We made it back to the, rather dilapidated, school right when the sun was setting, why you may ask? For a debrief, we took one of their vehicles on the way and basically drove back to the school. Disembarking and taking the supplies we pilfered from the gangers took us quite a while, with Shiroko's eyes sparkling at the prospect of so much valuable loot, as a spacer that had been in various raids, from punishment campaigns to real raids against Tri Tach worlds, I could share her excitement, it really felt good to take the rightful spoils of war, I told Sierra to make an inventory of what they had taken and relayed the inventory to Ayane. All of this took another hour, by the time I reached the clubroom with the rest of the members it was already beginning to get dark and the sun couldn't be seen anymore.
"Ayane-chan, we're back!" called Nonomi as the doors opened, revealing a small meeting room with a white board, a long table with four seats, a big window letting through the pale moonlight, it was the perfect ambience for discussing a debrief and further plans for future days, like I was back in Lethia with the other squires in the barracks, now if only they had candles, guess we would have to make do with orange light coming from the lamp above.
"Welcome back everyone, you did great!" replied the elven girl with a gentle smile.
I took a chair at the right side of the table as Ayane began talking, just then I saw a notification from Arona, Baikal managed to successfully negotiate a conversion rate between Domain standard credits a yens and a monthly stipend for all advisors, said conversion being one hundred and twenty five yens for one credit, making a calculation revealed that I had a bit more than 1 billion credits, a big number, but seeing how inflated the prices were I'm sure I wasn't actually the richest man in Kivotos, a rich man, but not the richest one, sending a quick message of thanks I turned my attention to the girls, namely Ayane
"I know we are all tired from the Kata Kata Helmet Gang, but we must process what we learned from them, we also need to tell Sensei what is really happening in Abydos" she said in a more somber tone, Serika was about to protest but I spoke first.
"I don't think that will be necessary, Ayane, I know you girls are in debt" I replied.
"Yeah, and he is an outsider, we don't need to tell him our problems!" cried the black-haired girl.
"He has helped out when nobody has, Serika, the least we could do is tell him what is happening" reasoned Hoshino, "especially seeing the trouble he took by helping us kick out those jerks" Serika closed her mouth and sat down looking at the table.
"Fine, I guess" she replied, Ayane then turned once again to me.
"Sensei" she started, "do you know why we are called the Foreclosure Task Force?" I could make a few guesses, first among them all is because they are trying to stop, or stall, their school's closure.
"Because you are trying to stop the closure of your school?" Ayane nodded.
"Yes, we are trying to do everything in our power to stop the school closing, as you have probably deduced, a powerful sandstorm hit the Abydos district hard a few years ago, the student council at the time tried everything to stop the desertification, but the measures were both ineffective and costly, this made the previous student council to resort to borrowing money to buy time and before they knew it they had taken on massive amounts of debt and resorted to selling school assets to pay it off, thinking they could take them back or remake them when things got better, they didn't, the debt stayed the same or even grew and the sandstorms never stopped coming until recently, as of now we can barely keep up with the debt, we have supply and ammo problems, it was very likely that the day you came would have been our last"
In the name of the Creator, this was a classic death spiral of debt, I had heard many stories of enterprising captains that wanted to settle down in Tri Tach and they ended up as an indentured servant on a cruiser because their company failed and couldn't pay any loans or what have you, loan sharks were a very real threat in the Persean Sector and it seems this place is no different.
"How much money are we talking about" I said tentatively with narrowed eyes.
"Nine hundred and twenty-five million credits" she replied, my eyes almost widened, my stars, that was enough to outfit a well-funded colonization effort on a system with five planets and still have enough money to make a few space stations on any asteroid or gas giant, and these girls were tasked with paying it all off "with a three percent interest rate which amounts to a bit over twenty million credits by the end of a month" as if it wasn't hard enough already the interest rate was high, that much debt has bankrupted entire prospecting mega-corps, judging by her robotic and dead tone and how accurate she recited it she probably mulled it over and thought it was hopeless, then suddenly an idea started to form, a stopgap measure but one that would allow them hopefully enough breathing room to properly form a plan of action
"One more question, your main creditor is a company called Kaiser Loans, do you have a copy of your contract with them?" I asked, having researched this earlier, a subsidiary of a mega corporation known as Kaiser Services, a very diversified and successful company, providing services ranging from banking to mercenary services, the GSC itself used their services several times when trying to capture high profile criminals like Wakamo.
"Yes, I will show it to you right now" replied the elf girl, once she sent it to me, I looked for a keyword, once I saw it, I smiled.
"It says here you can make a down payment to cover for up to several years, specifically a max of three" I said, Hoshino's eyes narrowed while Ayane was confused.
"Eh, yes, but I don't see why that would be relevant" I grinned.
"I might have to talk with my colleagues" I trailed, the girls unconsciously leaned in, "but recently my colleagues negotiated a conversion rate for the money I use to yens" I trailed once again, I admit, I'm a bit of a joker, its really funny seeing them that concentrated "again I might have to talk with my colleagues since we want to set a common budget for all of S.C.H.A.L.E, but I think I can set aside a bit from my own personal deposit, enough for a year worth of monthly payments, or less if you want to make a dent on the debt" suddenly the eyes of all the girls widened, even the ever stoic Shiroko looked at me surprised, there was a stunned silence in the room before someone spoke
"Sensei…" trailed Ayane.
"Are you sure you have enough for that?" asked Hoshino, I grinned, showing her my deposit account converted to yens, she widened her eyes.
"Girls, he really isn't lying" she said to everyone.
"I have something over one billion two hundred and twenty million yens, I plan on setting about a quarter of it to S.C.H.A.L.E but a year of interest rate while it would cost me around two hundred million credits leaving me with about five hundred million yens, I think it's worth it, I'm not buying a penthouse anytime soon after all, and I do have ways to recoup those losses so don't worry about making me a pauper" I replied with a smile "the GSC and everyone else might have abandoned you to your fate but I won't let you go quietly into the night if I can help it, this will at least give you ample time to plan out something, maybe store a few credits and" I was cut off by someone giving me a hug, it was Shiroko, I looked around and I saw expressions I had seen in almost all of the men I rescued from pirates or others before I recruited them, hope, hope for a better tomorrow and unbound gratitude and happiness, they all smiled and looked as if a family member they thought dead had come back, Serika in particular looked like she was holding back tears and was sniffing, Nonomi was the one to talk.
"Thank you, Martin-sensei, thank you very much" she said in a tone of relief and gratitude and if my eyes weren't lying, maybe a bit of tears of happiness, I could see it, this little gesture had cemented a massive amount of trust, rightfully so, I was giving them a year of backbreaking work for basically nothing, this for them might as well have been a miracle from the Creator itself.
"Again, don't cry victory just yet, I have to talk with my colleagues about it, at the very least notify them, but yeah, you girls, should you decide it so, would have potentially a year, less if you decide to also put a dent in your debt, but it's still a lot" I replied "I have seen many people made slaves to debt, schoolgirls shouldn't be worrying about that, you should worry about homework, getting to school on time, the boy that sends you glances at class" I chuckled as a few of the girls blushed, but I turned serious, "you shouldn't live like that, your freedom is one of the most precious things you have, right next to your soul, and you should never put a price for it" I finished.
"You have no idea how much that means to us, sensei, it means that for a year we won't have to worry if the next day will be the last of Abydos" replied Ayane, "even if it's a proposal you have my gratitude" tears threatened to leave her face.
"Aww, don't be like that, little Ayane, you'll make me cry too" I replied to her, "well, as much as I would like to stay, I gotta go back to S.C.H.A.L.E to sleep and announce this, I'll talk about my proposal alongside ways we can help you girls further, its only been a few days after our last meeting, I doubt we have done much"
"Yes, yes, you can leave us sensei, you too, Shiroko, you can stop hugging him" said Hoshino, though the wolf girl refused to let go.
"Shiroko"
"Nnm" she shook her head "Sensei is a very kind person, he can't leave now, if he leaves someone else will take him" I sighed, she is just as clingy as Therese, speaking of which, I also must enrol her and Mikey to Trinity, I finally decided that's where they will go.
"Come on, Shiroko, I have work to do tomorrow, I'll be back, I promise" I said, using the same tone when I talk to my siblings, the girl's ears then folded forward and looked at me in the eyes.
"You promise?" she asked, I gave her a smile.
"I promise, I'll come back tomorrow" the girl finally let me go and I stood up, "well, it's been good, girls, I'll try to be back by tomorrow afternoon with the money, you want it physical, correct?" the girls nodded, "good, if that's all, I will take my leave".
I went back to the helicopter, still parked in the schoolyard when I heard a voice in my mind that shook me.
"Sensei" it was Arona, speaking through the helicopter's intercom.
"Arona? You almost scared me!"
"Sorry, sensei"
"Forgiven, now, what is it?" I spoke, "oh, and bring us back to SCHALE".
"Right away, it's just that, I didn't expect for things to be this bad, even the city centre is full of sand, and much of everything is closed down" she said in a sad tone.
"I'm inclined to agree, and allow me to be a bit more conspiratorial but I think this was made intentionally, by who I have no idea, but the fact that suddenly things start going wrong? Well, I have yet to see disproven my idea that things just happen because they do, coincidence is simply the name we give to our own ignorance" I replied.
"I wish I could have helped you more, it felt like I wasn't needed" she said with what seemed to be a gloomy tone.
"Well, what can you do?"
"Well, I have scanning capabilities, and nobody is better than me in hacking" just then I heard a coff, "almost nobody".
"That's better" replied Sierra "sorry, little Arona, but when you manage to hack an alpha core in five seconds and deactivate it then, and only then, you can say you're as good as me".
"What even is an alpha core? Anyways, I also can protect you from attacks" my attention was directed at that.
"Like a deflector shield? I imagine is much stronger than that?" for some reason I could almost see Arona pout.
"Come on, it doesn't only deflect bullets like those dinky things you call deflectors, I can protect you from artillery shells too!" now that was far more relevant.
"Well, Sierra, looks like you have a hacking buddy, Arona, from now on until I say otherwise, use your shield only when artillery is a thing, your EM suite will be used in conjunction with Sierra, and in fact I want to give you your first assignment, find everything and anything regarding Kaiser's relation with Abydos, even down to Serika using a dispenser made by them"
"Oh, it's this gonna be like that time in Hybrasil?" asked Sierra giddily.
"Yeah, you can show Arona the ropes, remember, Kaiser's relation with Abydos takes priority, I want it all by tomorrow midday, I want something to bring to Abydos's table apart from the money if it's possible".
While I had no reason for now to suspect Kaiser, the fact that they keep on piling debt on five girls that have no way of paying it all was suspect and morally depraved, that combined with the fact that the company must know that they cant pay all of that led me to a suspicion that the company must have something to do with the attacks in the academy, but why, why would they want to attack the academy? Why weren't the authorities doing something? Then it hit me, I hadn't seen any adult humans here for now, could it be that?
"Arona, who is in charge of the districts of each academy?" I asked, equal parts curious and dreading, Arona as a matter of fact took a few seconds to answer.
"The academy themselves, they establish the borders of each district and direct everything from economy to foreign affairs" replied Arona, of course, of course! It's an academic city so by some weird logic only the academies are the recipients of sovereignty, that meant that the only thing that stopped Kaiser from taking over Abydos was the academy itself, specifically the students, but why the hell would Kaiser be interested in the district? Can't be for the money, they'd invest more than they would get, so why, are they perhaps after something or someone? Whatever the case I must confirm this with some research, hopefully the girl I tied up and left right at the last seat can tell me something, speak of the devil, the girl started to wake up, she couldn't speak, her mouth was shut with a gag.
"Hello there" I said, the girl turned to me in growing horror, "I'll cut to the chase, you are under S.C.H.A.L.E custody, when we get back you will tell me everything, I ask you of you, okay?" I asked her with a smile, the girl started to sweat.
Turns out the girl was more cooperative than I thought, she confirmed my suspicion that Kaiser was behind the attack, that combined with the history of acquisitions of Kaiser Services in the Abydos district allowed me to make a map showing what was under Kaiser and what wasn't, it wasn't pretty, almost all of the district was under their control, ugh, it's like meeting Tri Tach all over again, I wouldn't be surprised if the phones were also made by them. In any case I told the girl she would be dropped off to her academy by one of my colleagues today, Maki agreeing to send her off. I was in the office doing some paperwork before I had to leave for Abydos, until I saw a white-haired girl in tactical gear and wearing segmented bunny ears, I raised my eyebrow.
"You" I called, the girl stopped what she was doing, turned to me, and stood to attention.
"Sensei" she replied.
"What's your name?"
"Operative Tsukiyuki Mikayo, sensei" oh, she must be one of the SRT gals.
"Who recruited you?"
"It was Daud-sensei and Johnson-sensei who offered me and the rest of RABBIT Squad a place in S.C.H.A.L.E, they said they could offer us better training than anything in SRT" well if anyone can offer that its Baikal, wow does he and Adam work fast, we had our first recruits in a matter of hours.
"And he is right, man is a war hero, which speaks volumes of Hegemony training" Miyako simply nodded, "well, carry on doing good work Miyako, don't let me keep you waiting".
"Yes, sensei, thank you sensei".
With the girl leaving I finished up the draft for my budget, it was barebones, with our biggest spending being mil-grade supplies, that is weapons, fuel, spare parts for the vehicles and the maintenance of the building which was still low enough that the profits of Angel24 and other facilities left us comfortably in the green. But for now, the barebones budget will do, I have several proposals on how to expand our finances, but for now, I had to do several things, all of which had to be done in time for midday, I left the work for now and left for one of the offices, I knocked on the door, receiving confirmation I opened it.
"Advisor Martin"
"Advisor Baikal, I come here for two reasons, one the budget and the other pertaining to my finances."
I won't bore you with the details but I basically manage to push my proposal of the budget and allow my measure for helping Abydos to be accepted, with some warnings from Francis that I don't make a habit of it, in any case I went to a bank, made myself an account and after much bureaucratic work I had an account and the money I needed into several steel suitcases. With that out of the way and the evidence I got from the girl and the search Arona and Sierra did on the surface web I had enough to warn Abydos that Kaiser was probably behind the attacks, still nothing conclusive and Arona said that all Kaiser subsidiaries operated on an intranet, all of them different from each other. I became frustrated at such a thing, it was like Tri Tach all over again, these guys were smart enough to make sure not to share a single intranet, the good thing about it is that I only needed to enter two intranets instead of the dozens for all the subsidiaries Kaiser had, plus whatever shell companies they surely possessed. The two suspected companies were Kaiser Loans and PMC, Loans was the owner of almost all of the Abydos district according to Arona and Sierra and what they found, PMC was the one contracting the cronies according to the girl I interrogated, shady company trying to take over a place, a few ragtag colonists doing their best to stop it, using mercenary groups and pirates to do their dirty bidding, yeah this is Tri Tach alright, well, some things never change.
Having prepared everything, I needed I went to the helipad and left for Abydos, arriving just short of 12 am, no one was outside, save for Shiroko wearing sportswear and dragging a blue bike over to a shed, she looked up to see the chopper I was in, she was much more surprised and happier when she saw me with four suitcases.
"Good morning, desert pup" I greeted, using a different version of her second name, she hesitantly touched one of the suitcases, "shh, I want it to be a surprise, can you do that for me?" I asked, she nodded.
"Okay, sensei, but before we leave" she then gave me a beatific smile "thank you, thank you so much".
"It's nothing, Shiroko".
Both of us entered the building and agreed to hide the money in the meeting room, soon enough the girls started to trickle in, first came Ayane and Serika.
"Ah, Martin-sensei, good morning"
"Good morning, Ayane, you were about to get ready, yes?"
"Yes, we do meetings like this to discuss plans about the debt".
"Good, I'll wait for the rest to come in".
In came immediately after Hoshino and Nonomi, the narcoleptic girl laid her eyes on me first, for a moment they narrowed in what seemed like suspicion and anger, but said nothing, she suspected I would go back on my word, why? Probably distrust for people like me, like Serika but much more subdued, well, time to prove her pleasantly wrong.
"The Foreclosure Task Force is now in session" announced Ayane, "Martin-Sensei, you have the floor" I grinned and looked towards Shiroko, who changed herself and came in after Serika and Ayane did, she nodded and went behind some boxes.
"Well girls, it seems the Creator is favouring you for once, I had a talk with my colleagues, I'll cut to the chase" I plopped on the table a suitcase that I hid under the table and opened it, showing wads of local cash, leaving all the girls with mouth and eyes wide open "you are now the proud owners of close two hundred and fifty million yens" I replied, Shiroko putting the rest of the cases on the table.
"Is this real?" asked Serika "is this really happening?"
"It is" I replied.
"Two hundred fifty million, didn't you say two hundred million before?" asked Ayane, I gave her a grin.
"No, I said two hundred and fifty, you must have misheard" I replied, I may or may not have added a little extra to sweeten the deal. I had about four hundred and fifty million yens now, barely half of what I had now but it still left me comfortably rich, and well, still had plenty of money from which I could make more money. Just then I noticed someone hug me, it was Nonomi and from the wetness on my arm, she was crying, quite audibly too.
"You really did it, you really are going to part with that much money" said Hoshino, "girls can you leave me alone with sensei for a moment?" she asked, everyone looked at her, hesitant to leave the room "please, there is something I can only say alone with him" she pleaded, everyone did, Nonomi closing the door behind her, then I saw Hoshino's true emotions, eyes narrowed and lips pursed.
"What's your plan here?" she asked, I crossed my arms on my chest and kept my smile.
"You know, you're not the first person I helped who was mighty sceptical at first, it took Jen a year to trust me fully when I told him I could take him somewhere Andrada wouldn't be able to reach".
"That person was smart, nobody gives that much money without expecting something in return, much less an adult".
"Hey, one day you'll be as old as me, way to throw stones at your own window, Hoshino" but the 'narcoleptic' insisted.
"What's your plan?"
"No plan" I replied simply "well, a bit of a lie, I do expect you girls to use the time I gave you wisely, I know I will" Hoshino gritted her teeth.
"Bullshit, you really expect me to believe all that? I call bullshit, adults never do something like this without expecting something." I put my hands behind my head.
"Well, we're at an impasse then, I'm giving you free money and trying to give you a breather, and you're asking me to give you something I can't because I don't have it, what would it take for you to believe that I have your interests in mind?" I asked, the whole time Hoshino had her shotgun trained on me, five shots would pierce the armour I had right now, but I knew she would not do that unless I did something drastic, she really cared about her friends and right now shooting me would make it seem like she is trying to kill the only one who cares about them.
"Why would I tell you? Go guess, nitwit".
"Fine then, I knew I would have to use this at one point, allow me to show you something" I opened the fourth suitcase to reveal a map of the Abydos district, "this is a map of your district adjusted and modified to show how much of your district is under your control and how much is under the control of Kaiser Loans" I replied, Hoshino went over to look at the map and her eyes widened.
"Almost all of the map is red, that means Kaiser owns just about everything except the school" she looked at me again "why would this help your case?"
"One of your objectives was to know why the Helmet Gang attacked you, yes? Well, connect the dots" Hoshino's eyes once again, widened.
"You think that?" I cut her off.
"It's a strong possibility, can't find out anything unless Arona and Sierra penetrate Kaiser's intranet, specifically Kaiser Loans and PMC, I'm trying to dig dirt on them so that you can use it against them, should you do so you could negotiate something regarding the debt, if it's very convincing that no amount of lawyering would help them at the minimum they would drop the usurious interest rate" I walked to her "I'm not doing this to get anything out of you, you're smarter than you look, Hoshino, think, what could I possibly ask of you and your school that I don't already have?" I asked her, she seemed to think for a moment before deciding on an answer.
"You could ask for us to be conscripted to S.C.H.A.L.E" I smiled.
"There are many reasons why that would be a bad idea, I will illustrate three, first; I do not think for a second that any of you would take that lying down, at least while there is still hope of saving your school; two, assuming I'm as immoral as you think I am, at least three of my colleagues are not, Adam, Maki and Francis would never let me do that, Baikal I think wouldn't either, it would be me against the rest of S.C.H.A.L.E, and Baikal has personally killed generals and heads of planetary governments for far less egregious crimes than slavery, never mind the fact that they would have the GSC on their side while I would only be one man; three, assuming everyone was onboard, which is highly unlikely, once again the GSC wouldn't, a conscription like yours requires me to fill a form and technically I cannot recruit so many students so as to effectively close down an academy unless they already are closed, conscripting everyone or even one person would draw the ire of the President and S.C.H.A.L.E is no position to contend with the GSC, and nothing would stop them from arresting me, as an extra reason; we already have our first recruits from the former SRT Academy which should be closed by now, they call themselves the RABBIT Squad, if you want their reports then I'm sure I can give them to you as they were given to all S.C.H.A.L.E advisors." I explained, Hoshino, I knew, had nothing at this point.
"So that's it, you really are going to do this for free?" she asked, looking up at me.
"Well, my payment is that you don't do anything stupid with the money, but for all intents and purposes, yeah, this is all for you" I smiled.
"Why, why are you doing this for free? You could ask anything and none of the others would really complain" this was her last argument, I could tell she had nothing else, and my answer was equally simplistic.
"It's simply the right thing to do" I answered, "just so".
"It's also your job" she answered, I chuckled.
"Yeah, but it's still right, so, will you trust me for now, or at least trust that your colleagues aren't making a mistake?" I crouched down to eye level, "for all intents and purposes you are at war with a megacorp able to go into a staring match with the GSC, Hoshino, you girls need every single bit of strength you can get, prodigy as you are you can't singlehandedly destroy Kaiser, even I needed several fleets and competent officers to force Tri Tachyon on its knees".
These girls were fighting a Tri Tach equivalent here, and if there is anything I know about a megacorp is that they have the type of people that will stop at nothing to get what they want, there is no moral limit they won't stoop down to and no weapon they won't use, they will need someone else besides them, and since I don't have the Combine behind me this time I will have to do it the same way I did it while I was just an independent captain, by subterfuge, and S.C.H.A.L.E combined with these girls were just what I needed for this mission, Hoshino sighed.
"Ueeh, no fair, you know you pretty much seduced my juniors with your apparent generosity, there is nothing I can do, this here was my last attempt at scaring you off" I laughed.
"You might be a good soldier Hoshino, but its gonna take more than that to actually scare me, I've fought literal mind controlling monsters and terrorists after all, come back to me when you can at least destroy an entire city with a flick of your wrist, then and only then will you actually start to give me a pause" I replied, putting my hands my waist "so, I gather that you accept my measure?"
"I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, Martin-sensei, we'll see what you can do to win me over".
"Then, to a hopefully fruitful partnership, Miss Takahashi" I smirked while offering my arm.
"Ueeh, don't call me that, I'll actually feel old" she replied taking my hand.
Author's note: Short chapter, yes but I didn't want this to be any longer than other chapters. Also thank you for the reviews and don't worry, I have plans for the main story, the RABBIT squad getting recruited early by Baikal GOAT is part of it, suffice to say, Squad has found their match