Forward
I apologise for the brevity of this prologue. It is also in English, as opposed to American English. Again, I apologise for those of you viewing this document from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Whether I continue with this story depends on the reader response. I normally write strictly real fiction, if that makes any sense. Considerable artistic license was taken in an attempt to make the world of Final Fantasy Eight more immersive and real. I apologise for any mistakes but I no longer own a copy of FF8 for reference. Please report any mistakes, and I will endeavour to correct these.
All characters and places are copyright of Squaresoft and will remain so until the end of Time. (Approximately four trillion years, for anyone who's interested). Without further ado…
Double-Edged
Prologue
"War can not be avoided. It can only be postponed, to the advantage of others"
Niccolò Machiavelli
Flight Lieutenant Herio Genrey was pressed to his seat all of the way through the 5g manoeuvre that pulled at his entire body. He gripped the flight stick with all of his might, levelling off after turning completely around to face the oncoming planes.
"This is Red One, clearance to engage targets given by Esthar Control. Happy hunting, gentlemen." The steady buzz of missile lock drew the lieutenant's attention and he pushed the red button on top of the joystick. "Fox One," he shouted over the airwaves as the black smoke of the missile trail shot out from underneath the belly of the plane forwards into the swarm of incoming fighters.
"I'm painted, trying to evade."
"Missile on your six, Red Two, launching AMRAAM...easy...Yeah, baby, bandit down."
"Shit, missile inbound, launching chaff and flares...no effect." The sound of a massive explosion filled the airwaves, and the room. "Fuck fuck fuck. Engine One on fire, isolated, engine two inoperative, hydraulics and electrics fried, I'm evac. Shit, the eject mechanisms gone, I'm going down. Ma, I love ya."*
Squall moved a finger across his throat, the signal to stop the tape. Headmaster Cid stood up and addressed the commander of SeeD. "This was intercepted by Trabia listening post approximately half an hour ago. A formal declaration of war was lodged ten minutes ago. Galbadia and Esthar are at war."
Again, thought the young SeeD sat on the other side of Cid's desk. "What's it got to do with us, sir?" Cid looked thoughtful for a second and then sat back down on his chair, his palms stretched out in front of him.
"We try to stay neutral in conflicts not involving SeeD forces, but it is hard to when the President of Esthar is our commander's father." Squall grimaced, but said nothing. "And anyway, we still have the matter of our contract with the Forest Owls, who are against Galbadia. The heads of the three Gardens have discussed the matter and we feel that it is best to, for the moment anyway, stay neutral and see how things progress. Galbadia and Trabia Gardens are mobilising and should be out of the respective countries within the hour. I have recommended that they come to Balamb until this country's status is known."
"What are your orders, sir?" asked the commander. Cid looked up from the document he was studying briefly, and sighed. The rings underneath his eyes told the story. The yawn that was half-stifled merely confirmed it. For a moment he was silent.
"For now, we should simply monitor the situation. At the moment it's unclear whether Esthar and Galbadia will let this erupt into a full-scale thing. However, I suggest that we move to Alert Status Yellow, just in case." The Alert Statuses were four-fold: Green (normal), Yellow (possible involvement), Red (imminent or current involvement) and Black (full-scale war).† "We should inform the senior staff of the situation, as well." Squall nodded. "Xu is on the bridge with Nida," the older man said. Squall made to get up. "Arrange the meeting as soon as possible. This situation is volatile and unpredictable."
Commander Leonhart paced out of the door and out of the briefing room. A short distance down the corridor was the platform that would take him to the bridge. He stepped onto it, turned and pressed the 'up' button.
As the form of the eighteen-year-old slowly rose from the floor, Xu turned, alerted by the hum of the electric motor. "Xu, we have a situation. Report to the headmaster in the briefing room." Xu nodded and swapped places with the young commander, who stepped up to the conn. The familiar sound, which could be likened to a bird chirping, resounded throughout the Garden as it always did before a Garden-wide announcement. "This is Commander Leonhart. We have entered Alert Status Yellow. Follow all normal procedures that will take effect. Quistis Trepe, Irvine Kinneas, Selphie Tilmitt, Zell Dincht and Rinoa Heartilly, report to the briefing room ASAP. Leonhart out."
Zell waited impatiently in the line for hot dogs. Selphie was trying to start up a conversation about something, but Zell really didn't want to know. There were far more important things on his mind now than talking. A single bead of drool slipped out from under his lips as the person in front of him grasped his hot dogs with both hands.
"This is Commander Leonhart. We have entered Alert Status Yellow." I wonder what he could want now, thought the blond boy, still salivating over the meat products he was about to receive. The message continued but Zell tuned it out. It was only Selphie's incessant prodding that finally made him think about something other than sausages in a bun.
"Come on, Zell. We've gotta go. Squall told us to go to the briefing room. Let's go!" The little brunette tugged at Zell, anxious to get going. Zell turned, and looked longingly at the hot dogs only feet away from him. "Now!" He whined as he was forcibly dragged from the cafeteria, feet scraping along the floor. Good thing I had meteor junctioned to strength thought the girl with gravity-defying hair.
The first tendrils of light slowly but surely made their way up the bed, closing in on the sleeping form of a young woman. As the first light caressed her cheek, the girl rolled over. Stifling a yawn, she slowly opened her eyes to the world. In the semi-darkness, she barely made out the chair upon which last nights clothes were hastily piled.
Her head pounding, the girl rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling for a few moments. Her attempts to block out the thumping failed, she half-walked, half-fell to the bathroom and groped around for some aspirin. The three thuds against the door to her dormitory caused her to cradle her head in pain. "What is it?" she meekly called.
"Come on Rinoa, we've got to go to a briefing. Didn't you hear?" She recognised the drawl of Irvine, and stumbled towards the door. A startled Irvine looked on in surprise and shock at the sight he saw in front of him. Her hair everywhere but behind her head and her nightgown crumpled and pulled out of shape, the only thing worse than these was the expression on her face.
"Go away I'm sleeping," the dark-haired girl mumbled incoherently. "It's still morning," she continued. Irvine looked at his watch just to make sure.
"Rinoa, it's half past three in the afternoon and we've gotta get to a briefing." The girl looked unconvinced, or as unconvinced as she could look with the headache of the year stomping its merry way through the folds of her cerebrum.
"Light's only just got through my window." Irvine just stared at her incredulously.
"Rinoa, your room faces west."
"And as you can see, the hyperbola stretches off to infinity in all four directions along these two asymptotes. If they are at 90º to each other then it is a rectangular hyperbola." The announcement from the commander sounded over the Tannoy. "All right, I guess we will finish earlier than usual today. I shall see you tomorrow. As the students gathered their things and shuffled out, Quistis Trepe walked down the corridor towards the lift.
She waited for half a minute, and then the doors opened. A half-asleep Rinoa was being propped up by Irvine, who was trying desperately to make sure that the commander's girlfriend did not slump to the floor. "Oh Irvine, what will Squall say?" the instructor inquired.
"Not funny, now help me get her to the briefing room." Quistis didn't wait much longer and moved to the other side of the girl. Together they seemed to do a pretty good job of stopping her from falling on her face.
The three young adults made it to the second floor without any trouble, and stumbled out of the lift in unison. Quistis opened the door to the briefing room and the three of them quickly entered and took seats at the back of the room.
"You are all here because Galbadia and Esthar are officially at war," said Cid. He watched as each member of the senior staff looked at each other for a few seconds, totally taken aback at this new information. "As you well now, over the past few weeks the new president of Galbadia, one Vilnius Dulche has tried to quell the separatist elements in his government. The recent breakaway 'People's Republics' — read military dictatorships — lead this new president to send forces into these countries. Panavia to the north, and Rakastan to the south, have both recently claimed their independence from Galbadia. With Dollet pushing back Galbadian forces and Timber on the verge of independence, the country was ready for collapse.
"However, the stunning military victories that Galbadia enjoyed as it overrun first Panavia and then Rakastan buoyed it enough for it to come back at Dollet. Eight days ago, as you may know if you had time to keep up with current affairs, Galbadian forces swept into Dollet and five days ago finished securing the last acre of land.
"This set of victories must have made Dulche so convinced that he was invulnerable that he has now tried to take on Esthar. The battle happened approximately forty minutes ago. Forces from Galbadia's Fourth and Fifth Air Wings flew west out of their bases on the west coast and engaged elements of Esthar's Foxtrot Wing, who were flying border patrols in Esthar's Eastern region." Cid moved behind the desk to pull down a detailed map of the area.
"Engagements happened at these three positions near the Estharan coast. Losses by Esthar, who were caught rather on the back foot by all of this, were substantial. We shall see how this turns out, but SeeD would like to stay neutral in this conflict. Galbadia and Trabia gardens will rendezvous at about 1930 hours. Is there anything you would like to add, commander?" Squall looked over at his friends and shook his head. "Very well, are there any questions?"
"Which side would we go on if we have to?" asked Quistis. Cid looked at the young instructor for a few moments before answering her.
"We have not yet decided, although due to personal relationships" — the headmaster looked over at Squall who deliberately did not meet his gaze — "and the outstanding Timber contract we would find it hard to side with Galbadia. They asked us for help during the fragmentation of their country but we refused. We tend not to work for dictators." Unless they pay you enough, thought Squall.
"Any more questions? In that case dismissed."
Author: Well, what do you think? If you are not into reading long epics then stop here, because if I do finish this it will most likely be BIG. A lift is an elevator, for those of you who don't know, and the second floor is 3F in the game. I'm fairly sure that ground floors would still exist in FF8, although going 2F 1F GF might confuse a few people. But then, if they can't understand that they deserve to get confused. I know that Panavia is the pan-European consortium created to build the Tornado jet, and copyrights are held. And yes, I am well aware of what a cairn is.
*: "Ma I love ya" were the last words of PSA Flight 182, which crashed at 9:02 am on Monday, 25th Semptember 1978, killing 144 people.
†: System based broadly on the US DEFCON (Defense Configuration) system, where DEFCON Five is peacetime, and DEFCON One is full-scale nuclear war.