Loralynn Kennakris 2: The Morning Which Breaks (62 page)

In the
Halith Navy
,
flotilla
is the term for in-system naval units, usually led by a frigate supported by LMACs and patrol vessels. It is both tactical and administrative unit.

The
CEF Navy
does not use the term flotilla for warships, but applies it to auxiliaries (e.g. mine layers/mine sweepers, tankers and munitions ships, stores ships, repair vessels,
AGIs
, etc).

A major developer and manufacturer of gravitic technology and systems. Forbes-Dyson supplies the
grav-plants
for about half the
League’s
starships. The corporation is based in Melbourne in the Republic of Victoria, on
Terra
. (
Marcus Huron
is employed as a senor staff physicist there.)

An epochal series of interstellar conflicts that ended the
Second Colonization Period
. Lasting almost 200 years, the Formation Wars marked a definitive break between the prior and current period of interstellar civilization as a whole. Many human settlements were destroyed or lost during this period, the history of which is poorly known due to the widespread destruction and the loss of many records.
GAT
is based in the armistice that ended the conflict between the surviving major powers, but smaller conflicts continued for decades, although some historians choose to give those different (and various) names.

Metabonded Forward Propagating Focused Blast Explosive. An extremely powerful experimental explosive with a directional blast. Normally inert; detonated only by
EMP
.

Any region of space where no traffic control is exerted. It usually refers a region within a star system. Beyond the political boundaries of a star system is
interstellar space
.

Faster-than-light. Synonymous with the term
hyperlight
, which is more commonly heard.

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A
League
Homeworld
located in the Pleiades Cluster, along with
Hestia
and
Nedaema
. Frequently at odds with
Nedaema
, it has close ties to the worlds of the
Meridies Cluster
.

Galactic Arbitrary Time. The common calendar used by most
star civilizations
. The Epoch date is the armistice that officially end the
Formation Wars
. Dates prior to the Formation Wars are reckoned according
Terran
AD dating.

General Quarters. A
readiness condition
for imminent combat: all hands at battle (or action) stations and the ship is fully secured (in lockdown).

General Quarters (the
CEF
term) goes by different names in other navies. In the
Halith
navy, the term is
Combat Stations
. In the
Royal Navy
,
Action Stations
is used, and the
Ionian Navy
uses the archaic term
Beat to Quarters
.
Battle Stations
is used in some navies (e.g. the
Bannerman Navy
), while the
Andaman Navy
uses the peculiar phrase
Deus vult
, which supposedly means “God wills it” (the origin of this term is obscure). In all cases, the meaning is the same and correlates to Condition 1 of the four generally recognized readiness conditions. See also
WCS
.

The
CEF Navy’s
General Staff retains its name from the time that the
Marines
and
SRF
were subordinate to the
Navy
. Currently, it serves as the Navy’s staff organization under the
CNO
. The staff structure for the Marshal of the SRF and the Marine Corps Commandant is similar. All three staffs are collocated at
CGHQ
. (Compare the
Halith Supreme Staff
and the
General Staff of the Royal Navy
.) The General Staff is organized as follows.

1.    Administration

1.1.   Personnel (postings, promotions & awards. Compensation is under
SECNAV
.)

1.2.   Chaplains

1.3.   Legal

1.4.   Military Police

2.    Intelligence

2.1.   Intelligence

2.2.   Counterintelligence

2.3.   Security

3.    Operations

3.1.   Operations (includes EW and IW as well as combat operations)

3.2.   Planning (Strategic planning, as opposed to Ops planning under G3.1)

3.3.   Training (includes the Advanced Warfare College)

4.    Logistics

4.1.   Ordnance (all weapon systems and ammunition)

4.2.   Fuel (including distilling facilities, harvester and tanker fleets)

4.3.   Supplies (rations, uniforms, morale support, other such items and services)

5.    IT

5.1.   Communications

5.2.   Signals

5.3.   Data Processing

5.4.   R&D (Separate from
SECNAV
R&D, and more commonly known as a ‘dirty tricks’ department, tasked with the development of military bots etc.)

6.    Astrographics (in-system navigation and interstellar astrogation, charts, hazards etc.)

7.    Engineering (Propulsion systems, both sublight and gravitic.)

8.    Civil Affairs (Coordination & cooperation with civilian authorities.)

9.    Medical (The CEF elevates this function out of the Administration Department to highlight its importance.)

Note:
the CEF (in common with
Terra
and many of the staffs the Homeworld’s militaries) use the letters
G
and
S
as the staff section prefix within its navy. This is based on an ancient Terran tradition, thought to have originated in the Prussian military of the 19th Century (AD Reckoning). The Marines and the SRF are assigned their own prefixes. The nomenclature is:

Navy: G for Fleets; GS for the General Staff; S for staff sections within units commanded by a Captain, Commodore or Rear Admiral.

Marines: C for regiments or brigades; CS: for the Commandant’s Staff; S for staff sections within units commanded by officers ranked major through colonel.

SRF: SR for
SRF groups
; SRM for the Marshal’s Staff.

The
New UK
staff system differs from both the
CEF General Staff
and the
Halith Supreme Staff
. It includes three branches:

A Branch: Administration Branch, responsible for all administrative functions and for personnel management, including legal and medical.

G Branch: General Branch, responsible for operations, intelligence, and training.

Q Branch: Quartermaster branch, responsible for logistics.

Postpausal geriatrics are treatments to ameliorate the effects of aging. Postpausal refers to the fact they are applied after the onset of menopause or andropause. These treatments do not extend human life beyond its upper biological limit (about 140 to 150 years), but they allow people to live much more active lives for a larger portion of that period. An average adult can expect to have an active life into their 100’s. Exceptional persons have continued to perform, mentally and physically, at an extremely high level until about 110. Severe senescence begins to set in for most between 115 and 130, and very few people live past 140.

Some persons, due to their genetic makeup, are resistant to the treatments and suffer severe senescence while still in their 90s. (Compare
Rejuvenants
.)

The governing legislative body of the
Nereidian League
. Grand senators are selected from the
Homeworlds
and
eligible colonies
. Homeworlds have two grand senators each, while colonies are allowed only one.

The method of selection is up to the planet being represented and can be general election, selection or election by members a governing body, direct appointment or
royal warrant
. One colony even selects its grand senator by lot.

Zones where hyperlight travel is denied due to massive bodies such as black holes, neutron stars (especially in partnered systems), and highly active super- or hypergiant stars. These bodies create extreme
rip
, and at times severe gravitational lensing effects, which are deadly to ships encountering them. They also create
skeer
, a lesser problem.

The gravitic plant that gives a
starship
hyperlight or
FTL
capability. The grav-plant is contained with a starship’s keel, to isolate the hull from its effects.

The
Halith
term for slave labor.

The dining and social accommodation for
NCOs
on a navy ship. In some senses, a ‘
club
’ for NCOs, and often considered to be ‘most hallowed ground’ in the
CEF
, due the central role NCOs play in running the ship. An additional reason is that NCOs, uniquely, are allowed to order their own food at government expense, in almost unlimited variety and quantity. The gunroom is thus the most well-provisioned
mess
on a CEF ship, and an opportunity to dine there is a coveted.

Other enlisted personnel are not admitted to the gunroom, although they are allowed to stand in the entryway (called the
carpet
) when sent there on official business. Officers are only admitted on invitation. (This does not apply to the captain, who by tradition never sets foot in the gunroom in the CEF, or in most other navies.) On a happy ship, the gunroom will invite selected officers to dine on a regular basis. (NCOs are generally not invited to dine in the wardroom, nor would they wish to be, because of the often inferior food and drink available there.)

In some navies, only chief petty officers (
chiefs
) mess in the gunroom, and petty officers mess with the rates. This is not the case in the CEF.

Gunrooms have a mess president, who is the senior NCO present, and a mess steward, who is elected. The mess steward is primarily responsible for ordering food and liquor and is a most sought after position, as it affords great opportunity for a ‘
capperbar
’ or ‘friendly’ corruption. (Compare
wardroom
.)

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Hunter-killer satellites. Semiautonomous armed satellites used to patrol and defend a star system. Often shortened to
H&Ks
.

An authoritarian, expansionist
star civilization
in the Orion Spur, consisting of six
core systems
and numerous colonies and clients. It is militarily powerful and a slave state. The Halith core systems are: Halith Evandor (the Prime World and capital), Haslar, Vehren, Syrdar, Pindarus, and Zhian. It is ruled by two
proconsuls
who head the
Council of Ministers
.

The Orion Spur is a densely populated stellar region, but transit in and out of it is constrained by the surrounding
gravitational exclusion zones
. The key
nexus
is Hissarlik, located at Haslar, which serves all core systems, but critically Vehren and Halith Evandor, which are otherwise isolated. Other nodes are located at Zhian and Illyria; the latter controls the
Huygens’ Gap
.
Tau Verde
is the final important nexus: it controls the
Novaya Zemlya
transit. (
Note:
the main route out of the Orion Spur via Hissarlik is controlled by the
Maxor
, which has important strategic implications.)

These constraints allow Halith to exert firm control over their local colonies, but also makes them vulnerable to isolation, leading Halith to covet major nodes outside the Orion spur, such as the
Kepler Junction
. They also have a longstanding desire to occupy
Karelia
, based on the latter’s position, a degree of cultural affinity, and the fact that Karelia has inflicted a number of military embarrassments on them in the past.

One idiosyncrasy of Halith society is that they insist on considering themselves an empire without an emperor, and this is reflected in both the names of the some of their governmental organs, such as the Imperial Research & Intelligence Service (
IRIS
), and their military branches: the
Imperial Navy
, the Imperial Marines, and the Imperial Ground Forces. (The last branch of the Halith military, the security forces, which includes the military police, penal colonies and POW facilities, is not graced with the term
imperial
.) However, the top Halith military command (under the
Ministry Of War
) is the
Supreme Staff
, not the Imperial General Staff, as one might expect.

A remote, primitive and pastoral settlement chosen as a refuge by a large group of
Amalekite
settlers after they were forced off
Rephidim
. The plan was not entirely successful, however, as Harkness has been a target for slaver raids.

A payment made for prisoners captured as the result of taking an enemy ship as a prize. In the
League
, this is most often done in lieu of a payment of
prize money
, in the event a lawful prize must be abandoned or cannot otherwise be sold. A related payment,
gun money
, has long since been discontinued.

There are two helmsmen on a hypercapable ship. The
helmsman
directs the ship when it is in
RST
. The
G-helmsman
operates the gravitics. In the
CEF
, both are typically
WO
billets.

A powerful
League
Homeworld
located in the
Meridies Cluster
, along with
Messier
and
New Meridies
. A constitutional monarchy known for its military prowess. The Royal Hesperian Marine Corps is considered to be the League’s most elite.