Belong

Chapter 16 - The Escape, pt. 2

The moment the Resistance shuttle had neared Eggman's flying armada, it had opened fire. With Tails' skilful piloting they avoided taking damage, but they all knew they were in danger. Based on the explosions and tremors clamouring through the air, Eggman clearly had pulled out all the stops to bring them down this time. Tails brought them as close to the largest ship as he could, his face one of pure concentration as he dodged the haphazard shooting. "We'll move out! Remember the plan!" Amy called to them as Sonic took her in one arm and an Extreme Gear in another. He ran towards the hatch, jumping out on the airboard gracefully as he lifted Amy up bridal style. Silver saw them rush towards and land on one of the smaller ships, before Vector called his attention.

"Charmy! Stay with Espio and go to another ship. Try to bring them down as quickly as possible! Cause as much ruckus as you can!" the crocodile ordered his team before turning to Silver. "Amy and I have studied the notes we got from Team Dark about this particular setup," he told Silver urgently. "It's most likely Venice is being kept in the largest ship in the middle. That one is Eggman's main base, but it's also the most heavily guarded."

"That's nothing I can't handle," Silver hissed back to him, nearly jumping out of his skin with irritation. They were wasting precious time! Vector shook his head. "Eggy knows we're here for Venice, so he'll be counting on us to attack his main place of operations. You'll have to enter, but make sure you're not caught. We need to keep him in the dark as much as possible. The rest of us will distract him with an extensive attack on his defence forces to buy you some time."

"Stealth mission, got it." Checking one final time if he had his communicator with him, he gave Vector a salute and jumped out of the hatch as well. He made sure to fly a bit away from the shuttle to not accidentally be hit by Tails, who hadn't been able to shake the heavy firing and was twirling through the air. Nevertheless, the fox still had time to aim for Eggman's ships that surrounded him. Silver cheered inwardly when he expertly shot a handful of his foes. Finding the largest base was easy; it was surrounded by hundreds of smaller ships, and over a dozen times bigger than any of them. Thinking rapidly, Silver let himself drop a good bit in the air. A frontal infiltration would be too obvious, he'd be caught in seconds. It was best if he flew underneath them while his friends distracted them higher up.

As he neared the ship, warily keeping an eye on what happened above him, he could hear the ground rumble and feel the air tremble. Deep black smoke rose from the craters of the volcanoes, alongside the occasional large orange piece of debris and fumes of lava. Clearly the bombing Eggman was trying to subject their small group to was putting a huge strain on the landscape they were fighting above. Silver forced himself to fly faster. If any of those volcanoes erupted, everyone would be in huge trouble for sure. He had to be quick.

Luckily for him, it did not appear that he had alerted any of the defence ships. A few had caught fire, and others had already dropped to the ground due to the damage the Restoration had inflicted on them. But for each that was destroyed, another one seemed to take its place in less than a second. What was Eggman hiding on that ship, that was so important that it needed to be defended this heavily? Sonic had said it wasn't because of Venice, so what was Eggman plotting? Silver felt apprehension crawl up his spine. His friends couldn't keep fighting forever... he had to be quick. Having reached the main ship with no further issues, Silver quickly flew over to a small metal ledge on its side that he could stand on. "Guys, I'm at the underside of the ship," he spoke quickly into his communicator.

The thing buzzed a little before Vector responded. "There should be an entrance on top! Hurry!" Silver nodded to no-one in particular. Lifting himself with his powers once again, he flew upwards, sticking as close to the metal exterior of the ship as possible. The battle raged on around him, and he dodged many rapidly firing turrets on his way to the ship's deck. When he had flown up fully he glanced over the edge. There were more Badniks up here than he could count, all placed in strategic formations. Moving a bit wayward and pressing himself behind a small watchtower situated near the bow of the ship, Silver thought about how to best proceed. If he destroyed even a single one, he would give himself away, and that would undoubitly mean Venice's demise. He cursed under his breath. Now what?