June 4th 3235
12:50 a.m to 6:00 p.m. (exospace time)
at Kishaw
The Punisher stood silently as the Thunderstrike exited the system in a slipspace sphere. Sally was the first one who motioned to the controls. "We'd better get a move on. We don't want to lose those Emeralds." The automatic jump timer was set to T-minus 15 seconds. That gave the team time to get into a safe position. The timer hit zero and the ship lurched forward as it jumped into slipspace. The complete darkness filled the viewscreen. Sonic looked at a data moniter. "ETA to Kishaw is five hours." He repoted
A ripple of light came over a slightly gray planet. This was Kishaw, the urban planet that the emeralds were being kept. The Punisher slowly went to the largest continent and sent down a pelican. Inside the tiny craft, Sally, Sonic and Ryan were picking up new Marine BRA7 semi-auto rifles. Sally was inspecting the weapon's design, "Slightly aerodynamic, has an optic scope of x5, has a suppressible muzzle too. Nice work, Ryan" She nodded toward Ryan and put on a Marine helmet. Sally worked in the Corps for 6 months, not much of a soldier but had taken a Special Ops weapons exam and worked as a base Warrant Officer. "We're on final approach to the city airstrip." The pilot called. Then his attention came to a street. "What in sweet Alabama's name is going on here?" The street seemed to be under attack of some sort. Local law enforcement was parallel to a bank sheltering themselves under a café's tables and umbrellas. At the bank, Some of oh no, Sally thought Eggman's robots! They were firing at the Police. An artillery bot had launched a mortar at a squad car. The car exploded and several officers were thrown to the ground, the special armor they were wearing cushioning their fall. The pilots told their payload that they wee going to put down a block away where a squad of heavily armed officers were gathering. The police officers aimed their rifles at the pelican. Suddenly, the Captain of them yelled, "Hold fire! That's a Marine dropship!" The pelican's landing gear touched the pavement. The Captain ran out to meet them. "Captain Jack Harrison of Capitol city Police Department" He saluted "Princess Sally Acorn with my company of Sonic the Hedgehog and Ryan Percy." She returned the salute. "What's going on Captain," Sally asked. Harrison replied, "Some freak named Dr. Eggman is attacking the bank to get high security goods from a VIP." Sonic sighed "Eggman again? This joker just doesn't give up." Ryan however, slipped a clip into his rifle with a satisfying clack and brought it to arm's length, "Let's go in there and kick some robot metal all over the place." Sally replied, "I agree, Ryan but we need a strategic movement to get into the facility. First we need to draw the robots' attention away from the entrance and then we…" "Or, we could just use the back door." Sonic said pointing to an unlocked door. Sally went slightly pink. She silently cursed herself for not thinking of it. "C'mon, let's go" She said, motioning them to the door.
Back on the Punisher, Amy was so bored. In fact, she was so bored that she even was temped enough to press random buttons. She pressed one and the ship's buttons that had a small nuclear symbol on it. She never realized that she just launched all 100 of the Punisher's Shiva nuclear tipped missiles. A warning rang out through the ship and Big acted as though it were the end of the world. Amy looked out a viewport and hoped that those missiles wouldn't hit anything important.
20 000 kilometers away, Eggman was sitting in his shuttle's control room sipping some wine. When a giant roar hit, "Damage report!" he yelled. "Everything except the cockpit is crippled and we're moving away. Quick." The head engineer reported. "Looks like we have to get out there and fix this mess." Eggman said rubbing his temple. "Chief engineer Bravo 25 get out there and fix this damage. I, however have to finish my dinner."
The robot walked away muttering: "Humans and their needs! Such a waste of body space!"
Sally went through the door first, turning on the gun-mounted flashlight. Oil and blood were mixed in the walls. Obviously there was a great battle here. Sonic gagged slightly. He never had a strong stomach for blood. He even passed out with fear because he got a paper cut once. Ryan just looked a bit scared since those robots looked tough. Sounds as though they were winning upstairs, though. Once out of the basement, a brigade of robots waited for them, with a mounted turret, they fired at the group. Sally was thinking. "Ryan, toss two pineapples their way!" She shouted. Ryan dropped his weapon and hurled two fragmentation grenades at the turret. An explosion and a satisfying clang of dropping metal followed. "Sonic, take flank." Sally said, tossing him a 44. Magnum. "What does flank mean?" he asked staring at the weapon. "Just get behind us, stupid" She said. "Look out! We're coming toward the high-security vaults." Ryan said looking forward. A robot with a Captain insignia on his shoulder blade walked out of the vault carrying two Chaos Emeralds in a satchel. He just noticed them and pointed two grenadiers that served as guards to them. A knockout grenade caught Sonic directly in the
Rib Cage and fractured three of them. He was down for the count and Ryan was lost in half a dozen smoke grenades. Up to me now! Sally thought. She paced forward with an SMG in her right hand and fired off her load. The weapon shot up as recoil took its toll. The low caliber bullets however, found its mark in a grenadier's weapon and blew both of them to shreds. Ryan found his way out of the smoking frenzy and dragged Sonic to safety. He dragged him out the door and whispered, "My God this guy weighs a ton!" Sally smirked as she marched out the door holstering the SMG. Harrison was firing shotgun bursts at the receding outline of an APC. A giant berzerker robot, a robot that was a towering 7 meters with chain guns on it's hands and rockets in it's shoulders. The robot fired at Harrison. The round punched the human straight in the chest and he was thrown to the nearest squad car running blood. Sonic had just came to at this point and stared around wondering what happened.
Up in space, the Thunderstrike had finished its jump from Thoris. Kunckles said, "Look, guys, It's the Punisher!" It was the overlord jumpship alright. "The team must be planet side" Chris said. "Contact them, son." Johnson said lighting a UNSC brand cigar. "Punisher com station, this is Thunderstrike lead copy, over?" A radio reply came. "I copy, Thunderstrike. This is Com operator Mitch Far. If you want your team, sir, they're on the planet and they seem to be in trouble." "Copy that, Far, Thunderstrike lead, out."
Chris turned around, "we need to get some 'Mechs down there and fast"
Sonic and Ryan were baiting the berserker away while Sally treated Harrison's wound. She wasn't much of a medic but she had studied how to treat bullet wounds. Just then, a shadow came in the sky, a big shadow. Sally realized that it was a 'Mech. "Ryan, Sonic, take cover, let or new friend take care of this." They agreed by running into a nearby doorway. The 'Mech came down feet-first. It was a vulture. The giant heavy 'Mech charged up it's laser cannons and fired, blowing the berserker up quickly. The hulk of the once-threatening robot fell with a mighty crash. "Well, we should thank the Mechwarrior in there, he's a heck of a pilot." Sally said. The pilot had heard this and said. "You already know who I am though." They all recognized the voice. The cockpit of the 'Mech slid up to reveal Chris! "Chris, you're back!" Sonic yelled from their cover. "Did you get an Emerald?" "Oh, we sure did," Chris said slipping a hand into his jacket pocket to pull out the jewel. It sat in his palm with luminous glow. "So, where's everyone?" Ryan asked. "Back on the Thunderstrike." Chris said "I saw on my way down that someone has our jewels?" "Yeah," Sally said pulling Harrison to his feet with a thick bandage wrapped around his injured torso, "OK, you'll live but I wouldn't move too much or you'll risk paralysis." "Gothcha, princess. Thanks for your help, but I have to get some rest as you prescribed." He hobbled off to his squad car and drove off. "I'll vector a pelican to this position, I'll need you to wait here." "OK, good luck getting the Emerald back." Sally said, cutting the com. Chris put the 'Mech in maximum throttle and sped off toward the receding energy trace of the Captain's vehicle. The vehicle in question was a point of APCs, almost each one laced with a ton of C7 explosive charges, I he hit the wrong one, he'd be vaporized and hundreds of innocent people would parish. "Chris, this is Sally." The Princess said into the radio, Try running an active scan using Terra's systems." That could work. Chris thought, Sally silently prayed that her advice would work. Chris punched in a series of commands for an active scan, in 100 seconds, 5 schematics for APCs appeared on the targeting display. "Lock on an LRM to this one." Chris said, indicating the third APC. "Lock found." The computer said. "Sweet dreams, Trashcan." He murmured sweetly as he pulled the trigger.
The missile streaked from its silo gracefully as it advanced to its target, it's aim true, 1000 meters to go…
The robot Captain sat at the diver's seat in the APC as a grunt bot manned the 50. Caliber cannon on its roof. He looked in his satchel at his prizes: A ruby red emerald and a pale blue one. He barely had time to look at the jewels when the missile alarm system had screamed red. By the looks of it, a LRM was approaching at high speeds. There would be no way to dodge it. It was coming. The Captain would smile a sinister and respectful smile if he could, but his faceplate features wouldn't allow it, "Clever, human. We will meet again one day. A gigantic explosion followed and the Captain, the APC and its occupants ceased to exist
A giant explosion told Chris that the missile found its mark. "Target neutralized." he said into his mouthpiece. "Great job, Chris. You'll need to pull salvage duty today too."
Sally said chuckling. "OK, I'll go check it out." The 'Mech was set down and he climbed down a ladder to the charred ground. He walked over with his rifle raised and advanced to the smoldering wreck. There were robot bodies but there was a flame-proof satchel
"B-I-N-G-O" Chris sang as he lifted the satchel out of the APC's wrecked body. Inside sat two Emeralds. Chris was mesmerized at the jewels, never had he held two before. Silently he counted. Three Emeralds, not counting the Master Emerald, Robotnick has Three that means the there's one still out there. Now it all depends on who gets it first.
"Guys, gear up. We need to jump." Chris said into his com. "Where exactly?" Sonic asked. "To see some friends of mine." Chris said. He clicked off the com and waited for the pelican as it silently approached
