Brotherhood Crusaders

The Holy Steel Crusade is a military expedition of the Brotherhood of Steel to New York City with the goal of further regaining control and influence in Manhattan, as well as destroying more dangerous opponents, such as the remnants of the Enclave or the Dead Guardians and search for pre-war artifacts as well. The Crusaders are composed primarily of volunteers who are fanatics of the Brotherhood or former knights of the Lyons` Pride. 
==Background==
===Empire Wasteland times===
Initially, the Brotherhood of Steel branch was no different from the usual in terms of its teachings. Moreover, the Brotherhood of Steel of New York was able to restore the operation of an entire nuclear power plant, which guaranteed them isolation from the outside world due to the complete abundance of technology. 
The defeat of the Enclave, the death of President Eden and the complete victory of the Brotherhood of Steel changed the theater of war. The remnants of the Enclave Forces reorganized and moved to New York, where, with their local branch, they planned an operation to seize a nuclear power plant, using its resources to gain influence in the wasteland and restore the operation of military factories.
The Brotherhood of Steel had a very advanced defense system: firstly, the nuclear power plant itself was an impregnable fortress, equipped by the pre-war United States in case of hostilities. Secondly, the Brotherhood of Steel brought one of its military airships to protect the nuclear power plant, from where it is quite possible not only to defend itself, but also to keep the entire wasteland under control. Thirdly, the nuclear power plant itself was defended by some of the best knights of the Brotherhood of Steel due to the importance of the energy resource, which the Brotherhood did not stop exploiting.
This, however, did not help either. The enclave prepared strong strike groups for a breakthrough into the nuclear power plant, first with the clearing of the area by the main troops in power armor and the subsequent landing of the regular army. Therefore, at some point the Enclave forces broke into the control center of nuclear power units and captured the service personnel. This led to the destruction of one of the nuclear power units and a further chain reaction.
The Enclave never destroyed the Brotherhood of Steel military airship, but a nuclear explosion ended it. The blast wave changed the course of the airship taking fire, and it swept like a fiery comet over all of New York, marking a new era of survival.
===The Holy Steel Crusade ===
The loss of such a large source of energy hit the Brotherhood of Steel, including the Capital branch. Elder S. Lyon did not hope for the restoration of such a large source of energy, but it was impossible to leave an important position. 
Elder Lyons assembles a military expedition of volunteers, mostly fanatical knights or veterans of the Pride of Lyons; the commander of the military expedition is promoted to Lord Paladin Maximilian, a former fanatically loyal Paladin from Lost Hills. For the sake of a better military expedition, the Brotherhood of Steel gave the “crusaders” about three working military vertibirs, which had to simplify the problems of movement over the Dead City. 
==In Fanonverse==
Led by the Lord Paladin, the crusaders were stationed on a former US Army aircraft carrier "Intrepid" along with a nuclear submarine, both had been relocated to the other side of the Hudson River. The Crusaders are quite aggressive towards everyone around them and, instead of isolation tactics, prefer harsher actions, especially against the remnants of the Enclave, but show shaky neutrality towards the Minutemen or to simple settlements. 
The Crusaders are very fanatical about their ideals, one or the other, orthodox or the ideas of Elder Lyons, they act together because of the common goal of their expedition, forgetting about politics — a crusade against mutants or other dangers. The Crusaders prefer not to make contact with anyone else, concentrating on storming the Dead City or the positions of the remnants of the Enclave as revenge.
== Society==
Like the main Brotherhood of Steel, the Crusaders strictly adhere to the regulations of the Chain That Binds. Given the fact that the military expedition consists mainly of volunteer warriors, the hierarchy itself is usually simplified to the level of assistant - Knight - Paladin - Lord-Paladin. Every single crusader must fight, without rotation or ordinary rest, including the Lord-Paladin, who must lead his subordinates into battle by own example, arriving first and leaving last. 
The Crusaders also regularly go on campaigns to search for pre-war technologies, but they do not accumulate them themselves, but redirect them to the Capital Brotherhood. The only exceptions include provisions and ammunition, or equipment left behind personally by order of the Lord-Paladin. 
=== Ideology===
The Holy Steel Crusade as such is an ideology around which the crusading movement and the military expedition itself are being formed. Fanatical volunteers initially sought revenge and the return of New York, but over time the entire military expedition really turned into a crusade, overgrown with fictitious ideas and legends. Thus, among them, concepts similar to the real crusades appeared. The Brotherhood Crusaders believe that Manhattan is a kind of Jerusalem of Civilization, with Holy Sepulcher of Mankind progress, and the Grail — progress, technology, future themselves. Such distorted terms of the medieval crusades became the purpose of the campaign and religious doctrine for many knights, changing some of the canons of the Brotherhood of Steel. Some of them, despite everything, one way or another find such stories and superstitions absurd, but are forced to remain silent and obey the Lord-Paladin, who himself was one of the creators of the "Grail cult". The creation of superstitions also raised the question of whether the Crusaders were even safe and would not cause "civil war", but absolute adherence to Chain That Binds stopped the Elders from anathematizing the most loyal knights, whose movement had grown already too much to simply stop. 
The Crusaders prefer a policy of strike first. That is, if the Lord Paladin considers something dangerous for mission or simply necessary, the Brotherhood Crusaders will be the first to attack, which is what they practice. The crusaders do not allow anyone to approach their territory, and for greater persuasiveness, they hung the corpses of wild ghouls, mutants, or simply named guests on stakes at the approaches to their base, but nevertheless do not imprison their enemies alive, without stooping to such level of carnage. 
==Appartments==
The crusaders settled on a former USS "Intrepid" which was moved to the other side of the Hudson. The aircraft carrier is primarily used for communication between groups and as a landing pad for vertibirds, so the base is equipped with advanced military radio communications. The inner tier of the aircraft carrier serves as a base in itself: there are barracks for knights, Power Armor stations and a training area. The aircraft carrier itself cannot float.
==Relations with outsiders==
The United States Alliance considered one of the most important enemies as a remnant of the Enclave, skirmishes often occur between them. The location of the Crusaders' base often blocks the activities of the Exclave in the Manhattan area. 
The Dead Keepers are the main enemy of the Crusaders on their way to conquering the NYC. The Crusaders describe them as demons, and they have also discovered that in the NYC zone some of their own knights can also become zombified. 
Minutemen, like ordinary inhabitants of the wasteland, are not considered a high danger, so the crusaders maintain neutrality with them. Some of the sane veterans of Lyons' Pride veterans sometimes help in the battles against raiders. 
The Brotherhood of Steel is the "mother organization" of the Holy Crusade, and although initially everything was planned solely as a military expedition, the Brotherhood of Steel and the Council of Elders are not prohibiting Crusaders activities and cults.
Category:Competitions