Jack of Harts

Fort Hood had long been a concentration of American armored cavalry warfare that could take on entire nations by itself if unleashed. The budget issues and desertions hampered their ability to live up to that reputation during the Second Great Depression, but they mobilized what they could safely deploy with their reduced personnel. That was more than enough to make them the heart of the Texas armored cavalry that crossed the old border into Mexico to deal with the drug cartels. They were not a good occupation force, as armored units rarely are, but Texas did not send them to Mexico to occupy terrain. Their tanks, mechs, and choppers had the singular mission of bringing maximum destruction to any Drug Lord compound, caravan, or other targets of interest related to them. They excelled at that mission, and many historians credit their involvement as one of the reasons the Drug Wars came to such a swift and successful conclusion. And the fact that they left, rather than attempting to occupy Mexican towns and cities, greatly improved relations between Texas and their southern neighbors. That would be important in the coming years.

Incoming Texas Governor, and former American President (Impeached), Lopez moved his transition team to Fort Hood as Austin’s police collapsed under the assault of gangs fighting for turf, drug cartels fighting for market share, and racial mobs burning down one neighborhood after another. The outgoing government would soon follow his lead as the violence spread to most other major Texas cities by the end of the year. The official transition of power, when it finally happened, was a short ceremony, with little pomp and circumstance, performed on one of Fort Hood’s practice yards. Many blamed the outgoing Governor for the violence spreading throughout the State, though Texas would later obtain proof that it was federal agents spawning much of the chaos. Incoming Governor Lopez had suspicions on the matter and did nothing to suggest he blamed the outgoing Governor, but did promise to do everything he could to quell the violence. He started by authorizing the forces at Fort Hood to help deal with the drug cartel problem. The Army could not act as law enforcement inside America due to the Posse Comitatus Act, but it just so happened that Mexico was outside the American borders at the time.

The commander of Fort Hood did not follow the orders the new President sent down to deploy against the civilian Texas government. And he would later admit that he leaked the repeatedly explicit orders to the media before the already scheduled press conference about another, unrelated issue. Questions about the orders came up of course, and he was quick to say that they could not possibly have come from the President, since any orders like that would be unconstitutional. And he threw out the red herring of looking for the perpetrators who had faked the orders to allow the federal government to back down gracefully. The new President as it happened did not know how to back down gracefully, and attempted to have him cashiered. The military promised to get on that and then proceeded to slow roll the proceedings against Fort Hood’s commander. Unhappy with their pacing, the President’s last budget passed by his Congress before the new Senate came into office completely defunded Fort Hood in favor of far more important social programs.