Ships and Stations
For immediate release to all cadets.
Officer and Enlisted
A reminder, all military Naorhy are females. If this causes you a problem notify your commander immediately and you will be transferred to another sector or duty. Naorhy wear unique clothing, please see the section on Historical Information for specifics. Unlike some of our enemies the Naorhy do not carry weapons concealed on their person. If they have it you will easily find it, just watch out for their natural claws as they can and will kill using these short weapons.
Although there are three separate space commands they all follow the same rank structure. As for uniforms, with the exception of Survey (their elite forces) they are various shades of browns. Survey wear black and silver much in the style as those seen in the ancient Japanese animation movies.
There are no Enlisted Grades in the Naorhy Space Services.
Naorhy Military Equipment
Design and Imperial Equivalents
Space Navy Ships
First and most importantly, you must always remember that there is no such thing as an unarmed Naorhy ship, and there are damn few private ships. If you meet a Naorhy ship the odds are fifty to one that you have encountered a military ship. Treat each such encounter as such and there is a good chance you will survive the encounter. Also, in battle kill every shuttle that is launched as, one on one, the average Naorhy armed shuttle is a match for any frigate in firepower at close range.
With only two exceptions all Naorhy ships are easily identified by their semi-arrowhead wedge shaped noses. Their heavy weapons are normally mounted equally 'above and below' their center lines. The exceptions are their smaller ships where the heavy weapons are mounted on the sides center lined, and their freighters where all heavy weapons are mounted 'below'. Their two exceptions to this wedge shape design is the Police and Frigate class. Both ships are double hulled (like a catamaran) and have 'pointed noses.' Their heavy weapons (if any) are mounted in the nose on the center line.
Almost all Naorhy ships carry at least a few fighter class shuttles, thus the term Carrier cannot be tagged on a single class of ship. Also as some designs were created to be effective in several jobs it is difficult to label these ships. For example, when encountering a ESHALIC class ship you have no idea as to how many fighter shuttles it may carry nor of what type. Its scientific sensors are also extremely effective in battle conditions. As a typical Naorhy battle fleet contains at least four of these ships, most opposing forces find themselves outclassed in this department, often at three to one odds (sensor to sensor.) As the ESHALIC can carry as many as eight fighter shuttles it easily meets the requirements of the Light Carrier class. Yet the original design was as a Survey ship.
Designations of Naorhy ships are by Design Class name and follow no particular order, in fact the Class ship will have a different name than the Ship Class! For an example, The ESHALIC is the design class name of the backbone of the Naorhy fleet, the Survey/Scout/Light Carrier. Yet the Class Ship is named IRON TOWER. Apparently the design teams give the basic design a name, then the ships are given a Class Name and any modifications grant yet another name.
Fleet Tactics as Known Today
As of this writing we have been involved in very few combat situations with the Naorhy. However one very unsettling fact has emerged, they like to get as close as they can and they are dammed good at doing that. Naorhy ships have extremely strong forward facing shields. Combined with their tactics of racing in, showing you first one side forward shield then the other, it is very difficult to do internal damage to them. In our limited experience a typical ship to ship encounter goes like this;
You both locate each other, the Naorhy swings to maximum speed while maintaining maximum defensive emissions and maneuvers. At optimum range you fire doing slight internal damage, before your weapons can cycle the Naorhy swings her opposite shield to you. Faced with a rapidly approaching ship and a new shield you fire somewhere in the overload range. The Naorhy accepts the internal damage, swings her forward shield to you, and blows you up at extreme close range, often passing under you before turning. In the unlikely event you survive with any weapons this forces you to fire at her full rear shields. Sometime during the pass she will launch her armed shuttles, thus in the unlikely event you survive the first encounter they will either finish the job or blow down your remaining shields.
This allows the Naorhy to conduct hit and run raids and transfer boarding parties on your ship. In the case of an ESHALIC ship you have a very good chance of losing your ship to capture in the first few minutes of combat.
Fleet to fleet combat tends to follow the same rules, except you now have to fight through massive anti-targeting jamming and your (usually) single assigned scout is often useless. This combined with an average of forty armed shuttles has made all such battles costly nightmares. It doesn't help that the average Naorhy boarding party is a well trained Marine while yours are simply ships Security personnel.
In short, unless you have the advantage in ships and weapons it is most strongly suggested that you do not engage your opponent. Even if their ship is physically smaller. With this race, size is not an indication of combat ability.
Admiral Philip Marteen Jr.
Commander
Imperial Military War College
1386 A.R.