As Aron's jet was carrying Rina on its final approach to LaGuardia airport, she was looking out of the window, not tired of the view at all.Although the Rothschilds could afford such a massive plane, they wouldn't use it as a personal jet; the upkeep needed to have it continuously flight ready was massive. And for a family that already had more than ten private planes and could afford to charter any aircraft from any airline in America at a moment's notice, it didn't make sense to buy them.The landing was as smooth as it was in Eden, and the unloading proceeded apace. Rina disembarked the plane, got in one of the cars, and left without wasting too much time. She even bypassed the security screening again, having already handled it at the immigration checkpoint at the airport in Eden.No Rothschild would ever have to stand in the long lines at immigration like normal people.As the convoy was driving back to her house, she passed the location where
Aron was in his uniform, inspecting the fourth batch of graduating Esparian soldiers. They stood at attention in front of him as he passed through them.It had become a tradition for him to inspect each batch of graduates. Every man had had a dream of being the general of a massive army at one point in their lives, and Aron had actually accomplished it. Thus, he didn't skimp on the pomp and circumstance at all.As he walked through their formation, he couldn't help but smile when he remembered the reaction of the first batch of Esparian soldiers who woke up and found themselves in VR for training.When the knowledge of what was going to happen to them had been assimilated into their minds (Athena had determined that explaining it in words was a waste of time, so she had begun using direct assimilation instead), the expressions on their faces were truly something to behold. They even had goosebumps all over their virtual bodies when they came to the realization o
Without caring about what Arieh was feeling, Nova continued playing the recorded phone call between Charlotte and Terry.Then it moved to video footage of Terry meeting the leaders of the different groups he had hired to ambush Rina. Unfortunately, there was no sound, but that was covered by the phone calls between him and their teams explaining the mission he was hiring them to do. Those recordings were accompanied by detailed transaction records of weapon purchases that he made to sufficiently arm them.The recording soon moved on to the day Rina had been being driven from the Rothschild compound to the airport and showed that whenever the convoy deviated from the planned route, it was because an ambush was awaiting them. The ambush sites were shown as still images, with names and headshots linked to each individual shown in the images. They were matched to different 'dark' mercenary groups, those that were unafraid to get their hands bloody... as long as the price was right. Each o
A month later, with a month to go before the presidential election, the candidates were campaigning with all their might. Their parties each had their own platforms and were trying to sway people to vote for them, and in their minds, things were going very well; nearly all of their rallies were filled with cheering citizens.But all of the momentum they thought they had managed to build was crushed by a single announcement from the presidential palace."We interrupt this regularly scheduled program for a breaking news report," an announcer said as the show on the television was interrupted by them to make an emergency announcement."A team of researchers dispatched to Esparia in search of natural resources and minerals has discovered a large oil deposit in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Esparia."The deposits are in different places, but based on preliminary results, it's suspected that the fields combined equal the one discovered earlier in Eden. More details are to come as the preli
A month later.89.97%....That was the percentage of people who voted for Alexander in the presidential election, which didn't come as a surprise to anyone who lived in Eden. The man was a living legend who won by that much without even actively campaigning, but rather by letting his work speak for itself.To celebrate his win, he announced a celebration rally to be held a week from the day the election result was announced....A massive crowd was gathered in one of the open fields in the city of Edenia and soldiers were everywhere, dressed in their finery with holstered pistols at their sides. They were the ones responsible for controlling the crowd of attendees at the celebration rally and ensuring the safety of the newly elected president. He would soon arrive, so they were doing their final checks, making sure that nothing dangerous was hidden in the crowd.Not too long after that, a convoy of black cars arrived with a certain level of fanfare.The security team came out of the l
The day after Alexander's speech and announcement, all parties that had been involved in the bidding went crazy. Including those spectating "experts", of course.Many of them complained about why the country had decided to trust an inexperienced company that had never been involved in the oil industry to drill the reserves.Others that had watched Alexander's speech understood that he wanted to develop a domestic industry and chose a local company, Connect, as a way to kickstart their domestic growth. Even though they weren't an oil company, at least they had some kind of "drilling" experience... for whatever it mattered. Drilling for oil had nothing in common with drilling tunnels, after all.The parties led by candidates that lost their presidential bid (the most popular of which having only received 2.45% of the votes) tried using that to sling mud at Alexander and paint him as corrupt and Connect as a company that bribed him. They insinuated that Connect wouldn't even be doing the
At the same time the press conference was taking place in the Connect headquarters, an Edenian Navy fleet was towing a massive ship that looked like a toothbrush. They were headed toward the new oil field to begin construction of an offshore drilling rig.When they neared the location, the fleet dispersed and started the process of patrolling and cleared out everything within twenty kilometers of the oddly shaped ship, which was released by its tug and dropped sea anchors to keep station where it was.With the large ship now at a full stop, people watching would see it begin tilting as the bow raised and the aft sank. But the people aboard the ship were oddly calm, as they were expecting the movement; it was merely the ballast tanks being filled to adjust the ship's orientation.Meter by meter, the rear continued dropping faster and faster, until the entire ship was completely vertical. Only about ten meters of the ship was left above the surface of the ocean while the rest had comple
New Year's Day, 2016While some were still celebrating the new year and making resolutions that were doomed to fail, others were still living with the horrors that had happened in November of last year. A few terrorist attacks had claimed the lives of more than a hundred people.With the release of Star Wars: the Force Awakens the month before, the entertainment section was also still quite riled up, as the movie had achieved a box office success within the month of release.With all of that happening in the last three months, changes had also occurred in Eden. The Eden of now was completely different from the Eden of the past.Aron was standing in front of a massive pit with a diameter measured in kilometers. As he gazed into it, the screaming of displaced air came from the distance as a maglev train neared the pit and soon entered a bridge that crossed it.The train slowed down a bit as it passed through the bridge, and the moment it neared the center of the pit, the containers it w