Chapter 192: Chief of Naval Operations


    UNS Singapore, Conference Room


    "Alright, everyone please settle down!" Commander Ford pped his hands together bring the meeting into order. "Quick summary for those not in the loop, we got possible goblin pirates that willmerce raids within our sphere of influence."


    "Now this might not be much of an issue before," ke spoke up, "But now we are looking to be trading partners with the Isles, therefore we need tobat piracy now to prevent it bing an issue in the future."


    "Now the thing is that we only have a single salvaged ship that''s being converted into an armored cruiser or irond," ke continued, "A single warship with mostly new and experimental tech with no support vessels and backup."


    "Our fast attack craft concept will not be able to be implemented in time to defend against pirates and raiders," ke added, "So the core of the fighting will be ced on the single irond we have now till we can produce more ships."


    "Sir, how about we built some maritime patrol bombers?" Airforce Commander Tommy raised a question. "It can do coastal patrols and reconnaissance too. And if in the future if needed, it can also perform in anti submarine warfare."


    "Sounds interesting," ke replied, "Draw up a proposal for it. Good to have more cards in our hands even if we couldn''t produce any of this equipment now."


    "What else is happening now?" ke asked around the table.


    "Autumn nting will begin next week, mostly tubers and mushrooms types of crops which can survive over winter and be ready to harvest when springes," Princess Sherene gave her report. "The strawberries provided by you hoomans are also doing surprisingly well in the markets and also easy to grow over autumn and winter."


    "This year it will be different than usual," Sherene smiled charmingly, "It will be a busy winter!"


    "Why is that?" ke asked.


    "Well, previously, the farms could not provide any food during the cold months and most people stay indoors to conserve heat," Sherene exined, "Most people shut themselves in during winter, but with central heating, warm clothes, plenty of food and jobs in the factories and stores, people will be more inclined to work during winter!"


    "I see, that is a good sign," ke replied, "I guess."


    "Well, a city that doesn''t sleep is a thriving city," Ford said. "Now, since we have food production sorted out, I will the military side to report their progress."


    Major Frank nodded and said, "Sir, currently we are preparing for the 3rd batch of Marine recruits to be processed and training will begin soon. But I think this will be thest batch of recruits we can recruit without putting a drain into our manpower resources."


    "As of now, our current manning is at 842bat operation Marines, with another 357 nonbat support staff," Frank read out the numbers, "This uing batch of recruits will be roughly around 450 men, bringing the total military personnel at around 1,650."


    "Our total poption is holding at around 10k with the addition of 117 goblins and 268 ves that joined us," Frank continued, "The Marines take up 1.6k of the total poption and that is not counting, the Police, Air Force and the formation of the Navy."


    "If we add the rest of the armed forces in, at least 40 % of our total poption is allocated to the armed forces," Frank said, "Leaving us what? Less than 6,000 civilians, to support our industry and most of them are females?"


    "We have less than 400 children of ages below 16," Dr. Sharon spoke up, "And our current birth rate is low, bloody low in fact."


    "We need to introduce measures to increase our poption for the next 15 years," Dr. Sharon said, "Or we will be reduced to an aging poption in the future will no young adults to support our growing infrastructure in the future."


    "Even if we mass recruit other races like orcs and goblins into our ranks, we still require people to make babies if we want to sustain the nation in the future," Dr. Sharon warned. "I will advise we implement measures to encourage people to start making babies soon."


    "Got it," ke nodded, "Major Frank, this will be thest batch of recruits, for the time being, only recruitter on to recoverbat loses."


    "And as for the poption growth and babies," ke looked at Sherene and Dr. Sharon, "Can both of you work out with Public Health services and City Hall toe out with incentives to entice people to start having families early?"


    "Offer them government subsidies, housing, grants, education aid, medical, and what others you can think of without impacting our current industrial needs and workforce," ke threw out some ideas to the both of them. "Set up amittee to oversee all these?"


    "Ok," Sherene replied and nodded to Dr. Sharon.


    "Now, baring all that," ke continued on, "I want Chief Matt to led the project on fully restoring the ship tobat ready status."


    "We do not know when the goblins pirates will act nor where will they hit," ke said, "Commander Ford?"


    "Ahem," Ford turned on the disy screen which showed a coastal map of the region with icons of varies colors dotting the surface. "This is roughly the range we calcted a typical goblin raiding ship has." He highlights an orange circle around a skull, which had a text, "Goblin City".


    "Now, these yellow dots are surface contacts, our radar has picked up over the past couple of days," Ford indicated another group of yellow dots scattered all over the area. "We believe that these are merchant convoys or ships. But it might also be pirates or other things that we do not know of."


    "ording to our investigations, the goblin sea has only two seasons that are suitable to sail and that is mid-spring to mid-summer and early autumn to end autumn," Ford exined, "Any other times, the sea is rough and covered with ship-killing storms."


    "Now, the majority of these yellow contacts do not hug along the coast while the nearest ships still keep roughly a 100 kilometers distance fromnd," Ford continued, "Therefore we rarely spot any of them unless our recon flights spot them or the radar reports them."


    "We estimate that our friends will be conveying the trade agreements to us within the next two weeks," Ford traced a line south along the coast to an icon that said "Far Habour".


    "Therefore, to prevent any loss of deliveries, we need to ensure our ship is up and running within two weeks," Ford finished.


    Chief Matt frowned, "Within two weeks to ensure everything is running and alsopleting ship trials? It will take a miracle to do that, Sir!"


    "Chief," Ford nodded, "Yes, provided if you handle it only with your department."


    "Yea, but who else has the expertise to work on ships here?" Chief Matt raised an eyebrow.


    "We have some... people with skills with regards to that," ke spoke up, "Goblins."


    "What? You want to put goblins to work on the ship?" Chief Matt half rose from his chair, "This is obscene!"


    "Chief," Commander Tommy injected, "They do quite well so far in my Air Force!"


    "Still, we don''t know what murderous schemes they might have in their minds!" Chief Matt growled, "We can''t fully trust those things!"


    "Chief, will I agree with your points," Ford stepped up and said, "But we do believe that with their help, they can vastly cut down the time needed to retrofit the ship since most of them have some sort of technical skills and are into machines."


    "And if they proved themselves well," ke added, "We can integrate them into ship construction work, which will help boost the industry."


    "But Sir!" Chief Matt frowned, "I understand that we arecking skilled workbor, but to use them to construct a warship which under the Military Code is ssified as Top Secret and not to mention the same warship will be used against their own kind. Why would they be willing to help?"


    "With the chances of sabotage so high, it will take double the time for us to conduct sea andbat trials as we have to double check and ensure everything that the goblins touched is clean!" Chief Matt continued to argue his points.


    "I see," ke frowned, "How about if we limit them to work in modrponents?"


    "Modrponents?" Chief Matt repeated, "You want to installponents in modrly?"


    "Wouldn''t it be faster to repair damages and losses?" ke asked. "Plus if everything is modr, the ship is easier to upgrade in the future."


    "But most of the ship has being nailed or welded down," Chief Matt replied, "Only parts that can be modr will be the superstructures, engines, and weapon systems."


    "Than we do that for now," ke said, "Let the goblins work on nonbat systems and have a quality control team to inspect their work."


    "Aye," Chief Matt nodded, "I guess we can do that."


    "As for the Chief of Naval Operations," ke grinned, "I am putting Commander Ford in charge."


    "Huh?" Ford looked surprised, "You want me to be Chief of Naval Ops?"


    "Yup," ke continued smiling, "You do just fine, all the naval projects are now under your scrutiny."


    "I..." Ford looked around the room, where everyone smiled and pped. "Thank you, Sir! I will not fail you!"


    "Good, then Project Irond is in your hands, CNO!" ke smiled.


    -----


    Northern Forest


    Blue Thunder''s tummy rumbled as heid with his nose sniffing before the cook wagon. "I''m hungry," He whined at the cook.


    "Please wait!" The poor cook was terrified by the sword sized teeth filled mouth whining next to him. "It will be done soon!"


    Blue Thunder sighed and settled down for a long wait, smelling the aroma of roasting potatoes waffling out from the huge specialized tumbler oven that looked like a twentieth century cement mixer.


    "What- doing- you?" Rastraz spoke in poor English as shended next to Blue Thunder who shot up in surprise.


    "Ah?" Blue Thunder blinded his eyes rapidly in panic while keeping a safe distance from her, "I... am hungry..."


    "Hun-gee?" Rastraz looked at Blue Thunder who shyly rubbed his tummy to mimic hunger. "Oh..."


    She turned her head to look at the strange rotating drum where the even more terrified cook sweated under the waved of heat emitting off from her body. "What''s that?" She pointed.


    "Erm... nothing!" Blue Thunder turned his head away, "Nothing!"


    Rastraz frowned and leaned closer to Blue Thunder who tried to edge away from her, "Noth-ing?" She noticed his teeth looked pretty clean and he doesn''t have the overwhelming stench of roting from his mouth. "Hmmmm..."


    "Erm... the potatoes are done!" The cook cried out and stopped the magic heat runes and used a long pryer and unscrewed out the bottom hatch, where arge wide barrel was ced.


    Steaming potatoes rolled out from the tumbler and into the barrel, filling it up. Blue Thunder eyes went gooey as he stared at those creamy looking potatoes, a strand of saliva starting to dip from his opened jaws.


    The cook and his assistant soon divided the hot potatoes into another barrel and started to mix in sour cream, yellow butter, and bits of friedrd. "Alright, it''s done!"


    "YAY!" Blue Thunder carefully picked up the hot barrel of potatoes and blew at it, cool it down before he started to feast on the baked potatoes, "Ooooo... will be nicer if it was fried and with cheese sauce!"


    Rastraz blinked her golden eyes at Blue Thunder who happily chomped down the strange offerings the meat bags gave him, wondering what is it that made him so happy about. She gracefully stretched her neck over to the barrel offered by the meat bags who quickly made way for her and gave it a sniff.


    It doesn''t smell too bad. She looked at the presentation of the food which she assumed is something to eat and frowned, finding itcking in colors and looks. Lumpy bits of cream colored things and bits of fats and oil are mixed in together.


    She looked at Blue Thunder who was clutching the barrel with his arms and licking the insides happily and wondered if it really tastes that good. Blue Thunder noticed her hesitating and asked, "You don''t want to eat it?" His eyes glowed with expectations.


    Rastraz frowned again and carefully picked up the barrel, and closed her eyes before taking a bite of the unappealing food.


    "OOO!"