-October 20th, 2016 of the Gregorian calendar
The general was pissed, so much so you would have to invent a new word for it. The reason being was that the previous night something had managed to break into the base, kill a mechanic, and steal a rifle from the armory. To call this an total embarrassment would be the understatement of the millennium and they would be damned if such information got out to the public, now he had answer a call as his office phone rang. "Hello?" "General Kowalski." It was the president but there was something foreign about the tone of his voice, unlike the soft voice he used to there was obvious seething anger just below his calm voice.
"I have heard about the fiasco that happened in Fort Cluster, so please tell how the hell did a multi-hundred dollar rifle go missing from our base of operations?" Kowalski swallowed the lump in his throat, "There was a glitch in the security system at the time of the break in sir, blinding the cameras until they could be fixed." There was a brief, haunting silence. "And what caused this glitch?" "Mr. president, we are investigating this the very moment as me speak." He waited for the president to respond.
"This smells like incompetence general, we are at least a thousand years ahead of them in technology yet we can't stop a single spy with zero knowledge of modern surveillance from entering the very life line of this war?! If a Saderan can then agents from China or Russia won't have much trouble then. I'm authorizing a complete sweep in security instantly, and you better hope to god I don't replace you with someone more competent."
There was another brief silence before the president spoke again. "I'm sending some men from the Central Intelligence Agency to make sure this doesn't get out and to stop any espionage operations in Falmart. If this gets out you know the media will have my hide though despite this...incident, the talks will continue ask scheduled but with more precautions." The president wanted peace as soon as possible and appeared to be willing to look past the events of the night before if it meant ending this lengthy expedition. "And make sure the princess and her knights are monitored carefully, they may potentially helping the enemy."
"I understand Mr. president." He said but the president simply ended the call, which exacerbated the general's worry that he'd be sacked. He rubbed his forehead with his hand and sighed, 'Jesus christ, the president still wants peace with these people?' He understood that the natives of this world view defeat not only dishonorable but a death sentence as the winner could take whatever it desired but the night before confirmed his distrust of the Saderans' sudden willingness to negotiate. After all, they slaughtered thousands of civilians without remorse and had no troubles sending hundreds of thousands of their own to their deaths.
-October 27th, 2016 of the Gregorian calendar
The ambassador sat down as he took a good look at the three men in front of him, the same ones he'd be negotiating with to end this bizarre war despite what happened on the 19th. If what he had learned was correct, there would be massive sweep at fort Cluster for incompetence. Even with this then talks were to still continue as the president felt the war had been long enough and achieved its goal of destroying the enemy's ability to counter the US army, so tolerated this obvious act of aggression.
The one of the left was the marquis of the senate Casel el Tiberius, a sharp looking man with very little words compared to the other representatives. The man next to him was senator Gaul Fule Maio, one of the key supporters of peace in the senate and finally a old, bald man who just went by the name Marcus. Apparently they were one of the most powerful men in the country so it was clear they'd be the one's taking part in the treaty.
"Now." Said Tiberius, "shall we begin." Cooper nodded. "The citizens of the United States whom your nation attacked demand that the Saderan empire be punished for it's crimes, so we have written down our demands in five main points. He push a piece of paper in front of the men and Cooper explained the points.
"The Saderan empire must pay 500 million suwani with a annual pay of 10 million suwani per year for fifty years." He could see Marcus' eyes widening and Maio gasped while the stoic Tiberius had surprise written in his eyes. "Secondly, the empire must admit blame for the start of the war and hand over all government and military officials who are responsible for not only starting the war but committing war crimes against civilians who will be tried under international law."
Senator Maio looked at the points and appeared to turn pale as a ghost, and looked up to Cooper with a expression of horror. "The empire also must abolish the practice of slavery and give those emancipated with land including citizenship and if a former slave chooses to continue to work for their former master must be payed two denari each week with a annual salary of 104 denari. Fourthly, Sadera must reduce it's army to 200,000 men and an wyvern corps of one thousand. Five, All vassals of the Saderan empire must be released and are not to pay any tribute to the empire whatsoever."
"And finally, the city of Italica and all lands of the Formal clan in the province of Mol are to be given independencede from the empire." To be honest he thought they'd faint from the demands, for a time none said a word as they processed the points given to them. The marquis was the first to speak, "Sir Cooper, the amount to pay is unattainable as our current budget is 97 million suwani and our country would collapse if we attempted to pay it and we simply cannot abolish the practice of slavery as it makes of thirty-six percent of our entire economy and nearly half of the entire workforce."
"And Sadera will be vulnerable if our military is downsized, our rivals will burn our cities and the dark races will eradicate the Saderan people!" Proclaimed Maio as he stood up from his seats. "Then the united states will help Sadera rebuild in due time, but you must concede to our demands first." 'It appears things won't be getting easy.' He thought to himself.
By the time the sun set, nothing had been achieved whatsoever. The Saderans wouldn't budge and their proposals basically did nothing to punish the empire as they would willingly give twenty miles of land, no dmz, slavery would be permitted, only a handful of scapegoats would be tried and the debt would be lowered to 20 million suwani payed by a annual of 5 million per year.
With a sigh he laid himself into the bed of one of the many guest bedrooms of the Jade palace, a beautiful feat of architecture and the place where the war would hopefully end. He had his doubts but a force of two hundred military policemen and a detachment of an hundred soldiers from the elite Delta force would be protecting the palace while no Saderan soldiers would be present.
The palace had once been the home of a general that had died in the Elbian campaign and it was chosen for its location, being about four miles away from the city and the fact that the empire had no embassy whatsoever as most palaces of the monarch would have what was called a treaty room. The fact that a diplomatic mission would stay at a embassy was foreign and down right concerning to modern nations but with the fore mentioned troops and a drone monitoring the area about three miles above, twice as much as a Imperial wyvern could go. With that he got himself comfortable and went to sleep.
I understand y'all are kinda upset about how Norra was able to break into Alnus without being detected and taking inspiration from your reviews, there'll be some changes at Fort Cluster for the better. I do know how weird it is for the United states ambassador to stay at the Jade palace as its both unsafe and unrealistic. Hell, if this was realistic the moment an airstrip was paved the Imperial and vassals armies would be annihilated by done strikes until Molt would forced to except a unconditional surrender. (which they will eventually)
And just as a update, I'm gonna post two and if I have the time three chapters a month so you'll know when I'm updating kinda.