Chapter 27: Tactical Espionage Action
Getting inside the perimeter of the missile base was surprisingly simple and easy. Security was apparently lax, as, in the seventeen or so years in which the base had been operational, no one had yet to have attempted to break in to the facility. So when the Galbadian army truck Selphie was riding in thundered over the horizon and pulled up the guard post outside the massive, looming metal gates, all the guard had to do was glance inside the truck to see a quartet of Galbadian uniforms and nothing else that seemed out of order.
"Alright, go on in," the gate guard stated, and Selphie couldn't help but be surprised at the lax security. Still, she took advantage of the situation and quickly went through the gate that the guard lowered. They passed within the perimeter of the missile base's huge concrete walls.
Once inside, Selphie found a fairly empty parking lot and parked the vehicle. The group quickly filed out, clad in a set of blue Galbadian uniforms. Zell was carrying the same sports bag that Irvine had used in the prison over his shoulder, which carried all their normal SeeD weaponry, gear that would undoubtedly not be considered standard issue. Instead, everyone carried a standard-issue Galbadian rifle and swords belted at their sides.
"So, where to first?" Zell asked casually, uncomfortable in his uniform. The constricting torso armor, in particular, was tight around his chest. The others seemed fine, though Selphie was sracthing occasionally from the itchy outfit, an urge that the others were barely containing.
"We go inside," Selphie replied quickly. "If there's anything we can smash, we smash it! And in the end, we blow this place to smithereens!"
"I like that plan," Irvine commented, grinning underneath his helmet. He glanced to Quistis, who nodded.
"Ordinarily we'd operate with a lot more intelligence," Quistis explained, not happy with the lack of proper planning involved with such a haphazard objective. "We'd already know where to go and what to do. I suppose the best course of action is to cause as much damage as we can." She turned around, scanning the base, and nodded to a nearby bunker which seemed to lead deeper into the base. The group made their way to the structure and entered. They moved down an empty corridor, rounded a corner, and nodded to a pair of maintenance soldiers checking a conduit before passing through another door. They enetered a small room with another pair of sliding metal doors. Selphie moved up to one, and frowned.
"Locked!" she muttered. Glancing around the door, she spotted a card reader. "We need an ID card!"
"How about this one?" Irvine asked, drawing a card out of a pocket in his uniform. "Found it inside my uniform. Maybe it'll work?" Selphie took the card and ran it through the scanner. The device beeped cheerfully, and the door slid open. Selphie was the first to step through, the other three following her.
They found themselves on a catwalk overlooking a missile storage bay, with dozens of blue-painted, sleek missiles standing in rows, ready to be transported to launchers.
"I know those," Irvine stated, looking down. "BAG0003A's. Powerful stuff, and real accurate if you set them that way."
"You can set them to be inaccurate?" Selphie asked, and Irvine nodded. "Why?"
"If you want to hit a wide area, or be indiscriminate," Irvine replied. "All depends on the error ratio."
"Maybe we can mess with the error ratio?" Quistis commented, and Irvine nodded.
"It'll decrease the chances for a hit," he replied. "We'll need to keep an eye open for a control panel."
The team moved on across the catwalks, past the missile storage bay and deeper into the underground base. Soon they passed by a door marked "Power Control," but a vigilant guard stood outside, watching the catwalk. It didn't look like there was any way to sneak up on him and take him out. They marched past him, Selphie somewhat disappointed that they wouldn't be able to get inside.
It was a few minutes later that they found themselves standing on a walkway overlooking a series of metal grooves set into the floor far below. Several huge metal platforms moved about the massive chamber below, transporting materials, missiles, and launchers around the base.
"If we cut the power, we can stop this whole operation," Selphie commented. "But we need a way past that guard."
"Maybe we could pretend we're maintenance," Zell suggested, but Quistis shook her head.
"What if its not scheduled?" she replied. "He'd see right through it if we showed up for maintenance off-schedule."
"So, let's see if we can find a schedule," Selphie replied. "Maybe there'll be information on there about how we can mess with other stuff too!" Everyone agreed, and they moved out, deeper into the facility.
Soon, the quartet of SeeDs found a staircase descending down, marked "Missile Launchers," and Selphie took them down without hesitation. The found another series of catwalks overlooking more metal grooves, and even as they watched, a metal platform bearing a pair of missiles rolled through a double door directly beneath the catwalk. There were several doors, one of which, marked "Main Launch Bay," was guarded by a bored-looking soldier. The man glanced at his watch, and then up at the quartet as they approached.
"Hey," he called. "Have you guys heard from the maintenance team repairing the elevator?"
"Nope," Irvine quickly replied, stepping forward. The others said nothing, merely shaking their heads.
"Hell," the guard growled. "They need to check Power Control before we can launch. Go check the launcher elevator that way," the guard said, pointing behind them. "If you see the guys, tell them we need Power Control inspected ASAP."
"Right away!" Irvine replied, and turned around, a grin on his face that was matched by Selphie at the golden opportunity. The rest of the SeeDs followed him down a long corridor, which eventually opened into a wide chamber which had a floor made largely of steel grates, through which steam was hissing. To their left, they could see what looked like a massive gray tube on wheels sitting on a platform, a pair of soldiers in front of it fiddling with electrical wires.
"Damn elevator!" one of them muttered as the SeeDs approached. "These things always go out at the worst times."
"I know," the second man replied. "But if we don't get this elevator fixed-"
"Well, it's one less launcher the guys in the main bay will have to worry about. Hell, there's already enough launchers prepped over there to level Deling City. One more won't matter."
"S'cuse me," Irvine said as he approached the soldiers. one of them looked up. "The guys over in the main bay said they needed the power control room checked out before they could launch."
"Shit!" the first soldier muttered. "Don't they know we're busy! We can't go check the power room too!"
"Well, like you just said, this isn't exactly essential," the second soldier commented.
"We've got our orders!" the first man replied. "The commander will have our heads if the missile launch is delayed, but we can't leave here until the elevator is fixed." The man paused, then glanced back at the quartet of SeeDs.
"Hey, can you check Power Control for us?" he asked.
"No way, that's not cool!" the second soldier objected. "What if the base commander finds out?"
"It's nothing major," the first soldier replied. "Just a quick check." He turned back to Irvine. "Just make sure nothing's burning or exploded or whatever. Shouldn't be, but you never know." Irvine nodded, while behind him, Selphie grinned anew.
"Smash it all to smithereens!" she whispered to herself.
Ten minutes later, they were back at the door to Power Control, and explained their intentions to the guard. The man shrugged and nodded, saying he was going to call in the next shift anyway, before moving off, leaving Power Control to them.
Selphie led the way inside, to a room that consisted of a wide bank of control panels beneath several monitors on the far side of the room, and a huge window to their right. The window showed what was undoubtedly the power generator for the base; a massive energy reaction contained within two magnetic field generators on the ceiling and floor of the power room. Hundreds of pipes and cables lead to and from it.
"Well, everything's working fine," Irvine commented.
"For now," Zell added, grinning.
"Smash it all!" Selphie shouted. She snatched her nunchaku out of Zell's bag and smashed the metal bars down hard on the console directly in across from the doors. Zell and Quistis exchanged surprised glances, but Irvine, who had already seen Selphie in action when she was aggressive, simply smiled and hefted his Galbadian rifle, smashing the butt down on the console somewhere else. Not letting those two get away with the fun, Zell smashed an entire bank of consoles with a single devastating two-handed slam.
A few seconds into the rampage, the room suddenly went dark, before yellow emergency lights cut. To the right, the power generator was no longer operating, the energy reaction fading quickly. An automated voice called over the speakers.
"Attention: Main power disabled. Maintenance team, report immediately to Power Control."
"Better get out of here," Quistis quickly warned, and Selphie nodded.
"Next objective!"
They hurried outside of the room and found their way onto a darkened catwalk, the emergency lighting barely sufficing for them to see. However, they did clearly see the pair of maintenance soldiers from the missile elevator running their way.
"What the hell happened!" one of the men called, running up.
"I dunno!" Irvine quickly replied. "We were coming down here to check things out when the power went haywire!"
"Don't worry, we'll check it out!" the second soldier assured them, and the two of them ran into Power Control. The four SeeDs looked at each other and shared quick a nod, before dashing back into the control room. Between the four of them, they easily knocked out the pair of maintenance soldiers, who were still gaping at the smashed consoles when the SeeDs fell upon them.
Leaving the thoroughly unconscious soldiers behind, the quartet moved back through the base, looking for anything else they could sabotage. Selphie noted with some satisfaction that all the mobile platforms were disabled, many of them still carrying missiles. Soon, they found their way back to the catwalks outside the missile launch bay, which were strangely empty.
The answer was forthcoming, as an officer stepped out of the main missile launch bay and spotted them.
"Hey!" he called. "Need some help in here! Power's out, and we need to push one of the last launchers into place." Quistis, knowing that to refuse might bring trouble, agreed. The officer led them into a wide chamber lined with over two dozen of the huge, cylindrical missile launchers. A group of soldiers were trying to push one of them into place, but were so far weren't having much luck; the device had only moved a couple of feet, even with all their work.
"Okay, I want you, you, and you," he said, pointing to Zell, Irvine, and Quistis, "to push that thing in place. You," he added turning to Selphie. "Sorry, not much room for you, and no offense, but you look a bit wimpy. Keep an eye on those tanks over there on those metal carts."
Selphie looked to where he was pointing, seeing several large tanks sitting on top of metal pushcarts. The metal carts were a bit too small for the tanks, which almost seemed to be about to fall over.
"That's high-octane jet fuel for the missiles," the officer added as Zell, Irvine, and Quistis took up positions alongside the other soldiers pushing the launcher in place. "Normally, it comes in on the big platforms, but we had to push them in with the power outage. If that shit falls off those carts, it'll get in the ventilation shafts and pool around the launchers, and if that happens, we can't launch, unless we want this place to go up like one of those Gardens!" The man bellowed a laugh at his sore attempt at humor, and Selphie resisted the urge to make him swallow his teeth.
"Yes sir!" she answered, and ran over to the carts.
Quistis, Zell, and Irvine pushed against the launcher, though the two Balamb SeeDs held back their full strength. between the two of them, they could have pushed the launcher in by themselves, but they didn't want to tip off the Galbadians as to their abnormal physical power. It took three long minutes of work, but between the three SeeDs and the gathered soldiers, the launcher easily slid into place.
"Good, good!" the officer called, stepping over. "You guys go do me a favor," he added, drawing a card. "Go check the coordinates on the control panel outside, make sure the missiles are locked onto Garden, then go tell the commander in the control room. I'd go myself, but I gotta finish final launch preparations." As he was speaking, Selphie bounded back over.
"Thanks for watching those tanks for me," the officer said, and Selphie nodded.
"No problem sir," she replied with a grin. "My pleasure."
The quartet stepped outside, and Irvine glanced to selphie. he opened his mouth when the tremendous, resounding sound of huge metal drums striking the metal decks back in the main launch bay filled their ears, echoing throughout that segment of the base. Following those sounds was a stream of curses from the officer in the main launch bay, almost as loudly.
"What did you do?" Zell asked, and Selphie smiled innocently.
"Disabled one wheel from each of the carts," she answered. "The moment they tried pushing it-"
"It toppled over," Quistis said with a chuckle. "And now they can't launch from the main launch bay."
"Not for a while, at least," Irvine added. "Let's check out that control panel."
The panel in question was very close by, just down the walkway from the launch bay. Quistis inserted the card and waited for the computer to veify the data within. After reading the information, a green and black wireframe map of the globe popped up, and a trio of options appeared: Target, Equipment, and Simulation.
"Error ratio should be under targeting," Irvine commented. "I know the system they use for long range targeting," he added tapping the side of the console. "Hyper Technology Missile System, subsidiary of Hyper Technology Inc., biggest provider of electronics in all of Galbadia."
Quistis nodded, though she didn't see any input device. She figured it must have been a touch screen, and tapped the targeting icon on the screen. The icons changed to show another trio of options: Set Target, Set Error Ratio, and Upload.
"Wait, change the target!" Selphie quickly suggested, and Quistis nodded, tapping that icon. Immediately, the screen flashed yellow, a message scrolling across saying that only authorized personnel, the system administrator, or the base's commander - Commander Okamogo - could change the coordinates. It demanded a password as well, which they didn't have. Quistis shrugged, glancing back.
"We don't have the password," she replied. "I guess we can only change the error ratio." She exited out of that screen and tapped Error Ratio, which brought up a meter. The left side of the meter was the lower end of the error ratio, while the right side was the higher end. Quistis tapped the right ride of the meter, and the error meter quickly rose to the maximum error ratio.
She exited out of that screen and hit Upload. The screen shifted to a status screen showing the data being uploaded to the missile launchers. Within a few seconds, the new error ratio was fully uploaded into the missiles' guidance systems. Quistis exited out of that screen and, just to make sure, tapped Simulation.
An automatic simulation was immediately run, tracking the projected missile path across the Galbadian continent, over the ocean, and toward Balamb. The missiles were shown descending upon a general area around the center of the continent. Statistic readouts below the simulation stated that the missiles would hit with a twenty to thirty percent accuracy only.
Quistis nodded and removed the card from the panel.
"Okay, now we just need to find the self-destruct mechanism," Selphie added. Everyone nodded. So far, they had just been making sure that even if they failed, the missile launch would cause minimum damage. The real objective had been to stop the launch entirely, and to do that, they needed to destroy the entire base.
"Should be in the control room," Irvine replied, and everyone agreed. They set out to find the control room, which, surprisingly, was actually very close by, just up a short flight of stairs. As they moved up, a man could be heard talking, undoubtedly the base commander, Okamogo.
"We've had some setbacks," the commander called as the SeeDs moved up the stairs. "But even with the primary power out and having to switch to the secondary launchers, we should be ready for launch. Are the coordinates confirmed?"
"Yes sir!" another soldier called.
"Good," Okamogo stated. Moments later, the intercom throughout the base activated.
"Attention all personnel: missile launch will commence in ten seconds. All personnel report to your stations."
His address complete, Okamogo turned to the men manning the consoles nearby.
"Begin the countdown," he stated, but then glanced up as a quartet of regular soldiers stepped into the control room via the stairs to the main launch bay. "What are you doing here, soldiers?" he called.
"Sorry to disturb you, sir," Irvine quickly replied, snapping off a salute. He didn't realize it, but he had accidentally given the SeeD salute instead of the Galbadian one. "But-"
"Hold it," he ordered. "You aren't Galbadian soldiers! That salute was totally wrong!"
"Shit!" Zell hissed, dropping the bag and leaping forward across the control room, directly at Okamogo. "Is time to rumble!"
Selphie, Irvine, and Quistis quickly snatched their weapons out of the bag as the half-dozen Galbadian soldiers around the small, open control room drew their sidearms or swords. Zell landed right in the middle of the room, directly in front of Okamogo, and launched a quick punch directly into the officer's face. Okamogo reacted surprisingly fast, catching Zell's fist on his forearm. However, the commander regretted that immediately, as the impact shattered the bone of his forearm. Zell spun around, planting a roundhouse kick into the officer's chest that blasted him across the room to slam hard into the corner of a console, the metal edge jabbing deep into his side just beneath his armor. Okamogo dropped to the floor, definitely out of the fight.
Irvine ducked for cover behind the stairs, leveling the Valiant at a Galbadian whose pistol had cleared its sheath. Two Action Express rounds blasted the soldier off his feet, and the sharpshooter shifted his aim. Another man, near a door into an adjacent room, was taken out before he could retreat out of the control room.
Someone slapped an alarm, and a klaxon sounded even as Quistis' whip snapped across the chamber, taking one man in the throat and send him spinning to the floor, crimson flying from his neck. Selphie launched her nunchaku in a quick sweeping strike, blasting a sword from one soldier's grasp, and then followed up with another swing that impacted with the disarmed soldier's stomach, blasting the air out of his lungs and throwing him off his feet.
Another soldier leveled his sidearm at Zell and fired a quick succession of shots, the bullets striking the brawler in the back. Zell yelled in pain, but spun on the startled man, who expected the unarmored martial artist to have been killed by the shots. Zell denied that logic with an argument consisting of a leaping kick that smashed the soldier's chest armor inward and threw him against another console, denting the device inward.
The last soldier opted to flee, but another pair of Action Express rounds caught up with him as he dove for the door, blasting into the back of his helmet and exploding out the front through his sensors, blood and skull fragments chasing it.
"Any more?" Zell asked, hopping around, but seeing no more soldiers. he popped his helmet off, shaking his head, glad to be out of the confining helmet. The others followed suit, removing their helmets and doffing their uniforms, which they had worn for the most part directly over their normal clothes. Irvine retrieved his jacket from the bag, as did Zell. Irvine replaced his cowboy hat and his .357s in their holsters within his trenchcoat.
"Let's find the missile controls and stop that launch!" Selphie shouted, and the group nodded, splitting up and canvassing the control room. Quistis located the launch controls within moments, and using a surprisingly simple interface, shut down the launch.
"Now all that's left is to blow this place," Irvine added, checking the adjacent room.
"You sure this place has a self-destruct?" Zell asked, following the sharpshooter. Quistis and Selphie were right behind.
"Of course there's a self-destruct," Selphie added. "There' s always a self-destruct!"
Indeed, there was a self-destruct, Zell discovered after a moment's search of the adjacent room, which seemed to be a security room. He activated the device, and frowned.
"It says we need to set a time limit," he said. "How long?"
"Short as possible," Quistis replied. "We can't give them time to deactivate it."
"Alrighty then! Twenty minutes should give us plenty of time to get clear of the explosion." Zell set the time, and the countdown started immediately, with a brand-new klaxon sound.
"Attention all personnel. Self-destruct mechanism has been activated. All personnel have twenty minutes to reach minimum safe distance. All doors have been unlocked to expedite evacuation process. Repeat, the self-destruct mechanism has been activated . . . ."
"Let's get the hell outta here!" Zell shouted, and no one disagreed as they turned and fled the control room, running back the way they had come at full speed.
However, they paid an unknowing price for their haste, as Commander Okamogo stirred shortly after the SeeDs had left. He crawled forward with his good arm from his spot on the floor, cursing the band of brats who had walked in and so casually disposed of his men. Now that he had seen them in action, he knew who they were: SeeDs.
"Garden will die," he muttered, pulling himself up on the launch control console. "Think you brats have stopped me?" Okamogo tapped a couple of keys, and reinitiated the launch program. He grinned as he hit the final button.
"It's not over yet," he muttered before slipping into darkness, his wounds claiming him.
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Captian Aves waved streams of fleeing soldiers, officers, and civilian personnel out of the base. Dozens of men and women fled by as quickly as possible, many running out into the desert on foot, as most of the vehicles had already been taken. Only a few transports remained, drivers bravely staying behind to fill their vehicles to maximum capacity before pulling out.
Aves watched them run on, then turned to Corporal Jern. They had received promotions a couple of days ago for their initiative during the faux kidnapping of Deling, and had been assigned to a special mission with one of the Galbadian military's newest tank models, known as the Iron Clad.
"Corporal, is the Iron Clad ready?" he asked, and the recently promoted soldier nodded.
"Yes, sir!" the perceptive younger soldier replied.
"Good," Aves replied. "We'll keep the Clad here for a few more minutes, in case those intruders show up. If they do, we'll kill them right here, but if they don't, we pull out and seal the gates."
"Sir, why don't we just seal the gates?" jern replied. Aves laughed.
"Jern, you still don't get how to get on the fast track to promotion!" Aves answered. "What do you think will make the Sorceress happier? Us sealing the enemy inside the base with no concrete proof we killed them, or us delivering their corpses directly to her? This army rewards initiative, Corporal!"
"Understood, sir!" Jern replied. A moment later, he pointed behind them, to one of the bunker entrances, out of which ran a quartet of teenagers.
"Gotta be them!" Aves replied. "Everyone else has evacuated. Get the Clad ready!"
"Aye, sir!"
Aves grinned at the kids as they ran across the parking lot, and then glanced to the side as he heard the sound of metal scraping across concrete. Three large holes had been opened on the blank concrete ground just beyond a chain-link fence, and from the holes a trio of huge cylinders rose, rotating and orienting themselves toward the east.
Aves pumped a fist in triumph as the missile launchers fired, a dozen of the artificially intelligent blue BAG003A cruise missiles lancing into the blue sky, riding contrails of white as they ascended into the heavens. He looked back down at the kids, and laughed as he saw disappointment and dejection on their faces.
"Too bad kiddies," he muttered darkly. "Mission failed! Now its time to die!" Aves turned and ran around the back of the juggernaut known as the Iron Clad, laughing all the way as he bounded through the rear door and sat down in the commander's seat.
"All systems go?" he asked and Jern nodded.
"Yes sir!"
"Then let's paste us some SeeDs!" he shouted, knowing already who those teenagers were. "Accelerate and annihilate!"
Iron Clad rumbled forward, and the quartet of teenagers were jolted out of their sense of failure by the advancing weapon. Aves grinned, knowing they were probably wondering how they could hurt this behemoth. Iron Clad was a massive blue-painted war machine with a beetle-like central body, featuring a specially designed (and, Aves thought, scary-looking) energy cannon on the front, just above a high-powered Vulcan gatling gun. Six massive turbines, three on each side of the huge tank, powered the house-sized war machine. It was a lethal juggernaut of devastation.
"Prepare to fire the main cannon!" he ordered.
"Main cannon charging," Jern replied. "Firing in three seconds. two. One. Firing!"
Energy gathered within the main cannon's barrel, and formed into a destructive ball of energy that was discharged in a beam of annihilation an instant later. The energy blast dove toward the quartet of children and Aves laughed, knowing they would be vaporized.
However, when the glare of light from the beam of energy faded, all four of them were still standing, somehow having managed to dodge out of the way, leaving no sign of damage excepting the one trenchcoated kid's hat being slightly singed, some edges burned off.
"Recharge main cannon!" Aves began to order, but even as he did so, he saw the blonde woman shout something to the other members of the group. Then she, the tattooed kid, and the little girl in yellow closed their eyes, while the cowboy scooted out of the way.
"New plan! Kill 'em with the machinegun!" Aves ordered, and Jern nodded.
"Aye sir!" he replied, and switched over to the gatling gun. He targeted the trio and opened fire, streams of metal slugs flying toward the kids . . . only to be deflected by a trio of multi-colored shields that sprang into existence just in front of them.
"Sir?" Jern asked, and Aves was dumbfounded for an instant, unsure what to do.
Then, the air burned. A fiery portal, like a gate to Hell, opened in front of the Iron Clad, and a massive, demonic beast stepped forward, fires running down its body. The monster loosed a roar that shuddered the mighty Iron Clad, and twin balls of magma formed in its hands. The demon stepped forward, and hurled the magma balls directly at the tank. the globes of molten stone impacted, the sheer heat melting the outer layers of armor before the balls detonated like incendiary explosives.
"Captain, the outer armor is melting!" Jern shouted, as the demon vanished and indeed, the outer plates of armor around the weapon were melting under the sheer heat. Then, the blonde woman opened her eyes, and the fires of the demon vanished, replaced by perfect cold as a giant icicle erupted from the ground. A beautiful, shimmering blue entity exploded from the icicle, blue energy forming around her hands. An instant later, a sheet of ice whipped over and encased the Iron Clad.
"Captain, the tank! Its metal is warping!" Jern shouted, and Aves cursed. The dramatic temperature change from the attacks that the two things that had struck them with was causing tremendous damage to the Iron Clad.
"Charge main cannon again! Wipe them out!"
"Aye, sir!"
There was a sudden explosion, shuddering the Iron Clad, and the ice cracked and began to break around the tank.
"What was that?" Aves demanded.
"Armor-piercing round, sir!" jern answered. "It hit the main cannon! Main cannon off-line!"
"Shit!" Aves cursed, glancing at the cowboy, whose unusual rifle still smoked from the shot. His attention was then stolen as rain fell on the battlefield. Rain, in the desert?
Lightning shot down from the sky, striking the ground in front of the Iron Clad and then growing, taking on the form of a strange, snake-bird hybrid, lights playing across its body as electricity crackled along its length. Then, a massive bolt of lightning, unlike anything Aves had ever seen, erupted from the creature's mouth, spearing the Iron Clad and its sheet of ice. the ice and the Clad's metal exterior served to conduct the electricity all throughout the weapon's length.
Something exploded, followed by a second, then a third, then a fourth.
"Generators detonating!" Jern managed to shout, before the Iron Clad began shuddering. Several more explosions rocked the war machine, and then it backed up into the main gate, blocking it.
"Cannon, offline, propulsion, off-line, gatling gun targeting offline!" Jern reported. "Captain, we've only got two minutes until detonation!"
"Let's get the hell out of here!" Aves ordered, and he ran to the back of the Iron Clad, kicking open the door. "Run!"
They ran.
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"Is it over?" Selphie asked as the war machine sat still. After a long moment, it seemed that it was.
"We can't stick around!" Zell ordered. "Let's get out of here!"
"How?" Quistis asked, pointing to the gate and the massive war machine blocking it. "I don't think we can get over that, even with our junctions."
"So, we're locked in?" Irvine asked, and Selphie reluctantly nodded.
It was over.
The missile base would explode in less than two minutes, and there was no way out. Even if they did get over the war machine, they wouldn't be able to get clear of the explosion in time.
"Damn, didn't know it would end like this," Zell commented. "It came so sudden, but I guess when your job is to fight, it comes sooner or later. I was always prepared, but . . . ."
"I thought it would be more dramatic," Quistis said in response. "I didn't think it would end so suddenly."
"Squall must have known this would happen," Irvine added. "Man, I wish I had known too. Maybe I would have said some things differently to him. Shouldn't have been such an ass when we first met." he glanced over at selphie.
"Aw, to hell with this, if I'm goin', I'm going to at least say something important!" Irvine took a step toward selphie, when Selphie suddenly spun.
"I've got an idea!" she suddenly shouted, and ran toward the gate and the disabled Iron Clad. The others were momentarily confused, but then each of them realized the desperate hope in her plan, and rushed after the tiny SeeD.
Mere seconds later, the entire missile base shuddered under the force of small explosives detonating deep inside, setting off a critical chain reaction, detonating another series of explosives scattered throughout the base, eventually making its way to the missile storage bay.
The warheads on every one of those missiles detonated, and the resulting blast reached high into the sky, a massive detonation of fire and debris that no person, SeeD or otherwise, could have survived.
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Phew. that one took me a while to get to, but was fun to write, especially the ending!
I had some funny ideas for this chapter, some of which never got implemented. One idea involved Selphie accidentally setting off an alarm, and when the Galbadians would come looking, she would have hidden under a cardboard box, just like in Metal Gear. Another idea that I scrapped at the last second (as the timeframe might not work to well) is that Irvine was either going to tell selphie his feelings for her, or he was just going to outright kiss her when the base was going up. but I figured that wouldn't work too well, so I just had him hint about his feelings to develop them for later.
Another couple of side things: Commander Okamogo, the BAG003A cruise missiles, and the Hyper Technology Missile System are all actually in the game, none of them made up (except the bit on Hyper Technology Inc.) You see all of this in the missile base control console where you set the error ratio. That officer you kill in the control room, I suspect, actually has a name! I love the attention to detail in FFVIII.
Also, could people please read Bittersweet Synthesis? Please? I'm getting very few reviews for it (compared with Gunblade, at least) ::gives puppy-dog eyes::
