Chapter 19
"Blast! That weasel… I've seen him before… he is a dangerous foe indeed. Stop them by any means necessary." The hooded figure fumed at his screens. He had not vouched for this interference…
While Diesel and Tails where busy hot-wiring the tank, Nack, Sonic and Espio surveyed the maps of the city.
"The central fort is here – big glass thing. Can't miss it. Your friends are probably here." Nack poked a thickly gloved finger at a circle on the blueprint-style map.
"The street goes straight from here to there. Is that too obvious a route, or should we go around a little?"
"It won't matter. The tank only goes, what, five, six miles per hour? It's pretty damn heavy. The sooner we get there the better."
"Now, these doors are security locked from the inside. We'll need someone to infiltrate and open them." Both Nack and Sonic looked at Espio.
"I suppose I would be the obvious choice… oh, and do you know what's even better? As far as they know, I'm still working for them!"
"No. They know. They've got cameras up all over the place."
"Then how come they didn't see us coming?"
"You went through the secret tunnel. That's completely unmonitored."
"So, stealth as usual?" Sonic and Nack nodded to this.
Tails fiddled away at an electric panel, occasionally snipping the odd wire, and attaching it somewhere else.
"You're doing that all wrong…" Diesel shoved him out of the way. "That goes here, and you flip that… wait, what the hell's that?"
"I thought this might happen. Because you're from the future, you've been trained with future technologies, but here we're using technology that, to you anyway, has been obsolete for… how long?"
"About two hundred years." At this, they turned around to see Nack drop into the centre of the tank. He took one look at what they were doing, and then turned to the control panel.
"You really are the dumbest smart people I have ever known." He flipped out a switchblade and stuck it in the ignition. When he twisted it, his expression went from smug to confused as the control panel merely blipped and said "Unauthorised Access Attempt".
"Did you really think we hadn't tried that already?"
"If it was as simple as that we'd already be out of here." Tails thought for a second.
"Wait, keep that knife there…" He ducked under the panel. Nack pulled his feet out of the way. He pulled a box away and threw it away. He ripped out a wire, and began fiddling with the circuitry. He taped the wire back in and got out. "Try it again." Nack twisted the knife again. The engine burst into life.
"All right! Get everybody in and we're ready to rumble,"
Espio waited behind the tank. As the last few people climbed in, Sonic shut the hatch after them. The interior screens flickered into life – they could now see where they were going. Espio watched as the tank rumbled forward with unstoppable inertia. It wasn't particularly fast, but it definitely laid the gate to waste. As he watched it trundle away, he leapt into the shadows and followed the tank along. It attracted attention almost immediately. Several radio transmissions came in, all left unanswered. It was only when they were halfway there that the Naugus' forces realised the errant tank's intentions.
It is assumed that a city's defence systems should aim outside the city, as most threats requiring the use of large weapons come from outside the city. However, in the rare event that such a threat is inside the city, these systems become powerless as they either are unable to face the right way, or run the risk of destroying the city in the process of rooting out the threat. This is one of those rare events.
Jet shook himself awake. He had been sleeping, finding nothing else to do. He could hear some commotion outside, a long way away. Straining to hear, he tried to crane his neck toward the door. Rescuers? Possible. He tried to struggle against the ropes. Still as tight and unstinting as ever. Why were they keeping us alive this long? And why did they have to steal my goddamn shirt?
Nack yanked Diesel out of the driver's seat.
"Move it, kid, I've got a plan…" He pushed the throttle right up. The tank ploughed straight into the front wall, and carried on a few metres through it. It ground to a halt with the front end lodged in the building, and the rear end sticking out the back. Silver pushed on the hatch. It barely budged. A small amount of light and dust came in through this gap.
"Aagh, Nack, you've stuck the hatch against the wall!"
"Exactly the plan. They can't get in."
"But we can't get out." Tails was not impressed.
"Oh, but we can. Blaze?" Sonic had a brainwave.
"Yeah?"
"Flamethrower time."
"Oh. Swish." She gleefully stepped towards the front of the tank. She held down the trigger and watched the entire front of the tank melt away into a small pool of liquid steel. "And there's your exit."
"Right, who wants to be the first to walk on the molten metal?" Rouge quipped.