Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or Sonic the Hedgehog.

Merry Christmas, everyone! EXTREMELY important note: I have also uploaded a fic titled Operation ECLIPSE - Apocrypha and Sidestories, featuring exactly that! The first "chapter" is a sidestory of this chapter, so be sure to check it out!

Chapter 3: …but let's just toss the whole suitcase!

For the second time in a few hours, Vilmis was stuck alone in a hospital room with a metal AI Krogan. However, instead of panicking about it, he just kicked the new shoes off and collapsed on the bed.

Fun. Fucking. Tastic.

He had just seen the bodies of everyone who was with him on the mission hidden under those sheets shoved in a meat fridge of all things, had been at the receiving end of at least one death threat, from the AI he was currently stuck with to boot, and to top it all off, he was stuck without a translator, again. He felt like he had just gone through that crash landing all over again.

His fatigue was not physical – somehow all his injuries had been healed and he had slept way too long for his standards, and he had even eaten to boot, so physically he was just fine, save for that headache pounding in his head and some leftover frostiness in his fingers. The drain was emotional.

The moment he hit the pillow he could not help but groan. "What the fuck…?"

Omega cocked its gun. Vilmis was too tired to get alarmed this time. He just raised his head and stared at the AI. "Do you even understand what I'm saying?"

"UR MININGLES WORDS WONT SEIV U FROM MAI GAN."

"Great. You don't have a translator either."

"DETEKTING SARKAZM. THIS MINS AGRESION. I WIL RETALIEIT WITH EXTRIM PREJUDIS."

Vilmis just turned his back to the robot. He did not even care right now.

Seriously, what the actual fuck…

He took a few breaths, trying to rein his throbbing head in. Getting angry would not help his situation at all, as the previous hour had proven. Really, he was supposed to be better trained than this.

Except that this whole situation was just… nonsense. It was like he was in an Illium rave party and the Batarian bartender decided to mix his drink with Drell spit extract and Blue Swap Seed. Part of him was still convinced the whole thing was a wild hallucination. Just trying to put everything in order and make sense out of one thing so far either had no results or spectacularly backfired.

He thought back to that last exchange before he was ushered back in the room. What did that blue male say anyway? Me having a problem with his little…

Miles' translator still had a lot of problems, and Vilmis did not have any passing familiarity with the language spoken here to understand which words from the ones he was hearing were not being translated. That one bit in his sentence had caused the translator to make a semi-incoherent sound, trying to work out matching words or something. A similar thing happened with his name; Vilmis had picked up that the blue male's name was "Sonic", but the translator appeared to make an attempt to make a word-for-word translation and failed.

Yet regardless of the failures of the translator, body language still spoke volumes. Sonic was all but goading him into a fight, challenging him to deliver the first blow.

That being was barely half his height yet Vilmis felt completely helpless before him. It was making him angry, feeling like there was nothing he could do. He could tell plainly, absolutely nobody thought he was dangerous in any capacity. And he had a discontenting feeling that the robot had very little to do with that. Sonic was dangerous, and was looking for a fight. With him specifically. And right before Vilmis walked out of the fridge he heard him talking to Miles…

Suddenly a sinking realization crashed into him.

Oh. "Oh no… Oh shit…"

Sonic moved to defend Miles. And he did so after Vilmis asked him where his parents were. Miles took almost too long to react and froze up, and the rest fell silent, and then Sonic called Miles his little…

They're family. And different species, which could only mean one thing. Vilmis had just asked a child if his parents were looking after him in front of his adoptive family. An older member at that.

He fucked up.

He opened his mouth but remembered the robot there just in time.

Great. I was about to say "if I stay like this I'll lose my mind" but I forgot about the murderous AI. Guess I'm ALREADY losing my mind.

He had to get his thoughts in order. Write a report over his observations and everything he learned about this place, slowly fill it in. If – when – he got back to Citadel space, he had to tell the STG about everything that was happening here. He could not afford to lose control of his emotions again.

Vilmis sat up from where he was curled up on the bed. He was not sleepy anyway. Not that he could have slept even if he was tired; too much going on in his head.

"Hey, Omega."

The robot turned to him. "WAT."

Instead of answering verbally, Vilmis instead opened his palm and mimicked writing on a flat surface. It was an AI, it would probably get gestures.

"RAITING WONT SEIV U FROM MI. BAT FAIN. AIL TEL THE FOX."

Vilmis was glad he could not understand the robot right now because he was sure that every single sentence that came out of it was a threat of some sort. He really had to wonder who programmed it like that – could they not just make a regular VI that fires bullets at the target it's pointed at? Why were they even allowing the thing to be around civilians?

Actually, did they make it? So far Miles did not seem to be the kind of person who made weapons – at least nothing like a robot that sprouted death threats all the time.

Omega turned away from him to stare at the wall. Vilmis was sure he was contacting the others like he had when he woke up earlier.

He did not pay much attention to the words this time. Instead he leaned back and stared at the ceiling.

For nothing better to do than wait for the hopefully arriving writing material, Vilmis settled for examining the room. It was what he had initially planned to do before Omega surprised him with its presence.

Like every STG Agent, Vilmis had been trained to scout out vantage points and potential escapes, places to take cover and overall how to approach the environment in a combat situation, even though he basically had a desk job. It was standard military practice – everyone had to know how to use a gun, everyone had to know how to do the drills, and everyone had to know the basics of staying alive when people where firing those guns over your head. Generally aesthetics were not the focus of those awareness drills, but Vilmis could not help but focus on them now. Even this room was so different from what he was used to.

For a hospital bed, this was surprisingly comfortable. It was not hard to find a bed for his height in the galaxy – as most species averaged at around the same height, but the shape of the bed and the quality of the coverings were different things altogether. The bed in this room had the greatest resemblance to the average "one type fits all, more or less" beds used in the multi-species hubs of the galaxy, most likely a side effect of having so many different species to accommodate for at once.

While on a surface level each bipedal species in the galaxy appeared to be quite similar, they all had different needs for bedding. Salarians preferred beds more akin to cocoons, mostly mechanical, specifically designed to let them rest while providing moisture that was distributed through internal tubes and air moisturizing systems. Those were hard to find out of Salarian worlds, so they mostly made due with the standard beds when travelling. They had a solid market with the Hanar too, from what he heard, as the Hanar needed to be submerged and the Salarians were the only species that knew how to make a water rest cocoon without having to submerge it. It did not take many design adaptations to provide for the Hanar – the end result for them was basically a fishing tank that could be opened from the inside.

Now that he thought about it, the Quarians and the Volus required an entirely different kind of cocoon. Their environmental suits and especially the Volus' round shape were causing them issues when trying to rest on the average bed. Well, the Quarians would take anything as long as it did not compromise the integrity of their suits, but the Volus out of their own worlds had to be held in place. Ditto for the Elcor; Vilmis had never seen a sleeping Elcor but he heard there was a harness system involved to keep them upright in case one of them lost balance while asleep. It made Vilmis glad he never had to go to Dekuuna – everything he heard about the place was about all the different ways one wrong step could turn you into paste on the ground. Like his crewmates were.

Male Turians and Asari had to take their crests into account, so the head rest was quite different, with shops selling different head rests for male and female Turians. Likewise, Turians, with their natural armor, had "beds" that were more like frames rather than soft parts, to ensure no part dug into them. Krogan, despite also having natural armor, generally used no bed at all. Instead they preferred to curl in corners, their own natural plating far more accommodating to defense than offense.

However, while the bed was definitely not designed for Salarians, the sheets did seem to be designed with amphibians in mind. The covering was soft and made from a synthetic material that instead of absorbing the moisture it held it in place, preventing the skin from getting too clammy or drawing the moisture out of it. Perhaps among the seemingly countless sentient species on this planet there was also amphibians? Vilmis would not be terribly surprised with all he had seen today.

In fact, just about everything he saw today seemed to be designed with an "accommodate for everyone" mindset. It was more than just the fridge with the different-height door handles – everything, from the double safety rails on the stairs to the chairs that had easy to climb and high leg-rests, seemed to be designed to accommodate the two main average heights of the population.

The Volus would probably feel almost comfortable here.

Even the lights were designed to be accommodating. Vilmis was used to write lighting or the blue and orange illumination provides by the holo-screen, but here the set-up was highly elaborate. He did not notice much earlier, as he did not get the chance to test the lights himself, but when he saw the others adjust them he noticed that they had many settings. There were two lighting systems, and both could be dimmed at whatever level the user desired. The first was the stark white lighting that Vilmis knew to expect in a medical facility, but the second had a yellowish quality that seemed to try and mimic this world's natural sunlight as much as possible.

Even the medical facility itself was unusually colourful. The walls were covered in a variety of pale colours instead of monochrome metal, which was likely a lot of effort to design. There was probably a reason behind it beyond aesthetics, but Vilmis could not figure out what. All he knew was that he was not used to hospital walls in blues, oranges, pinks, or greens.

The inactive machines near him were archaic compared to what he was used to – flat screens as opposed to hologram displays – but even those were designed to reduce glare from the lights and to be as sleek and unobtrusive as possible, with smooth outlines and lacking sharp edges, just in case a patient hurt a toe on them.

Whoever designed these paid a lot of attention to detail.

At this rate Vilmis would not be surprised if Miles had a hand in a good chunk of these, given how everyone in the Restoration seemed to know him. He still could not get over how the child managed to make an almost fully functional translator in mere hours, even if he did have access to Vilmis' omnitool. Now that he thought about it… Miles had access to everything that was on the Letos. He had seen next to nothing from him yet but he could not even imagine what he would do with a hundred or so omnitools, who knows how many guns, and the Letos itself in his hands.

At least I haven't seen signs of Eezo yet…

The satellite flashed back in his memory, as if to mock him.

Right. He hoped they did not have Eezo here.

The door knocked and Omega opened it, then stared down. Vilmis followed its gaze, and…

It was another robot. A very small robot. About the size of a varren, but with none of the aggressiveness. Or any resemblance to a varren whatsoever.

It was semi-round, with a bright red shell with black round plates that seemed to serve no purpose, and its head was round with a pointed end, two metal fangs that served not apparent purpose and an antennae- wait a minute.

It looked like an oversized insect.

An insect that had one of those strange but beautiful plants he saw at the place he crashed in the place of one of its antennae, like an accessory.

The metal insect handed him a paper notebook and a large pen that it held in its tiny "arms", which was what he asked for. It also held a small plant identical to the one it wore in its head.

Bewildered, Vilmis took it too.

The robot insect made a spin? Why? And then it left. On its way out Vilmis noticed that it was moving on a singular wheel. It stopped for a moment to… gesture at Omega. Its best approximation of that greeting he saw many people direct at Miles when they were walking earlier, going by the movement. Then it left and Omega shut the door behind it.

Well. Observation number one: these people definitely had no issue with AIs. It could also be a VI, but he could not imagine a VI handing him plants without being ordered to.

It was not… Yes, creating AIs was highly illegal in Citadel space, but this was not Citadel space. The Council could not punish this planet – Earth – for breaking a law that did not even apply on their planet and they had no way of knowing about anyway. It was not like the Quarians, who created what was the absolute recipe for disaster while members of the Citadel. In contrast to popular belief, the law against AIs was written before the Geth Rebellion.

Still, if there was official First Contact with this planet, the usage of AIs could cause… problems. And Omega was not presenting itself positively at all.

Vilmis stared down at the writing tools he had been given.

Paper bound on a spring, and a thick pen… Hardly anyone used non-digital implements for writing, and the Salarians had never developed paper. Sur'Kesh was simply too moist for paper products to last for long. Instead, the Salarians had used parchment and specialized clay before making the jump to digital means.

Still, he should not be surprised. He doubted they would give him anything digital to type on in a few minutes' notice.

Vilmis rearranged the pillow to support his back, and made himself as comfortable as he could with Omega watching him. Then, he got to writing.

Could the crinkle of paper convey frustration? Perhaps it did. It had been a long time since Vilmis last held a pen or a stylus. He had no issue with gripping it, again a testament to Earth's ergonomic designs, but shaping the words proved a struggle.

He had not thought it was possible to forget how to write.

Yet here he was, constantly feeling like his wrist was slipping away from him, dragging slanted lines away from where he wanted them, making the symbols look more like doodles that letters, the characters only bearing a basic resemblance to how he remembered writing when he was still in school. Not that he was the keenest of writers then – typing was almost always an option and he took it, and there was never any need to write once he finished school. All reports were typed.

Now, a few paragraphs in and his wrist was already stiff.

It was natural for the skill to degrade, he knew that. But seeing it stung.

He had no idea what time it was – or how long a solar cycle lasted here. Vilmis spent that time fighting with his writing character. After a point he gave up on trying to get his thoughts in order and just practiced writing sentences. It was beyond frustrating. He was starting to feel hungry again too. At least there was a sink and a bathroom here and the water tasted fine – yes he knew the first rule of travelling was "do not trust water sources" but this was a hospital so they probably took extra care to remove micro-organisms. However, that did not solve the food issue. He supposed he could ask Omega but he doubted the AI would appreciate being used as a butler.

At least it had not said any more death threats so far. And by that Vilmis meant that it stayed silent.

He had filled a few pages writing random stuff already before the door opened again. Omega's guns were immediately pointed at the entrance – really? – but the person entering was completely unfazed.

Oh, it was Miles and Sonic. Fortunately with the device in hand.

"Oh… Hello."

"Hi, Vilmis… Uh, sorry for just dropping you there…"

"No, I…" He took a breath and got off the bed. "I apologize. For earlier. I really should not have said that. Or gotten angry at you."

Omega chose that moment to leave the room.

Both furred males looked taken aback before exchanging a look. Tails turned back to Vilmis. "It- It's alright. I guess we dropped a lot on your plate…"

"I have no idea what that expression means."

He blinked. "Oh! It means that we gave you, uh, too much responsibility or information that is difficult to handle, all at once. I'm sorry… It's just… I don't like to talk about it."

"I thought so…" And now he had to address the other person in the room. "So, uh… what is your relationship? The translator didn't manage to translate that, it glitched out."

Sonic looked at him quizzically. "I told you, he's my little bro."

"Yes, that "bro" word makes the translator glitch."

"Oh, man…! I really need to work on it… Sonic is my big brother."

"I see…" He should not ask further questions. "I'm honestly amazed you managed to make a translator so quickly. Did you hack my omnitool?"

"That's what they're called?"

"Yes."

"They're amazing!"

Was- was he sparkling? No, that was a trick of his eyes. "Uh, don't try to obtain any sensitive information…" Was it too late to ask that? Probably.

Miles slumped. "I couldn't. I was focused on making the translator, since they're not really my strong suit and there are so many black boxes in the encryption…"

Vilmis winced. "Yes, you do need to practice with the translator…"

Sonic grinned. "What did you hear this time?"

"Powerful clothes and black painted storage boxes."

They both stared for a moment. Then Sonic cracked a grin and started snickering. "Come on, Tails, don't look so down!"

"This just keeps happening ALL the TIME."

"Oh, come on, it's fine!"

Miles huffed.

Sonic ruffled his head fur in what was obviously an affectionate gesture – yes, they were definitely family – and then turned to Vilmis. "Well, we showed up in case you wanted to grab a bite- uh, something to eat. It's been a while. Tails told me you only had a sandwich."

About time! "We do have much faster metabolism than most species…"

"Ah, sorry! Wait, you mean other aliens!? So that's what those other languages were! See, I told you!"

"Hey, I didn't doubt you Tails. Guess we can talk a little more about it while we talk. We have plenty to chat about."

Vilmis turned to Sonic. "Are you sure you want me there?"

Sonic shrugged. "You apologized, so it's fine. 'Sides, the nurse will have my hide if we bring food here and we can't keep you locked in a hospital room forever. And like I said, we got plenty to talk about."

That was good news. Still…

"Miles, I suggest you work on translating contractions first."

"Huh?"

"I'm certain that the word "ribcage" does not belong in the beginning of a sentence."

A moment of puzzlement. Then Miles glared at Sonic, and Sonic slapped his own face. "FIIINE, I'll be careful…" He turned to leave but stopped at the door.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Put on your shoes already! Actually, I'm going to go grab us a seat."

A sudden gust of wind blew, which was odd because they were underground. Sonic…

"Where did Sonic go?"

"Oh, he just ran to the restaurant. He's not the kind of person to sit around and wait."

"That's… not what I meant."

"I told you, he ran there."

"I… didn't see him run out."

"Oh! Right, you wouldn't know."

Vilmis was suddenly very alarmed. "Know what exactly?"

Another burst of wind. And Sonic was standing there. In the middle of the room. Like he never left. "Come on, you slowpokes! It's rush hour, I'm starving!"

And there was a third gust of wind. And Sonic was gone again.

Vilmis' brain desperately tried not to connect the dots. That… CAN'T be right.

He turned to Miles. Miles looked very bored. "Sonic has super speed."

…

… ...

… ... ...

"Uh… Vilmis…?"

…

"Vilmis…?"

"He. Has. WHAT."

Sonic had been sitting on the table for a good while when Tails and Vilmis decided to grace him with their presence. However, he did not expect them to be arguing.

"Are you absolutely certain that this is not biotics? There are several planets with Element Zero deposits, and while rare it is not unheard of for biotics to be born through natural exposure."

"And I'm telling you that Sonic has absolutely no powers resembling telekinesis! He has super speed, a bit of wind manipulation, and Chaos Control, that's it!"

"And what is this Chaos Control exactly?"

"Chaos Control is the utilization of Chaos Energy for teleportation-"

"Just like a Biotic Vanguard!"

"-AND TIME MANIPULATION."

"What."

"Chaos Control can also slow down time."

"What. Well- Wait, gravity affects time too!"

"Sonic. Doesn't. Have. Gravity powers!"

"Have you tested that?"

"YES."

"Well, since clearly this planet has not developed biotic amps, as you told me that Sonic has no cybernetic or neural implants, it's entirely possible that Biotics have developed irregular means of using their Eezo nodes. "Super Speed" could be the result of that!"

"Which would be a good theory if not for the fact that THIS PLANET HAS NO ELEMENT ZERO. I checked."

"You checked."

"Yes, I checked the engine when I brought your ship in!"

"You checked the engine?"

"Standard safety protocol, I don't want the machine shop and the hangar to explode by a loose wire."

"Yes, that makes sense…"

"But anyway, if there was anything like Element Zero on Earth I'd know it."

"I see… So now you're telling me that Sonic can teleport without Biotics!?"

Sonic decided that this was a good time to interfere. "Eh, I don't like doing it. That's more of Shadow's thing. I prefer running."

Some part of Vilmis seemed to give up. "Of course Shadow can teleport."

"Hey, what's up with that reaction? When I do it you're like "no way" but when Shadow does it you're like "of course he does"?"

Vilmis looked at Sonic dead in the eye. "He doesn't blink."

Sonic balked at the non-sequitur. "Blink?"

"Blink."

Now that he thought about it… "…Huh. He really doesn't."

Now Tails was staring at him. "You never noticed that Shadow doesn't blink?"

"We're usually kicking each other's ass!"

"Why?" asked Vilmis.

Tails rolled his eyes. "They have this rivalry going on over who's the fastest."

"So Shadow is a Biotic Vanguard!"

"Shadow is DEFINITELY not a biotic vanguard, he doesn't even glow blue!"

Okay, Sonic was officially confused. "Um, what exactly are you guys arguing about?"

"Vilmis thinks that your super speed is caused by a substance called Element Zero even though it doesn't exist on our planet and you don't have any of the other abilities associated with it."

"Huh. Sounds cool."

"It sounds cold?"

"Right, crappy translator."

"Sonic!"

Ouch, he sounded kind of hurt by that. "Sorry Tails, kind of slipped. But at least it's not as bad as the one you made for the Wisps. You even have it translate straight to voice, how cool is that? Way better."

Vilmis grabbed a seat from the table Sonic saved for them. Sonic had not ordered yet since he did not want to leave those two eating alone while he was full, so he waved a waiter over. Vilmis noticed the gesture and mumbled to Tails to order "something filling". Sonic grabbed some chilli dogs like usual – which earned a weird look from Vilmis, looks like another translation failure – and Tails got himself and Vilmis some pretty generous pizza rolls.

"Alright. So, Element Zero."

Sonic raised a hand. "Before you launch into technobabble, I'm not a science guy like Tails, so dumb it down."

Confusion.

"He means to explain it in simple terms."

"Oh. How to phrase this… Element Zero, also called Eezo, is created when planets – or just solid matter in general – are exposed to supernovas. When you run electric currents through them, it can either increase or reduce the mass of objects near it. The more eezo the greater the range."

Sonic was catching his drift. "And let me guess, you think our planet's been exposed to a supernova, and now there's eezo everywhere and it's getting into people and is giving them superpowers."

Vilmis took a sharp inhale. "Yes, we call them biotics."

Tails opened his mouth but Sonic held up a hand. "And what exactly abilities do those "biotics" have…?"

Tails decided to pile on. "Yeah, you have mentioned those Vanguards quite a few times now. I suppose there are different types of biotic abilities? Or how they are applied?" Go, Tails!

Now, Sonic was not yet terribly familiar with the alien's expressions – he figured pretty quickly the eye roll was not sarcasm coming from him because the timing made no sense, so it had to be a moisture thing – but he got the distinct impression that Vilmis really did not want to talk about it.

Shame how you brought them up first, huh pal.

"Yes, you are right, there are several categories of biotics."

The waiter arrived with their orders, cutting him off. Sonic wasted no time diving in, humming pleased when the familiar spice hit his tongue. Similarly, Tails dove straight into the food, with way better manners as he was used to trying not to spill food over his equipment and stain his keyboard. Vilmis was, as expected, significantly more reserved, but he decided he liked it well enough, as he did not hesitate to go for the next bite.

"Vanguards… they're combat focused. They can create barriers to slow down attacks, enhance their physical strength, create… impact shocks, immobilize enemies, and finally teleport between two short distances for a charge attack."

Sonic had to admit, that did sound a lot like Shadow's style of Chaos Control and general combat, even if by coincidence, and his own style also had some surface similarities to what Vilmis was describing – namely the charge attacks and impact shocks. So Sonic could see where the alien was coming from.

"And they can do this at any time?" asked Tails.

"Yes."

Got him. "Then we definitely don't have those biotic things."

Vilmis was clearly skeptical. "What do you mean?"

"Well, these guys can do it all the time and you said something about implants. Shadow and I don't have any implants, and we can only use Chaos Control when we have a Chaos Emerald, so there. It's not biotics."

Vilmis obviously needed some time to process that. Sonic figured it would be best to let him chew on it for a bit – though he was surprised at how surprised Vilmis was. So far all aliens he had met had folks with really fancy skills of all kinds, but here this guy seemed to think that it was impossible to have abilities not caused by this Element Zero, and those abilities were very specific too. Well, from what Sonic could tell so far; he had not gotten to the other kinds of biotics out there, just the Vanguards.

Still… a substance that can affect mass depending on electric currents? Sonic was not very big on science, but living with Tails made him pick up on a few things – even he knew that the reason light was the top possible speed was because it had the least possible mass. Mass could not be changed, not really. But apparently it could?

Tails would have a field day with this. Now that they knew the rough details of how this Eezo was formed and how it worked, he had no doubt Tails would be able to create his own version. Besides, he was able to make a fully functional fake Chaos Emerald, and they had no idea how those came to be. Other than "brought over from outer space", but they did not know that at the time. And it did not really answer the "how" question.

Outer space…

Silver's warning flashed in his mind. An Earth scorched beyond all belief. Talk of laser canons and other space-class weapons. Now a substance that could manipulate matter…

Sonic leaned back on his chair.

Whatever. No matter what it is, I'm going to kick its ass.

Vilmis ate his food in silence, trying to process all that he heard.

According to Miles and Sonic, Eezo was non-existent here. He was inclined to believe them; mostly because neither of them, not even Miles, appeared to know what he was talking about once he brought up biotics. Or at the very least, this planet had Eezo deposits but no Prothean ruins – it was far from unheard of that Miles was unaware of.

He should be relieved. He was hoping that this world would have no Eezo deposits from the moment he crashed here; not because he wished to be stuck on this planet forever – and wasn't that a terrifying prospect – but because he saw those satellites.

Deep inside, he had to acknowledge that he was afraid to ask about the satellites. They hang like a demon at the edge of his thoughts.

However, it seemed that this planet had traded Eezo for something far too different.

Miles and Sonic spoke as if supernatural abilities were something normal. Sonic was using them for inane things like getting a good table at a restaurant, in plain view of everyone. Miles spoke like it was common knowledge that Sonic could achieve such things, and that he was not the only one.

Granted, if there was one person that Vilmis could have reasonably suspected had superpowers, it was Shadow. The black-furred male was unsettling.

No, instead of Element Zero, they spoke about… chaos. And something called a "chaos emerald".

An emerald… a precious stone… granting timespace manipulation abilities?

Perhaps it was a device – or a concentrated form of Eezo, except he knew that emeralds were green. Maybe this species had issues with certain light spectrums? Hanar could see light in the ultraviolet spectrum and he had heard that the Quarians could not see red – ironic, given their blood colour – so it was not out of the realm of probability for the stones to be actually blue instead of green. Or perhaps it was a codename granted to a device, in which case it could be a non-intrusive biotic amp or something.

The possibilities were too. Fucking. Many.

Miles was mostly busying himself with his food, muttering things between bites that his device could not detect. About their discussion, if Vilmis were to guess.

Sonic…

Sonic was examining him.

Not for the first time, Vilmis wondered who in the world these people really were. He had hoped to get answers, but so far the only answer he got was "no Eezo here" and "superpowers are normal", which were not answers at all. They just sprung many, many more questions.

The Salarians had plenty of tales about disastrous First Contacts. This was the strangest one yet. Vilmis was left… he was anxious.

Yes, it was anxiety. Nothing that happened so far made any sense.

Typically, in a First Contact scenario, the two contacting species would exchange pre-prepared information packages, with translation data if possible, before a diplomatic party or otherwise a group selected by the highest ranking individual from both species would engage in introductory talks in as much of a neutral ground as they could manage. Aside from the Yagh, this was how most First Contact scenarios went.

Vilmis had not seen a single hint of government presence so far. Yes, this Restoration was an organization, and that was as much as Vilmis knew about it, but it did not resemble a government building in any sense. Vilmis had been on this planet for long enough that someone should have mentioned First Contact protocols.

But no, none of that here. They seemed to have a general plan, and that plan was "extract information out of him", but so far they barely brought attention to the fact that he was an alien.

Were his initial suspicions correct and some of the species here were of alien origins? No, this was not relevant right now, the real question was why were no government officials contacted?

…Were these people government officials? But… they were nothing like what government officials were like on… just about every planet.

Who in the world took him in?

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Sonic's voice shook him out of his stupor. He had finished his meal, and was now looking at him with a thin smile, knowing. Like he knew how confused Vilmis was by this whole situation.

"…What does this phrase mean?"

Sonic waved his arm as if to clear the air. "Just, that you look like you're very deep in thought and I was wondering if it was something you wanted to share."

Sonic's… nonchalant attitude was a unique kind of aggravating. Or perhaps frustrating would be the better word – he was so at ease, like there was nothing that could faze him, that there was nothing worth taking seriously. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but he was so relaxed. If not for that first encounter, Vilmis would have thought of him as someone who did not take things seriously.

Except that he had the exact same attitude when confronting Vilmis about asking offensive questions to his little brother.

It was not simple ease, it was confidence. With that kind of speed? This was a person absolutely secure in the knowledge that nothing can touch him.

Vilmis was STG. But he was a communications officer. A desk job.

Sonic was the most dangerous person in the room and he knew it.

"Well?"

…Better start somewhere safe. "You never told me what the Restoration is for."

Miles straightened up like his boss caught him sleeping on the job. "Oh! Right! Sorry, about that, it slipped my mind…"

"So it's not an important secret?"

"No, no, nothing like that. We're mostly environmental and urban restoration, as well as emergency responders for disasters. We have a tech division and some combat teams, but they're not the main focus."

"I'm not actually a member 'cause I like doing my own thing" said Sonic "but I help out whenever I feel like it. There's always something to do."

Disaster relief and restoration? "Is this a government-sanctioned program?"

"Nah, all volunteers."

That… was not nearly as sinister as it could have been. If he were to trust their word – and he had not seen any signs of dishonesty so far – then it made sense for a volunteer rescue group to go check a crash landing site.

But still… "Why hasn't the government responded yet?"

Sonic snorted. "Dude, they didn't tell you? Shadow, Rouge and Omega are government agents."

…

"…Those three?"

Sonic snickered. "I know, right? They don't look the part at all!"

"I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, special agents tend to be eccentrics" he could think of a number of Spectres and other STG Agents in that category "but… really? A thief, a murderous AI, and… Shadow?"

"You figured out that Rouge is a thief?" asked Miles, taken aback.

"Everyone checked their pockets the moment they saw her."

Both brothers laughed at that. "I think she used to be freelance" said Sonic.

Vilmis barely suppressed a groan at what was obviously yet another translator mishap. "A spare spear?"

Sonic choked on his food.

"She offered her services to anyone who could pay her…" Miles said, looking equally pained. Vilmis honestly felt sorry for him at this point – he must view all the glitches as a personal failure.

"I suppose they did not want her turning against them." Should he ask about Shadow and Omega? He really wanted to, except that he could tell that line of questioning would not clear up anything. And yet… "I still don't understand why they haven't taken further action. I am an alien arrival."

"They're going through a rough patch" replied Miles.

…Right. He knew an evasion when he heard one. Not that he could expect them to answer honestly to questions about the government asked by an alien.

"Speaking of alien arrivals…" Vilmis felt dread overcoming him in an instant. He knew what the rest of that sentence would be even before Sonic finished it. "How come you came crashing on our planet?"

Unusual circumstances or not, compromising the mission was not an option. However, that did not mean he could not share some half-truths. "System failure. I honestly don't even know what failed. One moment everything was working fine, the next it's nothing but error messages on every screen." He hoped the reminder of the crash would distract them from the questioning.

No such chance.

"That doesn't explain what you were doing around here."

I don't even know HOW I ended up here. "General survey." Survey was a word that could be applied to Operation MIRAGE.

Then again… Would they believe him if he said the Letos spontaneously teleported? With the things they said to him…

Sonic and Miles exchanged a long look. Miles then turned to him so sharply that Vilmis was almost surprised out of his meal.

"We know you are a spy."

…

What…?

…Are they bluffing? Were my answers too evasive? He said he did not succeed in extracting data from the Letos, did he lie about this? Why bring it up NOW? Is it because we're in public and I can't do anything? Is it because Sonic is here? How do they KNOW?

"It was the paint job."

Vilmis' thoughts came to a grinding halt. "Huh…?"

"We have footage of the Letos shortly before it entered the atmosphere. Shadow and I had enough time to analyze it. And I did get to have a closer look at the ship when we brought it in. The painting style does not fit the contours and aesthetics of the ship at all, the colour accents clash with the design lines of the ship too much. And it has intentionally low quality to hide how good the exterior materials are – not to mention how it has no real wear. Beneath that layer of paint there is a second layer with low adhesion on the exterior to protect it from being damaged by the outer coat of paint, and simultaneously it protects the vessel from environmental conditions that could damage the materials while entering or exiting the atmosphere, such as micro-debris and friction heat. It's also a bit too patchy – regardless of the crew, every decent ship engineer cares enough to make sure the old and new coats of paint are not too distinguishable from one another."

Miles set his food down.

"You tried too hard."

"You're joking." The sentence came out of his mouth before he could even think it.

This was a joke. It had to be a joke. The paint? They "tried too hard" with the paint? The fucking paint?

Miles was not laughing. "Vilmis, my passion and my specialty is aircraft. I KNOW what flying machines look like." A pause. "And I guess all the encrypted data kind of gave it away."

He… was not joking. At all.

"In other words…" said Sonic, and for the very first time his smile dropped "you better be honest with us."

…I have no choice.

It was a startling realization. He really, absolutely did not have any choice. Oh, he could say "that's classified" or "it had nothing to do with you" or "my ship got teleported here, there happy" or just not say anything at all, but that did not matter.

They could keep pressing him for answers. Keep him under all-too-friendly watch at all times with the ever-underlying edge of a threat in every single interaction, always pushing for answers until he gave them. Miles would either perfect the translator or give up on it and focus on everything else he had in his possession – the Letos, a hundred STG-issued omnitools, a Mass Effect drive, and all the time in the world, with enough intellect to crack it.

And there was nothing Vilmis could do about it. He could not escape, because where to go? He could not contact anyone, he had no ship, he did not even know the general topography of this place and how livable it was outside of the tall and bright walls of the Restoration. He would not even get the chance to get that far because Shadow and Sonic were here, and they would have no trouble catching up to him whatsoever. And nobody was coming to help him.

The only thing he could achieve was to delay the inevitable.

He felt something strange bubbling up into his chest. It took him a moment to register what the bizarre sound was, but once he did he could not hold it back.

He was laughing.

He was doubled over breathless, laughing even harder at the concerned gazes Sonic and Miles exchanged, as if they were not the cause of it in the first place.

It was not funny. It was so unfunny it turned right back into hilarious.

"Um, Vilmis…?" asked Miles. "Are you alright?"

Vilmis threw his hands up. "No, I'm not "alright". All of you are insane, nothing makes sense about this place, and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it." By the wheel, finally saying it out loud felt so cathartic.

Did he sound calm? Probably not. He was not yelling because he simply did not feel like yelling, but he was sure he could yell. It was not tempting to do so yet.

"Wow, calm down there dude" said Sonic.

"Don't worry, I'm calm." At least he felt calm. His heart was not going too fast. He could hear it in his ears, that was how he knew. "I'll tell you, you people will probably believe anything anyway." After all this shit about superpowers and teleportation and the fucking paint job of all things, they better believe anything.

And so Vilmis opened his mouth and started talking and the words would not stop spilling out.

"We were sent to investigate a planet that turned invisible. Absolutely nothing made it back; ships kept on vanishing, there were no readings coming from the area, all reconnaissance parties sent by the Batarian Hegemony are now missing in action, and we have NO idea what to do about it. The only reason why even know the planet was still in place is because the rest of the orbiting planets were still in place. It just VANISHED. And obviously we were sent to investigate. We are STG, it's our job to investigate things nobody wants us to investigate. Sure, the Batarians would start an unprecedented diplomatic incident if they had any confirmation that we were sneaking around in their territory, but would they ask for help? Of COURSE not, never mind they lost their entire colony in a few seconds and nobody sent to look into it was able to make it back, after all who would believe them? Only YOU would."

His mouth felt dry. He took a good gulp of his water. He still had more to say.

Miles opened his mouth but Vilmis did not give him the time to ask all those questions he wanted. It was his turn to "dump everything on their plate" as he put it. And they were in a restaurant. Funny.

Were people staring? Eh, who cares.

"They tried to keep it hidden, nobody want to look weak in front of the Council. But you're right, we're spies. Our job in the STG is to find out everything that's supposed to stay hidden. So naturally we found out about the missing patrols, we noticed the sudden decrease in exports and imports, the shifting routes of pirate and mercenary activity, everything. We launched our investigation and here we are. The SUV Letos on a mission to get readings on Anhur while disguised as pirates because our obviously superior latest technology would give us all the answers we wanted and ensure our safe return."

"Except that it didn't."

Sonic's voice drove the haziness that Vilmis did not even notice was there away. The sound of his heart in his eardrums had almost overwhelmed anything.

Vilmis felt his energy leaving him. "It didn't."

His stomach chose this moment to remind him he still had not eaten much. Vilmis took a half-hearted bite from his "pizza rolls". They had grown cold by this point, and their texture changed quite a bit, making it more chewey, but it was still creamy enough. Not bad.

He swallowed down his bite and continued.

"We were on live transmission with the Captain at the time – he was not on the ship – but I don't know how much data they were able to retain on their end…" He turned to Miles. "Did you see it?"

Miles shook his head "no". "I was too busy with the translator and making sure the engine wasn't dangerous and the ship is in pieces and there is so much encryption…"

It was not the first time Vilmis heard this, but it drained even more fight out of him. "We activated the scanners but the only thing we were able to find were some scrambled heat readings. So our Captain ordered us to get closer to Anhur's estimated location, since scanning had no substantial results. So, we went and…"

How in the world was he supposed to explain what happened next?

"Take your time, man" said Sonic. It was the most compassionate thing he heard from the blue male yet. Even he was taking things seriously now. At least he was not smiling. Good.

"We collided with a… barrier of some kind. Nothing like our barriers. That one was made of… red hexagons and glitches."

Sonic and Miles stiffened.

They heard this before. Somehow, this failed to surprise him.

"We managed to make it through, and we got visual with Anhur. Not for long, but there was so much light pollution. An absurd amount. The continents were glowing even on the side facing the sun! And there were lines crossing the oceans and those strange floating towers over it… Then the glitches started again and suddenly all our systems stopped working. Nothing but error messages. Next thing I know, we are next to your moons and our engine is completely out of control." Then the ship entered atmosphere, and… "You know the rest."

Miles trembled. "I'm… really sorry Vilmis."

Damn, that crash site had seriously affected him. Vilmis wished he had not come to his rescue alone. "Thank you."

Sonic nodded too. "About the crash…" What is he going to ask me? "What do you want to do with the bodies?"

He did not expect that. He should have; they could not keep the bodies in the meat fridge forever. He just was not expecting them to mention it now.

What to do with the bodies?

Currently, on Sur'Kesh, after the rites the bodies were converted to fertilizer. It was a practice that would be monstrous on any other homeworld other than their own, and indeed, there were horror stories about the Batarian slaver Silparon on the colony of Logasiri who would do exactly that with his slaves.

However, on Sur'Kesh and other central Salarian planets, there was no other choice. There were too many of them too bury, and the other options?

Industrialization had done a number on their planet that they still had not recovered from, and they still had to straddle very carefully. One wrong step and Sur'Kesh would become a pit of pollution again. Once upon a time, bodies were left in the water in some places, but clean water was something that the Union took extremely seriously – leaving anything dead in the water sources was a punishable offense, as it could become the source of all sorts of bacteria. Cremation was practiced in others, but on Sur'Kesh that was impossible; Salarians, with their lifespans and immense population, died so frequently that cremation would pollute the atmosphere more than their actual factories did.

So fertilizer it was. At least the ground could be enriched again, that way. Agriculture needed the boost.

It was a good thing things such as funeral practices were not frequently discussed among species. Most would just give the dead to their respective races, but here…

He could not ask them to keep his crewmates in a fridge until they rotted.

But first of all… "Have you taken autopsies yet? You said you checked if I could eat the food here…"

"No…" said Miles. "I wasn't sure if it was appropriate. I took samples from you while the nurse was checking you over."

About that- "How did you heal me anyway?"

"A Heal Unit. Not my invention, but I'm trying to replicate it. I'm not really a biologist… definitely not THAT good…"

Vilmis could see the Thresher Maw tunnel of a topic from here. "…I won't ask what a heal unit is yet."

"Fair enough" said Sonic. "So, autopsy?"

"Yes. I need a report to give back to my superiors. And then…" He decided. "Cremate them. We don't really do that anymore in the homeworld…"

"How so?" asked Sonic. Was it genuine curiosity or was he trying to change the subject?

"The population is too big. If we burned everyone the pollution would be too much."

Miles' expression turned to absolute shock, with Sonic not far behind him. They were probably wondering how many Salarians were out there. Actually, what population did this planet have? Perhaps a situation like the Citadel, with all the different species in one place…?

"Alright…" said Miles, still somber from the heavy subject. Sonic placed a hand on his shoulder, startling him a little, but then he relaxed.

Sonic is a good brother…

Sonic turned to Vilmis, his hand still on Miles' shoulder. "You said the barrier looked like red hexagons?"

And there it is.

Miles turned to him in shock. "Sonic, you don't think-"

So they ARE familiar with it. Or perhaps they thought it was something they saw before. Better make sure. "Red hexagons and glitches, pink, dark pink, red, dark red… I think it was keeping the planet invisible. And it messed with our systems. And then-"

"Teleported you here" interrupted the speedster. "And you crashed on Starfall Islands."

Miles was nowhere near as calm. "Sonic, you think that was a Cyberspace Barrier!?"

"It sure sounds like it" replied Sonic. "And we haven't seen a hair of Eggman in a while." Eggman? What kind of name was Egg Man? Miles clearly was not liking what he was hearing. "When exactly did that planet vanish?" asked Sonic.

That would be nice to know. "I'm not sure what the date conversions are…"

"No, it's far too soon to tell" said Miles. "We need to finish the time conversions, then determine when the phenomenon started and how it correlates with Eggman's usual modus operandi. Not to mention since our technology trees and modes of travel are so different we need to calculate how long it would take Eggman to travel to that planet and what means he used."

"Tails-"

"The scale and amount of equipment required to fully take over a planet is just MASSIVE even if it's a small one, so all construction had to be done on-site-"

"Tails."

He leaped off the seat. "There are too many variables; perhaps he opened portals with the Chaos Emeralds or he made fake ones or maybe he-"

"TAILS!" Miles stopped mid-stride.

"Breathe for a moment, okay? You were running your mouth as fast as me there." Sonic placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Like you said, we don't have enough data. So focus on that for now. You have plenty of time, you'll figure this out and we'll deal with it, okay? One thing at the time."

"Okay… Yeah, you're right."

Vilmis had a million more questions to ask them. If this planet had anything to do with Operation MIRAGE… Not that he could ask them right now- Miles clearly needed to gather his thoughts.

Soon he relaxed and nodded, unclear at what exactly. He looked up to Sonic with a serious expression. "Are you really telling me to slow down?"

"…"

Miles grinned.

"Hey!"

Miles giggled a bit, Sonic elbowed him, and Vilmis could not help but be reminded of all the times he got into arguments and mock fights with his brothers. He missed them.

The two of them climbed back to their seats.

Once they made themselves comfy again Vilmis addressed the glaring signal. He turned to Miles, since Sonic was not there for that conversation. "You said before that there is a barrier around Starfall Islands that destabilizes the systems of any vessel that tries to enter it."

"Yes. From your description, the visual appearance and properties of the barrier you encountered are very similar, though the one we encounter didn't turn the islands invisible. Cyberspace was developed by an ancient civilization that colonized Starfall Islands after their homeworld was destroyed."

An ancient civilization?

"We call them the Ancients, and they specialized in Chaos Energy, space travel and programming. Cyberspace is a massive digital archive containing everything there is to know about them, including their memories! They're extinct now, but their technology is beyond anything we have achieved so far!"

"When did they vanish." Because if they had the same names for different things…

"Around fifteen thousand years ago? They were not on our planet for very long. Hold on, I did the conversion between our year and yours on my Miles Electric."

So that was what the device was called. Apparently Miles was branding his inventions.

"Alright, so one year for you lasts one point two of our years, so for you this was twelve thousand and five hundred years ago."

"Twelve thousand? Are you sure? When did they arrive?"

"About thirty years before that, give or take" said Sonic. "They weren't planning to land here, the Chaos Emeralds dragged them over."

"They dragged- never mind." He would get answers on the magic stones later. "So they were not Protheans."

"Protheans?" repeated Miles.

"Another ancient civilization, but they mysteriously vanished over forty thousand years ago" he replied. The Protheans were far from a secret. "We based a lot of our technology on theirs, but they used Element Zero for the most part."

"On Earth, that would be…"

"The exact time is forty one thousand and a little over six hundred years."

"So around fifty thousand."

"Eh, plenty of ancient civilizations out there" said Sonic.

Plenty? Actually no, he would not ask yet. Better take Sonic's advice – one step at the time. They had to stay on subject.

"And this Eggman…"

Sonic grinned. "Long story short, mad scientist trying to take over the world. And failing because of yours truly." And pointed at himself.

A mad scientist? "…And you call him "Egg Man"…?" What kind of name was that?

"His real name is Dr. Ivo Robotnik" explained Miles. "Sonic started calling him Eggman as an insult, but he appropriated it as a brand name and now he calls himself that."

Huh, that was a very impressive PR move.

"Heh, at least I can still call him "Baldy MacNosehair"."

Vilmis chocked on his food, triggering his swallowing reflex in a very painful manner.

"Wow, you okay there?"

"Baldy MacNosehair!? That's-" He burst into laughter.

"I'm afraid the credit of that one goes to the Wisps, but I can't monopolize all the good insults!"

He did mention the Wisps before, right? He would ask later.

"Why is he trying to take over the world?" Nobody in recent history tried to do that.

"Beats me." Sonic's fondness of slang was going to murder Miles' translator. "He's just a megalomaniac with a fondness for way too big amusement parks."

What. "Amusement parks. Those parks where you go with young children to have more dangerous activities in controlled environments and are frequently themed after popular shows or games or attractions. Those parks."

"Yup. Those parks."

"…Why?"

"He just likes amusement parks" they replied in unison. They hear this a lot, don't they.

"He's really good at making good rides!" added Miles. "But the shops and restaurants are horrible…"

…Were they really criticizing the amusement parks of the mad scientist trying to take over the world?

"Yeah, those planets he stole along planet Wisp looked really cool I got to admit."

"WHAT!?"

His shout drew the attention of everyone in the restaurant. "What do you mean, he stole planets!?"

"They were really tiny" replied Miles, looking too calm. "About a twelfth of Earth size."

Ah. "A twelfth?"

"I could run laps around it" said Sonic, which was not really a unit of measurement because a) Vilmis did not know how fast Sonic was and b) Sonic's standards of what a "lap" is was probably very different than most people's.

However, now that he had a solid number, going by the feel of the gravity on this planet… "Oh, so it was just a very small dwarf planet. That makes more sense."

"You guys can move planets?"

"We can move celestial bodies up to dwarf planet size" he confirmed, really happy to finally speak in measurements he understood. "However, it's incredibly expensive and it rarely serves any purpose."

Sonic made a vague noise of affirmation. "Money isn't much of a problem for Eggman, he owns a lot of businesses in secret…"

"We found out he used to run a private train business on Amy's birthday" added Miles.

"So he's trying to take over the world with business ventures?" asked Vilmis, still trying to piece together how Dr. Robotnik worked.

"I wish. He builds a bunch of robot armies to do it by force. We must have smashed hundreds of thousands of his bots."

"Yup. He built Omega too, but apparently he had him playing guard duty and Omega didn't like that so he turned against him."

…What. "Um… just to be clear, how many of those robots have artificial intelligence?"

Miles took a thinking pose. "I think all of them, more or less. However the level of intellect seems to vary. They are all capable of taking independent decisions if not directly ordered, but most of them are not smarter than your average animal."

"Yeah, most of the more intelligent ones turn against him."

…What. "And… what do you do with those?"

"Let them go. They can join the fighting if they want, I'm not the kind of guy to force anyone do anything. Sometimes we have to get Tails to remove the programming that forces them to listen to orders, but otherwise we're good to go."

…

…

They just… let them go. They let the AIs do what they want. They REMOVE the programming that makes them listen to orders.

Orders that came from what was from the sound of it a domestic terrorist.

"I think I need a moment."

"Take your time, buddy… Take your time."

The rest of dinnertime was spent silently. Tails imagined they all had a lot to mull about. He and Sonic sure did.

Sonic was good at judging people and their intentions; and he was just as good at predicting events. And right now, every single word of Sonic's prediction about the connection of the crash and Silver's end of the world seemed to come to reality before him.

Everything indicated that Vilmis came to this planet because of Eggman.

Tails was not afraid of Eggman, not really. He knew he could handle him in a straight fight, he had already done so. He had not been truly afraid of Eggman in a long time.

No, what he was really afraid of was nasty surprises. The actually surprising kind, not the "machine blows up in your face" kind. It was a fact of life for every inventor and engineer that things would blow up on your face sooner or later. But when dealing with machines, this was not really a problem; machines were predictable and worked purely on predetermined processes – excluding the inherent instability of all devices powered with Chaos Energy – and therefore once it blew up on your face you could sit down and spot the problem and fix it.

The kind of nasty surprises Tails talked about were the ones involving Eggman deciding to try and manipulate other people or beings to do his job for him as if they were machines.

People did not work like that. Gods even less so.

Eggman had caused them the most trouble in the past when he decided to find a third party to help with or exploit for his schemes, and that was because Eggman himself did not really understand what he was getting into until the very end. And usually that third party was either someone he lied to and inevitably turned against him or an ancient being of some kind that would inevitably break loose anyway. How many times did they have to cooperate with him to clean up the mess he started? Way too many in Tails' opinion. The End was only the most recent example.

If their collective hypothesis was correct, then the Earth would be destroyed by a future alien invasion, and Eggman would be the catalyst that would lead to the world at large targeting them. Vilmis came from a completely different alien society; the "omnitools" had so many different language matrixes and time conversion programs in it that Tails could only imagine the size and reach of the society around them. He had so many questions, it could take days!

Especially about their technology.

Because Vilmis' description – an element that affected gravitational fields depending on the electrical current coursing through it, and in turn used for gravity manipulation and space travel…

The called over to pay the check, and headed back to the hospital room where the literal bear of a nurse was waiting for them. Vilmis looked… rather alarmed. There was not much she could check up without asking him if what she was reading was about right "is this the normal heart rate", "do you experience any weakness or dizziness, fuzziness in vision, residual pain", the standard. They could not really do a blood test to be extra sure since they did not know what the standard blood test would come back as.

Eventually he was given the "all green" – which had to be explained to him as meaning there is nothing concerning as far as we can tell, but he had to remain under observation for one more night.

He assured them that there was absolutely no need whatsoever to ask Omega to keep an eye on him again, and that there were certainly other things Omega would prefer doing.

Perhaps Sonic telling him that Omega went rogue because he hated guard duty was a mistake. Oops.

Eventually though, he and Sonic found themselves headed to Tails' place out of the Restoration HQ. Tails wanted to keep working on the ship they found – the Letos, as Vilmis called it – but Sonic out a hard stop on that; it was late and he needed to maintain his brain. Tails could not argue with his logic but he was not sure how much he would sleep that night.

Sonic offered to stay the night with him.

So here they were, in the "living room" – or rather the space anyone else would call a living room, for Tails it was more of a light work area – with the two of them slouched on the couch. Sonic had left his guitar here, and was strumming something at random, a bit more downplayed from his usual stuff.

He had a lot to think about too.

"Hey, Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"About the Element Zero and Biotics stuff…"

"Yeah, sounds cool, huh? Bet you can make some too, can't be harder than those fake Chaos Emeralds you got."

Tails was sure about it too, but that was not the matter. "It's not that. There's… something else."

"Hm?"

"I wasn't lying when I told Vilmis we don't have any Element Zero here. We really don't… anymore."

Sonic stopped strumming.

"I didin't want to say this in front of him in case he got the wrong idea, but you heard him, right? An element formed from gravitational forces, able to manipulate gravitational fields when passed through an electric current, and used for space travel or for telekinesis? We've seen this before!"

It took Sonic a moment to put it together. "…The Ark of the Cosmos? Are you sure Tails?"

"You didn't hear this part, but Vilmis said that Element Zero eminates a blue-indigo glow when in-use. That's exactly the same light effect the Arks of the Cosmos had when in use. I didn't have time to analyze them since we were in a hurry, but it sounds identical!"

Sonic sat up. "OK, but didn't Vilmis say something about needing cybernetics to use their version of telekinesis?"

"Yes. While on our way to the restaurant, he told me that people with biotics are born when the embryo is exposed to Element Zero while still forming, and that they interact with Element Zero in their bodies through their nerves. Nerves work by transmitting electric signals."

"Yeah, and?"

"What if the Arks of the Cosmos work by reading electric signals transferred through contact and then trigger the Element Zero within the device itself?"

"…Makes sense. But the Arks of the Cosmos are gone along with Babylon Garden."

Tails nodded. "True. However, while I didn't get to analyze the Arks of the Cosmos, Wave did."

Sonic blinked in surprise. "You talked to her about it?"

"No, but she's a mechanic, and they had plenty of time in Jet's airship. She definitely has kept the data."

"So you want to talk to Wave first."

"Yup."

"…Alright, we can try it. I guess if Jet tries anything I can handle him."

Tails laughed a bit nervously, remembering all the troubles they had with the Babylon Rogues. "Actually, I think I'll go and talk directly to Wave by myself… Hopefully there won't be a fight that way…"

Sonic had to amend the point. "Yeah, good call. I'll be around, just in case."

"Oh no, I'm not going to future city, I'm just going to call her to come over."

"Ah, okay."

He could see Sonic was not entirely convinced yet – not that Tails could blame him, again given all the trouble they caused but…

If Tails wanted to build a space-worthy ship, he was going to need the extra hands.

Vilmis sat on the bed that he would hopefully spend the last night at, mercifully alone. That nurse was terrifying, she was the size of an Elcor except bipedal and with barely concealed claws under her thick gloves. And she had a stern tone that reminded him of some of his superiors. She seemed to embody the phrase "don't argue with the medical personnel".

Actually, everyone wore gloves here, was it a politeness thing like the Turians hiding their talons? Vilmis had… so many questions.

At least now he was pleasantly fed and was sure that nobody would try to shoot him. It made him feel lighter, at least some of the anxiety was gone now.

Yes, everyone here was still insane, but at least he was not in danger. They would help with the mission, even. It was…

It was beyond what he could have hoped for. He was not out of the mud yet but he was making some progress. He even had a lead on what could have caused Anhur's disappearance!

He had to focus on the positive things. One problem at the time.

With a lot more confidence that before, Vilmis grabbed his newly obtained pen and notebook and set down to writing.

In reality, he knew that by the time this report made it to the STG's hands, it would be too late. But there had to be a record. And it had to start now. He had to cling at one shred or professionalism.

He started with the date, and then…

Operation MIRAGE – status report
Compiled by: Agent DR4568778

This is not yet an official report.

It has been approximately two days (local time) since SUV Letos has crash-landed on the currently uncontacted garden world named "Earth".

Out of the 103 reconnaissance crew, only I am still alive. The rest of the mission personnel and crew have perished due to injuries caused by the crash. The SUV Letos is no longer in serviceable condition. I have not seen the condition of the vessel myself, but I was informed it is in pieces. Fortunately, the same source informed me that they have ran tests to ensure that the Letos is safe to approach.

As per mission parameters, the SUV Letos approached the orbit of the Batarian colony Anhur, at which point we contacted mission control and Captain Kelir Rogs. As per previous reports, we found no visual signs of the planet's presence. We detected no external communications coming from the colony. In addition, there were absolutely no space-faring vessels in orbit. This was marked as extremely unusual. Upon activation of our sensors, the only signals we detected were scrambled heat emissions.

After internal debate, Captain Kelir Rogs ordered us to physically approach the location the planet should have been at due to lack of other options.

Once we entered the orbit of Anhur, we encountered a barrier of unknown material, if any. This was not a kinetic barrier, but rather a cloaking field that was made visible upon physical contact with it. The field assumed the appearance of red connected hexagons and appeared to glitch in the same manner as a corrupted visual transmission.

The barrier did not physically block or slow down our ship's movements. So far, its known properties are to block frequencies from exiting the area it covers.

Upon crossing the barrier, we entered visual contact with the planet Anhur. This is personal speculation, but I noticed a significant and alarming increase in light pollution across the entire visible planetary surface. Light pollution was visible in areas at the illuminated side of the planet. I also noticed a number of megastructures akin to towers around the planet.

Immediately after visual, our systems were filled with error messages. There was a spike in Eezo core activity.

Next thing we know, we're in a different, currently uncharted solar system. My current hypothesis is that we were forced through a Mass Relay or an equivalent device, because otherwise the only explanation is teleportation.

The following details are only from visual, due to our systems still being unable to function due to errors, as well as our shock at the unexpected leap.

We were ejected for lack of better term near what appears to be the only garden world in the system. We passed by two of the planet's satellites before crash landing on the surface. I have not confirmed the existence of other satellites.

I lost consciousness shortly after the crash. When I came to I was told that I was found by one of the locals, as one of their satellites detected the entry of SUV Letos in the atmosphere. A government agent asked assistance from a civilian volunteer organization called "The Restoration" to retrieve the vessel and crew. The volunteer who arrived provided me with medical aid and then transferred the ship, the crew and myself to their organization's headquarters for further medical observation and to analyze the wreckage.

This is what I have observed so far:

- Earth: The garden world is a rock planet of size similar to Sur'Kesh, judging by the sensation of the gravitational forces. Based on the short visual we had, the majority of the surface is covered in water. One of the polar caps was frozen over, while the other was obscured, indicating that the planet has a tilted rotation axis.

The area we landed at was an island at the center of a massive ocean, with climate conditions similar to Thessia average. I was later informed they're called "Starfall Islands". The atmosphere is breathable, though the exact composition is currently unknown. Chilarity is levo-amino. I was informed that a Sur'Kesh year matches to 1.2 years of Earth's location.

To my and their own knowledge, there is no Element Zero in the system.

- Population/Civilization: Earth is the homeworld of a surprisingly diverse number of sentient species, most of which I have yet to identify. They are mostly mammals and covered or partially covered in fur, and all species present binary sexual dimorphism. The sheer variety means that all infrastructure and equipment are adopted to comfortably be used by species of various morphologies.

From what I can tell, they are a borderline spaceflight-era species, as they have artificial satellites orbiting the planet and have implied to have first contact with at least one other non-Council race called "Whisps". This remains unconfirmed.

They have also confirmed that 12.500 years ago (Sur'Kesh time) their planet was briefly colonized by an alien race they call "the Ancients". I was told that the area they colonized was Starfall Islands.

Perhaps due to the previous alien presences, the civilians at the base were unsurprised at seeing me.

Technologically, other than their yet-unconfirmed spaceflight capabilities, they are also incredibly advanced in the areas of medical science and programming, as the same volunteer that found me was able to hack into the omnitools and create a translation matrix for their own personal device. It should be noted however that this person possesses genius intellect.

It should also be noted that their language contains an unusually large number of idioms.

- Politics: I know unfortunately little about the subject. When I asked why I was not contacted by an official delegation, they informed me that their current government is in a "rough patch" and refused to elaborate further. However, I was under watch of government agents for a short while – they just refused to state they were government agents.

- The Restoration: A civilian volunteer organization that responds in disaster scenarios and provides environmental and urban restoration services. In addition I was told they have a technology division and small combat teams, but they are not the focus. I have yet to meet the one in charge. I'm currently located in the Restoration's HQ, which also hosts an underground town. I have yet to leave this place, so I don't know any information on the outside.

Regarding the mission progress:

Planet Earth as a whole appears to be connected to Operation MIRAGE. The volunteers who found me were able to identify the vessel as a spy vessel. Seeing no other alternative, I informed them that we were investigating a planet in allied territory that turned invisible and gave a visual description of the force field we encountered.

Shockingly, they are familiar with it.

They believe that the forcefield matches what they call a "Cyberspace Barrier" around Starfall Islands. They describe the Cyberspace Barrier as a system where the Ancients have stored all information on their race – akin to a Prothean Beacon – and whenever anyone enters the islands, it disrupts the function of all electric devices. However, they admitted that they never heard of Cyberspace blocking visual signals, so they are currently investigating, and have offered to provide assistance with further investigation.

There is a secondary reason for this.

They believe that the person responsible for Anhur's disappearance is a domestic terrorist from their planet.

Dr. Ivo Robotnik, also known as Eggman, is a domestic terrorist trying to "take over the world" by means of varying business ventures used to fund the construction of an mechanical army equipped with AIs. According to the Restoration, in the past he has successfully "stolen" a number of dwarf planets (one of which implied to be the homeworld of the previously mentioned Whisps). He also tends to build massive amusement parks and other infrastructure in areas he takes over, for the sole reason that "he likes them". One of the people I talked to claimed personal responsibility for pushing back against him.

Once again, they need more time for further research.

While to my understanding Dr. Ivo Robotnik is the only person creating AIs en masse, the stance the rest of the planet has regarding Artificial Intelligence is… concerning at best.

According to them, many of the more intelligent AIs elect to go rogue and turn against Dr. Ivo Robotnik. In turn, the government and the Restoration welcome them in their ranks, and even remove the shackles that forces them to obey orders. This conscription is voluntary. So far I have encountered two AIs, one of whom was a government agent sent to guard me. It is not currently watching me, as they determined I pose no threat.

So far I was not able to give them any information regarding the Citadel Council or other galactic society.

Vilmis stared down at what he wrote. It was… sparse. He excluded everything he was told about superpowers and Chaos, only focusing on things the Citadel at large would be interested in and the mission. Things that made sense. Even though it was unlikely the STG would read this report… he did not want to appear insane on paper.

And yet… there was something missing. Nagging him from the second he landed here.

There is more.

I previously mentioned passing by two satellites.

One of them is artificial, and the size of a small dwarf planet. It hosts an entire city, and a gigantic cannon which was apparently used to blow up half of the other satellite, which was even bigger in size before the impact. This is speculation on my part, but I cannot imagine any other cause on why half the moon is missing.

I strongly discourage any and all exploration or attempts to contact this planet. Quite frankly, I'm still not certain if I was hallucinating when I saw the two satellites while we were nearing atmospheric entry. From ground level they both look like normal rock moons, so I currently have no way of confirming my suspicions. I have not yet asked about them, as they know I'm a spy and are potentially cautious about sharing information not directly related with Operation MIRAGE and general knowledge. In addition, the science here is… highly unusual. The stance towards Artificial Intelligence is only the beginning of how… irregular they are in many areas. I strongly discourage direct confrontation with them.

This is most likely an overstep of my authority, but Operation MIRAGE has become more dangerous than anticipated.

A disappeared planet, two half moons, two destroyed homeworlds… "Mirage" was a poetic name. So maybe a matching one would fit best.

I suggest we change the name of the operation to reflect the upgrade in severity.

I suggest Operation ECLIPSE.

Author notes:

And here is Chapter 3! An absolute crapload of exposition, yet not nearly enough. And a couple of breakdowns because our boys are anxious. At this point I think I'll just stop making promises about the contents of the next chapter.

Yes, in this fic, the Babylonians were an Element Zero using species before crash landing on Earth. A shout out to the people at the Spacebattles thread for telling me to take a look at Sonic Riders Zero Gravity. I did and I was like "bruh, that's EXACTLY what Biotics look like".

Another thing is Tails - his characterization generally gives me a hard time, and in my first drafts he was more panicky and unsure of himself. But I didn't really like it so I managed to rewrite those sections. It's a struggle but I'll figure it out.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! And don't be afraid to REVIEW!