Hello! Hito me Bore here. Someone pointed out a few errors in my fic so I'm re-posting it. I'm sorry to those of you that have me on alert and were notified...with the same chapter XD. Please enjoy!
Disclamer: I don't own Balthier, but I do own (as in bought and paid for) a Balthier replica known as an action figure! Hooray for over 20 points of articulation!
XxX
Ffamran— or rather, Balthier now, exhaled. The cold night air hit his face like tiny shards of glass, and the slight wind did nothing but drive the sting in further.
Only a few hours ago, the ships had come in for the evening. The hanger was void of people, save for a few mechanics, dedicated enough to make a few last minute repairs and re-fuel the well-worked ships.
Balthier stood behind one of the large cement doors, out of sight, waiting for his chance. He had his eye on the YPA-GB47, one of the ships marked for scrapping. He figured it wouldn't be that hard to...liberate, since it was doomed to destruction anyway.
He'd first seen the ship a few weeks ago. He was waiting for his father to finish some experiment in the basement, and to pass the time, he wandered off to the air lift arena. Of course, the airship testing ground was off limits to the public, but that wasn't about to stop him.
He 'd watched them test ships before, taking his usual spot behind a pillar close to the entrance. Most of the time, they tested military ships, all equipped with missiles, lasers and many more destructive accessories. No, for what he was planning, he wanted something a little more streamline.
That day however they weren't testing bombers or carriers. Today, they released a new model, the YPA GB-47, a ship designed for a private investor.
Balthier's eyes widened as the ship burst fourth from the hanger; the loud combustion engine quieted as it ascended. It's White, violet and copper wings glinted in the high afternoon sun. It was polished to perfection from stern to hull, not a scratch on her. The sleek design allowed for minimal wind resistance, and it cut through the sky, like a flaming knife through butter.
Balthier took in the entire craft, his excitement growing.
It was beautiful, unique, majestic...he had to have it.
He had to steal it!
It was a few days later, when he found that the ship was marked for scraping.
How anyone could destroy something so magnificent was beyond him, but if it made it easier to take, then he certainly wasn't going to complain.
The loud "clang" of a mechanic's hammer hitting the ground brought him back to the present. It was time to make that ship his. The wings of the ship glinted in the faint light from the ceiling, as it sat unattended to on the left side of the hanger. The hatch was left wide open, no guards around; conditions were nearly perfect.
With a deep breath, Balthier made his move.
He quickly ducked behind a pillar a little off to the left of where he was standing. No one had seen him yet. He peered behind the tall cement column to get a better idea of his position. There were a few more guards around this area, and the next pillar was some ways away. If he ran to it, he would surely be caught, however if he made a mad dash for the abandoned ship, his chances were...about the same.
With another deep breath, he made a dash for the ship. He might as well go for the whole kit and caboodle.
A few mechanics called out, seeing him sprint for the abandoned vessel, and a few dropped their tools to run after him.
The sound of their feet against the concrete barely registered to Balthier. All he cared about was making it to the ship without being captured. He had gone quite a distance, but his calculations were a bit off. He hadn't expected the ship to be that far away. His legs were burning and his lungs screamed for more oxygen, but he wouldn't stop; not until he was looking back at the city walls of Archades disappear into the night.
He was almost there. He could almost see his reflection on the ship's wings...
The mechanics by now had assembled a few guards, and the crowd following him had nearly reached mob size. They shouted threats and a multitude of other obscenities, but Balthier continued running anyway.
His foot made contact with the first aluminum step of the ramp leading to the hatch, and a sense of desperation filled him. He ran up the stairs, with increasing intensity, only stopping to kick the ramp over to the side to prevent any "tag-alongs."
He didn't even look at the angry mechanics and officers that were shouting at him, red faced, desperately trying to get the ladder back up. Instead, he sprinted for the cockpit. He hopped over the seat, half standing in it, and attempted to make sense of the controls with his racing mind.
Many different colored buttons sat before him, but which one would get the thing to start? If his Father's mechanical knowledge taught him anything, it was always that the big shiny red button that either meant "self destruct" or "start." He assumed the large red button in the middle of the console meant the latter, and he punched it with all his strength.
Far off toward the middle of the ship, he heard the hatch close, and through the window, he could see the horde of angry mechanics turn heel and run with the sound of the engine running. Balthier sighed in relief. He'd gotten the ship to start, now all that remained was getting out of there.
He looked over to the left, his eyes opening wide. The mechanics weren't through yet. They had moved over to the gate and started to close it. Balthier began to panic again. If they closed the gate, he couldn't very well expect to blast through the door and survive.
He swallowed, and looked at the control panel. The buttons had began blinking and beeping, and for a moment, he was lost. He had to remember what all those years of schooling, and days spent watching his father toil away in the basement of his lab. He knew so much about airships just from those instances, so why was he drawing a blank now, when it really mattered?
A loud siren went off, and red lights went off on both sides of the gate doors, as they started to shut. Balthier tried to calm himself, but the overwhelming panic of those doors shutting him in sent his senses into overdrive.
Taking in a couple of deep breaths, he forced himself to look down at the control panel and decipher the switches. What was it his father had told him?
"The accelerator is the lever to the right of the start button. Don't get that mixed up with the landing gears. Go on and give it a try, Ffamran..."
He swallowed, spotting the lever. He grabbed it and pulled it down as far as it would go. He could hear the gears in the ship shift and turn as it began to accelerate toward the exit. The doors had closed nearly half way, and he was a bit unsure if he would make it through.
He kept his eyes on the black night sky past the swiftly closing gates and tried to will the ship to go faster with his mind. It started rolling forward slowly at first, lifting a bit off the ground. As it got up to speed, it flew forward, knocking men and machinery out of the way. He was meters away from the gates now...feet...inches...
He closed his eyes, feeling a slight turbulence as ship's wings scraped the sides of the gate. The engine sputtered briefly once it made contact with the atmosphere, but it didn't dip at all. She remained at a steady altitude.
Balthier let out his breath, and released the accelerator he didn't realize he was still gripping. Had he...actually done it; escaped from the hanger without being caught, or crushed between two solid concrete gates?
The view of the city lights down below and the bright stars were proof enough.
He sat back in his chair and chuckled. He'd done it.
XxX
Balthier leaned back in the chair, stretching. He'd taken advantage of the auto-pilot function on the ship, and looked out over the horizon. It was early morning, but a few stars were still visible in the faintly orange sky.
He was still a bit blown away by the idea that he'd gotten away with the ship. He was now free to do as he wished. For such a long time now, he'd wanted this freedom, and it was finally his.
However, he had to admit, a twinge of something like regret was pulling at his conscience. It had nothing to do with the fact that he'd just stolen an air ship (of this he was sure), but more so, like he'd left a bit of unfinished business.
He didn't bother to inform his father of his leaving.
There was no heated argument, no threats, not even a letter explaining his reason for such a departure, and for that, he felt a bit guilty. The whole escape was fueled of nothing more than tedium. He was sick of Arcades. It was stuffy.
However, it would have been proper to tell his father of his departure before doing so. At least give him a bit of a heads up.
Balthier sighed. No, his father had plenty of notice. In truth, he was the main reason he was leaving in the first place. Since the empire had placed the duty of unscrambling the tightly woven code of Nethicite in his father's hands, the man had nearly forgotten his existence.
A short time later, his father had given him news, that his status had been "upgraded." He was then to hold the position of a judge. However, the job did little for him. As far as he was concerned, the proceedings of a judge were little more than jailing citizens and walking around in a debilitating suit of clanking iron, with hardly enough space to breathe, let alone move around.
His father seemed delighted at the idea of such high standing, so he put up with the metal suit for the grand total of three days before he could stand it no longer. The suit had been locked away in a chest, and shut inside another box, then pushed into the harbor. There the dreadful hunk of metal sank to the bottom of the bay, never to be seen or worn again.
Balthier looked out over the horizon at the quickly illuminating sky. The stars had disappeared now, and the tangerine colored sun made it's grand appearance over the horizon.
Balthier smiled. Yes, his new found freedom was indeed worth a bit of guilt.
He leaned back in his chair and smiled. He wondered if his father had noticed he'd disappeared. It'd only been eight or so hours since he'd left, and he wasn't sure if the mechanics and officials could even recognize him. Either way, he was long gone, and any sort of—
BLAM!
There was a frighteningly loud explosion from the back of the ship, which nearly caused Balthier to jump from his skin.
What was it now?
He lifted himself from the pilot seat ,and as he made his way to the engine room, he found that the air was heavy with a black smoke. Becoming increasingly more alarmed, he found that the smoke was coming from the engine room. Smoke was billowing from behind the door, and he could hear faint coughing sounds.
Balthier swallowed the lump forming in his throat. Perhaps the mechanics had taken a few parts out already.
With a little effort, he managed to pry the door open. The black smoke filled his nostrils with the sent of burning oil. There was no way he'd be able to look around and check the engine with this amount of smoke in the engine room.
He started to shut the door again, when a black ball of something rolled through the door. It coughed several times, then proceeded to pull the door from his hands and slam it rather sharply.
Balthier frowned, realizing what it was. The large ears and child like posture was a dead give away.
The soot covered creature coughed a few more times, before turning its attention to Balthier.
"Next time you decide to steal an airship, make sure there's no one working on the engine, Kupo!" It jumped around waving its arms about. "I could have been killed!"
Balthier sighed, watching the blackened moogle wipe the ash from its face. He should have known the hatch was left open for a reason.
"My apologies," Balthier muttered. What else was there to say? He looked down at the moogle and blinked. After it'd wiped a fair bit of ash from its face, he could make out light grey fur. He leaned in a bit closer.
Was that...?
The irritated moogle looked back up at him. He didn't take to kindly to being scrutinized. "What, Kupo?"
"...Nono?"
Its eyebrows arched fiercely. "Yeah, that's right, and you nearly burned me to a crisp! The minute you started the ship, the hatch closed, and locked me inside! Then the engine backfired, and guess who was in the way?! Me, Kupo! Of all the—"
Nono furrowed his brows, and rubbed his chin."Hey, Kupo! Ffamran!" He'd momentarily forgotten his anger. "How's it going? Kupo."
Balthier sighed, relieved. At least it wasn't one of those Archadian shipwrights. Ar
Suddenly, the low humming of the engine stopped, and the lights onboard flashed before going dim.
"What's going on?!" Balthier raced to the front of the ship. The buttons on the dashboard stopped blinking, and the front radar screen went blank. The ship lurched forward, the nose steadily dipped downwards.
Nono stood in the co-pilot seat. "Well, the main pistons have shut down, the radar isn't functioning, the transmission isn't connecting..."
"And all of this means?" Balthier asked frantically, trying every lever and button on the console, attempting to keep the ship from nose diving.
"You're out of gas, kupo."
Balthier looked out the window. The ship was plummeting to earth at increasing speed. The clouds rushed past them like white wispy stripes and the lush green earth down below was starting to get closer and closer.
"That's what happens when you steal a ship that's marked for scrapping."
Balthier shot the moogle a look. Smug remarks were not what he needed right now.
"So what are you suggesting we do?"
"Hold onto something, kupo." Nono latched himself to the chair.
Balthier swallowed, and buckled himself in the pilot seat. He hadn't left home for a day, and here he was, about to crash land back to earth in a ship he hadn't even named yet. He clearly hadn't thought this through. If he lived, he'd remember to never lift anything without checking to make sure everything was in perfect order.
XxX
I would be so grateful if you'd leave me a Review!