The mountainous landscape of the Frontier Canyon Zone passed far below. I adjusted my goggles to shield against the wind and wished I could have come up with something for my ears as well, that damn wind was whistling to an almost painful degree. Despite this discomfort I maintained my position almost leaning out of the opening. I didn't exactly have free access or even a whole lot of understanding of Robotnik's computer systems, a view from above was probably the best I was going to get in regards to getting my bearings.
It was far colder than I expected, being at the altitude we were at I had expected there to be a chill. The bite that had met me when I opened the door however had me convinced it wasn't going to be much better on the ground. It had me wishing I was some arctic breed of rabbit mobian but quickly shook it off. The cold would be unpleasant but the gear I had cobbled together combined with my fur would keep me alive and I was confident I'd eventually acclimate.
Down below were endless rocky valleys and towering mountains. The colors mainly consisted of brown rock and brown dirt though I could also make out patches of green here and there. The stories I had heard of this place had me believing there would be ruins and graves as far as the eye could see.
'I don't know what I was expecting, putting any real stock in some old rabbit, drunk off bunny maries, with too many stories to tell.' With a scowl that appeared despite my best efforts I closed the door with a violent motion. 'The alternative is to believe everything written in books and online websites… books and websites written and owned by humans.'
Like hell I was about to do that. So many times in written history human pioneers, industrialists and landowners were framed as daring adventurers and bold innovators. Braving the unknown, pushing boundaries and taming the wilds. And of course to oppose these heroic figures of history were the ever present and ever savage 'animals' in the wilds. I used to love history books when I was little… As I grew older I also grew increasingly upset with how often mobians were portrayed as attacking or being violent for no reason. It had certainly caused me a complex until I finally put two and two together. I had wondered why those books had been so dusty when I started reading them…
"RABBIT!"
Jumping in startled fright I whipped around to see no one but the occasional badnik roaming the halls. I looked up towards the PA speaker and had to strangle down the urge to scowl angrily. I was in a foul mood, barely able to tolerate Robotnik's obnoxiousness at the moment. This was the man who regularly attacked whole nations however and the reminder that only Sonic had been able to consistently drive off his machine armies kept me calm.
"Doctor!" I snapped a salute to the speaker nearest me, taking in slow deep breaths as I did so.
"We are landing immediately!" Robotnik stated before adding dangerously. "You better be at the unloading ramp when we do."
Blinking in bewilderment at the threat honestly coming out of nowhere my own anger and frustration immediately bleed away, replaced by dread. What in the world has happened now? Was he in a bad mood? Was he looking for a reason, any reason to punish me to his non existent heart's content? Or was he just acting out to just see what my own reaction would be?
Whatever the reason was I wasn't Sonic or enough of an idiot to find out. Running down the halls I made sure my duster made from patched together scrapped hazmat suits was holding together and my mask, goggles and helmet were on straight. Sure my fur pattern could identify me but I'd rather GUN didn't track down my home village and start asking a lot of shameful questions because I was lazy about hiding my identity.
It was a good thing I had taken the time during the flight to acquaint myself with the ship layout otherwise I would have gotten lost due to the utter lack of landmarks or signs besides the typical egotistical grinning icons. Even with that knowledge I had barely made it before the ship made its landing.
"Exactly on time." Robotnik stated upon my approach, the ship rumbling as it settled onto the ground. "Very punctual of you, animal."
"I-I aim to please, Doctor." An instinctive desire to add even a slightly witty remark into my retort probably almost got me horribly punished but I restrained it to a slight hitch in my voice.
The sudden brief smirk Robotnik had upon hearing my voice however had a shiver run up my spine. I had thought him worse than me at reading people, was I underestimating the man even as I was expecting him to be able to bulldoze over everything short of Sonic? Maybe I was just reading too much into that smirk? Maybe the man was just pleased he was pushing my buttons enough to get some kind of restrained negative response?
I struggled to maintain zero reaction, not even letting my suddenly itchy ear tips twitch in irritation.
No, no, stay calm! Don't lose your head! I can go over the chances of him being able to read people as well as I could when I wasn't about to be assigned a mission.
"We shall begin scouting the zone!" Robotnik declared in a bombastic though far less angry voice. His arm waved grandly towards the lowering ramp. "Flying badniks shall search out likely points of interest but I have already located two locations to investigate in the meantime."
"Rabbit! You shall lead the forces sent to these two locations." Once more his hover pod turned in a near instant and I had his pointing finger in my face. "Let's see how useful and loyal you really are."
"Very well, Doctor Robotnik." Saluting, I turned and gestured towards the ramp. "If there is nothing else?"
"Go, I shall be watching." Robotnik stated, fingers laced together beneath his nose as his pod rose up into the air.
Turning I followed the last procession of war machines as they disembarked the airship. As I exited the ship I found that my earlier thoughts regarding the cold were entirely correct and I'd have to be miserable for a while before I got used to it. Straightening my scavenged and altered GUN helmet I approached the group of Badniks being harangued into something approaching a formation by a smaller machine.
"You useless bunches of bolts!" Shouted a voice, it was whiny and nasally rather than the authoritative growl it was trying to project to a painfully obvious extent. "You're all lucky I'm not in charge otherwise I'd have you all for scrap and made into someone more useful!"
'Huh, a coconuts.'
Looking over the machine it's type could not be mistaken though it's coloration was off. Instead of a typical brown color mimicking a monkey, its head, hands and feet were painted a bright fire truck red. Clearly it wasn't a paint meant for metal however as much had flaked off and left bare gunmetal patches exposed to the air. It's main body had even lost the decorative plating meant for mimicking the body of an ape, exposing the armor plating and even servos to open air. I could even spy small patches of rust forming and attempts at self care with a sander. It clearly was not a machine with much more longevity left in it if I was any judge.
'That amount of expression and personality isn't normal.' I mused as I took in the angrily dancing and fist shaking figure of the robo monkey. 'This one is obviously intended to be another sycophant and yet…'
If this coconuts was going to be the next sidekick bot in the long and very populated line of sidekick bots for Robotnik why was it here? I've yet to see it at Robotnik's side and though I wasn't often just standing there around the Good Doctor I was meeting him often enough to meet every new glorified punching bag he designed. And yet I'm only now meeting this one? Did Robotnik just now refit an old badnik to fit the role? Normally he had given each machine a full refit and yet this one was looking like it had to take care of itself.
"Well, well if it isn't the numero due himself!" Exclaimed the monkey the moment it spotted my approach. "Eggman's right hand rabbit! The traitor with no reason! The backstabber without a back!"
On and on he went with more seemingly improvised insulting titles. I didn't really care to pay attention, the thing may have the ever present threat of being a killer robot that was stronger than the typical mobian but it had nothing on Robotnik in sheer threatening presence. What was more concerning to me was its facial expressions or rather their lack thereof.
The typical robo sycophant had highly expressive faces that they just couldn't help but wear their non-existent hearts on non-existent sleeves. But this coconuts did not have that. In fact it was closer more to the faces typical of the common flesh and blood being. The expressions had the potential to be far more subtle though there was nothing subtle about the sneer it currently had.
Perhaps it wasn't a sycophant bot?
Well there was a way to find out more.
"An old coconuts?" I said with a purposefully lackadaisical tilt to my head to hammer in the impression I hadn't been listening, which was truthful enough but it wasn't like it had been saying anything but insulting names. "I thought you all had been phased out by the kikis by now?"
"Oh! 'An old coconuts' he says! Goes to show what you know!" The machine said while maintaining its sneer but I could now see the almost lifelike simulacrum of anger beginning to show.
"I'm not just ANY coconuts! I'm THE coconuts!" It continued, proclaiming with a rather convincing air of pride. "I am Alfa! The very first and very best! I've survived Sonic and even when I didn't the Doctor has always fixed me up and sent me back into the fray! I am a SUPER prototype the Doctor can always rely on!"
Even with a mask on I made sure not to betray my inner satisfaction with even the slightest smirk. My prodding had managed to draw out everything I needed to know about the obviously delusional and nigh outmoded machine before me. A prototype machine was never going to be as good as the final product and before me was the best example of that fact. The machine had thought it was special enough to be given a name when obviously it had misunderstood the word 'Alpha' as some special designation. The rest of what it had said had given me some potential understanding of Robotnik's character however.
'Alfa' clearly was a substandard machine whose continued survival and rebuilding had given it both quirks and a metaphorical big head. So why had the Good Doctor bothered to keep rebuilding it? Was it merely whim? Nostalgia? Some combination of the two? Honestly it wasn't much insight but it was a start and already an improvement to what I had barely managed to gather over weeks of tedium.
'I'll just have to make sure I continue to build upon it.' With that thought I refocused on the much more relevant task of tricking this walking punchcard into doing my work for me.
"I stand corrected! I had no idea you were a veteran!" I said in my best 'everyman meets famed hero' voice. Again I was self gratified to see the monkey bot preen in delight at my 'reaction'. "But why in the world am I in charge if you're here? I mean I've only led cleanup crews so far and the only danger I've been in is explosives left lying around from a fight."
"Well… It's not our place to question the great Dr. Eggman!" The machine puffed up for a moment and I could clearly see the instant it remembered that Robotnik hadn't told it why it wasn't in charge either. Instead merely resorting to scolding me in a tone while still dripping with disdain wasn't the outright mocking sneer it had been. "Consider THAT my most important bit of advice to ya."
"That's it isn't it?" I made a show of coming up with a sudden realization and was rewarded with an utterly bemused look from the coconuts. "The reason why I, someone with zero experience, is in charge while you, a veteran, isn't. You're here to mentor me aren't you? To make sure I don't completely ruin the Doctor's plans and do my job competently, to prepare me for future work in Robotnik's name!"
"Err… YES!" Alfa, the little lackwit walking rustbucket, only hesitated for an instant before latching onto the lie. Suddenly he stood up as straight back and as tall as he was able though still falling short of me. "Listen to your senior, cony! I'll show you how it's done and maybe, JUST maybe, You'll become an actually useful asset to the Great Dr. Eggman!"
"You'll find no complaints from me!" I said with genuine cheer before waving vaguely off to the looming mountains and hills. "Shall we get going on our assigned mission?"
"Doctor Eggman wants us to investigate two places." Alfa began and started moving. "Let's hit the closest one first and then go after the other one!"
"Sounds like a plan!" I agreed wholeheartedly and moved with the badnik horde.
Travel through the Frontier Canyon Zone was annoying as all hell, I had guessed this the moment I saw the terrain from above. This was even more so the case when your 'guide' is a tireless machine who doesn't think twice about climbing up sheer rock faces and steep slopes. However I am a mobian and not an urbanized one at that, hiking through the wilderness was already my primary means of travel and being a rabbit I was able to ascend ten feet in literal leaps and bounds.
Still having to jump up a rock ridge simply because it was the most direct route instead of taking a leisurely detour was a pain in the haunches.
After the longest two hour hike in my life I eventually found myself overlooking a small vale filled with terraces and a forest of upright stones. Frowning I looked over the area, the area was filled with artifacts certainly but nothing like the ruins I had been expecting to plunder secrets from. In fact the closest thing that came to such was this singular stone structure with a still working windmill attached to it.
Something about this place didn't feel right.
"Whelp!" Alfa said as it made a cracking sound with its fingers. "Nobody around to blow up, might as well start poking around, see if we can find… whatever we're looking for."
I nodded, I had no real idea what we were looking for either but it wasn't like Robotnik wasn't watching through the eyes of his machines. If we managed to stumble across something he thought was important I'd likely be made aware of it immediately and loudly.
The badnik horde immediately started a controlled slide down the slope and I waited a moment before following suit. Rabbits weren't exactly known for their strength and durability and I'd rather not be caught beneath the weight of a murderbot.
Before long our company was wandering amongst the forest of standing stones, the menagerie of metal becoming something between stampede and pillaging barbarian horde as they carelessly destroyed in their random search. I for one was walking at a much more sedate pace and carefully taking in my surroundings. Pulling down an ear I scratched the tip as I considered details.
Now that I was closer I now recognized the stone structure as a water well and the windmill as a means of pumping water from some natural reservoir below. Great woolen sails were stitched between long poles as it spun in an ever present breeze.
Kneeling down I examined the stones planted into the ground. They were narrow ovoids covered in the characters of some language I didn't recognize and came up to my chest. Down at its base a bowl of dried flower petals and almost completely rotted away foodstuffs sat in wooden bowls. Clearly we were currently defiling a graveyard- ah, definitely a graveyard if that pile of bones dug up by egg keepers was any proof.
Standing back up I made to walk towards the water well when I stepped on something. Looking down it appeared to be another bowl of offerings but I quickly reconsidered. The bowl wasn't nearly as nicely made and looked well worn, the contents appeared to be a form of berry pemmican, crushed and mixed into a grainy broth to form an odd porridge. Even odder was the dropped water skin that seemed to have mostly emptied due to a loose cork.
The feeling of something being off was growing stronger and I quickened my pace to the water well. Arriving I reached over to the stone faucet's latch, expecting and even hoping the water would come out some sickly brown from being unmaintained. No such luck, the water looked and smelled clean and even had a refreshing taste.
A shiver went down my spine as the pieces started to form a picture. The windmill wool that was still working and only sullied by dust on the wind. The water well itself was clean and likely well used. The graves had offerings recently laid and clearly this was no ancient site to be raided of long lost secrets. This place was in regular use and if the food was any indicator, had been occupied very recently.
There was the sound of something whirling through the air and I heard a loud metallic clang followed by Alfa squawking. Whipping around I saw the coconuts badnik struggling with one of his arms having been tied to his head with a set of bolas. He wasn't the only one to be attacked and even as I watched I saw more bolas along with spears and slinged rocks fly from goat mobians who have seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Chaos erupted amongst the badnik horde as some machines became entangled in bolas and more mobians came charging in, a bleating warcry on their lips.
Adrenaline shot through my body and it was a combination of this and my enhanced hearing that saved me from getting speared in the back.
There was a sound behind me, like the soft scrabbling of feet on stone. I turned immediately in alarm and this motion allowed the spear to sail harmlessly through the space where the center of my back would have been. What met my sight was a goat mobian warrior standing upon the stone water well, hand stil outstretched in a throwing motion. He stood there expressionless, feet and hands wrapped in strips of cloth with the only other article of clothing being kilt around his waist. His entire visible body was covered in curving though simplistic black designs. His hands and the tips of his horns had seemingly been dipped in what I hoped was merely red paint.
It was as I stood there, briefly frozen in fright as the warrior adjusted his stance in preparation to leap at me that I made a horrifying and infuriating realization.
OH FUCK! DAMN IT ALL TO HELL! CURSE MY PACIFISTIC MOBIAN BRAIN!
…
I was completely and utterly weaponless.
-TBC-
Author Note: Another snippet, still finding my stride with first person but I feel like I'm improving.