Somewhere
HFR, Secret Meeting Space
“This is the end of the old-world.” Ein prophesized, full of the confidence that came from wearing a suit that cost more than most people made in their lifetimes.
Not that he’d brag about that directly.
“The AU is weakened within your territory and is desperately trying to reorient its military
to Atlantica… and only because the Magnetic Assembly is making them look bad. Between you and me they couldn’t care less about Atlantica itself. The system is basically barren with more mouths to feed than it can reasonably support. The whole thing is a big money-pit. They’d love to be able to wash their hands of it and focus on the Sol system. Return on investment there is orders of magnitude better than spending it on Atlantica.”
But that wasn’t the only concern.
“The Magnetic Assembly is desperate for friends. Their population isn’t going to tolerate being cut off from the homeworld like this for long and they’re butting heads with the Daqin just like everyone else, only the Assembly has lots of very weak friends within shootin’ distance of the Dragon-lady. They came all the way out here just to try and get you guys involved with their struggle in hopes you’d help them down the line.”
Then Ein would turn his full attention to his audience.
“Then there’s you. Wanting proper respect. Wanting some allies against the Daqin. Wanting your territory back. Here’s your chance to end the new century of humiliation and assert yourselves as the Kingmakers of the human sphere. Next meeting on Olympus, demand the end of Distant Flock. Take back the SLEs within your space and exchange your SLE in Sol with the American Union. They already occupy it anyways and it’ll be a great face-saving measure for them. You’re then in a prime spot to broker an armistice between the Assembly and Union, let them do some joint ownership of Atlantica just to put both of them on the Daqin’s doorstep. You guys come out looking like the new leaders of Humanity while the Union bleeds itself out…not that you need to stop there.
The Souyz and the GDW can’t trust one another either after their little flare up. They both want peace and need someone to broker it. Of course they can’t go to the Union for that without making enemies of the Assembly. They can’t go to the Assembly without risking war with the AU. They can’t go to the Daqin since this whole thing is their fault. Even the smaller groups all have some ties to one side or the other. That puts the HFR in position as the only people who can dictate terms.
Whatever comes next would be yours to dictate.”
Luo Meng, the Prime Minister of the Li Ming Republic, and Kal Young, the President of the Great Shen Zhou State, sat quietly in front of Ein in silence, contemplating. They were in their HFR, floral suits, old European pragmatism with ancient, oriental flair revived and brought to the forefront. Notably missing was Wu Li Li, the President of the United Republics of China, for good reason: Today, Luo Meng and Kal Young were going to decide if they wanted to stab the third, oldest member of the confederacy in the back.
The chess pieces were laid bare before them. Despite their own shortcomings and internal disagreements, the HFR was actually in the healthiest position in the human community, having avoided conflict with everyone except the Daqinren, which was a given since their founding anyways. Even then, what conflicts did happen were pirate skirmishes and cat and mouse gains, small losses. All seemed set. The GDW, Soyuz, and the AU were all weakened. As Ein pointed out, the HFR could play kingmaker. Only one small problem remained: their SLE in Sol.
Luo Meng and Kal Young exchanged glances. The SLE in Shen Zhou was an irradiated mess, but at least it lacked AU presence, so no force required to reclaim it. Li Ming’s still had an AU presence that could be taken by force if need be, in theory. However, that of Sol still required diplomacy. Leaving it to the AU would make all other diplomacy easier; the Americans were still formidable, and their supremacy has only recently ended. However, the cost would be a permanent rift between them and the URC.
If the AU was in decline, the URC was a complete shell of the old PRC over a century ago. It was only through its sheer economic and infrastructure inertia that it continued rolling after the Zhongzhi event, and, admittedly, some much needed AU and GDW intervention. Still, several billion souls and vast amounts of, albeit old, assets wasn’t trivial.
Betray the URC for diplomatic expediency, and risk losing a third of the confederacy, theoretically, or play hardball with the AU, turning a whimpering lion into a desperate one with nothing to lose. Could they have their cake and eat it too?
“The Soyuz and the GDW are in no position to deny us as a broker for peace.” Young finally replied in a dismissive tone, which translated from his Korean, Chinese mix into a polite but purposefully passive aggressive, English tone through the translator. “We will speak to them individually, then play by the books on Mt. Olympus.”
HFR, Secret Meeting Space
“This is the end of the old-world.” Ein prophesized, full of the confidence that came from wearing a suit that cost more than most people made in their lifetimes.
Not that he’d brag about that directly.
“The AU is weakened within your territory and is desperately trying to reorient its military
to Atlantica… and only because the Magnetic Assembly is making them look bad. Between you and me they couldn’t care less about Atlantica itself. The system is basically barren with more mouths to feed than it can reasonably support. The whole thing is a big money-pit. They’d love to be able to wash their hands of it and focus on the Sol system. Return on investment there is orders of magnitude better than spending it on Atlantica.”
But that wasn’t the only concern.
“The Magnetic Assembly is desperate for friends. Their population isn’t going to tolerate being cut off from the homeworld like this for long and they’re butting heads with the Daqin just like everyone else, only the Assembly has lots of very weak friends within shootin’ distance of the Dragon-lady. They came all the way out here just to try and get you guys involved with their struggle in hopes you’d help them down the line.”
Then Ein would turn his full attention to his audience.
“Then there’s you. Wanting proper respect. Wanting some allies against the Daqin. Wanting your territory back. Here’s your chance to end the new century of humiliation and assert yourselves as the Kingmakers of the human sphere. Next meeting on Olympus, demand the end of Distant Flock. Take back the SLEs within your space and exchange your SLE in Sol with the American Union. They already occupy it anyways and it’ll be a great face-saving measure for them. You’re then in a prime spot to broker an armistice between the Assembly and Union, let them do some joint ownership of Atlantica just to put both of them on the Daqin’s doorstep. You guys come out looking like the new leaders of Humanity while the Union bleeds itself out…not that you need to stop there.
The Souyz and the GDW can’t trust one another either after their little flare up. They both want peace and need someone to broker it. Of course they can’t go to the Union for that without making enemies of the Assembly. They can’t go to the Assembly without risking war with the AU. They can’t go to the Daqin since this whole thing is their fault. Even the smaller groups all have some ties to one side or the other. That puts the HFR in position as the only people who can dictate terms.
Whatever comes next would be yours to dictate.”
Luo Meng, the Prime Minister of the Li Ming Republic, and Kal Young, the President of the Great Shen Zhou State, sat quietly in front of Ein in silence, contemplating. They were in their HFR, floral suits, old European pragmatism with ancient, oriental flair revived and brought to the forefront. Notably missing was Wu Li Li, the President of the United Republics of China, for good reason: Today, Luo Meng and Kal Young were going to decide if they wanted to stab the third, oldest member of the confederacy in the back.
The chess pieces were laid bare before them. Despite their own shortcomings and internal disagreements, the HFR was actually in the healthiest position in the human community, having avoided conflict with everyone except the Daqinren, which was a given since their founding anyways. Even then, what conflicts did happen were pirate skirmishes and cat and mouse gains, small losses. All seemed set. The GDW, Soyuz, and the AU were all weakened. As Ein pointed out, the HFR could play kingmaker. Only one small problem remained: their SLE in Sol.
Luo Meng and Kal Young exchanged glances. The SLE in Shen Zhou was an irradiated mess, but at least it lacked AU presence, so no force required to reclaim it. Li Ming’s still had an AU presence that could be taken by force if need be, in theory. However, that of Sol still required diplomacy. Leaving it to the AU would make all other diplomacy easier; the Americans were still formidable, and their supremacy has only recently ended. However, the cost would be a permanent rift between them and the URC.
If the AU was in decline, the URC was a complete shell of the old PRC over a century ago. It was only through its sheer economic and infrastructure inertia that it continued rolling after the Zhongzhi event, and, admittedly, some much needed AU and GDW intervention. Still, several billion souls and vast amounts of, albeit old, assets wasn’t trivial.
Betray the URC for diplomatic expediency, and risk losing a third of the confederacy, theoretically, or play hardball with the AU, turning a whimpering lion into a desperate one with nothing to lose. Could they have their cake and eat it too?
“The Soyuz and the GDW are in no position to deny us as a broker for peace.” Young finally replied in a dismissive tone, which translated from his Korean, Chinese mix into a polite but purposefully passive aggressive, English tone through the translator. “We will speak to them individually, then play by the books on Mt. Olympus.”