Act 59: Scouting Trip

After securing Bleached Bastion and stabilizing the town as best they could it was time for the Republic of Sands' army to move on. To cover more ground in a hurry their forces were split into two, each one led by a general. The one that will be with Luca and Ranii is Aceo.
Next up they will be heading for a town with a port, Dryhaven. After the trip to the place around it, the first thing their scouting turns up with is the fact that the Grove doesn't have a lot of forces in this town, it might even be easy to sneak in by just swimming into the port. Though there is speculation that there might be something else afoot...But knowing that Ranii has contacts within the enemy's forces, maybe that can be put to use here too.

"So what's the plan this time?" Ranii asks.

"Weeell, let me see where i can begin." Aceo begins speaking to both Luca and Ranii since they are here in his tent. "So it looks like the Grove is focusing all of it's attention elsewhere, Dryhaven doesn't have a sizable force to defend it...at least that appears to be the case. They appear to be on guard, they got Pokémon up on the walls, they would see us coming if we went in force. So i kind of need the help of you both of you for this, Ranii with the good hearing and Luca with Aura sensing."
"So what do you want us to do then?" Luca asks.
"I need both of you to sneak into Dryhaven and find out as much as you can. Perhaps swim into the docks and work up from there."
Water.......the Lucario can't help but dread it, not because it will pose physical problems to him, he lacks the skills to swim.

"Erm.... swim?" Ranii... likewise does not like water. Hell, unaugmented Avalis can't even survive in water. She is augmented, but even so, it's something she tends to stay away from if she can help it.

"Isn't there another way?" Luca sees that both him and Ranii would rather avoid water altogether. The Glaceon general sighs. "Well, not really. The front is guarded and they will figure out who you are with if you try to get in through the entrance, the Grove has their guard up since Bleached Bastion. But what if you could walk over the water?"

"Come again?" Ranii asks in disbelief.

"Yeah..." The general doesn't know if he should be surprised that she didn't catch on just yet. "If the water froze you could just walk right over it, right?"

"Hmmmm" Ranii thinks for a moment. "Though, you do realize seawater is a lot harder to freeze than fresh water?"

"I never tried so i can't say i would know the difference." Alas, kicking around with speculations on freezing water might not be good to spend time on. "I think it would also be possible to dig under the wall but that carries a bit more risk. Though, Ranii, given your...background I think you might come up with something too?"

"I suppose if push comes to shove we'll have to swim it I suppose" Ranii grumbles. She might not like the idea...

"I do hope we don't have to swim..." Luca sighs. "But I guess this is what happens when we have to deal with a place that has a port..." 
"If we play our cards right, hopefully it won't come to that." The Glaceon says. "I will have someone waiting for you where the shore and end of the wall meet on the left side. Move in at night so you have the cover of darkness on your side."

It wasn't too long until night time arrived, really. The sun was already setting by the time they left the general's tent. Luca and Ranii venture towards Dryhaven in the dark and cold desert night. They eventually see the town which is protected by a wall that is lacking when compared to Sandstone or Bleached Bastion, it is made of stone but doesn't look like it was made with battlements in mind so there are no patrols watching along the walls, instead there are watch towers being used.

"Looks like those watchtowers are fairly recent" Ranii comments quietly to her partner.

Luca nods. "Yeah." He looks at the grass-types that on those watchtowers, he deduces something from his observation. "I think that if we can get to the wall those pokémon in those tower's won't be able to stop us, then we just need to turn left and keep going."'

"Lead the way." Ranii tells her partner.

"Let's start moving now..." There is some wait until an opportunity shows up, that being the grass-type on one of the watchtowers not looking in their direction. Luca quickly brings her a long until they could hug the wall. Now from here it's time to take a left and go with some caution, Luca doesn't feel many presences on the other side of the wall but it's best to be sure not to make much noise.

Ranii silently follows her partner, likewise hugging the wall. He doesn't hear very much on the other side of the wall, just the occasional chatter or heartbeat or gumble about being stuck in such a 'dead end post'.

As they got there they started hearing water, well, Ranii heard it way before Luca did. The meeting point must be close. Eventually they spot the shore, and it seems the wall ends somewhat into the water so if they want to go around it they would have to swim as planned. But before considering anything further, there is the matter they are going to meet here, they spot Ansel and...a familiar Sandslash.

"Ohhhh great... not him again." Ranii groans as she sees the Sandslash.

When they approached, Luca proceeded to greet the two. "Hey, we are here." "Oh, you two." Slasher still remembers them too. "Me and this other guy are to help you get to the other side of this wall without getting caught."

Ranii gives Slasher a dirty look. "Right. Let's get this over with." Ansel however is a little more cheerful. He comes over and shakes Luca's hand. "Glad to see you two alive and well!" He says.

"Come again?" Ranii asks in disbelief.The Sandslash narrows his eyes a little. "Really? You still holding that grudge?" He sighs.
Luca is likewise happy to see that this weasel is still alright as well. "It's good to see you too. So, what's the situation."
"Well, you two are going in, right? Though the question is am I digging you a way in or is this Ansel guy helping you go in by the port?" Slasher explains. "Oh yeah and another thing we were asked to do, here..." He offers to both Ranii and Luca some badges, citizen badges to be precise. "We are not sure how effective this will be, but it should help you blend in or avoid trouble if you show this to a guard."

Ranii takes her badge, carefully. 
"Well, which will be faster?" She asks.
"As much as I hate to say this..." Ansel sighs. "But probably Slasher's method."

He takes a badge too. Luca is now giving a less than pleasant look at the Sandslash now too, expecting him to try to have some excuse against this.
"Sure i guess..." Looks like Slasher is pretty okay with it. "But we gotta be sure I ain't going to dig right into a guard or something. And I don't quite know how I'm going to figure out what's right on the other side, but we are probably going to have to be quick about this..."
This isn't much of an issue for a Lucario. "I can just sense the aura signals on the other side of the wall." Might not be much of a surprise why he was chosen for this by Aceo, Aura sensing can make quite a number of things easier.

"And I can hear heartbeats." Ranii adds in. "Between the two of us, the likelihood of digging into an ambush is very low."
Ansel looks slightly dejected, but that look quickly fades. "Alright. Digging it is." He says. "Making an ice-raft might not be very... stable anyway."

Luca hopes the decision to go with Slasher's way doesn't leave Ansel feeling down too much. "Thank you for saving me that day again, Ansel. You be careful sneaking away from here, okay?"
"Right then, let me start digging, you guys tell me if the coast here is clear so i can speed it up to get you two on the other side of it quickly." The Sandslash says.

Ansel smiles. "You're welcome. And thank you, sir." He says as he sneaks off into the night, his dark colors providing natural camouflage for him as he leaves.
"Right. Let's get this over with." Ranii says to Slasher. While not quite trusting him, she knows better than to bring light to his previous... problem. They have a job to do here, after all.

When Luca sensed that there was no one near the area on the other side of the wall, he tells the Sandslash to go faster now, this is their chance to sneak in.
Quickly, with the use of Dig, Slasher dug up a hole under the wall that Luca and Ranii will be able to crawl through. "Alright go quickly now! Once you are through i'm gonna need to hide this hole so they don't get suspicious."

Ranii doesn't waste a moment. She's into the hole in a mere moment. And out the other side just as quickly. She waits on the other side for her partner.

Luca followed suit and was on the other side with her, now they must move into town quickly before they are spotted. And as they go Slasher covers up the whole he dug to avoid the Grove figuring out someone came in, though this means that Luca and Ranii might have to find another way out. 
In the town proper, it is pretty deserted. That might be because it is night and everyone is home, or could the Grove be enforcing some sort of lockdown? The only thing that makes this not so simple are some patrols going around the streets. 
"I hope we can find Wallbreakers." Luca says. "I suppose we got to keep our eyes open for the red things they have around their arms."

As they look, Ranii's ears twitch as she hears a conversation taking place. "This way." She motions, hoping to get closer to it to make it out better. 

"Okay." Luca follows his partner, wondering if she caught something interesting with her hearing. Avali having good hearing is something he is pretty familiar by now thanks to her.

They get up close to a building, staying close to it but out of sight, but close enough to eavesdrop on the two mons, who are hard to make out in the dark. Their types are of little consequence at the moment anyway, it's what they're saying that's important.
"Please don't tell me that shipment of supplies is late AGAIN." One of the voices grumbles. 
"Well, yes, that seems to be the case." The other replies.
"Dammit. I know this is a dead-end post, but how do they expect us to hang onto this port if they keep running late with the supplies."
"I heard they've been having a bit of trouble out in the Oracle Sea as of late."
"Like what kind of trouble?"
"Well, you didn't hear it from me, but I heard that Black Isle is getting unusually active, and that ships are disappearing."
"Oh fuck off with those stupid Black-Island myths. Next thing you know you'll go on about the so-called 'Cold Birds'"
"The Cold Birds are real, I tell you!"
"Yeah, sure." Ranii hears him sigh. "Why did I get stuck with the conspiracy nut? Why couldn't I have gotten a hot piece of ass for a partner instead?"
"Would you rather have gotten stuck with one of the prison-soldiers?" 
".... Fair enough I suppose. Still miffed that we're having to ration supplies."
They hear shuffling as they apparently continue their patrol.

Ranii seemed focused there, so the Lucario could guess that she was hearing something going on, something his ears couldn't hope to catch. "What are you hearing?" He whispers a question for her.

"I'll repeat it for you." Ranii repeats what she just heard for her partner, down to every detail.

"Oh. What do you think could be going on in the Oracle sea? Did not expect them to start having problems with supplies" He hums in thought for a moment. "Pirates I think? These Cold Birds?"

"10 pokes says the 'cold birds' refer to me." Ranii says. "But yeah, interesting that they're having supply problem."

"You huh?" He raises a brow. "I forget all the time that Avali like the cold. We spend time together in the desert so much that it's a bit hard to tell."

"Heh. Yeah..." Ranii chuckles a small bit. "Well, enough on that. Time to get back to business."

To time to continue going about then. They aren't too far from the center of town now and avoiding patrols is easy enough. As they went Ranii could hear some things happening on some of the houses, by the sound of it it's sexual intercourse, no doubt it must be Grove soldiers putting more eggs in females, and probably doing it for their own pleasure more than anything else...
They spot one of the guards up ahead, a Nuzleaf, it's easy to tell he is with the Grove because he has the leaf cape, on top of being grass-type...but he also has a red band on one of his arms.

Ranii can indeed hear the grunts, groans, whines, and sobs coming from the houses. She desperately wishes she could barge into the house and put a stop to this. But... she knows deep down that doing so risks their scouting mission. 
The sooner they get their mission done with and the sooner they come up with a plan of attack, the better. And thankfully they see a 'friendly' face.
"Pssst!" Ranii whispers to him, trying to get their attention without drawing attention to her own.

Luca watches on, hoping this is indeed one of those Wallbreakers that have infiltrated the Grove's ranks. The Nuzleaf turns to Ranii, seems like he heard her alright. "Huh? Who goes there?"

"Psst, over here, friend." Ranii tells him. "Are you prepared for Autumn?"

He stopped, could the code phrase have worked? "My ivy still needs trimming." 

"Over here." She says to him. "We'll talk back here."

"Yeah okay." The Nuzleaf walks over to both of them. "So you are the bossmon's friend."
Luca still can't quite believe there would be a time where cooperating with Wallbreakers would be a possibility, but it has been pretty useful.

"Yeah. I'm... his friend. Whatever his real name is." Ranii replies once they're out of earshot. "Anyway, give me a sitrep on what's going on here."

"Well, I'm not quite sure where to begin but they want pokémon like me to use Explode on the enemies if we are attacked. Also I don't know how the Grove's supply route is being crippled but if it's something you all did, you are a genius because it looks like it's really being a thorn in their side."

"Well I'm afraid I wouldn't know anything about the latter. The former is interesting though." Ranii remarks. "So are they aware of an incoming attack? What's their plan if we do, beside using this... 'explode' move?" She's trying her best to not make it sound like she has no clue what explode is.

"Well, maybe another of your number knows more?" Ranii questions. "Still, you've done good so far."

"Well, it's a bit unlikely, they might know just as much as I do." He said with a small groan. "However the Grove has a big ship docked in the port, we do know that their boss is in there...perhaps there you will find more information?"

"Well, it's a start. If nothing else." Ranii says. "Thanks again!" 

"Oh and one last thing. I'm not quite sure how you got in here in the first place, but if you don't have a way to get out yet i could help you with that."

"We'll keep that in mind." Ranii says with a smile. "Now, I do believe we have a boat to sneak aboard..."

"Yeah." He nods to that. "This might be the last time we are able to infiltrate into the Grove's forces in any real capacity so we will try to make this count."

"Well, see you later. Hopefully." Ranii says as she and Luca head off to the boat in order to find a way on board...

They find said boat where it is expected to be, on Dryhaven's docks. It is a big boat that must have transported a lot of troops into Sands territory at the start of the invasion. Now as for getting in, well, the ship is berthed and there are gangplanks that could easily be accessible if there weren't guards guarding them of course. Though maybe there are other more subtle ways up on the ship, perhaps jumping aboard or climbing on the side?

"Hmmmm..." Ranii says to herself, a claw to her chin as she thinks the problem over. "Well, I could easily glide to the side or glide aboard. But the problem is that it only covers me...."

Luca sighs. If only he could jump better and higher... "I suppose I won't be far, I will just hide by the ship and lay low while you get in there."

"But... but then you wouldn't be able to back me up in case anything goes wrong." She protests.

She's got a good point, and he doesn't want to separate himself from her either. Is there a way for him to get aboard as well? He looks at that stack of boxes he was planning to hide by, it does look like he could climb them and then jump on the deck, he just needs to be sure no one is looking in his direction when he gets on top of them. "Hhhmmm, I might have a way to get on this thing."

"Oh?" She looks over to the boxes and gets an idea of what he's planning. "Alright. I'll glide over to the side and work my way up. Meet you aboard." She jumps up onto one of the roofs. She looks onto the target below, the ship, waiting for just the right moment to do this. When the time is right, she spreads her arms, and jumps off, taking to the air and carefully gliding over to the side of the ship, grabbing onto the netting just before she hits the water. She stops for a moment, listening to see if she has made any sort of commotion from her landing.

It seems like her landing did attract some attention, a Politoed nearby let out a 'huh?' and footsteps started getting close to her position. Ranii should probably make sure she doesn't seem, the most readily available place to hide right now is a bundle of sails on the ground nearby that she could hide under.

Ranii does exactly that, she crawls over the edge and quickly makes for a bundle of sails on the deck.

Meanwhile Luca is climbing on the deck, the coast was clear enough for him to do so but he quickly ducked once he was there. He then looks across the deck and sees a Politoed investigating something. He isn't quite sure what is going on over there but he decides to hide behind the ship's mast just before that pokémon decided that whatever he heard must have been just his imagination and went back to scrubbing the deck.

Ranii stays down where she is for the moment, trying to listen in for Luca to try to pinpoint him.

Things seem clean as they can be to move. Luca knows where Ranii is of course, her aura is unmistakable. He approaches that bundle of sails where she is hiding. "Ranii, it's me." He whispers, being sure that she will easily hear him and recognize his voice.

Ranii pops her head up upon seeing his voice and sees her boyfriend/partner right there. She grins. "Welcome aboard the SS Dinkleduck. Lamest ship to sail the seas!" She jokes softly. "Anyway, we're both on, now what?" She says.

He smiles at her joke. But now getting back to the business at hand, he decides to look for a way in the ship as it doesn't look like they can do much out here. A door on the quarterdeck of the ship caught his attention. "What about that over there?"

"Looks good, let's go." Ranii tells him as she rejoins his side.

They begin going towards it, and Ranii is able to hear something coming from the other side of that door. "I had to leave Bleached Bastion in a hurry because it was taken over by Sand forces! I thought i was told that the Grove was winning this whole thing with little resistance!" This voice, she must have heard it before...it sounds like it is from a certain rich merchant she met on the road one day. "They didn't hurt you on your way out, why are you being so dramatic?" An annoyed, gruff sounding voice responds to the last one. "Most if not all of your merchandise and assistants are still alright too."

Ranii suppresses a grumble upon hearing the rather annoying trader again. She continues to listen intently.

Luca stopped moving when he noticed that Ranii seemed focused again. 
The talking continues with the merchant saying more. "Well I lost plenty of time in Bleached Bastion. If I had any sense, I would have sold what I had to the forces that took the place over." 
"You wouldn't dare!" Now the other individual in there sounds like he is threatening him. "You won't sell to our enemies. The deal was that we would allow you to sell your goods to our side to get the economy flowing." 
The Umbreon remained silent for a moment. "...Tell me. Is the Grove really winning this?" 
"We have had some complications. But we will soon take the capital and end their pointless resistance." 
"You call it complications, but after what I have seen in the bleached bastion I very much doubt it's just that..." He huffs.

Ranii makes a motion with her hand to wordlessly tell Luca to keep quiet as she still listens in on all of this.

"Well I already have my hands full, unless you have anything good to discuss about i suggest you leave."
The Umbreon lets out an exasperated sigh. "I suppose I will go back home and tell my other associates to start moving shipments to this place. Clearly there is a shortage of supplies here..."
There is an irritated growl. "Haven't you heard? Something in the Oracle Sea is stopping our ships from getting through, and it's too much of a coincidence to be pirates..."
"W-wait, you mean..."
"We are going to... improvise. We know the Sands have their eyes on this town next, so we are going to burn it when they try to grab it, it will surely put the dock out of commission, and hopefully whoever they send will burn with it too..."

"Oh no..." Ranii whispers to herself.

"Huh?" Luca raises a brow, did Ranii said something just now?
The talk in the captain's cabin continues...
"Are you crazy?!" The merchant shouts. "Damn it, I want out of here then! I don't care if the sea is dangerous, I will pay for a ship if I have to!"
"Calm yourself. I guarantee you will be making your way back to Grove lands." The high ranking Grove member says. "I will arrange a vessel for you by tomorrow night. For now you just shut up and go lie down somewhere until the next night comes."

It seems like the important part of the conversation is done, or so Ranii thinks. She turns to her partner. "We need to get off this ship back to the base. now." She tells him. Her look is one of sheer urgency.

This sounds pretty serious. "Okay then." The Lucario nods. "Let's get the hell out of here."

Ranii nods, ready to follow Luca off the boat. "We'll have to find that wallbreaker back." She reminds him.

Luca decides to go with the same way he climbed on the ship. They just had to jump down onto the boxes and climb down and they were clear to run back into the town.

Ranii meanwhile decides to get off the ship the same way she got on: She jumps onto the side railing, spreads her arms, and then jumps off. From a side observer it might appear as if she's taking a swan dive, until she begins gliding towards the dock. She lands on said dock with practiced precision, a perfect two point landing.

Now to go sneaking through the town to avoid being seen by anyone that looks like they are with the Grove...If they did it once surely they can do it again. They find that Nuzleaf Wallbreaker around that same place they found him the first time too.

Once she sees that Nuzleaf Wallbreaker and sees a free place to talk. Ranii quickly walks right up to him "Yes Are you ready for autumn, yes yes trim leaves etc etc. Look, we need to talk." She grabs his arms and pulls him into an abandoned alleyway. "You too, Luca." She looks at him very seriously.

"Yeah I know it's you, don't need to use the code phrase." The Nuzleaf said as she dragged him along. Though he wonders why she dragged him along like this. "Are you going to tell me what's going on? Geesh" Luca has seldom seen his partner get this serious. "What is it? What did you hear back there, Ranii?"

"They're planning on burning the city." Ranii tells both of them bluntly.

"What?!" The both of them said at the same time.
"When?! Why are they going to do that?!" The Wallbreaker enquiries, that does not sound good at all...

"During the attack." Ranii explains. "They're planning on burning the city if they catch wind of an attack. With everyone in it." She says seriously and sadly.

"Are they really getting that desperate? Damn these Grove bastards..."
Luca did not think the Grove could get any worse, but it looks like they managed to do so...

"It seems they are." She sighs. "We'll need to return to the base with this news. And you..." She turns to the Nuzleaf. "You need to let your people know about this."

"Yeah, I will do that. With any luck we will be able to keep the damage to a minimum..."

"I hope so. A lot of innocents are going to lose their lives if this is allowed to go through."

"There is a small problem though..." Luca began. "We still haven't quite figured out how we are going to be getting out of here to get back to base and give the news."

"Yeah..." Ranii looks towards their new friend. "You said you'd help us with that?

"Yeah I did." The Nuzleaf nods. "We got a secret place, it's a house on the opposite side of the city, edging towards the wall a little. You will find more of us patrolling over there. After giving them the code phrase and everything just tell them you want a safe way out. Oh, and if they ask how you know about it, just say that 'Nuz' told you about it."

"Alright. We'll do exactly that." Ranii tells him, giving him a pat on the shoulder as a show of appreciation. "We'll make our way there now, hopefully we won't run into trouble on the way..."

"Alright then, be careful and don't let them see you." 
It's pretty obvious advice but it's all he has to say before they head out. The trip to the other side of Dryhaven was more of the same, going through alleys and avoiding patrols. They come across some sort of a bar though, whatever Grovel Soldier they could see nearby was drunk too, might say plenty about their discipline. When they got to where they were supposed to they noticed that there are plenty of guards around there with a red band in their arms, so it is certainly around here, a little wallbreaker safe space.

When she sees this wallbreaker hiding spot, she breaks her cover and casually approaches the red-banded 'Grove Guards'...

These might be the right ones but Luca still holds his breath when he follows Ranii right into their line of sight.
The mons they are approaching are...
A Cacturne, which looks like a humanoid, living cactus. He looks at the badges they have. "Hey. What are you doing here, citizen?"
And a Sentret, which looks like a round-ish meerkat thing with wide arms and a big bushy tail. "Yeah, what are you doing here, citizen?"

"I just wanted to ask you boys a question." Ranii asks innocently as she approaches them. A grin forms on her lips as she makes the question.
"Are you prepared for Autumn?"

"Ah." Now the walking cactus realizes who she is. "My ivy still needs trimming."
"The contract from Sandstone?" The other wallbreaker is a little surprised. "Can we help you with something?"
Luca nods. "Yeah, Nuz said you could give us a way to silently get out of here."
"Hhmm...that's a bit of an important secret, we really don't want the Grove finding out about...but Nuz told you so i think it's okay." The Cacturne looks around for a moment to make sure there isn't anyone 'problematic' spying on them talking. "Alright follow me." He and the Sentret begin going somewhere now.

Ranii nods and follows them. 
"We found out they plan on burning the city during the upcoming attack." Ranii explains as she follows them. "And we need to warn our general about it. Just like you need to warn yours."

"Are you serious?!" The Sentret almost shouted. "We really have to think of something then!"
They are led to a small home, If it looks kind of abandoned. They are led in by the walking cactus. "Mind the smell."
In the center of the house is a sort of living room with big pillows to sit at, and in the middle there is a box being used as a table. As for why the 'smell' was mentioned, well it must have something to do with that other Wallbreaker sitting in a corner facing away from everyone...who happens to be a Skuntank.
"...damn it..." Luca growls under his breath, he really hopes this smell doesn't go sticking to him or Ranii.

For once in her life, Ranii counts herself fortunate that her scent receptors are on her tongue instead of in her nostrils like a lot of other creatures, including her boyfriend. All she has to do is not open her mouth and she should be fine....
... Mostly. Even though she's keeping her mouth as closed as she can, a bit of that scent still somehow manages to leak inside, and it is rancid.

"Hey, smelly! Stop masturbating and help us here!" The Sentret shouted at the mon that is the source of the odor.
The Skunktank flinched and turned around to face then, by the look of it he was indeed masturbating there in the corner. "Fuck! Don't scare me like that!" When he sees that someone else is here with them he starts trying to hide his dick from view. "...gee i was almost finished..." He says under his breath. "Anways uuuh who are those guys?"
"They are friends of the boss and they need a quick way out of here, so let's show him our secret hole." The Cacturne says.
Luca is pinching his nose close. He doesn't know how these two can handle being around this guy, maybe they are used to it...He watches as the cactus and skunk walk over to that box there in the middle and begin pushing it aside to reveal a secret tunnel that goes down.
"Alright so here it is, this will lead you out of town, will be more than a little dark but just climb down this ladder here, crawl along the tunnel until you reach another ladder and go up it."
That is fine with Luca, his aura can glow in the dark after all so it should be fine, hopefully it's not cramped. "Alright, thank you very much for this, me and my partner really appreciate it."

Ranii guesses that the catus-person is simply incapable of smelling in general. 
She nods to the Skunk and Cactus, and looks down the hole. She wastes no time, instead of climbing down the ladder ,she simply jumps down, her light frame and feathers ensuring she hits the ground as lightly as possible. As soon as she's down, she lets out a held exhale and hyperventilates, finally free of that rancid smell.
"Thank the Nexus!" She exclaims. "I don't know how much longer I could have held that in."  She wipes her tongue, trying to get whatever taste and smell still remains on it out.

Luca doesn't jump down hastily like that though, he takes the ladder to go down, and when he was at the button he began taking some fresh air...or as fresh as it gets down in some hole. "That was rough..."

Luca charges up an Aura Sphere so they have some light to see as they go through this tunnel. It seems like it will be a bit of walking so he decides to start some conversation, just something to keep his mind off that smell they had to endure back there. "This is certainly turning into a tricky situation...have you ever seen anything like this, Ranii? An enemy wanting to destroy what they have so others can't have it?"

"Yes." Ranii sighs sadly. "It's one of the Miniknog's favorite tactics against the rebellion. In fact, they have a term for it: Scorched Banana. if the rebels are on the verge of taking a city, let alone a planet, they'll do everything they can to destroy as much of a city or even planet on the way out. Whether that's setting off firebombs or releasing toxins into the air to blot out all the light to make the planet unlivable, or using bystanders as shields in firefights..."

He doesn't need to say that this 'Scorched Banana' thing sounds horrible, way worse than what the Grove is doing, though that's probably because of the scale. "I see..."

Then they get to the other end of this tunnel. Good thing too, Luca thought it was starting to get cramped. When they get up there is a small trap door to push open to reveal the night sky, and climbing out of the hole they see this hidden tunnel leads them out into the desert a distance away from Dryhaven. There is also the fact that this secret tunnel is sort of hidden by a small rocky outcrop nearby.

"Aaand there we go!" Ranii leaps out of the hole in one jump. She gets outside, and ruffles her feathers a bit, trying to get whatever sand and dirt had clung to them from the tunnel off. "Now all that's left is to deliver the news to Aceo." She says grimly.

"Yeah, let's go. There is no time to waste." There was the need of some reorientation to find out where they were relative to the town, but when they figured out the directions they went on a straight trip to the camp of the republic's army.

It looks like they were not followed, as they certainly weren't intercepted. Once they reach the camp, Ranii goes up to the nearest mon she can find, not really caring who or what it is, and asks. "Where is Aeco? We need to talk with him. Now."

They get pointed to the commander's tent again, so that's where they go to post haste. Though once they arrived they saw that Aceo is currently lying on a bed there in the corner, he was just preparing to sleep a little but then he noticed that someone else just rushed in. "Aceo! You need to hear this!" The Lucario exclaimed. The Glaceon's eyes open wide as he gets fully awakened by the sudden shouting. "Eh?!!??!"

"The Grove..." She pants. "They're planning on burning down the city the moment we attack!!" She practically shouts.

"What?!" He sits himself on his bed and rubs his eyes. "That's...are you certain of that? Are they really going to be resorting to THAT?"

"I heard it from the enemy commander's own mouth!" Ranii confirms frantically. "In a conversation with an ally of theirs. I do not think they were lying about it."

"Well damn.'' He groans and rubs his face. "This is going to be tricky then because this really throws a problem at our plans. This is...nerve wracking to know but i'm gonna try to come up with something."

"I'll say." Ranii replies. "And I hope you can. Because otherwise a lot of innocent people are going to get hurt."

Welp, seems sleep is going to have to wait for him right now. "Well...besides that, is there any good news at least? Something we can use to our advantage?"

"Well, that codeword still works." Ranii replies. "The wallbreakers at least know about that now. Hopefully they can prevent some of the damage... I hope." She's trying to remember anything good that came out of this. It takes her a while to remember. But eventually... "Oh. Right. There is one silver lining. They've been having some sort of supply/reinforcement problems. Apparently there's some sort of troubles out in the Oracle Sea. So there is that." 

"Alright then, that is good." These Wallbreaker are being pretty valuable for their efforts. Now Aceo just has one last thing to say to close this. "You did your mission well, you should go to sleep now, tomorrow is going to be tough..."

"Yes sir..." Ranii gives a small bow of respect. She taps Luca on the shoulder, urging to follow her to the barracks.