"Lindbergh, use the transponder snail Morley left behind to patch through to Headquarters. Tell them we're heading to Arabasta to stop the resurrection of Pluton so they can proceed with the operation without any worries," Sabo said to Lindbergh after a moment of careful thought.
When they had rescued Lindbergh and the others earlier, they had already learned that Morley had successfully broken through the dragnet and returned to the Revolutionary Army Headquarters. To keep a reliable line of communication open, Morley had left them a specialized miniature transponder snail.
"Understood!" Lindbergh instantly initialized the secure link.
"Drake, we shouldn't delay a single second. Let's redirect our navigation vector toward Arabasta immediately," Sabo added, turning his gaze to Drake.
"Alright!" Drake complied without hesitation, instantly altering the ship's course.
This was far from a timeline that tolerated any strategic indecision. Although his own analytical models projected that the synchronized combat mass of their trio already anchored the absolute apex of the maritime world—rendering even an Ancient Weapon technically outmatched against their unified front—the legendary reputation surrounding Pluton was far from hollow gossip. Its raw destructive output likely sundered all conventional human imagination.
They mathematically refused to permit a single fraction of carelessness.
"SABO!!"
Suddenly, a thunderous, high-decibel screech sundered the air currents the exact microsecond the transponder snail connected.
"Whoa!"
Sabo, who was holding the receiver close to his face, was violently jolted by the sudden explosion of sound.
"Sob... Sabo! I genuinely thought your vessel had sustained terminal... You absolute bastard, if your subsystems were functional, you couldn't even formulate a passing notification to clear our radar?! Do your processing filters lack the data tracking exactly how deeply worried Lord Dragon was about your perimeter?!" A succession of choked, emotional whimpers immediately saturated the communication channel.
Drake's audio databases recognized the vocal signature instantly—it was none other than Koala.
"Uh..." Sabo's facial parameters locked up entirely, his cognitive files completely failing to unearth a stable verbal response.
The two Division Commanders traded a swift look, their faces visibly straining as they desperately locked down their facial muscles to prevent an outright burst of laughter.
While Karasu managed to maintain a completely blank aesthetic on the surface, Lindbergh's structural containment was heavily leaking. Even an operative who historically preserved a perfectly silent, stoic posture like Karasu was pushing his limits to arrest his amusement, rendering the technical torment Lindbergh was currently enduring a total living hell.
Just as Lindbergh's composure neared a total structural collapse and a laugh threatened to escape his lips, he mapped a fiercely lethal, look from Sabo. He forcefully clamped both hands over his mouth.
Absolute lockdown; executing a laugh right now will invite catastrophic consequences...
"Articulate a response already! Have your biological systems sustained such massive critical trauma that locomotion is locked down?!" Koala's familiar voice barked through the shell once more. Just as Sabo unsealed his lips to offer a breakdown—
Pfft... Lindbergh failed to secure a 100% seal, a sharp burst of air leaking past his fingers.
He frantically checked Sabo's reaction. Sabo's physical frame merely executed a brief freeze, ultimately choosing to redact any immediate disciplinary response, permitting Lindbergh to release a massive wave of compressed relief.
"My baseline integrity is completely optimized, Koala. Our vanguard is currently anchoring a direct cruise aboard Drake's capital ship. Our monitoring arrays have already deciphered the parameters of the central mobilization sequence; meticulously log the subsequent directives I am about to outline," Sabo stated, his tone instantly snapping into an expression of absolute, cold solemnity as his emotions stabilized.
"Understood." On the reverse side of the encrypted channel, Koala's demeanor synchronized flawlessly, updating into a state of severe focus.
"The shadow agencies of the World Government are currently deploying their absolute military mass toward the coordinates of Arabasta, explicitly targeting the unsealing of the Ancient Weapon, Pluton! My predictive models indicate their high-velocity crusade to secure this weapon is engineered precisely to neutralize our resistance network."
"The highly classified topological layouts of the Holy Land we extracted during our penetration of Mary Geoise have already been successfully secured by Morley and integrated into Headquarters' central database. I assume Command has already finalized the definitive strategic blueprints for the assault. Karasu, Lindbergh, and my independent vessel are entirely clear of hazard windows."
"Moving forward, our vanguard shall redirect its vector to Arabasta to systematically prevent the unsealing of Pluton. This concludes the formal mission report of our unit."
"Concurrently—there is an alternative variable. The asset, Bartholomew Kuma... has been successfully extracted by our team. However, his structural diagnostics throw back a highly unfavorable outlook."
"Genuinely?! Kuma's framework has been safely recovered?! His biological life is clear of danger?" Koala cried out, a massive wave of incandescent joy flooding her channel.
"The asset is safely within our perimeter, yes. But a critical anomaly remains; his memory files have been entirely redacted from his neural matrix," Sabo explained after a dense silence.
"Regardless, the recovery itself is a monumental milestone. We shall engineer a protocol to recalibrate Kuma's systems once a realistic resource window unseals down the line. The supreme, high-priority crisis demanding our absolute focus today is the world-shaping war initializing before us. Relay to Boss Dragon that the containment of the Pluton anomaly is explicitly delegated to our vanguard; his command structure may advance without a single shred of anxiety."
"Regarding the primary front of the war—execute your deployments with extreme tactical caution. The exact fraction of a second our vanguard permanent neutralizes the Ancient Weapon variable, we shall launch a high-velocity cruise to reinforce your coordinates."
"Mm!" Koala nodded fiercely, her tears cleanly drying as absolute focus locked down her frame. "Rest easy, the primary theater shall be flawlessly anchored by our units... your vanguard... must preserve its survival metrics as well..."
ClACK!
The transponder snail abruptly dropped its chin, severing the link.
Koala: "!!!"
Aside from standard administrative data logs, this tool flatly refuses to articulate a single personal syllable!
You absolute, miserable piece of work, Sabo!!
"The transmission was severed that instantaneously?" The two Division Commanders unsealed their lips to comment, yet evaluating Sabo's focus, the syllables ultimately faded before clearing their throats.
Sabo cast a highly perplexed glance across their alignment, before suddenly striking his own forehead with his palm. "Dammit! My processing units completely purged a highly critical dataset from the inquiry."
"I entirely omitted verifying the underlying reality governing the intelligence logs on Marine Admiral Kizaru."
Karasu and Lindbergh exchanged a look, the corners of their mouths executing a severe, synchronized twitch. Granted, that parameter registers as a massive strategic focus, but was that the specific 'focus' our commentary was referencing?
Left with zero alternative scripts, Sabo re-initialized the secure channel to push another call through the matrix.
On the reverse side, an intensely irritated Koala stared at the rapidly buzzing transponder snail clutched in her hand. A flash of pure delight instantly overrode her frustration as she flipped the receiver up. "Sabo, your vessel—"
"Apologies, Koala. Regarding the global press dispatches tracking Admiral Kizaru—exactly what structural data does Headquarters possess? Is his true profile genuinely verified as a deep-cover asset serving our resistance network?" Sabo pressed with frantic haste.
He allocated an immense strategic weight to this specific equation.
The sheer destructive mass commanded by a Marine Admiral required zero validation; should the intelligence verify that Kizaru anchored their faction, the Revolutionary Army would effectively absorb a colossal combat asset into its baseline hierarchy. Under those parameters, their winning percentages for this campaign would scale exponentially.
"Sabo, the explicit ground-truth details surrounding that operational file remain restricted beyond my access registry. However, analyzing his field performance during our deployment, Kizaru's offensive output undeniably displayed a calculated reservation when interacting with our forces. Faced with the telemetry, Lord Dragon preserved absolute silence without issuing a single redaction," Koala explained with extreme solemnity.
"Understood, the dataset is noted."
CLACK!
"Hey! Sabo, your line—"
Koala: "..."
"SABO!!"
The sheer volume of her thunderous, rage-fueled shriek nearly triggered a collective nervous breakdown across the nearby resistance fighters who were actively loading heavy crates of munitions onto the transports. However, mapping the identity of the source to Koala, the vanguard smoothly rationalized the event.
Ever since intelligence feeds had reported that the Chief of Staff's unit had gone completely dark within the Holy Land, Koala had been entirely incapable of accessing her sleep cycles. Every single hour that elapsed saw her aggressively stress-testing the communications matrix for a single fraction of data tracking Sabo's survival.
Discovering that his biological signatures were fully optimized, an emotional discharge of this scale fell perfectly within the laws of probability.
Stamping her boots with immense, adorable fury, she marched straight toward a heavily guarded, reinforced command bunker.
The entity anchoring the absolute apex of the global resistance was resting inside this room—Monkey D. Dragon!
"Dragon! Sabo's vanguard has successfully re-established a communication link..." Koala systematically laid out the comprehensive operational breakdown Sabo had provided. The exact microsecond her syllables validated that their comrades were entirely clear of structural trauma, an unbidden, emotional tear lazily traced a path down her cheek despite her fierce posture.
"An Ancient Weapon..." A blinding, razor-sharp brilliance rippled across Dragon's eyes. Processing the variables for several brief seconds, he slowly dropped his head in a heavy, measured nod.
"Sabo's strategic calculation is flawless. The raw cataclysmic output commanded by an Ancient Weapon sundered all conventional metrics."
"Given that Sabo and his alliance are actively purging our rear line of this catastrophic variable, our primary army must throw its absolute resource mass into a total, unrestricted offensive! Koala, transmit the absolute mobilization decree to all coordinates: command the synchronized divisions of the Revolutionary Army to advance upon the Holy Land of Mary Geoise at maximum absolute knots!"
"This day, our vanguard shall deploy a thunderous, crushing blitzkrieg to permanently shatter the generational shackles enforced by the global regime, and violently overthrow the tyrannical, corrupted dominance of the Celestial Dragons!"
"Yes, sir!" Koala barked, her expression transforming into a mask of pure, unyielding military steel.
The exact microsecond the threshold cleared behind her exit, Dragon slowly pushed his towering frame up from his desk, pacing over to stand before the wide glass frame as his eyes tracked the gathering storm clouds outside. A soft, unbidden murmur escaped his lips. "It appears the progression of destiny will force our vectors to cross exceptionally soon... Luffy!"