Recommended listening: Recommended theme music for this chapter is "SeeD" off the FFVIII soundtrack, excepting the small scene with Squall and Rinoa, in which case the recommended music is "My Mind", also off the FFVIII soundtrack.
Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.
-Robert Heinlein
Chapter III: Ghost Wire
It had been less than four hours since Squall had gotten the call from General Randolph, and Garden was already docking at one of the reserved military ports at Dollet's harbor. Almost immediately, a collection of high-ranking Dollet officers and their aides came aboard, and were escorted to the third floor of the floating academy. The sheer amount of glittering brass and silver insignia on their collars and chests warned the SeeDs present just how seriously the Dukedom was taking this incident.
Squall was waiting in the Ops Room, with his senior staff, including Selphie, Irvine, Quistis, and Zell, along with Xu and a dozen high-ranking SeeD officers, which Squall and Cid had dubbed the Chiefs of Staff. The Chiefs served as Garden's field commanders and executive officers, directly under Squall's own command.
The Dollet officers took their chairs, while their aides moved among the senior SeeD officers and distributed binders and folders. Squall flipped one open and noted several files, including the overhead survey maps and topographical layouts for an island chain marked "Amorris." Beneath these were listings of equipment and arms and tactical maps of the entirety of the facilities on these islands, and at the bottom was a file on . . . Colonel James Ellis. General Randolph's executive officer during the war with Galbadia.
"Commander," the General began as he sat down. "Forgive me for asking, but what happened around here? This place is a mess." His eyes flicked over the battle dressing on Squall's left shoulder.
"There was an incident earlier today," Squall replied, glancing out the side of the briefing room, where Sergeant Mills had been blasted in half by Sion's attack. They still hadn't cleaned up all the blood. "We were able to contain it."
"It won't affect your ability to help us, will it?" asked another officer, to which Squall shook his head.
"SeeD is ready for this operation," he replied. "Though you will need to be aware the extra costs and hazard pay that will need to be covered for asking us to deploy understrength against an entrenched enemy with radiological threats."
"We're well aware of the risk you will be taking, Commander," Randolph responded, nodding. "Fortunately, your people will not be going in alone. We're assigning two platoons of our own commandos from the Black Eagle Operations Group, along with a squad of nuclear specialists to deal with the warheads."
"Going over the contract proposed," Xu added, looking over the file in question. "You need us to lead your strike team in locating the warheads and disabling them, and then we extract, correct?"
"Yes ma'am," replied Randolph, nodding. "This is not intended to be a sustained operation; our AWOL reports indicate over a thousand men have not reported for duty in the last forty-eight hours, and we suspect the entire garrison has turned over to Ellis's side. Even for SeeD, that's a bit too much to handle." Squall nodded, looking over the files again. He checked the layout of the island chain, noting the five primary islands in the region; Island One was located to the north, with heavy fortifications and facilities. Island Two was southwest, and much smaller, with Island Three, being much larger, just southeast. Island Four was further southeast of Three, and to the east was Five. With the exception of Two, most of the islands were fairly large; One was over forty square miles across, and the others were roughly twenty to thirty square miles across.
"There's five islands total," he remarked. "These here, Two, Three and Four, have minimal weapons on them, while One and Five are well-defended. Why is that?"
"One is the northernmost island," Randolph explained, and he looked over the map. "Five is in the southeast. The other islands are toward the center of the chain. Amorris was set up to defend against Galbadian and Estharian naval aggression, and those were the directions that enemy naval forces would be anticipated to approach from. Main base facilities are set up on those two islands. The others are largely ignored, except to have remote defense and missile launchers set up on them, along with unused bunker complexes for standing garrisons in times of war."
"Do we know where the warheads are?" asked Quistis, to which Randolph shook his head.
"We triangulated a transmission that Ellis was sending down to Island Two, but he could have moved the warheads anywhere," replied another officer, a Colonel. "However, we believe that they are located on Island One, where the main continental cruise missile launchers are positioned."
"You don't have confirmation," Squall replied. It wasn't a question, but Randolph shook his head anyway.
"However, we can find the warheads easily enough," replied the General. "James will have to keep them in the general vicinity of his launchers just prior to firing, but he can hide them anywhere else on the islands, even on the less fortified ones. Moving them around, however, will take some work. If we can access his local computer networks, we should be able to pinpoint where he's moving troops and where he's keeping the warheads."
"And once those are found we locate and destroy them," Squall finished, nodding. "It sounds simple, in theory. But theory goes out the window once we hit the dirt." He closed the binder and leaned forward. "We're up against one of the best battalion officers in the history of this country, with two thousand men under his command on an island stronghold that can destroy any conventional force coming at it, and with nuclear armageddon waiting if we fail."
"Unfortunately, Commander, yes," replied Randolph, dead serious. "I would not be calling for your people if I did not feel that it was the only way for us to defuse this situation."
Squall was silent for a long moment, weighing the options, or rather the lack of options. While they certainly could back out of this operation if they chose to, there was no doubt in Squall's mind that SeeD would have to take this mission; it was this kind of problem that SeeD had been created to destroy. It wasn't a Sorceress, but not all world-threatening challenges were presented by Sorceresses, after all . . . .
"We're in, General," Squall replied quietly. The officers seemed to visibly relax, truly glad he had chosen to assist them. "However, this is a SeeD operation. Your people are to work under our command. SeeD will handle this operation SeeD's way, are we clear?"
"Crystal, Commander," Randolph replied. "We will need to be informed every step of the way, of course."
"Naturally," Squall replied. "Get your men here as soon as possible, so we can synch up our strike units. I want us working with each other, not against each other."
"Of course," Randolph said. He nodded to one of the officers. "Colonel Gamble is the head of our Black Eagle Operations Group. He will assist you." The man in question, a dark-skinned officer with jet-black, closely shaved hair, nodded to Squall. The SeeD Commander noted the patch on his left shoulder, of a black, swooping eagle.
"Do you have any other questions, Commander?" Randolph asked, to which Squall paused.
"General, you served with Ellis when we fought the Galbadians at Good Hope," Squall explained. "Why would he steal nuclear missiles and threaten your government with them?" Randolph was silent for several moments.
"He has a very strong view on how the military should be used," replied Randolph after a while. "He does not believe our current war with Galbadia is just, and this is his means of protesting that act."
"Rather extreme for a protest," Irvine muttered. Squall did not reply, instead considering for several long moments, before finally nodding.
"Very well, General," Squall said, standing. "SeeD accepts this contract." Randolph nodded, slowly standing up and straightening his uniform.
"Thank you, Commander."
Four more hours had passed, and they were less than forty hours from Ellis' deadline as Squall walked into the Garage hangar facility, where technicians were working on a quintet of Salamanders, fitting them with sonar absorbing plates for the covert insertion. Elsewhere, a group of eighty men in jungle-camouflage armor and gear were conferring and talking, readying weapons and equipment for the upcoming mission. They all featured black, swooping eagle tattoos on their biceps, the sign of the Dollet Black Eagles Special Operations group.
Among them were a quarter of their number in Garden SeeDs, including Zell, Irvine, and Selphie. All of the Garden commandos were gearing up the same way, and every commando was armed with a silenced M4 carbine, along with grenades, C7 foaming explosive, thermite cord, knives, and the remaining array of the tools of the special operations trade.
Among them were five additional soldiers, though these were not special forces like the rest of the commandos; they were Dollet-trained nuclear demolitions specialists, who were going to be disabling the warheads once they were found.
Beside Squall walked Colonel Gamble, with whom he had spent the last few hours detailing the operation and how it was likely to go down. They both would have preferred more time to plan the mission, but they both knew that the clock was ticking and that a lot of it would have to be improvised on the way. Both Gamble and Squall knew that no plan survived first contact with the enemy, except when the plan had to be made up as it went along.
That was, unfortunately, why they had decided to send the best they had at this kind of on-the-fly planning for this operation.
"Good evening," Squall began as the two officers approached the group of commandos. The SeeDs and Eagles stopped what they were doing and immediately saluted, the Garden troops doing their traditional palm inwards gesture while the Dollet soldiers performed a more common forehead salute. Squall knew that they were directing the gesture at Gamble, and not at him; he had a standing policy that no one salute him.
"We've finished reviewing the operation," Gamble stated, and he walked over to a table and set a portable holographic projector on it - on loan from Esthar to Garden. He activated the projector, and a topographic map of Amorris Island One appeared.
"As of this point, we are participating in Operation Ghost Wire," Gamble explained. "You have already been divided up into five platoons, one per Salamander transport. Your groups will consist of four SeeDs, sixteen Eagle commandos, and one nuclear specialist."
"Twenty SeeDs?" Zell echoed, crossing his arms. "I thought we weren't trying to destroy the entire island chain." Chuckles came from the assembled troops.
"We'll be moving in at dawn, circling round from the east," Squall explained. "Garden is already moving into position to deploy our Salamanders. We'll have the sun at our backs, making visual detection hard. It'll also be too bright for night vision and our Salamanders have been outfitted to mask thermal and sonar imaging detection. We're keeping a low profile on this landing."
"Boss," Irvine commented, raising a hand. "Is this going to be like our covert insertion into the Lunatic Pandora three years ago? I thought we were keeping a low profile back then too." Selphie giggled, and Squall shook his head.
"Unless Ellis has sunk a lot of money into this operation, they likely won't have an energy shield to stop our landing," he replied.
"You will land at this small inlet here," Gamble explained, highlighting a small, secluded segment of the island. "You should be able to land, hit the dirt, and be inside the jungle in under three minutes; halfway through that the Salamanders should already be moving back out of the area and back to sea."
"Now, once you it the island," Squall continued, "This will be the tricky part. We have no idea where Ellis is keeping his warheads, so we will have to find them ourselves. This will involve securing and accessing Ellis' local data networks and procuring the information we need. Once we've located the warheads, we destroy them."
"Permission to speak sir?" asked one of the Eagles, and Squall nodded. "Captain Wagner, First Platoon, sir. This is probably the most half-assed op I've ever had the pleasure of going on, Commander."
"We know, Captain," replied Colonel Gamble. "Unfortunately, it's the best we can do on such short notice. We know that we will have to make up a lot of this as we go along."
"That's why I am personally leading this operation," Squall added, looking over his SeeDs. "For some reason you guys think I'm a good leader, so maybe this is my chance to finally prove you wrong." The deadpan delivery of that joke just made it more amusing for the assembled SeeDs, and snickers spread throughout the group.
"Very well then, gentlemen," Gamble added. "I want you all going over this mission plan, or what passes for one, for the next couple of hours, until we get into position."
"Yes sir!" replied the Eagles in unison, and they all saluted, the SeeDs following suit a moment later. The platoons began to break up into their assigned squads, conferring and looking over the maps and data, as if they knew exactly what they were getting themselves into.
Squall watched them, and honestly wondered if they really did know what they were getting into today.
Duke Edwin Haroldington stepped into his office, and tried to calm his breathing down. Whenever he was stressed, it would get harder to breathe, especially considering how overweight he was. He really needed to get back into shape; ten years ago he was as fit as any soldier in the Dukedom, and now he was an overweight politician.
Hmph. No wonder Ellis despises me.
Edwin turned to close the door into his office when he nearly had a heart attack. The Duke jerked back as a shadow loomed over him, the door to the office already silently closed. In the dim light of the office's lone lamp, the man was clad in an ashen cloak and hood, over equally ashen shirt, trousers, and boots. Just beneath the breadth of his cloak was the slight bulge of a sword in its scabbard, and a number of other weapons were hidden beneath the folds of his clothes.
"When did you get here?" Edwin muttered as he recovered from his shock. The cloaked man shrugged, his expression, or what was visible of it, not shifting. Beneath the hood, the only visible parts of his face were his nose and mouth, both slender and defined, and with a faint, closely shaved brown goatee and mustache encircling his mouth.
"You put in the call at the usual number four hours ago," he replied calmly. "I've been here for twenty minutes, though getting past your security is becoming a greater challenge every time I pay a visit." Edwin nodded, taking that as a compliment as he sat down behind his desk.
"It is good that you're keeping up you infiltration skills," he stated, and the cloaked man nodded slightly. "I have a task for you that will test them, perhaps to their limits."
"Involving certain stolen nuclear warheads and a particularly dedicated Colonel pointing them at your head?" the man replied, and Edwin blinked in surprise.
"How did you-"
"I have my sources," the cloaked man answered instantly and cryptically. "I am no nuclear technician, so you have another need for my services aside from dealing with those warheads." Duke Edwin slowly nodded.
"Yes, I do," he replied. "I need you to kill Colonel Ellis."
"Consider it done," replied the cloaked man, as if the Duke had asked him to smite a fly on the wall. The assassin leaned forward slightly. "Half now, half on delivery."
"Done," replied Edwin, relaxing slightly. "Also, you have a forty hour window, starting now. If you cannot take out the Colonel by then, we will take extraordinary measures to stop him. You . . . Might not survive these measures."
"Understood," replied the cloaked man.
"Thank you for your services, Alistair," Edwin finished, and the assassin replied with a slight bow, and then turned and stepped out of the Duke's office. Edwin considered calling his guards to inform them that the assassin would be passing through and to not stop him, but then realized that it would be unnecessary. If anyone in the building other than the Duke had seen Alistair pass by, it would have been a miracle.
Colonel James Ellis stared up into the beating winds rushing out from beneath the descending Albatross helicopter, and did not shield his face or blink. His aides did so, but he did not avert his eyes as the helicopter settled down into the landing pad outside the concrete bunker that served as his command and control center. The side doors slid open, and out stepped a mighty titan of a man.
At six and a half feet tall, Captain Victor Crowe was a powerful, imposing figure of muscle stacked on muscle. Clad in a black shirt, jungle fatigue jacket and pants, and combat boots, his entire body seemed to have been built for strength since the day he was born. His black eyes, matching the color of his crewcut hair, peered across the landing pad, and a heavy .50 caliber sniper rifle was slung to his back, beside an equally heavy .50 caliber M2 machinegun. No normal man could carry a weapon that heavy, but Crowe was far from normal.
The huge man sniffed the air once or twice, almost like a hunting animal climbing out of a car, and then slowly smiled as a dozen additional men, almost as large as Crowe himself, clambered off the helicopter.
"I like it here," he commented as he stepped toward Colonel Ellis. "Nice and vibrant.' He extended a hand to the Colonel, who shook it, surprised by the strength in the huge man's grip. Even a slight squeeze hurt the Colonel's hand.
"Welcome to Amorris Island, Captain," Ellis stated, and Crowe nodded.
"Glad to be here," he replied. "Boss man says that we've got SeeD trouble on the way, right?"
"That's right, Captain," responded Ellis as he and his men led Crowe and his troops toward the bunker. Crowe's smile widened, and a dangerous glint shot through his eyes.
"Good," he whispered. "Payback."
"We believe that they are going to approach via sea," explained Ellis. "That is what our source has told us, at least."
"Any idea where they'll touch down?" asked Crowe, and Ellis shook his head.
"There are a number of small inlets leading into the island," he replied. "Any of them could be used for a landing."
"Then we'll just have to watch the entire ocean," Crowe said with a nod. "I can handle that."
"You . . . Can?" echoed Ellis, to which the huge man chuckled, a deep, booming sound.
"Secrets of the Magi, Colonel," Crowe replied cryptically.
The cylinders of Lionheart clicked shut as Squall finished reloading his weapon, and he slid the crystalline gunblade into its sheath. He looked over the rest of his gear, including grenades, body armor, his M1911 sidearm, and an M4 carbine that featured cold-loaded subsonic ammunition and a silencer. Everyone else was going with a similar loadout, and several of the Black Eagles were carrying squad-support machineguns. They were trying to keep a low profile, but they were also armed and ready in case they couldn't avoid being seen. The last thing Squall wanted was a running battle in a tropical jungle with two thousand Dollet soldiers, but if they had to, Squall wanted his people ready for it.
He peered over the Garage, where Alpha through Golf groups were loading their gear onto the Salamanders. They were less than twenty minutes from the launch of the operation, and that nervous atmosphere was thick on every operative's shoulders.
Slender arms suddenly closed around his shoulders and neck, and Squall momentarily tensed, before catching her scent and recognizing the hands and their slender fingers. He relaxed and turned around, lightly kissing Rinoa on the nose.
"Nervous?" she asked, and he hesitated. He wasn't going to lie to her; she knew it already.
"A little," he replied. "The same way we always get before a mission."
"Its different this time," the Sorceress replied, looking into his eyes with her own deep brown orbs, probing his thoughts. "You're scared, aren't you?"
"Not like I was when we took one Ultimecia," he replied. "But this is almost as bad. We fail, and Dollet will collapse, and half the continent may be destroyed."
"You'll win," Rinoa said intently. "I know you will. You don't know how to fail, Squall."
He managed a quiet chuckle at that, and slowly nodded.
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" she added, and Squall nodded.
"You're still not trained for this kind of mission," he explained. "You've got experience, hell, more than most SeeDs, and power, but-"
"Out there I would just be a liability," she finished, nodding. "I understand. I'll be keeping an eye on you in the Ops Room, okay?" She leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the lips. "Good luck." He nodded as she broke away and started to leave, but Rinoa kept looking back over her shoulder at him. For his part, Squall did not break eye contact with her, watching her until she left the room. Finally, as Rinoa passed form sight, Squall turned toward the docked Salamanders and started toward them reminding himself that he had a very good reason to make it back alive.
Squall neared Salamander Alpha, the transport that would be carrying his group, and came across Zell and Irvine as they were finishing loading up their gear. Both SeeDs looked up at Squall and smirked, having seen the exchange from across the garage.
"What?" Squall asked, catching their expressions, and the two SeeD chuckled.
"Squall," Zell asked. "When are you going to pop the question, man?" The SeeD commander blinked and looked back at where Rinoa has vanished, and then to Zell, caught off-guard by the question.
"Look, Squall, we know you two are just about tied together anyway," Irvine added with a grin. "What's stopping you two from making it official?"
"Nothing, its just . . . ." Squall began, but then he stopped and shook his head. "I'll worry about that later. Right now we have a job to do."
"Whatever you say, boss," Zell replied, popping his knuckles. "Let's get this mission over with."
"Two thousand and more crack Dollet troops against twenty SeeDs and eighty Black Eagles," Irvine added as they split up and headed for their respective ships. "I feel sorry for those poor bastards on the islands."
The hum of processing computers and the clicking of technicians tapping on their keyboards filled the Ops room as Rinoa settled into a chair in an out of the way corner. Colonel Gamble and Xu were conferring as they watched the quintet of Salamanders take off, jetting across the ocean. Quistis walked beside Rinoa and sat down beside her, noting the intent way she stared at the display and the blips that symbolized her comrades' ships.
"You okay?" she asked, and the Sorceress managed a chuckle.
"I think I'm more worried about this operation than they are," she remarked, and the Instructor nodded. They watched the radar contacts as they cut across the ocean, occasionally disappearing as their stealth technology rendered them momentarily invisible to the Garden radar systems. Even with transponders, point-to-point laser trackers, and Estharian-engineered sensor systems, they were having a hard time tracking the Salamanders' silhouettes; Ellis' forces would have almost no chance of finding them.
The long minutes passed with only the usual silence of a mission that was going well, when Squall's voice cut in over the radio.
"Alpha to Group. Go radio silent. Switch to point-to-point laser communications."
"Bravo. Acknowledged." Selphie's voice still carried her rampant enthusiasm, even over the garbled radio transmission.
"Charlie, copy," came the crisp military voice of Captain Wagner.
"Delta, switching over," added Zell's voice.
"Golf to Lead, already done, Commander," Irvine added over the radio.
There was only silence for the next few minutes as the transports swept toward their target, closing with the island at high speeds. As the radio transponders shut down, the Salamanders began to disappear more intermittently, and they slowly turned on a course toward the small inlet. Within half an hour of their deployment the Salamanders were less than two miles out from the island.
"Any movement from Ellis' forces?" Xu asked,a nd one of the technicians shook his head.
"Nothing we can see, no pinging with sonar," he replied.
"Good," Colonel Gamble breathed. "Once they get to the island we'll actually have a much easier time with this operation. Insertion is where a lot of missions like this fail."
As Gamble was speaking, the point-to-point laser communications lit up as Irvine spoke.
"Golf to Lead, I'm getting odd trip-back here on laser comms. Is your PTP acting odd?"
"Negative Golf. Salamanders, check PTP."
"Bravo, laser's fine."
"Copy that here, Lead."
"Charlie's clear, our PTP is-"
"Golf, you're lit up! Laser guided missiles inbound! Evasive!"
Fear suddenly gripped Rinoa as the entire Ops Room went silent, and the five blips indicating the Salamanders began to scatter.
"Confirming SSM launch!" came a shout from the radar station.
"Squall, you've been detected, pull out!" Xu shouted over the radio as a dark dot cut across the screen toward Golf Squad's Salamander. An instant later, there was a flash, and Irvine's voice shot over the radio over the roar of an explosion.
"Golf is hit! Repeat, we've taken a hit amidships!"
"Multiple radar contacts, inbound!" shouted the radar officer. "Profile consistent with Albatross heavy transports!" More blips cut across the screen toward the Salamanders as they began to scatter.
"Bravo, break off, enemy gunships closing in!"
"Under fire, repeat, under fire from ASMs-"
"Delta, we've taken hits aft, taking on water! Abandon ship!"
"Pull them back!" Xu ordered. "Get them out of there!" The Salamanders were breaking off in full retreat, but they were moving sluggishly, as if weighed down. One of the radar blips, that of Charlie Squad's Salamander, went dark.
"Alpha, this is Bravo, we've been hit amidships! All crew, abandon ship!"
"Charlie is gone, repeat, gone! Direct hit from ASM!"
"Pull back, pull back! Gunners, where is our fucking covering fire?"
"This is Delta, fires all over the ship! We're bailing!"
Rinoa clenched the edge of her seat tightly as Delta vanished from the radar scope. Zell's ship . . . .
"Bravo, abandon ship! You're burning!"
"You heard the man, bail out, go go g-" Bravo vanished from the radar, as did Selphie's voice.
"Bravo just exploded! Direct hit with anti-ship missiles!"
"Golf, pull out!"
"No can do, Commander! Heavy damage aft, we're bailing!"
"Go underwater and hide! Don't let those gunships hit you in the water!"
"Copy, we're-"
Golf vanished from the radar as Alpha began to pull away as fast as possible. Squall's voice cut in over the radio.
"Base, come in, come in, we have lost Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Golf Salamanders! Repeat, we're-" There was an explosion in the background, and Rinoa shot to her feet, horror shooting across her face as Alpha's Salamander slowed noticeably on the radar.
"We're hit! Direct hit aft! All crew, abandon ship before-"
Another explosion cut Squall off, and suddenly Alpha's Salamander vanished from the radar. Rinoa's heart went silent for an instant as she stared at the screen in mute horror.
Silence filled the Ops Room, cut only by the furious hammering of keys by the radar technicians. After several moments, one of the comms officers looked up, and shook his head grimly.
"They're gone. We lost them."
-
Nothing much to say about this chapter. Squall and Rinoa scene took a little bit of work to get done properly, but other than that this chapter came along real well.
Until next chapter . . . .