Jonathan A Countyman

Interlude Military Ranks and Organization: Sol Refuge (Patreon)

Published:

2026-10-10 19:37:05

Imported:

2026-10

Tags:

Content

The first part was a table, and that doesn't translate well here.So here is a link to the source document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WSb9aVCDxd4FraTAv13D85-BPzlY59ipYFC4POS80K0/edit?usp=sharingNavy Ranks

Marine Ranks

Crewman Apprentice

Recruit

Crewman

Private

Junior Petty Officer

Corporal

Petty Officer

Lance Corporal

Senior Petty Officer

Sergeant

Chief

Staff Sergeant

Master Chief

Master Sergeant

Officer Apprentice

Ensign

Lieutenant Junior Grade

R10

Lieutenant

R11

Lieutenant Commander

R12

Commander

R13

Captain

R14

Rear Admiral

Major

R15

Vice Admiral

Colonel

R16

Admiral

General

R17

Fleet Admiral

General Protector

R18

Lord Protector

R19

High Lord Protector

R20

Supreme Protector

Refuge rank structure evolved from the militaries of old earth, and as such isn’t that different from it, but the eagle eyed among you might have noticed the Marine branch doesn’t match the armies of the twenty-first century. This was due to a general reorganization of the structure, so that certain ranks were equal across the board. A captain is a captain. This makes things easier to understand, and you don’t have to think oh that’s an army captain, so he’s three ranks under the navy captain. Really silly, don’t you think?

Rank aside, let’s get into organization. For the Marines that is pretty simple, they are primarily infantry with some vehicles available to them for ground operations. The fleet Marines are organized into divisions, with each division being headed by an R16-General. Under his or her command will be ten thousand marines, their equipment, and vehicles. Directly under him/her will be a pair of R15-Colonels in charge of a regiment, which is a unit of five thousand men.

Reporting directly to the Colonels will be ten majors who are each in charge of one battalion. These thousand man units are then broken further into companies of two hundred and fifty men each, and each company is helmed by an R-14 Major. Finally leading each of the many platoons that make up the company will be the R-13 Captains. The remaining officers fill up lower positions as needed, including tasks like commander of a vehicle. Many tanks are in fact led by an R-12 for example. While many squads are headed by a lieutenant.

Meanwhile, in the Navy, the organization is in the process of expanding the admiralty and shifting high-ranking officers into proper positions now that new ships are being added. A captain is supposed to be the head of a ship, but with so few ships many captains have been commanding small ships or filling random duties.

With new capital ships being added, these captains may now command capital ships, which frees up corvette commands for lower-ranking officers to gain basic command experience. In structure, the upper leadership of the fleet is helmed by the Fleet Admiral who is given overall command of all ships in an entire fleet. Beneath the Fleet Admiral are the Admirals who assist the Fleet Admiral by taking command of individual task force groups. Given the current size of the navy, no Fleet Admiral has been selected and the Supreme Protector will be fulfilling that role personally for the foreseeable future, with the Board of Admirals reporting directly to him. This brings us to the structure of terms. A fleet is considered the primary command structure and can be divided into several subcommands, the largest of these subcommands are the flotillas, followed by strike groups, then the naval equivalent to a squad, a task group.

Full Admirals are often put in charge of a flotilla with Vice Admirals and Rear Admirals often being in charge of the individual strike groups. Due to the need for flexibility within a fleet, the fleet is often able to assign ships from varying commands to form individual task force groups, which are often either commanded by a Rear Admiral or the senior most captain on the heaviest asset in the group, who will be given the temporary rank of Commodore: a special rank defined as roughly equal to a Rear Admiral but only for the purpose of commanding the task force and by tradition any captain or admiral commanding a task force is referred to as one.

The current planned fleet has three planned flotilla commands which will be referred to as the Vanguard Flotilla, the Core Flotilla and the Rearguard Flotilla. Each Flotilla is tasked with a primary mission. The Vanguard is tasked with scouting systems and locating safe routes for the fleet. While the Rearguard is tasked with protecting the flanks of the fleet and other tasks the fleet might require. Beneath these three commands are a number of strike groups based around the main capital ships of the fleet, namely the two cityships and the four carriers. Which vessels are in a strike group however can be changed at any given time depending on the needs of the fleet. Something you might notice as a common theme, and that is due to the fleet’s structure being centered on the ship. A ship is a unit, and must always operate as one.

At lower ranks, most capital ships are commanded by a Captain, in some rare cases an admiral may be in command of the ship, or perhaps a commander. Although in the latter case, it’s usually a smaller vessel. As the size of the ship decreases, it becomes more likely for an officer of lower rank to be in charge. It’s not uncommon for small vessels like a corvette to be commanded by a commander or even a Lieutenant Commander. Something that is also seen with the naval pilot Corps, where squadrons are often led by Lieutenant Commanders. By tradition regardless of rank, the officer in command of a ship is referred to as Captain.