Sentinel

and there in the distance is the sentinel, named after the asteroid that shall one day serve as its grave

Sentinels dedicate their life and being to the defense of the solar system. These individuals hone themselves into living weapons powerful enough to destroy extrasolar threats. After decades of training, the Sentinels are assigned to an asteroid and spend the rest of their lives defending the Sol System from the Oort Cloud and beyond. Sentinels need to not only be powerful enough to stand toe to toe with eldritch entities, but they need the mental fortitude to handle complete isolation.
Sentinels are extremely dangerous. Even just the bycatch of a fight can be enough to cause devastation, something Pluto experienced firsthand a few years back when the debris from such a fight fell into the atmosphere and levelled one of its biggest cities.

Recruitment

Sentinels are recruited from the Outer Planets, primarily Uranus and Neptune. The Wardens, the organization that train and deploy Sentinels, are granted the right of conscription. Neptune sees the defense of Sol as their solemn duty, and prefers to send young recruits, sometimes so young they are barely able to string together sentences. The Wardens of Neptune keep registers of potent bloodlines, and look for early aptitude for violence or with certain abilities.
Uranus restricts the Wardens to recruiting only those of age, treating Sentinels almost as an extension and special division of their military. Occasionally other planets and planetoids will send candidates, particularly those from trans-neptunian regions, which are most under threat.

Traits Recruiters Look for

Potential
Mental Fortitude
Powerful abilities
Self-reliance
Peak physical condition

Nameshedding

The first real step towards becoming a Sentinel is the shedding of names. A Sentinel sacrifices its personal identity and family ties to instead serve the Solar System.
Once the name is shed, the candidate has no name until they are designated to an asteroid. From that point on, it is called by the name of the asteroid.
Many Wardens take the nameshedding further by avoiding personal pronouns, or not speaking to candidates at all.

Training

Sentinel Training puts a strong emphasis on survival. Even calculated risks are discouraged. A Sentinel cannot rely on anyone but itself, and an injured Sentinel is soon a dead Sentinel.
Sparring matches are a big part of the Sentinel training, becoming more lethal as the candidates get closer to graduation. In the early days of training, the sparring matches are intended to teach the candidates how to defend themselves against various skillsets.
Intermediate training teaches the candidate to no longer pull their punches. If they see an opening, they should take it, and decisively end their opponent. This slow culling of candidates leaves only the strongest Sentinels, and hardens them for the task ahead.

Deployement

Partway through the training, the Sentinels are assigned an asteroid that will become its base of operations. Sometimes several Sentinels are assigned the same asteroid, a telltale sign that the Wardens have low expectations of the candidate making it past the culling.
When Sentinels are deployed, it travels with a lifetime of supplies, and will never recieve another shipment. The travel out to the Kuiper Belt can take up to a decade, and most sentinels will be put in stasis for the duration of their travel.
Many sentinels elect to return to statis between battles, to prolong supplies. In stasis, the Sentinel relies on the Wardens to signal them of an incoming enemy. This is the only contact it will ever have, beyond, potentially, signalling the wardens to inform about its imminent death.

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Related Articles

Neptune

♆ Neptune
Locations Fall ( Albino Palace ) Characters Blue NM-2 · Fritz Fram Society Humanoids ( Oceanid ) · Traditions ( Symbiosis ) · Organizations ( Sentinel )

Outer Space
Locations Asteroid Belt ( The Collision Course ) · Oort Cloud Species Deep Space Leviathan · Orbitross · Astroplankton Materials Astrallite Technology Crystal Technology · Super Wide Access Network · Spacecraft ( Dragonfly Carrier ) Society Traditions ( Dumplings in Space ) · Organizations ( Sentinel ) · Conditions ( Deep Space Syndrome )

Known Sentinels

Blue NM-2