chapter 145
POV: Bob
It has already been a month since we got that message from the captain. The first part of the plan has finally been accomplished.
“Hey you, if you look at that one more time, it will be the last thing you do!” I half yelled to one of the ground crew, who was once again looking towards the stairs that led upwards.
“You got a problem with one of my work crew, you come to me. You don’t talk to any of them, you understand that, right?” The one in charge of the offloading got close, trying to intimidate me.
I stepped closer to him, looming over him, blowing smoke into his face, which made him cough a bit.
“You think I am some scared transport captain that will bend over and let you do whatever you want? When you’re on my ship, it’s my rules. Understood?” And I took another step, which made him back up.
He didn’t, however, give up completely, and I didn’t expect him to, as this place had proven what it was. The Battle Moon was an apt name, as basically everyone who lived here was better than most expert fighters.
Stepping out of the ship while still monitoring everything, I let the ground crew do their job of unloading everything. The main things we were bringing to the Battle Moon were food and materials for building ships.
This was quite a small moon. In fact, I didn’t even know rocks so small would be classified as moons. It had a proper atmosphere and stronger gravity than most planets, thanks to what I assume is a lot of technology using a lot of power.
Apparently, the captain had found out that the moon has tunnels and rooms throughout its entirety, hiding a lot of secrets, but most are just forgotten relics of this moon’s past. The air here was actually quite nice, especially with all the trees that have been cultivated.
I’m pretty sure that captain likes it here quite a lot. This place did look kinda like old Earth. Pulling on the cigar again, I enjoyed the action of it. At first, I was doing so to mess with the captain, because I was sure that he was looking at us right now, but in fact, I can see why the captain likes to do this.
If he hadn’t gotten tied up with the Duke’s task, we would have been able to pick him up right now, and we would have been on our way to most likely fight some space monsters. I did not much enjoy acting like a captain and having to deal with these idiots so constantly.
In the past, it was so nice whenever someone was being annoying to just let captain handle it. Now, because of our cover, even FH could not take over.
We had to prove ourselves before we were allowed to properly start running supply missions to the Battle Moon, so I needed to take the role of a transport captain who used to be a mercenary. While I found that this role suited me well enough, the need to constantly act like a biological and like I was in charge was annoying.
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When everything was done, we closed up our ramps and took off. This was the first of the supply missions, but it wouldn’t be the last, as we would be needing to run these constantly.
“FH, did we get what we needed?” I asked her, hoping we could exchange information without anyone finding out.
“Yes, the captain managed to set up a safe transfer. I do not know how he managed, but we now have plans for the main fortress and colosseum. The pirate lord has already been trying to look for anyone with this information, so we now finally have our in.”
“That’s some good news at least. Was there anything else?” Sam said, and I really hoped that the captain didn’t have any other crazy plans.
“No, not really, just that we need to keep this up for at least a couple of months more.”
Well, that was annoying, but we all expected that. I guess I will just need to keep acting.
“I did find out more about this place while everyone else was busy,” Lola said, not looking entirely happy.
“Is it that bad?” Dean asked her.
“It’s this place’s population that’s the problem. All of them are too well-trained. The landing forces of the pirate lord don’t have the manpower to do anything, let alone crack one of the corners of the fortress.”
“Wait, I thought the captain was going to help us with that, making sure we can disable most of the anti-air defences?” Sam questioned.
“Yes, but every citizen is carrying weapons and is, as I said, well-trained. It’s like they have a rapid attack force available all the time at any location.”
We all sat in silence after that, as those words basically guaranteed our plans would fail. We were going to offer the local pirate lord’s forces a way in by becoming a part of my transportation fleet. But we could still only bring about five ships, and they would need to be modified in a similar way to our ship.
But I could see how they would fail if they met some proper resistance as soon as we landed. I wasn’t even certain we would make it that far, because I was pretty sure the pirate lord would never order something so flashy to kidnap his own daughter.
He shouldn’t be that stupid, but I would leave that to FH to manage. She seemed to think she could somehow convince them that that was what their pirate lord wanted them to do. In the end, it didn’t matter much; we had established a way for captain to escape even if we didn’t manage to start that war.
It would be annoying having a Duke hunting us, but also perhaps fun. I turned back in to the conversation when I heard my name being said.
“Bob, do you think you could make disposable robots that could support the assault?” Lola asked, so I quickly rewound the conversation they had.
So, they wanted to convince the pirate lord forces that we could supply them with more manpower, more specifically, disposable manpower.
“That shouldn’t be a problem. I could make a couple of hundred easily enough, perhaps even push that to a thousand if we spend some credits on materials. We could use a similar system to what we did in Paradise City, so that they would basically be mindless fighters, but still be protected from mana. But the captain would need to be close by.”
“I think that would be more than workable. I will message the captain and see what he thinks, but it will take some time before he will get back to us,” FH said, while somehow sounding incredibly busy.
From what I understood, she was constantly gathering as much information as possible while also trying to figure out how everything connected. It was rare when our processing capabilities were utilised less than 90%, as she was just that busy.
I was about to light up another cigar when Lola interrupted me.
“Bob, can you stop? The growing area has barely produced anything, and you are already smoking up the last of what we have managed to grow.”
“Well, serves the captain right. If he were here, he could enjoy these with me.”
Lola looked quite annoyed, but Dean supported me.
“It would be a good way to keep the captain from ever doing something like this again.”
Lola narrowed her eyes but didn’t say anything else, as I believe she agreed with that statement. I honestly didn’t care that much about the captain being gone.
Actually, I’m beginning to think that this was a calculated move by the captain to help everyone else become a little bit more independent. It seems that all of them truly needed a kick in the pants to stop being so dependent on him.
Captain often liked the saying: two birds with one stone. I have always thought it a good saying, but I truly wondered how many birds he was downing with this one move of his. Quite devious, captain, quite devious indeed.