The Makings Of A SeeD
By Bhamv
Chapter 4 – Skirmish at Trabia
Author's note: Sorry for the delay in this chapter. Hope this update will make it up to you guys.
*****
The Ragnarok soared majestically through the skies, like a crimson dragon slicing through the air towards its destination. Inside the passenger cabin, Headmaster Cid was engaged in animated conversation with President Laguna Loire, while General Caraway was similarly engaged with Xu and Seifer. Squall sat by himself off to one side, silently listening to the conversations, which never seemed to stray far from one topic – Trabia Garden and the attack upon it. Everyone was assuming that Esthar was responsible, and Laguna's face was darker and more lined than Squall had ever seen it, a sharp contrast from his usual jovial manner. Shaking his head slightly, Squall got up and left the chattering administrators, who were so engrossed in their discussions they barely noticed his departure.
Stepping onto the lift to the cockpit and sliding upwards, Squall felt like he had entered an entirely different planet. Inside the piloting area of the aircraft sat five somber SeeDs, their silence and stillness feeling slightly bizarre after the chaos in the passenger cabin. Zell sat at the controls, piloting the Ragnarok with a sure and steady hand, while Quistis was in the copilot's seat, assisting her fellow SeeD. The usual pilot of the craft, Selphie, sat to one side, her entire body shaking while tears rolled silently down her cheeks. The news of Trabia Garden's destruction had hit Selphie hard, which was understandable since she had grown up there. Irvine had his arms around her, holding her small frame in his long arms, giving her what silent comfort he could, while Rinoa sat by herself, staring outside at the passing clouds and scenery. Hearing the lift slide to a halt, Rinoa gave Squall a small smile and waved for him to sit beside her.
"How are they down there?" Rinoa asked, her soft voice filling the silent cockpit.
Squall sighed dramatically and said, "All talk, but they can't decide on a course of action. I don't know how these people manage to run any countries or Gardens or whatnot without facing constant mutiny."
Rinoa smiled at him, her eyes gleaming. Oftentimes Squall was at his most humorous when he didn't mean to be; and since Squall almost never joked or kidded, quirky humorous quotes were fairly common from him. "Seifer, in particular, seemed eager to pluck Balamb Garden right out of the ground again and launch a full SeeD assault on Esthar." Squall continued, a frown creasing his scarred brow, before adding, "I don't know how serious he was though."
Quistis spun around in her chair, giving Squall a piercing look. "How did Seifer become a SeeD?" She asked abruptly, with no introduction. Ignoring the surprised expression on Squall's face, the girl continued, "I was under the impression that he would never become a member of SeeD. Remember what Xu said earlier? About SeeDs being soldiers and not gladiators? Don't you think that would apply to Seifer perfectly?"
Squall stood and started pacing slowly around the small cockpit, silently contemplating his rival's promotion for several moments before answering. "We can only assume that Seifer impressed the Headmaster enough to qualify for SeeD. In any case, he is our team-mate and colleague now, so let's just concentrate on the mission and not question him."
"Hmm, we don't even know what our mission is, Squall." Quistis said, looking back out the cockpit window at the landscape zooming past.
"Hey, we'll find out more at Trabia Garden, guys, don't'cha worry. In fact, we should be able to see it soon – hey, there it is!" Zell said, taking one hand off the controls to point straight ahead at a dark blotch on the horizon. Deactivating the autopilot and taking full manual control, he guided the aircraft smoothly towards the gap in the mountains where the Garden was situated. Flying low beside the towering spires of the mountainous terrain, Trabia garden was temporarily blocked from view until, with a sharp bank towards the left, the Ragnarok made the final approach to the facility and everyone on board got their first full look at the remains of the once-proud military academy.
When Edea Kramer was still under the control of the evil Ultimecia, Sorceress of the Future, she had launched a missile attack at Trabia Garden, which had suffered a direct hit. Squall and his team of SeeDs had visited during the aftermath of the devastation, and even helped out briefly in the rebuilding effort. Now, however, even from their elevated distance, it was clear the extent of damage was complete and total, and any rebuilding would be impossible. Selphie gave a heartbreaking squeak and buried her face in Irvine's chest, who patted her hair awkwardly.
The color black was all that could be seen in the rubble, charred, burnt, and completely blown out. The once tall and proud halls were collapsed and flattened, leaving no possible shelter for any survivors. Littered over the landscape were broken pieces of machinery, many obviously designed for military usage, guns and missiles in evidence. Near the center of the circle of wreckage was a small column of smoke and a flicker of flame, surrounded by a pitifully small number of cowering figures, huddled against the freezing cold and collecting what warmth they could from the fire and from each other. Trabia Garden was well and truly destroyed – the power of Garden in the continent of Trabia would be broken for a long, long time.
The lift platform to the cockpit of the Ragnarok hissed softly as Headmaster Cid rode in. His voice shook as he gave his orders. "Zell, set us down near the Garden. Quistis, log on to the HD cable network and contact the Galbadian government in Deling city. The General will want to speak with his staff."
Zell and Quistis acknowledged his commands with immediate action, the Ragnarok sliding downwards through the air smoothly while a screen flickered before Quistis as she tapped out rapid commands on her keyboard. "Communication is online, Headmaster, I'll patch it down to the screens in the passenger cabin."
"Thank you, Quistis." Cid said as he lowered himself back out of the cockpit, the hissing of the lift muffling his words slightly. The only sound that filled the air was the low hum of the Ragnarok's engines as Zell decelerated on his descent, finally bringing the craft to the snow-covered ground with a soft bump. Flicking a series of switches he cut the power to the engines, the humming sound quitting immediately. Another soft hiss signalled the entrance of the lift once more as Cid slid into the room.
"Squall, Quistis, Zell, Rinoa, you will go with Seifer and contact the survivors. The President, General, and I will be along shortly, we just need to discuss a few more things and arrange for transport. Selphie and Irvine will stay here as backup and for communication." Cid said, his composure as Headmaster now restored. It was common procedure for SeeD not to send every available unit on an away team, and to leave a percentage of the forces behind. Although Squall felt an attack was quite unlikely, he knew the Headmaster was taking no chances and sticking with protocol.
Selphie gave a small sound of protest, "Ahh, Headmaster, can't I go too? Please? My friends are down there!"
Cid gave the young girl a kind look through his spectacles as he replied, "Don't you think it would be better for you to stay on board here, Selphie? Do you think you're in a fit state to go?"
"I don't think I'm in a fit state to stay, Headmaster!" Selphie replied, leaping to her feet with a desperate gaze in her eyes. Squall privately doubted a legion of Ruby Dragons could stop Selphie from joining the away team.
"Very well then, Rinoa and Irvine will stay on the Ragnarok, Selphie goes with the rest." Cid said with a smile. He descended back to the passenger cabin while the SeeDs prepared their equipment and weapons before following him down. Seifer was waiting at the bottom, his gunblade at his side.
"Squall, Instructor, Messenger Girl, Chicken Wuss." Seifer greeted Squall, Quistis, Selphie, and Zell, using his personal nicknames for the last two SeeDs. His smirk grew wider as two sets of dagger glares were thrown his way. Quistis sighed exasperatedly and led the way out the exit hatch wordlessly.
As soon as the five SeeDs stepped outside into the cold air, cold snow crunching beneath their boots, an almost visible transformation came over them. Their concentration sharpened as they took in every detail around them, years of training honing their skills in preparing for any possible attack. A quick glance at the survivors near the center of the ruins told Squall there were approximately twenty of them, and about half of them were the size of children. The flat environment and clear weather meant visibility was good for over a mile, reducing any chance of an ambush from land, although a degree of reflection from the snow made the horizon slightly hazy. The Ragnarok's systems, meanwhile, would be scanning constantly for an attack from the air, in which case Rinoa and Irvine would react accordingly.
Zell bent down over a jagged and bent piece of metal, burnt black from whatever had broken it from its source. Rapping his knuckles against it, he declared, "This looks like the same kind of material that we saw in Esthar last time, Squall. You know, what those panels that hid Esthar from view were made from - the kind that changes color and patterns."
Squall nodded silently in response as a figure detached from the mass of people, standing up and walking slowly towards them, cautiously. Squall lifted his right hand up beside his face in a SeeD salute, and the person replied with an identical one; a simple action that proved to the two SeeDs they were allies. Squall started walking towards the survivors, then broke into a jog as the Trabia SeeD stumbled and fell to her knees. A whoosh of wind and a blur of yellow flew past him as Selphie sprinted ahead of her commander.
"Hana! Instructor Hana, it's you!" Selphie squealed, wrapping her arms around the woman and giving her a huge bear hug.
"Selphie? Oh Selphie, it's you! You're back!" Hana said, nearly crying with relief. Her grey Trabia instructor uniform was dirty and torn, and her face and arms were covered with dark blotches; Squall couldn't tell if they were bruises or dirt. She clung onto Selphie for support, her own strength failing, as she leaned against the younger girl heavily. Selphie held the woman tightly, murmuring reassurances and promises of safety in her ear.
"Instructor Hana? I'm afraid I'm going to need to ask you a few questions about what happened here." Squall began, stepping forward. "Selphie, if you could just let go of her for a moment so I can…"
His sentence was cut off by the sound of a soft flit, followed immediately by a dull thud. Hana gave a short scream and wrenched herself free from Selphie's grasp, standing briefly before pitching forward onto the ground. A long black arrow protruded from her back, blood spreading quickly and staining the clothes around the wound. Selphie screamed as shimmering shapes seemed to materialize from thin air a bit of distance away, coalescing into the distinctive bright colors of Estharian soldiers and battle robots.
At the head of the unit was a girl with long blonde hair, also dressed in the garish colors of an Esthar foot soldier, but with subtle differences in the design and coloring which stood out among the others. Her hair was tied in a ponytail which reached nearly down to the middle of her back, and in her left hand she held a wicked-looking longbow, which was painted blood red. She pointed her bow forwards at the SeeDs and the circle of survivors, and the men and machines began advancing, their murderous intent obvious to all eyes.
Squall took a quick look around and didn't like what he saw. The enemy had at least twenty huge blue-and-white robots of various shapes and designs, and at least double that number in infantry. Their position cut off any possible retreat out of the encircling mountains, and even made reaching the Ragnarok difficult for the SeeDs. The straggling survivors, however, would never be able to make it to safety in the airship. There was no choice but to fight.
"Selphie, Zell, Quistis – stay back and protect the survivors. Seifer, with me!" Squall barked, his team immediately breaking into two. The three SeeDs assigned with the task of protection drew their weapons and formed a loose semicircle around the frightened mass of people, who huddled closer together. Junctions were quickly checked and activated, protective blue and purple shields springing up around the fighters. Seifer drew his gunblade and held it ready in one hand, nodding at Squall, who wielded his own gunblade, the legendary Lionheart. The blue blade glowed brightly with power, the azure hues reflected by the snow on the ground and by Seifer's own shining weapon, Hyperion.
With a quick glance at Seifer, Squall gave an imperceptible nod and turned back towards the advancing enemy, who halted their steady advance briefly before breaking into a charge, a thundering brigade of destruction. Squall and Seifer charged forward to meet them with superhuman speed, their velocity boosted by the magic held by their Guardian Forces. Two dark blurs intermingled with blue and silver streaks waded into the enemy, cutting down two infantry soldiers with the first rush. A portion of the Estharian force broke away from the main body to engage the gunblade-wielding SeeDs, while the rest stampeded ahead towards the others.
Squall and Seifer fought hard and fought efficiently, the human soldiers no match for their SeeD training and their boosted strengths. While the mechanical monsters that towered above proved to be slightly more troublesome, ultimately they too had no chance of overcoming the two best mercenary soldiers Balamb Garden had ever produced. Squall's blows came efficiently and with tremendous power as he swung Lionheart in instinctive, practiced motions. He battled with the classical style of gunblade usage, both hands on the hilt of his weapon, which was curved only slightly from the blade, emphasizing strong defense above reckless attacking.
Seifer, on the other hand, whirled and slashed with flair and grace, showing a degree of speed and dexterity which would seem to have suited Squall's wiry frame better than Seifer's muscular one. Seifer had begun training in the use of gunblades since his early teens, and in the course of his studies managed to invent a completely new style of combat, as well as a completely new form of gunblade. The weapon he used, Hyperion, was designed and built by Seifer himself, and he was the only person in existence who could wield it and attack for maximum effect with it. Unlike classical gunblades such as the Revolver or Sheer Trigger, Hyperion had a very thin and light blade, and its handle was much more curved. It was designed to be wielded with just one hand, leaving the other hand free for grabbing or for spell casting. And in Seifer's hands Hyperion danced with a deadly rhythm, creating a whirling vortex of death that spelled doom for all that stood in its way.
Cutting horizontally through the legs of a towering Elastoid, Squall watched impassively as sparks flew from the broken metal and the hulking machine crashed loudly to the snowy ground, smoke floating idly up from its mechanical wounds. Whirling around, Squall realized that was the last of the enemies who had broken away from the main group, but the bulk of the Estharian force was still charging rapidly at Zell, Selphie, Quistis, and the surviving Trabians. Aiming his gunblade at the backsides of the enemy, he fired a round of pulse ammunition at them, the bolt of bluish white energy blowing apart another Elastoid and killing two soldiers with the ensuing shrapnel. A second lance of pulse ammo blasted across the landscape, this time from a different source, and tore through the center of the enemy ranks, causing momentary chaos. Peering through the smoke, dust, and ice of the battlefield, Squall tried to determine the source of the shot, and raised one hand in salute when he saw Irvine standing by the open hatch of the Ragnarok, his huge gun Exeter held ready in his hands. Giving a cheeky grin and tipping his hat in reply to Squall's salute, Irvine reloaded his gun with a canister of demolition ammo, firing the grenade right into the middle of the Esthar soldiers, where it detonated in a annihilating fireball of arms, legs, and scrap metal.
A white pinwheel flew out of the Ragnarok's hatch, streaking across the landscape and slicing mercilessly into the body of another Esthar soldier, cutting through armor and flesh before looping around in a lazy circle and flying into the hands of Rinoa, who pelted out of the battleship at full speed, loading her Shooting Star back into the harness on her wrist with a smooth practiced motion, ready for another launch. Glancing at her targets, she chose another Estharian trooper, the one closest to her, and let fly with her wrist launcher again, never stopping her stride as she ran towards Squall. The spinning projectile struck its target with eerie accuracy before flying back to Rinoa again.
Squall only had time to give Rinoa the briefest of smiles before he shouted more orders. "Irvine, lay down covering crossfire! Rinoa, Seifer, let's go!" Lowering his gunblade to one side and holding it with one hand, he prepared a bolt Thundara with his free hand and sent it crashing against an enemy droid, shorting out its circuits and reducing it to a twitching pile of scrap metal. Irvine launched a bright bolt of pulse energy into the midst of the enemy, tearing a path of carnage right through the middle of them. Quistis led Zell and Selphie in a structured charge, running out and meeting the assembly of Estharians head-on. Squall led Seifer and Rinoa against the enemy's rear, charging with an identical triangular formation, the two SeeDs behind a front one, who acted as a battering ram, running into the enemy ranks with maximum damaging effect. The six SeeDs overpowered their enemy, while Irvine and Laguna picked off whoever they could with their firearms from the Ragnarok.
The Esthar soldiers, however, obviously intended to cause as much damage to the surviving Trabians as they could. While the SeeDs could more than hold their own and defend themselves against their numerous enemies, they could not defend every helpless survivor, who had now begun to scatter all over the ruins of Trabia Garden, trying desperately to avoid the bloodshed and cruel weaponry. Screams of pain and fear rang over the snowy ground as Estharian swords and guns found their marks, splashing innocent crimson blood onto the frosted landscape.
One figure was slashing through the survivors with particular grace and lethalness, her willowy figure wielding a long staff with skill and precision. A second glance told Squall it was the girl who fired the first arrow of the conflict, her bow now unstrung and straightened into a deadly melee weapon. She was dressed in white bodyarmor, with plates of pink and light blue protecting her without restricting her movement. On her head she wore a helmet which covered her face completely, but allowed her long blonde hair to fall elegantly down her back. Charging forward, Squall attacked with a diagonal downward slash, putting his body's strength behind the strike, hoping to overpower his enemy. With a deft parry, however, the girl deflected the cut and counterattacked with one of the pointed tips of her bow-staff. Unbalanced by his overconfident attack, Squall nearly skewered himself on her weapon but managed to throw his body off to one side in a last-ditch evasive maneuver. Holding his gunblade up in a defensive posture in case the girl pressed her attack, Squall was surprised to see her do a deft backflip away from him, spinning in the air gracefully before landing beside a collapsed teenage girl, one of the survivors. In an offhanded manner she plunged her staff downwards, stabbing the tip through the helpless girl's abdomen. The wounded teen screamed in agony, then gasped before falling unmoving and silent.
His lips narrowing into an enraged line, Squall lowered his gunblade, now covered with red blood and black motor oil, and concentrated briefly. A scarlet horned giant burst into the air with a deafening roar, its eyes aflame with blazing fury. The Guardian Force Ifrit, called forth by its master, beckoned and a massive boulder of flame erupted before it, hovering in the air with magical energy. Estharian eyes turned skywards, widening behind their masked helmets in terror, as they watched Ifrit throw the fireball straight downwards, slamming it into the ground with godly strength.
The fire demon and the flames abruptly vanished as magically as they had appeared, leaving a field full of destroyed soldiers and charred machinery. The SeeDs and Garden survivors were untouched, a feat which would seem amazing to those unfamiliar with the abilities of Guardian Forces. The aroma of charred flesh and burnt machinery wafted over the battleground as the victorious SeeDs surveyed the scene. The attack from Squall's GF had ended the skirmish emphatically, killing or disabling every member of the enemy – or so it initially seemed. A bloody figure, her battlesuit no longer crisp and pristine, rose shakily to her feet, still holding a ruined stump of her broken bowshaft. In a flash she was surrounded by six SeeDs, blocking any path of escape.
A lilting chuckle came from under the girl's helmet, however, and she pressed a small button on a sleek control panel located on her left forearm. Her body seemed to flicker briefly before blinking out of existence altogether, her armor's cloaking device surprising the Balamb SeeDs and giving her the chance she needed. Yelping with surprise, Selphie was shoved aside by an invisible force as a trail of footprints appeared on the snow-covered ground, running quickly towards the steep mountains, which were bare and free of any snow or frost. The tracks stopped at the base of the slope, and a short trail of damp bootprints appeared on the hills before gradually disappearing as well. The Estharian quarry had managed to evade the SeeDs, who could do little but stand in a shocked circle in the middle of the snowy battlefield.
*****
Oh boy, things are getting interesting. Please review and tell me what you guys think! -Bhamv