Dark Fate, Chapter 249

Sorry for the late chapter. Words did not want to word today.

Chapter 249 – Facilitation

The current meeting I was sitting in was not as exciting as the meeting with the representatives from South America, but potentially more important, in the long run. Oh, not like I was diminishing the fact that the last meeting had catapulted Ceres to being one of the most influential nations on Earth. However, that was that, and this was this.

On one side, there was Huntleader Kroshk, the leader of the Ouran delegation from the Iscand Clan. With him was Rakke, his second. Both had thrown themselves into learning everything they could about Ceres and Earth. If they focused mostly on military tactics and theory, well, that was only to be expected. But it was rare for them to have a day where they weren’t playing patron at one of the bars or diners owned by military families, trading stories for drinks. The only times they had missed those haunts was the few times they took their ship, the Truescent into the space-based dungeon in the asteroid belt, with their crew.

The first time they’d done it had been a learning experience, for sure. All previous runs of the dungeon had been with fighters, so no one knew what to expect when a warship flew in. Apparently, there were still the enemy fighters made up of a central orb and two hexagonal panels, but now there was also an angular, arrow-head shaped warship, roughly four hundred meters long. According to the System, the ship was an Imperial II class frigate, making it painfully obvious that the dungeon had somehow been contaminated with knowledge of Earth science fiction, and not just the movies, since apparently that model of ship only showed up in related comic books. Last I had heard, a certain entertainment company was investigating whether it was possible to sue a dungeon.

On the other side, there was Captain Stok Ulgan, captain of the CSN Aggressor of Tephron, along with his first officer, Commander Gaddwa Blansnu. They were the leaders of the military side of the delegation from the Systems Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth Space Navy. They’d come to Sol to get reports on how the Ceres Royal Navy had been doing, as well as escorting the first trade convoy between the Commonwealth and Sol.

The dwurgen captain and the knome commander made an interesting pair, especially compared to the Ouran. While the Ouran were tall, strong, reptilian beings with a pronounced lizardlike snout, the other two were shorter, with dwurgen being stocky creatures that most people from Earth called ‘space dwarves’, while the knome were even smaller, and slimmer, being called ‘space gnomes’. However, both were seasoned combatants, even if their experience was more on the naval side than on fighting hand-to-hand.

Also, not willing to be outdone by the Ouran, or perhaps as an attempt to get recognition from them, Captain Ulgan had taken the Aggressor of Tephron into the space dungeon. Their frigate had dueled the dungeon’s frigate, and come out on top, primarily due to the fact that their weapons were designed for hunting and killing warships, while the dungeon’s frigate seemed more suited to intimidation and dealing with smugglers or possibly civilian raiders or rebels who did not have access to real warships. Apparently, the ploy had worked, because when they arrived back at Ceres, Kroshk had quietly bought them a drink at Chalmun’s Spaceport Cantina, a bar owned by Rogue Squadron’s family.

Now, they were here, so that they could officially unofficially talk. The Commonwealth did not recognize the Ouran Huntworlds, after all, since they’d never interacted directly. And, by tradition, the Huntworlds could not recognize other polities unless they proved themselves in battle. All non-Ouran were prey, unless they proved otherwise, after all.

That wasn’t just a factor of strength, mind you. There were many very strong, very dangerous creatures were most definitely not hunters. One need only look at the hippopotamus if one needed proof of that. The pre-Initialization ones were bad enough, but now there were monster variants roaming Africa, who made the normal ones look tame and docile.

It was little wonder that several African nations were working together to fund a Pan-African colony on Mars.

“Well, my friends,” I started, “since you are both friends of mine, though strangers to each other.” Not personally true, but it was true when speaking of the groups they represented. “I have heard of your deeds in the Imperial March dungeon. Both of your ships acquitted themselves admirably. I know that it is rare for a ship’s crew to work together to take on a dungeon, but you both did extremely well. In recognition of that achievement, I have asked you both here, so that my friends might meet each other.” Another technical truth. He did ask, officially, but they had wanted him to.

“Indeed,” Captain Ulgan nodded. Unlike me, who had a policy of never lying unless it was with the truth, Ulgan was more than capable of playing his part. “It is always good to know more skilled warriors out in the dark places of the world. To test their steel, both in their weapons and their wills. While I cannot speak for the Commonwealth as a whole, I believe that the Commonwealth Navy, at least, will hear of the Iscand Clan of the Ouran Huntworlds, and know that they are strong.”

Kroshk nodded, once. “And while I am but one huntleader of the Iscand Clan, and cannot speak for all the Huntworlds, but the Iscand Clan, at least, will acknowledge that the Commonwealth Navy has the strength of a hunter. I am especially eager to hear of your fights against our common foe, the Incux.”

And that was the way the ‘conversation’ went. Nothing official. Nothing definite. Their governments couldn’t talk to each other directly because of politics, distance, and culture. So, they came to me, so they could talk through me.

The conversations went back and forth like that. This wasn’t an official interaction, but two commanders from two governments laying the groundwork for mutual respect and acknowledgement. Things that could let the actual diplomats speak directly, the next time they met. I was simply facilitating the interaction.

This wasn’t the only ‘facilitation’ I was doing, either. The African countries behind the Mars colony had come to me, as well. There was too much history on the continent. Much of it based on the words of peoples who said one thing, and acted completely differently. My reputation for honesty was a way to break the ice.

Their conference on Ceres was the start of the Pan-African League. Almost the entire continent was involved in it. The only holdouts were Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, and South Africa. Their reasons for staying out were varied, just like the others reasons for joining were. Their economies were already shifting due to the System, and everything that happened, so it only took a little bit for them to start nationalizing things, and diverting their resources inwards, rather than selling to the rest of the world. Plus, the monsters in Africa were quickly becoming some of the fiercest around, and their dungeons were all highly regarded, according to the newsletter I got from the Ceresan Adventurers Guild. (Despite everything, I was still a registered member of the guild, after all.)

At any rate, between South and Central America joining the Empire, and Africa uniting in all but name, the global political landscape was undergoing mild existential chaos. There were some concerns about old power structures crumbling in real time, and all that. Honestly, I didn’t care about that. That wasn’t the endgame here.

I wasn’t after world domination, and I didn’t care if everything changed. I just didn’t want things to change in the wrong ways, or ways that would inconvenience me. Which did mean I had to guide things, a little. But I wasn’t going to push people where I wanted them to go, unless they made it my business. If I could play the facilitator, getting people to work towards the actual functioning global government that would eventually be needed when the wider galaxy came calling, then I’d happily do that over direct action.

Which, honestly, was the reason why Russia still existed as a country. I did not want to deal with the massive hassle that kicking that hornet’s nest over and building it back with something sensible would entail. It was one thing to come into a country where people wanted me, and asked me in, and then taking whatever wreck the place was in and turning it around. That was a bit of a challenge, but not quagmire-level bullshit. And trying to actually conquer a country like Russia would be quagmire-level bullshit.

I wasn’t worried about their military, obviously. Rather, it was the potential for guerillas that was the problem. The only way to deal with guerillas was to keep the people from supporting them. If they didn’t have support from the locals, then their movements died, pure and simple. However, to actually keep them from having support from the locals, you had to either get the locals on your side, or remove the locals entirely.

Now, I had the weapons to completely remove the population of a country. Even one the size of Russia. Enough antimatter would eliminate anything, after all. Except for the consequences.

And there would be consequences, even for me. That would be on a whole different scale than when I blew up half of Israel when I destroyed their military. Just talking about the fallout from the weapons alone would be a nightmare. Not the radiation, of course, but all the ash and such thrown into the air by causing all those explosions. And you’d have to cover pretty much the entire country. Using enough blasts to wipe clean 17 million square kilometers would send the planet into an ice age.

And what would that even get me, really? A massive parking lot with no industry or infrastructure. The monsters and aboveground resources would be gone. The dungeons would probably not survive, either. It would be cataclysmically wasteful.

I was many things. A monster, a demon, a warlord, a tyrant. I owned all of those titles and more. However, I was not wasteful, certainly not on that scale. That would be so much worse than anything I was, even on my worst day.

Which meant that the only way I could ever be rid of guerillas was to make the people support me. And doing that after you bombed their shit and invaded their home was damn hard work. That was what quagmires were made of. I may not have been the best student, but I’d learned enough in history class to know that trying to use overwhelming military might to go nation-building always failed if you weren’t willing to invest even more time and money into actually building the nation and making people happy for your presence.

Maybe that kind of thing was easier in the distant past. When going between cities was the work of a few days, and there was no internet or anything like that. When people were conditioned to understand that there wasn’t really any difference between one feudal lord and the next. When there was no internet to share information around the world in an instant. Things weren’t like that anymore, though.

No, it was much better to be a facilitator, and convincing people to want him to help them. Which, unfortunately, meant that I needed to be hands off with countries like Russia, unless they did something that made me respond to them. That was the best way forward for me, and the Empire.

The fact that it also involved far less work on my part was simply bonus points.