Gurkhas

Well, as nominal owner in the GZG 
Galactopoedia of the world Gorkha (named for 
the ancient Empire of Gorkha from which 
today's Nepal has more or less evolved), I 
guess I have to give my two kwatloos worth on 
this subject. 

The Gurkha in 2183:
Sometime prior to 2183, the NAC and the UN 
(with the tacit complicity of the ESU who mostly 
wanted the annoying Nepalese to depart so 
they could fully annex the land) jointly arranged 
for some portion of the Nepalese population to 
be transported to a colony world the NAC had 
set aside (not terribly resource rich, habitable 
but tough on its inhabitants, so not prime real 
estate) - some suggest the NAC did so out of a 
feeling of guilt for taking advantage of the 
Nepalese for so long. Some suggest they did it 
just to be a pain in the butt for the ESU off-
earth as well as on earth. The idea (and why the 
ESU let it go) was this: The Gurkhas got their 
own planet, could work for whoever they 
wanted (soldiering is a good revenue generator 
for the people back home), the ESU finally took 
what was left and whoever wanted to stay 
behind, and the UN helped oversee this 
because they didn't want an ESU/Nepalese 
genocide on their hands. 

Thus was born the planet of Gorhkha. Similar to 
some practices of the NI, the Gurkhas rent out 
combat formations, but only with the approval 
of the planetary government and the royal 
family. Traditionally, these forces have been 
made available to the NAC, the IF (or at least to 
the Sultan of Brunei specifically), and sometimes 
to other worthy groups (troops have served for 
a time with Romanov forces, etc). They tend not 
to work against other Gurkha units (generally 
one unit or the other will arrange to be 
transfered out of the conflict zone), they tend 
not to work for the Japanese, the Chinese, or 
most of the European countries. 

Does the ESU have Gurkhas? Not from Gorkha, 
but yes, from India and the remnants of the 
original Nepalese population. These are 
generally not reckoned to be quite as 
professional or dangerous as the Gorkha-based 
Gurkhas, but they are still Gurkhas. They have a 
long history of loyal service in India and they 
have ties with some Sikh units. 

Strangely, the Gurkhas have a historical affinity 
for Highlanders (the military units, and the celtic 
people). They appreciate (and in some cases, 
such as pipers, appropriated) their traditions, 
their outlook on life, their stoicism, etc. In 
return, the Highland units have always had a 
high respect for the tough little soldiers from 
Nepal (and later, from Gorkha). Small celtic 
splinter states might be able to arrange some 
Gurkha protection due to this affinity, if they 
weren't directly clashing with the NAC Crown.

I have a web page for the Renewed Empire of 
Gorkha and the Gorkha Space Navy (some IF, 
some ESU, some NAC, and one UN ship) 
(thought it is a small force). It just has been 
back burnered but it might get done sooner 
since this seems to be an interesting topic. 

Many of the traditional Gurkha formations are 
still in operation with the NAC or operating as 
contract military specialists out of Gorkha. Unit 
honours are continous from a time well before 
the bullet-in-a-casing to the modern day of 
caseless weapons... 

And the Kukri (the short form of the longer 
word) is still in service, with the Service No. 1 
being manufactured by a small business on 
Gorkha. 

------------------------
Interesting aside (My own experience of the 
Gurkhas, 2nd hand though it be): 
I stayed with a lady in Medicine Hat, AB whose 
husband had been British Army (officer). He 
had been, amongst other things, a Gurkha 
officer and bodygaurd of King Farouk of Egypt. 
She told me of his high respect for the Gurkhas, 
and how you, as a British Officer, learned to not 
muddle too deeply in the affairs of the soldiers 
(accidents had been known to happen to 
officers who were too nosy or too willing to give 
the men a rough time). 

I also remember a friend at CFSAC (Canadian 
Forces Small Arms Competition) who timed a 
Gurkha rifleman doing a 100m rundown on the 
range. Prone to prone, in combat boots and 
webbing, running 100m, in under 11 seconds. 
And the whole team they sent could do 
standing backflips. 

And, my Grandad, who served with the Highland 
Light Infantry in France in WW1, related to me 
of the one time a Gurkha unit was near his unit 
in the lines. He indicated they were considered 
very good soldiers, and would leave the lines 
with only their knife into no-man's land at night. 
They put rather a nasty scare into the locale 
Germans. Eventually, however, their habit of 
collecting ears and wearing them on a string 
made them odourous enough (and perhaps a 
source of contagion) that they were rotated to 
some other posting. I've heard some suggest 
this kind of story is apocryphal, but I sort of 
think it was a true story (remembered as well 
as I can after a decade or two).