Free Rebel (The United Federation Marine Corps) by Jonathan P. Brazee Page A

should get out of there.  Michi could hear the stomping of feet, feet moving in formation from the square.  She looked at the man she’d helped.
    “I’m fine, thanks to you.  Get out of here,” he told her.
    Michi took the hint.  She started sprinting, only then realizing she was still carrying Franz’ picture.  She knew she should drop it, but she couldn’t.  Holding it in her right hand, she took off, ignoring the pain that still radiated from her feet.  Behind her, she could hear the firing die off while a voice coming out of a speaker in the sky ordered everyone to stop and lie on the ground.
    Hell with that!
    She quickly passed others who were also fleeing and didn’t slow down until she reached Tamara’s building.  She ran up the stairwell instead of waiting for the elevator, and made it inside the condo.
    It was then that the trembling started, and didn’t stop until Tamara got home from work, unaware yet of what had just happened.

Chapter 13
     
    With martial law declared, sporadic fighting broke out.  “Fighting” might not be the best description of it.  There was occasional sniping against company targets, and several mini-drone bombs were unleashed.  Surprisingly, for a company as large and rich as Propitious Interstellar, they didn’t have any defense for the mini-drones.  The jacks had to resort to firing their Jamisons or the few energy weapons they possessed to knock the drones down.  Even jamming the frequencies had little effect as whoever was flying them skipped frequencies all the way into the target.
    The payloads on the 500 gram drones were not very powerful, so other than causing some minor damage, there was not much in the way of tangible effects.  Psychologically, though, PI knew that the people, at least some of the people, had finally had enough to warrant action against the company.
    The news feeds, which were all controlled by PI, were the only sources of information that were available on the holos, and they didn’t show much.  The key clip seemed to be one where an indentured maintenance worker at Plant 5 had been burnt by a mini-drone strike.  The man was obviously in pain, and the holo camera lingered over him as he cried out in anguish while the reporter castigated the “terrorist” act that had caused the injuries.
    The indentureds had been confined to their factories, and even the Class I employees were threatened with termination if they didn’t show up for work.  There was a curfew in effect from 8:00 PM until 6:00 AM for anyone not on company business.  This was not just for PI employees; it pertained to everyone on the planet.  Michi was out of the loop, but she knew the First Families would be up in arms.  They treasured their independence, and their rights were specified in the charter—a charter that Propitious Interstellar seemed to be ignoring.
    Company jacks held several raids.  A news crew had been with them for one such raid on an indentured dormitory.  All it showed was the jacks man-handling the Class 4s while turning up no weapons.  The PR honchos must have stepped in after that as there was no more coverage of raids.  However, Michi was able to watch several vids of additional raids by going through her proxy and accessing off-world sites.  One of the most downloaded vids was one of a young boy, probably around 10 years old, sitting dazed in a dormitory ladderwell, his face bloody. 
    Without showing the vid, Propitious Interstellar denied that it was even taken on Kakurega, claiming it was a fake meant to discredit the company’s security forces.  Michi wouldn’t put it past someone like Tamberlain, or even Hokkam, to put out some faked footage, but some of the other vids and holos showed jacks in the company uniforms meting out some severe treatment to unresisting people.
    All of this galvanized the population.  PI was making a big mistake, though, in Michi’s opinion, that is, if they really believed their news releases.