Eee! I like them a lot. I feel like they should have some kind of motto, perhaps on the lines of "For Tomorrow Another World" (with the dual meaning of "tomorrow we'll visit somewhere else" and "we'll conquer it for Tomorrow").
In fact, since I can't sleep, have a slightly sloppily written vignette of them:
"Medic! We need a medic!"
"Baldwin that.
1 Stand by, team four. For Tomorrow."
The jungles of Trazan IV
2 were proving especially troublesome for Major Theoderic Tancred and his exploration patrol force. The region had a number of useful features, and could well prove strategically vital in building the Trazan Northern Colony's defences up against invaders. On the other hand, there were some rather concerning developments - troopers who strayed from the group kept disappearing and being found only later, often badly wounded. Something was afoot.
Another line on the communications channel.
"Team three report, sir. Urgent. Corporal Ostron down, hostiles, I repeat, hostiles."
"Who, what is it?"
"Enemies. Not planetary natives; some sort of lightly armed humanoids. Solid projectiles and one attempt at an assault on our position."
"Hold where you are, Three. For Tomorrow."
"Received and understood. For Tomorrow."
The Tomorrowmen had bonded humankind together by striving for for rationality,and for the future. Major Tancred, forty-second Imperial Progress Corps, was a hard-worn example of the sort of person the Empire of the Tomorrowmen sought to have on their payroll. A scientist before joining the corps, his clever and flexible sense of duty had won him a number of battles without a single laser being fired - though he kept a sharp, cool mind even when negotiations did break down and the heat of battle commenced. Or he usually did. This place was unsettling him. He was tired, and he was getting older. But more importantly... he was curious.
He turned to his second in command, calling her over from her control station.
"Saka?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Get some heavy weapons troops. The old Rhinoceros
3 model, if we have any, they're old but they'll be more reliable than these newfangled Wolfsbane attack units. And I want squads seven and one ready to move in half an hour, maximum."
Four flamingo-class walkers creaked into the base yard below him, their machinery emitting a gentle hum occasionally penetrated by the slow metal clang of their feet upon hard paving slabs. The Major looked down at his little fortress, his bastion of Progress in a universe that so rarely managed to look toward Tomorrow, and he took a deep breath.
"And you're in charge."
"Sir?" Saka was already halfway through dialling the relevant units, but looked up, her face suddenly concerned.
The Major lowered his visor, grey eyebrows heavy beneath a furrowed brow. His expression was soon barely readable as the light of a hot sun glinted off the glass.
"You heard me. I'm going in."
1 This may make no sense to anyone who isn't an early medievalist - suffice to say that Roger was not the only excessively common Franco-Norman name in the high medieval world.
2 The anagram is intentional.
3 Because running with a "let's name things after exotic animals" theme seemed like fun.
