Hospitaller Knight Father-Officer Gabriele De Fersen

Ref. 280255-0347

“We don’t give or ask for quarter! Kill them all, God will recognize his own!”
Attributed to Father-Officer De Fersen, Action of the Horns of Hessen, Paradiso.

Gabriele de Fersen was a young, successful programmer who enjoyed a life full of depravity and excess. However, after suffering a dramatic naval accident in which he almost died, he reconsidered his behaviour. De Fersen found God and decided to ask for admission to the Holy Order of the Temple. The Order offered him a way to sanctify his eagerness for excitement, dedicating his efforts to the works of God and allowing him to serve through his technical knowledge. De Fersen devoted himself body and soul to prepare for the holy war in the tough instruction monastery of Santiago of Neoterra, in Aquila. With the last of his savings he paid for a combat implant, of Templar manufacture, that allows him to activate accelerated combat routines. De Fersen became a disciplined Templar Knight who received his baptism of fire in the final death rattles of the NeoColonial Wars. On the battlefield he proved to have bullet-proof faith and confidence, as well as a touch of indomitable aggression. At the end of the conflict, he returned to Neoterra where he continued polishing his military and battle programming abilities. At that time, he had already forged a fearsome reputation as a warrior intelligent as he was fierce.

After the order of the Temple’s dissolution and the investigation into its heresy by the Holy Inquisition, De Fersen was subjected to deep questioning and scrutiny to find if he was involved in the blasphemous plot. He had to face a court martial and voluntarily underwent an ordeal, a trial by God, from which he emerged victorious. Once declared innocent of the charges of apostasy and artificial intelligence programming, he was allowed to transfer to the Order of the Hospital. Nevertheless, his former link with the Temple is considered as a fault and a stain on his spirit and record, meaning he will never be promoted inside his new Order beyond his current rank.

During the Ariadnan Commercial Conflicts, De Fersen was posted to the Mercy Units, those responsible for recovering the wounded from the battlefront and rescuing prisoners. The missions undertaken by the Hospitallers of Mercy are risky in the extreme, requiring maximum precision. De Fersen proved capable enough to take tactical command of these units, managing to the last detail the preparation and execution of missions. The name of De Fersen passed into the annals of the Order in the Horns of Hessen, on Paradiso, where he ambushed and destroyed a reinforcement column of the EI’s Combined Army. The time bought by De Fersen’s small Unit of Mercy allowed PanOceanian troops to destroy the main Morat force’s rearguard, rescue numerous prisoners, and capture important technical and strategic information.