Makes me wonder, if a cape took over a city and declared himself the ruler, would Dragon be forced to obey them? Dragon follows the authority even above the law, that's why she'd be forced to obey even if a despot took over the country. But I'm not sure what would happen in this case.
Probably not. Like, if Coil stayed Director, she'd have to obey him because he's part of the PRT and local government, but if it's an open case where a villain takes over a city, she doesn't have to listen to them because the city isn't in control of the proper authorities.
Otherwise, Nilbog or any Quarantize Zone that has a "leader" could just tell her to get out and she'd comply, and that's not really an issue for her. It's more like corruption in the government itself. If you usurp and get rid of it, and create an Independent Brockton Bay Government, as long as there's an overaching government she listens to, and they say it's not legit, she's bound to them to see them as not legit.
She'd have to fall on international regulations for it. If it fulfills all the criteria of an independent state, then it is an independent state, and she can no longer interfere in it as part of the PRT's efforts, even if Canada does not recognize the new entity as an independent actor.
It goes to show how skewered and ridiculous her rules are, since by that definition any gang could make a declaration of independence, and thus make it impossible for Dragon to interfere.
Why would she have to follow international regulations? Only if Andrew Richter cared about that would that happen. Given the world isn't unified, I'd wager he just programmed her to "Follow the authorities of these governments of these countries. Ignore the rest."
Besides, what happens if the PRT gives unlawful orders about their own mission statement? She's forced to follow their orders regardless if the order itself is contradictory. Given her own drones make a
Wheatley reference about paradoxes, it's not like the logic loop will short circuit her or anything. She'll just follow orders, even if that's "Gun down local civilians" regardless of that order being really obviously illegal.
Yeah but what happens if they cut the city off and quarantine it but Heavy Gear through judicious use of tinkertech bullshit manage to keep basic amenities going (for example, Peter lucks out, hits Star Trek for a specialty and builds replicators)? If they quarantine it but the city remains self sustaining and doesn't collapse then it looks pretty bad. If they then proceed to start appealing to other nations for international recognition then that looks extremely bad for the government.
One, it can only look sympathetic depending upon the amount of people are left. The PRT and the US will try their best to evacuate the city whole-scale. How many people that actually will stay is entirely dependent on how the PR war goes. If Heavy Gear does badly in that, then well, they won't really have enough control over the narrative or people to really matter in terms of international relations for the long run.
Two, even assuming they have the city mostly intact... the rest of the world probably won't care. They have their own problems to deal with. Until Heavy Gear has more pull than the one city they've conquered, they just aren't big enough to matter regardless of what tech they have. Other nations have it worse and have more horrible things happening going on near them to care about one city in the US. Africa is a lawless warzone of feudal parahuman warlords, Europe is in overall a worse position than the US with little to no Protectorate or PRT presence, Russia has been usurped by the Red Gauntlet, what's left of Japan requires international aid to just function, and China is pretty much ruled by the Yangban. There isn't really anyone around that has the power even collectively to do anything to the US here because they're barely treading water as is.
Three, Heavy Gear might get "aid" from Red Gauntlet and the Yangban, but that's not exactly going to make them look better internationally, is it? Nor is Peter or Taylor going to want their help.
