Chapter Twenty-Six: The Armada
"So, I guess you got your Fragment of Light?" Riku asked after I had beamed up.
"Yes," I replied, holding up my shining, red crystal. "That's two down."
"So, what now?" Sora asked, reclining in his chair.
"We find another world. And then we get another Fragment of Light. Then…" I began.
"Then what?" Sora asked.
"… then we'll end this," I finished. Once again we began searching for new worlds, but this time received a personalized call from Squall.
"Riku, Sora, Roy. We need your help," he said.
"Why? What's wrong?" Sora asked.
"I can't describe it. You'll have to come here for yourself," Squall said.
"We'll be right there," I replied. The call was over, and we quickly zoomed over to the Radiant Garden. When we had beamed down, they sky wasn't dark, but looking up, I could see only the corona of the sun.
"What… the…" Riku started, interrupted by Vincent yet again. He walked forward from behind us, then turned around.
"An armada from the darkness," Vincent said. "One of your greatest trials lies ahead…" he said, then jumped off.
"It could only be…" I began.
"Senka. I swear she'll pay!" Sora shouted.
"Calm down, you two. Let's go see Squall before you two do anything reckless," Riku suggested. We calmed ourselves, then went off to the castle. We encountered, once more, heavy resistance from Heartless. We then busted into the castle, where everyone was waiting with weapons drawn.
"So, you guys finally made it," Squall said after we stepped in. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up."
"Psh… we go wherever we're needed!" Sora jeered back.
"Well, we need help. There's…" he began.
"Yeah, yeah. There's an armada of Gummi Ships and we need to get rid of them," I said. "What else is new?"
"Wow. You guys catch on fast," Squall said.
"Nah, not really. Vincent told us," Riku said.
"Why does Vincent keep helping you guys? He's so undependable…" Yuffie complained.
"So, how do we get started? It looks like there's an awful lot of Gummi Ships… and knowing Senka, she won't give us too much time to get ready," I declared.
"We'll need Cid to train the townsfolk on how to fly Gummi Ships. We also need a lot of Gummi Blocks so we can make an armada of our own," Squall said.
"Yeah… that sounds right," Sora said. "Where do we find Gummi Blocks en masse?"
"… the Crystal Fissure. There are plenty of Gummi Blocks there," I said.
"All right. Everyone else will commence preparations for the counterattack. Move out, everyone!" Squall ordered.
"Yes, sir!" everybody said in unison. Sora, Riku and I then went off to the Crystal Fissure, encountering even more resistance from Heartless. When it seemed we were in the clear, we encountered something I was totally unprepared for.
"Who are you guys?" Sora jeered at several men who seemed to be mining Gummi Crystals and Blocks.
"It's them! Do as General Rashar commanded! Kill those three!" one of the men shouted, charging at us. All of his cohorts did the same, summoning… Dark Keyblades.
"What the hell!" I shouted, using an iaijutsu to block an attack. Sora, Riku and I were then embroiled in a short battle which involved the slaying of all of those Dark Keybladers.
"Who were those guys?" Riku asked, breathing heavily.
"They were… Dark Keybladers," I said. "It's the only explanation."
"Dark Keybladers?" Sora asked.
"… think about it," I said, proceeding to loot their bodies for Gummi Blocks. We then got all the Gummi Blocks from the surrounding area. Afterwards we went back to the castle.
"So you guys got them after all," Squall said, greeting us.
"Don't you ever say 'hi' positively?" Riku asked, somewhat aggravated.
"Whatever. We've got what we need, so now what?" I asked.
"Go to work upgrading your own ship. When we're ready, you'll know," Squall instructed.
"Okay. But let me give you one tip of advice," I said. "Appoint Cid as the General. He knows what he's doing."
"I'll think about it," Squall said as we beamed up. Sora, Riku and I quickly got to work upgrading our ship. After a couple of hours, we had a full Falcon Limit ship.
"Bwahaha! Let's see them get through this!" I shouted, taking the captain's seat.
"Glad you guys are ready!" I heard Cid's gruff voice say over the comm. We turned around to see an armada of Gummi Ships. Though not as massive as Senka's, hopefully it would be enough, with Cid's superior experience. Most of the ships were, of course, personalized models. The rest, I suppose, were mass-built ones piloted by the locals.
"So, let's get down to it. I'm appointing you three leaders of Gold Squadron. You've got a dozen ships, plus yourselves, to work with," Cid said.
"All right! What do we do?" Sora asked.
"Follow my orders to the dot! You got that?" he asked.
"Yes, Sir!" we all shouted in unison.
"Okay! You guys'll take the left flank. We need to get to that massive ship in the center! Blue and Purple Squadrons will back you up," Cid instructed.
"Yes, Sir!" we shouted again.
"All right! Move out!" Cid commanded. We got down to our seats and began flying at the armada that was straight in front of us. I noticed our backup.
Lasers began flying every which way in seconds. It's tough to describe a space battle… it was fierce and intense, though. Half of our squadron was down before we heard Cid's familiar voice on the comm.
"What the #&$/ are you guys doin'? I told you to fight them, not get killed!" he shouted at us.
"Sorry, it's just… there's too many!" I yelled into the comm., barely audible over the blasting lasers.
"Okay, then here's what we'll do. Gold Squadron, pull out!" Cid shouted.
"But Cid…" Riku began.
"Gold Leader, stay your course! Get aboard that leviathan!" Cid instructed us.
"Y-yes, Sir!" Riku shouted somewhat shakily. We then fought our way through the armada single handedly while fighting hundreds of Gummi Ships. I suppose the quality of our ship helped a lot, though.
When we had nearly reached the leviathan of a ship, a huge explosion rocked our own ship.
"Dammit… engines are down!" I reported.
"We're sitting ducks in a hornet's nest! Someone's gotta go fix the engines!" Sora shouted, but I was already dashing down the corridors. I upped my strength to my True Form for some added speed, and was near the engines when another shot rocked the ship.
I managed to hold steady, and fixed the engines moments later. I blasted up to my Aether Form to avoid being scorched by the engines and quickly made my way back to the bridge, where we were about to ram into Senka's leviathan of a Gummi Ship.
"Brace for impact!" I yelled as we slammed into the giant ship…