((Two missiles just *appear?*

**Finnegan's Tradehouse**

The scaly ridge that took the places of eyebrows lowered inside Purple's helmet, and he was already ordering them to be neutralized as soon as possible. When she 'clicked' her fingers and two missiles soared out from an unknown spot in the air some distance away, she would probably be in for a surprise.

The two unmanned gunships ran completely on their own, only able to take orders from Draconian units with command authorization. Currently, they hard orders to flank the manned gunship as best as possible. That doesn't mean that their processors would willingly let missiles destroy them that aren't marked as Draconian, even less when they're in a combat mode setting, as they are now. Instead of just exploding as the trader clearly expected, the AIs within detected, deduced, and acted. The moment they appeared, they were well within range of detection range. It didn't even take a moment to decide that they were hostile, and combat countermeasures were to be enabled. The next moment was the AI choosing which actions were required to stay undamaged. 

Flares shot out in all directions, looking, to the untrained eye, that it had exploded in a shower of sparks. At the same time, its rotors, already spinning fast enough to raise it higher, only the angle of the blades keeping it less efficient and therefore, closer to the ground, switched to the most efficient way to push air downwards, and rose, even as the rotors themselves increased their RPM. The result was the two unmanned gunships rising up in the middle of a ball of flares. The two missiles sailed neatly under the two gunships, arcing upwards in an attempt to catch its target even as the flares interrupted their targeting systems. 

With that, Purple barked out orders, calling for the Commander that they had a situation and that she was now a most definite combatant. The infantry unit she had decapitated rose up again, blind and unable to see or hear, but its connection to the other units allowed it to function without, though not quite as accurate or efficient. Weapons rose; the soldiers and infantry units backed up, opening fire on the hostile Shipmaster. At the same time, the gunships moved back towards the shuttle that sat some distance away, already identifying where the cockpit should be based on position of the view windows and the shape of the shuttle. They wouldn't destroy it, just smash the cockpit to uselessness. Cannons swiveled on the bottom of one unmanned strike gunship, clearly aiming to fire on the armored soldiers of the Trader's Guild.

As Purple activated his cloaking device, making him disappear from sight, it became obvious that he was retreating- elite or no, his primary goal is the protection of the Commander. 

All around, automated infantry units and the other soldiers began appearing, taking in the hostile units, marked on all of their HUDs, and opening fire with armor piercing or fragmentation rounds. Fragmentation was not so useful against armored units, but one shot would probably tear apart the smaller Shipmaster, and the AP rounds were good for crowd control because they went through a dozen people before stopping. 

Purple turned his back on them, and ran back inside to fetch the Commander, just as the two heavy tanks began to turn to open fire.

But then several more ships appeared in the sky. Goldy ran out of the primary house at the same moment, crossing distance at a surprisingly fast pace, faster than one might think an armored soldier could manage. Staring up, he ordered what would obviously be a retreat. The soldiers firing on the Shipmaster of some Trader's Guild ceased fire, turning and running while the infantry units followed their example at a slower pace, while still firing on the Trader and her guards. The gunships, too, began moving back towards the burning ship, hovering over the forest some distance away to provide support. The two tanks stayed, eventually being surrounded by the infantry units, providing a reminder to stay away from the burning ship to all the ones at the Tradehouse.

The APC and anti-air unit traveled back along the forced path made by the tanks, soldiers disappearing into the forest to meet up with the soldiers trying to rescue whoever they can from the burning ship, some distance away. It was clear that the Draconians were scared off by the arrival of a small fleet; it appeared and they ran, thinking that it may be another enemy.

Based on the activity around the burning ship, it'd be unwise for anyone to approach, from the flattening of trees and rise of multiple air units and smoke pouring from machines that weren't burning.