a) General Information
 

Any organization in history is, after all, dependent on the sophonts that work for, that are the organization. Of course, this is as true for the Imperial Navy as for any other Imperial authority. The following chapter is going to give an overview over the various people that join the Imperial Navy, where they come from, how they are trained and educated both prior to and during their career, and why they usually join the Imperial Navy. It is intended to give a GM or player useful onformation for developing their characters' backgrounds Within the Imperial Navy, several specializations are not only common, but also institutionalized. These specializations are the "branches" of the Imperial Navy. Their names read: Flight, Engineering, Medical, Gunnery, Technical Serivces, and The Line. The following list describes the roles and tasks of these branches within the Imperial Navy.

Flight: The pilots of the Imperial Navy; it is they who steer both the mighty starships and the small fighters of the Emperor's fleets. Officers do this on their own (usually as fighter pilots), while crewmen and petty officers follow the oficers' orders while at the rudder of larger ships.

Engineering: Keep the engines running. These people are repsonsible fot the proper functionming of the ship's main aggregates, such as jump drivies, maneuver drives, nd fusion reactors. Members of the Engineering branch can be found on-planet or in space station as much as aboard of Imperial Navy ships, since their skills are needed everywhere.

Medical: Since every ship requires a crew, and crews need maintenance just like ships, there are specialists within the Imperial Navy who care for this particular type of hardware. Medical includes doctors and simple medics. All levels of medical expertise are found within the IN.

Gunnery: The members of this branch are repsonsible for the proper use and maintenance of the Imperial Navy ships' artilery. This includes everthing directly linked to a ship's offensive or defensive weaponry, from a small laser turret to a giant meson spinal mount, from sandcasters (though these are extremely rare on IN ships) to black globe screens.

Technical Services: This has not very much to do with Engineering. In fact, these people usually proram computers, analyze sensor data and maintain the more complex (and usually secret) high technology equipment for some of the more special Navy units. They see themselves as some kind of elite. They are probably right about that. Technical services exists only in the Imperial navy, not in reserve fleets or system navies.

The Line: This is the branch for the ships's captain to be. Most officers who later become starship commanders derive from this branch. For crewmen, these arehe officers most of them have direct contact to until they become petty officers with some kind of specialization. A simliar branch exists for enlisted personnel; this is called the Crew. Members of that branch are assistants to the officers in handling the ship, such as sensors operator, helmsman, and the like.

A few words on non-humans in the Imperial Navy: Generally, the Imperium treats all sophonts by the same laws. This means that it allows all citizens of the Imperium to join the Navy in any career that suits for them and their abilities. There are a lot of non-human officers within the navy, and countless enlisted personnel. However, the vasdt majority in the Imperial Navy are humans from either Solomani or Vilani (but usually mixed) origin. Therefroe some non-human officers, NCO's and crewmen (or those from odd minor human races) encounter prejudices. This is strongly discouraged by the Imperial navy as a whole; it has not been wiped out over the past thousand years, though.

The possible careers within the Imperial Navy are split in two major "career paths": The Officer's career and the Enlisted career. The latter of the two includes regular crewmen, but nevertheless the distinction between the "simple crew" and the ranks of Petty Officer and above are distinctive enough to require separate paragraphs for each of the two.

-Imperial Navy Crewmen

To become a simple crewman or crew-woman in the Imperial Navy, an Imperial citizen just has to do one thing: Go to any Imperial Navy base and let them test him or her. If the citizen meets their requirements (which are easy to pass for an average human from an at least industrial world), he or she will be accepted as a Navy crewman at the rank of Spacehand Recruit; the navy almost always is in need for personnel (if not, the tests will be just a bit harder to pass...). The same is true for the Reserve Fleet of almost any subsector within the Imperium. System navies, though, have their own requirements, but these are usually at a lower level and even easier to pass. For those Imperial citizens who do not live in a system with an Imperial Navy base, it is possible to ask the commanding officer to take the possible recruit with them to the next base. The final decision whehter the CO allows this or not is his or her own.

Upon enlistment, the Spacehand Recruit is assigend a branch and given a basic training for one specific task within that branch. Typical tasks include Navigator/helmsman (for smaller ships up to corvettes), assistant engineer/technician of some kind member of a repair team, usually the one who carries all those tool kits for the officers and NCO's...), medical assistant, turret gunner, and the like. In short, the basic tasks upon any IN starship are given to the Spacehand Recruit. Those who prove their ability to obey and do routine work well are given the rank of Spacehand Apprentice. Officers and NCO's watch the average Spacehand Apprentice carefully and give them more complex tasks. Most crewman never reach beyond this rank, and finally leave the Navy. Those who prove to be worthy are somewhen given the rank of Able Spacehand, which is the last rank that an Imperial Navy ship's commander may promote to by his own judgement, without consulting any superior. Able Spacehands who prove themselves to be even more gifted than needed for the tasks of an Able Spacehand are prepared for an NCO career.
 

-Imperial Navy Petty Officers (aka NCO's)

Able Spacehands who are considered worthy by their commanding officer are proposed to be promoted to NCO rank, namely Petty Officer Third Class. The deciding authority in such as case is nominally the commanding officer's squadron commander, but actually being proposed for promotion means being promoted; the Imperial Navy trusts the judgement of its officers.

Petty Officer Third Class- Upon prmotion to Petty Officer Third Class, the new NCO (acronym for "Non-Commisioned Officer", which fairly reflects the function) is given some additional traning within his or her branch and is being assigned to more responsible tasks. Examples for the various branches include:
Flight: Co-pilot of smaller ship's boats. Assists the maintenance crews of such smaller vessels in repairing his or her specific boat.
Engineering: Specialist for one type of sub-aggregate (such as the lanthanium grid of the jump drive, or the jump coils, etc...). Important member of damage-control teams.
Medical: Medic; responsible for first aid treatments. Occcsionally assists the ship's doctor in routine treatments.
Gunnery: A more skilled ship's gunner for a single turret or important member of a bay's or even spinal mount's firing crew.
Technical Services: Technical specialist for a certain kind of alien technolgy; programmer knowing just one programming language.
"Crew": Helmsman, sensors operator, navigator for medium starships, usually up to light frigates.

Petty Officer Second Class- These are more experiencd versions of Petty Officers Third class above. They typically have similar tasks.

Petty Officer First Class- Those who reach the rank of Petty Officer First class are the cream of the lower ranks. Tey are given more rsponsible tasks, mostly on larger ships. Example assigments for the various branches include:
Flight: Pilot of smaller ship's boats or co-pilot of larger ones. Assists the maintenance crews for his or her specific boat.
Engineering: Specialist for one type of aggregate, usually as a second to fourth in command to a Sublieutenant. Leader of damage-control teams.
Medical: Experienced Medic; responsible for first-to-second aid treatments. usually assists the ship's doctor in treatments. Talented individuals assists surgeons with their operations.
Gunnery: Experienced and skilled ship's gunner for a few turrets or bay or even a spinal mount. Again, usually second in command to a Sublieutanant.
Technical Services: Technical specialist for several kinds of alien technolgy; programmer knowing tow to three one programming languages (that is, officially. Private studies are encouraged).
"Crew": Helmsman, sensors operator, navigator for large starships, usually up to heavy cruisers.

Chief Petty Officer- Among those who manage to be promoted to Petty Officer First Class, the more intelligent and/or gifted individuals sometime become Chief Petty Officer.
Every Chief Petty Officer is often assigend a teaching taks for Spacehand Recruits. Additional examples include:
Flight: Pilot of even larger ship's boats.
Engineering: Specialist for one type of aggregate, usually as a second in command to a Sublieutenant, sometimes even leader of such a larger team in lieu of a commisioned officer. Co-ordinator of several damage-control teams.
Medical: Doctor's assistant for even the most complex treatments. Usually assisting surgeons in any operations.
Gunnery: Leader of a weapons bay firing crew. Second to third in command for spinal mounts.
Technical Services: Technical specialist for the techology of a certain alien race; programmer knowing several programming languages.
"Crew": Helmsman, sensors operator, navigator for even the largest ships.

Senior Chief Petty Officer- Finally, the Chief Petty Officer is given an assignment on an Imperial Navy base. Tasks do not vary in general nature from branch to branch, but rather in detail; gernerally, all Senior Chief Petty offocers are responsible either for training recruits or "assisting" an officer with hi or her specific task. ("Assisting" sometimes includes "doing all the work". Though this is rare.) On rare occasions, Senior Chief petty Officers are used as crew on very large and prestigeous vessels, such s the archdukes' flagship or something as menaning.

Master Chief Petty Officer- These are the oldest and most experienced NCO's. They are only rarely used aboard ships,
but rather are responsible for basic training of recruits in a leading position and doing more important staff works.
 

The OCS

Talented indivduals can be proposed for an OCS, an Officer Candidate School. These can be found at larger naval bases and are intended to give the best of the enlisted career the opportunity to serve the Emperor even more directly by becoming an officer. "real" officers tend to look dpown on these "backdoor officers" at least the younger ones. Older officers have learned that some of the Navy's best leaders have gone through OCS, and are therefore a bit more silent. The elite attitde that graduates of a Naval Academy usually have towrads OCS graduates almost never dispappears completely, though.
 

-Imperial Navy Officers

The brains of the Imperial Navy (or so they claim... some experienced petty officers silently disaggree.). Officers are usually from upper middle class or noble families, because it takes either a number of contacts or at least a good education to be accepted for this glorious service. There are two ways to join the officer's career in the Imperium: Either go to a Naval Academy or joing the Naval Officer Training Corps, the NOTC.

A Naval Academy can be found on any subsector capital, and also on a few well-developed worlds within each subsector. These institutions vary in reputation and funding, but all are regularily checked for fitting Imperial Navy requirements. To pass the usually hard exams and training programs takes four years. After passing the final exams, the candiate is accepted as an officer in the Imperial Navy, at the rank of Ensign, and is assigned to a command in the Imperial Navy. Graduates of any Naval Academy in the Imperium are proud of their particular institute, and there are traditional rivalries between the several academies of a sector. The exact nature of a graduate's first command depends on family connections as much as talents; sons and daughters from high noble famlies are usually transferred to distant parts of the Imperium, to prevent too obvious protection from their parents. (A good example for this is the later Archduke Norris, who served at the Solomani-Imperial border. It took him more than a year to merely reach that place.) Lesser noble families and those from the middle class usually prefer to have their children closer, in the same sector or at least the same domain.

The NOTC consists of college graduates who have undergone additional, Navy-oriented training during their studies. The Imperial Navy is well aware of its enormous need for qualified officers, and so offers students of colleges at the higher tech level member worlds (from early stellar and above) the opportunity to take Navy-oriented courses of some kind. These exams are not to be taken lightly and include almost everything that Naval Academy graduates have to learn. Graduates are enlisted in  their subsector's Reserve Fleet, where they can reach a rank as high as Fleet Admiral, but not higher. Needless to say that this path is only second choice for anyone who wants to aquire glory in serving the Emperor.

Promotion in both the "true" Imperial Navy and the Reserve Fleets has to be earned, and family contacts do not help that much here. A high birth is almost a guarantee to be able to join the Navy as an officer, but for becoming a starship captain, talent is required- and a lot of hard work. This has been enforced for over a thousand years, since it is the only way the survival of the Imperium as a whole can survive; every noble knows that, and subordinates to this simple rule, with few exceptions.

The ranks within the Imperial Navy, along with usual functions for every rank, are listed below.

Ensign- This is the rank of the "freshmen" from naval academy or NOTC courses. After four years of theory, this is the time of practical learning for the young officer. As an Ensign, mistakes are allowed, if this freedom is not used too excessively. Everyone knows that an Ensign is still learning, and considerates the fact. Ensigns are usually found in a position of  third-to-fourth-in-command for any position listed for the higher ranks below. In the case of Flight branch, they are students at flight school.

Sublieutenant- These are the lowest of the "true officers". Now the officer has become in charge of something. What this "something" actually is depends on luck and ability. Typical examples for the several branches include (but are not limited to)
Flight: Fighter or ship's boat pilot, one of several pilots of larger starships like dreadnoughts and battleships.
Engineering: Subdivision leader whose team is responsible for one particular type of starship moduel, like jump drive, maneuver drive, grav plates, hull, etc. Only on ships larger than a light cruiser.
Medical: There are no medical officers with this rank.
Gunnery: Sub-battery commander. Responsible for the coordination of the firing of a number of turrets or bays. Second in command for spinal mounts.
Technical Services: A junior software designer, second in command of a small technical investigation team (for alien artifacts and the like), second in command for intelligence data evaluation divisions.
The Line: Second officer of the deck. Responsible for the proper operation of the starship during routine operations, such as jump watch, transit to or from jump point under peacetime conditions, etc.
Fourth to third officer aboard ships no larger than a frigate; i.e. responsible for routine operations of the ship, also under wartime conditions.

Lieutenant- having grown in experience, the young officer is now given more freedom in his/her/its decisions. Typical funtions of Lieutenants in the branches include:
Flight: As for sublieutenants above. Fighter pilots who have proven wortthy for this promotion are slowly prepared for command positions within a squadron. Ship's boat pilots and pilots of very large starships are carefully pressed towards changing branch to The Line.
Engineering: Again, much like sublieutenants, but with larger teams, mostly on even larger starships. Also, Lieutenants are often found as ship's chief engineers aboard corvettes and small frigates, and second in command for that position on smaller cruisers or lrge frigates.
Medical: Graduates from Medical school enter the navy with this rank. They are usually assistant doctors aboard larger ships or in base facilities.
Gunnery: Battery commander. Responsible for the coordination of the firing of a battery of turrets or bays. Also found as gun officer in command for spinal mounts. Lieutennants can also be found aboard smaller vessels as ship's supreme gun officer.
Technical Services: A software designer, commander of a small technical investigation team, commander for smaller intelligence data evaluation divisions.
The Line: First officer of the deck. The officer is now regarded as capable of managing every routine function, even under critical conditions such as during wartime or when damaged. Aboard smaller ships, Lieutenants can be found as second officers on corvettes and third officers on frigates.

Lieutenant Commander- This is the lowest rank that is planningly given full responsibility in combat situations. The several branches:
Flight: Squadron leaders for fighter pilots. Highest Rank for ship 's boat pilots (and only on very representative ships or bases). Non-fighter-pilot Flight officers are strongly encouraged to change branch to The Line.
Engineering: Second in command as ship's chief engineer. Chief engineer for ships no larger than frigates or light cruisers. Sometimes teacher at a Naval academy.
Medical: First assignments as ship's doctor aboard smaller vessels. One of several responsible doctors aboard larger ships.
Gunnery: Ship's supreme gun officer aboard all but the largst ships. As with Flight, officers are encouraged to change branch to The Line as soon as they are promoted to Lieutenant Commander.
Technical Services: A lead software designer, commander of a larger technical investigation team, commander for smaller intelligence data evaluation divisions.
The Line: Commanding officers of small ships like corvettes, light frigates and system defense boats. Second in command for large frigates and small cruisers. Third officer for larger ships.

Commander- The officer has proven to be worthy for true command positions even over larger amounts of subordinates. Again, examples are given for each branch.
Flight: Elite squadron commander, wing commander. Test-pilot for Imperial Navy yards. Teacher at a flight school.
Engineering: Ships' chief engineer on even the largest vessels. Teacher at a Naval Academy. Starship designer.
Medical: As with Lieutenant commanders above, but usually given additional leaership tasks over other doctors.
Gunnery: Ship's supreme gun officer for even the largest ships. Officers are strongly encouraged to change branch to The Line. Also teachers at naval academies.
Technical Services: Elite leading software designer, commander of a large technical investigation team (more than a hundred specialists), commander for intelligence data evaluation divisions.
The Line: First Officer aboard most of the larger starships. The officer is prepared to become a ship's commanding officer. Commanding officer aboard anything smaller than a medium cruiser. Junior strategic advisor or staff officer in a flag officer's command staff.

Captain- A captain is an offcier who has proven ability to command large units or accomplish other difficult tasks that require both talenbnt and experience as an officer. The best from these ranks are prepared to become Commodore after a while. For the various branches, typical tasks at this rank are:
Flight: Elite wing commander, Commander of several wings on IMperial Navy bases. Teacher at a flight school or at a Naval Academy. Rarely: Staff positions concerning tactics.
Engineering: Teacher at a Naval Academy. Lead starship designer. Staff positions concerning logistics and the like.
Medical: Highest ranking doctor at an Imperial Navy base. Mainly paper-work tasks involving medcal subordinates. Researcher.
Gunnery: Staff positions concerning tactics and strategy.
Technical Services: Staff positions in the IMperial Navy Intelligence Service.
The Line: Commanding Officer aboard most of the larger starships. Squadron commander for small squadrons of ships up to frigate size. Generally staff positions.

Commodore- Here the rank of officer of the flag begins. A commodore is normally the lowest rank that is given strategic tasks. Typical assignments:
Flight: Commander of several wings on important Imperial Navy bases. Commander of a flight schoolor at a Naval Academy. Sometimes: Staff positions concerning strategy where fighter craft are involved.
Engineering: Commander of a Naval Academy. Imperial Navy base commander forsmaller bases. Higher staff positions concerning logistics and the like. Ciommander of an Imperial Navy shipyard.
Medical: Mainly paper-work tasks involving lots of medical subordinates. Research base commander. Subsector medical coordinator. Normally no medical officer reaches a higher rank than Commodore.
Gunnery: Higher staff positions concerning tactics and strategy.
Technical Services: Higher staff positions in the Imperial Navy Intelligence Service.
The Line: Commanding Officer of a larger squadron. Staff officer concerning strategy, tactics, logistics. Chief of Staff or even subsesctor fleet commander in backwater regions of less strategic importance. Commander of medium-sized Naval bases. Press speaker of a sector fleet's commander.

Fleet Admiral- These are the cream of the Commodores, with even more experience. Officers attaining this rank are usually either subsector fleet commanders or chief of staff in an important subsector fleet or even the sector fleet command. Specializations are no longer considered for Admirals.

Sector Admiral- The highest command positions are open for the Sector Admiral. Typically, a sector admiral is either commander of the sector fleet or chief of the archduke's naval staff.

Grand Admiral- There are only a few dozens of these in the entire Imperium, a handful per domain. One of them is the second in command (only the archduke being above him or her) of the domain's naval forces. One is probably assigned to Naval Intelligence (and therefore member of the Archduke's staff), others might be members of the Emepror's own staff (therefore having no direct or indirect control over any ships).