Misc Antarean Imperial Space Navy
For a relatively young fighting force, the Antarean Imperial Space Navy has enjoyed unprecedented success in its military operations against the allied forces for the USN. This is due in no small part to the leadership of its admirals and the guidance of the Emperor. Though it is a derivative of the old Antarean Federation Navy, the AISN’s primary strengths are found in its aggressive tactics, flexibility, and speed. Some contend that the apparent technological superiority of Imperial ships over League vessels are all that contributed to its stunning victories and overall success. However, it is important to realize that well over 70% of the AISN is comprised of obsolescent League vessels, and primarily operated by former USN officers.
The Imperial navy suffers from several, relatively dangerous, weaknesses; the first is that while they have managed to remain at relative military parity with the USN, they are dangerously short of manpower. Also, even with respect to the tremendous initial losses suffered by League forces at the outset of conflict, the AISN is still vastly outnumbered by the entire league Navy by a factor of 4 to 1. This has forced the armed forces to become reliant on its few allies, as well as mercenary organizations, to provide support in areas where the navy cannot afford to extend itself. Though the morale, strength, and intelligence of the AISN cannot be questioned, its ability to project its power across many systems could be hampered if it cannot bring the war to a short and successful conclusion.
The Five Imperial Fleets
Following the reforms made by the new Emperor, the old single role fleets were disbanded and five new fleets were founded, each one incorporating equal measures of each role from the old fleets. The new structuring of the fleets gave each one an independence, and accordingly their Grand Legates were permitted additional freedom. The result is a much more flexible force that capitalizes on the talent of it's commanders and the enhanced AI available under the Tactical Neural Network program instituted by the new Empire.
Each of the five fleets (I-V) comprises four or more Arms which are led by a flagship Supercapital and it's defensive retinue, commanded by the Grand Legate of the Fleet.
An Arm's component Hands are each led by Capital vessel under the command of a Legate, and are generally the smallest working fleet group fielded by the AISN. When a fleet is not engaged in offensive operations, the Hands of each Arm take up system security roles and deploy as independent patrols.
When a fleet is on offensive operations, Arms and Hands are formed into non-standard task forces to fit the required role. without the superior operating systems of the AISN's fleet command cpus and the lack of restriction on commanding officers, this on-the-fly restructuring of the fleets would be an impossibly slow task.
The First Fleet
The First Fleet is traditionally the most mobile of the five, and employs the large majority of the Empire's new breed of next-generation warships, including the fearsome Morningstar class Heavy Battlecruiser. The Ist fleet's Ist arm (termed the I-Ist for short) is the operational command of the Emperor himself. It is led by the Battlecruiser "Morningstar" - first of her class, and her Tribune retains the traditional rank of Tribune Monitori, relinquishing command to the Emperor when he commands the vessel in person. This is a rare occurrence and has happened only once during the war, when the TM of the Morningstar was taken extremely ill just before the Barthui Siege. the emperor commanded the I-Ist and also the Morningstar with what could only be described as glee for three weeks before the TM could persuade him to stand down.
Livery
As with the USN's blue grey "camouflage" scheme, the Imperial navy draws its base scheme from an agreed composite of ancient livery. The most prominent influence on this scheme was the fleet of The First Antarean Empire, whose vessels were liveried with a striking Dragonscale patterning in the various colors of the great houses of Antares.
The tan and red coloring is drawn from the skies of the myriad worlds of the empire. many of the worlds of Antares are clustered in fairly nebulous space, the great clouds of matter slowing light into the redshift and staining most of Antarean space in varying shades of gold and crimson.
