Establishment - 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 Hapan Consortium shipyards over the planets Hapes and Terephon.
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 raiders felt 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 adequatly defend all cargoships 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 brutally punished.
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 in to the Hapes Cluster. While the borders of the Hapes Consortium were not officially closed at this time, the inhabitants of the starcluster 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 notoriously peaceful, most likely due 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.
The Royal Hapan Space Fleet was transformed in to the Royal Hapan Navy in the late 715 by direct orders from 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. The Navy was split in to 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. 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 system, patrol the Transitory Mist and empty space within the Hapes Cluster, but also back up the Noble Navy whereever 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 not part of the nobility and 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 ineffective, operating with ancient ships against newer and more dangerous pirate 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 Hapan Consortium were contracted to build newer and more powerful ships which could deal with increased pirate threat. Space stations were also built in deep space of the Hapes Cluster to function as security stations against pirate 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 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 in to increasing the defense and security in and around the Lorell system which was and still is the only known route through the Transitory Mist. This timeperiod 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 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. The Noble Navy thrived during this time with a massive buildup in ships and increased influence of the nobility over all aspects of Hapan society, especially in the Rifle Worlds and Rim Worlds.
Main Article - Dark Age, Hapan Civil War, Royal Draconian Order, Royal Sword Navy 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. 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 challange each others bids for power. In the territory of Da'tan, the Consortium was quickly absorbed in to the forces of local nobles and was reformed in to the Royal Draconian Order, while Ta'lan maintained the Consortium Navy for some time longer before following her sister's example with the Royal 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 socity, 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 timeperiod and some foreign designs found their way in to 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.
