Traveller Knights

#### **Background**

The name Traveller Knights doesn't ring any bells for most and those who have heard of them can't tell much. Many rumors surround this mysterious faction that likes to keep to themselves and work apart from the help of others behind the curtain, the strangest probably being the Knights' claim to come from a completely different universe and that their true motivation is to travel from universe to another and make each one they visit a safer place for its inhabitants. The Knights have said this trait to be the real inspiration behind their name but whether or not this rumor is true remains unconfirmed.

All information regarding them comes from rare eyewitnesses or in a few reported cases of the Knights meeting and working together with another faction for a common goal. Traveller Knights is a very new faction in the galaxy and first reports of their existence come from just a few decades ago. The sudden appearance of a complete faction springing into existence from no apparent point of origin raised several questions about their nature and whether or not they should be trusted, but these doubts were quickly abandoned in the light of their actions that speak for themselves. The wrath of the Knights smites Xsotans, pirates, slavers, corrupt factions and other immoral causes wherever they meet them and has earned them deep respect among travelling merchants, lone miners and civilians living and working at the frontier of their home factions under a constant threat from pirates and expansionist neighbors. Even though at first the Knights seemed to share a lot with the militaristic galaxy-wide movement who call themselves Cavaliers, the Knights despise them for them being so ruthless, corrupt and power-hungry.

#### **Characteristics**

Apparently completely nomadic in nature, they build few stations and those that they do are moved with ships when the Knights decide to move to a new part of the galaxy and have found a suitable sector outside faction territories for making their base of operations in the region. These bases usually consist of several stations that are docked together to work as a single massive station. Instead of using their stations as their main source of income, the Knights mostly use mining, salvaging and trading fleets scattered all around the galaxy to gain credits and resources necessary for the upkeep of their fleets and building new ships. Their grey ships painted with black and silver stripes are a sight to behold if one ever manages to see them. Strangely, their ships seem to use aesthetically the exact same designs despite size differences inside and between different ship roles, which can make judging the real scale of their ships difficult from afar. Somewhat reluctant to use fighters or torpedoes for combat, their tactics rely more on raw firepower of turrets or coaxial mounted weaponry. Even their fleets fulfilling support roles like mining, trading and salvaging are heavily armed and ready to give assistance to the local civilians or blow up anyone stupid enough to try taking what is theirs.

#### **Encounters with other factions**

As a nomadic faction travelling all across the galaxy, most factions have seen or talked to Traveller Knights. Most of these encounters have been very neutral and uneventful but sometimes things got more interesting than exchanging a few words.
Most notable and influencial examples:

First Traveller Knights sightings, 3816 C.E: First sightings of single Traveller Knights ships are made.

Meeting Retrograde Solutions, 3821 C.E: A Retrograde Solutions fleet was regrouping for a new assault attempt against the pirate base a few jumps away. In their rendezvous sector an unidentified mining ship hailed them and asked why the Retrograde ships are flooding into the sector and politely asked for them to keep their distance. Retrograde fleet commander assured the strange mining ship that they were just preparing another attempt at taking down a pirate base. After hearing this the unknown mining ship warped away. When the new attack on the pirate base began, a small fleet of unidentified ships warped in and helped turning the tide of the battle in Retrograde's favor. When Retrograde offered them a reward for their assistance and asked who they had the honor fighting alongside with, the commander of the fleet identified themselves as a representative of the Traveller Knights and refused the reward offered to them saying that the cleansing of evil was enough for the Knights, but if Retrograde was interested in future joint operations against pirates the Knights would gladly assist. After this the Traveller Knights and Retrograde Solutions have been in good relations with each other, occasionally sharing common interests and coordinating joint operations on pirate outposts or Xsotan fleets together.

Establishing trading routes in Siv Corp territory, 3824 C.E: Traveller Knights trading ships arrived in a supposedly well hidden industrial center sector of Siv Corp and requested permission to establish trading routes in Siv Corp territory. After some negotiation and convincing the defensive fleet in the sector of their good intentions, the Traveller Knights ships were allowed to trade at Siv Corp stations under heavy surveillance because the Knights refused to disarm their trading ships of their heavy weaponry. Even with the rocky start, the two factions are now neutral towards each other, both benefitting financially from their mutual agreement.

#### **Ships**

Traveller Knights are extremely secretive about the construction of their ships and stations and have never shared any information about their ship structure or internal composition that would make manufacturing their ships possible. All attempts at capturing their ships or stations intact by boarding have been in vain because their stations always seem to have disappeared from their reported locations and ships from their usual trading routes when someone has decided to attempt capturing their ships, almost if like the Knights knew what was coming.