Jack of Harts

Nearly all of the United States of Jack’s time had Space Forces of their own, though some combined their Space Force and Navy into a single branch. Aerospace fighters, and the various ground and orbital forts the States maintained were far cheaper and numerous than warships. They also threw out more firepower on a ton for ton basis. Fort Wichita, seen in one of the earlier actions of Jack’s career, actually belonged to Kansas, and maintained a permanent defensive orbit in the skies over that State. She also maintained a plot of ground in her central promenade made entirely of Kansas dirt and native buffalo grass, to meet the court definition of being built on State ground. The entire fort was an extension of Kansas herself, a sovereign part of the State in Earth orbit. That was the case for all State installations in space. The easiest way to defend them from territorial or colonial taxes was to plant a piece of the State inside them and claim them as official State property. The Feds did not approve of this practice, since it cost them valuable tax dollars, but they secured an agreement with the States to link these stations into the entire American defense grid during emergencies. This link became a permanent state of affairs after The War began, to the disgruntlement of the States that did not wish to lose their sovereignty. It was a delicate political balance between the necessities of total War, and the political realities on the ground. Literally.

I’ve spoken mostly about the American Federal armed forces so far. But the fact is that for all the funding that went into them, they were not the bulk of America’s armed might when The War began. They were powerful. Make no mistake about that. But most of the State governments maintained their own militaries to defend their borders. The old State Guards, National Reserves, or National Guard units from before the Second Great Depression stayed with the States they were part of when the Federal government collapsed. And they continued to serve those States in most cases into Jack’s time. They were the bedrock that the States built their militaries upon over months and years as the Islamic Jihad and the Cybernetic Wars ravaged what they couldn’t protect. The State militaries helped rebuild America and the Western Alliance in the years to follow. And then they took to space in the decades and centuries beyond that. They helped defend new State colonies, and spread their influence throughout the cosmos every bit as much as the Federal forces did.

I will note that the United States Army got a major chance to shine during The War. They brought the largest tanks, mechs, and aircraft to the various fields of battle, from reserves stockpiled for generations. They constituted the core of trained soldiers that defended Western Alliance worlds across colonized space, and they fought on more Chinese and Russian outposts and colonies than most people even knew existed. It was the Army that conducted the ground invasion and occupation of the Hyades Cluster after Alliance warships cleared the orbitals. Space Marines like the Cowboys may have gotten good press and media deals, but it was the average GI Joe who brought the heavy end of the hammer down on our enemies. Or maybe they were a Jose, a Jay, or a Jacy depending on the culture they came from. They volunteered to serve from every American State and colony, and they fought for two decades straight under alien suns to secure America’s continued survival.