Jack of Harts

The Republic of Texas Marine Corps passed on the F-15 Sabre early on as the Hyades Campaign heated up. The new F-12 Avengers and A-10 Righteous Vigilantes did what they needed, and famous units like the Cowboys made them household names. The Sabre’s manufacturers wanted a piece of that action, and so they went through the work of adding a pair of external hard points to the fighter before initiating the second production run. The Marines accepted that version of the fighter, and soon deployed Sabres next to their Avengers and Vigilantes. It performed well, and the citizens of Texas quickly received footage of it excelling in battle. That increased demand in both the public and military sectors, and the Marines continued buying the Sabre throughout The War. It was the most numerous single craft in the Texas Marine Corps by Wars’ End, and would continue to serve in the years that followed.

The Republic of Texas Marine Corps’ military campaign in the Hyades Cluster was unlike any seen since we left Earth. They embraced the old slogan “improvise, adapt, and overcome” and came out with many new and old tactics to throw at the enemy. Hard points had been a staple a century before, often used to carry heavy missiles that could threaten warships into battle. A century of miniaturization had allowed fighters to carry far more powerful weapons with greater endurance on internal mounts, to the point that most new designs did not even incorporate the old hard points anymore. But enterprising individuals had designed powerful sensors, jammers, point defense mounts, and many other systems for hard points over the years. The Marines wanted access to those systems and fitted hard points onto all of their frontline designs for the Hyades Campaign. It is impossible to overestimate how much that flexibility affected Marine tactics in the years and decades to follow.