Chapter 199: The Pacific Republic
When Platinum met with the leader of the Pacific Republic that had formed on the West Coast, she expected a clever wordsmith capable of winning people over through political negotiations and the like. A politician who gave rousing speeches or a salesman that wheeled and dealed would have been much more like Neon than what she found.
General McCallister wasn’t just giving himself a title after the assimilation began by calling himself a general. He had earned the role long before mana changed the world. She found him sensible and respectable, if a bit tight-lipped and militaristic. It wasn’t that he wasn’t capable of politicking, it was that his style of negotiation was specific to his professional career, and was counter to what she expected. He was clearly an exceptional leadership figure, considering the loyalty engendered in those around him, but Platinum was no bootlicker, and she made sure to form her own opinion to give Neon a proper assessment of who and what he was dealing with.
The man still sported his pre-mana uniform and was a relatively impressive level 80 when she met with him in a nondescript military style barracks at the edge of settlement territory. The General had just finished a daily session of physical training that he held with rotating groups of low level residents. Rather than meet with the ‘foreign dignitary’ right away, he made her wait until his party finished defeating his personally determined quota of monsters. Platinum wasn’t sure if he was posturing, but the simple choice to prioritize relative nobodies in his own settlement over what was effectively an ambassador was a clear message. Whether the message was meant for her or his residents wasn’t clear, but it was effective either way. Platinum understood that he felt respect was a two-way street.
General McCallister wasn’t the Champion of any settlement, but he had maintained order within a pre-mana chain of command that had him as the highest ranked survivor of the known armed forces. Apparently, he had rejected being Chosen with aplomb, taking his oath to the lost country too seriously to accept any others. His sidearm may not have worked, but the interloper knew his intention when he drew and pulled the trigger without further hesitation. It was a clear final response to the demand for shifting his loyalty to deliver the planet to their hands, ‘or else’. Straightforward, clear, and open resistance was his modus operandi. Not exactly diplomatic, Platinum noted, but how much of the story was for the benefit of his troops and how much was the truth was unknown.
The Champion of Silvervalley was someone who took orders directly from the General and all the other settlements fell in line once they demonstrated enough competence to be worthy of accepting aid. Platinum didn’t think McCallister was much of a civilian leader though. He was completely focused on territorial security and maintaining peace rather than rebuilding society or anything like that. The way he saw it, the assimilation was a time of war. There would be a time for civil society to pick up the pieces only if they survived, and he intended to organize the fight until then.
Who were they fighting? Anyone that threatened them. While that put the Primal Constructs at the top of the list, it left their opposition open to humans as well. The General wasn’t shy about that fact when he learned she had come from a highly ranked uncontacted settlement, but he relaxed when she gave him Neon’s ambassadorial spiel. She thought it figured that a military man would be a sucker for the official nature of Neon’s prepared words of cooperation. There was a sort of ceremonial formality in Neon’s offer of friendship that met the General's expectations. While it was clear that McCallister defaulted to a general idea of Team Humanity, he was guarded against threats, both foreign and domestic, seeing his fledgling Pacific Republic as a fragile hope for a free future that needed protecting.
After her time spent with the General, Platinum did her due diligence to confirm Silvervalley wasn’t just blowing smoke when she met with them: claiming much more influence than they truly had, while also testing to see if the General was more dictator than defender. It wouldn’t be impossible for the entire loyalty, order, and respect show to be theater designed to trick someone like her.
Silvervalley was a huge settlement, so it would certainly be influential. McCallister’s troops had erected shelters for millions of people, turning the desert territory into a massive, but extremely well organized and growing refugee camp. The simplification of logistics, thanks to mana, meant they were highly capable of meeting the needs of their residents.
The settlement had inherited the now mostly submerged greater Los Angeles area, while being close enough to have combined with survivors from Las Vegas and the general southwest region. The population was at least as high as Neon Park’s, and the territory certainly rivaled their own, extending several hundred miles beyond the shard. There were even a handful of top ranked individuals on the leaderboards among the peacekeepers, which meant those she met weren’t completely surprised or intimidated by her own level.
Still, she left General McCallister’s headquarters with a response letter addressed to Neon and went north along the new coastal settlements to have them independently explain the dynamic of the Pacific Republic. Platinum was uniquely suited to confirming stories since she could travel faster than word of her visit spread. It was easy enough for her to ditch the military spies that had been monitoring her from the shadows while in Silvervalley with her speed alone. There would be no hard feelings on either side for that bit of caution.