Laguna was carrying a handful of duck rolls wrapped in a napkin when he stepped into the Defense Ministry's conference room. "Guys, I was eating," he said, as the assembled military and civilian leaders stood to attention. Laguna waved for them to sit down, depositing the rolls on top of the files that had been laid out for him as he did so himself. "What's so important it couldn't wait till after the main course? You've gotta eat these things warm, and it took the chef like a month to get some fresh duck. It's not like Galbadia's invading or anything, right?" He took a bite out of one of the rolls before realizing that everyone was still just staring at him. "What?" he asked, with his mouth still full. "I mean, are they?"
Watching from beside the entrance, Kiros and Ward exchanged a look.
Still, no one spoke. "...What's going on, guys?" Laguna asked.
A moment later, the entrance slid open again, and Chan stepped in, walking past Laguna to sit at the far end of the table. "My apologies, Mr. President," he said formally. Then he nodded to Gho, who was sitting beside him. "Are we ready to begin?"
The defense minister nodded. "Mr. President, I'm afraid we have credible evidence that Galbadia is preparing a previously unscheduled firing of its new sea-based missile delivery system, sometime in the immediate future."
"Huh?" Laguna swallowed the rest of his roll, and picked up the others so as to let him check the reports stacked in front of him. "Why's Galbadia shooting off missiles?"
"Intelligence couldn't determine that directly, Mr. President," said Gho. "However, we have widespread reports of Galbadian military mobilizations under various pretenses. And we've confirmed that yesterday, the Galbadian military was issued a servicewide alert increasing the National Alert Condition to Level Two."
Laguna frowned. "...And the low numbers are bad, right?"
Gho narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. "Yes, Mr. President. Very bad."
"Mr. President, the cabinet has discussed this," said Chan. "We've come to the conclusion that Galbadia's actions are evidence of an imminent, massive attack against Esthar."
Laguna blinked. "—Wha?"
"Given recent events, it seems the only reasonable interpretation," said Gho. "Galbadian cruise missiles are capable of flying beneath our radar coverage, so as to provide little advance warning. I can't guarantee that our countermeasures will be effective."
"Okay, yeah, that sounds bad," said Laguna.
"In our opinion, Mr. President, it is bad," Gho said quickly, even though Laguna had looked like he planned to keep talking. He tapped one of the controls built into the desk, and a hologram of Esthar appeared. "We project that Galbadia has a total of six submersible missile carriers, and four to five of these are operational. Assuming the explosive yields of these Galbadian missiles are comparable to the BAG-0003As used against Balamb and Trabia Gardens last year, we've assembled a damage projection based on likely Galbadian targets." As he spoke, the Presidential Palace, Parliament, Esthar Airstation and a half-dozen other points throughout Esthar turned red. "These areas we can expect to be severely damaged or destroyed, crippling our government and capacity for military response. And I must point out that while we believe our information to be complete, Galbadia may have an additional launch capability that we are not aware of. If so, the damage could be far worse."
Laguna was shaking his head. "Woah, woah, woah, hang on, though. This doesn't make any sense! I mean, what did we do to Galbadia to make 'em shoot missiles at us all of a sudden?"
"The most reasonable explanation," said Chan, "is that Galbadia viewed your recent...overture as a direct challenge to its sovereignty."
"What?" asked Laguna. "Yesterday you said it made us look weak!"
"Yes," Chan said; the word was slightly drawn out, and sounded about as harsh as the Chairman's speech ever did. "Galbadia knows our military strength, but now believes we lack the will to use it, and is taking this opportunity to weaken us to the point where we are unable to."
Laguna was incredulous. "...Okay, anyone else wanna jump in here?" he asked, looking around the table at the generally unsympathetic faces. "—Come on, guys, there's gotta be some other explanation for this! Maybe it's just some kinda test!"
"Mr. President," said Gho, "at this point, it's important to consider our contingencies. It seems Galbadia's missile system cannot be employed immediately, so we have a small window in which to interdict it. My department has issued a status alert for Threat Level Amber, and our own ballistic missiles are ready to launch upon your order. We could eliminate the Galbadian launch facility within two hours of your launch order, and our projections show a high confidence of victory in any resulting military engagement."
Laguna just stared at him for a second. "Okay, someone tell me this is some kind of practical joke."
"Mr. President —" Chan began.
"No, come on!" said Laguna. "Look, I may have no clue what a BAG-triple-3 is, but I do know when I'm getting railroaded up the river, okay? You've got one report that maybe Galbadia's shooting off missiles, and somehow that justifies us blowing up their country? Man, I hope they're not thinking like you!"
"It's very likely that they are," said Chan. "Mr. President, we only have one chance at this. We don't want to be caught off guard like we were last year."
"Oh—" Laguna pointed a finger at Chan. "That's what this is about, isn't it? You're all spooked about the Lunar Cry, and don't think I've got what it takes to defend the country! Well, maybe if you'd listened to me the first time I wanted to come out of isolation, this wouldn't be happening!"
"It is happening!" Chan hissed; everyone in the room started at the man's outburst. "You may have been president for 18 years, but you've had no experience in international relations, and you've never fought a war! And you don't know the first thing about defending the country."
Laguna seemed to be the least stunned person in the room; even Chan looked surprised at his outburst. But Laguna just looked mad.
"I've fought in wars," he said, standing, glaring across the table. "An' that's more than you can say. But you know what? Whatever. I don't answer to you. Call me when you get some actual evidence, but until then, I'm not ordering your stupid launch. Got that?" He looked around at the assembled personnel, who were now looking at him with stunned expressions. "Good. Now get out of my face."
Chan seemed to debate whether or not to respond, while at the same time he worked to get himself under control. Eventually, he just stood, turned on his heel and stormed out of the room, with Gho and the rest of their entourage departing in their wake. Laguna simply glared at the door for a moment after they had gone, leaving him, Kiros and Ward alone in the room.
"...," Ward said.
"'I'm proud of you,'" Kiros translated. "Ward says."
"Yeah?" asked Laguna. "How about you?"
Kiros paused. "It's been a long time since I've seen you this passionate about something. Not since you found out Raine had died." He paused, granting Laguna a moment to wince at the memory. "I think," he continued, "I'd call this an improvement."
Laguna smiled, and flopped back into the chair. "Thanks, guys."
"...," said Ward.
Kiros nodded. "He's right. We still could have a serious problem here."
"Yeah," Laguna agreed. Then, snapping back into his usual hyperactivity, he grabbed the uneaten duck rolls and the reports that had been laid out for him. "Alright, back to my office!" he said, heading for the door. "We've got a war to stop!"
Kiros and Ward exchanged a look.
- - - — — - - -
Xu didn't notice how late it was until her office began to turn blue as the setting sun's light filtered through the Garden's ring. She'd had her nose in a terminal all afternoon, trying to keep track of the activity in Galbadia, hoping some brilliant plan would leap out at her. The online news feeds were starting to pick up on Galbadia's movements, and there were a few reports detailing the mobilization of troops or equipment being moved, but nothing that told her anything useful. But given the time difference, it was still the middle of the day in Galbadia; there might just be some update that might help.
There were two knocks on her door, and Lauren poked her head in. "Everything okay?" she asked. "I mean, besides...you know."
"I'm fine," Xu said. "What's up?"
"The cafeteria's about to close," Lauren said. "Do you want them to send something up?"
Xu shook her head. "I'm fine, thanks."
The other SeeD didn't look satisfied with this. "Xu, have you eaten anything today? I didn't even see you until after breakfast time."
"I had a Balamb fish in town this morning," said Xu. "It was good."
Lauren nodded. "Well, okay. It's nice that you're getting out of the office and all, but you should probably eat more than one thing a day. It'd help if people actually saw you sometimes, too."
"This about morale?" Xu slumped back in her chair. "You're much better at that than I am."
"Still, I'm not the Headmaster." Lauren sat down opposite the desk, leaning forward. "And our Commander's missing, and now we've lost contact with all our active SeeD teams, and god only knows what Quistis is up to. You can't stop rumors in a place like this, and things are getting out of hand."
"This situation is getting out of hand," said Xu.
"Yeah," said Lauren. "And as far as they know, we're just sitting here."
"We are just sitting here," said Xu. "It isn't like I'm not trying, you know. But I can't do anything that makes Garden a direct target, and that means not using any of the resources we have here."
"Why do you think it matters?" Lauren asked. "This Frostwater plan is gonna change everything. It can't not. It seems like trying to maintain the status quo doesn't help anyone under the circumstances."
Xu didn't answer right away, sighing. "...I don't know," she said. "Maybe I just can't bring myself to take the risk. Ever since I became Headmaster, I've just been trying to keep Garden running like everything was normal. But I keep thinking, if I just throw that away, what will the point have been?"
"It's not like things were ever that peachy when Cid was in charge," said Lauren. "He had NORG, we have Galbadia. The only time things really look okay is when we can afford not to look at where our money comes from."
"So do I just throw it all away?" asked Xu. "And hope something better comes along?"
Lauren hesitated. "I dunno," she admitted. "But maybe it starts with not always asking what Cid would do. I mean, I know what he did for all of us, but it's like they say — even Hyne made mistakes." Xu raised an eyebrow at her. "You're pretty smart yourself, Xu. Maybe what you really oughtta ask is, what do you want to do?"
Xu frowned at this; the concept was more novel than she thought it probably should have been.
Before either of them said anything else, the door opened again, and another SeeD barreled in. "Hey—" he said, skidding to a halt. "Xu, you'd better see something."
"Oren?" asked Xu. "What's going on?"
"Meg spotted something off the coast," said the SeeD. "And you'd better see it."
Xu and Lauren exchanged a look. Both rose, and followed Oren to the 3F balcony looking south. Meg was there, holding a pair of high-powered binoculars that she handed to Xu. "They're at about two o'clock," she said, pointing. "Just under the horizon."
Frowning, Xu looked through the binoculars. She saw a dozen vessels of varying size driving toward the Balamb shore. Their hulls flashed in the setting sun: boxy craft like floating, armored buses, and sleeker-looking craft with large rectangular pods mounted on turrets on their decks. The largest craft, a small city with two airships resting on its deck, was unmistakably a Galbadian command cruiser.
"Looks like the G-Navy's throwing us a party," narrated Oren.
Xu lowered the binoculars, shaking her head. "...Dammit."
"Should we transform the Garden to flight mode?" asked Meg.
"I'll get the defense roster," Lauren said.
"No," said Xu. She raised the binoculars and checked again. "They anticipated that. Three of those ships are missile boats, and we'd have to fly right past them if we tried to escape, and those airships could chase us down even if we succeeded. They could destroy Garden before we could do anything to them."
"So what?" asked Oren. "We just sit and do nothing?"
Xu sighed, then handed the binoculars back to Meg. And she fixed Oren with the most determined look anyone had seen on her for some time. "Monitor their progress. Lauren, why don't you tell everyone what's going on. — No, wait." She took a breath. "I'll do it. You three secure the storerooms."
The three SeeDs exchanged looks, then saluted and departed. Xu glared back out at the dots approaching from the horizon, then turned and headed back to her office.