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Part five of the origin of Mobius series.

Sonic sat in one of the smaller rooms on the Kestrel craft. He hung his head low, almost touching his hands, a moist film covered his eye sockets. He raised a finger to brush away a tear that clung to the edge of his eyelid, letting it run down his finger. He rubbed his eyes and cleared his nose with a sharp sniff as the door slid open behind him. Michala sat down on a chair next to him. Sonic turned slowly to look, not quite making eye contact.

"We think Sally’s come out of the woods now, we have been able to repair the brain damage she suffered." Said Michala. He paused. Sonic, noticing the tone of his voice asked him one question:

"What aren’t you telling me?" he asked, his voice quavering slightly.

"Sally has taken serious internal damage, it is unlikely that she will be able to survive off life support."

"No, please no." Sonic’s voice began to fragment.

"There is no, standard, treatment for such massive system shock."

Sonic heard the stress on the standard.

"What about un-standard?"

"A recent development in medical technology is a regeneration chamber, we carry one aboard but it has not been tested on an anthromorph before."

"Would it work?"

"Almost definitely, I predict a 90% success rate."

"What if it didn’t?"

"She would die in indescribable agony, the machine works by total restructure of the cellular structure based on the patients gene coding. If it doesn’t work she will slowly be dissolved, the process cannot be stopped once started."

"Are you going to try it?"

"I need to pass a vote to the Knothole council, but I will make the final decision myself."

"But…"

"No Sonic, you and most of Knothole are too emotionally involved to make a concrete decision, and I wouldn’t want the blame resting on anybody else’s shoulders. I make decisions like this as part of my job, I know what to expect."

Michala stood up, he walked to a recessed square set into the wall at his waist level. He pressed one of a series of coloured buttons along the top of the square. His bulk obscured Sonic’s view. He turned and handed Sonic a small glass which was about half full of a clear liquid. Sonic took it and sniffed it slightly, the smell of alcohol burnt his nose.

"I think you need that." He said.

Sonic slugged the drink. He gasped, it was a lot stronger than he expected it to be. The heat from its passage was welcome and made him more comfortable. His eyes bugged slightly as the vapours rose up his nose. Michala slammed him on the back as he half-coughed, half-choked.

"Feel better?"

"I guess…"

"Come, I have something to show you."

As Michala turned Sonic slid out of the too-large chair. He winced as his feet hit the floor, he must have twisted his ankle on the run back from Robotropolis. He followed Michala past a few sets of doors that were all uniform in their metallic simplicity. He came to a door that was set into a recessed alcove. Michala punched a button on the wall next to it and it slid open. Inside was a black chair as Sonic had used in the training room, but the walls were covered with shelves full of shiny black boxes that carried a label describing them. It didn’t take a genius to work out that this was some kind of a library. Michala walked to the far end of the shelf and pulled out two boxes. He plugged them into a port on the side of the chair.

"Like history?" he asked.

"No, not really." Sonic replied.

"Well, perhaps you’ll like this. It’s a concise history of earth from the beginning of the third millennium to present time. Some of the early stuff is a bit boring, but it gets better. Do you know what SIM-Sense is?"

"Is it something like that training thing?"

"Yes, except you don’t control what happens. Now just get in the chair and try not to worry about Sally, she’ll be okay."

Sonic nodded and climbed into the chair. He still jumped a little as the metallic bands slid around his arms and legs and the needle shot into his spine. He felt his vision fade until he was floating in a darkened area. Suddenly, an area in front of him lit up, displaying a large sign duplicating the title of the piece. He heard a female human voice announce:

"Welcome to the concise history of Human culture from the beginning of the third millennium to the present time. Important events only are shown here, for a detailed history please refer to the rest of your library for other titles."

The voice changed to a rich male voice.

"Firstly, we begin with the third millennium, known to many as the second dark ages."

Sonic felt himself propelled forward through a portal that appeared before him. He then found himself in front of a large cinema screen.

"SIM-Sense was not developed until the middle of the third millennium, so the earlier footage will be shown in two-dimensional video format."

Then the voice began to recite a list of figures as footage appeared on the screen.

"Our records begin at the end of the twenty-first century. The most important date here is the formation of the world-wide economic and judicial council. It was based on an idealistic idea to synchronise all living conditions, laws and income."

The screen filled with a film of the opening sequence, showing a grand opening festival.

"The council hall was situated in what was north-eastern USA in a city known as New York."

The screen changed to show a quick geographical reference.

"This map is based on the records available at the time."

The screen returned to show a politician of some kind giving a speech.

"The first laws passed by the council were: The banning of personal firearms of any kind, A harsh crackdown on illegal substances, A ban on countries spending more than 5% of there GNP on defence."

The screen display changed again, this time to a map of what Sonic presumed was earth. It looked similar to Mobius, but the shapes were slightly different. It also had multiple territories marked on the map.

"The passing of these laws caused a split in the councils main members. The European Union and the Japanese empire had considerable stakes in the defence market, the Populace of the US, especially those of the south-west area, had a strong belief in the ownership of personal firearms, due to a document signed in previous centuries, know as the constitution. Unfortunately all information regarding the constitution has been lost following the Great War."

Sonic became slightly more interested now, he hadn’t understood a half of what that last bit was about but war was usually quite exciting. The map changed again, this time enlarging the map of the USA. It was divided into small areas of land which then divided into two opposing colour groups.

"The United States of America suffered a serious internal split. Those states in favour of the Councils laws formed the United Councils of America, coloured here in blue. Those opposed to the laws formed United Free States of America."

The view shifted to an isometric one.

"The states in UCA were as follows, please note, only the vague area and names of the states are known, their exact positioning is not. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida."

"The states in the UFSA were as follows. Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama."

Sonic fidgeted, this was boring! Some of the names he’d heard were weirder than those for some of the places in Mobius!

"Control of the UFSA was seized by a charismatic anarchist called Danial Simpson. He ordered that all of the peoples under his control be armed and trained. When European Intelligence discovered that he was manufacturing a large store of Nuclear weaponry the council was informed."

The view zoomed out to show the whole of North America.

"While talks took place to decide what to do with this new threat the UFSA attacked the Northern country known then as Canada. Simpson ordered a full armoured air company with Nuclear support to move into a territory known as British Columbia. Nuclear weapons were used against a city known as Vancouver after its SDI defences had been covertly destroyed."

Sonic took a little more interest.

"This was the sparking point for the Great War. Exact records of events through the war are fragmentary to say the least, but the following information is available."

The view changed yet again to the world map, different countries taking either a red or blue coloration.

"The sides were as follows: The UFSA allied with Mexico, the Central American Economic Community, the Caribbean Federation, the Equatorial Alliance of Southern America, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. It also found non-military support from the Central Islamic Community."

The aforementioned countries appeared to stand out slightly from the rest.

"Canada was supported by the European Union which had many ancient ties to Canada. The UCA took alliance from Europe, The North African Independents, The Central African Republic, The South African Community, The Japanese Empire and the Australian and Indonesia Community."

These now became more pronounced.

"Countries which remained aloof included the Asian Communist Bloc, which had only recently come into being, after a virulent Influenza virus halved the population. Also the Icelandic Community, the Scandinavian Alliance and the North Polar Independents."

Sonic saw some figures appear on the screens, showing populations. His mind boggled, even the relatively small countries had populations far in excess of the highest Mobian population ever.

"The war began with the Japanese Empire attacking the western seaboard of the UFSA. An expeditionary force landed in a remote area of Oregon and seized control of some small towns. A nuclear strike was launched against San Francisco and Los Angeles. The attack was successful, resulting in the death of Millions. The UFSA struck back, eliminating the Japanese Empire under a nuclear curtain bombardment. Border skirmishes escalated between the two American groups. The Euro-Canadian alliance re-took British Columbia and advanced into Washington and Montana. Europe began the construction of a highly advanced war machine, a type that had never been seen before. The Southern Countries developed a lethal Virus which they used against the African Countries. It was lethal only to people of Negro descent and spread rapidly through Africa and on to the rest of the world. This caused the extinction of the Negroid Race. The south Africans of Caucasian descent developed their own virus which they used in a revenge attack against the Southern countries. This virus was geared to eliminate anyone who was not of Northern Caucasian descent. It was lethally successful, making a close to 99.5% success rate. In the Great War, the dead outnumbered the living ten-to-one."

The Screen scrolled a list of casualty figures. Sonic felt an incredible urge to be sick. The figures were astronomical, numbering into the billions, numbers so large that they no longer had any meaning. Sonic tried to close his eyes and found that he couldn’t.

"The UFSA made a direct assault on Europe, attempting to push through under the ice-cap with submarine landing craft. The attack was thwarted by the Europeans new weapon, the Goliath."

The screen showed footage of a Goliath in action.

"The Goliath was an entirely new idea in warfare. It was a huge mechanised creature set out like a mythological centaur. It was the first experiment in artificial sentience technology, which meant that it was completely immune to electronic interference and espionage, and also could only be controlled by its creator. Standing at over 40 Metres tall it was able to walk on the seabed to attack the advancing UFSA fleet."

The film changed again to show the Goliath attacking the submarine landing craft. Sonic was reminded of one of his battles with Robotnik’s killer Robots, but again this was on a far larger scale.

"The UFSA had failed in its espionage attempts to destroy the Goliath base located on an island, know as Britain, off the north East Coast of Europe. Its only success was the capturing of plans for an advanced fuel system based on a fragile warp fissile drive to power the Goliaths. A duplicate was built in a secret base in the Arizona desert. The fuel source was used to build an EMP weapon to disable Europe’s anti-aircraft shield. The attack brought down the shield over the European states of France, Spain and the capital Belgium. A nuclear strike was mounted, resulting in the annihilation of all life in these countries. The capital of Europe was moved to Britain where a new defensive system was thrown up. It consisted of void shields and power fields to absorb the brunt of any attack by disrupting the natural energy flow through the perimeter. The UFSA launched a nuclear strike against Britain which adequately showed the power of the defensive shields. Similar shields were erected around the Netherlands, Germany and South Africa. The next offensive was taken by the German Commando Unit, the Deutsche Blitzarmee. Landing in Mexico they planted an experimental plasma warhead in Mexico City. The resulting blast created a crater over two-hundred kilometres across and five kilometres deep, which filled with water, forming the Mexican sea."

The map changed showing the newly formed crater.

"Knowing of this the Jamaican state of the Caribbean rebelled and returned to its old commonwealth ties with Britain. It was able to hold off until European aid arrived. The severely depleted Caribbean community was overwhelmed and came under European rule."

The world map changed again to show the current state of affairs.

"Scientists in the UFSA had modified the power source to use it as a lethal weapon. The Scandinavian unit found this out and, fearful for its national safety, undertook a mission to destroy the weapon hidden in the Arizona desert. The weapon was prematurely detonated within its silo."

The screen showed a simulation of the blast.

"The weapon tore a hole in the fabric of reality, to a dimension filled with antimatter and raw energy. The resulting annihilation reaction tore a crater of colossal proportions in the North American continent and released a cloud of Chaotic material into the upper atmosphere. The crater covered the whole of the old United States and reached far into the southern Canadian territories. The crater plumbed to the depths of the continental crust and the mantle was exposed. The reaction between this and the residual chaotic material formed a plug of basalt impregnated with rich veins of condensed chaotic energy. The results of the blast were immense tidal waves and ion storms that circumnavigated the earth. The polar caps melted, compensating for the loss of sea level. The Chaotic material in the upper atmosphere conglomerated into large chunks which crashed down onto earth. After the rain of destruction the only remain human units were those of Britain, South Africa and Northern Germany."

Sonic again was struck by the sheer scale of the disaster, the casualty figure on the map read over seven billion deaths, over five times the greatest population of Mobius.

"The climatic change caused by the melting of the ice-caps and the disruption of the Gulf Stream caused Britain and North Germany to suffer a drastic temperature reduction. Earth rapidly cooled due to the debris in the atmosphere and the ice-caps began to reform. A new Ice age came which persisted for the next thousand years. The great radiation and chaotic energy of the event changed all living things on the planet. Evolution accelerated and mutations became common."

Around Sonic the whole area he was in changed to something that looked like a science lab. On the tables were twin rows of specimens, one of humans, the other of what appeared to be racoons.

"First we observe the human mutations. Notice the brain of the first subject is laid out to a typical mammalian pattern."

The voice had changed to a stuffy, boring lecturers’ voice.

"Through the second to the fifth specimen we see the enlargement of the Pineal gland, re-erupting to form a central cortex. This is now a feature common to all humans. This new feature, named the Psycho-cortex, gives humans an innate psychic ability which extends to short range telepathy and mild telekinesis. Specific mutations give increased power to the cortex, enabling long ranged interstellar communication and true telekinesis. The most advanced of these mutations is noted in the ruling classes, notably the Black Company. Their mutation allows standard telepathy but also allows psychic energy to be transmitted into physical force using the body. This accounts for the vast strength of the Black Company and also has led to the rumours of the Black Rage."

‘Oh, great’ Sonic thought. ‘I’m in the same ship as one of the strongest hedgehogs in existence.’

"By adding the cyclical helix of the Mobian anthropomorphic hedgehog this stabilises the gene sequence and allows it to become dominant rather than recessive. This has enabled significant bio-alterations to be performed on the Black Company to increase their fighting proficiency. Additions of other species into the Black Company has been achieved by surgically altering the brain and internal structure of the candidates."

‘Wonder if Amy is?’

"The second row of specimens shows the development of an entirely new species. Classified as Procyon Homo and known by its common name of Bandit or Raccomen, this was an advancement of the Racoon in the surviving Canadian forests. The first advancement was a random mutation causing them to develop opposable thumbs. The subsequent rapid speed of evolution caused an increase in cranial capacity and development of a Psycho-cortex. By exchanging psychic energy unknowingly with the remaining humans living on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean the Raccomen were able to gain considerable intelligence and were at the level of Medieval human when they were discovered. They now form an integral part of the Human empire, although their population remains small."

The lab around Sonic faded to black. The female voice returned.

"If you wish to leave the SIM-sense now please press the red button ahead of you."

A button materialised in front of him. Sonic pushed it.

"Thank you for viewing this SIM-sense file, we hope you return soon to complete your viewing of it."

Sonic woke up in the chair just as Michala strapped something to his ankle.

"You got bored with the bit about the species right?" Michala asked.

"Yeah, the voice got to me." He replied. "How’d you know?"

"Everyone jacks out at that point, the voice gets to most people anyway."

"What are you doing to my ankle?"

"You’ve split a ligament, this should heal it faster but its R&R for the next few days for you I’m afraid."

"Why? I’ve sprained my ankle before and still been able to run on it."

"Not this badly though, if you snap the tendon it could fracture the bone when you run and take weeks to heal, so you’re grounded."

"Poop!"

"Yeah, tough life innit?"

"How’s Sally?"

"She’s stable and Knothole has decided to let me attempt regeneration treatment on her."

"How long will it take?"

"Probably about a week, but you can never be sure how long something that complex will take."

"When are you starting?"

"Have already, do you want to see Sally in a tank?"

"Umm.. Okay."

"Sure?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Some people find the tanks disturbing."

"How do you mean?"

"Do you have a fear of needles?"

"No."

"You might do after you see this. Come."

Michala helped Sonic off the chair and held him up on the side of his bad leg. They returned to the medical room to see Sally in a tank full of green liquid, innumerable tubes and pipes connected to various parts of her body. She was clad only in a loose fitting gown that occasionally billowed up with the flow of the liquid. A breathing mask was attached over her face and about every thirty seconds a stream of bubbles escaped from it.

"Is it working?" Sonic asked tentatively.

"It appears so, but you can never know until the treatment is complete."

"What do you think?"

"I think she is going to be okay, hopefully she should not have taken too much brain damage, otherwise she’s going to wake up pretty cranky."

Outside Amy was looking at the Mobian sky, reminiscing about an incident in her childhood.

Suddenly she spotted Antoine rushing towards her waving his arms in a display of anguish.

"Ant? What’s wrong?"

Antoine screeched to a halt and proceeded to gabber something unintelligible between gasps for air.

"Hey! Slow down, tell me what the problem is."

"Eeet ->huff<- eet ees tails, ‘e ‘as not reported een, ->huff<- and ‘e ‘as not come back."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Oui!" He snapped. "I must zee Zonic now!"

"No, give me his patrol route and I will sort it, Sonic’s busy with Sally."

"Here, take eet."

Antoine handed her a sheet of paper detailing Tails’ patrol route.

"I’ll get right on it."

Amy ran into the medical room just as Michala closed the shroud around Sally’s tank.

"Amy?"

"It’s Tails, they think he’s been captured."

"Let me out, I’ll go look for him!"

"No, Sonic." Michala ordered. The tone of his voice stopped Sonic in his tracks, here was someone used to giving out orders. "You’re ankle is rather fragile at the moment and if it breaks you’ll get caught as well."

"What are we going to do then?" Sonic asked, exasperated.

"I’ll do it. I’m still wearing most of my armour and I can get there faster than you can."

"Faster than me, huh, how?"

"Remember the first class air trip to Robotropolis?"

"Don’t remind me."

"We clocked Mach 1.3 then, and that’s faster than you can run."

"Okay, just please find him, I don’t know what I’d do without my little bud."

"I will, don’t worry."

Michala strode up to the large computer display in the control room.

"Computer, mark all activity on the following area."

Michala inserted the piece of paper into a letterbox sized slot on the side of the computer.

"Scanning…."

The screen flipped to a map of the area surrounding Knothole. Some areas were highlighted in red.

"Detect areas of activity with increased unburnt hydrocarbon levels."

The computer selected an area about twenty kilometres north of Knothole.

"Captain, am detecting large metallic mass moving due east from given location."

"Pinpoint."

"Accessing Spy-SAT images now."

A slightly fuzzy image appeared on screen of a SWAT cruiser.

"Contents: Two carbon based in rear of vehicle, One carbon based in front. Metallic life forms detected."

"Keep tracking and send it to my HUD."

"Understood."

Michala stood outside the Kestrel, he clipped his helmet onto its supporting ring and felt the hiss as his suit pressurised. He loaded the end of a belt of ammunition into his Wyvern and activated his jets.

He took off and gain speed as the ground effect drives kicked in. Picking up speed rapidly he followed the way-point marker on his field of vision. He activated his passive radar system, it detected a short burst of transmission from his target. He passed over a band of trees and increased his speed as he flew over a lake. His target was less than a kilometre away now but he still could not see it through the thick band of trees at the edge of the lake. He turned himself sideways to pass through the trees and righted himself as he passed through. Dead ahead of him was a large SWAT cruiser.

Thoughts coursed through Michala’s head. As well as his usual tactical thoughts and gearing himself up was a feeling that he owed it to someone to save the little fox’s life. He remembered the two tailed fox from when he first met the Mobians. He looked so young, so innocent, but he was tainted by the gun he carried and that look of fear that comes from being in a war not of your own making. He owed it to the kid to save his childhood, and no robot was going to stand in his way!

Freddie was pissed off. He had been working for Robotnik for a long time now, since the start of the coup. Freddie was a big time crime lord before then and had been hunted by King Acorns secret service. Those dopes couldn't track their way out of a wet paper bag. Freddie smirked at the thought. Since he was an opponent of King Acorn Robotnik had hired him to work some of his counter intelligence operations. That went belly up when something blew most of Robotropolis into a steaming crater. Robotnik flipped out when Packbell got it, he ordered all the HC units to gather as many targets as possible. Robotnik was even more of a fruitcake than usual and had put him, Freddie ‘Butterfly’ Rockston on HC duty. The big rat swished his tail and casually flicked the big butterfly knife that was his trademark. Oooh, how he wanted to cut that smart mouth Princess and her Jock boyfriend spikeball up. He walked to the back of the cruiser to see the two prisoners. They were chained to the walls with heavy manacles and a strip of duct-tape was affixed across their mouths. One of the prisoners was that twin tailed fox freak, tails or something. The other was some badger, mighty cute she was too, and perhaps he could have his way with her before she got Roboticized.

"Sir, detecting UFO on the starboard side." Came the metallic drone of the driving SWATbot.

"Where tinplate?" He spat on the floor.

"Starboard s.."

There was a resounding clang as something heavy hit the right hand side of the cruiser, severely rocking it.

"What the fuck?!"

There was a screech of tortured metal as a plate above the prison compartment buckled upwards. Freddie picked up the twelve bore shotgun from its mount on the wall. Its crudely sawn-off barrel glinting menacingly. He pulled back the auto-cock and let the semi-automatic mechanism do the rest. The plate above the prisoners buckled back further, Freddie aimed the shotgun and squeezed the trigger. The deafening boom of the shot and the damage of the pellets was followed by a final screech of metal as the plate was torn off. Freddie cursed and fired again. This time he heard a roar of anger and something went for him. He screamed as a huge black shape thrust through the plating and pinned him to the floor. One of the previously inactive swats lined up on the walls fired a laser bolt into his assailants back. They ricocheted off and burnt holes in the ceiling. The figure raised a monstrously oversized gun and fired a line of shells at the Swats. They exploded into shards of hot metal and the side of the craft was torn open. The pilot was hit and the plane tipped violently to the left. The plane was rocked by an explosion as the stubby wing hit a tree and lost an engine.

Freddie took aim again but his shotgun was thrown out of his hands as the cruiser fell. His attacker raced towards him and raised a fist. The last thing he saw were the two glaring eyepieces of the armour, the black armour, as his assailant’s fist smashed full on into his face. His jaw shattered, his nose bone driven into his brain even as the force of the punch decapitated him. The cruiser hit the ground.

Michala felt the impact through his whole body. He was thrown into the ceiling, thankful that his armoured suit cushioned the blow. The prisoners weren’t so lucky. Michala watched helpless as tails was thrown upwards while still attached to the wall, he heard the sickening wrench of a dislocation. The badger was less fortunate, a girder impaled her through the stomach and she was torn in two as it buckled still further. The cruiser stopped moving.

Tails was screaming, his arms were on fire and his vision was blurred with pain. All he saw before he passed out was a hulking black shape advancing on him.