Child Crusaders

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During the Human-Covenant War, a significant number of refugees and survivors of destroyed colonies were children in the pre-teen to young adult age bracket. Without parents, lost to the Covenant onslaught, many of these children became wards of the UEG State and were kept in large youth centers operated by the UEG Child Protection Services Administration. While these centers were specific in operation to their locale and local administrators - some behaved like youth detention centers, some were treated like overcrowded daycares or childrens' homes, or some were treated like simple homeless shelters. A common sight between all these centers was their overcrowdness, understaffing, and lack of adminities due to the ongoing War effort.
Children were often mistreated and malnourished and lived standards of living significantly lower than even some of the worst refugee groups. Many children died of starvation, mistreatment; children often disappeared from the management system becoming involved in many illicit activities - ONI Special Warfare projects, criminal syndicates, illegal youth labor forces, child-soldiers or formed their own crime groups. Earth orphans were particularly vicious and cunning in terms of adapting to a system that had failed them. They were the undesirable low-lives of society and they took advantage of that reputation. One organization born from these young radicals was the Child Crusaders, founded in the final years of the Human-Covenant War.