The growing Core Worlds culture isn’t bad. It’s just…different. And for all that Jack says he loves new things he really doesn’t. He likes to play with new things and people, and then go back to a comfortable real life. The young in the Core Worlds have blended play and reality so much that it is hard to tell the difference sometimes. They have entire worlds that exist only in computer memory and yet by walking in the real world you can travel in those worlds. It is an intriguing duality.
The Crusades and the Reconquista of Spain put an end to the Islamic invasions of Europe and the desperate fight for cultural survival that they represented. The wars of the next few centuries revolved around the English-French squabble for European supremacy. They created a ritualized war where armies lined up on the field of battle and shot each other until one side surrendered or retreated. Flags changed but the people remained. World War II changed everything.
I like Gamma Trianguli now. The Free Tibetans have completely reinvented their world since The War ended and they welcome us like conquering heroes. Not that we ever fully conquered the system of course. But we don’t let that little fact keep them from treating us real nice. That’s honestly one of the big reasons we go there. They want us to come and we love to come to places where the locals want us. It’s nice to be wanted. Lots of places where we aren’t.
It’s amazing to see how the twin assaults of The War and our own knowledge affected the cultures of Earth. To many people it did very little. The older citizens of Earth and her colonies took what we made available and used it to defend their ways of life. The children though…they saw just where everything could lead and jumped in feet first. It’s more prevalent in the Core Worlds than the Colonial regions of course. Maybe that’s why we don’t come back very often anymore.
The Los Angeles-class heavy cruisers were some of the best ships of their time. Built just before The War began, they were to be a revolution in military technology that would vault America into a new position of dominance. In actuality, they came into service just in time to help keep America from falling to the Shang attacks. They still see service today in many roles, but it was during The War that they truly shone. They stood between Earth and the Shang and held the line.