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The StarFleet is really a very simple system. Most of StarFleet adopted the old earth navy rates while the Marines adopted the old earth army rating. This would be a good spot to outline what department uses which color as most pips presented here will be in the default red.

• The Command Department is symbolized by red.
  The Security, Engineering, and Operations staff wear yellow pips
  The Science, Medical, and Counseling staff are teal.
  StarFleet Marines are easily discernible by their green pips.
  Civilians who may have been given provisional rank wear white pips to distinguish them from StarFleet personel regardless of department.

With that said, all shipboard departments except the Marines will use the Naval ranking system. To save time shown below are all comissioned ranks in both the Naval and Marine ranks. Their names have been included to prevent confusion. The list flows in order of the Chain of Command from top to bottom starting with the Fleet Admiral who is directly responsible to StarFleet Command for the entirety of the 4th fleet.

Fleet Admiral			General of the Marine Corps
Admiral			General
Vice Admiral			Lieutenant General
Rear-Admiral			Major General
Commodore			Brigadeer General
Captain			Colonel
Commander			Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant Commander			Major
Lieutenant			Marine Captain
Lieutenant Junior Grade			1st Lieutenant
Ensign			2nd Lieutenant

As you can see it's quite a simple system really. However, you may have noticed some of the names seem rather long and formal. Indeed, you're right, some are. In the middle of combat while barking orders no CO is going ot take time to say the complete rank of say a Lieutenant Junior Grade. Also, in normal speach that is entirely too long to say. To this end most persons will cut off several of the ranks. You will most often here a Lieutenant Junior grade refered to as "Lieutenant" despite not actually holding that rank. Lieutenant Commander and the Admirals are similary handled being normally said as "Commander" and "Admiral" respectively. The same idea holds true for the marine ranks. Ranks also tend to be abbreviated in writing. In general these are very easy to understand and are not listed here.

As pretty as the officer ranks are, not everyone can have one. As with the ancient Earth millitary, the primary component of StarFleet and the Marines are the enlisted personel. Officers outrank all enlisted personel, however this isn't always held but that will be discussed furhter on in our discussion of StarFleet ranking. This chart flows the same as the officer chart does with Master Cheif Petty Officer of the Fleet and the Seargant Major of the Fleet reporting to the proper areas of StarFleet Command.

Master Cheif Petty Officer of the Fleet			Seargant Major of the Fleet
Master Cheif Petty Officer			Seargant Major
Senior Cheif Petty Officer			Master Seargant
Cheif Petty Officer			Major General
Petty Officer First Class			Staff Seargant
Petty Officer Second Class			Seargant
Petty Officer Third Class			Corporal
Crewman			Lance Corporal
Crewman Apprentice			Private First Class
Crewman Recruit			Private

Again, many of these ranks are excessively long and tend to be abbreviated as a matter of course. Now, all enlisted crew are outranked by officers. You may be guessing then that there is some difference between enlisted personel and officers. You would again be correct. Enlisted officers go through a much breifer training period than officers and could generally be said to be less experienced when starting than officers. However, if a person sticks with it long enough an enlisted person may become an officer. Upon reaching the rank of Cheif Petty officer, an enlisted crewman may request upon his/her next promotion to be given a commission as a naval LT. or Marine equivalent.

There is one more set of ranks. They are warrant officers. Warrant Officers hold their positions and rank "by warrant". In simple terms, that means that a warrant officer is an extremely skilled enlisted crewman and very knowledgeable in his or her department. Warrant Officers are still outranked by all Comissioned officers but they outrank all enlisted personel. Warrant Officers may also hold any staff position. This chart flows the same way as the previous two.

Cheif Warrant Officer 3
Cheif Warrant Officer 2
Cheif Warrant Officer
Warrant Officer

Warrant Officers are also abbrevaited same as the other two. To become a Warramt Officer an enlisted crewman must first attain the rank of Cheif Petty Officer and then request to be made a warrant officer on his/her next promotion. A Warrant Officer also may request a promotion to Naval LT. on his or her next promotion. So now, I'm sure you are wondering why anyone would want to become a Warrant Officer. There are several reasons. First and foremost, it amy not always be posssible to grant an NCO a commission but becoming a Warrant Officer allows an NCO to still pursue posts held by Officers or NCOs. Another reason is that there are several high-level positions that may only be held by enlisted personel and some that may only be held by Warrant Officers.

So, we have a clear cut chain-of-command right? Wrong. All officers outrank Warrant Officers who in turn outrank all enlisted personel. However, in actual practice rank is often the least used factor in determining the actual CoC. Most COs tend to value experience, position, and suitability far more than rank. This is where things start to get complicated and will be divided into further paragraphs.

The first part we will explore is position. We'll start with an example. Say, that a Cheif Warrant Officer is the Cheif Engineer aboard a starship but one of his engineering officers is a Lt., based on rank the Lt. is higher on the CoC than the CWO. However, due to the CWO's position as Cheif Engineer the CWO may give orders to the Lt. which he would be expected to obey. We can make this into a simple rule: All Senior Staff are Higher on the CoC Than any Member of the Junior Staff Regardless of Rank. This would also be a good place to state another key part of the CoC. All Department Heads are Equal in Authority Regardless of Rank. So we can now make a generilization about the CoC aboard a StarFleet vessel or installation. The CoC Normally Flows From CO to XO to Department Heads to Junior Staff.

Another important aspect is suitablity. This is where the CoC starts to gain situational flexibility as well as common sense. We've generalized that all department heads are equal in authority and are superior to all junior staff. However, in certain situations this may not hold true. During a mass evacuation or medical emergency the CO is highly likely to place the Cheif Medical Officer and/or Counselor in command of the operation. By doing so he grants them temporary authority over the other department heads as they are far better trained to deal with the situation than any other member of the staff. Or antoher example, say, a ship is ordered to do an indepth study of active geological activity. A CO is far more likely to pick the geologist with years of experience at doing such surveys than say, the Cheif Science Officer, who may be specialized in Alien Exobiology, to command the team actually doing the survey, thereby giving them temporarily a higer spot on the CoC. So we can codify this into a general rule as well: The CoC may be modified by the CO to suit any given situation as he sees fit.

This is the last paragraph before we go into the experience part of our explination. Here we will discuss special exceptions to the CoC. The first one is the ability of the Cheif Medical Officer or Counselor to give any member of StarFleet a direct order or releive them from duty. The CMO and/or Counselor may only do this if they have a legitimate reason for doing so that falls within their area of expertise. An investigation into this reason is always conducted afterwards and can lead to severe disciplinary action if misused. Another exception is in an extreme emergency. If there is an intruder aboard or the torpedo storage room is about to explode most COs will excuse the complete disregard of the CoC by whoever notices this and their immediate notification of whoever is then in command of the bridge. So to generalize this into a rule: The Safety and Welfare of the Ship and its Crew ALWAYS take precedence over the formal CoC.

The Experience CoC

This is the last thing that affects the CoC. I listed it earlier but it's getting its own section as it can be quite complex in layout. However, it is quite simple. You have actually already learnt the basic idea of the Experience CoC already. Simply put the Experience CoC is the fancy way of saying: A Crewman's Actual Experience Outweighs his/her Rank. In general this is handled in a set manner, however, every CO is generally free to have his own interpretation and use this option as circumstances require.