Chapter One: The Incoming Storm
A warning to the people,
the good and the evil
This is war
To the soldier, the civilian, the martyr, the victim
This is war
~This is War- 30 Seconds to Mars~
When we discover other worlds we thought it wouldn't be a big deal, but seeing how many worlds there are we couldn't refuse to explore more, we have sent scouts to explore the world known as 'Cocoon and Pulse'. What the scouts brought back was a world with technology advances and a very questionable government call 'The Sanctum' who main purpose is to scare the population of Pulse and purge those with the suspicions of being near a Pulse L'cie or anything related to Pulse, this was unacceptable for my government who has spilled blood for true Freedom and Democracy, when our scouts showed us how Pulse looked, it confuse us and anger us at the same time, why would the Sanctum and their military known as "PSICOM" would purge people cause of the world below them, the landscape and the nature of Pulse was beautiful and breath taking.
Then they show us Intel on mechanical gods know as Fal'cie, the ones who rule over the people, turns out the Primarch known as Galenth Dysley is one of those gods and he manipulates the population about Pulse and he is behind the Purge and murder of thousands of innocent Cocoonians, Our President wanted to take Major military action against The Sanctum, The Fal'Cie, and PSICOM, but Me and my grandfather, who is the High General of our military, talked him down as by doing that would cause a lot of collateral damage.
I volunteered to go into Cocoon and show the rebel group NORA and the the second military of Cocoon know as The Guardian Corps, both groups don't like the Sanctum one bit and this would be perfect for our government, If I show them the evidence against PSICOM, The Sanctum, and the Fal'cie they would turn on them and will fight by our side for the freedom of Cocoon, but This war is going to between us, The Federation, and against The Sanctum.
My grandfather sent a small squad of special forces operators with me in case things go to shit, he's going to stay behind to begin preparations for the invasion.
I know the price of freedom is high, It always has been, but its a price The Federation is willing to pay to give the people of Cocoon true freedom, as of right now The Federation is at war with The Sanctum.
- Lebreau's bar, Bodhum Shopping District-
"I'm a soldier. From a family of soldiers. Every branch of the military has had a member of my family in it, hell, even in its command structure. My grandfather is The High General of my world's Armed Forces, and his brother an admiral of our Helicarrier fleet, I enlisted right out of high school, Spent 10 years in the US Marines five of those as a grunt, 2 in OCS and getting my bearings as an officer, and the rest in the Marine Raiders, Made it to the Lieutenant Colonel, while my superiors want me behind a desk, I rather be on battlefield with my men."
Two people sat in an beach-side café in Bodhum. One was a woman with pink hair and wore a Guardian Corps Dress Uniform, and the other looked like he came straight off a battlefield. He wore dark drab hooded ensemble that had silver leaf patches on his shoulders, black coloring under his arms and on his sides, reinforced padding on his elbows and knees, black drab cargo pants and a utility belt with a very large holstered handgun and a very long knife. His face was covered with scars, with one large scar near his right eye and orange tac-goggles with an attached com unit hung around his neck. His half lidded green eyes stared lazily back at the aqua glare the GC woman was giving him.
The pinkette sitting across from him snorted, "Is that supposed to mean something to me?"
"It means I outrank you, Sergeant, even if we're not in the same military, Fuck sakes we aren't even from the same world, but at least show my rank the respect its due, even if you don't respect me. Now will you let me finish?"
There was an audible "clack" as the second person snapped her jaw shut, "Yes...Sir."
The Raider sighed, "Just call me Devil Dog, Farron. Everyone else does. And before you ask, the reason I'm telling you this? So that you understand."
"Understand what?" Lighting asked, as she crossed her arms
The man leaned forward, "That, when it comes right down to it, I'm just a man. I have a few tricks up my sleeves, sure. But I'm nowhere near as powerful as some of the others. I have to be more hands on than them. I have a rifle, a knife, a sidearm, some hand grenades,some basic intel, and that's it. On top of that, I have to rely on the others to get anywhere, because I can't do it myself. The Generals can pretty much do as they bloody well please. They have that kind of leeway. I, on the other hand, have to get in the fucking trenches and risk my goddamn neck every time I want to do some good. To be honest, I prefer it this way. It makes it so that I can get my superiors to trust me, which makes it easier when we have to call for your help."
"What the hell makes you think I'll trust you?"
Devil chuckled, "Nothing. And you don't. But that's good. If you did trust someone who came out of nowhere and said not only that they'd help you save the world from the things you thought were protecting you, but also that you're not the only world that we discovered? That there is another you out there, in the Multiverse, working towards our goals? I'd be worried if you believed it after our first conversation. It means you're a damn sight smarter than the average bear."
She rose one delicate pink eyebrow, "'Average bear'?"
He waved a hand dismissively, "You don't have those here, so you wouldn't understand, I doubt you have some animals from my world. My point is, that if you work with me, with The Federation, than you can do what any good soldier aspires to do: save lives. Like your sister's."
Lightning snarled at him, "Leave Serah out of this."
If Devil was intimidated, he didn't show it.
"Are you done?" he asked.
Lightning leaned back in her chair and fixed the interloper with a smoldering glare.
"Good. Now that you're done having a fucking hissy fit, you can listen to me. Like I said, your fal'Cie, your Sanctum, they are all lying to you. All you are is a giant, mad plan to get the Maker, or whatever the hell you Cocoonians call it, to come back from the dead. Or something like that."
Lightning stiffened, "What you're saying is insane. Why would the fal'Cie do that?"
Devil gave a light sigh as he casually drank his coffee, "Christ, you Cocoonians aren't exactly the brightest in the multiverse."
Devil ignore the glare that Lightning was giving him as he lay down his cup.
Devil shrugged, "I don't pretend to understand the minds of Mechanical Abominations, Sergeant. I'm telling you what I know, what my government knows, that's all. I'm not even asking you to believe me. But, there will be a time when you will question everything you know, very soon. And you'll come looking for me."
Lightning looked around at the other patrons of the café. They looked completely oblivious to the war torn soldier and herself.
"Why haven't they noticed you?" she asked, genuinely curious. The Guardian Corps should have been crawling all over this place.
"Perception filter. Something our scientists discover when we discover the Multiverse, you'd be surprise on the things my world has discovered"
She blinked. What the hell was a perception filter?
Devil look at the Guardian Corp Sargent with a look that would even scare the PSICOM Elites, "Look I'm telling you this cause right now a storm is about to come, a storm that I don't want the Guardian Corp or the NORA group to be caught in, Go home, Sergeant. Be with your sister."
Lightning stood up, regarding the man with a cautious look.
"Why tell me?" was all she could muster.
He looked up at her, and she saw pain and sadness in his eyes the likes of which she could not fathom.
"Because back in my world, you are not real, you the other five are from a video game made 75 years ago."
He looked her in the eyes, and she saw a will of iron in his own.
"The world you know and love is about to be turned on it's head. You're going to be right at the center, fighting to maintain the peace. And I'm going to be right there, making sure you guys stay safe."
-Bodhum Security Headquarters.-
"That's all? He just left you with some bad ideas rattling in your head? Did he make any threats?" Lieutenant Amodar inquired after he heard his best sergeant voice her concerns.
Sergeant Farron stopped a bit,"He told me about a storm that is coming and something about us caught in the middle, but Sir... He knew my name, Sir. My real name. No one uses my name. Only Serah does. I'm even listed as Lightning in the GC Public Records."
Amodar grunted, "Well, I'll look into it. Was there anything else?"
"He had two patches on his shoulders. One was of a dog or something cover in flames, and the other was a red, white and blue flag. It had thirteen red and white stripes and a blue rectangle with at least fifty stars on it and another of Flag with a Bird of some kind. Other than that, all he had was a silver Lieutenant Colonel leaf on his collar and pair of dogtags that said he use to be part of the 'US Marines'. Whatever that is. I couldn't see his name, it was scratched out."
"US Marines? Haven't heard of a group called that. Well, if it's some whack-job, finding him will be pretty easy. Could you guess how tall he was?"
The pinkette nodded, "Over two meters. Easy."
The GC Lieutenant leaned back in his chair, surprised, "Alright, are you sure it wasn't Snow Villiers?"
"Snow doesn't have green eyes, Sir. His voice was too deep, as well. He was too...worn. Tired. Snow is more like a hyperactive child. This man was a combat veteran, and if he's to be believed, an experienced one. When he reached for a cup of coffee he had waiting for me, his sleeve hiked up a bit; his skin was too dark and he had more scars then you and me put together. Bullets wounds, cuts, you name it. It wasn't pretty."
Amodar rose one eyebrow, "Self inflicted?"
She shrugged, "Not that I could tell."
"Like I said, I'll look into it. Not sure I'll find anything, but hell, it's worth a shot. But only on one condition: take a break. Your birthday's in a week, yeah? Well, you've got a week of paid vacation, staring on your birthday. Non-negotiable."
Lightning grimaced, "Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir."
Amodar chuckled, "Dismissed, Sergeant Farron."
-Empty Warehouse Building, Outside Bodhum-
Devil keyed the com unit on his goggles, "Sir? It's me. I got the crates your boss sent me. The AK12s and modded M4s will come in handy. I'm having a hard time figuring out how the M392's, M395s, BR55s and BR55HB SRs are going to come in, but they're not unwelcome."
He lifted the top off an olive drab metal crate, "That crate of standard and Modded MP5s is appreciated, as well. Yeah, I got the M9s and M16s. Look, Sir, I'm just a simple soldier. All this advanced hardware...I don't plan on getting civvies involved, not if I can help it. I mean, I'm just learning this stuff, I doubt I could teach a bunch of green as grass civvies to use them...I hadn't thought of that. Yeah, I'll contact NORA. I just hope they're quicker with this 26th Century tech than I was, I mean all this tech we got from the other worlds seems to advance for my liking. No, I'm just having a hard time with all this. After a few months, you'd think I'd've gotten used to it. I still feel like a caveman playing with fire, give me an R5 or a M27 over this Futurstic shit anyday." he said as he moved a crate labeled "C12" from a crate labeled "8000 Count Soellkraft 8 Gauge Buckshot Shells".
"I said I'd try to help any way I could, but, sending me to the worlds that didn't require the others attention? I'm out of my depth, here. War is my specialty, but this isn't war. It's a goddamn revolution in the making," Devil almost tripped over a crate at what he said next, "What the hell do you mean, 'Then I guess I should send in the heavy weapons'?!"
Devil stood still as his grandfather give him and his team an update of their mission, so far their cover hasn't been blown and that's a relief for them, then he gave them two targets to eliminate, the targets are fal'Cies Kujata and Anima, by destroying Anima it would remove the brands from Vanille and Fang, two of the destine 6 that play a major role in the 13 days, and destroying Kujata will lower the morale of the Sanctum loyalists and PSICOM and it will also prevent Dahj from being branded, with all that clear Devil made his way to his squad of operators that have been sent with him on this mission.
He then gave the intel and briefing to them, he got a positive reaction from them as they have been stuck in this warehouse for about 2 days now, but first they had to send a gift to NORA, Devil still didn't like the idea of using NORA, a group that is made up of civilians who haven't seen the horrors of war, Then again PSICOM hasn't fought a war in centuries.
When he gets back to his world he's going to have a talk with his grandfather.
-3 Day's Later, Lebreau's Bar, Bodhum.-
Lebreau was in shock. Scratch that, she was damn near comatose. She goes to open her bar one morning, and what does she find? Enough weapons to arm the entirety of Bodhum thrice over and then some! And to top it all off these weapons don't look like anything PSICOM or the Guardian Corp use, they don't even look like their from this world, Who the hell-?!
"You have a new message!" the computerized voice of her phone chimed. She scrambled for it and saw that there was a text message.
Hey,
I noticed that you and NORA are pretty ill-equiped. Consider this my way of saying,"Keep up the good work!" Plenty of hardware to help you whether the coming storm.
Signed,
The Devil Dog
Lebreau stared at the message with a slack jaw.
"...Who the hell said we were ill-equiped!?"
-Same Day, NORA Headquarters, Under Lebreau's Bar-
"This is the mother load!" Snow shouted.
Maqui was over the moon, "This tech is unbelievable. These rifles, the ones with the ammo counters? They have a smart-link IF/F targeting system that connects to these glasses. They use infrared to communicate with each other. Target a person wearing these glasses, and the reticule turns green. Target someone unarmed, and it turns yellow. Target an armed combatant not transmitting this signal, and it turns red. The scoped rifles have a similar feature. And these hacking tools!"
Yuj held up a com unit, "These are pretty intense. The encryption unit on this communication network suite is nuts. I doubt even Sanctum's top could crack this."
Gadot held up an M247 LMG SAW, "Oh, I like this one. Dibs."
"Then I get this!" Snow hefted an KRM-262, "Seems more my style, up close and personal."
Lebreau examined another rifle, this one an ICR-1 Assault Rifle. It was utilitarian, meant to work and keep working, not impress. Thirty-two rounds, fully automatic. Simple to use, simple to maintain.
"I'll take this. Not too pretty, but I get the feeling it'll serve my purposes more than adequately."
Yuj picked up a BR55HB SR, "Little big, but I think I can make it work," he then picked up an L-CAR 9 and tossed it to Maqui, "This looks like a good choice for you, man. Nice and quiet."
"Glad you like it. Wasn't easy for my men to ship all that here. Mind you, when I told them it was going to help in the long run, they were more than willing."
Suddenly, all the weapons in the room were pointed at one man.
Said man had to restrain himself from laughing. He held his sides as he curled over on himself.
"You forgot to load them." he managed through his his repressed fits of laughter.
Snow grabbed a shell, loaded it into the shotgun and wracked the pump.
The mystery man immediately sobered up, "Well, you're not incompetent, I'll give you that. But let me offer you some advice."
He walked up to Snow and grabbed the shotgun from him, "Next time, turn the safety off. And be sure you're ready to pull the trigger, because the next time you point a gun at me," he got right up in Snow's face, "I will break you."
Snow grimaced and pushed him off, "You're the wacko that's got Lightning spooked."
Lebreau thought she saw him raise an eyebrow, "'Wacko'? I thought I came across as rather sane."
"From what she told Serah, you said some pretty outlandish things."
"Didn't make it any less true. And if anything's going to be done about it, you need to know some things. Starting with the truth about The Sanctum, PSICOM, and the fal'Cie."
He told them. And they listened.
Devil than told them "Look these weapons are for you and your group, but when the storm hits I don't want any of your guys on the frontlines, this war is between my world and your government."
The gang were shocked and a bit piss that this man denied them the chance to be the heroes, I mean they are the heroes after all.
Snow stood up, "Look you cant tell my guys to stay on the sidelines while your boys get all the glory, I mean we are the heroes and we should be their fighting against them.
Devil gave a look at Snow that shock him to the core, the others notice the look in Devil's eye, filled with anger, Yuj and Gadot can tell by his eyes that Devil saw a lot of combat and a lot of death.
"Look Mr. Villiers, this isn't about being heroes, by the look at your group, you guys aren't ready and I doubt you would be able to handle the carnage, you have not seen the horrors of war, it's not glorious, it's not heroic, it's just about group A fighting group B. Now the reason is why I gave you those weapons is cause once my military is done and this war is finished, Cocoon will need a standing army, and that's where your group comes in."
Snow and his team froze when Devil said those words, but before they could say anything, Devil turned around and left the Café.
Soon the storm will hit, and when it hits, everything will change.
A/N: I just stared playing Final Fanatsy XIII for the 5th time, and with my hatred against PSICOM and their blind loyalty and against Barthandelus, I wanted to write a story where our world (only set 75 years in the future and with major changes to our real world) goes to war against them for the freedom of Cocoon.
Constructive criticism is welcomed and I'm open for any ideas and things you want me to add.