Fiction:Knights of Arcania

=The Knights of Arcania= "“We are the purest and most uncorrupted essence of her fury. My loyalty is to the Holy Matriach. The purpose and reason for my life and the lives of my brothers and sisters of battle is only to serve her and use her essence, a gift she has given us to lead our people and her faithful to victory against the enemies of this Arcanium. There is no respite from our anguish, no end to the suffering. The Matriach did not make us for Mercy. She made us for revenge.”"

- High Elder : Chalaahn Serein: House of Fury

The Knights of Arcania also refereed to as Arcanial Knights are a seperatist Military branch of the Arcanial Infantry based around several houses of Genetically Engineered and Chemically enhanced lab born super soldiers formed from Arcana's own DNA genebanks. The Arcanial Knights are the most powerful infantry the empire possesses brandishing some of the most cutting edge weapons the Arcanium can make and donning some of the most high tech power armor possible for the Arcanium to Engineer.

Initially formed to protect Arcania the events on Diabolom and the increasing number of fronts the Arcanium has to face their production has skyrocketed in the last three hundred years to form them as more or less houses of small powerful planetary defense guards to their own entire military branch.

All knights begin their service at around regular Arcanium fighting age and must spend several years fighting in battles in order to prove themselves worthy enough to proceed to a higher rank.

=Ranks=

Knight Squire
The lowest rank a Knight can be. More or less a trial period once the lab born Aldonklin reach fighting age. They are given a lighter less impressive variant of power armor and spend several years fighting in order to build up experience. After they have served a minimum term of 5 years of combat they then must prove themselves with acts of honor and bravery before they can finally be promoted. Squires stand at roughly eight to nine feet tall.

Equipment
A Squire will not have access to the more powerful equipment the higher ranked knights will have but in comparison to contemporary human standards along with standard issue equipment used by the Guard Core the equipment are of a frightening power and efficiency.

Divine - Standard Power Armor Squires wear a weaker but still impressive variant of power armor which while much harder to engineer and manufacture when compared to the Standard Hive Pattern armor Arcanial Guards wear it is still much cheaper then its bigger, more powerful and more impressive variant Knights use. This is due to the higher mortality rates of in training Squires, this has led to the squires requiring a more expendable version of the armor. It features a machined exoskeleton which carries a frame of heavy alloy plates for protection from bullets. The armor does not come with an over-shield and instead is a super heavy ballistics armor which uses sheer weight and density to absorb incoming fire. The armor comes equipped with a hazardous environment re-breathers and hydraulic boots but also come equip with Arcanial Power-Fists which incorporate bladed and fist melee combat into a central glove for increased melee damage.

Riveter/Rivet Gun Full Article Rivet Gun Along with their power-fists Squires will often carry a handheld version of the Arcaniums newest and perhaps most intimidating infantry weapon the HMVAP-01 Riveter more officially known as the "High Muzzle Velocity Armor Piercing" Rivet Gun.

The Riveter is a large and bulky firearm which fires large self propelled explosive tipped bolts of high density alloy. The Rivets are a two layer bullet which expels its first charge equivalent to roughly a kilogram of C4 explosive to exit the barrel of the fire arm before detonating a second charge equal of that of the first charge to than further accelerate the rivet to multiples the speed of sound before the bolt slams into its target and detonates a high explosive charge to deal internal explosive trauma.

The energy expelled by these rounds has been known to warp or even destroy the barrel of the firearm leading to many rivet guns coming with a secondary barrel underneath the first in order to quickly replace it, in the event the first warps or is damaged beyond safe operation.

The weapon's ammunition is so bulky the magazines for the rifle are typically no more then ten or fifteen rounds per magazine however a singular rivet is more then enough to take out any target not wearing especially strong power armor however regardless of this the bulky ammo proves itself a large problem as many squires have to carry around roughly a dozen or more magazines filled with rivets which in a particularly fierce battle, the squire will likely burn through very quickly.

Knight Eternals
"“There is no greater honor, than to serve the Matriach for Eternity.”"

- High Elder : Lasaan Sahrahng : House of Contempt



For squires who prove their worth to the Matriach and their house they are given the greatest honor a warrior of the Knights can receive and that is to enhance their own bodies beyond aging and mortality and to fight as an Arcanial Knight Eternal. Their bodies and souls are forever merged with their armor effectively allowing them to live forever much like Arcana does.

Knight Eternals field the most powerful infantry weapons available in the Arcanium. Donning the most powerful armors the Arcanium can possibly engineer these behemoth warriors tower over opponents at fifteen to eighteen feet tall.

Equipment
A knight eternal will have access to the finest weapons and armor in the Arcanium.

Hallow - Ultima Power Armor Suit. Hallow Ultima power suits provide housing for mental consciousness and soul along with power generation and supply's for a heavy metal exoskeleton which is bolted directly into the Knights skeleton. The suit is then clad in heavy and thick ballistics resistant dense-metal alloy plates. Along side this absurdly heavy plate armor the suits also come packaged with highly charged energy overshields which provide a strong and highly adequate form of energy and ballistics resistance.

Along with this the suit also provides mechanical assistance to a knights already genetically engineered and chemically altered bones and muscle structure providing a terrifying level of physical strength and speed in combat allowing them to lift many multitudes their own bodyweight.

Loadouts
What an Arcanial Knight Eternal uses in a battlefield is whatever weapon they proved themselves most adequate with back in their training as Squires. Typically this is a choice between melee and gunning however if an eternal has shown themselves to possess telepathy this ability is refined and focused in its own class and loadout for use in combat.

Paladin Paladins are the melee dominant variant of a Knight Eternal. They wield hefty dense alloy shields capable of taking heavy abuse from energy and ballistics weapon fire along with any number of single handed melee weapons, typically this roll is taken by a retractable powerblade however Paladins can wield any number of weapons including a much more deadly variant of the Arcanium Chainsword or power-axe. This deadly combo of shield and sword is only underlined by the immense strength and power that can be given from the armor. These things combined, the razor sharp edge and its energized and unbreakable powered blade mixed with the sheer kinetic energy from the swing of the Knights arm has been known to slice clean through most tank armor. The Paladins are typically accepted to be the main damage dealers in a squad due to a paladin's ability to deal quick and damaging swings, stabs and cuts in quick succession. Paladins pride themselves on their quick feet and mastery of bladed fighting seeing a great deal of honor in Melee fighting as they spend many years studying it and perfecting their own skill. There are most commonly two Paladins in a typical squad of Knight Eternals.

Gunner Gunners are unlike their brethren the Paladins the ranged dominant variant of a Knight Eternal. Gunners along with a standard powerfist for beating off combatants that get too near they will either wield a Heavier variant of the Arcanial Rivet Gun or a Heavy Particle Accelerator Cannon which is typically bolted directly into the arm of a Knight Eternal in lieu of their hand. In times of non combat this will typically be replaced with a cybernetic hand. While the Gunner's spare hand is taken up by their powerfist can be used to wield some kind of one handed weapon for example an Arcanium Chainsword or Power-Axe, this is usually only when they are carrying a Particle Accelerator Cannon, Many gunners prefer to keep this hand free in order to use it to hold their Riveter steady as the kickback from such a hefty weapon is quite considerable. Gunners are typically used to pin down enemy units by spraying large quantities of concentrated fire onto them. This hail of bullets immobilisers enemies and also rapidly drains energy shields. Gunners can also provide covering fire and suppressive fire and mow down considerable infantry movements by themselves. Gunners pride themselves on strength and hardiness they typically hold endurance and physical body strength to high esteem. There are most commonly two Paladins in a typical squad of Knight Eternals.

Telepaths