"The Third Sorceress War, Act I: Terra Firma"

9. The Deling Offensive, IV

(Stalemate)

1

"LG?"

Xu turned her attention to the SeeD manning the right side weapons console, trying to discern how to best interfere with the situation below them. The option of leveling the damn city was becoming more appealing by the minute.

"What is it?" she asked.

"You have to see this."

Xu left a somewhat nervous-looking Mir at the command station and came up the three steps leading to the navigation section.

"What is it?"

"See, just above the Mansion."

Xu looked on ahead. All she could see was Deling City, in the dark, illuminated briefly and in small places by gunfire and the use of para-magic.

"What am I looking at?"

"I see it too." Nida said, "There's something weird about the air above the Mansion, it looks... denser, if that makes sense."

"How is that-"

Xu saw a brief flash in the distance. A line made of light tore through the night air and came like a burning arrow. It scattered right above the Command Center observation screen. It rained down bright sparks. Xu felt fear grip her throat and choke her, but there was no time for that. Flashes of light, following two vertical lines, forming an inverse V, followed the initial one. Xu realized what it was, but not in time.

"Brace for impa-"

The glass cracked and the Garden shook to its core.

2

The first volley from the Galbadia Garden's batteries found their marks and some missed only because Nida had instinctively made an evasive move. The artillery shells dug into the armor plating of Ocean Garden, but in the end, only made dents. Those detonating shook the Garden, but didn't pierce through.

The Ocean Garden rotated back to its original position and brought its batteries to bear. One order from Xu, and the batteries came to life, their power cells humming. The barrels, fizzling with energy, turned to meet their target and, after two full seconds, discharged bright white pulse energy in screeching, long beams following glowing particles. The shots found purchase, a few of them tore clean through the external plating of Galbadia Garden. The command center of Ocean Garden witnessed small explosions, orange eruptions floating in the air, before bright static scattered across a just above the Mansion, like cracks on glass, and revealed Galbadia Garden, hovering.

Before they had a chance to fire a second volley, the muzzle-flashes of Galbadian artillery alerted them to a second wave. The Ocean Garden rotated, again, to the right, and most of the shells, the armor stopped – it was the armor-piercing incendiaries that they didn't. The shells entered the Garden and torched hallways, finding no students, but dealing negligible damage to the structure.

As the Ocean Garden rotated back into firing position, Xu shouted for them to cut down the artillery of their target. Skilled fingers danced on the consoles and adjusted the aim of the pulse batteries. The batteries screeched and fired at the same time as Galbadia Garden's artillery. The pulse particles tore right through the fired shells, lining their flight path with balls of orange light, and exploded on both sides of Galbadia Garden. Xu screamed in delight.

"Nida, bring us closer! Weapons, fire at will!"

3

Galbadia Garden's nose slope groaned as armored plates slowly slid open. Ocean Garden was hovering closer, moving across the city, its pulse batteries alive and bright with their constant, erratic assault. The armor plating on the military academy did next to nothing to stall the onslaught, but having critical systems in the lower rear portions of the Garden did.

As Ocean Garden approached, the plates ground to a halt. In between them was a hangar, housing the only thing the soldiers inside were counting on.

4

"What the fuck is that..?"

Xu squinted to see what Nida had mentioned. Galbadia Garden's center seemed to have... opened up. There was bright light coming from it, and for a moment, Xu feared the worst: a pulse battery, that size? All it'd take was one shot and...

"Oh shit, oh shit," Nida took the manual control wheel and turned it sharply to his right, shaking the entire Garden and tilting it slightly to the side. Xu barely managed to keep her footing, Mir fell.

"What is it!?" Mir asked.

5

The six-tube gatling barrel extended from the hangar. The base of the weapon served as a hybrid between a clip and a bullet belt: a long line of shells of all kinds lay on a belt extending around the Garden, using the space in between floors, and ended up at the weapon. Inside the base was a lever system that would rhythmically lift shells up to feed the barrel, and descend to load up the next one.

The barrels stopped extending and were locked into place. The operator, a soldier who knew intimately only how to begin firing and how to stop, promptly pressed the red button and locked it into place.

The first shot boomed in the hangar, and was followed by the metallic whining of the gatling barrel rotating. The soldier, through his earmuffs, knew that this sound would follow a precise rhythm until either their enemy was down, or they were out of shells.

6

One, two, three, four, five...

"The fuck is that!?" Mir asked, "What the fuck-"

"Gatling barrel, they're go-" the console in front of Zan bleeped, "We lost two pulse batteries!"

Xu went to the central console and opened up a channel to Seifer.

"Seifer, how close are you to the objective?"

"We got held up in Deling General, we can't move!"

Xu switched channels.

"Squall! Come in, Squall!"

Static.

Xu switched channels.

"Quistis?"

"I'm trying to move a squad out of Deling General, I can't put together one, we can't-"

Xu cut the line.

"Nida, maneuver us into firing position!"

"That'd risk exposing the CC to their direct line of fire, I can't do that!"

Xu slammed her fist onto the console. In the background, the pounding of artillery shells against the armored exterior of Ocean Garden were counting the beats – one, two, three, four, five...

Fuck this.

Xu tapped on the console and opened up a call to all channels and hoped her message would be heard.