Final Fantasy: The Chronicles Of Paine Chapter 13

"Vegnagun?" Yuna gasped.

"This is ok, it just means that Fayth anticipated our attack. He won't have a backup plan because he's depending on Vegnagun," Paine replied.

"Oh, thanks, I feel much better," Yuna sighed.

"We can take it out," Rikku said quietly.

"How?" Yuna asked.

"Tobli gave us a bomb," Rikku said.

"No," Paine said. "We should save the bomb. Me may need it later on."

"Hey, Cid used to keep rockets on this airship, right? We could use them take out Vegnagun!" Yuna suggested.

"True, but just how did it get here, anyway? That's what I want to know," Rikku queried.

"We'll worry about that later," Paine answered. "Brother, Buddy, we're going to fire on that thing. With the right ammount of firepower, we should be able to take it out."

"Aye aye," Buddy replied. Brother, however, at the sight of Vegnagun, appeared to have soiled himself.

"Opening rocket bay-doors, standbye for engagement," Buddy called out.

"Take us down lower, we need to get closer to that thing," Paine ordered.

"This reminds me of when we first went to Bevelle, years ago," Rikku said darkly.

"The doors are open, waiting for orders, Paine," Buddy called out.

"This is just like the time we fought Vegnagun before. Take out it's tail, its legs, its body, and then its head. If this is like the last one, then I'm willing to bet there's a massive gun under there. Once we get a little closer, hit it with everything we've got," Paine ordered.

Cid's airship quickly descended through the dark and dreary sky. As the ship made its approach, Vegnagun opened fire. The ship veered left and right, dodging the dangerous magic shots.

"Take out its tail. That is Vegnagun's second biggest threat," Paine said. With that, Buddy unleashed a barrage of missiles at Vegnagun's tale. The large, steel monster made an attempt to dodge the shots, but ended up catching most of the rockets with its tail and lower body, nearly tripping it.

"Give me a sec, it's gotta reload," Buddy said.

After a few moments, he launched a second wave of rockets, which connected head on with its tail, which then exploded and crumbled to ash.

"Nice shooting, Buddy. Keep going, hit the legs next," Paine ordered. However while they waited for the guns to load up again, a stray shot from Vegnagun's blasters collided with the Ship. Though they were rattled, the Gullwings seemed to be ok, though the once beautiful, bright yellow ship had plumes of flame and smoke emanating from the rear. At this point, Brother looked like he could vomit.

"Oh crap," Buddy groaned.

"What?!" Paine asked.

"We're screwed," Buddy replied. The ship had caught fire, and was losing altitute rapidly. "If you have a plan, now would be a great time for suggestions."

For a long and painful moment, it seemed that they were, in fact, screwed. Paine began to sweat bullets, wondering how they would make it out of this. At a descent of nearly 150 miles per hour, they were plummeting to their demise. The upside? They were headed directly for Vegnagun, and if they didn't figure something out, they would land right on top of it, surely destroying the threat. However they would be forever implanted in the ground.

However, just as they appeared to be beaten, a much larger airship soared out of nowhere, and got right beneath the falling aircraft, catching them.

"What just happened? Are we dead?" Cloud exclaimed. Paine peeked out the cockpit window, and noticed they had in fact, been caught by a large airship. However, Paine recognised the airship, and somewhat wished they had fallen to their deaths. Complete with an indigo-coloured paint job, they were sitting on top the Leblanc Syndicate airship. Leblanc's voice came over the ship's radio.

"I didn't want to save you Dullwings, and could easily have allowed you to become a smoking hole in the ground, however, I have some unfinished business with Paine."

Paine quietly uttered an obscenity to herself. Picking up the microphone, she spoke to Leblanc. "How did you know we were here?"

"I got an email from Barthello and Dona, saying they were coming to help save the world, and I thought if I helped out, you would owe me a favour," Leblanc replied.

"I see, would that favour include me sending you to the farplane?" Paine shot back.

"You are in no position to bargain, and what you do for me is my choice," she explained.

"Indeed it is, however it would be wise to discuss business elsewhere," Paine said, referring to Vegnagun.

"Don't worry about him, we can take it out. You three need to get inside and save the world, so that you and I can finish our business," she said. Paine shut off the mic and zipped up her spy uniform. Tightening her goggles, she took out one of her pistols from the briefcase, fitted it with a silencer and then holstered it.

"This is it," she said. "Can you do this?"

"Do we have a choice?" Rikku asked.

"No," Paine replied. "Now let's get to work." Paine motioned for them toward to rear hatch, and released the hatch. Gazing out over the Leblanc ship's fuselage, she took one last look at the rest of the team.

"Buddy, me, Rikku and Yuna are going out onto the wing. Once we're outside, I want you to Leblanc to fly her ship up to about 2,000 feet. When we reach that height, give us a signal so we can jump," Paine instructed. Just before she stepped out, Tobli approached her from behind and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Yeah?" Paine answered.

"I forgot to give these to you earlier. They're two-way radios so we can keep in touch. Good luck out there, to all of you," Tobli said. Paine took the three radios from him and handed one to each of her teammates. She looked very nervous, as this was her biggest mission that she had been in charge of. She gave Tobli a thumbs up and lowered herself out of Cid's airship and onto Leblanc's ship.

"Come on!" She called out to Yuna and Rikku, who followed behind. The hatch closed behind them, and they felt the icy bite of the cold wind blowing against their faces. Paine pulled down her wind mask.

Paine knew Buddy must have sent the message to Leblanc to fly upwards, because she noticed that they were going higher. Vegnagun was still lumbering about hundreds of feet below however, and the airship seemed to be weaving in and out of it's attacks. They had reached an altitude that they could see the floating ruins of Gagazet, where they had once raced the Leblanc syndicate to the summit for a sphere, where they also tangled with Boris, the deranged arachnid. They had reached roughly 1600 feet, climbing ever closer to their jump.

"Now keep in mind," Paine yelled through the wind, "That this is a HALO jump, a high altitude, low opening jump. This is based on stealth, meaning that we're less likely to be discovered if we open out parachutes closer to the ground."

"Don't you think they already know we're here?" Rikku chimed in.

"Look, this is just the way I was taught to handle this sort of mission, plus it looks cool," Paine shrugged.

"Isn't it dangerous?" Yuna asked.

"Probably, but we're on a truce with Leblanc for the moment, and I'd rather be jumping from 2000 feet with NO parachute, but we're stuck for now," Paine sighed. The ships climbed ever higher through the clouds, and after what seemed like forever, Buddy's voice came over the ship's radio system: "We've reached our maximum altitude, get ready to jump," He ordered. "Now spread your winds and fly."

To be continued