The Imperial Bragulan Navy logo.
The Imperial People's Military Maritime Space Fleet is the long-armed fist of the mighty Star Empire of Bragule and is one of its oldest of institutions, tracing its origins to the days before the establishment of the Empire, when the admirals of the old bygone Bragulan nations' fleets saw which way the tides of historical inevitability were flowing and cast their lot with Byzon, thus becoming instrumental to his inevitable victory. Because of this, the Imperial Bragulan Navy is one of the great pillars of not just the military, but the whole nation as well, and its crucial role in the creation of the Byzonic state makes it a proud and celebrated organization respected by all Bragule - and feared by those outside of it.
For throughout the history of the Bragulan Star Empire, the Space Fleet has engaged in endless wars, beginning with its ending of the Great Civil War, and continuing on with the devastation of the Apexai, the following Solarian Wars, the subsequent eradication of the Scron and the battles against Byzantium. In each and every time, the Space Fleet has proven its formidability and fierceness as a mighty naval force worthy of Bragule, with the power to vanquish or at least repulse any of those who would dare threaten the Imperator's dominion.
Yet it is this immense power that immerses the Navy in the shadowy power plays inherent to the Bragulan state, as the IBGV constantly seeks to sink its covetous claws into the power base of the Navy with its ceaseless machinations, and it is said that even the Imperator himself takes great care to limit the might of the Space Fleet so that it may not surpass his own by occasionally purging the ranks of the Navy.
Nevertheless, through the centuries, with its mighty fleets of warships - many dating from the time of the Great Civil War, nearly half a millennium ago - the Imperial Bragulan Navy remains a deadly threat to any would-be adversary. It is a battle-hardened force seasoned in the constantly violent nature of the Koprulu Zone, capable of matching any foe, and sending those who make the mistake of underestimating it into oblivion.
Warship classes[]
Niva-class gunskimmer[]
A gunskimmer on space patrol.
Light and nimble by Bragulan standards, the Niva-class gunskimmer is in fact an exceptionally bulky corvette. Its bulk is devoted mostly to its engines, a set of six reciprocating sub-nuclear reactors, two massive missile bays, and no less than eighteen medium k-bolters stuck on the gunskimmer. These weapons greatly decrease its aerodynamic efficiency, meaning it can hardly function in a planetary atmosphere, but that hasn't stopped its suicidal Bragulan pilots from attempting to do so anyway (usually with catastrophic kinetic consequences).
There exists a number of gunskimmer variants, including a recon model. It replaces most of its weapons with passive-aggressive scanners, cameras, and other sensor systems, and its six nucleonic engines have been further redlined for incredible sublight speed. Its hyperdrive, on the other hand, has been rigged for slow but silent running. A typical recon flight involves the gunskimmer silently hypering into the system, and then eschewing stealth entirely and blazing through the system at top speed and taking snapshots of everything inside the system, before hypering out and resuming its silent running.
Class Info:
- Cost: 50p
- Constructed: 250
Patriotic Glory-class paleocruiser[]
The paleocruiser Venerable Commemoration of the Generous Imperator's Archaeofeat of Precambrian Paleodinosaur Wrestling.
The warships of the Patriotic Glory-class are some of the oldest ships in the Bragulan arsenal (hence their designation as "paleocruisers"), with some dating back to the days immediately following the Great Civil War. They are rustbuckets of ships, leaking oxygen and radiation alike, but they are also very numerous and dangerous because of that. Lacking much in the way of energy shields, the Patriotic Glory instead makes do with an absurdly thick layer of armor.
Its weaponry consists mostly of long-range missiles and heavy K-bolter cannons, with some ships of the class sporting energy weapons that were bolted on after the fact, usually by the vessels' crews to make their ships slightly more survivable. Such illegal modification is punishable with twenty years in the gulag when discovered by the commissar aboard the ship, ten in case the weapons used are foreign (in which case the dissident receives a lighter punishment because of the succesful espionage involved in buying an alien weapon system).
Class Info:
- Cost: 100p
- Constructed: 100
- Carrier capacity: 5 (25 fighters or 5 gunboats) for paleocruisers with retained carrier capabilities. Most paleocruiser fighter bays are disused and filled with radioactive waste, converted for miscellaneous purposes, or converted and filled with miscellaneous radioactive waste.
Friend of Bragule-class warcruiser[]
Friend of Bragule-class warcruiser Today is Bragsday.
The Friend of Bragule-class is an all-purpose multifunctional vessel that can perform a wide variety of tasks, from directly combating enemy warships, to unleashing fighter screens or transporting a modest number of ground forces, to serving as a support vessel for the larger Chernovyi-class and Imperator's Fist-class battleships.
The warcruiser is big and bulky, as is typical with Bragulan designs; however, unusually it can be reconfigured to suit varying roles and functions depending on the situation and mission by removing detachable segments from the dorsal or ventral sides of the vessel's hull, and attaching specialized segments like dedicated sensor systems, troop compartments, fighter bays, or massed missile tubes and silos.
While some analysts believe that the Friend of Bragule was an attempt at a vessel comparable to the Sovereignty's multi-purpose Assailant-class strikestars for use in Wild Space patrols, others contend that the warcruiser was a genuine attempt of to design a broad-spectrum support vessel for larger fleets. The Bragulan Space Fleet's usage of the warcruiser usually leans more on the latter, as in major actions the Friend of Bragules are configured for specialized support roles to assist the dedicated battleships; however, it is not rare to see them on solitary patrol in generalist configurations.
Class Info:
- Cost: 250p
- Constructed: 25
- Carrier capacity:
- Standard configuration: 10p (50 fighters / 10 gunboats)
- Specialized carrier support configuration: 150p (750 fighters/150 gunboats)
Light of Bragule-class subcruiser[]
A Light of Bragule in silent running.
The Light of Bragule is a subclass of the Friend of Bragule, a stripped-down version built solely with the intention of creating a planetcracker doomsday weapon. The Light of Bragule foregoes much in the way of conventional weapons in order to house a set of enormous missiles and a very robust hyperdrive. These ships are expected to linger in asteroid belts and other remote locations with most systems shut down and their crews suspended in cryostasis. The ship computer is set to receive a coded hyperspace signal once every week; if this signal is interrupted for more than two weeks, the ship will assume the Bragulan Star Empire has been annihilated, wake up the crew and set them to their task of revenge. Typically, this involves hypering toward a pre-selected target planet and unloading its missile batteries (loaded with enough atomics to cause a worldwide extinction event) before making a suicide run into the nearest target of value. It is believed that most Light of Bragule-class ships are aimed at targets in the Sovereignty.
Class Info:
- Cost: 200p
- Constructed: 12
Chernovyi-class battlecruiser[]
A Chernovyi-class in high orbit.
Named after the reviled Apexai's homeworld that, under the instruction of the great Imperator, was decimated by a moon dropped right on it, the Chernovyi-class is the workhorse warship of the Imperial Bragulan Navy. Sporting a smaller hammerhead than the later, greater, and much larger Imperator's Fist, the Chernovyi-class was nonetheless designed to be a heavy brawler battlecruiser with a similar but more compact design. However, like all Bragulan vessels, it still has much larger surface area and volume compared to similar warships from other nations, owing to the bulkiness and redundancy of Bragulan designs. Some crews of the Chernovyi take advantage of this by bolting on external missile tubes on their ships' hulls, a lesson learned from those who had served on the venerable Patriotic Glory-class paleocruisers.
Surface area aside, the Chernovyi is also noted for grossly inadequate space when it comes to crew quarters, making living standards deplorable as crews are forced to sleep on hammocks, on the floor or in the torpedo tubes. Oddly enough, this makes the warship all the more dangerous, as crews tend to look forward to extensive ship-to-ship combat and eagerly anticipate firing prodigious quantities of munitions at the enemy - as, after the battle, the depleted weapons magazines can be used as makeshift living quarters.
Class Info:
- Cost: 300p
- Constructed: 20
Imperator's Fist-class battleship[]
The Imperator's Fist-class battleship Fist of Bragulanity
Built to match anything fielded by the enemies of Bragule, the Imperator's Fist is the newest warship of the Space Fleet and its most advanced. The battleship's distinct hammerhead hull is festooned with weapons, from numerous nuclear missile batteries and K-bolt cyclotrons, to great atomic revolver guns and ion cannons, as its ideologically correct designers intended it to truly symbolize the Imperator's own fist smashing the faces of all who dare oppose him. The sheer number of armamentations is matched by its defenses, powerful shields with their own individual subnucleonic reactors, a double hyperalloy hull with layers of bragsteel and ablative bragcrete and explosive reactive armor bricks the size of small ships.
Save for the Byzon-class fortresses, the Imperator's Fists are the largest and mightiest space combatants in the Bragulan Space Fleet and are used in major Imperial fleet actions where formidable enemy forces are expected. Command of Imperator's Fist-class vessels is reserved for captains and admirals whose impeccable ideological records have earned the favor of Imperator Byzon himself, and whose previous valiant actions have gained them the right to be called his fists.
Class Info:
- Cost: 500p
- Constructed: 15 (Fist of the Imperator, Right Fist of Byzon, Left Fist of Byzon, Fist of Bragulanity, Fist of the Emerald Star, Fist of Fury, Fist of a New Hope, Fist of Glourious Retribution, Fist of Righteous Rage, Fist of Undeniable Imperial Truth, Fist of Great Imperial Justice, Fist of Historical Inevitability, Fist of Impending Vengeance, Fist of Consumated Retribution, Fist of Righteous Comeuppance)
- Carrier capacity: 40p (200 fighters / 40 gunboats)
Byzon-class strategic battlefortress[]
The Byzon II, The Destroyer of Worlds.
After the many wars waged against the enemies of Bragule, Byzon deemed the construction of a “grand weapons platform unlike anything seen before in the Empire” vital to the Empire's military supremacy. The resources of Bragule's dominions and the spoils from the Running of the Apexai were directed to the construction of this geat weapon. Near the end of the 34th century only three fortresses were constructed, and the fourth's half-finished skeleton was hastily converted into a ‘Tactical Defense Fort’ that now orbits Bragule. Byzon's cowardly enemies never dared to attack again, and there was never another great war.
The Byzon is a monument armed with the deadliest weapons in Bragule's arsenal of death-dealing obscenities, from strategic missiles the size of skyscrapers to great atomic death ray projectors, totaling in enough firepower to destroy entire fleets of lesser warships and devastate whole worlds. The battlefortress is protected by a formidable defenses, from the immesurably thick layers of bragteel and bragcrete, to more esoteric means like ray shields from the fallen Zedath-Kaleshi cityships. It is likewise propelled by advanced hyperdrives obtained from Apexai artifacts, allowing it surprisingly swift superluminal velocities.
The battlefortress remains the ultimate weapons platform of the Bragulan Star Empire. Yet its extreme cost and the rarity of Apexai artifacts means that the Space Fleet only has the triumvirate currently at its disposal: the Byzon I, Defender of the Universe; Byzon II, Destroyer of Worlds; and Byzon III, The Savior of All Peoples. The Imperator, in his supreme benevolence, seldom sends these mighty weapons outside the borders of the Empire. However, should great war erupt, the Byzons will ensure that death comes swiftly to the Imperator's enemies.
Class Info:
- Cost: 800p
- Constructed: 3 (Byzon I, The Defender of the Universe; Byzon II, The Destroyer of Worlds; Byzon III, The Savior of All Peoples)
Total points: 42,900
Subcraft types[]
While the militaro-tactico-strategico Byzonist methodology of the Space Fleet is principally focused on overwhelming the enemy with the utilization of either disproportionate capital ship firepower, disproportionate force numbers, or disproportionate capital ship firepower and disproportionate force numbers, the many conflicts Bragule has fought against its enemies has taught the Space Fleet the value of utilizing tactically flexible and maneuverable subcrafts like fighters and gunboats. As such, many of the Bragulan warship designs are able to accomodate a number of subcraft, with the modular Friend of Bragule-class even capable of carrier configuration.
SNT-series aerospace multi-fighter[]
The SNT multifighter.
The Sylvenntkya Navrksklag Troveskenurlthra is the standard fighter of the Bragulan Fleet capable of engaging air and space targets in a wide variety of planetary and outer space weather conditions. It is designed for maximum flexibility and its name roughly translates to ‘extreme maneuverability interdictionator’. It has three big-bore K-bolters on its wingtips as well as multiple weapons pylons and hardpoints for additional missiles, bombs, torpedos and other ordnance. It has three forward-swept variable geometry swing wings with intricate control surfaces providing atmospheric maneuverability matched only by dedicated planetary fighters. In space, it maneuvers with pulse-verniers and 3D atomic thrust vectoring. It is propelled by two General Elektryk atomic pulse engines designed by General Uragust Elektryk, with uranium/plutonium combustion afterburners to reach speeds unsafe for normal space fighters. Proletarian Defense Force atmosphere-only SNTs do not have GE engines but use turboramscramfanjets.
SNTs are manned but due to size restrictions only small cadets are picked as pilots. In the past, Space Fleet even recruited underaged juveniles by gauging their skills through communal videogame arcades to choose the last bragfighters. The uncomfortably small cockpit is enclosed in a gel-conduced inertial dampener and sports digitanalogue controls for maximum ergonomics, the latest high-tech variants have 'reactive refleks' cyber-control systems (the pilot's mask has wires that go up his nostrils into his brains, connecting him to the flight computer) and enhanced computers to keep the fighters and their pilots competitive with the latest unmanned designs.
The Bragulan Space Fleet is also working with the Shepistani Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (TOPSHEP) to chemically augment the capabilities of its fighter pilots.
Grizzly Gugafez gunboat/missileer[]
A Grizzly Gugafez on a dirt runway.
The Grizzly Gugafez is an extreme miniaturization of the basic gunskimmer design, emphasizing speed and firepower at the expense of things like maneuverability. The gunboat is far larger than an SNT fighter, and sports four turbocharged atomic pulse engines, a very spacious weapons bay that can double as crew quarters after expending the munitions, external hardpoints for anti-ship torpedo tubes or bolt-on K-bolters, and several tail guns. The Grizzly Gugafez comes in two types, the missileer variant sports an abundance of missiles and the gunboat variant mounts very large co-axial K-cannons. In planetary operations, the Gugafez can act in a dual role as a bomber eliminating planetside targets and a gunship providing both transport and fire-support to ground forces. In space, it can fulfill both anti-ship and interceptor roles with stand-off weaponries and can perform patrols and intermediate-range attacks with its hyperdrive.
The gunboat missileer can act as a makeshift shuttle, with the weapons magazines cleared and used as passenger compartments (if the crew doesn't mind others in their living areas). ELINT, EW and ASW (anti-stealth warfare) variants of the Gugafez also exist, with hardpoints sporting sensor pods or jammers and weapons magazines filled with computronics, subspace sonar buoys, hyperwave scanners, spare vacuum tubes and endless spools of magnetic tape. Due to the stealth capabilities of other navies, every Friend of Bragule warcruiser in carrier configuration carries a number of these specialized Grizzlies in their bays.
[]
Bragulan naval infantry is generally divided into three classifications: the general crew of the vessels, from the ranking officers to the lowliest press-ganged conscript; actual naval soldiers/marines trained in boarding actions, outerspace operations, and zero-gravity combat; and elite commando forces deployed from navy vessels to do space and planetside special operations. They can be seen as a microcosm of the Legions of Liberations' troops, with each tier having roughly comparable capabilities - but on a proportionately smaller, spaceshipborne scale. Naval infantry weapons and tactics are different, but roughly equivalent, to those of their ground pounder cousins, and are suited for their unique(ly dangerous) environment.
General Crews[]
The sailors of the Space Fleet are all expected to defend their ships with their lives, because their ships are not actually their ships, but the glourious Imperator's - thus they must acquit themselves viciously against the enemies of Bragulanity, or die trying. For this purpose, the interiors of Bragulan ships are replete with arms lockers filled with weapons to be used on such occasions. But because the crews are barely trained to use these weapons, due to the lack of any dedicated close-quarters combat training save for the barest of basics, they are often sold for food and amenities whenever the crews go on shore leave. Aside from this, some of the more seasoned crews of Bragulan patrol vessels have become experts in using improvised weaponry for both defense and offense, and informal hand-written field manuals have even circulated within the Space Fleet. These manuals detail everything from making simple Bragotov cocktails out of tsvagna bottles, to plugging water hoses into fuel tanks to turn them into fire hoses, to sharpening nuclear fuel rods into improvised spears (and camouflaging these sharpened rods under flimsy deckplates to make pit-traps).
Because Bragulan crews are often forced to subsist on meager foul-tasting soylents and rations, and are confined in uncomfortable and deplorable living conditions for months on end, any incidence of on board close-quarters combat presents these Bragtag crews a rare opportunity to release their pent-up frustrations and accumulated murderous impulses. In combat, their performance is even more under-equipped and undisciplined than the Legionnaires. The prevalence of improvised on-board distilleries despite Commissariat regulations can make these occasions quite the sight to behold.
Game Info:
- Points Spent: None, as these are the innate crews of Bragulan ships press-ganged into mortal combat. Quantitatively they amount to a Screaming Horde.
- 500,000/$1
Space Troopers[]
The Marine force of the Space Fleet, the Space Troopers are trained to board enemy ships filled with hostiles, and to quell any resistance with extreme prejudice. This is their specialty, and because boarding assaults are bloody affairs, when the Space Troops come they come in force and numbers - with shaped nuclear charges to breach hulls, gratuitous use of chemical-biological-radiological weapons to clear entry zones, and vicious close-quarters combat techniques to overwhelm and subdue resisting crews. They fight in zero-gravity, inside ships as well as outside of them, engaging entrenched enemies in any way possible, even in claw-to-claw combat, to take entire vessels whole - or not at all. It is actually considered fortunate to be captured by the Space Troopers and sent to the Bragulags, because they have a reputation for just blowing up ships that prove too bothersome to capture, and sometimes even ships in the process of being boarded end up getting blown up too.
Space Troopers have dedicated spacefighting training and gear compared to the general crews, including transport vehicles ranging from shuttles, boarding-torpedoes and Grizzly Gugafez gunboats; to modified SNTs with wing-mounted handlebars for them to hold on to and fast-ropes to rappel onto ships.
Typically, large warships have whole detachments of Space Troopers for capturing vessels, while smaller vessels have a squad or two of Space Troopers who engage in offensive and defensive actions together with the general crew. Space Troopers are roughly equivalent to that of Shock Army soldiers, and these similarities are especially evident when they invade space stations and habitats and bring battle tanks and other armored vehicles to bear.
Space Troopers are capable of performing 'amphibious' operations on planetary surfaces, though their dispositions are hardly like those of the heavier ground warfare-centric forces such as the Legions. However, Space Troops have been known to engage in planetary operations to secure beachheads or assault planetside objectives, and have proven themselves to be just as capable in small-scale planetary combat as their groundpounder brethren.
Game Info:
- Points Spent: $200
- 10,000,000 troops @ 100,000/$1 x kit modifier 2
[]
The Bragulan Space Fleet's Beachhead Excursionary Advanced Reconnaissance Squadrons originated when the Space Fleet recognized the need for soldiers to reconnoiter landing zones and mark enemy positions for subsequent orbital atomization. The Navy BEARS trace their beginnings to the specialized Orbital Demolition Space Troops and the Spacebee units, which specialized in the sabotage of enemy space assets and the construction of forward bases in hostile landing zones respectively, for it was from these units - composed of sailors and spacers already specialized in amphibious operations - that the very first BEARS were drawn from. The BEARS were subject to even more rigorous training regimens and equipped with superior gear to turn them into the best of the best, a truly all-terrain capable commando unit more than a match for any other special force.
The Navy BEARS' roles have grown to include all that expected of any elite unit, growing from simple planetary reconnaissance duties to include deep intrusion and enemy territory penetration; indirect and direct actions like demolition, sabotage and assassination; covert abduction/irregular rendition; foreign internal offense and assymmetrical warfare; intelligence gathering; and special space operations. This is because it was quickly realized that by virtue of the Space Fleet's interstellar mobility, something the Legions of Liberation lacked, naval infantry and most importantly naval special forces could be go to places where army special forces could not (or, at least, not for a while owing to their ground-bound natures). This gave the Navy BEARS a crucial advantage over its rival special services, and while the army special forces are constrained to the planetary war zones they are deployed to, the Navy BEARS face no such limitations and can operate beyond battlefields and territorial boundaries. This is why for top-tier black operations, Byzon only turns to his finest: either the Navy BEARS, the IBGV, or the Emerald Guard themselves - and no one else.
Game Info:
- Points spent: 200
- 2,000,000 troops @ 50,000/$1 x kit modifier 5
Fleet Groups[]
The Space Fleet maintains six fleets based in the various sectors of Bragspace. The warships of the Space Fleet are split roughly evenly amongst the five Kosmoflotty, all strategically positioned to defend the Bragulan Star Empire and respond to any and all threats on short notice. The existence of the sixth Kosmoflott and its composition is a closely guarded secret of the Bragulan Navy.
1st Imperial Bragulan People's Most Byzonist Space Guards Stalwart Vanguardian Kosmoflott Sagatantron
1x Byzon-class strategic battlefortress
3x Imperator's Fist-class battleships
4x Chernovyi-class battlecruisers
4x Friend of Bragule-class warcruisers
20x Patriotic Glory-class paleocruisers
40x Niva-class gunskimmers
Misc. logistics vessels
Based on Lena core sector
2nd Imperial Bragulan People's Most Byzonist Space Guards Advanced Counterforce Kosmoflott Grozhyskhov
1x Byzon-class strategic battlefortress
3x Imperator's Fist-class battleships
4x Chernovyi-class battlecruisers
4x Friend of Bragule-class warcruisers
20x Patriotic Glory-class paleocruisers
40x Niva-class gunskimmers
Misc. logistics vessels
Based on Bolshaya Chernovyi mid sector
3nd Imperial Bragulan People's Most Byzonist Space Guards Swift Assault Kosmoflott Vanagradski
1x Byzon-class strategic battlefortress
3x Imperator's Fist-class battleships
4x Chernovyi-class battlecruisers
4x Friend of Bragule-class warcruisers
20x Patriotic Glory-class paleocruisers
40x Niva-class gunskimmers
Misc. logistics vessels
Based on Kirensk mid sector
4th Imperial Bragulan People's Most Byzonist Space Guards Vigilant Patrol Kosmoflott Oktyabrsky
3x Imperator's Fist-class battleships
4x Chernovyi-class battlecruisers
4x Friend of Bragule-class warcruisers
20x Patriotic Glory-class paleocruisers
40x Niva-class gunskimmers
Misc. logistics vessels
Mobile / Based on Yenisei core sector (fleet branches off into two to patrol Bragspace)
5th Imperial Bragulan People's Most Byzonist Space Guards Deep Excursionary Kosmoflott Bragotyomkin
3x Imperator's Fist-class battleships
4x Chernovyi-class battlecruisers
4x Friend of Bragule-class warcruisers
20x Patriotic Glory-class paleocruisers
40x Niva-class gunskimmers
Misc. logistics vessels
Semi-mobile / based on Vivinskiy mid sector
6th Imperial Bragulan People's Most Byzonist Space Guards Stratetic Countervalue Kosmoflott Bolshaya Chernovyi
10x Light of Bragule-class subcruisers
Unknown, presumably based on Bolshaya Chernovyi but no subcruiser pens have been detected by CEID spy ships