Chapter 197 - 197

197

Oda was in the conference room together with all the high ranking officers of the Grand Army. . . 

In the round table, everyone is having a serious discussion.  And the reason for this is Oda. 

A few days ago, Oda received a report on the monthly assessment of the army. And the more he read it the more his brows knit together. The army assessment is down by 15% and it's not just this month, as last month's report is the same. The growth of the army has stagnated.

There's a good reason for it, as earth conflicts are no longer hard enough to the Grand Army, especially since they managed to wipe out almost every huge underground organization around the world. The rest are so scared they disbanded, some have stopped all their activities hoping the Grand army or Shadow moon didn't take notice of them. 

And few organizations have gone into hiding and only do minimal activities. So basically, there's no more conflict big enough for the Grand Army to participate in, and training can only take them so far, the army needs battle experiences, real-life and death scenarios, not just virtual experience. 

Oda has been racking his head for a solution, and he promised Arc his Boss that he will give him the greatest army in the galaxy, and so far Grand army is not even close to it, in fact, they are even below the standard of any galactic powers army. The only advantages they have is their superior technology and enhancement, but in regard to skill and experience, they are nowhere near the standard army in space. Even GFA soldiers have a better experience than the Grand Army. 

And after mulling over and over it for months, Oda finally has a solution, but the only problem is it's not really humane, and they may incur heavy losses. 

And that brings us to the current situation: Oda calls all top executives of the Grand Army that includes Shadow units, Michelle and Dove are present in the meeting; there are a few high ranking officers that didn't come from a system. 

"So this is what I propose to do and I want all your opinions on it," said Oda. 

"Sir Oda, you are our top executive. All you need to do is to give us the order, and we will execute it." Said Michelle. 

Dove nodded. 

"But I have something to say about this plan, I think it's necessary or should I say this is what we need right now, as this will take us out of our comfort zone and into a real battlefield. The only bad thing about it is that there may be a lot of casualties if we executed this plan. We pride ourselves of being able to do things with minimal risk, and this is the opposite of what we used to do, but I think it's necessary. 

We of the shadow unit are always prepared to give our lives for our cause, that's the oath we take the moment we become a Shadow unit." Said Michelle. 

"I agree,'' said Yuri. Yuri, the former leader of Spider, climbed up the ranks of the shadow unit with her power and capabilities. She is now part of the top executives of the shadow unit and so earns her place in this conference. 

Sora looked at Oda and said, "Are you perhaps worried about our Boss?" 

Oda sighed, "it's part of it. You all know our Big Boss hates unnecessary loss of life, especially in the Army as he considered all of us as part of his extended family. So yeah, I'm worried about it, but also because this plan I propose will send our brothers and sisters into greater danger and there won't be any Gaia or Eve to help them out.

This is my primary concern. But rest assured, I will take all responsibility regarding this. Our Boss wants the greatest army in the galaxy and this is the first step into achieving it, I promised Boss, that I would give him an Army worthy enough to serve under him, and I intend to do that no matter the cost." There was a glint in his eyes, and his aura got unleashed when he made the statement, thankfully everyone in the conference room is an expert, if not many would have passed out because of it. 

Ruby, and Dove smiles when they hear it. They always like a challenge. Yuri also nodded as she knows more than anyone else what it takes to create good soldiers. Mikhail and Mikasa are living proof of it. 

Sora also nodded in agreement. 

Since we all agree, now we need to plan on how we are going to implement it and also on how to minimize risk without compromising on their training. 

Everyone nodded. 

Mariel proposed several contingencies and suggestions as one of the strategists of the Grand Army; her ability is known to everyone. It was her who led the Army on purging all the underground organizations on earth and in only a few months more than 90% of criminal organizations on earth have been purged and with almost no casualties on their part and all that without alarming or harming innocent people. 

She also helped Oda better organize the Army, so her input is widely acknowledged by everyone. 

The meeting lasted for three days before an initial draft was completed. 

And according to Gaia, they will be able to implement it in the next few weeks. 

Oda's plan is so grand that it will take all the resources of Grand trading and Grand Army to implement. If this plan had been suggested a year ago Grand Trading would not be capable of implementing it, but the Grand trading a year ago and the Grand Trading of today are like heaven and earth difference in both capabilities and power. 

"I'm looking forward to presenting the army to Boss when he returns." Said Sora smiling. 

Haruka nodded. 

When all this is happening in Liberty, Dianna, and Tiffa as well as the shadow unit, were fighting different enemies. 

Many of the Grand Trading outposts and sh.i.p.s on liberty are under attack, and even though there were no real losses it is still irritating. Many superpowers in space are just watching without doing anything. To them, an attack on GT is good news for them, especially to those that hated GT and everything affiliated with it. 

Dianna is having a meeting just as Oda was holding a conference.

Dianna was talking to Brutus and Ash about the series of attacks on Grand Trading (GT) on Liberty. Even though there were no real damages or losses and they even gained little from it by salvaging the enemy's broken equipment, it still affected their prestige in Liberty. 

Diana already asked for more than 50 shadow unit squads in Liberty to help deal with the problem. Initially, Dove would be the one leading the Shadow unit in Liberty, but Oda called for an emergency meeting, so Dove's travel to Liberty was delayed indefinitely. 

For now, Brutus was the one leading all the shadow units in Liberty over the last few weeks; they killed and purged many bases of Greyman in Liberty, but so far they weren't able to get mastermind behind it, mostly only those who were hired by Greyman. 

The Greyman mostly stay in the shadows and would just hire criminals and mercenaries to do their dirty job. And because of the war with the Ganesh, the other human superpower doesn't have time or resources to deal with any problem in Liberty as long as it's not a problem that would affect them, they just turn a blind eye to it. 

And besides, GT doesn't need anyone's help to deal with their problem as long as they don't stand in their way.. 

Dianna mostly doesn't care about those attacks, as her job is to manage the company. Security and other stuff are not her concerns but the continuous attacks are beginning to affect the Grand Trading businesses, some of the potential clients were backing out afraid they might get caught in GT affairs. As GT has the power to take care of the attackers as they have power drones and sh.i.p.s to deal with it, but many of the clients don't, so if they are subjected to attack because of their affiliation to Grand Trading many of them will be greatly affected. 

Then Diana called the other superpowers and the first thing she did was to request or mostly demanded that all security on liberty would be handed over to GT to handle. 

And of course, human superpower didn't agree with it. Especially GFA. 

And so Dianna made a decision to stop all Transactions of all humans and aliens affiliated with Liberty to be suspended until the problem of the attacks on them is resolved. 

This put a headache on all human superpower, especially since they need GT products to continue their war.

Diana also increased the prices of all their product by 300%, her reasons, because of the continuous attacks on their sh.i.p.s and outposts, which has affected their production.

And as the security on liberty is so lax and also because all the companies in Liberty can only bring certain amount of protection in liberty, this greatly limits the GT in solving the problems, if not for that, Dianna would have brought the whole Army and swept clean all Liberty of all potential issues. 

Even though GT was given special treatment and was allowed to bring a bit more security compared to others, it's not nearly enough as liberty is so vast that GT's security on liberty is only a drop of the ocean. 

And that's why GT has no choice but to act in secret and bring additional forces without anyone knowing. But despite that, it is still not enough. And Diana has had enough, and so she began to exert her power or should I say Grand Trading power.