CentraliaHonorGuard

• For the civilian police service, see RoyalCentraliaCivilGuard.

The Centralia Honor Guard (CHG) is the branch of the CentraliaGuardForces nominally tasked with the protection of the PrincessOfCentralia and other members of the royal household. In practice, however, they mostly protect everyone else from the Princess.

Notable CHG personnel include RobinRavenswood, a young guardswoman who formed a close friendship with PrincessAlice.

Duties

Princess's security detail

All members of the Centralia Honor Guard, as PrincessAlice likes to repeatedly "remind" them, swore an oath to protect and defend the sovereign princess of Centralia.

Because the princess is an immensely powerful supernatural being easily capable of defending herself, newcomers to the CHG often expect their job will be quite easy. However, they quickly find themselves unprepared for the reality of their new duties: while Princess Alice needs little external defense from physical harm, she frequently requires emotional support. Princess Alice, being eternally 13 years old, is prone to acute mood swings, and many guards have found themselves kneeling next to the princess's bed on muggy summer night holding her hand while she quietly sobs. (Of course, if they ever told anyone about this, the princess would throw a tantrum and deny the whole thing.)

Another common duty of the CHG is what the guards informally call "Princess Control"--essentially, protecting others from the princess. Because the princess's magical powers far exceed even the capabilities of an entire military regiment, the guards' main tactic is to simply try to talk her down. This often involves explaining to the princess, in detail, why her latest zany scheme will inevitably backfire, though as one may expect, she usually does not listen. Previously, any guard who was successfully able to talk the princess out of an act of mischief was presented with an award, but the princess found this insulting, so nowadays, instead of issuing official awards, everybody just pitches in to buy the lucky guard a chicken tender combo meal.

Protective services

In addition to their role as the Princess's security detail, the CHG is responsible for security services for major government buildings, including the PalaceOfSerenity, the SupremeCourt, and Parliament. (Curiously, security duties at the Senate are carried out not by the CHG, but by a single 22-year-old security guard who attends community college part-time.)

Organization

Privates of the CHG may choose the rank Guardsman, Guardswoman, or the non-gendered Guardian. Higher ranks ostensibly follow a standard hierarchy (Corporal, Sergeant, etc.), though the princess has a habit of "promoting" officers on a whim, assigning whatever rank she thinks "sounds coolest". As a result, formal ranks mean little in the day-to-day operations of the CHG, with officers relying on an improvised "unofficial" chain of command.

Specialized units of the CHG include the Stellar Cavalry, who patrol on horseback, and the Mechanized Nebula Force, who patrol in mech units.

Uniforms and equipment

The standard CHG uniform is a pink military tunic over a white skirt or white slacks, adorned with crown emblems and the national flag of Centralia. The CHG also employs a number of plainclothes guards for covert operations. Actually, somehow, they're so good at going undercover that the princess herself can't pick them out of a crowd, even when she's trying really hard.

Unlike police officers in Centralia, CHG personnel are typically armed. The princess's personal bodyguard, RobinRavenswood, carries a hot pink pistol that fires gumball projectiles, which she calls a "bubblegun".

Facilities

Unlike the other branches of the Centralia Guard Forces, which are headquartered in The Star in downtown QueenCity, the central operations of the Centralia Honor Guard move with the princess. In practice, this has led the CHG to establish semi-permanent installations at the PalaceOfSerenity, the princess's official residence in Queen City, and DameAdorabellesAcademy, the boarding school in Havensborough where the princess is a student. As Dame Adorabelle's Academy is a private institution, the school also employs a team of private security guards led by Patrolman PeterPomeroy, who coordinate closely with the CHG.

Patrol vehicles

While most of the CHG's patrol activities are covert, the CHG also maintains a visible presence near places where the princess is publicly known to reside, including the palace and Dame Adorabelle's Academy. Patrol vehicles driven by uniformed guards are typically all-black SUVs with no license plates or markings, equipped with an emergency siren and a blue emergency light bar. These vehicles are also used to perform traffic escorts for the princess, other members of the royal household, and foreign dignitaries. Princess Alice is quite fond of traffic escorts, as despite having little need for practical protection even while among the general public, she loves drawing the attention of everyone on the roads to herself, and she thinks it's cool that she doesn't have to wait at red lights or stop at stop signs like those commoners do.

CategoryMilitary