Jack of Harts

The Republic of Texas

by Charles on October 24, 2020 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Diaries

The F-101 Fury-class heavy fighter was the preeminent Pre-Contact space fighter according to most military history enthusiasts, and the Republic of Texas Space Force certainly swore by it. It was the first of a new generation of space fighters that would have forever revolutionized fighter combat, and nearly every heavy fighter squadron in Texas service had adopted the fighter in the years before Contact. It also filled out several high-profile United States squadrons, including the famous Thunderbirds. It had better armor and a more powerful spinal laser than the competition, and the trio of missile packs could savage any enemy fighters. Then the Peloran made Contact and gave us gravitic propulsion technologies that made the Fury obsolete overnight. The United States chose to build an entirely new class of starfighter for the modern age. The Texas Space Force did not follow their example.

Comment

The Republic of Texas

by Charles on October 23, 2020 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Diaries

The Republic of Texas Space Force’s primary mission before Contact was the defense of the permanent Texas colonies and bases in the Sol and Dallas star systems. They also defended Texas interests in other systems, but those smaller deployments only counted for a fraction of their total combat power. They racked up the majority of combat time Texas saw in those days, though. Space superiority fighters made up the majority of their deployed force, with a smaller number of attack craft filling out most of the remaining fleets. The rarest, but most powerful, elements were the bombers, even if a purely terrestrial force never would have recognized them. Rather than carry dumb bombs around in space, the bombers sported reinforced hard points that carried rockets powerful enough to crack even warship armor. With enough fighters and attack craft to clear the space around enemy warships, the bomber squadrons could sweep in and break them. The Texas Space Force proved that again and again in the various little turf wars that most nations did not admit happened out in the colonial regions in those days.

Comment

The Republic of Texas

by Medron Pryde on October 22, 2020 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Diaries

The Republic of Texas Space Force is the primary space combat arm of the Texas military. If you have any doubt of that, simply ask them and they will remove that doubt with great haste and vigor. Their fighters and bases defended Texas installations on Earth and beyond for decades as we entered space and then went on to the stars. All other space faring craft were built to support the Space Force in that mission. The Navy was their taxi service. The Army and Air Force fought under their protection. The Marines did… whatever the Marines did. The Space Force is the best and brightest, and anyone who wishes to fight in space wishes to wear the Texas cowboy hat and spurs. That has always been the focus and the cult of personality that is the Texas Space Force. And to the annoyance of most starfaring nations, and their own countrymen for that matter, they actually managed to live up to it most of the time.

Comment

The Audacious Affair

by Medron Pryde on October 21, 2020 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Diaries

Jack twisted his stick and thrusters flared them around a few pieces of tumbling wreckage. Jack slammed the throttle forward, and engines roared tongues of blue fusion flame behind him. They accelerated towards the British vanguard, and Jack smiled with approval as their point defenses engaged every incoming enemy missile.

Jack found the Spitfire he was looking for at the very head of the vanguard. No surprise there. He tapped a button on his communications display to start transmitting. “Hey, Lance, old buddy. You’re looking a little lonely out here.”

“Not lonely at all,” Lance answered a second later, and his smiling face appeared on one of the displays. “Ivan’s giving us a warm welcome, in fact!”

“What did I tell you about trusting Russian vodka?” Jack asked as the range closed, pulling the throttle back to match speed with Lance’s squadron.

Displays flashed as Betty logged them back into the British networks. A whole new universe of fire plans and point defense options filled his cockpit. Laser turrets and missile pods realigned, thrusters burned to shift them into optimal angles, and gravitic cannons hummed to life as their capacitors achieved maximum power.

“Don’t,” Lance said with a chuckle. “It can give you a real headache in the morning.”

And then Jack’s little squadron of Avengers fired in time with the British vanguard. Grav beams and missiles reached out to smash one Russian ship, and wreckage filled his vision. Pieces of former warships drifted around them. Surviving point defense lasers fired at each other in fitful spurts of otherworldly destruction. Jack accelerated them through the flashing wreckage, trusting the deflection grids to deflect anything too small to dodge, trusting Betty to avoid anything too large to deflect, and really hoping none of those point defenses took a personal disliking to him.

“We have incoming fighters,” Betty reported, pulling his attention away from wreckage.

Jack glanced at the displays to see nearly a hundred Russian fighters closing with them.

“Ignore them,” Jack ordered and focused on the battleship he wanted so very much dead. “Stay on target.”

“Staying on target,” Betty acknowledged.

They shot out of the wreckage in time to the screaming duet of rock and roll guitars and opened fire with every weapon they had left.

***

The Audacious Affair is available at the following retailers

Comment

The Martian Affair

by Medron Pryde on October 20, 2020 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Diaries

“I’ve got your back, John,” Cassie said.

His displays flashed with recommendations and target locks.

“Never doubted it for a second,” Christensen said and sprang back to his feet. He lined the rifle in his right hand up on one enemy quad, waited a moment for the display to flash a target lock, and pulled the trigger. The secondary barrel glowed with electromagnetic energy for an instant before spitting out a single high explosive round that shot across the Martian landscape faster than the speed of sound. The kinetic energy alone was enough to breach the armor of anything but the heaviest enemy tanks. He would have needed a proper armor-piercing warhead to take one of them out, but the unarmored quad and its rider were an entirely different matter. It was akin to beating a piñata with a sledgehammer.

The other quads opened fire and rounds bounced off his armor or sent showers of red Martian dirt into the air all around him.

Christensen rode the recoil and turned away from the exploding quad. He stepped up onto the rim of the small crater, bringing the heavy rifle in his left hand to aim at another target. He pulled that trigger, kinetic energy flashed, and his second target exploded. He rode the recoil once more and brought the first rifle down on a third target. A stream of enemy rounds smashed into it and sparks filled his view. Powerful electromagnetic coils crackled their energy all over the Martian landscape. His display flashed red warning signs as the rifle fried itself to death in his hand.

***

The Martian Affair is available at the following retailers

Comment