Siege of Dollet

The Siege of Dollet is a military engagement between Galbadia and the Duchy of Dollet. The Dollet Army is reinforced by the SeeD Elite Mercenary Force, responding to a request for aid by the Dollet Parliament after a series of setbacks. Galbadia's forces attacked its neighbor for its radio tower, the only one left in the world capable of broadcasting radio signals since the radio blackout that started 17 years ago.

Prelude
Since the beginning of the Sorceress War, President Deling has been uniting the continent of Galbadia under one flag. This presented a united front during the war against Esthar, however, Deling's methods usually meant that a country, region or town was integrated by force; chief example being Timber.

Battlefield
The Siege of Dollet is fought within and around the town of Dollet, situated within the Hasberry Valley in the Galbadian Continent on the edge of the ocean. The battle continues into the Hasberry Mountains until the Galbadian Army's retreat.

Battle
The Dollet Army puts up a defense against the Galbadian assault, but is outmatched by the larger and more powerful Galbadian army. 49 hours into the battle the Dollet defense abandons their positions in the inner city and withdraws to the mountains overlooking the city to reorganize their forces. 54 hours into the battle Dollet Parliament votes to hire the mercenary soldiers of SeeD to assist.

72 hours into the battle SeeD forces mobilize assault gunboats from Balamb Town; transporting SeeD, SeeD cadets and their SeeD tutors to Lapin Beach as part of their initial beach assault. With most of the Galbadian Army in the surrounding mountains in pursuit of the recuperating Dollet Army, the cadets' objective is to eliminate opposition in the city and secure their allocated areas, while the SeeD members prevent the remaining Galbadian Army units from counter attacking.

As a part of their final exams SeeD cadets are organized into squads of three. Selphie Tilmitt is part of the intelligence squad, Squad A, initially charged with finding and destroying the Galbadian HD cable the army is using for communication. Squall Leonhart, Seifer Almasy, and Zell Dincht form Squad B with Seifer as squad leader tasked with eliminating resistance within the Central Square and guarding it from counter attacks.

They arrive at Dollet via the SeeD Assault Boats during the beach assault and proceed to their designated area where Seifer loses patience and decides to follow a group of Galbadian Soldiers heading toward the Dollet Radio Tower. At the base of the tower Seifer runs off, attempting to outscore his squad by eliminating more soldiers than the others. A messenger from Squad A, Selphie Tilmitt, arrives charged with delivering new orders to the Squad B leader.

Selphie and the remaining members of Squad B climb the radio tower to find the Galbadian soldiers Biggs and Wedge activating the antenna. An Elvoret, a monster that had been roosting in the tower, forces the Galbadian soldiers aside but is defeated by the SeeD cadets.

Selphie delivers a withdrawal order to Seifer; the cadets are to be back at the beach by 19:00 hours (7 PM). The team realizes they have mere 30 minutes to get back to the landing craft and Seifer again abandons his squadmates (taking an every-man-for-himself approach), leaving Squall with ensuring that Zell, Selphie, and himself make it back on time. As they leave the Galbadian X-ATM092 Assault Mech attacks the party.

As their orders are to fall back, the priority is not to fight; as such they engage the mech only when they have to and, while fleeing Squall ensures the other squads are evacuated and out of the mech's way. The remaining SeeD cadet on the battlefield, Squall, rushes down the beach with the mech on his heels that is destroyed when it comes within range of a SeeD gunboat's machine gun turret, manned by SeeD instructor Quistis Trepe, as the boat begins withdrawing from the beach with Squall onboard.

Aftermath
The engagement serves as the final test for SeeD cadets and Squall Leonhart, Selphie Tilmitt, Zell Dincht, and Nida graduate into SeeD. Seifer Almasy fails for disobeying orders (by leaving the square to pursue the Galbadians to the radio tower) and gross dereliction of duty (for abandoning his squad twice).

Galbadia withdraws its army from the city but soldiers remain stationed at the mountain, Galbadia having reached an agreement with the Dollet Parliament that the Dollet Radio Tower would stay activated. This ensures Galbadian President Deling's live television broadcast, the first generated since the end of the Sorceress War, would reach as far as possible. Thus, both sides obtained their victory conditions in the battle.

Musical Themes
Played during the arrival and landing of the SeeD Assault Boats upon the Dollet beach, is "The Landing". The track replaced another that was originally meant to accompany the Siege of Dollet, titled simply "Raid on Dollet". The track is on the official demo for Final Fantasy VIII, but was dummied out and replaced with "The Landing" for the final game. The track is still present on the game discs, accessible from the Debug Rooms. This may have been done because the track was too similar to the theme song of the then-recent film .

Trivia

 * It is possible to destroy the X-ATM092 during the chase. If this happens, the player won't witness the FMV of Quistis shooting it with the gun turret. Yet, the townsfolk will still complain about the damage to the town the party supposedly caused.
 * In the game's demo, Rinoa replaces Selphie and Seifer for the portions they are playable, and the party wears their normal outfits, not the SeeD cadet uniforms they do in the finalized product.