Baralai stood at the windows of his office, staring out sadly at the occupation force that had taken over Bevelle and, presumably, the rest of Spira. Hundreds of the white-clad troopers were marching around the floating city, ordering the civilians to move along, and arresting anyone who they deemed suspicious.

The sky was also filled with signs of their presence. Dozens of the dark grey fighter craft flew back and forth over the city, their technology obviously far beyond anything seen in Spira for a thousand years. And craning his neck back, Baralai could see an arrowhead-shaped vehicle high up in the sky, presumably in orbit around the planet.

To have space flight technology, he mused. Even if the people of Spira could cast aside their fear of machina and fully research it, we couldn't hope to achieve space flight for another hundred years or so.

"It is truly a shame," he muttered, not caring if the two white-clad 'guards' standing inside the door could hear him or not, "that such technology comes to us in the form of an occupation."

Behind him, he could hear the clattering of the soldiers' armor as they came to attention, just moments before the ornate wooden doors swung open. The next sound to reach his ears was that of laborious, mechanical breathing. Baralai turned slowly, intending to present an image of strength to the leader of these mysterious invaders. But as he laid eyes upon the owner of that mechanical breathing, he knew that any effort to that extent would be for naught.

Clad entirely in black, from the top of his reflective domed helmet to the bottom of his shined boots, the figure towered over Baralai. There was not an inch of this man's skin that was exposed to the outside air, and he accented his armor with a black cape that billowed behind him as he moved.

He was obviously very important to these invaders; half a dozen of his white-armored soldiers followed behind him. Inwardly, Baralai scowled at having to see more of them in his office.

"You are Baralai, praetor of New Yevon," the man said in a deep, resonant, mechanical voice. It was not a question.

"Yes, I am," Baralai answered, and said no more.

"You may address me as Lord Vader. I am placing this planet under the occupation of the Galactic Empire."

'Galactic' Empire? Baralai wondered. I guess you happen to stumble upon these things when your technology has consisted of little more than blitzball stadiums for the past thousand years.

"I see," Baralai said, nodding slowly. "What is to become of the people of Spira?"

"So long as they do not resist our occupation, they will not be harmed," Vader answered. "I trust that we will not have to instill your cooperation."

As if I have to be reminded of how easily your troopers cut down the Praetorate Guard, the best of Yevon's soldiers. I doubt the Youth League fared any better than we did…

"No, that will not be necessary," Baralai said slowly. "I will contact the representatives of the other nations and inform them that cooperation is the best choice."

"A wise choice, Praetor Baralai." Vader closed a tight fist as he spoke, and Baralai felt just the slightest pressure against his throat, which vanished as soon as Vader opened his hand. Baralai did not know what Vader had done, but it was obviously a not-so-veiled threat that he wouldn't last long if he intended to resist.

"I trust it is one that will keep the people of Spira safe."

"It is indeed, Praetor Baralai." Vader turned with a theatrical swirl of his cape, and headed toward the door. "I look forward to our next meeting."

In a few moments, Vader and his heavy mechanical breathing were gone. Baralai moved over to his desk and fell into his seat, sagging slightly. These were dark times for Spira, even darker than the thousand years of Sin's tyranny. He knew that the people of Spira would rather die than be occupied by this Empire.

But if we were to resist, then it would mean the death of Spira. Their storm troopers would kill each and every one of us, down to the last man, Guado, Ronso, or Al Bhed…

Sighing heavily, Baralai reached over and activated the direct-link comm system that he used for communication with Nooj and Gippal, leaders of the Youth League and Machine Faction, respectively. He would call Nooj first; with the older man's help, he would have an easier time getting the hot-headed Al Bhed leader to go along with this occupation.

That's not to say we won't fight them eventually, but not now. We don't have anything we can fight them with.

---

Djose Temple was a scene of chaos. Bodies were scattered all over the temple grounds, both belonging to the Empire's troops, and to the Al Bhed who were in ownership of the temple. The bodies of the Empire's troops were all afflicted with various signs of magical assault, and the blunt damage of rampaging machina. The Al Bhed bodies, on the other hand, all had wounds in the torsos and heads that were largely holes in their bodies, with crusted flesh around the edges. The stink of charred flesh was heavy in the air. Ruined machina, with heavy scoring on their metal shells, also were scattered around.

The young blonde girl drew to a halt just outside the temple grounds, staring in horror at the devastation before her. She could hear shouting from inside the temple, both in Basic and Al Bhed, and she could hear shooting as well, both of the machina weapons that the Al Bhed favored, and the strange weapons that the Empire's soldiers used.

Making her way across the courtyard, she knelt by the white-armored body of one of the Empire's troops. The man's chest plate was warped and blackened, and crushed by heavy pressure. She figured that this man had been killed by Gippal's distinctive mortar-launcher weapon. Rolling the body over, she picked up the black weapon that he had fallen upon, and looked it over.

It was configured like most other machina weapons she had seen; a grip to hold, a trigger, and the barrel from which the weapon fired. Turning it over in her hand, she pointed it toward the wall of the temple and pulled the trigger. The weapon kicked in her arms, and a bright bolt of red light shot out and slammed into the side of the temple, sending small fragments of building material flying in all directions.

Standing up, she moved around to the back side of the temple, where she knew of a secret entrance that led directly into the Cloister of Trials. Entering by the front, which she was pretty sure that the white-armored troops controlled, would be suicide. Carefully sneaking around to make sure she wasn't seen, she crouched by what seemed to be nothing more than a random extension of the outer wall.

Placing the stolen weapon on the ground, she got her fingers into the seam between the extension and the wall, and pulled backwards. With a dull screeching sound, the extension slid away, revealing a tiny crawlspace that lead into the pit in the back of the Cloister of Trials. She picked up the weapon again and slipped inside, pulling the secret trapdoor shut behind her.

She climbed to her feet inside the pit, then walked toward the wall and peeked over the top. There were three of the white-armored troops standing near the elevator access up to the upper floor. She thought for a moment about shooting them, then shook her head. They'd burn her down before she could get two of them.

Ducking back down, she looked into the pit around her. There were a few grenades laying around amongst the wrecked machina. Smiling, she put down the stolen weapon and picked up two grenades. She pulled the pin out on one of them, then peeked back out to see how close together the troops were. She pulled out the pin on the second one, then rolled them both toward the three soldiers, hoping that the explosions wouldn't damage the elevator.

A moment later she heard one of the soldiers call, "Grenade, grenade!"

Then the two grenades exploded, and she heard the clattering of armor against the floor or walls of the cloister. Tossing the weapon up over the edge of the pit, she pulled herself up and out, then picked the weapon up and ran toward the elevator.

As she stood on it and waited for it to rise up, she saw one of the soldiers begin to sit up and bring his weapon to bear on her. She quickly swung her own appropriated weapon and fired, the red energy bolt burning a black hole through the soldier's chest plate, dropping him back to the floor. Then the elevator carried her up beyond the first floor.

The very moment that the elevator stopped on the second floor, she found the barrels of a dozen Al Bhed machina guns and a handful of weapons like hers pointed directly at her. Meekly, she raised her hands, until the Al Bhed realized that she was not one of the enemy troops.

The dozen or so Al Bhed immediately moved away, allowing her to get into the area. One of the Al Bhed standing nearby gestured toward the stairway up toward the Chamber of the Fayth with his rifle. Nodding her thanks, she made her way up the stairs, her stolen weapon still in hand.

At the top, in the antechamber outside the Chamber of the Fayth, she found Gippal conferring with several of his lieutenants. His mortar launcher rested against the wall; he held a weapon he had stolen from the white-armored enemies downstairs in his hands.

"Ev ed lusac tufh du ed," Gippal spoke, in Al Bhed, "fa femm tacdnuo dra temple du gaab dras vnus kaddehk dra calnadc uv uin machina."

"Destroy the temple!?" she repeated, shocked.

Gippal spun around, and smirked slightly. "Well, well, if it isn't Cid's girl."

She growled. "We don't have time for the games! What were you thinking, fighting against those guys?"

He waved it off, then stepped over to the windows overlooking the temple grounds. "We're holding them off."

"But they can bring more! And they don't even need to do that. You saw that thing up in the sky, right? They can probably get it to destroy this temple, with you still in it!"

Gippal spun around to face her, anger and determination evident on his face. "What do you expect me to do, Rikku? These guys didn't come here to buy a machina or have tea with us. They came here expecting to take us over and destroy our way of life. I, for one, do not intend to let them."

"This isn't the time to fight, Gippal!" Her voice softened, and dropped several notches. "If you stay here and try to hold them off, they'll kill you."

"Then what do you suggest I do? Abandon them all?" His gesture took in the Al Bhed standing in the room with them, as well as those downstairs. "Leave them all here to die?"

"Gippal," one of his lieutenants said. "Rikku ec nekrd. Ev oui cdyo rana, drao femm gemm oui. Fa femm rumt dras uvv frema oui aclyba. Dra Machine Faction haatc oui du cinjeja. Fa yna ymm aqbahtypma."

Nodding, Gippal patted the man's shoulder, then handed him the stolen weapon. He then picked up his mortar launcher and turned to Rikku. "We can hide out in the hills for a few days until they get tired of this place. Then we'll try to get away."

Rikku nodded, and they approached the windows facing the hills behind the temple. Smashing one open with the butt of the launcher, Gippal tossed the weapon out to the ground below, then turned and climbed down the rough-sided walls of the temple. Not bothering with that, Rikku simply jumped out the window, landing nimbly on her feet.

The two of them made their way up into the hills as the sounds of fire from within the temple reached them through the broken window. Just before cresting a hill and putting the temple out of sight behind them, Gippal turned and looked back toward it, nodding once in salute to his comrades still within.

"Syo oui veht ouin bayla fedr dra gods," he said, then crested the hill and left the war behind.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Translations:

"If it comes down to it, we will destroy the temple to keep them from getting the secrets of our machina."

"Gippal, Rikku is right. If you stay here, they will kill you. We will hold them off while you escape. The Machine Faction needs you to survive. We are all expendable."

"May you find your peace with the gods."

Shout-out section:

Raven: Of course.

Newsreporter: Spammers need not apply.

Bree-2006: Ask and ye shall receive.

Morgaine of the Fairies: Well, I am known for my hair-brained schemes and ideas.

Furitaurus: Once more, ask and ye shall receive. This chapter originally called for a sequence on Mt. Gagazet, but I ran out of ideas for that one, so I moved along to Djose Temple and the Machine Faction instead.