Sorry it took a while to get this uploaded, guys. I've been slacking, I know. It's been rough with my Writer's Block, and stuff. But here it is!


"Sorry for the quick thaw, Sonic Chief," Thom said as he politely waved towards Sonic. "Things are a little hectic right now," He rubbed the back of his head. "The disorientation should pass quickly." Sonic just stared at him, still groggy from the sleep he just had.

"Welcome back Sir. We'll have you battle ready stat." Sam said through the Com, waving, in the room above.

"Sonic, please look around the room. I need to get a calibration reading for your battle suit's diagnostics."

Sonic then nodded at Thom and looked around the room, not remembering how he ended up in the Cryo in the first place.

"Good, thank you Sir."

"I'm bringing your health monitors online, Sir." Sam punched a couple buttons and the health bars on Sonic's HUD appeared, stacking up horizontally from red, to yellow, and then finally to light blue. Thom studied the images laid before him on the screen-podium.

"Vital signs look normal, no freezer burn. Okay, Sir, go ahead and climb out of the Cryotube."

Sonic Chief propped himself up and did a summersault out of the cryotube, showing that Thom's prior remark was correct.

"I gave you a double dose of the wake-up stim. Take a quick walk around the Cyro-bay and join me at the Optical Diagnostics station when you're ready." Nodding, Sonic Chief looked around the room. He could hardly remember how Reach got destroyed but the room was becoming familiar to him. Taking Thom's advice, he indeed took a quick sprint around the bay. Normally, the weight of the suit not only weighed him down a lot but his speed also used typically in more spacious areas where he has more room to run.

"Well, looks like his suit definitely doesn't interfere with his speed, at least for now until the armor does its thing." Sam remarked to himself. Halting where Thom was waiting for a few minutes, Sonic nodded to him, displaying he was standing by. Standing in the red square of the station, looking at an object with a cross-like structure displaying panels, Thom remarked;

"I know the ordinance techs usually take care of your targeting sensors, but we're short of time, Chief. Just look at each of the flashing panels to target them. When you lock on, it'll change color."

Thom closely observed Sonic Chief as he did so with success; having looked in all directions.

"Okay, that looks good…"

Sonic then tapped his right foot, awaiting further instruction.

"I'm ready for the Energy Shield Test now." Sam finished Thom's sentence.

"Please follow me to the Energy Shield Test Station."

Following Thom, Sonic began to stretch a little, further waking himself up. Reaching the Station, he heard a familiar voice over the COM.

"Fire teams: Report to defensive positions Alpha through Sierra. Sensors show inbound Covenant boarding craft. Stand by to repel boarders."

"Sal…" Sonic knew her well, he did. Sally was the pet name Sonic gave her yet hardly ever referred to her anything but Sal. The others know her as Saltana and rarely Sally.

Inside the yellow square, Sonic began to daze off about how Sally had been doing since he slept.

"Okay, Sir, look at me so we can begin." Shrugging off nostalgia, the blue hedgehog in green looked over at Thom. "Okay, bring his energy shields online please." Thom motioned to his colleague, Sam. Chief's shield meter appeared, charging to full.

"Alright. Shields read as fully charged." Sam informed Thom.

"Okay, Sir, bring them down to test the automatic recharge." The shields depleted and recharged themselves again.

"Recharging normal. We're showing green across the board." Sam said with satisfaction. Thom looked over at his friend and gave him an equal satisfactory thumbs up; which was reciprocated.

"Bridge to Cryo 2, this is Captain Thorndyke. Send Sonic Chief to the bridge immediately."

Thom sounded anxious, saying, "Captain, we'll have to skip the weapons diagnostics and I-"

"On the double, Crewman."

"Aye-aye, Sir." Turning towards Sonic Chief, he said, "Skipper seems jumpy we better get moving. We'll find you weapons later."

"Okay, I'll just leave the self-diagnostics running, at least." Sam replied, changing the subject mildly.

"Good idea. You better get back to your evac group, Sam!" Thom called out.

"Affirmative, just have to reset the computer and I'm outta here!" He laughed. The friendliness he had reminded Sonic of a former best friend he once had long ago. A young boy named Thomas 'Tails" Lasky. He doesn't know what happened to him after he rescued him, but seeing a scene like this made him surely miss his old buddy. Unfortunately, as with his old friend, all good things must either pause or come to an end; havoc was wreaking behind a banging door of the observation chamber. An alarm activated, sound off and flashing red.

"Oh God, they're trying to get through the door!" A robotic creature of supreme strength, known as the Elites, began to shoot plasma bolts at Sam as the door blasted open. "Security! Intruders in Cryo 2! No, please don't!-" But it was too late, Sam fell dead.

"Sam? Sam!" Thom in his panic couldn't believe or have enough time to accept his friend was dead. And with that little time, he had to help Chief escape. "C'mon, we've got the hell out of here!" Unlocking the exit door, he looked left and right, making sure he wouldn't be the next one to die by the Covvie's hand.

"This way!" Going right, the two neared another locked door as they ran through the corridor. Sonic easily could have past him but he didn't want to leave him behind. As the two neared the door, Thom tried unlocking it but to no avail; it exploded and killed poor Thom. Sonic covered his visor with his arms, letting no shrapnel hit his helmet. With only some minor damage to his shields, he lowered his arms to mourn Thom a moment before finding another exit. Seeing a bundle of tubes, he jumped over it and headed straight for the door. Going through it, he eventually heard crewmen panicking.

"I'm a cowardly fool!" Going underneath a broken blast door, he then heard,

"Behind us! They're right behind us!"

"Secure those blast doors! Move! MOVE!"

"Wait for me!" The third Crewman fell to an explosion in his focus.

Moving onward, the Chief found himself face to face with an Elite Minor in another room as the door opened.

"Whoa!" Sonic said falling to his rump. The Elite growled at him, but was attacked by Marines and it fled. "That's right, run away!" The Chief taunted at him. A Marine helped him to his feet. Dusting himself off, he thanked the Marine and sped off.

He slowed down when a Marine motioned to him. His name was Chips Dubbo. He was a rather funny looking marine, having burgundy fur and white chest under his armor and a fluffy white rabbit-like tail. He also had white hair. He possessed light green wings but only used them when necessary. A green bauble necklace hung at his chest. Sonic noted a pocket in his armor full of chocolate bars and ice cream coupons.

"Sir! The Captain needs you on the bridge ASAP! Better follow me." Following him, Chips asked, "Want some chocolate?"*1

Startled by this Sonic declined and they continued on. Along the way, Sonic heard an Elite call out an order to one of his robotic Grunt lackeys.

"Wort wort wort!" Sonic and Chips went through a corridor and eventually made it to the Bridge's entrance. Stopping near the corridor, Dubbo said,

"Captain Thorndyke is waiting for you, Sir!" Approaching the bridge, Sonic calmly walked through the left aisle observing all the Crewmen hard at work, punching button after button. Spotting Thorndyke at his quarters, he advanced towards the Captain.

"Captain Thorndyke." Sonic said with relaxation. Turning around, Thorndyke shook hands with Sonic.

"Good to see you, Sonic Chief. Things aren't going well. Saltana did her best but we never really had a chance."

"A dozen Covenant superior battleships against a single Halcyon-class cruiser;" Said Cortana as if being summoned, appeared on the holotank. "With those odds I'm content with three- make that four kills." She said as an update in her databanks appeared in her mind. Saltana turned around to face Chief. "Sleep well?"

"No thanks to your driving, yes." The Chipmunk gained a smirk.

"So you did miss me." The truth was, Sonic had missed all those close to him. Lasky, Sergeant Knuckles, the Captain, but most definitely his confidant, Sally.

As usual, when Chief would have a moment to ponder, action took place. A loud explosion rocked the bridge, Chief lurched, and the Captain grabbed a pedestal for support. Looking over at Saltana, Thorndyke said,

"Report!"

"It must've been one of their boarding parties, I'd guess an anti-matter charge!"

"Ma'am! Fire Control for the main cannon is offline!" Shouted a fearful Fire Control Officer.

"Captain, the cannon was my last defensive option."

"Alright then," Christopher replied solemnly. "I'm initiating Cole Protocol, Article 2. We're abandoning the Autumn. That means you too, Sally."

"While you do what? Go down with the ship?" She said, having her hands out in exclamation.

"In a matter of speaking. The object we found, I'm going to try and land the Autumn on it."

"With all due respect, Sir, this war already has enough dead heroes." Saltana replied with an edgy voice.

"I appreciate your concern but it's not up to me. Protocol is clear: destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable, and that means you're leaving ship." The Captain explained. "Lock in a selection of emergency landing zones, upload them to my neural-lace, and then sort yourself for a hard transfer." Crossing her arms with hurt in her informative veins, she disappeared with a respectful nod and an "Aye Aye, Sir."

"Which is, where you come in, Chief. Get Saltana off this ship. Keep her safe from the enemy. If they capture her, they'll learn everything: force deployment, weapons research…Mobius."

"I understand." Sonic Chief nodded.

Reappearing, Sally looked to her superior once more.

"The Autumn will continue evasive maneuvers until you imitate a landing sequence. Not that you'll listen, but I'd suggest letting my sub-routine handle the final approach."

"Excellent work, Saltana. Thank you. Are you ready?" Looking around the bridge, sorely going to miss her old days of working here, being her only home, she sighed.

"Yank me." She said sadly with a hint of sarcasm. Captain Thorndyke pushed some buttons and then pulled the data chip out of the holotank, handing it to Sonic, saying.

"Good luck, Sonic Chief." Looking at the chip as he took it, Sonic saw a matrix of information flowing through it. Though while curious, he slid the chip into his neural interface in the back of his helmet that were just below his quills.

"Hmm…your architecture isn't much different from the Autumn's." Saltana said with a twinkle in her smirk.

"Heh, don't get any funny ideas, Sal."


Wow, it's tough to write things sometimes! Even if not your own content! But, I managed, and I think I did pretty well.

*1.- Like my Chip/Light Gaia from Sonic Unleashed reference? :P Was very last minute, had to laugh at the realization of the name! xD Ah, so wonderful…