[center][u][b]July 10th, 2020[/b][/u]

By the tenth of July, the world at large had learned of the brief but terrible conflict that had threatened to plunge the world into a global conflict the likes of which hadn't been seen for some seventy-five years. Wielding impossible weaponry, they had inflicted the worst losses NATO had ever experienced since its foundation, including the sinking of NATO Maritime Group 2, the greatest navel disaster Britain has suffered since the second World War.

The official word from NATO - and in the particular President Gloria Vanderhall - was that their combined forces had managed to repel Asad's invasion with heavy losses, with the dictator himself having been killed in an airstrike on the Arab Federation's capital of Baghdad. More shocking are the reports of a nuclear detonation in the deserts of Arabia, the high yield of the bomb resulting in fallout that could potentially endanger all nearby settlements.

Statements from Raymond von Lüneburg - CEO of Lundgrau Intelligence Services - paint an entirely different picture of the conflict, however. He instead credits the defeat of the Arab Federation to a handful of extraordinarily empowered individuals, Lady Arcana, Emerald Knight and Grim among them. Were it not for their intervention, then the Arab Federation would have undoubtedly annexed all of Arabia within a matter of days at most, a mere stepping stone in Basil Al-Asad's quest to place all the Middle East firmly beneath his iron boot.

Regardless of the truth, however, the aftermath of the conflict is clear for all to see.

Without their leader, the Arab Federation has fallen into chaos. While the arrival of NATO's forces in Riyadh has managed to stabilize the Republic of Arabia, the Federation now sits on the precipice of civil war as rogue generals attempt to stake their own claim to power with their loyal forces, and ethnic and tribal tensions reignite without the oppressive fist of Asad to keep them suppressed.

As for the advanced technology wielded by the Federation, there have been numerous eyewitness accounts of none other than Lady Arcana spiriting it away in the aftermath of the conflict in an apparent attempt to deny NATO access to it. President Vanderhall has pointed to this as further evidence that she is no friend of the United States, and that these superpowered beings pose a threat to [i]all[/i] of humanity if left unchecked.[/center]