Fissure

Taking bearings in a void.

Farquhar

In the mid-28th millennium there was 
a relative physicist named Farquhar who
proved
categorically
that navigation is random.

Imagine.



Constellations

Different stars.



Celebration, Continued

Celebration

Happy Christmas Day to you.

Ship and Regiment, Part 10

We are constantly raising the next iteration of the regiment; by charter each is called the 302nd Wasteland Reconnaissance.

The redundancy is reassuring.

Ship and Regiment, Part 9

Ship and Regiment, Part 8

It's best if the Regiment is picked up on schedule.



Ship and Regiment, Part 7

Sometimes it takes more than five years, we have
no means of communication with the ships
prior to their arrival in orbit.

Several times a whole generation passed
with no sign of a freighter. 


Several times two ships have
presented themselves
simultaneously.



Ship and Regiment, Part 6



Ship and Regiment, Part 5

We are beholden to this obligation: that every five years a freighter arrives in orbit, and Kalkovac will have raised another regiment to load into it.

Men, officers, equipment.

Ship and Regiment, Part 4

Like I said, we have a king and he has a king.

Ship and Regiment, Part 3

And by doing so come to terms with the fact that we are freight.

Ship and Regiment, Part 2

 All the ships we call The Freighter, however different.

Ship and Regiment

Schooner, launch, liner, sub-light container tug: individually there are monumental differences between the vessels that 
sporadically arrive to collect the Regiment.

Talk 20

We never saw the Skoli again.

Then there was the Laurie Alabastar in 599; and then the Ruffine (603), the St. Bambi (606), the Taro Lomax (614), the Planar (619), the Honda Suzuki (623), the Pelo Strove (628), the Blemish (631), and the Organic Curiosity (638).

 `

 

Talk 19

There was the voyage of the Cantibule in 584, the Herring Cove in 589, and the Skoli in 593. 

Talk 18

The wreck of the Aristauchade was shocking, but the next year another freighter came and then another six years after that, and then another and another and another.

Talk 17

You simply adapt.

Talk 16

The Ejecta left in 567 and never came back. Then the Hakon five years later, and it also failed to return. And then the Aristauchade came 578, loaded up the regiment, and fell through the atmosphere burning.

 

Help

Where was I?

Denizens (2)

Denizens (1)

We are the denizens of a wall-eyed god.

Talk 15

That was followed by the Circle Thrift in 558, the Quantum Migraine in 563, and the ill-fated flight of the Ejecta in 567.

Talk 14

Then came the notorious voyage of the PCH Looking Glass.

Year of the gods 554. Nasty bit of business.

Talk 13

The first of the great transports was the Agatha Whetstone, and then in 544 came the Yubari. Huge ship. We filled it up with people and equipment and off it went.

That was the very beginning of the great cycle and five years later a converted tanker called The Myth of Chan appeared for transport. 

She arrived to much fanfare in 549. In those days the conscription was greatly celebrated.

Talk 12

Talk 11

At full embarkation strength the Regiment numbers 19,640 personnel.

In the background, front view of an Pachy-variant ChMR Armored Transport.

Talk 10

Talk 9

The ships have mostly returned over the years, after some months or years, and the Regiment disembarks more or less as it left, but everyone is older then. At other times the ship has not returned at all, everyone waits and then time passes and they are gone.

But always after some period another enormous freighter arrives from space and sits in orbit over Kalkovac. And then another 302nd Wasteland Reconnaissance Regiment is conscripted and organized, and loaded up and sent to the stars with their equipment.

Talk 8

Lugging equipment back and forth.

Talk 7

Largely, we spend decades just looking.

Talk 6

It was an easy narrative, and the early citizens dreamed hopeful. They wrote songs about going to the stars to find new enemies and catalogue their lands.

In 579 the Agatha Whetstone returned and brought the Regiment back but they were much older, and changed fundamentally. But in the meanwhile in 544 there was another freighter and another mobilization, and the processes of raising the regiment have become seamless. 

In the last four hundred and sixty years the Regiment has been organized 91 times, and each time sent to join the expeditions.

Talk 5

We were sent to map the invasion.

Talk 4

More farmers gave up and joined the army.

Talk 3

We had a king, and he had a king. Orders were issued, recruits gathered and everyone sorted according to participation. The officers drew up manuals and guessed at how best to train the men. That was the first year.

It took two months to board the Agatha Whetstone, an enormous freighter that came to collect us. It sat there in orbit blocking the sun.

Talk 2

We are the 302nd Wasteland Reconnaissance. The regiment was chartered in 539 by edict of the Principality of Kalkovac.

It has been four hundred and sixty years since. Now it is the ninth decade of the nine-hundredth year, nearing the end of the 41st century.

Talk

It's time to talk about the mission.

Voyage of the St. Bambi

A Hydrologist-Inspector (D Class) carries his equipment past a gun tractor on Equalitine, Numm Sector. The Hydrology Corps carry out the important mission of identifying and cataloging water deposits on survey planets.

This soldier is carrying a standard K33 Portable Transfer Station: divining bit, steam pump, and electro-fire box. The satchel at his waist would contain an explorer's journal and colored pencils.

This image dates from 630. Voyage of the St. Bambi, year twenty-four. 

Planetside on Adestre

Non-Commissioned Geometrist with an Independent Survey Platoon, planetside on Adestre. Attached to his field gear is a standard issue Type 21 iron tripod, likely for the mounting of an astrolabe, and a bedroll for field survival. Note the non-standard shoulder plates.

Survey and cadastral mapping are an important function in the normal duties of a Reconnaissance Regiment in the 41st century. The mapping of celestial exploration is a tedious if often dangerous undertaking, but this process ultimately allows for proper administration and centralized tithing.

Adestre Incursion, 983. Voyage of the Phisolanka.
Year eighteen.

Voyage of the Myopy

Scout-Rifleman with No. 51 Company Uhlans; Rykali Subsector, Map Grid L, Harnoh Kingdom. Behind this soldier is a good shot of a Pelikan variant of the ChM Armored Transport, heavily laden with externally mounted supplies. 

The Pelikan has proved widely popular with motorized battalions, largely because of the durable Quatt and Sprigley R88 engine it is built around. It is not uncommon for a Quatt and Sprigley to go 200kl between rebuilds, or to run at temp/operational specs even after suffering catastrophic damage to the main spindle!

Voyage of the Myopy, late-880s. Year four or five.

 

Monsters 5

Monsters 4

Rats in the bamboo.

Monsters 3

Churlish things. 

Monsters 

in the stickerfield.

Monsters 2

Monsters

We fought goblins on AB-685.

I've Heard This 4

So we're all disappearing.

I've Heard This 3

I've Heard This 2

Relativity is the same 
thing happening at all

the same time.

I've Heard This