Chapter 4
Under Siege (Part I)
It was understood that Lieutenant Astinos had been succeeded by an aspiring Major called Julius Agricola. Agricola might be green, not long out of officer school, though he had previously gained appraisal from General Zebalga for his ideas and was eager to prove his worth to the Empress. The young but savvy officer was weary of White SeeD's Guardian Forces and knew he would only get one shot at breaching the compounds walls.
Or four, if he was very lucky. Being transported through the streets of Mysidia, veiled by cloaking spheres that made them invisible, were four Paracelsus cannons. These would be capable of blowing through the walls of the base. The main issue was it would take time to get them into prime position.
Thalassa had a live link to Esthari satellites, courtesy of Squall, and would be reluctantly falling into the role of rear commander. Shadow had opted to fight on the ground, so she would be observing White SeeD's part of the defence from Reaper. Though while in the air, she and Gerra would be on hand to deal with any remaining drones or aerial units that were dispatched. She would have to trust in Relm and Noctis to lead from the front until Leviathan returned to her, passing up the opportunity to junction with a common cactuar in the meantime.
When Squall had learned of her plan, he had offered to turn Battleship Island around and stand with them. But Thalassa had urged him not to. He, along with the western leaders, needed to concentrate on Timber. It was ultimately on the Forested Plains where the outcome of the Third Sorceress War would be decided.
The Esthari launched their offensive within a couple of hours. Due to White SeeD's own breach of the compound, the Esthari had two means of gaining entry to the base, which they wasted no time in assaulting. The colony's stock of enslaved Lunar beasts was brought from the pen at Palamecia. Although the Empire did not have many Lunarians remaining after the Galbadia campaign, there were still enough on the colony to threaten the Unlikely Army. Feedback from Squall told Thalassa there were several iron giants and behemoths, in addition to dozens of tough nut turtapods, flying imps and fully grown toramas. These would augment the footsoldiers if used wisely.
Kronos and his unsullied three hundred crouched into a phalanx as behemoths charged the opening. These behemoths had been fitted in armour, and despite the accuracy of the wraiths' spear throws, most of the leaf-headed dories simply glanced off. A few beasts set off mines laid by White SeeD, yet most of them reached the wraiths. Their charges were blunted by the wall of round shields. The wraiths had surprising strength remaining in those bones, yet the fury of the stampede still sent them reeling and ruined their shields. The impact left the frontal behemoths dazed, and the wraiths thrust spears into their sizeable eyes with pinpoint accuracy.
While the wraiths fended off the behemoths, iron giants advanced menacingly, shrugging off any mines they detonated. Each thunderous footstep shook the walls of the compound. One swing of their huge weapons would be enough to smash through the faltering phalanx.
Standing tall behind the wraiths was Gilgamesh, his Yoichi bow drawn. Both bow and arrows had been carved from the Guardian Tree in his homeworld and contained the essence of his former master, Exdeath. Gilgamesh still did not know if the Warriors of Dawn had prevailed over Exdeath. He assumed that they had, or the entire Universe would have been returned to the Void. Gilgamesh had been Exdeath's loyal minion for over thirty years, and now that terrible sorcerer was unwittingly giving him power. Yoichi's arrows had proven capable of bypassing even Ultimecia's mana-wards at Galbadia City. Lunarian armour was more robust than any material on the Planet, yet it crumbled like paper before those eighteen-inch shafts, and those iron giants with shields did not fare much better. The Lunarians toppled one after the other, long before reaching the wraiths.
To the southwest of the compound, White SeeD was ready to stem the flood of infantry pouring through the opening caused by Jumbo. Relm stood with Noctis, both of their substantial weapons held before them. Interceptor was between Relm and Shadow. Their whole formation formed a crescent, with the tonberries on their left and cactuars on their right. Forty cactuars were junctioned with the White SeeDs, though the remainder would be on hand to quickly deal with any imps flying over the walls.
An iron giant had been sent first, swinging a horrific mace to widen the opening. The Lunarian defiantly stamped over the rubble. Relm drew on Rune and extended her hand toward it. Suddenly a drifting, marvellous light appeared between them all, with a rapidly expanding vortex of green surrounding it. The green ethereal matter appeared to be drawn into the white, which expanded with a steadily increasing noise until the Lunarian was within it. With a deafening bang, the white exploded, and the iron giant was reduced to a hundred smoking fragments. The Esthari units behind it faltered momentarily.
'Holy chocobo, Relm!' Prompto exasperated. 'Was that an Ultima spell?'
'It sure was!' she responded. 'Celes' tutored me in harnessing the Ninth Element!'
Agricola knew mines had been laid here, too. Many turtapods streamed through the opening next. As they were capable of levitation, the mines were completely bypassed. At the same time, the foot soldiers had electromagnetic pulses sent through the ground to detonate them all. Then infantry, toramas and Magitek units started bounding through the opening.
As was anticipated, imps started landing on the opposite side of the compound, joined by airborne Esthari wearing jet packs. The hook-nosed Lunarians launched a variety of elemental spells at the charging cactuars, yet most were ineffective. They and the Esthari were soon beset with needles and writhing upon the ground. Though as Thalassa watched the imps fall to the ground, she could not shake the feeling that such a token airborne force was being used a probe.
The robust turtapods were resistant to melee attacks while in their protective shells. These shells only opened for an offensive strike, the spiked appendages deadly as the monsters spun up and down the defensive line at high speed, like living chakrams. Relm had already given Edea's SeeD leave to draw from Rune. The turtapods were met with dozens of fireballs, a barrage of lightning and many ice shards, which made those spiked shells open just enough for a mortal thrust.
Naturally, the toramas reached Relm's force before any human assailants. They had an advantage over the slow moving tonberries, although each tonberry that fell was able to thrust its knife deep into a torama's hide, and that torama did not regain its feet. The cactuars were too agile for them, though, and those spotted felines were soon blinded by needles.
Magitek exosuits moved for the White SeeDs at the centre, empowered by magical essence siphoned from Ultimecia's magicite over the years. Both Jumbo and Tonberry King had unwillingly fed those cannons for a long time, as had Leviathan. They sought to wear down White SeeDs' shields from a distance in a bid to get them to break formation.
Noctis was still getting used to the power contained within Excalibur, but was backed by his three closest friends, of course. At Thalassa's command, he and his posse rushed forward. Excalibur allowed him to erect a mana-ward to shield them all, though Agricola had underestimated White SeeD's now superhuman agility in general.
The quartet fought as an elite within an elite. Noctis stopped only to draw more power from his otherworldly sword. White images of Excalibur appeared all around the magitek units and hurtled at their operators, colliding with bright explosions. Gladiolus, fighting as he always did with his SeeD tunic unbuttoned, ripped the operators in half with his greatsword. Ignis' weapon of choice was dual tantos, allowing to get up close and personal with his former compatriots as he leapt onto the operators, mocking them as he thrust home. Prompto had a replica of Squall's Lionheart and wore a couple of personalised revolvers holstered on his tribute red gun belts, which he used pointblank whilst leaping between energy rays.
Beyond the walls of the compound, the Paracelsus cannons were in position. Thalassa had anticipated their deployment, and as soon as she saw their tell-tale plasma energy growing on the satellite images, she gave the command for Relm and Noctis to unjunction from Jumbo and Tonberry King. This move had been predetermined so the demi-GFs could incorporeally leave the compound to destroy them. Jumbo simply bent one barrel with a cleaving arm blow, causing it to explode and causing great damage to himself. In the same instant, Tonberry King fired his lantern light at a second from a safer distance, then dematerialised to go for the third.
Ultimately, he was too late. Two huge energy beams struck the walls of the naval base, and when the smoke cleared there were two more gaping openings. There were no mines here, and infantry immediately began sprinting through one of them in attempt to flank the two forces. This new opening was close enough to the main entrance for the wraith force to cover it, though the other was on the undefended eastern side of the compound. Gilgamesh and Gerra quickly moved to where Thalassa was as she landed Reaper.
'We'll be spread too thin if we divide either force to cover it!' Thalassa said immediately.
As she spoke, Gilgamesh phantom swung Ultima, and a bladebeam cut through the middle of the foot soldiers now pouring through it. Gerra raised his off-hand, and the whole ground in front of the opening erupted with the sunburst flames of Ifrit, intermingled with the golden fire of Phoenix. All the Esthari caught within were burnt alive, and the opening would be impassable so long as the fire remained.
Gilgamesh looked over his shoulder at Thalassa.
'I can hold the fourth opening!' he said confidently.
'There's going to be too many of them!' Thalassa said. 'Even for you, Gilga!'
The alien shrugged. 'Hey, I may only have six arms, but Ultima Weapon gives me the strength of a thousand men!'
'There are tens of thousands!' she argued.
'Hey, I already died once,' Gilgamesh said offhandedly. 'I've got more in common with those ancient boneheads than you realise!'
Gerra stepped in front of Gilgamesh, his head raised to see into the outworlder's cowl, evenly meeting those pupilless eyes.
'You and I were mortal enemies in my timeline, Reaver,' he said. 'You were the only one Ultimecia feared. Her magic had little effect on you, and you eluded defeat for over two centuries. I'm relieved that we are now fighting as allies! Allow me to stand with you!'
'So that's why you don't like me?' Gilgamesh asked. 'I thought it was my personality!'
Gerra grinned. 'Well, that too!' He turned, his golden wings reappearing. 'Come on, let's not let our Captain down!'
When they were ready, Gerra reduced the flames to an illusion. Yet the Esthari did not know that. Eventually they saw through the ruse, when their own ice and water para-magic was doing precisely nothing to the fire. Thalassa redeployed Noctis' group to bolster them, in addition to a select few White SeeDs. Most of the Esthari did not get by Gilgamesh and his giant sword, but they were on hand to dispatch the few who did. Among them were Ptolemy and Sendo.
Another was a Grandidi White SeeD called Viviana. Viviana had suffered a Galbadian raid on her oceanside village during the Second Sorceress War. The Galbadian brutes had defiled her and cut out her tongue after killing her family. She had been found by White SeeD sometime after the war and taken into care. Naturally, Viviana held Sorceress Edea personally responsible for that raid. Sometime after the war, and no longer a Sorceress, Edea returned to the White SeeD Ship. Viviana snuck into Edea's cabin with a dagger that first night. Edea had been waiting up for her, however, as she remembered Viviana's face from the raid. Edea told the mute girl that if she wished to exact vengeance upon her, then she would not try to stop her.
Instead, Viviana had walked to the wall and carved Grandidi glyphs into the bulwark. Edea could understand them. Make me strong, they read. The fruits of that training were paying off now. Viviana's steel-encased staff crushed the vital organs of the enemy, and her preferred poison magic was making Esthari keel over mid-charge, leaving them helpless against follow-through attacks.
On the western side, most of the toramas had been dispatched. Yet enough remained. One locked eyes with Interceptor, who had wisely only assailed humans up to this point. The doberman answered the big cat's roar of a challenge with a hearty bark, and it swiftly charged. Interceptor endured a vicious swipe and locked its jaws around the feline's throat. Unfortunately, the torama was larger and more cunning, and that same claw continued to ravage Interceptor's body even though it could not hope to part the doberman's jaws.
When Relm realised what was happening, she ran the torama through with Rune. Shadow fended off another as she dropped to her knees by the dying Interceptor. The sudden surge of emotion within Relm had manifested itself as a golden glow around her body, and the White SeeDs watched with awe when they realised what was happening.
Relm did not even need Rune for this, for she could now access the Ethereal. Getting to her feet, she became a vessel for the Ninth Element. Hundreds of shadows of Interceptor appeared on the battlefield and pursued the last of the toramas, who started to uncharacteristically flee. Each were torn apart by those phantom images. Then, the phantom hounds were unleashed on the infantry. Believing Hell's gates had opened before them, the whole of the Esthari force there started sprinting back through the opening.
Unlike Minwu at the Necropolis, Relm closed herself off to the Ethereal before it was too late. She sagged to her knees again by Interceptor, whose laboured breathing had ceased. Shadow knelt by her.
'I'm proud of you, Relm,' he said quietly.
The estranged father and daughter shared a long embrace.
Agricola demanded the offensive resumed. The Esthari were back within minutes, though their heavy units had been annihilated and they were unable to get by the crescent force. The steadfast wraiths disallowed the colonials entry to the north. The death toll of the Esthari ran into the thousands.
All the while, Agricola was observantly watching the siege. The Unlikely Army believed they had withstood everything he had to throw at them. Unfortunately, they were wrong on that account. But, after a few hours, Governor Chrysanthe gave him command to the call off the attack.