General Operations

General operations is a service track of the Star Rangers, shown in slate blue on the rank tab. A track is not a corps. It is assigned independently, so a Ranger of any corps may hold the general operations track, and a track can change while the corps stays the same. Tissadelle Shepherd came in through the Music Corps' college, opened her service on general operations, rotated to the Survey track and back, and never changed corps to do it.

On a post, the general operations department, commanded by a Chief whose working title there is Chief Ranger, runs the watch across every corps aboard. Threshold Station's general operations watch on Dock Seven is the record's first example. Because a Chief who has commanded such a department has already done, on a smaller scale, what a Starwarden is asked to do, the track is the usual road from Chief to a first command. It is the usual road, not the only one: a Chief from any track may be given a command posting.

The name also files a kind of mission. A mixed group of specialists sent on a shared task is either a general operations mission, which may be led by a Chief, or a special purpose mission, which is led by a Starwarden or above; beyond that rank line, which filing a mission takes depends on its context. Neither is a combat formation, because no branch of the Star Rangers is military.

General operations names a track, a mission or a department, never a section. Teaching at the Academy and serving as a Planetary Representative are not normally counted as general operations. The full account is in Rank and the Chain of Command, Track Is Not Corps.