Chapter 17
Shinra Blues
He stifled a cry of pain as a loud click sounded, indicating that his jawbone had been knocked out of place. Most likely from the booted foot that'd just connected with his chin.
"Now Mr. Clifton, I will ask you once more, what do you know of the Shinra Air Force?" demanded the colonel, coldly.
Lennie looked up at Colonel Daegon hopefully, no more violence, his eyes begged. But when Daegon slowly brought his foot back, ready to kick, Lennie spoke.
"I, I don't know, there are fighter wings, and a commander, and…" revealed Lennie, although his speech was a bit slurred, due to the new position of his jaw.
Daegon corrected that by giving the prisoner another firm kick, resetting the dislocated bone. By this point the Shinra pilot was sprawled across the floor, his blood slowly seeping across the damp concrete floor.
"That we already know, my dear, Mr. Clifton."
"Well that is all I know, my dear, ugly, interrogator." choked out Lennie.
The Wutaian chose a different target on the weak organism that was the Shinra pilot this time, his broken right arm. He dragged the other man up by his yellow, dyed hair with the might of one muscular arm, and took the broken arm into one hand.
"You seem to be having some difficulty with the first question, let us try a new one. Who are the commanding officers in your airforce?" asked the colonel.
"I don't know." answered Lennie, defiantly.
Daegon then turned his attention to Lennie's broken arm, which the Wutaian man still held in his hand. He stared at it with his cold, blue eyes for a moment, and then with one sudden motion, wrenched it out of the sling at a sickly angle. The cloth of the sling even tore from the immense force exerted, along with many other ligaments and tendons, brutally ripped from their positions.
Despite his best efforts not to, Lennie screamed, a wild, animal cry of pain. This caused Daegon to toss the man's limp body into the wall, like some child's rag doll. And there Lennie stayed, after his body ricocheted off of the sharp edge of his metal table with a jarring crunch, and sank to the floor slowly.
With this Daegon quickly turned away from the repugnant scene and opened the cell door. But before making his final exit, he turned around to say one last thing to Lennie.
"You stick so closely to your little adage of never betraying your friends, but did you ever stop to think. A true pilot never lets his wingman down, and a true squadron always finds a downed man. What if your friends, have already betrayed you?"
And so he left the broken man to think, and think he did, until his brain got tired of thinking, and slid into unconsciousness.
****
What had a couple of weeks ago been a bustling center of activity had been reduced to a deathly silent, empty hangar, Rotterdam mused. He was standing in the middle of Eclipse Squadron's old base in the Shinra tower. He had come, hoping for some more clues to what had gone on in this squadron. But all he'd found was a cold, large, concrete space, and some grease stains.
And so his knowledge was still the same. Shinra wanted more materia, and Wutai had it. Which is why the two were at war, yet the instigation of that war was still foggy. He knew for certain that the accidental training crash and maybe even Lircos tied in, but how, was the question. He would never get anywhere without anymore evidence though, a thing not in abundance lately.
With that thought he turned around to leave. For the large, metal doors that led outside were slightly open, making it a bit drafty, and his finely tailored suit was not enough to keep him warm. Yet just before he reached the elevator a gust of wind whipped a piece of paper right into his face. Curiously he grabbed it to read.
Attn: Comdr. Nairne
Re: New Cockpit Ejection Safety Measures
A shipment of the new automatic ejection mechanisms has been sent, to replace the hazardous manual levers. Please install them as soon as possible.
Rotterdam folded it and placed it inside his pocket. The memo had little significance; the real value lay in the fact that the memo was to Commander Nairne. With this realization his eyes strayed to a previously undiscovered room. With this new attention the room, his ears suddenly picked up a fairly recent blues song emanating from within.
"I lost my man, off to the war. But I know, that he'll be all right. Cause he's fighting for Shinra, and Shinra always makes everything alright." sang a young woman, accompanied by a sad sounding guitar.
As Rotterdam stepped closer he was startled to find an old custodian inside, loading some filing cabinets on to a motorized cart. Another glance revealed a small, wall-mounted placard, stating that this used to be Nairne's office.
The droning music brought his attention back to the custodian quickly though. It seemed that the old man hadn't even noticed him. His head bobbed slowly to the beat, setting the remaining clumps of gray hair he possessed into a swaying motion. He wore a stained, old blue work suit; which held a sewn on name patch, beginning to fall off, that read 'Earl'.
"Excuse me." Rotterdam said politely.
The old man didn't flinch, the radio was on so loud, and his head was bent down, so he could not see, or hear, the vice president.
"Excuse me!" shouted a now slightly agitated Rotterdam.
At this the man half jumped, rather startled. It took a minute for Rotterdam's status to register, but it soon did, the vice president had made dozens of television appearances during his career.
"Mr. Rotterdam!" the old man exclaimed, while hastily turning off the radio, "I sure am sorry, it's just that we don't normally see gentleman as high up as yourself around here so I…" rattled off Earl, nervously.
Through this all Rotterdam stood stoically.
"No need to explain yourself, Earl, I believe," he said, checking the name patch again, "I'd just found this memo and wondered if there might be more where it came from." questioned the vice president, holding up the newfound memo.
Earl carefully took the memo from Rotterdam's hand, and studied it for a moment.
"Oh yeah, I remember this. I was talkin' with Joe Green over some coffee in the cafeteria, 'bout a month or so back I'd say. He was the head mechanic for this squad ya know. But anyhow, I guess this Nairne fella refused to have one o' them things put in. Said he'd rather control the ejection himself…" prattled on the old man.
"That's very nice, but that was not my question. I want to know if you have any more of these." demanded Rotterdam, while briskly snatching the memo from the other man's hand.
Earl took a small step back, and motioned to the filing cabinets.
"Well yes, these cabinets are full of 'em. I was just about to bring it all down to the incinerator."
"No!" cried Rotterdam, "No you can't burn those…"
"My super said…" interrupted Earl.
"I don't care. I am the vice-president of this entire enterprise, and I am asking you to give me the contents of those filing cabinets." said Rotterdam, a bit more composed.
"Now if you would be so kind as to take these down to my car, I would greatly appreciate it. And do not let anyone know about this, understood?"
"Yes sir," confirmed the custodian, somewhat shakily.
Rotterdam cringed slightly, abusing power was not a thing he normally did. But when the fate of a country lay at stake, he found it perfectly acceptable.
****
Oblivious to Rotterdam's new discovery, Reeve found himself working late once again. Everyone else in his department had gone home at least an hour ago. Home to families and friends, things that he really did not have.
He'd tried talking with some of the other executives, and even people in the lower positions around him. But they were all so wrapped up in Shinra, in all its supposed greatness. All except Rotterdam, the one person in Shinra that Reeve had yet to figure out. Rotterdam could almost be considered a friend, but it seemed that the only basis of that friendship was a mutual skepticism of Shinra's intentions in this war. Intentions that the vice-president strongly believed were malicious.
But none of those thoughts were conducive to the current plan he had to approve, so he went back to work.
A knock on his frosted glass door cut that abruptly short though. At first he almost didn't answer, who could still be around this late? Maybe a custodian.
"Mr. Reeve?" asked a feminine voice.
"Um, yes?" responded the young exec, not moving an inch from his comfortable leather swivel chair.
"May I come in?"
Who was this?
"Of course." he replied, now staring intently at the door.
With a slight squeak, the door opened, he had to get someone to oil that. To his surprise one of the last people he'd ever expect to see at his office, Scarlet, stepped in.
"Well Mr. Reeve, I saw the light on and figured I would come down to say hi." she said, closing the door as she walked in.
"Hi." Reeve replied, going back to his work, if Scarlet wanted to talk to him, it could not be good.
"Now Mr. Reeve there is no need to ignore me like that, I've only come down to say hello." she said, feigning hurt.
"And, if I recall correctly, I said hello back. Now if you would please excuse me, I need to finish reading over this plan. Good night." he said, not taking his eyes off of the papers on his desk.
Scarlet was not pleased with his response.
"Well Mr. Reeve you can just go on being rude, it doesn't bother me. But I hope you realize that one day your actions may return to haunt you. Good night Mr. Reeve." she said harshly, exiting the room without even closing the door.
For a moment this bothered Reeve, but he soon pushed it out of his mind, he had never felt threatened by Scarlet before, and he did not plan to start.
****
While night was at it's peak in Midgar, the sun was just rising across the world in Wutai. The skies were clear, the air crisp, to a young apprentice this day would have seemed innocent and inviting. But the birds told Lord Godo otherwise, they spoke of a foreboding disappointment. The lord was wrapped only in a tan robe, perched on the railing of his balcony, overlooking all of Wutai.
As he began to sink into a deeper meditation, to try and seek out this disappointment, a skinny figure burst out of this balcony doors and wrapped their arms around the lord's neck. All in good fun though, for this figure had no intention of violence, just expressing their love.
"Dad!" exclaimed the young girl.
Godo had all he could do to keep himself from falling off of the railing, startled by this new arrival.
"Yuffie dear…" he half choked out, still struggling to keep his balance.
At that moment a young guard burst in.
"I'm terribly sorry sir, I tried to stop her but…" he explained nervously.
By this point Yuffie had released her lock on her father's neck, allowing him to step down onto sure footing on the balcony.
"No further worries are necessary. I have not seen my daughter for a quite a few days, I think she should be allowed to come in. Thank you for your concern though." said the lord with a dismissive wave of his hand.
Once the guard was gone, Godo gave his daughter a warm hug.
"How was your trip into the mountains?" he asked curiously, while realizing how much his daughter had grown in the past few years, and she was only 12!
"It was great, and look what I got!" she said, sifting around in a leather pouch at her waist.
She finally pulled out a small, glowing orb.
"Yuffie! You know that materia stealing is a crime, where did you get that?" asked Godo, trying to sound angry, but inside he couldn't help but admire her cunning.
"It was easy, I just snuck into one of the mines, and…"
The young girl was interrupted, as yet another person burst onto the balcony, but this person was not quite as happy as Yuffie.
"Colonel Daegon, I do not recall telling you to come up here." said the lord, irritated.
"Yes sir, I know that, but I have news of our guest downstairs."
At this Lord Godo's mood changed from happy to quite serious.
"Yuffie dear, I'm sorry to cut this short, but I have some business to attend to." He said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"But dad…" whined the girl.
"I will see you tonight."
Without another word she stormed off, but was soon replaced by the young guard.
"Sir, once again I am quite sorry, I tried to stop…"
"And once again I remind you, do not worry. I am not surprised that Colonel Daegon made it past you, the issue of that formidable little girl on the other hand, is another matter." Godo said, displaying some rare sarcasm.
"We have important business to attend to, go away." said Daegon sternly.
Once he was sure they were alone, the colonel spoke about their "guest".
"The prisoner refuses to yield any information." Daegon said angrily.
So this was the disappointment the birds spoke of.
"Are you not up to the task I have appointed you, colonel?"
At this Daegon's face turned slightly red, in anger.
"I am not at all daunted by this enemy prisoner…" he fumed.
"Yet you seem to be having some difficulty with him. Perhaps you should stay on your main path of training pilots, and let Staniv handle this." suggested Godo.
Admit failure to Staniv? He would never dream of giving that mere lackey of the Lord Godo such pleasure.
"Sir have you considered that this pilot may not know anything?"
"That is a possibility, yet an unlikely one. If that is the case though, our other source should be sufficient."
"Other source sir?" asked Daegon, confusedly.
"Yes. Recently an outside informant, who claims they can give us valuable information about the Shinra forces, has contacted us. Whether or not they speak truthfully, we have yet to see."
At this Daegon was rather surprised, who was this "informant"?
"Go, and train your pilots, the birds are now foretelling other events, events of combat. I'm sure our source will substantiate this soon enough."
Yet even Lord Godo was a bit curious, and so the main question remained.
Who?
****
Black Hawk
Rendezvous at location known to messenger at 0300. Password to confirm credibility of messenger "Thunderclap." Respond when message received.
Red Tiger
General Sephiroth surveyed the letter once more. When he was satisfied he quickly typed it into his portable field computer. With another key command the letter was loaded onto a small disk, which could only be activated by Apollo's voice. And even if the disk was intercepted, little could be gotten from it.
Only Sephiroth and Apollo knew the codenames for air and army commanders; and although the time had been stated, the Wutaians could not be everywhere at once. Which was why the location had been entrusted to the messenger; for enemies would most likely shoot the man down if he was ambushed, and so the information would be lost to the them forever.
As the data was transferred the general surveyed their situation on his map, spread across a large card table, The specially made map encompassed the bulk of the Wutaian mountains, where almost all military activity had been going on. And right in the center of the whole mess was a massive Wutaian facility; formerly the main mining complex, but more recently converted to the enemies' military headquarters. A rather stupid move it seemed, but in fact it was quite pragmatic.
For in those very mountains was the main reason for this war, the materia mines. The things that the Wutaians would give their lives to protect, while the Shinra forces would take the lives of those very same Wutaians to conquer. Of course this fact was not widely advertised amongst the Shinra forces, it was better for the soldiers to think of the enemy as unintelligent, and easy to defeat. And besides if they heard about the mines, they might want some materia for themselves.
But none of that would be a problem, since Operation Diamond Edge had been successful, and the Wutaians were tightly hemmed in. O.D.E, as the troops had taken to calling it, was quite simple. It was basically the movement and positioning of Shinra forces at every possible location, around the perimeter of the mountain area. Over the past week or so the Shinra forces had locked down the area, trapping all Wutaian forces inside. Although Sephiroth had not seen very much of this yet, for the Shinra military base was located safely outside of the hot zone.
Soon though, every single soldier available, including the general, would be thrust into the middle of it all; the time for Operation Thunderclap had finally come. In one swift motion, the Shinra forces, when ordered of course, would move in on the Wutaian facility, and take it; thus gaining the materia mines. But this plan could never work without the cooperation of the air force.
Because the facility was very heavily guarded, including all kinds of anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons. And most likely the place would be swarming with fighters. So Sephiroth had decided to enlist Apollo and his pilots in this battle, they would be quite helpful. Which was why Apollo must be contacted, to discuss the planning of this event that would surely go down in every Shinra history book across the world.
Oddly enough, as Sephiroth finished that thought, the disk finished loading. Hearing the distinctive beep to confirm completion, the general got up from his metal stool and retrieved the disk. He then set off to find the lucky young soldier who to be messenger for the day.
As he stepped out onto the main road of the camp he found that it was clogged with dozens of fit, young recruits. Yet the general would not take just anyone; he needed someone dumb enough to not realize the danger, but smart enough to do the job right.
Suddenly he came upon a lone, young man. He leaned against a pole, leisurely smoking a cigarette. At first the man didn't even notice the general, but once he did he practically soiled himself. He frantically dropped his cigarette on the ground, and stubbed it out with his boot.
"General Sephiroth sir!" shouted the young soldier, standing tall and straight, with a salute.
"Name and rank?" ordered Sephiroth.
"Private Delson sir!"
If this man was any example of the average soldier in Sephiroth's army, then Shinra was in good shape.
"At ease private. Why are you here, waiting to meet someone?"
"No sir…" replied Delson, puzzled.
Good, he had no companions; no one would miss him.
"I have a mission for you. You must take this disk to the air force base, and give it to the admiral there. He will ask you for a password, the password is "Thunderclap". He will then ask for a location. This mission is to be mentioned to absolutely no one else, understood?"
The soldier did not even hesitate before accepting the mission, anything for Shinra. Sephiroth then entrusted the man with a set of coordinates, and made him commit them to memory.
"What mode of transportation will I be using sir?"
"Your feet." Sephiroth said flatly.
It may have been cruel, but it was the only way the young soldier could make it; any type of vehicle would have been too conspicuous.
"Will I have any means of protection?"
"Your gun."
Delson suddenly accepted the grim realization that he would probably not be returning from this mission. Apparently his countenance betrayed that.
"It is too late to be having second thoughts private, collect a minimum amount of gear and move out. I will inform your squad leader." finished Sephiroth, walking away.
"Yes sir!" shouted the private with a salute, before running off to his tent.
As Sephiroth walked back to his tent he reflected on the exchange. He was slightly happy, an unusual feeling, because the private had accepted the mission. Otherwise the general would have had to find another soldier and explain; it would have been time consuming. Along with the fact that the young man would have known too much to be safe. That wouldn't have been too hard to correct though.
He could always have just killed him.
Note – Not too much to see, sorry for the wordiness of the last section, was necessary to fully explain what was really going on though. Have no fear; Cid will be back in the next chapter, which should be up sometime in the future. When? Well only the birds know that.
