Holy Guard of Xyon

"You fool! The Holy Guard is invincible!"

- Emperor Lucius Xania

The Holy Guard of Xyon is the combined military force of the Xai Ascendancy, charged with enforcing the laws of the theocracy and ensuring all wars are ended swiftly throughout the Xyon Sector. It was established in 273 XE out of the old Family Pride Security Forces which served as the law enforcement organization in the planet's earlier days. With the establishment of the first colonies in 327 XE, the need to enforce peace and security beyond the planet's reach was needed, and the Holy Guard was founded. Each member of the guard is sworn to serve Patriach Shala Alla Tok, and must be an Imperial Xai to join.

The Holy Guard is the single-largest military force in the entire sector, with countless billions of members, and millions of warships, though only the Creator and the Patriarch know of its true extent. The military is divided into numerous branches, such as the Holy Templars and the Holy Inquisition, both of which are but two of the many elite forces of the wider military. The organization has given much priority to the training and equipping of its forces, and to that end, maintains the best-equipped and prepared military force in the entire history of the Xai, its soldiers being physically, mentally, and technologically superior to all others.

History
"Suffice to say, most of the generals still commissioned by the Holy Guard are older than most civilizations today."

- Imperial Xai speaking of the Holy Guard's age

The Holy Guard was originally formed as a paramilitary arm of the Patriarch's bodyguard in 118 XE. However, as the Holy Guard grew, it replaced the aging FPSF, which was using outmoded equipment and languishing as its forces were held in reserve on the homeworld. Shala Alla Tok ordered the FPSF to be disbanded and its remaining units absorbed by the Holy Guard, giving him direct control of the newly reorganized military forces, and allowing the new force to gain additional manpower with experience from previous operations. The following decades saw a Holy Guard slump in terms of numbers as there were no credible threats to the security of the Ascendancy, and only the Creator's demand that such a force be established keep the Patriarch from disbanding the young military force.

In 738 XE, the Xanians attempted to form a sucessionist state aimed at overthrowing the Patriarch and the Ascendancy as the supreme power of Xyon, and the Holy Guard jumped into its first military campaign. The failure of the Holy Guard to take its role seriously resulted in a number of casualties, and the loss of a single battle on Cybria, which led to the enslavement of the Cybrians. However, the organization rebounded and moved to establish itself as the sole hegemonic power in Xyon which saw the swift and devestating defeat of the Xanian Dominion. Due to the smashing successes of the Holy Guard, and the new threats it faced, the Patriarch authorized the formation of numerous branches to carry out the many duties and responsibilities the guard would now have to undertake.

In the wars that followed the Xanian Wars, the Holy Guard had to adapt to the unique abilities of the numerous Xai subspecies emerging throughout Xyon, and the tactics needed to overcome them all and keep the Ascendancy united. The Rulara Crisis in 4,511 XE effectively forced the Guard to accept that it was not the invincible power it had thought itself, though it continued to spread such beliefs throughout Xyon so as to prevent any possible attempts to fight the Imperial Xai, and scare dissidents back into place. The formation of the Holy Inquisition in 6,704 XE was done largely in part to act as the Ascendancy's secret police and keep members within the Holy Guard in line and aware of the loyalties to the Patriarch. Because they defend the Xai as a whole, the Holy Guard is often provided the protection of the Creator when needed.

After the Skye Incident in 14,522 XE, the Holy Guard was forced to deal with potential uprisings by angry Xai who felt betrayed by the Patriarch's actions using the enemies of the Xai races to keep them from targetting and overthrowing the government on Family Pride. Around 13,981 XE, the Xyon Civil War resulted in the Holy Guard being stretched across the sector as numerous worlds finally decided to drop the yoke of the Imperials on the homeworld, and establish a new government where are Xai are treated equally without the Patriarch's interference. The failure of the guard to keep these worlds in line with the Imperial doctrine has led to many worlds freeing themselves of the fear that the Guard was originally invincible. When the war ended in 14,710 XE, the guard kept a tight leash on the subject nations.

Organization
The Holy Guard is divided into several branches, all of which are trained to handle their respective duties to their greatest ability. The Holy Crusaders are the front-line troops of the military, and are tasked with handling ground missions as a result. They are assisted in that duty by the Knights of Xyon and the Holy Templars who serve as the special forces of the crusaders. The Holy Fleet handles atmospheric and aerospace operations, which include protecting the spacelanes, patrolling the sector, enforcing blockades, and ferrying crusader forces from planet to planet, though they have little authority over the ground forces duriing transit.

The military is well-integrated in such a manner that all branches of the military have little to no influence over their fellow forces, though they are able to operate without the interference of the other branches during the times they do work together. During combat, they operate as a well-oiled unit that no other military can stand against.

Known branches of the Holy Guard of Xyon:
 * Holy Crusaders
 * Holy Templars
 * Knights of Xyon
 * Divine Liasion Corps
 * Holy Inquisition
 * Holy Fleet

Troops
The Ascendancy's military utilizes numerous land vehicles during the heat of combat. Crusaders form the core and backbone of the Holy Guard, filling the rank-and-file forces that charge headlong into battle. These are selected from the Imperial Xai population living within the Xai'athus sub-sector. The reason for this was very simple. They are regarded as the most obedient of the Xai, having chosen to stay on the worlds administered by the Patriarch and his government. Also, it was to prevent bias and corruption from spreading throughout the most powerful military ever. If the guard was called to put down a conflict between two sub-breed, racial divisions within the military would prove disasterous.

The army's troops are given genetic enhancements to make them stronger, smarter, and faster than their enemeies, and are by the lower standards of the other Xai militaries considered to be super-soldiers, usually putting even the Rulara to shame. Their loyalty to the Patriarch is made to be absolute, ensuring their undying devotion for all time. Xai of particularily strong psionic abilities are given boosters to magnify their powers, and exert more control over their abilities so as to assist the Holy Guard to an even greater extent.

Vehicles
The Holy Guard operates a massive array of highly-advanced ground vehicles ranging for the swift and nimble jetbike, to the mammoth earth-shaking devestators that have the power to quell entire cities. For the average soldier of another military force, the Holy Guard is not only unstoppable, but also invincible, and that is the intention of its masters. The superior technology of their vehicles coupled with the superior training and weaponry of its infantry forces, have done much to ensure that the guard wins even when outnumbered.

With all of their equipment built and manufactured in the famed factory complexes of Marza, the military has exclusive access to the best quality goods, exceeding even the ancient factory world of Sator itself in the sheer quality of military goods. Though, Marza will never be able to match Sator in the level of output it has been widely reknown for.

Black Lotus-class Dreadnought
The single-largest warship in all of the Xyon Sector, the Black Lotus-class dreadnought is the pennicle of warship design and technology. Only seven warships, each named and stationed at one of the seven worlds under the direct control of the Ascendnancy, are known to exist. Each dreadnought has more than enough firepower to put an entire warfleet to shame, and has been known to do so in the past. The exploits of the HXV Family Pride during the Eighth Battle of Cybria are well known, and have been used to kept to conflicts between the populace of the Hyperior Sub-Sector and Xania from killing each other.

Pacifier-class Battleship
Pacifier-class battleships are the powerful warships that form the core of every fleet and armada in service to the Patriarch. Heavily-armed, fast, and practically indestructible, Pacifiers are widely feared throughout the sector, more so than the Black Lotus dreadnoughts, for only seven of them exist, while hundreds of Pacificer regularly plow the spacelanes in search of dissent and piracy to vanquish within the Xai'athus Sub-Sector. A single ship of the class is capable of silencing any attempt to start trouble in the region, hence its namesake, and entire battlegroups have been seen to Kordan to keep the criminal planet from invading Juno at times. As only the Ascendancy possesses the ability to build them, they hold a distinctive advantage over all other navies in the sector.

Anathema-class Voidship
The Anathema-class voidship is the most well-known and recognizable warships in the service of the Holy Fleet. The vessels have been used across Xyon to deal with issues the rest of the Patriarch's navy has no time to deal with, as the rest of the fleets to stick with the major worlds of the core. Generally seen in groups of three, or on patrol by itself, the Voidship as it is generally known, is the rank-in-file warship in Imperial fleet formations. The Holy Guard is believed to have in the region of one thousand voidships in its inventory, all of whom ply the tradelanes putting down insurgencies, piracy, and attempts to evade Imperial laws beyond the core. The Kordanians and Elysians in particular seem to be the most annoyed by the Anathema voidships untimely arrival at a raid or illegal trading deal.