The History of The Guard

In what is believed to be the second millennium of the Guard’s existence, Guardsman Reickart Dan’Korton led a revolt against the leadership. His primary attack was against the central archive, and then he took the Headquarters, slaughtering those he and his followers once called brothers. Quickly, the violence extended out into the Sectors themselves, and the civil war lasted for months. Over half of the Guard were killed as brother fought brother, until the fighting was ended by Guardsmen Kent Tarenlin’s conclusive victory at the moon of Gardella.

Assuming Command of the Guard, Leader Kent Tarenlin assembled a new council and, over the course of two years, a new charter and course for the Guard was developed. With the loss of the central archive records, the Helm was no longer able to subliminally provide a full training and indoctrination regimen, and a new training program was developed that remains to this day. He declared the records of the rebellion sealed, proclaiming that it was time to focus on the future, not the past. Kent Tarenlin went on to lead the Guard for another 50 years, setting the regulations and practices that guide the force even today, 8 millennia later.

For ten millennia, the members of the Guard have served with one sole purpose in mind: Safeguard Civilization.

Recruitment

Guard membership is entirely volunteer, there are no drafts or impressions. To be considered, a candidate must pass through the arch. If accepted, they must pass training and endure a four year initial assignment. At the end of that four years, the member is evaluated and the decision is made to confer a permanent status.

On each inhabited Sector planet, there is an archway. The journey to the archway is, in itself, the first test, as the arch is located in an extremely difficult location. To approach the arch tests a bring to the full measure of their limits, both mentally and physically.

When a candidate passes through the arch, they are given a detailed scan, and that data is collated and transmitted to the Headquarters. If there is a vacancy, a Guard is dispatched to retrieve the candidate. If not, the candidate is entered into The Lists, ranked by the results of their scan. When a vacancy is presented, the candidate at the top of the lists is sent for. At that time, the candidate is given the final chance to accept or refuse. If the decision is to accept, the candidate is enrolled in training.

Training is conducted at the Headquarters under a training team of five veteran Guardsmen acting on a two year rotation. The senior Guard assumes the position of Leader. It is the Leader’s decision whether a candidate passes training.

Organizational Structure

The Guard’s members are primarily field operatives, with four members per sector, each with a quadrant inside that sector. These four person teams have an overall leader who will coordinate cross-quadrant activities. The Guard manages 100 sectors, so there are 400 operatives with a 17% overhead (Training Team, Chapter House Staff, HQ Staff). The Guard employ a number of civilian workers from all sectors at their HQ (admin, maintenance, food services, janitorial, etc). Each sector has an Outpost, every ten sectors has a Chapter House, and then there is the HQ.

Sector Team. Each sector team has four positions/personnel: Leader, Diplomat, Warrior, Historian. Each member of the team is a patrolman first, the position titles are based on their collateral duties. The Leader is the front in all Sector based activities, and each member of the Sector team provides a distinct staff function according to their role. So, if there is a big trade negotiation in the Sector and the Guard has been asked to mediate/facilitate, then Leader and Diplomat would participate. If it’s a military action, Warrior would participate. Historian often records or serves in an advisory role, as their job is to be as mindful as possible on the complete history of the Sector and all of it’s planets.

The Sector team is based out of an Outpost, though its members are frequently on extended patrol or dealing with particular issues in the Sector. The Outpost is typically on an asteroid or the moon of an uninhabited planet. They do not reside on an inhabited planet to avoid favoritism.

An Outpost is a fairly large place, with a space dock, conference rooms, and large living and messing spaces to house diplomats and delegations. It can serve as neutral territory for negotiations and treaties.

Chapter House. This is a central location, with a very small staff, that oversees ten sectors. They provide and coordinate resources and preside over cross-sectional affairs. There are four Guards and a very small civilian staff. The Guards at the Chapter House are, generally, more experienced Guardsmen, known for their judgment and skill. They do go to the field, but they are only mobilized for significant crisis and/or operations of particular operational or political delicacy.  The Chapter House facility is about the same size and capability as an Outpost, also located away from inhabited planets.

Headquarters. The Headquarters is a large facility at the center of Guard territory. There are ten 2 person teams (Leader and Historian) who coordinate/manage each of the 10 Chapters. The training facility is also housed at the HQ. In the last 300 years, as more planets have gained hyperdrive based space travel, meeting facilities and consulate space have been created to accommodate planetary representatives.

Weapons

Helm. The helm is the communication and control system of the Guard’s weapons suite. It is able to pick up the neural signal’s of the user’s brainand interpret them, with AI extrapolation of the user’s intent. For example, the Guard does not have to consciously think “Go right 45 degrees at 25g acceleration, engage shield to 17% and increase inertial dampening 8%” in order to make a right turn. He thinks his desire and the helm is able to make the necessary calculations and system adjustments to achieve the user’s intent. Same for weapons and defensive systems – the helm takes care of the details to ensure the user’s desired outcome.

All helms are constantly connected to the Guard HQ through quantum communications, using linked subatomic quarks of a single high density atom. This constant quantum link allows the users to be connected in real time to Command as well as providing access to the extensive knowledge data base maintained at HQ, despite interstellar distance. It also allows the Guard to be constantly connected to each other.

The helm communicates to the user visually through a heads up display and aurally through neural feed directly to the brain’s aural nerves. This way both visual and aural acuity are maximized in the most comfortable and user friendly way.  The helm can provide subliminal instruction to the user if requested (during sleep, long interstellar voyages, etc). It can provide instantaneous translation services to the user, via it’s extensive knowledge data base.

Control Rods. The control rods are the Guard’s weapon implementation interface. They look like two (one for each hand) small, smooth, silver batons that extend an inch or two from the hand when gripped.

The weapon system is based on the extensive manipulation of advanced shield technology. By manipulating energy based force shields, the Guard can create simple structures (blade, shield, sphere, wall, etc). It is not capable of creating complex shapes or machinery, make cures, or affect the subatomic structure of matter. It just manipulates energy shields to various effects. When the Guard fires an “energy beam” it’s really a small, spherical energy shield moving at high velocity – it just looks like a beam to the naked eye. Heat to melt things is produced by increasing power to a localized energy shield, the excess energy shedding as infra-red radiation. Doors can be melted and seams welded in this manner. The Guard achieves a tractor beam type effect by surrounding an object with a shield and pulling it. Propulsion is made by encasing himself in a shield and moving the shield. Due to the nature of shield technology, physics inside the shield are malleable, thus allowing inertial dampening (so a Guard won’t be turned to jelly when making high velocity maneuvers).

The Suit. The black body suit protects the Guard when not actively using the Control Rods. It provides protection against the elements (heat, cold, wet, etc), slow velocity ballistics (bullets, flechettes, shrapnel, etc), and close quarters weapons (knives, clubs). It won’t protect against high power energy weapons – the shields need to be activated for that. It provides a sealed barrier to the wearer and serves as protection against chemical, nuclear, and biological threats. In addition, the suit is made up of dozens of sealed layers and is capable of processing bodily waste and conserving/filtering perspiration to provide a source of drinking water. It also provides constant health monitoring data to the helmet that can be accessed by other Guards. In case of sustained injury, the suit is the first line of medical aid, able to administer adrenaline, pain killers, electric shock (restart the heart), compression bandage wounds, splint broken bones, and go into a traction mode in case of spinal injury.

The suit is not a powered suit and does not convey strength. It does need power to maintain it’s systems, but that is a very low amount that the helm/rods easily provide.