SECURITY AND OPERATIONS

When anyone comes aboard any Imperial Navy warship they are scanned into the ship’s data systems and assigned a status. The formal reporting-aboard carried out by all personnel automatically informs the ship’s computer of their arrival and confirms their status. A crewmember who has not reported aboard or one who is relieved of duty for medical or disciplinary reasons, is flagged by the system as invalid. Depending on what they try to do, they may be passively tracked by the ship’s computer or a security detachment can be dispatched to apprehend and question them.

To be valid, someone must have formally reported aboard to the officer of the watch or his appointed deputy. This is often done remotely if the crew are in a hurry but tradition requires that officers report to the officer of the watch or captain, either at their office or in the docking bay if a welcoming party is in place. Enlisted men report to a junior officer or senior petty officer, who will be physically present in the docking bay. The act of reporting to a live person is not truly necessary for security purposes but is considered to be a positive factor in maintaining the cohesion of a ship’s company.

Upon reporting, or being formally returned to duty, a crewmember or visitor gains access to the ship’s systems according to their rank, duties aboard ship and any special considerations applied by the ship’s officers. Amara-class cruisers use a standard Imperial Navy devolution and authorisation package. Very few, if any, areas of the ship or her operations are unsecured under any circumstances. Non-essential areas and systems normally operate on an ‘any crew’ basis, meaning that any member of the ship’s complement recognised by the ship’s computer as valid can operate systems in that area without setting off security alarms.

The levels of authorisation in force are:

Unsecured – No security is in place and anyone may operate the system or be in the area without attracting the ship’s security monitoring systems. Normally there are no unsecured areas aboard a warship, although some crews will alter the settings for the sake of convenience and it is not inconceivable that an Unsecured ‘hole’ could be made in a ship’s monitoring system by a suitably skilled programmer.

Any Valid – Anyone recognised as valid may enter these areas and use these systems, and will not attract security protocols. Normally Any Valid is reserved for guest quarters, mess areas and other locations where there is little a visitor can do to cause harm.

Any Crew – Any member of the crew recognised as valid may use these systems or enter these areas. Living spaces, common areas and briefing rooms are typically set to Any Crew, along with most routine operations of the ship’s internal systems. Potentially sensitive areas such as weapon turrets are normally set to Any Crew regarding personnel being in the area but Any Gunnery for operations. Thus a crewmember mopping the floor will not attract a security patrol but if he suddenly decides to fire the ship’s weapons he will not be able to operate them and will soon find a patrol in attendance.

Any (Department) – Any member of the relevant department may operate these systems. Some systems require special authorisation whether or not a valid crewmember is trying to use them; for example, the ship’s weapons are controlled by the command team. If the weaponry is set to ‘tight’ then it cannot be fired no matter who is pounding on the buttons. Likewise, whilst any crewmember can go into the galley to make a sandwich, attempting access to the ‘captain’s kitchen’ annex will attract attention unless the user has been designated as one of the senior officers’ stewards.

Any (Rank or Duty) – some systems are accessible only to personnel of a certain rank. For example, whilst any crewmember can break out firefighting equipment, it normally requires a petty officer to grant access to emergency cutting gear. Some designated damagecontrol personnel are assigned special authorisation as a result of their membership of a damage-control team.

(Department) (Rank or Duty) – Some systems are accessible only to members of a particular department who also hold a certain rank or above, or to members of a particular team. Thus, missile magazines and handling hoists might be accessible to any member of the gunnery team but the nuclear warhead storage area is only accessible to missile technicians and gunnery department officers.

(Specific) – Some posts aboard ship have specific access to systems that other crewmembers do not. The captain and executive officer have blanket access to more or less everything – a commodore or diplomat’s private computer systems are the only likely exceptions under normal operating circumstances – and other posts have specific access to certain systems. Sometimes this is dependent upon duty; for example, a quite junior officer might be serving as officer of the watch or senior bridge officer, and during this period he will have access to systems normally above his clearance. A sublieutenant would not normally be authorised to declare the ship’s weapons free but if he is the senior officer on bridge watch when a raider comes out of jump he needs the ability to do so without waiting for authorisation.


Department heads and their deputies have override access to most areas within their department’s remit and can usually authorise others to handle a task. The ship’s computer is set to recognise a valid order and assume authorisation. Thus, if the damage control officer orders someone to break out a piece of restricted equipment, the computer recognises this as authorisation. This function can be disabled, requiring formal authorisation to be granted to specific individuals but this is more time-consuming and would normally be done only if the ship is operating under very secure conditions such as when infiltration is suspected.

Under normal conditions, this system ensures that crewmembers can go about their duties without needing constant authorisation or setting off alarms but anyone who does something he would not normally be expected to do (such as a chef trying to enter a deployment shuttle in the docking bay) will be locked out and security staff notified. Orders given by someone who can authorise such tasks will remove this prohibition. However, there are workarounds used by most crews that slightly undermine the system. For example, the captain’s steward may have access to the flight bay on a permanent basis, so he can bring special packages of luxury food directly to the galley. This is not normally a problem but can lead to a supposedly secure system becoming full of little holes, created by special permissions.

In the event that a ship suffers the catastrophic loss of its command staff, there may be no-one aboard who can authorise the use of critical systems. This is clearly not acceptable, so all Imperial Navy ships operate a ‘top ten’ system, which tracks the ten most senior members of the chain of command at all times. If three of these ten personnel agree on a nominee as acting commanding officer, then command devolves to that individual and they can assign posts as desired from that point on.

Under more normal circumstances, the devolution of command follows a clearly defined path and the ship’s computer simply informs the appointed person that they are now in command of the ship. An individual may decline, in which case the computer moves to the next most senior member of the crew. Declining emergency command is a difficult decision but a badly damaged vessel might be better off with her experienced chief engineer at his post rather than trying to run the whole ship, even if this means placing a 20-year-old sublieutenant in temporary command.

Protocol requires that a decision to decline command be reviewed every few hours. Once the immediate crisis is over, the senior officer is expected to take command if at all possible but the system recognises that there is sometimes not time for an officer to make his way to the bridge through a ship that is in the middle of a desperate fight.

Shipboard security and command systems depend heavily on the ship’s computer but can still function if it is disabled. All crewmembers carry a personal identity card, which is automatically updated with their valid status when they come aboard a ship. Doors, systems and workstations all have readers for crewmembers’ keycards and can recognise an authorised person even if the computer is down. Updating status with authorisation and permission is difficult under such circumstances, however there are few occasions under which a ship might have to function without her computer system and all its backups.

Some command decisions, notably freeing weapons to fire and initiating jump, require multiple authorisations. For weapons fire, the captain must authorise ‘weapons free’ and the gunnery officer must authorise a given battery to fire – and both must be valid at the time the order is given. Command override applies under such circumstances. For example, the executive officer is assumed to speak for the captain at all times unless specifically countermanded, so can directly order a battery to open fire. This is a breach of protocol if the gunnery officer is in place and functioning but a bypass is permitted, if necessary.

Ultimately, all authority aboard a ship devolves from its captain and runs down the chain of command. If the captain chooses to remove someone from the chain of command or rescind their authorisation to carry out specific tasks then this is his prerogative. However, under most circumstances a legal order is assumed to carry the full weight of the captain’s authority, so if the gunnery officer tells the sublieutenant in charge of point defence to open fire and he orders the crewmembers manning the system to do so, this order does not need to be confirmed by the captain. Under normal operating conditions a ship’s point defences are considered ‘free’ on the authority of the gunnery officer or senior gunnery department officer on duty, whilst offensive systems need authorisation from the bridge before they can be brought into action.

COMMAND AND CONTROL

The cruiser is normally commanded from its main bridge, located in the forward section, and surrounded by sensor data and intelligence processing chambers. The command bridge, located aft of the main bridge, can be used to control the ship, although it is optimised for task force control operations. During operations without a flag officer aboard, the captain will normally run both his own ship and any escorts, support vessels or squadron mates he may have control over from his own bridge.

A support staff led by a junior officer will man the command bridge in case of emergency, using its facilities to conduct intelligence analysis or larger sensor tasks handed off from the main bridge. Thus whilst the main bridge is concerned with operating the ship at peak efficiency, the supporting staff in the command bridge may be conducting a long-range sensor sweep and analysis of distant parts of the system, overseeing small craft operations and liaising with local merchant traffic.

A command bridge can be used to fly the ship, although it is optimised for policy-making and fleet control operations rather than the details of running a cruiser. Controls must be reconfigured for ship operations, however most vessels have a configuration stored and ready to run in the ship’s computer.

On many ‘private’ ships – that is, those with no flag officer aboard – the command bridge can become more or less permanently a routine-operations centre. It is vastly more comfortable and well-equipped than the small office used by the officer of the watch, so is often co-opted as his base of operations. There is nothing wrong with this practice, although the sudden arrival of a commodore might require removal of the support staff and any equipment they have installed in ‘their’ command bridge. Some captains will move to the command bridge upon receiving command of a task force, leaving the executive officer to take control of the ship. Most do not, however, unless they are involved in some highly complex operation.

There is a secondary control room in the engineering chambers, which is the action station of the ship’s second-in-command. Usually this is the executive officer. However, if the captain is running a squadron from the command bridge, and the XO is on the main bridge, it will be the next available non-specialist officer. Under routine conditions, the secondary control room is always manned by a Flight branch or non-specialist officer, just in case disaster strikes and the main control centre is put out of action. This officer has plenty of routine tasks to deal with, notably overseeing the running of the aft section whilst the officer of the watch handles the forward section and major issues affecting the ship as a whole.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:43, Mon 17 Aug 2020.

SENSORS AND TRANSPONDERS

Most sensors can operate in passive or active mode. In passive mode the system collects data but makes few or no emissions that can be detected. This allows vessels and other objects to be detected using reflected light, their own thermal emissions and any transmissions or sensor emissions they may make but cannot detect ‘cold and quiet’ objects such as an asteroid or coasting ship with good emission masking. Passive sensors operate all the time but when the cruiser is in ‘listening watch’ or ‘silent running’ mode they are all the vessel has to work with. This can be useful when trying to evade or ambush other vessels or when collecting intelligence before a strike.

In active mode, most sensors emit pulses that are reflected back from nearby objects. A vessel or object too small or ‘quiet’ to be detected with passive sensors will usually be picked up by active devices, however a vessel that runs active sensors advertises its presence over a greater distance than its own sensors can reach. Like most warships, the Amara-class has processing centres for its sensors that can identify many vessels by their drive signature and emission characteristics.

When active, most sensor groups operate in a track-while-scan mode, maintaining a constant all-round sweep but returning to known contacts every few seconds. It is possible to switch some systems to track a particular contact or refine data about it, whilst other sensor groups continue the all-round scan; the Amara-class has sufficient sensor redundancy to do this whilst specialist ‘boresight’ sensors focus on targeting data for the spinal weapon. Damage to the sensor system may take some groups out of action, requiring the sensors officer to make decisions about where to allocate sensor assets for best overall coverage or most refined data. Minor weapons that do only superficial surface damage can destroy sensor clusters, antennae and the like, effectively poking the ship’s many eyes out one-by-one.

Under most circumstances, a cruiser will run with her transponder in ‘overt’ mode. That is, she constantly broadcasts her presence and actively ‘pings’ the transponders of all other ships in range. Depending on circumstances, the cruiser can fully identify herself with name, class and fleet or might just give her name. Sometimes transponder codes are altered to give the impression that more than one ship of the same type is operating in the area.

In peaceful areas, ships tend to run in overt mode but there is nothing sinister about a merchant ship that is not broadcasting her presence as she proceeds through a hazardous frontier system. However, transponders will normally respond to an active ping; a vessel whose transponder does not respond with her identity and basic data will attract immediate attention from a patrolling cruiser.

Naval ships operating under war-like conditions, or that are engaged in pirate hunting, might run with the transponder in ‘IFF only’ mode, or non-respond mode. IFF (Identification-Friend-or-Foe) mode only responds to pings from properly identified friendly naval vessels. A cruiser operating in IFF-only mode will identify herself by tight-beam communications to a patrol vessel that has pinged her but will not respond to a passing merchant ship. Sometimes naval ships sit just off the main spacelanes, their presence unsuspected until they light off their drives and go active on sensors. This is sometimes done for shock value, just to remind everyone the navy may be around even when they do not seem to be.

A ship with its transponder in non-respond mode will not identify itself to any ping unless specifically authorised by her captain. Some command ships have an override interrogative built into their transponder codes, which can force a response from friendlies, although this is rarely used. It can be employed to force a mutinous ship to identify herself and reveal her location but, on most occasions, a naval ship pinged by a friendly will respond in IFF mode at least.

INS Sharshana History

INS Sharshana is a Ghalalk class heavy cruiser (50,000 tons), one of the earliest of that class to enter service. Several years ago she suffered serious damage, including the near complete destruction of her central pod mountings and significant structural weakening throughout her frame.
Budgetary concerns resulted in her being placed in reserve, then patched up and deployed as a defence monitor at Depot/Deneb. Deemed too expensive to repair, she was cannibalised for spares, losing her jump drive in the process.

Eventually, the Admiralty found sufficient money to repair the old cruiser. This was initially to have been little more than a cosmetic refit and re-installation of a minimal jump drive, allowing her to become a heavily armed troop transport for the Imperial Marines. However, as is the way of things the Admiralty decided that for just a little more money they could get another cruiser out patrolling the paceways, and authorised a major rebuild.

Costs spiralled as the work continued, and for a time INS Sharshana lay incomplete on the ways waiting for spares that would likely never come. She was then transferred to a private yard at Zeng for finishing at the expense of the Duke of Zeng. This was a political gesture intended to increase the duke’s standing in the local region, and came with the condition that INS Sharshana would be deployed to the Zeng and Gulf subsectors for not less than ten years. Thus the area gained additional security, the Imperial Navy got a cruiser back at no cost and the Duke of Zeng gained a reputation as the protector of the region.

The outcome of all this is that INS Sharshana became a politically charged project. There are those who would like to see the Duke of Zeng embarrassed by having ‘his’ cruiser fail in some spectacular manner. Others merely watch with interest as the old cruiser leaves her berth and begins a shakedown cruise in Gulf subsector.

Political interference and the intense scrutiny the mission will be subject to meant that good officers looked elsewhere for advancement when the chance to crew INS Sharshana emerged. A shakedown cruise in the backwaters rarely has much chance for careermaking exploits, and any mistakes will be thrown into sharp relief by the duke’s political opponents.

Thus INS Sharshana is to be taken over by a relatively junior band of officers. These promising but unproven candidates are ordered to report aboard their new ship at Zeng and commence a patrol operation in the Gulf subsector. This is to be a ‘shakedown’ cruise, in which any defects with the vessel will be identified and recommendations submitted upon return to port.

The Travellers may or may not have worked together before. They have all held important posts, but probably not aboard such a large vessel, and should view the chance to command and crew a heavy cruiser as a real career opportunity – providing all goes well.
The previous experience of the Travellers will take one of two forms:

• The Traveller has held a similar post but aboard a smaller ship. For example, the Chief Engineer may have been Chief Engineer of a destroyer in the past.

• The Traveller has served aboard a heavy cruiser, but in the next post down. For example, the commanding officer may have served as Executive Officer of a Ghalalk class cruiser in his last deployment.

Thus all of the Travellers are stepping up onto a wider stage, and have some learning to do. If they can grow into their new roles, they may find themselves ahead of the curve for future promotions and assignments. Or INS Sharshana might be the graveyard of their careers….

INS Sharshana has picked up some traits and quirks in her long and hard service life. These are drawn from the Naval Campaign Guide, but as always the referee can replace them with others, perhaps of his own devising. Most ships will have at most one or two traits and quirks, but Sharshana is carrying old wounds and as had a patchy repair history.

crew (96%) :
CAPTAIN, 15 PILOTS, 2 ASTROGATORS, 137 ENGINEERS, 40 MAINTENANCE, 3 MEDICS, 259 GUNNERS, 10 STEWARDS, 12 ADMINISTRATORS, 74 OFFICERS, 70/200 MARINES

Basic Ship Characteristics
https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/...lass_Armored_Cruiser

  Category Remarks
1. Tonnage 50,000 tons (standard). 700,000 cubic meters.
2. Crew x62 officers, 183 ratings. Total: 245 crew.
3. Performance Jump-4. 5-G. Power plant-9. 4,500-EP. Agility-5.
4. Electronics Model/9 fib ship computer.
5. Hardpoints One spinal weapons mount. Forty 50-ton bays. Seventy-four hardpoints.
6. Armament One particle accelerator spinal mount (Factor-H). Forty 50-ton missile bays. Fifty triple beam laser turrets organized into five batteries. Ten dual fusion gun turrets organized into one battery.
7. Defenses Fourteen triple sandcaster turrets organized into two batteries. Nuclear damper (Factor-9). Meson screen (Factor-5). Armored hull (Factor-5).
8. Craft         Four small craft (50 tons each).
9. Fuel Treatment On-board fuel scoops and fuel purification plant.
10. Cost         MCr34,919.84 standard. MCr27,927.88 in quantity.
11. Construction Time 48 months singly; 36 months in quantity.
12. Comments None.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:45, Mon 24 Aug 2020.

In reply to Iita Tsetsegma (msg # 4):

     There are how many of what type of Small Craft aboard this tub?



     Note, abouve, that is says "hangars"--plural.  Before discussing exactly what tonnage and type of Utility Craft are aboard, I want to refresh everyone's memory of something mentioned in MgT2E's High Guard rules...




     Okay, now we know where the "utility craft" are located, and we know what our "docking" and/or "hangar" options are for them.  Let us now consider What Type and How Many small craft we can actually have...

     The link to the Traveller Wiki (listed abouve) does not, actually, specify how much tonnage is assigned to "hangar space" for any number of auxiliary craft--though it does state that the Ghalalk Armored Cruiser possesses four 50-ton "small craft" of unspecified type (probably they are Cutters, maybe not--maybe they are Modular Cutters, maybe not).
     I would point out, here, that the majority of the Traveller Wiki is being re-edited to conform to T5 rules, and....should we trust a source that specifies that a 50,000-ton Cruiser has "0 Tons" assigned to Fuel Tankage. (Look for yourself, it really does say "Fuel tank: 0 Tons" in the side bar, under "Payload"!)

     The Mongoose Traveller product "Traveller: Element Cruisers" states the following:


     Now, what's abouve, there, only state that there are "facilities" for 12 20-ton boats, and it talks about what they can be, but it is not a definitive statement that there are 12 Boats aboard.  However, on another page, I find some data that (again) implies that there may be 12 Boats...

     First, I start with this little tidbit--it comes from the description for the Chief Pilot:


     On that same page is a Table of Organization for the Flight Department that lists each subdivision of the Flight Department, the Title of the Officer who is in charge of that subdivision, and then how many people are under the command of that Officer.

     That Table list the Chief Pilot, and that he has 2 other Pilots under his command.  There are 3 Officer Pilots (including the Chief Pilot) specifically assigned to fly this big-assed Cruiser, with occasional "small craft pilots" being "rotated through bridge watch" to assist them.

     But on the Ghalalk Cruisers Ship Data Form (page 17) it lists as Crew "Pilots x15".  Now, if all of these Pilots are "Bridge" Pilots...and we assume the standard Naval "3 Watches per Day"...that's 3 Pilots working in any given 24 hour period....if all those Pilots are cycling through Bridge Duty (and nothing else!) then each pilot will work for one 8-hour Watch, then get the next 4 days off, before returning to the Bridge for one 8-hour Watch.

     That's if all 15 Pilots are assigned to Bridge Duty.  However, the T.O.O. only listed 3 Pilots--the Chief Pilot & 2 Assistant Pilots--as being specifically assigned to the Bridge.  What about the other 12 Pilots, of the listed 15?

     12 Pilots.  Remember that number....

     Now, in the same T.O.O. (page 17) it lists the Small Craft Operations Officer as having 12 Enlisted crewmen under his command.  There's that number 12, again.

     50-Ton Cutters are listed as requiring 2 or 3 Crew--a Pilot and a Co-Pilot, and a Flight Tech.

     20-Ton Launches are listed as requiring 2 Crew--a Pilot and a "Co-Pilot" (which could easily be a Flight Tech).

     Small Craft Ops has 12 Enlisted Crew at its disposal.  That could be 4 Crews of 3 Enlisted Crew, each, which would support the premise of 4 50-Ton Cutters, but still leaves us with the Puzzle of "why are there 15 Pilots cycling through the Bridge"?

Or...

     If the Cruiser has 12 Launches, then the 12 "extra" Pilot Officers (remember, abouve, where it said that, on Cruisers, all Pilots are Officers?) would be Launch Pilots, each assigned a Flight Tech (the 12 Enlisted personnel from Small Craft Ops) to ride "Second Seat".  And then Small Craft Ops would be assigned either 6 or 12 "Flight Engineers" for craft maintenance (they "work for" Small Craft Ops, but "belong" to Engineering).  If it's 6 Flight Engineers, they fix any Small Craft, as needed.  If it's 12, then each Flight Engineer is assigned to a specific Launch.

     My suggestion for the Small Craft load-out, in order of "personal preference", would be for....

1.  8 Launches (20-Ton), each with 1 Officer Pilot & 1 Enlisted Flight Tech as Crew, plus 2 Cutters (50-Ton), each with 2 Officer Pilots and 2 Enlisted Flight Techs as Crew (each specific Crew assigned to specific boats; still 12 Pilots & 12 Enlisted)

2.  12 Launches (20-Ton), each with 1 Officer Pilot & 1 Enlisted Flight Tech as Crew (each specific Crew assigned to specific boats; still 12 Pilots & 12 Enlisted)

3.  4 Cutters (50-Ton), each with 2 Officer Pilot & 1 Enlisted Flight Tech as Crew (with all personnel being rotated around--8 Pilots on Small Craft duties while remaining 4 are rotated to Bridge duty--while the Enlisted personnel are either assigned to Flight Tech duties or assigned to assist the Flight Engineers)


     And none of these options correct the issue that, according to MgT2E High Guard, the Ghalalk Cruiser, as listed in the "Traveller: Element Cruisers" book, doesn't have the correct Tonnage to house these small craft!

     Remember the "Docking Space" and "Full Hangar" info I quoted, abouve?  Run the numbers.

     The Element Cruiser book specifically says (page 16) that the Ghalalk Cruiser has 240-Tons of "Full Hangar" available.  That same book also says "facilities for" 12 20-ton Launches.  Full Hangar for a single 20-Ton Launch is 40-Tons.  Multiplied by 12, that's 480-Tons of Hangar space needed.  The Element Cruisers book contradicts itself.

     And 240-Tons of Hangar doesn't work for the T5 Wiki's statement of four 50-Ton Cutters, either.  Each Cutter requires 100-Tons of Full Hangar, that's 400-Tons total.  And that's not even considering the possibility that these Cutters may be Modular Cutters, which need storage space for a few extra Modules (otherwise, what's the point of putting Modular Cutters aboard, if you don't have a variety of Modules to use?)

     Luckily, it's only my job to annoyingly point this out--it's the GM's job to resolve it!

^_^

I like option 1 the best as it provides the most flexibility.  The cutters would be modular with extra modules stored in cargo space perhaps.  The two cutters would be helpful in transporting large number of crew, marines or cargo around and the launches smaller but more flexible.

Alternatively two of the launches could be 20dton fighters but that might be too nonstandard.

Definitely the flight section pilots would rotate through the bridge and I would expect the bridge pilots to occasionally rotate through the smaller craft.