The test was in less than a week. Little enough time with Meier off on an inspection tour leaving him responsible for the fifteen merchants still orbiting Bull’s-Eye. Without conscious thought, Auro drew up Allison’s writings on the maintenance and inspection of depots.
Rules of Command
16.456.7L.1
Logistics/Forward Depots/Maintenance
A ship that is lacking supplies is crippled in combat. Our hundreds of years of experience has shown that the lack of even the most innocuous or seemingly useless item can mean disaster during a confrontation. It is therefore of vital concern that all units of the Fleet have a readily accessible source of supply available within as close of a proximity to any potential war zones as is practicable.
The stores of these bases should be maintained in as great a variety as possible. It is impossible and dangerous for those who are not actually on the scene to determine which items might be needed. The vital part played by cotton cloth in the negotiations with the Ferelunxi or the need to cover Marines in fish oils before combat on Tessar both demonstrate the immense variety of needs that can prove vital when days or weeks away from a trade center. This unpredictability also precludes any success by those not in the relevant combat situation from determining which stores may be considered vital.
The only conclusion that can be drawn from the impossibility of determining in advance which stores are going to be necessary is that each depot must contain the widest range of material possible.
While at first this may seem wasteful and not cost effective, it is in fact both. Stores, properly cared for and packaged can be retained for long periods of time. Further, these materials then remain available for redeployment, it being easier and less costly to transport as opposed to create and transport supplies to a new theater of operations. Finally, when the cost of the replacement of warships and their highly trained personnel is included, the loss of even a few of these vessels far outweighs the expense of maintaining field depots.
14.456.7In
Logistics/Forward Depots/Inspection
For reasons similar to those stated above, it serves no purpose to have the readiness of any depot facility judged by other than an officer who has seen recent combat . . .