[Haesslich]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

So what does the rest of the escorting warships do once a colony is founded? Set up a few orbital docking platforms and provide a mobile defense?

Originally Posted by Wild Goose

I think he's talking about the carriers, like the Uragas.

Most likely the fleet carriers would form a mobile planetary defense force, patrolling the system to make sure threats don't get near the colony. The NMC would most likely remain in space, or they might keep it planet-side (note that the NMCs are apparently also capable of functioning as conventional wet-navy carriers).

Originally Posted by Evangelion Xgouki

While a good chunk of the escort vessels are NUNS, there are some that are private vessels and from hired services (like the SMS) as stated in earlier episodes. I would imagine the NUNS vessels would remain in orbit an take on the primary role of orbital defense. In the inital stages of colonization, I'd guess that they would also double as exploration vessels for the new planetary system. It was shown that during the colony fleet's trek they did send out recon groups to explore the space ahead (which the SMS had to do on one occasion) so I would guess they would use the same technology to map out their new home and see if any of the other worlds are habitable or contain harvestable resources. Since each vessel does appear to have its own fold drive, the NUNS could also re-deploy them to other locations/fleets once the colony has generated enough defenses of its own. The private vessels are a different case since they are technically not part of NUNS and are on their own agendas. What those vessels would do is up to their commanders/owners (could range from mining operations to the simple transport of the wealthy).

And, using the MultiQuote functionality of this board... I'm going to throw in my own two cents:

NUNS vessels have fold drives, but as episode 6 showed folding isn't exactly the same as hopping a plane to San Francisco when moving between star systems - it's more akin to taking a steamship like late 19th century travel; it'll take days if not weeks to get there, you may have to make numerous stops or detours, and there's a risk of getting run aground/destroyed - that's why the 'fold accident' of the 117th Research Fleet was big enough news that even Alto (who doesn't seem to be the type of person to keep up on history or current affairs) would know about it.

Between this and the fact that a NUNS escort of a Macross colonization fleet may take years, if not a decade or two... there's two ways that the UN Spacy could be handling the escort duties that I can think of.

1) Escort fleets have duty rotations of several years, after which (during a stop of the convoy for resupply from Earth or whatever resources are available in nearby star systems which aren't suitable for colonization but which have usable materials) they jump in a new escort group and the old group returns home to whatever base they were stationed at.

2) Escort fleets are set up for long-haul deployments of a decade or more, and the families of people in the escort group go along with the cityships, and when the colonization group finds a suitable world to settle become permanently based in that system, but do detached duty elsewhere as required by the UN Spacy like a 'modern' version of the Roman legions.

This doesn't count any private escort forces/mercenaries/security groups that the colonization fleet may possess, as those could be professionals who are effectively space nomads that live out of their carriers or hired hands who are former military or private security that have a contract that stipulates they get to settle a new colony in return for providing protection along the length of the trip.

Either way, interstellar communications is relatively easy (it has to be for stars like Sheryl to become galactic sensations and travel between fleets and possibly worlds), which means that the UN Spacy can be somewhat decentralized as far as running affairs go. It does appear, at first glance, to be a federal sort of system with satellite states (the colonies) running their own affairs but certain matters are handled at a federal (UN Spacy) level; that's why they've got regulations on hunting space whales and the like.

My question is whether New Macross-class Battleships are 'leased' to the colony fleets so they have to purchase them, or if they're 'owned' by the NUNS and end up on long-duration or permanent deployment in the systems that the colonies end up in? If the colonies are satellite states set up in the arrangement I detailed above, and option #2 is involved (the colonies become that escort group's permanent station/home base), that means the UN Spacy's forces are rather spread out but they can call them in to be dispatched to any point where trouble's starting (like another Zentradi invasion led by Quamzin).

If they're 'owned' by the fleet that they escort, then the UN Spacy has to be very careful about who they sell these ships to lest we get another situation like the Macross 13 incident from the VF-X-2 game... but it explains why the Macross 5 fleet had three New Macross-class ships available to it at the time they met the Protodevlin. If the New Macross ships are still owned by the UN Spacy but get assigned on a permanent basis to the system the colony lands in, that means that the UN Spacy has to heavily subsidize the colonization project in order for it to work (as they're having to build an escort fleet for each colony group, or lose them out of existing forces until they can be replaced or the colony settles somewhere)... especially as, without fold crystals to make fold reactors work well, spacefolds are still energy intensive and limited to a certain range per jump, which means fleets may spend days if not weeks in transit from point to point... a far cry for modern-day travel where any two cities are effectively no more than 18-24 hours apart by airplane due to the small distances and easy access to fast aircraft.