Chapter 21: Search and Destroy

June 29th, 3234, 1121 hours

Castle Acorn

Mobius

Vice Admiral Andsworth walked down the hallways of the castle leading to Ops. He had just instructed his men to abruptly force Commander Harper's group to disengage their landing on Mobius and retreat to Low Orbit. He palmed the biometric scanner on the door leading to Ops. It glowed green and he walked in. "You think Harper will be angry we ordered him to pull back?" King Max said behind him. "He might, but what's he going to do about it? I am the highest ranking naval officer on this planet and anywhere within the vicinity of 600,000 kilometers."

He walked over to a COM station. A dark skinned human with the name 'Al Fulani' stitched into her uniform tapped several commands to UNSC garrisons that were being sent all over the planet. A single golden bar was on her shoulder. "Excuse me, Ensign." He said. Al Fulani looked over her shoulder and stood to. She snapped a quick salute. "Good morning sir." She said in a lightly accented voice. "What can I do for you?" Andsworth said, "You can try to raise the Yuri Gagarin on the COM. I need to speak with Commander Harper."

Al Fulani nodded and sat back down. She tapped in a computer command and put on headphones. "UNSC Yuri Gagarin, this is Castle Acorn. Do you copy?" A slight mumbling was heard in the headphones. Max's ears twitched as he picked up the noise. "This is Ensign Al Fulani of Ops. Vice Admiral Andsworth requests a conversation with Commander Harper." A few seconds later, the Ensign said, "You're good. He requests an Audio/Video conference though." Gerome nodded. "Bring him up." She said, "Yes sir. Stand by for picture."

Commander Chester Harper appeared on the screen. A man of forty-five who sported an amazing scar on his left cheek sat in the command chair slightly annoyed. "Admiral? I'd like to know why I was requested to pull my ships back into orbit. Lieutenant-Commanders Calucci and Patterson are not pleased with this jurisdiction." "I am afraid they have no choice, Commander. I am the ranking officer here. When I give an order, I expect you to obey." Harper snarled slightly, but then recomposed himself. "Commander I apologize if I deprived you of a sightseeing adventure, but this is serious." "Oh really? Do tell, my entire crew is listening."

Andsworh frowned behind his moustache. He really didn't like the ire that was in Harper's voice. "I trust you've heard of Doctor Julian Kintobor?" Harper leaned back and relaxed slightly. "Yeah. When Her Highness landed on Earth that was the first thing she brought up." "Well, we recently received Intel that he is amassing a large fleet through a mobile factory." Harper nodded. Mobile factories were quite common in UNSC Inner and Core Worlds. These ranged from space platforms which essentially were factories with engines, floating boat-like factories, rare flying factories to the even more rare mobile land factories. "Do you know which one he's using, sir?" "No clue, but according to the information that was supplied to us, we have to take a stab at the possibility of a flying factory. He's used air and space combat very much thus far. Harper nodded. "I see. Do you know where the factory's going to be, sir?" Andwsworth shrugged. "It could be anywhere as of now. Although we have a clue." He passed the slip of paper to Al Fulani. "Upload this." He ordered her.

The mysterious coordinates appeared on Harper's screen. He mouthed out the numbers as they appeared. "These put it…hang on…" He consulted his NAV officer and asked him to bring up a map of Earth. "…this puts it over Carson City, Nevada. On Earth, it's a city of a few hundred thousand. Here, I'd assume that it's just an empty desert."

Max turned to a crewman named Daniels and asked. "Bring up the satellite image of Mobius. Real time, if you please." Daniels nodded. "Yes sir, on it sir." A blue ball appeared. It was Mobius. It was being observed by a STARS satellite usually used for tactical purposes. The STARS satellite was as big as a baseball but it had the operating capacity of a supercomputer. The image zoomed in on the coordinates and all they saw was barren sand, but a small pool of water surrounded by green: A desert oasis. "Nothing there, your highness." Daniels reported looking over his shoulder. Max wasn't about to give up yet. "Zoom out, crewman. Keep pulling back until I tell you."

The image went out farther and the land became less detailed. By the time the lower cloud layer was visible, Max saw it. "Stop! Focus on the object in the top left corner!" Daniels nodded and scrolled the image with his mouse. He zoomed in on the object.

It was huge, larger than the Egg Cruiser, larger than the Indomitable, larger than anything they had ever seen. A 10 kilometer long blue whale glided over the land. It was painted in the usual red, yellow and black of Doctor Robotnik. Drive emissions were barely visible which suggested that if she was indeed moving, it was at a snail pace. "Got him." King Max said. Andsworth walked over. "Good Lord. How large is that thing?" Daniels factored in the numbers. He winced as he said the answer. "Ten kilometers, longer than the Indomitable…or anything we have in the fleet!" "Go to thermal vision." Andsworth said. "A ship that size has to be hiding something." The STARS probe shifted filters and showed them something that sent shivers down all of their spines.

The engines themselves pulsed bright red, indicating lots of heat output. There was dark purple on the surrounding hull but near the center, hundreds of tiny red flares showed. "Holy Shit." Daniels said in shock. Those words sounded 110 percent accurate to Gerome. This giant ship was building a whole fleet of smaller ships. If he decided to attack Earth, there wouldn't be enough time to gather all the fleet's vessels to defend them. They would be decimated. No, eradicated.

"You know what we have to do, Harper." Andsworth said sitting in a free chair and pushing his fingertips together. "With all due respect, admiral, that's out of the question." "Oh? Why is that?" Harper huffed in amusement. "Do the math, sir. Three frigates plus a supercarrier against all of those ships seems like a suicide run." "You have my ships…" Max said in a low voice. "Your highness, your ships-" "Stop talking right now!" Max said looking straight at the stunned Commander. "Mr. Harper, my ships are crewed by the best men and women that I have personally met. I am proud to have them watching over my skies. They may not be much compared to you, but they will fight until the last man stops breathing. Is that clear, Commander!?" Harper gulped, which was audible over the COM. "I may have been a bit out of line." "It appears so." Max said deathly even-toned.

"Uh…how are we going to attack this thing then? As I indicated earlier we are no match for it. If you get close, it's sure to spot you. A million ton starship is something you don't tend to miss." "You likewise have no chance." Max pointed out. "Three frigates would be like trying to kill a giant with a needle." Andsworth had an idea. "But even a giant can fall from even the smallest force." "Are you suggesting-" "Yes and no. I'll get back to you, Commander." "Yes sir." The screen blanked.

"Give me the basic outline for the ship." Andsworth ordered a vulpine crewman. She nodded and turned to the holographic projector, a jury-rigged holotank surrounded by a fancy body. It had been constructed on short notice but she served her purpose well. A rough image of the monster factory appeared hovering a foot over the projector. It rotated slightly as they observed it. "You see this?" Andsworth said pointing to a coning spire near the back of the ship. "What's that? COM dish?" Max asked. "Precisely. Eggman thinks he's king of the world with this thing. Why would he bother to try and keep his vital communication systems on the inside of his ship?"

"I see! We land ODSTs on the top of the ship; disable the COMs and Radar so we can send in a larger force!" "Excellent thinking, Max! I believe Commander Harper or one of his associates wouldn't mind hot dropping some vehicles or additional forces one we shut down his communications?"

"I think he won't mind. Do you think she'll be cloaked?" "Doubt it. Even if he did manage to cloak this ship, trying to keep a ten klick long mobile factory hidden would be way too tough. Too much thermals and raw noise." Max smiled. "Makes our job easier."

Andsworth brought up the topographical map of the area. He highlighted the factory's position and predicted the flight path. "Admiral Andsworth, would you like me to calculate the approximate orbital interception of the SOEIVs?" A voice said. The voice came from the Indomitable's liaison Artificial Intelligence, Helena. She appeared hovering over the holographic topographical map with arms behind her back. She chose the appearance of a smart businesswoman with a skirt down to her knees and a black coat. Her hair was done up in a neat bun and she wore black horn-rimmed glasses. Andsworth always enjoyed a quick giggle at her glasses as they looked ridiculous on her.

"That would be most welcome, Helena. Please share your calculations, and please simplify." "Absolutely, Admiral." The AI said pushing the glasses up her holographic nose. A brief flash of code appeared going through the lenses and the map pulled out. It went to an altitude of around a hundred miles above the surface. The parabola of land that was represented was a sandy brown stretch with a large storm forming over the mountains. Little of that water would reach the desert itself. "Course laid out." Helena announced.

"A holographic battle group of the Indomitable, Ganymede, Anaheim, and the Yuri Gagarin launched tiny HEVs, all launched at 0932 hours on July 1st. The pods all landed aft of a massive control tower. "Probability of detection, 56%. I can decrease that to thirty-two if we approach it from behind." "Do it." Andsworth said. "Working on it, sir. New course laid in." The battle group approached from behind and launched the pods at a sharper angle but the detection probability seemed much slower."

"Can we bring that even lower?" Max asked placing his hand to his jaw. "I have a theory." "Please explain." "If we could send some drones ahead on autopilot, we can cause Eggman to attack those, and break his attention. While that's going on, we can insert the Helljumpers onto the stern and begin our assault as soon as the COM unit is disabled. I recommend armored fighting units." "Noted Helena. What's with the whole July 1st business?" "A strong storm is heading this way. Our current drop angle would take us right through it. My calculations show that wind speeds will peak over fifty miles an hour, more than enough to knock the SOEIVs off course. I can't correct the courses of all of them, Admiral."

Andsworth looked at the map. "So you want to move in from another angle." "Correct Admiral." The AI said nodding. "Primarily from this angle." The flight path changed. "Using our maneuvering thrusters, we can get there. If we use our main engines we will be located. The thermosphere masks our signatures otherwise." Max nodded. "She has a point Gerome." "OK, let's do this." Helena nodded and pushed her glasses up. "Yes sir. Countdown timer engaged." A forty-eight hour timer engaged, ticking down. "I'll garrison all ODSTs on the Anaheim and the Ganymede. The Yuri Gagarin will be acting as our air drop vessel. Inventory shows that she is carrying a squad of Mechs, all Medium tonnage class." Gerome smiled. "Gentlemen, the Doctor has no idea what is about to hit him."

Chris accepted a letter from a passing Corporal. The young man had reported to Chris in the Great Hall. He was providing security detail for her Highness, but was dressed in civilian clothing. Chris didn't feel very comfortable in the T-shirt and jeans. He needed to get out more. "Thanks, Corporal." He said. The younger Marine saluted and walked away. He opened the letter and studied it. "What's up?" Sally asked looking over his shoulder. "We have new orders. Come on, we need to find the guys."

About half an hour later, Chris was back in fatigues. They had found the rest of the Freedom Fighters and assembled them in the briefing room. "We've been ordered on a major mission. We're going to assault Doctor Robotnik's mobile factory." "We're going in first?" Sonic asked, smiling in anticipation. "Surprisingly no." Chris said. "We're the secondary attack. A platoon of ODSTs will be dropping in first They'll take out the communications and sensors. We will report to Rally Point Alpha." Chris drew a rough map of the valley on a white board. A large wedge representing the factory. "When the ODSTs hit and we clear the area of any ground units, Pelicans will arrive and transport us to the deck."

Tails shot his hand up. The Lieutenant nodded and pointed to him. "Go ahead." "Chris, wouldn't it be easier to transport us to the deck directly?" "Under any other circumstances Tails, I would agree with you. However satellite photos show that there are some nasty anti-air guns. Think of it, those guns could still get us visually. If they take us out in the air coming directly, we will lose 33 men per craft. Better to lose an empty ship then a full one, agreed?" Tails nodded. It was an acceptable sacrifice. Better two or three men died rather than thirty-three. "When do we move out?" Knuckles asked. "Six hours. Our window is to complete the mission will be within seven. Let's move out people! I want you all geared up by 1600, let's go!"

It was Staff Sergeant Gordon H. Chan's finest hour. This was what he kept repeating to himself as he donned his ODST helmet and locked the seal. Gordon was fresh out of Camp Shi-Cho in native Hong Kong. He was Earth-Born Chinese but he had the strong desire to get out there and mix it up a little with the Corps. He was only in his late twenties and was energetic. What set him apart from the other Helljumpers was that he had a positive and humble demeanor. Other Orbital Drop Shock Troopers were tough, hostile and not one for advice.

His orders had been issued just yesterday. He was to lead his platoon from the Ganymede and directly assault a mobile factory. That froze Chan in his boots, although Command had informed him that there would be other ODST platoons helping him, and he would receive some fire support from Mechs and regular Marines. Still, he couldn't shake the funny feeling that this may be the last time he leapt into hell.

Chan crossed the drop bay and looked for his pod. On it was scribbled the Mandarin characters for Strength, Resolve and Leadership. Gordon repeated the words in his head. He was deeply attached to his homeland and his culture. He needed to signify that he hadn't lost that culture. Around him, ODSTs found their pods and cracked vulgar jokes to each other. They loved this shit. They loved dropping from a spaceship travelling from God-knows-how-fast speeds. He didn't feel that he fit in...yet.

Chan leaned against the padded side of the SOEIV. He leaned his head on the headrest and exhaled. There would be no going back now. The Ganemyde had spent the last forty-eight hours maneuvering on chemical thrusters alone to get into a better position. The ship's AI, some snob named Wesley explained with a British accent that the winds would buffet the pods at upwards of sixty miles an hour. Even though the pods had thrusters and retro rockets, a minor course change could affect their overall trajectory in the long run.

The pod's door slammed shut in front of him, and a small hiss notified Chan that the seal would be air tight. The explosive bolts attached to the door would blow out at his discretion as soon as he touched dirt...erm...metal. He tapped the side of his helmet to bring up TEAMCOM. Over the line, 29 other Helljumpers were awaiting his message. "All pods operating status." He groaned. Standard operating procedure, yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah. In the section of his HUD titled 'SQUAD', he saw 29 bright green lights that showed that each SOEIV would get them into the atmosphere. "Good luck gentlemen. As soon as we hit planet-side, I expect everyone to regroup at my location." Again, acknowledgement lights winked to signify that the ODSTs got the message. "Attention. Launch commencing. Please clear the area for depressurization." Wesley said over the COM. A red light appeared over the drop bay door. This signified that the drop bay was locked and there was no risk of decompression. "Prepare to drop, Helljumpers!" Chan roared over the channel with fiery enthusiasm. "OOHRAH!" came 29 equally enthusiastic responses. A metallic clack echoed through the pod and right away Chan knew he was in freefall.

The SOEIV (Single Occupant Exo-Atmospheric Insertion Vehicle) sometimes called Human Entry Vehicle for short, rumbled through the bowels of the Ganymede. The ship's own artificial gravity aided their drop and then came the mass of Mobius itself. The pods streaked across the inky dark of space. Once the pods hit the exosphere however, the subtle orange glow of atmospheric reentry began to form around the noses of the pods. "Check in people. Any problems?" All negative. This was going to be a smooth ride. He could see from the window that other ODSTs from the Anehiem and Yuri Gagarin had joined them. He dare not switch into their channel otherwise Eggman might pick them up. If he stuck to his narrow beam private COM, and then they would go undetected.

The orange-red glow gave way to streaking clouds. The storm they narrowly missed swirled about some thousand feet from them. Gordon did get some slushy droplets on his windshield, just as the superfast acceleration made it streak away. "Beautiful, ain't it boys?" an ODST said as a bolt of lightning lashed out.

Gordon did think that the lightning was pretty. Due to climate change on Earth, some of the monsoons that plagued Hong Kong have intensified and respectively died down. He got to see marvelous storms, and the not so marvelous amount of rain that came afterwards. Sunlight crept into the SOEIV as they got lower. Desert sands became visible with some green visible in the shadow of the giant mountains. It was almost completely empty. Almost because of the giant wedge shaped floating factory that was menacing over the land. Gordon checked his computer. They were heading right where they were supposed to, taking the factory's momentum into account. There was a pop as the braking chute deployed, drastically slowing his descent. When that ripped away, the pods' retro rockets took over. The pod slowed down even more so that Chan wouldn't be killed on impact.

The altimeter glowed green, and then tinged to red. His pod still kept course at just above two hundred KPH. "Alright gentlemen, this is it! Brace for impact!" Green acknowledgement lights winked on as the pods ploughed into the metal. "Go, go, GO!" Chan barked as the pod door blasted away. He drew his assault rifle and scanned the deck. All of his Helljumpers landed in a rough hundred yard spread. He was in a shadow. Gordon looked up and found he was in the shadow of a giant command tower. "Wow, great landing." One of the Helljumpers remarked looking at the tower." "There's time for sightseeing later, Marines! Let's go!" "Yes sir!" They replied.

It was a little windy up here on the deck. According to Gordon's altimeter, they were roughly two and a half miles above the ground. The rubber soles of their boots could hold them in place, but one good gust could know an ODST to his feet and that might cost him his life.

"Sergeant! Eyes on! Got a hostile roughly a hundred yards ahead!" His sniper said. Goron hit his binoculars and sighted on the target. A robot was pacing the deck. Two more emerged from an access hatch. "Looks like scouts." Chan deduced. "Everyone find a spot to hide. O'Leary, take them down. You feel confident?" "Hell yes, sir."

The ODSTs hid behind whatever would conceal them. O'Leary went prone on the deck and sighted his SRS82F-AM sniper rifle. He breathed deeply and pulled the trigger. One 114x51mm APFSDS round cracked from the barrel and sped at over 1400 feet per second into the lead robot. It punctured its left eye and caused it to spin, trailing fluid and oil. At once, the others snapped to and before they could call it in, crack, crack! Two more metal bodies hit the deck. O'Leary did a quick scan and held the thumbs-up.

Chan got back to his feet and ordered them to the robots. "Masterson, strip them of any COM gear and get to work cracking into their communications grid. Edwards, Ubuntu, get rid of the bodies and someone clean these goddamn smudges! No trace people!" O'Leary picked up his three hot shell casings. He stuffed them into his duffel. He was never there. Likeweise, Edwards and Ubuntu carried the robots to the edge of the factory, which they landed near and tossed them overboard. They watched until the bodies were clouds of dust in the sands. Masterson picked up the radio and looked it over. "Sarge, this won't be easy. I've never seen this model before." Chan nodded though. "Don't worry. You have some time." A waypoint activated. "Sergeant Chan, this is Sergeant Jonathan Callard. My men have landed but we are running into resistance. Scouts mainly." "Copy that Callard. We are likewise running into scouts. We dealt with them though." "Roger that. We need a way inside though. How about the doors that they came through?" "That may work. They may have security locks though. We'll deal with it though. Chan out."

The doors were roughly rectangular in shape going ten feet into the air. Gordon supposed that this was where some vehicles came through. He couldn't imagine these…berserkers charging them since they needed an additional five feet in height. A red light pulsed on the door. Damn. That meant that it was locked. "Corporal Stanley. Come forward." He called up the tech specialist. "Yes sir?" The young ODST asked. "Hack the door." "Yes sir." He nodded getting to one foot. Stanley took a spoofer out of his pack. The rest of the platoon provided cover from other positions. The spoofer ran through thousands of possible combinations, code-phrases, and references until it found a match. Suddenly the door pinged and the light turned green. Bingo.

The door silently slid open. It was a fairly dark maintenance corridor. "VISRs on, people. No flashlights, and for God's sake, stay out of camera visual ranges." With that, the soldiers slunk through the shadows, watching every corridor under threat of attack. Their weapons didn't have flashlight attachments so they used their VISRs, which stood for Visual Information System, Reconnisance. The hallway shone a bright red because of the paint. Suddenly, Gordon told his men to stay still. "What's going on, Sarge?" O'Leary asked. "Camera." Chan hissed, nodding in the direction of the machine. Above a door, there was a boxy security camera, a tiny light blinking slowly to show that she was operational." "Looks like it covers the entire hall. I don't see a way around it." Masterson reported. "Maybe we should find a way around?" "Negative, Private. Something's telling me we're supposed to go through. Fry it." Masterson nodded.

He stepped forward and got on one knee. He pulled out his M6 and slid what looked like a laser sight on the bottom. He pointed it to the camera and pressed a small button on its side. At once, the camera sputtered and fell immobile. "Nice job, Henry!" "Yeah, yeah. Fifteen seconds, guys! Let's go!" The Marines booked it across the hall, running their fastest. The last of the ODSTs crossed the doorway with barely a moment to spare. The camera hummed, fans swirled and it resumed its sweeping pattern. "Will they be worried about the lag?" Chan asked. O'Leary laughed. "I doubt it, boss. They'll probably think that this was a low threat electrical malfuntion. Worst case scenario, they send a repair robot out for it." One of the ODSTs glanced down the hall. "You sure that there's nothing here?" "I already did a sweep man. The only thing in this hallway are the walls, comprised of Titanium-50, Aluminum-72, and Carbon-10, and then there's us." Chan exhaled silently. "Glad to be relieved. Let's go." The soldiers walked down the darker halway that seemed to slope into the ship. For several minutes this was the case, and then there was a tram station. "Check it." Chan ordered. Two ODSTs pried open the doors and checked. One of them squeezed a round from a silenced assault rifle. There was a muffled pshew as the bullet fired and immedietely after, a clang. The Sergeant looked in and saw a dead robot, shot once through the face. "Tram clear, Sergeant!" One of them reported. "Pile in gentlemen!"

The ODSTs stepped onto the tram. It was quite large, the size of a very small ferry. "Where does this contraption go?" Stanley asked. Stanley ran a datapad over the controls and tapped a few commands. A holographic view of the ship came up. "According to the map, we go to the Atrium Antechamber B. That puts us...three hundred meters from the objective." Chan nodded and said, "I'll take those cards. Shove us off. The Marines are waiting for us here!" Stanley tapped in the controls. There was a metallic lurching as the tram began her journey. "ETA to the next station is three minutes."

As the tram coasted away, the ODSTs felt that they were safe, unwatched, and above all, completely hidden from view. This was as far away from the truth as could possibly be. What Corporal Stanley or Masterson failed to uncover were sonar detection devices that were implanted in the walls. Usually they would have found something like this but Robotnik saw this coming. He had purposely let down his guard. True he didn't know that they landed on his ship until they stepped into his hallway. The ingenious part came in with the detectors themselves. They were nano-sized sonar devices implanted at regular intervals around the ship in corridors, access shafts, hell, even the pipelines. Being sonar, they could identify a "shadow" by bouncing sound waves off a target. Also, being sonar, the devices had to emit a noise, something that might otherwise give such a device away. Julian Kintobor was no idiot however. Because of the small size, the devices could emit small sounds, but thanks to the sheer number of them in the hallway, coupled with a "wave" activation pattern started every second, Robotnik could map out his enemies in near absolute silence. The only way the soldiers would notice them was if one of them were to kneel down and put his ear to the wall. From that distance, they might be able to pick up the faintest of noises, provided their hearing was good.

Eggman sat at the top of the tower. In his cousioned command chair, he sipped a glass of fine Overlander Merlot, a relic of the war. It had aged well despite the ammount of trauma he suspected that it endured. The wine itself was superb, tickling his taste buds as it trickled down his throat. He had many such bottles in his private vinyard, which was accessable only by him...not like he had very many allies to share it with. "Are you sure that they will come, my old friend?" Robotnik asked, glancing to his right. In a smaller, but elegant chair, a black hedgehog sat looking out the window, taking in the desert, and the stretching hull of the factory, small smokestacks belching smoke into the air. "I am sure. I gave them the correct co-ordinates. I am interested as to why they send a small force. I suppose that it's the Lieutenant. He was the only one I gave the location to." Eggman held up a finger to interrupt. "Ah, but wouldn't it be safe to assume that our friend may have divulged the information to someone else?" "That would explain the larger force, yes." Shadow nodded.

"However, I am curious as to why I have not seen any ships lately." he added. Robotnik got up and glanced at the clouds. A deep sapphire stood above him. "They're up there. They're waiting for us. We can't see them though. The damned thermosphere is blocking their thermals. I have to look for them manually. They on the other hand know good and well where we are. They can see us but we can't see them." He raised his glass to the sky, giving a silent, mocking toast to the man that he was certain was orchestrating the whole thing. "Your move, Admiral."

He downed the glass in one final drink. He then turned on his heel and made for his chair. There was work to be done.