Eiada settled herself on the ribbed, plush cushion of the seat for the
umpteenth time, trying to relax and get comfortable. The waves outside made
the whole cabin rock and shudder as the Balamb Garden scout boat tried to
make better time than the tidal patterns allowed. Eiada swallowed hard as
they hit a particularly rough wave. It wasn't that she was seasick, really-
she liked boats, and even though Winhill wasn't nautical capital of the
world, it wasn't like she'd never been on one before. Seasickness had never
been a problem for her. She was just. twitchy. It didn't help that there
were no windows, that she would have to go up into the freezing air and
salt spray to get a sense of perspective.
(Count your blessings,) she reminded herself. Sitting across from her and to her right, Roen looked positively green. (I'd rather be nervous and bored than nauseous right before I have to fight.)
"Gosh, this is exciting," Arin sighed directly across from her. In the more spacious cabin of the boat, he had the room to stretch his youthful legs out to their fullest, which he did now. "Be a SeeD, travel the world, and don't see any of it because you're stuck inside a windowless metal tube for hours."
"Hour." Eiada corrected. "Not even an hour."
"At least Instructor Dobbs isn't here." the young man sighed. "I think she'd have us all sitting at attention and perfectly silent."
Eiada conceded the point. "She doesn't look like she'd put up with much."
"She's my homeroom teacher." Roen volunteered quietly. "It's pretty hardcore."
Arin snorted knowingly.
"I like her." Eiada surprised herself by saying. Roen glanced up at her, nodded.
"I hope you all had a chance to rest." The door to the officer's cabin slid open and Instructor Dobbs came in, her militaristic gait seemingly unaffected by the rolling sea around them. "We land in twenty minutes."
As the three SeeD candidates sprang to attention, Eiada began to think of all the places a SeeD scout boat could get to at top speed in one hour. Arin beat her to it. "Dollet?"
Instructor Dobbs nodded approvingly at him. "Good call, trainee. At ease- be seated." In the rustles and thumps of three teenage bodies hitting cushion at various speeds, she moved to the back of the room. There was a large television screen set into the wall. She pressed a button on the bottom and the screen flickered to life. A map of the world was displayed- when she tapped a shining dot northwest of the shining dot that represented Balamb Garden, the screen zoomed in. The caption 'Dollet Dukedom Capital' ran along the bottom of the screen, which displayed a coastline and the city of Dollet. Turning to face them, Instructor Dobbs fell into parade rest and cleared her throat.
"Seventy-two hours ago, Dollet was attacked by Galbadian troops." She began. "Late last night the Dukedom Parliament voted unanimously to call in SeeD. They requisitioned nine full SeeDs and as many trainees as we could spare.
"In twenty minutes, at 1830, we will land at Lapin Beach. Squad D is a medical squad. We will be joining Squad C on the beach and, if possible, inside the town. Our objective is to aid any wounded we can and to protect those who are too badly injured to fight. Upon arrival, SeeD candidates Connolly and Zyras will join the perimeter defenses while candidate Tayler and I will join the team of healers working within the perimeter. Connolly and Zyras, your mission is to keep any enemy troops or released monsters from penetrating the perimeter. In the event of an invasion, you are to deal with the enemy by any means necessary. Candidate Tayler, you will prepare for a fight as well.
"Our contract expires two days from now at the absolute latest, but, of course, the withdraw command takes priority. Any questions?"
There was perfect silence. The butterflies doing aerial stunts in Eiada's stomach had fused into one massive knot. Arin was sweating; she could see it gleaming on his forehead from across the room. Roen was less green and more pale.
Instructor Dobbs nodded, face blank. "Good."
She left the screen on, sat down on the same bench as Eiada. Eiada tried to shut out everything but the screen, the little green pixels giving information that was, she realized as she watched, being updated moment by moment via satellite. Tiny red and blue blips of troops, squads, and individual officers and SeeDs danced jerkily across the screen. Most of the fighting seemed to be concentrated near the far west of the city, where the narrow mountain pass let into the cove where Dollet had been built. (Why Dollet?) Eiada caught herself wondering. (I mean, sure, so it's got a great natural harbor, but so does Balamb and Galbadia happily trades through them. Maybe it got tired of paying tariffs?) The thought brought a wry smile to her lips. (What a stupid thing to go to war for.)
Of course most of the Galbadian troops were filtering in through the pass to Dollet, but there seemed to be some ominous red 'enemy' dots in the ocean outside of Dollet. Eiada swallowed. (If they dock anywhere near us, we're going to get fresh Galbadian troops right on top of the medical camp.) She couldn't remember what Galbadian policy for dealing with enemy wounded was, but she had a sinking feeling in her stomach that it had little to do with fresh bandages and hot bowls of soup.
Far in the distance, she heard a grenade explode, the explosion echoing off the water and approaching land.
It seemed like she blinked and Instructor Dobbs was saying "Strap in. It may get rough from here."
Eiada had barely sinched the seatbelt across her lap when the scout craft struck something big and sturdy- and ran right over it. There was a moment of freefall in which she wondered whether they had been blown way up into the air. When the sea accepted them again a few seconds later, Arin made a squeaking noise that showed exactly how young he was, Roen swore, and Eiada concentrated on not throwing up.
Instructor Dobbs braced herself against the seat. "We'll be coming up on the beach in about one minute."
She didn't seem nervous at all. Eiada tried to take comfort in that. She could hear artillery all around them now, and it seemed a miracle nothing went off close enough to take out their boat. She swallowed a mouthful of bile, convinced that throwing up all over her squad wouldn't possibly gain her points on the exam.
The entire boat shuddered, metal screaming, and Eiada clenched her teeth. (We're hit! We're gonna-!)
"EVERYBODY OFF!" Instructor Dobbs barked in a parade-ground bellow that had Eiada's body out of her seat, knives in hand, and through the door before her mind caught up to it.
The door was open at the bow of the ship, and thank Hyne, because Eiada was running on autopilot now, and probably wouldn't have stopped if it had been closed. One long step took her from the metal deck to the gritty Dollet sand, and she slid forward and nearly fell. Somehow she was first, and the others thudded down behind her. She heard them splash up sand, a distant part of her brain checking o see if they landed all right, and then she was running again.
The sky was a dark, feral orange with gunpowder clouds like roadkill smeared across. She had barely noticed this when a grenade went off too near to her, throwing her to her knees. As the rest of the squad caught up, she pulled herself to her feet and was off again, wanting nothing more than to get away from the all-too-obvious target of the scout ship and the Balamb G insignia, wanting to find the relative safety of the medical perimeter.
"Two o'clock!" Instructor Dobbs bellowed, turning heads across the beach. Squad D veered off like a precise military unit, not three teenagers previously combating boredom and seasickness. The tan-gold sand stretched ahead and Eiada saw the figures of guards and patrols, stretchers and delicately bent forms tending the fallen.
"One SeeD and candidates reporting from Balamb Garden!" The bellowing continued, earning them relaxed weapons and nods of acceptance. Sliding to a halt within the ring of stretchers and supply crates, Instructor Dobbs spun to shout: "Connolly and Zyras, to the perimeter!"
Eiada and Roen reversed direction as Arin plowed past them. There were only eight or ten people ringing the medical area, which was backed up against a cliff. Only a half-circle of guards was needed, but Eiada could see they needed reinforcements. She and Roen slid into place in a sparse area of the circle, weapons in hand.
A lull. Eiada watched the tiny figures grappling and falling and screaming no more than a quarter-mile away, trying not to think too hard. She could hear someone groaning prayers from a stretcher behind her, and she tried to make the connections between contact, conflict, battle, injury, death, a straight line in her mind.
Roen glanced at her. "Okay?"
She stared at him, then remembered to nod. She was okay. This was what she was trained to do. She was okay.
A distant, high-pitched whine drew her attention to the gentle green swells of ocean. The dark blue bow of a Galbadian scout boat sliced foam and whitecaps out of the waves. It was, Eiada realized in the rush of white adrenaline, coming right for them. "Roen!" she shouted- too loud for someone standing right next to her.
"I see." He turned to the rest of the circle. "MEDICAL PERIMETER!"
Heads turned, weapons readied themselves. Eiada pulled her knives, whimsically named Right and Left, from her left shoulder and hip- Left short, for slashing, Right long, for defense and swordplay. Beside her, Roen's sword gleamed silver and green from the ocean, and she saw him settle into a deep-rooted stance.
The Galbadian boat docked much the same way as their scout boat had, and soldiers identically clad in blue and silver began to pour out. The ranged weapons from the perimeter guards picked some of them off immediately, and Eiada's all-too-inconvenient sense of chivalry kicked in. Then, as the remainder of the Galbadians picked themselves up and began to charge, she remembered that they were here to attack their wounded, their medics, which wasn't exactly following the code of honorable combat, and, more importantly, her life was in danger, so she'd better swallow her pride and fight!
She met the first one head-on. or as close as her form of combat would allow to head-on, anyway. She held perfectly still, trying to look like she had frozen with fear, (which was funny, because she certainly wasn't planning to freeze- her body just went into the most applicable combination she knew) and let the Galbadian charge her, sword out and down to run her through. At the last moment, she dodged out of the way, caught his leading wrist, and threw him over her hip. A ram with the butts of both knives kept him down.
A sense of elation filled her. Combat wasn't so bad! She hadn't even killed him! Or gotten hurt hersel-
Something sharp and firey ripped across her arm and she shouted, spinning to face Galbadian soldier number two. A quick clash of blades and she'd slipped in between his guard and his body and stabbed him with Right, the longer knife. Left made a flash of silver across his face and he fell.
"Eiada, to your left!" Roen shouted, and she spun to block a downward slash, the last rays of the sun leaping off her blade and into her eyes and the battle continued.
(Count your blessings,) she reminded herself. Sitting across from her and to her right, Roen looked positively green. (I'd rather be nervous and bored than nauseous right before I have to fight.)
"Gosh, this is exciting," Arin sighed directly across from her. In the more spacious cabin of the boat, he had the room to stretch his youthful legs out to their fullest, which he did now. "Be a SeeD, travel the world, and don't see any of it because you're stuck inside a windowless metal tube for hours."
"Hour." Eiada corrected. "Not even an hour."
"At least Instructor Dobbs isn't here." the young man sighed. "I think she'd have us all sitting at attention and perfectly silent."
Eiada conceded the point. "She doesn't look like she'd put up with much."
"She's my homeroom teacher." Roen volunteered quietly. "It's pretty hardcore."
Arin snorted knowingly.
"I like her." Eiada surprised herself by saying. Roen glanced up at her, nodded.
"I hope you all had a chance to rest." The door to the officer's cabin slid open and Instructor Dobbs came in, her militaristic gait seemingly unaffected by the rolling sea around them. "We land in twenty minutes."
As the three SeeD candidates sprang to attention, Eiada began to think of all the places a SeeD scout boat could get to at top speed in one hour. Arin beat her to it. "Dollet?"
Instructor Dobbs nodded approvingly at him. "Good call, trainee. At ease- be seated." In the rustles and thumps of three teenage bodies hitting cushion at various speeds, she moved to the back of the room. There was a large television screen set into the wall. She pressed a button on the bottom and the screen flickered to life. A map of the world was displayed- when she tapped a shining dot northwest of the shining dot that represented Balamb Garden, the screen zoomed in. The caption 'Dollet Dukedom Capital' ran along the bottom of the screen, which displayed a coastline and the city of Dollet. Turning to face them, Instructor Dobbs fell into parade rest and cleared her throat.
"Seventy-two hours ago, Dollet was attacked by Galbadian troops." She began. "Late last night the Dukedom Parliament voted unanimously to call in SeeD. They requisitioned nine full SeeDs and as many trainees as we could spare.
"In twenty minutes, at 1830, we will land at Lapin Beach. Squad D is a medical squad. We will be joining Squad C on the beach and, if possible, inside the town. Our objective is to aid any wounded we can and to protect those who are too badly injured to fight. Upon arrival, SeeD candidates Connolly and Zyras will join the perimeter defenses while candidate Tayler and I will join the team of healers working within the perimeter. Connolly and Zyras, your mission is to keep any enemy troops or released monsters from penetrating the perimeter. In the event of an invasion, you are to deal with the enemy by any means necessary. Candidate Tayler, you will prepare for a fight as well.
"Our contract expires two days from now at the absolute latest, but, of course, the withdraw command takes priority. Any questions?"
There was perfect silence. The butterflies doing aerial stunts in Eiada's stomach had fused into one massive knot. Arin was sweating; she could see it gleaming on his forehead from across the room. Roen was less green and more pale.
Instructor Dobbs nodded, face blank. "Good."
She left the screen on, sat down on the same bench as Eiada. Eiada tried to shut out everything but the screen, the little green pixels giving information that was, she realized as she watched, being updated moment by moment via satellite. Tiny red and blue blips of troops, squads, and individual officers and SeeDs danced jerkily across the screen. Most of the fighting seemed to be concentrated near the far west of the city, where the narrow mountain pass let into the cove where Dollet had been built. (Why Dollet?) Eiada caught herself wondering. (I mean, sure, so it's got a great natural harbor, but so does Balamb and Galbadia happily trades through them. Maybe it got tired of paying tariffs?) The thought brought a wry smile to her lips. (What a stupid thing to go to war for.)
Of course most of the Galbadian troops were filtering in through the pass to Dollet, but there seemed to be some ominous red 'enemy' dots in the ocean outside of Dollet. Eiada swallowed. (If they dock anywhere near us, we're going to get fresh Galbadian troops right on top of the medical camp.) She couldn't remember what Galbadian policy for dealing with enemy wounded was, but she had a sinking feeling in her stomach that it had little to do with fresh bandages and hot bowls of soup.
Far in the distance, she heard a grenade explode, the explosion echoing off the water and approaching land.
It seemed like she blinked and Instructor Dobbs was saying "Strap in. It may get rough from here."
Eiada had barely sinched the seatbelt across her lap when the scout craft struck something big and sturdy- and ran right over it. There was a moment of freefall in which she wondered whether they had been blown way up into the air. When the sea accepted them again a few seconds later, Arin made a squeaking noise that showed exactly how young he was, Roen swore, and Eiada concentrated on not throwing up.
Instructor Dobbs braced herself against the seat. "We'll be coming up on the beach in about one minute."
She didn't seem nervous at all. Eiada tried to take comfort in that. She could hear artillery all around them now, and it seemed a miracle nothing went off close enough to take out their boat. She swallowed a mouthful of bile, convinced that throwing up all over her squad wouldn't possibly gain her points on the exam.
The entire boat shuddered, metal screaming, and Eiada clenched her teeth. (We're hit! We're gonna-!)
"EVERYBODY OFF!" Instructor Dobbs barked in a parade-ground bellow that had Eiada's body out of her seat, knives in hand, and through the door before her mind caught up to it.
The door was open at the bow of the ship, and thank Hyne, because Eiada was running on autopilot now, and probably wouldn't have stopped if it had been closed. One long step took her from the metal deck to the gritty Dollet sand, and she slid forward and nearly fell. Somehow she was first, and the others thudded down behind her. She heard them splash up sand, a distant part of her brain checking o see if they landed all right, and then she was running again.
The sky was a dark, feral orange with gunpowder clouds like roadkill smeared across. She had barely noticed this when a grenade went off too near to her, throwing her to her knees. As the rest of the squad caught up, she pulled herself to her feet and was off again, wanting nothing more than to get away from the all-too-obvious target of the scout ship and the Balamb G insignia, wanting to find the relative safety of the medical perimeter.
"Two o'clock!" Instructor Dobbs bellowed, turning heads across the beach. Squad D veered off like a precise military unit, not three teenagers previously combating boredom and seasickness. The tan-gold sand stretched ahead and Eiada saw the figures of guards and patrols, stretchers and delicately bent forms tending the fallen.
"One SeeD and candidates reporting from Balamb Garden!" The bellowing continued, earning them relaxed weapons and nods of acceptance. Sliding to a halt within the ring of stretchers and supply crates, Instructor Dobbs spun to shout: "Connolly and Zyras, to the perimeter!"
Eiada and Roen reversed direction as Arin plowed past them. There were only eight or ten people ringing the medical area, which was backed up against a cliff. Only a half-circle of guards was needed, but Eiada could see they needed reinforcements. She and Roen slid into place in a sparse area of the circle, weapons in hand.
A lull. Eiada watched the tiny figures grappling and falling and screaming no more than a quarter-mile away, trying not to think too hard. She could hear someone groaning prayers from a stretcher behind her, and she tried to make the connections between contact, conflict, battle, injury, death, a straight line in her mind.
Roen glanced at her. "Okay?"
She stared at him, then remembered to nod. She was okay. This was what she was trained to do. She was okay.
A distant, high-pitched whine drew her attention to the gentle green swells of ocean. The dark blue bow of a Galbadian scout boat sliced foam and whitecaps out of the waves. It was, Eiada realized in the rush of white adrenaline, coming right for them. "Roen!" she shouted- too loud for someone standing right next to her.
"I see." He turned to the rest of the circle. "MEDICAL PERIMETER!"
Heads turned, weapons readied themselves. Eiada pulled her knives, whimsically named Right and Left, from her left shoulder and hip- Left short, for slashing, Right long, for defense and swordplay. Beside her, Roen's sword gleamed silver and green from the ocean, and she saw him settle into a deep-rooted stance.
The Galbadian boat docked much the same way as their scout boat had, and soldiers identically clad in blue and silver began to pour out. The ranged weapons from the perimeter guards picked some of them off immediately, and Eiada's all-too-inconvenient sense of chivalry kicked in. Then, as the remainder of the Galbadians picked themselves up and began to charge, she remembered that they were here to attack their wounded, their medics, which wasn't exactly following the code of honorable combat, and, more importantly, her life was in danger, so she'd better swallow her pride and fight!
She met the first one head-on. or as close as her form of combat would allow to head-on, anyway. She held perfectly still, trying to look like she had frozen with fear, (which was funny, because she certainly wasn't planning to freeze- her body just went into the most applicable combination she knew) and let the Galbadian charge her, sword out and down to run her through. At the last moment, she dodged out of the way, caught his leading wrist, and threw him over her hip. A ram with the butts of both knives kept him down.
A sense of elation filled her. Combat wasn't so bad! She hadn't even killed him! Or gotten hurt hersel-
Something sharp and firey ripped across her arm and she shouted, spinning to face Galbadian soldier number two. A quick clash of blades and she'd slipped in between his guard and his body and stabbed him with Right, the longer knife. Left made a flash of silver across his face and he fell.
"Eiada, to your left!" Roen shouted, and she spun to block a downward slash, the last rays of the sun leaping off her blade and into her eyes and the battle continued.