Act 79: Avast Ye

Later, Spark and Shia are on the dropship, the former is just finishing up a sandwich he made while the latter is making sure their weapons are all in order as he picks a couple for himself.
Spark takes note that his pack member seems to be so forward-thinking when it comes to fighting, as soon as they had some time before their mission he did not hesitate to come here to prepare his weaponry...which he seems slightly indecisive about. "So uuuh, what do you think we should bring for this, Shia?"
"It's what I'm sort of trying to figure out..." Shia said as he picked up a pistol-sized railgun. "Things might get up close on an island, which might encourage usage of flexible things like small arms. But if we get into a situation where we need something bigger, someone might want to be carrying a long gun."

Loona's there as well, looking at the large selection of weapons. "I think a spear with an assault rifle backup will do fine for me. It's worked for me so far."
At that moment, two beams of light beam on board the dropship. Everyone turns to the newcomers, and sees the form of Veera and Eilumi materialize.
"Heya packies!" Eilumi loudly announces. "We're back from our break. We looked for you in the kitchen, but didn't see you there, so I assumed you were all here. So what's going on?" He says as he gives a stretch. The two of them had just gotten a quick bite to eat after they'd not seen either of them there.

Had Eilumi not announced their arrival so loudly, Shia would still be focused on his indecision of weapon. "O-oh, hey. You guys are done with your break already?"
Veera nods. "Yeah. So is everything okay? You look slightly bothered, Shia."
"I'm okay." The Luxray's hands get a railgun pistol and a sword. His choice of weapon are almost always these, but he is wondering if they are a good choice for this one.  When it comes to actual missions and not simulations Shia always gets very particular about what to bring to the field.
"Come on, don't need to worry about it so much, Shia. We cover each other's backs, it's what a pack does." The Raichu said before patting the other electric type's shoulder before picking up an assault rifle for himself.
"Hhmmmm...yeah." Shia nods and finally decides what he is going to bring, that being the sword aerogel sword and the railgun pistol.

"Yeah, we're done with our break." Eliumi says as he gives a glance towards Veera. "Luckily, we didn't break the hammock." He says jokingly. He then goes over to the armory, and picks out a pair of Gauss pistols.
"Dualies. Always worked for me." He says as he grabs them and puts them in a holster.  He looks around at everyone, his expression turning more serious. "Alright, is everyone set?"

Shia nods and holsters his sword behind his back. "Yeah, I'm all set to go."
Spark checks over his rifle one more time before looking at his packmates and then noting to affirm that he is ready.
Veera arms herself with a gauss pistol as well. "Is Nine going to be joining us?"

"Of course" Nine gets their attention. He comes in carrying a gauss microgun.
"Nine..." Khaun says with a sigh as he squares away a SMG.  "Are you sure that's necessary? These are most likely lightly armed enemies, if they're armed at all."
"The way I calculate it, it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it." Nine answers him as he puts on an ammo backpack.
"Well, I can't argue with that." Eliumi chuckles a bit.

"Always with the big guns, right Nine?" Shia commented with a Smirk. "I think we are all good to go now?"
"Yeah. You guys want me to pilot the dropship?" Spark asks them.

"If you want." Eliumi recalls that it took him a while to get it, but he eventually started getting good at flying it.

Spark got on the controls of the dropship and got the Ghost Bear Pack down to the planet so they could explore the Oracle Sea by air. They keep their distance from the city of Amber of course, and wouldn't want the locals to see anything flying in the sky. As they went over the many islands they thought they noticed something. It looks like a ship, made of wood...the typical sea-faring vessel of this world, it looks like it beached on an island and it's...empty.
"HHmm, that is odd, is there none on that ship?" Shia asked as he looked at the vessel in the water. "Someone must have put it there though, otherwise it would be just drifting in the water right?"
"And i don't think anyone would just leave behind a ship like this...as they are technology that was only produced in the times of the Iron King, they are pretty valuable." Veera comments on it.

"And even if they were just parking it there to do something on the island, you'd think they'd still have people manning the ship." Khaun notes as he sees the abandoned vessel.
"I mean it's not like they have automated security on those things." Eilumi adds in.

Spark looks at his pack for a moment. "Should I fly us in close to beam you down so you can check it out?" He asks them.

"Yes of course." Nine replies to him.

"Got it."
He flies down closer to the ship, allowing them to beam down to it.
Once there they can have a closer look at things, starting with the deck...it doesn't seem to be much around here. Almost as if the place was looted.
Veera is starting to suspect that there could be something waiting for them in the interior of the ship. "Shia...can you?" She requests.
"I'm already on it." Situations like this is where Shia's X-ray vision shines at, he makes use of it to see what's below the ship's deck. And he does spot something strange down there. "There is something down there scattered on the floor, I can't make out what it is, we should check it out. But i can comfirm that there doesn't seem to be any threats down there."

"Copy," Eilumi says. He nods to the group, and motions for them to gather at the door to the below.
"Nine, stay outside, we'll radio you if we need backup." Eliumi says, and Nine nods in acknowledgement.
"Everyone else, switch to thermal, and keep your ears and eyes sharp. Shia says there's not any threats down there, but I don't like this." He orders. "Sparks, keep our six checked. Veera, Loona, Shia, Khaun, you follow me."

The four of them go down below the ship's deck. Down there there are more signs of looting and broken crates and barrels. They do find something that is slightly alarming though when they got to that spot that caught Shia's interest.
The Luxray walked over, noticing small bits of light coming in through small circular holes on the side of the ship, when he looked down at the floor he saw dried blood splattered on the floorboard...and what appears to be spent bullet casings. "HHhmm..." He walked over to pick them up, inspecting them. These are indeed bullet casing. "It looks like someone was killed here, by the looks of things they lined them up and shot them."
"But the question is who did this?" Veera approached and looked over the scene with concern. "...The natives aren't supposed to have guns."

"No, no they are not." Eliumi remarks.
"Glad we brought along our own weapons." Loona says. "Because Iron is bad enough."
"Anyone see the bodies?" Khaun asks as he looks around.

Shia shakes his head. "Don't think there are any here, if there were dead bodies down here I would have seen them when I used my X-ray vision to see below deck."
Loona has a point, Iron is bad enough, so this has Veera concerned. "They must have taken the bodies, and I have the feeling they did it for a reason..."
Then Spark contacts them with some troubling news. "Guys, we might have an issue coming our way. Some pokémon just stepped out onto the beach and they are heading right towards you, there are 8 of them."
Shia has the feeling they are about to find out who might be connected to what happened here real soon. "Spark, do they look like they are armed?"
"Yes, they seem to be holding things that look like firearms. Oh dear..."

Eilumi nods, and sends a notification to Nine from his helmet.
Eilumi: Nine, heads up. Boogies incoming. Prepare for possible engagement.
Nine in return sends a message back.
9: 10-4. On alert. No visual yet, but keeping alert. Holding fire unless fired upon. Be ready to back up.
Eilumi: Pos that. Returning to deck.
Eliumi looks at his pack, who likewise just saw the conversation taking place.
"Alright you heard him. Everyone, back up to the surface. I have a feeling this is going to get ugly real fast."

The Pokémon heading toward the ship are indeed armed, but their guns don't look to be of the best quality. The ones in the back of the group seem to be working together to carry heavy wooden crate. One of them, a Golduck, was the first one to see Nine standing there on the ship's deck. "What?! Who is that? The ship was supposed to be empty!"
"Well must be someone who hid, let's kill them." A Keckle said before beginning to open fire towards the beached ship, the rest of the armed pokémon also join in on the shooting. It would appear like their weapons are automatic too.
Shia got up to the deck with the others just as the bullets started flying, he kept his head down as he ran into position to get a clear shot at armed assailants trying to kill him and his pack. He can see that those pokémon don't have much cover to work with, and they seem to know how to aim very well either, so that's some advantages for him. He took a shot with his railgun pistol and hit the Keckleon, the reptilian pokémon stumbles back as the projectile penetrates his chest and comes out his back...before another one pierces right through him and kills him.
Veera is more cautious, when she got to the ship's deck she made sure to look for some good cover near her pack instead of shooting right away.

Upon being fired upon, Nine's visor goes to red, like it did on that day so long ago. His tone becomes less like the Nine they all know and love, and more like a machine.
"Hostiles confirmed. Opening fire"
His avali gauss microgun sprays the general area full of the opponents with gauss bullets.
"Nine!" Eliumi shouts from behind cover. "Try to leave one alive for interrogation!"
"Confirmed" Nine drones back as he continues his suppressive fire, shooting not to hit, but to pin the enemy down.

Just when the pokémon down on the beach were processing how one of their own just got shot dead, as they thought they were the only ones with access to weapons like this, they were having to deal with a large volume of gauss bullets raining around them, not many of them are being able to fire back now and are vulnerable being picked off. It made them scatter in a disorganized fashion as they tried to find something to hide behind to protect themselves. The Golduck was able to find himself behind a rock on the sand, avoiding the fate of being torn up in gauss gun fire like two other pokémon that weren't so lucky ,then with a scared and angry battle cry he points his gun up and tries to shoot at Nine.

Eilumi sees the giant blue duck about to take aim at Nine.
"Oh no you don't!" He shouts as he takes aim at it, he aims one of his gauss pistols at the Goldduck's hand, hoping to shoot the gun right out of it, or injure it to prevent it from using it properly.

"Gah!" The weapon got shot out of the Golduck's hands. However it landed close enough that he could still reasonably reach for it while still being in cover, when he went to do so though a another shot hit the weapon and knocked it even further away from his reach, making it impossible for him to pick it up without having to go to it and exposing himself in the process.
Veera was the one who made sure the Golduck didn't get his weapon back, having taken that accurate shot with her gauss pistol.
Meanwhile Shia is forced to keep his head down as a Mightyena and a Tyrogue are spraying bullets a little too close to him.

"Concentrate fire on the big dog and the shell kid, they're pinning Shia down!" Khaun orders.
"CONFIRMED" Nine replies, as he shifts his microgun's focus over to the Mightyena and Tyrogue. However, a new problem soon arises, which nine's subroutines announce.
"WARNING: AMMO BELT CRITICAL. RELOAD REQUIRED."
The crew can only hope that what's left in the microgun is enough to take the two of them down, so they can concentrate on capturing that Goldduck.
Loona however, decides to not rely on the luck of the draw to do the task. She takes aim, and fires her smg at the mightyena, as it's the bigger of the targets.

Veera too joins in on shooting at those two to help take them down faster.
There is an Emolga and a Axew opening that big crate that they were bringing over to the ship. Both of them are very terrified of getting shot next, so they are getting desperate for something to help them out of this situation...
"Are you sure we should do that?! I-if we damage the ship..." The Emolga tries to tell him. "We should run while we still can!"
"If we don't do this we will be the ones getting killed, you idiot!" He argues back to her. "If we tried to run we are not gonna make it, so help me here!"
The both of them watch the Mightyena and the Tyrogue be cut down by gunfire, which pushes them to act as this might as well be their only chance to beat those strangers that also have guns...The two of the them move aside some guns in the crate until they find what they are looking for and they each pull out things that resemble small rocket launches.
With those two dead, Shia was safe to get out of cover. Before he could thank his pack for the support however, he sees something alarming with the last two remaining enemies. "EXPLOSIVES!" He warned before pointing his railgun pistol at them and trying to shoot them both. The Emolga got hit just as she was pulling the trigger, causing her to fall back and shoot her rocket up into the air instead. Though this left the Axew standing, and he was able to fire his weapon at the ship. And now the Ghost Bears have to deal with a rocket propelled explosive heading their way.
"HIT THE DECK!" Veera shouted to her pack members.

Even nine ceases his assault and hits the deck, his big form doing its best to leap out of the way. The others simultaneously follow suit, the two avalis and the linoone putting their arms over their heads to guard it, as useless as that gesture is against a rocket launcher.

Veera and Shia also threw themselves to the ground, trying to get away from the possible area of impact as much as possible. When the projectile strikes the side of the ship there is a loud boom as everything begins shaking and the whole vessel tilts to the side from the impact, this causes the ones lying on the deck seeking cover to experience things turning to the point they might slide a little if they don't hold on. The rocket made a hole on the side of the ship and took out a portion of the deck.
"Guys?! Are you okay?!" Spark asked over the comms, worried about his packmates well being. These enemies being so armed was something he didn't quite see coming, bullets are one thing but explosives...
"I'm...still here, i'm fine." Shia replied to his packmate on the dropship, as he looked around, from where he can see Veera is also okay, though she ended up with some barrels pinning her down but it's nothing she can't free herself from. Though he did notice that he ended up with a sharp piece of wood stuck to his left arm, he pulled it out before getting up and going to the other side of the deck to engage the enemy once more. He sees the Axew still there by the grate and looks like he's going to pick up some other weapon now that he sees that the explosive he launched wasn't enough to do them in. But Shia wasn't gonna let him do that though, he had ample time to take aim with his railgun pistol to shoot that dragon-type down and that's exactly what he proceeded to do, double tapping to be sure.
After these last shots there was silence in the air, there was no one else firing back at the Ghost Bears anymore.

Eilumi waits for a few moments, expecting the firefight to pick back up again. It couldn't be that simple, right? They couldn't all be dead or indisposed with just that?
Finally, he asks over his coms:
Eilumi: Is that it? Are they all down?

That was overall a small group of enemies that went down quickly to their superior firepower, so it looks like that for the moment it is over, there are still a few pokémon down there that are barely alive. The Golduck still seems relatively fine though, he looked like he was about to make a run for his gun but he can see that if he tries anything Shia will certainly shoot him too.
The Raichu on the dropship lets out a sigh of relief when he confirms that everyone is okay. 
Spark: Yeah, I think for now that is all of them. But...what the heck was that? Did they used a rocket launcher just now?
Veera meanwhile, has managed to pull herself from under those barrels. With the lack of gunshot going around she can deduce that maybe things are safe at the moment. She is going check over everyone to see if anyone needs some medical aid after that explosion. First she goes over to check on Loona.

Loona looks over to Veera, and tells her "I took a few scratches from some debris, but otherwise I'm fine. Shia's the one who needs the attention." She moves over to where Shia is, and points out the wound left by the piece of wood. She then turns and points her gun at the goldduck, knowing that while Shia is getting medical attention, he won't be able to keep the soon to be prisoner under watch.
Khaun also goes over to Shia, and sees the gash in his arm where the piece of wood was.  It's... quite bad, there's blood dripping down onto the planks.
"Veera, over here!" He orders as he takes out a medical bag and begins to work. "Shia's got it real bad."
"You down there!" Loona shouts down to the giant blue duck. "Stay where you are. Try anything funny or move at all, and we'll turn you into a pile of meat."
Eilumi nods towards her, and then looks to nine.
"Nine, come with me, let's take him and see if there's a few others we can capture or brain scan for information."
Nine, seeing that the combat now appears to be over for now, reverts his colors back to their normal blue, and his personality returns.
"Pos that captain." He says. He lays the microgun down, as it's too cumbersome to carry down with them, and unnecessary.  The two of them make their way down the ship, jumping down to the shore, and make their way over to the now indisposed 'pirates'.

Shia knows he has a wound, and it is stinging somewhat, but he didn't quite noticed how severe it was because of the adrenaline. "It's not that bad." He said in an attempt to make them not worry, but when he looked at it and saw just how bad it was actually bleeding, he realized that it was indeed bad. "...Ffffuck." He grimaces and holds his arm.
The Jolteon came over right away to provide medical attention to her Luxray packmate, getting a few things from the medical bag so she can begin working. In the past, Veera would be a bit nervous about treating someone, afraid of messing it up, but nowadays she is much better at this. "Don't worry, I got this." She gets to work without hesitation as she knows what to do.
The Goldduck remains sitting there as they approached. "What...what group are you with? Did they give these weapons to you too...?" He asks the two of them as they approached him.
The Emelga also looks like she is still alive...but is writhing on the sand, bleeding from the bullet wound she sustained and is likely to die if she is just left there.
Nine and Eilumi can now have a closer look at these weapons that these pokémon used. They look...shoddy to say the least, they look like cheap and very simply made 'rifles', with their magazines notably sticking out from their right sides.

Khaun is getting ready to help Veera attend to Shia's wound, when he gets a com.
Eilumi: Khaun, get down here. Need med on one of the prisoners. It's serious.
Khaun sends a reply
Khaun: Pos that, coming in.
He looks at Veera, and nods.
"Yeah, you got this." He says before he leaves to join the other packmates below on the sands.
As for Nine and Eliumi, the latter takes one of the weapons and looks at it.
"Doesn't look like USCM weapons. I'd say it looks like some of those cobbled together 'guns' you find in the sewers of some human colonies." He comments, making air quotes with his fingers.
"Group? What group?" Nine in turn asks, as he's not distracted by looking distastefully at the weapons on the ground.

Veera nodded to Khaun and continued to patch up Shia on her own. "Just...who are you people?" 
The Golduck asks again. "We thought only us were supposed to have these weapons!"

"We're the ones asking the questions." EIlumi responds threateningly to the prisoner. "And unless you want to end up worse, you'll be the one answering them. We can do this the easy way or the hard way, your choice. So we'll start with something easy: Where did you get your weapons?!"
Meanwhile, Khaun arrives on the spot where the emoga is, and begins to work.
"You're lucky we have rules on this. And that we need as many of you alive as possible." He grumbles as he begins to give the Emoga the medical attention it needs. "If it were up to me, I'd leave you for dead."

The Golduck whimpers. "We got them from these people calling themselves the New Kings of Iron. They have been unifying the pirates of the Oracle sea and have given us these weapons in preparation for something big...!"
The Emolga couldn't really say much in response, she is barely conscious from the blood loss and is still hurting badly.
After making sure the wound was clean and stitched back together, Veera began applying bandages to her packmate's arm. "I'm almost finished."
Shia had remained there holding his arm for her to work with, he did felt some pain as she worked stitching it up but he powered through it until it was done and getting bandaged up. "Thanks, Veera." He says to her with sincerity.
"You are welcome, Shia. Heh, I have been getting good at this, don't you think?" She comments as she finishes bandaging up the cut.
"Yeah, you really have."

Khaun gives her some pain killers to help dull the pain and patches her up the best he can. He is not entirely sure he can actually save her, especially out here in the field, but he still tries nonetheless.
Meanwhile Eilumi continues his interrogation.
"'New Kings of Iron?!'" He questions. "Tell me more."

He might be able to keep the Emolga stable, so that's a good sign at least.
"I don't know a whole lot about them, they only talk directly with the captains! We have been told to load these weapons into the ship in preparation to form a fleet." The blue duck then get's a little bit of bravado as he continues. "More of us will come with even bigger weapons when they notice what happened here. And then you won't stand a chance...!"

"We'll find out what you mean soon enough." Eilumi replies back. "It's the brain scanner for you. Nine..." He looks over to Nine, and nods.
Nine, knowing what means without him even saying a word, goes behind the Goldduck, and delivers a flat chop to the back of his head, knocking him out with one swift stroke.
With that out of the way, Eilumi looks over to Khaun, and sees him still at work over there.
"Hey Khaun!" He shouts. "Hows it going over there."
"She's stable." Khaun replies back. "Looks like she'll make it."
"Well that's good!" Eilumi replies. "... I guess." He adds under his breath.
With everything in order, he sends a PM over coms:
Eliumi: Alright everyone, let's get them wrapped up and back to the ship's hold for brainscan. Sleeping beauties here will need a few hours to wake up, so we have more time to investigate the islands after that.

"Brain scanner? What are you babbling about?!" The Golduck asked before getting hit in the back of head and knocked out. Passing out with a pained groan.
Spark says something over coms in response. "Alright then. Wrap it up down there before those others come. You know, the ones the duck spoke about."
"Fine by me." Shia said over coms before looking towards Loona. "You alright there?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Loona replies. "As I said, just a few scratches. My fur blunted the worst of it."
Down on the beach, Eilumi and Nine take out some cuffs and bind the Golduck and whatever other survivors there are, including the unconscious Emoga. In truth, they could have afforded to leave the Emoga and none would have been the wiser, but that's not really how they operate. And on top of that, it's better to have multiple subjects in case one knows something the others don't.

The ghost bears who were down on the surface beam back up to the dropship to secure their prisoners.
Shia dragged the Golduck into the hold and simply leaves him there. Sure he could have been a lot rougher with his handling, he could have just thrown the pokémon in there even. He isn't being gentle out of the goodness of his heart for those scum, he just follows the rules on how they need to treat prisoners.
Veera doublechecked the Emolga, just a quick look over, to see if she would be alright. Then she walks out of the hold with her Luxray packmate. "That's the prisoners secured."
"You guys plan to go down there again i take it? From what i can see the center of the island has a tropical forest. If these uuuh...what are they again? Pirates? Anyways if they have a foothold in there somewhere, it should be in that forest." Spark says to them. "I'm gonna let you guys down on another part of the island, if that ship is going to be swarming with me pirates with guns then it would be safer to enter through somewhere a bit safer, right?"

"Quite so." Eilumi says as he reloads his weapon, as does everyone else.
In all honesty, them having to go back to the ship worked out quite well for them, as it gave everyone the chance to reload and pick up more ammo. Nine in particular had to pick up a lot more rounds for his microgun, having spent most of what he had previously brought along laying down suppressing fire on the beach. None of them had really anticipated that they'd face gun-armed opponents, as shoddy and ramshackle as the 'guns' had been. During the previous trip they had not brought along near enough ammo for such an operation.
A bad oversight on their part. Now however, they were sufficiently prepared.

With the ghost bears (save for Spark) now more prepared with extra ammo for their operation, they beam down back to the island. As Spark had promised, he dropped them down somewhere else instead of the beach which might be swarming with pirates at the moment. The island's tropical forest lies right in front of them, will these shoddy 'guns' be the only surprise in store for them? It looks like they are about to find out...

The group takes a good look around, their ears and eyes scanning for a possible ambush, as unlikely as it is in this particular area, but more importantly, for an indication of what direction to head out in. Even on an island like this, heading off in some random direction is never a good idea: a waste of time at best, and an opening for an attack at worst.

As they proceed forward into the tropical forest, everything is quiet for a moment. Doesn't look like there are any ambushes waiting for them thus far...However this quiet doesn't last as they begin hearing gunshots ringing out far away from where they are, coming from deeper in the forest.
Shia stopped to hear the sounds more closely, he can definitively hear the sound of distant gunfire. "I hear them, don't know what they are shooting at but it doesn't look like it's us..."

"Yeah, I hear them too." Eilumi says. "Hopefully if we come in quietly, we can catch them off guard."

As they approach, they can hear movement closer and closer, eventually spotting a couple of the pirates talking with one another. These are armed with those crude firearms like the previous ones on the beach were.
"ugh...That slippery little fuck...when i'm get him i'm gonna shoot him dead...!" A Bulbasaur said, struggling to catch his breath a little. "Why did the captain bring them alive anyway? I thought those creepy 'New Iron' weirdos wanted dead pokémon, not live ones."
"Well, you know...the captain wanted to have some fun with them and all. But then they escaped and he sent us to take them back before the New Kings of Iron saw that it happened and it made him look like a fool." A Froakie responds to the other pokémon and then shrugs. "Still though...why would they want dead pokémon? Usually you think they would prefer their prisoners alive..."
"Don't know, I'm not really sure we should even ask. They gave us some good weapons but those 'New Kings of Iron' are just...really strange and we don't really know what they look like. I mean don't get me wrong, I like these 'gun' things, they kill better than iron! you saw those bigger ones? They were so loud and they blasted those pokémon to pieces! Too bad we can't carry those guns though..."
"Yeah they are powerful but..." The Froakie sighs. "Only the captain and some others are able to lug around those big 'Jetgun' things."

Khaun: Interesting. Very interesting.
This revelation reveals quite a bit. Though at the same time, it fills the group with more questions. Questions, that unfortunately will have to wait, as Eilumi adds a new objective to the roster.
Secondary Objective: Rescue captives
Eilumi: Alright. First, let's take out these guys. Make it quick and quiet. Then we search for the guy they were trying to shoot at. Might get some answers from them in exchange for safe passage out of here. Qui-Pos?
Everyone sends their reply over message with "Pos"
Eilumi: Very good. Nine, stand vanguard, conserve ammo, we might need it later. Loona, Khaun, the three of us will take out the plant with the thing on its back. Veera, Shia, you take down the frog thing. Shoot to kill.
Eilumi, Khaun, and Loona nod in agreement, and the group aims their weapons, ready to use their weapons superior range and accuracy to take them down from a distance. They wait for Veera and Shia to take their positions before beginning the ambush.

Veera and Shia also get into position to shoot at their respective target. The former first inhaling and then exhaling as she mentally prepares while the latter of the two is already in a good position to shoot. The both of them aim their weapons at the frog and wait for the signal.
The Bulbasaur turns to look at the side as he readies his weapon. "Did you hear something just now...?"
The Froakie get's a bit confused now. "Not, really. You think something's moving nearby?"

Too little, too late to avoid their fates.
Eliumi: Fire!
WIth that signal, the crew open fire upon the pirates, a hail of well-aimed bullets come bearing down upon the two pirates.

Both of the pirates get gunned down with precise shots to vital points, killing them both instantly before they even knew what hit them.
A few moments after the two pokémon hit the ground Shia came out of hiding and went over to them to check. Then he informs his packmates through the comms. "Both of them are down. We are clear over here." Now they would just need to find the pokémon these two were looking for...
They aren't exactly alone though, as shooting their weapon still makes some sound and it does attract the attention of someone. Someone who checks over from very far away through a magnifying scope attached to a gun. Though with all the foliage on the way, their position is not exactly ideal, so they begin jumping from tree to tree to get a better vantage point.

"Alright. Let's look for those prisoners, or whoever they're looking for." Eilumi orders aloud. "And keep your ears open. These jungles are always a great place for an ambush. We may have only seen them using primitive guns so far, but one of them mentioned something else, so we don't know when one will turn up with something a bit more accurate."

As they continue their search, they eventually do find a trail that seems to point them where they need to go, said trail is one blood trailing along, with bloody handprints even visible on one of the trees. They eventually find someone though. They found a Furret lying against a tree, the pokémon seems weak and can do nothing but whimper in fear when they show up.
The Pack's Jolteon nodded to the others before approaching the wounded pokémon to administer some medical aid. "It's okay, we are not here to hurt you." From what she can see it's a good thing they found this Furret when they did, that bullet wound is bleeding badly.

Khaun approaches the Furret, his medical supplies ready to administer what care he can, alongside his protoge. Meanwhile, the others in the pack keep their ears open for any approaching danger.
"Don't worry, we're not with the pirates." The avali assures his patient.

"Aah...who are you people...?" The Pokémon asks as he groans in pain. "Y-you have these guns like they do..."
"Still, we are not with them, I promise. This might get a little uncomfortable, just warning you..." Veera also reasured their patient before pulling out the bullet from his wound, causing him to let out a yelp. "There we go..."
"What are these things? The Pirates were saying it's 'new iron'..." The scared Furret has questions of his own, but providing him answers right now might be slightly difficult given their current situation as it might not be too safe here for long.
"I know you have a lot of questions but there isn't much time to explain right now. But we can help you get to safety. But can you tell us these Pirates are gathered around here? Do they have a camp or something of the sort?"
"I-i don't know why you would want to head to such a place, but yes, i know where it is. I came running from there."

"We're trying to hunt them down." Eilumi explains. "If there's more of you we can-"
He stops mid sentence, as he hears some shuffling some distance away.
"I hear something. We might have company."
At that, everyone other than Khaun and Veera keeps their heads up.
"Pos that, I hear it too." Khaun says, while still working on the wounds.
"Going to thermal." Nine confirms as he searches for the target.

"They should be hiding on a cave that way..." The Furrets points in one direction. Then he gets tense as the group goes on alert. "A-are they here?! Oh Drought help us...!"
Veera tries to calm him. "Please keep your voice down, maybe they don't know we are here yet...!"
Nine's thermal vision doesn't seem to be displaying any obvious threats...But he is unknowingly facing in the direction where there are crosshairs on a scope aimed right at him. Nine's thermal can not see whoever this is because their body temperature is regulated by their surroundings, as a result they won't stand out based on body heat. The Ghost Bears first heard the sound of the gunshot before the bullet came flying from afar, towards the Protogen.

The bullet flies through the air, and hits its target! But thankfully for the protogen, it hits at a very bad angle. The bullet grazes the arm of the cybernetic being, causing a large scratch that would be painful if he had been an organic being. It still causes him to grunt out "Ack!" in response.
"SNIIIPERR!!" Eilumi calls out.
"Hit the deck!" Khaun in turn shouts to both his patient and his protoge. He grabs the former and forces him down onto the ground. Nine likewise ducks to the ground, as he's a bigger target and is likely to be shot again, and even though a large chunk of him is durasteel, that still does not mean he is immune to gunfire.
From his position on the ground, Eilumi calls out again. "Try and find where that's coming from!" he says, and the two avalis listen in very closely for anything of note: movement in the trees, another shot, even a heartbeat, to try and pinpoint their attacker.

The Furret screamed and was about to run in a blind panic before Khaun grabbed him and forced him down to the ground.
Veera and Shia hit the deck to avoid getting shot, the latter cursing under his breath as he thinks the sniper might be too far away to locate with his X-ray vision.
The two Avali would be able to hear movements in the trees far away, that might be the sniper for sure. It looks like they are on the move to another spot to take another shot at Ghost Bears from another angle to keep them guessing as to where the shots are coming from. At least this means that they don't need to worry about another bullet coming their way soon after the first, but it would be prudent to find a way to deal with this sniper before he manages to get a lucky shot.

They listen to the sniper's movements. based on the noise they are making they are able to keep track of his movements generally, and what direction they are moving in.
They aim their guns in the general direction, and once they have a general idea of what direction their attacker is moving in...
Eilumi: Fire. That direction.
He and khaun both open fire in the direction they believe the sniper is in.

The two Avali look like they didn't hit their target, but they got pretty close because the sniper retaliated by trying to fire back at them! But it looks like he was a bit too hasty and wasn't able to pull the shot right, as it missed both Khaun and Eilumi. This makes it even easier for them to get another shot at the sniper before he moves.

The crew are able to triangulate where their attacker shot from, and they return fire as well, their shots ringing out throughout the forest.

Their shots...land on something, they hear a pained yell and something dropping down to the forest floor with a loud 'thud'.

They wait for another sound, or movement to fill their ears, but.... nothing.
"Did we get him?" Eilumi asks. "It's hard to see with all of this brush..."

There is no sound coming from that direction. If they go to check it they would find a fallen Grovyle next to another one of those weapons.

While it still looks like something very much cobbled together, it still appears to be somewhat better than the previous guns the ghost bears have seem in the hands of these pirates, granted anything with a little more effort could be an improvement over those poor excuses for firearms. the long barrel and the scope on this one is a dead giveaway that this is indeed a sniper rifle.

They check the fallen Govyle out. Nine does a quick scan to confirm that he is down.
"Lifesigns: Negative." He confirms.
Eilumi gives a nod, then turns back to furret, to whom Khaun and Veera are still tending to, especially now that the firing has stopped.
"Alright, now back to you." He says as he approaches him again. "Tell us everything, about how you got here and what these guys are up to."

"I take it you guys managed to get the sniper." Shia commented as he looked over the two Avali. "I was abit afraid that the other shot he managed to fire off hit one of you two."
"You are safe now, don't worry." Veera said to the scared Furret to reassure him, and maybe convince him to open up with all the details he has.
The normal-type pokémon gets to explain after a few shaky breaths. "I'm...o-or i was part of a crew of a Amber Guard ship. We thought we were able to catch some bandits by surprise but then they started using those weapons against us, killing us from afar before we could properly retaliate. They took over our boats, forced us to sail to this place and then started killing us...I don't know why they kept a couple of us alive. They took us to camp at the center of the island, they were gathering the dead bodies of my crew and taking them all into an underground entrance i...i don't know why. They were also talking about loading more 'guns' on other ships they have captured."
The Luxray then comes over. "How did you manage to escape?"
"I owe that to my friend, I don't know how he managed to break free but he untied me from the pole they had tied me to and we tried to make a run for it. B-but we got separated when we ran into the forest. I don't know if he is still alright, they had stabbed him in his back with something sharp and we couldn't pull it off..."

"From what the other pirates that we put down said, it sounds like the reason was for personal pleasure or something." Eilumi extrapolates. "Though this 'captain' must not have gotten that far yet."
"We'll try to find your friend" Loona offers a rare moment of comforting words. "But from the sounds of it, it doesn't really sound like they're still alive."
"Anyway, first things first. We need to get you out of here." Khaun says as he finishes up his care. "We have a ... ship of our own, but it's a bit different than the one you're used to. Standby."
Khaun: Come in Spark. We need a pickup for a hostage, my location. Prepare for beam up. He calls up Spark on the dropship.

Spark: Okay, i see you. Actually I don't really see you, the foliage is too thick, but I got your signal so I'm on approach right now.
"What's that sound...?" The Furret asks, confused at the sound he is hearing getting closer and closer. But for the Ghost Bear pack the sound of their dropship flying near should be more than familiar.
"It's a little bit complicated, but I promise you this sound is nothing to worry about." Shia says to the normal type.
Spark: Okay, I'm here.

Spark: Alright, i got it, hope he doesn't freak out too much.
Veera helps the Furret head over to a spot that is good enough to beam up from without much trouble. "Okay, now listen, whatever happens don't be scared okay? Things might get...a bit strange." That might be a bit of an understatement, she would try to come up with more to try to explain but she saw the confused pokémon getting beamed up to their dropship.
Spark: Got him.
With that taken care of, Shia goes over to his protogen packmate to see how he is doing as he notices that Nine has a wound that the sniper had given him. "That bastard was able to hit you? You ok?"

Nine nods. "It's nothing serious" He says in response.

"That's good to hear," Shia nods to him before they were on their way again.
As they proceed deep into the tropical forestscape, the Avalis in the pack would be the first ones to hear distant movements, many distant movements, it doesn't look like a patrol or anything of that sort, but it can be the pirates for sure...likely where there is the concentration of them.
Veera then steps on something wet, she looks down to see some red liquid trailing along the ground. She then remembered what that furret said about there being someone else with him that escaped but ended up separated from him. She had some hope that maybe they could save another pokémon from dying but when her eyes followed the dead body of a Vigoroth just lying there between some bushes. That nasty stab on their side, around the back, caused them to have bled to death. "I...found the other one." She communicates to the others.
Shia looked at the dead pokémon for a moment, acknowledging its presence now that the Jolteon mentioned it's there.

"That other guy won't be happy to hear about this." Eilumi replies to the sitution.
"Yeah." Khaun replies. "Though if nothing else, we can give them closure."
Khaun leans down, and gives the body a quick inspection, seeing if they can learn a bit more from it, while Nine commences a scan on the body.

There isn't really much else to be gathered from examining the dead pokémon, other than the fact that it looks like that prior to their deaths they were hit by blunt force here and there...indicating that their captors weren't exactly being gentle with them before they had escaped.

"Well, nothing else we can do for him now." Eilumi sighs.
However, it would seem as if their death is not entirely in vain. However faint, there is a trail of blood droplets leading from somewhere. It does not take them long to find the hideout. The group takes cover, and observes the scene in front of them from the safety of the jungle's concealment.

They would see walls made of wood up ahead, looking like the perimeter wall that surrounds the pirate's hideout. There are quite a bit of the pirates coming back and going to the entrance, where there is a Samurott that seems to be their captain.
The Avali should be able to hear the pirates talking.
"Captain, We lost two more guys and first mate Vyle didn't make it back. What do we do?" A Mankey in the group of pokémon said to his captain.
Then a Croagunk steps forward to say something as well, he seems much more impatient and nervous about the situation. "A hole was blown on the ship and the ones you sent to transport those weapons there were killed...What the hell is going on?! Is there someone out there killing us?!"
The Samurrot stomps the ground to get them to be quiet. "No panicking! If there is someone out there taking us out then we need to move faster. What about the other ship? Is it finished getting loaded with the weapons?"
"Not yet, captain..." A voice spoke from among the crowd of pirates.
"Blast it. Fine..." The Samurrot looks to the jungle for a moment before continuing. "Forget about going out and looking for those escapees, I want you all to focus on keeping this place secure until we move all the weapons out of the island. If you see someone outside these walls and they don't look like one of us, shoot them immediately." And with that said, the Samurrot turned around and walked into the pirate hideout. A number of his underlings followed but a few of them stayed around the entrance to keep watch on it.
Shia watched the scene unfold before turning to the others. "...Alright, how do we go about this now?"

"Well, spark knows how to use the onboard weapons, right?" Eilumi asks.  "I believe that if we attack now, they might attempt to make a run for it. If that ship escapes, he'll need to use missiles to sink it before it can get out to sea. Before that though, let's see if he can blow down those walls. If we go inside with them up, we'll be at a tactical disadvantage no doubt."

"Yeah he could." Shia thinks that's a good plan. He won't really be against making use of air support against the likes of pirates. He speaks in comms to tell Spark what to do.
Shia: Spark, we gonna need you to blow a hole in the perimeter wall, can you do that?
Spark: Pos that.
Even though they probably deserve it, Spark somewhat pities their enemies as he imagines just how it's probably going to feel to them to be attacked by a flying object that they have no idea what it actually is. It sounds like a terrifying concept. He selects the missiles and begins moving in to strike...
The pirates were on alert and guarding all entrances to the hideout, expecting the enemy to come from somewhere from the jungle. Some of them did see the airship flying and were left confused and wondering if they were seeing things at first, Then the mysterious flying object launched missiles at the perimeter walls of their hideout, causing a portion of it to collapse. The armed pokémon were left in disarray when the explosions knocked down a portion of their walls. Some were wondering where that came from, others also noticed the flying object responsible for the destruction and began trying to open fire at it with their weapons.

Eilumi: Right, CHARGE!
The dust and debris kicked up allows for a makeshift smoke screen for the pack to advance on the base, especially now that they don't have to worry so much about being routed into a chokepoint.
Contrary to before, they go in guns blazing, targeting the defenders while they're caught off guard and distracted with Sparks and his dropship-turned-gunship, Nine's microgun blazing away at the enemies firing upon the gunship.

As the ghost bears charge in, Shia and Veera pick target's more separated from the cluster of enemies that Nine is shooting at with his Microgun. When the pirates noticed that they were being attacked by more conventional gunfire they also began trying to fire back at their enemies.
It seems like the pirates have build a number of wooden huts here. There Pirates inside of them also coming out to fight or fire from within them. One of these huts gets destroyed when Spark had their ship launch another missile aimed right at it.
Hiding behind one of the makeshift wooden structures in the camp is an Obstagoon, he is holding a rather large firearm in his hands. This gun looks like it's around 1 meter in length and it's quite thick, even its magazine suggests that its caliber is pretty heavy. The Dark-type pokémon prepared for a moment before jumping out of hiding to shoot his weapon at the flying object that is raining hell upon his comrades. The shots fired from this weapon are not like the ones from these low-quality guns, its sound is quite loud and the rounds it fires are detonating when they hit their target.
Spark can feel small tremors through the ship now, and the systems are reporting slight damage to the hull. That's...definitely a little concerning.

The noise however attracts the attention of the rest of the pack members. Nine in particular focuses on his microgun. He opens fire upon the Obstagon with the larger than normal weapon firing upon the dropship

Nine's microgun quickly put down that pokémon with the volume shots it fired. The Obstagoon ended up quite shredded from that.
Meanwhile the rest of the pack is managing to take down more of the pirates. Shia does end up getting shot a couple of times though, so he takes cover to compose himself for a moment while Veera covers him, shooting down a pirate Mankey before he could shoot at her with that rifle of his.
That pokémon with the larger caliber weapon wasn't the only one armed with such a gun though, a Rhydon armed with another one showed shortly after the Obstagoon had perished. But unlike the Obstagoon, he instead focuses his firepower on the pack members on the ground rather than the ship.

It's Khaun that sees the bigger gunned Rhydon in time however.
"Heavy gunner, hit the deck!" He orders out loud. The rest of the pack ducks just in time.

Veera took ducks in cover with Shia.
Shia: Spark. The one with the big gun!
Spark: Yeah I see him. Firing now.
The Raichu piloting the dropship saw fit to fire another missile at the Rydon and all the other pirates around them, the explosion also took out one of the wooden huts.
The pirates seem to be retreating in a panic now that they lost those pokémon that had those more powerful weapons, they are all running to one of those bigger huts in the center of their hideout.
Another but gets blasted to pieces...but that wasn't the Ghost Bear's doing, as it was done by something coming out from within, something big. It looks like a pokémon...but the way it is made of metal makes it very clear that it is very much a robot. The hydraulic noises its legs make with every step also give that away.

The Luxray pokes his head out of the crates he was taking cover behind to look at that machine. "That's a...robot?!"

Eilumi briefly pokes his own head out of the rubble he was taking cover in. As soon as he sees that thing, he ducks back into cover.
"They have a fucking mech?! You gotta be fucking kidding!" He complains. He looks to his other packmates. "I don't suppose any of us brought any sort of anti-tank weapons?!"
"How the hell were  we supposed to know we were going to need anti-tank weapons?!" Loona argues back. "This was supposed to just be a floran hunt: Get in, knock around some poorly-armed pirates, and get out."
"Shit." Eilumi growls. He gets on PM.
Eliumi: Spark, we have a problem. They brought along a mech. I don't know where they got that thing, but if you're out of missiles to take that thing out, we may need to extract and abort, and come back with the Siegehammer.

Spark: I got one more missile. I hope it's enough.
The dropship was about to get ready to fire at the machine. However, the pokémon-like robot's claws open to reveal gun barrels which it uses to begin firing more of that explosive ammunition. The Raichu piloting was forced to do evasive to avoid getting the ship damaged.
Veera hoped that the armor on that thing wasn't too advanced, she tried to shoot it with her railgun pistol and unfortunately the projectile couldn't penetrate that armor, it doesn't look like it even care that she tried. "This is bad...!"
Is nothing going to damage that thing? It looks like it's going to be hard to evade it if it got their ship pinned. Shia looked over to that weapon that the Rydon was using.
Shia: I think we might have something we can use.
The Luxray would holster his handgun and rush out of cover to go pick up that large weapon while the machine's focus was on the dropship. When he picked it up it was quickly apparent just how heavy this thing was. Shia curses under his breath as he tries to aim the weapon at the robot as best as he can with it having no capacity to interface with his nanites to make this an easier task. He pulls the trigger and the recoil immediately makes everything shake for him due to how strong it was, and he was sure his shoulder was going to be more than a little sore from that.
The shot connects against the robot and makes a crack in its armor. This also caused it to see the Luxray as an actual threat so it began changing its focus to him, and with it came the hail of explosive gun fire.
"Fuck!" Shia could not line up another shot, he underestimated the recoil of this heavy pierce of metal that he proceeded to drop so he could have enough mobility to start running to avoid getting shot to pieces by that thing's weapons.

Nine knows his microgun, though brutally effective against infantry, isn't going to do much of anything against a mech, let alone one of this size and armor, much less the weapons that his packmates brought along. Even if they brought grenades, that isn't going to do much.
They could keep trying to use that heavy weapon that the pirates had, but even if they did have enough ammo for it, which is unlikely that they'd scrounge enough from the ruins even without the robot actively breathing down their necks, it would take far too long to destroy it. He also notes that none of the pirates seem to have anything else that could be used as an anti-tank weapon.
There is one hope however. If he could beam back to the ship, and grab that Seigehammer, and beam back, he could perhaps...

Beaming Nine up while making sure the ship doesn't get damaged by the explosive shots would be too hard of a task for Spark. When the machine's attention and gunfire went somewhere else it gave the Raichu a chance to launch the last missile the dropship had.
The explosive projectile hits its target head on, the resulting explosion stops it from attacking any further. When the dust settled they could see that the robot got severely damaged, having lost quite a portion of the side of its body. Half its face, its left arm and a sizable portion of its armor is all gone. At first it looks like it got taken out as it just stands there...but then it's one remaining eye blinked yellow as the thing seems to have managed to reboot itself. Making itself move seems to be quite an ordeal for it now though.
Spark: It's still moving!?
It seems like it is still functional, but as damaged as it is it's not as dangerous anymore. It has just one arm it can shoot with now and it probably can't quite see right with one eye. Not to mention the fact it lost most of its armor, exposing its inner workings which might be fragile and presents a chance for the Ghost Bears to be able to destroy it with their current weapons.
Noticing this, Shia thinks it might be doable to take out this thing if they all work together. That thing he sees glowing on the middle of it's chest seems like a core they could shoot at. "Guys! Let's hit it now while it's still reeling from that!"

Eilumi and the rest of the pack  likewise see the opportunity that has opened up before them.
"Right, you heard the 'mon! Open fire!" He yells.
All of them carefully take aim, and open fire at the now exposed core of the mech.

Veera didn't know if she would be able to accomplish much with her small weapon, even if it's shooting at the robot's weakspot, but she does join in on shooting them.
Shia, with this large weapon that must be one of those 'jet guns' the pirates have been talking about, braces himself as much as possible before firing at the machine, managing to squeeze out a burst of three shots.
The shots asail the robot's vulnerable insides, they hear the sound of things breaking in there. The whole thing began glowing orange as its core went critical before exploding violently. Everyone could feel the strong and warm push of the wind it generated when it exploded.
Shia closed his eyes because of the flash and stumbled back a little. That, that looked like it did the trick. He opened his eyes again and blinked a few times to see the burning wreck that was that robot that tried to kill him and his pack just now.
Shia: The damn thing is down. That was kinda close.

Seeing the thing explode fills the rest of the pack with a sense of releif. Eilumi takes a deep breath, and lets it out just as fast.
"Yeah..." He pants as he replies back to Shia. "That was close."
It only takes a moment for them to remember something however, as the euphoria of defeating such a large foe quickly gives way to a renewed sense of awareness of their current situation: they're still in the middle of an armed pirate base, with armed pirates around.
At least in theory. Eilumi can't help but notice that the machine, or mech, whichever it was, was fighting alone the whole time.
"Sooo, where did everyone else go?" Eilumi asks no one in particular.

"I think i remember seeing them all retreat that way." Veera would point to that one hut that is bigger than the others, located in the center of the pirate camp. "...Should we also get a Siegehammer while we have a breather here?" Who knows if there would be more of these dangerous mechs around after all.
After doing a quick check around to make sure there were no other hostiles around, he went back to his pack to report what he found. "I don't see anyone else out here. But i did saw wheel marks heading out the other gate, my guess is they are transporting more of those guns of theirs to that other ship we heard them talking about."

"Well, looks like we better get in there. We don't want them to get away." Eilumi says.
"Plus that other guy mentioned hostages. We should get in there before they get the idea to kill any that remain." Khaun adds in.