Chapter XII: A Chip In Your Pile
Operation Cold Snap
Day 1 2330 Hours (March 13, 2 G.E.)
Location: Trabia Canyon, Trabia Crater Area, Trabia
Fabian had found some unused snowmobiles in the Trabia Garden garage, and the group used them as their escape vehicles. Selphie and Fabian had their own, Cole sat side-straddle behind Xu, clutching onto her with his good arm.
The site that met them at Trabia Canyon was pathetic. A huddled group of people around small fires and makeshift tents, struggling to survive the harsh climates. People walked around draped in survival blankets and the four guards blocking the way to the canyon seemed as though they hadn't slept in days.
"You guys are with SeeD?" The first guard exclaimed. "Thank god! I don't think we'd have lasted much longer."
"Where's Amy?" Selphie demanded. "She's still alive right?"
"Selphie? Is that you?" The second guard asked. "Thank goodness you're okay!"
"I feel terrible," Selphie cursed. "I should have been here to help."
"It wouldn't have done any good," the first guard replied. "Even the best of the best didn't make it out of that hell. Amy is fine. She's on the second tier of the canyon."
And with that Selphie rushed on ahead and up the switchbacks to find her friend.
"So, uh, not to look a gift horse in the mouth but how are we going to all get out of here? There are about seventy of us and we won't fit on those snowmobiles," the second guard asked, trying to seem jovial but clearly concerned.
"We had a vessel but we had to scrap it. Galbadia was following right behind us," Xu explained.
"Galbadia?" The third guard demaned. "But then they'll follow you guys here! And we have no way to escape!"
"There's a port on the far side of the crater. Another Galbadian operation. We'll just sneak out the way we came in. But your people will have to march," Xu ordered.
"March? With all due respect, ma'am, these people aren't marching anywhere. I'm surprised some of them are standing. We've got sick, injured, and half-starved," the first guard explained. "I'm only working this shift because they've been giving us full rations. We need a better way."
Xu folded her arms and seemed annoyed. "Well fine then. We can see if Dark Garden can send us air support, but I doubt it. I'm hiking to the top of the Canyon. I'll need it to get a better radio signal."
"It's about four hours to the top of this thing on foot," the third guard commented.
"Well I can't go back out there, that crater keeps jamming my radio signal," Xu explained. "So I'm hiking up. Give my men some rations, I'll be back before dawn,"
Xu began to hike up the treacherous switchbacks, stopping on the second level up to see Selphie still locked in an embrace with a young girl about her age. The survivors of Trabia Garden ended at the third tier up and beyond the sixth, she could barely hear anything except the howling wind.
Operation Fallen Angel
Day 1 2100 Hours (March 13, 2 G.E.)
Location: Presidential Palace, Deling City, Deling District, Galbadia
Squall, Rinoa and Quistis ran through the alleyways of Deling City, constantly altering their route to avoid Galbadian patrols. This became more of an issue as they reached the main gate to the Presidential Palace.
"How are we getting in there?" Quistis asked.
Squall looked at the situation. An entire platoon of Galbadian soldiers guarded the walls and grounds of the palace. This was a hopeless endeavor.
"We can't sneak by them, and we certainly can't take them all," Squall sighed. "The sewers will likely be guarded as well. I think they might have caught on by now that people can use those as an access way to the Palace."
"So what now?" Rinoa asked, a little urgently.
"All we need to do is create a distraction and hope your father comes out before something happens," Quistis suggested. "Squall, could we-?"
"We'd have an entire platoon of soldiers on us in a heartbeat. There wouldn't be much time for a distraction," Squall looked over at Rinoa and then back at Quistis. "I might have an idea."
"And so I drop the wrench in the motor and BAM! The sensors go out," one of the guards spoke to the other.
"Jeez, and how'd your commander take that?" The other asked.
"Lost a month's salary. He chucked the damn thing out the train window!" The first laughed with a sort of morbid, gallows humor.
Suddenly two women came walking up towards the palace.
"Girls. Hey is this the surprise the Captain mentioned?" A guard on the wall chuckled.
But there was something odd. At first it looked like they were marching single file, but then it became clear. The tall woman in the back, a blonde, had the shorter woman with black hair in a chokehold and was dragging her struggling form towards the door.
"Hey! That's Rinoa Caraway, the General's daughter!" A lieutenant on the ground level shouted. "Don't fire you might hit her!"
"Are you okay?" Quistis whispered in Rinoa's ear.
Rinoa nodded imperceptibly without breaking character.
"Alright listen up! I want to see General Caraway right now or I'll kill his daughter in front of you all!" Quistis shouted.
The lieutenant pointed at two men on the opposite side of the closed gate and they rushed into the Presidential Palace.
"Calm down, we can talk about this!" Came the voice of a man wearing red officer's garb.
As a show of good faith he detached his gunarm unit and slid it along the ground towards Quistis. Quistis, convincingly, forced Rinoa to bend down and pick it up, keeping her leashed to Qustis with her whip.
"Listen, what do you want?" The man, who wore Captain's bars, asked.
"I have already said what I want. I will speak to nobody except General Caraway," Quistis explained. She glanced over at a tree to her immediate right. "And tell your sniper that if he gets any closer I can put Rinoa in the bullet's flight path before it gets to me."
And with that Quistis jerked Rinoa believably, but completely painlessly, to her right. Rinoa let out a convincing whelp of pain.
"Listen you know you're never gonna get away with this. There are too many of us. But look, I know the General. He's a good man. If you end this all right now I'm sure he'll grant you a pardon," The Captain said.
"I'm not going to hurt her, I just want to see him, you understand?" Quistis explained.
"He's coming, he's coming!" The Captain explained. "He loves his daughter, he'd do anything."
Rinoa blushed slightly. Quistis understood that the two of them had not really gotten along. He was the head of the Galbadian military and she was part of an underground anti-Galbadian resistance force. It made for a terse relationship.
A figure began walking out of the palace. The gates opened, but it was not General Caraway. The Sorceress Edea, wearing her seductive black dress and elaborate pauldrons from whence a large semi-circular ornament rose, walked casually out towards the two girls.
"Hm, a shame. I thought perhaps Ellone was among you two," Edea sighed raising her arms in a haughty way. "Your father won't be joining you I'm afraid."
However, moments later, they heard a man's voice screaming and a disheveled figure ran out from behind Edea.
"Rinoa!" General Caraway screamed.
Edea looked murderous and lifted up Caraway high in to the air above her. "I told you to stay in the Palace, General! It's just as well. I can finish you here instead of in there."
"Father!" Rinoa screamed, breaking out of Quistis's grip and rushing towards Caraway.
The Lieutenant shouted. "Open fire!" However, before the command was brought into effect, a large steel military vehicle skidded out of a side street directly in front of Quistis, shielding her from the bullets.
She jumped in and Squall jumped out, raising his gunblade high over his head and slashing down at Edea. Edea jumped back, but the loss in concentration caused her to lose her hold on Caraway. Caraway, Squall and Rinoa rushed back towards the car which Quistis was now driving.
Edea rose her right hand and shot a small shard of crystal into the back of Rinoa's neck, which just barely pierced it. The soldiers began to fire upon the vehicle now, but it was already on a collision course with the far wall of the city.
"Hang on!" Quistis screamed as the vehicle burst through the barricade and now tore down the hill leading to the vessel.
Zone opened the back hatch and the four of them: Quistis, Squall, Rinoa and General Caraway leapt into the back of the vessel. They were out to sea before the Galbadians could even think about going after them.
"I think they might be onto us, sir," Watts said closing the back hatch.