"Okay," Dan said, "It's decided, we will try to get as much of that to the Voyager as possible in the next few days. We will prioritise mana crystals and take the metals based on our needs, anything else?"

  "I think that's the best way to go about it." Robert nodded. "The metals are still in their ore forms, we would need to process them and though that could be arranged easily with Luke and the young blacksmith, it would still be too much trouble. Mana crystals are easier to use in their raw form."

  "Talk to Nik later," Dan added after thinking for a bit. The Supply Keeper was the man for the mission. "See what metals our people need and if we can get them from the island, also about the storage and all that."

  With that matter dealt with, they moved on to the next, a point that was brought up by Old Raily.

  "So what's next?" the Mended Veteran asked, "Even though we have saved all the kidnapped slaves and we are taking them off this island, you know that it doesn't change much, right? The ones who started this operation are just going to kidnap even more people, starting this cycle of pain once again."

  "I did consider that," Jackie said with a sigh, "I couldn't see a way to deal with it. The ones responsible for this are in the mainland of the Empire, while we are heading to the Dynasty, I doubt we would have been able to hold them accountable even if we were still in the Empire. To run an operation like this you don't only need money, the influence those people must have isn't something we can go against easily. It's truly demoralising..."

  The temporary room they were having their meeting at fell silent at Jackie's words, it had been something that each of them had thought about while the preparations to save the slaves were ongoing, they just didn't bring it up because none of them could come up with a way to deal with it thoroughly.

  "I have an idea," Dan said, "It won't deal with the matter at the roots, but it's going to be the next best thing, should at least make it harder for the people behind this to restore their operation."

  "What is it?" Robert raised an eyebrow in interest.

  "We should deal with what made this whole operation possible in the first place." Dan looked at the men around him. "Attack the Deepdark."

  "The Deepdark?" Old Raily said, as if speaking to himself.

  "As I said, that ship is what made all of this possible." Dan scratched at his chin. "It seems to be the only thing the noble in charge has that connects this island to the mainland, by destroying it, we would be cutting them off entirely."

  "Can't they just buy another one?" Jackie, who wasn't as interested in those ships, asked.

  "They are rare," Robert answered, his face in a deep frown as he considered it, "Each Kraken only makes a limited number, and it's hard for humans to hunt them, most of the ink used to make Deepdarks is sold by the Ocean Dwellers and they keep the supply low. Even the strongest of nobles will face a hard time getting someone to sell."

  "I doubt they wouldn't get another one eventually," Dan said with a defeated sigh, "If the amount of money this island is generating is truly as astounding as Graham and Arkus said, they probably have enough to throw around, and they are going to get another Deepdark in a few months, but that should be enough for us."

  "For us?" Robert frowned at the words used.

  "I'm sure that a few months from now, if we play our cards right and make the right decisions," Dan said seriously, "We will have enough influence to be able to bring this to light, we won't be as weak as we are right now."

  "I like how you think." Jackie chuckled.

  "So what?" Dan looked at everyone. "Should we go for it? If what Arkus and Graham said is accurate, we should have around a week and a half at the very least for the Deepdark to come again, should we wait for it or not?"

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "I mean, sure why not?" Robert shrugged. "It's a good chance for everyone to take shore leave too. It has been 20 days since the last time most of the people on the Voyager set foot on land, it should be a welcomed opportunity."

  "That is a good idea," Jackie said, "Having a walk on an alien beach sounds heavenly. A couple of weeks on land sounds like a great vacation."

  "Should give everyone time to work on their projects too," Old Raily joined, "I even saw some damaged cannons on shore, must have been the work of those bugs. I'm sure that William is going to find a use for them, Armoury is still in need of such a thing after all."

  "It would also give me time to prepare everything for our new passengers," Jackie added, "I would have been able to get everything ready fast, but if we have more time, it would be better."

  "It's decided then," Dan said as he saw that everyone was on board with the idea, "Old Raily, make sure that all the guards were dealt with, we can't send everyone down here if we aren't sure that it's 100% safe, we shouldn't take any risks. Those bugs are a risk too, but dealing with them is easier, I will just dock the Voyager on the path of the Harvesters, she should be enough to hold them back."

  After that, the group spent a few more moments talking about the finer details of the coming operations before they went their separate ways. Dan, Robert and Jackie returned to the Voyager while Old Raily remained on the island, making sure everything was alright.

  Back on the Voyager, Dan contacted her straight away.

  "Hey big girl, can you keep an eye on the island? If you notice anyone sneaking around, can you tell me straight away?"

  Yes! Voyager answered in her usual excited tone.

  Dan smiled at the joyful emotions swirling around in his mind.

  "How are you doing? How are you feeling?" He decided to have some light conversation with her.

  I'm good! she sent in the same tone. Dan then felt her emotions shift a bit the next second though. A mix of hesitation and eagerness.

  "What's wrong?" he asked in concern, "You don't need to worry, just tell me what you want to say."

  I wanna go fast! Her excitement was over the roof as she sent.

  Dan was speechless, he didn't know what to say to that.

  ***

  "What rotten luck," Grim grumbled to himself as he looked back at the ocean behind him.

  Everything had gone wrong in this horrible trip. At first, it was just holding back due to a fleet of the Empire passing by. Due to the nesting Kraken that the Empire was keeping an eye on being on their path, it wasn't that unexpected to see a few of those from time to time, but as time passed and even more people had their eyes on it, those occasional meetings were getting more frequent.

  Fortunately, that unexpected meeting went smoothly and the navy didn't notice them, they were on their way soon, if a few days later than usual. Who would have thought that what awaited them would push that even more?

  With them sure that the fleet was gone, they started again on their journey, just to narrowly miss the detection of another fleet when they were about to leave the open ocean and approach the location of the Kraken. Grim was sure that if not for the Deepdark's innate power of being hard to detect and how the majority of his crew's skills were focused on camouflage, cloaking and concealment, they would have been found out right there and then.

  With that wake-up call, they were even more careful as they changed courses and headed towards the Empire, just to be almost found by another fleet.

  At that point, it was clear that something had triggered the Empire and that there was a huge operation because of it. Not wanting to take any risks, they were left with no other choice but to turn around and head back to the island.

  Knowing that it would put their already tight schedule under even more stress, Grim was understandably quite annoyed. Worse even, who knows how long they would have to spend on that shithole of an island with those filthy slaves.

  He sighed as he hoped that they wouldn't be met by another nasty surprise on this cursed journey.