The Syndicate Worlds Mobile Defense Force is the space based arm of the Syndicate Worlds military. Ship classes and design generally correspond to those of the Alliance Fleet. Since the onset of the war, the Syndicate Worlds Mobile Defense Forces had generally come to rely almost exclusively on the Hypernet Gate network to transport forces to the site of engagements, but system jump drives still exist on board even the smallest combat units of the fleet.
Mobile Units[]
Syndicate warships, referred to as Mobile Units, display broadly similar characteristics to those of their Alliance counterparts with one notable exception: Syndicate warships lack Null-Field Projectors. Many Syndicate warships also differ from those of the Alliance in that they have a built in automated override for combat, manoeuvring and life support systems (at the very least), which allows Syndicate CEOs to assume remote command of the ships from afar. The Mobile Defense Forces do not include a counterpart to the Alliance Fleet's destroyer, instead relying on the smaller, but more numerous Hunter-Killer. They also built a unique Light cruiser with reinforced propulsion, to launch attacks against key targets behind enemy lines, but only one was seen. The Syndicate also make use of even smaller so called nickel corvettes, though these are rarely deployed outside Syndicate space itself.
The Syndicate Worlds' high degree of centralization meant that the ships used by the Mobile Defense Forces were designed with a much smaller emphasis on on-board damage control and repair capabilities than their Alliance counterparts. The First Battle of Lakota left crippled Mobile Defense Force ships littered throughout a wide arc of the Lakota star system, and despite having nearly 10 days to repair these ships while the Alliance Fleet jumped back and forth from Ixion star system, the vast majority were still exactly where they were damaged, awaiting the arrival of repair and resupply ships (contracted from a completely separate, entirely civilian Syndicate corporation) when the Alliance forces returned to Lakota.
Another characteristic of the Syndic ships, proof of the stinginess and ruthless of the Syndic Chief Executive Officers, is than any vessel hadn't more scape pods than for barely a sixty percent of the crew. This was for two reasons: first, to discourage the crews to attempt to flee from still combat-capable vessels, and second, to save money: as the accountants have estimated than any crippled vessel loses about 40 percent of the crew, the ship only needed escape pods for the remaining sixty percent.
During the war, every Syndic ship had one or two Snakes onboard to control the crew's loyalty, maybe 3 or 4 in the Battlecruisers and Battleships, but after the war, the numbers grew to dozens of agents in any ship.
As part of their repressive measures following countless mutinies after the war, the Syndicate installed what they called The Armageddon response, a program to made blow the core of any Syndicate ships in case of mutiny or defeat.
Mission[]
The Syndicate Worlds maintained control of it's sprawling territory through widespread fear of punishment in their own population, a task which generally fell to the Mobile Defense Force units. CEO Boyens informed Admiral Geary during an interview that it was a violation of his orders as a commanding officer in the Reserve Flotilla to harbor sympathetic feelings for the Syndic civilian population. This was said to be due to the need to create distance between CEO's in command of fleet units and the people of the worlds that they protected so that an order to kill Syndic civilians would be followed without hesitation. The destruction of the majority of remaining capital ships in the territory of the Syndicate Worlds marked a steep decline in the capability and effectiveness of the force, as demonstrated by the meager force on hand to repel advances by the Enigma Race.
History[]
The Alliance-Syndicate War decimated the syndic fleets almost as quickly as they were build. At the end of the war, almost all their fleets, and as a civil war began later, with the Syndicate tearing itself apart in several states, no more bigger fleets were built: the continuous defeats of the Syndicate fleets attempting to defeat the newly born Phoenix Stars pact, and Granaile Imallye's new state, reduced even more their numbers.
Known Flotilla's[]
- Reserve Flotilla (destroyed)
- Syndicate Worlds Flotilla 734 (destroyed)