Chapter 400 Of Flames and Those Who Fan Them

People all over the world were discussing the wonder of the modern-day David and Goliath fight between the coalition naval forces and the Poseidon Navy of Eden. It was unbelievable to them—especially the Americans, brought up as they were on a steady diet of American Exceptionalism propaganda—that a “developing nation” like Eden could come out the winner in the conflict at sea. After all, it had only been around two short years since the country began rising out of its dictatorial roots. So for them to defeat, and quite resoundingly at that, the forces the rest of the world had gathered against them was incredibly unbelievable.

Despite lacking quite a bit of information, some armchair generals had mashed up the information that they did have into some semblance of “the entire story” and felt they had a grasp on how things had actually happened. But with Nova and Panoptes having been the ones that curated the information released in the first place, none of those “entire stories” matched at all. So that sparked even more debate on the subject, leading to a mess of negative emotions spreading through the entire internet as peoples’ personal bubbles collided with each other.

The internet had so many flame wars going on that the whole thing had practically already burnt itself to the ground, and that was the situation Edenians and Esparians found themselves in once Nova publicly reestablished the archipelago’s connection to the global village.

So what did they do when they saw all that mess? They jumped right in and happily contributed to it, of course! They may not have been able to pick up a rifle and fire a shot during the war, and they sure weren’t on the ships that beat back the coalition navy, but when it came to an internet war of words? That was a battlefront the citizens of Eden and Esparia were more than capable of fighting on! Their heads were full of patriotic pride in themselves and their nations and their bellies were full of suppressed rage at the intolerable bullying they had been suffering under for the months leading up to what historians were already calling The Last Civil War. historical

Thus, they got to work, much to the delight and amusement of the onlooking AIs. Aeolus, the mischievous little windbag he was, even convinced his “big brothers and sisters” to covertly help fan the flames even higher.

Aron, who, upon hearing of the situation on the internet, quickly heaved a secret sigh of relief and rushed back to “deal with it”, postponing the inevitable lecture he was definitely going to receive from his parents until later. And if he had his way, “later” would then become “much, much later”.

[Are you going to stop them?] Nova asked.

“Stop them? Why would I want to do that?” he replied. “Just look at how much fun they’re having!” Aron was feeling slightly giddy himself after the tension and stress of the weeks and months leading up to the war was released with his overwhelming victory.

Basically, he was taking a brief vacation while other things went on in the background.

He turned his attention back to the screen displaying the situation and Nova sat beside him. She manifested a bucket of popcorn and they passed it back and forth as they watched the flame war that Nova’s children were eagerly fanning.

The first thing the Edenians did was announce that each branch of ARES had had the audacity to broadcast everything to them live. That alone shocked the world even more than the vague news and propaganda released by Nova had!

@Banaman: [You’re calling me a liar? Then watch this! video.mp4 video2.mp4]

@thehigh3lit3: [dude ur p good @ fake vids bro]

@Banaman: [Fake my ass! I recorded this straight off the livestream. Go smoke another blunt]

@CheshirePhoenix: [lol wtf. @thehigh3lit3 I have friends in Eden and can confirm. Everyone there saw it happen.]

@KimJongUnDidNothingWrong: [FREE OUR DEAR LEADER!!! FREE OUR DEAR LEADER!!!]

@Banaman: [@KimJongUnDidNothingWrong Dude who the fuck are you? Go back to your mama’s basement and cry more about getting your ass stomped by someone we steamrolled, dumbass]

@Tempest: [Hey everyone check out this game I got for free on obviousphishingscamsite.virus! Just click this link to get your own copy: /pwntuuu ]

(Ed note: that shortened URL leads to haveibeenpwnd.com, a site that checks to see if your email address has been included in data breaches that you may not be aware of, so it’s not entirely a bad idea to check. It’s a legit site, don’t worry.)

@Hitman_047: [The war was just the beginning.]

@TrumpDerangementSyndrome: [President Trump was right! Eden really IS a menace! WAKE UP, SHEEPLE! Rise up and join me in the fight against the oppressors!]

@CheshirePhoenix: [Ok @Pangea, who let the insane asylum escapees in? I wasn’t aware that they had social media access in prison psych wards. TIL I guess.]

@Curtis1122: [Holy shit I just watched the vids. I didn’t think that kind of thing could ever happen outside a movie or a novel]

@Yoyo99_: [This is a pic of the USS Carl Vinson. Vinson.jpg]

@Banaman: [Thanks @Yoyo99_ it’s nice to have a before pic to go with the after lol]

......

That was just one of the more polite threads Aron read through, but Edenians were posting video evidence everywhere, some of which had been reposted by veritable legions of Pangea Social AIs while others, mostly the ones that contradicted Nova and Panoptes’ carefully curated narrative and propaganda, were quietly sent to their own social bubbles where they could have their “flame war” with Pangea Social AIs instead of the general worldwide public.

The most popular posts with the most likes and shares were those with video footage of the carriers lifting off. After that came recordings of the EV Heidrek crippling the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group, then the destruction of the satellites and the offer the Edenian pilot, now identified as Lieutenant James “Reverend” Jones, had made to the doomed astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Then, in a distant third place, was the nuclear launch—which had even hilariously alarmed Gandhi into vehemently denying his involvement in the nuclear strike—and the Edenian defense against it.

lightsΝοvel And after that were video recordings of the yeet pods landing in New York City. A netizen there had captured the footage on his phone and uploaded it in an attempt to show just how evil Aron was with his “faceless, jackbooted goons trampling over the freedoms granted by American democracy”.

With the addition of the information and videos so “kindly” provided by the Edenian and Esparian netizens, people finally had enough information to piece together a coherent, mostly accurate narrative of the entire war. And that narrative taught them one very important lesson: in the face of the prevailing belief that Aron’s military might would fail when faced with that of the entire world, ARES had dominated anyway.