"Yes, Mr. Ambassador, we would like to buy all the grains that China isn't taking," the Edenian ambassador to Ukraine repeated his request to his Ukrainian counterpart. Ukraine was suffering China's retaliation for voting against their decision in the UNSC meeting.
"Are you trying to help us because we voted in your favor, or is it preparation for when the sanctions are implemented on Eden?" he asked to sate his curiosity, as he had no plans to deny their offer at all.
"It's a bit of both, as we need to have enough of a food surplus that when the import ban is implemented next week we'll have enough to allow us to hold out for a year. Plus, although your vote did nothing to change the outcome, it still made it difficult for the bastards to pass the sanctions." The Edenian ambassador wouldn't bother hiding anything, since everyone knew the ins and outs of what had recently taken place behind closed doors.
"But you've been quite helpful to us in countering the pro
"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
"We have to buy the psionic shielding, since we don't know if they can communicate using their minds. If they can, and our minds aren't shielded, they'll probably be able to read ours. Or even control them! That would be devastating," Aron said. He definitely couldn't afford to give up the upper hand by allowing the aliens to invade the thoughts of humans."Plus, with the mind control defense knowledge, we might even be able to extrapolate how to control the minds of other intelligent beings." {When it comes to kinetic weapons, we don't need to buy those. We're already far ahead in that category and we'll only continue advancing,} Nova said, resulting in Aron striking the kinetic weapons knowledge off the list."Plus, we can use the disintegration function of the atomic printers as a weapon, as long as we can figure out how to increase its range." Aron received a look of approval from Nova. She wasn't capable of creative leaps of logic like that, so it was something she truly appreci
"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
When the rocket broke through the clouds, it was caught by all the surveillance satellites that were keeping an eye on Eden.If it weren’t for the rocket being too big to be considered a missile—its size rivaled the Saturn V rocket that sent astronauts to the moon—the observers would have thought that Eden was attacking them. After all, they hadn’t made any announcements before launching the rocket after having been denied permission by the ITU.Although many countries used their diplomatic channels to complain about the launch, Eden maintained that the rocket never violated any nation’s airspace before entering space, so there was no need for them to inform anyone. They also took the opportunity to inform those nations that there would be more than a few launches in the following days, so they shouldn’t complain that they hadn’t been informed in advance again.As for the question of what was inside the rocket, Eden answered with a blistering retort. They maintained that it was nobody
On televisions across America, a jingle played as the screens switched from commercials to a popular news show.“Good evening. I’m Tucker Carlson, and for those that are just joining us, welcome to the show. With us tonight is Wilbur Ross, the Secretary of Commerce in President Trump’s cabinet to discuss the harm that Eden and their state company, Hephaestus Industries and Manufacturing are doing to our country. Are we just going to watch as they continue causing harm to our citizens and democracy?” “You mentioned the harm they’re causing us, and I couldn’t agree more. From the moment they began breaking international law and violating intellectual property rights on a broad scale to now, American companies have lost almost 150 billion dollars. And that number will only grow the longer we allow them to continue breaking the law.” Wilbur Ross had been briefed by the Office of Public & Media Affairs and knew what he was supposed to say. Tucker Carlson, on the other hand, had been brief
Though the number of countries Alexander could visit had reduced, thanks to the travel bans, he didn’t waste time complaining in Eden. Instead, he chose to visit what countries he still could—especially those suffering under sanctions—to strengthen their diplomatic ties and economies. After all, it was hardly ever the people in power who suffered, but rather the innocent citizens below them.During each visit, he would somehow manage to come up with deals that were beneficial to both countries—Eden, as the manufacturer and exporter of goods, and the countries he visited, who would receive the cheap products they had sometimes never had. For instance, Cuba had still been using cars produced in the 1940s and 50s from before the United States imposed sanctions on them in 1958 until they struck a deal to import manufactured goods from Eden in trade for certain luxuries, like hand-rolled Cuban cigars. Plus, part of that particular deal washed back on the US in an unexpected way; with an of
Inside the hall where the congressional oversight committee formed to deal with GAIA would be held.A murmur was humming as the spectators spoke to each other in low voices. Reporters were hauling equipment this way and that, making sure that it was set up and working as they recorded B-roll footage of the audience and special footage of the notable figures in attendance.A few minutes after the C-SPAN live broadcast began, members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform started taking their seats, the last of them the committee’s head representative Trey Gowdy, a republican from South Carolina. He had only been the committee head for a few days as a result of the previous head resigning a few weeks before.After taking his seat, he picked up his gavel and rapped it against the sound block placed before him on the table.BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!“Good morning to all members of this committee, our esteemed colleagues, the press, the public, and our witnesses from GAIA Technology. I
The names of the companies that Aron owned gave everyone that heard them goosebumps. Although some of the people in the room hadn’t heard of a few of them, they had indeed heard of the others, and all of them were very rich and very, very private.Most of them knew of GAIA, Hephaestus, ARES, Icarus, and Asclepius; each of them were tentatively valuated at hundreds of billions of dollars, which was why they were shocked to their core.That was when they came to the realization that the man in front of them or on their tv or phone screens’ net worth was nearing the trillion dollar mark. That would put him firmly in place as the world’s richest man, with the difference between him and the second place more than 800 billion dollars. Billion! With a B!But what absolutely mystified them was that Aron had only become a millionaire less than three years before, meaning that in the short span of three years he had gone from “moderately comfortable” to “money is just a scorecard for the game o