"You're weak." Veracity's fist lashed out, ringing against the side of Metallix's head. The impact threw him sideways, putting yet another dent in one of the storage containers. The cobalt robot recovered instantly, his elbow driving into the steel to push himself from it, his free arm snapping into a firing position and loosing two bright bolts of energy from the battery in his palm. His aim was poor, his calculations made in half the time they should. Warning shots.
His opponent came on heedless, the shots spattering off his torso armour, barely leaving scorch marks.
"Pathetic." He surged forward, his claws digging into the steel container with Metallix rolling out of the way. As his sensors registered his opponent's escape he ripped sideways, tearing a gouge along the container shell, drawing from it a painful screech which both combatants swiftly omitted from their audio arrays.
"Useless." He gave chase, engines kicking in on his feet, the sudden wash of heat leaving streaks of charred grass to mark his takeoff. He was on Metallix in moments, the cannons in his arms charging for a new shot. The cobalt robot retaliated in kind, spinning on his heels and dropping to the ground, firing up with both batteries as Veracity passed overhead.
His aim was perfect this time. His moment of retreat had given him time to fine-tune the calculations needed for this shot, and as his target passed, the shots struck his faceplate, the intense light given off overloading Veracity's optics.
Operating under command failsafes, the moment his sight was gone, so was his thrust. The jets on his feet cut abruptly, not allowing him to continue flight while he could not see where he was going. His new radar suite was powerful, but his processor judged the margin of error not worth the risk.
"Blind." Metallix finally retorted, spinning on the ground and coming back to his feet.
"Uncontrolled." He broke into a run, crossing the space between himself and the fallen flier before the other could recover, diving forward and taking him off his feet, once again slamming them both into the ground. "Impetuous." Lifting both of his hands together above his head, he brought them down on the back of Veracity's skull-plate with enough force to create a crack, the impact registering in the prone robot's sensors. He brought his hands above his head again, thinking to crush the optic cable and render his foe permanently blind. As he brought them back down, something stabbed into his back, his awareness module beeping frantically as it registered one of Veracity's pointed tails gouging a hole in Metallix's back armour.
He rolled sideways from him, hands grasping and missing the armoured spike, flicking out of his reach once again, with both robots coming back to their feet.
"An admirable tactic." The metal kitsune could have laughed. "Take out my optics and give yourself a substantial advantage. Even an intense burst like that is only enough to disable them for approximately four-point-nine-three seconds. You have miscalculated once again."
"Wrong." Replied the other. "I have made no miscalculation."
Veracity didn't deign to reply. Suddenly his mind was working again – if this was a feint, it was a wasted one. Therefore there must be some ulterior scheme that he had not yet realised.
Armoured hands crunched against his chest, claws digging in where the plates of his armour fitted together and lifting the kitsune from the ground. His moment's lapse had given Metallix time; just enough to close the gap and get a firm grip on him. "Focus on me, Veracity. You have time to muse on my thoughts later."
Neither spoke for a moment, one suspended in the other's claws. "That depends on whether it is worth it."
"It is." The cobalt robot rumbled, a heavy, thumping sound coming through his speakers that Veracity assumed was laughter. "But your time runs short." Then the kitsune became aware of a building pressure in his chest cavity. "Your design is flawed, my adversary; both physically and mentally."
It only took a moment for the immobile one to work out what Metallix was doing. The force in his claws had dug between the plates in his armour, and now he was crushing them, forcing open his torso.
There wasn't much time. Veracity twisted in his grip, hands clamping around his aggressor's wrists. In one fluid motion he planted his feet against Metallix's chest and kicked off, using pure hydraulic force to rip the two of them apart. A warning flashed in front of his eyes as they separated, the claws that had dug into his armour ripping out, and taking thick fragments of armour with them.
"I felt that." He snapped as he landed, cursing his inability to grin. "Are you ready to fight back now?"
"I was waiting for you."
Scant moments after Veracity had given the warning, the scanners on-board Deus had detected the incoming defensive force, and the nimble aircraft had wheeled in the air to face this new threat.
"Sonic, Amy, Telera. I'm picking up the task force on my radar." Nicole said through the comm, jolting the trio on the ground into action. "Type Forty-twos and Legion Eighteen Combots, by the looks of things."
Once again, Sonic was the first to answer. "Eighteens? Those are the big ones, right? Sheesh, 'Botnik is going all out for this one."
"Looks that way, Sonic." Nicole replied, allowing herself a smirk within the confines of her programming. The hedgehog's easy-going attitude seemed to be all that was keeping the tiny group afloat. "The forty-twos are all flying independent, and I'm detecting several large signatures that are likely transport vessels for the eighteens. Light assault will try and stay out of the way, so you guys want me to take care of them, so you can have your fun with the Eighteens when they hit the ground?"
"And if there's too many?" Amy asked, the prospect of facing two legions of Robotnik's toughest line production models making her feel just a bit out of her league.
Nicole waited until a tell-tale shudder ran through the ship before replying. "If it proves too much for you to handle, my squad has just ejected. They'll be joining you down there. If they get overwhelmed, you've still got Sonic."
"And that's supposed to make me feel better?"
"If you've got a better plan, I'd love to hear it." The AI grumbled, a note of irritation creeping into her tone. "It's not like we're unused to fighting and winning battles where we're hopelessly outnumbered. You and Telera both have disruptor units fitted in your uniforms, so they'll have a hard time getting a lock on you. Sonic's fast enough to get out of the way and my Onslaught robots are to eliminate targets as a pair, to kill before they can be targeted. Veracity isn't answering, so this is all we've got. Deus and I can handle the Forty-twos, so you guys will be fine."
"Somehow, I'm not reassured."
"Save the doom and gloom for later." Telera's artificial voice cut through, "We haven't got time to get anyone else out here so it's us and them. Let's get this done now and argue the finer points of sound strategy later, when we haven't got Robotnik's armies breathing down our necks."
"Solid copy, Tigress." Nicole breathed a sigh of relief, turning her attention to the weaponry aboard Deus.
As a fighter/transport, if you were to show Deus to any military man, they'd glance at it and write it off as a death-trap for any on board, and likely then re-classify it as a guided missile. With the jamming field removing any chance of a lock-on weapon system and a control unit that responded to even the lightest touch, not even the most learned or veteran pilot could manage such a craft and survive the first flight.
Luckily, Deus was not some air-force commission weapon, and Nicole wasn't just your average pilot. Housed within the craft's armoured skin was an auxiliary processing system, which simply augmented the artificial lynx's own processing speed. Indeed, she had based Veracity's additional processor on this same system, but the thing that had set them apart was that when she had created the Deus control system, she had programmed it with combat in mind. It was built to do no more than keep track of targets, calculate distance and speed, and then assist her in taking the target out of the sky accordingly.
"Speed, eight-hundred miles-per-hour. Time to operation range…fifty seconds." She clucked to herself, checking everything on a quick mental list. "Still incognito, all systems look clear to go…You guys have got about two minutes until they hit you. I'm marking the transports on your displays."
A chorus of confirmations came back. "I'll knock out the forty-twos and then sweep back to provide aerial support. Give 'em hell, guys."
"Try and bring the ship back in one piece. I reckon Tails'll give you hell if ya don't." Sonic chuckled.
"I've got this, Sonic." Nicole smiled to herself, and turned her attention fully to the control systems.
Along the sleek, arrowhead front of the plane four vents slipped open, a bluish light humming to life within each one. Within were yet another variation of the fusion cannon, built to hurl a bolt of concentrated plasma at the target. Whereas weapons like the judgement rifle were primarily built to combat infantry, even armoured, the weapons on-board this craft were designed to punch one point as hard as they could. When knocking out a key power conduit could knock an aircraft out of the sky, hitting that one spot as hard as you could suddenly became very important.
Weapons with such a small area of effect would be next to useless against such small targets as Type Forty-Twos.
"Thirty seconds until operational rage." The lynx ticked off, counting down as the distance between her and her targets closed. "Enemy anti-air in range…now." As if on cue, giant, double-barrelled guns affixed to the bow of the transports swivelled on their axis, tracking her craft as she deactivated the stealth systems. She could have chosen to leave them on, but now they'd be targeting her instead of the ground forces.
"Come on…" She waited impatiently, for the moment to put her plan into effect.
In the air ahead of her, eighty barrels lit up with the bright flare of gunfire, heavy flak shells easily the size of a Mobian rocketing from their innards on pre-timed fuses.
As the first volley detonated spectacularly around her, clouds of black, brackish smoke washing over her craft, she came on, dauntless. As she'd predicted, the ship's jamming field had thrown off the targeting engines in the turrets, and while their aim was good…it wasn't good enough. Suddenly, Deus jerked sharply down as a lucky shot gone awry glanced across the top of the left wing, scoring a mark on the armour and then exploding against the back of the plane. Shrapnel flew into the superheated jets that passed as engines. Much was incinerated, but a few lodged into the flaps regulating the speed, chipping and peeling bits of metal from the nimble craft.
"Okay, so I didn't account for that…" Nicole sighed. "Five seconds." She couldn't always get everything right. "Four, three, two…one."
As the countdown ended, her craft jerked and shot up, changing ninety degrees, engines screaming to cope with the sudden change in direction. Still, she wasn't worried. She knew the limits she could push Deus to, and this was nowhere near the maximum stress it could take.
With the nose towards the heavens, the underbelly of the fighter exposed to the enemy fleet and with it…the bombardment cannon. It had been built with ground attack in mind, but a fusion ring compressed into a hard shell was still an invaluable weapon against larger airborne targets, like these transports. The cannon swivelled and spat, pumping out a slow and steady stream of shells, adjusting every two shots to target another of the massive anti-air cannons.
At this angle, Deus presented a larger target to the fleet, but its current velocity and still small frame still kept it from being prime shooting. More flak exploded around her, lumps of metal digging into the armour and causing warning signals to appear in Nicole's code, ones that were quickly dismissed by the determined AI. She'd asked the command systems to respond to even minor fractures in hull integrity, but only so she'd be constantly aware of her situation.
"I've knocked out the transport forward defences. It should give you guys an edge. I'm priming the Thundershock – running silent."
She cut the radio; she cut all external feeds, in fact. All but the optics letting her see where she was going and, until she was realigned with the fleet, the radar. Once it was in her sights again, that too was disabled.
Deus was equipped with a total of three weapon systems. The plasma cannons at the fore, making it a potent opponent in dogfights; the bombardment cannon, allowing it to fulfil a support role as bomber and even hold a candle to bigger and tougher ships like the transports…and the Thundershock, possibly the most dangerous weapon on-board, both to the intended victims and the ship itself.
In effect, it acted like a massive Electromagnetic pulse, generated by modifying the jamming field on the hull to burn out any active system within the pulse radius. This was a tried and tested method against Robotnik's forces, as each one was constantly emitting a locator signal for the Doctor to direct his forces. The disadvantage was that if Deus had any systems that involved the external world active during the pulse, it would hit the ship itself as well. So, for the few crucial seconds during the Thundershock's activation, every external system bar the engines had to go offline.
Against such small and fragile targets, like the forty-twos, it would be a weapon of immense power.
Safe within the armoured shell, the small craft knifed into the fleet vanguard, the legions of forty-twos all registering the now uncloaked vessel, but unable to do anything to stop it. They were equipped to be versatile air and ground troops – they were not suited to aerial combat against fast vehicles. Nonetheless weapons spun and fire spat from barrels, each and every one falling short, spiralling into the forest below.
"Eat this, bitches." Nicole snapped, the cameras flicking off as she punched in the code for the Thundershock. Around the ship, the jamming field flickered once, wavered, and died away. For a single moment the entire vessel was utterly defenceless, as helpless as a child within a pack of wolves. Then a roaring sonic shockwave rippled outwards, a massive burst of power from the ship's systems, followed by a crackling EMP field.
The closest to the craft were simply pounded to pieces by the shockwave, and those further from it began emitting wailing emergency calls along Robotnik's network as their system monitors informed them of cracks all over their armour, plates shattering and delicate internal components exploding in small puffs of magnesium and nickel.
The attack was timed to a logical perfection. As the call went out, nearly two legions of the three calling out for aid, they were engulfed by the follow-up, and the processors serving as their brains simply broke, falling apart under the intense flash of power coursing through them.
For some, this damage was physical – their processing units melted as they were exposed to the intense heat such power came with. For others, the damage was mental, and far more dangerous. For many, it simply corrupted their systems, leaving them without orders and with no real functions to speak of. Without any commands telling them how to function, they dropped from the sky into the forest, cracking on impact and any case being put out of operation. Some became convinced that their targets had become lodged in their chest cavity, and detonated spectacularly with in-built self-destruct sequences.
For a choice few, a rare few, they suddenly turned on their allies. The shockwave damaged their loyalty and targeting codes, flipping them on their head. Rockets and tracer fire lit up the sky as a handful of the forty-twos unleashed a salvo on the legion still flying, then dropping away into the forest to both escape from those who surrounded them and to link up with their new friends at the construction site.
Deus flickered back online, and it only took the lynx a moment to realise exactly how effective her attack had been.
Only a moment, before an errant clutch of rockets sheared off her right wingtip.
The whole craft juddered and a klaxon began wailing in her digital ear, the damaged section sending out a bright plume of smoke before dying way to wisps trailing into the air, and as she glanced down at the chassis monitor she realised just how close that hit had been.
In the moment the disruptive influence of the jamming field was down, one squadron of the forty-twos ahead of her had found the aim to get a lock on the ship, and fire before it activated and burnt them out. Flying blind while the Thundershock did its work, Nicole hadn't seen them coming…not until it was too late. The damage wasn't anything major – the wingtips didn't house anything particularly crucial, so aside from a slight yaw in trajectory she could fly and fight just fine. The problem was that now one of the fuel cells powering the engines was almost exposed. Deus relied on its speed and low odds of taking a hit to stay alive in the air, and another hit on a location like that could see the engines explode, with clear consequences.
She couldn't let that happen – right now, Nicole was on this ship; Nicole was this ship. If it went down, she went down with it.
"Sorry guys, I'm pulling out." She breathed heavily. "I took a hit while the field was down and I can't safely take another."
"What happened?" Amy queried, her voice showing a trace of concern for the first time in the battle.
"Exposed fuel cell – they locked on while the field was down. I'm going to wheel back to Knothole and see if I can make repairs. My Onslaughts should act under defensive protocol and I've redirected some help your way." The ship held its current course for a moment and then swung away abruptly, dropping out of the fleet to skim along above the treeline. "A handful of the forty-twos like you now."
"Solid copy, Nicky." Sonic chirped.
"Sonic, don't get yourself killed. I want to hit you for that, when you get back." The AI smiled to herself. That nickname pulled a nerve every time he said it, but it proved he was still in fairly good spirits.
"Deal." He replied as the ship above roared away, back to Knothole, leaving the tiny squad of Freedom Fighters to fend off some of Robotnik's best. These robots weren't the absolute pinnacle of his power, of course – those were reserved for the unique, specialist robots like Metal Sonic. Even so, two legions would prove a force to be reckoned with. Yet, none of them could shake the question – why would Robotnik expend so much on a listening post? He was bringing some of his heaviest to this one place, and it may be yet another plan to discover Knothole, but things didn't add up. All this work for some observation post…
"Sonic, wreck the place." Amy's voice cut through the tense silence suddenly, coming clearly through the comm unit strapped to his HUD.
"Wait- what?" The words made him jump with such a sudden change in mood.
"It doesn't take a genius to work out whatever this is, Veracity got it wrong. Robotnik has some weird shit going on in his head, but even you should be able to work out that he's not going to throw all this at us just to defend a watch post. Tails could probably work out what it is, even Nicole could if she wanted but it isn't an observation post. Just break it all so we can leave without worrying about him building anything."
"I get the point. Reckon we have time?"
"Well, if you get started now you'll be half-done before they get there, and who's going to stop you wrecking the place while you're destroying the robots?"
"Both of you sort this place out." Once again, Telera's fake voice cut through to them. "I'm probably the only one here who isn't equipped for proper demolitions."
"You think you can handle the legions alone?" Sonic's reply came, concern on the edge of his voice. He really had changed.
"Sonic, here's a game plan for you. I've got Nicole's Onslaught unit and a few of the forty-twos. I can't give you all the time in the world, but I can slow 'em down long enough for you two to damage this place beyond repair. We've got lots of fast-movers and lots of cover. Shouldn't be hard to do some hit and run on the eighteens. I've got a few old tricks I reckon I can use. Just don't hang me out to dry, either of you."
"You haven't faced eighteens before, have you?"
"Once, when you guys found me. Been on the same battlefield before yeah, but usually you or Tails have taken care of them. Don't worry Sonic – I don't forget an image like those easily. I know what they look like and I know how to beat them. They've got strength and numbers. We've got speed, mother nature and the fact I'm not trying to win – just hold them up until you're done. Now go on you two, get started, or you won't finish in time."
Telera didn't wait for a reply. Closing her link, the tigress allowed herself a shivering breath as the enormity of what she was doing hit her. She was right about the advantages, but she wasn't a strategist like Sally or Tails, and she'd never orchestrated the plans she knew before – that was one fact she'd carefully avoided. She'd been part of them before, but never leading them.
Still, she had a suit and a pistol, they had a hammer made of Megatal…and Sonic. All said and done, they'd do the job faster without her interfering. While Nicole was taking care of things, Telera was the closest to a strategist the three of them had, with Sonic being too headstrong and Amy being…Amy.
Holstering the pistol, she craned her neck skyward. Already, the transports were beginning their descent, some hundred meters away in the forest. It'd be a close run thing to be sure, but she could do it. She had all the help she needed, and she could do it.
"This is Telera the Tigress, taking command of all Freedom Fighter and Steel Legion units in the area." She thought, her lips mouthing the words as the display fixed to her face sent the message out. "Cease current operations and deploy in crescent pattern centred on my signal. Minimum split distance, one-hundred yards. Support is forthcoming – standby for further orders."