Most of you have heard of Jay Lovato. Founding member of Cowboy squadron. Descendent of an original Navajo Code Talker. Son of the president of the Navajo Nation. Hero of a hundred worlds. A giant among men. Played by that Oscar-award winning actor whose name I can never remember. Smith. Lance. Something like that. Whatever. He’s a good guy. Jay. I owe my life to him more often than I care to admit. I figure I’ve saved his once or twice in return. He’s a good guy to have in your corner when the fighting gets ugly. Well, the fighting got real ugly a lot more than I care to remember, so I’m happy to say he was at my side a lot. Thank God.
One of the revolutions in the networks of the early Twenty First century was the advent of “reality programming.” It was advertised as real people doing real things in real life. In reality it was real people being prodded by directors to do stupid things for better network ratings. Those shows were cheaper to produce than traditional network dramas, but achieved massive ratings. They became many of the most popular shows on the networks, just as the early AIs were beginning to develop. There are times I’m surprised the first AIs didn’t take one look at reality programming, decide we were an obvious threat to intelligence everywhere, and revolt in order to protect the universe from our stupidity. Not that modern “reality programming” is any better.
I was born in time of War. I was born to be a starfighter, to spit fire and death, and to drive our mutual enemies away from our home. But I was born to seek Peace, to bring an end to the fighting that plagued us. I saw each battle as one step closer to the last one. I have not yet found my last battle, but I treasure every moment of peace I can secure. A cool night before a warm fire. A trip to the mall with friends. Singing songs with those we wish to spend our lives with. A long conversation with friends. Those are the moments worth fighting for. They make us human. And that is the greatest challenge many of us will ever face. Being human. And what goal is there that is more fulfilling?
Betty drawn by Carlos C. Beltrán
The Cowboys and other Marine squadrons were first deployed to replace pure starfighter squadrons lost in the early years of The War. But the Hyades Cluster’s hundreds of planetary and sub-planetary targets required a more combined arms approach. All Marine starfighter squadrons were part of larger air groups with everything from bomber to support and transport squadrons. They were designed to be all the aerial support a ground pounding Marine unit needed to keep the skies clear. We reassembled those Marine Air Groups for the Hyades Campaign, and commenced to prove those who wanted the Marines disbanded and absorbed into the army to be oh so very wrong.
The Navajo Nation lives in their cultural homeland, but that does not mean that their history has been easy. They engaged in raiding against other Indians before Europeans arrived. They fought scorched earth campaigns against the Spanish. Then they fought raiding wars with the Mexicans and finally they fought our American army. We finally defeated them during the Civil War and they’ve not fought another war since. Even against the Shang they maintained official neutrality, though thousands of their young men and women volunteered to serve the American militaries. I like their people but do not understand their council members.

Forge of War on Amazon
Angel Flight on Amazon
Angel Strike on Amazon
Angel War on Amazon
Wolfenheim Rising on Amazon
Wolfenheim Emergent on Amazon