This is an edited version of the original chapter 4.
Chapter four
Take off and landing
Shortly after having gotten used to using the pulse rifles and pistols, Baird returned to the room and guided the friends to a new room in Bevelle, though it was not so much a room as a hangar.
A large aircraft, slightly smaller in size to the Celsius and of a different shape is docked in the room. The cockpit of the aircraft sticks out of the front of the main, rectangular body like the nose of a concord.
Two large square openings, one on either side of the main body house eight large missiles, each one of the missiles have some sort of comical, yet evil looking face drawn onto the front of each of them. On the right side of the plane the words 'Bug Stomper' are written in big white letters.
Weapons are being prepared and supplies loaded into crates and these in turn are being loaded into a large four wheeled vehicle. The vehicle itself is about two and a half meters high, eight meters long and over three meters wide. Like the aircraft the colour of the machine is a dark green and, like the airship, someone has written on the side of it, albeit up side down in white letters saying 'this way up' and an arrow, which points in the direction of the roof.
On the other side of it is the symbol of the USCM- three gold stars on a blue, red and white spiralling background. Each star represents one of the three main political groups that have combined to form the Spiran government that Nooj, Baralai and Gippal are the leaders of.
On top of the vehicle are two, six barrelled mini guns on a large, armoured swivel turret and on the front right side is a smaller swivel turret with two heavy machine guns mounted inside it.
Baird walks with Yuna, Paine, Rikku and Tidus towards Lucil, Elma and Beclem who chatter amongst themselves. The four friends now carry their own pulse rifles and pistols, except for Yuna who has opted to keep her faithful 'Tiny Bees'. However unlike the other marines they are not wearing armour and helmets. Lucil, Elma and Beclem notice the group moving towards them and discontinue their conversation.
"Good to see you again," speaks Lucil first, "we have instructed the others to be as helpful to you as they would to each other. But we get the kind of feeling some of them are only going to be helpful if truly necessary."
"Piece of advice; steer clear of Vasquez and Maddox they are not happy for you guys to be here," advises Elma
"If they're looking for a fight then they just need to give me the word," replies Paine coldly, Elma just rolls her eyes.
Beclem looks at them all, slightly puzzled, "I see you have your own Pulse Rifles and pistols but where is your armour and combat gear?"
"We didn't really want them," replies Rikku.
"Why? They could save you from harm not to mention keep you warm. Macalania is pretty cold these days; that thunder storm is still over there so it's wet and windy. If you go there with only what you are wearing now you will freeze your toes off."
Tidus shakes his head defensively, "We were going to but then we decided there wasn't much point in having the armour, these things have got some serious firepower up their sleeves, those guards were wearing armour of their own and that failed to protect them. If we get shot at or slashed by these things then armour isn't really going to help protect us. We would rather trade in the armour for better manoeuvrability and agility."
"Yeah armour would just slow us down. And we don't worry about the cold; I've walked over Mount Gagazette in what I'm wearing right now," states Rikku, Beclem looks at her as if she is mad "Besides, that armour is real uncomfortable."
Lucil sighs, "Please put some on, for us."
Maddox walks up to the group having overheard the last few moments of the conversation and puts a hand on Lucil's shoulder.
"Ma'am you heard the girls they don't want the armour. If they get hurt because they don't have it then it's their own fault. I don't see why we should force them to change their minds, a person learns through experience, right? Well this is as good a time as any to learn to listen to sensible orders, which they have decided to disobey."
Elma flashes him a hard look, "Get back to work marine."
Rykov gives the others a quick scowl and walks off.
Yuna looks at the three soldiers with pleading eyes, "Please Lucil, don't worry about us, we've pulled through bigger things than this with no armour, we'll be fine."
Lucil gives a heavier sigh of resignation, "If you insist. I only pray that you do not regret this."
"We won't," insists Yuna, reassuringly putting her hands on Lucil's shoulders.
"Ok, well are you guys ready to go then? All you really need to have on you for now are your weapons, the rest of us need to finish gearing up then we will all get onto the APC," Lucil points to the bulky four wheeled vehicle, "We get in there and stay there for the duration of the flight to Macalania, the flight by the way will be made in that Dropship there. It's not going to be the most comfortable of rides but you'll get used to it. Now you'll have to excuse us, we need to finish getting ready."
Lucil, Elma and Beclem walk off to attend to their chores whilst everyone else makes the final checks to their weapons and equipment. For a few minutes none of the friends or Baird say anything, they just observe the marines, taking in how they operate. Most of them go about their business with what looks like efficiency, especially Lucil, Elma and Beclem who, being officers, had to set the tone.
There were a couple who were more casual about their work, Maddox and Vasquez, ever the sullen and grumpy ones were setting the example of slackers, going about their tasks with only half a heart.
Baird, having watched the activity, moves close to the entrance of the open side hatch of the APC and shouts out to the marines, "Okay people saddle up, get everything into the APC we gotta move now!"
The activity suddenly doubles as people make the last of their preparations in a rush, Vasquez and Maddox move to the APC and step into the entrance and begin taking weapons and equipment from everyone. Each time they take something they move into the vehicle for a couple of moments and then reappear, presumably having stored it somewhere inside.
Eventually, after all the equipment is stocked and stacked everyone gathers to the APC and steps inside, including the four friends. Inside the APC the seats occupy approximately a third of the APC taking up most of the middle portion of the inside. The rear third contains all the equipment, weapons and supplies, whilst the front of the vehicle contains what looks like a small communications and operations centre, and the driver's seat, with space for a few extra people. All the seats have metal safety harnesses that come down from above, much like roller coaster harnesses.
In the drivers front seats sit Baird, Bishop and Frost. Everyone else is seated and harnessed in the main section. As the girls and Tidus step in and take their own seats the marines look at the clothing they wear and either raise their eyebrows, scowl or mouth something along the lines of 'Oh man'.
The group try their best to ignore them. Fortunately for them Vasquez and Maddox are at the far end away from them. Next to Yuna sits Campbell and Rikku, to her right and left respectively. Opposite her sits Tidus with Paine and Othello next to him, on his right and left respectively.
The motor of the APC suddenly roars to life and the hulking piece of metal begins to reverse into the Dropship, skilfully piloted by Bishop. They park on the ramp of the ship which rises, thanks to the two powerful hydraulic lifting bars connecting the ramp to the main hull of the ship.
The electronic voice of Janus echoes into the APC, "Pilot here, you guys ready for takeoff? Not that you have a choice on that subject of course," the engines of the Dropship start up and emit a constant low pitched drone that slowly increases in pitch as the engines power up.
After a few moments the main hangar door makes a metallic clunking sound and the doors open up, revealing to anyone who happened to be standing in the hangar at the time that they were a good hundred meters above the surrounding buildings, giving the Dropship ample space to exit the hangar without the possibility of hitting something on its way out.
Another loud clunk sounds out from the doors and they stop opening. With surprising grace the Dropship lifts off and reverses out of the hangar, turns in midair and moves away from the city, up into the clear skies. Janus turns the hulking machine into the direction of Macalania and suddenly the ships jets kick in, propelling them off with great acceleration.
After several moments the force from the acceleration subsides and the airship felt normal once more. Incredibly, Biggs has managed to fall asleep in his seat, his head tilted backwards and his mouth slightly agape, much to the amusement of those sitting close to him.
At this point Yuna decides to try and make at least one new ally in the group and turns to Campbell.
"Hi, you're Campbell right?"
He gives a small smile and nods, "That's my name don't wear it out."
"I won't. So how long have you been a part of this division then?"
"I was one of the more late arrivals to the division. The squad was formed about a month after you and… those two there," he motions his head to Rikku and Paine, having failed to remember their names.
"Rikku and Paine," Yuna reminds him.
"Right, ok. Anyway I joined about two months after the squad was formed. Ever since then I've been going all over Spira hunting fiends, settling disputes, that sort of thing. Our unofficial motto is: 'security through superior firepower' and so far we have been able to uphold that motto."
Yuna nods thoughtfully, "I saw on the side of the Dropship the words 'Bug Stomper' what do you mean by bugs?"
"That's our affectionate name for fiends and anything else that gives the people of Spira a headache."
"Oh I see. So Nadine, Stone and yourself are three of the riflemen yes?"
"That's right we can handle the Pulse rifle better than anyone else here. When each of us first joined we were all put through exercises with each weapon available and were assigned the weapon we performed the best with. Maddox and Vasquez get to make use of the one of our more advanced weapons, the M56 Smartgun," Campbell looks proud of that statement, as if it should mean something to Yuna, which unfortunately for him, it doesn't.
"Smartgun?" she looks at him puzzled.
"That's right. The M56 Smartgun is an automatic squad support weapon; it's more powerful than the pulse rifle, faster too; it's like a portable shredder really. Whilst considering its size it is quite light, even so, the actual gun system is still mounted onto an operator's harness, and above that it is less maneuverable than a pulse rifle. The best thing about it is that it tracks the enemy, but firing must be controlled by the operator. If the tracking system reads a viable target the gun will use the mechanics in the pivot on the harness to follow the target and the operator just needs to pull the trigger. It's a little more complex than that though for the operator because they need to have one eye covered with a screen of what the targeting computer sees, it's like having one eye in your head and one at your hip so it can get pretty confusing and I sucked at using it, but Maddox and Vasquez seemed natural at it so they got those guns."
Yuna nods, processing the information for a few moments, "I see, I think. Baird said that Othello and Biggs are flame throwers yes?"
"That's right; they're our burners, a pair of pyromaniacs those two. They use the M240 flamethrower, which is a lightweight flamethrower using pressurized, ultra-thickened napalm fuel stored in a canister attached to the underside of the gun and is ignited by a nozzle burner. It's an awesome thing to watch as it can fire a burst of flame at targets up to 30 feet away," Yuna raises an impressed eyebrow.
"Once a target is hit, fuel droplets will remain on the target for about 30 seconds. However, it is vulnerable to small-arms fire, as the fuel canister is known to explode violently when hit. It is something of a vicious weapon and not for use against fire based fiends but it's highly effective against pretty much everything else. I don't want to make them sound like psycho's or something but lets just say that Biggs and Othello have a greater appreciation for fire than the rest of us, but they are good with them, no doubting that."
"And Frost? He's the sniper isn't he?"
"Correct. That guy has the steadiest pair of hands I have ever seen; calm as a coma, he's called 'Frosty' for a very good reason. When out in the field he usually takes a few long range shots to soften up fiends or eliminate them completely before they get close to us. Once the fiends close in we mop the rest up. He carries our WY 102 Sniper rifle, arguably the most accurate sniper rifle in Spira and incredibly powerful too, it fires large and pointed armor piercing rounds at super high velocities, it can kill weaker fiends in one shot and does some serious damage to the rest."
"What about Bishop he wasn't carrying any of the rifles."
"Bishop needs to keep as much space on his person as possible for medical supplies, but he does have a pair of M4A4 pistols tucked behind him if necessary."
Yuna nods and stays silent, but her face shows she is thinking carefully about something, whether about what Campbell has just told her or something else. Eventually she turns to look at Campbell again and opens her mouth but no words come out and she looks back in front of her.
Campbell, having noticed this looks at her inquisitively, "You were going to say something?"
His question focuses Yuna's mind a little and she turns back to him, "Umm yes I was, what it is that Maddox and Vasquez seem to have against us? Baird told us what he thinks is the problem but he's new to your division isn't he. I figured he wouldn't know the complete reason why so I would rather get a reason from one of you guys, you know, from someone who knows them better than he does."
Campbell looks up to the ceiling and ponders the question for a few moments then turns back to Yuna, "Well, see the thing is Maddox and Vasquez were the first two members of this division and they went through hell to get here, we all did- the training for this is rigorous. But there were a couple of extra reasons why those two had it tougher. They were in prison once, and they had a rough time there. They came out of it with a lot of pent up aggression and anger and they signed up for this in order to release some of that anger but some of it never went. Because they were here first they see themselves as the leaders despite being a lower rank than Lucil, Elma and Beclem, and the way they figure it, if they had to go through all that arduous training, then new recruits had better do the same, which up until you lot showed up they have, we all went through Sin's backside and out again to get here and now you guys just strolled in. I won't hold it against you, in fact most of the guys here won't either, but those two will. Oh and if they become aggressive towards you, try not to fall back to Lucil, Elma and Beclem for support ok? That is a real no- no. You see whilst those three went through the training like the rest of us, because of their ranks in their previous jobs they were seen by the top brass as the rightful leaders of the squad, this has never sat well with Maddox and Vasquez. You stick up for yourself and you do what you can to earn their respect. It shouldn't come to it but if those two want to pick a fight I'm afraid you will have no choice. And I guarantee you they will want a hand to hand, no weapons fight, they love those. And if that happens, good luck, we have all fought them, even if we were only training and they have never lost. I suggest you just stay out of their way for a while."
Yuna looked quite intimidated at the thought of having to fight Maddox and Vasquez hand to hand, "Oh okay. Can't say I want to fight them, don't think any of us want to, except possibly Paine."
"She's the one who pissed Vasquez off, right?"
"Yup."
"Damn that was a bad idea. I've never seen someone behave like that to her, and I don't think she wants to let her get away with it. She needs to be on her guard."
"You're scaring me already and we haven't even started looking for these murderers yet.
"Well all I'm saying is that you guys had better be on your toes and prove yourself if the time comes."
"Don't worry, we will," Speaks up Rikku, who until now has stayed silent, staring at the floor.
Yuna looks at her surprised, "How long have you been listening?"
"I was always listening."
Campbell smirks, "Ha! Rikku I have to ask, do you always wear a bikini, thong and miniskirt when you go to work?"
"Yup it's more comfortable. Besides are you complaining?"
"I don't think any of us are complaining. But don't you think you are going to get cold when we get there?"
"Hey I've walked up to the top of Mount Gagazette in this stuff I'll have you know!" she says indignantly.
"You're nuts."
"You have to be a little crazy to survive in this world, otherwise you die of boredom."
"Wow you sounded almost wise there for a second," mocks Paine who it turns out, has been listening to the conversation as well.
"Very funny," Rikku replies giving Paine a sarcastic smile.
Campbell gives a small chuckle, "Well you have to be the most interesting bunch I've seen in recent years, and although none of us have said anything to you guys about it, we're all grateful for what you have done for Spira over the last few years what with Sin, Shuyin and Vegnagun. Although they would never admit to it, I recon even Maddox and Vasquez are grateful for it too… well deep down at least."
Yuna gives a small smile, "That's okay we did it for Spira and those we care about, and given the opportunity I would expect anyone else to do the same."
"Well that's why we all joined up, to do our bit for Spira. And it looks like we're about to do it again," they all relax into their seats and remain silent.
Time travels on for another hour in which time only small talk ensues between the group and Campbell. Slowly the APC starts to shake slightly, and after each moment the shaking becomes slightly harder as the Dropship enters the outskirts of the storm above Macalania and starts to decrease its altitude.
Janus' voice buzzes in the APC, "Hold onto your seatbelts guys, things are going to get rough. It's very windy so I'm not going to be setting down next to the facility, it will get too dangerous; I can see lightning bolts all over the place. I'm going to set her down here."
The Dropship rapidly decelerates and then comes to a hovering position then sets down on the ground with a slight thud. The ramp lowers allowing the APC to leave and Baird fires up the engine.
He calls out from the driver's seat "Okay guys ready to roll?"
"Sir!" shouts everyone unison.
Baird takes a quick look back at the men and shakes his head in false dismay, "Somebody wake up Biggs."
With a roar the APC drives off the ramp and heads in the direction of the desolate Macalania City, the ramp closing behind it.
