Jack of Harts

The Republic of Texas

by Charles on October 11, 2020 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Diaries

The Republic of Texas Space Force thought it had outsmarted the Navy when it demanded that all new Navy ships carry fighters. The Navy did not operate its own fighters, and had always relied on Air Force or Marine fighters to protect them. So the Space Force knew that demanding the Navy carried fighters would allow them to operate off Navy ships without all the boring drudgework of maintaining them. And it would cement their position as the superior space military arm. That is what happened in most cases, but the Texas Marines had their own say in the matter as well. They did not have as much expertise operating in space as the Space Force did, but they had far more experience operating fighters off ships. And they did operate some aerospace fighters retired by the Space Force many years before. The Marines put their foot in the door and managed to get some of those squadrons assigned to spacegoing Navy ships after passing tests no one else thought they could.

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The Republic of Texas

by Charles on October 10, 2020 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Diaries

The Republic of Texas Navy sat on Earth, defending Texas shores and shipping throughout the early 2100s. Time and again, they attempted to secure funding to expand their operations into space, like most of the other national navies already had, but Texas had a perfectly good Space Force and did not wish to spend more resources on a glorified military passenger service. Colonization of the Dallas system, and the need to defend shipping going back and forth from there, changed everything for the Navy. They had experience in large ships and long patrols, and they were willing to take any excuse to get into space. The Space Force didn’t want that job, so agreed to support the new initiate. On one condition. All Navy ships must carry fighters. The Navy accepted that stipulation, and quickly began assembling the beginnings of a genuine long-endurance space fleet to patrol the New Earth-Dallas Hyperspace Run.

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The Republic of Texas

by Charles on October 9, 2020 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Diaries

The Republic of Texas Space Force charted their path into space and the stars as time went on. They were made of small ships, often commanded by lone astronauts who came home between missions to press the flesh and encourage wealthy donors to provide more money in support of further explorations. If the Texas Space Force had any weakness, it was that their culture and experience enshrined the idea of going places and then coming back. What was in between was of little notice to them, and staying there held no interest to them. So they surveyed the Xi Bootis system, and secured the Dallas colony that took it over in 2145. They escorted numerous claim jumpers out of the system in those days, and proved singularly successful in that mission. But they did not explore the space between Dallas and Alpha Centauri. The glorified Space Force fighter jocks were not interested in sitting in the vast void watching nothing happen.

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Pence Harris 2020

by Medron Pryde on October 8, 2020 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Diaries

Another debate is in the can, and after last week I decided to watch it very carefully. The first thing I was looking for was who would interrupt the other first. I figured it would happen fairly soon, probably after the first round of question and answer. I was not disappointed when Harris interrupted Pence fairly early in the debate. Though it did not delve into the total crash and burn of last week’s debate.

Harris spent most of the debate attacking Trump, rather than the man she was debating. And Pence spent most of his time talking about the policies the Trump/Pence administration had, were, and would be conducting. Harris made a lot of funny faces and called Trump dishonest. Pence stayed calm and went a bit long on most of his answers, to the point that I was getting tired of the moderator trying to shut him up in the middle of sentences filled with information I actually wanted to hear.

There was one big confrontation between them when Pence tried to get Harris to answer the question about whether they would pack the supreme court, and then took the stage back when she didn’t have a quick answer and told everybody that of course they would do it if elected. There were numerous other confrontations and disagreements between them as well, but the moderator did fairly well at making certain each had the time to answer the questions the way they wanted to. Including giving extra time to Harris after she and Pence argued about some point of fact.

The thing I liked most about the debate is that we heard from both candidates and they had the time to say what they thought in response to the questions. That is the role of a good debate in my opinion. With some room for them to disagree in real time and call each other on those opinions and the facts that back them up or disprove them. We got that in the Pence Harris debate, and so I consider it a mostly successful debate.

I personally think that Pence’s calm demeanor and presentation helped him win the night, though I do admit to being biased on the point. I have always liked those aspects of his personality, and wish more politicians acted like him.

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The Audacious Affair

by Medron Pryde on October 7, 2020 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Diaries

Jack twisted his stick and thrusters flared them around a few pieces of tumbling wreckage. Jack slammed the throttle forward, and engines roared tongues of blue fusion flame behind him. They accelerated towards the British vanguard, and Jack smiled with approval as their point defenses engaged every incoming enemy missile.

Jack found the Spitfire he was looking for at the very head of the vanguard. No surprise there. He tapped a button on his communications display to start transmitting. “Hey, Lance, old buddy. You’re looking a little lonely out here.”

“Not lonely at all,” Lance answered a second later, and his smiling face appeared on one of the displays. “Ivan’s giving us a warm welcome, in fact!”

“What did I tell you about trusting Russian vodka?” Jack asked as the range closed, pulling the throttle back to match speed with Lance’s squadron.

Displays flashed as Betty logged them back into the British networks. A whole new universe of fire plans and point defense options filled his cockpit. Laser turrets and missile pods realigned, thrusters burned to shift them into optimal angles, and gravitic cannons hummed to life as their capacitors achieved maximum power.

“Don’t,” Lance said with a chuckle. “It can give you a real headache in the morning.”

And then Jack’s little squadron of Avengers fired in time with the British vanguard. Grav beams and missiles reached out to smash one Russian ship, and wreckage filled his vision. Pieces of former warships drifted around them. Surviving point defense lasers fired at each other in fitful spurts of otherworldly destruction. Jack accelerated them through the flashing wreckage, trusting the deflection grids to deflect anything too small to dodge, trusting Betty to avoid anything too large to deflect, and really hoping none of those point defenses took a personal disliking to him.

“We have incoming fighters,” Betty reported, pulling his attention away from wreckage.

Jack glanced at the displays to see nearly a hundred Russian fighters closing with them.

“Ignore them,” Jack ordered and focused on the battleship he wanted so very much dead. “Stay on target.”

“Staying on target,” Betty acknowledged.

They shot out of the wreckage in time to the screaming duet of rock and roll guitars and opened fire with every weapon they had left.

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