Chapter 114

Final Eclipse

The predawn world slumbered beneath a red sky. Refracted rays of sunlight mirrored upon the surface of the still water coloring the ocean a faint maroon. In the distance, red mountains erupted out of the barren earth like spears, their tips glinted as though wet with blood. It was a red morning, and it heralded a red day.

Tails sat in the cockpit of the Egg Carrier with an anxious knot in his stomach. A dozen view screens dominated the space in front of him. Half of the screens gave him a different angle of the Egg Carrier's various remote cameras, while the rest broadcasted live feeds of Aurora's various satellites. The entire breadth of the battlefield was under Tails' direct gaze.

His hands were slick upon the manual controls. Tails took a deep breath and felt the hot fumes of the living machine enter his body. That connection between himself and the machines he employed served as guard against his anxious thoughts. He knew that worry would only slow him down, making him less able to react. Tails needed to be able to think clearly, to anticipate and evolve with the progress of the battle.

The headset he was wearing was tight and pressed up firmly against his ears. He could hear a faint echoing sound issuing out of the mic. The low frequency buzzing was only making him feel more on edge.

Tails checked the bottom rightmost screen. He saw red waves gently moving across the ocean. The only visible indicator of the Egg Carrier was the soft impression its engines left on the water below. Otherwise, the ship was completely invisible. Tails looked up at the center monitor. The Egg Carrier was less than five miles away from the shore. The distant beachhead was blocked by a sheer wall of cliffs and rocks. Only a single narrow opening led deeper into the gorge. Tails adjusted the Egg Carrier's flight path and ran a quick simulation. The current trajectory was a few degrees off center.

"Would you like me to take control?" Aurora's voice echoed out of Tails' headset. "I can adjust our heading with live readings."

"No," Tails said. "I'd prefer to do it myself." It wasn't that Tails didn't trust Aurora, but in this situation he preferred to retain control. Consequently, Tails felt a profound sense of responsibility over the battle to come. A quiet dread rested in his stomach, a strange certainty that told him that when the critical moment came, he would be the one that would have to step up.

Shhhhhh. White noise suddenly emitted out of Tails' headset. "This is Mighty. We've taken out the last turret, but this place is waking up. Drones are swarming the gorge, and the military is rolling out tanks."

Tails' heart skipped a beat. He swallowed slowly and closed his eyes. "Roger that. We are coming in right now." Tails switched channels and tried to speak with as commanding a voice as possible. "Omega, Mighty and Ray have cleared the gorge, have your ground team ready to go in two minutes."

Tails adjusted himself in his seat and took a deep breath. The Egg Carrier was about to pass into the mountains. Once they were inside there would be no way to retreat. Tails made a slight adjustment to their heading, and the Egg Carrier passed easily through the narrow gap. His heart slowed as the early victory imbued him with more confidence. "Aurora, activate the hanger bay."

The still invisible Egg Carrier drifted deeper into the canyon. Beyond the next turn, Tails could see the uppermost towers of GUN Fortress. He checked the satellite cameras and saw that the surrounding area looked like an upturned ant hill, so thick was the cover of GUN's drones. Tails could feel his heart racing in his chest. Any second now, GUN would detect the physical presence of the Egg Carrier and the battle would begin. Tails took control of the Egg Carrier's weapon systems and prepared to fire.

REEEEEE! Suddenly, a loud siren erupted outside. "Aurora, disable the cloak!" In a flash, the Egg Carrier appeared, almost right on top of GUN fortress. Tails checked one of the cameras just in time to see Omega and a mixed squadron of E series robots and Neo Badniks drop down into the canyon.

GUN drones immediately organized and made to encircle Omega's team. Tails targeted them with the Egg Carrier's weapons. "FIRE!"

A calm red tinted morning had given way to an afternoon of smoke and flame. Knuckles could barely see through the dense fog, relying instead on instinct to fight his foes amidst the blur. Four GUN drones attempted to encircle him, but Knuckles heard the faint whine of their motors just in time to counter. He punched a hole into the dry earth beneath him and removed a chunk of solid rock which he used as a temporary shield. The first drone blasted apart his cover just as Knuckles drove his fist through its metal frame. The other three shared the same fate as the first.

His feet crushed their robotic remains as Knuckles moved forward. He had not anticipated just how disorganized a battle at this scale could be. Knuckles looked up and saw the flashing lights of a battle in the sky. GUN drone ships spiraled around the Egg Carrier while Tails' new badniks attempted to defend the command ship. Knuckles turned away from that spectacle. There was nothing he could do on that front. His business was on the ground and securing the main facility.

He tapped his headset and spoke into it. "Metal, where are you, have you taken the western tower yet?" Static emitted out of the comm for a few seconds before Metal's harsh voice responded. "The tower will be ours soon. Assemble near the main fortress and we will meet you there."

Knuckles turned off the comm and tried to orient himself. The entire canyon was covered beneath a blanket of destruction. In a battle primarily fought between machines, each defeated combatant only added to the cover of smoke and shrapnel that threatened to bury the canyon. To rally his forces to him, Knuckles directed his gaze towards a GUN fighter mech. These were far larger and more formidable than their drones, and they had the added element of being piloted by an actual GUN soldier.

A pile of defeated badniks rested at its feet and the fighter mech was now targeting the aerial combatants. It launched a barrage of missiles from the pods on its shoulders, serving as a mobile anti air unit. Knuckles cracked his fists together and rushed towards it. The mech spotted him from about twenty yards away and started targeting him. Knuckles dived past the first few missiles, but as he got closer the blow back was too severe to avoid. So instead, Knuckles punched the missile, sending it spiraling backward and exploding near the mech's head. It staggered backward on its mechanical legs, and that was all the opening Knuckles needed. He let out a roar as he leapt onto the face of mech. Knuckles drew back his fist and punched with all his might. The force of the blow split the metal frame apart. His next punch caused the legs to collapse.

Knuckles looked down and saw that the pilot had been knocked out by the attack. For half a second he considered finishing the pilot as well, but he ignored that instinct. Instead, Knuckles leapt up onto the mech and used its higher position to get a look at the battlefield. Of the half dozen towers that encircled GUN fortress, they had successfully taken four of them. Omega's initial assault had punched a hole through GUN's defenses and each successive wave after that had pushed the military deeper into their facility.

Knuckles had personally captured two towers while Omega and Metal Sonic each took one. The last two were left to Mecha Knuckles and Mighty and Ray. Knuckles had doubted the latter two, but they had proven themselves by clearing the canyon of anti-air turrets. Now he wondered what was causing the hold up.

He checked around him and saw that a little over half of his unit were still fighting. Tails had given him a few hundred of his Clypeus badniks. The shield units served to protect Knuckles while he served as his unit's primary means of offense. Mecha Knuckles had attempted the same strategy, but perhaps to less effective results. Knuckles turned his gaze towards the north eastern tower and wondered. Could he afford to wait?

"Metal," Knuckles said as he tapped his comm. "I'm going to go help take the fifth tower. Assemble your troops by the fortress, but don't engage until I get back!"

Knuckles leapt off the destroyed mech and summoned his badniks. They formed a tight circle around Knuckles as he pressed into the battlefield. Knuckles had relished the early stages of the battle. Crushing waves of GUN drones had been cathartic revenge. However, the battle swiftly turned into a war of attrition as Knuckles was slowly exhausted by long combat and minor injuries. His hands were starting to ache from constantly punching through metal.

Fighting across the canyon was no easy task. GUN tanks fired barrages of artillery that forced the Clypeus to form shield walls in front of Knuckles. This made their movement slow and onerous. Unwilling to get bogged down, Knuckles made a desperate sprint towards a line of GUN tanks. Shells exploded all around him as Knuckles carefully evaded and jumped. Once he had crossed the gap, he leapt into the air, and dived down while twisting like a tornado. Knuckles drilled straight through the tank, breaking it into pieces. The GUN soldiers screamed in terror, throwing down their weapons and running away. Knuckles ignored them as he jumped outside and physically ripped off the barrel of the tank's main gun.

With this new weapon in hand, Knuckles destroyed the rest of the line of tanks, freeing up the rest of his forces to cross into this section of the battlefield. For the next ten minutes, Knuckles and his forces pushed closer and closer to the north eastern tower. They joined a battle already in progress as the holdouts from Mecha Knuckles' assault attempted to hold a defensive line against a surge of GUN drones.

Knuckles instructed his Clypeus units to join in the battle while he entered the tower. Two heavy mechs defended the entrance. One was a Walker Mech and fired missiles while the other was a hovering unit which fired individual beams of energy. These put up a better fight than anything Knuckles had dealt with so far. It was impossible to try and charge through the missile barrage while still avoiding the targeted laser blasts. Knuckles only just narrowly avoided being beamed through the chest, forcing him to change tactics.

He leapt into the air and glided at the hovering mech, all the while cognisant of the missile barrage that was coming in behind him. At the last possible moment, Knuckles flipped backwards and landed on one of the missiles. He used the projectile as a kind of surfboard, riding it until he was only a few feet away from the flying mech. Knuckles flashed a toothy grin at the pilot as he leapt forward and destroyed the mech with one solid punch. The other tried firing all its weapons in a desperate attempt to defend itself, but that only made it easier for Knuckles to avoid the carless fire and destroy it as well.

Once inside the tower, Knuckles was greeted by even more confused and frantic fighting. GUN soldiers had made every effort to hold this tower. Knuckles could hear them screaming orders at each other in the upper floors. To reach them, Knuckles had to carve a path through more GUN drones. Without room to dodge, Knuckles was forced to absorb bullets and blaster fire. Adrenaline kept him impervious to the pain, but the more he fought the more he wore down. Blood was already pooling out of cracks and gashes in his fists.

Knuckles reached a winding spiral staircase which seemed to have been the main focal point of the fighting. Several GUN barricades lay in pieces as well as the remains of many badniks. A few flights up, Knuckles found Mecha Knuckles. The mech sat with its back to a wall, its frame was riddled with machine gun fire. The eyes were cold and dead. It was a strange feeling for Knuckles to look down at his dead mechanical counterpart, but he didn't have time to contemplate it.

What remained of Mecha Knuckles' unit had retrofitted one of GUNS barricades, using it to hold out on the stair well. Knuckles joining the frey immediately turned the tide of battle and the defenders swiftly turned into attackers. With Knuckles at their head, the badniks pushed further and further up the stairs until all the GUN soldiers had been forced to retreat to the very top of the tower.

This was the first time in the battle where Knuckles was forced to fight against humans directly. He took no pleasure in having to take them down, knowing that he could not afford to show mercy. Once a majority of the soldiers had been defeated, the rest laid down their weapons. Knuckles instructed the badniks to hold the soldiers there, but to let them live.

"Knuckles," Metal Sonic's voice issued out of the comm. "The fifth tower is taken and we have grouped at the fortress. What is your status?"

"We just captured the sixth, I'm on my way!" Knuckles left the tower and he had his unit follow him as they fought their way back across the battlefield. The Egg Carrier was still embroiled in a massive aerial battle, but most of the ground fighting had now been redirected towards the entrance of GUN fortress.

The entire badnik army had been assembled at the foot of a long steel bridge which led up to the main gates. As a final gambit, GUN sent out fifty of their largest mechs to attempt to hold the bridge. Knuckles led the charge against them. Everything around him dissolved into a disorienting mess of metal and fire. Knuckles was only vaguely aware of those around him as he lost himself completely in the battle.

This last stage of the battle was the most grueling. GUN's final mechs were far more durable and dangerous than the others. They stood at nearly twenty feet tall and had machine guns mounted on their shoulders with rounds that could pierce through solid rock. Each mech was equipped with a flamethrower and a huge sautered blade. These fights tested Knuckles to the breaking point, and every mech he defeated left him with a new injury. His face was cut, his chest burned, and his entire body was covered in bruises and wounds.

It seemed for a moment that the mechs had turned the tide of the battle, when Mighty and Ray returned from taking the last tower. Knuckles saw a glint of red beside him and marveled as Mighty broke through the chest of one of the mechs as if he had been fired out of a cannon. This helped reinvigorate the attackers, and after a lengthy battle, the last mech was destroyed.

Knuckles breathed heavily as he limped across the final leg of the bridge. Metal Sonic and the rest of the badniks assembled behind him. They had started the battle with nearly thirty five hundred badniks. That number had been reduced down to less than a thousand. Knuckles looked at the imposing fortress and wondered how many more drones and mechs the humans had. It doesn't matter. He told himself. All that mattered was that they destroyed the Eclipse Canon.

After taking a quick breather, Knuckles had the army march behind him as he approached the gates. They were made of layered steel and would take an incredible amount of force to penetrate. He tapped his comm to let Tails know what was happening. "We've reached the main gate, Tails. Get ready to join us."

"I'll be ready," Tails answered.

Knuckles approached the main gates alone and knocked as loudly as he could. "Open up. Anyone who lays down their weapons will be spared." He waited a few seconds before knocking again. "Open up. Anyone who lays down their weapons will be spared!" He yelled. Again there was silence.

Knuckles sighed and reared back. He drove his fist forward and punched the gate. The impact made his teeth clench and a tremor run up his back. It did not seem to have made a dent, but Knuckles could tell that it had. Knuckles reared back and punched a second time. This time he audibly heard the metal groan. Before he could punch a third time, someone had walked up beside him. Mighty flashed him a quick grin before he punched the gate. To Knuckles' surprise, Mighty was nearly as strong as he was.

Together, the two of them hammered on the gates. Each blow made the cuts on Knuckles' hands split apart more and more, every strike left more and more blood upon the gate. The gate slowly started to bend inward, and a few minutes of steady effort left the gates on verge of collapse. Mighty and Knuckles gave each other a knowing look. One more good punch would break them down.

"Stand down." A voice issued out of the speakers from atop the gate. Knuckles took a step back and watched as a single GUN drone soared out from the midst of the facility. It flew down in front of the gate and hovered in place. Suddenly, the drone projected an image onto the dented gate. It was the face of an elderly human male.

"I am Argus Smith, President of the United Federation." The man said stiffly. "Your brazen attack upon our facility constitutes an act of war." The voice was not only projected over the speaker from atop the gate, but from microphones throughout the entire canyon. "Stand down or prepare for the full retaliation of the U.F military."

"We're long past the bargaining stage," Knuckles answered coldly. "You destroyed Angel Island, we will stop our attack when those responsible have been beaten down to dust."

Metal Sonic strode up beside Knuckles and addressed the human commander with a mock bow. "So you finally decide to show yourself. Have we finally gotten your attention?"

Argus sneered. "Even a king may come to the walls to see the rabble at his gates, just to marvel at the spectacle."

"A king? Is that what you fashion yourself now? Has power corrupted you so swiftly?"

"You would criticize me? You who fashion yourself, Metal Overlord? An overlord of what I wonder? You are a relic of a bygone age, a machine that has long overstayed its factory date. Do you think victory will bring you peace? You and your kind must be destroyed. You may call these heroes your friends today, but how long will it be before they come knocking at your door?"

"Enough," Knuckles growled. "We aren't here to talk. Unless you plan on surrendering."

Argus' gray, lifeless eyes flashed with menace. "At least you are not a hypocrite. You come here with a crown. Perhaps you at least understand that the world must be conquered."

"That kind of thinking destroyed my race," Knuckles said flatly. "I'm not here to dominate, I'm here to set the earth free from your tyranny."

Argus laughed. It was unnatural, as if the man had never learned how to laugh properly. Lines formed along his face that made it appear as if his skin were on the verge of cracking apart. "I knew this day would come," The man said, almost in a whisper. "A day when the freaks would come and try to tear down everything that I have built. I warned them, I warned them all, but they wouldn't listen."

"Stop babbling!" Knuckles demanded. "Do you have something to say to us? Or can we continue destroying what remains of your army?"

Argus glared at the screen. "You fools. Do you honestly think I would ever allow you to come this far?" He stepped back and pushed a rolling screen into view. The screen flashed and displayed a map of the earth. A glowing red dot was highlighted on the far side of the planet. "As we speak, the Eclipse Canon is prepared to fire with the payload of four Sol Gems. The ensuing blast will decimate half the world." Argus' voice had changed. Spit flung out of his mouth like the foam of a rabid animal. "Venture past this gate and you will have the burden of millions of souls upon your conscience."

Knuckles hesitated. Surely he had not heard the man correctly. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Argus smirked. The smile made the lines in his face expand to the breaking point. "Continue this assault and I will fire the Eclipse Canon and destroy half of this planet."

"You're insane…" Knuckles could not even form the words needed to protest what he was hearing.

Argus seemed to feed off of Knuckles' pain and confusion. He became increasingly animated as he pointed at the map. "A blast at this point will destroy everything that is yet to fall under the direct control of the U.F! Breach this facility and I will turn this world to glass!"

"What the hell is the matter with you!" Mighty screamed. "Fight us here, you coward. Don't threaten people who have nothing to do with this!"

Knuckles said nothing. Argus knew what he was saying was insane. That was evident in the man's expression. He was so determined to win, he would destroy everything. "I don't care," Knuckles said, in a bad attempt at a feint. "Why would I care if you kill a bunch of humans?"

"Because you are weak." Argus' tone suddenly became cold and completely void of emotion. His face became rigid and still. "You are not willing to do what it takes to win, to suffer the consequences of one's own actions. I am. I am willing to build over the ashes if that is what it takes. Now stand down."

Knuckles was frozen in place. He didn't know what to do and frustration boiled inside him until he released a roar of rage. Knuckles smashed his fist against the ground creating a crater in the steel bridge. "Damn you!" He bellowed. "You won't do it. You can't."

"I assure you that I will." The look on his face was evidence enough that the human commander was not bluffing. "I would see this entire world burn before I would allow you vermin to take it over."

"Stop this," Metal Sonic interjected. "Why tear your own soul apart with this wanton destruction?"

"This is my world." Argus thumped his fist against his chest. "I will do with it as I please. I would rather everything burn than to see my legacy desecrated by the likes of you. GUN is the guardian of nations, we decide which nations live or die, we decide whose lives count. That is true power. The power to shape the world to your will. You do not understand that, so you do not deserve to rule."

"Do it then!" Metal challenged. "Turn humanity to dust. It means nothing to me. I will take your world and live forever amongst the smoke and ruin."

"No!" Knuckles pushed Metal Sonic away. "What was the point of everything you've done, if you're just going to destroy the world?"

"I don't have to justify myself to you. I have explained my terms. Continue your advance and I will fire the Eclipse Canon. You may retreat if that is your wish, or you may surrender and I promise that you will spend the rest of your lives in comfortable prisons."

"Never!" Knuckles roared. "Where is your honor?"

Argus closed his eyes and shook his head as if he were frowning over a child who had given the wrong answer in a classroom. "Honor is merely a cloak, a sanitized veil worn by those who wield power with desultory civility in an attempt to obscure their true nature. It is a façade, tossed aside when circumstances shift. It did not shield my family, nor can it protect the world. Honor is a comforting lie that attempts to shield the weak from the unyielding truth. Power is all. Power is absolute. It strips away all covers and presents itself in all its glory. Power is never dormant. It is perpetually active, it is an unyielding force that exerts its domination by the unceasing and unflinching suppression of the weaker. It is the energy derived solely from the constant manifestation of itself. Power is god."

"That's madness!" Knuckles protested. "You will destroy everything, and for what?"

Argus smiled. "Do you still not understand? It is because I can. For decades, I poured every ounce of my being into the pursuit of the power that would safeguard my country. Yet, it eluded my grasp time and again. Failure taught me the undeniable truth: power must be sought for its own sake. Only those who grasp this fundamental truth will ever truly possess it. Absolute power is the end to which all endeavors must be directed. Anything and everything can be sacrificed for its attainment. I will never yield, just as power itself never yields."

Argus paused, seemingly relishing the shock etched across the faces of his listeners. "You have heard my terms. Now, it is time for you to make your choice-"

"You're insane!" Mighty leapt forward and destroyed the drone with a single punch. The projection died, and the parlay was over.

A heavy moment of silence followed. Knuckles closed his eyes. He felt the ground beneath him spin. An empty hollowness opened up inside him and threatened to swallow him whole. All the adrenaline of the battle had left him. He felt every injury start to flare up. His mic chimed, and he heard Tails' voice. "Knuckles?" Tails' voice sounded weak as it issued out of the comm. "We can't…we can't let him do this."

"They are humans," Knuckles replied. "We can't save them Tails. If he wants to threaten his own kind, why should we stop him?"

"I….I won't do it. I'll order my badniks to stand down. Knuckles…please…we have to find another way."

Knuckles shook his head. There was no other way. If they did not stop GUN now then the Eclipse Canon would be held over their heads forever. The only path to victory was forward. But could Knuckles give that command? Could he seal the fate of countless millions?

He could not even begin to feel the weight of that choice. Knuckles tried to wrestle with his own thoughts just as he heard metallic footsteps behind him. He turned to see Metal Sonic and Omega standing beside him. "What are you waiting for?" Metal asked. "Give the order." There was no doubt in the red eyes of Metal Sonic. The cold, emotionless robot felt nothing.

"I can't…" Knuckles managed. "You heard him. He'll blow up half the planet if we press forward!"

"That doesn't mean anything to us. He is desperate, he knows he cannot win."

Knuckles squared up to Metal. "I'm in charge here, and I say what we do. Tails will not command his badniks to attack."

Metal looked back at Knuckles. His cold red eyes glinted with unfeeling indifference. "There is no other way. If we retreat today, we will never get another chance."

"And what happens once he's destroyed half the planet? What happens then?"

"Rebuild."

Knuckles threw up his arms in frustration. The choice may have been easy enough for Metal Sonic, but it was an impossible one for Knuckles. That was the point of course, the human commander must have known, he must have foreseen that neither Knuckles nor Tails could make such a choice. It's because of you. Knuckles reserved a storehouse of bitter resentment towards Sonic. It was because of Sonic that he had become so soft, that he had been infected with the disease called heroism.

At the same time, Knuckles wondered if it wasn't prophetic that he was here and not Sonic. He was where Sonic would have been, and it was now his place to face this choice. What would Sonic have done? This would have been the trap that destroyed Sonic that split him down right in the middle. Would the same fate befall Knuckles? Could he resist the temptation to save everyone and push forward?

"We are wasting time!" Metal Sonic snapped. "Reinforcements will come. We must act now."

"No!" Knuckles repeated. "We…we can't…"

"Knuckles…" Tails' voice spoke out of the comm. "I won't do it. I will command my forces to hold back. Don't do this."

"We will not be defeated here." Metal Sonic tapped his head and spoke clearly. "Aurora, initiate program, METAL OVERLORD."

"What are you-" His question died on his lips as Knuckles watched all of Tails' badniks started to stir.

"They are under my command now," Metal Sonic said. "I feared that the humans might attempt to sway your petty emotions, so I programmed a failsafe into Aurora. This is my army now, and we push forward. If humans wish to die, then let them."

Knuckles spread out his arms. "No! Not yet, not until we-" SMASH! Omega moved before Knuckles knew what was happening. A huge metallic arm struck him in the back of head making him see stars. Mighty let out a cry of protest, but he was quickly tackled by Omega. Knuckles tried to pick himself up, but his arms had turned to weak noodles. His vision blurred. At the corner of his eye, he saw the army of badniks start to rush towards the gate. With a combined blast of all their weapons, the gates blew apart. Metal Sonic looked down at Knuckles one last time before leading his army inside.

Knuckles rolled onto his back. His face was towards the smoke choked sky. Suddenly, something pushed away the smoke. Knuckles watched in silent terror as a pink beam of energy shot up into the sky. The Eclipse Canon had been fired.