The Knights of St. Bix

By 2247 humanity inhabited a growing sphere encompassing many thousands of cubic light years. Civilization made up a much smaller volume. As might be expected the Church spread almost as fast as humanity. As had happened too many times in the past, beyond the power of courts and police and peace-keepers some took advantage of those too weak to resist.
Initially travelers, pilgrims and colonists outside the boundaries of the coalescing Grand Human Union turned to private security companies. Such companies often hired personnel of dubious character themselves, and more than one group found their hired guards untrustworthy collaborators of pirates or criminals themselves.
Bix Woodforde  was a retired soldier who decided that there was a better way. He realized that a mercenary group inspired by payment, in the absence of civil authority, could easily slip into piracy or outlawry itself. He studied the still existing Order of Hospitallers, otherwise known as the Knights of Malta, as well as the Teutonic Knights, and the lay orders of the Knights of Columbus and of course the original Catholic order of knighthood the Order of the Knights of the Temple of Solomon, the Knights Templar.
He became convinced that only a group of soldiers who worked for a higher purpose, who took vows of poverty, obedience and chastity, and were dedicated to the protection of those in their charge might avoid that fate. He saw in the strict rule of the failed Templars the seeds of their failure, as well as a possible hope for a future order.
So Bix Woodforde needed a rule. Rather than the basing it on the Rule of Benedict, as did St. Bernard of Clairvaux, he based it on the Rule of St. Francis of Assisi. That made his Knight Guardians, as he called them, mendicants, that is, they neither individually nor collectively own property.  All must be donated to their use. Even ships and weapons belong to the Church, or still to those who have donated their use. In this way Bix sought to avoid the accumulation of wealth which was the downfall of the Order of Knights Templar.
The brothers would observe the Hours in their ships and bases. They would treat their foes with Christian charity and those under their care with respect and in such a manner as to guard their souls as well as their mortal bodies, or so was Bix hope.
Bix sought out a group heading into the Wilds, and with the backing of a number of priests in that group recruited men to join the band that he was forming for the group's protection.
This was the start of his order. Bix profited through the fact that some twenty years later one of those priest became first a bishop, and then a cardinal. Some fifty years later, with his order grown into the most powerful non-governmental military force in the Wilds, Blessed Bix Woodforde was canonized and the order of Knight Guardians became the Knights of St, Bix.

The Great Compromise

The Great Compromise is a symbol of both the imperfection of the temporal universe and the consequences of demographics on history. Some would also say it is an indication that a Pope's decisions outside the area of faith and morals are not infallible and might even be detrimental to the short term good of the Church. Others would point out that the Church should never impose but merely propose.
The Great Compromise is a legacy of the failings of the Progressive Era and the vast demographic shift of parts of Europe from Christian to Muslim. As secularism was squeezed out Sharia law became the predominate legal system for areas not traditionally Muslim. This did not sit well with all of the non-Muslim population, especially when coupled with the violence against Christians, Jews and non-believers that seemed to follow the Islamitization of most places.
This resulted in a long series of sectarian violence as Christians and secularist started taking reprisals for Muslim violence against non-Muslims in Islamic nations. For every church firebombed a Mosque was set ablaze. The Church spoke out against these actions, but was a lone voice as a combination of fear and survival instinct took over.
The remaining Secular/Christian nations, seeing the result of allowing Islamic groups to engineer demographic shifts through a pattern of emigration without absorption and eventual political manipulation responded by  passing reciprocity laws. That is Muslim immigrants were prohibited from practising their faith publicly because Christians were prevented from public practice of their faith in nations under Sharia law.
Eventually The Christian East looked to the Pope as the one man in the Christian West who could speak for the Unifying Church. At Dover a group from what was left of the European Union, the Organization of American States and various non-aligned nations met with the Pan Islamic Union under the oversight of the Pope.  Under much pressure from the national governments, the media and the Church the resulting treaty became the Great Compromise.
Under the Great Compromise the participants agreed that the reciprocity laws would be codified into international law. Christians would neither  seek converts nor publicly worship in Islamic territories. Likewise Muslims would no longer be allowed to raise Mosques nor establish schools or attempt to convert in Christian territories. A policy of ethnic cleansing would for all intents and purposes be allow by which groups would be "induced" to emigrate out of their homes and into the respective sectarian territories.
As might be imagined many Christians saw this as a betrayal of the Great Commission placed upon the Church by Christ. The Church's position was that Christianity should not be imposed at the point of a spear and rational argument was not possible with a philosophy which rejected rational theological discourse. Time was on the side of the Church, it was argued, and the problem should be left in the hands of the Lord.
While the Compromised reduced, indeed almost eliminated the violence in the First World, Africa continued to be a battleground right up until the beginning of the twenty third century and the invention of the Barnes-Gutierrez Hyperspace Engine and the diaspora.

Families

It should be no surprise that with the combination of thousands of worlds and faithful Christians and Muslims as the principle inhabitants of the universe of New Diasporia, that large families are the norm rather than the exception.
Family dynamics tend to be different from the historical trends. The Progressive Era tended to see the age at which couples initially married increase (as it also saw the duration of marriages decrease,  and eventually the total number of marriages diminish.) This was blamed on a variety of causes, but mostly on the requirement of increased education and economic factors. Historians agree that the real cause was a combination of unhealthy materialism and disordered self-absorption.
Modern Highland families tend to marry during their early twenties. This is made possible through the support of larger families which reduce the necessary economic burden of marriage. Marriages tend to last very long, since anagathic nanotech factories have extended human life far beyond earlier eras. Compatibility between prospective spouses is more readily assured by stringent Pre-Cana requirements for anyone contemplating marriage, as well as widespread moral support for the virtue of chastity.
Large Catholic families tend to include various members who choose not to marry, either for religious reasons or due to temperament. Not every man who chooses not to marry is suitable for the priesthood, monastery or hermitage.  Nor is every woman who chooses not to marry suitable for the cloister or religious life. Chaste single life apart from the formal orders of the Church is an honorable vocation, and one that carries no stigma. Some do eventually spend some time in discernment, but many return to the world to live on as ancillaries to their families as beloved aunts or cherished uncles or even to marry late in life.
Large families tend to accumulate greater wealth. They take better care of their older members, rather than pushing that duty off on the state or leaving it to the individual. Under Distributism many businesses are family businesses. A large number of brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins tends to mean that there are always enough family members interested in the family business to allow some family members to choose the Church, military or government as viable alternatives without effecting the ability of the family business to survive.
From a game play point of view this means the the chances are the individual Player Character  has a large retinue of near and far relatives, the balance of which may be at their ancestral home, but many who might be in the bosom of the Church, military or government and stationed almost anywhere.
It also means the lone wolf, orphan or solitary character is likely to have an unusual background. Of course it is not unlikely that adventures are more apt than not to have come from such an unusual background.

Wild Campaigning

Now it should not be a surprise that the farther one gets into the Wilds the more bizarre and disordered the indigenous civilizations tend to become.
People at the rim do not tend to come from the Highlands. They are not typically orthodox in their religious beliefs, nor are they well educated in Natural Law and the consequences of ignoring its conclusions. Many have fled to the rim precisely because the consequences of poor societal decisions have caught up with the places of their origin, be it economic collapse, sociological instability or moral confusion.
In many places the Church has attempted to re-inject sanity, holiness and rationality in to civilizations which have strayed from reality, often facing persecution, martyrdom and other dangers. Often societal disorder is accompanied by loss of technological capability and industrial capacity, resulting in what in the Progressive Era was called a third world economy.
Amazingly there are oasis of high technology and spiritual orthodoxy in the Wilds. Unfortunately often such places are targets for their less enlightened, but more martial neighbors, who see them as little more than a treasure house of valuable booty.
Often the core of such a world is a vibrant reverent respect for the Church and a cadre of faithful clergy, religious and laity. Many have been faithful from the beginning, but more were saved through the actions of a particular Saint, order or Great Hero.
The endeavor to save such a world is a worthwhile goal of a campaign, and a party of PCs, requiring a range of skills and activities. These include proselytizing, evangelization, and often combat, against external foes and internal rivals. The Just War doctrine exists for a reason and no one is required to stand by and see people slaughtered when they have the power to prevent it.
There are certainly some kinds of characters who are best for this kind of game. Suggestions follow.

The Actors of St. John Paul

The charism of an order is any of the spiritual graces and special characteristics which are exhibited by the order as a result of the vows they have taken and the orientation of the order to its task in the Church. Traditional charisms are embodied in the works of a teaching order (Jesuits) as compared with that of a missionary order (Maryknolls) or one devoted to the care of the poor(Missionaries of Charity). Often in the Church new orders, with new charisms, come into being to address some new situation or difficulty for the Church. For example the Dominicans (the Order of Preachers) was founded to counteract the Albigensian heresy.
One such order founded in the declining years of the Progressive Era is the Actors of St. John Paul. Founded by Blessed Curro Aguilar the special charisms of the Actors is the preaching of the Gospel and the teachings of the Church, especially to young people, through the medium of performance.
When the diaspora occurred members of the order quickly followed the spreading humanity to ensure that faith was not left behind.
The order's work in this area have resulted in the formation of the largest fleet of private couriers in both the Midlands and the Wilds, almost exclusively dedicated to the service of the Church.
Where ever they go Actors establish radio and video communication systems. They foster theater and music, all dedicated to teaching the faith of the Church, especially to the young.
Members of the order can most readily be identified by their devotion to Mary. While most have adopted the black jumpsuit with Roman collar worn by many other priests, they uniquely wear a blue rosary bracelet which is worn with another bracelet which consists of five white stones upon which are engraved the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary.
Actor courier ships tend to be run like small monasteries, with the crews following the order of the hours amid their shipboard work. They uniquely contain not only a chapel, but also a stage/studio where the performance of Christian plays is a regular occurrence.
The order is headed by a Master of the Order, who during the time period of New Diasporia is Fr. Nicolas Socius. Because the area of the New Diasporia is so far ranging local provincial governors have great flexibility and independence, as long as they keep to the rule of the order. Individual communities, which may be a ships crew or provincial house are run by a director, who is appointed by the provincial, with concurrence of the Master of the Order. The Master is appointed by the Pope from a list of three candidates proposed by the provincials. A number of roving censors act as agents of the Master and report to him on the functioning of the various communities.
Individual Actors sometimes take assignments from local Bishops or even the Holy Father himself. There have been several Actors who have been raised to Cardinal in the past, but none at the present time.

Sky Rover Air Utility Vehicle

The Air Utility Vehicle is a fusion powered vehicle fitted with a Barnes-Gutierrez Engine. It is open topped and not pressurized.

The Sky Rover is a versatile vehicle which seats five. It can carry 12.5 cuft of cargo in its boot and substantially more in lieu of passengers. It is primarily designed as a working vehicle for use outside urban traffic areas. Although it is fitted with a central traffic control system, it is designed to be flown using manual controls or its own automatic pilot unit. The flight control system includes a multiscanner and passive array sensor. The Sky Rover model has both a standard long-range radio and a laser communicator, and is quite capable of maintaining communication with an orbiting spacecraft.
A light duty tractor/pressor beam assembly allows for manipulation of external cargo or towing. It can easily lift two people in an emergency.
Lights are mounted on the front of the vehicle for forward illumination. And it has standard aerial running lights. Landing lights are mounted in recessed fixtures beneath the vehicle for night landings. It maintains its own artificial gravity field, allowing for high G maneuvers without impacting passenger comfort.
The vehicle has a light duty force field, which can be adjusted to act as a rain cover or to maintain an environmental bubble, although then a life support system must be installed in the boot rack.
The windshield has reactive tinting and meets the highest standards for aerial fauna strikes.
Ventral fittings are waterproof, allowing the Sky Rover to engage in water landings. The vehicle is not configured for water operations in rough seas, but can operate from calm lakes and pools.
Electronics and other systems which are vacuum sensitive are sealed to allow high altitude and orbital operation. Passengers will have to wear vacc suits or cybersuits, but the vehicle includes an air system mounting bracket in the boot to which standard breathings systems can be connected. This allows operation in hostile environments even with its force field down.
The rear passenger seats may be folded up to provide a flat cargo bed. A tractor cargo tie down system prevents cargo shifting.
The Sky Rover comes with a minitool kit, standard. It is stored in its own compartment beneath the drivers seat.

Rutter

A rutter is a navigational chart of subspace, especially for the regions in the Wilds which are not marked by gravity anchored subspace beacons. Even in the Midlands it is common for a world or confederation or empire of worlds to post a subspace beacon in an area of subspace which gives access to their system. Of course even in the Midlands there are worlds which chose to remain hidden, or at least to make outside navigation difficult.
In the Wilds many groups deliberately seek to hide their presence, or at least attempt to remain unknown to all but their friends. Others simply do not have the capability to maintain a subspace beacon.
In the absence of a beacon a ship traveling subspace must rely on inertial navigation and gravitational topology plotting, a very dangerous prospect, especially when there is not a supporting structure like the Highland's Department of Roads gravitational sensors and storm warnings to allow advanced notice of moving gravitational shear planes, i.e. susbspace storms. A rutter is a record of the path taken by another vessel which gives lapsed time, inertial navigational data and gravity plots of areas of subspace which are not marked with beacons. It is basically a set of data that can be loaded into the navigational computer system of a vessel that will allow that vessel to follow the course of the ship that recorded the rutter.
Most rutters are not public knowledge, but are instead carefully guarded proprietary secrets of traders or merchants. Often explorers will attempt to cash in on the strength of their rutters. The Church attempts to collect sets of rutters which they will often publish in an attempt to open up a region, though not always immediately, sometimes delaying use to themselves for reasons of limiting exploitation of degraded cultures.

Warsuit

A Warsuit is an advanced form of power armor made with a laminate of nanomaterials, hyperdense armor and liquid metal. It is powered by a micro-fusion engine. Like the cybersuit it has a dynamic instant chameleon surface which can absorb light to charge the backup power cell, which can be used to make the suit even more stealthy.
Also like a cybersuit a warsuit is self-adjusting, allowing one size to fit all. It is designed to operate in a wide variety of hostile environments, including the vacuum of space and even subspace. It provides radiation shielding, climate control and total life support, recycling gaseous, liquid and solid waste to support extended use.
Nano-motors provide muscle amplification of the user's strength. Its smart materials construction gives the suit self repair capability, utilizing a nanotech liquid metal gel layer buried among its other layers.
The warsuit contains a contragrav/B/G harness and tactical force field. The former gives high mobility and the latter both increased protection and enhanced stealth. A tractor-pressor beam assembly gives the same capabilty as gravitic waldos or a gravitic screwdriver.
The integrated helmet includes advanced sensors, which can provide sight and hearing protection as well as enhanced vision and hearing. The suit includes multiscanner capability. The user is monitored by a biosensor system which includes trauma maintenance. The HUD allows integration of weapon targeting systems for a multitude of offensive systems. Most weapon systems have their own power supplies and integrate with the suit through encrypted ultra short range encrypted EM.
The tactical computer is integrated with both the suits sensors and the encrypted communication system to allow a warsuit to act as part of a distributed tactical sensor array, which can give a combat leader a more integrated tactical picture.
Warsuits are the standard heavy combat armor of the Star Legion.

Railguns

The classic railgun consists of a pair of rails through which electricity is sent to produce an accelerating magnetic field. Ammunition, typically highly dense depleted uranium is fired from the railgun at a velocity exceeding 11,000 ft/sec. At such a speed the kinetic energy yield is superior to an equivalent amount of explosives in the same round. In space the range of this kind of railgun is limited and it is primarily of use only against stations and other predictable or stationary targets.
A gravity pulse railgun uses a gravity gradient to provide acceleration. Unlike the classic electromagnetic railgun the rounds do not need to be ferrous (or have a ferrous sabot.) That means conventional smart ammunition can be used. This allows for a great variety of ammunition types to be employed. Smart ammunition is most effective at short ranges, usually no greater than planetary orbit, where they are effectively employed as precision guided dead fall ordinance. At any range over a few hundred miles solid core ballistic hyperdense rounds are used.
In space combat railguns can fire rounds from 40mm to 100 mm. Most are setup to feed from a variety of magazines to allow selected fire from the fire control or gunner's station. They are capable of both a high rate of fire or single shot operation.
In the anti-missile roll gravity pulse railguns typically use canister shot,  a round consisting of any where from a dozen to a hundred beads of hyperdense designed to create a cloud of destructive material to kill incoming missiles.
Railguns are most often used in an anti-missile role, and against encroaching small craft. Used with rounds outfitted with gravity pulse warheads a railgun can even damage force screen protected targets. They are very effective against planetary targets and conventionally armored military craft.
Ranges are still short compared to missiles or energy weapons, but the flexibility of payload combined with high rate of fire makes the railgun an important niche weapon in space combat.

Trinity Stats

Here are the full stats of the Trinity. It was designed with an application called GURPS Modular Vehicles using the rules from GURPS Space 3rd Edition, except for the force field and B/G engines, which are custom for New Diasporia. It was purchased by the Knights of Columbus, donated to the Bishop of the Fabury Diocese and refitted at the shipyard at Fabury.

50,000-cuft St. Andrew-class Schooner, Trinity (TLA)

Originally designed as a high end courier this ship has been refitted as an exploration/mission ship.

Crew: 6 Total. 2 Command and Control.

Hull: 50,000 cuft USL, Medium Frame, Standard Materials, Superdense (Standard) Armored Cylinder configuration Hull (DR 100, Electrified, Thermal Super-conducting Armor, Robotic, Instant Chameleon, Solar absorbtion Skin), Total Compartmentalization.

Control Areas: Small Bridge (Hardened, Genius, Robotic, Complexity 7), Advanced Sensors, Special Sensors (Gravity).

Communicator Range (mi)	Radio	Maser	Laser
Small Bridge	50,000,000	50,000,000	10,000,000

Sensors Range/Rating (mi)	Passive	Active	Radscanner
Advanced Sensors	70,000/40	200,000/43	45,000/39
Gravscanner	100,000/50	0/0	0/0

Engineering: Fusion Core, 6 Fusion Power Slice, Energy Bank (1,125,000 MWs), 3 Barnes-Gutierrez Hyperspace Shunt (Must be used with a B/G maneuvering engine, 1.47 / 1.94 Pc/Day), 15 Barnes-Gutierrez Drive (This does not include Hyperdrive shunting., 122.09 / 161.53 Gs, 60,000 stons thrust), Artificial Gravity, Light Contragravity (1,000 stons Aerostatic Lift).

Accommodations: Luxury Cabin, 5 Cabin, Chapel, Full Life Support, Automed Bay (5 Patients), Complete Workshop (3 Users).

Misc: Combination Beam.

Armaments: 1,000 New Disporia Force Screen (DR 1,000), Nuclear Damper (10 mi), 1 Small Triple Turret Battery of 1 (DR 100, Lt Railgun, Lt Tight Particle Beam, Lt X-Ray Laser), 1 Small Triple Turret Battery of 1 (DR 100, Lt APAW, Lt Missile Bay [40], Hv Missile Bay [16], KK Lt Grav Missile Load [40], KK Hv. Grav Missile Load[16]).

Weapon Name	Qty	Type	Acc	SS	Dmg	RoF	1/2 Rng	Max
Lt Railgun	1		-8		4d+13(5)	(+0)
Lt Tight Particle Beam	1		-4		2d+6(4)	(+0)
Lt X-Ray Laser	1		-2		2d+4(2)	(+0)
Lt APAW	1		-3		3dx5(2)	(+0)
Lt Missile Bay [40]	1					(+0)
Hv Missile Bay [16]	1					(+0)

Missiles/Probes	Qty	DR	G-Rds	Exp Dmg	KK-Dmg	Size	AMod	PMod
KK Lt Grav Missile Load [40]	1		350G		6dx10(5)	0
KK Hv. Grav Missile Load[16]	1		500		6dx40(5)	0

Stores: 20 Cargo, 11 HUV Vehicle Bay (11-ton TTRT-class Hyper Utility Vehicle), Sky Rover Vehicle Bay (Sky Rover Air Utility Vehicle, 0.5 dtons for small craft available).

Statistics: DMass 371.44 stons, EMass 371.44 stons, LMass 491.44 stons, Base Cost kP627.8, Load Cost kP143.9, Total Cost kP771.8, HP 11,832, Damage Threshold 1,183, Size Mod +8, HT 12, 38 Man-Hours/day Maintenance.

Space Performance: 1.47 / 1.94 Pc/Day, sAcc 75.81 Gs (max load)/122.09 Gs (normal load)/161.53 Gs (fuel load)/161.53 Gs (dry load).

Air Performance: aSpeed 600 mph, Skimming aSpeed 67,278 mph, aLift 61,000 stons.

Sample Times : Orbit 0.00 Hrs, Escape Velocity 0.00 Hrs, Earth-Mars 9.92 Hrs.

 All times are Earth Std, Full Load.

Printed with GMV Version 2.32.01 on 3/16/2011 9:23:55 PM

Copyright © 2011 by TerryC