Chapter Two: Briefing
"Now that you've had time to get to know one another, I decided to call you here to brief you on this mission." Commander Dolan rose out of his overstuffed chair and threw a look of seriousness at the two. "Both of you obviously know the situation, so there's no need for me to go into it again. Now, our intelligence operatives have told us this in the last couple of hours. One: the ship bound for Costa del Sol is almost there. Again, we don't know if Raina or any Shinra or anyone is on that ship. If Raina is on that ship, she of course will disembark. We don't know what condition she's in at this moment—"
"Sir—" Nelo cut in.
"Excuse me, Mr. Dalen!" Coren snapped at Nelo. "This is a matter of serious importance! Don't interrupt me when I am speaking to you!"
"Sorry, sir," Nelo bowed his head, feeling embarrassed.
"As I was saying—ah, yes. We don't know what condition she's in—which is one of the reasons I assigned Ifalna to this mission. She can tend to Raina if she's wounded. Here is what we also know. Junon is in a state of uproar at the moment—since the sudden and unexpected departing of the cargo ship, Shinra is on a high state of alert, bordering on martial law at this point. This has also been reported to the Shinra soldiers at Costa del Sol. To my knowledge, more reinforcements are on the way to intercept that ship. Unfortunately, the ship will arrive before we do…and if Raina is alone…" his voice trailed off.
Then Raina will have to face the Shinra troops by herself…damn…
"What about our operatives on the other side?" Ifalna asked.
"I've already sent a wire to the Nibelhelm branch, but even with their notification, they still won't make it in time. She's all she has, unfortunately," the Commander said, sighing. "However, they will be searching for her after the ship docks. My guess is that she will go to the Nibelhelm office and wait there."
"So how do we get there? We can't go straight to Costa del Sol," Ifalna said.
"Right—the waters around Costa del Sol and Junon are heavily guarded now," the Commander said, and he bent down to a drawer on his desk. When he came back up, he was holding a rolled-up piece of paper. It unraveled to a map of the Planet.
"We are here," Commander Dolan said, pointing to a red dot. "You are going to take a small craft which will be set for you on the shore. His finger moved left. "You will travel through this waterway out into open ocean. Heading due west you will find another inlet of water between Prison Town and Gongaga Town. After entering the inlet, you will land here—" he marked an X on the map. "Someone from the Nibelhelm office will be there awaiting your arrival, at which point you will ride by chocobo due north to North Corel, at the base of Mt. Corel. From there, you will walk up Mt. Corel to a mountain pass that will take you to Nibelhelm. Raina, hopefully, should be there. Once you have safely made contact with Raina, head northeast to Rocket Town, and find a man named Cid Highwind. Tell him I sent you and you should have no problem in getting a means of transportation back here. He's an excellent pilot. Cid's an old friend of mine…used to work together, and then we went our separate ways, and so it goes…that is the plan." Commander Dolan looked up. "Questions?"
Ifalna had a look of intrigue on her face. "How long is this going to take?"
"The boat trip to the designated landing should take about a day and a half. Since you are going by chocobo to North Corel, that should only take a few hours. From North Corel to Nibelhelm will take approximately one day, and from Nibelhelm to Rocket Town by chocobo is about an hour or two. Finally, from Rocket Town back to here by plane should be about 5-7 hours, depending on the speed of the plane. All together about 4 days, but add time to rest, etc, about a week," the Commander replied. He looked at Nelo. "And you, Mr. Dalen?"
"No questions, sir." Nelo replied.
"Good, then. You will leave tomorrow morning at 1000 hours. That gives you plenty of time to pack things you need. See me tomorrow at 0900. Until then, dismissed!" He brought his hand up to salute.
"Thank you, sir," Ifalna and Nelo responded with the salute and left.
Back at Nelo's quarters, Ifalna and Nelo were sitting in chairs, talking about the events to come.
"It's kind of taking the long way around, isn't it?" Nelo said, a tone of impatience in his voice.
"I have to agree with you there," Ifalna agreed, sighing. "But it's only for a matter of safety. I mean, the immediate areas surrounding Junon and Costa del Sol are now on a high state of alert. I can see where the Commander is coming from—to head straight to Costa del Sol would be suicide, and he's just looking out for our—"
"But what about Raina?! She's all alone, damn it! No one is able to help her!" Nelo yelled, and rose out of his chair. Ifalna's face lit up, her eyes widening, her expression a look of complete surprise, a look of fear. "No one…" he said, his volume lowered, almost to a whisper. "I'm sorry, Ifalna. I didn't mean to yell like that. It's just I'm…I'm—"
"—worried about your friend, I know. I understand, Nelo," Ifalna said in a comforting, soothing voice, almost motherly. "Raina is alive, I'm sure of it."
"We've been friends since we were children…I just don't want anything happening to her." Nelo was calmed by now, and he sat back down in his chair.
"Neither do I." A silence filled up the room. After a few seconds, Ifalna broke the silence, and a grin spread across her face. "Next time, warn me when you're going to do that."
Nelo chuckled. "I will. Thanks for the info."
Ifalna checked her watch. "Hate to run, but I better start packing." She rose out of her chair. "I will see you in the morning, at 0900."
"Same here." As she was exiting, she was at the doorway when Nelo said, "Thanks for relaxing me. It helped."
Ifalna took one last look at Nelo. "Anytime. What are friends for? See ya." She disappeared down the hall, leaving Nelo in his chair, surrounded by silence and a sea of emotions swimming around inside him.
I hope you're alive, Raina. Oh, god, I hope you make it through Costa del Sol…I want to see you again...
* * *
The cargo ship had come to a stop in the harbor of Costa del Sol. She had quickly collected her belongings (and her clothes) and headed for the cargo deck. All around her, empty crates stood, some piled tall and in varied heights—providing some good hiding spots. She had a premonition that Shinra troops would investigate the ship—they probably knew what happened at Junon, so they were ready to kill anything that did so much as breathe. She quickly searched through the deck until she found a hiding place—a corner of the deck surrounded high with crates with an opening big enough for her to squeeze through.
She found a single crate lying on the ground next to her, a crate to be used as a block. She pushed the wooden crate to her hiding place. Luckily it was empty so it didn't prove to be hard to move. Once it was in place, she jumped over it and crouched low. To her right, there was a small slit in between two stacks of crates—an aperture small enough to shoot a bullet through if necessary. No sooner did she position herself when suddenly a female voice filled the large room.
"Docking procedure completed. Main cargo bay door now opening. Security check procedure in progress." The room became filled with the sound of machinery working as the large cargo bay door began to open. As it was opening, Raina could hear the sounds of male voices.
"All right, let's move!" Four Shinra guards entered and dispersed, each checking a section of the deck. Each of them moved quickly and quietly. One of them in particular was wearing a set of black glasses. Raina tried to get a better look at these—they looked strangely familiar to her. This one moved closer to where she was hiding. Looking through the small opening where she was, he was moving in a stealth-like pattern, darting his head back and forth. Raina's heart began to quicken. The sound of her heartbeat sounded like it was amplified a hundred times. For a second, she thought was going to give her position away by the sound. He stopped moving. He turned his head in Raina's direction and moved steadily to her position. As he drew closer, he got several feet away when Raina had a horrible realization.
Those black glasses—thermal glasses! He can see heat! Shit! He knows I'm here…
The barrel of his gun aimed straight in her direction.
"Come out of there now," he said in a firm voice. Raina aimed her gun through the slit, and aimed it at his neck. Her body seemed to have locked in position, ready to fire.
"Get out where I can see you, now!" the guard said menacingly.
"Not on your life, asshole!" Raina screamed, and pulled the trigger. The bullet that flew went cleanly through his neck. He let out a gurgling sound, and he coughed up blood. Blood was quickly flowing from the wound onto his uniform. He was knocked back into a stacked pile of crates, knocking them over. He collapsed in a bloody heap on the ground, some of the blood spilling onto the crate from the initial shot. The other three guards instantly were alerted. One raised his hand and talked into a radio.
"Man down! Man down! Over there! Alert Mode!" one guard yelled.
Alert mode…oh, goody.
In a matter of seconds, six more troops came through the cargo doorway, each wearing thermal glasses. Bullets began to fly, landing in the crates surrounding Raina. Splinters were flying as Raina quickly got up and jumped over a crate. She ran headlong for the stairwell to the upper deck. Nine guards were on her tail now, all of them firing. Sounds of machine gun fire and bullets ricocheting off metal filled the air. All the while she fired at the guards. She was firing randomly now, not stopping to aim. If the bullets hit, they did.
"After her! Make sure she doesn't get away!"
Chunks of wood were being splayed all around her, at times clouding her vision. She began to scramble up the stairwell. As she did, she heard a whizzing sound of a bullet just missing her ear. She could feel the air move as the bullet flew by her.
"She's getting away!" one of the glasses-wearing troops yelled. He fired, and as Raina neared the top of the stairwell, she felt a sudden twinge of pain in her right leg as a bullet grazed her leg. She cried out in pain and she tripped over the last stair. A quick glance at her leg and she saw the piece of fabric of her right pant leg ripped away just below the knee. It was bleeding, but not too heavily. She could manage.
Fucking Shinra bastards!
She ran toward the War Room on the upper part of the upper deck. She could hear the voices of the Shinra guards coming up the stairs. Looking behind her, she heard the sounds of bullets again. She saw a body coming up the stairs. Quickly, she aimed her gun at his head and fired. Less than a second later, the guard's head was knocked back and he fell. As he did, he fell on the guard behind him, then the guard behind him, and so on.
That's gonna buy me some time, a minute at best.
She looked around again, her heart racing. She then realized that she only had one escape.
Can't go back the way I came—which leaves me with one other option—off.
She looked over to her right and saw the dark blue-green of the ocean. About fifty feet away from her was the dock itself. It extended itself out to a point about a hundred feet away, and at the end of it was a small sailing craft.
Maybe I could swim under the dock, out of the way of those stupid thermal goggles…
It wasn't long before she heard the sounds of the guards again. They ran onto the upper deck and placed their guns on Raina.
"Hold it right there, bitch! You are surrounded, and there is no chance of escape! If you surrender, we will treat you with kindness and charity!"
Charity, bullshit. From Shinra? Right.
She looked to her left, and suddenly she ran for the edge of the ship.
"Fire at will! Fire!" Time seemed to move in slow motion for Raina. Her legs felt as if they were lead. The sounds of gunshots seemed to be distorted. With one quick (or slow as it seemed) motion, she lifted herself off the upper deck. She looked behind her and saw gun smoke, and then she sank below their view, and saw nothing but water below her.
Still like? Read on to Chapter 3: Rendezvous.