6 February 2960	26 November 2960	Destroyed on the ground in a pirate raid against Farpoint Naval Base, 30 October 2991.
RNS Thuban	13 March 2960	16 April 2961	Refitted July 3006 as a logistical support auxiliary. Retired 10 October 3012 after the discovery of structural issues in her hull, and sold for scrap on 4 February 3013.
RNS Canopus	28 July 2960	5 February 2961	Suffered heavy damage due to repetitious wear without adequate access to repair facilities during the evacuation of Hope. Retired 4 March 2994, and sold for scrap 19 May of that year.

When Starre was replaced by High Admiral Wang Hua in 2966, the Navy’s system of capital ships was streamlined still further. Production of frigates was reduced, although two hundred more were produced during her ten-year tenure, and emphasis was once again placed on the production of gunboats (five hundred in those ten years). The capital ship program remained, but no new classes were laid down from 2966 to 2976. Notably, the two capital ship hulls under construction, Hulls FCC-11 and FCC-12, were given standardized names in accordance with a new program where all capital ships (not just heavy frigates) received the names of mountains. This is still the case today. After commissioning over a thousand fighters and drones but only two capital ships, Wang retired in 2976 and was replaced by Conrad Holt. As the galaxy remained at peace during this time, Holt also emphasized light warships over heavy, including an experiment with the Cavalier-class interceptor. These interceptors were largely unsuccessful, but a modified version of the design, the Lance-type fighter, is still in use today. In 2986, Holt was replaced by Tenerife Brierley. Brierly returned to the production of capital ships, commissioning no fewer than 27 cruisers of the Annapurna and Strickland classes. Of these ships, four were retired before the Fifth Southern War, six were destroyed in it, and three have been retired since. The remaining fourteen are still in service. During the period of Tenerife’s command, plans were also created for the Everest class of fleet carriers, although none of them were produced until after Brierley was out of office. Thus, it was under Jaffar Qadir that the first ships of the Everest class were laid down. Originally, Brierley had planned to commission sixteen ships of the class—thus quadrupling the Navy’s fleet carrier strength. Qadir expanded on this ambition, ordering no fewer than twenty-three of the ships, with an option to produce seven more. To date, thirty-nine ships of the Everest class have been completed, and new ones are laid down nearly every year. Under Qadir, nineteen Everest-class fleet carriers were laid down (Hulls AEV-1 through 19). Fifteen of these were commissioned before 3005: the Everest, Kangchenjunga, Malaku, Cho Oyu, Manaslu, Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum, Xixiabangma, Masherbrum, Kamet, Aconcagua, Mercedario, Denali, Bolivar, and Azufral. Of these, all but the Cho Oyu, Mercedario, and Nanga Parbat are still in service, the Cho Oyu being lost in the Fifth Southern War, the Mercedario in the Pug War, and the Nanga Parbat in an action against pirates in Mintaka. Four ships of the Everest class were laid down under Qadir but commissioned under Balakrishna Nagarkar. These were the Olympus, Ascraeus, Elysium, and Arsia, notable for being named after mountains on Mars rather than Earth. All four of these ships are still in service. Fourteen more ships of the class were also laid down under Nagarkar, six of which were commissioned (Thor, Tai, Scafell, Mayon, Razorback, and Haleakala), and two of which (Hulls AEV-25 and 26) were destroyed in the July 4 bombings. Construction on the remaining six began in the months after the bombings and was mostly outsourced to independent contractors, although one (the Huygens) was completed on Luna. Only three of the six were completed in time for the battle of Rastaban (the Huygens, Diran, and Banahaw), although none of them participated in it. Of the other three, the Apo and Kenya were finished during the Pug war (in which the Apo was lost), and the Logan was ironically only finished in peacetime. After the shipyards at Geminus were repaired under İnci Tilki, eight more ships of the Everest class were laid down. All of these were finished during the Fifth Southern War due to military pressures and the increased capacity of the New Naval Yard. These ships—the Lykaion, Vinson, Mitre, Marmolada, Yushan, Bross, Tronador, and Koussi—were all outfitted with the newly-produced weaponry from the Deep at the time of their construction, and so did not require a refit. Of these eight, seven are still in service; the Vincent was unfortunately lost in a training exercise in 3023. Thus, thirty-nine ships of the Everest class have been commissioned to date, of which thirty-four remain in service. None have been laid down since the end of the Pug war, and none have been retired. The Navy has not, as of the time of publication, made any public mention of a new class of fleet carrier, nor of a new class of cruiser.

Although not, technically speaking, a capital ship, no description of modern capital ships would be complete without a brief mention of the Navy Auxiliary. Throughout most of the Republic’s history, the idea for dedicated auxiliary support ships has been unnecessary. The Navy has been historically tied to operating from bases planetside, and Naval logistics have alway focused on this. Even during wartime, the Navy has tended to rely on strong regional bases, most notably Alniyat during the Third and Fourth Southern wars. To a great extent, this policy is why it took the Navy so long to bring the CCOR to its knees, but it also allowed the Navy to operate a highly capable warfleet which is, to this day, capable of going on patrols as long as its fuel can take it, without requiring external support. A modern carrier may only have a crew of a hundred to a hundred and twenty, but it is every bit as self-sufficient as the colony ships of years gone by. The Auxiliary, therefore, was not born out of a need to supply ships, but rather out of a need to supply planets. During the evacuation of Hope, it was made disturbingly clear that the Navy was only barely capable of running humanitarian aid missions. At around the same time, the Navy’s raid on Poisonwood demonstrated the need for ships better suited for launching exospheric landing operations. Thus, in 3006, the Navy refitted two warships, the Peregrine and Thuban, for logistical support roles. After the two ships continued to demonstrate their worth in humanitarian missions in the northern dirt belt, High Admiral Nagarkar ordered the construction of a new class of eighteen ships known simply as the Auxiliary. These ships were designed to be optimized for logistical support, and have since served in over forty humanitarian aid missions, along with three exospheric assaults, two orbital boarding operations, and countless personnel transfer missions. In the two decades since the first Auxiliary was commissioned, sixty more ships of the class have been built, and the Auxiliary has quickly become the logistical backbone of the Navy. While the initial cost for the hull was around sixteen million credits, new Auxiliaries are produced for approximately nine million, making them cheaper than a modern cruiser.

The following table details the number of cruisers, carriers, and auxiliaries commissioned by High Admiral since 2956.

High Admiral	Tenure	Cruisers	Carriers	Auxiliaries
Alyn Starre	2956-2966	12	5	0
Wang Hua	2966-2976	0	0	0
Conrad Holt	2976-2986	0	0	0
Tenerife Brierley	2986-2995	27	0	0
Jaffar Qadir	2995-3005	41	15	0
Balakrishna Nagarkar	3005-3015	38	10	18 (+2 refits)
İnci Tilki	3015-3025	62	14	31
Otto Sørensen	3026-present	9	0	12
Total	2956-3028	189	44	61

So large and amorphous does the Navy appear at first glance, that it is difficult to distinguish even a clear chain of command far beyond the level of a fleet. This is, to some extent, by design. Since the Navy’s conception, the Republic has been very careful to keep it at arm’s length, powerful enough to keep pirates at bay and—if absolutely necessary—fight a war against a weaker opponent, but weak enough not to pose the threat of a coup. Naturally, this tendency became even more pronounced after the Siege of Sol in 2906. Although it is necessary for ships and fleets of the Navy to cooperate in the case of war, civil crisis, or heavy pirate activity, the Republic tends to keep large formations dispersed and under generally independent commands. While this limits the combat effectiveness of the Navy, it also makes it virtually possible for a popular admiral to assemble a personal fleet which could threaten the health of the Republic as a whole. Of course, this was thwarted to a great extent by Admiral Danforth during the Fifth Southern War. The creation of the Oathkeepers after the battle of Kornephoros enabled Danforth to assemble a sizable group of loyal personnel, with a record clear of recent defeats. This position enabled him to achieve a later promotion to Senior Admiral despite his near exile at Farpoint and involvement with the Hope affair some years previous, and nearly enabled him to seize the High Admiralty upon Tilki’s retirement.

To the uninformed specialist in planetside warfare, the structure of the Navy may seem quite absurd. This is primarily because, when the Navy was first founded, it was primarily a small military force with direct links to the Republican government. Therefore, the various branches of the Navy, long since separated from the civilian government, officially retain the name of “bureaus.” Other than Fleet Command, the Navy contains nine such bureaus: Intelligence, Research and Development, Logistics, Personnel, Repairs and Construction, Police and Security, Government Relations, Public Relations, Secretariat, and Xenology. Of these bureaus, the Bureau of Navy Logistics is the largest. Navy Logistics is concerned with supplying fuel, funds, food, ammunition, and other supplies to bases, repair facilities, and individual ships, as well as numerous other logistical concerns. It employs, at present, around four million people, or approximately 20% of the Navy as a whole. This figure does not include, for example, logistical support units attached to garrisons, which fall under Fleet Command. The second largest bureau of the Navy is Personnel. Personnel is, as the name suggests, employed with hiring, firing, promoting, demoting, decorating, and court-martialing members of the Navy. However, its duties extend beyond that, as the Training, Medical and Reserve Commands all fall under Personnel’s umbrella. This is what makes Personnel so large: the two-million odd members of the Naval Reserves are technically part of it, rather than Fleet Command, bringing its total up to a little over three million people. Trailing somewhat behind Personnel is the Repairs and Construction Bureau, with approximately one and a half million employees. Repairs and Construction is in charge of running the Naval Yards on Geminus and Luna, as well as organizing external production while necessary, reviewing all ships damaged in combat for structural faults, and providing a qualified cadre of repair personnel to every inhabited planet in the galaxy outside of the Syndicate and Free Worlds. With only slightly fewer members than Repairs and Construction, the Navy Secretariat is the Navy’s fourth largest bureau. It is tasked with running large bases smoothly and ensuring that records are kept properly and in good order. On top of this, the Secretariat handles everything from coffee runs to routine maintenance on military bases to running the Navy’s finances, living up to their moniker of the most underappreciated bureau. Of the remaining five bureaus, none directly employs more than 500 thousand individuals. The largest, Public Relations, operates very close to that number, working constantly in order to portray the Navy in the best light possible (and to provide authors with declassified material for their books. Somewhere behind Public Relations, with approximately 400 thousand people, is Navy Intelligence. Not only does Navy Intelligence focus on gathering military intelligence for the Navy, it is also tasked with keeping a close eye on corruption in both the ranks of the Navy and those of the Republic’s own Department of Intelligence. Government Relations, with around 250 thousand employees, is the third smallest of the Navy’s bureaus. It is tasked with effectively liasoning with both local and galactic governments, and is usually involved in humanitarian aid missions. Of course, Government Relations is also occasionally given the wartime task of convincing a headstrong but charismatic leader to avoid a major strategic blunder. An additional 200 thousand people are employed in the military police division, known as the Police and Security bureau. Police and Security is tasked with maintaining order both on capital ships and military bases, handling any necessary courts-martial, and working with civilian police where necessary in the event of a civil incident. Additionally, Police and Security serves as the security element in most civilian spaceports in the galaxy. Finally, the smallest and youngest bureau of the Navy, established only around forty years ago, is the Xenology bureau. Xenology employs a little less than a hundred thousand people, and is focused on studying alien cultures and technologies, especially those of the Pug and Korath. Even more than the Intelligence bureau, Xenology’s members work under strict security protocols, and the organization is one of the most secretive in the galaxy. Overall, therefore, a little more than twelve million people serve in its ten bureaus. This is vastly more than those who serve under Fleet Command, and yet their service is rarely recognized by either the public as a whole or the Navy’s own propaganda. That distinction is left instead to a mere subset of the fewer than two million people who serve in Fleet Command. Fleet Command has a variety of responsibilities itself. The most glamorous, naturally, is that of operating all the Navy’s warships and auxiliaries. On top of that, though, Fleet Command is also in charge of operating garrisons on the 37 planets that the Navy has bases on. In total, only about a hundred thousand of Fleet Command’s members are part of an actual starship crew, and only about sixty thousand of these are assigned to an active ship at any given time. The vast majority of Fleet Command never leaves the ground, instead coordinating with all the bureaus planetside. Because of this, Fleet Command is divided into seven commands of its own, only three of which are tasked with maintaining and flying the Navy’s warships. These commands are Fleet Organization Command, Orbital Defense Command, Garrison Command, Special Service Command, Central Command, Northern Command, and Southern Command. By far the largest of these, with about a million members, is Garrison Command. In contrast, Orbital Defense Command and Special Service Command both have approximately 200 thousand members, Central Command has about 300 thousand, and each of the other two combat commands has approximately 100 thousand. Fleet Organization Command has around five thousand members. The Naval Special Service is, perhaps, worthy of a paragraph of its own. Importantly, the Naval Special Service is neither part of the Marines nor the Special Forces—both of which are separate from the Navy. While there is some overlap between the three services, the Naval Special Service generally does less active combat work, instead being tasked with EVA missions and organizing dropship actions. This contrasts with the typical ship-based or exospheric assault role of the Marines, or the ground-based but Navy-supported role of the Special Forces.

Naturally, the command structure of the Navy is somewhat complicated, but considering the sheer magnitude of bureaucracy behind it, it is much simpler than could be expected. Overall, there are only eight command ranks in the Navy (leaving aside various gradations in pay and seniority). In descending order, these are: High Admiral Senior Admiral Admiral Fleet Admiral Commodore Commander Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant Naturally, the junior officers (Lieutenants and Lieutenant Commanders) usually serve in minor staff positions or as section chiefs on board a capital ship. Likewise, higher-ranked officers may serve as an aide or executive officer rather than hold an independent command. Nonetheless, all officer ranks are eligible to hold command positions, and their orders are expected to be obeyed quickly and precisely by even the most senior enlisted soldier or non-commissioned officer. At the very top of the chain is the High Admiral. There is only one High Admiral in the Navy, and the post is very carefully regulated. The High Admiral is elected by a board of nine high officials, four of whom are part of the military, while five are civilians. This civilian domination is intended as a strategy to limit the possibility of a military coup, as is the ten-year term limit and subsequent mandatory retirement of the office. In order to ensure that the commander is militarily competent, a prospective High Admiral must have served at least twenty years in the Navy, at least five of which must have been in a combat command. While this is the extent of the law surrounding the appointment of the Admiral, the makeup of the board is generally strictly governed by tradition. Typically, two of the civilian members are also members of Parliament, two are members of other governmental organizations, and one is a prominent citizen of the Republic. There is always a member of Naval Intelligence on the board. The High Admiral is, without a doubt, the most powerful individual in the Navy, and is quite possibly also the most powerful individual in the galaxy. They are tasked with overseeing all the Navy’s bureaus, as well as being personally responsible for Fleet Command (and, by extension, Fleet Organization Command). While they are typically very capable individuals and are supported by a large staff, they still tend to work under heavy political and logistical pressures. It is said that the average High Admiral ages twenty-five years in office. Under the High Admiral are the sixteen Senior Admirals of the Navy. Each Senior Admiral heads either a bureau or a division of Fleet Command. Senior Admirals are typically highly competent, although the office is not immune to political maneuverings. In order to be considered for promotion to the Senior Admiralty, an Admiral must have served in the bureau or command which they are to head for a minimum of five years, and at least ten years in the Navy as a whole. Outside of wartime, of course, most Senior Admirals serve far longer. Beneath the Senior Admirals are positioned a much larger number of Admirals. Despite the connotations of their name, Admirals often serve as executive officers to the highest command ranks, although some are also in charge of commanding individual segments of a bureau, or Task Forces. Overall, there are approximately fifty Admirals in the fleet at any given time, although the number varies quite a bit. Fleet Admirals, on the other hand, almost exclusively fill command positions. Ironically, very few of them serve in Fleet Command. Most Fleet Admirals serve in the support staff, where they typically command about fifty thousand personnel. The Fleet Admirals who do serve in Fleet Command are usually either on a Senior Admiral’s staff or command a numbered fleet of the Navy. Notably, Fleet Admirals are the highest command rank that is never in charge of commanding a single vessel. Commodores, the next rank down, are typically in charge of commanding a subdivision of a fleet — a “constellation” of around fifteen ships in a Light Fleet, or a squadron of four to six in a Heavy Fleet. However, Commodores may also be tasked with the command of a fleet carrier: while approximately two thirds of Carriers are commanded by Commanders, the remaining third are typically run by junior Commodores. Below Commodores, Commanders are the “rank and file” of command officers. As well as typically commanding squadrons in Light Fleets, Commanders are the officers usually tasked with commanding Auxiliaries, fleet carriers, and cruisers. Of course, like any rank, most Commanders serve outside Fleet Command, generally commanding around a thousand personnel. Under Commanders, Lieutenant Commanders are the officers most typically in command positions in the entire fleet. As a rule, Lieutenant Commanders are in charge of commanding frigates and most gunboats or Rainmakers (although some are commanded by senior Lieutenants). Lieutenant Commanders are also the officers in charge of commanding fighter or dropship wings, serve as executive officers on capital ships, and command anywhere from one to three hundred personnel in the Navy’s support branches. The lowest rank of commissioned officer, Lieutenants, typically serve in minor roles where they command only a very few personnel. Lieutenants are generally the commanding officers for individual fighters and dropships, and serve as section commanders on capital ships and frigates. The vast majority of Lieutenants who are not in Fleet Command usually are in charge of approximately thirty personnel, although this number is much lower (down to five personnel) in bureaus like Intelligence and Xenology.

The three main fleet commands of the Navy (Central, Northern, and Southern) are each responsible for approximately a third of the Republic. In practice, Central Command has far more responsibility, as Southern Command does not—and never has had—the capital ships necessary to defend the Dirt Belt. Northern Command, on the other hand, is much more concerned with containing the threat of piracy in the far north of the galaxy. Each command is divided into a number of fleets, the number varying based on its responsibilities. The fleets are usually divided among three types (Light, Heavy, and Logistics), although the Navy has far more Light fleets than it does Heavy, and only three dedicated Logistics fleets (the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Logistics Fleets), all of which are under Central Command. By comparison, at the time of writing, there are currently no fewer than 78 Light and 17 Heavy fleets. The number and type of ship in a fleet varies according to its classification. Typically, Light fleets contain around sixty ships, mostly gunboats and Rainmakers, although they tend to have a heavier element of five to eight frigates. In contrast, Heavy fleets contain about fifteen ships, usually a mixture of frigates and cruisers with perhaps a single fleet carrier as a flagship. Of course, this is an average: many Heavy fleets have no carriers, and a few specialized fleets (most notably the 4th and 7th Heavy Fleets) have an entire squadron of fleet carriers. Logistics fleets each contain approximately thirty ships, about half of which are Auxiliaries while the rest are a mixture of gunboats, frigates, and cruisers. The manner in which fleets are divided also varies depending on the type of fleet, although the size of similarly named divisions is generally constant. As a rule, Large and Logistics fleets are divided into squadrons of four to six ships. Each squadron generally operates independently, but operates from the same base. In wartime, squadrons often combine and the entire fleet fights as one unit. In contrast, Light fleets also have four-to-six-ship units called squadrons. However, these serve as part of a larger unit known as a “constellation.” Constellations typically consist of approximately fifteen ships and are divided into three squadrons. Unlike Heavy fleets, constellations rarely fight together, and are only usually divided for patrols. Importantly, these are the only divisions made to a fleet. Below the squadron level, it is impractical for ships to have any unit larger than the individual. Since each fleet contains only four constellations or three squadrons, there is no need for any larger subdivision of a fleet. Logistics fleets are, of course, somewhat of an exception, since they contain a total of six squadrons each. Still, Logistics fleets generally operate in separate squadrons except for when they are being used for a major operation, in which case the whole fleet is activated. Similarly, the Navy has no permanent subdivisions between the level of fleets and full commands. This is detrimental to cohesion and is one of the main factors that prevented the Republic from crushing first the CCOR and then the Free Worlds during the Southern Wars. Still, the sociopolitical risk of large, permanent fleets that can operate as one is exceptionally high. Since the days of Helsinki Zhukov, Parliament has always been careful to make a military coup impossible, and limiting large divisions to the highly bureaucratic command level is an important factor in maintaining this balance. Even though it prevents the Navy from fighting effectively against distant enemies, the Navy is still easily the most powerful fighting force in the galaxy by any metric, with more than three times the manpower of the nascent Free Worlds Armed Forces. Nor is this the only measure which prevents the buildup of a flag officer’s “personal fleet,” so to speak. In the modern Navy, it is rare for a ship to spend more than ten years in a single fleet. If a ship shows signs of major damage, or is reaching end of life, it is typically withdrawn from active duty, refitted, and then moved to another fleet, usually under a different command. Fleets themselves are usually broken apart after major actions both to provide a training cadre for green sailors and to keep the common identity of their crews at a squadron or constellation level. Despite all this, the Navy still recognizes the need to occasionally group fleets together for certain tasks. For this purpose, fleets are combined into Task Forces. Task Forces are temporary constructs that usually last between three months and five years. They can contain anywhere from two fleets (often a Heavy and a Light) to twenty or thirty (such as the Southern Task Force in the Fifth Southern War). Task forces generally train and operate together and function as a larger version of a fleet, although they often operate out of multiple bases. This strategy is used by the Navy to respond to both large-scale threats (such as with the Southern Task Force), coordinate different types of fleets for minor but important actions (such as with the Poisonwood Task Force), or handle large-scale humanitarian aid missions (such as with the Hope Task Force).

While it is only natural for the commissioned ranks of the Navy to garner the most attention, it is important to remember that commissioned officers make up less than 10% of Fleet Command, or 3% of the Navy as a whole. The vast majority of naval personnel fall into one of three other categories: warrant officers, non-commissioned officers, or non-officers. We will examine these in reverse order, beginning with non-officers. Enlisted non-officers are the main working corps of the Navy. Approximately 80% of the Navy falls into this class, although it can be a bit amorphous. Of course, despite the non-officer status of enlisted personnel, there are still several distinct ranks (and even more pay grades), split into three categories. The first category are ranks given to land or support troops. In increasing rank, these are Private Recruit, Private, and Private First Class. A typical soldier will spend anywhere from six months to a year as a Private Recruit before graduating to a Private, at which point a promotion to Private First Class can take anywhere from a couple of months to ten years, depending on their abilities. Privates of any class typically draw between 80 and 120 credits per diem, a pitifully low amount unless you consider the room and board they also receive, and the poverty that many of the Navy’s enlisted personnel are born into. The situation is much the same with actual shipboard personnel, although the names of the ranks differ. Shipboard personnel progress from Astronaut Recruits, to Astronauts, to Capable Astronauts, in the same way that privates do. In fact, an Astronaut is technically just a Private who has gone through a different branch of training. The only significant difference between the two paths is that astronauts tend to earn around 20 credits more per diem, and go through more difficult training. Beyond this, the ranks are so identical that Navy paperwork for an Capable Astronaut usually lists the rank as “PFC (CA).” The third category of enlisted non-officer, that of specialists, is more distinct. In order to qualify for specialist training, a soldier must first complete basic training, and most candidates also serve a plurality of years as a private of varying ranks. While in specialist training, soldiers retain their previous ranks de facto but are de jure recruits again. Upon completion of their training, specialists are given the rank of Specialist which is approximately equal in authority to a Private but at a significantly higher pay grade. Specialists can then be promoted to Senior Specialists, then to Master Specialists. Serving as an interface between officers and the enlisted personnel are non-commissioned officers, or NCOs. NCOs are able to give orders and exercise leadership over the enlisted ranks, although these orders are usually passed down from above. Due to the Navy’s historical requirement for quick and decisive decisions in combat—situations in which a split second could mark the difference between a ship’s instant destruction and it surviving a battle unscathed—NCOs typically have little to no influence when a ship is actually in combat, with the Navy instead being saturated with enough officers to fill all command positions. Outside of combat, NCOs may have somewhat more influence, but even the most senior Chief Master Sergeant may be court-martialed for disobeying an order from a Lieutenant. Unlike with non-officers, there is only one direct path for NCOs. This path involves being promoted from a Private First Class, at which point the enlisted soldier obtains the officer rank of Corporal. Corporals can then be promoted to Sergeants, and then Gunnery Sergeants, Master Sergeants, and Chief Master Sergeants. Typically, Chief Master Sergeants are in charge of organizational work for large bodies of support personnel on land, including serving as a liaison between commissioned officers and individual units. The rank is unused in Fleet Command. While there is no clear connection between the two chains of command—those of specialists and non-specialists—the general rule is that Master Specialists are equal in rank to Sergeants. Typically, specialists are not subject to the orders from non-commissioned officers, although they are required to obey orders from Sergeant ranks if they are given. Corporals have no authority over specialists and serve only to provide low-level unit cohesion in the standard enlisted ranks. Above non-commissioned officers are the ranks of the warrant officers. Warrant officers do not have a full commission, but they have received a letter of approval signed by a member of the Navy Secretariat (known, fittingly, as a warrant). Warrant officers technically rank higher than NCOs, but in practice they serve the same role that NCOs do, but for the specialist ranks. Warrant Officers are usually promoted from Master Specialists, and are in charge of leading personnel in their specific specialty disciplines. Warrant Officers can be further promoted to Senior, Master, and Chief Warrant Officers, and the latter rank is roughly equivalent to that of a Lieutenant Commander—both in authority and in pay. One important factor to note is that a warrant officer never commands personnel serving in multiple disciples. A Master Warrant Officer may well be in command of electronic warfare on a cruiser, but they are not qualified to lead a crew a quarter that size in serving as the captain of a gunboat. Finally, there are two more ranks which deserve to be discussed but do not fall into the regular structure. These are the ranks of Ensign and Cadet. Both ranks are roughly the equivalent to Private Recruits, but for officers. Soldiers wishing to serve as officers are first trained in a military academy as Cadets, then graduate to Ensigns. As Ensigns, soldiers are expected to serve in a typical Lieutenant role, but are almost always kept away from high-risk areas. Upon finishing six months as an Ensign, soldiers graduate to Lieutenants. Alternatively, an Ensign may choose to accept additional training in a specialty, whereby they can become Warrant Officers. While there is less chance of achieving a high rank as a specialist Ensign, the constant high demand for specialist officers ensures some chance of progression, and so many Ensigns do choose this route.

Planet	System	Command	Notes
Ada	Aldebaran	Central	Home planet of Lovelace Labs, home to a sizable garrison. Serves as an emergency base in the case of an assault through Nihal.
Alexandria	Markeb	Central	Part of the Navy’s Central Command despite being generally within the jurisdiction of Deep Security.
Calda	Tejat	Central	One of the farthest north planets in Central Command, Calda is home to a moderate-sized garrison.
Carbuncle Station	Elnath	Central	Home to a very large garrison for a station, even though it is technically owned by Lovelace Labs. Has close ties to Navy Intelligence.
Chiron	Alpha Centauri	Central	Home to a large garrison due to its close proximity to Earth. Also the headquarters of the Public Relations and Xenology bureaus.
Earth	Sol	Central	The ancestral home of humanity, and the best defended planet in the galaxy. Boasts a permanent garrison of about sixty warships, with more brought in in times of danger. Headquarters of Central Command, plus the Logistics, Personnel, Secretarial, and Government Relations bureaus.
Farpoint	Alnitak	Northern	Headquarters of Northern Command, and home to a respectably sized garrison and impressive array of planetary defenses. Regarded, in recent years, as the centre of Admiral Danforth’s sphere of influence.
Farseer	Kursa	Northern	The southernmost planet under Northern Command. Home to a large garrison.
Featherweight	Mebsuta	Northern	Home to a small garrison and not much else. Has links to Navy Intelligence.
Follower	Alphard	Central	Follower is the closest the Navy gets to garrisoning planets in the Deep. While its fleet is composed primarily of light warships, it is still one of the larger garrisons in the galaxy.
Geminus	Castor	Central	Home of the Republic Naval Yards, and headquarters of the Repairs and Construction and Police and Security bureaus.
Glory	Wazn	Northern	Home to a large garrison. One of the southernmost planets under Northern Command.
Heartland	Cor Caroli	Southern	One of the only planets in the Dirt Belt with a permanent garrison of capital ships. Southern Command’s westernmost base of operations.
Hermes	Capella	Central	Home of a large garrison and the headquarters of the Research and Development bureau.
Hestia	Talita	Central	Garrisoned by one of the largest Navy fleets in the galaxy, with one of the largest garrisons in the galaxy.
Luna	Sol	Central	The first major Navy base of the Republic, Luna has since fallen into general disuse. Only the shipyards still are at proper operating strength, and even then they do not have the capacity to handle capital ships.
Maelstrom	Nihal	Central	Up until 2939, the base on Maelstrom was one of the largest in the galaxy, tasked with defending the large stretch of uninhabited systems along the galaxy’s eastern edge. Even though this role has now been taken up by the base on Farpoint, Maelstrom still has a significant Naval presence.
Mainsail	Alhena	Central	For a Paradise planet, Mainsail has a relatively small garrison, although there are rumours of a secret planetary network installed on it.
Mars	Sol	Central	The only one of Sol’s planets without a significant garrison, Mars is nonetheless the presumed headquarters of Navy Intelligence.
Martini	Pollux	Central	Even after the July 4 bombings, Martini is still the economic centre of the Republic. Thus, it should come as no surprise that it also houses the second-largest garrison fleet in the galaxy after Earth.
New Argentina	Vindemiatrix	Southern	One of the only planets in the Dirt Belt with a permanent garrison of capital ships, tasked with ensuring limited mobility for pirates along the galaxy’s western edge.
New China	Merak	Southern	Ironically, New China is further north than some planets in Central Command. Still, it comes under Southern Command due to the lack of hyperspace lanes between it and the Paradise planets. In fact, it is Southern Command’s headquarters.
New Switzerland	Porrima	Southern	The Navy maintains a very small garrison on New Switzerland for legal reasons, but nothing larger; the planet is in a relatively safe region of space and has nothing much worth protecting.
Pearl	Phurad	Northern	Home to a large garrison of capital ships.
Pilot	Elnath	Central	One of several Lovelace Labs planets garrisoned by the Navy.
Prime	Betelgeuse	Northern	Although Farpoint, rather than Prime, is home to the headquarters of Northern Command, Prime still boasts one of the largest garrisons in that region of space.
Relic	Sirius	Central	Used primarily as a stopover planet for Navy ships travelling between Earth and the Paradise planets.
Serpens	Phact	Northern	Serpens has only a token presence of Navy ships, but a high proportion of its small garrison is made up of capital ships.
Shiver	Altair	Southern	A small and lifeless world that primarily serves as a buffer between Sol and the Syndicate.
Shroud	Alheka	Northern	After Betelgeuse, home to the largest garrison in Northern Command.
Silver	Vega	Southern	The main eastern base of operations for Southern Command. Home to a relatively small fleet intended for patrol work.
Skillet	Saiph	Northern	Home to a small garrison that is mainly intended to serve as a reserve for the base on Farpoint.
Splashdown	Canopus	Northern	Splashdown has only a token Naval presence, but its garrison is kept on high alert, ready to mobilize if Farpoint is overrun.
Thrall	Pollux	Central	Thrall has a considerable garrison, albeit smaller than the one on Martini.
Triton Station	Alheka	Northern	Northern Command’s main base of patrol operations south of Farpoint. Home to a small but respectable garrison of light warships.
Vail	Tejat	Central	One of the northernmost planets in Central Command, Vail is home to a moderate-sized garrison.
Vinci	Miaplacidus	Central	Although not the headquarters of the Research and Development bureau, Miaplacidus is still heavily involved in Navy R&D work, as well as maintaining a respectably sized Naval garrison.