The Marine

Hurrying up a series of steps Bill was surprised to already hear gun fire start ringing out.

He, Borodo, and Bascud were moving with purpose but had only crossed a few blocks. Their goal was a particular bar which held inside a secret passage. That passage led to the central volcanic chamber which was the pirate cove.

The pirate cove was unique in that it took the form of an incredibly high hollow tube. According to Bascud it was essential to cover this entrance since if Bill came in from the top opening, the place where the ships were launched during the race, the pirates would poor out into the streets.

If that happened, they would still be able to capture the ones with well-know bounties, but many pirates would escape their net and the danger would increase several fold for the rank-and-file Marines.

And so, despite not know exactly which way to go, it was decided that they would enter from the ground floor and seal it off while they subdued those people inside.

With this in mind, Bill burst through the door of one particular bar and a big red nosed bartender looked shocked as he witnessed Bascud and Borodo begin to pulling over tables and booths.

While Bascud and Borodo got to work, Bill went to question the barkeep.

The man claimed to not know anything about any secret passages, and once the other two determined this wasn’t the place Bill got a list of the locations of other bars in the city.

This was the most Bill could get in a short interrogation but as a pirate-friendly port the city held dozens of bars and as they went to the nearest location another burst of gun fire broke out on the other side of the city.

Thinking they had to hurry, Bill led the way, then picking up the pace he turned his head towards the location of the first gun shots.

Kicking in one side of a huge double door Pearson cursed his luck.

Mercifully none of his team had died in the failed ambush, but it was only a small blessing because what came now was the worst form of combat that existed.

Holding his back to the door that was still on its hinges he threw a grenade over his shoulder and held his rifle tight.

The flash bang was his signal, rushing inside he found two poorly armed and shabbily dressed men that were holding their faces on the far side of the room near a magnificent stairwell.

On the stairwell he counted three more and running top speed he yelled back to his team: “Stairs! Stairs!”

Five shots cracked the air and seeing two of the men on the staircase fall down, Pearson cursed inside. He was breathing heavy despite only rushing across one room, he knew he needed to calm down as he delivered a forward kick to the first armed man and crushed the other man’s nose inwards with the butt of his rifle.

Turning back to the stairwell just in time, Pearson drew his gun up and shot at the quickly recovering enemy. Not needing to see the effects of his shot he turned on his heels and delivered another nasty hit to the first man he kicked.

*Huff Huff*

Breathing heavily, Pearson didn’t have time to think that this was the first time he had ever killed a man, instead his overriding notion was that he would not die today as a nineteen-year-old virgin.

Seeing the last man on his team file in the courthouse, Pearson slid the rifle on his back and called out authoritatively: “Pistols out! Secure the area in groups of three! Frank, Lin, you’re with me.”

Pearson’s group was completely made up of former Ruluka Soldiers and unlike the senior Marines they hadn’t been equipped with the rivet rifles.

Instead, their primary long-range weapons were the old single-shot muskets they had been using for years. Thankfully, the limitations of their old muskets were known, and they had been given rivet pistols for just this scenario.

These pistols were little more than pea shooters, but unlike their old rifles they allowed 5 shots each before reloading. They were weak, but against unarmored men, it was just enough.

Having regained some of his breath, Pearson ‘led the way’ up the staircase followed by one additional group.

In cases like this, Pearson knew full well that he couldn’t take the lead and so used his most important skill to make it look like he was rushing at top speed, when in reality he made sure to be firmly behind Frank and Lin.

He didn’t want either of them to die, as they were a pair of useful soldiers, and he did like them, but for Pearson the most important thing was that he survived. Of course, he thought about running away but just couldn’t think of a reason to do so without losing his reputation.

That reputation was not as important as his life, but it offered Pearson opportunities he otherwise wouldn’t enjoy.

And sure enough, Frank reached the top of the steps first and was met with half a dozen gun shots for his effort.

Seeing Frank falling backwards, Pearson grimaced and caught the man before he went tumbling down the steps with one hand and reached for another grenade with the other.

The Marines around him saw the grenade and shielded their eyes as he threw. Pearson on the other hand simply looked backwards and after the flash laid Frank down, took his pistol, and continued to rush up.

Flash grenades were wonderful, but once the surprise of them was over they lost their effectiveness and Pearson knew he had to end hostilities quickly before these attackers became organized.

The upper floor of the courthouse had various Customs offices lining the walls and poorly dressed men could be seen staggering around holding their hands to their faces.

For most of these men this was the last motions they would ever make as Pearson and his four followers gunned down one pirate after another.

Stopping outside the second story room where the failed ambush came from, he let his men catch their breaths and heard gun shots from the ground level.

Again, thinking that they had to hurry, Pearson sucked in a deep breath of air and kicked in the door with his iron-toed boots, rushing in with Frank’s pistol pointed forward he saw a long-necked man fumbling with a lighter and a stick of dynamite.

The scene in front of him played out in slow motion, yelling for a retreat, Pearson shot at the pirate’s stomach, but in his haste to run away his aim was slightly off, and the small bullet collided with the dynamite.

*BOOOMMM!*

Standing on the deck of the Frontier Run Ranse, Fia, and the Beetleborgs observed the situation in the city.

There were five different areas that fighting had broken out, and that explosion made his adrenaline start to pump.

He knew that there would be at least two additional squads of Marines to support the area of the explosion, and that they would send up the flares if additional help was needed.

But still, even though Ranse had been in many ship to ship engagements he had never overseen this type of operation and so couldn’t help but be nervous.

And he did feel that it was his operation.

Sure, Bill was going to deal with the largest threat, and it was Nelson who came up with the battle plan, but Ranse knew it came down to him to deal with any unforeseen threats.

As he thought how the lives of those Marines were in his hands, one flare went up near the river that flowed from the top of the dead volcano down through the middle of the city and he sent the first Beetleborgs for back up.

Ranse knew how to present himself, and like the hero sheriffs he used to love reading about, he wouldn’t make it seem like anything was wrong.

But in his heart, he knew it was bad news that the first flare should have been fired after barely thirty minutes of the Marines making landfall.

They had positioned the Frontier Run nearest the shore in such a way that the Beetleborgs could make it to land with twenty long jumps using the Pulse Boots but not so close that the ship would be caught by the strong current and launched up the mountain.

After several more minutes another flare was launched in the middle area of the operation, then another and another.

Down to two Beetleborgs, Ranse wanted to have a couple go and check the side where the first explosion happened.

It was in the government district and the squad there was headed by one of the recruits from Ruluka Island that he pardoned in exchange for service. Currently it was the only path that hadn’t called for support and Ranse wouldn’t have the final Beetleborg squad rush out simply because he was worried.

After waiting for what seemed like a long time, though perhaps only twenty minutes had passed since the first Beetleborgs had been dispatched, two flares went up in the direction of the fast-moving river.

Turning to Fia, Ranse told her he would take the areas near the water, and she agreed and said that she would relocate to the shore with the last squad of Beetleborgs.

This would leave the Frontier Run with a skeleton crew, but this operation had much more fighting than what was anticipated.

The Bounty Hunter had estimated that there would be fifteen pirate crews on the island to participate in the race, but unless these were very large crews, it didn’t make sense for the fighting to have been so spread out unless that estimate was very low.

With their new plan set out, Ranse took a few steps back before jumping high into the sky. He was very skilled with the Moon Step technique but unlike Bill, who preferred zig zags and holding patterns, he preferred straight movements that focused on speed.

Reaching the highest point of his natural jump, he shouted: “SKY RIDER!” and sped off in the direction of the two flares which could still be seen hanging in the air.

Now whatever surprise they had was definitely lost, Ranse thought, as he pushed to go faster to the Marines that needed help.

Coming in from the sky, Ranse was able to give an overview of what was happening.

Thankfully he didn’t see any dead Marines in the streets, but there were signs of battle in the areas he passed on his way to the emergency.

This was stressing because even though all the Marines in their Department was equipped with guns, they only carried fifty rifle rounds and thirty pistol bullets.

As a gun user himself, Ranse was well aware how quickly that amount of ammunition would be spent in a full-scale battle scenario. Then they would either have to order a retreat or start fighting with melee weapons.

Pushing that terrible idea out of his head, Ranse quickly neared the location that needed support and found the reason why.

45 Marines and the four Beetleborgs were being pushed towards the river by several dozen fish-men armed with clubs, and in the seconds before he landed, Ranse tried to get an idea of the situation.

At least half of the Marines were no longer fighting, though they didn’t appear to be dead they were staggering and limping away from the fighting.

The Beetleborgs were jumping back and forth and were only using the Pulse Gloves and single-handed axes.

There wasn’t time to understand why they weren’t using their rifles, but nevertheless Ranse landed in the midst of the fish-men horde and yelled out: “STORM LEG!”

On his hands, he did a 360-degree spin and sent a wave of air slicing in all directions. It was then he saw the problem: ‘Whales!’

Fish-men were a broad species and the rarest of them took two forms. Merfolk and Mammals.

Merfolk were self-explanatory, they had the top halves of humans and were the pictures of beauty, the mammalian fish-men were different though. They were all variants of Whales, and likewise, they benefitted and suffered from the natural differences between whales and fish.

On average they were much stronger than even shark fish-men, and were even better swimmers in some cases, but critically they couldn’t breathe underwater.

Due to this, unlike the other fish-men, they didn’t live on Fish-men Island but instead found themselves roaming the oceans.

Ranse didn’t know the particulars of fish-men society, but he knew enough about Orca, Dolphin, and Blue Whale fish-men to realize that the had kicked a hard stone in this area.

Watching the fish-men stabilize themselves with only moderate damage done to the nearest individuals, Ranse roared out: “Marines! Fall Back!”

His goal was to buy them enough time, truthfully Ranse was not worried for his own safety just as long as there was no incredible fish-men around.

This was unlikely however, since even though fish-men were on average many times stronger than humans they mostly lacked whatever that it was that allowed humans to become incredibly powerful.

Launching one Storm Leg after another, Ranse went back and forth as the uninjured Marines helped those who could barely walk, but the fish-men were not idle, and Ranse watched in desperation as the inched the group closer to the river.

When finally, it seemed like the last of the Marines had moved from the dangerous area, Ranse’s eyes widened as a particularly large Orca fish-men emerged from the surf.

‘Willy!’

Jumping forward with a linier speed that outmatched everything he had done thus far; Ranse appeared in front of the notorious pirate and launched a straight frontal kick that mixed the principals of Finger Gun and Storm Leg.

“ROAN STRIKE!”

Willy, unsuspecting of what he was walking into didn’t even see the kick and was launched clear to the other side of the river, skipping across the water’s surface.

Huffing in what should have been the moment of his victory, Ranse felt himself pushed from behind and he tumbled forwards into the river.

In this moment he couldn’t see, another two flares went up.