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Shiden has the money and other resources to start his own island nation and play with with the big boys; it is time to start acting like a non evil version of Dr. Julious No so he can keep his toys.

That’s surprisingly hard to do. Even with an exorbitant amount of money. Turns out nation states like to claim large chunks of ocean as theirs. They also get really huffy about “international” waters, that they don’t directly call dibs on.

Functionally, they have a history of sinking in storms. Look up Micronations.

There is arguably a small, virtually inaccessible spot in the middle of Antarctica that may not be covered by treaty. I’m sure Shiden has a base there by now.

I’m surprised that the U.S. doesn’t have the throw weight to at least stay in the ting to speak. Even if they don’t end up getting it. I guess the wierding messed the world order up a bit.

That does not mean they are unable to participate or speak, it means that it’s the only thing everyone else agrees on and is working towards, which usually means it’s not going to happen without some major conditions or concessions.

It does help however, the ship was built in the US by a US company funded by an American businessman, no one else has such a strong claim to it,

Yeah, that’s what I was going to ask about. You would think that would place the U.S. at the head of the line for claiming possession of Shiden’s ship. Hmm, I guess the concern could be that the U.S. is still a conventional super power despite magic now being a factor and other nations don’t want the U.S. to become a magic S.P. as well. A flying orichalcum powered battleship that fires a big ol’ laser would be a huge game changer for any nation’s military! Still if the U.S. doesn’t claim it and it goes to some other nation Shiden could be in a whole lot of trouble back home. Illegal weapons development and manufacture perhaps? I wouldn’t be surprised to see a major investigation of Shiden’s companies in the near future. Might be a way to see those one agents (I’m forgetting names here) come back into the picture.

Good points all ’round. hm I think I need to look up the laws about warship construction again. Gone are days of the age of sail where you could just build a warship for private use and then sail about in it. Though I’m sure there was some kind of loophole that was exploited to build the ship (Labeling it as an experimental build? Like the British yard that built CSS Alabama did?

FTR is an International Business with facilities all over the world and lots of contracts with other countries. Their biggest contributors are the United Nations and the Black Forest Rangers. Also the ship was used over international waters so you can bet it’s considered a new issue for the international community to discuss. And yes, the ship fired a magically enhanced railgun to destroy the island. He has some odd permissions from governments all over allowing him to build crazy contraptions, it’s the use of them and testing them where things get really hairy always on the bleeding edge and beyond the scope the law can cover.

So this is a never before seen issue that they can both penalize him for and have great difficulty justifying. His prediction though is the lose of the ship in question and probably a fine that means nothing to him. His agents and lawyers will do what they can to make his prediction come true because while it would be great for him to get off without a hitch, public image would look bad if he got away with something with no repercussion. So his own agents and allies are trying to make it all work out.

Will I go into all of that in the comic? Probably not, detailed stories on political and financial manipulation of governments and legal processes are best left to people who know what they are doing in those fields. I’m a layman at best so I’m going with the good ol’ cop out – “Hes super rich, trying to leave a good impression on the world, and can manipulate a government or judicial body through clever manipulation and money”. For the public though he has to make it look like the loss of the ship is a great blow to his ego, so he’s already playing that up, not that hes not hurt by it at all- but as it’s been said, he has another and he planned this from the beginning.

My question is why is the ship being taken at all? Last I checked it’s perfectly legal to own and maintain a ship and aircraft as a private owner. The closest anyone could tell Shidan to do is dismantle the weaponry attached to the ship.

As much as everybody might expect “Not America”….America doesn’t need to take it, even if Shiden didn’t build it there, he’s based there, so technically someone based in America is likely to have one anyway. (Just not the Gov’t, in this case. Obviously.)

Should evacuate it and self-destruct (or at least take everything you possibly can out of the ship) while you still can so they don’t get all your tech.

The US is probably building a better one anyway. Shiden will get a lot of contracts for manufacturing subassemblies, but just getting one ship is also getting all of its known weaknesses. That and it’s strategically unwise to keep all of the production “eggs” in one basket.

And, given the state of the US in Feb. of 2020, we don’t want…HIM getting the keys to this machine.

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