Took me a bit longer to get this chapter out, mainly due to losing my inspiration for a while about halfway through. Thankfully, it came back enough for me to finish off the chapter without too much trouble. The field exam continues with this chapter, and will hopefully be wrapped up (more or less) with the next chapter. So, without further ado...begin!
Book I, Part III: Mortal Conflict - Element of Treachery
Chapter IV—Gaining Ground
[June 30, 2152 | Galbadia City, Presidential Palace, Second Floor, Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs | 5:02 PM]
"Sir," a Galbadian soldier reported, dressed in the traditional navy blue uniform of Galbadian infantry and wearing rank pips of a sergeant.
"What is it?" Duran asked, sparing a glance at the addressing soldier.
"Squads four and seven have not reported in as scheduled," the soldier said, getting to the point quickly. He knew well how Duran held the ability to speak concisely in high regard. "Captain Pearson requests authorization to investigate."
"Hm..." Duran muttered, turning his gaze away from the soldier for several moments as he thought. "Approved. Let him know that I want to know whatever he finds, regardless of how insignificant."
"Yes sir," the soldier replied, saluting before quickly making his way out of the room. Duran frowned as he looked around the room at his fellow soldiers, his thoughts immediately turning to the most logical answer.
"Looks like those stiffs up in the command finally got their act together. About time."
[June 30, 2152 | Galbadia City, Presidential Palace, First Floor, Hallway | 5:03 PM]
"How much further?" Tidus asked as he ran alongside his squadmates, his eyes turning towards Silvia momentarily.
"We're almost there, it looks like..." the SeeD cadet replied, checking her map again. "There! That should be the door," she suddenly remarked, pointing at a door up ahead on the right side of the hallway.
"About time!" Rikku exclaimed, running behind her two companions. Moments later, they reached their destination and stopped, checking the hallway on both sides of their position to make sure they weren't being followed or led into an ambush.
"What are we waiting for?" Tidus asked with a look to Silvia, seeming almost impatient in a way. Silvia shot a frown back at him, folding her arms as she turned to Rikku.
"They might have the door trapped, or they could just be waiting for us on the other side. We need to enter with caution," Silvia said, remembering the basic principles of entering rooms that she'd been taught as a SeeD. "Tidus, you'll go in first, and then we'll-"
No sooner were the words out of Silvia's mouth then she realized that Tidus had already begun opening the door, and her eyes widened in surprise and horror as she summoned up magical energy.
"Protect!"
The energy shielded Tidus as he opened the door, and gunfire erupted from the room beyond, slamming into the wall outside the door and causing Tidus to yell and jump back in surprise.
"Intruders!" someone yelled from inside the room, causing Silvia and Rikku to spring into action. Silvia cast a second Protect spell around her body as she stepped into the doorway, electrical energy crackling around her hand as she took aim at the first soldier to enter her field of vision. A Thunder II spell leapt from her fingers and crashed into the soldier, shocking him and hurling him off his feet to hit the wall just behind him as Rikku stepped in line behind her. Two bullets reflected off of the Protect spell as Rikku threw an object at another soldier that exploded into a burst of flame, blinding the soldier and setting his uniform ablaze. It took only seconds before the soldier noticed the flame and screamed in panic, dropping to the floor to try and extinguish the magical fire.
"They're SeeD!" one of the remaining two soldiers cried upon recognizing the pair's unique uniforms, practically screaming into his radio as he tried to bring his rifle to bear with his left arm only. The other soldier opened fire again, but Rikku and Silvia had already spun out of the doorway to the left and the bullets hit nothing but air, burying themselves into the wall of the hallway.
"Rikku, did you see any hostages?" Silvia asked quickly, beginning to prepare another spell. The younger girl shook her head, causing the squad leader to nod. "Good. Let's get in there and take down the other two as fast as we can - they know we're here now, so time is against us even more."
"What about me?" Tidus asked, now on his feet again on the other side of the door.
"Stay here and watch our backs. The last thing we need right now is to be pinned in this room before the other two squads get inside."
Tidus nodded, and Silvia tensed for a moment before giving the signal to go, casting another Protect spell over Rikku as the two turned back into the doorway. Rikku's arm pumped, throwing another object towards the soldier who had yelled into his radio; the soldier had barely enough time to cry out in surprise before he found himself halfway encased in ice, the Ice Gem freezing his upper body almost completely and sending his gun clattering to the floor.
Silvia, meanwhile, took another bullet on her Protect spell and retaliated with a burst of blinding magic that startled the soldier, his vision clouded over. Frantically, he jammed his finger back on the trigger of his assault rifle, spraying wildly in what he thought was the general direction of the SeeDs, but by that time Silvia had closed the distance between them. She smashed the soldier's helmet with her junction-enhanced fists, the deceptively-strong girl's punch sending the soldier to the ground only half-conscious. Satisfied, she pulled out her comlink as Rikku swept the room, making sure that the soldiers were incapacitated in some form.
"Squad D here. We've secured the entry point for squads B and E," Silvia said, eliciting a response from Camdus on the other side.
"Good work. Squads B and E, proceed with entry into the building," Camdus ordered, pleased that the squads were accomplishing their work in a timely manner.
[June 30, 2152 | Galbadia City, Escape Tunnels | 5:06 PM]
"Looks like it's time to move," I say as I look over at Yuna with a smile. "Sephrenia?"
"Ready to proceed," she replies calmly, drawing up magical energy and casting the spell upon herself. The Float spell takes hold almost instantly, and she begins to hover just a few inches above the ground as I follow the same course of action. Both of us move up to the ceiling and concentrate, placing our hands onto the stone comprising the 'roof' over our heads. Our hands both begin to glow with alchemic light as we focus on deconstruction, with the stone shimmering and seemingly beginning to melt under our touches. Some of it simply falls apart into chunks of sand, rock, and other minerals making up the structure of the material, while other bits are broken down into energy and absorbed as mana by the two of us. After nearly a minute of constant alchemic battering, there is a hole in the stone big enough for two people to comfortably climb through. Above us, I can see the smiling faces of our teammates - Silvia and Rikku, namely, with Tidus nowhere to be seen at the moment.
"Hate to crash the party," I quip, "but you know we can't let you girls have all the fun."
"Of course not," Silvia replies, a light grin across her face as she moves away from the hole to let us inside. Landing gently on the floor, Sephrenia and I turn back to the hole as our squadmates begin to follow us up, prepared Float spells being cast by each of them. The Galbadian soldiers, however, don't follow us up; I'm about to ask why they don't follow when I get my answer.
"We'll be staying behind to watch this part of the tunnel," Major Isane says, nodding towards our group. "General Caraway has other groups down here now to make sure that Duran and his men don't use this as an avenue of escape."
"Good luck to you, then," Yuna says cheerfully, smiling down at the three soldiers.
"Yeah," I say, nodding at Yuna's words. "Be careful down there."
"Just don't try and wreck the place too badly while you're saving it," Sergeant Washburne remarks. "I'd hate to see the cleaning bill when this is all said and done."
The sergeant's joking statement gets a laugh out of most of us, taking just a bit of the edge off of the danger of our mission for a few moments.
"Good luck," Major Isane finally says, motioning to her men to move out. As the three soldiers begin to head further down the tunnel, I return my focus to the mission at hand.
"Silvia, is your squad okay?" I ask, trying to get an idea of the situation.
"We're fine," she replies, looking over. "I haven't heard any reports of injuries or casualties, so I guess that everyone else is inside and moving."
"Good," I mutter, looking back at the rest of my squad. "Ready to see some action?"
"Absolutely," Tetsuya says with a smirk. "I've been ready since we got here."
Turning to Silvia, I pull out my comlink and bring up the map of the Palace that we had been provided with, tilting it so that she can see the screen. "I'm going to take my squad back the way you three came, and circle around towards the backside of the building," I say, tracing the path with my finger along the map.
"We'll keep on going ahead, and move towards the front, then. Just watch yourself," Silvia says.
"Always do," I reply, grinning as I turn back to Locke and Tetsuya. "Okay, guys, let's get moving. Gotta make up for lost time, you know."
Quickly, I begin to head out of the room, only pausing long enough to speak with Tidus for a moment before my squad follows me out and into the hall. As silently as we can reasonably move, we start to head back down the hall the way that Silvia's squad had entered, hoping to cut around and potentially encircle any moving or retreating soldiers routed by other squads.
[June 30, 2152 | Galbadia City, Presidential Palace, First Floor, Auditorium | 5:07 PM]
"I knew this was a bad idea!" Uriko yelled over the sound of gunshots, taking care to stay covered behind the row of chairs that she and her squadmates were hiding behind.
"Will you quiet down?" Shuyin said in irritation, a pair of bullets whizzing over his head and slamming into the stage behind them. "We've got enough trouble."
Yuki's squad had been continuing their clearing of the first floor, when they'd come across the large auditorium that the President often used for addresses to cabinet members and important political figures. Yuki had decided that the potential for hostages to be inside was likely, given the room's size, and so they had made their way inside quickly and quietly...to find an empty room.
A room that had quickly become occupied when a quartet of Galbadian soldiers barged in on them barely a minute after they had entered. The auditorium was far from empty now, filled not just with the three SeeD cadets and four Galbadian soldiers that were shooting at them, but with the sounds of gunfire and radio chatter from said soldiers. Two soldiers suddenly stopped shooting at the pair and began heading left, towards one of the aisles leading down towards the SeeD cadets' position.
"They're gonna flank us if we don't move!" Uriko exclaimed, noticing the movement and glaring over at Yuki. "What do you want us to do?"
Yuki was silent as she thought, looking around the area as best she could from her impromptu cover. Her eyes trailed upwards, towards the ceiling, and an idea flashed into her mind. Small, glittering diamonds of energy trailed around her momentarily as she cast Double magic upon herself, and she took another look up towards the ceiling before turning to Uriko and Shuyin.
"Protect," she said quietly, casting the blue-colored defensive spell around both of her squad members as they looked towards her for orders. "You two go left, and deal with the flanking soldiers. The Protect should give you some help, but I don't know how long it can last against that many bullets. I'll take care of the two in the back - I've got an idea."
Uriko was momentarily taken aback at the sudden change in the young girl's demeanor, but nodded. Keeping low to the ground, Shuyin began to lead the way around towards where the two soldiers were moving, Uriko already preparing magic for an attack the moment they could see the soldiers again. Yuki, however, didn't bother moving, or casting any defensive magic on herself. Instead, she concentrated on her magic as well, taking careful aim at something in the ceiling.
"Blizzard!" she yelled, raising her hand just enough to aim the spell accurately and letting off two bolts of magic into the air. The Galbadian soldiers stopped shooting for an instant upon seeing the magic, but started firing once again upon noticing the misfired spells.
Moments later, a loud creaking and snapping was heard from above the soldiers, causing them to cease their attack on Yuki once again. Both soldiers looked up just in time to see one of the overhead lighting units, which had been suspended by cables hanging from the ceiling, falling towards them at a rapid pace, the cables snapped by Yuki's supposedly failed magical attack. The two Galbadians let out a yell of surprise and tried to dive out of the way, but one soldier was just a second too slow and wound up pinned to the ground by the mass of bulky metal, screaming in pain as his legs and part of his lower body were crushed and sliced by the heavy fixture. The sound of the impact got everyone's attention, SeeD and Galbadian alike, and Uriko felt her respect for her younger relative go up just a bit as she noticed the result of Yuki's idea.
"Hyne-damned SeeD!" the other soldier, who had been lucky enough to dodge the falling piece of metal, snarled, bringing his gun to bear again on Yuki's position.
"Thunder II!"
Yuki had already moved, however, and was now pointing a hand at the standing Galbadian from behind the seat at the end of the aisle, two bolts of electrical magic flying from her hands and crashing into the Galbadian to shock him through the armor he wore. His body crumpled to the ground as he choked out a pained cry, gun slipping away from him as his fingers twitched and became unable to clasp objects. A wave of paralyzing magic - Stop spells - engulfed the two Galbadians moments later, and Yuki sighed in relief, both that her plan had worked as intended and that she'd come out of the exchange alive.
On the other side of the room, Uriko was rapidly becoming annoyed with the two Galbadians that had tried to flank them. They had the high ground due to the gradual sloping of the auditorium floor, and were using every bit of that to their advantage to keep the two SeeDs pinned down with alternating fire, preventing the cadets from even attempting to close the distance, much less attack. Growling, Uriko reached inside her mind and touched the dormant power lying there, sick of wasting time cowering behind a row of chairs.
"Are you-" Shuyin began, being cut off suddenly as the air around Uriko burned and shimmered with heat, the energy turning their bodies ethereal and whisking them into another plane as the girl's Guardian Force manifested.
A roar shook the auditorium walls as a beast of fire appeared from the haze, its muscular body covered in orange fur materializing from the plane it resided on and stepping foot onto the carpeted floor. Long, obsidian-colored horns extended from a head resembling that of a lion, curving back and over its head to give it a more demonic appearance, and wicked-looking claws of a similar color extended from hands that seemed both humanoid and paw-like in appearance.
"Ifrit, attack!" Uriko yelled, the Guardian Force needing no further prompting to obey the comparatively tiny girl's order. The two Galbadian soldiers, shocked by the appearance of the towering fire demon, raised both their rifles and opened fire, bullets pounding into the tough skin of the avatar. Ifrit grunted, but seemed to pay the wounds no real heed, instead rushing through the fire and smashing one clawed hand into a Galbadian, slapping him off his feet and into the wall with the sickening crunch of broken bones. The remaining soldier hastily backed up, nearly tripping over his own feet in fear as he did so, and put a round into the Guardian Force's scowling face that finally got a roar of pain from the large beast. The gaping wound began to regenerate itself almost as soon as the shot pierced it, however, and Ifrit reached a clawed hand out and plucked the rifle from the soldier's hands, almost dislocating his arm in the process. The Guardian Force's giant hand easily crushed the rifle moments later, dropping the now useless weapon at the soldier's feet. As the terrified soldier watched, Ifrit vanished in a burst of flame, and the soldier found himself letting out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.
Right before an arm slipped under his own left arm, yanking it up and holding it above his head as another arm constricted around his neck. The last thing the soldier saw before he passed out from the choke hold was the face of the black-haired female SeeD who had summoned the Guardian Force.
"Was it really necessary to summon Ifrit?" Shuyin questioned, dropping the unconscious soldier to the floor.
"Yuki said to take care of these two, and I did," Uriko said, more than a little annoyance creeping into her voice. "Does the 'how' of it really matter?"
"Yes."
Uriko found herself wanting to strangle her teammate suddenly, much like he had just done to the hapless Galbadian soldier on the ground in front of her.
"Are you two okay?" Yuki asked from behind them, walking up the aisle now full of slightly burned and blackened chairs from Ifrit's presence.
"We're fine, but we need to get out of here," Uriko replied. "They're going to-"
"No."
"What are you talking about?!" the dark-haired girl exclaimed. "They'll be on us again in a minute if we don't get out of here!"
"We're checking for hostages first," Yuki replied quickly, turning towards the back of the auditorium and the stage there - a stage that likely had many rooms and closets backstage for people to hide. "That's final. Come on!"
Without waiting to hear any additional arguments from her errant squadmate, Yuki turned and began running towards the stage. Shuyin followed her after but a moment's hesitation, a smirk adorning his features as he moved past Uriko. Uriko watched them both for a second before finally just giving up and following her two squadmates, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like "I hate it when she's right" under her breath.
[June 30, 2152 | Galbadia City, Presidential Palace, Second Floor, Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs | 5:11 PM]
"Trabian SeeD?" Duran muttered to himself, hearing the reports that had been radioed in by the patrol groups to their commanding officers. "I expected SeeD...but why Trabia Garden?"
Something was not adding up for Duran. Balamb Garden was much closer than the mountain-bordered Garden, so it was only logical that Balamb SeeDs would be dispatched due to their proximity. Why, then, had SeeD officials come from a Garden effectively halfway around the world just to quell a little rebellion in the ranks of Galbadia? It made very little sense to the Lieutenant General, barring one fact that he had considered: that Trabia Garden had some kind of resources that fit the situation better than those available at Balamb Garden. What those resources were, he couldn't say, but it was the only explanation at the moment for the decidedly strange choice in reinforcements.
Despite that, Duran now had a better idea of what he and his forces would be up against. It was no that Trabia Garden's specialization was manipulating magic. His soldiers, while not explicitly trained in the use of paramagic - with the exception of those of higher rank - at least knew how to recognize and defend against those with magical abilities. On the other hand, these were SeeD members he was dealing with - every last one of them was highly trained in combat, paramagic, tactics...SeeD's reputation as the most feared mercenary force on the planet was well-deserved, to say the least. He knew that in a fair fight, the situation would be disadvantageous for him...so he would have to use other tactics.
"Major Everett," Duran called, prompting a red-clad command official on the other side of the room to turn towards Duran, stepping over quickly and saluting to his superior officer.
"Sir?"
"I want you to relay these orders to all soldiers on the first floor. First, patrols are to join up into squads of at least five men as soon as possible - time is of the essence. Second, make sure that every squad knows that we are up against Trabian SeeD, and that they are not to engage alone if at all avoidable. If possible, two squads should work in conjunction if a squad is engaged - all squads are to fall back if engaged to facilitate this. Third, I want the new squads to focus patrols around passages leading up to the second floor and any entrances to the building that are nearby," Duran explained. The plan wasn't perfect - far from it, in fact - but he believed that it might at least give his men more of a chance against a superior opponent, as well as buy them more time to prepare in the case that the lower floor was completely taken. Judging from the patrol reports, however, or the growing lack thereof to be more specific, Duran figured that such a case was more of an eventuality than anything.
"Yes sir," Major Everett replied, moving back over to the communications console that had been set up in the room and setting to work relaying the orders. Duran, meanwhile, resisted the growing urge to curse at the situation. He desperately wished that he had more time to come up with a plan, but he knew that with SeeD already inside the building and moving quickly, time was something that was very much not on their side at the moment.
Not an incredible amount of important stuff in this chapter, just a bit more fun with the exam itself. The most important stuff will be taken care of next chapter.
As an announcement of sorts, however, it will likely be a couple weeks before I get back to updating this story - not only are the holidays rearing their ugly heads, but I have a few outside projects to focus on as well. I have a question to my readers, however, that I want some outside opinions on.
Up until now, I've written this story in a mix of first-person and third-person viewpoints. Lately, I've been giving some thought to going back and rewriting/editing earlier chapters to be completely in the third-person for consistency's sake. Should I, in fact, do this, or should I stick with the view I've been using thus far? I'd like to get some opinions before I make my decision on the matter.
As always, please read and review, and happy holidays to everyone!