Poppies and Sakura Chapter 2: The Paths of Warriors
My Elmyra
I can't possibly forget the day I met you. Amongst all the ugliness and suffering of the slums, your strength and radiance made me question whether meeting like that was a chance encounter. Do you believe in fate, my dearest?
Do the old gods govern our lives from their lofty peaks? Are we really in control? The last question I am sure is false. None of us in the depths of the war are really in control. The privates could look up to me for control, and I can look to the captains and colonels, and they can look to their generals, but in the end, fate isn't controlled by the old woman with her spinning wheel, but the other lofty lords that sit in their swanky palaces of steel, controlling the world, but letting the poor people believe they have some say.
Yet there's still something beyond that. Something that I can feel in my gut. Tonight is the night of the big mission into CENSORED , and I can feel it in the air, in the earth, in the nerves of the Ravens. I give you all my love with this letter, and hope to whatever old gods that have not abandoned us, that all goes well.
Yours fatefully, Brenain
It looked as though the scouts were returning from their sweep of the POW camp. The other Ravens were hidden in the scrubland overlooking the camp below. Things had risen to the usual tension that came before an assault mission. I had decided with the other officers that the best course of action was a direct assault. Their defences were too tight to allow even Satao, the specialist in stealth, into the compound, without a fight on the way out. We were going to have to get through the fencing quickly, and hopefully without detection, and then start a ruckus. Hopefully it would all go well.
"We all good to go, guys?" A plethora of thumbs rose from the bushland comically. I had to hold back a snicker. My nerves settled a little. They all knew what they were doing. The comical display of camouflage ability doubled my confidence in the boys.
Kael scuttled quickly to my side after receiving word from the scout party.
"Sir, the enemy patrols come around here in approximately fifteen minutes. Corporal Mariquez and the two private ranked snipers are also in place for covering fire." He rounded it off with a quick salute.
"Alright Kael. Knowing the Wutai, they're not gonna deviate from their routine. We got plenty of time. Check radio contact with Dario covertly, I want cover fire on command if I need it."
He saluted again and rushed into the bush to get to the radio man. I hoped that Dario wasn't going to go livewire on me and start picking soldiers off before command. His skill with a rifle was top notch, but the people from Costalia weren't famed for their discipline, even if he came from a family that complied totally with the Shin-Ra.
Everything was prepared. I gave the order and we moved like night down the valley to the waiting prey.
We cut the fence wires with ease. Not a single Raven was spotted as we made our way into the compound. Those sentries that patrolled past our entry point were eliminated quietly. I left a small group of three guarding our exit point. I split the group again to get the most advantageous positions for the assault. Dekal and Kael led a group of four northward behind some buildings as a distraction, and I, with Satao, led the main liberation team of four other privates, including the three troublemakers, Biggs, Wedge and Jay. Time would tell if the kids could keep their personal rebellions down and show their full potential.
With two clicks on the radio signalling that Kael and Dekal were in position, I gave the order with three clicks. A sound like the whips of hell cracked through the valley. In the guard towers nearest my group, three soldiers fell to invisible attackers, each with their heads opened up, spilling the contents into the yard below. Two more clicks on the radio and I led my team into a firing position, covering the south of the compound. Most of the soldiers that hadn't hit the ground or reached cover after the initial volley were shredded by my group's guns. The sounds of panic further up told me the other team were also successful.
Some Wutai soldiers had reached firing positions by the time the centre of the compound was cleared of hostiles. Reinforcements were pouring into from the major buildings. I signalled to the snipers to discourage the enemy from coming into the southern area of the compound. A few more cracks and the entrenched enemy were downed, and many of the reinforcement had moved to the lesser of two dangerous places, the north end of the compound.
At this chance, my group rushed to what we assumed was the prison building. The rickety shack made from bamboo looked, nonetheless, sturdy enough to withstand even a strong battering from my team. We made it to the veranda and held our position there. It was time for the kids to show their stuff.
I gave them the order to cover Jay as he set the directional explosive for the door. Biggs, even with his sunglasses on at night, was a deadeye shot when hitting the enemey, knocking most down in a three round burst. Wedge was a little more conservative in his efforts, but was still doing well. In the middle of supervising Jay, who was locked in concentration planting the bomb, Satao tapped me on the shoulder.
"Sir! There's a report from Dekal and Kael. They say most of their team has been wounded and they're surrounded. They need support now!"
"SHIT! Alright. You make sure we get the target and anyone else outta here! When I give the order to retreat, you obey, right? There's bloody more of them then I thought!" I grabbed Wedge's arm after that.
"Private, I need you to cover me. I'm going to support the others." Wedge nodded and reached for the big gun at his back. For a young kid, his strength was impressive. He let loose with the gatling-gun. Sensibly, the Wutai soldiers ran for cover. Taking my chance, I ran across the compound.
I saw the group of Wutai gathered about the alley between two buildings. Two shots from my pistol thudded into the backs of two Wutai, causing them to slump into their comrades in front. Those Wutai immediately turned. I was running full speed, so they had no time to fire. I drew my sergeants sword and charged them. Two were cut down quickly when I contacted them. The rest closed in with bayonets and short, single-edged Wutai blades. Parrying with my blade, firing with my pistol, the combat was ended shortly. Several slugs hit a group of fresh, charging Wutai before they could reach me. Looking in the direction of the fire, Dekal gave me a little wave. Kael looked over, but turned back quickly to the business at hand.
Most of the Wutai soldiers were dispatched with ease, but then, from a crowd of them, a man I assumed to be their officer emerged. None of his subordinates engaged me as he approached, and they formed a ring about me. The officer, dressed in the light yellow Wutai uniform, cast aside his pistol to one of the foot soldiers. He drew from his side the long Wutai blade that their warriors had used before they had made contact with the other developed nations of the world. He squared off and I readied myself for a dual.
The explosion behind me knocked me down, and put my assailant off balance. I turned to find the source. The main prison building had erupted in flames. I could see my team, led by Satao, running for cover. I knew it wasn't Jay's bomb. I didn't give him enough explosives to do that much damage. Then I saw him.
From the flames leap a man dressed in blue. The garments were tattered, but I could make it out. It was the uniform of SOLDIER. In one hand he held a long, wide blade, curving forwards and back in on itself at the tip like a sickle. In the other hand he held a Wutai soldier covered in blood. Most of the Wutai around me were staring at him. Some had broken into a run at him, yelling in their own language. The SOLDIER looked up at his new adversaries and cast the body of the Wutai soldier aside. The moment the Wutai reached him they were dead. You couldn't even see the blade move. One moment he was in front of them I the ready position, the next, behind them recovering from a sweep. The charging Wutai fell in their separate halves to the now bloody earth.
The SOLDIER raised his blade at the group that surrounded me. He touched his hand to his blade and his eyes were suddenly engulfed in a green light. A pulsing phantom wind emanated from his body and his tattered uniform fluttered. His mouth moved instinctively as the incantations of the Ancients filled his mind. Without warning, the pulsing stopped, and all around me the air began to heat. I knew I only had seconds left. I dived forward, out of the circle of Wutai. Seconds later, the entire group had been engulfed in magical fire. The fireball rose and the stench of burning flesh reached me. I retched and crawled for cover. The fire burnt longer then anything natural. Over it, I could here the man's laugh, high, peaked with bloodlust.
I got up and ran past the scorched earth, which held only the ashes of my adversaries, and the glint of the long blade. I reached Dekal and Kael. They were both crouched in the space between two buildings. The main yard exploded again and we all took cover. Kael nodded again to me.
"Our team is wounded, but none are critical, sir. Some will not be able to move without immediate aid however, sir. We could use your materia here, sir." I nodded and let him lead me to the wounded, as the yard was covered in flames again, and a terrible crash signalled the collapse of a nearby building. Screams from the yard brought back terrible visions of a time gone by, but I blocked it out as I concentrated.
Putting my hand on top of the slot on the side of my blade, I felt the knowledge of the Ancients flow too though my mind. It overrode my senses and I was immersed in the flowing scripts and words. The words came from my mouth intuitively. I had to concentrate to keep the spell going. When I had finally been released from the influx of information, I could see the sparkling residue of magic, as the healing mechanisms of the body on my patient accelerated, slowly pushing the heavy bullet from his leg and sealing the gap behind it.
Before I could use the magic again, Dekal caught my attention. Her eyes were cast in horror at the scene in the yard.
"Wh-wh-who tha hell is that?" I stood and came by her side.
"That, Corporal Dekal, is our target. SOLDIER first class, Hade Ida." Bodies littered the yard. I saw another fleeing Wutai trooper, screaming at the top of his lungs, running from the wake of the SOLDIER. In seconds his head was severed from his body by the detachable sickle that topped the SOLDIER's blade. The sickle flew back in an arc, cutting down another Wutai, before the SOLDIER skilfully caught it in the recess of his blade.
I turned back and reached for my radio.
"All teams, retreat to the outer perimeter of the compound. Do not engage any enemy targets. Remain on stand by until…" I looked at Kael, who was shifting one of the wounded Ravens from the bodies of freshly cut down Wutai. "…until the slaughter ends."
Afterwards, the compound was nothing more then ash. The bodies were burnt, the buildings collapsed. Only the metallic parts of their rifles and blades remained. We had been informed that the other military personnel had been incinerated along with them. The SOLDIER emerged from the carnage looking as he did at the beginning of the onslaught, not a scratch more. He walked right up to me and shook my hand with his own blood-saturated hand. The Ravens merely stared at him as he casually talked about the deaths of all those Wutai.
"So, when's my chopper going get here?" I told him that we hadn't called the chopper yet.
"Bah! You lazy conscripts! You don't even help with the battle, and now you can't even be bother to complete your mission. You!" He pointed at the radio man. The shocked private approached with a blank face. "Get me some transport, Move it!" The force of the SOLDIER's voice physically moved the private, and he rushed off to send the transmission. We set up camp outside the base, although the SOLDIER strolled around the burnt out grounds, whistling happily to himself.
When the choppers got to the site, we readied to board, with the SOLDIER coming on my own helicopter. However, when my group's helicopter touched down, he get on himself and shut the doors. I could see through the windows that he had ordered the pilot to lift off. The pilot hesitated. The SOLDIER snatched a radio from the pilot's control board.
"Maybe next time you would be competent enough to order enough helicopters for all of you." The voice over my radio rung in my ear of over an hour. I remained with several of the Ravens while we ordered another chopper to evacuate us. The events of that day merely served to reinforce my burning, seething hatred that I harboured to all the Shin-Ra, and that face, the face of Hade Ida summoned all the memories of the past that I hated most about Shin-Ra. His face was the one I had seen at that place, not three months before.