Chain of Command
Contents
Introduction to Command
Orders are to flow from on high down through the ranks. An order from a superior must always be obeyed, that their wisdom may be carried out without hesitation.
Orders are to observe the flow and not skip ranks. A superior may only give orders to his direct subordinates, and not to those beneath them. In this way harmony of intent and cohesion of thought is maintained.
Certain circumstances may change this, but under normal procedures, this is how the colony is intended to operate.
Faction Owners
Each faction is represented by its owner, those individuals who are responsible for their faction within the colony and are the sole authority in all matters relating to them. Faction owners will rarely be on the colony itself, generally delegating all day to day tasks to their respective heads of staff who act as faction leaders in their absence. The day to day worker will rarely ever worry about meeting with or even seeing a faction owner but may speak with them through the use of the fax machines.
| Job | Notes | Stats |
|---|---|---|
| Brigadier Ayanda Mwangi | The overall commander of the Blackshield, Brigadier Mwangi is overall just a standard human. Balding, average in height and build, and otherwise unremarkable despite his status as the colonies acting defense administrator. Skilled and experienced though he may be, his most valuable asset is his mind for strategy and tactics. A former Major General of the Sol Federation, Mwangi held command over an infantry division that served on various worlds through 'The Second Conquering'. Tired of the growing authoritarianism, Mwangi deserted and joined the exodus of colonists to the present day Nadezhda colony alongside his long time friend Boris Kilmeade. Ayanda is often described as a no nonsense man with a serious tone and personality at all times and commonly refrains from speaking unless directly spoken to. |
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| Chairman Robert Ryan | The chairman of Lonestar Shipping Solutions, LLC and current holder of all the companies stocks. Robert Ryan is described as an enigmatic man with an out going personality supported by his charisma and strange slang-ridden speech. He is rarely ever on the colony as he spends most of his time negotiating contracts, trade deals, and scoping potential new markets. Originally a Sol Federation citizen Robert is now a wanted criminal with a large bounty on his head in SolFed space due to tax evasion and grand larceny. As such, he changes his physical appearance at times, but always remains a pure human. |
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| Provost Marshal Boris Kilmeade | The head provost of the marshals who leads them through the more complex and complicated matters facing the security team. Boris is a huge muscular behemoth of a man due to his abhuman origin of that of an ogre often described by his stature, oily pink skin, bald head, and clean cut nature. Despite his appearance Boris is known as an extremely even tempered and careful man with a sarcastic humor, rarely using the threat of force or even raising his voice. His origins were that of a Sol Federation military man, where he served for several decades in the SolFed systems defense division. Though he is unofficially retired Boris maintains ownership of marshal forces and directs them during complicated matters. Of all faction owners he spends the most time within the colonies and is the easiest to contact via fax. |
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| Over-Boss Jeremiah Hogg | The self titled "over-boss" of the prospectors. Jeremiah is described as a large ugly warthog-like man with a black mohawk and a deep brown tan who smells of cheap beer and sweat. He is crass, insulting, offensive, and at times more than willing to let things devolve into a fist fight. His past is largely unknown other than he was a frontier spacer unaffiliated with the Sol Federation. Unlike the other faction owners who were leaders from the founding Jeremiah was 'negotiated' into his position after leading a revolt from the Lonestar that caused miners and scavengers to leave the faction. For better or worse, his leadership and expertise is second to none in the wilds. Some rumors exist that Jeremiah has also personally fought the brigadier and provost marshal several times to a stand still, but this has not been verified. |
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| Director Nakharan Mkne | The director and sole owner of the soteria institute, being the leader of both the medical and research division. Nakharan is a short dark green skinned Mar'Qua who is considered a maverick by his own people with a cold and emotionless personality. Nakharan is said to describe his workers not as people but as units in a logistical matter meant only to progress the institutes scientific goals. That said, he often takes personal interest in his underlings and considers their survival and safety a priority, though many dryly reply that this is for selfish reasons. Despite being the owner of two separate departments and a quite large faction Nakharan is exceedingly hard to get in touch with and rarely ever appears on the colony, his own personal research taking priority over the day to day of the colonists. |
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| Grand Master Tacitus O'Connor | The guild grand master Tacitus O'Connor is a sablekyne with gray fur, green eyes, and average stature with a slight beer belly. Tacitus is well known by the guild and nearly every guild member from adept upwards will have met with him at least once. He is often described as friendly, caring, a hard worker, and the teller of terrible puns. In addition to his good relations with his guild members Tacitus often oversees the most dangerous or difficult construction work. Sadly due to his hands on approach he is often out in the lower colony levels working on general repairs and rarely answers faxes in a timely manner. |
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| Cartographer Augustine Browne | The prophet of the church of absolution known as Cartographer Augustine Browne, creator of the cruciform and biogenerator and the leader in all manners of the spirit. Augustine is a short abhuman woman of the rat variant with chestnut brown fur and solid black eyes. She's described as overly friendly, patient, and resolved to the point of arrogance. Many of her flock have met her in passing and she is said to only appear during important church functions. Often time she is either off colony working on recruiting new converts to the flock or working on improving the design of the cruciforms and the biogenerators that power them. She is also often described as 'mapping' mathematics under the school of thought that math cannot be created, only discovered, since all math is a universal absolute much like their god. |
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Heads of Staff
Also known as command staff or council members, these are the men and women charged with the administration of the station. Each of them have access to the council chambers, the command radio channel (accessed with :c), and are the sole authority of their respective faction. They are the most important people aboard the station and should be well respected and protected.
| Job | Notes |
|---|---|
Premier |
The premier is the arbiter of the Nadezhda council and capable of vetoing any decision by the council unless the decision is unanimous among all current council members. The premier has no authority to order any crew, nor council member, except for his own premier guard. The premier is also the only person on station allowed to promote or demote members of factions at the sole request of the faction leader. The premier must also be present for a sanctioned execution to be valid and his signature, unless specifically stated, cannot fill in for any faction leader. |
Chief Executive Officer |
The chief executive officer or CEO handles most of the civilian departments. He holds direct authority over the janitor, chef, botanist, bartender, shaft miners, and cargo technicians. All functions related to these departments fall under his sole authority and he may alter these in whatever way he believes the most profitable. The CEO is also the sole authority when discussing any non-colonist related trade deals in the event seelie/unseelie or kriosan confederacy merchants or traders appear on the colony. |
Blackshield Commander |
The blackshield commander handles all hostile threats both within and outside of the colony directing troops and assets to where they are need to defend its borders. The blackshield commander can also deputize volunteer blackshield, pass out guns during code red, and perform offensives to aid in protecting the colony. Commands troopers, corpsman, and the sergeant. |
Warrant Officer |
The warrant officer handles all the paperwork warrants, arrests, and security records though he may delegate this task to someone else, provided the work is done. The warrant officer is the sole authority when it comes to internal criminal proceedings and his signature is required to issue permits. The warrant officer is expected to fill in for the blackshield commander or brigadier in event of they're absence or deaths during a code red or delta scenario. They are also expected to arrest anyone who is doing illegal things, even other heads of staff, or the premier. Commands officers, the supply specialist & rangers. |
Guild Master |
The guild master must be informed of any major construction projects to the colony and has sole authority on the station lay out and build, including faction controlled areas with the exclusion of personal quarters. Has authority over guild adepts. |
Chief Research Overseer |
The research overseer has authority over all active research ongoing with their staff members and may aid or halt them on their discretion. They hold authority over the station AI, cyborgs, scientists, and roboticists. |
Chief Biolab Overseer |
If a head of staff is acting medically unstable, it is the job of the CBO to disable and treat them till they are once again fit for duty. They have sole authority over the medical division and all research or tasks within. They hold authority over virologists, psychologists, medical doctors, paramedics, and chemists. |
Confessor |
The acting leader in all things effecting the church and user of the most powerful cruciform. Unlike other heads of staff the Confessor is not required to follow any form of standard operating procedure and is free to conduct himself how he wishes, whether it be healing people in medical, aiding scientists by giving them inspiration, or attracting new converts to the church. |
Council Members and Chain of Authority
The installation does not require a premier to function normally, but it helps. In the event a council vote is needed a premier is not required, nor is a full council, to come to a decision.
There are only a few situations in which a chain of command exists outside the council vote.
- During a code blue scenario the blackshield may volunteer to aid the marshals, though marshal officer orders and decisions take preference when dealing with criminals or criminal activity.
- During a code red scenario the marshals and blackshield are expected to work as a cohesive unit. Orders from a warrant officer to a blackshield or a blackshieldcommander to an officer are highly recommended to follow but are not required.
- During code delta the brigadier , and thus the blackshield, assume direct leadership over all members of the colony, including the premier and heads of staff.
- On all code levels barring delta, the soteria CBO and CRO are only in authority over their respective staff members and areas of concern. However, orders from the research overseer to the medical staff or the biolab overseer to the research team should be treated as strong recommendation. They are not, however, required to listen to them. Decisions made that affect both departments must be agreed upon by both the CRO and CBO to be enforced.
The premier and you
What is the premier? What are their expectations, their rights, and for that matter, their purpose? Your the arbiter of the colony, you provide advise, suggestions, and over see disputes between colonists and the marshals or between factions. Say the guild wants to block off an area to do construction. However they need the marshals to enforce the barriers. Without a premier, these two departments could argue endlessly without reaching a resolution. This is where the premier comes in to decide if the guild really needs that assistance. Another example might be someone is upset with their head of staff regarding how they're being treated. Under normal circumstances, they'd turn to a premier. A third and also very common question is can the premier promote people to heads of staff? No. Nor can they promote or demote someone without request by the relevant head of staff, though if a head of staff is not present and the employee request demotion, they may.
However it is commonplace for the premier to make the mistake of throwing around their power too much, resulting in disrespect for their authority from the crew. This is to be avoided. If you're the premier, then ask yourself this question: "Have I been asked to be involved, or do I see an impasse of opinions that only a premier can break by choosing a side?" If the answer is yes, then you may intervene, and in fact, you should. If the answer is no, then you should probably stay out of it as a premier would anyway.
General Guide to Command
While every command role you may fill will be vastly different in the actions you and your department will take, there are some general binding ideas that can be applied to each and every role that has some sort of commanding role to it. If you wish to be a good leader, following these basic ideas is a must.
1. Communicate
This guideline is the most important to follow, and it is the one most command staff fail at, hence why this is the first topic to be covered. As command staff, you are first an administrator. Your job is to delegate among your department, ensure tasks are completed, and make sure you subordinates are part of a well oiled machine for when it gets to be crunch time. Make sure you know where everyone is, have people check in, and if there is something the entire station needs to know, remember that each head of staff has a communication console in their office, that you can send an announcement that will be very visible. Not enough people tend to utilize this, and general comms tends to be so filled with clutter, especially in the start of an emergency, that you trying to convey information that way will fall half the time on deaf ears.
2. Be known
This point goes a bit in hand with Communication. If you do not have a presence in your department, when you try to take control of a situation, or some kind of panic in the department, your voice will be new, and some may not be trusting of this. At the start of a shift, or when you join, try communicating with your department, get a quick idea of who you have under you, and how to best use each of them. Give out orders, even if it is as little as "You know what you are doing, go do it." Making the initial connection with each member of your department can be key to making sure things have structure when you need it.
3. Use the Command Channel
Nothing is worse than being uninformed. Many times situations have more than one department involved. For one example, say there is someone who set off a bomb, someone was caught in there, and there was someone sighted with a gun at the site. You have 3 departments involved in this issue now. If the adepts and medics head in, and the marshals have no information about that issue, then the other two departments have been metaphorically thrown in a fire. Coordinate with your fellow command staff, make things happen, and relay important information to your department as needed. As the saying goes, knowledge is power.
4. Know the jobs of the department
Nothing is worse than someone like a guild master not knowing how the supermatter engine is setup, to name an example. This kind of thing can be outright infuriating when those under your command tell you how to do the basic parts of your job. Not only does it not help with any time efforts of yourself are required in your department's dealings, but it will make those under you much less likely to listen, because they will more than likely lose their trust in your guidance if you don't even know what you are talking about. You do not need to know everything, but you should be able to perform tasks that your department does on a regular basis.
Promoting and Demoting Heads
Any head of staff, in fact, any crew member, can be promoted or demoted by the council at any time for any reason. If you suspect the reasons to be motivated by nepotism or discrimination, contact the respective faction owners. Note that a premier cannot promote other staff to be a head of staff without a unanimous council vote
For a demotion, if there is a unanimous vote of all other non-SSD heads of staff and the presiding premier approves the head of staff may be demoted. If there are two or less heads of staff or no premier is present, there is no official procedure for demotion, so contact their respective faction owner.
Heads of Staff and Criminal Offense
A head of staff proven to have committed a crime can be arrested, but not demoted without going through the proper procedure of demoting a head of staff. Arresting a head of staff based on suspicions is not legal, solid evidence is required. A head of staff cannot be arrested just because you do not agree with their actions or orders.
Summary
The high council has absolute authority over their respective faction and all employees within. The council has higher authority than everyone else on the colony. No head of staff (excluding council made decisions) can overrule another, except in extreme cases (e.g. criminal activity, mental instability). In the event of missing ranks authority falls to the members of that faction and how they wish to proceed until a head of staff shows up with only a council vote have presiding authority.
