Tails' eyes burned, his movements sharp. He jerked his hand down across the control panel, swerving to the left.
The cockpit window revealed a sky full of air cruisers, filtering in and out of the smoke. Tails could barely see the city beneath, but he didn't have to see it to know they were too late.
Back at the tech lab, he had almost touched the missiles himself. He had known what Eggman meant when he said this planet was full of lab rats. Too many lab rats.
But he still could not believe it.
The scope on the radar sighted on a nearest cruiser. Tails growled as he swiped the trigger lock on the machine gun panel screen.
It did not matter whether he believed it or not. He had to fight.
He stared at the panel screen. He had fifteen rounds of shot.
The machine gun and loading barrels had been built into a retractable compartment at the nose of the cruiser. The cruiser was rigged to fuse a new round of two inch thick, ten-inch long chemical alloy bullets every ten minutes.
Tails' brow furrowed. Perfect for taking out the N-ethyl packs burning beneath the air cruisers.
He sucked up a breath and with a sharp grunt, twisted the stick forward as sharp as he could.
The thrusters angled. Two of the "gills" on the port side of the cruiser retracted.
Tail's stomach churned as the nose of the cruiser dipped down as if it was trying to complete a handstand.
He dove.
Tails ground the heels of his shoes against the control panel to brace himself, gritting his teeth against the pressure.
He brought her back up. The cruiser arced, straight up.
Tails stared up at the belly of an autopilot air cruiser above him.
With a shout, he yanked the trigger launch and felt the machine gun kick beneath the cockpit floor. The first round of blasts exploded into the n-ethyl packs of the enemy cruiser—
The sound was terrible. Green fire, fused out across the sky, like burning liquid. Tails jolted, as if struck.
Tails swerved, shooting around the flying debris and past his target, straight up into the sky.
The explosion had shaken him loose. Something inside him began to leak.
His home…was gone.
And he hadn't been able to stop it.
