"Alphonse! Take your men and seize the high ground!"
"Teteh! You take your men to the right, I'll take my men to the left!"
"Isha, take this little guy and retreat to Group Four's side. It's time for street fighting!"
With the order given, the team members began to split up and take action.
The man named Isha was the one piloting the medical power armor. After receiving the order, he immediately took Uta back to the rear and also took out the baby pads from the box.
Those treasures at the bottom were overlooked; they were a regular army, not pirates.
Military discipline dictates that they wouldn't jeopardize the future of their Imperial Guard for something so trivial.
No one wants to fight in urban warfare, especially in this world dominated by the ocean, where complex terrain hides countless dangers.
However, when the equipment gap between the two sides is too large, terrain and tactics become meaningless.
With the power armor's vision system, walls offer no obstruction of view; the positions of all enemies are clearly visible.
If it weren't for the uncertainty about whether there were any surviving residents in the town, the soldiers of the Power Gear would never have entered it. Instead, they would have called for artillery support from the main ship and razed the place to the ground first.
Although it's just one ship, if it wanted to, the Power Gear could unleash the same destructive power as the Buster Call, it would just be a waste of more time and ammunition.
"Captain, there's someone hiding behind the wall at your three o'clock position."
"Roger that. We are the Piltover army. If you're not pirates, just say so, or I'll open fire."
After the captain finished speaking, all that responded to him was a bomb that had been set off.
boom!
Da da da!
The houses built of stone and wood were sturdy enough to stop the flintlock muskets, but they were useless against the weapons produced by Piltover for its own use.
With the roar of machine guns, the wall was swept away, but the bomb had no effect on the soldiers protected by the power armor.
"Captain Kate, the pirates on the island have been mostly wiped out. Squad Four is searching the surrounding area for any remaining pirates. There is one resident on the island who has survived."
"Collect the body, do it the old way."
"Captain, this child..."
Pirates have always been known for their indiscriminate killing, and we've encountered this several times during our patrols over the years. Usually, we help bury the dead.
But this is the first time we've encountered a situation where there's only one baby left on the island.
"Take him back, why leave this little guy here to die?"
"Captain, why don't you take a look at this child? We really can't figure out why she keeps crying."
"Captain, you've been by His Majesty Oran's side all this time, so you must have helped take care of the princess, right? Everyone says His Majesty Oran is very good with children. Do you have any experience with His Majesty Oran?"
The speaker was Isha, one of the few female soldiers on the Power Gear.
The Power Gear unit has always had this configuration, but in small numbers, far fewer than the number of male soldiers.
Whether it's the navy or pirates, most ships sailing on the sea are like this, due to innate differences in physical attributes.
Powered armor can reduce this gap to some extent; as long as one meets the driving standards and is highly adaptable, one can become a driver.
Isha is not an isolated case. Among the power armor soldiers still searching for the remaining enemies are female soldiers, and they have extremely volatile personalities. They are piloting assault-type power armor and are faster than anyone else when something happens.
"It's not that we don't know how to take care of children, but she just keeps crying."
Many of these soldiers had families and some experience in raising children.
Previous tests revealed that she had taken sleeping pills. Because the dosage was small, they did not take any additional measures and simply waited for the medication to wear off naturally.
The problem arose after the medication wore off; the people on the ship checked the diapers and tried feeding the baby formula.
Although these milk powders were prepared for making ice cream, they were all high-quality products, and it would be fine to give a little to a child, but it was all useless, no matter how they coaxed them.
"Let the cat see."
Upon hearing this, Kate reached out and took Uta from her, but the crying stopped abruptly and was replaced by a soft laugh.
"Isn't she being quite well-behaved? Meow, look, your posture is wrong, so she's a little uncomfortable."
"Maybe it's her hair color? This child's hair is half red and half white, which should be inherited from her parents. Maybe it's your hair that makes her feel familiar, Captain?"
They could only speculate on possible reasons themselves. Let alone these ordinary soldiers, even if you brought Ginny over, she wouldn't be able to explain what the baby was thinking.
Uta is only two years old this year. Children of this age are completely immature and do not have complete thoughts or ideas. Ginny can only read what she wants, but she can't do anything more detailed.
"Let's leave this child with Meow for now, you guys continue with your mission."
"yes!"
After searching several more times and confirming that there were no pirates or other survivors, the Power Gear began to conduct a post-battle debriefing.
In this battle, a total of 477 enemy soldiers were killed, including three wanted criminals with a total bounty of 79 million Berries.
They seized some treasure and provided aid to one survivor.
The Power Gear suffered 0 dead and 1 wounded.
"Wait, what happened to the injured person?"
While the adjutant was reporting the situation, Kate suddenly felt that something was amiss; the intensity of this battle was not high.
The high bounties of those pirates are not due to their strength, but rather because they have plundered and killed many islands along the way, resulting in a significant negative impact.
The powered armor team basically solved the problem, so why were there still casualties?
"Well, he was newly transferred here. He was so excited when he landed that he tripped and twisted his ankle."
"After that, have him train harder. If he can't keep up with the intensity here, transfer him. That's all for now, meeting adjourned."
"Wow!"
Just like when Kate finished her meeting, she heard crying. Uta, just like when Kate finished her work, started crying.
Kate skillfully picked her up again and hummed a nursery rhyme that no one else could understand.
Unlike the dialect wishing those guys on Mary Geoise to "go to heaven early," this nursery rhyme is a real dialect, a song her parents sang to her when she was little.
The crew's speculation was that Kate's white hair made Uta feel at ease, but looking at Uta, Kate truly saw herself in her younger self; otherwise, she wouldn't have taken care of this little brat herself.
Outsiders might think Kate has extensive experience in caring for princesses, but in reality, Frankenstein, as a special life form, doesn't need this step.
Leriana is the same age as Frankenstein, but she was raised in a petri dish for the first three years, and the most troublesome stage was skipped to some extent. Perona was also brought back when she was a little over three years old.
Uta has broken the age record in some respects.
"Have you learned how to pick up children too?"
When Kate led the team back to Piltover, she also brought the child to Oran.
"This child's name is Uta. She is an orphan caused by the pirate invasion. I thought she was a good match for me, so I brought her back with me."
"Uta is quite cute."
Uta, Shanks' adopted daughter in the original timeline, is a natural singer.
If that group of pirates hadn't encountered Kate, they would have met the Red-Haired Pirates shortly after setting sail and would have provoked them.
Then they would be wiped out by Shanks, and the treasure on the ship would become Shanks's spoils of war. After discovering Uta in the treasure chest, Shanks, recalling his past as an adopted child of Roger, decided to adopt Uta.
As we all know, adoptive fathers on this sea are generally more normal than biological fathers. Shanks is quite good at taking care of his adopted daughter, but the choices he made after the incident are quite puzzling.
"So what do you want to do with this child? Send him to an orphanage?"
"I originally wanted to adopt her myself, but I have to take the ship out to sea regularly, and the child is too young. Look at her hair, it's half red and half white, which makes it pink. Oran, why don't you adopt another one?"
"Ahem. My hair is natural, it's not some kind of quirk, you must have misunderstood something."
Kate's reasoning made Oran choke. Adopting Uta wouldn't have any impact; it was just raising one child. With his financial resources, raising another one wouldn't be a problem at all.
"Really? I thought you only adopted pink-haired girls. Fran did, Riley did, and Perona did too."
"Just a coincidence, um, and a bit of OCD."
As for obsessive-compulsive disorder, most researchers have some degree of it, but Oran's is not as severe as Vegapunk's.
Uta has a remarkable talent for music. From a financial perspective, nurturing her for a few years and having Brooke help her debut as a child star would be a sure-fire way to make money.
In the original timeline, Uta had an astonishing number of fans worldwide, even with limited contact with the outside world and relying solely on electronic communication through a special Den Den Mushi invented by Vegapunk that he found.
Combined with the terrifying rule-level power of the Song-Song Fruit, she could even achieve the feat of "destroying the world".
"so."
"Since you've brought the child back, why not keep him/her? I think the child is quite well-behaved."
"Yes, meow~, she becomes very quiet whenever she hears singing. You can let meow over normally, she won't cause you too much trouble."
In that case, the child would be raised by her and Oran together, and unlike the child that Leriana brought back casually and the child that Oran created himself, this child was brought back by Kate.
Of course, she didn't say these words aloud. Through her efforts, a new page was added to Oran's household registration, and she informed others that very night, which slightly provoked some people.
"Okay, I've decided, the child's name will be Bonnie! Bartholomew Bonnie!"
At the dinner table, Ginny slammed her hand on the table and decided on a name for her child. Actually, she had discussed this issue with Xiong before, and now it was just a matter of finalizing the decision.
"You seem quite energetic. What about your child? If you have one now, it'll keep Perona and Uta company. Shouldn't you hurry up and have one?"
That's all for now, nothing tonight, let's wait a bit longer.
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