Back in the present, in a secure meeting room somewhere in the universal simulation, the time-dilated meeting was still ongoing under Protocol 404.Stephen Hawking continued his presentation, explaining the situation in more detail for the remaining humans who thought the mass was just some novel thing the scientists and researchers in Lab City had discovered. They felt the same as Aron initially had, that as long as it wasn't an immediate nuclear war or something, they would easily be able to handle whatever it was. They had obviously forgotten that they'd been called to this meeting venue as a result of Protocol 404, so Dr. Hawking had to explain to them the importance of the green object on the screen."The object, although very far from us at about seven light years, is heading toward us at a quarter of light speed," he said. The humans in the room finally understand the implication of what was being said. Although they weren't astronauts, nor did they

"So we have anywhere between ten and twenty-eight years before they arrive. We can prepare for the encounter slowly at the start, but we have to deal with everything holding us back on Earth and speed things up once we have a united front," Aron said when the break was over."Before we can begin full preparations, we need to be a united entity. So, since that isn't likely to happen on its own, we'll move to the second option, where I take over and unite the world under a single government, with myself as the sole ruler and ARES as the only military force." The others in the room paled; they knew that although their chances against the coming moon—if it escalated to war upon contact—would be higher if they fought as a united force, but the UN would never have that ability. No government would ever give up their power and authority, partly due to greed and partly because of the joys of power and authority. So if someone had to unite the world, it might

"Arms embargo, import and export sanctions, travel bans, natural resource sanctions, financial sanctions, and even freezing the assets of citizens that are held in banks outside our country, including our own foreign currency reserve that's currently held in trust with the US Federal Reserve. Man they're desperate to get their hands on our tech," Aron said as he read the nearly endless list of sanctions.The list had details of what exactly in those specified categories were being banned. For the financial sanctions it included freezing of the assets of every high-ranking member of the government, including John and the other generals of ARES, together with Alexander and his cabinet members. Aron was only saved from it since he had nothing connecting him to the government that would warrant his inclusion in the sanctions, at least not publicly.Together with their assets being frozen, money that was owed to Eden from other countries that hadn't paid them yet was also f

"Mr. President, why do you think Eden overreacted so much to the idea of UN inspection teams?"President Trump was currently holding a press briefing. When he saw the reporter that had asked the question, he recognized them from Fox News and smiled as he answered, "Although every country has some reason or other behind their actions, based on Eden's overreaction, they're really taking the most difficult path. Sanctions are gonna be imposed. So many sanctions. It's really gonna hurt them where it hurts. So for them to risk so much just to stop inspectors from getting in, that means they must have something really big to hide." Trump stopped there to allow the reporter to ask a follow up question.The reporter didn't disappoint and immediately asked, "And what might they have to hide?""If it was me, and it wasn't, because I'm too smart to hurt this beautiful country with so many sanctions, but if it was me, then the only thing I can see myself hiding like that would be

"Based on how fast our moles are getting removed by Ukraine's intelligence agency, there's no doubt in my mind that they're receiving strong support from another agency. The likeliest suspects are from the Chinese Ministry of State Security, since they had a cooperation with them, but that was probably severed after the UNSC vote. So now I suspect the British MI6, American CIA, Israeli Mossad, or even the Egyptian GIS. We can't rule anyone out at this point, but...." Vladimir paused to heighten the tension in the briefing room and let the others come to their own conclusions.Seeing that his fellows had each settled on a suspect, he continued, "If this situation continues, our military operations will need to begin much earlier than previously planned. If they manage to remove everyone on our side with power in their country, they'll be welcoming us with bullets instead of flowers. " He was already quite satisfied with the reception, especially the suspicion he had cast on everyone bu