UNITED FREE REPUBLICS (AND THEIR MILITARY ARM, SOUTHERN COMMAND)—While not the largest of the freeholds in North America (that would be Alaska and the Yukon) or the best organized (that would be the flinty Green Mountain Boys with their town-hall system and county-by-county headquarters), they were, up until the 2070s, the fastest-growing and most aggressive of the freeholds in North America. The Free Republics have mini-territories in Missouri, the southeastern tip of Kansas, Arkansas, Eastern Oklahoma, and Texas save for a few spots on the coast, some of the Rio Grande valley, and a good deal of drier country bordering New Mexico. The political structure is very similar to that of the old United States, and it uses a slightly modified version of the Constitution to govern the “several states” that it includes. Self-sufficient in food and energy, and with a well-armed populace that is capable with even support weapons that are handy in most homes and garages, it lacks only advanced, high-tech manufacturing capability and air resources to control the Mississippi and the skies over the central portion of the old United States.