Deployed to Witness (vi)

There was no threat to be had, perceived

or otherwise

for three thousand-thousand light years in any direction.
Three thousand millenia.

We're talking about the Udina Sector here, right?

Kalizch Stars, for Grom's sake.

Deployed to Witness (v)

Strange duty for an intelligence unit.

Or whatever they were.

 

Deployed to Witness (iv)

- by reasonable standards a dead-end world, in

a dead-end system

growing genetically modified staplegrains

for no one special.

Deployed to Witness (iii)

It isn't clear why they were assigned career duties

guarding grain storage and cultivators

on Witness

Deployed to Witness (ii)

Deployed to Witness

But deployment amongst the stars is haphazard,

 random

at least

for the regiments from backwater systems

such as

ours.

 

The 68th Kinetic (Witness)

So that by the time

they landed

on Witness

(Udina Sector, Kalizch Stars)

they were three years into their voyage

(somewhere around 874)

 and whatever they envisioned an Intelligence Unit to be

they trained rigorously to become

and had
become.

The 68th Kinetic (continued)

And find their own way they did

 

The 68th Kinetic (continued)

The 68th Kinetic (continued)

Spirited,

conciliatory.

 

The 68th Kinetic (continued)

Contentious

 

The 68th Kinetic (continued)

The 68th Kinetic

You might say 

they struggled to find their way.

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (21)

Not the 68th Kinetic. They designated themselves

 an Intelligence Unit.

Other ideas.

 

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (20)

In sixty-eight separate expeditions

over three hundred thirty-two years

the regiment from Kalkovac had always sailed as the

302nd Wasteland Reconnaissance

as it has in the 138 years  and twenty-six

expeditions since

 

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (19)

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (18)

They formed on the modified terms of a collective

and named the newly formed,

collective regiment 

the 68th Kinetic Cell

 

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (17)

But left to their own

organic

decision-making

they defied the traditional military model-

 

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (16)

All by themselves they worked it out.

Editor's Note: The astute reader will note that this entry is the one thousandth post on Guardsman-A-Day.

Thanks for sticking around and seeing this through with me. 

 

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (15)

And they did.

They worked it out.

 

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (14)

That happened.

 

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (13)

So the decision was made

 we would send

sort of

who we could find

with the idea that 

on the long voyage between stars

they would work out what their organization might be

upon deployment.

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (12)

Little plastic citizens, of course.

Inflexible, yes.

But also nuanced.

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (11)

Understand, there were a bunch of citizens who

 we didn't really, 

well-

care 

much for

on our home planet of Kalkovac.

 

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (10)

No one that had been trained, anyway.

 

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (9)

And it being a five-year process to raise a regiment

we didn't have anybody for the Belknap.

 

The Unexpected Sailing Of The Belknap (8)

But the Belknap showed up just two months

 after the 5897 Crescent sailed with the regiment

we'd raised.