Dimensional Trader in Marvel

"Mr. President, what exactly is Austria trying to do?" The Americans reacted quickly. As soon as they noticed Austria's unusual military movements, General Alfred Maximilian Gruenther, the Supreme Commander of the NATO at the time, immediately called the Austrian Presidential Office and bluntly questioned Karl Renner.

"I don't really understand what you mean, General," Karl Renner replied with a smile.

"Your troops have entered the Soviet's territory and surrounded our forces. Don't tell me you, as President, know nothing about this!" Gruenther said in a serious tone.

"General, I have to disagree. When did our troops enter the Soviet's territory? Oh? Are you talking about Hungary and Czechoslovakia? General, if I remember correctly, these two countries have always been independent, and they are Austria's friendly neighbors, not the Soviet's territory. Our troops entered these countries at their invitation to help them defend against possible invaders," Karl Renner replied calmly.

"Don't use these fake political terms with me. You and I both know what's really going on. Don't you realize your actions could completely anger the Soviet? You might drag all of Europe into disaster!" Gruenther yelled angrily into the phone.

"General, you're exaggerating. We just want to help our friends fight for freedom and democracy. I believe there is still truth in this world. No matter how strong the Soviet is, they can't stop all of Europe from wanting freedom," Karl Renner continued with official-sounding words.

"Fine, fine. So Austria thinks it can represent all of Europe against the Soviet now? I want to see how you end this!" Gruenther laughed angrily. He was about to retire next month, but now this happened, and he was very upset.

"You don't need to worry about that, General. I believe the Soviet will be reasonable," Karl Renner replied calmly.

"Hmph, let's put that aside for now. What about your troops surrounding my forces?" Gruenther didn't want to argue anymore and changed the topic to the three American divisions surrounded by Austrian troops.

"General, you misunderstand. Since World War II, your army has helped our country's independence and democracy so much. We are very grateful and would never want any conflict with your forces. Think about all our military cooperation over the years, which has helped keep Europe peaceful and stable! So, the encirclement must be a misunderstanding. All our troop movements are normal military deployments with no intention of conflict. Some of our roads have always been open to your troops," Karl Renner explained to Gruenther in a very "sincere" tone.

But on the other end of the phone, Gruenther was already furious.

Yes, all the roads are open, but you have troops on both sides of the roads and at all key points, and you've shut down all supply stations, right?

As soon as our air force gets close to Austrian airspace, a bunch of fighter jets come up to "greet" and "escort" us, right?

And all this talk about military cooperation for peace in Europe—doesn't that just mean America has given you so much technology, and now all the favors are paid back?

And then, thinking about those new fighter jets that suddenly appeared—jets that are much better than the Mirage 3 in every way—Gruenther got even angrier.

These Austrians have been hiding their true strength all along.

"What's the name of your new fighter jet?" Gruenther asked, trying to control his anger.

"Oh? You mean that one? It's called the F4 Phantom. It's a brand new fighter jet we just developed this year. Why? Is your military interested in it? We'd be happy to share it with you, but you should know, the cost to make it is a bit high…" Karl Renner lied with a straight face.

Gruenther was even angrier after hearing this.

Did Karl Renner think he didn't understand how fighter jets are developed and produced? This so-called F4 Phantom was clearly a very advanced, multi-role heavy fighter jet. From finishing its development to fully replacing older jets, could that really be done in just a year or two?

Based on recent monitoring, there had already been over a hundred flights of this F4 Phantom around Austrian airspace in just a few days. For a jet fighter, that's a very large number. Even the Mirage 3s Austria used before never reached this number—unless you count the ones they sold to other countries, which would be over a thousand. And that's not even counting the ones built with American help; those are just the ones Austria made and sold themselves. In recent years, Austria's arms business had grown very big.

But even with that, Austria being able to quickly switch so many jets to the F4 was very suspicious. Maybe, right after the Mirage 3 was made, Austria had already started secretly building the F4.

"If your country is willing to share, I'm sure my country will give you enough in return," Gruenther said, holding back his anger because he remembered his real goal.

From the start, Gruenther's goal wasn't really about Austria sending troops into Hungary and Czechoslovakia. While the U.S. was unhappy about Austria's military actions, after the White House advisors looked at the situation, they decided to accept it. At this time, the U.S. didn't want a full war with the Soviet, but they also didn't mind someone else testing the Soviet's strength, since there were problems inside the Soviet's camp.

Back then, the rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet was just beginning, and both sides were still being careful, not as bold as they would be in the 1970s and 1980s. Both were new to being world powers and hadn't found their place yet, so the U.S. didn't want to act too tough in Europe.

Also, the U.S. wasn't worried about the three divisions surrounded by Austrian troops. Since Austria had already angered the Soviet, the U.S. didn't think Austria would dare to fight them directly. Austria's real aim was just to watch and stop the U.S. from interfering in Austria's actions. This was obvious.

So, for this call, Gruenther's real goal was the new Phantom fighter jet. The Mirage 3 was good, but for the U.S.—which had a huge military, lots of allies, and global needs—it wasn't enough. They had always wanted a more advanced fighter, but because of time, they hadn't made one that fit their needs yet.

Especially the two companies that were most trusted to deliver—Josh's Boeing and Howard's Lockheed Martin—didn't even want to get involved.

After Josh bought Boeing, the company started focusing on space and cars, though it still made planes. But with the Mirage 3 and other models already in production, plus a huge number of orders for large jet airliners, Boeing was too busy to work on new fighter jets. Part of this was because Josh wanted it that way.

Lockheed Martin, led by Howard, didn't go into cars, but because Howard always wanted to compete with Josh, Lockheed also put a lot of effort into space. They made big planes like the C-130, so they were making good money, and Howard had been obsessed with studying the Cosmic Cube for years. So Lockheed also didn't have much energy left to develop new fighter jets.

That meant only McDonnell Douglas and a few other companies were left to take the military's requests. But because Boeing and Lockheed Martin had been expanding so aggressively, companies like McDonnell Douglas were under a lot of pressure. Many of their best engineers had been hired away, and their ability to make new planes had dropped a lot, so it was very hard for them to create a fighter better than the Mirage 3.

Also, in recent years, Josh's Continental Group kept releasing new technology, especially smart robots, which pushed all of science and industry to a much higher level. Many old companies couldn't keep up.

Take Austria's new F4 Phantom as an example. On the outside, it looked a lot like the original F4 Phantom, but inside, its control, electrical, hydraulic, and fuel systems were completely different from the original.

Its performance was more like the F-4X, a version of the Phantom that the U.S. and Israel worked on in the 1970s but never finished. The F-4X was supposed to be much better than the regular F-4, but because it was too good and might hurt F-15 sales to Israel, the U.S. stopped the project. But Austria's F4 Phantom now matched the F-4X's paper performance, meaning it was as good as or even better than the F-15, a fourth-generation fighter.

Even though this fighter was strong enough to beat almost any jet in the world, the Austrian military just saw it as a bargaining chip for talks with the West. If the West was willing to pay, Austria was willing to sell—not just the planes, but also the technology and production lines.

So when Gruenther showed interest in the F4, Karl Renner was very happy. "Of course, America has always been Austria's close friend. As long as the price is right, not only can we sell you the jets, but also the technology and production lines!" he said.

That's right—Austria was willing to sell everything, as long as the Americans could pay enough. After all, compared to the F4 or even the F15, the F22 was even better, right?

Yes, while the air force was switching to the F4, Austria's factories, with Josh's help, were already setting up production lines for the F22. Of course, because of the timeline in this world, the technology for the F22 didn't actually exist yet.

So, the source of Josh's F-22 technology was Lawrence from the I, Robot World. In his world, the F-22 was already an old and outdated fighter jet. With Lawrence's power, getting the needed technology from the military was no problem at all.

With Josh's help, Austria didn't need to worry about the high cost of building the F-22, either. The real reason fighter jets are expensive is because the supporting industry and production technology are not advanced enough. But for the Ouroboros organization, which had already started building spaceships, these problems were nothing. For them, making an F-22 didn't cost much more than making a large model kit.

Also, for Ouroboros, giving Austria the F-22 was never the first choice. Both Yuri's world and Lawrence's world had fighter jets much better than the F-22. The only reason they picked the F-22 was because Josh wanted to see this famous American jet from another world become America's nightmare in this world—it sounded fun, didn't it?

So, the F-22, which was retired in Josh's past life for being too strong, was about to show up in this world decades early.

But right now, the Americans had no idea about any of this. So when Karl Renner agreed so quickly to sell everything about the F-4, Gruenther felt like he was dreaming. Was the White House wrong? Did Austria not really want to break away from America's control? Everything was going too smoothly.

As for how much it would cost to buy the F-4's technology and production line, Gruenther didn't think much about it. At this time, was there anything in the world that America couldn't afford? That's how confident he was.

After a few more questions to make sure Austria really wanted to sell the F-4 tech, Gruenther hung up the phone. His job was done. The next talks wouldn't be his responsibility as the Allied Commander in Europe. All he had left to do was report to the White House and pull the three divisions out of Austria and back to West Germany. Oh, and withdraw the fleet from the Adriatic Sea, too. The fleet was only there to support Austria anyway, and there weren't many ships, so it was easy to pull out. That way, he could finally retire in peace.

Gruenther was relieved. But on the other side, Karl Renner couldn't rest yet. Because the Soviet's ambassador to Austria had just come to see him. Compared to the Americans, who were trying to avoid getting involved, the Soviet was the real challenge Austria had to face in setting up its new kingdom!

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