Jack of Harts

The Port of Mobile remained one of America’s major space launch facilities throughout the decades after Contact that led up to The War. Their factories built numerous Alabama and American starships, as well as Class One, Two, and Three Colonization Ships for many colony projects. They launched, and landed, bulk cargo for trade and other projects in record-breaking tonnages decade after decade. It was a license to print money, and they did not miss a single trick they could imagine. They had very imaginative lawyers as it turned out, and an Alabama government that was happy to give them a great deal of leeway when it came to interpreting laws. The money flowed, the taxes came in, and the people of Alabama prospered like never before. It was a Golden Age that many thought would never end.

Alabama’s Port of Mobile and Naval Station Mobile used favorable taxes and other incentives to make themselves major supporters and launch locations for American efforts to colonize the Solar System. And when hyperdrives allowed us to go to the stars, they joined the New Earth and New Washington Colonization Programs that brought us to the stars. That would start a tradition of Mobile supporting colonization efforts, and every major colony America had any involvement in sent components through Mobile. Not necessarily all, or even most, due to the superior launch locations in Florida, Texas, and Panama, but Mobile’s incentives made it virtually impossible for anyone seeking to launch components into space to ignore their facilities. The decades before Contact saw their revenue share steadily decreasing, though, and their days as a major space launch facility appeared to be ending.

Alabama sent a full squadron of former corporate escort ships to help Australia defend itself from the Chinese advance. Carrying Alabama Marines and helicopters, they acted as fleet escort and search and rescue auxiliaries throughout the campaign to halt the Chinese advance in Indonesia. They performed the same mission for the combined fleet that sailed to Singapore, and their Marines took part in the final offensive that eradicated the last Rogue AI nest. They came home to a heroes’ welcome and were quickly reassigned to act as training cadre throughout the growing Alabama State Navy. Some would even go to space, and later to Mars as part of Governor Amanda Carter’s security team. They would represent Alabama to the world for decades to come, and helped build the space navy that took them to the stars. Sporting various corporate logos of course.