Sheep of Kentares

Organization Profile
Type	Religious group
Base of Operation	Kentares IV
Parent Organization	New Avalon Catholic Church

The Sheep of Kentares is a Christian fanatic movement originating on Kentares IV, but recruiting from the Draconis March at large. The Sheep see the Kentares massacre as an act of martyrdom against Christianity by “godless heathen” of the Draconic Combine. Over the years, this grew into a xenophobic hatred for anything “not of the Federated Suns”. For most of the era after the Clan Invasion, the Sheep were better known for assassinations of foreign officials and destruction of property. While they had been small in numbers and power base, their influence grew exponentially after the death of Pope Beneficent XVII. This was due to influence being exerted on them by Alexander Hasek (internal) on the behest of the Rim Worlds Republic.

Exponential growth

The Sheep started growing during the Davion Reconquista was ongoing. They were mainly motivated by the routing of DCMS forces out of the Federated Suns “traditional space”. Buying into the religious ideology of Pope Leo XXI, the Sheep elected Henry Holstein as their Shepherd. This former AFFS MechWarrior approached other local religious groups to grow their organization. By the time the Treaty of Arc-Royal had been signed, the Sheep of Kentares were roughly the size of a standard regiment in military strength, with a massive support network.

Lack of resources, especially logistical resources like JumpShips and DropShips, would have impaired the Sheep. Luckily for them, an anonymous donor (secretly the Rim Worlds Republic through Alexander Hasek) provided them with a basic Invader–class JumpShip, which they used to perform acts of piracy against Draconis Combine assets during the Reconquista. Over a year, they had acquired 2 functional JumpShips from “combine-affiliated source”, along with multiple accompanying dropships.

Avalon Grand Crusade

At the beginning of the Grand Crusade, the Sheep of Kentares continued their acts of piracy against the Combine. While no longer protected by the AFFS considering them privateers, the retreat of DCMS forces from the general region of the Draconis March led them to have multiple successful raids and “retribution attacks”.

Assault on Proserpina

Things changed when the Sheep decided to launch a massive invasion towards Proserpina. The fairly wealthy and populous Combine worlds was not expecting a full scale invasion by a regiment of ‘Mechs and armor, combined with hordes of fanatical zealots serving as infantry. After the retreat of the Third Proserpina Hussars, the Sheep began a campaign of “purification” of the world in one of the most deadly “hands-on” massacre since the Kentares Massacre.

In response to this, Erik Sandoval (internal) mobilized the First Robinson Strikers RCT to Proserpina. This went against the Treaty of Arc-Royal stating that no Davion House regiments should cross the frontier with the Combine for 10 years. The official response from Matsuhari Toranaga (internal) was a denunciation of the act, while in private both he and Yori Kurita (internal) sent thankful letters to Erik Sandoval and Prince Julian Davion (internal).

The First Robinson managed to track down and eliminate many war criminal, along with capturing a few which were going to be put up on crimes against humanity charges, but the Sheep leadership escaped. Returning with their captives, Erik Sandoval was stopped by a group of crusaders, asking for their release into their custody. Sandoval refused, leading to an altercation between the First Robinson and the local crusader forces.