A/N – Hmm...two chapters in one sitting...the things that happen when you're bored and home alone.
Disclaimer: You guys should know the drill by now: I don't own Final Fantasy 7...but I do own Cyphus and it's inhabitants.
Chapter 3
The squad quickly filtered out of the expansive hangar, and Michael stopped Rollin just before he stepped through the double doors that led to the other more advanced hangars. He held out two customized pistols: one had the barrel set behind the grip a few inches along with a clip separate from the grip that stuck out to the side a little bit, giving it a bullpup look as well as greater accuracy. The other gun looked much like a regular pistol, but the sights were filed down and the clip held much more ammunition than a regular pistol.
Rollin's only weapons, self-made and improved.
"I thought you might need these." Michael noted with a shrug, and the sergeant holstered the guns with a nod of thanks.
They finally reached one of the only hangars with a shuttle still inside, and hid behind some of the supply crates once they saw that there were three guards standing watch in front of the loading bay. Sneaking a glance around the edge of a crate, Jack looked back at the lieutenant.
"So, what's the plan?" he asked quietly as Michael rubbed his chin. A grin started to form soon afterward.
"Wait for the roof to open up, then knock out the guards and get the pilot out of there." he planned, and the other five nodded before the grinding of gears and the hissing of hydraulics filled their ears, the ceiling splitting apart and revealing the twilight sky above them. Without a word the six soldiers moved to take down the guards, Michael and Rollin making a break for the loading bay as Jack, Lloyd, and Drammer knocked out the three army grunts quickly. Angela stopped just inside of the space shuttle, her hand hovering over the controls to the bay doors as Michael stepped into the cockpit, dragging out a bewildered pilot and tossed him away from the ship. The sniper pushed on the control panel once everyone was inside and watched the door swing upward.
"Sorry, but we need this more than you guys!" she apologized with a wave before the door locked into place. Rollin walked briskly into the cockpit, only to find Drammer – now garbed in a gravity suit – in the pilot's former spot before the shuttle began to ascend, barely passing through the open ceiling just as it started to close and speeding off past Cyphus' atmosphere. The ship shuddered for a brief time, then everything was eerily still. Drammer pointed to the supply lockers in the back with his thumb absently.
"Okay, grab a gravity suit: I'm starting up the subspace generator soon." he ordered as everyone grabbed a one-size-fits-all suit and stepped into them, making sure that they were properly sealed before sitting down on the two benches on the sides of the ship and strapping down; they all had gone through subspace training, and the teleportation-esque sensation had made each and every one of the battle hardened soldiers act as if under the influence of motion sickness, only hundreds of times worse. They were sort of used to it now, however. "Everyone ready?" Drammer's voice spoke via the speaker in the upper right corner of the room and everyone nodded, "Right; activating the subspace generator...now."
They all felt the forces of gravity increase greatly as the ship slipped into the wormhole it had created, and the feeling of being stretched out like a rubber band gripped everyone on board as the shuttle was whisked away. As they went through subspace, it was rather quiet, even with Jack on board; being the jabber mouth of the group, this was very rare to have complete silence for longer than five minutes…except when he fell asleep. Even then, he would talk in his sleep (as if he didn't talk enough every waking moment of the day). With this being one of those rare opportunities, everyone tried to sleep for a short yet necessary change of pace.
Everyone except for Angela, Michael and Rollin.
Rollin was just fine; he just wasn't tired as of yet. Angela, however, was restless. Hell, you would be too if it had been five years since you last did something like this…save for the whole hijacking bit. She silently spun her perfectly balanced combat knife, tossing it in the air and catching it with relative ease: one of the many signs in her unique body language that showed restlessness and a hint of nervousness. Of course, she had plenty to worry about on her own; she had two brothers in comatose ever since they were infected by the parasite.
Michael had no choice – he was driving…for now.
The door to the helm opened up, and he walked out. Stopping next to Drammer, he woke him up and pointed him towards the room he had just exited. Drammer nodded slowly, getting the message: it was his shift on driving. As he went into the cramped space required for any space-faring ship, the lieutenant sat down for a bit before breaking the silence.
"So Rollin," he began to ask, closing his eyes in contemplation, "have you ever heard of the Ancients?" Rollin looked over at him questioningly.
"The Ancients?" Michael nodded, allowing him to elaborate on the question, "The inhabitants of Gaia before the planet was nuked?" he chuckled to himself.
"Let me rephrase that; the Cetra." Rollin shook his head, not recognizing the name; it was almost a very odd phenomenon whenever he didn't know about a certain point in history. As a matter of fact, he was pretty much a walking history book with a personality – he even knew of events that most teachers don't even know of. Michael continued on, "The Cetra were a race of nomads, in basic terms: they would find planets, populate, then move on. It was said that they had some sort of connection with the planets that they inhabited…not so much physically as it was telepathically." The sergeant scratched his scalp in thought.
"You mean that they could talk with the planet?" he asked, sort of confused.
"In a way, yes. By the time the human race was rising to domination, they were nearly wiped out, save for a few; no one knows what caused them to become part of the almost extinct…we just know that they almost did die out." He let Rollin digest this mentally – it was quite a bit to take in for a history lesson, "But this was way before our time – millennia before we even knew of our home world." The younger man was beginning to get the picture, when Drammer popped his head out of the helm.
"We're here." He updated, the rest of the squad waking up at this news. The window on the side of the shuttle was filled with the view of a large planet. Or, rather, what used to be a planet; and not just any planet, either.
This was Gaia.
A/N – A little bit of a shocker to end the chapter. Again, reviews are gold!
Until the next chapter,
Lloyd Redgrave