The Republic is prized as one of the “classic first-generation gravtech beauties” of the starship market. Designed as a light carrier shortly after Contact, it brought both heavy weapons and as many fighters as possible into multi-role combat until their retirement in the 2250s. The War made us reactivate them where they served on the front lines for nearly the entire twenty years. They were retired again at War’s End and now are used by smaller governments, corporate interests, and War reenactors. More civilians have actually ridden on a Republic during a War reenactment than any other class of ship, despite the fact that they were not the most common ship. They will almost certainly remain in service to humanity for decades to come, if not longer.
China is ever looking for new resources they can use to build more things that they can then sell. That is one of the reasons they are so aggressively expansionistic. They need new markets and new factories, and they do best in markets they control. Chinese businessmen build their colonies and Chinese businessmen conquer other worlds by wielding economics. Generals control troops, but businessmen command the generals. That is why the Cowboys began to wear business suits when we landed on conquered Hyades Cluster worlds. It was the uniform that demanded the most respect of the Chinese.
I didn’t think anything would stop the parties down in Tijuana when I was a young. I was wrong. The fall of Yosemite Station first burned and then flooded San Diego, and Tijuana suffered from many of the same troubles. It didn’t get hit as badly though, something most people figure is because of the more…transitory nature of the Tijuana economy. So much of it was always based on getting rich Old Americans to come down into Old Mexico and spend money on the very willing senoritas, or the barkeeps, or the tattoo artists. Tijuana excelled at making new markets and new opportunities to go back home missing your wallet, your shirt, and most of your memories of the occasion.
I hope this New Year finds you well and enjoying life. I hope you watched a ball or two drop. Not your own. Did you get to see some good fireworks? Or dropping confetti. Maybe you broke some dishes or burned a scarecrow. Yeah. Those are actually traditions. Did you burn a Yule Log? Or a Yule Goat? How about mistletoe? Or did you give that mistletoe-carrying jerk a piece of your knuckles? Or maybe you just went to bed early so you could welcome the New Year at a more reasonable hour. Like the crack of Noon. However you celebrate New Years, I hope you are having a good time.
China has been a unique combination of Big Government Communism and Capitalism for centuries. Everything and everyone within their control is a resource to be spent for the betterment of the nation as a whole. Everything belongs to the State, and those who can work are given a basic stipend to live on. Those who produce more are allotted more, and a certain amount of graft and corruption is even encouraged. They have a very lively Black Market that is only lightly policed. It makes China difficult for many to understand. But everything and everyone belongs to the business that is China. All of it is negotiable. Until of course it is not.
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