88 Unidentified Floating Object
More than two months had passed since Fred announced his short break... at least officially... from his hectic career as a pirate exterminator.
Thanks to this break tranquillity once again reigned in the West Blue…
BOOOOMM!!! BOOOMMMM!!! BOOOMMMM!!!
At least was like that for pirates like Captain Jenny [Nuts and Gears] with 51,001,001 million bounty on her head.
"Those ships are pathetic and those who crew them are no better" Jenny [Nuts and Gears] said from the command post of her ship, watching happily as the ships she had built and also commanded tore the fleet in front of her to pieces. "If they had at least kept my old designs they would have lasted a little longer."
Years ago, Jenny was the Nabal chief engineer of the Kingdom of Ilisia but she resigned from her position after several disagreements with the country's bigwigs.
These short-sighted, ignorant, lustful and authoritative well-connected bureaucrats were always sexually harassing her, limit her creative and artistic freedom, imposing impossible delivery dates, constantly cut her budget despite asking for better results and… they discovered that Jenny was diverting funds for her personal projects and that she was also planning to murder them...
Without any choice, Jenny fled the country and became a pirate to pursue her dream of creating the ultimate warship.
"You're absolutely right, captain.
Your warships are simply the best" Said one of his trusted lackeys, who from that same command room fired several cannons in that too modern ship for the world of One Piece. "I am sure that not even the best Water Seven boat builders can compare to you.
NOT EVEN VEGAPUNK!"
BOOOOMM!!! BOOOMMMM!!! BOOOMMMM!!!
Pirate Captain Jenny [Nuts and Gears] earned her reward for the havoc she wreaked on the seas of West Blue thanks to the warships she built and commanded, which annihilated virtually every merchant ship or coastal city they came across.
Almost all the money and resources she managed to loot were used to expand her passion by improving existing warships or increasing the number of her mortal floating creations... and now, after building a fleet large enough and powerful enough, Jenny thought it was time to pay her former bosses a visit.
"If those idiots had let me do my job, Ilisia would now have the most powerful fleet in the West Blue, even better than the local Marine.
But now...
Gear-Gear–Gear!
All their ships will end up at the bottom of the ocean..." Jenny [Nuts and Gears] said, letting out all the resentment and pride she had
A more than deserved pride...
Her fleet of eighty sturdy, steel-clad warships suffered little or any damage from their enemies standard cannon fire.
Despite being several times heavier than the wooden ships they faced, they were several times faster, making them impossible to catch in any escape. They didn't even need the inconsistent wind to move unlike their peers, since the steam engines developed by Jenny allowed these hulks to move whenever she wanted.
And what about its cannons? On average, each ship carried 80% more guns than its rivals and many of these were rotatable, allowing them to attack from practically any angle. Its great power allowed them to successfully attack enemy ships long before they were within range, their power was compared to two or three normal cannons and the great variety, budget and sophistication of the ammunition easily swept away all the competition.
And each and every one of them had been designed and even partially built with her own hands.
"At first I was having fun, but now I find this pathetic...
This battle hasn't given me any new ideas." Jenny [Nuts and Gears] sighed, clearly dissatisfied. "Let's hurry up and kill everyone off and loot the country, mom needs funds for new babies."
With these battles Jenny [Nuts and Gears] not only hoped to gain resources for her new projects and notoriety to satisfy her ego. By experiencing battles on ships she herself had created she also hoped to find flaws in her design to improve and gain inspiration through the designs and tactics of her enemies to devise new types of ships and weapons.
Despite being an egomaniac, she never rested on her laurels! She always tried to improve and surpass herself!
For each and every one of those reasons, perhaps it wasn't an exaggeration to say that right now Jenny and her fleet were invincible in a naval battle in the West Blue, whether against other pirates, nations or even the local Marine
"At your service, captain!" Answered a somewhat idiotic lackey who turned to talk to his superior with the binoculars still in his eyes, but thanks to that unnecessary fact he was able to notice something "But...
I see something behind us...
Something approaching at high speed, too fast!"
Beyond the horizon, at a distance incapable of being seen by the naked eye, a strange object that appeared to be as large as a naval warship was sailing over the surface of the sea at an absurd speed for a ship, absurd even compared to the fast ships they themselves used
The sighting of that unidentified floating object caused a great impact among the chain of command of the [Nuts and Gears] pirates, but nothing compared to the impact it caused when its figure became more visible through their spyglasses.
"It looks like a ship, but... it has no mast, no sails...
What a peculiar design…" Said Jenny [Nuts and Gears], who began to regain her lost enthusiasm, perhaps to excess. "Mmmm… it's beautiful…"
What she saw before her looked like a ship, but wasn't a normal ship.
Its length could perfectly be 350 meters, its beam between 46 m and its freeboard had to be 32 meters, so the draft had to be around 24 meters to add a vertical height of 56 meters. It was a very large ship but not colossal in the world of One Piece, but that was only because the masts and sails were normally very bulky, something that ship lacked. That's why, for practical purposes, it was as big or even bigger than a Marine Warship, although much longer and somewhat narrower.
As impressive as it might seem in that world and time, every last millimeter of the surface of that cylindrical ship that lacked some of the typical elements of a ship was made solely and exclusively of high quality metals. One doesn't have to be a genius to realize that that ship would have a much higher damage resistance than Jenny's, which were mostly only protected by layers of metal, but despite that the unknown ship was much faster than her's
However, without a doubt the weapons were the ones that attracted the most attention given the possibility of entering into direct combat in a few minutes, and to their surprise... there were very few cannons despite the ship size.
A warship of this size usually had several dozen cannons protruding from its side walls, but there were none of them on this one!
The 18 cannons or things that looked like cannons were on the deck and by their design seemed to be able to move 360 degrees and even tilt 90 degrees. Their designs were very varied, both in shape, size or length, as if they fulfilled different functions and each of them had a more sophisticated and modern-looking design than the artillery weapons they had seen until now.
It was a specimen never seen before, at least for Jenny [Nuts and Gears] and her crew.
"Is that really a ship?" Asked the vice captain of the crew, who was trying to make sense of the appearance of that boat just after destroying the kingdom's fleet. "Is it the secret weapon of the Illisia Kingdom, captain?"
"Highly unlikely, those idiots would be incapable of doing something so good!
Gear-Gear-Gear!
FINALLY SOMETHING INTERESTING!" Jenny shouted with the eyes, hair and smile of a mad scientist "Turn around! Move towards that ship!
SHOOT AS SOON AS YOU'RE IN…"
BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!!
But several explosion sounds from a distant recently sunken ship interrupted the captain's orders.
"WHAT!?
Has it sunk my Baby 12 with just three shots?
What kind of ammunition is that?!" Jenny shouted furious, distressed and incredulous... but also fascinated and even excited. "Wow...
I have to build one of those"
But the game of sinking the fleet had only begun!
BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!!
BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!!
The cannons of the enemy ship, which had been tilted very vertically, fired their salvos towards the sky, creating a great shock wave in the sea with their great power.
BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!!
And with each three-shot salvo that also fell vertically, a super warship of the great fleet of [Nuts and Gears] sank into the sea.
BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!!
"May I know why you guys aren't shooting!?" A totally indignant sailor protested, addressing the rest of the ships in the first line of attack through the Den Den Mushi in front of him. "That ship has already sunk five of our ships and I haven't heard a single shot from us."
But a response wasn't necessary from the crew of the boats who were having a lot of trouble trying to survive, someone on the same boat was able to respond.
"The answer is quite obvious...
Our cannons can't reach him yet!" Said Captain Jenny, who was more and more excited to see that ship in action. "It's beautiful...
Marvelous! Fascinating!"
BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!!
"Captain! That means that...
Are his cannons better than yours?" Asked the typical idiot that in every anime asked more than obvious answers.
BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!!
"Yeah....
Its range is greater and its ammunition is heavier and more explosive than ours.
I know the resistance of my boats and I know how much they can last, there's no doubt about it...
It's intoxicating to see them in action!" Explained Captain Jenny, whose eagerness for advances in naval technology far outweighed her love for her own work or her personal safety. "But that doesn't fully explain what's happening."
BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!!
"Yeah...
Despite being six kilometers away from that ship and being in a headwind, its vertical shots have perfectly taken into consideration the action of gravity, wind drift, rotation drift, density altitude, grouping, the rotation of the earth... and the position in which our ships would be in a few seconds and that while it's in motion..." The vice captain said, becoming even more fascinated by the genius of his enemies as he explained what was happening to the rest of the crew. "Every single time!
WITHOUT MISSING A SINGLE SHOT SO FAR!
HOW'S THIS POSSIBLE!?"
Even when firing at close range, the Navy's most experienced gunners often launched many of their cannonballs into the water attempting to sink an enemy ships, but none of that had happened to that ship's gunner.
Not a single one of their ammunition had been wasted falling harmlessly into the sea! Each salvo destroyed a ship completely without needing a single additional shot!
BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!!
"EACH SALVO OF THREE SHOTS HAVE HIT MY BABIES WEAK POINTS AT THE SAME TIME! EVERY TIME! SINKING THEM AT THE SAME TIME!
THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!" Jenny shouted, this point she began to fall into a dangerous spiral of madness "THE GUNNERS ON THAT SHIP ARE MONSTERS!
I want them...
I want them..."
BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!!
Now everyone understood it.
Although they had numerical superiority, they faced a technologically superior enemy that also had better human resources than theirs.
The long range, power and precision of their attacks allowed them to destroy them from kilometres away with total impunity and due to their superior speed was useless to try to move away from their attack range.
Sooner or later that ship would end up destroying them no matter how much they ran, so they chose to charge head-on against it to get within range even if to achieve that objective they had to lose 80% of the fleet in the process.
That was preferable to losing everything trying to escape!
However, there was something that many crew members didn't understand yet...
"I don't understand...
If they have such good range, firepower, gunners and speed why are they coming towards us?"
"Right...
Why don't they keep their distance and shoot at us from a position where we can't reach them?"
"And... Is it just my imagination or... have they lowered their rate of fire?"
"Maybe they're running out of the only special ammunition that allow them attack at such long distance and that's why they're looking to fight at short distance?"
"That theory makes sense... and it's good for us right?"
BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!!
It was a plausible theory, but Jenny had another theory. A more hopeless, abusive... and brilliant one from her distorted point of view, as well as being true.
"They're testing... they're testing the performance of that wonderful masterpiece..." Said Captain Jenny, hyperventilating from the emotion she felt as she took out her notebook to unleash her creative vein in the middle of an almost lost battle. "They're like me... whoever has built this marvel and is piloting it, they're like me...
THEY WANT TO CHECK THE PERFORMANCE OF THEIR MASTERPIECE IN VARIOUS SITUATIONS!!"
"Captain! Calm down!" Some of his trusted men and women shouted when they saw that his superior was beginning to lose her mind "Let's focus on surviving first! You'll have time to admire that murder machine later!"
Minutes passed and less than half of Jenny's large fleet was able to advance towards the enemy ship, which her captain theorized was simply toying with them, making this humiliating situation even more humiliating.
But finally the time to savour that humiliation is over!
Finally her guns were in range of that strange ship and her fleet had it partially surrounded! That ship that didn't look like a ship wouldn't be able to escape!
That ship was just one order away from sinking into the ocean!
"SHOT!!!"
With that order broadcast at the same time on all 38 ships in the fleet, all the front guns were fired at the same time!
Hundreds of cannonballs flew through the air and for some almost miraculous reason each and every one of them would hit some part of the enemy ship, without being wasted by falling into the sea as always used to happen.
No matter how strong the steel that covered that ship was, that enormous salvo was destined to cause great damage to the enemy.
PLOMMM!!!
If it weren't for the fact that before receiving the shots, that ship was propelled at high speed backwards as if it were a rocket!
"NAAAAANNNNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!???" All the pirates shouted with their totally deformed and caricatured faces when they saw this nonsense, "THAT THING IS REALLY A SHIP!?"
"OH MY GOD!
Not only do they have a superior main engine than mine! Additionally, they have thrusters installed to allow quick dodges! With enough power this ship could even fly!!!" Jenny shouted, almost on the verge of an epileptic seizure in the face of so many artistic stimuli, "I HAVE TO ADD SOMETHING SIMILAR TO MY NEXT CREATIONS!!"
"KEEP SHOOTING!
"Those thrusters have to run on some type of fuel and it can't be infinite!" The vice captain shouted, who in the face of the... mental absence... of his captain took command of the operation "KEEP SHOOTING!!"
POOOOOMMMM!!! POOOOOMMMM!!! POOOOOMMMM!!!
All the ships in the fleet fired desperately, no longer only focusing on a single point in case that ship evaded it, but also firing at areas where the enemy could be located after a possible science fiction evasion
But...
PLASH!!! BOOOMMM!! PLASH!!!
None of those shots hit the target!
Those shots that didn't miss were dodged with miraculous and spectacular evasive maneuvers in which the ship seemed to fly over the surface of the sea from one side to the other in 360 degrees... and the shots that couldn't be dodged were intercepted by some of the turrets installed on the deck of the ship
Nothing they did seemed to be of any use!
"THE HEADMAN IS A MONSTER TOO!
WE HAVEN'T MANAGED TO CONNECT A SINGLE SHOT!!" Jenny shouted with bloodshot eyes witnessing those perfect and implausible evasive maneuvers for a boat "I WANT HIM TOO!!
I WANT HIM TOO!!!"
And it seemed that the crew of that strange ship was tired of simply carrying out evasive manoeuvres. They once again mobilized their cannons to attack the remaining ships!
BOOOMMM!!! BOOOOMMM!!!
And unlike before, it didn't take three shots to destroy a ship. Due to the proximity, the power of a single shot was more than enough to cause structural damage and another one to inevitably sink them into the sea.
AND AGAIN!
BOOOMMM!!! BOOOOMMM!!!
BOOOMMM!!! BOOOOMMM!!!
BOOOMMM!!! BOOOOMMM!!!
BOOOMMM!!! BOOOOMMM!!!
BOOOMMM!!! BOOOOMMM!!!
BOOOMMM!!! BOOOOMMM!!!
BOOOMMM!!! BOOOOMMM!!!
BOOOMMM!!! BOOOOMMM!!!
"OH, GOD! THEY'RE MASSACRING US!!!" Most of the officers shouted, completely desperate as they saw how their ships were sinking one after another, "WE ONLY HAVE 15 SHIPS LEFT!!"
They were unable to defend themselves, they were unable to damage the enemy ship and it was impossible to escape!
Only now did the pirates understand that their fate was sealed in the precise moment that this ship from another world crossed paths with them. And while that tragedy was getting worse by the moment, its captain was in another world.
"Their close-range firepower is also fabulous
So much lethality, so much genius… so much… inspiration…" Jenny stammered with less intensity, since she had practically exhausted all her energy after so many emotional outbursts. "I want to study that ship...
I need to capture it without damaging it in the slightest"
"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE CAPTAIN! WE'RE GOING TO DIE!!!" All the pirates shouted at the same time, even those from other ships across the Den Den Mushi.
The situation was horrible, desperate and surreal, but... as they say, things can always get more fucked up and surreal.
"Well… goodbye cruel…"Said a pirate, who had practically said goodbye to life when he saw that the cannons were aimed at his ship, but that was no longer the case. "Why has it stopped shooting?"
Those cannons that were pointed at him suddenly pointed towards the sky and little by little the entire structure on which they were installed disappeared...
"Huh!?
"Why do all of the cannons retracting into the ship?" Said another pirate, who didn't understand how or why the enemy ship had something like that installed or decided to use it in the middle of a battle. "Are they sparing our lives?"
However, not only were the cannons disappearing from the pirates' sight, it was as if the ship itself was doing so too...
"That's not a ship, it's a..."
The ship retracted too, but to the bottom of the sea!!!
"IT'S A SUBMARINE!!!!???"
Before the extremely astonished gaze of the pirates, the invincible ship that they at least believed they had surrounded made a perfect dive under the sea.
Now that ship, which turned out to be a submarine had become even more invincible than before by being able to move through a place that they couldn't reach, attack or even see!
And what was worse... that thing could surely attack them from under the water and they had no methods to defend themselves in the slightest against that type of attack.
They were fucked and so was their captain's mental state.
"Ehhh.. submarine... submarine..." Captain Jenny stammered with her eyes blank while she lost consciousness from shock. "I want it, I want it so much...
It's… it's fabulous… it's…"
"Capina! Hold on!!!" His faithful vice-captain shouted, who together with the doctor were trying to remove the foam from his superior's mouth and prevent her from choking on her own tongue. "Don't die before us!"
The psychological shock was too strong for the captain, but it wasn't much better for the rest of the crew, who began to cry and even jumped into the sea to avoid being the target of the enemy's next super weapon.
"Bloody hell!
Who the hell built such a monstrosity? Who're the monsters that run it!?
---
One hundred meters under the sea, inside the submarine
"You were right Fred, it was worth traveling so many kilometers to find these guys.
"STEEL-STEEL-STEEL!" Stephen said practically crying with emotion as he momentarily left his artillery control center to clap his hands with his brother's. "Those wooden pirate ships from a few days ago couldn't withstand a single shot.
I can finally see my metallic beauty at full performance!"
CLAP!
"I knew you would like it... and I love it too!
MUA HAHAHAHAHA!!!" Said Fred, as euphoric as his borther while he stood up from his command chair from which he controlled the movements of the hybrid submarine. "HAVE YOU SEEN HOW I DODGED ALL THE CANNONBALLS?
MY IDEA FOR PROPELLERS WAS INCREDIBLE!"
"It's been great, but can I drive now?" Little Perona said, almost begging to be allowed to participate even if was just a little bit. "Underwater there's no danger and I can orient myself well with my ghosts that are spying on the surface."
"Ok, but don't do anything crazy," Fred said as he lifted her on top of him, in the captain's chair so she could drive the wheel under supervision. "And follow our instructions, we're not done yet."
"YAIII!!!"
Perona burst into joy at being able to play with cool things with the older children, but her happiness couldn't even compare to that of Fred and Stephen.
This great Nabal battle without any intervention of powerful beings attacking from the deck of the ship or outside the shpi had been the great demonstration that all the time, effort and hundreds of millions invested in designing and building this dream ship had been worth it.
"Yesssssssssssss....
"I wasn't going to start my journey across all the seas without having a monster like this one" Said Fred, extremely satisfied with the mix of the modern technology of his world and the fantastic absurdities of this one that Stephen and Marlon were able to materialize with his help. "If it's this powerful now… when we do the finishing touches in a few years...
He...hehehe...
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
"Um...Fred...do we do something about the surface ships?" Perona asked before using a Negative Hollow against him. She was eager to drive the submarine.
"Yes, yes... sorry... sorry…" Fred said as he put on a headset and pressing a lever made a command table appear next to him. "Well, Stephen... you've already had fun with your weapons.
Now it's my round"
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You'll be able to see 8 chapters in advance in my Pa-treon
pa-treon.com/user?u=83938371
