Egg Command Tower

[Tatsuhiro]

By now, Tatsuhiro had slinked over to the crates filled with the chaos shards. He had noticed them way before they’d reached the room, but mostly ignored his ‘sixth sense’ in the matter. But after walking about, the closer he got to the shards, the more he felt the presence in his forehead. And soon he felt somewhat drawn to them. As he got up near the crates, he placed his hands at the top of the crate and looked at the box intently. He looked somewhat like a cat that was curious as his tail started to swerve a little.

But he didn’t open it. He felt it was best to wait for orders to open it least he do something that would upset the Doctor. He found it hard to tell exactly what he wanted, and he’d learned his lesson from the times that he apparently went against his orders. But he'd admit it was hard, the pressure in his forehead was deafening.

[Rampage]

Feeling a bit foolish for mistaking the keys for the box passed quickly when Robotnik finally told him what they were really for. A genuine, crooked grin spread across Rampage's muzzle at the mention of the Egg Digger. HAH! If I get a tank to play with, I don't care if I have to dig up a mountain all by myself! But, since I'd actually like to be young enough to enjoy it, I hope you don't mind if I borrow a dozen or so bots and some ships to bring it back?" Rampage said as he repeatedly tossed the keys up into the air and caught them.

"As for you, Princess..." Rampage spat out venomously. "I'm glad to see you're not as dumb as you look. I'd suggest you stay that way unless you want to find out what how Prometheus felt every morning the eagle came to visit.

[Dr. Robotnik]

Robotnik's eyes ventured to where Rose had injected him with the nanites. In truth, he'd completely forgotten all about them until she'd brought it up. They'd been extremely helpful in getting him to the state he was in now, but what she'd said before gave him pause. Despite everything she'd said, he felt a little as if he'd been tainted by a poison. To distract his look of fear, he decided he would grant Rampage's request and smiled as he spoke to the badger.

"Sure, go dig it up if you want. Although you might need everything we brought to get the shards just to get it back out again, heh heh heh."

The smile faded into a heavy sigh, as the doctor realized he really couldn't keep talking like this any more.

"All right...I think that's enough. I'm going to my quarters now. Rose, if you like, see if you can come up with ideas for how to use the shards. I'll need some time to rest. Snively, help her. Farewell, all of you, for now."

And with that, he ordered the med bots to cart him away back to the main lift.

[Rose Fox]

Rose gave a solemn sigh, closing her eyes as her head tilted to one side. “I’ll try, but I’m a little more concerned with getting your arm back to good as new. “ she paused, as she straightened her head. “ Also, and you don’t have to reply to this, I wouldn’t mind speaking to you- in private. There’s just a few things I want to get off my chest…”

She turned around and started to walk, over towards a table she was familiar with. She trusted that Ivo would have a workstation that had all the tools out for building nanobots. And lo and behold, he did. As soon as she got there, she began ordering up all the materials she would need with a tablet that was sitting next to the station.


Snively watched her actions intently, as though he was expecting the worst to happen. But seeing her quietly leave everyone to there own devices was a little…surprising to him. She must have been serious about getting his Uncle back to shape than he thought. One moment she was plotting to murder him, and the next she’s trying to help him. This woman is so off-hinged. He looked over towards Robotnik as he would be leaving out of the room.

“I’ll work out how to use the shards while you’re gone, sir.” Snively replied, not expecting a response back.

[Uhh, so, what? Another time skip? If you don’t feel like it Rampage, I’m sure Tatsu can move in another topic or something. ]

[Tatsuhiro]

While he seemed to be very content with just staring at the box, he did finally pay some kind of attention as to what everyone else was saying in the room. Though considering he’d been out of the conversation, he didn’t have much to say. Nor did he really think about it all that much. But if Rampage was going to seriously go and dig up one of the Doctor’s mechs, he wouldn’t mind tagging along.

“Shards are over here if you’re wondering.” he first piped up as he looked over towards Snively.

As soon as Snively would noticed, he walked away and over towards Rampage’s position. As dull and monotoned as ever, he questioned him.

“So, are we still watching the tapes, or are they going to make it our in-flight movie?” His attempts to joke would most likely fall flat, as they usually did. But he tried, and with all his lifeless speech was exactly what his Doctor wanted him to do.

[Rampage]

"Might as well." Rampage shrugged. Without much further fanfare, turned and left. But just outside in the hallway, and well out of ear shot of Rose or Snively, Rampage turned to a console and punched in his authorization codes. He quickly typed in commands to the base's Spy Eyes, Surveillance bots and security bots. Lab camera's audio recorders, anything that could be used, would be used to discreetly monitor everything Rose and Snively say or do. If he was going to step out of town for any extent of time, especially if Robotnik wasn't available to watch over them, he wanted to keep a sharp eye on Rose and Snively.

He also flagged the monitoring order as Top Priority Secret and passed the message on to Robotnik himself, along with his reasons for issuing the orders. Technically, he suspected Rose could hack through any security measures the doctor possessed, but hoped that by encrypting even the identity of the one issuing the order as Top secret would keep Rose's prying eyes out of his business until Robotnik himself took a look at the order and either approved the decision or shot it down. Either way, by the time he got back, all the accumulated data, audio and visual would be accumulated, locked away for him (and the the Doctor) to review later and Rose wouldn't be any the wiser.

Regardless of his own intentions, Rampage knew Robotnik's cowardly cousin was a conniving deviant and power hungry. Even if Rose could read his mind, he didn't trust Rose not to exploit that benefit for whatever plans she had. Besides that, there was simply no way that Rampage trusted Rose, working alone or even supervised. She was even more random and unpredictable than himself and that alarmed the normally unflappable badger to no ends. The best defence against any of their combined personal machinations would be to keep close tabs on them both. Investing in some security policies might also be helpful.

In fact, Rampage would have to speak to Robotnik in private about some improvements to himself. The rest he could deal with through less direct, but easily attainable means.

[Dr. Robotnik]

[Time skip...maybe we skip up to where Rose decides to have the private chat with Robotnik?]

"Of course Rose," Robotnik said, responding to her request for a private talk. However, he would definitely have his room monitored and set to immediately lock down if she tried anything while they were alone.

As he got rolled back onto the lift, Robotnik honestly hadn't wanted to be carted away like this, as he was taken back to his room. Not only did he want to get to work on secret weapon plans with Rose, but quite frankly he didn't feel altogether safe letting Rose have free run of the lab.

First it was Rampage, and now Rose he had to worry about... And Rampage was throwing around accusations about Snively being a backstabber as well. What on earth was he going to do? A house divided could not stand, and he couldn't keep running an empire like this. How could he conquer the world if he was afraid of his own allies backstabbing him?

Maybe I should just roboticize all of them and then dismantle them...clean house and start fresh...

While it was nice to have others helping him in his quest for world domination, they certainly needed him a lot more than he needed them. It would definitely be worth pondering...

A little beep sounded from a tablet that Robotnik had with him. Looked like Rampage had decided to make it a priority to keep surveillance on Rose and his supposed nephew. The doctor briefly wondered if he should take the badger up on his offer. Upsides? He'd been thinking about doing it himself, and Rampage would no doubt gain more respect for him. Plus if Rampage decided to turn on Robo...well, Rampage would be more predictable than Rose and easier to take down. Downsides? Rose might discover what they were up to, dividing their ranks even more. But Robotnik did have the home court advantage here with it being his system, so he didn't think it would happen.

Plus if Rose ended up doing nothing suspicious on surveillance, it would be a great peace of mind for him. If she proved to be true to her word while he wasn't around, then he would quietly delete the surveillance data and they'd work together without any suspicions. Smiling, he pressed the confirm button to allow the surveillance to begin.

[Rose Fox]

[Sure. TIME SKIP HOOOOOYYYYY!!! *raises magic sword*]

-------------------------------

“I got it! We’ll make a Metal Sonic that’s powered by the shards! He’ll be able to plow through those stupid Freedom Fighters!”

Even as her attention was turned towards Robotnik’s quick recovery, she still managed to listen to Snively’s ideas as he shouted them out like he was some kind of genius. She took the moment to stop and roll her eyes. Putting down her tools she turned the chair around and gave Snively a dull, un-impressed look as her goggles where pushed up.

“Let’s ignore the fact that it’s just one robot; isn’t there a slight chance that one: They still might destroy it or Two: The thing could go absolutely bonkers and start attacking us? Do you really think it’s a wise use of resources?”

Snively’s replied with a frustrated expression as he stared at her as though –she’d- been the problem in his plans. She didn’t even have to hear his answer, she’d known she’d put the nail in that idea. What was that, the tenth idea he’d come up with within the hours? She honestly wasn’t keeping count. Turning back around, she picked up her tools, pulled her goggles down, and began to finish up connection point. It was a strange looking thing; it was circular in shape with two wires sticking out from one side to the other like a straight line. She looked to be messing with a few circuits here and there. Thankfully, she didn’t have to hand-make every single nanobot for the operation.

“Well, since you seem fit to pick apart ever idea I’ve had so far, why don’t you think of something better?” Snively practically growled.

“I thought you boys liked to keep girls out of your war games.” Rose replied, as she fiddled with the device.

“Pff, figures. You can’t think of anything!” Snively spat out as he put his nose in the air and crossed his arm.

She did not like his tone one bit. Silence filled the room as Rose as she worked and Snively took the time to come up with something else. When she finally put the little device in a casing ready for use, she pulled the goggles off and put all the tools she had been working with back in there proper face. Now that she had gotten that out of the way, it was time to show Snively who he was messing with.

“Because I hadn’t been exactly listening to some of the information you’d been spouting out aloud to you’re self, I’d like you to answer me something things. First off, there’s only –one- city around that’s in Ivo’s way, correct?”

Since she didn’t really give him a choice, and because he himself was curious as to where she was going to go with all of this, he reliantly answered.

“Theoretically. There’s still those stupid band of mobians to deal with.”

“And he’d tried taking it but failed, right?”

“Barely. He still managed to take a big chunk of forces and parts of the city. Why are you asking?” He answered irritatingly.

“I just had a thought. Why not use the shards to create a barrier around the city?”

Snively looked unamused by her idea. At the same time, he saw this as a perfect opportunity to destroy her ideas.

“What? So they can be protected?!” he exclaimed sarcastically.

“No. So that nothing can get in or out.”

Now he appeared to be interested. “Why would we do that?”

“Well, you just said that parts of the city were taken out; as well as the fact that the Doctor had taken out a good enough chunk out of there forces. Now if we can sabotage a few extra areas, like water and food, then it would be a perfect scenario to put up the barrier.”[b] She expressed her plain in nonchalantly, as she used one of the tables near Snively as a temporary chair. [b]“-And then all we have to do is wait. Sooner or later the city would have to give in, because everyone would starve. The lack of clean water might also pose a problem. If we’re lucky, the city might panic. It might not be immediate, but sooner or later they’ll be begging to join the empire. Now the bad part I wouldn’t know how to build a barrier, but I’m sure you boy’s will figure something out.”

Snively was baffled. The idea….wasn’t bad at all. Slow for his likening, but considering the already scare resources due to the dimensional merge, it would be a major problem if the city was cut off from the rest of the world. The thing they’d have to figure out how to do was making the device.

“That’s….not bad.” He tried hard to sound cool, but it was obvious that he was somewhat impressed.

“ Well of course it is. You boys enjoy you're big explosion, death, and destruction through massive war machines; but you never consider just taking away the necessities. Or creating massive panics. Or anything else that requires subtly.

[I won't be posting Tatsu, He'll appear in whatever Topic Rampage is going too.]

[Dr. Robotnik]

The doctor had slept rather blissfully for several hours. But instead of waking up and immediately go back to the lab, he thought it might be good to review some of the surveillance footage to see what they'd been up to. And from what he could tell, neither Rose nor Snively had deviated from their tasks. They'd been brainstorming on ideas for the shards almost the whole time. Such dedicated little worker ants, they were.

The doctor breathed a small sigh of relief. Perhaps he and Rampage were just being paranoid and there was no betrayal to worry about after all. The doctor figured he'd keep the cameras on them for a while longer, but things looked much better compared to when he'd met Rose and Snively earlier.

He fancied he'd try walking back, as Rose's nanites appeared to have helped greatly there. With a cane he'd improvised from an umbrella, he hobbled back towards the lab with his hurt arm in a sling. Painful, but a remarkable improvement over when he'd gone to sleep. He entered the lab just as Rose and Snively finished discussing their last shield idea.

"Hello there!" he called out loudly. The doctor smiled as he walked over closer. This time it was genuine, instead of to be polite or smooth things over. "What ideas did you have for Soleanna and our friends the freedom fighters? Me, I was just thinking some sort of beam cannon that could reflect off of mirror satellites in orbit, but I thought that'd be rather dull."

[Rose Fox]

Snively had jumped when Robotnik announced himself as he hobbled into the room. Seeing as it was only Robotnik and that he didn’t appear to be in a bad mood, Snively sighed out of relief.

Rose on the other had appeared a little surprised to see Robotnik already walking about. He was in pretty bad shape when he left, and she was beginning to think that she might have made it worse. She certainly didn’t want that. But Rose was caught off guard as Snively had began to speak; and interrupted her thoughts.

“Well sir, I –do- have a pla-”

Before he could finished, he experienced a wrench hitting him upside the head. While it wasn’t thrown all that hard, the metal tool still hurt his cranium as he immediately brought his hands to the small bump that had formed. Seeing he could see Robotnik directly in front of him, he shot a look at Rose.

“Don’t think I’m going to let you steal my idea, you little up-start!” Rose let out spiteful, with a deep frown on her face. As she turned her head away from Snively and towards the front she closed her eyes and gave a very uppity look. “ I suggest a war of malnutrition. Since the Military will still be recovering, as well as the sudden merge most likely resulting in less ready-available food, it might be a good idea to play on it.”

Opening her eyes and bringing her head down, she looked towards the Doctor.

But Snively, who was still a little bitter about being hit in the head, decided to finish her plan for her.

“What She’s suggesting sir, is that we sabotage a few food and water supplies and trap the city within a barrier; one where no one can get in or out. That way, vital resources will be cut off and we would basically starve them into joining the empire. And if I might add to the plan, we should probably put troops around the perimeter.” As soon as he finished the sentence, it seemed as though a light bulb went off in his head. “ We might also be able to lure those Freedom Fighters into the city with all the commotion and trap them inside! That way, they wouldn’t be a problem.”

Rose looked over to Snively with a playful, surprised look. “Oh my, it appears that you have some intelligence!”