The Other Side

Renewed

Location: Former Atlesian territory, with the NOJOD liaison and NOAD 1st Infantry Division

Atlas has been hammered by the past two wars, the once large kingdom had been destroyed during Firefly, the remnants were wiped out by Cormorant. Despite this there are still Atlesians, the residents of various independent villages being the ones still on the continent and the refugees from Firefly being scattered across the world. The final and largest group is the mercenaries, they mainly operate out of Mistral and have a number of contracts as their company, Antigen, works for multiple cities and governments that are lacking in the military sector. 

These groups, despite their many differences, all have one common desire: to have their own nation. The villages need security from local bandits, the refugees need permanent housing without the fear of harrassment from locals, and Antigen need to get distance from the places they are about to begin fighting in. A simple goal, but with the world's largest roadblock in the way: the entire New Orderian Military.

It doesn't take a genius to see why the NO government doesn't want Atlas as it's own country. The last two times they had any control they ended up starting wars against New Orderia, not to mention the NO government's personal interests in the region. The SDC had left large amounts of mining equipment and plenty of areas are already excavated, each of these areas are now highly sought after by New Orderian companies for their abundance in lithium and other valuable materials. If the Atlesians want their land they'll need to work for it, but it isn't an option to go to war again.

Minister Thistle, a woman who is the leading figure in the Atlas Reformation Movement. She and members of the movement had organized a number of bases and Antigen immediately offered security for next to nothing if they had the promise of a good contract later on. After two weeks of planning a pair of NO CAS bombers passed over and dropped leaflets across their headquarters. The leaflets laid out that they had been noticed and were being ordered to meet with representatives of the NO government or they would be bombed. 

The deadline for this meeting was today and the meeting location was the NO FOB from Operation Cormorant. As the delegation approached they immediately noticed the shear number of aircraft being flown in to base. When they reached the entrance they realized why, an entire division and it's support units had been airlifted to the base and it was very likely that they planned for a second Cormorant to occur. 

The soldiers at the gate motioned them to stop, the delegation members all froze as the soldiers aimed their rifles at them. There were 10 soldiers from the NO military and the Atlesians had Thistle, 4 members of the movement, and 2 Antigen mercenaries. The sergeant from the NO squad stepped forward and told them to face a camera, the Atlesians complied and there was a pause where nobody moved. The sergeant clicked his radio and then motioned for the soldiers to open the gate while talking to his commanders. 

The soldiers led the delegation through the base, passing by the airstrip as eight CAS bombers lined up on the runway with a full bomb load. It was clearly a threat, the route they took was certainly longer than needed, and it only became more clear when multiple APCs rolled by with the crew sticking out of their hatches and giving death stares to Thistle and her entourage. Eventually the soldiers stopped them at a building and two MPs at the entrance opened the doors. Another group of MPs led them into the building before stopping at a meeting room. The delegation entered to see an NO official, the base commander, four MPs, and a NOID agent.

Ambassador: Hello Minister, I am Ambassador Pericov with the New Orderian Foreign Relations Ministry. I strongly recommend you do not engage in any hostilities today, my government has already authorized premtive strikes on all known locations your "government" has should this meeting go south.

Thistle: Well... hello Ambassador Pericov. I'm guessing that you are against the Atlas Reformation Movement?

Pericov: On a personal level? Yes. On a government level? Also yes. Your country has only been a thorn in the side of my Ministry and a constant threat to my country. 

The ambassador's opinion was not much of a shock, finding a New Orderian who liked Atlas was about as likely as finding a Grimm that was peaceful. The fact that Pericov had an emblem on his coat indicating he was part of NOID's Military Intelligence branch at some point only drove home the fact he wasn't going to be easy to talk to. 

Thistle: Ambassador, I can assure you that we have no intentions of repeating what the previous government did.

Pericov: Really now?

The ambassador leaned back in his seat, staring at the delegation while the MP s behind him held their rifles with their gas masks on. Thistle cleared hers throat before speaking again.

Thistle: We simply want to have a home, we have no intentions to carry out another conflict with New Orderia. You have my wor-

Pericov: Your word means jack shit. Atlas has lied constantly and is no better than terrorists the way I see it.

Thistle: Let me rephrase: there is no way we could win a war if we tried, so we aren't going to.

Pericov: Now that, that is something I can understand. But I still see zero benefit to letting this occur, at best we end up having to watch you.

The minister paused, thinking about what she actually had that no New Orderian could turn down.

Thistle: The SDC. You can have all SDC property and whatever resources are within them. Untaxed as well, if you mine it then it's yours.

Pericov had a very good poker face, but his demeanor did change slightly. The minister knew this change was only what he was showing, and if he was even a half decent ambassador then he definitely had a much bigger reaction that he was hiding. Thistle however couldn't bet on just that, as likely as this was to win him over it was better to have backup plans.

Thistle: And that's just the stars, you obviously can keep the base but think of how much work goes into this continent. The NO military needs to carry out humanitarian missions here to remote villages, uphold order by handling the bandit issue, and much more. We could take over handling that if we had our own military and police.

Pericov waited for a moment, a soft tap sounded from the NOID agent's part of the table and another from the base commander's section. Pericov nodded and began smiling as his whole demeanor changed.

Pericov: The New Orderian government looks forward to your cooperation. I'll draft up a treaty, you sit tight.

The New Orderians left the room and Pericov turned to the NOID agent.

Pericov: And that kid is how you bullshit a deal so good it's like printing money.

Agent: Sir?

Pericov: We just got a continent worth of rare minerals, this alone could hold up the economy for decades. They get this rock back and we get every good part of the rock while having none of the responsibilities.

Commander: Why didn't we already have those mines though? Aren't they ours because we invaded?

Pericov: 50/50, we do control of them but if we began taking them it would look bad and every country on this planet would hate us. But with the "Atlesian Government" turning them over to us we don't need to worry about that controversy. Diplomacy gentlemen, is the art of letting someone else have your way.