Chapter 318: How Did They DO It?

"Is that a simulation of one of our classified projects?"

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 passing 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. [ 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 Edenian 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 counterpiracy 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 they have violate 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."