“Nusquam subsisto tabellae” – motto (“Nothing stops the letters” [Latin])
Postmaster General – Robert E White
The Terran Alliance Postal Service is an organization built from the ground up in record time when the Alpha Prime colony was founded in 2025. Using surplus Navy hardware, they hired the best mechanics in the Alliance to supercharge their FTL and Sublight drives, turning the craft into high-speed couriers for use as mail transports. With the continued spread of humanity out from the Sol system, TAPS has also introduced a slower and cheaper shipping method that uses standard cargo transports as well.
Due to its important role in maintaining lines of communication and commerce in the Terran Alliance, as well as its role as the military’s primary means of communication with deployed forces, TAPS has a seat on the Joint Chiefs.
There has been some criticism of the fact that TAPS is technically an arm of the Armed Forces, leading to fears that the government could suppress communication in times of a crisis – or to suppress communication they do not approve of. TAPS is an arm of the TAAF for the simple fact that in the early days of FTL travel, the only group that had the capability to produce, staff, and operate FTL craft was the TAAF, which is why TAPS is under the jurisdiction of the Armed Forces. TAPS transports are also armed, which requires them to have government oversight. There are civilian courier organizations that can be used instead of TAPS, but TAPS has a reputation as being one of the best courier services in the Terran Alliance. The fact that they are an arm of the TAAF leads to inevitable rumors that the mail is being read in the name of Alliance security, and the fear that this rumor is true is what keeps the civilian courier services in business.
The command structure of TAPS is broken down into System Commands (who oversee the Carriers that distribute mail internal to a star system as well as the Postmasters of planets in that system), Service Commands (who oversee distribution inside a given branch of the TAAF to deployed forces), and Flight Command (who oversees distribution flights that travel between systems and deployed forces).
SYSPO-SOL: System Postmaster [Sol] Nosipho Afolayan
POST-MER: The Postmaster overseeing Mercury is Fatmir Baris
POST-VEN: The Postmaster overseeing Venus is Shahrazard Karimi
POST-EAR: The Postmaster overseeing Earth is Rudolf Panossian
POST-LUN: The Postmaster overseeing Luna is Hodei Arreola
POST-MAR: The Postmaster overseeing Mars is Stanislav Goranov
POST-JOV: The Postmaster overseeing the Jovian Colonies and mail transfers to the Teuthidoids is Anaïs Vilaró
POST-SAT: The Postmaster overseeing Saturn is Merryn Botterill
POST-NEP: The Postmaster overseeing the Neptune Astroconstruction Facilities is Ru Liu
POST-PLU: The Postmaster overseeing the Pluto Outpost is Naida Juric
POST-KBO: The Postmaster overseeing operations in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud is Siriporn Metharom
SYSPO-CENT: System Postmaster [Centauri] Maria Walentowicz (nee van Leeuwenhoeck)
POST-ALPHA: The Postmaster overseeing the Alpha Prime colony is Shresth Patil
POST-BETA: The Postmaster overseeing the Beta Prime colony is Artem Lagounov
SERPO-NAVY: Service Postmaster [Navy] Cairbre Paterson
SERPO-ARMY: Service Postmaster [Army] Holly Ryan-Collins
SERPO-MARN: Service Postmaster [Marines] Paula Engström
SERPO-CEC: Service Postmaster [CEC] Liudvikas Astrauckas
FLIPO: Flight Postmaster Orso Rosa