Chapter 46 - Preparations For War

Spreading the news around the ship for the most part people were supportive of my decision, even though I thought it was crazy. Everyone had been training hard in martial arts, and weapon's training so they were looking to put them to the test in live combat. While it was nice that they were so supportive of the move, I was also a bit worried they might think this was going to be easy. The enemies we were going up against were nothing to scoff at for them, most of them would likely die if not for the elite group of fighters. Thinking about the best way to keep everyone alive, Itami came in with an exhausted look.

"So we are going to be fighting?", he asked.

"Yeah, they are in desperate need of assistance holding the defensive line.", I told him, "Everyone seems onboard to do this."

"Ugh, the people here realize how terrible things are right? I mean a lot of people seem a little eager to fight.", he pointed out, "Do they not remember how difficult it was for the military to fight them? If it was easy enough that a group of civilians could kill a few million the militaries of the world wouldn't have fallen."

"I am well aware, while they have a healthy respect as individuals I think they are being a bit overconfident as a group. What I am suspecting they believe is that I will tank the majority while they handle the stragglers.", I said, "Till I see the situation in person, I can't say whether or not that is possible. I don't know what the border actually looks like, and what defenses are operational."

"You have a plan?", he inquired, "Or are you going to wing this?"

"I do", I stated, "As we get close to the border, I am going to have Oriha bombard the area on the enemy side of the border to kite them towards the shoreline. I will engage them while you all dock and get into position to help them hold the line. Being realistic, they are going to need assistance doing emergency repairs so do what you can to assist."

"Okay.", he sighed.

"You do realize that your hobby is all but toasted now right?", I asked.

"Don't remind me!", he sniffled wiping a tear from his eye, "No more Comiket, Anime, or Manga!!!"

Apologizing for brining it up, I told him to make sure his team was ready to assist anyway they could. Nodding his head he walked off to get them ready.

"He likes magical girls and stuff like that, right?", Midna questioned watching him go back down to the deck.

"Yep, he has a thing for magical girls.", I acknowledged.

"If the GATE is opened again, he can meet one on the other side.", she reminded me.

"Yeah...let's go one thing at a time, I got undead and demons to worry about before thinking of reassembling the GATE.", I sighed.

"True, still though you want to go over there for beautiful Elven women and ladies like me right? I mean I am a royal woman, and all men really like-"

"No I am good.", I sniped.

"UGH!!", she gasped dramatically, "Why must you trample on a maiden's fragile heart?"

"I am quite happy with my harem, thank you very much. Once Saori joins I am fairly certain I am done adding women for a while.", I told her.

"What!? This world needs to be repopulated!! You can't just decide that now!!", Midna shouted.

"Why you getting so upset?", I questioned, "Did you want to join or something?"

Puffing her cheeks, she slapped me with her extra large hand before vanishing. Chuckling to myself, I thought it was cute how she got upset like that. While it was nice she wanted to join, it was a crazy idea at the moment.

'Not like we can anything anyways. You are my guide, and no one else can see you.', I thought, 'Doing anything with you would be incredible difficult as no one would understand.'

Putting that aside for now I looked at Saya who was busy focusing on steering the ship. Taking a seat next to her, I asked her what she thought of the situation. Telling me she was happy I made the decision to go, she said that everyone would have felt guilty we didn't at least try to help after hearing how bad things were. Going further, she said that since I had the ability to help people I should be doing what I could to save people. Adding a exception for women I may add to the harem, I gave her a kiss on the cheek and promised things would slow down for a while.

"I...I am not trying to make you prioritize us, but I think we are all getting a bit frustrated with the number of women you divide your time up with.", Saya said.

"I apologize, I promise things will be very slow during our trip.", I chuckled, "I am not hiding any women in Russia, just a grumpy guy that thinks I want his sister."

"Well do you?", she inquired glaring at me.

"Haha no, she is a good friend only. She is actually likes older men so I don't fit that bill for her.", I replied.

"That's good to hear.", Saya sighed with relief.

Pulling her back onto my lap, I rested my head on her shoulder and watched her monitor our progress. Spending time with her, I decided to get her impression of the other women in my harem...and boy did she have a lot to say. She had a lot of complaints about certain habits they had, but she a lot of good things to say about them as well. The way she talked it was clear that she had somewhat of an inferiority complex to them as all of them had areas they excelled in.

Saya wasn't especially good with combat, cooking, cleaning, or teaching all of which the others excelled at in one or more area. She was much more of a strategist and planner than anything else, like her father she liked to analyze every aspect of an issue before making a judgment. While my other lovers like to have a rough plan, Saya was the type that wanted everything planned out along with a backup in case something didn't pan out.

"Why don't you do me a favor, we need a plan for our arrival. Time is going to be of the essences as I can only keep so many of them preoccupied at one time.", I told Saya, "At our current pace we will be arriving at dawn, since I plan on stopping tonight so everyone has a chance to get a goodnights rest."

"You are leaving it to me?", she questioned, "Did you just give Itami a plan?

"My plan is rough outline, I am sure everyone would feel better with a more concrete plan. Why don't you write something up, and see what you can come up with.", I said.

"Oh...okay.", she replied hiding a smile.

Asking for details of the border, I told her that they most likely used shipping containers and sandbags to make walls. They didn't really have a wall of any sort on the southern end, most of what they had was a waist high wall...if that. At most they had stacked shipping containers two or three high in city centers, and the unpopulated areas were rigged with landmines. Writing this all down, I told her what I knew of their defenses and what they might have operational at the moment due to Umbrella disabling equipment on them.

With the information in hand, she asked me to take over for her so she could come up with something. Swapping out with her, she went to the bedroom to use the desk to jot down ideas she had. It was nice to see that she was excited about this, but I wasn't convinced it would be as easy as she hoped. Up till now I had been the one taking the brunt of the fighting so they hadn't gotten a real taste for how hard these things were to kill. I made it look easy...maybe a bit too easy.

'They are going to have to learn the hard way.', I thought cracking my neck, 'I have firepower to use if shit really goes sideways. A few MOAB's is more than enough to level the battlefield if needed...I will need to wipe Guile's mind if I do though. He's the only one that has likely seen a MOAB go off, and I don't want my cover blown.'

"Don't worry, there is a perk for that.", Midna assured me, "It just doesn't do mental erasure on a large scale, a single person won't be an issue."

"Good because I think this is going to go down really badly. There is a reason I have been avoiding areas with a high concentration of people. It's too much of a hassle and danger to us as a group, but after hearing that message they weren't going to take no for answer. Sometimes you just got to go with what the group wants as a whole.", I sighed, "If I had said no there was a good chance I would have upset most of the group, and lost some of my leadership power."

"They aren't as cold hearted as you.", she jabbed with a snicker.

"Not cold hearted, just trying not to watch the people I care about die.", I replied, "Getting involved with large groups is only going to end up getting us fucked over in the end. Depending on how leadership acts they may dump the city on us, and bolt for all I know. My system doesn't show the future or what someone is thinking so I have to judge people by their actions and words. If it looks like this leader is going to bolt at the first signs of trouble we are leaving immediately. I am not going to be the one left holding the line with our group."

"Such a negative Nancy! Learn to have some faith in humanity!!", she retorted.

"Meh, I have seen how humanity reacts as a whole to times of trouble...just ask Kikyo and Saito. When push comes to shove most people only have a few people they'd die for. For Kikyo she'd die for her son, but his biological father felt they weren't worth it. While that plays in my favor sometimes...it's also disheartening for those caught in the middle.", I said with a sadden look.

Sighing at me she called me a killjoy before resuming her manga reading. The next few hours went by uneventfully with only a few exchanges with people as they were getting things ready. Black Label was making as much of the Devil Worm Blocker Serum as they could for the group who called us. I wasn't really sure what a small group of medical staff were going to do to help an entire city, but I knew they'd put their best effort in to help all they could. My hope was that they wouldn't lose spirit too much if they weren't able to save a lot of people.

Hayato and the other Masters were busy ensure that the Ma Dojo Pupils were in the best condition they could be for the fight. Kenichi, Souichiro, Aya, Bob, and all the others were busy receiving training in firearm training from Kohta. Putting them through their paces he was treating them like cadets in a military academy which was funny to watch. I could tell Souichiro wanted to punch him, but Kohta had put him in check after seeing how deadly he was with a pistol.

Looking him after hitting each target in the head with the pistol Kohta said, "If you get your ass bit I won't hesitate to end you, as a courtesy of course. The enemy will not wait for you to get your act together, they will kill you the first chance they get."

The look on Souichiro's face was priceless as he realized that Kohta wasn't above executing anyone on the ship if they became infected. It was one thing to say it, it was another to actually say it. Thinking about things for a moment, I realized that I might want to get stab and slash proof armor for our crew. It wouldn't do shit if they were hit by a blunt object or stepped on, but it would stop the majority of injuries the grunts could cause them.

"Midna, how much would it take points wise to get the armor I need for them?", I asked.

"Who all do you want to have armor?", she inquired.

"Everyone that hasn't honed the use of Ki to make a barrier around themselves.", I replied.

"For just stab and slash proof protection, it would be roughly 15,000 points.", she answered.

"Ugh...that isn't cheap, but it's worth the price for everyone's safety. Is there an alternative?", I questioned.

"Give me a second to look.", she said taking a few moments to look over things.

"There barrier generators from Dune you could buy that would do what you wanted.", she told me, "After that there is actual body armor, voice activate drones, or even-"

"The drones!!", I shouted, "I forgot I got an ace in the hole for that!!"

Grabbing my phone I made a call to my gamer buddy that lived in South Korea. My buddy was an elite hacker and well known among the internet community for breaching the most sophisticate systems with ease for the right price. He was almost a NEET, but the saving grace was that he did go out to get exercise and to attend anime conventions. He and I met by chance on a Minecraft server were we hit it off quickly...after he used his hacks to kill me several times. After a few rings the call connected, and he answered the phone.

"Who is this? I don't recognize the number.", he stated.

"I have been trying to reach you about your extended car insurance.", I snickered.

"For Pete's sake, it's you DarkKnight99...what do you want?", he sighed with relief, "I thought it was someone I did a job for recently."

"Jeez, here I am making a stop in South Korea and I was going to see if you wanted to come on my ship.", I pretended to be upset.

"You got a ship!?", he shouted before clearing his throat, "How can I help you?"

"Your one of the best hackers I know, have you been able to hack the Umbrella Corp Drones? Also could you maybe unlock the military assets in South Korea too?", I pressed him.

"I have, I have one of the drones here with me now. One of my girlfriends was being chased by a horde controlled by it, and I saved her by hacking the unit.", he answered, "As for the assets, I am already working on that for the government."

"We are going to make a stop in Incheon, and could use some assistance kiting the grunts from the walls. You able to make something work?", I told him, "Also did you say girlfriends!?"

"Yes girlfriends, as soon as this shit started I made it a priority to rescue my favorite voice actresses. It wasn't an easy feat, but I managed to save about ten of them before the situation was too dangerous.", he responded with a proud laugh, "Anyways, you do know Umbrella's control of the undead has been slipping lately, right? It's all over the radios man, they started this crap and they are losing control really fast."

"I know that, I am asking if you can buy time not stop them.", I stated.

"Hmm...well assuming we could boost the signal I could do that.", he answered sitting back in his seat, "The issue is from what I have learned they use nanobots to control the undead. Their bodies are mutating, and forcing the nanobots out removing their controls effectively. If I reprogrammed them I could make the nanobots fight to stay inside the dead, and maintain control of them. I don't know what the side effect is going to be though...it could make them enraged or even completely uncontrollable. For all I know they will go insane and start attacking everything...including themselves."

"Listen man, there is a horde at the border of almost 5 million undead and demons. I need your help to buy even five minutes, every second you can buy me increases our chances of survival.", I insisted.

"Give me a half a day to figure something out.", he told me, "I have the equipment here to test it with, let me see what I can do. If I can, I am going to need some back up to get to the radio station to hijack their antenna to increase the signal."

Thanking him I ended the call. Coming out of the room a few moments after that Saya showed me her plans. Having me fighting at the front, she had the elite fighters stationed on the walls, the medical staff stationed near the boat, and the general group assisting with the supporting both teams. This plan hinged on the defenses they had up holding till we arrived, and I relieved the pressure they were holding back. While I was busy fighting the enemies they couldn't fight, the elites would hold the wall and help reinforce the walls as needed.

"I heard you conversation, is the government going to have their weapons online?", Saya asked.

"He is working on unlocking them now, and a way to boost the signal to hopefully kite the enemy grunts back into their own horde. If we can get them to kill one another that will drop the number drastically in our favor.", I advised.

"Let's hope he gets it done soon.", she said, "So does the plan meet your approval?"

"It does, and I want you to be the one to deliver the plan.", I told her.

"Me do it!?", she shrieked nervously.

"Don't worry I will be right next to you as I have something for the group.", I chuckled, "You don't have to make the announcement alone."

Thanking me the two of us went down to gather the crew together for a meeting.