Once Twilight and her crew held command of Detroit’s robotic defenses, the leader of Detroit’s moderates called for an end to the fighting in the streets and demanded that Detroit’s government resign in its entirety so that free and fair elections could be held. The news networks went into full crisis mode when those demands came out. They had reported on the “peaceful Islamic State of Detroit” for so many years that some of them no longer recognized their own bias. So most of the centralized networks circled the wagons and called them radical revolutionaries. And in that void of reporting the Salafis, Sunnis, and Shias turned to deal with the moderates who dared to demand an end to the enforcement of the Sharia Laws the Salafis had so long abused.
The Alliance governments wanted us to reform the Hyades Cluster once we liberated it from the Chinese. We would have military governors of course, but we were expected to work towards self-rule as soon as possible. Fair and free elections. They failed to understand what makes our form of government work. When it works of course. It is our value of life and the voice of individual citizens that makes our governments accountable to the people. Where the opinions of the people are not respected, our governments fall to tyranny. We have seen it too many times in the past to ignore that. The Chinese subjects of the Hyades were taught to keep their heads lowered, remain silent unless spoken to, and do as they were told. There was no respect for them. Not amongst their Chinese masters, and not amongst our Western leaders either.
There are a lot of Indian Nations in Northern Minnesota so I grew up seeing them all the time. Fishing on the lakes, hunting in the forests, gambling in the casinos. I even attended some of their rain dances and such. The first time it was for school credit. The rest were all me. I’ll be honest. It was the pretty dancing girls that brought me back. I played it off as enjoying the cultural exchange, but the parents weren’t fools. Neither were the girls for that matter, but they were always up for a willing dancing partner, and most boys just don’t do that well. They’re afraid of making missteps and embarrassing themselves. I stepped on a lot of toes back then, but we laughed and carried on, and I am happy for that.
Not all Muslims were extremists. Most Muslims of the time were just like most Christians of the time. They wanted to live their life in peace and not be bothered by others about it. The actions of the Salafi Islamic State of Detroit angered them. The religious fighting in the streets between Sunni and Shia extremists motivated them. And like their fellows in Constantinople, Tehran, and Cairo, they finally acted on their years of discontent. They smuggled Twilight and her crew into downtown Detroit where they gained direct access to the systems that controlled Detroit’s robotic defenses. Then came the hard part.
What would do if your world ended? What would you do if everyone and everything you knew and loved was lost? Would you seek revenge or would you forgive? Would you lash out in blind anger or would you go in search of inner peace? Jack chose revenge. Jack chose to kill as many of the Shang as he could bring under his guns. But what he found wanted more than that. What he found would forge him into something he had never planned on being. You see Jack did not want to grow up, but boys merely play at war. It takes a man to wage one.

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