ch 46
The trek to Rocket town took far to long for my liking. Even sprinting it still took us over an hour to reach the launch pad. Despite all of us dealing with just jumping out of sea level pressure, fighting through a reactor, and having to deal with a hostage situation we still pushed ourselves far beyond what we should have.
The altercation lasted all of five minutes on the submarine. Us dragging along the entirety of navigation stayed bloodshed as they would have no one who could guard them back home. Afterwords we kept our hostages until the sub was out of eyesight before stripping all three men down to their underwear and only letting them have their batons to defend themselves from monsters as they ran back.
One of my many thoughts on our run was how after everything that had happened I was able to sprint for miles even after everything and still have enough confidence in adrenaline and my skill to take on the next task. Those thoughts were quickly pushed aside as most of our run had me discarding plan after plan on how to deal with Emerald and Ruby. For the life of me I couldn't think of anything we had on hand that would allow us to deal with them, or even Diamond WEAPON for that matter. It was something I quickly conceited to the fact I would not be able to answer until we were done with our current debacle.
"Over here!" A projected voice interrupted me as a dot shouted at us until we ran into Cait Sith, megaphone in hand but bereft of his huge mog body. None of us stopped but the cat quickly jumped and got caught by Cloud.
"Everyone else is running towards the front of town with my puppet on autopilot. Guards started intercepting them so the rocket will have less men." We all nodded, another revision to the script that was pitched by Kunsel was the fact that with the extra security from the sub we would have a lot of opposition as we tried to steal the rocket. He had pitched that before we met up the group left on the Highwind would cause a ruckus on the opposite of town to draw men away. I don't know how long they had been at it but even with us running late the rocket hadn't launched yet. The spaceship was now towering above us as we all started to circle around to see six Mp's with weapons ready yelling into radios.
"Now there is one thing-"
"Contact!" Cloud interrupted as he leaped and drew his sword while he was what must have been twenty feet up before Vincent started to take pot shots at the men. The group had no time to react before Cloud cleaved two of them and all of us bum-rushed the rest leaving bodies behind us as we all ran to the front of the rocket to see three more men and a commander on top of the first set of stairs leading up the machine.
"Fuck its a pincer!" The man in red yelled before the group started to open fire on us. All of us skid as Tifa, Cid, and myself started to hurl magic, trying to aim at their feet so we couldn't damage the rocket. The guards however had no qualms on that subject and just sprayed at us even with pipes and other lines around us.
"You fucking idiots! You're gunna blow it!" Cid roared, the men hesitated for just a second before Cloud and Vincent both let up to the top of the stairs and started to beat the men down at close range. The men quickly fell as all of us started to scramble up the latter.
My hand slipped halfway up when I felt a bullet wiz past my head from above us. I stopped to toss a fireball with my now free hand at the catwalk to stop the firing while Tifa just under me did the same. Once all of us reached the top I saw Rude staring angrily at us without any men backing him up.
"All of you again...why...why would you stop this?! This is for the good of the planet!" He yelled, making more noise and words I had ever heard out of the man.
"It wasn't going to work anyways! Meteor is to powerful to be knocked down by a few chunks of materia. It's a planet-ender, no ifs or buts." I spoke up. He kept switching his pistol between all of us before putting it away and jumping off the catwalk. All of us ran to the edge expecting the man to have hit the ground but Rude had caught a bar on the side and swung to the latter behind us before sliding down.
"Hurry before he calls for backup!" Cid yelled as we ran into the rocket. A stray commander lay unconscious next to the wall in front of us as Cid jumped onto a latter in the next room. All of us climbed up it and followed Cid until we ran into what must have been the control room with multiple technicians frantically running over the large interface in front of him.
"The hell is going on!" Cid yelled, red faced and clearly exhausted like the rest of us. One man jumped but at the sight of Cid relaxed and smiled.
"Captain! Just when we thought something was going on you come back." Another man spoke up after the first.
"Yeah, we're going to launch a materia bomb and blow up Meteor! We're gonna save the planet." Cid stopped to look around the men before finally taking a calming breath.
"So how's the rocket then?" One techy shuffled a little before answering.
"So far its okay, the only problem we have is with the autopilot system. We were going to launch it with any personnel but its broken at the moment."
"Who's reparing it?"
"We have Shera doing it." Cid's breath hitched at the answer to his question.
"FanFuckingtastic bunch of wizards you are! That woman will take a hundred years before she's done. Alright listen up I'm taking over, tell everyone the same and get off now. I'm going to launch this myself now move Move MOVE!" Before any of the starstruck men would argue they all decided to run yelling captain as Cid jumped onto his Rockets controls. He skimmed over some numbers on the screen before standing and turning to us.
"Now...I know you're all here to take the Huge materia but I have one request...I want to launch with the rocket." My thoughts stopped at those words.
"Wait hold up we don't need to we just need to grab the materia and head out, we don't need to launch now." Cloud spoke up before Cid held up a hand.
"Listen, I know this thing like the back of my hand, I have an escape pod ready for to get out before anything goes pair shaped but all of you have to understand. This is my dream! I have been waiting years to finally have even a chance at this. I will be safe, all of you need to go, me and the cat will grab the damned thing before we leave." It was deathly silent after Cid finished. I couldn't speak for everyone but I could see what he meant. This was his moment, Cid's chance aft finally righting a wrong that he had held inside himself for far longer than I could imagine.
I could try to reason with him, but I didn't have the heart. Cid...hell everyone in the group I trusted and cherished more than anything in either world. I was living my dream now, despite every misgiving and every roadblock I wouldn't trade it for the world if I had the chance. What right did I have at stopping another mans dream after all?
"...Okay we'll go, don't go doing anything stupid alright." I spoke up. Everyone looked at me as Cid gave me the biggest smile I had ever seen on the man. His thanks went unsaid as Cloud spoke next.
"I don't like it, not at all but if you need to...absolutely need to then say it now." Cloud stared hard at the man.
"I have to. My minds screaming at me to do this. I'm not a man who asks for anything but please let me do this." Both men stood their grounds before Clouds shoulders sagged.
"Fine. Anyone else?"
"Cid please don't do anything stupid, just come back to us." Tifa added. Vincent simply nodded before Cid felt sure we all agreed.
"Alright then. Cat you sit in the copilot seat, we need to do another systems check bef-" The rocket shook as we all stumbled.
"Hey hey!" A very familiar voice spoke up on the intercoms. I heard a hiss behind be as the door behind us locked us in. Cid ran and slammed his hand on a button.
"Palmer! What the hell are you doing?!"
"I was told the autopilot was back online so I decided to lau~nch!"
"Goddamn it Shera! The one fucking time she decides to get fast!" Cid scrambled to the main controls and tried do something before he kicked the pilots seat. "Damn won't fucking budge!" The com's opened again.
"Its about to launch!" Palmer yelled, everyone paled before Cid turned.
"All of you get into those fucking launch seats now! Strap in and toss your weapons to the back and hold the fuck on!" Everyone threw their weapons to the sealed door and ran to the walls to the side. There were eight standing points that had straps and metal guards that were lifted before Cid shoved us all up against the walls as he strapped us in with me and Cloud on one side and Vincent with Tifa on the other before he jumped into his chair and strapped in as the rocket started to rumble.
"I know you have no experience with G-force but I need you all to stay conscious and don't puke! Just below your hands is a compartment with barf bags after we leave the Exosphere. Ready? No? To bad there's no countdown!" Cid spoke at light speed as my stomach dropped.
"Blast o~ff!" The intercoms chimed before I felt the rocket lurched as it vibrated upwards. My head slammed into the side as my whole body vibrated so much I might have vomited already if it weren't for the fact we hadn't eaten in so long.
I was just barely able to fight at the force on me as I opened my eyes to see everyone else in the same position as me before heard a boom and felt my head smash against the cushions before I felt the world try to compress me down.
"MY BRAINS ARE GOING INTO MY FEET!" I screamed before I felt a huge shift around me before the forces were all transferred to the front of my body.
"COCKPIT SHIFTED TO HORIZONTAL ALIGNMENT, HANG THE FUCK ON." Cid yelled as the rocket shuttered again before going even faster.
I fought for every breath, just as I would get air I would feel it get punched out of me as I felt more and more pressure pour onto me. I couldn't even muster a scream as it felt like I was in a compressor or having dirt unloaded onto me every second while trying to keep my eyes open as I feared closing them would knock me out. It was fifteen of the most agonizing minutes I would never care to remember with being dropped in Mako just barely topping it as flashes of that pain and breathlessness resurfaced and made it all the harder to hold on.
One final shutter rocked the cockpit before all of the weight suddenly vanished as I felt myself lift just slightly into the straps keeping me down. The vibrations now felt incredibly slow the the fucking blender I had lived through beforehand.
"Systems running optimally. Starting up artificial gravity and switching cockpit back to vertical alignment." Cid looked no worse for wear as I felt us shift again as I was pulled in my seat to what must have been our original standing positions.
"URGH" I looked over to see Cloud with wide bloodshot eyes puking into his bag. I barked out a laugh but that had been the last straw for me as I fumbled my hand to open my compartment and start blowing chunks into my own bag.
"Serves you right." I heard Vincent as I felt myself drift down till the ground before it felt like we had gravity again.
"Everyone sit tight. Get your guts out and I'll unlock you." It was another minute before Cloud and myself stopped as Tifa stared into her own bag having thrown up after Cloud and me started.
"Gravity set. Okay up and out, disposal for the bags is just above your weapons." Cid helped us all out as every besides him and Vincent stumbled to the back to toss away our trash.
"Never again." Cloud mumbled before grabbing his sword and dropping against the wall as I followed.
"I never want to be an astronaut, its fucking overrated anyways." I clutched Fusion to my chest to give me some comfort. Cid just laughed at my comment.
"To bad kid, all of you have the honor of being one after getting out here. Now lets see..." Cid switched the screen to a trajectory course that showed the rocket slowly approaching the animation of Meteor.
"That damn Palmer locked the autopilot, looks like the escape pod is going to be our only way of this thing."
"Then we best hurry and grab the Huge materia before things get out of hand." Cait jumped out of his chair with far to much cheer to my liking. The little bastard probably didn't feel a thing the entire trip...hell I think I remember the machine laughing as we all were trying to stay awake through the whole encounter.
"Follow me then, I know where they would hold it." We all finally got our bearings as Cid lead us down a few halls and up a latter to the Huge materia's containment area. Finally having just an inkling of peace I was able to look around at the interior of the ship as we were lead through. I couldn't help but note how primitive it was compared to the insides of shuttle's I had seen pictures of.
It was bulky and squarish, not at all like the streamlined insides of an earth based shuttle but when I thought about it Shinra had no real reason to send people into space. America and Russia were competitors trying to outdo one another in the space race which lead to advancements Shinra never would have put the time into. In fact we weren't even in a shuttle we were probably in the top half of the center rocket which made sense why we didn't have any windows to view space in. Gaia however had magic on their side so they were able to circumvent a lot of problems with light but incredibly strong Mythril and a gravity system that probably used materia as a base. Just as I thought about applications and vague idea's of being able to land on Gaia's moon I could pitch to Cid a chamber door opened in front of us.
The room itself was spacious and had tons of pipes leading to a central pillar that had a single glass window with the last two Huge materia glowing next to two other empty compartments. Just underneath the two was a key pad numbered one to nine.
"We just enter the pass code and we get'em out." Cid said. All of us looked to Cait who I could have swore was sweating somehow as he started rambling.
"Now I did try to mention this before we got on but those troops interrupted me and the rocket blasted off and I didn't want to interrupt your heart to hearts before I could say anything...I'm still trying to get the password."
"...You've gotta be fucking kidding me..."
XXX
ATE
He didn't have to act in anyway to convince the board around him that he knew he had fucked up royally. He was already soaked in sweat when several guards escorted him up to the meeting room. All he could do was clutch his head and stare at the table in front of him to avoid three people trying to kill him by sight alone. Every conceivable outcome that would happen appeared before him as he tried to stop himself from hyperventilating.
"One." Rufus spoke first, more venom coming from that one word that a Marlboro could make in a lifetime. "Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you right now for what you allowed."
"I was distracted!" Reeve blurted before he sputtered more words. "I was trying to come up with evacuation plans at the same time and I couldn't keep an eye on the group after they separated! I thought they were still searching for their leader and I tried to notify the town guard when they sprung the attack."
"Fat lot of good that did you little pansy" Scarlet reached and grabbed him by the collar before slamming him against the table.
"I had no idea they found him! Strife was a lost cause and they all were silent, I thought they were mourning I was sure, YOU were sure he was dead. I couldn't have known!" He heard a click before cold steel was pressed to his temple.
"Let me do it. I've had to deal with him the most, let me be the one to fire him Gya ha haa!" Heidegger spoke before he felt the gun shift forcefully on him.
"You dealt with him?! I had to suffer through everyone of his public safety talks with my security robots. I should be the one who gets the satisfaction."
"ENOUGH!" Rufus slammed the table. Both executives froze in place. "I get the say on who kills him and no one else." Scarlet and Heidegger both backed up from Reeve as he took one relived sigh as Rufus sat back down.
"When Reno called and said AVALANCHE had attacked Junon to get the Huge materia I couldn't believe a single word. But low and behold the security footage I was sent showed them waltzing through the underwater reactor in disguises. Now think carefully on your words Reeve because I want to know how they knew the pass-codes necessary to get through." His mind scrambled again, trying to come up with any sort of explanation that had a chance of keeping him alive before it struck him.
"It had to have been the Turk! Valentine must have known, he must have been able to remember all of the old passwords and came up with a plan to sneak in. My robot was halfway across the world I couldn't have been able to do anything!" Rufus just kept staring at him before his sharp gaze shifted over to Heidegger.
"The reactor is decades old. Have the codes been changed in that time?"
"Of course they have, routinely even by commanders I appointed myself." Heidegger held his head proud. Reeve could already imagine the bullet passing through him as his stomach dropped.
"And the Turk's codes as well?" That made the larger man pause.
"...well that's Tsung's field so I would assume so..."
"Turk exclusive codes for every military installment are only handed out by the military head as they require permission unless the president says they can go ahead on their own. My father would have never bothered and the man that had your job before Heidegger had been killed by Wutai insurgents during the war. Which means you were promoted at about the right time to have the codes changed during Valentines incarceration. In all of your years have you reset and given the Turks their exclusive codes to every establishment in that time?" Rufus recited policy word for word before switching accusations to Heidegger.
"...It would have took time away from more important projects at the time and to do it for every military base would have taken-"
"YEARS HEIDEGGER..." Rufus cut in. Reeve chanced a glance over both of his shoulders to see Heidegger now sweating bullets and Scarlet looking aghast with just the barest hint of smugness. His sight switched back to Rufus as he slammed the table again.
"No wonder they were able to waltz in to the reactor. This even explains how they infiltrated Junon the first time to stop the public executions! Every base is easy access to them because a fat lazy fucker like you couldn't find the time to do boring paperwork while you sat with your thumb up your ass, reveling in your promotion and doing fucking nothing to ensure security! GUARDS!" The door behind the three in front of Rufus opened up to the same posse of guards that escorted Reeve before.
"I want you to dedicate the rest of your time to changing every code for every base from now on. You get no rest of any kind until every last one is sent out to Tsung and I will be following up with him every hour to know if you've been slacking again." His gaze switched to Scarlet. "You are going to triple, no quadruple check everything about the Sister Ray and send reports directly to me because I can't trust anyone here to get their fucking jobs done even with the Planet at stake." He then settled on Reeve.
"You are going to have guards watching everything you access. If you even sneeze on a file it will be searched for anything that could help AVALANCHE. Every move you make will have a gun right behind it." Rufus stood up and walked across to Reeve before lifting his head up.
"You tell them this. I don't know what their fucking aim is but they are dead. Every town will now have their faces plastered on every TV, names one every radio, and every fucking guard will rain hell on them. If I so much as hear an inkling of them appearing anywhere controlled by Shinra their friends and family will be publicly executed. The only reason any of them are alive right now is because I will not drop down to their level to spite them and I have far to much to deal with now that there is a bigger chance of everyone on the fucking Planet dying now because of whatever misinformation they had on the Huge materia." He tossed Reeve to the guards before walking back.
"If the goddess is kind then they get stuck on that rocket and get blown into atoms. Get out of my sight...all of you...NOW!" Scarlet and Heidegger rushed out as Reeve was dragged out. What little relief he felt was belayed by the fact that he could be of no more help to his comrades.
XXX
Everyone was stock still as Cait recalled the entire encounter. While it was good to know that Reeve would live it was still a problem that we had to deal with at the worst possible moment.
"...I always wondered why Shinra didn't just have our faces everywhere before. Now that I think about it having to deal with Sephiroth then the end of the world would kind of put that a little lower on the list." I hadn't been speaking to anyone. My mind just wondered as my mouth just ran off to help me compute everything.
"Not the fucking time Nate!" Cid yelled as he, Cloud, and Vincent tried to pry open the what must have been an impervious container while Tifa and Cait were just putting in random numbers one after another with buzzing noises popping up every time they failed as the clock was ticking away what few minutes we had before impact. Cloud gave it one last kick before turning to Vincent.
"Can't you transform and just tear it off?"
"Don't you fucking dare! This thing gets ruptured the system will think this chamber's broke and it will seal all of us in. I can guarantee none of you're forms will be able to breach ten inch's of reinforced mythril before we can escape." Cid then turned to me. "Don't you have some future knowledge bullshit on the code to help us?"
"Okay I swear I have described the world to you from my perspective like a story but this was a video game! I had a fucking controller with buttons that had shapes and this was something that didn't have numbers involved it was inputting shapes to pretend I was putting in a code!"
"That is the the most goddamn ridiculous and shitty thing I have ever heard in my life! You're telling me your all knowing ass has no fucking clue how to help out after every other time you've pulled something out your ass!?" Just when I was about to get into the argument further I stopped to finally take the time to remember the events as they played out originally in game. Every scene was crystal clear as I thought on the whole rocket launch sequence before me using a strategy guide popped up.
"...There's no fucking way." I ran up the the console and stared at the number pad as I lifted a shaky hand.
"God, Goddess, Satan, the Planet whatever deity figure that could possibly help me now I will swear fealty if any of you could please give me one break and let me cash it in now."
"You have something?" Tifa leaned over hopefully behind me as Cait jumped on my shoulder as I entered a code.
6422
Circle, square, X, X.
A ding chimed as the chamber hissed open to the two gleaming crystals.
"The boy did it..." Cait whispered in my ear before Cid and Cloud both shoved us and grabbed a Huge materia each.
"Wonder later, pod now." All of us ran as we started to zip down every later we came across at least attempting to be careful with the last two Huge materia. Just as we went down our last latter and opened the door to the chamber housing the oxygen tanks I remembered one last detail as I tripped Cid at the door as it opened while he fell on top of the materia.
"Nate what the fu-" Electricity crackled before one tank blew into the wall parallel to it leaving a huge heap of metal on the floor as pipes were hissing out from the exploded section.
"That was averting anymore time loss." I spoke. Cid just stared as we all helped him up and maneuvered over the wreck before the door opened in front of us to a very panicked Shera.
"I tagged along to make sure everything was fine and then I heard the explosion and I came running and I thought that the whole thing was malfunctioning and it was going to blow and I thought the worst was going-" She finally took a breath before running up to Cid and started to pat him down.
"Please tell me you aren't hurt. I didn't think you'd be on I thought you were still traveling."
"Okay real nice concern and all but we need to start getting in that escape pod." I said before Shera nodded and lead us into the pods chambers.
"It'll fly right?" Cid asked. Shera just smiled and nodded.
"It will, I've been checking it since the rocket launched.
"...Then I'm glad. Lets go." All of us piled into the pod and strapped into actual seats as Shera closed the door behind us. An alarm chimed as the pod ejected away from the rocket and separated tossing us out into space. Everyone finally settled down as we were out of danger and had completed our mission.
"Pod eight...you were right the whole time and I just couldn't get passed it...thank you again Shera...and I'm sorry." Shera just sputtered a thanks as Cid stared out the window of the pod.
"So this is outer space, the real thing huh? Its more beautiful than I thought it would look." It was a gorgeous view too. The stars drifting light-years away as we rotated in the void. Everyone kept watch as we all enjoyed the view. Gaia slowly drifted past our view and I finally got to see the planet in almost its entirety.
All three continents were lit by the sun and were shown of in full glory. The three just touching the equator and the northern continent having what must have been ice reaching to its north pole. Outside of them though I only could pick up islands as large as states far away from the landmass and scattered around showing Gaia's vast ocean as it looked like it would swallow up the islands and continents.
"Those are three Australia's." Everyone looked at me.
"Three what?" Tifa asked.
"Its a continent on Earth and its the largest island on our planet. I don't know the exact size but everyone of you're continents looks just about the same size each, and that confuses me."
"You did say you're world had more landmass than ours." I nodded at Vincent.
"Yet I assume the entire worlds population is just on those three continents? Why is that?"
"Research show's that during the time of the Ancients they had originated on the three continents and spread from there. However after they all died out humans simply didn't expand to the islands farther out since the land was very rich in minerals, fertile land, and wildlife. Even in recent years expeditions to the islands closer to the three continents came back with tales of monsters like goblins with primitive societies and incredibly strong monsters that dissuaded further expansion since we haven't run into issues with resources. " Shera lectured as I froze, having forgotten her.
Cloud coughed and took the attention away. "Should we really be talking about how you're...different in front of Shera?"
"She helped save us. Shera can keep a secret too, she has my trust." Cid said while still staring out into space. As he said that I didn't feel to panicked at the idea. I had slowly grown comfortable with what people I could mention what was a secret between my friends. Hearing Cid vouch for her though did put my nerves to rest.
"I can tell you the full story later when we get dropped into the ocean. But back on topic I made a comparison to size because Gaia seems so...young."
"Young? Planets a billion years old or something. How can you call it young?" Cid finally turned from his view.
"I mean in the sense that it looks like your landmasses haven't fully formed out of the oceans yet. This looks like a planet in the middle of the process of forming like Earth and it just...stopped." It was like life developed far faster than Earth did.
Then my thoughts stopped. It had been an idea that I had liked a long time ago with the Final Fantasy seven lore was the fact that documented human or Ancient life went only two thousand years back on Gaia while Earth could measure ancient civilizations back to twenty thousand BC and even then we had clear links of evolution further back to primitive Homo-Sapiens and their cousins. On Gaia Ancients and humans just started to exist at some random time. It lead to the only logical conclusion and what was supported by what people thought of Ancients.
Humans and Ancients were alien to Gaia. They migrated to the Planet and had to settle for some reason and that lead to the world as it was now. It only struck me now in the middle of space when we finally had some peace as to how odd it all seemed. Where did the Ancients come from and what was beyond Gaia's grasp besides things like an alien parasite that wanted to eat the entire world?
"I'm not all into introspection of life on the Planets origins and whatever but we all need to start preparing for reentry. You'll feel fine for a little bit before the gravity generator gets fried and we get hit with free fall and impact in the ocean." If I told anyone after the fact I would assure whoever they were that Tifa, Cloud, and myself didn't whimper when we heard that.
XXX
Author notes
I took some liberties with the rocket since from the angles in-game didn't show off anything besides two seats which didn't fit well with me having three party members on a team and everyone just standing around as a rocket launched into space, though I feel I kept it within the realm of possibility that Shinra would find ways to figure out things like artificial gravity when they have 3d live battle simulators.
Also the introspection at the end just kind of sprung itself onto me since the situations I made kind of shoved Cid's aside so there had been a void that happened to fill itself with one of the many points of lore I love about the game that will come back in the far far future in the sequel for this. But its good to get back into the swing of things and I hope everyone keeps enjoying the ride. Till next time guys.