Chapter 120: Going overboard with boarding

Lieutenant Charlie Bass watched grimly as Atlantea tended to her deathly ill father.

"Corpsman!" he hollered. Docden ran forward, carrying his first aid kit. He had been examining a few people at the front, but Atlantea's father seemed to be in a worse condition than most of the laborers in the shantytown.

"What did they do to you?" Atlantea wailed as she held her father tightly. The frail, old man looked up at her, dazed. It wasn't almost as if he didn't recognize is own daughter.

"A…Atlantea?"

"I'm here! I'm here! Father!"

"…ah…I see. The angels have come for me." Atlantea's father closed his eyes momentarily. "I'm finally in heaven."

"You're not dead, not until I say so!" Docden snapped as he injected the sick man with antibiotics. "You'll live through this."

"The soldiers beat him up when he refused to swear fealty to the Emperor," another laborer spoke up from nearby. Atlantea spun around.

"What?"

"We were all beaten up for refusing to prove our loyalty to his majesty."

This time it was another man, a little older than her father. He spat, his voice tinged in sarcasm. Raising his arm, he showed the fresh scars from what looked like whips.

"Those Emperor's dogs…they enjoy meting out abuse on us. 'His majesty' encouraged it, even said it was okay to execute anyone who refuses to swear loyalty to him on charges of treason. But the soldiers need us to build their ships, so…"

"Wait, aren't you soldiers too?!"

A few of the laborers shrank away at the sight of Bass's Marines. The Marine commander looked around and then slowly shook his head.

"We…were. But now…I'm not sure what we are anymore."

It pained Bass to admit it, but he didn't want to associate himself and his men with the monsters that the Marrina military had turned into.

"They are part of the resistance movement," Atlantea explained. "They're here to liberate the Marrina Isles from the so-called Emperor."

The sarcastic laborer laughed harshly. "Liberate the Marrina Isles? I appreciate it, mates, but you sure as hell ain't gonna liberate us. At least not for long. If his majesty hears about the rebellion, he'll send a large force of soldiers here to put it down. Not only you…but all of us will be slaughtered within a few days."

"We're Marines," one of Bass's men said proudly. The laborer snorted.

"Sure you are. But if there's only the twelve of you, it doesn't matter if you're the legendary heroes themselves. You sure as hell ain't gonna fight off a million soldiers."

"There's more than twelve of us. And by the time this day is done…we'll have an entire armada on our side too."

The laborer scoffed. "You plan on capturing the Marrina fleet? You're more insane than I thought. They'll pummel anything that gets within a kilometer of them! Nothing will survive getting near that armada of battleships!"

Bass shrugged. "Yet here we are. We showed up right under their noses and they let us in."

The laborers gaped at him for a moment, and then one of them raised their hands.

"Okay…so what do you want us to do?"

"If you want us to fight…I'm afraid we can't do much. As you can see, we're pretty weak and sick. We'll get massacred."

"Even with you guys, there's no way we can win against the soldiers stationed at this naval base."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that." Bass waved his hand. "We're not asking you to fight. Actually, we just need you to kick up a fuss. Create some commotion. Draw the attention of the soldiers. When they come running, just surrender."

"They'll kill us!" one of the workers snapped.

"They'll kill us either way," another laborer growled. He rose to his feet shakily and glared at Bass. "So I'm guessing your other men will be capturing the ships while we hold the attention of the soldiers? Is that your plan?"

"Simply put, yes." Bass nodded. The laborer met his gaze evenly, and then he nodded after a few seconds.

"What the hell. At the rate they're pushing us, we'll die eventually. I would much rather go out with a bang."

"Hey, if you want to die, you can die alone!"

"No one's going to die." Bass raised his voice. "We're going to melt away into the shadows and pick the naval bastrards off one by one. But before that, you just pretend that you've seen an intruder. Panic. Shout for help. Tell them that you saw an invading force land on beach. They probably won't believe you…" he grinned. "But that's what we're here for."

"With twelve men?" The sarcastic laborer stared at the Marine Lieutenant in disbelief. "You really plan on fighting the whole naval base with just twelve men?"

"As I said, we're not alone. Besides…" Bass's grin grew wider. "We're Marines. Each of us is worth a hundred men."

Make ten men feel like a hundred. What was this, Star Wars: Rogue One?

"So how do we do this?" the sarcastic laborer grumbled. "Start screaming at the top of our voices?"

"…that's a great idea, actually." The gruff laborer who was all for the plan nodded and smiled conspiratorially. "To be honest, I've been planning on getting back at those bastards for a long while now. Remember all the high explosives demolitions we've been using to tear apart wrecks to salvage scrap for new ships?"

Everyone stared at him. His lips curled further up, revealing yellowing, rotting teeth.

"I…took the liberty to store some of them in our little home. Pretty easy to do when they force us to build our own accommodations."

*

The shantytown went up in smoke, explosions rocking the fragile wooden structures and bringing them down in fire and ash. The dark night was momentarily lit up as flames seared across the skies, illuminating the beach. Shouts and yells of men echoed throughout the bay as the laborers limped and scrambled away from the spreading inferno.

"HELP!"

"We're under attack!"

"They're shooting at us!"

It didn't take long for the Marrina Coast Guard and naval armsmen to rush out of the naval base to respond. Not only could they hear the thunderous explosions, they could see the flames from afar. For a moment, they thought they were being bombarded by an enemy fleet, but a quick assurance from the docked armada assured them that there was no such presence.

Despite the absence of an enemy on water, there was no way they could ignore the flames and panicking laborers, so they dispatched a sizable force to the beach to quell the panic and shoot the screaming laborers if necessary.

"Try not to kill too many of them," the commodore in charge of the base ordered the captain of the sortie. "Make an example of one or two if necessary, but we're short on manpower, so if you end up slaughtering the lot of them, I'll have your entire unit take their place in the shipyard."

They were soldiers, not laborers, and breaking their backs to build ships was not their idea of a good job, so the captain had no intention of disobeying those orders. Barking to his squad, he had them fan out in an intimidating fashion, bearing rifles and muskets and aiming them at the frightened, fleeing laborers.

"Stop running! The lot of you!" he yelled, brandishing his saber and firing his pistol into the air. That got their attention. The beleaguered shipyard workers turned to stare at him, their eyes bloodshot and their faces pale.

"We're under attack!" one of the laborers shouted.

"I can see that!" the captain snapped, risking a glance at the flames. "From who?"

"The Marines!"

"Huh?"

The captain couldn't believe what he was hearing. The Marrina Marine Corps was the most prestigious and elite combat unit in the Marrina Isles. Why would they attack mere laborers?

No, why were they turning against the Emperor of Humanity and launching an attack on the Marrina Isles themselves?

They're lying.

That was the first thought that came to his mind. Then the captain shook his head when he realized something else.

No…what if there are terrorists who disgused themselves as Marrina Marines? That makes sense.

To his horror, he suddenly recalled that there was a cruiser that just returned with a squad of Marrina Marines.

Whipping around, he yelled to his adjutant. "Contact…"

He never finished his sentence. There was a crack, and then he fell to the floor, a tiny hole neatly punched through his head.

His unit descended into panic.

"Get to cover! Cover!"

"The cap is down! The captain is down!"

"Call for backup! Request backup immediately!"

The captain's adjutant was already on it, turning to his vox-pack and twisting the dials to contact HQ.

"HQ, this is Arrow! We have…aaaargh!"

His vox-pack exploded into shrapnel as a bullet round smashed into it, the metal pieces digging into his skin and sending him toppling over. Beside him, a Sergeant who was trying to rally his men was the next to fall, his head disappearing into a mist of blood, bone and flesh.

"The sarge is down too!"

"What are we going to do?!"

Hidden in the sparsely clustered trees near the beach, Corporal Alexis shook his head before sighting his next target through the scope of his lasrifle.

"Amateurs," he muttered before he sniped another NCO who had taken upon himself to take charge of the rapidly falling apart unit.

*

The diversion was a success. With the first sortie annihilated, the commodore mobilized all his men, believing that he was facing a battalion-sized force at the very least. Such was the panic that gripped the naval base that 90% naval armsmen were recalled off the ships and sent to reinforce the base. The enemy was here in the Marrina Isles and was assaulting the base. It needed to be defended and held at all costs.

While the Marrina soldiers disembarked and flooded through the docks toward the base, an underwater fleet of Cerberus APCs slowly swam toward the ships, concealed from sight by the dark waters.

"Lieutenant Bass has given us the go-ahead," I told the other commanders aboard the other APCs. As always, the officers were located aboard separate APCs so as to make sure the chain of command was not disrupted if the command Cerberus was taken out. Using the APC I was in as a mobile command vehicle, I was relaying orders to my men.

"Roger that."

"We'll be relying on you Marines," I told Gunnery Sergeant Mkoll, who replied with an affirmative. I smiled, even though I knew they couldn't see me. "You've the most experience with shipboarding operations, so you'll lead."

"You can count on us for that."

I nodded and glanced at my auxpex. We were slowly drawing closer to the ships. Thumbing the vox, I checked on Bass's status, but he seemed to be preoccupied with distracting the enemy. Thanks to his efforts, the main bulk of the enemy forces were being driven away from the ships and inland. Once we captured the battleships, it would be our victory. The Marrina navy would be forced to attempt to relinquish their ships at any costs, and we would simply bombard their naval base to smithereens, then descend ashore to wipe out the remaining forces.

At least that was the plan.

"We're here, sir."

The driver informed me. I nodded and watched the auspex as the Cerberus docked alongside the battleship. We patiently waited for all the other APCs to be in position before I finally gave the go-ahead.

"Operation Overboard, begin!"

At my command, the submerged Cerberus APCs began to gradally rise out of the water. The hatches at the back swung down and the soldiers within quickly swam out. Raising their harpoon guns, they fired the lines, which snagged onto the railings and gripped them firmly. With those done, the soldiers began scaling up the ship walls.

Sergeant Hawke and his crew were among the first who climbed aboard the battleship. With a gesture of his hand, the Marine squad melted into the shadows, their camouflage uniforms allowing them to blend into the darkness. Gripping their rifles tightly, they moved silently and quickly, spreading out and pausing at positions of cover.

Thanks to the diversion, the Marrina Marines were able to proceed smoothly, for the majority of the naval armsmen had disembarked to hunt down the tiny squad of Marines that Lieutenant Bass led ashore. The few who were still patrolling the ship were taken out in short order, with the Marines lunging from the shadows and silencing the unwary sentries with a knife to the throat. Not even a single gunshot was fired.

At least for the ships that were boarded by Marines, anyway.

Hawke proceeded through the bulkheads, pausing occasionally to motion his men forward. He knew they were the best of the best. They were Marines, for Evelyn's sake. There was no human soldier in Restia that could rival them.

A signal – the scout in front, Bonin, signaled for the squad to stop. They stealthily took their positions at whatever cover they could find and ducked down, holding their breath. A second later, footsteps rang through the hull. A sentry walked in, his musket resting on his shoulder, as he whistled to himself.

"Heh, got to pity the poor bastards who were sent to the shore," he called back to his companion, who emerged from the corridor a few seconds later. "I heard they're having a hell of a time there."

"An attack from an enemy battalion, that's what I heard. They're panicking out there. Captain Cook bought it."

"Cook? You serious?"

"Sure as sure, bud. Heard it from the horse's mouth itself. Uri said the men are milling around in panic with the officers being shot down one at a time. The whole comns room is in an uproar now."

"Wow." The first guy shook his head. "What the hell are we facing? Demons?"

"Could be. They surely are using some unholy magic to take us out and hide in the shadows." The second guy sighed. "Sucks to be on shore duty now. Can't imagine how they're going to fight an entire battalion of demons."

Hawke suppressed his laughter. If everything was going according to plan, there were only twelve Marines on the shore right now. Yet the enemy believed they were being assaulted by an entire battalion. A demonic one, no less. Well, under most circumstances, the Marrina Marines were more fearsome than even regular demonic infantry.

"The Commodore's raging and busting a nut, I heard. He's trying to get info, but even now no one has seen the enemy."

"You've got to be kidding…"

The first guy exhaled and shook his head.

"Well, good thing we're stuck here on boat duty, or we would be sortying with the others and facing certain death. I would rather stick around on the ship and not worry about getting shot at. I really pity Shoal and the others."

"Sure as sure." The second guy laughed. "We're pretty lucky, aren't we?"

Hawke almost scoffed at that, but he resisted the urge not to chuckle. As the two sentries passed by his position, he caught the eye of the Marine opposite him – tall, lanky Caff, and nodded. Like ghosts, the two Marines slipped out of the shadows and grabbed the sentries. Closing their hands over their mouths, they produced their combat knives and sliced their throats.

Even as warm blood dribbled down his gloved hands, Hawke didn't let go of his victim. Not until the poor man was still and cold did he finally carefully set down the corpse on the floor. Raising his head, he gestured for his company to move out.

They continued down the corridor the two sentries came out of, pointing their hellguns and making sure the space was clear. There were a few times when they were forced to melt into shadows or blend into their surroundings as crewmen or armsmen emerged from round the corridor or from a room, but with the commotion going on ashore, none of them paid much attention to their surroundings.

It was a gap that Hawke happily exploited. As an armsmen left the head, stretching his arms and stifling a yawn, Bonin grabbed him and cut his throat, clamping down his hand on the guy's mouth to stop him from yelling. As they were in the narrow corridor, he didn't stay still and instead dragged his victim back to his cover and waited until he was dead.

Thanks to the scarce number of men left aboard the ship, there weren't that many times that Hawke and his squad needed to stop, and not many targets they needed to take out. The rest of the journey was relatively smooth, with Hawke and his men stopping only twice to take out another three navymen. Within fifteen minutes, they found themselves in the bridge.

Once they were outside the bridge, they knew there was no longer any point to being subtle. Kicking the door open, they unloaded las-shots into the stunned crew, taking them out before they could even raise an alert. Hawke was gratified to see that his men didn't waste any shots, each las-beam hitting their targets with near pinpoint accuracy.

"Grab the controls, then inform the Colonel that the ship designated Alpha One One Two is now ours."

"Yes, sarge!"

All across the fleet, similar reports began flooding in as Marines captured their ships with little difficulty. Some weren't able to totally infiltrate the ships in secret, but they annihilated the foes, taking out the armsmen with rapid, control bursts of hot-shot lasfire. Leaving a silent trail of carnage to the bridge, these Marines were forced to blow the doors open to gain access to the crew who fortified themselves behind armored entrances. The fighting was fierce, but brief.

As expected of the Marrina Marines.

The Vampire infantry of Company H and the Helsfortians and dark elves of Company L were less experienced in such combat and were forced to open fire. Gunfire rang through the deck and they traded shots, but with the demons outnumbering the humans, the firefights lasted less than ten minutes. Major Kracauer and his Legnica infantry were less efficient at such close-quarters combat, but with their superior numbers, they managed to overwhelm the few naval crewmen left on board the ships and fight their way to the bridge.

By the time the naval base was aware of what had happened, it was too late.

"Come on!" the commodore was shouting into the vox, trying to figure out what had happened to the ships under his charge. Nothing but static hissed from the vox. Frustrated, he hurled the receiver against the metallic panel and vented his fury on his aides.

"Call all the soldiers back!" he bellowed. "Immediately! Our ships are being boarded and taken! We're going to seize them back!"

"Y…yes, sir!"

Back in the beach, a brigade-sized naval patrol was scrounging through the beach in an attempt to find the twelve Marines who had taken cover in the wilderness and continued taking potshots at the beleaguered brigade. More officers had fallen, taken out by Bass's elite snipers, and the men were in turmoil. Upon receiving the Commodore's orders, they gratefully turned tail and fled back toward the safety of the naval base.

"That was close," Corporal Alexis muttered as he lowered his hot-shot lasrifle. He was perspiring profusely as he watched the hundreds-strong brigade close in on his and his fellow sniper's positions. Despite their best attempts at sneaking around and hiding, they were getting dangerously close to being found by the bastards.

Just a few minutes more, and the Marrina soldiers would be literally trampling over the grass where they were lying prone in.

"We caught a luck break," Bass growled. "But this means the diversion is over. They must have noticed the Colonel and the others boarding the ships and capturing them."

"Which means everything is going according to plan!"

I wished I shared the same sense of optimism, but I heard trouble coming from one of the ships. One of Kracauer's squads – a rookie squad from the sound of it, had run into trouble aboard one of the ships. Calling up the tactical display, I saw that it was among the largest battleship in the armada, the one we designated as Alpha Zero Zero One.

The probable flagship.

"Sir."

This time it was from a Marrina Marine squad, who was also onboard Alpha Zero Zero One. Having anticipated fierce resistance from what was likely the flagship of the fleet, I had dispatched both Legnica and Marines to take it, but…

"What's up, Sergeant Mkoll?"

"We're encountering trouble on Alpha Zero Zero One. Omega-level threat. I repeat, we're facing an Omega-level threat. Request either immediate assistance, or for the captured battleships to sink Alpha Zero Zero One."

"Negative," I told him flatly. "You and your soldiers are still on that ship. I'm not blowing up until you guys are off the ship."

"With the way things are going, none of us will be remaining on the ship soon enough…alive, anyway."

I clicked my tongue. Omega-level threat meant that a hero was on board. One of my former classmates. Scratching my head, I took a deep breath and straightened up.

"Mkoll, backup will be there immediately. Hang in there and do not engage the hero. I repeat, do not engage the hero. Wait for reinforcements."

"With respect, sir, I'm not sure what kind of reinforcements will be able to eliminate the Omega-level threat."

"Oh, the hero will be slain," I assured him as a cold smile spread across the face. "After all, I'm your backup. I'll be personally boarding your ship in a few minutes."