St. Andreas

= St. Andreas = Note: X and Y are coordinates (light years on XY plane) relative to Terra at (0, 0)

St. Andreas was an inhabited system in the Deep Periphery, and as at 3095 was the only system controlled directly by the group known as the Society of St. Andreas.

System Description
St. Andreas is located in the anti-spinward region of the Deep Periphery beyond the Marian Hegemony, and consists of a single planet orbiting a class M7V primary. The one world in the system, named either St. Timalin or St. Tomalin was colonized by the Society of St. Andreas, as were its two moons, dubbed St. Chaeryl and St. Daniel.

System History
The St. Andreas system was colonized on the 1st of February 2768.

Political Affiliation

 * 2768 - Society of St. Andreas
 * 3095 - Society of St. Andreas

= St. Timalin =

St. Timalin is the only planet in the St. Andreas system, orbiting a dim red primary; St. Timalin has two moons, both of which have small human settlements located inside pressurized facilities. St. Timalin is the only major world occupied by the Society of St. Andreas.

Early History
The founding of the first settlement on St. Timalin was a direct consequence of the coup launched by Stefan Amaris that saw him seize control of the Terran Hegemony in 2765. Stefan Amaris actively worked against organized religions on Terra, attempting to subsume their authority, influence and resources for himself; among those targeted was the Catholic Church, shortly after Amaris had already destroyed major religious sites central to the Muslim and Judaism faiths. Anticipating that Amaris' attention would turn to the Catholic Church, the Pope charged the head of the Vatican City's traditional armed forces, Oberst Andreas Kosovskaia of the Swiss Guard, with removing and protecting as many of the treasures and as much of the secret knowledge preserved within the Vatican as possible before Amaris could seize them. Although Oberst Kosovskaia was killed during Amaris' attack and seizure of the Vatican, he successfully organized the removal of much of the Vatican's treasure and hidden books, dispatching them with one of his two immediate subordinates, Oberstleutnant Chaeryl Brunegg. Oberstleutnant Brunegg escaped from Terra and rendezvoused with her counterpart, Oberstleutnant Daniel Nikolaus, in the Alarion system; these two officers represented the highest-ranking officers left in the Swiss Guard at this point.

Knowing that Amaris had forces in pursuit of the Swiss Guard and their assorted treasure, Brunegg and Nikolaus gathered together the remaining survivors of the Swiss Guard and their families and set off for the Deep Periphery, using the three remaining JumpShips belonging to the Holy See: the Adrian IV, Pius XIV and St. Peter. The two Oberstleutnants were determined to protect the treasure, relics and knowledge while the Inner Sphere descended into warfare, so that their descendants could return to the Inner Sphere in the future to help rebuild the Catholic Church when Amaris and his successors were gone. Although Oberstleutnant Brunegg apparently died in a DropShip accident en route, the Swiss Guard arrived in the system subsequently named St. Andreas at some point in or around 2768, and identified that the single world in the system was habitable. The planet was colonized and named St. Timalin; also colonized at the same time were the planets two moons, which were named St. Chaeryl and St. Daniel.

The colonists on St. Timalin constructed a single large city, living at a relatively low technological level; the city, named Calvary Hill, was located in a clearing cut from the heavy black forest native to St. Timalin, and became the most populated of the three holdings of the Society of St. Andreas, but with little industrialization beyond the construction of a small coal-fired power plant. Meanwhile, the settlements on the two moons consisted of pressurized environments created around clusters of grounded DropShips, with water reclamation and other essential environmental facilities constructed by cannibalizing elements of the DropShips. Whilst the three groups would remain isolated from each other with no contact - or apparent interest in contact - between the three, each group was motivated to protect the relics left behind with them.

First Contact
The existence of the Society of St. Andreas was discovered by Interstellar Expeditions (IE) in 3032. The mystery of the disappearance of the Vatican secret libraries and relics had been the subject of major investigations and expeditions by IE since the 2990s due to generous bequests from at least one influential person, and IE had identified at least a part of the route taken by the Swiss Guard as they left the Inner Sphere, including the presence of a mass grave on the Marian Hegemony world of Algenib in 3014 that contained the bodies of those from the Swiss Guard and their families killed in a DropShip accident, including Oberstleutnant Brunegg. IE nearly missed discovering the Society of St. Andreas completely, as the Societies holdings lacked HPG facilities and the initial survey of the system detected only the native black plant life on St. Timalin, which had evolved to sustain itself on the low light levels emitted by the system primary - whereas inhabited worlds tended to display spectrographic signals associated with the green colours of imported Terran plant life. It was only when the IE team astronomer noticed by chance that dim light sources were visible on one of the two moons that IE made a closer survey of the system, discovering the location of Calvary Hill.

First contact with the Society of St. Andreas indicated very little industrialization on St. Timalin, with the primary construction materials used in Calvary Hill being rough-hewn stone and timber, but confirmed that the Latin-speaking settlers were the descendants of the Swiss Guard and their families. Some minor relics from the Vatican were discovered in Calvary Hill, along with the remains of a Mule-class DropShip contained within the keep of the Prior General, the planetary ruler of St. Andreas; the DropShip still bore the intact coat of arms of the Holy See, and among the relics carefully maintained by the settlers were the Mauser 960 assault rifles owned by the Swiss Guard. The population of both St. Timalin and the two inhabited moons were deeply suspicious and mistrustful of IE, and continued to be so throughout the thirty-first century; IE investigations found no trace of the bulk of the items removed from the Vatican by Oberst Kosovskaia and the Swiss Guard, and the population continued to maintain the belief that they had a duty to remain where they were until the Vatican's JumpShips returned to convey them back to Rome on Terra. All three Prior Generals to have dealings with IE and the population continued to maintain that they had no knowledge of the location or destination of the missing JumpShips, and IE investigations continued to prove largely fruitless within the St. Andreas system, and the inhabitants had no interest in making contact with the Catholic Church on Terra or the branch of the Catholic faith located on New Avalon. The population appeared to be content to continue living at a relatively low technological level, effectively that of a pre-industrial civilization, with the more advanced relics - such as the Swiss Guard's weapons and the various DropShip systems used on the moon colonies - being maintained in accordance with strict and detailed instructions left behind by the founding colonists.

3095

 * Prior General Micah Winchester

3095

 * Swiss Guard (1 infantry regiment)

Geography
St. Timalin is a dark world, with black flora that has evolved to survive on the dim light emitted by the red primary, which the colonists named St. Andreas.

Planetary Locations

 * Calvary Hill: the planetary capital city.