It was in 2016 that Ho started cutting his own private deals. It wasn't until 2017-when various megacorps started throwing their resources behind Na Kama'aina plans-that Danforth's handlers realized what had happened. Apparently some hotheads came this close to icing Ho on the spot- probably by arranging for a "tragic accident"-so they could keep the reins in their own acquisitive hands. But wiser heads prevailed, realizing that having promoted Danforth Ho as me True and Rightful King and all that, now they were stuck with him. And by this time, the people were following Ho, not the leadership of Na Kama 'aina…

While Na Kama'aina's leaders were still trying to get Ho back under their control, they found out to their absolute horror that he'd cut a deal with the local yakuza, along the same lines as the ones he'd penned with the corps. (Now, this surprised me a little when I learned it. I guess I hadn't thought that there was much yak activity in Hawai'i. I should have known, though: Wherever there's a large proportion of Japanese, you're going to find yaks.) Na Kama'aina felt control really slipping away now.

By late summer 2017 the federal government mobilized its armed forces on the mainland and set forth to implement the Resolution Act of 2016-in other words, the "Genocide Campaign" against Native Americans. We all know what happened immethately thereafter: Multiple volcanoes blew their tops under the influence of the Ghost Dancers, and that was the end of the Genocide Campaign. When word reached the islands of just what kind of drek had gone down, Danforth Ho decided that der Tag had finally arrived. He issued his orders to the army of followers he'd built up throughout the islands.

Whole assault teams of kahunas-the local flavor of shamans, I think-engaged the Civil Defense Force, and tied them up real good. Where resistance was especially strong, Great Form spirits backed the kahunas. Simultaneously, the yakuza mobilized a "civilian army" which, supplemented by heavily armed megacorp security forces, closed down basically all military and government communication channels on the islands, and blockaded various key government buildings.

Meanwhile, Danforth Ho-backed by the street-fighters of Na Kama'aina (who'd finally realized on which side their bread was buttered) and by thousands of devoted civilians- marched on the capitol building next to the old Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu. The mob broke down the doors, rousted out the government officials and functionaries, and basically installed Danforth Ho as Ali'i. On August 22, 2017, King Kamehameha IV-born Danforth Ho-officially declared Hawai'i's sovereignty.

Predictably, the U.S. government back on the mainland didn't take too kindly to a bunch of jumped-up pineapple-pickers-led by a management consultant, for frag's sake!- taking over their major military staging area in the Pacific basin. It seems that most of the Pacific fleet wasn't in Pearl Harbor in late August of 2017. In fact, it was in transit to the west coast of the U.S., presumably to provide support, if necessary, to the abortive Genocide Campaign. (And you can bet that Danforth Ho, aka King Kam IV, knew that, and planned on it. Otherwise things might have gone very differently in the streets of Honolulu.) When word reached D.C. about Hawai'i's declaration of independence, encrypted messages downlinked from military satellites to the flagship of the Pacific fleet-no doubt the military equivalent of "get your sorry asses back there, and clean this mess up."

While the new King Kam was consolidating his control at home, his new allies weren't idle. A delegation of megacorps-led by Yamatetsu, it seems-was already pressuring Washington to recognize Hawai'i as a sovereign state. The feds told the corps precisely what they could do with that idea, and ordered the Pacific fleet to flank speed.

I wish I'd been there for the next act of this saga-it must have been quite a show. Mere minutes after Washington's rejection of the megacorps' "polite suggestion," a barrage of Thor shots" bracketed the USS Enterprise, the flattop that was the flagship of the Pacific fleet.

("Hold the phone," I hear you say. "What the flying frag is a 'Thor shot'?" Thought you'd never ask.

(Project Thor dates back-way back, apparently, to the middle of the last century or thereabouts-but it's an idea whose time had come. Project Thor envisioned putting a whole drekload of "semismart" projectiles in low Earth orbit, equipped with little more than a retro-rocket, some steering vanes, and a dog-brain seeker head on the tip. No warhead, because one isn't needed. Basically, they're just "smart crowbars." When you need to send a blunt message to someone, just send the appropriate commands to a couple dozen Thor projectiles. They fire their retros to kick themselves out of orbit, then plummet free toward the ground at some horrendous speed. Their seeker heads now start looking for an appropriate target, depending on their programming-a Main battle tank, maybe, or the dome of the Capitol Building… or something that looks like an aircraft carrier. Down they come, packing Great Ghu knows how much kinetic energy, and whatever they hit just kinda goes away… probably accompanied by much pyrotechnics. In essence, then, Thor shots are just guided meteorites. Elegant idea, neh?

(That was the idea, but as far as anyone knew-up to 2017, at least-nobody had actually implemented Project Thor. To this day, nobody's precisely sure who fired the rounds that vaporized a couple of tons of seawater off the Enterprise's bows.

(But I can make a pretty good guess, based on some interesting coincidences. Coincidentally, 2017 was the year in which Ares Macrotechnology took over the old Freedom space station, the one they eventually modified and renamed Zurich-Orbital. Just as coincidentally. Ares was the only megacorp with orbital assets anywhere near the correct "window" for a Thor shot into the central Pacific. And- also coincidentally, of course-Ares was one of the mega¬corps with which our friend Danforth Ho had enjoyed the longest and most intense private discussions… Quelle chance…

(End of digression.)

So that was it. Screened by Aegis cruisers or not, there was no way a carrier battle group could intercept Thor shots, or survive them if they landed. Once more, the task force reversed course, and slunk dispiritedly into San Thego harbor. The feds recognized Hawai'i's independence, and King Kam IV became the head of a constitutional monarchy that still exists today. And they all lived happily ever after…

Null! As I said before, megacorps don't give gifts; they make investments. Now they came to King Kam looking for some major return on their investments. Like special trade deals, extraterritoriality, and basically almost complete freedom to do biz as they saw fit in the islands.

The people of Hawai'i liked the idea of independence from the U.S., and they weren't convinced that immethately giving up that independence to the megacorps was such a swift idea. The leadership of Na Kama 'aina-yep, it was still hanging around-decided that this was a perfect lever to pry away King Kam's popular support (and, ideally, to put their own figurehead-a real figurehead this time-on the throne). Campaigning on the platform of cutting back-way back-on the megacorps' freedoms, Na Kama 'aina politicos won a significant number of seats in the legislature. King Kam suddenly found himself confronting a strong faction within his own government that was dedicated to tossing him out on his hoop. He managed to keep control of the majority, but it was a very close thing.

King Kam IV thed in 2045-no, the Na Kama'aina didn't off him… I don't think-and the faction of the government that had backed him retained just enough influence to put the successor he'd designated on the throne: his son, Gordon Ho. At age twenty-five, our boy Gordon became King Ka-mehameha V, and still wears the funky yellow-feathered headdress of the Ali'i.