The supreme governing body of the Dominion of Halith. The Council acts as a central committee having essentially unlimited authority. The other organs within Halith government are advisory or supporting, or ‘popular’ assemblies that exist mainly to endorse the Council’s decisions and mandates.
The Council is a somewhat elastic body, having no fixed size in law and not being made up strictly of ministers. It is led by two Proconsuls, and by tradition, reserves five or seven places for hereditary lords who (like the proconsuls) are elected from eligible families of the Civitas (the upper house of Halith’s mostly, but not entirely, rubberstamp parliament). Although there are hundreds of eligible families, the same few families tend to have their members elected over and over. (Compare the Plenary Council.)
The Ministries and organs normally represented on the Council are:
Ministry of War (Compare SECNAV)
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (includes the diplomatic corps, the Office of Foreign Economic Relations, and the Office of Interstellar Security, an intelligence service)
Imperial Research & Intelligence Service (IRIS. Compare CID)
Ministry of Public Security (A civilian organization tasked with maintaining internal security, especially in the colonies. Employs militarized police forces)
Ministry of Information (includes the state media and propaganda organs)
Ministry of Heavy Industry (manufactures starships and space stations. The Ministry of Medium Industry builds small craft and fighters; the Ministry of Light Industry builds weapons and consumer goods. Neither is represented.)
Ministry of the Internal Affairs (responsible for social welfare, colonial affairs, economic forecasting, transportation and shipping, and healthcare)
Ministry of Commerce & Industry (responsible for the civilian economy)
Ministry of Finance (includes collecting taxes and other government revenue)
Ministry of Justice
CPA:
Closest Point of Approach.
Crucis Sector:
An outlying League sector that lies roughly between the Hydra and the Sultanate of Andaman and Nicobar. It is a prosperous sector, mainly populated with Nedaeman colonies. The CEF outstation at New Madras marks the boundary with the Hydra. The former League colony of Iona was once in Crucis sector and now marks its boundary on the Andaman side.
Crucis Sector is the home of the CEF Third Fleet, which is linked to the Pleiades Sector Command through the CEF’s linked command system.
Crysteel:
An alloy used as armor and in the strength decks of starships and space stations. Not a crystalline form of steel as the name might suggest (for one thing, it contains no iron), but an iridium alloy. The unique property of crysteel is the way it reacts to high-energy impacts: stress reorganizes the molecular structure through a resonance phenomenon whereby energy is transferred to the lattice bonds, vastly increasing tensile strength in the area of the impact while maintaining a degree of modulated ductility, so that shear forces do not cause fractures in the neighboring material.
CWO:
Chief of the Watch. The enlisted assistant of the OOD, who is administratively in charge of the deck watch section, whether underway or in port. It is the CWO’s responsibility to ensure that all deck watch stations are manned and that all personnel in the previous watch are relieved. The CWO reports to the OOD when the deck watch has been relieved, and also contacts the appropriate department head if anyone fails to report at his or her watch station.
Cygnus Sector:
A crucial sector that contains the Kepler Junction. It also contains three tightly linked systems, Miranda, the League colony of Epona, and Asylum. These three systems control important transit lanes between the League, Karelia, and the Kepler Junction. The CEF Seventh Fleet is based in Cygnus, and is not linked to a Homeworld sector command, but reports directly to CNO..
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Dark Clouds:
The parts of the overall information infrastructure that support illicit and illegal activity. The dark clouds are heavily secured and cloaked and can be accessed only through applications that are generally illegal. They support (and are supported by) a thriving Omertà (“code of silence”) culture, despite constant efforts at suppression.
DCID:
Director, Central Intelligence Directorate, Nereidian League. The DCID is a member of the Plenary Council, along with the Secretary of the Navy and the other senior secretaries, and the Speaker of the Grand Senate.
Deneb Sector:
An outlying region populated by a number of small independent star nations. The most prominent are the Larate of Alesia, the Aventine Grand Duchy, and Outré Bangkok. Lack of central authority makes the region chaotic.
Deneb contains significant antimatter fuel fields, though not as rich as those of the Sultanate.
DIO:
Defense Intelligence Office. A League organization responsible for organizing and disseminating finished intelligence products on a need-to-know basis, primarily via ARGONET. It performs no collection or analysis of its own.
Division:
In the ground forces, a large military formation, composed of several brigades or regiments, commanded (most often) by a major general. Several divisions combine to make a corps.
Some militaries, like the Terran Terrestrial Forces and the Halith Imperial Ground Forces, consider a division to be a basic operational and administrative unit. Others (e.g. the ground forces of the New UK), consider a division to be a temporary formation, created when and as needed. (Hesperia does not form divisions at all, but creates super-sized regiments in its ground forces.) The CEF Marine Corps forms divisions for ground combat, but not for naval operations.
In a naval context, division has two meanings. First, a division is a subunit of a fleet, although different navies apply the term differently. In the CEF Navy, a division consists of two or four warships of the same type, which combine to form a squadron (which then combine to form a fleet).
In the Halith Navy, a division is a large permanent tactical formation based on one type of major capital ship with squadrons of supporting units. Thus, there are cruiser divisions, carrier divisions, and battleship divisions, known in Halith nomenclature as CRUDIV, CARDIV, or BATDIV, followed by a Roman numeral. For example, CRUDIV IV for Cruiser Division Four.
A naval division is a permanent organizational unit, and not to be confused with a Task Force or a Task Group. (See also Squadron.)
Next, a division can refer to the organizational units of a ship’s crew. Many navies use this term, but the CEF Navy refers to these units as departments.
Dog Watches:
The dog watches, or slide watches in some navies, are special split watches lasting from 1600 to 2000 hours (24-hr day). The dogs are split into 2-hour watches so that watch standers alternate standing middle watch, which was once considered unlucky (hence the names ‘graveyard watch’ and ‘dead watch’ for it). It also affords all watch standers an opportunity to eat an evening meal.
As the dogs watches fall in the evening and thus at the end of the ‘normal’ business day, they are the origin of the term ‘before the dogs bark’, signifying something to be done by the end of the day or ‘close of business’.
Double-Hatted:
A term that describes a CO having two commands simultaneously. Common in the navy, where a fleet commander (or task force commander) may retain a squadron (or a task group) under their personal command.
In contrast, it would be very rare for a lieutenant general in command of ground-forces division to also command a brigade as a second hat.
Dragonfly:
A small autonomous flying platform: EW, optical sensor, and attack variants (delivers fast-acting poisons or paralytics); bug to mote sized. The non-flying variant is called a weevil or an evil weevil (attack version). Some reportedly use rouge nanocytes.
DSI:
Director, Sector Intelligence. Head of the CEF intelligenc
e organization in each League sector, the Sector Intel Group (SIG). The DSI reports directly to the sector CinC, not to ONI. Usually a naval captain’s or senior commander’s billet.
DSRO:
Director of Strike & Reconnaissance Operations on a CEF carrier. A former pilot and SRF officer. Usually a senior commander. Informally, the Fighter Boss.
DSZ:
Deep-Space Zone. Around Earth, the volume of space from the “Weekend Line” out to the limit of Earth’s gravitational attraction, arbitrarily set at the range where the escape velocity equals 1 kip. This is at ~800,000 km, almost exactly twice the mean radius of Lunar orbit. Traffic in the DSZ is governed by Tycho Control, a shared civil/military facility located on the Moon. Beyond the DSZ is Free Space.
Dueling Cultures:
Societies where dueling to settle personal disputes and ‘points of honor’ is an accepted practice. Halith and the Meridies are the most prominent dueling cultures, although dueling is not legal in either. (This is a recent development in Halith, and the Dueling Master remains a respected and important personage in Halith society.)
Dueling is not unknown among Belters, though it has become increasing rare, and the Bannermans and slavers routinely settle their affairs through violence, although their encounters lack the formalities the distinguish true dueling cultures.
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E-boost:
Emergency Boost; a technique implemented on some CEF fighters in which water molecules are fed directly into the fusion reaction chambers to increase thrust by 15% to 20%. (The oxygen atoms increase the mass of the drive plume and thus thrust.) However, the technique can only be safely used for a minute or so as it greatly increases the reaction chamber pressure and, as fighter drives cannot fuse elements heavier than carbon, the presence of oxygen has a damping effect on the reaction.
ECA:
Earth-Crossing Asteroid. Asteroids having orbits with perihelion inside the Earth’s orbit and aphelion outside it, most of which are highly eccentric. The Aten group is one such collection of asteroids.
ECM:
Electronic Counter Measures; active electronic warfare methods such as jamming and spoofing.
ELINT:
Electronic intelligence derived the emissions of sensors or other electronic systems that are not communications related. Part of SIGINT.
Eltanin Sector:
The League’s second most prosperous sector outside of Sol (after the Pleiades), but in some ways the most important: Anson’s Deep, the League’s key nexus, is located there. It is the home of CEF First Fleet, which is linked to Meridies Sector Command
Eltanin Sector was largely settled from the Meridies and contains many of the League’s oldest and richest colonies, the collective economic output of which outstrips their founding worlds. These colonies are politically tightly knit, and exercise considerable influence in the Grand Senate, despite their lack of veto power and other rights granted only to the Homeworlds.
Eltanin has been, and remains, a source of contention in the League. Its prosperity largely fuels the expansionist policies of the Meridies governments, which was a source of great concern when the League was founded, and is partly responsible for such policies as the Linked Command System and the strict rotation of fleet commanders, the sector CinCs, and the CNO. It was feared that the combination of Eltanin’s wealth, the Meridies’ aggressive tendencies and martial prowess, and control of the Anson’s Deep Nexus, would allow the Meridies to achieve supremacy within the League. (The Meridies similarly feared the fleets controlled by Sol. See SOLCOM.)
Although Sol came to dominate the League, the Meridies’ ambitions have not abated. Meridies Sector Command controls First Fleet, and since the early in LH-1, the Belt has argued for ending the Linked Command System, ostensibly in the name of efficiency and colonial rights, but also to weaken the Meridies, with whom it has long been at odds.
Further, Eltanin does not always agree with its parent systems, and would likely welcome the degree of independence that being elevated to a CEF sector command would bring. Thus, Eltanin is likely to remain a flash point in League politics until the situation is ultimately resolved.
EMP:
Electromagnetic Pulse. An extremely brief, powerful burst of electromagnetic energy, used to disable any electronic devices within the effective range: tens of meters to thousands of kilometers depending on the power of the device.
Ephemeris
An ephemeris (plural: ephemeredes or ephemerides) gives the positions of astronomical objects or satellites at any given time, assuming they are not maneuvering. An object’s ephemeris is generated using mathematical models that accept observations of the object’s position as inputs. The accuracy of the result depends on the number of observations and their quality. To maintain acceptable accuracy, ephemeredes must be regularly updated with new observations to account for perturbations that the models cannot account for.
The point of ephemeredes is that they can be propagated forward (or back) to give an estimate of the object’s position and the uncertainly associated with it. This is critical for in-system navigation, as there are typically a large number of asteroids as well as much smaller objects, and also for navigation about planets which may have a large number satellites in orbit, along with many small debris objects, all of which must be avoided.
A collection of ephemeredes is called a catalog and these are normally assembled and published for all known systems and occupied worlds.
Epona:
A League colony in Cygnus, chartered by Mytilene (itself first-gen out of Nedaema). The CEF maintains an outstation there with a heavy maintenance depot in orbit, both to cover the Kepler Junction and provide support for Miranda. Elements of the CEF Seventh Fleet are based there. Compare New Madras and Outbound Station.
ESM:
Electronic Support Measures. Passive detection, tracking, classification and analysis of electromagnetic signals.
EVA:
Activities in null-gee, zero atmosphere. Once called Extravehicular Activity.
EW:
Electronic Warfare. The combination of ESM, ECM, and EMP, along with any other electronic measures taken to gain an advantage in battle. Considered by some to be part of IW/IO, although the Halith Navy does not embrace this.
In another context, EW also means Early Warning.
EWO:
Electronic Warfare Officer. The officer in charge of EW on a Halith combatant. The EWO reports to the captain in CIC. (See TAO and WCO for comparison.)
Ex gratia:
Literally: out of kindness. Something done as a gratuity or favor where no legal obligation exists. Often an ex gratia payment, given by the government for some remarkable service. In the League, these are most often made to military units (chiefly ship crews) for victories or in cases where a legal prize had to be destroyed or abandoned. Payments to HUMINT sources and émigrés may also fall in this category.
Exec:
Executive Officer. The second-in-command of a military unit but especially used for the second-in-command of a navy ship. Less popular in the CEF Marine Corps, where the favored term is XO. Other militaries adopt their own terms.
The specific role of the executive officer varies considerably according the prevailing doctrine of the particular service. In the CEF Navy, the exec is primarily an administrative position. The various department heads all report directly to the exec, who is responsible for their overall management. The captain’s primary responsibility is to guide and fight the ship, and in action a CEF captain is seconded more by the TAO than the exec. In fact, if the captain becomes incapacitated in action, it is the TAO who usually assumes control of the ship, not the exec. The exec assumes control when the ship is no longer under general quarters. The exec has a particular responsibility for munitions stores and fuel, and on smaller warships, damage control.
In the Halith navy, the exec is a “second captain” who normally stays on the bridge in combat and mane
uvers the ship while the captain fights the ship from CIC. The relationship between Halith captains and their execs is thus closer to that of a CEF navy captain and his or her TAO. Most other navies (and some League home fleets) follow this model.
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Fighter Boss:
The informal name for the DSRO in the CEF.
Fireteam:
Most League militaries, including the CEF Marines, organize their squads (sections in the Marines) into fireteams, as does the New UK. Fireteams are not generally used as independent tactical units: their purpose is to increase tactical flexibility and responsiveness of squads by forming small, cohesive teams. However, fireteams can be, and often are, used for reconnaissance and other specific operations.
The way a fireteam is organized and equipped varies widely. A ground-forces squad will typically contain two fireteams, each consisting an NCO (a corporal or lance corporal), one PFC and two privates. The NCO and one of the privates will be armed with an assault rifle with an under-slung grenade launcher. The PFC carries a SAW, while the fourth member carries a support weapon, depending on the mission (this could be anti-armor, anti-air, or a light chain gun).
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