Alright guys, this is getting annoying.
When I started this NES, I wanted to make it about the Kaiju invasion of Valland, and the Vallander defense against it. I didn't specify details about the outside world, and only offered a few details when people asked. Then, some players started joining as foreign organizations. This started off okay, because it seemed reasonable to me that there would be international involvement here. However, the way this has been turning out, it's becoming more and more focused on intrigue between foreign superpowers, with the Kaiju featuring as a mere thematic backdrop. We've seen a gradual slip from people playing as the European, American and Chinese forces intervening in Valland, to people playing as the governments of the European Union, United States of America and People's Republic of China. This is getting difficult for me to deal with.
I am not interested in running a near-future international politics NES. I have neither the knowledge nor the time to do that to any degree of acceptable quality. Without a proper framework for these nations, which I'm not going to hash out, a story NES trying to incorporate them is just going to degenerate into the powergaming and conflicts that we're seeing right here. It's turning into:
Country X does something in Valland.
Country Y notes that it has countermeasures to Country X's actions.
Country X declares that it has pre-empted Country Y's countermeasures by doing something else!
I'm simply not interested in this! It's an annoying mess that I come home to every evening and have to sort through.
Now, with that off my chest, let's try to resolve this particular issue.
Overall, I think that Seon's overstepping his bounds. I'll start off by saying that it is pretty reasonable to suspect Chinese involvement in the attacks. However, I think that Seon's still being unrealistically perfect and efficient in his sleuthing. The Chinese agents who infiltrated BioTech Industries were masked, they wouldn't have been identifiable as any ethnicity based on their appearance alone.
However, there are no Chinese military vessels idling around Valland right now. The nearest ones are the support vessels for the Chinese drone carrier that launched from Dakar recently.
Speaking of which, cicero, it has been my understanding from this:
Meanwhile, the PLA Navy Drone Carrier Shenlong and its Carrier Group will be steaming towards Valland, launching from our leased port in Dakar, Senegal. 20 Assault Drones will be launched towards the location of the attack, accompanied by 5 "Research Drones," which have been specially outfitted for taking samples from Kaiju while they are still alive by launching small needles with receptors attached. The Drone squadron will engage the Kaiju in conjunction with the other allied forces.
That you sent a carrier from Dakar, Senegal, in a course towards the North Atlantic. That's the most reasonable interpretation of your orders, and it's clearly the interpretation made both by myself, and by several other players. Saying that it had actually stayed in Dakar is inconsistent with your previous actions... unless the italicized first paragraph of 'Hook, Line and Sinker' is meant to be Xinhua presenting a somewhat coloured view of international events.
Anyway, back to Seon. Figuring out where a hidden 'back door' from the Chinese embassy in a foreign country isn't a huge stretch. As Masada noted, there's a chance that it's a bit of an open secret among international intelligence offices. However, this discovery would be more acceptable if it weren't accompanied with several other convenient things that make your counter-infiltration so straightforward.
I do recognize that surveillance technology is very advanced, but I think you're pushing past the limits of a mobile drone's capabilities to pick up information about the interior with such acuity. The Chinese embassy is a solidly-built structure. Its walls will preclude anything beyond superficial thermal imaging, and it's not likely to be a building covered in windows either.
Overall, you're basically trotting in to what is a very secure compound, and not giving due credit to your opponent in this matter. The Chinese aren't likely to be keeping a massively incompetent staff who won't notice that several of their cameras are abruptly not working, or that someone unauthorized has entered their 'back door' tunnel. In this matter, cicero's response to your story is quite reasonable- they'd detect a lone intruder quite quickly.
Speaking of which, cicero's lampshading of the efficacy of EU Intelligence services made me chuckle.
*****
@SmithRobloxian- Your terrorist group seems to be about a century behind the times, if they're just trying to get their revenge now.
What's taken them so long? How would they keep the Kaiju pacified, and what would they tell the port authority when they docked? The national embarassment caused by the overlooking of the importation of chemical weapon delivery systems by the Super-Serious Exterminators has prompted a tightening of import inspections- keeping such a beast hidden would be difficult indeed, even if we disregard all of the other pboelsm.
@Masada- The freighter wasn't Chinese, and germanicus12 has clarified that it wasn't meant to be Chinese. It looks like you guys have both resolved that issue though, so all's well.
@germanicus12- A electronics failure or simple navigational error makes a lot more sense than a compass failure on a modern vessel, so it seems like a reasonable change to just substitute out a more likely cause for a wayward ship.
@Seon- Regarding your most recent post, I'll just reiterate. The Chinese raid happened at night, they changed their clothing before attacking the BTI Facility in Goldfoss. There were witnesses, but they wouldn't be able to point to a specific country, or even provide a useful description of the intruders. Also, the Chinese only physically raided a single site. The cyberattack on Hansey Labs used quite different methods, and is likely even harder to trace.
