A few hours after Esparia’s press conference concluded, Eden held a press conference of its own too.
Although Aron had told Nova to not intervene except for Eden, he had meant in cyberspace, leaving Alexander free to do whatever he, John and Athena could come up during their meeting.
This time however, unlike the last press conferences of the two nations, the only difference here being the fact that it was Alexander, the President of Eden, who would be speaking and not some representative of the government.
Usually, the press conference in the presidential palace would have been carried out inside a press room which was large enough to accommodate more than fifty reporters along with their recording equipments, however, due to the large influx of reporters today, their equipments were restricted from entry, allowing only the reporter themselves to enter the conference. As for the footage of the press conference, everything regarding that would be provided to all the channels who requested it, since it was being recorded by the latest equipment owned by the government bought for their commercial use.
Alexander, wearing very stylish-looking glasses, walked into the room while accompanied behind by John, the General of Ares, who was closely followed by their spokespersons from the two offices and a few high level members of the government trailing behind them as they immediately spread, standing in a straight line behind the podium which at the moment carried Eden’s President’s emblem, meaning that it would be the president who will be addressing the conference first.
As he stepped onto the podium, Alexander adjusted his glasses and turned his gaze to the more than fifty reporters in the room who had quieted themselves to let him start his announcement as early as possible.
With a slight smile on his face, he started addressing his speech to all of them.
“Good evening everyone” At the start of his speech, he simply greeted and then continued.
“First, I would like to apologize for such an abrupt press conference, but our enem… fellows on the other side of the border did something that required us to make this abrupt conference to make sure that no more misconceptions are spread among everyone and turn us into the bad guys. So, this press conference is going to be spending most of the time refuting what they had claimed during their press conference.”
He looked around at the people and added.
“Of course, with the valid proofs.”
He then paused for a moment while the screen beside him was powered on and started showing CCTV footage.
The footage played on the screen behind showed that it was captured at night, and instead of a color footage, the footage was infrared, albeit a pretty high-quality one.
For the first few seconds of the footage, nothing seemed to happen as the screen displayed the uneventful environment where the camera was recording, however, the reporters and watchers of the press conference knew exactly what this footage was for, on the top left corner of the screen it displayed a date of today, immediately after midnight, indicating that it had something to do with the war.
After a few seconds of continuous nothingness, the screen suddenly turned white, followed by the shake of the video before it returned to normal, but this time it showed a very different environment, the place which the CCTV had been recording had been completely altered, leaving behind a massive crater, clearly indicating that it has been struck by an artillery shell. The footage was followed by the shaking a few more times at indifferent intervals before the video file came to a conclusion, returning the screen to black before it was followed by Alexander who resumed his speaking.
“What you saw was the footage captured from one of our frontline bases located on the border that was the first to be hit by the artillery shells just a few minutes after midnight and that is not all, this is just the evidence of the attack they started on the land border. As for what took place on the water, you can listen to that yourselves,” after he said that what immediately followed was the appearance of sound waves which started displaying on the screen, indicating that it was going to be an audio evidence instead of a video one.
[
“Attention all Esparia Navy vessels,
This is a warning announcement from Eden’s Navy.
We have detected your entry into Eden’s territorial waters, and we demand an immediate explanation for your presence in our sovereign waters.
We are closely monitoring your movements, and any provocative or hostile actions will be met with a firm and decisive response.
In the interest of de-escalation and maintaining regional peace, we urge you to identify yourselves and your purpose for being i…”
]
The audio started with the full warning that Athena had issued to Esparia’s fleet which had trespassed into their waters.
[
“This is Esparia’s Fleet commander. We are here under the order of the Commander-in-Chief, the President of Esparia, in retaliation to you firing …”
]
It was followed by the response of the Esparia’s fleet commander which revealed how disrespectful they were despite being the one trespassing in the waters of another country.
[
“If you don’t turn around within thirty seconds, you will regret having said those words”
]
Following the response which people knew very well the results of, the reporters at the moment had goosebumps knowing how Eden had warned the other side only once and when the other side disrespected them, they even gave them thirty seconds to change course or promised to send them an ordinance which might have to be the last thing they heard while still being in one piece.
[
“Big words used by weak people, but this will also be our last warning. As soon as th…..”
]
The Esparian fleet’s response was followed by what they considered as their own version of threat.
[
“When the thirty seconds are over, fire at them,”
]
This made people think this was weirdly similar to a children’s fight which continuously escalated as the other side doubled down on their threats.
But all of their thoughts came to an end when the screen that had been showing the audio wave footage turned on and displayed a moving camera in night mode while the Esparian fleet was closing near the Eden’s border and their navy flag getting closer and closer, the reporters immediately realised that this was the fucking missile, a response of Eden’s after the given thirty seconds were over.