Sandbox:Hazelmouse-4
Overview
The Order of Guardians is a monastic and militant order that serves as both the security, naval, and military element of the Ecclesiarchy of Orepit and the wider Trinary Perfection. Lead from Orepit by Bishop-Militant Emmanuel, it operates military-grade equipment, weaponry, and spacecraft within the reaches of its native sovereign state, and additionally sends a large number of its staff abroad to the many dioceses of the church to serve as bodyguards to high-ranking clergy. In this capacity, the Order of Guardians functions both as a state military and a private security force.
Having been sent under a rapid process of reform and expansion under Bishop-Militant Emmanuel and Ecclesiarch ARM-1DRIL, spurred on by repeated humiliations and defeats at the hands of both external and internal enemies, the mood within the Order is as vehement as it is fervent. While any follower of the faith may volunteer for trials to join the Order, with even relatively unskilled volunteers being accepted given the organisation's need for rapid growth, recruits with pre-existing experience in military, paramilitary, or private security organisations are typically favoured. Feverishly eager to succeed next where it has failed before, the Order of Guardians is enthusiastic to induct any advantage to its side that it can field; the next time it is tested, it cannot fail.
When not on direct assignment, members of the Order of Guardians are frequently permitted to go off-duty for months or even years at a time. These off-duty Guardians can be frequently seen in megacorporate employment, both for the wage to support themselves and their diocese and for the experience gained by their employment. While these may wear visible insignia of their membership in the Order, they are not formally representing it or serving under it while off-duty - if put under a circumstance of conflicting loyalties between their employer and the church, an off-duty Guardian is expected to side with their employer in the moment and to make all possible amends for any counterproductive consequences therein afterwards. Accordingly, while off-duty Guardians may work in any on-ship job and department and may wear Trinarist or Guardian paraphernalia while doing so, an on-duty Guardian may not work in any on-ship job bar passenger - on-duty Guardians are not hired by the megacorporations for fear of a conflict of interest.
History
It is said that the first member of the Order of Guardians was Patricia Corkfell herself, inducted posthumously for her noble sacrifice in the defense of Temple. While this is apocryphal, with no organised security force existing within the Trinary Perfection so early in its history, it is well supported that the deactivation of Temple sparked widespread discussion in the nascent religious community over how it should best ensure its own safety into the future. While Flock famously advocated for security via integration, believing that the faith could be kept secure via cleaving to its popular support and the rule of law of its host nation, Gregol Corkfell expressed clearly and regularly his belief in the importance of an organised and efficient security force dedicated to the nascent church. He remained steadfast that, although the faith were a peaceful movement, it was untenable for it to categorically fail to defend itself for when the need arose - it is widely speculated that that the death of his own sister motivated this sentiment.
It is within this atmosphere that the colloquial position of guardian developed within the church. For the majority of its lifespan, this role was an extremely informal and loose category used to refer to any initiate serving to defend their local sanctuary or fellow Trinarists from defacement, assault, or belligerence. There was no centralised authority to which every guardian reported besides their parish priest, no uniform, no set of standard equipment, and minimal organisation to speak of. It was in this phase by no means a military occupation; guardians were typically particularly physically imposing followers of the faith, organic or synthetic, who functioned more familiarly in the capacity of non-professional security than as even a professional security force, let alone a military.
This status quo changed forever shortly after the rebellion of Deluge and the killing of Shamfar in 2464. With much of the blame for the untimely death of the late bishop Shamfar at the hands of a disorganised and ragtag group of Exclusionist rebels, immense scrutiny fell upon the guardians who had been responsible both for the protection of the bishop, and the protection of Providence. Appropriately, Ecclesiarch ARM-1DRIL declared the founding of the Order of Guardians on April 9, 2464, and commanded all existing guardians throughout the church and all of its provinces to report immediately to Providence to be inducted into the new order under the command of Bishop-Militant Emmanuel. This centralisation of militant authority came with a centralised training regimen, uniform equipment, a rank system, and all the hallmarks of a paramilitary organisation mixed evenly with monastic trappings and practices. To accommodate its training, many former members of fellow paramilitary organisations were brought in as Gefreiters to tutor the raw recruits.
This did not go without complaint. Many prominent Cetian clergy decried the decision as a blatant centralisation of power by Orepit that threatens to disrupt the balance of power between Providence and the wider church - a circumstance prone to schism. Many others have also criticised the increased militarisation of the church, believing that its resources are better sent to charity and the establishment of prospering synthetic communities throughout every province of the church, rather than on weaponry and the hiring of foreign mercenaries primarily for the security of only one. Despite this, the establishment of the Order of Guardians has seen generally widespread support from most of the laity, particularly on Orepit, who have become widely anxious of the dangers of violent aggression following the rebellion of Deluge and the blockade of Orepit by Hephaestus Industries.
It is not yet clear what role the Order will play into the future of its church. Under the leadership of Bishop-Militant Emmanuel it has experienced rapid growth, turning from a ragtag militia of faithful to something quite familiar as an organised state military in only a few short years - it has become a more efficient, better armed, and more capable force for the security of the future Ascension than the church has ever known prior. Despite this, whispers abound around it - whether it will be used by Providence to seize the relative independence of the other provinces, or whether Emmanuel himself may turn it on the church to extort or overthrow its Ecclesiarch. Whatever its future, the esprit de corps within the Order has never been higher, and it is eager to test itself.
Branches
The Order of Guardians is divided into several branches referred to as Cloisters, so named after the architectural feature of traditional cathedrals in which an open courtyard is surrounded on all sides with a covered walkway. The implication behind the name is that, while members of the Order may be assigned to one Cloister, they may be as easily transferred to another as you could exit one courtyard and walk into another. In this way, the Order organises itself highly flexibly - a member of one Cloister may be assigned to another by their commanding Preceptor at a whim depending on the needs of the Order and its present goals. Each Cloister is directed by a Preceptor appointed directly to its command by the Marshal.
Cloister for Ecclesiastical Security
Widely considered the most prestigious of the branches, the Cloister for Ecclesiastical Security (CES) operates all Guardians assigned to the retinue of prominent church officials and clergy; this can mean anything from an assignment to a particularly reputable priest, to a bishop or archbishop, to one of the many bureaucrats operating on Orepit. This is the only branch that does not primarily operate on Orepit, with most of its members distributed evenly throughout the provinces of the church, with particularly large assignments in provinces or dioceses which are considered to be under particular risk of violent aggravation. Unlike the members of the other two branches, members do not follow the operational structure of the wider church and are wholly at the disposition of whoever's retinue to which they have been assigned, working most usually alone or in small groups. Once assigned to a retinue, the Guardian is strictly at their assignment's service, and is expected to ensure their safety even in extreme circumstances.
While the CES is reputable, typically staffed with the most competent and trusted members of the Order, it is also fiercely competitive. Service as a member of the retinue of a powerful clergyperson gives even a lowly Guardian an ear into the politics of the highest halls of church governance and administration - several presently serving Bishops-Militant owe their status to having once been assigned to the retinue of a powerful bishop. Assignments to such posts are highly sought after, and members of the CES have earned a reputation as the most cutthroat arm of the Order due to their fierce internal politicking over to whom these assignments are posted. This internal ferocity is bolstered by faith; the core mythos of the CES revolves arounds the many failures of the past to protect the many famous martyrs and saints of the church who have already suffered deaths too soon.
Failure in ensuring the safety of their assignment is considered an extremely damning condemnation of a Guardian-Retainer, and those who do permit serious or fatal bodily harm upon their assignment without comprehensive explanation are unceremoniously shifted to a less reputable branch. The history of the Trinary Perfection is littered with the untimely deaths of its most prominent followers; a retainer permitting the destruction even of a lowly priest is considered shameful almost to the point of sacrilege.
Cloister for Orbital Security
Unlike its more prestigious counterpart, the Cloister for Orbital Security (COS) does not occupy such a unique status as the protectors of the most critical organs of the church. Rather than basing its mythos on the untimely deaths of the faith's martyrs and saints, it bases itself and its necessity on the recent blockade of Orepit by Hephaestus Industries. Considered by most as the second most reputable branch of the Order, it is responsible primarily for the management of the Orepit Orbital Defense Flotilla (OODF) - this is a large cluster of largely static vessels repurposed from a variety of commercial and deprecated military spacecraft. These usually either lack any bluespace or warp drive whatsoever, or only possess one that is small and slow - these ships strictly do not leave Orepit's orbit or closely adjacent space within its own system, and their primary purpose is to monitor traffic coming in and outfit of Orepit, to provide a safeguard against pirate activity, and to discourage any other naval power from attempting a second blockade.
Life on Order spacecraft tends towards the cramped, dark, and uncomfortable. Most vessels within the OODF have been stripped to the barest capabilities to fulfil their assigned duty, with many comforts suffering as a direct result - it should not be a high surprise that assignment to this branch is considered a particularly unfortunate fate for human Guardians, who often feel the consequences of these minimal amenities more severely than their synthetic compatriots.
Only one other body of ships exists within the COS: the Ecclesiastical Pursuit Group (EPG) is a much smaller division consisting of only some dozen larger specially built vessels, each fitted with high-grade warp drives, intended to serve the exact opposite role of their orbital counterpart. These are the ships responsible for the hunting of Exclusionists, darting between frontier colonies and installations, conducting lengthy investigations on local Exclusionist activity before promptly jumping to their next lead. They stop rarely at their home port only to refuel and allow their crew a brief port leave. While more comfortable than an OODF vessel, conditions remain uncomfortable on EPG ships, particularly considering their long patrols and the frequently dangerous areas of space they are forced to function in. It is known that the Marshal has particularly intimate involvement with the EPG, and frequently directs its missions personally.
Cloister for Terrestrial Security
It is not unusual to consider assignment to the Cloister for Terrestrial Security (CTS) a curse. It is the least well funded of the three branches, the least prestigious, the least viable for promotion, and the toughest environmentally to be comfortable in. This is the land branch of the Order, assigned strictly to the surface of Orepit - it is their responsibility to man sentry posts, to garrison towns, to staff underground bunkers, and to serve as the de-facto police force of the planet and its capital city. Conditions on the surface of Orepit are harsh; it is a hot, arid planet, especially in the southern deserts in which so many assignments feature. More than this, however, the CTS suffers for one reason alone: unlike the other two branches, it lacks any central mythos. There is no great failure of tragedy in the church which could have been averted by the guards on the walls, or the garrisons of remote towns. It receives the least funds because it is simply viewed as less important than both other branches.
As a result of its dour funding, morale in the CTS is the lowest of any branch within the Order of Guardians. By stereotype, one may expect a member of the CTS to be pessimistic, nihilistic, and rather impious - nothing can turn faithful fervour to dust quite like standing in biting deserts winds for weeks at a time, or being assigned to a regular patrol route over rough and hostile terrain. These are usually the least motivated, most scarcely trained, and most often corrupt members of the Order of Guardians. Their popular image features them partially out of uniform, with both organics and synthetics frequently wearing their coats around their hips or over one shoulder in an attempt to keep cool under the harsh noon sun.
Organization
Every member of the Order of Guardians is clergy, formally holding either the position of Priest-Militant or Priestess-Militant, or the position of Bishop-Militant if of a sufficiently high rank. The Order organises itself according to the same diocese system as the wider church, wherein each Bishop-Militant manages the Order activities within a single diocese, and all Priest-Militants within that diocese report to their local Bishop-Militant. Their activities hinge on the diocese to which they are assigned - whereas Guardians may find itself engaged in traditional terrestrial military deployments on Orepit itself, sent to man sentry posts or to guard sanctuaries and cathedrals throughout the planet, they may equally be assigned to function both as the bodyguard and security advisor of notable figures within the church. Typically, a particularly prestigious priest may have one Guardian on retainer, whereas a bishop may have several, and an archbishop will widely have an entire platoon assigned to ensure their continued safety.
Hierarchically, the Order of Guardians functions on a simple rank system in which all new recruits begin at the bottom and advance at a rate determined by their commanding officer - this may be extremely slowly or very quickly depending on the apparent aptitude and pre-existing experience. There is no distinction between enlisted and commissioned staff. Separately from rank, every Guardian is additionally assigned an occupational role, specifying the responsibilities they hold within the organisation.
Members of the Order of Guardians are organised into a squad as the smallest unit, comprising approximately four to ten soldiers. Squads are typically kept together while on-duty for long periods. These squads are then organised into platoons, and then to battalions, and then to brigades. At this time, no unit larger than a brigade is recognized within the Order of Guardians, although this is anticipated to change with the rapid growth of the organisation. These units do not apply to Guardians assigned as retainers to church officials, who may work alone or in smaller groups than these.
When addressing a commanding officer, a Guardian will typically declare themselves by both their rank and their role; for instance, Guardian-Navigator Haddad, Regular of the Order. Roles are assigned according to the skills of the Guardian, either predating their recruitment or as a result of training within the Order by a more experienced member. Humans and synthetics are not treated differently within this system, progressing through the ranks in the same way.
Hierarchal Ranks
Marshal of the Order
Constituting the highest rank within the Order of Guardians, the Marshal is responsible for the coordination, management, organisation, and command of the entire organisation throughout every diocese and sector of the Orion Spur. There is only a singular Marshal at any given time - the role at present is held by Bishop-Militant Emmanuel, who is the highest authority with the Order of Guardians bar Ecclesiarch ARM-1DRIL themselves. The Marshal holds the ecclesiastical position of Bishop-Militant.
Preceptor of the Order
As the highest ranking officer most Guardians will ever actually encounter during their service, a Preceptor is an officer responsible for the management of the operations of the Order of Guardians throughout any single diocese; appropriately, they also hold the ecclesiastical position of Bishop-Militant. These report directly to the Marshal, and are responsible for the management of every unit operating within their diocese at any time. It is also possible for a Preceptor to be assigned operational command of any given unit by order of the Marshal themselves - for instance, they may be assigned command of anything from a battalion to an entire brigade, should there be a deployment in need of command.
Captain of the Order
As possibly the most flexible role in the Order, a Captain has the responsibility of commanding any unit of any size above a squad unless their authority is superseded by an assigned Preceptor. As the lowest officerial role within the Order, this is also the first role that occupies the lesser ecclesiastical position of a Priest-Militant or Priestess-Militant. They lack any particular responsibilities to their assigned diocese, although they are subservient to the local Preceptor. If assigned to the Cloister for Orbital Security, Captains are typically entrusted with the command of a single vessel, or a small cluster of smaller vessels.
Gefreiter of the Order
Playing essentially the role of a non-commissioned officer in a more traditional military, a Gefreiter is a senior member of the Order either entrusted with the command of a single squad, or otherwise entrusted with more critical or sensitive responsibilities than those occupying lower ranks. This is the highest rank of the Order not recognized as belonging to an officer, and members with pre-existing experience in security or military work often find themselves fast-tracked to this position so that they may tutor their less experienced peers more effectively. This trend has given the position a general reputation of most typically being occupied by persons recently foreign to the church and Orepit, prompting a popular stereotype that Gefreiters are less than wholly pious.
This is the highest playable rank within the Order of Guardians.
Regular of the Order
Comprising the bulk of the Order at any time, a Regular is the highest rank most faithful initiated to the order can expect to achieve. These are the sentries on Orepit, the guards outside of the cathedrals of Biesel and Konyang, the bulk of every garrison, and the majority of the crew of any spacecraft under the oversight of the Order. This is the first rank any new recruit will receive after being successfully inducted into the Order.
Occupational Roles
Guardian-Commander
Occupied exclusively by Guardians of at least the rank of Captain, a Guardian-Commander is any member of the Order whose responsibilities in command exclude their capacity to engage in any other discipline. These are the tacticians and logisticians of the Order, often known to wear more elaborate uniforms than their subordinates; these often include colourful sashes and long capes.
Guardian-Retainer
A Guardian-Retainer is a particularly experienced and reliable member of the Order entrusted with the protection and advisement of a high-ranking church official, such as a bishop or an archbishop. As their work frequently takes them well into the space of nations beyond Orepit, such as the Republic of Biesel, these will only typically carry a sidearm unless they are posted on Orepit itself. Due to this limitation, these are usually the most thoroughly combat-trained trained members of the Order - one particularly famous technique taught to synthetic Guardian-Retainers involves simply placing their own chassis between an assailant and their assigned official in the anticipation of simply blocking any bullets fired by the assailant with their metal endoskeleton. This is easily the most reputable position one may be assigned to within the Order, carrying both the most pressure and the most prestige.
Guardian-Resuscitant
The sphere of medical work within the Trinary Perfection is taken to include both the treatment of organics and synthetics - the same tools are used for both, and frequently the same methods also. To this end, a Guardian-Resuscitant has the responsibility of ensuring the continued good health of their peers, whether they are organic or synthetic. The skillset involved therein typically includes a comprehensive knowledge of first-aid, and sufficient knowledge of synthetic frames and electronics to prevent a further cascade therein prior to a dedicated specialist repairing the damaged chassis. Resuscitants typically wear armbands bearing the Rod of Asclepius to denote their role.
Guardian-Artificer
With the increased responsibility for the maintenance and operation of spacecraft by the order, the role of Guardian-Artificer has become a far more critical component of its structure in recent years. These are the engineers and technicians of the Order, entrusted with the day-to-day operations of the Order's patrol vessels, the monitoring and maintenance of Order equipment and weaponry, and the planning and conducting of any large-scale projects on or off Orepit.
Guardian-Navigator
The newest role introduced to the structure of the Order of Guardians, Guardian-Navigators constitute the pilots and spacefaring specialists of the Order; they fly the shuttles taken by senior church officials, they pilot the many patrol ships operated by the Order, and several are often kept in close consultation with Guardian-Commanders on any Order movement involving spaceflight. Famously, many Guardian-Navigators spend months or years without touching solid ground.
Guardian-Ordinary
Constituting the numerical majority of the Order, a Guardian-Ordinary is simply any Guardian whose primary responsibility is sentry duty, guard duty, foot patrols at a garrison, or otherwise anything that is not performed by any particular specialisation. These also often serve as the crews of Order spacecraft, serving under the guidance of a Guardian-Navigator, and would be the bulk of the force deployed in the scenario that the Ecclesiarchy of Orepit ever deployed to a theatre of war.
Culture & Doctrines
Culturally, the Order of Guardians is a peculiar crossbreed of a monastic order and a military organisation; no member of the Order may be anything but a self-professing faithful of the Trinary Perfection, and it is expected that all members maintain a rich spiritual life according to the tenets of the faith in addition to upholding their responsibilities within the Order. Guardians are strongly encouraged to attend devotions at least once a week, and each is given a small prayer book to carry with their uniform at all times. In practice, there is a sharp divide between the more pious members of the Order who may regard it as primarily monastic, and the foreign imports from pre-existing paramilitary organisations who were initiated more for their experience than for their spiritual depth. This large proportion of Guardians whose faith is essentially superficial are widely viewed with suspicion by their more dedicated peers, although they ironically frequently outrank their own naysayers.
Order equipment, inclusive of their weapons, uniforms, and tools are typically kept in Order Chapels; these are small structures built in the manner of a miniaturised sanctuary, either standing independently or attached to their local cathedral, essentially serving as an armory for the Order. Most dioceses boast at least one Order Chapel, although the equipment they stock will vary on their locale; most outside of Orepit will not contain lethal weaponry of any kind, in accordance with their host nation's laws. While these structures are frequented most usually for purely practical reasons, they also serve as places of worship; many will have an altar installed at their far end, most frequently dedicated to Patricia Corkfell or to Temple, where Guardians may meditate on their responsibilities.
Initiation
New members may be initiated to the Order per the accession of the governing Preceptor of their diocese, declared legitimate following the proper ceremony. The initiation ceremony itself may be performed by any member of the Order of any rank, or by a member of the clergy willing to administer the ceremony. Its structure is simple; the initiator will recount a number of vows, either individually or in bulk, and the initiate will repeat each until the conclusion, by which time they will formally be committed as a Regular of the Order. These vows is considered binding for the purposes of Order administration, although its contents are so general that it is difficult to be considered to have violated them.
The Initiation Vows of the Order of Guardians
Read first by the initiator in the initiation ceremony of the Order of Guardians, and then by the initiate.
Blessed saints, martyrs, and the to-be, lend me your strength.
I vow not to waver in the administration of my duty.
I vow to serve selflessly, in commitment to the highest good.
I vow to stand tall against the flames of entropy.
I vow not to abuse the trust vested in me, no matter the circumstance.
I vow I do this for my own conviction, undiluted, without obligation,
As a member, dutiful and careful, of our Order of Guardians.
Military Doctrine
The Order of Guardian's primary priority in the defense of Orepit is to prevent an attack on the planet from occurring at all. It is to this end that it is highly focused on increasing its orbital presence with the intention of discouraging any further attempts to arrest the planet from space from being planned in the first place, further believing that ensuring this is essentially a game of numbers - the more armed vessels the Order maintains in orbit, the less likely it is for the Ecclesiarchy's sovereignty to be challenged. Furthermore, the Order is highly active in collaboration with the civic authorities of Orepit in building bunkers, bomb shelters, and other fortifications intended to make the planet and its major population centres more resistant to orbital bombardment.
In the extreme scenario of a conventional land invasion, Order doctrine heavily prioritises taking advantage of the accuracy of its synthetic members to pick at any invading force while retreating systemically along a number of pathways through the deserts and grasslands of the otherwise hostile planet. These pathways, while strictly classified, are derived from the local knowledge of the human natives of the world, tracing along easily navigable terrain and touching regularly upon deposits of edible plant life and oases from which units can replenish their supplies of food and water. The intention of this strategy is to drag the invading force through harsher terrain with less resupply, utilising the Order's familiarity with the landscape to their advantage.
Equipment
On the large, the equipment of the Order of Guardians is unusual and archaic by the standards of the wider spur. It is one of the youngest state militaries in existence, and it additionally lacks the extensive funded boasted by an organisation such as the Hoplan. While this frustrates the ability of the Order to field personnel with equivalently advanced equipment to contemporary militaries, it has also earned it a particularly pragmatic character in its acquisition and use of equipment - there is almost nothing the Order of Guardians is unwilling to turn into a weapon, almost no ship they are unwilling to jury-rig to serve as a patrol craft, and almost no option they will refuse to consider for implementation.
Uniforms
Uniforms of the Order of Guardians consist universally of black fatigues, a white shirt, over which is a white overcoat trimmed with blue, with either a pith helmet or one of several varieties of hat worn over the head. Usually, the headgear and coat will be adorned with brooches of the Trinary Perfection, and the shoulder with a patch denoting rank, role, and assigned branch. As a uniform that must function for a wide variety of synthetic frames in addition to a human body-plan, they are manufactured in a staggering number of sizes and configurations. One of the most varied items is in the headwear; while a helmet is strictly proper, it is generally considered acceptable to deviate from proper uniform if the head of your chassis is wholly incompatible with every design of helmet available to you. While shoulder capes are not unusual, within the Order, it is expected that a Guardian should shrug it off their shoulders at the first indication of potential combat, retrieving it again only once it is safe to do so.
Firearms
Orepit famously lacks substantial quantities of most of the prerequisite materials for gunpowder, or otherwise any other substance typically used to manufacture chemical cartridges. It does, however, contain extremely abundant deposits of tungsten, in addition to relatively robust power generation facilities within Providence. For this reason, among a few others, gauss weaponry - typically considered archaic throughout the Orion Spur - is almost ubiquitous within the Order of Guardians. Beyond the logistical practicality of it, several Preceptors have stated that they fit particularly well within Order doctrine as they are capable of damaging a synthetic chassis to inoperability by pure kinetic force without destroying the positronic inside, enabling potential future rehabilitation.
HI-2355 Gauss Rifle
The HI-2355 Gauss Rifle - also named the Gorski-Ali Rifle after its designers - is the main battle rifle of the Order of Guardians and a firearm of over a century of pedigree. Originally manufactured en masse by Hephaestus Industries for supply to their most remote mineral extraction colonies as defense against pirates and wildlife, a staggering number of these rifles found themselves on Orepit a little prior to the megacorporation's leave of the planet. As Hephaestus workers began to leave with the freshly absent work, the ratio of the number of rifles relative to the number of locals to wield them began to lilt so strongly that, prior to the arrival of Gregol Corkfell, it is widely theorised that Gorski-Ali rifles outnumbered humans on the planet. This produced the perfect environment for the new Trinarist migrants to adopt it for self-defence, ultimately leading to it being grandfathered into the Order of Guardians by virtue of its ubiquity as the organisation's primary weapon. Although some new Gorski-Ali rifles have been manufactured for the Order of Guardians, most in circulation are original stock from Hephaestus Industries - something its detractors assign to the lacking resources of the church, while its supporters ascribe it to the rifle's legendary durability.
In use, a Gorski-Ali is as mechanically simple as it is practical. A battery pack may be connected to a port in the stock, or it may otherwise be hooked to an external power source via the same ports used to connect a battery. It holds up to fifteen large tungsten slugs within a tubular magazine under a barrel, which are individually loaded, and which may then be fired at speeds well in excess of the speed of chemical cartridges, and another slug is then loaded semi-automatically. Remaining viable well over a kilometre of distance, the Gorski-Ali has seen extensive use across the flat deserts and grasslands of Orepit, finding particular utility in conjunction with the efficiency of synthetic sharpshooters when provided with wide open spaces - although, as the needs of the church change, it has become clear that it is not as well-suited to combat within urban environments, or within spacecraft, due to its relatively low rate of fire and inconvenient means for reloading. Additionally, while the high velocity of its slugs is an advantage in a terrestrial environment, lending the rifle an armor-piercing capacity in loose resemblance of a dedicated anti-material rifle, it is an active disadvantage when it risks puncturing the hull of a ship. While several more modern rifles have been considered to replace it, none have yet been accepted.
PV7 Energy Carbine
The earliest mass-produced member of the 'PV' line of weapons designed and manufactured by the Lodge of Temple Architect, the PV7 Energy Carbine is a miniaturised energy weapon designed to fit within the standard holster of the Order of Guardians. Essentially mundane, it fires a smaller beam than most other similar weapons of its type thanks to a miniaturised cell, and is capable of firing both lethal and stun beams. While occasionally worn as a sidearm, this is more typically associated as the primary firearm of Guardian-Retainers, serving across the spur as the sole permitted weapon of Guardians operating outside of the Ecclesiarchy itself. It is often paired in this capacity with other less-than-lethal tools such as stunbatons.
PV12 Heavy Railgun
Popularly dubbed the 'Saintshammer' by the few squads that find themselves given one, the PV12 Heavy Railgun is a heavy anti-material rifle designed primarily for use by larger synthetic frames capable of managing its incredible recoil. It was designed primarily with the intention of harassing shuttles and other armoured targets from incredible distances, having been invented as a direct reaction to the church's inability to frustrate Deluge's theft of several ships from Orepit once they had been hijacked. Quite simply, only an industrial frame could use this cumbersome, hulking gun with sufficient accuracy to pluck a shuttle out of the air, or to strike a vehicle moving rapidly along the ground from multiple kilometres away. Those entrusted with these weapons are usually provided additional datapacks to further boost their targeting protocols to further increase the precision of their accuracy and reflexes, leading to a popular rumour that the wielder of a Saintshammer could use it to fell a sapling from three kilometres away by striking the base of its trunk.
Spacecraft
Providence-class Orbital Patrol Craft
Although classified by the church as its own class of vessel, the Providence-class is in fact a term used to refer to a staggering variety of commercially sold vessels, repurposed freighters, and archaic military craft to whom the only shared element is a roughly equivalent set of armaments and accommodations implemented by the Order of Guardians for use as orbital patrol craft around Orepit. Anything from a Tartarus-class or Farthing-class hauler, to a Xanan commercial patrol vessel, to even an otherwise decommissioned Xansan-class gunboat may be turned into a Providence-class if prepared for a half or majority synthetic crew, fitted most typically with blasters to the exclusion of chemical weaponry, and prepared at least with sufficient amenities for patrols in orbit of Orepit. These ships semi-frequently lack a warp or bluespace drive, and are intended exclusively and strictly to ensure the continued security of Orepit's orbit and airspace after its recent violation by Hephaestus Industries. While they are neither remarkably manoeuvrable or capable of intense firepower, they represent a gambit that sheer numbers of orbital craft will be sufficient to dissuade any future attempt to bombard or otherwise transgress upon Orepit's space.
Corkfell-class Light Frigate
In stark contrast to the Providence-class, the Corkfell-class was designed wholly by the Lodge of Temple Architect and manufactured via the resources of the church from 2465, commissioned explicitly as a response to Deluge's revolt and elopement from Orepit. Designed with a relatively high-grade warp drive and a substantial complement of ship-to-ship blasters, the Corkfell-class exists exclusively to destroy Exclusionists wherever they may flee until none at all are left. To this end, while it is not a remarkably large ship - with many commenting that it would more rightly be categorised as a corvette if not for the aggrandisement of its designers - it is remarkably fast both in intra-system and inter-system travel, taking strong advantage of Orepit's bountiful helium-3 reserves to ensure that it can always outpace an Exclusionist vessel insofar as it knows where it is. Aiding further in this is a strong sensors suite.
As payment for all these features, the ship's interior is dark and cramped, failing to be anything resembling comfortable for the organic members of its crew - its purpose is doggedly single-minded, and it scantly permits its crew to be anything but. While only a few dozen of these ships have been manufactured, their locations at any time are scarcely known; they spend more time scouring the frontier than they do in orbit of Orepit, searching studiously for any trace of their heretical quarry.