The Golden Gravekeeper
/ The Golden Gravekeeper 119 Chapter 119: Atlantea of the Marrina Isles
With that done, I turned to Atlantea.
"Earlier, you said something about Seafort Village seceding from the Marrina Isles and something about a tithe…do you mind elaborating more on that? I would like details."
Atlantea nodded. During the massacre, she had been tending to the wounded children and even now she was looking after a young girl who was crying, bandaging the ten-year-old's wounds. With her task done, she left it to the corpsmen and stood up.
"It started a few weeks ago."
Atlantea sagged as she recalled the events that had led up to today. Resting a hand on her forehead, she glanced wearily at the sky.
"After the hero Kobayashi killed our king and queen during the all-human kingdom conference he held, he arrived here to stamp his authority and place his cronies in charge. As his goal is to conquer the demonic continent of Morten eventually, he immediately increased the recruitment rate of soldiers in the Marine Corps and navy. However, because a lot of the manpower was diverted to the military, the naval shipyards began to suffer from a lack of labor. Kobayashi attempted to solve this problem by conscripting laborers from the nearby villages on the mainland to serve as builders in the naval base. My father was forcibly taken last week by the Marrina navy to work in the shipyards."
"My father too!"
The girl who Atlantea was tending to cried out, her eyes red and teary.
"They took my father to work in the shipyards. And Nii-san…my big brother was conscripted into the navy!"
"…no wonder there's so few males here."
I looked around, but I saw that it was mostly women, the elderly and children. There wasn't even a single man in the village.
"They took all the male adults and youths away," Atlantea explained bitterly. "For the war effort. For working in the shipyard and docks. They claim it's for the betterment of humanity….at least the so-called emperor did, but all they're doing is destroying our livelihoods, tearing apart families and emptying our villages. At this rate, we won't be able to survive."
"I want my father and brother back!" the girl wailed.
"Were the men from this village and other villages among the soldiers?" I asked. Atlantea considered briefly and then shook her head.
"I recognize none of them."
"…huh. It does puzzle me why they would pillage and attack one of their own villages."
"I told you," Atlantea reminded me. "We seceded from the Marrina Isles. We couldn't pay the tithe. The naval harbor has drained us of all our men, and now they were demanding higher taxes as compensation for not being able to provide labor and soldiers. We had no choice but to break away, or we would starve to death…or worse."
"And this was all…"
"Ordered by the heroes," Atlantea affirmed. "I heard it from Kobayashi himself. The emperor personally came here to reprimand us before he left for Morten. He left a warning, and said if we do not comply and swear fealty to him, he would see us destroyed."
"What the f…"
Kobayashi Kenji was sounding more and more like the most cliché and atrocious archvillain ever. Come on, even for a bastard like him, pulling this sort of villainous and tyrannical stunts was just too exaggerated. He wasn't this extreme…
Or maybe he was. He just didn't have the power to flaunt his true nature on Earth. But with him becoming hero and now emperor, he was letting all the power go to his head. Even then, this was too absurd. The guy was becoming less of a real human being and more of the ultimate caricature of an archvillain who was doing evil things for the sake of being evil. There was no real motive, no logic or reasoning that drove his tyranny.
He was evil because he was the antagonist. Period.
Well, whatever the case, I still have to stop him.
Sighing, I glanced at Atlantea.
"We'll see what we can do."
"You…don't seem to be with the emperor."
Atlantea was studying the uniforms of the Marrina Marines under my command, a quizzical expression on her face.
"No, we're not. We're…uh, a resistance movement."
I wasn't sure if telling her the truth was a good idea. If she knew that I had an army of demons at my command, she might flip out.
Atlantea's eyes widened when she heard that, though. She stared at me, a complicated expression flashing across her face.
"Resistance movement…rebelling against the Emperor?"
"…sort of, I guess?"
"Please take me with you!"
Her response was immediate. She bowed her head slightly and urgently implored me, but I could see a fierce look of determination in her eyes.
"I need to save my father!"
"We'll save your father for you," I replied. Atlantea shook her head stubbornly.
"I appreciate it, but I really want to be there…to help…to see my father and make sure he's all right!"
"Lady, you're not a trained soldier. You'll get in the way in our operations."
Actually, I wasn't a trained soldier either, but I did have plenty of experience fighting, so that didn't count.
"You don't understand," Atlantea insisted. "You need me as a guide. I'll lead your soldiers to where my father and the other men are being held."
"Speaking of which, are they being held against their will? If I'm not mistaken, Kobayashi has the ability to brainwash and indoctrinate people into his fanatical, devotional followers. It'll be difficult to rescue your father and those men if they don't want to be saved."
"As far as I know, no. Not all of us are affected." Atlantea paused to consider. "But now that you mention it, there certainly has been a huge difference between the ways people reacted to his rule. Some are extremely loyal to him for no reason, to the point of insanity or obsession. Like those soldiers that attacked us. Most of the people living in the Marrina Isles are affected by a compulsive need to prove their loyalty to the emperor. But us outlying villages aren't affected by whatever compels the others to be so devoted to the emperor."
So there were exceptions. I wasn't sure if Atlantea was telling the truth or if she was making stuff up to convince us to rescue her father and the other villagers, but I decided to assume that it was the truth for now. If it wasn't, then I would have to rely on Aoyama Aoi to come up with a counter-curse to lift the brainwashing effect off the citizens of the Marrina Isles.
"I'll be honest with you. Our primary objective is to raid the naval harbor and hijack all the battleships, destroyers and cruisers, bringing them under our control. We'll only carry out rescue operations and liberate your father and the male villagers after we've gained control over the Marrina navy and their ships."
"That's fair enough." Atlantea didn't look pleased, but she didn't protest.
"There's no point freeing all the workers when the navy will just blow us to smithereens with their battleships," I explained. "Perhaps they won't want to fire upon their own naval harbor, but I'm not taking that risk. Besides, they'll send men and soldiers to quell the rebellion, so I want to take them out before freeing the laborers."
"…I understand."
Atlantea sounded reluctant, but she didn't argue. She knew the fate of her father and the male villagers rested on our shoulders, and that my logic was incontrovertible. It would be folly to mount a rescue operation right under the nose of enemy-crewed battleships and a harbor that would be swarming with soldiers soon after an open rebellion.
That's what my tanks are for…but even my armor company wouldn't be able to withstand the massive firepower from the battleships.
Anyone who played Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance knew how outclassed land units were by naval units.
"But…"
Atlantea didn't give up. She stared determinedly at me.
"Please consider this. If you free my father and the other laborers, they will surely join you in the fight. They'll help you fight against the soldiers stationed at the naval harbor. We can even cause a diversion. The sailors and crews from the ships will disembark and get into the naval harbor to try and quell the uprising. Your men can use that chance to capture the ships when they're relatively empty."
"…that's a good idea."
I hated to admit it, but Atlantea raised a very good point. Indeed, a diversion would allow our mission to go a lot smoother. If the sailors and crews really left their ships to deal with the rebellion of the workers, there wouldn't be enough navy ratings or armsmen left to adequately protect the ships from boarding action. We would capture the ships much faster and more effectively, and then shell the hell out of the sailors who attempt to reboard the ships.
"I'll consider it."
"Please do."
Atlantea bowed her head, but her eyes remained fierce. There was a fire lit inside her blue pupils that couldn't be extinguished by the sea.
I would hate to be her enemy. Kobayashi was an idiot for antagonizing the natives and indulging in his tyrannical behavior.
"Sir!"
As if on cue, Lieutenant Bass raced upward and saluted. I turned to him.
"What is it, Lieutenant?"
"We found quite a few…things. You might want to look at this."
Following the veteran Marine officer, I found myself staring at a few cruisers anchored next to the shore.
"These are the boats we use for naval operations," Bass explained grimly. "Transport vessels. A full complement of them."
I studied them for a moment, unable to believe my luck. A grin spread across my face.
"Holy Hedas, so we already have a small fleet of enemy ships fall into our hands even before our operation begins."
"Wait, so we're not going to scuttle and destroy them?"
Bass looked confused. I stared at him.
"Why would you do that? Our objective is to capture as many enemy ships as possible to use them against the enemy eventually. Naval assets are among the most powerful forces a commander can have. Imagine an armada of battleships bombarding Legnica from the shore. Nothing they have will be able to stand up to the firepower of a fleet."
"Yes, but…even so…"
"No, wait." An idea popped into my head. I turned toward the naval harbor as I slowly turned the idea around in my mind. "I think I have an even better use for them…"
"…huh?"
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I glanced back at Bass with a smile. "Do you think the Marrina navy will be able to tell you guys apart from the soldiers they just dispatched here? Or would they register you as missing?"
A grin crept over Bass's grizzled face when he caught onto my meaning. Glancing at his camouflage uniform and the Marrina Marine Corps badge, he nodded.
"Hmm…we are wearing the same uniform after all…"
*
The sentry on duty at the naval harbor didn't notice that the men aboard the cruisers dispatched earlier that day were completely different from the soldiers who left the Marrina Isles. He didn't realize that out of the four cruisers that set sail earlier that day only one had returned. All he saw was the Marrina Marine Corps uniform and badge, Bass's Lieutenant bars, and the small squad of twelve grim-faced Marines lining up in disciplined formations on deck, so he waved them in and allowed the single cruiser to dock.
Bass glowered at the private, as if challenging him for wasting his time, so the sentry hurriedly let them pass. As the squad of Marines disembarked from the cruiser, they gently pushed a tied-up Atlantea ahead of them.
"Only one girl, sir?" the sentry asked with a laugh, only to shut up when Bass glared at him.
"How many were you expecting?"
"…I dunno, sir. Maybe ten or twenty. Didn't you guys go to the village to bring back the women?"
"My boys got carried away and accidentally broke a bunch of them." Bass's lip curled into a snarl. "I'm afraid there's none left for you. Did you think we went all the way to Seafort Village to get a girl for you, son?"
The sentry paled. "Sorry, sir. It's just that…Major Lustful won't be happy about this. He's been trying to replenish the brothels. Didn't he say to make an example of Seafort Village and forcibly extract five times their tithe to get more whores?"
"I know what my orders are," Bass snapped, but inwardly he felt his gut curled. While he was away, kept as a prisoner-of-war in Morten, the navy was degenerating into a bunch of brutes. Raiding villages and abducting their women to serve as prostitutes for the soldiers? What depths of depravity had the navy fallen to?
No…it wasn't just the Marrina navy. It was the entire continent of humanity in general. As long as Kobayashi remained at the helm, the insanity would never stop. Innocent people would live in fear as overly zealous followers of Kobayashi dragged them into the open to enact unimaginable acts of cruelty, all in the name of their approving, tyrannical emperor.
At this rate, Restia was doomed.
"Move it, lady," Bass ordered Atlantea harshly, putting on a show of shoving her forward. As he did so, he leaned over and she quickly whispered into his ear.
"Straight ahead, then turn right."
Straightening himself, Bass then proceeded in the direction that Atlantea directed him toward, his men marching behind him in orderly steps. The sentry saluted and then turned back to stare at the cruiser. A couple of Marines had been left behind to crew it.
"Damn, and I was going to indulge myself with one of those traitor bitches," he complained quietly to himself. "Nothing straightens them out better than fucking and pumping them full of it. Only then will they see the light of the Emperor!"
The Emperor of Humanity, Kobayashi Kenji, had encouraged such acts, after all. Having taken a harem of princesses for himself, he would **** at least one every night, trying his best to impregnate them. He hadn't succeeded yet, probably because…you know…
However, his ideology had spread to his followers. Want something? Take it by force. Want a woman? **** her and own her. The same went for the opposite sex. If a woman wanted a man, she could **** him and force him to be hers, especially if she was a faithful follower of Kobayashi and the other party was treacherous trash who refused to see the light and pledge loyalty to the undying Emperor of Humanity.
The ideology of Kobayashi had taken root in his followers, and their beliefs and actions mirrored his. No wonder the kingdoms of humans were rapidly falling apart, held together only through the sheer will and tyranny of Kobayashi Kenji.
"The workers' quarters are this way," Atlantea whispered, and Bass followed her. The Marines proceeded along the naval harbor, with few soldiers pausing to stare at them. Anyone who sent a glance in their direction were intimidated by their ferocious demeanor.
The Marines were a different breed from regular naval armsmen, after all.
"Are you sure we're going the right way, lady?" Private Green asked, looking around the base surreptitiously. They were heading toward what looked like a shantytown dredged deep in squalor, without any semblance of being appropriate for living.
Atlantea pursed her lips.
"This is the horrors we free people have to face ever since the Emperor of Humanity took the throne."
Edging across the worn-down wooden planks, the Marines found themselves in a filthy, broken-down place. There wasn't even much shelter – most of the structure was constructed from broken pieces of wood or scrap metal. It couldn't even be called a building.
The inhabitants were thin, straggly men on the verge of starving. Scars criss-crossed their bodies, visible under their torn rags.
Despite conscripting these men as laborers to build ships and work in the shipyard, the Marrina Navy didn't even bother to give them accommodations. They just sent the laborers to sleep in the open, and the workers had to build their own sleeping place and shelter in the vast, open space next to the naval base.
"Throne…" Bass gasped. "What manner of atrocities is this…?"
"Orders from above…from the emperor himself," Atlantea replied grimly. "Since we refuse to pedge our loyalty to him, we're treated less than human. We're worse than even slaves." She glanced around the pale, suffering men and her eyes widened. "Father!"
*
While Bass infiltrated the naval base with his squad of Marines, the rest of my regiment were packed into their Cerberus APCs.
Those who weren't had gotten into their tanks and were on standby at the edge of the forest. The moment we captured the ships, I would send them a message and they would mobilize and place themselves between the mainland harbor and any forces who attempted to reinforce the naval armada at Marrina Isles.
"Ready?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Ready as ever, Colonel!"
"Waiting on you, sir!"
As each of my officers signed off, I took a deep breath and gave the order.
"All right. Let's proceed. Move out, everyone!"
As one, the entire convoy of armored Cerberus APCs slowly and quietly slipped into the brown, opaque waters of the marsh and glided underwater toward the fleet of battleships, cruisers and destroyers docked at the Marrina naval base.
Chapter end
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