Task Name: Gathering Supplies
Tier: 2
NPC or PC: PC
Location: Ennies Lobby
Crew, Team, or Personal: Personal
Description: While Exploring Ennies Lobby disguised as a Marine, you'll notice Supply Ships likely meant to aid travelling Marine ships with repairs, goods, and whetever else they may need. Stealing a battleship may be flashy and ultimately fruitless, but you imagine you could probably hijack one such supply ship and bring it to the Melusine, and then return it to Ennies Lobby. Of course, to pull this off you'll need to dispose of every Marine guarding it before they notice you.
Enemy Details: 10 T0 marines, 2 T1 Marines with guns and swords, 1 T2 marine with a rifle
Boss: No

Sunny... As always... For once Linnea sighed as she tilted her head up to gaze at the clear skies; anywhere else she wouldn't have minded, but In Ennies Lobby, and constantly gleaming sun over her head, was not only boring but hazardous even. For the Kuja Ranger, hiding in the shadows was the only way she knew how to survive in a place like this, surrounded by enemies. At least it was before she reached Ennies Lobby, at that point she had to learn another way to accomplish the same. The result was the white Marine uniform she now wore with pride, at least she played that part well enough not to draw attention to herself. Her long platinum hair had been tucked into a tight bun and hid under the Marine Cap, even if the hat still shaded her face as much as her usual hood might. What were Melissa and Flash up to, she wondered... Were they alright? That was the best she could hope for, really.

For now, Linnea just kept doing what she did best. She had already plundered and laid claim to a captured Pirate's treasure, though not without sustaining a few wounds when Mea wasn't even around to heal her. No matter, she had been applying first aid on herself long before she had a doctor; hell, long before she even had a crew. Thus, she took care of herself and before long she was once more ready to go back to her scouting job. Linnea took to the rooftops once again, knowing that's where she'd both have a clearer sight, as well as be safer. There would be a lot less Marines that could easily spot her while she was "patrolling" the rooftops, and the few who did wouldn't be able to get a clear look at her. That way, everything was perfect.

As she walked around, Linnea sighted the docks up ahead. One of the many docks on Ennies Lobby, to be precise. At times, they needed a whole fleet of battleships to transport a single pirate, not because they were worried the Pirate Might escape, but they simply had no way to know how many allies could come after them. But this time around they weren't supplying battleships... No, these were smaller, supply ships, smaller than the Melusine even. Each of these ships had a crew of Marines attending to them, and at that point Linnea had an idea.



Using A-rank Kenbu (20 HS Used)

As she stood at the edge of a roof, her keen eyes scanned the docks. How could she take down that ship's crew without drawing the alarm... From what she saw, there were a group of marines manning the harbor, a few loading crates onto the ship, and a stronger one that seemed to go around overseeing everything. The last one - the overseer - was most likely the head of this whole loading and supplying operation. Like most Marines, killing the highest ranked would disorient them until they could reestablish a chain of command... Yet beheading the snake would be difficult like this... Sure, she could take down the captain, but how would she do it without alerting the others? It would certainly be difficult but she had a plan that could work: Watch, wait, calculate.

Eventually, the Marines' leader would have to go away from his friend, if only to go to the toilet. And when she did, Linnea would be ready. First off, she repositioned herself up on the roof, shaded by a large tree next to it, and examined the crew and their supplies: She could see guns, food, bolts and screws... Other tidbits too. No doubt they were supplying the full "open water survival" package. These supplies... The Uroboros pirates could make use of them. More than that, she could also potentially use one of these supply ships to escape if it came to that. Ideally she should let them load everything onto the small ship and only then hijack it. She could hijack the ship without killing the marines, but if that happened they would sound the alarm and make each and every one of the 10000 Marines a whole lot jumpier. She couldn't have that either... Thus her standard plan would suit her best.

Soon she realized the large harbor storehouse could be used to her advantage. The way the Marines moved around inside it implied it to be a rather large maze of crates and storage shelves... If she killed the Captain, she could infiltrate it and continue from there. Bow in hand, Linnea awaited her shot... And she was eventually rewarded for her patience! Quickly drawing an arrow, she lined up a shot as she witnessed the Marine captain leaving the warehouse, right into the small alley between the building she stood on and the warehouse... And the moment he popped his head out, a silent arrow flew from above, piercing his skill and killing him instantly.

Active A-rank Kenbu (20 HS Used)

Used 1 T1 arrow

Killed 1 T2

The roof was pretty tall, but using ledges and railings to her advantage, she gradually climbed down from it onto the streets below, coming upon the slain Marine. She scavenged her arrow and wiped it, freezing the man's wound so he wouldn't make a large puddle or trail of blood, and then dragging him behind some crates. Cleaning the blood from her initial shot was surprisingly easy given how small the pool was, given the odd angle of her shot. The arrow, however, was no longer usable. Even then she could still remove it to avoid leaving any more evidence. If only she could master her ice arrows, her killings could grow even stealthier. Linnea had long known the strong potential of Ice to close wounds not unlike how fire could cauterize them, with the huge advantage that undoing freezing was far easier than reversing a burn. On dead bodies whose hearts no longer beat, preventing her kills from forming pools of blood was as easy as ensuring her killing arrows was too strong to ensure liquid blood could easily flow out. It would be a temporary solution given the small size of the arrows but for times like these a temporary solution was more than enough.

After hiding the deceased Marine captain behind some crates, Linnea scanned inside the warehouse... Two weak Marines at the other end picking up some crates, a stronger one walking around, and another closer to the entrance, seemingly in the same position. Silently, Linnea snuck inside the warehouse, immediately smiling in relief at the stacked up crates that kept her enemies from spotting her so long as she was careful. Turning right and then once again, she found the first Marine nodding off, hidden by the crates and shelves to sleep on the job. She couldn't risk him waking up when she was fighting the others, and wind up trapped between the two of them. Thus, this guy's fate was sealed. Drawing her bow and nocking her arrow, she effortlessly caught him with an arrow to the throat. She hardly needed to aim with her archery experience and Haki put together given how close the guy stood to her, but even then he still survived for a few seconds, wide eyed and choking in his own blood. Linnea pulled out the arrow and scavenged it, going back to sneak and examining the remaining foes.



used B-rank Kenbu (40/75 HS)

Used 1 arrow and scavenged it (1 expended)

Beat 1 T2, 1 T2

With this one dead, the Marines count was down to 11, with only one of them troublesome enough to have a chance at harming her. Still, all of the others could harm her indirectly, by alerting yet more enemies to their location. And so, next up: Now she had to eliminate more marines in silent... Soon they would be wondering where the other two if they weren't doing so already. Regardless, Linnea didn't survive all of her adventures by gambling. No she always tipped the odds in her favor before gambling anything. Linnea prepared her next course of action after verifying the two weak marines had left the warehouse with their crates, being replaced by two more...

"Hey, Tom!! Look at this shit!", hollered a foul mouthed Marine into the warehouse. This was bad. With a focused look, Linnea quickly realized where this guy was heading: Deeper into the warehouse, obviously looking for one of the Marines Linnea had already gotten rid of. Sneaking around, she moved back and took her position hiding behind a shelf. She couldn't peek out without alerting the Marine Corporal, so she chose to simply sit by and wait. The other two Marines were close enough to spot him should anything go wrong, "You better not be sleeping again you lazy bastard!!"

Well, at least now she knew exactly who she was looking for: Drawing three arrows, Linnea nocked them onto her bow and waited. This would be difficult but not impossible... All she had to do was wait for the moment when the two marines in the warehouse looked away. NOW!! Seeing an opportunity, Linnea drew her three arrows and peeked her head out of cover, quickly raising her bow and lining the center arrow with the enemy ahead, inbuing the other two with Busoshoku Haki. The Marine's eyes widened as he reached for his gun, but the utter, shocking surprise and Linnea's arrow speed was more than enough to intercept him before he could scream. The center arrow flew straight towards his neck while the Haki imbued two at the sides plowed through the crates and shelves, all the way to the slow, crate carrying Marines at the entrance. And in one fell swoop, all of them were taken out. But she had no time to stick around and and admire her comparatively meager feat. Some of the other Marines had turned its heads to the ruckus indoors, raising their guns but still mostly unaware of what exactly was happening...


Active B-rank Kenbu, used C-rank Buso (50/75 HS)

Used 4 arrows (5 expended)

Beat 1 T2, 2 T1, 2 T0

Spoiler:

With a quick dash, Linnea scavenged a single arrow from the falling dead Marine, before sliding down and quickly hiding behind a large crate. Whatever she was going to do, she had to do it quick, before the Marines spotted her. As they gradually approached the warehouse, some of them must have noticed something cause he hastened his pace and before long some other Marines were also turning that way. "What's going on over here... Danny? Tom?", he called out.

She had no time to waste... Linnea drew eight arrows, one for each remaining enemy. It was time to pull off a trick shot. But if she was going to hit 8 enemies at once, she needed to make sure the ones further to the front wouldn't be able to spot her. She could shoot at the speed of sound after all, so if the forward enemies couldn't see her in time, that would be more than enough. With a basic plan in mind, her keen eyes darted around her surroundings. She needed something, anything, any bit of debris that could be used to distract these guys for a split second. Eyeing a small rock on the ground, she kicked it further ahead to her right, knocking it into a shelf. From her Haki, she saw how the Marines further ahead looked in that direction, startled, and in the process saw the corpse of one of their own, "OH SHIT, INTRU...!"

He wasn't allowed to complete the sentence... With her Quartet skill and a doubled version from her bow, Linnea let loose eight arrows in tandem, calculating her enemies' position when each respective arrow reached its mark, and one by one they all fell down, silenced for good. The Marines were all dead. Finally... As the last one of them hit the ground, struggling to breathe, Linnea finally revealed herself in her full glory. She could tell that feeling in their eyes, she'd seen it all too often... Recognition. Many of her enemies realized who they had been dealing with in their last moments, and why every effort was futile. Marines of this level were hardly a challenge for her, the real challenge was ensuring they didn't call out any more allies.

Linnea finished loading the supply ship by herself, adding the 13 more visible marine corpses onto the ship. The blood was obviously still suspicious, but she did her best to wipe it off by cracking open some barrels filled with water. With this done, Linnea got onto the supply ship and set sail, heading for the Melusine. Halfway along, she dumped the thirteen dead bodies onto the open water to feed the fishes. Better they be used here that to alert the other marines to her actions, at least for the first few days.

Checking the supplies more closely, she found quite a few valuable gadgets and weapons, they could be used to resupply her grunts and the rest could be sold for Beli. Together with the Marine's own posessions, she had made quite the find with this supply ship. Her mercenary crew helped her load the things onto the Melusine when she finally reached it, leaving plenty of goods... And with that, she came back to Ennies Lobby. Heading there and back didn't take much longer than one hour, but thanks to being disguised as one of the many Marine supply ships, Linnea was able to get back and ditch the vessel before slipping back into the shadows, just as the Marines were slowly growing aware of her presence


[EXIT]


Used B-rank Kenbu(65/75 HS)

Used 8 arrows, recovered six (total 7 expended)

Spoiler: