Author's Note: These notes are updated versions taken from 'The Garden Tactical Database', which was expanded but had the story stripped out. I have decided that I like the story, so I will be putting it back in.
I would of course appreciate any reviews or thoughts you all might have.
Garden Tactical Database
Entry C/119:
The tactical evolution of the SeeD Paramilitary Group in the wake of the Second Sorceress War:
SeeD is the military arm of the Garden Organisation, and considered by many to be one of the most important political players in the world today. A mercenary company that operates out of three separate continents, SeeD trains its soldiers from a very young age to hone their bodies into perfect war-machines.
Officially founded by Cid Kramer with the backing of several discreet investors, the Gardens became not just a training centre for soldiers but a home for thousands of displaced orphan children in the wake of the First Sorceress War.
While Headmaster Kramer would not couch it in such terms, the dreadful calculus of war had gifted him with a near limitless supply of new recruits, all looking for stability and protection in a world where everything had been taken from them. SeeDs are often exceptionally skilled combatants even without any magical assistance, and as a result are often treated warily by the military and police officials of more traditional bodies.
A SeeD can take and dish out more punishment at 16 than most people can after a lifetime of training and experience.
What is less commonly known is that SeeD was the brainchild of the Sorceress Edea, who saw the need for a non-partisan organisation that would keep her own power in check. Having seen the excesses of her fellow Sorceress Adel, Edea knew that her own deep moral convictions were not a guarantee of future sanity.
She built and trained the first generation of SeeDs specifically to subdue or kill her should she ever embark on a campaign of aggression. It was she who suggested the taking on of war orphans (a subject close to her heart) and suggested that the Gardens be not just a training facility but a new home for these displaced souls.
She then retreated from public view and left the bulk of the work to her husband Cid, who became the public face of the Garden Organisation.
SeeD became a crucial player in the Second Sorceress War, taking part in every major action of the short but violent conflict. There were SeeDs in attendance at the assassination of Vinzer Deling, the Occupation of Balamb and even the Siege of Esther. SeeD teams demonstrated their unique abilities time and time again on the field of battle, proving themselves for the first time against actual military attacks. They were a particular thorn in the side of the G-Army, and as a result Sorceress Edea actively declared war on the Gardens. While this resulted in the wholesale destruction of Trabia Garden and the forceful capture of Galbadia Garden, eventually the remaining body of the SeeD mercenary force took the fight back to the G-Army in a series of stunning victories.
In particular the famous 'Battle of the Gardens' put the might of several G-Army divisions against an under-prepared SeeD defence force (mostly consisting of students and minor faculty members). What should have been a decisive surprise attack quickly mutated into a hideous defeat that not only crippled the G-Army's Garden platform, but also resulted in the deposing and exile of Sorceress Edea. This last action was undertaken by a force of only 4 SeeDs, one student and one civilian, who fought their way through the entire G-Garden to attack the Sorceress herself.
With this impressive show of force, the G-Army limped away from their attacks on SeeD to focus on other more 'approachable' targets. It is telling that the G-Army thought that the Super-Continent of Esther was a more viable military target than a Garden Organisation that had lost nearly two full thirds of its assets in the opening days of the conflict.
Galbadia had learned its lesson. SeeD were not to be trifled with.
However, in the wake of the events of Time Compression, SeeD Commanders voted to start diversifying their tactics, reasoning that the reliance on Gardens had made them easy targets. While they had survived the war itself, the cost had been exceptionally high because all of their resources were concentrated in three places. To that end they embarked on a radical re-definition of their core mission.
They elected to begin establishing 'SeeD Auxiliary' schools across the world, small ramshackle organisations that could be pitched up outside any village or town within hours, taking recruits from the local populace and giving them a simplified SeeD training program.
With the Lunar monster epidemics in Esther and Trabia and the governmental collapse in Galbadia suddenly business was booming, and SeeD made its money training local police and defence forces for towns and villages that could no longer rely on official government support. While the graduates of this training program could not stand on the same level as true SeeDs, they were often far more competent than the average foot-soldier. With Garden essentially acting as a franchise-holder, SeeD Auxiliaries paid a portion of each contract they took back to SeeD, and in return were provided with weapons, supplies and full SeeD support where possible.
SeeD instructors also took the opportunity to head-hunt prospective candidates for the true SeeD program, ensuring a steady supply of fresh recruits in perpetuity.
The presence of Garden personnel in every corner of the globe was a huge boost to the Organisation's popularity with local populations. It was one thing to be suspicious of a 17-year-old who can break your neck in eight different ways, it was quite another to be suspicious of your own sons and daughters working to keep your town safe.
The popularity of the Auxiliary program twinned with SeeD's position as a force capable of fighting the G-Army to a standstill meant that the Gardens started making enormous political waves. Ambassadors of Balamb Garden were essentially treated as diplomatic staff for a nation without borders, able to bend the ear of senior politicians. They established an embassy in Fisherman's Horizon (which is now one of the most important settlements in the world) and personally guaranteed the safety of all people entering or leaving the town (a move which was met with initial resistance by the townsfolk themselves).
The two surviving Gardens (Balamb and Galbadia) are themselves heavily altered Centran vessels, using anti-gravity drives to fly from place to place. Galbadia Garden periodically returns to its point of origin for repairs and maintenance, but Balamb Garden's 'cradle' site was destroyed by Galbadian missile strikes in the opening weeks of the war. As a result, the venerable institution is starting to break down after ten years of constant flight. While a new 'cradle' is being constructed on the original site, engineers are uncertain whether the Garden will be able to make the journey from FH to Balamb when it is completed.
SeeD: Guardian Forces
SeeD are to date the only faction to make persistent use of the controversial 'Guardian Forces', beings of great power who attach themselves to those powerful enough to defeat them. Given the rarity of these beings no military force has put serious effort into utilising them as combat assets. However, SeeD operators are meant to operate alone or in very small groups anyway, so GFs are the ideal force-multiplier.
In addition to their own prodigious power, GFs allow their users to utilise any kind of magic without any requisite training, a process known as 'junctioning'. Essentially the user allows the GF to take up residence in their brain as memetic data, where the GF will cast spells at the user's request. This allows a SeeD to cast any spell without training no matter how advanced the effect, but relies on these spells being 'drawn' from sources of magical energy rather than cultivated within the user.
The other significant downside is that over time constant use of GFs will have a deleterious effect on the user's long-term memory. Most SeeDs are trained in GF use from a young age, so as adults they have significant gaps in their memories. While Garden protocols have not changed to ban GF use, they have invested large sums of money in programs to help SeeDs to record and remember their pasts.
To preserve the health of their most effective soldiers, medical personnel monitor each SeeD four times a year with a full psychological examination. If they show noticeable degeneration they are rotated off of active duty and given training or administrative positions. SeeDs subject to this are able to re-apply for active-duty status but they must re-take a SeeD entrance exam and pass a full battery of mental acuity tests before being cleared for duty.
Guardian Forces: History and Usage
The tactical deployment of GF is a core part of SeeD's combat doctrine, allowing individual operatives to access para-magical abilities far in excess of any mortal magical practitioner (only falling short of Sorceresses in terms of raw magical ability).
But what are Guardian Forces? And why are SeeD the only force to utilise their power in combat?
The answer is complicated as much of the data is incomplete or contradictory.
The most commonly held theory is that GF are magical constructs that are a natural offshoot of traditional magical spells. The theory stipulates that as elemental magic spells increase in power and complexity they eventually reach a critical mass that allows them to attain a degree of consciousness and agency.
This particular theory is hotly disputed by proponents of Hynean Theology, who state that religious texts state that Guardian Forces are directly created either by the Great Hyne himself or by Sorceresses throughout history. While matters of the Great Hyne are naturally unverifiable, we have no concrete examples of a Sorceress being capable of creating a GF themselves. Historical records are incomplete, but there are a handful of (disputed) historical texts can be interpreted as pertaining to GF creation.
These documents describe the creation of a Guardian Force as an event requiring either a titanic infusion of magical energy or an equally large emotional reaction from the Sorceress in question.
GFs themselves seem unable to provide the answer. They either do not know anything about how they are created or are too fixated on their 'focus' to properly answer the question.
The largest body of knowledge pertaining to the creation of Guardian Forces was accrued by the late Centran Empire, and unfortunately much of it was lost after the continent was destroyed by a Lunar Cry. The Sorceress Athelia (the last living ruler of the Centrans) was an avid researcher of GF and postulated that the GF were actually forged from the souls of particularly powerful individuals who had been exposed to 'unnatural magics' and forced out of the physical world.
Many of her works have been lost with the destruction of the Empire, and any evidence she might have accrued has been lost with it.
Guardian Forces are exceptionally rare, with only 241 confirmed instances ever having been discovered. These beings tend to be rationed out between SeeD teams as necessary, with many GFs staying with the teams they have bonded to for familiarity's sake. Folklore says that GF tend to find themselves 'drawn to those on the path of destiny' which is somewhat corroborated by their increased rate of discovery by casters entering combat situations.
However many Guardian Forces actually exist in the world, over 60% of the known instances are currently in Garden's possession, partially for our own use and equally to deny their use to other powers.
They are Garden's strongest force-multiplier and jealously guarded from outsiders. In the years following the Second Sorceress War various groups have attempted to field their own GF-enhanced troops (such as Galbadia's Project LEGION and Dollet's Special Tasks Group) but to date none have been able to replicate the success of SeeD in any substantive way, and several of these initiatives have since been shut down by their governments.
SeeD: Modern Deployment Methods
SeeD has always been an organisation that relies on mobility. They pride themselves on being able to place SeeD units at any target on the globe within two days of taking a contract. While this is an impressive boast, the interconnected nature of the world means that individuals or small teams can travel more quickly using public utilities and personal transports than any military group could hope to (as they have no need for a logistical pipeline or support). However, for larger contracts that necessitate true military action, SeeD forces use purpose-built transport craft to bring their troops to bear with lightning-precision.
After the Second Sorceress War their need for enhanced mobility only grew larger, and they started investing in new ways of shipping troops to the battlefield. Particularly the notion of air-power became an avenue of great interest to SeeD tacticians who wanted to strike targets far inland with all of the speed and power they could bring to bear on coastal targets.
The Atticus-9 Hydrofoil (Troop Transport):
Role: Rapid Personnel Transport
Length: 22m
Width: 6.25m
Range: 1575km
Weight: 35 Tons (Dry), 42.5 Tons (Fully Loaded)
Top Speed: 95kt (Can be pushed to 105kt for limited periods)
Armament: 1x Noram G-19 20mm Autocannon (Forward Turret)
The Atticus-9 has been SeeD's premier amphibious transport vessel since before the Second Sorceress War, an impressively fast hydrofoil design that is used to deliver up to 6 SeeDs into the field of battle.
They were used to great effect during the G-Army's invasion of the Dollet Dukedom, where they forced their way onto the beaches to bypass the frontlines of the conflict. Most of the G-Army was focused in the hills beyond the city, so the SeeD counterattack completely blindsided the defenders.
Even if the G-Army had attempted to re-take the beaches, each Atticus-9 comes equipped with a heavy auto-cannon capable of punching holes in light tanks at a rate of 600 rounds-per-minute. Atticus-9s are also armoured enough that they can plough through solid stone with no obvious damage, and the passenger compartment is equipped with viewscreens and supply-caches for the waiting soldiers to use.
During the Second Sorceress War many of Balamb Garden's Atticus-9s were appropriated by the G-Army, who used them to test their heavy weapons in preparation for attacks on the Garden itself. They found that nothing short of the main gun of a BGH tank could pierce the hull, and that the boat would still run even after such an attack with very little loss of function (as long as the breach wasn't too low on the hull).
After the war many of these boats were stolen or sold-off by G-Army officers who wanted to ensure their own prosperity in the wake of their nation's economic collapse, so many found their way back into Garden hands. To this day they serve as the ocean-going transport of choice for SeeD teams.
The Atticus-11 Hydrofoil (Gunboat):
Role: Monitor Gunboat
Length: 22m
Width: 6.25m
Range: 1575km
Weight: 38 Tons (Dry), 50.5 Tons (Fully Loaded)
Top Speed: 75kt (Can be pushed to 85kt for limited periods)
Armament:
1x 'Agincourt' QF 8-inch Cannon (Fixed)
2x Noram G-19 20mm Autocannon (Side Turrets)
An up-armoured version of the Atticus has been developed to serve as a dedicated Monitor vessel protecting ocean-going SeeD assets, specifically the little-known White SeeD flagship.
The Atticus-11 possesses a heavy cannon potentially capable of blowing holes in Galbadian battleships, which necessitates an even faster engine to maintain its speed. The gun itself is so powerful it can only be fired while facing forward, so the Atticus-11s will undertake attack-runs on a target and fire the cannon while the boat is cruising at top speed. This reduces the recoil of the weapon, which is otherwise capable of pitching the boat almost 45 degrees upward when fired from a stationary position.
Atticus-11s were used to great effect against coastal raiding crews who operated out of the infrequently patrolled Centran Coasts. Many of the settlements there are poor and go unnoticed by the great powers. This in turn makes them ideal breeding grounds for piracy, trafficking and other crimes that would be harshly punished by other nations.
SeeD has always maintained a secret presence in these unclaimed waters, using the anonymity of the setting to hide themselves from prying eyes. However, with SeeD's political ascendancy the leaders of Edea's 'White SeeDs' petitioned Garden for the authority to begin anti-piracy operations in the area.
The petition was granted, and SeeD released their new Atticus-11s to the White SeeDs, anxious to see how their ambitious design held up under live-fire situations.
They needn't have worried, as the incredibly agile vessels outclass the pirates by an order of magnitude. They are fast enough to avoid anything powerful enough to damage them, and small-arms fire presents no problem to the hardened carapace of the boat. Superstitious pirates have christened them 'Viragos' after an old seafaring legend and will often pre-emptively abandon ship upon spotting one.
One captured pirate famously said of them: "Well I spied it at range with me lookin' glass, and I sez to meself 'Zeburt, here comes death or dinner, and either way it's pissed at yer.' Anyroad there 'int enough of me boat left to fill a matchbox…".
'Albatross' Long-Range Dropship:
Role: Supersonic Transport/Aerial Gunship
Length: 24m
Width: 31.5m
Range: 12,000km (Ferry Range: 24,000km)
Top Speed: 2,500kph (Mach 2)
Engines:
1x Odine R-Type Gimballed Heavy Fusion Lance (Tail Mounted)
2x Odine J-Type Gimballed Fusion Lance (Wing Mounted)
Operating Weight: 40,065 Pounds (Dry Weight: 15,875 Pounds)
Armament: 2x Door Mounted Turrets (Variable Loadout)
In the latter days of the Second Sorceress War, SeeD came into possession of the Ragnarok, former flagship of the now defunct Esther Space Force. This impressive vessel allowed SeeD personnel to travel the length and breadth of the planet in a scant few hours and gave them the ability to insert troops rapidly to all levels of the battlefield.
While the ship was returned to the Loire Administration after the attack on Lunatic Pandora, SeeD acknowledged the utility of an air-based deployment method that could simultaneously provide fire-support to troops on the ground. While a vessel on the same scale as the Ragnarok was entirely beyond the scope of the SeeD engineering teams, they did propose a fast transport vessel that could take up to 20 fully equipped SeeD troops with a crew of three.
The design that would eventually become the Albatross is a tilt-engined gunship with two door-mounted turrets configured to take various weapons systems. Based on the mission profile, they can be fitted with either anti-infantry machine guns, rapid-fire grenade launchers or a guided anti-tank missile system for heavier targets.
The body of the vessel is broadly cylindrical with two reinforced doors that slide back to allow troops to enter or exit the craft. The engines are secured to the ends of two wings that can be folded against the body of the craft for storage. Each engine is also capable of an advanced degree of articulation, giving the Albatross great dexterity for such a large aircraft.
The engines were provided by the grateful Esther government, who have allowed Garden to produce them on license in limited numbers. The engines are a miniaturised version of the fusion-torches used by the Ragnarok for locomotion, giving the Albatross a super-sonic top-speed that necessitates crash-couches for all passengers. This speed is often only used for cross-continental journeys, and the Albatross retains a more comfortable cruising speed of 450kph that allows passengers to move freely about the cabin.
The Albatross is as fuel-efficient and cost-effective a design as it can be, but they are still far too expensive to trot out for most missions. The Garden Organisation keeps a small fleet of 12 vessels for emergencies, and most SeeD teams still travel to their targets via conventional methods. However, when they are used it is with impressive precision. Albatross gunships use a hardened radio-rig to support troops on the ground, and their door-mounted weapons can decimate enemy infantry formations and even give tanks a bloody nose if requested.
The one caveat is that the complexity of this design makes it somewhat fragile, so SeeDs on the ground will often attempt to remove any anti-air weaponry on foot before requesting Albatross support.
The Office of the Commander:
Garden Commanders are a recent addition to the SeeD organisational hierarchy, instituted by Balamb Headmaster Cid Kramer during the Second Sorceress War. The role is meant to stand in contrast to the Office of the Headmaster in that it can only be filled by a SeeD in Active Service. The Commander has full operational control of all SeeD military assets within and in service of their Garden.
The Headmaster handles the training and recruitment of SeeD candidates (as well as their assignment in peacetime), the Garden Master handles the Garden's administrative and financial needs and the Commander handles wider strategy and coordinated military actions. The Commander also has a secondary role as the 'Captain' of any Garden in flight.
As Garden is not currently in a state of war with any nation or group, the role of the Commander is mostly ceremonial, with two of the three appointed Commanders effectively continuing their existing duties for the time being.
The current Garden Commanders are:
Balamb Garden: Cmdr. Squall Leonhart (SeeD Rank: 28)
Galbadia Garden: Cmdr. Quistis Trepe (SeeD Rank: 29)
Trabia Garden: Cmdr. Lenk Munez (SeeD Rank: 26)