blackaeronaut Wrote:Actually... If there ever were to be a case with a defector from China, this would probably be it. Think about it. Would the Fen ever turn over a Chinese that requests asylum from the PRC? Even with as much propaganda as they like to produce, there would be plenty of people in the PRC that know better (this is why they have so much 'trouble' with political activists).Yes, I think this should be mostly meta information... a plot enabler for some "dark forces" in the background with enough resources to pay the bill, but not enough hardware to become a real force in Fenspace.
Now, who would this person defect to specifically? TSAB is right out because it's an US Airforce base. None of the 'civilian' factions because the defector would probably be worried about a military reprisal. The Soviet Airforce in Exile is risky because of its connection to the Russians. Which leaves Mars, The Patrol, and maaayyyyybeee the Roughriders.
I added Roughriders because: 1) 36 Atalante is probably on the way out there; 2) Ben would be the type to go on the record about the PRC and the DPRK - he appreciates Chinese and Korean culture very much, but he refers to their governing bodies with polite, but very unflattering words; and 3) 36 Atalante has repelled one direct assault and several sneak attacks - the tacticians at the PRC would have looked at it and probably said "You would have to be suicidal."
Then again, chances against a defector are pretty strong because there'd be a few people calling for rocks to be dropped on Beijing. Ben might think of calling for something like that at first, but he'd check himself once he thinks of the collateral damage. (He'd still call for some form of political retaliation, as well as their secret base getting flattened.)
The idea does only work if its not known the the Fen and the SMOFs for quite some time...
I explicitly tried to build a scenario useful for story writing without forcing the issue between China and Fenspace.