I followed after my escort and joined the 12 members of the Alpha Squad. We then waited until the 5 minutes were up before we set off. Yelena, who was the Alpha Squad member who picked me up, was nice enough to bring me up to speed. Well, at least the bits she was allowed to share with me.
It seemed that the horde was currently 160 km away from our position and that it would reach us in around 5 hours if they kept their current pace. I was surprised to hear that the horde was made up of members of the Manectric, Ampharos, Plusle, and Minun lines. Moreover, our side discovered a multitude of gold-stage Pokemon among the horde.
According to the estimations by the sentry system, there were at least 160 gold-stage Pokemon, which made it likely that there could be one or more dark gold-stage Pokemon among them as well. Though Yelena assured me that a horde like this was no problem for the 2nd battalion.
I was not surprised by her confidence for a few simple reasons. The requirement to become a Major in the military was to have at least the strength of a special-grade Ace-Class trainer, which meant that they were not too far off from the Elite Class. There were even some Majors that were as strong as Elite-Class trainers or actual ones, so Major Box could handle the top of the horde by herself if she had to even if they had some dark-gold stage Pokemon among them.
Aside from her, our battalion had around 1200 soldiers, of which at least 20 were Ace-Class trainers of varying grades/sub-classes. Besides our considerable force, there was also the fact that the initiative was on our side since we had detected them in advance.
Consequently, there was no problem with prepping the terrain to our advantage and/or setting up traps if we had to. In fact, after we had marched roughly 30 km, at least according to my estimation, I saw that various squads began to break off from the main group at an interval of about 10 km.
According to Yelena, those Squads were preparing for any eventualities. They would rejoin us after setting up and/or checking up on certain precautions that could be used to slow down/stop the horde.
All in all, I was confident that our mission would be a success, especially since we did not have to "remove" the horde, but simply had to stop it from intruding into alliance territory. Repelling them was much easier than the less nice alternative, and the risk was quite a bit lower as well unless the other side proved unyielding.
Anyway, we were ordered to halt about 80 minutes later, and if I was not wrong we had traveled close to 90 km in that time. Considering that the horde had been moving as well, the distance between us had to be less than 25 km, so it was no surprise that Major Box called for a stop, considering that the horde had to be less than an hour away from our position.
I saw scouts emerging from the direction we were heading, and they approached Major Box to give their report. In the meantime, I could not help but ponder if I could somehow get away with taking the whole horde into Utopia.
After Utopia's last growth into a mini cube planet, there was more than enough "empty" space for them, and I was sure that they wouldn't even need the whole area of a single side of the cube planet. In fact, their addition would increase Utopia's size a bit further, making space even less of an issue.
Honestly, this was not the first time that I considered the idea of transferring whole tribes into Utopia, especially after the last upgrade. Nonetheless, the alliance's rules, and in part my conscience, stopped me from doing it since relocating a huge number of Pokemon like that, voluntary or not, would/could mess up the ecosystem of the area they used to stay in pretty badly.
That was not a good thing if the Pokemon did not use to have a bad impact on the place or was about to be forced out regardless. However, this was not a problem with the approaching horde, at least not as far as the alliance rules were concerned since they did not belong to the alliance's ecological sphere. Moreover, they were on the road, in a manner of speaking, so they were currently not part of any established ecosystem.
The way things stood, I had two ways to approach the matter, if I was really going to try to take the horde in. The above board way, and the secret one. The secret way would either have me sneak away from the battalion/camp to approach the horde, or I would try to use my "clone" to approach the horde.
Unfortunately, both methods had problems that made me discard the "secret" approach. Sneaking away from the battalion had a nearly guaranteed chance of being noticed while doing so after we returned to the camp, once the horde had been redirected, still carried a significant risk of exposure. It was also possible that I could fail to find them, or that they would be unwilling to listen after their prior experience.
Frankly, upon reflection, the risk of exposure was so high, that I wouldn't call it a "secret" approach. As for the clone idea, it had three major problems. Namely, distance, control, and surveillance. Actually, surveillance was a major problem for the sneaking idea as well.
I had no idea how extensive the surveillance system of the border camp was, so there was a possible risk of being caught by them with either method. That risk was enough to make me directly discard the secret approach.
This only left me with the above-board method, which would require me to either go to Major Box to get her permission to approach the horde with my offer, or to Colonel Sheppard once we were back at the camp to request permission to go after the horde to extend my offer to them.
Doing the first would most likely make the existence of Utopia, or rather the mystery island, "public" since there was no way to hide what I was doing unless I tried capturing all 18000 Pokemon one by one.
Doing the second would expose Utopia to at least the mid-upper military management, which was still better than the first option, but still not ideal. Unless I got his superiors to give me permission along with giving Colonel Sheppard a gag order that forced him to keep my actions a secret.
I did not doubt that the highest echelon of the military was among those that knew about my "mystery island", so the only one that learned about "Utopia" would be Colonel Sheppard, depending on what exactly his higher-ups told him.
I naturally had no way to truly contact his superiors, but I could contact the guy who no doubt knew them. I was sure that Professor Oak could sway them to give me the right to approach certain groups on my own. Best case the mob, or horde vanished, and worst case, they still had to be repelled/redirected away from alliance territory.
Yes, this approach seemed to be the best one, but it would have to wait until Kyoday because I needed my phone to call Professor Oak, so I would have to leave this horde alone. That was a bit unfortunate since I would have really liked to add the Manectric and Ampharos lines to Utopia, but it had to be done this way.
While I had my moment of introspection, Major Box finished talking with the scouts and began giving orders to prepare for the upcoming confrontation. I joined the other soldiers and we all released our three strongest Pokemon. For me, that was naturally Mothra/Butterfree, Horus/Xatu, and Stan/Gyarados.
The appearance of three dark gold stage Pokemon on my side obviously drew the attention of pretty much everyone, and the members of the Alpha Squad gave me a thumbs-up, while Major Box gave me an approving nod. I did not actually need to explain to them what was happening since I had been streaming the whole excursion to Utopia in a documentary fashion, but I still said a few words for appearances' sake.
Anyway, everyone began adopting a combat formation along with their Pokemon, and I was positioned at the forefront, beside the Alpha Squad. I was honestly a bit surprised that we were standing out in the open like this instead of spreading out to prepare an ambush or at least setting up some traps/barricades.
Yelena once again ended up being the one to explain to me why Major Box had given this particular set of orders. She was a bit more enthusiastic this time around, which might have been because of my fabulous trio.
According to Yelena, the scouts shared the horde's condition with Major Box, and since they were not in a bad state, which meant that they would be less aggravated and aggressive, along with the fact that the horde was made up of the less problematic species, Major Box decided against the first strike method.
Pokemon species, more so the ones outside the alliance territory, operated based on the territory system, so we were going to declare to the approaching horde that behind us lay our territory, and that we were more than capable of safeguarding it from any invaders. A declaration of dominion along with a display of might, so to say.
It seemed that we, or rather Major Box, hoped that we could discourage the horde from moving further in the direction of the alliance. Considering that our side had more than 40 dark gold stage Pokemon, and even a single platinum stage one on display, I would say we had a good chance of getting the message across.
Anyway, it took less than 5 minutes for us to see the first Manectric, who no doubt acted as scouts for the horde. They spotted us as well and directly released a howl to warn the rest of the horde of our presence. I could hear a few more howls resounding in the distance.
Afterward, the Manectric remained in their position and kept an eye on us. Our side kept their position as well, and we watched as a few more Manectric appeared within just a minute. A few more howls were released, and this time the warning they released was more comprehensive.
Just 3 minutes later the rest of the horde arrived, but they stopped beside the scouts and did not move any further. 18000 Pokemon would have been a really imposing sight, if not for the fact that at least 70% of that number was made up of Mareep, Plusle, and Minun. Their presence made me think more along the lines of how cute, though that did not make the horde less dangerous.
Still, a surplus of cuteness or not, the horde stood there and observed us, while we did the same. I saw two Pokemon, a Manectric and Ampharos, stepping toward the scouts to exchange a few words. Seeing the behavior of the duo, and the reactions of the other Pokemon told me/us that those two were most likely the leaders of the horde. That they were openly displaying their dark gold stage prowess also supported that conclusion.
After a few exchanges, the two leaders moved in our direction. They were accompanied by a small contingent made up of another dark gold stage Manectric and Ampharos as well as a dark gold stage Plusle and Minun, along with 50 gold stage Pokemon. It was a small surprise that the horde actually had 6 dark gold stage members, but no one showed any worry at their appearance.
Anyway, the delegation stopped about 70 meters away from us, and the Ampharos leader called out our side's leader for a parley. Major Box apparently decided to accept that request since she called out 2 members of the Alpha Squad to accompany her as she proceeded forward.
Each one of them was accompanied by 3 Pokemon, so our side had 8 dark gold stage Pokemon along with a single platinum stage Pokemon. I believe it was clear which side had the strength advantage.
Major Box and her escort stopped 30 meters away from the other group. That was close enough to hear each other without shouting, while still maintaining a certain distance. Not that 30 meters would stop any of their attacks if they decided to fight, but the same remained true even if they doubled the distance, so that was more a symbolic thing more than anything.
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