“This is what has been causing the formation of those brown clouds!?” Obama inquired as he examined the images on the table that were collected by the Global Hawk they had deployed for the second reconnaissance mission.
“Yes, they were engaged in a large-scale and rapid construction, using the construction effort as a form of strength training for their soldiers,” answered the Secretary of Defense, his tone revealing the disappointment it had caused him after he saw the images and realized that it didn’t show any significant development, contrary to what he had anticipated.
“So, what exactly led to the formation of those clouds?” Biden asked, trying to seek an explanation as to how a normal construction site would result in the appearance of those clouds which also remained for a very long time.
“After the return of the drone to the base, we analyzed the particles that were still attached to it, we discovered no unusual composition apart from the dust and ground particles within them. This confirms that it was indeed the construction activities that had been the reason behind it and there was no evidence of any advanced technology involved, like what we had thought,” clarified the Secretary of Defense.
If one looked at the images on the table, one would notice that those images didn’t have even a slight resemblance to what was actually going on on the island, rather, the images only depicted a few large but different ongoing construction sites and a vast open field that contained thousands of tents arranged in rows, showing that it was what would be serving as the living quarters of the soldiers that were sent there to do the construction under the guise of training.
The same discrepancy applied to the other satellite images of the country that were captured daily where there were no images about the Paradisemovers that could be seen among them at all.
This discrepancy arose due to the Americans sending drones instead of a manned surveillance aircraft like the U-2 to allow for human observation while at the same time, taking the pictures of the island. However, the drone, controlled by a satellite connection, was susceptible to Nova’s interception, which had access to all the radio signal stations within the country.
This allowed her to intercept the signals that were being sent to the drones control base and edit the images that were taken before transmitting them, with her massive computing power in action there was not even a slight delay between the interception, editing and transferring of the data the drone had captured.
This covert manipulation allowed Aron to keep what was happening on Avalon as a hidden secret, while the world, or precisely the American government, thought that nothing important was going on. Rather than trusting Eden’s words, they would trust their own military hardware information more, causing them to gradually lose interest in the ongoing events on the island.
“Anyway, what is your assessment of the situation going on in the Pacific?” Obama asked, shifting the matter of what is happening on the island aside since the information had made him remove it from his consideration anymore.
“I believe that Esparia is likely going to emerge victorious during this second confrontation, although not with an overwhelming landslide victory, among the reason of why is the theoretical existence of those powerful bombs they had used in their first fight in store, as they could just send it to the capital of Esparia and take a few thousands of people with it if push comes to shove,” answered the Secretary of Defense, handing the people in the room the documents that contained their analysis of what was going to happen in case the two countries were to engage in a conflict for the second time.
“They have truly gone all out,” Biden commented as he read the document that outlined the procuring of weapons that had been done by Esparia in the last three weeks, which totalled the amount to billions. And notably, each of these acquisitions required at least half of their payment to be done upfront, with the remaining sum to be settled soon after.
“But why hasn’t there been a response from the opposing side?” Obama raised the question, seeking a reason as to why Eden remained quiet, not them particularly but their backer “Rothschild”, who seemed to not be doing anything to counterbalance the massive arms race that was instigated by the Esparians, led by the “Morgans”.
“There are only two possibilities for this: either they have already given up or they are already prepared for it beforehand. The reason behind that can be found after referring to page thirty-five,” the Secretary of Defence responded and paused for a moment to allow the others to open the specified page and start reading the contents before he proceeded to explain.
When he was certain that everyone in the room had opened to the designated page, he continued, “As you can see, this section delves into the detail of our analysis concerning the response of each country when the other side further escalated the conflicts. And when you look carefully at their response in every Esparia’s escalation, you will find that Eden has always responded just enough to be able to counteract the escalation and nothing more than that.”
“This implies that they have some astute and competent decision-makers who are guiding Eden’s response, alongside those, they have a moderately competent leadership in their military to make sure that those given orders are precisely executed, as envisioned by their think tanks while making those plans. This is rather surprising, given that even Esparia, despite having the support of the mercenary groups who had been sent to help them prepare for the second round, appears to have fallen short of having their plans completely and successfully executed in their real world execution, and a long time will be needed to train them for that as well.”
“But based on the escalation trajectory, they don’t have enough time to solve that, so the Morgans’ side is forced to blanket the planning, which factors in the likelihood of their plans being brought to life by the incompetent army.”
“Due to the scale of those plans being big, it would be necessary for their plans to take longer time to be implemented compared to Eden’s efficiently executed strategies, which is weirdly always efficiently executed to our amazement, though not on par to our level yet.” He explained.
“Let’s observe and assess. The more they engage in fights outside America’s borders, the less trouble America will face,” Obama commented, placing the document down and pinching his temples, clearly fatigued by even thinking about them.
The THEM, as they had come to be known, would always cause trouble for America when they were in conflict. A notable example of it was the 2008 financial crisis, which stemmed from the culmination of their discord. The Rothschilds won but forced the entirety of America to bear the loss along with the Morgans. Due to their deeply rooted influence, the government could not even think about holding them accountable, leaving them seemingly untouched, giving them the feeling of an ant facing a boot.
Their conversation shifted as they started speculating on the potential outcome of the war and how they could leverage themselves by choosing which side to support to maximize the amount of benefits they will be able to reap based on the forthcoming outcome.