SSS30: CSAR (Combat Search and Rescue)
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Robotropolis: 06/19/4460 0230
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Sonic sat in his chair, his vision blurring as his eyes fixated on the wall. In front of him, Robotnik went about his daily business which generally consisted of some typing here, some orders there. What he would give for that life. A life without constant taunts. A life without daily beatings. A life without wondering when the pain would end. When sanity would return. When tiles would be tiles. "You've got it so easy, Robotnik."
Robotnik smirked at Sonic, and rolled his chair towards the hedgehog. "You'd think so, eh? It's so hard to be me you wouldn't understand. What do I do? I sit here issuing commands all day. In addition to trying to launch a space station within a year, this building's having an outage, it needs to get up ASAP! So I have to shift my attention if I'm in the middle of something to the emergency, and while halfway through that, another emergency will occur! I can't win! And then I need to re-deploy my bots every few hours as new ones come in. Then their weapons need to be checked so that they work and they need to be oiled. I have to issue the commands to get all of this done! All while making sure the electricity runs and the food is there! I put in 24 hour days! For example, right now, there are about 1,000 soldiers and 300 armed vehicles that don't belong to me outside MY DANG BORDER! ARGH! I can't wait to get off this dang planet!"
Sonic stared at the odd act, "and you're telling me this why?"
"Because A. You're in there. And B. You're too ignorant to understand the complex methods of my madness."
"Me ignorant?" Sonic thought aloud, "Never before understood the whole irony thing."
"Sir!" Lieutenant Shady reported.
"Yes?" Robotnik replied, disinterested.
"Your report, sir. You're going to love this one."
"Get out. Now!"
"Yes sir!"
Robotnik picked a ceramic mug off of his control panel and took a sip as he inserted the small, brown disk the report was on. As schematics flashed on the screen alongside satellite photos, his right hand slammed the mug down, hard enough to spill a small bit of his drink. "My God..."
"Ooh! Wah! My life is soooo hard! I NEVER get what I want!" Sonic mocked from his chair.
"Shut up, hedgehog! Some days... look. I have better things to do then listening to my prisoner have fun. Shady!"
"Sir, Lieutenant Shady reporting in."
Robotnik rose--a rare event, and approached his metallic Lieutenant. He struggled, but managed to bend over and whisper, "Take the hedgehog somewhere dark and quiet. He has too much resolve. We haven't done enough. Do your thing. For that matter, do EVERYthing. Destroy who Sonic the Hedgehog, as a person, is. Once you return we will evaluate our options."
"Wilco, sir. Permission to leave?"
Dr. Robotnik stomped, his boots quaking the floor with a metallic twang. His fist extended into a firm point. "GET OUT! It's universal, Shady!"
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Outside Robotropolis
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"Juke, we're going around the city. Get out on the northwest end on my go. Secure the area and radio when clear. Potential for rockets means that I can't stop totally, so be quick, roger?
"Roger, going outside."
"Go ahead, just watch yourself."
"Keep your eyes on the road, Captain."
The HPC was slowly pacing its way around the city while the LT opened the right side door. Her assault rifle in her dominant left hand, she reached for the handhold on the vehicles side with spare fingers--the only fingers keeping her inside the armored vehicle. Carefully, she put her front foot on the front side of the vehicles skid, and then proceeded to attach the buckles in place. No turning back now. She put her back leg outside the HPC and onto the skid, "Captain, shut the door!" The auto-doors hissed shut and she was in for the ride. Riding outside of an HPC was like putting a "kick me" sign on yourself. You were the easiest target in the world, and with an assault rifle in your hand, you were also a priority. Fortunately, there was a method of protection. "Capt, I need the armor before we get in real deep-like here"
A wall of armor came from the HPC and boxed the Lieutenant in. "Ready, Juke?"
"Roger that, proceed."
Captain Knuckles pushed the throttle to the maximum, and the HPC cruised the perimeter of Robotropolis.
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Two SWATbots carried Sonic by his armpits as his feet brushed limply across the floor. A mixture of blood and water dripped from his body, marking his path. A third SWATbot opened the cell and the two SWATbots walked past when the laser bars lifted. They carelessly dropped Sonic, turned, sealed the cell and left. A change of scenery. He was now in a dark, dirty cell, though his limbs were unbound. It was only because they knew he couldn't escape in this shape. He should have kept his mouth shut then--because now he couldn't open it if he tried. He was used to the daily beatings. They hurt badly, but he was able to keep it inside. They only left bruises. This was different, however. Lieutenant Shady/Mecha took him away, threw him in a room and let loose. It was a barrage of questions on the location of their bases, their supplier, status, future missions, what they knew, and so forth. When he failed to answer, Shady went wild and tried what must have been every trick in the book. He had been shocked, stuck with needles, been alternated between a bathtub of ice cubes and that of near boiling water, stung by buzzbomber stingers (leftover parts), had the letter "R" (for Robotnik) carved into his shoulder, beaten to a pulp, and he would swear that his jaw was broken (though that gesture was less for interrogation, and more for opening his mouth to Robotnik in the first place). The fact that he was conscious at all was a miracle. He screamed, he cried, and his body had recoiled with every touch. But he never begged and never gave in. He hated Robotnik too much to give in. After killing his mom, Robotnik could have sawed him in two and not given him a word of protest. His destroyed body drifted into sleep as Sonic lay, bruised and unable to move. Hours went by and Sonic woke periodicly, screaming. Shady's torture may have ended, but the psychological effects did not. Shady's treatment may have lasted an hour, but Sonic relived it, over and over again.
Robotnik and Mecha walked into Sonic's cell at the crack of dawn, waking him forcefully with his steel-toed boot. A deep growl invaded Sonic's hearing. "Good day hedgehog." He had decided to once again test Sonic's will. Mecha dragged Sonic into a sitting position against the wall as Robotnik once more pressed the end of his pistol to Sonic's temple. No recoil. No flinch. No squirm. In fact, Robotnik could almost swear he heard a labored sigh from relief. Robotnik's beliefs were confirmed when Sonic looked up--and smiled weakly through his swollen jaw. The hedgehog slowly closed his eyes, ready. Shady had done an excellent job torturing him, but Robotnik was sure that now there was no way to break Sonic--he had been trained. He wanted the brains, and was almost convinced that Sonic was telling the truth most of the time when he denied knowledge.
Robotnik's deep growl invaded Sonic's hearing as he stepped back. "Well, I guess it is a good day for you, indeed. You see... I've decided to... let you go. You make too many noises and lower my property values and are just generally undesirable to have around." At this Sonic cocked his head in confusion. "Of course you must ask how could I possibly allow you the chance to escape after finally catching you? I am not foolish hedgehog. I am not going to sit here waving goodbye as you walk out the front door. Besides, there is a war going on outside anyway. No, I need some excitement in my life. I will give you the opportunity to escape. If you can get past not only my layered security... but my hunter as well..." He motioned to Mecha, who was glaring hungrily, "Then I believe you deserve to escape. However! My money is that in your state, this will be a painful exercise in futility. I will give you a head start, at least to make this exciting. Don't crawl too fast!"
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Knuckles and Juke had been able to locate the control room by following the most prolific radio traffic channel and were patiently kneeling above the sealed control room vent, listening in.
"Oh man, Sonic's in tight. Think we could try a rope down to where Sonic is?" Juke asked.
"No, our explosives are too powerful to take out the opening without bringing the place down." Knuckles observed.
"What do we do then?"
"We have to follow him until we can get out, then we extract quickly, because the whole dang city will be on our tails."
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Meanwhile, Sonic was blindfolded and wheeled in a transport chair (a wheelchair with bindings) by Mecha Sonic out of the underground control bunker. Once they were above ground and outside, the entrance was sealed with blast doors, and the game was ready to begin. Mecha walked over to the hedgehog's front side and removed the blindfold. "You have five minutes to run as far as you can." The robotic clone released Sonic's bindings and the chair bucked forward, throwing the wounded hedgehog to the ground. He weakly crawled on his hands and knees in a first attempt to stand and was quickly grabbed by Mecha Sonic, who proceeded to throw him shot-side first to the floor. Tears squeaked to his eyes unchecked and Sonic had to methodically control his breathing and muscular response. Mecha crouched next to the prone Sonic and whispered, "If you have your head start, so do I,"
Perhaps the real reason for Mecha's "head start" was an easier tracking method--Sonic's side wound had reopened and blood spilled onto the concrete. Sonic's strength came from pure adrenaline; he was already taxing his body to the limits just by standing. He began to move as quickly as he could, which ended up being a combination of a stumble and a limp, with the occasional crawling mixed in out of necessity. His legs burned and his vision blurred as his breath came in dry, ragged gasps through his swollen jaw.
As the race started, Mecha stood and watched the snail-paced hedgehog who struggled back to his feet and into a pronounced limp. As the adrenaline fully kicked in, the pain started to fade, but it was hardly enough to run on. He was still badly injured, now worse than before, and walking alone would be a feat. Robots immediately locked on to his position and began tracking him, though they would not follow. Sonic bounded through the alleys as fast as his broken body dared (which wasn't fast), and it took him a minute to notice the resounding pulses of a murderous thunder. In fact, it was thunder, and he began to notice how violent and persisant it was, lighting up the sky as it ricocheted off of the Robotropolis defense shield. Cold, acid rain seeped through and poured, stinging his wounds and slicking the ground. As he ran slowly, he watched the thunder and noticed how it was mostly centered around a calm spot in the middle. If Sonic hadn't been given Juke's amnesiac, he would have recalled the HPC dodging the thunder on the way into Robotropolis. But alas, Sonic became curious as to what was generating the thunder. Had Robotnik built a thunder machine in an attempt to barricade the city from attack?
He pursued the storm's eye. He knew there wasn't a chance in heck that he would make it out of Robotropolis alive if he just kept going, so he decided to make his five minutes worthwhile. But as his legs quaked under his not-so-heavy frame, he suddenly gained new understanding. For Knuckles. For a good three years training program. For running until you puked. And he heard Knuckles' in the back of his head "Down-one! Down-two!" His torturous push-up call. For Sonic now understood that you trained not for everyday, but for THIS day: when all hope had been lost.
After maneuvering around several buildings that housed God-knows-what, and hoping that the thunder would not strike through the shield, Sonic arrived at the calm. He arrived in a wide open area with only a small hill of rubble that had been destroyed and never rebuilt in the original attack on Central Metropolis. He climbed to the top, looked at the ground and found what he was looking for. He managed to climb back down, but it was too little too late. Sonic the Hedgehog could go no more. As he fell to his knees, he could have noticed two red eyes in the reflection of the wet ground but was clueless when a metallic fist hit him across the back of his head and began to drag him away. Five minutes, after all, was not a very long time in Robotropolis.
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They had taken cover behind another pile of rubble across the street. "I see him Capt'n... He's in trouble! It's that robot again!" Juke shouted, binocs pressed against her face.
"Roger! Intercept... GO! GO!" Knuckles, assault rifle in hand ran toward the hedgehogs.
The two hedgehogs ran toward Sonic, but inadvertently drew the attention of every robot in the surrounding area who proceeded to track Sonic. Shots rang out against the unusually dark Robotropolis morning. Robots dropped and Juke provided cover as Knuckles bounded across the street. The crew was too preoccupied to notice that the rain had stopped. Knuckles shot at the scurrying robot, who dropped Sonic and ran into the night. Knuckles picked up Sonic and proceeded to sling him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Sonic, object in hand shut his eyes in attempt to conquer the nausea he was feeling. Knuckles crossed the road and ran. "It's about five miles from here to the cruiser, you going to make it Sonic?"
No response.
Juke ran to catch up, turning occasionally to scrap the pursuing robots. "Captain!" she yelled, "Look what's in Sonic's hand!" Knuckles peered over to the hedgehog and his jaw dropped. Sonic had slipped into delirium, muttering incessant gibberish, but in his vice gripped fingers was the yellow chaos emerald. The war on the outskirts had distracted most of Robotropolis' patrols and the only resistance came from behind and the sides. The trio ran for what seemed like miles and miles across wet, dirty, city streets. They bounded across factories and power plants. Juke ran ahead to provide cover for Knuckles and Sonic as they had reached a major intersection. She looked both ways and zoomed in with her scope before sprinting across and doing the same. There were too many robots and not enough guns; Knuckles was too busy carrying Sonic to be able to shoot. They were closing in from both angles and she had no choice. She extended her right hand, thumb and index in an "L" shape--her own personal crosshair. With her left hand she pulled out her last her last two grenades-a frag and a disrupter. She threw the disrupter down and aimed with her left before flinging the frag grenade a good forty feet and into the crowd of robots. "FRAG OUT!" She shouted before throwing herself to the floor, disrupter in left hand, right hand covering her helmet. Knuckles braced his legs and secured Sonic as the ground quaked and glass shattered. She peeked from cover and saw the left end relatively safe. She repeated the process with her disrupter to the right and sparks flew as robots crashed to the floor, useless. She quickly pulled out to shoot stragglers before yelling for Knuckles to run like heck. She covered the ends and then ran to them. As she reached the end she turned--robots were still in pursuit and the street led to a dead end! "What now, Captain?" She asked, hopeless.
Knuckles didn't have time to respond when a Blue Army hovercruiser broke through a wall on the east side and came barreling down the street towards them, driving erratically. Knuckles raised his assault rifle and zoomed in at the driver. "Oh my God... It's our number! It's OUR HPC!" The Hovercruiser stopped promptly and the side airlock doors opened. Juke hopped onto the skid to provide cover while Knuckles juiced into the back with Sonic. After the two were loaded, Juke ducked and entered the front passenger seat as the airlock doors shut. The two breathless soldiers leaned back against the hovercruiser's walls as the craft sped into reverse and flew away from the city. Robots pursued but their lasers could not penetrate the HPC's armor. In the back, Knuckles buckled Sonic into the bed before sitting next to him. After watching the blood seep into the sheets for a moment, he quickly turned his attention to the HPC's supply cabinet, pulling out gauze, tape and scissors. He began to rudimentarily wrap Sonic's major wounds on his arm and side, before noticing the fresh gash in his head from Mecha's gun, which he also patched.
As they sped out past the suburbs, Knuckles' focus remained on Sonic, who lay semi-conscious on the bed, talking to himself. "Tails," Knuckles yelled, "You really need to speed it up here, something's wrong with Sonic." The cruiser accelerated, and Knuckles wondered if Sonic's delirious state hadn't resulted from his obtaining the chaos emerald. Knuckles pried it from his hands and held it. The glow was diminished from its usually gold luster, a signal that the powers it gave faded. Chaos emeralds, left unattended, will emit mysterious effects. Without a person to give its energy to, it will be stored and emit in unique and individual ways. This chaos emerald, the yellow one, happens to have its stored energy manifested as deadly lightning storms. Six other emeralds, also unattended are probably emitting their energies too. While some, like Yellow, have deadly effects, others do not. While the yellow's energy may have been flowing in to Sonic, it held no healing powers, and his presence only stopped the storms. As Knuckles picked up the emerald, he realized that nothing in Sonic had changed. He pocketed the emerald and buckled himself in to a back seat.
"So, how did you manage to not only find me, but steal my HPC, Tails?" Knuckles asked.
Without turning, the fox replied, "Gear Captain! I awoke from something-long story, and found you and most of Blue Army missing, so I hitched a ride with the big army and used your gear to find you and your abandoned HPC."
"Streeoh will throw a fit when he finds out we ran our own CSAR mission," Juke thought aloud.
"He better worry about the fit I'M going to throw in regards to his prisoner policies. Besides, he needs us more than we need him," came Knuckles gruff reply.
"Yeah, we almost had it, we were still a good two miles from where we parked, and I was out of grenades. We would have been toast."
In the wide open terrain back to Metroc, the HPC had lost the robots and the HPC continued onward without further incident. "Tails, we're getting close, radio Metroc and tell them to prepare." Knuckles ordered.
"Roger, Lieutenant has radio."
Juke did not reply, but instead tuned the cruiser's COM1 frequency to 110.9. "Cruiser 5461 to Metroc Command, over?"
"Cruiser 5461, this is Metroc Command, go ahead." Came the deep reply laced with a small amount of static.
"Metroc Command, Cruiser 5461 is carrying wounded POW extraction, request immediate medical services, over."
"Cruiser 5461, clearance granted, proceed to level -10 medical landing bay 0041, over."
"Wilco Metroc Command. Cruiser 5461 OUT."
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Metroc Station 06/19/4460 0845
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As the HPC went down the ramp at the entrance of Metroc they turned early, at level -10 instead of the usual hovercruiser landing, -11. The team was greeted at 0041 by the Metroc emergency team, who rushed Sonic immediately to a stretcher, strapped an oxygen mask to his face and rushed the hedgehog off to the emergency unit. A furious Captain Knuckles Echidna removed his helmet as he stepped out of the HPC. Everything was the fault of that danged Cheetah. But it wasn't that simple. He had left Sonic to die. Not only was Sonic barely alive, but he was in terrible shape, and according to Juke, worse than when she had left him there, which spelled torture. "Listen Juke, Tails, I'm going to be gone a while, if you need me, find a staff officer to page me."
"Roger Knux, I'll be going into see Sonic in a while, the medics say they need to work on him, so I don't want to disturb him right now." Juke sat on the ground next to the HPC, exhausted.
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Medical Unit, level -10, Metroc Station
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"It ain't good, Knuckles." Lieutenant Juke handed Knuckles the report.
Knuckles nodded as he skimmed, "Multiple laser wounds, blunt force trauma to head, concussion, needle marks, multiple bruises and gashes from what appear to be routine beatings, swollen jaw, acute traumatic stress symptoms from torture, high concentration of antibodies resulting from presence of unknown poison..."
"'kid's been through the wringer."
"I'm thoroughly impressed and surprised that he didn't give in. And nobody here is a kid after that last mission, not even Tails."
"I about freaked when I saw our HPC coming at us."
Knuckles seemed to stare into space in thoughtful reserve, "I almost shot him, Juke. I was sure it was hijacked."
"I guess I was more or less surprised that it was TAILS and not some idiot from the big army in the wrong HPC. I'm really surprised at the initiative he showed after what you did going out there and actually figuring out what was going on. Wait, here he comes."
"Sir, I wanted to apologize for my conduct earlier in leaving the base without authorization. I knew you had gone to rescue Sonic and that the big army was at war, I wanted to help any way I could." Tails was obviously expressing his guilty feelings.
"Lieutenant, would you leave us please?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Walk with me Corporal," Knuckles whispered. The fox nodded and kept step beside the captain. "Normally, I would be very upset at such a serious breach. What you did is very serious, don't mistake that. But at the same time, you and I both know that you did the right thing at the right time, and our army is better for it. Just remember that in Streeoh's beauracracy the right thing isn't always the right thing. Do you understand?"
"Not really, Captain."
"Let me give you an example, Corporal. I normally wouldn't say this but I'll make an exception: I am ashamed at the actions, or lack of, of myself. Juke could have left Sonic to die in that vent, or she could have tried her hardest to extract him. She was denied extraction clearance, and left him to die. Tell me, Corporal; was the right thing to do the right thing to do?"
"No, sir. The right thing to do would have been to never leave one of ours behind."
"Exactly. That is not to say that General Streeoh is always wrong, it is just to say that he isn't always right either. So do you understand?"
"Yes, sir I do."
"You do need to understand that your specialties won't always be required on missions, which is why you aren't always taken with. We can't afford to take anymore than we need, in the nature of our ops, more soldiers is a bigger risk for capture. Taking Sonic was a mistake last time, and we paid. Quite frankly, I am not sure you could take the same conditions that Sonic went through. Have you read his medical report?"
"No sir, but I think I could." Tails persuaded.
Knuckles pulled out the medical report. "Let me recite this to you, Corporal. MULTIPLE LASER WOUNDS. Do you have any idea what that feels like? Blunt force trauma to head, concussion, routine beatings. Routine beatings, sound fun? Acute traumatic stress symptoms from torture. Oh, and poisoning. Do you honestly feel by the end you would not be crying for Robotnik to stop? Torture Tails, think about it. Think hard. Because I really don't think you would be ready to deal with it long term."
"Sir, I do. I will stand my ground today and tell you I can. I am mission-capable any day any time."
"We'll see, Corporal, dismissed."
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ROBOTROPOLIS CONTROL
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"I am going to state this as calmly as possible. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN MECHA?"
"You said it yourself, sir, you didn't care whether he escaped or not. That's why you let him go in the first place!" The Lieutenant was quickly tiring of Robotnik's antics.
Robotnik was quiet for several moments, "I let him go because I don't care what happens to him. I was hoping he would die in the middle of the war, I am more upset that you let him get away alive. My main concern, however, is that Death Egg is launched on time, if not early."
Fool! Did Robotnik not realize the value of his cargo? An exchange? Of Hostages? Equipment? "Understood, sir. My apologies."
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Medical Unit
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Days had passed since Sonic had returned to Metroc. Sonic had slipped in and out of consciousness, fighting the pain in his side. The pain in fact, was the first thing he became aware of, that and the bright lights--was he back in Robotropolis? At the thought, his body tensed with fear. His eyes opened slowly and focused even slower. The blurry world revealed itself not to be Robotropolis, and at this he breathed a labored sigh. He looked down at himself though and cringed. This time the wrapping was carefully and professionally done, and made his injuries look all the worse. They looked clean, but ached considerably worse. Had they operated on him? He reached up to rub his aching head--right where Mecha's gun had hit. In fact, he hurt everywhere and as he shook, he still felt like at any moment he would wake up in Robotropolis or--was this Robotropolis? Was this hospital fake? He attempted to sit up and found he could not--and it wasn't because he was bound.
"Don't, Sonic." A familiar voice--Knuckles? This was real? "I'll read you the list later, but suffice it to say I'm surprised you made it out of Robotropolis alive, it was real hairy there for a while."
He tried opening his swollen jaw, and found he was able to. Barely. "Thanks." It came out raspy, he needed water.
Knuckles held up his hand in protest, "Don't speak. Let me do the talking. You don't even know what happened right?" Sonic shook his head. "You went on a mission to Robotropolis--a recon mission. You successfully completed that mission, but in an attempt to escape through the ventilation system you encountered a robotic hedgehog like yourself. This one was very smart, and a gunfight broke out. In this fight you were shot three times and I confess--I left you to Robotnik." At this Sonic's eyes widened in a mix of sadness, horror, and anger. "General Streeoh ordered me not to extract and I obeyed--a mistake I promise you personally I will never repeat. The reason you can't remember anything is due to the fact that Juke administered an amnesiac to you after you passed out in the shaft. You woke up thinking you were supposed to be on the floating island. You've forgotten everything. Heck, you don't even know who Streeoh is do you?" Sonic's confusion was obvious. "This is a military base Sonic, there's a big army here and we're a special forces unit. This is our new home, Metroc Station. The commander is General Streeoh, a cheetah, and you're here in the base hospital."
Sonic rolled up his right sleeve, a thick, black, clotted cut outlining the letter "R" on his shoulder. "I told them to leave it out of the report. Knuckles, listen." Sonic gasped. "Robotnik told me--he's building a space station and it launches a year from now."
As much as he didn't want Sonic to speak, this was too important. "Do you know what he plans to do?" Knuckles asked. Sonic only shook his head. "That's okay; we'll run recon from the Chaotix end and see what we can pick up. Alright, Sonic. I'm going to leave you now so take as long as you want because nothing major will happen for a while hopefully and we need you fully-mission-capable for when it does." Sonic nodded, and Knuckles left. He caught the doctor on the way out.
It was a duck, his nametape read Quack. "Can I do something for you Captain?"
"Yes, sir. Whatever you're giving Sonic for the pain--increase it. He needs more apparently."
"I'll do what I can, sir." Doctors.
"Thank you."
As Knuckles walked away the comlink he was using went off--the Chaotix. "Knuckles, meet us in the war room immediately!"
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War Room
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"You called?" Knuckles asked. A crowd had gathered-everyone who was anybody on the special forces team at Metroc. Sergeants Vector, Espio and Charmy. Lieutenant Juke. General Streeoh. Even Corporal Tails.
"Captain. I want to talk about ending this war. We believed that if we ran a bomber campaign across the city, we could destroy all major facilities and eventually cut the head and vital areas off of the snake, remember?"
"Yes, sir. That WAS correct until the defense shield came into the equation."
"The chaotix's recon computers have found the source: There's a low-Earth-orbit satellite that is creating the shield. If we can find out a way to thoroughly destroy it, that will cut the shield and open our attack on Robotropolis."
An idea formed, "Well funny you should say that general-- I stumbled upon a piece of intel myself. I think we have ourselves an endgame, sir."
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Most of the team remained in the war room fleshing out a plan to stow away on the Death Egg at launch, using it to destroy the satellite, and the space station in the process. Sonic remained in his hospital bed recovering from the trauma of his time in Robotropolis. He would stay there for three months. During the time he healed physically--though the R that Mecha Sonic had carved into his arm would stay there forever. His psychological wounds healed considerably slower as well. He battled nightmares to the point where he was afraid to go to sleep and additionally he sometimes had day-mares about his experiences in Robotropolis, most notably during Shady's torture. Eventually, the terror lessened, and while it never went away completely he was able to go back to being a real soldier, which ended up being a waiting game. seven months remained before the launch. What would fill that time? Physical training, (or physical retraining, in Sonic's case), battle drills, mock missions, and recon missions to keep up to date on the launch. By the time the final month came, the Blue Army had themselves a monster. All that was left was left was for the time and location.
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Hovercruiser Landing 06/30/4461 0503
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When the day before rolled around, they were ready and anxious. Sonic was anxious for a real mission again. Tails was anxious to prove to Knuckles that he was more than a convenient air recon machine--but a real soldier. Juke was anxious to avenge her parents' death. Knuckles wasn't anxious though, this wasn't just his vendetta against Robotnik for storming his island, it was his war, and he was ready for it. The mode of operations was usual. It would be Sonic, Tails, Juke and Knuckles running ground. The chaotix would stay at mission control and monitor recon. General Streeoh accepted that he would leave the decision-making on the ground to Knuckles. Equipment--weapons, medical supplies and tactical utilities were condensed into several packages and stored in the HPC. When everyone was ready and the launch was confirmed to be a "go" Everyone loaded into the HPC and the airlock doors hissed shut. Captain Knuckles Echidna drove and Lieutenant Juke ran the radios.
"Cruiser 5461 to Metroc Control, over?"
"Metroc Control to Cruiser 5461, go ahead, over."
"Cruiser 5461 to Metroc Control, confirm mission status, over."
"Metroc Control to Cruiser 5461, you have a go, over."
"Cruiser 5461 to Metroc Control, we're rolling, Cruiser 5461 out."
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END OF ACT 2
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