House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion (38 page)

Fleets can be temporarily or permanently subdivided into task forces to perform specific missions. No strict requirements on the size or nature of a task force exist, other than that it consist of the assets necessary to fulfill the mission, which could be an offensive operation, defense of a sector, reserve, etc. Each task force is assigned a two-digit number, typically abbreviated as “TF ##.” The first digit is the number of the fleet, while the second differentiates between task forces from the same fleet, so “TF 31,” for example, refers to the first task force of Third Fleet. In addition, a task force can be broken into several task groups, identified by decimal points, as in TG 31.2.

Squadrons in the RMN are permanent administrative units, not necessarily tactical units, although there is a distinct tendency for squadrons of cruisers and larger warships to be kept together as much as possible. Thus a Destroyer Squadron might consist of sixteen destroyers operating in four separate divisions of four ships each, deployed light-years apart on an as-needed basis. The fact that light units routinely need to be detached as escorts, scouts, couriers, etc., helps to explain why their unit organization is so much more flexible than that for larger units, which are not so likely to be detached.

Cruisers fall into a special category as the medium combatant jack-of-all-trades. Cruisers very seldom operate as complete squadrons unless assigned to a task force or fleet organization, and, even there, the task force or fleet commanding officer has a distinct incentive to detach individual heavy cruisers or divisions of light cruisers for all sorts of tasks.

Prior to 1902 PD, both heavy cruisers and battlecruisers were organized more according to their mission than their type. The two most common squadron sizes are eight-ship squadrons integrated into the screen and twelve-ship squadrons tasked for independent operations, though recent years have seen frequent changes in these sizes, often to match the smaller battle squadrons.

Ships of the wall have historically been organized into eight-ship battle squadrons, a practice which was phased out in favor of a six-ship squadron during the Janacek Admiralty as a largely political maneuver, though (unlike most Janacek “reforms”) the practice has been maintained due to the increased tactical flexibility the smaller squadrons offer.

Heroes of the Royal Manticoran Navy

The official motto of the Royal Manticoran Navy is “The tradition lives,” but the motto of the Saganami Island Naval Academy is somewhat longer. Taken from a great pre-space political leader, it reads “In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Goodwill,” and was chosen to enshrine the lessons gleaned from the RMN’s three greatest heroes: Edward Saganami, Ellen D’Orville, and Quentin Saint-James.

COMMODORE EDWARD SAGANAMI

(1616–1672 PD)

If any one individual might be said to represent the heart and soul of the Royal Manticoran Navy, that individual would be Edward Saganami. Born of yeoman parents on the planet of Gryphon eighty T-years prior to the Gryphon Uprising, Saganami was a typical Gryphon
Highlander
: stubborn and passionately loyal to the Crown. Admitted to the Navy, he excelled on the basis of sheer talent, determination, and energy and had risen to commodore’s rank by 1662 PD despite a complete lack of patronage or highly placed relatives. At that time, he was selected to command the successful punitive expedition against the Ranier System, whose piratical “navy” had been raiding commerce and infrastructure in the vicinity of the Hennesy Terminus of the Manticoran Wormhole Junction.

Having compelled the Ranierians’ capitulation, Saganami, after a brief stint lecturing at the Academy, was selected by Queen Adrienne to command the squadron dispatched to the Silesian Confederacy in late 1671 PD to suppress piratical attacks on Manticoran commerce. Later evidence conclusively demonstrated that the “pirates” were supplied with ships, men, and weapons by Manpower of Mesa and elements within the Silesian government itself. Manticore’s role as one of the original signatories of the Cherwell Convention (1651 PD), dedicated to the suppression of the interstellar genetic slave trade, explained Manpower’s enmity; the opportunity for profit and to prune back Manticoran influence explained the Silesian element; and the chronic disorder of the Confederacy (already sliding into “failed state” status) provided the opportunity for both adversaries.

Those adversaries had anticipated neither the strength Queen Adrienne was prepared to commit nor the determination of its commander, however, and by April 1672 PD, Saganami’s augmented battlecruiser squadron had destroyed four major “pirate” bases, and in the process captured intelligence pointing towards the involvement of the Silesian government. In the face of his embarrassing success, the Silesian Navy quietly transferred several of its more powerful units to the “pirates,” who were also reinforced by additional Solarian-built cruisers and battlecruisers supplied by Manpower. In July 1672, at the Battle of Trautman’s Star, Saganami’s nine battlecruisers encountered nineteen “pirates.” The RMN lost two ships in action, with four more damaged. Only two enemy vessels, both heavily damaged, escaped destruction or capture, but Saganami’s own losses and damage reduced him to only three remaining battlecruisers. Until he could be reinforced, he was forced to suspend his offensive operations and revert to convoy escort, dispersing his remaining units for that purpose.

On August 11, 1672 PD, the surviving “pirate” fleet, guided by intelligence provided by the Silesian government, ambushed a convoy personally escorted by Commodore Saganami in his flagship, HMS Nike, in the Carson System. Given the geometry of the encounter, Nike could readily have avoided action but the merchant vessels under her escort could not have. Rather than flee, Commodore Saganami accepted action at six-to-one odds in an effort to destroy or so cripple the “pirates” that they would be unable to overtake the merchantmen. In the ensuing engagement, HMS Nike was lost with all hands, but not before she had destroyed three destroyers and one battlecruiser outright. A second heavy cruiser was severely damaged and only a single hostile battlecruiser survived uninjured. As a result of their losses, the “pirates” were unable to capture or destroy a single merchant ship and their remaining forces, weakened by the cumulative losses Saganami’s squadron had inflicted, were easily defeated by the heavily reinforced fleet Queen Adrienne dispatched to avenge Saganami’s death.

Posthumously awarded the very first Parliamentary Medal of Valor for the Battle of Carson, Commodore Edward Saganami, by his actions, established the tradition and the meter stick by which all subsequent Royal Manticoran Navy officers were to be judged.

REAR ADMIRAL ELLEN D’ORVILLE

(1650–1710 PD)

The second member of the triad of iconic Royal Manticoran Navy heroes, Ellen D’Orville was born to one of the Star Kingdom’s most aristocratic families. After serving as a youthful lieutenant under Edward Saganami during his Silesian mission, D’Orville rose rapidly in rank, earning an enviable reputation as a tactician. In 1683, as commanding officer of the elderly light cruiser HMS Unconquered, Commander D’Orville intercepted and captured a four-ship convoy of slave ships, liberating approximately 24,000 genetic slaves. In 1687, Captain (acting Commodore) D’Orville was rotated to a teaching position at Saganami Island, the Royal Manticoran Navy’s Academy, where she lectured in tactics, helped to reorganize the Naval War College, and created the Advanced Tactical Course (the commanding officer’s course required for all starship captains of the RMN even today).

Returned to fleet duty in 1700 PD and promoted to Rear Admiral of the Red in 1705, D’Orville was dispatched with a small but powerful squadron to the Ingeborg System in 1710, in response to a request from the Terre Haute System government. Terre Haute had received reports that the current Ingeborg regime was developing weaponized nanotech which it intended to employ against Terre Haute. D’Orville proceeded to Ingeborg, where the authorities initially denied any interest in nanotech research. D’Orville declined to believe them and pressed politely, but very firmly, for a face-to-face meeting with Ingeborg System President for Life Adrian Lipsky. After repeated attempts to delay, Lipsky agreed to meet with her aboard Ingeborg Alpha, the largest of the star system’s three artificial habitats.

Unknown to D’Orville, the laboratory in which the weapon was being developed had lost containment, and the weapon had already contaminated and virtually depopulated the orbital habitat which had contained it, killing over 350,000 people. President for Life Lipsky, who had no intention of admitting that fact to D’Orville (primarily for fear that the Solarian League might construe the development of an obviously genocidal weapon as a violation of the Eridani Edict), hoped to meet with D’Orville, convince her that Terre Haute’s fears had been misplaced, send her on her way, and then arrange a plausible “accident” to destroy the contaminated habitat and any evidence of his government’s actions.

Unfortunately for Lipsky, Ingeborg Alpha had also been contaminated, although that fact became evident only after D’Orville and her security detachment had boarded the habitat to meet with the system president. Lipsky immediately attempted to flee the habitat, but was prevented by D’Orville, who took command of the frantic effort to rescue as many of Ingeborg Alpha’s two-million-plus inhabitants as possible. Although urged by her flag captain to evacuate herself, she remained personally on-station, using her own fleet personnel, small craft, and every available civilian Ingeborgian vessel to evacuate personnel from the path of the nano weapon while simultaneously coordinating the effort to contain and confine the contagion.

Approximately two-thirds of Ingeborg Alpha’s personnel had been removed from the habitat when the nanotech breached the final firewall and containment failed. D’Orville’s final message to her flag captain was to destroy the entire habitat with a saturation nuclear strike to ensure the total destruction of the nano weapon. For her rescue of 1.4 million Ingeborgian civilians at the cost of her own life, Ellen D’Orville became the second recipient of the Parliamentary Medal of Valor.

ADMIRAL QUENTIN SAINT-JAMES

(1696–1769 PD)

Ensign Quentin Saint-James became the fifth and (to date) youngest recipient of the Parliamentary Medal of Valor (PMV) in 1719 PD, when in command of one of a flight of three assault shuttles from the heavy cruiser HMS Black Rose supporting a Marine landing party on the planet Jeremiah in the Hume System of the Breslau Sector of the Silesian Confederacy. The Hume Liberation Front (HLF), a Silesian separatist organization, had issued “letters of marque,” commissioning “privateers” to prey on Silesian commerce. Unfortunately for the HLF, its privateers had turned pirate, preying on Manticoran commerce as well, prompting Black Rose’s intervention in the system.

As the assault shuttles deposited the Marines and lifted to provide fire support, they came under intense fire from the planetary surface. Simultaneously, concealed heavy weapons opened fire on the Marines. Two of the RMN assault shuttles were destroyed immediately. Saint-James’ shuttle was severely damaged, his flight engineer was killed, and he and his copilot were both wounded. Rather than withdraw, Saint-James, with his unconscious copilot beside him, attacked into the teeth of the fire decimating the Marines he had landed. Hit twice more in the course of the next fourteen minutes, Saint-James’ shuttle crash-landed outside the Marine perimeter, but not until he had inflicted massive losses on the HLF ambushers. Critically injured in the crash, Saint-James dragged his still-unconscious copilot clear of the wreckage and defended him with only his sidearm until the Marines fought their way to his position. As a consequence of his wounds, Quentin Saint-James lost his left arm and his left leg below the knee, but his fearless defense of the Marines he had landed allowed them to hold their position until reinforcements from Black Rose arrived to restore the position.

Despite the valor which won him his well-deserved PMV, however, Quentin Saint-James is best remembered for a “fleet battle” in which only seventeen people were killed and fewer than sixty were wounded.

In 1752 PD, the planet of San Martin in the Trevor’s Star System acted unilaterally to abrogate the terms of the Treaty of 1590 between San Martin and the Star Kingdom of Manticore, governing usage and transit fees of the Trevor’s Star Terminus of the Manticoran Wormhole Junction. By 1750 PD, the San Martin government, following the statist example of the Republic of Haven but without the size and broad diversity of Haven’s original economy, was in dire fiscal straits. A coalition of radical minority parties gained control of the executive and legislative branches in the 1751 elections, and the following year “nationalized” the Trevor’s Star Terminus, dispatching warships to seize control of it without warning in clear violation of the Treaty of 1590.

Surprised by the attack, Manticore was unable to prevent the terminus’ seizure, but although Queen Caitrin was known as “Caitrin the Good,” her government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Margo Thackeray, was unprepared to allow such aggression to stand. In particular, there were strong fears in Landing that the radicalized San Martin government would officially ally itself with relatively nearby Haven and give the People’s Republic of Haven, with whom Manticoran relations had steadily worsened, control of the terminus.

Rather than attempt to fight its way through the terminus from the Junction (which would have been feasible, given the imbalance between the Royal Manticoran Navy’s resources and those of the San Martin Space Navy, but would have resulted in very heavy casualties for both sides), the RMN chose instead to demonstrate its resolution to assault through the terminus while actually sending a powerful force of ships of the wall and battleships on a month-long voyage through hyper. That squadron, under the command of Vice Admiral Quentin Saint-James, struck not at the terminus, but at the star system three light-hours from the terminus. As Saint-James had hoped when he proposed the strategy, every heavy unit of the San Martin Space Navy had been drawn to the terminus by Manticore’s ostentatious preparation to attack through it, leaving the home system covered only by light units. A single San Martin light cruiser, encountered as Saint-James’ force advanced towards San Martin, was heavily damaged when it refused to strike its wedge, but personnel casualties were minimal. None of the San Martin units deployed to the terminus were in a position to intercept the Manticoran task force short of planetary orbit, and the San Martin government had no option but to surrender once Saint-James’ ships controlled the space about it.