Royal Hapan Navy

The history of the Hapes Consortium's naval forces is long and detailed, stretching as far back as to hapan year 57 of the Foundation Era of the Age of Queen-Mothers when it was established as the Royal Hapan Space Fleet. Through this winding history we observe the naval forces take shape as the Royal Hapan Space Fleet, to the major reformation into the Royal Hapan Navy in 716, on to the splintering of the naval forces in 3946 and final reformation in 4000.

Royal Hapan Space Fleet (57-715)

The Royal Hapan Space Fleet was created fifty-seven years after the establishment of the Hapes Consortium on orders from Queen-Mother Nele'serin III, shortly after the completion of the first shipyards of the manufacturing coalition called Hapan Consortium.

At this point the Hapes Consortium consisted only of the Lorell system and Hapan system and pirate activity in the Hapes Cluster was sparse, but the Queen-Mother still thought the establishment of a more professional military force would be wise as most of their military at the time consisted of former Lorell Raider vessels. The Serin Battle Cruiser was the first type of capital ship employed by the Royal Hapan Space Fleet along with Nil Interceptor starfighters for escort purposes. These designs fulfilled the needs of the Hapan military for several centuries ahead. The Space Fleet was mostly made up of of smaller task forces consisting of one battle cruiser, a few squadrons of starfighters and numerous light and heavy freighters. The cruiser was usually enough to keep pirates away, but the freighters maintained light weapon systems in case of emboldened raiders trying to get lucky.

The first of the Purple Seal Ships was brought in to service in 372 by the Hapan Consortium shipyards during the First Expansion Era, when the Hapes Consortium had expanded to numerous other systems. Queen-Mother Arxianic IV realized that the Royal Hapan Space Fleet could not adequately defend all cargo ships that the new colonies required to shuttle supplies. The Seal ships had the Queen-Mother's emblem on the side of the hull, which was a warning to anyone who would dare attack her vessel. Pirate raids had become more and more frequent and the Consortium leadership knew they could not punish all or even manage to crack down hard on piracy until the Space Fleet had been upgraded - but anyone who attacked a ship with the Purple Seal was hunted down.

Olanji/Charubah was established by the colonists and nobility of the Charu system in 469 and was assigned the task of designing new shiptypes for the Space Fleet which could help them maintain a stronger naval presence in their new sphere of influence within the Hapes Cluster. Among their first successful designs were the Arxianic Battle Cruiser, Olanji Dreadnaught and Lorellion Frigate. These ships were powerful and inexpensive to produce, which helped expand the Royal Hapan Space Fleet significantly, easily dealing with pirate threats while maintaining a powerful enough presence in the Lorell system to discourage outsiders from flying into the Hapes Cluster. While the borders of the Hapes Consortium were not officially closed at this time, the inhabitants of the star cluster felt a great resentment towards the Galactic Republic and therefore wished to keep as many foreigners as possible out of their space.

The Tini'duran dynasty was notoriously militaristic and funded even further expansion of the Space Fleet during their reign of the Consortium, promoting competition between their own Hapan Consortium and the House Olanji controlled Olanji/Charubah. Their rule of the Hapes Cluster was famously peaceful despite its militaristic tendencies, most likely due to its isolationist policies and to the Arxianic dynasty's crackdown on piracy, but also the enlargement of the fleet. Queen-Mother Tini'duran III abolished Purple Seal Ships in 702 before calling for the reformation of the Royal Hapan Space Fleet in the late 715.

Royal Hapan Navy (716-3946)

The Royal Hapan Space Fleet was transformed into the Royal Hapan Navy in the late 715 by direct order of the Queen-Mother Tini'duran III. Her dynasty had eagerly granted more and more power to local nobility and her Ladies were notoriously loyal to her cause, leading the naval forces to be split into two parts.

The Noble Navy consisted of one strong fleet for each noble house stationed in the system that the house governed. The noble houses were granted significant amounts of money to expand their fleets and local security was their concern. As with the wider society, the Noble Navy was plagued by nepotism as the nobility tended to favour their own children or nobility for positions within their fleets. Each noble title came with a military counterpart and Ladies were automatically made Admiral. At the same time the nobility did spend significant amounts of money making sure that all the best graduates from the Hapan military academies were assigned to their fleets instead of the Consortium Navy.

The Consortium Navy was the commoner counterpart of the Noble Navy. The main function of this naval force was to escort cargo transports between systems, patrol the Transitory Mist and empty space within the Hapes Cluster, but also back up the Noble Navy where-ever needed. The Consortium Navy often got second rate equipment as the budgets of the nobility surpassed that granted to Consortium Naval Command.

The "second best" brand on the Consortium Navy as opposed to the Noble Navy of the Royal Hapan Navy continued all through the Tini'duran dynasty and also the Serlanum dynasty which was notoriously distrusting of anyone who did not belong to the nobility or the royalty of the Hapes Consortium. The Queen-Mothers of this dynasty believed that granting excessive firepower and manpower to the Consortium Navy could tempt one of the commoner admirals to make a bid for the throne. They tightened their control on the civilian population by granting more power to more ruthless nobility and their fleets.

The Queen-Mothers of the Rel'amma dynasty put an end to the class difference between the two branches of the Royal Hapan Navy in 1404. The Serlanum dynasty had left large parts of the Consortium Navy underfunded and staffed, and largely ineffective, operating with ancient ships against newer and more dangerous pirate and mercenary threats. The Royal Hapan Navy was expanded, and the Consortium Navy received additional and near equal funding to that of the Noble Navy. Olanji/Charubah and the manufacturing group called Hapan Consortium were contracted to build newer and more powerful ships which could deal with the persistent pirate threat. Space stations were also built in deep space of the Hapes Cluster to function as security stations against threats along shipping lanes and the like. The Arwinian dynasty also introduced hyperspace capable starfighters to the Royal Hapan Navy in 1975. This increased the effectiveness of the fleets significantly as the more sparsely numbered capital cruisers were no longer required to escort every major convoy.

Pirate activity decreased significantly when the borders of the Hapes Consortium were closed in 2051. Many credits went into increasing the defence and security in and around the Lorell system which was and still is the only known route through the Transitory Mist. This time period in which the Consortium was ruled by the Dal'kuran dynasty is most likely the most peaceful era in Hapan history, sometimes referred to as 800 Years of Peace. The Royal Hapan Navy remained ever vigilant and much of the Consortium Navy was concentrated in the Lorell system, but was also known to travel out of the Hapes Cluster for scouting or to deal with pirate outposts near Hapan space.

Queen-Mother Cazin'turin VII of the Cazin'turin dynasty ordered a massive expansion of the Royal Hapan Navy with the intention of expanding the Hapes Consortium through the conquest of such foreign sectors as Kuat and the Stenness Node. This was frowned upon by most of the upper levels of the Hapan leadership and most of the nobility agreed it was a bad idea, but went along with the expansion of the military forces regardless. Some of the Consortium Navy leadership broke away with their fleets and rebelled against the Queen-Mother in the Zaa rebellion of 3209. Lady Vali'dara of the Tirsa system was tasked with putting an end to the rebellion which was supposedly supported by House Hal'ruut of the Zaa system. In the following battle, House Hal'ruut surrendered and the Consortium Navy Admiral Gralisbath Nuriin was captured and later executed on Hapes Prime. The Hal'ruut family escaped all punishment as the Queen-Mother was killed in the coup of 3210.

The Vali'dara dynasty followed the toppling of the Cazin'turin regime, much to the relief of everyone in naval command. They led the Consortium through another era of expansion within the Hapes Cluster. The excessive military forces Cazin'turin had ordered were used to secure newer colonies within Hapan space and keep Lorell safe from outside threats. This peaceful era came to an end with the apparently self-destructive Pal'durath dynasty which transferred much power to the nobility during its 365 year long reign, leaving the Consortium Navy rather weak once more. The Noble Navy thrived during this time with a massive build-up in ships and increased influence of the nobility over all aspects of Hapan society, especially in the Rifle Worlds and Rim Worlds.

Civil War Navies (3946-3999)

The Royal Hapan Navy technically ceased to exist, as did the Hapes Consortium as a unified governing body, when the Hapan civil war broke out with the noble navies put to use against one another. The Princesses Ta'lan Pal'durath and Da'tan Pal'durath formed factions with the support of nobility and civilian populations in order to fight challenge each other's bids for power. In the territory of Da'tan, the Consortium Navy was quickly absorbed in to the forces of local nobles and was reformed in to the Draconian Navy, while Ta'lan maintained the Consortium Navy for some time longer before following her sister's example with the Sword Navy.

The Hapan Consortium shipyards came quickly under the control of the Sword Confederacy while the Draconian Union had the support of House Olanji and their Olanji/Charubah shipyards behind them. This age in Hapan history, while destructive for the Hapan society, saw the development of newer and more powerful ships which led the way for what the Royal Hapan Navy employs as its mainstay today. The famous Quasar Battle Cruisers were among the ships developed in this time period and some foreign designs found their way into the Hapan military forces via trade agreements established with corrupt Galactic Republic senators.

By the end of the war, the Hapan Consortium shipyards were all destroyed with the exception of one and two, while Olanji/Charubah had lost its two main production yards, also known as the Charu Wheels. Restoring Hapan shipbuilding to its former glory would take decades.

Royal Hapan Navy (4000-Present Day)

King Andrew was quick to re-establish the Royal Hapan Navy after his coronation, placing it under the command of one of the former Phoenix Movement commanders, Jacevel Canler who became the first person to reach the rank of Grand Admiral. The Phoenix Movement had captured and built a number of vessels at the seized Olanji/Charubah yards, but their military force was not large enough to keep the peace in the entire Hapes Cluster even after other parties had surrendered or been conquered. Part of the peace agreement between the Phoenix Movement and the Draconian Union involved the donation of most Draconian ships to the newly unified Royal Hapan Navy, in return for which no members of the Draconian military were put on trial for war crimes.

Canler introduced a system which allowed for both commoners and nobility to achieve ranks without bias within the navy. This was not especially popular with the noble houses, but they reluctantly accepted it and realized that the time for petty differences were over. This time period saw the introduction of the Nova Battle Cruiser as the new mainstay of the navy in 4011 and the new monarch opened some diplomatic relations with the outside galaxy in order to import other types of vessels, such as the Dreadnaught Heavy Cruisers. The older Quasar Battle Cruisers were decommissioned shortly thereafter.

Grand Admiral Canler was eventually killed in a skirmish in the Transitory Mists in 4014 which led to the appointment of young Jessy James as the new naval commander of the Hapan forces. Other notable officers who rose through the ranks during this time period were Sirius Threestars, Juthan Karrde, Sala Mander and Alexander Tylger. Jessy James achieved the rank of Grand Admiral in 4020 and was eventually appointed as King Andrew's heir in 4025.

After King James assumed the throne in the august 4027, the Royal Hapan Navy came under the command of Admiral Sirius Threestars. Threestars was one of King James' oldest advisors and executive officer with an endless loyalty to the Hapan throne and also refused to take part in Grand General Pez Harr's attempted military revolt.

The greatest military campaign after the Hapan civil war was undoubtedly the military operations carried out during the Black Sun Crisis in 4029. Several of the Royal Hapan Navy's task forces initiated a full scale blockade of the Lorell system before bombarding insurgents stationed in illegal cities on Lorell's surface from orbit.

The Royal Hapan Armed Forces flexed its muscles again during Operation Horizon in 4030 when the Hapes Consortium joined the Coalition against Horizon in order to trap and capture the warlord known as Venom Kazvar. When the coalition forces arrived in the Ordint system, Kazvar had already fled, abandoning the rest of his fleet.

In June 4031, the remnants of Olanji/Charubah were purchased from Draconian Shareholder Committee by the Hapan Government and merged with the Royal Family owned Hapan Consortium under the new name Olanji Corporation. The government poured a significant amount of money in to rebuilding new shipyard complexes around Hapes Prime, but also Lorell, Nagel, Olanji and Charubah which has made production of Hapan ships a great deal easier. The Royal Hapan Navy now enjoys a steady supply of warships and starfighters for its fleets.

The same month, ships of the Royal Hapan Navy also ventured to the Dellalt system in the Allied Tion sector where it blockaded the planet Gantari in order to keep the forces of the New Anzat Order at bay. It was a peaceful and orderly operation with no Hapan or Anzati casualties.

In the last few years the military has gone through a series of reforms in order to strengthen co-operation between the Royal Hapan Navy and Royal Hapan Army. In early 4034, the Ministry of Defence was re-established in order to smoothly bridge the gap between the Royal Hapan Armed Forces and Royal Hapan Government.

During the period of the First Imperial Union, the Navy took part in a number of joint operations with its Imperial Union counterparts, including the Taboon Conflict, Operation Drakenus Fire and Operation Strongarm, each designed to help protect the Consortium's newest partners from attacks upon their sovereignty by foreign powers. Numerous Chiefs of Staffs and Ministers of Defence of renown have overseen military operations during this period, and the fleets have never stopped growing in number of ships deployed.

The Royal Navy is comprised of numerous Fleets and smaller elements such as Battlegroups, Task Forces and Strike Groups, operating under the Naval Command, some of which are detailed below.

If ever the majority of existing naval units and capital warships were to be called to fight in unison at a single location or a small theatre of operations, the formation would earn the distinction of Armada, with a prefix chosen for the occasion and so recorded into the annals of the Consortium's military history.

1st Fleet

Function: Main Fleet
Headquartered in: Interior Region

Description: The 1st Fleet is the oldest and most historical of the Naval Fleets, established shortly after the re-unification of the Hapes Consortium in 4000, and originally assigned to guard the Lorell system as its lock and key. The fleet has been the vigilant guardian of the Consortium's sole open system and only known entrance to the Hapes Cluster through the treacherous Transitory Mists for much of the entirety of its existence, with a brief period starting in 4036 when it was assigned to guard Hapes Prime and operate from the heart of the Cluster.

Several of its Battlegroups are still regularly stationed at Lorell or its vicinity as part of a rotation of naval units to the Lorelli Reach, though its main headquarters now reside deep within the Interior Region. As the largest of the standing Fleets of Hapes Consortium today, its prowess and firepower are second to none not only within the Hapes Cluster, but in the whole region of space. With its many standing Battlegroups carrying out individually their assigned orders during times of peace, and being actively rotated separately for maintenance, resupply and rest of its crews, to ever see the entire Fleet assembled together at full strength would be a rare occasion, and a truly awe-inspiring sight of naval might.

Its reputation as a disciplined and unfaltering force has led it to be often relied upon to act as the vanguard for inbound Hapan forces on many an occasion. Over the decades the Fleet has taken part in such operations as Operation Grandslam during the Black Sun Crisis, Operation Gormothopolis, Project Jumus, the Taboon Conflict, Operation Drakenus Fire and Operation Strongarm, though this list is not exhaustive.

2nd Fleet

Function: Defence Fleet
Headquartered in: Rifle Worlds

Description: The 2nd Fleet holds its own even compared to the prestigious 1st Fleet of the Navy, maintaining a massive presence at the crucial shipyard hubs of the Rifle Worlds region that it is tasked with defending, while also patrolling the space lanes all the way from the southern mouths of the Rifle Worlds and through the Gateworlds, to the end of the Rynmar Trail.

Its professionalism and the abundance of formidable Battlegroups that it has available to mobilize for its assigned duties makes it a favourite for the High Command to call upon whenever detachments are needed at short notice to support the other service branches of the Armed Forces, with its officer corps famed for its stoic competence and patient stratagems.

It is its significant rearguard logistics and maintenance capabilities, a natural outcome of its positioning at the naval industrial hubs, that has seen the 2nd Fleet become factually the only standing fleet purely and singularly dedicated to shorter range manoeuvres, and sustaining defensive operations through massive attrition figures.

While fewer active officers serve under the 2nd Fleet than the 1st, the sheer quantity of ships the 2nd Fleet can call upon vastly outnumbers those of every other Hapan Fleet combined. That a greater portion of them are at any given time undergoing renovations or maintenance than those of other fleets, and that the large majority of its ships are in fact dry-docked in pristine conditions or stored on naval depots across the Consortium, are merely another sign of the 2nd Fleet's true role within the Royal Hapan Navy: To stand resolute and well prepared, should full scale mobilization of the entire Navy ever be called upon as necessary to defend Hapan space.

3rd Fleet

Function: Rapid Strike & Reconnaissance Fleet
Headquartered in: Hapan Rim Worlds

Description: Next to the lumbering 1st and 2nd Defence Fleets, the 3rd Fleet is often seen as a lighter rear-guard fleet, stationed within the Hapan Rim Worlds. While indeed host to fewer heavy capital warships than the other fleets, its secondary function as a reconnaissance fleet means it operates numerous Strike Groups specializing in autonomous forward deployments and extended reconnaissance missions, most of which are based around the fast Nova-class Battlecruisers and their fighter complements. As a rapid strike force orientated fleet, it maintains a considerable part of its main elements dispersed and at high level of readiness at all times, on call to bring its joint strike capabilities to bear anywhere swiftly.

The 3rd Fleet is known to haunt the lengthy expanse from the northern edges of the Hapan Rim Worlds till the Keltros Expanse, monitoring the space lanes and providing escort to large freight convoys and Army transports. The lengthy patrol runs and scouting missions into the Transitory Mist performed frequently by elements of the 3rd Fleet makes placement in it an excellent learning opportunity for new captains of the Hapan designed frigate-class vessels. The Fleet is known for its frequent military exercises ran in cooperation with the Royal Hapan Marines.

4th Fleet

Function: Heavy Assault Fleet
Headquartered in: Corsair Outback / Gateworlds

Description: The 4th Assault Fleet is amongst the youngest of the fleets within the Navy, established during the Firecam Reforms in 4036 and initially assigned to take the place of the 1st Fleet as the guardians of the Lorell system and the surrounding region. Later reforms saw its role changed to be closer of that of the original 7th Fleet, without the focus to support Marine deployment typical to the later 9th Fleet. Strengthened with the permanent assignment of numerous heavy capital ships and fast attack craft, its Battlegroups are equipped for ploughing into heavy resistance, while its Strike Groups are built around precision strikes and interception of hostile reinforcements or high value targets well beyond the borders of the Cluster.

Although considerably more compact in size to the 1st and 2nd Fleets in vessels it can call upon, what it lacks in running Battlegroup numbering, it makes up with the enduring firepower it commands, and with the unrelenting zeal its officers are best known for. The Fleet can thus be relied to make an impact on arrival and withstand what remains to fire back at it, whether it is tasked with counter-assaulting invading forces as a spear against any reinforced fleet formations too entrenched or formidable for the 1st Fleet to assault unsupported, or, sent to inflict punishment upon their critical infrastructure or main worlds in retaliation.

The dispersal and frequent rotations between its staging locations within the Corsair Outback and Gateworlds regions are intended to decrease the likelihood of Hapes' adversaries being able to detect the Assault Fleet's mobilization and maintain sustained surveillance on its location. This alongside its known preference for ruthless aggression among its captains has made it the favourite training and sparring partner for the naval elements of the Chume'doro.

Other Famous Fleet Elements

While the Fleets are the main operational units around which the command structure and operational needs of the Royal Hapan Navy are designed around, each fleet itself consists of numerous fighter wings, battlegroups with their respective storied service histories and missions. Furthermore, each fleet can loan groups and smaller sized units to joint naval Task Forces or Strike Groups assembled for specific missions.

Below we would like to highlight two such units;

5th Task Force

Function: Expeditionary Task Force
Headquartered in: Interior Region

Description: Whenever a mission profile calls for the involvement of so many disparate naval elements that they cannot be easily supplied by a single fleet without diminishing its standing response elements below acceptable margins, or to support the deployment of a major Marine corps contingent through contested space, the High Command can be expected to turn to the tried and tested 5th Expeditionary Task Force roster to get the job done, and to get it done right. With its chain of command comprised of experienced officers of the 1st and 2nd Fleets who have trained extensively together for a few key mission profiles, the Task Force has become a weapon of choice for taskings requiring high levels of coordination and a rapid response with alternating mission assets.

10th Squadron "Jolly Rodgers"

Function: Fighter Wing
Stationed on: HRS Gargoyle

Description: Well known across the Fleet for its daring fighter pilots that are the bane of mission debriefings of any self-respecting Wing Commander, the 10th Fighter Squadron "Jolly Rodgers" of the 1st Defence Fleet has retained its identity and esprit de corps through its victories and losses with an inspiring approach to self-sacrifice. Chosen the best arrival unit in the Navy for recent fighter pilot graduates from the Star Home Academy for many years running, and perennially in competition with the Black Dragons Squadron, it is known for both the camaraderie it espouses, as well as for regularly pushing the limits of what evasive manoeuvres are conceivable with the Miy`Til-class Starfighters.

Fast forward about 4000 years from the founding of the Hapes Consortium's military forces around salvaged pirate barges and converted freighters, and past the utter depletion of warships that the Consortium could field in the immediate aftermath of its Civil War concluding, you find a state-of-the-art naval power, boasting an armada of devastating ships and highly capable and motivated personnel.

Below we present the main large battleships that the Royal Hapan Navy is fortunate enough to be able to call upon in its service to the Hapes Consortium. As the mainstay of its fighter and gunboat-class sized vessels, the Royal Hapan Navy flies innumerable Miy`Til-class Starfighters, Hetrinar Assault Bombers and Atlas-class Troop Transport shuttles.

For the full review of Hapan indigenous military technologies, please see the Hapan Technologies gallery.

Hapan Designs

Pulsar Battle Cruiser

Role: The Pulsar Battle Cruiser is the flagship of the Hapes Consortium and is the culmination of centuries of Hapan research and development funnelled into one all-encompassing design and purpose. Intended to be a concentrated heavy weapons platform with 170 weapon emplacements to engage other heavy capital ships with, its only true weakness in that role is its rarity.

Battle Dragon

Role: Battle Dragons, those battleships well known for their double saucer design with rotating turbo lasers, are nothing less than true ships of the line and the backbone of the Hapan Navy, providing excellent protective coverage for heavier vessels from fighters, while having respectable enough of a firepower to take on larger battleships in small packs if needed.

Nova-class Battlecruiser

Role: Nova-class Battlecruisers are frigates with a hyperspeed rating that allows it to excel as a formidable patrol vessel and as a strike craft, used for scouting vast expanses, as well as for tracking and hunting those that seek to trespass upon the Hapan territories. While unable to match the Battle Dragons in defences or firepower, and limited in their fighter carrying capasity, they regardless have remained a staple of Hapan fleets for good reason.

Foreign Additions

Lucrehulk-class Battleships

Role: Where the average Hapan indigenous warship design spares little space for fighter wings aboard, the gargantuan Lucrehulk-class Battleships provide near unlimited capacity inside a durable frame to transport either numerous fighter and bomber groups, or to deploy entire ground armies and armoured regiments onto planets from inside its cavernous cargo bays.

Offered to Hapes by the Trade Federation as a gesture of goodwill, during times of peace the majority of these ships serve under civilian logistics fleets to aid with the many projects managed by the Ministry of Industry.

Star Destroyers

Role: The various Star Destroyers of the Royal Hapan Navy provide the sheer firepower and force projection capabilities necessary for Hapan Fleets to be able to engage the heavy capital class ships of any potential adversary.

The Interdictor Heavy Cruisers attached to the Fleets enable the Hapan Navy to intercept capital ship formations attempting to circumvent the defensive blockade setup in promixity to the Lorell system, within the narrow hyper entrypath to the Cluster.

While rarely observed, and practically never seen venturing outside of the Hapes Cluster, the very existence of these behemoths with the Royal Hapan Navy has been felt across the entire region from the very day their construction first begun within vast Olanji/Charubah shipyard hubs.