Chapter 113: Foodvalten 103

Though not happy with it, Bill understood that he was in the military and if what Vergo had said was true, then the onus would be on them to stop any sort of attempted rescue operation now that they happened upon a possible conspiracy.

With this running through his mind, he called for his officers while Vergo went away to use his personal snail in order to call for backup.

Getting to his office as soon as they were called, it wasn’t long before he was surrounded by Sasha, Ricky, Nelson, Pearson, Willy, and Miyagi.

“I’ll get to the point.” Said he and continued.

“We’re passing an island that is claimed by the Pirate Emperor Whitebeard. Anchored there are two ships, and the Vice Admiral believes they are the beginnings of an operation to assault Marines in ‘Paradise’.”

Even if they had never seen him, everyone in the Marines knew of the so-called ‘Strongest Man in the World” and whenever a Pirate Emperor was brought up it was bound to be serious business.

With this in mind, Bill didn’t hold back any information and didn’t consider his next words, he just told the truth as he knew it: “The reason for this assumption made by the Vice Admiral is that some weeks ago the Marines were handed over the 2nd Division Commander belonging to the Whitebeard Pirates.

Now this information was known to the higher brass sooner, and it’s reasonable to suspect that the pirates have just been informed and are planning to retaliate.”

Looking at his officers with a ‘do you have any questions?’ face, it was naturally Nelson who spoke up first: “Captain, it’s a fool’s errand to attack any of the Four Emperors without having both direct orders and support from headquarters. We aren’t just reckless adventur- “Oh be quiet.” Sounded Sasha who had never been a friend to the former Commodore.

Cut off mid-sentence, Nelson sneered but didn’t interrupt her back when she stared at him and continued: “Don’t you understand that if Headquarters accepted the 2nd Division Commander as a prisoner, then they have implicitly authorized actions against the Whitebeard Pirates?”

Then turning back to Bill she said: “Vice Admiral Vergo is a well respected man who’s been in the Marines for more almost half his life. He’s something strange, sure, but we don’t have any reason to doubt his judgement.”

“Sasha’s probably right” said Ricky in support of her, and then added: “Were those ships identified?”

Nodding his head to answer this, Bill was still considering Nelson’s point but said: “He noticed the sails belonging to Whitebeards 6th Division Commander, who goes by Blamenco and to a subordinate Captain named McGuy.”

Then, leaning back, Bill opened up one of his cabinets and pulled out a large book which held hundreds of bounties.

Quickly finding both names he pointed them out.

Wanted Dead or Alive, “Big-Hammer” Blamenco, 300m Beli.

Wanted Dead or Alive, “Thunder Lord” McGuy, 240m Beli.

“I’m sure between myself and the Vice Admiral we can subdue the 6th Division Commander, Sasha can you and Ricky take out this ‘Thunder Lord’?”

Nodding her head yes, she replied that they could, and Nelson sounded back in: “It isn’t about whether or not this person can be subdued! This is WHITEBEARDS man! That crazy big twat calls them his sons, did you know that?”

Then cutting his eyes to Sasha, he added: “We learned about the Emperors in the third year at Marineford Academy!

Captain, you if you give the order then we go, but we had better be sure we aren’t starting a major conflict here.”

“But it wouldn’t be us?” Miyagi added to the conversation.

“You said yourself that the Vice Admiral has authority in times he decides is an emergency, I find it positively possible that the higher ups gave him just this authority! So, it’s not us starting the conflict, the Vice Admiral is at fault and what can we do if he orders us to go?”

Nelson: “We can kick him off the bloody ship! The consequences of doing that are less that the potential consequences for starting battle with the Strongest Man in the World!”

Hearing footsteps by the door, Bill lifted his hand and called the person in. It was the Vice Admiral who walked in and stood with his hands behind his back.

“Captain Ox, I didn’t realize you surrounded yourself with fat cowards.” Then speaking to Nelson, he said: “If you stain the name of Justice again, I’ll have you summarily executed.

Stumbling back at his threat, Nelson didn’t have time to reply before Bill stood up and looking across the office said seriously: “I don’t like those kinds of accusations. These meetings are designed for my officers have the freedom to voice their opinions. I won’t tell you how to operate G-5, Vice Admiral. I’d hope you would offer me the same respect.”

Standing there for several moments, Bill looked directly at Vergo until the man nodded his assent and ask: “Alright, then in the name of Justice, what are the opinions of the Marine officers here then?”

None of the others answered, but Willy who was not used to these kinds of things answered with a laugh: “Hehahahe we’re here with our Captain and a Vice Admiral! We should just bash’um!”

“I agree, and it’s good to see at least your Fish-man crew are ready to fight against our enemies Captain Ox.”

Still looking at Vergo, Bill asked: “Were you able to get reinforcements?”

Nodding again to this, the Vice Admiral said: “I have a squadron of four-battleships a day’s sail from here and I’ve ordered them to head this way.”

“They have an Eternal Pose to this island?” Bill asked doubtfully but was answered by something unexpected.

“All G-5 Battleships have multiple Vivre Cards, including my own. This is a common strategy taught in nearly every Marine Academy.” Vergo said, almost sarcastically, Bill thought.

In truth, Bill had never heard of a Vivre Card and as such would have had no idea that there was one made for him by his father years ago, or that a piece of the card was secretly hidden away in ‘restored timbers’ of the Frontier Run.

Though he figured that he was being mocked, Bill didn’t care about it and because the light of this new information distracted him from thinking critically, he replied back: “And these Vivre Cards emulate Eternal Poses? incredible… well we still haven’t worked out the assault plan, do you have any ideas?”

Smiling at this, Vergo said simply: “I suggest we wait and attack at dawn. If no other pirates have arrived by then we should have enough time for my squadron to provide naval support while we haul them to Prison Island.”

Thinking this to be a descent proposal, it was agreed, and the plan was made over the next few hours.

Vice Admiral Vergo, Bill, Sasha, Ricky, Willy, and Pearson would lead the assault with forty Fish-men Marines and twenty human Gunners. Having learned a lesson on Hannabal, Bill decided to leave the entire enlisted force to the direction of two Officers, while the others acted as vanguards.

In this scenario it was naturally Bill, Sasha, and Ricky who would take the lead while Pearson and Willy led the other enlisted Marines as one large platoon.

Nelson would take the Conn on the Frontier Run and with Boss would stand guard in the harbor. With two King Cannons and ten shells he would he at liberty to destroy the pirate ships if the need arose.

Due to the extension damage that they would cause Bill didn’t want the King Cannons to strike at Foodvalten Island itself unless there was no other alternative, but that judgement was also left under Nelson’s judgement.

Finally, Bill decided Yoko would be assigned to Miyagi and standby to help any wounded, neither would land on the island until the conflict was over.

With the plan set, the news was distributed to the crew. The Fish-men celebrated but the human crew was wary, especially the transfers from Onigumo.

“Would it be fine bringing Justice to one of Whitebeards’ Islands?” they asked, but being led by their trusted Captain and a Vice Admiral to boot, these concerns weren’t voiced and over the course of the afternoon individual Marines prepared themselves for a battle.

Some people slept; others couldn’t sleep. Some people socialized; others couldn't speak.

While not much was different for the Fish-men, the human crew reacted very different than they had before the assault on Hannabal, and Bill didn’t blame them.

Tossing around on rolling currents, waiting out on the open ocean wasn’t fun, but Bill made the best of it for the remainder of the day. He spoke to dozens of people, made sure to prepare a good meal and unlocked the stores of higher alcohol beers.

He kept Yoko glued to him the entire time and pressed on to her the necessity that she follow his orders and not leave the ship this time, and only after he was sure of her sincerity did he let her go in relief.

That night, after sleeping for a couple hours Bill meditated and thought of a myriad of possibilities.

‘What if Whitebeard himself was on the Island?’

‘What if other Division Commanders were there?’

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‘What if the whole thing was a trap by the pirates?’

All of these ran through his mind, and he tried to prepare himself for whatever outcome.

But time waited for no man, and it wasn’t long before Bills mechanical timepiece began to ring and opening his eyes he was  greeted by the morning.

Walking out of his office, Bill stood beside Vergo and set course towards the nearby island and through high swells watched the place come closer into view.

Foodvaulten was an island shaped like a large, angular, plateau with a hollow center and that center was the islands harbor. Besides the obvious features, as they came closer Bill realized how small the place was, even smaller than New Haven before they extended the shoreline.

“What interest would a pirate Emperor have in this place?” Bill asked Vergo as they were nearing ever closer.

Coupled with the island being small, it was also poorly placed between two Marine bases. For pirates who should only care about profit and loss, this island could only be considered a loss.

“Whitebeard cares about status. Controlling an island so close to us makes him feel strong, but today, he’ll see Justice reign.”

Looking over at the Vice Admiral who had a fork stuck to his face, Bill wasn’t quite sure about that reasoning but the dye had already been cast and stopping now would have been impossible.

Nearing ever closer, they inched their way into the mouth of the harbor, and getting a better look Bill thought that this would be a good island fortress.

This thought was crossed by another of ‘but there’s no cannon or battlements.’ And so as the Frontier Run pulled into the mouth of the natural harbor, Bill kept an eye on both the surrounding cliffs and the calm waters ahead.

Thankfully, he thought, there were only two ships with neither being larger than a medium sized Frigate-class vessel.

Passing the mouth of the harbor, they anchored the ship some distance away from the pirate boats and without a single alarm sounding Bill, Vergo, Sasha, and Ricky jumped off the boat and landed on the first ship.

Bill and Vergo had mastered Moon Step, and thanks to the Pulse Boots, Sasha and Ricky were able to mimic the effort.

Looking back towards the ship, Bill saw that there was a half dozen dinghies being launched, and the Fish-men had already entered the water and were headed their way as the four Marines split up and began to search the place.

They moved quickly, without speaking, and found 19 pirates drunk asleep. Tying, and then gagging them, they moved to the larger vessel and repeated the process.

The average New World pirate was indeed stronger than on any other sea, hard times made hard people after all, but against the four superhumans these rank-and-file pirates stood very little chance at protecting themselves in at their best.

It had taken the four Marines less than 15 minutes to scour the two pirate ships and ended up with some 43 captives.

Quickly reconvening on McGuy’s ship deck, Vergo was the first to speak when he asked Sasha and Ricky: “You have Raid Suits?”

Sasha and Ricky looked at Bill, who answered abruptly: “Never heard of them, we’re not Science Division for nothing.”

Nodding his head in answer, Vergo just responded “Let’s go.” And by the time the dinghies were reaching the beach the four landed on solid ground.

As the Fish-men and human Marines were the boats on shore, Bill scanned the cliff walls and signaled Pearson to have the gunners do the same.

The walls had house facings built into stone, and directly a head of the landing party was a large camp with dozens of firepits still smoking.

Fiddling with his seastone cuffs, Bill looked at Sasha and Ricky and said quietly: “I don’t sense any movement, we should try to cuff Blamenco before he wakes up.”

So far, the operation was an astounding success and if they could restrain the 6th Division Commander in his sleep, that would guarantee a swift success. No matter what, Bill thought, ‘Thunder Lord’ McGuy would not be able to fend them all off.

Getting nods from them, Bill relayed to Pearson and Willy to keep the noise down and after barely five minutes on shore he moved to infiltrate the camp.

But no sooner than he entered the outskirts there was a…

*BOOM!!*

Looking back dumbly, Bill saw black smoke billowing out of the smaller pirate vessel! Then like an anthill that’s been kicked, the large camp began to stir!

Wearing his Coat of Justice Bill stood nine feet tall and was not a sight that anyone would miss, and the pirates seemed just as surprised to see him as he was them!

“WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?!” roared the deep voice of a man and while the big guy lit a cigar with a burning piece of firewood, Bill immediately recognized him.

‘Fossa!’

Having memorized the major members of the Whitebeard Pirates, he instantly recognized the 15th Division Commander and believing that the time had to be now, Bill pulled out his hammer and speed forward.

But the Commander was dozens of meters away, and by the time he had crossed half the distance a squeaky voice was heard saying: “That’s not a hammer, Marine! THIS IS A HAMMER!”

From out of nowhere, Bill saw Blamenco roll beside Fossa and pull a gigantic hammer out from his chin.

As all of this had happened in under a minute, and the pirates were still stunned by the appearance of Marines on one of their ‘fathers’ islands, Bill met Blamenco’s hammer with his own and with the air compressing around the two weapons felt like he had hit an iron wall.

Gritting his teeth, Bill willed his body forward and only had to dodge away when six sabers flew in his direction.

Not turning from Blamenco and Fossa, Bill’s brow hardened when he glanced and saw two others within fighting range.

One was naturally ‘Thunder Lord’ McGuy but the other who had just attacked him was another subordinate Captain who should not had been there.

Thinking quickly, Bill put a name to a face.

Wanted Dead or Alive: Takotopus Karma, 200m Beli!

In addition to Fossa’s bounty of 210m Beli, Bill realized that his single small Frigate had just kicked a nest of pirates with at least a combined 950 million Beli bounty!

Looking at the four assembled pirate leaders, Bill didn’t show the alarm in his heart when Blamenco asked laughingly: “So, what’re you here for Marine?”

“Yeah! Why are you bothering us?!” Chimed in Karma

“It doesn’t matter now” said Fossa looking towards the smoking ship.

“Indeed! The challenge has been offered, and we must accept!” said McGuy as he pinched his mustache.

Thinking a mile a minute, Bill glanced around and saw the pirates were still waking up from a night of drunk partying, and since his crew was fresh he knew he couldn’t waste time and shouted: “You Are Under Arrest For Conspiracy Against The World Government! DO NOT RESIST AND YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED!”

By the time he was done talking Vergo, Sasha, and Ricky and caught up behind him and his words were met with a chorus of laughter.

“I GAVE YOU A CHANCE!” he shouted, and then roared: “MARINES! ATTACK!”

As for himself, his third eye opened, and he went straight for the 6th Division Commander hammer in hand.