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((to put here: https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Unathi_Military_Structure#Naval_Personnel_and_Equipment ))

Personnel

The navy, much like the ground forces of the Hegemony, is broken up into two distinct personnel categories. The officer corps, composed of mainly nobility and some K’lax Warriors; and the enlisted, which is an odd collection of Unathi Peasantry, K’laxan Vaurcae, and even some lesser nobility who were unable to become officers immediately. They use the same ranking system as the Hegemonic ground forces, with key differences in the officer ranks - based instead on human interstellar navies, with officers given far more power over their assigned ships. The biggest difference of naval officers though is their position as a standing force of the Hegemon. Instead of being loyal to vassals or other Lords of the Hegemony, naval officers swear fealty directly to Not’zar, making the navy his and his alone, granting the Izweski total control of the star lanes. This is not the case for enlisted crew, who instead swear fealty to the officers(lords) of their ships, swearing new oaths every time they are transferred from one ship to another, or a ship command is changed. It is this that allows Hegemonic naval officers to take the title of Lord-Rank, instead of a simple rank, such as Lord-Admiral Trazial Yizarus, the most famous Unathi naval commander.

A refitted ship going through space. Ships like these were what made up the vast majority of the original Izweski Navy.

However, having enlisted crew swear allegiance to their officers instead of the Hegemon directly has been met with criticism by some, most notably Mirazuz Izweski himself, and not without reason. When Hegemon S’kresti fell into a coma in 2458, a succession crisis erupted within the Hegemony between Not’zar, Skresti’s eldest son, and Lord S’linzar Ickza, S’kresti’s son-in-law, over who should be given the title of Lord Regent. Half the fleet officers defected from the Izweski Clan under the command of Lord-Admiral Azikyui Yizarus, Trazial’s younger brother - and the enlisted men, bound by oaths to their officers, went along with them. While the crisis was averted, and Not’zar eventually placed as Lord-Regent of the Hegemony, it illustrated the potential issue of disloyal officers, particularly those who were from the original pirate fleet assembled by S’kresti. Not’zar would respond to this by initiating a fleet-wide purge of officers under the direction of Lord-Admiral Trazial Yizarus - who had sided with the Lord-Regent during the crisis - in order to turn the naval officer corps into not only a professional force, but one that was loyal to the Izweski alone. This purge laid the foundation of the modern officer corps known today, with sweeping reforms that for the first time opened education centers similar to officer-candidate-schools, where potential officers would be taught the fine points of space warfare, while also heavily indoctrinated with engrained senses of loyalty to the Izweski. Yizarus would use his powers as director of the purge to install many of his clan within the reformed officer corps, resulting in clan Yizarus making up a vast majority of the navy's higher ranking members. With the arrival of the K’lax, Not’zar saw an opportunity to expand these schools as well as the navy itself, and began inducting K’lax as not only instructors, but officers for his new fleet. Today, the officer corps of the Hegemonic navy is composed of military professionals, who despite using outdated tactics, are loyal and eager to serve their Hegemon and his clan, but who will also never forget the betrayal of half the fleet during the succession crisis.

For the enlisted however, the story is different. Little has changed for them since the Hegemonic Navy was first formed, and they toil under their officers the same way they always have. Ships have become more modern and training generally become higher quality, but for many advanced tasks, officers are still relied upon. For many of the enlisted ranks, they are keenly aware that despite having reached a pinnacle of what may be their military careers, and trained beyond what even some armsmen undergo, they are still lessers of their officers, who view the enlisted as little more than rabble whose help is needed to run the ship in combat. The enlisted members of the navy are trained to do their tasks in rote order, doing one thing after the other day in and day out, rather than truly thinking for themselves. Onboard a Hegemonic vessel, whenever serious repairs are undertaken or things outside of what enlisted would consider their daily tasks done, it is common to see officers holding the tools, or completing the task; though sometimes, a particularly trusted enlisted man might be given a rank similar to standard-bearer, plus some extra training, and work in an officers stead. This lack of intensive training for the enlisted of the navy is born out of a mistrust by the nobility of the Hegemony, who Not’zar was forced to yield to. The biggest concern for any noble is that a peasant uprising would be able to occur aboard one of the vessels of the Hegemonic Navy, and that the peasants, once in control, would be able to effectively operate the vessel. Therefore, outside of the countless minor tasks needed to keep a starship functioning, the training of larger operations, such as firing the weaponry, piloting, and so forth, is entrusted only to the majority noble officer corps.

It is debatable what effect this has had on the effectiveness of the Hegemonic Navy. One could argue it has no effect at all, but that would only be because the Navy’s tactics are so outdated that their baseline effectiveness is too low for this type of stringent difference in training to have an effect. What is more important is the effect that this has on the Navy’s morale. While officers generally live in good conditions, well compensated for their service with a high degree of freedom, the enlisted ranks find themselves curtailed, poorly-compensated, and looked down upon by their officers. Morale within the enlisted ranks is therefore incredibly poor, with consequences for the Hegemonic Navy. Under Not’zar’s reforms post-succession crisis, he believed that the enlisted ranks could be filled out on a volunteer basis - a man would volunteer for a set term, before either re-enlisting or being discharged to pursue other goals. Due to poor morale, re-enlistment rates within the navy are incredibly low, near twenty percent for non-Vaurca, resulting in what many call a “revolving door scenario” where men simply move through the navy instead of remaining in it. These men mostly look beyond Moghes to the rest of the stars for future work, using their limited experience with the Hegemonic Navy to secure positions with human megacorporations throughout the rest of civilized space. So far, there has been no attempt to reform the navy to deal with this problem, as the Hegemony has been dealing with more pressing matters. Mizaruz Izweski has begun to make noises about it, calling it a shame, and pushing the Hegemony - most notably the Yizarus clan - to begin reforming the navy so that it may better treat its enlisted members, and thereby hold onto them for longer.

As the Navy and the Kataphract Guild have served similar roles - acting as forces directly answerable to the Hegemony - it is perhaps natural that a rivalry has developed between the two groups. Some among the Navy’s personnel tend to, though with respect for their prowess in combat, view the Kataphracts as arrogant - seeing their adherence to ancient tradition as nothing more than a way to make themselves seem more grand, and their mercenary work across the wider Spur as a dereliction of duty. The worst views of the Kataphracts among the navy see the wandering knights as treating their service to the Hegemon as an inconvenient fact rather than a duty, and wasting the resources given them by the Izweski on wandering about the Spur going on adventures.

The Kataphracts, meanwhile, have a similar opinion of the Navy - believing that, though they provide a necessary service, they are not true warriors, only experiencing combat from across the vastness of space - and that their insistence on looking down on those who serve the Hegemon elsewhere dishonors them. Though the two groups have often cooperated in military actions, there is a general spirit of competition and one-upping between Kataphracts and Naval forces when this does occur - with the Kataphract-Hopefuls tending to become far more invested in the rivalry than their superiors.

Ranks of the Izweski Navy

Naval Auxiliary (Sinta’unathi: Zurekeha): As the navy is a fully professional army, there are no such things as levies. Thus, despite similar names, Naval Auxiliaries do not work exactly like their planetary counterparts. Naval Auxiliaries are, for all intent and purposes, a new recuit still learning about life on a ship. These can fill many roles so long as they are supervised by other crewmembers, when they are not taking care of chores across the ship. Auxiliary are paid a pittance, but thankfully rarely stay at this rank for long, as it generally takes just a month or two for them to reach the rank of Shipman.

Shipman (Sinta’unathi: Zunha): The backbone of the Izweski Navy, the Shipmen can tend to anything across a ship, from security to cooking, from logistics to gunnery, boarding and EVA combat to engineering. Shipmens are never seen operating on their own, unless something went truly wrong, and are instead under the constant of authority of another superior, no matter their situation or role.

Naval Specialist (Sinta’unathi: Zuozas): Much like with their planteray counterparts, this is an in-between rank, applied to shipmen with skills outside of combat that are of use on the battlefield. This rank is frequently used for medics, engineers, technicians, chaplains and any others, an odd mixture of any and all specialists within a lord’s military force. Though the Navy happens to have a little more women in its ranks than in the plantary force, the rank of specialist is still the place where they are more often seen.

Flagbearer (Sinta’unathi: Zuruki): As the name suggests, the Flagbearers work much like their planteray counterparts as well. They are tasked with leading entire teams as well as taking responsabilities for them, and these teams might fill any role, they could be compared to the department command members of the Horizon in that sense. Flagbearers can also rarely be seen commanding ships, generally small shuttle-sized crafts to lead a fireteam, for instance.

Shipmaster (Sinta’unathi: Karzuo): The lowest ranks for officers, the Shipmasters, as the name implies, get to command their own ships. Said ships, however, are generally smaller or otherwise less important crafts: Foundation-class Corvettes, ships relagated to lone patrol missions, support and logistics crafts, and so on.

Squadronmaster (Sinta’unathi: Uzwezuo): Squadronmasters get to command their own ships as well, though these are very often much more important. Brawlers, Bulwarks, and the occasional support ship if its mission is truly important. As their name suggest, though, their authority extend beyond their own ships. The vessels Squadronmasters lead are rarely alone, and have their own small fleet, a squadron, around them, with strike and escort crafts that are all under their authority.

Admiral (Sinta’unathi: Zura’saa): Traditionally called Fleetmasters in the old Moghesian Navy, the Admirals earned their new name as the first modern fleets of the Izweski Navy were formed to differentiate them from their planetary counterpart. The Admirals are tasked with leading an entire fleet, as well as the flag-ship they command from. In practice there are currentlyonly four Admirals, one for each fleet. Beyond being military leaders, Admirals also have some political sway, and are often called to provide advice to the Hegemon itself, for instance when Hegemon Not'zar Izweski gathered the Admirals to discuss about how implicated loyal pirates should be in their service.