Space Colony ARK, Mobius Alpha Orbit
Day 169, 3174 (Local Calendar)
18 June 3174 (Realtime Calendar Conversion)
The act of living was an ongoing battle for the girl. As it stood, being born and raised on a space station with stringent environmental controls because of an immunodeficiency disease took a lot of effort as it was. But the virus within her had gotten an unexpected set of allies from the outside. Troopers from the Guardian Unit of Nations (GUN) had stormed onto the colony under the auspices of controlling a biohazard emergency. This made no sense to the girl because other than some palpable tension among colony personnel, it seemed to be a normal Tuesday.
They had boarded the colony in a large transport craft and odds were that this wasn't the only wave. In the confusion, the girl wasn't noticed as she slipped away. But she had heard the questions from the civilians, the orders being barked by the troopers and the telltale sound of gunshots. Uniformed ARK-SEC guards peeled away from their patrol routes towards the sounds, rushing past her with their pistols drawn. More gunshots rang out, she was able to tell the GUN weapons from ARK-SEC's based on the louder noises they made. One thing was clear though, she had to get off of the station, but not alone.
The girl ran for the nearest lift but tired herself out after the first few bounds. When she arrived before the lift doors, a red ring of light around the call button indicated it was locked down. Panting from the exertion, she walked towards a staircase and started to descend. Level after level was indicated each time the stairway led out to one. The high-security laboratory level had a door blocking entry from the stairway. The girl reached for her neck and drew a lanyard up and out from her tunic and leaned forward, waving the card near a reader.
"Please state your name for voiceprint identification." A neutral male voice issued from the reader.
"Maria Robotnik." The girl replied.
"Please look directly at the retinal scanner and stand by for verification." The voice said. A circular area above the card reader lit up and Maria looked directly into it. A red light on the reader turned yellow, then green as the latches on the door disengaged before the door slid back. Well, that was a relief, at least the security systems were still working, but for how long? Poking her head out the doorway, Maria looked to her left and right then exited out into the corridor. She followed a red line that was painted on the floor, one that she followed many a time before. At the end of the red line was another security door. After repeating the same process that she went through to get past the first security door, Maria was allowed to enter.
The interior of this particular laboratory looked more like someone's living quarters, which they were. A black and red hedgehog-like being was pacing around until the door opened. Tensing for a possible fight, it relaxed upon sighting the girl. The hedgehog stepped up to the girl and looked up at her. She reached out and offered her hand.
"What's going on, Maria?" The hedgehog asked.
"It's GUN, they're attacking the colony for some reason." Maria explained. "We have to get out of here."
"Where's the professor?" The hedgehog blinked.
"I don't know. I thought he was going to come here to get you. I hope he's all right." Maria took the hedgehog's gloved hand. "Come on, Shadow. We need to get to an escape pod."
"Wait, we can't use escape pods. You won't last more than a few hours on the ground even if you got into a hospital directly afterwards. That's also assuming GUN doesn't get drawn to you like bees to honey. A shuttle's safer, it's larger and we can control where we end up going on Earth." Shadow pointed out. "The flight deck's only two levels above."
"What if GUN's already at the flight deck?" Maria asked.
"They probably wouldn't shoot at a young girl and her hedgehog." Shadow answered.
"I don't know, I think they shot some of the scientists. ARK-SEC was shooting at GUN as well. Shouldn't we get Grandfather?" Maria turned to look behind her.
"Odds are he's probably in his panic room if he hasn't already come here to get me. At least, that's what I hope." Shadow closed his eyes and squeezed her hand. "Come on. Let's get you out of here."
"Right." Maria was going to say something about being the one to get him out but stayed quiet. Having Shadow close at hand made things a lot less scary. Her grandfather had created him as part of Project Shadow as a way to bring about immortality. Such a strange concept, being able to live for forever. It was largely a lofty goal intent on giving her a cure for her illness. Buying time, but with the intent of giving her all time? That was also assuming nothing happened to the planet that would bring about catastrophic destruction. Besides, why did she deserve such a thing when there were others suffering just as bad if not worse? Just because she was a famous scientist's granddaughter? So long as she was able to realise her goal of becoming a doctor, Maria would be happy with as much time as she could get.
Making their way back to the staircase, Maria got them through the security door and advanced up two levels as Shadow suggested. Peeking out into the corridor, the girl sighed in relief. It seemed as if the coast was clear. That relief didn't last long though as the nearby lift announced its arrival with a ding. As the doors parted, Shadow got a brief glimpse of a GUN trooper and made a split-second decision to grab tightly onto Maria's hand, starting to rush forward. The GUN team exiting the elevator spotted the black blur and shouted something unintelligible that Maria couldn't understand. Sound was distorted by her own heavy breathing.
"Stop." The girl wheezed as the hedgehog ignored her, shaking his head. Can't stop. Then she went down onto her knees with a yelp. Shadow stopped and helped her back up to her feet. He stood behind her, hands outstretched. Maria looked at him in confusion.
"Go!" The hedgehog shouted. "Get to the hangar bays!" The deck vibrations from the mass of footsteps coming their way propelled her to limp away. She closed her eyes as she heard confused shouting of commands and gunshots. The adrenaline stemming from the stress seemed to give her that extra boost in order to start running again. She made it through the blast door that led into the hangar bay and stopped, leaning against a wall. A whirring sound caught her attention and made her open her eyes.
A floating disc shaped piloted mech was slowly rotating around and the harsh smell of ozone indicated that its weapons were fired recently. Gazing around the hangar, Maria found that all of the shuttles in the hangar bays were destroyed except for the transport that the mech seemed to have come in. A single set of audible footsteps caused her to look back and realise that Shadow had made it. She pointed towards the mech.
"What happened to the troopers?" Maria whispered.
"They're going to have some nasty headaches but that's all." Shadow whispered back. "That thing destroyed all the shuttles? Great. Maybe if I can draw its attention, we can get you onto their transport." That was when a set of spotlights fell upon the pair.
"This is callsign Heavy Dog. Target has been sighted, I'm proceeding to engage and neutralize!" The pilot's voice was amplified by loudspeakers on the mech as bright blue energy started to brim from barrels on the front of the mech.
"Wait!" Shadow called out, standing in front of Maria with his hands held up. "It's me you want, right? I'm surrendering."
"What?!" Maria reached out to grab the hedgehog's hand. "You can't, they'll-"
"Kill us." Shadow swallowed as he noticed that the mech was still charging its beams. Particle beams, there was no way Maria was going to be able to survive a blast like that. Using wanton deadly force on an innocent girl like that? And they thought he was the monster? He closed his eyes and clenched both hands into fists. Only one final card to play. Blue energy of a similar hue of the particle beams started to crackle around him as a loud animalistic roar could be heard from below. At that same moment, the Heavy Dog fired at them. The blinding flashes of light and a soft surprised cry from the girl rang in the hedgehog's ears. As the light faded, Shadow found himself lying on the deck. Carefully, he got back up to his feet and looked around. There was no sign of Maria.
Confusion turned to anger as Shadow looked back in direction of the Heavy Dog. Only one conclusion could be drawn from what happened. His harnessing of a special phenomenon known as Chaos Control had failed. Shadow's own powers protected him but the Heavy Dog had blasted Maria into oblivion. If he had taken an extra moment to study his surroundings though, he might have thought of other possibilities, as the hangar bay itself looked pristine outside of the destroyed shuttles. The mech itself was still floating in place but the pilot was gone. Shadow started to rush towards it all the same, jumping into the air to pummel the mech into pieces, snarling almost in a feral manner as he felt the machine buckle and bend from his assault.
Unknown Location
Unknown Time
Was this death? Everything around Maria appeared to be white, and a few moments later involuntary shivering made her draw her arms around her body. Wherever she was, it was cold. Rolling onto her back, she saw a star dotted dark sky. Pushing her hands against the ground to get back to her feet, Maria heard a crunch and noticed that she was touching snow for the first time. This wasn't a forest though, there was a nearby building with lights on. Instinctively, she started to walk towards it. A louder crunching sound soon caught the girl's attention. Turning slowly, she saw the pilot of the Heavy Dog trudging through the snow behind her. A headlamp on his helmet turned on and on sighting her, the pilot drew his sidearm.
"You! What the hell did you do?" The pilot yelled.
Maria started to run for the building as loud cracks rang out. From the surprise change of environment and sprinting while shooting, the pilot was having a hard time aiming. Intent on making it to safety, Maria didn't notice an outgrowth from a nearby tree that was hidden by the snow. Tripping, she landed hard on her face and cried out loudly. The pilot slowed down, walking up to the stunned girl. He pointed the pistol at her back.
"You brought this on yourself." The pilot said, spitting on the ground. "Consorting with aliens, wielding illegal biological weapons. Project Shadow's shut down, and so are all of you with it." Light fell across the trooper and a loud feral growl distracted him. He turned to face the source of the light and noise. A tall, grey vulpine figure in some sort of military dress uniform was holding a flashlight and a revolver. "What the-"
Instinctively the trooper tensed his finger to squeeze on the trigger. Six loud gunshots rang out quickly to where they almost sounded like they were one. The pilot dropped onto his back with a thud. Maria's ears rang as she rolled onto her side. Muzzle smoke wafted from the barrel of the vulpine's revolver. It nudged at the body with a boot and grunted, reloading the revolver with a speed loader before putting it away into a leather snap-holster. Then the fox held its hand out the girl, pointing the flashlight at her. Upon seeing her face, the fox's blue eyes widened in recognition.
"Maria?" The fox's voice was accented strangely like actors from some of her grandfather's films. How did he know her name?
"Who are you?" The girl asked timidly. The fox offered his free hand to her.
"How could you not kno-" The fox stopped himself and shook his head. He probably wouldn't recognise himself in the mirror. "I am Rear Admiral Miles Prower, retired from Her Majesty's Royal Space Navy. Those that know me call me Tails."
"Tails," Maria took his hand and got up to her feet. The fox took off his greatcoat and draped it around her. "Do you know my grandfather?"
"Geralt Robotnik?"
"No," The girl shook her head. "It's Gerald."
"Gerald. He always went by Geralt for as long as I've known him." Tails blinked. "How did you get here?"
"I was on the ARK while the military was attacking it. That man was in a mech and he shot these energy beams at Shadow and I." Maria drew the coat closer to her body, almost disappearing into it. "The next thing I knew, I was here. Where are we anyways?"
"Admiralty House, my home here on Kepler." Tails gestured for her to follow him back the way he came.
"What's Kepler?" The girl asked. The question made the fox freeze and tense the fingers of his right hand.
"There will be time for questions once we get you inside. We will likely have many for one another, Miss Robotnik. I can assure you of one thing though, I am here to help you." He felt her cold hand close around his right hand and squeezed it.