The Yamataian Emergency Aid Line (YEAL) and more popularly “Eel” or “The Red Phone”, is an emergency service. It operates within Yamataian borders but also services areas outside of it, especially for Star Army of Yamatai personnel calling. It is mostly used when Star Army forces require immediate reinforcements or special guidance beyond what their local crew, or even assigned fleet, may be able to instantly provide. It ensures that the wider Star Army and Yamataian authorities as a whole can be made rapidly aware of any incidents that may be larger than one ship can respond to.
YEAL was established in YE 44 by Chujo Iemochi Feyani, after a number of incidents were reported to Star Army Command that established a precedent for it. One example was that while SASO was a unified response body for issues that the Star Army struggled handling, the lines for reporting these issues took a long time. First, officers would have to call their superior and have them run the call up the chain of command. Once reaching a certain level, SASO would then be contacted and the information would have to bleed back down. Feyani realised that having a physical or virtual telephonic device readily available for all appropriate Star Army personnel could drastically cut down on response times. Therefore, she created the “Red Phone”, named as such as many ships were sent a physical red phone to install and use for this purpose.
The first use of the Red Phone was by the YSS Resurgence in YE 44.5, much to the frustration of Kessaku Irim1). It was subsequently mothballed in several parts of the First Fleet and First Expeditionary Fleet. It remains in general usage elsewhere, following an admiralty conference on its merits and downsides.
YEAL is often manifested as a physical red phone onboard a Star Army base or ship. Oftentimes it is above the 'con', the CO's station, in a mount on the ceiling. If no physical 'red phones' are present, the local MEGAMI can be instructed to connect to the YEAL. It has an optional switch on the handset which relays the call throughout the ship via the MEGAMI announcement system.
Usage of the line is strictly for emergency purposes only. On the other end of the line is a Star Army Emergency Services operator, who then directs the call as appropriate but always remains connected until the situation is resolved. They process the information and urgency of the call, and they are always recorded. Help is designated as most immediately appropriate, but usually it escalates as follows:
Ship Captains, Base Commanders, SAOY officers and also NET-registered civilian Captains are all allowed to utilise the YEAL. YEAL uses its own communications array that is kept isolated from the host vessel or base's systems and therefore cannot be remotely deactivated while a call is active. When the YEAL is activated, this hibernated and shielded system comes online and connects to an operator. At this point, the caller should briefly describe their scenario. Depending on the urgency of the situation, the caller may then hang up immediately as to attend the situation. In any case, the YEAL will respond (and call back if necessary) to inform of the aid's type, estimated time of arrival and any other specialist advise. Once the situation has abated, the handset can return to a hibernated and shielded state once returned to its fitting.
Each Fleet's response profile is tailored to the strengths, weaknesses, and local geography of their area of operations. Usually, the message is relayed up to the fleet's Taisho. With the information provided, they need to make a snap decision as to whether they can handle the request locally, or escalate the request. The fleet usually has nearby ships, police, additional medical, science and engineering personnel that they can respond with or provide guidance from.
Seventh Fleet has the primary responsibility for rapid response outside of the local fleet. Rapid Response is headed by Chujo Harada Kenzan, they maintain a Ikoi-Class Light Starbase with a squadron of fast gunships in each major operational region. The responsibility of the Gunships is to provide additional detailed information to 7th Fleet on the nature of the Emergency. Major warships will rally close to the emergency, providing a safe haven for damaged allied ships while the fleet gathers. The commanding officer present of the 7th will determine when and how to commit the gathered forces of the 7th fleet to the emergency. If they believe that the combined forces of the local and the 7th fleet are insufficient, this is passed on to Star Army Special Operations who then decide what kind of extraordinary aid to send.
If for some reason the 7th Fleet cannot respond to an incident, or is not equipped to do so, the request is escalated to Star Army Special Operations. TANTO, SOFT, UMBER, BATON, CSAR, or other units, may be scrambled where appropriate. These are deliberately scattered fairly evenly across the Yamatai Star Empire so that they can quickly arrive at incidents like Red Phone calls when required. Usually, ships from the Fourth Fleet would be dispatched to assist.
There is no standardised escalation from this point. Maybe the Third Fleet would be close by. If not, perhaps the Second Fleet would be activated, or Ketsurui Yui would declare a national emergency. it is hard to tell what the hypotheticals are.
The Red Phone and ALERT Readiness Conditions were inspired by the uselessness of SOS calls in the film Captain Phillips and how this could happen to Yamataian ships that are attacked too quickly to alert their Fleet.
I imagine that the response team being scrambled to a call would work something like this.
ethereal created this article on 2022/08/20 06:42. Approved here.