A Different Type of Front

Neither Justice, Nor Vengeance

"The most powerful soldier is one who does not know that they are fighting in a war."
-Unknown
(A/N) For those who don't want to have to calculate it, it has been 17 months and 26 days since we left off in the last chapter. In the story's timeline of course.
---------------------------
September 25, 2261
Throughout history, mankind has always grown with a burning passion to use the flames as both a means of destruction, and as a means to advance their civilizations, taking great leaps over the scorched ruins of their rivals' cities and villages, and in the process developing more efficient ways to burn each other down.

Ten thousand years- and we went from sticks and stones to napalm and nukes.

But on this world...
Many have been gifted with the power to be able to manipulate their Earth, their Water, their Air, and most importantly, the Flames.

A little bit of practice would still be needed of course, but nonetheless, a great amount of men and women capable of bending four types of elements to their will...

Oh the wonders and tragedies that Atrios holds.
And one of them would be this planet.

So called "Benders", so called "Spirits", and the so-called "Avatar"
Another eternal enigma for us to solve, like the hundreds of thousands of other anomalies we have dealt with and studied for over tens of thousands of years

Perhaps this world may give us more answers about our lost past.

But we might be getting a bit too ahead of ourselves now.

This Fire Nation... it must be dealt with.

Along with all the other physical and paraphysical threats this world harbors.

Central Strategic Command has already given the go-ahead for the Strategic Intelligence Agency to initiate as many covert intelligence gathering operations as it wants to, in order obtain as much information as possible on the planet and its local population, with the aims of compiling enough information to create an accurate archive about every aspect of this world such as its civilian population, geography, local tribes and nation-states, relevant history, bender types, ongoing conflicts, potentially hostile groups or entities, potential allies, anomalous areas, entities, and objects, and everything else we would need to know to form a direct and effective response against any state or entity that would threaten the security of the United Nations.

Though it's obvious that the Fire Nation will be our main focus..

And so began, the kidnapping, the blackmail, the sleeper cells, the hiring of new local agents, the assassination, the subversion, the brainwashing, and all the other unscrutinized bullshit the SIA would pull that the higher-ups and I always turned a blind eye to.
While these measures would always be seen as necessary by most, and those who either ordered or acted them out would always be protected by "special military laws" from prosecution, we should just cut to the chase, you know?

War crimes...

War crimes and human rights violations, right in broad daylight and the dead of night.
But no one gave enough of a shit to have enough moral standards within the SIA.

Let it continue for just a month.
And oh would you look at that...

The Strategic Intelligence Agency already has an extensive archive for the planet.
At least the agents didn't do anything deplorable or depraved.
And technically these nations aren't consignatories of the Second Geneva Conventions.

Though with subpar moral standards, who knows what really constituted being deplorable or depraved.

But now... we finally have an archive, and a hefty amount of reports that's going to take me a few more days to fully read.
The only thing that left to decide now was what the route that the United Nations would take.
Diplomacy?... or Force of Arms?
Neutrality?... or a Direct Intervention?