I traveled to most of the Indian Nations in Minnesota when I was young. They are fairly small in most cases, the size of towns or cities. A few are county-sized, but that’s it. They didn’t prepare me for when I went to California and visited the Indian Nations out there. They were vast deserts the size of States back then. Real States, not postage stamps like Rhode Island. I had never seen that much hot or that much brown. Now they are grasslands that can support countless herds of buffalo and they make good eating if I say so myself. Some of the best. And that right there makes Earth sometimes seem more alien than any world I’ve ever visited. It is hard to see the world that is and not remember the world that was. Or those who I wish still walked atop her.
Once Twilight and her crew held command of Detroit’s robotic defenses, the leader of Detroit’s moderates called for an end to the fighting in the streets and demanded that Detroit’s government resign in its entirety so that free and fair elections could be held. The news networks went into full crisis mode when those demands came out. They had reported on the “peaceful Islamic State of Detroit” for so many years that some of them no longer recognized their own bias. So most of the centralized networks circled the wagons and called them radical revolutionaries. And in that void of reporting the Salafis, Sunnis, and Shias turned to deal with the moderates who dared to demand an end to the enforcement of the Sharia Laws the Salafis had so long abused.
The Alliance governments wanted us to reform the Hyades Cluster once we liberated it from the Chinese. We would have military governors of course, but we were expected to work towards self-rule as soon as possible. Fair and free elections. They failed to understand what makes our form of government work. When it works of course. It is our value of life and the voice of individual citizens that makes our governments accountable to the people. Where the opinions of the people are not respected, our governments fall to tyranny. We have seen it too many times in the past to ignore that. The Chinese subjects of the Hyades were taught to keep their heads lowered, remain silent unless spoken to, and do as they were told. There was no respect for them. Not amongst their Chinese masters, and not amongst our Western leaders either.
There are a lot of Indian Nations in Northern Minnesota so I grew up seeing them all the time. Fishing on the lakes, hunting in the forests, gambling in the casinos. I even attended some of their rain dances and such. The first time it was for school credit. The rest were all me. I’ll be honest. It was the pretty dancing girls that brought me back. I played it off as enjoying the cultural exchange, but the parents weren’t fools. Neither were the girls for that matter, but they were always up for a willing dancing partner, and most boys just don’t do that well. They’re afraid of making missteps and embarrassing themselves. I stepped on a lot of toes back then, but we laughed and carried on, and I am happy for that.
Not all Muslims were extremists. Most Muslims of the time were just like most Christians of the time. They wanted to live their life in peace and not be bothered by others about it. The actions of the Salafi Islamic State of Detroit angered them. The religious fighting in the streets between Sunni and Shia extremists motivated them. And like their fellows in Constantinople, Tehran, and Cairo, they finally acted on their years of discontent. They smuggled Twilight and her crew into downtown Detroit where they gained direct access to the systems that controlled Detroit’s robotic defenses. Then came the hard part.
Forge of War on Amazon
Angel Flight on Amazon
Angel Strike on Amazon
Angel War on Amazon
Wolfenheim Rising on Amazon
Wolfenheim Emergent on Amazon