# United Federation of Earth and her Colonies Among the Stars ## A steamnetwork data-feed article by Eric Collingwood. The United Federation of Earth is the largest faction in the setting and is tied with [Vers](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/vers) for the title of second oldest. The Federation is a place where you can be whatever you want to be. Do what ever you want to. There is a planet somewhere in some piece of federation territory that is the exact heaven you dream of, its up to you to find it. And if it doesn't exist, to found it. Societies that have formed off of the Federation tend to focus on individualism and democracy. Believing in the freedom to make your own mistakes. | | | -------------------- | | 1) Short Description | | 2) History | | 3) Government | | 4) Army | | 5) Navy | | | | |---|---| || | |Name|Relationship| |[United Dominion Of Terra Nova](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/udTn)|Ally| |[United Colony Of Saldor](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/ucs)|Ally| |[United Federation Of Utopic](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/ufu)|Ally| |[United Colony Of Tihara](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/uct)|Ally| |[United Federation Of Takara](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/uft)|Ally| |[United Colony Of Maldeth](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/ucm)|Ally| |[Germushia](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/germushia)|Ally| |[Polandskia](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/polanskia)|Ally| |[Deutschland](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/deutschland)|Enemy| |[Xiao-Ming](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/xiaoming)|Enemy| |[First Order](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/firstorder)|Enemy| |[Britannia](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/britannia)|Enemy| |[Imperial Versian Federated Territories](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/ivft)|Ally| |[Trans Galactic Empire](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/transGalaticEmpire)|Enemy| |[Vers](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/vers)|Neutral| |[United Reverse Lords](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/url)|Neutral| |[Axios Alliance](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/axios)|Ally| |[Universalis Confederation](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/universalisConfederation)|Ally| |[Witcher Order](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/witcher)|Ally| || | |Traits| |Liberal| |Democratic| |Military Focused| |Very technologically advanced.| ## Short Description The United Federation of Earth and her Colonies among the Stars is both one of the oldest and one of the youngest nations in the Known Universe. During reforms enacted by the recently elected DAM Emily Goodwin, the Federation of today is a dramatically more democratic society then in days gone by. Molded by a recent war with the empire as well, the Federation now stands as a woken giant. Unfortunately for this giant, following DAM Goodwin's reforms, some of the new leaders like JugendDAM Hellsbeck opposed the changes, nearly starting a civil war. Even today the freedoms [Utopia](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/ufu) posses come at the cost of the Federations control over colonies like [Maldeth](file:///C:/Users/thoma/RiderProjects/Known-Universe-RPG-Wiki/TravellerWiki/Pages/Wiki%20Pages/ucm). Life within the UFE is truly wondrous. IF you don't want to work, you don't have too. No matter your political beliefs, your social beliefs, or your fetishes, there is a world out there that is just right for you. With the various levels of government being given extreme degrees of control, the people truly can create their own utopia whatever that may be. For most though, they choose to live on "normal" worlds, people have a job that they work 3 days a week, spend time with friends and family, live comfortably, spend time in virtual space and real space. For some, they choose to live on planets that a medieval present would find outdated, or living on a world that Asimov couldn't even begin to image. Be who you are, whoever that may be. Because ultimately no one in the federation has the right to stop you. ![[Old Federation History]] ## Government The Government of the UFE is a large complex beast, created and molded over millennium of war and change. At the top is the DAM, the head of state and government, elected by the House of Lords and Parliament. The DAM is supported by the privy council, which contains 13 seats, they are: The DAM, and the following 6 from each side of the Government. Privy Council, Parliament 1. President - Head of Parliament 2. Vice President - Head of the Senate 3. Prime Minister - Head of the House of Commons 4. Chancellor - Head of the House of business representatives 5. Grandest Admiral - Highest ranking person in the Federal Navy 6. Grandest General - Highest ranking person in the Federal Army House of Lords, 1. Speaker of the House - Head of the House of Lords 2. Lord of the Assembly - Represents the Lords Assembly 3. Lord of the Council - Represents the Lords Council 4. Lord of the Budget - The lord in charge of the revenue collected by the House of Lords. 5. Lord of the People - The lord to represent the lords within the system as people. 6. Lord of the Military - The lord to represent the collective Lords Navy and Army Where the House of Lords rules over all land, the planets, and the space between them, they can pass taxes on their land and what people want to do with their land. While the Federal government can tax the people, their work, and their income, which includes the income the lords would make from charging taxes to their people, effectively allowing the Federal government to raise revenue without having to pass land taxes themselves. This split in power is further divided once one gets inside the two major bodies of government. While the House of Lords may be for the land, the Parliament for the people, the DAM and their privy council is to combined the two and lead the people. This system is similar to that of the westminster system. ### House Of Lords The house of lords rules over all land and currently consists of 134 lords within the United Federations house, including the original 25 lords. Every lord is bound by a charter, which describes the rights the lord has, the system of government for the lords Sovereignty(the term for the land a lord controls), on what the Lord can tax, how much the lod must spend on their fleet and the size of their military. As well as numerous other minutia. The house of lords is itself split between two major bodies, the General Assembly and the Lords council. The Lords council, or the upper house, is where legislation is voted on whether it should go to the floor of the General Assembly. As well as the final vote on any legislation passed in the General Assembly (though no veto power, only the power to send back for review up to 5 times). Members of the upper house are elected after the Speaker of the House has been elected but before the shadow council has been elected. One can no sit on the Shadow council and the Lords Council, as well, the speaker in insured a spot within the Lords Council. The Lords Council also can recommend the order for events to be placed on the Assemblies docket. The General Assembly is the heart of soul of the House of Lords, it is where laws are voted on, wars rallied, calls for action heard, and of course boozing to take place. The General Assembly serves to act as a meeting ground for the lords to work out their issues before declaring war on one another, and when they do so, making said declaration public for everyone to hear and join. The shadow council works with the Speaker of the House to draft legislation as proposed by the Lords Council, as well as review who should be called on to speak on various subjects, as well as to set the docket for each House of Lords Meeting. ### Parliament Parliament rules on everything and everyone else that the House of Lords can't rule on. Parliament itself is split into three branches who come together under the president to work for the United Federation of Earth. The three branches are: - House of Commons - Run by the Prime Minister, each minister is voted in to legislate on areas as they relate to the _Common_ person, and vote on the laws introduced in the other two houses on how they best serve the people. - House of Business representatives - Run by the Chancellor, the house of representatives came into existence following the depressing realization that one could not keep companies out of politics. The house now is supposed to work towards making sure the interest of companies is matched and kept in check, as to prevent the other parts of the government from being forced to regulate them. - The Senate - Run by the Vice-President, the Senate represents the governments interests, and passes legislation related to those interests. Each branch of parliamentary legislates over their respective areas while the other two branches keep them in check, as to prevent anyone from taking too much power for themselves. ### Elections Elections are a massive and complicated mess. A DAMs term is their life or until they decided to step down, or a vote of no-confidence is held across all 5 houses of government, and all vote Agree. For the title of DAM, first the General Assembly nominates a series of candidates before voting on a pool of 12 to go to the Lords Council, who then vote on 8 to head to the House of Business, who then vote on 6 to go to the Senate to vote down to 4 to go to the Commons to vote it down to 2 before finally heading back to the General Assembly for a final vote between the two candidates. At any time any of the houses can reject the candidate list and reset the whole process back to the start. For the title of speaker of the house of Lords, the DAM dismisses the current speaker and temporarily takes the title themselves, and dissolves the Lords Council, before holding an election for a new speaker, who then holds an election for the House of Lords half of the Lords Council seat, while each house of Parliament votes on their seats to the Lords council. After the Lords council and the Speaker are elected, the speaker then picks their staff for the shadow council. The DAM must be from the house of lords, and upon doing so must renounce their title and claim to their charter, giving it to their heir, and taking the Throne of DAM, as they are now the Lord over the enteritis of the United Federation of Earth. They may no longer hold a private military fleet as they have the Federal fleet and can rally any lords needed for a war. The presidential election is held once every half century (50 years) and is started 20 years before it is needed, as the outermost locations began to cast their votes, eventually the election and paper ballets reach Earth and are checked for authenticity before finally the new President is elected. The House of Business representatives hold an election every 30 years of the top companies within the UFE, choosing who to represents them. The senate is voted on by the governors of federation worlds and stations, while the Commons are voted on in their Super Sector Blocks or by population whichever is smaller. ### Aristocracy The UFE has several levels to the noble titles that represent different areas of land that they control, each title is effectively DAM at one level down of abstraction 1. OberDAM - The previous DAM during the transition between leaders, as they guide the current DAM. 2. DAM - Leader of the UFE 3. JugendDAM - Leader of an Independent Dominion 4. KinderDAM - Leader of a Colonial Dominion 5. Duke - Title of a lord who is sitting on a privy council, or has sat on the council, not hereditary. 6. Earl - Title of a Lord who is sitting or has sat in the Lords council. 7. Lord - Leader of one of the various Sovereignties that make up a dominion. 8. Count - Leader of a mega-sector within the Lords Sovereignty. 9. Viscount - Leader of a super-sector within a Counts mega-sector. 10. Marquess - Baron of border territory. 11. Baron - Make up the building block of a Sovereignty, Barons are the individual land owners within the UFE, who control and hold systems. Fall on a spectrum from Free-Baron - Seated Baron. Where a free baron has almost no Federal government support, pays little if any tax, and has essentially no involvement with the Federal government, whereas a Seated Baron (sometimes called a Landed Baron) is someone who has almost no personal control over their lands, as they rely on the federation for many services and requirements, instead paying to maintain the necessaries but with almost no practical involvement, essentially just a title with no meaning. ## Army The Army of the UFE is the largest in the Known Universe and serves the peacekeeping force for the federation as well as the force to make sure no one challenges their rule. The army today focuses on a split of drones to scout and support, transport gunships for air cover, while driving around in armoured transports with machine guns to keep the six man units secure from small arms fire. With a support starship in orbit overseeing operations on the ground. The standard UFE army is laid out as such: 1. 1 person - Soldier 2. 3 soldiers - 1 Fireteam led by a Corporal [3 soldiers] 3. 2 fireteams - 1 squad led by a Sargent [6 soldiers] 4. 4 squads - 1 platoon led by a Lieutenant [24 soldiers] 5. 4 platoons - 1 Company led by a Captain [96 soldiers] 6. 6 companies - 1 battalion led by a Commander [576 soldiers] 7. 8 battalions - 1 regiment led by a Lieutenant Colonel [4,608 soldiers] 8. 6 regiments - 1 brigade led by a Colonel [27,648 soldiers] 9. 8 brigades - 1 Division led Lieutenant-General [221,184 soldiers] 10. ~12+ divisions - 1 army led by a General [2,654,208 soldiers] ## Navy The United Federation of Earth navy is the largest in the known universe. It can be identified by the IFF tag: UFEN (United Federation of Earth Navy) Service within the navy is handled in Tours, where each tour is ten years of service. Generally the first two years of your first tour is spent being trained, the next two years are spent aboard a small system craft, getting accustom to the position, before being transferred to more active vessels within the fleet. Generally a crew member can expect a review every two years, with a promotion on average every four years. It should be noted that ranks are equal across both the lords navies and the UFE general navy. But the Lords navies tend to be seen as lesser due to the focus on political appointment over actual "merit" based promotions. ### Ranks Ranks within the UFE navy are divided into two groups, enlisted and officers, within those groups, people are once again between junior grade and senior grade, as well as their direct rank. The second level of any general rank can be equivalent to the third level (lowest) of the next general rank, and the first of any general rank can be equivalent to the second of the next general rank up. All of these next levels allow the person to transition with the senior grade so long as their duties actually overlapped with equivalent duties of that rank/position. Enlisted personnel are those who do the grunt work aboard the ship, and represent the majority of the crew aboard any given starship. Often filling roles from gunnery loaders, mechanics, chefs, and every other general position. Enlisted personnel - Recruits in training.1. New Enlisted 2. Mid Enlisted 3. Senior Enlisted Starman - The general grunt work1. Starman Third Class 2. Starman Second Class 3. Starman First Class Petty Officers - Not technically officers, but close too it.1. Petty Officer 2. Chief Petty Officer 3. Master Chief Petty Officer Officers consist of anyone who has to make a real decision, and fill out most of the actual operational roles of the vessel. From actually aiming the cannons, flying the fighter, flying the ship, or even just deciding what gets fixed when. Ensign, the lowest level of officer, the most plentiful of the officer ranks and generally aren't much above actual starmen.1. Ensign Third Class 2. Ensign Second Class 3. Ensign First Class Sub-Lieutenants are the middle management of starships, acting as the buffer between actually important officers like Lieutenants and above the pointless minutia of the lowest ranks.1. Sub-Lieutenant Third Class 2. Sub-Lieutenant Second Class 3. Sub-Lieutenant First Class Lieutenants serve as the practical officers of the ship, commanding specific sections of a vessel with a crew of Sub-Lieutenants to execute the orders. Ranging from commanding a single section of a broadside, to being the entire fire-decks command Chief.1. Lieutenant Third Class 2. Lieutenant Second Class 3. Lieutenant First Class The Lieutenant-Commander serves to do just as the name suggests, and commands the Lieutenants, dealing with the day to day orders of various section heads and their personnel.1. Sub-Lieutenant-Commander 2. Lieutenant-Commander Commanders serve the vital role of being a check on the captain, and yet still acting as an executive. A friendly force for the crew while gaining command experience.1. Sub-Commander 2. Commander Captains run the ship!1. Sub-Captain 2. Captain Fleet and Sector officers deal with the month to month happenings within the sector. Commodores control stations and ports, captains control vessels.1. Fleet-Captain/Station Commodore 2. Sector-Captain/Sector Commodore Admirals command vast sectors of space and massive fleets of starships, with countless lives under their command.1. Super-Sector Sub-Admiral 2. Rear-Admiral (mega-sector) 3. Vice Admiral (Quadrant) 4. (Fleet) Admiral 5. Fleets Admiral 6. High Admiral/Grand Admiral/Lord Admiral ### Command Console/Command Officer Corps The command console is where the five most senior officers gather during any situation. The console itself represents a 3d display grid, and sits in the middle of the room, while being connected to the bow wall, where the primary view screen sits as well. The rectangular display-table sits length-wise into the room. At the "head" of the tabel sits the captain, representing the DAM over this realm (the starship). On the left stand (normally) the Sub-Captain and the Commander, representing the crew of the starship and the people outside of it. While to the right of the captain sit the Lieutenant-Commander and the First Lieutenant, representing the physical part of the ship. This dichotomy is related to that of the Parliament representing the people(in this case the crew), and the House of Lords controlling the land (in this case the ship). While the horizontal split (Commander & Lieutenant-Commander VS Sub-Captain & First Lieutenant) represents the internal vs the external. The positions as held are: - Left Top: (Normally Commander) represents the operations & crew of the ship, deals with internal issues and the crew. Handles the ship marines and schedules, as well as medical teams - Left Bottom: (Normally Sub-Captain) represents the external people, with comms and science stations being the primary concerns of the sub-captain position aboard a starship. - Right Top: (Normally Lieutenant-Commander) Represents the engineering and supplies of the starship, deals with power-allocation and supply distribution and timelines during resupply - Right Bottom: (Normally First Lieutenant) Represents the tactical areas of the starships as well as shields, takes commands of fighters once they are in the air, while OPs gets to assign which pilots go on flight - Middle Bottom: (Normally Captain) Represents the DAM, and is the deciding choice to lead the ship during battle. ### The Lords Fleet Because the lords first came into existence by being the admirals, the maintenance of a fleet has always been integral to the part of being a lord. While generally offloaded to the counts and barons to maintain their own fleets, the lord is the only one legally obligated federally to maintain a fleet. General lords fleets are left out of the UFE fleet strength equation. This is because during anyting but total war, lords must be rallied to war, and becaues it can not be ensured that ANY lord will be rallied, none of their fleets can be counted. This causes some of the safer areas to no longer maintain strong fleets. There is a requirement set though that the Lords fleets must meet the minimum fleet specification, this is to keep rough equivalency between the lords and the general navy, as well as each lord. If a lords fleet falls below specification, they are immediately sold the lowest tier of viable surplus and if they can't afford it are given a loan with a hefty 9% interest rate to incentivize repayment quickly. ### Fleet layout Ufe fleets are broken down into two major types, Lords fleets, and federal fleets, while lords are free to compose their fleets as chosen, due to bureaucracy, the federal fleets must conform to a general standard. The UFE navy is organized as such (troop ships are an exception): - Each system gets a system defense boat at minimum. - For every 3 corvettes there is 1 cutter. - For every 2 corvettes there should be 1 destroyer - For every 5 destroyers there should be 1 frigate. - For every 3 frigates 2 Light-Cruiser - For every 2 light cruisers 1 cruiser - For every 6 Cruisers 1 Specialty Cruiser - For every 8 Specialty Cruisers 1 carrier - For every 5 carriers 1 Specialty carrier - For every 5 Cruisers 1 specialized battleship - For every 6 specialized battleships 1 normal battleship - For every 10 battleships 1 Battle-Cruiser - Each High/Grand/Lord Admiral can have as many battle-cruisers as chosen, but by convention only one Dreadnought. Generally though by standard there are 10-30 battle-cruisers per dreadnought. This works out to, for example the fifth Berlinnic fleet (total 17,457 ships, with ~1034714): 1. 2,841 cutters 2. 8,525 Corvettes 3. 4,263 Destroyers 4. 853 Frigates 5. 568 Light Cruisers 6. 284 Cruisers 7. 47 Specialty Cruisers 8. 6 Carriers 9. 1 specialized Carrier 10. 57 specialized battleships 11. 10 normal battleships 12. 1 battle-cruiser 13. 1 dreadnought. ### Ship classes Standard Ships- System-Defense-Boat - Sub-Lieutenant(Second/First Class) - used to patrol systems and deal with pirate - Crewed by 5-20 - Cutter - Sub-Lieutenant(Second/First Class) - A small craft to cut through enemy lines and quickly do damage during battles. In times of peace serve mostly as support craft - Crewed by 20-40 - Troop Ship - Sub-Lieutenant(Second/First Class) - Used to transport troops around during war. - crewed by 10-30 - Corvette - Sub-Lieutenant First class - generally used to patrol between systems for intersystem piracy and part of battlegroups for larger engagements. - Crewed by 40-60 - Frigate - Lieutenant/Sub-lieutenant - Used to patrol border systems and do more independent missions from destroyers and corvettes. - Crewed by 60-90 - Destroyer - Commander/Lieutenant - Exist for fleet operations during battle, in times of peace are used for system patrol on key trade routes. - Crewed by 40-60 Capital Ships- Light-Cruiser - Captain/Commander - Used to patrol border regions especially those with hostile nations, as well as primary scout vessels during major battles. - Crewed by 150-300 - Cruiser - Captain - The core of the fleet, maintained for out of border missions in the dominions and border regions, within the capital serve to reinforce the main fleets and deal with larger disputes in less patrolled areas of space. - Crewed by 100-400 - Heavy-Cruiser* - Sector/Fleet Captain - Used mostly in battle, heavier weapons and defenses allow it to match the damage output of a destroyer with the armour of a cruiser. - Crewed by 200-400 - Assault-Cruiser* - Super-Sector Admiral - equipped with extra engines for speed and closer range weapons allowing it to cut distance for quick punches into enemy lines, backed by extra missile volume. - Crewed by 150-300 - Strike-Cruiser* - Super-Sector Admiral - Has fighter capacity as well as troops on board, gets in quickly and boards other ships while using fighters for support. Preferred by lords. - Crewed by 150-300 - Carrier Rear-Admiral - Carries large numbers of strike craft, since recent military reforms have mostly removed the fighter role, these ships have become home to roving gunship platforms. - Crewed by 200-500 - Escort-Carrier* - Rear-Admiral - Mostly retired, those that remain focus on carrying in planet escorts for shuttles. - Crewed by 150-300 - Assault-Carrier* - Rear-Admiral - Mostly retired, those that remain use their stock of fighters to focus assaults on enemy starships at short range, especially to overwhelm opposition fighter support. Often seen in the berlinnic galaxy. - Crewed by 150-300 - Fleet-Carrier* - Rear-Admiral - A rarity in the modern day, carries several destroyers and corvettes within along with the support vessels to maintain them. - Crewed by 500-800 - Battle-Rider* - Rear-Admiral - With the removal of a faster then light system, the battle-rider _rides_ into battle inside a battle-tender and serves to bring the **BIG** guns to a fight. - Crewed by 300-500 - Battle-Tender* - Fleet Admiral - While the tender itself can pack a punch, its bigger goal is to serve as a delivery system for the Battle-Rider, bringing them into a system and then coordinating their attacks as well as other relevant fleet actions - Crewed by 800-1500 - Battleship - Vice Admiral - The heavy hitter in the fleet, packs a punch and focuses on destroying enemy vessels. - Crewed by 500-800 - Battle-Cruiser* - Fleets Admiral - Closer to a battleship then a cruiser, the battlecruiser has the ability to be mobile enough to get to a border dispute quickly while at the same time the firepower and armour to deal with most major threats, and the fighter support to deal with ground issues as well. - Crewed by 800-1500 - Dreadnought - high/Grand/Lord Admiral - The flagship of the fleet, the most decorated and well known, often being millennium old having seen hundreds of captains and retrofits. In some cases bearing no resemblance to her former self. - Crewed by 1500-3000 * indicates a variant on a central design. ### Weapons/Defenses UFE starships are equipped with standard multi-phasic shielding being able to alternate between bubble shielding and hex-sheidling with specialized kycilium emitters. This allows the ships to absorb high amounts of broadside damage or dedicated missile damage, though not both at the same time. From the offensive perspective, UFE starships are equipped with an assortment of tactical options, the broad catagories are: - Broad side weapons - Various sizes of the core weapons of any ship. From a system defense boats single gun deck to the infinity classes horrifying 600. These weapons serve to destroy most opposition in swift order. - torpedo's - unguided weapons, useful for attacking smaller vessels or to quickly swap out or in specialized payloads. Slower then missies but faster then cannons or the MAC, torpedo's allow the ship to deliver explosive payloads to surface areas without fear of accidentally destroying a continent. - Missiles - Coming in three classes: Cluster, Nuclear, Direct. Each is designed to deal with a particular situation. Cluster deals well with shields by distributing a large _cluster_ of small explosions across a large area, while direct is more effective at punching though hull plating and causing destruction. Missiles are very fast. - MAC - The Magnetic Acceleration Cannon serves as the foundation of the UFE Navel Position, allowing the massive warships to lob 500m+ long depleted uranium rods encased in dilitanium coating with voidonic cores allow a single round to destroy even the most formidable opposing ship. ## The Scout Services Following the repealing of the War Measures Act in the House of Lo5ds and the War Powers act in Parliament. Due to the high level of abuse and broad overreach, the UFE was banned from having any form of covert intelligence service. To solve this problem, the UFE looked to another crisis they were suffering from, people couldn't afford starships in the failing economy, and the lack of trade was literally destroying worlds. The solution was obvious. The _Government_ couldn't spy on private citizens. Private investigation companies were completely legal. The navy also had discretionary spending when it came to intelligence operations, so long as the general operation could be justified before the privy council and shown to note violate any standing laws. This caused the UFE to fund the creation of the Scout Services(Tm), a company that sponsors would be starships captains to take on government issued contracts in exchange for government surplus starships. The scout services in return for leasing the ships to the captains, facilitating contracts between the government and captains, as well as other numerous services, such as planetary discovery and logging, hyperspace route discovery, voidspace mapping, and trade. All of these serve as bonus to the array of logging devices stored aboard the ship, the various informant networks run by senior operatives based out of scout service branches. The ships themselves serve as intergalactic postal service, possibly carrying out the odd contract for extra money. Some crews get by just taking contracts, others by trade. During the trade, each ship collects a datapacket containing all information from the hyperspace node, and transmits its own datapacket of information as per usual, at the same time, if there is a scout services node (operated out of a scout service facility) the ship sends it a specialized datapacket containing intelligence briefs for this destination, and receives any outgoing messages. Meanwhile the ground stations are operated at the upper levels and throughout with intelligence operatives, and many locations serve a double purpose as a general building within the community, such as a restaurant, grocery store, etc. While it is a quite open secrete that the scout services is spies, those within the UFE see it as a necessary evil, and due to the very strong privacy laws and personal defense laws, as well as heavy legislative restrictions applied by the government to the pseudo-government entity leave it with very little moving power on actual federation citizens.