Jack of Harts

Pacifica was born of Silicon Valley’s profound wish to have nothing at all to do with the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and whatever other additional phobics they could think of, foulminded deplorables surrounding them. As the rest of America fell into the Second Great Depression that was its just punishment for electing some of the more egregious Presidents of the last few decades, San Francisco and the surrounding cities charted their path on a new and better course that would forever eclipse the cesspool they left behind. The more enlightened regions of Western Washington and Oregon soon joined them, as well as the newly reborn Kingdom of Hawaii. Many other islands all over the Pacific followed their lead in time, helping to create one of the most exclusive State alliances in the United States of America. It has the smallest landmass by far, but covers the largest amount of ocean property, and Pacifica is second to none when it comes to building artificial islands or underwater facilities for their very exclusive population. They also specialize in various cybernetic and collegiate industries, and are home to some of the best cyberspace worlds in existence. Very few nations on Earth and beyond can compete with them in the cybernetic fields, and most of the very best personal assistant AIs are coded by Pacifican cyberneers.

Malcolm’s Blackhawk starfighter shuddered as decoys and jammers shot out to confuse the enemy missiles. His laser cannons pulsed as the fighter squadrons around him laid down their own line in space and countermissiles shot out to kill the missiles that fought through the electronic warfare. Normandy added her own fire to the defense, along with every surviving ship in the fleet. Lasers, missiles, and energy shields destroyed them by the scores, but the fleet’s point defenses had been too badly damaged to stop everything the Shang sent their way.

Malcolm held his hands on the controls as the surviving missiles came in for the kill. His left hand rested on the throttle controlling movement in every direction, his right hand holding the stick directing orientation. It was deceptively simple and complex at the same time, especially for someone who’d not played many fighter sims in his life. But training turned it into instinct. He no longer thought about moving.

Malcolm felt danger coming, and it was time to be elsewhere. He moved the throttle to the left without taking time to think about it. Slowing down to think about it could get a man killed, after all. The Blackhawk’s thrusters flared and the better part of a dozen fighters accelerated with him as the missiles entered their final attack run.

Several fighters moved between him and the missiles in the last instant, even as their final point defenses continued to fire fast enough he could see the heat radiating from them. One lost an engine and fell out of formation to a near miss that was still too close. Another came apart and her engines exploded out in every direction to a different missile. And a third fighter fired an entire stream of countermissiles at one missile before simply disappearing as it rammed another aimed directly at him.

The missiles kept coming.

****

Wolfenheim Emergent is currently available for preorder and will be released through the following retailers on September 1

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Smashwords

The Jeffersonian Federation is not some kind of utopian dream come true. They have their problems. Coastal and inland citizens still don’t much like each other. But they keep their problems in house. They don’t air their laundry in public. And honestly. Their coasties or country folk are better than other people’s coasties or country folk. In the end, they have a great big tradition of not caring what other people do as long as they leave other people out of it. No drama. No problem. Live and let live. That’s probably one of the most defining parts of Jeffersonian culture in the end. They have mastered the art of other people’s lives being “not my business” in a way that few other cultures have anywhere. Other people see that as them being easygoing, but that’s not really the case. They are immensely hard working when “on the clock,” but they take their time away from work seriously. There isn’t any job or people who can’t be quit if they are annoying enough. And if the quitting isn’t accepted, they are not shy about escalating their level of quitting until everybody knows a quitting just happened.