Ignis Scientia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chef_chocobro) wrote2022-05-24 02:30 pm
chef_chocobro) wrote2022-05-24 02:30 pm
Entry tags:
The Blockade outside of Insomnia; Lucis (Eos); Tuesday Afternoon [05/24 FT].
With the news of Insomnia's alleged fall to the Empire heavy on their minds, the assumed new King of Lucis and his unceremoniously appointed Kingsglaive headed back for the city, through the rain that started the moment they left Galdin Quay. Almost as if there was no use for sunny skies on such an auspicious day as the Regalia coasted along rain-slicked roads, through Leide once again and to Insomnia's borders.
"I hope..." The words felt empty in Prompto's mouth, like ash, but the silence in the Regalia was too much for him, and he just had to cling to something, anything, maybe try and be a little positive, "...everyone's okay."
"Lotta good hoping's going to do," muttered Noctis, with a heavy sigh, unable to keep the bitterness, the resentment, the hurt out of the harsh quip.
"You mustn't lose faith," Ignis offered. Staunch, but soft.
"Really," Noctis mewled. "Can faith stop a fleet of imperial dreadnaughts?"
"Give it a rest," Gladio warned.
"My old man," Noctis said, hating the way his voice strained in his throat, "had plenty of faith--"
"Enough," Gladio insisted.
And even though it was clear that stopping the silence wasn't helping, Prompto couldn't help shaking his head and marveling. "The Empire lied." Even as he said it, though, he knew he shouldn't have been surprised, and he felt a small stab of guilt, as if his Niflheim blood could have done anything to have stopped it. "They betrayed us."
"Conjecture," Ignis said, "gets us nowhere. We're searching for truth."
"All you'll find are lies," Noctis insisted. "Like that," the word now felt rotten in his mouth, "ceasefire."
Silence settled over them again. It was slow, painful going, until they neared the blockade they had gone through not just a few days before, catching sight of the softly glowing airships now clustered around the Insomnia skyline far, far in the distance over the long arch of the bridge that brought them there.
"Look at the size of those things," Gladio couldn't help but be a little impressed, despite the heavy feeling in his stomach.
"Imperial dreadnaughts," Ignis sighed. "They transport soldiers--namely the Magitek infantry."
"The robots?" Gladio asked.
Prompto shifted uncomfortably where he sat at those words, something Ignis beside him couldn't help but take note of.
"Mass produced humanoid weapons of warfare," Ignis corrected, much better able to handle his own discomfort with this fact than Prompto, clearly, though he felt his own odd twist of guilt with regards to this particular topic these days, "to be more precise."
The long line of cars failing to get into the city didn't prevent them from seeing the large, armored mechs patrolling the the gate, not to mention the armored soldiers milling around its massive legs and gleaming weapons.
"They've set up an inspection point," Ignis realized, pulling the car to a stop. "And they've certainly pulled out all the stops. There's no way we can proceed forward without giving ourselves away."
"If the road ahead's blocked," Gladio said, "then we find a way around."
"Mmm." With a small nod, Ignis didn't hesitated to back the car up slightly and reset its course along a small dirty service road branching off to the side. The Regalia, used to much smoother paths, rumbled over the muddy path until they could go no further.
"Let's make a detour," Ignis said, turning off the ignition and reaching for the door. "There ought to be a decent vantage point up ahead."
The real trick was being able to get to it; as they inched closer to the industrial complex, they could easily pick out the fact that the place was already crawling with Magitek soliders.
"There they are," Gladio said, as they neared the industrial complex and spotted the Magitek soldier milling around. "Wanna take 'em out?"
"Oh, yeah," Noctis said, without hesitation, "Those scrapheaps are going to wish they had a treaty to protect them."
"Let us try," Ignis suggested delicately, wincing slightly at the harshness of Noctis' words, "to perhaps make our way through without engaging in conflict."
Noctis' response was an immediate, disgusted scoff. "Seriously?"
"Why the bleeding heart all of a sudden, Specs?" asked Gladio, equally confused, and maybe a little concerned.
"...if the reports are all true," Ignis tried, since he really didn't feel that now was a good time to explain that the whole idea of excessively killing genetically altered supersoldiers created specifically with the intent to be an unstoppable faceless force hit a little different when the guy you liked was one (not to mention, especially going off of the softened, somewhat bewildered look Prompto was giving him just then, their own teammate, as well), "then there has been more than enough carnage for one day."
"If the reports are true," Noctis almost growled out his response, "then the carnage has only just begun."
It was at that point when the red light of a laser began to glow against Noctis' shoulder; it winked out just as quickly as a shot rang out from Prompto's gun. "Well," he said, aiming at another looming Magitek sniper before they could train another shot on one of them and pulling the trigger, "they've spotted us now!"
"Can't say we didn't try," Gladio said, already pulling out his sword and moving forward with the sardonic words.
"I suppose," Ignis agreed, calling up his own daggers with a sigh, "if we must..."
With a sudden burst of magic and energy, Noctis warped forward, weapons ready, clashing with the Magitek soldiers in wait. It was clear they weren't skimping on strategy, as the entire area was swarming with them, more of them seeming to arrive at every turn, but, finally, they managed to fight their way through the complex, until they came out the other side, climbing the hill that waited for them there, to the vantage point overlooking the long stretch of the bridge that lead into the massive sprawl of Insomnia. It no longer stood there cloaked under the glittering sphere of the Crystal's protection, but, instead, it was awash in fire and smoke, dreadnaughts and transports clogging the sky with their bulky, imposing shapes.
Through the silence of their shock and dread, a radio crackled at their feet, attached to the body of one of the defeated soldiers.
"As to ceasefire discussion between the two nations," the crackling voice of a newscaster struggled to push through, "all provisional terms have been suspending in light of recent developments."
Prompto shifted to pick it up, the voice becoming slightly clearer.
"Moveover," it continued, "in the wake of the news of King Regis's death, we've now received word that Crown Prince Noctis and the Oracle Lunafreya have also been pronounced dead."
The words hit them all like a lightning strike, Noctis especially, and Prompto, eyes wide, fumbled to quickly turn off the radio, this harbinger of ill fortune, but Gladio held out his hand to stop him. "Leave it on," he insisted. In his nervousness, in his distress, though Prompto dropped it, and as it tumbled out of his hand, he went scrambling through the mud to retrieve it again.
"Don't bother!" Noctis shouted out, harsh and hoarse. Prompto froze, uncertain; he'd never heard Noctis sound like that before, and it was terrifying. Both he and Ignis now reached for the radio. Ignis got there first, though he handed it over to Prompto, who dutifully shut it off as Noctis pulled out his phone.
Overhead, oblivious to the four figures standing on the overlook, more Imperial dreadnaughts passed by, pushing the rainy air around them. Gladio, too, pulled out his phone, looking up toward the glowing red lights of the mechanical behemoths, more soldiers to flood their now forsaken home.
"H-Hello?" Noctis muttered into the phone. "Cor?"
"So." The sigh on the other end of the line was relieved. "You made it."
"The hell's going on?" Noctis demanded.
"Where are you?"
"Outside the city," Noctis reported, starting to pace over the wet grass, over to the steep edge of the cliff, "with no way back in!"
"Makes sense," Cor relied.
"Makes sense?" Noctis balked, before his incensed anger took over once more, his fist balled tightly at his side. "Are you serious? What," each word was punctuated with ferocity, "about any of this makes sense?? The news just told me I'm dead! Along with my father. And Luna!"
"Listen," said Cor, "I'm heading out to Hammerhead. About the king...it's true."
Noctis let out a strangled gasp, turning back toward the city as if expecting everything to suddenly be back to normal, as if maybe he'd see his father, see that Cor was lying to him, but all he saw were the retreating lights of the last dreadnaught fleet that passed over them, and smoke. All that smoke and fire...
"If you're looking for the whole truth," Cor continued, "you know where to find me. Get moving."
There was a long pause, Noctis blinking away the rain and tears on his eyelashes, considering the cold, simple instructions and the reality of the situation and the fact that there was little else he could do.
"Right," he said, and slowly lowered the phone.
Ignis stepped forward, for a moment looking as though he might reach out for Noctis's shoulder, in comfort, in support, but he stopped just short of doing so. His head tilted toward him instead.
"What did the Marshal," he ventured, slowly, softly, "have to say?"
"Said...he'd be in Hammerhead," Noctis replied, just as softly, just as stilted.
There was another long pause, before Gladio sighed and stepped forward. "And the king?"
Noctis didn't answer, nothing except for a short exhale of breath, and that was all they needed to know the truth there. Almost in unison, they each turned toward the smoking wreckage of their once-protected home, while the rain fell over everything they had ever known to be true and safe and good.
[[ NFB, NFI, TBC, OOC welcome, all the good stuff. Dialogue heavily taken from Final Fantasy XV Chapter 1: Departure
"I hope..." The words felt empty in Prompto's mouth, like ash, but the silence in the Regalia was too much for him, and he just had to cling to something, anything, maybe try and be a little positive, "...everyone's okay."
"Lotta good hoping's going to do," muttered Noctis, with a heavy sigh, unable to keep the bitterness, the resentment, the hurt out of the harsh quip.
"You mustn't lose faith," Ignis offered. Staunch, but soft.
"Really," Noctis mewled. "Can faith stop a fleet of imperial dreadnaughts?"
"Give it a rest," Gladio warned.
"My old man," Noctis said, hating the way his voice strained in his throat, "had plenty of faith--"
"Enough," Gladio insisted.
And even though it was clear that stopping the silence wasn't helping, Prompto couldn't help shaking his head and marveling. "The Empire lied." Even as he said it, though, he knew he shouldn't have been surprised, and he felt a small stab of guilt, as if his Niflheim blood could have done anything to have stopped it. "They betrayed us."
"Conjecture," Ignis said, "gets us nowhere. We're searching for truth."
"All you'll find are lies," Noctis insisted. "Like that," the word now felt rotten in his mouth, "ceasefire."
Silence settled over them again. It was slow, painful going, until they neared the blockade they had gone through not just a few days before, catching sight of the softly glowing airships now clustered around the Insomnia skyline far, far in the distance over the long arch of the bridge that brought them there.
"Look at the size of those things," Gladio couldn't help but be a little impressed, despite the heavy feeling in his stomach.
"Imperial dreadnaughts," Ignis sighed. "They transport soldiers--namely the Magitek infantry."
"The robots?" Gladio asked.
Prompto shifted uncomfortably where he sat at those words, something Ignis beside him couldn't help but take note of.
"Mass produced humanoid weapons of warfare," Ignis corrected, much better able to handle his own discomfort with this fact than Prompto, clearly, though he felt his own odd twist of guilt with regards to this particular topic these days, "to be more precise."
The long line of cars failing to get into the city didn't prevent them from seeing the large, armored mechs patrolling the the gate, not to mention the armored soldiers milling around its massive legs and gleaming weapons.
"They've set up an inspection point," Ignis realized, pulling the car to a stop. "And they've certainly pulled out all the stops. There's no way we can proceed forward without giving ourselves away."
"If the road ahead's blocked," Gladio said, "then we find a way around."
"Mmm." With a small nod, Ignis didn't hesitated to back the car up slightly and reset its course along a small dirty service road branching off to the side. The Regalia, used to much smoother paths, rumbled over the muddy path until they could go no further.
"Let's make a detour," Ignis said, turning off the ignition and reaching for the door. "There ought to be a decent vantage point up ahead."
The real trick was being able to get to it; as they inched closer to the industrial complex, they could easily pick out the fact that the place was already crawling with Magitek soliders.
"There they are," Gladio said, as they neared the industrial complex and spotted the Magitek soldier milling around. "Wanna take 'em out?"
"Oh, yeah," Noctis said, without hesitation, "Those scrapheaps are going to wish they had a treaty to protect them."
"Let us try," Ignis suggested delicately, wincing slightly at the harshness of Noctis' words, "to perhaps make our way through without engaging in conflict."
Noctis' response was an immediate, disgusted scoff. "Seriously?"
"Why the bleeding heart all of a sudden, Specs?" asked Gladio, equally confused, and maybe a little concerned.
"...if the reports are all true," Ignis tried, since he really didn't feel that now was a good time to explain that the whole idea of excessively killing genetically altered supersoldiers created specifically with the intent to be an unstoppable faceless force hit a little different when the guy you liked was one (not to mention, especially going off of the softened, somewhat bewildered look Prompto was giving him just then, their own teammate, as well), "then there has been more than enough carnage for one day."
"If the reports are true," Noctis almost growled out his response, "then the carnage has only just begun."
It was at that point when the red light of a laser began to glow against Noctis' shoulder; it winked out just as quickly as a shot rang out from Prompto's gun. "Well," he said, aiming at another looming Magitek sniper before they could train another shot on one of them and pulling the trigger, "they've spotted us now!"
"Can't say we didn't try," Gladio said, already pulling out his sword and moving forward with the sardonic words.
"I suppose," Ignis agreed, calling up his own daggers with a sigh, "if we must..."
With a sudden burst of magic and energy, Noctis warped forward, weapons ready, clashing with the Magitek soldiers in wait. It was clear they weren't skimping on strategy, as the entire area was swarming with them, more of them seeming to arrive at every turn, but, finally, they managed to fight their way through the complex, until they came out the other side, climbing the hill that waited for them there, to the vantage point overlooking the long stretch of the bridge that lead into the massive sprawl of Insomnia. It no longer stood there cloaked under the glittering sphere of the Crystal's protection, but, instead, it was awash in fire and smoke, dreadnaughts and transports clogging the sky with their bulky, imposing shapes.
Through the silence of their shock and dread, a radio crackled at their feet, attached to the body of one of the defeated soldiers.
"As to ceasefire discussion between the two nations," the crackling voice of a newscaster struggled to push through, "all provisional terms have been suspending in light of recent developments."
Prompto shifted to pick it up, the voice becoming slightly clearer.
"Moveover," it continued, "in the wake of the news of King Regis's death, we've now received word that Crown Prince Noctis and the Oracle Lunafreya have also been pronounced dead."
The words hit them all like a lightning strike, Noctis especially, and Prompto, eyes wide, fumbled to quickly turn off the radio, this harbinger of ill fortune, but Gladio held out his hand to stop him. "Leave it on," he insisted. In his nervousness, in his distress, though Prompto dropped it, and as it tumbled out of his hand, he went scrambling through the mud to retrieve it again.
"Don't bother!" Noctis shouted out, harsh and hoarse. Prompto froze, uncertain; he'd never heard Noctis sound like that before, and it was terrifying. Both he and Ignis now reached for the radio. Ignis got there first, though he handed it over to Prompto, who dutifully shut it off as Noctis pulled out his phone.
Overhead, oblivious to the four figures standing on the overlook, more Imperial dreadnaughts passed by, pushing the rainy air around them. Gladio, too, pulled out his phone, looking up toward the glowing red lights of the mechanical behemoths, more soldiers to flood their now forsaken home.
"H-Hello?" Noctis muttered into the phone. "Cor?"
"So." The sigh on the other end of the line was relieved. "You made it."
"The hell's going on?" Noctis demanded.
"Where are you?"
"Outside the city," Noctis reported, starting to pace over the wet grass, over to the steep edge of the cliff, "with no way back in!"
"Makes sense," Cor relied.
"Makes sense?" Noctis balked, before his incensed anger took over once more, his fist balled tightly at his side. "Are you serious? What," each word was punctuated with ferocity, "about any of this makes sense?? The news just told me I'm dead! Along with my father. And Luna!"
"Listen," said Cor, "I'm heading out to Hammerhead. About the king...it's true."
Noctis let out a strangled gasp, turning back toward the city as if expecting everything to suddenly be back to normal, as if maybe he'd see his father, see that Cor was lying to him, but all he saw were the retreating lights of the last dreadnaught fleet that passed over them, and smoke. All that smoke and fire...
"If you're looking for the whole truth," Cor continued, "you know where to find me. Get moving."
There was a long pause, Noctis blinking away the rain and tears on his eyelashes, considering the cold, simple instructions and the reality of the situation and the fact that there was little else he could do.
"Right," he said, and slowly lowered the phone.
Ignis stepped forward, for a moment looking as though he might reach out for Noctis's shoulder, in comfort, in support, but he stopped just short of doing so. His head tilted toward him instead.
"What did the Marshal," he ventured, slowly, softly, "have to say?"
"Said...he'd be in Hammerhead," Noctis replied, just as softly, just as stilted.
There was another long pause, before Gladio sighed and stepped forward. "And the king?"
Noctis didn't answer, nothing except for a short exhale of breath, and that was all they needed to know the truth there. Almost in unison, they each turned toward the smoking wreckage of their once-protected home, while the rain fell over everything they had ever known to be true and safe and good.
[[ NFB, NFI, TBC, OOC welcome, all the good stuff. Dialogue heavily taken from Final Fantasy XV Chapter 1: Departure