Naval Bases
Naval Base: Port facility for the support, maintenance, repair, and refit of naval vessels. Planetary surface facilities are generally provided for vessels of 1,000 tons or less; orbital facilities handle larger ships. A naval base has several distinct parts to it; each part helps in the accomplishment of the overall mission of the base.
The typical naval base is composed of an orbital berthing area, a surface berthing area, a maintenance section, and an administrative headquarters.
Berthing areas provide locations for ships to lay over, whether for a day or for months. All berthing areas include provisions for refueling from storage tanks or fuel lighters.
Maintenance sections at naval bases vary from base to base. Where such a section would be redundant to the local starport shipyard, it is small, and repairs or alterations are carried out under contract to the local facility. Where adequate facilities do not exist, the naval base itself may have a large maintenance section capable of extensive repairs and refits. Maintenance is performed on the ships on the world surface or in orbit as necessary.
The administrative headquarters handles the day-to-day operations of the base. The naval base is responsible for supporting the fleet and keeping it in optimum condition for its combat missions.
In the Corridor, Imperial ships may request to have access to Naval Base repair facilities (TL 14). Referee decides the throw to get access to the yards, DMs for High SOC, former Navy, etc. Any Imperial Naval Base is the equivalent of a Class-A starport construction & repair, but for Navy ships only – or Imperial ships that have a good reason to be there.
What else does a Navy Base do? It reminds the locals that there are other forces in their space. ‘The Empire is here, and you can’t ignore us. For now, we’re letting you carry on as usual. But think twice before you cross us.’
The Royal Navy Corridor Squadron
Here is the list of all of the (Talaveran) Imperial Navy Bases in Holtzmann’s Corridor:
Naval Base Holtzmann
Worosha Base
Dimitrov Base
Dorothua Station
There is one Cruiser Squadron stationed at NBH, and 4 Patrol Squadrons. The officer corps is 20-30 captains, one rear admiral (XO under Jupater), and a few dozen commanders. Naval officers will be common Random Encounters, as will Navy Rumors.
The total number of Royal Navy combat vessels in the Corridor is not large, but they all have the TL advantage over any of the locals. All RN ships will have large computers and the best combat program loads. If you look at Book 2 starship combat, the computer rules are the core of combat power.
The Navy is there to protect Talaveran shipping, but in practice this means the big (1,000 dtn+) freighters run by large merchant houses. It's not that they don't care about your 200tn Free Trader, but that their resources are limited and they can't be everywhere. Protecting the big ship is the most cost-effective strategy.
In addition, the following systems have Royal Scout Bases attached:
Ferrocore Base
Tartarus Base - that sounds like a fun posting!
Kemasiik Base
Scout Base: Port facility for
the support, maintenance, and repair of scout vessels. The scout service maintains
a variety of scout bases scattered throughout the Imperium, with installations
tending to be on less well-developed worlds with starports type D or C. Scout bases
tend to be surface installations equipped with basic facilities for fueling and
for minor maintenance activities oriented toward ships of 1,000 tons or less.
The Empire maintains Scout bases in systems where they have an interest in what goes on, but where they do not have enough formal presence for a Navy Base.
N. B. While it is probably confusing, I keep a distinction between things Imperial (general) and the Royal Navy. The difference is part of long-standing Talaveran foreign policy; they are not pursuing political conquest to expand the Empire. So the leading arm of that policy, the Navy, is called the Royal Navy, not the Imperial Navy.
Image Credit: Pixabay
No comments:
Post a Comment