A President, A Chairman and a Premier walk into a bar. The beginnings of a bad joke, or perhaps something else.
William Bradford, the leader of the United States of America, Nikolai Suvorov the Premier of the USSR, Cheung Liu the Chairman of the Peoples Republic of China, Evelyn Cardoso Ferreira the president of the South American Federation, Lucas Hope of the Republic of Africa, Frederick Haussmann of the European Union, and Emmanuel Powers of the South East Asia Alliance were present.
All of them arranged around a table in the center of what was a bustling little bar. Now it had nobody but the service agents that were protecting the various world leaders, or at the very least making sure they didn't start punching each other or something equally stupid.
As for the leaders themselves, Evelyn had propped a small little windmill-like device in the center of the table. Activating it despite the protests of the secret service agents that were protecting the President of the United States, she sat back and waited silently, using her fingers as a visual indicator to show that she was counting and something should be happening soon.
When the fingers reached 5, she turned and said "Testing," to her staff who were seated nearby. A negative symbol of an arm horizontal and one vertical in the middle of it met her. Nodding she turned back to the various world leaders.
"We are now cleared to speak freely gentlemen, the device will ensure that those outside of a 3 meter radius cannot hear us. It has been tested quite thoroughly I assure you." She said to the men.
William leant forward, "how long will this last for?" He asked, pointing his finger at the device.
"Half an hour."
"Not as long as i would like."
"It is the best one that can fit in my purse. You may wish to shoot whoever it is that designs your clothing Mr Bradford, it is singularly irritating when our own designers decide to copy them and forget to put in the pockets." She replied, a little acid in tone.
"I am just the president of the United States, what exactly do you want me to do? Decree pockets on all female clothing?"
"It would be a start. Regardless, now that we are all in one place without the fear of being overheard by those that are… ubiquitous in all stations of life, we can talk freely don't you think?" Evelyn asked, her arms folded, a little defensive. Not that one could blame her really, knowing that NOD was present and very much watching her every moment of her life was something that ate at one's nerves. She was the leader of one of the most powerful blocs on the planet, that did not of course, mean that they were not adverse to the idea of placing "threats" to those around her if she failed to obey.
It was the same for all the others at the table, NOD never took the position of leadership for themselves, always preferring to guiding from behind the scenes, to ensuring that everything was happening the way they wanted.
"Yes. NOD. It has been a thorn in our side. Yet it is something that we would have existed without. It is a... 'disconcerting feeling' as you call it no?" Said Cheung, he had reached his position after his predecessor had refused a deal in which the South East Asia Alliance and China would join hands. In doing so despite the "advice" from NOD, even actively persecuting NOD agents, he had doomed himself and when Cheung had heard of the news of what he had done, he had manoeuvred himself behind the scenes to take leadership.
However, he found that he had so much more freedom being where he had instead of where he was. The illusion of power, at any rate, everything was dictated by NOD and those that failed to obey did not suffer fates that were… pleasant. Death at the least, the destruction of all they held dear at worst. Cheung recognised the signs, he had avoided them so far but then again, everything that had been asked was well within his limits.
"We can thank them for allowing us to exist I am sure. They are why I am here. Why my American counterpart is where he is, where all of you are as well. No doubt our presence here is well within their deliberations. Whatever it is we are discussing here is not something that is new to them, or even a surprise no doubt." Sighed out Lucas Hope, his voice tired. He had been elected so many years ago and he found that the idealism that he had prior to the campaign had died very quickly upon meeting with his campaign "advisors". They had made it very clear what the cost to the African people would be if he did not comply.
"Yes yes. We can no doubt complain about NOD forever, but we are no doubt here for something more important. The question is do we obey, or do resist?" Asked Frederick, leaning forward on the table.
"What choice do we have? Either we go to war, or we are replaced, they even have a very good scapegoat to kill us off with. Are you so keen to die, Frederick?" Asked William, his voice just a little friendlier than usual. The two had met multiple times before now.
"At least now we have been allowed to end this farcical war that we have been part of for the last 20 years. It is just that we are now being told to wage war on the new enemy that is waiting for us on the other side of the portal." Complained Nikolai. He had been aware of the nature of the missile the day after the event, yet by the time he was able to do anything, the media had relayed the information that they had been attacked, that the USSR was being threatened. With that, he could only go with the flow and declare on the US.
"They push us into war, and when they decide otherwise they tell us to stop. They want a war and if we refuse then they will force us into it regardless. They really are an immature lot are they not?" Asked Evelyn, her voice pensive.
"Well, you cannot deny what it has they've done for us. Without NOD we would no doubt be still using the primitive little tanks that we were using 20 years ago. I have been using my mobile phone constantly and that is particularly strange." Frederick said, a slight grin on his face.
"Which then begs the question, what exactly is it that NOD wants of us. We are to wage war, yet a light war, one that means our troops are veterans but not so much that our armies are depleted. We are constantly raided by NOD, yet they steal nothing and leave behind everything, different technology for different factions. And now they are declaring war against an enemy after they have forced us to unite and declare for peace. After they reveal the presence of a new universe to the entire world and declare war on them then. Word has come back that they are actively provoking the other side by attacking them. They want us in this war, the question is why? Why are they doing all of this?" Emmanuel asked, he was a college educated man from Malaysia. A man that was very much an intellectual that symbolised much of what the hopes of the South East Asia Alliance was about. An education to be free of the tyranny of poverty.
"That is rather obvious is it not? They want us to be more powerful, our armies ready, our peoples moulded into the perfect tools to support our war, our technology advancing. They have been present in our history for the longest time, we have found cave paintings of their symbols for God's sake. They want us ready for something that requires higher levels of technology, higher levels of firepower, higher levels of troop mobilisation. Something is coming and they very much would like us to be ready for it. Maybe they want us to fight it or just survive." Said William, his voice tired.
"And this war? What of that?"
"My analysts have run Catherine's voice and facial expressions through a filter. From what they are saying she is very stressed. This is very likely something outside of their predictions. After all this new universe has a NOD too does it not? Only this NOD seems to think that it can achieve its objectives through military force and is actively fighting against the rest of the world." Williams continued.
"The new world is not a threat. Our stealth planes have been travelling through it to gather information and we have so far come up with nothing that we do not already have a superior version of or at least an equal. Their designs are from 20 years ago, their weapons laughably primitive. If they wanted us prepared for some unknown threat, it is not this." Evelyn added, leaning back a little now.
"So this war then is a means to unify us I presume? A common enemy to help put everything behind us?" Emmanuel asked.
"Well if it is then it is a particularly inspired idea. We will fight and no doubt crush an inferior army, our people are no longer killing each other, and then we go and do whatever it is that a planet that is not in a constant state of war does. I would not know, it has been so very long that I have forgotten." Cheung said, his oxford education showing through.
"No, that would be a very bad idea," Nikolai said, leaning on the table, arms folded.
"What do you mean by that?"
"They have spent the last 20 years making sure that we're are always fighting, what do you think is going to happen when we conquer this world and there is no longer any war?"
"Ah. They will force us in some way to begin waging war again will they not?"
"Yes, I would not put it past them to detonate a nuclear warhead in one of our cities to ensure our compliance. No, we must do what they have done and drag this conflict out as far as we can possibly take it. To do otherwise would risk everything we have done so far. We have given everything for our people, tried to ensure that the lowest numbers of them are affected by what we have been doing. We cannot afford to allow this war to end quickly." Nikolai continued, his voice urgent. The others understood, the entire ruling elite of the USSR had been killed in one fell swoop, the message reverberating across the world for those in the know.
"Yes, we will do our best to make sure that this war does continue, our Generals will at the very least understand. As for the soldiers themselves…" Lucas trailed off slightly at that.
"Well, they know that a NOD exists, that it is very much something that at the very least employs extremely capable graphics designers and is rather good when it comes to doing things like headshots. A crazy peoples."
"Then we should keep it that way, we cannot afford to let the world know that NOD has been influencing our actions, or has orchestrated very major thing that has happened in the last 20 years, they will not be so understanding."
"That is a concern is it not? At the same time, it is not as if we have many options to keeping something like this quiet when it was spread through the entire world. The conspiracy theorists are already becoming extremely outspoken from what I understand."
"It may not be a concern for much longer, if they are pushing us into this war, and they deploy their own units… then they are going to be a very public force. One that can prove a liability for all of us."
"Gentlemen, the time is up, should we continue this another time?"
"Yes, it is much easier now that we are not shooting at each other. To schedule these meetings is it not?"
"Yes, let's get going then."
As they left Williams turned to regard the bar, a Somer's Rock in the middle of the Madagascar, run by a deaf couple. Likely spies related to NOD in some fashion.
Oh well, they had proven their use at least.