FLEET ENGAGEMENT

The big one. The purpose of task force deployment and the sole raison d'etre of the Strategic Fleet. Fleet engagements are, in essence, going to meet an enemy fleet in combat. The CFMF has leaned away from such engagements in the past, but in the wake of Wilderness has given added emphasis to such missions.

PATROL

Simply put, patrol missions are nothing more than long-term ship deployments in specific areas to watch for enemy attacks. The CFMF's corvettes and destroyers tend to specialize in this role, deployed on warp cruises along the various frontiers and transmitting back observations to central command.

BLOCKADE

One of the CFMF's more -unpopular- missions (among their enemies). The purpose of a blockade is to prevent some or all interplanetary commerce from reaching a planet. Usually this involves halting freighters and siezing all contraband goods from their holds. Despite the practice of paying prize money for siezed vessels and cargo, it is but seldom that the Freespacer rules of engagement and the Federation laws on prizes of war allow for siezure of an entire ship.

BLOCKADE RUNNING

An area of CFMF high expertise. Although this is usually accomplished with privately owned Supply Fleet ships, the CFMF will occasionally use main-line military ships to run or even break an enemy blockade to deliver supplies, troops, or secret agents to a planetary surface. Such missions allow a besieged force to hold out for a larger relief force to lift the blockade permanently.

CONVOY ESCORT

Highly unpopular among CFMF officers. The convoy mission is to reduce, not prevent, destruction of convoyed ships by enemy fire. It is practically impossible to prevent ambushes because of the nature of most of the modern era's hyperluminal engine systems. As such, convoy missions tend to have higher than average casualty lists, especially among starfighter pilots.

GROUND SUPPORT AND ASSAULT

When in doubt, send the Marines. CFMF task forces often contribute starfighters for air support and Marines for ground support to allied or contracted forces on a planetary surface. Until recently, the CFMF would even use orbital bombardment of enemy positions, but the Federation ban on orbital bombardment or photon torpedo use on planetary surfaces has brought this to a halt. CFMF efforts to evade the restrictions by taking their ships into athmosphere have not been met with favor by Federation officials.

SHIP CAPTURE

A most delicate and dangerous operation, ship capture in combat is only practiced in this day and age by the CFMF and GENOM MilArm, and of the two the CFMF has had more practice with less muscle at doing it. In order to capture a ship, its defensive systems must be disabled long enough for a Freespacer cruiser to grapple the ship, dock its boarding ramps onto the enemy hull, and disembark its Marine compliment into the vessel's interior. The risk of the enemy ship self-destructing is always high, and the CFMF does not undertake such missions lightly.

EXPLORATION

The exploration of the various Rim Territories (Outer Rim, Coreward Rim, Rigel Rim) and Wild Space is an overlooked part of the CFMF's mission profiles. Much of the CFMF's operating capital comes from subsidies by various governments to send destroyers on long, detailed explorations of unknown or mostly-unknown worlds. However, the CFMF's explorer vessels tend to use more caution than the Federation Starfleet's commanders do; they pull back at the first hint of danger to the crew, deploying warning buoys around the hazardous space, and live to explore more clement worlds in the future.

EVACUATION

The least regarded, but most vital, of Freespacer missions. When war threatens a specific region, requiring the evacuation of orbital facilities or small colonies, the CFMF moves into action, committing all its resources, even the Home Fleet, to the removal and temporary housing of refugees. Often a significant number of these refugees choose to remain with the Freespacer nation, leading to a sizeable 'expatriate' community from many different cultures within the Freespacer Alliance. Most famous of these communities is the cluster of Narn freighters and former luxury cruise ships which house the 120,000 emigrants to the Freespacer nation during the Narn Revolt of the 2350s.

Redneck

Red wizard needs money badly...
www.wlpcomics.com
White Lightning Productions - don't tell the Pope

Among fans of Freespacer, the popular CFMF fighter-jockey simulation game, this mission type is referred to as "not another fucking escort mission."

--G.
I loathe escort missions.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Starbolt

So the WDF doesn't willingly engage in ship capture operations? I find it hard to believe they lack the capability. They captured the AT&T, after all.

TRB

"I wish I was reaper, culling lost souls. I wish I could cast them into deep and lonely holes."