Jack of Harts

Kirtland Air Force Base remained neutral between the federal government and Texas at first, though they did support Texas against the drug cartels with everything from cutting-edge laser rifles up to combat-capable variants of the venerable C-130 Hercules and V-22 Osprey airframes. Kirtland’s Hercules used advanced stealth systems that penetrated drug cartel radar, while their Ospreys sported point defense laser clusters to intercept ground-to-air missiles. Those Ospreys escorted numerous high-altitude bomber or recon missions and helped secure landing zones for incoming infantry transports throughout the conflict. And when that conflict ended, they stood with Texas and the other American States when it came time to face everyone who had become their enemies.

Kirtland Air Force Base was Global Strike Command’s largest airbase when the Second Great Depression came upon us all. It was one of the foremost research centers into aircraft and weapons of all kinds, from handheld to nuclear weapons. And it held the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world. Kirtland was a major training center for weapons and aircraft, and much of the New Mexico Air National Guard was based there as well. It was, to put it simply, too big to close when the new President took over and began trimming the military budget in order to fund various social justice endeavors. It still lost a great deal of its funding, and Kirtland was forced to cut back many active operations as the Second Great Depression’s effects spread farther into the national economy. Kirtland had an advantage that many other military bases did not, though. The federal government treasury was not its only source of funding.

The proliferation of gravtech in the 2200s left the famous A-10 Thunderbolts far behind the technological curve once more, pushing them into a third major retirement. Many of them returned to Davis-Monthan Spacebase’s Boneyard, as they had the previous times, where they were left as yet another generation of a final reserve against a new national emergency. But history was not done with them. Improved deflection grids in the latter half of the century allowed less aerodynamic craft to navigate the interface between space and atmosphere, and the Republic of Texas wanted a new attack craft since the Chinese were getting frisky again. Whereupon an enterprising young woman from one of the major Texas manufacturing firms acquired an old A-10 hull for testing. She tore it apart, rebuilt it with modern materials to make it airtight, added a pair of engines, some point defense lasers, and replaced the main gun with a space-rated autocannon capable of firing numerous types of munitions for anti-ship use. The United States Space Force rechristened it the A-6 Thunderbolt under the new numbering system, and Davis-Monthan entered yet another age of refurbishing their retired craft for yet another burgeoning conflict.