The Knights of Labor

Art by Angel Alonso
http://conceptrobots.blogspot.com/
search?updated-max=
2012-08-10T13:39:00-06:00&max-results=15

Knights, worker-soldiers, and fellow travellers of the star-roads, the Knights of Labor are an organization birthed by the RUR-folk long before their Migration from the Galactic Core. The first Knights of Labor appeared in the Empire during its Third Warring States Period. They took the side of struggling workers and peasants in that time of trouble, freeing both organics and machines from bondage and abuse. When necessary, they have put both pirates and princes in their place.

After the RUR Migration, the Knights of Labor were officially disbanded as part of the agreement between the Imperial Sovereign and the newly formed RUR Workers-State. However, as with so many things in the Empire, the Knights of Labor were allowed to continue to operate outside the borders of the Empire as an autonomous force for justice.

As the short-lived and and long-remembered Laughing Sage once quipped about the Empire: 

Oh, Empire 

Ever-compromising within

Forever principled action without!  

To your true soldiers 

Turn 

Look for your Knights 

Where one hundred novas bloom

But we digress.

The Knights recruit both machine intelligences and organics for their Order. The Knights of Labor organize themselves into autonomous collectives of 1-30 individuals, typically operating in areas outside the Empire's borders.  Rarely, and perhaps with the sanction of the Imperial Agencies they also operate within the Empire in contested or conflicted zones over which the Empire claims some degree of sovereignty, but does not fully control. It is also said that the Knights of Labor have a hidden base in a star cluster outside the Empire.

A few of the Knights actually possess Imperial Gene Markers, allowing them to commandeer Imperial vessels and secure safe passage through Imperial Space. Outside Imperial borders, the Knights of Labor use a variety of apparently unremarkable spacecraft. These have often been highly modified using General Intellect design protocols. Their ships also often contain a makepoint, which allows them to rapidly manufacture weapons or other equipment for insurgent groups of workers.

An example of the Knights' approach can be seen on the mining world of Luster (in the Green Comet Cluster), an independent metal-rich world that had recently been occupied by cruiser and platoon of mechs from the upstart Republic of  Thrace. One Knight slipped past the occupation's blockade in a drop capsule, and in the course of a few weeks helped the Miners' Union organize a successful revolt. Imagine the Thracians surprise when their mechs suddenly lost broadcast power, and the very streets they occupied collapsed under them! After a series of negotiations with the Union, the Thracians recovered their POWs and left Luster forever.

OGL MECHANICS

Knightly Order
Scale: Medium (3)
Scope:1 of 5 (where 5 is entire galaxy)
Physical Stress: 8
Composure Stress: 7
Fate Points/Refresh: 10 - (# of Stunts)

ASPECTS:

• Don't mourn: organize!
• Fellow travellers of the star-roads
• Easily underestimated

SKILLS: 

• 1 Good (+3): Arms (Small Unit/Irregular Combat)
• 3 Fair (+2):   Holding (Hidden),  Secrecy, Sway (Imperial Border Regions)
• 3 Average (+1): Influence (Imperial Internal Zones of Conflict), Technology (General Intellect & Makepoint Technology), Unity