Whelp, That happened

The buzz of the proximity alert pulled me out of my stupor. I grabbed my head as it began to throb. "Son of a bitch." My growl of pain obviously alerted Musaki that I was now awake and pissed off. "Captain, don't unbuckle, we landed face first, you're hanging above us." I could hear my Leftenant somewhere below me. That was an odd thing to tell me. I opened my eyes and stared down at her, who was looking up at me. I felt like a piece of meat on a hook at this point, just dangling from my own seat. A grunting sound followed with a heavy thud kept time with the alarms. My second in command was standing on the controls for the galactic class particle cannon she had just recently fired. The startling realization that my brand new ship was kissing the ground hit me in that instant. Shani's next words caused me to frown at her. "I can get you down…. But it will hurt." I rubbed the now throbbing left side of my head. I could feel the building migraine as the glaring lights pulsed causing me more pain.

"What the Fuck happened, Musaki?"

"You got your shot Sir, we lived." She grinned at me like a child wanting praise. I wasn't in the mood to play the doting parent at this particular moment.

"Oh, that's very fucking funny, Musaki! I meant what happened to the ship!" Yelling at her only made the pounding in my head worse. Perfect, just what I needed right now. A smart ass for a second in command and a roaring migraine. If my Leftenant could play the part of a child, it was right at this particular moment. Her pretty little bow of a mouth formed a pout, betraying her need for praise, when she realized I wasn't playing around. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the controls for a few seconds before making her report.

"We were split in two parts by the blast. I am getting a signal from our ass end, but I don't have any logical explanation for what happened to us. The system doesn't recognize the Planet we are on. It's not in any federation records at all. So, as it stands, I am fixing the doors so we can get out and explore our surroundings. Prince is moving the debris away from the emergency hatch for me, Cid is crying because the ship is a mess and Princessa is trying to find us some supplies." She looked way too pleased with her report for me.

"Get me down and then fix the doors. I'll see if I can find any weapons."

She pulled a screwdriver from her pocket. "Do you want me to do it or can you unbuckle?" Her smile reminded me of a cat playing with her food. I yanked the safety pin out of the front buckled on my chest, fearing her smile a little in process, I dropped to the chair in front of me. Turning to glare at Shani, her pout was giving me the heeby jeebies. "If the door can't be fixed, have Prince break it."

I left them to climb towards the weapons room. Something was very wrong with that woman. I couldn't put my finger on it. Taking the time to find a good spot to climb up, I looked down and Prince was smashing the door with his bare hands. His considerable muscles straining with the effort. "Jesus Christ, they are all insane." I returned to the task at hand. The weapons room should be through the door above me. I paused halfway, for some disturbing reason light was coming through the thin cracks in the door. "Crap." I didn't want to believe it, as I shoved the sliding door up into the open position, the room was gone. "Musaki!"

"Sir!" Her immediate response told me she knew exactly where I was. Scary thought.

"I found our exit. Round up supplies and get outside. We have no weapons, hand to hand is our best bet."

"Yes sir, I fixed everyone's communicators, we can stay in touch if we get separated."

"Ok, meet me outside for a briefing. No exceptions."

I shoved the broken door out of the way and stopped to stare in shock. We landed in a plains area. The lush green grass and bright blue sky with minimal cloud coverage shocked me. How the hell did we get here? Was it the black hole? I will have to look into that possibility. The plains were beautiful, I instantly thought of the history videos I watched as a child about Old Earth. The rolling fields of grass or wheat. The breeze that pushed the stalks of grass in sync, building a beautiful green sea. This particular grassland was different. Instead of fat cows grazing lazily on the stalks of grass, this lush unending field of grass was chock full of strange life forms of varying species. Even the people who rode towards us on the backs of giant yellow chickens that were saddled didn't seem fazed at all by the creatures or the fact that a city sized chunk of ship was nose first in the ground. "Musaki, we have visitors, don't let Hellfire outside and find a way to start a translator. It just went up the creek." I didn't need Hellfire to loose his already dangerous temper.

Shani met me on the somewhat stable platform that was a hallway and immediately began to fiddle with her communicator. Then she took mine and did the same thing. "Okay put it back in your ear and now whatever language they speak will be translated to English and then we will begin speaking back with it's help in their language. Until we learn the language, this is what I got."

"Your sarcasm is unnecessary, Musaki."

"Be glad we are alive long enough to learn it."

The leader of the group of men approached us as we bickered back and forth with each other. I was half tempted to hold her back with one hand on her forehead and watch her flail pathetically for a few minutes. The leader saved her, for now. "Are you guys okay? Does anyone need a White Mage?" The way he stated his words made me believe we weren't the first falling ship they came across. "We are okay, just glad to be alive. Our weapons room is gone though and we seemed to have misplaced the other half of my ship." The man chuckled, and turned back to his group. "Al-bheds tend to crash more than fly. Sorry to hear that about your weapons, we can take you safely to my camp and get you resupplied."

I gave Shani a nod to get the others, and climbed down off the ship. It seemed prudent not to mention safer, to not tell him we were spit out of a black hole. "I am Jason Darksky, Captain of the White Phoenix." The man nodded. "My name's Dale, I run a camp not far from here, the summoners used it once, before the eternal calm two years ago. Now I just supply the hunters and buy their loot."

"We may need a map and some information, my second can tell you what she needs, but I would like to know what the Calm is." The man called Dale blinked to hide his surprise. But, like any trained soldier, I spotted it right off. We were new, that gave me a sense of how well our presence will be received.

"Well, I guess you're not Al-bheds. I keep forgetting that Midgard and Ivalice don't have the same issues we do, so here is a rough draft. There used to be a massive fiend or monster that terrorized Spira. We could beat it back once every ten years, with a summoner. Lady Yuna and her Guardians defeated it for good two years ago. She gave us eternal peace, no fear that the thing would come back. She then joined with a group of sphere hunters and saved us yet again from a civil war. She got us to unite and end a much bigger threat yet again. Lady Yuna did it all with the help of her Guardians." I kept my face stoic, not wanting to give away the shock I'm sure I will feel in a moment. Crashing tends to do that. I rubbed at my throbbing head to hide my approaching shock. It was getting harder to think with this godforsaken headache.

"She sounds amazing."

"Yeah, most of the country went to her home in Besaid, she and her Guardian Sir Tidus got married. A lot of men were crushed that day."

"Wow, okay that's a lot to process, my second will ask for more details when she gets my men." Cutting off his history lesson, I changed topics to the oversized chickens standing nearby, a Chocobo Dale called them. Turns out the creatures are normal for Spira and Ivalice, you could find a better variety of them in Ivalice though. The Flightless bird is considered the best mode of transport in both countries. Midgard doesn't have them because the wars killed them off. Then he told me about the other countries, Midgard is in a constant state of war, and Ivalice holds the record for most sky pirates, that seemed like our best option when we fixed the ship. The massive size wouldn't seem out of place in a country that already had mass production of airships. Shani hopped down and dropped a bag next to me. "What we could salvage, the good stuff is in the other half. Anything good?" I told her what I learned. She turned to Dale. "Our Pilot Cid Newind, will need to hire men to help take apart and bring the missing half here so we can reassemble our ship, I need maps and the current money of your country, our vault is also elsewhere." She began to make mental notes for everything we may need. "Musaki, add Chocobos to that list. Going to need transportation while we are here, and tell Cid to make sure we build a stable for them in the new design." She saluted me. "Fall in men." I waited while they gave me their immediate attention. "Newind, ship duty, You come back here with whatever supplies you need to stay here, Musaki, Esqueezeme, Hellfire, on me. We go find the other half and set up transport to get it here. That end has the weapons and the main gun, we can't leave it." They nodded, understanding what that meant. That cannon can't be left with this planet, our best technology was in that cannon. "We need weapons and any supplies necessary for the trip. Musaki, you get to navigate, Esqueezeme, scout, Hellfire on point. Let's make it happen men."

The trip was a little bit slower because of us, we were on foot. We need Chocobos to make our own lives better. I made a mental note to find a breeder so I can get my hands on the birds. The camp in question was exactly that, a large tent in the center of a wooden fenced in area with a second wooden fence keeping the Chocobos pinned in an enclosure. There was a couple guys guarding the gate and that's it. Very minimal on the threat level then. "We only guard against the Fiends, keeps my travelers safe if they need to stay here longer." Dale was surprisingly informative. I nodded to Musaki who was recording all the important information for our use. "Do you know where the remaining pieces of your ship landed?" Dale was addressing Musaki. "According to the map you gave me it's somewhere around Zanarkand. I don't think Newind is going to have a hard time getting the ship put back together." Dale grimaced. "I have some men who can assist him but you may need to hire the Gullwings to help move it. They have a ship you can use to tow it back." I shook my head no one knew how lucky they were that it didn't land in any major cities or on a town. From what Musaki found out, Zanarkand is the ruins of a city destroyed by the same massive beast Lady Yuna defeated. "It's bigger than you think. What landed here, was just the bridge. My ship is a Battleship class destroyer. Think Dreadnaught and it may come close to the actual size. It would require us to take it apart and reassemble it here. The plains are big enough for the construction."

"Damn, that big huh? Okay I'll set you up with some men. You need guards too, the Ruins of Zanarkand are full of Fiends and you might consider asking the Ronso on Mt Gagazet for aid to."

"I'll keep them in mind. Musaki, send Cid back with a Chocobo and supplies. The rest of you, on me.