The Reunification Navy operates a complex rank system, designed to suit a navy equipped with advanced Ship AI and heavily automated systems, and in which all members are necessarily highly-educated. There are three overarching categories of service personnel, each of which operate under their own rank structure.
Ratings
Ratings are those spacefarers who signed up for the navy as soon as they came of age, coming into the service without any form of higher education. This is generally because they have failed to post sufficient attainment scores to qualify for Alliance-funded higher education, obliging them to earn work credits or seek another route to skilled employment - the navy is a good way to do this. Still, while no experience or higher education is required, joining the RN is significantly more difficult that becoming a commercial spacefarer, with potential recruits required to pass the Basic Entrance Assessment.
They start off as generalists in service, performing those tasks that have not or cannot be automated, assisting specialists, and acting as back-ups in case automated systems fail. Many spacemen will hope to impress their supervisors in order to earn enrolment onto a Navy Technical Course and thereby progress to specialist.
The ranks go as follows:
Landsman
Landsman is a probationary rank held for a rating’s first year in service. Assuming they do not do anything egregious and fail their evaluation, they will progress to Ordinary Spaceman at the conclusion of their first year.
Ordinary Spaceman
Following the completion of their probationary year, a rating will be granted the rank of Ordinary Spaceman. They will retain this rank for at least two years, after which, assuming consistently good evaluations, they will progress to Able Spaceman. It is atypical to be held at Ordinary Spaceman, and usually denotes poor behaviour. If a rating fails to progress after five years in service, they will be automatically discharged.
Able Spaceman
The rank of Able Spaceman denotes an experienced and accomplished spacefarer, usually very comfortable with all basic shipboard duties and capable of managing less experienced junior ratings. Old and grizzled ABs often command respect from young junior officers, and according to some of the more romantic writers are the true backbone of the RN. There are plenty who will be content to remain an AB, spurning the additional responsibility of progression.
Leading Spaceman
Leading Spaceman is the highest rank a rating can achieve, representing a non-specialist supervisory position that will see them put in charge of work details and responsible for managing fairly significant numbers of other ratings. Good performances as a Leading Spaceman are more-or-less required to earn a recommendation for Technical Courses.
N.B. - a spaceman given permanent assignment to the engine room or reactor, under the Chief Engineer, will often be referred to instead as a Fireman.
Specialists
Specialists are spacefarers with extensive technical training in one of the shipboard disciplines. They are typically educated in the Technical Colleges, though they also receive additional training and education after signing up. Some specialists will go on to enrol in Officer Training School later in their careers, while others are content to stick to mastering their chosen discipline.
The specialist rank structure operates with six basic ranks, though these are further subdivided into a number of sub-ranks that primarily affect the work-credit pay rate and seniority within the specialism.
The ranks go as follows:
Apprentice
Specialist, 2nd Class
Specialist, 1st Class
Technician, 2nd Class
Technician, 1st Class
Technical Sergeant
Chief Technical Sergeant
Warrant Officer, 2nd Class
Warrant Officer, 1st Class
Officers
Officers are spacefarers with a more holistic general education and a wider rooting in all the principles and traditions of space travel. As part of their Officer Training Courses, they then receive additional training in a chosen specialisation that brings them up to the level of a Technical College graduate. Officers are typically recruited from Planetary Universities or Alliance Higher Education Programmes.
The ranks go as follows:
Ensign
Specialism Ranks
Sub-Lieutenant
Ordinary Lieutenant
Able Lieutenant
2nd Lieutenant
1st Lieutenant
Command Ranks
Sub-Commander
Commander
Captain-Lieutenant
Captain/Station Commander
Flag Ranks
Rear-Admiral
Vice-Admiral
Admiral