getting ready to start my "crew is imperial navy" adventures. i'm wondering what one would consider standard gear onboard a small (under 1000 dtons) IN vessel. i'm sure snub pistols would be. gauss rifles, maybe not. combat armor, on a ship with no marines/ship's troops, probably not.
I'd say it may very well depend on the ship's mission and environment. If they're expected to be operating independently of other fleet units, they're going to potentially have to deal with any problems on their own. If there's even a chance you're going to be expected to board a pirate (for example), and you don't have anything on board more deadly than the fruitcake Aunt Margrethe mailed you for the Emperor's Birthday four years ago, you are in a world of hurt. I also think it would be seriously disruptive to crew morale to have insufficient (or improperly maintained) survival gear in case of catastrophe; it seems dubious that Navy policy would be "Pray you die in the catastrophe, because any survivors are totally up the creek without a paddle". However, the Navy is certainly going to figure out ways to deal with problems that are considered likely to arise, or that would be catastrophic if they did occur, even if they're not very likely.
There will be some way to abandon ship, whether it's small craft or lifeboats. Everyone's going to have vacc suits at least (and combat armor is just an armored vacc suit, after all -- GT, p. 118), since it's certainly possible that the hull could suffer decompression in combat, or personnel might have to go extravehicular for some reason. Since there has been some tension with the Zhodani in recent history, I'd expect to see psi-shielding on helmets and the ship as a whole. There's going to be some sort of medical equipment, even if it's just an emergency-aid station.
Crews for smaller ships will be trained to cover all sorts of possibilities. While you may or may not have actual "ship's troops" or Marines, there will almost surely be someone designated "chief master-at-arms" who will be able to lead the crewmembers who have some training in personal weapons. Remember that the Navy's Bureau of Personnel is going to have records of all the equipment that each crewman is qualified on, and there will be crewing requirements to be met. It's not uncommon for a ship to be somewhat undermanned in some non-critical areas (if regulations call for fourteen drive hands, you might sail with only twelve if the Chief Engineer trusts his gang), but if you're missing something that the Navy (or the ship's captain) views as essential ("Um, who knows how to fly this thing?"), then you're not going to sail.
Equipment's going to work in much the same way. If the ship is a logistics vessel running transferring supplies and personnel in a safe area of Gushemege sector (which sounds like a boring game, but I'm just using that for the sake of example here), the captain might very well get underway with an incomplete loadout of missiles and personal weaponry. If you're on convoy escort in Corridor while the Vargr are raiding, only a fool would report his ship ready for duty without being loaded to capacity.
I'd certainly expect a wide variety of communications and sensor gear (though perhaps not including densitometers and neural activity sensors, unless boarding activities are planned); if the captain has to send a runner with a message, something will have gone seriously wrong. Emergency gear will cover deep-space emergencies and if you're operating in a less-populated area, might be sufficient to allow survival for quite a while until help arrives; I'd consider six weeks of supplies for the entire crew a bare minimum. Personal weaponry, probably low-recoil in nature; snub pistols and accelerator rifles will allow flexibility between HEAT and chemical rounds, laser weapons can be recharged (although you still have the powerpacks to deal with), but I would be surprised if there was anything heavier. I'd expect some breaching charges for rescue work at least, though not much else in the way of explosives; perhaps some "flash-bangs". Freight-handling equipment of some sort will be important, although Marines in powered armor can be helpful here, too -- see
Far Trader for details.
Personal eccentricities can accommodate some other things, but keep in mind that on a smallish vessel, it's hard to keep major secrets. Sure, the CPOs might have a still hidden in some unused cranny, but nobody's going to smuggle speeder bikes on board without an officer finding out (Now, he might not
do anything about it, or he might even encourage it -- depends on what it is). There will be some personal gear stowage, but it's not going to be very much; probably the equivalent of a footlocker, and it's going to be subject to inspection to determine if everything is allowed by regulations.
