Intrasolar Commerce Commission

Purpose:

The Intrasolar Commerce Commission was chartered by the signing members of the 2nd Tycho Convention on the Moon/Luna to operate as a multinational governing body to register ships, oversee shipping lanes, determine legality in non-territorial space, function as a mediator, and determine who is and who isn't operating as a pirate force.

Agenda:

Inspect ships and cargo to detect smuggling, human trafficking, privateering, and piracy

Maintain a paramilitary presence in non-territorial space for legal and jurisdictional purposes.

Maintain the intrasolar ship registry and database.

Leader:

Marshal of the Fleet

The Marshal of the Fleet is typically drawn from the ranks of space-faring nations that are not part of the Atlantic Federation typically as a ballast against the already dominant position the Federation has in intrasolar activities. The current Marshal of the Fleet is Ragna Hamingsdottir, a former captain in the Kingdoms of Scandinavia Navy. This has been a serious point of contention as the Kingdoms are seen as being the hounds of the Federation, rather than actively seeking to vet and oversee Federation shipping activity and fuel monopolies.

Founder:

the 2nd Tycho Convention

Membership:

The ICC is composed of a largely volunteer force of women and men, with a moderate bias towards women. Likewise, alternate lifestyles and related groups show a well above-average representation in the ICC fleet. This creates a certain visibility and connection with ICC ships being commanded by women+ with body modifications, strange hair colors, and eccentric behavior. This is an unfair opinion, because while there are certainly drag queens commanding ICC ships, most are under the guidance of regular women and men from 2nd and 3rd world nations/power blocs.

The visual of an almost alien looking ICC Admiral boarding and inspecting ships to make sure their documentation and conditions are up to spec is sometimes deliberately pushed, emphasizing that regardless of the nation or power, their ships allow themselves to be boarded, examined, and sometimes fined and or confiscated by the ICC and it's flamboyantly queer officers. This is an inherently dangerous game to play because most if not all1st World fleet ships are on par with, or superior to the ICC ships, and the only thing keeping the ICC ships from being splashed are the legal ramifications.

Resources:

Personnel - approx 10,000

A note on ranks, all officers on ICC ships have majorly overblown ranks, so that in almost any given situation, they will on paper, outrank whomever they are dealing with. ICC ships are commanded by Admirals at a basic level. Groups of ships have Fleet Admirals, and an ICC squadron is commanded by a Grand Admiral. This can and has created some interesting situations where an ICC frigate commanded by an Admiral peacocks around while ordering a dramatically larger ship commanded by a Commander or Captain to heave to. 

Ships - the ICC operates eight squadrons of frigates and light cruisers, the majority of which are retired Eurasian Alliance, PacRim, and Atlantic Federation ships. This means most of the ships are in excess of a century old. A quarter were built for the ICC, and while they are the newest, they are also generally the smallest and most efficient. The large number of old and obsolete ships keeps the operation costs high, and while these older ships retain their armor, they have been stripped of their advanced electronics and all weapons. Rearmed and re-fit ICC ships favor low-end energy weapons (no ammunition) and most of their electronics are solid state, or off the shelf offerings.

This disparity in fleet assets often means that ICC ships are not fit for dealing with actual pirates, which tend to be well-armed and operate with highly creative tactics. The two main causes of ship loss in the ICC are systems failures and pirate encounters. Due to costs and limited crews, most ships are lightly crewed or run with skeleton crews and auton/robot support. This limits their ability to handle damage control, or even utilize the full combat capability of their antique ships.

Anchorages - The ICC maintains a fleet anchorage at Venus, two at Earth, and one at Jupiter. Operations beyond Jupiter are rare, given the limited ability of their ships, and the according lack of endurance. This allows the Deep Solar System to operate with little to no oversight, allowing things there the flourish in a dark manner. Conflicts with the ACPS have forced the ICC to shut down their Martian anchorage, which was commandeered by the ACPS hours after the mothballing force withdrew. Since then, the ACPS has been using the anchorage to service their ships. Mercury is largely the domain of the Atlantic Federation, and many of the ships there are drone ships, lacking crews. This means the ships are built without atmospheric conditions, no food, no water, or anything else people need to survive.

The Hermes III incident lead to the ICC abandoning its attempts to police Mercury. The Hermes III ordered the AFS Trennathaan to power down and accept a boarding party to inspect the ship and its crew. The Trennathaan was a drone ship, but the codes were accepted, and the ore hauler came too and allowed the Hermes III to dock with it. When the Hermes III opened its airlock, their ship ended up venting its atmosphere and killing 85% of the crew. Trennathaan had no pressure hull, and Federation shipping knew this, and there were signs on the hull indicating the status of the drone ship. The Admiral of the Hermes III ignored all of this, swaggered to the airlock to be the first ICC officer to board a Federation Heavy Ore Hauler, and was sucked into space for their arrogance. 

The active anchorages at Venus, Earth, Luna, and Jupiter are likewise repurposed from older assets donated or sold to the ICC as their previous holdings are either refitted or sent to scrap. Like their ships, their anchorages are all in excess of a century old, and three of the four are former Federation stations. These stations were retired from service as they were too small to handle the new Federation class Battlestars, and were too primitive for the Hanse to be interested in refitting them.

Colors/Symbolism

ICC ships are whitewashed to cover their previous colors/paint jobs. The paint is cheap and relatively low quality so the older hull coloration often shows through in places along the bow and forward sections, as well as being heat cooked off of heat exchangers and the engines. Markings are done in green, and lettering/numbers are in red.

The symbol of the ICC is an elaborate seal that has a Libra (scales) with a torch for a centerpiece.