“bzzzt.. zzzt… mayday mayday mayday! This is patrol boat O-five-niner of destroyer Dauntless requesting immediate assistance! Savior do you read!? We are under heavy fire, requesting immediate assistance. Our current location is 220 klicks northeast of new Manhattan Island!”
All eyes in the cabin turned to the source of the transmission as the soldiers pointing their guns at Kiefer lowered their guard. The tension in the air sky rocketed as Palmer sprang into action, brushing past the titans and lunging for the radio. Isana and Sher seemed unfazed by the tension while Rashael was simply too distracted by the new technology to even notice anyone else.
“This Commander Palmer of the Savior! O-five-niner do you read? What’s the situation!?” Palmer yelled into the mic unknowingly, revealing her panic to the crew. First someone steals food from her farm, then she was abducted and all her common sense was thrown out the window. Without even time to catch a break, a distress call now comes in from the rest of the fleet that she had separated from.
“Thank god! We weren’t sure we were out of the range of the jammer! It seems some pirates spotted the Savior heading off alone and ambushed us on our way to new Manhattan. They’ve deployed radio jammers and we couldn’t get a distress call out. Our destroyers and subs are engaging in battle now and we won’t last more than an hour, 2 at most. We decided to speed a patrol boat out of the jammer’s range and we need your help commanding the battlefield! I’ll send a sitrep over right now.” The crew on the other end of the radio replied back as quickly as he could.
“Shit! Fuck! Our holoprojector is still shorted out! I can’t see what is going on.” Palmer yelled in frustration, banging on the benchtop with her fists so hard it made a small dent in the aluminum plate.
“Umm.. if I may interrupt..” Kiefer spoke out softly, causing the soldiers to return to high alert, raising their weapons back at him.
“What!? We are in this mess because of you! Innocent people are going to die! Good people!” Palmer bellowed, seemingly forgetting just how powerful Kiefer is.
“I was just about to say, that I might be able to help you. As long as they don’t drop a nuke, I think I can handle the situation. Take it as me repaying you for all the troubles I caused. Of course, I wouldn’t mind a little reward. I’m sure you’ve already seen what I can do.” Kiefer replied calmly, an evil grin appearing on his face.
“Nee… Sana sis… I don’t like it when master smiles like that…” Sher whispered to Isana, clutching Isana’s shirt from behind. Isana, just smiled softly and kept looking at the situation, not saying a word.
“Hurry. Every second you waste is increasing the number of lives lost. You just have to let me loose on those pirates. I’m dying to find out how much of my full strength I can use on earth.” Kiefer urged Palmer. Palmer shut her eyes tightly, her brows knitted into a frown as she pinched her forehead. Finally after a quick deliberation, she looked straight into Kiefer’s eyes and said, “Please help us.”
Without even waiting for Palmer to finish her request, Kiefer disappeared from the cabin along with the titan. He was not going to risk having the titans held hostage against him. He quickly brought them back to their hideout and refilled his mana to the brim. Handing them their weapons and kissing Isana lightly, Kiefer turned around and left the hideout, only saying, “Wait for me. I’ll be back.”
Within minutes, Kiefer was standing over the battlefield, atop his mana platform. He had blinked his way through the skies, barely using any mana at all. The battle field seemed like a mess, but had some sort of organization to it. The destroyers were surrounding the rest of the fleet along the cirucumference, with turret fires going off constantly. The pirate fleet had caught them in a nice concave shape, surrounding them from all sides except a small opening near the south where Kiefer presumed the patrol boat squeezed out of.
The pirate fleet comprised of almost 10 large ships, all seemingly outfitted for combat while Palmer’s fleet only had 7 destroyers capable of combat. Kiefer knew there were subs underwater but he could not tell if the pirates had subs of their own. His first step would just have to be neutralizing the target above water.
Drones were whizzing around firing a barrage of rockets at both pirate and colony ships alike. Turret fires caused large explosions in the water and on ship. The occasional explosion from underwater would cause the water surface to swell and bulge before releasing a huge wave. This only indicated that the subs were also engaged in battle underwater.
“Defence is key I guess. If none of the projectiles hit the destroyers, it would cause less panic and give them time to reorganize themselves.” Kiefer thought as he dropped from the sky in free fall, stopping short of the water surface. What he did next seemed to capture the attention of the sailors and soldier from both fleets.
Enhancing his body and brain, Kiefer’s heightened senses and improved reflexes allowed him to blink within range of any ballistic projectiles approaching the destroyers and open a PD in the flight path of the projectile, essentially storing any and all bullets, shells, mortars, rails and missiles fired by the pirates.
The sailors and soldiers of the destroyers stared at the man moving in and out of existence in awe, dazed and confused by the change in circumstances. Kiefer saw the situation and turned to them and yelled loudly, making sure every destroyer heard him. “I’m here under Palmer’s request! I’ll handle defense, so go wipe the pirates out!”
With that single order, the soldiers all yelled in unison, cheering for the miracle that their commander had sent them. In one fell swoop, the pirate’s attack had been cut to zero, allowing for the destroyers to counter attack. The pirates seemed undeterred, pressing on with their attacks and pouring on more barrages in an attempt to overwhelm the fleet’s new defensive capability.
At first, Kiefer was fully occupied with teleporting all over the battlefield and storing any projectiles aimed at the fleet. But as the battle progressed and the pirate ships either sank or ran, he could divert his attention to attacking. With 2 pirate ships sunk and 1 already fleeing, Kiefer began changing his tactics. He would open twin portals instead of his usual PD, allowing a missile to pass through one portal and appear from the other portal and fly straight back at the pirates. Basically, he was doing his teleportation thing, but only with the missiles and not himself.
Another 3 more pirate ships sank after 30 minutes and by then, all attacks on the fleet had stopped while the rest of the pirates were in full reverse, fleeing from the battle. The explosions from underwater had stopped as well, indicating that the enemy subs were also retreating. The sailors, soldiers and civilians alike all cheered in unison at the unlikely victory, and quickly returned to treating the wounded.
At this time, a metaphorical light bulb shone over Kiefer’s head as he sprinted through the air to chase after the remaining pirate fleet. As small as he was, Kiefer was not picked up by the radar of the pirate fleet and he tailed them from the sky, well beyond the vision of any human eye.
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“This is the Dauntless reporting to the Savior! The battle is over. We won. I repeat, the battle is over. We won. Thank you for sending in the reinforcement, Commander. We would have been wiped out if not for him. Casualties are few, no fatalities reported thus far. We will continue on our course after everything has been reorganized.”
A report streamed in from the radio, causing everyone in the cabin of the Savior to heave a sigh of relief. “Captain Armstrong, where is the man I sent to help you?” Palmer asked through the radio.
“No idea Ma’m, he disappeared from our sights as soon as the pirates fled. We thought he was returning to the Savior. He really saved us back there. Is he a new breed of soldier? There’s some weird tech he used that we’ve never seen before, could be some lost artifact from before the cataclysm.” Armstrong replied, answering Palmer’s question but only raising more queries in Palmer’s mind.
“That’s classified information, even for you Armstrong.” Palmer barked back, a sudden realization coming to her. Her intuitions were right after all. She did not know who, or where, but there was a mole within her ranks. It might’ve been Kiefer, but so far his story checked out, as absurd as it may have sounded. The likelihood of an ambush occurring right after they left the fleet was almost none. From past observations, there shouldn’t have been any pirate fleet big enough to take on the destroyers anywhere nearby. They most like had already planned the attack beforehand, and was dealt the golden hand when Kiefer stirred up trouble in the farms by total coincidence.
“I wonder where Kiefer is now. The reports from O-five-niner definitely mentioned the reinforcement appearing within 10 minutes from when Kiefer disappeared. And yet, it’s been almost 20 minutes since the battle ended.” Palmer thought, trapped in her own world of analysis.
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“Send out the Spectres again. Locate Kiefer’s family and report their location once you find them. I want to know what happened to Kiefer.” Palmer passed the order down to her lietenant. The short freckled and bespectacled male saluted her, quickly dashing out of the cabin and down a flight of stairs towards to barracks.
A speed boat departed from the side of the Savior within 3 minutes, with the 7 man team in titanium woven carbon nanotube suits on board. Accompanying them were 3 drones that took off into the sky, heading towards the island ahead of them. Visual feed started streaming within seconds and a thermal scan revealed the 3 targets within the old empire state building. However, the drone that was first to discover the titans shut down and crashed abruptly, causing the Spectres to increase their speed.
“Ma’m we’ve found them. I’ll contact you once again when I make contact.” Sargent Everns reported as he set foot on the debris island they now call new Manhattan. They made quick work of the distance from the shore to the empire state building, knocking on the door where the thermal image of the drone last showed them. One of the Spectres found the crashed drone and took it back to the boat, while the other 2 drones returned and nestled back into their respective docking stations.
“Hello again. I’ve come at the request of Commander Palmer. She would like to invite you back onto the Savior.” Everns greeted the Titans politely, clipping his rifle to the side of his thigh. Hitting a few buttons on his wrist terminal to contact the Savior once more, the sergeant ended up giving up and tossing it to the ground as the terminal began malfunctioning and smoking.
“I’m terribly sorry, but please wait here for a moment.” Everns apologized hastily and rushed back out to the boat where his corporal was inspecting the crashed drone in the boat. “Micky, radio in to the Savior. My terminal is broken.” Everns ordered as he prepared to give his report.
“Commander. I think I know the cause of the electrical malfunctions. It would seem that one of the tangos is emitting some sort of EMP that fries our circuit board. I don’t know if they are doing it on purpose or not, but that is what caused the cameras on the farm, the computers on the Savior, the drone and my terminal to malfunction. I highly recommend not bringing them back on board the Savior.” Everns reported curtly.
“Roger that Sergeant. I will send a team to set up a temporary lodging for them on the island, away from our equipment. Then I will come down to meet them personally. Return to the savior. There is something I need to brief you about.” Palmer’s voice sounded through the speakers.
Returning to the room where the titans were located, Everns smiled nicely at them once again, explaining that his commander would be coming down to discuss some issues with them and that a team will be setting up accommodation much more suited for living than a run-down conference room in an almost buried pre-apocalypse monument.
The soldiers and ship crew alike carried out their orders swiftly, with an instant concrete tent blown up like a bouncy sandcastle within 15 minutes. They furnished the insides with 2 bunk beds, a table, some basic cooking appliances such as a kettle and an electric stove. Meanwhile, palmer was locked inside a small transfer cabin between the barracks and the ship’s corridor with Everns.
“Listen up Everns. This is highly classified and you are not to speak about it to anyone, not even your team. Understood?” Palmer whispered in a serious tone. Everns nodded firmly to her question, allowing her to continue.
“I am dealing with an issue right now and once I have enough concrete evidence, I will reveal it, but for now, I want you to keep a close eye on those 3 on the island. Kiefer told me they were from a different world and that they are very powerful beings. I don’t want to risk the lives of my ship’s personal by being less vigilant than we could be. Their origin, purpose, and identities are too ambiguous and I don’t believe that the attack on the fleet was just a coincidence. Keep your eye on them while I do my research.” Palmer ordered, before unlocking the blast door and trotting down the corridor to board a boat.
Meanwhile, Rashael was repeatedly pressing the button on the kettle, wondering what its function was while Sher kept looking at the door of the tent expectantly. “Don’t worry. You know he can handle himself. He said he will be back, so just trust in him. I’m sure he’s just doing something to sate his curiosity now.” Isana consoled Sher, unable to divert her sight that was glued on the tent’s exit.
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[[Elsewhere, in the midst of a convoluted archipelago]]
“Tch! Dammit! How the hell did that attack fail?!?” A bearded man lamented to himself, pacing around within his quarters. “The flagship was separated and we cut off their signal to the commander. We outnumbered their ships and they were in a disarray thanks to the lack of a leader, and yet how did we end up losing most of the fleet!?” He continued to mutter angrily, his frustration boiling over his head.
*knock knock*
“Come in.” The man vociferated, calming himself down and making himself presentable as another gentleman dressed in a neat white and blue uniform entered the room.
“Sir, there is a message from your client, and the new recruits are ready to be inspected and broken into.” The gentleman informed him, before bowing and backing out of the quarters and shutting the door behind him.
The bearded man inspected the familiar triangular device and hit a slider on the edge. Immediately, the device began whirring and lit up with a single blue light that kept running along the edges of the device. A deep, encrypted voice came through the device the moment the blue light come on.
“Your attack failed, and quite miserably. What use is the leader of the Pirates of the French Archipelago if he can’t even complete a job commissioned by his client? I paid you a hefty sum for the job, and yet, I am here without a fleet of my own, still bowing my head and answering to every beck and call of the ill-deserved commander.” The voice spoke emotionlessly.
Beads of sweat came pouring down the side of the man’s head as he spoke back aloud into the device. “Your information was inaccurate and costed me more than half my attack fleet. You never mentioned anything about a pre-apocalypse artifact that your commander possessed. My reports tell me that their attacks were completely nullified and even returned by the artifact user. How do you expect me to proceed with that man still within your midst?”
“You do not have to worry about that.” The encrypted voice echoed through the room. “The flagship is immobilized by some sort of EMP that fried their onboard computers. Half the destroyers are not fit for combat and they will be sitting ducks at the New Manhattan Island for a while. The artifact user is MIA and my sources tell me that his family is on the island as well. Even if he returns, you will have some leverage over the user. Make sure you succeed this time and that you leave me with enough ships to form my own fleet.” The voice answered, before the device stopped whirring and the blue light dimmed and finally turned off.
“Fuck! Who does he think he is, ordering me around.” The bearded man complained as he tossed the device out the window into the seawater. He promptly left his room and went above deck looking at the new lineup of eager recruits wanting to join his private army of pirates. Some were forced onto the ship, others joined on their own volition, either way, they will have to endure hellish years on the ship doing menial tasks before any of them will be given any significant jobs.
“Listen up you maggots!” The man yelled as the line of young men and women looked up at their new tyrannical leader. “I am your leader, commodore Valares. From today on, you will be in charge of any task that any of my men ordered you to do. If they ask you to blow them, you blow them, if they ask you to swallow, you swallow. You are nothing more than cannon fodder until you have proven yourselves!” He yelled.
The line of new recruits looked terrified, cursing their fate that led them to this juncture. They all had grim looks on their faces, some on the verge of sobbing while others having blank eyes that seem to be void of life. All except one, knew they did not wish to be here. A particular man with jet black hair and a handsome face stared down at the floorboards of the worn out destroyer they were standing on, and smiled. He was exactly where he needed to be.
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So I posted some ideas on how to tweak my story for those nerds who helped me a great deal by pointing out the major flaws that was literally staring me in my face. Please respond within the comments in the previous chapter and i really appreciate you all taking your time to type out those long paragraphs and explaining the physics behind my story.
Anyways, feel free to guess who the mole is/are.