FTL Communications

One of the main elements binding together the wide expanse of the Empire is its network of faster than light relay satellites. While each transmitter is only capable of pushing out a signal about 10 parsecs, by laying out a series of satellites spaced 5-8 parsecs apart a message can be sent to any part of the Imperium with a minimum of delay.
Several thousand relays and switching stations make up the network with approximately one manned station for every 20 relays in a region. The manned routing stations monitor the bandwidth loads in their region and assisted by the station AI attempt to keep the load of communication moving smoothly.
The vast majority of communications (approx. 90%) take the form of written messages, these take up a minimum of bandwidth and are very compatible with compression/encryption algorithms. As such these are the least expensive form of communications.
Close afterward are one-way audio tracks. These are also compressable and mostly are recorded music and speeches that make up the news and entertainment content broadcast across the Empire. Along with these follow the video transmissions.
Everything up to this point is one-way communications. Two-way communications across interstellar distances start expensive and ramp up quickly with the number of relays the message needs to pass through. Each relay adds a minuscule amount of lag to the signal but eventually, it grows to the point where between the lag and the high cost it becomes too expensive to maintain.
An added consideration is the sheer volume of data that needs to be transmitted on a daily basis. The cost of setting up the network and maintaining it is quickly recouped from the fees charges for its use but it still takes the time to deploy new units and personnel to both regulate the flow and expand the net. Since the network is built and maintained as a government function military and government communications take priority. Bandwidth is also allocated to the local governments for their use.It is possible to purchase priority to bandwidth but the cost of this makes it available only to megacorps and a handful of the wealthiest individuals. Despite the assigned priority bandwidth sold, 50% of the available bandwidth is reserved to carry regular communications. This prevents the megacorps and local governments from throttling communications to their benefit.
The efficiency of the net depends largely on where in the empire one is at a given moment. The inner systems, being the location with the densest concentration of relays, have excellent service both in availability and cost. As one travels outward to the frontier the density of relays decreases and malfunctions can result in greater loads on the relays and in some cases the isolation of entire regions until repairs are made. At present, the region with the most limited coverage is the region known as the New Territories. At present, the systems connected in this region are often sending the signal down a singular path of relays laid during the war that ended with this region ceded to the Imperium.
Many ships carry smaller versions of the communication systems with ranges of only a few parsec. These are expensive and only a small number of civilian ships budget the cost of maintaining them. Military vessels of frigate and cruiser hull sizes carry these sets while the battlecruisers and the handful of ships larger than that. carry their own full relay equipment.

META Imperial rank structure

When the setting was set up originally Ken came up with a rank structure that was modeled after our familiar 20th-century American military structure but with the fleet titles switched up to reflect that there was a separation of space forces from ground forces in the early days of the leap to the stars.

Originally there was no rank of Commodore but later I started to actually lay out the ranks he had set up beside the ground forces list and realized that we were one pay grade short of matching. I decided to place Commodore in the list with the same qualifier that the rank has in the Navy of our times.

At the top of the command structure are the Imperial Warlords, Each is assigned to oversee a sector of the Empire.They are appointed by and are answerable to the Emperor alone.

Rank

Ground Forces
Fleet
COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
O10
Brigadier General
Imperial Commander
COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
O9
General
Supreme Commander
COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
O8
Major General
Commodore *
COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
O7
Lieutenant General
Senior Commander
COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
O6
Colonel
Commander
COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
O5
Lieutenant Colonel
Sub-Commander
COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
O4
Major
Captain
COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
O3
Captain
Captain Junior Grade
COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
O2
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
O1
Garrison Lieutenant
Flight Lieutenant

ENLISTED MEMBERS
E9
Sergeant Major
Master Chief
Petty Officer
ENLISTED MEMBERS
E8
First Sergeant
- or - Master Sergeant
Senior Chief Petty Officer
ENLISTED MEMBERS
E7
Sergeant First Class
Chief Petty Officer
ENLISTED MEMBERS
E6
Staff Sergeant
Petty Officer First Class
ENLISTED MEMBERS

E5
Sergeant
    Petty Officer Second Class

ENLISTED MEMBERS
E4
Corporal
- or - Specialist
Petty Officer Third Class
ENLISTED MEMBERS
E3
Private First Class
Crewman
ENLISTED MEMBERS
E2
Private
Crewman Apprentice
ENLISTED MEMBERS
E1
Brevit Private
Crewman Recruit

*-This rank only used during wartime operations

Brief Chronology of the Imperium Part 2

Part 2

15,507 B.C - After taking massive damage in the passage of the Great Barrier the Seed manages to locate an inhabitable world to weather out the rebellion unaware that the Imperial capital of Talosia had fallen along with most of the Imperial fleet. Their plan was to establish a base from which the young Emperor could return to take command of the loyal worlds by restoring the essential technologies of warp drives and interstellar communications to the Empire. Unfortunately the elements of the house forces privy to the protocols for recalling the Heir were among those who died in the fall of the Empire.

15,506 B.C. - After locating a suitable location the Seed begins the construction of Prime Base and begins dividing into the separate AIs  Ship and Companion. Companion becomes the hub for the new settlement and is tasked with teaching the Heir everything he will need to know to rule the restored Empire. Ship remains with the vessel establishing the network of sensors designed to receive the expected recall signal and beginning the repairs necessary for the ship to return to Talosian space. It had been decided during the design of The Seed that a single AI containing all the knowledge needed to complete the task of preserving and preparing the Heir for his duties would be too much of a risk. So Companion was given the technical secrets of the house but Ship was entrusted with the navigational knowledge to wind the convoluted path back to Talosian space.  

15,500 B.C. - The settlement complete teams are sent out to survey the planet, They discover primitive humans compatible with Imperial parameters and the decision is made to begin selective uplift operations to expand the available forces for the eventual return. This eventually leads to the establishment of several outposts devoted to the process of the uplift. Meanwhile Ship began send out automated communication relays to establish a line of communication back to Imperial space.

15,350 B.C. - Ship completes the lifeline back to Imperial space but finds only silence from the handful of relays spared from the Emperor's counter strike. While the relays respond to diagnostic signals no one is found on the far end of the line.Companion continues to support the Emperor in exile and his heir as well as coordinating the production of equipment for the colony. With the message from Ship of the lack of response from the lifeline Companion shifts operations into long term occupation mode preparing for the possibility that the return will need to be established whole cloth from the colony. The uplift operation is expanded and the outposts are made full fledged settlements lacking only the presence of Companion.

15,027 B.C. - For many generations the original settlers have started to take mates from among the uplifted humans with only the Imperial line remaining pure. By this time additional settlements have been established on each major land mass expanding as more primitives are uplifted and trained according to their talents. The Emperor begins establishing House Nobles in an effort to begin modelling his forces along familiar lines for the eventual return in force. These appointments stir resentment among those followers not so recognized.

14,850 B.C. - Rising class division between "pure bloods" and both uplifted and cross breed population grows causing many of the house nobles to migrate to Prime Base and rule from there. In their absence resistance begins to take root with many dissidents leaving the settlements and establishing strongholds away from civilization from which to plan and act out of sight. There are some attempts to clean out these sites when discovered but more often than not sympathizers within the ranks of the security forces give the sites prior warning so that the forces usually find nothing or abandoned strongholds. Lack of aggressive action on the rebel's part soon leads to complacency on the noble's part. Companion, recognizing a pattern similar to that leading up to the uprising that ended the Empire begins relocating personnel in direct linage to the Emperor in Exile to other settlements in a move to preserve the plan of restoring the Imperium. Other contingency plans are enacted without the direct knowledge of the Imperial House including the establishment of a base on the nearby moon and the relocation of equipment under the guise of supplying Ship with materials. Ship complied with the actions being designed to defer to Companion on matters of planetary administration.

14,550 B.C. - Uprising! the rebel forces systematically take over the settlements saving Prime Base for last. As the rebel army advances on Prime Base Companion is found to have relocated his core systems to an unknown location and has been running Prime Base by remote for an unknown period of time. As rebels take over Prime Base the power goes out and all on-site generators are found to have undergone meltdown. News quickly floods in from all other settlements with similar news. With a cryptic last message that read Fallback Protocol Engaged all monitors went blank and Companion went offline.

14,4549 B.C until ??? - With only the portable generators and power cells remaining the colonies quickly begin to fracture as the technology sustaining the settlements begins to fail. Eventually the settlements themselves are largely dismantled as the power sources needed to sustain them fail. Many settlements retain enough knowledge to continue at a lower level of technological progression but most revert to tribal barbarism, Most of  the settlements that survive last only a few hundred years at best before being overrun by their primitive neighbors.Some isolated remnants of the settlers would hang on much longer but in the end the only remnants of the settlements would be legends of these civilizations under various names such as Anasazi, Mu, and Atlantis.


At some point in the next 5000 years Ship suffers a catastrophic event and is lost along with the vessel that it had brought to Earth. If Companion knows the details it has not been forthcoming with this information.


No records of Companion's activities over the next 16,000 years are available but careful examination of statements of the Emperor imply that it continued surveillance of the survivors, especially those of the imperial bloodlines. It is on the basis of this bloodline that the present Emperor commands Companion's loyalty.