Sterling's Story: Part Fifteen

Sterling was ready for his first mission a week later.  He trained hard, studied harder, and practiced his transformations, getting some digital scans of what some common exus bots and weapons were from Tails, so that he could transform into more useful things if needed.  The mission itself with rather simple, a once-over for bots, and protecting a nearby city that was an important trading post.  The city was a frequent target of exus attacks because of how important it was, how large it was, and, by extension, how many resources it held.  He was with Nikki and Tails for this one, who could easily clear it themselves, but they knew Sterling could take care of himself, so he wouldn't be a liability to them.

"Almost there."  Tails said.  They were close by, but they still used communicators to help Sterling get in the habit of using them.  "Everyone ready?"

"Ready."  Nikki said with a smile.

"Ready."  Sterling said, putting his game face on.

"Sterling, we're approaching from the south side, and we're doing our usual sweep, going clockwise from where we enter, that being six o'clock.  Stay close, don't overextend into a group of bots, and we should get this done quick and easy."  Tails said absentmindedly while starting to search.  The southern part of town had the most resources, so the group started there.  It was clear, which made the group wonder if the bots were all grouped somewhere else.

"Spread out and search!"  Tails commanded, and Nikki fell into formation on the left of Tails, and Sterling did so on the right.  Nobody saw anything for a while, until they reached the west part of the city, about a quarter of the way through.  A small group of about five bots was attacking the city's defenses of a hastily-built concrete wall with police, military, and volunteers repelling the bots any way they could.  The three of them swept by, with Nikki spin-dashing forward and taking three of the bots out, and Sterling forming his arms into scimitars, slicing two of the bots up.  Tails was ready to fight, but he smiled when he saw he didn't have to.  "Good job, you two!  Let's keep going!"  They swept towards the north side of town, taking out a couple of separated bots on the way.

The north side would prove to be tough, however.  Most of the attack seemed to be concentrated here, with forty bots attacking the north side.  The citizens were taking a bot out here and there, but two of them were killed by the bots trying to defend their post.  All three of the Freedom Fighters had concern and sadness in their eyes, but once they saw the bots, they were focused on the task again.  Tails moved to the area with the heaviest concentration of bots, and Nikki followed close behind.  Sterling moved to the front, trying to take out the bots that were closest to the city.  He jumped off the wall, slicing some of the bots he saw on the way.

"Etavitca!  Shield!"  Sterling shouted, spreading his scimitar-arms out.  A large, but thin shield covered just in front of the wall, offering the citizens more protection.  He landed on a ledge and looked up at the citizens.  "This won't hold for long!  Go and treat the injured, we can handle this!"  Sterling sounded sure of his words, but he wasn't sure, deep down, that they could defend the city with three against forty.  He knew the three of them could win, but protecting everyone while stopping forty bots was a different matter.  The citizens nodded and ran, carrying the dead and injured along with them.  When Sterling saw they were all gone, he looked at his shield.  "Set!"  The nanites separated, and he turned to the right, where Tails was facing six bots, two of which had just broken off of the group and headed towards the city.  "Cut!"  He shouted, taking the first two out.  He glanced left and saw six more coming at him.  "Cut!"  The nanites sliced only three, so Sterling jumped from the ledge to the branch of a nearby tree, causing the other three to hit the concrete and become stunned.  "Cut!"  The nanites made a cut in the concrete, but also sliced the other three.  Sterling turned to survey the fight.  Nikki was bouncing around like a pinball, taking out bots left and right, and had more of the group focused on her.  Tails was being more evasive, drawing bots away from the city, but not getting himself trapped.  Twenty of the forty remained now, and none of them were heading towards the city anymore.  He wanted to take some of the bots away from Nikki so she had more options and wasn't in so much danger.  He carefully moved in and aimed at the line of bots that was furthest away from her.  "Cut!"  He sliced the line of four bots, barely missing Nikki's leg when she kicked around.

"Thanks!"  Nikki shouted as she continued to fight, taking out two more bots by digging her spikes into the heads of the robots.

"No problem!  Are there always this many?  I'm not even warmed up yet!"  Sterling chuckled, and Nikki laughed.  He quickly turned his attention to a few more bots heading towards the wall.  "Cut!"  He took the three of them out.  During all this, the volunteers and military had taken out three more bots, and Tails and taken out a couple himself.  The last six were and easy cleanup, and the group was moving towards the east side of town.  
"There usually aren't many on the east side."  Tails informed Sterling.  "There just isn't much there the bots can use, but we do find some occasionally."  Tails and Nikki had never stopped looking around, but Sterling was distracted a bit from listening to Tails, but he regained focus quickly.  The trip only took a couple of minutes, and there were five bots total when the group got there, and there weren't many defenders from the city.  Three of the bots were already dead, with no casualties to the city, and one bot trying to destroy the wall, while the other distracted the defenders with long-range attacks.  Nikki dashed and jumped off of a nearby try, spin-dashing into the far bot and slicing it easily.  Sterling had formed two hands into a greataxe as he fell, landing an overhead chop and slicing the bot in half.  Tails was up looking over the defenders and helping to treat their wounds.  A few burn wounds and a couple of minor cuts were all.  He looked down at Tails and Nikki, giving them a thumbs-up.  Nikki jumped up to a high branch and looked out, seeing no other bots coming from the small part of the city they hadn't checked yet.  She dashed down and stopped beside Sterling.

"Now we need to help heal the injured.  They need us at the north side, right now!"  Nikki pointed towards the north side, and Sterling nodded.  They both ran as fast as they could, Nikki getting there well before Sterling did.  There were a lot of injuries in addition to some casualties, and while both Nikki and Sterling worked quickly, a few of the injured bled out and died as they were tending to them.  Nikki looked sad, but she was used to seeing death in combat now, so she put it out of her mind and moved on to the next patient.  Sterling stumbled a bit, as he knew that seeing things like this were inevitable, but he never experienced it before.  He shook his head as he bandaged up the last patient.  Just then, Tails flew in to check on them.

"How'd it go?"  Tails looked around sadly at the injured.

"A couple of them didn't make it, but we got everyone treated as best we could."  Nikki nodded and frowned, but Sterling wasn't looking at either of them, merely at the ground.  The leader of the military walked up to Tails and thanked them all, also giving them word that everyone on the south and west sides were treated.  Tails thanked him, and then saluted him, causing Nikki and Sterling to follow suit.  The leader saluted in return, and the three of them were off.

"How'd you like your first mission?"  Tails turned to Sterling, who was still a bit out of it.  Tails picked up on this, and hoped to coax Sterling into telling him why he seemed so distant.

"It went pretty well. . . but. . ."  Sterling had looked up at Tails at first, then lowered his head.  "It was scary watching them die like that. . ."  Sterling shuddered, and Nikki turned to him and gave him a sympathetic look.

"Yeah. . . it can be tough the first few times. . . but don't let it get you down.  They fought bravely to save their city. . . and death is a real possibility out there. . ."  Tails spoke before Nikki could, and Sterling nodded.

"I just wish. . . we could have done more. . . that we could have saved them. . ."  Sterling's hand clenched into a fist as he walked.

"So do I, but we did all we could.  We killed what was hurting them and fixed up their wounds as best we could.  We have to keep giving it our all like that, because sometimes, we will save them."  Tails turned to Sterling and nodded, and Sterling gave a slight nod in return, but also sighed.

"Don't worry, Sterling.  We just have to keep fighting, and once we win this war, people won't have to die so needlessly anymore."  This time it was Nikki who spoke, and even with this depressing of a subject, she had a smile on her face, which caused Sterling's face to twitch, but not smile.  "You did a great job today, too."

"Th-Thanks. . ."  Sterling was still a bit stunned, but the two of them made him feel better.  "I'd love to keep helping you out, I guess there's just some things I have to see and experience to truly understand."

"We'd love to have you help us, too, Sterling.  It may seem scary, but you're not alone out there."  Tails smiled as well, and Sterling managed a weak smile.  "Let's get home and rest up, we all earned it."

"Last one there's a rotten egg!"  Nikki said before she dashed off.

"Hey!"  Tails shouted, then laughed as he followed her, with Sterling running behind both of them towards the base.