This process went smoothly, as everyone was already on board the Victory, and within minutes Bill was sitting at his desk, surrounded by Rance, Borodo, Fia, Nelson, and all twenty Beetleborgs standing behind them.
After a short discussion, they came up with a fairly simple plan.
At dawn the next day, Borodo and Fia will lead two platoons, each consisting of sixty Marine enlisted men armed with rivet guns and stun grenades. Their objective will be to capture the soldiers' barracks and armory.
While they secured the soldiers, who Bill assumed wouldn't resist, Rance and the special operators would seize the garrison near the mayor's mansion. These were soldiers personally loyal to the mayor, and so Bill would concentrate the bulk of his forces in this area.
Finally, as usual, he took on the most dangerous task - to personally go to the mansion to make the arrest.
From what he saw, there were about fifty people in the mayor's mansion. These were Wetton's most loyal supporters, and Bill easily foresaw conflict there.
While all this was happening, Nelson would command the twenty Marines remaining on the Victory. Bill hadn't expected the Ruluk soldiers to attack the ship, but given that they potentially outnumbered the Marines three to one, he couldn't leave the vessel unguarded.
After the meeting, the commanders went to gather their people and explain their roles to them.
They had the rest of the day to study the city's layout and break the platoons into smaller groups. This was the largest operation Bill had ever organized, with a total of 140 Marines, and he was determined not to lose a single man. So he abandoned the ship and spent the rest of the day with Wetton.
Now the old mayor was probably on guard and kept asking when Bill's other ship would arrive.
"The day after tomorrow," Bill told him, and in the course of their conversation he learned more about the real life on the remote islands.
Bill was particularly intrigued by the frequency of trade caravans. He'd been on the island for over two weeks and still hadn't seen a single ship other than his own.
The subject was one of the few that could animate Wetton, and he explained at length how not only did merchants rarely come, but when they did come they always had a reason for offering lower prices.
They talked all day, and before they knew it, it was time for dinner. Bill excused himself and headed back to the Victory.
Looking around, he was surprised to see no one showing any fear. The Marines in his unit had undergone two years of marksmanship training under Masterson, and while they weren't snipers, they were quite confident with rifles.
Over the years, they, too, contributed to the construction of New Haven, and one could tell their morale was high. They were trained soldiers who had never fought, and so they had no fear of death.
Yes, they knew that "someone" could die, but that "someone" was definitely not them.
But Bill wasn't about to let any of them die here just to arrest one pirate-turned-dictator.
After telling everyone to go to bed, he assigned the night watch post to Nelson and his twenty men. Bill thought it was a pleasure to see the thinner but still plump former commodore perk up when he was entrusted with this task.
Nelson could now walk, but he still had about 300 kilograms to lose, and it would take another year or two before the former commodore could be in fighting shape again.
If Bill had any problem with Nelson, it was that, despite his harshness, the former Commodore was completely his man.
Lying in bed that night, Bill thought that this was another thing he would have to get used to in the future, and he closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep.
An hour before dawn, the Victory was a quiet but intense scene of activity.
The ship was enormous, and on its deck were two platoons of sixty men and women. These platoons were divided into squads of ten.
Bill, Fia, and Rance were the first to act. As the boats hit the water, the trio began neutralizing Wetton's sentries.
Acting with determination, the process didn't take long, but Bill was surprised by the number of people he had to take down. The trio neutralized about forty soldiers, and by the time the first boats reached the dock, there wasn't a single guard left on the island who could raise the alarm.
This was not a good sign, Bill thought.
But as he watched his men disembark, it was too late to retreat, and he could only rely on his lieutenants.
When the last people reached the shore, the sun was already rising above the horizon, and everyone began to carry out their duties.
Rance's team of twenty special operators was to begin operations as soon as Bill entered the mayor's office, and literally within moments the platoons were to seize the arsenal and round up all the island's soldiers.
Since Bill didn't have small portable snails for communication, the attack had to rely on precise synchronization. His department was too small to carry out large-scale operations, and he now realized that had been a huge mistake on his part.