America Appears in Another World

Chapter 25: Messy Geopolitics

A small quant bar was positioned in the middle of the village. A small area of residents, craft shops, and recreational areas. The small village was surrounded by cropland of the local Baron.

"Did you hear about Fletcher?"

"Yeah, all of this weird black stuff started pouring out of the ground. Can't grow crops there anymore"

"Yeah, I heard the Baron was furious and ordered a cleanup, but he doesn't seem to understand that it won't stop flowing."

"Well, the Baron is insistent apparent. Still trying to stop the black stuff from coming out. I heard they were calling in a mana practitioner to try and stop it."

"Hell, that black stuff must be some sort of curse. Useless, smelly, and just hard to get rid of."

Three other men are also in the bar. They are wearing ragged clothing which looked like the others in the small bar. If it wasn't for the fact that they didn't talk very loudly, they seemed quite normal. Then, one of them got up and the other two followed while leaving some coins.

They quickly leave the bar and head towards a secluded area where one of them pull out a black device. "Send in a report. We finished our observations for the day."

The three proceed to file their reports.

***

The president is sitting in the Oval office and is talking on the phone. "Yes, if the citizenship bill passes through the senate, then rest assured, I will not veto it. Right. I will talk to you later." He hangs up. The door to the Oval office opens.

"Mr. president, the secretary of state and secretary of energy have arrived."

"Send them in."

John and secretary of energy entered the office.

"So, I am assuming you two already received the reports from our intelligence yes?"

"Yes, Mr. president, it is unfortunate."

"Might be unfortunate for you John, but for me, it makes my job a hell of a lot easier. I didn't know how we were going to substitute our growing demand for energy if we didn't find oil sooner or later."

"Yes I know, further the Chairman of the joint chief of staff said it was a growing National security concern. Oil is not only the fuel of our economy, but of our military. Gearing down as of right now is not very good."

"I called the two of you here today so that we could discuss on our course of action from here on out. This situation could be very bad no?"

"We could avoid the problem if we just forget that they have oil, but certainly my counterpart here will disagree." John looks towards the secretary of energy.

"Secretary of energy, I believe we discussed the merits of a magic based energy sector before correct?"

"Mr. president, although there have been some interesting discoveries, it still doesn't allow for the US to switch immediately. Furthermore, we still need oil for our military assets. We can't substitute diesel or jet fuel with magic quite yet. Even if we did, it will be years before that happens. The US does not have years before our demand for oil surpasses our production capacity. We could be facing problems before the end of your term Mr. President."

"So we need the oil then? If that's the case, then..."

"Yes, then we must deal with the Tillerian empire. If our intelligence is accurate, many deposits of oil have been discovered in the Tillerian empire."

"So we must deal with the Tillerian empire then? I am not so sure I am willing to send our diplomats to that city again. Not after that fiasco."

"We might not have to Mr. President. I have a proposal to make. But this still needs to be confirmed by the CIA."