The Marine

Spotting Lougetown on the horizon Bill turned his head back to look at his shabby convoy.

With Borodo’s suggestion, they had broken the mass of ships into pairs.

In this arrangement, the leading vessel would have young people capable of sailing while the other held the animals and those incapable of handling the sails. In this way it had taken just over four days for the convoy to reach their destination.

This was a good thing because by now nearly every morsel of food had been eaten and every gallon of water drank.

Standing on the deck looking forward, Bill didn’t show it, but he was anxious whether or not Lougetown could support such a large influx of refugees – even if only temporarily.

Lougetown was a large town with a population of about fifteen thousand, so he thought there may be some chance that the town would have enough supplies for a couple thousand refugees.

In case there wasn’t, Bill had split his time between Ricky and Borodo drawing up options for buying supplies and with the engineers drawing up the plans for the town to be built on Little East Blue island.

After calculating his expenses Bill figured he could buy three seastone hull frigates at the average going rate if there were any available.

This would completely eat away all of his money, including the money he would gain from the Trump Pirates bounties and selling the caravels, but with four frigates he would be able to transport roughly a thousand refugees over the Calm Belt at one time.

Calculating it over and over, Bill couldn’t help but anguish about the waste of money, but he knew these ships would be long term investments as they would be needed in the future.

Several times he had scolded himself that he hadn’t even established his laboratory or workshop to say nothing of figuring out his trade routes. His plan had never been to settle on an island like Little East Blue, because despite its good conditions it was an unsettled place.

He had hoped to set up his workshop first on a World Government controlled island like Polestar or even a Kingdom where he would have access to a large potential labor force and already made infrastructure.

Little East Blue had great potential to house a laboratory and act as a central command post, but it would take time to build it up whether or not he had superhuman strength and stamina to work with.

Thinking this once again, Bill showed no expression and looked back towards Lougetown and waited as the port inched closer.

Reaching the outskirts of the harbor the convoy furled sails and dropped anchors as Frontier Run went to dock, Bill obviously couldn’t just dump dozens of ships and thousands of people on the town docks so he would go see Captain Smoker first.

Lougetown was a slightly unusual island owing to it not having a mayor.

This was because it was the home of the Gold Roger, the man who started the Age of Pirates, and the World Government could not allow the place to become a shrine to people who wanted to emulate that man.

Bill didn’t know how he felt about this as the town had essentially been under martial law for twenty years.

On one hand, Bill did not like the idea of the military casually operating on public streets. On the other hand, the island had clearly not been oppressed as there were pirate-themed ‘Gold Roger’ stores on every street corner.

As the ship docked, in practical terms, it would make it easier to have an organized response for the Clockwork Island refugees.

Since Bill couldn’t be sure about the assistance he would get, their plan was already made.

Fia would be heading to the local grocers to see about purchasing tons of pepper, dried fruits, and flour. The consensus was that sea king would be the only feasible way to feed such a large number of people, but they would need to have more than just meat as about forty percent of the refugees were younger than ten or older than fifty.

Sasha would be heading with Bill to the Marine office, from there she would get information about any pastures the island may have. Five hundred sheep could not stay on board the ships and if there weren’t pastures, they would have to be slaughtered.

Ranse would have the job of going around and recruiting new Mates. Due to Clockwork Islands unique condition, it did not have sailors. Even though certain residents had been eager to learn how to sail and even how to fight, for the last four days Ranse had needed to jump from one ship to another to make sure everything was in its right order.

This was simply impossible to sustain and there was a real need for capable sailors. Unfortunately, because funds were tight, Bill figured they would only be able to afford perhaps twenty recruits, and those recruits would need to have sailing experience.

And then finally, Ricky would have the hardest job. He was tasked with selling off the caravels at the highest possible price while finding and buying the seastone hull vessels they needed.

Bill had told Ricky that their bottom-line number was 10m Beli per ship. If they could not get this much, then he would just set up his workshop somewhere in the East Blue and use the caravels as his merchant fleet.

Bill didn’t want to do this because would be hard for Yoko, but if push came to shove, he would offer to relocate the remaining residents of Little East Blue island.

After the ship had been tied to the docks, Bill shouted out to his crew: “Alright, we all know what needs to be done. I know I don’t need to remind you all, but time is of the essence.”

After he said this three members of his crew jumped off the ship and hurried to their duties and Sasha followed him towards the Lougetown Marine branch.

Walking down a narrow street, white smoke began to appear around the corner, seeing this Bill turned his head and said: “I’ll speak to Captain Smoker, you can head on to the office.”

Replying with an ‘I understand’ Sasha headed forward as a cigar smoking Marine materialized in front of him.

Speaking gruffly, Smoker spoke before Bill could greet him: “Captain Ox, I’ve received a report that there was a Marine frigate at the head of a convoy of more than thirty armed ships. Would you perhaps like to explain the situation to me?”

Bill had planned to be friendly with the famous East Blue Captain. After all, Captain Smoker had a perfect record on catching pirates and Bill did more or less respect the man. Now hearing the man’s accusatory tone, his friendliness was tempered.

Taking the Clockwork Island enteral pose out of his pocket, Bill tossed it Smoker and said evenly: “Captain Smoker, following the responsibilities of my commission I went to Clockwork Island to hire some engineers.

Much to my surprise, after finding the engineers who built the legendary Diamond Clock, I also found out that the island had been conquered by a local pirate.”

Hearing this, Smoker’s face sank but Bill didn’t stop speaking and reiterated his point: “They had conquered the island nearly ten years ago.”

“Impossible!” Said Smoker in a gruff but confused voice.

“Clockwork Island is less than a week’s sail from here, it would have been noticed if it had occupied! And even if they could hide it… but for ten years? Impossible.”

Seeing the man act like this, Bill did not fully blame Smoker for this incredible oversight.

One thing he had learned years ago in the offices of Vallipo was just how hard control was in this archipelago world.

Communication Snails were incredible, but there were simply nowhere near enough of them to spread to every wayward island. Since this was the case, the Marines had to rely on routine patrols because with very few exceptions they would never get an actual call for help.

So, looking at Smoker, Bill said stoically: “It isn’t impossible, because it happened. I have over two thousand witnesses on those ships who can attest to that.”

After Bill said this, he described what he knew about the Trump Pirates and that he had detained them. Smoker was incredulous when Bill spoke about Honey Queen – no doubt due to him also having a Nature System devil fruit.

After several minutes, he finished his point by saying: “I could have understood Lougetown not noticing a problem as Bear King had made sure to always pay the tribute.

But… what I find hard to understand is how no one took notice of the dozens of pirate ships all bearing the same insignias, and that those very same pirate ships sailed to and from Clockwork Island.”

Hearing this, Smoker quickly understood what Bill was implying but asked anyway: “What do you mean to say, Captain Ox?”

At this point Bill could have rightfully leveled a charge of incompetence on Captain Smoker, but although he would write his reports about what happened here, right now it was more important to secure assistance.

So not smiling but also not accusing, Bill replied evenly: “I mean to say that I have over 2500 refugees on those ships I captured from the Trump Pirates. We are short food and every other essential as there wasn’t much time to run when the island was destroyed.”

When he said this, Bill saw Smoker thinking and then spoke again: “I do have an island to relocate the refugees to. However, that island is across the Calm Belt and we’re looking at a month and a half round trip if everything goes perfectly.”

Taking a big puff off his two cigars, Smoker nodded and then shook his head and stated: “That frigate of yours can hold what, four hundred?”

Shaking his head, Bill responded ‘two hundred fifty’. Even though Frontier Run could perhaps sail with four hundred on board, it didn’t have the facilities to support that many for a six-week journey.

Hearing his, Smoker looked up before turning back to Bill and saying: “We don’t have enough space or resources to house that many refugees for a year…” Taking another puff, Smoker seemed to be thinking before continuing: “but we’ll do what we can and if you need a large ship, we have one that we would be willing to part with.

But that ship won’t come cheap.”

Hearing this, Bill felt relieved his approach had paid off. At the end of the day even if Smoker had absolutely missed the situation with Clockwork Island, the man was far too competent for Bill to try and have immediately removed from his position.

Thinking that this was a good thing Bill asked how much the ship would cost, but after being given a wry look Smoker said: “First, let’s just go examine it. You need to see if you’d even want to take the ship on, it’s somewhat damaged.”

Agreeing to this, Bill walked beside the other Captain towards the docks along the other side of the island.

Along the way they spoke about the things the refugees would need. Smoker reckoned that they would be able to provide enough drinking water and even aid with food, but medical attention would be stressed, and housing would be impossible.

Walking on, the closest the two men had to an argument was over moving the refugees to a nearby non-inhabited island. Even if Smoker promised frequent supply runs Bill was naturally not too keen on the idea of dropping off a couple thousand people in the wilderness while he and the others took at least a month and a half to return.

This thought was magnified due to the plans he had developed with the engineers.

The first wave of settlers on Little East Blue would have to be mostly the young and middle-aged adults. This was necessary so by the time the kids and older people arrived they wouldn’t have to be sleeping in tents.

Rounding the corner to the docks, Bill saw the ship Smoker had been describing - it's prominent gargoyle figurehead being built right into the ships hull..

From there it didn’t take long until they were walking up the ramp to get on the deck. Wanting to get a better picture of ship Bill spoke up: “I’m just going to get a sky view, alright?”

Saying that he understood and that he’d be in the Captains quarters, Bill said he’d “be right back” and leaping high into the air used Moon Step to circle the ship.

The ship wasn’t as tall as the huge battleships in the Marineford harbor, in fact its main deck was just slightly lower than Frontier Run’s.

Despite this, it was so wide it held three apartment-sized towers on it and housed dozens of cannons along each side.

Instead of a ship, Bill thought it looked more like a very small floating town and figured that the only reason the thing didn’t immediately sink had to be due to the seastone hull.

Seastone came in many degrees of purity, but whether it was the pure star that Bill had forged or the most diluted alloy, seastone was very expensive.

Thinking about the price, if he assumed the ships hull was at regulation standard then this galleon in front of him would probably cost in the range of 400m Beli.

Zooming around in circles, Bill took in the outside of the ship in detail. Smoker hadn’t been lying when he said the ship was damaged. Holes littered the towers on the ship and even the deck was broken in some places.

The largest damage was the ships main battery. The gun was larger than any Bill had ever seen but had apparently misfired and blew out the side.

He winced about the number of deaths that explosion must had caused as he had finally seen enough and went to the ships massive Captains quarters.

Smoker: “Well, what’d you think?”

Sitting on the steps of some kind of platform, Smoker questioned Bill as soon as he entered the room.

Looking around before he answered, Bill couldn’t help but wonder why this space was so large. The door had been very wide but hadn’t been large enough to indicate that this was a giant’s ship.

Bill: “There’s a lot of damage, and I’d need to see the ships facilities before making any decision.” Then after thinking for a second Bill continued: “And I saw the ratlines but I’m curious exactly how the sails are furled.”

With a ship this size the sails were absolute behemoths. Bill thought that while he and his crew may be able to handle them it wasn’t reasonable to expect Blue Sea sailors to do the same.

Nodding to this, Smoker told Bill to follow him, and Bill found that the sails were winched up with gears on either side of each of the masts.

This was ingenious Bill had to admit, though if a sail ripped the ship would have to be brought in a shipyard to be repaired unless there were superhumans on board.

The final issue with this ship, Bill thought, was his lack of crew. Even if he and Ranse boarded this ship while leaving the others on Frontier Run it would be a monster to operate.

From Ranse’s and Borodo’s observations there were about eighty former Clockwork Island residents that really took to sailing and also wanted to learn how to fight, but Bill couldn’t count on that full number signing up with his department.

For this ship to sail, Bill figured it would need a bare minimum crew of one hundred fifty. Not only did he not have that nearly that many men, but he also couldn’t afford it even if he did!

Just as Bill was about to reluctantly refuse, not even putting in an offer, Smoker stood up and said seriously: “This ship won’t cost you one single Beli. You just have to take a problem off my hands.”

Raising his eyebrow, Bill didn’t believe in things that seemed too good to be true. Nonetheless, Smoker had at least proven himself enough for Bill to hear him out.

“What’s it that you need?”

Taking a deep puff of his two cigars, Smoker looked at Bill and said sternly: “You need to take this ships former Captain.”