We didn’t colonize Canopus until after Contact. It is a long ways from Earth even now, and no colony expedition of the time could have made it through The Wall. Now it’s one of our Beacon Stars and a major trade hub in that area of space. It’s a nice world actually. Lots of oceans, lots of ocean-front property, and lots of white sandy beaches. And very temperate too. It is an amazing vacation destination.
When the Second Great Depression came and devastated the American economy, Amber did what she could to continue watching and alerting her agents. But between the general failure of the power grids and the fall of the international communications networks, she found her options limited. She soon joined the Great Pacific Firewall to gain access to its power reserves and network links, though most people thought she was just the program cover art. A very few knew better.
Third Fleet was our best hope for victory. Epsilon Reticuli was the first step in our mission to end The War once and for all. Go in with overwhelming force and blow the dust bunnies out of anything the enemy had. My Cowboys were sent to support the fleet and to watch out for anything the enemy might throw at us. I honestly thought it would be a cakewalk. I mean, who would ever attack something the size of Third Fleet? That would be crazy…
Angel Flight is available on Amazon:
The Japanese culture of the Twentieth Century was heavily rooted in the idea that the Japanese race was superior to all others. Even other Asians were less human than the Japanese, and so they knew without doubt that the world would bow to them in time. This bone-deep belief was bolstered as they watched the Europeans make the insane decision to release their hard-won conquests throughout the world. Japan saw that as a sign of weakness and chose to act on it.
I’ve seen men that can survive in the vacuum of space. I’ve seen men that can live in the deepest darkest caves. I’ve seen men obviously designed to live on high-gee worlds, and I’ve seen people who lived inside the zero-gee environments of asteroids. I’ve seen people who should be in super hero comics, and some that should be in horror movies. But do the government schools teach about them? Oh no. They claim that more study is needed. Whatever.