Chapter 16: Airborne Assault
Reno eases the control stick of his chopper forward and it slips into the darkness of early morning, still several hours before dawn. The chopper is flanked on either side by another, and the trio of reconditioned war machines slice foreword through the chill air, two of them pulling small scout cars off the Highwind's deck so that they hang below their choppers by cables. They dive down towards the brightest light source present, the burning napalm that coats the upper areas of the northern crater's interior.
A flight of dragons rises to challenge the intruders and the lead dragon is immediately transfixed by streams of 20mm shells, blowing large pieces out of it's body and causing it to fall into the flames below. "Hey, how about a little fire discipline?" Reno yells into the radio as the gunners seek out new targets. "Short bursts! Overkill's fun and all, but we don't got enough ammo to go shredding every little thing we see. Assault team'll handle threats from directly ahead, Reserve'll take the left, and Security'll take threats from the right."
"What about the rear?" Cloud asks as the remaining dragons spread out and are destroyed by a mix of 20mm and .50 shells.
"We oughta be moving fast enough there won't be any. If there are, whoever's closer handles it." The napalm begins to burn out as the choppers reach the floor of the crater, revealing an assortment of blackened corpses strewn across the rocky ground. Reno takes a moment to consult the map and ship's sensors before guiding his chopper into a large tunnel, followed closely by the other two.
They fly for some distance down the winding tunnel before Reno announces, "Ceiling's getting kinda low, time to set them down." He eases back on his throttle, causing his chopper to hover, and is imitated by the other two as he descends. Once he's low enough that the scout car is touching the ground, he presses the button that releases the cables attaching it to the chopper. Cloud does the same with his. "I want these landed in a circle, noses out, so security can use any of the mounted guns if they hafta." Reno orders, then allows his chopper to glide a bit forward of the car before he sets it down.
Reno flips the switch that stops his chopper's engine and the Turks leap to their feet, quickly grabbing their weapons from the rack in their chopper before jumping out the side doors and sprinting past where the other two choppers are setting down. The members of Avalanche leap out of their choppers and the reserve team hurries after the Turks as the security team spreads out to protect the choppers, accompanied by the sound of Cid bellowing curses at any team member he deems to be moving too slowly.
Reno keys the ignition to his car and revs the old gas powered engine as Elena seats herself in the passenger seat and loads a belt into the .30 machine gun mounted in front of it and Rude climbs into the rear seat and loads a belt into the .50 machine gun. Reno waits a few seconds for the reserve team to climb into their car, Cloud driving, Tifa in the passenger seat, and Vincent on the heavy machinegun, before flooring the accelerator and speeding past the parked choppers. "--! Watch where you're --ing driving! You almost --ing hit me, you --ing maniac! --!" can be faintly heard from a parked chopper as they zip past, causing the red-haired driver to smirk.
"Remember, we're focusing on speed!" Reno yells into the radio, mainly for the benefit of Cloud's team, as he expects his fellow Turks to have his plan committed to memory. "Don't stop unless I stop. Use short bursts and don't bother with targets that aren't in our way." He powerslides around a corner and comes face-to-face with a surprised looking tonberry, which doesn't have time to react before Reno stomps down on the accelerator, ramming the tonberry and driving over top of it. It shakes it head and begins to climb to it's feet when the second scout car runs over it, leaving an angry, bruised tonberry in it's dust.
Turning another corner, they exit into a large cavern and come to a halt at the edge of a deep pit. Large rock formations, somewhat like a massive natural spiral staircase, lead downwards. "Sensors say he's down there." Reno says. "You three wait here, we'll go on foot the rest of the way." he orders as the six dismount their cars. He looks over the edge and thinks for a moment before announcing, "those rocks're too obvious, probably a trap." Reno then reaches down and grabs the hook from the winch mounted on his car's front bumper and attaches it to a handle on the back of his assault vest. Designed for hauling a wounded wearer out of danger, the handle is easily capable of supporting his bodyweight.
"Lena, work the winch. Rude, overwatch." he orders before walking onto the first rock, drawing his bayonet from it's sheath behind his left shoulder, fixing it on his rifle, and then stepping over the edge. "Keep lowering me." he orders into his radio as he looks around. "Looks like I was right, there's ambushes on a buncha the rocks." he says when he spots several large creatures waiting out of reach on some of the rocks. The temperature, already unusually high for this part of the planet, steadily increases as Reno descends deeper into the planet. "I see the bottom, another twenty yards." Reno then comes to a halt hanging by a steel cable over a pit about ten feet away from a platform apparently suspended by nothing in the center of the cave. Nothing is visible under it.
"A little lower. Alright, stop." he orders. He then allows his rifle to hang by it's sling and pulls a rock hammer from the gear mounted on his vest. Reno then begins swinging his legs so that he swings back and forth until he swings close enough to the central platform that he can swing the hammer so it's spike embeds itself in the rock, giving him a handle to pull himself up with. "Alright, I'm at the bottom." he says as he shoulders his rifle and leans forward on the cable to create tension on it. "Lena, c'mon down." He feels a slight pressure on the cable pulling backward and a minute later hears a sliding sound descending from above. Shortly afterwards, her boots impact with his shoulders as she reaches the end of the cable.
Elena drops down, steps to the side, shoulders her rifle, and covers the platform in front of them as Reno says, "Your turn, Rude." He feels a significantly greater pressure this time and shortly afterward hears Rude sliding downward. An instant later, Rude leaps off the cable and lands next to Reno, then unslings his minigun from the large ammo backpack he's wearing. While his friends cover him, Reno removes the hook from his vest and attaches it to the rock hammer that's still embedded in the floor.
Elena asks, "How deep do you think we are?"
Reno shrugs as he walks towards the center of the square platform. "Half a mile, at least. Oughta be a way down further-" He's interrupted as a spherical mass with a woman's torso and two tentacles protruding from it flies up from the green mist surrounding the platform.
"Jenova..." Rude states as he presses the button to cause the barrels of his minigun to spin up to speed.
"Hiding behind Mommy, General?" Reno taunts as he fires a .30 burst into the center of Jenova's body. Elena quickly fires four grenades, then begins to reload the launcher mounted on her rifle from the bandoleer of minigrenades she's wearing. A moment after Elena fires her second grenade, Rude's minigun reaches proper speed and he lets off a sustained burst, accompanied by a deafening roar. After a few more seconds of minigun fire, two more grenades from Elena, and another burst of rifle fire from Reno, Jenova begins to drift backwards and disintegrate.
"Well, that was easier than I expected." Elena remarks. There is a sudden rumble and the platform begins to break apart, as pieces split off and fly upwards one by one.
"You just had to go and say it's easy and jinx us, didn't you?" Reno teases with typical gallows humor and a grim expression as the remainder of the platform soars away, causing the trio to tumble into darkness.
Rude regains consciousness first and finds that he's laying on a rock platform. "Hey!" he shouts when he spots his companions on similar platforms nearby. The only light source is a white glow emanating from behind an oddly shaped rock nearby and equidistant from the small platforms. Swirling green mist surrounds them.
"The hell..." Reno mutters, shaking his head as he stands up. "What're you three doing down here?" he asks.
"Last I remember, we were standing on the ledge and everything went black." Cloud replies.
"Strange. How-" Elena's interrupted when a ring of green energy shoots out from the stone structure in the center, scorching all six painfully without causing any real harm. An unseen force then lifts them from their platforms and immobilizes them so their feet dangle a foot above the stone. Sephiroth materializes, floating in the air above the central stone.
"There's the --er..." Reno growls, pent-up hatred and rage boiling to the surface at the sight of Tseng's killer. A moment later, another energy ring lashes out. "-- you! That all you got?" Reno taunts.
"The hell's he doing to us? I can't move!" Elena shouts, looking pissed off. Rude glares silently from behind his shades. The unseen force pulls them towards Sephiroth and another energy ring lashes out, driving them back.
"Still don't got any balls, huh, Poster Boy?" Reno taunts, using an old nickname for Sephiroth from the war. "You were a --ing coward and ticket-puncher back in the war, and you're still one now, mother--!" A bright flash emanates from the central rock, the unseen force begins spinning the members of the two teams, and Cloud begins to mutter about Holy.
"I see you're still doing the same shit, sending in the --ing cannon fodder and swooping in at the end to look good so you don't risk your --ing ass any more than you --ing have to!" Reno continues. "I bet you don't have the --ing balls to set us down and --ing fight us, you --ing momma's boy!" Another energy ring lashes out, inflicting pain on the Turks and Avalanche members and further angering them. "Fight us, mother--!" Reno demands. Another flash emanates from the central rock and the stone platforms disintegrate.
"We'll avenge Tseng's death and the future you stole from us!" Elena angrily declares as the six fighters are drawn towards Sephiroth.
The light fades and when it returns a moment later, the six find themselves standing on large floating stone platforms, once again able to move. A massive humanoid torso with flipper-like arms and Sephiroth's torso growing out of it's neck floats over the pit a few feet from the edge. The three Turks stand on a platform in front of him and the trio from Avalanche stands on another roughly twenty yards to the side.
The Turks and ex-Turk immediately open fire with the weapons in hand as soon as they can move again. A moment later, Cloud and Tifa attack with materia resulting in a hail of gunfire, several grenades, a green, mist-like mass of energy, and a massive beam of energy fired by a dragon orbiting the planet that somehow manages to penetrate the cave's ceiling strike Sephiroth. The creature waves it's left flipper and a burst of flames erupts from the ground under Vincent. It then nods towards Rude, sending an expanding ball of black energy towards him. He drops to his knees from the impact and quickly casts a powerful healing spell on himself as his comrades keep up their offense.
Sagging from the various powerful impacts, Sephiroth's bizarre form tilts and drifts back and to his right and shudders before suddenly disintegrating. Suddenly, everything goes dark and a strange howling noise is heard. "What's going on? Is he dead?" Elena asks, unable to see anything, even with her mako-enhanced vision.
"Damned if I know..." Reno calmly replies. Light suddenly returns, revealing a swirling mass of purple mist surrounding the three Turks. The trio from Avalanche is nowhere to be seen. A form descends towards the trio, Sephiroth with four white wings where his legs should be and a black one where his right arm should be. Rude raises an eyebrow at the odd sight. "The hell happened to poster boy?" Reno wonders. Sephiroth waves his human arm and a magical shield materializes in front of him.
"Not a bad idea. Throw up some defenses." Reno orders, thinking tactically again now that he has gained control over the initial rage that boiled up when he saw his enemy. He then concentrates on an experimental red orb looted from the Weapons Development department labs, causing a large humanoid robot to appear and place a powerful absorbent energy barrier on the trio. Rude calls on a yellow orb in his armor to cast a spell that places a different shield on the trio and allows them to move faster as well. Elena, having nothing defensive to add, uses another stolen experimental materia to summon a purple one-eyed giant who strikes Sephiroth with a massive beam of energy from his eye before disappearing. She then begins to reload her grenade launcher as Rude opens fire and Reno dispels Sephiroth's shield.
Sephiroth waves his arm again and the barriers erected by Rude disappear as Reno pulls the missile launcher off his back and Elena opens fire. Reno had been too angry to think beyond the weapon in hand and his target during the previous battle, but now he takes careful aim with his most powerful weapon and fires the anti-tank missile at Sephiroth. The massive explosion drives the floating being back several yards. He responds by waving his arm again and causing a large wave of energy to explode from the ground around the trio, although the magical barrier erected by Reno absorbs the brunt of the assault. Reno then tosses aside the now-useless launcher tube and resumes firing with his rifle.
Suddenly, Sephiroth raises his wing and arm and a massive ball of burning yellow plasma appears behind him and moves toward him, flowing over him and approaching the trio of Turks, throwing massive rocks ahead of it. The searing plasma washes over them and the next thing they know, they're picking themselves off the ground as red flames dissipate around them and a giant flaming bird fades away in front of them. "Holy shit, I think I might be able to forgive the weapons development crew for all their anti-lefty bullshit after that..." Reno swears, grateful for the experimental defensive materia they'd looted from the Shin-Ra building.
Reno concentrates on another orb in his armor and a giant woman in a purple dress with two white wings sprouting from her back appears and heals the Turks before disappearing. Rude finally fires off the last of the minigun ammo, so he drops it, hits quick-release buckles on his shoulders to drop the heavy ammo backpack, grabs the light sub-machinegun that's holstered on his right hip, and focuses on a red orb imbedded in it's forward grip. Three gigantic armored figures appear surrounding Sephiroth and release a massive wave of energy before disappearing. At the same time, Sephiroth hits Reno with a cone of blue energy and Elena fires two more grenades at him and begins loading the last of her minigrenades into her launcher.
Sephiroth drifts lower and Reno takes advantage of it, leaping forward and jabbing his bayonet into Sephiroth's abdomen, then emptying the remainder of his magazine on full auto with the muzzle touching Sephiroth's stomach before leaping back and loading another twenty round magazine into his rifle. Elena fires the last of her grenades, then opens fire with her 5.56mm rifle while Rude uses the Crusader materia again. Sephiroth staggers back from the assault and energy begins emanating from small holes in his torso. He has a surprised look on his face as he disintegrates. There's a sudden flash of light, and the Turks find themselves standing on the ledge above the pit again, near the Reserve team and scout cars.
"Is it over?" Elena asks, looking around.
"Looks like it." Reno replies. He then turns on his radio and says, "Target eliminated. I want those birds' engines running and ready to take off by time we get back."
"What about Holy?" Tifa asks.
"What about it?" Reno replies. "Hey, we did what we could and got our revenge, now whatever happens, happens. Let's just get outta here and enjoy what time we've got left."
He opens his mouth to say something else when Cloud suddenly claps his hands to the side of his head and says, "Still... here..."
"What?" Tifa asks.
"Laughing..." Cloud moans as he falls to his knees.
"Damnit, Strife, we don't have time for this shit." Reno gripes as he tucks his rifle's butt under his arm in a one-handed grip, grabs Cloud by the suspenders with the other hand, and begins roughly dragging him towards the nearest car. Cloud goes limp about halfway there and Tifa catches up and helps load Cloud into the passenger seat.
"I'm surprised you didn't try to leave him." she remarks as she buckles Cloud in.
"Hey, I thought I already told you, it's my job as leader to get you all out. Just cause I don't like the guy, doesn't mean I won't do my job." Reno replies before heading to the other car. Everyone climbs into their cars, with Tifa driving the reserve team's car, and she and Reno start their engines and begin driving back towards the choppers. "Hey Valentine," Reno calls over the radio, "Know how to fly one of those choppers?"
"No, helicopters were not common enough to warrant training on when I was a Turk." the crimson-eyed gunslinger replies.
"You three'll ride out on our chopper, then." Reno decides as he guides his car around a curve at high speed. "Rude, help load Strife in the chopper when we get back." They meet no resistance on the way out, and are soon at the landing zone, skidding to a halt next to the chopper the Turks flew in on. "Get moving, people!" Reno yells into the radio as he leaps from his car and sprints for his chopper, followed closely by Elena and Vincent. Rude quietly helps get Cloud's limp form out of his seat and slings him over a shoulder before following, along with Tifa.
As soon as the last member of his team climbs aboard, Reno increases the throttle, lifting his chopper from the ground. Elena sits in the co-pilots seat beside him, scanning for targets for the 20mm cannon. In the back, Rude sets Cloud down and helps Tifa strap him in as the two choppers speed back up the tunnel and Vincent mans one of the door guns. "Is it a Mako-poisoning relapse?" Rude asks, seeing that Tifa's concerned for her old friend.
"Looks like it. But he got over that once, so I'm sure he'll beat it again." she replies. "Hey, how come I haven't seen any of you using weapons like you used today when we fought before?"
"Because we were on covert missions every time we fought against you and we never bring any weapons we can't conceal under a jacket or in a briefcase on covert missions." he replies as he stands at the other door gun.
A deep rumbling noise is heard and the cavern walls begin to shake as Cloud reaches up with one arm and opens his eyes. "I... saw her... I think I'm beginning to understand..." he declares in a soft voice.
"Understand what?" Tifa asks.
"I think... I can meet her there..." he continues, apparently failing to notice Tifa, once again, as the choppers climb over the rim of the crater and head towards the Highwind. Cloud turns and stares out a side door and Tifa stands up, walks over to the other door, and leans against the doorway next to Rude.
"I'm glad you kept your promise." she says, smiling at him.
He chuckles quietly while removing his shades. "I'm glad too." he says with a sincere smile. "It may be the end of the world, but... it's still nice to have someone to come back to."
In the front of the chopper, Elena leans over to Reno and whispers, "Hey, look in the port door."
He glances over his shoulder, sees Rude and Tifa standing together, smiling at each other and talking quietly, and smiles at the sight. "Good. I dunno 'bout her, but he deserves it."
"Hey, be nice. She deserves it too."
"Well, if you-" Reno's interrupted when a massive column of mako erupts from the crater behind them. "Strange. Good thing we didn't waste time getting out." he remarks before bringing his chopper to a landing on the Highwind's deck. Cid brings the other down beside it a moment later.
"We're headed to Kalm, you --ers can tag along if you want. Goddamn wind's on our side this time, so we'll get there in four hours." Cid announces loudly as he dismounts his chopper. He then heads towards the Highwind's bridge.
Reno shrugs. "May as well ride with them for a while longer, it'll be quicker."
"Holy should be moving now." Nanaki announces as the town of Icicle becomes visible off the starboard. He then looks up. "And it seems Meteor is moving freely now as well."
Tifa asks, "What do you mean, 'moving freely'?"
"Sephiroth was pulling it in at a constant rate, but now that he's dead, both Holy and Meteor are moving at their natural speeds. In other words, the planet's gravity is now causing Meteor to accelerate."
"You mean we've even less time now? Ah hell..." Reno sighs, then wraps his arms around Elena and holds her tightly, like a drowning man holding onto floating debris. She returns the embrace with equal desperation, feeling intensely the pressure of reduced time.
"Well, Holy's coming, so it doesn't matter if Meteor's moving faster, right?" Tifa asks.
"I hope you're right." Rude states with a sad expression on his face as he places a hand gently on her shoulder.
Author's note: As always, big thanks go to Noroi for betaing and to everyone who reviewed the last chapter for their encouragement. Well, it's almost over. I just need to write the epilogue, then I can get to work on the outline for the sequel. In case anyone's curious what weapons they used, Reno was carrying an M-14 with a WW1 style bayonet, Elena carried a rifle like the Space Marines used in the movie Aliens, only in a different caliber, and Rude's minigun was like the one from the movie Predator and he later switched to a SMG that looks like an upsized version of an H&K MP7, which he also used in earlier chapters. For those who didn't recognize the summons making cameo appearances, here they are in order of appearance: Reno cast Golem from FF6 and Tactics, Elena cast Cyclops from FF Tactics, Reno cast Sraphim from FF6, then Rude cast Crusader from FF6 twice. And yes, that was Super Nova followed by the trusty old Final Attack and Pheonix combo that caused Reno to make his comment about the weapons development department. Reno's line 'Whatever happens, happens' is a homage to Cowboy Bebop, Spike uses that line a couple times in the series. Also, no, I didn't skip the last battle where Cloud duels Sephiroth. It happened when he blacked out, but this story's not focused on him, so there wasn't any reason to write about his out of body experience.
Edited again because some site update deleted all the '--' lines I used to use to denote scene changes. So time to slap horizontal rulers into all my fics.