"Texas" + "Centaur," they are the retro-future dwellers of the New Republic of Texas. Post succession, oil-less, and with exhausted geo-reserves, they perform as a hybrid species stubbornly clinging to the heroic occupational legacies of both horseback and horse-power. Equal parts "auto", "mobile", and "wild", sea-based outposts harvest energy from (political) winds and crude, new undergrounds. Just over the horizon, visiting vessels saddle up and trade equities while sentries and dingies survey the fluid territorial edges of bravado and barter. They watch for clandestine border cross-ers/ings that supply labor and requisite attention for the diplomatic cargo's on-camera arrival. "It looks good—nothing to see here."