Furscape MUCK

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(//Note: The SDF is a relatively inactive group, player-wise, and primarily exists "in the background" as an OOC group in the Furscape universe.  While the threat of a large, well-armed ship coming to rain hellfire down upon a pirate who is harassing your free trader sounds nice, the fact that such a ship may be hours or days away from you keeps things interesting, doesn't it? - Hagalaz)//
 
====== Space Defense Force ======
The Space Defense Force, or SDF, was originally founded in Sol System by its member worlds ([[Luna]], [[Mars]], and the Belt colonies) to protect their interests - which, at the time, would have included the extrasolar colonies on [[Annyrion]] and [[Oceania]] - from both the theoretical outside threat of alien attack and the very real threat of piracy.
  
The SDF's charter, while providing a broad blanket of security across known space, does NOT permit it to interfere in the internal affairs of its member worlds. So, for instance, if a planetary government or megacorporation hires mercenaries or sends a ship to harass shipping from another planet, they will intervene as far as combatting the threat posed by that specific ship or ships.
 
On the other hand, megacorporate hostile takeovers conducted in the boardroom, or violent changes of government that appear to occur from within will be noted, but not dealt with directly, //as long as any conflicts remain confined to that world's immediate sphere of influence//.  It is up to the diplomatic corps of individual member worlds to deal with situations such as these.
 
====== Operations ======
The primary base for the SDF is the asteroid 951 [[Gaspra]], from which warships such as the Paladin and Aurora patrol known space.  While the SDF does maintain an impressive fleet of capital ships and escorts, they cannot be everywhere at once, and it may fall to member planets to provide the initial reaction force when dealing with piracy.  If a threat is sustained, or is in danger of overwhelming a particular world's defensive fleet, SDF will respond to restore peace.
====== Scout Service ======
The SDF has a branch of service dedicated to deep space exploration and ongoing survey of existing worlds in Known Space.  They provide regular updates to navigational charts, provide technical assistance to member worlds seeking to expand their knowledge of their star systems, and occasionally function as the eyes and ears of the Fleet, serving as an intelligence asset.
 
The Scout Service also maintains a roster of inactive or retired scouts and assets that have been loaned to them, in the form of a Detached Duty Office, with the understanding that the Service will have access to ship's logs and navigational records during regular overhauls, and can always call members serving on detached duty back to active service, if only to question them about their recent activities.  Such members are essentially on an unpaid leave of absence, and generally will not perform any unlawful acts using loaned assets such as spacecraft.  Because of this, the general attitude towards retired scouts is that they may not actually be retired, but still gathering information on behalf of the SDF.