Warbarge

Wars run on fuel, and the Warbarge runs the fuel. The Crimson Pact's heaviest tanker carries enough bunkerage to sustain a strike group through a multi-system campaign without resupply, and is armored to make sure it arrives. Two autocannon batteries are not enough to repel a serious threat, but they are enough to convince the casual opportunist that there are easier targets in the system. Pact doctrine assigns Warbarges their own escort wings on the principle that the loss of a Warbarge ends the operation it serves: the math is simpler than commanders like to admit. The captain receives standing orders to ram any boarding ship that breaches the perimeter, on the grounds that a Warbarge lost in transit is worth less than the same Warbarge lost on arrival. Pact accountants have done the calculation and signed off.