Chapter 166: Diverging Paths (Patreon)

When Hali offered the Sapphire Armada’s unconditional surrender, Coop held reservations. He couldn’t help but feel skeptical toward her self-professed authority. Coop may have been the Champion of Ghost Reef, but he didn’t think he would be able to offer his residents’ complete surrender after convincing them to fight for a specific purpose. The human residents fought with their own personal motivations driving them. At most, Coop emphasized the features of the island settlement that were worth defending given the scenarios of the assimilation. The phantoms were another matter altogether. He doubted they would ever consider submitting to an opponent as an option at all.

Coop wasn’t in the business of enforcing such strict discipline on those around him, though they were influenced by his behavior all the same, he still wouldn’t expect them to lay down their arms if his resolve flipped so quickly. He imagined the vast majority of his comrades would fight to the death to defend the settlement after everything they had been through, even if Coop advocated for surrender, and no matter what she said, Hali was just a kid. Could this girl really claim to have so much authority?

Coop was proven to be overly pessimistic toward Hali. Apparently, her bratty attitude was backed by actual power and respect. Upon the defeat of the Armada’s Champion, the soldiers within the invasion force had promptly thrown down their weapons and ceased fighting, openly accepting their loss with a level of discipline that continued to surprise Coop.

The assimilation had barely begun, in the grand scheme of things, and yet, the Sapphire Armada had managed to instill a shocking level of trust among its members. If they hadn’t aimed to take down Ghost Reef first, he really believed they had a chance to be an influential force within the competition between settlements. The whole scenario surrounding the Sapphire Armada’s settlement would have been a shame if the assimilation was really the only threat to humanity. They had managed to establish a force with the kind of dedication that had only been demonstrated by the phantoms themselves.

Guard Captain Alaric and the 300 phantoms honored the attempt at surrender by ceasing their hostilities as soon as the invading soldiers threw down their weapons. Naturally, Ghost Reef’s residents had inherited Coop’s general hesitance to kill, so they gladly held back on further bloodshed and accepted the reprieve in fighting, abrupt as it was. Their primary goal was the defense of the fort, and with the threat of the invaders openly withdrawn, there was no more need for their immediate elimination.

The fact that there were only 300 phantoms hidden within Coop’s Fog of War put them in an awkward spot. How could they be expected to take control of almost 70,000 surrendered combatants? If the roles were reversed, the residents of Ghost Reef would take any opportunity to turn the tables. With those considerations, before the fog dissipated and the defenders revealed themselves, they sent messengers to call for reinforcements from the fort.

The Armada’s troops waited patiently in the fog even without any form of contact from the opposing force, fully submitting themselves to the victors. The fact that they weren’t still being killed by the guerilla tactics that the phantoms had adopted meant that their gestures of surrender had at least been noticed. Certainly, there were a few silent prayers being sent, but otherwise, they sat tight while the victors judged them.

By the time dawn was breaking, Ghost Reef had mobilized as many residents as they could comfortably spare, presenting a united front so that the massive number of captives wouldn’t get any ideas about how much they outnumbered their guards. They didn’t need to worry too much. The phantoms that had been most involved in the defense had all eclipsed level 110 and if anyone in the Sapphire Armada identified them, they would only see question marks. The imposing presence of numerous overwhelming individuals reinforced the invaders’ submission.

The lower level members of Ghost Reef remained at a distance, far enough away that they couldn’t be identified by anyone without specific skills, but the fact that there were more than 15,000 phantoms and 5,000 human residents of Ghost Reef was already an unexpected surprise for their would-be invaders. Crowds that large were difficult to comprehend and the Sapphire Armada had only anticipated meeting a force of less than 1,000 individuals since they had concentrated on the results of the siege event for their intelligence gathering. The Armada hadn’t accounted for the reinforcements Ghost Reef had collected in the weeks after the siege. Instead of finding a depleted settlement, ripe for conquering, they found a fortified city bolstered by highly motivated reinforcements. The only spy able to successfully infiltrate the fort’s walls and return safely was Hali, and by the time she had gathered enough information to show that they were misinformed to the state of Ghost Reef they had already committed to the ground assault.

While the residents of Ghost Reef organized another major undertaking, receiving prisoners rather than new residents, Arthur spent quite a bit of time with Hali. The Ghost Reef intelligence advisor wanted answers regarding her abilities. Coop expected them to have a hostile relationship. They gave off completely opposite first impressions. Arthur was a prim and proper older man, always properly groomed with ramrod straight posture and a polite but formal way of speaking while the young girl lacked any sense of etiquette. Of course they ended up quickly finding common ground with Arthur doting on her like she was a long lost grandchild. They ended up exchanging trade secrets rather than conducting an interrogation.

The Armada’s soldiers were checked on by the reception committees that had onboarded the refugees, though those same volunteers were mostly high-leveled fighters with experience in the settlement that went back to before the siege. The role wasn’t entirely different, only requiring a small adjustment in tone when they demanded answers rather than requested cooperation.

“Now, you youngsters better behave yourselves.” Edith, the Dreadnought, warned groups of the Armada that remained seated, separated from their weapons. She may have looked and sounded like a kindly old lady, with her hair in tight white curls and her friendly demeanor, but the spiked pauldrons and black metal gauntlets on her selected armor told a different story, and that wasn’t mentioning the fact that she was higher level than any of the soldiers. She was just one example of the residents who had all been elevated to powerhouses when compared to the rest of the assimilation.

“Yes ma’am!” The Armada’s troops responded as she passed them by before they whispered about exactly what they had gotten themselves into when they attacked Ghost Reef. Even the grandmas had fearsome auras.

The vast majority of the residents and phantoms were equipped in the Ghost Reef Standard Issue armor, the forms of which had been glimpsed by the troops of the Armada in all the fighting. They had already developed a healthy fear of the black leather and charcoal metals, so there weren’t any incidents involving last minute resistance while the situation became more organized. For all they knew, the entire defensive force had been present during the fighting. The surrendered troops didn’t want to risk provoking the bloodlust they had experienced within the Fog of War.

Coop only made a brief appearance, introducing Marcus and the other advisors to Viceroy Hali and giving his opinion before going off on his own again. Marcus assured the Champion that they could actually make room even for this many additions, further fueling Hali’s insistent protests and earning him some looks of encouragement from a few of the other advisors, but Coop wasn’t ready to forgive anyone that would attack the sanctuary they created. The Sapphire Armada had done things in the wrong order, as far as he was concerned, and trust wouldn’t be so easily given, nor would forgiveness be offered without proper commiseration. The fact that they were looking for safety was understandable, but the fact that they had tried to steal it away rather than cooperate would require special consideration. Coop had already resolved himself to not allow them to stay within Ghost Reef to the point that he had been willing to kill them. Returning any of them alive was already a generous compromise.

Coop went on to reject alternative ideas for what to do with them, like sending them to Empress City. The newly acquired sister settlement already had their own issues to work through, piling on tens of thousands of newcomers representing an entirely new force was unacceptable, so Coop advocated for finding a way to get them back to their original settlement.

Ghost Reef would be claiming Neptune’s Bridge as another subordinate settlement anyway. The fact that the conquered city would qualify for the settlement upgrade’s bonus objective was further incentive to make it happen, and if they claimed it, they intended on finding a way to defend it. Coop left his advisors to figure out the details, but he made his intentions clear. The Lighthouse would be claiming what remained of the Floridian peninsula. The former members of the Sapphire Armada would need to take the time necessary to integrate into the growing coalition of settlements under the control of The Lighthouse before being welcomed in any other territories. Rather than allow them to move into Ghost Reef, Coop wanted to find a way to reinforce their settlement first and let natural migration occur much later.

Coop shared the war chest with his advisors, allowing the settlement to accept the funds, providing the mana tokens to Admiral Kayla and suggesting she find a way to bolster the Tempest Fleet with the free constructions. The equipment wouldn’t be particularly useful as it was a clear downgrade to even the cheapest sets crafted by Ghost Reef’s crafters, so the haul would be sold for scrap on the internal market. He kept the Unique relic, Tear of the Sea, for future crafting commissions. Before he left, he also transferred all but one of the Mana Pylons to Marcus, suggesting they try filling the space between Empress City and Neptune’s Bridge with their territory. Coop was already planning for splitting up as there were just too many objectives for him to pursue on his own.

The members of Ghost Reef had several different missions pulling them all in different directions. Jones and Elder Olani would stay in Ghost Reef where Rear Admiral Gideon and all of the phantoms would be focused on quickly getting their own levels up to par. They would be training with Ledwidge and continuing to defend the settlement.

All of the newest residents who had arrived on the cruise ship from Empress City were also being incorporated into the organized leveling programs that guided them through monster zones. It would be especially tricky, since there were only enough monsters for dozens of people to grind at a time, but there were more than 5,000 people primed to fight. The fact that they had already experienced a battle from within the walls of the fort and they had been shadowing those who had experienced the siege event meant that they had witnessed the undeniable necessity of developing some of their own skills. Most of the original residents who had come from the mainland were already leading by example, providing the same guidance they had received during the siege event. The Cleary brothers and Derek of all people were taking responsibility for maintaining the entrance of the Coral Forest with the most experienced residents and phantoms expected to utilize the grinding zone when they were available.

Emmanuel and Madison would have their hands full with curing those from Empress City that were infected with the blood curse. After the Siege Boss had been defeated during Jones’s ritual, they had been assured that the same struggle wouldn’t occur again, but just in case, they would be starting right away, before Coop was off the island, so that he would be within shouting distance if they summoned another demon Icon from hell. Otherwise, Emmanuel would have more than enough fighting power to defeat cursed manifestations.

Admiral Kayla and the Tempest Fleet were put in charge of expanding the transportation network. Initially, it was meant to just connect Empress City with Ghost Reef, but now they would be looking at incorporating the much more distant Neptune’s Bridge. While they were at it, they intended to establish the oil rig as an outpost, using one of the Mana Pylons to turn it into a safe harbor and rest stop for longer trips into the Gulf or between Ghost Reef and their newest settlement. The lower level crews would be getting plenty of opportunity to catch their levels up, and knowing that the current cap was 500 meant that even the most experienced sailors had plenty of room to grow.

In order to accomplish the fleet’s mission, the pirates needed more ships, which the tokens would hopefully provide, though the process of inundating the ships with spectral mana would continue to be the limiting factor on their expansion. They would also be limited by the need to find proper crews, but that was where the former members of the naval empire that the Sapphire Armada represented would come in. They could earn themselves a position in the expanding coalition with service in the navy. It would be a good way to generate trust and Ghost Reef already had programs that would help with training, should they need it, with the construction of the Admiralty. Assuming there weren’t any problems claiming Neptune’s Bridge, the navy would be able to establish a program that could bolster their numbers as well as integrate the newest additions. The Sapphire Armada’s sailors might be some of the only humans that could match the fervent loyalty of the phantoms, as long as it was aimed in the same direction. They had a promising future if they were patient enough to earn trust.

Gibson’s party would be escorting a large group of Marcus’s diplomats to Empress City, then the experienced combat party would slowly push north, exploring the wilds. They would be establishing a land connection between the two settlements on the mainland, as well as testing the Mana Pylons for their range and efficacy. Rather than clear the entire width of the peninsula, they would create a linear path to begin with. If Hali was up for it, she would be organizing the same process from the North. The Sapphire Armada had already established several routes to Empress City with their caravans, but they had never intended on clearing a path. They didn’t want to make it easy for potential rivals to approach their settlement by land and they were concentrated entirely on the sea for themselves.

Shane’s party would be responsible for escorting Hali and the first groups of the Sapphire Armada’s assault force back to Neptune’s Bridge. There, they would be claiming the settlement in the name of Ghost Reef and The Lighthouse before they would concentrate on developing the defenses such that the residents would be more confident in their security.

That all left the most complicated of the missions. Charlie and Camila had intended to go with Coop to the Yucatan, but the additional wrinkle provided by Camila’s family members meant that they would be separating from Coop after all. Given the urgency of the situation with the Eradication Protocol looming and the relative organization of Neon Park, they wanted to get the information distributed as soon as possible. Therefore, Charlie and Camila would be returning with Carlos, Gabby, and Sofia. They would be going with Marcus and another group of his trainees, first to Neptune’s Bridge, then all the way to Neon Park by sea, avoiding the dangerous land route that multiple separate groups had now warned about.

Coop would be heading to the Yucatan Peninsula, along with Amanda and Mikey B to establish their port and a regular boat route while Coop worked his way through the jungle to investigate the top ranked settlement and its connection to Chakyum.

Coop left the residents in a flurry of activity as various groups organized themselves, preparing for their own expeditions or taking on responsibilities back home. The Sapphire Armada’s troops were slowly informed of their place within the growing faction. While they let the news settle Coop waded out to the sandbar, spear already in hand, as he had unfinished business with the Primal Kites.