Chapter 137: Battle Lines
Chapter 137: Battle Lines
Luffy just barely managed to keep his cursing internal as the information was relayed to him via the Discovery’s primary Den Den Mushi. Not letting how pissed off he was at the timing influence his expression or voice, he replied to Hancock, even as his mind raced to sort out what pieces to send where.
“Understood. I’ll need to contact Vivi, as she’s away from the ship, but she has a White Mushi with her. I’ll direct her to you at Fishman Island first so you can get your people back to Amazon Lily and start preparing properly. After that, I’ll have her pick myself and the majority of my crew up to join you personally, then move onto Alabasta as well to see who they can send. A handful of my crew are away on a time sensitive task they can’t be pulled away from, but you’ll have myself, Kuina, Zoro, Nami and Robin at absolute minimum. Likely Usopp, Kaya, Chopper and Pagaya as well.”
The Den Den Mushi, which was trying in utter vain to replicate Hancock’s looks, twitched slightly as the Empress noted the obvious name missing. Yamato was, without question, the second most powerful member of the Strawhat crew. To be honest, once she had her Awakened abilities down, it would likely once again be a close match between her and Luffy himself for title of strongest. Still, Kuina and Zoro were just as unquestionably his number three and four for pure combat power, and the Empress didn’t bring up the missing firepower when she spoke.
“Excellent. Once we show these fools that they were unwise to test any Alliance I deemed worthwhile, we will have to discuss what to do going forward. The Marines have grown far too bold if they believe they can get away with this.”
That was a good point, actually, and combined somewhat well with thoughts that had been percolating in the back of Luffy’s mind. More and more, he was realizing that his crew was too big for Paradise, even for training purposes. Assuming the current joint disasters didn’t choke them, it might be past time to consider something a bit more…aggressive. Still, those were thoughts for once they were beyond the current crisis points.
“Agreed. Vivi will be with you soon, make sure you have who you want to take straight to Amazon Lily ready, as your ship is too big for her to move just yet.”
The snail gave off the distinct impression of ‘teach your grandma to suck eggs.’ Luffy was idly impressed that Hancock could get that meaning into an expression. He was even more impressed that a Den Den Mushi managed to copy it.
“Already done. The Perfume Yuda got underway as soon as I reached you. I had no doubt you would come through, so long as nothing blocked our communication.”
Well, that was certainly high praise, and Luffy was very glad they hadn’t needed to commit to an attempt to outright defend Germa. He just hoped that the rescue team would be enough on their own to handle whatever happened there. He’d thought they’d be able to reinforce them at need, not knowing the Marines had planned simultaneous strikes. Of course, they might not be simultaneous, as they didn’t know exactly where the Fleet moving against Amazon Lily was right now. Only that they would launch, or already had launched, from Red Port. Still, Luffy had a gut feeling that it was going to be effectively simultaneous. If for no other reason than such was what would put the most strain on them. The original Strawhat crew’s luck had been a very bi-polar thing, and his own efforts to suppress that fact had counted on foreknowledge he no longer had.
“Right. Good luck, Hancock. We’ll see you soon.”
Ending the conversation with that, Luffy immediately began dialing the frequency for Vivi’s Den Den Mushi. They needed to get events in motion and people in place as quickly as possible…
… … …
A day and a half later Luffy was internally cursing again as things were clearly playing out to prove his suspicions about the timing right. The Kuja aboard the Perfume Yuda had spotted Marine ships moving at the edge of the Calm Belt when they’d reached it. The Kuja ship had secretly used underwater currents known only to the Fishman…and an ancient Sea King that Princess Shirahoshi had very quietly spoken with and requested aid the Kuja vessel in crossing the distance faster than even the Discovery could have.
The Marine Fleet’s scouting element, which is all they’d laid eyes on, hadn’t attempted to engage them. Understandable and expected really, as those lighter fleet elements hadn’t had any way to know that Hancock wasn’t aboard the Kuja ship. Though the presence of the Sun Pirate vessel alongside the Perfume Yuda had likely also had something to do with it. The fact that the Sun Pirates had likely been spotted and identified was annoying, but the knowledge of just how close the Marines were was more important.
As it was, the Marines were still a solid two day, minimum, at full steam from sight of Amazon Lily. Unfortunately, the Germa Rescue Team had run into their own delays. Specifically, they’d had to slow their approach to Germa while Vivi was busy shuffling people around, then had also needed to dodge Marine patrols and multiple minor skirmishes. The fact that Germa was actively moving as well, meant they’d only just barely made contact with Sanji’s sister, and she needed time to arrange everything on her side. As the Marines seemed to be preparing a full-scale attack, odds were high the two battles would happen within hours of each other at most, if not outright simultaneously. Since the best chance to extract the civilians of Germa would come during the battle, while Germa’s own forces were distracted, that meant events were almost certain to overlap.
They were just going to have to do without Yamato for the attack on Amazon Lily, and the Rescue Team was just going to have to pull off their side of things without additional reinforcements. After talking with Handcock and explaining what was going on, Chopper at least had been sent to the Expedition, so that they’d have medical aid for the civilians if needed. That left seven of the crew separated to the Rescue Mission team, and the remaining nine on Amazon Lily. Minus their final member in Dis herself, of course. They had been a bit reluctant to leave her completely alone on Starfall, but the truth was she was currently ensconced in a well-hidden dock, owned by people who were more than willing to help keep her hidden. The fact that Dis was fully capable of looking after herself with multiple Devil Fruit powers only made it an even easier choice.
Shaking off his annoyance at the crew being split and slightly more vulnerable for it, while major attacks were going on, he scanned what amounted to a war council. It was being held in a building near the Alliance Dock, with the Dock currently housing the Sun Pirate’s ship instead of the Discovery. Thankfully, the Kuja had spent some time building up the area since first creating it, specifically turning it into somewhere that had support buildings for Alliance visitors if they ever needed to actually call on said Alliance for defense. How far they were willing to trust the other members of the Alliance on their island even during a battle was a bit of a ticklish point still, unfortunately. One of several this very meeting was intended to address.
For now, Luffy took stock of who all was present.
Aside from himself, Kuina, and the Boa sisters, the single most notable were Jinbe and Prince Fukaboshi. The latter was using a bubble ring to maneuver in the air, which was something he thankfully seemed to have experience doing. Aside from the two of them, there were also two more individuals present, to represent the Alabastian Alliance. One was Pell the Falcon, still one of Alabasta’s strongest. He’d proven his talents again by becoming among those few who hadn’t just learned the Six Powers, but had also managed to awaken both Armament and Observation Haki. Something that, combined with his Devil Fruit and years of battle experience, legitimately made him worthy of note even in a room of people as dangerous as those present.
His companion was one of the Alabastian military given a Devil Fruit by King Cobra. Okame was a bit of a surprise choice in that regard, since she’d been a member of the Rebel forces during Alabasta’s abortive civil war. She was also, apparently, a very old friend of Vivi’s who had legitimately been actively more loyal to Vivi than Koza. To the point that, had Vivi stayed rather than leaving to infiltrate Baroque works, there was a high chance Okame would have never joined the rebels at all. Or, at least, so Luffy had been informed when he questioned it once. They pair of royals must have had very high confidence in that fact, as the woman was the current wielder of the Suna Suna No Mi and had proven quite talented with it. She’d also mastered Geppo and Soru, at least, alongside awakening Observation Haki. She was likely the weakest person in the room, as she had yet to figure out Armament, but she was hardly weak overall.
Nor was the contingent that had come with her and Pell weak. Three additional Devil Fruit users had come with them. Specifically, the current users of the Spike-Spike, Dice-Dice, and Spring-Spring Fruits. All of whom had at least gained access to either two of the six powers or one form of Haki, at minimum. Combined with a full 700 of Alabasta’s new Elite Guard, all of whom had access to at least three of the six powers, with the officers also having at least one form of Haki unlocked? Well, no one could say that the Alabastian Alliance hadn’t put forth a serious bit of firepower in defense of their ally. Frankly, if not for the Sun Pirates, it would be Fishman Island that was offering up the least help, as their own Elite unit only brought 200 with their prince. With the Sun Pirates included, however, all sides were fairly well represented…and there were good odds the Marines had little to no idea what sort of nightmare they were walking into.
Still, that was enough examining the room. They’d all arrive a few minutes ago, but no one seemed quite sure where to start. Deciding to take the bull by the horns, Luffy leaned forward.
“The Kuja and my crew have done a fairly decent bit of war gaming against admiral level opponents, but I think I speak for most of us here that we aren’t used to thinking in terms of island defense. I believe Captain Pell is likely our best bet for organizing our disparate groups in that respect. Given the coastal defense guns, I’m not expecting any Marine ships to actually survive to reach land. But organizing how to defend against the batches of officers who arrive via Devil Fruit, Geppo, or other means is a complicated problem.”
Thankfully, Prince Fukaboshi was quick to add his own two belli.
“I have plenty of experience in arranging the Royal Army against threats to Fishman Island, but the environment here on the surface is dramatically different. I have to agree that Captain Pell likely has the best insight to offer.”
Equally thankfully, Hancock wasn’t offended, nodding sharply a moment later.
“Agreed. The rest of us are used to raiding operations, not strategic defense. Captain Pell, if you’d be willing to give us an overview based on your experience and what you know of our own forces?”
The Alabastian Captain seemed more than a little surprised, but he adapted quickly, leaning forward to look over the highly detailed map/charts of the island and the waters around it that was lying on the round table between all of them. Hancock had directly commissioned Nami to create it during one of their previous visits, and was now by far and away the most detailed set of maps and charts that had ever been made of Amazon Lily. This specific copy, of which even Nami didn’t retain in her growing atlas, marked out the coastal guns. The version Nami had kept for her Map of the World pointedly left the locations of those out. She was making a map for explorers and travelers, not military advantage.
“Well, I can get us started at least, I think. The first thing I can say is that I believe Captain Luffy is mostly right. Alabasta has built a number of similar coastal artillery weapons since the Captain shared the blueprint, and they vastly outrange any traditional weapons system the Marines are known to use. That, unfortunately, doesn’t preclude Devil Fruits and the like, but few such have that sort of range. Doubly so with the elevation advantage those high hills give your defensive guns.”
Pell leaned forward to trace from the guns in question to the line where their estimated effective range was displayed.
“With any fortune at all, the Marines are going to be caught completely flat footed for at least the first few barrages with the coastal guns. Something which is going to take a very large bite out of their fleet. After that, however, we have to consider that the mid and high-level officers onboard those ships may be able to deflect fire away from them. Given they are attacking somewhere they know will be defended by dangerous people, I can’t see them not bringing enough mid-level officers capable of that sort of thing along. Kuma, at the very least, will be able to stop any barrage aimed at a ship he’s protecting.”
The Captain moved several tokens onto the board. Some representing the Marine vessels, two specifically for Admiral Sakazuki and Kuma, some labeled ‘Pascifista,’ and a handful that were generic ‘high level officer’ tokens.
“Personally, my best guess at what they’ll do once they realize the coastal guns badly outrange them is split. They’ll send their highest levels assets forward with the hope of either destroying the guns quickly, or at least engaging our own most dangerous fighters to prevent the assault on their ships from getting any worse. At the same time, they’ll retain their mid-level fighters and any high-level assets not capable of aerial movement to defend the ships from the guns.”
Most of the high-level tokens were moved toward the island, while a fistful of ‘mid-level’ tokens and two high-levels were left with the fleet. Luffy nodded slowly at Pell’s outline, speaking up for the first time since suggesting they listen to him when the Captain paused to shift the tokens.
“If they do that, they might preserve some of their ships far enough to at least fire back, possibly even to make landfall depending on how things go elsewhere. But what if we plan for that and disrupt them? More specifically, what if we have some or all of the Sun Pirates ready to hit them from below once their high-level forces shift forward to engage the island?”
Pell paused, cocking his head and slow-blinking at the map in a distinctly bird-like gesture of consideration.
“Hmmm, I admit, I was about to suggest that we needed a way to put pressure on the ships after such a split happened, but I hadn’t considered that possible option. I’m not used to the idea of having assets we can hide underwater. For that matter…could we use Bubble Tech to put more than just the Fishmen down there? If we can put enough people out there to seriously disrupt the fleet, it will leave the high-level fighters without support.”
Prince Fukaboshi leaned forward enough to indicate he could answer that, but waited for a nod from Pell before actually speaking.
“Yes, we can do that, and it might solve the issue of what to do with the Alabastian forces, as the Kuja aren’t overly keen on having them spread out over Amazon Lily. The Marines already know the Sun Pirates are likely to be present, so we shouldn’t use the ship lest they get suspicious of its absence. Instead, I suggest having my Royal Guard tow Bubbles filled with boarding parties, as well as assigning a few of our faster people to grab any of the Devil Fruit users who end up knocked overboard. If we include the Alabastian Elite Guard in the boarding parties, we should have the numbers to seriously disrupt the fleet. The real problem I can see is how to prevent the coastal guns from sinking ships we put boarding parties aboard with friendly fire.”
Hancock spoke up next, offering a solution.
“I believe this plan would solve many major issues, as the tribe is a bit uneasy about so many men on the island. As for marking the ships, that should be a simple matter of providing flares or paint markers for the boarding parties. A thrown paint bomb capable of coloring a mainsail, perhaps? Every coastal gun has a spotter team, so a marker like that would be sufficient for them to concentrate fire on unmarked ships.”
There were several nods of agreement at that simple solution and the meeting continued. There were a lot of details and fallback plans to prepare, and only so much time for them to get it all ready and perform a few dry runs with their people. Something they could desperately use, as they’d never tried to weld all these forces together at once before, despite the efforts towards doing joint training…
… … …
“Hina believes this is going to be extremely annoying. If the Discovery were available, she believes it would be easy. Without the ability to sail below the waves, however, we cannot approach Germa directly.”
That was, unfortunately, entirely true. The Marines were keeping a tight corridor around the western side of Germa, as they pushed the mobile Kingdom toward the Red Line. They clearly intended to pin Germa against the mountains, which made a certain degree of sense. While Germa was known to be able to cross the Red Line, it couldn’t do so even a fraction as quickly as it could move in the water. Kuzan, who Hina had learned was in charge of the operation, was clearly intending on using that fact to force a decisive battle.
Until now, the mobile Kingdom had apparently been avoiding such by virtue of that very mobility. Its speed in the ocean had taken everyone by surprise, including even Sanji. It wasn’t as fast as the Discovery, or even the Expedition, but it was legitimately faster than Marine battleships. Which had made it a nightmare for the Marines to pin it down. Something made all the worse by the fact it could separate into numerous smaller segments. Though Germa had stopped doing that after Vinsmoke Yonji had been killed in isolation from the rest of his family.
That speed, plus needing to avoid Marine patrols, had caused them to take significantly longer than expected to catch up to the Germa Kingdom, based on the original reports Hina had acquired. Even once they had caught up, they’d ended up needing to use the Expedition’s superior speed to loop around to get between Germa and the Red Line. Even there, a series of the fastest schooners the Marines possessed were keeping watch. Only Vivi’s Air Doors had allowed them to make contact with Sanji’s sister Reiju without alerting anyone else. Worse, as the Red Line rapidly approached, they’d needed to move away from that gap. They couldn’t make their move until the battle between the Marines and Germa started properly, and they’d been forced well out of visual sight of the island. With Vivi not having a specific point or person within the Kingdom memorized to use as an anchor…
“Tsk. Hina believes there is no choice. We will have to break through a weak point in the Marine lines, once the battle begins.”
It was telling that no one else protested that statement, all of them having struggled to think of an alternative, as fighting wasn’t really what they were here for. Doubly so with what was going on back on Amazon Lily…as well as certain orders Luffy had quietly passed on to them. Fighting a protracted engagement would be the worst possible result. A few other ideas, such as Vivi and Nojiko working together to fly toward Germa, had been proposed…and shot down. There were three full blown Admirals in the Marine fleet, and several Vice or Rear Admirals as well. No one short of Kaya and her bullshit Inversion trick would be able to sneak through their combined Observation envelope.
“If we wait until the Marines are committed, we should only have to deal with lesser officers while the Admirals fight my family. Though extracting Reiju herself may be difficult. Still, getting to the location she gave us and removing the civilians will be the hardest part. If Vivi sends the Expedition away, or the Marines sink it for that matter, than we can move freely after getting the civilians through to Alabasta. If we stay together, we should be able to grab Reiju and run after that. This isn’t our fight and the Germa 66 deserves what they will get.”
The closer they had gotten to Germa, the more grim Sanji had become, to the point that even the fact he was sharing a ship solely with beautiful women had ceased to affect him the way they were used to. A worrying sign, for sure. Enough so for none of them to even attempt platitudes. Though Yamato was still as bright as always as she spoke up next.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be stealthy! If we knock everyone out, then no one will see us!”
There was a brief moment of levity as everyone else stared at her, before simultaneously shouting the same thing.
“THAT’S NOT HOW THAT WORKS!”
The unexpected synchronicity of the moment caused Vivi to break down in giggles a second later, which admittedly did a great deal to break the building tension…
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: That poor, poor Den Den Mushi, desperately wanting to be as beautiful as Hancock, but limited by the fact it's a snail...
A/N 2: Yes, Luffy knows about Poseidon. No, no one else realizes he does, as it's past life knowledge. Hancock does, as does Vivi actually, because they have been mentoring Shirahoshi and she confided about her ability to speak with/command Sea Kings. Neither has shared the information, and Hancock passed off the sea-king that towed the Perfume Yuda as a particularly impressive example of someone taming one (as has been seen to be possible with lesser sea kings). Her crew remain unaware of Shirahoshi's ability, it making sense to them that the Neptunes would be really good at that sort of training if anyone was. I figured someone was going to ask these questions, so this AN is just a premptive answer to something that might never come up in-fic :-p.
A/N 3: I wanted to take the chance to highlight that Alabasta isn't without strong fighters. For some reason, likely because I haven't shown them on screen, people persist in assuming that Alabasta is super vulnerable. It ISN'T. They took Luffy's gifts and the the various bits of training and ran with it. Pell, in particular, could easily match any of the remaining Vice Admiral's at this point. Though he'd struggle against any of the full Admirals if he was trying to fight them solo. Alabasta has also managed to train up a much larger chunk of Elites, as they had a far larger population of talent to draw the best-of-the-best from.
A/N 4: I ended up reading the entire Wano arc in preparation for both Amazon Lily (late Wano Arc is where S-Hawk and S-Snake first appear, with a similar invasion of Amazon Lily) and to start outlining things better for once the crew hits the New World. Yamato's idea of Stealth by knocking everyone that saw her out amused me enough I had to sneak it into events with the Germa Rescue team :-p.