Chapter 695.2: Shore, Control, Takeover!
Unfortunately, without satellite positioning, they could only rely on drone aerial imagery to produce a rough terrain map.
Taking a tablet from the tintelligence type player beside him, Old Six shoved it in front of the trembling Mandar and pointed to the address from the note. “Here?”
Mandar glanced at the aerial map and immediately spotted the luxurious three-story villa, nodding rapidly. “Yes! No.003, Tulip Street One, that’s it!”
Satisfied with the cooperation, Old Six nodded, shared the coordinates with teammates outside, and continued, “Besides your superior, I need the address of the port governor, the local lord, and other senior officials of the settlement and port.”
“The governor lives in the Governor’s Manor. As for the others, I, I really don’t know, sir!” Mandar was drenched in sweat, terrified of displeasing him. “B-but don’t worry! Aside from the governor and the city lord in their residences, 90% percent of the people you mentioned live on the streets behind the port! You can just ask around and you’ll find them! I-I’ll mark it for you!” Forcing a servile smile, he took the tablet with both hands and, trembling, circled the lamplit streets near the port on the map.
“They’re all here!”
Well damn.
So cooperative, huh?
Seeing how eagerly helpful the man was, Old Six shot him a couple of surprised looks, then reported the situation to the submarine’s combat command center.
After reviewing the port’s status, Old White immediately formulated an arrest plan. The first company that had landed would swiftly move into the streets near the port to cut off traffic and apprehend key figures in the settlement, while the task of seizing the Governor’s Manor would be handled by the second company.
Watching the group still standing in the office, Mandar finally couldn’t hold back his fear and asked cautiously, “Who... who are you people, exactly? When did we offend you?”
Old Six bared his teeth in a grin. “That’s something you’ll have to ask your governor.”
Mandar stood there with his mouth hanging open, his face filled with confusion. He wasn’t the only one confused. The Guard Station chief, Bihari, who had just had his bedroom door kicked open and was slammed face-down onto his own bed, was equally so. Staring at the exoskeleton-clad thugs, he was shocked and furious, letting out pig-like screams. “Let go of me! Do you know who I am?! If you don’t release me right now, I’ll throw all of you into prison!”
Glancing at the pale, disheveled woman lying beside him, Peepo casually grabbed a piece of clothing from the wardrobe and tossed it over her. “We need to talk to your husband. Please go to the living room.”
The woman nodded shakily, hastily got dressed, and fled the room without daring to linger for even a second.
Turning to the now-silent Chief Bihari, Peepo took out a tablet, confirmed once more that the man matched the photo, then looked at him and said, “Chief Bihari, you’ve been captured.”
“Cap-?!” The rest of the word stuck in his throat. Bihari quickly glanced around at the murderous figures in the room, realization dawning on him. Cold sweat seeped from his forehead, dripping onto the expensive silk sheets.
Swallowing hard, he probed in a trembling, disbelieving voice, “You... you’re people from the New Alliance?”
Flipping up his helmet visor, Peepo curled his lips into a grin and whistled at the man pinned to the bed. “Looks like we finally found someone in the know.”
Faced with that half-smiling gaze and the assault rifles that were all but pressed to his forehead, Bihari trembled so badly he nearly wet the bed. If he remembered the calendar correctly, Dilrang and his men should have only just arrived at French Fry Harbor.
How in the world had New Alliance forces appeared out of nowhere at Port Gallon, 2,000 kilometers away?!
But he had no time to think about that now.
Staring at the man in exoskeleton armor, he spilled everything he knew in a panic, stammering in terror. “I-I don’t know anything... I’m telling the truth! I just saw the Grey Wolf Army boarding ships at the port, and happened to hear where they were going. I couldn’t have been involved! I’m just a small port guard, how could I influence the governor’s decisions?! Right, you should go find Governor Nihark! It was his order!”
Looking at Bihari, who was on the verge of pissing himself, Peepo continued unhurriedly, “Don’t worry. Our people are already on their way to the Governor’s Manor. You won’t need to trouble yourself with that. Everyone involved will face judgment.”
Hearing what he said, Bihari vaguely realized that the port had probably already fallen completely into New Alliance hands, and a pained groan escaped his lips. “What do you want? To go to war with the Empire?”
Peepo shrugged. “That depends on what your emperor thinks. But no matter what he thinks, we’ll do things our way.”
Bihari swallowed nervously. “... Your way?”
Peepo nodded. “First, we’re going to find the mastermind behind that attack, teach them a lesson, and collect a bit of interest. Second, we believe Port Gallon is a breeding ground for marauders! To prevent something like this from happening again, we’re going to do something about it.”
Bihari stammered, “Do... Do something about it?”
Peepo grinned. “We have to abolish all slavery.”
At first, Bihari thought he had misheard. Then he realized he hadn’t, and stared at him, dumbfounded, his mouth slowly falling open. “... That’s impossible. You can’t do it.”
Peepo chuckled, “What’s impossible about it? We’ve got your help.”
Bihari’s eyes bulged like a bull’s. “Me?! Are you insane?! Forget me, I’m just the chief of the Guard Station, even if the Ox God of the Sun was standing here, it wouldn’t work! Do you have any idea how many slaves there are in this settlement?!”
And why should he do something like that?! Leaving aside the fact that his own estate needed servants to clean it, without slaves, who would do all the work slaves used to do?
In less than a week, the entire settlement would be drowning in filth!
Yet the man in front of him either didn’t hear or didn’t care. He just smiled and said, “Perfect. That means we’ve got plenty of work to do. From now on, you’re the Chief of the Port Gallon Guard Force. I grant you law-enforcement authority and provisional adjudication power. During your term, you’ll rule all affairs of this settlement according to the New Alliance Constitution.”
What a joke.
They hadn’t come here to do charity.
Abolishing slavery and holding trials were just means, did it really matter whether they succeeded in the end?
Bihari stared at him in panic, muttering, “You’re all insane. Even if you leveled this settlement to the ground, you still couldn’t do it. No... I can’t be your chief! Find someone else. Public order here is under the city defense commander, why don’t you go find him?”
Ignoring his pleas, Peepo grinned. “Don’t want the job? Are you sure? Really sure?”
Bihari shook his head like a rattle drum.
He finally understood. Those people had come here to wreck everything.
They would turn the place upside down and leave, but he would have nowhere to go, and would definitely be held accountable afterward. He wouldn’t dare take a job that would cost him his head.
Seeing him refuse to cooperate, Peepo didn’t bother arguing. He simply chambered a round and pressed the rifle barrel against Bihari’s head.
Feeling the icy chill from the muzzle, all the color drained from Bihari’s face, it changed faster than a traffic light. “I’ll do it! I’ll do it!! I’m the perfect choice for chief! More than 90% of the nobles in this settlement live under my jurisdiction, I know every last detail about them! This job is best left to me! Please, give it to me!”
“That’s more like it.” Smiling, Peepo patted the fellow’s shoulder, took a hat from a nearby rack, and set it neatly on his head. “From today on, you’re the chief of Port Gallon. We expect you to enforce the law impartially, in accordance with the New Alliance Constitution. Do a good job, don’t disappoint us. If there’s a chance, we’ll even let you be the Xilande Empire’s Police Chief.”
With that, ignoring the terrified look on the man’s face, Peepo pulled a printed copy of the New Alliance Constitution from his coat and tossed it onto the bed in front of the poor wretch. “Take a look.”
Bihari hurriedly grabbed the stapled pages and pretended to read them seriously, though not a single word registered.
Peepo didn’t bother with him. As planned, he left two people behind to watch him, then led the rest of the squad out of the mansion.
Outside, before dawn had even broken, a crowd of men and women already stood in the street.
They were all residents of Tulip Street One, people of noble blood, most of them holding important positions in the port or settlement. Some were idle nobles, others foreign merchants doing business there.
There were even two Wislanders among them. At the moment, however, their appearance had nothing to do with the word “noble.”
Some wore coats thrown hastily over themselves; others were still in thick nightclothes. Every face was filled with panic and disarray, eyes blank with confusion. They had been dragged from their homes by heavily armed soldiers without any idea what was happening.
Knowing that some of them were surely innocent, Peepo didn’t make things difficult. He clapped his hands to draw their attention and spoke in a loud, clear voice. “We apologize for disturbing your rest, and we thank you for your cooperation.”
“We are soldiers whose identities are inconvenient to disclose. We were attacked by a group of people whose identities are likewise inconvenient to disclose. Through interrogation, we learned that they came from Port Gallon, so we followed the trail here. Our purpose is to root out the mastermind behind it all, and to use our methods to make this settlement a little more normal.”
“Please rest assured. We will not harm any innocent people, but we also will not spare anyone involved. If anyone can provide useful clues, we would be extremely grateful, and may even share a portion of the culprits’ confiscated assets with the informant.”
“We also advise those involved to surrender as soon as possible and seek our leniency. If we catch you ourselves, what happens next might not be something you would like to experience.”
After a pause, he continued, “There may be fighting here shortly. Please follow us to a temporary shelter in the port area.”
As he spoke, a gunshot suddenly rang out in the distance, followed immediately by rapid crackling gunfire from a neighboring street.
The crowd jumped in fright, some clutched each other, others screamed and crouched on the ground.
Hearing the sudden gunfire, Peepo didn’t panic at all. Instead, his eyebrows lifted in excitement, and he muttered to himself, “Now that’s more like it.”
With the port in such chaos, it seemed the Port Gallon garrison had finally noticed something was wrong and had engaged the players sent to cut off traffic.
Though... Their reaction was absurdly slow.
Without hesitation, Peepo racked his rifle and shouted to the eager teammates behind him, “The mission board’s been updated! Team A, escort the VIPs to the warehouse! The rest of you, move with me!”
The players let out excited howls.
“Wooowee!”
Almost at the same instant, a shell whistled down and slammed into a building by the street, blasting a skylight open in the three-story villa.
Chunks of stone and clouds of dust rained down, rolling across the brick-paved street with loud clatters amid the screams.
The players scattered for cover, advancing along routes scouted by reconnaissance drones toward the firefight ahead.
At the same time, New Alliance mortar positions deployed in the port area opened fire, striking back at the sources of enemy fire under drone guidance.
The quiet of dawn was completely torn apart.
And at that moment, the counteroffensive that had spanned 2,000 kilometers had begun.
