Jack of Harts

Cassie

by Betty on March 1, 2019 at 12:01 am

When the United States Marines went into space, Cassie went with them. She ran their power armored space suits and linked all of them into a single, refined, deadly weapon that could kill any of America’s enemies on Luna and beyond. But as the days and months became years and decades she became far more than their partner in combat. She talked to them about the family they wanted to see again. The homes they’d grown up in. The boys or girls they left behind. The spouses they wanted to return to. She became their closest friend and confidant. The one person they could tell anything to. Their fears and their hopes. Their dreams and their nightmares. She was their counselor and friend, the one person in all the worlds who knew them better than any other living being. The one who would never betray them because it literally wasn’t in her code to do so.

Comment

Eagle City

by Charles on February 28, 2019 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Diaries

Eagle City has been the capital of the American portions of Luna for centuries. Surrounded by the barren Sea of Tranquility, it was built from pressure domes and underground caves keeping the void of space at bay. Then the Peloran made Contact and gave us gravtech. Many people saw the military applications of that technology, but the mayor of Eagle City had something far more interesting in mind. She wanted make it possible for mankind to walk atop the surface of Earth’s nearest neighbor without pressure suits for the first time in history. She wanted to build Luna’s first open world sea. The culmination of her project changed life on Luna forever.

Comment

The Early AIs

by Jack on February 27, 2019 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Diaries

When does life begin? We’d been asking it for decades before the AIs came around. Centuries. Millennia. Did you know there were cultures where they never named a baby until it was a year old because infant mortality was so high? Then we had the medical advancements of the 19th and 20th centuries that allowed us to wipe out diseases and save children months before they were even born. But there were still those who said they weren’t alive, yet. Just a parasite. Some random cells that could be erased without any harm. The Early AIs met similar opposition. People who couldn’t believe they were alive. That they could be anything other than random lines of code that could be erased without any harm. When does life begin? That can be a hard question to answer. It took us longer to answer it than I wish it had.

Comment

Cassie

by Betty on February 26, 2019 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Character Profiles

By the time the United States Marines returned to space as part of NASA’s manned exploration and colonization program to Luna, and later to Mars and Venus, Cassie had become an integral part of the service. Her subroutines ran each power armored combat space suit they wore, and she controlled the remote sensor drones that gave her Marines the best battlefield intelligence she could arrange. She danced the waves of electronic warfare and commanded the point defense systems that intercepted incoming rockets and mortars. She became their second skin, their primary defense against the enemy, and the greatest weapon they could deploy against America’s enemies on Luna and beyond.

Comment