high_seas | PIRATES vs. NAVY BATTLE LOG

Though they find it unlikely due to a lack of easy places to drop anchor on this side of the island, the Navy isn't ruling out the possibility that ships will attempt to attack from the south and send pirates ashore to infiltrate through the forest. It may seem calm and quiet if you choose to come through this way, but that's only because they've got gunmen waiting in the trees to pick you off.

And to the Northwest lies the dirty dishes!

Actually, no. There are no dirty dishes on the Shepherd, because Smoker runs a pretty clean ship, mind you. Even when he's not running it, just steering, and making damn sure that the tricky shoals don't tear her hull from hull to stern. Still, there's a reason he banked the ship way over here. He knew where he'd fortify his own marines, and that gave him a good guess as to where the rest of the mar-- navy would be.

And so their ship is safely tucked away for anyone needing an escape without utilizing the help of pirates, who, by the way, are far more likely to have dirty dishes, those slobs.

Unfortunately for Smoker, simply banking the ship in unexpected and difficult to reach places is not enough. And so when he goes tromping through the forest, he gets shot.

Were he shot by bullets, this would mean very little and he would continue on like nothing happened.

Unfortunately, his sudden sounds drew marine fire that was meant to simply shoo away wildlife, which means he got shot with a water rifle. Which means it stings like a bitch and he can't just simply turn into smoke and ignore it.

It's a sad day to be a marine vice admiral. And Smoker is not a man who's had many good days.

That does it. The sunglasses are coming off.

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

[For the moment, Henry was still stuck with his babysitter and he wasn't very happy about it. Not that you could tell by looking at him, since the kid doesn't ever stop smiling. He was just good at making the best of a not-so-ideal situation. For now, at least, he was going to do as he was told and stick with Smoker

And then the navy attacks and Smoker takes his sunglasses off and Henry suddenly becomes very excited. He can't help it, even the possibility of danger is a very fun thought, so it's impossible for his grin not to get wider.]

Ooh, ooh, are we going to fight them?

No. Keep quiet. [Growls, but he's looking all around the woods as though he expects their foes to literally jump out on top of them.]

Awww... why not?

[To his credit, Henry does quiet down slightly, just speaking in a whisper.]

I mean, we can totally take them...

That's not the problem. The problem is we don't want to fight them.

[You're going to give him a headache, aren't you?]

[Let him just try to process that.

...

...

Yeah, no, he's not following.]

We don't?

Right.

We can't talk to them yet, but if we fight them that chance will never come. And none of this will solve anything.

But... if we kill them, they'll be gone. And then they can't bother us anymore. How does that not solve things?

Because there are more mari-- navy then just the ones here.

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havesomedeath - 2014-01-02 19:47 (UTC) - Expand

If you didn't drop anchor it wasn't all that hard to pass by and release a few longboats. (Not counting encounters with Ace) Now one of the landing parties was making their way though the thick woods.

Harlock's hacking his way though the undergrowth with his gravity saber which despite appearance does slice as well as any other sword.

"Damn I can see why the locals don't like it out there. Something isn't quite right."

Elissa suddenly reached out a hand toward Harlock's shoulder and gave him soft shushing sound. Leaning closer, she whispered, "Careful and quiet. We are not alone." She pulled the elaborate longbow from her back harness and gave a discreet nod toward the trees. "Twenty yards forward, straight ahead, fifteen feet up. Slightly to the right, twelve feet up. To the left, at a similar height - men with long weapons of some kind. There appear to be more by the hulking lumps in the limbs of other trees. Some of them have hats like Haytham."

"So they have snipers out there. They're not as stupid as they look."
They could go around but that would cost them time and who knew how many groups were lurking in wait. Besides it's been a while since he's had a few people for target practice.

"Any closer and we'll end up in range. We should take them out now before some other group comes by."

"Swordplay is my strength, but these men are entirely within range of my bow as long as I do not run out of arrows. Just like... hunting... back..." As she is speaking, Elissa is nocking an arrow and sighting at the nearest lump in the trees. The arrow zings through the air and slams into the Navy man, causing his hat to fall off and his musket to tumble to the ground.

"Home."

Harlock raised his gravity saber and took aim and one of the other lumpy shadows in the tree and fired. We watches the sniper tumble out of the tree.

"Swordplay fell out of favor for a long time but I've seen these days your better off with a Gravity Saber against machine men. Not everyone has a best friend who's brilliant at inviting weapons. Besides it's over to quick when you duel with pistols."

By now, the others waiting in the trees had taken notice and not all of them were waiting above. Elissa pivoted as a man popped out from behind a tree and tried to take aim with his musket, but she fired before he did, her arrow hitting him squarely in the throat. He was dead before he hit the ground.

"We need to move. My supply of arrows is limited. How are you at silent movement, Dear H?"

The Sharingan had picked out the forms of men hidden in the trees, smears of chakra waiting intently, but the forest had still turned out to be the least dangerous location to attempt landing a boat. Sasuke's understanding of sailing was, after several weeks on board, still somewhat lacking, but even he could tell from the way the waves were crashing violently against the sheer drop of the mountain that the flimsy longboat carrying the rest of their ramshackle landing team was unlikely to make it anywhere but the gentler shallows around the woods.

His instincts were to simply burn down the forest with all its would-be ambush teams, but they were trying to move silently this time -- which meant visual illusion, carefully woven over the small craft, and auditory, disguising the hum of their movement. It had been a long time since he'd needed to weave genjutsu without the Sharingan, but at this distance there was no possibility of eye contact, and no efficiency in attempting it beside.

They'd already warned the crew to stay silent and look out for stray shots before coming into sight of the landing point, a slight dip in the curve of the sandbar where the current weakened before sweeping back around the exposed rock of the island. There -- the inevitable crunch of the bottom of the boat meeting sand.

With any luck there was enough noise from the roar of the surf coming in and the increasingly loud cannon fire towards the north-east that they could be among the trees before their lack of close strategy told and they spread too thin for the illusion to cover all of their number.

Leaping out of the beached boat, Sasuke signalled for silence and hoped that it would be followed. If nothing else, Itachi was (bizarrely) following his request to stay close; hopefully between two pairs of Sharingan eyes they would notice the waiting chakra shift to intent quickly enough to anticipate attack.

Marvelous took a leap out behind Sasuke, Gokai Gun drawn and waving back and forth across the trees as he sought any sign of movement. Finding none initially, but not lowering his weapon, he already began to step forward onto the shore.

"Stealth's not usually my strongest point, y'know," he said. Though, to his credit, he had left his absurdly bright red jacket back on the Murderess.

Likewise, Luka had eschewed her typical brightly colored yellow attire. Which was evident as she walked up behind Marvelous, not using the same level of theatrics as her captain.

"He's right," she said. "The man makes a point to say 'let's make a show of it' every time we get in a fight."

Of course, she said that with absolute fondness in her voice.

This is your life now, Sasuke.

"It's fine to make a show. We just make it where we want them to be." Truth be told even that went somewhat against Leo's normal wartime sensibilities, but she was, for all her talk, grounded enough to realize that the best course of action was probably to do what she knew best where it would be most helpful.

Which meant kicking up a huge commotion where it would serve as a distraction to the rescue attempt.

Basic genjutsu like he'd been using should not be as tiring as it was, but he should still have plenty of energy for actual fighting if it became necessary. As promised, Itachi stuck close to his brother at all points once they left the ship. He stood beside him now, a silent shadow, listening to to others with their much brighter spirits.

He had never been excited to go on a mission or to enter combat in general. It was just something that needed to be done, the hope being that if he did what he could then others wouldn't have to follow in his footsteps later. That fighting spirit, that desire to test one's strength, he just didn't have it.

Nothing he said would likely sway the others, and they appeared to have their own plans, so he turned his attention to Sasuke to let the other know that he, at least, was ready to do as instructed.

He'd half-feared that Marv would go into battle in that coat and that Luka would enable it, as she seemed to do much of his showier antics. It wasn't as if Sasuke had never been teamed with someone who dressed in hideously obvious clothing (though he preferred not to think about that as rule, for a variety of reasons), but to add on top of the colour the noise and the lack of shinobi-subtle movement would have been asking to be shot.

That the other crew that had joined wanted to make a commotion as well didn't bode well for the rest of the trip, and Sasuke briefly entertained the notion of signalling to Itachi to speed ahead and make the journey to their goal with considerably more efficiency.

There was no guarantee that they wouldn't at least want the cannon fodder deeper in the forest, though, and there were practical reasons for keeping at least their own crew somewhat unharmed.

"Wait until we're deeper in the woods and have cover before getting too excited," he said, keeping his voice low at least. "This shoreline is being watched, and they have the advantage right now if we're heard."

He wanted both his and Itachi's chakra usage, currently draining into maintaining the genjutsu, down to a minimum sooner rather than later, though -- without bothering with further instructions that might very well go ignored, he headed for the treeline.

"Eh, don't have to tell me twice," Marvelous said, absently spinning the gun on on his finger as they walked.

Really, he knew well enough that starting a riot this far out would only serve to hinder them. There was no telling just HOW many Navy soldiers were littered all over this place, and he needed to bide his time before he really cut loose.

There's be plenty of time for that once they got into the main town.

Codi has, to her credit (and probably everyone's immense relief), remained fairly quiet during all of this. She understands stealth even if she doesn't often practice it--stealth is, after all, just another form of surprise, and Codi enjoys a good surprise. But with how quiet the forest is compared to the idle chatter of the group she's landed with, it's becoming difficult to keep up her indoor voice.

"...Do you think any of them were crazy enough to set up in the forest?" she asks no one in particular, stalking as quietly as she can through the underbrush (although probably making a hideous racket in her sneakers compared to the two ninjas leading them). "I mean, the locals seemed really paranoid about this place. I wouldn't put it past the Navy to be just as superstitious as they are."

PIRATES vs. NAVY BATTLE LOG

THE FOREST

Shepherd is like totally the best ship ever okay

Smoker's been SHOT

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Long boat raiding party

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Party (Long)Boat: Murderess & Sinewave Crews

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