Chapter Two – Reign of Fire

I did, in fact, remember to wind that damnable clockwork alarm clock, although I will admit that there're days that I sincerely wish I hadn't. Many of you have probably heard of the atrocities that happened within the ivory walls of Maranda, and maybe some of you were actually there on the ground. Well, I was there too, and believe me, those flames burned just as fiercely two hundred feet up.

Some of you might find it amazing that –what with all that Sentinel and magical training- I found sufficient hours in the day to learn how to fly well enough to be enlisted in an elite squadron like the Blue Meteors. Well, the truth of the matter is that I was trained by the Blue Meteors in the days before they were known as the best in the sky, and, well, I could tell you right now why the Empire decided to spend large amounts of money in training me, but let's come to that after the dust's settled, hey?

Because Maranda was halfway across the continent (and therefore quite a long way away), I knew it would take me a good three or four hours to get there. Thanks to Celes' small scrip of paper I was also aware of the fact that kick-off was around two in the afternoon, which gave me an unprecedented chance to grab another two hours sleep. After I made certain that Terra knew where we were meant to be and when, I went to go get some serious shuteye.

So it was that Terra and I arrived at the hangar of the Twenty-second Blue Meteors at eight 'o' clock sharp, ready to take off and get going for our appointment at Maranda.

Because the Imperial Air Force was just massing itself in preparation for a rather heavy assault, the flight deck was filled with people getting into the rather odd single-seater helicopters that the Imperial Air Force used. Other people were rushing around, conducting last minute safety checks or loading bombs and refitting weaponry. The whole scene was utter chaos, although there was –as always, with Imperial professionalism- a sense of order amongst it. I surveyed the morass for a few moments, before I decided to add my own particular brand of confusion to the mess.

"I'm here!" I announced brightly, holding up a hand to make sure I caught the attention of someone who could tell me what to do, "I'm up! I'm on time! I'm-"

"-three minutes late, by my watch," an amused tone echoed around the side of a large jet-propeller. A few moments later, Major Anceleti wheeled himself into view.

I may be exaggerating this slightly, but I'm pretty sure my commanding officer was one of the most professional people in the Armed Forces. Despite the opportunities for getting absolutely filthy in his line of work, his uniform was always spotlessly clean and carefully pressed, and his long, snowy white hair was always tied back into a simple pony-tail. He studied us carefully for a moment before giving us a grim smile.

"I bet you're dying to know," he said, in his trademark dry tones, "Exactly why I'm in a wheelchair."

I exchanged a quick look with my sister, and nodded.

"Let's just say that it was pilot error, shall we?" Anceleti shrugged, "I don't re-"

"Pilot error?" I cut in, unable to stop myself, "You?"

"No, not me," Anceleti replied testily, "Look – let's say it was a mistake made by a third party and leave it at that, shall we? I suggest you go and report to Jade on the double."

"Jade?" my eyebrows knit for a moment, "Aren't you leading the-" the sentence ground to a halt as a few errant facts collided in my hindbrain, "Ah, yes. You're wheelcha-"

"Quite," Anceleti made a few shooing motions, "Get going, you two. I'm still waiting on this damn spotter plane of yours. If we're lucky, we might just have time to put the squadron insignia on it before it has to fly."

I eventually found the legs belonging to Anceleti's number two sticking out of one of the many access ports on her personalised sky-jet. From the choice of port, it was apparent that she was having some trouble getting her fire control systems working, and from the clanks, bangs, and the litany of curses emanating from the small opening, it was just as apparent that she was losing.

Suppressing a small smirk, I knelt down and calmly reported for duty. From within the port, there was a sudden, loud bang and another stream of epitaphs. A few moments later, Jade pulled herself out of the access port and gave me a chilly stare while nursing her head.

"Oh, excellent," she said ironically, "I was just wondering how my day could possibly become more frustrating – and oh!" she continued, catching sight of Terra, "Isn't that sweet? I see you've brought your dear sister to play as well!"

"Anceleti tol-" I began, but Jade was having none of it.

"I'm sure he told you a lot of things, Branford," she said sharply, "However, as you may have noticed, my sky-jet isn't operational and your spotter plane still hasn't turned up, so why don't you take the initiative and get a couple of flight suits while you're waiting, eh?"

With that, she pulled herself back into the vent with more force then was probably necessary, resulting in another loud bang and a somewhat metallic 'see what you made me do?' from inside the sky-jet.

I gave my sister a wry smile, "Well, I suppose we'd better do as she says."

Terra nodded silently, although she seemed to be trying to conceal a smirk.

"What?" I asked curiously, as I turned away to find the flight suits.

"Nothing, really," she replied lightly, falling into line beside me as we crossed the flight deck again, "She hasn't changed a bit since the last time I saw her, that's all."

While my flight suit was hanging up in my locker, it took us a fair amount of time to find a garment that would fit Terra without completely swamping her. Eventually, I located a fairly musty suit wadded up at the bottom of a pile, and a few seconds later I found its matching helmet. Terra wrinkled her nose slightly as I passed them up to her, but clambered into them without comment.

"Ready, Tee?" I asked, slipping easily into my suit and cramming on my helmet, "We should probably go and see if they've managed to turn up a reconnaissance plane yet."

Terra's helmet bobbed slightly, "I'm ready. Oh- and Firma?" she added as I turned to leave, "Please, please, please keep the acrobatics to a minimum, okay? I'm not going to be able to record very much if I throw up all over my recorder."

Happily, the Blue Meteors had managed to cook up a reconnaissance jet in the interim. It stood alone in the middle of the hanger; its slim, graceful form looking decidedly out of place amongst the hulking helicopters. Flight technicians swarmed over the gleaming white carapace, fiddling with small details while a paint team sprayed the squadron insignia on to the side.

Anceleti, who had been overseeing the operation from his throne of power, waved us over, and gestured once at the plane as we came closer.

"You're a lucky one today, Firmament," he said in his dry tones as I stared onwards at the plane, "The reason why they took so long in getting your reconnaissance plane over here is because they decided to send us the latest and greatest," he turned to give the plane another approving look, "Meet the Wriqurix-class high performance reconnaissance platform."

"That's quite a name," I frowned slightly, staring once again at the sleek lines of the Wriqurix, "Y'know, it actually looks vaguely familiar."

"No doubt," Anceleti snorted, "It's basically the second generation of the technology they used to make the Quicksilver Wraith."

"Oh," I said flatly, "Um...that's the one that exploded, wasn't it?"

"Actually, it was its sister plane – but don't worry," Anceleti assured me, "They've ironed out a few of the problems."

"Does that include the one that made it explode?" Terra's eyebrows went up.

"Tee's got a point," I added, "That's a pretty big problem."

"Stop complaining, both of you," Anceleti admonished us, "Besides, I don't think somehow they'd let you fly in it if there was the faintest chance of it breaking up in midair…anyway-" he said, looking over towards where a small crowd appeared to be gathering, "-it looks like Jade's just about to go over what you're meant to be doing, so I suggest you go over there and listen in."

I'm going to spare you that particular joy, not only because we'll be going into more relevant briefings later, but because I'd like to move past this particular memory as fast as humanely possible. It's not pleasant, and while it has a certain amount of relevance (okay, it has a lot of relevance) there's only so long that I can go on about things catching fire before I start to get bored.

Anyway -if you'll recall- Celes mentioned that there had been several references made to the Marandese defence force possessing some small form of air power. While it was generally believed that this air power probably amounted to a couple of retooled crop dusters, there was a certain amount of pressure on my superiors to provide cover just in case someone tried to drive an explosive-laden prop-plane into a host of Imperial troops.

Fortunately, the job of catching kamikaze farmers wasn't my job. At eighteen, I was really too young to be trusted with anything that could go bang outside of carefully controlled environments – instead, it was my job to fly Terra around so she could take notes about how the Marandese were responding to being worked over by the Imperial Army, just in case they needed another kicking sometime down the road.

"Any questions?" Jade asked, upon the completion of her quick briefing, "No? Well, it should be fairly simple. If we just stay alert for any tricks that Maranda may have up its sleeve, then we shouldn't have any problems…" her sharp gaze scythed over the assembled pilots, "Okay, everyone. Let's get out there and raise hell!"

"One of these days she's going to learn that talking in clichés isn't particularly inspiring," I muttered to Terra as we walked quickly towards the waiting Wriqurix. My sister shrugged non-committally in response, before raising a point that had obviously been troubling her.

"What did she mean by 'tricks' exactly?" Terra quizzed.

"Big bad things of an explosive nature, I would assume," I said, shrugging, "Probably nothing to worry about. I mean-" I placed one firm foot on the first rung of the ladder leading to my cockpit, "-if Maranda actually did have anything like that, I'm sure Imperial Intelligence would've picked up on it."

A snort from beneath me indicated Terra's opinion of Imperial Intelligence, and I smiled as I scrambled up the ladder into the forward seat. I quickly buckled myself up as a couple of thuds from behind me announced my sister's ascension.

"Better buckle up, Tee," I said, running my fingers over the controls to familiarise myself, "We're unarmed, but someone might end up picking on us anyway."

"You have no idea how much better that makes me feel," Terra replied dryly, and there were a couple of clicks as she slid her restraints home, "We ready to go, then?"

"Got everything you need?" I asked quickly, running through a last-minute checklist, "Got your recorder?"

There was a rattling noise as Terra shook the object in question, "Yeah, but it looks like they've got one built into the plane itself-" there was a click, and another click, "-yep. How's that for technology, eh?"

"Amazing," I replied flatly, "At least it means you won't drop the bloody – ow!"

Terra had lightly batted me on the top of my helmet, "Just get us going, Firma," she said lightly, "Before you end up cutting yourself with that overly smart tongue of yours."

Sending a mildly irritated thought out to any listening deity, I reached out and depressed the radio's talk button.

"This is Blue Five to Control," I said, speaking crisply and clearly, "We're ready to depart."

"This is Control to Blue Five," the amused voice of Anceleti rang through the plane, "Wait your bloody turn. We'll radio you when you can go."

I leaned back with a small 'hah', "Looks like we've been more efficient than the rest of 'em, then."

"With you around, that is a feat to be proud of," Terra replied tartly, settling back into her seat, "What do we do now?"

I followed suit, "Wait for the launch command, I suppose. I'd imagine they don't really want to put the non-combat ship into the sky first, especially when it's loaded with a couple of Mage Knights."

Over the course of the next five minutes, we watched with growing impatience as the sky-jets around us came to life and glided off into the morning's sky.

"I'm telling you," I said irritably, half-turning in my seat to look at Terra, "Every time I turn up on time I end up sitting around cooling my heels for ages while they scramble around trying to attend to everyone else's problems."

Through the tinted visor I thought I saw Terra's eyebrows go up, "Have you ever considered that they might be punishing you for the hundreds of times that you haven't turned up on ti-"

She was interrupted by the harsh crackle of the radio, "Blue Five, this is Control. You're cleared to launch."

"Maybe," I replied vaguely to Terra before turning back to the radio, "Roger that, Control. We'll see you later."

With a single smooth motion, I released the talk button and brought my fingers down to the first start-up sequence. Immediately, lights that had been previously dark flared to life, and a wave of green began to march steadily across the board.

"All green," I nodded to myself, "All of yours checking out, Tee?"

"Looks like it," my sister chirped, "Oh, wait – one appears to be re…no, wait, I understand now. Everything's working back here."

"Good-oh," I said, and flicked up the catch to activate the engines, "Let's get going."

There was a terrific roar as the engines blazed with barely-restrained actinic power, and the Wriqurix began to roll steadily through the exit of the hanger and onto the airstrip itself.

"Remember," Terra said, "You promised that you wouldn't do any acrobatics."

I frowned slightly as I placed my hand on the throttle, "I don't remember promising that, in fact, I'm pretty damn sure I-"

The remainder of my statement was cut off by the howl of the engines as they were brought fully to bear. The sun glinted lightly off the silvery wings of the Wriqurix as it thundered down the strip, leaving in its wake a thin trail of moisture. At the last moment, I pulled back hard on the stick and let the plane take to the skies, out across the forests surrounding Vector. The day appeared to be turning out fine, and I brought the Wriqurix into a series of leisurely upwards spirals through clear skies as I got my bearings and located my hovering squadron.

"This is Lead to Five," presently, Jade's irritated voice came over the radio, "Branford, why are you taking so long?"

"Just familiarising myself, Lead," I replied honestly, "I've never flown this type of plane before. 'Sides, I think it would be better to give it a good warm up before I have to do anything drastic with it."

There was a long silence from the other end of the radio.

"Fair enough," Jade said eventually, "Anyway, I've just received new instructions from the ground. You're to break formation with us and head to Maranda on your own-"

"One moment, Lead," I frowned, "What if we're attacked en route? I can fly, but we don't have anything to fight with."

There was what sounded like an exasperated sigh from Jade, "Attacked by what, Five? There's nowhere between here and Maranda that opposes the Empire, and -as I was just about to say- if you hang back when you reach Maranda then you'll be safe enough. Now, do you copy?"

I nodded, realising a moment later that she couldn't see me, "I copy, Lead. I, uh, I guess we'll see you at Maranda."

I released my finger from the radio button with a sharp jerk and turned to my sister.

"What was that all about?" I frowned at Terra, "What's the deal with the sudden change in plan?"

"Maybe they just decided that it would be too much trouble for you to keep pace with the rest of the flight group," Terra said absently, and pointed out the canopy, "We are leaving them in the dust, after all."

"Hmm," I shook my head, "I don't like this at all. Why didn't they tell us when we were on the ground?"

"You think something stinks?" Terra snorted, "You're getting paranoid in your old age."

"I know something stinks," I shook my head, "I'm going to talk to Anceleti when we get back. There's something really wrong going on here...but anyway, you may as well get some sleep. It's going to be a long, lonely trip to Maranda."

Terra was silent for a moment as she stared down at the continent spread beneath us, "I don't think I could sleep right now, Firma. Not with a view like this, anyway."

I smiled slightly, "Believe me, it might be beautiful now, but I'm willing to bet that it'll pall in an hour or so."

"Well, maybe I'll get some sleep then!" Terra flared suddenly, "Shouldn't you be concentrating on keeping this thing level?"

"It seems to be quite capable of doing that itself, actually," I shrugged, "Are you worried about Maranda, Tee?"

"It was that obvious, eh?" my sister replied dryly, "Yeah – I mean, there's a lot of people in Maranda who I really don't think care about whether it secedes from the Empire or not…but they're going to get caught up in this no matter what."

"I know," I said quietly, quickly casting my eyes over the instruments, "I was thinking about the same thing just before Magical Studies. I can't believe that Celes would order Maranda purged, though."

"What if Celes doesn't get a choice, though?" Terra shot back, "She's only eighteen. Most of the soldiers in this battle are going to be older then her, and what if she loses control of them? What if they decide to go on a rampage for the 'greater glory of the Empire' and start killing innocent civilians, or something?"

I was rendered silent for a moment by the unexpected vehemence in Terra's voice. Finally, I sighed and climbed a little further into the sky.

"I don't know, Tee," I said, "I really don't. Why don't you get back to admiring the view instead of worrying about something that hasn't happened yet?"

There was an unhappy murmur behind me, but when I half-turned to look Terra appeared to be gazing down towards the snow-capped peaks off to our left, oblivious to anything but the beauty beneath.

To be fair to Terra, I had been worrying about pretty much the same thing for most of the day, which probably explains why I was so short with her in the end. Still, I think that at this point any further exposition into what happened at Maranda will be fairly pointless, so let's instead take a quick look at the Southern Continent. It's not as if it exists anymore, so I'm going to include a little footnote about it here for the purposes of posterity.

I'm not going to insult anyone's intelligence by checking to see if you know which hemisphere the Southern Continent was in, but I will say that it was essentially an Imperial state. While there had originally been three other distinct regions of power, each centred in its own city –those cities being Tzen, Maranda, Albrook- they had been ruthlessly and methodically crushed one after the other by some megalomaniac Emperor a long time ago. Taking on three other states and coming out on top is quite a feat in itself, and it's even more impressive when you consider the topography of the landmass.

I'm going to be euphemistic when I say that the Southern Continent was 'a touch varied'. In reality, just about every single environ you can think of was represented in some form somewhere on the continent. Vector itself was almost entirely surrounded by forests and mountains, while Albrook was almost right on top of one of the harshest deserts in the world. Maranda was the proud owner of almost one hundred square miles of swamps, and Tzen…well, Tzen was unfortunate enough to be almost directly between Vector's gargantuan mountains and the second-largest plains on the continent. As a result, the weather wasn't so much unpleasant as downright homicidal.

However, the upshot of all having such varied terrain was that by the time the continent was under Imperial rule the Imperial Army had become very good at fighting on landscapes that weren't just grass and rolling hills. If you want proof of this; take a look at any book regarding military tactics down at your library – if it's about fighting on unusual grounds, then the chances are better than even that it was either written by an ex-Imperial or cites several as sources.

The famous marbled walls of Maranda gleamed brightly in the winter's sun, but not quite so brilliantly as the burnished metal armour of the Imperial forces arrayed against the city. Stretching across the plains, legions of Imperials waited silently in rigid formation beside the low, hulking forms of the most powerful tanks ever devised by Imperial engineers. Behind them, and casting a shadow across the rest of the army, were the immense forms of the Titan-class Magitek armour.

"That's a Titan, eh?" I muttered, bringing the Wriqurix into long swoop towards the waiting Imperial army, "Never seen one of those before."

I have to admit that I was impressed. Standing thirty feet tall and covered in thick, shimmering armour, the dazzling bipedal tanks easily towered over the rest of the army. For some reason, my gaze was drawn inexorably towards the massive cannons slung either side of the heavily-shielded cockpit. I had seen Magitek weaponry before but never on such a massive scale, and I was suddenly very, very aware that even one of those Titans would probably be capable of levelling the Marandese front lines without too much effort.

"Apparently they're a big improvement over the Golems," Terra said quietly, coming to with a long yawn, "They say they're unstoppable by anything except another Titan."

"I suppose we'll find out soon enough, won't we," I replied darkly, "Why haven't they started yet, though? What is Celes waiting on?"

As I spoke reflected sunlight far below caught my eye, and I looked down to see the long barrels of an artillery battery raise menacingly into the air. There were a series of brilliant flashes as they discharged, followed a moment later by deep, resounding retorts.

"What was that?" Terra sounded startled, and then there was a long silence in the plane as we watched the artillery shells impact on the ivory walls. Suddenly, the wall vanished underneath a cloud of deep, angry red flame and pieces of masonry were flung high into the air as the walls collapsed inwards, with a tremendous sound of collapsing masonry.

That was obviously the signal to start the battle, as from below there came the familiar rumbling noise of the armoured columns starting their engines. Maintaining perfect formation, the low-slung hulking forms of the Imperial machinery began rolling towards the ruined walls, flanked on all sides by legions of Imperial infantry.

"Right Tee, it looks like battle's been joined," I said grimly, kicking the Wriqurix into a low swooping dive and dropping in above the advancing infantry, "You might want to start taking notes."

"Wait, what?" Terra took a sharp inbreath, "What about the Blue Meteors? Where's Jade?"

"They'll still be miles away – I mean, we only just made it," I paused, and then hissed through my teeth, "Celes is being rash, isn't she. Maybe she's decided that Maranda doesn't have any air power after all."

The ivory city never really stood a chance, but it was obvious that it was going to be damned if it wasn't going down swinging. While the city's walls now lay in ruins strewn halfway across the plains, it appeared that the artillery hadn't been quite so successful in eradicating the defenders or their fortified emplacements. Moving quickly, several small groups of blue-caped Marandans began to shift their own heavy artillery up to their side of the destroyed wall.

"Shouldn't we tell Celes about them?" Terra asked.

"What makes you think she doesn't already know?" I replied, "I'm sure that there're plenty of people getting messages to her some way or another. We're here to observe, not tell her what's going on."

"Hmm," Terra said, the uncertainty evident in her voice. There was a moment of silence, before Terra activated the onboard recorder with a click and began to take down information about the defender's emplacements.

By this point, the foot soldiers had dropped back behind the speeding mechanised infantry, and as I watched the tanks increased their speed yet further, racing across the plains towards the enemy front lines. There was a brilliant flash from one of the Marandese guns and one of the armoured cars erupted in a massive fireball, and in response the barrels of two Imperial tanks swivelled to face the gun. There was a pair of deep, resonating thuds, and a moment later it vanished under a cloud of fire and smoke as the crews avenged their comrades.

"Well, here we go," Terra sighed, and we watched silently as the two sides proceeded to unload salvo after salvo at one another, rapidly reducing city walls and field alike into a pockmarked, rubble-strewn sea of mud, "I suppose that the Marandese were never going to make it easy for us."

"Why should they?" I asked harshly, "If that Marandese force down there turned up at IAF Wareydon, would you just let them take it?"

"If the alternative was dying uselessly? Yes!" Terra retorted, "What's the point of posturing like this? All those Marandese separatists down there are about five minutes from being shot to ribbons and then what? Everything goes back to how it was before except a couple of hundred extra dead? This assault is so...oh, godsdamnit - it's so pointless!"

The silence in the plane was palpable, broken only by the occasional deep 'thud' as a particularly large explosion rocked the battlefield below.

"Well, gee, Tee," I said eventually, "I hope that you remembered to switch your recorder off during your little spiel, 'cause I'm sure Celes would just love to hear your views. Besides, it looks like the Marandese don't agree with you, either."

As I spoke the blue-caped defenders began pouring out of several large buildings near the remnants of the wall. Some seemed to be carrying rifles, while others still were wielding hefty-looking anti-tank rifles. Moving quickly and efficiently, they quickly took cover behind the destroyed architecture and added their strength to the defence of the city.

"Ooh, smart," I nodded grudgingly, "I suppose Celes can't just bury them all with artillery now that all our troops and their troops are mixed together. Our light armour's stuffed, too."

Fortunately, someone on the ground had come to the same conclusion that I had, and as I watched the armoured cars and halftracks that had formed the vanguard quickly peeled apart and pulled back, leaving a breach into which poured battalions of heavy Imperial tanks looking for a fight. There was a short, sharp exchange of anti-tank shells and withering machinegun fire before the defenders broke and fled back into the city.

"See? Totally pointless," Terra said shortly, "They just got trounced, and all they have to show for it is a lot of dead bodies."

"This is where it's going to get messy, though," I pointed out, "They can't just flatten Maranda; Celes is going to have to send her troops into all those buildings to make sure that there aren't any clever buggers waiting to ambush the armour. I bet that area's wired from hell to breakfast with all kinds of nasty little traps, too."

"I suppose you're right," Terra sighed, "I wonder how Celes is going to respond to this..."

"Mmm...," I nodded in agreement, but then I noticed a sudden change in the layout of the army, "Wait – Tee, are those Titans moving?"

As I watched the Titan division began to form up into an aggressive wedge formation pointing straight for the heart of Maranda, and with a sudden puff of dust they began a slow, ponderous march towards the city.

"Looks like it," she replied slowly, "I guess we'll get to see what they're capable of, now. I just want to know why Celes didn't send them in earlier - she could've avoided getting all those tank crews killed."

"Well, those things are Magitek," I pointed out, "If one of those goes up, then it'll go up...and it'll probably take Celes' career with it. I guess she wanted to make sure that all their really big guns were out of the way...y'know, in case someone got lucky."

"Huh!" there was a click from the back as Terra started her recording, "The Titans appear to be within firing ran- oh my word!"

The Titan's attack was suitably impressive. There was a momentary pause while the massive tanks redirected power to their main guns, and then with a series of crackling discharges they vented their full wrath upon the garrisoned buildings near the walls. Colossal beams of blue, red, and yellow blasted clean through the thick stone, effortlessly lifting the masonry high into the air. An abandoned anti-tank gun vanished under a rolling wave of incandescent flame, and when it had passed there was little left but a puddle of molten metal and a few pieces of shattered charcoal.

The assault by the Titans signalled the end for Maranda. With the majority of the outer defences destroyed, it was simplicity itself for the waiting Imperial infantry to swarm the hapless Marandese defenders under and claim the walls for themselves. With the walls themselves taken, the tanks were free to move into the city and begin taking apart the scattered resistance. Before long, the city was all aflame.

"Well," I said sadly, watching the smoke billowing out from the city, "There goes Maranda."

"I think I've probably done everything I need to," Terra said quietly, reacting to the tone of my voice, "If you want, you can see if we can withdraw."

Giving the burning city another dispirited glance, I reached for the radio's talk button. Before I could reach it, however, the radio gave a sudden crackle of its own.

"Blue Five?" the voice of an eager-sounding Imperial hissed across the airwaves, "Command to Blue Five, are you receiving me?"

I took a deep breath to calm my jumpy nerves before reaching for the button again, "This is Blue Five," I said, more sharply then I intended, "What do you want?"

There was a moment's silence before the Imperial replied, "One moment, Blue Five. I'm just transferring you to General Chere."

"What was that?" Terra stirred suddenly from her pensive reverie, "What does Celes want with us?"

"Beats me," I shrugged, "Got to be something pretty important, though."

"I'm su-" Terra began, but was immediately cut off by Celes' sharp tones.

"Blue Five, this is Command," the General began, "We have a...minor situation unfolding here."

"Ma'am?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"We've lost radio contact with one of the Titans," Celes said in a rather strained voice, "We need you to go and find out what's happened to it."

"Where was it last seen?" I asked, exchanging a wearying look with Terra.

"Over on the far side of the city," Celes replied immediately, "Near the hospital."

"The hospital?" I asked, feeling a vague sense of foreboding scrabble at my insides, "Right, ma'am, we'll take a look."

Sighing, I took my finger off the talk button and brought the engines back online. With a protesting howl the powerful jets came back to life, hurling us onwards over the Imperial rearguard and into the city itself.

"Keep an eye out for that thirty foot Titan, could you?" I asked Terra irritably, "How in the bloody world could she bloody misplace a thirty foot bloody Titan? More to the point-" I added, as we flew deeper into the city, "How in the world are we meant to see anything in this smoke?"

It was quite obvious that the Imperial army had been dead set on making an example of Maranda. Once graceful, tree-lined avenues were now covered in smouldering rubble and the broken remnants of mighty oaks. Flames guttered from every window, sending thick, choking smoke high into the sky almost like some kind of dark beacon. Everywhere we looked Maranda's renowned beauty had been torn down and crushed underfoot by the brutal force of the Imperial Army.

Still, there was one building that stood tall amongst the fires and the smoke. Although its once chalk-white walls had been stained a sooty grey by the rising columns of smoke, Maranda Hospital rose up defiantly through the rubble.

"Well, there's the hospital," I said, feeling slightly cheered that the Imperial Army hadn't destroyed it in a fit of exuberance, "Now, where's this damn Titan?"

"Just over there," Terra said, pointing with a single gloved finger, "No, Firma – over there."

Following her finger, I quickly caught sight of the runaway Titan stomping merrily across the rubble. It certainly appeared to be okay, aside the odd dent on its thick armour, and to be honest I couldn't possibly see any reason why it would have lost radio contact.

"The antenna's still there," Terra sounded just as baffled, "There isn't any damage anywhere near the radio, either. The only way the radio could have gone offline is if the pilot had…switched it off."

"That doesn't make much sense," I raised an eyebrow, "Still; I suppose we'd better tell Celes we've found the blasted thing."

Before I could contact Celes, however, Terra grabbed my arm, "Wait, Firma," she said quietly, "Look where it's headed…"

Feeling that slight scrabbling of foreboding once more, I gave the Titan another glance and followed its route to its logical conclusion. Suddenly, I felt my stomach yawn open as I realised what building was in its sights.

"It-it's going for the hospital!" I gasped, "It-it's-how can it…why?"

Unfortunately, Celes chose the worst possible moment to check up on our progress, and I nearly lacerated myself on my restraints as I jumped clear out of my seat.

"This is Command," her voice buzzed through the radio, "Have you made any headway on locating the missing Titan?"

For a long, long moment I stared at the radio, trying to sooth my panicky emotions and come up with a measured reply.

"I repeat," the radio buzzed again, "Blue Five, have you made an-"

"Yes, Celes!" I snapped, stabbing my finger down on the transmit button, "We've found your damn Titan! It's-"

There was a sudden click as my radio went dead, and I realised with a jolt that Terra had smoothly cut me out of the loop.

"This is, um, Five, General," she said in a calm and measured voice, "You'll have to excuse Firma, but the missing Titan is currently moving to attack the hospital."

"It's doing what?" Celes exclaimed, and there was an obvious pause as she collected her thoughts, "Okay, hang on."

There was another click as the radio went dead, leaving Terra and I to watch the Titan draw closer to the hospital.

"There's got to be something we can do," I said numbly, "Sure-mayb-possibly there's…"

Distantly, I felt Terra touch my shoulder, "There's nothing we can do, Firma. We're in an unarmed aircraft, and we don't have any magic powerful enough to breach that monster's armour. It's all going to be up to Celes."

"Where are the Blue Meteors?" I asked suddenly, twisting in my seat to look straight at Terra, "Where's our damned air support? Firstly they go missing, and now this Titan's going on the rampage! What the hell is going on here?"

Terra shook her head, "I don't know, Firma…"

The radio clicked again, "This is Command," Celes stated, and underneath the calm, professional veneer I thought I detected a hint of unease, "Blue Five, get out of there."

I took a sharp breath, "What? But-"

"That's an order, Five," she snapped, "We've just lost contact with the other Titans. There's something very dangerous going on here, and I don't want you two anywhere where a rebel Titan can take a pot-shot at you."

"But…what about the hospital, ma'am?" I pressed, "What about all the people inside?"

There was a long, long pause, then, "I'm sorry, Five. Now get out of there."

"But-"

"Now, Five," Celes snapped, "I'm ordering a general evacuation of everyone in Maranda while we try and deal with these Titans. Your services are no longer required."

I gave the defenceless hospital ahead of me an anguished look, before silently kicking in the jets and pulling the Wriqurix around in a tight turn.

"Go home, Firma," Celes finished quietly, "Command out."

Not trusting myself to reply, I throttled up the engines and tried not to look around me as I cruised slowly away from the city. Feeling numb inside, I rose to an altitude well out of the range of the Titan's guns and set a bearing for Vector.

From far below, there was a distant flash and a loud boom as the Titan unleashed its fury on the hospital. Watching through blurry eyes, I saw the windows blow out into tiny, glittering shards that reflected the brilliant winter sun. Flames roared out of the empty panes, staining the already sooty masonry a deep, charcoal boom. There was another deep, resonant boom and then the hospital fell in on itself, engulfing the Titan in a sudden cloud of dust.

"Firma…" Terra said softly, laying a comforting hand on my shoulder. I took a deep breath, and reoriented the Wriqurix towards our hometown.

I remained silent all the way back to Vector.