"U...useless..." The masked PSICOM soldiers coughed out to himself as he looked down at his broken and bloody body.
Staff Sergeant Ord Mandel had survived two fights with the renegade L'cie, survived the fall of Cocoon, and for the past year, survived the hundreds of firefights and skirmishes with the Guardian Corps. He'd killed countless numbers of the creatures that roamed the wilds of Pulse, lived through ambushes, being shot, stabbed, cut and explosions. But, as like thousands of his other PSICOM comrades, his number had come up.
"Damn it all anyway." He spat out with a shaky, pain wracked voice as he used his quickly fading energy to take off his helmet, which had become a hindrance to his ever swallowing breathing.
As his helmet came off and he breathed in the fresh air of springtime Pulse, he began to reflect on his life. "Did I do the right things?" He wondered as a hazy blackness began to take hold of his eyesight. He thought back to his five year long military career, the faces of hundreds of men he had served with flashing before him in a brief moment. He knew he had done the best he could as a soldier, but hell he only became one to impress a girl.
"I guess I impressed her alright..." He deliriously said aloud, before letting out a weak chuckle, "Of...all...the girls...I had to fall for her." The last images to enter his mind were of seemingly random things: A red kickball, a swing set in a park, an ice cream cone, a pine tree, a funeral, a hilltop, a swimming pool, clouds and blue sky, a stolen bottle of wine, a car, a beach, fireworks, and finally a small metal pendant.
To anyone else they would be meaningless, but to the dying soldier they were filled with a million memories, a thousand people, hundreds of words, but only one voice and one face.
12 years prior.
Summer in Bodhum had always been filled with excitement, none being more excited than the younger children of the seaside town. This summer had been no exception. But as anything in life it was coming to an end, the days filled with warm sun and games would be replaced by the long stale days of school, the bane of every child's existence.
"Good morning class." A short, plump woman of sixty said as she entered the classroom filled with 5th grade students. "My name is Mrs. Jackson and we are going to be spending your school year together, isn't that fun?" The woman was one of those "cheery" teachers that attempted to use her perpetual good mood to get students excited about the most mundane and monotonous aspects of school.
Before the gray haired woman could say anything else, there came a knock at the classroom door, to which she responded by opening the creaky wooden thing. In stepped a stately and well dressed man in his late fifties, followed by a rather irritated looking student of eleven.
"I'm so sorry to interrupt Mrs. Jackson, bu we have a new student who will be joining your class." The older man said in a voice fitting his station of principle.
"Oh no worries Principle Matthews!" Mrs. Jackson responded in her upbeat tone.
"Very well, I'll leave him with you." With that the principle took his leave with a nod, stranding the new student at the front of the room, were all eyes fixed upon him.
"What's your name?" Mrs. Jackson asked as she approached her desk, grabbing up the seating chart.
The boy looked around for a few brief moments, feeling more out of place than ever. "I'm...Ordius Mandel...but everyone calls me Ord." His voice was barely above a whisper, but neither his stance, of his tone, or his look showed any signs of his total discomfort at his situation.
The main reason he felt so out of place was that he was new, not just to the school but to Bodhum. He and his father had moved into town the day before, everything was new, even the ocean was strange to him, he'd never seen one before. The other reason he felt out of place was that he began to notice the clothing the students wore, all of it being from top of the line stores, the best of the best, yet here he was in ill fitting, worn clothes from were ever they had been the cheapest.
"A pleasure to meet you, I'm Mrs. Jackson and welcome." The teacher paused a moment as she looked over her seating chart one final time. "Alright, why don't you have a seat over there." She pointed towards an empty desk next to the wall.
Ord nodded as he walked over and sat down He went to set down his bookbag, but as he began to lean over to make sure it was out of the way, his forehead collided with something.
"Hey." A girl hissed at him as he recoiled away from the collision, rubbing the spot he had hit.
"S...sorry." He quickly offered in apology, opening his eyes to see who he had bumped into. His dark brown eyes were met with azure ones, which he quickly realized were glaring at him.
"Watch it next time, alright?" The girl replied with a sigh, her stern expression softening.
"I will." Ord managed out as he blinked and quickly turned his head away so he could feign interest in whatever the teacher was currently talking about, his mind still working over the image of the girl next to him. Her rose colored hair and blue eyes, the morning sun coming through the window behind her, making her seem to glow. In his short eleven years of life, he couldn't remember seeing anyone like her before.
He spent the entire morning stealing sidewards glances at the girl, while half attempting to pay attention to what was being taught in class.
His daze was broken by the recess bell, causing him to startle a bit. After putting away his school books inside his desk, he slowly made his way outside to the school playground, which consisted of dozens of brightly colored plastic slides and swings, all encircled by a chain link fence.
Having no friends and only having talked to one other student the entire morning, he chose to take a seat on the grass, his back leaning against the fence and began to read a book he had brought with him. Books were his one escape from life, the one place he could go and thrust himself out of his reality and into the shoes of some great hero. He'd always loved the books about adventures, or the ones about near mythical heroes of old who saved kingdoms from total annihilation by killing the dragon or facing down impossible hordes of monsters, only to stand victorious in the end. He wanted nothing more than to be that hero, to have people look up to him and to be able to inspire those around him.
As he he began to flip to another chapter, fully engrossed by the tail, he failed to notice the three male students approaching him, only becoming aware of them as they slapped the book from his hand.
"Hey new kid, whats wrong, too good to play with anyone?" The seeming leader of the group asked with a smirk.
"Go away." Ord said as he started to his feet, only to be pushed back down to the ground, landing on his backside with an"Umph."
"What'd you say twerp?"
Ord let out a sigh, a new school means new bullies. Quickly this time he jumped to his feet before any of the three could react. "I said go away, or are you too stupid to understand basic speech?"
The leader of the three's eyes opened wide, he hadn't expected Ord to stand up to him at all. "Alright listen here I'm gonna give you until the count of three to apologize for calling me stupid."
Ord reacted in a flash, grabbing a hold of the other kids shirt and shoving him down. "Go away, last time I'm gonna say it."
"How dare you..." The bully was cut off by a red kickball smacking him in the side of the head.
"I think he said go away, which I think you should do, unless you want to get beat up by a girl again." A voice familiar to Ord called out from the direction the ball had come from.
Ord hazarded a quick glance to the source, seeing the girl from his class who he had been quickly developing a slight crush on over the course of the past four hours, walking towards him.
Not forgetting the three other students in front of him, he quickly snapped his head back and glared. "Like I said, go away."
The two bullies that had been silent, slowly began to back away, not so much from Ord, but from the girl who was now walking up beside him. "Whatever." The leader said as he stood up and also began to move away, but not before calling back to Ord, "Watch yourself."
Ord let out a sigh, and began to look for his book, only to find it already being handed to him. "Your names Ord right?"
"Y...yeah." He manged to say sheepishly and took the offered book with a quick thanks.
"Don't worry about those three, they're idiots." The girl smiled at him, "My names Claire Farron." She held out her hand to him.
Taking her hand he smiled back at her, "Nice to meet you Claire."
Present
Lightning was growing impatient with every passing moment. She knew that the longer it took to evacuate the battlefield, the more they risked facing a PSICOM counter attack.
"Sazh!" Lightning snapped into the comm attached to her collar.
"Whats up?" Sazh's voice cracked back through the small device.
"How close to getting out of here are we?" She questioned, her irritation showing in her voice.
There was a pause on the other end for a moment. "Anytime it looks like."
"Alright, I'm on my way." With that Lightning shut off her comm and took one last look at the carnage left on the battlefield before rushing away to the awaiting transport.
The Guardian Corps had making raids like these on PSICOM bases and supply depots for the past five months with great effect. Ever since the fall, the remaining PSICOM troops that chose not to desert had been rallied by a handful of high ranking Sanctum soldiers and officers. Their goal was simple, bring their form of government to the people of Pulse as well as an overwhelming want for vengeance against the former L'cie for destroying what so many of them had fought and died to protect. The Guardian Corps for their part wanted nothing to do with the plan nor did they wish to turn a blind eye to the horrible atrocities that PSICOM and the Sanctum had committed. So, the GC sided with the former L'cie, causing PSICOM to lash out at them in a series of bloody skirmishes that left hundreds of civilians dead. From those bloody weeks after the fall the spark of war caught, going from minor engagements and propaganda campaigns to full blown open warfare in a matter of months. The GC and the vast majority of the survivors from the fall of Cocoon did all they could to try and build a new world, while keeping the PSICOM threat at bay, but it was too much of a strain and causing far too many lives to be lost. So in the recent months The Guardian Corps, with the aid of a new all volunteer militia army, began to strike first, raiding PSICOM installations, an attempt to eliminate the threat before it could do too much damage.
Lightning and the former L'cie did all they could to assist with the war effort. Lightning rejoined the GC and was given the rank of Captain, Sazh became a transport pilot, while Snow and the Nora crew became instrumental parts of the new militia. Serah and Hope lent their skills as well, with Serah becoming a nurse in one of the military hospitals and Hope taking part in the logistics and supply end of the new military.
This most recent raid had been the largest success to date, not only had they managed to capture several thousand tons of supplies and weapons, but they also managed to eliminate four full battalions of PSICOM troops, a good number of them being PSICOM elite. The bad side had been a much higher number of casualties for the GC and militia force than expected, something that was inevitable in war, but none the less, still hard to deal with.
"Alright, we good Sazh?" Lightning asked as she rushed aboard the transport.
"Yeah, all clear." Sazh replied above the roar of the thruster starting up, "Hang on to something soldier girl, we are outta here."
With that the craft lurched upwards and into the air, gaining altitude slowly. Lightning let out a sigh of relief once they were a good twenty yards off the ground. Taking a seat by the door, she looked out on the gruesome scene below as the they slowly cruised over the bodies and debris of war below.
"Sazh, how many of the PSICOM wounded were we able to get?" Lightning asked. It was a common practice by the GC, take the enemy wounded off the battlefield, give them medical care and give them the choice of either joining the ranks of GC and militia forces, or going back to PSICOM to be tried and executed as traitors. They almost always chose to side with the GC, knowing full well that PSICOM would kill them. It was an effective strategy, thinning the PSICOM ranks while bolstering their own.
"Around seventy five maybe more, even got a few elites." Sazh replied.
Lightning was rather elated, although she would never show it outwardly. Elites were a treasure trove of intel if someone could get them to talk. "Glad to hear it."
The rest of the flight went by without any issues, it even afforded Lightning a good half hour of sleep, something that had been a rare commodity in the past few days, with all the mission planning and briefings she had to endure.
A good two hours after take off, the craft finally landed at the base, being the last transport to arrive. Things on the ground were much more chaotic than expected, due to the high number of wounded that were being brought back from the fighting. Stretcher crews and medical personnel off all types ran about at a frantic pace, unloading the transports of wounded, separating the critical cases from the minor ones and finally getting them sent to correct parts of the medical facilities for care.
Other soldiers were taking on the gruesome task of unloading body bags from transports, moving them towards the bases morgue were the bodies would be processed. Others still were washing blood and debris out of the transports, while still others moved PSICOM prisoners to the containment facility were they would wait to be processed for interrogation. To the untrained eye the whole spectacle would seem to be nothing but chaos, but it was a well executed and efficient, orderly type of chaos that had been preformed hundreds of times.
Lightning herself, as well as the other battle weary soldiers made their way towards the debriefing room, were they would sit for the next two hours and go over the mission and find out how successful it had been, at least based on the initial information. It also would help to give the soldiers a few hours to relax after being in combat, taking their minds off of the countless questions that always played out after an engagement, the ones they had no time to deal with in the heat of combat.