226 Cleanup

V.24

When Oda made the decision to create a mercenary group and send his soldiers to fight and participate in all manner of wars. He accepted the risk and cost. And the greatest of all cost, human lives. 

He accepted it and took responsibility for it. Because he knows there is no way to fulfill his promise without letting his men go through battles. 

There's no way to create a powerful army without risking their lives. There's no way it is possible, virtual training can only take them so far. It can help prepare them but without experiencing actual life and death there's no way to turn them into real soldiers, one worthy of his Boss arms and legs. 

And so Dianna never asks Oda about it, likewise Oda never talks about it either; they both accepted each other's resolve in fulfilling their Boss dreams. 

Dianna explained to Oda the needs of GT, and see if Oda can elevate some of those problems like looking for a new source of resources. Or providing certain intelligence. 

Despite Gaia bridging those problems there's only so much she can do no matter how advanced she is. And with the speed GT and the Grand Army is expanding she can hardly keep up. It even comes to a point that Oda is delegating some of the loads to Legion's mother drones. 

Such as processing some of the army data among some of the things delegated to the mother drones. 

Oda easily agreed to some of Dianna's proposals. Likewise Dianna accepted some of Oda suggestions. Because so far the coordination between GT and Grand Army remains minimal. After all, in the Grand Army Legion's existence remains a top secret. 

And although many speculated about GT's hidden Army no one can confirm its existence. 

Besides the things GT revealed to the public no one can find anything no matter how great the spy they sent. It's a reputation that GT earned, they became the best company that was most difficult to get information from. And that's why every new information regarding GT could sell at a very high price in the black market. 

Dianna stayed on Earth for about 3 days only because she can't say no to Arc's parents and sisters; they insisted she stayed for a while before going back to space. 

Meanwhile in Ganesh Main HQ, Karou was livid with anger at the second stage of his plan that he and his most trusted advisor carefully laid down was so easily countered by a single press conference of GT making him very angry. 

He knows he won't be able to catch the GFA and other superpowers in another surprise attack. And what makes him so angry is that the press conference doesn't just affect GFA but all races and organizations that combat Him or the Ganesh. The video has been used as an effective propaganda in order to raise morale and ignite the fighting spirit in combating his forces. In other words instead of a tattered and broken organization what awaiting them would be an enemy very eager to fight them. 

Unfortunately for him no matter how superior his forces are against the combined forces of the bright galaxy he would be hard-pressed, and that's not all because of his surprise attacks many organizations are now joining forces. And are now planning a joint expedition against him. 

If before no one wants to join forces because of the potential rewards being divided, now organizations have no choice but to unite in order to prove to their people that they are waging war not for profits but for survival. 

Even GFA was forced to join forces with other organizations like the coalitions and merchants guild. 

Elders and leaders from different organizations were forced to cooperate with other organizations to prove and justify their actions about the war. After all, many people are watching them unlike before. The GT press conference ignited people's interest about the war. Almost every news article is about them. 

Even the management of Liberty was forced to concede to GT's demand but instead of letting GT manage the overall security of Liberty it will be jointly managed between Liberty elders and GT defence agency. This will allow GT to bring forces in Liberty unchecked. It was basically a death sentence to those who are planning to attack GT. 

And as soon as the contract was signed GT wasted no effort in strengthening the security in Liberty, as millions of security drones were unleashed in Liberty and according to GT, people of Liberty have nothing to fear as long as they follow the standard rules of Liberty. 

In other words if you're not planning on doing some mischief, you have nothing to fear. This action was condemned by many residents of Liberty specially in the outer layer of Liberty, but no matter how much they protest GT or the upper management of Liberty remains unmoved. 

After all the upper management of Liberty just signed a very favorable deal with GT, they will be given a priority in purchasing the military products of GT in return for giving half the management rights to them. 

It's actually not a bad deal not to mention they will be able to save a lot of credits by giving half of the security rights to GT, after all GT was only asking for minimum payment for doing it. And as long as it is not a total right. For them it is not a big deal, they are only afraid of giving the complete rights to GT as they would be defenceless. 

And just like that GT was able to secure Liberty security giving them unprecedented access to its security system. GT also installed many hidden cams all over Liberty. Making Ash's job a lot easier. Because of that Queen and the rest of her group was forced into hiding. 

And true enough because of GT's action crimes have dropped by several times overnight. Especially in the outer layer. Where it was mostly lawless. 

Many criminal organizations were forced to disband or halt many of their activities. Of course there are those who are brave enough to try their luck only to end up regretting it. 

Liberty has a very severe punishment for law breakers. Only before the upper management were quite lax in implementing it and many of their ground forces were corrupt and took bribes from criminal organizations. 

But with the arrival of GT all of that was put to a stop. After all GT didn't just earn half of security rights they also have the right to administer punishments. 

That was part of the deal. After all there's no point in increasing the security if they are not allowed to punish those they have caught. 

And in just a few days over 100 corrupt officials and criminals were made an example for. 

Ten of them were executed and the rest was subjected to heavy labor in the many mines owned by GT. Some of those officials have connections with some elders but they quickly learned how serious GT was after revealing overwhelming evidence, they were immediately sentenced to death. 

Leaving those who want to protest speechless. GT only statement was they were only implementing the rules Liberty made itself nothing more nothing less. 

And when before they thought GT was only doing it as a show of force, GT's next actions leave them stunned. 

The son of the one of the top elders was caught raping and killing an innocent girl. At first everyone thought GT would not interfere with it but they were wrong. GT forces  arrested the guy. Killing all those who tried to stop them and after a quick trial they immediately publicly executing the guy. 

After that Dianna made a statement, she said "when we said we will clean up Liberty we mean it. I want to see who will try and stop us. GT treats everyone equally; we don't give special treatment whether you are a son of an elder or an elder himself. Those who broke the rules would be judged by the very rules they set. GT treats everything seriously."

This action earned both praise and criticism at the same time but GT didn't care as the contract was signed under the first bank. And there's no way to break it without going through the first bank. Even if the elders of Liberty change their mind there's no way for them to break the contract. 

Many of them are angry, especially the elder whose son was executed but there's nothing he can do, his son's crime was made public by GT so even if he complained no one would side with him. 

In fact countless people celebrated when his son was executed. He tried to appeal to the other elders but no one would side with him in this case after all his son's crime is not light, but a very heavy one. During the procedures GT never once broke any protocol or went over the line, every action they made was only those they were entity to do. 

So even if they wanted to complain they have no grounds to do so. The only rules ever broken are the unspoken rules. And courtesy to other ruling powers. After all there's an spoken rule in Liberty that any ruling power can do almost anything as long as it is not in conflict with other interests, they would turn a blind eye to it. 

But unfortunately for them GT doesn't care about their unspoken rules. After all, GT didn't really care about them. And that's the reality they will have to face. Liberty is no longer their private backyard. And GT would not allow them to do whatever they want at the expense of innocent lives. 

EDITOR: King and Queen of Mortals.