Oort Pendant

The beginning of the known universe is not a subject normally associated with Rocket Dogs. The how and why everything exists is not something most Commanders ponder. However, how dogs came to be is intrinsically tied to how everything came to be through the Oort Pendant.

Dogs are descendants of the wolf, who have been part of the diverse animal kingdom on Earth for at least 200,000 years. Running in packs, wolves are very social creatures. Darkness is their domain, and the night sky is their cover as they rely on their sense of smell and night vision to hunt their prey.

It is speculated that some 20,000 years ago, a stray female wolf ingratiated herself into a tribe of primitive humans by warning them of the presence of other apex hunters. As a reward, she was tossed a bit of food. Eventually, day by day, she came closer until she was living among the humans. That simple symbiotic relationship became what dogs are to humans today.

No matter where a dog lives, whether in the country, a high-rise apartment on Earth, an orbiting hanger above Quantum Prime or on an Intergalactic Cruiser, dogs are drawn to the night sky. It’s the instinctive call of their wolf ancestors.

In their Intergalactic travels, the Toba have discovered several streams of strange particles crisscrossing space that have no known origin or endpoint. It is speculated that these streams are the remnants of the beginning of the cosmos, before time itself, when a tremendous surge of energy started all the activity in the universe. Enterprising Toba placed a gravitational field across the streams to capture the particles. What they discovered is when these particles are placed in a confined space (an amulet or a test tube), the particles compress into a dark mass that does not reflect light. However, if one looks into the depth of the darkness, you will see the stars of the night sky.

The Oort Pendant, worn by the most fortunate Rocket Dogs, contains those particles and allows the dog to gaze at the night sky at any time and feed their inner wolf.