Chapter 31: Over the Horizon
She had gone within minutes, leaving Squall alone in the library. Somehow she had known about the White SeeDs coming to take her away, and Ellone had apparently wanted to leave Squall alone before her presence caused him anymore turmoil. Not that that would help any. The resurgence of someone whom he had known from his past, someone whom he still had strong feelings toward had caught him completely off-guard, even moreso because the feelings he was experiencing were ones that had been so distant as to be entirely alien to the hardened mercenary.
Squall had numbly returned to his dorm room, dimly aware of students talking about the mysterious ship's immediate departure to the south after Ellone had boarded. He paid them little attention, instead trying to sort through the turmoil of his returning emotions and the burden Ellone had placed upon him – one that was even more poignant because he didn't know what she wanted from him, or why she was sending him back in time to Laguna's period.
He flopped onto his bed and closed his eyes, trying to find some solace and peace, wanting to consign himself to the temporary oblivion of sleep. But as his eyes closed, he saw her face again, followed by that reflected image of Laguna in the Timber pond, and the images of Kiros and Ward standing stalwartly beside their friend. He saw Ellone again, as a little child, and the image of Raine . . . an image that seemed familiar but at the same time, not so.
Squall rolled over, trying to banish the images and find peace. Why was Ellone depending on him? He didn't want her burden. Squall prided himself on being able to survive on his own. After all, in the end everybody was on their own. That fact was what drove him to distance himself from others, both so he wouldn't be caught with his guard down if they failed him, and so he wouldn't be hurt if they were torn from him. He lived the life of a soldier; death always hovered over one's shoulder, and especially now, considering the threat he and his fellow SeeDs and cadets were up against. Alone, cut off, no other Gardens or support available . . . they had to survive alone.
Squall found himself reflecting momentarily back to his childhood. Back then, he'd been helpless. He couldn't dredge up the memories – he guessed he had repressed them – but Squall knew he had not been able to take care of himself when loved ones had been wrenched away. But now, he was an adult, and could handle himself. He had depended on others to reach this point, but now, he could stand on his own.
Couldn't he?
Squall was proud of himself, but not so much as to deny others' contributions. He was among the first to admit that he had gotten here because he had stood on the shoulders of so many others: Quistis, Dr. Kadowaki, the Headmaster, the research of Doctor Odine in Esthar, even NORG's funding. He was fine by himself now. He had the skills to survive and stand on his own.
Squall rolled over again in the bed, understanding even as he thought that that it was wishful thinking. Even now, he was confused, lost, uncertain. The Sorceress, Rinoa, Ellone, the team he had sent to the missile base, NORG . . . all of it was a confusing mess that he couldn't sort out. Not by himself at least. He needed someone to help him through this.
There. Yes, he had admitted it, he needed others. He'd have to depend upon others after all.
Something about that thought angered him, but at the same time, brought a strange sense of relief. While he didn't want to have to rely on others, somehow, knowing others could accept the burden was comforting. Not that Squall would let them. Just as he refused to get involved in others' troubles, he refused to involve others in his problems. He had to pull his own weight. He would have to sort this out by himself, dammit. He closed his eyes, thinking back to Ellone and trying to understand what she wanted. Changing the past? What had she meant?
Squall considered his own past, and thought back to one memory he still held onto dearly, one that provided him to conviction to stand alone. He had been standing out in the middle of a rain storm, barely old enough to speak words. Someone had vanished, someone he cared for dearly. What had he called her?
Sis. Yes, that was it. Squall had called her Sis. She was gone, just vanished from his home, and he had promised himself that he would find her. When didn't find her, he had grown angry at himself for being unable to, and, in the middle of the rainstorm, Squall had determined that he would be strong. That he could stand on his own . . . and that someday he'd find his Sis again.
The thought was a strong one, a comforting one, and one that relaxed Squall to a degree. Yes, he would stand on his own. Of this he swore. This war had just begun, but he intended to be the one standing at its end. With that though, Squall found oblivion creeping up on him, and he welcomed its embrace. He drifted off to a needed sleep.
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A shadow was towering over Squall, blotting out the sunlight as he drifted back into the realm of the awake and mobile. He blinked once as he noticed the person standing over him, then jerked in surprise as his mind caught up with what it was sensing.
"You look so peaceful when you're asleep," Rinoa commented as Squall blinked away sleep. She was in his room, again. He figured that this was what happened when he left his door unlocked; Squall made a mental note to start bolting it when he wanted to be left alone.
"What do you want?" he asked immediately. Rinoa blinked once in surprise at his tone, and he immediately regretted his snapping question. "Sorry. What is it?"
"Cid asked me to find you," she replied. "I was talking with him up in his office when we came into sight of Fisherman's Horizon, which we were drifting directly toward."
"How far are we from it?" Squall asked, and Rinoa seemed to smile faintly and pointed toward Squall's window. He frowned, rose from his bed, and stepped over to it, looking out. For an instant, he was confused, for directly beyond the window was a wall made of largely rusted metal. It wasn't until he noted the stenciled writing halfway up the wall that identified the structure as a water processing tower that he realized just what was happening.
"We slammed into FH a couple of minutes ago," Rinoa explained as he looked back at her. "Garden wasn't moving too fast, but with so much mass behind it we hit pretty hard. Haven't heard any reports about damage or injuries, though we did see a fisherman on the tower who almost had a heart attack when he saw we were coming in."
"The headmaster wants to see me immediately?" Squall asked, digesting the situation. Rinoa nodded. Squall threw on his freshly-cleaned jacket and headed out immediately, Rinoa trailing in his wake. They made their way to Cid's office, where the Headmaster and Xu were conferring. He spotted Squall as soon as he and Rinoa enter the office, and nodded.
"Good," he said, turning toward them. "Squall, I'm sure Rinoa has informed you of the situation, correct?" Squall nodded. "We're currently docked along the southwest side of Fisherman's Horizon, pressed up between two water processing towers. The front gate doesn't lead anywhere, but one of the outside balconies connects directly to a catwalk between the two towers. Head out that way with Xu and Rinoa and meet with the officials of the town and offer them our apologies. Once you've met with him, Xu is going to see about purchasing supplies and getting help from their engineers."
Squall nodded an understanding of the orders. Fisherman's Horizon had been founded by engineers from Esthar who had fled and settled on the original construction rig that had been used to build the Horizon Bridge spanning the western continent and Esthar. The rig had been a large, floating facility halfway between the continents, and had been abandoned after the project was completed.
"I'll see to it," Squall replied with a quick salute.
"And while you're there, take a look around town," Cid added. "SeeD may be intended for military purposes, but I want everyone to broaden their horizons. This is a fitting place for it. Also, while you're doing that, check to see if they don't mind Garden's students being allowed to leave and enter the town. We've been floating for a while, and I'm sure the cadets and SeeDs wouldn't mind being able to leave, if only for a bit."
"I understand, sir."
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The door to the second floor balcony slid open, and Squall stepped out into the salty air that he had grown accustomed to over the last couple of weeks. Rinoa and Xu trailed him as he stepped out, and the SeeD noted a long, folded metal arm had been extended out to touch the balcony. Standing on it were a trio of civilians, chatting quietly to themselves as they surveyed the damage. They spotted the group coming out and immediately turned toward the trio.
"That's them alright," one of the men said, and the others nodded. The first man stepped forward. Squall noted he wore some type of patch on his jacket, something that indicated he was a policeman, though he had no weapons or other gear on hand befitting an officer.
"Before we say anything else, we've come to warn you that Fisherman's Horizon follows a strict policy of pacifism," the man stated bluntly. "We will not tolerate any belligerence or violence within our city. If you do commit any acts of violence you will be asked to leave, immediately."
"Understood," Squall replied, and the others nodded. "We are representatives of Garden and come in peace." The police officer visibly relaxed, and even smiled.
"Glad to hear," he said. "And welcome to Fisherman's Horizon. Name's Eberle, I'm with FH's mediation and peacekeeping force. Sorry for the rude welcome, but when someone like you guys come knocking out of nowhere, it gets us a bit worried."
"Man, look at this mess," one of the other men commented, adjusting a hat that looked like it bore the patch of a mechanic. He peered over the arm at the spot where Garden had impacted the city's perimeter, along the Quad.
"We're sorry about this," Xu replied. "We didn't have any control over Garden, so it was kind of inevitable."
"Ah, don't worry," the mechanic replied with an easy smile. "What's important is that nobody got hurt, except the old master fisherman's daily catch. We love fixing stuff anyway. Kick back and enjoy your stay."
"The mayor was wanting to meet with your representatives anyway," the third man added. "But as long as your people remain behaved within our city, they can come in and relax. We're not about to shut you guys out, and to tell the truth most of the people around here would love to see some new faces."
"That's good to hear," Squall replied. He turned back to Xu, who immediately nodded.
"I'll pass the word along to the headmaster," she replied, then stepped back into Garden. Squall then turned back toward the envoy.
"Where is the mayor?" Squall asked, and Eberle hooked a thumb back over his shoulder.
"Center of town, in the middle of the solar power plant and in front of the old landing pad for choppers and other aircraft," he said. "I'll take you there while Willis and Geoff have a look at the damages." The officer turned and began to head back down the long mechanical arm, and Squall and Rinoa followed.
"Just curious," Eberle added as they descended, stopping next to an elevator platform and taking the device down toward one of the water processing towers. "How did Balamb Garden get here?"
Squall hesitated, but then related an abbreviated version about the Galbadian missile strike. The officer listened intently, nodding as he did so.
"Yeah, we heard about the assassination attempt. You guys may have been out of touch, drifting along on the ocean, but Galbadia's military is mobilizing. Heard rumors that they're starting intel ops aimed at getting info on Esthar." Eberle shook his head. "Damn warmongering pigs. Especially with that Sorceress involved." The elevator ground to a halt in front of the tower and they stepped off. Eberle led the way along a catwalk around the tower, and then squall got his first look at Fisherman's Horizon.
The city was massive and circular, ringed by train tracks and various towers and processing facilities. To the south, Squall could see a massive terminal set up along the long, huge structure known as the Horizon Bridge, the great project intended to link the two continents via train lines. Further in, the city descended, like a massive bowl shape, various homes and businesses scattered along the various levels. Everything was constructed out of a blue-gray metal, but rather than seem dead and lifeless, people had gone out of their way to decorate and enhance upon their surroundings, growing gardens and the like, adding color to the city.
However, the most notable feature of the city was the center of the huge, wide bowl, taking up over a third of the city's space. Line after line of shining solar collection panels, their surfaces glowing blue in the clear midday light, progressed down the bowl to the very center, where there was located a small, almost innocuous house, and beyond that, a large landing platform for aircraft. Squall estimated that the small city had enough panels to power a full-sized city like Deling.
"Impressive, ain't it?" Eberle asked, and Squall nodded. "FH is positioned precisely between certain prevailing winds, so we almost never get hit by many clouds or storms, and we have batteries storing energy in case we do have either of those. That's why our solar plant is so reliable. We actually make a tidy profit selling electricity to places like Timber and Balamb. You can see Mayor Dobe's house down there. He's the one who taught us nonviolence. Used to be an engineer in Esthar under Adel, but he was one of the defectors who founded this place. I'm sure he wants to have a chat with you."
Squall and Rinoa nodded their thanks to Eberle and toward the bowl-shaped power plant. There was a long, narrow walkway between the rows of panels, leading down toward the mayor's house. They followed the path down, line after line of massive reflective panels rising up around them, until they reached the bottom. They approached the mayor's home and entered the front door of the large, metallic structure.
Squall expected to see a living room with comfortable, cozy furniture and carpets and other amenities, but was instead struck by walls that were covered with machinery and monitors of all kinds. A few corridors branched off of this room, but they seemed to be similar in design, covered with metallic instruments and equipment. A staircase nearby led up to the next floor, and, not seeing anyone present on the lower floor, Squall stepped onto the stairs. He ascended up into a large chamber of similar design to the lower floor, but this one made an effort to be somewhat comfortable, with some furniture and a thick mat laid out in the center of the room. A huge skylight and a window overlooking the landing pad provided all the light necessary.
An elderly man wearing a tropical shirt and shorts was sitting on the mat. He nodded toward Squall and Rinoa as they entered, and managed a slight smile, despite the tautness of his features. He gestured to the spot in front of him.
"Welcome," he stated. "Please, have a seat." Squall and Rinoa obliged him, sitting down on the surprisingly comfortable mat.
"Allow me to get to the point," Mayor Dobe stated immediately. "When is Garden going to be leaving?" Squall frowned slightly. He wasn't wasting any time.
"We'll leave as soon as Garden is capable of moving, if you want," he stated.
"Any idea when that will be?" Dobe pressed. Squall shrugged.
"We only discovered that Garden was mobile a short while ago," Squall stated. "The controls are beyond our understanding. So, obviously, we don't know how to move it. The controls are based on old Centran technology."
"If that's the case," Dobe replied with a nod, "we should be able to help. There are a number of former Estharian engineers here, as well as some scholars who understand the old language of Centra. They should be able to repair and service everything. How does that sound?"
"We'll have to let outsiders into Garden," Squall replied. "I don't have the authority to permit them, but Headmaster Cid Kramer does. I'll have to talk with him."
"Then you should go meet with him, quickly," Dobe added.
"Excuse me, but why do you want us out of here so badly?" Rinoa asked. Squall glanced at her, not too happy that she had butted in. They had their reasons, and he didn't want, nor cared, to know why.
"We don't want military organizations in our city," Dobe replied. "Military organizations rely on violence and conflict to solve problems. That is against our principles here. We believe that any problem can be solved through discussion and understanding. If there is mutual understanding, then there is no need to fight." Squall nodded along with his points, understanding them, but not exactly agreeing with his notions.
"Violence will only lead to more violence," he added. "Your presence here will only attract further violence, especially considering your conflict with Galbadia. That is why we wish for you to leave as soon as possible."
Squall nodded.
"I'll talk with the Headmaster and see about allowing the engineers inside." With that, he and Rinoa rose and left the mayor's house.
"He wasn't too friendly," she commented, to which Squall shrugged.
"Can't expect everyone to welcome us," he replied, before pausing. He looked up into the air, and turned a slow circle around, scanning his eyes up at the rim of the city.
"What is it?" Rinoa asked, catching onto his odd movements. Squall shook his head, then spun toward the southern end of the city, near the tracks of the horizon Bridge. He saw something rising up along that end, a black, oily film.
"Something's wrong," he muttered quietly. He drew his gunblade slowly. Then, in the distance, he heard a faint but all-too familiar sound. Gunfire.
"Mayor!" came a shout from about halfway up the line of panels, and Squall looked up to see Eberle rushing down the path, waving his arms. Dobe must have heard him and came rushing out of his home, and the elderly man quickly discerned the cause of alarm.
"What's going on?" he demanded, and the officer pointed to the south end of the city.
"Galbadian soldiers, mayor!" he cried. "They landed ships outside the train hub and are combing the city. I think they're looking for . . . ." He paused, glancing at Squall, and even more pointedly, at his drawn weapon.
"If they're here for us, we'll have to deal with them," Squall replied immediately, setting his teeth grimly. So, the Sorceress had finally caught up with them.
"No," Dobe replied adamantly, rushing between Squall and the path back up, interposing himself between the SeeD and the route. "You know of only one way to solve this, and that is through bloodshed. I cannot tolerate that within my city. We must solve this our way."
"Talking with them?" Rinoa asked dubiously. "I know the general attitudes of my own country's soldiers, and negotiating is going to be the last thing on their minds."
"I am a friend with Vinzer Deling," Dobe replied. "They will have to listen to me." With that, Dobe spun around and began to ascend the path. Squall shook his head as the man walked off to his doom.
"Deling is dead," Squall muttered, though the old man was out of earshot. "You might as well jump off the side of your city for all the good it will do you."
"Are you going to help him?" Rinoa asked, to which Squall reluctantly nodded. He didn't enjoy the notion of saving the stupidly stubborn from themselves, but he couldn't bring himself to not do so.
"Don't," Eberle began to plead, and Squall glanced back to him, shaking his head.
"I have to," he replied, raising his gunblade. "Its all I can do. I'll try to minimize the damage. How far have the Galbadians gotten into the city?"
"Just to the rail station," Eberle replied. He shook his head. "They seem to be setting up for a search. There's ships on the south side of the bridge, but they haven't docked yet." Squall nodded and turned to Rinoa.
"Get to the Garden and let Xu know about the enemy," he said, and she nodded. "Tell her to take a SeeD team around the outside of the city and do what she can to prevent those ships from docking. If we can cut off reinforcements, we may have a chance."
"What about you?" she asked, to which Squall nodded toward the smoke.
"If they haven't established enough of a beachhead, I'll try to drive them off," he stated. "FH is pacifist, so they shouldn't have sent many soldiers here in the first place."
"But that's suicide," Eberle muttered, shocked at Squall's fearlessness. Squall shook his head adamantly.
"No, its just desperate. And it's the only way to save Dobe from himself." He gave both Eberle and Rinoa a quick salute and then turned, running up the path between the solar panels leading closest to the black smoke. His gunblade rested in his hands, and he narrowed his eyes as he set his teeth firmly. Despite what he had said, this was not going to be easy or simple.
Within moments Squall had neared the top of the solar plant, at the edge of the smoke. He estimated he was perhaps a couple hundred feet from the Galbadian entry point at the train station. Just ahead was a wide set of train tracks that curved up and to the left, beneath a residential tower. Homes and businesses lined up along the left side of the tracks, and a large reservoir of water was positioned to the right of the tracks, which seemed to serve as a street along this segment of the city. A couple of smaller train lines turned off over the reservoir toward more homes perched atop various municipal structures along the edge of the floating city. Squall imagined that on a normal day he would see plenty of people moving about, but today all he saw was a platoon of Galbadian soldiers firing rifles into the air and running the citizens off. A squad moved ahead, near to where Squall was positioned, and cordoned off the area while the others fanned out, beginning a search.
Squall glanced back to the north, and saw that Garden was safely hidden behind the pair of water-processing towers, almost invisible to anyone on the south side of the city. The Galbadians probably didn't even know that Garden was docked. But if they didn't, then why were they here?
Squall banished the thought from his mind; he didn't have time to consider. He just had time to eliminate the enemy. There was a lot of them and only one of him; he was going to have to play this smart and stealthy. He returned his gunblade to its sheath and drew one of his knives, and pulled a concussive shell from one of his leg bandoleers. He crept forward, taking cover behind a nearby, empty train car that served as a makeshift home, as the squad that was cordoning off the area moved closer. The SeeD's wrist flicked and the shell flew past the group of men, bouncing off one of the rails of the train tracks and catching their attention. They whipped around, leveling their rifles at the sound.
"What was that?" one asked.
"You three, check that area," another soldier, this one with the rank insignia of a sergeant, stated, pointing toward the reservoir on the right side of the tracks. Three men stepped away from the group, sweeping the area with their rifles.
The other men began to slowly turn back around, scanning their surroundings, when a hand snaked around a soldier's neck, closing over his mouth. Squall pulled his arm back, exposing the man's neck, and slit his throat with his knife. One of the Galbadians turned back, and saw his comrade toppling to the train tracks. He managed to open his mouth before Squall stepped past him, his knife taking that man in the throat as well.
The clattering of the first dead soldier hitting the tracks caused the whole squad, all six remaining men, to spin around, but by that point another soldier was already dying, his neck sliced open as Squall waded in. Another unfortunate soldier took the blade his windpipe while Squall planted a hand against the chest plate of the sergeant, discharging a blast of fiery magic that blasted him off his feet and into the realm of death.
The SeeD tore his blade free of the other soldier's throat and flipped it over, catching it by its tip and hurling it at one of the remaining three men, the trio who had been checking out his distraction in the first place. The blade buried into that man's opening mouth, lodging in the back of his throat, and then Squall was closing in, drawing the Revolver. The two surviving soldiers barely managed to raise their blades in defense before he was upon them, his weapon striking rapidly, dancing between their swords. The revolver blasted one blade out wide with a powerful arcing cut, and Squall stepped in toward the other soldier, his gunblade swinging around and catching that man's weapon and holding it in place. Squall slammed hard into that soldier with his shoulder, the power from his junction-enhanced muscles blasting him backward and into the water of the reservoir. He began to flail desperately, but the heavy armor he wore pulled the man under. Squall spun toward the other man, gunblade cleaving, and the heavy blade knocked aside the soldier's sword once more. Squall stepped forward, crouching and slashing upward with his weapon. The gunblade met his opponent's sword again as the soldier desperately tried to defend himself.
Squall rose as the blade was parried and thrust out, a straightforward attack that the Galbadian had no trouble turning aside, but as the swords swept out wide, Squall's left hand jabbed forward, taking the knife he had torn from the dead body while crouching and jabbing it forward into the man's neck. The soldier froze for an instant in shock at the maneuver, and then fell back, dropping his blade and grasping at his penetrated throat.
A splashing sound behind Squall got his attention, and he turned around to see the soldier he had pushed into the water flounder up, managing to get to the surface after unstrapping his torso and shoulder armor and ditching his helmet. The man pulled himself up out of the water, and was the hauled up by Squall as the SeeD grabbed the front of his uniform.
"Where's the old man?" Squall demanded. The soldier blinked once, not understanding. "The mayor," Squall clarified, and the soldier looked to the south.
"Train station," he managed to say, gasping for air. "A squad escorted him to the major. Probably going to ask him about Ellone."
"Ellone?" Squall demanded, and the soldier nodded.
"We were sent here to find her," he replied shakily. Squall scowled, recalling Trent's words, and nodded.
"Thanks," he stated, before decking the soldier with a right cross. Squall then turned away and moved off to the south, looking for a way around the remainder of the Galbadian force in this area.
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Eberle had watched in stunned awe at Squall's almost casual disposal of the Galbadian soldiers, and shuddered slightly in fear. He knew SeeDs were quite capable killers, but the image of Squall's brutal dance of death put any fantasies he'd had about their lethality to shame.
A tap on his shoulder made the man jerk, and he spun around, to see the dark-haired girl, Rinoa, accompanied by Xu. Behind her was a quintet of other SeeDs, all brandishing weapons. He took a momentary step back, a bit unnerved by the presence of more of the well-trained killers in such close proximity.
"We need a boat," Rinoa said immediately. Eberle hesitated for a moment, and then pointed toward the east side of the city.
"Docks are up there," he stated, and then paused, noting a collection of what looked like rocket-propelled grenade launchers being distributed among the SeeDs by a group of cadets who had arrived moments ago. "What are you going to do?" he asked warily as the SeeDs checked the large, boxy green launchers or looked over their own weapons. Another cadet arrived, carrying climbing gear, and handed it to Xu.
"We're going to stop them," she replied, handing out the gear to the other SeeDs. The members of the group strapped the launchers and extra grenades to their backs and took the gear. After a quick final check, they nodded toward the woman and gave her a unified salute.
"Move out!" she ordered, pointing to the north end of the city, and the SeeDs spun smartly before charging off. Xu followed an instant later. Rinoa hesitated, turning back to Eberle, and giving the officer a wink.
"Don't worry, they'll do fine," she assured him, then ran off after the squad. Eberle watched them go, and shook his head, before glancing back to the dead bodies.
"Never said they wouldn't," he muttered to the empty, salty air.
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Two more soldiers had to die as Squall moved up, creeping between metal homes and scaling over rooftops before dropping back down. At one point he'd even had to hang off a ledge, crawling along on his fingertips to a line between two buildings, which he'd then slid down to get to a shadowed spot behind a power transformer. A pair of Galbadians had wandered past, oblivious, and Squall floated past them unheard.
He'd almost made it to the train station when he encountered an armed checkpoint along the only route leading to the hub, manned by a quartet of blue-clad regulars and a strange war machine, which looked nothing less than a huge, man-shaped bipedal lizard with a pair of three-barreled, twenty-millimeter vulcans mounted on its shoulders. He frowned and edged closer, hiding in the shadows of another building, and got a closer look.
Its "skin" was a sky blue, painted the same color as its mechanical parts. The cannons on its shoulders, its head (and a pair of huge, blade-toothed jaws) its back, and its long tail were all metallic, mechanical parts. Its torso, arms, and legs were organic, excepting the claws on its feet and hands, which were as sharp as its teeth.
Some type of cybernetic war machine, Squall mused. Must have been a new model, one he'd never encountered before. He'd have to be very careful; doubtless its sensors would be superior to a human's, though it was probably lacking advanced artificial intelligence. Then again, maybe not. That biology couldn't just be there because of a lack of scrap metal . . . .
Squall assessed the situation for a moment longer, before rising. He didn't have time to try to sneak around the group, nor did he see any really viable way to pass them. There probably was, but if he couldn't see it with his quick scan, then it would probably take to long to recognize and take advantage of. Dobe was probably looking down the barrel of a Galbadian rifle right now; he didn't have the time. Stealth be damned.
Squall reached into his mind and touched Queztocotl.
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It was a small skiff, about maybe forty feet long and crewed by a quintet of aqua-clad soldiers wearing light flak jackets and goggled helmets, as opposed to the metallic armor and heavy sensor-laden helmets of the regulars. They were probably just members of the Galbadian Navy, as opposed to the Army, and they way they easily sidled up toward the fishing boat Xu and Rinoa had commandeered, they knew what they were doing.
"Cut off your engine," the captain of the patrol skiff shouted from the bridge, as his pilot moved the craft closer to the larger fishing vessel. Two sailors carried rifles, and the last man stood behind the heavy machinegun similar to the ones the SeeDs' own Salamander vessels sported.
Jofey, seated behind the steering console of the vessel, glanced at Xu, who nodded. She glanced down to her procured fisherman's jumpsuit and nodded at the disguise.
"We're close enough," she stated, looking outside to the huge support pillar holding up the Horizon Bridge, a mere fifty feet off the port side of the ship.
"Ker-splode?" Elain asked, glancing to her grenade launcher. She, too, was clad in the ugly fisherman's jumpsuits, as were the remainder of the SeeD force and Rinoa. Xu shook her head slightly.
"I think those Galbadians look tired, don't you?" she asked, and the SeeDs chuckled, understanding their implied order. Xu stepped out of the cabin, along with the rest of the SeeD force, excepting Jofey. The patrol skiff drifted along side their ship, and the captain, along with his two rifle-bearing sailors, hopped aboard the fisher.
"Are you the captain of this vessel?" he asked Xu, who nodded. "This city is now under martial law, and the protection of the Galbadian military. Until you are given further notice, you will have to return your ship to port. Do you understand?"
"Absolutely," Xu replied with a nod, hiding her grin.
"We will need to conduct a search of your vessel," the man added. Xu blinked, then glanced back to her people, and all of them nodded. It seemed as if she was asking for their consent, but in reality, it was just a check to see if the proper magic was waiting at their fingertips.
"Of course," Xu responded to the man, turning back. She put on a sweet smile. "After you have a nice long nap."
The captain and his crew never got a chance to respond, the three sailors on board dropping where they stood as waves of sleep-inducing magic washed over them. The machine-gunner toppled as well from his post, leaving the weapon unmanned. Xu didn't even pay attention, instead rushing forward and leaping to the skiff, her junctions propelling her clear over the top of the small bridge and landing right behind the last sailor, who had been shielded from the spells by the bridge structure. The man spun toward her, pulling a pistol, but her sai were out in an instant, pulled from the deep pockets of the jumpsuit. They crossed once, striking on opposing sides of the pistol; the impacts flipped the weapon clear out of his shocked hand. He lunged forward as the weapon fell away, trying to tackle her, but she danced to the side, slapping him with the flat of the sai as he fell forward, off-balance. The sailor dropped to the deck, and Xu put a foot on his back and a sai to his neck. He froze in place.
"Good boy," she stated, hitting the man with another sleeping spell. Behind her, the fisher started up anew, and she glanced back to see Jofey already maneuvering the vessel a little closer to the support pillar. He stopped it at twenty feet, and the SeeDs fastened their launchers onto their backs and readied their climbing gear.
"Its one hundred and thirty-five feet to the top of that thing!" Xu called, leaping back and picking up her gear.
"And from up there we shouldn't have any trouble getting good shots at their ships," Elain added, grinning darkly.
"Umm, aren't those a little small?" Rinoa asked, nodding to Xu's RPG. She looked over her shoulder and then back to Rinoa, offering a shrug.
"The Galbadians have only sent troop transports and maybe a destroyer," Elain replied. "Concentrated fire on the cannons should wipe out the destroyer's weapons, and then the troop transports will be easy pickings."
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The cyborg creature screamed in absolute fury and rushed at Squall, the heavy vulcans on its shoulders smoldering and half-melted by the electrical blasts. Squall stood still, gunblade clenched tightly, and then skittered to the side as the war machine closed to within arm's reach. The thing spun, but its heavy weight caused it to overbalance on sparking and shorting electronics, and the thing toppled over on its side. Not bothering with the gunblade, Squall sent a bolt of lightning into its side, finishing the damaged cyborg, and then ran past, hopping the charred corpse of one of the dead Galbadians. Behind him, the SeeD could hear distant, infuriated shouts from the surviving Galbadians behind, but he ignored them and pushed on, dashing up along the train line. No other resistance showed itself as he did so, bounding up the tracks as they curved up and to the left. Within moments he was within sight of a large plaza just outside the train station.
A squad of Galbadian soldiers ringed a trembling, terrified Mayor Dobe, who was sitting on the ceramic tile of the plaza, a red-clad officer towering over him.
"But we don't know anything about this girl, Ellone," the mayor protested. The officer shook his head.
"You sure?" he demanded, and the mayor nodded in terror.
"While we may be pacifists, we do document anyone who enters or leaves our city," the mayor explained. "And we've never encountered anyone by that name, especially not over the last few weeks."
"I see," the officer replied, nodding. He tapped the side of his helmet, activating a short-range burst transmitter that could cut through the radio interference. "Okay then, looks like this is a bust. Call in the reinforcements and begin combing the town, just in case she might be hiding here. Once we've finished the search, blast this place apart."
"No!" the mayor protested, rising immediately. "We've complied with your demands!"
"Yeah, well, that's not good enough," the officer barked, bellowing out a laugh. "Edea's orders. We're to burn this town if she isn't here." The man slowly reached over to his right forearm with his left hand, and slid the action for his arm-mounted machinegun, a smile forming on his lips. "You'll be first."
"Hands off," Squall shouted suddenly, stepping out into the plaza. The Galbadians whipped toward him, raising rifles and swords, forming up smartly into a quick curving line, riflemen out on the sides while the swordsmen were in the middle. The officer looked up from Dobe, his grin turning into a sneer.
"Looks like not all of you pathetic peace-lovers are as weak as we presumed," the officer growled. Dobe, momentarily forgotten, scrambled away.
"Kill his ass," the officer ordered. Squall raised his weapon, legs tensing for a twitch of motion that would send him into the enemy ranks, when a thunderous explosion sounded from the south side of the city, just beyond the train station. The soldiers and the officer seemed to hesitate for an instant at the unexpected sound, and then Squall was upon them, his gunblade biting into and blasting the lungs one of the riflemen at the left end of the formation.
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"I think that was an ammo magazine!" Jofey proclaimed as he looked down at the destruction along the foredeck of the Galbadian destroyer. The craft wasn't extremely long, barely over a hundred and fifty feet in length, and most of that taken up by an array of five-inch cannons, .50 caliber anti-ship and anti-aircraft machineguns, and a large missile rack in the back. The ship was designed for quick maneuvering in battle and putting a lot of firepower where it needed to be. Their sudden attack, each of the six SeeDs firing their RPG's in rapid succession, had all but annihilated the five-inch guns and most of the machineguns along the foredeck, and whatever was not destroyed by the initial barrage had gone up when one of the grenades had penetrated the ruptured deck and detonated an ammunition magazine belowdecks.
Rinoa, perched beside Xu and the other SeeDs, scanned the waters before them with a degree of concern. The annihilation of the forward weapons on the destroyer had been quick, and while that was good news, she couldn't help but be worried as she saw what looked to be a dozen or more troop transports scattered below the bridge, each of them carrying at least four platoons worth of men, perhaps more. At least fifteen hundred soldiers were below, possibly upwards of two thousand or even more. Even the SeeDs she was with would have to be a bit put off by such a disparity in numbers.
To make matters worse, their position was tentative, the SeeDs and Rinoa crouched among the support girders along the underside of the bridge. While they were virtually invisible up there, they also would have a hard time pulling out if things got nasty. And the destroyer still had its rear guns and the missile launchers. No doubt the Galbadians would be able to tell where the grenades had come from, judging by the trail of exhaust the explosives had left.
"Reload and prepare to fire on the rear of the destroyer!" Xu shouted. "Ready all junctions to defense and brace yourselves for return fire!" The SeeDs nodded, pulling out spent ammo racks from their launchers and loading new ones in their stead. Each launcher held four RPGs, and the combined fire of twenty-four of the grenades would be more than enough to rip apart the weapons on the ship's rear. The only problem was that, with the angle of the ship far below relative to their position, the craft's superstructure was between the SeeDs and the rear weapons. The ship would have to rotate to bring the weapons to bear, which would also expose the weapons to their fire. However, the second they both had clear shots at each other, they would fire, making this effectively a quick-draw contest to see who could shoot first.
But that method was suicide. There was no way the SeeDs would be able to hit and destroy the rear weapons before they could return fire, and Xu had to have known this. Even with junctions, the missiles and cannons of the destroyer could tear them apart with casual ease.
"No, wait!" Rinoa shouted as the destroyer turned. "Fire on the bridge! Stop them from turning!"
"We can't!" Xu replied, shaking her head. "Even if we take out the bridge they'll still have fire control and can still rotate." Below, the destroyer was halfway through the turn, the weapons on the aft of the craft becoming visible.
"There's gotta be some other way, this is suicide," Rinoa protested, scanning the ship. Xu shrugged helplessly.
"Its too heavily armored elsewhere to sink it, excepting . . . ." Xu blinked, her expression suddenly shifting to that of someone who had just realized the obvious.
"New target! Shift to the bow, aim for the ammo magazines in the forward hold!" The SeeDs responded immediately, shifting slightly as the ship turned, aiming for the foredeck and the hole that had been punched in it. Xu couldn't believe she had forgotten; while they had detonated an ammunition magazine stored below the forward deck, there were still plenty more magazines stowed in armored compartments, protected enough so that if a magazine was destroyed in battle, then it wouldn't start a deadly chain reaction. But, the armor was only on the bulkheads, not on the ceiling of the magazine storage compartments. Their assault had already badly damaged the top of the foredeck, enough so that another barrage of missiles could punch through the top and hit the remaining forward magazines. The armored bulkheads were not designed to be able to withstand the simultaneous detonation of all the magazines.
Six, then twelve, then eighteen, then twenty-four streaks of exhaust leaped from the underside of the Horizon Bridge and toward the blasted foredeck of the destroyer. The first two sets exploded across the devastated armor, but the last dozen went straight in, blasting into the magazines stored belowdecks.
Instantly, the Galbadian destroyer was blasted backward and up, its bow vanishing in a searing flare of light as every shell and explosive stored for the forward guns detonated instantly. Debris from the bow slashed outward, one chunk ripping into a troop transport and almost slicing it in half. The destroyer's rotation was ended instantly, and it began to immediately dip below the surface, water flooding into the massive rip left in the absence of the ship's bow. The missile rack and the rear guns did come into view, but they did not fire, their crews instead abandoning their stations to rush to the nearest lifeboats.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" a SeeD crowed, pumping his fist in triumph as the warship sank beneath the waves. The man had to duck back behind cover as bullets struck the metal near his head.
"They have hoverfoils!" Elain reported, taking a quick glance. "Damn, one of those transports must have had paratroopers on it." Xu paled at the mention of paratroopers, and quickly reloaded her RPG.
"Get those weapons loaded, now!" she ordered.
"What is it?" Rinoa asked. Xu glanced up to her, shaking her head as she slid a new grenade magazine into her weapon.
"Galbadian paratroopers," she explained. "They're Garden's washouts. Galbadia Garden runs a program that allows those who don't make SeeD to get into the Galbadian military as special forces. Galbadian paratroopers."
"SeeD-trained soldiers?" Rinoa asked rhetorically as she heard the sound of ascending hoverfoils below.
"Don't let them land!" Xu shouted, taking a glance of her own. "Damn, they outnumber us at least five to one." She had to duck back as more bullets struck her position, and cursed again.
"They're going out wide! They're trying to get behind one of the pillars!" Elaine shouted, and Xu frowned, momentarily puzzled, before her eyes widened again.
"They're going up top onto the bridge!" she replied. "They'll drop down on top of us!"
"Not if I can help it," Elain growled, rising up slightly and raising her RPG. The weapon flared and a rocket lanced out, striking one of the hover foils in a flash of blinding light accompanied by a intense roar. Chunks of warped and molten metal and flesh rained to the sea below.
The remaining hoverfoils countered with staccatos of gunfire, and the SeeD had to duck back. She glanced to Xu and grinned.
"Got one!"
"Thirty more to go," Xu replied, smiling as well.
"They're splitting," came another shout from one of the SeeDs further down, who risked his head for a peek. Rinoa glanced as well, and saw he was right; most of the hoverfoils and their green-clad pilots were breaking off and trying to put the nearest pillar between themselves and the SeeDs, but the remainder, about eight or nine, were moving directly toward the SeeDs, ascending toward their position.
"They're providing cover fire," Xu muttered, and Rinoa nodded an instant before more bullets bounced around their position. This close, they could see the weapons mounted on these hover foils: a swiveling machinegun that was mounted beside and above the pilot's head, and rotated with the motion of the soldier's helmet. Right now, the soldiers were looking directly up at the SeeDs' position as they fanned out, maneuvering to pin them in place for their comrades.
"Not if I can help it," Rinoa said, and Xu nodded in agreement. The SeeD hefted her launcher while Rinoa focused, calling up her magical energies. Then at the same instant, both women rose, and a bolt of lightning, chased by an almost as fast moving rocket, screamed down into the hover foils. One craft exploded, and another spun away, its engines shorted out by the lightning bolt. The vehicle smashed into one of the support pillars and dropped into the ocean, carrying its pilot with it.
All around the pair, more roars of launched rockets and whines of unleashed magic could be heard, and similar attacks ripped into the covering hoverfoils. At the end of the barrage, five of the nine vehicles were gone, and another was dropping out of control into the ocean, the pilot unstrapping himself and leaping free. Of the other three, two trailed smoke and were following the last one in a rapid but controlled descent to the relative safety of the fleet below.
Xu followed them with her eyes, and noted how close the transport fleet was to the city, and pointed.
"Jofey, Rinoa, stay on watch and shout if you see those other paratroopers coming. Everyone else, sink those ships!"
Shouts of acknowledgement and streaks of rocket exhaust answered her orders as one of the transports reached the city docks. A panel opened on the outside of the bulbous craft and what looked like a massive tank rumbled out, its armor plates scored with burns and charred metal. Dozens of soldiers followed it out and began rushing into the city.
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Squall walked his way up the line of soldiers, his weapon arcing and parrying before slicing and gutting another swordsman. All of the riflemen on the left side had been killed or maimed too badly to continue the fight, and the survivors' screams of pain and the standing soldiers' cries of fear were having an effect on the remainder of the force.
Another soldier's helmeted head went skipping away on the pavement, and Squall rushed forward, kicking the decapitated soldier hard enough to launch him into a crowd of his comrades. They all fell back under the weight of the corpse. Another soldier leaped over the tangle of arms and legs and jumped at Squall, screaming in rage and fear as he raised his sword in an overhead chop. Rather than parry, Squall quick-stepped forward and to the man's left, jabbing his left arm straight out to the side in a clothesline that caught his attacker in the gut. The man's momentum sent him spinning over the arm and crashing to the pavement. Squall spun, thrusting his gunblade one-handed down at the man as he hit face down, and the weapon dove into the soldier's thigh. The man cried out in pain, and the scream multiplied tenfold as a concussive shell blew his leg clean off.
Squall's free left hand pointed behind him, to the few remaining, terrified soldiers, and a blast of fire ripped into their ranks, hurling one man down and blackening the armor of another soldier.
Squall spun toward them, bits of gore trailing his rising gunblade, and he rushed them, his impassive, grim face one that promised death. Faced by this killing machine the soldiers did the only sensible thing.
They fled, a couple throwing their weapons away as they retreated. Those still untangling themselves from the dead corpse Squall had kicked at them joined them, leaving an enraged and bewildered officer standing there among the corpses and squirming bodies of his dead and dying soldiers. Squall turned toward him, advancing dangerously, when the doors to the train station beyond burst open. The fleeing soldiers scattered as a huge war machine rumbled through, carbon scoring along its armor plating and dozens of soldiers flanking it.
"Ha!" the officer barked. "Its over now! Bring the Iron Clad over here! Kill him!"
The massive armored tank rumbled forward, directly toward Squall, and the Galbadian soldiers, two or more entire platoons, charged in a rumbling advance, raising their weapons and screaming for vengeance.
Squall lowered his weapon, and then closed his eyes.
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The fires on the third transport to near the docks were still burning as Xu rolled under an accurate sword swipe that would have cleaved her head in half. She came up beside the paratrooper, sai stabbing. One of the short blades was intercepted by the returning sword as the Galbadian paratrooper spun back around, but the other jabbed into his knee, just between the armor on his shin and the kneepad. The man grimaced slightly but came on, slashing hard across at Xu.
She saw the straightforward attack for what it really was and brought her sai together on her opposite side as the soldier reversed. His sword slashed around on the other side, and was intercepted by Xu's blades. She flicked one wrist, pressing one sai down atop the blade to keep it pinned for the instant she needed, and the other weapon rose and slashed across, taking the man's throat.
He dropped the sword, reaching up for his lethally damaged throat, and Xu ducked around behind him, kicking out against his back. The dying soldier slammed into two more paratroopers as they swung down around the top of the bridge, and all three went tumbling down into the sea below.
Behind her, another SeeD crossed swords with another paratrooper as yet more of the Galbadian special forces rappelled down the side of the Horizon Bridge and swung toward their position. They were probably expecting the group to be ordinary soldiers or militant citizens of Fisherman's Horizon, because they certainly weren't expecting to be facing SeeDs. The Garden warriors were faring well, thanks to a timely warning by Jofey and Rinoa, who had spotted the dangling ropes of the descending soldiers a moment before they had begun to swing down around them. Several enemy paratroopers had not even hit the girders the SeeDs stood upon before magic and blades had struck them down.
A paratrooper landed in front of Xu, already drawing his sword as he landed. It thrust out at her, and she parried with one sai, the other weaving around for a thrust at his head. He hopped back, grabbing onto his rope with one hand and swinging out. He was probably planning to come back further down and continue the battle, but a shard of ice exploded in his chest and thousands of needle-sharp pieces of frigid shrapnel buried into the paratrooper's chest. He fell from the rope, mouth open in surprise as he tumbled to a watery grave.
"Thanks," Xu said to Rinoa, who nodded and called up another blast of magical energy, picking off yet another descending paratrooper that was coming in at Jofey's back. The Galbadian was blasted off his rope, but managed to reach out, trying to grab onto the girder to save himself. Instead, he ended up grabbing the very paratrooper who Jofey was battling and pulled him off the girder as well. Both men plunged below.
The remaining paratroopers understood their defeat and began to retreat to their ropes, climbing back up. Those that couldn't opted to leap off the edge of the girder and try to swim to the other transports.
"Let's give them reason to run!" Xu shouted, rushing to one of the RPG launchers, and the SeeDs, as they finished chasing the remaining enemy paratroopers away, shouted acknowledgments."Hold your fire!" Rinoa suddenly called as she looked below. The Galbadian transports were backing away, starting to pull away from the city. "I think they're running!"
"They are," Xu replied after a moment, nodding. With the exception of a single transport remaining behind to pick up a few Galbadians who were fleeing the city, the others had begun to pull out. "I wonder why they're running so early?"
"We need to get back into the city," Rinoa stated, and after a moment, Xu agreed.
"Agreed," she said, and turned toward her subordinates. "Jofey, Elain, you two take over here and keep station up here. If any transports start moving toward the city again, take them out. I'll go with Rinoa into the city and see what's happened."
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The soldiers believed that their enemy was accepting his inevitable death as they came on. Behind them, the Iron Clad advanced, and its vulcan machine gun, the only part really operating, began to spin. The machinegun roared, and hundreds of bullets blasted forward.
Blasted forward into the Galbadian ranks.
A dozen and more men fell instantly, screaming as the bullets shredded their bodies, and the other soldiers spun in shock and confusion, looking to the source of the attack as the tank began to turn. More soldiers, still confused by their suddenly treacherous war machine, were cut down before they could react. Other soldiers began to back away, while a couple actually rushed around, trying to get at the machine's melted and fused hatch.
Up until a shimmering circle of blue formed above Squall's head, that was. From this circle came an equally shimmering line of aquamarine and deep blue energy, snaking and twisting in a graceful curling that made the charging men pause in awe. The line resolved itself slowly, taking on the form of a serpent as it curled above Squall's head, and then the watery energy exploded away like a snake's skin that had been shed.
Where the energy once had been was a graceful, aqua-colored serpent with shining blue eyes, large, elegant fish-like fins along its side. The serpent opened into mouth, crying out an unearthly high-pitched wail, and from nowhere a river of water simply appeared, unleashed by the Guardian Force. It roared around Squall's position as if he were an unmovable boulder and smashed heavily into the soldiers, the officer commanding them, and the war machine. Iron Clad was pushed back as the soldiers were swept away, along the plaza and over an edge into the ocean far below.
Iron Clad did not fall over, but rather came to a stop at the edge of the plaza. Squall focused on the weapon as Leviathan, the Guardian Force he had taken from NORG, vanished like morning mist, and he prepared to call up another Guardian Force to finish the battle. One more hit would do it, he judged.
Then a segment on top of the Iron Clad exploded outward, followed by a shout from within. Squall heard an intense pounding, and one of the armor plates peeled away, smashed outward by someone within.
Wait a moment, Squall thought. He recognized that shout!
Squall's suspicions were confirmed an instant later as a familiar, tattooed head poked out of the smashed plating.
"Yo, Squall, lay off man!" Zell shouted as he pulled himself out of the tank. He flipped forward, landing easily, and blinked at the shocked and bewildered look on his comrade's face.
"What?" he asked. "Oh, yeah, I know we're late. Selphie had to take the scenic route."
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Phew. That was fun. Took me longer than I expected, too. Darn it, it's a day late! I had this idea in which I could involve Xu, Rinoa, and some other SeeDs in the effort to save Fisherman's Horizon. It started out small, but then it steadily grew into the big battle above. It was pretty fun to write, too. I also thought it would be interesting to have Squall do some Solid Snake/Sam Fisher-esque sneaking. There aren't many other points in the game or story that allow for it. Also, I took this as an opportunity to introduce the paratroopers, whoa re going to play a big role in the Garden battle later on.
Oh, yeah, and Iron Clad's still intact. Spur-of-the-moment decision I made that promises some interesting developments.
There were also some naval references in this chapter, though real destroyers are a lot larger than the one in this chapter. In case you don't know naval terminology, "bulkheads" are walls, "aft" is the rear of the ship, and the "bow" is the front. The "superstructure" is the big thing that sticks up, holding all the communications gear and the bridge and all that stuff. "Deck" is any floor, not just the topside deck. I don't remember the term for ceiling.
Oh, and the name of the police officer, Eberle, is the same name as one of the guys from my ROTC unit. I just snatched one of those names when I couldn't think of one myself. The officer actually doesn't act like the real Eberle I know.
I can't wait to get to next chapter! One of my favorite sequences in the game!
Anyway, shout-out time!
Daniel Wesley Rydell: Xu has kicked much ass this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.
OniRazz: interestingly enough, you're not far off the mark there.... :D
DBZ Fanfiction Queen: Writing NORG's death scene was excessively fun. I really got into that. Darn it, Hellsing, stop making me like blood and death so much!
You're actually asking a pretty good question. I think they were handing over orders from Cid, but what orders? Hm. But I don't think it was orders to use Squall's team, as that doesn't make much sense. Maybe they were just orders from NORG that they believed were from Cid? Keep in mind, Martine was the one who used Squall's group; it was originally going to be a Galbadia Garden team.
Well, obviously, you did get to hear Squall's "final thoughts" at the beginning of this chapter. You will get to see my take on the "date" next chapter. I guarantee it.
Dragoon Swordsman: Well, Squall didn't so much as forget them as he did not carry them because he was not going into a combat situation. Kind of the same way a soldier usually doesn't carry a sidearm unless things may get hairy. But hey, Xu's there to pull his ass out of the fire, eh? XD
Rusty Knights Productions: Detail is what I live for. When people tell me I've made the world of FFVIII into a real, breathing world that seems real, I know I've succeeded.
Kaiser-kun: I agree that FFVIII is much more sci-fi than fantasy. That is part of the reason I like it and FFVII more than any other FF to date. There are plenty of fantasy elements, though, and I like that. Sci-fi/fantasy is always good, combining advanced technology and fantastic elements. Maybe that's why I'm a big Star Wars and Hellsing fan. Science plus magic is badass. (and we Americans pronounce it "sai-fai", though I can understand why you would pronounce it "say-fay" with the way vowels sound in Spanish)
I really hope you do well in your writing career. From what I have seen, you'd do a brilliant job.
I hate snuff films. They're terrible, people getting off watching others die. There was actually an episode of Hellsing that involved those kind of films. Very interesting.
And yes, Marine. Never get it wrong, though I may end up having to go Navy instead of the Marines for medical reasons. Which kinda sucks, because their uniforms are funny-looking. XD
