Finally, she nodded, the motion becoming harder and firmer as she did.
“The resistance will fight,” she said, looking up to Tyler with new fire in her eyes.
Tyler didn’t whoop or cheer, he simply nodded and advanced.
“Good, then we have a lot of work to do,” Tyler said, opening one of the folders in front of her.
***
Explosions started going off and the sound could be heard in the distance. Jerome, Kojo, and Huang looked to one another, nods passing between them. They turned from the market vendor, heading back to Moretti’s apartment.
It didn’t take them long to reach the apartment. They tapped on the door in a set code, and a slot opened; Jerome knew there was probably a gun pointed at his groin.
“Hey, Tal, want to let a guy in?” Jerome asked.
“Hey, boys,” Tal said, opening the door, as the three came into the room.
Minutes later there was more banging.
Haas came in, escorting Moretti, Bairamov, and Domo with him.
Jerome grinned, as the rest of the enforcers arrived.
Moretti was complaining about the noise, but he and Mark grabbed cigars and started puffing on the couch.
Jerome pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
Everyone was safe and accounted for. Jerome just hoped that the plan they’d cooked up for the resistance worked out.
Jerome took a long drag on his cigarette, flicking ash into a tray.
He didn’t particularly like the normal cigarettes, but the flavoured typed with stims and relaxants were pretty nice, plus the activity gave him something to do.
Some read books, others pulled out a deck of cards, a game of euchre was started in one corner, but most smoked and talked.
Tal and Iliev were at the door, their weapons ready. They talked about this and that, and smoked, but their eyes were always around the door.
“I wonder how long the resistance will take to beat down,” Mark said.
“Depends really, I wonder what the hell they’re going for,” Moretti said, looking to Mark and the others in the room. Maybe one day they would tell him, but for now it was best for his security and theirs if he didn’t know.
Moretti recognized that on a level, and grinned, sitting back in his seat and puffing on his cigar.
Jerome noticed the way it shook.
Not for the first time Jerome wondered how the man had stayed sane and kept doing his job through all of Harmony’s occupation.
Jerome had seen him among his ‘followers’. They might see Moretti as their guide to Harmony over Harper, they were enamored with him and he could do no wrong. They happily did whatever he asked.
He treated them better than any other unit, made sure they were fed, and then let them do as they wished. He had carried off missions of the highest importance, second only to Harper. They were all Harmony and they all trusted him with their lives.
What a shock that’s going to be when he stabs them right in the back, Jerome thought.
He had also wondered more than once if Dan Moretti would have liked them as much if they had met at the beginning of Harmony’s rise to power.
He showed his mean streak now and then, but with the troopers he relaxed. He didn’t treat them as equals, but they were from the same place, they had similar values and that was something he hadn’t shared with many in a long time.
Dan Moretti wasn’t a trooper by any stretch and he was a bit of a snot still, but he had become one of the few people that Jerome wouldn’t mind having a beer with once this was all over.
They watched one another’s backs in different ways. The way he had organized the freighters to be over Gas Planet when EMFC Reclaimer and Fearless arrived would get him a beer from any trooper he asked.
The fighting was still going when Moretti got a message.
“Seems that they are attacking weapon and ammunition vaults… used some rather interesting ways to enter the places,” Moretti said, as he looked around seeing the interest on all their faces. He smiled, scanning the contents of the file, making sure it wasn’t traced.
That done he sent it to all of their implants. Without the medical techs and implants available no one had received implants in years. Those that had them and longevity treatments were good to go, everyone else was down to using surfaces, earbuds and their mark one un-altered human body.
Jerome looked through the incoming reports, the battle was fluid but the resistance had hit a few hours after a shift change, late enough that the first shift had gone, the area had cleared out and the people had got bored.
Explosions in more barracks put people on alert and busy responding, which was perfect for the resistance fighters to swarm the various armories and holding facilities.
So the night went, people wasting their time away as the resistance hit Harmony again and again.
It lasted thirty-six hours, everyone staying inside as a war was waged throughout Landing City.
Then it ended and people started putting the pieces together.
Eight armories had been hit all over Landing City. After further investigation another twenty-three had been burrowed into, and groups had used the distractions of the attacks to haul away entire armories. When they were opened bombs exploded, destroying anything left behind and killing Chosen.
Jerome hadn’t seen his platoon this happy since Tyler’s wedding and before ‘that’ shuttle ride.
“Looks like those damned troopers are making progress on Shipping Station. Makes you think that the resistance and the EMF are working together,” Moretti said, flashing everyone a smile. There were a few grins but everyone was tense, the operation that they’d been planning for months, and wasn’t supposed to happen for a few more had been started.
There was no giving up or backing down, it was do or die, not for just them but for the people of Masoul, as well as the troopers and combat shuttle crews of Reclaimer and Fearless.
Jerome knew that more than one of them was going to have trouble sleeping over the coming days.
Chapter 39
EMFC Reclaimer
Shipping Station, Masoul System
3/3242
Alexis stepped off of her combat shuttle, waited for all of her section to make it off, then she followed. Ever since they’d reached Masoul it had been a hard fight to hold the ship, then Gas Planet, and finally Shipping Station.
Gaining entry to Shipping Station had been the biggest problem, but once they were aboard they pushed through Chosen’s lines with good speed. That was until they met the booby traps.
Higher-up agreed with the troopers on the ground in a rare display of common sense.
Progress had slowed to a halt, they’d dealt with booby traps, adapted to Chosen’s tactics and taken their time to move forward, then in the space of a few days they’d gone from making slow progress to bringing their full strength against Chosen.
Fucker’s didn’t like that much, Alexis thought as she remembered the troopers rushing the Chosen positions that they had thought to be impregnable. Troopers had moved over the hull and they’d hit Chosen from every direction possible.
It had taken time, as Chosen had numbers on their side and better weaponry than on Gas Planet but in the end they fell.
It had taken a toll but it was nowhere as bad as Alexis and others had feared.
A large part of that was due to the majors working together in the field.
Alexis looked up as she heard a commotion over near one of the combat shuttles that had just been raised up from its landing hangar to the flight deck.
A message came over Alexis’ HUD.
They’re trying to arrest Nerva, fuckers are saying that he went over their heads to cut orders that kept us alive!
The hidden chat rooms and networks were filled with angry words and clear annoyance.
Alexis wondered what idiot thought to arrest Nerva when everyone was coming back from Shipping Station. They were pissed and filled with anger, preparing themselves fo
r the next battle and taking a moment to remember those that they had lost. Just as they were starting to relax they pulled this shit, when every trooper still had their armor and weapons on them.
***
General Wai looked at the reports coming from across the ship; armed and armored troopers were demanding information on Nerva and the other majors that had been taken into custody for being in violation of the EMF code of conduct.
She looked at the reports with disgust.
Pawns should know their place instead of making trouble for others, she thought.
A communications tech let out a breath in a hiss.
“I will not have any of that conduct in my command center,” Wai said.
The communications specialist ignored her and walked to the planning table where the lieutenant colonels hung out. The ones that were still attuned to the troopers on the ground.
The man walked right up to Colonel Domashev, the only colonel in the group.
“Communications tech! When the general gives you an order you listen; consider yourself relieved, get put back to sleep, another will take your place,” Wai said, waving at the man; she’d see that he had no livelihood once he was kicked from the EMF.
He had been Lieutenant Colonel Domashev on Sacremon but his work had got him an extra rank, though it hadn’t been enough to get his mind off of the troopers on the ground. Thus why he was at the kids table.
General Wai felt something was wrong with the way that the communications tech was bowing to the colonel deeply.
“Thank you, son,” Domashev said, as moving from the table, he pulled a surface from a charging drawer. He quickly crossed the distance to Wai’s seat and passed her the surface.
She was about to yell at him too when a seal passed over the front of the surface, it was from the commander of Earth’s Military Forces.
She pulled it from the man, wondering why the hell he would get the message before her.
General Wai,
Upon receipt of this message, consider yourself relieved from the service of the EMF, place yourself in storage until a time you can be revived. Colonel Domashev will be taking over your duties for the duration. With this the officers that you imprisoned are free to carry out their tasks for the coming attack on the EMF.
Do not anger this Ministry more.
There was no signature as one wasn’t needed with the seal; the message had been sent minutes ago. Though the part that scared her the most was the capitalized ‘Ministry’ that wasn’t a reference to the EMF, it was a reference to the Ministry of Intelligence.
The real power of Earth and her colonies ran through the Ministry of Intelligence. Nivad was the emperor and the ministry was his tool to command the people of Earth and her colonies. Including the corporations. No one else came close to that sort of power.
Her blood ran cold as she saw her future crumble and her past become worthless.
She sat in her chair, looking at the hologram that rested in the center of the room showing Masoul Actual. Communications personnel ringed it on the opposite side, facing her and the hologram. Four tables were on either side of the hologram with meeting rooms and lounges that the higher-ups and her favorites relaxed in.
Her thoughts of climbing the EMF ladder were gone, political positioning was gone. Messages started coming in on her personal messages, companies withdrawing their support from her. She stood numbly and walked out of the command center, barely hearing Domashev barking orders as the colonels moved from their tables to the hologram and started pouring over the reports from Masoul Actual.
***
“Seems that Mr. Selvra wants you to win this battle,” NIDenise said in Nerva’s head.
“What did he do?” Nerva asked.
“Called for Wai’s execution, but got her to step down, too many connections for that. As soon as the announcement went through the EMF’s back channels her backers disappeared. No one wants to piss Nivad off while he’s fighting this new war.”
A military police officer came down the brig and unlocked the doors, releasing some pissed off officers.
He opened Nerva’s pen.
“Sorry, sir, I was under orders and…” the man started. Nerva raised a hand and walked out of the cell.
“You were doing as you were ordered. Discipline and following orders keeps the EMF rolling, if we didn’t have that then we wouldn’t get anything done,” Nerva said, raising his voice so the other officers could hear him.
“So, what we doing now, boss?” Ortiz asked, spitting tobacco juice into a bottle.
“We get ready for Masoul Actual. I want reports from all your people by tomorrow night, same for you Demar and Sholtz. Take today and tomorrow off, our people deserve to sit this fight out, but we all know that’s not going to happen so we have to prepare as best as we can.” Nerva looked to his division’s officers and the other officers that had backed his play and would have been stuck in the brig with him if it weren’t for the fact Nivad Selvra needed them to fight his war for them.
This universe is a strange place.
“Tell me something new,” NIDenise said in his head.
Chapter 40
Tower
Earth, Sol System
3/3242
Nivad didn’t look at anyone from the EMF the entire meeting, instead he had the people from Osdal and Masoul lay out their information.
“They understand that this isn’t just another rebellion now. And they don’t know what to do with themselves,” Wallace said, smoking a cigarette in Nivad’s office. Dalia also smoked in her own chair. This was the inner circle deciding the fate of Earth and her colonies.
Nivad exhaled, back to his regular stim-cigarettes.
“Good, then they will understand your appointment to them as ‘advisor’,” Nivad said.
Wallace didn’t look pleased with the idea but he nodded.
That’s what Nivad liked most about the man. When given a task, he’d put his head down and do it, no matter what the task might entail.
“How is the supply freighter looking?” Nivad asked.
“It’s on schedule with thirty-six more years to go until it reaches Osdal,” Dalia said.
“Good, and the closest carrier?” Nivad took a drag of his cigarette.
“Eighteen years,” she said, checking her surface.
“Reclaimer is the best ship that we have right now, all forces are to reinforce them, so have the reinforcements slow down. I want Reclaimer to be the first on scene, they’ve shown that they’re capable of thinking outside the box. I expected that they would need to stop their advance already with numerical losses. If they can do this much with two carriers then I want to see what they can do with seven,” Nivad said, looking at the others. Reclaimer had already served more fighting hours than most other carriers had experienced.
Reclaimer and Fearless had more months of active fighting than the rest of the EMF combined.
Nivad wanted to use their veteran status as the core for the EMF in the upcoming war.
“Population projections for Osdal?” Nivad asked, looking to Dalia.
She exhaled slowly and looked at her surface.
“Forty-three million,” she said, looking back up at him. Osdal was a labor intensive world, and with their great natural resources they refined and shipped most of the EHC’s compound materials; everything from the crystal matrix that made up the towers to the cermite pads cities were built on, and special materials used in freighter and carrier’s solar sails.
It was one of the oldest colonies settled.
Their processing and shipping center was bigger than Masoul’s Shipping Station. Most of their materials were sold to the rest of the sphere, being turned into various goods before getting shipped off to Earth and the other colonies.
“I still don’t like the lack of information coming from Osdal. The population is big enough that Harmony operatives can hide in the general population and they have none of the command and control abilities that we have
here on Earth. Something that I want to change as soon as possible,” Nivad said, looking to Dalia who was typing out a reminder with one hand, and holding a smoking cigarette in the other.
“Just three days until the EMF reach Masoul Actual,” Nivad said, looking at the screens.
“At least Colonel Domashev is listening to the advice of the operatives on the ground. They might be useful for further operations,” Wallace said, looking at Nivad.
“Yes, they might. Keep tabs on them, though. From reports, they already have quite the following, called the Triple Two’s, they’re Nerva’s people, and he’s groomed three of their four section commanders. If that man was given enough time he could turn Reclaimer into something terrible,” Nivad said.
“Knife edge,” Dalia warned.
“Quite, he is useful for winning this war, but he’s dedicated to his troopers. That’s useful for now, but if he’s still alive after the war then it could become a big issue. We don’t want people caring about those below them too much. If they started doing that then they might stop agreeing to missions. We will not make the mistakes of other intelligence ministries in the past. If we give someone power and means we must also have an option to remove them from the equation; we can’t have people thinking that they’re able to act without our orders,” Nivad said.
“That’s why General Wai was put on ice and relieved of her position but not removed from the EMF. She and the other officers are kept at bay for now, but if he acts out then you release their collars,” Dalia said, new understanding in her eyes.
“Exactly, we sharpen our blade because we must, but we make sure that there is something to stop the blade being sharpened on both ends and pointed towards us,” Nivad said.
Chapter 41
Landing City
Masoul Actual, Masoul System
6/3242
Moretti was in the command center with Mark and Ali standing behind him, and everyone else was with the powered armor, lounging around the development area.
Masoul (Harmony War Series Book 2) Page 29
