Today is a very unusual day. Not a hundred and forty-four hours ago, the resistance managed to pull together a large assault force and target one of the four biggest spaceports that the Egg forces had. The only one that doubled as an industrial sector constructed to make parts and replacement craft for said space egg army forces. They managed to damage the incoming infrastructure of electrical, water, roads, and railways. On top of that, the resistance heavily damages around fifty percent of the sector, taking those areas out of commission. Another thirty percent were utterly wrecked and would need to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up. To top it all off, by the time the first of the reinforcements had arrived, being composed of just Infinite herself, the Resistance had already turned tail and ran, and they couldn't catch them. To sum it up. This is a massive defeat, and it has crippled one of the most vital parts of maintaining their space forces in less than a few hours.
That is what all the egg bosses think this meeting they had been assembled for is about. The twelve egg bosses and the only co-egg boss are all seated in a circular room around a metal oval table with a holographic display system in the center of it. As they wait, Tundra the Walrus and Akhlut the Orca glare at each other from opposite sides of the table. Battle Lord Kukku XV is making a polite conversation with Nephthys, the Vulture, to pass the time, being a perfect gentleman to her. Clove is overseeing her sister, uneasy that Cassia has been summoned to this meeting as well. Abyss and Cassia are talking, amusing themselves, and having a bit of fun with gossiping each other. Axel, the Water Buffalo, is sitting cross-armed, amused as he looks at the still, badly injured Lord Mordred Hood, who is actually in a set of casts. Maw the Thylacine is going over schematics and designs. Thunderbolt the Chinchilla is sitting there very excited to see Eggman again in person being the major fangirl. Conquering Storm sits there in her seat in a meditative-like state. And finally, Infinite sits there as well, waiting until the meeting starts.
The door slides open, and Eggman walks in. "Ah! So good for all of you to come, not that you had a choice," Eggman says, stepping in as the egg-shaped door slides back into place after he enters. "Now then, let us review what has happened recently. As you all no doubt have heard by now, sector twelve came under attack by resistance forces. These forces managed to cripple the entire sector. This would usually be the part where I would bring the one who had been in charge of the facility, but they had the good sense to run. So the one whose people bring him to me will be getting a reward. Also, I am promoting the next in line to be commander…apparently, captain Biggus Dickus is next in line," Eggman says, looking it up, making Infinite, Clove, and Storm facepalm while Abyss and Cassia tried to hold back snickering, as the rest of the egg boss looked at Eggman in surprise.
'Holy…that person exists?' Cassia snickers behind a hand.
"Doctor, is that person even real? We know that the Resistance hacked into the eggnet in the last few months and altered records. I know because I came across this captain in my memorizing of potential officers, and the record shows him being at a battle against a resistance cell. A battle I fought in alone," Infinite spoke up.
Eggman hums as he looks at the paperwork. "Says here he was in the battle a few blocks away handling a supply cache."
"You might want to double-check to make sure. As no commander can be just as bad as an incompetent commander," Infinite says, getting some begrudging agreements from several of the more warrior-like egg bosses.
Eggman hums again before finding a line where this commander is stationed at the moment. Eggman clears his throat as he punches the number on the desk system, and the phone rings. Cassia and Abyss keep snickering as they hope someone with that name appears on the side of the call while everyone else looks annoyed.
"Captain Meiloorun. Who is…oh shit," the other end says as they probably guess he looked at the caller ID at that moment. "Doctor Eggman…how can I help you?" he asks with a nervous chuckle.
"Congratulations, you're getting a promotion. You're now commander of sector twelve," Eggman says, trying to play it off as he tries to look up Meiloorun's information. And it's the same information, just with a different name. Is this an inner resistance joke? 'What did they just copy his resume and just use a different name…yeah, that sounds like that lazy Octopus,' Eggman thinks as he waits for the reply.
"Th-Thank you, sir! I'll be sure to live up to your expectations!" the newly dubbed commander replies, still nervous and freaked out of his mind now.
"Good, grab the next shuttle and get to sector twelve," Eggman informs before hanging up. "Well, you were right. That was a fake entry. Cubot! Start checking the database for more entries like that!" Eggman yells at the yellow cube robot.
"Yes, doctor," cubot says before rushing to a terminal to do his duty.
"Now, then, that is not the reason I called you all here. The reason I called you all here is what happened after the attack. The Death Egg has been completely crippled and unable to sustain organics," Eggman says, feeling a headache coming on as all of the Egg Bosses look at him in shock as an image of the current state of the Death Egg's state appears before them.
"Wait…this is not about the spaceport and factory?" Clove questions, with most of them now leaning against the table as they heard the Death Egg is now crippled.
"That would have been a hindrance, but I would have just had some of the factories in your spheres of influences switch over production to make up for it. I wouldn't need you all here for a meeting if that were the case. The bigger issue is this displaces all of the surviving crew, which is almost the entire crew believe it or not, and where to place all of the spacecraft. That many ships require a lot of space to store them all and being in the atmosphere means a lot more maintenance needed," Eggman says as it dawns on them. The death egg had a crew of nearly twenty thousand, and if almost all survived, they needed to go somewhere.
"Because of that, the entire organization of the egg armies will need to be redone to accommodate for this. Any objections?" Eggman asks as if daring for someone to.
"Sir, do we have any ideas of who could have possibly been behind this, or are they dead and what of Sonica herself?" Maw asks.
"No, but first on the list is the current most wanted on the list. Kuro Lupis Fenrir," Eggman says as the image changes to Kuro's. "His unique powers and his known skills make him the most likely of suspects to pull this off, As for Sonica herself. Current status unknown," Eggman informs.
"But, sir, according to reports, Kuro was last seen in western Eurish less than eighteen hours before the attack on sector twelve. You also closed all space traffic since the attack," Maw points out.
Eggman huffs. "This could have been going on for a while. Even the screening process at the spaceports is heavily intrusive to pick up any cybernetics as well. He might have snuck aboard almost a week or so before, but…no. Kuro is good, but he isn't that good to do so in less than a week without my security noticing," Eggman says to himself.
"How was it pulled off? No matter what method is used, crippling the Death Egg in such a way that allows almost all of the crew to live is no easy feat. That would take time, planning, and very detailed schematics. Not something that can be just done in a week, especially without anyone's notice," Tundra voices.
Storm wanted to chime in here, saying they are underestimating the wolf again, but in the back of her mind, she decided against it. She is convinced Kuro is still in Eurish or sneaking out of there right now, and she didn't want any more competition tracking him down to grab him for herself as Eggman had promised the one who catches him would be the one who gets him in their army when they forcibly conscript him into the Eggman empire.
"About that. While tracking him down in Eurish on your orders, doctor, we uncovered some details about him, which explains a lot about his motivations. He has assembled a team of his own now," Infinite speaks up, feeling now would be the right time and to put it to rest that Kuro could have been the one who did that to the Death Egg space station. As she feels not enough time has passed.
"Well, let's hear it," Eggman insists, giving her the floor.
"I believe all our recent trouble stems from this one individual," Infinite says, using her mask's authorization to change the image from Kuro to Mimic with the label 'deceased' on him in big, bold letters.
"It's clear he's dead," Abyss passes off. "So…?"
"Mimic, before he joined the Eggman Empire, was a part of a group of mercenaries who specialized in anti-Eggman operations. They were active at the start of the war until Mimic turned traitor for a pardon from Eggman. Records showed he killed all the members by leading them into a trap, but in our latest confrontation with Kuro, I fought this one," Infinite says as her mask uploads an image of Whisper with her mask on about to shoot at her. "As you can see, the outfit is the same. She is a survivor of the Diamond Cutters. I believe Kuro was at least an associate of theirs, which lines up with what little we could gather about him before he started causing trouble for Storm's unit. All reports show clear signs of someone in mourning with near the suicidal intake of alcohol common in many soldiers with PTSD," Infinite informs, pausing, allowing them all to take in this information.
Cassia looks a little guilty as she wonders if she could have helped Kuro back then, but to be fair, she never saw him like that. Clove, in the meantime, keeps staring at Kuro, wondering what kind of guy he is. And Abyss is just wondering if he can now outdrink her.
"I can see that. Many of the older generation of warriors back when I was young got the same way and started looking for their deaths," Tundra says, sounding like he had experience dealing with people like that.
"So…we got a drunken loser with a death wish and actually winning?" Thunderbolt questions, visibly annoyed this fool is getting in the way of Eggman's grand plans.
"That fool has one of the most unique powers we have ever seen. Obstacles like walls, force fields, and maybe even matter can not stop him. I would say it's something like teleportation, but even that requires movement and can be blocked with force fields," Maw points out.
"Not to mention Kuro seems to be able to choose what he takes with him. Even if you grab him, he has to allow you to come with you," Infinite adds.
"And it does not appear it's limited to movement range as in my first encounter he teleported us both straight up at a height where we might have hit terminal velocity while falling if he had let it happen," Clove adds.
"This power of his is why he is a capture-only target. That kind of power is unprecedented, and there is no telling what the limits of it are at this rate," Eggman chimes in with his own two cents.
"Actually, there might be a limit to this power," Storm interjected.
Everyone slowly turns to Storm as now the ninja feels the weight of being put on the spot.
"On one of my early encounters with him during a chase, he fell unconscious after using the power many times to evade me, the badniks, and shinobi I went after him with. This means there is either an unknown risk with this power, or it's linked to his stamina," Storm informs.
"That would make sense. The energy to power that ability would have to come from somewhere. Meaning if linked to his stamina would be the same as a battery powering a machine," Eggman muses.
"Back to Mimic. There is also another reason why I think he has been the source of all our recent problems. Not only has he created two skilled enemies who specialize in stealth and sabotage with his betrayal, but he also had limited administrator access to the network, which he could have used as a base to hack in and alter or make new files. Like the file about Captain Bigus Dickus," Infinite continues, getting a snicker from Cassia. "But, he could have also created new identities in the files as well. Like for example, a staff member who gets rotated to the Death Egg," Infinite implies.
"You're alluding to the possibility that this was an infiltration that has been happening for many months now, I see," Kukku says, thinking over the proposal.
"There is something else I have that might prove it. Kuro said something to Mimic when he and his team caught up to him with Storm here last time," Infinite says before uploading the audio file.
The image of Mimic disappeared, and on it, a line associated with audio files appears, and from the table comes Kuro's voice. "That's all you have left, I suppose? You're out of tricks, and after you're trying to play both sides as you did, no one is coming to help you. After all, you are the one who offered to give us access to this region's eggnet to do whatever we want, but sorry to say while some governments were willing to retake this deal. They don't get to decide what the pack does in the end."
"If we had not intervened there, the group would no doubt have ended Mimic's life in that alley, but in the ensuing conflict, Mimic escaped and not twenty minutes later was discovered by a badnik and shot to death," Infinite informs.
"At least clear evidence is here," Storm remarks, hoping this takes some pressure off of Kuro for some of Mimic's crimes.
"It also implies he sold access more than once, too," the doctor says, displeased now wishing his badniks didn't do such an excellent job with Mimic so he could make the double dealer pay for a long time. Then something dawned on the doctor. "Maw, something just occurred to me. If Kuro is a natural ability, is it genetic?" Eggman inquires for a second opinion.
"If it is linked to his stamina, then…there is a good chance it could be," Maw says, pondering it as his specialty is more in machinery than genetics.
"Right. Anything else you would like to add Infinite?" Eggman inquires.
"I do not think Kuro is behind the Death Egg. Although he had shown a great deal of competence with explosives when he copied Mordred's former subordinate's idea with the Death Egg Robot." Infinite pauses as everyone turns to look at Mordred. "At least we assume he was the one to line the Death Egg with explosives. He may not have been the one to make said explosives at all. We also know he has a team. We know two other members, but it's possible this 'Pack' unit of his could have multiple more unknown members. And one could be a demolitionist," Infinite informs.
"That is true. There are too many unknowns, and I have seen his skills up close. Kuro is more of a master thief with his skills. If he has demolition skills as well, he has kept them hidden so far," Storm chimes in.
"Ditto for my encounters for me as well," Abyss adds.
"Yes, more digging is required. For now, look into more members of this 'Pack' unit. Now back on track. I have been considering the problem of where to store all of the spacecraft, and I think we can make hangers in Efrika and put Axel in charge of them as his units use more vehicles than most other units and have more mechanics than the rest of the units," Eggman starts as the meeting continues.