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The Navigators maintain their own heavily armed security forces, mostly designed to protect the Navigator Houses and guard the [[Navigator's Quarter]] on [[Terra]]. In times of war the great wealth of the Navigator's allows them to gather [[mercenary]] armies that can rival a [[Planetary Defense Force]] or [[System Defense Fleet]].{{Fn|8}}
===TradewarTrade Wars==={{main|Trade War}}Conflicts between adversarial Navis Nobilite Houses can result in what is referred to as a trade war. These are controlled conflicts with set contracts for the rules of engagement during the quarrel, such as disallowing assassination attempts, open-warfare, destruction of assets, or other rules to mitigate damage. Open warfare is uncommon between Navigator Houses.{{Fn|16}} Though assassinations are often used between feuding Navigator Houses, open warfare is not uncommon as well. While this can occur without warning, a Navigator House can also formally declare a '''TradewarTrade War''' against a rival House. The [[Imperium]]'s [[Administratum]] allows this to occur, as the '''Navigator Conventions''' ensure a Tradewar Trade War is waged in a controlled fashion, that limits the amount of damage that can be done and prevents a Navigator House from destroying their rival. This is done by restricting their attacks to targets that both Houses agree to and using only forces that are under their direct command. Shipping lanes, mercantile operations and equipment are usually attacked in a TradewarTrade War, along with the Houses' employees and individual Navigators that have been declared as targets as well. All attacks must be limited to only the warring Houses themselves as well, which means that subsidiaries and allied lesser Navigator Houses are off limits. However, this last rule is often broken. Besides the number of lives lost in the conflict, Tradewars Trade Wars can also result in a Navigator House losing control of commercial contracts, markets or shipping routes to their rivals.{{Fn|15}}
Because they are paranoid that a Tradewar could always be declared against them, Navigator Houses go to great lengths to not appear militarily weak and pay well to maintain private armies. [[Mercenaries]] and [[Assassin]]s are used as well, but if a House can not or will not pay to hire or maintain an army, they will instead train their slaves or penitents to become their soldiers. But because of how expensive a Tradewar often is, they normally do not last long. Regardless of what their reasons were for waging them, the warring Houses will not often see it worth justifying the cost it would take to win a Tradewar or the potential loss in profits they can occur. Due to this premature ending, Tradewars tend to produce bitter enmities between the warring Houses and leave many scores unsettled. The '''Great Navigator Houses''' though, do not see Tradewars as open conflicts. Instead, they are merely viewed as an extension of the Great Houses' customary means of conducting a competition between rivals.{{Fn|15}}
*{{Endn|14}}: [[White Dwarf 140 (UK)]], pg. 59
*{{Endn|15}}: [[The Citadel Journal 18]], pgs. 28-29 - ''Navigators: The Return of the Imperial Navigator''
*{{Endn|16}}: [[Rogue Trader: The Navis Primer]], pg. 21
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