Fridge / ARMA

Fridge Brilliance

• In the third game: one of the two endings consist of finishing Lt. James' mission, as he lays dying in a CSAT-only compound. If successful, in retaliation, CSAT launches a counter-offensive against NATO and the AAF sending both armies into a chaotic retreat. If you abandon James, the last remaining AAF forces surrender unconditionally after CSAT wordlessly and without explanation vacates the area: Because the Device that he was sent to retrieve remains safely in CSAT hands.
  • In addition, the reason why CSAT attacks the AAF as well as NATO is that they don't know who stole the Device from their base, only that someone broke in, blasted past the guards, and took it. As far as they know, either the AAF or NATO troops could have grabbed it, so they're hitting back against everyone.
• That was the whole purpose of the war: Miller's team inserted in Stratis, with the sole mission of recovering the Device, implied to be an earthquake-based superweapon, being developed and tested in Altis and Stratis from at least a year before the events of the campaign. The AAF in return attacked the NATO taskforce or Miller inserted in the zone precisely because they knew the attack was going to happen (it is unclear the correlation but the attack happened literally five minutes after millers arrival, so they can't possibly be unrelated). Miller has been helping the task force survivors and the guerrillas in order to gather intel about the Device, and abandons both factions at his convenience.
• It is debatable which ending is the "good ending" but considering a third world war is all but stated to be incoming, NATO victory over the AAF may be a small price to pay to avoid that the enemy acquires a weapon of mass destruction. It all depends on whether the player abides by Miller's morality. Although it should be noted that even Nato Mediterranean Command was completely in the dark about him and his mission.
  • While it is not explicitly stated which ending is the canonical one, the events of Apex seem to imply that they take place in the "good" NATO ending. After absconding with the seismic weapon, CSAT moves it to Tanoa, presumably for further testing. There, they run afoul of local paramilitaries, which eventually results in the weapon falling into NATO's hands. Or, it could be that Tanoa was CSAT's other testing area, and (assuming "bad" Miller ending) while they did move the weapon off Altis, NATO still managed to get the second one.