Sigil Spam: Played entirely straight. The Imperials are a proud bunch, and they expect it of others; indeed, lack of Sigil Spam is considered rather suspicious, because if you aren’t proud enough to stand behind your product/service/philosophy, then why should they believe it’s any damn good, right?
Month: October 2015
Building the Imperial Navy: Strategic Assumptions
So, up next for you, the first in our six-part series on Building the Imperial Navy, using the model outlined by David Weber and Christopher Weuve in various places, such as the afterword to House of Steel. For the details of the model, see the diagram at right.
In this first part, we’re looking at the Strategic Assumptions, the starting place that defines the context within which the IN operates. This is divided into two parts – the Security Environment (the general threats to be countered) and the Fiscal Environment (the resources available to pay for it).
Security Environment
Let us consider galactography. The Worlds are ~10,000 star systems scattered across a volume of space that contains perhaps ~100 million star systems in total. The Empire, by contrast, is composed of ~175 star systems sitting right in the center of said 100 million, plus another ~100 scattered through the ecumene, ~275 in total, further plus a number of sub-planetary exclaves here and there. At that, it’s the biggest polity in the worlds: its nearest competitors, the Photonic Network and the League of Meridian, are only 120-150 world polities. Most of the worlds is made up of a variety of polities from that size on down to multiple hundreds of single-system polities.
The Worlds, however, directly abut the Voniensa Republic, which contains ~8,000 star systems. Fortunately, the Republic has a considerable technological disadvantage (for reasons elaborated on elsewhere), but it does have a fleet befitting its size, and the same reasons behind its disadvantage also make it hostile. (One might have gathered from certain aspects late in The Core War some hints as to why exactly it needs such a fleet and why it has internal reasons not to throw all of it at the Worlds, but this is an area in which, well, spoilers.)
As for the worlds themselves, all the polities which make them up aren’t exactly unified (for a variety of reasons, from fundamental cultural and biological disagreements up to various efforts, the Empire’s not least among them, to spike any notion of evolving galactic governance). They vary in makeup from firm Imperial allies, through other major powers that are at least reliable (say, the Consolidated Waserai Echelons) down through a motley collection of malcontents and rogue states.
So what are the resulting security concerns?
- Hot war with the Republic.
- Hot war with major Worlds powers.
- Brushfire wars among the states of the Worlds, especially as they impact:
- Trade: the Empire has a huge merchant fleet, and disruptions of trade are most unwelcome;
- And the stargate network: which while it extends throughout the Worlds, is primarily owned by Ring Dynamics, ICC, an Imperial starcorporation.
- Piracy (likewise for its trade impact) and terrorism.
- Perversions erupting from inadvisable seed AI experiments.
- Internal-void threats: subluminal attacks from worlds not connected to the stargate plexus, such as the skrandar berserker incident.
- RKVs, relativistic kill vehicles, an appallingly dangerous planet-wrecking technology that even relatively primitive starfaring technologies can built, albeit with a longer time-to-kill.
Fiscal Environment
By and large, the IN – and the Imperial Military Service in general – does not have to worry about money.
It’s not unlimited, budget-wise – even a post-material-scarcity society can’t manage that – but the theoretical ceiling on its budget is so far, far above what they already spend to be basically irrelevant. The Imperial governance collects a 3.6% rake in the shape of the Empire Services fee (plus fines, donations, and purchases of titles of privilege); of that, the Admiralty gets maybe 12-14%. Of the Admiralty budget, the IN gets roughly 48%. Which is to say, in re these last two figures, that battleships are kinda expensive even when the majority of payout goes to personnel, outsourced services, and exotica.
The most relevant part of the former figure, on the other hand, is to say that the Empire, in time of war, can raise the Service Fee by a factor of five-and-a-half while still staying within the Imperial Charter’s previously agreed constraints on what’s permissible, So, yeah, there’s a lot of upside before running into a hard constraint.
(Unless, of course, the shit-fan convergence reaches the point at which the Council of the Star is willing to sign off on CASE ADHAÏC PARASOL, which turns the demons of autoindustrialism sleeping in the depths of Fortress’s well loose, thus allowing autonomous AI battleships to self-replicate and fork more and more autonomous AI battleships on an exponentially rising curve…
…while they have been carefully designed not to violate any of the rules – or indeed commonsense safety guidelines – where oopsing heggie swarms into existence are concerned, ADHAÏC PARASOL does skim close enough to the limits and other people’s nightmares about that sort of thing that it would take some real serious shit-fan convergence to be worth initiating it, though.)
Rather, the chief constraints are twofold: personnel, inasmuch as there are only so many sentinels looking to take up a Navy career during peacetime, and while the Navy does recruit digisapiences just as eagerly as it does everyone else, there is a limit to how much it wants to substitute with non-sophont AI. (CASE ADHAÏC PARASOL notwithstanding.) Fortunately, the IN has no trouble filling the ranks of its peacetime complement, because per the above, it has no trouble offering generous salaries, providing excellent training, and so on and so forth.
The other is “political”: on the one hand, the Empire’s firm belief that it isn’t, or at least doesn’t want to be, a giant military fist poised over everyone else’s face. It doesn’t have the self-concept of a military power – not for many centuries – and doesn’t particularly want to develop one, preferring to believe in its, really mostly justified, status as a neutral power that’s friendly with the Worlds, or at least that portion of the Worlds that isn’t 100% dicks.
On the other hand, it’s equally firm belief that si vis pacem, para bellum, or in less formal terms, that the way you ensure the peace is by being such pants-wettingly terrifying bastards that no-one this side of sanity would seriously consider attacking you.
It is the ebb and flow of this particular somewhat schizophrenic belief-pair that has had, historically, the most influence on the size and scope of the IN.
Technologically speaking, the IN can generally be assured of technical superiority over its opponents, for reasons which can partly be summed up as “moon-sized space brains” and can partly be summed up as “mad scientists gonna science madly”.
Indeed, the major issues faced by the Admiralty in the technical arena is ringmastering the tendency over at BuInnov to want to stick all their latest innovations on whatever the newest starship class is, and occasionally reminding them that neither ‘punching holes in the universe’ nor ‘cracking a planet in half and frying it like an egg’ is a currently desired tactical capability over at BuPlan.
Trope-a-Day: Shoulder Cannon
Shoulder Cannon: On most Imperial combat exoskeleton designs, this is where they fit the semi-autonomous point-defense weapons. (Also, on whichever shoulder suits you, the brackets where you prop/clamp the rear end of the Really Big Guns.) Backpack Cannons are usually more common (although still rare) for offensive weapons, since they tend to need less of a good view.
Naval Organization
So, as a preamble to other naval posts, let me take a moment to post some notes on the internal organization of the Imperial Navy that I’ll be referring to later.
(Pray pardon the hand-drawn diagram and dodgy formatting; I’m still at the con and posting from my smrtphn.)
At the top, you have the Second Lord of the Admiralty, whose function is – in conjunction with the other Lords of Admiralty – to formulate naval policy in the context of overall military policy. The rest of the organizational structure of the IN, while providing advice, is mostly purposed to implement said policies.
The top-level division is the semi-formal one between the Space Lords, whose responsibilities are for the Navy’s “teeth” – all that happens out in the black – and the Shore Lords, who are responsible for its “tail”, station-centered support functions.
The First Space Lord, almost always an Admiral of the Fleet, is responsible for overall strategic direction and the deployment of mobile units, through the Fleet Commands (for the Capital Fleet, the directional fleets, and so forth). While direct operational control in time of war is exercised through Core Command, its appointed Warmain (who commands all IMS units, not just IN ones), and his Theater Command, all under the First Lord of the Admiralty, these units belong to Fleet Command and the First Space Lord.
The First Space Lord also has direct control of the Nightfall Operations Command, which includes all those special units I could tell you about, but then I’d have to kill you and anyone else you might have spoken to in the interim.
The Second Space Lord is in charge primarily of doctrine development and operational planning, via the Naval Strategy & Tactics Board and the Type Commanders (who specialize in individual ship types) and their departments, collectively known as the Bureau of Planning (“BuPlan”).
They also control the Medical Command – which operates hospital and rescue ships, general medical functions being outsourced to IMS Medical under the Eighth Lord of the Admiralty – and the Naval Reserve.
The Third Space Lord commands the fixed defenses – Perimeter Security Command, which owns the Empire’s border-crossing stargaze garrisons, deep-space monitoring arrays, and anti-RKV systems; Fortress Command, which commands monitors, orbital defense grids, and other heavy fixed system defenses; and Tripwire Command, which controls various fixed monitoring satellites, primarily the Interface Defense Matrix at the edge of the Imperial Fringe and the Borderline Defense Matrix where the Worlds meet the Republic.
Among the Shore Lords’ departments, the Bureau of Ships (“BuShips”) deals with construction and support of the IN’s starships as materiel – incorporating Station Command, which includes all the IN’s space stations and satellites; Cageworks Command, which is shipyards and construction; and Refit and Repair Command, which coordinates maintenance, repairs, upgrades, and yard dog bitching about the state starships were brought to them in.
The Bureau of Innovation (“BuInnov”) is exactly what it says on the tin.
The Bureau of Logistics (“BuLog”) is, as its sub-org names imply, just a plug-in to the personnel and logistics services provided by the Eighth Lord of the Admiralty’s Stratarchy of Military Support and Logistics.
And the Bureau of Training (“BuTrain”) contributes training for the IN’s officers and men, including both the Naval Academy section of the Imperial War College, and the Operational Training Command, which coordinates extended post-Academy training aboard ship, and unit work-ups.
Those looking for conspicuous absences from this diagram will, at this point, have noticed both intelligence (Admiralty Intelligence is one step up, a peer of the IN as a whole, on the org chart) and legal functions (outsourced to the Watch Constabulary, the Office of Investigation and Pursuit, and/or the Three Departments of Impropriety as required, because they hate redundancy…)
Trope-a-Day: Short Range Shotgun
Short Range Shotgun: Averted. Flipping the switch on either standard model of slugthrower (pistol or carbine, turning it into a shotgun-analog, sawed-off and regular respectively, by firing multiple flechettes in rapid succession while flaring the fields at the end of the mass driver to achieve spread), or firing canister shot from a sluggun, does nothing to turn down the power. If anything (if you don’t manually drop the power to get low penetration, that is) they’re even more lethal than regular shot out of the same weapon, and equally effective at range. With the advantages of spread on top of that.
Fictional Refugee Fictional Policy
Man, y’all do love to ask me questions touching on real-world issues. Seriously, I’m not writing allegory, here. But, anyway, someone anonymous picked up on a past reference to the Conclave’s rejection of the Accord on Refuge-Seeking Sophonts, and wants to know just what the Imperial policy is on refugees, anyway.
Let me express this for you in the form of a conversation that has happened somewhere in the back halls of the Conclave of Galactic Polities approximately a shitload of times to date:
“We don’t have a refugee policy. A polity whose entire immigration stance can be summarized as ‘Yeah, just turn up and don’t be a dick.’ doesn’t need a refugee policy.”
“But… then why don’t you admit more refugees?”
“Because being on the losing side of your special conflict is no guarantee that you aren’t, in point of fact, a dick.”
(The discussion is then tabled briefly while the argument shifts to the much older and equally fruitless discussion of why the Empire persists in having such unreasonably high standards for its citizen-shareholders, and whether or not it could take this particular stick out of its ass for a good cause [spoiler: legally speaking, no].)
Trope-a-Day: Short Range Long Range Weapon
Short Range Long Range Weapon: Most sensible people try really hard to avert this – seeing as the lovely people who make these things for a living have provided them with so many comfortably long-range weapons, it’s a shame not to take advantage of them, and fight where survivability is greater, and surprise much more achievable – say, with drones, from over the horizon. (See, for example, the starship combat ranges mentioned under Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale, which avert it very hard indeed.)
Not always possible, since chokepoints still exist and urban combat is still occasionally needed, and so on, but given the tactical choice, people will almost always pick ranged combat. No sense in taking damnfool risks when you don’t have to.
Vagaries of Thought
“…some of the greatest enthusiasm for p-zombies as a product, rather than as a concept, came from social science research – finding itself in a position to become an experimental science at long last, as the accessibility of entities which by definition behaved as if they were conscious sophonts without actually being conscious sophonts, to within multiple-nines fidelity, would permit them to run full societum simulations without running into the ethical constraints which dogged even small-scale, consensual experiments previously, and derive meaningful results from their study.
“That this is not a more common practice is the result of two principal factors:
“First, that the nondeterministic element in the mathematics of the logos, providing as it does a degree of paracausality in sophont action, far from being lost in the averaging of the remainder of the multiple-nines fidelity of the simulation, rather proved the trigger for chaotic clionomic excursions: it became apparent even in early studies that this paracausality often specifically manifested (or rather, in societum simulation, failed to manifest) in whenwheres of catalytic effect. This phenomenon, commonly referred to as the Cíëlle Vagary, consistently renders the most interesting simulations disjoint and predictively unuseful.
“Second, populations of p-zombies, even more so than singletons, are creepy as hell.”
– A History of Applied Sophotechnology,
Atania Cíëlle
Trope-a-Day: Shoot The Hostage
Shoot the Hostage: Appallingly easy to do in a world that averts Final Death so hard. Also see Hostage Situation.
(The only thing that stops it from happening more often is the lack of cooperating hostages. Hell, sometimes they even take themselves out of the picture.)
Beyond This Horizon
The cacoastrum of the embedding empyrean, in information physics, can best be defined as the all-set. As the all-set it contains in potentia all entities, including all rules by which all entities behave, all forces which affect all entities, and all frameworks against which any of these all can be measured, in a continuously churning framework of all possible interactions.
(These interactions could be thought of as occurring over all time. This is inaccurate. The concept of time itself – indeed, many differing concepts of time – is a member of the all-set, which does not at any given not-time include time, or time in any particular relationship with any other all-set members.)
Some of these agglomerations of entities occasionally attain self-consistency and long-term stability.
These agglomerations are the ones we term “universes”.
– Extrauniversal Metaphysics: A Hypothetical Exploration,
Academician Éöl Liuvis
“I am the Master and you will BUY SOAP!”
Just to keep everyone informed of what’s going on, things may be a little quiet around here over the weekend, because I’m going to be at our local Dr. Who convention, Time Eddy, with our other business, Foam on the Range.
And sadly, I am incapable of crossing my own timeline and having Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all over again for writing and other assorted purposes (damned Blinovitch Limitation Effect), so that’s probably the only place I’m going to be.
But, hey, if you’re in the Wichita area, why not stop by and see us?