Chapter 12 - Underestimation
[...upload complete...playing surveillance feed now...] the robot stated and input a command.
Upon the large center monitor, its camera feed cut out and was replaced with static. At the bottom top left corner, there was data incoming. Staying in that space like a map key on a graph, the screen blipped before showing footage. Focusing its image, it showed the squad being in the forest area traversing to the second village. Seeing the anthropomorphic community ahead, the mechanical squad continued forward. Upon reaching within the droids firing range, the village fighters were waiting for them.
'...bow and arrow...?' Robotnik thought. Standing and crossing his arms in front of his chest, he would normally laugh at the animals' attempt. However, he was still irritated. Instead of commenting, he remained quiet and watched.
Upon the observing the standoff, both sides began firing. Seeing that the arrow tips were enough to pierce through his units' metal armor, only a couple became incapacitated. When the tank moved its turret and fired the cannon, the destruction difference was severe. The sight of seeing a small handful of the creatures dying brought mild satisfaction to the scientist. With them fleeing away from the barricade that they made, it made him perplexed on how his S.W.A.T. bots would fail.
'...?' the man thought blinking.
A swift moving object was coming from the left somewhere in the forest. It made it to the village within a couple of seconds from being so far away. Seeing the trail of dust made him wonder if it was a vehicle. Turning his attention back to the village, there was something standing in the center of the feed. Narrowing his eyes, it was a dark silhouette.
'...is that...the same being from the previous scout footage?' Ivo mused to himself.
Seeing it was the only being that was facing the entire squad, another impasse occurred. Dr. Robotnik did a face palm and groaned listening to his troops give a verbal warning to the being. Looking back at the footage, the dark silhouette did not move. Getting fired upon with lasers, all of them when through the unknown figure. Despite appearing to have killed the dwarf individual, the man stared hard at it.
'If that is the same being...it can move quicker than the eye can see?' he pondered. Seeing the individual move its head a little after the barrage of lethal light shots, a half frown appeared on the scientist's face. Seeing rockets being deployed by the bipedal machines, all of them hit their target head on.
'...wait...' he said in his mind. With the development of the smoke and bits of earth being blown up, he saw a sharp exit trail from the grayish cloud. Blinking, something fast re-entered into it.
'...what was that...!?' he continued.
Seeing the ash get pushed to the side, the electrical sparks caught his attention. All the walking mechanical beings had their arms ripped out of their shoulder sockets. When the smoke cleared, the cloaked figure was still there and facing them. Dropping something the creature was holding, it was all the androids' arms. Instead of the being littered with holes, its cloak was still in one piece.
Seeing it get into a gun draw stance, the movements from it began to split. Multiple shadows of itself were seen doing various movements. All of it was like watching the old fashion way of animation. A reel of frames moving slow enough to where three persons were moving at the same time. With strength and speed, all the arms were launched back to the robots like spears.
"..." the scientist reacted with a frown. The swiftness of one creature to rip off the mechanical bipedal bots was surprising as it was vexing. It was more so seeing the arms impale the robots one by one. Clenching his teeth in frustration, the only metal squad member left was the H-MAT.
Seeing the terret lock on, it fired its cannon without hesitation. A readout stated within a second, the shell would impact the cloaked figure head on. Seeing its image blur at the time of contact, no explosion was seen. A fraction of a second went by when something changed. The figure was still in its same spot but had its left arm extended outward. Its palm was point toward the feed with its fingers fanned out.
With increasing size, the massive explosive bullet was seen launching back at the tank. The collusion was swift as the feed was engulfed in a fireball. Seeing the damage specs fill in from the top left corner, the listings of it showed it suffered a good amount of destruction. Within a few seconds, the tank began to have system failures based on the direct hit to its power supply. Watching its camera got into static, white noise was the only sound heard in the command center.
"..." Ivo responded with continuing to frown. Grinding his teeth a little, he practiced on doing slow deep breaths. Feeling able to not blow up with anger, he turned to one of the surveillance units.
"Rewind the footage of the H-MAT black box. Do it by frame by frame."
[...yes doctor...processing...] it stated.
'I thought I saw something,' he thought. Watching the footage go backwards one slide at a time, one of them was the image of the cannon shell point blank to the right of the camera. Seeing the projectile go backwards, a color appeared on the screen.
"Stop the footage," the man ordered. Seeing the still image on the screen, the tank's massive bullet had just left the dark silhouette's hand.
"Magnify the image around the dark figure. 2x."
[...magnifying...] an android repeated. The monitor refreshed and showed a closer image of the village. There was something of color but not clear enough.
"Magnify image around the dark figure again. Go to five times magnification from the original footage frame. Increase resolution till no pixelation is seen," the doctor corrected.
[...making changes...processing...] the same robot answered.
On the screen, the image refreshed again then did a couple times rebuffing. At the final one, the screenshot was completed. There were only two things in the picture that stood out the most. The cannon shell was a lot closer and appeared to be aiming dead straight at the camera. Looking at the individual up close, a crimson ring for an eye was seen at the person's head.
"So it is the same creature...how irritating," Robotnik muttered to himself. Feeling annoyed that his mechanical troops did not destroy the second village, he now had a foe that could out do his S.W.A.T. patrollers.
'...wait a minute...' Ivo thought to himself and looked down a little. '...there were legends made during the Great War...in which there were humans and animals that were deemed to have superior traits or abilities.'
'A majority of them were enhanced from experimentation...synthetic cathinones...adaptations of new psychoactive substances...infusion of natural materials and Mobius energy.'
'If I remember correctly,' he continued. Turning around, he went to his throne chair. Getting to it, he moved around again and sat down. Placing his arms on the armrest, he stared at the still image while continuing to contemplate.
'The war council determined that the new "bio-weapons" had a failure rate of 80%.'
'All were killed by organ failure...brain pathogens...contracting extremely rare disorders and diseases once thought extinct.'
'What puzzles me,' he wondered. Leaning to the right, he prompted his head up with his right hand. Staring at the monitor that went back to surveillancing the exterior of the base, he strummed his fingers with his left hand on the armrest.
'Of the 80% pool of failed subjects...95% of them were from the anthropomorphic beings...5% were from humans.'
[...awaiting next command doctor...] one of the robots in the room spoke. The others went back to their default directive of monitoring their assigned areas.
'That high concentration of failure rate makes sense...genetically altering and infusing human genes into those pests would mess up their entire DNA coding...despite centuries of modified evolution and creating these monstrosities of today.'
'Thus...using even psychedelic pharmaceuticals...those rodents would have a high potency to side-effects,' he mused while beginning to stroke his mustache. About to contemplate even further, a comms notification came up on one of the stations.
[...doctor...a S.W.A.T. patroller on underground floor 3 is hailing...accept the call?]
'...hailing from that floor? It has a transmitter built in...' he thought then shook his head internally.
"Accept the call, unit."
[...accepting hail...linked established...]
"Unit...status report of issue and current objective," Ivo announced not sure which heavy unit was trying to reach him.
[...yes doctor...internal communication transmitter was damaged...]
[...wall phone terminal used to check in and provide update...]
[...current objective...transport prisoner to deformity cell block, underground floor 4...]
"I see," Robotnik stated with acknowledgment. He recalled the videofeed a short time ago from when the self-operation was occurring.
"What is the status of your objective?"
[...current status...unable to transport prisoner...]
"..." the man commented. Just blinking, his patience was thin as he became irritated.
"What? Explain yourself!"
[...subject escaped after operation completion...subject damaged internal comms transmitter and heat sensor scanner...]
"Escaped!?" he replied in both anger and surprise. "How can a deformed rodent escape!? It was strapped to the operation's chair!"
[...organism broke free...ran quickly...knew code for door keypad...and escaped...]
"KNEW!?" Ivo roared standing up abruptly. "THAT PESKY HEDGEHOG KNEW THE CODE!?"
[...from observation and door opening...yes doctor...]
"Well why are you standing around there you useless hunk of metal!? And alert the base!" he demanded and did a fast arm sweep with his right hand.
[...interal comms transmitter is-]
"THEN FOLLOW THE ANIMAL'S BLOOD TRAIL YOU IDIOT!" the scientist barked. Clenching his teeth and making fists with his hands, he shouted out orders.
"End this call!"
[...call ended doctor...] a robot stated to his right. It pressed an intercom button that ended the transmission.
"Close all doors on all levels! Put heavy duty and striker units at all lift doors, entrances, and roll up doors! This is a red alert!" Ivo stated firmly and began to pace.
[...closing all doors...all heavy duty and striker units proceeding to locations...] it stated and began to rapidly type in commands.
[...base is on red alert...I repeat...base is on red alert...] another droid stated over the loudspeaker system. All the sudden, red lights turned on followed by a dull horn sounding off. A general feeling of rumble was felt under the man's feet.
"Bringing up the motion tracker map of the base! All levels now!" Ivo shouted. Reaching the end of his pacing path, he turned around walked the other direction.
[...bringing up maps doctor...loading complete]
The center large monitor changed its image and showed two schematics. One was a split view of the size of the base and a see thru 3D model. Going five levels underground, there were four floors above the ground level. After a small buffering image, the motion tracker indicators came on. Only appearing as red dots on the green holographic diagrams, it showed where all the patroller units were converging to. As ordered, the machines were heading toward all elevators and major doors. However, there was one dot that was moving alarming quick throughout the 3rd level.
"...!?" the scientist reacted. Blinking and perplexed, it cleared an elongated hallway within a couple of seconds. Stopping in front of a lift, the diagram gave an indication that the elevator was called upon. Getting out of his stupor, Robotnik pointed at the left most mechanical operator in the room.
"Disable that hoist cage that was just called to UF-3!"
[...disabling lift doctor...lift has stopped...] the droid replied.
"Show the feed to that area."
[...loading feed...] another bot stated.
The main monitor had three cameras upload their images on separate window popups. From different angles of that hallway intersection, it showed a dark silhouette that was standing in front of the elevators. Only a second passed until the being swiftly moved toward the left hallway facing the lifts. Seeing a part of it flapping like fabric, it signified that it was wearing a cloak. On one of the feeds, it showed the individual running quickly out of the frame. However, it was enough for the scientist to recognize.
'It's that same individual that took out the S.W.A.T. squadron and the one that was on the operation's table,' Robotnik thought astonished. 'Why is it here?'
'No matter...it will not escape this base from the red alert lockdown I have put in place,' he continued. Crossing his arms over his chest, he did not smirk.
"Send the visual of the intruder to all units...that pest is to be captured at all costs."
In the battle to contain and trap the prisoner, nothing was working. It was as if the individual knew the ins and outs of the base. Shutting down doors were only a mild obstacle for the adult hedgehog. Any drop-down gate or roll down door, it would speed itself up and run up the wall then onto the ceiling. It would beeline to an opening that would lead it to the next floor above.
When there were encounters with the heavy patrollers on the 2nd and 1st floor, there was a fire fight. However, the anthropomorphic creature would outpace the laser blasts by going even faster. During this, surveillance video would capture a segment light trail of its crimson ring eye. It was as if the speed the cloaked being was traveling was faster than what the cameras could record. Despite all the robots unable to land a hit or slow it down, none of the machines were attacked on each other than mild friendly fire.
In a slow building of agitated marvel, the scientist continued to watch in silence. The adult hedgehog continued to go up till it reached the ground level. From the 3rd floor below to the surface, it had not stopped dashing. Based on where it was coming through a ventilation shaft, the cloaked creature would be in the warehouse space. With two dozen heavy patrollers and strikers stationed, half of them turned at the same time. As if following where the being was moving, all their arm cannons were pointing at the square wall vent on the far wall.
Within a second or two, the grate cover for the shaft fell off as if something heavy knocked it free from being secured. A dark silhouette came out and dropped down. Landing on the ground, dozens of aiming lasers were pointing at the body of the individual. Appearing to be holding something inside the cloak, it leaned forward as if to dash. Sounding like a hailstorm of booms, the robots opened fired.
"..." Robotnik spoke watching with a small glare.
Seeing the heavy payload projectiles converging, they hit their mark. Multiple explosions erupted and caused a stacking effect of the blast radius and destruction. Despite feeling that the pest was disintegrated in the fire, his stomach felt a mild pull. It gave him doubt and wanted visual confirmation that the animal was dead from the droids' shooting. Opening his mouth to give an order to clear the smoke, one of the surveillance robots to his right spoke first.
[...enemy movement seen...moving up south back wall of ground floor...] it stated then input commands.
"...!?" he reacted with anger.
Seeing a small tail of smoke that went behind the gray cloud, it trailed upward. Another camera feed appeared on the screen which showed the cloaked individual sprinting up the walls fast. When it reached the high ceiling, its speed accelerated like a bullet being fired from a gun. Making it to one of the large vents within a fraction of a second, it disappeared. The aspect that there was no impact or fan rotor damaged meant that the creature cleared the fan blades without getting injured or sliced up.
"Show me the exterior feeds...now," Ivo growled with frustration.
[...uploading exterior surveillance cameras...now...]
Seeing the existing windows on the monitor close down, six new ones opened up. The ones that were attached to the base building and viewed inside the outside walls, a couple showed a blur. Coming out of the roof vent on the 1st level, it ran over the small wall barrier. Running down it at the same blinding fast speed, the scientist had a feeling that the hedgehog would try to find an access point to escape. Knowing that his mechanical troops were covering all possible escape route entrances, it would not go through them. Seeing it make a quick a hard left, it headed straight for the fuel and water tanks.
Thinking that it was going to sabotage them, the man couldn't do anything. Instead of damaging them, the anthropomorphic animal ran up the sidewall of the cylinder container. Reaching the top, it made a high arcing dash jump toward the tall barrier wall. Getting over the electrocuting barbwire protection and falling close to the outside side of the sediment fence, another camera feed appeared on the screen. Showing it was falling straight down alongside the constructed and formed rock structure, the individual jumped off it. Hitting the ground hard and sliding a little, the hedgehog pushed forward with its legs.
"..." the human male reacted from watching. Seeing it going at only a normal running pace for their species, it reached the forestry withing a few seconds. Boiling with anger from seeing the creature escape, the scientist immediately tried to control himself. Breathing in and out deeply and slower each time, he felt himself become less rigid. After a minute or two of doing the exercise, the man felt a little more stable than how he truly felt.
[...there are S.W.A.T. scouters available to pursue the creature doctor...shall the request be put in...?]
"..." Robotnik responded with closing his eyes. Frowning, he let out an irritated sigh through his nose. Turning around and walking back to his command chair, he sat down in it. Staring at the main monitor, he just breathed to deescalate his irate state of mind.
[...Dr. Robotnik...?] the robot asked again.
"...eeeuuuuggggghhhh..." he groaned out loud. Slouching in his seat and leaning back, he brought his hands close together. Extending his right and left fingers out, the fingertips touched each other.
"Do not pursue the rodent...return base to normal operations," the man stated, still agitated from the escape.
[...commencing back to normal operations...] the machine replied. It and the other droids in the room sounded off putting the base off red alert. The constant rotating red light stopped and turned off.
"Assigned a janitorial robot to clean up the...hedgehog filth that it left behind on the floor."
[...unit has been assigned...commencing task now...]
"I will leave the command center in your hands units," the scientist stated. Standing up, he moved to leave the chamber. Hearing a computer sound from them as if complying with his command, he exited the room.
Walking down a metal hallway, his mind began to brew and wonder. Finding out more about the stranger hedgehog would give him at least some data of what happened to the individual. Based on those findings, it might give him material on making an android model that could handle those fast speeds. The last aspect was if the individual was being sought after by the villages, then all he would need to do is spread seeds of doubt and fear into the villages. That way, all would see the gray ash hedgehog as a monster instead of a savior.
Escaping the base and making it over the wall, the stranger felt spent. The non-stop directional changes and running while he was still bleeding from three areas zapped him of his stamina. Moving at a jogging pace, he got into the forestry that was nearby. Expecting that S.W.A.T. robots would be sent out to retrieve the two of them, he kept going. Feeling that the boy hedgehog was still strapped behind him under the cloak, he kept moving.
Reaching a breaking point, he slowed down to a slow walking pace. Blinking and feeling a pulsating migraine, concentrating on walking was proving difficult. Knowing that his face was very numb, there still was a sharp tenderness in his mouth. Finding a discreet location with large boulders, he travelled there. Finding shade and that no wildlife occupied the space, he kneeled down to the ground.
Unbuckling the strap, the child slowly slid off his back. Holding onto him and gently placing the orphan on the ground, the stranger let go of a heavy breath. Turning around and looking at the youngin, he looked unhurt. Attempting to stand up, the hedgehog's legs gave out. Falling backwards and curling a little, his back whacked the ground with a thud.
Cringing and breathing as if out of breath, he stared at the underside of the boulder enclosure they were in. Feeling his body aching all over, he struggled to touch his two body segment stumps for bleeding. Both his right shoulder and top middle quill injures had coagulated. The strength left in his left arm faded as it dropped onto his torso. The right eyelid became very heavy as trying to stay awake was fading quickly. Falling asleep from exhaustion and pain, the left cybernetic eye remained on. It slowly began moving on its own looking around for anything that moved.
After a few hours of repairing the damages that occurred during the attack, Zorn's village was getting close to being stable again. The buildings that got the brunt of the destruction had all unsalvageable components removed. Installing temporary structure fixes, Onel had left to get the finishing materials needed to make the repairs more permanent. As for the rest of the establishment, the small structures and homes were unscathed from the robot battle. The only other area that showed evidence of there being a combat was the destruction of the S.W.A.T. androids in front of the forestry.
Casualties were only a couple of deaths and the several wounded with non-lethal injuries. They were being treated in the medical hut and another nearby one with makeshift medical beds. Morale in the establishment was better than what it was after the battle. However, it still was not to the level it was before the cloaked stranger came to their aid and repelled the mechanical pillagers. Shooting at him to make him run out was seen more in poor taste than the right thing to do amongst the villagers.
"Temp repairs completed on all damaged buildings chief," a lead patroller mentioned while addressing the two community leaders.
"Good. How have the repairs for the damaged equipment going?" Zorn asked turning to him. He and Oberi were next to the side wall of a central building. They had makeshift tables set up with documents from damages, repairs, costs, and supplies on them.
"One of the sensor machines got fried from the tank fire," a mechanic leader mentioned standing near the warrior commander. "Other electronic units were mildly damaged. They still function for the time being."
"I know that my village trader was sent to go get supplies for the structural damages," the wolf man commented to address the three. "He is also getting essential items for my people. Was there any other request for supplies by what you found?"
"Most of our supplies for structural repairs can be harvested from the forest," the mech answered then put his hands on his hips. "As for the electrical equipment that got damaged, there isn't much I can do given that we don't have all spare parts for it...but I can try to fix it."
"Go ahead and give it a try," the ape man leader stated. Turning his head toward the document in front of him, he went back to reading it.
"Worse comes to worse, we will have to communicate via tapper."
"You mean Morse Code?" Oberi corrected to which the other chief nodded.
"Humans call it that, our kind during the Great War called it Tapper," Zorn responded. Looking over a couple of documents, he looked back at his lead patroller and mechanic.
"Continue with your assignments. We will stop at dusk and resume tomorrow morning."
"Roger chief," the warrior stated while the other just nodded his head. Both turned around and went toward their workstations in the village.
"At least with the combination of mine and your people, the repairs are getting done quicker," the large canid indicated. Turning back to the papers on the table, he grabbed one of the reports.
"Indeed...it is a benefit," the leader agreed. After reading one article and setting it aside, he picked up another.
"I also see that given the sizes of our villages being similar...it will feel overcrowded quickly."
"Agreed," Oberi said with a small half frown.
Hearing footsteps approaching them to their right, they turned to see their secretaries coming towards them. Though both administrators gave them separate documents, the four did an open discussion together. Getting feedback from the other two villages, the chiefs there stated they were willing to send help and supplies if needed. Other topics ranged from the current status of their villages and future plans for them. The aspect of rebuilding his community from scratch sounded daunting as it was desirable.
"In discussing about the topic of rebuilding with the other villages' officials, they stated they can send people to help," Oberi's secretary indicated.
"..." the wolf-man responded with crossing his arms over his chest.
"That is rather favorable news for you and your people, yes?" Zorn asked looking at him.
"It is...just debating if we should proceed with rebuilding. Or would it be better to combine our two villages and expand upon it."
"That would make it an easier transition for our people," she agreed.
"Also given that we had the combined force during the robot attack, it would increase our survival chances," Zorn's secretary added in. "What do you think chief?"
"...yes...those are good points," the ape-man spoke. Moving his arms behind him, he rested his closed hands against his waistline.
"I would not be against the idea of combining our forces...however...it would have to be voted on amongst both of our people. We can setup a future date for a civic hearing and vote."
"Sounds good to me," Oberi stated with a head nod. Both secretaries nodded and excused themselves. After the two women walked away, the leaders turned back to the articles on the tables.
"Tell me comrade. Has the loss of your village affected your sense of independence?"
"..." he replied frowning and narrowing his eyes. He did not look at the man and sighed through his nose.
"I do not have a problem with starting over and managing my community Zorn," he stated. Turning to look back at the repair effort to see what was still left, he continued.
"I just wanted to provide a sense of ease for my people. Going through a S.W.A.T. pursuit on its own weighs heavy on anyone's mind. They also witness the destruction of their homes and survived a potential 2nd pillage from the machines. Those factors are weighing heavily on them physically, emotionally, and psychologically."
"Well said," Zorn commented with a small smirk. "Don't forget the aspect of having one of your orphans taken by a killer."
"..." Oberi reacted with clenching his teeth together hard and getting stiff. Not able to give a verbal response without barking at his peer, he gave a tense nod and grunt.
"...how are the other children fairing?" the ape-man asked in a neutral tone.
"..." the wolf man replied with letting go the air he was holding. Trying to relax, he shifted his sights to another document.
"The staff are doing their best explaining to the kids the reality of the incident. The older ones understand what happened based on what they saw. The youngins are told that the boy is just doing a field trip assignment with a long return by date."
"I see...you agree with their decision making?"
"If that is what keeps them in peace and at bay," Oberi mentioned looking up. "Then that is good enough for me...at the moment."
"Good," Zorn responded looking up from the table. "Do you have plans to go pursue the killer your scouts mentioned? Do you even know where that individual will take the child?"
"If the creature is a predator by nature, the cave south-east from here is his territory," he explained then looked down at the table. "I have already formulated a recover plan with my patrol commander on doing a night raid."
"Well then," the ape man commented then viewed back at the papers on the table. "Let me know if you need arsenal or manpower."
"Thanks," he replied. Both men went back to orchestrating the recovery and rebuilding of the village till dusk came.
