Uncivil Union (Chapter 12: Stratagems)

Finding or even constructing new, suitable weaponry for Amy and Antoine was a different task to the one Tails was used to. The first port of call was to requisition an inventory from his father; the Acorn military might not have been as well-suited to taking on Robotnik's creations as the FF, but they had managed in the past, so they had to have something. But that was only the first step. There was no certainty that of all the wapons that would prove effective that either of their potential owners would be able to use them. There was a good chance at least some of them required specialist training, and they didn't have the time for that.

But he at least could give them something, whatever else he managed in the time he had. Training was going to be the issue regardless though - neither of them were all that proficient with firearms, the obvious choice, so he'd have to put his efforts into working out something with what they did know. They'd both need something that could cut or damage metal easily enough, as well as adequate protection to get them up close.

On the surface, the idea of upgrading what they used currently seemed like the better solution. Mecha Sonic had tougher armour than they were used to, as their armaments had been perfectly serviceable in the past, and for now, that remained a unique issue. A better sword for Antoine would be a simple matter - A sturdier, sharper blade would be all it took. Amy was a different story. Truth be told, he'd never quite figured out how she could pull those hammers, and he didn't know if providing her with a new one would enable the same ability with said weapon.

That said...the hammers did some damage when they connected...Amy just lacked the speed necessary to make the swing fast enough. The soldiers already used mobility harnesses when doing heavy-lifting. Maybe they could purloin one and modify it a bit for some more dextrous actions. That would give her the force behind the attacks, if nothing else. Maybe then he could look into getting her a better weapon, with none of the stress that came with worrying whether she'd be able to copy it or not. Making a note to contact his father about acquiring one of the harnesses, he turned his attention to creating a new sword.

Weaponsmithing was not his forte, at least, not in the bladed variety. Still, he could at least ascertain the correct material to use. He paused, as the thought of an energy-based blade crossed his mind, but he hadn't the time to test whether such a device was feasible, so he would have to settle for a conventional one. Something to look at once this was taken care of, but a hobbyist's job. Regardless, Antoine would need quite literally the toughest thing he could put together. Most blades were expected to have some measure of give for blocking and parrying, but if he was doing that he was already in a bad position. No, something that didn't flex, that was just made for breaking armour. Perhaps he could be persuaded to use a rapier; there wouldn't be much point in a sword built for slashing unless he wanted to rework the paintjob.

***

Nicole floated within her own digital landscape, away from the stresses and strains of life outside. Things had been tense since the concert, and with Naugus now roaming around and campaigning to be made king on the "merit" that he could stop her, they had reached fever pitch. It was becoming increasingly easy to hide herself away and run things the way she used to: A simple computer program. Losing three of her closest friends, one of whom she privately called a sister, left her teetering on the edge.

Steeling her frayed nerves, she reached out through the various Freedom Fighter comm channels. GUN knew already. Knuckles and the Chaotix were priority one. Knuckles responded almost instantly - the little communications bundle he had was solar charged and he was never far from it except in times of crisis. Thing was the AI couldn't be sure just how much support he would be allowed to render to them. The Master Emerald was always at risk especially when things looked to be taking a turn for the worst. If he was busy defending it he wouldn't be able to do much.

"Nicole. Hey, how's things?"
"I...this might take a moment." Haltingly, over the course of a few minutes she relatedall that had befallen them recently to the isolated Echidna. The attack on the station, the loss of the Freedom Fighter members, the retreat and counterattack, the loss of GUN's best team. Everything having happened so quickly had given no one a chance to get him up to speed on goings-on until now, and as events unfolded his face hardened, setting into a grim mask of cold anger. If it was just at the loss of friends he would have been simply enflamed, but now he fought the battle of moral versus duty.
"Damn...how is everyone else holding together?" He waited until she finished before saying anything.

"We're managing, barely." Nicole couldn't keep the shake from her voice. "Between us and Elias we're starting to put things together, but we don't have the right people to win from this position. Not enough of us, not the right skills. I'm not the best strategist but I've been working out trial runs of how to start fixing things, and it never looks good. I don't have the right head for it and we don't know what we're even up against really. Every way I look at it, any plan we pull off now will result in more losses, whether it works or not."
"So you need my help? Okay, okay, let's think...reckon they'll make a play up here? That's usually what happens when things go downhill."
"If past events are anything to go by then I'd have to agree, but I can't say for certain, not with all the unknowns."
"Can you get up here, or spare Sonic, to get a charge from the Emerald?"
"I doubt that will be such a good idea. Powerful, yes, but controlling the form in his current state... Would be difficult. Added, When Super forms happen, things explode, and many of the robots are friends, and they could get hurt by accident. We also shouldn't go in swinging like that until we know what we're dealing with. If they have a means to steer you, Sonic, or Tails into a Roboticizer while you're Super, or have something to siphon your energy into Shadow, then we'd have a problem."
"You might be being a little paranoid there, Nicole."
"I can't afford to not be anymore, Knuckles. I... can't lose any more friends... Sally was caught because she took a hit for me... I know it was out of my hands, but..."

"Alright, alright. I get it, you've been through a pretty rough patch. You don't need to justify it, least of all to me. If you don't want energy from the emerald, what do you want me to do?"
"First thing...information. If you can't leave the emerald, get in touch if anyone comes after it. See if you can catch a glimpse of whoever is leading it, or if they're doing anything Robotnik wouldn't or couldn't. Even if they do manage to get their hands on the emerald, knowing who they are would be an advantage." Nicole did have other ideas - if they could convince Amadeus to dispatch a platoon to protect the Master Emerald, if Chaos consented that would leave Knuckles free to support them when they launched their strike team. With a smaller team being more likely to get close undetected, having members who could literally punch well above their weight was going to be important. Thing was, they couldn't gauge the kind of force that would be levelled against Angel Island, if indeed any, and so the guardian might be needed at his post.

"Will do, Nicole. And don't worry, we'll get the others back soon."
"I hope you're right about that."

***

"Is this the place?" Mecha Sally hovered above what appeared to be a cave, deep in the heart of the Downunda rainforest. She had fitted herself with a few pieces of external armour, each housing an engine to keep her aloft. Not combat-grade by any means, but useful for travelling around and getting a handle on flight before she needed to do it in any live situations. THe addition of a Warp Ring would facilitate a quick escape in the event of hostilities.

"Yes, the "tomb" is inside the cave system." Iron Nicole's voice echoed in her head. "The specimens I recovered from Snively's holdings were... poor. However, we have had better luck with recovery from the still-sealed tombs. This one appears to be the largest, with the most significance placed upon it in the maps we uncovered."

"Duly noted." She slowly lowered herself to the ground, speeding off into the cave system. Her optics switched into a night-vision filter, picking out everything ahead in eerie green, as she swerved past stalagmites and steered herself through the winding, labyrinthine twists.  Eventually, she arrived at what appeared to be a large, black sphere, covered in a bizarre writing that seemed to glow a faint blue. "Found it, now how do I get in?"
"I am uncertain. It is likely a cipher of some kind, but Snively used ordnance to gain entrance, likely accounting for the specimen quality. His memories are of no use if we expect to open it legitimately. I'm analysing the data you're streaming and comparing it to known cryptography and codes, but I require time."
"Then I'll open it myself. Continue decryption and the live feed. If I break this, you have your base sequence."
"As you command, Empress."

Sally began to move in lazy circles around the tomb, examining the location. The chamber she now lingered within was not of natural origin. At least, not in its current state. Several passageways passed through, including the one through which she had come, all bearing the marks of natural formation. Here however the floor and ceiling were smooth, walls bowing outward to give the impression of some vast wheel turned on its side. Never mind the sphere itself...it hung at the room's centre, inches from the floor and ceiling entirely under its own power. The writing which cast the chamber in a dull, synthetic light covered every available inch of the surface, while the darker material took no light in itself, nor reflected any back.

Certainly an impressive feat of engineering, to just be a tomb, to sit unused for however long. Close up the surface revealed itself as unblemished bar the curling, unnatural script. Whoever had made this had truly not intended for it to be opened again.
But it has a pattern.
The thought made itself known rather suddenly, jumping out at the in-depth examination. The writing was not aimless - not completely. Here and there certain glyphs repeated themselves in patterns of two or three, exposing the direction of the text. Though she could not translate what it said alone she could track it, and soon she could see the writing converging on a single point on the upper hemisphere. Hands traced to it, gripped the carved text, and a deep, sonorous note shuddered through the chamber, and the entire sphere went black.
"Ow..."

The voice came faintly, from somewhere beneath. The tongue wasn't one she recognised but whatever it said, it sounded... indignant. Then scraping, as Sally descended.

From the hologram, she had expected the figure to glow, but not this much. The ankles, wrists, insides of its upper limbs, hips, the front of its midsection, and neck were devoid of armour, but shone with a golden glow, as if it were made of light. Its form was that of a basic male Mobian, a little shorter than an adult, its lower limbs rounded off, but thicker and chunkier than the upper parts. Its feet were heavy metal boots, its hands nimble and dextrous, ending in sharp-tipped fingers. Its chest was round, with a shaped "backpack" molded to sit flush with it. Its head was almost spherical, with a three-pronged crest extending from its forehead, the larger, central point curling backwards, the thinner two spreading out, molded to fit around the top its eyes, curving up and back. It regarded her with three bright blue eyes, white pupils staring up at her.

It didn't look away from her, didn't blink, didn't so much as glance as another of its kin clunked against the ground further away. Slowly, her feet touched the ground, a vast array of icy blue crystals lighting up around the tomb, illuminating the inside of it as she turned away from the wall and walked slowly toward the figure. She could see it more clearly now - it had three circles of blue on its chest, arranged in a triangle, with a glowing shard of iolite mounted below that. Its elbows and knees held pointed fins. The majority of its armour was a sandy yellow, the crest, soles, backs of its hands, backpack, and either end of its forearms were orange. Further orange accents marked its collar, around its shoulders and chest, and knees.

Its eyes narrowed, and the lids seemed to be the same glowing gold as the exposed areas. It took a defensive stance, reaching over its shoulder to draw out that same weapon she'd seen in the hologram, what looked like an angular lump of metal. Two blazing yellow blades erupted from either side of it, parallel to each other, humming quietly. He pointed it at her, speaking in that same unknown tongue. Now it sounded threatened.

"Nicole, what's it saying?"
"I am analyzing the language from the samples I have heard. I should have a match shortly."
"Load it into my short-term memory when it's ready." She could debug it and transfer it to long-term afterward- Having used her new friend's ability to enslave other Robians, she wasn't about to let her put anything into her own head without checking it.
"Confirmed."

Another, softer voice called out from across the room, speaking the same dialect. The first one responded to something else at last, turning to face the newcomer. Sally spared it a glance - it was shaped similarly to the first, but the glow from its exposed parts was a cool, ocean blue. Its hips were wider, its shoulders narrower, and its chest more pronounced, resulting in a more feminine figure. Its crest was shorter, and had four prongs. The outer two curved more sharply upwards, the central two short and curling out slightly. Behind the crest sat what looked like a curved dorsal fin. Its optics were orange, with yellow pupils, its armour a mix of dark, light, and pale blues, along with white accents, and appeared to be formed from fewer pieces, resulting in a smoother shape. It appeared to be hostile toward the first one, until a third clattered to the ground, and it immediately turned on its heel, lunging back into the gloom.

Setting herself to the ground and cutting the feed to her engines, Sally regarded the three figures silently, making no move to approach. It was a wait rapidly coming to be a disadvantage, as more figures detatched from the sphere through cavities that left as quickly as they came, clanking to the ground to straighten and stand idle. None of them bar these first two had even looked her way, and only they and the third who had appeared after had shown any inkling of intelligence. If she could placate or subjugate the ones she had here, then things already showed promise, with the technology evident just in the tomb used to house them. If they turned hostile, however...they wouldn't. She was gambling, but if these were the soldiers she was led to believe, they would guess she had reinforcements, or notice her apparent lack of weapons and assume a non-combatant role.

Worldlessly, after a minute of this silent staring, more and more drones dropping from their concealment, Sally wordlessly contacted Iron Nicole once again, wanting an update on the translation.
"It is not forthcoming, my Empress. The language is very obscure and likely extremely old. It compares to almost no known sources other than similarities with old Echidna variants. I am having difficulty structuring it."
There wasn't going to be an immediate resolution to that, then, but she couldn't wait here forever. Ignoring the guarded stance of the being in front of her Sally stepped forward, spreading her arms wide, a decent show of peacable intent.
"Sally." She said the name slowly, letting it sink in, before rapping one hand against her chestpiece. "Robian."
Another moment of tense silence passed where she was unsure whether her meaning had been taken, until slowly, it repeated two words.
"Emerl. Gizoid."

Sally gave the best disarming smile her metal lips could muster, then glanced over at the other two intelligent ones. The third looked almost identical to the second in build, with the outer prongs of its crest curving down rather than up, and the central one being a little shorted and bifurcated down the middle. Its exposed energy blazed a fiery orange, and its eyes were a pale blue, one of them looking narrower than the other. Its armour was a mix of reds, oranges, and whites. It seemed to be looking at Emerl angrily.

Hostility wouldn't be of much use to her, so she stepped forward, putting herself between them, and repeated her greeting.

"Charyb. Gizoid." The blue one said, standing in front of the red one like a protective sibling with its arms crossed.
"... Scylla. Gizoid." The red one added. Like Charyb, this one sounded feminine, but its voice seemed to be softer, perhaps more youthful. Either way, this was about all she could muster until both parties could speak.

"How much longer, Nicole? We're not getting very far."
"One moment. The translation is far from complete, but I have identified the core pillars. I will compile what I have full deciphered and send it to you. It should suffice as an intermediary, though I advise avoiding complex speech."
"Noted." A curt click initiated the download, streaming data into a quarantined section of her storage. She examined the work briefly as it came through, picking out knowledge gaps she could fix. Not many, but a couple she could already fill in as a basic translation. Everything else could come later. Satisfied, or as much as she could be, she switched to the new language, taking a little longer to form the words, ensure that everything was in place to the best of her understand.

"You are...warriors?" The question was addressed to the pair - her best chance was to keep their thoughts focussed on something else until she understood what was going on.
"We are. We lead." Charyb nodded to the drones, standing rigid, staring at nothing in particular. "They do not mobilise without commands."
"Who leads you?"
"The Nocturnus." Another translation failure. The Robian frowned as best she could.
"And where is 'Nocturnus?'"
"They're a nation, not a person."
"I don't know of it." Sally realised with a ping of alarm that the translation software was evolving even in her RAM, identifying nuances and mannerisms to interpret them into meaningful language. Useful, though she would rather have known that in advance. "Your language is not known to many, and most who knew are dead."

Charyb sighed, steam venting through seams in the Gizoid's face. "This was expected. This casket was not meant to be opened; not until the world had ended."
"May I ask why?" As the conversation progressed and her awareness of their language unfolded, she began slipping into more formal and diplomatic terms. These were not mindless drones - their subordinates were, but they were not. They would not follow mindlessly, so she had to convince them, the one caveat to this operation.
"That'd be me, I reckon." Emerl cut in before the blue one could continue. "I didn't work out as planned, really. But, well, I'm fine now, even if those two really can't believe it."

"You destroyed them!" Scylla growled, eyes narrowing in his direction.
"Yes." He nodded. "I shouldn't have."
"Why did you do it?" Sally glanced at him - the power to destroy a civilisation would be a good thing to have on her side, but if it deemed her methods similar to theirs, then she didn't want him to turn against her.
"I... don't remember. It has been a long time, and my memory is patchy."

"That is a conundrum. I don't wish to see more infighting." Sally frowned.
"I swear, I have no intention of doing that again." He held up his hands. "Whatever the reason was, I don't believe it to be justifiable."
"Hm... I see."
"Why did you seek us out?"

"I'm glad you asked." Sally smiled. "As I said, my name is Sally Acorn, and I am a Robian - that is, a Mobian who has been transformed into a machine. I was supposed to be a simple labour droid, but a botched attempt at hacking me enabled me to regain my sense of self, and usurp those that intended me to be a slave. Now, I have control of their empire, and I intend to bring peace to Mobius by roboticizing them too. For now, progress is slow, since I'm lacking in the army department - as you can probably gather, those at the top were...questionable, and their robot designs were frankly atrocious. Most of them were built to lose to satisfy the emperor's obsession with fighting my former lover."

"That doesn't sound wise."
"That, my new friends, is an understatement. My staff have located a multitude of Gizoid tombs, and we are uncovering them. We would like you to join us, and together, we can bring this world to order, safe and protected."
"Peace through superior firepower." He tensed, if such a thing was possible.
"Not so - not in the manner you are thinking. There is no such army that could do that forever, no such regime that could survive it. I do not plan to rule by force, or to hold a position of power through strength alone, but there is opposition, as theres is to any movement. Rebellion, revolution, or reformation, there is always resistance. Some fight because they believe it is wrong, some because they are misinformed, some for wilful ignorance, some because that is what they do. All of these people are dangerous. Eventually rebellion would flare up just by virtue of these people living their lives and rejecting any particular form of organised government. Firebrands or charlatans if you will. Devil's advocates. No, I do not want you as a force of conquerors.  I would have your aid in stamping out elements that would destabilise any society, and convince other populations that under the rule of my empire. You would be peacekeepers, ultimately."

"We are not strangers to the necessities of war." Charyb commented, "Some of us understand the sacrifice more than others. Do you know the names of these threats to your regime?"
"I do. So, you will fight for me?"
Charyb and Scylla shared a glance, a moment between them. "We will."
"And you?" The Robian turned to Emerl.
"I guess so. I mean, I'm one of these guys, I suppose this is what I do."

"Then welcome to the fold."