This school session is nearly over and I realize that I have not talked about our military, so today I will do that.  For the most part we combine our military forces with the AEW, the Affined Equi Worlds.  People serve in the military by choice, and often husbands and wives serve together in some capacity.  We do more exploring than warring, so whole families can safely be involved most of the time. 

Three of our Affined Worlds – Calumet, Menorquin, and Papillia – do not produce many military folk.  Calumet has a very small, isolated population and nothing mechanical works there, so someone from that planet has to really want to change lifestyles to go into the military.  Still, some of our finest signal drummers come from Calumet, and they are in high demand.  The Menorquins are of water-dwelling ancestry, so they are superb naval officers. Because they are not particularly warlike, they usually choose to do something like moving one of their gigantic farm ships into position to feed any troops that may need it. The Papilli are not warlike at all, but they create Jocundomes, whole worlds in enormous bubbles.  These they move around as needed to aid military operations or emerging populations.

Two of our Affined Worlds – Amberia and Phylla – produce many of our warriors.  It is the chosen occupation of the majority of their young males and females, and many of them serve for a lifetime, moving up through the ranks.  The Amberians favor heavy weapons and big gunships.  They are large people – seven feet tall on average, so it suits them.  They also enjoy hand to hand combat, and all of them are trained with both whipchains and war clubs.  The Phyllans resemble nothing more than sleek, hominoid wolves.  They are quick as lightning, both on their feet and with crossbows, and they have a sense of smell which allows no prey to escape.  They are trackers and stalkers, insuperable in surprise attacks and clandestine forays. 

Here on Equus, everyone receives some military-style training in the course of their schooling.  We all learn self-defense and how to use a crossbow.  We learn mapping and strategies, too, which help make us good soldiers.  We all ride horseback, which makes us the natural AEW member to provide the cavalry, and that we do.  We have forces trained to fight on worlds where no advanced weapons are yet in place, or where it is too rough to go with conventional armaments.  The most elite arm of the cavalry is the Horse Guard of the Great House of Equus.  Most of the time it is their job to guard the High Priestess and the Eloi as they go out into Alliance space, and when a Dragonhorse rises, they become his personal bodyguards as well.  Ten thousand mounted troops may seem like an overabundance of body guards, but there are many times that number of priestesses amongst the Eloi, and their work takes them dangerous places.  The Dragonhorse is the outward face of Equus, and one of his jobs is to take in new worlds or quell uprisings on the ones already established, so he, too, needs an elite force beside him during his reign.  Our cavalry, whether they’re actually on horseback or not, provide a vital link in the AEW defense system, as well as being the backbone of the AEW’s Expeditionary Forces. 

This is my final entry for this session.  I hope I have taught you something interesting about my people and our way of life.  Ahimsa, I wish thee peace.  Ah’din Criollo Teal.