"Here's all the gear I've got." Shadow said to Tails as he dumped off nine bodies of the large giants he had faced, with one being the exact same giant that had cut Sonic's ear off, along with all of their weapons, plus some of the weapons of the normal humans and some armor.
Tails spoke as he inspected all of the gear, acting like a child on Christmas morning, "Well, thank you, Shadow; now I can get to work on reverse engineering and reproducing all of this gear for ourselves, not to mention seeing how these giants work, 'cause I doubt they're natural."
Shadow nodded and replied as he left, "By the way, make me more of those Gyrojet guns, the ones used by the giants." Tails nodded and immediately got to work studying the gear; after some struggling with stripping the armor from the bodies and heavy disinfectant, he soon realized that this stuff was child's play.
Only in an hour he had already drawn the blueprints of all the gear and had already started to rip apart and smelt down the armor pieces, since he had an idea concerning the armor, that being to build his own suit of armor, which will probably be an insult to this "imperium".
Another hour and he had already made versions of the weapons meant to be used by Mobian hands and had also improved them tremendously, especially the Gyrojet-based weapon, allowing it to be handled like a normal rifle.
He had also increased the power on the laser-based weaponry Shadow had recovered, and while the wispons were good, the lasers were just better in every way, even in the ammunition department, so it would be an easy thing to convince Amy to switch the weapons over to the lasers.
Next was armor; the basic combat armor worn by the humans was simple to make, and it didn't take much resources. The power armor, on the other hand, was more difficult, mostly due to resources, since while Tails could improvise, he still had a limited supply of scrap from the original sets of armor.
Though, as a proof of concept, he soon began work on his own suit of armor, using the scrap and tech he gathered to fashion into a lightweight, mobile, and protective suit of gear, plus combining the tech from the power into a system he could attach to his tails, making them more powerful in melee.
It took longer than Tails wished to adapt the armor and to work out the kinks, since the original armor was flawed in multiple ways, like the oversized pauldrons and the exposed neck area, along with the noise it generated sounding like a car engine.
But after hours of work, Tails stepped back and admired the suit; some parts were easier to implement than others. The leg and torso armor could just be shrunken down, and the same with the power pack on the back. Though he did have to add in a spot where his tails could slot in, now fitting into an area where he could activate a power field like on the sword to his tails.
The helmet and arms were a little more difficult; Tails had done away with the pauldrons to make them smaller plates instead, allowing for more flexibility, and the helmet had to be enlarged and have ear slots, but once all that was done, he had a truly incredible suit of armor.
"Now that is a beauty." Tails remarked as he looked upon the suit of armor; he then pulled out a very old piece of equipment, the Energy Cannon. He placed it on the table before starting to equip the suit of armor; donning the helmet, he smiled happily as everything turned on.
"Alright...let's give this thing a spin! Tails said confidently as he grabbed the energy cannon and ran out the door of the workshop, ready to test the armor out...
Sonic stretched his legs after doing an hourly run. Scouts were still deployed and thus hadn't reported if the Imperial forces had moved into new areas, so while doing his hourly run, he could also run reconnaissance against the imperium.
He soon got back to running, along with reconnaissance; this could give him a chance to relax and forget that Mobius was about to be thrown into the throes of war once more, and this time something more akin to the Black Arms invasion.
But, unlike the Black Arms invasion and the war against Eggman, they weren't fighting against mindless creatures or robots, but instead humans. Sonic realized that after seeing Shadow bring in nine of the large giants, with one of them being the same one that took off Sonic's ear, he would eventually have to kill himself.
He didn't want to kill; he never liked killing and never will, especially when the majority of the imperial forces were most likely normal humans, ones that were probably just scared and following orders instead of standing up for what was right.
'Maybe they don't have any freedoms.' Sonic thought as he ran through the hills; he knew that outside of all of his friends, he was the least likely to kill, now of course all of them, outside a few, are hesitant to kill, but this? Most would throw off morals just to fight more effectively against an enemy that will most likely show them no mercy.
Sonic then saw smoke rising up in the distance and immediately switched directions, weaving through foliage and moss-covered badniks until he arrived at a restoration base under siege from imperial forces, and they weren't having the best time.
Sonic leapt down, and as soon as a group of imperial soldiers saw him, he jumped up and spin dashed every one of them, hopefully only breaking their weapons, but after hearing their painful groans, he spoke, "Sorry! Normally used to fight mechs and tough guys, not normal humans."
Sonic ran off, ramming through the legs of a small bipedal walker before spin dashing through a tank. Landing on the other side, he soon found himself surrounded by guns, from small rifles to what seemed to be a heavy weapons team with a giant machine gun.
"Hmm...well, I see the issue." Sonic said as he quickly dodged and weaved through a hail of laser and gunfire, taking out the machine gun first before spinning around rapidly, slowly knocking down every soldier until none were left standing.
"Well, that was—" Sonic quickly stepped to the right as a shot hit where he just was, one of the large caliber weapons that the giants apparently use. Sonic turned and saw a soldier in different attire walking menacingly towards him in a red and black coat with a fancy hat and a gas mask covering his face.
He was also armed with a chainsaw mixed with a sword and a smaller version of the weapons the giants used. He raised the chainsaw sword up and yelled as additional soldiers surrounded him, "IN THE NAME OF THE GOD EMPEROR OF MANKIND, YOU SHALL DIE!"
"Nice outfit; kind of makes you look like a slimmer Eggman." Sonic joked as he quickly spin dash the chainsaw-sword guy and effortlessly knocked down the rest of the soldiers before finishing off all the other vehicles and mechs.
Soon enough, the base was saved, and as the restoration soldiers out there started taking prisoners, Sonic relaxed on one of the destroyed tanks; it was now tied, with the imperium having destroyed the ARK and beating them at the ARK's crash site, while Sonic and Shadow beat them at attacking a village and a restoration base.
Maybe this wouldn't be too bad...
Brother Ixon kept watch over his sector, his plasma gun at the ready as his squad advanced through the forest. They had lost contact with Squad Gorar along with two Steel Legion groups, all of them reporting being attacked by singular xenos.
As Ixon walked, he eventually heard the beep of the auspex carried by Brother Decimo, his flamer hanging to the side of him, "Picking up something, brother?" The sergeant of the squad, Sergeant Caspon, said, his armor decorated with many trophies.
"Seemingly an 11th power armor reading, Astarte war plate. It could be a survivor from Squad Gorar." Decimo explained, and Caspon spoke, "Perhaps it is Apothecary Sydar; it would be a great tragedy if our brother's geneseed was lost to the hands of xenos and heretics."
As the squad approaches the signal, with the thunderous footsteps of Aethan, the brother dreadnought that landed with them. As they arrived at the location, the squad saw that there was no one there. "That can't be; the auspex says he's here." Decimo said.
"Perhaps the machine spirit is displeased?" Ixon responded as the squad suddenly heard something moving in the trees, weapons at the ready, as all they could hear was the thrum of their power armor and the machinery of the dreadnought.
"Con-" Brother Ventius couldn't finish his sentence as a yellow ball of energy flew down from the trees and melted through his helmet and head, his lifeless body collapsing to the ground.
"In the trees!" Sergeant Caspon bellowed, his bolt pistol barking as he activated his power fist. Ixon charged up his plasma gun and was able to catch a glimpse of what they were fighting, and it was absolutely disgusting.
Astartes plate armor, malformed to fit a xeno's body, the xeno then jumped down from the trees, turning itself into a ball before slicing right through Sergeant Caspon; the sergeant's upper body fell to the ground along with his legs.
"Kill it!" Caspon yelled as the squad tried to get a solid shot on the xeno, but it was moving too fast. Ixon then heard the death screams of one of his other brothers, his body slashed and beaten as Ixon was able to see the xeno had twin tails, both of them radiating a field similar to that of Caspon's power fist.
Ixon fired his plasma gun, the ball of light flying through the air and managing to hit the xeno...only for it to do nothing. The xeno quickly targeted him, and down Ixon went, one of his legs cut off along with a part of his torso.
That didn't mean Ixon was dead, far from it. He grabbed his plasma gun and continued firing, only stopping when the gun overheated and needed to cool down, the weapon fire of his brothers slowly shrinking until it was only him and Aethan.
"DIE, DIE, DIE." Aethan bellowed, his assault cannon tearing up the place but not being able to hit the xeno. Ixon crawled over and threw his plasma gun away, and picking up Decimo's flamer, Decimo's chest was blown out and partially melted.
Ixon turned over to his side and could only watch as Aethan was knocked down, but the sarcophagus seemed to be still intact; that would mean that Aethan still lived. Ixon turned his way from the xeno, who was already looting his brother's corpses.
Icon squeezed the trigger, and flames spewed out onto the dreadnought and the surrounding landscape. The flames wouldn't damage the sarcophagus, but it would protect Aethan from the xeno.
The xeno quickly located Ixon and pressed its hand against his chest, a large plasma-like weapon attached to it. Ixon spoke in defiance one last time.
"This world... is ours." Ixon spoke as he felt the plasma weapon fire, a final breath leaving his vox grill.
Tails lifted the energy cannon from the chest of the giant. He didn't like killing, but these… things, they were something else, something beyond human. As Tails started to loot the bodies, he then felt a round hit him.
Tails turned around and dodged another round as he saw that the giant he had cut in half was still alive. Tails walked over to it, dodging the rounds fired by the giant's weapon. Tails heard one of his tails rip the gun from the giant's hand, and his energy cannon blew apart the giant's large hand.
"How…" Tails spoke as the giant spoke in defiance, its voice filled with hatred at such levels that it unnerved Tails. "You insult us with that armor…inferior being." Tails looked away; he hadn't been called that in a long...long time ago.
But he wasn't now; he never was. Tails then pressed his foot against the giant's chest and spoke, "I simply improved on what was there. I mean, this stuff is decently advanced, but a lot of it can be shrunken down, condensed, or simply removed."
"We will burn this world… make you all an example of why you don't defy the one true god." The giant said, and Tails spoke as he rolled his eyes underneath his head, "Oh, your 'God Emperor,' listen, I may not be that into religion, but…I doubt your leader is a god."
The marine tried to lift himself up as he spoke, "You will pay for that." Tails then noticed the giant going for a grenade and used his tails to chuck it away; Tails then spoke as he then got an idea.
"Hmm, well. Maybe I can rip some information out of you." Tails said, and the giant spoke one last time, "You can try, Xeno. I will never break." Tails walked away from the giant and got on comms with Amy.
"Hey Amy! I got one of those giants; he's a little damaged, but I think we can work with him." Tails said, and Amy cheered over the comms before speaking, "I'll send a shuttle your way; oh, we can finally learn more about them!"
"Yep! I'm also bringing in a bunch of other gear as well. See you soon!" Tails exclaimed as he turned off comms and turned back to the giant, "Well, congrats! You're going to have a talk with one of the nicest people ever."
"Die…"
"No can do." Tails said as he waited for the shuttle to get here…
Abraham Tower looked at the information provided to them so far concerning the invasion force, and surprisingly…he was feeling confident. The giants could be a problem, but the ground troops? G.U.N. was on an equal footing with them, especially when their tanks looked like something that would be used during the Great War.
And their aircraft was laughable. With reconnaissance flights and scouts, the aircraft they've seen seem incredibly outdated, so they would win the air. The only issue is that they don't know the numbers; all of this won't matter if a single Abrams is outnumbered a hundred to one.
As he continued to look at all the information he had, he suddenly heard thunder and looked out his window only to see a hail of pods and aircraft careening towards Central City. Abraham quickly got on the intercom in his office and yelled over it.
"I want a message sent to all G.U.N. forces: Central City is under attack by Imperial forces. Get there as fast as you can and send those bastards back to the stars!" Tower yelled, and he grabbed his sidearm and exited his office.
He had a war to win.