His display of power seemingly got the attention of quite a few higher ups in the Celestial Empire. The Admirals of their Navy had practically hand waved everything to get him to join an operation at their main naval HQ at Marineford. They wanted his aid in killing the quote Strongest Man Alive unquote; Whitebeard. They had practically checkmated themselves when inviting his entire force to Marineford. And after a brief stint in dealing with the Suprenova Pirates, and gaining quite a sum of powers that would prove useful in the days to come, Nox arrived at Marineford at the head of his entire fleet.
And watched a world shatter.
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Orders:
Space Side:
Assets: Magnitutde 2 Fleethordes 3, 4 (100%) 6, 7 (90%) and the Silencer Fleet + Magnitude 2 Marine Fleethorde
Sweep the board. Whitebeard's Fleet is outgunned, outnumbered, and has been completely outmaneuvered. The trap will be sprung and Interdictors activated to prevent escape. The three of the four Fleethordes will follow the lead of the Silencer Fleet and initiate the ambush, with one remaning behind as a reserve element for the coming engagement. As well as too maintain a check on the Marine Fleet incase they prove unwilling to enange.
Moving out of the shadow of the Gas Giant, with the Marine hopefully at the head to serve as a bulwark against any stranglers that might somehow make it through the upcoming chaos and bombardment and into close quarters where their size would prove more effective. Knowing that the Red Zone has singular abnormally powerful individuals, possibly those strong enough to decimate entire vessels if given the opportunity, the first actions of Sith would be to sow chaos and disorder throughout the pirates. Turning their massive vessels and crews against them as powerful Sith Sorcery and Battle Meditation will work before the fleets even move out of the Gas Giant properly to break the minds of those of the enemy fleet. Sending them into either madness or blind panic, or turning them all into mindless thralls under the effects of powerful domination Magics. Their goal being to do as much damage as possible in a a Force-Induced mutiny fleet wide, with another intention being to keep any possible powerful individuals within the fleet that may otherwise be able to effect the outcome of the battle occupied before being destroyed by the ensuing bombardment.
And what a bombardment it will be. The Silencer Fleet and it's three accompanying Fleethordes will not pull any punches and move to finish the battle before it even begins. Every Silencer will be fired, every Mass-Driver Lance shot, and every Desolater engaged in a long ranged Alpha Strike against Whitebeard's fleet. Concentrated around their Macro-Capitals that will be brought low by sheer weight of fire. If they, somehow, survive and move to close in despite the madness, chaos, mutinies, or damage then they will have to be dealt with piecemeal by wolf-packs of vessels and picked apart. That is if they survive the subsequent bombardments from the rapidly recharging fleet killers or continued mental assaults.
If and when Whitebeard's Fleet has been rendered space junk, the orbital assets will move to secure the entire system and lock it down. Ground assets will also be sent to relieve Marineford and participate in the no doubt continuing battle planetside.
Ground Side:
The death of Whitebeard would be written and set in stone in the preparations before the battle begins. In his time in the Red Zone, Darth Nox has acquired the souls of many, mostly those with the abnormal Devil Fruit abilities. Having stored them in Holocrons for use later and discovered he can only safely use two at a time, Nox, for the Marineford War, has decided to settle on the Shiro Shiro no-mi and Wara Wara no-mi. Both shall serve a purpose in defeating Whitebeard, but that will come later.
Darth Nox, upon researching his target, would gain access to Ace and press the Admiralty of the Celestial Empire to not execute Ace until after Whitebeard had been slain for his powerful bond to his adoptive father could be utilized to weaken him. Such a bond would be broken on his death, and killing him during Whitebeard's invasion would only enrage the man and make killing him harder. Nox would draw blood from Ace to be utilized in his ritual and would secretly use the power of the Wara Wara no-mi to create 10 dolls linked to the captive pirate, to be used to force Whitebeard from not attacking Nox recklessly less he kill his own son. When the time to engage Whitebeard in combat comes of course.
What forces Nox could, publicly, bring to the ground alongside him would largely be of his personal retinue. Powerful Sith Sorcerers and Adepts alongside his own personal companions and apprentices. Secretly however, Nox would use the Shiro Shiro no-mi to ferry hundreds of trained Sith Assassins and Special Forces onto the surface of the planet. Trained in the utilization of Force Cloak or equipped with cloaking devices respectively. Their goals being to keep an eye on various targets, such as the still desired Gecko Moria, or required assets, namely Ace. They are explicitly meant to not engage however and are instead just lying in wait until the time is right. Additionally, hidden away with the Shiro Shiro no-mi's fortress, is an entire ground detachment alongside a personal kill squad, including Nox's companions, that would be ready to deploy at a moments notice. Namely to deal with Whitebeard when Nox takes to the field himself.
For now, Nox will settle himself near Ace and watch the ensuing battle from afar. Letting the marines handle things and weaken Whitebeard. Nox will however support them with his own Battle Meditation. Working alongside his attaché of Sith Sorcerers and his Apprentices. He won't however push things to far. Instead only working to nudge things towards his desired outcome of a weakened and completely isolated Whitebeard.
But the true reason Nox will not take to the field yet until Whitebeard is alone and weakened is that he will be conducting rituals within his own private fortress. Utilizing the double ability granted to him by the Shiro Shiro no-mi. The first of two rituals. Both prepared in advance. Using Ace's blood and his connection to Whitebeard as weapon.
The First Ritual; Is to be kept up until Nox engages Whitebeard himself. Nox's first ritual against Whitebeard will be continuous. Used by Sith Sorcerers in the past to weaken the defenses of their enemies, Nox will use it here to wear down at Whitebeard's spiritual and mental defenses. Like a wave crashing against a stony cliff, again and again. Nothing shall happen to Whitebeard. Yet. It is all in preparation for the second ritual that shall strike suddenly at Whitebeard's weakened defenses. Until then, Whitebeard shall be assailed spiritual and mentally. His mind assaulted without halt by specters of the force and Nox himself whispering and appearing at the corners of his vision. His soul, his Haki, shall be under constant threat. A squeeze that will forever tighten and constrict at him. A debilitating but nonlethal presence to expose chinks in his armor.
The Second Ritual; Is to be used upon engaging Whitebeard and shall strike at him when he is at his lowest point. Prepared with the blood of Ace and ingredients harvested from across the length of the Sith Empire. It shall strike at his body, mind, and soul all at once. A devouring presence to consume him from within with a magical plague to rip apaet asunder from the inside out. All the while continuing to burn at his soul and mind so as to drown him and force him into a pit of darkness that shall he never awake from. All the while it shall be done with Nox himself, alongside his kill squad and assassins, moving to silence him conventional with Sith Poisions, Blades, Blasters, Lightsabers, and Spells. An assault from all angels to bring low the "Strongest Man Alive" (To be used during the Second Turn of Marineford)
"What, Do you Want to Fight?"
"I Just Want to find the true distance between us and that man who seems right in front of us."
(Doflamingo to Mihawk, moments before the battle truly begins)
Despite only seeming to be an observer at first, the first to act is Dracul Mihawk, cleaving through the ice filled void with a single swing of his sword, he is here not to do battle directly, but to see how far he has yet to go to reach the peak, for even as the wave of precisely applied impossibility, reinforced by the will of a Conquerer, generated by a single swing of his sword, races towards Whitebeard's ship, seeking to cleave it in twine as he has done countless times before to those who dared get in his way, Whitebeared seemed… unimpressed, merely staring pasionless at the oncoming wave of death. Even as the first wave of aerocraft and strikecraft unleashed by Whitebeard's personal strikeforce race to get out of the way, even as the crew feared for his life- for the blast was aimed to bisect him along with the ship, he but smirked, for he knew what these opening moves would be, and planned for them in advance; for even as the blast races onwards, popping his flagship's shields like a mere soap bubble, he but continues to smile, for his own countermeasure has already been deployed.
Suddenly, the entire front of his ship becomes reflective, shining like a well polished gem even as the very material that it is made of temporarily changes to be like Diamond to Adamant's Steel; moments later, an invisible shockwave forms where the energized sword swing would have met the hull, as the devilfruit and will of Jozu, Whitebeard's third in command, meets that of Mihawk. For an extended moment, all is still, as the wills of two titans clash; then, the blast shifts from moving horizontally, to moving vertically, perfectly redirected away from Whitebeard's ship, and into the frozen battlelines overhead; and so two Mariene cruisers are incidentally disabled overhead, with said vessels cut all the way through too near to mid-ship for it to be incidental, and a half dozen others suffer damage as protuding bits are sliced clean off by the still defined, overly large, sword swing; racing onwards, it eventually disperses somewhere in the outer system. This deflection also temporarily stunned several thousand of soldiers on both sides, as none of them had ever expected that such a thing could happen, let alone that they could see it in person, such was Mihawk's reputation; a single attack was made and blocked; and with that Mihawk, his sharp, lensed,
hawklike eyes seeing no true swordsman amongst these initial combatants, sheathed his black bejeweled blade, having done the bare minimum.
And yet, this was but almost literally the opening swing, for now the true battle could begin. Outpouring from Whitebeard's personal ships, and from each and Every marine hangar on Marineford, strikecraft and aerocraft streamed forth, joining battle within the vast shipyard-harbor, filling the skies with dogfights as the Marine's nigh counless standardized fightercraft dueled with Whitebeard's aces; elsewhere, on the newly formed 'ground of ice, hatches and makeshift lifts spun up, swiftly unloading vast quantities of tanks and somewhat primitive walkers onto the newly formed ground of ice, with Infantry eventually emerging behind them. Meanwhile, in the void, Whitebeard's allied fleet continues to rush forward, unleashing strikecraft and long ranged boarding pods as their ships continue to charge in, unaware of the danger that is to come from their rear.
And so the initial battle lines are drawn up; and it is once again on the Marine's side where the opening plays amongst the more general combatants are made, as artillery and ortillery open up, aiming to disrupt the pirate's lines both in the ground and in the void; and in this they are successful, as on the ground Whitebeard's carefully forming battlelines are disrupted by light artillery, turning the initial rushing formations of tanks and elite infantry from carefully tuned formations to masses of individuals as their neighbors get picked off, and forcing the following forces to go to ground to avoid annihilation. Elsewhere, heavier ordinance bursts the shields on yet another of Whitebeard's personal vessels, even as the vastly heavier targeted artillery forces many of the rushing pirate ships overhead to slow down their approach and take cover behind their neighbors to avoid annihilation, while others start to suffer damage, their shields failing and their hulls stressed. Here is where the home field advantage of the Navy starts to show itself, and where the true plans begin, for Whitebeard's own ship remains untouched, deliberately not targeted in this opening barrage, and the artillery fire on the ground isn't dense enough to truly halt Whitebeard's forces, as all along the front pirates and marines clash, with the marines often coming off worse in the exchange.
For near the head of these charges are many of Whitebeard's lesser commanders, who were purposefully shifted from their commands in the fleet overhead, for a position in Whitebeard's main personal ships; and wherever they go, Marines die, cut down by masterful coordination and relatively overwhelming strength, for no normal Marine soldier can hope to fight a master of Haki and win; nevertheless, these marines do their job, and the advance of Whitebeard's Commanders is halted for a time, beset by wave after wave of relatively disposable troops.
"Oh Boy… the commanders of the Whitebeards are true to their reputation. They are all pretty much like monsters. To finish this with minimum damage, we just have to cut off their head nice and quick."
And with those words, Admiral Kizaru flashes forward, literally faster than the eye can see, suddenly appearing over the frozen spaceport in a blinding flash of light. There he stands, for but a moment, before flashing forward again, straight for whitebeard's flagship; and yet he never makes it there, as a shockingly fast streak of blue fire moves to intercept him. The two figures clash in a burst of yellow-white light, blue fire, and black Haki, as Marco the Phoenix, Whitebeard's second in command, reveals himself.
And so, the Admiral who is fast enough to be lazy, and the pineapple headed immortal phoenix clash again, again and again, painting the skies with a dazzling display of light and flame. For while Kizaru is far faster, he must slow down to a relative crawl each time he changes direction, for his light form cannot turn on its own; and it is during those moments where Marco catches up and clashes with him again, and again, and again, dozens, then hundreds of times over in a few seconds. It is a blinding display, it is a battle that could have circled the globe several times had the distance involved been in a straight line, it is a battle in which neither side can hope to harm the other, for Marco's Haki is not up to forcing Kizaru to take a serious blow, and his fire does not burn, for it is a fire of life; meanwhile, Kizaru's own blows come to nought, for any damage that is inflicted is whipped away in a flash of fire. It is a battle that could last hours, it is a seemingly eternal stalemate… it is over in a matter of seconds as Marco lands a single telling blow, sending Kizaru through several buildings while in his physical form, only for the Admiral to flash back to the then nearest edge of the spaceport, almost completely unharmed, while Marco is left hovering overhead, seemingly equally thankful for the break.
"I knew that you wouldn't let me strike your head that easily."; and with that, Kizaru sits down, waiting for the actual plan to progress.
Soon, the Marine's own lesser elites are unveiled, as giants and giant mechs prepare themselves on the edge of the frozen spaceport; and yet this is not their time to act.
Instead, it is once again Jozaru who makes the next move, as he emerges from Whitebeard's ship, and puts his hands into the ice in front of it, which has oddly been left clear of pirates for kilometers around; and so, with a mighty blow, the ice cracks, and cracks perfectly, cut as much by Haki as by brute force as by Devil Fruit enforced cutting power. Elsewhere nearby many pirates book a hasty retreat, knowing what is to come; and so, with an impossible show of force and leverage, ten cubic kilometers of ice, somehow hollowed out into a perfect semicircle, is lifted into the air as Whitebeard's third strongest combatant(second in terms of raw, physical brute force) once again unveils his might.
And so, a massive glacier, a mountain of ice, is sent hurtling through the air, aimed directly at the capital building, the Admirals, and Ace's execution platform; but it doesn't make it even clear the spaceport before it is intercepted, not by a flash of light, nor a lance of ice, but by giant fists of lava, for it is now that Akainu, arguably the strongest of the three Admirals, acts.
"Damn! those two… they shouldn't leave their positions like that. If all three of us left our positions… who would cover them?!" and with those words, Akainu's molten fist flashes forward, growing ever larger as it travels. "Great Eruption!" and so, the mountain of ice is stopped by the force of a erupting supervolcano, unleashed for but an instant. Within moments the block of ice is gone, as vaporized as it was punched through, and the partially molten remains of the resulting explosion rain down upon the Whitebeard pirates, even as the main fist of lava shrinks, withdraws, and turns back into what seems like flesh and blood. Raining down, the sea of ice for a moment seems to catch fire, killing thousands of pirates, and both badly damaging and lighting the Adamant Wood of one of Whitebeard's secondary dreadnoughts(the one that lost its shields mere minutes ago to the artillery fire) as a mere side effect of the clash; while still intact, it will be a while before said ship is spaceworthy, let alone ready for FTL travel from this deep within a gravity well, again.
Other meteors, heading for Whitebeard's flagship, never touched down, for with but an uprased flex of his arm, another small shockwave passes through the hull, and stops the would be meteorites in their tracks, their vastly cooled forms thumping onto the top of the vessel harmlessly, with one in particular apparently landing right in front of what was apparently one of the main cameras for viewing the outside world.
"He lit up the place too brightly." and with that, Whitebeard turns to leave his viewing room. Soon, he is seen again, striding out onto the top of his ship to put out and move away the rock that blocked his view less than a minute ago.
"Why don't you light up my birthday cakes instead, you magma squirt?"
"Don't you want an illuminated funeral for yourself, Whitebeard?"
Despite this change in position, Whitebeard remains unphased as the artillery barrage continues, standing out in the open without a care in the world even as the artillery barrage continues; indeed, he casually swats away several Artillery shells that got too nearby; indeed, this barage doesn't appear to phase him or his two strongest underlings, as they act to assist in protecting both the now shieldless flagship and the one badly damaged ship from the ongoing barrage. Indeed, even the lesser commanders of the whitebeard fleet are unphased by the ongoing artillery fire, as they dodge, slice through, and otherwise ignore the unguided munitions.
Meanwhile, in the void, things still remain somewhat unchanged, as the Whitebeard pirates continue to rush in, unknowing of the danger that has started to move to their unguarded rears.
And it is here where the Whitebeard pirates play their next card, for as the two sides draw close enough to move into a brutal, partially frozen, Clash, the largest amongst the Pirate vessels opens its hangar doors, and its single notable occupant jumps out. Clad from horned head to toe in vacuum rated armor, thick enough to warrant being on a Battleship, a Giant, a Giant amongst Giants, leaps out. Seven kilometers tall if he is but an inch, this giant is still small relative to his world moving elder(now mostly dead) kin. Gliding forwards with shocking speed, wielding a sword more suited for cutting through enemy battleships than infantry, Oars Jr. reveals himself. Soon, he is making his way into the marine's frozen battlelines, brushing away several frigates that were too near, but this only opens him up to the firepower of the Marine's assorted defensive instillations; indeed, he is soon being fired upon from almost all sides, with weapons that would have given the vessel he emerged from momentary pause; but it is to no avail, as he continues to move through the void, only barely slowed down by the masses of incoming fire. Indeed, he soon approaches the planetary shield, with but some ice and a few frozen heavy cruisers standing between him and a clear path to the ground; Indeed, soon he has literally carved a path through the ice, and on the other side has used it as a place to stand, as he rips out the rear most of the frozen cruisers, and with great force(indeed, the surrounding ice threatens to shatter under the sheer counterforce), lifts up the six kilometer long vessel, and a non-insignificant chunk of the ice that it was stuck in, and slams it against the planetary shields with unbelievable force.
While the ship crumples, so do the planetary shields, and within moments a local gap is opened up, just wide enough for him to follow the remains of the broken ship down through. Soon, pirate strikecraft are following him down, moving to engage their ground based marine counterparts, who even now continue to swarm out of their countless planetside hangars.
And so the battle continues, both in the void and on the ground, for even as Oars falls through the sky towards the battlefield below, the Marine's own lesser Giants, both natural and artificial, move out to both intercept him as soon after he lands as possible, and to engage the whitebeard pirates; but this is for nought, for as soon as Oars Jr. stands up again, the sheer difference in scale between him and his marine counterparts is revealed.
Two of the living marine Giants: "I've never had to look up to anyone before this!" "Me Neither!" indeed, for as large as these beings were, they barely reached Oars's knees, and so he continued to walk forward, continuing to ignore the ranged firepower coming in from both his immediate opponents and the marine's constant artillery barrage.
"I must reach Ace-Kun! Don't Get in my way!"
And with those words, and but a few swings of his sword, his current foes, or at least those amongst the Marine giants who dared stand directly in his path, are left broken.
"Oars, he'ill never change. Brave men don't seek Death!" yells, whitebeard, for he knows where Oars is heading, and what his chosen path will lead to.
But Oars is set in his goal, and with but a few words, he continues to rush forward, heedless of the consequences, for Ace is his brother, and he is here to rescue him.
"Give Oars cover!"
Indeed, soon Oars is covered from above by strikecraft, and flanked by several formations of tanks, turning from a lone individual to the head of a spear, aimed directly at the heart of the Marines.
Indeed, for all who stand before him fall, from the greatest (known) marine machines of war, to the least of their troopers. Soon, he is nearing the edge of the frozen spaceport, only a few kilometers from where Ace is being executed. There though, five of the seven Warlords are waiting.
Indeed, it is there where this push fails, as first many of oars would-be friends are taken out, first by a controlled burst of pink, petrifying light unleashed by the Pirate empress, Boa Hancock, the most beautiful woman in this region of space, and then oars himself more than meets his match in the form of the final three Warlords of the sea.
First, Bartholomew Kuma, a bear-like giant of a man, dressed in a black formal shirt highlighted with a giant coda sign, what appear to be mirrored glasses, off-white pants, and a speckled white fishing hat, standing at over six meters tall, steps up to halt his advance; and stop his advance, he does, as Kuma unleashes the full power of his devil fruit, the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi, entrapping and repeatedly compressing the air in front and above him in countless paw shaped stationary shockwaves. Indeed, this compression process appears to go on for some time, even as oars approaches closer and closer, each compression being signaled only by a few glints of light, and the sound of air repeatedly rushing in to fill the vacated area. as the world holds its breath, the affected area grows larger and larger, even as the matter within it is compressed more and more; indeed, soon the affected area approaches the size of Oars himself, just in time for the giant to arrive. And so, with Oars on his final approach to the barrier, the affected area shrinks, from being kilometers across, to being able to fit into the palm of Kuma's hands; amd with that, the now very clearly visible bubble moves forwards, bursting right against Oars's chest, unleashing a perfectly shaped nuclear blast at point blank range.
And where lesser attacks failed to even slow the giant down, this, this shattered much of his armor, and left the giant a bleeding wreck, having collapsed onto his knees from pain and shock. This was not enough to stop his advance though, for soon oars haltingly gets back to his feet, undeterred from his goal. Indeed, within less than a minute he is advancing again, swiftly reaching the walls defining the edge of the space port despite the Marine's constant bombardment of him and the bleeding wounds that the artillery now leaves in his skin. This though, is where his journey stops, for where the standard weapons of the Marines failed, the Warlords do not. For even as he moves to limp over the final wall between him and his most important person, he finds himself literally falling short, as his strength finally starts to fail him. There though, he makes a final decision, changing his target from ace's execution platform, to the Warlord standing right beneath him. But, even as he braces himself and sends his fist flying towards his new target, he finds his blow to be meaningless, for even as the wall in front of him crumbles, the Warlord is not there, instead, the warlord, Doflamingo, is seen vaulting overhead, casually landing behind him even as Oars Jr. is forcibly halted. Moments later, Oars falls forward, one of his legs severed at the knee by invisible strings. And so, even as the Warlord he sought to kill laughs behind him, Oars Jr falls ontop of the wall he sought to breach. Crawling forwards, he crawls onto the next bit of open ground, reaching towards the execution platform, only to suddenly see that it has since been emptied of its occupants; but before he can notify anyone of this, his life is cut short by a lance of darkness, emerging from his own shadow, spearing up through is neck. And so falls Oars, Whitebeard's giant friend, and Ace's closest ally that isn't a father.
And it is with the failure of this push, that Whitebeard is first seen angry, shattering one of the few remaining marine Behemoth-Titans that dared to approach him while he, and the rest of his main crew, were effectively distracted. His first blow shattered the weapon systems and brings the creature crumbling down, and his next turns the head into a crumpled ruin, which he then tosses aside along with the rest of it. Still though, he doesn't advance himself, instead ordering his men to take advantage of the opened gap.
"Climb Oars' body and advance!"
As for those who approach Doflamingo with the goal of avenging Oars' death, they find themselves lacking the will to not turn on their friends, turned into puppets dancing on his strings. And as for the Pirates who use Oar's body to advance farther into Marineford, all they find are yet more Marines, waiting for them to arrive; and so the battle on the ground stalls, for this is as far as the Whitebeard pirates will ever be able to get so long as Whitebeard himself remains mostly passive.
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Meanwhile, in the void, the battle continues, as Whitebeard's allied fleets run in to clash with the defenders, only to be stimied, not by the defenders themselves, for as frozen as they are they cannot do the sort of rapid damage required to truly halt the pirate's advance, but by the ice itself, acting as an additional bulwark that acts to protect Marineford almost as well as its planetary shields and other defensive instillations- indeed, while Oars had made a path through the ice and managed to open a hole in the planetary shields, none of the Pirates own cruisers and battleshits could use said gap to get through, as while corvettes, frigates strikecraft could easily navigate their way through the ice and make their way through the hole that Oars opened, for the most part it only lead to their annihilation, as groundside batteries pound any small pirate vessel that dare to make the journey into scrap, leaving the unsupported strikecraft to barely make a dent in the neverending swarms unleashed by their groundside bases.
While most of the pirate fleet was left in the open, slowly pounding their way through the frozen defenses and turning the maze of ice into a more open path, a single battleship was literally plowing on ahead, cutting through the ice with its forward plasma cutter, and literally raming aside defenses with its carefully reinforced hull, one of the few remaining commanders that Whitebeard had left in the fleet was clearing a path through the ice using her personal vessel, which was specifically equipped to deal with Aokiji's battlefield defining ability. Soon, her vessel had reached the planetary shields, preparing to open a larger gap, but this was where her journey would stop, along with the vast, vast majority of Whitebeard's fleet.
(communications manager)"They've broken through the ice in two locations, soon the planetary shields will fall, and we will be swarmed by Whitebeard's allied forces. Fleet Admiral Sengoku!"
(sengoku) "No problem. Tsuru-san, let's put it into action."
(Tsuru)"It's a suitable time. Connect to all ships and soldiers!"
And so the board was set, the pieces were in motion, and Whitebeard's allies would momentary find out how badly they had erred, before the silence of the grave would come to claim them all.
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On the ground the battle continued, as Whitebeard's commanders sought to minimize the further interference of the Warlords in this fight- with Vista, their best swordsmen, seeking out a duel with Mihawk to keep him from getting bored enough to take another full powered swing at the Whitebeard Pirates, and Jozu seeking out Doflamingo to minimize the number of Whitebeard crewmembers that he could put under his control, as Jozu's adamant skin could neutralize Doflamingo's strings. Elsewhere, the fighting continued, as Whitbeard's forces continued to slowly approach the outskirts of the frozen starport, meeting ever heavier resistance as they neared the rim.
But in the void, the battle would end in minutes, as in a great flash of light the extent of Sengoku's trap was revealed. Indeed, for where before there was but a mostly empty starfield to the rear of the pirate armada, now suddenly became allot more crowded, as first one, than a dozen, then thousands, then tens of thousands, then countless more… relatively small gunmetal grey, almost triangular ships decelerated out of hyperspace one after another, accompanied by the occasional vastly larger ship of almost identical design, wedges that outmassed their lesser brethren by more than a hundredfold. Here and there the occasional more recognizable marine vessel decelerated in, but they were outmassed four to one by their unknown kin, and drastically more outnumbered. Indeed, this flanking force outmassed the Pirate armada by over five to one, and that was but the start of their issues.
Indeed, within moments of this unknown force arriving, what little cohesion there was amongst the pirate fleet broke down, as they raced past, and sometimes even through each other to put the walls of ice between them and the approaching grand armada, acting out of a level of fear that was previously unknown to the Whitebeard pirates, and with a desperateness that seemed too severe to be natural.
Moments later, this fear proved to be all to natural, as these unknown vessels unleashed an alpha strike of such size and potence, that to these pirates it seemed as if Uranus itself had woken up to speak its wrath. Countless beams of scintillating light unleashed themselves, fleet anninilators one and all, piercing through a wall of relativistic shot so dense that one seemingly could have walked on it; here was destruction in its purest form, as more firepower than this region of space had seen in a thousand years was unleashed all at once; here was the doom of Whitebeard's allied fleet, and it spoke with devastating silence. Indeed, the first clue that the Whitebeard pirates had received about their own failure, was when the heavens themselves erupted with light, as stray radiation and chains of massive explosions vastly outshone the sun, even through the still mostly intact maze of ice that had previously defined the battlefield above.
Only the pirate vessels that had already made it a ways through the wall of ice had survived the initial strike, shielded by both their now destroyed kin and by the presence of marine vessels, still stuck in the ice, but for even them time was running out, as countless frigate sized vessels pursued them into the ice, along with innumerable dual-winged strikecraft, buzzing through the frozen maze and swiftly annihilating any pirate vessel that dared be in the wrong place. Soon, even the previously opened holes were exploited by these unknown actors, swiftly replacing the trickle of reinforcements that Whitebeard had been receiving with vastly more hostile forces.
Indeed, of whitebeard's allied fleet, only a few escape pods had made it down to directly assist with the battle on the ground, with the last to arrive landing directly on top of whitebeard's ship, out of which Squard, one of Whitebeard's allied commanders, crawled…
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"Pops."
"Squard! I'm glad that you're alive!"
"Yea, barely."
"I see. I was calling for you a while ago. How is it in the void now?"
"Your allies were beaten badly. I made it here because I found the way out luckily."
"Sengoku has no mercy. He is using all of the forces that he has and more to defeat us."
"Pops, did you notice what the marines was up to?"
"I've known Sengoku for a long time."
"I see. It's better for us if they're going to attack from overhead as well. I'm going to go forward, too! We gotta invade without stopping!"
"I agree."
"There are thousands of allied commanders here and we are all in your debt beyond words! We sacrifice our lives for the Whitebeard Pirates!"
"Thank you. But we are…!"
"I know. You are fighting to save a member of your family. The pirate, Whitebeard, won't give up on his family. Everybody followed you to this hell because you're that kind of person. I Wish that… we were also… members of your family."
And with those words, Squard releases his scabbard, stabs whitebeard in the chest, running him through. Despite the blow missing all vital organs, despite his sheer physique, whitebeard falls onto his hands and knees.
In an instant, Marco is has Squard pinned his head a mere twitch from being crushed between Marco's hands and the hull, and starts interrogating him about why he did such a thing, while Whitebeard himself slowly gets back on his feet, shaken not just from the stab, not just from the betrayal, but from a third, unknown, source, one that he felt more than the bloodloss.
(Marco)"Why did you do that?! Answer me, Squard!"
(Squard)"S-Shut up! You guys made me do it!"
(Marco)"What do you mean?! Do you know what you've done…?"
Suddenly shifting, Marco releases Squard and runs over to the now partially risen Whitebeard.
(Marco)"Pops! Don't push yourself! Your health is…"
(Squard)"Stop perpetrating this farce, Whitebeard! I know about your deal with the navy! You have their assurance that the Whitebeards and Ace will remain safe! Everyone, listen very closely! We've all been trapped! You never told me… that Ace was a son of that hateful Gold Roger! When you first found me, I was all alone… you know why I was all alone. Because Roger killed all of my precious crew who had fought alongside me for so long. I despise roger and… you know it!! Then you should have told me that Ace was Roger's son and you want to make him the next King of the Pirates! You were already betraying me at that time! But I didn't know. I even befriended Ace! I must've looked so stupid! And then, your dearest son Ace got caught! With the Whitebeard pirates all within the Planetary Shield and we allied pirates on the outside. You have sold the allied commanders to the navy… in exchange for Ace's life! The allied pirates will be defeated to the last, and the Whitebeards and Ace will be safe. That's your deal with Sengoku, isn't it?! We didn't know anything about it, and we followed you here sacrificing our lives to save Ace and help you and this is what happens! In fact, we're the ones who have been attacked by the navy! The monsters approach from the back, the ice blocks us from circling around the planet, and we have no way out now! It's a miracle that I could stab you once. I'm prepared for it! Kill me! I didn't want to beleive it, I couldn't believe it! I never thought that old buddy would betray us!"
"You fool! You've been deceived, Squard! Why couldn't you trust Pops?!"
"Don't play innocent, Marco! You're the 1st division commander, I know that you knew about Ace and the deal with the navy!"
(whitebeard)"It's true that Ace is Roger's son. They used that to to their advantage, tricking the one man who would be most angered by that fact. Their strategy was a notch above us."
Ontop of the ship, a momentary silence reigns, while the Navy prepares the next step of its plan, even as the remnants of whitebeard's allied fleet move through the ice maze, slowly making their way around the planet, but not fast enough, for with each passing second more of them get caught and annihilated by the pursuing sith forces.
Now, whitebeard finishes standing up, looming over Squard, his anger very much clear to see.
(Whitebeard) "you know what you have done, right, Squard? You thrust a sword into your father's body. You're such a stupid son!"
The fist, seemingly coming in for a blow, turns into a close handed hug as Whitebeard kneels, using his halbeard as a third point of contact with the ground.
"But I love you, son, even if you are a fool. "
"Cut the crap… you sold our lives to…"
"Who pulled your upright and loyal heart into the darkness? Tell me."
"No one, I have no idea. It was an intrusive thought, one that suggested that if I kill you, the remants of the allied pirate fleet would be spared."
"Strange, but seems like that is what they wanted you to think. I know you hate Roger… so much that I can feel your pain. But, Squard, it's ridiculous to lay the blame on a child for the sins of the father. Did Ace do something to you? You and Ace have weathered agony, joy, and pain together… so many times along with the others, isn't it right? I don't give a damn who Ace's father is. We all met each other in this galaxy by chance! Not only the two of you but all of you, I take as my sons! So, Squard, treat him kindly. I don't love him more than any other. You are all family to me!"
And with those words, Squard finally drops his sword, and weeps for what he has done. Releasing him, Whitebeard stands up to his full height, and finally moves to step forth onto the battlefield, taking slow, measured paces towards the edge of the ship.
"Anyway… he has never… changed at all, Sengoku. He shook us up very well. How ridiculous to say that I sold my sons!"
And with those words Whitebeard stabs his halbeard into the hull of the ship, and once again sends his fists flying out, once again creating what looks like cracks in spacetime, cracks that grow until they almost touch the planetary shields overhead, almost dwarfing the entire embattled region on Marineford; and just like that, the network of ice that Aokiji made around this world crack and shatter into dust, with the shards themselves rapidly disappearing, even as the trapped moons move back out into where they previously were in orbit.
And with that, the few remaining allied pirate vessels break for orbit, having barely made it beyond the firing arks of the Sith fleet. Soon they are accelerating into hyperspace, seeming to make a clean getaway from the perspective of those on the ground; but that would not be the case, for within moments of entering FTL they are violently ripped out of it, just in time to be annihilated by the Sith's encircling forces as their Gravity Well Generators, a technology previously unknown to those within the Red Walls, prove their worth.
(whitebeard) "If you are a pirate, you pick what you want to believe on your own!"
Squard collapse, breaking out into sobbing tears, overjoyed that some of his friends might have made it out alive.
(Squard) I am so sorry! I will follow you to the end! Ouji Sama!"
(Whitebeard) I'm just a human with one heart. People would call me a devil or a monster, but I can't continue to be the strongest forever. If I can save this one man's life, I will earn my right to retire from the world. Those of you who who'll follow me, lay down your life for it!"
And with those words, a great warcry is unleashed, as Whitebeard charges for the edge of his ship, and jumps off.
(Sengoku)"Be Ready! He is going to run wild! He's the strongest man in the universe!"
"Let's Go!"
_____________________________________________________
Whitebeard swiftly lands on the ice unharmed, stirring up a small windstorm as the full weight of his Haki is unleashed. Within moments, several large artillery shells that were flying towards him have suddenly not just been halted, but have reversed course, flying back to hit the instillations that fired them. Soon, the marines are in a full retreat, swiftly withdrawing from the frozen starport even as the Whitebeard pirates charge after them; to delay their pursuers, the Marines unleash the last of its giants, titans and behemoths, who stride forward to halt the pirates' advance, the largest of which heads for Whitebeard himself, hoping to maybe, just maybe, land a critical blow on his weakened form; meanwhile, overhead elements of the Sith fleet close in, aiming to hit Whitebeard and his forces with a precision orbital bombardment, after all, he is now out in the open, and there are no soft Marine targets in the area, so friendly fire isn't too much of an issue…
"You're standing in my way. Move it."
Suddenly, Whitebeard, having used his halberd to deflect several shells, once again discards it, tossing it asside with an extremely large burst of haki. Suddenly, the world seems to slow, as time itself seems to crawl, and every single Sith, be they on the ground or in the fleet overhead, suddenly pales, as the force
screams out a waring to them, for whitebeard has grabbed a hold of empty space, with spacetime itself bunching around his fingers just a little ways above his head, his arms straining with but the effort of grabbing onto such a thing;
his halbeard finally hits the ground… and with an all mighty heave, reinforced by a will strong enough to split the heavens, Whitebeard pulls down on spacetime itself, and for the first time in this battle truly uses his Devil Fruit to somewhere actually close to its fullest potential.
The world heaves, and gravity itself seems to invert, as up becomes down and down becomes up; moments later, the planet itself starts to
move, following the path laid out for it by Whitebeard's will. And so, with surprisingly little calamity, the world turns, rotating around an axis that is on its surface, rather than in its core, for its very center of gravity seemingly changed, and pulled the world into a spin. Surprisingly though, this does not come with obliterated continents, nor does it come with the mantle spilling out through a crust that is suddenly in the 'wrong' location relative to it; no, Whitebeard's control is too great for any such incidental mass devastation to occur; instead, for the most part it the planet, and everyone on it, moves with relative harmony; that isn't to say that there is no devastation though, as in the battlefield everything and everyone starts falling, first sideways, than up, as the world rotates around them. Some buildings crumble, while ground based war machines find themselves moving in ways that they were certainly not meant to. No one is unaffected, for even the Admirals are struggling to stay in the same locations under this effect- only whitebeard himself seems unaffected, even as he directs the carnage.
While the planet itself moves in harmony with Whitebeard's action, that does not stop the devastation, for while the planet was kept fully intact, that does not prevent its motion from effecting the wider universe; indeed, the planets rotation around its new axis turns it into a giant flyswatter, and the Marine and Sith fleets are but flies relative to its massive bulk; and while the force did scream in warning, this was not enough to stop a planet making a full revolution around a point not within itself in under a dozen minutes; and so the orbiting fleets are devastated, as impacts ring out, first against the planetary shields, and then against the planet itself.
And so Marineford is devastated, nearly a third of its surface reduced to rubble by countless impacts. Shockwaves radiate out from countless impacts, with only the presence of numerous localized shield batteries, and the fact that the entire surface of the planet is reinforced against such impacts(although not against this many of them) stops the rain of ships from prematurely ending the conflict anyways; either way, despite Whitebeard's unwillingness to crack open the planet like an egg, using it as a bowling ball ended Marineford's viability as a Fortress World anyways, with a third of its surface seemingly completely depopulated and stripped of surface defenses anyways. Here was the true power of the Goma Goma no mi, the ability to break a world, shifted into breaking only what Whitebeard wishes to break, leaving him, his forces, and his personal foes untouched by the planetary scale devastation.
Non the less, all that even Darth Nox could do in this instance was to anchor himself, and watch almost a full tenth of the forces that he brought with him get swatted out of the skies despite their best efforts. Nevertheless, his own personal plans for whitebeard would be untouched by this setback, as would Sengoku's.
Soon though, the world completes its rotation, ending up back almost where it started, but with that much less standing in Whitebeard's way. Moments later, he jumps up, moving to clear out the remaining obstacles in his path- and so he does, sending forth a more normal, if still incredibly large shockwave, clearing away the fallen forms of the Marines' Titans and lone remaining Behemoth, before going onwards; first breaking a new opening in the wall surrounding the frozen starport, then moving farther still, clearing away debris and marines with equal ease, soon reaching the base of the would-be execution platform. There though it is halted in a flash of black and golden light, as the three Admirals once again unveil themselves, working in concert to halt Whitebeard's blast though will alone. Radiating outwards, the halted blast shreds its way through fortifications and buildings already partially reduced to rubble; as for the Marine Admirals themselves, they appear untouched, the shockwave having been seemingly reduced to but a light breeze against their combined will. Standing upright, their arms out stretched before them, these three reveal themselves as the last (known) bulwark between Whitebeard and his goal.
And so, the Whitebeard pirates charge onwards, the way seemingly cleared for them by Whitebeard's actions, but this is where things would go from bad, to worse, for now that they no longer had to keep up the facade, the Marines could unleash their full might directly against the Whitebeard Pirates, alongside the final element of their trap.
Indeed, while the bowl shaped starport made for the perfect arrival point, it also made for the perfect trap, as a tailor made wall of shielded adamant rose up around its rim, turning the bowl from merely a killing field, to a death trap; indeed, these walls were massive, stretching up for kilometers beyond even the new frozen surface, drastically higher than the 'original' reinforced edge; indeed, for those fortifications rose alongside it, revealing themselves to merely be the topmost element of these recently placed defenses. Indeed, numerous hatches opened along the newly revealed surface, unveiling countless weapons pointed directly at the Whitebeard Pirates; but these newly unveiled weapons were not alone, as all over the surface of this hemisphere of Marineford countless hatches opened, revealing new, massive surface-to surface and surface-to-orbit artillery pieces, which then spoke almost as one, a cacophony almost as deafening as the rain of ships unleashing itself upon the world.
But all was not perfect with this trap, for one section of this new wall failed to rise, the portion on which Oars lay.
This was not the end of the incoming bombardment though, as Akainu himself added his own fists of lava to the incoming barrage, unleashing countless punches almost straight up, each one unleashing an expanding fist of lava flying high into the air to join in the incoming rain upon Whitebeard and his forces. Soon the sky was filled with the approaching death- ordinance to heavy to be simply blocked, even by the efforts of Whitebeard himself.
Soon under this withering barrage the ice that the Whitebeard Pirates started to melt away, dooming most of Whitebeard's conventional ground forces to what would have likely been their doom, for there was no retreating here, for all four of their ships were specifically targeted by this barrage. Within moments, the last two ships lost their shields, and Whitebeard's own flagship had its armor pierced in multiple locations even as its surface got covered with lava. There would be no going back, and with the risk of reactor death, or at the very least a slow death from their remaining exists being sealed off by molten rock, all three of Whitebeard's remaining ships had to be swiftly evacuated and left to sink into the swiftly forming new, boiling ocean. Those who made it out either took to the skies in what remaining strikecraft or aircraft, or swam for the nearest sufficiently large block of ice to avoid being cooked by the boiling water. There, they were met by lesser artillery fire, unleashed from the walls themselves. Elsewhere, where pirates managed to get close enough to the walls to avoid the incoming fire, they were met by new, hulking figures, over twice as tall as a normal man, unleashing lasers of doom from their open mouths; here, the Pacefistas, the Marine's first mass produced 'superweapon' were unleashed; extremely durable and armed with not one, but two partially replicated devil fruits, these slow moving, but nigh unstoppable entities would have been able to clean up the remaining Whitebeard Pirates, short of Whitebeard and his division commanders, on their own under normal circumstances; but these were not normal circumstances, for the enemy's gate was down.
Whitebeard unleashed another shockwave, even stronger than the last, ringing out and forward, it reached the wall… and barely left a dent in the reinforced material, as specially tuned fields dampened his shockwave, and the material itself easily withstood what remained of the blow, even as what little made it through wrecked havoc on the marines positioned behind it. Despite Whitebeard's best efforts, the wall held, and Whitebeard only had so many such blows left in him. Indeed, their only path forwards was through the gap opened by Oars, even though that would clearly be the Marine's most heavily fortified region(in terms of what ley beyond the wall).
Racing forwards, under fire the whole time, the Whitebeard's made their last, seemingly desperate charge; but even here whitebeard had a plan, for despite the seemingly random nature of their charge on their last remaining opening, there was a conspicuous gap left in their battlelines…
Near orbit, a single ship was suddenly yanked out of hyperspace, forced into the open by the Sith interdictors. Within seconds of its emergence it was annihilated, and with it went a spark of hope…
Their charge, once so forceful, suddenly faltered as whatever they expected to arrive, whatever final trick Whitebeard had up his metaphorical sleeves, failed to materialize. Nevertheless, the Whitebeard Pirates pressed onwards, for there was nowhere else for them to go, and no other chance of victory but to press onwards.
Before they could arrive at their destination, one other, smaller miracle unveiled itself, as Oars, not quite dead, got up on his hands and knees, and with even the slow, jolting movements that he could manage to make, he swept aside what conventional fortifications the marines managed to make at that entrance. Standing up on his hands and knees, he moved forwards again, once again trying to reach Ace, wherever he might be.
Here though, is where his story would likely end, for Kizaru lazily moved forward to end his life- this time for good; suddenly though, whatever plans Kizaru had were interrupted, as Marco flamed into the plaza, moving forward to engage Kizaru anew, and continue their duel. This bought enough time for the other Whitebeard pirates, hopping through the air at surprising speed(Geppo proliferation), to finish closing the distance to this one opening. Soon, Whitebeard and his commanders would be moving in to engage their counterparts, with Jozu moving off to keep Aokiji busy and prevent him from replacing the ruined fortifications with new walls of ice.
In another dimension, another universe, Whitebeard's opponent would have been Akainu, as the strongest of the Admrals moves in to stop Whitebeard before he could free Ace from his chains; but this was not that universe, and the Sith had other plans…
(to be continued…)
