Chapter 257 The Bar Rumor
Nassau, the port bar.
The light in the deserted bar was dim and only a few dozen seats were occupied. Everyone was drinking while whispering about the latest news at the same time. The atmosphere of the entire bar was extremely dull and frustrating.
Amidst the discussion of the crowd, the bar's door was heavily knocked open all of a sudden. A middle-aged man, who was covered with oil, came in from the outside. He put a few bullets on the countertop and yelled, "Give me a glass of brandy, and don't wash it down with water!"
After looking at the man's costume, the owner of the bar decided to return the bullets back to the man. The owner plucked a good bottle of wine from the wine cooler and poured it into a glass. He then lowered his voice and asked, "My friend, have a drink… It's on me. Actually, do you mind giving us some news and talking about what happened to General Santos?"
When the owner threw out the question, everyone else in the bar instantly turned their heads around and stared at them curiously.
The oily man lifted the glass of brandy, sniffed it satisfactorily, and drank all of it in a shot. He then sighed before saying, "I just don't understand what's so interesting about it… Didn't you guys see it? We had thirty ships in the morning but only ten in the afternoon. The precious frigate of General Santos was destroyed as well. Thank God we're still alive."
"So… did you guys fail?"
"Is that even a question?"
"Is the enemy extremely strong?"
"We didn't even stand a chance!"
In just the blink of an eye, everyone across the bar gathered around and looked at the oily man hoping to get more news. The owner of the bar even poured another shot of brandy into his glass and said, "Can you give us more details? We really want to know more about it."
The oily man looked around at the crowd and laughed before finally saying, "About two weeks ago, two giant ships came from the North. The precious frigate of General Santos happened to meet the enemy, and His Highness even wanted to try and battle them. However, the enemy was very alert and managed to flee in no time."
"The two sides eventually encountered each other several times. General Santos tried to exhaust their fuel resource with entangled tactics, but we later discovered that the enemy did not seem to care about fuel consumption at all. We soon realized that the model of the ship was quite unique. Hence, we did some research and found out that it was actually the nuclear-powered Polarlys."
When the oily man mentioned 'nuclear-powered', the whole bar was shocked. The crowd then exclaimed, "Nuclear-powered… it's no wonder they were able to sail such a long distance. It must've been a very big ship."
The oily man was very satisfied with the sensation he created, and once again he laughed before saying, "Not only the Polarlys but General Santos also found another large freighter. He felt that he had a chance to make a fortune. Hence, he tried to contact the people on the freighter, hoping to detain it."
"However, the other party rejected him without much hesitation, and in the ensuing battle, they even used self-exploding drones to destroy one of our missile boats and damaged two of them. The Great General was also damaged as well."
As soon as the words were spoken, someone in the crowd exclaimed once again, "I do remember what's going on! Ten days ago, when General Santos gave his speech at the port, the news of his damaged frigate made him furious."
Everyone in the bar lowered their heads and discussed the news that had long been widely-known. After drinking his third glass of brandy, the oily man then said, "General Santos has been urging the shipyard to repair the frigate as he felt embarrassed about losing his precious frigate."
"We have been working against the clock since last week and have only managed to repair the ship yesterday. I heard that General Santos had taken almost all of his men today and headed towards the port to retaliate against the enemy. I've also heard that Quino, the son of General Santos, had driven drove more than 20 converted small aircraft to serve as reinforcement."
"You guys must've thought that there's no way General Santos will lose this time. The general himself was very confident in this attack too. Unfortunately, our enemy has become stronger. According to the sailors who managed to make their way back, a rather fierce air battle broke out among both sides and more than 20 of our aircraft fought against a helicopter. But, what do you think happened next? "
The oily man intended to keep everyone in the bar guessing and it seemed that his plan worked out pretty well. The owner of the bar then decided to pour another shot of brandy into the oily man's glass. In the end, the oily man lowered his voice and said, "More than 20 of our aircraft fought against a helicopter, but Quino, who directed the air attack, was shot down and died."
Wow…… everyone was taken aback once again.
"How did they manage to lose with 20 aircraft?"
"I bet General Santos must be extremely infuriated right now…"
"He might've already started planning his revenge plan."
"Since the fight was so intense, the other side must've suffered a serious loss as well. Am I right?"
After listening to the last sentence, the oily man slowly shook his head and waited until everyone went quiet before saying, "Unfortunately, you are all wrong. Compared to General Santos' losses, theirs were extremely minimal. Their freighter did not even appear at all.... All they did was send out a patrol boat to fight against us."
"A patrol boat… How can a patrol boat actually fight?"
"At most, a patrol boat will only be equipped with a machine gun. Is a machine gun really enough to defeat General Santos' warship?"
"They only sent out one boat though. There's no way they could win the battle against a mere patrol boat."
The oily men shook his head once again with a chuckle, "Don't you guys dare look down on them. Everyone from General Santos' army now called this inexplicable force the 'Polarlys Legion'. They were all afraid after facing defeat twice in both their encounters."
"This army has an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, helicopters, and even tanks. By the way, they operated the tanks on the front of the patrol ship. As a result, they were able to completely destroy General Santos' frigate. I heard from those sailors that the enemies are using laser-guided artillery shells, which can be fired from more than ten kilometers away."
"In the end, General Santos managed to get close to the enemy after losing many speedboats and torpedo boats. When he was approaching them, he was continuously bombarded by the enemy with heavy artillery. The battle was extremely fierce, and they succeeded in stopping the enemy's boat from moving forward. However, they were soon counter-attacked and their main mortar was destroyed by the enemy with a single artillery shell."
Wow... wow... wow...... Exclamations can be heard one after another. Someone then asked, "Since this 'Polarlys Legion' is so powerful, will they drive General Santos out of this place and continue to attack Nassau?"
The oily man finally did not know how to answer the question. He shook his head and said, "I'm not sure about this. Anyway, I only know that the losses of General Santos, especially his son's death, had made a great impact on him. There's news that General Santos will ask his backstage for help. I'm afraid that this battle might last for very long."
The crowd resumed their discussion once again with limited information. Some of them complained about the chaotic state of the world and claimed that there was no more hope for mankind. The others, however, were discussing where to look for the Polarlys Legion, as they might be able to land themselves a job.
This conversation took place in the corner of the bar where two people were sitting at. One of them, who was wearing a cowboy hat and looked relatively mature, said to the young man next to him, "Go ask that oily man… Is there any way we can contact this Polarlys Legion?"
The young man walked up to the countertop and spent a few rounds of ammunition in exchange for a few messages. He then came back and said: "Mr. East, the Polarlys Legion is now stationed in Marsh Harbour in the northern part of Abaco Island. It seems that they're desperately searching for a suitable port for their ship."
"Great, maybe we can find ourselves an ally to fight against the pirates of the Caribbean."
Chapter 258 Asylum Seeking
East walked out of the bar with his cowboy hat and stood on the shoulder of the shore of the harbor to look at the blocked shipyard dock. The head of the pirates, Santos, tried to hide the news of his defeat, but East felt it was totally futile.
The wounded sailors needed treatment and the damaged ships needed repair. Hence, Santos simply did not have extra time to control the spread of the news. East did not even need a telescope to see the heavily damaged frigate even though he was a few hundred meters away from the dock.
"Can this ship still be repaired?"
"Its power system is not damaged and its main structure is still intact. However, judging by the level of damage, I don't think its radar is fixable anymore. This kind of frigate has little to no threat when it's on the battlefield anyway."
The oily man also gave out a message saying, due to Quino's death, the surviving ten pilots had all surrendered to the Polarlys Legion, afraid of punishment. None of them returned and they all landed at Marsh Harbor airport instead.
East immediately concluded, "These pilots will certainly tell Nassau's situation to the people of the Polarlys Legion or they might even betray Santos and fight for them."
All of a sudden, a small two-seater, light aircraft can be seen flying in the sky. The people on the plane took photographs of the port and the ship-repair facility. They even threw flying leaflets towards the ground.
The guards at the port were trying their best to shoot the small aircraft to drive them away, but they could not stop the thousands of flying leaflets from dropping to the ground. Many people, including East, picked up the leaflets and looked at the content as they were all extremely curious,. After all, the issue of on the leaflets had not been seen on Earth for many years already.
The content of the leaflets was very straightforward - The residents of Nassau should never co-operate with Santos, the pirate leader, or they will be severely punished. The leaflets also called for skilled people to go to Great Abaco Island to accept employment for there were many excellent jobs there waiting for them.
East was particularly concerned about the two names printed on the leaflet - Lena Fox, the CEO of Fox Foundation, and Victor Hugo, the world's most wanted terrorist who had dominated New York.
Although issuing leaflets was completely outdated, its effect was still significant. Both Lena Fox and Victor Hugo were famous names. Hence, the citizens of Nassau immediately knew the reason behind the overwhelming defeat of General Santos. Many desperate people already began thinking of heading to Abaco Island to test their luck.
Even East himself had a completely new appraisal of the Polarlys Legion when he heard those names. He returned to a small hotel where he lived and used a radio station to send the news back to his headquarters. Everyone at the headquarters instantly felt the blood pulsing through their veins.
"Oh my God, they have a nuclear-powered vessel. This means that they will have an infinite amount of power supply. If there is enough power, many of our medical equipment might be able to work again… The lives of many can finally be saved."
"I thought that everyone from the financial sector has disappeared. How is Lena Fox still alive? However, if the person behind the Polarlys Legion is indeed her, I wouldn't mind working for her."
"But what about the guy named Victor Hugo? I still recall from the news that he is a wanted terrorist. Are we really going to work for such people?"
After listening to all the quarrel and doubts on the radio, East finally said with a deep voice: "I'm willing to take the risk and visit the leaders of the Polarlys Legion on Abaco Island. Since they are recruiting skilled people, I might be able to join them."
East felt that he was running out of time. Hence, after cutting off the radio network, he hurriedly left the hotel with his followers, got himself a boat from the beach, and headed towards Abaco Island.
The city of Nassau is located on an island called New Providence, where small boats can be seen everywhere. Most of them were driven by oars or depended on the wind. After reading the issued leaflets, many people hesitated to sail across the sea to find a chance to live on.
East and his followers used the bullets they carried in exchange for a sailboat. Their journey to Abaco Island was accompanied by many other people, all of whom were heading to the same destination.
Nassau was a few dozen miles away from Abaco Island hence, it will probably take an entire day of traveling by boat. During the journey, everyone on the boat spoke about their hopes.
Standing next to East was a woman with a child. The woman took the initiative to introduce herself, "I'm a prostitute and the Polarlys Legion should have a lot of men that need me. I hope to be able to serve them in order to support me and my child."
A person of color who stood on the other side of the boat then said, "I'm just a docker. I can do anything for them as long as they can give me something to eat."
Everyone was enjoying the chit-chatting session. However, East felt heavy-hearted. He looked at the sea surrounding him and noticed that there were at least hundreds of boats in the ocean. It seemed that the thousands of leaflets had successfully alarmed the entire Nassau within just a few hours.
Santos had total control over Nassau, but he could not provide enough food for more than 300,000 people on the island. Hence, the island's people swiftly flocked to Abaco Island once they found themselves another place that might be able to solve their problem with daily necessities.
However, East could not help but feel anxious when he heard that his companions were willing to work for Polarlys Legion as long as they had something to eat. He felt that his companions did not have the required ability to persuade the legion to recruit them.
They set out at noon but only arrived at Marsh Harbour in the middle of the night. When they saw the two large ships in the harbor and the brightly lit lights on the ships, the people who had been tortured for the last three months began to cheer in joy.
Even East, who was usually calm, felt excited. In the past, he had never felt anything special about lights, but now he knew that it represented civilization and hope.
However, when the cheering crowd slowly got closer to the harbor, countless armed soldiers suddenly appeared on the dock one after the other. The soldiers looked cold and expressionless.
One of the soldiers then shouted with a megaphone, "Listen, everyone! The place you came to is not a haven and our organization is not a charity. Those who do not obey orders will be thrown directly into the sea."