User:EDFan12345/Sandbox/Avalon Missile Crisis

The Avalon Missile Crisis was a large-scale offensive action by SATO in order to stop the potential launch of a nuclear V2 rocket by Ed Island. Regarded as a peacekeeping mission by the UAN, the crisis marked the first time a SATO force was raised against one of its own members. It was during this operation that many of Ed Island's infamous superweapons were utilized in defense of any territories possessed by the island nation from any possible threats.

Prelude
After Ed Island's acquisition of the Bloodstone Archipelago in mid-2012, the nation had provided large amounts of time and funding in order to turn the territory into an island fortress with several large military bases. In January 2016, construction had started on the newest of these bases, a missile base built in the large lake drained by the Avalon Dam. The decision to store nuclear warheads at the base was an easy one to make; the nation's previous nuclear attempts resulted in little more than a letter saying to cease testing.

The Avalon Dam base was completed on January 29th, with the first missiles arriving by boat on February 2nd. PASA satellites, having monitored the Ed Islandian Military's activity at Bloodstone, detected nuclear missiles at the base as early as February 6th. PASA turned the data over to the UAN, which spun the information as an imminent invasion of Antarctica or UnitedTerra by Ed Island. In a unanimous decision by the UAN Security Council (The Shops Island representative was absent that day), the UAN called on SATO to raise a peacekeeping force to deal with the nuclear missiles, as well as suspend Ed Island's membership in the organization.

International Reactions

 * NewUnitedProvincesFlag.png United Provinces - The President of the United Provinces, Simon McClark, was interviewed on February 9th and regarding Shops Island, stating: "Of course the Shoppers are backing a fascist imperialist state who are expanding their military and breaking international laws. The Shoppers themselves don't abide by international rules and commit war crimes. However, he also stated "We are willing to restore friendly ties with Ed Island on condition they hand in those nuclear weapons. We don't want war with Ed Island". Other than the controversial statement regarding Shops Island, McClark made no follow-up regarding the Shoppers.
 * MAI.png Margate - The President of Margate, Frederick Mueller on one hand threatened to lead a campaign to kick Shops Island out of SATO for its sudden defection. However, this was just a cover-up they utilized in order to hide their true motives; on the other hand, it secretly collaborated with Ed Island by smuggling their nuclear weapons out of the nation and safekeeping them in a secret location, in an attempt to maintain the illusion that Ed Island was slowly removing the nukes. However, the extent of help the Margatians gave to Ed Island is unknown. The Margatian public was divided over the crisis, with one side demanding the UAN to stop intervening in other nations' affairs and rights to develop WMDs, while the other demanded for ties to be severed with Ed Island. Privately, Mueller informed both Hierarch EDFan and Lavender that if SATO forces were to invade the mainland of Ed Island, Margate would help Ed Island to repel Ed Island.
 * ShopsIslandFlag2013.png Shops Island - Due to their very close relationship, Shops Island was the only nation to side with Ed Island during the crisis. As soon as reports came out about Ed Island's nuclear arsenal, Shopper president Lavender stated that his country would stand unequivocally with her ally. Lavender's defiance was only furthered by Shops' exclusion from the UAN Security Council vote. The Shopper government tried to veto the verdict, but failed. For Lavender's actions, he received much criticism from other SATO members.