his ought to be my longest chapter yet! Please enjoy and Happy New Year!
The Great Unknown
December-26-3456
6:25 Mobius Time
Early in the morning, when the sun had not yet risen, guards patrolled around a compound in the middle of nowhere. It was heavily guarded, to say the least, though the northern boundary seemed more protected. Perhaps the area near it housed more important things.
The entire compound was surrounded by a ten meter high wall, and guard were posted along it, each holding an M4A1 assault rifle with no extra customizations. Twenty guards were entering there shift at the north wall currently, grabbing their rifles off the racks and taking a stand on the wall. One chipmunk was standing next to a golden retriever.
The dog nudged the chipmunk, who turned to him in response. "What do you want, Bernard?" He questioned.
The dog supposedly named Bernard motioned toward the chipmunk's rifle. "I think that's my rifle you're holding, Steven."
Steven raised an eyebrow at him. "What are you talking about? Every rifle is exactly the same. How could you possibly define this one as yours?"
Bernard then looked over the rifle. "Come on man! That's my good looking rifle. That's the rifle I sleep with every night!"
The chipmunk raised his eyebrow even more, if that was possible, and stared at his companion. "You sleep… with a rifle?"
Bernard then blushed, saying something he shouldn't have. His face contorted into a bland expression. "Just give me the rifle."
Steven smirked. "No, I want to hear more about this rifle." He harped. "Do you polish it every day, as well? Maybe you sing it lullabies, too!"
Bernard face palmed before holding out his rifle so they could exchange. With the rifles in their proper place, they took watch over the area once more.
Steven blinked for a second. He could swear he saw something for a second. Just a flash of blue, but it might've been his imagination. Or it might not have, he thought, deciding to take a look with his binoculars.
The high-tech binoculars displayed the distance of what he was looking at in the top-left hand corner, and the absolute location of it in the top-right hand corner. He looked around the rocky landscape, but found nothing of actual interest, so he returned the binoculars to the table and just kept an eye out.
There it was again. Just barely a flash of blue, and then it was gone. Now he was getting suspicious. Checking with the binoculars again, he found nothing. The flash of blue kept coming, though and he was sure it wasn't just him. Then suddenly, it paused.
The blue stayed in the middle of the open field. He pulled out a bulky radio and pressed the button. "Baseplate, I'm seeing a possible Tango in the perimeter, stand by, over." He then put the radio back in his pocket.
Using his binoculars he found that it was a blue hedgehog, wearing a black cloak with a fiery red roman numeral IX on the back and was holding some kind of tube. At the front of the tube, there was a football sized object lodged into it. That's when he realized.
"RPG!" He shouted, drawing attention to the blue hedgehog. Said hedgehog just smirked and pulled the trigger.
The rocket propelled grenade flew at the wall, creating a gaping hole. Some of the soldiers were unlucky enough to be either caught in the blast or squashed by debris.
It was the first batch of lives that would be lost tonight.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\|\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
…Syaoron the Fox presents…
…The Third in the Series…
The Mobius Code
Tribulations
Chapter 3
Back on the Grid
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\|\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Knuckles and Durin crept along the roof of a building, observing the fight below. True to the plan, the guards had spread themselves thin in other areas to assist the northern frontier. It was uncanny how perfect the plan was going.
A little to perfect, Knuckles imagined, but discarded the thought soon after. Now it was their turn. He moved the hood off of his cloak so he could get a better angle.
Knuckles then dived off the building, striking the ground to create a miniature earthquake. The seismic force disbanded a group of foes, allowing Durin to come in with minimal resistance.
Sonic met up with Knuckles, but this time it was different. Instead of the cocky grin that Sonic usually wore, Knuckles was met with a frown. "This isn't like other times, is it Knuckles?" The blue hedgehog asked him.
Knuckles shook his head and glared at the hedgehog. "We may be killing Mobians, but they're a threat to the civilians, Sonic. You need to understand that."
The idea still didn't rest easy with sonic, but he fought anyway. Picking up a dropped M4, he test fired a couple of shots into the enemy. He was rewarded with blood spilling from a tiger in the path of his ammunition.
Sonic's stomach curdled, as he looked at the blood that spewed from the Mobian, even if he was an enemy. He dropped the magazine and loaded a fresh one while thinking a thought. If you don't kill them, they're going to kill you. That alone was enough to clear his head as he continued firing from behind cover.
Knuckles sprinted from behind his cover and launched a punch at another soldier's back. The result was that it bent in a way that it shouldn't have, instantly killing him.
There was no blood to announce this death, but there was the sickening crack of his spine. Knuckles raced past the body and met another dog, which he dealt with by snapping a kick to abdomen, causing his ribs to cave in.
Gary was rushing into combat, blasting 20 gauge pellets into a nearby lynx. He questioned why he needed the silencer, seeing as their objective was to go loud and he suddenly realized why Tails asked about it. At that time, it seemed perfectly logical to him, but now it was just stupid. Coming upon this epiphany, he unscrewed the suppressor from the barrel and pocketed it for later use.
He then took out a shell and loaded it through the feed at the bottom, giving the shotgun full ammunition.
Alexa and Melodi were back to back, each using their own method of killing enemies. Melodi would launch her thorn chakrams at the enemy while Alexa had transformed again.
This time her fur was blue, though it looked more like an arctic camouflage. Some parts were darker shades of blue while others were lighter. Her wings became the scaly ones of a dragon, but they were surrounded by water. This was her wind and water combo transformation.
In her hand she gripped her dual Desert Eagle pistols. She fired a single round at the neck of an enemy, revealing the ammunition to be ice-based ballistic needles. She, unlike the others, had means to make a non-bloody kill. When the needle hit the soldier, his nerves and jugular vein were sliced. With no control of his body, he slumped on the ground and lay there as he internally bled to his death.
Durin decided to attack a soldier by burning him. Forming a fireball from nothing, he threw at the targeted bull, whose clothes instantly caught fire. The flame spread to his belt, and eventually to a frag grenade, creating a massive chain of explosions on his body.
Durin shuddered, imagining what it must've felt like. The explosion happened to chain into red barrels, which went alight and exploded almost as quickly. The first wave of soldiers was soon decimated.
But they were only the first to come.
Sonic brought his hand up to his ear and activated the radio channel. "Fire Team Bravo, your avenue is open. Go green, I repeat, go green." He ordered through the channel. He received a grunt in response, signifying that they had affirmed.
A ways away, just outside another building marked "Sierra Charlie", which roughly translated into "Security Control" in phonetic code, Shadow and his team sat, ready to make their move.
After receiving the okay, Shadow nodded to the other two. "Remember, make this quick. No survivors." He told them, and they nodded in response.
He placed a frame charge on the door and put his back against the wall next to it, as the others did in suit. When the charge blew and they rushed in immediately after, everything felt like slow-motion. With the sudden adrenaline rush, Shadow saw the enemy trying recompose themselves and he found this the perfect opportunity.
He pulled out his MG4 and began placing accurate rounds into the enemies' heads, even with the high-recoil weapon. Sam was using his abilities to "head-shock" the enemy, resulting in them having spastic movements before they slumped on the floor, dead.
Sen was grinning as she willed a small plant on the desk to grow vines and attack one of the soldiers. Needless to say, the grey wolf was scared for his life before the vines expertly wrapped around his neck and torqued in an awkward direction.
Shadow smirked at a job well done. "All hostiles neutralized, team." He confirmed. Looking over at the bodies, he was having second thoughts about this mission. Sure, Shadow had his moments where he killed humans and aliens, but he's never killed a Mobian before. From the looks of his compatriots, they weren't too excited about the mutilated bodies around them either.
"I'm not sure you should be congratulating us for this." Sen stated. She then gave a short prayer for the lost souls and bade them goodbye.
Shadow discarded her words and made his way over to a computer. He typed for a while, over ridding the computing sequence and causing the core processors to malfunction, leading to an overall failure in the security system.
Shadow brought his hands up to his ear and activated his Com. "Gold-9, you are clear for extraction. You have the torch. Need I repeat?" He spoke into it.
There was momentary static before he received an answer. "No repeat needed, Bravo Leader. I copy all."
We now move our focus to a separate building on the south side of the compound. A nine tailed fox and a Seedrian, both dressed in the same cloak as the others, were sneaking around the building, searching for a proper entrance.
During their search, they conversed to keep each other's nerves down. "So Cosmo," Tails began, "How about I take you out to dinner when this is all said and done."
Cosmo's eyes lit with glee, as she thought up something else to say. "Sure, Tails, but why are you calling yourself Gold-9?"
Tails perked up the nine tails behind him and Cosmo got the picture. She then frowned and slanted her eyebrows. "Tails, I do not like this mission."
Tails sighed. "Neither do I, Cosmo."
They finally found a door thin enough for a frame charge to be used. Tails backed against a wall and plant the frame charge. Cosmo ducked next to the door as well, waiting for an explosion.
When the door exploded, they rushed in to find no enemies, or the objective computers they would need to extract data from for that matter. In the small room, there was only white echidna. He wore tattered, black military clothing, aside from his grey trench coat.
Tails could've sworn he recognized him. The echidna was covered cuts and appeared to have been burned in some areas. He was tied to a chair and was gaged and blindfolded. When Tails removed the gag and blindfold, the white echidna screamed, "I WON'T TELL! YOU WON'T GET ANY INFORMATION OUT OF ME!"
Tails was taken aback by this, until the echidna opened his eyes. He saw the fox and his nine tails and gasped. He then looked at the face of the fox that stood before him. He peered into Tails' blue eyes, and Tails did likewise into his purple eyes.
"Tails?" The white echidna said, confirming Tails' suspicion.
"Alex?" He almost shouted. "Private First Class Zednanref, what are you doing here?"
Alex was on the verge of tears, and bawled when he heard his name. "They tortured me! For information, no less!"
Tails was shocked by this and decided to untie the ropes that held him in place. Alex then did something he never did. He got off of his seat and kissed Tails feet.
"My God, THANK YOU!" He proclaimed while worshiping Tails. Tails then put out a hand, and Alex grasped, pulling him off the ground.
Alex wiped his tears with his sleeve and looked sternly at Tails. "And that's Captain Zednanref to you."
Tails chuckled while looking at the two silver rectangles on his right sleeve. "So you're a captain now? Congratulations!"
"Yeah, I know. Sally gave me the promotion a couple of months ago." He confirmed, before putting on a confused expression. "So what in devil's name are you doing here?"
Seeing as he was already here, ails decided to share the classified information. "The General sent me, Cosmo, and a couple of others to acquire information."
Tails then looked around. "I guess it's a good thing I picked the wrong room."
They exited and did a bit more searching before finding what they believed to be the right room. Cosmo took out her Walther PPK-E pistol and handed it to Alex. "You might need this." She told him, at which he nodded.
Finding the right room at last, Tails pulled out another frame charge and blew the fuse, shattering the door into tiny fragments of wood. They pulled in and looked at the unorganized group of enemies.
Alex aimed down the sights of his pistol and downed a couple of soldiers with headshots. Cosmo had opted for a suppressed RSASS sniper and was placing accurate shots in vital areas with the ACOG sight.
Tails was just firing precise bolts of wind energy, tearing through their target with ease. When all was said and done, the room was not short of a bloody mess.
When Tails went geek and began hacking through files, he found an issue. "Well, looks like I finally get a challenge." He said while pulling up several programs.
"A challenge for what, Tails?" Alex questioned while Tails was pulling up several files.
"Well, I haven't had a good hacking challenge in a while." Tails explained. "To access these files, I either need the administrator password, which I don't have, or I need to complete a very complex array of counter measures."
Alex nodded. "Oh, so it's like parental controls."
Tails comically sweat slightly. "You might say that."
He then went into rapidly typing. "See, the easiest answer to something like this is to change the password." He elaborated. "By reconfiguring the administrative directive, I'm wiring it to only respond to my password."
After more typing on the command prompt, Tails was in and downloading file after file. "This system is a gold mine!" He exclaimed. "I have names, locations, sub operations and…"
He trailed off while looking at a specific file. "Oh no!"
Cosmo rushed over to see. "What's the matter, Tails?"
He was staring at the screen, wide eyed. "They actually are collaborating with Eggman!" He yelled. This drew the attention of the other two even further.
"So they haven't just become an insurrection, they've completely defected." Alex confirmed.
Tails nodded. After downloading the files, he planted a pack of C4 on every computer. "We need to eliminate these files for good." He stated while pushing them out the door.
Once they were out, he pulled out the detonator and clicked the switch. A massive explosion occurred in the room and everything within it was turned to scrap or ashes.
Tails then put his hand to his ear and activated a radio. "Overlord, we have secured the files and are proceeding to objective B. We also found a soldier; Captain Zednanref. I think he's in your Missing in Action bulletin."
There was a short pause before he received an answer. "Copy, Gold-9. Proceed with the EXCIDIUM protocol."
Tails paused for a moment and winced. "Yes sir." He finally answered before heading off with the others. He felt slightly downcast about the protocol. Its orders were a directive in counter-measures to all insurrections. It was meant to discourage other insurrections from forming, and to discourage others from joining these insurrections.
Cosmo sensed his discomfort and drifted over to him. "I know, Tails. I know you don't want to do this, but we have our orders."
Tails sat down and propped himself against a wall. He scoffed. "Orders. Bah, what kind of order is this?"
Cosmo sat next to him. She rubbed his back in an attempt to calm him. "Then don't think of it as an order. Think of it as a duty to protect others from this insurrection."
Tails then looked over into Cosmo's ocean blue eyes and smiled. "What would I ever do without you?"
He hugged her and stood back up, prepared for what was ahead. Alex, however, was wondering.
"What's the EXCIDIUM protocol?" he asked. Cosmo turned around to face him.
Tails shook his head, and Cosmo nodded. "You'll see when the time comes."
Meanwhile, back on the northern side of the base, Sonic and Knuckles' squads were experiencing momentary down time. There were others still in the base, but seeing as they advanced no further, they were considered a distraction and left for the time being.
"Where do you think they are?" Knuckles asked Sonic, though he was still on guard, prepared for an imminent attack.
Sonic's eyes would twitch in another direction every now and then, checking for any sign that the enemy could spring an ambush or sneak attack. "I don't know Knuckles, but they could be here any moment, so keep your guard up."
Durin sighed. "You two are so high strung." He pointed out. "Lighten up a little."
Shane nodded. "Yeah, even I have to agree with him on that one." Following Durin's advice, he grabbed a piece of debris and sat down, propping his back up against it. "If they were going to attack, they'd have done it already."
Sonic paused his sporadic searching and shrugged. Deciding it wasn't much to bother about, he kicked back and relaxed.
What a foolish decision.
Mere minutes after their decision, they were ambushed. Shane was shot in the leg a couple times before he dove for cover. A dose of lead was shared among all of them, as they received bullet wounds here and there.
By the time the action had toned down, Shane and Knuckles were incapable of standing while the others were bleeding, but not immobile. They continued firing with what ammunition they could salvage.
"Hold still, Shane. I got you." Alexa said while transforming again. She had flimsy wings that looked like they could've been fish fins. She was also holding a staff encrusted with a blue crystal.
Water was flowing out of the staff and into his leg, healing the bullet wounds. Shane thanked her before grabbing his Glock 18 and firing it off into the crowd of enemies. A couple hit here and there, but only wounds were made. He then ducked back behind cover, dropped the thin magazine and loaded a new cartridge.
Sonic was dashing in and out of cover, firing bullets along the way. He dived behind cover where Knuckles was and smirked at the echidna who was clutching his own leg. "I guess it's a little too late for witty banter." Sonic said, and Knuckles fumed.
"Well, no dip." Knuckles declared. "I think you've earned a promotion from Captain Obvious to Major Moron."
Sonic smirked. "Yeah, yeah. I hate you too, Knux."
Knuckles noticed a lion attempting to sneak up on Sonic so the red echidna did the only viable thing. "Sonic, duck!"
Sonic swished his head around. "Duck? Where?" He questioned. Knuckles face palmed before tugging Sonic's leg down, effectively tripping him. He also withdrew a knife from his belt and threw it at the lion, embedding it in his heart. The lion clutched at his chest for a moment before falling over.
"Not the bird, you ignoramus! The action!" Knuckles scolded him. Sonic just shrugged sheepishly.
Alexa came over to their wall and chuckled. "Never a dull moment with you two, is there?" She asked mockingly. They both chuckled in embarrassment.
Alexa was healing Knuckles' wounds when a small object landed near them. They stood up and looked at it. "Hey, Sonic, I think you dropped your grenade." Knuckles suggested, while Sonic shrugged.
"Hey, I'm not carrying any grenades." Sonic covered for himself. He then looked at Knuckles. "Why don't you count yours?"
Knuckles felt around his belt for the grenade slots; all of which were occupied. "None of mine are used."
Alexa then threw her hands up. "Well someone must've dropped it."
A momentary silence ensued as they attempted to figure out whose grenade it was. Sonic's eyes grew wide. "Oh snap… I think someone threw a grenade at us." He said.
This caused Knuckles to contort his mouth into a small circle. "Yeah, you think we'd have figured that out earlier."
Alexa, who was just about scared out of her mind, picked the grenade up and slung it across the battle field, letting it explode in a group of enemies. "What kind of imbeciles are we?" She shouted while Knuckles and Sonic sweated comically.
The enemy was overrunning them, and they had to regroup under cover. If it weren't for the fact that Tails, Cosmo, Shadow, Sam and Sen arrived just then, they might've been finished. Tails was creating a continuous stream of wind, preventing the enemy from advancing or firing accurate shots.
"GO!" He shouted. "I'll hold them off!"
They didn't need to be told twice as they made haste for the hole that Sonic had recently blown in the wall. Cosmo stayed a little while longer while Tails talked to her.
"Cosmo, when you find my body, I'm going to need you to heal me up, okay?" He asked of her, to which she only gave a nod.
After they had escaped, Tails flew into the air and began floating rather than flying. He crossed his arms over his face in an "X" formation and began focusing. The soldiers attempted to fire at him, but their shots were horrible in accuracy at Tails' elevation.
With enough thought and focus, Tails came to finally unlock seven of the eight inhibitors, becoming what he would call, "Solar Wind Tails."
His fur color was now a dark blue rather than its normal bright yellow. His body, instead of being surrounded by his perky aura, was now surrounded by a white mist.
Tails put his hands together… and began praying. "Dear God, I am sorry for what I have done and what I am about to do. Pray that these souls may have forgiveness when they enter into your Kingdom."
He then brought his hands skyward and concentrating his energy. He glared down at the enemy and let out a fierce battle cry. "ZEPHYR SUN BEAM!" He shouted and threw down the ball of energy.
Sonica and the others watched as the ball of white energy flew down into the compound. It shined with an intensely bright before erupting into a devastating beam of energy. The column of white energy was blinding to look at and it lasted for several seconds.
When the beam died down, there was nothing left of the compound, for it had been turned entirely to ash. They gazed in awe at what Tails had done while Cosmo rushed into the field of ash. When she arrived there, Tails was lying atop one of the mounds of ash. Everything was incinerated so thoroughly, you couldn't tell a cinder block from a Mobian skull.
Everyone else came in after to see Cosmo tending to Tails' many wounds. Cosmo was almost in tears when she saw his body; covered in tears and burns. On the inside, his muscles had been strained and torn beyond capacity. Healing this would take a lot of time and effort, so Shadow did the only smart thing to do. He grabbed Tails' body and pulled out his green chaos emerald.
Huddling the group close together, he spoke the words, "Chaos Control," and teleported them to a safer place.