The Fox and the Seedrian: Frontiers
by milesprower06
Chapter Sixteen
Years ago, Tails had programmed an emergency alert system into the wristwatches he had given to each of his family members and friends, so that if there was a crisis, they'd be able to respond in a timely manner.
With the trio's watches beeping and flashing red, this was the first time that the function had been used outside of a test environment.
The moment the Tornado X3 was in the air and headed back towards the coast at full throttle, Tails was on the ship's communicator, to the person who had sent out the emergency alert.
"We're headed back as fast as we can, Chris. What's happened?" Tails asked.
"One of our orbital satellites detected what looked like the beginnings of a wormhole in high orbit two days ago, so that's what I've been occupied with. Sure enough, ten minutes ago, a rather large wormhole formed, and it spat out what looks to be the remains of a ship, before collapsing barely a minute later. After capturing some clear images, I immediately sent out the alert. See for yourself," Chris told him.
The screen containing Chris' feed was replaced with the satellite's imagery, and Tails' found himself suddenly short of breath as his heart began pounding faster, when he saw the considerably damaged remains of a Meterex dreadnought in orbit.
Tails didn't even have to reply before Chris continued.
"No idea how operational it is, or even if it is operational until we get a closer look. I'm prepping the Blue Hurricane for launch, with a full armament," Chris said.
"We're coming back at full burn, we'll be there," Tails said.
"Dad, what's going on?" Lily asked worriedly from the seat behind him.
"I'm not 100% certain yet, hun. Something dangerous might have just come out of a wormhole in orbit. Something very dangerous," her dad replied. "When we land, I want you to go into the control room with Bokkun and stay there, understood?"
"I can't come with?" Lily asked.
"No, not this time. It's too dangerous," Tails said, and Lily knew there would be no arguing with him this time.
Sure enough, when they came within sight of the coast, they saw that the hillside hangar doors had already been opened, and that the Blue Hurricane's engines were being warmed up. Tails slowed the jet, extended the landing gear, and didn't bother going all the way back to the hangar next to his house, opting to place the jet in the grass right next to the upper lab entrance a short distance away from their backyard garden. Once they were down and the engine power was cold, the canopy opened, and Tails immediately hopped out of the jet, and went for the lift that would take him down to the main control room of his underground workshop, waiting for Lily to unbuckle herself, get out of the jet, and join him in the lift.
She didn't usually see her dad this worried.
Sonic had no trouble running around to the hangar doors and making his own kind of entrance.
The lift doors slid open with a hiss, and Tails got out to see Cosmo, Chris, and Bokkun at the consoles that overlooked the large hangar containing the Blue Hurricane.
"Any updates?" Tails asked.
"Some of the debris surrounding the dreadnought is entering the atmosphere. Luckily, if it's not burning up in re-entry, it's landing in the Sapphire Sea. The dreadnought itself hasn't moved after lurching with the collapse of the wormhole, and is holding in a geosynchronous orbit 36,000 kilometers up," Chris explained.
"Chris, Cosmo, you're on board with me and Sonic. Bokkun, stay here and monitor from the ground with Lily," Tails instructed. "Full armament?"
"Scanning probes, sentry drones, missile pods fully loaded, 30mm and 50mm autocannons stocked, and Code Black is on board," Chris told him as the trio made their way to the exterior catwalks to go down to the Blue Hurricane.
"What's 'Code Black'?" Cosmo asked as they walked up the loading ramp.
Chris glanced at Tails, betraying a look of worry that Cosmo had to ask that question.
"A weapon of last resort," was all Tails said. "That I really hope we don't have to use."
By the time the four of them were seated and strapped in on the bridge, the loading ramp was brought up.
"Ship is airtight, she's ready to fly," Tails heard Bokkun's voice on the communicator.
"Most of the falling debris has tapered off, our escape vector is clear," Chris said.
"Control room sealed and isolated," Bokkun told them from the control room.
"Up we go," Tails stated, just before activating the liftoff thrusters.
The Blue Hurricane's thrusters burned clean, so there was very little in the way of smoke and fire in the hangar. But what the control room had to be protected from was the heat from the exhaust until the ship cleared the hangar. After she put a headset on and was seated next to the hovering Bokkun, Lily watched as the ship slowly hovered out of the hangar. When they were clear of the hillside, the main engine was activated, and the frigate rocketed up into the sky.
"One thousand kilometers… Two thousand…" Chris recited their altitude as the ship continued to pick up speed.
They passed the cloud layers after the first minute, and in the next two minutes, the open blue sky steadily got darker and darker, before it gave way entirely to the starfield.
"Thirty thousand kilometers," Chris said.
"A nuclear weapon?" Came Cosmo's shocked voice, not over the headset, but directly at Tails, as she had turned to look at him in stunned disbelief, after having called up the Blue Hurricane's offensive loadout on her console. "You have something like that on board?"
"I promise I'll explain later, Cosmo," Tails said.
Part of Cosmo wanted to press the issue, but she knew now was not the time.
"There," Chris said, looking at the forward scanners, before raising his head to the viewport to see a noticeable gap in the stars.
As they approached a height of 36,000 kilometers, Chris decreased their speed, and activated the forward floodlights. At first, the beams of light did nothing, but as they slowly panned to the left, an angular, dark crimson hull was brought into view.
The rectangular viewport was massive, almost big enough for the Blue Hurricane to fly through. There were two levels of what was likely the ship's bridge, and the glass was cracked, but not shattered, in several places.
"Chris?" Tails asked.
"Already cross-referencing to confirm…" Chris began as he called up battle footage from years ago. "Yeah… This is Red Pine's dreadnought. Or rather, what's left of it."
Tails remembered the gargantuan Meterex ship in command of the armada of hundreds that had destroyed their own battlestation to try and kill their opposition. In doing so, the reactor of said battlestation had gone critical and had generated a gravity well, which had consumed the station, the armada of smaller frigates, as well as the dreadnought itself, which couldn't break free due to the lack of power. It had almost been the end of everyone present, had it not been for the intervention of Sonic and Shadow.
Tails thought the dreadnought had perished in the ensuing explosion. Indeed, about 80% of the ship was missing, namely the colossal, bulbous scaled section that had contained most of the weapons and engines, as well as the bottom section which had contained a large beam weapon as well as cooling vents and navigation fins.
"Scanning probes away," Chris announced, watching as the small droids left their ports and swarmed towards the drifting crimson hull.
"Why here? Of all places? And more than eleven years later?" Tails asked softly.
The bridge was mostly silent, save for the sounds of scan data coming in from the flight of drones.
"No active weapon systems on the hull. No artificial atmosphere detected, either," Chris reported as more of the drones' scans came in. Indeed, from how it appeared that the top and bottom of the ship were sheared off, Tails couldn't imagine any kind of air remaining. "No artificial gravity… The ship appears cold and dead, except for… A very faint power source coming from the top level of the bridge."
Tails took quiet breaths as he continued looking out at the derelict hull.
"Possible access points?" Tails asked.
Cosmo pressed a few keys on her portion of the console, and a hologram materialized on the viewport, superimposed over the ship floating in front of them.
"Dorsal side, right down into the top level of the bridge. We can keep both ships stable with docking clamps," Chris said.
"Zero-G suits?" Sonic asked.
"Yeah. We've got oxygen tanks with two hours worth of air, that should be more than enough. Cable spools connected to the outer airlock too, so we don't lose our sense of direction," Tails agreed.
He carefully tilted the twin flight sticks and maneuvered the Blue Hurricane slowly into position, bringing the ship's starboard side into alignment with the open corridor on top of what remained of the dreadnought. When they got close enough, he tapped another key, and brought up video feeds from the starboard cameras.
"Extending docking clamps," Chris announced, using his own set of flight sticks to maneuver four metallic arms on each side of the starboard airlock towards the hull of the dreadnought. One by one, they were brought into place, and the pincers closed in on the jagged pieces of hull that had been selected.
"We're secure," Chris announced after the fourth clamp latched onto the dreadnought.
"Alright, who's staying here?" Tails asked, asking for the standard procedure of one crew member to stay behind to keep the away team appraised of ship functions.
"I will," Cosmo replied. "Let's try and be quick; the less time we're attached to this thing the better."
"Agreed," Tails said, getting up. "Sonic, Chris, you're with me. Let's suit up. Bokkun, how's our telemetry?"
"36,200 kilometers, descending at about a kilometer per minute. I'll alert you if that rate increases at all," Bokkun told them.
"At that rate, it'll take months for the orbit to decay," Chris replied.
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Tails said. "Once we search the bridge for this power source, it'll just take the tractor beam and enough engine power to drastically increase the decay."
They descended down to the second level, where the starboard airlock was. First was the room with the spacesuits, then the actual airlock.
Each of them took several minutes to get into appropriately sized space suits, then when each of them were sealed up, Tails tapped a button on the suit's wrist.
"Vitals and comms check," the fox said.
"Two hours of oxygen for all three of you, and comms are five by five," came Cosmo's reply.
"Roger, proceeding to airlock," Tails answered as he handed Chris and Sonic each a spool of bright, neon green cable, before grabbing his own. Then, side by side, they approached the inner airlock door, and opened it. Once they were all through, Tails shut the inner door.
"Hook up," he told them. Each of them took their spools, and attached the other end of the cable to a hook on the ceiling, before taking the spools, and hooked them onto the belt of their suits.
"Mag-boots," Tails said, reaching down to a panel on his thigh, and pressed the right most button. There was a quiet humming sound, and the bottom of his boots were then magnetically attracted to the floor. The hedgehog and human followed suit.
"Alright, here we go. Depressurizing in three, two, one…" Tails said, before hitting a series of keys on the right-side wall panel. Air began to hiss around them, and they felt the air pressure and gravity around their suits lessen. After about sixty seconds, the hissing stopped, and the indicator lamp on the wall turned green.
"Alright, here we go," the fox said, reaching up for the outer door release lever that now had the safeties unlocked, and pulled it down.
The outer airlock door slid open, and the trio was met with a foreboding view. A ten-foot gap separated the airlock from the opening in the dreadnought. The corridor wasn't dark, as Mobius' sun was still well on this side of the planet. Beyond that, was the stunning backdrop of Mobius itself, unmoving due to the geosynchronous orbit of both vessels.
"Alright," Tails began. "Nice and easy. Use the docking arms if you have to, it's just ten feet."
The mag-boots weren't overly powerful, it just stopped you from floating off unless you meant to, so stepping forward towards the edge was took barely more effort than it would in an environment with normal gravity. Tails was the first to reach up and put his hands on the top left docking arm, while carefully stepping out onto the bottom left with both feet, and began to step across until he got to the opening in the dreadnought. Although the suits had reinforced, multilayered weaving that was resistant to tearing, the fox still double checked for any jagged metal that would be any danger.
Thankfully, all the jagged pieces of the edge of the corridor had been bent outward, not inward, and he could only guess that was because of the ship's atmosphere exploding outward as the dreadnought tore itself apart in the threshold of the wormhole.
Tails finished crossing, and set his boots on the dreadnought. He had to keep his bearings in mind, as he saw an access ladder on the right wall, reminding himself that they were headed down into the bridge, and would likely have to perform something akin to walking on walls before they were done here.
Chris was right behind him, and even though they had done a day of zero-g training annually, he never got used to the amplified sound of his own breathing in the confines of the helmet, with everything else muffled, such as the steps of his boots. A few moments later, both Chris and Sonic had set their feet in the dreadnought, and they slowly made their way in.
When they saw the robotic, insectoid-shaped husks of the purple-eyed Metarex troopers, Tails' and Chris' right hands went for their hip-holstered shock pistols. The droids floated motionless in the vacuum.
"Drones, to me," Tails said into his headset. The three of them backed up against what was the left wall to them as a pair of scanning drones from the Blue Hurricane slowly floated into the corridor.
"Scan for power signatures and energy weapons," Tails instructed them, and they went in ahead, with the fox, hedgehog, and human following.
They followed the corridor down another thirty feet to the back of the bridge. The wide viewport across the entire front of the bridge offered a simply stunning view of Mobius, increased by the fact that there were no lights or indicators of any kind on the bridge. They slowly walked down the "wall" and making sure to keep their equilibrium in check, put their feet up on the 90-degree bend, and kept their balance as they stepped into the floor proper.
The three of them took the opportunity to double check their cables to make sure they hadn't snagged on anything while the scanning drones slowly made their way forward into the bridge, scanning every floating, lifeless Metarex trooper.
An alert beep from the closest drone brought the shock pistols of Tails and Chris up. After a moment, they saw that the drone was floating in front of what must have been the captain's chair, continually scanning it. Slowly, keeping their guns up, the three of them stepped forward, Sonic more cautiously than the others, because he was decidedly not as formidable both in the spacesuit and in the zero-g environment. Chris took the left side, Tails took the right, and together, they took a large step around the large chair, and saw a figure that they had only ever saw on-screen.
"Red Pine," Tails said.
The crimson-armored Metarex general sat motionless, and possibly lifeless, in the chair that overlooked the rest of the bridge. His cape slowly billowed in the zero-gravity, but was mostly kept in check by the rest of his body against the chair. The only likely reason he wasn't floating aimlessly with the rest of the bridge personnel was how tightly his robotic hands were gripping the armrests. The only reason the nine-foot behemoth wasn't towering over them was because of his sitting position.
Chris reached into one of his side pouches and came out with a handheld scanner, holding it up to the armored figure, to see what the drone had detected.
"Minimal power readings from his back area. I'm guessing life support," Chris said.
"Life support systems that last for over ten years?" Sonic asked.
"The wormhole could have had any number of unnatural conditions. Suspended animation, for instance," Tails suggested.
Chris looked around, and saw that the other drone had completed its sweep of the bridge; everything else in here was cold and dead, their power drained long ago, or they had perished in the explosion that tore the ship into pieces.
"So what do we do?" Chris asked.
Tails took a deep breath as he looked up at the brilliant orange orbs set in the armor's helmet and chest, seeing his reflection in each of them.
"Can we get him back up the corridor, and into the ventral cargo compartment?" Tails asked.
Chris looked at him incredulously.
"You can't be serious," the young man replied.
"If we leave him here, he could survive re-entry. I'm not going to take that chance. We get him to the cargo bay, lock the armor down with an immobilizer, and get him down to the lab. Maybe then we can try cracking the armor open, see if the Seedrian inside is even alive," Tails said.
"Tails has a good point," they heard Cosmo's voice come over their headsets, as she had been listening in.
Chris looked down at the silver hands that gripped the armrests, and began to pry them loose, with Tails doing the same on his side. When the grip was loosened, the zero-gravity environment effected the Metarex general the same as it had everything else not bolted down, and the three of them took their hands and slowly guided him around the chair, making sure to stay in front of the armor so it wouldn't get tangled in their cables. The three of them found it easiest to move the armor via the elongated pauldrons and two sets of metallic horns on the helmet, as they returned up the corridor with the drones behind them.
"Ventral cargo access is depressurized and open," Cosmo reported as they approached the gap.
Crossing the gap again was easier than it was going, as they merely kept hold of the Metarex general with one hand, and retracted their unwound cable back towards the spool, which gently pulled them back towards their airlock. Once they were there, Tails and Chris both took two 90-degree steps to the underbelly of the Blue Hurricane pulling the motionless Red Pine with them, towards one of the hatches that had been opened.
"How are you holding up, Chris?" Tails asked.
"I've been better," Chris replied, the queasiness beginning to get to his stomach.
"Keep looking at the hull," Tails told him as they walked across the underside of the ship to the open cargo hatch. They stepped inside, pulling Red Pine in with them among the rest of the strapped-down plasteel cargo crates. They took him to a hover-dolly, and strapped as much of the armored figure as they could, with his lower legs dangling off of the front of it. With the Metarex as reasonably secured as possible, Tails reached into his pouch, and came out with a small, cylindrical device.
"Now that's not going to short out the life support systems, is it?" Chris asked, wanting to be absolutely sure they weren't going to accidentally kill him if it was the goal to get him down to the lab alive, if he was actually alive inside the armor.
"It doesn't interfere with electrical systems. It just makes the armor completely immobile. Alright. Grav-dolly is secure. Sooner we're back on the ground, the better," Tails told him. They made their way back out to the exterior of the hull, and made their way back to the starboard airlock while Cosmo closed and re-pressurized the cargo hold. Once everyone was back inside, re-pressurized, and the spacesuits and cable spools stowed, they made their way back to the bridge and took their seats again.
"Alright, release docking clamps," Tails ordered. Chris did so, and slowly retracted the four mechanical arms.
"We're loose," Chris replied.
"Bokkun?" Tails asked.
"I'm here," their robot assistant replied.
"We're going to use the tractor beam to remove the dreadnought from geosync orbit. Have our satellite keep a lock on it, and let me know when to release it so that it re-enters the atmosphere and lands in the deepest region if the Sapphire Sea," Tails instructed.
"One moment, calculating…" Bokkun answered.
Tails used micro thrusts to move away from the dreadnought, and then slowly moved above it and came in between it and Mobius.
"Prepare to engage both stern tractor beams," Tails instructed as he moved the Blue Hurricane into position.
"Tractor beams ready," Chris replied.
"Ready to calculate re-entry corridor," Bokkun came over the headset.
"Engage tractor beams, main engine to 75%," Tails said. The bridge's occupants were gently pushed back in their seats as the main engine started up.
"Geosync orbit decaying," Bokkun reported.
"Chaos energy stable," Cosmo chimed in, as she monitored the ship's energy output.
"Altitude, 34,000 kilometers… 33,000 kilometers…" Chris said.
"Turn 35 degrees starboard," Bokkun instructed. Navigating according to his instructions, Tails carefully moved the flight sticks slowly to the left, keeping an eye on the navigational HUD superimposed over the viewport.
"31,000 kilometers," Chris reported.
"We're only going to get one shot at this. Hold that entry vector until 25,000 kilometers, then go full throttle to get out of the way in time. This isn't going to be the most accurate re-entry, we're just aiming for the deepest areas of the ocean and keep it as far away from a landfall as possible," Bokkun said.
"29,000… 28,000… 27,000…" Chris reported as their descent continued.
"Standby to disengage tractor beams," Tails said.
"26,000… 25,000!" Chris exclaimed.
"Disengage!" Tails said.
The four occupants were pushed back into their seats as the engines were pushed to full power, and Tails knew the next move would be a gamble. Diving downward would present the lowest risk of colliding with the derelict dreadnought picking up speed behind them, but it would also take them out of the safest re-entry corridor, increasing chances of potential damage to the ship. Pulling up would risk collision with the dreadnought, but would take them out of all re-entry vectors, and they would be able to safely observe where the wreck would land.
Tails pushed the engines to 110% for a few moments while he gently pulled up on both flight sticks, not sacrificing too much speed as he slowly pulled the Blue Hurricane out of the descent.
"24,500… 25,000… 26,000…" Chris continued to report their altitude.
They heard the flaming wreck of the dreadnought bridge pass under them. Confident that he had maneuvered correctly, Tails eased the main engine back to 70%, and put the Hurricane into a roll, giving the bridge's occupants a clear view of the dreadnought bridge, as it became surrounded by flames, and continued descending through the chosen re-entry corridor. Another sixty seconds passed, and they lost the fireball beneath the cloud cover.
"Bokkun, update?" Tails asked.
Several moments passed by while the robot in the lab monitored the falling object.
"Confirmed, I repeat, confirmed, landing zone will be the Sapphire Sea, 650 nautical miles from the nearest coast. That's some of the deepest ocean on Mobius," Bokkun finally answered.
Tails and Chris both breathed a sigh of relief.
"Copy that. We're headed home. Prep the high-security room. We'll need medical equipment, laser cutters, and rerouted power to keep the retention shields powered at all times," Tails said.
"Lily's on it until you land," Bokkun replied.
"Not to mention having that lab manned 24/7 until we're absolutely sure our cargo isn't a threat," Chris commented. "I hope Helen doesn't mind me bunking here for a bit."
The Blue Hurricane's re-entry and landing went without issue, and when the ship was secured, Cosmo was the first one out of her seat and down the loading ramp, leaving without a word.
"I'll help get him to the high sec room," Tails said.
"No," Chris immediately told him. "Go talk to her. She absolutely deserves an explanation. I still can't believe you didn't tell her we had that nuke."
Tails' heart ached momentarily when he saw Sonic nod in agreement.
"We'll get him secured. Go," his best friend told him.
Taking a deep breath, Tails followed Cosmo's trail up to the exterior walkway, into the control room, and up the lift to the hillside behind their backyard. He saw that the kitchen light was on through the patio door, and made his way through their backyard garden, entering his home.
"Cosmo?" He called softly. Seeing no one in the kitchen, he went down the hall to their bedroom, where the door was barely cracked open. Placing his hand on the doorknob, he slowly opened it with a creak, and his heart crawled up into his throat when he saw Cosmo sitting facing away from him on their bed. He took deep, quiet breath as he made his way around the bed and sat next to her on the side of the bed.
"I'm sorry," he said softly. "I absolutely should have told you."
The fox reached over and put his hand over Cosmo's which were resting in her lap. Cosmo turned her hands upward to grab it, and squeezed.
"I hate being mad at you. You saw what those weapons did to Green Gate. Just… Please make me understand why you have a weapon like that," Cosmo pleaded, as she struggled to hold back tears.
"We didn't make it, I'll say that right now. It was one of the last things we salvaged from Eggman's old silo base. Once Chris and I safely decrypted the arming codes, we debated what to do with it; permanently disarming it, burying it, launching it into space and detonating it… Or keeping it. We decided to keep it, but not for any conceivable scenario, I swear to you, Cosmo. It was for the crises we couldn't think of. A weapon of last resort, that we prayed we would never have to use."
Cosmo took a deep breath, and let it out in an exhale of relief.
"Weapons like that shouldn't exist, my love, but… I suppose I can understand. Especially considering what just came out of a wormhole in orbit after more than a decade. What are we going to do?" Cosmo asked him, worry filling her voice.
"We're going to take it one day, one hour at a time. We have to figure out if he's alive in that armor, and if so, do whatever we have to do to ensure that he's not a threat. And, more than likely, try and curb our daughter's curiosity," Tails said.
"Agreed on that part. Alright, I won't keep you. I know we're all tired, so go help Chris, and figure out who's taking the first night shift," Cosmo told him.
Tails leaned over to kiss his wife.
"I love you."
"I love you too."