Hello, my name is Charles

by on January 17, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The survivors of the Hyades had little love their rulers, and less for us when we came. Our military came into the ruins and acted like they were in charge, but every man, woman, and child who grew up in the Chinese system knew that the military took their orders from the businessmen. It was an amazing trap we fell into. I was testing a theory the day I walked out into the streets in the “old money” suit my family favored. I walked without an escort and could feel every eye on me. The two children arguing in the street was my gamble. I demanded to know the reason for their argument as if I had a right to know. They took one look at me and explained everything. I listened, made the best judgment I could on the matter, and they accepted it as if I had every right to make it. That was the day I began to truly understand the Chinese.

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Hello, my name is Jack

by on January 16, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Yosemite Winter wasn’t actually all bad you know. I remember when the entire American South West and most of Old Mexico was a desert for instance. Now breads made from Arizona Wheat are a delicacy on all the best Western Alliance worlds. And seeing grass growing around the Egyptian Pyramids is kinda cool. Though there’s something wrong about ice fishing in May outside my old home on the Minnesota-Canada border. And don’t get me started about walking outside in January. But I remember seeing the footage of the fires as they blew through Yosemite National Park. That was the start of a real bad time.

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Hello, my name is Betty

by on January 15, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Islamic State of Detroit had its origins in the Salafi Islamic traditions. They believed in offensive Jihad against the unbelievers surrounding them and saw the defeat of the National Guard as proof that Allah was with them. Twilight’s crew soon found evidence that they were planning a full assault on the National Guard lines, and that the populace did not support their leaders. The Salafis ruled through terror, disappearing entire families of those not sufficiently obedient to their leaders. Twilight’s crew rescued a reporter and her family from one of the government’s “disciplinary teams” and she quickly became their closest ally in the city. And through her Twilight found out just how many people actively stood against the government.

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Hello, my name is Charles

by on January 14, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

We tried to capture the worlds of the Hyades intact, but the Chinese fought a vicious scorched earth campaign that left ruins in their wake. It was nothing compared to what happened to the Albion worlds in their last war of course. I have traveled through their systems. I have seen the worlds where the earth was baked and the oceans boiled until nothing remained that could support life. The Hyades was not that devastating. But it was bad enough, and whether or not the locals trusted their own government they knew one thing. We had brought War to their worlds. We were at fault for their dead. I understood. Perhaps that is why I was the one who made the breakthrough.

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Hello, my name is Jack

by on January 13, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I remember coming home after The War and seeing Earth again. But it was not as I remembered it. My home was gone of course. Yosemite falling had wiped it out. It was the cold that got to me. I’d grown up with cold. I knew what it was like to live at negative forty. American scale, not European. But what I came back to was something I’d never expected. We called it Nuclear Winter when I was young. What would happen to Earth if we ever let the nukes fly. Dust in the air. Global Cooling. Catastrophic environmental change. Mass animal die offs. Yosemite Winter didn’t hit all the checkmarks. We fought it real hard. But it was bad. Real bad.

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