United Colonies of Mankind Fleet

The United Colonies of Mankind Fleet (UCMF) is the space service branch of the United Colonies of Mankind.

## Organisation

The UCMF is the second-largest UCM military body in terms of manpower, behind only the UCMA. Due to the drain of resources that shipbuilding requires however, it boasts the highest share of materiel assets - a necessity, given the nature of the Reconquest. The Colonial government has decreed that there is no such thing as "too many ships" in this war, guaranteeing that the UCMF will continue to exceed other service branches in terms of materials. The UCMF's home port is Niccolum, due to the planet's extensive orbital infrastructure and significant shipbuilding capabilities. It is here that the Admiralty meets, and where the majority of ships are constructed.

The fighting element of the UCMF is divided into five parts, with two additional bodies providing crucial non-combatant roles.

### The Admiralty

This body oversees the actions of the fleets, plans its operations, and directs them in battle, frequently in person. All commissioned officers above the rank of lieutenant are members, and may attend conferences if able; however, some higher-level meetings are reserved for premier ranks. A portion of the Admiralty is always in sessions on Niccolum, though the Supreme Marshal (currently Jacob "Granite" Halsey) is often on Aurum due to the position he holds on the UCM High Council.

Other known members of the Admiralty include Admiral Havelock and Commodore Tayne.

### The Colonial Battlefleets

The vast majority of the UCMF's manpower is a part of the battlefleets, and includes all sailors of lieutenant rank and below in addition to the fleet engineers and other support staff necessary. This is the second most-populous body in the UCM, behind the Colonial Legionnaire Corps.

Individual UCMF battlefleets are named for the system in which they operate, and are constantly changing as ships are rotated between fleets. The largest UCM battlefleet is currently operating in the Solar system, though one is present in almost every system controlled by the UCM. Below the battlefleet in terms of hierarcy is the taskforce - a fighting formation assembled to fulfill a specific mission in battle. Typically, a taskforce will consist of between 3 and 30 capital ships, and between 6 and 100 frigate-tonnage vessels.

Below the taskforce is the battlegroup, which is a collection of around two to twelve ships. These groups are normally kept together as much as possible, allowing for the captains and crews of the individual ships to grow accustomed to fighting side-by-side and form a more integrated and effective team. Below the battlegroup is the squadron, the smallest formation fielded by the UCM. These consist of between two to eight ships, usually of the same class, that fight in close proximity to each other.

As of early 2672, the UCMF possessed over 3500 fighting vessels of frigate tonnage, over 900 cruiser-level ships, 86 battleships, 9 dreadnoughts, and 5 supercarriers. These numbers have undoubtedly been thinned as a result of the cataclysmic Battle for Earth, but losses are always being replenished by the industrious Colonial shipyards.

### Orbital Defence Command

The Orbital Defence Command (or ODC) is responsible for the maintenance and operation of the UCMF's static defence installations, armed dockyards, and orbital outposts. It also fulfills the secondary role of wartime maintenance and servicing of the battlefleets when in home port. The ODC works closely with civilian contractors and often has officers embedded in those companies to ensure quotas are met.

### The Fleet Air Arm

This body includes all strike craft-related personnel, and is split into three parts: Fighter Command, Strike Command, and the Air Logistical Corps. These groups pilot and maintain the UCMF's fighters, bombers, shuttles, and ancillary craft. Though nominally under the jurisdiction of the UCMF, the Fleet Air Arm will occasionally be called upon to support ground operations, as their domain encompasses the fast atmospheric craft best suited for such roles.

### Colonial Marine Corps

A relatively small body that is responsible for security aboard ships, protection detail for surface landings, and guard duty. This organisation also includes the elite Marine Force Recon (MF-R) teams and Marine Force Black (MF-B) special operations units, though the latter is largely under the control of the Office of Naval Intelligence. When the fleet is called upon to perform ground-based operations (usually to prepare the way for the UCMA), these marines will often be called upon to perform these duties.

### Fleet Logistical Corps

The FLC is responsible for the supply of the UCM's battlefleets and ground forces while in theatre, and is the third-largest employer of all the Colonies. The FLC has almost as much tonnage as the battlefleets due to how many supply haulers are required to keep the UCM's war machine grinding forwards.

### Office of Naval Intelligence

The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is the primary high-level intelligence gathering organisation in the UCM. While Army Intelligence is generally concerned with battlefield-level activities, ONI works on infiltrating the UCM's enemies far from the battlefront, performs counter espionage operations, and keeps tabs on prominent UCM officers and civilians. The latter is especially important after the discovery of a Kalium spy network in the UCM, and suspicions of PHR agents among senior positions in the Colonies. The ONI is also tasked with answering some of the most troubling questions the Reconquest has provoked, such as the whereabouts of the Post-Human Republic's homeworlds.

## Technology

The UCM naval machine is highly focused, created for one single purpose: to reclaim Earth and the Cradle Worlds from the Scourge. As a result, almost the entire fleet is geared towards planetary invasions and orbital assaults, with a disproportionate number of troopships and strike carriers on its register. The technological drive that created the modern UCMF has not ceased with the start of the Reconquest - mankind has continued to innovate on existing ship designs, leading to new classes of starship entering service on a monthly basis.

### Ship Design

UCM ships are designed for efficiency and practicality. Featuring none of the alien menace that Scourge ships exude, nor the alien grace possessed by Shaltari vessels, UCM warships are nonetheless a match for their counterparts.

#### Mobility

Most UCM starships are equipped with multiple thrust-vectored engines in a clustered array, providing redundancy and resilience to damage while maneuvering at sublight speeds. These engines require a constant flow of power from the ship's power core, which can drain energy from other systems (such as weapons arrays) when used on maximum thrust settings. UCM vessels are also equipped with military-grade foldspace drives for transitioning between systems, though these require a foldspace node in the vicinity of the destination to ensure accuracy.

To maintain geosynchronous orbit, UCM warships are equipped with gravity nullifiers that allow them to ignore the effects of a planet's gravity, negating the need to maintain orbital speed. These systems can keep a ship on station for several days without issue, though heat buildup - an unavoidable side effect of these nullifiers - will eventually force it retreat from orbit.

#### Defenses

All UCMF combat vessels are protected by layers of composite and metallic armour, often layered many meters thick with several separate shells. Each layer serves to break up solid projectiles into smaller, lower-velocity fragments that are less energetic, and therefore less likely to penetrate the next layer. As such, the ship's vital systems are safely ensconced in the heart of the ship, where they are furthest from harm. In case of a hull breach, UCM vessels are compartmentalized, allowing damaged sections to be sealed off within microseconds to prevent the loss of atmosphere.

To protect against attacks from long-range missiles or enemy bombers, UCM vessels are equipped with some measure of anti-munitions point defence, usually in the form of banks of Aegis-V laser emplacements. These upscaled versions of UCM ground defence batteries are almost universally effective against close-ranged munitions, and can blunt attacks by enemy strike craft.

#### Command and Control

Every ship possesses a Combat Information Center (CIC) buried in the ship's most well-protected location. It is here that the captain and senior officers direct the actions of the crew based on information received from the ship's extensive scanner systems. Should the CIC become damaged, an identical backup facility is also included on every ship. In the event of catastrophic damage, all UCM ships are also equipped with significant numbers of escape pods to ensure the safety of their crew.

### Weaponry

Though perhaps inelegant when compared to the technology of advanced races such as the PHR or Shaltari, UCMF weapons technology has far surpassed that of the old Earth Administration Authority's fleet.

#### Mass drivers

The standard ship-to-ship weapons in service with the UCM. These are essentially enormous versions of ground-based railguns, using magnetism to propel a solid projectile at spectacular speeds. These are normally mounted in pairs or triplets on traversable turrets, making them highly flexible in combat. The most common types currently in use are the UF-2200, UF-4200, and UF-6400, with the number corresponding to the largest dimension of their rectangular calibre in millimeters. The truly massive UF-9000 also exists as the primary weapon of UCM dreadnoughts and supercarriers.

#### Anti-Ship Lasers

A relatively recent addition to the UCMF's arsenal are directed-energy weapons, not dissimilar to those employed by the Scourge. These weapons, which can slice frigates in half, are normally too huge to be turret mounted and instead are integrated into the ship's hull, giving them a limited firing arc. As these weapons are intensely energetic, they serve a secondary purpose in heating the target ship's hull, making them more visible to the scanners of other ships. The Cobra is the most common type of anti-ship laser in use with the UCM, though the gargantuan Viper superheavy laser and the tiny Mamba laser have also been developed.

#### Orbital Bombardment Cannons

Though the UCM intends to recapture its former homeworlds, the precise application of orbital firepower can destroy enemy formations or level city blocks, paving the way forwards for ground assaults. As a result, several types of orbital bombardment weapons have been developed and deployed by the UCMF, most commonly in the form of the UF-B-8000 cannons. These conventional weapons have low muzzle velocity, as the sheer stress of re-entry would be too much for a faster projectile to handle.

#### Missile Bays

Almost all UCMF vessels are equipped with some form of close-action weapons suite, normally in the form of banks of concealed missile bays. Though numerous, these weapons are only effective at short ranges, as enemy point defences would easily destroy their slow-moving projectiles if fired from long distance. Even at close range, point defence will still mitigate the effectiveness of these missiles, forcing them to be used in numbers or against enemies with little close protection.

#### Nuclear Warheads

Most UCM capital ships carry a compliment of thermonuclear warheads as a weapon of dire circumstances. Wholesale destruction of ground targets is rarely the objective for the UCM, and it is all these weapons can achieve; however, in some circumstances, their use is required. Nuclear weapons are also employed against targets the UCM doesn't need to capture, such as enemy asteroid or moon-based installations.

### Strike Craft

#### Fighters

The Fleet Air Arm employs a variety of void-capable fighter craft, though the most common is the Voidblade interceptor. Far larger than its atmospheric cousin, the Archangel, the Voidblade has a crew of four and is designed for close protection sorties against enemy bombers and close-action munitions. It can also engage enemy fighters while protecting friendly bomber formations.

#### Bombers

Though several variants of anti-ship strike craft exist in the UCMF, the most common is the Voidhammer - a heavy bomber with a crew of seven. These craft carry a range of heavy munitions designed to inflict crippling damage against starships when used en mass. These bombers can also close to firing range at far higher speeds than ships, allowing them to perform long-ranged strikes against targets that their carrier could not target.

#### Torpedoes

UCM torpedoes are massive, self-propelled, guided munitions, standing at over 200 meters in length. Covered in meters of armour designed to foil enemy countermeasures, these torpedoes pack enough firepower to rip chunks out of enemy capital ships or vaporise frigates in a single blast. Several different versions are employed by the UCMF, including the light torpedoes mounted on Havana-class destroyers or the heavy variants that the Rome battlecruiser is equipped with.

#### Dropships

Though nominally under the jurisdiction of the UCMA's Army Air and Space Corps, dropships are deployed by the strike carriers of the UCMF. These are preferable in first-wave assaults against hardened targets, as their fast movement and small profiles make enemy counterfire inaccurate; however, they lack the transport capacity necessary to deploy the number of soldiers needed for planetary occupations. The most common variants of dropship include the Albatross, the Condor, and the Falcon.

#### Bulk Landers

In comparison to dropships, bulk landers and slow and cumbersome, making them prime targets for enemy defence fire; however, they have far higher transport capacity and are void-hardened, giving them some more flexibility. These are most often deployed by troopships, carrying massive numbers of infantry, defence batteries, or even Behemoths to the ground safely. The most common type of bulk lander in service with the UCM is the Heavylift-IIB.