Chapter 3; First Command, Feeling Kinda Stuck
Groaning for the umpteenth time today, the red echidna rubbed at his tired eyes and forced his mind to focus on the report in front of him. It wasn't enough that someone he barely knew had time-travelled back in time to Angel Island, but now he was thoroughly stuck leading the rebellion because of it. "Maybe I should've studied my ancestors' battle tactics more." Knuckles grumbled to himself. "Maybe it could've helped me dodge this position." He'd read all the tablets and scrolls the echidnas had left behind, more as a hobby than anything else, and for the last two weeks he'd been relying on hundreds of years old war tactics and GUN communications to help him best place their recruits along the line of invasion.
They were spread thin, and getting thinner. So far Dr. Eggman hadn't been deliberately using lethal force, but not everyone was used to fighting and the least experienced and most of the wounded were getting captured. GUN was no real help; they were too busy fighting their own battles with Eggman to back the resistance up so far. The only reason they stood a chance at all was the fact that some Wisps had stayed behind after the Doc's bunk theme park had blown and released the little aliens' planets back into space. Those Wisps were now helping protect Mobius by inhabiting specialized projectile weapons, wispons, in the same was they'd charged up Sonic way back when.
Sonic. Blast it, of all the times he had to decide to fight while badly outnumbered. If the blue hedgehog had escaped he'd gladly have planted his spiky fist in his face for doing something so stupid; this war needed the fastest fighters they could get. Now Chaos knew where he was, as they'd no idea where Eggman was shipping his prisoners off to as of yet. They didn't even know how he got the resources to build so many robots, and make some of them so much tougher than before. At least word was coming back from the front line that Tails was alright, having taken charge of evacuation efforts; his ability to get a bird's eye view of his surroundings being perfect for the job.
Other friends of his had all stepped up to the bat as well. Amy was a capable assistant to the resistance leader, Knuckles had to give her that, proving to have a surprisingly solid head on her shoulders when she wasn't obsessing over that blue MIA. The Chaotix were already together on the front line, as battlefield commanders, and Silver, well…he was a strange one to place, but he was excellent at reconnaissance and backing up the front line where the resistance ran thin. That psychokinesis was more useful than the echidna had initially thought, and with Shadow's betrayal they needed all the heavy hitters they could get.
There were only so many other Mobians with special powers or unusual abilities out there, though, and most of those few weren't used to fighting with them with little time to be trained. Others were too young to have the experience fighting a war required. Cream was a fine example of that, having the ability to fly and even fight quite well with Cheese by her side, but the young rabbit and her chao were best kept out of this kind of fight. She, her chao and her mother were already in a good spot anyways, tending to whatever refugees and wounded they could. Even so, the medics and relief staff could hardly keep up with the constant flow.
Rouge, of course, was in an essential role, and currently deep behind enemy lines. After Omega had fallen she'd been hit twice as hard, quit GUN, and was still struggling to accept that Shadow could turn on her by joining the enemy. Right now she was a spy for the resistance while trying to find ways to steal the couple of chaos emeralds the Doctor had. It was strange; the fat human wasn't actively searching for them, but he seemed to be doing uncomfortably well without them. The resistance, on the other hand, was lacking adept chaos energy users, so it was more or less a matter of simply hiding the emeralds the good guys had. So far they were in the lead on that matter, having four safely tucked away from the madman assaulting their planet.
"Thirty-two more evacuees joined today, and sixty-one from within safe territory." He sighed, tucking the wad of papers into the nearest crate. "Make sure those new recruits get used to their partner Wisps before sending them out this time? They're thinking creatures." Some of the newer recruits had never met a wisp before, and had been frustrating the little creatures to no end by taking their offer to be batteries literally. Amy only shook her head at that, and was about to comment on his frustrations, when there was a sudden clamour outside. She headed outside, only to rush back in with tears in her eyes. Rising from his desk at Amy's fearful expression, he headed out of his tent to see what in the world could've happened. They were far enough from the fighting that there shouldn't be that kind of frantic, fearful shouting outside, much less from the communications tent. "What's going on?!" He barked at the nearest group of resistance fighters, ready to face whatever discovered threatening news was spilling out across those gathered outside, and quickly ducking into the com. tent to survey the monitors.
He was not prepared for what he saw.