Jack of Harts

By the time the San Ysidro Peacekeepers and Judges restored order in San Diego, Tijuana, and the other nearby cities, they had informally become the southern edge of the new Republic of California. They official joined as San Ysidro, San Diego, Tijuana, and all of several other cities. It’s a long name. Never used except in the most painfully formal of situations. Most people simply call it San Ysidro, after the council that represents them to California and the United States. Each city elects representatives to that council, and agrees to work together towards the common good in public, all while trying to tip the balance towards their own good behind the scenes. It is a seemingly chaotic mix of cooperation, competition, and cheating as each city tries to pull one over on all of the others. But the San Ysidrans have mostly kept the peace. And there are always Judges and Peacekeepers ready to step in if that peace is broken.

When San Diego, Tijuana, and the other major cities fell into chaos during the Second Great Depression, their surviving leaders declared martial law in hopes of restoring order. The local police were simply not enough, though. Their ranks had been too harried, and they lacked the firepower to deal with the Drug Lords. So the cities looked to the Old Border Patrol agents hunkered down in San Ysidro. It had been the largest port of entry in America before the depression hit, with sufficient infrastructure to support the small army it took to man the Old Border. They became the San Ysidro Peacekeepers, and sent heavily armed squads through all the neighboring cities to deal with the Drug Lords. Local judges accompanied them in person or via digital presence to pronounce sentences on the spot. No trial. No jury. Just the judge. It wasn’t pretty, but they were living under martial law. They managed to restore law and order in time, and martial law was ended, but not before the San Ysidro Judges became a permanent part of the local culture.

The Republic of California was born in rebellion and anarchy during the Second Great Depression. The big cities were drowning beneath the weight of homelessness, rampant diseases, and drugs wars that shattered the minds and bodies of their residents. City and State budgets alike completely collapsed, and the inland rural sections of the State simply walked away. When city or State forces tried to bring them into line, they got shot. Or they turned. Some of the cities managed to maintain order, but the majority of them fragmented and millions of people were displaced in the economic chaos that followed. A combination of inland counties and major Indian Tribes worked together to promote law and order. They had little coastal presence, as they didn’t consider the Left Coasties to be rational enough to live with by then. Though they were happy to accept the various military bases around San Diego in their little alliance of order that eventually formed the Republic of California that Jack grew up with.