Royal Navy

The Royal Navy, or the Royal Auroran Navy (RAN), is the primary military force of the Star Kingdom of Aurora.

It is commanded by the Admiralty and by the Cabinet. The official commander of the RAN is always the current monarch of Aurora, as Queen Valerie I is the current head of the RAN. The de facto commander is the First Lord Admiral of the Admiralty, who is responsible for all decisions of military nature.

Ships of the Royal Navy uses the HMS (His/Her Majesty's Ship) prefix before the ship name.

The RAN's motto is "Inter astrum, nos immolare." ("Amongst the stars, we sacrifice.")

The Royal Navy is part of the Auroran Naval Service, which also incorporates the Royal Marines, the Royal Naval Auxilliary, Royal Naval Reserve, Royal Marine Reserve, and the Royal Merchant Marine. The Royal Fleet Air Command is a subordinate part of the Royal Navy, and is composed of the Navy's aircraft and small-craft and its attached and associated personnel.

Creation
The Royal Navy was created shortly after the establishment of the Kingdom of Tyranis (218 P.E/2679 A.D), as the Royal Tyranis Navy. With the economical expansion of Tyranis, it became necessary to provide effective protection to the large numbers of merchant freighters and colony ships which moved through Tyranis' territory. The Navy was then heavily expanded to provide effective protection to these civilian ships. The King William Academy was established to create an organized and centralized school of training for officers for the Naval Service, and is still the primary military academy in the Star Kingdom today.

With the colonial expansion during the 4th century P.E, the Navy was forced to further expand to provide effective coverage and protection to the newly acquired planets of the Star Kingdom. The military space stations HMSS Trafalgar and St. Vincent were created to house naval personnel, to serve as bases for ships, and as dry docks for the creation of further military vessels.

In the late 4th and early 5th centuries P.E, the Navy expanded furiously in number of hulls in response to the Hydran Empire's increased aggressiveness and war-mongering. This led to an acute lack of sufficiently trained and experienced officers, and only a tiny percentage of the commanding officers of the Navy had had any combat experience, the only actual combat being against sporadic pirate raiders. But this build-up insured that when the First Hydran War started, the Royal Navy was ready.

First Hydran War
The first engagements of the war resulted in major victories for the Star Kingdom of Aurora, with the Hydrans suffering heavy losses (See: Battle of Se-Huang, Battle of New Korea, Battle of Tau Ceti V, Battle of Chian). The war, however, went on, and the Hydran's reorganized and started to concentrate their forces and attack the Royal Navy sporadically, drawing them into larger engagements where the superior Hydran numbers could make a difference. Lord Admiral of the Black Sir Joseph Pennefeather, commander of the Royal Navy's 1st Fleet followed the enemy's example, and started striking the Hydran ships as they exited the Light Way to allow their astrogation crews and computer to recover. Several Hydran flotillas and supply convoys were destroyed in this manner, and the turning point in the whole war was at the First Battle of Chosin. When exiting the Light Way, the entire Hydran 4th Fleet was destroyed in detail at the cost of only a few ships of light classes to the Royal Navy. This is rated as the most one-sided battle in all of human history, and the Royal Navy's reputation as one of the best and most professional military forces in Human Space, was established.

Pennefeather's streak, however, soon ran out. At the Battle of Nebuchadnezzar, following a series of crushing defeats at the hands of Pennefeather, the Hydrans' Fifth and Eleventh Fleets cornered Pennefeather's First Fleet after a series of engagements which had seriously reduced the Aurorans' strength. Pennefeather ordered the rest of his ships to escape while the 12th Battleship Division, composed of Pennefeather's flagship, the HMS Monarch, and HMS Sovereign, held the enemy off. Both ships were destroyed with all hands, but not before destroying or crippling many enemy ships, and the rest of First Fleet managed to escape. Pennefeather's rearguard have gone down in RAN history as the finest example of courage and adherence to duty, and every graduating cadet at the King William Naval Academy have to swear what is called the "Pennefeather Oath", to live and die in service of his or her kingdom, to serve at the best of one's abilities and protect the innocent, the helpless and the ones in need.

Royal Alliance and present situation
With the creation of the Royal Alliance just before the end of the First Hydran War, the RAN was once again forced to expand in order to protect the large numbers of new allied nations and systems. The second clause of the Royal Alliance Charter specifically decrees that the member nations must support one another in times of war, and as the definite senior partner of the Royal Alliance, the Star Kingdom will be the one to provide the largest number of ships and troops in event of war. Several new space stations were created in central and critically important star systems to cover these areas. Several new fleets and station commands were created, and the King William Academy was expanded to accomodate even more new cadets, both from the Star Kingdom and from allied worlds.

When the Alliance invaded Martin's Star, the Navy was forced to stand on the sidelines and watch as Martin's World was occupied by the Alliance military. After this, the Admiralty in cooperation with the civilian government and the Monarch, reaffirmed its threat assessment of the Alliance, and prepared contingency plans for a possible war with the Alliance. Forces were rearranged for that eventuality.

Personnel
The RAN's primary training facility is the King William Naval Academy on the island of Ashton's Land on Aurora Rex, where about 60% of the RAN's officers and enlisted personnel is given both basic and specialist training, depending on branch and specialist service. De Chandlier Naval Academy on Ayrette is the primary training facility for the Naval Engineers, Naval Medical Branch and the Royal Marines and also trains enlisted and non-commissioned personnel. Walcott-Sennelager Training Facility is the primary training facility for astrogation, gunnery and hydroponics engineering personnel, and orbits Vulcan in Vulcan Prime Two, one of nine orbital cities over the planet.

The uniforms of the RAN is primarily grey, light blue and black, with colour differentiations depending on branch and rank. Tunics are almost always light blue/light grey with black pants and dark blue berets with high necks. Dress and Parade uniforms, commanding officer and flag officer uniforms have long, split skirts which reaches to the ankles and open necks with mandatory neck-tie, a throw-back to ancient times which many have critized. Funeral uniforms are all-black.

Currently, there are over thirty million people either directly or indirectly affiliated, employed or enrolled in the RAN. Only about forty percent of those are combat personnel, or personnel actually serving on board Navy ships. The total numbers include everything a interstellar fighting force requires, such as actual ship crews, station technicians, computer techs, clerks, teamsters, instructors, cooks, journalists, stewards, construction personnel, economic advisors, solicitors, psychologists, doctors, nurses and everything in between.

Fleet
The Navy have expanded several times over its 332 year long existance, and currently operates over three thousand ships of varying size. These numbers also include support ships and supply freighters operated by the Royal Navy Auxiliary.

The RAN is currently the only navy to operate dreadnought-class ships; a ship class even larger, more heavily armed and armoured than battleships, which are currently the heaviest direct-combat ships in most navies. The Vanguard-class dreadnoughts are currently the largest military ships in Human Space, barring defensive forts and orbital fortifications.

The RAN's primary ship design focus is on the heavier capital ship classes of direct-combat ships. Dreadnoughts, battleships, battlecruisers and heavy cruisers are the main ships of most naval units. Indirect-combat ships such as fleet carriers, escort carriers, assault ships and assault carriers have a much lower construction priority, and have a very limited role in the RAN's combat doctrines, and as such there are relatively few of these types of ships. The RAN does not operate ships smaller than destroyer-size apart from the system defence ships of the individual Royal Alliance member nations which sometimes are crewed by Royal Navy personnel.

The Royal Fleet Air Command is responsible for maintaining, manning and operating the small craft based on the RAN's carriers and assault ships. It is a relatively small branch, unlike their equivalents in other space navies. Many of the larger types of Royal Navy ships have groups of small craft on board in addition to the normal shuttle and pinnace complements. These are normally fighters, primarily intended for scouting purposes, but are also used in a capacity as interceptors against enemy small craft.

Fleets
The Royal Navy maintains a number of permanent fleet formations spread around the Star Kingdom and Royal Alliance territory.
 * Home Fleet - The main defensive fleet for the Aurora System and the main strategic reserve force. Its personnel are generally the best and brightest the Navy has to offer, and it is considered a great honour to serve in Home Fleet.
 * 1st Fleet - One of two offensive fleet formations. It is stationed in the Hadley and Logos Systems.
 * 2nd Fleet - One of two offensive fleet formations. It is mostly based in the Deneb System and patrols the surrounding systems.
 * 3rd Fleet - Primary defensive force for the southern and eastern sector of the Royal Alliance. Based in the Nemiel System
 * 10th Fleet - Primary defensive force for the northern sector of the Royal Alliance. Based in the Errant System.
 * 11th Fleet - Anti-pirate formation operating in the eastern border territories of the Royal Alliance and in the Alexis Sector. Loose formation where single ships, divisions and flotillas operate independently.

Task forces

 * Task Force 34 - Defensive formation in the Dunford System, responsible for the defence of the western part of the Royal Alliance.
 * Task Force 60 - Defensive formation in the Ceanda System, responsible for the defence of the southern cluster of the Royal Alliance, close to the edge of Human Space.
 * Task Force 101 - Training formation in the Lucidia System.
 * Task Force 119 - Scouting formation in the western part of the Royal Alliance.

Naval Stations
There are a large number of task forces permanently or semi-permanently stationed in many of the Royal Alliance member systems, most notably along the border to the Hydran Empire and the Alliance. There is also at least one in every of the Star Kingdom's member systems. These are responible for the defence of the system they are based in and, in most cases, the surrounding areas. These are more often than not, multi-national forces with a core of local or RAN ships and bolstered by allies.