Royal Caledonian Expeditionary Service

The Royal Caledonian Expeditionary Service (RCES) is analogous to the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service. It is similar in many ways to the Imperial scouting body, although the Principality's internal communications are controlled by the Caledon Royal Mail, a separate, civil organization.

Missions and Organization

The RCES operates a fleet of small scouts and larger research vessels (many of the latter chartered from larger merchant firms, although a few are owned by the RCES).

The RCES' main area of responsibility starts at the border, and becomes exclusive two parsecs outside the border surveilance area. Each zone (hex) is regularly patrolled by the RCES, with occasional missions travelling much further.

The RCES is organized in four major operational areas:

RCES Caithness

Scouts at this station, based on Caithness, primarily maintain contact with the various Aslan systems to spinward.

RCES Annan

The station at Annan is responsible for exploration and research in the desolate and underexplored worlds to coreward. This station includes a large proportion of scientists and researchers.

RCES Victory

The scouts at this, the smallest of the frontier stations, provide contact and surveillance along the border with the Imperium.

RCES Culloden

This station patrols the systems to rimward, maintaining many expedient forward fueling and resupply bases - often small refinery tankers tucked in around gas giants - in the systems toward the rim to facilitate extended operations. In this operating area, anything goes; an RCES crew may be called upon to wax diplomatic with parties from the other states to rimward, shoot it out with a bandit ship, or rescue a Caledonian merchant - or sometimes several of the above at the same time.

RCES Rutherglen

This is the RCES' main training base.

RCES Glenelg

Based on Glenelg, this station is mainly concerned with keeping tabs on the Khan World League's reavers, and with providing logistic support to the RCES and Caledonian Special Service operation "Task Force "Y"".

Ships of the RCES

The RCES currently has over 1,500 scout ships, divided among several classes built to the same specification:

• Fairmile Model G, in the G/R scout variety. 200 tons. Equipped with a pair of turrets, an extensive sensor fit, scoops and a refinery, and space for a crew of 4-6 (usually a commander (Lieutenant), Navigator (Sublieuteant), Pilot and Engineer (both junior (WO1) Warrant Officers), generally with two mission specialists (sensor operators, scientists, anthropologists and the like), and stores to keep them on station for 90 days, the G/R is the backbone of the RCES scout force. Currently nearly 850 serve as the core of the force.
• Starsream Model 225 - Another commonly-found scout, built to the same specification as the Fairmile. 320 are in service.
• Midlothian A6 - Developed from a 200 ton dispatch boat from the Midlothian Yards. 120 are in service. Unstreamlined, and generally empolyed in areas where atmospheric flight isn't required.
• Armstrong Series XXXII - 190 of these 180 ton boats also serve in the RCES.

The last of the Armstrong Series XXVI, Fairmile "Skipjack" and Starstream Model 204 scouts - obsolete TL11 vessels - have been removed from service (often sold on very good terms to former RCES members). Some hundreds of these older vessels are laid up at various scout bases; they are often tendered to retired scouts with sufficient service qualifications.

The fleet also includes 160 "Scout Tenders" - 2,000 ton base ships providing fuel, supplies and minor repair facilities for groups of scouts deployed into deep space.

• Armstrong Series XXII Scout Tender - 2,000 tons, streamlined, fitted with scoops for refining bulk lots of fuel. Crew of 12. 75 are in service.
• ATS-L Scout Tender - A scout tender variant of the AX-L class modular auxiliary (at TL11), these ships are non-streamlined, but popular and ubiquitous. Fitted with a scoop lighter, a refinery module, fuel tankage and supply space and basic repair facilies, an ATS can support a group of scouts on extended deployment. Crew of 14.

Finally, the RCES charters independent vesses - Free Traders and Far Traders - to serve as research vessels.

Personnel

The RCES is a separate service, reporting directly to the executive branch of the Caledonian government.

It draws its personnel from several different sources:

• Flight Crews: While RCES personnel follow a similar recruitment and training process as the Royal Caledonian Navy, they are a separate service.
• Administrative and Command Staff: These are RCES personnel, or civilians employed by the RCES.
• Mission Specialists: These "riders" can include naval staff (especially sensor operators), scientists and academics (especially from the Royal University of Caledon's anthropological institute), private-sector experts on specific subjects, and anyone else who can provide a useful service to the mission.

Retirement

As in the Imperial Scouts, a career as a scout commander can lead to ownership of a scout vessel - usually an "obsolete" scout (Tech Level 11 rather than TL12, although the TL11 scouts have been frequently refitted to near-TL-12 status).

In Game Terms

An RCES officer with 20+ years of service and 2+ terms as a Scout Commander or better is elegible to acquire a 200 ton scout vessel on substantially similar terms as in the Imperial Scouts.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• User: ‎Mitchberg