Osdal (Harmony War Series Book 3) (14 page)

Johnny pumped their hands with enthusiasm. “Procurement officer and boss of this here refinery, Johnny Walker,” the man beamed.

“Shit, I think I had enough of that last night,” Jerome sub-vocalized to Tyler.

“It’s very good to meet you,” Tyler said with a too-wide smile.

“And manners too! I’m already half way to Elekt now!” Johnny smiled, and the man’s energy was infectious. “Now, we’re not just here to chinwag, let’s get down to numbers and business.” He pulled out a surface.

“We totaled everything up, then retained 20 percent as per your donation to Harmony’s cause. The brings you to 7.3 million. An incredible haul indeed, and enough to get you four more freighters like the one you have out there,” Johnny said, pointing to the freighter where Bobbie and Yu were completing their final checks.

“So, I was wondering what your rate was for fuel?” Moretti asked.

“Well, we don’t have fuel here but my cousin Ping owns a fueling rig,” Johnny said.

“Would you be able to get me in contact with him? We hope to be running for a while and we’d be interested in getting our contractors sorted out,” Moretti said.

“Right away. He’s usually an early riser, so I’ll see if he can meet you this morning,”

“What about the docking fees?”

Johnny waved his hand and the docking fees disappeared.

“Waived. I am so sorry that the docking authority were being troublesome.” Johnny looked pretty displeased but hid it quickly.

Moretti pulled out his surface, checking on Ping’s contact information and bringing up the freighter’s accounts.

“We might need parts and a few more ships to haul our loads… could we also rent a dock so we don’t have to keep jumping around?” Moretti asked. Johnny rattled off names and promises.

“Thank you Johnny, you’ve helped us out a lot,” Moretti said, sending something on his surface.

“Oh, wow, thank you Moretti, I appreciate it, but I didn’t do it for the tickets. I’m actually sorry about the Dockers, they’ve been getting worse.”

“Take it, you’ve saved us that and then some,” Moretti said with a smile.

Watching an intelligence master at work,
Tyler thought. Even this simple gesture and conversation was telling them about how Osdal was functioning.

“Well, thank you very much. I will get back to you about those other queries.” Johnny’s surface made a noise. “Oh, Ping is coming right over, if you like he can meet you on the landing pad and go over fueling numbers and such. So let me know if you need anything, and have a good day fellas! Keep bringing in those rare metal loads!”

“Tyler, Jerome, you can head back to the hotel, might be an idea to move to a place closer than that one. The money is already in the shared account. Bobbie, Yu, I think we should talk to Ping about our fuel situation,” Moretti said.

“Uggh, I just wanna go back to bed,” Bobbie complained, making up for a good night.

Tyler, taking mercy on the man, pulled out an electrolyte drink and tossed it to him.

“You are a God among men, Tyler,” Bobbie pronounced.

“Just get some of that in you, should feel better. We’ll see you at the old hotel, or message you the new hotel info.”

Tyler and Jerome were having breakfast when Tyler saw the thug that he had swiped the sub-machine gun from. He didn’t bother trying to hide, it would only make things more suspicious. Instead he ate his breakfast bar as if he didn’t have a clue about anything going on. He most certainly did not make eye contact or keep glancing at the goon. From the way he held himself Tyler pegged him as Chosen, the weaponry had already pointed to that.

He was just thankful he wasn’t just a street thug, if the street thugs were getting that kind of hardware then the Chosen’s weaponry would be a lot worse.

“We need a place closer to the refinery,” Jerome said, and Tyler agreed; it was a good 15 minute walk between their hotel and the refinery, not the best if they needed to make a quick getaway.

A furious Carly was waiting for them in the hotel room.

“Where the fuck is he?” she demanded.

“Bobbie?”

“No, my fucking doorman. Yes, Bobbie!”

“He’s with the freighter,” Tyler said cautiously.

“Well tell him to go fuck himself, and tell Moretti the same. The docking master is all bent out of shape because he’s made only 20,000 tokens off you guys. Since his scam didn’t work he fired me for obeying the fucking rules,” she growled. “Apparently people saw us living it up last night and they’re saying that I gave you a lower rate because Bobbie and I were flirting.” Her angry resolve crumbled away; not having a job on a station was like not having water in the Sahara. If you weren’t paying your fees, then you’d get kicked out.

Companies would re-task you; a person was another worker looking for the right job fit. Here, they’d just kick you out into space and someone would probably pull your corpse in, take anything useful and chuck you back out.

She rushed past them, and Tyler’s stomach dropped - and not from the previous night’s liquor - as she disappeared into Seventy-Seven’s morning crowd.

“I feel like shit.”

“Yeah, maybe we can get Moretti to find her a new job. The Victor Corporation is always in need of resourceful people,” Jerome said.

“Why are you talking about that now?”

“Cause Madeline Costa’s plans call for a shit load of specialist materials. If we have someone here running supplies after the war is all done, we’ve got a foot in the door. This war will end one way or another, and we need to prepare for when it is over. Even if we’re not here, the corp keeps 30,000 people employed. Getting them any help we can will not only give
these
people a future, but those back home, too.”

“You and Mark have been talking again,” Tyler observed.

“Yep. We need to talk to Moretti and probably bring him in on the Corporation, but it would be a good nest egg for all of us,” Jerome said.

“One minute you’re all blow this up, shoot that, the next you’re all numbers, long term planning and business,” Tyler sighed.

“Blame your brother, he’s filled my head with Corporation stuff. After Nerva’s talk about always having a backup plan, he’s looked into ways to secure a good retirement for us all. I think he even has a plan to pay for us to get out if it comes to that.”

Tyler couldn’t even start to think of how much that would cost, but he knew that Mark wouldn’t care. If someone in their platoon decided that they couldn’t be a Trooper anymore, Tyler knew that Mark would help them to get out of their contract, no matter what. He looked after his people, money, time, his life, but he would lay it all down for others.

Chapter 14

Mining City Twenty-One

Osdal Actual, Osdal System

2/3267

You’ve got this, just a quick run in, grab the rocks, and right back out, easy,
Caroline lied to herself as she took her truck in to one of the deep mines that headed right to where rare metals had been detected.

Harmony didn’t want to have a crane blocking the mine as supports were put into place, so people with large forklifts pushed the metal bars and bolted them into position as trucks rushed past. More than one person had fallen under a truck’s wheels while connecting the supports together.

Truck drivers would get a hellish beating for stopping, as it would back up the entire line of trucks rushing in and out. There was a reason that truck drivers and shaft miners lived in different areas of lean-to city.

Metal dust was everywhere, shining in her lights as she followed the truck in front of her.

The shaft was seven kilometers long, with six shafts breaking off at different intervals, and she was to go to the third to last shaft on the left.

The truck ahead of her peeled off into the first shaft to the right, but she continued on, trucks passing her, fleeing the shaft mine and its unstable walls and ceiling.

Her truck rumbled, bouncing over the uneven ground, and she finally got to her tunnel and swung around in the larger area made just for trucks to turn.

“Shit,” she said, seeing the end of the tunnel. There were only so many drills in operation and the Harmony loyal crews that still worked on the planet used them, and hell, they even had proper supports in place and air circulation! Earthers, however, were nothing more than cattle.

The crew in the tunnel were using picks and sonic blasters to tear into the wall. It was slow going, but there were hundreds working, all of them breathing the same air.

Caroline could see the signs of oxygen depravation in many.

The Chosen wearing air packs whipped them, as if that would do anything to help.

Caroline turned her truck. A person with flags guided her back to the large conveyor belt where all of the cuttings from the wall had been pooled.

Caroline looked at the air canisters beside her. She had a filtration system, and it worked, sort of, but she was in a truck, not doing labor intensive work.

She waved the flag person up, and they climbed up the ladder to her door as the conveyor belt ran, starting to fill her truck bed.

The flag person grunted, using the railing of the truck to keep themselves up. Caroline looked around and then stealthily passed them two air canisters.

“Take them and get me empties, you need it more than me. I’ve got some water too, pass it around.”

They were all in this together, fuck the Chosen.

Wordlessly, but looking shocked, he took the canister, hooking it up to his own mask and taking a deep breath before shutting it off. Life seemed to return to his body as he wandered back to the workers.

Another person came up and she repeated the same, tossing him a water bottle she’d filled up.

“Get me that back and I can fill it up on my next run,” she said, pointing to the water bottle.

“Thank you,” the worker said, heading back, passing out the water and air, away from the Chosen.

Two more came, leaving empty canisters of air, until she had just one left and a half-liter of water for the entire day.

The flag person waved that she was free to go, so she powered up the truck and rumbled away.

She started the filling process on the canisters, but most of them leaked and she had to switch them for working ones as she raced back towards the surface.

She came out of the tunnel, following the lines of trucks that were moving towards the refinery. It was a massive building; on one side there was a raised platform where the trucks dumped their loads, and chimneys and ovens populated the main mass of the building. Opposite the building there was a railway leading to the Mining City.

She got to the refinery, pressing the controls that started the dumping process, she ran out to the nearest bathroom, water bottles in hand, and she filled them up.

“What the fuck are you doing away from your truck?” A Chosen shouted as she was running back.

Caroline wanted to keep running but she stood stock still, water bottles in her hand.

“You thought you could get some extra water?” The Chosen asked with a disgusted look on her face as she walked up to Caroline.

She smelled like she’d had a shower just that morning, and she had a full water bottle and looked well-fed.

“I was just…” The air rushed out from Caroline as the Chosen punched her stomach, and she collapsed on the ground.

“I didn’t ask you to talk, Earther, get back where you belong: on the ground,” The Chosen took the largest water bottle, took a drink from it and then threw it away, water pouring from its opening.

Caroline started getting back up, knowing that was enough water for twenty people just draining away into the ground. She didn’t dare to go get it.

“Get the fuck out of my face, Earther!” The guard kicked her in the side and Caroline felt something break as pain lanced through her.

The guard left and walked away, kicking another water bottle into the distance as she went.

Caroline gathered what she had and made her way slowly to her truck, pain preventing her from running.

Climbing the ladder to her truck hurt like almighty hell. She dumped the water bottles and heard someone walking up her ladder, so she fired up her truck and got it ready to move.

Her door was ripped open, and she looked up in time to see a big Chosen man punch her in the face.

Her head rocked back and dehydration, heat and lack of sleep coupled with the hit made the world shaky.

The Chosen grabbed her shirt, pulled her forward and punched her two more times in the face and then once in the stomach. She tried to put up her hands to defend herself but it didn’t stop the man.

“Get your fucking truck moving you lazy Earther piece of shit!” She knew that voice, it belonged to Dean Castillo, the foreman of the refinery. She’d heard the tales of young girls going to the refinery and coming back beaten and pregnant.

She nodded. “Yes Mister Castillo.” She prayed he would leave her alone.

“Bitch.” Dean hit her in the side, thankfully the opposite side to her broken ribs, but the bones still grated against one another painfully.