The Collace Merchant Marine (CMM) exists to promote commerce and transport goods and passengers in and out of the Collace system. In times of war, the CMM serves as an auxiliary force to the Collace Navy (CN) and can be called upon to deliver military personnel and material for the Collace military. Because the Collace Navy is primarily a defensive force relying heavily on System Defense Boats, the Merchant Marine service operates more jump capable starship than her sister service. During a full mobilization the Planetary Government expects the CMM will ensure the movement of supplies and resources to Collace, an Imperial Client state, from the Imperial subsector capital at Mertactor.
The Merchant Marine is organized into four Divisions, corresponding to the four galactic coordinates (Coreward, Spinward, Leading, and Trailing). Each Division serves District 268 and 1-2 subsectors beyond and normally operates three or four starships, depending on overhaul and refit status. The largest ship in the CMM fleet is the Trailing Division's 2000 dTon Freighter Navarra, which operates almost exclusively between Collace and Glisten. The service has one dedicated Q-ship which is periodically renamed and given new transponder codes before being rotated to a different Division. All CMM ships and crews are armed, which is typical of trade vessels in this frontier region.
The service uses a rank-in-person approach to starship crew personnel management. Personnel enter the service at lower ranks and advance upward through a competitive promotion process. Qualifications and the current needs of the service determine which initial rank is offered to a candidate during the selection process.
The service has time-in-class and time-in-service limits and a mandatory selection out procedure to weed out poor performers before they can advance to the next rank. In practice however, the service loses qualified starship crew to multi-sector lines and Imperial Megacorps, which leaves it constantly understaffed.
<CMM Starship Crew Ranks & Base Salary>
0-Warrant Officer: 2,000 Cr.
1-4th Officer: 3,000 Cr.
2-3rd Officer: 4,000 Cr.
3-2nd Officer: 5,000 Cr.
4-1st Officer: 6,000 Cr.
5-Captain: 7,000 Cr.
6-Senior Captain: 8,000 Cr.
Base pay may be modified by a number of factors, including well-documented superior qualifications and assignment of additional shipboard duties.
CMM entry-on-duty training is twelve weeks and provides the following skills to any sophont who does not already posses them: Gun Combat (Snub Pistol & Accelerator Rifle)-0*, Steward-0, Vacc Suit-0
*CMM training is not extensive enough to provide Gun Combat-0 familiarity with all possible firearms. It focuses on the CMM issued Snub Revolver and Accelerator Rifle, hence it is a specialized level 0 skill.
As a uniformed service, the Collace Merchant Marine issues a basic set of equipment to every starship crewmember:
<Individually Issued Clothing & Equipment>
Snub Pistol (Revolver) w/Secure Weapon (CMM Biometric Database) & TL-A Laser Sight
3 ea. 6-rd Snub Pistol Speedloader
Holster for Snub Pistol & Pouches for Speedloaders
Diplo Vest
2 ea. Pressure Sleeve
2 ea. Mag Boots
Life Support Mask
2 ea. Utility Coverall (Fireproof)
2 ea. Dress Uniform
2 ea. Dress Shoe
5 ea. Dress Shirt
Cold Light Lantern
2 ea. Commdot
The CMM service pistol is a reliable small frame 6-shot snub revolver with a 2" barrel in a satin stainless finish, carried unobtrusively in a black patent leather belt holster. The sidearm has a biometric reader in the Hogue-style grip, which prevents the weapon from being fired by any sophont not listed in the CMM database of active-duty personnel. The grip also houses an integrated laser sight, which greatly improves first shot hit probabilities. Most CMM snub revolvers have been in service for 20 to 40 years and the preponderance have never been fired in self-defense, which the CMM credits to their deterrence effect.
The standard longarm stored on CMM vessels is the 6mm bull-pup Collace Arms accelerator rifle. The semi-automatic weapon system has an attachable shoot-through bayonet and the combination is well-suited for close and medium range combat in zero-g environments. Like the CMM service pistol, the rifle has an integrated biometric authorization system and laser sight, the later being mounted under-barrel. Tritium iron sights allow for the rifle to be used without the integrated laser sight if needed or preferred. CMM SOP is to store accelerator rifles in the ship's locker, each with a chest rig pre-loaded with six full magazines and two each anti-laser aerosol and tranq-gas grenades. This allows crews to quickly react to enemy action. Thankfully, the need to do so has been relatively rare.
CMM Ship's Masters receive tasking from their respective Divisions, which, barring an unforeseen exigencies, typically occupy no more than 50% of their time. When not on assignment, the ship's officers have broad discretion in selecting cargos, destinations, and charters, provided that basic financial and operational obligations are met. The senior officers of each ship comprise the board of the Ship's Operating Fund, through which all salaries, fuel, maintenance costs, and other expenses are drawn, and into which all income generated by the transport of goods and passengers is deposited. Fifty percent of a ship's gross income is returned to the CMM on a monthly basis. This hybrid approach is unique among Collace's military services and has allowed the CMM to accumulate a healthy operating surplus.
<Collace Jump Map>
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:58, Thu 19 Oct 2023.
