Grandtaria-Ratmos

Grandtaria-Ratmos is a political union of the Kingdom of Grandtaria, The Ratmosian Out-Cities, and the Ratmosian Equatorial States, resultant from the peace-settlement of the Ratmo-Grandtarian wars of Unification Wars. The state is generally liberal, and though takes a very free hand with the governed bodies below it, is strongly constitutionalist, and well-balanced, the system well-rid of much of the political corruption at the hand of the near limitless mass of shrewd, tight-fisted bureaucrats that check and balance every pence of government funding.

Government

The specific structure of government, a product of that Grandtarian, constiutionalist mindset, and formalised in the treaty which necessitated it, is a three-tiered parliament, in which the Upper House, the Monarchy, and the Lower house all share power.

The Lower House, notably, holds supreme judicial power, and is drawn from local constituencies, though it does make special balances, forbidding the passing of laws in either half without the consent of it's own majority of votes, or a royal veto.

The Upper House holds the powers of the national tax, and levy, and is responsible for the maintenance of the army (Whilst actual, over-all command of it is detached from the political sector, the generals themselves appointed by the Royal House, which itself may be vetoed by simultanious rejection of both lower houses). It is drawn from landholders who elect members of local peerage to the local position of Ducal-Knight, which represents that duchy in parliament.

The Royal House consists of the Grandtarian Monarch, the Lord-Protector of Agathria, the Lord-Protector of the Populati Magus, and Rear Admiral of the Fleet (Who himself is appointed by a unanimous decision by all three houses, in which any one house can veto by a three-to-one majority), which is balanced against the three seats which MUST be held by Valkyries, which are chosen from the existing eight by their own council, which itself acts like a smaller, Upper House, administrating territories of Ratmosian Concern, acting like 8 Censors. The Royal House is a balance between the two lower chambers, holding a special, royal veto, and able to decide the result of deadlocks, and the ability to reject a cabinet unless overruled by a 2-to-1 majority in both houses.

Military

The Grandtarian-Ratmosian Military is subdivided into Army and Navy, with it's traditional 'airforce' role split between a Fleet Vanship Arm, (Who's role is largely undecided, though the interception of similar enemy craft is chief.), and the Army Air Component. (Who's role is even more undecided.)

Navy

The Fleet's component parts are split into Naval Garrison Command, The Grand Fleet, and the Mercant-Navy, all of which are serviced by the Fleet Vanship Arm.

Grand Fleet

Generally, Grandtaria supplies the bulk of the fleet, and priorities it highly. Though it lacks any real missile technology, it's ballistic weaponry, coupled with Ratmosian Izinite Beam Weaponry, gives them a genuinely effective military arsenal. Likewise, their point-defense is somewhat primitive, relying mostly on mechanical-computers to drive optically-aimed autocannon batteries. These are new, and unreliable, but acceptably effective against slow warheads. Their armour, especially on larger capital ships, is superb, and their 'mana' shielding gives them adequate protection against light weapons, but the chief defense, is, again, the armour.

Their ships are incredibly dense, and generally reasonably small for their weight class, generally favouring large batteries of hyper-velocity, medium-caliber guns for maximum penetration at the cost of internal damage, and a single, massive, spinal gun, which runs the length of the ship. The configuration of their batteries allow rotary firing as the batteries spin on large rings, mounted center to the hull, and the outward force generated is used to greatly speed loading, allowing remarkable rates of fire to guns that can damage most cruisers or destroyers.

Driven chiefly by a Waygate Drive, which charges for a period of time before an incredibly high-speed 'blink', and by a high efficiency steam-thruster, they are not subtle, but can use the vast clouds of water-vapour as effective smoke screens, not concealing them, but at least disrupting optically-aimed guns as light is unpredictably refracted through the dense clouds of water-vapour.

The relatively simple construction of ships, via a modular system of specialization to regional craftsmen, ensures a surprisingly high capacity to replace losses, and though their armour is not cheap, most of their systems are remarkably easy to construct. Their doctrine emphasizes this, encouraging the wolf-packing of an enemy fleet, using small detachments in raids to split an enemy battle-squadron before using the primary fleet to attack these component parts one-by-one, rather then offering fair-and-open battle.

It is commanded by the Rear Admiral of the Fleet, a position which is both political, and military, and which appoints the Admiral of the Blue (Commander of the Merchant Marines), and the Admiral of the Green (Chief Officer of Naval Garrison Command)

Merchant Navy

The Merchant Navy is a smaller command, subordinate but separate to the Grand Fleet, which has on permanent loan from the Grand Fleet, a force of Cruisers and Destroyers from the Fleet Proper in times of war, or in dangerous sectors. It is also tasked with the security of Civilian ships, their arming in dangerous sectors, or times of war, and the organisation of the Convoy System as needed. The entire Merchant Navy is commanded by an Admiral of the Blue (Currently Sir Stepphle Williamsmith), who is appointed to that posting from the rank of admiral, by the Rear Admiral of the Fleet.

Naval Garrison Command

Naval Garrison Command organises the construction and expansion of defense stations, or defense strong-points, which appoints a sub-command for all sectors beyond the Home Sector, from which it makes it's H.Q.

It's responsibilities are vast, as there are a huge number of strong-points, typically nothing more then a single, super-heavy gun mounted to a particularly large asteroid with a small support station and crew. Each Strong Point generally has a crew of at least 45, including four vanship pilots, two technicians for the maintenance of the gun-laying computer, a medical magus, a section of Marine Riflemen who man the much smaller station point-defense weapons, their serjent, an Adjutant who doubles as radio operator, and a First Lieutenant, who is in over-all charge.

These strong-point stations are usually prefabricated in orbit of a planet, before being sunk into any asteroid of appropriate size by a tender, and as such are available in vast quantities, despite their sophistication, making the NGC a very important, and expensive part of the government's defense budget. They're also incredibly taxing on manpower, and many stations do not receive a full compliment of marines, or instead receive reservists for their section of rifles.

The strong-points are grouped into sectors, and serviced by a tender ship, the size of a destroyer, which is lightly armed, heavily armoured, filled mostly with supplies and construction equipment, and serves as a mobile command post for the sector commander, carrying a large compliment of elite marines for contesting any station which is threatened, and a brigade of Naval Engineers. Each sector is assigned to the nearest planet, or terrestrial moon, which has a much larger defensive emplacement, often with several brigades of conventional forces manning a large number of similar, super-heavy guns. One is selected for the System Command Station, which in the Capital System, is also the H.Q of the N.G.C.

The Guns themselves share a single, universal trait; Their use of waygate drives. These expensive, miniaturized drives throw a dense shell, similar to the rotating batteries on capital ships, at a much, much higher velocity, FTL to the target, allowing for very accurate, if slow-firing batteries to engage an encroaching enemy fleet in unison. Sectors concetrate their fire together, allowing huge volleys of medium-caliber, insanely high velocity shells to be sent anywhere in the system in a matter of seconds, with the aim to overwhelm an enemy ship with a large number of piercing hits at once.

The Entirety of the N.G.C is commanded by an Admiral of the Green (Currently Sir Broaklen Pillinsworth), appointed by the Rear Admiral of the Fleet. This posting is nominally considered a 'Safely Grandtarian' position, as it is essentially an entirely Grandtarian concept, and is generally paid for by Grandtarian Tax, and overseen by Grandtarian Officers.

Army

Grandtarian Ground Forces

The Grandtarian Army is well organised, and partially seperate from the Ratmosian Army, but is mostly a non-motorised force. It's resources are very limited, but it's manpower is /not/. As a result, it's very keen to deploy what equipment it does have efficiently, with the best officers. The Standard Operational Unit is a Division, which is broken into a number of Regiments (Usually 5),

Each Battalion has a relatively standardized mold;

• Heavy Rifle Battalion; 600 Men in 3 Companies of 200 Each. Armed with 10.2mm High-Velocity Bolt-Action Rifles, Heavy Rifle Grenades, Medium and Light Machine guns, Mortars, Izinite-Hardened Bayonets, 4 86mm Anti-Tank Field Guns per Company, and 4 132mm Field Howitzer Per Company, and 2 25mm Quad Barreled Anti-Aircraft Infantry Tanks, 16 Armoured Lorries for the Guns and their munitions, and 4 More Armoured Lorries for a 25-Man Command Section and it's equiptment.

• Light Infantry Battalion; 800 Men in 4 Companies of 200 Each, armed with several 14mm, 5 shot revolvers to a man, and with dozens of grenades, along with smoke grenades, and heavy mortars. Fully motorised, with 10 lorries per company, four more for a 25-man command section, and with the fourth company being a 'jump' company, armed with single use jet-packs, additional grenades, artillery flares, binoculars. They also enjoy two platoons of five Impetus-Class Cruiser Tanks, equivalent to most nation's MBTs, with the venerable hypervelocity 84mm, and considerable mobility, and four platoons of five 25mm Quad Barreled Anti-Aircraft Cruiser Tanks, more lightly armoured and faster then their infantry-tank counterparts, and with a more expensive and complex vertical stabilizer.

• Field Howitzer Battalion;

• Heavy Howitzer Battalion;

• Anti-tank Gun Battalion;

These Battalions fit reasonably standardized Regiments;

• Rifle Regiment
• Artillery Regiment
• Armoured Infantry Regiment
• Tank Regiment

And those regiments are drawn into Divisions;