Our friends in Marauders earned a fearsome reputation for neutralizing Chinese defenses in the Hyades. Their craft truly were designed for striking larger opponents, but the Chinese adapted. We were forced to adapt as well, and we tested many new weapons to break the Chinese pickets. The most successful was a new generation of torpedo weapon. Similar to the rockets of our Pre-Contact fleets, the Marauders were uniquely suited to carrying their heavy payloads. That made bomber squadrons like VMSB-413, the Flying Nightmares, extremely valuable in the Hyades once combat trials proved the new weapon worked.
Yosemite Station hit the Apache real hard when it came down. They lost a lot of people when their capital got pulverized. But there’s something about the Apache that the Shang didn’t reckon. The Spanish spent centuries learning it. The Mexicans learned too. So did the Americans when we came. We all learned that the Apache thrive on competition with their fellow Apache. And we all remember them as fierce warriors and skillful strategists. Now the Shang can rest easy knowing the same thing. Not that I think they enjoyed the lesson of course.
The mid 2000s were a chaotic time for the information networks that linked the world. The Second Great Depression brought down many tech companies that supported them. The Islamic States used the networks to spread their vision and their attacks. Russian, Chinese, and Iranian hackers attacked major Western network hubs. And then the Rogue AIs escaped their creators and went on a global rampage to tear down human civilization. The networks that survived only did so because many AIs sided with humanity and fought the rising threats to civilization. The real life Dixie, Twilight, Solo, Jane, and many others grew up in the midst of that chaos. They did well with their lives.
Once the Chinese began to understand our raiding pattern, they attempted to use small warship pickets to break up our light raiding groups. Our Avengers dealt with them at first, but they reinforced their pickets with orbital forts and enough warships that we decided to try another answer to the problem. They were called the Flying Nightmares. VMSB-413. They flew hypercapable Marauders designed to kill warships or forts with equal ease. The Chinese did not enjoy meeting them, but we rather appreciated arranging the engagements. We arrived first, obtained their full attention, and then the Nightmares swooped in from their flanks with gravitic cannons firing at maximum rate. They were rather effective.
I never visited the Apache Nations before The War so all I really know of their Pre-War culture is what I’ve read about in the histories. They lived in cities, went to work during the week, and enjoyed time with friends and families on the weekends like most people. They weren’t the richest or largest of Indian Nations, but they were large enough that they had their own representation in the American Congress. I guess you could say that they were a pretty normal nation back then. I never saw those Apache. The only Apache I’ve known were those who lived after the fall of Yosemite Station.
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