Fleet Command (2024)

Fleet Command, also known as FLEETCOM and to foreign powers as the Terran Navy, is the main interstellar warfare branch of the Armed Forces of the Greater Terran Union. Originally a maritime branch, it transitioned to purely space-based operations in the early decades of the Union, as part of a vast military restructuring program. The official headquarters of Fleet Command is located in London on Earth, but many of its administration and command staff are located within the vast Fleet Shipyards and Anchorages in orbit of Acadia, located in the Sirius System.

Organization[]

Permanent Operational Fleets[]

The core of FLEETCOM lies on the various component fleets in the operating forces of the Terran Navy. Each component is responsible for their respective area of responsibility across the GTU’s territories. However, unlike the more rigid fleet structure and names (such as the typical numbered fleets, i.e: 1^st Fleet, 2^nd Fleet etc) employed by many other galactic naval forces, FLEETCOM’s fleets are organized under a series of Numbered Expeditionary Fleets that contain up to ten battlegroup/task force (i.e: The Home Fleet’s Homeworld Defense Battlegroup or the 2^nd Ex.’s Task Force Rodina), with each formation fielding about 5,000 to 13,000 combat starships at any given time. During peacetime, each of the Commissariats are afforded one Numbered Expeditionary Fleet to be stationed at strategic or major star systems within their area of responsibility and will not exceed the number of the Commissariats within the GTU (it has 7 Numbered Expeditionaries as of the end of War in Heaven). The number of Numbered Expeditionaries however could fluctuate according to military needs during wartime.

However, there are some irregular formations that are also organized as part of the permanent operational fleet. This could range from the Specialized Warfare Fleets such as Ryan’s Raiders and the Ghostbusters, or the recently formed Battlegroup Styx. Excepting the irregular fleets with their own primary mission, the mission of all Terran Navy fleets is the defense of the Sol System and Earth alone. As such any fleet that operates beyond the stellar boundary of Sol is considered on "expedition", thus leading to the caveat in every fleet title of "expeditionary".

Naval Hierarchy[]

The hierarchy of the warship formations employed by Fleet Command vary in size throughout history, with each unit having their amount of warships required constantly expanding as the GTU's ability to build and man warships increasing exponentially as time marched on, as well as reflecting the need of protecting the vast swaths of its ever expanding territories.

As of the beginning of the War in Heaven, the naval hierarchy of the Fleet Command is as follows:

Auxiliary Components and Planetary Establishment[]

FLEETCOM’s day-to-day operations are largely supported byan equally large and well organized network of auxiliary fleets, orbital/space installations, merchant fleets and planetary infrastructure to support the Permanent Fleets, both in peacetime and wartime. By the militaristic nature of the Terran state and its society, it is not surprising that even its auxiliary ships are moderately well-armed and/or armoured to some degree. Its greatest examples, the Mary Seacole-class hospital ships, are reputedly capable of sustaining heavy damage from corvette/destroyer packraids as well fighting said starships defensively, that it has received far more upgrades and retrofits than compared to the entirety of dedicated combat corvette classesfielded by the Permanent fleets.

In fact, it can be argued that Fleet Command owes much of its success and might due to its round-the-clock maintenance of its auxiliary components, and for a good reason; its militarization as well its history of constant, long warfare had caused Fleet Command to be more focused on the less-flashy aspects such as logistics, medical and economical to a fanatical degree, in anticipation of the worst-case scenario wherethe crippling of said aspects could heavily inflict the operational basis of FLEETCOM.

Among the key components and establishment ofFLEETCOM’s auxiliary forces include:

Combined Reserve Fleet Force[]

In accordance with the agreement between the National Council (on behalf of the Terran Armed Forces) and the myriad of military forces across the GTU's sphere of influence, the officially designated ‘auxiliary forces’ are to be incorporated into FLEETCOM’s overall command structure with a level of autonomy and restrictions imposed upon these semi-independent military institutions. This could range from the respective Commissariats defence forces to the militaries of the GTU vassals.

Personnel[]

All citizens upon reaching the age of 20 who wish to join Fleet Command may take part in the mandatory national service for about 2-5 years. They start as spaceman second rate upon joining FLEETCOM, and gain the rank spaceman first rate afree about 1-2 years of service in accordance with their performance. During this time period the recruits are exposed to a myriad of combat environments, services, space tactics and so on as a way to evaluate and assign the trainees to the department in witch they excel most at. Unlike Land Force Command however, the average period for FLEETCOM’s term of enlistment is about 7 years (compared to a whopping 12 years minimum for LFC), making it a far more popular option for any citizens to enlist in. To deal with the constant overflow of applications, those who are deemed ‘unsuited’ for FLEETCOM’s service more often then not end up being transferred to either Air or Land Force Command (but not the other way around) due to the more pressing needs of manpower for both branches.

Like its Land Force and Air counterparts, any participating sailors are permitted to drop out from their service before the end of their mandatory service within any ‘justified cause’ such as injury beyond repair (physically or psychologically), long-term medical leave, or simply deemed unable to continue training any further. For the latter, this brings heavy risk of being deemed a ‘washout’ with problems such as social stigma and difficulty in increasing tier citizenship despite the GTU’s effort to remedy this problem. However, the GTU’s long experience of ‘washout dilemma’ in Land Force Command and the greater need for specialized trades compared to its other counterparts meant that a former FLEETCOM drop-out (or those listed for the aforementioned ‘cross-service transfer’) may be able to reenter training as part of the Reserves Training Program upon request, in which the former drop-out is instead trained as a vital, non-combatant personnel for various tasks such as administration, medical, engineering and logistics. This effort has at last remedied the washout dilemma that Fleet Command suffered to the point that Land Force Command themselves has been enthusiastically adopting this approach as well.

However, this isn’t the only means of enlistment that any citizens could apply. Those who desire in becoming an officer via fast-track means or those identified with specialized trades instead may take part in the myriads of specialized academies and/or higher education institutions run by the Aerospace Training and Education Command, ranging from the officers academy (ex: Chittagong Officers Academy, Earth), state-run universities (ex: New Kinabalu Military University, Acadia), starfighter academies (Marathon Training Center, Thermopylae Station) or even drawn from fully civilian-run universities depending on the graduates certification via recommendation (ex: a medical graduate from Harvard may receive recommendation/conscripted to join FLEETCOM’s Medical Service).

Ranks and Officers[]

Prior to the First Galactic War, the officers and ratings of the Terran Navy were almost exclusively drawn from the Human and - a few decades after the Wessari Annexation - Wessari population of the GTU, with other species that constituted the GTU population relegated to the Protectorate auxiliary fleets and planetary defense flotilla. The non-human soldieries were allowed to rise as enlisted and NCOs, although only the Wessari were able to petition the National Council to grant members of their species full commissions in the Navy as befitted to their declared citizenship tiers so far. Institutional resistance to the idea of non-human military officers at that time however prevented those who did gain commissions from rising high in the ranks.

Nevertheless, increasing support from the human population over the citizenship rights for the non-human population ensured that more xeno officers are to be included as part of the commissioned officer corps, but with the human population overwhelming the entirety of GTU’s non-human population it means that the COs will remain dominated by humans for most of the time. This changed after a series of catastrophic defeats at the First Battle of Soao and Xukkanis in which scores of senior officers perished, and the subsequent purging of other officers and command staff blamed for the disasters (including several marshals) resulted in many xeno officers getting promoted rapidly with two Wessari COs rising to Admiral rank. From the end of the First Galactic War onwards, the COs of Fleet Command were to be dominated by humans and other martially-inclined xenos, such as the Wessari, Faraxians and the formerly-nomadic Zhell’Zen, although Polenians and Rixians could still attain the rank without much difficulty.

Enlisted[]

• Spacer (Second Rate)
• Spacer (First Rate)
• Leading Spacer
• Petty Officer (Second Rate)
• Petty Officer (First Rate)
• Chief Petty Officer
• Command Petty Officer
• Master Chief Petty Officer

Commissioned Officers[]

• Warrant Officers
• Ensign
• Lieutenant (Junior Rate)
• Lieutenant (Senior Rate)
• Lieutenant Commander
• Commander
• Captain
• Commodore
• Rear Admiral
• Vice Admiral

Executive Commanders[]

Executive Commanders are Fleet Command officers that either held executive power within the National Council as a Marshal (doubles as FLEETCOM's Commander-in-Chief), or those deemed eligible to be granted say within the National Council and National Assembly due to their importance, such as the Chief of Staff, Chief of Headquarters, Chief of Naval Intelligence and the Fleet Admiral of Battlegroup Styx.

• Admiral
• Fleet Admiral
• Marshal of Fleet Command

Equipments and Ships[]

Evolution of Ship Design[]

From the early days of the Space Warfare Branch, much of the design philosophy of Terran starships and their relevant equipment are mostly spartan and utilitarian in nature that are devoid of anything unnecessary. Unlike the more exploration-minded Star Concord and highly aristocratic Florians, its warship would be created solely for fighting, and this mindset also extended further into its civilian starship building; even its merchant vessels and luxury liners are in some way designed to be armed enough to be able to defend themselves.

During the mid 22nd century, its first true space warships were designed to be modular and simple based on a long, rectangular shape that from outside view would look very blocky, ugly and inelegant. The modular nature of its starship design allows each of its sections to be independent from one another, thus allowing easy maintenance, ability to maintain firepower in case of combat damage as well allowing a highly efficient use of resources during the process of shipbuilding. Its early space propulsion only comprised a single, powerful engine and lacked anti-gravity units to make efficient space and energy use compared to the extremely inefficient ship designs used by the Tyrum invaders decades earlier, at the cost of being unable to achieve atmospheric flight should it accidentally wander too deep into any planet’s gravity field and thus necessitated the use of space shuttles for supply and crew boarding.

But as the 23rd century reached its end, the technological leap of Terran shipbuilding prowess led to numerous innovation and improvement over humanity's starship technology, and in particular Fleet Command itself. For example, the novel multi-nacelles engine technology - long thought to be fuel inefficient compared to the single-engine design - become increasingly practical and economically feasible in line with advancement of fuel technology that allows ships to consume less fuel while allowing longer travel range compared to the previous century. This also allows starships to descent into a planet's gravitational well and perform atmospheric flight without problem, and subsequently eliminates the need for the often time-consuming and increasingly inefficient use of space shuttle for planet-to-ship boarding.

Furthermore, the aforementioned revolutionary engine technology had also brought numerous subtle changes over humanity’s starship design. Atmospheric flight for starships enables the use of anti-gravitic drives (along with its centuries of innovation and refinement) for the first time, allowing the installment of previously luxurious components to be economically viable even for military use. The ship’s overall look, while still retaining its utilitarian, modular and pragmatic design, had moved away from its signature blocky features and became more streamlined to necessitate optimal atmospheric and space travel of the warship. Furthermore, advancement of technology allowed humanity to progressively design larger and more powerful warships as time marched on, thus providing humanity a definite edge over the development of fast battleships, carriers and titans far ahead than the rest of the galaxy save the preexisting, waning Fallen Empires - all without sacrificing the resource efficiency on ship construction, manning and maintenance that are the trademark of humanity’s culture.