Jack of Harts

Pineland evacuated many of the Atticans and Pineland citizens who made it through the checkpoints to the airport in those final days. They did not evacuate those stopped from getting through the gates. And many who did were still denied flights. The last military planes evacuated Attica days ahead of the deadline, leaving behind thousands of citizens and allies in an Attica under Islamic Congress control. They reported that some Pineland citizens had elected not to leave, and that all they had to do was contact Pineland if they changed their minds. Citizen-led rescue efforts of Pineland citizens and allies continued, but the Pineland administration interfered at every opportunity. They stated that since they had no forces on the ground, they didn’t know who was on the flights, and therefore could not help potentially dangerous elements get out of Attica.

As Attica continued to spiral further out of control, Pineland citizens began flying to Attica on their own to help fellow citizens and their Attican allies to escape. Many of them were veterans of the Attican conflict, old men who still had contact with those they had worked with over the years. Others sought to get the Attican Christians out before the Islamic Congress killed them for the sin of converting to another religion. These mixed groups of veterans and civilians saved tens of thousands of Pineland and Attican civilians in the days before the Pineland administration stepped in. They demanded that other nations stop accepting civilian refugee flights, stopped giving planes filled with refugees clearance to launch, and began threatening to cancel the licenses of pilots that worked with these organizations if they continued to do so.

Pineland evacuated their embassy ahead of the advancing Islamic Congress troops and moved to the last free airport in Attica. With the situation rapidly accelerating further out of control, Pineland citizens and allied governments alike demanded action from the Pineland administration. They finally bowed to those demands and sent troops back into the country to secure the airport and support an evacuation of Pineland citizens and allies. When pressed on the matter, the president promised to evacuate all Pineland citizens before withdrawing the military again. He also promised Pineland’s allies that the troops would remain long enough for them to evacuate their own citizens and allies as well. And he promised the Islamic Congress that the troops would leave by the end of the month, whether all citizens and allies were evacuated or not. All of those promises could not be kept.