Chapter 2
The marines who had surrounded the town were lying in waiting, for now at least.
"Do you think it will happen soon?" One marine soldier asked another from their
"Who knows. If you ask me, I would rather have it to begin now than later. At least then we would have it behind us."
"They will all die right?" He was talking about the people in the town.
"Probably", the other marine answered with some sadness. "This damn criminals. This is all their fault."
"The criminals are not the only ones to blame here", a voice under-broke them.
"Rear admiral Smoker." One of the marines greeted the officer who had overheard them talking.
"We are the ones who have this town surrounded, we are the one who have their guns pointed at them. When it comes to the worst, it will be as much our fault then it is theirs."
Smoker had always a record for speaking his mind, if it was politically correct or not.
Currently he was one of the marine officers at the place. He and Tashigi, both recently promoted, had just been stationed here a few weeks ago, back then when this entire crisis had been just beginning.
"Sir", one of the soldiers said intimidated.
"But sir, we can not simply let this criminals get away", the other pointed out.
"So we get all this people killed only to take a few criminals out?" Smoker asked the man.
"That is not what I meant sir."
"Believe me", Smoker told him, "nobody here will `get away´ with anything."
It was quite simple.
A group of criminals or in this case it were revolutionaries, but that didn´t really matter. Everybody who opposed the world government was per definition a criminal, was holding a certain area under their control.
According to the code of "absolute justice". That meant the criminals needed to be neutralized, in every way necessary, no matter the cost.
This meant in truly every way, even if it meant harming civilians and property.
The system had been working like that for centuries and every marine had been trained to accept it. Nobody, at least in the higher ranks, really questioned it. Of cause that also meant that for the longest time, nobody had actually looked for alternatives.
And admittedly, with this philosophy they had been more or less successfully keeping pirates and criminals at bay for years by now, despite the pirate age. Or so it seemed. In fact, they were often causing more harm when this "criminals" did in the first place. The truth was many people feared them as much as their enemies.
And so the marines continued to solve their problems like they always had, without ever over thinking it.
At every price? That was the only question here.
Many of the marines were afraid about the coming decision that they knew had to be made, a decision that had actually already fallen.
This group of revolutionaries, there was no question, was holding the town hostage.
The answer was easy, attack and destroy the criminals. Even if it meant the death of everyone else in the town. The only question was when the attack would happen.
Rear admiral Smoker looked at the situation and was all but happy.
Typical, he thought, the marines would rather killing every innocent being in that town than letting the criminals escape.
He had seen something like this all too often in the last years. It was the usual way of the government to deal with situations like this, rather to destroy everything than making any compromises.
And their current leader would certainly not hesitate to do exactly that. Vice admiral Onigumo was the same officer who gave at Enies Lobby the command to sank one of their own ships, another fact Smoker had just found out after his latest promotion. This was certainly the last man under who this crisis could be ended peacefully.
So they will "protect" the people of this town by destroying them.
Too bad that he was obviously not the only one who had realized this. The rebels were holding the town and their marines were standing outside, ready to burn everything into the ground.
It was all too obvious, Smoker thought.
Why did this fools thought the revolutionaries had even occupied the town in the first place?
There was nothing to gain for them here. Nothing except probably causing a massacre, a massacre that the marines would be responsible for.
The commander of this particular rebel group was Burg E. Baris, by reputation one of the most uncompromising and dangerous men anywhere under Dragon´s command, a fanatic, a zealot. Exactly like Onigumo, Smoker told himself.
The only reason this man had for all this was that he knew how the marines would react, especially under this leader.
One psychopath was leading the one army, the other the second, he though cynically. The ones to pay the price would be everyone else.
They would destroy everything, kill everybody and give Burg exactly what he wanted. It would paint the marines and the world government as butchers and fools if it ever came out and the revolutionaries would make sure that it came out. They were doing exactly what their enemy wanted.
Why in the world was he the only one in this place who seemed to realize this?
To be honest Smoker could care less what the government looked like in the eyes and the public. They were butchers and fools when it came to him. But all this people, the civilians and the soldiers didn´t deserve to die because of this.
He really wished he could do anything to stop this insanity, but he could do nothing. But he would only loose his own head if he tried to confront Onigumo and it would still change nothing.
It was not as if Smoker feared the man in person, but in the end he had the world government standing behind him. So none of the soldiers would back him up. Except Tashigi and this would only drag her into the same situation too.
No, he had once again to rely on someone else to solve the problems he had found himself in.
As it had turned out, the straw-hat pirates were also here. They had obviously made a stop in this town on their way deeper into the new world and now they were trapped here like everybody else.
Exactly the pirates they had been hunting for the last years now, but this was certainly not the situation he had imagined or wanted to meet them again.
However this time, he had to admit, he was actually glad this pirates were here.
Smoker had to admit, they had a very good track record in dealing with situations like this. Back in Alabasta, when they had defeated crocodile was the first time to actually appreciate this group.
Since the straw-hats were here, they would probably get active very soon. Once again, he was relying on pirates. It was nearly a joke.
He could only hope that they would be able to stop both Onigumo and Burg.
"Do you think they will make their move soon?" Tashigi, who was now standing next to him asked. It wasn´t exactly clear who she was meaning, it could be the revos or their own people.
But he knew she was talking about the strawhats.
"Yes, I think it is really time that we see something of them."
