Just wanna say thanks to Dragonsouljah (what does that name mean anyway?) for reviewing. Okay, on to chapter... whatever the hell chapter it is.

(I hate tracker balls, but my mouse is broken, so I have to use one, and I have no idea why I'm telling you this.)

Chapter 17... I Think.

Certain Death, Slim Chance of Sucess, What are We Waiting For?

The troops were hushed at the site of Captain Lucil's death. Only the machine guns and Elma's stifled sobs could be heard. Fortunately Clasko had moved on to be a chocobo breeder, and he was at the stable at this time. The fiends were actually being held at bay for the time being. They're inexhaustible supply did not seem to gain any new ground, but their numbers were being cut down by a huge rate.

At first Lulu was happy to see the enemy making no progress what so ever. But she knew it was only a matter of time before the machine guns ran out of ammo. Then it was on to the grizzly scene of hand to hand combat. A soldiers worst nightmare.

Then she realized what was going on, why the fiends weren't making progress. The enemy was using the most inhumane strategy ever thought up, cannon fodder. She had finally noticed that Seymour was sending only his weakest monsters first. (Dingos, Garudas, Evil Eyes, Mi'ihen Fangs, a few elemental flans here and there)

Lulu rushed to Auron and explained what she had realized, and Auron almost looked like he would punch himself for not seeing it. He told the General who ordered the machine guns to stop almost all of the firing. When the bullets slowed, the army advanced toward the outermost walls of the battlements.

Beyond these wooden walls lay the single largest booby trap pit ever made. When the 1st wall fell Spira's army would make a fighting retreat to the second wall. When this wall fell, that was when Jehct is supposed to arrive. Spira would fight behind the third wall, this one actually made of stone, and in front of it, lay the Kimahri's Crescent Death. Jecht was then supposed to trap the fiends against the third wall.

When the fiends reached the first wall, a temporary halt occurred, because the smaller fiends that were sent out first did not have the power to break the wall. Here they were picked of by the soldiers throwing random objects down at the helpless monsters.

Too soon, however, larger fiends such as iron giants, behamauths, and adamantoises could be seen advancing. Seymour had also managed to create his own shooting air unit by perching chimeras on the back of Zus. They would fly around hurling Meggido Flames down ward at the walls.

"Alright enough of this crap," shouted General Barogen, "send a few airships up to the sky, and show em' what air superiority means."

Several airships rose into the air, including Cid's pink airship used to escape Home. Rikku was standing next to a radio talking to Brother, who was piloting Cid's airship.

"Brother pa lynavim!" (Brother, be careful!) "Don't worry Rikku," he said, "I'm the best! Tell Yuna I'm thinking of her! Poa Poa." (Bye Bye)

Pig, thought Yuna.

The airships tore through the swarms of aerial fiends. They collided with the unstable fiend birds, who bounced off the airship hulls and went spiraling to the ground. The Air Marshall was in for a shock, however, when several chimeras began hurling Meggido Flames at one of the airships. They eventually managed to burn through the hull. One of the Chimera/Zu combinations flew through a large hole burned in the airship. Moments later Spira's army watched in horror as the smoking corpse of an Al Bhed flew through a newly created gash in the windshield. The airship plummeted to the ground and lay in a smoking mangled mess before finally catching fire, and exploding.

Meanwhile on the ground the Army of Spira opened up on the larger fiends trying to make their way to the first wall. Surface to surface missiles flew through the air, exploding into the large monsters. They fell back to the ground, crushing their allies beneath them. Unfortunately, at risk of using too much ammunition too fast, the missiles had to be used very sparingly, and a Gemini (a larger iron giant for those who don't remember) managed to make it to the first wall. It swung it's huge odd-shaped sword at the wall. The wooden wall buckled at the point of impact.

"Bring it down Lulu!" shouted Auron. Lulu was already in the midst of creating a flare spell. She cast it a hair too late, and the spell hit the Gemani just after the blade smashed into the wall a second time, finally breaking it. The spell hit the Gemini sending it flying backward.

Shit, Lulu thought.

The fiends poured into the hole and began attacking the waiting soldiers. Since it was still mostly the weaker fiends attacking, it was a pretty one-sided. But none the less, they began their first retreat anyway. They gathered up all of the ammo for the machine guns, and began to fall back behind the 2nd wall.

The pit was an ingenious booby trap not by it's creativity, but by it's sheer size. It was so large, that it required wooden beams to support it. Explosives were placed on the support beams. When most of the pit covering was covered with fiends, the switch was thrown, and the beams were blown. (Hehe, I made a rhyme) The effect was an instant, catastrophic hole in the ground, not to mention about 200 fiends instantly dead when they were impaled by the sharpened spikes at the bottom of the pit. The pyreflies were so thick you could have bathed in them.

And so the whole process was repeated, but this time, Seymour wasn't holding back. Every thing Seymour had in his arsenal he was launching. Everything from a Dingo to a King Behamauth. The macina weapons proved to be more useful than anyone could have hoped. Missiles flew through the air scoring hits on the larger armored types while the machine guns blared full force taking down fiends like blades of grass before a lawn mower.

But even with all of the weapons Spira had to offer, strength in numbers still seemed to be the deciding factor of the battle. Before an hour had passed, ammo was running short, missiles were all but depleted, and the air ships were running out of fuel. So far Spira had only taken 40 or so casualties, most of them from the crew of two downed airships. Eventually the masses of fiends had managed to make it to the second wall. Instead of getting something large to bash it in, this time, Seymour sent a wave of Bombs (the fiend Bomb, not the explosive bomb) to slam into the wall.

The explosions of the Bombs going suicidal began to take their toll. The wall was weakening from the heat and pressure.

The general gave the order to fall back early. This proved to be a wise move, for when the wall fell, it took the MG nests, which had all been occupied mere seconds before, with it in a fiery shower of debris.

Sorry, I know this chapter is short, but I want to get it up today, and I need to get off the computer. Anyway for a little foresight into the next chapter, ummmmm, it's gonna involve some swords, maybe a little bit of fire, here and there. Yeah, that's all I can reveal at this time. (Mostly because I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to fit in the next chapter.) Any way, you know the drill, read, review, or I get angry. And I'm going to blame Captain Lucil's death on my fury from the lack of reviewers. Okay, til then, (Does Vulcan hand symbol) live well, and prosper. No, I'm not a Trekkie, it just seemed like the appropriate time to say that.