CHAPTER 450: CHAPTER 448: THE PREDICAMENT OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES

Since the disaster of the meteor impact descended, countries around the world have been plunged into the predicament of severe winter and long nights.

Flame Country is considered the country in the best condition. After all, the government has sufficient control and mobilization capabilities, coupled with the extensive efforts made in preparation, hence a considerable degree of population and industrial production capacity have been retained.

However, other countries haven’t been so lucky.

Of the five major powers of the Blue Star, the Federation is the most miserable. The fragments of the meteor directly hit the mainland, triggering the eruption of Long Island volcano. Before the extreme cold of the long night descended, the entire territory of the Federation had already turned into scorched earth.

Even though the Federal government also had disaster response plans, in the end, it’s only the military, scientists, and elite upper levels that could be preserved. The grassroots people could only rely on themselves, struggling hard for survival, with slim hopes.

Even if the Federation retained a certain national power, it could no longer be compared to the era before the disaster.

The loss of its globally distributed military bases and the unrivaled sea and air power of the Blue Star signifies that the Federation has lost its status as the strongest country on the Blue Star.

Even if the Federation can continue to exist in the future, it no longer has the strength to maintain its position as one of the top five powers on the Blue Star.

And the situation in England seems even worse than that of the Federation.

As an island nation, although in the past few hundred years, England once ruled a considerable portion of land on this planet, claiming to be the empire on which the sun never sets, but now in its twilight days, what remains of this so-called empire is merely the three islands of Britain itself.

Although located in Europe, England didn’t directly face the tsunami caused by the meteor impact. However, the subsequent global sea level rise submerged a significant portion of this island nation’s territory under seawater.

Just in contrast to the Federation’s approach of completely ignoring the fate of the lower class and only preserving the elite, England is somewhat less harsh to its people.

The English government, in collaboration with France, at the cost of completely abandoning its homeland to merge with France, obtained permission from France to allow England to immigrate entirely, letting the English cross the channel and survive on French soil.

As for France, although it merged with England, the two former empires still have some family foundations. But in the present decline across Europe, it indeed doesn’t have much strength to fight against disasters, only managing to retain as much family wealth as possible.

Instead, Lucia, who originally had the worst life, is living relatively better thanks to Suyia’s legacy.

During the Cold War, Suyia built numerous underground facilities, originally intended to resist a possible nuclear war. However, the nuclear war did not happen, and Suyia collapsed on its own first, leaving a grand corpse waiting to be divided.

As the inheritor of most of Suyia’s legacy, although Lucia lived frugally over the years, it still counted as one of the Five Powers of the Blue Star. Although the foundations of the once-great superpower had almost run dry, some irreducible elements can still be put to use.

For instance, the subway network, a hundred meters deep under the Capital, originally built as an underground shelter to prevent nuclear war, is now aptly used to accommodate the sheltered people of Lucia.

Moreover, with Lucia itself being vast and sparsely populated, the pressure is not as great as in other countries, allowing them to manage to get by.

It’s just that the weather is indeed cold. Originally a high-latitude country, during the severe winter, temperatures often drop below tens of degrees below zero. Nowadays, the temperatures are approaching over a hundred degrees below zero. Even with their resilience to cold maxed out, it’s tough for them to withstand such a harsh winter.

Originally, Lucia could only endure it alone, after all, everyone was having hard days, and nobody had the strength to help others in such a situation.

But recently, the upper echelons of Lucia received communication from Flame Country (countries’ upper levels have, in fact, maintained connections at the state level, radio can secure such communication, though it’s just contact, of course). Flame Country, upholding the traditional friendship between the two nations, is willing to provide some humanitarian aid to Lucia.

The message greatly shocked the high-level officials of Lucia. They knew Flame Country’s situation was better than theirs, but they couldn’t imagine Flame Country could still have the strength to offer aid at times like these.

Especially since, in theory, Lucia and Flame Country share a border, but the political, cultural, and economic focus of Lucia is entirely in its European part, and the Siberian region of Asia is almost a no man’s land. In such times, how could Flame Country deliver aid across the Eurasian continent to the Capital of Lucia?

Despite the confusion, aid is always a good thing. Even if it requires paying greater interests and costs in exchange later on, for Lucia now, that’s a matter for the future. The most important thing now is to get through the current difficulties. Having someone to help is always better than enduring alone.

Lucia’s upper echelons initially thought Flame Country would use land transport to bring it via the Siberian Railway. This railway, built during the Suyia era, is an important railway line connected to Flame Country’s rail network. Although now obstructed by snow causing traffic interruptions, it still offers a route by land.

Regarding air power, Lucia holds no expectations. Under current circumstances, taking the risk of engine failure to fly is possible, but the deliverable power is indeed too little, and safety cannot be guaranteed.

This is unless it’s a matter of life or death. Otherwise, countries would not waste such rare valuable resources.

Thus, Lucians thought that Flame Country would deliver the aid by land and were ready to see the road transportation tools driven by Flame Country.

However, the method by which Flame Country delivered aid exceeded Lucians’ expectations greatly.

"What is that thing?" Several Lucian soldiers looked up at the sky. They had been sent out to receive aid from Flame Country after Lucian government received communication from the Flame Country side. However, they were all looking up at the behemoth slowly descending in the sky: "Is that an alien UFO?"

But an official from Lucia checked the notification he received and then took out binoculars to look at the emblem and number on the giant object. With a hint of uncertainty, he said to the surrounding soldiers: "That should be the thing we were waiting for, aid from Flame Country."

"This... nobody told me Flame Country could build flying saucers!" The officer responsible for greeting heard the official say this, looked up at the giant disc-shaped flying object still descending overhead, and his expression was even more shocked than before.