Loralynn Kennakris 2: The Morning Which Breaks (69 page)

Being detached from one’s regular unit and sent on temporary assignment to another. A term generally applied only to officers. Enlisted personal are said to be on temporary duty or
TDY
.

The preferred term for a
squad
in the
CEF Marine Corps
. The CEF Marines organize their sections into
fireteams
. See also
CATs
.

Sector Intelligence Group. The
CEF
intelligence organization in each
League
Homeworld
sector. The SIG is directly under the sector
CinC
, not
ONI
. Preceded by the sector abbreviation: e.g. PLESIG for Pleiades Sector Intelligence Group.

Any intelligence derived from signals. Includes
COMINT
and
ELINT
.

A billet only found on major capital ships (light cruisers and up).The Signal Lieutenant monitors all communications, and encodes, decodes, transmits and receives tactical messages. As a
watch stander
, s/he acts as the
Conning Officer's
assistant, tracking contacts and coordinating with the
CIC
sensor section. The Signal Lieutenant also oversees the Signals Department, consisting of the Comms and
IT
sections.

Note:
Whoever is standing watch from the Comms Section is called the Signal Lieutenant, regardless of their rank. (IT personnel do not stand watch.) On light capital ships, these functions are the responsibility of the Conning Officer.

A periodic report of the current tactical situation supplied to
COs
and commands. Who is responsible for producing a SITREP and how it is presented varies by service. In the
CEF
marines
, for example, SITREPs follow a specific format, defining by a template that is filled in, and is the responsibility of the unit
XO
. Many militaries use this approach.

In the
CEF Navy
, the
TAO
is responsible for producing SITREPs. There is no specific template, but SITREPs are expected to conform to an accepted style.

In the
Halith
Navy, SITREPs are viewed as a staff product and are produced by the
staff
operations officer. If the command is not afforded a staff, the
exec
is responsible.

A phenomenon encountered during hyperlight travel that is caused by gravity-wave phase shifts, most commonly from non-isotropic rotating mass distributions in a star system. These phase shifts are undetectable in
RST
; it is the compressive effects that wormholes have on gravity waves that make them felt. Binaries and other partnered star systems, especially those with a neutron star, produce the worst skeer.

Unlike rip, skeer is not usually threat to ships, but has been tentatively implicated in some software anomalies, a few of which have resulted in translation failures.

A
New UK
colony known for its lax regulations, making it a favored trade center.

The (generally) loosely organized slaver groups that formed in the late stages of the
Formation Wars
, when interstellar civilization collapsed and human labor became critically valuable. Once widespread, they also tended to be unstable and most were destroyed in the ‘Slaver Wars’ that were actually the final stage of the Formation Wars. The
Bannermans
and the
Tyrsenians
are among the surviving remnants of these federations.

Senior Officer Commanding. The
CO
of a detachment, such as the
commodore
of a task group or a senior captain of a detached
squadron
. Never used to refer to fleet commanders or commanders-in-chief.

Special Operation Command. An sector-level administrative unit that controls the special operations forces therein. Always preceded by the sector abbreviation: PLE-SOCOM.

Special Operations Force. Applied to any of several types of elite military units tasked with covert, intelligence-gathering, or extreme-risk operations. Organized under a
SOCOM
.
CATs
are a type of
CEF
SOFOR unit.

Sol plus the
Homeworlds
of
Antigua
(Fomalhaut 2-IV),
Phaedra
(Vega 3-II), and
New California
(Procyon 3-II), and their associated
Tier-1 colonies
. These planets were included in the
STO
, the direct forerunner to the
League
. (The names refer to the major guide star for which a region is named. The Arabic number indicates the star in the region; Roman numerals, the planet within that system.)

SOLCOM
is the CEF command that covers the Sol Local Group.

Sol Local Group Command, which covers all the
League
planets within the
Sol Local Group
. SOLCOM Headquarters is at
Rigel Kent
.

Somewhat confusingly, the
CEF
command that covers the Sol system itself is COM-SOLSYS and is nominally under SOLCOM. Because one commander in chief cannot serve under another, the
CO
of Sol System Command is not CinC-SOLSYS but COMSOLFLT, while the commander of the Sol Local Group is the expected CinC-SOLCOM. No other sector has another major command “nested” in it in this way, so this convention is unique to Sol.

This situation has historical roots. When the
STO
was first formed, it set up a fleet to patrol and police the outermost regions of the solar system, and to be a vehicle for the common defense. This fleet was known the Sol Combined Fleet, and it was under the Supreme Allied Command (SAC, sometimes mistaken for
Sol
Allied Command.).

When the STO expanded to become an interstellar treaty organization, a new fleet was established, initially composed of units seconded from the STO world’s
home fleets
. Sol Combined Fleet was retained by Sol itself, and renamed Sol Fleet. SAC was renamed Sol System Command (COM-SOLSYS).

The new fleet was named STO Allied Fleet (SAF) under Joint Forces Command (JFC). Partly as a political maneuver, the senior naval officer (a full admiral) from each of the member worlds was assigned a Dreadnought squadron (DREDRON). These units were then to combine to form the core of the SAF, under the name Joint Command Strike Force (JCSF. Readers may be forgiven for getting lost in the STO’s alphabet soup.). The JCSF was used as the precedent for created the
CEF Strike Forces
. Over time, it became popular to call the SAF the
Grand Fleet
, although this name was not officially adopted under the STO.

On the League’s formation, the SAF and Sol Fleet became issues, because the neither the governments of the
Pleiades
or the
Meridies
had bothered to form a combined fleet. This created an imbalance because the worlds of the STO now controlled the SAF (Grand Fleet) and Sol Fleet, along with the home fleets of
Terra
,
the Belt
,
Phaedra
, and
Antigua
. (
Mars
had never had a fleet, the
Venus
fleet had been absorbed into Sol Fleet, and
New California
allowed its fleet to atrophy when it joined the STO.) This made the STO block roughly as powerful as the Pleiades and the Meridies combined.

The
Meridies
lobbied to have the SAF placed under the CEF and assigned to Regulus, as the CEF fleet linked to SOLCOM, the CEF command that replaced JFC. Terra and the Belt resisted, due to concerns about the Meridies’ expansionist policies in general, and
Eltanin
in particular. (See
Linked Command System
for an explanation of how these policies acted to dilute any concentration of power.)

However, as Sol came to increasingly dominate the League, the existence of these two fleets loomed larger, but they could not be readily accommodated in the Linked Command System, and the prohibition against CEF fleets being in Homeworld systems while under arms meant they could not be assigned to SOLCOM or COM-SOLSYS itself.

Sol (primarily the Belt and Terra) had always been less concerned about CEF units being stationed within its borders (understandably, given the size their home fleets). The compromise reached was that the laws on where CEF units could be stationed would be relaxed, and Sol would give up control of the SAF. Thus, the SAF, officially renamed the
Grand Fleet
, was merged with SOLCOM.

To comply with the amended law, Grand Fleet
task groups
are sent on rotation to the other fleets to serve as replacement forces, and given duties in uninhabited systems about the League’s periphery. This has resulted in a number of nicknames, such as the
Wandering Fleet
, and the
Albatrosses
(because they are always hanging about somebody’s neck), and the observation that Sol now had one
home
fleet, and one
homeless
fleet.

Later COM-SOLSYS was merged into SOLCOM, being reduced in force and moved to
Rigel Kent
to comply with the law. This is the genesis of the unique CEF command structure associated with Sol and the Sol Local Group.

COM-SOLSYS remains anomalous. For many years, it has been the preferred command for Homeworlders to transfer into to get their ‘CEF credentials’ before returning to their home fleet. Thus, COM-SOLSYS has a somewhat undeserved reputation for a being a ‘ticket punching’ command, admired more for the social opportunities afforded by a posting there than for its operational worth.

Standard Operating Procedure.

The Speaker of the
Grand Senate
. The highest executive authority in the
League
, acting as the chairman the
Plenary Council
. In the principle, the Speaker is merely ‘first among equals’ on the Council, but in fact wields considerable executive power under a web of laws that have inexorably expanded the Speaker’s role.

The Speaker is elected from the Grand Senate by the other senators, and is subject to recall and confidence votes. The Speaker must stand for election every five years, but is not subject to a term limit. Compare the
Halith
Proconsuls
.

A generic abbreviation for
Special Operations
.

The most basic tactical infantry unit in most militaries, consisting of 8, 10, or 12 soldiers. Called a
Section
in the
CEF
Marine Corps
and a
Maniple
in the
Halith
ground forces. Three to four
squads
(or sections) form a
platoon
.

The organization of a squad varies between services, militaries and missions, but shares some basic characteristics. They are most often led by a
sergeant or corporal
(rarely, a
cornet
), who is seconded by a corporal or a senior
PFC
. In most cases, they deploy from assault shuttles, which usually have a maximum capacity equal to about two squads.

In addition to the leader and assistant leader, a squad will have at least one gunner armed with a
SAW
(a PFC), four or more soldiers armed according to the squad’s mission (one of whom is also a medic), a shuttle pilot and a co-pilot/gunner who mans the shuttle’s weapons.

The CEF Marines organize their sections into
fireteams
, as do all
League
militaries and the
New UK
. Other militaries, including Halith, have not embraced the fireteam concept.

This term has multiple meanings. Among
fighters
, a squadron is a basic tactical unit, usually consisting of 12 to 16 fighters (3 to 4 flights).

In navies, squadron is an elastic term for a fleet unit. Informally, most any naval unit can be called a squadron. Formally, a squadron is subdivision of a fleet. Different navies handle this in different ways.

The
CEF Navy
considers a squadron to be the basic administrative unit, usually 4 to 8 warships of the same type (major and light capital ships respectively), made up of two
divisions
, the smallest fleet unit in the CEF. It may be employed tactically, although this is usual only when an entire fleet deploys as a unit.

The CEF Navy also uses
squadron
to describe a detached force, operating independently. In this case, a squadron is based around a battlecruiser or cruiser, and might be commanded by a
commodore
, if it is large enough. Such units are assigned a name, but use CRURON or BATCRURON, followed by their fleet’s name and a letter designator (always spelled according to the
call-sign alphabet
) as their unit identifier. So, a detached cruiser squadron from Fifth Fleet is named
Perseus Patrol Force Tango
, its identifier would be CRURON FIVE
Tango
.

A CEF fleet
CO
will have a personal command unit based around a battleship squadron (BATRON), followed by the fleet’s name: BATRON SEVEN.

Dreadnought squadrons are called DREDRONs (no
A
). In the CEF, they are never numbered, and the only CEF DREDRONs are those in the
strike forces
.

In the
Halith Navy
, squadrons are the basic administrative and tactical unit, 2 or 4 squadrons forming a
division
.

The least common use of
squadron
goes back to the age when cavalry was formed into squadrons as their basic tactical unit. Both the Halith Imperial Ground Forces and the Terran Terrestrial Forces continue to call their mobile armored units
armored cavalry
, but only Halith uses
squadron
to refer to their basic tactical unit. Terra uses the term
platoon
.

Strike and Reconnaissance Forces. A branch of the
CEF
; colloquially known as the
Fighters
. The basic tactical unit is a flight of four fighters under the command of a lieutenant, called a Flight Lieutenant. The basic organizational unit is a wing, led by a Lt. Commander. The full organizational structure is: Element: 2 fighters; Flight: 4 fighters;
Squadron
: 12-16 fighters or 3-4 flights; Wing: 2 or 3 squadrons; Group: 2 or more wings.