Deliver the Goods [Mission!]

[wrmods]

[The stopover at Fishermans Horizon takes maybe two minutes, total.]

[One moment, the Garden is slowing to a halt -- the next moment, the dock latches hiss into their closed position, the ramp into town is secured against the second-floor exit, and the SeeDs are being gestured out the door and into action. In the same moments, in a flurry of action, a hatch deploys on the side of the floating citadel and a transport boat steams out to position itself at the ladder just next to the Garden's dock. The Ragnarok swoops gracefully through the air to land in the center of the city, while down in the train station, traffic has come to a brief halt while an engine waits at full steam, quivering with anxiety.]

[No sooner do the teams touch ground than each receives a small package, easily tucking into a medium belt pouch or pocket. No words are wasted; the SeeDs receive only a cursory nod from the waiting townsfolk before they hurry back into work. The hatch shuts, the latches disengage, and Balamb drifts away, picking up speed as it does.]

Comments

[morphitudinous]

[Billy rolls out behind her, the trail of blood on his lip flowing from a tooth-mark being the main sign that he was banged up by the crash. He presses against the door for a second and listens, reluctantly calling on Diablos. He can fret about his memory decay later.]

Ready....right...go!

[He holds his blades defensively and twists the door open, according to plan. Time to descend into hell.]

[wrnpcs]

[The main cabin is quiet and calm. All the noise is coming from outside the rear hatch, where a certain amount of banging is coming from the seam where it seals against the airship's body.]

[gunbladegrrl]

I guess they don't expect us to come out voluntarily. We better hurry before they blow open the hatch...

[morphitudinous]

...then why don't we surprise them and blow it ourselves? Maria, can you do that?

[Billy crouches, ready to pounce.]

[gunbladegrrl]

Absolutely. Here I go!

[She draws both her gunblades in a practiced motion as she stalks towards the hatch, spinning them out over her shoulders. As soon as they're free, she charges, barreling down the cabin's length to all but run up the hatch proper. As she reaches the top of her jump and begins to fall away from the wall, she lithely spins to slam her blades into the machinery that holds it closed. Sharpnel explodes outwards as she twitches her fingers on the triggers, then kicks off the hatch... which begins to slowly fall inwards under its own weight.]

[morphitudinous]

Whoa!

[Billy jumps backward, waiting for the hatch to fall far enough before jumping over it. He's ready for a big attack---he thinks.]

[wrnpcs]

[The hatch falls to reveal an outside crew of twenty or so in a spread-out formation, in 'uniforms' of concealing black that go a long ways towards hiding their identities. Half of them are hurriedly drawing bows, while the other half raises swords, but the collapse of the hatch has caught them all off-guard.]

[gunbladegrrl]

[Maria hits the ground rolling, then pushes herself off with her shoulder muscles to a kneeling position. Immediately, she begins summoning Ifrit.]

[morphitudinous]

[Billy calls on Diablos, willing the gravity attack to hit as soon as possible. There's still morphing if the situation gets desperate, but he'd really rather not. Especially with what Galbadia might try to do with the technology.]

Nice welcoming party.

[wrnpcs]

[The summons give the archers enough time to recover, and a hail of arrows slashes out towards the two SeeDs. Luckily, their strength isn't such that it can deplete the HP of either GF, so a wounded but no less effective Diablos bursts down from the sky to Gravija the gathered foes.]

[Given that it's a percentage attack, the alarm the devlish figure inspires is greater than its efficacy, and when a moment later a massive fiery rock descends amongst them courtesy of Ifrit, a fourth of their number fall.]

[Which leaves about seven charging at the pair with drawn swords, while in the back the archers begin moving for a better shot.]

[gunbladegrrl]

[With perhaps much less strategy than she ought to be using, Maria charges straight into their midst with a berserker howl, hewing both gunblades in a massive twirling arc around her as she does.]

[morphitudinous]

[Billy looks at Maria and jerks with his arm---toward himself, then splitting his two fingers. He hopes she gets the message.

He then casts a Thundaga spell in the middle of their formation, hoping to separate them as he runs at one side with his twin blades. He does his level best at parrying, but with at least three to one he can't do a perfect job.]

[wrnpcs]

[For purely selfish reasons, four of them have split for Billy -- he's the one NOT waving exploding weapons around in massive, seemingly uncontrolled swings. They have the advantage of numbers, but their tactics amount to four individuals rather than a coordinated group, so for a brief second it's two-on-one rather than four. Which is odds in Billy's favor after Junctioning is factored in.]

[gunbladegrrl]

[In the other group, three-on-one quickly evens out to two as Maria parries an attack from each side, then flip-kicks one of the soldiers a full three feet off the ground and fourteen backwards. Even she looks surprised at this when she regains her footing. Blood trickles from a few scratches on her arms, but her own Junctions have blunted the strikes to slightly worse than cosmetic damage.]

[morphitudinous]

[Billy moves in with his blade and strikes one from the side, then dodges and tries for the other. He tries to shove them down before moving onto the next battle, sparing only a moment's glance for Maria. She seemed to be okay. His unprotected back takes a blow and blood is drawn when he can't completely protect against it, but he'll live to kick back and throw himself even harder into the fight.

As the numbers dwindle, he tries to move toward Maria. Separation would be a bad thing.]

[wrnpcs]

[As those numbers dwindle, a shower of arrows rains into the battle from the men still outside. One of them barks out a command.]

Surrender the data and you'll be free to go! Otherwise we'll take it from your corpses!

[gunbladegrrl]

[Without bothering to consult, Maria pauses in her whirling dervish of violent pain to cast a Blizzard spell at the soldier who had shouted that. Have an answer!]

[morphitudinous]

[So they're fighting to the death, like true SeeDs. Billy lets out a nondescript yell and begins summoning again. Thunder, how we need you...]

They have the higher ground. We have to minimize that.

[wrnpcs]

[Billy gains the strategic advantage by once again using a GF's hit points as a shield, and the arrows that flicker towards him thud into the energy surrounding him instead of his flesh. Maria, on the other hand, has no such protection, and her position makes her a compelling target for the other archers.]

[gunbladegrrl]

[Maria throws up her blades crossed in front of her, protecting her torso. One arrow clatters off the flat of a gunblade, a couple others go wide, but a third catches her in the arm just below the elbow, penetrating to the bone, while a fourth thumps into her upper thigh just below the hip.]

Just -- hold them off for one second and I can end this!

[The way she's failing to react to the pain, is she even feeling it?]