The Republic of Texas

by on May 15, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The key thing to understand about Joint Base San Antonio is that it was a sprawling complex. Fort Sam Houston was inside San Antonio, while the air bases and camps were spread out all around the city. The reservations were many miles distant from each other. Yes. Miles. Miles were the dominant measurement of the time, and in fact the Republic of Texas still uses them to this day for ground purposes. They claim that is because replacing all of their mile markers would be too expensive, but I contend it is their latent rebellious streak against changes they did not pioneer. The point is that Joint Base San Antonio is not now and was not then a large contiguous range of bases. There were entire miles of houses and factories and parks and roads between the sprawling parts of the base. Roads that they did not use to travel back and forth. Joint Base San Antonio was entirely connected via a spiderweb of underground tunnels specifically built to bring the base together and stop any foe from separating any single part of the base from support from any of the others. That would prove important in the months and years that followed.

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The Republic of Texas

by on May 14, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The American military had relearned a great deal about securing their bases due to the rash of random shooters and other anti-military violence that grabbed headlines in the decades before the Second Great Depression. So when the drug cartels overran San Antonio, they ran into Fort Sam Houston and the rest of the Joint Base San Antonio. The series of military reservations were fully capable of patrolling and defending their borders. Or they would have been, without the general desertions that affected all federal American military units at the time. The drug cartels, and the general gang and racial violence stirred up around them, managed to overrun parts of the sprawling base, but the military kept it mostly secure during the opening rounds of violence.

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The Republic of Texas

by on May 13, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The civil unrest in San Antonio surpassed that seen in most cities during the Second Great Depression. South Texas had far more in common with Mexico than the rest of the State, and the Mexican drug cartels were more firmly embedded than elsewhere. So when the drug king pins that history, and Dixie, would call the Drug Lords moved on Texas, they had many foot soldiers to call upon. The San Antonio police were not prepared for the onslaught of drug cartel and gang violence that spawned from that move, and vast swaths of the city and the surrounding environs soon fell into complete anarchy.

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The Republic of Texas

by on May 12, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

San Antonio was the oldest city in Texas, having been founded by the Spanish Empire itself, and Greater San Antonio boasted millions of residents when the Second Great Depression began. It was home to the Alamo, Fort Sam Houston, the Tower of the Americas, SeaWorld, one of the largest rodeos in the world, major sports franchises, multiple Fortune 500 companies, and the largest medical research center in South Texas. You could do anything in San Antonio, from high-class museums, to backroom bars. It was one of the largest cities in America, and had led us out of one recession after another for decades. It was one of the greatest economic engines in America, and the Second Great Depression nearly destroyed it.

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Jack of Harts

by on May 11, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I’m tired of talking about which governors are idiots arresting people for parking in church parking lots, shutting down gun stores, or demanding that the common folk respect their authority and not protest when they decry what the little people will be allowed to do.

So…on to better subjects. I just gone done with principle writing on another short story, which takes up unresolved plot points introduced in Forge of War and Angel Flight and ties them up in a pretty little bow. Well, pretty may be an over exaggeration. And tied up can have multiple meanings.

Let’s just say that a certain little green friend Stephen Huda ginned up for me for another story that is awaiting publication will make another showing here. And there will be great fanfare at the little friend’s arrival. If by fanfare you understand that I’m talking about gunfire, explosions, and destruction.

And that’s before the girls get involved. Or after. Or during. Time is a relative thing you understand, but Captain Jack of Hart Squadron would not know what to do if certain girls did not show up from time to time. Or more often. More often is certainly good. You may say that he is devoted on the subject. Maybe even preoccupied.

Anyways, here is a very short preview showing Jack’s frame of mind upon waking up on this fine day…

Jack awoke to a sense of doom ringing between his temples and a ravening hunger filling his belly. Crash landings sucked. Getting shot sucked. Hi-gee maneuvers with cracked bones, healing muscles, and aching ligaments sucked. Being saved by two girls who had no business risking themselves in his life sucked. His life over the last few days had become the one unending succession of suck his drill instructor had promised him his life would be after he volunteered to help kick the Shang’s alien asses to the other side of the galaxy.

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