The treads rolled smoothly over the snow-covered ground as we drove away from Shady Shores, the wind biting a bit at my face. I rolled my shoulders a bit, finding them oddly stiff as we continued south back towards Crash Dive’s lighthouse. Twisting the handle of the half-track, the engine growled and we sped up a little, myself turning to follow along with the coast, the sheer cliffs becoming slightly less steep as we continued. The ground dipped and a small beach nested neatly in the cliffs could be seen, the sand awash with seaweed. Following the curve of the coast, I spotted a few old carts sitting in a small lot above a flight of steps leading down to the beach. The mini-tank rolled onto the lot, the trailer bouncing a little behind us as we were soon driving along the coastal road. “Ay, didn't ye say something about askin' about a generator? Still some chance they might've had one, but from what I could tell it looked like Shady Shores was runnin' mostly off of some sorta geothermal or magical earth power supply.” Scouring asked. I sighed, shrugging.

“No clue. Maybe there’s something in the files she gave us that can help, like a do-it-yourself earth magic energy generator or something. I’ll look them over once we find somewhere to stop. Last time somepony I knew tried Pipping and driving, it ended with an 81-ton tank halfway embedded into a weapons shop. Good thing the turret was facing the other way,” I said, wearing a bit of a smirk. Night Strike gave me a little glare, a light blush crossing her face. Hey, I didn’t name names, Miss ‘I’ll only be looking for a second’. The sun was starting to reach the horizon, the shadow of the mini-tank long and distorted as it flowed over rocks beside the road. I blinked a few times, my eyes watering a little from the bright sunlight shining from the side. The road thankfully turned a little further inland, saving me from going blind as we trundled onwards.

Soon a small building appeared on the side of the road, surrounded by fencing, beside it another building, slightly larger than the first. I slowed the tank down as we approached a gate in the fence, a booth resting beside the gate, where a guards pony’s skeleton lay inside, decaying. “Looks like some old basic training site, boot camp, maybe.” Crash Dive said, peering around me to get a better view of the main building. “Security’s probably just for show, there shouldn’t be any sort of robot support at a place like this. Nothing that should be worth protecting, anyways.” I nodded and leaned over to reach inside the shattered window of the booth. I pressed a button and the gate began to roll open, rattling loudly as it did.

The engine of the mini-tank rumbled as I drove towards the main building of the facility, only to die down as I flipped the switch off. We all climbed off of the tank, Night Strike leaving the cameras in the trailer as we stepped into the main entrance. We were greeted by a small waiting room with a secretary’s room built into the wall, the roof bowed in ratehr alarmingly, but still holding. Trotting through the hallway, we came to a room full of beds, each one sporting the same plain white sheets and thin pillow. “Suppose this’ll do for tonight.” Night Strike said, walking over to one of the beds and dropping her saddlebags onto it. I walked over to a separate bed, flipping back the covers to climb in underneath. “So, yeah, anything about those generators in the data?”

I flipped over from the map on my Pip-Buck to the files I’d downloaded off of Pearl’s logs. Yeesh, that’s a lot of notes. Twisting the nob to scroll through the various files, I scanned the names, looking for anything useful. Subdermal armor, radiation resistance, extra limbs… I thought Pearl said she deleted the body horror ones. “It doesn’t look like there’s anything in here… oh, wait, maybe this’ll help.” I began to read one of the notes giving information on a small generator. Okay, screws, rubber, gears, steel, we could get these… oh. “Uh… any idea where we could get some nuclear material?” I asked. Aerith and Scouring shrugged, Crash Dive looking over to Night Strike, who was twisting open a bottle of RAD.

Night Strike paused for a moment before looking down at her glowing soda, promptly hugging it to her chest. “No! No way are we wasting perfectly good soda on some hair-brained scheme to build some generator we only just found out about!” I rolled my eyes as Scouring shook his head. Crash Dive looked equally annoyed, but turned to look back towards me again.

“Well, she does have a bit of a point. I doubt the strontium in that stuff is really that strong, let alone assuming there’s enough in there to power a generator on or how we’d isolate it. Besides, I don’t really trust you building a mini arcane reactor in my backyard.” I grumbled a little, flicking away from the entry to continue scrolling through the data files. Nothing else popped up that seemed useful, though, so I flipped back to the map and lowered my leg, Scouring stepping out of his power armor and slipping his helmet off to get into bed. Flopping down onto my own bed, the mattress’ springs were creaky and stiff, myself taking a moment to adjust to it. Shutting my eyes and rolling over to wrap the thin blankets around me a bit better, I tried to doze off, wondering how soldiers put up with such awful bedding. Better than the floor, though, I guess...

---

I leaned up in bed, my back complaining from the rough night’s sleep. Guh, never thought I’d prefer to sleep chained to a chair again. My hooves swung over the side of the bed and I stood up, cracking my back around. The others were still asleep, the sun only barely coming in through the window. Well, I suppose now’d be a good a time as any to grab some food. I trotted out of the sleeping quarters, searching for the mess hall. Passing by a few offices, I soon came to a large cafeteria filled with long tables. Heading towards the kitchen, I pushed open the swinging doors, the old cookware dusty and rusting from years of neglect. Ok, let’s see if this military food is as long lasting as snack cakes.

My vision was filled with tins of Cram and stacks of MREs as I opened one of the cupboards, my stomach growling at the sight. I reached up and slid a few of the cans out of the cupboard, peeling open the top of the tin. Oh, it might be about as healthy as a bucket of salty rocks, but dang if I don’t enjoy it. I wonder if the stoves still work here... I twisted the knobs on the front of one of the stoves, the lighter clicking several times, but no flame appeared beneath the metal grating. Shoot... yeah, a massive megaspell exchange probably wasn't good for natural gas pipelines. Well, come on, they’ve got to have some hot plates around here for emergencies, right? To my luck, tucked away in the bottom drawer were a few hot plates, one with a cobweb strung between it and the side of the drawer. Soon I had a block of the gelatin-like hay sliced up and sizzling away on a pan over the hot plate. The sound of hoofsteps met my ears and I looked over my shoulder to see Night Strike stepping into the kitchen, rubbing one of her eyes. “Morning!” I said, cheerfully. “Want some breakfast? I’ve got Cram, Cram, Cram, Cram, and Cram.”

Night Strike simply yawned, pulling a stool over to one of the counters and leaning forward onto her hooves. I pulled a plate over from the cupboard, flipping a few slices of Cram onto it and sliding it over to Night Strike before placing the rest onto my plate, quickly starting to wolf down the food. Night Strike ate her slices, looking at me with a bit of surprise. “Jeez, I would’ve thought after exploring an abandoned science facility you’d be anything but hungry.” I stuck my tongue out at her before finishing off the Cram, my stomach quieting down. Twisting the knob to turn off the hotplate, I got up and grabbed a few more tins of Cram and MREs for the road, Night Strike taking a couple as we began to head back to the sleeping quarters. “So, what exactly was that implant thingie you found there, again?” She asked, balancing the MREs on her back.

“Oh, the files said it was some kind of super-adrenaline or something. The implant synthesizes a lot of the chemical, your senses get overloaded and everything’s easier to think through and the like. I don’t really get the specifics of it, somepony at the Triage could probably get their head around it better. The files said the zebras they tested on felt like time was slowing, though.” Night Strike’s widened a bit, looking interested.

“Heh, you don’t think they have another one of those, do you?” She asked as we stepped into the room full of beds. The others were starting to wake up as well, Crash Dive already set to go, while Scouring was trying to shake off his early morning drowsiness before stepping back into his armor. I trotted over to my saddlebags, slipping the food into them before hitching them up to my back as Night Strike did the same with her saddlebags.

“I doubt it, it looked like they’d lost a lot of funding for the anglerpony project… just like about everything else. All that money allocation sure seems like a good idea now, eh?” I chuckled, picking up my umbrella as Aerith patted her suit down, looking over her guns. “Anyway, you guys ready to head out?” They all nodded and we began to head back towards the entrance of the training facility. We opened the door to the brisk morning air, all of us climbing onto the mini-tank once again. “And, uh, not to be rude, but the implant chems seem pretty heavy on the body, and you’re not exactly the most durable pony around.”

Night Strike looked indignant, crossing her hooves as I started up the engine and slid my goggles over my eyes. “Hey, I’m plenty durable! I’ve got my RAD if I need any serious healing anyway.” I shook my head as I turned the tank around and began to roll out of the main gates. Yeah, you keep relying on that soda to stich up your wounds. I’ll stick with the approved healing potions, if you don’t mind. Or not getting hurt in the first place, that’d probably be better. We were soon on the costal road again, the sun rising up over the mountains to our left, large patches of fog still sitting in the low fields beside the road.

The smell of salt reached my nose as winds blew up from the sea along the cliffs, swirling the fog around a little. As we drove across the fields, Crash Dive sat up a little straighter in the trailer, looking out over the fields before us. “I think there’s something lying beside the road up ahead.” Her voice crackled through her helmet’s speaker. I started to slow, a dim shape starting to appear in the fog as we approached it. The figure became clear as I pulled up beside it, revealing itself to be another robotic dragon. Its metallic skin shimmered in the rising sunlight, its wings dripping with a few beads of morning dew. “The hell is this doing here?!” Crash asked.

I simply stared, my eyes scanning over the wrecked body. The dragon seemed to have been blasted out of the sky by some sort of heavy artillery, a gaping hole left in its chest. “Hm. Hasn’t been here that long, look. Power’s still running.” Scouring said, pointing towards the wound. I squinted, noticing inside the dragon’s body gears were continuing to click and whirr feebly as oil dripped out of the wound like blood. “Don’t know who around here would have that kind o' Anti-air capabilities, Maple Creek's too far off and the Cadence just has those three ponies aboard it, and I doubt that DJ'd be getin' his hooves on an AA battery anytime soon. Better question is how we missed all the fireworks, it must’ve been in the middle of the night.”

“Hey, there’s something out over there, I think it might be another building. Maybe they shot it down?” Night Strike pointed towards the coastline, the ground dipping down towards the sea. Far in the distance was another dark shape looming up in the fog. I looked back at her, not particularly eager to go waltzing towards a group of ponies with enough ordinance to shoot down one of those metal dragons. She shrugged, looking back to me. “I dunno, they shot down one of those things, they probably aren’t friendly with whoever’s been sending them out.” Yeah, but those raiders weren’t friendly with the dragons or us. Still, I twisted the handle of the mini-tank and began to head towards the building. Guh, stupid curiosity, you’re going to get me killed one of these days...

The building became clearer as the distance closed between us and it. Wide openings could be seen in the complex, seawater churning slowly around them. Surrounding the complex was another high fence, similar to the one around the training facility, but instead topped with rolls of barbed wire as the fence around Seahoof Armory had been. I tried to squint through the fog, but beads of water were collecting on my goggles, obscuring my vision and forcing me to take them off. The building became clearer as we moved closer, a few artillery pieces sitting behind the fences. A sign could be seen posted outside the gates around the facility. The fading words ‘Vanhoover Submarine Bunker’ had been scrawled over with a few symbols I didn’t recognize.

Aerith’s horn lit up as she began to sign-speak. ‘That looks like Zebra writing… I don’t have a clue what it’s saying, though. I think that might be the symbol for… boat? This doesn’t seem quite right.’ She pointed towards one of the twisted characters, scratching her head. I raised an eyebrow, looking around the sign towards the main complex. How in Equestria did a group of Zebras get control of a pre-war facility? The doors to the facility opened up past the fence, creaking loudly as a pair of Zebra ghouls stepped out into the air. Zebra ghouls? How long have they been stationed here? They halted in place, looking towards us, all of us just staring at each other for a moment. One reached over his back for a rifle, flipping it into place and biting down on the firing mechanism. Oh, crap. I revved the engine, the tracks spinning on the ground for a second before catching as I ducked, the bullets whizzing over my head. The other ghoul readied his own rifle, shouting out orders in some foreign tongue.

Suddenly a loud shot rang out, and a second later a fireball appeared behind us, my heart immediately jumping to my throat. Oh, shit, this was terrible idea! I sped away from the facility as Aerith and Night Strike returned fire, another shot being fired off. The artillery shell landed behind us and I could feel the heat against the back of my neck. I gave a few yelps of panic as we bounced over some rocks, a shell landing dangerously close to us. Swerving away, Scouring launched a barrage of rockets towards the gates in the fence. The metal blew apart, one of the doors smashing into the ghoul zebra, the other jumping out of the way and shouting at the artillery gunner again.

Yet another shell was fired off, but this one landed several feet behind us as we sped out of their gunner’s range. I continued to speed away from the complex, back towards the lighthouse, but I began to slow after we got further away. “What the hell’s a group of pre-war Zebras doing at an Equestrian military base?!” I half-shouted, my heart still trying to slow back down to its normal pace. Night Strike lowered Thumper, wiping her goggles free of some condensation from the fog.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think they’ve heard the war is over. Either that or they heard about your dad’s opinion on them.” I shook my head, continuing along the road. They're both reformed, mostly! Even if Minty still likes to make some less than appropriate jokes here and there. The tank continued to roll along, Scouring folding Sunburst back up and hooking it to his back. I sighed, leaning back into the chair, getting ready for a long drive back to Crash’s lighthouse.

---

Pulling up beside the tall brick structure, I let off a long yawn, the sun having dropped below the horizon a while ago. I hopped out of the mini-tank, slinging my saddlebags over my back as Night Strike reached into the trailer to lift out one of the cameras. She grunted a little from the effort, eventually deciding to just leave them in the trailer. “Ah, they’ll be fine, so long as it doesn’t rain. I guess we could grab a tarp or something.” I said, trotting up to Night Strike and glancing up at the cloudy sky. She shrugged, following Crash towards the door of her lighthouse.

“Yeah, it probably wouldn’t hurt.” We stepped inside the lighthouse, Aerith levitating her hat over to the table sitting in the kitchen. “You got anything like that, Crash Dive?” She asked, stopping her from trotting upstairs with Scouring. She nodded, moving over to the closet and opening it back up. She pushed aside some dusty boxes, finding a folded up quilt stuffed into the corner. A spider scurried out from underneath it when Crash Dive picked it up and handed it over to me. Oh, great. If something starts crawling out of this while I’m carrying it, I’m throwing it off the cliff. Night Strike headed back outside after me as Crash trotted up to her room, the stairs creaking under the weight of her armor.

As we trotted out to the trailer, I unfolded the blanket and handed one corner to Night Strike, who fluttered into the air to help drop the cloth over the trailer. As she slowly came back down to the earth, she looked over at me, her ears slightly droopier than normal. “Hey, um, Static? Can we talk for a minute?” I looked up at her, her serious tone taking me off guard for a moment. I nodded, walking around the trailer towards her. Night Strike paused for a moment, looking down at the ground. “Static, I… What you did when we were back in that library… please, just don’t ever do something like that again. It just... I... ” She looked back up to me, her eyes starting to well up with tears as she stared at me. “I don’t know what I’d do, if you… you...” She sniffed, wiping her tears away. I didn’t say anything, instead wrapping my front hooves around her, pulling her into a hug.

“It’s okay, Night Strike, it’s okay. I’m sorry I scared you so much, I just... I wasn't thinking straight at the time.” I gently rubbed the back of her neck, feeling her squeeze me into a hug as well. “I don’t want to lose you either. You… I just… I don’t want to think about it. I promise I won't do something that crazy again, if I can help it.” I could feel my own eyes start to water up as I held her closely. We stood there for a moment, not moving or speaking, just holding each other as we quietly wept. I could feel a drop of rain fall onto my head, quickly followed by a few more. Night Strike and I broke our hug, myself looking up at the sky. “Come on, let’s go inside. Don't want to get a cold.” She nodded, wiping her eyes dry again. We turned and headed into the lighthouse, trotting to our room.

I slipped my saddlebags off of my back as Night Strike did the same with her duffel bag, setting it beside the bed. Neither of us said anything more, instead just rolling back the covers of one of the beds and crawling under them together, squeezing each other closely as the rain pattered against the window, both of us quickly drifting off to sleep.

"You're listening to Radio KAOS, and it's a fine North Vanhoover winter day out there today. Seems like we had a bit of a thaw last night, giving us a bit of freezing rain and fog out on the coast, but things have cleared up into a soft haze all aross the wasteland as far as I can tell from the radio deck on this old warship. Hopefully everyone up at this hour's having an easy enough time moving around in that stuff, heh. It'll be cleared up as the day goes on, don't worry folks.

"Moving on to the news, the freezing rain last night has presented a few issues to the towns of Maple Creek and Hopeville, both of which report the ice from the rains had caused their brand new forty-mil twin AA mounts to end up frozen up. As of this newscast, they're still working on getting the things thawed out and back in use again - here's hoping there's no lasting damage, kind of funny to think about something made to kill stuff in the sky wound up out of commission because of something falling from the sky. Might be worth getting some tarps to cover them over when they aren't in use, my suggestion anyways. Not to mention it'd make those seats a little less snow-covered, heh.

"Anyways, it's a beautiful Vanhoover morning out there, you're tuned into Radio KAOS, and let's get some music going. Here's a little oldie but a goodie, going out to all you Wanderers out there, heh. Enjoy."

"Oh, well I'm the type of guy
who will never settle down.
Where pretty mares are,
well, you know that I'm around.

I kiss 'em and I love 'em,
'cause to me they're all the same.
I hug 'em and I squeeze 'em,
they don't even know my name.
They call me the wanderer, yeah the wanderer,
I roam around around around..."

---

"Mmmnh... hnh?" Cold air fought against warm breath as I blunk my eyes open, moving a hoof to rub at them as things started to come back into focus. Comfy bed... back in the lighthouse again. Aaaand my other foreleg's asleep. Stuck under some blue... Static. Blinking a few more times, the earth pony's head came into view, mane in a bit of a mess and mouth dropped open, his hooves moved to rest against my own body. Letting off a quiet chuckle, I shuffled myself about to free my foreleg, sliding out from under the covers. Aw, he does look so cute when he's passed out... mostly. Wish he wasn't so good at making my own limbs pass out by proxy, though.

Ruffling my mane back into it's usual loose form, the cold early morning light from the frosted windows lit the small house, the old floorboards creaking as I made way for the kitchen. Gwuuuh, pins and needles, I -hate- that feeling... better in the leg than a wing, though. Shaking it back and forth a few times, feeling and motion eventually returned, allowing myself to slide into the booth without much fuss. Okay, alright, what's gotta be done today...

Moving my hoof around a few times as I brought up the legputer - buh, come on, get the blood flowing again - I started to flick through the various menus. Stats, stuff, settings, soda, system, more stuff... eh, check the map. Sheesh, we've only been around half of this wasteland so far, going by the places we've spotted. Vanhoover Sub Pen, Battered-Sea, Hornsworth... 'Happy Valley Camp Site'? Oh, must've been where we ran into Norm and Marchie. Vanhoover Proving Grounds, Maple Station, Starlite Drive-in, Gemdale... sheesh. Definitely a good thing we found that half-track, these places are way farther apart than Maple Creek and Hopeville.

The soft clatter of hooves against the wood floor caught my attention, flicking back over to the radio screen and pulling the thick sleeve over it, leaning back against the soft chair. The frazzled bluish mane of Aerith caught my vision as she passed through the doorway, pausing to let loose a long yawn before opening up one of the cabinets and retreiving a box of cereal. Sugar Bombs, perfect cereal for the explosive enthusiast with a high caffeine tolerance. Levitating clumpfuls of the cereal into her mouth and crunching them down, she slid into the booth across from me, rubbing at her eyes with a hoof. 'Didn't realize how uncomfortable that suit was to sleep in. Did realize how comfortable the beds here are.'

"Comfy enough for Static to still be sleeping like a rock, that's for sure. Hell, even my foreleg thought so, it was still asleep while the rest of me wasn't." Letting off a little chuckle, Aerith returned a smile through her mouthful of sugar-coated bombs, passing the box over to me. Taking it in a hoof, I bent one of the flaps down, tilting my head back and pouring a mouthful out, setting it back down on the table afterwards and starting to chew. Mm, can almost not taste the staleness around the sugar. Aerith levitated out another clump, swallowing her mouthful and taking the new one.

'Long as it wakes up sooner or later, right?' Letting off a small chuckle through the mouthful of cerealy sugar, I passed on a nod, leaning back in the booth and looking around. Yeah, I'd rather not end up like Minty, a metal foreleg can't be good for flying with, would throw off my balance too much. Not to mention I kinda like that hoof, for... reasons. If you read into that, you're the one with the dirty mind here. Who are you talking to, brain? Why am I asking myself this? Sparkle-Cola, I should get some of that into me before I go completely nuts. Blinking back to reality, Aerith was looking around outside for a moment, before flashing up a screen. 'Hey, have you seen Crash Dive anywhere? Her door was open when I passed by, but she wsn't in her room.'

"Mmmh..." Blinking a few times, I swallowed down the mouthful of sugar that was supposedly once cereal, thinking for a moment. Hm... nope. "I just woke up a few minutes before you came down, so I can't say that I have. She might just be out in the sea on another walk, she does that sometimes when she wants to think. Waterproof power armor, yanno." Passing on a shrug, I rested my hooves on the table, Aerith swallowing her current mouthful of cereal and looking out the window, closing up the box.

'I don't know... she was acting kinda off, last night. Like, 'happy' off. Last I checked Crash Dive doesn't do 'happy' that much.' I... am not glad that that actually makes some sense. Take a step back time now, Strikey, maybe she was just happy to be back home. Or, maybe there's just something here that she was looking forwards to seeing again, a holotape or picture or something... but Crash Dive isn't one for holotapes or pictures. She is one for extreme sadism towards raiders with flame weapons, though... oh, buggery. Did she... I don't think she went out shopping with us at any point, or went shopping by herself, so... oh no. 'I'll get my clothes on, you start looking.'

Answering her with a nod, the alicorn had already slid herself out of the booth and was heading down the hallway while I did the same, zipping up my thick jacket and heading for the doorway. Fresh snow, that's good, we'll be able to follow her then, probably. I really hope we won't be too late... you're overthinking this, Night Strike, she wouldn't be one to overdose on Med-X. Hell, that'd be a more pleasant way to go than throwing herself off of that cliff... Brain, I really DO NOT need your input right now! Not the time for it!

Giving my wings a few flaps, I was soon airborne, following the trail of deep hoofmarks in the snow as they wound down to the landbridge. Oh, please have stayed close to the shore if you went for a dive... flying to the other side of the bridge, the trail picked back up again, thankfully, myself following it up onto shore. Okay, so she went around this way, heading inland and south for a little while, before turning back, and then back again. Oh, please don't have misled us, please don't be unconscious and frozen in a ditch somewhere...

Scanning the snow around, a few mounds caught my attention, myself hovering a little closer. Okay, these do have her hoofprints by them... they're those traps she set up, yeah. She was just checking the traps, nothing to worry about Strikey, she's fine... hopefully... if she were checking them, though, the snow'd be disturbed, wouldn't it? Oh... keep looking. Taking a breath of the crisp morning air, I kept on the trail, following it around. Okay, so she went inland to check her traps... or something, then turned back north towards the Valkyrie, which is... covered in snow. Probably should've thought that'd happen.

The trail seemed to end nearby the snow-buried bomber, myself following it on hoof for the last portion. She's gonna be okay, power armor's probably heated and insulated, and she'd probably have her helmet on, too, so that's a good thing. No freezerburned pegasus, she's been burned enough for one lifetime... eheh... that's not funny. Mouth, stop laughing. Brain, please help. Start digging, that's a good idea.

The trail slowed off to a small mound where the snow on the Valkyrie had slid off to the space provided by the landing gear, myself starting to hastily dig around in the area. She'll be okay, she'll be okay, she'll be okay... after a while of digging, hoof impacted metal, myself gasping in a breath. No, relief wasn't the right word... panic? That sounds better. Digging faster, the black power armor slowly became unearthed, or, unsnowed... un-buried, along with the pegasus inside. shoving more and more snow out of the way, some started to sting my eyes and ice over my cheeks, myself blinking to clear it. C-come on, Night Strike, she'll be okay...

After what felt like an eternity of digging, I'd uncovered most of Crash Dive's armor, sniffling my nose hard and trying to wipe my muzzle clean on the sleeve of my jacket. G-goddess damn it, she's going to be fine! Focus! The sounds of large wings flapping through the air met my ears from the hole I'd dug, myself looking back and seeing Aerith land outside. Her eyes were wide, muzzle in a frown as concern took her face, and her magic encompassed both myself and Crash Dive, laying us out in the snow. I took to my hooves, moving over to where the power armored pegasus was laying, frantically looking over her helmet. Facemask's on, good, she was enclosed... but... there's gotta be a release latch somewhere!

Things started to blur as I tried to figure out how her power armor went together, my back legs failing me as the cold air was drawn in through gasping breaths. Come on... damn it... sitting and sputtering, I didn't quite hear as the servos moved again, pained grunts coming through the voicebox on the mask. Blinking through my blurred eyes, the legs of the power armor moved, barely, myself getting up onto my hooves and staring in through the red-tinted visor. "C-C-Crash Dive? Are you okay, is anything broken? W-we can get you to the Triage, fast, uh, Aerith, unook the cart and wake Static up!"

"Fuuuuck... please, stop talking, for now. Helmet volume control's probably out of whack... headache... ow..." Crash Dive moved her armored legs stiffly to the sides of her head, laying in the snow for a moment. O-okay, she's not... she's fine, that's what matters. She's talking, she's moving, she's... looking around... "W-... what happened? What'd you bring me outside for?... My lighthouse is okay, isn't it?"

I blunk a few times in response, as the power armored pegasus moved herself back to her hooves, the servos in her suit grinding slightly with the effort. "Y-yeah, yeah, the lighthouse is fine. You weren't in there when we woke up, and we got worried, and I remembered you hadn't gone to any stores with us while we went around up north, and I know you probably have some Med-X here for yourself, and I remembered that one sewer back in Quebuck, and... and..." Cold air is probably not good to hyperventilate in, but I'm doing it anyways. Crash Dive stood silent, looking at myself as I tried to pull myself back together. "I just... I didn't know what'd happened to you, and... and I didn't know if I'd be able to find you, or if you'd still be alive..."

The power armored pegasus stood there silently as I caught up with myself, rubbing at my stinging eyes a few times. There was a small hiss of pressure as she undid her mask and helmet, my eyes blinkng a few times and looking at her, a distressed expression upon her muzzle. She looked back towards the Valkyrie for a moment, her breaths condensing into small wispy clouds. A solemn frown on her face, she trotted over towards myself, her armored hooves sinking into the snow as she approached. Resting one of her forelegs about my neck, her eyes turned out towards the old lighthouse, myself looking with her as the rest of the group rushed over to us. "I... I think I should visit the Triage. I've never done something like that before, what happened last night. I don't want to do it again."

The small mini-tank came to a sliding stop beside us, Aerith setting herself down as Static brought his goggles up onto his forehead, Scouring hopping off of the back and looking towards us. The earth pony glanced between myself and Crash Dive, the engine still purring behind him. "You called for us? Erm, we still going off to the Triage?" Looking over at Crash Dive, she let off a small sigh, nodding in response.

"Yeah. We don't have to go there immediately, but sometime today, at the very least. I'm... okay." The power armored pegasus' eyes met mine for a moment, as she climbed herself onto the back of the mini-tank beside Scouring. Glancing at Static, I placed myself at Boomer's controls, shuffling to one side so Aerith could likewise find a place to sit on the back. Static gave a nod, the engine of the mini-tank revving for a moment before we were underway once more.

---

"...you want me to haul focking WHAT!?" It was late morning by the time we pulled into Maple Creek, just in time for Ripple to've been awake and moving. Static, Aerith, and Crash Dive had all went off to the town hall for payment, while myself and Scouring went to figure out a safer way to move a megaspell up the coast, Valkyrie still out of commission. To say the sailor wasn't exactly keen on the idea, well... yeah... "I've let ye turn Trout into a gunboat, hauled two o' those ack-ack batteries onshore off'a that old battleship, -and- towed a boat-plane 'cross the Vanhoover reservior fer ya, but this is pushin' the line too far! I draw it at stuff that'd make me 'n' Trout not exist anymore if jostled the wrong way!"

"Technically you and Trout would still exist in case of an accidental detonation, just as a bunch of atomic and highly radioactive ash, mixed in with a bit of seawater. Pretty sure these are just general big explosion-y megaspells, nothing special." Passing on a shrug - hey, there are a lot of kinds of megaspells out there, yanno - Ripple responded by letting his jaw go slack, looking between myself and Scouring. What, didn't think that just because we crashed here, we didn't have a clue what the payload could do? Well, I mean, we don't know -exactly-, but I can make a pretty good guess if I have to... on second thought, maybe that's not what he was surprised about. "Er... not helping?"

"What the lass is actually meanin' to say, you an' Trout are the best bet we've got right now fer gettin' one of our megaspells up narth without riskin' it detonating 'cos of the trigger-happy ghouls at that sub pen. It'll be pretty safe, we know enough t' keep the failsafe on and the bomb disarmed till it comes time to blow it." Thank you, Scouring, for getting Ripple calmed down. The power-armored unicorn wore a smile, glancing back towards the town for a moment. "We'll be sure t' pay you well for it, knight's promise. Know this is a lot more dangerous than much o' the other stuff you'd helped haul."

Ripple let off a long sigh, looking at the ground for a moment, then down the shore at the small fishing trawler that rested in the frigid water. Turning back to face us, he gave his head a shake. "Look, you guys've done a lot fer this town, hell, the wasteland as a whole, but I've gotta draw the line somewhere. Isn't that I don't trust you, just... no. Not goin' to be haulin' megaspells, or even just bombs fer ya, that's just too much to worry over. Hell, I'd haul another one o' those AA mounts if'n ye paid me without any fuss, just, nothin' more explosive than that."

"We understand. We'd just drop the thing from our plane if we could, but, well, still grounded..." Letting off a small chuckling sigh, Ripple wore a weak smile, answering with a nod. Well, least we still have the mini-tank and wagon... we just need to clear an entire sub pen's worth of zebra military ghouls out to be able to transport it without getting exploded. Great. Things like this just can't ever be easy, can they? "Ehm, oh, long as we're here, think you can at least do us the favor of taking a video camera over to the Radio KAOS ship? We picked three of them out of Shady Shores, figured when we do get the bomb set up it might be worthwhile to record the blast. Yanno, posterity's sake and all, that kinda stuff, eheh."

The sailor stallion paused for thought, rubbing a hoof against his chin. "Aye, suppose I can take a camera over t' there. Long as you aren't suggestin' I film the explosion, feel that after havin' you five around I've been in nearly enough big explosions for one lifetime, heh. You, uh, have the camera with you?" I blunk a few times, trying to think back. We did put at least one of the cameras on the mini-tank, right?... no, no we didn't. Nor did we pick one up from the wagon before coming here, which, to be fair, does make sense given the situation before we left. Guh, Static's not gonna be happy... but at least Crash Dive's gonna be alright.

"Ehm, no, we kinda left in a rush and forgot to pick it up. We'll probably swing by later for you to take it over, after we get a clear passage to take it there and, stuff. Yeah." Letting off a weak chuckle, Ripple gave a nod, turning about to head back towards Trout.

"Right, will be sure to keep an eye open fer ya. Do let me know when you'll be settin' that bugger off, want to be inside if things go sour and you manage to re-cook the wasteland." Parting on a small chuckle, myself and Scouring both turned as well, starting to make way towards the town. Trotting through the roads towards the town hall, the delicious scent of maple sugar hanging in the crisp air, I let off a light sigh, enjoying the feeling of the cold snow underhoof. Really start to miss that after being down here for so long and just walking on grass... even if grass feels nice.

A power armored hoof tapped my shoulder, drawing my attention, Scouring looking around the town for a moment before leaning in close. "Er, you do know how to get the bomb out without armin' it, right? Or, at least can go about disarmin' it once it's out... right?" ...those are both very good questions. C'mon, Strikey, say something before he gnaws his lip off... "I mean, I'm good with explosives, but only C4 and stuff like that. Never had to disarm a bomb that size. You, er, were tellin' the truth about the kinda megaspells they were, aye?"

"We'll... figure something out. Best case situation, this is the only time we'll have to do this, and any more will just have to wait until after we get the Valkyrie airborne, and getting one of them out is as easy as turning the Valkyrie on and pushing a few buttons. Worst case, we cut the latches that hold the bomb so if there's a failsafe ast part of the drop system, it'll think the bomb hasn't been dropped yet." Yeah, I'll be honest, I wasn't instilling that much confidence in myself, either. We have the sub pen to worry about first, anyways, we'll deal with the bomb when we have to. No sense getting one of the things out before then...

Trotting over and up to the mini-tank, Crash Dive was standing beside it outside the town hall, trotting over to meet us both halfway as we approached. Scouring exchanged a small glance with her before continuing past, the power armored pegasus stopping in front of myself. "Night Strike, erm, do you think you can come with me, to the local clinic? I think I remember hearing about something that might be able to help me with my... problem. Fixer, I think it's called. Static's going to be a little while longer, and this is just to try and, well, I don't know. I just think it might help."

Giving a short nod, a smile formed on Crash Dive's muzzle, myself turning back towards the road. Guh, can't remember the last time I was on my hooves for so long... that Motorbug's really spoiled us. Not complaining about all the extra weight it can lug around, though. The servos in Crash Dive's power armor whirred and filled the air beside me as we drew nearer the small building with the red plus sign out front, the pink-maned pegasus slowing as we rounded the corner to head to it. I matched her pace, eventually stopping just outside the doorway. "What's wrong?"

Crash Dive was silent for a long moment, the cold air nipping at our faces and a soft breeze whistling overhead. After a while, she released a sigh, giving her head a small shake. "I just... it's been ten years I've been sticking that stuff into me, because I had to... I thought I had to, after a while. Traveling with you was the closest I came to kicking it, but I still managed to find a shot whenever we went someplace, hidden in a bathroom or an out of the way medical box or something. I was running off less, and... I just don't know. If this can get me off of it, I know it'd be for the best in the long run, but..."

Draping a foreleg around her neck, I wore a small smile on my muzzle, the cold air causing our breaths to condense into those familiar wispy clouds. "Whatever happens, you won't be alone in it. You'll have us, even when we're set to go back home I'll do whatever I can to make sure you can come with us. Plenty of friendly ex-enclave up there, long as you aren't my grandfather." Letting off a light chuckle, the power armored mare joined me in it, my other hoof reaching to push open the door to the clinic.

A small bell rung above us as we stepped inside, some of the piled up snow spilling in. The doctor trotted out from a back room, letting off a small chuckle upon seeing myself, pushing his glasses up on his muzzle. "Heh, haven't seen you in a good long while. Has your friend figured out to duck the next time a Steel Ranger's swinging a tree trunk around yet?" He trotted over behind the desk, pushing a few papers aside and rummaging through a few drawers. I glanced back at Crash Dive - maybe he just hadn't seen her yet. "Ah, alright, where's he at?"

"Ehm, no, he's fine. We're actually here for, um... Fixer?" The stallion stopped for a moment, the light grin on his face falling for a more serious expression as he looked at myself. O...kay then, um, is it like an illegal drug or something? Or... swear I've heard it somewhere before... oh, yeah! It was right here, when he mentioned it after learning about my sparkle-cola RAD consumption habits, and went on to say that he didn't want either of us coming in here for... Fixer... crap. He let off a small chuff, trotting over to myself.

"Did I or didn't I say that I didn't want either of you coming back here asking for that? Because I'm pretty certain that I did." Yeah... didn't quite think this all the way through. The doctor finally seemed to notice Crash Dive behind me, the angry glare apparent on his face. He let off a small grunt, turning about to head for the back. "You drank yourself into it, you'll get yourself out, because I don't have to help you at all. Hell, you're obviously functional enough to go around the wasteland as one of the big damned heroes like the Lightbringer, why're you even asking about it? Finally run out of it, cravings been getting to you too much?"

"First off, fucking hell you have horrible bedside manner, and second, no, it's not for me. It's for her." Noding back towards Crash Dive, her power armor's heavy hooves creaked the floorboards, the doctor stopping and looking. Glancing back to the power armored pegasus, I stepped a hoof forwards, planting it firm. "Her name's Crash Dive. She's former Enclave, and she's been living with a Med-X addiction for too long. A raider took her wings from her with a flamethrower... we're trying to help everypony we can, and if those ponies happen to even be part of us, well, that's just all the more reason to help. That's what the Vanhoover Five do."

The doctor paused for a moment after my speech, letting off a sigh. Stepping into the back room for a moment, he soon reappeared, carrying a small tin in a hoof. "Alright. A Med-X addiction is crippling enough to warrant it, I just hope this'll be the last time I'll have to give this out. Dosage depends on how long you've been taking the thing you're addicted to, how long is 'too long', in your case?" Setting the tin out on a table, the medical stallion opened it up, stepping behind the counter for a moment before producing a small plastic utensil. He started to portion out the contents of the tin, while Crash Dive bit at her lip, myself moving up along beside her.

"Ten... years. A full decade." The small tin of tablets shook as the stallion had to steady himself against the table, looking back towards us both, eyes wide. He blunk a few times, before lookng back to the table and tin, picking up a few of the tablets that had gone astray in the sudden jostling. Gonna take it that that's not a good sign.

He snapped the tin's lid shut, setting the plastic knife aside and trotting over to us, readjusting his glasses. "I'm... I'm sorry to hear that. Fixer isn't going to help at all, aside from maybe alleviating some of the symptoms at this stage. You're going to have to head to Hopeville's Triage to get any proper treatment." He let off a small sigh, Crash Dive's head lowering beside me as a frown took her muzzle. Trotting back over to the metal tin, the doctor picked it up, setting it on the counter by the register. "I can't even be sure they have the know-how to cure long-term addiction. Sorry I couldn't have been of more help, I... I hope you can find some decent treatment."

The power armored pegasus held a clenched face, sniffling in once before passing on a solemn nod towards the doctor. She turned and started to head for the doorway, myself following behind, head looking low. Well, Hopeville, time to live up to your name, since right now you're Crash Dive's last... The small bell rung again as Crash Dive opened the door and stepped out into the wintry street, myself just about to follow out behind her before the doctor spoke up again. "Ehm, Night Strike, right?" Looking back to him and answering with a nod, he released a sigh, the power armored pegasus already moving down the road. "Look... I didn't mean anything by what I said. I used to get so many addiction patients come in, hydra, psycho, dash, whatever, I'd give them a dose of Fixer and send them on their way with a warning. After a while, it just became hard to care when you kept on seeing the same faces turning up over and over again for the same problem... I'm sorry. I'm just a jaded old coot who read one too many medical textbooks as a colt, it's been hard over the years."

Passing him a small nod, a chill breeze blew overhead, some flutterings of snow off of the roof bowing in through the open door. Eh, well, not amy more snow than what was tracked in here already... "I understand. Thanks for the help, anyways." Waving a hoof goodbye, the door closed shut behind myself as the snow-covered town met me once more. Heading back towards the mini-tank, Crash Dive was already sitting herself on the back, her helmet on to hide her eyes. Static and Aerith soon both trotted out of the town hall, the mini-tank's suspension taking the weight as they fitted two large bags and a couple boxes onto the sides, before the earth pony hopped into the driver's seat. Well, looks like we got paid, finally...

Hovering over and landing on the back by Boomer, Static glanced back towards myself wearing a grin, starting up the engine of the mini-tank. "Well, we didn't get a full 500k in bottlecaps, but on the upside we're set for breakfast condiments and maple sugar for a while! Give or take a few candies, eheh..." Oh, Static, ya little cap-pinching butterball. Responding with a small chuckle, I got myself settled beside Aerith, the engine revving and us getting underway once more. Bringing up my pip-buck, I flicked over to Radio KAOS, just catching the middle of a news segment.

"-reports of flying craft out over Saddlebrook, with uncertain maliciousness. The town's been silent for a while now, so until we can get confirmation I'd suggest avoiding the area if you can. My lines are alywas open for anything that happens, as always I'll relay it out to the Vanhoover Five whenever I can. Hopefully they can help with investigations.

"Anyways, we'll get you back to your music. This is Radio KAOS, and you're listening to Comfortably Numb from The Wall. Enjoy." ...I swear, it's like radio DJs know exactly what not to play sometimes...

The engine of the mini-tank rumbled behind me as we drove down the familiar road between Maple Creek and Hopeville, one of Neighrer’s songs sounding out from Night Strike’s Pip-Buck. Huh, I don’t think I would’ve guessed KAOS had songs like that... Next thing you know we’ll be listening to ‘Fish Heads’ or ‘Pencil Neck Geek’. Coming up over the horizon was the edge of Clearwater, the buildings still as dilapidated as ever. The mini-tank zipped off of the road that turned north towards the edge of the lake and onto the side road running through the abandoned lakeside town. Oh, this thing is so much more fun to drive without that heavy trailer weiging it down.

I slowed a little as the road narrowed by the edge of the town that faced the lake, and we passed by the old police station, turning down another street towards the outgoing roads. As we passed by the shattered storefront of an old malt shop, I suddenly realized how thirsty I was, the cold air seeming to freeze any moisture in my mouth whenever I opened it. Jeez, now I think of it, have we ever found anything to drink that wasn’t carbonated and more than 200 years old? Reaching down into my saddlebags, I dug around for a bottle of Sunrise Sarsaparilla, trying to feel a bottle out. Come on, I have to have a spare one in here somewhere, right?

I gave up my search, placing my hoof back on the handles of the tank to get a better grip as the road curved and began to widen a little, the small town passing through behind us as we motored along. “Say, what were you and Crash Dive doing back in Maple Creek, anyway?” I asked, turning to avoid bouncing over a large pothole in the road. Neither Night Strike nor Crash Dive answered for a while, prompting me to look around, confused. Crash Dive was acting as if she hadn’t heard me... though perhaps she didn’t, she didn’t pay attention to the surroundings much during these drives anyway, and Night Strike was looking down a little awkwardly.

Scouring and Aerith both looked equally confused, Scouring’s expression showing a mix of confusion and apprehension at Night Strike’s behavior. She looked up eventually, seemingly still a little unsure of what to say. She dropped her voice, trying to not let Scouring and Aerith hear. “Uh… we were just stopping by the clinic for some supplies. Look, I’ll tell you more once we’re in Hopeville, alright?” I raised an eyebrow but nodded, looking forward again as we began to trundle along the lakeside road that connected Clearwater to Hopeville. I revved the engine, and we picked up our speed again.

It wasn’t long before the edge of the town could be seen, the Seaddler resting on the beach silently while the tall hospital the Triage was based out of loomed on the far edge of town. The sun was starting its slow descent towards the horizon behind us, the sky beginning to shift to a slight orange tint as we pulled into town. We passed by the old hotel, a couple staggering towards it, both giggling and clearly drunk. I pulled the mini-tank up out in front of the Hopeville Triage and hopped out, flicking the engine off as I did. Hitching up my saddlebags as the others hopped off, we trotted over to the door and stepped into the lobby to find it occupied by only a few other ponies, besides the two sitting at the front desk mulling over paperwork. One looked up, grinning a little as she saw us. “Hello, how can we help you today? Or are you here to drop off more supplies?”

I reached into my saddlebag, pulling out the large glass vial that held the implant. “We found some medical tech up at Shady Shores you guys might be interested in. Is there somepony we can see to drop it off?” The secretary flipped through a clipboard, running a hoof down a page of staff members. She pressed a code into a small buzzer on the desk before pressing the large button, glancing back up to us.

“Dr. Pincushion should be coming down shortly, he performs most of the more advanced procedures around here, he’ll know how to distribute the data better.” She went back to pouring over her notes, filling out timetables and setting appointments as we stood around. A grey stallion soon appeared in the doorway, the hem of his lab coat darkened from dried blood. He glanced over to us, grinning and turning around to lead us back down the hallway.

“Ah, it’s good to see you, I can’t thank you enough for powering up that dam. I don’t think we’ve had a single power shortage since then!” We trotted past Emerald’s workshop, the green mare examining a wheelchair’s brakes. We soon turned into a small office, the desk piled high with reports and paperwork. He removed a bag of surgical tools from the chair of his desk so he could sit down. “So, what is it I can do for you today, then?”

I lifted up my Pip-Buck, fiddling around with the latch holding it together for a moment before managing to pop it off and hand it over to Pincushion. “We met with a research member of the Triage up in Maple Station, and she told us about some pre-war facility, Shady Shores Biological Research. We managed to recover some data from the mainframes, we thought it could be useful.” As Pincushion scrolled through the files, his eyes widened, looking thoroughly impressed.

He plugged the uplink from the Pip-Buck into his terminal, starting to transfer over the files. “Well, I won’t know for sure how useful some of these will be until I’m able to get our doctors to have a closer look at them, but knowing you five’s history with recovering useful things from around here, I can bet we’ll be saving more than just a few lives with these files.” His terminal beeped and Pincushion unplugged my Pip-Buckm giving it back to me. “Now, I know that Radio KAOS has said in the past you tend to 'donate' things, but after treating Lock 'n' Stock for extreme exhaustion and having to increase the mayor's anxiety pill prescription, I think I understand what's probably expected. So, what sort of payment do you guys want? Healing potions, Rad-away, I think we have a few extra supplies of Med-X, if you need it.”

“Actually, I was wondering if you’d be willing to accept all this as compensation for a procedure.” I placed the implant in the vial in front of Pincushion, who picked it up to peer through the pristine glass at the gem-infused chip. “I want to install this implant, there’s a file you downloaded about it, the GRX implant. I’d say taking into account what all of the data is worth, this is hardly a fair trade on my end.” Pincushion thought for a moment, setting the vial down onto the desk again.

“Yes, well, I’d be more than happy to oblige, but I simply can’t just cut you open and slip this thing in. Tests need to be run, we’re not certain what this does, let alone if you’re physically fit enough to use it.” He looked me dead in the eyes, his expression growing serious. “Look, I’ll be willing to go through with this, but you’ll have to give us some time to actually know what we’re dealing with here. I don’t want you to end up prone on the operating table because we just gave you an already active kill switch or something. You’ll get it in when we can, but you’re not going to force us to just pop this thing in today, alright?” Jeez, wonder what’s got him so upset?

I nodded, a little disappointed, but before I could say anything else, Crash Dive spoke up. “Ahm, we could still use a procedure now, if you’re willing to help.” Pincushion’s gaze switched from me over to her, his expression softening a little. “Look, I…” Crash Dive sighed, lowering her head. “I need help. I’ve been using Med-X for about 10 years now, and the doctor back in Maple Creek said that Fixer wouldn't help. I… I can’t do this much longer.” Her voice began to crack, some tears being blunk out of her eyes and rolling down her cheeks. I only stared, not knowing what else to do. Both Scouring and Aerith shared my confusion.

Pincushion pushed his chair away from his desk and trotted around to Crash Dive, placing a hoof on her power-armored shoulder. “Hey, hey, hey, don’t worry, don’t worry.” He said, trying to calm her down. Crash Dive instinctively batted his hoof away, only to pause an instant later, simply standing still, a few strangled sobs coming from her mouth. “Here, come with me, I’ll see you to our addiction specialist.”

Leading Crash Dive out of the room, Pincushion left the rest of us in his office, all of us at a loss for words. Eventually my brain flicked back into motion and I turned to Night Strike. “Ehm, is that why you and Crash Dive went to the clinic in Maple Creek?” Night Strike sighed, rubbing the back of her head a little. After searching for the right words, she finally responded.

“Yeah, I don't really know what it was, but... last night, she ended up buried in the snow for half the night, thank Luna her suit is insulated. The doc back at Maple Creek said that Fixer wouldn't help at all, recommended we go here and see if the Triage could do anything.” She glanced towards the door as a nurse walked by, as if expecting Crash Dive to have returned already. “I… I was scared, and I think she was too, when she saw where we found her.”

“Well, it’s a good thing she’s gettin' help now. Just wish she would’ve told us sooner.” Scouring said. Aerith nodded and we all simply stood around in the room for a few moments longer, unsure of what else to say, or do for that matter. Pincushion soon returned, looking a little surprised we hadn’t left his office while he was taking Crash Dive to her destination. “So, ah, is Crash Dive gonna be fine?” Scouring asked as Pincushion trotted back to his side of the desk.

Pincushion nodded, picking up the implant and slipping it into the pocket of his lab coat. “Yes, yes, she should be fine now. The procedure’s relatively painless, it’s a generally simple matter of a prolonged flushing of her systems with detoxification chems, we've done it a few times before. We’re planning on keeping her overnight, though, we’ve never had to deal with such a prolonged case of addiction. Come back in the morning and we’ll send her with you, free of charge.” I nodded, relieved.

Glancing over to the others, I started to make my way towards the door. “Uh… I guess we’ll just come back tomorrow, then. Thanks.” Night Strike, Scouring, and Aerith followed me out the door, as Pincushion began to organize his files and search through the mountain of data we’d offloaded onto his terminal. We trotted down the hallway back towards the lobby, another nurse trotting by with several pieces of medical equipment balanced on her back. We were soon stepping outside into the evening air, a few lamps scattered on the side of the roads flickering to life in the dimming light as ponies began to make their way back towards their homes.

We climbed onto the half track, the engine rumbling to life beneath us as I turned around, starting to head down the road. “So, back to the same hotel again?” The others nodded and I made my way through town back towards the hotel, the lights overhead casting short shadows as the last hints of day faded. Pulling up outside it, the large front windows illuminated the snowy street as Aerith cast her invisibility charm over the tank once more. I wonder how she’s able to keep up a spell like that in her sleep... And I really should remember to ask her to use that on me the next time we need to infiltrate someplace.

Walking into the lobby, we were greeted by the familiar face of Chauffeur, whose expression lit up as he saw us trot inside. Oh, Celestia, not this again... Night Strike trotted up to the desk, a smug smirk on her face as she pulled out her small bag of bottlecaps. “Two rooms, please. And, Scouring, since Crash Dive’s out, you can stay in our room if you’d like to give Chauf’ and Static some private time.” I glared at her, cheeks turning a deep red before snatching up the room key and trotting off, Night Strike following close behind. “Oh, come on, Static, I can’t help it; you just look so cute when you blush!”

“Shush it, or I’ll make sure the next time you binge on RAD your padding will be so thick you won’t even be able to waddle around.” Night Strike blushed a little, trying to hold back a snicker as I opened up the door to the hotel room. Scouring trotted in, Aerith already unlocking her and Night Strike’s room. She followed the alicorn into the room as I stepped in behind Scouring, shutting and bolting the door behind us. I really don’t want to take any chances with Chauffeur... Tossing my saddlebags onto a chair, I climbed up onto the bed, my stomach grumbling a little. Eh, guess it’s been a little while since we ate. I reached into my saddlebags, pushing aside tins of Cram in search of some snack cakes. Oh, don’t tell me I’m out of those already!

Giving a small huff, I flipped the latch on my saddle bags shut again, instead folding back the bed covers to climb underneath them as Scouring bent his legs, his stiff knees cracking. “Ach... You think Crash Dive’s gonna be alright?” He asked, climbing into the bed opposite mine. I gave a sigh, leaning back into one of the pillows.

“I hope so. I mean, I would imagine the guys at the Triage know what they’re doing, right? They wouldn't really be a good group of doctors if they couldn't treat people, right?” Scouring gave a little nod, rolling over in his bed. I leaned over and flicked the bedside lamp off, slipping a little further under the covers. I gave another sigh, closing my eyes as I tried to clear my mind for sleep. Crash Dive’ll be fine, we’ve been through worse, she’ll be fine... Repeating it didn’t help much.

---

I awoke, not feeling particularly rested as I sat up in bed. Scouring was still snoring away in his bed as I sat up, trying to rub the exhaustion from my eyes as I rolled out to step into the bathroom. My eyelids drooped a bit as I stood still, my groggy brain trying to remember what I’d come in here for. After an almost audible ‘clunk’, I shook my head, turning on the faucet to begin rinsing my mane down. Guh, maybe I should get some more sleep before we head out... As I washed my mane, though, I could hear Scouring snort a little, his snores subsiding as he too began to wake up. Well, never mind then. I guess I'll have to try Night Strike's proven method... hopefully I do have that bottle of Sunrise.

Yawning and walking out of the bathroom, I watched as Scouring fitted on his power armor, the large metal suit helping to keep him up as he looked almost as tired as I felt. “Mmh, marnin’” He muttered, picking up Sunburst and hooking it up to his suit as I hitched up my saddlebags. We left the room, stepping across the hall to Night Strike and Aerith’s. I knocked a few times, and there was the sound of an annoyed grunt before something flopped to the floor. A moment later the door opened to reveal Night Strike, her mane bedraggled as Aerith stood behind her. Huh, guess none of us really got a good night’s rest. “Ready to go pick up Crash Dive?” Scouring asked.

Night Strike nodded weakly, Aerith levitating over her coat and duffel bag, which she began to slip on as we headed towards the lobby. The wind bit at our coats as we stepped outside, the lake covered by a shroud of fog. Jumping into the half-track as Aerith revisualized it... there's probably a better word for that, I flipped on the engine and began to head back towards the Triage, Scouring scrambling on as I drove off. A few ponies were milling about in the streets as we wound our way through them. We passed by the gunsmith, who was pushing up the large garage door to his workshop as we passed - eesh, he's still looking exhausted. Sorry...

The lights from the Triage’s lobby lit up the sidewalk in the early morning light, all of us climbing out to head inside. The receptionist glanced up as we entered, recognizing us from the day before. “You’re here to see Crash Dive, correct?” Night Strike nodded and the mare pointed towards the hallway we'd gone down last night. “Up one set of stairs, third door on the right,” she said cheerily. Night Strike thanked her and began to lead the way down the hall, the faint beeping of heart monitors echoing from several rooms. We soon came to the door described by the secretary, a small plaque hanging beside it reading 'Chemical Rehabilitation'.

Aerith carefully opened the door and stepped inside, the rest of us moving in after her. A mare in a slightly stained lab coat sat beside one of the beds, Crash Dive laying back on a pile of pillows, a cup of water in her hooves. She gave a small smile upon seeing us, bags under her eyes. A pony in the bed beside Crash Dive’s snorted and rolled over in his sleep, one foreleg bearing several needle marks flopping out from under the covers. “Good morning. I take it you’re here for her?” She asked politely, nodding her head towards Crash Dive. “She’s been doing fine, though I would have preferred if one of you could have convinced her to get out of her power armor before coming in for treatment. I’m not terribly familiar with running IVs through servos.”

The mare trotted over to a large cabinet on the wall as Crash Dive took a sip of her water. “I’ve already told her this, but it always helps to have more ponies in the know. With how long she’s had this addiction, this treatment’s going to leave her in a bit of a rough shape for a day or so, I’d try to hold off on any adventuring until tomorrow night at the earliest.” She pulled out a few tins of Fixer, handing them over to me. “Make sure she takes one of these every four hours or so, it’ll help with easing her back into shape. She may experience some queasiness during the recovery too, so make sure she stays hydrated, with pure water. That dirty stuff would just make thing worse, and soda is right out.”

I made a mental checklist as the mare trotted back to Crash Dive. “Really, though, she’s doing fine, you needn’t worry too much. I’m sure the Vanhoover Five will be back in order in no time at all.” I returned her smile, her calming comfort rather infectious. Letting Crash Dive finish her glass of water, the mare helped steady Crash Dive as she stepped out of bed. Her legs shook a bit even with the support of the armor, but she was able to trot over to us, Night Strike picking up her helmet.

The doctor went to looking over the asleep patient, pulling out a few bandages to cover the bleeding pinpricks on their leg. We all began to trot slowly back towards the entrance of the hospital, making sure to take our time with Crash Dive. She gave a little chuckle as we trotted along. “Come on, I know I just had quite a few drugs pumping through me all night, but I don’t want you guys to start patronizing me too. You wouldn’t believe how many times I needed to tell that doctor to piss off and just let me sleep. Feeling better now, though.” I grinned, thankful to see Crash Dive hadn’t lost any of her snide attitude. Though, on second thought, maybe it wouldn’t have hurt if she had... I really don’t want to be punted into a tree again.

We stepped out into the brisk air, Crash Dive sitting herself onto the back of the mini-tank, wrapping a hoof around the side fender to keep herself stable as she shifted on the seat. I hopped into the driver’s seat yet again as the others climbed up, Night Strike settling herself beside Boomer. The engine rumbled to life as I began to head back towards the Lighthouse, the morning sun behind us. Night Strike flipped on her Pip-Buck, and the familiar voice of KAOS’s host filled the air.

“Hello out there all you fine looking ponies, you're tuned into Radio KAOS, and it’s time once again for some news. Hopefully you’ve all still got your blankets out from the closets, because we’ve got another small cold front coming in. Shouldn’t last too long, but it’s looking to be a bit stronger than the last one. And if the Vanhoover Five are listening right now, I’ve received some angry letters from several ponies living in Vanhoover wondering where their big anti-air guns are. Come on, guys, it is a little rude to not arm the city you’re named after. With any luck the citizens of crater-city will have some nice fancy guns soon enough. Now, some music.” That... is a very good point. I think we only have one of the 37mm autocannons left, and I doubt Ripple would want to bring another one of those 40mm batteries over... There was a pause before the sound of a needle falling onto a record was heard, and a voice crackled in over the radio waves.

"If everypony had an ocean
Across Equestria
Then everypony’d be surfin’
Like Mareibu and the Zuma
You’d seem ‘em wearing their swim suits
And fancy sandals too
A bushy bushy blonde hairdo
Surfin’ ‘questria..."

The sun was getting high in the sky as we sped along the road back through Clearwater, my eyes held on the power armored pegasus that was leaned over on the back seat of the mini-tank. Letting off a small sigh, I re-settled myself next to Boomer, the paved, cracked road speeding by and giving way to the cobblestone streets of the shoreside town. Crash Dive leaned up for a moment, only to hunch back over in the seat, holding onto the side fender with her armored hoof, managing to form a small dent. Oh, dear... Pulling the goggles down over my eyes and flipping the tinted shield up, I pulled myself along to the front of the mini-tank, tapping on Static's shoulder a few times as we rolled over a bridge. "Hey speedy, can ya slow it down? You're gonna shake Crash Dive off at this rate, she's already dented the fender trying to hang on."

The earth pony blunk a few times at myself, leaning forwards and glancing around the side for a moment before easing up on the throttle. The next small bridge we rolled over a little more smoothly, the engine purring silently beneath us as we moved along. "We can probably make it back to the lighthouse by nightfall at this rate, but not before. You sure we can't go a little faster?" Taking a moment to glance back at Crash Dive, and catching Scouring helping her hang on, I answered with a small grimace and shake of the head. Yeah, pulling in at night would be preferable to making Crash Dive pass out or vomit on the way there... Static shrugged letting off a sigh and pushing his goggles up. "Okay, if you think so. She really doing that bad?"

"Wouldn't you be if you had enough detox chems pumping through you last night to fix ten years' worth of addiction? We just gotta take it easy for now, maybe think about what we're doing next. Ripple said no to carrying the bomb up to Shady Shores on Trout, so we're gonna have to haul it ourselves." We trundled past the storefronts that looked out towards the lake, soon passing by the small cafe on the eastern side of the main canal. The tracks slid slightly as they reached the long bridge, biting into ice for a few moments before finding the stone beneath it, and pulling us up over it.

Static wore a grimace as we reached the other side, looking back towards myself as we continued along the shoreside storefronts. "Oh, great. So we're going to have to haul a megaspell all the way there with the wagon... suppose we'll have to just try and follow any roads we can find. It won't go off if it's just shaken a little, right?" Well, considering we crashed with four of them hard enough to crumple the nose of the Valkyrie, I'd think as far as volatility is concerned, these bombs are pretty safe. Passing over another small bridge, we were soon heading out of Clearwater, motoring along the shore towards Jericho Beach and Maple Creek. "Suppose we'll have to take out the sub pen before we can do that, anyways... Well, at least it could be an excuse for Aerith to use her invisi-spell on me."

"You -really- want her to do that, don't you? What's the matter, don't like having people see your cute face?~" Letting off a light chuckle, Static responded with a roll of his eyes, guiding the mini-tank down the snowed-over roads easily, following our tracks from the day before. It wasn't too long before we were passing by the old military dock, the lights still on in the long barracks we'd gone into so long ago - heh, guess I'm really not as bad at small reactor repair as I thought. Thank you, dad...

---

'Wugh. Forgot how heavy that film converter is...' The heavy device landed with a thump as Aerith set it on the floor inside the lighthouse kitchen, myself sliding the cameras off of my back and onto the window table. Good thing we only have to move this stuff out once... Letting off a small sigh, I got back up onto my hooves, giving my back a stretch and heading back out through the door, the alicorn following behind. Trotting to one side of the wagon and undoing the elastics that were holding the tarp down, a grin crossed my muzzle, the alicorn pulling the thick plastic off the rest of the way to reveal all of those glistening bottlecaps atop sealed frigid soda bottles. 'This makes up for that, though. How many bottles did we pull out anyways, a hundred? Two?'

"I was more occupied with cramming as much onboard as I could rather than counting, but I'd say that's about the right number. All I know is that it's a helluva lot, and there's still more to get." Letting off a small giggle, I hopped up onto the back of the cart, starting to pull the bottles out carefully. Okay, hopefully Crash Dive has a big cooler or crate somewhere inside the lighthouse, because I think this might overload her fridge. Passing them to Aerith, she took to gathering them into groups, levitating each collection of six into the lighthouse. Oh, I can taste it all already...

After a while of unpacking, Aerith flashed up a screen beside me, looking over the bottles. 'Hm... yanno, I have to wonder, there any way to turn regular Sparkle-Cola into Sparkle-Cola RAD? I dunno, concentrate it or something, thrown in a bit of that Strontium-90 stuff, maybe?' ...huh. Well, RAD is supposed to be kinda like Sparkle-Cola squared, so, maybe that works. Possibly. I mean, worst case scenario, we lose a few bottles to testing, but it's not like we're running a shortage of the stuff...

"You think you can do it, go for it. Who knows, if it comes close enough then maybe we can just start converting this stuff over to it and I'll never have to deal with a broken limb again." Letting off a small chuckle, Aerith gave a nod, setting aside two groups of six in the snow before continuing with moving the rest inside. A few minutes more had us shuffling the last of the bottles into the house, myself resting back against the trunk in the wagon and sipping from one of the bottles, just enjoying the crisp, cool evening air. Ah, almost felt like home.

The rumble of a small engine drawing near caught my ears, turning about and looking over the back of the wagon to catch Static and Scouring powering back towards the shore on the mini-tank, headlight on full, starting to head down the path to the landbridge. The waves that splashed over the natural stone bridge sprayed Static, a familiar look of annoyance on his face underneath his magic-vision goggles as he finally reached us. Shaking his mane wildly, he grimaced, looking down at his jacket. "Just what I needed, hypothermia and a cold..."

"So, I take it delivering the camera went well? Ripple going to be getting another one of those 40mm AA guns while he's there for shipping to Vanhoover?" Hopping off of the wagon, I followed the damp earth pony inside, bomb-bottle still in hoof. Wow, never really appreciate what half a truckful of Sparkle-Cola bomb bottles look like until you see all of it piled on a kitchen table... and booths. Static grumbled as he fought with his jacket's zipper, undoing it and tossing the wet thing aside as he moved for our bedroom.

"We got the camera there fine, he'll be delivering that, but if we want to sell another one of those AA batteries from Radio KAOS we'd have to go and get it with him. Apparently he can't move three tons by himself... which, in retrospect, probably is reasonable. Bluh." Dropping onto the bed, Static promptly wrapped himself up in the heavy blanket, letting off a long sigh and burying his face into the pillow. Huh, well somepony's a bit aggravated about something... "Just getting a little sick of having to keep on going back to places we've already been for more caps or whatever. You'd think we could've bought our way back home and had the Valkyrie fixed by now."

"You can't bribe your way out of every problem, Sparky. At least with the guns we have sold, we've got a whole million or so caps, don't we? Million more than what we had before we came down here." Taking a long sip from the bottle of soda, I trotted over towards him, the earth pony picking himself up with the thick blanket still wrapped over his shoulders. He let off a quiet sigh, myself dropping down beside him. "C'mon, Static, we have to find some silver linings. Bet you could buy Fringe a whole fleet of Vertibucks when we get back with all that."

Myself wearing a small grin, Static let off a little chuckle, giving his head a shake. Okay, maybe not a whole fleet, but at least cover repairs for the one we crashed, maybe. "Yeah, sure. At least we can pay them back somehow, but I kinda doubt caps would replace a Vertibuck. They'd probably be more interested in the Valkyrie, all things considered." Yeah, ya don't say... like they have the hangar space for it, anyways. I let off a small sigh of my own, flopping down beside Static and taking another sip from the bottle. One day at a time, Strikey... the small silence was broken by a low growling, myself blinking a few times before looking around. Oh, don't tell me there are bears around here now... though, that surprised blush on Static's face should've been a tip-off.

"Pff, don't tell me that's why you came in so grumpy. What'sa matter, you miss one meal and suddenly your stomach turns into a bear?" A light snicker escaping me, Static answered with a roll of his eyes, lifting himself up off of the floor with the blanket wrapped around him. Oh, c'mon, you have to admit it's funny. "I'm sure we have something to cook up. Might be best if we just let Crash Dive rest for tonight, tackle the sub pen tomorrow, yeah?"

"Eh, maybe. Considering the way she was nearly tripping over herself while we came inside, might be for the better if we wait a day or something, maybe just scout the place out first. Figure where they patrol, where the artillery is, stuff like that." Stepping into the kitchen, the pile of bottles of Sparkle-Cola caught Static's attention, freezing him for a moment, before he let loose a sigh and gave his head a shake. He shoved some of the bottles over, sitting himself down on the edge of the booth seat. "Once she's in better shape, we'll take it head-on. With her armor, it might be worthwhile to see if there's anything under the water there, worst case some egg clutches to destroy somehow."

"Yeah, hopefully they aren't that far south. Think the ones in the reservior and dam came from the research dock we blew up, can at least hope that the ones in Shady Shores didn't spread too much from there." Trotting over to the large pallet of other stuff that was taking up room in the kitchen, I undid the latches and flipped open a hooflocker that was resting near the top. And... Cram. Well, it's something. Pulling one of the cans down, I pulled the lid off and turned on the stove, setting the canned vaguely hay-flavored preservatives on the counter and setting a pan on the burner. "Besides, if they are, it's a military sub pen, isn't it? Probably has some sort of underwater explosives for dealing with them. Think using a megaspell there might be a bit dangerous."

Letting the contents of the can fall out onto the pan, Static let off a muffled chuckle, myself looking back towards him. "Really, you're suggesting we -don't- use a massive bomb to take care of a problem. Who are you and what have you done with the real Night Strike?" Oh, har har har. Answering him with an eyeroll, I took to searching the cupboards, eventually finding a metal spatula, flipping the mass of cram around. Well, least it kinda smells good... watching it sizzle on the other side, I set the spatula down, rubbing at my mouth.

"Very funny. I've just been thinking, if they are 500 tons TNT blast equivalent, then they might be just big enough to cause some localized fallout. Don't think most people around here would really like it if they suddenly had radioactive particles raining down on them from a ground burst, and besides, it's too close to the Lighthouse for it to be safe." Glancing around for a moment, and going through the cupboards again, I pulled down a pair of plates, Static moving some more of the bottles around on the table. Swear to Celestia, if he drops any of them... "Battered-Sea is a different case, worst that might happen is the fallout's spread east inland, and all that's out that way is Maple Station. They might like a nice radiation shower over that way."

Picking up the spatula in my mouth and flipping the can-shaped mass of hay-like substitute around on the pan, I sliced it in half, flipping both squares around to rest on the cut edge for a little bit. After a few more moments of cooking, I turned the stove off, shuffling the pair of gelatinous bricks onto the plates and carrying them over to the soda-covered table. Grabbing a couple forks, I stuck one into my mass of cram, giving Static the other. "Suppose that makes sense. Least it means I don't have to haul another bomb on top of the one we're already taking that way... have I mentioned I'm really not looking forwards to carrying a megaspell by cart? Because I really am not looking forwards to carrying a megaspell by cart."

Shuffling some of the bottles over on the other side, I slid in on the booth, Static already partaking in his clump of salty processed hay. "Yes, you've made yourself pretty clear on that. Barring the Valkyrie magically becoming repaired, we don't really have any other options, because Ripple made himself pretty clear that a megaspell is the one thing he won't carry on Trout. It's the wagon or carrying it by hoof." Bringing the clump of cram to my mouth, I took a bite, the warm food substitute settling in my stomach. Well, least I have enough Sparkle-Cola to wash the taste out afterwards... or drown in, now I think about it. Think that ranks third on my 'preferred ways to possibly die' list. Second being drowning in Sparkle-Cola RAD. First... c'mon, do I even have to say it?

"Fine, fine. Still, I really don't want to end up vaporized if I can help it." Working through the salty meat, I answered him with a roll of my eyes, swallowing down my current mouthful and setting the rest onto the plate. Big aircraft crash, crumpled bomber nose, any of that ringing a bell as to how safe these things are, Sparky? Or does he just think they magically appeared once we arrived? Grabbing my opened bottle, I finished it off, setting the empty glass container aside and pulling a new one up, uncapping it with a hiss of carbonation. Oh, much better to have something to wash that stuff down...

"We'll handle it when we have to. Shouldn't bother getting it out until the sub pen's cleared so we can watch it from there, anyways." Static paused mid-bite to look at me as I halved what was left of my brick, chewing the salty foodstuff and starting to swallow it down. He let off a sigh and eyeroll, shaking his head as he did the same, myself following it with another gulp of Sparkle-Cola. I rubbed at my lips, the faint bit of light that was coming through the window from the moon being lost through several layers of bottles of Sparkle-Cola.

"Yeah, that'd be for the best. I hope you know what you'll be doing with it when we do, though..." Finishing off his last bit of cram, the earth pony left his blanket on the booth seat as he carried the plate over to the sink, dropping it in. Troting back, he got himself wrapped up in it once more, myself still working on my last bite and rest of the bottle. "Think we ought to try and get to sleep soon. If those old novels I read back in Mooscow are worth anything, then getting an early start for scouting the area out would be the best bet, set up a position and figure out when their patrols change or get weak. They can't be out all the time, and if we can catch them while they're swapping on the artillery, all the better, right?"

Bringing my empty plate and fork over to the sink, I let off a small chuckle, trotting alongside the earth pony. "Yanno, until they spot us and we have to hightail it back or fight them head-on. Promise I'll try to tot do us in if I can help it." Wearing a grin, I stepped into the bedroom once again, Static flopping down on the mattress with the blanket while I undid my jacket. I pulled the small plush out of it, looking into its lime-green eyes for a moment before rubbing it against my cheek, turning back around to see Static wrapping himself up tight. Letting off a light laugh, I trotted over and looked down at him, catching his eyes. "So, you gonna do an impression of a caterpillar by yoruself, or let me in that blanket cocoon with you?~"

---

"K A O S Radio~"

"You and I are listening to Radio KAOS, KAOS in Vanhoover, and it's a beautiful winter morning out there today. Wish I could accurately say how long it'll stay that way, but I'm a radio DJ, not a weather stallion, heh. We're looking at clear skies for at least a few hours as the day starts, possibly giving way to overcast, but whatever way you spin it, it'll be a wonderful wintry wasteland day for seeing far as your eyes can reach.

"Speaking of seeing things, out of Maple Station last night came reports of more flying craft overhead, far off towards the east. The residents weren't especially concerned about them, citing the five ghouls and their tanks that take up residence in one of the railsheds. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure it's a damn sight harder to hit a plane with a tank gun than it is to shoot, well, another tank, heh. Along with this report is one that came in just a few minutes ago from Vanhoover, once again asking the Vanhoover Five for some anti-air guns of any size for protection - hang in there, guys, I'm sure the Five haven't forgotten about you. Probably just working on finding someone to stop by here again, heh... erm... huh?

"A-ahm, sorry, we just received an update on the Five, they had dropped by the Hopeville Triage a day ago, apparently for one of their own, Crash Dive. We don't know precisely what for, but seeing as they left with her after only one night, we can just hope it wasn't anything particularly serious. We'll be sure to try and check back in with them to get the fuller story at a later date, if possible, but for now I think it'd be best if we gave them some time to rest, take care of things by ourselves for a while. Vanhoover, you've got some machine guns lying around, don't you? Just start pointing them up at the sky, heh.

"Anyways, it's a beautiful North Vanhoover day, and I think it's high time to get some music going. You're listening to Radio KAOS, and here's a classic album that I swear isn't a euphemism. Dark Side of the Moon, enjoy."

---

"You sure that this is as close as you can take us? We could've walked this!" I grumbled slightly as we disembarked from the mini-tank, Aerith hiding it with her magic after retreiving a couple large white blankets off the back, Static trotting up ahead. Scouring had elected to stay back with Crash Dive, myself hovering up in the air enough to just barely be able to make out the sihlouette of the lighthouse in the distance. Can't believe we took the half-track for this... "I mean, it'd have taken a while, sure, but I can still see the lighthouse from here!"

"You going to be yelling for the rest of the day? This is supposed to be a stealth mission, yanno. Observation, recon, we don't get spotted, stuff like that." Returning him with a roll of my eyes, I set myself down next to Aerith, troting alongside as we moved up with the earth pony. He set himself down atop a snowy hill, the alicorn spreading one of the blankets out in the snow for us to lay on, while she drape the other over our backs, presumably making us blend in with the white ground. Huh, nifty. Static pulled his goggles down over his eyes, starting to scan the compound below, while Aerith and myself both pulled our rifles out to start scanning with him. "Alright, so, now we just have to see where they're weakest in their patrols. Don't want to start anything without Scouring and Crash Dive to support us if we can help it."

"Aw, why not? We can pick them off just fine from here, and besides, I don't think their arty would be that accurate at this distance..." Shouldering War Crime - without her clip loaded - I took to looking over the sub pen through the scope, laid prone on the snowbank. Alright, couple zebras there, more over there, one guy walking along from sandbag to sandbag, and... sweet mother of Luna, those are some big shells. They're almost as big as... no, couldn't be. 'Course not, those guns don't have the right muzzlebrake. Then again... "Hey, uh, Aerith, those shells in the crate that the guy on top is moving, they look as familiar as I think they do?"

The alicorn blunk a few times, adjusting herself under the thick blanket and refocusing her sight to where mine was, peering for a few moments. Static scratched at his head beside me, confused - if those are what I think they are, then we've got some bigger issues to worry over. '8.8cm Royal Ordinance, same ones used in Rheinmetall's tank. You don't think those are actually anti-tank artillery they've got there, do you?' Passing her a worried look, I peered back through War Crime's scope, following the ammo carrier over to one of the guns. single-barrel hydraulic recoil system, emplacement but with hooks for moving... I don't think those barrels underneath are for more recoil control. A gun like that wouldn't need to aim very high to hit max effective range against a target on the ground... 'I didn't think an AT gun could serve as an AA gun, too.'

"Learn something new every day. Okay, so that pretty much nullifies any thoughts of getting armor to protect us, best thing we can probably do is try and prevent any of them from getting on the guns once things kick off. Take the ones on them out first, they can't find us and fill us full of shrapnel, yeah?" Aerith responded with a nod, Static still looking across the pen with his goggles, frustration visible on his muzzle. Oh, what is it, ya sneaky earth pony?

"I really need to find some binoculars or something at some point. I can probably stick a scope on my umbrella, right?" Well, at least your sense of humor isn't any worse for wear. Static turned back to look at the sub pen, pushing his goggles up onto his forehead. "Only downside, either of you fire, even with all this snow - heck, especially because of it, with you laying down - they'll hear and see us immediately. Really sucks, bet I could sell those guns off to Vanhoover for a million apiece, before ammo..." Never change, caps-for-brains... but that was a good point. Stupid muzzleblasts. Muzzlebrakes help somewhat, but we're dealing with the .50 MG and .30-06, still going to kick powder everywhere... and that's before the fact that neither of us have suppressors. Great.

Aerith seemed to pause for thought for a moment, before pulling the heavy blanket a little further over us, far enough to cover our rifles' scopes. Uh... kay then. Static blunk for a little bit as well, looking towards her as she pulled up a screen. 'If we're hanging here to watch them, we don't want the sun glinting off of us to give us away. Only stick the scopes out when we're looking, yeah?' The earth pony thought for a moment before responding with a nod, shuffling on the blanket below us to look at his legputer. laying War Crime down for a moment, I did the same, pushing back my jacket's sleeve - 9 AM.

"Alright, so how long before we can start popping these guys? War Crime's getting a little impatient." Static let off a small sigh, shaking his head and giving his eyes another good roll, going back to looking through his pip-buck. O...kay, so, this really is gonna be a while. Great. Well, might as well settle in... adjusting the volume, my legputer soon picked up Radio KAOS, an album just finishing up.

"-when everything under the sun is in tune,
and the sun is eclipsed by the moon!"

"That was Eclipse from the album Dark Side of the Moon, you're tuned into Radio KAOS and it is a wonderful wintry Vanhoover day out there today. Now, for the next segment, we play a lot of music here at Radio KAOS, and of course report in on the happenings of the day, but every once in a while I like to just sit back here and listen to a good story. Considering how the main star of this one looks, and their favored gun, I can't help but personally wonder if the Vanhoover Five managed to recruit the very mare herself. You're tuned into Radio KAOS, and here is The Silver Shroud."

I blunk a few times, the station silent for a few moments, Aerith and Static both looking towards my pip-buck. Wonder what Jim meant by that... well, he said 'she', so it could only be me, Aerith, or Crash Dive. Huh... "When evil trots the streets of Baaston, one mare lurks in the shadows, shielding the innocent, judging the guilty. That guardian is... The Silver Shroud! Today's episode, a Murder on Ministry Lane..."

---

Well, to be entirely fair, at least we don't have to deal with her actually speaking like that... I don't know if that's mean or releiving to think. Aerith was wearing the widest of grins as I turned the radio down, letting loose a sigh and looking at the clock. How the hell is it this dark and only four? And also, how the hell did that radio show run for damn near seven hours straight!? Gwuuh. Looking to Static, he had his goggles back on, looking down into the camp, and probably managing to see where everyone was a lot easier now. Well, easier than we were doing, anyways... "Can we start popping heads yet? I think the 'Shroud' over here's almost ready to charge in with her Tommy gun if we don't start doing something soon."

Aerith slapped me in the back of her head with one of her large wings, drawing my attention - and a quick glare. She let off a silent giggle in return, shouldering her rifle and loading its rounds in, myself pulling open the bolt of War Crime and doing the same with her large clip. Static let off a small sigh, answering with a nod. "Might as well, we've got enough to know the usual patrol routes. Like we planned, go for the ones by the big cannons first, and try to not blow them up. Easiest couple million caps we'll ever manage to make, if we get lucky."

"Always about the bottlecaps. Can't you learn to appreciate the simpler things, like friggin' gigantic portable artillery?" Myself wearing a smirk, Static rubbed at the side of his head, letting off a sigh. War Crime's bolt slid forwards with a satisfying clink, myself adjusting slightly and zeroing in on the head of the zebra running the corner artillery gun. Aerith did the same with the one closer to the shore, before her magic encompassed the ends of our barrels. I blunk a few times, looking over towards her - erm, something up?

'Just a little thought I had. Can catch and muffle the sounds of our guns with my magic a little, might help us stay that little extra bit hidden, and hey, miht even help with that thing's recoil. Ready to go when you are.' Answering her win a nod, I turned my attention back through the scope, crosshairs aligned right to put a fifty square between that zebra's eyes. Easing on the trigger, the hammer was soon released, a half-inch bullet flying downrange in the course of just a second, followed by two others and a .30, the first one impacting dead on target and turning everything above that zebra's shoulders into a fine red mist. Huh, whaddayaknow, that magic suppressor does work...

Settling on another target, picking the zebras off started easy, us both taking our time in clearing this side of the sub pen. Hell, you'd think the guys on the other side weren't even paying attention until one of War Crime's three-round bursts sent a plume up on one of the snowbanks over there, along with making one of them half the zebra he used to be. It ain't wrong, they shot at us first. Yesterday. With really big guns. Even with them rushing around to try and find where the fire was coming from, they really weren't thinking, practically forming a nice queue for us to start taking apart. Ooh, two for one, nice... well, two for three. You get what I mean. Aerith's rifle popped beside me as I swapped War Crime's magazine for a fresh one, the zebras down below quickly thinning out in numbers.

After a few more shots, and a few more close calls with Aerith making some backflip off of the sub pen's roof that were going for the artillery, the pen became quiet, save for the crashing of waves and howing of the wind. Scanning the area once more through our scopes, we both pulled back, Static letting off a sigh of relief as Aerith pulled the thick blanket off. He picked himself up onto his hooves, stretching out his back, as I unloaded War Crime and slipped her back into my duffel bag, stretching my own legs out. "Mmmf, sheesh, next time we do this, can it not take a whole winter day? I much prefer it when we just go in guns blazing."

"Maybe next time we won't have huge anti-everything guns to deal with. If that's the case, sure, only half a winter day." Static stuck his tongue out at me, myself fitting my duffel bag back on as Aerith revisualized the mini-tank. She set her rifle on it, flopping onto the back seat and letting off a long sigh, resting. Don't blame her, this day was pretty long, all things considered... Landing and settling myself back behind Boomer, Static jumped into the driver's seat, starting the engine back up and turning the headlight on. Scanning the snowy wasteland, a pair of figures caught my eyes in the dusk light, trotting slowly towards us from the south. Tapping Static's shoulder, he looked back towards me for a moment, before catching the pair, bringing us around and motoring towards them both, and the lighthouse they'd come from.

"Hey, guys! Ya missed all the... 'fun'. Still, we got the exterior of the sub pen cleared, so there's that." I let off a small chuckle as we pulled up to the pair of power-armored ponies, Scouring giving a nod with his helmet as Crash Dive did the same with hers, Static turning the mini-tank back around. Aerith climed up forwards, letting Scouring and Crash Dive slide in on the back seat, before we were back heading towards the pen.

Crash Dive loosed a weak chuckle through her mouthpiece's speaker, turning around to look at the carnage as we drew closer. "Heh, damn, you sure did clean this place up. Surprised it's still standing, honestly..." Pulling around to the north side of the pen, Static shut off the mini-tank, the last hints of sun slipping over the horizon and leaving the electric exterior lights of the sub pen to illuminate us. The power armored pegasus hopped off of the back, stumbling slightly, before catching and righting herself. Scouring was quick to pull up beside her, myself doing the same, Crash Dive looking between us both. "I-I'm good, just didn't want you to have all the fun. Fit as a fiddle, or something... whatever." The power armored unicorn let off a sigh, watching as Crash Dive rested herself against the concrete structure, Static going over to the large steel door.

"She's doin' better alright, but I don' think she's quite fit for full combat jus' yet. Be safer if someone stayed topside with 'er while the rest cleared it out the rest o' the way." Giving Scouring a small nod, we both looked back at Crash Dive, the pegasus leaned up against the concrete structure weakly. Trotting over with her, an annoyed grunt came from Static at the doorway, followed by the sound of a forehead impacing against a console keyboard - having issues there, Sparky? He let off a long sigh, trotting over to us.

"Well, we're gonna have to find some other way in, probably. Managed to lock that console... stupid 'manglement' and 'management, is that even a word?" Oh, boy. Well... huh, yanno, have to wonder if that might actually work. Crazy enough to, at least. Heading back over to the mini-tank, I reached into my duffel bag and pulled out Thumper and a slug shell, sliding it into the breech and snapping the barrel shut, while Static watched on in confusion. Hey, if it works for shorting robots... "Please tell me you aren't going to do what I think is exactly what you're going to do."

"Hey, maybe shorting it will actually work, you never know." Trotting up to the console, I looked around it for a moment, before placing Thumper's barrel flush with a metal access panel. Pulling the trigger handle, the round punched a clean hole inside and caused me to stumble back, the screen of the console flashing green and displaying junk for a few seconds before shutting off entirely. I blunk a few times, letting Thumper point towards the ground - Huh, I could've sworn that would work. Well, at least I thought it would... the earth pony let off a smug chuckle, trotting over beside me.

"Well, whaddayaknow, shorting it just entirely locked it up. Nice going, Strikey. Now, you gonna help us find another way inside or what?" Glaring at him, I let off a small huff, bringing Thumper back over to the mini-tank and sliding him back inside my duffel bag. Stupid thick blast door, stupid hardened concrete... I looked back towards the sub pen's entrance, my attention being caught by the sandbags and large device set atop the building. Huh... what're the chances of that door being thick enough to stop a tank shell, anyways... Static's smug grin faded as he looked back towards me. "Oh, no. I know that face, that's the face you make when you have an idea."

"Yup... hey, Aerith, think you could get one of those things down?"

---

The breech shut with a small clink behind me as I worked the wheels of the gun, practically bouncing in the small cushioned seat. Following the sight on the end of the barrel, it eventually settled square on the steel blast door, myself shivering with the anticipation... or, maybe just the cold. Looking over to the right, Scouring had Crash Dive by the mini-tank, with Static hiding behind it and Aerith trotting around to give a nod. Oh, yes, this is probably my favorite kind of doorbell... "Firing!"

Pulling the lever on the side of the big gun, the propellant rapidly burned up in the brass casing, forcing the armor-piercing high explosive shell down and out of the end of the barrel with a loud crack. A moment later, it hit the flat face of the door with a shower of glowing sparks, before the steel warped outwards from the force of a close explosion on the other side. The concrete crumbled as the door was forced out of it's path, the lamp above flickering for a short while after the blast settled, my ears ringing and heart pounding from the shot. Oh, momma, please tell me there's some way I can bring one of these things back home...

I coughed a little, blinking and looking down at the seat, bringing my legs together and wearing a blush. Oh... dear. Static trotted over to look at the door, before turning eyes towards myself, a curious expression falling upon him as he probably saw that bright rush of blood to my cheeks. "Eheh, um, yeah... you might want to make sure this one's cleaned before selling it off."

It seemed to take him a moment to get that, but, yeah, that look is pretty much appropriate for it. Gwuh, stupid genetics... that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Sweet Celestia, did it feel nice, though... "That's... disgusting, Night Strike."

"Hey, not my fault I'm Twintails' daughter..."