Sonic and Sally sat in her hut. Nicole beeped. "Ready, Sally."
Sally stirred. "Nicole, transpose target data onto the large hologram of Robotropolis."
The map—built by Uncle Chuck—suddenly grew seven red dots. Most were around the periphery, but a few were deep in Robotropolis, and one was actually on the HQ building.
"What's that one?" asked Sonic, pointing to the one on HQ.
"Nicole, add mission profiles to the map."
Over the dots appeared words giving brief summations of the mission. One was GENERATOR THREE, 76%. Another was WEAPONS FACTORY, 34%.
Over the command center was this:
ASSASSINATE ROBOTNIK, 5%
Sonic laughed. "Gutsy for you, Sal!"
"Hey, just because I don't try to get myself killed, unlike some hedgehogs who shall remain nameless, doesn't mean I can't aim high once in a while. But these are just potential targets. I don't think I'd call that one unless the situation was really good or really bad."
"This isn't really good?"
"Not good enough for that mission. Taking out the mainframe hasn't changed the situation enough. To get a "Really good" for that mission, we'd need a small army and an all-but-destroyed Robotropolis. This one, on the other paw…" she pointed.
"A microchip factory? Bo-ring! Why that?"
"Sonic, that factory produces microchips used in everything Robotnik makes! To make things easier, he standardized all systems to use those chips. So if we cut into his supply of chips, we hurt his manufacture of absolutely everything. This factory was undergoing renovation before tonight, which means that all its new equipment hasn't even started yet. It also means that Robotnik already has a chip shortage."
"'Cause it sure wasn't working while he was updatin', right?"
"Right. Which means that if we hit it, it will be even longer before Robotnik can start building things again."
Sonic looked at it again, then looked up at Sally, puzzled. "I thought you said we bummed out if the chances were below fifty-fifty."
Sally made a Mobian gesture indicating go on, go on.
"Sal, 41%?"
She smiled. "Want to find out how gutsy I am?"
"I don't think so."
"We're gonna do it."
"Cool."
"Just like that? You change your mind just like that?"
"What's the point of arguin'? I've changed sneaker sizes since the last time I won."
"You are no fun, Sonic Hedgehog."
"Your fault, Sal."
"Sure, blame me."
"No prob."
She gave him a push backwards and laughed.
"So, what do we do to Tails next?"
Sally looked at her schedule. "Intensive personal combat," she read, her voice draining of enthusiasm. "Since he's been to Robotropolis, there's no point in beating around the bushes anymore. Get Rotor and the two of you can haul some Swatbot shells out there."
"What kind of personal combat? If you think he can spin, you've got another thing comin'!"
"Just his body, mostly. Ropes, we use those a lot. He did well with a knife, see if you can work in some of that."
"Sal, I don't know how to knife-fight!"
"No, but you do know Swatbots. You can tell him what to go for, how to approach a Swatbot. He was really scared tonight. Banging around a few shells will help increase his confidence."
"I hope you're right, Sal."
"So do I. Now that we're doing this, I want to get it right." There was cold silence. "I hope he still loves me after this," said Sally.
"I do, too. Not that he'll have a hard time lovin' you. It's me I'm worried about."
"Sonic, that was such a nice thing you said I'll overlook your rampant egoism."
"Fifty-fifty ain't so bad." He stood. "Well, I'm gonna scarf some chili-dogs and sack out. Anything else, Sal?"
She shook her head. "I'll be up for a while yet. See you tomorrow, Sonic."
He left. Sally worked for almost an hour, planning her future and Tails'. Then she put everything up and headed to bed.
When everything was quiet, she shook from head to toe.
Then she slept.
On the other side of Mobius, as Sally worked herself to sleep, Jan's alarm rang yet again.
'What am I doing?' thought Tosul. 'That was pure instinct. Stupid of me to ring Jan's alarm in her condition.'
Tosul began calling the few rested combat teams. For a few moments, he considered calling up Gaunt, but decided that there was no point. He couldn't add anything to the situation.
Tosul picked out the individual magnetic signatures the monitors detected and almost laughed. A mere fifteen Swatbots, and their tank was an older model. Its guns had a narrow arc of fire, and tracked vehicles were so hard to maneuver in the mountains. He could handle this mission without Jan.
The combat teams entered the command room, but instead of the grim anticipation Tosul normally felt coming from them, he felt everyone acting sluggish and depressed.
Normally they would be unenthusiastic but willing, but that spirit was gone this morning. They were unmoving. The unspoken consensus that everyone in the room heard was this: They were not going to fight today. The cost was too high.
Naturally, Tosul thought, now alarmed. We lost so many yesterday, including Jan. Jan was what kept them together. Tosul might be able to command them, but he couldn't lead them. He thought these things with growing panic.
As sudden as the flip of a switch, the air in the room changed. Tosul felt his gaze being drawn inexorably away from the monitors. He looked to the entrance and joined the stunned silence of the combat teams.
It was hard to tell whether it was Jan that had entered the room or a goddess in Jan's form. Her steps were small and elegant, for she wore no shoes. Her fur radiated light and hope; her eyes sparkled with the light of the stars.
She was naked as the dawn at sea. For the first time in a decade, she wore no armor. She carried no weapon. She simply walked as a native of her planet.
Her fur was dirty and crusted with dry sweat and, intellectually, Tosul was able to see this. But her beauty, that of an animal uninhibited by the burdens of the war, was something almost beyond comprehension.
The common perception had been that Jan had totally, catastrophically collapsed. Seeing her now was like watching her rise from her tomb—not running from it, for it was long since defeated, but walking, dancing almost, as if her minced steps were a form of barely-concealed joy that her battle was over.
"What is the situation?"
Tosul returned to reality. He struggled to answer her—for how does one answer a reincarnated legend? "A minor threat, Jan, you should get some rest… It's not worth your attention."
She nodded serenely, but didn't leave. One by one, she made eye contact with everyone in the room.
"I want everyone to listen to me," she said. Her voice was hoarse and cracked from the previous day, but everyone clung to it, strengthened it, made it real for each other. She was saying it for them, and they would help her say it.
"Yesterday, I fought with death."
Stunned as they were to even see her, these words knocked the animals senseless. There was hardly the sound of a breath to interrupt Jan now, yet she was patient, taking her time and making sure all knew what she was saying.
"Death had been making inroads into my soul for a while now. In every manner I've decayed, and for a while it seemed as if the cost of my continuing to live was too high—not just for myself, but to those who love and depend on me.
"I'd gone so far down the road of death that I even thought that dying now would be a blessing to you all."
Tosul was engrossed totally in her words, falling into them. The Swatbots were long since forgotten, insignificant compared to hearing her now.
"I sold out a part of myself eight years ago, so the past eight years I've been in Hell. I mean that literally. I may never recover those lost years. You can say all you want that those years were awful years and that they deserve to be lost. But by denying those years to myself, I haven't really been alive—I was in death's power even then.
"This conflict finally came to a head yesterday. I had become death, the destroyer of worlds. The decisions I've made have ended with animals dying, but only yesterday did I actually kill. I realized then what had happened to me, so I fought it. And all last night I wrestled with death."
She smiled. "Since I'm standing here, you can guess who won. But that win came at a price. I ripped out the part of me that death lived in, so some of death's blessings are gone now."
Only Tosul fully realized what that meant. She undid her programming, he thought incredulously. She'll never become a computer again. She ripped out all the wires, all the commands. It's over.
"I'll never be as good a commander as I was the past ten years. I'll make more mistakes. I'll get tired. In all probability, I'll end up getting more of you killed this way. That's why I've come to ask you this morning.
"Will you follow me?"
There was no response; no one was quite sure how to answer.
"My question is this," she said. "I'm not as good of a commander now. My abilities will fall. But at the same time, I've won back the parts of me that have been missing these past ten years. So I've got to ask you, was the trade-off worth it? Do you want Jan, the flawed animal, or Jan, the battle computer?"
Tosul felt his body move without his commands. "I want you, Jan, as you are."
There was an air of agreement with Tosul's words, an air that grew into a whisper, then a murmur, then a mood, then a clamor, and finally an uproar. Yes, they said—Jan, you are what we want. You can't love a battle computer, and we'll live with your faults.
Jan's smile lit up the room. "Good, because that's the only Jan we have in stock right now!" There was laughter. It never occurred to Tosul to worry about what the outcome would have been like if they'd wanted the computer, after all.
"I have one more thing to say," she said. "Something is happening back on the Mainland. I don't know exactly what, but today I felt something for the first time in a long while. Hope.
"It's lonely here. Oftentimes we forget even the other Hives that fight with us. But animals all over the planet are bleeding and dying just like us to stop Robotnik once and for all time. So I want you to keep one thing in mind.
"Stay alive! We can't stop fighting now. Animals everywhere will bring him down, and we have to do our part. The way to do that is to survive, force him to devote Swatbots to stopping us. If he won't send bots at us, we'll go picking fights! So I want everyone to stay alive, because…"
She stopped, and everyone remained motionless, dependent upon her words, soaking them in to realize their meanings.
"Because for the first time in a long time, I know we have a chance. Soon, very soon, we'll have the chance to make something grow."
Tears came to her eyes—but tears quite unlike the others that had streaked her muzzle over the past days.
"I love you all," she said. "The day of happiness is coming. We all have to believe that, because once we believe it, we can make it happen. And I want everyone to see that day."
She glanced at the situation map, then back to the animals. "Move out," she said. "Head for grid 1. Tosul will direct you to the appropriate entrances soon."
With a giant "Hoo-rah!" they left the room.
She turned back to Tosul, who was staring at her in awe. "Tosul," she said, "tell me the situation."
He fumbled. "Well, um, as I said, I don't think it's worth…"
She laughed lightly. "Tosul, this is the first fight in eight years that I feel good about. Please don't tell me to go away."
Somehow, his role as coordinator managed to overcome the meltdown in his brain. "I already checked with Observatory, there's nothing in the air. Just fifteen Swatbots in grid 1, block F. Also a type C tank."
"Type C? Right… I want one team to be the bait, here in front. Tell them to be in cover, really good cover; we don't want them exposing themselves to fire, since they won't be the ones doing the damage. One good burst of fire from them, then they should hit the rocks. Once the Swatbots commit and march forward, we expose the entrance on the right canyon wall and flank them with the second team. At the same time, the third team will emerge from hiding and bushwhack the tank with torches."
He nodded, finally understanding. "The tank's firing arcs don't allow it to turn enough to protect itself."
"And with the other animals firing at the Swatbots, that gives the tank exactly zero chance of survival."
"Where do you want the third team to hide?"
"In this entrance, behind our ambush."
"But if we let them get to one of our entrances, won't they find it?"
"No. Those Swatbots aren't looking for entrances."
"What?"
"It's a joy ride. They know we suffered heavy casualties yesterday. They're just checking to see if we can still fight." She smiled. "Which is why they must never return to base."
To his credit, Tosul had managed to position the teams while talking to Jan about what, exactly, they would be doing. They waited but another two minutes until everything was set.
Jan picked up the intercom, connecting her voice to the three rooms in which the animals were hiding. "All teams, on my command, move out." She took a deep breath. "For Mobius!" she cried.
"For Jan!" twenty-nine animals shouted in reply.
Jan watched the map as the battle began and Swatbot signatures began to disappear…
FIN
Tails' training continues in: "Pushing"