AN: Sorry if this upload structure is confusing! Final Eclipse is a part of a larger story, I break them up because it makes it easier for me to organize chapters. Final Eclipse deals with events related to G.U.N, while the Heretic, Episode Rose and Knight of the Wind tell the stories of Shadow, Amy and Sonic. These four stories are part IV of the Realm Lord saga. So the events of Final Eclipse are preceded by the chapters of the main Realm Lord story.
Chapter 6
Iron Exodus
They flew through the night and returned to the Mystic Ruins base just before dawn. Tails watched from the sidelines as Eggman's badniks gathered around their returned leader. Metal Sonic was encircled and many machines reached out to touch him. It was completely disorienting to watch this former enemy be received as a hero. However, there was no time for Tails to adjust.
Just as the sun was creeping above the distant trees, Metal convened a meeting of the Steel Court. His once formidable cabinet had been greatly reduced. Only Omega and Mecha Knuckles remained out of his top generals.
Metal stabbed his dagger like fingers into the table and stared intently at Tails. "You have my thanks for saving me, but I am unsure if I can return the favor. GUN has us trapped here, as soon as they discover that I have escaped, they will destroy this place."
"Do you have a way to evacuate?" Tails wondered.
"Not without abandoning what remains of my forces."
"Then we need to start by buying ourselves some more time." Tails walked over to the central terminal. "Aurora, are you still here?"
The computer screen flashed and Aurora's fash appeared. "Yes."
"We need you to scramble GUN's scanners. We practically sank the arctic base, it will take a day or more before news gets back to them."
"The humans have cameras," Omega added.
Tails initiated an eject sequence and slipped out of his armor. He stumbled slightly as he readjusted to his own body. Tails cracked his fingers and approached the console. In rapid sequence, Tails began to type. He quickly brought up the local camera feeds. "Aurora, I'm going to hack into their system. As soon as I get an opening, I want you to replace their live feed with footage from a few days ago."
"Affirmative."
A minute later, the screen blinked and Tails exhaled. "Well that should give us some time to think of a plan."
"We should attack.," Omega declared. "The human city, Station Square, is not far away. If we attack the city, then GUN won't dare to use the cannon against us."
"Wait!" Tails yelped. "We can't do that!"
"The humans have declared war on us," Metal Sonic said coldly.
"Not all humans!" Tails insisted. "They are being manipulated."
"That is not our concern," Omega argued. "If we are isolated from human settlements then we run the risk of being attacked. We must use the human public as a cover."
"That might work," Metal said thoughtfully. "However, we are not strong enough for a direct assault."
"Better to die fighting than cowering," Omega returned.
"How about not dying at all?" Tails waved in arms in frustration. "We should be thinking of a way to get out of here, not the best place to make a last stand."
"We do not ask you to die with us," Metal said. "This is our struggle. You are free to leave. We however, will not abandon our brethren. For them to survive, we must have access to the Ion Battery. Even if we could get everyone out, GUN would still be able to track us easily because of the battery's power signature."
Tails stopped short. A thousand different thoughts sprang to his mind, each idea more complex and unlikely as the last. "There could be a way," Aurora said suddenly. They all turned to the screen. "The Egg Carrier Mark IV."
"How would that help?" Tails wondered.
"The Egg Carrier Mark IV was designed specifically for stealth. My creator created the schematics for a complex invisibility cloak, as well as a dampener screen meant to keep the vessel and everything in it off of radars or scanners."
"But the mark IV was never completed," Metal Sonic interrupted. "Our creator was never able to find a power source capable of fueling such a complex machine."
"Maybe I can help!" Tails offered eagerly. "How far did Eggman get?"
"The ship itself is ready," Aurora answered. "The invisibility function and emp shield are incomplete."
"We don't have time for that," Metal insisted. "We should marshal our forces and ready to attack."
Tails paused. He knew he could not persuade the badniks with an appeal to emotion. "Just let me try. Get your armies ready, if I don't have the Egg Carrier ready by midnight, then you do what you have to do."
Metal Sonic inclined his head. "Very well."
Tails was brought to a massive warehouse deep within the tunnels of the base. There he was led into a hanger where he found the Egg Carrier Mark IV. The exterior seemed no different than the other Egg Carriers Tails had seen, only this time the hull was painted a sleek silver instead of red.
Metal Sonic gave Tails a dozen worker badniks to assist him and left him with a stern warning. "At midnight, we launch the attack on Station Square. If you choose to defend the city, that will make you our enemy."
With no time to waste, Tails quickly sprang to work. He had Aurora bring up the schematics, and as soon as he did, he felt his heart sink. The Mark IV was one of the most complex machines Tails had ever seen. Unlike the design for Emerl, this was one hundred percent an Eggman product. It was full of gaudy weapons, unnecessarily complex operating systems, and ambitious architecture that only a super genius could even understand.
"I'm not sure what you will be able to do," Aurora commented. "My maker was the smartest being on the planet. If he could not find a way, then perhaps the design itself is impossible."
"Intelligence doesn't always lead to success," Tails quipped. "Sometimes even the smartest person can lack common sense. Maybe Eggman made a mistake somewhere."
For the next five hours, Tails poured over the schematics. Figure by figure, calculation by calculation, Tails checked and double checked everything. Cloaking something as large as the Egg Carrier required not only advanced lighting systems, and reflective dashes, but a sophisticated program to identify and predict all outside lighting changes in order to dynamically change the hull to ensure the cloak never failed.
If that wasn't difficult enough, the dampener screen was as ambitious as it was impossible to implement. As Aurora had promised, the shield would definitely keep the presence of the Ion Battery off any GUN scanners. However, to do so, it required a tremendous amount of power, so much power that its fuel source would itself need to be hidden with the shield.
"We need something that is even stronger than the Ion Battery," Tails lamented. If only Knuckles were still around, he could use the Master Emerald. The thought sparked an idea. Tails quickly had his Power Armor brought into the bunker. He could not power the Egg Carrier with the individual Chaos Emeralds, but he could use the super charged Gizoid frame.
Impressed with his own ingenuity, Tails changed tactics. He skipped lunch and dinner as he raced against the clock to implement his new design. Aurora and he talked back and forth as the badnik workers started to build a new power source inside the Egg Carrier. Night had fallen by the time the new apparatus was ready. Inside the engineering room of the Mark IV, Tails placed his Power Armor into the newly minted energy bank.
"Energy readings at…..300%" Aurora said cheerfully.
Tails switched into overdrive, working as fast as he possibly could. The hours rushed by, the clock ticking steadily towards midnight. It was eleven thirty when Tails was ready to make the first test. Bags hung under his eyes and felt positively nauseous with hunger and fatigue. "Give it a try," He said hesitantly.
The Egg Carrier Mark IV came to life. Its engines roared soundlessly. Tails gave the signal to turn on the cloaking system. He crossed his fingers behind his back. A few seconds passed and then…the Egg Carrier vanished. Tails exhaled quickly. "Initiate EMP shield." There was a low hum as a brief yellow barrier flashed around the invisible Egg Carrier and then disappeared. "Aurora check the scanners!"
"Scanners are not picking up anything. The ship is completely hidden."
Tails interrupted the meeting at almost the last minute. Metal Sonic and his generals were preparing to give the signal for the badnik army to leave the Mystic Ruins. Instead, Metal Sonic gathered the remnants of Eggman's Empire in the warehouse. "Today we escape our prison, but that does not mean that the threat to our existence is over. We take this refuge not to avoid battle, but to ensure that we are the victors. I once swore to make you free, and I will never recant."
The badniks echoed a faint cheer. While Metal spoke, Tails used his remaining time to transfer Aurora onto the Egg Carrier's onboard computer system. When that was done, he deactivated and deleted everything that remained on the system's base. Tails did not want GUN to get their hands on any of Eggman's prototypes.
When Metal's speech was done, the badniks marched onto the ship. The base's Ion Battery was taken onboard and stowed safely within the engineering room. Metal Sonic took command within the bridge, sitting down in the lavish captain's chair in front of the main view screen. The roof of the warehouse opened and the Egg Carrier Mark IV rose gently into the air. "Initiate cloak and emp shield," Metal Sonic said firmly. There was a loud chiming sound followed by the low hum of the cloak coming online. "Aurora, confirm that we are invisible."
"The Egg Carrier is off of all radars."
"Get us out of here."
"Do you have a destination captain?"
Metal Sonic paused. "The place they would never think to look."
Tails sighed in relief and sank back into his chair. He was hungry, and extremely exhausted. Food was brought to him and he munched on some stale jerky. Tails wondered where Cream and Cheese were, and whether or not they had made it back to their home yet. He gazed out the window towards the trees of the Mystic Ruins. Somewhere beyond the tree line lay his workshop. Tails wondered if he would ever get a chance to go home again.
The Egg Carrier had drifted out of the Mystic Ruin airspace at a slow speed. At that moment, Tails felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He rose gently to his feet. The world around him seemed to slow down. The Egg Carrier trembled in the sky. Suddenly, it started shaking so forcibly, Tails had to clench his teeth. A blast of pink light flashed by the view screen. The beam of energy struck down like a bolt of thunder. Tails covered his ears as the impact sounded beneath him. BOOOOOOOM!
Light flashed in his face and Tails toppled backwards. Alarms blared and computers shot off sparks. The world around him seemed to be spinning. He wondered if the Egg Carrier had been caught in the blast. As quickly as it started, the shaking stopped. The Egg Carrier leveled off. Tails regained his footing and looked out of the view screen. The Mystic Ruins were gone. The entire forest, and most of the surrounding area had been turned into a scorched desert. Tails rolled himself into a ball and covered himself with his tails. He did not care if the others saw him cry.
Tails couldn't say how long he stayed in that position. He knew it must have been awhile because the escape had been at midnight, and already Tails had watched the sun rise and set. However, if it had been one day or multiple, he couldn't say.
Considering all that he had experienced lately, Tails was surprised by how hard he was taking the destruction of his workshop. It felt as if a piece of him, the last piece that had yet to be torn out was suddenly destroyed. He had not realized until this moment how much his workshop had meant to him, and how he cherished all his memories there. Now it was gone, obliterated into dust. Just like Angel Island, just like Knuckles, and perhaps…just like Sonic.
None of Metal's compatriots bothered Tails as they moved about their business. He was a stranger amongst the grim, emotionless robots. His tears and emotions were as foreign to them, as their detachment was toTails. He found himself wishing that Amy were there. She wasn't as stoic as Sonic or Knuckles, and she would have understood why the loss of his home hurt Tails so much.
When Tails finally roused himself, night had fallen again. Beyond the bridge's viewscreen, Tails saw a world of dark clouds and lashing rain. The storm felt appropriate, as if his own inner turmoil had been exorcized out onto the waking world. Tails stumbled out of the bridge and walked aimlessly through the hallways of the Egg Carrier. Eventually, he found what must have been Eggman's private kitchens. In the freezer, Tails found a collection of microwavable chili dogs. The flicker of a smile threatened the corners of his mouth. He wanted to laugh, but all that came out was a single tear. Tails slammed the freezer shut.
In the end, he helped himself to a cream cheese bagel and some water. The food eased the aching in his stomach, but it did not temper his despair. Now that there wasn't a pressing issue in front of him, Tails could not escape the looming sense of dread that clouded all his thoughts. What would happen now? Tails had an army at his back, and he knew that Metal Sonic would stop at nothing to have his revenge. But where would that lead? Tails did not want to start a war with the U.F, a war that would inevitably lead to Tails having to fight against humans.
He sighed and pushed his half finished food away from him. Tails felt sick, sick of conflict, and sick of uncertainty. Things were usually so much simpler. Even when Eggman's schemes had threatened a planet or a city, all they had to do was stop him and the problem would be solved. Now, Tails could hardly imagine a scenario that would bring the earth back to peace. Even if they could somehow prove that GUN was responsible for everything, what would happen then? Surely the other nations of the world would want revenge. Wars would break out, the alliances holding together the U.F would break down, and the entire human world would erupt into conflict. In such a scenario, the innocent and the green world would suffer the worst.
Ding. "Tails, come to the Sky Deck. We are here." Metal Sonic's voice echoed over the ship's intercom.
With a heavy heart, Tails left the kitchen. When he emerged out onto the deck, he was immediately struck by high winds and pouring rain. He found Metal Sonic awaiting him atop a nearby tower. Tails flew up to him and stumbled, as the wind was so fierce it nearly knocked him off balance. Metal struck out an arm and held Tails firm. Then he handed him a thick jacket. Tails covered himself and shivered. "Where are we?"
"The last place they would think to look." The Egg Carrier had landed in what appeared to be the middle of the ocean surrounded by debris and what appeared to be the remains of ruined towers. Metal Sonic pointed to the ruins. "It is as I thought, they have moved everything already and destroyed the evidence."
"What is this place?"
"Prison Island. This is where the humans captured me, it is where the Eclipse Canon was being held. They have already cleaned up after themselves. I thought they would once they knew that I had escaped."
Tails pulled the jacket further around himself. "So why come here? Won't they be expecting you to come back?
"Perhaps, but the same camouflage that helped them conceal themselves will now conceal us. They used one of my maker's weather machines to create this perpetual storm. Even if they have turned the machine off, the constant use has degraded the weather patterns here. Aurora says this storm should keep going for at least another week or more." Metal inclined his head towards Tails. "Not that I doubt your cloaking device. However, it doesn't hurt to be extra careful."
"What do we do now?" Tails asked, voicing the concern that had been nagging him for the last few hours.
"We prepare." A red menace burned within Metal Sonic's lifeless eyes. "We use what salvage we can find in these waters, and what was stored inside the Egg Carrier. Use every ounce of power left in the Ion Battery and forge a new army."
"A new army?" Tails hesitated. "More badniks won't make a difference. Those copies they made of you were far too powerful."
Metal shook his head. "Not badniks. My maker's machines were designed to fight Sonic, not against the human army. We need a new architect, someone who can update the empire for this new enemy."
"Who?" Tails asked incredulously.
"You." Metal Sonic stepped to his side and faced out towards the storm and the raging sea. Rain lashed against his metal frame. "With Sonic gone, you are perhaps the world's last hope."
"Me?" Tails squeaked. His voice sounded small and weak under the roar of the storm.
"You understand our threat. Aurora could design more badniks, but they would be no more effective than those of us that remain. We need specialized machines, badniks especially designed for this fight."
"I don't know how, I don't make machines like that, I"
"I have seen how you retrofitted the Gizoid. Even our maker struggled with its complexity. With the Mark IV, and even before that with the corrupted Aurora, you have proven capable of hacking my maker's computers, and improving on his designs. You have proven to be his equal in intelligence, perhaps even his superior."
"That's different," Tails protested. He waved his arms as he struggled to explain exactly how. "Those were spur of the moment things, it wasn't planned."
"You had better start planning." Metal turned back to Tails and fixed him with a cold stare. "If you want to avoid a full scale war against all of humanity, then our only choice is to defeat GUN. To do that we must locate and destroy the Eclipse Canon, and capture Argus Smith. He must admit his crimes to the whole world. That is the only way to prevent the entire world from going to war. We cannot do either of those things as we are now. We need an army, a steel armada with which we can overwhelm GUN in one final assault."
Tails hesitated. He was shocked by much thought Metal Sonic had put into this. "So…so that's the plan then?"
Metal nodded. "We must first locate the Eclipse Canon, once that piece is off the board we fly straight to GUN HQ and take Argus Smith into our custody. That man was right about one thing, the human world is easily distracted by a scapegoat. Just as he tried to do to me, I propose we do the same to him. Lay the blame of everything on him, and the human world will piece itself back together without a war." Metal took a step closer to Tails. The metal fabrication of his best friend loomed over him. "But none of this works, unless we have an army that can actually threaten GUN. So will you do it? Will you build it?"
Lightning flashed overhead and illuminated Metal Sonic's face. Tails could see dents and scratches in the frame from their recent battle in the arctic. Never in his wildest nightmares had Tails ever imagined that such a day would come. He could almost imagine the look of bewilderment on Sonic's face if he saw that Tails was building badniks for Metal Sonic. But Sonic wasn't there. Tails could not wait for anyone else to take the lead. It was up to him. He had to make a choice, and stick by that choice. "I'll do it."
Half an hour later, Metal Sonic summoned the remnants onto the sky deck. He stood alone atop the high tower as he addressed them. This was the first time Tails had been given a chance to take a full stock of what remained of Metal's forces. In total, the badniks numbered just under two thousand. They were separated into twelve groups. E-123 Omega led the smallest group which consisted of what remained of the E series robots. Though there were only fifty of them, Tails knew that it was still the strongest unit in the army.
The most numerous group of survivors was made up of five hundred spinners. Purple bat faced machines with deadly razored wings, spinners had gotten into Tails' way numerous times during his many battles against Eggman. The next largest was a group of around three hundred Egg Pawns. These humanoid shaped badniks were next to useless and Tails often wondered why Eggman had bothered making them. That group was captained by two giant Egg Hammers which were both three times as deadly as all the pawns put together.
The rest consisted of different model badniks with the last group of two hundred Egg Robos captained by Mecha Knuckles. The gathering was a far cry from the legions that Eggman once had at his disposal. Tails was not saddened by this necessarily, though the irony did sting.
Metal Sonic launched into his speech, retaking up his moniker as Metal Overlord. It was clear that this persona inspired the others, and it was also clear that the other machines looked to Metal Sonic as their savior. Tails watched this display with muted interests. His mind was now flushed with different ideas for badnik designs. The Diamond plated Sonics they had encountered in the arctic could easily tear through this army with ease. So Tails knew he had to make something that could at least hold their own.
While he was thinking this, Aurora's voice called out over the intercom. "Metal Overlord, we are picking up a signal on the imperial code."
Tails watched Metal react to this. He quickly gathered the other members of the Steel Court and rushed back inside. Tails followed. When he entered the bridge, he found the others gathered around the computer.
"What's happened?"
"Someone has activated the emergency signal. It is on the private channel that Robontik created for his different bases to communicate with one another." Metal Sonic stood aside so Tails could see the map they were looking at. A red dot pinged in an area deep in the desert.
"I thought all of Eggman's bases were destroyed."
"Not this one. It was a hidden base, intended as a place of refuge my maker could go in order to hide. It is where he built the transporter he used to travel back and forth from the Ark."
"I know that place," Tails said, the memory coming back to him. "Who sent the message?"
"I'm not sure. Aurora patch us in, let me speak to whoever is there." The computer chimed as the channel opened. "This is Metal Overlord, who is this?"
There was a long pause. "Metal Overlord? Such a modest name."
"Identify yourself."
"Me? I'm just a desperate damsel in a high tower who needs a steel clad knight to come and rescue her."
Metal and the rest of the Steel Court looked at one another in confusion. Tails meanwhile had lurched forward as his heart skipped a beat. "I know that voice!"
