Jack of Harts

The tiger-derived Laohu of San Lucas lived as slaves of the Hankyu until the mountain of the gods erupted and buried their civilization in lava and ashfall. They retreated to the highlands where they fought off crazed survivors and prayed to the sky gods for salvation. We arrived with aid and they welcomed us with open claws. That’s a peaceful greeting by the way. An open display of their natural weapons with an implied promise that they are hiding none. They accepted the food and supplies from our understandably nervous aid workers, but the aid we could give was more limited than we wished to admit. We could save their lives, but we could not cleanse their lands. Then the Chinese arrived and deployed an air purifier network nearly as large as the one we used over the Pacific Ocean on Earth. We wondered why the Chinese went to so much expense until we learned that the cats of Hankyu had been genengineered from ancient Chinese tigers and lions. The Chinese policy that anything that has ever been Chinese IS Chinese is long established, and they certainly consider these cats theirs to lift up into space. Something they have done with regularity ever since, and the Laohu are happy to serve their gods in whatever way they require.