Journal of Sally Acorn
Date: November 7th, 3234
Entry Made 1900 (7:00 PM)

Dear Journal,

For the first time in a while, I am back on Mobius. Given what I've been through over the past couple weeks, I can safely say that nothing makes me happier than seeing my parents again. From the moment that I touched down on the planet, the first place I went was to the castle to see my friends. They were there waiting for me in a sort of 'welcome home' party. I was told that Bunnie helped set it up. She's a great friend!

Of course I had to tell everyone about my journey to Brunaji and the quest for the Lavender Giant. I sat there and told them the story as if I was a camp counsellor telling a bunch of scouts a ghost story. Whenever I mentioned the darkness of the forests or the creatures that lurked within, some of them recoiled in shock or started biting their nails.

Naturally the only one that wasn't scared was Sonic, who was leaning nonchalantly in his chair with a smug look on his face. When I mentioned the alien that attacked me and Harry, he just chuckled.

"I would like to know why that was so funny Sonic. That thing could have really hurt us."

He replied with this, "No monster's a challenge for me. I could have taken him on no problem."

"A monster, in the middle of the woods, in pitch darkness on a planet where you don't even get light on the far side?"

"If I could take on Robotnik's flunkies over and over again, an alien's no problem!"

"Yeah, yeah. Way past cool and all that." I said with an amused huff. Sonic's tune would have changed if he was in my shoes, ducking against a tree, not certain if I would walk out of there alive. You know what? I don't think it would now that I think about it. Sonic's always had that air of self-confidence that sometimes overrules his common sense. He would most likely just run at it without thinking and formulate a plan later. It makes him cute.

Of course I have to save him afterwards.

Then I told them about the battle on Hyperia, everyone stopped talking. That was what they really needed to hear. Eggman's forces had spread to the Outer Colonies. Hyperia was hundreds of lightyears away from Earth on the edge of Human Space close to the Lyshad border.

I'll deviate for a moment. Ever since I was aware of the Interstellar empire in the Earthverse, borders astounded me. Political borders in a place where there essentially is no end? Space is endless! There should be no need for checkpoints, neutral zones, borders, whatever. However, things don't work that way.

Now, space is not two-dimensional. You can expand borders in any direction. Imagine that we use the galaxy on a flat scale. We'll treat the galactic equator as the middle. Human Space looks something like a fat spear that expands through the galactic equator. It's not very large; possibly only four thousand lightyears long at its widest point, and four thousand 'high'.

But, I digress. The news that there were Eggbots among the stars caused some stir between the Freedom Fighters, and I knew exactly what they were thinking: this was far larger than anything we encountered, and I still feel guilty thinking about it now, but I said it out loud:

"Do you think we're unnecessary now?"

To my surprise, it was Tails who spoke. "Mobius will always need her Freedom Fighters." He looked at everyone. "We're a special line of defence that can never be replaced by anyone, not even the UNSC."

I looked at the kid and I smiled. It made me proud to be a Freedom Fighter. I knew he was right, and I knew that our fight was in someone else's hands for now. I'd still go back out there should they need us, but there were problems on Mobius that still needed our attention, like the incident in Mercia, and the problems with the High Sheriff.

With a gulp, I saw that Antoine was still not with us. I received a message the other day that told us he was in one of the most dangerous parts of Known Space with a race called the Shi'Kri'Lash*. Frightening people; tribal by nature and just as brutal. The first landing parties were killed when they set foot on the sands and brought the wrath of the entire Human military.

Huh. There's a sick allusion to the Xorda threat. Just the other way around. Only the Humans don't exterminate. It's unethical to them, inhumane is the term. It's one of the things I outright agree with when it comes to their policies. The apple doesn't fall far.

I decided to take a vacation. As of right now, I am recording this message from the side of a pool on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacifica Ocean called Kawa Crossing. I've only heard about this place a few months ago when a traveller came to Knothole. It's a beautiful place that has evidence of both Asian and Western culture, much like ours. It's a world away from a world. The island is a fair size with two cities separated by the Great River with sky bridges. I don't think that this place should be a tourist location. It deserves to be its own land, not ruled by any government except its own. It's sovereign, and it's strong.

The people don't seem to care very much for space travel. They're focused on their lives. It makes sense that traditionally these people were isolated and uncomfortable with what lies beyond their borders. I've been lucky to avoid public notice simply because I'm not as well known all the way out here in the middle of nowhere. Come to think of it, most of the Freedom Fighters were unknown. I guess fame only goes so far. They haven't seen any Humans at all, and only have seen flashes of ships that they automatically assumed belonged to us, even though they were clearly of UNSC design.

Robotnik has threatened them in the past, but they've held their own. They have their own defence force. Not a military, but it's something very similar to the Freedom Fighters, and based on what people are telling me, they're pretty good! If I can find some of them, I'd love to arrange some training classes.

Aw, I just got a message on my COM. It says that in four days time, I have to go to Earth to meet with a group of officials regarding the deployment of additional Orbital Defence Platforms around Mobius. We're also hopefully getting supplies to build waystations in our outer solar system. Maybe we can get that mission to Europa off the drawing board! Well, I have four days. Time to lay back, soak up the sun, and just enjoy myself, which is something I haven't been able to do in a long time**.

::END ENTRY::

* This race was mentioned in The Galactic Codex in the Shi'Kri Lash chapte. Antoine wrote the entire book.

**All for Rick

The ending part of this chapter was dedicated to a friend of mine, Rick Cressen who goes by the name of practicaluses on DeviantART. Rick has a concept of a comic called Kawa Crossing which takes place on an island in the middle of the Pacific. Rick wants his idea to fit snugly into comic canon. I ask that you go to DeviantART and tell him you have support, because he's getting a team together, and he's even had commissions done by Tracy Yardley himself.