High above Planet Mobius, the Drakon Armada hung in the vacuum, motionless save for the slight rocking of the smaller ships as the solar winds of Mobius' distant star washed over them. A small red light flared on the port side of the Caliagon, then faded. The fleet began dropping closer to the planet, stopping at the edge of the swirling atmosphere.
First, the massive cargo bay doors of the Caliagon began to slide open, followed by those of its sister ships, the Lonarn and the Mescrato. As the smaller ships lined up beside them, hatches began to open all over the fleet. Moments passed before a small green light flared brightly atop the Caliagon. Then, a swarm of landing ships vomited forth from the fleet, entering the Mobian atmosphere and dropping swiftly to make planet-fall on the rotating blue-green orb.
As the last ship left the fleet, the remaining vessels pulled back to their previous positions, watching the tiny specks of flame as the landing craft dropped towards the surface.
---
Captain James Fordry sighed again in frustration as his makeshift mosquito net again failed to protect him from the multiple winged biting insects that circled the Aquatic Ruins like an unruly mob, darting through gaping holes to get their claws into any bit of exposed flesh they could find. Swatting a particularly large mosquito with the back of his hand, James began applying insect repellent once more, adding to the thick coating already upon him which gave him the appearance of being laminated.
The fireflies had been out early tonight, arcing from high above the Ruins down behind the far hills to the north. At least, he thought they were fireflies. Still, probably nothing to worry about.
He frowned as a collection of bubbles rose from a nearby pool. Finally, the fish had come to feed. Grabbing his harpoon, James edged close to the water's edge, searching for his target. Then, in one smooth motion, he jabbed the harpoon down. Lifting it from the water's again; he pried the weakly struggling fish from the blade and placed it in a basket near his tent. Returning for the rest of the shoal, he headed for the next one along. Raising the harpoon above his head, he plunged it down.
The next instant, Captain James Fordry's right arm disappeared in a cloud of dull red vapour.
Screaming in pain, James fell to the floor and was immediately set upon by his intended target, a lithe Drakon who leapt from the pool and plunged its own blade into the back of the bear Mobian's skull.
As the Mobian's struggles ceased, Defender Le-Thra smiled and opened a com-channel to the Caliagon.
"The Aquatic Ruins have been secured. It is safe to begin landings."
---
The grim news just keeps coming in thought Pochacamac, as the first rays of sunshine on the horizon heralded the start of a new day of bloodshed.
Late the previous night, Drakon Empire forces had taken the Marble and Aquatic Ruin Zones with minimal resistance. No doubt they intended to restore their old bases on Mobius. It was a completely obvious move, but one which he and the other Mobian tacticians had overlooked during their meeting last night, where a plan of resistance had been drawn up.
The Drakon would almost certainly send a force to attack Metropolis City, in order to punish the Mobian people for their courage in rejecting their terms of surrender. The force would almost certainly land to the west of the city, in accordance with Drakonian religious and cultural traditions. And it would be likely that the Drakons would attack in short harp bursts, in order to prolong the misery of the Mobians.
And so, Mobian forces had begun to entrench all around the city, especially on the western side of the city, over the great Metropolitan River. The Drakons would likely spend time planning their first move, allowing a decently defensible network of trenches to be built up, extending back to the city. They should be able to hold.
However, the main bulk of the Drakon army would certainly be directed at the Floating Island, and the Chaos Emeralds. Preparations were already being made for a mobile war, the type of warfare that the Echidnas excelled in. Traps all over the island were being reset by the finest engineers they had, after being tripped by numerous intruders over the years. The old force of Guardian robots was being rebuilt to allow all those experienced in their use to pilot one, and thus bring out its full potential. And he, along with the other Echidna leaders, was preparing for combat. The Drakon leaders would likely lead the attack, and Pochacamac would be damned if they got to the Emeralds without first going through him.
Hopefully, the Echidna's home advantage would lead to a swift conflict in which they would hopefully triumph, allowing them to attack from behind the Drakon attacks on Metropolis and elsewhere, and trap them between the Echidna army and the defenders.
At least, that was the plan.
Hopefully Drakon tactics hadn't changed that much in the past few millennia. Which, judging by their impressive battle record, seemed to be the case. After all, if the tactics worked, then there was no need to change them.
And the Drakon tactics definitely worked.
"Are you OK, Father?" Pochacamac turned from his musings to find Tikal standing nearby.
"It's late Father. Get some rest, please," she urged. The elderly Echidna smiled and nodded.
"You are right, Tikal," he said, fondly. "The sleep will do me good." A smile replaced Tikal's worried expression, and she left, closing the stone door behind her.
Turning back to the balcony, Pochacamac looked out upon the landscape of Mobius far below once more, watching as continents disappeared over the curve of the planet.
"I fear it will be the last chance I get, before the storm breaks."
---
"Charmy, get out!"
"Oh diddly-pooh, Vector. You're no fun."
"I'm warning you..."
Espio began reaching for the Charmy-Removal Broom as the argument went on. Ever since the whole Crimson Cobra incident, things had been quiet in New Tek City. The Chaotix Team wasn't needed as much anymore, as the New Tek Police Department had finally managed to catch a criminal. Thus, Planet Meridian's numerous superheroes had lost many potential clients due to the new-found competence of the police.
And so, distractions from Charmy's ramblings had become few and far between.
"Oh, don't be a spoil-de-sport, Vector!" yapped Charmy again.
"Charmy. Just be quiet for once. Please," muttered Mighty, surfacing from the mounds of discarded crisp packets on the sofa.
As usual, he was ignored by Charmy.
"You'd think you'd be more grateful, after I saved from that nasty Crimson Cobra!" Charmy retorted, sulking.
"Oh, for Pete's sake..." Espio began, grabbing the broom and advancing on the annoying bee.
For a second, bright light filled the room. The next instant, the opposite wall blew inwards, debris narrowly missing the Chaotix Team. Espio was flung backwards to the floor; the broom flying out of his hands and hitting Charmy in the face, hurling the bee across the room to put a large hole in the balcony screen door.
Picking himself up, Vector followed Charmy. To see if the bee was all right, and also to find out what was going on.
As he threw the ruins of the screen door back into the room, he gasped at the sight outside.
A huge cloud was descending from the sky, consisting of millions of vaguely humanoid forms. From the distance between the skyscraper Vector couldn't tell what they were, but he knew that they were bad.
"Oh. Diddly. Looks like rain," mumbled Charmy as the crocodile dragged him back into the Chaotix Tower, before running to his lab. Rushing up to his worktable, he whipped the cover off what at first sight appeared to be a large computer chipboard. Tugging wires from the back of the board, he began working on the innards of the object.
"Come on, Omni. Time to bloody wake up," muttered Vector quickly, activating the construction and stepping back. Electricity flared across circuits as the object rose from its resting place, swivelling to reveal the stylised features of the Omni Viewer.
"What is it, Vector," he hummed, hovered up to the crocodile.
"No time to explain," shouted Vector, as the swarm of foes engulfed a nearby skyscraper, reducing it to rubble in a matter of seconds. "Head to Mobius. Get help. Tel them that we're being invaded by... something, I don't know what."
Taking a quick glance out the window at the horrific scenes outside, the Omni Viewer nodded and, in a blue flash of light, disappeared. Satisfied, Vector rushed back to the main room to join the rest of the team, already on their way to the hanger.
"Going somewhere?"
Vector span round to face the owner of the voice. A cloaked shape hung in the centre of the room behind him. Or at least where the room had been. The entire room had been torn away from building by some silent force, and lay in pieces on the streets below.
"What the?" Vector began, before a beam of light leapt from the thing's chest and clipped his left side, sending Vector spinning. As the thing hovered closer, Vector dimly noticed a clawed hand emerge from the cloak; the thing raising it to strike. The cloak slid away at the last moment, revealing the thing's face.
Vector was dimly aware of a loud, roaring sound just before the claw descended.
"Metall..." he croaked, before the darkness took him.
---
As darkness fell over Plant Mobius, the last of the Drakon landing craft touched down, unloading its distinguished cargo before firing its jets and returning to the fleet hanging in orbit over the planet.
On the ground, Emperor Ko-Door watched as the ship sped towards its destination. His two counterparts had already landed. He had remained on the Caliagon long enough to establish the new chain of command, leaving fleet command to the Judge of the Imperial Air Force, Ai-Har. He was an accomplished leader, and the fleet would be unlikely to come up against serious opposition anyway.
He smiled. The Drakon engineers had worked fast. Already they had restored the old Drakon Palace to habitable status, and numerous other buildings were being rebuilt even at that moment.
Swiping at a newt that scuttled in front of him, he crossed the palace threshold and wrinkled his nose at the smell of rotting fabric. Numerous tapestries lined the walls. All were falling apart, tiny marine creatures crawling through the rotting seams. Even the Drakonian fabric; which was extremely resistant to water damage, had been eaten away by the countless centuries.
A Drakonian Solicitor stepped out from a nearby alcove and bowed to the Drakonian leader, before leading him to his rooms.
Eventually they reached them, after wandering through the meandering tunnels for around a quarter of an hour. Waving away the Solicitor, Ko-Door pushed open the heavy stone doors and entered.
His rooms were still mostly undecorated, as they had only just been restored to safe condition. Moss coated most surfaces, giving the room a homely feel to the Drakon. After all, Planet Drak was rather lacking in water due to the apocalyptic turn that its star had taken. This planet would make a lovely retirement home after the parasites who believed they owned it had been exterminated. After a quick inspection of the large spherical area, Ko-Door exited. Waving to a newt to fetch his personal belongings from the shuttle he stalked off towards the briefing room. Or at least, in the vague direction which he believed the briefing room to be in.
Eventually he located his destination and swept in, winging a newt slave with the quickly opening door. Kicking the newt for good measure, Ko-Door took his seat at the triangular table along with his counterparts. Numerous aides to each of the three Houses lined the walls, clutching parchments and data tablets to their chests in a bizarre mix of old and new technologies.
"Ah," hissed Haggra. "Glad you finally decided to join us."
"A pleasure as always, Haggra," Ko-Door hissed back, taking care to remove her title as he did so. Taking some satisfaction at the look of complete rage of the old bag's face, he called over a aide and took some documents from the overloaded Drakon. "Formalities aside, we must begin planning this invasion."
"I'm glad you finally brought that up," muttered Brother Scholar, tapping the table top. A large holographic map of Mobius appeared, convincing Ko-Door that the table was not part of the original furnishings. Pointing to a point of the Planet's surface, the wizened Drakon continued.
"Though our armies can easily defeat our enemies piecemeal, if we allow them to unite their strength our task would become much harder. From what I've heard of this Guardian and his robotic helpers, his knowledge of how the Emeralds function could turn the tide of the war. Therefore, I propose this." He paused as the map of Mobius zoomed in on Metropolis City. "The majority of the enemy forces facing us lie within this city. Though they are numerous, their technology is outclassed by ours. If we deployed a third of our forces to tie up the forces operating here, then we could concentrate the majority of our strength on attacked the Floating Island and recapturing the Emeralds. Though the assault on the city would be textbook warfare, the assault on the Island would not. Sister Haggra, if you please?"
"Thank you," replied Haggra, with a certain degree of sarcasm. Bringing up a map of the Floating Island, she unravelled a dauntingly long parchment and began to read directions from it.
Ko-Door sighed. This could take a while.