Hello there, fellow readers. This is the chapter that will determine the limits of the Freedom Fighters and the Guardians against the forces of Darkness. The first real fight that the Freedom Fighters will have where they must kill the dark species or die. Their enemy will go from a crazy native overlander tyrant, to an all powerful undead alien king. You know, this will also be the first battle that I will describe for the most part. Anyways, enjoy the 4th chapter of this story. This might be a long one as well, so prepare yourself. By the way, if my chapters seem to change from the previous ones, I'm still getting the hang of a unique writing style for this story. Also, I feel like Eggman should have both Eggman and Robotnik. They both fit him perfectly. Enjoy!
Chapter 4: The Battle of New Mobotropolis
"So, this is the realm that we will inhabit for the rest of our lives. It will be no different from our own. I will conquer everything and destroy those who oppose me in this universe. It will all be mine, soon enough." Oryx said. His dreadnought was in the same place that it was in his universe, in Saturn's ring with a hole like his old place. One of the generals had entered his chamber where he resided, looking at his new place while pondering his plan after the next battle.
"We are prepared to make our move on this 'New Mobotropolis'. Every race has accepted using 10% of their forces. Do you think that we will win this once and for all." The hive general said, who looked like a bigger knight with some big battle scars and some Guardians armor for showing off how many he killed.
"No. With the Guardians having the three vanguards and the inhabitants of 'Mobius' having some of their best fighters in that one place, they will win with a few scratches and little to no casualties." Oryx said. He then turned to his general and told faced him. "We must prepare after the next battle and keep the Guardians away from our ship. We can't have them here again and also have them keep coming on a regular basis." The Taken king said.
"And if we do win this battle?" The oversized knight asked.
"Then we will destroy the Traveler and vanquish any remnants of Light that survive the coming slaughter if we are victorious. No matter the outcome, I will take them all." Oryx said, turning toward the empty void from where he stood.
"As you say, my king." The knight said before leaving Oryx's chamber.
"Mark my words. I will take everything in this universe, then... beyond." The Taken King vowed.
Meanwhile, Cayde, Sonic, and Sally just looked at each other. Cayde waits for a response from the two, but they seem to still be shocked from seeing the exo for the first time.
"Uh... is anyone home in there. You guys are starting to creep me out here." Cayde finally said, breaking the awkward silence. The couple seemed to snap back from reality when the exo talked.
"Sorry, but- what are you?" Sally finally asked.
"The answer to that is tied to a really long story and I'd like to tell it with everyone at once." Cayde said.
"Why not tell us what you are anyway? Is it really that important for some story you need to tell us?" Sonic asked.
"That's a good point. When and where exos were created will be revealed in the story that I'll tell you later, along with the others in the city. To summarize, exos started off as semi-sapient humanoid weapons during the golden age. After the collapse, they were then resurrected by the ghosts and the Traveler to be used as Guardians." Cayde said. After the explanation of exos, a sneeze was heard behind Cayde, which made him, Sonic, and Sally jump from how loud it was.
"What the hell!? Who's there!?" Sally said before activating her ring blades and Sonic getting ready to fight. Cayde had sighed and muttered something along the lines of "goddammit" while putting a hand over his face.
"Okay, come on out guys. You obviously blew your cover just from that." Cayde said before using his hands as obvious signs of aggravation. Two Guardians then stepped out of the tree line and came into view of the two mobians. "Alright, where's Riktor?" Cayde asked with a clear aggravated tone.
"Don't get your wires in a bunch. He's heading toward the center of this 'city' to meet up with the others." Serven said, which did give the mobian couple a bad feeling about these guys.
"Fine, whatever. Let's just head there now and tell them where we're from and why we're here, okay?" Cayde said with a very annoyed tone. The two Guardians nodded and headed toward the big group of people. Sally was about to say something when suddenly, "Just don't bother, okay? I had this figured out, it didn't go well, and all I just want to do is explain to you guys what's going on. Let's just go so I can tell everyone of my story." Cayde said.
"Okay. Let's head to the center of the city." Sally said.
With a simulated sigh, Cayde said in a more calm voice, "Yeah, let's go. Just so you two know, we mean no harm for you or the other native teams here."
"Duly noted. Now let's go before Eggman destroys the city." Sally said with a somewhat sad tone for the last statement.
"If you think so. Serven, Jack, let's go." Cayde said as they ran toward the center of New Mobotropolis. Around the same time that Cayde had engaged with Sonic and Sally at the Lake of Rings, the big mobian group had started various conversations with each other.
"What do you think Sonic and Sally are doing over there?" Amy asked while looking in the direction of the Lake of Rings.
"Well, if you were coupled with Sonic and he wanted to spend time with you during your last moments, what you do?" Tails said, knowing somewhat the answer to his question.
"Oh... right. Some 'private' things, I guess." Amy said with a sigh at the end. "Well, at least they'll be happy, and that's what matters most during these times." Amy said, accepting the fact that the couple are enjoying their last moments together.
"Eh, I'd rather hang out with this gang of ours than just be alone with someone." Tails said.
"Even if that person was me." A female voice said. Tails instantly knew who it was from the general taunting tone. Fiona and the other members of the Destructix emerged from the shadows of some nearby buildings, which gave the big group a somewhat nauseating feeling from their presence.
"What do you want, Fiona?" Tails said, giving her a hostile feeling.
"Nothing but the company of a two tailed fox I know. Besides I have some more friends here who also want to meet you." Fiona said before whistling for some potential figures to come closer. The Guardians had also emerged from the shadows and walked in a calm pace.
"Unlike me and my team, they have a special story to tell all of you when Sal, the blue fool, and a rather nice but skillful guy comes here." Scourge said.
"Before anyone asks, we mean you no harm toward you and any of your friends. We wish to talk about negotiations and the perks for the negotiations. We only ask that we wait for Sonic the Hedgehog, Sally Acorn, and Cayde-6 and his team to come back." Alex said.
The big mobian group was very suspicious of the Guardian's statement. Before anyone could speak, someone had also appeared from what looked like thin air. The Speaker had been teleported from the main ship to the ground with some experimental technology they were working on since the King's Fall mission and more so after it's failure. The mobians as a whole were confused at the new figure, but the Guardians were in awe of who they were seeing.
"I take it that you have explained to them why we mean no harm to their people." The Speaker said.
"Not yet, we were waiting for Cayde and his group to arrive. It's still a surprise to see you here, Speaker." Alex said in an awed tone.
"So, this is the guy you were talking about? 'The Speaker, the one who can talk for the Traveler and hear what it says'. Doesn't seem that-" Fiona was interrupted from Cayde calling out to them, who just arrived.
"Sorry we're late guys, we had some complications with our... our... When did the Speaker show up?" Cayde said, confused by his presence.
"Just now. I would advise you that we have a big threat looming over our heads. Do you think you can stall it for a few moments, vanguard." The Speaker said in a very calm tone.
"Oh! Right! Let's see what I can do from here." Cayde said before pulling out the Icebreaker sniper rifle from his back. Cayde scanned the many rims of the firing output of the Death Egg. "Bingo, let's see what happens if I do this." The exo said before pulling the trigger. A small explosion was seen from the middle rim followed by some sort of covering that engulfed the firing output. Everyone, including Cayde was surprised from this weird covering for the output, but it did buy the Guardians some time to start telling their story.
Suddenly, Eggman's face had popped out of the tails doll that was close by. "What in the hell did you guys just- what are you doing here!?" Eggman asked.
"Just sabotaging your weapon for a few moments." Cayde said with an uppity tone.
"I told you to stay out of this! Are you too stubborn to listen or something!?" Eggman said, the fury obviously showing in his voice and on his face.
"Please, don't start that. You know what you're doing is very much wrong and all I want is to postpone it. Besides, it can't be that long before you repair it." Cayde said.
Robotnik looked at a monitor and just stared at it for a little while. He looked back at the screen and said, "You get 45 minutes, tops. Then I'll fire the weapon."
"Okay, see ya." Cayde said before turning to the big mobian group. They were told by the Guardians that Robotnik contacted them while listening in on the ultimatum transmission. "Alright, looks like we have some time to explain to you why we're here and where we're from. To start off, our story begins when the humans first stepped on mars, the fourth planet from the sun." Cayde told them where they were from and how they got to this universe. He wasn't in a hurry to tell them, and it made the mobian group very worried that he won't finish.
Within the Death Egg, Zavala and his group of titans were heading towards the control room, 12 to be exact. Luckily for them, they had a good ten minutes to get there. They got the blueprints for the Death Egg and was on the right track. "Alright, the control room is on the other side of that door." Zavala said, pointing to a big, double door entrance that was on their right. "We go in their, weapons ready. All we need to do is scare this 'Robotnik' character into submission. Is everyone ready?" Zavala said before everyone said "Yes, sir". Zavala then got next to the doors and heard both Snively and Eggman discuss the situation with the broken part and Cayde telling his story to the mobian group.
The awoken vanguard then got his ghost to open the door on his mark. When the titan said go, the door opened immediately and caught everyone in the control room off guard. The titans aimed their auto rifles at any potential threat. Zavala had gotten to the overweight scientist and pointed his gun at him the whole time. "If anyone in here does any sudden movements, then they will be shot! Dr. Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik, stand down and surrender or you will be shot." Zavala commanded. The awoken had his helmet on so that Robotnik would think he is human.
A ghost from a random titan was transmitting what was going on in the Death Egg back to the New Mobotropolis group. Cayde was talking about the golden age when his ghost activated his end of the transmission. The mobians and some Guardians couldn't believe what Zavala was saying. "That's one way to scare him. Let's see if he knows about that heartbeat monitor 'fatso' has." Cayde said. The Freedom Fighters couldn't believe what was going on. They were terrified that their friends and family were about to die from Zavala killing the tyrant.
"Really, do you honestly believe you can kill me without consequence? This heartbeat monitor will kill everyone at my northern base if you kill me." Eggman said with a serious expression on his face. Zavala's ghost then looked at it while it seemed to tamper with it as well from a weird ray like scanner. This scared the hell out of the Freedom Fighters and worried some Guardians. "What is that thing doing?" Eggman said with a confused look and tone.
"Done. The heartbeat monitor has been disconnected from the poison injectors, which will also be deactivated." Zavala's ghost said. A transmission was picked up from the northern base that Eggman's heartbeat monitor wasn't connected to the poison injectors. "Soon enough, the injectors will disconnect from their hosts and be rendered useless." The ghost said.
"Y-you... got around... my ultimatum!?" Eggman said before being grabbed from the collar of his shirt by Zavala. The vanguard dropped his rifle and took off his helmet before pointing a pistol at Robotnik's head. The obese tyrant was absolutely terrified and shocked at this point. The Freedom Fighters were shocked from what just happened as well.
"Look in my eyes and listen. You will stand down, give us this ship, and use the weapon at either the incoming enemies that are going to be here in an estimated 2 hours or on future enemies. If you do not comply, I will end your life right here." Zavala said with a burning rage in his eyes. By now the injectors have fallen to the ground in the northern base.
"I-I can't, this is m-my station. Y-you wouldn't kill me, r-right? You need m-me for some purpose if I h-have a c-choice to comply." Robotnik said in a cowering voice.
"Uncle, that seems to be a little foolish of you, right!?" Snively said.
"He's right, sir. Don't provoke him any more than you have already." Lien-Da said.
"QUIET! Let me handle this!" Eggman snapped from their opinions.
"I'm going to count to five. If you don't comply, I will shoot you." Zavala said. Eggman tried his best to stand his ground.
"Here we go." Cayde said.
"Five."
"Four!"
"Three!" Zavala then shot next to Robotnik to prove his point.
"TWO!"
"Alright, alright! I'll comply, I'll comply!" Eggman said, giving in to the threat. Zavala then put the pistol in his holster and ended the transmission.
"Guardians, stand down. Dr. Robotnik, we will keep the weapon active until our enemies arrive at our location. The information of who we are and where we're from will be transmitted to any servers you have or any other way that would be easy for you to obtain the information." Zavala said. Eggman was a little bit in shock from the intensity of the threat. "Are you going to be okay?" The awoken said sounding a little worried.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just- a lot of things happened so suddenly. I'm sure you understand." Eggman said in a slight shocked voice. He was also breathing heavily to try and calm himself down.
"It was the only way for you to stand down. Some things you just have to take it to a more intense level." Zavala said. "I'm sure we will get along fine. For now, we need to prepare the upcoming attack if our theory holds." He finished.
"Well, what are we doing just standing around. We have a plan to put together." Eggman said, sounding more enthusiastic. Commander Zavala and Dr. Robotnik then went and planned what to do and how to defend the city.
"Wow, that was intense. I actually thought Zavala was gonna kill Eggman. You know, a few months ago, that would be an experience I would never have imagined. So, how's everyone doing?" Cayde said. Everyone, except the Guardians, had eyes and mouths wide open. They couldn't believe what happened. "I'm guessing you guys are trying to comprehend what just happened. We have a story to finish, so gather around children."
"Are you serious right now!?" Sally exclaimed with disbelief and anger with what just happened.
"What?" Cayde said in a "what did I do wrong?" tone.
"Someone you know just made Eggman submit out of pure fear and nearly kills the guy, but then decided he needs to live because we need him for some battle! And out of everything you just said, we need to finish some story!? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND!?" Sally exclaimed with faint echoes in the background.
"I can finish this story in, like, twenty to thirty minutes. I'm not sure when they'll arrive, but it's most likely within an hour. We can see their movements from the sky and don't seem to be gathering yet. We have a way to warn everyone and have a plan to defend this place. We have the situation under control." Cayde said in a slight sympathetic voice.
With an aggravated sigh Sally just said, "Fine." With that everyone just gathered around Cayde as he continued his story. He went on about the glories of the golden age and the miracles it brought with it. He even pulled out some StH comics to show where it went after the Traveler arrived. He kept going through the collapse and the invasion to Alex's arrival, who was called the new Guardian. Everyone just kept listening to him while Sally was waiting for a sudden attack on New Mobotropolis. Sonic didn't seem as worried as his significant other, but he was worried. Cayde then got to the death of Crota and continued to the failed King's Fall mission. He said that the rest of his story would sound like something he would make up.
Nonetheless, he continued his story and finished it with their arrival. Everyone just stared at him, since it sounded like a mix of a fairy tale and what the Freedom Fighters went through when escaping their Robotnik's Robotropolis. "Does anyone have questions about my story?" Cayde asked before Sally just stood up from a rock Nicole created for her to sit on.
"So, you come from a time that was in the old times of 'Earth', but instead of the Xorda showing up, this 'Traveler' terraformed both Venus and Mars, and then followed up by it giving humans a golden age of technology and other such things. But the Darkness attacked, causing 'the collapse' that had also killed the Traveler, essentially, and created the ghosts to bring people back to life and make them Guardians. Then, after a long while of gaining a great deal of victories, this 'Oryx' character accidentally destroyed your home universe because he wanted to kill all of the Guardians and the people they protect. And THEN, you found our universe and was told what is the appropriate time to meet all of us. Did I pretty much summarize the whole thing?" Sally said.
"I believe you did." A female voice said. Cayde actually screamed a bit from Ikora saying that, having no idea she was there.
"Dammit, Ikora. Don't do that!" Cayde said before noticing Sally snickering, trying not to laugh out loud. "Was it really that funny?" He said with a "really?" look.
Sally tried her best to stop laughing and talk, but just went back to laughing. "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. It's just that-" She tried to say but laughed in mid-sentence. "It's just that she was behind you for a while and I thought you knew she was there. That and you freaking out a little from her." She finished before going into another laughing fit.
"Well, I sure am glad my fear was able to give you laughter and joy." Cayde said in a sarcastic tone. At this point, everyone had got a good laugh from Cayde's shock and finally calmed down a bit. Sally just tried to breath to calm herself down.
"Okay, I'm really sorry that I laughed from you being scared like that." She went and cleared her throat before continuing. "But we need to worry about the upcoming battle when it hits. What are we going to do when we get attacked?" Sally asked.
"Well, we have to put up a defensive perimeter around the border of the city and shoot anything that wants to kill us. Plain, simple, and straight to the point." Cayde said with a somewhat confident voice. Sally just looked at him quizzically from his plan.
'Is he talking about killing them? I know they're bad, but still they at least deserve a chance to live.' Sally thought.
As though reading her mind, the Speaker then said, "They must be slain for their crimes against the light. The fallen are given a choice to return to the Traveler's light or go with the awoken after this battle. Those who wish to stay in the dark will be branded as an enemy to the Traveler." The Speaker said. This statement made her question their motives, but knew that if they didn't fight, everyone they knew will be in greater danger compared to Eggman's ultimatum.
"Alright. If that's what's gonna keep our friends and family safe again, then we might as well go with it. Besides Sal, he did say they're bad enough to commit genocide." Sonic said, making Sally look back at him with a look of disbelief from her lover. "What do you think, Sally?" He asked. She overheard some of the other mobians talking about it, mostly agreeing with it. For now.
Sally then thought about it and gave Cayde, Ikora, and the Speaker a fair answer. "You guys do have a fair point of killing these things. But I think that we should go through this battle and talk about our interaction with any future events." Sally said. Although the Guardians didn't like the last part of her statement, they agreed and went on to discuss the defense plans. After some time had passed, the "native group" part of the plan was already done and Sally, along with Elias, decided to hear the rest of it when the vanguards were done with it.
All the while, the other Guardians and "natives" were conversing about events from their pasts and some general topics that seemed appropriate at the time. Sally went and tried to find her lover only to see him holding his left ear, which did seem weird to her. "Sonic, why are you-" She then found out why from the blood and the half circle hole at the edge of his ear. "What happened!?" Sally asked with a surprised tone in it.
"It was Scourge, not any of the Guardians." Sonic said, replacing the dirty piece of gauze with a clean one.
Sally sighed and just said, "Okay, what happened that made him shoot you and how? I didn't see him with a gun."
"Well, what happened was," Sonic said, describing the event a few moments ago.
"So, how did you run with this crowd?" Sonic asked Scourge.
"Hmph, wouldn't you like to know?" Scourge said with a snotty tone while looking back.
"Come on, I have to at least entertain myself 'till Sal comes back." Sonic said before noticing Scourge messing with something. "What are messing with, anyway?" Scourge then turned around with a strange looking auto rifle in his hands.
"This little beauty is called the Red Death. Possibly my favorite inanimate object I have ever had." Scourge said.
For those who don't know what the Red Death is, just look it up. I can't really describe it without sounding like an idiot.
"I feel like you named it for some weird reasons." Sonic said.
"The Guardians already named it 'Red Death'."
"... I've lost all faith in the Guardians. That is one of the most obvious names I have ever heard for a gun."
"I'm sure that name would sound better on me." Fiona said as she walked to the to Sonics.
"I'm sure that your nickname would be Bad Juju, instead." Sonic said.
"Careful with what you say, blue." Scourge said with a threatening sounding tone.
"Oh? And what are you going to do if I'm not 'careful'?" Sonic said before Scourge fiddled with his new rifle. Sonic moved away with a victorious look on his face before feeling a stinging pain on his left ear. "What the HELL was that!?" Sonic exclaimed in a startled tone while turning around. He saw Scourge holding his rifle in a firing stance that had some smoke coming out of the barrel.
"I did try to warn you, but you seemed too arrogant about how right you thought you were." Scourge said with a know-it-all tone. I think he went and suppressed that one shot since no one else heard it.
"YOU SHOT ME!?" Sonic asked loudly.
"You didn't listen to me."
"YOU SHOT ME!"
"He did warn you." Fiona said.
"Oh, screw both of you!" Sonic said before storming off to Nicole to make some gauze for his injury.
"And that's pretty much how it happened." Sonic said while Sally had her palm over her face.
"Well, that is one idiotic reason to shoot someone. If they keep acting like this, we are not surviving this fight." Sally said.
"Calm down, it was just an ear that I hit. It could have been worse." Scourge said while holding his gun over his shoulder.
"Oh boy, doesn't that make me feel better." Sonic said statistically.
"Just be lucky I didn't hit anything vital." Scourge said. He then heard a loud noise and felt the same pain Sonic just felt. He looked over at Sally to see her with a pistol that had smoke coming out of it.
"The hell is going on here!?" Cayde said when he got to the three mobians.
"Where do I start?" Sally asked.
"Let's say why they both have the same injury."
"Well, Sonic went and made fun of Fiona, which led to Scourge shooting his ear. Then I went and gave him the same injury for good measure." Sally said, oddly out of character. Before Fiona could do anything rash to Sally, Cayde got everyone's attention.
"Alright, new rule everyone. No one discharges a weapon from now to when we set up some shooting ranges. Even then, no one SHOOTS anyone." Cayde said, which did make Fiona give Sally a nasty glare. "That rule goes especially to the two of you. We understood?"
"Affirmative." Sally said.
Fiona just looked at Sally and said, "Fine." With an aggravated tone.
"Next time Sally, try not to hurt anyone else. Even if it's someone else's boyfriend." Cayde said, which made her nod. He figured that this weird act from the leader of the Freedom Fighters is some sort of nervous action, some excuse to fire a gun without feeling bad for the guy on the other end. After heading back and completing most of the plan, Cayde went to find Sally and have a talk with her.
It didn't take long to find her, as she was helping with the construction of a basic shooting range. Even though he was convinced that Sal was in a nervous state, he still needed more evidence to confirm his suspicion. It was actually a few seconds after she was done when she just started to examine her pistol and then just stared at it. She felt as though she was carrying some sort of WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction) in the palm of her hands.
"Don't worry, it only has fifteen bullets in it, far from putting your people into near extinction." Cayde said, jokingly. Sally just chuckled before going back to her depressed look. "C'mon Sally. Don't look like from just a pistol."
"I'm just nervous about killing a living being. I've never done it before and... I just feel like it would make things worse than make things better." Sally said.
"It's something that has to be done. There's no way around it, no way to really feel good about it, and no reward from it. When you learn to demonize your enemy completely or truly understand there motives, then they could be your worst enemies. We may have fallen on our side, but we still need to some kill them that aren't on our side." Cayde said.
"It's just... I don't want to be responsible to kill something with a soul and know that it died doing the wrong thing."
"That's what happens in war. It's not easy, but it's what we have to do it."
"How do you surpass the whole 'living being' thing anyway?"
"Here's how I do it. I just look down the barrel of a gun, look at who ever I'm about to shoot, and think... 'that is one ugly bastard', then I fire." Cayde said, making Sally giggle for a bit.
"Or think of someone I hate?" Sally asked jokingly.
"That might also work. And... speak of the devil, and he may appear." Cayde said looking toward the sky. Sally and some of the other that weren't busy looked in the sky to see some shuttles from the Death Egg. The one in front of Sally and the exo vanguard landed and opened up the door to reveal both Zavala and Robotnik talking about the plan and just walked out. Robotnik looked in front of him to see where he was going when he noticed all the mobians that were once his prisoners on the execution block with the nanite city.
"I know you have learned to hate him, but we do need his weapons and battle bots to fight off the incoming threats. For now, treat him like he's a close ally and an important figure to the war." Zavala said. Robotnik just gave a nervous laugh as he headed to the tent that was set up for a command center. The "natives" just stared at the old man as he passed by and disappeared into the tent.
"Didn't think we'd see him so soon." Tails said.
"You said it." Sonic said.
"The no shooting rule especially applies to the vanguards and Eggman." Cayde said before everyone sighed. After the vanguards and Robotnik entered the tent to finish the plan, everyone just prepared for the upcoming battle. The "native" team was allowed to talk to their friends and family that had been imprisoned at Eggman's northern base that had been occupied by both Eggman's forces and some Guardians. They all just talked and some had cried just to see their loved ones. This moment was very different then the apparent goodbye, as in everyone talked about seeing them after the battle. This did give hope to the vanguards listening in and the Freedom Fighters.
It was mid-day, a half hour before the dark forces had started the battle. Everyone was training at the makeshift shooting range that was using dummies and some live targets. The live targets were some of the most feral and the most dark aliens that was captured by the awoken in the Prison of Elders. They were to simulate the brutality of the enemy forces when they hit the city.
The mobians that weren't used to killing, but needed to learn how to absolutely demonize these creatures. Well, just to try to hate them enough to want to kill them. It was hard to do it, especially the Freedom Fighters. Tails, being the only young member there, was given a remote controlled humanoid robot for him to use. Everyone else was actually going to be used for support roles. The Guardians didn't see a big enough fighting force from the enemy to have the mobians on the front line.
All the while, some of the mobians were actually happy to be on the support role. It would be a short lived "happiness" when the awoken vanguard came out of the tent for an update on the dark forces. "We have a very important update on our situation. We will need all hands on the front lines if are going to survive this attack. We also suspect that the Taken will appear when the other aliens are 'used up'." Zavala's update did sadden the Freedom Fighters, along with the secret ones, and Julie-Su, confuse the rest of the members of Chaotix and Team Dark, but did put the Destructix on edge. No one was ecstatic to hear that they were going to fight the Taken, not even the Destructix.
"The Taken. Sounds silly, but very much appropriate for their... state. It sounds horrible to be one of them." Sally said to herself. She couldn't have been more right. The Taken were literally demonic and twisted forms of the four main dark aliens against their wills. What did scare her the most was that the hive 'god', Oryx, had called himself the Taken King. "How much worse could this get?" She asked herself.
"Everyone, we have ten minutes before the enemy gets here. The shield won't last long against the heavy artillery, expect it to go down very shortly when it's up. Let's lock n' load people!" Cayde said, which made Sally regret her question. The mobians were split up so that the four sectors were defended evenly. A chart was posted on the outside wall of the tent which read:
North/Vex sector: Zavala and his Guardians, Sonic, Scourge, Shadow, Silver, Bark, Shard, Antoine, and Omega.
West/Fallen sector: Cayde and his Guardians, Rouge, Amy, Lyco, Leeta, Sally, Fiona, Julie-Su, and Bunnie.
East/Cabal sector: Lord Shaxx with the Speaker's Guardians, Mighty, Nack, Vector, Espio, Knuckles, Elias, Bean, and Metal Sonic.
South/Hive sector: Ikora and her Guardians, Rotor, Heavy, Bomb, Tails(his robot), Simian, Frog, Lightning, and Hawk.
'Why am I not surprised that the Hooligans would be here? End of the world probably has them desperate.' Sally thought. The Hooligans were called in and were even bribed to help if the "alien invasion" excuse wasn't enough.
Sally then went to the west part of the city and met up with her teammates. They were told that the mobians can use their own abilities or equipment given to them by the Guardians. Either way, they did need to kill their enemies if everyone is to survive. After the five minute mark, everyone was really anxious for the enemy to get here, but were ready to face them. It would be a matter of time before they become either heroes or martyrs. Before the ten minute mark hit, everyone could see the enemy charging at them. Thousands of aliens were the only thing covering the horizon. This battle would be a long one.
When they hit, the shield of the city was bombarded by explosives from spider tanks and heavy artillery. The shield itself would only last a mere 20 minutes, but the heavy artillery would go back to their respected owners and focus on taking their territory back from each other. Mobians and Guardians alike were just waiting for the shield to go down and start the slaughter that was inevitable to ensue. The Guardians were becoming impatient while some of the mobians were just hoping that the enemy would stop before the shield went down.
After a while, the shield gave out and some hard cover was being materialized for everyone to use. The mobians were the first ones to get to cover since they didn't have any combat armor or shields to protect them. The fallen were using skirmish tactics to try and flank the defenders. The hive were sending in thralls and ogres to rush their enemy while the acolytes and knights were suppressing the defenders, trying to overwhelm them. The vex would shoot in one area then teleport to the next so that the defenders would be confused and focus in the wrong area. The cabal would just keep shooting and use sheer power to try and make their enemies submit to their brute force. Either way, it would be a long time before any of the defensive line would start to crumble.
The west sector of the city was pretty tight in terms of defenses. The fallen's skirmish tactic wasn't very efficient, but it did make the defenders question the sudden pauses between attacks for the first few times. The south sector wasn't doing so well because of the thralls and ogres rushing them while the acolytes and knights suppressed them in cover. The ogres weren't as strong and as tall as they usually were, like there were some "pygmy ogres".
The north sector was actually an utterly confused exchange of bullets than an actual battle. One moment the defenders were being shot at while in cover, the next they aim at thin air before being bombarded by more red lasers. The east sector was a hellish war zone. The cabal were just charging either to their death or right to a defender and hit them to incapacitate them for an easy kill, still no dice for the cabal. These defenders were at the mercy of the cabal's brute force and heavy hitting, but still had a solid defense that was holding.
4 hours later, late afternoon...
'This battle must be the worst one that I've ever fought.' Sally fought. 'First these 'fallen' things were going in small groups at a time, now they're just trying to flank us and-' A fallen dreg had suddenly landed next Sally, looking like it was disoriented from the fall. This did give Sally plenty of time to shoot at it but not hit it. The dreg was startled a bit before it aimed at the chipmunk with it's own weapon. Sally then got a hit on the dreg and kept firing until it stopped moving. After a moment of regret, Sally said, "I need to remember that these are the things that will kill us..."
"If we don't kill them first." Cayde said.
"Yeah."
"I think it's easier because they're aliens and brutal killers."
"Sure, but it's harder for me since I'm not fond of killing."
"True." Cayde said. Suddenly a Reaver Captain showed up and tried to kill the vanguard and the mobian. Fortunately, Cayde had summoned his golden gun to kill it and two vandals behind it. "We need to push forward. Try to give the fallen little room to outmaneuver us!" He said in his helmet comm. Immediately, they both headed toward the oncoming alien army. Their defensive line was pushed back about 40 feet from the original defensive line. "Push these bastards back!" Cayde exclaimed.
"Easier said than done." Sally muttered.
"Got you now." Sonic said while behind cover. He looked around his corner and saw nothing but air. "COME ON!" He yelled. The vex seemed to be giving the north defenders some trouble since they kept teleporting. Every last one of the mobian defenders (except Shard and Omega) were having trouble with the teleporting vexes. "Damn monsters." Sonic sweared.
"I think you should focus on shooting them rather than hiding from them. We need to try and push them back before they advance any further." Zavala said.
"Easier said than done. If they would stop teleporting so much then we might have a chance to stop them from advancing." Sonic said in a somewhat agitated voice. A vex then teleported near the two talking before Zavala tried to shoot it, failing to do so since it teleported a few feet to the left of the two defenders. Sonic shot at it and hit the middle part, killing it instantly. "YEAH! GOT ONE!...Oh, right."
"They deserve to die after terraforming mercury into a mechanical planet and sending Guardians to other parts of time and space. Don't give them remorse or forgiveness." Zavala said with some anger in his voice.
"Right… well, good luck with that." Sonic said, concerned with angering him. After that, Zavala then used his fists of havoc to take out a group of vex hobgoblins.
"Sweet merciful Aurora!" Knuckles exclaimed. The cabal didn't hold anything back when they started their attack. Explosions, gunfire, even the occasional shockwave was used as soon as it was ready. Some of the mobians in this sector were not the strongest, but they were still useful for their nimbleness. Some legionaries ran toward Knuckles only to be gunned down my both him and Lord Shaxx.
"Hold the line, defenders! Stand your ground and hold back the enemy! We will prevail and live to tell the tale! MOVE FORWARD!" Lord Shaxx exclaimed with pride and glory in his voice. "Come on! We need to move up and force them back." Shaxx said to Knuckles, who was letting him be this way since he just wants to hit the enemy back.
"Ha! Got another one!" Tails said while killing some more thralls running to their deaths. Tails did find more joy in killing hive since they were undead. 'I know that I should feel bad for these things, but I don't think I can since they look like decayed husks.' Tails then saw some defenders having trouble killing an ogre and decided to help out. After it died, he then sent his bot to go kill some of the acolytes giving the defenders suppression fire.
"At least you're having fun from a safe distance." Ikora said to the battle bot, which made Tails laugh a little through the mic. "A shame that your bot can't do this." After saying that, the human vanguard then used her nova bomb to take out some knights.
"Woah." Tails said in awe.
"Hmph. Come on, we got more hive to kill. Let's go." Ikora said before she and Tails' bot ran toward the oncoming wave of hive.
"Why are there so many of these things!?" Fiona asked while fighting the fallen.
"Don't know, but Ah think we're gettin' the upper hand here." Bunnie said, yelling over the gunfire and explosions.
"I think it could be a lot worse than it is now." Sally said over the radio.
"Ow! I think my nail broke through the nail bed!" Amy said, making everyone express their imaginative feeling of it.
"I think we have it in the bag!" Yelled Jack before an explosion took him out. "Nevermind." He said on the radio. Everyone had a good laugh from his shenanigans and continued with the defensive tactics.
"I think these 'vex' are getting a bit reckless." Sonic said with confidence in his voice.
"About time." Shadow said.
"Hell yeah!" Scourge exclaimed.
"How many of these things are there!?" Silver asked.
"Another four hundred or so left." Zavala said.
"Oh boy, another few hundred of these robot things." Shard said sarcastically.
"More fun for me." Omega said excitedly. He then mowed down some more vex before the others joined him.
"Take that you over-grown space turtles!" Knuckles exclaimed in excitement for killing three cabal in a row.
"Heh. Got four in a row just now! Try to beat that!" Mighty said before seven shots were heard on the comms.
"Got seven. Beat that, sucker." Nack said.
"Show off!" Vector said.
"Damn. Nearly beat it, too." Espio said.
"Can we at least try to focus here?" Elias said.
"The one to get the most kills will get a pass on ten criminal activities." Lord Shaxx said with some of the defenders to increase the amount of bullets being fired, but some of them were skeptical of the titan's offer.
"This is now starting to become more intense." Tails said, controlling his robot to keep mowing down thralls.
"Take this your undead freaks!" Simian said before throwing a grenade into a crowd of hive.
"Come on, we almost have them on the run." Rotor said with some excitement.
"The hive will keep coming until we are dead or until they are dead." Ikora said
"So much for having them on the run." Hawk said.
"Kill them all!" Frog said before continuing his rampage of hive deaths.
"For Mobius!" Lightning said on an open channel.
"FOR MOBIUS!" Everyone else said with him.
After a few more hours of fighting, the alien invasion force had been exterminated. The overall battle nearly lasted to midnight. Everyone was tired and wanted to go to bed, but the dark forces wouldn't let them.
"Is it finally over?" Sally asked, falling to her knees and trying not to fall asleep.
"I doubt it." Eggman said on the radio.
"I'm actually afraid of what's next." Cayde said before some dark spheres suddenly appeared out of no where. "Now I wish I was wrong about this."
The defenders had to ready themselves again for the fight against the Taken. The Taken had the upper hand with the defenders not fully prepared for them. The mobians were frightened a bit from all these species being twisted and some malformed from their original forms.
Everyone knew that it was only gonna be hell during this fight, but they still had hope of prevailing. The Taken had started attacking as soon as they were summoned, making them even deadlier with their eagerness. Even though the defenders were prepared for this fight hours before, but their were still overwhelmed from their overall exhaustion. The Taken had pushed them back to the second defensive line within an hour.
"We need more help. None of us will survive if we don't push them back." Sally said to herself. A Taken dreg had found her behind some stone and was about to lunge at her before a giant ball smashed into it. "What the..?" She said.
"I think it's about time for me to get my hands dirty." Eggman said before retracting his wrecking ball.
"Heh. What happened, did they get desperate?" Sally joked.
"Well me, Naugus, The Iron King and Regina are here to help. I think that counts as desperation in my book." Eggman said. Sally was a bit surprised from their biggest enemies actually helping the defenders, but at this point she expected anything.
"You sure we can accept you in this fight?" Sally joked.
"You know what they say, 'the more the merrier'." Eggman said before shooting his wrecking ball at a group of Taken fallen. Cayde started to sing Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus from seeing Eggman's wrecking ball, which made the Guardians laugh while the natives were a bit confused from it.
In the vex sector, Regina was helping the defenders in that sector with the Taken vex. Thankfully, her forte is taking control and glitching out machines. "Take this you corrupted machines!" Regina said to the Taken vex while trying to make them glitch out. However, the corruption of the Taken seems to try to kill her instead of taking her.
"You gonna be okay, Reg?" Sonic asked her.
"Worry not, I can't be killed that easily." Regina said, smiling.
"True, but I don't want to find you dead from being overconfident." Zavala said.
"Isn't that how all villains work, be overconfident to the point they think they're invincible?" Regina said with a sarcastic and ironic expression in her voice. Zavala just chuckled from the irony and continued forward to the demented vex.
"I agree, don't get yourself killed over these things." Sonic said.
"I wouldn't dream of it." Regina said before she continued her sabotage over the vex systems.
In the cabal sector, the Iron King was absolutely destroying the Taken cabal with his giant mace and super bull strength. "COME ON, THIS CAN'T BE ALL YOU HAVE!" The Iron King exclaimed with pride and disappointment in his voice, followed by more bullets from the twisted cabal. "THAT'S MORE LIKE IT! GIVE ME EVERYTHING YOU GOT!"
"Geez, he seems to be enjoying this way too much. And how strong is his armor, anyway!?" Knuckles said.
"We were able to give him some tank resistant armor before he got here. We got the supplies teleported here not too long ago." Shaxx said
"Why not give us some armor!?" Knuckles asked, referring to the mobians in this sector.
"It would take too long and we'd be overrun if we stopped in the middle of the battle." Shaxx said.
"COME HERE YOU LITTLE BASTARDS!" The giant bull said before charging toward his enemies.
In the hive sector, Naugus was using his limited spells to try to turn the tides on the malformed aliens here. Although he felt like he needed his staff with the chaos emerald on it, he was actually starting to feel bad for such a weak species. "These things need numbers to be effective. They don't stand a chance against me. I can take down hundreds, even thousands, before this battle ends." Naugus said, full with and confidence in his powers.
"Yes, but even you should have seen the magic they use. Our abilities are turning the tide in our favor. You're just here because we need some extra hands." Ikora said with pride in her voice, but still calm and collective.
"I'm sure the Guardians could take him down with his chaos emerald." Tails said jokingly through his robot. Just then, a wizard's fire volley was heading toward the trio.
"Look out!" Tails yelled before the three of them dodged the fireballs.
"They seem to be more cocky than usual. I think they're suicidal." Ikora said.
"It tried to catch us by surprise. I think we should punish it, severely." Naugus said with a sinister grin.
The battle was very long and tiring. The defenders kept fighting through the seemingly endless hordes of Taken. Unlike the normal aliens, where they would take a break between attacks or take it slow, these monstrosities kept on coming. They had to have killed tens of thousands of them before it was over. They all wondered how big of a percentage Oryx really put in.
The message between the alien leaders, that was hacked by Guardians, said that they would throw in one percent of their forces against the defenders. Some of them had thought that Oryx put in a larger percent, while others had thought about how large of an army he had. One of the few things that could tell them about the decrease in numbers was the disappearance of the Taken spheres that spawned them. Supposedly, the strategy of less spheres was to tire the defenders more to have it last longer. However, they still kept going at it until the Taken were finally defeated.
By the time the fighting was over, it was already 7 A.M. When the Taken were finally gone, everyone stopped moving for a few minutes from the sudden end.
"Is it finally...?" Sally asked but hesitated to finish.
"WE DID IT!" Cayde yelled over the radio, making the current inhabitants of the city just cheer for a good three minutes. They then gathered in the center of the city for a huge congrats from everyone. Everyone was happy that they actually fought off hostile aliens without flinging someone across the universe. Cayde then walked over to Zavala, Ikora, and Lord Shaxx to find out what to do next since the fighting was over.
"I hope that your sector had done well against the enemy." Zavala asked Cayde.
"Oh, indefinitely. I just hope none of you had a bad time during all of it." Cayde said jokingly.
"Not at all. But, you're still needed for vanguard duty." Ikora said, making Cayde sigh.
"Don't be like that. All you do is send hunters off the battle and stand around while everyone just asks you for some new gear." Shaxx said.
"I know! It's boring to do! No offense." Cayde said to the three Guardian leaders, who laughed from the hunter's exclaim of inevitable boredom. The four of them were telling each other about their experience with the mobian defenders and the crazy things the aliens had done out of desperation, like trying to catapult themselves over the defenders. They kept talking until they noticed the Speaker walking up to the group of leaders. The four of them had stopped talking to hear what the Speaker was going to say.
"I believe it's time to summon the Traveler." The Speaker said.
"On it." Cayde said for the vanguards. Ikora went to one location for the summoning ritual and Zavala went to another. Cayde went to the middle of the city where a rune was forming there.
Cayde was of course a little worried that this wouldn't work, but he was willing to go through with it. He went to the rune and waited for Ikora and Zavala to be ready at their runes.
"Hey, Cayde. What going on?" Sally asked in a very cheery tone.
"About to summon the Traveler." Cayde said simply.
"Oh. How are you gonna do that?" She asked.
"Make a rune like this one at three other points, use the Guardians here to amplify my elemental power, and send the energy into the air to bring the Traveler here." Cayde said in a very simple explanation.
"Okay. You're gonna tell me a full explanation afterwards, right?" Sally asked with a demanding tone.
"That was what I was told from speaker, so not from." Cayde said. "Sunbreakers! Basically, you all need to hit me once with your hammers when I saw 'now'." With that the titans got ready to use their supers. The vanguards then activated their own super states to absorb the power from the other Guardians.
"Is everyone in position?" Zavala asked in his arc state.
"I'm ready." Ikora said.
"Ready when you are." Cayde said.
"Alright. 3. 2. 1." Zavala said
"NOW!" Said all three vanguards. At that moment, the Guardians used their abilities on the vanguards. Zavala jumped up and slammed done on his rune, Ikora jumped and shot her void bomb on her rune, and Cayde jumped back to shoot his rune with his golden gun. All three runes had energy going up at the same time for it to be the most effective. When the energy pillars got high enough, some clouds gathered at the middle of the rune formations and swirled around. This created a sort of portal to the pocket universe that the Traveler was in.
Then, from the middle of this portal, emerged the Traveler. The natives were amazed by this huge orb descending toward the planet. They all figured it had to be miles across, possibly in the tens or even in the hundreds. When the Traveler finally emerged completely, the clouds slowly started to separate from each other to their original shapes.
"That's the Traveler? It makes the Death Egg look like an actual egg." Sally said.
"We be afraid of that thing?" Tails asked with a very confused tone.
"I don't think so. It just looks like a giant white orb floating in the sky. Can't be that scary." Sonic said.
"It can terraform planets to make them habitable for us." Eggman said.
"Still, it can't be that big of threat to us." Bunny said.
"Zen let us hope we do not get on ze wrong foot of zese Guardians." Antoine said.
"Well, have we got a big surprise for all of you." Nicole said. She was walking with the Speaker which made everyone, even some Guardians, very curious. "With my permission, me and the Speaker here have found out how to make a city big enough for most of their people without sacrificing any forests that are in it's main area." This was quite a shock everyone, especially the Freedom Fighters.
"Are you sure about this?" Elias asked.
"Yes. Me and Nicole have found out how to send the nanites to a destination without destroying every wildlife organism in it's path." The Speaker said.
"With some upgrade to it's programming and adding some pathing between the grass and such, we can create a city large enough for their people to move in. It would be an almost exact copy of the city in their universe were not for some trees in the way." Nicole said.
"It would promote how environmentally friendly we are and also see the improvements on these nanites. Once the process starts, it could take a few days for it to be complete." The Speaker said.
"What about the Kingdom of Acorn?" Naugus asked.
"Oh, boy." Nicole said in a worried tone.
"We feel as though a world divided into governments would be too diverse for our work to be in full effect. That is why we would like to ask the governments of Mobius to be one huge government." The Speaker said.
"So, basically you're saying-" Shadow started.
"The Guardians feel as though a world with multiple governments is too separate and defunct for them. A whole government on one world is the best way to go. That's something I'm willing to change for them to stay." Sally said. This was a shock to everyone native to Mobius, especially Sonic.
"Are you sure you believe this is the best course of action for your people?" The Speaker asked.
"Yes. Without you guys, we wouldn't be here to celebrate and talk about. Besides, a world ruled by one government, preferably a republic, seems to be the best thing to do to unite everyone." Sally said.
"Why do we need their help to do that?" Sonic asked. Sally was shocked to hear that Sonic would say something like that, even though the Guardians were their saviors in this fight.
"Because we owe them that much for helping us. Without them we wouldn't have survived that battle and everyone else would be dead. Or are you forgetting the brutality of the aliens." Sally said in a serious and angry tone.
"Yeah, I remember. But don't you think it's a little weird how that we had to fight with them even though they could take them on by themselves? As far as I'm concerned, it's their problem, not ours." Sonic said.
"I agree, why should we fight for them? It's their problem, let them take care of it. We shouldn't be dragged into this." Knuckles said. After his comment, the crowd had a split between them if they should help or not. The Destructix, Elias, Sally, Eggman, Naugus, the Iron King, and Regina wanted to help, while everyone else didn't want to help.
"Alright, everyone calm down. I know that we're all tired here, so how about we have Nicole reform the city so you can all get some rest. That's fair, right?" Cayde said. Suddenly, everyone that were able to sleep felt extremely tired. In agreement, everyone waited for their homes to be reconstructed so they can sleep. Before Sally went into a temporary home for her to sleep in, she went up to the Speaker to ask him a question.
"Hey, is it possible for me to be a Guardian?" She asked him in a tired tone.
"We'll see. Just get some rest fro the time being." The Speaker said gently to her. Sally walked into the temporary house and fell asleep almost immediately.
Man, my laziness is atrocious. That and the lack of motivation from you guys. Basically here's how the "ritual" works:
The idea is to use the three elemental damage types on some runes made from the nanites in the city. The runes are supposed to get hit by the elemental attacks and shoot up in the air. The rune itself has a drawing of the element being used with a sphere in the middle to represent the Traveler. The energy then goes beyond the infinity barrier of this universe and head into the pocket universe that the Traveler is in. In order to do that, the vanguards of their respected class must have the Guardians around them to give them more elemental power. In order to have the Guardians to use their more offensive abilities, the vanguards will need to have their groups of Guardians being different classes. For it to work, Cayde was with sunbreaker titans, Ikora was with nightstalker hunters, and Zavala was with stormcaller warlocks.
Also, if this one seemed very unorganized, it was because of some improv that I used for this. With that, I will see you in either Chapter 5 or a new story entirely.