Jack of Harts

Jesse

by Charles on January 29, 2017 at 12:01 am

Jesse James had no wish to live in space before The War began. His plan from the beginning was to invest his earnings back home, fight until Wars End and then retire back to his farm and rebuild it after cashing out his investments. It was a worthy plan, and one that I respected greatly. Much as I respected him. He may have joined Jack’s merry little band of hooligans, but he was always one of the more responsible of them. You could always count on him to have a plan when the stakes became high. And he had the courage and fortitude to see a plan through when it was hard, or to change it when it became necessary. He was a good Cowboy. One of the best. A part of me hopes to fly at his side again one day. But that would interrupt his retirement, and only a fool would wish to do that.

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Mary

by Jack on January 28, 2017 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

One of the things I like most about Mary is her personality. She has all the abilities that any cyber has, but she doesn’t flaunt them. She spends as much of her time as possible in the real world, and was one of the first of our cybers to acquire a physical avatar. That was right after Natalie and Jasmine. Their pilots were dead so they could claim that American military regulations didn’t affect them. Mary’s pilot was still alive. She was in direct violation. None of us reported her. She relished the contact her avatar gave her with the real world, and it didn’t take long for her sisters to envy her. Yeah. She was the trendsetter on that one. Pretty much all of us were in violation of that regulation by the time The War ended. Made certain decisions real easy, let me tell you.

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A Primer on the Races of Humanity – Peloran Excerpts

by Betty on January 27, 2017 at 12:01 am

Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The vast majority of Peloran have never left their adoptive home planets since their last war ended. They have no effective industrial base, and live in an extremely primitive nature. Most of them live alone or in family groups of no more than a dozen people. Planetary power grids are almost nonexistent, and hunting and gathering is the predominant way of collecting food. Industrial farming is nonexistent in Peloran space. They have seemingly regressed to a pre-Industrial society, and have no wish at all to advance themselves. The few young Peloran who grow up dissatisfied with the status quo are encouraged to leave so as not to disturb their elders in retirement. It is as much a culture in stasis as any we have ever met, and remains so across all Peloran worlds. The Peloran were once the most dangerous soldiers in the galaxy. Now they live in peace and quiet on frontier worlds and don’t even watch as the galaxy passes them by.

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Jesse

by Charles on January 26, 2017 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Jesse James has no known relation to the famous historical figure, but he did prove to be an amazingly good Cowboy when the time came. He had literally bought the farm in his native Kansas during the decades of peace that followed Contact. He lived near the ancient Fort Hays where he grew winter wheat, grazed buffalo, and scratched a living out of the near desert that dominated Western Kansas. The burning wreckage of Yosemite Yards started a prairie fire that raged for weeks and devastated that part of the state. His farm did not survive. He had lost the investment of lifetimes of his family into the land, and he himself was penniless. He volunteered to serve because he needed money to rebuild the family farm. It was one of the more refreshingly honest reasons for serving that I ever heard. He impressed me.

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Mary

by Jack on January 25, 2017 at 12:01 am

Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Mary is one of those cybers that decided to pick a pilot that had no interest in ever spending most of his life in space. He was happy with the life of a simple Kansas farmer until a piece of Yosemite burned his farm to the ground. So Mary came to life as the kind of homegrown country girl you’d expect to find in the vast stretches of Middle America. I knew a lot of girls like her up in Northern Minnesota, far more at home walking through the fields and pastures than down some big city boardwalk. She’s solid, the kind of person you know you can rely on when things go crazy. And you know what? I always did like her, from the day I met her. She’s one of the most honest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. Even when that honesty hurts.

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