Nida followed the trail of dead soldiers across a stone bridge and out of the city. He thought it was a bit odd that Squad B's members would travel so far from their post, but nonetheless doubted that Galbadians were falling over dead with gunblade wounds all by themselves. He went on up a long, winding stone path that ran all the way up the side of one of the tall bluffs overlooking the city, passing well out of sight of the majority of Dollet. He was about to turn around and head back, thinking there was no way they would've gone that far from their objective, when he spotted something different about one of the bodies up ahead. For one, it was alive; and for another, it was dressed in green.
"Hey!" he called, hurrying over to the injured man. "Are you all right?"
"Uhhhh..." he said. "SeeD...monsters...tower..."
"Here." Nida took a step back, calling on his GF. "Cure."
As the magical aura surrounded the man, he struggled to his feet, looking considerably better. "Thanks, man," he said. "I was wondering if anyone would find me."
"No problem," Nida replied. "I need to find a team of SeeD candidates that might have come this way. Have you seen any?"
"SeeDs?" asked the soldier. "Oh, yeah! They went up to the comm tower a little while ago. I warned them it was dangerous, with the monsters and all, but..." He shrugged.
"Thanks," said Nida, nodding to the soldier. What the hell took them all the way up here? he wondered, as he hurried on up the set of steps leading up to the comm tower.
The path led up a long set of old, stone stairs bordered on one side by nothing but a dizzying drop into the ocean. At the top, Nida could see the tall metal tower of the communications facility, an old radio transmitter that looked to have been abandoned for years. But the path did not lead directly there; he found himself passing above the base of the facility, as the path continued to go up along the edge of a cliff. Sensing that he was coming near — after all, he was running out of mountain — Nida quickened his pace, hurrying up to the top of the bluff.
The path leveled out so quickly that he barely knew he had come to the top. He was now standing at the top of a steep ridge, with the entrance to the communications tower on the other side. Up ahead, the ridge went down to meet the lower level of the bluff, and the path wound around that way to finally reach the communications tower. By the entrance of the communications tower were a pair of individuals, one wearing Garden's uniform and one in Seifer's unmistakable grey trenchcoat.
"Hey!" he called to the students; but they didn't seem to hear him, disappearing instead into the entrance of the comm tower. Sighing, he considered for a moment simply jumping off the cliff and sprinting after them instead of taking the path around; but he doubted that he'd gain much time from having his legs broken. So he set off down the last stretch of path, wondering what it would be like to be stranded in enemy territory when the transports left without him.
He reached the comm tower without much trouble, but dogged by an ever-increasing awareness of how much time his search was taking. The inside of the comm tower was a single large room, filled with machinery. In the center, a hollow pillar of metal girders ran all the way up to the top of the building, high above them. A lift on the near side of this pillar was just sliding back down to the floor. There was no one to be seen.
They must've gone up. Sighing, Nida stepped onto the lift to follow. Just as he did, however, the lights flickered, and a hum indicative of machinery starting up began to rise around him. Then, a tall piece of equipment within the hollow cylinder at the center of the tower began to rise upwards, accompanied by a chorus of flashing lights. Nida had no idea what any of this meant, but he guessed based on patterns to date that it would somehow serve to make his life harder.
When whatever it was that had just happened, had finished happening, the lift lurched into motion again.
It was a fairly long trip up to the top of the tower; but Nida was saved from boredom by an ever-increasing cacophony of violent noises and explosions coming from above him. He began to wonder just what he had gotten himself into this time; and he was certain it wouldn't be fun.
Upon arriving at the top of the tower, he found the two students facing off with an enormous flying creature with orange batlike wings, spindly arms, and a hugely protruding nose. A tremendous stinger extended from its abdomen, and Nida determined that the existence of a giant monster on top of the tower confirmed his worst fears quite nicely.
Then one of the students disappeared, and another giant creature burst from below, wreathed in flame, followed by a tremendous fireball; which engulfed Nida and the two remaining students but neglected to cause them any harm. The creature, a great, horned demon with slightly feline features, now hovered high above them, and drove the fireball down onto the monster. It exploded into waves of pure heat as it struck, and the monster recoiled with an angry cry.
Sometime during this sequence of events, Nida had fallen flat on his back.
"Booya!" exclaimed one of the students, as he faded back into existence and the fire GF disappeared. Zell. Figures. "What d'you think about that, you big ugly —"
The monster answered even before Zell had finished. Taking a deep breath, it created a massive tornado that whipped about them, penetrating even their skin and attempting, it seemed, to rearrange their internal organs as it passed through. Although farther removed from the fight, Nida was also less prepared, and the blast knocked him flat on his back once again. His foot caught against what appeared to be a remote control console; as he struggled to right himself, it slid between two slats of the platform and tumbled off into the sea below.
"Hey..." Zell began; his body seemed to be surrounded with an orangish glow. "Oh, yeah! Take this!" he shouted at the monster; and then he zipped into motion almost faster than the others could watch, pounding the monster with a flurry of blows far too strong to come from a non-magical source. The creature recoiled, but could not get away. "Limit break, baby!" Zell declared as he ended the attack, breathing heavily. "Booyah!"
The monster did indeed look impressed; it seemed to be struggling to keep itself in the air. Although with how small its wings were in proportion to its body, it shouldn't have been able to stay aloft in the first place.
"Oh, yeah?" Now a similar glow was appearing around Seifer. "Two can play at that game, Chicken-Wuss!"
As Nida watched, Seifer spun his blade about in an intricate pattern of wide arcs, which he thought had to be just for show, then a green disk of energy shot from the blade and cut straight through the monster. This time, it recoiled even more harshly, overcome by convulsions and what appeared to be tiny explosions that slowly tore its body apart; and it collapsed to the ground, its form dissolving into sparkling dots which rose up into the sky. An odd silence came over the top of the comm tower.
It took Nida a couple seconds to remember what he was doing up there. "Hey!" he called to Seifer, approaching the two. "Are you guys Squad B?" He didn't really have any doubts, but the thought did cross his mind as to how stupid he would feel if the answer was no.
Seifer frowned at him. "Yeah, that's right. Who're you?"
"I'm a messenger from Squad A," Nida said, saluting. "I have new orders."
Seifer turned around, waiting expectantly.
It took him a moment to remember what they were. "Uh, 'All SeeD members and SeeD candidates are to withdraw at 19:00 hours,'" he said. "'Assemble at the shore.'"
"Withdraw?!" Seifer exclaimed. "There are still enemies around!"
Nida shrugged. "Hey, I'm just a messenger."
"Hey man," Zell started, "An order to withdraw takes priority! I don't wanna miss the vessel!"
Seifer threw him a look. "That it? Or don't you just wanna run away from the fight, chicken-wuss?"
Zell tensed. "Don't call me that!"
"Seriously, guys," Nida said, glancing down at his chronometer. "It's 18:30 now!"
"All right, all right," said Seifer, indicating all of them with a sweeping motion of his gunblade. "I guess we've got 30 minutes to get back to the shore. Better run!" And he jumped onto the lift and started down.
"W-wait!" Zell exclaimed. "What about us?" Seifer didn't wait. "Tch! Who the hell does he think he is?"
"Guess we'll have to take the next one," Nida said.
It was around then that Nida noticed the massive antenna dish that sprouted from the top of the communications tower. That is, he'd seen it before, but he had been preoccupied enough that he only now noticed it in earnest. Especially the bright beam of light that it was projecting up into the sky.
Huh, he thought. Pretty sure that wasn't there before...
He was about to ask Zell about it when a hydraulic noise informed him that the lift had returned. Figuring that whatever was going on with the communications tower probably was less important than getting back to the shore on time, he put the matter aside and started down.
Groaning, Major Biggs slipped back into consciousness. He was lying in an awkward position near the lift, and his head was ringing. And he was really angry.
His day had started to go sour the moment he and his squad had been transferred from the Armored Corps to assist with repairs on the Communications Tower. Apparently the necessary repairs had been more extensive than Galbadia had believed, and a larger workforce was needed. So he had been pulled at the last second away from active combat — and the resulting pay bonus — to babysit a bunch of engineers and outdated machinery.
Then a bunch of SeeD twerps had showed up and ruined even that pathetic assignment.
Ignoring the pain, he raised himself up and searched around for the control pad which had been wrested from his grasp by the sword of one of the SeeDs. "Think you're so tough, do ya?" he grumbled. "Let's see how you handle the Black Widow, you little twerps!"
After a few seconds, however, he began to notice that something was wrong. Specifically, he couldn't find the control pad. He was certain he had seen it fall somewhere near the lift, but now it was nowhere to be found.
"Dammit!" he exclaimed out loud, searching frantically about for the device that would allow him to activate the mechanized combat vehicle. "WEDGE! Where the hell have you got to now?" He got no answer; and his mind dimly speculated that Wedge might be the soldier who lay unconscious against one of the smaller transmitters nearby.
The exertion was making Biggs increasingly dizzy, and he could already feel himself slipping away from consciousness. His last thought before he collapsed back to the ground was of what he would do to punish Wedge for letting this disaster happen.