"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 as well be the people in this meeting room. They were the only ones with the power to do so, so whether others willingly agreed or not, the unification would progress nevertheless. Unfortunately, human nature being what it was, a peaceful unification was nothing more than a pipe dream.
"Over the next three years, we'll focus on tying up loose ends and finishing the unification. While we do that, we'll launch purpose-built early detection and tracking satellites to the L2, L3, L4, and L5 Lagrange points. That'll give us a higher-resolution mana map of the area within ten light years of us, so we'll know exactly what we're dealing with and when it'll arrive.
(Ed note: L1 is missing from this because it's the Lagrange point between the Earth and the sun, so it wouldn't give any real benefit when tracking extrasolar objects. L3 is directly opposite the sun, L2 is directly opposite Earth from the sun, and L3 and L4 are in Earth's orbit 60 degrees ahead of and behind the planet if you consider the sun as the center of a circle.)
"At the same time, we need a ruling structure for the united planetary government and to focus on military technologies and training, including a space military to complement our ground, sea, and air forces." Although Aron hadn't come up with a detailed plan over the short break earlier, he'd at least had enough time to come up with a broad strokes outline so people could sort themselves into smaller task-focused groups in their areas of specialty.
"Let's reconvene a week from now, after we've had enough time to come up with more detailed plans."
After the meeting adjourned, the AIs disappeared in a flash, save for Nova, leaving only Aron, Felix, Sarah, Alexander, Diana, and Jose in the room with her.
Aron turned to Nova and asked, "What resolution did the UNSC come up with?"
Instead of answering in words, Nova gestured and the screen in the meeting room divided in half. On the left half was the tally of the votes and on the right was the recording of the voting process and announcement.
As they watched the decision being announced, Aron sighed, "They really are testing our patience, aren't they?" He didn't know whether to be disappointed with human nature or furious with the process.
"Are we going to allow them to do their investigation? From the looks of things, they're planning on using the opportunity and the threat of economic sanctions to steal our military tech," Alexander said, trying to gauge Aron's thoughts on how to act on the decision.
"No, we're not going to allow them to come in the first place," Aron said. It was a mildly out-of-character decision for him, who usually tried to remain behind the scenes and go with the flow.
"You'll have to make an announcement to display our stance and resolve to not be exploited just because we're still classified as a developing nation," Aron said to Alexander, then turned to Jose and continued, "Once Alexander makes his announcement, you should make one showing support as well."
Alexander and Jose both nodded and gave affirmative grunts.
"On your side, you should prepare to kick things up into high gear. We need more chaos if we're going to unite the planet—the more chaos there is, the faster the unification will happen and the less we'll have to bleed for it. Manpower is another resource, so it's up to you to ensure we lose as little of it as possible," Aron said to Diana Tregarde, the head of Nyx.
The discovery of an alien force headed his way marked a huge shift in Aron's approach to things. From the moment he had gained the system and become rich, the comfort that came along with the lifestyle change had caused him to constantly place himself in a passive position. He had either gone with the flow and not fought for things, or made overly complex, Machiavellian plots to avoid acting himself. It was rare that he made moves himself, or even used his overt forces at all, but that would all come to an end today. The emergence of an alien threat was exactly the kind of kick in the ass that he needed to finally step out of the shadows.
Although an outside observer might consider his reaction an overreaction simply because he had discovered what might be aliens, who may or may not be hostile, that really didn't matter. Whether or not this batch of aliens was hostile or friendly made no difference; where there was one, there would be more. And eventually, one of the civilizations that came in contact with Earth WOULD be hostile. It wasn't a chance, it wasn't a probability... it was an absolute guarantee that, eventually, there would be war with an alien force.
For Earth to stand a chance, it absolutely must be united.
Another reason the planet had to be united was that any self-defense force absolutely could not function under a divided leadership. That was another thing that made organizations like NATO and the UN toothless: a lack of unity and cohesiveness. A collective might sound like a good idea on paper, but human nature being what it was, it would always fail in practice. Socialism, Communism, Democracy, Republics... there was no perfect system of government once the pretty words on paper were put into practice by imperfect humans.
The best the average citizen could ever hope for is that the people who governed them were at least benevolent.
"Are we going to inform the world about the discovery?" Alexander asked.
"Yes, or at least the leadership of the nations. But before we do, we need to have a contingency plan in place. The announcement will be the last thing we do before we begin the final phase of the unification so we still have things to prepare before then. Though I hate to say it, I expect fierce resistance without a show of force beforehand... so we will prepare that show of force in secret and bring it out when necessary.
"But first, we have to launch the observation network. Everything hinges on the data we collect on the incoming object, and the more evidence we have, the more leaders we can convince to unify without a fight," Aron said.
After a few more questions and answers, everyone logged off to rest as they were exhausted by the long meeting, together with the emotional ups and downs from the discovery itself.
"Looks like accumulating SP was a good idea after all," Aron said as he opened the system shop to look for things he might need for the upcoming difficulties.
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