The Lone Star System is quite active in astronomical terms and New Texas is frequently bombarded by meteors; at least one Space Patrol warship is in orbit around New Texas at all times to protect the planet's population, and also to give valuable tracking and gunnery practice to Patrol crews. Depending on the composition of each meteor, it is guided to impact a specific area on the planet's surface or maneuvered into orbit for processing, or simply destroyed, broken down into fragments small enough to burn away harmlessly in New Texas' atmosphere. Nearly every vessel in the Patrol is rotated through this duty at least once a year.
New Texas is one of the founding worlds of the Republic. The world's society seems to be built to a blueprint drawn in the 1960s CE by science-fiction author H. Beam Piper in his novel "Lone Star Planet" (also known as "A Planet for Texans"). New Texans "submit" to the "rule" of the Jeffersonian Republic with little complaint, as the same book was a contributing factor in the development of Republic society as a whole. Though the original Alamo mission still resides on Terra, now bearing the scars of not one but three sieges, the New Texans have built a replica of the original, perfect in every detail.
As in the book, New Texas is a major supplier of meat to the Republic, even naming their genetically-engineered giant cattle "supercow." Herds of these animals, developed from Terran stock but several times as large, require heavy weapons and armored vehicles to control. Some are allowed to run wild, and hunters throughout the Republic willingly risk their lives on safari against them.
New Texas also exports another exclusive resource, "supercino," a genetically engineered strain of coffee whose quality is said to surpass any Terran strain. Over a third of the tobacco consumed in the Republic also comes from New Texas. Called "newbacco," it is also genetically engineered, in this case to neutralize its toxic qualities and again to improve flavor. Both exports were strictly prohibited in the United Nations, and later the Terran Empire, though of course those entities' ruling classes suffered no such restrictions.
Citizens of New Texas are even more heavily armed than those of other Republic worlds - half the makers of small arms in the Republic are based or have manufacturing plants on New Texas - and as such their crime rate is even lower; criminals, when captured alive on other worlds and interrogated, reveal that they avoid New Texas "like the plague." In the two Terran centuries since New Texas was colonized, there have been only twenty-one rape attempts reported on the planet. Only three were successful; of these, one rapist was killed by his own victim while fleeing the scene, while another was cut to pieces by his victim's blade-wielding family. The most recent, some twenty years before the War, committed suicide when cornered by a party of enraged Subjects and Citizens.
Many Subjects of New Texas are also armed. Under the Jeffersonian Constitution, only Citizens have a Constitutionally-guaranteed right to bear arms, but in two Terran centuries (except for the few months of "Governor" Thaddeus Webb's reign in 34JR) no law or regulation has been considered necessary to prevent Subjects from doing so. Proof of Citizenship is usually required for the purchase of modern weapons, particularly those that are fully-automatic or which launch an explosive charge, or the energy weapons whose development began shortly before the War, but no records are kept as to which Citizens purchase them. Weapons using older technology, such as muzzle-loading firearms, bows, edged weapons, and the like, are almost completely unregulated. The wisdom of this policy has been borne out by the astonishing lack of criminal activity throughout the Republic and especially on New Texas, and by the ability of a millions-strong "well-regulated militia" to near-instantly mobilize to defend their homes, as the Terran Empire learned to its cost.
Space Patrol vessels with relevant names - the destroyers Bowie and Crockett, the cruisers Alamo and San Jacinto, and the science vessel H. Beam Piper - are welcomed to New Texas with open arms, their crews treated to unparalleled hospitality. A world-wide holiday is declared whenever one of these ships arrives in orbit, and the entire planet all but shuts down for weeks upon the arrival of the battleship Texas. Ships with non-Texan names are welcomed without the holidays and festivals, but their crews are given nearly-equal hospitality in appreciation of the service the Space Patrol provides. Rivalry for assignment to a "Texan Fleet" ship in the Space Patrol is intense, and many Jeffersonians consider service on the battleship Texas to be more prestigious than duty aboard the flagship, the carrier Constitution.
