Loralynn Kennakris 2: The Morning Which Breaks (70 page)

A fleet carrier typically embarks three wings: a strike wing, a recon wing, and an interceptor wing (assigned to
CAP
duties), forming one group. Light carriers embark a mix of squadrons based on the assigned mission, usually about the size of a single wing. Escort carriers, used primarily for convoy work, only embark two squadrons, if that.

The SRF maintains a close relationship with the
Navy
, and SFR officers continue to exchange into Navy billets, often
staff positions
or as
TAOs
. (See also
starlings
.)

Note
: When the CEF was first formed, it employed
WO
flight officers, but as the Service grew and more Homeworlders joined, the practice was gradually abandoned. The SRF resumed using WOs as flight officers during
LH-1
, but again discontinued these
billets
the after the war.

Special Services Office. A secret
League
unit tasked with extreme-risk and deep-cover operations, including kidnapping and assassination. Its existence has never been acknowledged and rumor holds it was disbanded after the
first Halith-League war
.

In the military, staff are officers, commissioned or
NCOs
, who advise and assist a superior officer.
Line officers
above the rank of commander in the navy, and major in the ground forces and marines, typically have a staff. A commander who is captain of a warship will also have a staff.

Whether a staff officer can assume command and how they are viewed differs among militaries. For example, in the
CEF
, staff officers are eligible to assume command, if they are the senior officer available and have served as a line officer. This is supported by the CEF policy of rotating officers between line and staff positions to broaden their professional experience.

Halith
, in contrast, does not allow staff officers to assume command. Their staff officers are usually specialists with little command experience. Further, the Halith military considers staff officers below the rank of captain or colonel subordinate to line officers, even those of inferior rank. (Halith captains and colonels are subordinate only officers of the same rank or higher.)

The staff structure varies in different militaries, although the same basic support functions are included: administration, intelligence, operations, logistics, legal and medical. Depending on the unit level, there may be additional staff functions, or some may be eliminated. Compare
CEF General Staff
, the
Halith Supreme Staff
, and the
General Staff of the New UK’s Royal Navy
.

A major interstellar society or polity that shares a common culture (or cultural heritage) and operates under some form of cooperation, in which the individual societies often have their own governments. It may be defined by treaty or be a loose voluntary federation, or may have a more powerful central government.

For example, the
League
began as a treaty organization. It is a star civilization by virtue of the shared heritage of its members and their long association even though the individual cultures of its
Homeworlds
are often quite different.
Halith
, in contrast, has always had a strong and authoritarian
central government
.

A star-faring society (that is, capable of interstellar travel) ruled by a single government. Usually, but not always, a single system or single planet. Compare
Star Civilization
.

The fastest
starships
ever built. Very expensive and employed by companies (and occasionally governments) as couriers, or purchased by the hyper-rich as racing yachts.

The fastest starclippers are twin-keel starclippers. Fewer than 1000 were built, and less than half of those are thought to be in current operation.

In the
CEF
, a flight-rated naval officer. A holdover from when the
SRF
was part of the
Navy
. SRF officers still often exchange into the Navy on a temporary basis.

Any vessel that is
hypercapable
. The characteristic keel that contains the
grav-plant
is the infallible sign of a starship.

Sol Treaty Organization, the direct forerunner to the
Nereidian League
. Originally established between the governments of
Earth
,
Venus
,
Mars
, and
the Belt
to govern the solar system. It later expand to include the worlds of the
Sol Local Group
.

A form of quark matter consisting of a ‘liquid’ of
up
,
down
, and
strange
quarks.
Strange matter
occurs in the core of some neutron stars and can be created in gravitic ovens. It has a density of 8×1017 kg/m3 or ~1 kg per cubic micron.

A deck running the entire length of a ship that resists longitudinal torsion. On a space station, the deck(s) that provide structural stability.

Strike forces are special units within the
CEF Navy
, under the direct command of
CEF
sector
CinCs
.

When the
linked-command system
was instituted in the CEF, whereby the three fleets assigned to the colonial sectors were linked to a corresponding
Homeworld
sector, in which the CinC was based, considerable resistance was met over the fact that the CinC was not assigned any local forces, due to the restriction on having CEF units in the Homeworlds. To make matters worse, fleet
COs
were administratively under the sector
CinC
, but operationally under
CNO
. (This was done to prevent any unwanted concentration of power.)

This arrangement was proved so unpopular that the
Grand Senate
, using as a precedent the Joint Command Strike Force of
STO’s
‘Grand Fleet’, authorized the creation ‘strike forces’ under the direct control of the CinCs. However, these were largely ceremonial units until the beginning of
LH-1
, when they were greatly expanded and finally became units worthy of their name.

Currently, there are four Strike Forces, each named for the dreadnought that serves as the unit’s flagship (by tradition, dreadnought units are never numbered). These are:
Agincourt
(
SOLCOM
),
Ardennes
(the
Pleiades
),
Thermopylae
(
Cygnus
), and
Victory
(
Meridies
).

Each strike force contains two dreadnoughts and is divided into two units, called DREDRONs (dreadnought
squadron
). The unit containing the flagship is based in the Homeworld sector, while the other is deployed to the colonial sector. The terms used to describe these two DREDRONs vary. The Meridies refers to them as
Home
and
Abroad
, the Pleiades uses
Forward
and
Base
, SOLCOM calls them
Shield
and
Sword
, while Cygnus opts for
Anvil
and
Hammer
.

Due to this lack of standard nomenclature, the CEF generically refers to the flagship force as
Tango
and the forward-deployed force as
X-ray
, combined with the strike force name. Thus, CYGCOM’s forward-deployed strike force unit would be DREDRON
Thermopylae X-ray
, and PLESEC’s flagship unit would be DREDRON
Ardennes Tango
.

The name of the
CEF Marine Corps
elite 101st Marine Special Operations
Brigade
, commanded by a Lieutenant General, not a
brigadier
. The majority of
CATs
are drawn from this unit.

The permanent rank a person in the military holds, and which determines (most concretely) their pay and other benefits. Occasionally a source of confusion, because said person may also hold
brevet rank
or a
billet
that gives them additional, but temporary authority, responsibilities and perqs. When such a temporary position or assignment lapses, the person reverts to their substantive rank.

Substantive ranks can only be conferred by the proper authority, generally someone of flag officer or general officer rank, or a governing body. In the
CEF Navy
, fleet commanders, sector
CinCs
and
CNO
all have the ability to promote up to a certain grade, rear admiral generally being the highest rank that can be so conferred. (Retiring admirals in the CEF are also allowed to make certain promotions among their staffs and followers.)

In the CEF Marine Corps a similar system holds, the highest rank the Commandant can confer being
brigadier
. The highest rank the Marshall of the
SRF
can promote to is Flight Brigadier (equivalent to a rear admiral or a major general).

Vice admirals and above in the navy, and lieutenant generals in the marines and ground forces are typically appointed by a governing command authority. In the CEF, candidates for these ranks (including Vice Marshal in the SRF) must be nominated by the
Plenary Council
and approved by the
Grand Senate
, except in time of war, when the
Speaker
has wide latitude to allow the top commanders to promote. Other societies have various traditions that are similar in affect.

The Sultanate of
Andaman & Nicobar
.

The Halith Supreme Staff (under the
Ministry Of War
) shows a markedly different focus than the
CEF
(compare
CEF General Staff
). Further, the Supreme Staff is a combined staff for all the Halith military branches: Navy, Ground Forces, Marines, and Security Forces. (Fighters are not a separate service, but organic to the naval units on which they serve.)

The relationship of the Supreme Staff to the Ministry Of War is also unique. Unlike the general staffs of other militaries, the Supreme Staff exerts almost complete control over Halith’s military complex, including the definition of requirements and the allocation of resources, which in other societies are the province of either a civilian bureaucracy or the chief executive authority.

The Halith Ministry Of War, however, is has only a minimal staff and, what is more, the Supreme Staff holds a near monopoly on information relating to military matters. The Ministry therefore lacks the resources to conduct its own independent analyses, and would have to rely on the Supreme Staff for the data to do them, if it tried.

In addition, while the War Minister does have a seat on the
Council of Ministers
, so does the Grand Marshal, who acts as Chief of the Supreme Staff, and typically about half of the hereditary lords on the Council are also high-ranking military officers. Thus, the War Minister would have an extremely difficult time charting a course for the military that its senior officers did not endorse. At times, internal divisions within the military can be (and have been) exploited by a politically adroit War Minister, but examples of this are few and far between.

The Supreme Staff’s insulation from oversight even applies, though to a lesser degree, to the ruling
Proconsuls
. Friction between the proconsuls and the Supreme Staff has historically been rare, but when it does occur, the proconsuls can wield their power of appointment and, most especially, the power of the purse, to bring a recalcitrant staff to heel.

While Halith society greatly fears a proconsul developing imperial ambitions, it equally detests the idea of a military dictatorship, and this exerts a countervailing force against either party (the proconsuls or the Supreme Staff) attempting to completely monopolize power.

The Supreme Staff is structured as follows:

1.    General Affairs Bureau

1.1.   Administration Department

1.2.   Mobilization Department (Conscription and slave labor, called ‘guest’ labor. Includes an office that provides women to military units for sexual purposes.)

1.3.   Training Department

2.      Operations Bureau

2.1.   Plans & Operations Department

2.2.   Logistics Department

2.3.   IT Department

3.      Intelligence & Security Bureau

3.1.   Intelligence & Counterintelligence

3.2.   Security

3.3.   Vega Group (Field interrogation and similar units. Also known as
Group V
. Previously under Department Seven.)

4.      Military Research Bureau

4.1.   Military History Department

4.2.   Strategy and Tactics Department

5.      Imperial Staff College

6.      Astrographic Survey Department

7.      Department Seven (Special forces)

7.1.   Xylon Group (Counterterrorism and protection of strategic facilities. Also known as
Group X
.)

7.2.   Zeta Group (Covert operations involving infiltration, assassination and sabotage. Also known as
Group Z
. Compare
SSO
. Not to be confused with the popular
social-networking service
.)

8.      Military Security

8.1.   Penal Colonies

8.2.   POW Facilities

8.3.   Military Police & Security forces

Note:
Vega
,
Xylon
, and
Zeta
are the Halith codewords for the letters ‘V’, ‘X’, and ‘Z’.

Sutlers were originally civilian merchants who followed armies to supply them with food and other necessities. During the
Second Colonization period
, it evolved a general term for itinerant merchants who visited outlying settlements, selling luxuries and hard-to-get wares. During this period, sutlers developed an unsavory reputation for sharp dealing. During the
Formation Wars
and their aftermath, many sutlers began to contract with the
Slave Federations
to provide logistical support. This practice was so widespread that
sutler
became a generic term for anyone who acts as a supply agent for slavers. (Compare
lixae
and
victualers
.)