After the fall of Westfall, or the liberation of it as the soldier like to say. The traffic around the Portsmouth had gone better by a margin since there weren"t any tax collectors to ask for tax and the naval blockade around the port had stopped. The amount of traveler, tourist, and adventurer that came to the Portsmouth for the lower tax and higher security of the town itself from the other port towns.Lochlan had applied a policy of forced labor, mostly applied to the POWs and the prisoner that was kept on the prison. However, the treatment that had already violate the UN law of POW was far more lawful than the treatment that the kingdom gave. As a result, the GDP gone up by a huge margin.
Lance was looking at his small kingdom from the big manor"s window, the airbase was full of traffic from the cargo planes that were sending the supplies across the whole airfield in the western region. Sharrington Family owned the western region although with some disagreement from the kingdom, but Lance didn"t give a f.u.c.k until...
"Sir!" Lochlan the intel gatherer and manager stormed the door without any manner.
"MIND TO KNOCK FIRST WILL YA? WHAT IS IT?" Lance shouted from the window.
"I beg your pardon sir, but please look at this," he said after he saluted as an apology and he gave Lance a picture of a convoy of carriages accompanied by knights escort, elf marksman, and some mages.
"Hmm, that"s a typical royal convoy," Lance asked him.
"Sir, Intercept and destroy?" Lochlan asked.
"Negative, Look closely, maybe the intel will say that its a bad idea," Lance said as he pointed at the white carriage in the middle while pointing at a certain insignia.
"Hmm, that"s a high royalty emblem. Could be a prince, king, or the prime minister himself," Lochlan said.
"We take the chance, get the Blackhawk, let"s meet them. If it is the prime minister, shoot on sight. I don"t want any question from anyone questioning that order and we will occupy the whole country by force afterward. If it"s the king, let"s just make a ceasefire treaty with him, but I doubt that after I did something to his daughter," Lance said as an AH-64 "Apache" landed on a helipad on the manor. Lochlan called them as fast as he can.
"Ok and call Dimitri," Lance said as he left his office with his cap on his head.
The courtyard had been modified so a helicopter can land there. Well, as usual, the pilot was no other than the friendliest face that you can see in the region; Dima.
"Hey, hey, this baby is armed and loaded, care to join?" Dima said as Lance wore his flight suit and the other apparatus.
"Sure, sure," Lance climbed to the helicopter and it took off.
The AH-64 flew across the busy town, but the city was calm and didn"t give a d.a.m.n since it was an ordinary view for them, although some of the adventurers freak out and some of their mages shot spell at any flying object before they are put down by the MP and sent for questioning. The distance between them and the convoy was about 100 km from there.
During the trip, Dima said, "Hey, do you know that someone washed Admiral Andersen Coffee mug?"
"No s.h.i.t, what happened to him?" Lance replied.
"Poor guy, he has to wash the whole flight deck by himself," Dima replied.
"Haha, such a poor guy," Lance answered as he steered the helicopter towards the royal convoy. Lochlan said that General Andrei had come as a delegation. However, the welcoming party came in the form of a roadblock of tanks and APC.
The knights that the soldier intentionally let go to spread the fear of the army. The result was a power superiority in both physicological and physical warfare, no knights that want to attack the green man on sight. Instead, the knights made an excuse with their pa.s.senger to turn around and return which was hilarious.
Lance landed the Apache and he got out of it and Dima flew the helicopter again as their support in case the royalty tried to do something stupid. Lance left his flight helmet and only brought his HK416C, he walked to General Andrei. As it turns out, the pa.s.senger was very p.i.s.sed off and he went out of the carriage and it was the king himself.
Lance stood upon Andrei"s right side, "General, who is that pa.s.senger that uses a very conspicuous and hilarious outfit in our standard?" he asked.
"General Andrei, he is the king, what does he want?" Lance said to express his confused, usually, his adjutant will come first and inform them about the king"s arrival, but this time the king came to them by himself.
He came to them, but the soldier didn"t show any malicious intent to respect him although some can saw their trigger finger was ready on the .50 BMG turret. The king approached them and said, "Move! do you know who I am?"
"Why does everyone asked me that d.a.m.n question every time?" Lance took off his helmet, "Your majesty, it"s been an honor to meet you," Lance said as he took off the sungla.s.ses.
"Wait, Lawrence, you"re still alive? How? I thought Count Glas killed you. So good to see you, I thought I will never see you again," He answered with a surprised face.
"It"s my honor, your majesty," Lance said, but Andrei became more confuse since he didn"t know the situation there, "General, I thought you are the highest chain of command."
"I"m just an invader in his view, though I appreciate his guts coming all the way here. So, your majesty, how can I help you?" Lance asked politely.
"I"ve never thought that I will see you again in my entire life. So, what will you do now? Will you join us back as a part of the Soulisphate kingdom?" The king offered him an agreement which was very one-sided.
"Hmm, I will leave that for Amara. Though, I, myself, highly doubt that anyone in the west region wants to join the Soulisphate again. You noticed the sudden drop in traffic at the other harbors right?" Lance counter his offer.
"I will consider renewing the n.o.bility t.i.tle for both of you and Gardner"s family. Also, Soulisphate won"t longer hara.s.s the ship that is coming to the Portsmouth. Lance, I know that your family was strong, but we must follow the good old procedure that our ancestor pa.s.sed so we can"t risk giving you and Amara too much power," The king offered the agreement.
"Hara.s.sing the ship? King, you are clueless aren"t you?" Lance said. He gave the king a one-sided agreement, "Your majesty, Hmm, I think it would be inappropriate to call you that right now. King John, I will call you John. I request you to pull all naval activities from around the Portsmouth and give independence to that region. Take this as a threat, if you choose to disobey, we will do things a thousand times worse than what we did at Westfall," He continued as a person that was the secretary of the king wrote down something on a paper.
"That"s outrageous, Soulisphate will never surrender to anyone!" The king shouted.
"Sure, you can b.i.t.c.h about it, but what will you do? Attack us? We will attack you back harder than ever been. Your majesty, honestly, you are playing a game of chess with an opponent that has replaced every single one of his chess pieces into a queen. So what? What"s your call?" Lance threatened him.
"KNIGHT!!! ATTACK!!!" The king shouted, but the knights just stood there watching in fear as the Bushmaster 30mm autocannon was pointed at their direction with a loud hydraulic noise. Lance laughed to mock the king. However, things went south as a musket ball landed on Andrei"s unprotected groin. Yup, he forgot to wear his groin protector. "My b.a.l.l.s," Andrei dropped on the ground as the bushmaster heavy cannon was shot to the carriage and the AH-64 that Dima rode started to shot it"s AGM-114 h.e.l.lfire missile and made a huge explosion that killed the whole convoy except the king himself.
Lance grabbed the king"s by the neck as Andrei was carried to the medic"s vehicle, he put his pistol at the king"s head, "You can call me a fool, you can call me an idiot, but don"t ever mess with my brother in arms. This is your last chance, either agree with my terms or face the consequence," He walked away from the king and the infantry in the APC handled him.
"How did it went?" Dima asked him.
"Not too great, not too terrible. Let"s rebuilt Portsmouth to its former glory, Dima," Lance said using his radio.
"Sure"