Chapter 353: The Politics of Eating Gunpowder

A week prior to Alexander's diplomatic mission to Taiwan and North Korea, which hadn't been cancelled 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.

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 grasp 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 wracking 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.