Jack of Harts

Jay Lovato commands Bull Fleet. He is the son of the Navajo Nation President, and most of his pilots came from powerful American families or corporations. His Cowboys remained in Earthspace after War’s End, and spent the following decades as the public face of the Cowboys for most people. They are official peacekeepers, like all Cowboys, but most often take action during natural disasters in support of first responders. There is little call for swift frontier justice in the Core Worlds, and Core World administrators often distrust Cowboys who act in a peacekeeping role without first obtaining the approval of the local administrators. Bull Fleet Cowboys are accepted and tolerated to a large degree because they give due respect and honor to the administrators. Their primary standard duty is maintaining communications with the other Cowboys and recruiting new Cowboys.

Charles Edward Hurst commanded Wolf Fleet through to War’s End. He commanded many famous pilots in his time, including most of the alien pilots who joined the Cowboys. It was a veritable menagerie of different species and random rich or powerful individuals. Christian Mack was probably the most famous of them, due to his many award-winning roles in films and series, and he ran the fleet in every way that mattered. The old sergeant worked with the Tarrant County Sheriff to maintain the Cowboys’ unique nature, and would take command of the fleet when Major Hurst retired. The renamed Ram Fleet would spread throughout the ever-expanding outer colonial regions in the decades that followed, providing peacekeeping and para-military services to anyone in need.

The Republic of Texas Marine Corps Fighter Attack Squadron 112, the Cowboys, expanded up to twenty, then fifty, and finally hundreds of pilots by War’s End. Many of these were completely new recruits, or transfers from other units or services, but many others belonged to the less-visible units in the Cowboy’s esoteric organizational structure. They flew off starships built by the Cybernetic Families specifically for their use. The Peloran Confederation built their starfighters. And the Tarrant County Sheriff deputized them into his posse, giving them authority to protect the common peace throughout the Western Alliance. They were far outside the norm of American fighter units, and this frightened some people. They sought to regularize the Cowboys. To bring them under more formal control. Neither the Cowboys nor the Tarrant County Sheriff cooperated.