Hello, my name is Jack

by on November 11, 2015 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I went to the Californias before The War you know. Every kid wants to take a trip to Disneyland after all. And for all that it’s designed for kids, even rebellious high schoolers can go there and have fun too. I should know. And like all good tourists we went out to check the other things you do on a trip. We walked the stars of Hollywood. We toured the Imperial Palace. I sat at the foot of trees as Cherry Blossoms fell around me. I did that the first time I went, when I really was a kid. A nice lady stopped to tell me how they took those trees from Old Japan before the fall. I found out later that the Empress had told that story for hundreds of years to children who enjoyed her garden. So I guess you could say I’ve known her most of my life.

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Hello, my name is Betty

by on November 10, 2015 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

An interesting thing about the Dixie, Twilight, and the various series and movies that followed it is that they showed us the America that was before and during the Second Great Depression. There had been decades of increasingly toxic political rancor in Washington DC between the Democrat and Republican parties, but most American citizens still considered themselves Americans first. The Texas Tech students and faculty came from every State in the Union and liked and trusted each other. The shows gave us that window into America. They spotlighted it even as that America disappeared forever.

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Tactical Light Operator Suit

by on November 9, 2015 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Jack's Defense Weekly

The TActical Light Operator Suit, or TALOS, is the American Army’s primary powered personal combat infantry armor. There have been nearly three-dozen variations on the basic TALOS since the first crude versions fought in the early Twenty-First Century’s Islamic Jihad. We took them to space, to the stars, and far beneath the ocean waves. They have fought in every environment known to man against both Terran and alien foes. The modern TALOS sports modular armor plating that can optimize it for anything from a lightly armored scout to a heavily armored bunker buster. This allowed the American Army to constantly surprise the Shang throughout The War as they never knew what they would face next.

TALOS on Deviantart

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Hello, my name is Charles

by on November 8, 2015 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The first thing to know about the colonization ships that took humanity to the stars is that they were expensive. Or rather the hyperdrives that carved their way into hyperspace were expensive. At first it took major governments to collect enough funding and resources to build a hyperdrive, and so all expeditions had to be self-sufficient. They traveled with everything they needed to carve out life on alien worlds knowing that they would be out of contact for years. We became proficient at packing the necessities in those early colonization ships, and we continued to use those lessons today.

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Hello, my name is Jack

by on November 7, 2015 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I love the smells of northern Minnesota. Fresh pine needles carpeting the ground. Still air after a spring rain. Roasting pinecones in a bonfire. A field full of flowers. A storm front advancing across a Great Lake. They each have their own smell and taste that is utterly unique. I have never experienced them on any other world. Not exactly. Not the totality. The lake country will ever be my home, no matter how far I travel or how many places I see. I spent two decades away from it during The War and it was changed when I returned. But the smells are still there. And I can still close my eyes and imagine the world I grew up in. I will love those smells until the day I die.

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