Chapter 11: Mobilization
Squall moved briskly toward the elevators, both Quistis and Xu were keeping pace with him on either side supplying him with information as he walked. For the most part he ignored both of them, all of the tactical data did not matter and he knew what to expect. The Garden was outnumbered and the Galbadians knew right where Balamb Garden was, and just as before they would undoubtedly attempt to destroy it with one shot. They would have succeeded last time too, but for the sheer luck that Squall had managed to activate the Garden's defense system in the nick of time.
And hopefully, that would be the case today.
"What's the status on activating the Garden's flight systems?" He barked, interrupting both Xu and Quistis. They hesitated and exchanged glances with each other before Xu spoke.
"It's been difficult to get the system operational without Nida in the Garden, but the engineers assure me that it will not be much longer."
"We are fortunate that for some reason, they declared war first instead of attacking us preemptively. But I doubt that was an intentional mistake," Quistis added.
"When Selphie blew up their primary missile base it set them back…" and Squall was ignoring them again. The elevator doors closed and shot up to the third floor of the building, to his office. He had already issued the appropriate orders and the SeeDs were carrying them out as were the students, they would be airborne soon even without Nida. The pilot they had would be a temporary solution though, and they desperately needed Nida back. Why had he sent Nida off on a mission with Seifer?
Seifer pulled himself over the ridge line, finally able to see the ocean and a way out of the desolate landscape that was Centra. There was no way out of here except by the trains that had been shut down…or by boat. Not even the President of Esthar had paused to worry about helping him or the other Garden personal who were with him….they had been shuttled onto an aircraft and taken away.
"Slow…down, Seifer," Nida gasped, coming over the rise after him. Both he and Selphie had been exhausted for days as their car had run out of gas long after Laguna and company had left them. What had impressed Seifer thought was how the youngest cadet…that Call kid seemed able to push himself beyond the other two older and more experienced SeeDs…even though they had clearly junctioned Guardian Forces. He shrugged it off though, it wasn't important so long as he kept up.
"We're almost to the coast," Seifer grunted with a casual turn of his head, "We can rest when we get there."
Even Selphie had abandoned her usual cheerful demeanor, cursing softly under breath every time she stumbled over a rock or stepped on a blister. She should have chosen better footwear then heeled boots, Seifer thought. He had no time for fools who did not understand the value of preparation. Even if they were SeeDs.
John looked up as he pulled himself across the next rise behind Nida and Selphie, clearly they were not used to wandering across mountainous terrain for this long. Though this was not by any means 'fun,' for the cadet, he was still used to the terrain…and at least there was an absence of snow like in Trabia.
"And what exactly is at the coast other then water?" John shouted up at Seifer, "Aside from another collection of monsters that want to eat us?"
Seifer shrugged, "With the trains to Galbadia from Centra most likely not running or blown up, avoiding the cities is necessary. We can hopefully find some sort of way off of this barren rock on the ocean…some settlement or something…"
John bit back an oath, it seemed that even Seifer had no plan and no sense of direction. If they stumbled into one more geezard nest he thought he would lose it.
Laguna leaned back in his chair, fingers crossed in front of him as his cabinet argued loudly in front of him. Kiros sat patiently with his arms folded at Laguna's right side while Ward stood behind him scowling in anger. His Ministers of Defense and Economics were at in each others faces reduced to lobbing insults at one another, he could listen to the chaos no more. Waving with one hand at Ward, the large man stomped loudly on the crystal floor of the conference room forcing the whole room to shudder. The room became instantly silent and all looked first at Ward and then at Laguna.
"What are the Galbadian's reasons?" he asked calmly.
The Minister of State cleared his throat and stood up, sweeping the ceremonial robe behind him dramatically, "As I stated earlier Mr. President…the Galbadians believe that we have come across some immensely powerful weapon with the help of SeeD. They've already launched several preemptive strikes with their tactical missiles…"
"Okay, thank you," he said cutting the Minister of State off. The man actually gawked at him for a few moments before nodding and sitting down. The man clearly thought a lot of himself, but he did not realize how replaceable he was, especially after he did not get any sort of indication that Galbadia was even considering war, "Now, what weapon did we 'develop with SeeD?'"
The Minister of Defense shook his head, "We've been working on some new armor for the troops and a new kind of weapon system, but nothing that we've been sharing with SeeD or anything that would be dangerous enough to provoke a preemptive strike."
"What operations have we conducted with SeeD in the past six months?" Kiros asked suggestively.
The Minister again shook his head, "None. Not since the Adel and Ultimecia incident and the clean up of monsters after that."
"…I think zat I have ze solution," Dr. Odine whimpered from the corner of the room. He had been there silently drinking out of a thick bottle of whiskey for the past hour while the debate had raged. He scampered onto his feed and swayed uneasily, the wide collar around his neck throwing him off balance even more. He recovered by grabbing onto the conference table to steady himself, "Zit waz zat boy! Ze ones witz ze SeeDz!" His accent was even more pronounced after he had been drinking.
"Explain," Laguna demanded.
The room was silent and Odine gathered himself, and opened his mouth to speak when he fell backwards and landed on the floor. Clearly unconscious, one of the Doctor's aids rushed to his side and checked to make sure he was alright.
"What did he mean?" the Minister of Economics asked. And the aid stood up, "I believe I can explain, if you would hear me Mr. President?" the aid asked with a slight bow.
When Laguna nodded, he went on, "I believe that Dr. Odine is distressed because he's believes he's seen proof of the first Sorcerer."
"The what?" Laguna said flatly.
"I'll start from the beginning. When Hyne created the world he left half of his power with himself and half with the humans he created. Those who received parts of his power were named Sorceresses, and were all entirely female. Over the years that power has split off into the Guardian Forces which the Doctor himself only recently learned how to junction to humans, giving any human the abilities of a sorceress. You are all familiar with this, and the SeeDs use the junctioning methods regularly, it's what gives them their strength. All of these powers are fractions of Hyne's power, and according to a prophecy that one of the Doctor's research teams found inside of the Crystal Pillar-which you all know as the Lunatic Pandora- eventually a male would be able to absorb the powers of a sorceress and collect all of Hyne's power. You can see why this terrifies Doctor Odine, imagine a single person more powerful then Adel was and all of the SeeDs combined," the assistant fell silent.
"And you actually believe that's why the Galbadian's are…" the Minister of State started, but was cut of by Laguna.
"Why haven't we heard about this before now?" he demanded, "I would think that the creation of someone able to rival Hyne would be something of importance!"
The assistant gave a slight bow, "I'm sorry, sir. But you know Dr. Odine," he nudged the unconscious eccentric with his foot, "He doesn't believe in anything until it is proven."
"Why is he convinced that it is possible now?" Laguna asked leaning forward.
"I don't know sir," the assistant confessed, "But I know the last time he drank straight whiskey, was when you convinced him to join the resistance against Adel."
"His timing was just as bad then as it is now," Laguna said dryly.
Bloodied and bruised, John climbed over the last ridge and a wonderful sight met his eyes, and a salty breeze stung his face. The ocean was just below them, no more than five hundred meters away and to make things even better, a giant white ship sat in a small cove on the shore.
"YESSSS!" Selphie squealed, all of her energy suddenly restored, "We're saved!"
"You don't know that!" Seifer snapped, "They could be Galbadians or raiders or anything! But we do have a way out of here," Seifer said drawing Hyperion.
"I don't think that's necessary," Nida said, "They're not enemies. It's the White SeeD ship…they used to hang out in these coves and rocks when their mission was to hide Ellone. They were commanded by Edea herself….before Ultimecia took control of her."
"I know all about Ultimecia and Edea!" the former Sorceress' knight snapped.
"Shouldn't we go down there?" John asked, and the two SeeDs and the Instructor looked at him. John unconsciously scratched his still healing chest, "What's the worst that could happen?"
"I hate it when people say that!" Nida groaned.
Balamb Garden groaned and shuttered as the halo that was usually stationary above it descended and rotated into the ground, forcing the Garden up into the air until it hovered just off the ground. It hesitated for a moment and then slowly began pushing forward toward the shore on the southern edge of Balamb, sluggishly at first and then gradually increasing in speed until it made a large splash in the ocean. The mobile military base changed direction once it cleared the continent and moved northeast…towards Trabia.
Squall was standing on the bridge watching the technician familiarize himself with the controls of the Garden, clearly not as good a pilot as Nida was. Something bothered Squall though, last time the Galbadian's had threatened the Garden they had launched a preemptive strike against the Garden. This time, none came…it was almost like the Galbadians had let them go. They must have known about the Garden's abilities after the last time they had used them, so why not strike without warning? Dark thoughts clouded Squall's thoughts as he looked out over the endless ocean, but then again that was hardly different from any other time.
