28mm scale (22mm to the shoulder.)
Sculpted by: Aaron Brown
Milwer Trel Owun and Valiant
Communication between command and soldiers is always difficult. Radios are weak, unreliable, and heavy. Telephone connections require constant splicing and are slower than the general advance. Runners and riders can be picked off by snipers. The Pykpyk squirrel is hard to shoot, can see in the dark, and can easily be trained to run home. As war trends towards the technically complex airships and sophisticated artillery, the humble Pykpyk squirrel is the preferred messenger animal of the army, carrying messages from the front lines to the GHQ.
Milwer Trel Owun is attached to the HQ of the 202nd Line Regiment (“Free Grellquar”), and is pictured here somewhere on the Western Front in Crusade Year 8. He has a number of his messenger squirrels around him, but sitting on his fist is his famous partner, Valiant. Valiant is unusually long-lived and lucky for a ground squirrel, having survived three years on the front lines, carrying almost a thousand messages. Owun now reserves Valiant for only the highest priority messages, and in the meantime Valiant is something of the mascot of the enlisted quar attached to HQ.
Milwer Owun’s squirrel pack was manufactured by the Excelsior Picnic Basket Company. Out of dozens of designs submitted to the Requisitions Review Board, this design was the one favored by the soldiers and officers. Enterprising handlers have been known to load up empty packs with trophies to sell in the rear areas, leading some sentries to require the handlers to do a couple of jumping jacks, to prove their packs do not clink with contraband goods.
