The Valorian Trade Confederation is one of the largest spacefaring powers in the quadrant. It encompasses hundreds of inhabited worlds and several thousand systems. They are as a result the premier major power of the quadrant, while not as advanced as the more venerable races in the galaxy such as the Krall, they are technologically competitive with those races. They are particularly renowned for their expertise with energy shields. As a result of that expertise, their ships possess the strongest shields in the quadrant. Not only do their ships have strong shields, but many of their colonies and outposts do as well.
The Valorian Trade Confederation has been spacefaring for several centuries and has long-standing relationships with many of its neighbors. Their economy is built heavily on interstellar trade. They maintain numerous trade routes with their neighbors, which bring much wealth into the Confederation. As such they are one of the wealthiest races in the galaxy.
The Valorians themselves greatly resemble humans but do feature a few key differences in physiology, and this isn't just skin color. The conditions of their homeworld played some part in that. Much of it starting with the skin and just beneath. They have blue skin, although rarely it can be of other colors such as light purple. Their skin is especially adapted for colder worlds, and they don't require thick heavy clothes to protect them from the effects of a snowy winter. On the flip side they don't do so well in warm environments.
Of course, while they resemble humans it is important to note that they evolved on a homeworld a little different from Earth. They are also typically smaller than humans, this especially shows with Valorian males who are much smaller than human males. There are other notable differences many of them internal, but we are not going to cover them all here.
The Valorian Trade Confederation is ruled over via an elected council. Each of the major worlds is entitled one councilor on the council. This body controls all major decisions for the Valorian people and their subjects. The head of this body is referred to as the Chair, but in practice is only supposed to vote in the case of a tie. Unfortunately in recent years corruption has spread rampantly through the council as they have usurped funds from various other government organizations to fuel their pet projects.
The biggest victim of government corruption has in fact been the Valorian Star Navy. They faced consistent annual budget cuts over the last century, and often times portions of their budget have gone 'missing'. All of this can be traced back to corruption on the council. Unfortunately little has been done about that, and the military has been forced to make do with a shrinking budget too small to adequately fund a navy capable of defending the vast Confederation. As such the navy has been forced to make a number of compromises. Compromises reflected in the current configuration and load out of the Valorian navy, which lacks large-scale capital ships. The largest ship class regularly fielded by the Valorian navy is in fact a cruiser, specifically, it is the Protector Class heavy cruiser.
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The Protector class is certainly formidable, but its design reflects the limited budget of the Valorian Star Navy. First its defenses, the ship is protected solely by a class III Omicron shield generator, she features no armor, minimal hull reinforcement, and a lack of point defense systems. As a result, the ship relies almost entirely on her strong shields to protect her from enemy fire.
Like most Valorian ships, the vessel makes use of a Plasma Oscillation drive to produce highly efficient hyper-ionic thrust. The result is one of the most fuel-efficient main sublight drives in the galaxy, not even Human pulse wave engines can match the fuel efficiency of this sublight drive. With the limited budget of the Valorian navy this type of drive is highly attractive as it can save them significantly on fuel costs. In practice once launched, a typical Protector Class cruiser need only visit port for refueling once every fifty-seven years, and that is with factoring in the energy expenditures the ship may encounter during her lifetime. Hulls of this type are expected to serve the fleet for about a hundred and fifty years and designed accordingly. Which barring losses helps reduce the number of replacement vessels they need.
Another example of the limited budget makes itself known with their torpedo bays which are incredibly tiny for a ship in the two thousand meter class, at a mere eighty torpedoes tops. As such Valorian ships carry the fewest torpedoes of any spacefaring power on their ships. In stark contrast to the humans, who have the largest torpedo bays of any spacefaring power. Another thing to note, is that while the class does carry fighters, its hanger bay is quite small, and only supports about a dozen.
Valorian fighter craft have also suffered from this limited budget. While all Valorian fighters are capable of mounting short-range plasma missiles, they typically do not. They are also typically unarmored and protected solely by a fighter shield generator.
In recent years, the navy's budget problems have become glaringly obvious. Especially as refugees from states conquered by the Cathamari flock into Valorian space. Stability in the Confederation has taken a nosedive. As crime rates, especially piracy has gone sharply up. Much of this piracy can be traced to those refugees. Worse many refugees have clashed with the locals of the worlds that have taken them in, and many of those worlds are now unsafe. With rising crime, and a general clash of cultures.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Valorians have been becoming increasingly xenophobic of late, and are especially distrustful of refugees. This is not the case for all of them, and many still accept foreign traders at their ports. In any case, entry to Valorian space is something best done cautiously. Not to mention with the high piracy rates, it might be best to be prepared for battle at any moment.