The destination that Clara led us to was a floating island in the outskirts of the Wayne territory. It was primarily used for mining and logging so there weren't really any civilian residences there.
Well, that was what the island was supposed to be for.
"The mineral veins in the mines have already been used up long ago and the trees that grow there are troublesome to cut down and provide subpar wood. All-in-all, it's nothing more than a floating rock in my family's eyes." Clara explained during our little mission briefing.
"That means that there's gonna be a lot of caves to hide in." Greg voiced out, something that we all agreed with.
"There should also be a number of facilities to accommodate ships to export the resources that were mined. They may be in disrepair now, but they might still be used to house and service a number of ships." Chris added. The more we thought about it, the more it made it look like the island we were headed to was a perfect fit for a Sky Pirate hideout.
I believe this would be a good time to discuss the Rules of Engagement that we will use in this battle.
"Rules of what now?" Brad asked. I guess they never really had anything like that, or it was called something else here.
It is about how we shall conduct ourselves in combat. Do we attack immediately? Do we wish to attempt diplomacy? Do we simply kill the pirates who are not part of the leadership?
"Ah, now I understand. I say we just kill the ones we don't need." Brad answered with a confident nod.
"You don't look like you agree, Leon." Marie spoke up for the first time in the briefing. The others looked like they just noticed my expression.
"You still have reservations about killing?" Jilk asked, more curious than anything else.
"Well, that's one thing. There's also another reason…" I trailed off and remembered something from quite some time ago. "...I saw the final wish of the one that created the Nagare and Black Getter. They were both built for the sake of mankind. Black Getter in particular was created with the hope that whoever inherits it would never use it to destroy humanity. I kind of still want to abide by that wish as much as I can."
"A Lost Item purpose built to protect mankind, strong enough that its creator asks you to not use it to destroy." Chris said with a helpless smile and a shake of his head. "We really didn't stand a chance against you, did we?"
"Well, not with that attitude." I responded with a grin, making the boys laugh.
"I'm fine with it. If anything would be sturdy enough to try to take down Sky Pirates non-lethally, it would be Leon's Armor." Jilk voiced his approval with a nod. "Though I hope you don't have anything against the rest of us taking lives to defend ourselves and each other."
I nodded and gave him a thumbs up. "I get it. I won't try to restrict you guys."
"Your desire to uphold the final wish of your Armor's creator is admirable. Just make sure that it does not shackle you if the time comes that you need to take lives for the sake of others." Julius warned me with complete seriousness.
Defend what you hold dear with it if you want, but do not make our mistakes. Don't try to turn Getter into a God or a Devil.
"Don't worry, I won't."
The Nagare flew into the island's airspace, it was quiet but Control was able to detect each and every ship and Armor hiding all around us. Julius and the boys were all in their Armors and standing on the Nagare's surface. Marie and Clara were both watching everything unfold from the safety of the bridge.
"Sky Pirates!" Julius called out, his Armor amplifying his voice. "I know you are here! I am Julius Rapha Holfort! Crown Prince of the Kingdom that you are all blighting with your presence. Surrender now or be cut down! This is your only warning!"
The pirates responded by launching a bunch of ships all around the Nagare, six in total. Those ships started to disgorge Armors from within, Control confirming sixty.
"Those models are military." Jilk said over the comms. Control set everyone up with simple ear pieces so we could all communicate without having to use external speakers. "There are old ones from Holfort, Fanoss, and even Alzer."
"Stolen or given by their benefactors?" Brad asked. "Though I wouldn't be surprised if it was both."
"That might just actually be it. Well, not like they stand a chance. They're using models older than the one I used in the duel!" Greg dismissed the threat with a grin.
"Welcome to the territory of the Winged Sharks, your highness!" The haughty voice of a man yelled out from the furthest ship, the flagship it seemed. "As you can see, you are outnumbered, outgunned, and surrounded! How about we calm down and talk about how I'll be ransoming you and your friends back to the Kingdom. You can even leave behind your Armors and that ship as gifts to my esteemed self!"
"It seems that negotiations are unsuccessful, Julius." Chris joked, knowing that it was a long shot anyway.
"It seems so." Julius agreed as he watched the pirates start to close in. "Leon, time for the next phase of your plan."
"Got it." I said from inside Black Getter's cockpit. We were in the skies above the island, so far up that none of the pirates even noticed that the Getter Robo was even up here. I took a breath, changed Black Getter's angle, and pushed on the levers to make it fly straight down. I grunted at the acceleration and tightened my muscles, the pilot suit doing its job and preventing injuries from the g-force.
"Bhaa!" I exhaled as Black Getter stopped in the air in front of one of the Winged Sharks' ships. "Getter Spike!"
Black Getter reared its arm back as the spikes on its fist extended. With a mighty punch down onto the bow of the ship, I was able to force it to run aground as it wasn't able to stabilize itself.
"As you can see, we are far more formidable than you think." I heard Julius say as the boys readied their own weapons and engaged the Pirates' Armors. I may have been able to take them all down pretty easily during the duel, but they started to demonstrate that they all had the potential to be pretty high-end Armor pilots too. It was even more impressive since they were still just using souped up versions of their starter Armors and not the actual upgraded models. As the biggest kicker, they were doing this against a force that was larger and stronger than what they were supposed to face in-game.
Chris's Armor retained its sleek design, but had extra slits at the shoulders, hips, and legs. The purpose of those slits became evident when a pirate tried to stab him with a spear, Chris easily sliding to the side and slicing the Armor in half with a better looking sword than what he used to have.
Brad's Armor added smaller shields at the shoulders but it still looked pretty much the same as last time. The improvements it got was shown as he controlled the remote spears that were normally mounted on the Armor's back. Each spear flying around, stabbing, blocking, and parrying like they all had minds of their own.
Greg being Greg just did the sensible thing and replaced his outdated model to a more standard one. Of course, it was customized to his liking. It was still red but had more armoring and slightly bigger arms than the regular models that the army uses. With his spearwork no longer held back by the limitations of an old Armor, Greg just went around like a whirlwind of destruction.
Jilk stayed on the Nagare and used it as a firing platform. The helmet of his Armor looked new and the rifle it wielded looked a bit heftier. The effectiveness of the upgrades were pretty easy to see as he was able to pick off Armors two or three at a time. Predictably, he focused his support fire around Julius, though he did take out targets of opportunity that went after the others.
Speaking of Julius, his armor looked pretty much unchanged. It made sense as it was already a higher spec Armor than normal. He was front and center of the Armor battle and coordinated the rest of the boys for attacks and defense. Whenever a pirate tried their luck, they found Julius' swordsmanship more than enough to deal with any of them.
I had just crushed the legs of a couple of Armors, forcing them to land, when I noticed that the enemy Armors were getting taken down faster than I expected them to. "Control, time to finish this."
Understood.
The Nagare's surface shifted, Jilk wisely taking to the air, with armor panels moving to reveal several large lenses. Ah, of course it would have lasers.
[Getter Beam]
Control's declaration could be heard by everyone on the battlefield as the sky was bathed in green light. In an instant, four of the ships were already crashing to the ground along with a bunch of Armors that had limbs melted off.
Nagare OP, please never nerf.
"We surrender! We surrender!" The frantic voice of the same man who spoke before suddenly yelled out from the remaining ship. "Please have mercy on us!"
Jilk coordinated placement of prisoners inside the Nagare's residential area with Control. The big ship being the only thing large enough to hold that many people securely. The rooms they were confined in were completely sealed and Control made sure that all the pirates understood that every aspect of the ship was under their control, including the air supply inside. None of them resisted.
"What'll happen to them?" I asked Jilk as the last of the regular pirates were locked up in rooms.
"Execution." He simply responded. I grimaced, but I couldn't really do anything about it either.
Instead, I went to the remaining pirate ship still in the air to talk to the leader. Surprisingly, Julius went with me. I was expecting Jilk to protest, but he agreed and chose to keep an eye outside the ship in his Armor. The leader was a bald man with an eyepatch that had scars all over his dark skin, pretty much what I expected a pirate to look like. He was super nervous when we entered his quarters, likely the thrashing was still fresh on his mind.
"You are the leader of the Winged Sharks?" Julius asked, hand on the sword on his hip. The leader nodded and I took the time to look around, immediately spotting the very thing I wanted. There on a display case near the far wall was a jeweled necklace that had the symbol of the holy temple on it.
The Saint's Necklace.
I walked up to it and the pirate leader looked alarmed. I spoke up before he could, "Why were you guys here? This place is pretty deep in Holfort territory."
"We were told to set up here and wait for a ship to ambush." He quickly said, still looking at me warily.
Julius glared at him and stepped forward. "Who instructed you to do this?"
"I can't tell you! They'll kill me!" He said in clear fear.
"You guys just attacked the crown prince." I reminded him. "Whoever you're afraid of will be nothing compared to what the crown will do if you don't cooperate."
He quickly broke after that and told us everything, even providing letters that showed the pirates being ordered to go here and ambush whoever showed up. They had one order: Confirm the Death of Leon Fou Bartfort. The one who had them do this was even more of a surprise.
"The Offrey House wants you killed?" Julius asked in shock as he read through one of the letters. "Why? Because you spurned their daughter?"
"Nah, Carla went to me before the thing with Karen in the Host Club. This was going to happen regardless of how I reacted to her." I also considered the possibility, but it looked like the whole seduction thing by Karen was just for kicks.
"More mysteries then." Julius muttered before turning to the pirate leader. "You will surrender this ship and everything inside to us. Report to the deck to be moved as our prisoner."
I watched the man quickly beat a hasty retreat, giving the necklace one last worried glance before leaving. "You sure he won't run?"
"To where?" I blinked at Julius' words and nodded in understanding.
Julius and I looked around the quarters some more, with me taking the opportunity to pilfer the Saint's Necklace. We didn't really find anything aside from more letters that proved that the Sharks were under the employ of the Offery house as guns for hire. Julius surmised that was how they were equipped with better Armors than what they were supposed to be capable of acquiring.
"I guess the only thing left is to go to Carla's home and tell her family the good news!" Julius happily exclaimed when we all returned to the Nagare.
Carla and I exchanged a glance, with her just bowing at me after a smile. "Right, yeah."
We left the ships and Armors on the island to be eventually retrieved by representatives of the Crown. Greg, Brad, and I did make sure to move all the treasure we could get our hands on back to the Nagare though. When Chris asked why we would even need treasures, the three of us just grinned at the man.
"It's not about needing more money…" Brad began.
"...it's about having more money!" Greg finished and the three of us shared a round of high fives. We then all met back up in the briefing room so Julius and I could tell everyone what we found.
"Sorry to tell you, but it looks like Marie is literally the best thing that happened to you." I told Brad, who looked both shocked and relieved at the same time.
"Hey! Why did it sound like you're pitying him that I'm the best thing that happened to Brad!" Marie complained before she was engulfed in an embrace by a tearful Brad, thanking her for letting him into her life. "Ack! I get it! Let me go!"
Julius then informed everyone that he'd bring the prisoners and the evidence before her mother so an official investigation and inquisition could be brought against the Offerys. From the sounds of it, they won't last very long with the piles of proof we managed to find.
I glanced at a fidgeting Clara as her father explained that they didn't know anything about any pirate attacks threatening them. Our arrival at the Wayne Estate made a lot of people pretty scared, but the feeling was replaced with relief and a bit of panic when Julius made his presence known.
Carla proceeded to tell her father and the rest that she was ordered by the Offrey House's daughter to lure me to the ambush. Her dad was understandably furious with her for going along with a plot that threatened the life of the crown prince.
"What was I supposed to do?! She was going to kill us all if I didn't do what she said!" Carla screamed out in despair. I moved between the crying Carla and Jilk, who had just pulled out his personal handgun.
"She is a traitor." He coldly said.
"She was being threatened." I pointed out.
"She tried to have you killed!" He countered, bewildered that I was taking her side.
"That was the Offreys. As you heard, they pretty much took Carla's entire family hostage." I reasoned out instead.
Jilk grimaced but holstered his gun before speaking. "We can't just let her go."
"I won't run away!" Carla suddenly yelled out before once again kneeling in front of me. "I've sworn to myself to follow Viscount Leon Bartfort to the ends of the world!"
"What?!" I exclaimed and looked down at the girl who no had a rather manic look in her eyes.
"You are my savior! My family's savior! You could have easily just thrown me away like the Offreys have, but you didn't!" Carla Fou Wayne passionately said. "I humbly request that you allow me to dedicate my life to you, my Lord!"
That caused another round of arguments between her and her family. I just stood there with the others and watched the whole thing unfold.
"What should I do?" I asked and the boys just gave me thumbs up in response, even Jilk. "I hate you guys."