The Battlefleet Prosperitas
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The High Guard, the Void Nobility: the Imperial Navy is a culture unto itself. Many of its Officers and Crew are born aboard the vast city-sized Battleships, and the leadership of many vessels is often determined by a combination of merit, breeding and heritage. Every ship has its own community, and every Fleet its own culture. The Ships of the Imperium are truly deadly things, each carrying enough firepower to utterly destroy anything from a city, to an entire planet.
- They are traditional. The Imperial Navy is home to a myriad of ancient and often incomprehensible traditions, superstitions and obscure pieces of etiquette, many varying from vessel to vessel.
- They love their ships. The crew of a Voidship have bonds as close as any Imperial Guard regiment, and their first loyalty is to their vessel. When two Navy crews meet on shore leave, one can expect sharp banter at best; open brawling is not uncommon. Ratings often sport tattoos or uniforms bearing the name or insignia of their home vessel, though this habit is considered gauche for officers.
- They are technical specialists. The complex and ingenious machinery which keeps a Voidship flying through the Warp is far more complicated than most technologies, for this reason the Navy has a close relationship with the Machine Cult and many officers wear both the Aquila and Cog Mechanicus as symbols of devotion.
- They have the big guns. No matter what massed ground power the Imperial Guard can bring to bear, or what strange and deadly weapons the Inquisition or fabled Astartes boast, it is the Imperial Navy who hold the greatest firepower in the Imperium of Humanity. The destructive power of a massed macrocannon broadside or the planet-burning might of a cyclonic torpedo fusillade outweighs any mere ground armament by several orders of magnitude.
- Their ships are vast. The smallest scout-ship in the fleet has a crew of some seven and a half thousand souls; the crews of battleships can number into the hundreds of thousands. More akin to vast, ancient void-capable cities than oceangoing vessels, every Navy vessel has its quirks – its bad neighbourhoods, its darkholds, and its hidden secrets.
Five Things To Know About the Battlefleet Prosperitas
- It's ships are eclectic and ancient. Unlike the Battlefleets in more established Sectors, the frontier reaches of the Prosperitas Sector see its Naval forces supplied with very few new warships and the three forges of the Sector lack large-scale ship facilities. To this end the Battlefleet Prosperitas is mainly comprised of war-scarred vessels of ancient design that have seen centuries of service, this is a blessing and a curse, for many rarer patterns of ship not seen in more 'modern' Battlefleets are found in this sector.
- Prize ships are common. Captains of the Battlefleet Prosperitas might well be snobbishly treated as privateers by their peers from stabler Sectors. The use of prize money, a payment rewarded to crews of vessels that take the enemy intact in battle is common in the Prosperitas Sector where the Battlefleet has adapted to recycling captured enemy vessels for Naval service.
- It often relies on Rogue Trader support. It is not uncommon for the Navy to work closely with the Captains of the Rogue Trader Houses, Majid, Durovera and Di Firro for support while prosecuting military actions along the frontiers of the sector where the Warrants of Trade of these Houses hold sway.
- It is proud. Most, of the Warmasters of the Prosperitas Sector have been drawn from the ranks of the Battlefleet Prosperitas and for this the Navy is proud. The Battlefleet are a nobility of sort within the Crusade thanks to this, which while beneficial for recruitment can often be a social wedge between them and the ground forces of the Imperial Guard.
- It pressgangs its armsfolk and ratings from brutal worlds. The Battlefleet Prosperitas is often called upon to send its armsfolk into close-quarters combat, to this end it draws much of the crew that man its lower decks from brutal walks of life such as penal colonies, under hives and asteroid settlements where those used to living in cramped conditions filled with violence serve as ruthless fighters when it comes to board enemy vessels or rebel boarders.
Battlefleet Prosperitas
The Vanguard of the Prosperitas Crusade the Battlefleet Prosperitas takes to the high void, for its Officers are a bastion of the highest Imperial Culture in the Prosperitas Sector. Maintained by good breeding, the Battlefleet sneers with disdain at the ‘ground pounders’ of the Crusade and often believes itself a separate entity from the Crusade’s ‘lesser’ forces.
Despite this arrogance, without the Battlefleet, there would be no Prosperitas Sector. The Battlefleet was born from the fleets of the Rogue Traders of House Durovera under Warmaster Jacinta Durovera and fleets of vessels drawn from various allies or bought or bribed away from the Battlefleets of distant sectors with promises of wealth and adventure on the frontier.
It is perhaps this non-traditional founding that has ensured the wide variety of vessels in service to the Battlefleet as its formations have been designed to compensate for various imbalances in ship classes available in the Sector. Granted independence from House Durovera by Warmaster Jacinta in the early years of the Crusade, these vessels have served for hundreds of years in service to the Prosperitas Crusade and most are far more ancient. This gives the Battlefleet Prosperitas a sense of pride and history, each Captain is intimately familiar with their ship and respects that they are but one of many Masters it will serve in its lifetime and some will even go to great pains to ensure that their legacied vessels survive over the lives of their crew such is the dishonour of losing their venerable craft.
In truth, however, the Battlefleet is one of the worst equipped in the Imperium, with many vessels bearing ancient scars and malfunctioning features fondly described as 'quirks' by their crews. From all these flaws many Battlefleet vessels come with their own severe limitations. For example, the HMVS Iron Lady, the Crusade's Flagship, an ancient Gloriana-class Hull, is a potent and deadly Battleship, but due to the long-distant failure of her maneuvering thrusters, she is now unable to turn under her own power – dependent on assistance from other vessels, or the pull of stellar bodies to alter her course.
These restrictions aside, the Battlefleet Prosperitas holds a position of pride in the Prosperitas Crusade, with many of the senior officers of the Crusade being drawn its ranks, and with many members of the Nobility of the Sector seeing it as a favourable posting for the desired honour of Crusade Service. This has been known to create clashes between classically schooled Naval Officers who are often members of the Sector Nobility who have 'bought' a commission (a practice disliked by some of their peers) to have a prestigious position aboard ship, and those who have earned their postings through long service from the Junior ranks.
Current Naval Actions
As of M41.595 the Battlefleet Prosperitas finds itself fighting wars on multiple fronts - with the return of the Regency it finds itself engaged with heretical foes that have drilled for years to face it. Though the Archenemy vessels used by the Regency are even older than those of the Battlefleet through heretical changes to their vessels and the unholy fanaticism demonstrated by the Archenemy Captains the Navy is hard pressed to face this resurgent foe.
Though no less important than the Regency, raiders from the Ætin Heima are a far more frequent threat for Naval forces to face, though the majority of these are focused around the world of Kelper Prime there are still many such vessels that raid deeper into the sector that the Battlefleet is called to respond to when local system defence fleets cannot face them.
With two such severe threats to focus upon the Battlefleet struggles to contain lower priority threats, spread thin as they are common piracy and criminal activities like smuggling go largely unchecked by Naval forces as they would in a more stable sector. The currently limited resources of the Navy forcing them to rely on third parties such as Privateers and Rogue Traders to provide those defences to the worlds of the Sector, at a price - something the Navy bristles at as a state of affairs.
Much like the Imperial Guard, the Imperial Navy is divided into officers and enlisted ranks, the latter often referred to as “sailors”, “rates”, “ratings” or simply “crew”. The system is designed to provide the vast mass of humanity required to operate a warship with oversight, leadership and discipline from a highly-trained cadre of expert commanders. At its best, the courageous, self-sacrificing and diligent officer corps work tirelessly to hone their subordinates into a perfectly cohesive and pious crew who demonstrate absolute loyalty to their peers and commanders; such a crew will fearlessly overcome privation, isolation, the horrors of the Void and the depredations of the Enemy. At its worst, the system of patronage, nepotism and privilege means that the younger sons and daughters of wealthy houses enjoy the luxuries of the Officers’ Wardroom in idle bliss while the miserable half-starved and semi-literate wretches of the underdecks toil ceaselessly in unspeakable and often lethal conditions to keep the ship afloat.
With many ships employing pressed or penal ratings among their crews, often negotiated or purchased from colonies such as Lubyanka, mutiny is always a danger aboard such vessels. The Captain of even the most loyal crew will rarely leave her quarters without a bodyguard, and the work of the Ship’s Commissar and Security Officer is an unending struggle against the criminals, cowards, would-be mutineers and lurking horrors of the darkholds.
The precise names for different ranks can vary from vessel to vessel – much like Guard regiments, every ship has its own ancient traditions. The one constant, however, is that the commander of a vessel is always referred to as its Captain; the title is always correct, even if the commander’s actual Naval rank is different. Below are some examples of the most common ranks.
Officer Ranks
An Admiral oversees fleets of warships, often deputising individual actions to Vice-Admirals and Rear-Admirals under their command and as a part of their staff.
Beneath the Admiral, Commodores command squadrons of several ships often assigned to specific tasks around the sector as smaller formations are more common.
The Captain is the master of a Voidship, and absolute ruler of all they survey aboard. Their word is law, and the hold powers of summary execution aboard their vessel. When serving on detached duty away from the main fleet, the elevated rank of Flag-Captain (sometimes, confusingly with the Rogue Trader title, Lord or Lady Captain) may be granted.
Commanders and Lieutenant-Commanders serve as subordinate officers aboard large capital ships, or command their own smaller Frigates or other escort vessels (rarely found apart from their Capital-class mothership.
Junior officers in their hundreds attend to the day-to-day leadership and command of the vessel’s crew. Lieutenant, in a variety of grades and designations is the most common, while younger junior officers still in training for their role might be called Midshipman, Ensign or Sub-Lieutenant.
Flying officers, in charge of a carrier ship’s deadly waves of small attack craft, often have their own parallel rank structure, and might be called Flight Lieutenant, Squadron Leader, Group Captain, Wing Commander etc.
The Captains and Bridge officers of Imperial Navy ships are often augmented, either through the efforts of their ship’s assigned Magos Biologis – aboard larger vessels – or from personal funds. These augmentations can range from variations on the typical cosmetic enhancements found amongst terrestrial nobility, to complex and substantial nervous system modifications which allow the officers to interface directly with their vessels through a Mind Interface Unit. Whether such direct interface substantially improves one’s ability to helm a Voidship, or comes at the cost of reducing situational awareness and a dangerous reliance on the Machine-Spirit over good old-fashioned human intuition and Naval training, is a matter for vigorous and heated debate in a hundred clubs and wardrooms across the Sector.
Enlisted Ranks
The Warrant Officers of the Navy are senior and experienced enlisted crew, using their decades of technical expertise to guide and advise the vessel’s most senior officers. While not Commissioned, these subject matter experts attract substantial respect even from the officer classes.
Petty Officers (including grades such as Chief Petty Officer, Master Chief &c.) sit in the same space as Non-Commissioned Officers in the Guard, providing leadership and oversight for groups of tens or hundreds of junior ratings. Some ships call these ranks “Crewboss”; specialists might be called Boatswain, Yeoman, Caulker etc.
Ratings, often called “Voidswoman”, “Voidscrew” or “Voidsman” – with designations such as “Ordinary” or “Able” appended based on seniority and expertise. Crew specifically trained in close-quarters combat and boarding actions are often called “Arms-crew” or “Armsfolk” (Armsman, Armswoman) and may be led by a Sergeant-at-Arms.
Specialist Crew
Every Ship has a number of personnel who sit slightly outside the Naval hierarchy, but who are vital for its continued function. These include the Astropathic Choir, the Navigator, the Enginseer and her staff, the Chaplaincy, the ship’s senior Chirurgeon and medicae staff. Larger vessels will also have a bevy of Administratum and Munitorum staff to ensure the smooth running of the vessel, and record births, marriages, ident changes and deaths. These attachments are usually granted courtesy ranks and treated with the same respect as senior Naval officers. While etiquette varies with ship, most Naval officers find they can overcome their natural squeamishness around Navis Nobilite and Psykers when reminded that it is only by the good offices of the Navigator and Senior Astropath that a void craft enjoys reliable communication in the deep void, and safe travel in the warp.
With warren-like worlds like Lubyanka and Shadowglow as well as the brutal underhives of worlds like Gaudium and Duroverum the Imperial Navy often chooses to pressgang its shipboard security and fighting forces from brutal claustrophobic environments like those of its ships. The Raivans of Shadowglow are particularly prized for this where their abhuman night-senses and natural aptitude for close combat give them great advantages as Armsfolk and rare respect from their human superiors.
Those that fight primarily are noted as Armsfolk whereas those who serve in the vast slave-like gangs that keep the ships operational and the gunnery decks functioning by loading gigantic macroshells into weapons are often titled 'Ratings' - it is usually down to the Armsfolk to keep acts of mutiny suppressed amongst the other poor bloody ratings and life on the lower decks of a Naval vessel can be a brutal one.
Life for Armsfolk and Ratings is a strange one, the vast sizes of Naval vessels mean they are often comparable to living breathing settlements as much as they are military vessels, ratings can be born, serve and die aboard the same ship without ever truly appreciating there is a world beyond its bulkhead. In larger vessels whole cultures dedicated to Naval service arise some who may never even see an Officer in the entire length of their lives with those of the upper decks becoming near-mythological.
Many strange superstitions and traditions arise from the lower decks of the Imperial Navy many of which become co-opted into the vast array of strange and outwardly backwards-looking traditions demonstrated aboard Naval vessels.
Considered by their colleagues to be brash, impetuous wild cards, the Pilots of the Imperial Navy nevertheless enjoy a position of infamy amongst their peers as well as a romantic role to play in Imperial Propogander with singles them out often for starring roles in holodramas and flickbooks.
It is the sacred duty of the Imperial Navy to command all flying military vessels, small combat craft be they airborne or voidborne fall beneath the command of the Navy's Flying Officers the Naval's Attack craft divisions are divided between the atmospheric pilots of the Aeronautica Prosperitas and the void-based pilots of the Cosmonautica Prosperitas.
The Aeronautica Prosperitas
The Aeronautica is the High Gothic title for the Navy's dedicated atmospheric combat aviation division. Often working closely with the soldiers of the Imperial Guard, the Aeronautica provides aerial transportation for ground forces as well as tactical and strategic air support for ground forces moving across the surface of a planet.
The Aeronautica has shrouded itself with an air of romanticism, as squadrons of aircraft darken the skies armoured fighter craft piloted by their noble pilots fight duels with Heretic and Xenos craft while providing cover for immense bombers whose devastating payloads ruin whole battlefronts from the skies, filling the air with the howl of plummeting ordnance. Or so Imperial propaganda likes to paint the common depiction of an air war.
Though their void bound brethren of the Cosmonautica might claim to require more technical talent and aptitude, it is the romantic image of an Aeronautica pilot that often cuts across the traditional divide between the Navy and the Guard and serves as a popular face for Naval propaganda.
The Cosmonautica Prosperitas
In the vast scale of void warfare in the 41st Millennium, the attack craft of the Cosmonautica Prosperitas are very different to their Aeronautica brethren, where Aeronautica craft are sometimes adapted for void war on the frontier of Imperial space, they are minuscule compared to the true Starfighters, Void Bombers and Assault Boats of the Cosmonautica the smallest such craft can be just over forty meters long.
Though they share the reputation of their colleagues in the Aeronautica for being hot-shots, the Cosmonautica pride themselves on being 'the thinking mans career' as a pilot. Where the Aeronautica are keen on hot-shots, Cosmonautica crews are as much specialist astronavigators as they are fighter jocks, their missions often requiring them to travel hours from their carrier vessels to find targets in the vast void. Much like the Astronauts of old, the Flying Officers of the Cosmonautica are used to spending long hours in cramped silence within their craft.
Sometimes called the 'predators of the void' imagery of predatory aquatic beasts as well as more common void-creatures are popular amongst the Cosmonautica crews and many, especially in the Cosmonautica Prosperitas have a reputation for being fairly chilling individuals with predatory focus upon their duties.
Though Naval Warfare may sometimes happen at vast distances, more often than not vessels must close to close ranges to rake their foes with deadly broadsides and at these ranges boarding actions are quite common where Assault Boats and grappling cables are used to draw a vessel close enough to board it.
Though it is easy to dismiss the Navy as hiding behind the hulls of ships and the gigantic guns of its vessels, boarding actions be they assaults or repelling boarders, prove that Naval Officers and Armsfolk are no less deadly in a fight than a member of the Imperial Guard. Indeed used to the claustrophobic interiors of their vessels the Officers and Armsfolk of the Imperial Navy excel in close quarters in the so-called 'Zone Mortalis' warfare of fighting from hold to hold within the confines of a ship.
It is easy to forget that at the scale of vessels in the 41st Millennium some boarding actions can stretch on as long as the military campaigns of the Imperial Guard, and while in a boarding action one seeks to cripple the essential areas of another vessel the act of clearing one out can take weeks, even months to see to completion.
These brutal campaigns make excellent close quarters fighters of the Officers and Armsfolk of the Imperial Navy, and most are incredibly dangerous melee opponents to encounter as a result even without the existing cultures of duelling and pugilism encouraged amongst Officers and Enlisted to hone their skills when they are not needed to flex them in boarding actions.