Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 3: Pursuit

TEN

Everything went still as we waited for Shinra to arrive. I was sitting in the lookout area above the gate, watching the monitors for the outer two automated sentries, the ones that'd be the first to greet our enemies once they showed up. Cloud, Tifa, Biggs, and Edwyn stood behind me, and Barret and the others were all outside on the wall with the soldiers. I put on a small headset and switched it on.

"Barret, you copy?" I asked.

He answered a second later. "Right here, Jessie. 'Sup?"

I checked the readouts from the scanners we'd set up at the edge of the ravine. "Our guests oughta be here any minute. Getting lots of heat signatures coming our way. Better be ready."

"Copy that," he replied. "We gonna rock this place!"

I smiled. "Have fun with your new toy."

Barret laughed. "Oh, I will!"

"And remember—short, controlled bursts," I reminded him.

"What's the range on this thing?" he asked.

I went on. "About three thousand feet. More than far enough. Sure you can hit the target? You'll only have one chance."

"Shit, you gotta ask?" Barret snorted.

"Right," I smirked.

He'd be setting off one of the traps I'd designed, which was another reason I'd upgraded his gun-arm. His target was almost halfway up the ravine from here, near where the second set of sentries had been set up just past one of our surprises, and I'd wanted to be sure he could reach it since I knew the range on his assault gun didn't go as far. Neither did the weapons our soldiers were using. It did on the turrets, but I wanted to save them until Shinra got closer. They had a really good field of fire and would be hard for our enemies to avoid.

"You could've picked a better spot," I heard Red mutter.

"What was that?" I asked.

Barret grunted. "Nothin', Jessie. Jus' Red complainin' 'cause he can't see over the wall. Too damn short."

"Maybe we could find him a box," I teased.

"Ha! Ain't a bad idea!" he laughed.

After joining him for a moment, I switched frequencies. "Lena, are you there? Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Jessie," she replied.

I nodded. "Good. Let me know the second Shinra comes into view. You'll be able to see them before anyone else."

"Got it," she answered. "I'm lovin' these goggles!"

"I'll bet," I chuckled.

She was on the left half of the wall with Yuffie while Barret, Aerith, and Red were on the right. In addition to serving as our main lookout, Lena was also eagerly operating one of the turrets—the first one to the left of the gate. She just hadn't been able to resist passing up the chance to shoot a really big gun like that. I couldn't really blame her, though. It did look like fun. I just hoped she'd be okay. The turrets were gonna be one of Shinra's primary targets once they got within range since taking them out would weaken our defenses.

I tried not to worry, though. "Be safe out there, okay?"

"Will do," Lena promised.

She'd known what she was getting into, of course. The fight against the advance force earlier had just been a warmup. This one was gonna be a hell of a lot bigger, longer, and harder, and it wasn't likely that any of us, not even Cloud, would come out of it unscathed. He stood there next to me on my right, reassuring me without even saying a word. Just knowing he was there was enough. As I gazed at him for a moment, he nodded ever so slightly. I smiled a little in return.