IV

Freedom


Upon hearing the gunshot, Alex grew uneasy, almost being able to tell that something bad had happened, his eyes gazed upon the white birds flying through the sky, the seagulls fleeing from the loud gunshot that had startled them. Storm turned to Lightning, peering into her crystalline blue eyes.

"Lightning, stay close alright." Alex spoke the command, it was less of an order, more so that he was worried for her safety. The private simply nodded in confirmation of his request. He turned his gaze back down the road, walking down the alleyway with his pink haired partner.

The pinkette followed her superior down the road, her gunblade, the Blazefire Saber in it's gun form. She held the weapon like a rifle, right hand on the handle and left under the barrel. She was prepared to fire her weapon at any Liberator soldier's if needed.

Eventually, the duo arrived in a wide open space, a small marketplace in Palumpolum, stores surrounded them in every direction, signs displaying the name as well as a small picture to help distinguish what the shop sold, however they were all closed since the citizens had evacuated the city when the Liberators came to capture the city. There were also various restaurants and a small elevated area at the far end of the marketplace.

The Lieutenant narrowed his eyes, spotting something on the elevated platform in the distance, his eyes then shot open in terror as he hastily made his way to the body he saw lying in a pool of blood. He knelt down, seeing his leader's face, the Knight Captain was dead, a bullet through his head.

"Knight Captain!" he shouted as he inspected the body, checking for a pulse, at least any sign that he was still alive, but he found none. He sighed and turned to Lightning. "He... he's dead..."

Lightning sighed and placed a hand on her hip. "Wonderful, we lost our squad leader..." She huffed and turned away. "Looks like you're in charge now Lieutenant..."

He stayed quiet for a minute, he closed his eyes and thought silently over everything that was happening. "You're right... it's up to me to get me to complete the mission..." He stood up and looked down at Advar. "Rest in peace Knight Captain..." He held his weapon in his right hand, looking over to Lightning as he spoke once more.

"Let's get moving, we need to attack that enemy base and hopefully they'll have a way to contact Sanctum command and alert them of Advar's death..."

Lightning nodded in acknowledgment. "Right, they should have comms, it is a base after all."

"Of course, I suggest we do this with a squad. We will need a decoy while we break in." He pulled out a small device from his pocket, holding it to his ear. "This is Lieutenant Alexander Issac, squad A of Shield Division. The Knight Captain is dead, I repeat, the Knight Captain is dead! This is the leader of squad A."

It took a second but someone responded to him. "Acknowledged sir, squad B is on standby awaiting your orders."

"Squad B, I want you to move in on the Liberator stronghold. Provide cover fire for our squad and get their attention. Squad A will infiltrate the base and when we've eliminated their leader your squad moves in and assists in clearing the base."

"Understood sir, we're moving immediately."

Alex nodded lightly to himself and put away the communicator, putting it in his pocket before turning to Lightning. "We should get moving, they will be there shortly and we need to be ready to move in when they attack."

Lightning nodded and then looked him in the eyes. "Lead the way Lieutenant."

Alex gave a quick nod, turning and heading deeper into Palumpolum, making his way to the Liberator Stronghold.

After reaching the end of a long road, the duo took cover behind a low stone wall containing a garden inside it's boundaries. Alex placed his left hand on his gunblade, holding it like a rifle before he looked above the wall, peeking his head out to scan the defenses of the outpost. His eyes narrowed, focusing on the watchtowers and guard that stood inside them. He rest his gunblade on the edge of the garden's wall, aiming at a watchtower where a sniper was scanning the main road that led into the base.

Sitting in the side road behind the low wall, Alex snapped a sight on top of the gunblade and a holographic display, showing a path leading to the Snipers head. He relaxed his weapon and body, positioning the gunblade so that it lined up with the marker. He twisted the knob on the gunblade, changing it's fire to single fire mode. He concentrated, focusing his full energy into this single bullet. He knew that this bullet would be the signal for Squad B to attack and draw fire. He held his breath and steadied his weapon, and after the display lit up green, Alex pulled the trigger, firing a bullet out the muzzle, sending it flying through the air before it finally penetrated the skull of the sniper. In an instant his life was taken, unaware of his killer. His body now on the ground in a pool of blood. The loud gunshot echoed throughout the stronghold, soldiers looked around, falling into panic as more gunfire was heard, Liberator soldiers were dropping with ease as Squad B drew their attention to themselves. Alex then turned to Lightning and nodded. "Follow me."

The pinkette nodded and followed behind, stealthily making her way to the small entryway, now unguarded as they were too busy fending off the decoy squad. Sneaking behind the tents and hiding in the shadows, the duo successfully reached the back of the stronghold. He switched the gunblade to sword mode and charged at the Liberator Captain, swinging his gunblade at him. Just before Alex's gunblade sliced the Captain in two, the Captain pulled out his sword, blocking with haste as the loud clank of steel on steel sounded the area.

Alex retracted his blade and tried to shove it into the him, but it was no use, he no longer had the element of surprise on his side. The Captain blocked once again and blades clashed. He was at a major disadvantage however as Lightning easily came up behind and swung her gunblade at him, he tried to block but it was too late, he was hit with her gunblade and as he turned around, Alex impaled him from the back with his own. He may have been a Captain, but he was no match for two against one, especially gunblade wielders.

Only a few more Liberators remained and they were soon dealt with. Squad B moved into the base, holding down the location as the leader approached Alex.

"Lieutenant Issac, I must admit you had a smart tactic, those Liberator scum had no idea what hit them!" The squad leader smiled and watched as his men set fire to the Liberator flag, hanging the Sanctum flag in it's place.

"Thank you sir, honestly it's amazing that we managed to pull it off with so few soldiers and without... Advar." He sighed and looked at Lightning. "Thank you Lightning... we couldn't have done this without your help." He gave a light smile at her.

She merely turned her head away and stayed quiet, folding her arms.

"However one thing does trouble me... whoever it was that killed a Knight Captain is certainly a person we need to be wary of... I suspect a traitor... a former high ranking soldier from PSICOM command... most likely General rank or another Knight Captain..."

The leader of squad B nodded, "Yes... I think you're right... Knight Captain's are the best there are, no normal foot soldier could have pulled that off..."

In an instant the roof of a large building opened up, sirens was heard throughout the stronghold as a massive airship roared, rising out of the roof. The engines booming throughout the city of Palumpolum. On the Port side of the airship was the name of the vehicle.

Alex's eyes widened as well as Squad B's leader. "W..what!? That's..." He watched as the ship left the Liberator base, flying through the sky north. "T...that's the Devourer!"

"Wait a minute, isn't the Devourer, General Vark's airship?" The leader of squad B turned to Alex, shocked at what he was seeing.

"It was Vark... Vark killed Advar!" Alex claimed.

Lightning was still looking up north, watching the airship as it faded from view over the horizon. "Tch... so that's the Devourer?"

Alex looked back down to Lightning and sighed. "It has to be, why would his airship be docked in a Liberator base?"

After a minute, Amodar and a squad B soldier came over to the group. The soldier raised his hand to his chest, saluting his superiors.

"Captain, sir! I can confirm that Vark is a traitor, I was hiding nearby when he shot Advar! I was a member of the reconnaissance team."

"So it was Vark! Tch... as much as I hate to say it, we aren't in a position to chase him... We have nowhere near enough power to take on his airship, and even if we can get on it, we're not powerful enough to take him on, it'd be suicide." Alex sighed and as soldiers gathered around, awaiting the young Lieutenant's command. "First thing's first... we gather more forces and take back most of Cocoon, Vark may be a threat, but he's not our primary enemy, the Liberators are."

The soldiers as well as Lightning, Advar, and the leader of squad B raised their hands to their chest as a loud "Yes sir!" followed.

"Squad B, you stay here and hold Palumpolum, I'm taking the rest of my squad and going to devise a plan." Alex turned to Private Farron and Sergeant Amodar. "We need transportation around Cocoon."

With a smirk, the Sergeant replied, "I think you'll like what I found, looking through some Liberator toys." He walked over to a large building, much like the hangar that the Devourer had launched out of and opened the door, walking into the building. As the trio entered, the room came to life, lights turning on and revealing a massive airship. The glass windows reflected the light, making it difficult to see inside the bridge of the airship due to the glare. The massive engines in the back of the airship looked incredibly powerful and on the back of the airship a ramp could be seen leading into the vehicle. On the port side of the ship, the name was clearly visible.

"The Freedom huh?" Alex said folding his arms. "Freedom is good, however not the kind that the Liberators are fighting for..."

Lightning turned her gaze to him. "What do you mean?"

"The Liberators seek independence from Fal'cie rule, they don't trust them and want to get rid of them. The Fal'cie rarely brand anyone L'cie and it is because of them that we live the easy lives we live today... but I wouldn't say I'm 'loyal' to them." He continued walking around the airship. "However the methods the Liberators use to gain this independence is extreme, they go as far as bombings and mass killings in order to strike fear into the public and assert their dominance, they're no Liberators as their name would suggest they are..." Alex now started walking up the ramp, blue light's lining the sides of the ramp on the way up into the airship.

The three entered into the hangar, a large room filled with aircraft. They were all fighters. They were built to be fast, maneuverable, and deadly.

"I wasn't aware that the Liberators were making something this impressive..." Amodar said in awe of the airship he stood inside.

"This airship must have been built to be as strong as the Devourer." Alex said, opening a door that led into a long hallway with many doors labeled for various purposes.

Lightning looked around the airship, following them through the hallway. "Why do you propose that theory?"

"Simple, first off it's massive, built to be the commander of a fleet. Secondly the Devourer was here too, I think it may have been so that they could research how it was built, and finally... Why build an airship in Palumpolum? Wouldn't it be easier in the Hanging Edge to the east of here? They were making it so that Sanctum forces wouldn't discover it's existence until it was on the battlefield, if they had succeeded we would have lost the war, we only have the Lindblum and Palamecia and the Liberators would've had two Devourers..."
Alex opened another door, scanning the room he just entered. There was a large, mostly empty room with lots of chairs and hardglass in the front. In the center was what was shaped like a pool table, but it had a screen on the top of it. "Nice, a holotable on the bridge." He walked over to the device and pushed a button on it, the screen showed a map of Cocoon on it and a holographic interface showed up in the air.

"It really is impressive, as much as they hate to admit it, this fine airship is using a lot of Fal'cie tech."

On the holographic menu, four buttons could be seen. From top to bottom they read, Set course, System, Communications, and Freedom Map.

Alex touched the system button and read through the specifications of the airship, it contained in depth detail about the weapons systems and armor plating model as well as engine detail and more. "As I suspected, this ship is on par with the Devourer." He pushed a back arrow and touched the Freedom Map button, the map on the screen changed from Cocoon, to a map of the airship. He looked at it, seeing the Bridge at the front and the Hangar at the rear that they entered through. On the port side were the training room and experimental labs, in the middle of the airship was the entertainment room and dining hall, and on the starboard side were the crew's quarters.

"Lightning, this will be your room." Alex pointed at the map, a small box with a number written in it. "Amodar your quarters are here." He pointed at another room further down the hall. "I will have my quarters here." He then pointed at a room adjacent to Lightning's, closest to the Bridge.

"Yes sir." They spoke with a salute.

Alex sighed and then looked at them. "Err, don't be so formal alright? Just call me Alex."

They nodded again, not saluting this time. "Yes si... understood Alex."

The lieutenant smiled and nodded at them. "Close enough I suppose..." He backed out of the map screen and returned to the main menu, hitting travel and then placing his finger on the Gapra Whitewood, setting their destination.

After confirming, the roof of the hangar bay opened up, the Freedom roaring to life as the engines boomed furiously. After a second and closing the rear ramp and sealing it shut, the Freedom took off into the air, lifting off the ground and rose from the roof as the soldiers in the now Sanctum base watched in awe before the Freedom took off, flying through the skies to its next destination.