Great Desert, outside Red Rock
September 22, UC 0079
1256 Hours (PST)
The zing of laser guns and the rattle of assault rifles echoed across the sand. Tanks closed in on the adobe settlement as a handful of Legion saucers hovered above. On the eastern side of town, a sleek copper vehicle crossed the trench encircling Red Rock. Dust and pebbles formed a grainy fog as the landcraft slipped rapidly away from the faltering DEL stronghold.
It really wasn't Sonic's style to be driven around, but he couldn't carry three girls as easily as he had done with just Sally. They'd accomplished the task of finding Bunnie, but circumstances led to another joining them—Mighty's long-lost sister Matilda. "I wish I could put the best possible face on this, kid," he told her, "but I don't think your Legion buddies are going to make it. You can't go back anymore."
In the driver's seat, Sally skillfully directed the vehicle through increasingly rough terrain. "Sonic," she said, "is anyone trailing us?"
He looked behind them. Red Rock crumbled in the distance, but closer to them was some kind of helicopter… and it had just let loose a rocket! "Sal! Turn right, quick!"
The speeder made a sharp turn to the right. The missile missed, erupting in the sand.
Bunnie responded with a laser to the chopper's right wing. It hit the cluster of four ATGMs, destroying the bundle via chain reaction, but the gunship remained airborne.
With the foursome having made a one-eighty toward Red Rock, the helicopter tried to continue its pursuit. Now, it could make use of its machine gun mounted beneath its nose. The speeder's repulsors had created a large blanket of dust attempting to evade the hail of bullets and the odd missile.
When she got a clear shot, Bunnie let loose a Boost Knuckle. It was small in comparison to the gunship, but the force was enough to take out that machine gun. "If only there weren't so much blamed dust," said Bunnie.
"It may be hard for us to fight it," said Sally, "but I think the sand's helping us too."
The cyborg Rabbit suddenly jumped out of the speeder and went airborne, thanks to her jets. Getting right up in their pursuer's figurative face wasn't that difficult since it was lacking the weapons to effectively hit her. The two bewildered crewmen didn't know what to make of Bunnie as she charged right at them and smashed the windshield with her metal arm!
Down below, her three travelling partners watched as the chopper's flight became increasingly erratic, culminating in a loss of altitude and a crash-landing. Fortunately for them, Bunnie was able to bust out of the copter and ease back down to the ground. She touched down, but lost balance.
Bringing the speeder to a stop, Sonic and Sally rushed out to their friend.
"Sorry, y'all," she chuckled, "I got a bit carried away there."
"Don't sweat it," said Sonic. "If you'd stayed put, we'd all be worm chow."
"We need to get back to Acorn before another one of those things finds us," said Sally.
"Acorn?" asked Tilly. "We're going to Acorn?"
"Things over here are going south, kid," said Sonic. "We'll all be much safer in New Mobotropolis. Besides, I'm not braindead—fighting all that ain't on the menu."
Sally rolled her eyes. "But aliens and gods are okay?"
"But I'm with the DEL," said Tilly. "I'm your enemy."
"You're probably all that's left," he explained. "Your friends told us to take care of you." Then, something Beauregard had said yesterday crossed the Hedgehog's mind. "The Baron… told me you're Mighty's sister?"
"You know Mighty?" she asked.
"He's a good friend of ours," Sonic replied.
Seven. This was all that remained of the resistance. They were hopelessly outnumbered by the assault, but fought on anyway. All the survivors gained was a bunch of guns aimed at them, poised to fire in the event they tried something funny.
A Zeon captain, tall and slim, circled his prisoners like a buzzard over a carcass. They all had their hoods down, allowing the victors to get a look at them. Interestingly, they all had the traits of animals and had artificial implants as well. Nobody knew what to make of it.
"I have to give you credit," the officer told them. "You fought on in spite of superior firepower. This war's taken an interesting turn: genetically altered animals? No doubt a top-secret Federation bioweapon. The big mystery is how did you get so deep behind our lines?"
One captive, a Hyena, spoke at last. "Lines?"
The ring of soldiers around the POWs began whispering to one another upon hearing the word being uttered.
"You can talk?" the captain asked. "Then maybe I can ask you a few questions. Who are you, what are you, and where do you come from?"
"Harry Hyena. We're the Great Desert Chapter of the Dark Egg Legion. We were assigned to this sector by our boss." With move than a dozen guns pointed at the group, lying was a non-option.
"What is the Dark Egg Legion?"
"We are soldiers. We are sworn to defend and expand the boundaries of the Eggman Empire."
A brief pause, then the officer asked another question. "As in a Dr. Eggman?"
"Ye-Yes," the Hyena answered. "How do you know about him?"
The human smiled. After the one-sided victory, the prisoner could at least be thrown a bone. "An AAR," he explained. "Four days ago, an unidentified flying object was intercepted by Notre Dame Base over the Atlantic coast of Canada. A large, metallic egg. It was forced down and boarded. We discovered a man calling himself Eggman commanding the vehicle and he had a prisoner claiming to be his nephew. Both men were taken into custody by Commissar Garma."
"You captured…"
"Yes," the captain answered. "Last I've heard, those two are being sent to the brass for questioning."
One side of the ring broke. Four tired-looking grunts and a lieutenant approached. "Captain Sermuks, we've received an IFF from point PB-4. Gunship Heli 457 was destroyed in pursuit of an enemy landcraft escaping east-northeast. Four are believed to have been aboard the vehicle it was targeting."
The captain faced the Hyena again. It was time for more questions. "Retreating friendlies? Where are they going?"
"They weren't friendlies," he said in frantic defense. "Well, one of them was, but she's just a kid. The three others were from Acorn, and that's on the other side of the continent. We… We'd heard about what happened to Sand Blast City last night and we wanted to get her out before she got hurt."
The captain smiled deviously. "Ehrhardt," he said, turning to the lieutenant, "send a message to California Base. The Commissar is going to find this new intel pretty entertaining."
"….frey? Geoffrey?"
Naugus was finally coming to. He'd felt like his student's body had been completely blown away and he was still feeling dizzy. Three members of the Council were at his bedside: Charles, Isabella, and Rosemary. They all had a look of concern about his condition. "Wh-What happened?"
"Thank goodness you're alright," said Isabella. "After you'd requested that recess during the meeting, we'd found you unconscious on the floor outside. We rushed you to the hospital right away. You were out for almost two hours."
"You look horrible, Geoffrey," said Rosemary. "We were noticing that you spacing out a few times during the old business discussion. We were never able to ask about what happened to King Naugus. Is he sick? Did you contract the same illness?"
"The king's disease isn't contagious," he told them.
"You've been taking up many of his roles after he disappeared from the public," she continued. "We've become… concerned."
"They told me about it on the way over," said Chuck. "Dr. Quack diagnosed you with hypertension and exhaustion. You won't need to stay here, but he recommends you step down for a while."
"Maybe you're right, Sir Charles," said Naugus "I could have bitten off more than I could chew after all." Exhaustion? Ha! Those demons' constant quarreling did this! "Where is the A—er, NICOLE? I need to talk to her as soon as I can. It refers to something for king Naugus."
"I'll let her know," Chuck said, hesitantly. "In the meantime, you get some rest. Rosemary? Isabella?" The three councilmen left "Geoffrey's" room, but on his way out, Chuck gave a quick glance back at the Skunk.
Naugus just noticed the Hedgehog's expression. How much did he know, and how?
A shroud of dust had fallen over the desert. For four Mobians, continuing their trek eastward was out of the question when a sandstorm was brewing. Finding cover from nature was one thing, but with a hostile military behind them, they had additional pressure. It was sheer luck that they were able to find shelter out in the middle of the wilderness.
It started off with the remains of those giants from the night before, but these had been there for a very long time. The most prominent of the wreckage, though, could best be described as some kind of tank/artillery hybrid with arms and a torso; its immense cannon drooping down into the sand.
The odd thing about the site was that while the big machine had the Zeon insignia on its hull, the mangled titans had a different paint job on them as opposed to what Sonic had seen the night before. With a huge tsunami of sand heading their way, though, there wasn't much time to pontificate on their color.
The interior of the wreck was made to accommodate a small human crew, perhaps only two. It was a good place for a temporary shelter for the foursome to wait out the storm in. It also appeared to have been ransacked at some point. Various bits of hardware had been torn out by some unknown party, Zeon or that EFGF thing (whatever it was), leaving rubber wires dangling, long dead.
Bunnie was on her back, fiddling under the console, while the others sat around and waited on the sand to stop.
I'm really hoping Eggman doesn't clock back in at this point, Sonic thought. Getting blown back to the Stone Age in the middle of nowhere ain't my idea of going out.
"Y'know, Sonic, the castle really has nothing on this tin can," Sally remarked, regarding their cramped accommodations.
"Yuk it up, Sal," the Hedgehog replied, reciprocating the snark. "I never promised we'd hide out in a beauty salon."
"Got some good news, y'all," said Bunnie. "I was able to hotwire some of these systems and get them running again."
"It would seem that this cockpit was designed to be airtight," said Tilly. "Wouldn't they have installed an oxygen-recycler of some sort?"
"It would make sense," said Sally. "Not too sure what powered this thing, though."
"Hope nobody has to pee or anything," said Sonic. "Listen." One could easily hear the violent winds outside, hissing and whistling like a boiling kettle of tea. Sand beat down on the hull like rain. "We're going to chill in here till this blows over." He laid down, his arms propping up his head.
It was going to be a long wait.
Twilight in New Mobotropolis. Things had been quiet in the city since the skirmish with Mecha Sally. It seemed as if Dr. Eggman's disappearance was ushering in a time of peace that Acorn hadn't seen since before the Great War.
Showcasing the easy-going mood of the evening was Uncle Chuck's Diner. The only bit of trouble that could be found was at one booth at the eatery.
Mina Mongoose studied a draft of song lyrics, handwritten on paper in ink. Skeptical was the word to describe her expression, and the cause was the lyrics themselves:
Pity the tragic pitiful and all they left behind,
Nothing is left from what we find. Have we gone too far?
In the middle of nowhere, fire in the sky,
We fade into darkness; all you want is to be free!
Pity the pity of your life, don't throw away hope.
Has a new age begun for those who survive?
A line of destruction across the wasteland
Distorts into darkness and the fire's burning red!
You gotta fight for what you believe in,
And when you do there will be a meaning,
The ones you love never will forget it,
And in the end your legacy remains.
You risk the living to save the hopeful,
I pray, pray for a new day.
"How is it?" asked Ash.
"The melody's definitely a keeper," said Mina "but the lyrics need a little more work. They get a little clumsy at 'Has a new age begun'."
"Would you like menus?" It was their waitress, a grey Mouse with brown hair. She was about a year younger than the singer.
"We've already decided," said Mina. "Chuck Jr. with a cola and fries."
"Chuckburger with a root beer and onion rings," Ash added.
The waitress didn't pay much attention to who the two patrons were as she wrote down their order and left for the kitchen.
"I have to admit," said Ash, "even though it's not the finished product, those are some pretty morbid lyrics for such an energetic melody."
"We've been through a lot, Ash. A lot of us were born during the Great War and Robotnik War I started immediately as it ended. After he died, Eggman showed up. Most of us never even knew genuine peace."
"Aware of the direness the world is in, but still optimistic that things will get better, huh?" he said, trying to sum up what his girlfriend was trying to put out. It was an interesting concept. "Anything ideas for an arrangement, yet?"
"That's the thing," said Mina. "Needs something that evokes… I don't know, breaking free of gravity or something. Like a keyboard in the intro, but I worry that might be jumping the gun. What do you think?"
Ash chuckled a little. "I don't see why not," he replied. "I was actually playing around with the idea this morning."
"Idea of what?" Mina asked. "Sending out for another member?"
"Bingo," said Ash.
"You really think we have the resources for a fifth guy?"
"Um… Y-Your drinks are here and your food, food will be ready shortly." It was the waitress. A minute ago, she didn't even make eye contact with the couple, now that she had she was blue in the face.
"Are you alright?" Mina asked. She sensed some discomfort from the Mouse, but had a hunch that it was probably from realizing just who exactly she was.
"Y-Yes, ma'am," she answered a little loudly.
"Chloe?"
The Mouse turned her head to see the diner's namesake poking his head out of the kitchen door and motioning for her to come over to him. She obliged.
Chloe Mouse followed her boss through the kitchen and to his office. She was taking deep breaths, hoping that she hadn't screwed up in some egregious fashion. It couldn't have been Mina just now. She didn't even realize it was the famous singer until she went back into the kitchen.
Chuck didn't go behind his desk, but he did stand about three yards away from her and simply asked "Chloe, is something wrong?"
She stammered a bit. "What do you mean?"
"Zach said that you froze out there at Booth 8. Are you feeling alright?"
"I am," said Chloe. "It's just that I didn't realize that I was waiting on Mina Mongoose of all people!"
"Is that all?" the elderly Hedgehog asked warmly. "Mina and Ash have been regulars here ever since the move from Knothole." He put his hand on the girl's shoulder. "I know you're still pretty new around here, but you can't let something like a famous face distract you from your work. So far, you've been doing a great job."
Chloe took a deep breath. "Thank you, Mr. Chuck," she said. "I won't let it get to me."
"A lot of famous people eat here. My nephew Sonic makes a B-line for this place every blessed time he wants a dozen chili dogs."
"S-Sonic? The Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic? You're his uncle?" she asked with a blown mind.
"You didn't notice the resemblance?" he asked.
Chloe made the connection then. People had often said that she was too polite for her own good, so she would have never asked if there were an opportunity.
"Sonic, the Freedom Fighter, the Chaotix, the Forget Me Knots, all sorts eat here. Just keep a level head like you always do, and you'll be alright." With an assuring pat, he released her back to her duties.
The office was adjacent to the kitchen, so she was back in the game in a split second. Hutch Bear was almost done with an order, while Zach Beaver busily scrubbed trays and dishes at the sink.
DING! Hutch hit the bell. "Chloe, order 77 is ready. Booth 8."
Chloe blushed. Booth 8… Mina. She had just promised Chuck that she'd keep a cool head out there. Now she was going to get a mulligan with the songstress. Two burgers, one large and one small, with golden crinkle fries and deep-brown onion rings were going out.
Inhaling through the nose and out her mouth, the Mouse approached the two Mongooses. "Here you are," she said. "I hope you enjoy."
"Thank you," said Ash.
"Look," said Chloe, blushing, "I just made a grade-A fool of myself, but just one jam session with you when I'm off and I could live it down! Please!"
Mina giggled. The waitress was trying to apologize for something so silly. "You can play music?"
"Only as a hobby, really," the Mouse admitted, already wishing she hadn't blurted that out. "I'm really a mediocre musician if you ask me, but I just never exp—!"
"You off tomorrow?" Mina asked, interrupting her.
"Y-Yes I am," Chloe responded.
"Then come to our trailer and we'll chat a little bit."
She meant it. Chloe watched as her patron took out a pen and scribbled down an address on a napkin. She had no words.
Author's notes:
Another rough one, particularly in regard to Mina and Chloe's first scene, so big thanks to HyperionGM and SonicEvan, as well as Dr. Z, for input and direction. Thankfully, we'll be getting back to the White Base in the next chapter… and another step closer to the biggest even in this version of the UC. At one point, I panicked, thinking I'd lost all my progress after the capture of the Desert Chapter remnants by Zeon, but was thankfully auto-saved.
+ The wreckage that Sonic and the girls take shelter from the sandstorm in are the remains of the experimental YMT-05 Hildolfr. An experimental "mobile tank" functioning as a tank and an artillery unit, its design had been scrapped by the Zeon brass two years before the war broke out. In May of 0079, it was assigned to occupied Arizona for data collection, only to get caught up in a skirmish with EFF pilots flying stolen Zakus. The Hildolfr defeated the squad, but was also lost in the fighting. Its story can be seen in the CG OVA MS IGLOO: THE HIDDEN ONE YEAR WAR. (Suggestion from HyperionGM)
+ Chloe Mouse's origins actually start with Mina's creation. Mina was originally to be called Chloe, but Archie felt that there were too many characters with a long-"E" ending their names (ex.: Sally, Bunnie, Dulcy, etc.). As such, Karl Bollers tried to call her "Minerva", but that name was modified to "Mina".
+ Mina's rough draft are actually the lyrics to Richie Kotzen's 2006 adaptation of "Soldiers of Sorrow". Some people on the forums of MAHQ were complaining back in the day about the album it was on not being pure enough or something. It's not exactly the spitting image, cover-wise, and there are some parts that are kind of flimsy.