The Marine

After saying his goodbyes to the family, Bill left his parents’ house, and did a mental check if everything was ready to go.

He wanted to spend more time with his little sisters but there was important work to do, he would make sure to regularly write and hope that in the future they could get together.

Yesterday the ship had been launched and loaded with the help of the others, and as they worked the group had explored the vessel determining who got what part of the ship.

Bill took the Captains Quarters and the others bargained for ‘control’ of large portions of the rest of the ship.

He had spent nearly all of his savings on a few months’ supply of pickled eggs, beer, biscuits, and citrus along with all the extra rigging, nails, lumber, and sails they may need.

The small frigate was a still a very large boat for only five people, but with their physical capabilities it was just barely possible to envision them bringing it in and out of a port safely.

They needed more people, but Bill didn’t have an immediate answer for this because he didn’t want to rely on drafting Seaman from the Blues or impressment of random pirates they had captured.

Blue Sea Marines were typically weaker, but more than that, they were typically not people who envisioned a career in the Navy. Most often these men and women signed up at their local Marine Base and after training worked on their island’s local trade routes.

Using impressment was not a tactic Bill was totally against, but demanding pirate crews to join his venture was something he was leery of. The old saying ‘one bad apple spoils the bunch’ was something he was very familiar with having been a public-school teacher for many years.

Thinking this, Bill reached into his front pocket and viewed his two Eternal Pose.

One had been given to him for free and pointed to Little East Blue Island, while the other had cost him more than all his other supplies combined and pointed to the famous port city of Loguetown on Polestar Island.

Ricky hypothetically knew some things about navigation, but he was not practically skilled, so until Bill got a skilled navigator these two Pose were the lifeline of the ship.

Leaving the house, he decided to hurry up and made his way to the ship.

Landing on the deck of Frontier Run, Bill walked into the Captains Quarters and stowed away his commission and other legal documents before sitting down and roughly plotting their path.

Maps in this world were either rare or at best rough outlines which resulted in almost no clear paths of travel.

The hypothetical path he had taken was to follow the Pose heading to Little East Blue Island, and on the way cross by a couple islands.

He felt confident in crossing by Rocky Gap island before leaving the South Blue, once they crossed the Calm Belt, they would be crossing the path of Zoom Island until they got to Water 7.

From Water 7, they were pretty close to Little East Blue where Bill reckoned that they could stop, resupply, and meet with old friends.

Having gone over the route, he reached over to a stack of Bounty’s and memorized the names, faces, and other signifying details.

During the trip they would go after pirates and try to get as much Beli as possible.

This would be hard to do with just five people, because for most pirates their ships were more valuable than their crews, but Bill doubted that islands would be willing to accept his ‘I-O-U’ like Ranse and the others had.

Thumbing through the bounties, he heard footsteps coming up the ramp which connected the dock to the ships deck and after clipping the papers on his desk down he walked out of the cabin.

It was about time for everyone to gather, and sure enough Bill saw a curly haired blonde headed teenager who had goggles around his neck and glasses on his face.

“First!”

Greeting the young man as he got on the deck, Ricky returned the gesture and said: “Not a surprise! Oh, and Sasha is running slightly behind, but she’ll be here in a little bit.”

“Ah.” Bill said, before asking: “Did she practice this morning?”

Hearing his, Ricky laughed and started walking quickly to the stairs.

“She practices every morning! Let me go drop this off in my room, I’ll be right back.”

Saying this, Ricky disappeared into the ship, and Bill went to railing and leaned forward.

 It was still about an hour until he had told everyone they were shipping off but figured they would be early, and sure enough before Ricky had even come up from below deck, he saw Ranse and Fia walking towards the pier.

They both had rather large backpacks, which Bill didn’t expect since they had loaded the boat the day before but noticing the pots and pans figured it must had been a recent purchase.

The ship did have cooking utensils, but since there was only going to be five of them Bill naturally had not spent much of his small funds to the kitchen.

By the time the two had reached the ramp, Ricky had come up from below deck wearing his new Coat of Justice with the Lieutenant insignia on its shoulder.

Bill thought the coat looked stylish but was somewhat surprised when he learned that the Marines didn’t give out service ribbons, there were only insignia to signify rank and badges that signified great achievements.

Shaking his head, Bill gave an improving “Lookin’ good” then turned back to Ranse and Fia, greeting them in much the same way he had Ricky.

After a quick back and forth the two headed to settle in the same way Ricky had, and before long came back up.

As they came back up, Ricky had switched from small talk to something pertaining to their new mission.

“So, Captain.”

Ricky and the others had started to interchange how they addressed Bill. When it was personal, they would call him like they always had, but for business would refer to his title.

“You want to sell finished good and I understand all of that, hell, given our commission and the fact we can use seastone haul ships, I think there’s a great opportunity here.

But I was thinking, how are you going to find islands to do business with?

I mean, I doubt we can afford an Eternal Pose to every backwater island out there… but the plan seems to rely on those smaller islands for raw materials.”

Nodding his head, Bill looked over to Ranse and Fia and replied: “That’s a good question.

As you all know, navigation is the largest obstacle for sea travel. Heck, some of the time even if you’d been to a place, you can’t find it again once the Log Pose changes!

To some extent I do have a solution for this, but I’ll bring it up once Sasha gets here.”

Nodding back, Ricky was reassured for the time being and Ranse had said he had some concerns too, which Bill said he would answer once everyone was on board.

The group had spoken about how they would handle the ship. A night watch was necessary but given they only had five in their crew there couldn’t be more than one person up throughout the night.

To this problem, Bill created a makeshift locking mechanism to hold the Helm steady and the five would take it in turns to stay up for a night watch. Except during a storm, it would be possible for one of their member to make sure the ship didn’t go off course.

After talking for some time, Bill looked up and realized it was about ten in the morning, the time when they were to set off.

Naturally, as he looked over the hundreds of heads on the pier, he caught the glance of a sharp faced blonde headed swordswoman.

“Here she comes.” He said before noticing that she wasn’t alone.

From behind her were all of their parents and various other Captains and acquaintances they had on the island.

Many of these people Bill had only seen during the graduation party and though he had wanted to go catch up, he had just been too busy to do so.

As Sasha reached the ramp, Bill and the others were waving to their parents though they never went down to greet them, and Aramaki and the others never came on board.

Bill wondered if his sisters were going to be sent to his mothers’ home Kingdom, knowing that if they did, then this would be the last time he saw the two little twins for many years.

Giving one final wave, when Sasha stepped on the deck, he spoke to everyone.

First looking at the girl who boarded he said: “Just in time, Lieutenant Commander.” Before then switching to everyone else: “We have some things to go over, but we’ll first set sail.

Ranse, you’ll go and make sure the cloths and gear are still in the pawn.

Fia, I suspect you’ve gone through the kitchen?”

Seeing her nod, he continued: “Good, then go with Ricky and make sure the cannons are tied down. Sasha and I will unfurl the foresail and weigh anchor.”

For normal sailors, weighing anchor could take hours due to its weight and the need to be careful so that it wouldn’t damage the ship.

For this group however that was not an issue and by the time Ranse, Ricky, and Fia were done doing what they were told, Sasha and Bill had completed their tasks.

Bill was at the helm and Ranse was his spotter as they navigated out of the port and went into open water.

Frontier Run was a ship designed for chasing New World smugglers and pirates, it wasn’t the fastest ship in the navy but as a result of its current light load, it practically glided on the water.

Once there was open water in front of them, Bill gathered the others on the main deck.

Ricky was still wearing his Coat of Justice, Fia was wearing her white chef coat, and the other three had on the standard blue and white Marine uniform.

Bill decided to get a suit now that he was finally a Captain, but those cost money so he settled with just what he had.

Holding several papers in his large hands, Bill looked at the four of them standing around him in a circle and started handing out the first paper.

“As I explained before, our destination is Clockwork Island in the East Blue, this is our rough course.”

Looking at the outline, which showed them crossing barely ten islands on the journey, Fia was the first to say: “It’s certainly rough…”

Agreeing with this, Bill had no choice but to say back: “The maps I had access to were not great. There should be better ones but they’re probably something a normal Captain wouldn’t have access to.”

When he said this, Ranse shook his head and said: “I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t.

I mean, yeah, somewhere there must be good maps for each local region, but Marine patrols don’t go around to every island.

One of the things Fia and I saw were that patrols were very routine, and all aligned with local trade routes.”

Sasha and Ricky seemed to agree with this statement, and Sasha added: “Marines only go to large islands or Kingdoms to collect the tribute. Then those larger islands will gather tribute the smaller ones around them and so on.

There are maps that show the positions Kingdoms and the larger islands, but I don’t think anyone has mapped the world in a detailed manner.”

Bill didn’t believe this, but there was no point in mentioning it. Whether or not detailed maps existed, they would not have access to them.

“So, there you have it, this map is rough but until we recruit a navigator it’s the best we got.”

Saying this, he handed out the bounty posters.

“Moving on, our primary job with the Science Division is to make money, hopefully won’t be forced to solely catching pirates, but for now we need to get Beli by whatever means we can.

If we see a suitable pirate ship, Ranse and I will go and subdue them. When we leave Sasha will have the Con and will operate the ship depending on the situation.

This will be hard with only the five of us, but even if it’s just a small pirate caravel we will be able to sell it for one-to-five million Beli, and that amount just isn’t something we can pass on.”

The others just nodded along, then Ricky asked about his question from before: “So if we can recruit these mechanics from Clockwork Island, how do you plan on creating a trade network?”

Bill looked up to the sky and sorted out his thoughts before answering the group: “An unregistered Eternal Pose will cost us a million Beli and like Ricky said before, we won’t be able to afford Eternal Pose for every island we need to trade with.

Many of the islands we’re aiming to trade with are going to be so small that they don’t get regular merchant visits, and again, for these small islands we’re more after raw materials than Beli.

So, the easiest solution to this will be that once we establish our laboratory, we’re going to find a suitable island to set an Eternal Pose to, and then map the islands around it by using the usual Log method.”

After he said this, Bill started shaking his hand back and forth and continued: “In the future, we won’t be traveling to specific islands for raw materials until we have a lot more information, so we’ll form a merchant convoy that goes from one island to another and once the route is done will head back to Base.

Eventually, we’ll find islands that excel at producing specific cloths, silks, metals, and that sort of thing – but at first, we’re going to be trading for whatever can make us a profit.”

Hearing this, the others were more or less informed about what the goal was, and their journey got underway.