was gone.
Chapter 8
Out the door and down the corridor, if April zipped in like a bird, she flew out much slower, like a freight Zeppelin overloaded with cheeseburgers. Going to the docks, she just went with the flow. If you weren't passing them most people didn't look up to make eye contact. New Las Vegas was the big city, compared to Home's small town atmosphere. A few folks would always look her over from afar. After all NLV was a magnet for all sorts of strange people, the people watching was prime and she probably qualified as one of the more exotic. But it was still USNA territory too and people might look, but were almost as reluctant to actually meet strangers as people Earthside. The NA system of Homeland Security and neighborhood snoops was still very much in place and had gained a foothold on NLV with its transient population, it had never acquired on the backwater Home was before independence.
Upon waging and winning a week long war and an unconditional surrender a year ago, Home had wisely made no attempt to change the internal workings of the USNA, given the difference in size. Any changes would have required more people to enforce and monitor than their entire population. They had only imposed some few specific conditions, about how NA treated Home. Even those few demands meant that when she meet USNA military personnel in the corridors here, she often received a venomous glare of hatred. The foremost condition was that NA not lift any more armed ships past the atmosphere. The military in particular resented being forced to hire out satellite launches, or freight lifted, to foreign vessels.
In just a year the USNA was already chaffing under the restrictions and people were publicly calling the surrender a mistake. Many were calling for the resignation of those who had surrendered. Nobody seemed to remember they had been forced to swear the postmaster general in as President, due to the decapitation of their government and military. The fact they still did not have a permanent bridge rebuilt, anywhere along the Mississippi, or the vast majority of their geostationary satellites replaced, seemed to be a lesson lost on them.
They had no choice, given they were still rebuilding the capacity to construct even unarmed space craft after Home's bombardment. They had suffered the loss of too many small shops making critical components, like shuttle tires. The selective destruction had been as easy as reading brag articles in the professional journals and then making a location confirming phone call, before reducing their specialized shop to rubble. Whatever small armed assets they still had in orbit or the Moon, they were probably hoarding, as they couldn't re-supply them right now. The situation made them feel like a third world power, even though they were still the dominating power on the Earth's surface. Home didn't care about that.
Too many civilians seemed unable to accept the reality that they lost the war, even though the country was still having trouble distributing power and goods. They still had no idea what the nature of the weapon used against them was, or how to counter it. It was a strange national state of denial. The majority of the military for all their hatred, was not so eager to actually fight again.
Well before the war with Home, the USNA government had stopped public release of causality figures and only officers were transported home for embarrassing funerals. But too many in the service were comparing notes, on how many friends and former unit mates they couldn't find any more. Indeed entire bases and carrier groups had disappeared off the lists. There were a lot of them gone.
The civilian population on the other hand, seems to blame the politicians, not Home, for empty store shelves or brown outs on the power grid. The military they dismissed as cowardly and not really trying at all and secrecy kept them from defending their actions.
April wore the recently introduced emblem of Home
Chapter 8
Out the door and down the corridor, if April zipped in like a bird, she flew out much slower, like a freight Zeppelin overloaded with cheeseburgers. Going to the docks, she just went with the flow. If you weren't passing them most people didn't look up to make eye contact. New Las Vegas was the big city, compared to Home's small town atmosphere. A few folks would always look her over from afar. After all NLV was a magnet for all sorts of strange people, the people watching was prime and she probably qualified as one of the more exotic. But it was still USNA territory too and people might look, but were almost as reluctant to actually meet strangers as people Earthside. The NA system of Homeland Security and neighborhood snoops was still very much in place and had gained a foothold on NLV with its transient population, it had never acquired on the backwater Home was before independence.
Upon waging and winning a week long war and an unconditional surrender a year ago, Home had wisely made no attempt to change the internal workings of the USNA, given the difference in size. Any changes would have required more people to enforce and monitor than their entire population. They had only imposed some few specific conditions, about how NA treated Home. Even those few demands meant that when she meet USNA military personnel in the corridors here, she often received a venomous glare of hatred. The foremost condition was that NA not lift any more armed ships past the atmosphere. The military in particular resented being forced to hire out satellite launches, or freight lifted, to foreign vessels.
In just a year the USNA was already chaffing under the restrictions and people were publicly calling the surrender a mistake. Many were calling for the resignation of those who had surrendered. Nobody seemed to remember they had been forced to swear the postmaster general in as President, due to the decapitation of their government and military. The fact they still did not have a permanent bridge rebuilt, anywhere along the Mississippi, or the vast majority of their geostationary satellites replaced, seemed to be a lesson lost on them.
They had no choice, given they were still rebuilding the capacity to construct even unarmed space craft after Home's bombardment. They had suffered the loss of too many small shops making critical components, like shuttle tires. The selective destruction had been as easy as reading brag articles in the professional journals and then making a location confirming phone call, before reducing their specialized shop to rubble. Whatever small armed assets they still had in orbit or the Moon, they were probably hoarding, as they couldn't re-supply them right now. The situation made them feel like a third world power, even though they were still the dominating power on the Earth's surface. Home didn't care about that.
Too many civilians seemed unable to accept the reality that they lost the war, even though the country was still having trouble distributing power and goods. They still had no idea what the nature of the weapon used against them was, or how to counter it. It was a strange national state of denial. The majority of the military for all their hatred, was not so eager to actually fight again.
Well before the war with Home, the USNA government had stopped public release of causality figures and only officers were transported home for embarrassing funerals. But too many in the service were comparing notes, on how many friends and former unit mates they couldn't find any more. Indeed entire bases and carrier groups had disappeared off the lists. There were a lot of them gone.
The civilian population on the other hand, seems to blame the politicians, not Home, for empty store shelves or brown outs on the power grid. The military they dismissed as cowardly and not really trying at all and secrecy kept them from defending their actions.
April wore the recently introduced emblem of Home
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