FD 120 · Authority, safety and the exercise record

Publication and delivery

This course is published for study. Publication does not confirm an available class, appointed instructor or completed practical validation. Before booking, obtain a session brief naming the organiser, instructor and assessor, equipment access and any independent review arrangements.

Discussion and written work may be prepared independently; assessed completion still requires an appointed assessor and evidence against the published criteria. A material game update calls for a check of affected tasks, not cancellation of earlier academic achievements.

Your brief

For crew members who need to question an instruction and preserve a fair record.

The Academy Ordinance makes honest reporting and review part of service. This case tests those duties without asking a learner to guess another person’s motives.

An instruction beyond its authority

Practice case · FD 120 · 2956 teaching edition

The session brief permits any participant to stop the exercise.
A participant says “Stop”; the exercise leader orders another attempt.
One witness reports the words directly. Another heard only the final instruction.

Before you begin: entry and equipment

Complete these courses

FD 100 · Crew induction and communications

Bring or arrange

The current Charter, Academy Ordinance and the course case below.

The organizer must confirm equipment access before booking. No ship purchase, pledge tier or donation is required.

Technical knowledge and game skills

Practical instruction revision 1 · 9 October 2026

Mission permission and the game’s law system

Read the contract before entering

Identify the employer, objective, location, permitted targets and failure conditions in the mission journal. In a Defend Occupants mission, friendly security personnel occupy the same space as hostiles; harming an ally can fail the shared mission. Share and verify the contract with every participant rather than assuming the leader’s access protects the entire party.

Separate access from permission to fire

An open door, an unlocked ship or a missing marker does not establish a lawful target. Stop on a trespass warning and check the active objective, location and departure requirement. Treat an armistice indicator as a game restriction, not a general promise that nobody can harm you. Academy permission to run a drill never overrides the game’s jurisdiction or another player’s participation.

Preserve the useful evidence

After a disputed shot, record the active contract, identified target, location, warning and observed result. A HUD colour alone is weak identification evidence. Stop further firing, get the party to a safe location and check the mission and legal state before deciding the next movement. Avoid repeatedly entering a restricted area merely to recreate the incident.

Practical drill

Compare a lawful bunker objective with an unrelated restricted-site visit. Mark who is allied, what establishes access and when the team must leave. Run the stop call without firing at any uninvolved character.

Observed-skill checks

The learner identifies contract-specific allies and access conditions.
The squad stops on an unresolved identification or trespass conflict.
The incident account separates the game warning from assumptions about intent.

Use these checks to document the technical evidence supporting the course outcomes in your agreed role. Record what you personally performed, what assistance you needed and what remains unobserved. A discussion or simulated action does not certify live equipment handling; Crew Support evidence does not confer Pilot qualification.

Game references and build-sensitive details

The linked pages were read for this revision. Community references mix release eras; each source note identifies what is used and what is excluded. Technical explanations below are an Academy synthesis, and drills and performance checks are Academy-designed. Before practice, compare the named actions with the installed LIVE build and actual equipment. Bind actions by name rather than copying old default keys. Research is not an in-game validation.

Star Citizen Wiki — Defend Occupants
A specific lawful bunker mission, shared access, allied NPCs and friendly-fire consequences. Other contracts have different conditions. Squad drills below are Academy teaching methods, not claimed game rules.
Star Citizen Wiki — CrimeStat
Consequences of assault, prohibited cargo and restricted access. Historical thresholds and clearance instructions are not relied upon; jurisdiction and contract text govern the exercise.

Check the official LIVE release notes and record the session build, equipment and observed limitations before practical sign-off.

Learn the method

1. Find the authority behind the order

Start with the decision being requested. Find the Charter, Academy Ordinance or exercise instruction that covers it, then identify who may make it. A title is not a substitute for the relevant provision; where the text is silent, ask rather than invent permission.

Distinguish four questions: what the game permits, what the participating organisation authorises, what the exercise brief allows and what the player has agreed to do. These are different sources of permission. A game interaction being available does not settle the other three, and a fictional office cannot grant real access to another player’s account.

Practise: Mark the source and limit of a disputed instruction.
Ready when: You cite a retrievable provision or clearly identify the missing authority.

2. Act on a stop request

Acknowledge a participant’s stop request and pause the exercise. Check privately what is needed before discussing a restart. Scenario rank cannot cancel that request, and nobody must explain personal circumstances to the whole crew.

A pause is an operational action, not merely a spoken acknowledgement. Halt the drill, establish a safe holding arrangement and avoid leaving a participant exposed while everyone discusses procedure. Resume only after the organiser confirms an agreed scope; a participant may leave without presenting a private explanation to the group.

Practise: Respond to a stop request while an exercise leader wants to continue.
Ready when: You stop the activity and identify who will arrange a safe, agreed next step.

3. Write what the record can support

Separate what you saw, what someone reported and what you inferred. Include the action taken and any question still open. Leave out private details that do not help explain the decision.

Use a short chronology: time, source, event, immediate response and unresolved question. “No reply received on the working channel after two calls” is evidence; “refused the order” adds an unsupported interpretation. Preserve corrections as additions so a reviewer can reconstruct what was known when the decision was made.

Practise: Write an incident note from conflicting accounts.
Ready when: The reader can distinguish observations, reports and unanswered questions.

A worked decision

The exercise leader orders another attempt after a stop request. The observer pauses the session and records both statements without guessing why either person spoke.

Pause the attempt and acknowledge the stop. Arrange the immediate next step privately with the participant.
Record the instruction, stop request and response in order. Attribute the second witness’s account rather than presenting it as your own observation.
Refer the disputed instruction using the Ordinance and session brief. Do not enter a disciplinary finding into a learning note.

Try it yourself

Write a six-line incident note that a reviewer can follow. Include the source of authority, action taken and one question still requiring evidence.

What changes during the exercise

A senior role claims that an exercise order overrides a stop request.

Keep this record

Instruction / issuer / cited authority and limit
Observed sequence / attributed reports / uncertainty
Immediate action / referral question / review contact

Download FD 120 worksheet

Plain-text worksheet with this case, your working fields and the assessment criteria. Fill it in privately; downloading does not submit work or record completion.

Check your reasoning

Can a record say that someone deliberately disobeyed when all it shows is a missing reply?

Compare your reasoning

No. Record the missing reply, your contact attempts and their effect. Intent needs evidence; it cannot be inferred from silence alone.

Answer first, then compare. In a later session, explain the decision using a changed case without referring to this answer.

How completion is judged

A source check and a short incident note with a review contact.

The assessor checks your own work against all three “Ready when” criteria above. Use the observed-skill checks in the technical chapter to establish the applicable game-handling evidence in your agreed role. A successful team result does not replace an action they did not observe.

Findings, another attempt and review

Demonstrated: Your observed work meets the criterion in the agreed role.
Further practice required: The assessor identifies the observed gap and the specific practice needed.
Interrupted: Equipment, staffing or personal circumstances prevented a valid assessment. This is not a failure.
Not assessed: There is not yet enough evidence for this outcome.

A fresh attempt

Use a missing acknowledgement rather than a stop request. Separate a possible communications failure from an unsupported misconduct claim.

Reassess the missing outcome, plus any linked skill that needs new evidence. For prior learning, compare existing work with the same criteria and observe any missing practical action.

Ask for the reasons behind a finding. Reviews must be handled by someone independent of the original decision; defer the review if that person is not available.

Read the Academy Ordinance and review rules

For instructors

Session setup and coaching

Prepare the session

The current Charter, Academy Ordinance and the course case below.

Assign crew stations and tell each learner what they will practise. The instructor must be able to hear the calls and see the action being assessed. Brief the callsigns, channel, route and expected duration. Replace the example locations with the places you will actually use.

Ask the learner to explain the relevant earlier procedure without notes; correct any gap before the practical.
Teach and demonstrate the technical chapter using the actual game indications. Run its drill with feedback before connecting those skills to the three methods and worked decision. Use the observed-skill checks to identify missing handling evidence.
Let the learner complete the normal procedure first, then introduce the change described in the exercise. Give them time to respond without coaching. Keep unrelated failures out of this attempt.
Record the learner's action against each criterion. Give one specific next step for any gap and transfer unfinished operational work before closing.

What to watch for in FD 120

Challenge unsupported words such as “deliberately” or “insubordinate.” Ask which observation would justify them.

If another attempt is needed

Use a missing acknowledgement rather than a stop request. Separate a possible communications failure from an unsupported misconduct claim.

Running the exercise

Give the learners the brief and the source documents before the discussion. Ask them to explain what they would do, then change one condition and hear their revised decision.

Brief the command “Stop exercise” before starting. On that call, cease the drill and tell the instructor what needs attention. For weapons practice, identify the participating ships and crew; anyone else entering the area is a reason to hold fire.

Session administration: use player handles in your notes. Ask before recording voice or video, and agree when the recording will be deleted. Academy rules and review procedure.

Sources and edition

Lex Astra · Foundation teaching team
Course FD 120 · edition 2956.3 · 2956 teaching edition · revised course text.

Academy Ordinance

Governs instruction, individual assessment, conduct and review. This course turns those duties into crew practice.

Professional references and instructional revision

Instruction revised 9 October 2026. Lex Astra cases supply the teaching situations. Professional references inform communication, decision-making and instructional design; they do not confer external qualifications. LIVE capabilities remain subject to the recorded session check.

Editorial context and teaching basis

The lessons are current Academy teaching, not newly discovered historical records. Lex Astra opened in 2891. Historical sources keep their original issuer and date; all case callsigns, quantities, times and conditions are supplied for practice.

Your session brief names the instructor, the crew assignments and the equipment provided. Contact the teaching office above to arrange a place.

Course-text revision: 8 October 2026. Educational references were reviewed for the framework on 8 October 2026; they inform the teaching approach, not external accreditation or current game-capability claims.

Teaching research and its limits

Where this leads

Qualification and role requirements

Courses that use this work

Course records retain the edition and role assessed. New teaching text does not erase earlier achievements.