"Sweat saves blood."
-Erwin Rommel
2 – Rain and Thunder
November 1, 3238; 1456 hours: Freedom HQ
With the week gone, it was apparent to Tails that what he observed previously was true. Sally's incompetence as a leader was blatantly obvious, as it should have been even to the untrained civilian. It seemed that none of Knothole's leadership knew anything of strategy and tactics, and that bothered the young spy to no end.
He still kept an ear out to his orders, however. As the junior soldier to everyone else in the room, it wouldn't have been wise to ignore any potential instructions. But that did not stop him from rolling his eyes as Sally or Sonic spoke.
"We will continue our campaign against Robotnik's forces." Sally introduced the next topic of discussion, and Tails chose to tune in fully. "In one hour, we will strike one of his outposts, hopefully removing one of his refuel stations and crippling his effectiveness in that region."
"Okay Sal, leave it to me!" Sonic gave a thumbs-up, grinning. "Spin and win time, eh?"
"Of course Sonic," She said, "You're our main artillery here."
That discussion continued back and forth; Tails eyed the speakers back and forth with ennui until he decided to interject. "Sally," He said. "This idea is ludicrous."
Sally eyed him sternly, her eyes narrowing. As it was now obvious, Sally and Tails's relationship had only degraded up to this point. Since their confrontation a week ago Tails noticed that Sally would look at him with anger in her eyes – or perhaps was it disappointment? The young fox did not care either way, however. He loved Sally with all of his heart – he still looked to her as an aunt, but he no longer believed in Sally as a leader. Sally however, over the past week, seemed not to reciprocate that affection.
His blind adoration of Knothole's leadership had faded since that mission. Although always suspicious, his little field experience in war had already erased the child in him and opened his mind to the brutal reality that existed outside of his sheltered home. They always said that war changed people, but was it really that dramatic of a transformation? Of course, the evidence was obvious, and at this point even Tails did not care to debate it.
Sally spoke. "What do you suggest, then, Tails?"
Tails clasped his hands, darkening his gaze and steeling his face as he learned to do, hiding his intent, while at the same time, channeling it with every fiber of his being. He laughed internally. This situation was simply preposterous; what with him treating that which should have been a plan among teammates as a two-faced political squabble where every man concealed his motives, it was only the necessity of doing so that kept Tails's visage impenetrable as it was. "I suggest no other operation, Sally. Rather, I contest this plan because of its stupidity. May I explain?"
"Go on." Rotor actually leaned forward, keen on hearing Tails out. At least he had one potential supporter.
"Surely Rotor, you can see what is wrong with this idea. If we consider Robotnik's vast resources, you'll notice that even if we do manage to destroy a fuel station – a pittance for him, might I add – he will replace everything about it within the week." He looked around him. "We simply cannot cripple a man as powerful and as resourceful as Robotnik. Continuing this fight is simply pointless. Why would we continue to battle like this when NICOLE herself has determined what we all know inside? No amount of effort, no amount of juice and jam, will win us this fight. What we need is to lie in wait, and wait for an opening. Not," he stressed, "vice versa."
"So we just sit around then, and just let him attack us?" Sonic questioned, raising his voice. "Tails, have you lost your mind?"
"Yeah," Bunnie echoed, "We need to hit 'im hard, before he hits us!"
Rotor and Antoine kept their mouths closed, looking at Sally for a response.
"Tails." Sally asked, keeping her voice too even. "Why would you suggest we stop, after all of our efforts?"
Tails sighed, fighting to keep himself from yelling at them. His voice was uncannily mild. "Everyone here, I said wait, not stop. My point is that instead of wasting resources fighting a lost battle, we build our defenses and increase our strength, so that when sufficient time has passed, we are ready to fight and put an end to this. I will tell each and every one of you that that time is not now."
Antoine spoke for the first time. "Qu'est-ce que tu suggères?What eez eet zat we should do, eef we stop?"
"What I'm saying is that we need to build, train, recruit, and innovate. The people in this room constitute the entirety of the Freedom Fighters. We are only seven people, and like it or not, we cannot fight a war, especially against Robotnik, who has who knows how many robots and resources at his beck and call. We can't even get close enough to him to do any sort of lasting damage. We need to hold our cards close to our chest and make him guess."
Tails took a breath and introduced his next topic. "We are completely and totally arrogant to believe that Robotnik is targeting us. Us! A tiny group of people hiding in a forest like scared little animals. We no longer control Mobotropolis. In fact, it is barely a memory. He is not targeting us. But he still has forces in the area. Why is that?"
He paused. Observing everyone's reactions. Realizations came to them slowly, but they did. Tails chose to enunciate anyway to emphasize his point. "Robotnik is targeting something else. Something that will do more to the world than simply our demise. Something that is most likely in the Great Forest along with us. However, that leaves a lot of room for error."
Rotor chimed in. "Are you saying that we take what Robotnik wants?"
"Well, that's going too fast. We still don't know what he wants." Bunnie added.
"Exactly. So, for the time being, until we figure out what it is that he wants, I suggest that we change to an information-gathering stance, not an offensive one like we've been doing for the past few years." Tails crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, satisfied that he had gotten his point through. He eyed Sally for her response.
The squirrel Princess said nothing as the group looked at her for an answer. Finally, she drew a breath and spoke. "We must kill Robotnik, Tails. You forget that we're running out of time."
"How much have we truly accomplished since we began this charade? If our efforts are futile then we are wasting time anyway." Tails argued. "In fact, I can say that ever since the start of this 'campaign'" He wiggled his fingers in the air for effect, "we've been wasting time."
"Nevertheless," Sally cut him off, "The motion will not be carried. Our plans are unchanged. Meeting adjourned." She got up and left the room. Tails did not move.
He was appalled at her idiocy with her decision. Did he not lay out the facts clearly enough? He scowled, before he too rose and stormed out of the meeting room.
When he was outside, Tails wondered about his conversation with Sally in there. He thought that he had made some good points, but in the end Sally chose to use her authority to supersede him. Again, Tails found himself becoming angry at Sally. But, he was confused as well. Not at her, but himself.
Hadn't he blindly followed her until his first mission as well? What had prompted him to change his thinking so radically? Admittedly he did still collect data on her failures, but it wasn't until he went out by himself for the first time that he realized the scale of the situation.
As he continued to confuse himself, he sat down by a tree, gazing at the only place he could remember for his entire life: Knothole. It consisted entirely of a few shabby buildings placed here and there; the most high-tech stuff was situated underground in a hill called Freedom HQ. Tails knew that he was protective of this place. He was protective of his friends. At that point he realized that he didn't want to lose them, especially to their own foolish mistakes. He would prevent that.
"I think it's time for a change in power here." Tails treasonously spoke to himself, looking to the darkening skies.
November 1, 3238; 1537 hours: Foothills north of Robotropolis.
The group used the cover of the rain to their advantage. The squelching their footsteps made in the mud was obscured by the vast cacophony of water hitting the ground. As with the Rannart, trees were sparse in this area, giving way to the tall grasses that remained around Robotropolis.
Life had been extinguished up to twenty miles out in a ring around the former culture center that Mobotropolis once was. The only exception to this was the Great Forest, whose trees began to grow merely a single mile from the walls of that forsaken city. Tails did not know why it happened this way, but it made staging an offense against Robotnik – pitiful as it was – a little easier.
For now he decided he would acquiesce with Sally's authority. It wasn't the time or the place to usurp power. His effort had to be subtle. However, Tails' unique position as a spy and scout helped him immensely in his more underground ambitions. It was a bonus that he had randomly received the PHOENIX handheld from that mysterious character S. The young fox wasn't sure if "friendly correspondent" could be used accurately for S yet. He had yet to send him or her a reply, but he would get to it soon.
For now, though, he had a mission. The group was stationed around one of the larger outposts that Robotnik commanded. Surprisingly, it was made of brick and mortar as opposed to the usual abundance of metal, but Tails supposed that was due to all of the lightning in the area. It stood tall, and had no windows – robots didn't need windows – which made Tails' life all the easier.
Keeping crouched down in the grass, he slinked over to the wall and stopped. Taking a breath, he looked for a point of entry into the building on the wall. Seeing none, he figured that it would be best to enter through the front door.
Now here he was defying orders. He was told by Sally to merely scout the enemy's numbers and any potential threats with NICOLE, and then get out of there and report to her. He had other intentions with this building, however. He had a feeling that whoever built PHOENIX would have allowed it more sophisticated hacking abilities than NICOLE, considering that he knew of Tails' position as a spy, and he was here to bank on that. Besides, he had a new toy to test out.
Moving inconspicuously to the front of the building, he observed the constant stream of mechanical warriors entering in and out. The fox sighed and reached into one of the pouches on his belt, producing a small, pistol-shaped device. Holding it to his chest, he took a breath and slowly made his way around the front, using grass to cover himself, and snuck closer to the front door.
As he expected, once the traffic of robots stopped, the doors shut. He lowered his weapon and tiptoed to the door. Beside it, there was a box for manual entry should Robotnik ever need access. Luckily for Tails, who had significant hacking skills himself, the hashing algorithm that the box employed was easily cracked, and he entered the passcode readily, providing himself with access to the facility.
He clung to the wall and peeked inside of the door. The robots didn't seem to notice that the door had opened, most likely because Robotnik wouldn't want the bother. Most likely, they were programmed to not bother their lord with stuff that he considered trivial. Tails used this to his advantage.
He sidled along the wall inside, avoiding notice, and hid behind a few crates as the door closed. He paused to take in his surroundings. The room was large, and in it laid several larger robots seemingly capable of flight sitting at rest. Most likely, they were able to be deployed remotely in seconds, a thought which scared Tails a little bit. Those guys looked threatening.
He took in the scope of the full hangar; noting the positions of doors and watching the drones stroll about on some sort of business he wasn't aware of. Looking around, ducked behind the crates and booted up PHOENIX.
"Scan the facility and calculate a route to the nearest accessible terminal." Tails whispered.
PHOENIX beeped. "Scanning."
The little machine did its work and soon brought up a holographic 3D display of the area, a line drawn in red indicating the safest route to the terminal. Tails memorized it.
"Enemy patrol routes are unknown." PHOENIX disclaimed. "Caution is advised."
Tails nodded, whispering, "mute." He stowed the device away on his belt and crawled over the boxes. He eyed the robots as he crowned the crates, before nimbly and silently jumping and pulling himself up onto a ledge. He crawled across the opaque surface, watching for cameras up above. Thankfully, there were none eyeing the catwalks that he had managed to climb atop. Tails crawled his way to a vent, and sliding in it, began to descend to one of the outer rooms.
He came to an open area and quietly lifted the grate from over his destination room. He lowered his head in cautiously, looking for cameras, and withdrew it quickly as a sweeping one almost caught him.
"That was close." He mumbled. Tails gripped the pistol on his belt and, remembering how the camera was timed, lowered it in when the camera was facing away. He pressed the trigger, and with a satisfying clunk the camera fell to the ground.
He lowered his head in again, looking for robot patrols, and waited a few minutes before dropping in, seeing that there were none. He got a good look of the room he was in. It was built with only the terminal in it, and a chair. Obviously, this room was meant for human use.
Tails grinned and sat comfortably in the chair. He placed PHOENIX on the desk and spoke to it. "Can you interface with this computer?"
PHOENIX responded. "Yes, Tails."
"Scan over the local systems. Are there any potential exploits?"
PHOENIX sat there scanning for just over a minute. During that time, Tails was slightly nervous that some robot would walk in.
"Scan complete. 3 vulnerabilities found."
"Alrighty then." Miles Prower grinned and lay back in his chair. "Take control of this facility."
November 1, 3238; 1556 hours: One half mile east of the outpost.
The remaining Freedom Fighters sat among the grasses comfortably, discussing battle plans and tactics while they waited for their forward scout to return. The discussion parted occasionally to other, more trivial things, and overall the group enjoyed a lighthearted atmosphere. Except for Sally. It was as they were speaking that Rotor noticed Sally's silence, so he nonchalantly took her aside to converse in private.
Rotor began with no ado. "You're worried about Tails, aren't you?"
Sally sighed. "Sort of. I am confident that he will do just fine. We trained him well after all. I'm just worried that we trained him a little too well."
Rotor blinked. "What?" He frowned. "Sally, are you afraid he's making a play for power after the meeting this morning?"
"I just don't know what to do with him." She admitted. "He made good points but he's forgetting our purpose as Freedom Fighters. We need to strike hard and fast to take Robotnik down. There's no subterfuge involved."
Rotor bowed his head. "There are parts where I do agree with him." The walrus spoke. "But I also accept your point of view. Robotnik is not an enemy to be toyed with and he needs to be brought down as fast as possible. It's just that…" He cut himself off.
"It's just what?" Sally queried.
"I fear he may be right. About our ineffectiveness I mean." Rotor said sadly. "Look, as he said, we've been fighting the same battle for years. All of our moves so far have been relying on purely offense and relying on the cover of the Great Forest as our only defense. It's surprising he hadn't attacked us yet, so I believe that Tails came to the right conclusion that we are not the targets. However, despite what he said, I don't think he's trying to undermine your authority. He's just… questioning it. He's using that brain of his and making strategies. If I can make a recommendation, you should be more open to his thoughts. They're rather astute if I do say so myself." Rotor commented.
"I suppose you're right. I'll try to be more trusting." Sally acquiesced, nodding. Rotor smiled.
"Well it looks like we got company."
Sonic emerged through the grasses. "There you are Sal," He said, "Tails is back."
"Let's hear what he has to say then." Rotor suggested, following Sonic toward the group. Sally stood there for a moment, before sighing and walking with them.
The group convened around a dirt patch as Tails sat down with them. Rotor eyed the fox. He looked rather worse for wear, more so than he should have been for such a simple mission, but otherwise he looked rather comfortable, perhaps even smug.
"So, what did you find then, Tails?" Sonic asked.
"Well," The fox began. "This should be an easy mission. The facility seems to not have very much guard on it right now. I noticed some larger weapons at the outpost, but they have been deactivated and I suspect they are older models. Mind, what are we going to do with this place, exactly?" He asked Sally.
"We are going to disable it as a refueling station, and cut off any fuel lines that go to it."
Tails nodded. "We'll be home for dinner."
November 1, 3238; 1607 hours: The outpost
The group made it to the outpost, and moved close to the wall like Tails told them to. On the way there, Tails discussed with them the things he saw scouting. Of course, he kept the details that didn't pertain to the mission to himself.
"Alright." Tails spoke quietly so as to avoid attention. "Let me get the gate. Tons of baddies are behind this door."
"Alright. Sonic, Bunnie, and Antoine will take care of the SWATbots while Rotor, Tails and I will sabotage the lines." Sally said.
Tails typed in the passcode that he cracked earlier and stood quietly as the gate opened. "Get ready."
"On it." Sonic got into a stance, and then as the gate opened, he ran in to ambush the robots.
Tails himself dashed in after all the others, drawing a pair of rods from his belt as he did so. The robots seemed confused by the sudden attack, but were armed, so they began to fire at the Freedom Fighters. This prompted Sonic to intercept as many as he could by running and smashing them before they could lift their laser pistols.
Tails took a subtler approach, indicating for Sally and Rotor to follow him to where he presumed the fuel lines were. In actuality, once he took control of the facility, he made sure to recognize where everything was located. In doing so, he became able to lead his allies to the incorrect obsolete lines.
After all, it wouldn't do to sabotage your own weapons, would it?
"Righteo." Tails hummed. "According to NICOLE, this would be the location of some fuel lines."
Sally nodded. "Alright. I take it this is the pump?" She asked, indicating to the large cylindrical device in the center of the room, pipes crawling over it like arteries on a heart.
"You guessed right." Rotor said, his mechanical knowledge coming into play. "Although it looks a little old…"
"I figured the same thing when I came into this base." Tails lied. He walked up to the pump and tapped it, dust flying around. "I suppose Robotnik isn't one for renovation or maintenance."
Rotor looked at the machine. "If it isn't broken, don't fix it I suppose. Efficient, if it's not a little bit of a careless mindset." He pulled a door open on the machine and looked at its insides. "Well, it's running. Should I stop it?"
"Make it unusable." Sally ordered. Rotor nodded and put his shears inside, tearing holes in the pipes and rendering them useless, with fuel beginning to leak out.
"Blow it." Sally commanded.
"What? Do you know what you're saying?" Rotor turned. Tails looked at her bewildered.
Sally put her hands on her hips. "Make it explode."
Tails grimaced, hoping desperately that Sally and Rotor didn't catch what he was about to say. "PHOENIX, cut lines to 2A."
PHOENIX beeped.
As Rotor lit the fuel, Sally turned to Tails. "What was that?"
Rotor ran. "We don't have time for that now! Out of here!"
They ran out of the fuel chamber as it ignited, safely behind the safety doors. The trio took a breath of relief as Sally spoke again.
"Tails, what did you say earlier?"
It was time for acting. "Huh? Oh, I said and Robotnik thought he would only have to deal with cut lines." He looked backward. "Not having his pump blown."
Rotor grinned. "That'll take a lot of assets to fix."
Sonic, Bunnie, and Antoine appeared down the hallway. They looked run ragged, Sonic's quills were slightly out of place, Antoine's shirt was torn up in places, and Bunnie was moving considerably slower than normal.
"What happened to you three?" Sally asked.
"No, ze question is, what happened to you?" Antoine replied.
"We heard an explosion, y'all alright?" Bunnie queried.
Tails sighed. "We survived. Although it would have been a little easier if Sally told us beforehand she was going to blow it up. I think a piece of me just died back there." He hissed. Sally looked down.
Rotor put his hands up. "You know what, we're still alive, so that's in the past now. There's no use fighting about it.
Tails pursed his lips as the walrus spoke, choosing to say no more. The mission was indeed accomplished, and it wouldn't do to imply any attachment to the facility, so he merely shrugged. "You're right. Still, I would have appreciated a little warning. Well, I suppose we should get out of here before Robotnik figures out what happened."
Sally merely nodded, motioning for the group to exit. "Mission complete, now let's go back home."
November 1, 3238; 1638 hours: Knothole
Antoine knew this feeling, and hated it. He knew that something big was coming, and he was quite sure that of all of the Freedom Fighters he was the least prepared, even less so than, he hated to admit, Tails, who joined the force fully a week ago.
He was a coward and he knew it. The Antoine everyone was familiar with here did not match with the General d'Coolette of the Acorn Army – his father, who died on the battlefield with glory and honor. No, Antoine was merely a shadow of his father, one who was born not with the potential to match or exceed his father, but rather only to stare at him through the glass ceiling that separated his father from him by leaps and bounds.
He sat down by a tree, taking in the smells for a moment, and resolved for today to forget about the war, if only for an hour, just to relish in the peace that existed here and to pretend that it was the only thing left. The clouds that had covered the sky before had long since cleared up and now the sun bathed the area on soothing light. He closed his eyes and imagined that everything else didn't exist.
"Antoine, what're ya doin' here?" A voice spoke with a familiar twang. He recognized it immediately of course, he and Bunnie had gotten rather close over the past few years.
"Just taking in the… 'ow do you say it, ze scene?" Antoine tried, not bothering to be accurate.
Bunnie sat beside him, making herself comfortable. "It's scenery, Sugar-twan." She leaned back on the trunk, seeing exactly why he had come. "Sure is beautiful though. What made ya come here? 'Sides the scenery Ah mean."
Antoine sighed. "Eh… Just wondering about my place 'eere."
"Aww." She cooed, "Yer not sad, are ya? It's okay."
"I am a coward." He said, looking up. "Whenever zere is a fight, I run away. I cannot match zis bravery zat you all 'ave. Even Tails, who is 9 years my junior…"
"Look, sugar." She said. "Look here. You have yer place here just as everyone, yer an important part of this group too. Just cuz yer different don't mean that yer any less important, kay? Yer a special person too, ya just have to look 'n see it for yerself."
"I suppose." He mumbled. "I suspect zat zis war is just getting to my 'ead."
"This war's affecting all of us." Bunnie commented. "We wish for things ta go back to normal but they don't, so we gotta make 'em."
"Yes, you're right. It's just been… certain events that 'ave been 'appening."
"Ya mean with Tails?"
"Yes… no! Euh… 'ow do I say it? Ze boy is nice, but he's a little…"
"Y'all are suspicious of him, aren't ya?"
"'Ow can I not be?" Antoine asked. "He joins our forces for but a week and suddenly knows everything!"
Bunnie sighed. "Look, he's just questioning things because he just joined the force. He'll understand why we do what we do after he works with us for a while. Ah mean, it's not like Sally didn't think of what he said. What we're doin' is better."
"Eh… I don't zink I'm so sure…" Antoine got up and walked away. Bunnie sat down and sighed.
"Where has the trust gone?"
November 1, 3238; 2245 hours: Knothole
After pouring himself some tea, the young fox sat again in his chair and leaned back in it, looking over the "Operation Documents." He thought about the past mission and what it meant for the war. As he wrote down the events as they occurred, came across a certain line that had been scrawled in before.
…Sally tends to be even more reckless than Sonic, her orders reek of desperation rather than a calm, tactical mind, and she conducts her missions as raids rather than true operations…
He circled the word reckless and sighed. He sipped his tea. What was he supposed to do about this situation? He flipped through several pages and scanned over each document. There was nothing more he could put together. He was under the power of an ineffective leader whose morals guided her the wrong way, and that seemed to be all.
His eyes shot open and he pulled PHOENIX from his pocket. "PHOENIX, power on."
The device chimed. "Hello Tails. What do you need?"
"How can I contact S?"
The screen flashed and a black field came up. "I will transcribe your speech to be sent to S."
"Perfect. Begin recording:"
S,
It is good to contact you. I would be more than willing to enter an agreement for information. First, I must thank you for PHOENIX. It has been invaluable to me for this past week. However, I find myself in a conundrum now, and considering your potentially much vaster information resources, I would like to borrow some advice about how to proceed.
Today, at approximately 1530 hours, the Freedom Fighters conducted a raid on an outpost controlled by Robotnik. However, what they don't know is that I used PHOENIX to take control of the base for myself. I have begun to move behind their backs because I believe that the Freedom Fighters have an ineffective leadership, and if I wish to do any real damage to Robotnik and his forces, I will be forced to do so without their help.
If you could spare some advice about how to proceed, I would be most grateful.
Yours truly,
Miles Prower
Tails nodded, before ordering PHOENIX to send it and then shut down. After that, the young fox finished his tea before going to bed.