CHAPTER 11
LION AND THE JACKAL
GALBADIAN BATTLESHIP DELING AVENGER
LOCATION: UNKNOWN
Sedrick turned and walked out of the room followed by Garon and they made their way towards the other end of their ship to the large hold where many of the troops were awaiting there arrival.
"Garon, are your troops ready for departure?"
"Yes they are." He replied as they approached a large gray metal door. "They are all fully equipped and they have all been briefed on what they are to do."
"Good! But make sure that they use the new devices for tracking the sorceress' magic signal and that they take both her and the knight alive."
"What about the rest of SeeD?" asked Garon as he stepped through the door into the main hold.
"Crush them and destroy Garden entirely!" said Sedrick as he turned and walked back down the hallway towards the command deck of the Avenger. Partway down the hallway he turned back and added in a low voice, "Oh by the way! Make sure that this little vendetta you have against Leonhart doesn't cause any problems that could jeopardize the mission."
Garon simply looked back for a moment before letting the door slide closed with a loud bang. Once inside the hold he turned and stepped down the stairs to the main floor and looked out over the soldiers in front of him.
Almost at once all of the soldiers snapped to attention and waited for their orders. Garon couldn't help but grin at all of the men in front of him. They were some of his best troops. The ship he was on had just over five hundred elite troops on board and there were the same amount of troops on each of the other three ships that made up the task force for this particular mission.
"Ok listen up all of you! Is everyone clear on their mission? Any questions? We will be going in as part of the second wave. This is the most important one because if the first wave does their part right than Balamb Garden won't even see us coming until it is too late." Hearing a chorus of YES SIR from his troops Garon turned and stared up at huge cargo doors above the lift that him and his troops stood on. They would begin opening any minute now.
And now all he had to do was wait just a little longer and they would be in position to attack Balamb Garden.
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LOCATION: BALAMB GARDEN
"Hey Squall, you got a minute to talk?"
Stepping out of the elevator from Cid's office I found myself immediately confronted by Rinoa, Selphie, Irvine and Zell. They all looked tired and dirty. Well it has been a rather long day so far.
"What do you guys need?" I replied as I walked towards them, "I was just going to get something to eat and then I was going to assemble you guys and let you know about our next mission."
"Hey that works out perfect then. We can all talk over lunch and figure out our next move." Answered Irvine as they began to follow me towards the cafeteria. So much for a few minutes of brooding in privacy, I thought to myself before shrugging noncommittally and giving them my answer.
"Whatever."
Several minutes later found all of us sitting around a table in the back of the cafeteria and taking turns giving each other all of the details of our missions. Well except for Zell who was too busy stuffing hotdogs into his mouth. He had somehow managed to get a whole plate of them for once.
Noticing that everyone had eaten their meals and finished chatting I decided to take the opportunity to explain our next objective.
"As you all know we are still trying to figure out the location where Quistis and the other hostages are being held. Also we need to figure out what to do about Omega Weapon. Currently we have no idea as to where he is. As soon as we do find him Irvine will lead a strike team consisting of twelve SeeDs that will track him down and destroy him. Selphie and Zell will accompany him. Make sure you take all of your Guardians with you and check with Xu about extra gear and supplies that might help during the mission. Meanwhile Rinoa and I will attempt to hunt down the Galbadians generals that we ran into and attempt to rescue the hostages."
"Also we are preparing to make the Garden mobile again so that it can be moved quickly if the need arises."
"Any questions?" I asked as I prepared to stand up and return to Cids office.
"Yeah," asked Rinoa "when will Garden be switching to Mobile?"
I was just starting to answer when suddenly alarms began ringing and Nida's voice came over the intercom,
"Commander Leonhart to the Bridge! I repeat! Commander Leonhart to the bridge!"
All five of us stood up and began to run towards the bridge to see what the problem was but we had barely made it out of the cafeteria when the first explosion rocked the Garden.
"What was that?" yelled Rinoa who was only a few feet behind me.
"I don't know for sure but it felt like it might have been a missile blast."
By now we had reached the elevator and we quickly rose to the top. As soon as we stepped out the elevator dropped back down to the first floor. I crossed the distance to the bridge elevator and in no time I was standing next to Nida and Cid looking out towards the Coast and a single dark shape out on the horizon.
Headmaster Cid turned to me and said, "That was a Galbadian Missile that just detonated near the main entrance."
"Only one?" I asked as I looked through a set of binoculars to try and spot anymore coming at us.
I focused the binoculars and was able to make out the shape of two Galbadian Warships steaming towards us at full speed. As I watched several small mushroom shaped explosions detonated on the front of one of the ships and immediately I saw smoke trails shoot up into the air.
"Nevermind, here comes another wave of them!" I yelled before turning to Cid, "Sir, how long until we can take off?"
"Uhhhmmm….. two minutes or so!" he said. "How long do we have?"
"I'm not sure? Maybe three minutes tops."
Cid immediately turned to Nida and ordered him to start the cycle for takeoff. I turned and grabbed the intercom and began to give orders to everyone.
"Attention! This is Commander Leonhart! We are under attack from Galbadian forces. All hands prepare for liftoff. We are going to head north and try to get away from the missiles that have been fired by Galbadian warships."
As I finished giving orders I turned to Nida to ask him how much longer until liftoff when suddenly I felt a vibration run through the deck and then heard a mechanical hum as the rings on top of the garden began their descent to the bottom of the Garden.
The garden immediately began lifting up and away from its resting place as the missiles slammed into the ground around us.
Nida gave a loud whoop of joy as we took off out towards sea. Before he could finish there was a deafening explosion and shaking as the final missile slammed into Garden. The blast threw all of us to the ground and I could hear a yell of pain from directly below us. I turned and made my way over to the edge of the deck to look down at my teammates and make sure they were all OK. Irvine was just finished curing Selphie's arm from where she had slammed into a wall and snapped it. Seeing that everyone was all right I made my way back to the control panel where Cid was leaning while staring out towards the direction of the two ships attacking us.
He turned back towards me and exclaimed, "You better get ready for battle because they just launched a massive wave of troop transports and several large attack choppers. They apparently mean business this time."
"Sir, can you direct everyone to their positions? I have an idea that might even our odds a little."
"Yeah, I'll handle the orders while you get ready." He replied. Without another word I turned and headed for the elevator. As soon as I was below I addressed my team.
"Selphie, I want you to pilot the Ragnarok while Zell uses the cannon and attempts to take out as many of those transports as possible. Don't try getting them all! Just try to slow them down long enough for us to get away. Irvine, head for the front gate and make sure everyone is set up there. Rinoa and myself will head for the quad and try to help with the defense. Move out every one! And stay safe whatever you do."
With that said we split up and headed or separate ways. As soon as we reached the Quad I was glad to see that most of the SeeD's there were already preparing for the battle.
Cid's voice came over the intercom reporting that the airborne ships were approaching and that we should see them any second. Looking out I saw several of the chopper approaching around the edge of Balamb Island and closing in on our position.
As soon as they came into range they began firing machine guns for cover and quickly dropped several platoons of soldiers into the quad. Within moments the sounds of battle could be heard from all directions. Rinoa immediately began casting powerful magic spells at any enemy who came close and throwing cure spells at any SeeD who looked hurt. A female SeeD yelled out in pain as she was hit by a thunder spell and fell to the ground in a daze. Seeing a Galbadian soldier step forward to finish her off I dived forward and slammed my Gunblade down on his gun causing the bullets he fired to ricochet harmlessly off the ground. While he was still off balance I kicked out and hit his knee with my steel toe and the brought Lionheart up and sliced him across the chest. Then turning to the injured SeeD I bent down to check her injuries. She was already starting to come to so I cast a quick Cura spell on her and moved on to find another opponent.
I was just starting to move forward when I felt my self tackled to the ground. I twisted around and was about to punch my attacker when he jumped up and struck out with a gunblade that slammed into a Galbadian soldiers side and dropped him to the ground.
" I tried yelling but you must not have heard me Squall! That guy was about to take your head off. See I knew you needed me."
Oh great I had just been saved by none other than Seifer Almasy. Jumping to my feet I looked around to see that most of the soldiers had been wiped out.
Then looking at Seifer I decided to thank him,
"Whatever."
Seifer seemed to have noticed this to and had a sad look on his face. "Aww man I was hoping for more action."
"Don't worry Seifer there are plenty more coming. Now come on I want to have you where I can keep an eye on you so you don't decide to join back up with your old Galbadian buddies."
"Oh come on! I just saved your life and you still don't trust me?"
"To be honest? NO!"
As we began walking over to where Rinoa was, the Intercom buzzed to life, "Squall, this is Headmaster Cid. Please report to the bridge immediately!"
Hearing this I turned to Seifer and Rinoa and nodded towards the entrance. We immediately headed for the bridge.
Once we got there we walked over to where Cid was and saluted.
"Sir, the first wave was succesfully pushed back with minimum casualties."
"Good job Squall. It appears all the craft have retreated back to their ships and the Ragnarok is on its way back. We should be moving around the back side of Balamb soon so we will be safe from missiles for a while."
"What about the team at the front gate?" Asked Seifer.
"The enemy never attacked the Gate team so they are all safe!" replied Cid.
Nida turned to us from the pilots controls and waved for our attention. Cid immediately walked over to see what he needed.
"Sir, the engines are starting to overheat. It's possible that they were damaged by one of the missiles." Reported Nida as he scanned the controls.
Just as Cid was about to reply, there was a loud explosion followed by strange vibrations throughout the Garden. It was immediately by followed a loud whistling noise and then another explosion!
"Sir, we have two more Galbadian warships dead ahead! They came out of a cove right on top of us and now they're shelling Garden."
Within seconds we began getting reports from both the Quad and the Front Gate teams yelling that they were getting overran by troops. Without waiting for orders I dived for the elevator and headed for the first floor. I had had no idea what I could hope to do but there was no way I was standing around while my friends were fighting for their lives. As soon as I reached the ground floor I moved towards the front gate just in time to see Irvine, Raijin, Fujin and several other SeeD's being forced backwards by a massive wave of enemy soldiers.
Concentrating I called upon Bahumat and within seconds he appeared above the main entrance. He immediately sent down a massive blast of pure energy into the enemy ranks. Most of the ones already inside were incinerated but as soon as they fell more took their place. Among them I noticed someone I had seen before.
The man who had attacked us in Esther. He was still wearing his strange armor and was currently swinging his gunblade around wildly and wiping out SeeD's left and right.
Hearing noise behind me I turned to see that the Quad team was having the same problems. Rushing forward I charged at the other man with a gunblade. He saw me and immediately stepped forward towards me.
"Squall Leonhart, I presume! I am Garon!" He said as he walked towards me, "I have been looking forward to defeating you for quite a while!"
"What do you want?" I replied as I stopped in front of him.
"I want the Sorceress and her Knight as prisoners and I want you to die by my blade."
"You'll never get any of that so you might as well call your men off now!"
"You are in no position to argue. My men already cut in through the hull and took the engine room. Plus you are surrounded and outnumbered! Besides I have bombs placed in the engine room that will go off soon."
The whole time he had been talking I noticed that Irvine had been sneaking towards his undefended back. I was just about to attack when I heard a scream behind and turned to see what it was.
Rinoa! She was being dragged towards the Quad by a group of soldiers! They also had an unconscious Seifer being dragged along behind them.
I was about to run that way when I heard Irvine yell a warning and I turned back just in time to see that Garon had pulled out a small handgun and was aiming it right at me! I jumped to the side as he fired. I felt the bullet tear into my arm as I hit the ground rolling. Climbing back to my feet I saw Garon and his troops falling back and retreating back to their ships.
I turned and ran towards the Quad hoping to get there in time. But by the time I reached it the enemy ship was already lifting into the air and pulling away towards the enemy warships. I remembered the chopper we had captured and began heading for the garage to get it. I was halfway there when suddenly I felt my feet flipped out from under and heard a deafening boom from somewhere deep in Garden. Almost immediately Garden started tilting to one side and the power began flickering on and off.
The bombs Garon had planted must have gone off already!
Almost immediately I heard Cid's voice come over the intercom and he said something I never thought I would hear.
"All Hands Evacuate! Garden's hull has been breached and we are sinking fast. I repeat All Hands Evacuate!"
To Be Continued……
Authors Note: Sorry about how long it has taken for me to update but my computer was out of commission for quite a while. I plan on putting out more chapters soon. This one is a very rough draft but I wanted to get something out on FF.Net. I would love any suggestions anyone might have! Again please review. That is part of why I put this story out. I was hoping for constructive criticism. Thanks to Alonia Everclear and Athena88 for reviewing the last chapter.