Tails of the Old Republic

Chapter 003

Endar Spire — Ship Sinking

"Let's go!"

The Human and Mobian ran down the hall at what Miles considered a snail's pace. Trask was panting and sweating, but the twin-tailed fox wasn't exerting himself at all, despite the fact his legs were half as long as Trask's. Miles was simply too used to racing with Sonic.

Suddenly, Miles' headset chimed, and the image of another frantic Human appeared on the bluish eyepiece. Both Trask and Tails stopped running.

"This is Carth Onasi. The Sith are threatening to overrun our position; we can't hold out much longer against their firepower! All hands to the bridge!"

"That was Carth contacting us on our portable communicators," Trask explained. "He's one of the Republic's best pilots! He's seen more combat than the rest of the Endar Spire's crew put together! If he says things are bad, you better believe it!"

"All right, so what do we do?" Miles asked.

"We have to get to the bridge to help defend Bastila! There's a schematic of the Endar Spire and a copy of Carth's message stored in your electronic headset, just in case we get separated!"

"Okay, let's move out!" Miles declared, more confidently than before.

Miles "Tails" Prower shot down the corridor even faster, leaving Trask struggling to keep up. Tails suppressed a chuckle; he was just running with his legs; he wasn't even using his tails for assistance — or flying. The duo came to another sealed bulkhead. The young Mobian let Trask unlock it.

The bulkhead door whizzed open to a firefight. A soldier in an orange uniform took an energy bolt to the chest and fell to the floor, and two soldiers in silver armor trained their weapons onto Tails, who just happened to be their next target. Tails gasped and backflipped behind the bulkhead. Energy pulses streaked past where he had just been standing.

'Those guys are trying to KILL me!' thought the adolescent fox. 'I don't have any Rings... one bad hit and I'm toast!'

"These Sith must be the advance boarding party," Trask exclaimed. "FOR THE REPUBLIC!"

While Trask crouched behind the bulkhead and fired upon the invaders, Miles fumbled with his own weapon.

‘Who are these people, and why am I here? Why are we fighting?!’

The boy scowled. He gripped his pistol, but he didn’t think he needed it just yet. He rocked forward on his feet and shot out like a bolt of lightning, too fast for the enemy soldiers to track him. Miles already calculated the fastest way to neutralize the threat. He sprinted past one on his right, spun on his heels, and hardened his tails with Chaos.

WHAM!

The armored soldier’s rib cage imploded from the blunt trauma alone, and the boy’s tail-strike sent him hurtling down the corridor like a rag doll. The boy suddenly thought he might have hit him too hard, losing focus on the other soldier, even though they had tried to kill him just the second before. The distraction allowed the other soldier just enough time to recover and shoot.

The fox boy snapped back to attention and ducked his head just in time to avoid getting blasted in the face. Miles lunged at the second soldier, one tail crackling with Chaos energy. The tip of his tail flattened into a blade-like ribbon and struck the soldier’s rifle. Whatever material it was made of, it sliced apart as easily as butter. The boy thought he heard the soldier shriek; he danced around him and pummeled him with a flurry of tail-strikes, breaking bones and wrecking joints until the man fell down unconscious.

These were tails that could slice apart multi-ton badniks, swat bots, and even boss machines. Battering down a Human until he stopped moving was child’s play in comparison, but they boy felt strangely drained of energy after using his Chaos powers, like a muscle that had atrophied from years of disuse. He panted with exhaustion.

He almost didn’t hear the third soldier get the drop on him, but the tell-tale clanking of boots gave the soldier away at the last second. The boy jumped out of the line of fire, almost tripping over the soldier he had just felled. The third soldier got a bead on him — Miles whipped out a tail to block, but it was sluggish to power up and harden.

Four shots rang out — not from the enemy soldier about to kill him, but from Trask. Four burning holes appeared in the other soldier’s chest, and he collapsed to the floor. Miles could only stare.

‘He just killed… why is this happening? Why can’t I remember where I am?!’

"Great Force alive! I've never seen anybody move so fast! Not even a Jedi!" Trask gasped.

The fox refrained from asking what a Jedi was.

But Miles pushed those thoughts aside. He had a sickening feeling there was going to be a lot more death before he and Trask got off this ship.

"Just... who are you?" the man asked.

"Miles Prower," replied the Mobian, finally collecting his wits. "But… just call me Tails."

"Alright... Tails. We need to hurry!"

The fox just nodded.

The next several corridors were badly damaged from either weapon fire, ruptured power conduits, or both. Blood and bodies littered the floor, making Tails feel ill. Back on Mobius, Dr. Robotnik had massacred his people by the millions, and much of the planet had been reduced to smoking ruin. Tails had occasionally fantasized about killing Robotnik, sometimes even with his own teeth and claws... but seeing all these dead Humans chilled him to his soul.

"Tails, are you OK? I know you're not used to front line combat, but—"

"It's... nothing. I'm... fine. Really." lied the fourteen-year-old.

Through the next bulkhead door, a massive battle was raging; at least twenty soldiers were engaged. Blaster fire flew in all directions, and various knives and cutting weapons were brought into play. The soldiers in black and orange uniforms — the Republic soldiers — were being overwhelmed. Tails saw friendlies fall one by one.

‘There’s too many to just run in… but, I can’t just watch these people get slaughtered!’

Miles lay down covering fire with his blaster pistol, and Trask lobbed three frag grenades. The Mobian tried not to look at the resulting carnage, but his eyes zoomed in on where his shots had fallen. The boy felt ice water surge through his veins as the realization of what he had done crashed down on his mind.

'What have I done…? I took their lives!' he thought with horror.

Trask barked commands to the surviving friendlies, and then he and Tails continued on their way. None of the survivors were in any shape to follow.

The two allies plowed through the next several corridors, when they encountered a sight to behold. Two individuals, a female dressed in yellow-gold robes, and a male clad in dark gray robes with light armor were exchanging blows with what looked like glowing swords! No, not just glowing swords; the blades appeared to be made of pure light and plasma!

"A Dark Jedi! Get back, Tails! This fight is too much for us; we'd only get in the way!" Trask's voice was deadly serious.

At least Tails now had an idea what a "Jedi" was.

The male and female duelists, wielding red and blue energy blades, respectively, moved like lightning. Tails could barely track their motions, even with his superior perception. Swing and dodge, thrust and parry, the two duelists fought with unmatched grace and tenacity. Their weapons seemed to burn deep gashes into whatever they touched. Finally, the male fighter was knocked off balance.

And was immediately sliced in half.

Miles stared in both shock and awe, mouth agape. Exhausted, the female deactivated her weapon and knelt on one knee, panting. The fox saw the power conduit behind her spark and sputter.

"LADY, BEHIND YOU!" Tails shouted at the top of his lungs.

Too late, the woman turned to see what he meant. The power conduit ruptured, and the entire corridor was engulfed in flames. The force of the explosion knocked Tails onto his backside.

"NO!" Trask exclaimed, peeling himself off the bulkhead. "That was one of the Jedi tasked with guarding Bastila! Damn it, we could have used her help!"

Tails bared his fangs. "Come on, the bridge is close!"

At last, when the bulkhead door to the bridge whizzed open, Tails and Trask were fired upon by at least fifteen Sith troopers. Trask leapt behind a computer console, then the man clutched his shoulder; he was hit. The boy was struck twice in the chest, cracking the protective plates inside his vest, and Tails bounded behind a holographic view screen, hoping the shifting patterns would obscure a clean shot.

Something clicked inside Miles' mind. The enemies around the corner, fully armored from head to toe, resembled faceless machines. The confused fox's self-preservation instincts were already on high alert, and like a computer, he quickly calculated his most efficient way to neutralize them all, his tails crackling.

Tails threw down his pistol.

"What are you doing?!" Trask shouted.