Knight Sabers

Knight Sabers
Nicknames	Kangaroo girls
Home Base	SilkyDoll
Population (2015 rough)	6-7
Political Influence	Little to none
Major Achievements	Rescue of Mia Quincy Exposing United Belt Alliance protection racket Rescue of Maico Tange
Stereotype	New Wave Vigilantes

Though far from the first group of hardsuited warriors to use the name in Fenspace, they quickly became the most famous. First appearing with a bang on Genaros station in mid-2021, the Knight Sabers quickly earned notoriety for their handling of the Mia Quincy kidnapping. While the Space Patrol on-station were still negotiating with the terrorists involved, 4 women using Stingray hardsuits and motorslaves stormed the building, handling the terrorists and their cyberdroid heavys with lightning speed.

All five hostages were freed, before the Sabers disappeared into the city night. The rumour is that they were paid by J.D. Quincy himself for their services.

The Space Patrol immediately started a file on the organisation. They are not a registered mercenary organisation and do not report their operational details to the Space Patrol. This also means they walk on a knife-edge between merely being a Space Patrol ‘file’ and being declared a full blown Outlaw organisation.

What they know is that the organisation is lead by a woman who styles herself as ‘Sylia Stingray’, and who prefers to communicate via puppet or Avatar, using the animated face of Sylia Stingray from the original OVA. The patrol believes that this is the same Sylia Stingray, the registered owner of Stingray Motor Engineering who bought the shell company off of Jet Jaguar and turned it into full-blown custom motorcycle production company.

The Patrol believe that they have one spacecraft under their control; a modified Roughriders-production Lancer, operating under the callsign ‘KnightWing’. The KnightWing itself appears to operate as some form of mobile AWACS for the group, while also providing some aerial fire-support and transport. The spacecraft has not been registered with any recognised ship registry, and is technically considered a pirate vessel. It has been known to fake the transponder signals of another Lancer.

The identities of the four women in hardsuits, or whether one of them is Sylia Stingray or not, is not known. Saber White appears to be the leader of the group and is the most skilled in close combat. Saber Blue tends to be a heavy hitter, carrying some of the most powerful weaponry. Saber Green is far more graceful in her movements, weilding a pair of ribbon cutters like a gymnasts paper ribbons. Pink appears to play more of a battlefield support role, wearing the most technically advanced hardsuit into the field.

The group style themselves as mercenaries, though they do not work for everyone. They are most often hired for work under-the-table, which someone may want performed but doesn’t want it know it was them performing it. Such work includes recovery of stolen ‘sensitive’ equipment, hostage rescue... or strikes against Turnerite bases. They have also engaged in anti-Zwilnik operations, and were active against the United Belt Alliance prior to the outing of Mason's protection racket.

Payment is usually in two parts. Half on accepting the job, half on completion of the job. Sylia reserves the right to walk away if the job was not as advertised, if the client has been in anyway untruthful with her, or if a change in circumstances endanger the group. They promote themselves as being specifically politically neutral in affairs between factions, though they do appear to have several preferred employers. They will also work for hardware, or payment through services.

Sylia will work alongside OGJ and the Patrol. Sylia will not work with any Greenwood-related organisation, or for any mundane government. However, these are not absolute rules. Money talks, and if a job is in line with her personal ethics Sylia may take it. Sylia will never sell the technical upgrades made to her hardsuit and motorslaves. Knight Saber hardware is not for sale.

Their equipment is based off of Stingray hardsuit, with an altered armour layout, enhanced actuators and properly integrated weaponry making them deadly opponents. The motorslaves are bigger and tougher, using the same armour upgrades with a stronger main armament, though appear lack the full AI’s used on Roughrider models.

They are studious about secrecy, jealously guard their identities and their home-base location. Their base, SilkyDoll, is known to be a main belt asteroid though it’s location and details are unknown. There’re countless possibilities; too many to be searched within an acceptable timeframe.

Knight Saber tactics are based heavily around speed of assault and owe a lot to Panzer Kunst training. This stands as further evidence that they were trained by the Gruppe. They are willing to use lethal force, though prefer to rely on speed and evasion instead of brute force. They also appear to prefer physical action, over pure information warfare and hacking. They’re more likely to hack a computer by breaking in to the location the computer’s stored and gaining physical access, than by breaking into the computer itself over a network link.

Knight Saber paid mercenary work is supposedly used to pay for pro-bono anti-zwilnik operations, though whether the anti-zwilnik operations are merely advertising for their mercenary operations or not, depends on the opinion an individual has of the group. Some commentators wonder how they manage to support themselves; they don't appear to perform enough missions to meet the estimated costs of their hardware, suggesting they have an alternate form of funding.

Their self-claimed ethos is: “To defend peace and social justice, and rid Fenspace of evil’

The Truth

Jet Jaguar is behind the Knight Sabers.

A majority of Knight Saber jobs are in actuality Great Justice missions. Jet Jaguar performs much of her troubleshooter duties through the group. This is widely known within the higher echelons of Great Justice. While they do take mercenary jobs quite happily, in practice there simply wouldn’t be enough in Fenspace to keep the group going.

Jet’s original intention behind the secrecy was to protect the families of the individual Sabers, and to protect 77 Frigga. The asteroid’s defences are designed to defend against opportunistic piracy, not against a concerted Zwilnik attack. There aren’t enough boots on the ground, or live rounds for the missile launchers to do more than discourage.

In practice, the group’s secrecy also means they find themselves handling deniable operations; missions where Great Justice and the Convention can’t be seen to be publicly involved. The Knight Sabers, as an extra-legal vigilante organisation, can.. It also gives them far more freedom of action than if they were a full part of GJ. Great Justice itself quietly discourages investigations into the group’s activities.

The Knight Sabers

There’re 6 official members of the group

• Saber White: Sylia Stingray
• Saber Blue: Daryl Haur
• Saber Green: Kotono Ito
• Saber Pink: Anika Daini

Spacecraft Pilot/ Information support: Mackie Stingray Hardware maintenance/Saber Gold: Ford Sierra

The group also have a number of allies and suppliers. Nene Romanova is a regular visitor to 77 Frigga, and the installation of a Halcyon node on Frigga has never been satisfactorily explained. Knight Saber hardsuits contain hardware from Prometheus Forge, 37 Fides, Catgirl Industries and other suppliers. Jupiter Mining Corporation have also provided transport services for the group if needed.

Their Hardware

The Knight Saber's home base is the SilkyDoll, located deep in the core of 77 Frigga The SilkyDoll is luxuriously appointed, a deliberate replica of Sylia's penthouse from the original OVA. Including Megatokyo skyline. There's even an outdoor hot-tub to relax in.

Hardsuits and Motorslaves are maintained on the level below, along with the design information on an air-gapped mainframe system with no external access and samples of special strain of handwavium used to construct the hardsuit armour. There are training and equipment testing areas and some specialised hardware to tune the hardsuits to perfectly match the wearer for peak performance. Gerry chutes speed up loading into the KnightWing.

The SilkyDoll also has priority access to the TITANIC system and 77 Frigga’s defences. Most of the communications hardware is somewhat limited, being purchased either second-hand, or off-the-shelf. It’s 'up to the job' and meets OGJ standards but, aside from CGI QED interface, is at least three or four years behind the times. The exception is the Halcyon Node, which is part of the main communications array for the asteroid.

Detecting the SilkyDoll using surface scans is almost impossible, it’s hidden by the thermal signature of the powerhouse. Internally, it's hidden behind a false warning of intense ionising radiation.

Hardsuits

Knight Saber hardsuits are based on the open-sourced Stingray Project designs, though are far more advanced. The general style and appearance matches the appearance of Bubblegum Crash-era suits. Jet only builds the basic hardsuit framing and motor structure in-house. With the exception of the Voomer cores, most of the electronic hardware is custom ordered from a reliable source.

Knight Saber hardsuits use battlesteel armour, instead of cermets. All mount their main engines on their backs, rather than in the heels, and have an unusual arrangement of maneuvering jets compared to the standard model. They are all equipped with GJ-standard comm's, and an onboard neural interface system that boosts performance over the standard suit design by a wide margin.

Knight Saber hardsuits are the closest to the original Bubblegum Crisis design, foregoing much of the long-range spaceflight capabilities of the Stingray Project suits. Some have suggested they incorporate design information excised from the original plans in the Whole Fenspace Catalogue.

• Saber White:Standard. Both manipulator arms are equipped with knucklebombers and rapier blades, and a single coilgun. Both feet are fitted with anklebombers with thruster-assist. Was the first "Crash" hardsuit built. Speaks with: Michie Tomizawa’s voice.

• Saber Blue: Triple railgun manipulator left arm. Defensive retractable rapier in the right manipulator arm with knucklebombers. Two racks of explosive S-mines are mounted to both legs. Modular weapons systems: Over the shoulder spike-shooting railcannon, or an arm mounted electromagnetic liquid metal shooter and accompanying targeting array. Speaks with Ryoko Tachikawa's voice.

• Saber Green: A defensive rapier is mounted in the left manipulator arm, while the left is equipped with knucklebombers and a pair of coilguns. A pair of monofilimant ribbons have been mounted to snap-retractable spools on the forearms, and are used much like a gymnast’s ribbons. It has also been fitted with a flexible toe at Kotono’s request and the auto-stabilisers have been removed. Speaks with Aya Hisakawa’s voice.

• Saber Pink: The Pink hardsuit is essentially unarmed, being equipped only with a coilgun, a single knucklebomber and a rapier blade for self defence. The Pink hardsuit excels in information warfare, being equipped with a number of technologies to improve the interface between its wearer and any hardware. There are dedicated hard data connections a wireless interface, a full suite of ECM and ECCM, and electronic surveillance and eavesdropping equipment, The comm’s range is boosted and set up for LPI operations. The piece de resistance is the Eezo core replacing most of the drive thrusters with a gravity drive. It allows the suit to project a forcefield capable of temporarily protecting the wearer while they’re busy and unable to move. Unfortunately, with the field up, the hardsuit must remain in the same place or it will collapse. Speaks with Yoshiko Sakakibara’s voice.

Knight Saber motorslaves aren't too different from Roughrider Motoroids. They're larger and heavier, with more powerful engines and actuators to compensate. Most of the weight increase comes from the use of battlesteel in the place of cermets. While the weight slows them down somewhat, it also allows them to carry a spacecraft-grade railgun while still being capable of managing the recoil. Motorslaves are capable of reaching 300kph in cycle form, and flying at 200kph in humanoid Motorslave form.

Knight Saber Motorslaves differ from the Motoroids used by the Roughriders in that they lack a fully developed AI. They use an expert-system program instead. While they are capable of taking limited orders and some independent action, such as covering the wearer or engaging a specific target, they lack the full range a sapient AI system would give.

All Motorslaves are effectively identical and are theoretically interchangeable.

The SilkyDoll

The SilkyDoll is the Knight Sabers’ secret base contained deep within Frigga's core. The SilkyDoll is luxuriously appointed, appearing more as a high-class social club or 80’s era luxury penthouse, than the home-base of a secret interplanetary mercenary organisation. The briefing room is appointed much like an apartment’s living area with comfortable sofas, a fax machine, an automated coffee maker and a kitchen area just beside the weapons locker.

Hardsuits and Motorslaves are stored and maintained on the level below. The design information is stored on an air-gapped mainframe system with no external access, along with samples of special strain of handwavium used to construct the hardsuit armour. There are training and equipment testing areas, including some specialized hardware to tune the hardsuits to perfectly match the wearer for peak performance. Gerry chutes speed up loading into the KnightWing.

The SilkyDoll is set up to have priority access to the TITANIC system and 77 Frigga’s defenses. While the TITANIC system itself is capable of turning a surprising amount of computing power towards a problem, it lacks AI security and suffers from low external bandwidth due to ageing interwave hardware. The security situation has been improved, but not to the point where it can be used to store sensitive data.

Most of the communications hardware is somewhat limited, being purchased either second-hand or off-the-shelf. It’s up to the job and meets OGJ standards but, aside from CGI QED interface and Halcyon node, is at least three or four years behind the times.

Detecting the SilkyDoll using surface scans is almost impossible, it’s hidden by the thermal signature of the powerhouse.

Group Quirks

Soldier Girls: Jet follows the tradition set by the original OVA. The Knight Sabers are female, obviously so thanks to the armour design.

We work under the table... as you know.: Secrecy is paramount. They do not reveal their clients. They do not reveal their identities.

New Wave Vigilantes: Very 1980's in style, fashion and execution.

Always Vigilant: Will answer any distress call or emergency beacon within the vicinity of 77 Frigga.