Veterans Day Weekend

by on November 13, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries




We celebrated Veterans Day this week. Armistice Day in the rest of the world. We remember those who fought. We remember those who served. We remember those who signed their named on the check that could be cashed at any time, without warning. We remember our Veterans.

My great uncle Dean served in World War II. He came home and proposed to the girl he’d written letters to for years. My Uncle Ben retired from the Navy a few years ago after over twenty years in service. My Uncle Duane joined the Navy, then switched to the Army and fought in Desert Storm. My cousin John served in the Air Force. My stepmother Rose served as a Marine. My cousin Dylan is in the Navy right now. I can’t count the second or third cousins or uncles who have served in one war or another over the years.

I am surrounded by those who served. I grew up looking up to them. I grew up asking questions that I probably shouldn’t have, but they always answered them as good as they could. I never served. I have never known that world. But I have touched it, and I will ever remember those who lived it.

And as Patton once said, I will “thank God that such men lived.”

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The Essential Galactic Atlas

by on November 12, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Essential Galactic Atlas

One major change brought about by The War was the unification of humanity’s hyperspace runs. The Chinese controlled many of the best routes through the stars, including their lock on nearly all those that ran near the Hyades Cluster. We fought them for control of those routes for years, seeking to open their worlds to invasion at need, and to shorten our own supply lines to the Hyades Front. And our transport companies soon began taking advantage of these routes on their own, using them to reduce travel times to distant markets. The entire economic map of humanity changed because of the military advances we made against the Chinese. And that changed everything about how we lived and expanded after War’s End.

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Hello, my name is Jack

by on November 11, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The games we play say much about our personalities. I like to play Mechs of War. Guys in big robots carrying big guns blowing up other guys in big robots. There’s a lot of story involved, but honestly, what more do you need to have fun? Sometimes I just want to blow something up. Virtually. Then there’s all those multiplayer network games where people play as wizards or soldiers and such. Some of them have amazing stories. Some of them are just excuses for people to get together and talk. Or conduct business meetings and trades. It’s amazing to see some of the virtual worlds that people have created in the networks. I like the real world myself, but then I grew up under warm skies and cool water. Sometimes I wonder if I lived in one of the last places on Earth where that’s normal. Don’t get me wrong. I like the networks. I spend a lot of time in them. I do a lot of work there. But I wonder about all the people who show up as wizards or warriors in them. Me? I show up in a white Stetson and white suit. I’m Captain Jack in whatever world you meet me in. I guess that’s what games say about me.

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Weylan

by on November 10, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Weylan are a fundamentally trustworthy people if you ask most races. But their Contact with us was not always smooth. The Protestant wing of Christianity that is most strongly concentrated in America does not appreciate blasphemy against God. Naming your child Jesus for instance is simply not done. It would be presumptuous at best. But the Catholic wing of Christianity strongest in the Southern and Central Americas is far different. Jesus is one of their most common names. It is a hopeful name. An honor to wear. The Weylan as it turns out are at least as deeply religious as the Americas are, and that is why their name for soldiers translates into the word Seraph. They are honoring the angels of their own faiths, and pledging to live up to those examples.

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The Essential Galactic Atlas

by on November 9, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Essential Galactic Atlas

The hyperspace routes we used before Contact and in the first century after Contact where highly proprietary. Each major alliance held tight control over our systems and the runs that united them. Alpha Centauri was our largest shared system due simply to the fact that there would have been war had anyone tried to stop anyone else. The other routes were another matter, which is why many strong Alliance systems never saw a Chinese or Russian starship before The War came upon us all. And why we never saw the Chinese or Russian systems. We lived in different worlds until The War brought us all crashing back together again. It was not a happy reunion.

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