//------------------------------// // Storm Warning // Story: Fallout: Equestria - Empty Quiver // by thefurryrailfan //------------------------------// ----- We sped along the shoreline, the heat of the flames becoming more apparent as we drew closer to the downed aircraft. The roar of the fire barely drowned out the hopeless sputters of one of the engines as I parked a ways away from the wreck, hopping out of the mini tank. Night Strike and I stepped closer to the burning plane, unsure of what to do. “Is she even still alive?” Night Strike didn’t answer, just looking worryingly on as the plane burned. A figure began to crawl out from the wreck, coughing and sputtering as she tried to draw herself away from the flames, dropping a small charred fire extinguisher in the process. Scouring Charge ran in, his helmet’s light cutting through the smoke as he bent down to scoop up the pilot and slung her over his back. Marigold’s eyes were clenched shut, her muzzle stuck into her flight jacket to avoid the smoke as Scouring carried her over to safety. He laid her down on the ground, allowing her to free her muzzle and take a breath of air. Her rough skin could be seen in the flicker of the fire, bits of flesh hanging off of exposed muscle and sinew. She coughed a few more times before sitting up, still taking in a few deep gulps of air. She looked up at us, grinning a little. “Gwuh, thanks, that landing could’ve been a lot better... had worse, though.” She looked over to the burning plane, her expression immediately growing much more concerned. She stood up and took a few steps closer to the plane. “Oh, fuck, no! This... no, no!” Our shadows continued to dance on the ground as the fire burned away, Marigold pacing back and forth. Scouring watched her for a moment before picking up the extinguisher she'd dropped with his magic, starting to spray down the flames with foam, to little effect. Eheheh, ahm, well, I suppose it could be worse, right? Suddenly one of the engines on the burning wing exploded, large chunks of metal flying off in various directions, a few landing in the lake with a sizzle and a cloud of steam. Yeah, yeah, something worse like that. Aerith’s magic encompassed a large amount of water from the reservior, carrying it over and splashing it over the aircraft's back, a faint sound of metal bending being heard as the water hit it. Steam and smoke rose into the air as the water doused the flames, leaving the sky redarkened and the charred hulk of a plane resting silently. Marigold trotted up to her aircraft, looking it over and rubbing a hoof along the metal skin below the faded name. “Oh, no... Flew over Equestria for two and a quarter centuries, and this... no..." I trotted over underneath the wing, moving past the lowered landing gear, float... thing, looking at the engine that was hit. The bits of metal that it used to attach to were jagged and corroded, hot oil still dripping from the end of it, and several small holes and alarmingly large ones puncturing through what engine block was left. Eesh, yeah, I’m no mechanic, but I really don’t think this thing is going to be flying again anytime soon. “So, uh, you were headed towards Hopeville, right?” Marigold had hoisted herself up into the Seaddler's cockpit, digging around inside. She tossed a slightly singed bag onto the ground before hopping out, letting off a small sigh. “Actually no, I came up here because of some weird chatter on Seaddler's shortwave, sounded like somepony and their friends came across some old jets and a copy of 'Aeronautical terms for Idiots'. Wanted to see if meeting these guys would help make sense of their chatter that's blocking up the airwaves.” She picked up her satchel before turning back to look at the damaged wing, chewing on her lip for a moment. “I guess I should've thought about the fact that the Seahoof Armory probably had some anti-air weapons in it. Usually when we were shot at, it wasn't with anything bigger than rifle rounds... wasteland's changed a lot.” The old ghoul let off a sigh, hooves digging into the sandy shore as she moved herself towards us. As she caught the rest of the group, and the mini-tank, she paused for a moment, thinking. “Hm... you wouldn't happen to be that group up here that that guy running the Radio KAOS station out of the HMS Cadence keeps going on about, are you?” Sheesh, I think we’re going to open a lot of conversations with that now. “Yep, the Vanhoover Five, that’s us!” Night Strike said proudly, hovering in the air and placing her hooves against her sides with a smile. She soon set herself back onto the sand, letting her smile fade with a weak chuckle. “Ahm, sorry about Hopeville, that radio chatter you've been hearing, those guys with the other, uh, jets, they're kinda not friendly. Everyone's been a bit on edge about the whole thing, we're trying to help keep the peace, but, well... they haven't been to Hopeville yet, nopony there knows what they look like, just that they're big, they fly, and they're a threat.” Night Strike bit at her lip, letting out a breath through her nose. We all stood quietly for a moment as Marigold dusted some ash off of her flightsuit, myself looking to the dark blue pegasus. “Uh, so, um... hm... Static, what'd you get us as part of the payment?” "Uh..." Oh, please please please tell me she wasn't suggesting we'd give her some of the caps we earned fair and square to get her plane fixed... unless... oh, right, that! Whew, dodged a bullet there... "Two weeks free stay at a hotel in town, I'm sure when they learn that it was you who they shot down they can probably be bargained to raise it. Yanno, psychological and physical damages and all that." Marigold wore a small look of surprise for a moment, before looking back to her plane. “Well, considering I was probably going to wind up towed there anyways, might as well. Seaddler's been a good aircraft, but she wasn't exactly built as a luxury yacht." she let off a small chuckle, which myself and Night Strike joined in weakly. It faded back to silence for a moment as her eyes moved back to the charred place where an engine and wing panels once were. "I can’t just leave her here, though. We've come back from worse, but last time she was damaged this badly... well, there wasn't an Equestria like there is today. Sure would be hard-pressed to find anywhere that'd make another plane like her, far as I can remember she only had three sister aircraft and Celestia knows where they wound up...” I looked back towards Scouring, who had returned with Aerith to working with the bomb he’d taken off of the cart. Well, the dock was close enough to the plane for us to get here fast and them to walk back... “We do still need to set up our plan to help with the weird mutant fish problem that’s been going on here. Scouring and Aerith can stick around here and watch your plane while we take you back around the lake, we know somepony who might be able to help pull the Seaddler across the lake tomorrow, too.” Marigold frowned a little, thinking it over, as Night Strike flew herself over to Scouring and Aerith. The ghoul pilot looked over the minitank before shrugging, letting out a small sigh. “I suppose I can handle one night away from the Seaddler. Just be careful around her, she's... she's been through enough tonight as it is.” She trotted over to the tank and climbed onto the back, settling herself down by Boomer and doing a double take at the size of it's magazine. I hopped into the driver’s seat as Night Strike and Crash Dive placed themselves in the usual spots, the engine starting up with a soft purr. Bringing the half-track around, we passed by Aerith and Scouring as they finished up on prepping the bomb, the alicorn quickly nabbing her rifle and machine gun, and Scouring's rocket launcher as we passed by. “Don’t worry, Aerith's the best sharpshooter I know down here and Scouring's a Steel Ranger, they can handle anything they might run into. Besides, there’s no way I’m letting them blow up that bomb without me here to watch it.” Night Strike let off a small chuckle, the crisp night air catching it as it trailed off. Turning off the small dirt road that conected to the dock, we were soon back on cracked pavement, and the way towards Hopeville. “Where’d you even get the Seaddler, anyways? It doesn’t seem like something you’d just up and build one day and, no offense, but you don’t look like somepony that would try storming a military base anytime soon. Assuming you could find one that would keep a plane like that... propellers for a fixed-wing, huh, who knew?” Marigold grinned a little, her jaw muscles visible in their stretching. “Well, if you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly as smooth-coated as I used to be.” She adjusted herself as I followed the path, the crashed plane quickly growing smaller as we sped away, following along the shore. “The Seaddler was one of three aircraft built by the Bow-wing corporation for Marigold Industries, my old company. Sister planes were the Seafalke and the Seamowe, all of them built for long-distance mail service. I was flying on a standard supply run to the international research outpost way up in the arctic circle with Jackscrew and Dusty, when...” She fell silent for a moment, before continuing. "When I saw the missiles coming over the horizon. Called it into Cloudsdale civil air command... heard the exact second when the early ones wiped it out of the sky. That squeal over the radio still haunts me..." The road curved back around towards the edge of the lake after crossing a wide river on a taller bridge, avoiding a small ditch that was filled with stagnant, swampy water. The tank’s treads kicked up a few stray pebbles as I followed it along, the headlight cutting a beam through the darkness and illuminating the road ahead as we passed by Jericho Beach, getting onto the familiar roads again. Sheesh, I swear we’ve been going back and forth so often I could drive there with my eyes closed. After a long moment of silence from everyone, I decided to break it, giving a glance back at Marigold. “Ahm, hey, you wouldn’t happen to have some kind of generator back home that you could fit onto your plane, do you? We’ve been looking for one but we’ve had no luck so far.” “Can't say that I do. Where I'm from, Seaddle, we get our electricity needs from an old icebreaker's reactor. Been running the whole town for decades at this point, just as much a miracle that Seaddler's still airworthy as it is that that old thing's ticking. Sorry.” Marigold replied with a small shrug, prompting a sigh from me. Well, it was worth a shot. The headlight illuminated a radroach scurrying onto the road, only to be crushed under the treads of the mini tank a moment later. Gross. “Have you guys tried asking the Steel Rangers? Wasn’t the unicorn that dragged me out of the wreck one of them?” “We haven’t actually run into any Rangers other than him, being honest. He said the Rangers around here aren’t too friendly to locals, so we probably wouldn’t get anywhere with them, anyways.” Night Strike responded as I turned towards the edge of Hopeville, approaching the hotel with its flickering lighted sign. “Not to mention, they’d probably take the Valkyrie for themselves in a heartbeat if we told them what the generator was for, and I doubt even Static’s silver tongue would be able to buy it back from them. Let’s just hope they aren’t avid radio listeners.” Night Strike gave a feeble chuckle as I pulled into the cart parking lot of the hotel, the engine’s rumble fading away as I switched it off. I hopped out of the tank as the others climbed off of the back and made our way towards the front door. “At least we know Statc’ll be happy tonight, he’ll have a room all to himself to invite Chauffeur over~” Night Strike let off a small giggle, gathering up her duffel bag. I shot her a glare as she stuck her tongue out at me, Marigold trying to hide her small smirk. Our hoofsteps were muffled as we stepped onto the carpeted floor of the lobby, Chauffeur sitting behind the desk. Night Strike walked up to him, a wide grin on her face. “Two rooms for the night, and do you guys happen to do room service?” Shoving her aside, I placed the caps down on the counter and took two keys from Chauffer without a second word, immediately turning to head down the hallway. “Oh, come on, Static, we all saw how you blushed.” She poked my side, only to receive the key shoved in her mouth. She’s sleeping outside the next time we come here, and I hope it rains. I slipped the key into the lock and turned it, the mechanism clunking satisfyingly before I pushed it open and stepped in. I made sure to lock it behind me before letting my saddlebags and umbrella fall to the floor and myself flop onto the bed, nyring my face in the old pillows. The sound of a note being slid under the door caused me to roll back off and stare down at the floor, reading off of the slightly smudged ink. ‘Look on the bright side, with him you’ll have somepony to pamper when I’m not soda binging.’ I crumpled up the note and tossed it into the wastepaper basket. Celestia dammit, Night Strike… --- I awoke to a knock at my door, my mane sticking up in multiple directions from the night’s sleep. Yawning, I opened up the door to be met by Night Strike and Crash Dive, who stepped into my room and let the door shut with a click behind them. “Sheesh, we knocked on your door at least six times, I didn’t think it took you that long to drag yourself out of bed.” I rolled my eyes and stepped over to the bathroom sink, wetting my hooves so I could flatten my hair down into a less haphazard look. “Chauffeur said he got the message about the free nights, so Marigold’s free to stay here for now, at least until we get her plane over here and she can find someplace to work.” I trotted back out once my mane was more presentable and hitched up my saddlebags, slipping my umbrella underneath the strap as usual. “Sounds good. We should head off to Maple Creek right away to get Ripple to pull the plane across the lake, then. Don’t want to keep Scouring and Aerith sitting in that shack for too long.” Night Strike nodded and we headed back out to the lobby, myself averting my gaze from Chauffeur, who was still sitting at the desk. I hopped into the mini tank once again as Crash Dive sat on the back wagon, and Night Strike settled down at Boomer's controls. Rumbling to life, the engine purred as I turned and headed down the familiar pathway to Maple Creek, the sun still hanging somewhat low in the early morning sky. The small engine seemed to give a small sputter and cough as we pressed onwards, the gears changing over before taking hold again. “What I wouldn’t give to get this thing moving a little faster...” I gave a small grumble to myself as we rolled along the road, tracks clattering underneath. We passed by a few ponies that were fishing along the river, and I turned the handles to follow the flowing water towards Maple Creek. “Didn’t the gunsmith in Maple Creek say something about somepony she knew up north that worked with machines like this? We can stop by him when we go looking around there for a generator, probably.” Night Strike suggested. I shrugged, tilting my head around a bit to try and relieve some of the stiffness in it. “Besides, this is still a heck of a lot faster than walking, so quit your complaining.” We arrived at Maple Creek as the sun was getting into it's climb, early enough for it still to be morning but feeling like day. I wiped a bit of sweat off of my brow as we pulled up in front of Ripple’s fishing shack. Night Strike hopped off and knocked on his door as I parked the mini tank and climbed out after her with Crash Dive following close behind. “Ripple? You in there?” After a few moments of silence, she opened up the door to reveal an empty shack. “Huh. Well, his boat’s still here, he must be down at the pub.” We turned and began to walk towards the riverside bar, Crash Dive’s metal-covered hooves clanking against the stone sidewalks. A pony stumbled out of the pub as we approached it before noticing us and leaning against the wall. “Heeeeey, how’re you doing?” He slurred to Night Strike, who seemed to be contemplating grabbing the grenade rifle off her back to give him his answer. Crash Dive responded to him instead, with a swift kick to the knee, sending the drunken stallion sprawling onto the ground. “Jeesh, y’don’t need to be so rude about it!” He stood himself back up shakily, and began to limp away. The double doors to the pub swung behind us as we stepped in, looking around for Ripple. “Hey, it’s the Vanhoover Five! Where’s the rest of ya’?” One of the patrons called out to us. Before we could say anything he shook his head and waved his hoof. “Ah, whatever, drinks on me anyway!” He waved us over and we obliged, each taking a seat at the bar. The bartender slid a small glass in front of Crash Dive as well as two bottles of Sparkle Cola over for Night Strike and myself. He poured an amber colored liquid into Crash Dive’s glass as I popped the cap off of my bottle of soda and caught it in my overstuffed wallet. “Seriously, thanks for all the things you guys do around here, this is the least I could do.” “Thanks, we’re glad to help.” Night Strike passed on a smile, taking a swig of her Sparkle Cola before pausing. “Though, uh, maybe you could help spread the word about not shooting first and asking questions later? We had a civilian get shot down up in Hopeville, we got those guns to save lives, alright?” She gave a soft chuckle, the stallion with us looking slightly taken aback. Night Strike set down her soda, shaking her head. “No, no, no she’s fine, everypony’s fine, just… y’know, what could’ve happened…” She sat awkwardly for a moment before going back to her soda. Great, now he thinks we’re sociopaths. “Anyways, we’re looking for Ripple, doesn’t he normally hang around here?” The stallion let off a small chuckle, before pointing us over to the corner where the old captain stood attempting to throw a few darts into a board hanging on the wall. I thanked him and we moved over, Crash Dive quickly finishing her shot of alcohol under her mask. There was a resounding cheer as Ripple managed to land a bullseye, another grumbling pony handing over a hoofful of bottle caps to him. “Ripple!” I called out. Turning and pocketing his caps, he grinned upon seeing us step up. Ah, ahoy! What can I do fer ya? Looking for another ride?” I nodded and he placed some of the caps he’d just earned on the table to pay for his drink before trotting out of the pub with us back towards his fishing shack. “Where to this time? Vanhoover, somewhere along the reservior, just a lesiure trip or somethin'? Latter's only fer Deadstallion's Island, unless you're gonna actually start payin' me for shipping guns.” “Well, we were actually hoping you could take us up to the north edge of the lake. Somepony crashed their plane and we wanted to see if you’d be able to drag it over to Hopeville. It’s got these water landing gear things and the hull didn't seem too shot up, so it should still float fine, but the wing’s been badly burned up.” I responded. “We’ve also got a small favor to do in that area, Aerith and Scouring are there working on it now.” Ripple nodded and led us up the small ramp onto Trout, but before we stepped on, I paused. “Ahm, you think the mini tank will be fine here for the night? Dragging the boatplane back will probably take a while, you can stay in the motel with us for the night if you want.” “Aye, it should be fine, we haven’t had any sort of vandals since that company from the Rangers passed through a month'r two ago. And thanks, but I think I’ll just sleep below deck, just in case somepony back in Hopeville tries to scuttle Trout again.” I tilted my head as Night Strike lifted the ramp up onto deck before flapping down onto it herself. Fair enough, I suppose. Ripple started up Trout’s engine before twisting the crank to raise up the anchor. We turned and began to head up the river, Trout chugging along steadily. I flipped over to the radio on my Pip-Buck, a smooth, soft tune filling the air. When marimba rhythms start to play Dance with me, make me sway Like a lazy ocean hugs the shore Hold me close, sway me more. I held a hoof out to Night Strike, a smug grin on my face. She blushed and responded by shoving her own hoof into my face and shoving me away. I chuckled and stuck my tongue out. Suit yourself… --- The waves lapped against the sandy shore underneath the tail of the Seaddler, Ripple pulling Trout around and tossing the anchor overboard. “Alright, Crash and I’ll get her hooked up for the trip brought back over to Hopeville, you finish up whatever you needed with the others.” I flipped down the ladder for us to climb down as Night Strike simply hovered over to the shore where Aerith and Scouring charge were standing. “We’ve got the bomb all set and ready, just waiting to get Marigold's bird out of the blast zone before we fire 'em off. Aerith found an old bag aboard the barge, filled it up with anythin' that looked important in the shed, includin' that radio ye found last night.” We all headed over to where Crash Dive and Ripple were tying large chains around the wing roots of the Seaddler, making sure they were securely bound. Aerith helped to fasten the chains with her magic, the links melting and binding to one another to form large loops around the metal wing segments. Ripple climbed back up onto Trout, giving the engine a few testing revs. “Alright, Trout should be able to drag her across the water pretty easily, but I’ll need you guys to give a push to get her out of the sand, got it?” He called back as he hoisted the anchor back up. We all took positions, myself standing at the back of one of the landing floats. “Alright, shove!” Trout’s motor spun wildly, my hind hooves digging into the sand as I pushed forward. The plane didn’t move more a moment, but soon it was sliding smoothly along the sand before splashing into the water, sending a small wave behind Trout. The feeling of victory quickly died though as I realized how far away Trout got before Ripple could stop it. “Ah, crap, we’re gonna have to swim to him.” I muttered. Night Strike shrugged and took to the air, quickly landing softly back down onto deck. Stupid pegasus… I looked over to Aerith. “Think you could give me a ride?” She nodded and bent down, allowing me to climb onto her back. Crash Dive and Scouring Charge waded out into the water, their suits keeping them dry as they swam over to Trout, Scouring only just able to do so. We were soon all on deck again and steadily steaming for the other shore, the steel ranger flipping open a small hatch on his armor and pulling out a detonator. He passed it over to Night Strike, grinning. “Care to do the honors?” She gave a slightly maniacal giggle, taking the small device and looking back towards the old docks. She pressed down on the trigger, a second going by in silence before the shack and the docks vanished in a large white cloud that quickly became a rapid fireball, the blast condensing air into clouds around and the shockwave sending a wave of water crashing into the side of Trout. I stumbled about on deck, trying to grab onto the side for stability as the tiny harbor of the research facility was replaced by a small foamy cloud, which confusingly started to take on a mushroom shape. Well, hopefully that’ll stop some of those fish pony things... assuming they don’t breed very fast. Ripple stuck his head out of the window of the bridge. “Dear Luna, at least warn me before you do something like that again, will ye?! Thought her reactor had just gone off like a bloody megaspell…” He shook his head and drew it back through the window, Trout continuing on towards Hopeville. Let’s just hope the guys running the guns tonight are a little less twitchy than the ones last night... The lights of Hopeville shone on the edge of the lake as we approached it, a couple other boats floating off of shore near the town. “I’ll stay here for the night, you go get whoever owns this plane and we’ll figure out where to dock it tomorrow before heading back to Maple Creek." I nodded and we all hopped down into the shallow water below, wading in towards shore and the edge of town. “We’re staying in the hotel tonight, if you want to head over there now.” I told Aerith and Scouring. “I want to head to the mayor and see if she’s got her payment for us.” They nodded in acknowledgement, but stuck along as I made my way back towards the town hall. The large oak doors creaked as we stepped into the Mayor’s office, finding her looking over several stacks of paper, a pen hanging from her mouth. “Ah, good to see you, we’ve got your payment right here.” She lifted up a bag of caps along with a crate of small caliber ammo. “400,000 caps, and some ammo that the gunsmith made up, said to give to you. Good thing you got us those guns when you did, somepony was flying in for an attack just last night!” The mayor leaned back, looking satisfied. “Um, yeah, about that attacking aircraft,” I said, scooping up the ammo and caps. “That was a civilian aircraft. We heard her requesting permission to land on the reservior over a military transceiver radio.” The mayor’s face went pale as she sat up straighter in her chair, looking worried. “She’s alive, don’t worry, we were able to recover her aircraft for the most part too, but you really should be more careful with who you’re shooting next time.” My voice grew sterner as I spoke. “Don’t you some way of contacting planes flying over?” The mayor gulped. “Uh, w-well, the, uh, ponies running those guns don’t… even if somepony did I don’t know if they’d have waited long enough for confirmation…” She leaned forward, putting her head in her hooves. “Oh, Celestia, if this gets out this will be the death of my re-election…” She looked back up at us. “Please, is there anything I can do to help them?” She asked with pleading eyes. “Her plane’s moored off the shore with a gunboat captain from Maple Creek, most of it is intact but the one wing was badly damaged by the anti-air fire, and it's completely lost an engine. You get somepony to at least repair the wing for her, and we’ll be fine. She said she used to run some courier business before the war, helping set her up with some of the caravans wouldn’t hurt either.” The mayor nodded quickly and pulled over a notepad, scribbling down instructions into it. The mayor spat out the pen and was about to speak before Aerith dropped a musty old leather satchel onto her desk, it landing with a resounding thud. Both myself and the mayor stared at it in confusion for a moment before the alicorn produced a familiar radio from it, the mayor blinking a few times in disbelief. Aerith glanced towards me, a smile on her lips, as she put up another magic screen. 'Military-standard grade radio transciever, just needs an antenna connection and somepony to listen on it. Same one they used to pick up her signal last night.' "Ah... okay then! Um, so, ah, well..." Goddess-damnit, why do I need to have a conscience. I really want to sell them this radio, because hey, I was nice enough for the gun mount as it was, but... guh. I -have- been traveling too much with Night Strike. "I... guess we have the answer to the friend or foe contact issue. You can probably ask the pilot of the plane in the harbor how to set it up, she's staying at the hotel. Ask for Marigold." “I’ll make sure that’s done. I am so, so sorry for this happening.” She went back to her paperwork, shuffling it around and scribbling some more into her notebook, Aerith gathering the leather bag back up. We turned and headed back out of the town hall, making our way towards the hotel. The sun was almost completely set by the time we stepped into the lobby, myself walking quickly past the desk to avoid Chauffeur’s gaze. Scouring followed me into our room, shutting the door behind us as I dropped my saddlebags and umbrella to the floor. I flopped onto the bed, rather unsurprisingly tired for the day - for once, could something not come up that keeps us stuck in these two towns tomorrow? ----- "So, um, if you wouldn't mind me asking, why's the Seaddler built like it is? Never seen an aircraft besides a Vertibuck use propellers for, well, propulsion, before." Marigold seemed to have gotten herself settled in the hotel room, the old ghoul letting off a quiet sigh as she looked out the window. Aerith and Crash Dive had gotten settled in the room next to us with Static and Scouring across the hallway - two pony max limit to a room, can get a bit awkward when there're five of us. Least it evened out this time with there being six. Resting back on one of the beds, I idly sipped from a botle of Sparkle-Cola, Marigold turning about and trotting over to the other bed. "Hm, never seen a prop aircraft before, really? They were popular before the war, least for civilian transport." She wore a small smile as she rested herself on the old cushions, the lake flickering moonlight in through the window from outside as the electric lights filled the room with a soft yellow glow. "Gonna hazard a guess and say that the aircraft you've seen are all old military ones. Jets were mainly used by the armed forces, you'd see a propeller aircraft here and there but nine times of ten it was a civilian one repurposed for military use. Fought tooth and hock to keep Seaddler and her sisters from serving as more than delivery aircraft..." A small chuckle escaped Marigold as she rested against the pillows. "Kind of ridiculous now, I wound up having to put guns on her anyways. Two cannons in her nose and two turrets... suppose I should be thankful the fire stayed at the engine..." I gave a small nod, taking a few healthy gulps of the glowing blue soda, shuffling along to the head of the bed myself. Sparkle-Cola RAD, best night light I ever had as a filly... even if my stomach doesn't want to agree with me too much. "That's the wasteland for you. If a vehicle doesn't have guns on it already, it'll wind up having them sooner or later... heh, just look at the litle half-track we've got. Only reason that Boomer's mounted on it is because he's too heavy for me to carry him." Letting off a small chuckle, I took another sip, resting back on the old pillows and letting out a sigh. Man, how long ago was it when we found those things the first time we went to Seahoof, anyways?... Marigold lifted herself up on a foreleg, looking towards me. "I still want to know where you managed to find a little MWT Motorbug like that. Used to see them all the time when I'd go with my father to the Vanhoover Air Base, they used them for helping with taxiing the larger aircraft onto the landing strip." Huh, Motorbug, is that what they were called? Catchy... eh, mini-tank sounds meaner. Besides, that's kinda what it is now, anyways. "Honestly, after that I also want to know where you got fuel for it. Thought they all ran off of fuel oil or alcohol engines." "Dah... that's a good question. I assumed it was a similar drive to my dad's TOG, little arcane reactor makes steam for the engine or something." Setting the glass bottle on the nightstand, I scratched at my head with a hoof, thinking. Okay, so it didn't sound like a turbine, might be an engine like Trout's instead, then. Really should check when we get back to Maple Creek... I gave the old ghoul a shrug, laying back into the pillows. "Thought all tanks had the same kind of drive systems." "I guess it could've been changed to a reactor-fueled steam powertrain, but, uh, sorry... TOG?" Marigold returned me a confused look, laying out on the bed. Oh yeah, probably would make sense to explain that... among other things, if she missed the interviews. "You said it was your dad's... your father owns a tank?" "TOG II, eighty-one tons, ten meters long by three wide and high, mounting a three-inch MWT seventeen-pounder anti-tank gun and a twenty-mil coaxial in the turret, and another twenty mil in the hull. Developed by The Old Gang, landships committee, I think..." Okay, so I don't know the whole history for it, but it's still a tank, it's still huge, and it's still a beautiful piece of machinery. And that gun still makes me tingle when it fires. "And, uh, only Twintails really drives it that often. My other dad, Featherweight, he's a bit too big to really fit inside it comfortably anymore, even with it having a good bit more space than a usual tank..." "A 'yes' would've done just fine. I'm... gonna go to sleep while my brain tries to work on what you just said." Marigold leaned herself back onto the pillows, flipping herself over to look towards the window, her old wings adjusting as she settled herself. Huh... guess that explains why Crash Dive didn't look at her much. Well, she had a point anyways, already was pretty late as-is, and I'm pretty sure if we don't get on the move away from this part of the wasteland soon Static's going to have an aneurysm. Reaching over to the nightstand, I flicked the switch on the little lamp, the soft yellow glow being replaced by the soft bluish one reflecting off the lake, and the one from what few drops were left in the glass bottle. My eyes fell to it, a quiet sigh escaping me as I clutched the small plushie inside my jacket. Almost felt like home... --- "Just bring her up onto the shore, she'll be safest there, and I can actually manage a better look at what the damage is. Barring Engine 1, anyways..." Aerith and Scouring both gave small nods as their combined magic pulled the steel cables around the wing roots towards the land, the boat-plane following suit. The steel of the rear of the hull carved a large path in the wet sand, the aircraft sliding along a few more meters before they let it rest. The Alicorn's magic swiftly took to severing the linkages around the wing roots, the cables and chains clattering as they were removed and cast aside, Marigold letting off a sigh. "Thank you, really. Already feeling a lot better with the Seaddler at least reachable now." 'Don't thank us, without Ripple and Trout she'd still be over there. I doubt we could've moved her this far without them.' Aerith gave a smile as another one of her screens came up, nodding over to the small gunboat out on the lake. Marigold returned a nod, wearing a small smile as she trotted over to the Seaddler, starting to look over the damages. Following beside her, I took to looking over the aircraft myself - hey, only times I saw her were at night and when she was on fire, I deserve a closer look! Okay, let's start from the wingtip and work our way in; well, first off, one of the stabilizer floats. Comes out of the wing just after the engine nacelle, huh, suppose it makes sense enough to put it there. Hydraulic pistons for extending, but those cables tell me it can be put down or pulled up by hoof or electric power in a pinch. Am going to hazard a guess that those irregular holes in the metal aren't supposed to be there, though... Moving on to the engines - well, engine - the rear one looks pretty much intact, driving a three-bladed propeller. Must spin clockwise to produce forward thrust, and the one on the other side... counter-clockwise? Huh... oh yeah, torque, that's probably why. Same readons the vertibuck engines spin opposite each other, yeah, that makes sense. Okay, okay, moving on, we get to the wing root... and that's right about when Static, Crash Dive and some other mare show up. Aw, don't tell me we're going to be leaving so soon... "Oh my, I didn't realize just how large these things were..." Letting off a small sigh, I trotted over to Static, the mare moving her gaze off of the Seaddler and to me, extending a hoof. "Ahm, sorry, I'm the mayor of Hopeville, came down as soon as I could to see the craft we, um... shot down a few nights ago. Is the owner of it around anywhere?..." She glanced around a few times as I nodded back towards the craft, Marigold appearing out of an upper hatch and startng to look at the wing from atop it. Sheesh, what's that face for, you didn't think a ghoul could own a pre-war aircraft and still be able to fly it, or somethin'? The mayor regained herself after a moment, clearing her throat. "Alright, uh, before I get to handling things, I just want to ask, for future refrence... the air craft that -would- attack us, do you know if they're as big as this one is?" Looking towards Crash Dive for a moment, she glanced between the mayor and myself under her visor, giving a small nod. Best if they know what they'll be going up against... heh, kind of like Dr. Strangemare, except without the doomsday device and with a lot more, yanno, actual death and destruction... moving on. "They aren't as large as the Seaddler, no. Thinking about it, I think they're actually only about half as big as she is, but they are significantly more maneuverable and much faster. On the upside though, they don't handle having rebar shot into their engines that well, heh." Letting off a weak chuckle, the mayor wore a distinct look of surprise, myself going quiet again. Okay, probably should tell them about the payload they'd be hit with, too... "There should only be three of them left now, but they've got automatic tesla cannons, and possibly eight thermobaric bombs to use against you. We detonated one of the other thermobarics last night, and trust me, you do not want to get hit with one." You'd think there's a limit to how much surprise there can be on a single pony's face - guess the mayor of Hopeville is going for a new record, or something. "That -wasn't- a megaspell that went off!? But, but there was a fireball! And, and a mushroom cloud!" Oh, for pony's sake... I let off a sigh, rubbing a hoof against my forehead as the Mayor nervously looked up towards the sky. Just because an explosion makes a mushroom cloud doesn't mean it was definitely a balefire bomb. After a moment, she turned her gaze back to myself and Static, glancing between us. "O-okay, I'll be sure to have everypony who can be on watch on watch, I'm certainly not going to be the mayor that let her town be destroyed by one of those things." Hopeville's Mayor trotted over to the Seaddler and Marigold, Crash Dive pulling up alongside me as Static scratched at his head, giving his foreleg a stretch before setting it back down. "Alright, so, we're heading back to Maple Creek, then. I dunno about you guys, but I think I'd rather get a ride instead of walking from here. Sooner we get out of this part of the wasteland, the better..." Passing along an eyeroll to him, a dark blue alicorn took to flight from the deck of a familiar small gunboat, landing on the shore again soon afterwards. Caps and complaints, seems like that's all that you talk about nowadays... "And why's that, worried that the longer we stay the more likely you'll be to hook up with Chauffeur?~" Letting off a snicker that he seemed to take some slight offense to, I hopped myself up into the air, just about dodging his umbrella. Hovering above him, he let off a small sigh and shake of the head, trotting over to Aerith and Scouring, Crash Dive following suit. Eh, suppose going back on Trout makes enough sense, long as it's already here... Hovering above them with Aerith as they made way up onto the small fishing trawler, Ripple emerged with a long yawn and scratch of his back from the lower portion of the boat's housing, rubbing at his eyes as we approached. "Mmh, mornin', commin' aboard fer back t' Maple Creek?" Releasing another yawn, the stallion slumped himself over the side of the boat, hooves reaching to help Static up as Aerith lifted Scouring and Crash Dive onto the deck. I landed with a small thud as Ripple went to splashing his face with some of the water, blinking his eyes open before moving for the steep staircase. "Aye, right then, haul in the anchor and all that, we'll be off soon as she gets going." Scouring and Crash Dive both helped get the anchor lifted from the water and on deck as I moved over towards the back, taking a small moment to giggle at the sight of the 37mm autocannon mounted there. Oooh, hopefully we run into one of those monster pony-fish things, I really want to see what this thing can do. Static moved up alongside me as the engine below us rumbled to life, a small wave kicked up as we started to move forwards, myself waving to the mare behind the cockpit glass of the floatplane as Hopeville started to move away. Static gave a small cough, rolling his jacket's sleeves back up over his damp forelegs. "To answer your question, it's more due to the fact that we've pretty much proved beyond a shadow of a doubt there's not a single one of the generators we're looking for around here. Don't you want to get home sooner than later?" I blunk a few times, looking at him dumbfounded for a moment before remembering the giant bomber jet crashed back by the lighthouse. Oh, right... that... --- "You're listening to K A O S, Radio KAOS, and it's shaping up to be another beautiful Vanhoover morning out there, folks. Won't stay that way for too long, so enjoy it while you can, because we're expecting some especially heavy storms to roll in as we move along into the winter months. On the bright side, at least you won't have to rely on some pre-war batteries to keep your food cold, heh... "Anyways, onto the morning news. Coming in just a few nights ago from Hopeville, a new flying craft was spotted late at night coming in low over the small town and heading towards the reservoir. The Hopeville Air Defense reacted rather swiftly to the intruder of their airspace, opening up at it with pretty much everything they had to use, including one of this ship's own anti-air batteries. Unfortunately - and yes, I do mean -un-fortunately - they proved to be extremely effective, bringing the intruding aircraft down in a ball of flame. Why this is unfortunate, is that the aircraft turned out to be a pre-war civilian cargo transport being flown by it's original ghoul owner. Thankfully she was able to land the aircraft safely on the reservoir and escape, and the fire caused by the anti-air guns was extinguished soon afterwards, but not before resulting in one of the aircraft's engines exploding and causing severe damage. As far as we here at Radio KAOS know, nobody was injured in the incident - save for the pride of some of Hopeville's anti-air gunners, maybe, heh. "The surviving pilot and her aircraft are taking refuge in Hopeville for the time being, but unfortunately as far as we've been told the damage caused means that the aircraft is grounded until they can either have an entirely new engine manufactured - good luck with that - or they can find one of the two sister aircraft. Normally I'd doubt the latter as much as I doubt the former right now, but considering the group of five we all know and love who rescued that unfortunate pilot, I'd say odds are in her favor. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they manage to find both of the things and fly them back to her. On the offchance that does happen - Hopeville, I'm lookin' at you - let's hope those two don't get shot down, either. "In other news, slightly related, residents of Hopeville last night have been calling in with claims of witnessing a massive explosion and fireball from the other side of the lake, some even going as far as saying it formed a mushroom cloud, like a balefire egg or megaspell. Considering they were still there to call in the explosion in the first place, I think we can safely rule out megaspell as being the cause. C'mon, guys, use your heads, if the Vanhoover Five were confirmed being in that area where the plane crashed after it was shot down, and the explosion was in that area the next night, I think we can guess who the culprit for it is. Must've had a pretty good reason for doing it, all I can say about it. "Anyways, I've talked for long enough, let's get some music flowing out of those speakers instead of my voice. Here's a small mix I've been putting together for anyone out there lookng to make their wandering a little more exciting, or just want some music to do their daily routine to that isn't a full album. Enjoy." --- "So, Scouring, why're you in B Company, anyways?" The sun was well along it's climb as we trundled along the rivers leading away from the reservior, Ripple grumbling from up in the cabin. Just our luck somepony decided to use a tree downriver as target practice for what appeared to be a balefire egg launcher, meaning we had to find a different route... I swore it wasn't me that time! Scouring was leaned up against the side of the boat, checking over Sunburst for a short while before looking up at myself. I gave a small shrug, sitting beside him. "You seem like a pretty level guy, just want to know how you managed to get into a group that the rejects get thrown into." "Eheh, so, want to open up that can o' worms then, eh? Aye, what I did to wind up in Bad Company..." He reaffixed Sunburst to his armor, the rocket launcher shrinking to a storage position as the unicorn gave his back a stretch. The riverbanks overflowed with plants, Aerith and Crash Dive up on the upper deck between the steampipe guns, watching either side for freaky fish-things. "Y'ever hear of these things called Vertibucks? Well, it was a slow day back at base, nothin' seemed to be goin' on, and I was scheduled for a proper solo flight sooner or later. Grease the wings, see if I can still run 'em if needed, yanno... Turns out, I needed a bit more trainin' than I figured. Completely wrote off one o' the lead paladin's fancy armored motorized wagons, and nearly totaled the bird as well..." So, Scouring got in B Company for totaling a vertibuck and an armored vehicle - kinda want to know how he managed that, if it was anything like the TOG or War Mare - and we wound up stuck down here because Static totaled a vertibuck. Man, you'd think destroying pre-war tech like that was a one-way ticket to karmaville or something, with how things have gone lately... "Ain't that bad though, really. Sure, kinda lost my rank a little, but it's been a hell of a lot more excitin' with Sweets, Strike, and Sergeant Crimson than it ever was sittin' on my arse back at base. Sunburst's seen a lot more action too, 'specially since I've been traveling with you lot - nice to be shootin' her at stuff that isn't tin cans or bugs." "Amen to that. I like overkill much as my fathers do, but sometimes you want at least something that can take more than one forty mil shotshell to the face. Or fifty cal rifle round, for that matter..." We both shared a small chuckle as the river bubbled and splashed underneath, myself letting off a small sigh. Yeah, because I've proven I'm really effective with War Crime, wasting at least two shots for every one that goes at least somewhat near the thing I'm shooting at... or breaking my shoulder in the process. Setting my duffel bag down, I undid the zipper and pulled out the large rifle, leaning back against the side of the boat and looking it over in my hooves. "How much d'you want to bet that this thing was meant for ponies with power armor to absorb the kick for them, and not ponies with just thick jackets?" Scouring blunk for a moment, looking down at War Crime with me before encompassing it in his magic, pulling it over for a closer look. He spent a moment turning it over, looking at each side and the muzzlebrake, before letting off a small chuckle. "Lass, I think I see yer issue." Shuffling myself a little to see, he held it up to me with the barrel pointing left, flicking a switch located on one side. With a grin, he took the long rifle and pressed the barrel against the deck of the boat, looking to myself for a moment. With a flare of magic, he encompassed the stock and shoulderpad, my eyes going wide as he suddenly gave it a heavy shove downwards, the barrel... moving into the body of the rifle? As he released his magic and caught it again, the stock sprung back up, barrel returning to it's full length. "Selective recoil lock. Prob'ly won't fire as fast as she used to but you prob'ly won't be breakin' your shoulder again, either. Give 'er a try." "Really wish that these damn things came with instruction manuals... don't suppose there's anything else you saw that might help me keep my bones intact when shooting her?" Scouring gave a small chuckle and shake of the head as I fished War Crime's clip from my duffel bag, tapping it in with my hoof and pulling the bolt back. Getting up onto my rear legs, I swayed a little with the large rifle, lifting it up in both of my hooves and holding it to my shoulder again, peering through the scope at the vegitation on the side of the river. A magic aura encompassed the barrel for a moment, Scouring releasing a weak chuckle as I passed him a small confused glare. "What now?" "Ya fire it like that, you're gonna wind up landin' on your arse, even with the long recoil on. Ah... try restin' it on the side of the boat like this, sit down and fire 'er off." Well, good point there, I don't particularly enjoy landing on my butt that much. Giving him a small nod, I sat myself down near the side of the boat, War Crime's frame resting on the wall and my hoof keeping it steady while the other one found the trigger lever again, squeezing the stock against my shoulder. Peering through the scope once more, I gave my wings a small ruffle, getting comfortable. "There ye go, now let's put it to use. Ahm... there, see that tree with the funky knot on it's trunk? Let's see if ye can take that off'a it." Scanning through the scope for a moment, a real nasty-looking tree did eventually catch my eye, and the nasty growth sticking out of the wood. Alright then mister tree, let me just take that off for you, swear it won't hurt a bit. Adjusting myself as Trout continued moving downriver, the two red crosshairs lined up on the growth, myself letting out a small breath as my hoof gripped the trigger and War Crime answered. Okay, yeah, that's definitely an improvement over the last few times - a bit more of a kick than Thumper gives, but a hell of a lot nicer than before. Hell, I can probably fly with this thing now, if I just want to hose down targets at mid-range... the first shot flew true, smacking the tree just behind the growth and sending up a spray of splinters, with the following two whizzing through the forest a bit higher than the first one as War Crime jumped from the siding with each shot. Considering I don't have a concussion, broken shoulder, and actually hit the target too, I'd say it was a successful shot. Scouring gave a small laugh and pat on my shoulder as I looked up from War Crime's scope, the sound of Crash dive's heavy armored hooves rushing over on the upper deck catching my ears as Aerith followed her. Her head looked back and forth over the back of the boat, and the sky, before focusing on myself and the steel ranger, the power armored pegasus letting off a small sigh as I waved to her with a smile. Leaning back, I lifted War Crime back up and pulled out her clip, tossing it back into the bag along with the bullet in the chamber, setting her on the butt of her stock and pushing on the end of the barrel a few times. Whoo, heavy spring, could be a pneumatic or hydraulic piston too, maybe, now I think of it. Hey, if it works for the TOG's 17-pounder and War Mare's 76, don't see why it wouldn't work for the barrel of a half-inch... Setting War Crime back into my duffel bag, I glanced up from the zipper in time to catch a black form shooting out of the trees, my brain telling me to duck to try and avoid Saberclaw plowing me off the back of the TOG again, only for the rest of my senses to remind me that Saberclaw's a couple thousand kilometers to the north and that hitting the deck was right for the wrong reasons this time. Ow, why's a short-barreled shotgun gotta be so freakin' loud?... "YOU LITTLE BITCH, I'LL KILL YOU!" Oh, it's miss pleasant mercenary again. How nice. Aerith and Crash Dive quickly got to work with the steampipe guns as I picked myself up from the deck, Miss Merc flying about the boat and dodging the streams of bright tracers from the machine guns, my pip-buck's radio apparently having been jarred on as an electric guitar riff started up on Radio KAOS. Okay, so what's got her all pissed off, huh? Don't remember doing anything particularly bad to set her off this much... Sunburst retorted on Scouring's back as Trout gave a lurch of speed, Static rushing in from the bow as three more black forms appeared overhead, guns blazing. A fucking MINIGUN, really!? I scrambled for my duffel bag again, tugging at the zipper as I heard a whirring sound behind me. Hokay, no, I don't really want bullets in my ass, it's just figures of speech damnit! Leaping out of the way, mister minigun let rip, the wood deck of Trout splintering somewhat as he traced fire across it, some of the small rounds pinging off of metal plating around the engine. He wasn't able to keep fire up for too long, as Scouring happily sent a few rockets his way, another gryphon opening up with a shotgun while Static scrambled himself into the lower portion of the boat's house. Well, at least one of us will be out of the line of fire, so there's that. The minigun whirred to speed again as I leapt out of the way behind Scouring, my duffel bag now completely lost in the chaos as I scrambled to try and find it, instead coming across a metal fixture on the back of the boat. It took me a moment longer than it should have to recognize what it was - Oh fuck the hell yes. "Hey, pissed off and ugly!" The leader gryphon's words were pretty much unintelligible angry grunts, as I pulled myself to my hooves behind the thick steel plates either side of the mounting, hooves grasping the handles of the large autocannon. The mount became unlocked with a swift kick, myself swinging it around on the back of trout as bullets and buckshot pinged off of it's front. "Here's one thing you might not know; BITCHES-" The bolt slid back easily, the full length of it reminding me how long these 37mm rounds were - oohoho, yes. "-LOVE-" The wire crosshairs of the gun came to rest on the leader mercenary, her beak frothing with angry foam as she reloaded her shotgun again, staring at me from over Trout's cabin. "-CANNONS!" Oh, I love the look on some cunt's face when they know they're about to be in a world of pain. The autocannon sounded out loud, sending shell after shell downrange from the clip and towards the gryphons, the wiry leader of the pack dodging some shots while others weren't as lucky. Mister Minigun was one of those, as an APHE round to his gut quickly put him out of commission as a pile of red mist, my hooves hammering the trigger down as I traced the lead gryphon through the sky, letting out a manic giggle as each detonation of cordite caused the barrel to spit out 37mm of death from one end and brass casings from the other, each shock of recoil traveling through me like wave after wave of pleasure, a small pile of casings gathering by my hooves and clattering around me. Another gryphon had the pleasure of getting shot straight through with a tracer round, the shockwave tearing him in half as their leader ducked into the trees, something geting tossed overhead and spraying smoke from both sides. I hosed down the riverbank with the autocannon, the last gryphon's gun letting out a muffled retort as something landed with a loud splash in the river, the gun eventually clicking on empty as the last casing fell from it, smoke filling my field of vision. After a few moments, I let go of the handles, still shaking from the feeling of the gun and stumbling about lightly, Static pasing me a confused look as I returned a stupid grin. "So... the Autocannon works just fine. Oh, does it work just fine..." Static rubbed at one of his ears for a moment before letting of a small sigh, watching the smoke cloud form up behind us as we traveled away. From the upper deck, the door to Trout's cabin opened, Ripple stumbling out of it and stopping himself at the back railing, Crash Dive looking at him as Aerith hovered herself out of his way. "Is that gonna happen every bloody time I give you guys a ride on Trout!? This is what I get fer being nice jus' one time, never have to deal with gettin' shot at by bloody mercenaries when yer just fishin' or givin' other people lifts, yanno!" Myself and Static shared a quick glance, Ripple seeming more exasperated than furious - I think I kinda understand why he likes to drink. I gave him a small shrug, Scouring levitating up my duffel bag for me as I kicked one of the big brass casings out of the way. "Just one of our occupational hazards." --- "Alright, think that this map ought to have what you need." Myself and Static had gone off to Sulfur's store while the rest of our group saw to getting the mini-tank onboard Trout, after Ripple gave her a look-over for damages and fixed any holes she might've gotten, anyways. The mare let an old roll of paper fall to the table, taking a small .38 revolver and weighing down one side while she used a more respectable .45 auto for the other. "Picked it up from a caravan a few days ago, figured it'd be worthwhile to have in case any other stable ponies came 'round wanting directions. Never realized just how big the North Vanhoover wasteland really is..." "Ya don't say... Ahm, really, thanks though. We're planning on heading up to Maple Station next, you think you can give us a good route to take to get there?" Looking over the map, I had my legputer out and was popping in rough locations, the electrics and sciency stuff inside the legputer filling in the rest. Static was doing the same for a quick moment, before looking back to the rest of the shop, trotting off. Probably gonna waste more caps on flash-bangs or something... Sulfur looked over the map a little more intently, moving a hoof along and letting off a soft hum. "Well, best bet is to just follow the caravan routes, they generally are good with avoiding most of the dangerous stuff around. This map's a little outdated though, the whole northeast corner of the reservoir, Basin Overlook Coal Mines, they've been overrun by hellhounds for a year or two now. And these spots..." The salesmare tapped at some blank sections of the map, in the northwest, southeast, and right below what was left of Bridleshade. "Anypony's guess to what's in the corners, but I'm pretty sure this one's the Seahoof Armory. Other military installations, maybe?" Answering her with a shrug, Static came back over with a basket of flash-bangs in one hoof and the flap of his saddlebags in the other setting the basket down on the map and starting to go through to find stuff to sell off. I let out a small sigh, shaking my head - all these beautiful guns and he goes for the thing that'll only kill somepony if you bludgeoned them to death with it. I'll never understand him... "Thanks for the help, with any luck we'll be back eventually." "Oh, don't mention it, glad to help you guys out. Hopefully you'll be able to get to Maple Station before the storms really hit. Don't know what it is but for some reason we always get a hell of a snowfall around here this time of year, already looking for old rifle rounds I can break up for cordite, hell of a way to get a fire started, I tell ya." She let off a small chuckle as she rung Static up, the earth pony dropping the basket of flash-bangs into his saddlebags as I started to make way for the door. Static soon followed behind, myself returning a wave from Sulfur. "Hope to see you again soon!" "Some sunny day, maybe!" Letting off a small laugh that the mare behind the counter returned, myself and Static both stepped out into the streets of the small town. A crisp breeze bit at my wings, myself letting them spread out wide to catch it, feel it - heh, almost felt like a warm day back home. Static let his umbrella pop open wide as we started to make way back towards the docks, myself looking up at the darkening skies overhead - the skies looked familiar, the air tasted right, and with a forehoof I touched the breast of my jacket, feeling the small plushie underneath the fabric. It almost felt like home... --- "Welcome back to Radio KAOS, KAOS in Vanhoover, and from the looks of things outside the weather's started to take that turn for the nasty I mentioned earlier today. I'm no weather pony, but I'd say it's a pretty good idea to wear your thickest clothes out there for the next few weeks if you have to head outside at all, or better yet just stay inside where you know it's warm. We're expecting some more delays on railwork up by Maple Station as the storms start to pass through, so my condolences to anypony stuck there waiting for passage further north - on the upside, at least you'll get a taste of what to expect, heh. Hang in there guys, you've seen enough winters to know what to expect. "Speaking of things heading to the north, turns out our favorite five, the Vanhoover Five, are planning on making way up towards Maple Station as of today. Since what last we heard from there was that one of their two engines for powering the town was S.O.L. and down for the count, here's hoping that the Five'll be able to work their magic on it and help get it repaired. Jusy pray they won't accidentally work their other kind of magic instead - Guys, I know you like blowing stuff up, but please keep it as far away from populated areas as you can. I don't think I need to tell you this, but, well, better I said something about it than not... ah, you know I'm kidding, they'll get that engine up and running again for you soon as they can make it there, Maple Station. "Heading towards the eastern side of the wasteland, we've got some news out of the town of Saddlebrook. More air craft have been spotted towards the far northern edge of the town, which has sent a few ponies into a panic. No word on if they're the same kind of air craft that have been seen in the past, but until we can confirm it's them, I think it'd be best of we could all just be on guard without being trigger happy. As a reminder for anypony who doesn't know, the air craft that are definitely hostile have triangle-shaped wings and apparently are either able to both hover and fly extremely fast. If you don't see something matching that description, don't shoot at it - just ask Hoepville, shooting down a civilian isn't something to be proud of. "Anyways, that's the stories for today, will keep you updated live for when and where we start seeing snowflakes coming down. For now, here's our own wasteland sweetheart, singing about weather that's a hell of a lot nicer than what we've got right now, and long lost loves. Vera Lynn, we'll meet again, some sunny day..." ----- My saddlebags bounced around by my hind hooves, my umbrella occasionally tapping against my leg as Crash Dive shifted on the back of the mini-tank. The city of Maple Creek grew smaller behind us as we travelled along the long roads, soon arriving at Jericho Beach and the shore of the reservior. “So, why is it exactly you didn’t decide to just use both of the bombs? It’s not really like you to go for the smaller explosion.” I asked as we made our way back towards the flattened crater that was the Shady Shores outpost. Scouring gave a soft chuckle as he leaned against the trailer’s side. “Didn’t think it’d be the best idea, seeing how it’d probably end with us being easily mistaken for the stuff Gumbo uses in his stew. Not to mention we’d probably flood part of Hopeville with the shockwave. 'sides, stacking bombs together doesn't cause a bigger boom, anyways.” I shrugged as we continued along the shore, a twisted root bumping the trailer up roughly as a wheel rolled over it. “Don’t worry about radiation, unless that facility was keepin' barrels of glowing goo out of sight, there shouldn’t be any. One upside to Fuel-air Bombs, lots of boom without the rads.” Scouring said, as if reading my mind. A large blackened spot of the earth with the remains of a concrete foundation nearby could be seen as we rounded the side of the lake, drawing closer to the blast site. Pulling up to the edge of the crater, I could see that the side lip of the crater that faced the lake was being slowly eroded away by water flowing down from the reservoir. “Ach, nuts!” Scouring hopped out of mini tank, rushing over to the edge of the water filled crater. He dug around near the edge of the crater before glancing back over the edge. “Suppose the sand was softer'n I thought. I think the other bomb wound up sucked into the middle of this…” He rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of what to do. “Well, Crash Dive could probably at least find it in the water. Aerith can probably get it the rest of the way.” Night Strike said, passong on a small shrug. I hopped out of the mini tank and trotted up to the side of the crater, peering into the murky water inside. Crash Dive stepped over and peered down into the crater herself, giving off a grunt of displeasure. “It’s either you go down in there or give one of us that armor to use, y’know.” Night Strike said, catching on to Crash Dive’s disapproval. Crash gave another grumble, staring at the pegasus for a long moment, but stepped over the edge of the crater, slowly slipping down the soft sand and mud and into the muck below. She waded into the center of the crater, the water rising ever so slowly up as the small stream from the reservoir filled it up. She flicked on the light of her armor before slipping beneath the surface of the dirty pool, her silhouette faintly visible along with the beam of light as she swam around in the water somewhat. As she did, a faint figure could be seen floating in the water near her. The figure suddenly lashed out, Crash’s light flailed about as she wrestled with the creature. “Oh, shit!” Night Strike cried, running back over to the tank and grabbing one of the rebar shafts for Crash Dive's cannon. She flew down into the crater, stabbing downwards at the unknown creature. The pegasus lost her grip on the harpoon as it was yanked down into the water, her wings just barely keeping her aloft as muddy spray splashed over us. Crash Dive managed to break away from the creature and jabbed the rebar deep into it somewhere, the water splashing as they jerked away from each other. A deep crimson began to pool in the water as the creature thrashed about wildly before swimming deeper into the crater away from Crash Dive. The power armored pegasus swam back to the surface, quickly making her way over to the edge of the water. She climbed up one of the sides, flicking her helmet light off and breathing heavily behind her mask. “Well, I think I felt the bomb down there, but you’re going to just have to search for it yourself. I’m not going back in there with... with -that- thing.” She climbed back up to the lip of the crater, slipping a few times on the muddy side. Aerith shrugged, one of her screens popping up again. ‘Just try and tell me where it is as best as you can. I don’t want to end up pulling whatever that thing was up onto land.’ Her horn began to glow as Crash Dive tried to describe where she’d found the bomb. Aerith concentrated for a moment before a large object began to surface which was quickly revealed to be the metallic casing of the device, a few weeds dangling off of it. She levitated the bomb over to us, brushing off the weeds with her hooves before placing it into the trailer of the mini tank. Scouring inspected the explosive, rolling the large casing around in his magic before setting it back down to rest lengthwise. “Looks like it kept fine to me. Suppose we’ll see if any water leaked in whenever we try to set it off.” Night Strike said, walking up behind Scouring to take a look at the bomb. We all piled back onto the mini tank and trailer, the engine rumbling to life as I began to head northwards, the tank bumping along the uneven terrain. We soon came across a dirt road, the ride becoming a little smoother as they rolled onto it and followed it northwards. Night Strike flicked on her radio, a soft, upbeat jazz tune played from her Pip-Buck as I turned to follow the path. “So, according to the map, it looks like it’s gonna be a couple days of driving to get up to Maple Station… well, unless you feel like driving a full 24 hours.” Night Strike said, fiddling with the knobs on her Pip-Buck. “No thanks, I can’t stay up for a full week like you can, and I’m not going to start drinking that RAD stuff to try.” I responded. Night Strike rolled her eyes and went back to her map, humming along with the tune a little. The tank went over a small bump in the road, the suspension bending and creaking as we landed with a thud, the front wheel kicking up some dust in the road. “Where’s the closest place we could camp out, then?” I asked. Night Strike flipped a few dials and scrolled along her Pip-Buck. “Ahm... there’s a small pre-war town a little east of the road, we should be there in a couple hours. It’d give us a little time to explore the place too, not sure if anypony’s still living there.” I nodded and twisted the handle, speeding up slightly as we reached a long straightaway. The sky grew a little darker as a few clouds rolled overhead, the road becoming slightly harder to distinguish from the surrounding countryside… not that it was really that much smoother of a ride. Looking up at the sky, Scouring’s expression grew a little concerned. “Let’s just hope that storm doesn’t hit before we can find somewhere to stay.” Light streamed down through the clouds as we continued down the road, Aerith stretching her wings out and giving them a few flaps. The ground beside the road began to gradually fall away as we came up to a swamp, the long cattails swaying in the stagnant water. A loud crack rang through the air as Night Strike shot a bloatsprite out of the air with one of the unsold pistols from the police duffel bag - how have we not sold all of those yet? - the insect falling into the water, only to be dragged down immediately by some unseen creature. After a while, the edge of a town could be seen rising up in the distance, the road splitting in two. I took the road heading towards the collection of buildings, the smaller homes on the outside of the town slightly obscuring a much larger factory sitting in the center of it. I slowed as we entered the town, looking around at the houses along the side of the road, their paint peeling, their metal mailboxes having rusted over long ago. “Doesn’t look like anypony’s living here anymore.” I said, slowing the mini-tank to a stop. We all hopped out, trotting around the neighborhood. I glanced inside one of the cracked windows, only to see a skeleton sitting on a dusty couch, a busted up radio next to it on a table. Yeah, definitely no one home anymore... well, maybe they’ve got something useful in the garage. I trotted over to the large door, which squeaked loudly as I hoisted it up. The garage sported a large workbench at the back of it, several tools hanging up on a board behind it. I trotted up to the bench and flipped open the toolbox to peer inside, the various bits of metal rattling as I dug through them. Nuts, bolts, spark batteries, screwdriver, socket wrench… I picked up one of the old batteries. Well, it’s worth something if it’s still charged. I dug around in the cupboards of the work bench for a moment, looking for a battery tester. Come on, at least a garage remote or a laser pistol, I don’t want to carry around dead metal. I grumbled a little when I was unable to find anything, bringing the battery up to my mouth. Well, there’s always Greasy’s old testing method. I gently stuck the two prongs of the battery to my tongue, a quick jolt rushing through me before I quickly took the battery away from me. Gah, yeah, yeah, that’s still live. Bluh, that’s probably a lot easier to take when you’re a ghoul. Not gonna taste much for a while... I slipped the batteries into my saddlebags and trotted back outside where Scouring was sitting on the back of the mini-tank with Crash Dive. Suddenly the door to the house across the street flew off its hinges, landing with a thud onto the porch as Night Strike stepped out backwards, firing off another grenade as flames spewed out of the house. The sound of tearing metal and another explosion rang through the neighborhood, Night Strike panting a little as Aerith came rushing around from the backyard. “Alright, lesson learned, some of those Mr. Handy bots might still be set to patrol in these pre-war houses.” She beat a small flame out of her singed ponytail before trotting back to the mini tank. “Ahm, anyways, how about we go see what that big factory is? At least that thing might have something worth looting over these houses, eheh...” I climbed into the driver’s seat of the mini-tank as Night Strike and Aerith hopped onto the back. We were soon speeding towards the center of town, the buildings growing larger yet more decrepit the closer we got. As I turned down one of the downtown streets towards the large factory, a large bottle could be seen sitting beside the shattered glass doors along with a large sign ‘Sunrise Sarsaparilla Bottling Company’ emblazoned on the weathered bricks. I heard Night Strike groan. “Ugh, forget I said anything, there’s not going to be anything good in there.” I rolled my eyes and pulled the minitank up to the doors, parking it and hopping you. “Oh come on, there’s all these other places we could look around! I mean, shouldn’t there be something better in…” She looked around, spotting another smaller brick building. “Shirt folding store?” She stood for a moment with a confused expression, before hearing me push open the door and reluctantly following the rest of us. “Hey, if my dads ever found out we stopped by a Sunrise factory and didn’t at least swipe the formula, they’d probably disown me, adopt me, and then disown me again for good measure.” The lobby of the building was expansive, the desk built into the far wall with dirty class cabinets beside it housing several bottles of Sunrise Sarsaparilla. I jiggled the knob on one of the cabinets, the lock breaking easily and allowing me to grab a couple bottles. Scouring grabbed one as well, Aerith and Night Strike giving a disgusted look. Sheesh, it’s soda, you can’t screw up soda. I took a swig from the pop and trotted over to a door leading up to the offices. “Suppose we ought to check the boss’s office first. I doubt they’d keep the formula out on the factory level.” We began to make our way through the hallways past several cubicles and small offices. As we turned the corner, we came face to face with a large robot, its mounted Gatling laser moving between us. “Unauthorized personnel. Please identify or vacate the premises.” We stood for a moment, the robot’s laser scanning again. “You have fifteen seconds to comply.” The robot said. Oh crap. Hearing the rest already starting to ready their weapons, I quickly ducked down and slipped behind the robot, umbrella at the ready. Quickly jamming it into the robot’s power supply box, the electricity shorted it out without much fuss, causing it to fall to the floor, its droning threats dying out. “Well, let’s just hope that didn’t send some sort of automatic security signal.” I said, stowing my umbrella. We began to trot back through the offices, making out way towards the staircase leading up to the second floor. The staircase opened up into a large server room, the metal behemoths still beeping and whirring away softly. I walked through the server room, inspecting one of the terminals built into the server. Alright, let’s see if this thing has the formula stored on it... I flicked a switch and punched in a few keystrokes, a screen coming up. I selected an option, a small list of ingredients being shown. Recipe page one out of two? Sheesh, I know the companies could be secretive with their formula, but that’s going a little far. I plugged my Pip-Buck into the terminal, downloading the half of the formula onto my Pip-Buck. “Alright, you got your formula, can we go know? I don’t want to breathe in whatever chemicals it is they use to make this stuff.” Night Strike said, poking an empty bottle laying on a nearby desk. I rolled my eyes and stepped through the door to the hallway, looking for the boss’s office. We turned down the hall, Crash Dive kicking a busted robot out of the way as we came to an office with a large ornate desk sitting in the center, a terminal sitting on top. I trotted around to the other side of the desk, spotting a safe built into the decoratively carved wood. I bent down, twisting the dial a few times in each direction. Bluh, now is a time I really wish I bothered to learn how to pick locks... No point in asking Night Strike, she’ll just end up blowing up all the contents. I grumbled, giving the dial a spin before looking up as Aerith tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a note. ‘This might help’ her sign read with a small smirk on her face. I glanced down at the scrawled note, reading ‘Note to self, changed code to 15-42-33 to keep Gemstone out of safe. Eat note later when memorized.’ Well, that is rather helpful, thank you Chairman Lack-of-foresight. I quickly twisted the dial, the safe opening with a satisfying clunk, only to open and reveal the contents of the safe seemed to be haphazardly thrown about. I raised an eyebrow, reaching in and pulling out the contents, only to see there were all business ledgers and sales reports. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why the heck would some boss own a safe and have nothing in it?” I wondered aloud, standing back up. Night Strike shrugged, wandering over to a small bookshelf and pulling a copy of some faded book detailing the history of trading caravans. I glanced over to Night Strike as she rummaged around, then back to the safe. The books and knickknacks on the shelf seemed meticulously placed… at least, about as well organized as they could be after a bomb fell nearby. “I think someone got into this safe... it’s way too sloppy for whoever was in here.” I trotted back towards the door, the others following me. “Uh… you sure you’re not just being paranoid? I mean, what would somepony want with the recipe for this crap?” Night Strike said, pushing over an empty bottle and kicking it away from her. I ignored her and started to make my way towards the factory floor. She begrudgingly followed, the others sharing similar looks of confusion. I pushed open the door, revealing the large warehouse filled with six large silver vats, each branded with the Sunrise logo. I trotted down the catwalks towards the vats, the metal beams shaking a little under our weight. “Well, if we can’t find the recipe, I’m going to at least find a jug of the syrup to take home. I’m sure dad can find some way to turn it into hard candy or something... mmm, Sunrise Sarsaparilla flavored rock candy...” As I continued along the catwalk next to the vats, I noticed the lid of one was hanging open widely, something glimmering slightly inside it. I slowed down, walking along the branch of the catwalk to the vat, glancing over and catching Night Strike disinterestedly looking at the walls. Reaching the vat, I peered inside, my eyes widening as I saw a pony in intricate armor floating in the vat, face down. I bent down and leaned over into the vat, attempting to pull the pony up and onto the catwalk, Scouring’s horn lighting up to help me. “I knew it! Sunrise Sarsaparilla is ponies!” Night Strike proclaimed as she watched the body come out, shuddering as she did. The body fell onto the catwalk, the armor sticky from floating in the soda for so long. The armor seemed to be made of some strange thick silky material, a few metal plates covering the chest and legs. A small box was connected to the chestplate and the haunches, a few wires running from it along the length of the body connecting the two. My reflection stared back at me in the shiny orange glass that covered the face of the helmet. “What the hell is that?” Night Strike said, finally looking down at the body. “Hell if I know, I haven’t seen any sort of armor like this before.” I said, wiping my hoof onto my coat. I tugged on the helmet, trying to pull it off. Sheesh, it’s like it’s built into the whole suit, how did this pony even get into it in the first place? Reaching around the back of the helmet, I felt a small button and pressed down on it. The ring around the armor’s neck clicked and fell apart into two halves, no longer clamping down on the neck of the suit and allowing me to pull the helmet off. A rotting face met me, causing me to lean back and gag. Oh, jeez, how old is this body? I stood up and stepped back away from the body, Night Strike choking a little at the stench. Crash Dive stepped around me to get a better look at the body and the armor. “Looks like some kind of stealth armor. It doesn’t have the proper plating to be any good in direct fire.” She bent down, inspecting the skeletal remains. “I think this used to be a zebra spy. This looks like some of the same technology we have in the Stealth Bucks.” I raised my eyebrows, staring down at the armor. “You mean this thing has a built in stealth field?” I asked, a grin spreading across my face. Who cares if it’s been worn by a rotting corpse for 200 years, I’m not leaving this suit behind! I bent back down, turning the body over and attempting to find some way to remove the body of the suit. Scouring gave a look of disgust as I pulled open a magnetic seam on the back, revealing the decaying body of the unlucky zebra spy. Ugh, ok, I’m going to need to wash this thing out with Abraxo about twenty seven times before I wear it, but whatever. “Well, it would, but I doubt after years of sitting in even as weak of an acid as soda the components are still going to work.” Crash Dive replied, doubt apparent in her voice. I paused in removing the armor, noticing a small hatch built into one of the legs. I flipped it open, revealing some surprisingly dry papers. I pulled them out, scanning over them. No… I started to giggle, flipping the pages over before slipping a few into my saddlebags. “What is it?” I shook my head, slipping the rest of the papers into my saddlebags, save one. “It turns out this spy just sacrificed their life in an attempt to steal the formula for a soda and an unreleased flavor.” I handed the sheet over to Night Strike, who stared down at it in disbelief. I turned back around and went back to work removing the suit, my grin turning back into a grimace as some of the zebras skin peeled away sickeningly. “Well, I’m certainly not complaining. I’m sure we’ll find a way to fix this up, and I can’t wait to see my dad’s faces when they see I’ve got a formula for a new kind of Sunrise nopony’s ever tasted before! And I think they’ll be willing to help sell it if I offer a portion of the sales, too~” I managed to get the top half of the zebra’s body loose, pulling the suit down, along with a few strands of its tail. “Uh, Static? Your ‘New’ Sunrise Sarsaparilla formula… this is the exact same recipe for standard Sparkle Cola.” Night Strike said, scanning over the paper before handing it back to me, a smirk on her muzzle. I looked over the sheet of paper, taking it back from her, the pegasus chuckling as she leaned back against the railing. “Hey, at least they were finally trying to sell something that tastes better than kissing that zebra would be like. I’m sure the look on Minty’s face will be pretty funny too when he tastes it.” She snickered. I started to fold up the foul smelling armor, wrinkling my muzzle a bit. Ech, yeah, this is why I shouldn’t loot armor off of dead ponies. I slipped the armor and helmet into my saddlebags, having a bit of trouble with the button. “Yeah, whatever you say, Night Strike. I expected something more along the lines of it being made with organs harvested from fillies from you, that one’s hardly creative.” Night Strike simply rolled her eyes as we began to make our way back through the factory floor towards the entrance to the plant. “Fine, don’t believe me. I doubt you’re going to make much off of it branded as New Sunrise, though. You sure drinking that stuff hasn’t made your brain all fuzzy?” Crash Dive an annoyed sigh as we trotted into the main lobby again. I swiped a few more bottles of soda and slipped them into my saddlebags before following the others out of the building. Climbing into the driver’s seat, my back eased itself out as I slid my saddlebags off, holding my breath as the flap opened up slightly. Blugh, what I wouldn’t give for some flowers or something to cover this smell. Should’ve seen if that Shady Shores place had some formaldehyde. As I started up the mini tank and spun us around, Night Strike sat up a little straighter, staring off into the distance. “Hey, hold up, what’s over there?” She pointed westwards towards the sinking sun. In the distance was another small collection of buildings, the town curving around a small quarry. On the opposite side, near the edge of town was a large plant with a large cooling tower standing on one side. Half of the cooling tower was scorched black, a few faint shadows burned into the side, barely visible from our location. She grinned before looking back. “Oooh, can we explore it? Pleeaaase?” She pulled a puppy-dog face. I raised an eyebrow at her in response - exploring some old radioactive arcane power plant? Yeah, maybe we can get a fifth leg from the bubbler. “Come on, we got to explore your stupid soda factory, how come we can’t go look at this? Besides, we’ve still got a while before sundown, and we can just sleep in one of the abandoned houses. I rolled my eyes, turning the mini-tank around and starting to trundle off towards the factory. I’m really going to regret this, aren’t I? ----- Man, I'm getting good at that puppy-dog face if I managed to convince Static about something. Shuffling around to avoid the putrid stench coming from his saddlebags, I steadied myself against Boomer and stared up at the one cooling tower off in the distance, grinning widely. Okay, so if those are bomb shadows over there, then depending on the distance the blast could've been anywhere from a ground detonation to about, say, 500 meters, yield-dependent. Unless they were aiming for the factory for whatever reason, probably was just a general population-targeted missile, meaning it would've been anywhere from, say, 500 kilotons yield to 2.5 megatons yield, if those films Dad got from his old Stable are right... sometimes, I can't help but wonder if I know too much about this stuff to be able to make guesses like this. The half-track jumped as it hit another bump, the small engine inside groaning and protesting loudly as we continued along. Static throttled her back a little, a sharp, chill breeze coming in from behind us - yeesh, haven't felt a chill like that since we landed in that snowbank. Sitting myself back down, the earth pony in the driver's seat looked back at the mini-tank, chewing on his lip. "That really doesn't sound good... I hope that the mechanic Sulfur knew up here does repairs on things like this." "We'll take her as far as we can manage to, I don't know about you but I really don't feel like walking or flying the rest of the way there." Static gave a small nod, turning his eyes back to the road. The buildings gave way to small houses for a short while before turning into long overgrown fields, tall grass hiding the road in a small trough as we motored along to the other town. After a while, buildings started to reappear, these appearing a little less age-damaged and a little more bomb-damaged, windows shattered in in uniform manners and roof tiles peeled away from the blast center. Another crisp breeze met us as the grasslands gave way to more closely-built houses, a faint white smoke starting to come out of the back of the mini-tank. Okay, yeah, that definitely can't be good... Static pulled us over nearby an old service station, myself hopping off of the back with my duffel bag and hovering in the air, looking down at the white, wispy clouds coming out of the back vents. Setting myself down on the pavement, Aerith joined me, Crash Dive and Scouring moving off of the wagon and over to look at the mini-tank with Static. The blue earth pony passed a worried look as he trotted up alongside the side I landed on, myself trotting forwards to look with them. Oh, don't tell me she's broken down already... Static moved aside as Scouring helped shuffle Boomer forwards a little, clearing the doors on the back and letting us pull them open. A white, fluffy cloud floated up as the steel doors clattered to either side, myself squeezing in close to peer inside this thing. Okay, let's see now... huh, three cylinders, just like Trout's engine but smaller. From there, there's the reactor... no, that looks good too. Huh. How about the link from reactor to the engine then, anything... that's more condensation than there should be right there. Yup, right on that fitting betwen the reactor and engine... great. "I think a gasket's blown through. Leaking from that fitting there, see?" "Great... so, what're we going to do?" Static scratched at his head, worry apparent on his face. "I mean, it's not like there are a lot of places that manufacture parts, and I kind of doubt we'd have a replacement in the toolbox, too." Letting off a huff, the earth pony leaned over and peered into the inner workings of the mini-tank, a cloud of breath escaping him. Huh, cold enough for that already... as if to reinforce the point, another chill breeze shot by us, Aerith letting out a visible shiver as she held her hat on. Oh yeah, that's right, alicorns probably don't do too well in the cold... Finding clothes for her is gonna be fun. Well, if we're stuck here for a while anyways, might be worth a shot... "Me and Aerith are gonna go looking around, see if we can't find anything. Worse comes to, we can probably rig a seal or something until we get to Maple Station, right?" Looking between Crash Dive and Static, the earth pony scratched at his head and answered with a shrug while the power armored pegasus was moving for the toolbox. Aerith gave another chill shiver, wrapping her broad wings tight around herself. "We'll try to not go too far. Just going to browse around the houses here, yanno?" 'Just call for us, we should be able to fome find you.' The alicorn put on a smile to hide her chattering teeth, Static pausing for a moment before returning a nod. Spreading my wings out, I took to hovering a few feet off the road beside Aerith, us both nodding to each other and heading for the nearest house. Okay, hm, so if we can't find anything that fits her outright, I'm sure Static or whoever sewed that thing he made me wear could tailor it to fit her. Worst case, we make her a cloak out of some pre-war bedding or something, that seems like it'd work. The door of the first house shut behind us with a small clatter, Aerith breathing a sigh of relief as she didn't have the cold breeze blowing on her any longer. "Alright, we can worry about a gasket later, you need something other than that hat in this weather. If my dad's story is right, Alicorns don't do too well in the cold... I haven't seen it for myself, but apparently there's an Alicornsicle somewhere along the road between Mooscow and the Emerald Ridge impact site." Aerith's eyes went wide as I said that, holding her large wings a little more tightly against her body as I started to trot around the old pre-war house. Huh, this is actually a pretty nice place, don't see places like this a lot back home... ewuh, from that crossbreeze through the windows, I can only imagine why. Still, get some new glass in, maybe a bit of fixing the tiles on the roof that were torn off by the fury of a balefire bomb blast, it'd be a pretty nice home. Passing down the central hallway, on the left was a doorway that seemed to lead into the main bedroom, Aerith wasting no time in jumping for the bed and wrapping herself tightly in the old, degrading covers. Well, can't really blame her. Myself releasing a small chuckle as she seemed to wrap herself up like a butterfly in a cocoon, I moved towards the closet, opening the door with a small clatter and lots of squeaks. Ech, sounds like somepony hasn't oiled this thing in years... good point eyes, this is a closet door in an abandoned pre-war house, after all. Brain, you're fired. Peering inside the closet, I was met with what I assumed were cllthes at one point, now covered in a massive mess of cobwebs and things that I hope were dead carcasses. I think the door even answered with a 'nope' when I shut it. "Okay, no regular clothes here that anypony in their right mind would want. Let's try another house... and maybe firebomb this one." Aerith blunk a few times, looking up from her comforter cocoon as I quickly tried to distance myself from the closet. Firebomb, balefire egg, megaspell, anything'd do. I think I might have an incendiary grenade or two for Thumper, too, so that could work... Well, once Aerith gets out, I can see to it. Just, yeah, that's a whole lotta nope in there. The alicorn lifted herself with a small look of disappointment on her face, wrapping the blanket around her body best that she could, if at the loss of the use of her wings. Well, least it's something. 'This should actually work well for me, it's certainly big enough and I can probably fashion some kind of jacket or something if we can find some scissors and thread. Warm 'n cuddly, too.' Why did an alicorn saying that last part sound really weird to me? Ehm, forget it, if she says she can make a jacket for herself out of it, I'm not gonna stop her. As we made way towards the front of the house again, the off-color glint of the door of a fridge caught my attention, myself moving over to it - well, it would just be rude to go scavenging through houses and not at least check for Sparkle-Cola. Can't leave it here, especially - I don't want to know what'd happen if whatever made those cobwebs got into strontium 90. Giving the handle of the door a good tug, the contents inside clattered on the metal shelves, my eyes falling to a small group of bottles filled with a deep caramel liquid. Mmmm, Sparkle-Cola... wait, is it? Huh, that's a... different, bottle design. Reaching in, I pulled one of them out, looking it over - brushing a bit of dust off, the label still read Sparkle-Cola, so that's comforting. The bottle was more bulbous-shaped than usual, and sported four little extensions near the bottom that kind of... oh, that is freakin' adorable. Sparkle-Cola bottles shaped like bombs, I am totally bringing as many of these as I can carry back home to dad. He'll get a chuckle out of these, hell, I might even hear him squee... once I get back to him. If I get back to him... Taking the other two bottles and letting them fall into my saddlebags, we both stepped back out into the town, Aerith moving for the next house before stopping abruptly, looking at something on her muzzle. Just about to hover up to see what she was looking at for myself, I got my own answer in the form of a white flake falling out of the sky in front of me, followed by another, and another. Snow... goddesses Celestia and Luna above, when was the last time I saw snow? It's been too long... I set myself down, Aerith moving forwards after a moment with myself trailing her, heading for the next house. Same deal as the first, huh. Must've been one of those cookie-cutter neighborhoods, or something... eh, makes scavenging easier. Okay, stop one, fridge... aw, only one bottle this time. But hey, Sparkle-Cola is still Sparkle-Cola~ Shutting the door with a loud slam, Aerith triumphantly returned with another comforter rested on her back, and a small pair of scissors. She smiled weakly, snipping them in the air a few times. 'Not the best thing for this, but it's at least something. Now we just need a needle and thread.' "Hey, not like we can just take them to Cross Stitch's place to have them tailored for you. Then again, he'd probably spend way too long making you a more proper outfit to wear instead." Letting off a small chuckle, Aerith returned a confused look as we headed for the front door again, myself trailing off. Oh, right, she's never met him... nobody down here knows anyone up there besides us. I bit at my lip lightly as another chill breeze picked up, carrying with it a few flurries of snow. The third house on the street seemed to've handled the bomb a little better, one of the windows just seemed cracked with age rather than by an explosion, Aerith opening up the door with a small creak on it's hinges. Glancing around, a small toy Sparkle-Cola wagon caught my eye, prompting a small chuckle - heh, all it needs to be is buried in a snowbank along the Trotisk-Mooscow route, next to an equally emptied out Sunrise Sarsaparswilla wagon. Aerith had vanished to somewhere else in the house, the sounds of drawers being opened and shut filling the air as I moved over to the fridge again, this time a little more slowly. Four bottles... good, that, that's great... Releasing a soft sigh, I began trotting through the rest of the house, the eight bomb-bottles of Sparkle-Cola clinking in my duffel bag as I made way down the hallway. Some small plastic things clattered in the main bedroom, myself pausing in front of a half-decayed sliding door, hastily thrown open wide at some point years ago. Looking about the room, the wide hole in the roof caught my attention most prominently, the decaying wallpaper and fallen posters telling that it's probably been there for a long while. Carefully trotting forth over the rubble, I peered up through it - huh, yanno, you probably could've seen the mushroom cloud from here. Taking a few more steps forwards, my hoof kicked against something metal laying on the floor, my attention drawn to it. Hey, it's one of those old metal trench hats, isn't it? Always thought those things looked kinda neat... Eh, nopony else is gonna use it. Besides, I could probably do with something to cover up my head when the bullets start flying and explosions start going off again, if we wind up running into those Mercenaries. Leaning down to pull it from the fallen debris, it seemed to stick, myself eventually able to work a hoof under it after kicking off a few roofing boards and prying it out. Sure doesn't look that dented, at lea-... A small, off-white object met my eyes as I looked down past the helmet. Vacant holes remained where there were once eyes, small cracks formed either from age or from impacts in the upper dome, myself frozen but drawn in frightened curiosity. Tracing down the figure, the shoulderblades had extra joints coming from them, the left group kept intact while the right was shattered underneath a large piece of roof, prompting my own wings to tighten against my sides. After a moment frozen, I set the helmet back down to cover the foal's skull, leaving it silently and stepping for the doorway. Aerith met me there, flashing up a screen as she tilted her head towards myself. 'Found a sewing kit. You feeling alright? You look kind of pale.' Blinking a few times, I looked up at her, seeing the small metal tin in her magic and another comforter on her back, giving her a small nod in response. She headed towards the doorway, and I followed behind, the chilling breeze feeling even colder as we headed back for the group. Not really doing so much as watching myself do it, I turned on my Pip-buck's radio, hoping for something to pull my mind off of it. "Tell me true, tell me why, was Tia crucified? Was it for this that daddy died? Was it you, was it me? Did I watch too much TV? Is that a hint of accusation in your eyes? If it wasn't for the stripes, having coal to fuel our lights, the mines would still be open all the time. And it can't be much fun for them, beneath the firey sun, with all their foals committing suicide. What have we done? Luna, what have we done? What have we done, to Equestria? Should we shout? Should we scream? Whatever happened to the post-war dream? Oh Luna, Luna what did we do?" I stayed silent as they finally fixed the engine, and we got moving once more. --- "Alright, it's not perfect but it'll do for tonight. Mostly intact, anyways..." A small layer of snow blanketed the ground as we pulled up to a sizable brick building, Aerith having bundled herself up in the comforters as she sat in the back wagon. A chill breeze blew around us, carrying thick flakes with it, the earth pony resting back in the driver's seat of the half-track and pulling up his umbrella, popping it open. Huh, clever... "I'll pull the mini-tank inside one of the garages if you can find a vacant one, just open up the door for me." Answering him with a nod, I flicked on the light of my legputer, hopping off the back of the half-track and heading for the side entrance to the building. Holding my foreleg up to the door, a faded emblem came into view on it's front, myself brushing a small layer of snow off of it to read it better; 'Gemdale Fire Company.' Certainly hope they were for putting out fires... The door creaked open after a few hard shoves, myself moving into the large garage, looking over the lightless area. Well, at least the first door should have room. Heading over to it, heavy hoofsteps met my ears from the other doorway, my own hooves reaching for the handle at the bottom of the large door and giving it a tug. Guh, stupid rusted joints... "'ere, let me get this for ye." A magic aura encompassed the handle, and bottom of the door, Scouring smiling back at myself from the entrance as he pulled the garage door open, myself flying to the side and watching as Static pulled the mini-tank inside. Two lines of snow were left from the tracks as they came to rest on the concrete, the thin slit of light from the headlight illuminating the far wall as the red eyes of Crash Dive's helmet looked towards me, the power armored pegasus hopping off the wagon. Scouring kept his horn lit as he dropped the garage door back into place, looking around the station. "Hell, think we could get the lights on in here? Or at least somethin' better than this?" "These places usually have their own generators like back at Jericho Beach, right? For, uh, just so everything's got power if the grid goes down." Static scratched at his head as he leaned back in the half-track, shaking some snow off of the umbrella as Aerith unbundled herself from one of the comforters. Her large horn illuminated the whole area in a deep bluish glow, affording us a better look at the contents for the moment. Well, looks like they left one of the fire wagons behind, at least... "Hey, maybe if it's small enough we could take it back. Right?" "One step at a time, Static. Let's focus on getting through tonight first, hope the storm doesn't get worse by tomorrow." Passing him a weak smile, Crash Dive trotted over to myself as Scouring headed back to the wagon, Aerith picking up an old broom from the corner and starting to sweep the floor. Well... hey, it's something, at least. Giving a nod to the power armored pegasus, we both headed for a doorway near the back, starting to trot through the rest of the station. Alright, so if I were a generator... "I don't... I don't think you should leave, if we can find a generator that we can bring back." Crash Dive's voice stopped me as we stood inside a small hallway along the back of the station. She looked back to the door we'd just come through, before nodding to keep moving. "At least, not yet, anyways. Not before we're sure the rest of my squadron are dead. They're trained to kill anything on the surface, and if those Harriers handle anything like Vertibucks then they've got the training for flying them already." "But, what about all the anti-aircraft guns we've been giving out all over the place? The towns can handle themselves against them, right?" Okay, that did come out a little more selfish than I meant it to, but still. The Seaddler kind of proved those guns are still pretty damn effective... "Look, I know they're a threat, but we've given the wasteland around here better tools to deal with them. I know it's selfish, but... I want to go home, Crash Dive. I want to go back to my dads, my home, I want to... I just want things to go back to being normal." Sniffling in a breath, I rubbed at my eyes with a hoof - stupid dusty pre-war buildings, making my eyes water up. Crash Dive was silent for a moment as we continued onwards, stopping in front of a door at the end of the hallway. The power-armored pegasus let off a sigh, dropping her head. "I know how you feel. Do you think I wanted to abandon everypony I knew to wage war against the surface ten years ago? Do you think I -wanted- to be drafted into the armed forces, broken and trained like they needed me to be? The Enclave made me leave my home, take it as my new one..." With a swift kick of her metal-clad hoof, the lock of the door, and the doorframe, disintegrated, revealing a large metal box on a concrete pedestal in the room. She set her hoof back on the floor, letting out a soft sigh. "At least you have a home to go back to." Trotting inside the room, the form of the generator took up the majority of the space, myself holding my pip-buck up to it to better see it's details. Crash Dive trotted along the opposite side, quiet, us both meeting near the back of it. "The reason... the reason I don't think you should leave, the Valkyrie is the only thing that can really combat them effectively. It's got the armament for it, and not to mention those megaspells if we can catch them wherever they're landed. Anti-aircraft guns are only effective if they can open fire on a target before they get blown up." "That's... great. Would you believe me if I told you the reason we would up crashing down here was because Static had gotten us both vertibuck piloting lessons, and we managed to crash the one we were inside into a snowbank?" Giving her a weak chuckle, her red visor stared back at myself in the darkness, her jaw hung agape before closing into the very hints of a smile. She reached a hoof up and pulled a lever on the back of the generator, it humming to life loudly and filling the room with light. "In my defense, it was going just fine up until Static tried taking control of the bird from me. Hate to know where we'd have wound up if he managed to take the Valkyrie off back at Sunrise Castle." "Earth ponies haven't any business flying, if they were meant to they'd be pegasi." Crash Dive answered with a small chuckle, pulling her helmet off as I likewise flicked the light of my pip-buck screen down. Trotting out to the garage once more, Aerith had spread one of the comforters out on the ground, geting to work with the other two in fashioning a jacket for herself with Static's help, Scouring rummaging around in the back of the wagon. A few bedrolls dropped off of the back, the unicorn unrolling them as Static lifted himself to his hooves, trotting over. "Well, it looks like we're set. This place even has working heating, felt the vents start up when you turned on the generator. You want to get things settled here, me and Scouring're gonna try to find if this place has a kitchen with anything in it." Returning him a nod, he trotted by as the power armored unicorn followed him, myself moving to rest on the spread-out heavy blanket. Alright, 9:30 at night, gonna be sleeping here, and we're about a day's worth of travel from Maple Station after exploring that bomb impact zone... wonder how the Radio KAOS signal is out this way. Or... huh, Maple Station Local Broadcast. Let's see what that holds... "-and we are here today because of the grand ponies who've sacrificed so much for our way of life. Though it's different than what we were accustomed to in years past, the fact remains that we have so much to be thankful for as citizens of Equestria, pony, zebra, sand dog or gryphon alike. It is their sacrifices that have ensured that, as this old number goes, There'll always be an Equestria." Huh, mare's voice, sounds pretty damn familiar if I had to say anything about it. The voice swapped out with a rather obvious ghoul, the gravelly voice legible through the speaker, if only just. "That was the great Dame Vera Lynn making her pre-concert address as she did so many decades before, remembered in history as the forces' sweetheart she's now become the wasteland's sweetheart just as well. Something uplifting for everyone out there in the cold, a reassurance that even with bombs, destruction, and death, There'll Always be an Equestria." "I give you a toast, Stallions and Gentlemares, I give you a toast, Stallions and Gentlemares! May this fair land we love so well, in dignity and freedom dwell! Though worlds may change and go awry, While there is one voice to cry! There'll always be an Equestria, While there's a country lane, Wherever there's a cottage small Beside a field of grain. There'll always be an Equestria, While there's a busy grove, Wherever there's a turning wheel, A million marching hooves!" Huh, wouldn't have pegged Vera as one for singing patriotic songs... then again, only ever heard We'll Meet Again... Thanks, dad. --- "Why's it still glowing? I haven't even had any RAD since we'd come up here... I think..." Rubbing at my eyes, I gave a long yawn as my pip-buck illuminated the upper hallway of the fire station, trotting along back to the bunkroom from the bathroom. At least the toilets still work here... and it's also a good thing that we found the bunkroom in the first place, even with the heating I don't want to spend the night on a cold concrete floor. Gave Static the space to turn the half-track and wagon around, at least. Passing by the windows, the cold expanse outside reflected in bluish light from the moon, myself letting out a soft sigh - forgot how beautiful the moonlight on snow is. Pausing for a moment to stare out at the snowy wasteland beyond, a hint of movement caught my eyes as something came out in front of the fire hall. Blinking a few times and wiping away a bit of fog from the window, I peered towards the thing down below, a black form in the fresh blanket of snow on the ground. Scratching at my head for a moment, I looked down at my legputer - 5:43 AM. Weird time for there to be animals out, especially in this weather. Looking back, a second form met the first, along with a third, the third one carrying something that seemed to glow a sickly greenish-yellow color. As the third one passed it over to the first, and the first then took it and stuck it inside a half-pipe sort of thing, and then hefted the pipe-thing onto it's shoulder... "OH, FUCK ME!" The whole building shook as the balefire egg impacted against the garage door below, myself ducking as some of the windows shattered inwards from the blast before darting down the hallway. Crash Dive was the first one up and at attention, Static having fallen out of his bunk as I rushed over to my duffel bag, grabbing Thumper. Okay, they're shooting balefire eggs, then let me give them a solar burst fuck you right back... "What the hell exploded?! Night Strike, what's going on?" The earth pony scrambled to get himself out of his bedding, standing up straight as I snapped Thumper's breech shut, Scouring and Aerith rousing awake as well. "I don't know who they are, I just know that they just sent a balefire egg wake-up call at the garage door outside and that's enough for me to figure they aren't exactly friendly neighbors." Aerith had slipped herself into her makeshift jacket as Scouring unfolded Sunburst, Crash Dive already pushing into the hallway and looking down out of the window with her rebar cannon at the ready. Scouring and Aerith moved to meet her, and I was just about to follow suit when a blue-coated hoof reached out to catch my shoulder. Looking back, I was greeted with the sight of Static with his mouth bit down on the handle of a fire axe. Uh... probably not the best time for a swordfighting lesson, Sparky! Pulling the large axe from his mouth, Static glanced over at the three by the windows as they took up positions, Aerith's machine gun and rifle's outlines glimmering in the night. Well, they shot first... "If you have one of those bigger grenades loaded, probably would be best if we get the drop on them. The rest create a distraction and we can sneak to the back, I'll bust down the door in the commotion and you can fly up to do what you need to." Ooh, sneaky strike tactics, Strikey likey~ Answering him with a nod, we started moving down the hallway, Static keeping himself low so he wouldn't be seen in the windows and myself following suit. He gave a rough instruction of 'cause a distraction for us' to them as we reached the end, and the stairwell, giving one last glance outside before shaking a hoof towards them - well, as a signal I guess it works. Did what it needed to, anyways. The sounds of gunfire erupted from the shattered windows as Static landed at the bottom of the stairwell with the axe, steadying himself on his hooves with it before starting to chop at it madly. The door readily splintered with the force, some explosions erupting from out front as they kept up the fire, myself waiting for Static to clear the door before shooting out into the nighttime air. Looping up and over the building with Thumper in hoof, I hovered in the air, watching as the snow out front became pock-marked with craters and bullets, a few more figures having come out to play. One of them rushed to the side of the one with the Balefire Egg launcher, carrying another of the greenish-yellow crystals, myself bringing Thumper to my shoulder and peering down the sight. About fifteen, seventeen meters off the ground, say a little less than a hundred meters to the target at this range... hardly have to compensate at all. Flash, bam, alakazam and good-bye... Thumper let out his usual thump as the black and gold round cleared his muzzle, the figures having a second to realize they were about to have a very bad day before it seemed like one took the 40mm ball of fun death to the face - specifically, the one holding one of Kindness' uglier sisters. Oh, I always say I love derping baddies in the face with high explosives, but it's oodles more fun when I'm actually able to pull it off... He and his ammo lackey quickly vanished in a brilliant white flash, a few screams heard before they were deafened by the reverberating explosion from the little bomb. I let loose a stupid giggle as the heat pulse warmed my body inside my jacket, riding the shockwave on my wings for a meter or two before hovering back, the blinding flash fading away into a snowy mushroom cloud. Oh, I love my job. Landing on the roof as the fireball cooled and illuminated the area in a softer light, I swear I saw a pair of the baddies already flying off into the distance as Aerith, Crash Dive and Scouring mopped up the rest. Black armor, flight, one hell of a grudge against us... Yeah, I don't think it takes a rocket surgeon to guess who they were. Sheesh, they must have the worst luck, this is the third time we've blown them away? Fourth? Ah, who's counting... Hope they got the hint this time. Taking off again and landing at the back door, I was greeted with Static laying inside the landing against the wall, hugging the old fire axe to himself as he panted and let of stupid chuckles inbetween. I wore a small smirk, watching as he pulled himself back to his hooves. "You really just wanted to smash a door down with a fire axe, didn't you?" "H-hey, you get to make your own doors with that thing all the time, can't I have a moment every now and again?" Answering him with a small chuckle, the rest of the group met us downstairs, Static heading for the door that led into the garage. Flicking on the lights - well, what was left of them, anyways - revealed the door next to the one that we'd come in by was completely blown in by the blast, it having crushed and warped around the fire wagon that was inside the other bay. Good thing they aimed for that one... the earth pony rushed to the mini-tank, looking it over for any signs of damage. After trotting around it, and tossing his axe onto the back, he hopped himself into the driver's seat, myself moving up to Boomer. Oh, thank Celestia you're alright, baby... The engine of the mini-tank seemed to try to start for a moment, before something underneath the back exploded with a loud pop, hot steam jetting from vents and making Static quickly switch the mini-tank off again. Pushing steam clouds away from myself, I wore a grimace, which the earth pony returned. "Well... that's not good."