Fang: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 3) by Mitchell T. Jacobs

Hydra and Ronin. And like piranhas, they were aggressive when they smelled blood. That possibility could very well keep the enemy occupied long enough for Hydra to make significant strides.
    “ So you're thinking that they're going to need to be cautious,” Zach said. “They'll have to keep troops in reserve in case one of their other enemies makes a move.”
    Selene grinned. “That's where we have the advantage. Making nice does have its highlights.”
    “So what's our next move?” Danny asked.
    “ Your next move is to do some more recon work on the station we're going to be attacking. Plus, we need to figure out where the other tunnel goes. You can figure out who does what with Jana and Gray.”
    “ Not Anna and Liz? And what happened to you?” Danny questioned him.
    “ We have strategic planning with the rest of Hydra Command,” Zach informed him. “What, did Liz not tell you?”
    “ Nope,” Danny replied. “Must have figured that my company commander would tell me something important like that.”
    “ Well, I just did, didn't I?” Zach said, helping himself to another piece of sushi.
    “ Must be nice, getting to sit safe and sound while the rest of us go traipsing through the dark with a million chilus waiting to bite our heads off,” Javy commented.
    “ Actually, we might be getting the better end of the deal,” Xavier said. “I'm not sure I'd want to deal with a council that size.”
    Nora nodded. “Yup, and it's getting bigger. Karen's going to be with us as well.”
    “Lord have mercy,” Xavier commented dryly.
    “ How come she has to go?” Miko asked.
    “ Well, she is a company commander. Even if Barghest Company isn't fully formed yet, she still should have input into the decisions.”
    “ Great, so that's what? Twenty members on the council, plus their adjuncts?” Selene commented. “ That just seems way too unwieldy.”
    “ Well, that's part of the plan,” Nora said. “Several of us want to push through a plan that gives us a smaller military council to deal with everyday affairs. That will make us much more efficient.”
    “ But you're still going to have to get that past the rest of the council,” Danny pointed out.
    Selene nodded in agreement. “That just seems like it's going to be complete chaos.”
    Zach gave her a smile that had little warmth to it. “No kidding.”
     
     
     
    “Our command structure is far too bloated,” Zach said as he addressed the rest of the council. Somehow he had been made into the spokesperson for the new initiative.
    “ What do you mean bloated?” Aaron of Band of Brothers asked.
    “ It's taking us way too long to come to any decision,” Zach said. “If any of us come up with a plan we have to get it past the council, which means that fifty of us are arguing about it for hours.”
    “ The last few proposals went through smoothly,” Bryce of Bravehart Company spoke up. “There was relatively little discussion about them.”
    “ As I recall, the last few proposals were from us,” Anna spoke up, “and we had worked out all the details beforehand because we were sick of having everything take forever to pass.”
    Murmurs broke out in the rest of the council. Zach sighed to himself. He couldn't even see some of them properly, and that perfectly illustrated the problem. Command was far too big. And now he was going to have to convince them to downsize it...
    “We're too large to operate effectively,” Zach continued. “It hasn't cost us yet, but give it enough time and it's going to become a major, major problem.”
    “ So what's your solution?” David asked.
    “ My solution is this. We have four battalions. I think that our military command should be a small council made up of the battalion commanders, plus some others that are elected by the rest of the companies. Maybe three of those.”
    “ Elected how?” Lee of Storm Hawk brought up.
    “ If everyone in the alliance gets a vote than that really slants it toward the founding