(All characters you know and love belong to Squaresoft. The rest are mine.
No one sue.)
Rinoa was furious. She should have known. She plopped herself down on the stairs in front of the elevator.
Why else would HE come here if not to use me to his advantage somehow? Damn him. I hope Squall wasn't too offended. oh no.
"Squall!" she exclaimed standing up.
"Right here." He called running from the direction of the quad. He was trying to hide his face.
"I'm sorry about him. Don't worry about it though. I'm not going anywhere. are you bleeding? DID HE HIT YOU?" she shouted.
"Yeah." Squall conceded. "But I now that I think about it, I probably deserved it."
Rinoa looked at him half smiling, "What did you say?"
"I'll tell you later. Right now I've got to get to the bridge." Squall pointed to the elevator.
"Am I. do I go with.?" she asked confused.
Squall smiled pushing the button for the elevator. "It's probably nothing. Just Nida wanting to know where to park when we get to Deling or something. Go grab us a table at the cafeteria and I'll meet you there when I'm done."
"Will you tell me what you said then?" she pushed him lightly. The elevator doors opened behind him.
"Maybe." He joked as he got on and the doors shut him inside.
The bridge was not all that noisy when Squall arrived, but it was suspiciously crowded. There were several maps out below the pilot's nest and two or three SeeDs at each one going over different sorts of calculations. Squall heard a few words like 'Damage assessment' and 'Ground Zero.' That was all he needed to realize this wasn't just some minor question from Nida. All conversations had died as soon as he walked out of the elevator.
"What's going on?" he asked cautiously to the group.
"There's been an incident Squall." Xu's voice dropped down from atop the Pilot's nest.
She stepped on the lift and came down. After passing a small diskette to one of the nearby SeeDs she grasped Squall's arm and pulled him aside.
"There was some kind of explosion on Winter Island." She began. "Any and all communication with Shumi village is gone. The Galbadians have tried for the last two hours to reach someone there and there's been no response. They've sent in a search team, but they lost contact about half an hour ago."
"Whoa. whoa. Slow down for a second. What do you mean? How do you know all this?" Squall asked quickly.
"Most of what we know comes from visual confirmation from Dollet and radio interception from Galbadia. Since the re-introduction of radio waves the Galbadians haven't really spent too much time on encrypting their signal." Xu explained. "From what we've over heard, Galbadian radar along with some far reaching microwave sensor positions picked up some kind of massive explosion on Winter Island about 07:00 this morning."
Squall walked over to a map of Galbadia. "So did someone fire a missile from Galbadia." He thought of Caraway sitting smugly in the quad and frowned. "or Esthar maybe?"
"No. The Galbadians haven't been able to reestablish their missile base since we destroyed it." Xu stated. "And according to our intelligence, Esthar doesn't have this kind of range with their intercontinental missile systems. Besides, this bang was bigger than any conventional weapon we know of." she let that sink in for a moment before continuing.
"Judging from the information we've gathered and the location of the sensors that picked up the explosion, nothing was fired at the island."
"So it originated on the island." Squall finished her thought.
"As far as we can tell." Xu nodded. "There is something strange about the nature of this explosion though."
She motioned down at a holographic map of Winter Island it simulated the explosion as she continued.
"We'd expect to see some kind of creator. Some sign of structural damage. There isn't any. Radar is still picking up the Biodome with the same dimensions it had before the explosion. There's no rock movement in the surrounding area, no real evidence of any damage what so ever."
Squall looked confused. "So some kind of experiment then? Maybe Artisan."
"No Squall. There's been no contact will Shumi village. Not a peep." Xu turned to a SeeD behind her. "There's also something else. Mark?"
The SeeD went over to another holographic map on the other side of the room and ejected a disc from its drive. He brought it over to Xu.
"We recorded this just before the Galbadians lost contact with their search party." She shoved the disc into the Winter Island Map's drive.
The image of Winter Island disappeared and the face of a Galbadian solider took its place. Along side of his face were two readouts, one of his global position, one of his heart rate.
".Echo base this is Columbus five. We are on solid ground now and have begun a circular sweep of grid 1a. There's nothing out of the ordinary as of yet." reported the solider. His heart rate remained constant but it was rather high.
Another disembodied voice came in over the soldier's.
"Columbus five this is Echo base. How you doing Hoss? Tell ya what, we're watching your meds here and I'll give ya a shiny new gil if you calm down just a little bit. "
The soldier smiled into the lens.
"Yes sir. I. holy shit." the soldier breathed
The lens of his communicator turned around. It was out of focus at first then slowly started to fix itself. All around him were monster carcasses, thousands of them. Every indigenous monster on the island was lying on its side slowly being covered by the blowing snow, some in herds, and some with their young, all dead.
The lens turned back to the Soldier, who was looking at readout from one of his portable sensors.
"Sir, there's not a living thing on this island except us. Our scans haven't given us much to go on either, only some kind of weird magical resonance. We'll need to bring back our findings to ." the soldier's nose slowly began to trickle blood and his rate began a steady climb.
"Columbus five, HOSS, what's going on there buddy? Are you ok?" shouted the base commander.
The soldier began to wobble unsteadily and eventually collapsed. As he did his transmission turned to static.
"Columbus FIVE. COME IN. HOSS. DAMNIT ANSWER ME!!!!!!!!" The base commander screamed.
The image on the holographic map shut off, and the disc ejected.
"We think whatever it was that went off killed every living thing on that island and left some kind of contamination, which wiped out the search party as well." Xu concluded.
"Some kind of biological or chemical agent?" Squall inquired.
"No, not exactly. There are a few theories being explored right now and we don't have all the information we would like to." Xu began
"Xu." Squall interrupted.
"We don't have all the facts as of yet sir. I want to do a final check before." Xu stammered.
"Tell me Xu. you have an idea what did this don't you?" Squall grasped her by the shoulders.
She sighed heavily.
Caraway stood in the quad where Squall had left him. He'd been on his secure line for near half an hour now.
"We think it was a metagenetic device, sir." stated the voice over Caraway's cell phone.
Caraway's face turned ghostly pale.
"I want to see all we have on Dr. Gerrish and his research ASAP Major." Caraway demanded into his phone.
"On it sir. We're sending a helicopter to pick you up as we speak sir." said the voice over the phone.
"How did this happen Major? I thought that lab was destroyed ten years ago?" Caraway interrogated.
"We're still looking into it sir." Explained the Major apologetically.
"Well get on it, fast." Caraway insisted.
"Yes sir. Do we inform Garden sir?" Major asked.
Caraway looked down at his aching knuckles. "No. Not until we have a story to tell them."
Rinoa was furious. She should have known. She plopped herself down on the stairs in front of the elevator.
Why else would HE come here if not to use me to his advantage somehow? Damn him. I hope Squall wasn't too offended. oh no.
"Squall!" she exclaimed standing up.
"Right here." He called running from the direction of the quad. He was trying to hide his face.
"I'm sorry about him. Don't worry about it though. I'm not going anywhere. are you bleeding? DID HE HIT YOU?" she shouted.
"Yeah." Squall conceded. "But I now that I think about it, I probably deserved it."
Rinoa looked at him half smiling, "What did you say?"
"I'll tell you later. Right now I've got to get to the bridge." Squall pointed to the elevator.
"Am I. do I go with.?" she asked confused.
Squall smiled pushing the button for the elevator. "It's probably nothing. Just Nida wanting to know where to park when we get to Deling or something. Go grab us a table at the cafeteria and I'll meet you there when I'm done."
"Will you tell me what you said then?" she pushed him lightly. The elevator doors opened behind him.
"Maybe." He joked as he got on and the doors shut him inside.
The bridge was not all that noisy when Squall arrived, but it was suspiciously crowded. There were several maps out below the pilot's nest and two or three SeeDs at each one going over different sorts of calculations. Squall heard a few words like 'Damage assessment' and 'Ground Zero.' That was all he needed to realize this wasn't just some minor question from Nida. All conversations had died as soon as he walked out of the elevator.
"What's going on?" he asked cautiously to the group.
"There's been an incident Squall." Xu's voice dropped down from atop the Pilot's nest.
She stepped on the lift and came down. After passing a small diskette to one of the nearby SeeDs she grasped Squall's arm and pulled him aside.
"There was some kind of explosion on Winter Island." She began. "Any and all communication with Shumi village is gone. The Galbadians have tried for the last two hours to reach someone there and there's been no response. They've sent in a search team, but they lost contact about half an hour ago."
"Whoa. whoa. Slow down for a second. What do you mean? How do you know all this?" Squall asked quickly.
"Most of what we know comes from visual confirmation from Dollet and radio interception from Galbadia. Since the re-introduction of radio waves the Galbadians haven't really spent too much time on encrypting their signal." Xu explained. "From what we've over heard, Galbadian radar along with some far reaching microwave sensor positions picked up some kind of massive explosion on Winter Island about 07:00 this morning."
Squall walked over to a map of Galbadia. "So did someone fire a missile from Galbadia." He thought of Caraway sitting smugly in the quad and frowned. "or Esthar maybe?"
"No. The Galbadians haven't been able to reestablish their missile base since we destroyed it." Xu stated. "And according to our intelligence, Esthar doesn't have this kind of range with their intercontinental missile systems. Besides, this bang was bigger than any conventional weapon we know of." she let that sink in for a moment before continuing.
"Judging from the information we've gathered and the location of the sensors that picked up the explosion, nothing was fired at the island."
"So it originated on the island." Squall finished her thought.
"As far as we can tell." Xu nodded. "There is something strange about the nature of this explosion though."
She motioned down at a holographic map of Winter Island it simulated the explosion as she continued.
"We'd expect to see some kind of creator. Some sign of structural damage. There isn't any. Radar is still picking up the Biodome with the same dimensions it had before the explosion. There's no rock movement in the surrounding area, no real evidence of any damage what so ever."
Squall looked confused. "So some kind of experiment then? Maybe Artisan."
"No Squall. There's been no contact will Shumi village. Not a peep." Xu turned to a SeeD behind her. "There's also something else. Mark?"
The SeeD went over to another holographic map on the other side of the room and ejected a disc from its drive. He brought it over to Xu.
"We recorded this just before the Galbadians lost contact with their search party." She shoved the disc into the Winter Island Map's drive.
The image of Winter Island disappeared and the face of a Galbadian solider took its place. Along side of his face were two readouts, one of his global position, one of his heart rate.
".Echo base this is Columbus five. We are on solid ground now and have begun a circular sweep of grid 1a. There's nothing out of the ordinary as of yet." reported the solider. His heart rate remained constant but it was rather high.
Another disembodied voice came in over the soldier's.
"Columbus five this is Echo base. How you doing Hoss? Tell ya what, we're watching your meds here and I'll give ya a shiny new gil if you calm down just a little bit. "
The soldier smiled into the lens.
"Yes sir. I. holy shit." the soldier breathed
The lens of his communicator turned around. It was out of focus at first then slowly started to fix itself. All around him were monster carcasses, thousands of them. Every indigenous monster on the island was lying on its side slowly being covered by the blowing snow, some in herds, and some with their young, all dead.
The lens turned back to the Soldier, who was looking at readout from one of his portable sensors.
"Sir, there's not a living thing on this island except us. Our scans haven't given us much to go on either, only some kind of weird magical resonance. We'll need to bring back our findings to ." the soldier's nose slowly began to trickle blood and his rate began a steady climb.
"Columbus five, HOSS, what's going on there buddy? Are you ok?" shouted the base commander.
The soldier began to wobble unsteadily and eventually collapsed. As he did his transmission turned to static.
"Columbus FIVE. COME IN. HOSS. DAMNIT ANSWER ME!!!!!!!!" The base commander screamed.
The image on the holographic map shut off, and the disc ejected.
"We think whatever it was that went off killed every living thing on that island and left some kind of contamination, which wiped out the search party as well." Xu concluded.
"Some kind of biological or chemical agent?" Squall inquired.
"No, not exactly. There are a few theories being explored right now and we don't have all the information we would like to." Xu began
"Xu." Squall interrupted.
"We don't have all the facts as of yet sir. I want to do a final check before." Xu stammered.
"Tell me Xu. you have an idea what did this don't you?" Squall grasped her by the shoulders.
She sighed heavily.
Caraway stood in the quad where Squall had left him. He'd been on his secure line for near half an hour now.
"We think it was a metagenetic device, sir." stated the voice over Caraway's cell phone.
Caraway's face turned ghostly pale.
"I want to see all we have on Dr. Gerrish and his research ASAP Major." Caraway demanded into his phone.
"On it sir. We're sending a helicopter to pick you up as we speak sir." said the voice over the phone.
"How did this happen Major? I thought that lab was destroyed ten years ago?" Caraway interrogated.
"We're still looking into it sir." Explained the Major apologetically.
"Well get on it, fast." Caraway insisted.
"Yes sir. Do we inform Garden sir?" Major asked.
Caraway looked down at his aching knuckles. "No. Not until we have a story to tell them."
