Chapter 11: Time to Act

Camped just fifty miles outside of enemy lines, Knuckles sighed, putting down his ink pen as he read the letter one more time.

To my dear beloved Rouge:

If you still live, and should you ever by chance read this letter, know that I march to my death, with a proud, stubborn heart. If by some miracle I survive this battle, and we live through this war, then I hope we enjoy the many years left of our lives with harmony and bliss. Yet you and I know that this is not possible. I reflect on the time we shared, and it was not long enough. Yet do not grieve on the length, but rejoice in the depth that it created in a single, short day.

~Knuckles

He placed the letter in an envelope, and walked out of the encampment. "Sir, the enemies already trying to surround us," One of his spies reported. "It is too late to run."

Knuckles looked at the letter in his hand, and then glanced upon his men. Captain Vector, standing proudly in front of him, Charmy, the only one with a grin, Espio, looking far ahead, where the enemy lay, waiting, and Mighty, looking bloodthirsty. The other soldiers, not as experienced or renown, knew that this was the end. To Knuckle's surprise, most had looks of grim determination, not fear. They had accepted death.

Knuckles sighed, and then approached the chameleon. "Espio… I need you leave the battlefield. I need you to deliver this letter back the Rebel Camp."

"But battle could start at any moment!" Espio protested. "I wouldn't get back in time to help you!"

"I know." Knuckles told him. He put a hand on the stunned Espio's shoulder. "Today's not your day to die."

Espio's eyes widened. "Knuckles, I'm as ready as the rest. Let me fight with you."

"No."

"Sir…"

"No. Go back, Espio. The greatest honor you can give me is getting this envelope to the base. There's two letters inside. One's for Amy, and the other… is for Rouge." He told him.

Understanding finally hit Espio. The other soldiers looked at him. Some were disappointed; a few smiled, but most were too preoccupied with their own thoughts to care much about Espio leaving. Espio bowed politely, took Knuckle's letter, and with a wisp of the wind, was gone from sight. Knuckles could hear him step away from the camp, and then nothing at all.

The red echidna turned back to his men, about to give them a few words of encouragement, when the first bombardment came.

"Take cover!" Knuckles ordered his troops. The army of five hundred soldiers quickly moved, some crawling to a low position. The sharpshooters, lead by Charmy, moved in to attempt to knock any soldiers moving close up.

"Fire the laser cannons!" Knuckles roared to Mighty. The large armadillo saluted, and repeated the order to the artillery handlers. A blast of hot, electric energy soared through the air, burning trees as it landed.

Soldiers in mass numbers were appearing in the forests. Hundreds and hundreds were seemingly pouring in, and the sharpshooters moved quickly to reload, machine gunners started roaring their guns. Knuckles watched one of his men get picked up by a sniper. He fell painfully, dead, his hand slowly falling to the ground. He noticed bits of another soldier fly up into a tree as another cannon blast slammed into the ground, not too far from Knuckles.

They were under five hundred men now. "Through the smoke grenades, put on your enhanced vision goggles!" He ordered his men.

Blasts of grey mist filled the battlefield, which Knuckles knew would temporarily slow the men down. With their goggles on, however, they could see right through the mist. "Mow them down! Mow them down!"

It was Rebel Mobian vs. Mobians loyal to Balthazar and her robotic monsters. A giant, ant like machine approached them, firing lasers from where its antenna were.

Mighty, smiling at the challenge, moved the nozzle of the laser cannon, aiming it just right. "Fire!" He ordered the artillery operators.

The laser cannon arched through the air, just over the ant machine, and then falling right on the center of its back. The shot went right through the machine, and the ant fell to the ground, unoperational.

Knuckle's troops cheered, but then they turned around, as they noticed they were being swarmed by men on all sides.

Balthazar's generals, Knuckles knew, didn't care how many men they lost. They just kept sending them. They kept inching closer and closer, the number of casualties, Knuckles knew, were in the thousands. Knuckles was glad he wasn't going to live through this. This was a massacre. Fighting Eggman was one thing… but Balthazar was a Mobian, leading a bunch of Mobians against rebel Mobians.

A fight of Democracy vs. Absolute Monarchy. Knuckles knew they would lose.

A machine gunner fell to the ground, hit by a laser from a soldier's rifle. Another soldier was hit with an old fashioned bullet, cringing to the ground. A whole group was simply incinerated by a flaming motar shell, bursting the area around them in an inferno.

The battlefield was getting hot. Corpses were everywhere, severed heads, arms, legs, blood. Knuckles would have wept in fear, until he thought of Rouge. If she was dead… he knew who to blame.

He picked up a gun from a dead soldier, and started firing. Soldiers just fell from his bullet. He had lost it now, just firing like crazy.

Captain Vector was breathing heavily on the ground, cringing in agony as death slowly took him over. A huge shell of mortar had slammed into his chest. A soldier of Balthazar's stepped over him, slamming his head with the butt of his rifle to end his pain.

Charmy was hit by another sharpshooter's shot. He was down for ever. Knuckles, too, got hit by a shot by a sniper, but it wasn't enough. Grabbing the fallen Charmy's rifle, he aimed, and fired back at the sniper. The soldier would never fire at anyone again.

Knuckles whirled around, noticing his laser cannon, along with its operators and mighty, enflamed. They ran toward the enemy, bursting in flame a couple enemy soldiers, before finally falling down in pain from the biting tongue of fire.

Another shot hit Knuckles, and now he fell to the ground. As he lay there, his side roaring with pain, he looked into the eyes of a dead soldier. They were opened, and there was a star-shaped hole in one of them. Soon, he didn't see dead soldiers at all, but the face of Rouge. Was he going to heaven?

Then the face of the dead soldier came back into his vision, and then it slowly darkened…

A/N: Wow… that was probably one of the more bloody scenes I've ever written…