-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Look up the opening sequence of the old TV series 'Branded'  c.1965 (starring the same guy who played the lead in the 'Rifleman' series).
It's shows the lead character getting 'drummed out' of the US Army.
I esp recall the part where the commanding officer breaks the guy's saber over his knee & throws the 'stub' out of the open gate of the fort.
After which the guy is also sent out, where he picks it up & ponders. The guy carried that 'short' saber w/ him & it became a sort of trademark of his.

"All but one man died, there at ?????? Creek"
......................................
"BRANDED!! Cursed as the one who ran. What do you do when you're branded, & you know you're a man!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Tue, 8/30/16, Freelance Traveller <xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com> wrote:

 Subject: [TML] No Longer One Of Us
 To: "The Traveller Mailing List" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 Date: Tuesday, August 30, 2016, 4:45 PM

 It's not often shown in fiction
 (though occasionally it is), but a
 character who has been discharged from service (or written
 out of the
 family/clan, or some other generally-equivalent situation)
 with dishonor
 often makes for good story-telling, especially if the
 discharge and the
 dishonor were undeserved.

 I'm going to, once again, see if I can come up with a story
 that's worth
 sharing if it gets completed. (Yes, I said 'if'. I don't
 have a very
 good record on that score...) My current idea is to start
 the story with
 the flashback to the day that the protagonist was 'read out'
 of the
 service (or whatever you wish to call the event).
 Unfortunately, I don't
 have very many examples of such a 'ceremony', and I'd like
 some ideas.
 Does anyone have any that they'd like to share? They can be
 real-world,
 fictional, from any service, club, clan, et cetera, a
 mash-up of any
 combination of the above, whatever, as long as the result
 'feels
 realistic'. (Yes, I more-or-less recall the Honor Harrington
 scene where
 Pavel Young was drummed out of the RMN, and also the scene
 from ST:TNG
 where Worf was discommended.)

 The setting is intended to be largely compatible with the
 Third Imperium
 setting of Classic/Mongoose Traveller (i.e., not an
 Expansion (M0),
 Rebellion, or New Era setting), but the location hasn't been
 determined,
 and neither has the service that the protagonist formerly
 served in
 (which need not be Imperial, or even an Imperial world;
 Julian,
 Solomani, or minor Human polity are all valid choices - the
 only
 constraints, really, are that the character is Human, and
 there will not
 be any psionics in the story).

 Help?

 --
 Jeff Zeitlin, Editor
 Freelance Traveller
     The Electronic Fan-Supported
     Traveller® Fanzine and Resource

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