********* (I Love You) Aki LII: GunjishinryakuFollow

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Something to read during maintenance day!

Sorry this took so long, but I wrote out the two chapters following this one also, so they’ll be coming up over the next couple days also.

Special thanks goes out to Kerrigan of Asura, who helped me resolve a few minor plot points about this.

Previous chapters, aki, and Interludes

Part I - Connection (Enishi)

Kasho II - Kodoku (Solitude)

Part III - Reunion (Saikai)

Kasho IV- Suriyoru (Closer)

Part V- Secrets (Hiou)

Kasho VI- Hanarebanare (Apart)

Part VII- Longing (Akogare)
---
(Chapter LI)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1151677343267156940
---
Bonus Story: Rainfall Memories

***
Aki LII: Gunjishinryaku
***
I slammed open the door to the command room, the well-polished metal slab slamming into a neighboring table and causing it to rattle heavily. As I stepped in panting slightly from my journey up the stairs and the mad dash down the hall, I was suddenly aware of all the eyes in the room turning towards me.

"Sir, you’re not authorized to com-" one of the Elvaan started to say. Looking at the source of the voice, I could see that his fingertips were dancing across a paper map of the Tavnazian peninsula where he had been marking up all the sighted showings of the beastmen forces and where they had landed. To his left, there were more and more reports from troops carrying various linkpearls about more waves of beastmen arriving upon the mainland, forcing him to constantly erase and redraw their advancing lines.

Before he could finish his speech, I cut him off by unclasping the helm of my Koenig armor and then tossing the loose armor piece upon the floor.

"I am Commander Dimitri of the Ducal Guard of the Grand Duchy of Jeuno. I am here by secret arrangement of Tavnazia along with the Grand Duchy to advise the Marquisat on matters concerning the pressing war against the beastmen, and thus I have every right to be here."

At that the Elvaan who was busy mapping out beastman positions stopped for a moment to look at my face and see if I was actually telling the truth. "Alright then, Mr. Commander of Jeuno, offer your advice. We have beastman troops landing at all the major beaches, and have reported hundreds more swarming in from the mainland. What would you do?"

I stepped across the room, past various other Elvaans who seemed slightly shocked that the man in the armor that they had been wondering about so long on the streets was in fact a military leader from one of the most prestigious armies of Vana’diel. Picking up a small blue quill from a nearby ink well, I then drew three small circles around where the shepherding villages were at Riverne, and then drew two lines swirling around from the back of the town around the rock barriers on either side, connecting at a final circle I drew at the main entrance to the capital.

"I suggest setting up a defense line at the Riverne sites, to force the beastmen to divide their troops away to take that area, and then have a small defense force and the Warlock regiments one through six guard the outside town walls in front. With that, then have the bulk of the Tavnazian forces attack from around the two stone pillars that shoulder the town on either side in a classic Lungo-Nango pincer maneuver, trapping the beastmen forces from both sides and cutting the bulk of their forces in half."

After I finished with my suggestion, I became aware that I had a fair amount of people gathered around behind me, including a couple of the generals that I had just broken away from a few minutes ago in that extremely boring meeting. Without turning away, I knew that all of their sharp eyes were scanning quickly over my plan, no doubt looking for any obvious flaws or errors in it.
After a couple of moments when no one could find anything to have any real concerns about the plan, the general who I recognized was the one who supported sending more troops away in exchange for foodstuffs from San d’ Oria finally spoke up.

"Not bad at all...we will do that, thank you Commander."

With that, the general then picked up random linkpearls, barking orders into each one about where they should be positioned to defend their homeland. Finally, he picked up a shiny black pearl that indicated the Warlock Division, and spoke into it.

"I want you to take your mages and gather at the top of the front capital walls and ho-"

Before he could finish issuing the order the linkpearl suddenly stopped shimmering it’s characteristic glow, indicated that it had gone dead. Shaking it harshly a couple of times, the General then spoke crisply into it once more, but nothing came back to him but the echo of his own voice. Finally disgusted, he threw the pearl against the far wall where it then shattered into thousands of pieces before littering the floor.

"General, is something wrong?" another subordinate asked, worried for obvious reasons by the General’s actions.

"Damn pearl’s broken...something must have happened to the shell on the other end..." he half-mumbled to no one in particular as a response. With that, he then looked up and stared through me with a classic Elvaan glare and I felt somewhat intimidated, despite me having no real reason to be.

"Commander, mind running over to where they are and relaying the news to them? I managed to order them to the front walls of the capital, but they do not have any inkling of the full plan. If they are going to hold the front down long enough for our troops to come around from the back in your pincer maneuver then we have GOT to relay that information to them. Unfortunately, we need everyone here to help coordinate the rest of the forces and to continue the beastman’s trek across Tavnazian soil."

He paused at this point for moment, most likely for dramatic effect.

“Do you accept?”

With a slight nod, I sharply turned around and rushed out of the door. being sure to grab a random linkpearl on my way out. As I descended down the few floors of steps that led into the nighttime air, I could smell the familiar odor of war flooding the streets that was mixing with the dirty burning of oil lamps signaling to the civilian population that there was an invasion underway. There was confusion everywhere, and the public was spilling onto the streets as the first long range flaming barrages of rocks were launched into the town, causing various structures to lick up in flames. The roar of battle from the front town gates of the troops that were more or less taken by surprise started to issue up over the crackling of the fires and I realized in the back of my mind that we might
lose.

Might...

No.

We won’t lose.

"Come on Aldo, this way!"

I heard a high-pitched girl shout right before I nearly tripped over the owner of that voice and her younger brother who were running across the street perpendicular to me. Barely catching my balance so I didn’t fall, I then watched as the two children dodged around me, following where a blonde woman I recognized as Cardinal Mildaurion who was ushering civilian people into the Tavnazian Cathedral, no doubt taking them through the city’s underground tunnels to escape. Breaking through the sudden stream of people that was following those two children, I finally made it to the front wall of the town.

Picking out a makeshift ladder to climb up, I mounted the steps by twos until I got to the top. When I finally reached, the pinnacle, it took my mind a few seconds to grasp exactly how big the beastman force was.

There was quite literally a sea of orcs marching towards the capital of Tavnazia, with all sorts of war machines sprinkled in among their ranks. Their faces were illuminated by thousands of torches that they carried, and I was abit surprised at how well organized that they were.

Twin streams of blue magic suddenly sprung up from either side of me, converging in the nighttime air and shooting straight up to the heavens. The glow seemed to disappear in the clouds for but an instant, until I saw a large number of dark shapes then fall from the sky and brutally smash into the orc forces below.

"METEOR TEAM TWO FIREY-WIREY NOW AT OH-ONEY-FIVEY!"

Turning around, I was this time treated to sight of the second line of Taru-taru Warlocks conjuring up some sort of long spell. Then without warning and in perfect harmony, another stream of blue colored magic shot up towards the clouds to drop what I then realized were rocky boulders upon more beastmen forces. The beastmen lines of attack shattered slightly with every blow, but any gaps that were created in the lines were instantly filled up with more troops.

Finding slight amusement that the Taru mages had decided to attack without orders, I watched with my hand upon my sword as the first Taru-Taru line got ready to cast again.

"EVERYONE, TIME BURST OH-SIX-TWO!"

That voice came up from the distant right side of me, and instantly the hairs upon the back of my neck stood up in rapid succession.

No...

It can’t be...


I looked towards where the source of the sound came from, and despite all of the smoke and haze...

I saw her.

"Hi..." I started to say, my mouth suddenly going dry as my heart began to race at the sight of her long black hair drifting out from beneath that old felt hat she was so fond of.

"Hito..."

"HIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I belted out with all my strength, my voice managing to carry across all the devastation and loss of life of the battlefield.

At my scream I saw her suddenly stop midspell, her eyes snapping open as she looked over towards where I was standing. Her lips faintly mouthed my name in disbelief, and all I could do was nod slightly in response.

I found her...

I really found her...

-fin Aki LII: Gunjishinryaku


Edited, Jul 25th 2006 at 7:16am EDT by Nightsintdreams