House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion

by David Weber

  ADMIRAL QUENTIN SAINT-JAMES

  (1696–1769 PD)

  Ensign Quentin Saint-James became the fifth and (to date) youngest recipient of the Parliamentary Medal of Valor (PMV) in 1719 PD, when in command of one of a flight of three assault shuttles from the heavy cruiser HMS Black Rose supporting a Marine landing party on the planet Jeremiah in the Hume System of the Breslau Sector of the Silesian Confederacy. The Hume Liberation Front (HLF), a Silesian separatist organization, had issued “letters of marque,” commissioning “privateers” to prey on Silesian commerce. Unfortunately for the HLF, its privateers had turned pirate, preying on Manticoran commerce as well, prompting Black Rose’s intervention in the system.

  As the assault shuttles deposited the Marines and lifted to provide fire support, they came under intense fire from the planetary surface. Simultaneously, concealed heavy weapons opened fire on the Marines. Two of the RMN assault shuttles were destroyed immediately. Saint-James’ shuttle was severely damaged, his flight engineer was killed, and he and his copilot were both wounded. Rather than withdraw, Saint-James, with his unconscious copilot beside him, attacked into the teeth of the fire decimating the Marines he had landed. Hit twice more in the course of the next fourteen minutes, Saint-James’ shuttle crash-landed outside the Marine perimeter, but not until he had inflicted massive losses on the HLF ambushers. Critically injured in the crash, Saint-James dragged his still-unconscious copilot clear of the wreckage and defended him with only his sidearm until the Marines fought their way to his position. As a consequence of his wounds, Quentin Saint-James lost his left arm and his left leg below the knee, but his fearless defense of the Marines he had landed allowed them to hold their position until reinforcements from Black Rose arrived to restore the position.

  Despite the valor which won him his well-deserved PMV, however, Quentin Saint-James is best remembered for a “fleet battle” in which only seventeen people were killed and fewer than sixty were wounded.

  In 1752 PD, the planet of San Martin in the Trevor’s Star System acted unilaterally to abrogate the terms of the Treaty of 1590 between San Martin and the Star Kingdom of Manticore, governing usage and transit fees of the Trevor’s Star Terminus of the Manticoran Wormhole Junction. By 1750 PD, the San Martin government, following the statist example of the Republic of Haven but without the size and broad diversity of Haven’s original economy, was in dire fiscal straits. A coalition of radical minority parties gained control of the executive and legislative branches in the 1751 elections, and the following year “nationalized” the Trevor’s Star Terminus, dispatching warships to seize control of it without warning in clear violation of the Treaty of 1590.

  Surprised by the attack, Manticore was unable to prevent the terminus’ seizure, but although Queen Caitrin was known as “Caitrin the Good,” her government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Margo Thackeray, was unprepared to allow such aggression to stand. In particular, there were strong fears in Landing that the radicalized San Martin government would officially ally itself with relatively nearby Haven and give the People’s Republic of Haven, with whom Manticoran relations had steadily worsened, control of the terminus.

  Rather than attempt to fight its way through the terminus from the Junction (which would have been feasible, given the imbalance between the Royal Manticoran Navy’s resources and those of the San Martin Space Navy, but would have resulted in very heavy casualties for both sides), the RMN chose instead to demonstrate its resolution to assault through the terminus while actually sending a powerful force of ships of the wall and battleships on a month-long voyage through hyper. That squadron, under the command of Vice Admiral Quentin Saint-James, struck not at the terminus, but at the star system three light-hours from the terminus. As Saint-James had hoped when he proposed the strategy, every heavy unit of the San Martin Space Navy had been drawn to the terminus by Manticore’s ostentatious preparation to attack through it, leaving the home system covered only by light units. A single San Martin light cruiser, encountered as Saint-James’ force advanced towards San Martin, was heavily damaged when it refused to strike its wedge, but personnel casualties were minimal. None of the San Martin units deployed to the terminus were in a position to intercept the Manticoran task force short of planetary orbit, and the San Martin government had no option but to surrender once Saint-James’ ships controlled the space about it.

  To the astonishment of the San Martinos, however, Saint-James, accredited as his monarch’s plenipotentiary, imposed remarkably gentle terms. Rather than exacting punitive reparations, the vice admiral, on behalf of Queen Caitrin, demanded simply the restoration of all seized property, restitution to private owners for damage and losses, and a return to the terms of the 1590 Junction Treaty. In addition, recognizing the dire fiscal straits which had inspired the San Martinos, he proposed to the Queen, who accepted his recommendation, that San Martin be granted favored star nation status and that San Martin transit fees through all Junction termini be reduced by fifty percent for a period of twenty-five years in return for a pledge from the San Martin government of fiscal reforms designed to return the system to solvency. The fiscal reforms which San Martin adopted in compliance with his terms did, indeed, restore the system government to prosperity over the next thirty T-years. Indeed, until Trevor’s Star’s conquest by the People’s Republic of Haven in 1883, San Martin enjoyed the most prosperous economy, outside the Star Kingdom itself, in the Haven Sector. In addition, the goodwill which Saint-James’ firm but compassionate handling of the situation earned from San Martin was a significant factor in San Martin’s decision to seek admission to the Star Kingdom of Manticore in 1914 PD at the end of the First Havenite War.

  Quentin Saint-James continued to serve the Navy he loved for another twelve T-years, retiring in 1764 PD with the rank of Admiral of the Green. His final duty assignment was as Academy Commandant.

  Uniforms and Equipment

  OFFICER’S SERVICE DRESS

  The RMN officer’s service dress uniform consists of a black, double-breasted tunic which seals up the right side and falls to the upper thigh. Beneath the tunic, officers wear a white blouse and black trousers. The tunic collar is “Prussian” in style—high and round but loose enough for comfort—and the blouse collar is a turtleneck. Trousers are loose and straight cut to shin level, at which point they flare out and are bloused into low-topped space boots. The tunic’s tailoring is slightly wasp-waisted, which can have unfortunate consequences for more portly officers, and bears thin gold piping on either side of the cross-over front panel. Trousers are untrimmed, with a smart-fabric closure.

  Cuff stripes are bands, usually referred to as “rings,” of gold braid. In addition to the cuffs, a matching number of thin gold stripes are carried on the tunic’s shoulder board “epaulets.” Epaulet stripes run front-to-back and are counted in from the outer end of the epaulet. The background color of the epaulet is red, not black.

  The left shoulder of the tunic bears the name of the wearer’s current assignment, with hull number if applicable, in an inverted horseshoe arrangement immediately below the shoulder seam. The right shoulder bears the gold-and-scarlet Manticore badge of the RMN. Collar insignia are worn on the tunic’s collar, and the same insignia are worn on an embroidered patch on the left chest of the blouse, immediately above the pocket. Medal ribbons and qualification badges are worn on the left breast of the tunic, and a nameplate is worn on the right with any unit ribbons worn below the nameplate. Above their other ribbons officers wear one star, embroidered in gold thread, for each hyper-capable command they have held.

  The standard headgear is a beret, which breaks to the right and bears the Kingdom’s coat of arms as a flash on the left side. Starship commander’s berets are white; all others are black.

  ENLISTED SERVICE DRESS

  The enlisted service dress uniform is considerably simpler than the officer’s uniform. Built for comfort and range of motion, the uniform is a tailored, one-piece coverall, in standard Navy
black with gold trim down the front. A nametag is worn on the left breast, with ribbons and qualification badges worn underneath. Unit ribbons are worn on the right side.

  The same basic uniform is worn by noncomissioned officers (NCOs), but the trouser seams of petty officers and chiefs are picked out in piping color-coded by branch.

  Rating insignia is worn on the left sleeve, color-coded by department. Additional specialist insignia is worn on the upper left sleeve as a shoulder patch, under the unit patch. Above the left cuff, one hash mark is displayed for every three Manticoran years (approximately five T-years) of service.

  The beret is identical to that worn by the officers.

  SKINSUITS

  The RMN skinsuit consists of a single-piece body suit, boots, gloves and a helmet. A skinsuit is individually fitted to its wearer and varies in thickness from a minimum of about one centimeter to a maximum of twelve centimeters across the shoulders and upper back. The gloves are much thinner to allow manual dexterity.

  The outer layer of the skinsuit consists of tightly woven antiballistic fabric. Underneath is a flexible matrix of storage vacuoles in which consumables are stored under immense pressure. The vacuoles are interwoven with the suit’s air, waste management, heat management and power systems. The innermost layer is a porous padding, designed to wick away excess heat and moisture.

  The joints of the skinsuit are equipped with strands of an electro-organic “muscle,” which respond to the wearer’s movements by biofeedback sensors. These enhancements provide a full range of motion and help to counteract the weight of the suit.

  The body suit itself is a single-piece garment covering the legs, arms and torso. Along the left arm is a flexible control pad that features small waterfall displays and a trio of telltales providing information on the skinsuit power level, seal integrity, and oxygen level, designed to be readable at a glance while the helmet is off. Suit functions (including configuring the displays and adjusting the color of the smart fabric on the outside of the suit) are controlled by a panel built into the same sleeve.

  The chest has a medical panel consisting of a biometric readout and controls for emergency stimulants and painkillers. In addition, the arms and legs are equipped with an emergency tourniquet system that activates automatically when critical damage to a limb is detected, both to reduce blood loss and retain pressure.

  At waist level, the suit features two umbilical connection points, on the left and right sides. These umbilicals are used to connect the suit’s life support and plumbing to the ship’s systems, or to daisy chain with another suit in an emergency situation.

  The primary suit thrusters are located across the shoulder blades, while a second pair of smaller thrusters is located in the kidney area. The thrusters are controlled (and can be locked out) by the suit’s control panel. Using the thrusters requires a fair bit of coordination, and the body must be kept in a relaxed “sitting” position to balance the vectors properly. Total reaction mass for these thrusters is extremely limited, and it is by far and away the most sharply constrained consumable in the skinsuit, suitable only for short periods of EVA work.

  The helmet has an opaque back and an armorplast faceplate with a 120-degree field of view, which opens upward for comfort. Unlike most navies, the RMN wears its headgear inside its helmets, accepting a slightly larger helmet as a consequence. Small spotlights for EVA and emergency use are located on both sides above eye level. A small magnetic clamp allows the helmet to mount in a shockframe, or be stowed on the chest of the skinsuit when not worn.

  The inside of the faceplate contains a multifunction heads-up display used for status displays, communications and navigation. Inside to the left is a retractable water tube controlled by the arm keypad and to the right is the chin switch that connects the suit’s communicator to the emergency channel.

  Officers’ skinsuits are solid white and display collar and cuff insignia in black similar to the service dress uniform. The helmet is marked with both rank insignia and a name stenciled across the top.

  Enlisted and non-commissioned officers’ skinsuits are white with arms, legs and chest color coded by department. Name and rate insignia are displayed on the helmet, as on the officers’, and the arms display rating and specialist insignia in white or black contrasted against the departmental color.

  Order of Battle

  For all its current firepower and technological superiority, the Royal Manticoran Navy’s origins were humble. From the date of landing until the formation of the Star Kingdom, what became the RMN never boasted more than thirty-five ships, the largest approximately the size of a modern light cruiser. The discovery of the Manticoran Wormhole Junction led directly and inevitably to a major expansion in the Navy’s size, creating both a wall of battle and a numerous and powerful force of lighter units for commerce protection duties. In the middle decades of the nineteenth century PD, the future Roger III foresaw the coming clash with the People’s Republic of Haven more clearly than virtually anyone else in the Star Kingdom’s government, and began his life’s work of building up the fleet.

  The expansion driven by Roger’s foresight lasted four decades, despite his own tragic, early death. The Navy’s wall of battle grew from a mere three squadrons at the time of his coronation in 1857 to over eighty ships by the time of his death, thirty years later. By the end of the century, the RMN had become the third most powerful navy in existence; arguably, today, it is the galaxy’s leading naval power in light of its numbers, technological superiority, and expertise. That position is no accident. It results directly from the policies of King Roger and his daughter Queen Elizabeth and the Navy’s unwavering focus—driven by Roger’s initial vision—on the R&D and technological imagination necessary to create a qualitatively as well as quantitatively superior fighting machine.

  LIGHT ATTACK CRAFT (LAC)

  Over the course of the last two decades the role of the LAC has evolved far more than that of any other type of vessel in the Manticoran Navy. By the time the Havenite Wars began officially in 1905 PD, the LAC had been completely phased out of Manticoran service. Too light to survive and too weakly armed to seriously threaten modern warships, the LAC had become a clearly obsolete type. Certain RMN theoreticians, however, led by Admiral Sonja Hemphill, had begun to consider the creation of an attrition unit built with the new technologies then becoming available. What began as a design study for an “expendable” unit (the Series 282 LAC) evolved over the next several T-years into one designed to operate and survive even in heavy-threat environments.

  Several experimental types were produced over the next five T-years, but the true renaissance of the light attack craft came in 1913 PD with the new Shrike class, built with almost entirely new technology. Small, fast, and more heavily armed than some prewar destroyers, this new breed of warship revolutionized the concept of LAC operations in the Manticoran Navy. While the original Shrikes were used as alpha-strike units against unsuspecting targets, LAC doctrine was in a constant state of evolution throughout the last battles of the First Havenite War. By the end of Operation Buttercup, the LAC wings were used in a counter-screening role, destroying scouting platforms to deny the enemy tactical data on the wall’s formation, stripping off critical defenses from the Havenite walls of battle, and swarming and destroying cripples as they fell out of formation.

  The sudden appearance of Havenite pod-layers and LACs forced a major reevaluation, and doctrine remains in a state of flux. Taking a page from the Republican Navy, the RMN has begun to use the LAC to replace the destroyer as one of the primary members of the antimissile screen, with LAC wings tightly integrated into the defensive network to blunt the initial massive salvoes that now characterize pod-layer warfare.

  Highlander-class light attack craft

  Mass: 11,250 tons

  Dimensions: 138 × 23 × 21 m

  Acceleration: 409.3 G (4.014 kps²)

  80% Accel: 327.5 G (3.211 kps²)

  Broadside: 12MB, 1L, 3PD

 
; Chase: 1L

  Service Life: 1843–1912

  The Highlander-class light attack craft was commissioned in 1843 PD as a system defense picket and customs patrol unit. It had a heavier beam armament than most contemporary classes, though contrary to typical RMN doctrine of the time, the lasers were optimized for point defense fire as well as the antiship role. The one-shot missile launch cells were built directly into the hull, allowing for system checks and routine maintenance without vacuum gear by the crew, although this increased costs and made them somewhat less suited to rapid re-arming than previous external launchers.

  When the Highlander class was first placed into service, light attack craft were primarily used as home system pickets and scouts, freeing up hyper-capable hulls for interstellar deployment or for concentrated rapid reaction system defense formations. As King Roger’s naval buildup progressed, Manticore system hyper-limit picket duty was shifted to destroyers cued by reconnaissance satellites and the passive system arrays. Starting in 1887 PD, the Highlander class was retired. A number of hulls were stripped of armament, modified heavily and transferred to Astro Control Service as search and rescue platforms. An additional small number were retained purely as training craft attached to Saganami Island Naval Academy.

  Series 282 light attack craft

  Mass: 17,750 tons

  Dimensions: 121 × 20 × 19 m

  Acceleration: 573.2 G (5.621 kps²)

  80% Accel: 458.6 G (4.497 kps²)

  Broadside: 12MB, 1L, 1CM, 3PD