"Good morning, General." The young man lieutenant saluted smartly as Tolmar stepped out of her transport at East Academy. "I'm Lieutenant Dolsson; I've been assigned as your staff assistant for your stay here."

Tolmar nodded, returning the salute. "Do you have a report?"

"Yes, ma'am." He kept pace with Tolmar as she started walking across the compound, where the cadets were in ranks for morning review. "We're beginning our accelerated training schedule this afternoon; final examinations for the June class have been moved up to tomorrow. Colonel Harridan is set to give you a full report at 10:00. The 23rd Armored and 4th Mechanized just left for South Lanker Garrison, and we've activated the reserve equipment for training use. Also, we just received formal notice from command to increase readiness to NALCON Level 2. That's being implemented now."

"The alert level," said Tolmar. "I assume that's service-wide?"

"Yes, ma'am. All commands, all divisions."

Tolmar sighed. "...then it's happening."

"...Ma'am?"

"Nothing. Was that all?"

"There was one bulletin coming out of south Lanker. Let's see..." He called the file up on his notepad as they stepped into the base. "A Galbadian patrol was found murdered in the Timber woodlands area. The soldiers' tags and ID were taken, and all units in our division are accounted for."

Tolmar frowned. "Show me."

Dolsson handed her the report as they stepped into her office. Tolmar had spent the last few weeks in temporary offices such as this one, and this was probably the best-equipped yet. Sitting, she used the computer terminal to call up a second report, entering her clearance code to override the classification. Then she sighed; the missing team had been found very near the location of the DSRC team that had gone missing yesterday. "...Damn," she said.

"Ma'am?" asked Dolsson. "Is everything all right?"

"Don't ask unnecessary questions, Lieutenant," Tolmar admonished. Closing the file, she stood. "My first briefing is at ten hundred?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Very well." She hesitated a moment. "And lieutenant? See if you can't reach Lord-General Naraka or General Sarden. Inform them it's urgent."

Dolsson nodded. Instead of leaving right away, though, he stood fidgeting until Tolmar took notice.

"...Is there something else, Lieutenant?" she asked.

"Um..." He gulped. "If I may ask, ma'am...is there really going to be a war? I'm sorry, but there's all kinds of rumors, and..."

Tolmar sighed. She knew the look on his face well; during the war against Sorceress Adel, she hadn't been much older than he was now, and hadn't given her commander a much better performance. "Yes, there will," she said. "But don't let it concern you too much; just remember your training and focus on your duties. If all goes well, the war will stay a long distance away from here."

Dolsson saluted. "Thank you, ma'am," he said, and turned and left. Tolmar watched him go, then looked out the window at the cadets training outside, and wondered when the last war had been where everything went well.

- - - — — - - -

The convoy stretched back for more than a kilometer, filling the Lanker country road with a tremendous display of Galbadian military hardware. Armored personnel carriers and trucks led a procession of BGM-model tanks, spider-legged ATMs and flatbed carriers holding the latest Mobile Types. Quistis didn't think she had ever seen so much armor before, even during the invasion of Dollet.

The eight SeeDs had just crossed under the road where it bridged a shallow creek, and now took cover in the trees in case any of the passing Galbadians got too curious about them. They regrouped a hundred meters or so from the road, near one of the poles supporting power and HD cables; this particular pole had a box-like access port located at about shoulder-height.

"What the hell was that?" Zell wondered over the still-audible rumbling of the passing convoy. "Looks like Galbadia's movin' their whole army!"

"There were enough forces there to mount a full-scale invasion," Quistis agreed. "What could they possibly be doing with all of it?"

"I think that road goes into Timber," Paige ventured. "Maybe they're going to reoccupy it."

"With Iron Clads?" Jeck asked sardonically.

His tone notwithstanding, Quistis had been thinking the same thing. "That isn't an occupation force," she agreed. "Galbadia must be preparing for an attack. The question is who they mean to attack with it."

There was an uncomfortable silence. "...So what do we do?" asked Paige.

"...We can't do anything about that," Quistis said. "Let's try to put it out of mind for now, and do what we came to do."

"We should be able to interface here," said Nida, nodding to the access port. Quistis handed him the portable terminal they had taken from the Galbadian captain. "Just give me a minute."

They waited, the silence no less comfortable as the sound of the Galbadian force faded into the distance.

"...You don't think those Galbadians were going to attack Garden?" asked Zell. "I mean, 'cause of what we did back there?"

"Right," said Jeck. "Now you're worried about that."

"Hey, you know what?" Zell started angrily.

"Be quiet!" snapped Quistis, sharply enough to surprise even herself. "Both of you. Whatever's going on, hopefully we'll know soon."

"I think I've got it," said Nida. "It's text-only, but I think I can access the SeeD BBS. Thing is, I'm a bit worried about the encryption."

Paige stepped forward. "Can I?" Nida stepped aside, and she tapped experimentally at the terminal for a bit. "...Here," she said finally, entering an instruction Quistis couldn't recognize. "It'll be okay if we don't stay connected longer than five minutes or so."

Now Quistis took the terminal, logging into Garden's online bulletin board for SeeDs on assignment. Her attention was immediately drawn to an announcement made just the previous night by a SeeD team in Dollet, which had now been flagged by Xu. She started to read the file – and gulped.

"...Oh, my." She quickly downloaded the file to the terminal's hard disk, checked for any other updates, and sent a private message to Xu going over their situation before disconnecting.

"What is it?" asked Selphie.

Quistis read over the file again before she answered. "...It's a Galbadian invasion plan. They're going to attack Esthar."

"What?" asked Jeck. "That's insane! Why the hell would they do that?"

"That's what the plan says," said Quistis. "I don't know why."

"Why was it on the SeeD BBS?" wondered Karenna. "I mean, are we supposed to assist?"

"SeeD isn't mentioned," Quistis said. "And there weren't any instructions included. It didn't seem like a normal assignment."

"Maybe we're supposed to stop it?" asked Selphie.

Jeck boggled. "Okay, that's insane."

"Actually..." Quistis frowned. "...I think that might be it."

"Um," said Irvine. "I think I'm with Jeck on this one."

"Galbadia would go crazy," Nida agreed. "We'd be lucky if they didn't blow up Garden right then."

Quistis nodded. "I know. Still...I feel like that's what Xu wants."

"Right," said Jeck, shaking his head. "Just when I thought this mission couldn't get any more off the rails."

"Hey, guys?" Selphie broke in, pointing toward the road. "I think someone's coming."

Quistis looked in the direction she pointed, and thought she saw movement as well. "We'll check it out," she said, nodding to Selphie and Zell. "Everyone else, take cover."

The three SeeDs advanced back toward the road. Three other figures were just crossing, about fifty meters to the north. It didn't take long for Quistis to identify the newcomers; when she did, she nearly froze in her tracks from the surprise.

"Hey, I think I saw something just now," said Raijin. "Like there's still people around, ya know?"

"Treeline," Fujin agreed.

"All right," said Seifer, drawing his gunblade. "So let's check it out."

Taking a breath, Quistis stepped out into the open, holding out her arms to show she wasn't wielding a weapon at the moment. "Don't bother," she said. "Hello, Seifer."

Seifer just blinked at her for a moment; then understanding seemed to dawn on him. "Hey, Quistis. Let me guess — you're after Squall, right?"

Quistis frowned. "As a matter of fact, yes. What do you know about Squall?"

"Everything," he said. Then he grimaced. "Well...let's say enough."