Shipboard Condition

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   This article discusses a subject with undecided "Canon".  The Swarm Cycle writers need to discuss this on the email list, come to a decision, and then update this article to let readers know what Swarm Cycle "true canon" is.

Shipboard Readiness Conditions

   A Condition Code, Material Condition Code or Readiness Code is a shorthand way of ordering a ship into a defined level of combat readiness or operational safety in order to ensure that any damage will be mitigated and that the required personnel are at their stations.  We are most familiar with the term Battle Stations or General Quarters which are similar.

Condition Levels

   These refer to the general operational or protective stance that a vessel maintains during operation and reflect a level of readiness to perform evolutions, maneuver, engage in combat, or perform damage control.  These were defined by Zen Master as follows:

Condition 0: Anchor watch

   This is set when the ship is not under power.  Perhaps docked for repair, perhaps in holding orbit waiting for supplies.  Small ships will have one "Officer of the Day" on board doing anything he wants, with the AI and CO able to get his attention if anything happens.  Larger ships may continuously man CIC and other stations.

Condition 1a: Standard Conditions / Cruising Watch (Normal Space)

   On a small warship, it might be prudent to have two people "on duty" during "Standard Conditions": one person who is "Deck Qualified" sitting in the captain's chair in CIC, looking for excuses to "Set the Maneuvering Watch" and praying that he doesn't find any excuses to "Man Battle Stations", and a second one who is "plant qualified" in the Engineering Control Room.  Both of them are only there because sudden threats may make it vital that non-AI actions be taken before someone can get to those rooms.  Have someone in both rooms already.
   During Standard Conditions, though, neither is actually doing anything useful.  Study, bone your concubine, whatever.  No VR training simulations, though, hell no.  An early accident where, uh, "inappropriate action", yeah, that's it, was taken when an unexpected friendly was shot up by an officer in CIC who got pulled from a tactical sim without adequate time to recover from the sim led to a prohibition against _any_ VR sims for these two people.
   Larger ships will have more people manning more stations, of course.  Maybe some of them can be running sims.

Condition 1b: Standard Conditions / Cruising Watch (HyperSpace)

   Unless combat is possible in Hyperspace, there isn't much point in manning a lot of stations.  Maybe we can run ship-wide VR sims?  Dunno, we'll see.

Condition 2: Maneuvering Watch

   With the Maneuvering Watch set, the CIC guy will move to another station and monitor the helm, etc, and the CO (or someone else he has designated as "Deck Qualified") will sit in the captain's chair and make decisions.  The Chief Engineer (or someone else that he and the CO have approved as "Plant Qualified" for _this_ ship's specific mix of machinery or "plant") will take over the ECR, and there may be additional engineers standing by at other stations, depending upon _why_ we went to Maneuvering Watch.  If we are docking or any other close maneuvers, we will certainly want the Bridge manned.  We can stay here for days if needed, because we can swap bodies out as necessary.  Depending upon manning, we may also keep a warm body on the Bridge and in DC (Damage Control).

Condition 3: Battle Stations

   At Battle Stations, every body we have is in a designated station.  On a warship, this, and ONLY this, drives manning, as a gun that does not have a gunner can not be used.  Command, Tracking, Fire Control, Helm, Engineering Monitor are station names that make sense to me in the CIC (*).  Smaller ships will combine some stations.  Larger ships may have two or more for each.  Smaller ships will use the Bridge as a backup CIC, larger ships will have a dedicated Secondary Control Room.  The ECR will have stations like Control, Main Engines, Power, Shields.  As a matter of redundancy, most warships will have a separate engineering control station called "Damage Control" which will have primary control over DC and Life Support, and act as backup for all the other ECR functions.
   It is very bad form to stay at Battle Stations with no good reason, as everyone is in use.  Of course, a prudent CO will cycle the entire crew through all appropriate conditions as often and as long as is needed for training.  This is a great time to run ship-wide VR sims.  The Captain does NOT participate; he uses this to train his bridge officers and stays ready to deal with the real world if something happens during the sim.
   (*)All - (SGTstoner adds: no, "most" perhaps) - human warships capable of interstellar flight have a separate CIC (buried and armored) and bridge (on the skin of the ship with actual Honest-to-God windows.  In-system ships may not separate the two.

Condition 4: Abandon Ship Plan

   Some people refuse to accept the possibility of their own death.  They make good fighter pilots.  Others recognize that it can happen and plan accordingly.  Every vessel has an Abandon Ship Plan.  Some ships hold drills, other ships don't.  While there is no official "Condition 4", the evolution to abandon a stricken vessel is often unofficially referred to as "Condition 4".
   Most vessels have design consideration for the possibility of the crew needing to rapidly evacuate.  A pod ship can simply jettison all of its pods, and the inhabitants will be somewhat protected.  Ships with integrated crew facilities have several options.  One is to take to small craft, if the ship has any.  This is one reason that every combatant (and most civil ships) will carry with it some kind of "tender" vessel, usually referred to as it's shuttle.  It may normally be used to get supplies or ferry crew around, but it is provided in case of evacuation.  Of course, the shuttle itself may be damaged or unable to launch.  Another option is to simply open the nearest access hatch and get blown out by the escaping air.  Unless there is succor available within seconds, this is not recommended without a suit (see marine armor and skinsuit).  Last, if there are friendly facilities nearby, it may be possible to use a transport nexus to simply step over to the other facility.

Material Conditions

Introduced in Victoria Per Scientiam

These conditions refer to the degree to which ship spaces are isolated in order to prevent loss of atmosphere in case of a hull breach. All hatches, valves and other shutoffs that prevent the movement of personnel, gases, liquids or atmosphere between ship spaces are marked with a letter that represents a material condition and an arrow describing the way that actuator should be moved to conform to that material condition code. In the establishing story, the material condition also implied staffing levels along the likes of Condition Codes. The are as follows:

• Condition Zebra - full isolation of all spaces, hatches may not be opened unless it is for damage control or life-saving purposes. Zebra controls are colored red.
• Condition Zebra Alpha = same as Zebra, but personnel may move between spaces. Also known as "Modified Zebra."
• Condition Yoke - normal underway operations, personnel movement allowed, normal operation of HVAC, gases and liquids.
• Condition Yoke Foxtrot - ship is in FTL travel, relaxed Yoke posture as nothing happens in FTL other than waiting for it to end.
• Condition X-Ray - ship is in a relaxed posture, combat or damage is considered highly unlikely. For travel in safe areas. All hatches and valves open.
• Condition Woke - ship is in port and engines are shut down. Controls related to engineering are closed as a safety precaution in case of maintenance.

General Quarters

This commands all the crew to report to their duty station and report when that station is fully manned and ready for operation. It is always repeated.

The format for a call to general quarters may contain the following elements usual in US Navy practice. Authors can omit items for sake of readability, or state that the Captain has modified the full procedures for his purposes because of the small size of a crew, a lack of weapons systems, or other considerations.

• "General Quarters, General Quarters'
• "All hands man your battle stations"
• "This is a drill" or "this is not a drill"
• Movement controls, such as "The route of travel is forward and up to starboard, down and aft to port." This keeps people moving efficiently by establishing one-way corridors on large ships.
• "Set Condition (Zebra, usually) throughout the ship"
• "Reason for General Quarters: (hostile contact, damage, fire, etc.)"

Drills

"This is not a drill" also requires that specified electrical circuit breakers are "locked" so they will not trip in case of a power spike. During a battle, having an important weapons system stop working because of a tripped breaker would be problematic at best, so portions of ships systems will remain protected by circuit breakers. In case of a damaging fault, some systems can be restored to operation by resetting the breakers. If the fault is not sufficient to damage equipment, the systems with "locked" breakers will continue to operate as usual, while those still protected will require their breakers to be reset.

During a drill, circuit breaker lockings are simulated but not performed.

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