Jack of Harts

American Samoa is home to the Samoan flying fox, one of the many animal species uplifted by American gengineers for military service. They were chosen after an exhaustive search of character traits picked them as one of the bat species most optimal for working with humans. They are naturally monogamous in the wild, roost alone or in small family groups, and are curious and friendly when meeting new individuals. It was hoped that these natural tendencies towards forming small communities would make them more capable of forming bonds of loyalty with their human allies after the uplift process, and it worked. They are still shy but friendly, and you often find them sitting atop the shoulders of humans they’ve befriended. They serve primarily as organic scouts for ground units, and usually fly with the more aggressive uplifted falcons that protect them from other flying creatures who may think them an easy meal. Few things are as embarrassing to all involved as losing a highly trained flying fox recon specialist to a dumb eagle or other predator just canny enough to snatch him out of thin air after all. The vast majority of uplifted flying foxes not in military service live in Samoa, where they raise their own fruit trees and try to keep their less intelligent cousins from raiding trees belonging to other people. You sometimes see them traveling elsewhere in the Western Alliance, but they don’t like to bother other people, so are nowhere near as common as uplifted dogs and cats.

American Samoa is a small State not far off the coast of Australia made up of five natural islands, a pair of small coral atolls, and a series of manmade islands and islets surrounding them. They are famous in the rest of America for the large number of athletes they send to the Olympics, the American Football teams, and other sports leagues. Many famous actors and wrestlers come from Samoa, and they are widely regarded as a friendly and accepting people. They are also fiercely patriotic and volunteer for the Pacifica and Federal militaries in far greater percentages than nearly any other State. Especially the Marines, where the Big Samoan Sergeant Major is like some kind of template they stamp out whenever the far smaller Marines from lesser States need motivation to learn how to stand in a reasonable approximation of a line. American Samoa is a small State, but its influence has spread all throughout America and beyond.

The Marshall Islands’ Bikini Atoll is one of the most famous areas on Earth and beyond. Namesake for the far more enjoyable ladies swimwear that men have loved for centuries, it is the nuclear testing that wiped out several islands in the atoll that made it famous in more serious matters. The massive effort it would have taken before the Great Space Race to clean up the radiation and other damage was never expended, and then the Second Great Depression removed all ability to complete it. But when the polluted fog banks began rolling off the Chinese coasts to envelope the various Pacific island chains, America put greater effort into developing and mass-producing the kind of air and water purifiers required to keep the pollution at bay. The clan chiefs of Bikini Atoll traded in some favors, some blackmail, and more promises than they cared to think about to acquire some of those new purifiers. Then they cleaned the various islands up, rebuilt them over the centuries, and returned their people to their quiet, idyllic home. And though they have access to all the best technologies now, they will never forget how the outside world cost them their home for so very long.