Jack of Harts

The Great Families of New England had long considered themselves the princes of the universe. They commanded the fortunes of man, used war and peace to expand their wealth, and looted the fortunes of nations on their time table. They were actually fundamental partners in negotiating the Lunar Treaties that restricted warfare inside the orbit of Luna. And the numerous similar agreements made over other major colony worlds. It did no good to destroy what you fought for control of after all. They saw the Shang as just another opponent in the great game all great powers played. Then the Shang destroyed New Washington and killed far too many members of the Great Families for them to forget. It forced them to reassess how they saw the Shang, and how the Shang saw them. And that reassessment drove the Great Families to change the very nature of their involvement in The War.

New Washington changed everything for the Great Families of the New England Federation. They organized the initial colonization effort, they invested more than any other American State into the colony, and it became the single largest concentration of Great Family assets outside the Solar System. They built and maintained the planetary defense grid, and two entire Federation battle squadrons defended the world the day the Shang attacked. There were no survivors in orbit, and the Shang dropped enough laser and missile fire on the colony to create the first Winter Protocol of The War. Dozens of worlds joined New Washington in their own global Ice Ages over the following decade, but it was New Washington that changed everything. The Shang bombardment breached the Great Family underground bunkers and killed hundreds of their best and brightest. The Great Families did not react well.

One aspect of the “Test that assumption at your convenience” incident that remained secret for decades was that they salvaged the Shang raider’s primary fabricator in nearly operational condition. While far outside the technical capabilities of the New England Federation to replicate, studying that fabricator jumpstarted Federation fabrication technology through centuries of progress in a decade. The fruits of that study went towards making the Fleet 2300 Project the revolutionary technological and strategic leap forward that it was. The new ships could fly farther, faster, and throw more missiles and energy at the enemy than any previous generation. And it was those ships that anchored our fleets when the Shang attacked us in earnest. We would have lost without them. That technology saved us from becoming a zoo exhibit for Aliens to wave at as they flew past a defeated Earth.