Social Gaming

by on February 1, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Something many of us have missed in the last year is getting out and meeting other people. It is part of human nature to spend time with other humans. Even people like me who are perfectly comfortable with being alone for long periods of time, prefer to get out amongst our fellow humans from time to time. We may be very selective about the people we wish to spend time with, but we do tend to wish to spend at least some time with some people, from time to time. This weekend, some of my best friends got together to do precisely that. They threw a lot of dice at each other, blew up a lot of virtual heavy metal, and talked a lot of smack talk. Good times. I hope to join them next time. It’s good for the soul, don’t yah know?

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The Republic of Texas

by on January 31, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The important thing to remember is that Texas Rangers are a peacekeeping organization. Yes, they can fight, and they can fight well at need be, but their primary mission is to keep the peace by diffusing situations that could threaten the common peace. Their primary area of focus is Texas and her colonies, but they have secondary jurisdictions throughout the Western Alliance. They often work with other Rangers, Knights Errant, Cowboys, or other similar organizations in the Alliance. As the common meme goes, when a Star Fury, a Starfighter, and an Avenger comes into town, there is liable to be some excitement in the near future. If more than one of each shows up, or if other similar organizations join the party, the virtual certainty of excitement increases on a logarithmic scale.

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The Republic of Texas

by on January 30, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Texas Rangers have continued to fly the F-2 Star Furies in the decades following War’s End. They have maintained a steady upgrade and refit program of course, but improvements have been more a matter of degrees than revolutionary changes. The Rangers continue to explore the actual limits of what the capable design can do, even as some of their fighters pass the two-century mark in absolute age. The children or grandchildren of those who first sat in the cockpits fly many of them, and it has become a tradition for proud Ranger parents to gift their old fighter to their children upon becoming a new Ranger. They are the symbol of the Texas Rangers, and the Rangers take care to drape their symbols in all the legends they can create. The better to terrify those who would threaten the common peace.

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The Republic of Texas

by on January 29, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The F-2 Star Furies that the Rangers flew to War’s End were far different than those they first pulled out of mothballs in the Pre-War decades. The footage of Ranger Star Furies exploding out of hyperspace to fire upgraded missile launchers, greatly enhanced ring-array lasers, powerful gravitic cannons, and hard points carrying the most dangerous of heavy weapons was broadcast throughout the Republic of Texas and beyond. The highest rated footage depicted entire Ranger squadrons focusing all of their gravitic and laser fire on a single target as they accelerated towards the enemy at maximum burn. Though highly unrealistic due to Hollywood-style special effects, they became the way an entire generation saw the Texas Rangers. Peacekeepers in time of peace, deadly and relentless warriors in time of War.

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The Republic of Texas

by on January 28, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

One lesson the nations of Earth learned quickly during The War was that gravitic warheads carried by anti-fighter missiles were simply insufficient to penetrate starship deflection grids unless deployed in truly massive numbers. But most fighters lacked the ability to power a gravitic cannon until the Peloran opened up their entire bag of technological gifts for us. That is when so many nations added hyperspace drives and gravitic cannons to their starfighters, and the Texas Rangers followed that trend with their own F-2 Star Furies. Keeping the peace was their primary mission, and sometimes breaking enemy skulls from unforeseen attack vectors was the best way to do that. The Rangers did so with a relish that terrified both enemies and friends alike at times. They considered it their job to teach everyone to never mess with Texas after all.

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