Commonwealth Space Service - Naval Branch Flag by Esha-Nas on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Something I sketched out quickly and roughly in Flag Maker, had to tie it down before it fluttered away. Inspired by something I read on Rocketpunk or somesuch (I'll look into it).

With the atrophying of planet-bound warfare towards spatial mobile assets, vestigial elements found new purpose and expansion during The Agony, as every inhabited world and settlement became embroiled in bitter, bloody warfare. While most forces had maintained coast guard and gendarme or units, few had anything substantially more. Even the Marine forces were highly specialized units fitted for quick insertions and light warfare than anything more.

Biological, Mechanical, and Bio-mechanical entities fought from the corona to the depths of the sea, and standard Marine and Security forces barely made the cut. Augmentation and experimentation with massive drone swarms, bots of all types, vehicles of all types abounded. One such manifestation was the revitalization of Submarine forces to ply the many depths of the terraformed Solar System, from Callisto to Venus.

A Submarine has two things in abundance that Spaceships do not readily have: stealth, via their submersion and form, and armor or 'cover' by the massive amounts of fluid above. While aerial craft could be picked off from orbit without much hurdle, or any surface craft, what was under the waves or ice was far harder to detect, and with their own supply of missiles, drones, kinetic weapons, or lasers, a submarine had a greater chance, even slightly, of striking back, of turning orbital space into contested space, if not beyond - a sufficiently large weapon could, in theory, strike across the system, if ever made.

During The Agony, a wide variety of submarines were hashed out, tested, forged in fire. 'Strike' Submarines often hoisted weapons to contest spaceships, to drive them out of comfortable orbits. A few were missile-based, but due to anti-missile systems already in place on most Spacecraft, were soon replaced with kinetic guns or lasers. 'Carrier' Submarines often hoisted scores of drones to deploy over contested airspace, while 'Attack' Submarines escorted, guarded, and hunted down other Submarines. 'Cargo' and 'Transport' Submarines were also tested out to deal with the logistical side of things, and even 'Support' Submarines were tested out, mobile barracks to help with morale and space issues, miniature bases under the sea.

Of course, the realm of the sea is far different from the realm of space, while a spaceship merely has to keep an atmosphere in - if crewed - a Submarine has to keep the equivalent pressure of dozens, hundreds, thousands of atmospheres out. While they did offer a luxury not easily found on spaceships, being tied to a gravity well, they were still almost as cramped as their spatial counterparts, crewed for the same amount of time or even longer. Entire crews had to be recruited or retrained to deal with the new environment, and a rising spike of thalassophobia became a issue to deal with. The deepest craft could barely reach a fraction of the depth of some worlds, such as Callisto. Losses were much more bloody than with equivalent spacecraft, which could serve as a lifeboat in closed off or internal spaces, or allowed escape via the onboard shuttles; while even to the modern day a Submarine has little in the way of emergency escape attached. Sinking to 2,000 to 20,000 or more meters was never an attractive end to any crew member.

Nevertheless, while the lessons of The Agony and the conflicts beyond had been dutifully and painfully noted, nearly every military maintains a Submarine force and even expanded back into surface assets, (mostly all are submersible), as having the capability to fall back on a capable force is inherent to the security of any polity. Many forces shadow each other, bigger and more robust submarines are built, and many attempts at detection are pursued, but until the next major conflict either dethrones or cement the Submarine as a capable force, they're here to stay.

The Commonwealth’s Space Service has their naval branch denoted with a white arrowhead, representing their sea craft and ability to strike, below two waves under a sun/moon.

Ratio: 2:3

RGB: Blue: 1-150-170
White: 255-255-255
Black: 0-0-0.