Taikongjun

The Taikongjun (literally translated as great sky force), is Tianguo's Space Navy. It is the senior service, and nearly all of the Kings of Tian Guo have been officers in it before assumption of the throne. It is subdivided into Sector Fleets, and further into system defense forces and expeditionary forces.

Heijiake

Most space craft carry specially trained crew for ground and boarding operations. When not conducting such operations, they stand watch and do details like any other member of the crew. A bonus is paid to those who volunteer for this hazardous duty. These crew members are informally known as Heijiake to Lujun forces when operating in conjunction, due to the fact their dress uniforms have a black jacket. They are extremely well trained and equipped for those occassions in which they must deploy.

Uniforms

Mess

Mess Dress consists of a short black jacket, fastened at waist with a button chain clasp, and featuring satin lapels. Rank is worn on shoulderboards by officers, and embroidered onto the sleeve for enlisted. A black cummerbund is worn by enlisted, silver for officers. Miniature medals and rating badges are worn on the left chest. Like the dress uniform, silver bands are found on the cuffs. Trousers, long skirt, or kilt may be worn. Trousers and skirt are black. A knee length cloak may be worn. A baton is an optional item for those issued one. No cover is worn. Black dress shoes are worn.

Dress

The dress uniform consists of a high, standing collared midnight blue double breasted jacket, with medium blue trousers. Silver piping is along the edge of the jacket. A silver aiguillette is worn on the left shoulder of the jacket. Medals are worn on the left chest, with rating badges worn above the medals. Rank insignia is embroidered on the sleeves for enlisted, and worn on epaulettes for officers. The sleeve has a band of silver braid sewn to the cuff, with the number of bands depending on rank. NCOs have a single narrow band, officers have two. Xiao have one wide and one narrow band, while Jiang and above wear two wide bands. The jacket is cut to be formfitting.

Trousers have silver braid down the side for NCOs and officers, with general officers using midnight blue trousers instead of medium blue. NCOs and officers carry a dress sword on a medium blue (midnight for general officers) belt with silver edging. A medium blue peaked hat is worn outdoors. The peaked cap has a black visor and chin strap. Officers have silver edging on the visor, with Xiao grade officers having a pair of silver clouds and lightning bolts, and Jiang grade officers having two pairs of clouds and lightning bolts. White gloves and highly shined black boots complete the uniform. A midnight blue half cape is optional.

Undress

The undress uniform is similar to the dress uniform, except the jacket is removed. A white blouse is worn, with (optional) ribbons on the left chest, with (optional) rating badge above, and a name tag on the right chest. Enlisted rank insignia are embroidered onto the sleeve, with officer ranks placed on epaulettes. Hot weather climates have the option of wearing knee length shorts instead of trousers, in the same color. Female troops have the option of wearing a blouse designed to be worn untucked, as well as a short skirt. The peaked cap is worn outdoors. Black dress shoes are worn with shorts or skirt.

Utility

The standard utility uniform is a patterned jumpsuit. The pattern is largely to hide incidental dirt and stains from working on equipment, and looks similar to a gray and black camoflague. Flat black boots are worn. Insignia are worn on the collar for enlisted, and embroidered onto the shoulders for officers. With little additional equipement, the utility uniform is space tight, and can be used in zero atmosphere conditions. It is light enough to be worn planetside without discomfort. A Beret is the prescribed outdoor headgear.

Echelons

Level	Typical Commander
Division	Variable depending on ship type
Small craft squadron	Shao Xiao or Zhong Xiao
Small craft wing	Zhong Xiao or Shang Xiao
Minor Warship	Shao Xiao or Zhong Xiao
Major Warship	Zhong Xiao or Shang Xiao
Capital Warship	Da Xiao
Sloop or Corvette Flotilla	Shao Jiang
Cruiser or Carrier Squadron	Zhong Jiang
Capital Squadron	Shang Jiang
Task Force	Da Jiang or Ci Shuai
System Fleet	Yuan Shuai
Sector Fleet	Da Yuan Shuai

Weapons

Guns

Mark 16 Phased Array Laser (Phaser)

The Mark 16 is a modular, high intensity laser weapon system. An array is limited only by the size of the surface it can be emplaced on, and the amount of power that can be fed to it. It has limited frequency agility, relying more on raw power. They can be mounted on a curved surface, however, it is significantly easier to do the beam forming programming for a flat surface. They tend to be placed on as large of a surface as possible, for maximum power and largest effective aperture, and are hexagonal in shape.

Mark 23 Gravy gun

The Mark 23 can fire a variety of projectiles. For orbital bombardment purposes, it can fire unguided shells. It can fire either Cochrane shells, typical for space to space combat, or pinch warhead shells, preferred for ground bombardment, due to their greater ground penetration. It is typically mounted in turrets, except where the size of the ship is too small to accomodate a turret, such as with a corvette. Neutron injection systems effectively convert the Mark 23 into a particle beam cannon. Neutrons are a free side effect of the fusion reactors, thus requiring no additional mass. It, nonetheless, remains significantly less powerful than Umerian charged particle cannons.

Missiles (Daodan)

DD-362 Chang Jian

The Long Arrow missile is a heavyweight anti-ship missile carried by all warships. It is also capable of land bombardment. Like all space to space missiles, it carries no warhead. Its destructive potential comes from it's kinetic energy. It also is utilized to intercept large anti-ship missiles.

DD-320 Ying Xing

Star Eagle is a medium weight anti-ship missile. It is typically carried by small craft.

DD-378 Pi Li

Thunderbolt is a lightweight, highly manueverable, low yield missile designed for anti-starfighter, and other small craft use. It is additionally frequently used for anti-missile fire. It is carried by nearly all combatants.

Spacecraft

Ship design principles

One of the biggest drivers behind Tianguo ship design is the placement of the phaser panels. This drives the majority of ships to look somewhat like different scale copies of each other. The general design scheme is a triangular prism, with tetrahedrons on each end. This results in a generally trilaterally symmetric design. On each face of the ship, a phaser panel is emplaced, in addition to various sensors that require placement on the surface. Each of these faces is composed of armor plate. It can be noted that a significant failing of the phaser array is that it is impossible to adequetely armor. Instead, the array gains damage resistence from the fact that it's distributed over a large area, with multiple redundant power trunks supplying it.

Running longitudinally between the faces of the ship are what are best descibed as trenches. These are used for items that require significant armor penetrations, such as missile launch tubes. Also found mounted over the trenches are any gun turrets, if the class carries any. Some smaller classes only carry axially mounted guns. If so, then the trench will continue to the bow of the ship, instead of the bow ending in an armored prow.

Ships of corvette size and larger are built with the decks arranged such that up is towards the bow. This results in the ships landing on their sterns (or at least those capable of landing). Aside from this assymetry, it's difficult to determine bow from stern on a Taikongjun warship. This is traditional for Taikongjun ships, and stems from a time before effective inertial compensators.

Carriers are a general exception to the above listed design principles. As a triangular cross section is not well optimized for space utilization, this results in a markedly different looking design. They tend to be boxier. Since most carriers have no weapons other than the phaser arrays, trenches are smaller, where they do exist. They are more "traditionally" oriented, with up being dorsal.

Internally, the ships are double hulled, with the space between utilized for fuel. Since Taikongjun ships are fusion powered, large amounts of hydrogen are necessary. This is not ordinarily a disadvantage, as most ships carry gear to allow refueling from a convienent gas giant. The secondary hull is also composed of armor plate, and is attached to the outer hull with additional armor plating (in order to ensure that a hit doesn't result in all the fuel leaking out into space. Inside the inner hull, all the typical warship components can be seen: reactors for power, missile and gun magazines, crew quarters, bridge, CIC, etc. It's notable that ship control is found inside the ship. For delicate moving operations, extensible conning towers are located in the ship's trenches (typically 3, for redundancy).

Most of the above does not apply to small craft, as they are simply too small.

Naming conventions

Taikongjun ships are officially only referred to by hull number. Naming of ships is done for moral purposes, and is officially unofficial. Typically the first crew to take possession of a new ship will name it within the first year. Names do occasionally change, as a way of changing a ship's luck. Systems have been developed over the years to ensure that the ship names remain unique.

However, there's no fixed rules on naming. It's quite possible to end up with a corvette named Emperor Byzon XIV, though as you'd need to convince most of a crew to adopt that name, it's unlikely to succeed as a name. Some names will tend to get recycled, especially if previous holders of that name were destroyed heroically in battle. This is similar to other nation's "List of Honor".

Hull numbers are unique, and remain throughout the life of a ship. They consist of a hull type code, followed by a uniqueness number. The number is usually non-sequentially assigned, to help camouflage the number of ships in a given type that have been constructed. Examples include: S-00145, C-3507, and B-701.

Small craft

J-10 fighter-bomber

This is a large, hyperdrive equipped multi-role fighter-bomber. It is the 10th spacecraft designated "Jianjiji", roughly paralleling what other nations would label a fighter. It is manufactured by Shaanxi Aerospace, and Chengdu Aerospace (under license). There exist multiple variations of the J-10, to fit different roles. The Jianjiji Dian (JD)-10 Sparky, for example exchanges some armament for a larger sensor and electronic warfare suite, and three extra crew to monitor the sensor/EW suite. Jianjiji Zhenchaji (JZ) 10 spacecraft are modified to carry better stealth systems and better sensors, at the expense of armament. JJ-10 trainers strip out the armament, rendering them combat ineffective, but can simulate weapons fire. They have additional seating for instructors. Standard J-10s have a crew of three: pilot, weapon system officer, and flight engineer. The basic J-10 spaceframe has actually been in service for over a century, however numerous upgrades to essentially every other part have ensured it remains a competant fighter in the modern age.

Y-14/Y-16 transport

The Y-14 and Y-16 are related designs, differing largely in the incorporation of a hyper-drive on the Y-16, and the structural changes necessary to support it. They are the 14th and 16th spacecraft to be designated "Yunshuji", meaning transport. They are manufactured by Chengdu Aerospace, and Shaanxi Aerospace (under license). Similarly to the J-10, the basic design is over a 100 years old.

Minor Warships

Type 03 Sloop

This is a extremely small warship. It is designed more along the lines of a small craft than a proper warship, and as such, carries a relatively small crew, and makes other sacrifices in order to boost it's combat power at the expense of longevity. The "Y" subvariant strips out some missile armament in order to fit signature reduction equipment.

Type 10 Sloop

This small warship is primarily utilized for courier duties. With the advent of a hyperdrive small enough to fit into a shuttle form factor, it has virtually dissappeared into mothballs and the scrapyard.

Type 20 Corvette

This small warship is widely utilized by system defense forces for customs and border patrol. Individually numerous, they are frequently supplemented in this detail by carriers. It counts amongst it's 250 personnel 50 Heijiake, led by the ship's assistant tactical officer. It embarks a pair of Y-14 transports.

Type 22 Corvette

This small warship is a relatively new ship type. It embarks a quartet of Type 03 missile boats. The relatively massive missile boats are so large that a boat bay large enough fit them would not actually itself fit into the hull of the Type 22. As such, it takes a page from the Umerian cutter tender, and has them attach externally to the ship. It counts amongst it's 300 personnel 50 Heijiake, led by the ship's assistant tactical officer. Personnel listed includes that of the Type 03 attached. It embarks a pair of Y-14 transports.

Type 25 Corvette

This is a variant of the Type 22. It utilizes the space reserved for "future" expansion for the installation of signature reduction equipment. To most sensors, when not in signature reduction (cloaked) mode, it appears identical to a Type 22.

Major Warships

Type 39 Cruiser

The cruiser is an embodiment of "Quantity has a quality all it's own". On a tonnage scale, they make up fully 1/4 of the navy. They carry approximtely 2000 personnel, of which 200 are Heijiake. It carries 4 Y-14 transports.

Type 43 Fleet Carrier

As numerous as the Type 39, but larger is size, this ship is dedicated to carriage of small craft, typically carrying 120 J-10 fighter bombers, plus support craft, including 4 Y-14 transports. It is staffed by the space wing of nearly 1500 personnel, including 500 aircrew, as well 1500 ship's company. 200 Heijiake are part of the ship's company and space wing.

Capital ship

Type 51 Battleship

The big bruiser of the Taikongjun, the appearence of these battleships typically mean that someone is in for a world of hurt. As a larger warship, it carries 8 Y-14 transports to supply it's needs. It's ship's company numbers 7500 personnel, including 600 Heijiake. Known ship names are: Unpleasant Consequences, Interesting Times, Bearer of Unfortunate Tidings, Most Inauspicious Reckoning, and Acupuncturist.

Type 61 Monitor

These venerable warships are older than most of the crews fighting them. However, modernization programs have ensured that they remain potent combantants. Carrying some 22.5 thousand men and women they are also some of the most manpower intensive ships in the fleet. A regiment of 2000 Heijiake is part of the ship's company. Sometimes known by foreigners as the Zhanzheng-class, due to the first ship launched being named such. Other ships are: Siwang, Wenyi, and Jihuang.

OOB Mid 3400

Designation	Unit type	number	cost/unit	total cost
Y-16	Hyper shuttle	465	1/15	31
Y-14	shuttle	0	1/20	0
J-10	gunboat	4278	1/2	2139
Type 61	Monitor	4	900	3600
Type 51	Battleship	36	300	10800
Type 39	Cruiser	210	80	16800
Type 43	Fleet Carrier	210	120	25200
Type 25	Corvette	5	16	80
Type 22	Corvette	32	12	384
Type 20	Corvette	346	10	3460
Type 10	Sloop	1	3	3
Type 03	Sloop	2	1.5	3