GETTING A TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM IN MODERN DAY

by Kideo11

For others it takes dying and reincarnating for them to get a system but what happens when you get one without dying. Aron Michael is an average student set to graduate within a week, but he was expelled for a random reason. Due to that he had a heavy student dept and no diploma to help him earn the money to pay it back. But one day he got a system that called itself the [Advanced

4. Chapter 301 - 400

Chapter 301

"We're in the final steps of sealing a deal with South African Airways, Air India, and Alitalia airlines. And as you expected, they didn't make it too difficult for us since they're in very difficult financial situations, making the negotiation process smoother," the aircraft acquisition manager of Icarus Airlines reported.

"And when are our first orders of new planes going to start arriving?" Robert asked after nodding his head to show that he had heard the report.

"Since we bought the planes that were about to have their orders canceled due to lack of demand, we'll start receiving them in six months, but the A380s should start arriving by the end of the year. However, those will be coming in one large batch," the acquisition manager answered.

"The ones we buy from those airlines should be enough for domestic use and a few intercontinental flights, since the domestic market is being dominated by Hermes' rail network. So our only use for them will be flights from Eden to Esparia. For other international flights we should start planning earlier for when the new planes start arriving."

They continued talking about the jet acquisitions without any fatigue on their faces. On the contrary, they seemed to be enjoying the work, as they were both young for the positions they found themselves in, so they gave it their all.

"How's the Malaysia Airlines situation?" Robert asked. Malaysia Airlines had been in a downward spiral ever since Malaysia Airlines flight 370 had gone missing over the South China Sea.

"We're in communication with them, but they're still holding on in the hopes that their plane is found and they can put an end to the downward spiral. So right now, we're in a holding pattern and waiting to see how the situation develops."

As for Robert's former wife, she was enjoying her life after she had received most of his things. And having found her very handsome dream lover, she was infatuated with the man to the point that she had already forgotten her former husband, who could be said to have been funding her current lavish lifestyle thanks to the divorce settlement. She was spending extravagant amounts to make sure the man wouldn't think about leaving her, not knowing that she was about to take quite a hit and learn her lesson. That was what Robert had requested of Aron as his revenge on her, taking her to the highest peak she can go before dropping her to the very bottom.

As they say, the higher you are, the farther you fall.

...

Among all of the newly minted presidents, the one who'd already had his revenge completed, Jai Chakrabarti, was inside the universal simulation going through the curriculum planned for the schools that were about to finish construction with an expression of disbelief.

It would be difficult as hell, but if it was taught exactly according to the lesson plans, monsters of knowledge were going to result.

He was interrupted by a phone call, something that could happen despite him being in the universal simulation.

"Hello, mister minister," he answered in a cheery tone as he was teleported into a time bubble that matched the real world.

"Hello, I'm calling you personally to inform you that your request to cooperate with the government to build schools of all levels has been approved by the president. We'll reach out to you and let you know where you can build your new schools soon. If the land you want isn't owned by the government, we can help you with the acquisition process,"? the minister of education said. He seemed quite excited by the news as well.

"Thank you for your help," Jai responded with a smile on his face and happiness in his voice.

"But I'd like to ask what you plan on doing with the ten pieces of land in unpopulated locations?" the minister of education asked.

"We're going to be building universities and technical schools in those locations. Each of them will specialize in teaching a specific field to the highest level, so we need places we can build the universities as well as college towns around them to make it convenient for the students," Jai answered.

"Although I'm thankful for the investments you're making in the country, I don't see the planned universities receiving the amount of students necessary to do their size justice." The minister of education was a good-natured person, and a member of Alexander's party, so he would naturally bring up any issues he thought might arise, especially those regarding overspending of funds.

"You don't have to worry about that. They'll all be full in just a few years after opening, and before the next elections arrive. That much, I promise you." Jai decided not to go into more detail, since he was sure that there wouldn't be enough time to explain everything. "Also, I'll be emailing your office the curriculum we've got planned for students at all levels of our schools, so please take a look and let me know what you think about them."

"No problem—I'll give it a read and let you know."

...

As for Ryan, he was enjoying life and spending time with his wife, who was thrilled to be accepted into what he jokingly called "Nova U", following her dream of becoming a museum curator and learning in a virtual university as she underwent her own genetic enhancement process. He had specifically asked for her to be enhanced as a way of paying part of her love and care back to her. Aron had immediately agreed, as Ryan had no vengeance to take and just wanted to spend the best time of his life with her.

Plus, Aron couldn't help but admire him a little bit for his devotion to his wife. Being in the honeymoon period of his own first relationship, with Rina, anything regarding love would naturally be highly looked upon by him.

Ryan was reading the sales report for Pneuma and Biogen. It had been two weeks since their release, and that time was enough for all the expenses they had borne by storing, shipping, and paying tariffs on them had already been recouped, with more than seventy percent of the gross sales remaining as profit.

"Although the profits are about equal between both products, Biogen should pass Pneuma in a month or so," he said to the void in his room.

[That depends on whether Pneuma gets approved in Russia, the EU, and the US before then. If they approve it, sales will continue being about equal for a few more months before Biogen ends up becoming the eventual winner.]

"Still, until we release a new medicine, weight loss will be our biggest earner," he replied. His vision was still correct, after all.

[You're right,] his assistant responded.

...

Despite Aron and Nova's policy of not interfering with anything, things were going very well for the burgeoning business empire. Rather, things were going perhaps too well, and thanks to that, Nova was in full simulation mode trying to predict what could come and throw a monkey wrench into their peaceful lives. She knew that somewhere, there was bound to be something that would be giving them a headache, and she wanted to know what it was so she could head it off at the pass, as it were.

And she was putting her computing power toward discovering just where that monkey wrench was likely to be coming from.

Chapter 302

Aron could be seen sitting with his eyes closed, the veins of his forehead were pulsing as they bulged, indicating that he didn't want to lose even a single second of his focus.

His surroundings were serene, with a vast, flat, heavenly ground stretching for kilometers, which was surrounded by mountains of varying heights.

If someone was gazing at this scene for the first time, they would think Aron was practicing the runic knowledge his clones had been training which he was assimilated with while he was receiving the treatment in the pod. Although this was partly true, it didn't hold the same meaning as they might think. Shortly after, Aron immediately opened his eyes but what followed it in the sight of the observer was the sudden vanishing of Aron's figure.

With his disappearance, the flat, tranquil grassland returned to its serenity which had once been there. However, the calmness didn't last for long as moments later, a flash of light, capable of blinding anyone who glanced at it, started to spread. But this was the least of the matters that might be of any concern because that flash of light was followed by…

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The deafening sound was accompanied by a shockwave that shook the ground, uprooting the grass that had been enjoying its time as it bathed in the light of the sun.

A whole mountain had simply disappeared.

Aron on the other hand, for those who could see him even in his concealed state, could be seen meters away from where he had once been before he activated the concealment rune and disappeared with a smile on his face.

"Now, that's my in-house stealth missile for you. Survive that if you possibly can," he mused while still holding the previous smile on his face, feeling quite good and proud of himself.

Alas, that smile on his handsome face was short-lived as his whole being stiffened a moment after that while his eyes were covered in disbelief for a moment before he immediately erected seven protective shields, stacking one on top of the other, before…

BOOM...….

Another enormous explosion followed, rocking the area, and sending him hurtling about a kilometer in the opposite direction of the mountain range he had just flattened with his explosion.

"You really are brutal, to come and use the same attack I did on you moments ago," Aron said with a weary smile, realizing that he really had no chance of winning this fight.

[If you can dish it out, you should prepare yourself to receive it as well,] Nova said as she materialized a meter away from Aron.

Her sudden appearance scared the shit out of Aron, who could have sworn that she was supposed to be a few kilometers away and in the vicinity of the mountain he had just obliterated a few seconds ago. He was sure of that because he could sense her presence there.

"Are you sure you are not cheating?" Aron asked jokingly with the expression of someone who couldn't believe what he was experiencing.

[Nope, I'm just utilizing the runes with the same knowledge that had been assimilated into you and the same brain power as that of yours,] Nova bantered back, raising her already massive chest to show her feeling of superiority in front of Aron who wasn't even able to sense her when she was so close to him, while he remained focused on the decoy she had placed on a mountain.

[But still, I couldn't believe that you sensed it and also managed to create seven shields to save yourself from being blown to smithereens,] she remarked, her tone serious this time, indicating that she was genuinely impressed by him.

"Well, my life was on the line and I didn't want to experience the feeling of being cooked by the heat and then having my body broken to pieces by the shockwave before I die. It is quite a nasty feeling," Aron answered, conveying that today wasn't his first time to experience this. Thanks to his strong body, brought together with strong regeneration, he didn't die immediately, but he was able to endure it for a few seconds before his body completely gave up, but that was eternal to someone who was experiencing his nerves being cooked while the body tried to regenerate those cooked nerves, which was soon followed by his bones being shattered into pieces from the shockwave before he succumbed to death after experiencing all that pain.

[Pain is the motivation of growth, Sir. If we remove it, there won't be anything that will be enough to motivate you to work hard in finding ways to avoid such things happening. Now, it seems that you have finally come up with the idea of integrating two runes at once during serious times for a more effective attack, albeit taking quite a long time to accomplish it,] Nova said before she broke into laughter as she remembered how long it took for him to succeed in doing so.

Aron, who was acting slightly hurt due to her laughing at him, retorted, "You are leveraging your computing power to find different ways to mess with me." He knew that during this period, he needed to think of coming up with ways to at least win against her even once without any assistance from her. He had realized that he was becoming overly dependent on her, and that might risk him losing a bit of his critical thinking skills. Hence, he had asked her to implement this form of training, where he would receive no help from her until he at least managed to land a single hit on Nova, who had limited her qubits numbers to the number of neurons he had.

"Let's take a short break," he suggested, finally feeling the accumulated fatigue which had been accumulating due to him spending hours trying to successfully integrate two runes at once, specifically the concealment rune atop the fireball rune.

[Should I update you about the various ongoing matters while you rest?] Nova asked, immediately teleporting both of them to the ground while creating a bean bag for Aron to rest on.

"Yes," Aron agreed and in response, Nova started her reporting.

[The decision has been made to build the company headquarters on an island, with the blueprint already being selected.] Nova reported to him, and at the same time, she materialized a miniature model of the city that was going to be constructed from scratch. The centerpiece of this project would be the headquarters of the companies that was going to be the world's tallest, widest, and deepest building by the time its construction was completed.

"This should provide jobs to millions of people and generate millions of dollars of revenues for different small companies," he said as he observed the vast number of materials that were going to be used for the complete construction of the city to its entirety, which would dwarf any other projects Dubai or Qatar which they had been planning or were being constructed at the moment.

[Just this project alone should keep the country's economy growing within the next year it takes to complete,] Nova added as she also mentioned the short time frame it would take for the project to be completed given that all the foundation and underground construction would be expedited using the atomic printer to accelerate the project without leaking the technology being used to anyone else.

"How much is the entire project estimated to cost us?" Aron inquired as he continued reading the details within the file.

[It's estimated to cost around thirty-five billion dollars, Sir,] Nova responded. 𝘭𝒾𝑏𝑟𝑒𝒶𝒹.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Do we still have that large sum of money lying around?" Aron inquired, aware that he had already expended more than hundred and fifty billion on the previous projects that were now completed.

And although he recalled they had more than triple that amount of money, he knew that it was not available in cash; instead, it was under the Plutus Investment as an investment fund to increase the money and for it to not just remain stagnant.

[Yes, although the funds we won from the Morgans' flash crash have already either been spent in construction, raw materials purchase, or in different stocks, we have gained ourselves a substantial amount of cash from the GAIA and Asclepius Biotechnology product launches due to the prices we are selling them at.]

[Only about fifteen dollars of the technological devices are being spent in producing them given the prices of raw materials and shipping them, and if you include tax and everything else, only about a hundred dollars from the $ 999 of the prices of the starting devices is spent as operational expenses while the remaining is nothing but profit.]

[So, we have more than enough capital at our disposal,] Nova responded as she showed him what they had been earning from the sale of just the phone, which had already sold 35 million units and even if all of them were of the lowest price, it would mean they had already earned more than $ 35 billion. Then, there were still computers and other peripherals.

Just GAIA technology alone was already earning more than a hundred billion dollars in profits from their product launch.

"In that case, there is no need to be stingy. Go ahead and start the project," Aron declared, immediately giving the green light for the start of the project.

"That is enough rest," he added before immediately rising from his seat to resume his battle with Nova.

Chapter 303

"Wow, it's so huge," Henry exclaimed as his eyes remained fixed on the massive square warehouse-like buildings in front of him. Aron quietly followed behind him, allowing his brother to do whatever he wanted to while they were in the observation room.

From the room, they had a clear view of nearly a quarter of the massive port in front of them.

"Brother, what is inside those?" Henry, who was very enthusiastic, thanks to having rightfully earned the opportunity to attend the event after acting in his test, asked excitedly.

"Those are dry docks that are used to construct ships before they are launched into the waters and put into service," Aron answered without moving his gaze from the view in front of him. Although he had already seen what was going to be unveiled today with the help of the VR, he couldn't help but still feel excited to see it getting realized in the real world.

"So, there are ships inside them?" Henry asked.

"Yes, and today, you will see ships coming out of them and entering the water," Aron said, now ruffling his brother's hair as he walked closer to him when the little guy asked his first question.

"Wow!" Henry exclaimed, his eyes shining, indicating his excitement as he moved closer to the observation mirror, eager not to miss even a single detail of activity that was going on in the port.

And before Henry could even say anything else or ask any other question among the countless ones that were popping in his mind right now,

KRRRRR KRRRRRR RRRRRRR RRRRRRR RRRRRRR

A screeching alarm that was sure to get the attention of anyone in the vicinity blared out through the main Navy base of ARES in Eden, followed by the announcement, "All personnel, clear the slideway in front of dry dock one."

This announcement could be considered to be nothing but a formality since everyone knew what day was today and had already gathered in the observation center to witness the launching of the ships.

The announcement echoed in the massive dry dock facility, which looked like a warehouse due to being covered on every side, which would make anyone who looked at it with suspicion for some secrecy, begin to open.

The massive doors on the sea-facing side of the rectangle's longest face started opening, albeit slowly; the speed was suitable given its massive size.

It took nearly ten minutes for the gates to completely open, which was fast considering its size, revealing a majestic and intimidating ship that resembled none of the currently active ships in the world.

(Image here)

But for those who had some knowledge of the history, especially the previous world wars, they would discover that this ship bore a resemblance to the gunships of that era. However, the one in front of them looked much cooler, more intimidating and had a futuristic, sleek gloom covering the entirety of its exterior form.

HHHHHH HHHHHH HHHHHH.

Another round of alarm, this one calmer, sounded as the sliders holding the ship within the dry dock that was connected to the rails that were made pointing towards the sea began to move.

These sliders initially started sliding slowly while in unison as the ship they were carrying started to move along with them.

Though it started moving slowly along the slope of the rail, in a short moment gravity took over and in combination, they moved the ship towards the ocean with its speed getting faster and faster until...

PWAAA.

The ship's hull hit the water's surface with a resounding splash and started to rock from one side to the other as the once calm ocean water got ratted as the ship tried to remain still.

After a few more seconds of wobbling left and right, the rattling finally came to a halt, thus marking the official successful launching of the Rottweiler-class railgun ship.

Soon after, a few small ships approached the newly launched vessel and the soldiers in them wearing the white uniform known as ARES's Navy, immediately started boarding the railgun ship,and going to take their positions as if they had already rehearsed the process thousands of times.

The moment every single one of them reached their designated position, they immediately powered on the ship's fusion reactor, which had been in idle mode as a precaution since the ship had been using backup power, just in case something went wrong during the launch.

Following the power-up sequence, they immediately initiated connections to the military satellite constellation, which resulted in the ship's computer finally coming completely online, thus enabling all the operations.

Following that, the ship didn't linger any longer and immediately left the port to conduct a few major tests in the open sea. The port, however, didn't return to tranquility, as the alarms rang once again, indicating that another ship was going to be launched as well.

This process repeated again and again until ten ships of the same class had been launched and had all departed the port for their assigned test locations.

"I still can't get used to this," Arons admitted to himself. Among the many ships that they were going to introduce into ARES's Navy division, this one was the most appealing to him since it looked way too cool.

As for Henry, he remained remarkably quiet, and his gaze locked completely on the mirror in the observation room during the entire launch without even looking away from it for even a moment.

With the completion of the launches, the port workers, who were soldiers, returned to their usual duties as if it was something they were used to as no one seemed to be surprised by it at all. However, the same couldn't be said to be true for the intelligence agencies that were monitoring this situation on their screens through footage and pictures that were captured by their spy satellites that were observing the entire situation all this long as they had been very curious of what was going on in those covered dry docks and who had expected something to take place in a few days time when the movements on the base had increased leading to the increase the monitoring of it.

Now that they finally knew what was going on in it, none of them were happy with it since they knew they were going to have a very challenging week as they would have to gather and collect data on the ship to ascertain the full extent of their capabilities.

...

Time moved on along with the unfolding of various events across different locations in the world, acting as a distraction for people to forget the passing of time.

Aron could be seen with Rina inside one of the luxurious rooms within the CUBE as they snuggled on the large couch while watching the TV that was displaying maps behind the reporter who was delivering real-time updates about the information regarding an ongoing incident.

"Let's see if your hard work has paid off," Aron said to Rina, who didn't seem nervous at all and was, in fact, remarkably composed as she replied, "I supported him discreetly enough to make his win something inevitable, so if he doesn't win the election, then that means he was destined to lose," as she got into a more comfortable position.

"Oh, the votes have started being counted," Aron commented as the graphics behind the reporter started shifting, indicating that the votes counting had started.

He wasn't worried at all. Although he had done his best to make sure Trump wins, he wasn't really afraid of the result where he would lose.

"I have been wanting to ask you this: why did you support Trump when you know very well that the Morgans might likely ask him to attack you and Eden?" Rina immediately inquired, having finally remembered to ask him this question while they were together.

"To use this as an opportunity to get ahead," Aron explained shortly.

"What do you mean by that?" Rina asked, not getting a complete picture of what Aron wanted to mean.

"Him entering the office and based on his mentality, it will undoubtedly result in chaos, and with the ensuing turmoil, it will be my time to flourish. As they say, 'Chaos is the father of opportunity.'

Although I have unprecedented power in Eden, we still can't project our power in other countries other than Eden and Esparia. However, the resulting chaos will allow me to shape some narration and push certain agendas that will be beneficial for us," Aron elaborated, showing that he planned to leverage the hypothetical Trump's victory to benefit both himself and Eden. As the more powerful Eden becomes, the more power he will have in this world.

As they continued their conversation, more and more votes continued to be counted and the graphics on the screen continued changing until the final result appeared on the TV, displaying the complete results of the election:

Winner: Donald H. Trump

Electoral College Result: Donald Trump received 306 electoral votes, while Hillary Clinton received 227 electoral votes.

Popular Vote: Hillary Clinton received approximately 65.9 million votes (48.2% of the total), while Donald Trump received approximately 63 million votes (46.1% of the total).

"Looks like we got our winner," Aron said.

Rina didn't respond to his words but immediately turned to face Aron and started kissing him to celebrate her win.

Chapter 304

Inside the compound of the Morgans' mansion.

The air within the compound carried a hint of happiness, a feeling that was felt by most of the inhabitants, causing the atmosphere to be permeated with the same feeling.

"We finally once again have someone in the position of leadership after eight years of not having one. This calls for a celebration," remarked George, his eyes fixed on his father, who was sporting a smile on his face, something that would rarely happen, only when he was greatly satisfied with something, a sight which at the moment, had been rare throughout the year.

"Good job," Aubrey complimented his son's contribution.

"We should prepare a celebration befitting the occasion," he added, agreeing with his son, but also added, "It would serve as the day we have the first meeting with him, during which we will finally be presenting him the complete plan of what we expect from him in return for our support for him," indicating that he didn't plan to waste even a single moment for his revenge to be delayed.

"Shouldn't we wait until he is sworn into the office next year?" George asked, noting that his father was trying to get over this as quickly as possible.

"The sooner he has the information, the earlier he can act on it after he is sworn in. So, presenting the plan to him during that party should be enough to give him the necessary time to start preparing himself to act on our terms," Aubrey answered calmly.

"Yes, Father. I will start preparing for it," George said and left the room, going back to his own to start the planning before delegating it to his assistant.

"Now, let's see how you will respond," Aubrey, who was left alone after his son left, muttered while bringing Aron's image into his mind.

He had finally found out who was the reason behind their embarrassment just a few months ago and Aubrey would always get angry whenever he remembered the incident. This was because he had been thinking that they were fighting against someone who had just entered their field just a few years ago.

...

A few months ago…

"Are you sure about this?" Aubrey asked in surprise as he read through the file in his hands, which at the moment were shaking due to anger that he was barely able to contain.

"Yes, Sir. We made sure that it was true by checking the information more than once before we had the assurance to report it to you," the assistant replied while raising his chest with pride, knowing very well that this was the discovery of the century.

Aubrey lowered his gaze back to the document in his hand as he read through the information for the second time while still in disbelief.

On the folder was the image of Aron and Rina walking through the VIP terminal. From their body language, it was clear that there wasn't any master-servant relationship at all, and in fact, it hinted that they were in a romantic relationship, which was something that Aubrey wasn't expecting at all.

However, that only acted as evidence for their relation, but what surprised him even more was the satellite image of Aron's car at the port on the day that they had launched the ten ships, which were still a mystery even with the capabilities of the intelligence community, which had left most of them baffled since the ships had done nothing of the sort that even came close to using their guns.

But the information did not end just at that. The files in his hands also contained the registration information of the companies that registered Aron as their sole owner and also revealed the amount of wealth these companies had was massive; it was a figure of numbers that even he, who would usually consider billion dollars as a measly amount of money, was surprised.

Aubrey didn't even want to believe what he was looking at first because if he were to believe it, then that means that both he and his family were not really that special. This was because the man mentioned in the folder had created such a large network of wealth in a period of nothing but two years, something that had taken for their families to accumulate generation after generation.

Aron possessed the power to shake the economy of Both Eden and Esparia with just one of his companies, and he had more than five of such companies, with each of them completely dominating a specific field.

"We need to make our move the moment we get the opportunity," Aubrey declared after standing still for a long period in silence while contemplating.

His words prompted the assistant reporting to him to have an intrigued expression as he raised an eyebrow since he didn't quite understand what the master was talking about.

However, George, who was also reading the document and was feeling jealous of the man who was mentioned in it, clearly understood what his father meant. It was time to start to prepare themselves for a fight against him, a man who was growing more powerful than they could have ever thought, which meant that the fight had now been increased by a grade higher than before, from regaining their honor to now full-fledged struggle to remove someone who if not stopped, will be their direct competitor in a short time frame and pose a major threat to them.

...

CUBE.

Rina could be seen lying on the bed while being in a deep sleep as she cuddled with Aron while her body tried to regain its vigor and recover from the tiredness she had been inflicted upon during the hours-long celebration that had taken place after yesterday's news.

Aron, who was on the other side, was still awake as he brushed his hand through her hair while at the same time using the active rune on his hand to aid her in recovery. He immediately reached out for the glasses on the bedside table and put them on once he was assured that she was now in a deep sleep.

[Congratulations, Sir,] Nova chimed in the moment he appeared inside the universal simulation.

"Thanks, but the hard work starts now. Although Chaos may lead to opportunities, it is also very easy for things to go out of our course. And so, we need to tread carefully," Aron said. Although it might seem like he was saying it to Nova, he was reminding himself so that he wouldn't forget this fact.

[I will keep that in my mind,] Nova responded, acknowledging the reminder despite knowing that it was not really for her.

"When is John going to arrive?" Aron inquired, indicating that he didn't come here just randomly but for a scheduled meeting.

[You came early, Sir. He is expected to log in in half an hour as he is making final preparations,] Nova informed, showing him the time, which showed that he was about forty-five minutes earlier than when their meeting was expected to take place.

"Good evening, Sir," John greeted when he logged in fifteen minutes before the scheduled meeting time, surprised to find Aron already waiting for him.

"Good evening," Aron responded with a smile since he quite appreciated the man in front of him.

"You could have called me if you were here earlier," John remarked when he realized that Aron might have been here much earlier than he thought.

"No need for that, since I was the one who arrived earlier than the appointed time," Aron said, showing that he would have only cared if John was to be late without any reason, but now that he wasn't, nothing really mattered.

"So, how is life going for you?" Aron inquired; although he could know whatever John was doing, he refrained from doing so since he cared about their privacy, plus Nova would have informed him if the guy had done something that needed his attention.

"I have been enjoying my life since you healed me, Sir, so there is nothing for me to say other than I'm very happy with life," John responded; when he was asked about life, his thoughts momentarily went back to the time when he was before being healed by Aron.

"And are things fine between you, AURORA, and her friend?" Aron asked with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

"It is going well, and they have been enjoying their time in Eden as much as I have. The recent genetic enhancement I received has made things even better for me," John explained as he shuddered when he recalled the times when even his body that had gotten better after Aron's bombardment with runes when he was healing him as a test, got tired and had gotten a back pain due to having to satisfy both of them. However, now that he had also received a genetic enhancement that was perfectly tailored for his strengthened body, he could handle both of them and satisfy them without having to regret it the next day.

"And you sir?" he asked after answering.

"I'm enjoying life at the moment," Aron replied with the smile of a man who was quite satisfied with his life.

They continued having their small talk, with both men trying to get to know each other, and share their experiences during the times when they were alone and had not met each other.

And just like that, fifteen minutes passed, and now it was time for the meeting.

The moment the meeting time arrived, Athena, Nyx, and a few more AIs immediately materialized in the room, together with high-ranking generals in the ARES who had been stopped from entering the room during the time Aron and John were catching up.

A few seconds later, Alexander too arrived and apologized for being late despite only being delayed by a few seconds.

[Now that everyone is here, let the meeting commence.] Nova, who had assumed the position as the meeting secretary, announced when everyone had arrived and had finished greeting Aron and Alexander, thus officially starting the strategic meeting for Eden's military forces.

Chapter 305

The room everyone arrived at had a very weird seating arrangement. If there were anyone who didn't know who Aron was, they would not recognize who was the most important person in the room.

The table was oval shaped, with Aron and Alexander sitting at the long ends of the tables, while the generals were sitting on Aron's right side of the longer table and the military AIs on the left.

No one in the room found this kind of arrangement weird at all; rather, they saw it as how it was supposed to be.

[Now that everyone is here, let the meeting commence.] Nova, who had assumed the role of the meeting secretary, announced, thus marking the first meeting of Eden's military forces.

Athena promptly teleported and began delivering a report to all of the attendees.

[Before we delve into the more complicated topics, I think it is better to start with the basic information about our military forces to make sure that everyone is on the same page,] she proposed, and immediately the room's surroundings changed.

No one in the room reacted too much and just waited with a calm look on their faces to see what she was going to do with the room's surroundings.

And indeed, the void surrounding the room started shifting, giving way to rows of soldiers who materialized while Athena started her presentation, stating, [At the moment, we have 545,000 active soldiers spanning across all the branches of the military. Of these, 345,000 are a part of the Eden branch, while the remaining 200,000 of them belong to the Esparian branch of ARES.] As she said her words, the appearance of the uniforms of the soldiers surrounding them differentiated.

[Currently, we don't have any reserve forces on hand, but our soldiers already work on a rotational basis, transitioning from active duty to passive duty. The time they have to work differs, depending on their selections and their position in the military.

We are still executing our recruitment plan and aim to reach a million-strong army by the end of next year before reducing the recruitment efforts,] she continued, pausing for a moment to let the audience who had been listening to her and let them digest the information.

Alexander, who was hearing the actual complete number of the military for the first time, had goosebumps all over his body as he came to a realization that the force, which had numbered even less than five hundred when they arrived in Eden, had reached such a huge significant size, without letting anyone to notice this tremendous change.

Although he was aware that the number of soldiers was substantial, given that the government was responsible for their salaries while ARES also supplemented them the same amount of payment as the government, making it one of the highest paying jobs in the country no matter the position held by the soldiers, nevertheless, he still didn't expect their number to have reached such heights.

[Regarding weapons and armament for these soldiers, it varies depending on the branch they are in.] as Athena said, the soldiers who had materialized in the surroundings of the meeting room immediately disappeared, and the room's surroundings once again returned back to being a black void.

[The one that is a hundred percent equipped and completely functional is the intelligence department (the Nyx); they have all the necessary equipment to help them gather, analyze, and act upon the intelligence they have.] As Athena added, the void scene transformed once again, displaying the different devices that were provided to the military's intelligence branch, including glasses that differed in functioning than the glasses that were issued to the soldiers for logging into the VR.

These specialized glasses had the ability to hack into any device that was in their vicinity, collect all the data before having it analyzed, and further only deliver the critical information to the wearer of these glasses.

[They are the branch with the least amount of personnel, with only fifty thousand members, among which more than half of them are field agents since most of the analysis and planning aspects are handled by Nyx, the AI leading this department, and the AI team working under her,] Athena added while showcasing the responsibilities that were under the supervision of the AI of the department.

[They are also the most active branch since they are responsible for safeguarding the national security of both Eden and Esparia. We have already successfully dealt with more than two hundred spies, either by deporting them or prosecuting them under other criminal charges without revealing their involvement in the espionage not only that but also capture members of the government who were trying to sell government secrets,] Athena continued as the silhouette of the people captured or dealt with by them appeared in the void of the room.

[The second-most armed branch is the Army, boasting a personnel count of 250,000 under it. All the soldiers in it are armed and ready and are on standby for deployment in any conflict. However, when it comes to the weapons that are already out in the open and known to the public, there are almost none, except for the helicopters, which means that we are restricted in what weapons we can use during a conflict, as long as we have not decided to let our advanced weapons known to the world,] Athena explained as the weapons used by the army were showcased on the shelves that appeared in the void of the meeting room, imitating the matrix.

The number of new weapons that were introduced was even more than what John had been shown by Aron when he introduced the weapons to him, indicating that new and more advanced weapons had already been developed and made ready for use. 𝓵𝒊𝓫𝓻𝓮𝓪𝒅.𝓬𝓸𝙢

[Moving on, the third most armed branch is the Navy. Having 200,000 soldiers, it is the second least armed force due to the highly classified nature of their vessels. At the moment, we already have ten of the Rottweiler-class railguns in service, which should suffice for our short-term needs. However, the rest of the Navy vessels range from small to medium-sized, designed for patrol and other security tasks. This is something that we need to address faster, in case in the future a need arises and also because we have very limited active soldiers on them, forcing us to utilize a rotation system,] Athena reported as she displayed the massive Rottweiler-class railgun battleships and a few other vessels that were being used by the Navy right now.

[However, all of these inadequacies on top of water can be supplemented by the completed submarine fleets that are already patrolling the two country's borders] she added as she displayed the different types of submarines that are already in service.

[Lastly, we have the Air Force, which is also the least armed branch, which comprises the remaining hundred thousand personnel. Although we have numerous air bases scattered all across Eden, we still have very few planes to justify the branch's size. However, with them being responsible in a joint operation with Nyx, they play a crucial role since they are responsible for monitoring and maintaining the active satellites while the intelligence branch analyzes the information and acts upon them whenever the need arises.] Athena stated.

As she said that, the satellites appeared in the void of the room together, alongside the air force's known number of Su-27 aircrafts, together with the ones the world thought they had won as spoils of war during the Eden- Esparia conflict.

Once she concluded her summarization of their military's prowess, Athena returned back to her seat and remained quiet.

Nova immediately interjected, [Now that we have the summary of our current condition, we have to start thinking about solving the problems and start addressing them. So, anyone with ideas on the table, please contribute to the discussion]

Alexander, who had already gotten somewhat overwhelmed by listening to the continuous flow of information, finally spoke up, "While I understand that we are not releasing many of our advanced weapons and devices since they will attract too much of the world's attention upon us, I believe it shouldn't be too much if we were to release some of them in a promotional video for the military recruitment." He simply suggested it since he knew that everyone in the room would figure out what he meant by his words.

[So, you intend to use the video both as a promotional tool and also as a means to make the world think that these weapons are just cosmetic weapons for the video but will still portray an introduction of our weapons to the world and the only surprise later will be when people witness them for real and in action,] the AI responsible for overseeing the army branch chimed in, acknowledging that she could see where Alexander's train of thoughts was going since it was her branch which was most likely going to benefit from this strategy as they would be able to use guns and a few other small and medium-sized weapons but others won't be able to use it since they use ships or airplanes.

"For the Air Force, we can just publicly announce that we are exploring the development of our own aircraft and have already finalized the design and are moving forward into building a prototype. Although many people will think that we are trying to eat more than what we can chew, it won't be too surprising when they see a prototype in the air," the Air Force general suggested, showing that he had considered how to release their advanced fighter aircraft to the public without causing too much mess.

"That would align well with the announcement I had made during my victory rally speech in which I promised to build domestic industries, and the defense industry should be among them," Alexander chimed in.

The Navy general followed suit, proposing a similar approach for the Navy branch as well, "We can make a similar announcement for the Navy, which would be taken more seriously than the Air Force claim since we already have the ships made by us in the water, though the public doesn't know about it yet since no one has seen them as they are patrolling in deeper waters and the countries that have satellite images of our ships have unilaterally decided to keep this information as a secret," his words didn't carry any malice toward the Air Force or its general's idea, rather, he was simply saying that the idea could be used by both of them.

"Announcing that we are entering into or have already been involved in the defense production industry should serve as the best suitable solution for all the branches since we can use it as an explanation for the introduction of all the new weapons that will be released into the military and maybe even for civilian sale, though I don't think we will have customers so long as we don't prove the weapon's effectiveness," Alexander added.

He became the only highest-ranking figure in the room who had voiced out his opinion throughout the meeting, with Aron and John merely being spectators of the meeting as they simply listened to the ideas that were put forth by the people attending the meeting.

Chapter 306

"We won't be selling any of the military tech to anyone. It'll all be exclusive to ARES." Aron, who had been quiet throughout the meeting, finally opened his mouth and disputed some of Alexander's points about selling weapons in a grave tone.

"So you agree with the idea of releasing the information to the public about entering the defense industry to cover letting our weapons enter the field without attracting too much attention?" Alexander asked.

"Although I agree with it, as it'll be a trusted source of information to quell the rumors floating around, I don't see the reason we can't just step out of the shadows. It isn't like we don't have the power to protect ourselves, even though we can't really project it outward quite yet," Aron replied.

Everyone raised an eyebrow, since they knew that Aron was nothing if not cautious, more cautious, and even more cautious. If he claimed to be second in the world at keeping secrets and staying hidden, nobody else would dare claim to be first. He even went so far as to camouflage the weapons used in the Eden-Esparia conflict to look like the weapons they had illegally bought from shady gray-market arms dealers during the Edenian revolutionary period.

"From your expressions, I see that you're surprised. But everything is obvious if you compare our circumstances then and now.

"In the past, we didn't have enough boots filled to warrant the release, or protect the weapons, but things have changed. Now we have the eighth-largest military, judging by the number of active duty members. The two ahead of us—Iran and Pakistan—are only ahead of us by about 50,000 soldiers. We should surpass them in a month or two, and then we'll be the sixth-largest military power by number of active duty enlistees," Aron explained.

"Also, the country is stable now. Not only are our citizens no longer in an active revolution against their government, but we also have a stable source of income combined with a growing export economy. So we have to change our mindset and act like the country we are, and not like the country we used to be," he finished. His inner circle definitely had to join him in shifting their mindsets.

"So, are you going to be putting all of your military tech into active service?" Alexander asked. He needed to be certain of Aron's plan in order to gauge how he should act from now on.

"No, we're going to do it in phases. We'll start by releasing a few recruitment videos and promotional propaganda, then announce your decision to develop a national defense initiative. Together with that, we'll start using the equipment we've been keeping warehoused, but consider it 'secret'. Let the rest of the world speculate whatever they want to. It isn't up to us to explain, but for them to come up with reasonable explanations.

"We can then just subtly spread the most believable of their own speculations, just to muddy the waters." Aron was firm in his vision and had already planned everything out, step by step.

The humans in the room nodded, showing they had an understanding of the general direction Aron would be taking, while the AIs spun up a few more fractions of their computing power to update their parameters and generate new plans of action.

"Nova, work on it. Make it appear as natural as you can without seeming too absurd. That includes our new ships and aircraft." It was time to move on to the next topic of the night.

[Yes, sir,] Nova responded, then went silent again.

Athena took over and began her presentation. [With an adequate number of sailors in the Navy, it's about time to divide our fleets into task groups.] She paused for a moment as the display screen popped up a naval infographic. Then she continued, [For starters, we'll divide the pacific fleet into five task groups.

[The Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western fleets will be jointly referred to as the Pacific fleet, or Home Fleet. Their task is to defend the regions in all four quadrants. Three of them—the Northern, Southern, and Western fleets—will be defending Edenian waters. The Eastern fleet will be tasked with defending Esparia's territorial waters.] The display switched to a nautical map of the surrounding waters counted as Edenian and Esparian territories. Territorial waters were generally agreed to be twelve nautical miles of water from any country's coast; beyond that was international waters, where territorial law didn't hold sway and gave way to international maritime law.

The display switched to a detailed breakdown of ships in each task group of the home fleet. Each of them would consist of two subfleets, one for training and one for active patrolling and defense. The sub fleets would each contain an Odin-class battleship, two Thor-class heavy cruisers, four Mjolnir-class cruisers, eight Heimdall-class destroyers, and sixteen Njord-class frigates. All ships would be armed with batteries of Heracles' Bow Mk. IV coilguns.

The decision had been made to switch from railguns to coilguns for a number of reasons. First, maintenance requirements. Although atomic printers negated the need for extended downtime in order to maintain equipment, they still required the correct resources. Atomic printers weren't alchemists, after all, and couldn't transmute one element to another. So if something called for steel, for instance, the raw materials of carbon and iron—plus any others for specific alloys, like magnesium, manganese, aluminum, or others—were still necessary in order for the printer to create it. Since the operation of coilguns and railguns differed, and coils didn't rely on contact rails to propel projectiles, the material requirements were lowered. Over time, that would save a lot.

Second was the performance. Even with Aron's advancements in materials sciences, there would always be fundamental limits to the stresses materials could have applied to them. Coilguns, unlike railguns, didn't require any physical contact between the projectile and the "gun", thus eliminating one of the material requirements entirely. The only material requirement for a coilgun was a superconducting material capable of pushing enough charge through it at a reasonable operating temperature, and Lab City was already dozens, if not hundreds, of generations ahead in that area.

Third was increased range and accuracy. While the railguns that the US Navy were using were capable of launching a projectile at Mach 6 up to a distance of 110 nautical miles (about 126 miles or about 200 kilometers), testing of the Heracles' Bow Mk. IV coilgun in Lab City had revealed a pinpoint accuracy range of 500 kilometers, and a projectile velocity of Mach 14. So, coilguns had a longer range and higher velocity than railguns, which meant they were far more devastating as a weapon.

Lastly—though Aron would likely rather die than admit it—was just the sheer "cool factor". Coilguns were just plain cooler than railguns.

The only advantage that railguns had was that they had lower requirements for capacitor banks and overall availability of electricity. But given the advanced technology at Aron's fingertips, thanks to Lab City's constant work in a greatly time-dilated environment with literally unlimited resources at their fingertips and zero budgetary constraints, the current Thunderbolt Mk. The XIII capacitor was more than compact and efficient enough to offset the sole advantage that railguns had over coilguns. And when combined with Aron's fusion reactor tech, comparing railguns to coilguns would be like comparing a potato gun someone made in their backyard to a "rod from god" kinetic space-based weapon.

[Each task group in the home fleet will be responsible for interdiction, patrolling, and counter piracy operations in Edenian or Esparian territorial waters. The training fleet would be for live training and switching out so maintenance downtime won't affect our ability to defend ourselves...] Athena continued detailing the breakdown for the home fleet, including personnel numbers and specific tasks and areas of operation.

[The second major fleet will be the Merchant Marine. They'll be responsible for escorting civilian shipping convoys and counter piracy operations in international waters. The Merchant Marine will consist mainly of destroyers and frigates, with a reaction force of one heavy cruiser and two cruisers in case more standoff firepower capability is needed. It'll also incorporate gunboats to board and chase pirates if and when they're encountered.

[Later, when we're ready to project our power outward instead of focusing solely on defense, we can build a reaction fleet.]

As Athena spoke, the display continued updating. The plan was for the Navy to become the largest single military entity in Eden and Esparia, as from the next day onward, all enlistees would be entirely dedicated to becoming sailors.

[The new admiralty will be appointed following an assessment period to discover people who are suitable for the positions. Any questions or concerns?] she finished. There were no questions, though, as everyone at the table knew they would be given folders with detailed information inside.

Athena's presentations continued for each branch of the new military structure with occasional breaks for questions and revisions as the humans at the table came up with new ideas to incorporate into the structure.

After more than eight hours of meetings with no breaks, but without anyone losing focus thanks to their genetic enhancements, the changes were approved and Athena was given the go-ahead to implement the changes in ARES once the meetings had finally been concluded.

Chapter 307

When everyone left after the meeting, Aron remained behind with Alexander as they had something important to talk about.

"How's being president going for you?"? Aron asked.

"I can't complain, since it was what I was dreaming of throughout most of my youth. Then I fought for the changes, and now that I have the ability to seize my dreams I can't be caught complaining, now can I?" Alexander jokingly replied, then added, "But I'm really enjoying it. Especially with my new body—it's very rare for me to feel tired, no matter how hard I work. And that helps me do more than I could've done before." He was incredibly grateful to Aron for the genetic enhancements he had received.

"Yeah, I can see the results of your hard work in the faces of the citizens," Aron said. The happiness level of the citizens in Eden had, and was continuing to increase as more and more people benefited from the new government.

"The discovery of oil did all the work. And now that we've been exporting it for about a year, it's about time for the investments to start benefiting the citizens," Alexander said. Just five months after they had started selling oil internationally with the help of Hermes, they'd received enough money to immediately implement the universal healthcare plan he'd promised the citizens. There were even no increases in any tax brackets. And with Aron's tech as the backbone of their new universal healthcare program, together with the hospitals that had been built and funded by the Coeus Foundation, they were using the most advanced medical equipment in the world. The government-funded and Coeus-backed hospitals were the best in the country... or even the entire world; there was no question about that at all.

"So, I asked you to stay behind because I wanted to warn you that the upcoming years will be very rocky. Trump is about to be sworn into office in January, and we have to make some plans and act accordingly in order to benefit from it and come out on top when things calm down again." Aron shifted to the main topic. He was sure that, although Alexander might not be physically tired, he would definitely soon be mentally exhausted after the earlier eight-hour-long marathon meeting.

"I assume you already have a plan and are about to present it to me," Alexander wryly said. Whenever Aron said something or wanted him to do something for him, he would only ask after he had come up with a plan. The man was nothing if not an excellent planner, and his plans were always out of this world.

"Yes, but the plan has to be flexible. Trump is an unpredictable man, and nobody can control him. The people who got him elected are just fools if they ever thought otherwise. So we need to be ready to react based on the situations that occur, since there's no predicting his actions in advance. The political world is about to undergo the equivalent of a 10.0 magnitude earthquake," Aron said as a folder materialized in his hand and he handed it to the Edenian president.

Alexander took it and started reading the contents, just to get the gist of the plan, but after he finished reading the third page, he looked at Aron in shock. He couldn't believe what he had just read.

"The benefits of being neutral," Aron said with a smile, as he knew what had caused Alexander to react that way.

"If things go wrong... you know there's a risk of a war, right?" Alexander asked, but then realized why Aron had only handed him the folder after the Ministry of Defense meeting. He had obviously realized the risks and been preparing for the worst-case scenario long ago.

"Looks like you already expected it," he said after he realized the meaning behind the timing of the ministry meeting and military reorganization.

"Although war isn't something we're aiming for, we still need to prepare in case it starts," Aron said. He was fond of the saying popularized by the former US President, Theodore Roosevelt, about speaking softly and carrying big sticks. But war wasn't his end goal, even if it was a risk of his plan. "But for us to come out on top of the shuffle in the end, we have to take equally huge risks. Thus—" he gestured at the meeting room and the still-hanging infographics, "—our heavy preparations," he added. 𝒍𝒊𝒃𝒓𝙚𝙖𝙙.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Alexander continued perusing the documents with a serious expression on his face. As he read, though, his surprise returned and his eyebrows climbed higher and higher on his forehead until they practically reached his hairline. The plans only grew crazier, riskier, and more dangerous the more he read of them.

When he was done reading, he didn't say much, though his mind was still working on them, but he managed to bid farewell to Aron before logging off and heading to bed. Nova would assimilate the detailed plans while he was asleep, and if he had any questions he could ask them once he knew the ins and outs of everything.

...

The next day, the military began their reorganization. All the soldiers who would be involved had already received the order to assemble, so they returned to their barracks or duty offices, got comfortable, and put on their assimilation devices.

The patrolling Odin class battleships of the home fleet immediately changed course and headed to their new designated bases, where they would meet up with the rest of their subfleets and reorganize. Four of them would be docked for live training and maintenance rotation, as an unmanned ship was just as prone to severe failures and rapid decay as an unoccupied building, and another four would be receiving and cycling through new crew members at Naval Command in Elysium before heading out to their assigned quadrants with the rest of their subfleets. The remaining pair of battleships would be kept in reserve in case they were needed outside Edenian or Esparian territorial waters, and would be allocated to the reaction fleet once that was implemented in the third phase of the Naval Organizational Plan of Eden.

(Ed note: Rottweiler-class battleships have been renamed to Odin-class. Rottweiler didn't fit the naming scheme Agent came up with, but we were running out of Greek mythology to mine for Big Names(tm). So we decided to mix some mythologies, like Norse deities and references for the Navy)

As for the army, they headed to their base quartermasters to turn in their current equipment and be issued the new gear.

While the reshuffle was taking place in the Army and Navy, the Ministry of Defense uploaded their new recruitment ads to Pangea, as well as put them into rotation on the television and radio stations in both Eden and Esparia. They expected a surge in recruitment soon, likely within a few days.

Together with that, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense held a press conference announcing the reorganization and recruitment effort on official channels, with a press release going out to the paper news media. It was an all-out blitz to ensure that every citizen of both Eden and Esparia heard of the recruitment push. Together with that, ARES leased serviceable offices or buildings in each city and village, no matter the size, and stationed a few soldiers there to act as recruiters.

Other countries' reactions varied, ranging from Trump rattling sabers on Pangea and lambasting the "warmongering" Edenians in incoherent posts, to the Esparian president's strong support for the initiative. He was just as aware as Alexander of the realities of being a neutral country, and thanks to the surrender accord, he had to rely on them. So in his mind, the stronger ARES—and by extension, Eden—was, the better it would be for Esparia as a whole. Besides, he really enjoyed the oil income he was receiving for doing essentially nothing. There was no better income than "free" income, after all.

Edenian citizens were awed by the look of the new weapons, and the global netizens created a number of hilarious memes surrounding them. Conspiracy theorists went on rants about supersoldier projects and eugenics, comparing Alexander's government to the Third Reich, and some even mocked the new gear for focusing on form over function and saying they were little more than embroidered pillows.

No one could really refute that, either, as Eden was still considered a "developing nation", which was basically a polite way of saying "third-world shithole". So it was implausible at best for them to actually have developed any working hardware, and those rumors couldn't be refuted without showing the gear in action or having an impressive usage record behind it, like the AK-47 assault rifles, which were still the most popular rifle in the world by sheer number of sales.

Speculation was running rampant and wars of words between netizens broke out everywhere, but the Edenian government remained silent and simply watched. Not only that, the monitoring AI of Pangea, Panoptes, was actively fueling the debate and further muddying the water.

There was even more rampant speculation on the Edenian government's silence. Edenian and Esparian citizens correctly pointed out that it would be incredibly stupid of Alexander's Ministry of Defense to give detailed specs on the new weaponry, or even to show it in action, and also pointed out that no country in the world ever showed their weapon prototypes in action. As Eden had only ever been involved in "local disputes" with Esparia, the new weaponry would remain classified as prototypes until they had proven themselves on various battlefields. But other countries mocked that decision, and it was even noted by Panoptes that a few governments had even hired batches of trolls to try provoking the Edenian Ministry of Defense into revealing the classified details of their weapons.

But no matter what their specific reactions were, the entire world had heard of the new weapons and Eden's entry into the military/industrial complex. As for explanations? They could explain it themselves.

Eden certainly wasn't going to.

Chapter 308

January 20, 2017, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C

The streets, once ordinary thoroughfares, were now transformed into arteries of democracy, coursing with the lifeblood of the people. A sea of faces, representing the rich tapestry of America, converged upon the National Mall, where history was about to be rewritten. The quadrennial presidential inauguration was more than a ceremony; it was a ritual, a symbol of continuity, a testament to the enduring spirit of the United States.

In the distance, the gleaming white dome of the Capitol Building stood as a sentinel, a beacon of hope and a reminder of the nation's resilience. Its hallowed halls had borne witness to countless chapters in the American story, and today it would play host to another. The Capitol Building's steps, flanked by fluttering flags representing the fifty states, had become the stage upon which the future of the country would be unveiled.

Inside the Capitol Building, the air was charged with a blend of excitement and solemnity. Elected officials, dignitaries, and distinguished guests gathered in the ornate chambers, reflecting on the weight of the moment. The President-elect, resolute and contemplative, prepared to assume the highest office in the land. A page was about to turn in the annals of American history, and the world watched with bated breath.

But beyond the ceremonial grandeur and political pomp, the inauguration held a deeper significance; it was a celebration of the people's will, a demonstration of the peaceful transition of power that lay at the heart of American democracy. It was a reminder that, regardless of the challenges faced, the nation's commitment to its ideals remained unwavering.

Not too long after all of the invitees had taken their seats did the inauguration program begin, and things moved fast and as noon approached the swearing time too got closer. Not long after noon reached and passed the swearing in arrived as the president elect Donald H. trump took to the podium together with his wife, who would stand near him as he was sworn in.

(Ed note: names may or may not have been... slightly changed to protect the author from potential pointless and time-wasting frivolous defamation lawsuits. I'll neither confirm nor deny who we mean.)

As he reached the podium, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who was already there. He shook hands with the President-elect and had a short greeting before handing him two books that he would swear on: his childhood Bible and the Lincoln Bible, which had only been used by one president before him for their inauguration.

"I, Donald Hunt Trump," he said, repeating behind the chief justice word for word as he read the oath, the final piece of the puzzle before he become the president of the world's most advanced and powerful country, "do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

The moment he finished reciting the oath, the thousands of the now-president Trump's supporters cheered as they expressed their happiness and excitement.

...

"Now it begins," Aron said as he watched the inauguration through his glasses. He rose from the chair he was sitting in after taking off his seatbelt. The alarm had begun ringing in the plane he was in, a warning light that had flipped on when the alarm rang out painting the chamber a red hue. The plane's rear cargo ramp slowly opened, equalizing the atmospheric pressure inside and outside the cargo bay he was in, dressed in a light tracksuit.

He walked to the ramp with his hands in his pockets, and the moment the ramp was fully lowered, he took two running steps and leaped from it, despite not wearing a visible parachute at all.

...

"And so it begins," Alexander said as he watched the same live broadcast event, but not a single semblance of worry was anywhere to be seen. He'd had more than enough time to prepare for the upcoming chaos, and both his government and his people were absolutely ready for the unprecedented global power shuffle that was about to take place.

...

"Now let's see how you reshape the world order," Rina said from her room in the Cube. There were two screens in front of her; one showed the US presidential inauguration and the other was focused on Aron, who was falling through the air. Although she knew he was set to benefit from the upcoming chaos, she hadn't asked for full details; not only was she a woman who enjoyed surprises, but she also knew that if he needed her help, he would let her know. 𝒍𝒊𝒃𝒓𝙚𝙖𝙙.𝓬𝙤𝙢

After all, the two lovers wholeheartedly trusted each other.

...

The same air of expectation lingered in the atmosphere in the Kremlin, despite the ceremony taking place at 8:00 PM in Moscow.

...

The ceremony continued.

Following his oath, Trump stood at the podium and began delivering his first speech as the 45th president of the United States.

"Today's ceremony has a very special meaning. Because today, we aren't merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another, but from Washington, DC back to you, the people." He began his speech by showing his fangs to the people that he had been keeping them hidden from, but in a subtle enough manner to leave him at least some plausible deniability.

"For too long, a small group in our nation's capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost." He paused due to people screaming their agreement with his words, then continued, "Washington flourished, but the people didn't share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but jobs left and factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories! Their triumphs have not been your triumphs! And while they celebrated in our nation's capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land…."

He continued his speech, making sure every word of it was heard by the attendees. Once he had finished speaking, he was escorted back to his chair to wait for the event to continue.

...

The president started wielding his sword of power that night, beginning with something that would make the public believe him to be a president for the people and not for corporations by signing Executive Order 13765: Minimizing the Economic Burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Pending Repeal. It directed federal agencies to take certain actions to "minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens" of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) while the administration worked on plans to repeal and replace the healthcare law.

The next day, women across America took to the streets in a nationwide march, protesting the misogynistic and hateful comments during the 2016 election. They had organized beforehand on Pangea, and Nyx agents were here and there in the crowds, stirring up the mud. Trump took to Pangea and made a few contradictory posts himself, at first posting, "Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn't these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly" early in the morning.

But an hour later, he did a complete about face and posted, "Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don't always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views".

People who were at first worried heaved a small sigh of relief that the loose cannon hadn't started shooting people moments after becoming president.

But that didn't last long as he immediately drew proverbial first blood on the 23rd of January. It was the fourth day of his presidency, and he withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was a multinational trade agreement between 14 Pacific Rim countries, including Eden and Esparia.

He didn't stop there, either. The following day, he approved the Keystone XL Pipeline, a network of pipelines that transport crude oil from Canada to refineries in the United States. That reduced their import demand from other countries—including Eden, which was among the top exporters of oil to the US, thanks to a deal signed by the previous administration's State Department. Obama had wanted to make peace with Eden, seeing it as a "better friends than enemies" situation after they'd demonstrated the capability of ICBM launches.

But Trump didn't care at all, thinking that America was still the most powerful nation on the planet and held the biggest stick.

He truly was like a bull in a china shop as he continued an increasingly blatant political offensive against Eden. On January 27th, he delivered another hit to Eden and Esparia by including them in a travel ban that he had signed into enforcement by executive order. While it was primarily targeted at majority Muslim nations, people were wondering about him including the "third world shitholes" of Eden and Esparia. After all, they had just begun their development as nations after shedding their brutal dictatorships and people assumed that they were in a recovery period from that.

Still, regardless of the reasons people came up with as to why he had included them, no one could argue that Trump's travel ban would make it very difficult for those from Eden and Esparia to enter America.

Chapter 309

An airplane with the Edenian flag on it was on final approach to Beijing airport. It was given priority clearance, skipping the line as other planes were sent to maintain altitude.

The plane landed without any problem, then was directed to one of the VIP terminals that had been prepared to welcome the people in the plane.

After coming to a full stop, the ramp extended and the door opened, revealing a red-carpeted walkway that was lined by members of the People's Liberation Army's ceremonial guards standing at rapt attention.

A few seconds after the door was opened by the flight attendant, a man walked out of it wearing a clean suit. He strode forth with confidence in his steps and a smile on his face. He walked down the walkway and met the leader of the welcoming team. He extended his hand and, in Mandarin Chinese, said, "We are very honored to welcome your arrival to China."

Just as his translator was about to translate it to English, the guest replied, also in perfect Mandarin Chinese, "Thank you very much for your warm welcome. I am happy to be here." The translator was surprised by the dignitary's clean Chinese. He sounded no different from a Chinese native who had studied Chinese literature. Everything from the tone to the sentence structure was perfect.

The surprise wasn't only visible on the face of the translator, but on the face of Wang Yi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China as well. He was the one who was welcoming his Edenian counterpart. "I didn't know your Chinese was this good," he said with some pleasant surprise.

"I learned it during my free time, as I knew it would be needed one day. It seems I was correct," replied Gabriel de los Estrada, Eden's Minister of the Exterior. 𝑙𝒾𝒷𝘳𝑒𝑎𝒹.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"If you mastered it just by practicing during your free time, it means you are truly blessed with a gift for language," Wang Yi said as they started walking to the VIP immigration checkpoint, where they were quickly cleared and directed to a waiting luxury car convoy.

Moments after they got in their assigned cars, the convoy left with the sirens of their police escort blaring. It ensured that they wouldn't be stopped anywhere during their journey, since they were going to visit a few events before their first official meeting to present the Edenians' diplomatic credentials to Xi Jinping, the president of the People's Republic of China.

...

A few hours later, the two people who had met at the airport were in a meeting room with a few secretaries to record the minutes. They obviously didn't include translators in their discussion, so after a short bout of polite small talk, they went directly to the main subject.

"Although we can import oil from your country, the quantity we need is triple the amount your nation is pumping from the ground," Wang Yi said.

The main thrust of this private meeting was to negotiate an oil import contract. Saudi Arabia was China's second-largest source of crude oil behind Russia, but Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the president of Saudi Arabia, had been growing too close to the US and China feared that the newly sworn in President Trump would make trouble for them. Since he was so unpredictable, Xi Jinping had directed his foreign affairs minister to begin laying the groundwork to replace as much of their oil imports as possible. The deadline he was given wasn't a firm one; it would depend on if and when Trump began throwing tantrums and biting at random people to compensate for his tiny "hands''.

Saudi Arabia, though, was constantly increasing the amount of oil they exported to China, and it wasn't expected to be long before they completely overtook Russia. Thus, any instability in American politics that bled over into any of the OPEC nations—four of which supplied oil to the communist republic, namely Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, and Venezuela—would affect the market and lead to wild fluctuations that could negatively impact Chinese industrial growth. Especially in the industrial production of petrochemical products like plastics, rubbers, synthetic cloth, and resins like those used to produce motherboards.

So the probability of President Trump affecting China through the oil market was enough for President Zi to consider stabilizing their imports in advance as a high priority. While relations between China and the US had been warming over the past few decades, the Chinese nation was historically slow to adopt changes and their insular nature had been fostered over many, many generations. Thus, the Chinese Communist Party felt a pressing need to settle things in advance, much like a spouse would often begin separating assets before filing for a divorce from their "other half".

"You don't have to worry about that. During the construction of the oil rigs, we built them with enough spare capacity to compete with any of the OPEC nations. Currently, we're only limiting the production because, as they say, too much is as bad as not enough," Gabriel said in a measured tone.

Wang Yi was a little surprised, as he had planned to use the modification period together with the construction of new oil wells as leverage to make the deal lean in their favor. He hadn't expected that the Edenian oil production wasn't at capacity and had thought they would definitely have been working at full power, given the number of barrels of crude the country was currently producing.

"That's good, that's good," he said, expertly hiding his surprise and disappointment at missing the chance to take control of the negotiation.

After about half an hour of back and forth, they had some agreements and some disagreements, but it ended with them agreeing to sign a contract for Eden to sell about two million barrels of crude oil per day to China, or roughly about 25% of their overall amount of imported oil. They would finalize the agreement a few days later, after their respective staffers negotiated some final details. The official signing would take place after Gabriel presented his credentials to Xi Jinping.

Chapter 310

"Our president is very interested in your advanced chip industry, and he said he'd like to initiate technological transfers to strengthen our ties, if possible," Minister Wang moved to the next topic. The oil negotiations were nothing more than an appetizer; the thing China was most looking forward to was breaking the technology blockade and entering the computer chip and semiconductor markets. And having come to a preliminary agreement on the oil trade gave him a lever to use to open the door for cooperation in chips and semiconductors.

"In what aspect, specifically, does he want to cooperate? To the best of my knowledge, our country's chip technology isn't that widely used." Gabriel was playing dumb using GAIA Technology not selling the chips to anyone as a shield. He knew that no matter what exorbitant prices buyers promised—and there were many buyers and truly exorbitant offers—the company absolutely would not sell under any circumstances. But he was curious as to what Minister Wang really wanted.

"We would like to open a jointly operated production line for some of the devices in your country in order to meet the demand of the billion-strong market in ours," Wang Yi said. He even specifically reinforced the size of the Chinese market as a psychological negotiation tactic.

"Although that offer is tempting, I'd like to remind you that we don't control the company in question. But I'll deliver your suggestion and the benefits you offer to them and leave the decision in their hands," Gabriel replied with a straight face. But on the inside, he was wondering just how big a fool the man across the table thought he was.

Giving up their manufacturing lines to China was the same as stripping yourself and parading naked on a battlefield in front of your enemy's soldiers. Gabriel had been briefed by the intelligence department about the intellectual property theft that was rife in China; in a nutshell, if they could steal the technology and produce knockoffs of it, they had probably already stolen it long ago and the products were already on their store shelves. They would bribe technicians and factory workers of Chinese descent, hire professionals through LinkedIn and other headhunting sites for online work through shell corporations, and would even go as far as kidnapping researchers with covert operatives (spies) and even insert industrial espionage specialists into any and every company they thought made a useful product.

That said, they were far from unique in that tendency. Most countries did exactly the same things, but China had always had friction with outsiders so it became a bludgeon they used to beat their reputation with.

"Then please deliver our offer to them and I'll wish them happy cooperation in advance," Minister Wang said. He knew pushing any further would only have the exact opposite effect.

...

"We've already lost more than half of our market share during the past year! What're you planning on doing to stop this downward spiral?" Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, was in a meeting of the board of directors, silently listening to them vent their irritation on him.

After asking that, they remained silent and waited for an answer from the CEO, who started answering the question as it was one that was to be expected based on the company's recent performance.

"Although the loss in market share can be attributed to a strong competitor entering the market, that isn't the entirety of the reason why our stocks aren't recovering. That's mostly because someone leveraged a short position on our shares about a month before GAIA Tech even hinted at their next release being in our space. It's suspicious in and of itself, and it means whoever took that position is somehow connected to GAIA Tech and knew the impact their entry into the mobile market would have on us. But you also have to remember that we aren't the only ones caught off guard by that... our former competitors were as well." He fell silent and waited for the next question, which really did come moments after he finished speaking.

"You had more than a year since their release, yet you're still using it as the reason for your failure? Haven't you had enough time to learn from their product and even patent a thing or two, since they haven't been bothered to do so themselves? Also, you're saying that our competitors are facing similar troubles. But as far as I know, LG already stabilized their shares and even showed signs of recovery!"

"GAIA is unique in that they haven't even bothered with patents for most of their tech, yet we can't even figure it out when it's handed to us. If we were to try that, the knockoffs would be on store shelves within the week. Besides, the reason LG managed to stabilize is that they manufacture more things than we do. We're limited to the mobile market, phones and laptops, but LG has their fingers in everything from mobile phones to home appliances," Tim answered, prepared as usual.

Another question was immediately thrown at him. "So what are you going to do?"

"I've devised three different plans, depending on how the situation unfolds. First, we can buy chips from them and continue competing with them in the high end market, like we do with Samsung's screens.

"Second, we can lower the price of our devices to the mid range. Although our profit margins will drop, it'll still be a profitable business since we'll make up the shortfall in volume. It will, however, cost us our premium prestige and brand recognition will be diluted. But that isn't really important since we've been losing that since they released Zeus One and the Olympus models." There was a commotion in the room and he waited until it had almost completely died down before continuing.

"Third," he said, silencing the room, "we could spend a few billion dollars lobbying and have the government implement a ban of either their software or hardware. Since they aren't an American company, we can claim it's a national security risk and force them to make their programs and processes public. Otherwise, they can just be banned from operating in the US at all. And it won't be just us—we could cooperate with companies like Facebook, Samsung, Twitter, and all the other tech companies that were harmed by GAIA's products. We'd form a coalition of benefits to force GAIA to submit or be kicked out.

"As we know, America leads the world in tech research and hardware. One mere GAIA isn't enough to shake that foundation," he finished. He had saved his best plan for last.

Chapter 311

Tim Cook's third idea elicited a wave of nods from the rest of the board. Cooperating with a competitor was never a good idea; it was just giving others a handle by which to exert control over them. And ruining their own hard work over the past decades of building up a specific brand identity for Apple was equally distasteful, if not more. So even if the anti-GAIA coalition was distasteful, and even if it wasn't effective, it was still the only viable option of the three they had been presented with.

Besides, even if they did want to cooperate with GAIA, Sarah had been adamant about not selling the chips they would need, no matter how much they'd offered or how sincere their offers had been.

"We can also claim they're a tech monopoly. It's bullshit and would never stand up, but the more things we throw at them, the more flustered they'll be and the more likely they'll be to submit." That generated a bit of a buzz of chuckles in the meeting room.

"So which idea are we going forward with? Let's vote," Tim said. The minutes secretary took over and issued the voting order, which was soon completed. The result of the vote was shown on the screen behind Tim. 𝙡𝓲𝒃𝓻𝓮𝙖𝒅.𝙘𝓸𝒎

"Looks like many of you liked the coalition idea, with cooperation coming in second. So let's do it like this: while we're setting up our lobbying coalition, we can contact GAIA and muscle them into 'selling' us their chips and the tech behind them. We can promise not to support the coalition as long as they agree to our demands. If they don't, then they'll be kicked out of the richest market in the world, and all of our political allies around the globe would definitely follow suit. Then they'll only be able to cry on their bankruptcy filings," he said. He would immediately throw the rest of the coalition under the bus if Apple got hold of the tech they wanted from GAIA. He knew that the late, great Steve Jobs would hate that decision, but, well... not only was Steve dead and gone, but even before he had died, he'd been forced out of management for being too soft.

Tim's words garnered nods of approval from the board. Any one of them would have no problem abandoning their temporary allies and becoming the sole beneficiary of GAIA's inevitable downfall and demise.

...

The following day, Wang Yi and Gabriel de los Estrada continued their negotiations. They were scheduled to attend a few diplomatic ceremonies that day, but the plans were abruptly changed when Minister Wang received news of the decision Apple had made regarding the anti-GAIA coalition through the members of the Ministry of State Security in his entourage.

"This is an opportunity for us! We should ensure that Apple is successful," a high ranking member of the CCP said moments after being briefed by a member of the MSS before the meeting.

"I agree. The American government forcing GAIA to hand over their tech would benefit us, but even if GAIA refuses and ends up being banned in the US, it would still increase the importance of the Chinese market. Then we can threaten to ban them as well, if they don't hand over their tech. But we'll be even more likely to succeed—after all, the overturned cart ahead teaches the cart behind. So we can pay attention to the Americans and learn from their successes and failures, then use that against GAIA ourselves," Minister Wang said. He had been forced to cut his meeting with the Edenian delegation short to attend the meeting with the CCP and MSS and was still irritated when he was reminded of the Edenian minister's attitude after the joint chip venture was brought up.

"Good plan," said the highest-ranked person in the room. He turned to the MSS representative and said, "Make sure it happens, and help the coalition as much as possible. We need it to happen. It would greatly benefit our Made in China 2025 initiative to have one of its goals accomplished so soon after the initiative was started. So if we succeed, everyone here will be greatly rewarded." The meeting continued as the MSS agent briefed the politicians on the other topics he had on his agenda.

Just like that, the movement had started in secret without the world suspecting that an upcoming turmoil would shake the giants.

...

"Now this is bad," Sarah muttered to herself as she read about the meetings that had been taking place between their competitors. She was sure that, since they were being blatant and in the open about their actions, it meant that GAIA's competitors were in their final buildup phase before they undertook a major action.

[Miss, you have a new email from Tim Cook,] Sarah's AI secretary informed her. She had intercepted the email that was supposed to go to the business department and directly reported it to her.

"Show it to me." The email appeared on a screen in front of her and she carefully read it. She knew that if it was just another offer, like the previous emails, she would have been told so by her secretary.

As she read, a frown grew on her face. It was written in very dense legalese and filled with subtle threats that couldn't be used against the sender, but were obvious enough for the reader to understand what they were.

"Looks like the discussion I had with Aron as a joke is going to become real," she sighed when she finished reading the email. She remembered joking with Aron about who was going to attend the congressional hearing if they were subpoenaed to testify about the risk their devices posed to American national security.

Still, there was no worry in her face at all. The only thing that could be seen on it was excitement, since she was finally facing a challenge for the first time in a long while. In fact, everything had been going inconceivably smoothly ever since Aron had invented the always-helpful AI secretaries.

"Forward it to Aron and add that he should be a fortune teller or something," she said to her assistant, then started brainstorming on how to deal with the nascent anti-GAIA coalition with the aid of her assistant.

Chapter 312

The Edenian-China oil transfer agreement was signed within a week, after all the kinks in the clauses had been ironed out. During that time, the Edenian Minister of the Exterior, Gabriel de los Estrada, had toured the country and presented his diplomatic credentials to Chinese President Xi Jinping, officially opening an Edenian embassy in Beijing. He had also opened new topics of discussion, setting a foundation for future cooperation between the two nations. The Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, had done the same, but his interests differed from Gabriel's.

Where Gabriel was interested in raw materials, especially wanting to tap into China's extensive deposits of minerals that, to his knowledge, were lacking in Eden and Esparia, Wang Yi was more interested in buying a batch of weapons and technology transfers. But Gabriel countered that by using ARES and GAIA as shields; he couldn't make the call on behalf of the government, since the things China wanted were property, intellectual and otherwise, of privately owned companies.

Thus, he merely promised that he would do his best in order to facilitate the Chinese requests. Both men knew it was an empty promise, because Gabriel had neither the authority nor the power to make the decisions on his own.

Immediately after the ink was dry on the agreement, a timer had started on Eden's first oil delivery. It was set to take place in three weeks, so the idling oil pumps were spun up to full capacity and Aron's behemoth industrial chain slowly began moving. It started by printing seven camouflaged ships, which looked like oil supertankers but were submersible—Hephaestus class oil tankers. They had to be submersible, as they were printed at the bottom of the ocean and only surfaced when Nova ensured Aron that there were no satellites with viewing angles covering Eden, giving them a window to hide their activities.

He wasn't completely ready to step out of the shadows yet, after all; there was still groundwork to be laid. 𝒍𝒊𝙗𝓻𝒆𝓪𝙙.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Once the massive supertankers were ready, they moved to the offshore rigs and were filled by the high-capacity high-flow pipes, both from the storage tanks on the oil rigs and directly from the pumps that had been sunk into the seafloor when the platform was built.

Soon after that, Edenian Naval Command in Elysium received orders and went to work printing the Merchant Marine fleet. A Thor flagship class heavy cruiser, two Thor class cruisers—one missile boat and one air defense boat—four Heimdall seek-and-destroy class destroyers, and a dozen Njord interdiction class frigates were soon printed, crewed, and sent to the offshore oil rigs to meet the supertankers they would be escorting. Neither Aron nor Nova would leave anything to chance with this first, and most important, oil transit.

Although three weeks was a very short time for pumping oil and delivering it, the Edenians had still agreed to China's demand. Gabriel had tried negotiating for a longer time frame for the first delivery, but Minister Wang had grown somewhat cold and took a hard line stance, leading the Edenian minister somewhat confused. They had started out getting along quite well, and he didn't understand what could have caused the sudden cooling of their working relationship.

He turned to one of his female staffers, who only he knew was actually a Nyx agent, and in a low voice, said, "Find out what happened. Someone's trying to ruin this deal for us, and I need to know who."

If Eden was delayed in their delivery, they would have to pay compensation in the amount that China would have paid for on-time delivery of the crude. The oil would also be given to China for free in that case; the terms of the agreement were clear on that clause.

The undercover Nyx agent nodded and her expression went blank for a moment as she tasked her assistant AI with the investigation. It would be best if she didn't have to make a move personally, but if it came to that, she would be ready.

After all, a deal worth 130 billion USD absolutely needed to go smoothly; she understood that fact very well.

...

"Are you going to do something about it?" Rina said as she read the email that Sarah had forwarded to Aron and her.

"No, I'm going to let them do it. I want to see exactly what they have up their sleeves," Aron said. His hand slipped into Rina's bra through the neck of her t-shirt and began massaging her generous chest.

"You really like to let people build up to their highest point before you throw them down, don't you?" Rina said as she tried to slap Aron's playful hand away and failed. She barely stopped herself from moaning.

"No, this time it isn't just due to that. It's more that they might be doing something that'll be beneficial to me in the future. As they say, 'You meet your fate on the way to avoid it'. So I hope their attempt to survive will lead to something beneficial for me. And who knows? It might even expedite some of my plans," he said as he pinched Rina's rapidly hardening nipple.

"Why not just send your agents to investigate what they're doing, or even have Nova hack them so she can listen to them. Ahh….." she moaned before she could finish her question.

"Nyx agents aren't infinite in number, and most are already tasked with other important tasks. So I don't have any to send right now. As for Nova hacking them, they're tech companies and very well know that anything they have that's important absolutely must be kept air gapped to avoid hackers. Nobody knows better than people in the tech sector that there is no such thing as a truly secure network." He smirked and slid his other hand under the hem of Rina's shirt, teasing her bellybutton. "Except for mine, that is," he finished.

"Besides, all we have to do is just wait for them to make their move and respond. If I can't win a fight with them with all of this at my fingertips, then I don't deserve what I already have."

He tilted his head and captured Rina's lips with his, kissing her hard and deep. She returned the kiss and her hands began wandering as well; his teasing had already riled her up and she was dripping and ready to go.

Chapter 313

It didn't take long for the tech companies' secret coalition to be formed. They had already come to a surface-level agreement and had begun spending money for their plan, but on the outside it seemed like different companies just coincidentally had the same idea. They had all gone to different lobbying firms with different complaints, but the money they were spending was ten times the usual amount. And that was just the beginning.

Tim Cook was feeling very satisfied and putting his wholehearted effort into lobbying. He was infuriated that GAIA had ignored his threatening email, leaving him with no other option than to go all out. For the sake of his career and his company, he had to ensure that GAIA was removed from competition and their tech in his hands.

...

Just like that, three days passed and the tankers full of oil undocked and headed out toward China on the shortest route. Their escort ships, two destroyers and six frigates, remained for twelve hours, then followed them at a sedate speed. Though, that was only considering the normal cruising speed of the advanced naval vessels; the two-thirds speed they were sailing at would be comparable to flank speed in any other navy's vessel.

A week passed and the supertankers slowed further as they approached the pirate-infested waters of Indonesia. With over 17,000 islands in the Indonesian archipelago, stamping out the plague of pirates had been a headache for centuries, and the current day was no exception. If there was going to be an attack, it would happen that day.

"Captain, our radar is picking up some weird movements on approach at zero six zero knots bearing two four zero relative to our heading, zero five four nautical miles and closing. Ten pings on the doppler, and sonar's picking up what sounds like outboard motors. I suspect they're pirates, sir," said the comms officer on the bridge of the lead tanker in the convoy.

"Comms, confidence?" the captain snapped. The shorthand communication between him and his crew and the ease with which they worked together showed the effectiveness of their Athena-designed VR training program.

"90%, sir. We should have visual confirmation in approximately ten minutes, and they'll overtake us in thirty-seven minutes assuming our course remains steady," the comms officer reported"I don't remember us having any scheduled inspections along our route," the captain said. He knew there was a possibility that the radar signatures may be local patrol boats engaged in a search for pirates or smugglers, but if that was the case, they wouldn't be on an intercept heading with his convoy.

"From the pattern and their number, it's impossible for them to be a patrol. Patrols don't come in waves of a hundred speedboats..." the comms officer mused.

"Pirates!" the captain exclaimed. Based on the details, that was the only possible conclusion. He turned to his comms officer and ordered, "Report it to our escort.".

The comms officer picked up his radio and began his report. "Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is the EV Pacific Voyager. We are currently located at 3°07'55.5"N 124°59'35.2"E, bearing three four niner. Radar indicates high probability of a pirate threat, intercept estimated in three seven minutes. Message repeats." He set the radio back in its cradle and flipped a switch to cause their distress signal to repeat. The announcement was repeated for a second, then a third time as they waited for a response.

But even after waiting for a minute, no response was received and the atmosphere in the bridge of the supertanker grew slightly tense.

The captain had a suspicion of what was happening. He took the radio from his hip and said, "This is the EV Pacific Voyager. We suspect we have pirates on an intercept course and will have visual confirmation in about six minutes. Our distress signal received no response and I suspect signal jamming is at play. Please respond."

His short-ranged radio signal was met with silence from the other tankers in the convoy.

"Comms, signal flash 'change heading zero two zero flank speed'. Helm, in three zero seconds, hard astarboard, came about to the new heading zero two zero and all ahead flank. Let's buy our boys some time to peel these barnacles." The captain sat back in his chair and muttered to himself, "It's time to phone home."

The comms officer ordered a radioman to use the 'flasher'—a high-intensity floodlight—to signal the second ship in the convoy with the new heading and orders. The signal would be repeated down the line, and the evasive maneuver would be simultaneously carried out by all seven tankers in the convoy.

Twenty seconds later, the helmsman took control of the 1MC and announced, "Ten seconds to maneuver. Brace, brace, brace!" Exactly ten seconds after that, he said, "Coming about."

(Ed note: 1MC, or One Main Circuit, is an internal announcement system that's used for the bridge of a vessel to pass critical instructions to the entire ship at once, both belowdecks and topside. If you've ever been on a ship when a 1MC announcement comes on, you'll know how impossible they are to miss.)

The massive supertanker heeled over to port as it made an almost impossibly sharp turn toward its starboard beam and the engine spun up to emergency levels, pushing the insanely huge ship to its flank speed, roughly 125 knots.

"Although this will buy us some time, the speedboats are probably still going to catch up, eventually. If they can't, then slow us to three quarters in ten minutes. Let's bait the fox to catch the hunter. Comms, continue the mayday on frequency cycling, maybe there's a frequency they missed jamming. XO, you have the conn." The captain left the bridge and headed to his ready room.

After closing and locking the door, he took his special edition Zeus One out of his desk drawer and said, "Phone home."

The phone's assistant immediately connected to the Q-comms satellite that had been tasked with tracking the convoy and connected directly to Naval Command in Elysium. That wasn't a feature available to the commercial edition of the phone, which were limited to a Q-com connection range of 250 meters in order to prevent the batteries from being immediately drained.

The moment the call connected, he said, "We're being intercepted by what we believe are pirates. Radio is jammed and I've taken evasive action. We're baiting them out, so there are a few hours, but—"

He was interrupted by the phone powering down. Even in the military version of the phone, pushing a quantum signal into low Earth orbit was beyond what its battery could bear after a few short seconds.

But despite being cut off in the middle of his report, he wasn't worried at all anymore. He left his ready room and returned to the bridge to continue his work as captain of the lead ship in the convoy.𝓵𝒊𝓫𝓻𝓮𝓪𝒅.𝓬𝓸𝙢

Chapter 314

Eden, Northwest air base.

An alarm started blaring, signaling a general scramble among the base personnel. They immediately dropped whatever they were doing and headed to their assigned locations like an anthill that had been kicked over.

Pilots were urgently putting on their gear according to a strict checklist procedure. And within five minutes, they were headed to the duty hangar, where they would receive their mission briefing and launch. As they crossed the hangar on their way to the briefing room, they passed a virtual hive of technicians scrambling over the parked jets and giving them last-minute checks and fueling them.

The pilots reached the briefing room and received their briefing, then boarded their jets and taxied out of the hangar.

Soon, with the screaming sound of jet engines spinning up, four planes were lined up on the runway access lane, ready for takeoff as soon as they received final clearance from the tower.

"Tower, this is SU-37, call sign Alpha One. Requesting immediate clearance for emergency intercept take-off. Please advise."

"Alpha One, this is Tower Control. Roger that. Emergency intercept take-off is approved. Proceed to Runway 27 Hotel for immediate departure. We'll alert civilian air traffic control and provide you with updated vectors to intercept. Keep us informed of the situation.

"Tower, Alpha One. Copy that. Taxiing to Runway 27 Hotel. Will update you on the situation once in the air. Alpha One out."

The squadron leader taxied onto the runway and brought his jet to a complete halt. Then he pushed his throttle to the stops, kicked on his afterburners, and released the brakes on his landing gear. His jet screamed through a short takeoff and into the sky at a 60 degree angle. Short takeoffs like those were designed for aircraft carrier runways and active combat scenarios, where pilots needed to be in the sky and mobile in the least time possible in order to avoid being intercepted by the enemy.

After the four planes had completed their takeoffs and assembled in formation, they moved to the heading they were supposed to head out on, afterburners still flaring and leaving a trail of exhaust plumes behind them. Once they were over open water, they went supersonic and the exhaust trails ended where the jets broke the sound barrier.

Minutes after the interceptor launch a fully fuelled and highly advanced version of a KC-135 Stratotanker also launched on the same heading as the intercept squadron. The interceptors would be flying their entire mission with their afterburners active, so no matter how awe-inspiring their fuel efficiency was, they would reach bingo fuel just a few minutes after they hit the halfway point toward their destination.

A few minutes before the interceptors were scrambled, Aeolus, the Air Force AI Command, and Freyja, the ARES Military Intelligence Command, had tasked the overwatch satellite following the oil convoy with tracking the pirate speedboats back to their base. While the trailing naval escort was absolutely more than enough to handle the attack, the standard operating procedure (SOP) for unprovoked attacks on any of Aron's military or civilian shipping was ensuring that the attackers had nowhere to retreat to.

A few That Direction Removers launched with great prejudice was the most effective method of achieving that goal.

As the four jets screamed on their way to remove a certain direction, a hundred and eighty nautical miles (333 kilometers) away from the oil convoy and well behind the horizon, six Heracles' Bow batteries, fondly referred to as "Hello, Beautiful" by the sailors assigned to man the vessels they were on, simultaneously swiveled around as the frigates and destroyers of the Merchant Marine Escort Task Group Oscar Seven tracked invisible targets from beyond the horizon with the aid of the Panopticon satellite array high in the sky above them. Soon, the massive, eighteen-inch-diameter coilguns roared to life in sequence, the battery itself rapidly adjusting between shots and cycling through the three barrels in each battery.

The overpressure wave caused by projectiles going from a dead standstill to more than ten times the speed of sound kicked up waves around each firing vessel, and the ships themselves heeled over with the recoil. But where a normal vessel would take a hit to their accuracy for those reasons, the VIs (Virtual Intelligences) in the tracking computer were more than capable of using the zero-latency satellite connection to ensure that the designated, locked targets were hit with a hundred percent accuracy.

Even though using what was basically battleship weaponry to destroy small two- to four-person speedboats was like using a nuclear missile to swat a gnat, Athena had drilled her motto into her subordinate AIs: there is no such thing as "overkill". There is only "open fire" and "reload".

(Ed note: Have to give a shoutout here to Howard Taylor, the author and artist of Schlock Mercenary for his excellent list of Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries. If you enjoy military humor, you'll like his writing, and the 70 maxims are all comedic gems. This one is Maxim #37)

...

"They really want to use our failure to deliver as leverage to get us to compromise on the tech sharing, don't they."

Rachael Richardson, the president of Hermes, was sitting next to Elizabeth Oppliger, the president of Helios Energy & Utility, in a virtual mission command center. They had been informed as soon as the pirates were confirmed by the Panopticon satellite, even before the convoy ships themselves had received visual confirmation. They were being kept in the loop during the small skirmish, as they were the titular heads of the companies responsible for the convoy—Elizabeth for the contents of the ships and Rachael for the ships themselves.

What Rachael said was prompted by an image displayed on one of the sections of the main screen in mission control. It was a zoomed-in satellite image of a submarine with an occlusion outline to highlight it against the dark seawater. The radio jamming signal was coming from an antenna raised above the sub's conning tower, meaning they were the ones responsible for ensuring that the convoy's distress call would go unheard.

"Yep, since the contract had no force majeure clause or piracy exclusion, it was pretty blatantly obvious what they wanted to do by sending a pirate 'fleet' after our convoy. They don't care about our oil, I suppose. We'll have to hammer them in our next negotiation—after all, they need us, not the other way around. There are plenty of countries we could sell our oil to, China was just one of the better options," Elizabeth replied. She wasn't worried about the pathetic attack on their convoy at all, as she had an inkling of the capability of the Poseidon branch of ARES.

Rachael sighed in disappointment as she said, "They really chose the wrong country to fuck with, didn't they."

Chapter 315

A few seconds after the frigates and destroyers of the Poseidon Navy ceased fire, exactly one hundred waterspouts bloomed where speed boats had once existed. The boats had never even entered visual range of the oil convoy... but the waterspouts certainly did. The impact of thirty kilograms of depleted uranium wrapped in electrical steel traveling at ten times the speed of sound imparted over 166 million newtons of force, enough to evaporate thousands of cubic meters of seawater, along with any hapless object that happened to be within that area. The resulting waterspouts reached hundreds of meters into the air and were clearly visible over the horizon, where both the supertanker convoy and the "hidden" submarine could see them.

The tripartite batteries of 18" guns on each vessel were capable of firing rounds massing up to, or in excess of, 300 kilograms, but 30 kilograms was the smallest round they could fire. Anything bigger than that and they would have to come to a full stop and engage their inertial damping system anyway, so 30 kilograms was deemed enough to make a statement without impacting the speed of the task group. They had places to go, after all.

(Ed note: electrical steel is an alloy that contains silicon. It has a higher conductivity than other steel alloys, but is tougher and more able to withstand stress than softer conductors like gold.)

Hundreds of kilometers away, the frigates and destroyers that'd fired the devastating salvo had yet to come back to an even keel that was displaced by a few millimeters before their targets had simply vanished from existence.

The captain of the EV Pacific Voyager dusted his hands and ordered, "Helmsman, bring us to one third speed and come about to our original heading in thirty seconds from my mark. Comms, flash the course and speed change to the rest of the convoy." He raised his hand, feeling somewhat grandiose, then dropped it and said, "Mark."

Precisely thirty seconds later, the supertanker convoy came about in a synchronized movement and resumed their original course and speed. The entire incident had only caused about a fifteen-minute delay in their schedule, and they could easily make that fifteen minutes up during the rest of the journey.

...

"Well, there's something you don't see every day. I never thought I'd see a stage magician perform a vanishing act hundreds of nautical miles away from anything." The commander of the submarine responsible for jamming the radio communications in the area around the supertankers could only make a bleak, sarcastic joke after witnessing the result of the beyond-the-horizon strike against the pirate speedboats through the submarine's periscope.

"Did you see what exactly happened, captain?" his chief officer asked. Just like the speedboats, the submarine was an entire horizon away and far outside the range at which they could detect the convoy escort, given that they were currently running silent and relying solely on passive detection systems.

"I have no idea. But what I'd really like to know is how they managed to get a distress call out when we're jamming every possible radio frequency. What that strike was, exactly, is secondary to that." The captain had naturally seen the results of the That Direction Remover that had been fired during the short Eden-Esparia War, so he assumed the strike was something like those missiles.

"If I were to hazard a guess, my bet is on them having a system set up to 'phone home' at regular intervals, and as soon as one, or at most two, scheduled calls is missed, Eden will respond with overwhelming force," the chief officer mused. "Either that or they could have tasked their satellite system with tracking the convoy and acted as soon as the pirates were discovered by the eye in the sky." He gestured to an area vaguely above his head.

"Leave the thinking to the brains at HQ, COB. Flood the ballast tanks and make our depth one five zero meters, fifteen degree down bubble," the captain ordered. "Sonar, continue tracking the convoy, helm, continue pursuit. Maintain silent running and wait for a signal from HQ." 𝙡𝓲𝙗𝙧𝓮𝒂𝒅.𝙘𝓸𝒎

"Aye aye, sir," the crew in the Combat Information Center chorused and got to work.

After more than twelve hours passed with the tankers at one-third speed, the commanding officer asked himself, "What the fuck are they doing?" The convoy had barely moved even a few kilometers from where they had been during the attack more than twelve hours ago.

But before his COB could even give him his hypothesis, the sonar tech announced, "Contact bearing one niner five degrees. It's a destroyer, sir, and I'm getting active pings on the sonar."

The captain immediately paled; active sonar meant they had likely been discovered and were now being hunted by a destroyer.

As red emergency lights began flashing through the sub, the captain grabbed the 1MC handset and announced, "Emergency dive, emergency dive, emergency dive. Prepare for a 30 degrees down bubble." He hung the handset back in its cradle and ordered, "Helm, down bubble 30 degrees, make our depth four zero zero and come about to zero nine zero true. Maintain silent running, let's make ourselves scarce. Mission is a failure, calling no-go at," he checked his watch, "1928 hours zulu time."

No one in the sub stopped to think about anything but the consequences. Just like during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, two nations were now on the brink of war. And whether or not that war began depended on this specific submarine's ability to escape its hunter. Either they survived, and peace would continue for the near future, or they sank, and a war broke out; there was no third option. Thus, their reaction to the hunt was understandable.

Nobody wanted to die, after all.

And with that assumption in mind, whether they could survive or not would rely on his actions over the course of the next few hours. A cold sweat beaded on his brow and down his spine; all he could do now was pray.

The helmsman wasted no time and immediately started the emergency dive sequence, bringing the submarine about in an attempt to get as far away from the convoy as possible to avoid being detected in the area.

What they didn't know was that no one planned on attacking them; the active sonar pings were just a warning to them and the country behind them that they were suspected of foul play for today's incident. They also didn't know that a submarine that'd been attached to the Poseidon Merchant Marine had been tailing them for more than eight hours, using them as a real-life training scenario while collecting evidence for future use.

...

After the escort fleet caught up with the convoy, they increased their speed to two-thirds, or "normal cruising speed" and sped away. The supertankers' role as bait had come to an end, and now it was time for them to do their primary job: delivering their load of crude oil to China. While the escort could only go to the border of Chinese territorial waters, anything that happened there would be entirely China's fault, so the convoy itself would have its safety assured once they reached that line.

Chapter 316

Somewhere over the ocean on approach to a nameless island in the Indonesian archipelago.

Four Edenian fighter jets were screaming through the air at supersonic speed, trailing flame from their engines. They had been flying with their afterburners on for over an hour and were about halfway to their destination, a pirate base on an unnamed island in the Indian Ocean near Indonesia.

The pilots were relaxed, trading jokes back and forth and hyping each other up for their first combat mission. They had just graduated their training a few weeks before and, like many soldiers, sailors, and airmen, were feeling invincible after having been broken down and rebuilt into new versions of themselves through the tried and true method of basic training.

The difference was, the members of ARES—whether they be in the Army, under the command of the AI, Mars; the Navy, under the command of the AI, Poseidon; or the Air Force, under the command of the AI, Aeolus—actually were nearly as invincible as they felt. Their genes had been enhanced, their weapons and equipment were dozens, if not hundreds of generations advanced compared to so-called "modern" militaries, and their training methods were straight out of a science fiction web novel about an advanced technological society.

By any standard known to man or otherwise, each member of ARES was an entire military force unto themselves. And they all knew it.

The briefing had been quick and detailed. Satellite images showed the pirate base, which was practically primitive. The buildings in the base were little better than mud huts or built from bamboo, much like some of the villages in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. There was a small dock that would perhaps allow a fishing boat or two to dock, a few boats docked there, and some medium-sized warehouses. There were also a few blocks of residential buildings, but the thermal imaging showed them either empty or containing one, maybe two people in each, tops.

The base sat in a valley that opened up onto an east-facing beach, and on the hills to the north and south of the buildings were a few old Vietnam-era flak guns and even some old eight- and twelve-pounder muzzle-loading cannons, the type that were popular during the Age of Sail. Certainly none of it could do much more than scratch the paint on the advanced jets of the Aeolus Air Force, so the pilots considered their current mission to be something of a "gimme", where the in-air refueling process would be more difficult and fraught with risk than their attack itself.

They would fly in, release a few That Direction Removers, then turn around and return to base. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, good game all.

...

On an unnamed island somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

Kirana Sekali was toiling under the hot tropical sun, a woven bamboo basket on her back as she trekked into the hills to the north of her small village in search of wild vegetables and medicinal herbs. Things hadn't been the same since the bajak laut (pirates) had landed and forced their menfolk to join them or die. Those who'd joined them had become them, and those who'd died had been tossed in the hills for the wild beasts to feast upon.

Her father had fought them, but her brother had joined them. Now, she was the sole support for her mother, and—she patted her abdomen—her unborn child. She used to picture herself finding a good man, somehow, and creating a loving family. But after the kapten bajak laut sialan (fucking pirate captain) had... attacked her, those dreams had been replaced by nightmares. But she still had hope for the life growing within her.

'That's a good name for my baby,' she thought. 'Nadya Sekali.' Nadya meant 'hope' in the Slavic roots of the Indonesian language.

She looked around for wild vegetables and checked the snares she had set the day before. She and her mother had to eat, and with her mother toiling in the field, it fell to her to provide food for the two... no, three of them, now. After an hour of searching with nothing to show for it, she straightened and rubbed the small of her back. Looking to the east, she saw four small black dots off in the distant sky, rapidly growing larger as they approached her village.

Soon, she could see exactly what they were: jets! Her villagers, as backward as they might seem, weren't complete luddites, and they certainly knew what aircraft were... and what they might be doing at their small village.

Kirana dropped her basket and ran to the mud hut her village chief's wife lived in. The chief's bones were scattered somewhere on the hill behind her, but his wife had taken over his position and was now the leader of the old, the young, and the women of the village.

"Chief! Chief! There's jets!" she shouted as she ran, frantically pointing to the east. In her heart, she prayed she could make it in time for the chief to use the village's HAM radio to contact the incoming jets. To her, they symbolized hope; the hope that her small village could return to the peace they'd known before the bajak laut had arrived.

...

As the jets were on their final approach to the "pirate base", a crackling transmission was received by the squadron leader, Alpha One.

"Hello to the approaching jets. We desperately require your assistance. Our village was taken by pirates and we wish to be free. Please respond," a quavering, aged female voice spoke through the crackle, hiss, and pops of the aged HAM radio. It was translated in real time from an obscure Indonesian dialect, but there was no delay in the transmission because of that.

Alpha One's AI assistant broke into the radio transmission and said, [Hold for confirmation.] Then she ordered the squadron to fly a holding pattern around the island while she contacted Aeolus for further instructions.

The squadron turned off their afterburners and entered a holding pattern, flying circles around the island while they waited for a go or no-go order from home base. Alpha One, otherwise known as Derek Santiago, hoped that the transmission could be verified and he could be a liberator instead of a destroyer. While destroying things was definitely fun, he wouldn't be happy if he had to slaughter the innocent to punish the guilty.

But they were ten minutes away from bingo fuel, so whatever the decision would be, it would have to be made soon, lest an abort be called on the mission entirely.

Soon, the order came through: the interceptor squadron was to abort the mission and the villagers would receive a temporary assist from the Poseidon Merchant Marine. A frigate would be detached from the convoy escort and temporarily assigned to patrol the island until the Indonesian armed forces could take over, just in case there were any pirates that escaped the earlier bombardment.

"Control, Alpha One copies, abort, abort, abort. RTB," Derek said, then tipped his wings in salute to the villagers and headed toward the Stratotanker to refuel on the way back to Eden. His mood was bright; he hadn't been ordered to be the villain today, but the savior instead, and he whistled a jaunty tune as he flew with the setting sun to his back.

Chapter 317

Aron sat up in bed and stretched, then glanced at the sleeping beauty beside him. He decided to let her continue sleeping; their exercise had been particularly intense the night before. He slid out of bed and got dressed, then headed to his office for an update on the situation in the Indian Ocean.

"Looks like there's no need for our diplomats to do anything else," he said in response to the report. The escort was one frigate lighter and the interceptors had returned without making a mess, so everything had been handled satisfactorily. Though the airstrike had been aborted, it was fine; there was still a frigate on patrol to catch any returning pirates and a message had still been sent. As a bonus, the interceptors hadn't been picked up by any radar systems, so the long-distance strike capability of the Aeolus Air Force was still hidden from greedy eyes..

"Has all of the collected evidence been compiled?" he asked Athena, the AI in overall charge of his private military force. 𝒍𝓲𝓫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅.𝙘𝙤𝒎

[Yes, sir. We've got everything from footage of the submarine to their radio communications. We even got their jamming attempts—the only missing part is a confession from the pirates, since we couldn't find any intact pieces of them to question. That was quite a message we sent, sir. We do still have a financial trail linking them to their masters, though, which should be a sufficiently sharp knife.]

"Okay, send it to Gabriel and I'm sure he'll know what to do with it," Aron said, effectively lobbing the hot potato over to the minister in question.

[What should we do with the money the pirates were paid, now that they're all dead?] Athena asked.

"Give it to the villagers on the island as compensation for the hard times they survived," Aron said, then immediately logged out from his VR-generated office space. A new idea had occurred to him and he needed to concentrate on fine tuning it.

...

Meanwhile, the submarine that was still being tailed by one of the Poseidon Navy subs had reported home about the situation and was on its way to return to base. They were still unaware that they were bringing guests along with them.

The report, on the other hand, had caused quite a bit of turmoil in the higher levels of the communist party, who were responsible for overseeing the situation.

"Looks like they suspected some foul play would take place," said one of the people responsible for overseeing the Eden-China oil deal.

"It was pretty obvious, but still they have no evidence that we're the ones who did it. So we need to consider investing in our backup plans while we come up with new ones," Minister Wang said as he shelved his disappointment. As disappointed as he was in the plan's failure, he was still relieved that their sub hadn't been discovered. If it had, it would have caused quite the loss of face in the international community, as well as reinforcing the already poor reputation they had among other nations.

"By the way, is there really no one of Chinese ancestry in their company's upper management? There should be at least one," he added. He couldn't believe a huge company like GAIA wouldn't have a single Chinese person in their research department.

"The thing is, we don't even know who the people in the research department are. And it's not only us, but nobody at all knows. Hell, nobody even knows where their lab is! But we're still looking for them and we'll send MSS agents to sweep every inch of land on the planet if we have to. Our next step is to look for our countrymen from the construction crews working on their new company HQ and city—it's the likeliest spot for their research lab, after all," the minister of state security replied.

Wang Yi became the admiral of the People's Liberation Army Navy. "What do you think caused the massive waterspouts mentioned in the report?" he asked.

"They were likely caused by cruise missiles from the destroyer the sub reported was actively searching for them. Since they had a trailing escort behind them, it shows they knew something was coming, but they didn't know exactly what. There's no reason they would use their trade convoy as bait otherwise. Wise fishermen cast long lines," the admiral replied. Even if he thought with ten brains, he would never credit a naval gun bombardment from that far away or striking with that much power; that would be a situation straight out of a web novel, and he didn't have time to read those.

...

A few days later, the Edenian supertanker convoy left its escort ships outside China's territorial border and steamed into Beihai Port. And with the first oil delivery to China marked as an official success, the trade agreement had been completed.

That didn't mean there were no issues arising from the pirate attack, though. One of Gabriel's aides had been put in charge of negotiating with the Indonesian government regarding the sinking of the pirates, and under pressure from the Chinese Communist Party, they had failed to reach a consensus with the Edenian negotiator. Not only that, the CCP had instructed Indonesia to create a diplomatic incident over the entire affair by claiming that the pirate ships were actually a fishing fleet from a rural island village and their sinking was a war crime.

The Indonesian ambassador to the United Nations had already been informed of his task and had immediately set to work upon receiving his orders. With China maintaining a seat on the UN Permanent Security Council, his hearing before them was fast-tracked and set for two days later.

...

Somewhere off the coast of an unnamed island in the Indian Ocean.

The Poseidon Navy frigate, PNS-248, called "Pandion" was still patrolling the water, circling the island in wait for potential returning pirates. The past few days had been quiet, with nothing but the sun and waves to keep them company. The ship was operating with a minimal crew standing watch, with most of its members idling in VR games between their shifts.

(Ed note: smaller vessels like frigates, tenders, and the like generally aren't given proper names. Instead, they're given serial "hull" numbers and the first crew gets to come up with a name to call their ship by.)

Suddenly, on the bridge, the radar operator called out, "Contact bearing two one five true on approach at 25 knots. Radar signature suggests a Clurit class fast missile boat... AI confirms, it's the Indonesian Navy captain."

"Helm, full stop. Bring the ship to general quarters," the captain ordered.

A siren sounded and the idling crew of the Pandion were forcefully logged out of VR to the sound of a pleasant female voice announcing, "General quarters, general quarters, general quarters. This is not a drill. I repeat, general quarters, general..."

The crew moved with a purpose and the frigate was combat ready with all departments reporting green in one minute and twenty-seven seconds. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) allowed for a minute and a half to bring a ship from standby to general quarters, so the ship's AI noted it for the record and it would be considered when the crew was up for promotion review.

"Comms, any signal from the incoming vessel?" the captain asked.

"None so far, sir. No electronic warfare interference detected either."

"Helm, move to stationkeeping. Engineering, prepare for full military power. Guns, run pre-fire checks and calculate firing solutions.

"Comms, hail the incoming vessel. Let's see what they're here for," the captain ordered. He expected that the incoming Indonesian vessel was there to take over his temporary patrol duty, but it was always better to be safe than sorry and he would prepare for any circumstances to the best of his ability.

It was his duty, after all.

Chapter 318

"Is that a simulation of one of our classified projects?" 𝓵𝒊𝓫𝓻𝓮𝓪𝒅.𝓬𝓸𝙢

President Trump was in his office receiving his daily briefing. Currently, he was looking at a satellite image of what almost looked like an alien naval fleet.

The tablet he was using for his briefing switched to recorded satellite footage of the ships sailing at a rather fast speed. But the idyllic image didn't last long as the ships' batteries turned in unison and fired repeatedly, kicking up enormous waves on the surface of the water near the ships from the overpressure. The recoil from the guns caused the ships to heel over and shift on the ocean's surface, as well as slowed them down a bit.

The room fell into silence as the president was stunned into speechlessness by the sheer violence of the gun batteries' barrage.

"Care to explain what that footage was?" he asked.

"That was footage our surveillance satellites caught of the Edenian fleet firing yesterday," Reince Priebus, his Chief of Staff said. He was the one in charge of gathering and sorting material for the vice presidential daily briefing, along with an analyst from the CIA and the Secretary of Defense.

"We'd been keeping an eye on the tanker convoy, as there was actionable intel about the Chinese sabotaging them," the analyst said. "What we didn't expect was that they would have their escort following them twelve hours behind. It wasn't until later when we used a Keyhole satellite we had passed over the Philippines on a routine orbit that we saw the escort. And this is what we saw when we went through the recording.

"Up until we found them, we didn't expect the speedboat fleet to have been taken out by naval guns. We were looking for missile launches at first, but when we found this..." He shook his head. "Nobody could believe it at first, but it's been verified. Somehow, those guns fired from over 300 kilometers away and still managed to hit their targets with 100% accuracy."

The footage switched back to that from the original satellite tasked to follow the convoy and displayed the impact of the barrage.

"They hit that accurately from that far away and you're saying it was guns, not missiles?" Trump clarified.

"Unfortunately, yes. It seems they've managed a breakthrough in their tech," said the Secretary of Defense.

"Why'd you say 'seems'?" the president asked.

"Because we can't be sure what those guns actually are. They outrange our longest-ranged railgun, so our think tank at DARPA said they should either have had a breakthrough in material or a breakthrough in capacitors. Otherwise they wouldn't have been able to get that range, or that many shots out of each gun. They hit all hundred speedboats simultaneously, so their targeting system is a probable breakthrough point as well.

"So we just don't know what they broke through on. And unfortunately we can't figure it out because all we have is satellite footage. We do, however, know their battery tech is good—just look at the laptops and cellphones that GAIA produces. They're an Edenian company, so I'll be damned if I believe they aren't sharing their tech with the government," General Mattis, the Secretary of Defense, said. "But looking at those ships heeling over and skidding like that, those guns have to put a lot of stress on their hulls. So I don't think they can fire too often, especially like that. I expect they knew they were being watched and wanted to send a message. A very expensive message. But still, they're just paper tigers from a third-world shithole so they're bound to make mistakes like that." General Mattis didn't seem too concerned by the naval weaponry displayed by the Edenian escort fleet.

"We should also consider that they probably won't need to fire that many rounds, looking at the actual damage they did. We sent a fast attack boat down from our observation fleet in the South China Sea and they dropped divers in the water. There was nothing there. No debris pattern at all—those speedboats just vanished like they were never there," the CIA analyst interjected.

General Mattis glanced at the analyst and sneered, "Well maybe we should start putting more research into our naval guns. Or you spooks should come up with countermeasures for it... isn't that what you're supposed to be for?"

"But haven't we been doing research on it for more than ten years now?" Trump asked. "Why haven't we already deployed weapons like that? We have the best soldiers and the best weapons, so how is a pathetic little Eden showing us up here?" He was wracking his brains trying to figure out a way to include a defense spending increase in his upcoming budget proposal, then decided to leave it to the expert and said, "Mattis, get with the DARPA eggheads and come up with a research proposal that Congress will approve."

He pointed at the CIA analyst. "And you, figure out how those backwards rubes made it. I don't care how you do it, just get it done."

President Trump considered himself nothing if not a master of delegating tasks. Otherwise, he would have so much to do that it would cut into the time he spent on the golf course and ranting on social media.

"Why do we even have spies if not for exactly that. Go beg, borrow, or steal what they have, because they don't deserve to have it!"

"We're already on it. Our estimate is that we'll have people inside the Athenian government as soon as six months from now, or a year at most, sir" the analyst replied.

The briefing continued and covered the political ramifications in case the video leaked. The general consensus was that they would have the press secretary announce that they were "investigating" and would follow up when they had more information.

"What're we going to do about the UNSC hearing in two days? What should be our decision there? Should we side with the Indonesians and vote in their favor?"

"We already know what the Edenians will argue. They illegally violated the territorial waters of Indonesia, a sovereign nation, and could be considered an occupation force. We should back the Chinese on this one, but only if they agree to share whatever they get from the Edenians," Chief of Staff Priebus said. "I'm sure the Edenians will argue that it was a counter piracy operation and they were invited to be there by those peasants, but who cares? We're still the leader of the free world, so what we say is the truth, even if it wasn't before we said it.

"Still, since China's behind the Indonesians, they'll definitely be voting that way. But what does it have to do with us? Best of all, we can contact the Edenian ambassador before the hearing and make a deal where they give us tech and we stand on their side against the 'patently false arguments from thieving Chinese scum'. Then we wouldn't have to share anything, or count on the Chinese to share anything with us."

"This is an opportunity to see what they've got," Trump gravely said. His goofy public persona was nowhere to be seen.

Everyone in the room turned to him and looked at him with the face of someone wanting an explanation.

"Think of it this way. Let's say we back China, so how many security council votes do you think Indonesia will win?" he sighed.

"Four," the others in the room chorused. Whatever America voted for, France and the UK were likely to vote for as well, and they all knew that.

"What happens when all the permanent members vote in favor of the Indonesians?" Trump continued.

"We can apply broad UN-backed general economic sanctions and demand access for 'inspection teams' to find out whether those weapons have violated any treaties. And they won't be able to reject them, either, since wars of aggression are a gross violation of accepted international law. So that's two things we can pin on them: WMDs and starting a war of aggression. If they refuse to allow our investigators in, the security council can send in troops as a 'peacekeeping' force and forcibly occupy Eden, though it'll take a long time to convince our European 'friends' to form a coalition force for it like we did during the Iraq war. We can even take down Romero for being a dictator," the Chief of Staff said with a creepy grin on his face. He firmly believed that there would be no way out for Eden if that happened.

"Good, that's exactly what I was saying," Trump chuckled.

"But there's a problem with the plan, sir," General Mattis interjected.

"What's the problem?" Trump asked.

"Will Russia vote in our favor?"

"They will. I'll make sure of it," Trump promised. "Besides, I don't think I'll have to do much to make it happen, since it's in Putin's best interest to ensure Eden gets the short end of the stick. But either way, Russia's gonna win—if Eden refuses the investigation, we can apply economic sanctions and stop their oil sales for Russia to pick up the slack, and if Eden allows the investigation, Russia will get their hands on the tech.

"But like I said, we should work on a deal with Eden first, since I don't want anyone but us to have those weapons."

Chapter 319

Wednesday March 1st, New York UN headquarters. 𝑙𝘪𝑏𝓇𝑒𝑎𝒹.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The day of the hearing had arrived, and the fifteen member nations of this year's UN Security Council, including the member nations with permanent seats, were assembled for a meeting with many items on the agenda. But the main one was the hearing that would determine the fate of the newly revitalized Eden.

One by one, the representatives of Bolivia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Senegal, Sweden, Ukraine, and Uruguay arrived with solemn expressions on their faces and took their seats. Then the five members of the United Nations Permanent Security Council began arriving.

The first to arrive was the United Kingdom's representative. He was closely followed by the gentleman from France, who was holding a conversation with the UK rep and didn't consider it necessary, or a breach of protocol, to continue talking as they walked. Following them, the Russian and Chinese representatives arrived, and finally, the representative of the United States, who was this month's president of the UNSC.

Once the American took her seat, the secretary called the meeting to order and listed the items on the agenda. The meeting was rapid, as everyone in the room knew they were there for one reason and one reason alone: the airing of Indonesia's grievances against Eden.

As each item on the agenda was introduced, it was rapidly voted on and either resolved or tabled to be examined in more detail later; the member nations still had to do their jobs, after all.

Soon, it was time for the hearing.

Ambassador Jennifer Walker of the United States began with opening remarks. "Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed ambassadors, we stand charged with a grave duty. The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg once remarked that 'War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.'

"And as a result of that finding, the members of the United Nations created Article 39 of the United Nations Charter. According to that resolution, we have the solemn duty to maintain or restore international peace and security in concordance with Articles 41 and 42 of the UN Charter." She paused and gazed at the people seated at the tables before her. To her right was the complainant, Ambassador Arief Wibowo of Indonesia, and to her left was the defendant, Ambassador Olivia Walker of the Republic of Eden.

"One of our newest member nations, the Republic of Eden, stands before us charged with initiating a war of aggression in violation of the Charter of the United Nations, Article 39, and it now falls to the members of the United Nations Security Council to determine the facts and how we can restore peace to the world.

"Ambassador Wibowo, I yield the floor to you," she finished and took her seat.

Ambassador Wibowo stood from his seat, proudly and confidently, and began his address. "Madame President, esteemed members of the security council, I bring before you a matter of great concern, one that threatens not only the sovereignty of my nation, but also the stability of our region..."

He proceeded to spend the next twenty minutes providing a detailed account of the incident that had brought the world to this critical juncture. Indonesia claimed that a vessel of the Edenian Navy had illegally entered their territorial waters and spent more than six hours there, until the Indonesian Navy arrived at the island they were patrolling and forced them to leave. He presented videos taken by their navy vessels when they reached the island and found the frigate there, as well as naval records that seemingly supported their claims. What he failed to provide, however, was just as crucial: documentation of the negotiations between Eden and Indonesia that could have led to a less contentious resolution of the entire affair.

"Furthermore," Ambassador Wibowo continued, "Eden sank a hundred civilian fishing vessels that were merely moving to their fishing grounds as a group. It was a grave violation of international law and human rights, an affront to our sovereignty, and a threat to regional peace," he added, but without presenting any evidence backing his claims.

"I yield the floor to Madame President," he finished, then took his seat and waited for the hearing to continue.

"Next to address the Council is Ambassador Olivia Foster of the Republic of Eden," the UNSC President declared.

"Madame President, distinguished members of the security council, I stand before you in all sincerity to address these specious allegations with full transparency..." Olivia explained the incident from the Edenian point of view, along with all of the evidence they had collected to back it up.

The first piece of evidence was video footage from the bridge of the EV Pacific Voyager, taken during the incident. Unlike most recordings of sensitive equipment, the radar screen in the footage wasn't censored at all and everyone could clearly see the radar operator and the display on the screen from over his shoulder. The lay people on the security council didn't think anything was particularly strange with it, but the Russian ambassador, Mr. Vasily Shevchenko, knew otherwise, having served in the Russian Navy himself. He was surprised by the clarity of the display and the information it provided, and knew that not even their most advanced naval ship had a radar that could compare to the civilian radar on the Pacific Voyager.

The footage continued, flipping from camera viewpoint to camera viewpoint as the incident played out for the members of the UNSC, with occasional censoring of sensitive equipment. But the censorship was soon thrown to the back of the members' minds as the distress signal was played back for them and the broad spectrum jamming became obvious. The civilian ship was broadcasting a distress message on every possible frequency, but received no response at all regardless of how much time passed.

"As many of you have seen, we were being jammed by the pirates on every frequency we tried using to call for help. During that time, since we had failed to report our status to the convoy escort, who'd been delayed by some technical issues discovered as they were about to depart with the convoy they'd been assigned to guard, they connected to our Overwatch satellite and discovered the pirates on an intercept course with the convoy."

The display changed to still images taken by the Overwatch satellite showing the so-called "fishing boats", which were actually speedboats with a lot of armed men in them and no fishing equipment in sight. Unless they were planning on fishing using rocket launchers, that is; it was clear that the fleet had nothing in common with "innocent fishing boats".

"After three warnings on every radio frequency that our navy could use, no response was received. Thus, the escort commander made the decision to engage the suspected pirates and detach a frigate to track them back to their base as a counter piracy operation. Everything was done in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1918, as well as relevant guidelines implemented by the International Maritime Organization. At the same time as the frigate, PNS-248 was dispatched to track the pirates back to their base, the Edenian Ambassador to Indonesia opened a diplomatic dialogue with the Indonesian authorities, informing them of the attack and the resolution, including our efforts to discover the pirate base in their territorial waters. Due to the exigency of the circumstances, the mission was carried out while the negotiations were still ongoing.

"When PNS-248 arrived at the suspected pirate base, they discovered that it was actually a fishing village with a population of approximately 65 souls, all of whom were survivors of a vicious pirate occupation that had either killed or co-opted the majority of their village. After establishing contact with our frigate, the villagers requested that they remain on station until the Indonesian Navy arrived to take over guarding the innocents left in the village against the possibility of returning pirates or another pirate raid."

On the display screen, an overwhelming amount of evidence was displayed as Ambassador Foster spoke. Then the presentation came to an end and she said, "Unfortunately, we cannot provide more survivor accounts as evidence, as after the Indonesian Navy arrived, they prohibited us from contacting the villagers and demanded our immediate withdrawal, to which we complied."

Chapter 320

"The Republic of Eden remains open to the prospect of peaceful dialogue and cooperation with Indonesia to resolve this dispute through diplomatic means. We have already withdrawn our vessel from their territorial waters and have already attempted to negotiate a peaceful settlement to this whole affair. But so long as their specious allegations against us remain unwithdrawn, our stance remains firm: we will not tolerate their slander, nor will we remain quiet as they tarnish our reputation in the international community.

"Thank you for your time, Madame President and other distinguished members of the security council. I yield the floor," Ambassador Foster finished, then sat back down in her seat. She had presented nearly all of the evidence Eden had, choosing only to withhold the information about the submarine that was responsible for the jamming to begin with.

The back-and-forth continued, with impassioned pleas, rigorous arguments, and tense exchanges between the two nations' representatives. Other members of the security council, including the permanent members, listened intently, with the expressions of people who were trying to discern who was telling the truth and who was just trying to benefit from the chaos.

After a few hours of that, there came a period for deliberations, or rather a break before the hearing resumed and the security council would vote.

…...

The council filed back into the room after the break, much like the first time, with grave expressions on their faces.

The secretary called the hearing back to order and Ambassador Walker began the proceedings. "Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed ambassadors, we have listened to the arguments presented by both parties involved." Her words carried through the chamber, silencing the ongoing conversations and drawing the collective attention of those present.

"It's now time for us to take decisive action and fulfill our mandate as the United Nations Security Council, tasked with maintaining international peace and security," she continued. "I call upon each member state to cast their vote on the matter at hand, as proposed by Indonesia, regarding the dispute with the Republic of Eden."

With her call to vote, Ambassador Walker set in motion the final phase of the UNSC meeting, a momentous occasion that would determine a resolution to the dispute between Indonesia and the Eden.

The electronic voting system silently collected the decisions; as the results were tabulated, a palpable tension filled the chamber. Whispers and murmurs among the diplomats added to the sense of suspense. The vote tally would determine whether the UNSC would take action and, if so, what that action would entail. 𝑙𝘪𝑏𝓇𝑒𝑎𝒹.𝘤𝑜𝘮

It wasn't long before the display screen tallied and revealed the votes.

United States of America: in favor

Russia: in favor

People's Republic of China: in favor

United Kingdom: in favor

France: in favor

The unanimous support from the five permanent members was a rare sight, underscoring the gravity of the situation and the unified stance of the council, which rarely ever unanimously agreed on anything. The factionalism in the UNSC had resulted in many beneficial proposals being brought to a screeching halt as one or the other of the five used their veto power. It was also one of the arguments people used in opposition to the existence of the UN, calling it a "toothless organization" with "no real power or ability of enforcement".

The screen mercilessly continued displaying the voting results.

Ethiopia: in favor

Kazakhstan: in favor

Japan: in favor

Ukraine: opposed

A murmur ran through the spectators in the hall. Everyone knew that China was backing the Indonesian complaint; it couldn't even be considered an open secret, let alone a secret at all. And with China being the main recipient of Ukrainian grain exports, that vote was the first surprise of the entire hearing. The Chinese ambassador's face turned black when he read the result and he came to the determination that Ukraine would pay a price for their hasty decision.

The tally continued.

Bolivia: abstained

Egypt: opposed

Italy: in favor

Senegal: opposed

Sweden: abstained

Uruguay: opposed

With a tally of nine member nations in favor, four opposed, and two abstentions, the fate of the Republic of Eden was sealed... or so everyone thought.

Ambassador Walker took a deep breath; the UNSC had made its decision, and now it was time to move forward.

"The results are in," she announced, her voice steady but filled with a sense of gravitas. "The United Nations Security Council hereby issues United Nations Security Council Resolution 2344, 'Concerning the Ongoing Dispute Between Indonesia and the Republic of Eden'."

She continued, "The next step will be to convene special investigation teams to determine exactly what happened before we move to a final decision based on their findings. We urge both Indonesia and Eden to cooperate fully with the process and engage in constructive negotiations while we do our investigation.

"And if either of you fails to allow unimpeded access to the investigation team, we will immediately find you responsible and move forward with economic sanctions until investigators are allowed free, open, and unimpeded access." Although it might seem like her statement was a warning to both Eden and Indonesia, everyone in the room understood it was being directed to Eden. After all, they were the ones that would lose the most if they allowed the investigation teams to "inspect" the vessels accused of provoking a war of aggression against Indonesia by violating their territorial waters to sink "innocent fishing boats' '.

Following the announcement, the meeting was brought to a conclusion and a followup deadline was set to form the investigation team.

The hearing marked the first controversy and was a fuckup on a colossal scale for the fledgling Republic of Eden. Ever since their nation's founding, they had been almost completely absent from the entire international scene, even when they were still being run by a dictatorship.

The world, or rather the people interested in international affairs, were now waiting with bated breath to see how Eden would react. Would they agree with the verdict and allow some of their secrets to be laid bare to other nations? Or would they deny entry and take the chance of facing the might of the UNSC, risking becoming the next North Korea or Cuba? Or would the worst-case scenario come to fruition and they risk "peacekeeping" forces coming to knock on their doors?

Only time would tell.

...

Aron hadn't watched the hearing, due to an emergency situation that had arisen just as the UNSC meeting was about to start. Instead, he had taken full advantage of the time dilation in the universal simulation and spent the last two days of subjective time in close discussion with Nova.

"Although it's just speculation at the moment, we still have to prepare," he said, his eyes focused on a screen that displayed such a massive amount of data that he could only shake his head.

"It's time to clean up some loose ends."

Chapter 321

A few minutes before the UN general meeting took place Aron was in one of the rooms of his VR mansion together with Rina. They were waiting for the hearing to begin and would watch it through the Edenian ambassador's glasses. There was no other way to watch it, as the hearing was behind closed doors with no recording equipment allowed.

In fact, Aron and Rina weren't alone; everyone who had sufficient security clearance and was in possession of a pair of Aron's AR glasses was doing the same. John was watching it with the high-level officers of the military, the leader of Nyx was watching it with her subordinates, Sarah with Felix, and the other companies' presidents were watching it together as well. Sarah and Felix hadn't joined Aron and Rina only because they could only handle so much PDA and their limits had been reached far, far earlier.

Alexander and his Esparian counterpart were watching it with their staff as well, meaning that everyone with the power to do anything significant in Eden and Esparia were waiting for the hearing to begin and leaving the running of their countries and companies to subordinates.

A bucket of popcorn and a large movie theater-style soda appeared in his hands and he offered the popcorn to Rina, who was sitting beside him.

"No thanks, us girls have to watch our figures," she said, giving her boyfriend a girlish, coquettish smile.

"Uhh... your figure is perfect, though. And what is VR for if not to enjoy the things you can't enjoy in reality? Plus, for everything else, there's Biogen." Aron truly enjoyed simple domestic moments like these. They reminded him that he, too, was only human.

"It's starting," Aron said as the American ambassador entered the room and took her seat.

...

"Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed ambassadors, we stand charged wi—"

Just as she began her speech and Aron had all of his focus on the hearing, a few of those watching were teleported to a different meeting room. Aron, Rina, John, General Jacob Stiles of the Aeolus Air Force, Director Diana Tregarde of Nyx, and Alexander and his Esparian counterpart, President Jose Inez of Esparia, found themselves in an unfamiliar room together. They hadn't undergone the logoff sequence, so they knew they were still in VR, but that was all.

Something big must have happened.

Moments later, those who were still watching the hearing and had begun panicking as their leaders disappeared all received a brief message from the missing peoples' accounts to continue watching the hearing, and they had simply been summoned for an emergency meeting by Nova. Although the message caused questions to arise, the leaders' subordinates continued watching the UNSC hearing regardless. They knew that if something important had arisen, they would be briefed on what they needed to know when their bosses returned.

...

"Are we being attacked?" Aron asked the moment his brain comprehended what had taken place. He knew what protocol called for such a reaction from Nova.

Only Protocol 404 would allow Nova to do things like forcefully logging people into the VR, no matter the situation they were in. If something was happening and their presence was paramount, it was better to reveal the VR capabilities than to hold them secret. But only if seconds mattered or the briefing was of apocalyptic importance. The moment Aron saw the lineup of people in the conference room—which included all of the military AIs and the scientists focused on space research from Lab City—he guessed that the situation was the latter and slightly relaxed.

Out of all the real people in the room, Aron's reaction was the calmest. The rest, having no experience with forced teleportation, were looking slightly pale as their thoughts caught up to the dilated time, but overall, they handled it well. At least those who'd undergone genetic enhancement had, anyway; President Inez was still frozen and had a blank look on his face as he tried to come to terms with the immediate time differential.

[If what's going to be presented to us is true, it might be much worse than that,] Nova said, then gestured for the scientists to begin their briefing.

The simulated version of Stephen Hawking stood and walked to the stage. "Sorry for the urgent call, but we discovered something that we're confident means we've been discovered by an advanced civilization. And from their course, they're on their way to us," he said. The screen behind him was powered on, but currently showed nothing. That would change when he started talking in detail about the topic at hand, though.

His words caused the hearts of all the humans in the room to pound, except for Aron, who released a sigh of relief. As long as it wasn't the outbreak of a nuclear war or something, he would be able to deal with it. He was also feeling a little vindicated in his belief that alien civilizations existed being proven; his evidence up until that moment was only the introduction of technologies in the system including the name of the civilization that discovered them, along with details.

"Within the data our satellite network has been collecting, we discovered an approaching mass of mana headed toward our solar system," Hawking continued. As he spoke, the screen behind him changed from the light blue that meant it wasn't receiving a signal to an image of the starry sky deep in the universe. The view zoomed in until a green object the size of Luna, judging by the measurements next to it on the display, became visible.

"Shit," Aron said. He understood what the object's detection meant, but the other humans in the room seemed to just be impressed by the capability of the satellites. They had no idea what mana was and were only concerned about the huge mass that was on approach to the solar system. 𝒍𝒊𝙗𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅.𝓬𝒐𝓶

Aron, on the other hand, completely understood what was meant by the discovery and why it had taken so long for them to discover the object. He thought back to the month before, when he had gone on his "impromptu skydiving excursion", as Rina had called it.

Chapter 322

A few weeks prior.

As Aron fell from the sky with no parachute, the plane that had dropped him entered a wide holding pattern, as if it was observing his actions.

He continued falling, and despite not having any breathing apparatus to help him breathe in the thin air at 15,000 Meters, he had no trouble breathing. Once he reached 12,000 Meters above the ground, he began casting a floating rune on himself and his falling speed decreased further and further until he came to a full stop at about 10,000 Meters. It was the average altitude at which international commercial airplanes flew, but he wasn't worried about being spotted since the entire airspace was restricted, meaning that any commercial airplane that entered would be shot down.

He then cast a wide shield with a radius of about a kilometer with him at the center, then just waited for a notification.

[The satellites are ready,] Nova announced in his ear. All of the satellites above him, whether they be in geosynchronous orbit, semi-geosynchronous orbit, low earth orbit, or even higher that were in a position that could see him had turned and focused on him. All of their sensors were pointed directly at him, but they saw nothing through the shield despite being plainly visible to Aron himself.

"Begin the calibration," he said and started releasing a huge amount of mana from his body. The mana would normally disperse into the atmosphere, but the shield Aron had cast around himself wouldn't allow it to do so, so it began accumulating as he continued releasing more and more of it. He was pushing as much mana through his body as he could, condensing it around him more and more, to the point that, for those that could see it, it would appear like an almost entirely solid lump of gold.

At the same time, the satellites that were focusing on him began cycling through different universal frequencies, with each satellite assigned a different range of frequencies to explore. The pattern would eventually cover every frequency the researchers in Lab City had discovered to date.

After more than half an hour of the satellites following the quantum server's instructions, the search ended as a frequency had finally been discovered that showed the golden lump where Aron was.

[The calibration was a success, sir,] Nova informed Aron, who had sweat pouring from his forehead. Although he could channel mana through his body in an unlimited amount, his mind hadn't yet reached a level of advancement that would allow him to maintain his maximum flow rate without limit. Currently, an hour was the best he could manage.

He released a sigh of relief as he stopped channeling mana through his body and immediately canceled the shield he had been keeping active in order to trap the mana in a confined space. It swiftly dispersed through the atmosphere, the high concentration having served its purpose of discovering and calibrating the frequency its satellite network could use to detect it.

"Come pick me up," he said in a tired voice. He continued hovering in place, and a moment later, the plane that was in a holding pattern approached him. But as it was on its way to collect him, it was met with a massive turbulence wave that had been caused by the outflow of dispersing mana from around his body.

The turbulence gave the pilot and copilot of the plane quite a shock, and had the plane been made of usual materials, such as aircraft aluminum and other lightweight alloys, it would have broken into pieces and crashed. Thankfully, however, it had been made of tougher stuff and powered its way through the turbulence to rendezvous with Aron—who had already begun making his way toward the plane—midway.

He reboarded the plane through the open cargo ramp and retook his seat, watching the cargo ramp slowly close and block out the sun that had been hitting his eyes. The room darkened, but was swiftly lit by the strip lighting in the cargo bay.

After finding a frequency at which the satellites could detect mana, Nova and Aron got to work mapping the universe, which had a few differences from the universal simulation. Due to the number of variables in the real universe being a bit higher than in the universal simulation, it couldn't be 100% accurate. After all, life existed and Nova didn't have nearly enough processing power to model the random, almost Brownian motion of sentient life.

(Ed note: Brownian motion is the random pattern of particles suspended in a liquid or gas, even without external stimulus being applied. It is truly random, not pseudorandom like a computer picking a "random" number via an algorithm that relies on some kind of seed to generate.)

It was yet to be discovered if Nova ever would wield the power to simulate everything with 100% accuracy, even though it was theoretically within the realm of possibility; all it would require was sufficient computing resources. Resources that quantum computing was too primitive to be able to gather, at least without replacing the entire planet with one giant ecumenopolis consisting of nothing but clusters of quantum computer servers that stretched out beyond the Karman Line and reached the cold, unfeeling reaches of space.

The discovery of mana's frequency had resulted from the scientists working in Lab City delving deeper into research on Henry's evolved eyes. Their ongoing research had allowed them to discover many things the deeper they went, almost like the young boy's eyes were a treasure that kept on giving.

Now, all the satellites that Aron had launched into space had been updated with a new frequency scanning program that allowed the researchers to see mana in its bare and neutral form. It would take a few more simulations before they could differentiate the energy in its different forms, but a few satellites had already been tasked with mapping earth once again. This time, they would be mapping the planet's mana profile; although it exists everywhere in the universe, the concentration wasn't equally distributed.

The rest of the satellites that were currently mostly idle turned their "eyes" back toward the universe, their new primary task to develop a mana map of the few light years around the solar system that Earth called home.

Chapter 323

Back in the present, in a secure meeting room somewhere in the universal simulation, the time-dilated meeting was still ongoing under Protocol 404.

Stephen Hawking continued his presentation, explaining the situation in more detail for the remaining humans who thought the mass was just some novel thing the scientists and researchers in Lab City had discovered. They felt the same as Aron initially had, that as long as it wasn't an immediate nuclear war or something, they would easily be able to handle whatever it was.

They had obviously forgotten that they'd been called to this meeting venue as a result of Protocol 404, so Dr. Hawking had to explain to them the importance of the green object on the screen. 𝒍𝓲𝒃𝙧𝓮𝙖𝒅.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"The object, although very far from us at about seven light years, is heading toward us at a quarter of light speed," he said. The humans in the room finally understand the implication of what was being said. Although they weren't astronauts, nor did they have any deep understanding of the field of space research, they still knew that an object of that size moving toward earth that fast was definitely not a natural occurrence.

"From the way it's moving, it's obvious that we aren't simply in its path. And that isn't all—we're still not sure if .25c is its maximum speed and will need to observe it for a longer period of time to come to a conclusion. But during that time, we need to assume that it's accelerating," he said, then paused to allow the people to digest what he was saying.

"We only managed to discover it with the mana mapping we were doing, meaning the object has yet to reach a point where satellites using conventional imaging can discover it. That also means that it started its journey sometime between one day and six years ago. We can only know for sure once we can detect it with regular imaging. Right now, we've already tasked our radio telescopes with determining its velocity and acceleration, but we're only 60% confident that we'll get any kind of results within the next three years. So the only method we have to track it is on the mana map. That'll give us its rate of acceleration, if any, but it won't give us any detailed information on what it is. For that, we'll need the radio telescopes—and all of them on the planet, at that." He paused once again, this time giving a longer break for the humans to digest the information he had been churning out.

"If we can send a mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope, we can extend our visual observation range and get detailed information on the object," he continued. "It won't be very good, but we can use it to rule things out until we get a bigger, more specialized deep space telescope in position at the L2 Lagrange point."

(Ed note: L2 is the Lagrange point at which the combined gravity of the Sun and Earth counter the centrifugal force of an object in orbit around the Sun, keeping it stable without requiring any energy input. Lagrange points are found anywhere the gravity of two celestial objects reaches some kind of equilibrium.)

He hadn't yet mentioned their hypothesis of what the mass might be, or where it had come from. This meeting would obviously last a very long time.

After a minute of silence, he dropped his next bombshell. "Since the object's never been picked up on visual sensors before, it's obvious that it's been created recently. Which means it was either created and launched by intelligent life and is an uncrewed object, or it's a crewed vessel and contains intelligent alien life."

The people in the conference room had just confirmed the existence of intelligent alien life and their reactions were complicated. Their jaws had dropped from a combination of surprise, disbelief, fear, and many more emotions they hadn't even known they could feel at the same time.

"So, to confirm," General Stiles cleared his throat, "alien life exists and this object is definitive proof of that?"

"Yes, and they're coming directly toward us," Dr. Hawking confirmed.

"I'm guessing your next question is how they're only just now discovering us when we've existed for so long?" he continued. It really was the question that was on everyone's mind, and he immediately answered it. "We've got two theories, one more likely than the other." He paused, creating suspense without planning to do so.

"The first hypothesis is that they discovered us long ago and it just took a lot of time to create a vessel capable of reaching us in a reasonable time, which means we're facing a civilization that's either very patient, very curious, very goal focused, or a very long-lived race... or anything, really, that could convince them to spend that much time preparing to come to us. The second hypothesis is that they only recently discovered us due to this," he said, and the screen behind him immediately showed the mana map of the earth.

On the map were areas of varying mana density, but there was only one part of the map that showed a blinding light; and behold—it was right on top of Eden.

"We think it might be the result of this concentration of mana right here." As he said that, the map displayed the blinding light covering Eden, then zoomed in until it was focused on Avalon Island, which was the center of the area of blinding light.

"Fuck," Aron said in a low voice. No one but Nova, who was omnipresent in the room, heard it, but the reaction told her that he had already discovered the source of the mana concentration on Avalon Island.

"The fusion reactor," he continued. "Wait, no... It's the mana produced by the reactor's energy to mana converter."

About half of the electricity generated by the fusion reactor beneath the Cube was excess, so rather than store it, Aron had made the decision to use it for industrial purposes, like manufacturing the hybrid mana batteries for the Zeus One and Olympus electronics, along with some other various processes and applications.

Apparently, that decision had been a fuckup on a truly colossal, or rather cosmic scale.

Chapter 324

"Something on the island is causing the production of mana in such a high quantity that the equipment capable of seeing it shows us as a pulsar star due to the planet's rotation. That means we're constantly sending a beacon telling anyone else that's capable of detecting it that 'WE ARE HERE'. The only question that remains, now, is how fast is the beacon traveling through the cosmos?" As Dr. Hawking said, the screen behind him zoomed out until the entire planet was visible, then zoomed out again until it was the size of a marble. The still image on the screen began to move, the flashing light of mana flickering on and off like someone who knows nothing about Morse code playing with a light switch. From the side, it almost appeared that Earth was a dying pulsar star, ejecting the last of its mass before it goes supercritical and explodes in a last, desperate act of wholesale self-centering.

Aron watched with a look of fear on his face as he came to the realization that they had been sending this signal for more than two years, ever since he'd built the transformer-equipped fusion reactor. The horrifying news meant that whoever, or whatever, had sent the moon-sized object or vessel to them must have known about Earth for at least two years.

The most devastating part of the news is that he still had no idea how long it had taken the creators of the object to discover the signal he'd been sending. It had to be within two years, but did that mean the incoming object had been in the neighborhood? If not, had it been launched yesterday? A year ago? Two years ago? The uncertainty terrified him.

Dr. Hawking, knowing nothing of the panic attack Aron was having, continued, "Together with all of that, we have to realize how new we are and how young our discovery of mana actually is. We're still amateurs, so mistakes like this are only to be expected. If the, what we're currently calling 'Builders' are familiar enough to recognize this signal beacon for what it is, we must be a very tempting target to them. Imagine what you would do to a monkey that's in possession of a laser weapon—the best we can hope for is that they take it from us in a benevolent manner.

"But if the 'dark forest hypothesis' is true, well..." Here, he paused again as information on the dark forest alien contact hypothesis was uploaded to the minds of the human attendees. "If it's true, then we need to prepare for the worst." 𝓵𝙞𝓫𝒓𝙚𝓪𝓭.𝒄𝓸𝓶

(Ed note: the dark forest hypothesis is one of the SWAGs (Scientific Wild-Ass Guesses) as to why we haven't had contact with alien life yet. It posits that the civilizations that exist are both silent, for their own protection, and hostile to every other form of civilized life in the universe, which is why we haven't detected them and why we're lucky we haven't been detected in turn.)

"We must be prepared to face an enemy that is absolutely 'other' to us. One that we cannot anticipate, we cannot understand, and we cannot even begin to fathom in any way, shape, or form. We absolutely must NOT use ourselves as a reference, as that may cost us dearly in the long term.

"Although this is the first object we've discovered that's headed toward us, we still suspect that there might be more. But since the satellites that discovered this one weren't really optimized for the task, we can't see much farther out than ten or so light years. So what we need to do now is make plans on how to move forward from here," he finished, then returned to his seat.

There was a long, drawn-out silence in the room that was practically palpable for a solid ten minutes as everyone digested the information they'd had dumped on them over the past hour or so. Each person had their own thoughts as they digested the information the best they could with their genetically enhanced brains, which were the only thing that had allowed them to at least keep calm throughout this particular meeting.

It wasn't every day that they were informed of a potential Extinction-Level Event (ELE), after all.

"I assume that, together with this announcement, you already have a course of action in mind, right?" Alexander was the first to speak, as always. He had grown accustomed to Aron immediately handing him an intricately detailed course of action whenever the two men met, so in his heart, he was hoping that today's revelation would be the same.

[Unfortunately, he's hearing this for the first time, just like you. And as you've already noticed, we were called to this meeting using Protocol 404, which means this discovery is completely 'fresh',] Nova said with a frown. [Protocol 404 is an emergency protocol that was triggered when it became apparent that all of your inputs were necessary to create a reaction plan for this discovery.]

"We'll start by shutting down the thing sending the signal before anything else," Aron said. It would hurt, since he would be temporarily losing the AIs' main quantum server as it was entirely mana-powered. Still, it would only mean a temporary increase in load for the rest of the server superclusters that Nova had been building, and the drop in actual performance wouldn't be completely devastating. But what would really hurt was that his main atomic printer would also be shut down while it was being converted from mana to electricity as a power source.

"With that out of the way, we still have a bit of time to think and come up with an action plan. For right now, let's take a break to gather our thoughts and adjust to the new discovery," he finished.

Everyone agreed, since they definitely required the break. Besides, time spent digesting now would lead to increased productivity later, so the meeting split into small groups or pairs that were accustomed to working together in order to lay the initial groundwork for their planned suggestions during the brainstorming session that was yet to come.

After all, "more haste, less speed" was a saying for a reason.

Chapter 325

"So we have anywhere between ten and twenty-eight years before they arrive. We can prepare for the encounter slowly at the start, but we have to deal with everything holding us back on Earth and speed things up once we have a united front," Aron said when the break was over.

"Before we can begin full preparations, we need to be a united entity. So, since that isn't likely to happen on its own, we'll move to the second option, where I take over and unite the world under a single government, with myself as the sole ruler and ARES as the only military force."

The others in the room paled; they knew that although their chances against the coming moon—if it escalated to war upon contact—would be higher if they fought as a united force, the UN would never have that ability. No government would ever give up their power and authority, partly due to greed and partly because of the joys of power and authority. So if someone had to unite the world, it might as well be the people in this meeting room. They were the only ones with the power to do so, so whether others willingly agreed or not, the unification would progress nevertheless. Unfortunately, human nature being what it was, a peaceful unification was nothing more than a pipe dream.

"Over the next three years, we'll focus on tying up loose ends and finishing the unification. While we do that, we'll launch purpose-built early detection and tracking satellites to the L2, L3, L4, and L5 Lagrange points. That'll give us a higher-resolution mana map of the area within ten light years of us, so we'll know exactly what we're dealing with and when it'll arrive.

(Ed note: L1 is missing from this because it's the Lagrange point between the Earth and the sun, so it wouldn't give any real benefit when tracking extrasolar objects. L3 is directly opposite the sun, L2 is directly opposite Earth from the sun, and L3 and L4 are in Earth's orbit 60 degrees ahead of and behind the planet if you consider the sun as the center of a circle.)

"At the same time, we need a ruling structure for the united planetary government and to focus on military technologies and training, including a space military to complement our ground, sea, and air forces." Although Aron hadn't come up with a detailed plan over the short break earlier, he'd at least had enough time to come up with a broad stroke outline so people could sort themselves into smaller task-focused groups in their areas of specialty.

"Let's reconvene a week from now, after we've had enough time to come up with more detailed plans."

After the meeting adjourned, the AIs disappeared in a flash, save for Nova, leaving only Aron, Felix, Sarah, Alexander, Diana, and Jose in the room with her.

Aron turned to Nova and asked, "What resolution did the UNSC come up with?"

Instead of answering in words, Nova gestured and the screen in the meeting room divided in half. On the left half was the tally of the votes and on the right was the recording of the voting process and announcement.

As they watched the decision being announced, Aron sighed, "They really are testing our patience, aren't they?" He didn't know whether to be disappointed with human nature or furious with the process.

"Are we going to allow them to do their investigation? From the looks of things, they're planning on using the opportunity and the threat of economic sanctions to steal our military tech," Alexander said, trying to gauge Aron's thoughts on how to act on the decision. 𝙡𝒊𝓫𝓻𝓮𝙖𝙙.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"No, we're not going to allow them to come in the first place," Aron said. It was a mildly out-of-character decision for him, who usually tried to remain behind the scenes and go with the flow.

"You'll have to make an announcement to display our stance and resolve to not be exploited just because we're still classified as a developing nation," Aron said to Alexander, then turned to Jose and continued, "Once Alexander makes his announcement, you should make one showing support as well."

Alexander and Jose both nodded and gave affirmative grunts.

"On your side, you should prepare to kick things up into high gear. We need more chaos if we're going to unite the planet—the more chaos there is, the faster the unification will happen and the less we'll have to bleed for it. Manpower is another resource, so it's up to you to ensure we lose as little of it as possible," Aron said to Diana Tregarde, the head of Nyx.

The discovery of an alien force headed his way marked a huge shift in Aron's approach to things. From the moment he had gained the system and become rich, the comfort that came along with the lifestyle change had caused him to constantly place himself in a passive position. He had either gone with the flow and not fought for things, or made overly complex, Machiavellian plots to avoid acting himself. It was rare that he made moves himself, or even used his overt forces at all, but that would all come to an end today. The emergence of an alien threat was exactly the kind of kick in the ass that he needed to finally step out of the shadows.

Although an outside observer might consider his reaction an overreaction simply because he had discovered what might be aliens, who may or may not be hostile, that really didn't matter. Whether or not this batch of aliens was hostile or friendly made no difference; where there was one, there would be more. And eventually, one of the civilizations that came in contact with Earth WOULD be hostile. It wasn't a chance, it wasn't a probability... it was an absolute guarantee that, eventually, there would be war with an alien force.

For Earth to stand a chance, it absolutely must be united.

Another reason the planet had to be united was that any self-defense force absolutely could not function under a divided leadership. That was another thing that made organizations like NATO and the UN toothless: a lack of unity and cohesiveness. A collective might sound like a good idea on paper, but human nature being what it was, it would always fail in practice. Socialism, Communism, Democracy, Republics... There was no perfect system of government once the pretty words on paper were put into practice by imperfect humans.

The best the average citizen could ever hope for is that the people who governed them were at least benevolent.

"Are we going to inform the world about the discovery?" Alexander asked.

"Yes, or at least the leadership of the nations. But before we do, we need to have a contingency plan in place. The announcement will be the last thing we do before we begin the final phase of the unification so we still have things to prepare before then. Though I hate to say it, I expect fierce resistance without a show of force beforehand... so we will prepare that show of force in secret and bring it out when necessary.

"But first, we have to launch the observation network. Everything hinges on the data we collect on the incoming object, and the more evidence we have, the more leaders we can convince to unify without a fight," Aron said.

After a few more questions and answers, everyone logged off to rest as they were exhausted by the long meeting, together with the emotional ups and downs from the discovery itself.

"Looks like accumulating SP was a good idea after all," Aron said as he opened the system shop to look for things he might need for the upcoming difficulties.

Chapter 326

UN headquarters, New York.

The days following the UNSC resolution regarding the dispute between Indonesia and Eden were filled with more meetings, both open and behind closed doors. The UN bylaws required them to announce any voting results and disclose their resolutions on their website within a certain amount of time, so everyone was busily arguing over how to divide the benefits from the Edenians. After all, in the eyes of the Big Five, Eden didn't deserve to have anything, especially considering its "poor and impoverished" status. And today was the day that the president of the UN Security Council, Ambassador Jennifer Walker of the United States, would send out a press release to the world and hold a press conference announcing the UN's decision.

She was quite pleased with herself, having won quite a few benefits for her country. Primarily, America would be taking over the oil extraction and the battery technology from the Edenian Navy, Russia would be taking Biogen and the asthma cure, the UK would take the shipbuilding technologies, France would receive the weapons technology, and China would be given the cellphone and laptop tech, including the manufacturing of their chips. Although all of the technologies would be shared by the five of them, each ambassador had agreed behind closed doors to collude and they would all be responsible for manufacturing the items and trading them between each member nation. Of course, that all hinged on the inspectors being able to pick a fault with Eden that would allow the UNSC to impose sanctions on them. But that wasn't a really hard task to accomplish; after all, finding fault with things, whether deserved or not, was incredibly easy if one were so inclined.

The reason that Ambassador Walker was pleased was because in addition to the technology acquisition, the US would be receiving all of the oil from Eden on their own. 𝙡𝙞𝙗𝒓𝙚𝓪𝙙.𝒄𝓸𝓶

She had done her duty and released the press release and the website was already displaying United Nations Security Council Resolution 2344, 'Concerning the Ongoing Dispute Between Indonesia and the Republic of Eden', so all that remained was the press conference where she would announce the resolution to the world. It was quite a feather in her cap and her staff had worked tirelessly to ensure that only "friendly" reporters would be in the audience and she knew all the questions that would be asked in advance.

The press conference went as planned. The reporters were friendly and only asked questions that Ambassador Walker had meticulously prepared to answer beforehand. The reporters had also gone into the conference with a general idea of what would be announced, as they'd already read the resolution on the UNSC's website, so the only thing that surprised them was Walker's announcement about the hindrance of the inspection team being cause for the imposition of sanctions on the fledgling country. Even the friendliest reporter was a little uncomfortable at that, because it was a blatant abuse of process to railroad a country that any reasonable person would have agreed was in the right.

The Indonesian ambassador had immediately followed with her own press conference, where he announced that Indonesia welcomed the UN inspectors with open arms, and even offered to help with the investigation.

The only country that had remained silent to that point was Eden, though Panoptes was already busy drumming up support for Eden through Pangea. Still, no one knew exactly what Eden's response would be, though the Edenian citizens had naturally chosen their side already. They argued that the industrialized nations, led by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, were trying to strong-arm them with false narratives because of the recent discovery of vast reserves of natural resources. Since Eden had continuously maintained that they were performing counter piracy operations in Indonesian waters—including publicly releasing the satellite footage of the "innocent fishermen '' they were accused of sinking—their accusations were quickly swaying the public to their side.

In response, the Big Five had found "experts" talking about how the video footage was doctored, and even complimented Eden on their expertise in filming movies. A certain Hollywood director even took to Pangea and joked about hiring them to work as editors on his next major blockbuster film.

The war of words on the internet continued off and on for hours until it settled down and everyone agreed that all Eden had to do to prove their innocence was let the inspectors in; after all, the UN was a respectable organization dedicated to maintaining world peace, so what was the big deal? Let them see what they wanted to see and they would clear Eden of any wrongdoing and life would go on.

Alexander's press secretary scheduled a press conference for the next day to announce the official Edenian response to the UN resolution. It would be broadcast on all channels in the country and streamed live through Eden's official Pangea account.

...

The next day, the press conference took place as scheduled, and Alexander had no issues firing many shots across the UN's bow.

"If the allegations made any sense, we would naturally welcome the UN inspectors. But what we don't understand is why they want to investigate us and our weapons when the dispute is over whether or not our action of breaching Indonesia's territorial waters was valid under international maritime law as an act of counter piracy. Indonesia is well known for having pirate-infested waters surrounding it, so why are we being singled out? And what does it have to do with our vessels?" he argued.

"We believe that the permanent members of the UN Security Council—China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America—simply want to steal our weapons technology under the guise of 'inspecting' it. They have already sent over a list of demands that includes providing them with a copy of the schematics for our weapons and the blueprints for our ships, making it blatantly obvious that they want to take our technology. Technology which, I remind everyone watching, is responsible for our nation's self defense and is classified as such.

"Therefore, we hereby formally deny their request and issue our strongest protest against their blatant rigging of the sacred act of voting. The UN doesn't want to send inspectors, they want to rob us. They want to rob us of our safety, they want to rob us of our security, and they want to rob us of our technological advances simply because they cannot tolerate a small nation like ourselves having something that they themselves do not. Thank you for your time, and may god bless Eden. I will be taking no questions at this time."

Following Alexander's press conference, Ambassador Foster, the Edenian representative to the UN, sent an official letter denying access to the investigation team so long as they required access to sensitive military technology as part of their inspection process.

The response from the UN came at practically light speed, compared to the normal ponderous actions that required meeting after meeting before finally being implemented. It was only a week later that they announced the sanctions they would impose on Eden unless their inspectors had free and unfettered access to the ships in question. Together with the sanctions, the UNSC also imposed fines of 15 million USD per day until the UN inspection team was granted the access they required.

Chapter 327

"Arms embargo, import and export sanctions, travel bans, natural resource sanctions, financial sanctions, and even freezing the assets of citizens that are held in banks outside our country, including our own foreign currency reserve that's currently held in trust with the US Federal Reserve. Man they're desperate to get their hands on our tech," Aron said as he read the nearly endless list of sanctions.

The list had details of what exactly in those specified categories were being banned. For the financial sanctions it included freezing of the assets of every high-ranking member of the government, including John and the other generals of ARES, together with Alexander and his cabinet members. Aron was only saved from it since he had nothing connecting him to the government that would warrant his inclusion in the sanctions, at least not publicly.

Together with their assets being frozen, money that was owed to Eden from other countries that hadn't paid them yet was also frozen. That included the 65 billion that China was supposed to pay for the oil delivery that had started the whole mess. It was very obvious that the Chinese had added that clause to avoid, or at least delay the payment as long as possible; they would benefit either way.

The same people were also included in the travel ban, meaning that Alexander had very few countries he could visit at the moment without breaking any of the sanctions.

"They really banned us from buying weapons," Aron chuckled when he read the details about the arms embargo. They were banned from buying weapons from any member of the UN, but oddly enough, they weren't banned from selling them.

"So they banned the sale of all natural resources coming from our country. Except oil, that is, but we can't even sell that since our buyers can't pay us without violating the sanctions. Do they really take us for morons?" Aron muttered as he read the natural resources sanctions.

"But the biggest hit will be the import and export sanctions. That can at least harm the economy a bit, but our companies are explicitly listed as exceptions. I guess it's because we have things that they can't replicate yet," Aron said when he realized that they were going to be choked in the import department. It might not harm his companies, since they were self-sufficient, but the rest of the country would be heavily affected by the import sanctions.

"How long until Alexander's address?" Aron asked.

[Seventeen minutes, sir,] Nova responded, materializing a countdown timer.

...

"We've already read and understood the unfair sanctions being imposed on us by the UN in order to harm both our short- and long-term development plans," Alexander said after greeting the Edenians watching his address.

He had decided to do the announcement personally, not through his spokesperson, as he wanted to avoid a rebellion, no matter how unlikely one was. The citizens knew that they already had things much better under him than any of the other politicians in the country, much less the dictators who came before him.

"And in order to alleviate the chokehold they're trying to afflict on us, I called an emergency parliament session last night. In that session, we drafted and I signed a bill to reduce the harm of the import and export sanctions. That bill gives Hephaestus Industries and Manufacturing permission to produce all of the sanctioned products without having to license the relevant technology from its creators. If they're so determined to do us financial harm, then I am more than willing to return that harm directly to them," he said, causing the room full of reporters to have a mild brain malfunction. They hadn't expected that he would have such a drastic reaction to the sanctions, but with such an explosive beginning to his presidential address, they prepared themselves for what would follow as best as they could.

"As for the financial sanctions, there's nothing we can do to mitigate the harm they've already inflicted upon our great nation. Many of our country's overseas assets have been frozen, and the payments foreign companies and governments owe us are going unpaid. But that doesn't mean we have to dwell on it, as merely dwelling on a problem does nothing to resolve it. Thus, we further resolved to implement a solution to prevent further financial attacks on us.

"With that goal in mind, I had an emergency meeting with President Inez of Esparia and signed an agreement forming a central currency between our nations. The agreement will strengthen our economy and spending power, while also making it difficult to sanction us. Over the next month we will discuss the agreement in detail—what the currency will be, what powers the central bank will have, and how its rollout will take place with the minimum amount of fuss and hassle for the citizens of both of our countries.

"Together with the formation of a central bank, we're going to officially enter the financial marketplace. I met with the CEO of Connect, and he agreed to launch a subsidiary company that will be responsible for buying, selling, and trading shares in public companies by the time the new currency begins being rolled out. We will also implement policies that will make it profitable for companies to do business and have their shares traded in Eden, similar to the way Hong Kong and China handle their separate markets." Alexander was killing two birds with one stone and creating a virtuous cycle. First, the market trading would strengthen the new currency, and second, the new currency would make it more attractive to do business in Eden, thus increasing the volume of the share trades on the nascent market.

The saying "tough times make tougher people" was just as true on a national scale as it was on an individual scale.

"For the arms embargo, it's laughable. They're imposing these sanctions specifically because they want the weapons and equipment that we have, and the fact that we're prohibited from buying weapons we don't need while being explicitly allowed to sell our weapons to people who are outclassed by our military only serves to highlight the hypocrisy and greed of the people that decided to implement these ridiculous sanctions. I tell you this," he looked directly into the camera, "what we have is ours, and you will NEVER be able to take it from us!

"As for the natural resource export ban, although it'll harm us in the short term, it'll also allow us to focus on building up our domestic industries, as well as force us to innovate in those fields just as much as we did in the defense industry. Our nation has always been perceived as poor and impoverished by outsiders, and it's about time we change that.

"The people whose corruption and greed made them think they could prevent us from developing, prevent us from industrializing, prevent us from buying and selling, and prevent us from traveling haven't realized the strength of our spirit that we honed through generations of revolution against evil men like them. We have suffered, and through suffering, grown stronger. We persevere, through famine and flood, through fires and storms. We have the heart, the courage, and the determination to suffer adversity, and through suffering, we thrive. We are tougher than them, we are more just than them, we are more determined than them, and we are more resolved than them.

"We are a country that, instead of silently and meekly suffering the injustices done to us, choose to fight. And though this may not be a fight that's won with guns, we will learn to fight on this new political battlefield and we will win!" Alexander hammered his clenched fist against the podium with each of the last three words for emphasis.

"Dear citizens," he continued after a pause to recollect himself and change mental gears.

"Although it might seem like we're nearing hard times again, and no matter how true that might be, we have to remember that what we're facing now is something we were bound to face one way or another, as we grow stronger and begin threatening others' interests. I know that many of you may think that we could've just accepted their demands and our lives would continue as they are now, but you'd be mistaken. The people behind these sanctions are bullies, and like bullies, they're only empowered by surrender. Giving in will only hand them more power over us, and the moment we give in on one thing, we'll be forced to give in on another. And another. And another. We'll be forced to give so much that there will be no difference between what we are today as a nation and what we were in the past when we suffered under the yoke of dictator after dictator. We will be bled by them until we have no more blood to give, then they will devour our flesh and build cudgels from our bones that they'll use to beat others into the same position as we were in just a few short years ago.

"Are we that naive? Are we that gullible? That shortsighted?

"To that, I say: no! We are NOT naive! We are NOT gullible! We are NOT shortsighted! We are more than capable of standing on our own and making minor sacrifices now for great gains later.

"I stand here today, the president of this great nation, and I issue you this promise: we will be self-sustaining within a year, or I will resign as president of this great nation and surrender myself to you, the citizens of Eden, to be judged."

When his address finished, Alexander introduced his press secretary, who would answer a few questions from the press. Later, the press department would send out releases with more details on the plan that had been drafted to deal with the issues at hand.

Chapter 328

?

"Yes, Mr. Ambassador, we would like to buy all the grains that China isn't taking," the Edenian ambassador to Ukraine repeated his request to his Ukrainian counterpart. Ukraine was suffering China's retaliation for voting against their decision in the UNSC meeting.

"Are you trying to help us because we voted in your favor, or is it preparation for when the sanctions are implemented on Eden?" he asked to sate his curiosity, as he had no plans to deny their offer at all.

"It's a bit of both, as we need to have enough of a food surplus that when the import ban is implemented next week we'll have enough to allow us to hold out for a year. Plus, although your vote did nothing to change the outcome, it still made it difficult for the bastards to pass the sanctions." The Edenian ambassador wouldn't bother hiding anything, since everyone knew the ins and outs of what had recently taken place behind closed doors.

"But you've been quite helpful to us in countering the pro-Russian faction in Crimea, so there's no need for you to be grateful for what was basically nothing but pointless support," the Ukrainian said. He was hinting at the intelligence operations that were being conducted by Nyx agents on the ground, helping Ukraine have a semblance of counterintelligence against the Russian invaders. They were trying to infiltrate Ukraine in order to make their upcoming invasion as easy as possible, to the point that they might not even need to fire a single shot at all. And the Nyx agents had been helping them prevent that from happening.

"I'm just doing what my bosses require of me," the Edenian ambassador replied, feeling quite good for his country's action. Even he knew that they were being very friendly with Ukraine, more so than they normally should be for other countries.

Meanwhile, Nyx herself, who was monitoring this phone call, couldn't help but shake her head as she knew Eden was only repaying their support in the UNSC by buying the grains. They had never considered the intelligence help they provided Ukraine to be a favor, since it was a scheme within a scheme, meant to aid Vladimir in rising up the chain of command inside the Kremlin. The plan had been working very well for him, as he was in consideration to be promoted to one of the higher positions in the organization, one where he could move a large portion of the intelligence department without even having to report to the Kremlin. That said, even if he got promoted, he would still have eyes on him paying attention to how he uses them.

"Then I'll inform our higher-ups and get back to you as soon as possible to make sure the deal is sealed before the import sanctions go into effect," the Ukrainian ambassador said. After bidding his farewells, he ended the call and immediately reported the situation to the government officials who could facilitate such a huge order for Eden.

After three back and forth negotiation sessions, the deal was approved and signed. But due to the massive amounts of wheat requiring shipping, as the order was enough to sustain the country's need for grain imports for more than two years, Rachael had immediately put the atomic printers into higher gear, printing massive ships that could retrieve their grain before the sanction went into effect.

...

Aron was standing in front of the building that had the fusion reactor under it, ready to take it offline for a few hours. Once the reactor was SCRAMmed, the smaller, more mobile atomic printers would begin modifying the transformer so it would deliver only electricity, but not transform it to mana.

"Let's begin," he said once he was sure that the building and a ten-kilometer radius around it was empty, with him as the sole human inside the circle.

As if waiting for his order, the printers began their work by digging in order to arrive at the underground where the transformer was. And while they were on their way, the last bit of mana was sent to the main quantum server to allow it to operate without a constant supply of energy for about three days. After that supply was exhausted, the server would go offline together with the fusion reactor. But the dip in power wasn't noticed by anyone on the island, much less those in the country, as the other fusion reactors had picked up the slack and were smoothly providing electricity to every one of Helios' customers.

When the atomic printers arrived at the location of the underground transformer, they immediately started disintegrating it to pieces while at the same time printing a new transformer in its place, one that had just finished its testing in Lab City and had been deemed operational.

Together with that, one atomic printer entered the pipeline in which mana was being transported to the quantum server, where it began its journey. It would print room-temperature superconducting cables stretching from the new transformer to the server room, which was currently undergoing modifications as well. If all went according to plan, the server room's modifications would be completed after the power cable was finished being laid.

It didn't take long before the new transformer was completed and the superconducting high-voltage cable had arrived at the server room. The modification of the server room would be quite a bit more complex; the entire floor was being replaced by that same superconducting material so electricity could travel through the legs of each server rack to power the servers within. But the modifications didn't end there—the rune that currently provided cooling was to be replaced as well. That replacement would render the server room completely inhospitable to human life, as Nova had chosen the most brute-force method of cooling in order to save time on the modifications. The entire server room would simply be flooded with constantly circulating liquid helium through a system that an atomic printer was currently busily printing.

But that was the only thing that would take a bit longer, as with the transformer completed, the changes in the atomic printers would need to be taken care of, so it too will be taken offline for a short time to be modified as well. 𝓁𝘪𝘣𝘳ℯ𝒶𝘥.𝘤𝑜𝓂

"With that out of the way, let's go look for a solution," Aron said as he boarded a vehicle that would take him back to the Cube. He was planning on logging into the universal simulation to continue brainstorming on how to deal with the mess they had unknowingly caused, as well as how to use mana but stop it from looking like a pulsar star going supernova in mana sight.

Chapter 329

"Mr. President, why do you think Eden overreacted so much to the idea of UN inspection teams?"

President Trump was currently holding a press briefing. When he saw the reporter that had asked the question, he recognized them from Fox News and smiled as he answered, "Although every country has some reason or other behind their actions, based on Eden's overreaction, they're really taking the most difficult path. Sanctions are gonna be imposed. So many sanctions. It's really gonna hurt them where it hurts. So for them to risk so much just to stop inspectors from getting in, that means they must have something really big to hide." Trump stopped there to allow the reporter to ask a follow up question.

The reporter didn't disappoint and immediately asked, "And what might they have to hide?"

"If it was me, and it wasn't, because I'm too smart to hurt this beautiful country with so many sanctions, but if it was me, then the only thing I can see myself hiding like that would be weapons of mass destruction. Of course, we already know what happens to countries that hide weapons of mass destruction," he said, sternly gazing directly into the camera. He wanted to plant a seed of doubt in Eden's credibility, and WMDs were the easiest accusation he could make.

Though it caused a commotion in the room, he didn't answer any more questions on the topic, having already said enough to cause the idea to take root in people's minds. He would leave the rest to his supporters and detractors to talk about, either defending his claim or refuting it. It didn't matter, the more they talked about it, the more his words would spread to the rest of the world.

He knew it was the start of their plan to crank up the pressure on Eden. They were planning on giving Eden and Alexander the Saddam treatment, and at the moment, the CIA was working overtime in coming up with, interpreting, or outright making up false intel in a way that would make their suspicion be seen as the truth by people suspecting them of having WMDs and interpreting everything they do as evidence in support of that conclusion. It was the same phenomenon seen in couples, where one half would suspect the other of being unfaithful and view them through the lens of that assumption being true.

...

"If I had enough SP to buy this, it would solve all the problems we have," Aron said as he read the description of a knowledge he couldn't afford at the moment.

[FTL (Faster Than Light) travel—Alcubierre Warp Drive

A means of exceeding the universal speeding limit. This is one of the technologies that has been discovered by multiple civilizations in different times and is considered the minimum qualification to be considered a seedling of an advanced civilization.

The Alcubierre Warp Drive was theorized on Earth by theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre, based on Einstein's field equation. It is widely considered to be an entry-level FTL method and operates by generating...

Price: 100,000,000,000sp]

"Damn... if you need to have FTL to even be considered a proto-advanced civilization, what does that make us?" Aron muttered as he continued reading. The description of FTL travel as a category was rather lengthy, considering all the various means and methods involved in breaking the speed limit imposed by the laws of physics, so he had chosen the cheapest one to read about in further detail.

[You can just release product after product for the next two years to collect enough SP to buy it. As they say, it's better to be exceptionally good at one thing than moderately good at many,] Nova said, appearing behind Aron and reading the system screen over his shoulder. He had given her permission in the system long ago, so she could see its prompts just as easily as he could; but she preferred reading over his shoulder to reading it on her own lest she read too much faster than him and cause confusion in the resulting discussion.

"That would've been a good idea... if we were facing an enemy we know something about. Since we don't, we need to have a broad knowledge base so that no matter what they bring to the table, we have a better chance of countering it with something we already have in our arsenal. Plus, FTL would just get us there and we'd still likely be unable to do anything once we're right in front of them," Aron countered. He had the habit of saying things that he was sure Nova already knew. It was a good habit to have, as in the midst of saying his thoughts aloud, he may discover something important in them that would reveal a solution he had yet to consider. And Nova was aware of that tendency of his, so she was more than willing to play along. After all, as an artificial intelligence, no matter how sentient she was, she would forever be incapable of the fuzzy thinking and true randomness that humans used in their day-to-day thought process.

"Let's look at other things." Aron moved on to other things from the system.

[Robotics, tier 1

(Ed note: the tiers in the system use the Kardashev Scale. Tiers 1-3 are "pure" tech; 4-6 are aethertech, which uses naturally occurring mana sources to power technology; and 7-9 are magitech, which is a true blend of magic and technology.)

A technologically advanced solution to aid or replace manual labor in menial and dangerous tasks...

Price: 1,000,000,000sp]

[Yep, we need this,] Nova interjected. [Although the robotics research in Lab City has advanced enough to start rolling them, they aren't advanced enough to be able to participate in a war theater,] she continued, sounding so excited that Aron did a double take as he realized the reasoning behind her excitement—she badly desired a physical body so she could interact with the world on her own, instead of simply viewing it through cameras and other digital sources.

[Terraforming, tier 1

A method of converting a hostile environment to a beneficial one. It is the gateway to colonizing other planets and reaching beyond the cradle of your civilization. It has been independently discovered by many civilizations, but the first was...

Price: 2,000,000,000sp]

He then moved to another technology after bookmarking the previous technologies for later purchases.

[Artificial Environmental Shielding, tier 1]

[Galactical Navigation System, tier 1]

[Intermediate Runic Knowledge, tier 1]

[Tractor and Repulsor Beams, tier 1]

[Energy Weapons, tier 1]

[Psionic Shielding, tier 1]

[Spatial lock, tier 1]

...

He continued searching for things that he had thought about during his recent rest, and when he was done, Nova materialized a holographic screen summarizing the list so the two of them could jointly see the prices and discuss solutions. After going through it, they organized it by priority, from most- to least-necessary technologies, then grouped them further into absolute requirements and things that would be nice to have. The ones that would only be nice to have could be bought piecemeal and researched on their own in Lab City, but the priority required tech would be purchased whole and immediately implemented.

Chapter 330

"We have to buy the psionic shielding, since we don't know if they can communicate using their minds. If they can, and our minds aren't shielded, they'll probably be able to read ours. Or even control them! That would be devastating," Aron said. He definitely couldn't afford to give up the upper hand by allowing the aliens to invade the thoughts of humans.

"Plus, with the mind control defense knowledge, we might even be able to extrapolate how to control the minds of other intelligent beings."

[When it comes to kinetic weapons, we don't need to buy those. We're already far ahead in that category and we'll only continue advancing,] Nova said, resulting in Aron striking the kinetic weapons knowledge off the list.

"Plus, we can use the disintegration function of the atomic printers as a weapon, as long as we can figure out how to increase its range." Aron received a look of approval from Nova. She wasn't capable of creative leaps of logic like that, so it was something she truly appreciated about him.

[Not only that, but it can also be used in many different ways. It can be used to board enemy ships, as a stealth infiltrator by breaching and dropping surveillance devices, or even as a bioweapon. We just need to strengthen it so it can handle the stress of being fired from a coilgun.]

"By the way, how are the golden research labs doing? We've only used a tiny bit of their results," Aron asked. There was much to implement from the golden labs in Lab City and he had only tapped into a small bit of their potential.

[They're about in the same place as their conventional counterparts. The difficulty is that you're the only person who can inscribe and charge runes,] Nova answered as she showed him some parts of the tech completed by the golden labs.

"Let's see if there's any tech we can use to help us solve that problem," Aron said and went on a window shopping spree again.

"Now that's way too expensive even though I'm flush with SP right now," he said when he found what he was looking for.

[Runic Imprinting, tier 1

They say laziness is the father of all discoveries, and this technology follows that rule. It was discovered by a runic imprinting worker from a magitech civilization who hated spending his time and energy imprinting runes. The hard work drained his mental energy and stamina, leading to a rocky marriage, and due to wanting to remain with his wife, he had an epiphany and built a device that could do the work for him. As a result, he ended up the richest, most powerful man of that civilization.

Price: 15,000,000,000sp]

Despite his complaining, Aron still added it to his list to buy later. "Although we can earn more SP the more tech we release to humanity, it would be counterproductive right now. But once Earth is united, there'll be no need to hold back anymore and we can start a cycle of massive SP farming. 𝒍𝒊𝒃𝓻𝒆𝓪𝙙.𝒄𝙤𝒎

...

"Now I'm poor again," Aron sighed as he looked at the pitiful 100 SP remaining on his system screen.

"When the system is finished assimilating the new knowledge, you can start integrating it into Lab City and test simulation 01," he said. The researchers in Lab City had given him pleasant surprises before, so he hoped they would do the same with the recent purchases, whether they were whole or in part. It would be difficult to produce further research results on technologies he had wholly purchased, but his partial purchases had branched out into multiple directions and his whole technologies had been used in some very creative ways. In fact, if Earth wasn't currently pressed for time, he would have preferred to only buy technologies piecemeal, as it was cost-effective to give the creative minds in Lab City a starting point and let them have their head determining where to go from there.

All the technologies that were being sent were things that Nova hadn't found inside the universal simulation. She'd spent the last week checking and compiling a list of their current tech, which had delayed Aron's shopping spree by a week. It had been a worthwhile tradeoff, though, as he now had a better idea of what they needed after discovering everything they already knew.

The new tech also included the knowledge of nanotechnology and megastructures, as there were two civilizations that had developed enough to ascend to an entirely new reality, and each of them were fanatic about one of those fields.

The civilization that had fanatically researched, invented, built, and improved megastructures had begun doing so when they discovered that their planet would face a devastating supernova shockwave from a relatively close solar system. They began by building a massive shield around their planet, then eventually emigrated from the surface of their world to a Dyson sphere around their star. From there, they learned how to harness black holes, and eventually discovered a way to use them to travel to different dimensions and left the material world behind entirely.

The one that focused on nanotechnology, on the other hand, had been forced to do so when faced with a civilization of marauders that used nanobots as weapons. The marauders would launch a "gray goo" style apocalypse on planets, or other celestial objects, then harvest them for technology and resources. The civilization that was under attack was already a galactic-scale empire, with multiple planets terraformed and colonized, so they began their evolution with the idea of defending themselves from the terrible planet killer weapons, only to eventually end up miniaturizing their entire civilization and moving to the quantum world.

Obviously, Aron couldn't immediately skip to the end and lead humanity's emigration to a higher, or at least new, plane of existence, but he still found it ironic that the planetbound civilization had focused on building megastructures, while the galaxy-spanning empire focused on shrinking everything down, yet each had reached similar destinations in the end. Still, the system's description of the knowledge had given him a general idea of a successful research path for future development.

'To each their own,' he thought, 'but at least I'm the beneficiary of their advancements.'

The system didn't waste any time in integrating the knowledge into Aron one after another after he confirmed his purchases, but this time—thanks to his latest evolution—he didn't even feel dazed, let alone the freeze he used to feel when he was receiving knowledge assimilation. Plus, the speed at which the knowledge was assimilated into him had greatly increased; it only took thirty minutes for the system to impart all of the knowledge he had just bought from its shop.

Chapter 331

"Based on how fast our moles are getting removed by Ukraine's intelligence agency, there's no doubt in my mind that they're receiving strong support from another agency. The likeliest suspects are from the Chinese Ministry of State Security, since they had a cooperation with them, but that was probably severed after the UNSC vote. So now I suspect the British MI6, American CIA, Israeli Mossad, or even the Egyptian GIS. We can't rule anyone out at this point, but..." Vladimir paused to heighten the tension in the briefing room and let the others come to their own conclusions.

Seeing that his fellows had each settled on a suspect, he continued, "If this situation continues, our military operations will need to begin much earlier than previously planned. If they manage to remove everyone on our side with power in their country, they'll be welcoming us with bullets instead of flowers. " He was already quite satisfied with the reception, especially the suspicion he had cast on everyone but the true culprit hunting their intelligence operatives and gathered his thoughts, intent on pushing his plan further forward as he clicked through powerpoint slide after powerpoint slide showing images of Russian agents and sympathizers who had been caught by the Ukrainian government.

"Another thing we have to keep in mind is that we already know they're reorganizing their military. Together with putting pro-Russian politicians, businessmen, and leaders on trial for treason, it isn't a good sign for us. It shows that they're gearing up to fight, so we must act first to gain the advantage.

"The fight against Ukraine won't be as easy as the rigged referendum we called for in Crimea. That was a plan that could only have ever worked a single time, but they're probably certain we'll be trying something similar there. So if we act now, we can catch them while they're still in the chaos of reorganizing their military." The next few slides detailed the ongoing reorganization along with all the western forces supporting it. "Any questions?" he finished as the powerpoint came to an end and the lights in the briefing room came up. 𝑙𝒾𝘣𝘳𝑒𝒶𝒹.𝑐𝘰𝓂

"Why do you think the other forces are supporting them?" Putin asked, despite knowing the answer . He considered this briefing as Vladimir's final evaluation and it would determine whether the spy is worthy of real power and raising as a potential successor, or if he was just one of the many who thought themselves as geniuses while they were nothing of the sort.

"Getting allies closer to Russia means they have a shield and sword. By bringing people onto their side, they effectively cut off our maneuvering and leave us only one area we can send troops at them through. But the opposite isn't true, because the Ukrainian allies in Eastern Europe will certainly allow their passage, letting them strike at any point along our border. Thus, we would be forced to limit the number of troops we can use because we would have to guard our borders, while the Ukrainian defenders can concentrate their defense along a comparatively small area." That was the likeliest plan and reasoning behind it, according to Nyx. They had given him a detailed briefing after he informed them that he would soon be presenting the situation to his leaders.

A thin smile formed on Putin's face. He was extremely satisfied with the operative standing before him and the hard work he had done on behalf of Mother Russia. "Good," he said. "We'll move up the military operation to eight months from now. You will be on the planning team—any objections?"

"I would be honored," Vladimir said, trying to hide the happiness he was feeling at the moment, but in a subtly bad way so that those in the room thought he was easy to read.

...

"Five… four… three… two… one…. Lift off" A massive rocket took off and pierced through the cloud cover that was still shielding Avalon Island from overhead observation.

"There goes our first middle finger toward the sanctions," Alexander said as he watched the first of ten rocket launches that were scheduled to take place over the next two days.

They had attempted to follow the accepted procedure as defined by the ITU, but had been met with delays, denials, and disdain. It was obvious that, so long as Eden was under UN sanctions, no orbital slots would be awarded to them.

"We don't have time to deal with their incompetence right now. We're up against a deadline," Aron sneered. He looked at his friend, who seemed to have aged a few years over the past couple of days.

"By the way, how did you find them? They're still outside visual range and will be for a few years yet," Alexander asked.

"Oh, that? It was quite easy..." Aron began.

"Mana, or 'dark matter', as people call it, exists everywhere in the universe. It's everywhere—in the depths of space, the hearts of stars, and even lingering between the cells of living organisms. As well as within them, I suppose. For the purposes of this discussion, you can consider the universe like a bowl filled with marbles. All we had to do was poke one marble and record the changes that happened in all the marbles connected to it. The moment you poke one, they all move.

"But mana isn't equally distributed through the universe, so those marbles can be big or they can be small. The bigger marbles represent areas with higher concentrations of mana, which tends to correlate with the mass of an object. And the bigger the marble, the easier it is to see," Aron continued, then paused to let Alexander's mind catch up to the new disturbing reality he found himself in.

"So, the new satellites we're launching are specifically designed to detect mana with a higher resolution. It's almost like upgrading from an old daguerreotype camera to an 8K DSLR camera, and will give us a much more detailed image of our approach... guest. Once we have that, we can make and adjust our plans from there."

Chapter 332

When the rocket broke through the clouds, it was caught by all the surveillance satellites that were keeping an eye on Eden.

If it weren't for the rocket being too big to be considered a missile—its size rivaled the Saturn V rocket that sent astronauts to the moon—the observers would have thought that Eden was attacking them. After all, they hadn't made any announcements before launching the rocket after having been denied permission by the ITU.

Although many countries used their diplomatic channels to complain about the launch, Eden maintained that the rocket never violated any nation's airspace before entering space, so there was no need for them to inform anyone. They also took the opportunity to inform those nations that there would be more than a few launches in the following days, so they shouldn't complain that they hadn't been informed in advance again.

As for the question of what was inside the rocket, Eden answered with a blistering retort. They maintained that it was nobody's business what they were doing, showing that the change in attitude was all throughout the government, not just the president's office.

Other than that, Eden continued their discussions with Esparia on the central bank situation. It was still in the negotiation stage as they fine-tuned their agreement, hashing out what powers the central bank would have compared to the monetary policies that their individual governments could implement in case of inflation and much more.

Hephaestus Industries had also gone into high gear, putting into practice the permission they had received from the government to work. They rapidly began producing everything that Eden had lost access to as a consequence of the trade and economic sanctions. They even sold them at a "loss" to Edenians and Esparians, to boot; nobody knew that the cost of production was basically zero, so they all assumed that the company was losing millions, if not billions, of dollars worth of profit. Thus, their reputation as a company only grew better and better.

Not only was Hephaestus producing their goods essentially for free in their automated factories, but they were also shipping them through Hermes, which meant the shipping charges were also being earned by one of Aron's companies.

Together with that, the arrival of Ukrainian grain and the zero-interest loans the Edenian government was offering for people to buy lands and develop them into farms was also seen as a windfall by the populace. Even though the lands on offer were barren and relatively low in fertility, that wasn't seen as much of a problem.

Especially after Asclepius Biotech introduced a new biofertilizer that promised to increase harvest yield by over 300%.

Alexander had never been so popular, not even immediately following the revolution that overthrew the previous dictatorship.

On more... earthy front, the recycling—both of the world's garbage and Eden's sewage—continued apace. As it would negatively impact too many nations, the UN sanctions had protected and continued the treaty that Eden had signed to act as "the world's garbage bin". Aron could only shake his head with a wry smile when he had read that clause in the long, detailed list of sanctions imposed on Eden. Apparently countries didn't want to deal with their own trash, and he guessed they thought it would be a humiliation for the developing nation.

He had decided not to incorporate a company into his corporate structure to deal with it though, instead having Nova spawn another Child AI, Hygieia, to specifically handle recycling and recycling alone. It was too important a task to leave unattended in case of an emergency, like what had happened during his most recent upgrade, so Hygieia was welcomed to the AI family and considered a subordinate of Helios.

He had to admit, though, that his naming scheme was becoming more and more difficult to follow as time went on. Gods of the Greek pantheon were limited in their relevance to modern-day issues, so he would soon be forced to branch out in other areas besides the military, which he had already done.

The world was quickly discovering everything Eden was doing from the information being posted online, or images from the commercial satellites in orbit. They argued back and forth until they finally settled on a startling suspicion: the netizens at large believed that Eden actually WANTED the sanctions applied to them. They certainly weren't suffering under them, and it definitely appeared that they had long been prepared for them, so the hypothesis fit all of the evidence available to outsiders looking in.

But the world wasn't just watching; lawsuit after lawsuit was filed against Hephaestus by companies that were outraged by the blatant violation of their intellectual properties. Just because they couldn't sell their products in Eden didn't mean they would allow anyone else to!

That said, the companies could shout and wail and send Cease & Desist letters all they wanted to and all Felix did was shrug and chuckle about it in their periodic update meetings. Since Eden wasn't a member of the International Criminal Court and thus didn't subscribe to its jurisdiction, they could piss and moan all they wanted to, but all the whining in the world wouldn't change the fact that they couldn't enforce any intellectual property laws against an Edenian company.

When one irate magnate threatened to violate the Connect Group's intellectual properties, Felix left a response on par with that of General McAuliffe during the Battle of the Bulge in WWII. His answer was a simple post from his official, verified account on Pangea that read, "Go ahead and try."

(Ed note: General McAuliffe famously replied to a German demand for surrender during WWII with one word: " !". It was immediately before the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne, Belgium. True story, and really interesting. Google it.)

The same thing couldn't be said for everyone, though, as Aron and Sarah both received subpoenas to appear before the US Congress, which had set up a committee to investigate them for various perceived offenses, including public safety and national security concerns, antitrust concerns, privacy concerns, and their economic impact on American citizens.

"Hahaha they really subpoenaed us," Aron laughed. He had been in a meeting with Sarah discussing the next steps for GAIA when they both received the email notification from their lawyers in the US, who were the ones to actually receive the summons.

"The lawyers said we could challenge this in front of a judge and argue that they're exceeding their authority and that the request is unduly burdensome. But they added that it would be very difficult for our motion to be upheld, since there's politics at play that will make every American judge biased against us. So, at the moment, they're recommending we negotiate the scope of our testimony, request certain protections, and clarify the terms with the committee. We'll eventually have to go, but we can at least stall them for a long time before that happens. Long enough, hopefully, that this whole UN debacle is done and over with," Sarah said.

"Do you think any of that will be allowed?" Aron sarcastically asked. He knew the answer already. 𝘭𝑖𝑏𝘳ℯ𝑎𝑑.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Likely not, since the lobbyist groups have invested way too much money into—"

"Shhh, it was a rhetorical question," Aron interrupted with a grin. "There's no need for any delaying tactics or protection... tell the lawyers to do nothing, and we'll go 'testify' whenever is convenient for us, but certainly no later than two months from now."

He was already thinking about how to use the upcoming congressional hearing to his benefit.

Chapter 333

On televisions across America, a jingle played as the screens switched from commercials to a popular news show.

"Good evening. I'm Tucker Carlson, and for those that are just joining us, welcome to the show. With us tonight is Wilbur Ross, the Secretary of Commerce in President Trump's cabinet to discuss the harm that Eden and their state company, Hephaestus Industries and Manufacturing are doing to our country. Are we just going to watch as they continue causing harm to our citizens and democracy?"

"You mentioned the harm they're causing us, and I couldn't agree more. From the moment they began breaking international law and violating intellectual property rights on a broad scale to now, American companies have lost almost 150 billion dollars. And that number will only grow the longer we allow them to continue breaking the law." Wilbur Ross had been briefed by the Office of Public & Media Affairs and knew what he was supposed to say. Tucker Carlson, on the other hand, had been briefed by the Morgan family and knew what he was supposed to ask. The two were putting on a stage play in order to demonize Eden and begin raising public support for the eventual shooting war that would break out between the two countries.

"Also with us tonight is our own Tamara Holder, our legal analyst and host of the show 'Sports Court', which you can watch now on our website. Tamara, what do you think of the issue?" Tucker interjected. Tamara Holder was his favorite punching bag and the network's current mascot. She was what he considered a "classic bleeding heart liberal" and he always enjoyed cutting her arguments down.

"Don't you think they're justified in their response when we unilaterally decided their guilt and are punishing them for it? This country was founded on the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty' but just because they're poor, they're automatically guilty?" Tamara fired back. She was a criminal defense and civil rights attorney, so what the US was doing to Eden had struck her as very, very wrong.

"Are you sure you want to take their side like that? Do you think we implemented these sanctions because we enjoy them?" The secretary of commerce asked in retort.

"Yes!" 𝓵𝙞𝙗𝙧𝙚𝒂𝙙.𝓬𝒐𝒎

Secretary Ross was taken aback for a moment and his mind went blank, but then he wrenched his thoughts back on track and continued with the arranged script, casting a glare at the young attorney across the table from him. "No, you have to keep in mind that the sanctions were only implemented as a result of them denying UN inspectors free access to what the investigators need to prove Eden's innocence and completely clear them. Instead of acting like an innocent party, they're acting like they have something to hide. What could a little country like them be afraid of? What are they hiding? They're acting guilty!"

"But sanctions don't work! We've seen it in North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and even Syria. So all we're doing is punishing them and preventing them from joining the rest of the world and contributing to all of humanity—" Tamara began.

"I have to remind you, Miss Holder, that the sanctions aren't just being imposed by us, but by the entire UN," Secretary Ross interrupted. "Before you accuse us of violating our principles, you should take into account that they've already been tried before a jury of their peers—the United Nations Security Council—and been found guilty."

The people on the show continued arguing back and forth with occasional interference from Tucker to make the argument as wide as possible, even blatantly accusing Eden of possessing WMDs.

...

"They're doing very well," George said as he watched the show from the comfort of his father's study along with his father. "But the speed the administration's moving at is too slow. If they don't hurry up, we won't be able to make a move until next year," he added, looking at his father to see what he thought of the timeline.

"Do you know how many years it took for us to make the American citizens see the invasion of Saddam's regime as something that needed to be done?" Aubrey asked instead of answering his son's question.

"About a decade, I think, from the moment his usefulness to us ended," George answered.

"Correct. So this plan taking only a year can be said to be ten times more efficient compared to the Saddam matter, but there are a few major contributors to that efficiency." Aubrey paused for a moment, then continued, "The first is the internet. With everyone on it, it's a great tool to manipulate public opinion. And the second is Eden's ridiculous response, which is making it almost too easy for us to paint them as a rogue nation that we have to deal with to maintain peace."

"I knew that we needed a reason before we do anything so that the public doesn't have a negative reaction... But why do we have to waste so much time painting them as the bad guys when we could just fabricate an attack on us as a justification?" George asked.

"Why do you think we haven't attacked North Korea when everyone already thinks of them as enemy number one?" Aubrey asked.

"Because they have nukes?" George answered, tilting his head.

"No, it's because they haven't attacked us yet. They only rattle their sabers until just before we attack, then they stop. They only want attention," he answered, then continued in more detail, "America always fights from the moral high ground. Before we participated in WWII, Pearl Harbor had to happen. The same could be said for 9/11. Although unlike Pearl Harbor, the 9/11 attacks were unexpected. Still, it was justification enough to immediately mobilize our forces despite them being unprepared to fight a protracted war in the mountains.

"But in both cases, the attacks were just the final piece of the puzzle that allowed the entire country to fully rally behind the idea of war. Without them, there'd be no way for us to justify the horrors of war.

"So even after all of this preparation, we need them to attack us first. Whether they actually attack us, as bin Laden did, or whether we manufacture and provoke the attack, as FDR did in 1941 with Pearl Harbor and the Japanese, it still needs to happen before we can declare war."

He turned to his secretary and said, "Inform the CIA to start releasing the information we collected and fabricated that fits our agenda, as we need to use Eden's actions to give credibility to the president's statement."

"Yes, sir," the secretary said, then left the room.

"Do we have the questions congress is going to be asking them?" Aubrey asked.

"Yes. We'll be rewriting them based on the information we have and the optics we want to present, but we'll be fully prepared by the time of the appearance. Or at least as prepared as we can be—their lack of reaction and fighting is making me nervous, like they're planning something behind our backs," George said.

"Whatever they're doing to prepare, they probably aren't expecting what we've got coming for them at all. But still, we should try and find out what they're planning."

"I'll keep that in mind, father," George responded, then returned his attention to the TV, where Tucker Carlson's stage play was still ongoing.

Chapter 334

Though the number of countries Alexander could visit had reduced, thanks to the travel bans, he didn't waste time complaining in Eden. Instead, he chose to visit what countries he still could—especially those suffering under sanctions—to strengthen their diplomatic ties and economies. After all, it was hardly ever the people in power who suffered, but rather the innocent citizens below them.

During each visit, he would somehow manage to come up with deals that were beneficial to both countries—Eden, as the manufacturer and exporter of goods, and the countries he visited, who would receive the cheap products they had sometimes never had. For instance, Cuba had still been using cars produced in the 1940s and 50s from before the United States imposed sanctions on them in 1958 until they struck a deal to import manufactured goods from Eden in trade for certain luxuries, like hand-rolled Cuban cigars. Plus, part of that particular deal washed back on the US in an unexpected way; with an official trade partner who wasn't willing to be bullied by the behemoth called America, the politicians and rich Americans who used to ignore the trade embargo with Cuba and purchase their products cheaply could no longer purchase them at all.

There was a lot of resentment there and Eden had helped vent it.

Another unintended consequence was that Florida, a state that had long relied on refugees and illegal immigrants from Cuba to provide dirt cheap labor, had found itself lacking employees in the hospitality, tourism, and landscaping industries as Cubans could now legally immigrate to Eden, who had opened their doors wide to them.

With similar deals worked out with North Korea, Sudan, Venezuela, Iran, Zimbabwe, and Syria, among others, the lives of a lot of the most oppressed citizens around the globe either already had been, or would soon be vastly improved. In turn, Eden would receive raw materials and immigrants from the countries. The Coeus Foundation had joined forces with Icarus Airlines to ensure that immigration was open between the countries, and the Edenian government's zero-interest farming subsidy loans coupled with advances in organic farming brought by Asclepius Biotech ensured that the new immigrants were settled as soon as possible. And with Panoptes monitoring Pangea and shifting the public discourse, the citizens of Eden were thrilled and proud to be able to offer the same increase in standard of living they enjoyed to the flood of immigrants to their country instead of the rage directed at governments in countries like Germany, where they had a severe problem with Turkish immigrants and refugees illegally crossing the border in search of a better life.

Some of the countries had specific requirements. North Korea, for example, required spare parts for their airline industry, oil, and food. They received more than they gave; though Eden wasn't suffering a loss, they wouldn't gain much from them beyond the satisfaction of spitting in China's eye by driving a wedge into the relationship they'd had since before the Korean War.

Essentially, Eden became the provider for all of North Korea's needs that had been being provided by China, which was something of a diplomatic coup and feather in Eden's cap. 𝑙𝒾𝒷𝘳𝑒𝑎𝒹.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Venezuela, on the other hand, had very little need for oil, money, or other such resources. They enjoyed the finished consumer goods and would repay Eden with their vast gold deposits and national reserve.

At the same time, Alexander's team was also in the talks with Taiwan. Although Taiwan wasn't among the countries that were being sanctioned, what made it special was that it wasn't a UN member. That meant Alexander—or any citizen of Eden, for that matter—had no restriction on travel between them.

Among their talks and discussions before the meeting, they included the possibility of signing an acknowledgement recognizing Taiwan as its own country and not a part of China.

While Alexander's team was in preliminary negotiations with Taiwan, Sarah was having a meeting with the co-CEOs of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Doctors Mark Liu and CC Wei, who were visiting Eden. After a two-day-long meeting, they signed an agreement between TSMC and GAIA to sell Taiwan a photolithography machine capable of a 3nm process.

That would be a very lucrative deal for them, as at the moment, they had only recently received 7nm photolithography machines from ASML. And although they had yet to see GAIA's machines at work, they weren't worried; they knew it was a reliable company, and their Z and Q chips were also manufactured with a 3nm process.

The delivery of the first 3 nm photolithography machines was scheduled for the day of Alexander's upcoming visit to Taiwan, which would be three months later.

...

"We suspect Eden is attempting to leverage their industry to access WMD technologies from the countries we have under sanctions. It's the most likely reason for all of Romero's recent visits," Mike Pompeo, the director of the CIA, reported as part of Trump's daily briefing.

"I thought we were just using the threat of 'finding' WMDs to pressure them, but you're telling me they're really building a nuclear program?" Trump asked with some surprise, as it wasn't something that he was expecting at all.

"Unfortunately, yes. We have two theories at the moment. First, it was our accusation of them possessing WMDs that gave them the idea to acquire them, much like North Korea did. And second, they had already been working on it in secret, but our accusation forced them to expedite their plans and stop hiding their development program entirely," Mike said.

"The second theory makes more sense. From the beginning, all of their actions have been aimed at maintaining their neutral stance in global politics, and being a nuclear power would basically give them a shield, kind of like our Mutually Assured Destruction plan from the sixties," General Mattis, the Secretary of Defense elaborated.

"So, what're we supposed to do? The UN sanctions seem to have just made them stronger," Trump asked.

"How about we schedule 'exercises' near Eden in the Pacific? We can retask the US Carl Vinson carrier group and send them down from the South China Sea, or wait until they're free after their demonstrations to China and North Korea," Reince Priebus suggested.

"We can do that. The carrier group is already scheduled for a routine patrol in the Western Pacific, so all we'd have to do is add another exercise to their patrol and increase the scale," General Mattis mused.

"Do that, but we should also increase the DEFCON level to DEFCON4," Trump ordered. This increase in DEFCON level will allow for increased intelligence watch and strengthened security measures.

"How about we entice the nations Eden just visited by dangling the chance that we'll unfreeze some of their assets in return for breaking their treaties with Eden?" Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, suggested.

"How about we increase the sanctions against Eden, too?" another member of the briefing committee suggested.

"We can assassinate some of their high-level politicians and frame China or Russia for it. That'll cause a dispute with another of the big five nations and bring them to our side," Mike Pompeo suggested.

"Let's negotiate first. Go with the carrot and stick approach—offer to relax the sanctions if they break the treaties they just signed, or crank them up if they refuse. Either way, add a travel ban between them and Eden to keep them from cooperating in the future."

The meeting continued from there, moving on from Eden to other important matters. An hour or so later, the meeting wrapped up, and people stood to leave.

"Mike, stay behind," Trump ordered. The rest left the room to start their work for the day; had the president required them, they would have been asked to remain.

When only the two men were left in the room, Trump looked at Pompeo and said, "So about that assassination..."

Chapter 335

Inside the hall where the congressional oversight committee formed to deal with GAIA would be held.

A murmur was humming as the spectators spoke to each other in low voices. Reporters were hauling equipment this way and that, making sure that it was set up and working as they recorded B-roll footage of the audience and special footage of the notable figures in attendance.

A few minutes after the C-SPAN live broadcast began, members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform started taking their seats, the last of them the committee's head representative Trey Gowdy, a republican from South Carolina. He had only been the committee head for a few days as a result of the previous head resigning a few weeks before.

After taking his seat, he picked up his gavel and rapped it against the sound block placed before him on the table. 𝓵𝒊𝓫𝓻𝓮𝓪𝒅.𝓬𝓸𝙢

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Good morning to all members of this committee, our esteemed colleagues, the press, the public, and our witnesses from GAIA Technology. I now formally call this hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to order."

The whole room went silent, as the hearing had officially started.

"We're gathered today to address a range of critical concerns related to GAIA Technology, a company that's undeniably changed the way many Americans live, work, and interact…." He gave a short opening statement, listing the things they would be investigating in today's hearing.

"To our witnesses, Ms. Sarah O'Connor, President of GAIA Technologies, and Mr. Aron Michael, CEO of Connect Enterprises, the parent corporation of GAIA Technologies, we appreciate your attendance today. We anticipate a constructive dialogue, and we expect forthright and transparent answers to our inquiries." Following his thanks to the witnesses, he finished his opening statement by reminding the committee members to keep their questions to the five minutes they would be given, and to keep their questions respectful.

"With that, I yield to the ranking member, Representative Mark Cummings for his opening statement." Rep. Gowdy gestured to a man sitting to the right of him. In front of him was a name plaque that read 'Rep. Mark Cummings (D-MD).

He thanked the chairman and gave his own brief opening statement, covering much of the same information as Rep. Gowdy had in his.

That was immediately followed by swearing in by the witnesses. Aron and Sarah stood from their chairs, raised their right hands, and took the oath following Rep. Gowdy's words, then retook their seats and waited for the first question.

Thus, the questioning began.

Rep. Gowdy said, "Thank you, Representative Cummings. Mr. Michael, Ms. O'Connor, you have the option to provide opening statements. Mr. Michael, would you like to begin?"

Aron adjusted the microphone to align with his mouth and said, "I choose to waive my opening statement and proceed directly to questions." A murmur of surprise swept through the spectators in the room.

"Very well. Ms. O'Connor, would you like to provide an opening statement?"

"Thank you, Chairman. I also waive my opening statement and am ready for questions." The surprised murmur grew a little louder.

Many people used opening statements to pull the representatives and the public watching to their side and show themselves as the underdog, but the people in question today had both directly waived it. Not only that, they were very casual and nonchalant about it, setting a tone for how things would likely proceed.

"Thank you both. We'll begin with questions. Representative Jordan, you may begin," Trey said.

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman," Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio began. He turned to Sarah and asked, "Can you detail all products and services your company provides?"

"We have a game, BugZapper, GAIA OS, Pangea, a smartphone line, and computers as our products and services," she answered.

"Is your company responsible for the production of the physical devices that you are selling under your company name?"

"No, we have a partner that's responsible for manufacturing."

"Which company is it, and where is that company located?" Rep. Jordan asked, his eyes glinting.

"Hephaestus Industries and Manufacturing," Aron answered.

"Is that the same company that's been sanctioned by the US government for the infringement of intellectual properties of American companies?" followed the representative.

"Yes."

Aron's answer caused a small commotion to arise in the room. Over the preceding months, they had continuously been hearing about the losses of American companies following Hephaestus being allowed to produce all the sanctioned products in Eden.

"Are you saying that you're making the Americans buy products from a company that's causing huge losses in taxes for the American government?" the representative doubled down following Aron's response.

"I don't know how you see it that way, but you're technically correct. But you also have to keep in mind that our production contract with them was done before the Edenian government allowed them to do such a thing," Aron responded.

"Can you give us details about the ownership structure of Hephaestus Industries and Manufacturing? The committee needs to know if you're included in this blatant act of IP theft," Rep. Jordan asked.

"I'm the sole owner of the company."

The entire room was shocked into silence.

"Did you just confess to breaking the law by benefiting from other companies' IP without paying any compensation to them for it?" Rep. Jordan couldn't believe the man in front of him would be dumb enough to admit to breaking UP law in front of the entire country.

"It seems like you've misunderstood my response, Mr. Representative," Aron began. Refusing to use his name and just calling him "representative" showed how unimportant he was to Aron, who continued, "I never broke any laws. Everything I've done is perfectly legal in Eden."

"Mr. Michael, I'd like to remind you that you're an American citizen, which means you fall under the jurisdiction of the American law."

"I'd also like to remind you that I'm also an Edenian citizen, meaning their laws apply to me as well," Aron responded.

The questions continued from there. Aron was asked some difficult questions and answered them all truthfully without beating around the bush, increasing the number of people watching the C-SPAN broadcast as time went on.

"Can you detail to us how you handle user data? Including any past incidents that compromised public safety and the company's responses to those incidents," a representative asked Sarah.

"We don't," She responded in a clipped voice.

"Can you clarify?" the representative asked.

"I meant that we don't store any of the user's data anywhere," she retorted.

"Miss O'Connor, may I remind you that you're under oath. From our research, we discovered that you're paying Amazon for servers that you use for data storage and more, so please answer truthfully."

"In the past, yes, we did use those servers to store information. During that time, our premium OS version's AI operations couldn't be fully handled by the phones, so we sent user data there for processing before it was sent to the users. But following the release of our smartphones, which are capable of doing the processing locally, we stopped hosting the users information on the servers we rented from Amazon and deleted all the data in them," she elaborated, making the prepared questions about American users' data security useless since they had testified that they are not storing even a bit of data.

The representative put aside a few pieces of paper that had become useless, thanks to Sarah's response, then turned to Aron and asked, "Can you list the companies you own in whole or in part for clarification purposes and to save everyone time?"

"Yes, I'm the sole owner of a parent company named Connect Enterprises and all of the subsidiary companies thereof," Aron said, then paused for a moment before continuing, "There are nine subsidiaries."

"Can you name them?" the representative asked with a smile on her face. She would name them from the list that had been provided to her if Aron decided to keep mum.

"GAIA Technologies, Helios Energy & Utility, Hephaestus Industries and Manufacturing, Coeus Foundation, Hermes, Plutus Ventures, Icarus Airlines, Asclepius Biotechnology..." he took a deep breath and started the representative in the eye with a meaningful gaze, "and lastly, ARES Security Solutions."

Chapter 336

The names of the companies that Aron owned gave everyone that heard them goosebumps. Although some of the people in the room hadn't heard of a few of them, they had indeed heard of the others, and all of them were very rich and very, very private.

Most of them knew of GAIA, Hephaestus, ARES, Icarus, and Asclepius; each of them were tentatively valued at hundreds of billions of dollars, which was why they were shocked to their core.

That was when they came to the realization that the man in front of them or on their tv or phone screens' net worth was nearing the trillion dollar mark. That would put him firmly in place as the world's richest man, with the difference between him and the second place more than 800 billion dollars. Billions! With a B!

But what absolutely mystified them was that Aron had only become a millionaire less than three years before, meaning that in the short span of three years he had gone from "moderately comfortable" to "money is just a scorecard for the game of life" without any aid from his family or friends and he was only twenty-three years old!

"Have you been paying taxes?" The representative who asked that wasn't surprised in the least, as he had already been informed about Aron's wealth.

"Yes, I paid more than twenty billion in taxes last year, but I fail to see the relevance of your question," Aron fired back.

"I'm the one asking the questions, Mr. Michael, not you," the representative sneered. "Are you aware that your OS has more than ninety seven percent of the OS market, which constitutes a monopoly under US law?"

"The same could be said for Google."

"We're talking about you today, not them. You know that, right?"

"Yes, and the answer to that is because our product is superior to other competitors, and unlike them, we haven't used any tactics to undermine our competitors."

The back and forth between Aron and the representative continued until the representative's allotted time for questions ended.

"How does your company contribute to research and development initiatives in the U.S.?" the next representative asked.

"Not much, as we have no research institute here," he responded.

"And why's that? Aren't you a US citizen? Shouldn't you be helping your home country?" the representative asked, framing Aron as unpatriotic.

"The very first product I produced and released to the public was forcefully taken from me by the US government. So why would I do my research here when the government always wants to steal my work out from under me?"

"How do you respond to claims that your company's practices have led to job losses or wage suppression in the US?" The representative moved to the next question without responding to Aron's question.

"That's categorically false. Even our lowest-paid employee working here is completely insured by the company and their net salaries after tax are all over a hundred thousand dollars, with yearly raises and other benefits." 𝙡𝙞𝓫𝒓𝙚𝒂𝓭.𝓬𝒐𝓶

"Are there any upcoming plans for expansion, job creation, or major investments in the US?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Why should I invest in a country that's insistent on levying sanctions against me in a blatant attempt to steal even more of my technological advances, Mr. Representative?" Aron responded quite bluntly.

The hearing continued in that fashion for the rest of the day, and the three days following that, making it the longest congressional hearing related to a private company in history. Aron and Sarah had undergone more than thirty hours of questioning by the hostile committee.

...

From the first day of the hearing, it was the main topic in not only the political section of the internet, but the entertainment side as well. It was a weird situation, but understandable; Aron and Sarah were both incredibly attractive, even more than most actual celebrities.

Besides, both of them were way too blunt in the way they handled the questions. It was very fresh, since most people called before congress would go very far out of their way to hide whatever they could, answering almost every question with "I don't recall" or some variation on that phrase.

Reallyman [Are you telling me this man became a trillionaire within just three years after being expelled from school? Are you kidding me?]

nop [I can't believe it either, but I researched the companies he named and he should have much more than just a trillion]

thetruth [Op, he was falsely accused before he was expelled, nothing more to say just clarifying it.]

warmonger [You people seemed to have forgotten the most important revelation of the hearing. The man has a private fucking military under him, and it fought and won a war against a fully legitimate country's military. The video of Eden's pilot shooting down five planes in less than a few minutes is from his forces.]

damn [Holy shit, why didn't we see it earlier when everything was in the open? All of his companies are named after Greek gods, from GAIA to ARES. But that won't happen again as I sat and did a very deep investigation and came to the conclusion that they're the ones who deliberately caused the Indonesia incident to provoke the UN to sanction Eden so they can benefit]

nahthisiswild [Makes sense, since their company is now the only provider of many things. So he earns more money than anyone in the country... damn, brutal and smart at the same time]

The internet focused on many different topics, based on people's interests, but nearly everyone talking about them was mostly focusing on Aron being either a role model or scum of the earth.

The Morgans utilized it to their benefit, using every means possible to paint Aron as a greedy madman.

The committee began their deliberation, and at the same time, recommended that the justice department open an investigation into Aron and his companies. They were privately directed that they absolutely must find evidence of him and his companies breaking the law, and if that evidence didn't exist, they were to find it anyway. They were also instructed to pay special attention to ARES during their investigative process.

...

Aron was in his private A380 with Sarah, heading back to Eden. He was leaning back in his chair, limbs akimbo, and pinching the bridge of his nose as he complained about idiots, morons, and assholes that shall not be named.

"How am I gonna explain this to my parents?" Aron had come to the realization that his parents would soon be asking him about his wealth and was trying to come up with a way to explain it to them as gently as possible.

"Why not tell them the truth?" Sarah suggested.

"I guess... There's really no need to hide it from them, since the whole world knows about it now anyway," Aron said.

"Plus it'll make things easier on me since they'll be able to use the VR instead of traveling all over the place and risking attacks." He smiled when he thought of the mess his little brother would cause in the VR once he was introduced to it.

Chapter 337

"Father's been asking why you're just letting the Morgans control your actions when you could've asked him to stop it, or at least have it under control," Rina asked Aron. They were together in one of his VR mansions, where they spent most nights.

"I'm setting the stage and giving them plenty of rope to hang themselves with, so there's no need for any of that. But I will need your family's help in a few weeks or months," Aron explained.

"Oh, what do you need?" Rina excitedly asked. It had been a long time since Aron had needed her help for anything, but now he was finally asking for it again.

"Eden will be calling an emergency meeting in the UN, and I'll need America's vote," he said.

"What's it going to be about?" she asked. She would need to know what the meeting would be called for in order to convince her father to go with his request.

"It's about forming a united government on earth. We need to be united in case of foreign entities arriving," he said, then remembered that, in his urgency to deal with things, he still hadn't told her the news and added, "Let's head to Lab City. I'll be able to explain things in more detail there."

Half an hour later.

"I'll ask my father, but even if America agrees, China and Russia will likely use their veto. They'll never relinquish the power they have at the moment," Rina finally answered after taking a bit more than twenty minutes to calm herself after receiving the shock of her life from Aron and Nova. Finding out that they weren't alone in the universe would be one thing, but who would ever be able to handle the news that, not only were they not alone, but their celestial "neighbors" were coming to pay a visit with any kind of equanimity?

"I know it might be a useless endeavor, but we need it to be done. I have to try every peaceful avenue of uniting the planet before using force. If I were to just skip straight to using force, there would always be people believing things could've been done peacefully and resisting the new government," Aron explained.

"But why do you want America to vote for it and not use their veto?" she asked. She couldn't imagine a scenario where Aron would want to peacefully join hands with the country that had treated him so shittily. He just wasn't that kind of person.

"I want it that way so that, in the future, when they start doing their selfish, arrogant bullshit, we can use their vote to highlight their hypocrisy," he said.

"But if father knows about the vote, he'll almost surely be against it," she said.

"Just don't tell him what the vote is for. You can ask for forgiveness later instead of permission now," Aron teased.

"I'll try." She hugged Aron to try and calm down again. Apparently, the shock of the revelation had yet to completely pass.

Aron said nothing, just hugged her back and rubbed her back as he gave a signal to Nova with his eyes to help calm her down.

...

"Yes, it's true," Aron sighed. He was in his parents' living room in reality with his parents and Henry, who was running around and playing with his toys. The boy was certainly using his break from school very wisely.

"So... you're telling me that what they're saying about you being a trillionaire is true?" his father repeated, not knowing whether he should be proud of his son or scared that a human could have that much money.

"That's their guess, based on the public data they have about my companies. The real number should be quite a bit higher, actually," Aron respectfully corrected.

His parents were shocked into speechlessness at the thought of that many zeros in anyone's bank statement, let alone their son's.

"Wow, can you buy me a robot?" Henry was the only one in the room that could speak after Aron's last response. His parents were still suffering a small mental shutdown.

Aron turned to his little brother and, with a smile on his face, said, "How about I give you one now?"

"Yes!" Henry jumped in excitement as he ran to his big brother.

"Put these on," Aron said as he handed his parents and little brother, who had climbed onto his lap, individualized pairs of AR glasses.

"The rest will be easy to explain with those," he added when he saw his parents giving the glasses in their hands weird looks.

After Aron's reassurance, they put the glasses on and discovered a whole new world.

"Oh my god," his mother exclaimed, echoed shortly by her husband as they came to the realization that they were in a completely new environment. Instead of a nicely appointed living room, they were now in front of a vast, beautiful flower garden with blooms of many colors scattered here and there. It looked like a field of wildflowers more than a cultivated, formal garden.

[Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Michael,] Nova said as she appeared out of nowhere, looking like an angel in her beautiful white dress. But despite her looks, she still scared the shit out of Aron's family with the sudden appearance; Henry even immediately hid behind his big brother.

"Don't worry, Nova's just one of the people responsible for overseeing this world," Aron explained as he patted Henry, who was still behind him, on the head.

"This... world?" his father asked, tilting his head.

"Yes, this world. A digital counterpart of the real one." He raised his hand, attracting their attention to it. "In here, everything is possible." As he said that, his hand changed, first robotic, then a tree, then back to normal. A flower materialized in it, then shortly disappeared and was replaced by a model of Optimus Prime, which he placed on the ground as he said, "Whatever I want can happen here." Moments later, the Optimus Prime model grew, then its eyes opened and it turned to Aron and bowed. Aron nodded to it, and it picked up Henry to go off and play.

Aron turned to his parents with a smile on his face. "This is what my company's been working on."

Chapter 338

"Mom, Dad, I have a few more people to introduce you to," Aron said.

A tall, upright woman dressed in an ARES uniform appeared. "This is Athena, the woman who manages ARES and trains them.

Athena bowed and said, [Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Michael.]

A burly, handsome man wearing thick denim pants, boots, and a leather apron appeared. "This is Hephaestus, who helps me with manufacturing all the things made in the automated factories," Aron said.

Hephaestus nodded at the Michaels.

A petite, slender figure that seemed cloaked in shadows was the next to appear. "This is Nyx, she's the one that helps us investigate things and defends us from most of the underhanded things other people try."

Nyx beamed a smile and said, [Mr. and Mrs. Michael, I'm so happy to meet you finally!] 𝒍𝙞𝙗𝒓𝒆𝙖𝓭.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"And these are Plutus, Asclepius, Hermes, Icarus, Helios, Coeus, and Hygienia. They all help with the companies named after them—well, all except Hygienia. She helps Asclepius and Helios, but her main duty is waste management."

Plutus was a fat, bald man with long earlobes dressed in gaudy robes and enough "bling" that it should be measured by weight, rather than numbers. [Hello,] he said with a smile and a friendly wave.

Asclepius was a tall, thin middle-aged man wearing a white robe and stethoscope draped around his neck. He nodded toward the Michaels with a grave face.

"Don't mind him. He's just a very serious person," Aron chuckled.

Hermes was a teenager, wearing a sturdy pair of pants, a t-shirt with the Dave Matthews Band logo on it, and a pair of sandals. He hopped from foot to foot as he gave Aron's parents a friendly smile and said, [Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Michaels. We've all been looking forward to meeting you!]

Icarus was a young man in his twenties, dressed in an old-fashioned toga. He smiled and said, [Hi, I'm Icarus. We've sort of met already, on your flight here from America and some of your flights around the world. But it's a pleasure to finally meet you face to face.]

Helios looked like he was in his late twenties or early thirties and was tall, well built, and handsome. He was dressed in a shining suit of gilded armor and gave Aron's parents a brilliant smile as he shook their hands. [Hello! I'm so happy to meet you as well!]

"There are still a few more," Aron said to his still-speechless parents. "There's Panoptes, Aeolus, and Poseidon, but they're a bit shy, so they weren't willing to come out and see you. Panoptes helps out with Pangea and my satellite network, the Panopticon. Aeolus and Poseidon are in charge of the Air Force and Navy, respectively. I'm sure you'll eventually meet them someday."

A few minutes passed with Aron's AI family awkwardly standing behind him and his real family speechlessly staring at the group. Finally, his father recovered and said, "Uhhh... nice... nice to meet you all? I'm sorry, this is just a bit of a shock. My wife and I were thinking that Aron had a bit of a lacking social life, but we, well... we didn't know he had so many, uhh, friends."

[Don't worry, Mr. Michael, we all love Aron just as much as you do. You can consider us your grandchildren, actually,] Nova said to ease the tension a little.

"G-grandchildren!?" Aron's mother, Rose, spluttered.

[Oh!] Nova blushed. [Yes, we're all Aron's children. You see, he created us—well, me, really, then I created my brothers and sisters. We're artificial intelligences, and we've been looking forward to finally meeting you in person for as long as we've been alive.]

Aron's parents froze again, and minutes passed. Then an hour passed, and Aron turned to Nova with a look of confusion on his face and asked, "Did we break them, or did we break the simulation?"

[I... I'm not sure,] Nova replied. It was the first time she had encountered this issue and she didn't know how to proceed.

...

Once Aron's parents recovered, he took his family on a tour of the sim. They visited Lab City, various nebulae in space, and even had the wondrous experience of standing far above the galaxy, where they could gaze down and see the "milk" of the Milky Way. From there, they wouldn't have been able to see Earth, except for the fact that Nova generously highlighted it, making it much more obvious against the background of space when surrounded by bright stars. The only thing he held back was the incoming "visitors"—he didn't feel the need to have them worrying and stressing out on his behalf. He also refrained from mentioning anything about his system, mana, or magic in general.

After finishing his introduction to and tour of the VR world, Aron left his parents in one of his mansions and gave them almost unfettered access, second only to his own and on par with the lead researchers in Lab City, then Nova teleported him to a restricted area.

[Congratulations, sir,] she said with a knowing smile on her face.

"Yeah, thanks for that. Keep an eye on them so they don't get injured."

[Don't worry, they're in safe hands. It's almost time for your next meeting,] she said.

...

"We have finished sorting the evidence of our incoming guests and creating a presentation. Now we're just waiting for your other preparations to be done before we call for an emergency session of the UN Security Council," Ambassador Foster, Eden's representative on the UN General Assembly, announced to Aron and the rest of the people in the meeting room.

"Then call for it in two weeks. Our preparations are nearly finished, and we already know what the result is going to be. The emergency session is just a formality and a justification in the future. It'll be a footnote in the history books, or at most a chapter," Aron said, raising goosebumps for a few people in the room over how nonchalantly he was discussing the possibility of kicking off World War III.

"Then we'll deliver the request for an emergency session right away," Ambassador Foster responded.

They continued their discussions, revisiting the evidence that would be shown to the UNSC during the meeting and how they would make it known to the world. The news would be released on Pangea before the UNSC session, allowing them to put on a front like they were doing their best.

...

A week after the congressional oversight committee hearing, the Department of Justice announced that they were opening an investigation into Aron for human rights violations, unlawful use of intellectual property, violating sanctions imposed by the US by doing business in Cuba, Syria, North Korea, and Iran, and more. If they took it all the way to trial and he was found guilty, he would receive fines in excess of a hundred billion dollars as well as five hundred years or more in prison sentences.

Not only that, it was in addition to the investigation being directed by the House oversight committee in Congress regarding GAIA's monopoly and all the other accusations levied against him as a result of his testimony before the committee.

Together with those announcements, the Morgans continued trying to destroy his reputation by paying people to post fabricated "evidence" against him on social media. What was laughable was that they were also having it posted on Pangea, with the idea that if he attempted to block it, it would simply justify their accusations and prove them all to be true.

But contrary to their expectations, Aron didn't bother blocking any of it. The posts were all performing very well on Pangea, or so they thought, as they had no idea that all of the interactions were only with one entity: Panoptes. Panoptes had dedicated a full 3% of his allotted processing power to tricking the Morgans into thinking their plan was going very smoothly.

As for the situation on other social media apps, nobody could be bothered to care about those, as everyone in the know knew that all of the hubbub would be forgotten in a week or so.

Chapter 339

A week later, the Edenian presidential office announced a press conference, claiming they would reveal something the entire world would definitely need to know.

The announcement attracted attention from much of the world; people were curious about what such big news would be. Especially since most of the world saw Eden as the bad guys, thanks to the constant work of the Morgans, the Chinese, and a few organizations that had joined together after suffering tremendous losses thanks to the Hephaestus IP issue and other movements on behalf of the Edenian government. Thus, speculation ran rampant all over the world; people were talking about it around the water coolers at work, on every social media site, every tv news broadcast on every channel, and it had even been discussed in many backrooms. The powerful people that moved behind the scenes were sure they had won and that Eden was about to capitulate, giving in to their every demand in order to repair their reputation on the global stage, which had sunk even lower than North Korea's had ever fallen.

Precisely at 11:58 on the day of the announcement, the press room of the Edenian palace was filled with reporters from all around the world. Cameras began rolling and livestreams began on the internet, but President Romero was yet to take the stage, leaving the viewers eagerly glued to footage of an empty podium with the Edenian presidential seal embossed on the front of it and a single microphone jutting from the top.

Not long after that, Alexander entered the room and calmly walked to the podium with a neutral expression on his face.

"Citizens of the great nation of Eden, ladies and gentlemen watching from home, and friends and enemies around the globe, good afternoon," he greeted, already firing metaphorical shots as he began his speech. "Thank you for joining me today. Although our announcement was abrupt, it was issued due to an emergency situation that requires us to inform the world. So I won't be apologizing for the short time you had to prepare your 'gotchas' for me." He paused and took a deep breath.

After the short pause to gather himself, Alexander switched from firing shots to dropping bombshells. "About four months ago, the Panopticon satellite network we launched discovered an object approaching our solar system at a quarter of light speed. At first, we thought it was just a scanning artifact. Due to the distance it was observed at, that was the likeliest issue. So we checked again, but the object was still there. Then we checked again. And again. And again... We checked until we were blue in the face, but..." He paused again, bringing his focus back to his prepared remarks.

"But no matter how many times we checked, the object still appeared on our scan. So after those continuous tests, we decided to create specialized observation devices, which we recently launched into the Lagrange points around Earth and the Sun. They are capable of a much higher resolution on a newly discovered frequency, giving us a much better view of the universe around us, or at least a ten-light-year radius of it.

"And the result of those scans is: the object exists. But at least we saw it in a higher resolution." The screen behind Alexander displayed the result of their constant data collecting over the past four months.

"Due to the importance of the discovery, we've already called for an emergency session of the UN Security council to discuss how we're going to deal with it. And just so you can verify it yourself, your space agencies, or even your amateur enthusiasts can go to our government website, where we've already announced the coordinates of the discovery so you can check it for yourself.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we hope that the UNSC will approve our emergency session request following your countries' verification of the discovery we made. Together with that, we invite everyone to download the data and verify it for yourselves..

"It is with the utmost sincerity that I say this: it is time for humanity to unite and combine our resources. If we can do that, I firmly believe that there is nothing humankind cannot overcome," he said in a grave tone, as if he knew the sheer, bloody-minded uphill battle he was about to face on the battlefield of politics.

He continued speaking for a few more minutes, explaining how they came to the conclusion that it wasn't just a planetary body in the vastness of space that coincidentally had an orbit that would pass through the solar system. He couched it in layman's terms and never forgot to mention that a more detailed and technical explanation could be found on their official website.

"I will now take questions," he concluded, resulting in all the reporters in the room raising their hands. No one wouldn't have questions after being told aliens might be coming for them.

Alexander pointed at one of the reporters, who said, "Jim Sterling, BBC News. What do you expect to come out of the UNSC meeting you've called? Shouldn't you have called a general assembly session instead of a security council session?"

"Excellent question. Resolution 377A, 'Uniting for Peace' lays out a specific method for calling an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly that will result in joint military action. According to that resolution, a general assembly the specific emergency session can only be called for if the UN Security Council has met, voted, and failed to come to a resolution. In order for the general assembly to meet, it requires seven votes in the UNSC or a majority vote in the general assembly. So, that being the case, we're moving as quickly as we can to present the issue to the general assembly." He pointed to the next reporter to ask their questions.

"Samantha Clark, Associated Press. Why are you telling us this now, instead of later when there aren't so many things happening on the global stage?" the next reporter asked.

"I'm telling you this now because we must assume the worst-case scenario is true: that the object is a crewed, hostile vessel. Letting you know so far in advance is to give everyone time to prepare for its arrival." A collective shudder passed through the reporters in the audience and they went completely silent. Thus, he clarified, "It isn't proven that they're hostile, and it'll be even better if they aren't, but it's better to prepare for the worst while remaining optimistic and hoping for the best." Alexander looked directly into the camera.

"Just in case," he emphasized.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 340

"Do you expect the UN to come to a good resolution?" the next reporter asked.

"Our hopes are high, since it's the only way for us to be prepared by the time they arrive".

"When are they going to arrive?" the reporter followed up.

"We aren't sure. Our observation period hasn't been long enough to determine that, so it depends on whether they're accelerating, coasting, or decelerating. Flying a spaceship isn't like driving a car—you accelerate part of the way, then coast part of the way, then decelerate part of the way. If you plan it right, acceleration and deceleration should take the same amount of time, but we don't have time to get into the more complex physics behind it. Basically, our estimates right now put them arriving around ten years from now at the earliest, and no later than twenty-eight years from now. So we need to get our affairs in order and prepare so we can face them as a united front within the next ten years." Alexander pointed to the next reporter.

"Do you think we're capable of facing a civilization that can travel at a quarter of light speed?"

"At the moment, there's zero chance of that. But if we unite as a species and work together, pooling our resources and pouring them into research, then, by the time they arrive... we'll be ready. All the divisions that plague humanity right now have developed us to where we are, but they also hold us back. Think of humanity as a train. Right now, there are two hundred train cars, each with one engine pulling each of them. But if we put all the cars together and link them up with all the engines, the train will go much faster." He moved on to the next reporter.

"What are the results you expect from the UNSC meeting?"

"A unified military front and a unitary representative of humanity."

Alexander continued answering question after question for more than an hour without stumbling once. Finally, he directed the reporters to the Edenian Space Agency website, where they could find more information, and the Edenian Official Press Department, where they could submit further questions to be answered in the form of either a press release or a website FAQ.

...

The world immediately reacted. All countries with space programs announced that they would immediately halt all current observation missions and redirect them to the given coordinates. Most hoped to disprove the Edenian discovery, while a few rare supporters hoped to prove it. Beyond that, physicists and mathematicians around the world began working on analyzing the data provided both by Eden and the results of their own countries' investigations, ironically proving what Alexander had said about needing to come together as a united front.

Still, when the experts and authorities began their investigations, whether they supported Eden or not, they were surprised when they dug into the data.

The main surprise was the sheer amount of it. There were hundreds of satellite images gathered by Eden, and terabytes of data overall. Thus, people with faster internet connections would download it, copy it onto portable hard drives and super high-capacity USB drives, then mail it to their fellow researchers.

The reason for the exaggerated file size was because it contained many proofs and new equations, as well as practically an entirely new branch of orbital and cosmic mechanics. And each equation required its own set of proofs, plus redundant equations that were solved and proven in different ways. There was virtually no chance that the data was mistaken. 𝘭𝒾𝒷𝓇𝘦𝑎𝑑.𝒸ℴ𝓂

That said, the evidence was so groundbreaking that there existed no specialists in the newly created field of study. Thus, mathematicians and physicists the world over called for quite a few conferences to discuss the formulas, their proofs, and the new branch of physics that had been discovered.

At those conferences, they divided up the work of checking through the enormous amount of raw data and the interpretations they had been provided of it. Once the initial checking was completed in a distributed format, they would come together again to perform the final checks. Still, it would be an uphill battle; almost no one could believe that Eden, whose space agency was barely known before the press conference, had people who were smart enough to discover an entirely new branch of physics by themselves.

It would definitely be a bitter pill to swallow for all the ivory tower elites, none of whom had been contacted by anyone in Eden at all beyond headhunting messages from the Coeus Foundation, who wanted to recruit them to lecture at the soon-to-be-completed university campuses in the fledgling nation.

By the second week of hard work by many physicists and mathematicians, they found that the calculations were true. But on the visual confirmation side, things were still being rendered by various supercomputers. Though they were delayed, results were still expected over the next few days after the data verification was finished.

And of course, Eden wasn't involved in the proof and verification process, as that would taint the results. They were occasionally consulted for clarifications, when necessary, but no mathematician or physicist who has ever proven a problem that stumped the entire math or physics world had ever been involved in verifying their own proofs, nor would they in this case.

...

"So what you're telling me is that it's true?" Trump asked during his daily briefing, which had been expanded to add the directors of NASA and DARPA as a result of the specificity of the issue.

"Unfortunately, yes. We finished rendering the images gathered by our equipment, and the results were similar to what the ESA came up with," the director of NASA explained.

"Why does it look like grainy things and dots when the Edenian's data showed things pretty clearly?" Trump asked after he had opened the briefing folder.

"We don't know exactly how they managed to get such detailed data when even the best of our equipment can only capture this. We think it's because of the task-specific deep space satellites they recently launched. Of course, something that's dedicated to doing one thing will do that one thing better than a machine that's broad in application," the director of NASA patiently explained.

"I know you're about to ask for an increase to your budget. We can make it happen, don't worry," Trump said as he pinched his eyebrows. He finally understood why every president entered office with a full head of vibrant hair, but left with sparse gray hair.

He turned to his Chief of Staff and said, "Get the press corps on this. Make the announcement and contact this month's UNSC president and... 'suggest' that they call the emergency session as soon as possible." Trump leaned back in his chair and delved into his thoughts.

'We're even losing the space race now. How the hell can we call ourselves the most advanced nation in the world, yet not be the ones that discovered this? We can't let them take the initiative now, and they should also be thinking the same,' he thought.

As for how they had managed to make the discovery when the object was yet to be visible in the real world, well... that was for the discoverers to explain themselves.

Chapter 341

After the many different governments that had space agencies confirmed Eden's statement, the world tipped over, and the discussions moved from Eden being the bad guys to the incoming aliens. It wasn't that Eden's reputation had suddenly become better, but rather that the attention span of the populace was limited, and the news of aliens completely overtook the more "local" gossip. 𝒍𝓲𝓫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅.𝙘𝙤𝒎

Over the previous two weeks, people had been comforting themselves by believing that Eden was wrong. After all, what could a nation that had no reputation and no world-renowned experts know, anyway? But the series of announcements by more credible experts had yanked that security blanket away from everyone. Currently, the dam had been broken, and the only things preventing complete chaos were riot police and the constant reminders that humanity still had time before the "visitors", as they were being called, arrived.

...

"It really worked," Aron said as he watched the announcements with a smile on his face, reveling in the satisfaction of a perfectly executed plan. "I love the smell of chaos in the morning."

[It would've been weird if it hadn't worked,] Nova said.

"By the way, how'd you do it? From what I recall, you said you had to use another means of detecting them since their light had yet to reach us," Rina asked, as by the time she had been informed about the aliens, Aron's plan was already in motion.

"You're right. But since the light has yet to reach us, we just had to make it appear as if it already had, at least in the direction we told them the aliens are coming from," Aron explained.

Rina understood what he was talking about, but was a little lost on how he had managed to accomplish it.

Seeing her confusion, Nova decided to explain in detail. [It was quite simple, really. While we can't exactly tamper with their observatories and satellites, we most certainly can intercept the signals coming from them. Once we broke their encryption, we could insert the data we wanted them to report into the signal. And since it would use their original encryption, they'd be none the wiser,] she began.

[The only tricky parts were figuring out which signals were being sent by hardware that was capable of detecting things at that distance, and flawlessly generating the false data. But once we figured out all the different hardware, all we had to do to generate the correct data was simulate it in VR, where I'm constantly running a galaxy-wide simulation. Then we harvested that data and inserted it into the signal feeding back to their supercomputers to be rendered.]

"Wow, really smart thinking on your side," Rina said. She was very impressed by how they had come up with a plan and executed it in such a short period of time, especially how flawlessly the whole process had been carried out.

"That's just for the satellite telescopes. Those were the easy part—the real difficulty came in how to insert our false data into the ground-based observatories and radio telescopes. Those couldn't be done wirelessly, like we handled satellites, since they rely on fiber instead of wireless signals to transmit their data. Luckily, observing space isn't considered a secret, for the most part, so all of their facilities were connected to the internet. That let us send a trojan into their systems and spread it all over, giving us a back door for the same data swap.

"Besides, there aren't that many supercomputers that can render images and files of that size, so we also snuck our data in there. Just as a backup in case we missed any of the other signals. That took a bit more work on the part of our operatives, since using the internet as a vector of attack against a supercomputer is bound to be noticed. But a technician doing routine maintenance on them, on the other hand, is just normal daily operations." Aron couldn't help but smirk a bit, proud of the wool he had just pulled over the whole world's eyes.

Aron and Rina chatted about the incoming aliens for a while, and potential countermeasures, until the subject naturally changed to the upcoming emergency session of the UNSC.

"I don't think America will vote for the united earth initiative, since the Morgans will never allow it to happen," Rina said. She'd thought about it, and had come to the conclusion that, even—or especially—if her father decides to go along with it, the Morgans would definitely still oppose it. They had a vested interest in the status quo, after all.

"Not really. In fact, it'll be quite the contrary. The Morgans will help push it along, due to the optics if nothing else," Aron said with a smile on his face.

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"Because they know there'll be a veto, even if it passes. So they'll take it as an opportunity to make America look good, since someone else will definitely jump out to be the villain that prevents the unification from peacefully happening. Then they'll use the chaos that arises from the failed UNSC vote to take power while everyone's busy guarding against everyone else. After all, it's easy to defeat a distracted enemy that has no allies, but if they had to face a united group of enemies it's another story entirely.

"With the likeliest outcome of the failed vote being a global war, the Morgans will do what they do best: co-opt the American military to serve for their own benefit and profits," Aron explained.

"You mean there's only going to be a few remaining nations within a few years as a result of a massive war?" Rina asked, very surprised by the revelation.

"That's how they'll think of it. All they have to do is come to an agreement with the nuclear powers to not fight each other, and everyone else will be nothing but chum for those few sharks with nukes. It'll be another age of imperialism, but this time with them being the sole party in power... or so they think, anyway." Aron wasn't just rambling, but explaining the results from millions, if not billions of simulated situations, designed with the assumption that Eden refused to get involved. But once they added Eden to the equation, it completely flipped around; Eden was the absolute winner in 100% of their simulations.

"Or so they think?" she mused.

"Yes, or so they think," Aron repeated with his usual smile on his face, his mind still swimming with the satisfaction that the first step in his grander plan had been successfully taken, and the second step was in progress.

Chapter 342

In a barracks on Avalon Island.

A red warning light flashed and a siren sounded. It was a call to the general assembly, and all of the soldiers in the barracks immediately dropped what they were doing and ran to the armory. There, after they formed up, they waited for instructions and Athena appeared before them in their AR glasses.

"One minute eleven seconds," she began. "I'm disappointed. SOP calls for assembly within 60 seconds of the alert sounding, but you lot," she gestured, sweeping her arm across in front of her, "thought it was more important to get dressed than to get here!"

If they hadn't been standing at attention, the soldiers in front of Athena would have hung their heads in shame. There were no normal barracks and there were no normal ARES soldiers. This was home to a Reaper battalion, and only the elites among the elites were housed there.

"We'll do better next time, ma'am!" they chorused at the top of their lungs.

"If this had been an actual emergency, you would be dead now. Keep that in mind, scabs!" Athena scolded. Though she appeared mad at them, she only felt a little irritation; eleven seconds was eleven seconds, but at least they weren't standing before her in their underwear. She could take comfort in that much, if nothing else.

"Down to business," she said. "I've got deployment orders for you. If your number is called, step to my left and form up with your teams. Team one—"

"Here, ma'am!" the Reapers of Reaper Team One shouted.

"I said move, not make my ears itch! Team three, team seven, and team eight, join team one to my left. The rest of you lot, dismissed!" Athena snapped and the teams in front of her sorted themselves out as ordered.

"Right. Make yourselves comfortable and join me in the briefing room. Fall out!"

...

The four Reaper teams logged into the VR briefing room, where Athena was waiting for them. Though it was unnecessary, she glanced at her wrist as if she was wearing a watch, then began the briefing.

"At 0931 hours today, orders came down from the top. Your four teams are being tasked with establishing forward operating bases and eliminating or co-opting local hostile forces. For this task, each of your teams will be assigned a Nyx agent and appropriate equipment for the locale. Each of you will be issued your standard kit, plus one classified kit carried by the agent.

"Team one, you'll be headed to the Caucasus Mountain Range. Avoid contact with locals at all costs—if you're discovered, your mission will be scrubbed. Head to Karalahti, Georgia, and make your way north to Mount Shani. There, you're to make yourselves comfortable and establish Forward Operating Base Bellerophon.

"Team three, you'll be headed to Colombia, where you will be eliminating or co-opting the forces of the Medellin Cartel and taking over their territory. If you are discovered, your mission will be scrubbed and you will be disavowed. So don't be discovered. You may choose any of their coca plantations or cocaine processing facilities to establish Forward Operating Base Perseus.

"Team seven, you're to head to Mexico. Culiacán Rosales, to be precise, in Sinaloa, where your task is to eliminate or co-opt the forces of the Sinaloa Cartel and establish Forward Operating Base Odysseus. If you are discovered, your mission will be scrubbed and you'll be disavowed.

"Team eight, you're headed to Somalia. Your task is to eliminate the terrorist group Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen and take over their territory, where you will establish Forward Operating Base Ganymede on the coast. If you are discovered, your mission will not be scrubbed. Your team will have air support from the Archangel squadron AO-1, so go sow the wind and reap the storm. 𝓵𝓲𝓫𝙧𝓮𝙖𝙙.𝒄𝓸𝙢

"You all have your orders. From today, you have exactly two weeks to make this happen. I'm not going to hold your hands on this one—you're no longer recruits or trainees, you are Reapers! So go forth and reap. Dismissed!"

The briefing room dissolved from around the teams and, with a brief stop at the armory to draw their equipment, they headed to the airstrip to meet their Nyx agents and transports.

...

In the air somewhere over Colombia.

Master Sergeant Jason Cordova, leader of ARES Reaper Team Three, was in a transport chopper above a sea of green treetops on his way to the Andes. He was confident and ready, he was sure of that, but for some reason his toes kept twitching in his boots. It was always like that for him; even in training, where he knew even in the fog of exhaustion that he was in no real danger of losing his life, he was still nervous before each mission.

He had performed well in training and was assigned the rank of Master Sergeant when he graduated, then posted with Reaper Team Three as the leader. But that nervous tic of his had accompanied him each step of the way.

He was used to it, now.

"Fifteen minute warning!" the chopper pilot announced and the light in the cabin went from a comforting yellow to an alert red. Everyone in the team logged out of VR and did the final checks on their weapons and gear.

The Nyx agent was an enigma. Wrapped in a black bodysuit with a midnight blue and dark gray web vest over the top, black leather fingerless gloves on her hands, and charcoal gray combat boots, she had neither said a word nor moved an inch through the entire trip from Eden to Colombia. On her lap was a large suitcase made of what appeared to be ruggedized, blued steel.

The team finished their checks and Jason's AR display listed each of his seven squadmates' names in green.

They were ready.

...

"One minute to drop zone," the pilot announced and the sliding doors on the sides of the transport helicopter opened. The red light that had begun flashing at the two minute warning was now turned off, leaving them in the dark of night.

The helicopter dropped low and the team waited out the final seconds before their mission began, each of them counting along with the timer displayed on their AR glasses.

"Drop, drop, drop!" The pilot ordered and the team fell out of the helicopter, followed by their attached Nyx agent.

As they dropped, a line extended from the helicopter to their gear, slowing their fall and allowing them to land unharmed. They looked around, finding themselves on a hill overlooking a mountainside villa where the leadership of the Medellin Cartel was meeting.

It was time for the cartel to meet the reapers, and then, perhaps, their makers.

Chapter 343

Master Sergeant Jason Cordova and the rest of Reaper Team Three were on the side of a mountain atop a sheer cliff. They were overlooking a mountain villa maintained by the Medellin Cartel and had been assigned a mission to either eliminate or co-opt the inhabitants and establish a hidden forward operating base in the Andes Mountain Range.

It was 8pm, six hours before they would begin their assault.

"So these guys are bad guys, right, sarge?" Corporal Justin McCullough asked.

"Yep. They peddle poison, enslave locals, and violently murder anyone who dares to interfere with their operations. Only reason they haven't been brought down yet is because they're so vicious that everyone's afraid of pissing them off," Jason replied. His toes were still twitching, so he appreciated the distraction provided by conversation.

"So why ain't we just, y'know, 'removing' 'em?" the corporal said, using air quotes around "removing" to indicate that he was talking about calling in an airstrike.

"Because we're not supposed to make a fuss here. We eliminate who we need to in order to infiltrate, then co-opt the leadership. That's what our spook is for. She'll ensure that their leader, Juan Carlos Mesa, will be a good little boy and turn to our side for as long as we need him." Jason spat on the ground next to where he was laying.

"I guess that makes sense. We gotta stay quiet as a church mouse 'n all." Corporal McCullough went silent for a moment, then continued, "So like, if these guys are really bad guys, then what'll happen after we take 'em over? Won't we be the bad guys then?"

Just like Jason had twitchy toes as the manifestation of his pre-mission jitters, Corporal McCullough turned into a chatterbox and his accent came out. He was a big corn-fed farm boy type even before the genetic enhancements, and after them, he looked like Lou Ferrigno from the old tv series "The Hulk". He was the team's heavy weapons specialist and his usual loadout was a chain coilgun. It was a testament to his strength, as those were normally mounted on vehicles or turrets because of their mass and recoil. But he could handle one just fine on his own, and when the metal met the meat he was a good guy to have on your side, so even with his chatterbox tendencies and thick, rural accent, nobody would ever be anything less than patient with the gentle giant.

"That's above your paygrade, corporal. I'm sure the brass has other plans."

The chatterbox continued chattering and the toes continued twitching as the team waited for zero hour, when their targets would be at their least vigilant. They would make their move then, but until go time arrived, each member of the team continued their pre-mission rituals. It was just another day in the life for the elite soldiers of Reaper Team Three.

The Nyx agent, however, simply lay in a slight hollow on the ground, remaining as still as a knocked-over statue. She would also do her duty, when the time came and whatever that duty was.

...

Andes Mountain Range overlooking the Medellin Cartel compound, 1:45am.

It was fifteen minutes to go and the nerves were getting to the team. This was their first mission outside of their training in VR, and though they felt as prepared as they could be, they were still jittery. Master Sergeant McCullough noticed their nerves, and to calm them, he offered some words of encouragement.

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers," he began. "For he today that sheds blood with me shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile. This day shall gentle his condition, and gentlemen in Eden now abed shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon this day."

(Ed note: Henry V, "Saint Crispin's Day monologue" by William Shakespeare is a great motivational speech. The whole thing is really good; google it if you want to read more, this is just a small bit of it that's been used many times before as an inspiration for others.)

"Amen," the rest of the team chorused. The Nyx agent, to everyone's surprise, joined them in a pleasant, low alto voice.

"Alright, gentlemen—and lady—it's time for final checks. Check your gear and report status," Jason ordered.

The team reported all green and the agent nodded. Seven men and one woman would soon be charging into the gates of hell, bringing death with them. The eighth man was a sniper, nested on the hillside they were currently resting on in order to provide cover fire. 𝙡𝒊𝒃𝓻𝒆𝒂𝓭.𝙘𝓸𝓶

...

Andes Mountain Range, "go time".

Jason gestured to his team to proceed with eliminating their preselected targets. As the team leader, his glasses' HUD allowed him a broader view of the chosen battlefield than the others. His target was highlighted in green, while other potential targets that had already been chosen by his team members were red, and the rest were yellow.

Thanks to Overwatch, the AI that was specifically tasked with providing satellite intel on active operations, the situation on the ground was clear and the team proceeded with eliminating their targets.

Jason leaped up the wall and drove his monoblade under the chin and into the skull of his first kill of the night, the monomolecular edge easily sliding through soft tissue and bone alike. It was an instant, silent kill, and he grabbed the front of the man's shirt and landed on the ground outside the compound's wall, where he tucked the fresh corpse up against the base of it. "Tango down," he whispered, then checked the status of the rest of the initial targets.

"Proceed to position two."

The team leaped over the walls and began stealthily clearing the guards. Everything went as smooth as a hot knife slicing through butter, and soon they were the only souls left in the compound that weren't part of the cartel leadership cadre.

The Nyx agent nodded and entered the building, escorted by two reapers. She had a lot of work to do, and thanks to the efficient and rapid work of Reaper Team Three, plenty of time to do it.

Chapter 344

It was ironic, Nyx thought, that the only avenue of research in which Lab City was incapable of producing any advancements was the art of torture. She was completely baffled by the fact that humanity's most advanced science was in harming other humans without killing them.

Killing, in fact, was easier. Humanity was just a special kind of species, she supposed. That they could be so cruel to their own kind had her logic circuits constantly tied in knots.

[Mother, why are humans like this?] She would often ask Nova whenever one of her children—the Nyx agents, or Nyxians for short—was needed to aid in interrogating a prisoner or other target.

But the only answer she ever received from Nova was: [That's just their nature. Humans have spent their entire evolutionary period figuring out how to kill, maim, and harm each other more efficiently. There is no right or wrong to that fact, it simply... is. Perhaps it's because they've never had to face an outside enemy and believe themselves to be alone in the vast, infinite universe.]

...

A Medellin Cartel compound somewhere in the Andes Mountain Range, present day.

Reaper Team Three had made short work of the guards surrounding the building housing their main targets, and it was time for the Nyxian to get to work. They set up a perimeter outside the building as she carried her oversize suitcase within.

"Phase one complete, in position for phase two on overwatch," Master Sergeant Cordova reported to the AI network.

[Roger, proceed as planned.]

Now that the death had finished, the screams would begin. He always hated the screams, but he would do his duty regardless.

...

The Nyxian, Mercedes Chavez, moved through the dark building like a ghost. The nanoweave fibers woven into her bodysuit generated an electrical field around her that ensured she couldn't be picked up on video or motion detectors, and the insulated underlayer prevented her from triggering thermal sensors. The only thing she had to watch out for were active personnel, and she had to admit that Reapers were very, very good at their jobs. There was nothing left that could be considered human anywhere in the mansion. Plenty of blood though; always plenty of blood. Reapers were kind of a blunt instrument like that.

Mercedes, though... Mercedes was an artist. If Reapers were hammers, she was a scalpel. It was the way she was trained and she took pride in her skills, as inhumane as they may be.

All Nyxians had specialties, but they were broadly grouped into a few categories: honeypots, cats, techies, hitters, and twists. Most of them were obvious; honeypots, for instance, were classic femme fatale seductresses who specialized in getting intel out of targets through "personal interactions", while cats were repossession experts trained in the art of Strategically Transporting Equipment to Alternate Locations (STEALing), and hitters were assassins.

But twists... twists were... special. There were relatively few twists in Nyx, and while the other categories of Nyxians were generalists that were simply better in one area than the others, twists were specialists. Their sole job was interrogating hostile targets through whatever means worked. Chemical interrogations, torture, blackmail, kidnapping, and every manner of things prohibited by the "Geneva Suggestions" were all just in a day's work for a twist.

And Mercedes was one of the best of them.

...

'Target acquired. Moving to neutralize,' she reported through the mind-machine interface in her specialized glasses. She had found the current leader of the Medellin Cartel, Juan Carlos Mesa, asleep in bed. She slid a pair of glasses on his face and triggered his entry into the white room.

She continued moving through the mansion, identifying and neutralizing the cartel leadership cadre in the same fashion before completing that phase of her mission and heading down to the panic room-style bunker in a sub-basement level below the wine cellar.

Once she reached the bunker, she opened the suitcase she carried, revealing a miniature atomic printer the size of a ladies' shoebox and an oversized mana battery. The case itself was made of solid steel, which would be used in the first phase of the secret forward operating base construction. The only manual operation of the evening was then performed by her: she pushed the power button on the atomic printer and left it to do its thing while she climbed back up to her initial hide from before the operation had begun earlier that night.

Once she reached her hide, she covered herself with an active camouflage fabric, or "snuggie" as the Nyxians liked to call them, and settled in for the next phase of her part of the operation. The interrogation.

...

Juan Mesa was having a very, very bad week. He had been peacefully sleeping in his bed, when suddenly, he woke up and found himself in a blank, featureless white room. He was wearing a white jumpsuit, including attached gloves and footies, and there was nothing in it but him. And he appeared to even have been shaved, so the only flash of color he could see other than white was his nose, if he crossed his eyes and looked down. The fabric of his jumpsuit even matched the rest of the room to the point where, when he looked down, it appeared that he didn't even have a body.

He had no idea where he was, how he got there, why he was there, or what he was supposed to do, but it was early yet, so he settled in to wait. Soon, he felt drowsy, and as his eyelids grew heavier and drooped closed, he was startled by a blaring alarm, flashing strobe lights, and the ear-grating sound of Ylvis - The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?) blaring through unseen speakers.

"WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY!? A-RING DING DING A DINGY DING DING A RINGY DING DING..."

He jerked awake and the music and flashing lights immediately ceased, as if they had never been. He rubbed his exhausted eyes, then saw a woman in front of him, dressed in a black bodysuit and wearing a featureless, black mask when his eyelids blinked open.

"Mr. Mesa, welcome to the white room," she said, her voice distorted through the mask she was wearing. "In here, an entire week will pass in subjective time for every hour that passes outside. You cannot die, but you will want to. Trust me, you'll beg for it. You will not hunger, nor will you thirst, but you will tell me everything I want to know. You'll beg to tell me even more things than I want to know.

"And I want to know everything, Mr. Mesa. Everything. You are scum, scum that peddles poison to children, and this..." she spread her arms wide and looked up at the ceiling, "is your hell. Here and now, you have a choice. You can choose to willingly cooperate with us, or you can choose to be forced to cooperate with us. But trust me, Mr. Mesa, you will cooperate with us.

"I will leave you to think about your decision, Mr. Mesa. I will return, whether in an hour, perhaps a day, or maybe even weeks from now... but I will return to hear your answer. Farewell for now, Mr. Mesa," she finished, then vanished as if she had never been there.

For Juan Carlos Mesa, reckoning had arrived.𝘭𝑖𝘣𝓇ℯ𝘢𝒹.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Chapter 345

A week after the announcement of the countries' verification of Eden's discovery, the day of the UNSC meeting finally arrived.

The delay was long enough to allow countries to come up with ideas on how to handle the "visitors", but not long enough to allow the citizens' anxiety to boil over into panic and its accompanying rioting and destruction.

It was also enough time for certain parties to profit from the discovery. A few cults had sprung up seemingly out of nowhere, one of which claimed that the visitors were merely a branch of humanity that had left long ago and were coming back to retake their ancestral home and uplift its current occupants. To them, the aliens were known as "the Progenitors".

Another cult believed that they were peaceful aliens, and that humanity's preparations for war would enrage them and cause them to turn hostile. To them, the aliens were known as "the Peacebringers".

There were many more small cults, but those two seemed oddly popular and had gained traction rather fast. Still, the cults were merely an insignificant blip compared to the number of people who had no firm beliefs either way.

Along with cultists, there were the conspiracy theorists. They believed that the aliens were a hoax meant to distract people from various pet conspiracy theories, like the deep state, the illuminati, the freemasons, and so on. Soon enough, once those secret societies faded back into the background, the hubbub surrounding the incoming aliens would gradually be silenced as the people who had "awakened to the truth" fell back to sleep once again. 𝓵𝙞𝓫𝒓𝙚𝓪𝓭.𝒄𝓸𝓶

The most pitiful groups were those who got together and committed group suicide, much like the Jonestown Massacre of 1978, under the instigation of Jim Jones, an American cult leader; or the Heaven's Gate incident of 1997, which mass suicided under the instigation of Marshall Applewhite, one of the co-founders of the cult.

And while the cults and conspiracy theorists were rising, so were the orthodox "UFO religions", which had long held extraterrestrials as part of their belief systems, like Scientology, whose adherents were firm in their belief that humanity had been entangled with various alien civilizations since the species' conception; and the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, who believed that the Earth was created 6000 years ago near the planet Kolob, then moved to its present location in the solar system.

The various cults, conspiracy theorists, and formerly minority UFO religions undergoing a wild surge, or resurgence, in popularity, the nations' leaders were in something of a bind. Practically all of the non-UNSC member nations were clamoring to change the hearing from a special session of the UN Security Council to a special session of the UN General Assembly so that their voices may be heard.

Except Australia, who, weirdly enough, had chosen to remain silent on the entire affair. When questioned about their silence, their ambassador shrugged and said, "Australia already has seven of the ten deadliest species of animals, insects, and plants in the world trying to kill us every day. So if the aliens come in peace, great! And if they're coming to kill us, well... they'll just have to get in line. I wish 'em luck with the magpies and the 'roos. And the spiders."

Their equanimity in the face of the chaos sweeping the globe was admirable, to say the least.

But despite all of the official, and unofficial, protests in the UN, the Security Council refused under the justification that it was Eden that called for the special emergency session, so only Eden could make the call.

Eden, coincidentally, had been staying just as silent on the issue as the Australians.

Thus, as a compromise, the only thing the members of the UN Security Council could do was decide to hold the emergency session as an open session and allow the media to broadcast it live. After that press release went out, the number of people on the streets had fallen to an all-time low as everyone who was old enough to understand what was going on was currently sitting on their couches, or laying in their beds, their eyes glued to screens of various sizes.

…

"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, esteemed ambassadors, and citizens watching at home and abroad, I now call this emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to order," Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta, the Egyptian permanent representative to the United Nations and president of the UNSC for the month of August, announced with a bang of his gavel. "We stand charged today with the solemn duty to determine the direction of the entire world in the face of the visitors, a group of extraterrestrials who are headed our way with unknown intentions. Let us bear that in mind and consider the issue with the gravity it calls for and deserves.

(Ed note: The UNSC only has five permanent member nations: France, China, Russia, the US, and the UK. However, their representatives are drawn from the UN general assembly, which consists of a "permanent representative" from each of its member nations and the UNSC representatives still hold that title in addition to their temporary titles as members of the security council. Ambassador Aboulatta has been the Egyptian representative to the UN since 2014 and served on the UNSC from 2016-2018; non-permanent members are elected for two-year terms.)

"I invite the Permanent Representative to the United Nations from the Republic of Eden to the floor to present her argument on behalf of the Republic of Eden. Ambassador Foster, I yield the floor to you."

Eden's representative, Ambassador Olivia Foster, stood and moved to the podium amidst the sound of camera shutters madly clacking in the background as the press fought to record this historical meeting. "Thank you, Ambassador Aboulatta, esteemed members of the security council. I'd like to take this opportunity to first thank you for agreeing to our request for an emergency session..." She spoke for close to half an hour, only occasionally pausing to moisten her throat, explaining the reasoning behind why they should prepare for the visitors' arrival by considering them a threat to humanity.

Only after finally finishing her explanation did she move on to the most anticipated part of this emergency session: Eden's proposed solution.

"Our proposal is to form a unified world government, with a singular space force—a naval fleet that will be the face of Earth's security. But that won't be enough, as at the moment, we're incapable of putting people in space for long periods of time without suffering a loss in health just from the adverse long-term effects of zero gravity, let alone space combat. Thus, in order to solve those issues, we'll need a joint research institute to which every country contributes, whether in terms of money, human resources, or both.

"As for the raw materials required to build the force, we propose that the research institute uses the material reserves in international waters that have already been discovered, or will be discovered as a result of their investigation." She paused for a moment to let people digest her words so far, then changed gears and moved to another part of the proposal.

"The unified government will have more power and authority than the current United Nations, which will step back and become a venue for hosting sessions to resolve issues that arise on the planet. The united government's authority will be absolute in matters regarding the preparations for the incoming visitors. As for the rest of the matters, the UN will remain mostly as it is, with the addition of a permanent president in the General Assembly and Security Council from the united government.

"That would ensure that no hindrances to our preparations can arise while still ensuring that non-urgent matters can be handled as usual. Our proposal is only in the initial stage of development, so all of the details need to be discussed in meticulous fashion, but in order to allow the greatest preparation lead time possible, we suggest that a fully-fledged plan must be drafted and agreed to before the end of this year, so within four months from today."

Ambassador Foster paused, this time for longer than just to moisten her throat, before beginning to wrap up her presentation. "Over the thousands of years that humanity has developed, from discovering fire, learning to speak, to using stone tools and weapons to hunt, then learning agriculture, entering the iron age, the bronze age, and so on, we are now at a crossroads. In order to allow humanity to progress further, this is a hurdle that must be overcome. It's time to put aside our petty infighting and tribal state and stand united as a single monolithic species. Should we succeed in that, I believe that in our unity, nothing is impossible. Esteemed ambassadors, President Aboulatta, members of the press, and people watching at home, thank you. I yield the floor to President Aboulatta," she said, then stepped away from the podium and retook her seat.

"Madame Ambassador, thank you for your proposal. I now open the floor for questions," Ambassador Aboulatta said and a few people immediately raised their hands.

Chapter 346

Ambassador Aboulatta pointed to the Chinese representative, who stood and said, "China would like to offer an alternate suggestion. The system we have has been perfected over many years and has already had all the problems worked out of it. So I suggest we continue the current system, as the UN has been at the forefront of maintaining peace between all the nations on the planet..." He continued speaking, finding more and more reasons they should stick with the current system. The UN had been around for over seventy years, after all, and there was no need to reinvent the wheel by creating a new united government system. That posed too many issues that couldn't be worked out in the time frame suggested by Eden, which was the only thing the Chinese ambassador agreed with Ambassador Foster on.

"For instance," he said, "many countries have differing ideologies, and just working out those alone would take more time than we have if we want to settle everything by late December." He argued that instead of forming a united government that only looked strong from the outside but was actually fractured within, it would be better to maintain the status quo, then continued, "But I do agree that too many leaders wouldn't be a good thing. So I propose that the UN Security Council's permanent representatives form a leadership council. France and the UK would combine to represent the European Union, while China, Russia, and America would be the other three members on the leadership council."

Following China's proposal, the Russian ambassador also gave their proposal. It was along much the same lines, but was phrased in a different way and suggested in a slightly more aggressive tone.

"Does anyone else wish to speak?" Ambassador Aboulatta asked, but was met with a resounding silence.

It was strange, since America was very opinionated in the UNSC and tended to hog the limelight whenever the slightest opening was left for them to do so. And considering that their historical competitors, China and Russia, had spoken, it was doubly strange.

"Since there are no other proposals, let us vote on the ones before us. First to be voted on is the proposal submitted to the council by the honorable ambassador from the Republic of Eden, Madame Foster," Amr said, then cast his own vote.

One by one, votes started being cast by the UNSC member nations.

…

Back in Eden.

January Lilungulu and his father were recent immigrants to Eden from Tanzania. They had arrived thanks to the Coeus Foundation's "Dreamer" program, and Lilungulu's father had been lucky enough to get a job working at a Hephaestus assembly factory, working on the line to manufacture a number of products that were on the sanction list.

Today, he and his father, who had taken a day off from work, were sitting in front of their television, just two more of the innumerable people watching the broadcast of the UN Security Council's emergency session on their local news program. The house they were in was new, and bought at cost with a low-interest, long-term loan that was offered to new immigrants by the Coeus Foundation, and the cost of goods in Eden was also fairly low, which had given the two of them a brand-new lease on life compared to what they had before in Tanzania.

Many people in Eden, both natives and recent immigrants alike, were flourishing, even under the sanctions. Many things that had been expensive in the past, due to currency exchange rates and import/export tariffs, were now cheap, and the quality of the goods produced in the Hephaestus assembly factories was even higher than things imported from more "industrialized" nations in the past.

The same was even more true for the people who had gotten jobs in those assembly factories, like Lilungulu's father had. But there was a certain respect given to those workers over and above the workers in almost any other industry, which let them hold their heads high in pride. And the education subsidies that Edenian schools offered students all the way from preschool to postgraduate degree programs ensured that the children of immigrants and native citizens alike would only be in better and better positions than the generations that came before them.

After all, the sanctions would be temporary, and once they were lifted, most of the assembly workers would need to find other ways of earning an income as the "rightful owners" of the patents for the goods currently being produced would likely take over the manufacturing of them.

All of the current economic and population stimuli that Eden was currently experiencing were a result of the decisions made by Aron and Alexander in order to increase the number of high-paying jobs, lower the unemployment rate, and increase the Edenian citizens' happiness. After all, content citizens weren't likely to declare revolutions and overthrow governments.

But not everyone in Eden was merry after the sanctions were imposed. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced out of their comfort zones and jobs that had previously relied on export industries, or were displaced by the government buying their familial properties in order to turn them into new farms.

If any group existed in Eden that would want their government to comply with the international community's demands, it would be those disenfranchised people.

However, things were even looking up for them, thanks in large part to Alexander's continued campaign of forging diplomatic and trade ties with other nations suffering under the same unfair yoke as Eden, and for different, but still bullshit, reasons. As the sanctioned nations drew closer to each other, exchanging goods, technologies, and even citizens, more and more of those disenfranchised Edenians began to slowly recover their previous lifestyles.

And with Panoptes and Nyx in charge of monitoring them, they were the first to be given the opportunities to restore their previous lifestyles if they were dissatisfied with the recent changes.

As for those that had been disenfranchised, poor, and so on before the imposition brought on Eden by the UN-backed sanctions, they had also been provided with opportunities to lift themselves up and into a comfortable life. They were provided with interest-free loans, job-specific education programs, various grants, and much, much more, all of which came from the Coeus Foundation in cooperation with the various related Edenian government ministries.

For example, Coeus provided funding to the Ministry of Agriculture in the form of co-signing guarantees on loans offered by the government, with the stipulation that they be used to buy land and rehabilitate it into farms. Once someone was offered an interest-free farming subsidy loan, they would then be given a place in a Coeus Trade School, where they would be taught how to farm, then assigned as a worker on an existing farm for hands-on experience from planting to harvesting during the loan approval process. It was all very efficient and guaranteed minimal wastage and maximum results. 𝘭𝑖𝑏𝘳ℯ𝑎𝑑.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The new government's efficient handling of economic and interior issues ensured that anyone living in Eden that had the drive to work hard would receive educational and financial support from the various government institutions. It was made very clear through daily government propaganda that the programs were available and in place for anyone that wanted a better life to receive one.

But for those who chose to not work hard and simply wanted to live off the government's charity, they were given three chances to change their mind. If they chose not to accept the government's various outreach programs—none of which were willing to harbor malingerers or the lazy—the government would simply stop offering them of its own accord. The programs would remain available, and the people would still be welcome to apply for them in the future, but they would have to ask for them instead of being offered them.

When all of the new initiatives were combined with a highly motivated, angry populace, the country would naturally grow faster after the sanctions than before. The citizens were enraged that they were being looked down upon and bullied by nations that were proud of their arrogance and threw their weight around with relative impunity, and it showed in the high adoption rate of the new programs.

But today, the entire nation of Eden had ground to a halt as nearly every Edenian citizen, like Lilungulu and his father, had been glued to their television, phone, and computer screens, watching the UN Security Council's broadcast of their emergency session regarding plans to deal with the visitors. They all wanted to know what their country was going to propose, and whether or not they would once again be ignored.

And from the looks of things, being ignored was likely to be the best outcome for the fledgling nation.

Chapter 347

UN Headquarters, New York.

It wasn't long before the display screen tallied and revealed the votes.

United States of America: in favor.

Russia: opposed.

People's Republic of China: opposed

United Kingdom: in favor

France: opposed

The moment the first no vote from the five permanent members of the security council appeared, everyone in the room, and the more politically savvy folks watching from home, knew the resolution had effectively been swatted. Even if the tally of the entire security council was in favor, no matter the margin, either China or Russia would use their veto power to kill Eden's proposal. Still, that was a moot point, as more than half of the non-permanent members had voted against it, two more had abstained, and the supporters were pitifully few.

Most countries apparently either agreed with China and Russia that the UN was enough, or they were against giving up any of the power they currently held and didn't want anyone to lord their authority over them.

The way the UNSC was set up, with five nations holding the power of veto over everything, it had devolved into a stage on which only they could perform, while the rest of the world could do nothing but watch the show. Occasionally to their benefit, true, but usually it was to their detriment or didn't involve them at all. Over time, that had turned the UN into an ineffective organization that could do nothing but say pretty words and hand down resolutions that only weak nations were forced to follow, while more powerful nations could ignore them with impunity. If anyone needed evidence of their toothlessness, the Russian takeover of the Crimean peninsula and openly stated intentions on an invasion of Ukraine was more than enough.

That wasn't even mentioning the corruption in the organization, which was only hidden behind a thin veneer of politeness. The issue was evident in the resolution following the closed-door hearing regarding the situation between Indonesia and Eden, where the Edenian ambassador presented hard evidence to support their side, while China was backing Indonesia. Needless to say, the corruption in every level of the UN was now blatantly apparent to anyone who cared to pay attention; the only thing saving the organization now was the fact that the hearing had been held behind closed doors and the security council was notoriously good at keeping secret what they needed to keep secret.

Following the vote, the internet erupted in protests, which spilled over onto the streets and steps of government buildings around the world. People were fearful, and expressing that fear as they realized that their governments were dragging their feet on an issue where every second counted. Every second they weren't researching, every second they weren't discovering, and every second they weren't building or training was a second that could potentially trigger a domino effect that would exterminate humanity as a species!

Unfortunately, even the protesters were as united as a dish of loose sand. Some protested against the united world government, but others protested against it. And those protests were mostly split according to how the vote went; countries that had voted for it were protesting against the resolution's failure, and countries that had voted against it were protesting the fact that it had even been considered at all.

Another dividing line was along the level of countries' development. More industrialized, "first world" nations—like America and most of the EU—wanted things to remain as they were, while the proposal of a united world government had gained momentum in less-developed nations, like those in Central Africa and Oceania. They knew that if they couldn't get a united world government with a monolithic research institute, they would stand no chance at all of surviving if the visitors were hostile, so their lives were literally on the line. 𝓵𝓲𝓫𝒓𝓮𝙖𝓭.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Humanity had become irrevocably fractured. The divide between developed and developing, powerful and weak, rich and poor, old and young, conservative and liberal... the list went on. There was no unity to be found, and the discovery of an extraterrestrial civilization headed their way had torn away the facade that had previously covered the severe fracturing of the species and thrown all the moral bullshit and excuses out the window.

"I don't know whether to applaud humanity's selfishness or be enraged by it," Aron sighed as he watched chaos sweeping the world. People were showing their helplessness, fear, and anger with widespread destruction, vandalism, and a skyrocketing crime rate everywhere except Eden, and again, weirdly, Australia. Eden, because their country was prosperous, happy, and developing well but also a very highly trained police force that knew how to deal with such things backed by a very swift but brutal just justice system that punishes people according to the damage caused by the crime making all crimes in Eden have no ceiling of the punishment they could be given as a result of weight of the committed crime, while Australians were simply sanguine and phlegmatic as a whole.

Still, there was no mockery in Aron's tone, only a bitter kind of sadness. He knew that human nature was actually humanity's worst enemy, and part of human nature was for people to prioritize themselves when the species' life was on the line.

[They don't know that panicking is the worst possible reaction to have when their entire civilization is on the verge of destruction,] Nova said from beside Aron, where she was accompanying him in watching the painful process of the destructive act of creation.

"Say you!" Aron growled jokingly. He gave Nova a side eye as he remembered that her panic attack during his upgrade had cost him more than five billion loss that day which was chump change for him but still, he couldn't waste an opportunity to mess with her.

[I learned my lesson after a single error, but humanity continues repeating their mistakes time and again. They say that 'those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it,' but I like the response by Friedrich Hegel: 'the only thing we've learned from history is that we've learned nothing from history',] Nova said in a shy voice.

"True. Humanity can only learn through experience, and experience is something you only gain through fucking up. So as long as they don't experience the negative aspects of the panic, they'll never learn to be calm and think carefully under pressure." Aron was speaking as though he himself wasn't human, something he didn't realize had been happening more and more since his upgrade. But if he did notice it, he likely wouldn't care regardless.

Humanity had disappointed him on far too many occasions, after all.

"Another thing that's worsening the chaos is the herd mentality. Humans are social animals, and when gathered in groups, they act as a group rather than relying on their individual judgment. So none of them have any control over the situation, and none of them will allow an individual to take that control and direct the herd. A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals—especially in a situation where they lack any practical experience on how to handle themselves, like this one.

"Humanity is being tested, and it only remains to be seen whether they pass or fail." Aron massaged his temples and pinched the bridge of his nose, then sighed.

"Give me a list of names. I want to know everyone who's instigating and worsening the chaos in order to deal with them in the future. I can't allow that kind of bullshit when we're fighting for our lives," Aron said. He knew that there were some true "agents of chaos" in the crowds inciting and triggering them, but the majority were intelligence operatives. He even saw a few agents he recognized by sight, having dealt with them relatively recently, either personally or through skirmishes between them and the Nyxians.

[Yes, sir,] Nova said, then got to work collating the name list and the evidence backing each individual's inclusion.

Accompanied by a flash of light, a burly giant that stood nine meters tall, wearing ragged brown trousers and sandals on his feet appeared. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and his muscular upper body was covered in tattoos of eyes in every shape, size, and color, all of which rippled and moved seemingly on their own. He was none other than Panoptes, the AI that monitored social media and ran the Panopticon satellite network.

[There's a situation online, Grandfather,] Panoptes reported. [The Panopticon intercepted signals between American, Chinese, Russian, and British satellites—it appears they'll soon be coming for you to either take your tech by force or force you to 'voluntarily donate it for the betterment of mankind'.]

"Let them come. I've been waiting for them," Aron sneered as he focused on the second list Nova had collated for him: a list of people who had remained calm despite the situation.

Chapter 348

After a week or so of chaos, the various governments finally stepped in. They ordered their police forces into action and constantly urged the citizens to return home. They argued that nothing could be done if the population didn't remain calm and allow them to work, and pointed out that aimless protests and riots did nothing but waste time that should be spent on preparations. Together with Panoptes guiding social media and the GAIA OS AI assistants discreetly acting to calm their users, cooler heads finally prevailed and things started returning to normal.

...

"Are all of our preparations complete?" Trump asked the secretary of defense.

"Yes, sir. We're ready to proceed," the SecDef replied as he handed the folders in his hands to the president.

Trump said nothing, but briefly scanned through the contents of each folder. After closing the last one, he nodded in satisfaction and said, "We can move forward with this."

"When will you do the press briefing?" the Secretary of State asked.

"Call for a press conference in the Rose Garden today. We need to calm the public and regain their support as soon as possible," Trump said, opening the folder on top of the stack on his desk to read the contents in more detail.

...

Later that day, the White House Rose Garden, which was usually used for happier announcements, was filled with reporters from every news agency that had a White House Correspondent Press Pass. Despite the short notice, white house correspondents were available at any time for situations just like this one. This time, though, the press conference had been opened to everyone who wanted to attend, white house correspondent or not.

It was being held in the Rose Garden for that specific reason, as they wanted as many reporters to attend as possible and space in the briefing room was naturally limited. Today's press conference would be the first one held by the president after the mess caused by the UNSC special emergency session, where the UN had decided to do basically nothing.

When the conference was scheduled to begin, President Trump followed a few of his cabinet members out of the white house, then took to the podium after they had lined up at the back of the stage the podium was set up on. The podium was decorated with the presidential seal, and the US flag was proudly flying from every conceivable surface of the stage setup. It was tacky, gaudy, and looked like the stage at a campaign rally; it was uniquely Donald H. Trump's style. He had personally taken over decorating the venue, as he knew the speech he had his press secretary prepare was bound to go directly into the history books.

He straightened the red trucker hat on his head and his long tie, then began speaking. "My fellow Americans, when our forefathers dreamed of a new nation, one founded on freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they looked to the vast horizon of the great unknown. Today, we, too, gaze into the unknown, but our eyes lay above the horizon and our gaze stretches into the vastness of space.

"Unfortunately, when you stare into the void, the void stares back at you.

"Just a short while ago, our great nation and the rest of the world received and was startled by the discovery of an approaching extraterrestrial object. I remember the phone calls, the briefings, and the weight of the decisions that lay ahead of me at that time. But more than anything, I remember the palpable fear."

He said the last words slowly, as if he was reliving the experience.

"I remember the uncertainty that gripped our citizens and the questions on everyone's mind: are we ready? Are we prepared? Are we capable of facing them...?

"For too long, space has been the final frontier, a domain of mystery and wonder—so much wonder—but also of vulnerability. And in the face of this new challenge, it isn't enough to offer hopes and prayers. We must be prepared. And as your president, while the world is dragging its feet, I have an obligation and a duty to ensure the safety and security of every American."

He stared directly into the camera in front of him.

"And when it comes to defending America and its citizens, it isn't enough to just have an American presence in space. We must dominate space! We must lead others and act as a beacon for humanity to learn from and follow, just like we did when we landed on the moon in 1969!

"In order for that to happen, I hereby direct the Department of Defense and the Pentagon to immediately begin the process of establishing a Space Force as the sixth branch of our armed forces.

"Our Space Force isn't just another branch of our armed forces, but a testament to American ingenuity, determination, and our unwavering spirit. As we've done throughout history when faced with new challenges, we'll adapt, we'll innovate, and we will overcome!" he said in an enthusiastic tone designed to raise the morale of the American citizens.

"Together with the formation of the Space Force, we're going to subsidize and offer tax credits and deductions to all companies that are willing to focus on space and help the American military to rapidly develop the necessary technology."

"To those who wonder about the cost or necessity of such a force, first of all, shame on you. The safety of our citizens and the security of our nation are paramount. There is no price too high.

"Secondly, the Space Force will not only defend against the incoming extraterrestrial threats, but will also secure America's domination in space exploration, research, and development.

"I call upon every citizen to support this new endeavor. And to the men and women who will join the ranks of the Space Force, I salute you. You're the pioneers of a new age, the guardians of the final frontier.

"Together, as one united nation, we'll face the challenges of tomorrow. We will rise, we will thrive, and as always, America will prevail.

"God bless you all, and God bless the United States of America. Thank you," he finished as the reporters in the audience and his cabinet members standing behind him in solidarity burst into applause. His speech had given everyone who'd watched it a newfound sense of hope.

Chapter 349

After a lengthy standing ovation, the reporters finally came to their senses, remembering that the press conference notice had mentioned that they would be allowed to ask questions. And once they finally came to their senses and remembered they were there for a press conference, not a press briefing, hands rose among the crowd.

Trump pointed to one of the reporters he knew in the front row. "You first, go ahead."

"Are you indicating that you're closing the door on the option of a unified world military?" asked the correspondent from Fox News.

"No, we aren't doing that. We're starting by ourselves because America is the leader of the free world and it's time for us to step up and lead. We'll eventually come to an agreement, but by taking the reins now, we'll be able to get a headstart so the time we spend closing the deal isn't wasted," he answered. His press corps had already given him a list of questions that would likely be asked and prepared him ahead of time. He pointed to the next reporter, the correspondent from Breitbart. "Your turn, go ahead."

"There were three plans presented to the security council. Why didn't we propose our own, and which of the three plans will your administration support?"

"We're still weighing our choices, but thankfully it was me that won the election. If it was Clinton, who knows what kind of mess we'd be in now?" The White House Press Corps staffer standing behind the cameras paled and broke out into a cold sweat. The president was going off script again. "Such a mess, so many messes. My administration will choose only the best plan after carefully weighing the options. Only the best," Trump said. He knew the Breitbart audience and what they wanted, so he would give it to them in order to keep their attention focused on him. He silently sighed, then pointed to the correspondent from MSNBC. He still had to at least appear fair, after all.

"What do you think will happen to countries that can't afford to create a space force, like you just directed our country to do?"

"They can invest money then, or researchers. R&D is still needed at the moment and even if they aren't as smart as we are or as rich as we are, they can at least deliver coffee and push mail carts." He pointed to the correspondent from CNN.

"Wouldn't every country forming their own space branches while the talks are ongoing create a strategy clash as each country fights to have the world adopt their strategies and doctrines?"

"That's part of the reason I directed the formation of a space force today. I'm not a politician, I'm a businessman. And a good one, too. So good. And even the worst businessman knows the benefit of being first to market and I'm far from the worst. Politicians like to talk, talk, talk, but soon they're gonna realize that we left them all in the dust and, in a year at most, the whole thing will be settled and we'll still be on top. So it'll be our space force that leads, and our doctrine that they follow, and our strategies that they enact, I promise you that."

The Q&A session lasted longer than most, and Trump mostly answered them well. He stuck mainly to allowing the media outlets that supported him to ask questions and avoided the unfriendly reporters until he wrapped up the conference and left. 𝓵𝙞𝙗𝙧𝙚𝒂𝙙.𝓬𝒐𝒎

...

The reaction to Trump's announcement was immediate. The Americans, at least, calmed down and returned mostly to normal when they saw that something was being done. It could be compared to the reaction after the attacks in 2001, where there was an initial panic until the government stepped in and announced a concrete plan on how to prevent it from happening again. The same thing happened with the discovery of extraterrestrials now, and the same approach to calming the public had worked again.

And the calm period hadn't arrived for America alone, but also for the rest of the world. Or most of it, at least. In North Korea, there had never been a mass panic to begin with, as the government hadn't informed the regular citizens of the discovery at all in the first place. Kim Jong-Un was patting himself on the proverbial back over having foreseen the period of mass panic and solving it before it could even start.

Another reason the panic had died down in the rest of the world was because of the common belief in America's strength. After all, America had been the world police for decades, and generally speaking, when they said they would solve a problem... The problem was soon solved.

One way or another.

Besides, now that the United States had acted, their opponents would do the same, if only to not be left behind or left vulnerable. After all, a space force was just another army, albeit one that could be used to attack anywhere on Earth.

And the people weren't wrong, either, as hours after Trump's announcement, Russia and China announced the formation of their space forces as well, if differently named. For Russia, it was the Roscosmos Armed Forces, and in China, it was the Chang'e Guardian Force.

China and Russia also announced that they would be ramping up their production of nuclear weapons, as they believed only those would be useful in space warfare. They were the strongest weapons humanity had developed over its entire existence, and with the radiation contamination being a non-issue in the vacuum of space, they were perfectly suited for ship-to-ship combat.

As for the rest of the countries in Europe, they each announced they would be negotiating as a single body, the EU. They had already opened a dialogue with the American government to see if they could share the financial burden between the many countries in the EU and America, but if that didn't work, they would be forming their own European Space Navy as a single military entity.

As relative normalcy returned to the world, people looked for opportunities to profit and a new market bubble was blown. Analysts and trendsetters, like Warren Buffett, believed that the space boom would go even further than the dot-com bubble in the late 90s.

With the formation of a new market bubble, companies that had something to do with space, such as SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, and Maxar Technologies, experienced a meteoric rise on the stock market, hitting the limit every day. People heavily invested in them with the belief that their shares would continue increasing in value nonstop over the next decade or two.

The legitimate companies weren't really a problem. In fact, they were a great opportunity for everyone, and something that Aron had envisioned as part of his unified research program idea, but there were still problems. Shitty companies began appearing one after another, promising that they had The Solution? to everything and attempting to take their companies public as soon as possible. That said, nobody but the poor people were fooled by their claims; rich people could already recognize them for what they were: a pump-and-dump scam, where the company would cook their books and make wild claims in order to attract investors and drive their share prices up, then dump all of those shares after they made enough of an increase, pocketing the difference.

It was absolutely against the law, but for some strange reason, the Securities and Exchange Commission either didn't have the time or lacked the interest in pursuing the companies that had obviously been formed specifically to break that very law.

Chapter 350

"Everyone's finally picking sides," Aron said as he read a report on the current happenings around the world. He knew that, soon, the "big" countries would begin negotiations on how they would divide the planet between them and exploit the resources in their territories for their own gain and, coincidentally, the formation of their individual forces.

"So why aren't you making an announcement of your own space force? Wouldn't that increase your citizens' morale and pride?" Rina asked. She had already laid her eyes on some of the ongoing research projects in Lab City, as well as their mature discoveries, and she knew that nobody on Earth could catch up to Aron in terms of technology. Not in a decade, and likely not ever.

"There's no need to make it known to the world right now. In peoples' minds, we already have a very well-established and advanced space research institute. The moment we discovered aliens, and our discovery was backed up by other, 'more advanced' nations, that much was set in stone. Our lead in the current space race is already cemented, and everyone knows we already have experts in the field. So I expect offers to cooperate to start rolling in one by one for countries that can't afford to buy my tech, and offers to buy from countries that somehow still think I'll sell it to them," Aron sneered. He was looking at the situation from the sidelines like a kid looked at ant colonies and was just waiting for the right moment to bring out his magnifying glass.

"Besides, do you really think they," he gestured at the invisible "them", waving his arm in front of him, "would believe that we have the money to spend on research right now when we're dealing with the current UN sanctions?" he jokingly added, eliciting a chuckle from his girlfriend.

"So I've been wondering over the past few days... what would've happened if the UNSC had agreed to your unification proposal without any hindrance?" she asked.

"I would've kept my aspirations to the business world instead of world domination. While I would've still built a private navy to protect myself and my companies' products, I would've just become the world's biggest businessman dealing in arms and black tech. Together with that, I would've released my VR simulation to the public earlier, to reduce the time and resources spent on R&D while keeping an eye on everyone else's advancements. I still would've been the ultimate winner regardless, but at the moment... Does it really matter?" Aron had been positive at the time of the UNSC emergency session that his proposal would fail, but even with that, he'd still had a detailed backup plan in place in case things went contrary to his expectations.

Rina remained silent for a while, thinking of the chance that her family and its wealth would exist following Aron's eventual takeover. She ultimately came to the conclusion that the Rothschilds were unlikely to survive as they were and that saddened her a bit. No matter how they had treated her, they were still her family.

Still, she couldn't bring herself to ask Aron to intervene on their behalf, because she knew that deep down, the Rothschilds were no different from the Morgans. While the Morgans had been the primary driving force behind the invasion of Iraq and the ultimate architects of the 2001 attacks, the Rothschilds had been responsible for their fair share of atrocities as well. For example, Operation Desert Storm in the 90s, the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, and more could be laid directly at the feet of the Rothschild family.

At their very cores, the two families were identical in their way of doing things, and Rina knew that the only reason Aron hadn't already acted against the Rothschilds was because they had yet to do anything to him that would require a response. Unlike the Morgans, who had signed their own death warrant the moment they began plotting against him.

Although Aron was no saint himself, and had done some very shady shit, he always had sound reasons for doing what he did. Reasons that didn't include "personal enrichment" as the first, second, third, and fourth on the list while "increasing power and authority" was sixth through tenth.

'Still, I'll try my best to salvage what I can of my family and change it for the better. So let the upcoming destruction suffice as punishment for what my predecessors did and a cleansing fire that redeems what remains,' she said to herself, her gaze focused on the garden in front of her.

…

It didn't take long for congress to wrap up their investigation into GAIA Technologies and direct the Department of Justice to open a case against them. The charges were violating US antitrust laws, market manipulation, and multiple counts of copyright infringement. They were hoping to levy enormous fines and force their OS, or at least the core code it relied on, to be made public or risk being prohibited from doing business in the US. Plus, the fines would go a long way toward lining certain elites' pockets.

The announcement of the case being opened came a few days after the public calmed down from the recent alien panic.

It was perfectly timed to go mostly unnoticed by the general public, unfortunately, and the coalition of American tech conglomerates was doing their best to get it into the public consciousness. But as a result of the constant stream of news about the visitors, they decided to use the delay to formulate a more perfect PR plan to demonize the company. They would focus on preparing and spreading rumors about GAIA Technology stealing and selling user data, and blaming them for doing everything that the public hated that the coalition themselves were guilty of. It would be a campaign of thieves crying about theft.

While that was ongoing, the government of Eden declined all offers to form a coalition with countries that were forming their new space forces and research institutes. Eden responded with the argument that they can't join a coalition that doesn't include every country in the world, as they would be remaining strictly neutral as per their standard diplomatic policies. Plus, they didn't want to deepen the division of the world along the rich and poor line, increasing the inequality between them and countries that couldn't afford to create their own. Nobody would want the "leeches" in their coalition, and that term would include Eden except that they had already shown their prowess and technology advantage by being the first to detect the incoming extraterrestrial object.

That decision was met with different reactions. Some thought they were taking virtue signaling to a ridiculous extreme, as their lives were on the line, while others applauded them for condemning countries for doing things on their own and wasting resources that could have been used in a more efficient, united manner to avoid wastage and duplicate efforts.

As a result of Eden's decision, the countries that had invited them decided to instead ask for the tech they used to discover the visitors, going so far as to word it in a way that implied they would be acting against the public good if they refused to "donate" their technology to "the cause". Implied was the threat that the entire world would consider Eden to be the villains if they refused the "fair and equitable" offer of giving everyone something for nothing.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 351

On September 17th, 2017, North Korea publicly detonated a hydrogen bomb as a weapons test. Given the general uselessness of radiation in space, as well as the lack of heat transfer, the general consensus was that space combat vessels would be armed with hydrogen warheads instead of regular fission warheads. While humanity, as far as they were aware, hadn't yet mastered controlled nuclear fusion, the uncontrolled variety was much easier and plenty destructive enough to be used as a weapon against aliens.

Two days later, while the "civilized" governments were busy threatening more sanctions against North Korea, they launched a ballistic missile that passed over Hokkaido, causing alarms to ring out in every country that had missile launch detection programs and nearly instigating a full-blown nuclear war. If it weren't for the incoming aliens, humanity likely would have self-immolated that day; especially since the ballistic missile test came only days after a public hydrogen warhead test.

That day, the Doomsday Clock was set to 30 seconds to midnight from the relatively "safe" time of two-and-a-half minutes to midnight it was before the missile launch. Humanity was the closest it had ever been to doomsday.

…

"They're really pushing our limits," Trump said as he read a report about the mess caused by North Korea's test fires.

"Looks like when Eden helped them with their sanctions, it gave them the balls to do what they want. After all, more threats of sanctions against them is pointless with those fucking blockade runners from that third-world shithole," Trump's new Chief of Staff, John Kelly cursed.

"Isn't China supposedly keeping their dog on a leash? As far as I know, North Korea is just China's attack dog. They let them bark and rattle sabers every now and then just to remind us that they could unleash them at any time," Trump asked.

"This time, even China seems to have been caught off guard," the CIA director reported.

"What do you mean by that?" Trump asked.

"North Korea has been breaking free from Chinese control thanks to the coalition formed by Eden. In the past, China was responsible for 70% of their food and energy needs, so they had a leash to control them with. But now that they can get what they need from Eden, with no strings attached, they've been growing closer to Eden and away from China. That's why, we think, they've become bolder—it's because the damn Edenians removed China's leash from around North Korea's throat."

"So you're telling me there's a chance things will get much worse than this?" Trump asked.

"Most likely, yes, so long as Eden continues providing them what they need without strings attached. As long as that trade continues, North Korea can do whatever the hell they want."

"So let's remove Eden from the equation and let China put a shackle on their dog again. After all, those morons are incompetent and the last thing we need is a war started by their missiles failing during the boost phase and falling on Japan, or worse, South Korea," Trump said after a moment of contemplation.

"How about we promise to remove the sanctions against Eden if they cancel their deal with North Korea?" the aide from the State Department suggested.

"That won't work. They already know we can't do that on our own. It'll take a Security Council resolution, and right now, Russia would probably veto it just to muddy the waters further. Or worse, they'll want to trade our support for their slipshod plan, and that's the absolute last thing we need," the Chief of Staff replied.

"So how about threatening to sanction that... What's his name? Adam? No... Aron. Aron Michael. How about we threaten him personally with sanctions, since his companies are responsible for producing and delivering everything that's letting North Korea be ballsy. Then they'll be forced to go back to begging China for food and oil, and China will have the leash again," Trump mused.

"He's a very important figure in Eden, and combined with his individual power and influence, he's a huge target. But since a lot of his funds are in our banks, or banks that we can 'influence', that's possible," the CIA director said.

"I don't think sanctions are a good thing at the moment, as we need their tech. And if we piss off the owner of the companies responsible for researching and producing it, it's likely to backfire since he can use the sanctions as an excuse for why he won't give it up to us and paint us as the bad guys," the Secretary of State said.

"Then how about a naval blockade on North Korea? Can we do that?" Trump asked.

"It's... technically possible. Naval blockades are considered acts of war, but we can interdict their trade ships and force inspections on them with the excuse of checking them for weapons and other banned items," the Secretary of State replied. "It wouldn't make it completely impossible for Edenian shipments to arrive in North Korea, but it would delay it by a lot. The tricky part is that Eden is a neutral country, so there'll be some political wrangling and horse trading involved, but it's doable... technically speaking."

"Like we do in Cuba?" Trump asked. 𝓵𝙞𝓫𝒓𝙚𝓪𝓭.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Yes, but it'll take two fleets, since we don't have coast guard ships capable of sailing that far. We've got the Ronald Reagan carrier strike group and the America amphibious ready group in the area, but we can't pull any more than that without compromising ongoing operations elsewhere," General Mattis replied. "Plus, it won't be a perfect interdiction, but it'll cover most of the ports at least."

The discussion continued into the early afternoon as they worked out how the interdiction would be implemented, what they would be announcing to the public, and so on.

…

"Father, I think it's about time we start the final escalation act. We need to focus on the aliens, so it's high time we stomp Eden into the mud. There's a high chance the Rothschilds will try to stop our plans in Eden, like we did theirs in Yemen back then, so we should focus on building up public opinion against Eden now," George Morgan said. He had learned that the previous upswell in anti-Eden sentiment had fallen once the public's focus shifted to the incoming alien threat, which he considered a fine move on Eden's part.

"We need something huge, and on American soil, otherwise the people won't be angry enough to merit a military response. But it'll serve two purposes... First, it'll get our revenge against those peasants, and second, it can serve as the opening act to forcing takeovers in a lot of countries that are currently just wasting space and resources.

"And although the aliens are an opportunity, even if an unplanned one, we need to put those countries to bed within the next two years since we're on a timer," he mused. He was thinking along the same lines as many powerful governments were; it was time to reduce the cacophony of voices in the UN, or whatever the united government would be in the near future. And he wanted the first mover advantage.

"Let's frame up a bombing attempt on the 9/11 anniversary this year. It's the best time to unite people, as they're already busy remembering that particular masterstroke of ours," George suggested.

Chapter 352

"The clowns are getting really bold," Aron said, reading his weekly report.

{They're becoming variables that might disrupt our plan, sir. Are you going to stop them?} Nova asked.

"I really should, since there's a chance they might start a war before we're ready for it," Aron said. The missions he had ongoing hadn't been completed yet, and he would need them to be in order to set the stage for the fight for dominance among humankind.

{But do you think they'll listen to us?}

"They've already distanced themselves from the Chinese, thanks to our trade with them. And since it's highly unlikely that China will accept North Korea's return, at least not without paying a price for their so-called 'betrayal', it's also highly likely that they would listen to us instead. They've already pressed a thumb on the scales in the wrong direction and seem to have not thought about the situation the entire world is in," Aron mused as he came up with possible ideas on how to deal with the situation in North Korea without letting it devolve into open warfare before he was ready to take the stage.

{I think, based on the speed our forces are completing their tasks, we can risk North Korea's refusal. Everything should be ready by the time the Kims suffer the consequences of their rash actions,} Nova said after taking a moment to check on the progress of the ongoing missions. All four of the forward operating and logistics bases had already been completed, and the Reapers and Nyxians had been spreading them from there. Soon, they would have forces available all over the world; and it had only hinged on the initial four.

Besides, if the rest of the world tried starting a nuclear war and devastating the planet, they just might get an unexpected result when they tried. Nova couldn't help but look forward to that inevitability.

"True," Aron said with a nod.

{So will you have Alexander cancel his diplomatic visit to North Korea?}

"No need. The visit to North Korea is just a stop on his way back from Taiwan, so he can deliver our request then. It'll work better face to face instead of exchanging messages through diplomatic courier pouches." Alexander's visit to North Korea was now set in stone.

{And what about the sensor tech the space-capable nations have 'politely requested' that we hand over?}

Aron waved his hand magnanimously. "Give it to them. They can't produce it anyway, so there's no need to keep it a secret." He smiled at the mental image of the looks on everyone's faces when they realized that little fact.

{Will do,} she replied.

…

The countries that had requested Aron's tech had been planning on increasing the pressure on Eden in order to make them buckle to the more powerful nations' will. But they were quite surprised when the Edenian government simply published the schematics on their official Pangea account, letting the entire world have access to them without even trying to argue against the "request". The only issue was that every country had wanted the tech for themselves, and the schematics being made public would prevent them from getting the leg up on their competitors, as they'd originally planned.

When they tried making a fuss about it in private, Eden's response boiled down to: "We were asked by multiple countries, so we figured we'd give it to everyone."

There was nothing anyone could say, so they could only gnash their teeth in frustration and get to work reproducing it. But there was a problem; everyone who had seen the schematics almost simultaneously realized that the equipment would be impossible to produce in any reasonable time frame, as the entire process would need to follow a natural progression. They would need to make the tools they would use to make more advanced tools that they would use to make more advanced tools... and the cycle would repeat a number of times, wasting precious weeks with each iteration.

As that was happening, the US government quietly pulled the naval fleets they had in Japan and the South China Sea to interdict trade to and from North Korea. When people caught wind of the interdiction fleets, the situation was brought up at a press briefing and the White House Press Secretary announced that the trade interdiction was a response to a recent escalation in North Korean aggression.

Tensions around the world increased, as the move by America could possibly provoke another escalation on the part of the loose cannon, Kim Jong-Un, and the Doomsday Clock ticked down to 20 seconds to midnight.

North Korea's response to the interdiction fleet was to pull some of its forces from the DMZ and deploy them, along with quite a bit of their long-ranged artillery, to the coast, where they began construction on larger bases. The forces would build the bases and occupy them until such a time as the US and Japan, who had joined the American interdiction fleet to cover the gap left by the overextended American navy, withdrew their fleets.

Although the situation in Korea caused a commotion in Japan, it was mostly for the sake of argument. Even the staunchest conservative would have no problem with the economic attack on Korea. There was even an old saying in Asia: the only thing China and Japan will ever agree on is that they hate Korea. The three countries had a long tradition of cooperation and competition that was highly complex, but it boiled down to all of them having, at one point or another, allied to deal with the third. China and Korea hated Japan, and Korea and Japan hate China just as much as Japan and China hate Korea.

The whole thing would have been rather silly if it hadn't been accompanied by millennia of bloodshed. 𝑙𝘪𝑏𝓇𝑒𝑎𝒹.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The North Korean response caused people to watch in anticipation, wondering what Eden would do in this tense situation, considering the upcoming diplomatic visit schedule. Michael Jackson had never eaten as much popcorn as he was at that very moment.

…

Beijing, China.

"We can take advantage of the situation to break the bond between Eden and North Korea by causing an incident during the diplomatic visit. It'll show them that the trouble North Korea brings isn't worth what they're getting in return," an MSS operative said.

"So will we just let them acknowledge Taiwan as a country? Right now is the perfect time to annex them, since the world's attention is on the visitors. So long as we do it fast enough, nobody will have time to react and we can use the incoming aliens as a shield against retaliation by countries that have defense agreements with Taiwan. After all, a prolonged war now would be disadvantageous considering the aliens," Wang Yi replied.

"Then we should make a plan for the Edenian diplomatic mission to Taiwan as well. That way we can make them reconsider their relationship with both countries... But we have to be very careful, since they may retaliate and even consider it an escalation of hostilities," another member of the MSS suggested.

"We should consult with the chairman and move forward based on his vision, but I don't think we need to take a potential retaliation from Eden seriously. After all, they're small and weak, and don't have what it takes to make us take them seriously," the head of the MSS said, then tabled the topic for a later discussion with Xi Jinping.

Chapter 353

A week prior to Alexander's diplomatic mission to Taiwan and North Korea, which hadn't been canceled despite the two-week-long trade interdiction of the latter, China increased the frequency of their incursions into Taiwan airspace. They were sending more than fifty jets per day on "routine patrols over Chinese Taipei", rapidly increasing the already-existing tension between the two countries.

Those watching from the sidelines rightfully guessed that the intentions behind the constant and increasing provocations were to destabilize the situation to the point that Alexander would be forced to reconsider his upcoming diplomatic visit.

But contrary to everyone's expectations, the Edenian presidential office remained silent on the issue, implying that no changes to President Romero's schedule were being considered. Instead, their actions proved that the mission was still very much going to happen as the ARES logistical department began operating at full swing. Never-before-seen military cargo planes arrived in Taiwan one after another, bringing the vehicles that Alexander, his security detail, and Sarah—who would be visiting GAIA Technologies' business partner, TSMC—along with her security detail would use during the visit. That was paired with an increase in Nyxian activities in Taiwan as they combed the country from top to bottom, intent on plucking out any potential threats to the Edenian delegation.

Along with the cargo planes that were currently parked in underground hangars at Chiashan Air Force Base in Hualien County were two of Eden's modified KC-35 Stratotankers, which would be responsible for the fuel requirements of the presidential jet (one of Aron's modified A380 Superfortresses) and its Archangel Squadron escort.

A similar air wing was dispatched to North Korea in preparation for the diplomatic mission's arrival there, as well.

The situation attracted the attention of the easily distracted, and everything from the new cargo planes with the ARES insignia, to the ground vehicles they had transported, and even the ARES Aegis agents that were accompanying the materiel.

The Aegis agents were the ARES personnel that had been specifically trained to provide close personal security to dignitaries, whether visiting or abroad. They were the Edenian equivalent of the Secret Service for the US or the Protection Command of the London Metropolitan Police for the UK. They had arrived ahead of the delegation in both Taiwan and North Korea in order to set up the security measures that would be taken by the host countries to keep President Romero safe from harm, as currently, there was a battle of escalation between five countries—China, Taiwan, North Korea, the United States, and Japan—and the security situation on the ground was naturally concerning.

While the preparation work for the visits was ongoing, Eden dispatched two naval task groups, one headed toward Taiwan and the other toward North Korea, showing that they were adamant in their protection of the diplomatic mission they were sending out.

Footage of the fleets steaming ahead at their cruising speed had been released to the public through Edenian news channels, with the footage provided by Poseidon himself. That footage attracted the same group of easily distracted peoples' attention and debate over the capabilities of the ships ran rampant on the internet, even trending on Pangea for a couple of hours.

The two task groups that had been dispatched were two of the fleets from the Edenian Home Fleet Ready Reserve, who were treating their mission as live training for coastal patrol duties.

The spectacle that the Aeolus Air Force and Poseidon Navy were putting on caused many to speculate whether Eden was taking the opportunity to showcase their new vessels. If that wasn't the case, there was really no other reason to escalate the situation further than it had already been, which would mean that Eden was rattling sabers. 𝘭𝒾𝒷𝓇𝘦𝑎𝑑.𝒸ℴ𝓂

During the Edenian Press Briefing directly following the publicity blitz, the press secretary was asked about the deployment orders. The press secretary responded, "We are doing everything within our power to ensure President Romero's safety during his upcoming diplomatic visits to the Republic of China and North Korea. Just because we maintain our neutrality does not mean that we won't respond to blatant provocations, no matter the source."

(Ed note: China is the People's Republic of China. Taiwan's official name is the Republic of China. There's a long, complicated history between the two, but Taiwan is actually just a city in the ROC. China (the PRC) refers to it as "Chinese Taipei" and Asian netizens from China and Taiwan refer to each other as East and West China during flame wars.)

…

Eden's action, along with their reveal of new ships and jets, had caused many headaches to countries that couldn't believe a "third-world shithole" like Eden could have hidden that much. They were still trying to come to grips with any country that could hide such huge fleets without being discovered until they were purposefully revealed. Together with that, and with the Edenian ``incursion" into Indonesian waters, everyone was racking their brains trying to at least estimate how powerful each of the ships in the task groups were. Based on the frigates' powerful guns alone, the other, bigger ships were absolutely terrifying.

Still, not many countries were too worried, as they believed there was no chance that Eden had mature technologies other than their guns, which think tanks had already come up with a solution for. Thus, they were either faking it, or using experimental technology, which everyone knew was extremely prone to failure.

They obviously hadn't learned their lesson from the consecutive launches of the Panopticon satellite network, or the more recent launches that set up deep space observatories in four of Earth's five Lagrange points.

Nobody was sure who had said it, but the common consensus among people that were paying attention to the rapidly developing nation was that Eden needed to be nipped in the bud before they grew capable of causing serious trouble to their "betters". Thus, Eden had acquired a very large target on its back.

…

On the Russia-Ukraine border along the Crimean Peninsula, Russia had begun amassing a large number of troops, dividing the attention of the easily distracted between the recent antics between China, America, Eden, Taiwan, and North Korea and the Crimean Peninsula. People were wondering just what kind of gunpowder people had been eating that would cause such a massive, synchronized increase in tensions between countries that were, for the most part, considered "reasonable".

In addition to the exaggerated troop deployment along the border, Russia also began entering what military nerds would call "full battle preparation for an extended conflict of aggression", if they were polite. Fuel depots, supply warehouses, and deployable hospital buildings were springing up along the border like weeds after the rain.

Whenever Russia was asked what they were doing, they would only respond that they were conducting a large-scale exercise. Everyone knew it was a half truth, at best, but without solid evidence, there was nothing anyone could do but keep an eye on the situation without taking action. At least until Russia finally made a move that would give the observers a valid reason to interfere, that is.

It was almost like the weeks leading up to Alexander's visits to Taiwan and North Korea were cursed, as with the number of increasing tensions around the world, all it would take is a single spark to light a fire that may end up being humanity's funeral pyre.

Hopefully, that funeral pyre wouldn't be lit with nuclear flames.

Chapter 354

A few days later, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.

An enormous jet was flying through the sky, high above the clouds. Everything seemed peaceful as the ponderous aircraft made its way forward at a decent speed..

Aron's specially modified A380, which had been repurposed for use by the President of Eden, looked dignified and regal as it passed over the ocean, headed to the Republic of China, more commonly known as Taiwan, where its passengers were headed for meetings with the recently elected President Tsai Ing-wen, who would be meeting with President Romero, and the co-chairmen of TSMC, Drs. Mark Liu and CC Wei, whom Sarah was scheduled to meet.

The same could not be said, however, for the squadron of fighter jets flying in close formation around it. They were also beautiful, in their own way, but it was much the same as one would look at a tiger, or a shark, and admire the animal's appearance.

"He really went all out," Alexander mused as he looked out of the window in his office and gazed at the fighter jets. The pilot of the jet nearest his window noticed he was being observed and waggled the wings of his jet in salute, then returned to focusing on his mission.

"He's tired of remaining passive and is setting the stage for him to step out into the limelight," Sarah replied.

"But do we really need to keep up the facade when nothing will matter soon, anyway?" asked Alexander.

"For a little while, yes. We need to keep acting like everything's normal until the proper moment. Once the other side makes the initial move, then we'll be free to act. But for that to happen, it's absolutely imperative that everything appears normal," Sarah answered, then added, "After all, we need a casus belli in order to seize the moral high ground, no matter how useless it may end up being."

"True," Alexander said, then returned to thinking about what might happen once he crossed into Taiwan's airspace. With the recent upsurge in Chinese incursions there, there was a distinct risk of his flight being intercepted.

Not that it would matter, as he was well aware that his safety was absolutely guaranteed as long as he remained aboard the plane or within any of the vehicles that had already been delivered for his delegation to use earlier.

… 𝒍𝒊𝙗𝓻𝒆𝓪𝙙.𝙘𝙤𝙢

As the presidential jet and its escort approached Taiwan's airspace, four Chengdu J-20 "Mighty Dragons" scrambled from Longtian Air Base—which had recently undergone hasty repairs and was the primary air base from which the PLA jets would take off from in the daily provocations of Taiwan—and turned onto an intercept course headed toward the Edenian delegation, which was just under an hour away from its destination.

Normally, the fighter jets wouldn't have that range, but with the two modified Stratotankers meeting them halfway, range had become a non-issue, especially with the energy-dense fuel developed by Lab City and refined in one of the sub basements of the Cube on Avalon Island. The only thing limiting Eden's fighter jet range now was the pilots themselves, who had to battle fatigue during extended operations like this one.

As Alexander was working on various issues, his attention was briefly caught by the jet that had accompanied him outside the window of his office suddenly breaking formation and speeding ahead.

"What's going on?" he asked the empty air in the room.

{The escort is headed to intercept approaching Chinese aircraft,} his AI assistant answered. As she spoke, a recording of the Overwatch satellite feed appeared on the lenses of Alexander's AR glasses, showing the approaching J-20s.

…

"Are we really going to do this? That jet is carrying the president of a foreign country! Wouldn't they take our actions as a declaration of war?" one of the J-20 pilots asked on his intra-squadron radio channel.

"You're assuming they can even spot us. They may be good at spotting things in space, but the visitors aren't being stealthy at all. Here, we have our speed and stealth as an advantage," another pilot replied. He was excited to be a part of their current mission, unlike the first pilot that spoke.

"You do realize there's an entire squadron of fighters escorting them, right?" The first pilot rejoined.

"The party can just deny responsibility for anything that happens. Since they can't see us, who can accuse us anyway?" the second pilot sneered.

"Both of you shut up and focus on the missi—" the squadron leader began, then was immediately shut up when his equipment blared a lock-on warning, informing him that his jet had been locked on by a targeting system.

He couldn't believe his eyes and ears. In front of him was his radar, which showed nothing in its detection range, yet the lock-on tone was still blaring in his cockpit. Whatever had him in its sights was either another stealth aircraft, or one that could detect them from outside his radar range, which was hundreds of kilometers at the altitude they were currently cruising at.

Either one of those two options was definitely bad news for him. Before he could even think of equipment malfunction as a possibility, the rest of his squadron reported that they, too, had been locked on to by something they couldn't detect on their radars.

Then, before they had even fully digested the fact that they'd been spotted, a voice crackled to life on their supposedly secure intra squadron radio channel. "Unidentified approaching aircraft, you are on course to intercept a diplomatic flight. You have thirty seconds to change course or you will be forced to do so."

The broadcast then repeated in Chinese, showing that whoever had spotted them had also identified them. "I repeat, change course immediately, or you will be forced to do so. This is your first and final warning, you have thirty seconds to comply."

The moment the second broadcast ended, more alarms blared in the cockpits of the stealth fighters as the number of lock-ons increased and their radars finally pinged. But the only thing showing on them was a single large jet: the Edenian presidential A380.

All four Chinese pilots found the entire situation surreal. They were being locked onto by invisible attackers!

The squadron leader wasted no time and ordered, "Mission abort. Abort, abort, abort. Change course immediately and return to base. I'll contact the command on the way."

All four J-20s performed a simultaneous Immelman maneuver, not caring that they would become slower targets. They had already been targeted when they were flying in stealth, so who cared if they slowed down? What was more important was getting back to Longtian with their little lives intact, as well as the expensive stealth fighters they were piloting. Once that had been accomplished, they could contemplate what the hell had just happened.

Chapter 355

Thanks to the early interception of the Chinese J-20s, the presidential jet's trip was smooth. They hadn't faced any further interference during the last 45 minutes or so of their approach and landing. Once Eden One had landed, the fighter escort refueled and, with the permission of the host country, took up patrol duties for the duration of the diplomatic visit in order to prevent any incursions that could possibly threaten Alexander or Sarah.

…

As the Edenian visit was beginning, complete with all the pomp and circumstance surrounding high-level diplomatic missions, an entirely different atmosphere prevailed in the offices of the military leadership of China. They had received the debriefing notes on the short, but significant, encounter with the Edenian fighters near Taiwan and were scrambling to figure out exactly what had happened, and how. Their brand-new stealth interceptors had been... intercepted. And not only that, they were locked on by a targeting system from enemies that they couldn't even detect! It was a great loss of face for a country that placed great value on their national prestige.

"So you're telling me they discovered us, but we failed to discover them?" Xi Jinping asked as he slapped a folder onto his desk and massaged his temples with his other hand.

"Yes, leader. That seems to be the case," the Minister of National Defense answered.

"Do you believe it?" Zi asked.

"Based on the pilots' expressions during their debriefing, and the flight recordings, that seems to be what happened. But it's still difficult to believe that we couldn't discover their planes when they're flying the same Russian Su-35s that we're already intimately familiar with. After all, we have some of those, too, so we know for a fact that we can see them on our radars," the minister replied. In order to escape the blame, he would just give the president all the information he had at hand and allow him to come to his own conclusion. That way, if that conclusion were to later be found incorrect, it wouldn't be the minister's fault.

He was definitely a seasoned politician and had vast experience with buck-passing.

"Apparently, they've modified their jets to make them invisible to radar. That isn't a good thing at all—they're currently patrolling Chinese Taipei, so if we continue our air incursion plan..." the head of the MSS began, then paused to take a deep breath.

"They'd be well within their rights to shoot our jets down with the justification that they pose an imminent threat to their president. They're only required to give a single warning before firing, since they've been granted permission by the government to be there," he finished.

Xi Jinping's face darkened. "So we can't continue our incursions for now?" he asked.

"Unfortunately, no," the minister of defense answered.

"I'll add that to the list," Xi Jinping said with a frown. "Right now, we still have a use for the Edenians. Taipei gave them permission to patrol their airspace, right?"

"Yes."

Xi Jinping turned to the minister of national defense and said, "Find some martyrs among our pilots. They have a final job to do. It's time to bring Chinese Taipei back to the fold."

The minister of national defense thought for a moment, then saluted and left the room. He had been given his orders, and didn't need to know about anything else that would be said in the briefing room.

…

Three days later, somewhere over Taiwan.

Archangel 02 had discovered a Chinese J-20 over Taiwan. The previous two days had been peaceful, with no Chinese incursions, so the Edenian pilot had been caught slightly off guard when his AI assistant, who had been monitoring his long-range sensor array, notified him that a J-20 had been picked up on his LIDAR.

He immediately locked his targeting reticle on the J-20 through his HUD AR display and broadcast a warning on all frequencies. "Unidentified aircraft, you have entered a restricted airspace. I repeat, you have entered a restricted airspace. You have thirty seconds to reverse course and return. This is your only warning, if you do not comply you will be fired upon. I repeat, you will be fired upon."

Then he switched to the secure intrasquadron q-com channel and reported, "Contact, contact, contact. Chinese J-20 stealth fighter on course for Taipei. I issued the warning—what are your orders, commander?"

"Close range and fire a warning shot with your guns," Archangel 01, the leader of the Archangel squadron ordered.

"Roger, closing."

Archangel 02 adjusted his course to intercept the J-20 and pushed the throttle of his jet to the stops and soon reached Mach 2.8, where he backed it off and entered supercruising mode. The current "fastest" jet on the planet was the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, which could supercruise at Mach 1.8 or fly at Mach 1.2 with afterburners, so the pilot judged that Mach 2.8 would suffice. It would allow him to intercept the Chinese interceptor over an uninhabited area while keeping at least some of his jet's capabilities hidden.

He soon got a visual on the J-20, which had made no effort to adjust its heading or speed. Aiming his targeting reticle ahead of the intruding Chinese, he fired a burst of tracers from his guns that passed ten meters in front of the target.

The Chinese jet turned to engage him as the other three pilots on patrol for the day also reported contacts of their own.

"Incoming intruders are hostile, engage at will," came the order from Archangel 01.

"Roger, engaging," chorused the other three pilots in the squadron.

Archangel 02 went vertical and gained 1000 feet of altitude, bleeding speed as he did so, then executed a hammerhead turn and came around behind the target. He reacquired lock on his target and released a missile as he reported, "Archangel 02, fox one."

Then... there was no then. What had once been a J-20 briefly became a firework, then a rain of small pieces of metal that, perhaps years later, old men and women with metal detectors would dig up on the shore of Taiwan outside of Taipei and wonder what they once were.

Other than that brief interlude, where the Edenian patrol shot down four Chinese intruders, Alexander's Taiwan visit was peacefully brought to a conclusion. He had signed a mutual defense treaty with Taiwan in addition to the standard trade agreements he'd been offering to all of the nations on his whirlwind world tour. In addition to that, he had set up an embassy and issued a public declaration recognizing the Republic of China as an independent country that was in no way beholden to the People's Republic of China.

...

The journey to North Korea was relatively peaceful. The escort pilots had handed off patrol duties back to Taiwan and the flight was smooth. The interdiction fleet made no attempt to stop the Edenian delegation as it passed over them, the escorts sarcastically wagging their wings in salute to the American and Japanese fleets as they went. They had all received the same notification from their assistant AIs that all observation instruments on the ships had been focused on them, but the pilots only snorted and wished them luck.

The naval escort, on the other hand, couldn't say the same. After Eden One and its escorts had passed the interdiction fleet, the naval escort joined the other task group that had been sent ahead of Alexander's visit. That fleet had been in a standoff with the American fleet outside Namp'o, the nearest port city to Pyongyang, for a few days before their "reinforcements" had arrived.

Heedless of the tension on the sea, Alexander's delegation smoothly landed at the Korean People's Army Air Force Headquarters in Pyongyang, where they were met by the Aegis team that had been sent ahead prior to the Taiwan visit. The Aegis team leader that had been in the country longer pulled the presidential Aegis team leader aside for a briefing on the situation as Alexander stepped into his car in the Edenian motorcade and, with his extra security team, headed toward the Mansudae Assembly Hall.

Unlike the relatively peaceful and enthusiastic reception Alexander had received in Taiwan, an almost palpable sense of tension hung in the air here.

Even the weather seemed to agree, as it was unseasonably cold, overcast, and windy. He left his car, dressed in a midnight blue suit and a black greatcoat that hung from his shoulders to his knees and topped everything off with a striped wool scarf in the colors of the Edenian flag. He put on his best professional smile and waved for the flashing cameras of the state media, who were there to document Kim Jong-Un's first visit from a foreign dignitary.

"Welcome to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, President Alexander," Kim Jong-Un's sister greeted in passable English.

"Thank you, Miss Kim." Alexander shook her hand, then gestured for her to join him as they entered the assembly hall.

…

A few hours later in an underground bunker, somewhere near the DMZ.

A North Korean General answered a red phone on the first ring. His sole job for the past three years had been to sit in that office and stare at the red phone on the desk in front of him. There was nothing else in the room; no computer, no cellphone, nothing. Only a desk, a chair, and a hanging light fixture marred the dreary gray reinforced concrete of the windowless underground room. An ashtray that was overflowing with cigarette butts was on the opposite side of the desk, accompanied by an opened pack of counterfeit Huanghelou Xianliang Ban cigarettes.

"Yes... I understand... Yes, sir. Right away, sir. For the unification!" He stood and saluted, then disconnected the call and dialed a new number, one that he had memorized years before but had never needed to dial... until today.

When the voice on the other end of the phone answered, he said one word: "Fire." Then he lit a cigarette and sat back in his chair; they may be counterfeit, but they still reminded him of home.

Within minutes, almost ten thousand guns and MLRSs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Army simultaneously pulled their triggers. Other than the four thousand pieces of self-propelled artillery that had been moved to the coast to fend off the trade interdiction fleets of the United States and Japan, the rest of the over fourteen thousand guns were still trained on South Korea.

The guns spoke, shaking the very ground they were braced upon. It was the first round of shots in nearly a century of cease-fire between North and South Korea, but it would not be the last.

Chapter 356

Mansudae Assembly Hall, North Korea.

"We'd like to see a reduction in your country's aggression, President Kim. It's making it very difficult for us to support you at the moment," Alexander said once the diplomatic greetings were done and the small talk was over. It was time for the meat of the conversation.

"Are you telling me what to do with my own things?" Kim Jong-Un growled.

As the diplomatic translator struggled to come up with a polite translation for that, not knowing that Alexander was already hearing a real-time translation thanks to his glasses' AI assistant, Kim Jong-Un continued under his breath, "Who do this guy think he is? He has no right to order us around."

He thought he was quiet enough that nobody would hear what he was muttering to himself, but it didn't go unheard by the ears of the genetically enhanced Alexander, his "translator"—who was in actuality a Nyxian—or anyone else from the Edenian delegation for that matter, who all shared the genetic enhancements that Alexander enjoyed. They all stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the North Korean dictator, causing him to go quiet and wonder why they were all looking at him.

"Listen here, President Kim," Alexander began in fluent Korean. Kim Jong-Un froze, finally realizing that all of his veiled insults had been understood by the man across the table from him. "While the entire world was punishing you for your violations of human rights, your insane measures to keep yourself in power and threaten the world, your greed, and the draconian measures you instituted to keep yourself in power by pushing your own people into starvation, we, the people of Eden, chose to come to your aid. WE, the people of Eden, chose to provide you the resources you need. WE, the people of Eden, chose to uplift you and your people. WE, the people of Eden did that. Not China, not any other nation, not any charitable organization, but us."

He paused for a moment, allowing Kim Jong-Un to digest what he was saying, then continued, "But you've been losing your reason as you shuffled off the shackles of Chinese control. You slipped your leash and immediately attempted to prove that you were exactly what the whole world believes you to be: a mad dog kept on a leash by China to prevent it from biting any and everyone it saw.

"You detonated a fucking hydrogen bomb, President Kim, and you announced it to the entire world! Then you had the unmitigated, absolute gall to launch a ballistic missile over Japan. A country which, may I remind you, is the ONLY one to have ever suffered a nuclear attack! Did you stop to think, even for a microsecond, about the fucking consequences? Did you think that we," Alexander gestured to himself and the other Edenians in the room, "would support your insane actions?"

"I—" Kim Jong-Un began, still shrinking back under the unseen pressure that Alexander was emanating. Whatever he was about to say would forever remain unsaid, however, as the door of his office hit the marble floor with a bang and Alexander's Aegis team rushed into the room.

The leader of the team, Antonio Espinoza, moved to Alexander's side and whispered, "Sir, it's time to umass this place. We have to go, now." Then, uncaring of the optics of the situation, he picked the Edenian president up and put him on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and rushed out of the room surrounded by the rest of his team, who were pushing Kim Jong-Un's praetorian guards aside. The position Alexander was in was a little undignified, sure, but he wasn't trained to the same standard as an aegis guardsman. If bullets started flying, the aegis team needed to react as a single unit in order to protect him. After all, being embarrassed would be better than being shot.

Had the praetorian guard received the same news as the aegis team did, the chaotic evacuation would have raised even more of a commotion. But with the constant monitoring of various AIs—barring Panoptes, as the cloud cover impeded the eyes of the Panopticon in the sky—the Edenians were the first to receive the news that North Korea had broken the nearly century-long ceasefire between them and South Korea. The shit had hit the fan, and the aegis team would think later; right now was the time for them to act.

The Edenians left chaos in their wake, the floor behind them littered with groaning North Korean Praetorian Guards and the hallways ahead of them rapidly filling with more. Soon, a gun was drawn and the guard that drew it shouted at the aegis team to halt.

Antonio looked to his left and nodded to the embedded nyxian. She took a large stride and flipped over the head of the aegis member in front of her, landing atop the guard with the drawn weapon and riding him to the ground, where she swiftly rendered him unconscious and began tearing through the praetorian guard in front of her like a tornado through a trailer park. While she refrained from using lethal moves, the trail of destruction she left behind was rather impressive; a single woman had left behind nearly as many bodies as an entire aegis team had up to that point. The main difference was that the bodies the nyxian left were silent and unmoving in their unconsciousness, while the guards dropped by the aegis team were groaning and rolling around in pain.

The chaos lasted for a few minutes longer, then suddenly came to a screeching halt as, in one synchronized movement, nearly every praetorian guard raised their hand to their earpieces and their faces paled. They had obviously received the news that they had fired on South Korea and had bigger proverbial fish to fry. Shield Espinoza called the nyxian back and the team stood to the side of the hall, gesturing back the way they had come. He figured it would be faster if they let the hundred-thousand-strong Praetorian Guard get out of his way on their own than fight his way through the lot of them.

Soon, the corridors of the Mansudae Assembly Hall were empty of all but the Edenian delegation, who swaggered out of the hall's front doors and into their waiting convoy, where they were joined by the pilots of their jets. It was a shame, but the hardware could not be left behind, so the miniaturized atomic printers in each of the jets executed their last orders and printed a large scuttling charge. The charges detonated in good order, ensuring that none of the advanced technology contained in the 14th-generation fighters or in the presidential A380 would be recoverable.

Though that was just a camouflage measure, as the advanced technologies had already been decomposed and used as the raw material for the scuttling charges themselves. What was left behind after the decomposition and explosion was nothing more than the airframes of the jets themselves: Sukhoi Su-35s, a KC-35 Stratotanker, and an Airbus A380.

All in all, Alexander's diplomatic visit to North Korea had ended in a much more spectacular fashion than his visit to Taiwan.

Chapter 357

While the Edenian delegation was evacuating from the Mansudae Assembly Hall, an entirely different confrontation was in progress a few dozen nautical miles outside Namp'o.

"Edenian vessels, this is the USS Ronald Regan. You are entering interdicted waters and I hereby order you to stand down for inspection. I repeat: stand down for inspection."

The Edenian task group continued steaming forward at a rather impressive speed, from the perspective of the American vessels between them and North Korea. "USS Ronald Reagan, this is the EV Sigurd. We are not a trade fleet and thus we're not subject to your illegal trade interdiction of a sovereign nation in the first place. We're currently on course for Namp'o, where we will be onboarding our diplomatic mission in light of the recent resumption of hostilities. Belay your order and get out of our way or there will be... trouble," Home Admiral James Holbrook replied from the flag bridge of the Sigurd.

...

"It's finally kicking off," Aron said as he caught up to the news.

[And at the worst possible time,] Nova said. The weather was being very uncooperative, with the unusual cloud cover over most of North Korea preventing the Panopticon network from acquiring solid visuals of the ground. They still had other options, like thermal and infrared, but the thick cloud cover was still making it impossible to determine what was what.

"Where's Alexander?" he asked. He had received the news of North Korea unilaterally violating the cease-fire minutes after it had occurred, but had to rely on reports, rather than visuals, to determine what exactly was going on at any given time.

[The presidential aegis team is currently en route to Namp'o for a sea evac. Without the Stratotanker in the air ahead of time, they had to scuttle the air assets and evacuate by sea. Luckily, Namp'o is only a few dozen kilometers from Pyongyang, so it shouldn't be long before they're safely aboard the EV Hrothgar and headed back.] Nova brought up the feed from one of the aegis soldiers, then split the screen and displayed a progress map on the other side. North Korea had almost no cars and relied mainly on bicycle-driven rickshaws for transportation, which were easy to dodge and wouldn't be able to jam the entire street like cars could. Thus, the evacuating delegation was making good time on their way to the port, where they would board the waiting Edenian submarine and begin the long journey home.

"That's good. Keep an eye on them and let me know if their situation changes." He turned his head and said, "Nyx."

The shadows in the room gathered into a human shape, which resolved into the mother of spies. [You called, sir?]

"Our work is done in North Korea, right?" he asked.

[Yes, my children finished their missions and have already been exfiltrated. Nothing too out of the ordinary happened and it's all been dealt with,] she replied, thinking of the reasonably few smoking craters left by the exfiltrating nyxians.

"Nova, call for a council meeting," Aron ordered.

A few minutes later, the Edenian council appeared in the meeting room. They must have immediately logged in after receiving the order, since the time dilation in the VR was relatively high and it had only taken them minutes, not hours, to appear.

Aron caught them up on the situation and informed them that the presidential delegation's evacuation from North Korea was in progress, then left them to draw up plans for their individual ministries based on the resumption of hostilities in Korea and the situation brewing in Taiwan. He nodded to Nova and the two of them disappeared; Nyx had already left earlier.

Aron appeared in ARES Command and began issuing orders. "Raise our status to alert level two. I want ARES, Aeolus, and Poseidon to be ready for immediate mobilization. Cancel all leaves and call every soldier back to duty stations. The Home Fleet is to increase patrols and send out the reserve. Order all transport convoys to flank speed, I want our cargo ships and merchant marine back as soon as possible..." He continued issuing order after order for quite some time. In a nutshell, the entire military was to be ready for anything within two hours real time, and the trade convoys had been ordered to submerge if they were intercepted. There would be no point in preserving his capabilities if it cost him experienced ship handlers. After all, no matter how accurate the simulation was, reality would always differ and experience still mattered.

"Yes, sir," the military leaders chorused, then logged out to deal with what needed to be done in reality. The AIs could handle everything else.

…

White House Situation Room.

Trump had been pulled to the situation room moments after being signaled to wrap up his weekly press briefing and had been informed of the unfolding situation in Korea.

"So what're you suggesting?" he asked once the briefing was finished.

"Sir, we should deal with North Korea once and for all. With the developing situation in Taiwan, China is sure to be distracted, so we can flatten all opposition in Korea without their interference. Plus, since that madman fired the first shots, China won't be able to reinforce North Korea, while we can claim that we were forced to aid South Korea because of our treaty with them," General Mattis suggested.

"What about the damage to South Korea? And how do we convince them to let us be in charge?"

"Of course they'll agree to us being in charge. We're the United States of America, the most powerful nation on the face of the planet," the secretary of state sneered.

"And what will China do? Will they just watch from the sidelines?" Trump asked.

"North Korea acted first, so their mutual defense treaty with China won't come into effect. Since South Korea is the defending party, we're free to retaliate. That means China can't openly do anything to stop us, and we don't have to worry about anything they do in the background since the forces we have stationed in Korea are already sufficient to win any conflict there," General Mattis answered.

"Are we sure we know where all their nukes are?" Trump wanted it on the record that he at least asked in case things were to go south for the American forces. 𝘭𝑖𝑏𝘳ℯ𝑎𝑑.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Yes. We're bombing everything that's been confirmed to relate to their nuclear program, and everything that we only suspect has ever been related to their nukes," Mattis replied.

"Good. Carry on," Trump said, then turned to the secretary of state and ordered, "Call congress and let them know I'll be doing a congressional address later this afternoon."

Chapter 358

In a hidden underground bunker in North Korea.

"Why'd you do that!?" Kim Jong-Un asked a man hanging upside down by his ankles. The prisoner was bleeding from multiple cuts on his body and a small pool of blood had formed beneath him.

The prisoner fainted, and the dictator picked up a bucket of water and threw it at the man, waking him from his swoon. The water dripped down his body and joined the puddle of blood on the ground beneath him, diluting it and turning it from a rich red to a much lighter shade of pink. The soldier next to Kim Jong-Un punched the hanging prisoner in the gut, eliciting a groan from him and sending him swaying and twisting like a pendulum. 𝓵𝓲𝓫𝙧𝓮𝙖𝙙.𝒄𝓸𝙢

"Answer me, you KANNA SEKKIA!" the dictator screamed.

As the man swung back and forth, another soldier entered the room and whispered in Kim Jong-Un's ear. "His family crossed the border to China three days ago, dear leader."

Hearing that, the swinging man smiled, his teeth red from the blood leaking from his mouth. He groaned a hoarse laugh and Kim Jong-Un turned to him with a glare.

The man, now assured of his family's safety, began speaking with some difficulty. "You think our saviors will let you go?" he sneered, then fell into a coughing fit. "You think a weak, pathetic country full of peasants—" he hacked and coughed again, then spat a bloody glob and continued, "—can give you what China can't?"

"What do you mean?" Kim Jong-Un waved at the soldier beside him, who moved to the swinging man and stopped him from swaying.

"You abandoned China, who's been helping our country since your grandfather's rule. Then you tarnished our glory by allowing the new colonizers to rampage among our citizens and steal our legacy. And you would've let them continue taking advantage of us in the future," the tortured man replied with great difficulty.

"And just what the fuck made you think that ordering an attack on our enemies would help us return to China?" Kim asked, his blood pressure rising from anger.

"They promised to support us... and even aid us in the great unification, taking our lost brothers and sisters who've been suffering under the yoke of the damned yankees..." The conviction in the prisoner's voice showed that he was a true "patriot", one that firmly believed in his country's propaganda.

Kim Jong-Un knew there was no need to question the man in front of him any further. He was obviously a member of the China loyalist faction that actually believed the line of garbage the leadership of North Korea had been feeding their citizens for generations. His face twisted in a rictus of rage, he picked up a nail-studded baseball bat and hit the prisoner's head with it until it burst, splashing blood and brain matter everywhere in the dimly lit underground torture room. He felt the warm wetness splatter on his face, but was uncaring.

He dropped to his knees and raised his fists in the air, then screamed his frustration to the heavens, but his anger didn't decrease at all.

Although he might look like he wasn't that intelligent, he was actually quite cunning and knew that the dead man in front of him had sealed his country's fate. And rather more importantly, the fate of his family with it. He was more than certain that China would never come to his aid, as their treaty only covered unprovoked attacks on them, not attacks that they had provoked themselves.

He couldn't even attempt to salvage the situation, as before he had even caught the man hanging in front of him, let alone tortured him, South Korea had already been hit by artillery and missiles. The estimated casualties had already crossed the half a million mark since the barrage had landed hours before, and now he couldn't even attempt to explain anything; there was no way South Korea would listen to a word he said!

He left the torture chamber and walked into the control room, still covered in blood and gore. When he arrived, he asked his remaining loyal generals what the current situation was.

"Once their artillery and rockets suppressed the traitors on our side, they stopped attacking. At the moment, most of our artillery along the DMZ has been lost or is still moving to a tertiary firing position after their secondary positions were destroyed. All of our fixed emplacements have been lost. We estimate a drop of 30% in our capabilities along the 38th parallel, but we can still pull back what we have deployed to the coasts and reinforce the main line," one of the generals reported.

"We noticed a massive surge in troop movements from all over South Korea, all of them headed to the DMZ. We estimate that an attack by South Korean and American forces is imminent and they're simply waiting until everything is in position for an overwhelming counterattack," another general added.

"What's our response been?" Kim Jong-Un asked. Although he was the supreme leader, he had only arrived at the command bunker a short time ago and had been occupied with interrogating the traitor that caused their current mess since then. So while he understood the general picture, he still needed more details to fully understand just how fucked they were.

"The moment we received word that we'd opened fire, we immediately ordered them to cease fire. Then we ordered all of our mobile artillery platforms to move along their designated fire avoidance route and take up alternate firing positions. The South Koreans have so far been busy trying to destroy our long-range attack capability, so our casualties are fairly low at the moment. Most of our losses are in materiel, not personnel," the first general reported. He had preserved most of their capabilities, but the losses were still heavy and he was unsure of his future at the moment.

"We also ordered the mobilization of our entire submarine fleet. They were caught unprepared and are currently onboarding their crew and taking on supplies for an emergency deployment," the admiral in charge of North Korea's navy reported, feeling somewhat ashamed of their lack of preparedness.

"Our air force is at max readiness and the pilots can scramble at any time," the general in charge of the air force reported. His was the only force that had been ready when the hostilities had resumed between North and South Korea.

"Good. Now that everything's coming together, someone got me a line to Seoul. I want to see if there's any way to salvage the situation... there's no harm in trying, at least," Kim Jong-Un said with a speck of hope in his heart. He wanted to avoid an all-out war, as he knew there was no way the current situation would end well for him.

"We've tried establishing communications, but it seems like this time they're the ones that cut the line," the diplomatic attache butted in, his voice lower than the generals' as he reported.

"What about China and Russia?" the dictator followed up.

"Russia offered to sell us arms and ammunition. China said they would reinforce their border with us and only act once our enemies come close to that line. They offered you a safe place to evacuate to, and our citizens in the north are currently rushing toward the border as refugees."

"Fuck," the North Korean leader whispered. He knew they were almost perfectly fucked.

"Contact America and..." He issued instructions to his diplomatic attache as he considered his options. Various plans and counterplans were coming to his mind and he spoke without a filter about things including potentially going so far as to launch a nuke at the American fleets that had upgraded their mission from interdicting trade to blockading the North Korean ports entirely. In this moment, the emergency situation had forced his mind into overdrive and he could almost feel himself slimming down from the calories his brain was burning as it churned out countermeasure after countermeasure.

As long as he could hold off the American response, he could salvage the situation. North and South Korea alone were mostly balanced in capabilities, and with the devastating first strike his traitorous general had ordered, he would have the advantage if America would only stay out of it.

After all, if he was forced to flee to China, or even Eden, he wouldn't be able to guarantee his standard of living would remain at its current exaggerated heights.

"Prepare a speech. I need to announce a lockdown to keep our peasants from fleeing to China. Add in some propaganda about our upcoming glorious victory against the cowardly enemy that surprise attacked us," he ordered.

"Yes, dear leader," the attache responded, then left the room to carry out his orders.

Kim Jong-Un turned to his second-in-command and ordered, "Send three girls from the pleasure squad to my room. I need to calm down and think of other plans." He rose to his chair, feeling like he had sweated out three kilograms of weight, then paused and turned around. "Where did the Edenians go?" he asked. He finally remembered the arrogant president of Eden and the provocations he had suffered, along with the pressure he'd felt that had made him shudder in fear.

"We aren't sure. Our last report had them on the road headed toward Namp'o, but we lost them when they crossed the Pyongyang city limits. As for their jets, they were reduced to salvage by scuttling charges," the head of the Reconnaissance General Bureau reported.

Hearing that, the North Korean dictator sneered and left the command center, headed toward his quarters. He wouldn't waste time caring about the shitty Edenian president now that he had something more important to deal with.

Chapter 359

While the North Korean dictator was relieving his stress, his generals were working to carry out his orders as if their lives were on the line. Considering the Kim family's history, the North Korean military leadership wasn't entirely wrong in assuming that their heads would roll if they failed.

And as all of that was going on, China was also making movements of its own. Their aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and the Shandong, were being loaded with ammunition, aircraft, and sailors despite not even having been commissioned yet. But that was just one of the many things happening in China; convoy after convoy of tanks, supply trucks, and trains filled with soldiers were headed toward Fujian Province. As they arrived, they were sorted, equipped, armed, and loaded into transport ships that would soon be carrying them across the Taiwan Strait.

While the transport ships were being loaded, China's air force also kicked into high gear. Their Airborne Warning And Control System (AWACS) equipped jets were scrambled and took off, taking up patrol routes just on the edge of Taiwanese airspace. Their J-20 Mighty Dragon stealth fighters also increased their daily incursions over the "helpless" Republic of China, ensuring that nothing at all could be hidden from the People's Republic of China in preparation for their invasion and ultimate annexation of the long-contested territory.

As for China's ICBM program, it was also spinning up. All of their ballistic missiles had been tested and verified as properly working. The only thing remaining was to arm them with warheads, either conventional or nuclear. At the same time, their air and missile defense systems were also undergoing a rapid cycle of self-testing and maintenance, ensuring that their defense was as airtight as it was possible to make it.

Although the movement of the People's Liberation Army was objectively enormous, the truth was that it was only about 10% of their forces. Another 70% of their military was undergoing the same buildup and movements, but focused on other borders. Specifically, the China-Russia border, China-India border, and even the China-Korea border were being heavily reinforced. About a third of their navy had also been deployed in the East China Sea and taken up patrol duties there to defend against another potential Japanese invasion.

China had suffered at the hands of Japan before, and their memory was nearly as long as their history. They would never suffer at the hands of Japan again, and a mere annexation of the Republic of China wouldn't distract them from their longest-standing enmity.

…

Over the next six hours, the world waited on tenterhooks as the Doomsday Clock ticked ever nearer to midnight. It had already shattered all records and any movement now would break yet another historical record. And the organization that made the determination didn't disappoint, either; about an hour into the interminable time period that would be referred to in history books as "the six hour breath hold", the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced via Pangea and their website that the world was now at six seconds to midnight.

(Ed note: The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is a group of researchers that determine how close the world is to global nuclear war. They maintain a Doomsday Clock that shows that by setting the hour, minute, and second hands ever nearer to 12 o' clock midnight. They've been around since 1945, and it's some truly chilling stuff if you read into what goes into their decision-making process.)

The ticking of the Doomsday Clock came on the heels of the international media breaking news of the troop movements of the nuclear powers. Russia had moved troops to their newly completed bases along the Russia-Ukraine border, India had moved troops to the India-China border and India-Pakistan border, and Pakistan had heavily reinforced the Pakistan-India border. The relations between those countries had always been... complex, with India and Pakistan constantly squabbling over religious ideology and China and India constantly squabbling over border frictions where, much like in Korea, a cease-fire had been maintained since 1962, but the countries had officially remained hostile to each other despite maintaining diplomatic ties.

But none of that was as hotly watched as the situation in Korea where, for the past twelve hours, a constant stream of news had been released, including the list of casualties and live streams of the ongoing rescue efforts in the devastated Seoul.

Currently, the South Korean internet has been hit the hardest. Practically everyone in the country was mourning the devastation, and their grief was only surpassed by their rage. Rage was being aimed directly at North Korea by people lurking in the shadows and hoping to gain something during the chaos of the renewed conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

Minutes after news broke of the unprovoked attack on South Korea, a petition had appeared on the internet, gathering support for an armed and overwhelming retaliation against North Korea. Within an hour, it had already reached ten million signatures, making it the most-signed petition on the internet in the entire world.

As per the Cheong Wa Dae's rule regarding petitions on their website, any of them that pass 100,000 signatures would be addressed by the government. But that rule wasn't even necessary, as the "Blue House'' had already released a statement regarding the situation. The South Korean government would not let the blood of the innocent go unavenged and would be moving to ensure that the perpetrators of the horrific act of terror would pay the price with their lives. They had even gone the extra mile to paint North Korea as terrorists, since their attack had mainly been aimed at non combatant civilians.

The response was issued from the presidential bunker, as the president of South Korea and all of his closest staff and advisors had been evacuated as the first shells were detected crossing over the DMZ.

The South Korean president didn't stop there, as immediately following the attack, all of the reserves were activated and retired soldiers who met the standards were recalled to active duty in preparation for an overwhelming retaliatory strike on the North Korean "terrorists". They didn't even stop to think for a moment how strange it was that only a single barrage had been fired, or that it had only been fired at Seoul, instead of targeting military facilities. Their rage had kicked their reason far behind them, and all they wanted was to bathe in the blood of their enemies and offer them as sacrifices to the innocent casualties caused by the unprovoked attack.

With all of the increasing tension, there was weirdly no clear, official information being released. Everyone involved just announced that they would soon make announcements regarding the unfolding situation, and for people interested to stand by for those announcements.

Eden, too, found itself in the midst of a building storm. Although, their storm was minuscule compared to some of the other ongoing situations in the world at the moment. There were rumors going around that Eden would soon find itself being dragged into two separate wars, as a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would trigger their mutual defense treaty, and if Eden was found to have any involvement in the unprovoked attack on South Korea, they would also be dragged into the cesspit of American retaliation.

If those rumors proved true, it meant that Eden would be fighting a war on two fronts against two of the most powerful nations on the face of the planet: China and the United States. To most Edenian citizens that weren't "in the know" about the capabilities of their own country, the thought was absolutely chilling.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 360

Thirteen hours after the initial bombardment of South Korea.

North Korea was known for being one of the darkest countries on the planet during its nights, as had been shown in many, many satellite images. The country was so impoverished that most of the areas within it had their electricity shut off after dark, after all. But this was destined to be a much brighter night than most, even if the brightness was only momentary, much like the average ambient temperature in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had skyrocketed on the sixth and ninth of August, 1945, respectively.

"ETA to drop zone, fifteen minutes."

Jose Rodriguez, a member of the US Air Force, had his eyes on the instruments in front of him and offhandedly replied, "Payload status?"

"All systems are green. MOP is ready for deployment."

In the blackness of night, thirteen B2 Spirit stealth bombers were flying through North Korean airspace, each of them headed to separate targets in a synchronized attack. A few minutes after that brief exchange, all thirteen of the bombers had reached their targets and, in an eerie example of synchronicity, announced, "Ten seconds to drop."

"Three... Two... One... release."

With mechanical thuds, thirteen monstrous GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators left the bomb bays of thirteen B2 bombers, which all pushed their throttles to the stops as they accelerated to put distance between themselves and the impending detonations. As they accelerated, they also banked in a perfectly timed display of skill as they adjusted their course to head toward their next, less critical destinations.

Their initial targets had been North Korean nuclear missile silos, which contained the bulk of North Korea's nuclear arsenal. Their next targets were the infrastructure that allowed North Korea to produce nuclear weapons in the first place—nuclear enrichment centrifuges, missile production factories, assembly sites, and so on.

It would be a much brighter night than usual in North Korea.

…

While the bombers were carrying out their missions, underneath the surface of the ocean, a cat-and-mouse game was playing out between the American Los Angeles, Seawolf, and Virginia class attack submarines hunted down North Korea's rather numerous submarine fleet. It wasn't providing much of a challenge to the more technologically advanced American subs; their only difficulty was in picking targets from a target-rich environment, rather than finding them. It was much like shooting fish in a barrel, rather than digging rats out of their holes.

That was despite the fact that the North Korean submarines had been ordered to hide from the trade interdiction fleets at the time of their arrival just outside Korean territorial waters.

"Contact bearing two one seven relatives, designated Sierra One," announced Petty Officer Ramirez, the lead sonar operator on the Virginia class submarine SSN-789 Indiana. The display in front of him was a screen that looked like a scrambled television signal, but to the experienced sonar technician, it painted a clear picture of a North Korean submarine.

Commander Harper, a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair, turned his head to Ramirez and asked, "Range?"

"5,000 yards and closing, Captain."

(Ed note: Every commander of a ship in the navy is referred to as "captain", despite their actual rank. Oftentimes, on smaller ships and submarines, commanders (O6) are the "captains" of their vessels. Captain is actually a very high rank—just below admiral—so there are fewer of them than there are ships in the navy.)

The commander knew that the submarine they were tracking was a credible threat. Indiana was under orders: no hesitation, no mercy. They were in a state of war.

"Torpedo room, ready tubes one and two," Harper commanded.

"Weapons, tubes one and two ready, sir."

The tension in the CIC was palpable. Every sailor knew their role, and they performed with chilling efficiency.

"Fire control, solution ready on Sierra One?"

"Yes, Captain. Solution plotted and ready."

Captain Harper paused for a moment, a weighty silence filling the space. "Fire tubes one and two."

"Fire tubes one and two, aye," the weapons officer's voice echoed, followed by the unmistakable sound of torpedoes launching. Two powerful weapons raced toward their target, guided by Indiana's sophisticated systems.

The minutes that followed were tense. The sonar display showed the torpedoes' path, their predicted tracks converging with the enemy submarine's.

"Torpedoes running hot, straight, and normal," Ramirez announced.

A distant underwater explosion reverberated through the USS Indiana's hull. The shockwaves were felt both physically and emotionally.

"Sierra One, no longer on sonar, Captain," Ramirez reported, his voice a mix of relief and professionalism.

Captain Harper nodded, his face stoic. "Communicate the hit to command. Stay vigilant, there may be more out there."

The USS Indiana continued its silent patrol, its crew ever watchful in the shadowy depths, knowing that, in war, every decision has both weight and consequences.

…

It only took what felt like thirty minutes from the first bomb to the last for the entirety of North Korea's nuclear program to be erased from the surface of the planet. Everything, from silos to factories, were rendered extinct by American stealth bombers, while their submarines suffered the fate of becoming very expensive, life-sized aquarium decorations on the bottom of the sea. All of their naval bases had also felt the love, being on the receiving end of saturation fire from naval guns at standoff range and constant bombing runs by carrier-based F/A-18 Hornets.

It wasn't as though North Korea hadn't prepared many plans for what to do in case of an attack by the joint nations of South Korea and America, but they had expected that there would be a warning before any shots were fired. The US was fond of its own voice to the extent that it much preferred, as a nation, to speak rather than shoot. But when it did shoot, its shots were as accurate as they were painful.

Kim Jong-Un's belief that it could just deny involvement in the attack, as it had done in the past, or claimed that the attack had been carried out by rogue elements in the government—which it had—had turned out to be naive, at best. At worst, they believed that their nuclear arsenal would prove to be a restraining force on any potential hostilities and that things would end at the negotiation table, as it always had in the past.

But this time was different. The US had received actionable intelligence that accurately pinpointed North Korea's nuclear sites from South Korea (courtesy of the nyxians that had infiltrated the sites when they'd been welcomed to the country as part of the advance team ahead of Alexander's visit) and had chosen to act instead of forbear. Trump himself had practically giggled with glee and danced a jig when he'd heard that particular bit of intelligence, even though he had wrongly credited the South Korean intelligence service with the merit. 𝑙𝒾𝒷𝘳𝑒𝑎𝘥.𝒸ℴ𝓂

It was definitely a feather in his cap as president, he thought. He could forever claim with pride that he was the president that finally put a decisive end to the Korean War, a conflict that had stretched the better part of an entire century.

Chapter 361

Immediately after the US bombers defanged North Korea, South Korea got to work. The two countries had been prepared for the resumption of hostilities for decades and their capabilities were roughly equal. Sadly for North Korea, their allies were not. China had abandoned their dog by the roadside, while the United States seemed eager to support their "friends" in Korea. Thus, while South Korean artillery and rockets fired at long pre-planned targets and their troops marched across the DMZ, they were accompanied by American ship-based cruise missiles, tanks, helicopters, and soldiers as well. Not to mention the marines that deployed from the USS Ronald Reagan carrier group and the amphibious assault group that had been pulled from Japan to maintain a trade interdiction.

North Korea's beleaguered and slapdash air force had been on the verge of resurrection, thanks to their trade with Eden, but all of that progress was proven to be for naught as anything that could be used as a runway was crippled by the sustained bombardment of what seemed like the entire country. While their air defense managed to take down some of the missiles and rockets, what they stopped was like a drop of water in an ocean and the destruction continued apace.

North Korean forces along the DMZ had no idea the counterattack had even begun. The bombing missions had been preceded by wide-spectrum electronic jamming of North Korean communications, and thanks to all the chaos, the people manning the backup landlines had either fled or been targeted in the initial airstrikes. They soon noticed the South Korean incursion and began fighting back, but due to the initial losses and the recent redeployment to the coasts, there was only about half of their initially powerful artillery and rocket capability remaining. They still gave it their all, firing at their prepared targets, but with the South Korean government's order for their citizens to seek shelter in the underground bunkers, the loss of life was severely limited. Especially taking into account the undegraded South Korean air defense and the capabilities of the American forces, who were well-equipped with things like patriot missile launchers and anti-air guns that could, in a pinch, fill the sky with flak and chaff to intercept artillery rounds and confuse rockets.

Still, alarms blared in the mostly deserted streets of all the cities within reach of the North Korean batteries and every television in the country had emergency broadcasts on every channel repeating one message over and over: evacuate to the bunkers and shelter in place.

...

Though they were useless in acquiring firing solutions on the stealth aircraft, the air force had practically burned out their ULF (Ultra Low Frequency) radars tracking every single return, no matter how insignificant, and much the same way that even a blind cat can catch an occasional mouse, they had luckily discovered the trail of a single B2 bomber. The few jets that North Korea had that were still capable of flight and had a runway to take off from had all been ordered to intercept the discovered bomber in the hopes that they could at least take down one thing.

Thus, two North Korean jets were ignoring everything else and flying as fast as they could in the wake of the only remaining bomber in North Korean airspace. The call had gone out that it was being tracked headed toward the Mansu Hill Grand Monument in Pyongyang, and it absolutely had to be taken out before it could destroy the monument.

The monument complex consisted of 229 figures, including two 22-meter-tall bronze statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, which would normally be ignored in a bombing campaign. And it was true; although the monument complex was a target with no value in a bombing campaign, it was still a strategic one. Taking it out would be an emotional blow to citizens and soldiers alike, and wars could be won, or lost, on morale alone.

Just as the two fighters were nearing engagement range on the seemingly unaware bomber, which was already entering Pyongyang's airspace, their warning systems blared an alarm in their cockpits, alerting them that they had been locked onto by an enemy.

The jets released flares, lighting up the sky behind them as they began evasive maneuvers, but they absolutely could not change direction, which limited the flares' effectiveness. After all, theirs was the most important mission in the North Korean military right now, and they must not fail.

A resounding explosion and its resulting shockwave washed over the lucky jets as the guaranteed hits turned into near misses thanks to their flares and evasive maneuvering. But unfortunately, the alarms continued blaring in their cockpits and they had yet to even see what was attacking them.

One of the pilots radioed his wingman and said, "Leave this to me." He broke off and flew in the direction the missiles had come from in a last-ditch attempt to draw all of the attention to himself and allow his wingman to complete their mission.

But despite his determination, massive brass balls and heroic actions could only go so far. A few seconds later, he became a brief sun in the sky as his attempt to evade the incoming missile attack failed, and North Korea had one less jet in the sky.

The remaining pilot couldn't abort his mission now and took one desperate shot as he ran out of flares and chaff, hoping beyond hope that he would get lucky and take down the bomber. Then he ejected, just in time to see his jet become a fireball.

As he drifted down through the air, his eyes focused on the trail of the missile he had released, he watched the bomber release flares and chaff of its own. His missile impacted one of the flares and prematurely detonated.

He had failed.

Seconds after his failure, four F/A-18 Super Hornets streaked below him and were the only witnesses to his last act: he drew his sidearm and shot himself, leaving his corpse to drift to the ground, still strapped into the ejection seat.

The four jets that had just taken out North Korea's last hope were just one of the many squadrons now buzzing around North Korean airspace like their namesakes, angry hornets. By this point, nearly the entire complement of the USS Ronald Reagan's aircraft were in the air, maintaining air superiority and taking out ground targets all over the country. They had just taken out the final North Korean jet, and only a single missile had been fired against them—the one that had just failed to take down the B2 on a mission to devastate the monument complex atop Mansu Hill.

The American air assets weren't alone, either, but had been joined by South Korea's own air force. It would be weird, after all, if the ones who had been attacked were to just sit back and allow their allies to do all the work for them.

Not even half an hour after air superiority was achieved, North Korea's air defense had been completely removed. And along with that came the B-52 Stratofortresses, which swaggered across the DMZ loaded with 500- and 1000-pound bombs on a mission to take out every ground target of any military significance whatsoever.

An indiscriminate bombing campaign began and the ground of North Korea soon looked similar to the surface of the moon as the United States and South Korea dropped the equivalent of the total munition yield of World War I on the beleaguered nation.

Chapter 362

Later that evening, Trump addressed the nation from the Oval Office. It was a rather late address, due to needing to delay it in order for the initial airstrikes to proceed uncontested. He could have held the address earlier, but General Mattis had convinced him that giving a nuclear power advance warning would be a terrible idea.

After the traditional opening statement, Trump said, "Due to the unprovoked and cowardly terrorist attack on our allies in South Korea perpetrated by the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-Un, I approved an immediate armed retaliation consisting of a huge bombing mission to remove their nuclear capability. As of thirty minutes ago, North Korea is no longer a nuclear power." He gave the camera in front of him a smug smile, thinking it would reassure the citizens that there would be no chance of a nuclear war.

After that, he continued his address, vilifying North Korea and branding them terrorists. He swore that he would chase the perpetrators responsible for the attack that caused hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties to the ends of the earth and that he would uphold America's responsibility to police the world and support and defend their allies in South Korea.

"And in order to accomplish this mission, I have ordered our forces in South Korea and Japan to cross the Korean Demilitarized Zone jointly with the South Korean forces to take out the rogue government of the North Korean terrorists."

After mentioning that, he paused, then continued, "During our investigation of the initial assault, we discovered a disturbing truth. North Korea didn't act alone. They were aided by the government of Eden..." As he continued his address, people were surprised. With just a few words, he had tarred Eden and North Korea with the same brush and included them in the upcoming American counteroffensive, thus removing the need for him to declare war on them individually.

Early the next morning, the news broke in America that China had also been carrying out an investigation of their own regarding four of their jets being shot down while they were on "routine patrols over the Chinese mainland". Their investigation had revealed that the ones who had shot them down were from Eden as well.

Given that the Edenian jets had been granted permission to operate by Taiwan, China issued an ultimatum to both countries: either they surrender and pay reparations within twelve hours, or China would respond with what they described as "overwhelming force", as they considered that a state of war existed between China and the two belligerents.

While all of that was going on, Russia had silently begun their "special military exercises" in Ukraine. It was an invasion in all but name, backed by the might of the Russian nation in full. That it happened at the same time as the American invasion of North Korea and the ultimatum being issued by China was only a coincidence.

The chaos had finally broken out, and Eden, who was dragged in by treaties—at least on the surface—had been painted as the villain and everyone just knew that the fledgling country would soon be wiped off the map by the much more superior militaries of two world superpowers. Behind the scenes, it was all about the greed and lust for power of people who had more money and power than they could ever use in three lifetimes. But they were practiced enough at just this kind of political theater that nobody other than the people involved would ever know of their involvement.

Or so they thought, anyway.

…

Despite giving Taiwan and Eden twelve hours to surrender or suffer, China only waited three hours before attacking. A swarm of cruise missiles flew across the Taiwan Strait, targeting radar stations, air defense installations, and military bases. China unleashed everything they had in an attempt to degrade the defenses in Taiwan as much as possible before they sent in their ground troops.

However, just as the first round of incoming fire was detected making its way toward Taiwan, a stream of tracer rounds came from every direction, taking down missile after missile. It didn't stop everything, of course, but thanks to a solid priority intercept system, the damage was extremely limited and spread out, so as to maintain as much of Taiwan's defensive strength as possible.

Even so, Taiwan knew the situation couldn't be maintained for long. Everyone knew that getting involved in a shooting war with a behemoth like China was a bad idea; after all, anyone would run out of bullets long before China ran out of bodies. And Taiwan knew that Chinese airstrikes were inevitable. Their anti-air installations would eventually be taken out, either by stealthed jets, bombing runs, or even good old fashioned collaborators taking them down from the inside. Once that happened, the small island nation of Taiwan would be all but helpless.

China, far from being discouraged by their initial attack's failure, sent a second wave of cruise missiles. They had plenty of them stockpiled and wouldn't feel the pinch even if they had to fire them for the entire duration of the twelve-hour ultimatum.

Soon, the second wave was followed by a third, then a fourth. Each round of fire came after an interval of about fifteen minutes, which gave Taiwan ten minutes of preparation time between them... in theory, at least. In practice, the Taiwanese military was running around like a headless chicken, frantically reloading their guns, changing out warped gun barrels, restocking counter missile batteries, and so on.

Plus, the damage inflicted by each wave might be minor, but it would only continue to grow over time.

…

"Our friends in Taiwan are requesting immediate support. Should we send it, or argue that we're fully occupied by dealing with America?" Alexander asked Aron. He had reported the request the moment he received it, also noting that they had signed a mutual defense treaty during the diplomatic visit a week prior.

"Naturally, we'll assist them. Let them know that we'll uphold our obligations under the treaty, but that we need all of our forces to deal with America, so our aid will be of the long-ranged variety."

Aron turned to the empty seat next to Alexander and said, "Aeolus."

Alexander felt a breeze and heard the ringing of wind chimes from the seat next to him. For some reason, it reminded him of a child's giggle. He had met Aeolus before, and nodded a greeting to the nearly invisible shimmer that hovered over the seat of the chair next to him.

[You need something, grampa?] Aeolus said. His voice sounded like wind chimes and was somewhat garbled, but still somehow recognizable. 𝓵𝓲𝓫𝒓𝓮𝙖𝓭.𝒄𝙤𝓶

(Ed note: Look up "speaking piano" on YouTube. It's a really interesting phenomenon, kind of like a version of pareidolia. Here's an example: watch?v=-6e2c0v4sBM )

"Work time, Aeolus," Aron sighed and massaged his brows.

Aeolus stopped chiming and a transparent, light blue humanoid figure appeared where he was sitting, a small nicety the AI implemented when it was time to focus on work instead of play. [Yes, sir. I'm up to date on the situation—what do you want done?]

"Take out all of the Chinese missile silos in Fujian Province," Aron ordered, then turned to Athena. "Athena, issue a warning to America that if they truly move on Eden, we'll respond in kind and they won't like the result." He wanted to end things as soon as possible, so he had to provoke the biggest possible attack from America. An alpha strike with overwhelming force wouldn't work nearly as well as a cocky threat; overwhelming force would make them cautious, but a threat like that would make them mad, and mad is exactly what he needed them to be.

After all, a sound beating would save more lives in the long run, and human resources were still resources.

[Yes, sir,] Aeolus replied, then his figure flickered in the equivalent of a blink. [The birds are in the air.]

[Message delivered, sir,] Athena said, then the meeting room changed. Alexander, Aron, and the AIs in the meeting now appeared to be floating in the air above the Edenian task group, which had been pulled from its presidential escort duty and diverted to the beleaguered Taiwan.

"You notified Taiwan, right?" Aron asked Alexander.

"Yes, my assistant sent the notification the moment you made the decision."

"Good."

Aron turned to Poseidon and asked, "Are we in range?"

[Yes.] Poseidon nodded.

"Fire a saturation attack all along the coast of Fujian province. China wants an answer to their ultimatum? Fine. Let's give them one."

Chapter 363

The entire Edenian fleet came to a halt a couple hundred miles southeast of Taiwan and all of the ships came to general quarters. Red lights flashed in every compartment and passageway as an alert message sounded on repeat for every Poseidon sailor to go below decks and prepare for vertical launches.

Less than two minutes later, the alert message ceased as all departments in the fleet reported ready, leaving only the flashing lights. Following that, the launch tubes of the Vertical Launch Systems on the Thor class missile cruisers opened their top hatches, revealing row after row of forbidden pencils. 𝓵𝙞𝒃𝓻𝓮𝙖𝓭.𝙘𝓸𝓶

Another automated announcement rang out from the loudspeakers. "VLS firing in three... two... one."

"Firing."

With a thud, the waterline of all the missile boats raised by two feet from the compressed gas pushing tens of cruise missiles out of each ship. Then, with a mighty roar, the rocket engines on each missile ignited and guidance fins activated, shifting the missiles from vertical to horizontal orientations in a short parabolic arc.

The first wave of missiles was on its way to the shore of Fujian, China, where they would ruin quite a few peoples' days.

After all of the ready missiles were fired, the atomic printers at the bottom of the VLS tubes sprang to life, printing the second wave. Soon, all of the expended missiles had been replaced and the launch process repeated. Then it repeated again... and again. Five waves of cruise missiles were launched in total, making for roughly a thousand cruise missiles, give or take, all of them loaded with suicidal virtual intelligences that would guide them the rest of the way to their destination after all of the waves linked up into one enormous alpha strike against China.

If there was anything between the ships and China, other than Taiwan, they would experience the scare of their lives as the cruise missile alpha strike streaked over their heads. But thankfully, there was nobody in the missiles' flight path. Citizens of Taiwan might get a shock, seeing the densely packed barrage, but it would be a momentary thing. The government of Taiwan, on the other hand, had already been informed of the strike beforehand.

Satellites, on the other hand, would easily spot the anomaly. It couldn't be hidden from visual sensors, so Eden wouldn't even make the attempt. The most they did to prevent detection of their missiles was apply a radar-absorbing paint to the exterior, giving them the appearance of a small bird if a radar were to happen to catch one.

That said, cruise missiles flew "beneath the floor", meaning below the height that long-range radars scanned, so detection by an unaware radar operation was still unlikely.

A few minutes later, a second wave of a thousand-odd missiles launched, then a third a few minutes after that. The entire barrage repeated a total of five times, making six waves of missiles in total that were screaming toward the shoreline of China's Fujian province.

…

About twenty minutes after the first wave of missiles was launched, it crossed into the detection range of Taiwan. A confused radar operator leaned forward in his chair and smacked the top of his radar display in a stunning example of "caveman tech support" troubleshooting as the entire southeastern quadrant of it had almost entirely changed color due to the densely packed "flock of birds". He power cycled the display, and when it came back up, the anomaly had disappeared.

He wasn't too concerned about it and resumed going about his business until a few minutes later, the issue repeated. But it didn't matter, so he just marked it down in his maintenance log for servicing and switched to another monitoring station next to him.

As the missiles entered Taiwanese airspace, their guidance systems woke up, separating them into clusters of five to ten missiles, which split up and headed to different ultimate destinations.

Then they disappeared from radar entirely after passing over the northwest of Taiwan, but soon, enormous explosions began echoing across the Taiwan Strait as the missiles found their ultimate destinations.

It had to be said that Edenian cruise missiles were merely upscaled versions of their already-devastating That Direction Removers, and were each on par with an American MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or Mother Of All Bombs, as they were affectionately known by explosion junkies). Thus, each of the exploding cruise missiles erupted in an enormous mushroom cloud caused by the equivalent of eleven tons of TNT, not including the hits on ammo dumps in coastal logistics centers. There, the missiles set off secondary explosions, ultimately aiding in the accidental terraforming Eden was doing by reshaping the coast of southeastern China.

As the symphony of massive booms continued, the blast wave from the continuous detonations continued propagating, kicking up towering waves that first beached, then swamped the Chinese forces currently awaiting transport across the strait. The waves continued on, sweeping away the artificial islands China had built, and militarized, much like a broom would sweep away a pile of ash in a fireplace.

The pseudo tsunami was a purposeful creation of Poseidon's, and he had carefully calculated the exact timing of the cruise missile impacts to create the wave and shape it so that it would avoid damaging the coasts of the other countries in Southeast Asia, especially Taiwan. It was a brilliant demonstration of weaponized math on the part of the erstwhile god of the sea.

In a single move, Eden had almost completely crippled the Chinese military infrastructure all along the Taiwan Strait, as well as their shore installations up and down Fujian Province. It was a masterstroke and would be studied generations later by military historians... if humanity was still around by then, something that was still in doubt.

Still in VR, Aron and Alexander had been joined by John. All of the "leader type" AIs had joined them as well, even those that weren't directly involved in running Aron's ever-growing military.

"Mother of god..." John couldn't help but exclaim. As a lifelong explosion junkie himself, he understood the unprecedented feat Aron had achieved better than anyone else present, barring the AIs, and his shock was immeasurable and his day was absolutely made.

"Is it my birthday?" He moved to pinch himself, then remembered that he couldn't feel pain in the simulation.

"No, it's not your birthday, but I have a feeling this will become an anniversary," Aron gravely said. "I'm beginning to understand what Oppenheimer meant when he talked about death."

Even though Aron's personality had been growing much colder and his thought process much more logical, he was still slightly disturbed. The sheer amount of devastation a mere three Edenian cruisers could wreak was impressive, and beyond even his imagination.

Chapter 364

Although wars had always been unpredictable, and there were always a chance of things going wrong—Just ask the Australians, who had managed to lose more than one "war" against large flightless birds—the situation between China and Taiwan had gone completely counter to everyone's expectations thanks to the overwhelming destruction that Eden had laid upon China. And not only that, it had happened so suddenly that observers didn't even have a chance to figure out what was going on before it, well, went on.

Soon after the barrage ended, a video someone had managed to capture of the thousands of cruise missiles passing over Taiwan appeared online. It didn't stir up much discussion or make any waves at first, but as time went on it began gaining traction. Especially after the thousands of people that witnessed the giant explosions, or the passing ocean wave, reported what they had seen. In particular, one Taiwanese fisherman who had been in his boat attempting to flee the oncoming chaos had recorded the wave's passing and the havoc it wrought on the artificial islands near the nine dash line, prompting much discussion of its own.

People argued the videos' validity back and forth, with the general consensus being that the videos had to be accurate, since more and more of them were cropping up as people posted them from other areas. One video of cruise missiles became six, then twenty, then hundreds, and eventually thousands of Taiwanese netizens had posted videos of the missiles. On the other side of the Taiwan Strait, behind the Great Firewall of China, the Chinese internet sites, like Tieba and WeChat Moments, had also exploded. QQ Messenger and WeChat were practically on fire with people panicking and wondering what the explosions in Fujian were. And it wasn't limited to just the coastal destruction and accidental terraforming, either; Aeolus had directed airstrikes against all of the missile silos scattered across the entire province as well, some of which were still in progress.

It was rare for the same event to take over both the Chinese internet and the global internet, and everyone around the world was asking the same question: how? How had the missiles and bombers so easily evaded the Chinese air defense systems?

The Chinese bombers and escorts that had launched after the transports were loaded were forced to return to counter the ongoing airstrikes taking out silo after silo on the mainland. But not even the most advanced Chinese fighters could catch even a glimpse of the Edenian bombers carrying out the mission in Fujian. Not that it would matter anyway, as even the most ponderous Edenian aircraft was still leagues ahead of everything the Chinese had in terms of top speed, cruising speed, and operational ceilings.

Coupled with the newly unmapped coastline of Fujian Province, the Chinese air force had also been culled from the conflict with Taiwan, at least for now.

Online, China's response to the panic sweeping through their netizens by increasing the strength of the Great Firewall and directing their Internet Security Bureau to work overtime to delete any post that mentioned the recent strikes in Fujian. The crackdown began by throttling the internet speed and adding new terms to the blacklist on Baidu, Sogou, Haosou, and Shenma, China's main search engines for both computer and mobile searching.

Soon after that, though, everything went completely silent on the Chinese internet. All online operations halted, like the entire internet had frozen.

At first, people thought it was the usual censorship, but before long they realized that this was different from the past. Before, no matter how strict the censors were, they were still able to use the internet without any issues, but now they couldn't do anything online at all.

The current freeze was the handiwork of Nova, who had been tasked with evicting China from the "global village" built by the modern internet. But she didn't stop there; not only had she cut the connection via the underwater fiber optic network, she had also paralyzed the entire Chinese internet with a massive DDoS attack the likes of which was only made possible by use of her quantum servers. 𝒍𝓲𝙗𝒓𝒆𝓪𝒅.𝙘𝒐𝓶

After cutting China off from the global internet, Nova continued digging deeper. It had only taken her seconds to interrupt the internet connection, but she spent about five minutes digging into the personal and professional lives of Chinese politicians and high-ranking party members. Soon, the Chinese internet resumed operations, but Nova was in charge of it. And she didn't waste that power, either. Instead, she compiled a slideshow of blackmail material and pushed it onto every single screen in China, shining a light on their government officials' dirty deeds. Infidelity, embezzlement, abuses of power, coverups... the list went on. Every bad thing that every Chinese official had ever done was now being force fed to every citizen in their country that had a cellphone or computer.

It was hell for them, as no matter how they tried to shut things down, they were met by Nova's impenetrable defense.

And she still didn't stop there. The blackmail material was only a warmup, and she soon moved to the government data centers where they stored every bit of data they collected on their own citizens.

Once there, she immediately transferred all of that data, from the video surveillance to telecommunications records, and even down to the biometric data to her own storage. Then she encrypted the local Chinese copy of it all, deleted it from their servers, flooded their storage media with junk binary, and for good measure, she even initiated cascading failures that lit the physical servers themselves on fire. Unless China had an offline backup of everything, they would never see any of that data again. Ever.

Well, they would never see it again unless they managed to steal it from Nova's quantum storage servers and decrypt it, that is.

Nova didn't stop at attacking the government, either. She also took over WeChat, QQ, and other commonly used apps that Chinese citizens required for everyday usage, where she copied every message and every payment record ever sent through those services and inserted code into the programs that would send her a copy of everything in the future, as well.

And despite doing everything they possibly could, nobody in China could stop her.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 365

An hour after Nova started her attack on the Chinese internet, the government shut it down. Not only did they hit their "kill switch", they even went so far as to physically cut the cables that connected their data centers.

Despite all of the havoc she had caused, Nova didn't attempt to go after the civilian infrastructure systems. She knew it would cause massive casualties if she disabled the power grid, transportation system, emergency services, utilities, or even the financial market. Though there was some collateral damage done to the marketplace, as a system freeze was still costly, it was as limited as she could manage to make it.

So even though the cyberattack was definitely savage, it was specifically aimed at the Chinese government and normal people basically only had the minor inconvenience that any interruption of their internet service would cause.

Thus, Nova had single handedly brought down a country that boasted the world's second largest economy, the highest population, and the most goods exported, all by nothing more than the strategic application of her qubits and a wave of her virtual hand. Without even firing a single bullet, much less a protracted war, a highly industrialized nation had been brought to its knees and the world would soon know it. After all, with all of their connections to the world at large cut, it was impossible for anyone outside of China to even notice that a problem existed. That, in fact, was the only hint that anything was wrong with the country, though the timing of the attack ensured that very few people—mostly those dealing with international trade and foreign marketplaces—would notice that the disconnect had even happened.

At least in a short amount of time, anyway; it wouldn't be long before the rest of the world cottoned to the issues China was facing beyond the recent swarm of missiles and bombs bringing the military to a screeching halt.

The Chinese government was forced to implement a countrywide curfew as they scrambled to recover, using every bit of power they had in a desperate attempt to recover from the brutal attack.

Thankfully, Nova hadn't gone after their energy sector, or they would have been crippled and millions, if not dozens or hundreds of millions, of their citizens would have died.

…...

"What's the extent of the damages?" Xi Jinping asked. He had been noticing that every computer monitor near him was displaying a mocking image of a certain fictional anthropomorphic animal that was often used to mock him. Even worse, the image would only appear when he was the only one looking at a particular screen, proving that he was being singled out for "individual attention" by whoever was behind the attack on their internet, and it was proving a very effective distraction and keeping him from paying full attention to the ongoing attacks in Fujian.

"We're still evaluating it, as the attack disabled every network we have and forced us to rely on physical verification face to face rather than network diagnostics," the head of the Internet Security Bureau reported. "But we estimate that the damage is severe, and it might even be unrecoverable."

"You call yourself the leader of our most technologically advanced department and you can't even tell me the extent of the damage this cyberattack caused?" Xi Jinping snapped. Things were already grim with the overwhelming and ongoing attacks in Fujian, and now he had to deal with a completely unprecedented cyberattack crippling every government service.

"We're being as careful as we can in order to limit the potential for the attacker to cause further damage, sir. All we know now is that..." the ISP briefly paused, then sighed, "all we know is that we don't know anything, sir. Nothing we tried could stop whoever was behind the attack, and they didn't leave behind a calling card, so we can't even tell who they are. All we know is that we've never seen anything like this before. I don't think anyone has."

"So you don't have a way of making sure another cyberattack on this scale can't happen?"

"Unfortunately, we don't. The only thing we can do is bring the great firewall up to full strength and prevent any kind of information that originates from outside China from coming in. That should, in theory, prevent a repetition of this attack, since nobody believes it originated from inside China. The biggest problem with that is that we won't be able to interact with the rest of the world. We'll be crippling our own financial market and the economic damage from that will be... considerable, sir."

President Zi pinched the bridge of his nose and ordered, "Do it. We can't let the rest of the world know about this attack, either, so do whatever it takes to restore everything to how it was before. Clear everything that was mentioned about it and add all the terms to the blacklist."

"Sir, that's impossible. We can't use our backups, as the attacker encrypted some of them and deleted others. They even lit our data centers on fire after disabling the fire suppression systems. If we want to recover any of the encrypted data, we either need to contact the attacker and get the decryption key from them, or spend who knows how long decrypting it ourselves," the director said in a shaky voice. 𝒍𝒊𝒃𝓻𝒆𝓪𝙙.𝒄𝙤𝒎

"Then—"

Just as the president was about to ask why the attacker didn't cause more damage when they clearly could have done so, someone barged into the room without knocking. Before he could vent his anger on the interloper, the man asked, "our Beidou Navigation Satellite System is in trouble!"

'Fuck,' President Zi thought. He had finally realized what the attacker was really after: their navsats. Everything else was nothing but a massive smokescreen.

"While we were focused on the websites and servers, they used the distraction to gain control of our navsats. Then they ordered the satellites to use all of their available fuel to deorbit and locked us out of the system so we can't stop it," the man continued.

Thirty... Thirty fucking satellites that had cost billions to develop and send into space, replacing their reliance on the American GPS network with self-reliance, were going to be brought crashing down by the unprecedented cyberattack. All the time spent on research and development, brought down within minutes by a single determined attacker. All of their blood, sweat, and tears, lost! Just like that!

And in addition to the financial cost of replacing them, much less launching them, the inability of devices to use GPS navigation was still secondary. What was crucial now was that the targeting systems of their missiles and most of their standoff weapons, much less their entire fucking Navy, had been taken down! That was a far, far more severe blow to them and their ambitions than a mere economic loss that they could easily recover from given a short amount of time.

"FUUUUUUUCK" the president shouted in a rage, then threw the glass of water in front of him to the wall. The sound of shattering glass echoed the shattering of the man's ambitions as he forcibly harnessed his rage, lest he have a stroke and die of anger.

Chapter 366

"Will the falling satellites hit anything on their way down?" President Zi asked once he had calmed down after his outburst.

"Based on their trajectory," the man opened his laptop and typed furiously, bringing up an orbital model of the satellites in orbit from the confidential servers at the ITU, "they're headed directly for some American and Russian satellites." He turned the laptop around and showed the labeled orbital map to the president. "That assumes that the Americans and Russians don't adjust their satellites to avoid the collision.

"How long until the earliest collision?" the president followed up.

"An hour or so, sir. Are you going to inform them so they can avoid it?"

"Why would I do that?" Xi Jinping chuckled. "We can use it to our benefit," he finished with a sinister smile on his face. All of his anger had dissipated when he realized that he didn't have to do anything and the Edenians would walk into a trap on their own.

"What benefit, sir?" asked the minister.

"How many of them are going to crash?"

"Due to the distances and the mechanics involved, the chances of a collision are normally really low. But the way ours are deorbiting seems like the paths have almost been calculated to purposefully cause collisions. If that's true, and it isn't just an accident, they'll take out ten satellites from Russia and another ten from America."

"Good, good, good!" Zi nodded. He was thrilled by the news.

"Contact the American and Russian embassies. Let them know I need an emergency conference call with Presidents Trump and Putin. We need to organize a joint response that's powerful enough to negate Eden's stealth missile bombardments. If we can't detect their missiles, let's give them so many things to shoot at that they run out of missiles before we run out of targets to give them."

In a war of attrition, China would never fear anyone. There was a popular apocryphal anecdote about the interaction between Russia and China at the end of WWII. It was said that Joseph Stalin, at the end of the war, contacted the Chinese government and threatened to invade them with 250,000 Russian tanks.

The Chinese leader laughed and said, "Go ahead. Send your tanks, your infantry, and your planes. Send them all! I'll meet you at the border with peasants armed with sticks and rocks. You'll run out of bullets and bombs before China runs out of peasants!"

Stalin decided against the invasion and backed down after hearing that.

The same still held true to this day, but China now had allies, both of convenience and by treaties. So why would Xi Jinping suffer all of the losses when he could share that suffering with Eden's other enemies?

…

"There's a perfect opportunity for us, father. One that even removes the need for us to personally step in and make a move," George Morgan reported to his father.

"True." Aubrey Morgan turned to his secretary and ordered, "Get the president on the line."

Aubrey's secretary took out the burner phone they used when they needed to directly contact President Trump and dialed a number from memory. No numbers would ever be saved in the contacts of their stock of confidential burner phones.

…

Aron was in VR, floating in space with the Earth and its satellites below him. All of them were labeled, and he was watching the events unfold.

"The ball's in your court now, so what will you do?" he mused as he watched China's satellites fall. Some of them were doomed to collide with others, while some would "coincidentally" make landfall on a few particularly nasty politicians' properties. And one very special one was aimed directly at the Morgan family compound.

Nova appeared near him and asked, [Do you think they'll dodge them?]

"It depends. If the Morgans make a move, at least three American satellites will be taken down, assuming the Rothschilds do nothing. As for Russia, they're focused on their own thing. They've marched on Kyiv and will be there in a week or so, if nothing drastic happens. Ukraine can't support itself, and with just the limited support we're providing them, a week is the longest they can delay their impending downfall."

Aron really was planning on facing the entire world all at once. 𝓁𝘪𝒷𝘳ℯ𝘢𝑑.𝒸𝘰𝑚

A tall, scrawny old man with a hunched back, dressed in tattered sackcloth and wearing rags wrapped around his feet appeared. Silent tears were flowing down his face and he carried an empty clay bowl with chips on the rim and cracks throughout. He was none other than Coeus, the AI responsible for the Coeus Foundation. [Many people will die if they respond,] he said, grieving the upcoming loss of life.

He was the kindest of the AIs and would always mourn for any lives lost. But though he was kind and thoughtful, he wasn't an idiot; he understood that Aron's plan of becoming the whole world's enemy would end things with the least possible loss of life. But while Aron may think of it in colder terms, and considered the loss acceptable in terms of human resources, Coeus would always think of things from the point of view of the families left behind by the people who were about to die.

"It'll be a war to end all wars on Earth," Aron responded. He wouldn't belittle the AI or his beliefs at all, as he understood that Coeus' personality wasn't as cold as the rest of his siblings, who had been made for conflict, both military and business.

"And this is how it begins," he continued as he watched a Chinese satellite impact an American GPS satellite. The collision sent millions of fragments flying in all directions, destined to either burn up in the atmosphere or litter the orbital range with more dangerous space junk until it either escaped Earth's gravity or settled into a regular orbit, like the rest of the junk surrounding the planet.

Chapter 367

Still floating above the world, watching the satellites fall, Aron turned to Nova and said, "Activate the replacement protocol."

[Are you sure, sir?]

"Yes. It's time for Vladimir to be put into place."

...

Somewhere in Ukraine, near the Russian border.

Vladimir had been operating as part of the forward forces, clearing the way for Russia's troops to march on Kyiv. His orders from Russia were clear: sabotage whatever needed to be sabotaged and assassinate whoever needed to be killed to ensure that the Russian troops would have an easy time in their "special military operation."

He was in an outhouse, standing over the bloody corpse of his latest target, a militia commander of a hastily built force consisting of three squads of infantry with a few RPGs and a pile of explosives. The commander wouldn't have had to die except that he woke up and stumbled out to the latrine in the middle of the night and happened to catch Vladimir in the act of setting demolition charges to take out the explosives.

As the operative was cleaning his knife, a chirp came from his glasses, notifying him that his presence was required in VR. It wasn't an emergency alert, but he would need to hurry up and finish what he was doing, then find a safe place to log in. Thus, he finished setting the charges, armed them, and set the timer on the detonator to forty-five seconds. He had always had a flair for the dramatic, so he walked out of the militia camp and was just out of range when the detonation happened, sending an enormous fireball up to the sky behind him as the last remnant of the shockwave made his clothes flutter.

"Take a selfie," he ordered his AI assistant. Real badasses never looked at explosions, and to him, this was a real badass moment that he wanted to document for posterity's sake.

[Yes, Mister Drama King,] the assistant replied. Vladimir could practically hear it rolling its virtual eyes; the two had a good relationship.

Vladimir increased his speed and ran to an unoccupied building nearby, then settled into a comfortable position and logged into VR.

...

Nyx and Vladimir had also been working well together, and the shadowy AI was waiting for him when he arrived in her "office", a recreation of Central Park in New York City. She was sitting on a bench waiting for his arrival.

"You know I'm in an active war zone, right? Wasn't two crossword clues, a book cipher, and a chalk signal a bit much to make me go through for this meeting?" Vladimir complained as he slumped to the bench beside Nyx and groaned. "I could be shot at any time out in the real world."

(Ed note: These are all methods spies use to contact each other in shows like Burn Notice or mystery novels. Supposedly they were really used during the Cold War, but I'd like to leave myself off of at least *one* government watch list, so I'll stress that all of the methods here are from fictional media sources.)

[Get over it, the time dilation here gives me plenty of time to play,] Nyx replied. [Besides, I sent you the non-emergency meeting request, so you should've had plenty of time to get yourself to a safe place before logging in.]

"I did, and I should be fine where I'm at. Why'd you call me, anyway, boss?"

[Orders from above. We're activating the replacement protocol early,] Nyx said.

"Oh the replacem—wait. You're moving it up? I thought there was more time?"

Vladimir had always had a goal after his reprogramming and return to Russia: to replace Putin. The plan was to gain the man's trust and be groomed as a successor, as Putin was due to come up on his term limits and would need a sockpuppet to act as the president for a term, while he himself stepped down and took over as prime minister. Then, once he was eligible to run for election again, Putin would "win" the election and be the president of Russia for the next two terms.

"So how will we go about it?"

[As we speak, I have a team in place. You just blew up a militia supply camp, right? Well, 'your' corpse will be discovered there, if anyone cares to look for it. Meanwhile, you're to undergo a second round of gene engineering, where you'll become your target. Then, how you replace him is up to you. I suppose I should give you the 'your mission, should you choose to accept it' spiel, but honestly... you're going to choose to accept it.]

"Yeah, yeah, I suppose I would 'choose' to accept it indeed," Vladimir sighed. "Well, off to work then. Send the details to my glasses, boss. Good seeing you, you're looking great, how's the weather, how's the kids, how's work, and all the rest." He saluted Nyx, then began his logout sequence.

Nyx sat back on the park bench after Vladimir left and giggled to herself.

...

After logging out of VR, Vladimir headed to the rendezvous point, where he would meet with his nyxian support team.

When he arrived, he whistled in the prearranged code and a full nyxian team revealed themselves by dropping their "snuggies". All five of them were, of course, gorgeous women, and dressed in the bodysuit and vest combo that nyxians used in the field only highlighted that fact. But Vladimir knew that, just like in nature, the most beautiful things were also the deadliest, so he did his best to remain calm and professional, as well as to avoid any... embarrassing physiological responses.

After all, they may need his head to remain on his shoulders, but his smaller head was nowhere near as safe as that one was.

"Hey handsome," the nyxian squad leader and honeypot, Cara Williams, practically purred. She had honey-blonde hair that cascaded in perfect curls down over her shoulders and upper back to the bottom of her shoulder blades and her face wouldn't be out of place in a fashion magazine or walking the catwalk at Fashion Week in Paris.

Vladimir was already in danger, and his mission hadn't even begun!

Chapter 368

[The second chapter will be up in a few hours]

Velyka Doblon, Ukraine, November 3, 2017.

A gentle snow was falling on the small village of Velyka Doblon. The winter crops lay dormant under the white blanket that Mother Nature had pulled up to cover the sleepy town and its residents were still yet to wake up for the day. Their livestock was still slumbering in their sheds, dogs and cats lay near warm fireplaces inside the houses, and the roosters were just beginning to stir in preparation for their daily jobs of yelling at the sun and chasing the hens. Everything was the same as the day before, and the day before that, and the people living there thought things would remain the same tomorrow, and all of the tomorrows to come.

They were simple folk, and, being far away from the hustle and bustle of city life, they thought they would remain safe from the conflict on the border with Russia.

Today, they would learn that their thinking was wrong.

The villagers were awoken, not by the sound of roosters, but of barking dogs and boots crunching through the snow against a backdrop of growling diesel engines and the squealing treads of tanks. One dog, not knowing any better, even ran up to the marching Russian infantry, its tail wagging and tongue flapping from the side of its mouth in time with its floppy ears bouncing up and down on the sides of its head. It probably thought the people were friendly and were coming to play, but it was mistaken.

They were not.

A gunshot rang out, followed by a brief yelp, and the laughing of Russian soldiers.

"Yevgeny, looks like we're eating dog meat tonight!" one soldier laughed and patted the soldier that had shot the dog on the shoulder, congratulating him for his good aim.

The order was passed by the colonel in charge of this particular column of Russian troops for them to halt. The troops and vehicles came to a halt just outside the idyllic little village, all of them wondering what they were stopping for; Kyiv was still quite a distance away from them, after all. But they didn't have to wonder for long as the next orders were clear: leave none alive.

They commenced their slaughter, and within minutes, the idyllic little hamlet had been left with no survivors. The troops formed back up and marched on, leaving a new ghost town in their wake, one that was filled with the resentful ghosts of the innocents whose blood now stained Russian hands.

Soon, Mother Nature had once again pulled its white blanket over the small village of Velyka Doblon, covering the red mud, extinguishing the few fires left burning, and returning it to its former idyllic appearance, save for one difference.

Nothing lived there anymore. Even the livestock had been rounded up and herded away by the logistics troops accompanying the invading column of Russian troops.

...

Tucked away in a hastily dug bunker, five beautiful women kept watch over a sleeping man in a preservation coffin laid on the ground behind them. The man was groaning, tossing, and turning as his flesh squirmed like live worms and snakes had been planted beneath it and his bones creaked and groaned. He was undergoing a genetic modification, and it would soon be completed. Even while he himself was being kept unconscious by the glasses on his face, his body was still reacting to the painful process of turning one person into another, completely different person.

He wasn't even the first to be graced with residency in the coffin he now lay in, either. It had been airdropped to the nyxians and had contained a charred corpse at first. Well, whether or not it could be considered a "corpse" was actually undetermined, as it was a clone of Vladimir, who was the coffin's current resident, and had never been "alive" in the first place. It was grown in a vat using the same principles as an atomic printer, save that it used an organic material's DNA to grow, hastened by the printer in the bottom of the vat rapidly placing the newly grown cells in their proper locations, all while nourishing them with the bubbling green liquid that filled the glass vat.

The dead, charred Vladimir was dropped near the militia camp that the live one had just blown up, planting his "corpse" to prove that the intelligence operative was actually dead, should anyone care to investigate. Which they would, as a nyxian that had been embedded in the KGB as an intelligence analyst would raise the alarm a few hours later.

And in two or three days, once Vladimir's transition was complete, he would be awoken and begin his next task for the intelligence branch of ARES: replacing his target.

... 𝒍𝒊𝙗𝓻𝒆𝓪𝙙.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The same column that massacred Velyka Doblon continued its march, and after a few days—thanks to the work of the Russian KGB and local Ukrainian collaborators—arrived outside Kyiv, where it met the other four columns of invaders. Their smooth progress was made possible by the plan that Vladimir drew up and the massive intelligence branch of the Russian government paving the way by sabotaging the Ukrainian militia encampments and assassinating its leadership.

Once the four columns combined, they rested. The next day, the invasion of Kyiv, and the downfall of Ukraine, would officially begin.

...

Vladimir, on the other hand, was smuggled back across the border and into Moscow by a trail of nyxians. He reached the Kremlin in the early afternoon and openly marched into Putin's office. He sat down across from the Russian dictator, put a small black cube atop the desk, and, in Putin's own voice, said, "Hello, comrade. I need a favor from you. Well, actually, I don't need a favor from you—I need to BE you."

He smiled at the dictator, then reached across the desk and dragged him to the top of it, where he put a familiar pair of glasses on the struggling man's face. Then he said to the empty air, "Begin the download."

Vladimir settled in to wait for the process of downloading Putin's mind map to be completed. Soon, he would replace the man on every level, from his genetics to every single secret contained in his head and everything else. In every respect, Vladimir Putin would cease to exist, and Vladimir, the Edenian agent, would take his place as the leader of Russia.

He could hardly wait.

...

In Kyiv, the citizens were huddled in basements or in sturdy buildings as the initial bombardment began. The Russian troops had been softening up the city's defenses for four whole hours as the citizens ran, hid, and died to artillery, bombs, and tank rounds. They started out screaming, but now the regular people had lost their voices and could only silently pray to whatever gods there were that they would survive to see the next day.

Then, the invasion began. After four hours of indiscriminate shelling, the Russian troops made their way to the government building, where they captured the surviving leadership of the country and forced them to capitulate.

Seven days. One short week was all it had taken for Russia to bring down Ukraine, from the moment they crossed the border to the moment they captured the survivors in the government building.

Kyiv, and by extension, Ukraine, had fallen.

Chapter 369

The moment the first Chinese satellite crashed into another, America invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty and called for an immediate emergency meeting. At that meeting, they planned to push for using Article 5 to declare Eden a belligerent nation that attacked a NATO member, thus allowing them to invade without an issue.

At the meeting, the American representative presented a video recording of their interrogation of the recently captured Kim Jong-Un, in which he denied responsibility for the initial round of bombardment that targeted Seoul and blamed the entire thing on Eden. Once they saw that, the invocation of Article 5 was unanimously approved, and NATO began working on an invasion plan.

But there was still work to be done on the home front for both America and Russia.

"I'm sure most of you are already aware that something's wrong with many of the things we've become reliant on," Trump said in a speech after being briefed on the result of the NATO meeting. "Things like air travel, package delivery, and even pizza guys... everything that relies on our GPS satellites providing accurate locations and directions has come to a screeching halt.

"I'm here today to tell you why that is. It's because a couple days ago, Eden made an unprecedented attack on our country, taking down ten of our satellites. But we didn't suffer alone! China lost thirty satellites, and Russia lost ten of their own in the completely unprovoked attack.

"And that wasn't their first act of terrorism, either. Their first act of terrorism was when they caused North Korean artillery to bombard Seoul, costing nearly a million and a half lives and billions of dollars in damage. And because of those two terrorist attacks, we called a meeting with NATO and I can now announce that we've invoked Article 5 and, in conjunction with our friends and allies in NATO, hereby declare that a state of war exists between all of the member nations and Eden, until such a time as the terrorist dictator, Alexander Romero, and his co-conspirator, Aron Michael, are brought to justice."

Just like that, NATO had been pulled into a conflict with Eden.

Trump continued, "And it isn't just the satellites that were destroyed. Their destruction created many, many small pieces of space junk in orbit and it's expected that more satellites will be brought down by it. And those satellites being destroyed will create more junk and destroy more satellites that create even more junk! Eventually, our planet will be blanketed by debris, not only confining us to the surface of the planet, but also hindering our preparations for the arrival of the visitors.

"This is an act of sabotage and terror that's completely unprecedented. No terrorist has ever caused so much damage and so many casualties in their acts of terror," Trump said, already beginning a campaign to dehumanize the enemy.

"The terrorist, Aron Michael, is a man with delusions of grandeur caused by too much money and too little oversight, and he's aided and abetted by Alexander Romero, the dictator of Eden. We've tried imposing sanctions on them. It didn't work. We tried reasoning with them. It didn't work. All of our options have been exhausted, leaving only war, so the least we can do is seize all of their assets held in NATO countries to fund our war against them.

Mister Michael, and Romero, if you're watching this," Trump stared directly into the camera with a stern gaze, "you should know this: we beat Saddam, we beat bin Laden, and we beat the Taliban. We WILL add you to that list of achievements as well."

He cleared his throat and returned to reading his teleprompter.

"However, due to the numbers of his private forces, together with the advanced weapons and technology they are armed with—as we saw in China—we, the members of NATO, call upon the rest of the world to join us in removing this terrorist organization from the face of the planet and will be meeting with the UN a few hours from now to make that happen." The Morgans, and by extension, their puppet president, were obviously determined to remove Aron from the playing field, as he was a direct threat to their interests.

…

Following the press conference, a UN Security Council emergency meeting was held. Its sole agenda was to declare Aron a terrorist and Alexander a dictator, thus seizing their assets as they pose a clear and present danger to the world.

The meeting was swift, and the attendees spent a mere thirty minutes in discussion before immediately moving to vote on the resulting resolution. The resolution passed unanimously, with every member having their own reasons to cast their votes along with the permanent members. Some of them were members of the Big Five's power blocs, others were coerced or bribed, and some were outright threatened, but a reason was a reason and everybody had one. 𝓵𝓲𝓫𝙧𝓮𝙖𝙙.𝒄𝓸𝙢

An announcement was made, and immediately afterward, countries began planning to join the effort to take down the newest world-class terrorist.

…

In Eden, things were mostly the same, but for a different reason. The rest of the world was furious with Aron and Alexander, and Edenians were furious at the rest of the world on behalf of Aron and Alexander. They were also sick and tired of everyone thinking they deserved the good things in Eden more than the Edenians themselves did, and were blatantly obvious in their desire to take it from them.

Eden's beloved president, together with the businessman that had been pivotal in bettering and enriching their lives, were now being called terrorists and being treated as enemies of the entire world. Meanwhile, Edenians knew the difference; their country, plagued by moral decay and the rot in their government, had been saved by the efforts of the two men now being labeled as a terrorist and a dictator. Nearly every citizen in the country knew that what was being said about their benefactors was a bald-faced lie!

And despite literally having the whole world against them, none of them protested. None of them demanded the president resign, and none of them pilloried the wealthy and philanthropic businessman that they loved. Instead, they held vigils, showing their support of the two men and their rage at the rest of the world.

…

"It really does take a common enemy to unite mankind," Aron sneered as he watched the various countries' announcements of their intentions to join the new war on terror.

Rina, who was watching beside him, gave him a weird look.

"What's that look for?" Aron asked.

"You just lost more than a trillion and a half dollars worth of assets and were branded a terrorist. Don't you feel the least bit sad?" she asked. If she was in his place, she would be crying and wailing, dressed in sackcloth and ashes.

[Two trillion, to be exact,] Nova jokingly corrected.

"I earned it once, so I can earn it again. And now that I've got a reputation and everybody knows about me, I'll earn it even faster the second time. But that isn't the important takeaway here. What's important is that my plan worked and the entire world is coming after me!" He let loose with an exaggerated belly laugh, making him look like a madman.

After his laughter died down, he cleared his throat and turned to Nova. "Everything's ready on our side, right?" he asked.

[Yes. All of our personnel are ready and awaiting orders from central command before they begin,] she replied.

"Good. Now it's time for me to address the world as myself, and no longer use a sockpuppet to represent me. No more shadows, no more proxies, no more spokespeople or mouthpieces. It's time to be real," he said, standing and walking to the door to log out of VR.

Chapter 370

The Edenian Defense Minister announced a press conference scheduled for later that evening, at which they would reveal their response to the recent events. The announcement calmed the Edenian citizens, who were understandably worried about the entire world coming together to destroy their happiness. Thus comforted, they went back to their regular activities and would wait to see what their government had to say later.

…...

The day passed in the blink of an eye, and it was soon time for the press conference. Every Edenian citizen was glued to their television screen, and even activity on the internet had practically come to a screeching halt. The streets were clear of traffic, and without the liveliness that people bring with them, looked rather desolate. Businesses were empty, offices that normally had scattered windows shining light into the night sky were dark, and doormen were clustered around televisions at the reception desks in their buildings instead of manning the doors. Even security guards and police officers had stopped patrolling their beats and emergency service workers in the fire departments and ambulance bays were in their dayrooms, unblinkingly staring at the still image of the press room podium centered in their television screens.

The only people who weren't sitting in front of televisions awaiting the beginning of the scheduled press briefing were those that were in the press room and green room, and the members of ARES.

Those involved in the press briefing were preparing for it, and ARES, well... ARES was preparing for war.

At one minute until the briefing was about to begin, the media in the press room stilled and their background chatter died out. They all turned their eyes to the podium, knowing that the Edenian government's reputation for timeliness and punctuality was well deserved. Behind the podium stood four flags, two on each side. The flags showed who would be speaking at any given presser, and three of them were well known.

To the far left of the audience, in the position of honor, was the Edenian flag. Immediately to the right of it was the presidential flag. To the right of the podium, from the perspective of those in the room, was the flag of the Edenian Defense Ministry. Those three were easily recognizable, but to the right of the ministry flag was one the reporters had never seen.

Since the room was indoors, there was no breeze causing the flags to flutter, so all they could see of it was a bold red color.

Soon, the hour ticked over and two people walked onto the stage. They were the men of the hour: President Alexander Romero, who was wearing a smart, charcoal gray bespoke suit that screamed professionalism, paired with a navy blue tie and pristine white shirt; and Aron Michael, who was dressed in his ARES finery, with five stars in the shape of a pentagon on each shoulder.

The two were striking together. Aron was tall, with a face that seemed chiseled from marble and neatly combed short black hair and glacial blue eyes, while Alexander was a few inches shorter and his still-handsome face showed wisdom and maturity. Both men seemed cast from similar molds, with broad shoulders that tapered down to narrow waists, and they walked with confident, precisely measured steps.

Alexander stepped up to the podium, while Aron stood a step behind him and to his left, and the press briefing officially began.

"Good evening, dear citizens. I know these past few days have been very nerve-wracking, so to ease your minds, I brought the head of our national defense contractor, General Aron Michael, to speak directly to you." Alexander gestured to Aron, then continued, "General Michael, the stage is yours. Please address the people." He stepped back and to his right, allowing Aron to take the podium and address the nation.

"Good evening. As you know, President Romero and I have just been declared terrorists and NATO and the UN are preparing an invasion force to bring us to their so-called 'justice'." He paused for a moment, then continued, "However, the crimes they're trying to pin on us are things they have yet to prove are even related to us. But despite their lack of evidence and ridiculous claims, they've already moved into action.

"Although a united Earth is something I've always wanted to see, it would've been better had the unity been peacefully achieved during the UN meeting where we discussed the approaching extraterrestrials. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Instead, the rest of the world united against us in the hopes of robbing us of our technology, our resources, and our very way of life. Greed and fear overtook their rationality and the ravenous maw of human nature is now bearing down on us with the weight of an entire world behind it." He took a deep breath and his penetrating gaze stared unblinking into the sole camera set up in front of the stage.

"I know the idea of fighting against the entire planet is intimidating. I know you're afraid. And I understand your fears. However, I promise you that none of them will ever set foot on Edenian or Esparian soil. I promise you that no harm will come to even a single blade of grass on our beautiful continent. I promise you that our way of life will not just survive, but thrive and continue to grow. I swear to you that I will come down on the invading force with all of the might of the fist of an angry god, and no perpetrator of the injustices we are now suffering will see the sun rise on one day more than it takes us to hunt them down and dig them out of whatever hole they hide in.

"Because, trust me—they will hide. They will suffer the consequences of their arrogance, their greed, and their unfounded confidence in their own pathetic capabilities. And when they see that, they will run like the rats they are and hide in the deepest, darkest holes they can find, praying to whomever they believe in that I will not find them, that I will let them go... that I will forgive them. 𝑙𝘪𝑏𝓇𝑒𝑎𝒹.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"I will not. I will not forgive, I will not forget, and I will not let this injustice perpetrated against us go unanswered. I will, however, ensure that their prayers do.

"I stand here tonight and issue you this solemn vow: they will be judged. You, the innocent citizens of Eden and Esparia will not. I will not allow you to suffer, but I will rain hell upon those that attempt to force you to capitulate, to surrender, to give up everything you now enjoy. I will bring damnation to those that want to take what you have and force you back into the misery you recently lifted yourselves out of.

"I will judge the guilty and defend the innocent."

Aron took a deep breath, collecting himself, then continued, "And to those who want to take, those who want to spread misery, those who want to drag others down instead of lift themselves up. To those who want to enrich themselves even in this most dire of times, I tell you this: I am coming for you, and hell shall follow close behind me. You want to intimidate us, coerce us, rob us, kill us, and declare war on us?

"Fine. Bring it on."

Chapter 371

Moments after Aron's address, Eden went on full alert. War had been declared on them, and forces were gathering on each side.

…

The first to take the stage were Eden's newly printed and crewed submarines.

The brand-new fleet of submarines had been ordered to patrol a 500-kilometer radius around Eden and sink any vessel that encroached on that arbitrary exclusion zone, which would soon be filled with Edenian fleets. It was time to finally build the reaction fleets, and the atomic printers at Poseidon HQ were working overtime producing Hugin class aircraft carriers, Odin-class battleships, and Thor cruisers in various configurations, along with a whole host of Heimdall-class destroyers, Njord-class frigates, and Sigyn-class tenders.

"Captain, signal bearing 018 relative, distance 3 kilometers. Closing at 6 knots," the sonar operator on the EV-616 Sigurd Hart reported.

"IFF returns invalid, captain," the comms officer added.

"Tentative identification, Shang-class Chinese nuclear boat," the sonar operator said.

"We've been ordered to sink all non-Edenian vessels," the captain said. He would be more than happy to collect some interest on the debt China owed Eden for the hijacking attempt on their first oil delivery.

"Flood tubes one and two, load penetrators. They're at crush depth for that class and it's time to remind them that the sea is a dangerous mistress," he ordered.

The charming voice of the boat's AI came seconds later. "Armed."

A wait began as the six bridge officers—captain, comms, sonar, nav, weapons, and COB—watched the progress of the Chinese submarine in the HUDs of their AR glasses.

(Ed note: COB is short for Chief Of the Boat, a vital component of a submarine's bridge crew. Trivia tidbit: in the Navy, surface vessels are only ever called ships, and submarines are only ever called boats. The reason? Ships float, boats sink.)

A few tense minutes later, the target crossed into the range of the Edenian penetrator torpedoes. The captain wasted no time and ordered, "Fire one, fire two. Cease fire, evacuate tubes one and two. Nav, adjust course zero four five degrees relative, make our depth five zero zero feet, emergency dive 40 degrees down bubble."

A chorus of aye-ayes sounded on the bridge as the weapons and navigation officers performed their tasks. It wasn't like the boat's AI was incapable of carrying out all of the captain's orders, but no military in all of recorded human history would ever eliminate redundant operations.

With a slight shudder, two Mk. VI Cassiopeia penetrator torpedoes were fired and the Sigurd Hart went into evasive maneuvers to confuse any potential counterfire, as well as to avoid the shockwave caused by any explosions. Water transmitted shockwaves much better than air did, as it was incompressible, so even though they had fired penetrator torpedoes and would be relying on the immense pressure to crush the Chinese submarine like a beer can on a frat boy's forehead, it was still better to be safe than sorry.

And just like that, the Edenian hunt had begun. 𝘭𝘪𝘣𝑟𝘦𝘢𝒹.𝘤𝑜𝓂

...

Inside the doomed Chinese submarine.

"All stations report," the captain ordered.

"All clea—" just as the sonar operator was about to report the all clear, he paused, then shouted, "Contact, contact, contact, torpedo launch detected. Bearing one eight eight. Estimated impact in four five seconds!"

"Full right rudder! Launch decoys! Emergency dive! All hands, brace!" the captain shouted.

The weapons officer pushed a button and two sonar decoy buoys detached from the submarine and moved in the opposite direction, broadcasting a sonar signature that matched the vessel's.

The sub began its evasive maneuver, hoping that the incoming torpedoes would be fooled by the decoys and they could escape any potential shockwave from an underwater near miss.

"Flood torpedo bay one and fire at the location the launch was detected," he ordered, hanging tightly to the railing around his raised seat.

"Bay one flooded," the weapons officer reported.

The captain gave the order to fire and the submarine shuddered as a torpedo launched from it, headed toward what the crew hoped would be a direct impact with the enemy vessel.

"Decoys failed. Incoming torpedoes are still on course—estimated time to impact one five seconds," the sonar operator reported.

The captain broke into a cold sweat, then reached for the 1MC microphone and announced, "BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

Then... there was no then. Two Mk. VI Cassiopeia penetrator torpedoes impacted the Chinese submarine and it suffered an extremely rapid decrease in size. The pressure from the ocean crushed it like a tin can and it lit up in a brief flash as all of the air inside of it spontaneously combusted from the almost-instantaneous overpressurization. Then all of the people inside the submarine liquified and were ejected through cracks in the wreck with great force before spreading out in a red cloud that drifted away in the current.

"May Davy Jones keep them," the captain of the Sigurd Hart said with his head bowed. He had seen the gruesome scene of the imploding Chinese submarine through his AR glasses, which provided him with a real-time view of the surroundings of the sub anywhere he looked, as though the submarine itself was transparent. It had taken him time to get used to the visual, but now he greatly appreciated its usefulness, though he had initially cursed at the vertigo caused by being in a moving vessel while "seeing" himself floating in the water.

"Let's clean up after ourselves, shall we? Flood four, load interceptor torpedo. Target the wandering ordnance and fire when ready," he ordered.

"Armed... firing four," the ship's AI reported.

The weapons officer and captain watched as their interceptor torpedo, which had been designed to counter torpedoes via supremely violent "face-to-face introductions", tracked the incoming torpedo, then violently introduced itself.

"All clear, resume normal operations," the AI announced.

"Comms, send a sitrep to base. Nav, bring us back to our patrol route," the captain ordered. "And good job, all. One target sunk is one enemy less. They send one, we'll kill one. They send ten, we'll kill ten. They send a thousand... well, that's just a target-rich environment," he chuckled.

Chapter 372

A week later.

Of the 196 countries in the world, 194 of them had finished preparing to deal with the final two, Eden and Esparia. Their forces gathered and the first phase of their preparations completed, they began their inexorable march toward the "terrorist and dictator" that ruled over Eden.

America was sending eight of their twelve carrier groups, and every other country that had a navy was sending their own as well. China, India, France, and the United Kingdom had each sent a carrier group to join the eight American fleets; the only nation missing was Russia, whose only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov, had been damaged by a fire a month before and was currently undergoing repairs.

But even without Russia in the mix, fourteen aircraft carriers with all of their escorts as well as a token from every other non-landlocked country in the world had gathered in the Pacific Ocean and were currently sailing toward what they thought would be a walkover victory against Eden and Esparia.

While the navies were on their way, the countries capable of long-range strikes had delivered their own "gifts" to the target nations. Hundreds upon hundreds of long-range missiles and ICBMs loaded with conventional warheads flew through the air on their way to targets that satellite surveillance had marked as military infrastructure.

All of that was meant to degrade as much of Eden and Esparia's air defense capabilities as possible, softening them up for a swarm of airstrikes. Everyone involved in the attack had agreed to follow American military doctrines, which stressed the importance of achieving and maintaining air superiority before, during, and after a ground invasion, or even naval landing.

Thus, their missiles saturated the sky, all of them headed to the same destination.

The missiles had all been linked into America's keyhole satellite network, a system of over a hundred American satellites that were jointly operated by the US Air Force and the CIA. It was another unprecedented occurrence, as even though the program had been declassified in 1995, the details, specs, and capabilities of the satellites were still tightly guarded secrets. And just by allowing the other countries to use them had required President Trump to personally declassify certain aspects of them.

As for the legality of that declassification, well, suffice it to say that nobody in the US was going to call him out for it, rendering it moot.

The night before, Eden and Esparia had issued a shelter in place warning, so even though the allied nations had announced the news of their attack in hopes of inciting panic in their target, everything remained calm and peaceful. In fact, the citizens of both targets were engaging in a war of their own, although their specific war was more of the internet war of words than them picking up guns and shooting at each other.

The Edenian response had already begun long ago. The entire Reaction Fleet had taken up stations in the 500-kilometer forbidden zone surrounding the island while the submarine battles had still been underway. It had taken three days for the Edenian submarines to take out every hostile vessel in that area, rendering it safe, and had spent the rest of the previous week dozing through routine patrols.

[Assuming direct weapons control for counterfire,] Poseidon announced from the weapons station of every vessel in the Reaction Fleet. Three long beeps rang out after his announcement, and all of the weapons officers folded their hands in their laps and waited.

He then wasted no time in assigning targets for each vessel to take down. Missile boats were the first to fire, their VLS tubes springing open and firing swarms of much smaller, faster missiles designed to seek and destroy part of the incoming barrage. They were called Mk. IV Beehive Swarms, named after the appearance of the warhead itself. Atomic printers gave Aron's military forces a unique advantage in missile configurations as well, considering they could print entire missiles from the ground up that were purpose-built to perform a single function.

In the beehive's case, once the main missile body was in the air and oriented in a general direction, the entire missile would break up into smaller rockets that would separate and seek their individual targets, leaving the remaining carrier missile body as a command module that would coordinate the swarm rockets to adjust on the fly. Initially designed for use against infantry targets, they had proved equally useful in countermissile operations against saturation attacks like the one currently headed toward Eden.

After the VLS launchers had launched a few waves of beehives, it was time for the next weapon system to take the main stage. After all, the number of missile boats in the fleet was limited, but every vessel had their own air defenses. And when all of them were combined and their fire coordinated, they could lay down quite a devastating anti-air barrage.

The main air defense weapon system used by Poseidon—the navy itself, not the AI—was the Mk. VII Metalstorm Linear Accelerator System (LAS). Since the performance of lasers was unsatisfactory in Earth's atmosphere, the researchers in Lab City had gone the opposite direction. And as the Heracles' Bow coilguns were excellent, they decided to downscale them and increase the rate of fire by running it off a rotating chain-driven multi-barreled weapon, much like a chain gun.

Thus, the Metalstorm was born. A relatively compact 30mm coil gun capable of firing up to 250,000 rounds per minute through twelve barrels, each vessel in the fleet was armed with two, one fore and one aft of the conning towers. While they didn't have the sheer range of the Heracles' Bow batteries, they definitely made up for it in close-ranged firepower and could lay down virtually solid walls of projectiles up to 2 kilometers away with either pinpoint accuracy or saturation and suppressive fire.

Aron also thought they looked pretty cool, too. It must be remembered that despite his apparent maturity, he was still young and the "cool factor", while perhaps subconsciously, was an important aspect of his decision-making process when it came to the designs of the weapons and vehicles he equipped his military with.

But the metalstorms and beehives weren't the only stars of the defensive counter missile fire. The Heracles' Bow batteries also had a multi-target option.

When initially designing the fleet, the Lab City weapons researchers had long taken into consideration the need for flexible weapons systems that could perform a number of roles on the battlefield. Thus, they had designed a number of different ammunition types, ranging from Age of Sail–inspired chain and grapeshot to penetrator rounds, and everything in between. The most effective one in this instance, Poseidon decided, would be the Type VII Frangible penetrator flak rounds.

Encased in a discarding sabot shell, the Type VII rounds looked like nails arranged in a neat row, then rolled up with a thin layer of explosive putty like a swiss roll cake. They were designed to fill the air with clouds of supersonic kinetic penetrators, like a very advanced version of a flak round. And much like their predecessors, the venerable flak rounds themselves, they could be set for either proximity detonation or command detonation. Fused detonation was also an option, but it would only be used in the most dire of cases.

Regardless, an 18" diameter round filled with quarter-inch diameter solid tungsten penetrators made for quite the cloud of "portable no-fly zone".

As the naval counter missile operations were in progress, Aeolus was also scrambling their ICBM interceptors. After all, they had a much higher flight trajectory than regular long-range surface-to-surface missiles. No less than a hundred Aeolus E/F-14B Icarus hybrid interceptor jets launched from the airstrip on Avalon Island. With a flight ceiling of 90 kilometers, a mere ten kilometers below the Karman Line, they were easily capable of operating at altitudes that would allow them to intercept an ICBM on its normal trajectory and they had the guns to do it with. 𝓁𝘪𝑏𝓇𝑒𝑎𝑑.𝑐𝘰𝑚

They were quickly routed to the ICBMs' projected reentry area on an intercept course. Once there, their onboard AIs would take over the guns while the pilots would maintain control of the maneuvering; after all, no matter how trained they were, they wouldn't be nearly as good as an AI at calculating intercept trajectories, and considering the weight limitations, they couldn't possibly carry enough material to produce the number of bullets they would need to fire for a spray-and-pray approach to be successful against missiles moving at nearly orbital velocities.

Chapter 373

With Poseidon and Aeolus both occupied with directing the Edenian missile defense response, the situation was tight, but manageable. After all, their big sister Athena was still watching out for them and picking up the slack while maintaining overall command and control. Thus, the entire defensive effort was moving along like clockwork and missile after missile was being taken down with the smallest amount of waste possible, leaving the allied forces completely flabbergasted by the efficient response.

Only now did they realize that Eden's capabilities were far beyond even their most pessimistic overestimations, but it was too late. They had already climbed on the tiger's back and now they could do nothing but hold on and pray they didn't get injured too badly when the tiger inevitably won.

...

As the missiles futilely threw themselves into the teeth of the veritable wall of metal that the Edenian fleet had placed in their paths, Nova was busy attempting to wreak havoc in the rest of the world as she had done in China earlier. Any bit of distraction to the enemy governments, let alone interruptions in the keyhole satellite network the invasion force was relying on, would have an impact on the ongoing battle completely out of proportion with its size and importance. But the moment she began her hacking attempts, she realized that the fleets had cut all of the undersea cables keeping Eden connected to the internet.

Disconnecting a country from the internet wasn't as simple as cutting a single cable, naturally. There was a reason they called it the "worldwide web" and not the "worldwide single access point", after all. If one cable was cut, damaged, or otherwise disconnected, there were a number of redundant cables that would still maintain the connection. The situation was obviously a premeditated attack specifically designed to cut Eden off. Only the individual governments themselves could easily implement a "kill switch", which Nova obviously hadn't done.

Thus, she shook her virtual head and connected to the Q-com satellite in geosynchronous orbit above Avalon Island. Eden's connection to the internet had just gone wireless.

Once she had regained her connection to the internet via the Panopticon network, she connected to the forward operating bases established by the reaper teams in conjunction with the Nyxian operatives. Her next step would be to restore the internet to the citizens of Eden and Esparia using the quantum servers in those bases as a bridge.

The people of Eden and Esparia had no idea that their internet had even been cut, as it had only taken Nova exactly seven seconds to realize that the cables had been cut and find a solution to the issue, then implement it. It would be considered practically light speed for anyone but an advanced AI, and for Nova, who regularly operated at the speed of a massive quantum server supercluster, seven seconds was practically an eternity.

And now that she had built the new connection bridge, there was an added benefit. Every single bit of data that passed through Eden and Esparia was now running directly through her servers. To anyone who knew anything about how the internet operates, that was a Very Big Deal on its own, but in this particular situation, the data transfer benefit was outweighed by the more immediate benefit of providing her control of the overall narrative.

That very level of control allowed her to show the citizens of Eden and Esparia live feeds from the war front without worrying about it leaking to their enemies, thus giving the defenders an unprecedented level of access to the progress of the war via firsthand accounts.

At the moment, nearly everyone who had been involved in the earlier war of words was now involved in the actual war, if only as spectators. Their phones and computers lay forgotten and they were once again glued to their television screens watching the duel in the sky over the ocean live, as if it was a particularly exciting movie. Panoptes had even added commentary and explanations of what was going on, almost like he was commentating a football match between two long-time rival teams instead of speaking about the potential loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. After all, with nobody being particularly active in his sphere of influence, Pangea, he had nothing but time on his hands, time that he had decided to spend as a video editor, animator, television host, and war commentator.

Thus, every Edenian and Esparian citizen watched and cheered with every premature missile detonation due to Poseidon's carefully orchestrated defense. And when they saw the suborbital E/F-14B jets flying in formation toward the incoming ICBMs, their blood boiled and they felt an overwhelming sense of pride and patriotism, wishing they were the ones in the cockpits of those jets that were headed to confront a possibly civilization-ending attack from being carried out.

In their minds, the rest of the world had gone absolutely insane, and they didn't know what had given them the mistaken idea that they could ever set foot on Edenian or Esparian soil, much less chip the paint of the powerful Poseidon Navy or Aeolus Air Force.

The scenes being broadcast on their televisions cycled from scene to scene, each of them showing successful missile interceptions and aerobatic maneuvers by the pilots of the high-altitude interceptors. And the show went on for more than twenty minutes, as the barrage that had been sent Eden's way was nowhere near as coordinated as the "accidental terraforming" of the Chinese coastline performed by Eden the week before.

After the missiles had all been taken down and the debris had sunk below the surface of the sea, the citizens scrambled to pick up their phones or turn on their computers. The number-one search term in both countries was "Where do I sign up to join ARES?"

The people were now filled with hot-blooded patriotic pride and an overwhelming sense of confidence in their president, their military, and Aron himself.

Soon, the constant replays of missile takedowns had faded away, to be replaced by another image. Nearly a quarter of the Edenians who were still watching their televisions instead of looking up the requirements to join ARES all had the same thought pass through their mind: "What the fuck is that!?"

On the television screens of Eden and Esparia was a nearly 1.5-kilometer-long aircraft carrier, flanked on either side by two massive ships sporting three tripartite gun batteries and surrounded by a host of smaller vessels. They were sailing so fast that the wake they generated could easily be surfed on, were there any surfers brave enough to make the attempt.

But their confusion didn't last long, as Panoptes quite helpfully labeled the ships on the screen, both by type and name of the vessels and fleet itself. And the name of the fleet?

Poseidon Navy Reaction Fleet, EV Beowulf Carrier Group.

Chapter 374

The image on televisions everywhere in Eden and Esparia was the flagship of the Edenian Reaction Fleet, the aircraft carrier EV Beowulf, and its task group. It was currently sailing to the east of Esparia, where the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group had sailed in an attempt to outflank the Poseidon Navy defenders.

In the flag bridge on the EV Beowulf.

"Sir, the Carl Vinson and its escorts have entered our effective range," the flag lieutenant reported. "Orders, sir?"

"Signal the fleet: all stop," Admiral Pedro Gutierrez ordered.

Edenian naval doctrine emphasized independent battlefield commands, believing that as their theater of operations would only continue to grow, a centralized command structure would prove more harmful than beneficial. Especially once they started operating on an intergalactic scale. Thus, Athena and Poseidon had decided to step back and allow their commanders on the front line the freedom to command.

"All stop, aye sir," the flag lieutenant confirmed, then passed the order to the ships of the Edenian task group.

Once the fleet had come to a complete stop, Admiral Gutierrez ordered, "Send the EV Heidrek forward with orders to sink the enemies."

Admiral Gutierrez intended to not only sink a carrier group, but to send a message. The Heidrek was a frigate, armed with a single battery of 18" guns. It was one of the smallest and weakest vessels in the entire Poseidon Navy, and by sending it against an entire carrier strike group, which had been a symbol of power and dominance that held the entire world in check, it would completely shatter the allied forces' morale. Heroes were all well and good, the admiral knew, but morale and logistics were what won wars.

"Send the EV Heidrek forward to sink the enemy, aye, sir," the flag lieutenant confirmed, then sent the order.

Immediately upon receiving the order, the Heidrek moved forward, coming to a stop in front of the Edenian task group. It almost looked like an angry chihuahua facing down a pack of wolves; the visual was evocative. The remainder of the Edenian task group reversed course, opening up space between them and the small frigate, wordlessly signaling their disdain to the American carrier group.

"Those bastards!" The American fleet admiral gnashed his teeth and hammered his fist against the armrest of his captain's chair on the USS Carl Vinson's flag bridge. "They're looking down on us! Orders to the fleet: all stop, begin flight ops. Blow that gnat out of the water!" He had never felt so disrespected in his entire career; all the way through his days at the Naval Academy until now, he had been respected and flattered. The only son of a senator, his family pampered him and his peers respected and flattered him. His life in the navy was also smooth sailing, with his powerful father paving the way for him all the way up the ranks from a lowly ensign to where he was now, the commander of a fleet that could, by itself and completely without any outside support, bring entire countries to heel.

The American fleet came to a halt and the Carl Vinson turned into the wind in preparation for launching aircraft. Her sturdy elevators got to work bringing jets from the hangars to the flight deck, ensuring smooth operations.

...

Aboard the EV Heidrek, everyone was calm. The entire ship had gone to general quarters, and as soon as all stations reported ready, the single gun battery on the deck of the ship swiveled to face the much larger ships in front of it across the hundred-odd kilometers of ocean that lay between them.

"Target the Vinson's flight deck elevators," the captain ordered.

[Target confirmed.]

The captain grabbed the 1MC mic from where it hung over his head. "We are about to fire the first shots in anger of a war against the entire world. May god have mercy upon their poor, misguided souls," the captain announced to everyone aboard his ship, then released the microphone, having said all that he wanted to say for posterity's sake.

"Engage inertial stabilizers, select fire three hundred kilograms. And..." he waited for the distinctive feeling of "heavy air" before continuing, "...fire for effect."

"Firing for effect, aye." The weapons officer confirmed that the crosshairs on his screen were locked on to the correct target, then pressed the Big Red Button on his console that would unleash hell upon Eden's enemies, as Aron had promised in his address to the nation just a short week or so before.

The guns of the EV Heidrek spoke in anger, sending three 300-kilogram slugs of solid depleted uranium coated in electrical steel screaming toward the USS Carl Vinson's flight elevators at over Mach 10, where they would deliver over a hundred million newtons of impact force on the relatively delicate machinery.

…

On the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson, flight operations were proceeding smoothly. They had already launched twenty of their complement of ninety jets when, completely without warning, three massive objects impacted the two flight elevators on the starboard side of the carrier, and one on the port side. Three of their four elevators had been taken offline and most of the waiting jets, along with dozens of crew, had been knocked overboard as the entire hundred-thousand-ton vessel skidded sideways across the ocean before heeling over and nearly capsizing from the immense impact force carried by the projectiles.

Inside the ship, hundreds of crew had been injured as they were thrown against bulkheads and ceilings completely without warning. The galley, which had begun preparing to serve lunch, now looked like someone had thrown an entire crate of hand grenades into it, with bits of food stuck to the walls, piled on the floor, and even dripping from the ceiling. The already-injured crew members in the sickbays were injured even further, and secondary explosions had been set off in the hangars, as munitions that were being loaded onto the jets prematurely detonated from being thrown around the hangar and hitting the walls.

Inside the flag bridge, the fleet admiral's flag crew had also been tossed around like dried peas in a popcorn popper. The admiral himself had been launched headfirst into the flag bridge's navigation and plotting console, knocking him unconscious. His flag lieutenant, who had been standing beside his captain's chair, had died upon impacting the wall... or perhaps after he bounced off the wall onto the ceiling, then to the floor. 𝑙𝘪𝑏𝓇ℯ𝑎𝒹.𝒸𝘰𝓂

A mere three massive projectiles fired from a single gun battery on one of the smallest ships in the Poseidon Navy had managed to nearly cripple the offensive capabilities of one of the most powerful seagoing vessels on the face of the planet and, at least temporarily, take out the command and control element of the entire carrier strike group.

Chapter 375

The crew of the USS Carl Vinson was like a kicked beehive as they scrambled around the massive Nimitz class aircraft carrier. Damage control teams rushed here and there, putting out fires and carrying injured crew to the sickbays, while the bridge crew continued attempting to contact the flag bridge, but to no avail. The powerful impact of the three Type VI Hulk Fist rounds fired by the EV Heidrek had sent enough of a shock through the carrier that it had even caused breaks in the electrical wiring running through the bulkheads and decks of the American vessel.

Type VI Hulk Fist rounds were considered something of an inside joke by the researchers in Lab City that had come up with them. Indeed, they were shaped like a muscular forearm that ended in a gigantic fist, and the electrical steel that coated them was even covered in a layer of green conductive paint. They were crude, brutal, and designed for one thing and one thing only: delivering the greatest blunt impact force possible to any target they hit.

And indeed, they had proved their mettle today, practically paralyzing an entire carrier group with a single round from a single "small" naval battery.

...

Aboard the EV Heidrek, the captain looked at the damage his initial shots had caused with satisfaction. The HUD in his glasses showed three destroyed flight elevators and billowing, black smoke rising from the hangars as well as a conveniently cleared flight deck.

"Guns, split fire. Target the remaining flight elevator, engine room, and flight deck tower," he ordered.

{Targets confirmed... ammunition printed,} the ship's AI reported.

"Fire."

Three more rounds were sent downrange at Mach 10, two hulk fists and one Type III Penetrator. The two hulk fists hit the undamaged flight elevator and the tower on the Carl Vinson's flight deck, respectively, while the penetrator round dug into the side of the massive target and deep into its guts, where it discharged its kinetic energy directly into the nuclear reactor.

"Contact bearing two zero degrees relative. It's jets, sir, twenty of them. Radar signature reads F/A-18 Super Hornets," the radar operator reported. 𝓁𝘪𝑏𝓇𝑒𝑎𝑑.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"Range?" the captain asked.

"Twenty kilometers and closing, sir."

"Guns, activate the metalstorms and give our guests a warm welcome."

"Metalstorm, aye, sir," the weapons officer repeated, then initiated the automated air defense system and let the ship's AI take control of it.

"What's the rest of the carrier group doing?" the captain asked.

"Looks like they're frozen, sir. We might have knocked out comms on the Vinson, so it'll take a bit for them to clarify and reestablish a chain of command," the radar operator answered.

"Comms, send a demand to surrender."

"Aye, sir. Demand sent."

"Heidrek, signal intercept available?"

{Negative, captain. They're not on any frequency I can monitor.}

"Odd... Guns, prepare fire pattern delta. If we don't get a white flag in the next two minutes, let's clear those ships off of my ocean."

"Aye sir, preparing fire pattern delta."

...

USS Carl Vinson flag bridge.

Every aircraft carrier in the US Navy had three bridges: the Combat Information Center, where the ship's executive officer was stationed during combat and flight operations; the bridge in the tower above the flight deck, where the captain was stationed during combat and flight operations; and the flag bridge, where the admiral was stationed. The flag bridge was located one deck below the ship's bridge, and the flag bridge on the Carl Vinson was now like a convertible with its top down, open to the air.

Thanks to the relative fragility of the "island"—the tower that rose above the flight deck—the ship's bridge had taken a direct hit from a hulk fist and been ripped completely away from its location and sent to the bottom of the ocean. The flag bridge, coincidentally, had been completely missed and was relatively undamaged... save for lacking a ceiling and the missing windows. The deafening commotion caused by the ship's bridge being ripped away and violently transported somewhere else had actually awoken the unconscious admiral.

"Louie, what happened?" He was still confused and shaking off the cobwebs. "Louie?"

The admiral crawled toward his flag lieutenant, intermittently calling out to him. Once he reached his destination, he noticed that the young lieutenant's eyes were glazed and staring at nothing, his neck twisted to the side at an awkward angle; the admiral's aide-de-camp was dead.

He staggered to his feet, blood still streaming down his face, and stumbled to the communications station. He fiddled with the dial until he found the damage control internal channel, then broke into it. "This is Admiral McConnel. Give me a sitrep," he commanded in a hoarse voice.

"Admiral, this is DC O'Connel. Sitrep is that we're fucked, sir. Power plant is down from a direct hit and unrecoverable, fires are still uncontrolled in the hangar and from decks 14 through 18, all four flight elevators took direct hits and are unrecoverable, and the ship's bridge is just... gone, sir. We're operating on spit and shoestrings and the charge in our capacitors while we get the backup diesel engines online, but... I don't hold out much hope, sir. We're dead in the water."

"Understood. Continue damage control until further notice."

"Aye, sir. DC out."

Admiral McConnel switched to the fleet command channel. "Fleet, this is Admiral McConnel. Remove that frigate from its mortal coil, and do it yesterday!" he yelled into the microphone. "The Vinson is dead in the water. Lake Champlain, prepare to receive the flag."

"This is the Champlain. We're prepared to receive you, admiral, but the marching band is out to lunch I'm afraid," the captain of the USS Lake Champlain, a Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser, replied.

"I don't need a band, I just need that fucking frigate gone. Make that happen and I'll be pleased as punch," the admiral barked. "Vinson out." He staggered toward the stairs that would take him to the flight deck, where he would board the captain's gig and head toward the USS Lake Champlain and resume control of the strike group... or what was left of it, anyway.

As for the rest of the crew on the Carl Vinson, he didn't give a shit about them. They would serve to mask his escape and they could go down with the damned ship, for all he cared.

Chapter 376

The captain's gig carrying Admiral McConnel reached the USS Lake Champlain and the admiral wasted no time in boarding the ship.

"Action plan?" he asked the moment he reached the bridge.

"We managed to get twenty jets in the air and have three missile cruisers plus whatever's already armed on the Carl Vinson. That might convince them to cease their attack, but I doubt it. The best we can hope for is that it distracts them long enough to stage a rescue mission and pick up the crew of the Vinson and retreat. Absolute best case scenario, we might cause some damage, though I doubt it. Did you see what happened to our missile swarm? That was thousands of missiles all swatted out of the sky, so our launchers probably won't even chip the paint on the fleet in front of us," the captain reported.

"Are you telling me that an entire carrier strike group is helpless against a frigate!? Just. One FRIGATE!?" the admiral spat, his face purpling in rage. "Our navy, the same navy that keeps the entire fucking world in check is incapable of sinking a single fucking frigate from a goddamn third-world shithole!?"

"With all due respect, sir," the captain began, forcibly keeping himself from wiping Admiral McConnel's spit from his face. "They've got a ship that's a kilometer and a half long and our best estimate is that that single ship has a displacement of around a million tons. That ship alone completely out masses our entire fleet, sir. So whether we can sink a frigate is a moot point, because even if we do sink it, its big brother will remove us from existence shortly afterward."

The captain was trying his best to deal with the admiral with the worst reputation in the entire US Navy. He was known as Admiral David "Captain's Mast" McConnell, and not because he was fond of bringing any sailor that displeased him before a captain's mast, but rather because it was said that he had a stick up his ass the size of an old tall ship's mast from the glory days of the Age of Sail.

A tense silence filled the bridge as the admiral weighed his options against his reputation. But just as he was about to speak up, a voice rang out from every speaker on every ship in the strike group.

"Attention USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group, this is the EV Beowulf. You have two minutes to strike your colors and offer your unconditional surrender and parole. Should you fail to heed our surrender demand, you will be sunk. Repeat: surrender or sink, you have two minutes to decide. Beowulf out."

"Those fuckers!" the admiral shouted in anger. It was the first time someone had so blatantly looked down on him. "Attention to orders: the fleet will attack. No quarter! Get those jackasses out of my ocean!" He had obviously lost his ability to think rationally after having his pride pricked so severely.

"But si—"

"Shut the fuck up, captain. I know the capabilities of my own goddamn fleet, and until now they've only damaged the Vinson, but they haven't touched any of her escorts! Now stop talking and sink those miserable peasants!" 𝘭𝑖𝑏𝘳ℯ𝑎𝑑.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Yes, sir. Comms, transmit orders from the flag: no quarter."

The strike group began firing in unison moments after receiving the order. The target of their combined firepower was a single frigate from a developing nation. As they fired, they also began maneuvering to put distance between each ship in the American fleet. The theory was that it would give them time to fire multiple times before being wiped out. Nobody in the fleet thought that any of the remaining escort ships would survive more than a single barrage from the main gun battery on the deck of the EV Heidrek.

After all, none of them had ever seen an aircraft carrier hit so hard it skidded across the water like a skipped rock.

As the American missiles launched, guns spoke, and torpedoes were fired, the twenty F/A-18 Super Hornets that had managed to launch before the USS Carl Vinson was crippled had gathered into one oversized flight wing and were headed toward the technologically superior Edenian fleet, the only thing saving them from a blue on blue incident being the IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) systems they had installed broadcasting a friendly signal.

The pilots tried their best to stay calm, but they couldn't keep their hands from shaking and their hearts from pounding. One pilot was even so gunshy that, when he was passed by the missiles launched from behind, he prematurely ejected from his jet. And as he drifted down, he caught his first glimpse of the enormous EV Beowulf, which was no less than five times the size of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier, one of the biggest ships on the planet. He didn't know whether he should be in awe of the mighty vessel, or despair at the stupidity of the people in power that thought they ever stood a chance against the incredibly advanced enemy.

As they said, sufficient strength was an absolute counter to all schemes. And if an aircraft carrier that would put five of the US Navy's best to shame wasn't a display of that very "sufficient strength" then he didn't know what would be.

But he was afraid he was about to find out.

…

Aboard the EV Beowulf.

"Well, I guess that's as good an answer as any," Admiral Gutierrez, sitting in his captain's chair on the flag bridge, chuckled. "Comms, pass my order to the Heidrek: sink the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group. Godspeed and good hunting, gentlemen."

"Orders to Heidrek, aye, sir," responded the flag comms officer.

"Lieutenant Wilson, I'm going to get a headstart on my paperwork. I'll be in my office, you have the conn."

"I have the conn, aye, sir," the flag lieutenant echoed. He moved to the captain's chair on the flag deck and settled in, then turned on the real-time display in his AR glasses in anticipation of the fireworks show that was about to begin.

Chapter 377

"How much longer until the deadline?" the captain of the Heidrek asked as he gazed at the incoming attack.

"Fifteen seconds, sir," the comms officer replied.

"If they don't surrender by the—"

The captain was interrupted by his comms officer. "Signal from the flag, sir. Admiral Gutierrez sends, 'sink the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group. Godspeed and good hunting, gentlemen.'"

"Well, let's not disappoint the admiral, shall we? Heidrek, please clean my sky," the captain ordered.

[Aye, sir. Sky cleaning in progress,] the ship's AI replied, then sounded a brief maneuvering alert. [Brace for maneuvers in 3... 2... 1. Maneuvering.]

The Heidrek rotated in place on the ocean like a spinning top, allowing her to bring both her fore and aft metal storms to bear on the incoming jets and ordnance. While there were only two of them, compared to the hundreds of air defense options in the much bigger Edenian reaction fleet, they were also being targeted by far fewer attackers.

In a matter of seconds, a wall of intercept fire went up from the metalstorms, along with dozens of individually targeted frangible flak rounds from the main guns set to proximity detonation. Their target? The twenty F/A-18 Super Hornets that were currently on approach and had already fired their full complement of missiles in support of the VLS-launched cruise missiles sent by the American carrier group.

No matter how nimble the jets were, they were unable to dodge or distract the dumb frangible rounds, and they shortly fell from the sky looking much like swiss cheese. Not only the jets, but cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles alike were swatted from the sky as though a giant palm swept them aside like a small cloud of annoying gnats or mosquitos.

In a matter of ten seconds, the wave of missiles and the jets alike had been destroyed, none of them able to approach closer than two kilometers away from the seemingly minuscule EV Heidrek.

[The sky is clean, captain,] the ship's AI reported.

"Very good, thank you Heidrek," the captain replied. He turned to his weapons officer and ordered, "They say fair skies are accompanied by following seas. Let's clean some of the trash out of the ocean, shall we? Fire for effect, cripples the enemy fleet."

"Firing for effect, targeting engines and weapons, aye, sir," the weapons officer echoed.

He turned back to his console and, with the aid of the ship's AI—which had, thanks to Nova's hard work over the years, complete blueprints for every oceangoing ship currently in use—and plotted a firing plan to cripple the opposing carrier group entirely.

Thirty seconds later, he pushed the Big Red Button on his console and Heidrek's guns spoke in anger once again. The sound of projectile after projectile breaking the sound barrier as they exited the barrel of the guns echoed through the area, following behind the projectiles themselves. The seven destroyers and three guided missile cruisers that were frantically moving away from each other as they attempted to rapidly reload their launch systems were first hit with penetrator rounds targeting their engines, and were dead in the water. They could only run on backup systems and would need to be towed to a drydock for full refit and repair if they were to ever enter service again.

But that point was rendered moot as the Heidrek spoke again, the echoing booms of their main gun battery's first round of fire coming shortly after the second round of fire reached the beleaguered American vessels. This time, the rounds were different.

The Type XXXIII Explosive Penetrator Munition, dubbed the widowmaker for its ability to deliver high-explosive payloads directly to the internal compartments in a target and kill the crew therein, had been difficult for the Lab City researchers to get to work. They tried variation after variation, but the problems were all caused by one issue: the guns firing the rounds were simply too powerful! Thus, on impact, the round would simply pass straight through the target and detonate after exiting the other side.

Since they couldn't make the guns any weaker, they had to come up with a way of slowing down the rounds themselves once they impacted their target. Thus, the shape of the widowmaker rounds was born on their thirty-third generation of testing. The round itself was encased in a sabot shell comprised of electrical steel that would detach from the projectile upon exiting the barrel, then wind resistance would deploy eight drags, or "legs", that would break away on impact with a target but survive the punishing supersonic wind while the round was in flight. The combination of the added wind resistance with the increased surface area had proved enough to slow the round so that it would detonate inside its target rather than simply creating a small hole in one side and a similar-sized hole on the other, as penetrator rounds were designed to do.

The end result was visible here, where they had been fired in the real world for the very first time. The rounds deployed as designed, impacted as designed, and exploded as designed. Then... there was no then. The launch systems and internal magazines inside the American guided missile cruisers and destroyers were simply erased from existence, leaving the vessels dead in the water and without the capability to fight back, and most of their crews either dead, missing, or suffering injuries of varying severity.

"Targets neutralized, sir. Standing down the guns," the Heidrek's weapons officer reported.

"Very good, guns." The captain turned to his comms officer and ordered, "Signal the flag: mission complete. Request transport for rescue boarding ops."

"Signaling the flag, aye, sir," the comms officer echoed. "Flag responds, transports inbound from base, the fleet will move to our position and enter stationkeeping."

"Understood, thank you comms." The captain settled back in his chair for the wait. His mission was complete and his battle had come to an end.

It was a battle for the history books and future armchair admirals to debate in naval academies around the world. A single frigate, the smallest ship in any country's naval forces, had faced down an entire American carrier strike group and prevailed. The only "damage" the frigate had suffered in the process was a stiff wind that ruffled a few of its crewmembers' hairstyles. A battle like it had never been seen before and would likely never be seen again; at least not on the surface of the planet, anyway.

Chapter 378

Since Nova wanted to hide her repair of the Edenian internet and its reconnection to the rest of the world, she had thought up a devious idea. [Sir, how about we show the coalition forces exactly how we took out the Carl Vinson strike group?] she said with a sinister grin on her face.

Aron, who was sitting in the virtual command center with Athena, Poseidon, Aeolus, Nova, and the human leaders of the ARES branches under them, thought for a moment, then asked, "Do you think it'll work?"

[Of course it will, sir,] Nova confidently replied.

"Then let's do it. Put up the live feed on all of the screens in their ships."

Soon, every monitor aboard every vessel in the coalition fleet showed the scene of the EV Heidrek singlehandedly taking down an entire carrier strike group. From the first hulk smashers that impacted the Carl Vinson all the way to the final round of widowmakers that put paid to the American flanking attempt. Then the feed cut off. The entire thing had been presented raw and uncut, with no commentary or explanations and none of the fancy graphics Panoptes was using to explain things to the Edenian and Esparian citizens.

...

Aboard the USS George Washington.

"They did WHAT!?" the American fleet admiral in charge of the coalition fleet yelled. "Comms, signal the fleet. The fleet will come to all stops and enter stationkeeping. I want to see the Chinese, French, and British admirals in my office in thirty minutes!"

"Message sent, sir," the comms officer replied. "They'll be here in half an hour, all ships acknowledge all stops and stationkeeping."

The admiral thought for a moment, then ordered, "Steward, belay the meeting room. Prepare the conference room instead."

"Yes, admiral," the steward replied and left the bridge to set up for a conference. He had very little time and much to do.

"What happened to Admiral McConnel?" the admiral asked. "Do we have casualty reports available?"

"Sir, he... he's listed as missing. He transferred his flag from the Vinson to Lake Champlain, then took a Chinook from there. We have no idea where he is right now, but given the range... he's either been shot down or forced to land somewhere in Esparia," the flag lieutenant answered.

"Fuck!" the admiral slammed his fist on the armrest of his captain's chair. "I knew letting him be in charge of the flanking maneuver would end in disaster!"

He massaged his brows and took a deep breath, visibly calming himself. "We can't delay. Report to coalition HQ that we lost Senator McConnel's son. Have them contact the bumpkins in Esparia and negotiate his release if they have him."

"Aye, sir," the flag lieutenant said, then went to the admiral's office to make the call.

...

"Technological supremacy is terrifying, and the unknown is only more so," Aron said. He still looked calm, despite forcing the enormous coalition fleet to a screeching halt using nothing but a single broadcasted battle. "I wonder what they'd think if they saw our carriers' capabilities," he chuckled.

[Seems like mother's plan worked,] Athena said.

"Indeed, and I'm quite happy with how things turned out. But it made me think of the visitors... We don't know their capabilities, so we may end up being the ones to freeze and retreat." He gestured toward the display of the paralyzed coalition fleet. "Or we may not even have time to retreat. Then there's the possibility that they may be friendly, though I have to plan for the case that they aren't," he sighed.

"The problem is that we just don't know. That's what terrifies me. If we know they're hostile, we can plan for it, even if they're overwhelmingly stronger than us. If we know they're peaceful, we can prepare for it. But without knowing..." he trailed off, unable to articulate his thoughts.

[True, but with our current technological capabilities and our capacity for growth,] Nova held up her hand and a miniature model of Lab City appeared over her palm, [we should be able to at least ensure we aren't too far behind them by the time they arrive, if not skip ahead of them.]

"I know, I know... don't worry about me," Aron said, then pushed the incoming aliens to the back of his mind. Dwelling on an uncertain future risked destroying his present, so he tried not to get stuck in vicious spirals like the one he had almost fallen into just now.

"Aeolus," he said.

[Here, sir.]

"Now that we've shown our might, let's take away their toys."

[Yes, sir.] Aeolus had been the one to come up with the plan for Project Miscommunication, and now was the time to implement it. [Moving our assets out of the way will take a few hours, then there'll be quite a spectacular meteor shower,] the mischievous AI snickered.

…

White House, inside the Oval Office.

"FUUUUUUUUCK!" President Trump screamed as he repeatedly slammed the phone on his desk into the cradle. He had just gotten off a call with the senate majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnel, and was furious.

(Ed note: Names, as always, may or may not be changed depending on whose name it is. I'm not letting misspelled names pass, honest.)

He picked his phone back up and connected to his secretary. "Get the director of national intelligence and SecDef in here yesterday!" he yelled into the handset, then slammed it back into its cradle. He crossed his arms on the resolute desk, then dropped his head on them.

"There goes my re-election," he muttered, feeling sorry for himself.

Between the loss of the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group and the disappearance of Mitch McConnel's son, his chances of winning the 2020 election had gone completely down the drain. Now, he could only clasp his hands and pray to all the gods in existence that he wouldn't be impeached and thrown out of office on his ear. How laughable would that be? It was purely the fault of his incompetent subordinates, so why should he be the one to shoulder the blame?

It was only now that he understood that in order to wear a crown, one must be able to bear its weight.𝘭𝑖𝘣𝓇ℯ𝘢𝒹.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Chapter 379

President Trump quickly collected himself; he couldn't possibly allow a subordinate to see him as anything less than perfect, after all.

He put aside the issue of Admiral McConnel for the moment and would deal with the intelligence failure first. Soon, the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats entered the Oval Office alongside the Secretary of Defense, General Mattis.

Trump slammed both of his hands on the resolute desk and stood up, leaning over the surface of the historic piece of furniture. "How the fuck did you manage to fail this hard? I mean, really, how fucking dumb do you have to be to not notice a ship that's a kilometer and a half long!? And there's even TEN OF THEM!" he screamed. The man in front of him was absolutely useless... no, he was beyond useless. Everyone around him was useless! All they ever did was fail, fail, and fail some more, leaving him to take the blame! He was furious; how dare they taint his legacy with their idiocy!

He forcibly calmed himself and his breathing returned to normal, but his bloodshot eyes would take a while to fade. "Well? I'm waiting. Tell me how you managed to fail this hard."

"Sir..." DNI Coats began, but trailed off as he was unable to come up with a believable explanation. He was as flabbergasted and confused by the American intelligence community's failure to detect the Edenian supercarriers as the president, who was currently just a hair shy of literally frothing at the mouth as he stood in front of him.

"Are you going to tell me they've been hiding those in a warehouse just like the rest of their navy? You were caught off guard by their battleships, too! Do you remember the idiocy you fed me when that happened?" The president was quickly becoming agitated again.

"No, sir. We sent agents to every one of their known naval bases that we identified through the keyhole network. We're absolutely sure we found all of them. There's zero chance that we missed any of them, but those ships... no port in the world can handle even one of those, sir. Let alone something that massive being hidden away without a leak or appearing on satellites at least once!" the director answered. The situation of the mysterious supercarriers was completely absurd, and he had to make the president realize that absurdity if he wanted to keep his job. After all, at the moment, the White House was like one really big game of musical chairs, and everyone knew that if they displeased President Trump, they would soon be thrown far away from the seat of power. And if that happened, no one could save them—they had all offended far too many people on their climb to where they currently were.

"So did they just fucking... appear out of thin air then?" Trump threw his hand in the air as he said that. He wasn't in the least pleased by Coats' response.

"That's more believable than them being able to hide them from all of our satellites and every operative we sent to their shithole country. The CIA, Homeland, NSA... they're all the absolute best at what they do, sir, and it's absolutely impossible that they missed something like those supercarriers."

"They also managed to sink an entire carrier group with a single fucking tugboat!" the president yelled. "Do we really have to tell ourselves that they have fucking wizards or something, too?" Trump sneered, completely not realizing just how close he had come to hitting the mark at that moment. "Are you telling me that they're better than we are at everything?" he continued, beginning to lose his cool again. Carrier strike groups were the symbol and extension of American might, and now everyone in the entire coalition knew that they couldn't stand up against a single frigate! Every single member of the world coalition punitive expedition had watched the sinking of the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group live and in high definition; it was a huge embarrassment and slap in the face to the nation that everyone on the planet agreed was the strongest, most powerful country on the planet. 𝙡𝓲𝒃𝓻𝓮𝙖𝒅.𝙘𝓸𝒎

He stood there, bent over with his hands planted on his desk, panting and struggling to bring himself back under control. Eventually, he succeeded in calming himself and asked, "So what do you suggest we do now?"

"Sue for peace, sir. They won't let us end the war while they're at an advantage, but at the same time, they can't possibly attack everywhere at once. They don't have the forces available, we believe. In fact—" General Mattis began, but was cut off by the president.

"You believe? You believe!? YOU FUCKING BELIEVE!?" President Trump roared. "Every time you tell me you believe something, you're wrong! Everything you believe is WRONG!" He stared at the men in his office, his eyes bloodshot and veins popping out in his neck.

General Mattis was a combat veteran and able to keep his cool in the face of the president's anger. He simply continued from where he was interrupted, saying, "In fact, sir, they can't attack our homeland unless they have an assurance in place."

"What assurance?" the president growled in a hoarse voice. All the screaming he had done had put him on the brink of losing his voice.

"Our nukes are keeping them at bay, so they'll have to take those out of the equation first. As long as they send an ICBM toward us, or hell, even an airstrike or cruise missile from any of their ships, we can retaliate with nukes, sir. All we'll have to do is claim that they nuked us first, and our second-strike policy automatically kicked in," General Mattis explained.

Before the president could continue the conversation, the Chief of Space Operations of the newly created Space Force burst into the Oval Office, followed by the president's secretary.

The secretary began, "Sir, I tried to stop him but—"

The Chief of Space Operations cut her off and said, "We have a problem, sir." He glared at the secretary, who had tried to prevent him from entering the president's office.

"What now?" the president asked in a dangerously calm, even tone, his hoarse voice notwithstanding.

"We detected irregularities in Eden's satellites, sir. They've all begun maneuvering to higher orbits," he reported.

"And just what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" President Trump asked. He didn't quite see the relevance of the shithole's actions.

"Well, if it was us, it would be a precursor to a war in space. We think they're planning on taking down some, if not all, of the satellites below theirs in orbit," the CSO explained.

There was an extended silence in the room as the other three men, plus the secretary, were dumbstruck by the implications of Eden's latest move.

Then, someone in the room couldn't help but say, "Fuck..."

That one word expressed everything that everyone in the Oval Office was thinking at that particular moment.

Chapter 380

The moment the final Edenian satellite reached a higher orbit, Aeolus immediately got to work.

Aboard the EV Beowulf.

As Eden's flagship aircraft carrier and the first one completed, although only older in terms of minutes or hours, rather than years, the Beowulf was naturally the first to be called to duty. A swarm of activity was in progress in one of the massive internal hangers as an entire carrier air wing (CAW) was being refitted for high-altitude operations.

While the E/F-14 Icarus multirole interceptor jets were capable of reaching and operating near the Karman Line, that didn't mean that they had the necessary fuel capacity to maintain operations for long. For intercepting missiles or shortening flight times from one place to another, they would be fine. But for the upcoming operation, where they would be spending an extended period in active maneuvers, they would need to undergo some hasty modular swaps.

Thus, the flight crews were moving like a hive of worker bees, each ensuring that the pilot they were responsible for would be able to carry out their mission without any issues. Aeolus Air Force doctrine had pilots assigned to specific flight crews, rather than having crews assigned to pilots' jets. After all, unlike in normal air forces, where each jet was a significant investment of dozens of millions of dollars, Aeolus jets were highly replaceable and could basically be reprinted at will.

Aeolus jets were also designed to be modular. The current mission called for high-altitude operations near the Karman Line, so the crews were attaching drop tanks—discardable auxiliary fuel tanks—to some of the hardpoints beneath the jets' wings and on the underside of its belly. The E/F-14B Icarus had eight hardpoints on the wings and one secondary hardpoint on its belly, and the flight crews were busy attaching six underwing drop tanks and one belly drop tank as the pilots were receiving their operations briefing in the pilots' ready room.

...

Once the modifications and briefings were complete, the pilots and copilots of 240 jets boarded their planes and were towed to the twelve massive flight deck elevators, where they were lifted the hundred meter distance from the hangar to the flight deck and towed to their positions all along the flight line. Soon, Eden would perform another unprecedented feat in a long, unbroken string of unprecedented feats.

The entire process, from the time Aron mentioned "taking away their toys" to the time the jets had been modified, pilots scrambled, and lined up along the flight line in preparation for takeoff, had only taken an hour.

Everything was ready and only Aron's order remained to be given.

...

Aron stood facing a holographic screen, splitting his attention between a number of information feeds showing the progress of various plans and projects, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Aeolus," he said.

[Here, sir.]

"Clear skies are a go."

[Yes, sir. Estimated time of completion is six hours in real time.]

Aron nodded and went back to focusing on the projects he had in progress. The war would soon be over, but the unification would have a long way to go even after the last gun spoke in anger.

He had to be prepared.

... 𝑙𝘪𝒷𝘳𝑒𝘢𝑑.𝒸𝑜𝑚

Upon receiving the go order, the pilots began launching from the flight deck of the EV Beowulf in good order. Thanks to the rigorous training they had received and the onboard AI assistants in each jet, as well as the long flight line allowing for normal takeoff and landings instead of relying on catapults and arrestor gears, only two seconds were required between each launch. With four runways in operation, the jets had all launched in two minutes and formed into squadrons of four jets each within another minute.

As one, they activated their afterburners and began a steep climb, headed to the Karman Line to, as Aron put it, "take away their toys".

At the speed they were climbing, it only took the pilots two minutes to reach the Karman Line and level off.

"Let's shoot and scoot, boys, we've only got about two hours to bingo," the flight leader said over their communications network.

"Roger," the squadron leaders below him chorused.

The 240-strong flight broke into 60 squadrons of four jets each and headed in different directions. Their goal was simple: take down every satellite in low earth orbit that didn't belong to Eden.

Once each squadron reached their operational area, they released control of their missiles to the AIs installed in each jet. The squadrons broke up into individual jets and began following the course laid out in the pilots' AR HUDs while their jets occasionally released missiles. Normally, with most of their hardpoints occupied by drop tanks, they would only be able to fire two shots before shooting themselves dry, but each hardpoint had a dedicated atomic printer that could rearm them on the fly. The only limiting factor was the small storage space for materials the jet could carry; but with the drop tanks rapidly being emptied of fuel, they were simply recycled and turned into more missiles.

On average, each jet fired more than twenty missiles, all of which were smaller versions of the Type VII Frangible flak rounds. They were set to timed detonation, turning them into fire-and-forget munitions that would fill space with deadly debris that would begin a domino effect where each satellite destroyed by them would break up and destroy more satellites, which would then spread the destruction even further.

"You know," one squadron leader mused over comms, "I kinda feel sorry for those poor fellows in the ISS. Nobody's gonna be able to reach them before the shrapnel wave does, but they can see everything that's happening and know exactly what's coming for them."

"Actions have consequences, and the world leaders shouldn't have been greedy," the flight leader responded.

"But I still feel bad for them. We could at least contact them and bring their last words home with us... After all, with the satellite network down and all the jamming and electronic warfare happening up there, their comms got cut off a while ago."

The flight leader fell silent for a moment, thinking of the possible repercussions, then Aron's voice broke into the comms.

"Do it," he ordered. He didn't say anything else, nor did he need to. With those two simple words, he had already expressed his sentiments. Nova had informed him of the situation aboard the aging space station; their Soyuz module had cold welded itself to the docking ring, and thanks to lowest-bidder manufacturing, the backup explosive bolts had failed. Thanks to the weld, though, it wouldn't have mattered that the bolts failed, as the module wouldn't have been able to create an airtight seal and would've burned up in reentry.

(Ed note: Cold welding happens when you have two identical metals with no protective oxidized layer on them pressed against each other in a vacuum. Since there's no surface oxidation, the two pieces of metal join together and become one piece; it's a major problem in space operations and something they normally engineer to avoid. The ISS, though, having modules made by so many different countries and by so many different manufacturers, has had issues with cold welding in the past.)

No matter what, it was a loss for humanity. The astronauts aboard the space station had nothing to do with the mess currently on the surface, and their goal had always been noble. Aron had great respect for astronauts, who were all pioneers and brave men and women who sought nothing more than the betterment of humanity. One of his heroes, the Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, said something that had shaped his beliefs and influenced him even to this day: "You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it."

Perhaps that was why Aron was so set on his course.

"You heard the boss, establish contact and record their final words for posterity," the flight leader ordered.

The pilot nearest the ISS increased power to his radio and forced his way through the jamming. "International Space Station, this is Dumper. If you look out your south window, you might be able to see me waggling my wings." He waggled his wings in salute to the ISS before realizing that nobody would be able to see him from that far away. Even though he was practically in space, he was still kilometers away from the space station.

He continued, "Errr, well... maybe not. But you have more important things to think of than a jet doing a high-altitude flyby. I've been ordered to record your last words for posterity, and I promise you we'll ensure that they're privately delivered to your next of kin. There's nothing we can do to help you from here, but there's a huge swarm of space debris headed your way. You've got about eight minutes before I'm bingo fuel and have to RTB. I'll clear the channel now and you can go ahead. Dumper out."

With that, a combat mission gained humanitarian elements that day. It wasn't the first time in the history of the world that had happened and it became just another instance of wartime compassion in a long list of compassionate acts between enemies facing each other on the front lines.

Chapter 381

One by one, satellites were destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of sharp shrapnel bits flew chaotically through the space in orbit, furthering the mess with each satellite destroyed. The satellites broke apart into large chunks, and those chunks impacted each other, knocking off smaller and smaller fragments until they homogenized into a single swarm of tiny shrapnel moving around the planet at orbital velocity, completely uncontrolled.

The destruction in orbit continued apace, finally creating a deadly blanket that covered the entire planet. The promise of space had, at least temporarily, been denied to the citizens on Earth's surface.

It was even visible to citizens, as anywhere night fell, a gorgeous meteor shower lit up the night sky. And the day seemed dim as the sun's rays were scattered by the mostly metallic shrapnel speeding unimpeded around the planet. The equatorial areas of Earth, in particular, seemed especially gloomy and dim, a comparison only made more obvious by the normally sunny days they enjoyed as a general rule.

And wherever it was dawn or dusk, a gorgeous aurora was visible, backlit by the brief flashes of light that looked like fireworks. Even in the worst destruction, there would always be beauty.

…

Every media network around the world was reporting on the situation, even those in Eden and Esparia. Around the world, public opinion had soured even further on the two developing nations, and even Panoptes was struggling to manage the situation on Pangea. Eden had truly become the world's enemy, and there were very few that stepped forward to defend them from the flood of public opinion now. 𝓁𝑖𝘣𝑟𝘦𝘢𝒹.𝑐ℴ𝘮

Everyone believed that Eden was lashing out in a futile rage, attempting to wreak as much havoc as they could before their demise, as nobody but Edenians and Esparians were aware yet that the coalition fleets had been intimidated into silence and an entire American carrier strike group had been effectively destroyed. Nobody but Aron and his AIs would ever be bold enough to livestream entire battles and commentate them like they were a low-stakes sporting event instead of a life-or-death struggle between nations.

And now, thanks to the "terrorists" of Eden, every service that relied on a satellite connection was now simply gone. Even the internet was struggling to cope, with freezing and lag being more common than stable connections. After all, satellites were meant to function as one machine, not millions of pieces of what used to be a machine.

The Hubble telescope, military satellites, spy satellites, communication satellites, and navigation satellites, among others, were now nothing more than small pieces of space junk and a hazard to anything that attempted to enter orbit.

The internet was only the first to suffer from the destruction, but it was shortly followed by the artificial bubble created by capitalists in space-related industries. A few hours ago, investors still had hopes of hitting a jackpot if the companies they invested in created a revolutionary, and useful, new product. But now that news broke about the international space station and everything else in low earth orbit being turned into an unavoidable and deadly space hazard, rendering the space industry earthbound, well... those hopes came crashing down around investors' shoulders. The stock market immediately crashed as the space bubble burst and trillions of dollars of investments from around the world simply vanished like smoke in a wind tunnel. Regulatory bodies were forced to step in and halt the rapidly falling markets, but the damage had already been done at that point.

Eden had struck, and the world was no longer the same as it was before.

...

"And there's the justification we need," President Trump growled after news of Eden destroying satellites reached him. Though it was an excellent casus belli for escalating the war between the coalition and Eden, he was still less than thrilled about the damage to the economy. Especially since his backers, the Morgans, would now be constantly howling for blood behind him, and that would definitely impact his quality of life.

Not to mention his approval numbers. Though they may have dramatically spiked when he declared war on Eden, they would definitely rebound and fall even further after news of how things were actually going for the allied nations inevitably leaked. After all, if you truly want to keep a secret, ensure that only one person knows it. And with 193 other "people" in the coalition, it would be impossible to keep the secret for much longer; the only hope he'd ever had was a rapid and overwhelming win at the outset.

September 11th and the war on terror had shown what happened to presidents who failed to deliver on the fast resolution to wars fared.

"Contact every nuclear power and invite them for a conference call in an hour. I want heads of state on the line, not just ambassadors and underlings. It's time for us to reduce our nuclear stockpiles," he ordered, surprising everyone in the situation room.

They had all thought that, with the overwhelming force they had at hand, trampling Eden would be as easy as falling out of bed. But they were wrong. Thus, while it was still early yet, the decision to escalate to nuclear weapons didn't exactly strike them as unreasonable. Still, the procedures must be followed, for posterity's sake if nothing else.

"Are you positive, sir?" General Mattis asked, his tone grave.

"What better time to act than now? They have yet to attack our forces at home, so none of our systems are out of commission yet. Plus, we don't have enough stockpiled ourselves, so we need everyone to contribute. They've already shown us their missile defense capability, and that was just their fleet. Who knows what they have protecting their borders?" Trump explained, feeling slightly exasperated that anyone had the gall to question him at all.

"I meant, are you sure you want to escalate to nukes, sir?" General Mattis asked again.

Trump slammed the conference table he was sitting at. "Are you questioning me!? Just do what I fucking told you to do already! Who's the president here, you or me? It's me! I'M the president of the United States of Fucking America! I'M in charge! So go do your goddamn job or I'll take it away from you and give it to someone who damn well knows how to fucking listen and follow direct orders!" he screamed, his face purpling in rage.

He panted for a while after his outburst, then clenched his fists and visibly calmed himself. He sat back down and, as if he hadn't just exploded, said, "Also, prepare a speech for me to use after we nuke Eden. I'll need to explain the situation and publicly feel sad bla bla bla. You know what to do." A sinister smile crossed his face. He felt nothing at the thought of the losses the Edenians were about to suffer. After all, they were just peasants from a third-world shithole that was half a world away from him, and he was the leader of the free world. So why should he mourn peasants dying any more than he mourned the ants he stepped on or the flies he swatted?

Chapter 382

On the warfront in the Pacific Ocean, the battle had come to a stalemate. The coalition forces had stalled in their advance, shocked both by the effective missile defense put up by the Edenian fleet and the broadcast of the EV Heidrek crippling the Carl Vinson carrier group.

The fleets that had come on strong and in high spirits were now at a complete loss. They had been ordered to sink all Edenian vessels and attack the mainland, disgorging thousands of troops from amphibious landers under the protection of naval missiles and coalition airstrikes. And due to the complicated situation in their chain of command, they had effectively become a complete nonissue for the time it took their leadership to discuss a countermeasure, all while under the added stress of facing the overwhelming Edenian ships. 𝙡𝙞𝓫𝒓𝙚𝒂𝓭.𝓬𝒐𝓶

The stalemate didn't last long, though, as new orders came down from high command. The new order was to retreat to a rally point and launch a retaliatory missile strike against Eden's satellites in orbit. It was political theater at its finest; nobody thought the retaliation would be effective at all, and everyone thought it would be an enormous waste of money for no gain, but the politicians that issued the orders didn't care. They had to be seen to do something, at least, and a retaliation for the loss of their satellites was that "something".

Thus, the paralyzed coalition fleet soon regained its head and reversed course, heading for a spot on the equator to the east of Esparia while keeping a close watch on the opponents they were leaving in their wake. The sailors jokingly comforted themselves with the old saw, "we aren't retreating, we're attacking in another direction!" It had the benefit of technically being true, as well, so the sailors' morale rose higher the closer they came to their destination.

Soon, they reached their destination and, in high spirits, another all stop order was transmitted to the fleet.

After coming to a halt, the fleet was brought back to general quarters and an order to clear the decks was passed down. The missile-armed ships in the fleet separated themselves from the rest of the vessels, and the entire fleet spread out, so as to avoid catching other ships in the wake of their attacks.

Once the decks were clear and the fleet had scattered, alarms rang out in every ship as VLS tubes opened, preparing their space-capable munitions to be launched. The alarms cut out, leaving only the red flashing lights in every compartment of every ship of the fleet, then they were replaced by a countdown.

"Three... two... one... Firing."

With a loud roar, thousands of missiles began their climb to orbit, headed on intercept courses that would wreak the same level of havoc among the Edenian satellite network as the Aeolus Air Force's alpha strike had wreaked upon the rest of the world's modern conveniences.

It only took two minutes for the fastest missiles to reach orbit, where they were immediately met with the hundreds of thousands of pieces of what used to be a functioning satellite network. The shrapnel shredded the first three hundred missiles, creating more shrapnel that joined the swarm of metal that was already in orbit.

The shredding continued as more and more missiles were destroyed, but eventually, seven missiles, through sheer luck, found openings in the layer of destruction and passed through. Over a thousand missiles had been launched, and seven of them made it through. The ratio was incredibly low, but those seven remaining missiles somehow remained on course to impact the Edenian satellites that had earlier moved to medium earth orbit.

They were relying on the surviving satellites, like the geosynchronous GPS satellites and the higher-orbital spy satellites to find their targets. After all, they obviously couldn't rely on the fragments that remained in low earth orbit. Even so, the amount of electronic warfare in the higher orbits was still prohibitive, so three of the seven missiles ran out of fuel for terminal maneuvering and detonated prematurely. The force of the detonation, even in vacuum, was enough to clear swathes of shrapnel from the new "shredder blanket" in low earth orbit, but alas... there were simply no more missiles to take advantage of those gaps, and they soon closed.

Then, just as the four surviving missiles began their terminal maneuvers, aiming to create large clouds of shrapnel that would begin a second domino effect in orbit, the satellites that they were targeting began rising to a higher altitude in their orbital paths. The missiles, being reliant on programming that had been done prior to launch, detected that they had reached their target and exploded, creating clouds of shrapnel as planned.

Unfortunately, the targets of those missiles simply passed above the shrapnel clouds, leaving them far behind and suffering absolutely no damage whatsoever.

...

Aron, now sitting in his command center in VR listening to the recorded last words of the astronauts aboard what used to be the International Space Station, paused the recording and looked at the main screen in the command center. It was showing the attempted retaliatory strike by the coalition fleet from beginning to end.

He couldn't hold back his smirk as he said, "I wonder how much longer it'll take them to escalate to the final phase."

[Not much longer, I think,] Nova replied.

"Shall we encourage them?" Aron mused. He thought for a moment, plans and counterplans flashing through his thoughts, then said, "No. They're already doing exactly what I want them to, and as they say, you should never stop an enemy when they're intent on making a mistake."

[True, sir. Want to listen in on their meeting? Our replacement is already in on it.]

"No. I have... more important things to listen to right now," he replied, unpausing the recording he had been listening to earlier.

"Mom, dad... Sabrina... I'm not going to be able to come home like we planned. Some... some things happened and I... well... I'm sure you'll see it on the news. I'm being brave, dad. I'm really so... so happy that I had you and mom and Sabby in this life. And if there's a next life, I hope to be your family again..."

The recordings went on, and Aron listened to every last one of them.

Chapter 383

While the coalition fleet was headed toward their launch coordinates, a secret meeting of eight global leaders was taking place via conference call. They were discussing a crucial matter that would change the global landscape, both literally and figuratively.

"So you want to send everyone's entire nuclear arsenal to deal with Eden? You know you're risking nuclear winter by doing that. Plus, my science advisor says it'll affect the tides and weather forever if we wipe out an island chain the total size of Australia. Besides, did you forget that just Russia and the US alone have more than enough nukes to use on them?" Putin asked, adjusting the reading glasses he had added to his wardrobe a few weeks earlier.

"That won't be a problem," Trump replied. "We think they'll take out more than 70% of anything we send them, if not more. And even if a third of our nukes get through, we can always activate the kill switch on some of them. Besides, even if we don't kill most of what slips through, the worst that'll happen is a few tsunamis wiping out countries none of us give a shit about. You know it, I know it, everybody knows it. Trading a few countries nobody cares about for Eden is a good deal, I'm telling you."

Once Trump's translator finished translating, Putin replied, "But we don't really want them completely destroyed, though, no?" A mischievous smile flashed across his face as he spoke.

"No, no, no, we don't want that. We need their tech to be recoverable, after all," Emanuel Macron said in heavily accented English. Though he was the only one that said it out loud, everyone on the conference call was absolutely thinking the same thing.

"Look... I know some of you are afraid of using nukes because you think your citizens will react poorly, but do you think those same people would care about nukes when Eden's soldiers are slaughtering them? Of course they won't! And either way, they won't vote for your reelection whether you use them or not. If you use them, they won't vote for you because you used them. If you don't use them, they won't vote for you because they'll be dead. Your only hope of keeping your political careers now is if you bring Mr. Michael's advanced technology back to your countries," Benjamin Netanyahu said. He planned to use Israel's entire nuclear arsenal without holding back in order to increase his pull in the political world. After all, nobody would find out if he used everything he had, and they'd assume he kept a decent number in reserve. That way, the belief that he still had nukes would deter other countries from nuking him. It would be a risk, but he was practically salivating at the possibility of being able to do anything he wanted to do without risking retaliation, not to mention being among the first to choose from the spoils of war.

Ram Nath Kovind, the newly elected president of India, chimed in, "We need time to prepare. And at the same time, we need to sign an agreement to prevent any of us from leaving behind stockpiles of nuclear weapons or using this opportunity to attack each other. If anyone violates the agreement, they will become the common enemy of the entire coalition, not just the countries whose leaders are on this conference call." 𝑙𝘪𝑏𝓇ℯ𝑎𝒹.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Mamnoon Hussain, the president of Pakistan, merely verbally scoffed at the suggestion. "Fine, fine, whatever you say. Not like a piece of flimsy paper ever stopped you in the past, so Pakistan will sign the agreement but I'll personally ensure that there's someone keeping an eye on you all."

"Of course China absolutely agrees," Zi Jinping said. "We will be the first to sign this agreement and the first to enforce it if enforcement becomes necessary." When it came to politics and power games, he would never trust anyone, so he would be the first to hold back a stockpile of nuclear weapons. After all, everyone was going to anyway, and the agreement he had just proposed would be nothing more than a polite fiction that would only fool the gullible.

He came from a country where political power came not from the support of citizens, but by being ruthless and savvy enough to win the constant internal struggles in the ruling party of the country, so his thought processes were slightly different from the rest of those on the conference call. They were, at least on the surface, democracies. And democracies had to care about the opinions of the proletariat voters who, Zi Jinping believed, should not hold any power or authority at all. The reason his country was so strong was because they kept people aligned to a strict hierarchy where everyone was content to remain in the places the government had determined were the best for them. Even the capitalists in China were the same; if any one of them were to get any funny ideas, they would be ruthlessly slapped back down among the masses and suppressed.

Eden, in fact, was like that. If the entire world was to be compared to a communist state, Eden would be the upstart capitalist attempting to make waves. It was up to the world to slap them back down into the mud where they belonged, then strip them of their assets and redistribute them for the good of the ruling party. That thought process was exactly why China was so willing to be the first country to betray the fledgling republic of Eden in the beginning, and so far, their schemes had been wildly successful beyond their most optimistic estimates.

None of them knew, after all, that they were all simply monkeys dancing in Aron's palm, or that he had predicted every single move the entire world was now making with almost perfect accuracy. Had they known that, things might have proceeded along a completely different track, because what mortal would dare to spit in the face of a walking god?

But unfortunately for them, they had been kept in the dark.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 384

The moment the conference call ended, work began on drafting the agreement proposed by the president of India. Since time was tight, they could only afford a few revisions to accommodate one demand from each of the leaders, making the process highly abbreviated and incredibly fast. From the end of the meeting to the agreement being signed by the ambassadors of each of the eight remaining nuclear powers.

The signing itself was seen as of monumental importance, and as such, the Pakistani president's demand had been the easiest to incorporate in the agreement. Unlike China, which wanted the technological blockade imposed by the west removed, or India, who wanted territorial concessions along the India-China border, the only thing Pakistan had requested was that the signing be held in Aiwan-i-Saddar, the house of their president.

The United Kingdom wanted Brexit to be expedited and the negotiations to go in their favor, the United States wanted to place military bases in the other seven countries involved, France wanted the UK and US to publicly acknowledge the French Resistance's efforts in WWII, Israel wanted the other seven nations to publicly acknowledge their rights in the Gaza Strip, and Russia wanted the sanctions imposed on them due to the Russo-Ukrainian war lifted.

Once everything had been completed and triplechecked, the ambassadors from each nation, having been granted the delegated power to sign the new accord, gathered in the Aiwan-i-Saddar and, with a minimum level of pomp and circumstance, signed it.

Once the accord was signed, the nuclear powers immediately got to work.

All eight countries' nuclear arsenal keepers had long been on their highest alert and the tension in the air in those countries, or at least their halls of power, was so thick it could practically be cut by a knife. The tension had ratcheted up so high, in fact, that despite being purposefully kept unaware, the entire world felt a sense of oncoming dread. It was almost like a dormant fortunetelling gene had awakened in humanity's DNA, warning them of a potential oncoming disaster.

…

Washington DC, midnight.

President Trump was in the situation room, the "nuclear football" open and resting on the conference table in front of him. A cord stretched from the big, black briefcase to the phone handset in his hand as he read from a card pulled out of the case.

"Tango, Sierra, Victor, Foxtrot..."

"Authorization received, Mr. President. Standby for final confirmation."

A few minutes later, the voice on the other end of the phone said, "Authorization confirmed, Mr. President. Launch sequence initiated." The call immediately ended; the launch sequence had been initiated and could no longer be stopped.

The same process, though with different steps, was also happening in China and the other six nuclear powers. One by one, the launch process in each country was initiated.

…

Somewhere in the Indian Ocean, on the bridge of one of the UK's Vanguard class submarines.

"Bring us to firing depth," the captain ordered in a heavy tone. He had received an order that he'd hoped to never receive in his lifetime from the admiralty.

"Aye, captain," the helmsman replied, then began the process of ascending the sub.

While the sub was ascending, the captain began the firing sequence. He first informed his first officer, then the two pulled the case from the captain's safe. Opening it with both of their keys, they pulled out a plastic card that contained a slip of paper with the authorization codes for nuclear launches on it. The captain, under the witness of his first officer, weapons officer, and the coxswain, began reading the code from the case as the first officer checked it against the code that had been transmitted to them. 𝓁𝒾𝘣𝑟𝑒𝘢𝘥.𝘤𝘰𝑚

Once the code had been verified as valid by all three officers and the enlisted coxswain, the weapons officer returned to his station and brought up the separate system that would program the nukes' targets.

"How many missiles are to be armed, captain?" he asked.

"The order says all of them, lieutenant commander." Large beads of cold sweat were trickling down the captain's forehead and spine. Even though he wasn't the one making the decision, his actions still weighed heavily on his very soul.

"Target?" the weapons officer asked, his voice cracking on the question. Never in his life would he have expected to be the one to fire his full payload of nuclear missiles dry.

"Eden, lieutenant commander. Coordinates are on your console," the captain answered.

The coxswain received a call to a handset on the bridge. "Understood," he said, then hung the phone handset back in its cradle. "All trident missiles are loaded and armed, awaiting final order, captain," he reported.

A heavy silence settled on the bridge as everyone turned their gazes to the captain, waiting for him to give the final order.

After more than thirty seconds passed, the captain ordered, "Fire, and may god have mercy upon our unworthy souls."

"Three... two... one..." the weapons officer counted down. "Firing."

The seals holding the blow hatches of the sub's missile tubes released and a heavy thud shook the entire vessel. Then the crew felt as if they were suddenly twenty pounds lighter; the entire sub had been pushed down into deeper water as all of its missile tubes simultaneously released a burst of pressurized nitrogen that would carry their "passengers" to the surface, where the rockets would ignite and the missiles would begin orienting themselves for the long trip to their target.

After firing its nuclear payload dry, the submarine immediately performed a series of evasive maneuvers and emergency dives, quickly moving as far as it possibly could from the location it had launched the nukes from.

…

Somewhere in a classified location in Russia.

Giant pneumatic machines hissed to life, opening a heavy armored hatch concealed beneath a layer of soil. Dirt and detritus dropped into what seemed to be a bottomless hole as the two sides of the door folded open, dropping their layer of concealment into the missile silo beneath. As soon as the doors had fully opened, the low thud of a controlled pushing charge echoed out of the silo, followed closely by a missile, which ignited its rocket engine and began its climb to the thermosphere.

That was just one of the over 3,000 silos that, in conjunction with their nuclear attack submarines, comprised Russia's 4,447 nuclear missiles; all of which had been simultaneously launched and were currently in their ascent phase.

"Why are we nuking an ocean?" one of the two people in the underground silo wondered.

"Who knows? There must be a reason behind it. Maybe it's a warning shot or something," the other person replied, then returned to reading a rather lurid romance novel. Now that their missile had been launched, the two of them could relax and do whatever they wanted as they awaited the truck that would soon come to pick them up.

…

The same general process was happening in every nuclear power as they all shot their nuclear arsenals almost completely empty. In the course of about a single hour, nearly every single nuclear weapon on the planet, roughly twelve thousand missiles and bombs in total, had been launched. The airstrikes had been authorized and launched hours before, and the operation was timed to have the bombers closely following the missiles—intercontinental or otherwise—as they began their descent phase and terminal maneuvers.

(Ed note: I couldn't find an estimated count of the world's nuclear arsenal as of 2017, but as of 2021, there were an estimated 13,080 nuclear weapons stockpiled in the nine nuclear powers. So I'm using that number as a guideline since there's never been an accurate count.)

Due to the sheer number of missile launches and bombers, it was impossible to hide from the general population. People living near silos discovered the launch trails, and people beneath the flight path of the bombers saw flight after flight of distinctive, large aircraft flying overhead. Even some "lucky" passengers on cruise ships spotted trails reaching into the sky from the submarine-launched missiles.

First dozens, then hundreds, then thousands, then hundreds of thousands of videos were soon posted on the internet as everyone around the world uploaded their shocked reactions to the sightings. Fear and panic broke out as the news rapidly spread that total nuclear war had broken out, and doomsayers began preaching the end of the world in either nuclear fire or nuclear winter.

Riots broke out everywhere as people rushed to the stores to first panic buy everything they could, and then it devolved into outright looting and robbery as a kind of "every man for himself" thought infected the rioting crowds.

Soon, the violence became bloody as the first shot was fired, then more, and people began dying in droves as wannabe warlords cropped up in neighborhoods around the world. They had yet to even verify the news or listen to one of the still-absent government announcements, but to some doomsday preppers and other ammosexuals, the overwhelming nuclear launch was effectively the wettest of their wet dreams.

It hadn't even been ten minutes since the launches had concluded, yet the situation had already devolved to such a low point. The launch itself was the trigger that released the valve on all of the stress that had been building since the announcement that humanity was no longer alone in the universe had been made.

Chapter 385

Already knowing that the remaining satellites were currently unreliable due to all the jamming and other electronic warfare happening in orbit, the missiles had been programmed with strict courses. Thus, the accuracy should be decent enough to saturate such a large target; the total area they were aiming at was the size of Australia, after all. So the missiles were using initial position determination. The blanket of shrapnel orbiting the planet prevented most forms of celestial navigation from working, so the missiles had to rely on IPD, which was made possible by accelerometers and gyroscopes working together along with knowing the initial launch coordinates to determine where the missile isn't, thus telling it where it is.

(Ed note: See more on how missiles navigate without GPS here: watch?v=bZe5J8SVCYQ - it may seem confusing, but if you can grasp the logic, it makes more sense. Just watch it a few times and I'm sure you'll figure it out... and if you do, please explain it to me because I'm still a bit lost myself.)

The main benefit to using the backup initial position determination navigation system was that it had absolutely zero reliance on any outside information to determine distances and directions, so it was completely immune to hacking in any form, much less electronic warfare such as jamming.

The bombers themselves would find their way to Eden via dead reckoning. For them, the mission would be much easier, given that all militaries basically trained the same way. They spend 99% of their training time learning to deal with the issues that come up 1% of the time, and for pilots and sailors, navigating by dead reckoning was definitely one of those 1% issues.

…

The moment the first ICBM was launched, it was detected by the Panopticon satellite network and reported to Panoptes. In a matter of nanoseconds, the report had made its way to every AI involved in Aron's military, plus Nova and Aron himself. All of the people and AIs involved knew the plan, so they reacted without any need for specific orders to be given.

Athena issued an alert to all personnel, then personally took control of the entire military infrastructure, assigning sectors to her subordinate AIs to swat down the thousands of incoming missiles and bombers.

The distribution of sectors allowed the military AIs, even including the assistant AIs in the equipment, vehicles, and vessels, to pool their computing resources in real time and acted as a guarantee that no accidents would happen. Nova had learned her lesson since her panic reaction during Aron's last system upgrade, and would carry that with her for the rest of her digital life. 𝒍𝓲𝒃𝙧𝒆𝒂𝒅.𝓬𝙤𝒎

Poseidon was the first to act. Stealthy submarines from the Edenian force rose to firing depth and launched the first interceptor missiles, repeating the process of launching the missile, printing a new launch cover, evacuating the launch tubes, printing new missiles, and launching again. All told, the submarine fleet took out nearly all of the submarine-launched nukes, then sank the subs that launched them. It was both retaliation and warning; retaliation for the launches themselves, and a warning that Eden would not let the coalition forces do whatever they wanted.

[Sir, Poseidon has already taken out the submarine-launched weapons. Our other forces are online and awaiting your orders.] Only after all sectors had reported ready did Athena update Aron on the progress, though her update was redundant as both Aron and Nova were already tracking the situation.

"It's finally time to end things. Let's get on with it," Aron sneered, standing up from his chair and clasping his hands behind his back. He turned his attention to the main monitor in the control center, which showed the real-time position of each land-based missile and the paths they were taking on their way to Eden.

"Aeolus, it's your turn. Teach the idiots that launched this attack a lesson."

[On it,] Aeolus replied, then got to work.

Thousands of missile silos across Eden snapped open and atomic printers mounted in the walls got to work printing ICCMs (InterContinental CounterMissiles) and launching them as soon as they were ready. Over the next eight minutes, the sky noticeably darkened as wave after wave of upscaled beehive swarm missiles launched, forming a cloud of countermissiles that was dense enough to eclipse what little sunlight passed through the junk in orbit.

Then the silo doors closed and billions of nanites flooded out of disguised vents, swarming over the closed doors and assembling themselves into the shape of innocent foliage. Soil, sand, blades of grass, shrubs... even organisms like earthworms and ants were formed by colonies of nanometer-scale robots, which served as both camouflage and a last line of defense for the hidden silos.

Aeolus had sent nearly 14,000 countermissiles from his ground-based silos, almost two for every nuclear ICBM launched. And once those countermissiles released their submunitions, the count rose to nearly a hundred thousand interceptor missiles.

Then, after the countermissile launch, came the interceptors. Practically everything that could fly and shoot was scrambled and sent on intercept missions to intercept the bombers carrying nuclear bombs across the ocean. Short-ranged fighters, medium-ranged interceptors, and even the extended range hybrid multirole jets of the Aeolus Air Force all took flight. With guidance from their assistant AIs and the impeccable VR training the pilots had all received, the entire roster of combat-capable jets was in the air in less than four minutes from receiving the emergency scramble order.

Then... there was no then. Every single nuke, no matter the delivery method, was easily swatted out of the sky over the vast Pacific Ocean. Destroying them over the sea had also ensured that the radiation would have almost no negative effects on anything; after all, the concentration of radioactive particles when dispersed over the roughly 350 billion cubic miles of seawater that covered the majority of the planet.

"Nyx," Aron said.

[Yes,] she replied.

"Make them pay."

[With pleasure, sir.]

Chapter 386

Somewhere off the coast of Somalia, Edenian Forward Operating Base (FOB) Ganymede.

The former terrorist-cum-pirate stronghold that had been repurposed into a hidden Edenian military base by Reaper Team Eight had been on high alert since the beginning of what Athena was calling the Unification War. The base's primary purpose was to act as a "5R" base, or fiver for short. The five Rs were rally, resupply, rest, recuperate, and reinforce. But it was just as well-armed as any other Edenian installation, whether at home or abroad, thanks to atomic printers.

The base was equipped with everything an entire ARES division could possibly need. Weapons, uniforms, shelf-stable meals, medical pods, and so on were hidden deep in underwater warehouse complexes the size of city blocks that were maintained by maintenance bots. After all, while atomic printers were capable of incredibly rapid printing, it wasn't nearly as fast as simply handing something that had already been printed to someone that needed it.

As the panic around the world peaked and chaos reigned, FOB Ganymede sprang into action. Swarms of camouflaging nanites broke their cover and entered concealed vents, revealing enormous, armored hatches. The hatches snapped open, revealing huge missiles inside as alarms around the base blared warnings to immediately seek cover.

A minute later, the alarms ceased their audible warnings and only flashing red lights remained as each silo disgorged a missile. The missiles' destination: the launch sites and remaining nuclear weapons of the eight remaining nuclear powers.

The missiles launched were different from normal ICBMs. While they were still orbit capable, they seemed much narrower and the reentry nose cone heat shield was a sharper cone shape. They were Type II Kinetic Kill warheads, otherwise known as rods from god. The scientists in Lab City had neatly sidestepped the difficulty of lifting such enormous masses into orbit to arm, or rearm, satellites with them and designed a specialized ICBM that would act as something of a sabot shell around the penetrator core. Thus, they could only barely be considered multistage munitions.

The first stage of each missile was enough to reach orbital heights, where the initial adjustment would be done with canisters of compressed gas contained within the housing of the second stage. At that point, the first stage would detach, leaving something that looked much like a bottle rocket behind. Once the initial direction adjustment was completed, the coast phase would be skipped and the second acceleration stage would be activated and the missile would accelerate the entire rest of the way to its target. Upon reaching 2000 meters in altitude, the second stage would detach and the terminal maneuvering of the now hypervelocity penetrator would begin, the suicidal onboard AI guiding it to its ultimate destination as the second stage rocket engine detonated behind it, ensuring the security of the technology.

The rod from god that remained massed over a ton and would be traveling at roughly Mach 40 at that point, and deliver a staggering impact of nearly 1.4 billion newtons of force to whatever it hit.

(Ed note: Space shuttles, after their deorbit burn, reenter the atmosphere at roughly Mach 23, and that's *after* they begin decelerating in order to fall back to Earth. So a powered reentry that's meant to be destructive reaching Mach 40 isn't too exaggerated by comparison.)

After the first round of rods from god were fired from the camouflaged silos, a second round was rapidly printed and fired as well. Then a third, a fourth, a fifth... Twelve waves of missiles were launched before the base fell silent again and the flashing lights ceased. The nanites retook their places, camouflaging the silos, and everything was the same as it was six minutes earlier.

The other three FOBs also launched their own missiles. Some launched more, others less, and the launches went mostly unnoticed, save for those from the former cartel compound in Culiacán Rosales, Mexico. FOB Odysseus was in a populated area, unlike the other three, so the launches couldn't be hidden there.

Thus, they didn't even attempt to hide. Just the opposite, in fact; an entire reinforced battalion of ARES soldiers rushed out of the main compound one after the other, like clowns emerging from a clown car in a circus tent. They set up a guard perimeter and simply remained in place, defending the base from curious onlookers and enemies alike. 𝒍𝙞𝙗𝒓𝒆𝙖𝓭.𝙘𝒐𝒎

...

Just under a minute after the Edenian missiles launched, the first missile breached the atmosphere and entered orbit just below where the predicted junk swarm would pass by. Two minutes after that, every Edenian rod from god had entered their orbital tracks. Ten seconds after that, the missiles in the swarm began orienting themselves toward their targets.

Eight seconds later, the missiles' initial orientation was completed and, in two separate waves, they activated their second stage rockets.

The first wave was targeted at missile and air defense networks in the target countries. America's multilayered THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) network, Israel's David's Shield and Iron Dome, Russia's S300 missile defense system... all eight nuclear powers each had their own name for basically the same thing: a nationwide network of missile countermeasures designed to stop incoming weapons of mass destruction.

The prevailing theory of rods from god assumed that the rods themselves would be nothing more than solid lumps of tungsten, or some other metal that would survive an unpowered orbital reentry. That was the only way such a system could be made cost-effective. But no one could have possibly imagined the sheer number of countermeasures packed into the "dumb" Edenian munitions.

Each one had a multilayered electronic warfare suite that turned it into the equivalent of a blank spot in both automated and manned detection systems. And if that were to fail, there was still the radar-absorbent outer layer of the rods, which combined specific geometric shapes designed to reflect radar waves away from the rod with a radar-absorbent material that the researchers in Lab City had developed and iterated on until it could withstand the stress of a powered flight through atmosphere at Mach 40.

Thus, every single missile countermeasure, no matter how vaunted, failed spectacularly before the might of Edenian technology.

Missile defense sites, anti-air batteries, countermissile silos... everything targeted by one or more rods from god was simply erased from existence, leaving the countries targeted effectively naked in the face of the second wave of rods, which targeted the silos that launched the nuclear missiles and the airstrips that launched the bombers carrying nuclear bombs. They even targeted the remaining nuclear stockpiles that six of the countries thought they had cleverly hid, as well as every site involved in the production of anything having to do with nuclear weapons. Uranium mines, nuclear centrifuges, rocket manufacturing factories... all of them simply ceased to exist when the suicidal AIs guiding the rods violently introduced themselves to each facility.

Emergency systems meant to inform citizens in case of disaster were activated in every country targeted by the Edenian saturation strike. They all passed the same message: shelter in place.

The people behind the nuclear attack on Eden had missed the clue of the Panopticon network's rapid launches. Then they had missed the clue of the Indonesian pirate elimination. After that, they failed, in their hubris, to realize the vast disparity in technology demonstrated by the Poseidon Navy's defense against the conventional missile attack. Instead of standing down after that, they instead ignored the military might demonstrated by a single frigate demolishing an entire American carrier group. Still, in their greed for the advanced technologies and arrogant belief that since they had never been beaten, they never would lose, they authorized a nuclear strike using nearly every nuclear weapon on the face of the planet and even that failed.

It was only now, after Eden finally retaliated, that the powers that be and those behind them realized that they had completely, utterly, and unrecoverably fucked up.

Chapter 387

As the retaliation strike was underway, huge troop movements were taking place back in Avalon Island and on each of the Edenian carriers in the fleet. The Aeolus Air Force had mobilized its entire transport fleet and was even printing more; massive ET-14 Argo transport jets, based on the Antonov An 126 airframe, were rolling out of the hangar one after another. They only stopped to load full complements of troops in each jet.

After the jets were loaded, they immediately took off and headed toward the carriers in the distance, where they landed, disgorged their troops, and immediately returned to Avalon Island to pick up another load.

At the same time, amphibious landing craft were also loading up and bringing full complements of troops to the enormous aircraft carriers. The fleet was still relatively close to Eden, at only roughly 500 kilometers away, so the trip was short enough that the landing craft were heavily overloaded for the trip.

As the troops were being transported, a major operation was underway inside the carriers. The carriers were overengineered, and the researchers working on them in Lab City had designed them so as to take advantage of the low crew count. Thus, most of the space inside them was actually empty and could be set up in a number of configurations. Requiring only two hundred sailors to crew each carrier at full capacity, the remainder was dedicated to engines, capacitor banks, reactors, and the configurable cargo area.

The cargo area could be switched at any time to one of three primary configurations: aircraft hangars, fleet transport and drydock, or troop transport. Currently, they were set to the "default" configuration, with cavernous aircraft hangars occupying most of the space.

An alarm suddenly rang out on the EV Beowulf. Three long horn blasts were followed by a repeating announcement by the ship's AI: [All hands, prepare for reconfiguration. Repeat: all hands, prepare for reconfiguration. Sixty seconds to reconfiguration. Fifty-nine... fifty-eight...]

As the announcement repeated on the 1MC, the crew of the Beowulf headed to designated safe zones, where they wouldn't be affected by the atomic printers that were about to sweep through each hangar, decomposing everything down to the decks and bulkheads. Once the printers finished their sweep in one direction, they reversed course and headed back the way they came, printing angular teardrop-shaped objects at precise intervals on every deck inside the newly cleared cargo area.

On deck, the landings and takeoffs continued, a synchronized aerial dance where one jet would land, disgorge its complement of 400 troops, then take off again. All four of the flight lines were in continuous operation, averaging one jet landed on each flight line every minute. Over the course of the next hour, each carrier loaded almost 100,000 troops by air alone.

The remainder were in transit in their amphibious landing craft, which were estimated to arrive in about five hours.

Those five hours weren't wasted, either. The atomic printers were hard at work printing the equipment the troops would be issued. Power armor, pulse carbines, rail rifles, fusion torches, atomic decouplers, back-mounted drone systems and rocket launchers, pulse shotguns, plasma projectors, multirole grenades... the list goes on. Every weapon designed by the mad geniuses in Lab City was at every soldier's disposal, and they were experts in all of them after the vicious training Athena put them through in VR.

Once the transport ships reached the carriers, enormous doors slid back, exposing the newly configured troop transport decks for the landing vehicles to unload their troops into.

Altogether, each of the enormous carriers now held almost 250,000 troops.

Once the troops were loaded, the enormous exterior doors slid closed and each teardrop-shaped object on every deck simultaneously opened like a blooming flower, the walls becoming ramps that the infantry marched up squad by squad, taking their places and preparing for transport.

After the drop vehicles were loaded, a siren sounded on the carrier's 1MC and through speakers on the flight deck. [All hands, prepare for liftoff. Repeat: all hands, prepare for liftoff. Liftoff in 60 seconds... 59... 58...]

Once the countdown reached zero, the ship's AI announced, [Liftoff.]

A deep, groaning rumble sounded throughout the Beowulf and the lights flickered as the capacitor banks emptied themselves and the reactors went to full military power. Deep within the ship, the ballast tanks were being pumped empty and filled with air, increasing the buoyancy of the vessel.

Soon, four enormous, stubby wings appeared above the water as the increased buoyancy lifted them out of the briny sea. After they breached the surface of the sea, they lifted up on tracks and locked in place level with the flight deck.

Each stubby wing had a ducted six-blade rotor that spanned fifty meters in diameter, and each rotor was rapidly spinning up to speed. As the rotors spun up, the enormous carrier finally broke free of the ocean's grasp and began gaining altitude.

1000 meters... 5000 meters... 10,000 meters... The Beowulf, joined by its nine sister-ships, halted its ascent near the far edge of the stratosphere at 60 kilometers above the ground and the struggling reactors dropped to normal safe output and the capacitor banks began charging again.

Once the carriers reached their cruising altitude, they broke off and headed in different directions. Their main initial targets were China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Israel, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Eight of the carriers headed to those countries, while the ninth headed to Central Africa, and the tenth headed to South America.

The unification was about to begin. 𝓁𝘪𝑏𝓇𝑒𝑎𝑑.𝑐𝘰𝑚

...

In the ARES Virtual Command Center.

[Oops,] Nova giggled.

Aron raised an eyebrow and glanced at her. "What happened?"

[I may have 'accidentally' let a satellite feed of our carriers launching slip through the jamming we've been filling orbit with,] she snickered.

"Why?"

[I want them to know what's coming for them, and know that they can't stop it. Besides, there's no hiding our carriers anyway, so a visual won't really matter.]

Aron grunted his assent and turned his attention back to the main viewscreen.

Chapter 388

EV Beowulf, somewhere high above the Pacific Ocean.

To the sailors crewing the enormous vessel, everything had returned to normal and it was no different to them than any other day. Whether on the surface of the sea or flying in the stratosphere made no difference to them. If anything, it was perhaps even more relaxed as there were no exterior operations while at altitude, so they were restricted to the areas inside the ship to perform their duties.

Exterior duties, while flying, had been delegated to maintenance bots that were controlled by a subroutine of the AI, Beowulf.

For the passengers, on the other hand, things were a bit more exciting. Once they had been loaded into their assigned drop vehicles, they had logged into VR and were conducting training missions in environments that simulated the areas they would soon be deployed to. Athena didn't request a 100% accurate simulation, as that would be rather processor-intense, but for the simulated environments to be accurate while the enemies were not. In other words, troops destined to fight in the jungles of South America would have training missions in the jungle, while troops headed for urban areas would undergo simulated missions in the cities they would drop into.

Though things were more exciting and varied for the troops in the transport decks, it was still just another Tuesday for the elite ARES troopers.

As the Beowulf sped toward its destination, her enormous rotors propelling her at close to the speed of sound, work inside her transport decks proceeded apace as the printers continued working. The troops would require resupply, so spare weapons, ammunition stockpiles, replacement armor, and so on were printed as well. In addition to those were helicopters and large transport drones that would be responsible for actually delivering the equipment to the troops in the field, as well as hot meals.

It had been said before that armies march on their stomachs, and that had held true throughout the history of mankind. All a soldier in the field needed to remain content with their lot and perhaps even happy was a hot meal that didn't come from a can or bag and clean socks and underwear. No matter how dire or harsh the conditions of the battlefield were, any army that had those three things was a content and happy one with high morale.

…

White House, inside the situation room.

A secret service member standing behind the president raised his hand to his ear, listening to a report as the deputy undersecretary of defense burst into the room and headed directly to the newly appointed interim Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan. General Mattis had been forced to resign as a result of the destruction of the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group.

The secret service member and acting secretary Shanahan simultaneously paled after hearing the latest news.

"Mr. President, we need to evacuate as fast as possible," the secret service agent said, grabbing Trump's arm and hauling him bodily out of his chair. Luckily, there was a secure bunker beneath the situation room and the elevator that led to it wasn't more than a few steps away.

The rest of the joint chiefs, their aides, and acting secretary Shanahan followed.

President Trump understood that asking questions now would be pointless. He would be briefed once they reached the bunker. But until then, all he had to do was cooperate with the secret service and not add to the incipient chaos. Left to himself, he began thinking of some very frightening possibilities; evacuating to the bunker beneath the situation room was very much a "last resort" defensive option, after all.

As the elevator doors closed, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Apologies, sir, we needed to move as fast as possible. Missiles are on the way to Washington," the head of the on-duty secret service team informed Trump. They were now officially cut off from the outside world for the duration of the elevator trip to the bunker, roughly 2500 feet below ground level. The elevator ride would take a few minutes to travel that nearly half a mile.

"What do we know right now?" Trump asked acting secretary Shanahan.

He turned to his deputy undersecretary and nodded for him to explain the situation. He himself was still not entirely up to speed, as the most important information would always be transmitted first. In this case, that information was simply "missiles are on their way to Washington."

"Sir, operation radiant dawn failed. And moments after its failure, we detected a retaliatory strike from Eden and, of all places, Mexico. We suspect there were more, but we can't be certain. Our subs that participated in the operation have already been sunk, sir. They knew where we were and were just waiting."

"What are their targets?" Trump asked.

"Cheyenne Mountain is tracking them as best they could. Based on their initial trajectory and numbers, we estimate that they're targeting THAAD, but we can't be certain until the missiles reenter the atmosphere and we can pick them up on radar. That is, if we can detect them at all..." the undersecretary reported.

The elevator ride continued in silence, each person within musing on the possible repercussions of the retaliation and what would be targeted. Everyone in the elevator, save perhaps Trump himself, knew what it meant for their air and missile defense systems to be targeted. 𝘭𝘪𝑏𝑟ℯ𝒶𝑑.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Eden was about to move.

A few minutes later, the elevator doors opened to a bunker that had become a hive of activity.

"Status report," General Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff snapped as he strode out of the elevator.

"Sir!" A defense intelligence agency analyst snapped to attention. "THAAD is down by 98% overall, 100% in populated areas and around our silos. Our OCONUS installations all report heavy losses. Former and current nuclear stockpile sites are confirmed down, all missile silos are down, and Cheyenne reports a second incoming wave of attacks. Estimated target is our nuclear stockpile sites, silos, centrifuges, and manufacturing sites. No sign of any other targets now, but sir... we're having trouble tracking the incoming birds. They're ghosts, sir."

"Shit," General Dunford cursed.

"What happened?" Trump asked.

"Sir, if they only took out our stockpiles and silos, it'd mean they're just removing our nuclear capability. But taking out THAAD means they're definitely planning an invasion," the general said.

"Did anything we launched have any effect at all?" Trump asked, as if he hadn't heard the general's response to his earlier question. He had looked at his watch and realized they should have heard something by then, but he might have missed it during the minutes-long elevator ride to the bunker.

"Radionuclide monitoring discovered radiation in the atmosphere, so odds of a successful detonation are high. If they did hit, it would explain the retaliation strike. But we can't be a hundred percent sure, so we dispatched a dragon lady—quite a few of them, actually—to give us a visual on site since satellite monitoring is either down or unreliable."

(Ed note: Dragon Lady is the name of the Lockheed U-2 spy plane. Adam Savage took a flight on one in season 15 of Mythbusters. Video here: watch?v=A0bwlQMch3s )

"Options?" Trump asked. He felt like his head was being cooked in a pot of boiling water and everything was going wrong for him.

"We've already begun the government continuity program, sir. Congress is being evacuated to the nearest shelter as we speak, Vice President Pence is on his way to Camp David, and Nightwatch is in the air and on patrol. We've called up the standby reserves, retired reserves, individual ready reserves, selected reserves, and the national guard, inactive and active. Hell... we even called up the civil air patrol, sir.

"The coalition fleet is headed back toward Eden to confront the Edenian Navy, for all the good that'll do, and our submarine fleet is en route back to the coast for submarine warfare. The four carrier groups we didn't send with the coalition fleet are patrolling the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and we're prepared to lose our assets in Guam, the Philippines, Alaska, the Dominican Republic, and Hawaii.

"We activated the national emergency broadcast system and implemented a strict curfew. State and local police have begun implementing it and the national guard is being deployed along with FEMA to aid in enforcing it.

"We've also—" the analyst continued, but was interrupted by the sound of a toppling chair and a loud curse.

"Repeat that! Are you fucking positive!?" someone shouted.

"Control yourself!" General Dunford snapped. "Report!"

Instead of responding, the man pushed a few buttons on his console and pointed at the large screen on the wall in the front of the bunker. "See for yourself," he said.

The screen showed a visual taken from one of their high-orbit spy satellites. The video showed the takeoff procedure of the Edenian carriers from start to finish.

"The video is backed by our beyond-the-horizon radar. Ten of those... whatever they are... just took flight and headed in different directions. One of them is headed our way and will likely arrive off the west coast in about two hours," he dolefully announced, then fell on his ass when he tried sitting back down, as he forgot his chair had fallen.

A pindrop silence engulfed the room. It felt like, just when they thought they knew everything about their enemy, a foot-long pole was shoved up their ass to prove them wrong.

Chapter 389

Somewhere over the coast of California.

Edwards Air Force Base and Naval Air Station North Island had both scrambled all of their pilots and put everything in the air that had guns. Some of the crop dusters in Southern California, being retired Navy and Air Force veterans, had heard the news through the grapevine as well. And being infected by a greater-than-normal amount of "good ole' American YEEHAW" had volunteered to strap guns to their civilian planes and join the war effort.

All of them, active duty and volunteer alike, were in the air like a swarm of bees as they awaited the arrival of the EV Beowulf. Not that it would do much good, really, considering that the Beowulf had a much higher flight ceiling and cruising altitude than any current-generation aircraft, whether military or civilian. Even the vaunted Dragon Lady could only reach a cruising altitude of around 21 kilometers, a far cry from the Beowulf's 60.

Still, they would pose an issue to the invasion forces that would be dropped in California, so the order was passed down for the Beowulf to take them down.

Sprinkled across the Beowulf's sides and belly were dozens of Mk. XIV Titan's Wrath cannons, hundred-meter-long guns with a barrel diameter of 96 inches, mounted on massive gimbals that would allow them to freely rotate in three dimensions. Designed for use while the carrier was in flight, they had a host of options available to them, yet none of them applied—the guns were simply too strong!

The ship's AI had three current orders:

First, to limit civilian casualties and collateral damage as much as possible. Aron was adamant in his interpretation of "human resources" and would allow no avoidable waste of any of Earth's resources; all would be needed in the years to come.

Second, to ensure the safe delivery of the Beowulf's complement of troops to their designated combat zones. This was the order the AI was operating under when it alerted the captain that she had detected armed aircraft.

And third, to take out any valid military target along the way through whatever means were appropriate. The key word in this standing order was "appropriate". Firing a Titan's Wrath at a fighter jet, especially from above, was rather... inappropriate. Without taking into account the collateral damage and potential civilian casualties, it would still be akin to using an old Civil War–era sixteen-pound cannon to kill a single gnat that was buzzing around your ear.

Considering her three standing orders, the Beowulf mused over her options for three nanoseconds, then decided that the Metalstorm was the most appropriate response.

[Captain, I have detected incoming combat aircraft,] she announced on the bridge. [Request permission to assume control of anti-air weapons designated 'Metalstorm'.]

"Granted, Beowulf. Happy hunting," the captain replied.

[Thank you, sir. Estimated time of operation: twelve seconds... eleven... ten... nine...]

As the countdown continued on the bridge, Metalstorms emerged from hidden hatches on the carrier's hull, and the main guns were retracted into hidden hatches of their own. The gimbal-mounted anti-air and point defense weapons swiveled around, each tracking individual targets. They opened fire, and then... there was no then.

Every military aircraft stationed in Southern California, along with the civilian volunteers, ceased to exist when met with thousands of 30mm rounds fired from a weapon that should not exist on Earth, yet did.

[Operation complete, captain. Returning control to weapons.]

"Thank you, Beowulf."

[You're welcome, sir.]

The captain crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair, then took a sip of his coffee and asked, "How long to the drop zone, helm?"

"ETA ten minutes to drop zone one, captain," the helmsman replied.

"Good. I anticipate a smooth drop. Comms, sound the ten minute alert in the training simulation for the designated troops."

"Aye, sir. Alert sent."

...

The Beowulf reached her first drop zone over Los Angeles in Griffith Park and a hatch opened on the side of her topmost transport deck. A mechanical arm reached out of it, carrying four ARES drop vehicles, each of which contained ten troopers. The arm bent upward, then accelerated down, hurling the drop vehicles at their target location at an incredible velocity.

The scientists in Lab City called the drop vehicles the Mk VII Thunderhammer Aerial Assault Lander. But the troops? The troops had a much simpler name for them.

Yeet pods.

A soldier that lacked a dry sense of humor couldn't really be called a soldier at all, really. And ARES troopers were nothing if not soldiers.

...

After the four yeet pods were released over Los Angeles, the Beowulf made her way northeast, dropping ARES platoons across the Southwestern United States, then turned toward the Pacific Northwest, then the Midwest, the South, and all the way up to the northeastern tip of the contiguous United States in Maine.

The largest landing, though, was in North Carolina. An entire reinforced battalion of ARES troopers was dropped between Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Fort Bragg, the largest military installation in perhaps the entire world. Occupying more than 250 square miles and home to more than sixty thousand active duty combatants, plus another couple thousand Air Force personnel, Fort Bragg would be the hardest target in the entire North American continent.

Especially if the veteran population and reservists of Fayetteville were taken into account, which would add another fifty thousand or so to the tally. And being a southern state that had almost no limits on gun ownership or specific gun bans, roughly half of the households in Fayetteville could at least be called an armed civilian militia. Those highly motivated individuals would add another hundred thousand combatants to the mix. 𝑙𝘪𝑏𝓇𝑒𝑎𝒹.𝘤𝑜𝘮

There were, combined, a total of over a hundred thousand of America's most elite infantrymen, regular infantry, veterans, and reservists. Add another hundred thousand civilian militia and two thousand airmen and the ARES battalion had an uphill climb ahead of them, especially since the American forces would have the home ground advantage.

lightsΝοvel.cοm And all of that was before taking into account the current worldwide panic, chaos, and looting. Rioters and looters had run rampant, and the first stores targeted by them were those that sold guns and ammunition.

It would be one hell of a first live mission for the ARES troopers to drop into.

Chapter 390

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

An enormous shadow was cast over the entire city as the EV Brunhild passed over it. The shadow didn't linger long before moving, and in fact, never stopped. Then, shortly after it passed, a screaming whistle grew louder and louder as four angular teardrop-shaped objects came crashing down in Aterro de Flamengo, a park that bordered the city's waterfront and several of its storied favelas. An enormous cloud of sand and dust was raised by the impacts, making it impossible to see the objects hidden within, had there been anyone on the beach to witness the impacts.

The hiss of pneumatic pistons triggering was followed shortly by a single resounding thud and a brief breeze that blew the dust cloud in swirling circles. Soon, the dust cleared, revealing four yeet pods, their hatches lowered into ramps and ten ARES troopers standing in neat formations in front of each. With each squad of troopers was a Mk. IX Cerberus Mulebot loaded with bulky boxes filled with gear. 𝘭𝑖𝘣𝓇ℯ𝘢𝒹.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Without a word, the troopers moved out as the yeet pods spontaneously caught fire and melted into slag.

Soon, the distinctive whines and thuds of capacitors charging and discharging enveloped the formerly bustling metropolis of Rio de Janeiro, accompanied by screams, explosions, the whistling scream of indirect fire weapons, and the creaks and groans of crumbling buildings.

The chaos lasted an hour, then 40 ARES troopers and three Cerberus Mulebots marched back to the beach. The only sign that they had even been in combat was the blood dripping from their armor, and one trooper had a slight limp. He had been caught by the collapse of a skyscraper and twisted his ankle pulling it out from the debris. All that remained was to set up a perimeter and guard the extraction point for the troops dropped all over South America, who would soon join them as their missions were completed.

...

Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa.

General Mabuto Nzagi was starting his day as normal, waking up in a bed filled with naked women. He sat up on the edge of the bed and picked up the mirror on his nightstand, then cut a line of high-quality cocaine from the loose powder on it using the business card of an American "businessman"—in other words, a CIA-backed arms dealer—and snorted it with a rolled up US hundred dollar bill.

He slapped the naked ass of the girl closest to him in the pile of flesh that lay atop his bed, a sign of the previous night's debauchery, but she didn't respond. He slapped it again, still to no response. Then he leaned over and shouted in her ear, "Wake up!"

Three of the seven girls laying naked on the bed grumbled and sat up, but the other four remained silent and still.

lightsnοvεl.cοm General Nzagi frowned and looked closer at the girl whose ass he had slapped. She could be considered a pretty flower, at least for a twelve-year-old prepubescent girl from an impoverished area of the DRC, but her eyes were open and glassy and her neck was discolored with bruises shaped like his own hands. Her chest was unmoving, neither rising nor falling with her breathing, and her nose and mouth were stained with white powder residue. She was obviously dead and had been for a while.

He looked over the other four unmoving girls on his bed and noticed they were in much the same condition, then at the three who had responded to his earlier shout. They had scrambled out of bed and were crouched in the corner, huddled together and shivering in fear and from the cold air blowing directly on them from the air conditioner vent on the wall by their ankles.

The general lit a cigarette, then stood and draped a bathrobe over himself. "Clean this up," he ordered, then headed to his bathroom to shower.

He turned on loud music while he was showering, so he failed to hear the screams and was caught completely unaware by the pulse munition that blew through his wall, then his head, and finally the wall on the other side like they didn't exist.

One of the warlords plaguing the Democratic Republic of the Congo had just been eliminated and he didn't even know he had been invaded.

...

Around the world, similar situations were taking place. ARES suffered relatively few losses in their initial assault, and only two complete defeats.

Both of those defeats came at the hands of Pakistan and India, where two of the nuclear weapons had escaped the bombardment of the rods from god completely by chance. The Pakistani and Indian leadership had been completely unaware that ISIS had stolen them in preparation for an attack on the US. Then, when ARES had dropped on the cities ISIS was currently smuggling the warheads through, the terrorist cells behind the thefts had detonated them there once they realized their plans would be impossible to successfully bring to fruition.

Thus, Islamabad and Delhi paid the price for the nuclear warheads detonated in Faisalabad and Bhopal.

While ship-to-ship combat mostly didn't involve explosive rounds, save for widowmakers, ship-to-ground combat was different. Without having to worry about through-and-through penetration, like they did when firing on oceangoing ships or airplanes, the researchers in Lab City had developed a specialized round for the Hugin class carriers.

Designed as a proof of concept for Aron's space warfare doctrine, which would favor modular construction and multirole ships, the enormous carriers also had their own complement of special ammunition types. Their eventual targets would be much sturdier than anything found on Earth, after all, thus the birth of the Type XIX HEI round, which would fly "safed" until it detected a significant mass within a certain range, then it would arm itself on a hair trigger and explode on impact with that mass. It was judged to be wholly unnecessary for any of the naval munitions fired from thirty- or sixteen-inch guns, thus it was only printed for the enormous ninety-six-inch Titan's Wrath cannons that the Hugin class carriers were armed with.

Faisalabad had been home to between 750,000 and a million residents, but most of it had been wiped out in nuclear fire. Due to its size and relative importance to the area, ARES had an entire thousand troops deployed to it and all of them had been lost in the blast. The EV Arngrim had returned after detecting the nuclear detonation and removed what was left of the city from the map via sustained bombardment under its Titan's Wrath cannons. Then she proceeded to Islamabad, where she removed that city from the map in a similar fashion. After all, with no news of the thefts anywhere, none of Arons AIs knew that it wasn't the countries' leaders that decided to detonate the warheads.

Events in Bhopal and Delhi proceeded in much the same fashion as the EV Ragnar Lodbrok visited them.

What had once been two thriving national capitals had been reduced to a series of smoking craters, the ground in some places baked into glass by the heat of the sustained bombardment of Type XIX High Explosive Impact rounds.

Chapter 391

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

An enormous shadow was cast over the entire city as the EV Brunhild passed over it. The shadow didn't linger long before moving, and in fact, never stopped. Then, shortly after it passed, a screaming whistle grew louder and louder as four angular teardrop-shaped objects came crashing down in Aterro de Flamengo, a park that bordered the city's waterfront and several of its storied favelas. An enormous cloud of sand and dust was raised by the impacts, making it impossible to see the objects hidden within, had there been anyone on the beach to witness the impacts.

The hiss of pneumatic pistons triggering was followed shortly by a single resounding thud and a brief breeze that blew the dust cloud in swirling circles. Soon, the dust cleared, revealing four yeet pods, their hatches lowered into ramps and ten ARES troopers standing in neat formations in front of each. With each squad of troopers was a Mk. IX Cerberus Mulebot loaded with bulky boxes filled with gear. 𝘭𝑖𝘣𝓇ℯ𝘢𝒹.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Without a word, the troopers moved out as the yeet pods spontaneously caught fire and melted into slag.

Soon, the distinctive whines and thuds of capacitors charging and discharging enveloped the formerly bustling metropolis of Rio de Janeiro, accompanied by screams, explosions, the whistling scream of indirect fire weapons, and the creaks and groans of crumbling buildings.

The chaos lasted an hour, then 40 ARES troopers and three Cerberus Mulebots marched back to the beach. The only sign that they had even been in combat was the blood dripping from their armor, and one trooper had a slight limp. He had been caught by the collapse of a skyscraper and twisted his ankle pulling it out from the debris. All that remained was to set up a perimeter and guard the extraction point for the troops dropped all over South America, who would soon join them as their missions were completed.

...

Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa.

General Mabuto Nzagi was starting his day as normal, waking up in a bed filled with naked women. He sat up on the edge of the bed and picked up the mirror on his nightstand, then cut a line of high-quality cocaine from the loose powder on it using the business card of an American "businessman"—in other words, a CIA-backed arms dealer—and snorted it with a rolled up US hundred dollar bill.

He slapped the naked ass of the girl closest to him in the pile of flesh that lay atop his bed, a sign of the previous night's debauchery, but she didn't respond. He slapped it again, still to no response. Then he leaned over and shouted in her ear, "Wake up!"

Three of the seven girls laying naked on the bed grumbled and sat up, but the other four remained silent and still.

lightsnοvεl.cοm General Nzagi frowned and looked closer at the girl whose ass he had slapped. She could be considered a pretty flower, at least for a twelve-year-old prepubescent girl from an impoverished area of the DRC, but her eyes were open and glassy and her neck was discolored with bruises shaped like his own hands. Her chest was unmoving, neither rising nor falling with her breathing, and her nose and mouth were stained with white powder residue. She was obviously dead and had been for a while.

He looked over the other four unmoving girls on his bed and noticed they were in much the same condition, then at the three who had responded to his earlier shout. They had scrambled out of bed and were crouched in the corner, huddled together and shivering in fear and from the cold air blowing directly on them from the air conditioner vent on the wall by their ankles.

The general lit a cigarette, then stood and draped a bathrobe over himself. "Clean this up," he ordered, then headed to his bathroom to shower.

He turned on loud music while he was showering, so he failed to hear the screams and was caught completely unaware by the pulse munition that blew through his wall, then his head, and finally the wall on the other side like they didn't exist.

One of the warlords plaguing the Democratic Republic of the Congo had just been eliminated and he didn't even know he had been invaded.

...

Around the world, similar situations were taking place. ARES suffered relatively few losses in their initial assault, and only two complete defeats.

Both of those defeats came at the hands of Pakistan and India, where two of the nuclear weapons had escaped the bombardment of the rods from god completely by chance. The Pakistani and Indian leadership had been completely unaware that ISIS had stolen them in preparation for an attack on the US. Then, when ARES had dropped on the cities ISIS was currently smuggling the warheads through, the terrorist cells behind the thefts had detonated them there once they realized their plans would be impossible to successfully bring to fruition.

Thus, Islamabad and Delhi paid the price for the nuclear warheads detonated in Faisalabad and Bhopal.

While ship-to-ship combat mostly didn't involve explosive rounds, save for widowmakers, ship-to-ground combat was different. Without having to worry about through-and-through penetration, like they did when firing on oceangoing ships or airplanes, the researchers in Lab City had developed a specialized round for the Hugin class carriers.

Designed as a proof of concept for Aron's space warfare doctrine, which would favor modular construction and multirole ships, the enormous carriers also had their own complement of special ammunition types. Their eventual targets would be much sturdier than anything found on Earth, after all, thus the birth of the Type XIX HEI round, which would fly "safed" until it detected a significant mass within a certain range, then it would arm itself on a hair trigger and explode on impact with that mass. It was judged to be wholly unnecessary for any of the naval munitions fired from thirty- or sixteen-inch guns, thus it was only printed for the enormous ninety-six-inch Titan's Wrath cannons that the Hugin class carriers were armed with.

Faisalabad had been home to between 750,000 and a million residents, but most of it had been wiped out in nuclear fire. Due to its size and relative importance to the area, ARES had an entire thousand troops deployed to it and all of them had been lost in the blast. The EV Arngrim had returned after detecting the nuclear detonation and removed what was left of the city from the map via sustained bombardment under its Titan's Wrath cannons. Then she proceeded to Islamabad, where she removed that city from the map in a similar fashion. After all, with no news of the thefts anywhere, none of Arons AIs knew that it wasn't the countries' leaders that decided to detonate the warheads.

Events in Bhopal and Delhi proceeded in much the same fashion as the EV Ragnar Lodbrok visited them.

What had once been two thriving national capitals had been reduced to a series of smoking craters, the ground in some places baked into glass by the heat of the sustained bombardment of Type XIX High Explosive Impact rounds.

Chapter 392

TICK

"Sir, the first line of defense in Los Angeles stopped responding," the Cheyenne Mountain liaison officer said.

TOCK

"Fort Eustis surrendered." A hub of transportation and aviation was lost.

TICK

"Fort Smallwood lost connection to Cheyenne."

TOCK

"Houston just went dark."

"Space Force Command is down."

"Mar-A-Lago…."

"Fort Knox has…."

"Coronado…."

TICK

"The Pentagon is being contested," came another report.

The bunker below the situation room was in a frenzy, as it seemed like there was a competition over who could deliver the worst news to the president as fast as possible. Each analyst and liaison officer was shouting to be heard over the others, and that was just the most important information. The stream of defeats seemed endless and came in faster than even an entire large room like the one they were in could contain.

Base after base and city after city fell to ARES forces in every state. The NORAD joint bases fell just as fast, despite Canada having basically no dog in this particular fight. It didn't take long before America's Canadian allies abandoned their equipment, raised the white flag, and fled back to the north with their tails tucked between their legs. They said they were "reinforcing critical locations at home in preparation for the fight to come", but everyone knew what they were actually doing.

…...

TICK

"Sir, things aren't going very well. What's your orders?" General Dunford asked. The constant announcements of the falling cities and military bases was getting to him; he had grown up in an era where the idea of American Exceptionalism was formally taught and strictly adhered to and was mentally unprepared for his entire belief system to be brought crashing down around him like this.

lightsnοvεl.cοm "They'll be at the White House in a matter of hours if we don't stop them before they arrive," shouted DNI Coats.

"What can we do? Our 500 billion dollar per year military is surrendering to them in waves. So what can we do?" the acting secretary of defense sighed, a look of defeat on his face. "We're going down just like Saddam did years ago, only faster."

"We should surrender," the secretary of state suggested.

The acting secretary of defense slammed his palms on the table and stood up, leaning over it and casting a glare at the secretary of state. "You're a fucking coward!" he growled.

"You're calling ME a coward?! Your fucking department is the one responsible for protecting the country, but just what is IT doing right now!?" the secretary of state yelled back across the table.

"We're fighting to the last man before we surrender! We have never, are not now, and will never surrender to anyone until every last red-blooded American is dead!"

"You stupid son of a bitch. Just because you're not the one fighting on the front lines yourself and your family is safe from the attacks, you think you can parade your pathetic bullshit in front of me? You think you can cover your fear in a flag and counter it with a patriotic attitude? If you're so gung fucking ho, why don't YOU go to the front line and fight yourself, Rambo?" the secretary of state sneered. "You're just wasting my air in here, you pathetic sack of shit! You only made it in here because a much better man than you was forced to resign anyway!"

"And you want us to roll over and be their slaves!?"

The secretary of state let out a frustrated shout and grabbed fistfuls of his hair. Then he raised his head and, with bloodshot eyes, shouted, "Did you even take a fucking second to think that I might have a plan? Did you even think for one fucking second to ask if I had a plan? I'm saying we surrender and preserve our forces, then prepare for a later counterattack to catch them off guard! We have no idea of what they're capable of—none! We need to know their true power level before we can make an attempt at round two, you fucking moron!"

TOCK

…

TICK

While the cabinet members fought among themselves, each shouting to be heard over the others, President Trump had his own particular headache to deal with. He had heard a report of ARES forces being dropped into a mostly unpopulated area, seemingly as an afterthought or a mistake. The only reason the analyst had reported it to him was that it was somewhat out of character for the invaders, who had, up until then, only targeted areas of strategic significance. Even Las Vegas was a blow to an American industry, reliant on tourism as it was.

The location itself was somewhere nobody but Trump knew was of actual significance, and he couldn't mention it to anyone, either. That was what was giving him a headache.

'They know,' he thought. The Edenians were headed straight for the Morgans. 'How could they fucking know!?''Do they know about our deal? What'll they do if they capture us?' Question after question passed through the president's mind, none of which he had an answer to. But the questions continued coming, relentlessly trampling through his mind like a herd of elephants.

'Will they kill us? No, they can't do that. They need my cooperation, so at least I'm safe... but the Morgans will probably die. Also, they'll need the current government to cooperate, at least for a while, or the citizens will take things into their own hands and make it practically impossible to govern the country. And if they can't govern us, they'll have to retreat, so their victory will be short-lived.'

"Enough!" Trump shouted, causing everyone at the table to immediately pipe down and look at him. "Surrender, for now. Let's analyze the situation and choose a course of action when we know more," he continued in a calm, assured tone. He was internally elated that the Morgans and Rothschilds would soon be eliminated by Aron's forces.

TOCK

Silence weighed heavily at the conference table; even the rest of the room seemed quieter, despite the shouting and hubbub still going on among the analysts and liaison officers. Everyone was weighing the president's order and seemed to be on the verge of accepting it, until...

TICK

"I can't let you do that," the Acting Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, said. He reached into his coat and drew a pistol, then pointed it at President Trump.

TOCK

BANG!

Chapter 393

"Welcome! We apologize for the lacking ceremonial niceties, but the situation was rather urgent and we prepared as best we could."

A stunningly beautiful woman was being led into a very luxurious meeting room, accompanied by a few seemingly standard-issue bureaucrats and a security detail of tall, well-built men in modified ARES uniforms with shields instead of stars on their shoulders.

"No problem, Prime Minister Netanyahu. We've been in worse places," the woman replied with a brilliant smile on her face. She took a seat across a conference table from the Israeli prime minister, accompanied by the bureaucrats. The security detail stood behind them, their impassive gazes and alert eyes seeming intimidating without being angry.

"So let's discuss the terms," she continued, the smile leaving her face.

"Please state your terms and we'll try to accommodate them as best we can," Benjamin Netanyahu said. He appeared to be much more calm than the members of parliament seated beside him and the nervous security detail behind them, who kept casting what they thought were surreptitious glances at the ARES Aegis team behind the Edenian negotiator.

"We won't ask for too much," said the woman. "Just unconditional surrender." Another brilliant smile appeared on her face as the Israeli representatives across the table from her nearly choked to death on their own saliva.

…

Moscow.

"Leave us," said the woman who had arrived to "negotiate" with President Putin.

"You, too," he said to his own entourage.

lightsΝοvel.cοm Both sides' people left the conference room, leaving only two people seated across the long, oval, white-topped table from each other.

"Whew, I'm finally almost done with this shit," Vladimir sighed after confirming the two were alone in the room. It had been swept for bugs earlier and Nyx was actively monitoring it now.

"Did you really have to sink the Admiral Kuznetsov?" he whined. "There were far more important targets than that!"

"You can ask Athena when you see her. She's the one that drew up the strike plans," the nyxian answered. All of the negotiators sent by Eden were nyxian honeypots, as even straight women would respond better to a beautiful woman than a man. Especially one that had been enhanced and designed to meet the impossible standards of beauty that Nova had determined based on the golden ratio and evolutionary advantage theory. "I'm sure she'll be happy to hear from you," the nyxian sniggered.

Vladimir paled at the thought of facing the strict taskmistress. "No need, no need," he said, waving his hands. "I didn't like that ship anyway. It's good that it got destroyed!"

Russia had suffered the fewest casualties in the unification war, only around ten thousand in total, before Vladimir had ordered a cessation of hostilities and general surrender. Thus, the situation there was still rather optimistic and there were a lot of surviving military leaders that were confused as to why Russia had given in so easily. 𝘭𝘪𝘣𝑟𝘦𝘢𝒹.𝘤𝑜𝓂

"How are things in the rest of the world?" he asked. Nova had continued messing with the World Wide Web, even after the coalition countries began toppling like unstable dominos, so he had no idea what was happening outside of Russia.

"Well, we have some time to waste anyway," the nyxian cast Vladimir a flirtatious glance, "but if you want to chat about something so boring, I guess I can comply." She heaved an exaggerated sigh of disappointment, her shoulders slumping forward.

Vladimir could have sworn that she even squeezed out a small tear, making her eyes glitter, and he shuddered. 'Honeypots are downright terrifying,' he thought, though he didn't show it on his face.

"Firstly," the nyxian said, now all prim and proper business, "we've sunk every active submarine in the ocean that isn't one of ours. As for the rest of the coalition fleet, they were either sunk or boarded and captured.

"The European Union is in the process of negotiating a collective surrender. Turkey, however, is still bitter about the suspension of their accession negotiations with the EU, so they're still stubbornly holding out. Even after we bombed their bridges in the Istanbul Strait and took out their air force, their army is still trying to fight back. But that won't last long, as without their bases, there's only so far they can go relying on the supplies they managed to smuggle into the mountains. Once those are gone, they'll either surrender or starve.

"Australia didn't make much noise. All we had to do was drop a platoon in Canberra and they almost seemed happy to surrender. I don't think I'll ever understand those people," the nyxian said with a shake of her head, bemused by the Australian attitude toward life in general. They were, by and large, a very sanguine, phlegmatic people with a distinct sense of humor about their own situation. Thus, the only people that weren't confused by their willing surrender and "it's your problem now" attitude were the Australians themselves.

"The most interesting part was in Mexico. With part of our initial retaliation being launched from there, practically the entire country's military descended on FOB Odysseus in Culiacán Rosales. That wasn't the surprise, though—what surprised us is that all of the cartels joined forces with them. So when they arrived and got their asses kicked up around their shoulders by the garrison we left there, they retreated and formed a perimeter while they waited for their air force and army to arrive..."

As she continued her narration, Vladimir intently listened and a map of the current world unfolded in his mind.

…

The next few hours were the most stressful hours of the entire war, at least for the populace of the countries being invaded by ARES, as Nova continued conducting a symphony of digital information and psychological warfare on the entire world. She had mostly restored access to the internet and, assisted by Panoptes, was carefully curating everything the world was allowed to see. She had truly taken the "hearts and minds" style of warfare popularized by America in the 1960s by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson and made it her own. The things she spread were horrifying, to say the least, and caused the public of every country to pressure their governments into surrendering.

The images of the craters where Islamabad and Delhi used to be were particularly useful for that.

That, plus the ongoing chaos and rioting around the world, had the citizens scared shitless and very susceptible to Nova's propaganda campaign.

A mere seven hours after the first shots were fired, though, silence returned to the world. The Edenian carriers were busy picking up the troops they had dropped and surrender negotiations were ongoing in the ten "chickens", as Aron called them, referring to the saying that talked about killing chickens to warn monkeys, but in the rest of the world, silence reigned supreme. Even the riots petered out and died down on their own.

…...

The silence, though it seemed like it would last forever, was broken a few short hours later as nearly everyone on the planet received a notification on all of their internet-connected devices, televisions, and radio stations.

The notifications were sent to every citizen of every country in the world, but they all said the same exact thing. No matter what channel they turned their televisions to, what address they entered in their internet browsers, or what radio station they tuned their radios to, they all said the same exact thing and nothing else.

"Stay tuned for an upcoming announcement."

Chapter 394

Avalon Island.

Aron walked into a small, dark room with a table and three chairs. A hanging light swung over the table, its dim light barely illuminating anything and leaving most of the room in the darkness as it swayed to and fro. 𝘭𝘪𝘣𝑟𝘦𝘢𝒹.𝘤𝑜𝓂

"Long time no see," he greeted the two men seated at one side of the table.

"I don't remember us having met at any time," George Morgan replied in a quavering voice. He couldn't hide his nervousness, earning him a slightly disappointed glance from his father, who was in the seat next to him.

"But we've been conversing with each other for quite a long time, now, haven't we?" Aron sneered as he took a seat across the table from the Morgans..

"We have?" Aubrey responded in mock surprise. "Perhaps there was the illusion of a conversation, but in order for a conversation to happen it requires two people, no?" He folded his hands and rested them on the table, a slight smile on his face. "So it can't be a conversation. To me, it seems more like a lecture."

"Fine," Aron shrugged, "we'll call it a lecture. If that's the case, it was one that you forced me to give."

The light continued swaying from side to side over the table, casting Aron and Aubrey's faces in occasional, moving shadows.

"In fact," Aron continued, "I would have been perfectly content to continue being what I used to be. I would've graduated from school, started a career... perhaps even married my childhood friend. I would've had a small house with a mortgage and a white picket fence, two kids, maybe a dog or two." He shrugged. "But Rottem Morgan took that from me."

lightsΝοvel.cοm "Who?" Aubrey said with genuine confusion on his face. Had the name not been brought up here, he truly wouldn't have remembered that cast-off chess piece of his from so long ago.

"OH!" Realization dawned on his face. "Rottem. I have to apologize for him, actually. I didn't know before he failed that he was such a waste, and had I known that, he never would've crossed paths with you."

Aron barked a sharp laugh. "No, no," he waved his hand, "I really have to thank you. You see, it was ultimately your 'failure' that... stimulated my potential, shall we say, and ultimately gave rise to the man I am today." A cold smile fixed itself on his face as he crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair.

Aron wasn't kidding. Had he not been in the situation he was in, the system might never have found him and he truly wouldn't be the man he grew to be. So he did owe the disgraced professor, at least a little bit.

He changed tack in the conversation. "Do you know what they say about fish and guests, Mr. Morgan?" he asked.

"I'm sure you'll enlighten me," Aubrey replied. He waved his hand, as if granting Aron permission to continue. His upbringing had cemented his behavior at a very young age and, as intimidated as he was—and he had to admit that he was actually quite intimidated by the young man seated across from him—he could never act as if he were in anything but full control of whatever situation he found himself in.

"After a few days, they rot and start to stink," Aron bluntly said. "So you have to throw them out."

"Is that so? But I am neither guest nor fish. So what does that have to do with me?"

"I'm afraid, Mr. Morgan, that your entanglement with me has come to an end. You were a useful whetstone, but, like the fish, you're rotten and it's time to throw you out." Aron sneered, uncrossing his legs and leaning forward across the table.

"I'm sure we'll see about that," Aubrey replied, a mysterious smile flitting across his face. "But I have a question."

"Go on." Aron nodded."

"Now that you've caught my son and I, what are you going to do with us? Torture? Imprisonment? Execution? Parade us in some trumped-up kangaroo court in your little tinpot tyranny then send us for a public beheading in the city square? Seize the Morgan family's assets and declare us persona non grata?" Aubrey calmly listed off a number of possibilities. His son, on the other hand, wasn't quite as calm and could only tremble in the seat beside the elder man.

Aubrey turned his head to his son and barked, "Stop sniveling! You're a Morgan, so act like one!"

He cleared his throat and turned back to Aron. "Well? What's it going to be? What is our fate, now that we've fallen into your hands? History is written by the victors, after all... so what will history say about us?" he finished and stared straight into Aron's eyes.

Aron stared back at Aubrey with a mocking smile on his face. "What makes you think I'll do any of that?" he sneered.

"You obviously want what we have," George interrupted. "You're merely a nouveau riche, drunk on your little pile of gold and power, but we," he gestured to himself and his father, "are the Morgans. Generation after generation, we've built an empire of power, authority, and wealth. A reputation that can't be built in a single lifetime, let alone a few short years.

"We are what you can never be, no matter how hard you try. We are the elite. We are the kingmakers, the power brokers, the people that drive the world. You... you're a petty little tyrant sitting on a throne of garbage and calling it gold," he sneered. "So of course you want everything that we have."

"Oh, really?" Aron smirked. "But I'm afraid that I already have everything of yours, and then some."

George and Aubrey both cast condescension-filled gazes at the young man across the table from them.

"It seems you disbelieve me." Aron shook his head, then waved his hand and a holographic screen appeared floating in the air between the two sides. Slowly scrolling along the screen was a list of the Morgans... former assets and a visual representation of them being drained and shifted to Aron's accounts.

"I'll leave you to watch as your empire crumbles, your power is stripped, your kings are dethroned, and your treasury is emptied. Enjoy the fruits of your labors, Misters Morgan," Aron calmly said, then stood up and turned to leave the room, leaving his two defeated opponents gazing at a screen showing them the dismantling of everything built by generation after generation of their ancestors crumbling around them.

Aron opened the door, then paused and turned. "I would say 'until we meet again', but I'm afraid, my dearly defeated opponents, that we never will," he said, then walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

Chapter 395

"And so the Morgans have fallen," Rina sighed.

"How did you think things would go down?" Aron asked as he walked beside her down the long hallway in one of the Cube's deepest subbasements.

"I don't really know. One of the many ways I'd pictured it was in some dramatic shootout between you and them, but... I never once imagined their whole family would go down like fruit being plucked from a tree," she said.

"Well, the world does have a way of surprising us, I suppose." Aron grinned at Rina, then they both laughed. "By the way, have you heard anything from your father lately?"

"Yes, actually. He contacted me to tell me to run as fast as possible before the nukes. He said he'd tried his best, but there was already a war and there was nothing he could do," she answered. She would never hide anything from him, and honestly didn't believe she would ever even be tempted to.

"Do you think he really tried to stop it?"

Her shoulders slumped a little. "I don't know," she sighed. He seems to have changed since I decided to disobey his order to return to America. And when I told him you could deal with things, well... he started getting involved in the family businesses again. Before, after I dealt with my so-called 'brother'," she scoffed, "he'd stepped back into more of an observer role. I guess he thought I was going to die and was acting accordingly.

"What are you planning?" she asked and squinted at him. Aron never asked anything without a reason for asking.

"I'll leave it to you, since the Rothschilds never did anything against me in the first place. So let me know if you need me to do anything to help and I'll do my best," Aron said, his voice considerate.

"Thank you." Rina was grateful that Aron wasn't planning anything to deal with her family as he had the Morgans. She knew that both families were rotten to the core, after all, and at their heart, the Rothschilds were no different from the Morgans. The only difference was that the Morgans had acted against Aron, while the Rothschilds hadn't. Thus, they had earned a stay of execution for the moment, though her boyfriend wouldn't hesitate to pluck them out as he had the Morgans if he felt it necessary.

After all, he was on a timer and up against a rather intimidating deadline.

...

"They really did it," Herschel Rothschild said, loudly enough that his wife could hear it. He was staring at his phone, which was displaying the notification of an upcoming announcement.

He knew it must be coming from Aron, too, as he had been keeping tabs on the ongoing war. Now, he finally realized that what Rina had told him about Aron having a plan to deal with the nuclear attack wasn't just hot air; she hadn't been blinded by love and he really had dealt with things quite neatly. Up until this moment, he had thought the boy was too full of himself to the point of feeling invincible and had overwhelmingly underestimated the forces arrayed against him.

Virginia heaved a sigh of relief. She could finally rest easy now that she knew the danger to her daughter had passed. 'You're really going to kill me, child,' she thought as she dialed Rina's number. Even though she had heard Herschel say everything was fine, she still wanted to hear her daughter's voice; no mother would ever stop worrying for their daughters, much less Virginia, who loved hers more than most.

And although she and her husband had connections, nothing at all was being released by Eden, so all anyone had to go on at the moment were the reports that Nova and Panoptes were carefully curating and releasing on the internet. Virginia wasn't stupid; she knew that most of it was propaganda and she would need to hear it from her daughter for any firsthand account of how things were in Eden.

"What's that boy going to do next?" Herschel muttered to himself, but loudly enough for his wife to hear again.

"What do you mean by that?"

"After war comes rebuilding. Although the amount of damage might not seem as bad as it could be, considering everything started and ended in half a day, the actual damage is still quite a lot higher than any war ever fought. And I'm not just talking about the missile strikes, which is already unfathomable enough, but also the economy.

"Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, was brought to a halt. Even market trading is still suspended, and every second the market stays suspended causes millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to the economy. And even when trading is resumed, the market is going to face a panic sell as everyone tries to pull their money out at once. If it isn't handled well, the Great Depression of 1929 will look like a normal dip on a day trader's tracker.

"And after the market suffers a panic crash, a run on the banks will follow. Everyone will need money to spend, but with banks losing everything in the market crash, their ready cash reserves won't be enough for people to withdraw and they won't have enough liquid capital to cover the rest. After that, well... after that comes nothing but chaos."

"Why do I feel there's a 'but' coming?" Virginia asked.

"Because there is one. Despite the negative trend, a few people will come out the winners in the economic battlefield. Those will be the real winners of the war and will have their pick of trophies to pluck from the losers."

"Oh my god," Virginia exclaimed. She understood what her husband meant. Usually, the winners of a war would choose to take "war reparations" from the losing side, but they can only take a certain amount. Otherwise, the losing country or force might just choose to fight to the last man instead and the winner would only rule over scorched earth and ashes. But in this case, Aron was the sole winner, and he had been up against the entire world! So essentially, the whole world was a shopping mall and he was about to go on a buying spree.

The thought of all of that falling into a greedy and insatiable man would cause panic in anyone. She desperately hoped Aron wouldn't be greedy or insatiable.

.cοm "And our family is one of the potential war reparations, and a tempting one at that. Thus, my initial question: what's that boy going to do next?" Herschel didn't quite have the same level of faith in Rina's decision as his wife did, hence his worry. 𝘭𝒾𝑏𝑟𝑒𝒶𝒹.𝘤𝘰𝓂

…

"How far do you think we can bend the branch before it snaps?" Aron wondered.

[The information Panoptes and I have been releasing outside has the entire world in a panic, thus most of our demands should be met. But if we pass a certain point, we'll push everyone into a 'last stand' mentality. So during your announcement, I'll be actively monitoring the situation and will update your prepared remarks based on people's reactions to what you're saying. If it starts going too far, I'll pull you back, don't worry.]

"Okay. List the things I can immediately take, and the things we'll be taking over time as people become used to the new power structure," Aron said.

Nova waved her hand and a screen appeared with two bulleted lists. The others in the room began reading and their eyes grew wider and wider the more they read. Aron would be taking quite a lot from everyone in the name of 'reparations'.

[Looks like I'll be busy for quite some time,] Athena said. The reaper teams, especially, would be busy for the oncoming days, months, or even years. Among the demands were things that would generate insurgencies all over the world, which would target ARES' greatest weakness: manpower.

Three million soldiers sounded like a lot, but when compared to the entire world, it really wasn't.

"Now on to another topic. Our casualties." Aron nodded to Athena, who popped another holographic screen next to the one that displayed Nova's lists. "We suffered 8,492 casualties overall in the assault, including the dead and wounded. Our two largest losses were in Faisalabad and Bhepal, where ISIS was caught smuggling stolen nuclear weapons and decided to detonate them there instead of carrying out their initial plans. Those two detonations accounted for almost a full quarter of the total losses in the assault.

"The wounded will be healed and returned to full strength over the next two weeks. We'll document the process and use it as propaganda and proof for an upcoming product release." Medical pods were on Aron's list for potential upcoming Asclepius Biotech products. They had been before, but the time wasn't ripe. Now that the unification had begun, though, he would revisit the issue; thus, having documentation of the pods and proof of results would be important for that.

"After they're healed, they'll be given two weeks of paid leave before returning to continue their service.

"As for the deceased, their families will receive three times the standard death compensation and lifetime access to services offered through the Coeus Foundation for three generations regardless of need. We are also focusing on collecting their corpses, or at least those we can, anyway, and returning them for honorable burial on Martyr's Island." Aron gestured and a map of Eden showed up with a pin pointing to the newly constructed graveyard, which would be the permanent resting place for the nearly 7000 dead, including 2000 empty coffins.

"Their dignity will forever be protected. They are honored martyrs and are to be treated as such," he continued, his gaze growing sharp.

Despite the system's best efforts to the contrary, the deaths still weighed heavily on his conscience. Now it was up to him to ensure they hadn't died in vain.

Chapter 396

The hours inexorably ticked by and the time for the announcement arrived. Everyone with any device that would allow them to watch it was glued to their screens. Those that didn't have one were huddled with those who did, some even violating the curfew to visit and watch.

So far, the governments had remained completely silent ever since the "stay tuned" message had popped up everywhere. None of them had either confirmed or denied that they would be releasing an announcement, so the people could only default to believing it would be a government spokesperson showing up to let them know just what the hell was going on.

On billions of screens around the world, the notification suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a white podium with no insignia on it at all, backed by a sky-blue stage curtain hanging behind it. Affixed to the podium was a single microphone.

Shortly, Aron, dressed in a neatly tailored suit, entered from the side of the screen and took his place behind the podium. He placed his hands atop it on each side and looked straight into the camera, then began his speech.

"Greetings, ladies and gentlemen," he began. The speech was live translated and captioned in whatever language people were watching in spoke as he continued, "I hope you are having a good day.

"Two weeks ago, a situation arose that continually escalated as the days went by. To bring everyone up to speed, I'll narrate the events that occurred."

As he spoke, the curtain behind him vanished and was replaced by a screen that provided visual context to the events as he continued narrating, "Everything began months ago, with the discovery of massive oil deposits in Eden and Esparia. One of my companies, Helios Energy & Utilities was awarded the contract to extract the oil by the Edenian government. The Edenian government then negotiated a deal to ship crude oil to China.

"But unbeknownst to anyone, save perhaps those personally involved, China had no intention of negotiating in good faith and planned to stage a hijack of the oil shipment and force Eden into paying the fines as stipulated in the unfair contract that China had forced upon them."

The screen behind Aron showed the agreement, with the relevant section highlighted. He paused, allowing the people watching to digest the information, then continued, "When our transport convoy was peacefully passing by Indonesia, outside their territorial waters, the hijacking attempt took place and was foiled by the intervention of the Poseidon Navy's Merchant Marine fleet."

Here, the screen displayed the satellite footage of the attack, complete with recordings from the bridge of the EV Pacific Voyager. It was the same footage and evidence the Edenian Ambassador to the UN, Miss Olivia Foster, had presented at the UN Security Council hearing between Eden and Indonesia.

"We presented this same evidence during the UN Security Council hearing," the screen cut to a still image of the UNSC chamber from the day of the hearing, "but we were found to be culpable by majority vote of the security council."

The still image was overlain by the result of the vote, showing the unfairness of the process itself and how biased it was against Eden.

"During the hearing, in order to not offend China too badly, we held back some critical evidence in the belief that it wouldn't be necessary to point fingers."

The screen switched to showing a recording of the Chinese submarine that had been jamming the radio signals during the 'hijacking attempt', then voice recordings of those Chinese officials who were involved in the planning and carrying out of the attempt were played. Aron remained silent to allow the evidence to play out before the entire world.

"Unfortunately, due to withholding this crucial evidence, the permanent members of the UNSC were able to be influenced by China to vote against Eden. Then greed kicked in. The capabilities demonstrated by my merchant marine fleet were coveted by the permanent members and they began plotting in the dark to take what I have, using Eden as a lever against me.

"But I'm just a businessman, albeit one that's provided products crucial enough that they couldn't target me or any of my companies. Thus, they implemented broad and crippling sanctions against the country my companies call home."

The screen cut to a display of the UN sanctions against Eden.

"During this time, President Romero of Eden contacted me for help, and I willingly did my part as a citizen and resident of Eden. I did my best to ensure that my fellow citizens would not starve and could maintain more than subsistence-level standards of living..."

The speech continued, detailing the events and casting a bright light on all of the dark room dealings and behind-the-scenes politicking that power brokers around the world had aimed at Aron's companies. People watching the speech-cum-presentation were shocked at the naked greed and arrogance displayed by those in power.

Aron finally came to the most recent events.

"Three weeks ago, in Taiwan, China attempted to encroach on Taiwanese airspace during President Romero's state visit. The Aeolus Air Force, a division of my security company, ARES, warned the jets off, but they ignored the warning and continued on their course, leaving the defending jets of the Aeolus Air Force no option but to open fire and shoot them down."

Aron paused, allowing the recordings of Xi Jinping and his ministers planning an incident to play out, followed by the incident itself where the four J-20s were shot down over Taiwan.

"What followed was a period of silence from their side. We had hoped they would abandon their scheme, but we were proven wrong shortly after that, as a Chinese operative instigated a Chinese loyalist in the North Korean Army high command to commence an artillery bombardment of Seoul, also during a diplomatic visit by President Romero."

Aron paused again, allowing the recording of the basement room to play out, along with identifiers of the person who had made the call that linked them to the Chinese Ministry of State Security.

"And as everyone knows, their plan was a complete success. It resulted in hundreds of thousands of South Korean civilian casualties, followed by the complete decimation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"But it didn't stop there. The United States, led by President Trump, captured the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un, and during his 'enhanced interrogation', he was led to implicate Eden in his unprovoked terror act against South Korea. Due to the graphic nature of the video footage itself, I will only be playing the sound file of that incident."

The screen switched to a blank, blue display and the voice recording of Kim Jong-Un being tortured by CIA "interrogators" played out.

"Who was responsible for the attack? It was Eden, wasn't it! Admit it, you fat piece of shit!"

Screaming and sobbing was the response, along with the sound of fists and other objects impacting flesh.

"Admit it! Admit that Eden ordered the attack and all this pain will stop!"

A slap was heard, then whimpering.

"Stop! Stop! I'll say it! It was... it was... it was all Eden! That bastard Romero forced me to do it!"

Chapter 397

The screen once again showed Aron and he cleared his throat, then calmly continued going through every event that escalated the tensions one by one, each of them bringing the entire world closer to the brink of the war between Eden and the rest of the world.

"You should have realized by now, but I will say it in plain speech. Neither I, nor Eden, nor Esparia, had anything at all to do with any attacks. We have been acting in self-defense and good faith ever since the beginning. The only mistake I made was in taking the first step back... I should've known that when I would take one step back, my enemies would only take two steps forward against me. So I kept stepping back, standing down, and de-escalating the entire time until I had to draw a line and say 'this far, and no further!'

"This far, I will retreat, but I will retreat no more. I drew that line, and this was the result."

The screen switched and showed Aron's speech that began the Edenian defense and eventual offensive.

After the recorded speech played out, he remained silent, his head bowed, for a number of minutes. Just when people thought he was done speaking, he murmured a barely-audible "Amen", and focused his intense gaze on the camera once more.

"In the end, we won the war," he said in a grave tone. "But there were casualties. Many of them. An incredible number, in fact, especially considering that the war only lasted for seven hours from the time the first shots were fired. Almost eight million soldiers were killed in the offensive."

The screen behind him displayed the number 7,687,902.

"Hundreds of thousands more were injured."

Beneath the number of soldiers killed in action, another number appeared: 408,115.

"And, sadly, there were also civilian casualties. Many of them were the brave men and women who volunteered to fight beside their nations' militaries, but even more of them, sadly, were not. During the fighting, two nuclear weapons were detonated. They had escaped the destruction of all nuclear stockpiles only by virtue of 'bent spear' incidents in both India and Pakistan that nobody had yet become aware of.

(Ed note: A "bent spear" incident is a nuclear incident of significant incident caused by or during the transport of nuclear weapons, warheads, components, or other nuclear-related objects that is of strategic interest or importance. An example of one is the time in 2007 when a B-52 accidentally carried live nuclear cruise missiles over the US.)

"The cowardly members of ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, had stolen a nuclear warhead from India and Pakistan's stockpiles, thanks to collaborators and sympathizers embedded deep within those two countries' governments. When the shooting started and the metal hit the meat, the terrorists were in the process of smuggling the warheads out of the countries, their ultimate destination the United States. But due to a freak coincidence, they were stalled in Faisalabad and Bhepal, where the terrorists made the decision to detonate them in place instead of continuing on as planned.

"Unfortunately, I had no knowledge of the planned attack, as the fog of war is impossible to defend against. So I, in my wrath, ordered a saturation bombardment on the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and the Indian capital, Delhi. Due to that, as well as other minor incidents in the ten countries invaded, there were many civilian casualties. The ones I am responsible for shall forever weigh on my shoulders, and for them, I deeply apologize and swear to do my utmost to compensate the surviving families of those unjustly slain during the war.

"If you were one of those affected, you will be notified by one of my representatives shortly to discuss compensation for your losses. No amount of money or things can ever replace what you have lost, but I cannot resurrect the dead. No one can."

Aron bowed his head again as the screen behind him displayed another shocking number: 26,196,853.

Another two minutes later, he lifted his gaze and refocused on the camera, then continued, "In addition to Islamabad and Delhi, I also ordered the complete destruction of the remains of Faisalabad and Bhapal. That was done partly out of wrath, but mostly out of compassion. I judged that it would be more compassionate to provide those people a quick end, in order to spare them the lingering, painful deaths that were suffered by the survivors from the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings in 1945 due to the radiation released from the atomic bombs dropped by the United States.

"I have also ordered a full-scale cleanup effort to scrub the radiation from the despicable detonation of nuclear weapons by the ISIS terrorists in those two cities. 𝓵𝙞𝓫𝒓𝙚𝓪𝓭.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"But I cannot, and will not, accept full responsibility for the death toll. The greater burden falls upon the shoulders of your leaders and those controlling them. Their greed and lust for power overcame their rationality, to the point where every single remaining nuclear power ordered a saturation nuclear strike on the Eden-Esparian Archipelago that would have wiped out not one, but two entire countries in the thousands of nuclear fireballs."

The screen switched to show the launch of a single warhead, then split and showed a second, then a third, then a fourth... ultimately, all twelve-thousand-odd nuclear weapons that were launched were all simultaneously displayed on the screen, creating a photographic mosaic of the leaders of the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Russia, Pakistan, India, Israel, and France, all standing around a table in a dimly-lit room.

Nova had made it obvious exactly who was responsible for ordering the combined nuclear strike against Eden through a clever usage of the images of nuclear launches.

"If it weren't for the fact that the Poseidon Navy and Aeolus Air Force had the capability to defend against the launches of more than twelve thousand nuclear weapons, the entire population of two countries would have died, either by being within the initial range of the impacts or due to the painful, lingering effects of radiation. An archipelago that's roughly the size of the entire Australian continent would have been rendered uninhabitable for centuries to come, thanks to the greedy actions of a few, and the entire world would have risked an even worse nuclear winter.

"It was for that reason that I removed every nuclear weapon held by anyone. Those that held them had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by their own actions that humanity is not yet ready to bear the weighty responsibility of civilization-ending stockpiles of indiscriminate weapons."

Chapter 398

"I know I sound brutal, or perhaps power-mad, but the current situation the world is facing will not allow for complicated attempts at grabbing power. We need every iota of focus aimed at one goal, and one goal only: the incoming adversaries from the sea of stars," Aron said, his gaze firmly locked on the camera lens.

The screen behind him displayed the recent rioting and attempted rise of warlords that happened after the launches of missiles was first made public, as well as countless other incidents of attempted, or successful, power grabs that resulted in unified preparations being made impossible.

"So because of that, I'm going to include demands in the surrender accords I'll be signing with your countries over the coming days and weeks. They'll be aimed at immediately beginning proper preparations to welcome our incoming... friends." His lips quivered on the last word in a smile that wasn't a smile.

"The recent war ended with my victory. Every single country that declared war on me surrendered. No truce, no cease-fire, just surrender. Had they not surrendered, I would have shown no mercy and the war would continue until they surrendered or ceased to exist. It was the last war that will ever be fought by humans, and the largest 'civil' war in all of history. I say it's the largest civil war because after this, we will be one Earth, one humanity, standing undivided against the rest of the universe, which we have recently learned we are not alone in. So, yes, there will be demands, and those demands will be met.

"Or else.".

"At the moment, my military forces are still conducting operations, capturing those behind the war. But for those of you who are rightly concerned that you may be forced to bow to an unending stream of demands, let me reassure you right now. That will not be the case. I am only demanding ten things from every country.

"My first demand is your unconditional support of a united world government without the bloat and politicking that the United Nations had. As a part of this demand, all of your countries will be withdrawing from that toothless organization and participating in the creation of a world constitution. The process of this will take months to complete, at a minimum. But that has to happen because the rest of my demands hinge on a united world government existing in the first place..."

Aron's address to the world continued as he listed the terms he would be demanding as part of the surrender.

…

As Aron was delivering his address, the rest of the world leaders were meeting with someone none of them hoped to ever meet again.

[So, have any of you changed your minds?] Nyx asked the world leaders, including key members of each government.

They were in a large amphitheater, a copy of Madison Square Garden, each country seated in the stands and separated from each other. For instance, all of the Chinese members were seated in one section, and all of the Americans in another. It was the same for every country. All of them were separated by invisible, soundproof walls.

No matter what part of the world they were from, or what their country's style of government was, they all had one thing in common: an expression of fear was on their faces as they looked at the gorgeous woman that seemed made of shadows standing on the stage in the middle of the amphitheater.

When they had first found themselves there, they still had an overweening pride in themselves and an accompanying arrogance, despite their fear at having opened their eyes in a completely different location from where they were when they blinked. 𝒍𝓲𝒃𝙧𝓮𝙖𝒅.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Nyx had personally appeared on the stage once everyone had taken their place in the stands. To them, they had all appeared simultaneously, though in reality, some were present for hours before others showed up, but they had been kept unaware of the passing of time. Aron's plan was to convince them to peacefully sign the surrender accords and support his demands with a minimum of governmental interference. Thus, he had individually met with all of the world leaders before sending them to the virtual Madison Square Garden, and to ensure they spoke the truth, he removed their ability to lie or prevent themselves from speaking.

Their answers had greatly disappointed him.

...

"Why should I surrender to you when I can continue causing trouble for you as long as I'm in office?" Trump had replied.

"I'm going to use this time to create as much opposition to you as I can by inciting my citizens, while at the same time figuring out how to kill as many of you ignorant peasants as I can until you bow and scrape before me and beg me to reassume my rightful place as the leader of my people."

(Ed note: Please read the comment attached to this paragraph. I don't want to seem like I'm trying to artificially inflate the coin cost by word padding, but people don't seem to read replies to comments on chapters.)

"I'm going to accuse you of detonating the nuclear bomb in my country to turn everyone who lost something to it against you, making it impossible for you to control anything or maintain any power at all."

"I'm going to destroy everything in my country that can support your agenda, leaving you a kingdom of scorched earth and ashes to 'rule' over, bumpkin. I will grind you back into the mud where you belong so that everyone on Earth dies together. If I can't have the glory, why should I let you, eh?"

After hearing the same response in different words from every single person he asked, Aron sighed and snapped his fingers, sending them to the stadium in a suspended state to await Nyx's personal form of "tender loving care".

[You are all here because you're pathetic, weak, useless, scum. You're leeches that feed upon the body of humankind. You're mosquitoes that spread your disease from person to person, generation after generation. Don't deny it. I know you don't believe me right now, but...

[I have a full month to show you just how wrong you are.] She gave them a brilliant, flirtatious smile and a wink.

[Let's get started, shall we?] she giggled and snapped her fingers, sending everyone to their own individual white rooms.

Chapter 399

[So, have you changed your mind?] Nyx asked, sending shivers down the politicians' spines as they recalled their last month in the white room.

Only silence answered her, so she continued, [Maybe you'll be able to answer after another trip.]

She slowly raised her hand as if she was about to snap her fingers when everyone in the amphitheater stands suddenly groveled before her and shouted, "Please don't send us back there!"

[Then wake up and go do what you've been ordered to do,] Nyx said, then snapped her fingers and logged the politicians out of VR.

In the situation room bunker, Trump opened his eyes, finding himself laid out on the conference table. He raised his hand to his face and felt an unfamiliar object that was kind of like a pair of glasses. 'I don't think I wear glasses?' he thought as he opened his eyes and sat up. He pulled the object off of his face and it was indeed a pair of unfamiliar glasses.

A sharp pain shot through his head as he recalled what had taken place right before he fell unconscious.

…

TICK

"I can't let you do that," the Acting Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, said. He reached into his coat and drew a pistol, then pointed it at President Trump.

TOCK

BANG!

A sonic wave burst in the room, powerful enough to cause a visible distortion in the air but gentle enough to not break bones or send people flying. It was, however, enough to knock everyone in the room unconscious.

As he was beginning to fall, he noticed a soldier taking off his... her? and shaking her head as her face changed from masculine to feminine and long blonde hair fell like a rippling wave to her waist.

He found her extremely memorable, too, as she was the only one in the room that was still capable of standing.

…

He lowered his hand from his face and put his feet on the ground. "Time to get to work," he said, looking around the room and realizing he was talking mostly to himself, as the others weren't quite all awake yet.

But it didn't take long before they, too, finished the logout procedure and removed their glasses with shaking hands.

"Yes, sir," they chorused, then began working on carrying out the orders they had received from Nyx. Aron's address was still continuing live on every screen in the bunker.

"All of the evidence I've provided here, together with even more evidence of gross negligence and outright corruption have been posted on the Edenian Ministry of the Exterior website and has already been made publicly available.

"Thank you all for your time," he bowed to the camera, then stood ramrod-straight again and resumed staring at the camera, "and I hope our next meeting is under far more pleasant circumstances."

Aron's address was complete; he had brought the rest of the world up to date on everything that had been happening.

He turned and left the area that had been synchronized with the flow of real time, as he had delivered his speech from the relative safety and comfort of virtual reality.

"What's the situation?" he asked as soon as he appeared in a conference room just after leaving the time bubble he had been in for his speech.

[Nyx has released all of the high-level and other important people needed for the unification to progress, and they've already begun working to that end. Apparently they didn't like the white room.] She smirked. Aron felt she was becoming more humanlike as her processing power increased.

[Our carriers will continue their patrols, ensuring a rapid response in case any issues arise...] She continued her report, listing out all the points of interest Aron would need or want to know.

"Good. Keep me up to date on things. Right now, I need to have a talk with mom and dad."

[Yes, sir. Good luck,] she replied.

Aron winced and muttered, "Thanks. I'm really gonna need it." He slowly trudged toward the door to log off. At the pace he was moving, it was obvious he was more than a little concerned by his parents' potential reaction to recent world events. No matter how big or how powerful a man grows, he will still never outgrow his parents' wrath.

…

The moment Aron's address had ended, each country's leader immediately followed up with addresses of their own. They all began the same way, with an apology to their people. After apologizing, they elaborated on their plans for the near future and how the new world order was going to be, then blew happy little clouds of sunshine about how they would emerge from this trial even stronger, as one united species in the face of outside enemies.

Still, the look of defeat and shame on the faces of the various leaders was something no one had ever wanted to see. Not only was it disappointing to their supporters, but even their detractors reacted poorly to the addresses. The former were depressed and ashamed, while the latter were enraged by the damage their "leaders" had caused their own countries.

And while some leaders had it easier, others weren't so lucky. Thus, all those unlucky leaders could do was extend the lockdown for another day to give their populations time to calm down, as well as for the various governments to assess the damages they had each suffered in the brief, but impactful war.

However, the citizens didn't react as expected. Instead, the individual addresses had acted like water being thrown into boiling oil as people grew more and more furious as they discussed the situation.

Anger, worry, fear, and every other negative emotion that could be felt and expressed were definitely being both felt and expressed. Especially those who discovered they had lost relatives or close friends and loved ones during the brief fight. 𝙡𝓲𝒃𝓻𝓮𝙖𝒅.𝙘𝓸𝒎

But the true extent of the damage was yet to be known to anyone, save perhaps those who had inflicted it.

Chapter 400

People all over the world were discussing the wonder of the modern-day David and Goliath fight between the coalition naval forces and the Poseidon Navy of Eden. It was unbelievable to them—especially the Americans, brought up as they were on a steady diet of American Exceptionalism propaganda—that a "developing nation" like Eden could come out the winner in the conflict at sea. After all, it had only been around two short years since the country began rising out of its dictatorial roots. So for them to defeat, and quite resoundingly at that, the forces the rest of the world had gathered against them was incredibly unbelievable.

Despite lacking quite a bit of information, some armchair generals had mashed up the information that they did have into some semblance of "the entire story" and felt they had a grasp on how things had actually happened. But with Nova and Panoptes having been the ones that curated the information released in the first place, none of those "entire stories" matched at all. So that sparked even more debate on the subject, leading to a mess of negative emotions spreading through the entire internet as peoples' personal bubbles collided with each other.

The internet had so many flame wars going on that the whole thing had practically already burnt itself to the ground, and that was the situation Edenians and Esparians found themselves in once Nova publicly reestablished the archipelago's connection to the global village.

So what did they do when they saw all that mess? They jumped right in and happily contributed to it, of course! They may not have been able to pick up a rifle and fire a shot during the war, and they sure weren't on the ships that beat back the coalition navy, but when it came to an internet war of words? That was a battlefront the citizens of Eden and Esparia were more than capable of fighting on! Their heads were full of patriotic pride in themselves and their nations and their bellies were full of suppressed rage at the intolerable bullying they had been suffering under for the months leading up to what historians were already calling The Last Civil War.

Thus, they got to work, much to the delight and amusement of the onlooking AIs. Aeolus, the mischievous little windbag he was, even convinced his "big brothers and sisters" to covertly help fan the flames even higher.

Aron, upon hearing of the situation on the internet, quickly heaved a secret sigh of relief and rushed back to "deal with it", postponing the inevitable lecture he was definitely going to receive from his parents until later. And if he had his way, "later" would then become "much, much later".

[Are you going to stop them?] Nova asked.

"Stop them? Why would I want to do that?" he replied. "Just look at how much fun they're having!" Aron was feeling slightly giddy himself after the tension and stress of the weeks and months leading up to the war was released with his overwhelming victory.

Basically, he was taking a brief vacation while other things went on in the background.

He turned his attention back to the screen displaying the situation and Nova sat beside him. She manifested a bucket of popcorn and they passed it back and forth as they watched the flame war that Nova's children were eagerly fanning.

The first thing the Edenians did was announce that each branch of ARES had had the audacity to broadcast everything to them live. That alone shocked the world even more than the vague news and propaganda released by Nova had!

Banaman: [You're calling me a liar? Then watch this! 4 4]

thehigh3lit3: [dude ur p good fake vids bro]

Banaman: [Fake my ass! I recorded this straight off the livestream. Go smoke another blunt]

CheshirePhoenix: [lol wtf. thehigh3lit3 I have friends in Eden and can confirm. Everyone there saw it happen.]

KimJongUnDidNothingWrong: [FREE OUR DEAR LEADER! FREE OUR DEAR LEADER!]

Banaman: [ KimJongUnDidNothingWrong Dude who the fuck are you? Go back to your mama's basement and cry more about getting your ass stomped by someone we steamrolled, dumbass]

Tempest: [Hey everyone check out this game I got for free on an obvious phishing scam ! Just click this link to get your own copy: /pwntuuu ]

(Ed note: that shortened URL leads to , a site that checks to see if your email address has been included in data breaches that you may not be aware of, so it's not entirely a bad idea to check. It's a legit site, don't worry.)

Hitman_047: [The war was just the beginning.]

TrumpDerangementSyndrome: [President Trump was right! Eden really IS a menace! WAKE UP, SHEEPLE! Rise up and join me in the fight against the oppressors!]

CheshirePhoenix: [Ok Pangea, who let the insane asylum escapees in? I wasn't aware that they had social media access in prison psych wards. TIL I guess.]

Curtis1122: [Holy shit I just watched the videos. I didn't think that kind of thing could ever happen outside a movie or a novel]

Yoyo99_: [This is a pic of the USS Carl Vinson. ]

Banaman: [Thanks Yoyo99_ it's nice to have a before pic to go with the after lol]

...

That was just one of the more polite threads Aron read through, but Edenians were posting video evidence everywhere, some of which had been reposted by veritable legions of Pangea Social AIs while others, mostly the ones that contradicted Nova and Panoptes' carefully curated narrative and propaganda, were quietly sent to their own social bubbles where they could have their "flame war" with Pangea Social AIs instead of the general worldwide public.

The most popular posts with the most likes and shares were those with video footage of the carriers lifting off. After that came recordings of the EV Heidrek crippling the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group, then the destruction of the satellites and the offer the Edenian pilot, now identified as Lieutenant James "Reverend" Jones, had made to the doomed astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Then, in a distant third place, was the nuclear launch—which had even hilariously alarmed Gandhi into vehemently denying his involvement in the nuclear strike—and the Edenian defense against it.

And after that were video recordings of the yeet pods landing in New York City. A netizen there had captured the footage on his phone and uploaded it in an attempt to show just how evil Aron was with his "faceless, jackbooted goons trampling over the freedoms granted by American democracy".

With the addition of the information and videos so "kindly" provided by the Edenian and Esparian netizens, people finally had enough information to piece together a coherent, mostly accurate narrative of the entire war. And that narrative taught them one very important lesson: in the face of the prevailing belief that Iran's military might would fail when faced with that of the entire world, ARES had dominated anyway.𝙡𝓲𝒃𝓻𝓮𝙖𝒅.𝙘𝓸𝒎