Friction

The hovercopter slowly descended until the vehicle was a few meters from the ground. Then with a sudden clang! the locks were released and it fell onto the beach, whirling up a large cloud of sand.

The vehicle had two floors, and was over 10 metres in height. Rygdea walked up to it and pulled on one of the handles on a side door. Lightning watched with interest as it opened. The door was heavily armoured, at least 30 cm thick with a small circular port hole in the middle. It had 6 bulky hinges.

This was practically a tank.

Lightning stepped inside and found herself in a large space. In the middle of the 'room' was a large rectangular table. It did not have any legs but rather resembled a large block of metal. There were vents on the side billowing in cool air. The interior of the vehicle was dark. The floor was composed of dark metal tiles and the walls were heavily littered with weapons and screen displays. At the moment they were all powered down.

"This is the Meeting Room." Rygdea said as he led them through it. Hope whistled. Past the Meeting Room was the cockpit. It held a bewildering number of buttons and displays.

"This is the cockpit."

"Why is it called the cockpit? It doesn't fly." Hope asked curiously. Even the 'cockpit' was oversized, with easily enough space for 3 people to sit. Three panes of gigantic transparent panes-he hesitated to call it glass for it didn't resemble it in the slightest- dominated the front of the cockpit. Interestingly there was no steering wheel, instead 2 joysticks.

"I don't know what the official name is. It kinda looks like a cockpit no?"

Lightning looked at it unimpressed.

"You expect us to drive this thing? I'm not qualified."

"It's not as hard as it looks. You'll have to learn as you go along I'm afraid." The General smiled. "In any case I want you to leave asap. You can explore the rest of the Mark VI in your own time."

The General led everyone back to the Meeting Room and stopped at the large block of metal that was in the exact centre. She flipped a small switch and the block powered up. A faint light started to shine from the surface and soon a map appeared.

"This is a tactical display." She explained. "We are here."

A small white blip depicted their current position. Swiping her hand the geological features of the map swirled by. Soon the map became blank and after a few seconds a yellow blip could be seen.

"This is where we believe the cache is."

Just as she was about to say something else, a loud beeping noise from her comm device interrupted them. Her face became increasingly ugly the longer she held it to her ear.

After a few minutes her expression was sickly. She hung up and returned the device to her side.

"Colonel."

"Yes Ma'am?" Rygdea heard the ice in her tone and immediately answered respectfully.

"Reru Alpha Outpost 2 has been overrun."

Rygdea paled not knowing what to say. That was the most heavily fortified defensive locale in the entire Three Cities.

"What?" Lightning said hotly. Many of her comrades had been sent to Reru.

"Fuck."

The Colonel cringed inwardly. General Riko Tuovar was known for her excellent self control. He had never seen her lose her composure. That she had now spoke volumes to the seriousness of the situation.

"Leave. Now." The General ordered, still looking sick. "I trust that you know realise the stakes we're playing for. The vehicle is fully stocked with supplies. It won't last so you'll have to scavenge."

Lightning nodded faintly. She hadn't realised things were so bad. How could they be?

"Permission to speak freely?"

"What is it soldier?"

"I don't understand. Pulsian wildlife is impressive, but I find it hard to believe that they could overwhelm an outpost as heavily fortified as Alpha 2."

Hope nodded in agreement. He had spent quite a while on the Steppes when they were l'cie. It was full of dangerous monsters, but there was nothing that bad. The adamantoises were bad, but they were largely docile as long as you stayed clear of them. He couldn't think of any animal that would willingly throw themselves at such a large settlement.

"I don't either Farron. They never used to be this bad. But recently, it's as if they're coordinated. Wyverns flood the sky, Behemoths and worse attack from the ground and there are rumours of…nightmarish things that attack from underneath…"

The General sighed.

"It's almost as if they were feral. But that's impossible." Rygdea said.

At those words Razniel stirred slightly.

[That couldn't be.] What? [It sounds like the first stage of the Sickness.] What? [I told you about it on the airship. It's why Cocoon was created and it's what destroyed the Ancients. It decimated the fal'cie and scattered the old Gods.] Ah. But you said that the seal wouldn't open for thousands of years. [Right. Unless someone were weakening it on purpose.]

Hope felt cold chills running down his back. He didn't know how to respond. He simply put it out of his mind. He didn't want to think about the apocalypse just yet.

The General and Rygdar left the vehicle closing the door behind them. Before they left, The General turned around one last time.

"Do us proud soldier. Save the world one more time."

The door closed.

_()—-(-) _()—-(-)

The inside of the vehicle was filled with silence. Hope still feeling slightly nauseous at the prospect of the sickness-whatever the hell it was- decided to sit down. He moved to the cockpit and sat in the far right seat. In front of him were two large joysticks.

"Well, I guess I'm driving." Hope yelled out. He expected Lightning to argue but to his surprise she followed him into the cockpit and sat on the far left seat. She nodded blankly and stared out of the window.

Hope looked in front of him and pressed the large red button with the words 'ON' below them.

There was a low roar as the vehicle awoke. A slight vibration signalled the idling of the engines. In front of him he was dazzled by multitude of lights, screens and blinking icons.

Hope pushed the joysticks down but the vehicle did not move. Scratching his head he examined the complex dashboard in front of him.

"Pull the lever on the ceiling down." Lightning instructed. To Hope's chagrin he saw that the ceiling was also covered in displays and buttons. Directly above him was a dangling handle connected to a thick black string. Hope pulled it and the vehicle turned on. He felt a small humming and all the screens began to light up. There was a large screen showing a map and radar that were particularly prominent. Hope pushed the joysticks down, grinning ear to ear.

The vehicle slowly rumbled forwards. According to the map, the Uncharted lands were still a good 50 miles from the edge of Kankoon. There were of course no settlements but until they reached that cut off point they could still rely on the topography of the map. Hope through trial and error found that pushing both joysticks in one direction corresponded to acceleration. He accelerated, the vehicle showing surprising speed as it coarse through the sand. After a few minutes they passed the Guardian Corps base and after that there was nothing but the landscape.

"How did you know?" Hope asked after finally getting the vehicle somewhat under control. It was the first time he was driving, and he felt proud to have this Mark VI as his 'first car.'

"I've been trained on similar vehicles-just smaller." Lightning's response was curt.

"Did you know anyone in Outpost 2?"

She was silent for a few seconds before replying.

"A couple of rookies I trained were sent there."

Hope waited for more, but she didn't speak again for quite some time. Instead she simply stared out the window, all prior enthusiasm blown away.

_()—-(-) _()—-(-)

Lightning was in a foul mood. She had guessed that the situation was pretty bad, but could never have guessed that it was critical. 2 years ago, when she had first arrived on Gran Pulse with the other l'cie, Pulse had been harsh yes, but nothing like the new reports were describing. The new reports depicted a version of Pulse that seemed much closer to a nightmarish hell.

One thought refused to leave her mind. She had spent the last 2 years in a sleepy town on the edge of Krantos. She should have been on the front, would have been on the front if she'd had even the slightest idea the situation was so frighteningly bad. She knew the significance of the loss of Alpha Outpost 2. Quite simply it held the largest gathering of military might that the human civilisation had left to them. The bulk of the salvaged weapons and vehicles from Cocoon had been diverted there. She didn't know the reason, but she did know that if Outpost 2 had fallen, it was only a matter of time before everywhere else did too.

The cities of Reru, New Cocoon and Krantos were completely defenceless. The only thing stopping them from being overrun was the increasingly paltry border forces. Anger boiled up in her as she cast her mind to the secretive tactics of the government. Keeping the civilians in the dark she could somewhat grasp, but not to tell your own soldiers? She would never have even considered joining the academy if she had known that it would prevent Amodar from sending her to fight.

A big shuddering bump that lifted her momentarily up off her seat, derailed her train of thought.

"Hope!" She growled. She regretted letting him drive, but she had still been shocked at the General's news. Another painfully uncomfortable bump caused her to snarl. He was not helping her temper with his incessant shit driving.

"Hope!"

"Ah sorry!" Hope replied, sounding absolutely insincere.

It had been about an hour since they had left the beach, and all traces of civilisation were far behind. Kankoon was some 80 miles behind them. They had passed into the Uncharted Lands not too long ago, but with no malicious greetings, she had relaxed a little. Hope however was gunning the engines, grinning like a madman. He had been experimenting with all the various controls and buttons, and she was surprised to see him fiddling with them even as he drove. She was suspicious, but decided to let it be. It was the fact that he was intentionally driving over the sand dunes that pissed her off.

Sand dunes. The area that they were in now was a desert. The sky was bright blue, and the sand a dark shade of orange. There was of course no road. No signs. No anything. This area had in fact not seen any human activity ever. Until today.

"Don't you dare!" Lightning said as she looked out the front window. In front of them was a giant sand dune, at least 100 metres tall. The others had been around 10. She gripped her armrest. She knew he was going to do it anyway. They were travelling fast, and the sand dune seemed to extend horizontally for miles. The problem with a sand dune that size was that the return trip down the backfire would be a sheer drop. The dune was fairly steep, and going at such a speed, once they went over the summit they would probably over extend and crash down.

Cursing inwardly she put her seatbelt on.

_()—-(-) _()—-(-)

Hope looked up at the set of arrays and buttons above him and pressed a small blue one. It was fairly innocuous, but he knew exactly what it did. Although there was no way Lightning could know, Razniel had decided to read the driving manual. All 1800 pages of it. There was no physical book of course, but shortly after leaving the beach he had accidentally gotten one of the screen displays closest to him to show the manual. He didn't know what button had caused it, but Razniel decided to take advantage. Although Hope was paying attention to driving, Razniel, using the same pair of eyes was focused on the blue screen. Every few seconds he would tell Hope to press a button flicking the page. It was difficult to focus on the desert in front, when there was a voice in your head yammering all the time.

Nevertheless he was having tremendous fun. As Razniel learnt about the workings of the vehicle, so did Hope. With each flick of the virtual page, new knowledge flooded into him. The button he had just pressed was to actuate the vehicles shielding. Immediately, thick metal shutters clanged shut on all the windows basking the cockpit in darkness only illuminated by the bright displays. After a second a dim red light turned on.

Lightning was aggravated. He could see that. She didn't say anything though, which surprised him. Although neither of them could see it, the vehicle changed slightly. The heavy gun turret on the top slid inside, and a metal sheath extended downwards, protecting the wheels.

"What's going on?" Lightning finally spoke up, completely confused.

"Watch!" Hope grinned, though inwardly his heart was beating. He realised that a smarter strategy might have been to slowly climb the dune. The problem was though that he didn't know if that would be enough. The dune was steep and the vehicle was heavy. He guessed that a certain amount of momentum was needed.

Hope pressed another button and where the windows had been a holographic display showing the outside world started up. The vehicle tilted as they began the ascent. At the speed they were going it didn't take more than a few seconds to reach the top. Once they did there was a brief feeling of weightlessness. Hope pulled a lever to his left. The reason why a 1200 ton vehicle didn't collapse the dune was due to certain anti-gravity fixtures along the sides of the Mark VI. It negated 99% of the weight. The lever Hope pulled cancelled that.

The vehicle weighing in at over 1200 tons almost immediately stopped sailing in the air and plummeted into the rear side of the dune, which immediately collapsed. Hope tried to pull the lever again but the shock of impact jerked him around and he couldn't grasp it. The vehicle unable to stay upright tumbled down the dune, with an avalanche of sand behind it.

"Shiiit!" Hope screamed, part in exhilaration and part in terror as the vehicle rolled sideways down the dune. After a particularly loud crash, the lighting system shut down, pitching them into darkness.

Finally the vehicle rolled over one last time - luckily the right side up. With a loud flickering, that sounded like the wings of a overly large dragonfly, the lighting once again turned on. Hope, still strapped in to his chair, flicked the switch to open the metal shades covering the window.

He noticed Lightning glaring at him.

"I know." He said, realising he had been an idiot. From the read-out on the screens in front of him, there had actually been significant damage to several areas. Most importantly the rear hatch had been damaged, with the integrity of the seal compromised.

They were no longer air-tight.

To his surprise, Lightning didn't demand to switch places. She looked furious, almost incandescent with rage, but he didn't think that it had anything to do with him. He felt it too. Not a rage as such, but a feeling of nausea. The feeling that everything he had thought was normal, and stable and strong - the things he could take for granted - were ready to collapse.

He shifted the ignition drive and checked the map to get his bearings, before once again (and more gently) accelerating onwards. Razniel continued to read the manual, but it was only a few hours before he was done, and retreated back to the mind-space. He was no real comfort, having no real emotional stake, except for his bond. Then there was silence. It became almost numb after a while, as the full shock of what he had learnt hours previously was slowly absorbed and understood.

As he drove on, the occasional bump marking the passing of another sand dune, the sun slowly started to fade into twilight. The Mark VI was solar powered, and driving in the dark would only deplete the reserves. He looked over to Lightning. She wasn't sleeping, merely staring out the window like she had for hours. They had to succeed, he realised. The General must really have been desperate to send a mutated kid and a single former l'cie soldier on such a mission. But what else could they have done?

[There is something approaching] I know I can feel it too.

It was a Wyvern, perhaps 200 metres ahead in the sky, far above. It had noticed the sound of their engines. He idled them down. There was no good place to set down for the night - they were still surrounded by the desert.

He could sense the presence of the Wyvern, but it was too high to actually see from the windows. Hope didn't particularly care.

"Whoosh!"

Lightning sat up immediately, her eyes widening as the loud crack of thunder ripped apart the almost tranquil desert.

"What the hell was that?" Lightning asked, peering out the window with a frown. The sound of the Wyvern crashing into the desert mere meters away did not extract so much as a blink from her. She merely sat back and crossed her arms.

[I don't think there are any more]

Hope agreed. He unbuckled his belt and sat up, for the first time in hours. He yawned loudly as he stretched. Lightning also took off her belt and sat up.

"We should see that Wyvern." She said and walked to the back of the Mark VI. Although he tried not to look it, he was actually quite tired. That lightning bolt had not been small - he had used quite a lot of his power to make sure that it was killed in one hit. If there were any more around, he didn't know if he could kill them, as easily as he had this one.

Lightning opened the rear door and stepped out. Hope followed her anxiously, noting a slight crack in the corner from earlier.

The Wyvern was pretty large, a good 15 or so metres long. Strangely, its scales were black, and covered with what looked like rotton spores. It stank. He covered his face and complained loudly.

"That is gross. What the heck happened to it?"

Lightning said nothing, as she slowly approached it. Crouching down she appeared to inspect the scales of the beast closely. Hope for his part, having no interest in the disgusting creature walked in the other direction. The light was really fading now. it was strange to think there were barely a hundred miles from home. This was an alien, wild place, but it didn't seem hostile.

Well, with the exception of that Wyvern, he supposed.

Still, there was trace of wrongness in the air. It was barely notceable, but he could still detect it. It seemed the further out they went the worse it was getting.

He kicked the sand aimlessly.

"Hope!" Lightning called out and he reluctantly walked over to her, by the Wyvern.

"Look at this."

"What the scales?"

"I don't understand…was it ill?"

In truth the scales were badly burnt. The whole thing had been cooked by the lightnign blast. The blast had been so powerful it had impaled the Wyvern and melted the sand below. About 30 or so metres away the orange glow of the sand could be seen.

"We've got to be careful." Lightning's abrupt tone made Hope feel profoundly uneasy, despite the fact that he had been having similar thoughts just a moment ago.

The fact that it wa Lightning who was voicing them, really made it hit home.

"I don't know what happened to this thing, but it could happen to us as well."

"Wait what?"

"Let's get back inside. I can smell something wrong out here. The air…it's..let's just go."

"You don't think we could turn into zombies do you?"

She didn't reply, and was already halfway to the Mark VI.

He hadn't thought about the possibility that they could be affected by whatever cosmic disease was ravaging the beasts.

Well? Can we? [Yes. It is possible. Even the Fal'cie are not immune.] So, what? If we're bitten we catch whatever it is? [If it is the Sickness, then no. The Sickness is a corruption of the Soul. As it eats the Soul, like a parasitic worm, the outer mortal shell you call the body rots and withers]

But what about the Fal'cie? You have no body. [Just the Soul. Far greater than that of a mortal. But it is no barrier to infection. We will need to be careful]

Feeling frightened and scared, Hope hurried after Lightning. He saw a shuffle in the sand, and before his brain recognised what it was, a snake jumped up, aiming for Lightning's bare thigh.

Hope tried to call his lightning back again, but it was too late. Lightning had already killed it, the blood from the knife he hadn't seen her draw glistening in the growing starlight. Its body fell to the sand, followed by a its head a few seconds later.

Hope stopped and looked at her as she climbed back onto the Mark VI. It put it all into perspective for him. He had been injected with a macguffin that merged him with a Fal'cie and let him shoot blasts of lightning.

But he had froze there. If that had been him, the snake would have bit him. But she hadn't even bothered to look at the snake. She was what she was from years of training and hard work. He has just the fighting equivalent of a nouveau-rich kid.

Impressed, and somewhat annoyed at his own conceit, he followed her up into the Mark VI.