Victor John Foxfire: HEY YOU'RE BACK! Clove is in a really bad position. She's lost some good people she probably knew to horrible ways. Her ships aren't even working like they should because she didn't have time to fully repair them. On top of that, Eggman is insistent on an aggressive advance, which means she can't pull back or lay siege, not that it would work because Johan could simply push out with the anti-air guns. She can't attack without losing a lot of men, and she can't retreat because Eggman is threatening her. There is no winning for her.

Sally had a lot of things working against her. She had her insecurities with Fiona pulling Sonic away from her. Then, once she got him back, Sally was overwhelmed with issues within the kingdom. On top of that, as you said, she got pregnant, and her hormones were sent into a frenzy. Sally wanted to be honest with Sonic, but she had to deal with the possibility that Sonic would run away if he found out simply because he was overwhelmed by responsibility, or that she would have to give up command of the Freedom Fighters for maternity leave. Ultimately, she played for time too long.

This all became especially bad when Sonic didn't understand that Sally would be targeted for having a bastard child within the nobility, and refused to marry her out of a desire to remain (what he viewed as) fully free. Sally begrudged that a lot, not fully taking into account (Thanks to her hormones) that Sonic wasn't aware of everything going on. I don't think it's fair to punish Sally for the emotions she has however. She had no control over what was kept, not even Eggman did. She didn't allow the anger so much as it anchored itself to her mechanical form, making an eternally hateful machine.

As for Sonic, he and Johan present two paths for dealing with issues, and the question: "Is it better to be merciful and kind, or just and cruel?" While Sonic can see the results, he's also a compassionate soul, and wouldn't want to be feared. Johan has no problem with a reign of terror, so long as the results are positive. His just nature prevents him from tolerating evil, and the progress he makes… well, you'll have to see.

Johan and Ceawlin are not ones for silent manipulation, but the nobility have no problem with it. So Sonic suddenly feels safer with those honest warriors who are always upfront and honest. Sonic is certainly going to suffer, but there are always people who will try to save you from hell, and guide you to heaven…

o3o: Fiona knows he's alive… right? Or was it all just a dream, entertaining her in her shock? Or maybe her brain can't cope(I hate what modern language has done to this word) with the loss of Sonic from the world. Even if Fiona knew he was alive, how would she get to him? Does she even know the way to get to him?

Anonymous: Mecha-Sally is just full of hate. It's latched onto her, and something that is beyond her control. Eggman programmed Metal Sonic to be hateful, but Sally came with it. As for Fiona, will she even act on the information. It came to her in a dream, and that was all she had to go off of. Would Fiona even try to engage Mecha Sally?

/*-*/

"No! NO! NO!" Eggman shouted, stomping as the first Egg Carrier creaked and leaned, before crashing into the ground, "NO! THOSE VERMIN! CRUSH THEM!"

Large guns had fired up at the carrier, and seemed to rip through them with ease. Those guns were there at the Death Egg battle as well, only this time, they had steel plates over the front, which seemed to be some form of shielding.

"ALL UNITS PULL BACK! GET OUT OF THE RANGE OF THOSE GUNS! PREPARE FOR A GROUND ASSAULT!" Clove's voice echoed through the command speakers as shouts and screams of terror overtook the channels.

The Egg Carriers pulled away, seeming to be beat down by the roaring rain.

Sonic felt his breath finally release, not even realizing that he had been holding it in. They were doing alright. The kingdom was safe. Something churned inside Sonic, he felt his breath get lighter, and he let out a giggle, which turned into a full on roar of laughter.

Eggman stood up and turned around slowly as the eyes of the room turned to look at Sonic. He couldn't help it, the situation was hilarious if only for the fact that Sonic had been suffering with Eggman for so long, with his arrogance and pompous acting, that it was nice for him.

"Eggman, face it… you thought you were going to have an easy time with me out of the way." Sonic giggled some more, before catching his breath, "It's not so easy now, is it?"

"No… I suppose not." The angry scientist glowered, before giving Sonic a strange grin, "But the battle isn't over yet. EGG BOSS SIX, CONTINUE THE ATTACK!"

"Carriers four and seven, begin deploying ground forces. Do not approach the city until the enemy batteries are disabled!" The deer's voice quickly became calm and they reorganized. Sonic had some trouble making out what was being said, as lightning crashed in front of the cameras, with rain hurting the visibility.

A voice echoed over the speakers, "Activating thermal scanners, preparing badnik advance."

Another voice spoke, "Understood, I'm following your lead."

Clove's voice echoed over the others, "We have low visibility, resign command to field officers!"

The other two seemed to agree, "Understood, following orders."

As they said that, some of the cameras flashed a white, blinding light before turning into static.

"Carrier Twelve, Carrier Two, Carrier Six, respond!" The Egg Boss shouted.

Eggman himself seemed very livid, "WHERE IS MY FOOTAGE!" He slammed his fists next to the large screen in frustration.

Sonic kept quiet. Nature itself seemed to be attacking Eggman, in a way that seemed almost beyond anything normal.

"This is Carrier Two, we were struck by lightning, some of our systems are offline, and some are reboot-"

"This is Carrier Twelve, we were hit by-"

"This is Carrier Six, we have lost system functions require-"

"-Addition time, We will lose-"

"-Camera's are down!"

The words began to mesh together in a series of transmissions that seemed to make even Eggman clutch his head, before he punched the wall again, "EGG BOSS SIX, REPORT!"

The various camera angles all flickered and were replaced with a single large image of the Pronghorn standing in attention, with her arms behind her back. Her eyes were twitching as her face wore a wince, likely from being bombarded by all the noise.

Eggman snarled, "WHAT IS GOING ON?"

Clove hesitated before stating, "Some of my fleet is disabled from lightning strikes." Sonic could have guessed that, but he stayed quiet. She didn't seem terrible.

"WHAT? My designs incorporated an energy dispersal system for such an occasion!" Eggman shouted in frustrated, stomping his foot.

"Several lightning rods and absorption batteries were damaged in the defense of the Death Egg. I wanted to have these repaired, but many of the repair drones were pulled from my fleet to help repair the Death Egg. Ultimately, we had to remove unstable batteries to prevent a possible meltdown or-" Clove was cut off by Eggman's enraged disbelief.

"Are you saying this failure of yours is my fault?" Eggman barked, his teeth grit and his posture put up in such a way that Sonic was pretty sure he was going to throw a bone out of place.

"N-No sir." Clove stumbled, Sonic could see a brief moment of panic on her face. Then, she bit her lower lip, and stood up straight, "However, if we had delayed the invasion for another week or two, we could have been more prepared than we are currently."

Eggman snarled, balling his fists before giving a sinister smile, "Enough excuses. Win this battle! DISMISSED!"

The screen turned back into several smaller, but larger-than-before, screens. The empty cameras were cut out, and Sonic could see more… rain, and trees.

"BIG STUPID MEANIE!" The sound of a younger, angrier girl came over the intercom. The rain was easing up, with Sonic able to see the furthest out trench had been over runed, but strangely, the mobians weren't out of the fight yet. In fact, they seemed to fight harder, and pushed against the approaching badniks as if fighting to retake the trench.

"Cassia, this is for battle communications, get off." Clove's voice echoed in minor annoyance, "Damaged Carriers, begin attempting to restore lost functions. Do what you can. All other Carriers, begin V-formation advance to support the ground assault!"

Sonic saw the carriers through the various cameras begin to move forward, back towards the city. They began to approach the forest, with the rain lightening up a lot as they. There was large explosions on the edge of the trench, artillery pounding the encroaching formations.

Then the call went out from Clove's voice as she shouted over the communications, "EGG CARRIERS PULL BACK!"

Sonic didn't see anything on the cameras-

Large shells flew up from the trees striking the large carriers. He could see thanks to the cameras on the other carriers that the ones pushing forward were already falling apart from the shells ripping through the armor.

"WE ARE HIT, I REPEAT WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!"

"Take evasive maneuvers!" Clove's commands went out but they seemed to be in vain.

Metal creaked and groaned as the steel collapsed. The sound cut out on the carriers damaged carriers, leaving the other carriers to fill in the blanks. Sonic saw the carriers moving forward from the ones in the back, and they were being ripped to pieces.

The cameras cut out on the two as Sonic saw the airships finally going down. The two in front were collapsing, with an explosion blurring the image.

There were two retreating. The cannons continued to fire out from the forest, striking the retreating carriers. "WE CAN'T KEEP THIS UP!"

The left one's wing snapped off, causing the left carrier to spin out of control. The right carrier seemed to slow down.

"WE CAN'T STABILIZE, BRACE FOR IMPACT!" A voice shouted over the channels, before it was cutoff as the carrier exploded.

Eggman smashed his fist into the wall with rage, "STOP LOSING MY CARRIERS!"

Clove's voice was silent.

"OUR ENGINE POWER IS DROPING, I REPEAT, WE HAVE LOST SEVERAL ENGINES! COMMANDER, PLEASE RESPOND!" A surprisingly calm voice shouted as Sonic saw… a Wolverine rushing out into the field in the flesh. He wasn't roboticized or anything.

Clove was still quiet. Sonic found that even through his pain, even though she was the enemy, he felt pity for her. She probably knew them, personally. His heart hurt a little bit.

Suddenly Clove's voice came back on, " POINT YOUR NOSE UP, MOVE YOUR CREW TO THE UPPER LEVELS AND KEEP YOURSELF LEVEL!"

She sounded desperate, before she appeared on the screen. Her posture was low, and her spirit looked down. "Sir, I am calling a retreat. We will try again tomorrow. As it stands, there is not much we can do."

"You miserable deer! You fail your mission and now you want to take a break?" Eggman barked angrily, his teeth grit and foaming in rage.

"We are retreating. We will try another assault tomorrow, but as it stands, they are too well protected on this side, We will try maneuvering, but my people need sleep… and rescue."

Eggman snarled, "Do it! I'll punish you later…"

Sonic saw the deflated look in her eyes, before nodding, "GIVE THE SIGNAL TO RETREAT. EGG CARRIER FIVE, GET YOUR CREW TO THE UPPER FLOORS, KEEP YOUR NOSE UP AND SLOW DOWN."

"We… can't keep flying if we slow down." Her officer replied softly, but he wasn't panicked anymore. Sonic suddenly realized he was root for them to survive… He didn't anyone to die.

"What is damaged?" Clove asked firmly.

"I could list off the things working faster." The Officer joked.

"Rich, now is not the time! You aren't going to be able to keep flying. Land safely and we will pick you up tonight!" She commanded, "Level out and keep your soldiers on the top floors!"

SOnic saw the Egg Carrier straighten out as it lowered into the dirt, scrapping along the ground. The channels were silent.

"Rich, respond." Clove commanded. Silence.

"Uh… We're alive." The officer mumbled.

Sonic heard Clove's sigh of relief, "I'm going down and getting my soldier back."

The Transmission cut off. Eggman cracked the walls with a fist, before slumping down.

Sonic smiled, "Looks like your victory party will have to wait. I hope you can reschedule." Sonic laughed, leaning down in his restraints.

Eggman's slump straightened out, and he stood up tall, "For You, Hedgehog? I'll always have time." He turned to Sonic, glowing with rage.

Mecha Sally drew her energy blades and walked toward the restrained hedgehog.

Sonic realized too late his mouth had gotten him in trouble.

/*-*/

A brief gust of wind ran through Fiona's short ponytail. Her body was moving but her mind was elsewhere. She couldn't shake the feeling about her… dream? Vision? Fiona didn't know what it was called.

Her soul told her that Sonic was there, in Eggman's base. He was trapped there… right? Fiona wondered how much strength he had left. Could she afford to wait for a rescue mission?

Fiona felt a pain shoot through her shoulder. Fiona yelped as she dropped her shovel, with her knees giving out. Fiona gasped and looked over her shoulder to see bits of blood and cuts. She hadn't felt bad when she woke up, so Fiona had simply got work.

"What's wrong with you?" Bosphor growled at her, angrily. He seemed to think she was a slacking off.

Fiona put up a grin, "Nothing, just checking to see how quick you were. Seems you're a little slow." She winced as her back started hurting again.

The bear growled and walked over, before pulling her arm and looking at Fiona's back, "I swear you all are brainless. Go get yourself patched up at the doc. That's an order!"

Fiona rolled her eyes, "Sure, and you'll fix this trench all on your own."

"Yeah, It's easy for me. Now get lost!" Bosphor snarled at her.

She supposed it could be worse. At least he sort of cared in his own way. Still Fiona stood her ground, "Please, it's not that bad."

"Go, get healed." The deep rumbling voice of Johan growled behind her. Fiona turned around and saw Johan had crossed the straight through the river. He stood over the trench, his maw distinctly red from blood, and it probably wasn't his own.

Fiona slumped and moved up the trench, watching the light blue fennec walking up the trench line through splotches of torches and lanterns.

The other brigades were getting their wounded checked, fixing their own trenches and simply getting some sleep. Fiona passed some logs being carried to the front trench to reenforce it. Things were at least getting done.

Johan seemed to have that effect on people.

She worked her way to a tent, and saw that the good Doctor Quack was there, not performing operations, but instructing other soldiers from various divisions. The biggest injury was burns, followed by shrapnel.

Everyone seemed to be busy, so when Fiona walked up to Doctor Quack, she was surprised when he turned and asked, "Are you another injured soul?"

Fiona smirked, "Well I'm not dead, and I don't need medic training."

"Yes, I suppose you are lucky." Doctor Quack mumbled, gesturing to a pile which was covered by white cloths. It wasn't too high, which Fiona was grateful for.

"Right, Well, I have a nasty cut on my back, and I need a patch up." Fiona grumbled, not wanting to focus on the corpses that would be… disposed of.

"Right find a table, and a student will be with you." Doctor Quack smiled. Fiona got the feeling he was enjoying the extra help, or maybe he just loved being a teacher.

Still Fiona found a "table"( Which was really more of a cot) and laid down on her stomach. She waited for a fair amount of time, almost dozing off to sleep.

"Ah, now, here is a good case to get you started. As you can see, there is some minor tearing and abrasions. You should be able to handle her safely." The Doctor's voice was calm, but he was clearly happy to get working.

"Are you sure?" A very timid voice asked softly.

"Of course, just remain calm, and run through the procedures we discussed. Start by removing any imbedded objects, then move to seal the wound." The Doctor smiled, "You shouldn't have to worry about any complications arising."

Fiona's heart began to race ever so slightly with every word he said. Was he screwing with her?

As it turns out, her medic-in-training was actually pretty good. It hurt a lot. She got an extra shot of whiskey to help deal with the extra pokes from the stitches, but she was alive, not oozing terribly.

She stepped out and realized how hungry she was as well. Fiona hadn't eaten anything since the retreat, which made her feel starving. Fiona's belly ached and rumbled to let her know how upset it was with her.

So Fiona went to the mess hall, a bakery turned into a kitchen and grabbed some soup, which was very thin and subsidized with a bland bread.

She ate it on the wall, which led her seeing an interesting sight. The blue fennec, Sonar, was standing behind Gewis, with her hands over his as he looked through a spyglass.

Fiona continued to stir in her hard, dry bread with her soup and moved closer. She listened as Sonar, that sly blue fennec pushed the spyglass out, "See, I traded some date wine for it. I thought it would help you if you were going to be a general."

"It's awesome, thank you." Gewis smiled, his voice a little higher, showing just how nervous he was. This girl was definitely putting on the right moves to work with him. At least, Fiona assumed that she was trying to get him in her pants.

Then, Gewis tenses up, looking through the spyglass, before turning and looking more to the right.

"Our enemy is going to attack from the north and south. We need to be ready." Johan growled, walking up the walls towards Gewis and the others. He seemed calm, and not terribly worried about that tiny bit of very important information

"Why do you think that?" Lanolin asked, following along his side with her arms in her wool.

Johan opened his maw to answer, before he stopped, "Gewis, Why would they try a flanking attack tomorrow?"

Gewis looked suddenly shocked by being put on the spot. Johan watched him carefully, leaving the fox to try and figure out what he was implying. Fiona had to hand it to the beast, he could put pressure on someone pretty quickly.

The fox looked around as all of the attention was now focused on him, and he thought for a moment. He turned around and looked through the spy glass down at the trenches. He seemed to hum to himself a bit, before jumping up, "Our defenses are all here, and they couldn't get through, so they will attack somewhere where we don't have any defenses. Why try something again if it didn't work."

Johan seemed satisfied with that answer, giving Gewis a nod, "Good, they will attack us at our weak areas. I will move to protect the flanks. You act as you will."

Gewis nodded, and moved away. Fiona went back to eating her soup on the walls. The Hardtack could actually thicken the soup pretty good. She finished it up and brought the bowl back to the mess hall.

Fiona then went back to the gate, where she heard groaning. Her curiousity peaked, and Fiona leaned out to look at who was so loud.

"Hold still you big baby. You were a lot tougher in my memories." Lanolin spat, followed by another groan. Fiona looked up the stairs and began to walk up.

"Look, if you don't like it, you can go to Doctor Quack, I'm sure one of his student's would love to work on you." Lanolin growled. Fiona leaned into the doorway. She saw Lanolin, bent over a table in the gatehouse, a needle and thread in her hand.

In front of her was Oscar, bent over the table, with ropes tying his arms to the legs of the table. He had a hat stuffed in his mouth as Lanolin went in with one more stroke of the need, before twisting it, and pulling out her knife to cut it, "There, you're done. Now let me take care of those burns."

Fiona saw Oscar perk up, and try to twist out of the restraints, spitting out the hat ,"HEY, HEY-"

"Relax, I'm just putting some ointment on them. It shouldn't hurt too bad." Lanolin grumbled, pulling out a jar, "I don't get why you just wouldn't take some whiskey. You wouldn't be scrambling around so much if you did." She reached her hand into the jar and pulled out a small white splotch of cream.

Oscar turned his head, panting as her hand rubbed up his back, "Ow… I made some very bad decisions when I was drunk… I didn't want to do them, or maybe I did. Alcohol wre-… ow, helped me wreck my own life… I'll stay away from the bottle."

Lanolin rubbed a second area, going silent.

"I'm sorry… I really didn't… I wasn't think-" Oscar started.

"Done, now get back to your ranks." Lanolin growled quickly and coldly, pulling away from him and releasing his binds.

"Uh… Right." Oscar mumbled, looking down, embarrassed.

Fiona quickly got out of the room, and moved down to head out into the trenches. Bosphor and the others had worked on the repairs, and shored up the trenches with a few extra logs. Instead, it seemed like it was time to sleep.

"Go, we got first watch." One of the soldiers mumbled at her. Fiona really wasn't going to argue with them. She was tired.

Fiona returned to her bed in the city, and slumped down. The sheets were cold, and she was sweaty and dirty, but she didn't care. Fiona was exhausted.

"Commanders. What have you learned today." Johan's bark echoed outside… but Fiona closed her eyes and shut it all out.

/*-*/

"What have you learned today?" Johan asked his thirty four commanders who stood there. He wanted to see how they were paying attention.

"What?" Asked a foolish wolf.

"What have you learned from the battle? If you are not looking at how the battles are waged, you will fall prey to a good enemy." Johan growled, glaring at the wolf. Could he not see the evil of his laziness?

Lanolin mumbled, "We were late to firing artillery shots. We need better response time."

The bear commander growled, "We also were hit by your artillery. We need a way to tell your dumbasses that they are hitting us!"

Lanolin growled back, "We did the best we could! We didn't know where we were hitting in the rain."

The two began to move like children, ready to spit and bite each other. Johan had enough and snarled at both of them, which caused them to calm down, or control themselves.

"Then we need messengers to carry these words to the commanders. " Johan offered the idea, which should have been plain to see.

Gewis stepped in, "We'll need faster communication. We need to be able to send messages faster than we can move on foot. That'll come later, though. I like Johan's idea." Gewis gave a nod of support to Johan.

"What else did you learn." Johan growled hoping for faster improvement. They needed to get better if they were going to destroy the fat fool.

Stoix spoke up, "They are really bad at detecting ambushes. If we flank them, they quickly break and get crushed." She pushed a fist into a palm.

Johan growled, "Good."

The commanders began to offer up their improvements.

"We need to store ammo away from the front trench, and protected by wood or something."

"The enemy stays away from the anti-air guns. We can keep the carriers from helping the assault force."

"The High explosive can clip the wings pretty good."

Johan heard all of their improvements, and gave his next order, "Now act as you will."

He then returned to the camp, and took a rest. Tomorrow, the battle would be over, and they would win.

Johan awoke from his slumber before the sun had risen. He shook his body to loosen his muscles, and He began to poke around his men, and began to give out orders.

To one group, he gave the order, "Return to the weapons to our south. Move them, and prepare to attack once again."

The men ran off to do as he commanded.

The ones who remained, Johan gave the order, "Follow me, we will head north, and prepare to crush the coming attack."

Sonar was slow to awaken her mind, yawning weakly, "What about the south."

"Stoix and her men will handle the attack. I have put my trust that she will not fail." Johan growled, and the men set out.

They moved through the forest until Johan could see the north gate. Two rows of trenches were set up, guarding the entrance of the gate. There were few emplacements, but they had little time to set them up. The walls had enough to deal with an aggressive approach.

Still, Johan was not content for the enemy to get within that range. His enemy knew that Johan's men were in the forest, so they would have to strike quickly when the time came.

Johan heard the large guns finally get set up, with the stands digging into the ground, his men tired from carrying the weapons.

"Good, rest, the others will fight." Johan growled at them, and the men gave a nod. They began to eat food and drink their drinks. Some had water, others had brought beer. No matter, they were not fighting soon, and they needed their rest.

Johan helped unload when the spotter called out, "Enemy carrier spotted!"

Johan brought the large ammo box to the position of the furthest gun and looked out. Indeed, his enemy acted as Johan thought he would. The Egg Man was a fool, trying to crush them with force, and then trying to flank the position.

The only thing that surprised Johan about the attack was how slow it was. The Egg Man seemed to be cautious, hesitating weakly for a decisive strike. Johan had notice it the day before as well. Perhaps this attack was being led by a general under his ranks?

No matter, Johan would crush this army, and reclaim the lost territories. Then, He would not stop fighting until his enemy was defeated.

Johan heard the trenches on the north gate begin to move around, preparing for the coming attack. They were alive, and eager, fresh soldiers with good rest and meals.

Johan gave the order to his own men, "Begin aiming, prepare to fire, but do not. Await my signal."

The spotter called out, "A SECOND CARRIER!"

Johan saw the second one. He was not shaken; his mind quickly worked around how to deal with both of them. For now, they waited.

The carriers came close, and the anti-air guns on the wall began to fire. The shells flew through the air, and punctured the nose of the low flying carriers. Pieces began to fall off as the flying ship took damage.

Johan gave the order, "Wait, get ready."

The carrier began to slow down, and deployed machines. It was still in range of both Johan and the wall's cannons, but it seemed to be pulling back as it finally stopped itself, and began to fly backwards. It was too late, Johan could tell from the parts falling off.

He gave the order, "Prepare to attack the second one."

As he spoke the words, the first carrier made a loud screeching sound as fire shot out of the cracks, before it exploded. A fuel explosion.

The men began to move as though they were ready for battle.

Johan growled at his men, "Hold!" Their eagerness could be as much a weakness as it could be a strength.

The second carrier stopped outside of the range of the wall guns as the splintered ship pieces fell to the ground. The ranks of machines began to lower themselves onto the ground, moving forward as soon as they touched the grass.

The rocket pods opened, and revealed the intention to fire.

Johan would strike first. He growled, "Fire."

The guns fired away, with an explosion, followed by the sound of the empty casing falling out of the breach, and a new shell being loaded in.

Johan charged as the men in the quickly dug out fighting positions began firing on the machines that were rushing to meet him. Johan focused on the large ones, as they would give him the greatest challenge and glory.

Johan grabbed the large shield of the machine as it fired into his chest. His flesh burned, but once the shield was open, Johan slashed at the machine's head, tearing it off.

He then moved to the next one as deer began to shout orders from their ranks, and returned fire with his army in the woods. They stood in the open, relying on the machines to protect themselves. His men were dug in.

The Carrier above creaked and groaned under the constant fire as Johan broke another large machine, and used its shield to crush another.

Then… The ship pulled back, slowly as their fire ripped into it. It began to lean to one side as the sun bore down on them. Johan glared up at it, as his hands ripped into the armor of the last large machine, and watched as it slowed down.

The deer scrambled to the ship, and were pulled up by machines as the battering of the ship continued.

Johan went to work clearing out those machines, but it was all for nothing. The enemy carrier began its retreat. Johan felt a swell of anger inside him. His rage burst as he shouted, "COME BACK AND FIGHT!" Johan began to pursue the flying fortress as it pulled away, slowly getting out of range of Johan's guns.

His guns stopped firing, and Johan slowed down. He could not pursue them endlessly.

So he returned to his men, "We must go quickly, support the West gate!"

They ran and rushed, only to find Sonar and the men sitting back. The carriers were now in the distance. It was a full retreat. A victory, but with less blood than Johan wanted.

The men in the trenches cheered, and raised their rifles high above their heads. Johan saw the smile on Gewis's face, and the other commanders were very happy about the victory.

Except for the boy prince as he brought his father out. The King waved to the men. Johan crossed the river and approached the trenches.

"You have served marvelously. I thank you all for our kingdom's continued existence. We will not fall to Robotnik's terror!" The king proclaimed, and the men cheered. The father paid no mind to the weak boy prince.

The young squirrel growled as Johan passed him. It was his own fault for his weakness, and refusal to lead… Still, Johan did have plans for the future, and the prince was to become king.

"We will need to reclaim the lost lands." Johan growled, before handing the prince a rifle.

The prince frowned, starring at the weapon, "I'm not a commander. I don't lead men."

"You will never be worthy to lead men if you do not start." Johan growled, and shoved the weapon at the prince.

He would learn in time. Maybe Johan could make him a good king.

/*-*/

The Sixth Egg Army is in strategic retreat. Johan and his armies successfully defended the capitol, with remarkable efficiency and planning. Tactics were put into effect, and were devastating against an already cautious commander. Now the only thing left is picking through the remains and other dressings.

One more chapter for this section.

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