Chapter 3- The Code
Location: Sky Sanctuary Zone, Angel Island, Somewhere above the Eastern Continent.
Date: 16th July 4AC
The morning was a beautiful on the floating island. The air was so clear that it allowed a spectacular, panoramic view of both South and Westside Islands far below.
The legendary island had been the group's home for almost two years since the echidna, fed up of fending off the dictator's attempts to steal the emerald, had grudgingly accepted the heroes' offer of help guarding the master emerald and joined the team. In the time since, Tails had used his technical expertise to install a complex defence grid across the island so that they no longer needed to worry about Robotnik attacking. Allowed them to focus on counter-attacking and together the four had used their abilities to almost thrown him out of the EmeraldArchipelago.
The heroes as a result could afford to sit around the island lazing in the heat for once. Amy sat watching the scenery, a half finished book on her knee whilst Sonic and Knuckles practiced sparring against one another.
"Where's kid?" Knuckles asked as he picked himself up from the ground after Sonic had beaten him in one of their bouts, "he could do with learning a-bit of hand-to-hand combat." The group had barely seen their youngest member for three days. As soon as they'd landed he'd retreated to the small lab he'd built under the emerald chamber and not emerged since.
"Must be still working on that code stuff," Sonic answered. The little fox was hard working to a fault when dealing with a project but he rarely worked so long without some kind of heads up. "You seen him Ames?" he asked.
"No," the girl said as she looked up from her book, "heard him muttering to himself the other evening but he's ignored all the attempts I've made to contact him."
"He still working?"
"I'd imagine so, you know how he is."
Sonic nodded, Tails had a habit of working obsessively especially when it came to computers. The canid was one of the few mobians not afraid of Robotnik's technical supremacy; instead Robotnik's machines and computer technology were something of a challenge which he compulsively sought to overcome.
Despite this the hedgehog worried about the little fox, his working habits meant he often failed to eat, drink or even sleep. "He eaten anything?" Sonic asked with a touch of concern in his voice.
Amy scowled, "How would I know? It's not my job to make sure he's fed and watered. He's got food own there so I'd assume so."
"I didn't mean it like that Ames," Sonic replied in an attempt to pacify the girl. The pink hedgehog was sometimes rather prickly about her role within the team and disliked any insinuation that she was just a tag-a-long. "Tails would work 'till he collapsed if he was trying to figure out how 'Buttnik's tech worked."
Amy sighed and nodded in agreement, "Suppose we better go and make sure he is doing something sensible, I don't want to be woken up by one of his accidents again."
The males nodded in agreement, no-one relished the prospected of explosions at 3am due to a mistake caused by an exhausted fox's mental curiosity.
Unsurprisingly, the kit was found in his lab. It was in its usual state of chaos; half-finished gadgets and mechanical parts littered the worktops and piles of blue prints were scattered across the floor. The vulpine himself sat at his desk seemingly transfixed at the computer screen; a pile of dirty plates and used mugs were stacked on the floor next to his workstation.
"Err, Tails" the hedgehog asked as they crossed the room, "How's it going?"
The fox didn't respond, his attention was intently rapt on the screen in front of him; his eyes flickered left to right following lines of data which flashed across the screen too quickly for the others to read. His fingers danced across the keyboard with surgical skill and he muttered to himself about a numerical code which the others couldn't understand.
Sonic put his hand on the fox's shoulder but the fox didn't react he just continued his typing. "Tails?" the hedgehog asked again waving his hand in front of the vulpine's face to attract his attention to no avail.
Sonic looked at Amy for help, causing her to sigh.
"Miles!" she snapped causing the kit to jump in his seat as if he'd been shocked. He turned and stared dumbly at the new arrivals for a few seconds, before grinning like a child caught doing something he shouldn't.
"Sorry, you say something?"
"Sonic asked you how your work was going?"
The grin faded from the fox's face to be replaced with a scowl. His eyes bloodshot and his ears flattered low over his head in submission.
"Miles," Amy said studying him, "are you ok?"
The fox wasn't, his pride had been deeply wounded. He was an ace with computers yet his failure irritated him. Three days! Three days to hack Robotnik's encryption. Three days of failing repeatedly and getting nowhere was infuriating.
The fox took a deep breath before answering, "I can't hack it."
"What do you mean, that code you found on the download?" Sonic asked.
"Yes."
Knuckles looked slightly confused; he'd never seen the little fox unable to work out something with a computer before, "why not?" he asked rather gruffly.
Tails' eyes flashed with irritation for a split second and he gave no answer, he'd obviously interpreted the echidna's tone as a gibe. "I can't decipher the algorithm," the fox answered in low voice, "it's very well encrypted. It automatically updates itself every few minute and all the character's change. In three days I've not noticed a single repetition."
Sonic didn't understand how that worked but he could understand why it would be frustrating for the fox, "can't you just let the computer do it? Isn't it a powerful system you built."
"Not possible," the fox answered, "the computer's programmed to run the defence grid independently not to hack high level encryption. It's not advanced enough to do the latter without me telling it what to look for. The only way I could get it to work on the anticipating and reacting to the algorithm without me coding it constantly would be if I disconnected it from the whole defence system and reconfigured it. But we can't do that."
"As it would leave the island defenceless," Amy added.
Tails nodded.
"So, what can you use?"
"A computer that is able to react and think its way around the coding algorithm on its own. Basically, I need an AI. A computer that can truly think for itself."
True AIs were the exception that proved the general rule that Dr Robotnik had superior technology to the rest of Mobius. There had been rumours for years before his coup that a couple existed but they'd never been officially confirmed. As a result, they were considered a myth by many and judging from Sonic's raised eyebrow; he was one of the sceptical.
"They exist?" he asked?
"Of course they do," the vulpine replied with the enthusiasm returning to his voice. "There's two that I sure of," he said confidently counting off his fingers, "One's with G.U.N in their facility in Central City."
"Pass," Sonic replied quickly, he did not have the best relationship with the Federation or it's military. The last time he'd been there they'd chased him with a giant lorry, arrested him and thrown if in jail all in the space of an afternoon. "They'll never help us."
"So we just have the second option, which, I read about from pre-conquest internet rumour."
Sonic, Amy and Knuckles all grimaced at this, it was hardly sensible to put their faith in unfounded speculation.
"There was an Acorn Kingdom black project before Robotnik launched his coup," the vulpine continued confidently. "They built a highly advanced, holographical AI which they housed in some top secret base called Knothole."
Amy gave the fox a strange look, "the Acorn Kingdom was destroyed, I remember seeing the pictures on the news."
"Yup" Sonic agreed, "Buttnik's first conquest. Took 'em completely by surprise and wiped the army out, made a big show that he'd captured the palace, the royal family and everything."
"I don't think he conquered it as thoroughly as he claims." Tails put in.
"How'd ya figure?"
The vulpine shrugged, "he faces too much resistance for one thing." His fingers tapped frenziedly at the keyboard and after a few seconds a map of the Acorn Kingdom emerged on one part of the screen while some data documents emerged on the over. "I've been hacking some of Robotnik's transmissions for a while now and he's definitely building throughout the country; Prison Labour Camps, Chemical plants, Steel works, Datastores and Robotics factories. It seems he's made the old capital a fortress for himself too."
"Well that certainly suggests he controls the kingdom," Sonic muttered impatiently as he tapped his foot on the floor, "what does this have to do with the Acorn's survival?"
"He's never built within a thirty-mile radius of this," he explained as he zoomed into the south western most corner of the kingdom. The map showed a large green area devoid of any buildings or infrastructure, "The Great Forest."
The group studied the map. From the topography it was obvious to the forest made an ideal defensive position, five hundred square miles of dense woodland strategically located between two low mountain ridges and the coast. The forest itself was far from flat; small hills, crags and river valleys broke up the woodland and two rivers meandered their way through valleys from the mountain ridges and joined together inside the forest a couple of miles from the coast.
"SWATbots go in but never come out again."
The echidna gawped at the map, "You think there is a resistance with a hidden base in there?"
"Exactly, why else would Robotnik keep sending the bots in?"
"Well that sounds possible" Sonic agreed, "but just what does this have to do with the AI in Knothole?"
"I think that base is Knothole."
"That's a jump isn't it?" Amy replied, "It could just be a bunch of bandits."
"It could," Tails admitted, "however, whatever they are, they managed to repulse over twenty large assaults by Robonik's SWATbots. That suggests a really well organised bunch of bandits or more likely the remnants of a proper organization such as the Acorn Kingdom's military who might know where Knothole is."
Amy still wasn't convinced, "and just what do you intend to do; knock on the door shouting, 'Hello, I'm try to find a secretive resistance movement. Can I borrow your computer please?"
The vulpine scoffed defensively, "of course not, my idea's much more technical then that." The pink hedgehog raised her eyebrow inviting the fox to continue.
"I was going to ping them short range radio messages as I did a fly over with the Tornado."
The echidna looked slightly confused, "Isn't that the same thing?" he asked.
Tails looked irritated but Amy cut him off. She was the more protective member of the group and was determined to prevent needlessly risky actions in the field especially from the fox who was still technically a child. "It is, don't argue Tails," she said in a tone which told the fox not to reply. "It's unbelievably reckless. How do you know where they in that forest anyway? its huge."
"I'm going to guess it's somewhere around here," the fox said pointing to the confluence between the two rivers. "It's the flattest bit of land and is perfectly protected on three sides. It's where I'd build it. So that's where I'll start looking." Tails looked at the male hedgehog for a decision, Sonic was after all team leader, "Can we try it Sonic? I just know there is something there and I can't hack this code myself."
The pink hedgehog looked in despair as Sonic appeared to be thinking it over, "you can't seriously be considering this?"
Sonic shrugged, "what's not to like? We're not doing much beside laze around here or raid one of Buttnik's few remaining bases. However, if this works we can take the fight to him on a whole other continent."
Amy looked like she was going to protest but Sonic decided to reassure her, "It'll just be one pass over and I'll go with him to make sure he's safe."
The fox gave a triumphant cheer whilst Amy sighed and put her head in her hands despairing at Sonic's simplicity, "we must be able to come up with something better, surely?"
The cobalt hedgehog smirked at her, "Why? If it works it'll really hurt Eggbreath. You and Knuckles can stay and look after the islands. We'll leave you the Tornado II; that should keep everything safe. Me and kid will be back before you know it," he smiled at the little vulpine, "How long'll it take you to get the Tornado I ready for a long flight?"
"A couple of hours."
"Good we'll leave first thing in the morning then when you've had some sleep and prepped the plane."