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I was barely able to register what exactly was happening. A mushroom cloud was rising up in the distance, one that we had absolutely no warning of, let alone were the ones to set off. My mind frantically tried to shift back into working gear, still fixated on the sight of the blackening cloud growing over the treeline. It wasn’t until the shockwave smacked into my chest and the wind was knocked out of me that I regained my senses, stumbling back on my hooves. I coughed, gasping to get my breath back as the Valkyrie shuddered from the sudden force. Standing back up, I watched as the cloud grew higher, the top starting to dissipate as Night Strike and Aerith landed back down beside the rest of us. “What the fuck!? I thought Cerberus didn’t have megaspells! We’re supposed to be the ones with the bombs!” She began to hyperventilate, still spouting only semi-coherent phrases.
Still trying to remain calm myself, I began to pace back and forth, my own mind racing with similar questions. What the hell was Cerberus doing attacking Hopeville? Didn’t they have anti-air defenses? Why the hell didn’t they fire those off at the attackers? It was obvious by my quickened pacing and sharp turns this was doing nothing but sending me into a similar panic to Night Strike’s. Crash Dive immediately marched over to the Clydesdale, pulling her helmet off of the back and slipping it over her head. She grabbed my umbrella, chucking it at my head hard enough to leave a rather sizable lump and leave me clutching the now swelling wound.
“Alright everypony, shut the fuck up and get in the Valkyrie. We’re heading into Hopeville, and seeing the damage, I don’t care what you’re thinking now, if you don’t get in the damn vehicle now I’m tying you to the back and letting you ride behind the jets. I can assure you the burn wounds will greatly help lessen the panic,” Crash Dive barked, the eyes of her helmet almost appearing to glow. “Night Strike, Static, don’t waste time getting your rad suits on, if that was a megaspell you'll probably be safest staying inside the Valkyrie's cockpit anyhow. MOVING, NOW!” She demanded.
The rest of us rushed back towards the Valkyrie, Scouring levitating his own helmet out of the Clydesdale and slipping it on as he rushed over to the small cockpit door, Night Strike close behind. She grimaced for a moment, heading in ahead of him quickly, the bay doors opening a moment later. “Sorry, no room in the cockpit for everypony, get in the bomb bay. Don't think we'll need to be dropping anything before reaching Hopeville... Uh… um, yeah, be careful too, we don’t really have anything good to grab onto back there.” Night Strike said, sliding herself back into the seat as I climbed myself in. Her hooves shook a little as she flicked several switches, the engines of the Valkyrie roaring back to life. “I really would’ve liked a little more time between learning to use this thing and needing it in an actual combat situation... you know how to work the turrets, right, Static?” Night Strike whimpered. I dropped down into the chair behind Night Strike’s, pulling down on the belts to secure myself in as the vehicle shuddered, the bomb bay doors closing back up. Slowly, we began to move forward, the rumble of the engines growing steadily louder.
“Don’t fly too close to Hopeville, last thing we need is this thing shot down by anypony that might still running the aircraft guns, got it?” Crash Dive shouted over the engines, sticking her head through the bomb bay access door. Night Strike gave a nervous nod as the Valkyrie rolled forward, quickly gaining speed. Night Strike pulled up on the controls, the plane shaking as its nose pointed upwards, another loud howl muffledly filling the cockpit. Taking a deep breath, I let out a sigh as we began to race through the sky towards the now slowly drifting off mushroom cloud. The power armored pegasus braced herself in the rear access doorway, staring out through the cockpit with us. “What’s our ETA?”
“We’ve got about six minutes before we’ll be outside the town limits, though I don't know where we could land this thing safely.” I responded, looking down at the controls as I fiddled with the navigation screen. Crash Dive nodded, grabbing ahold of the back of my chair as the plane shook once again. Night Strike flipped a few switches, the cockpit glass alighting with a few displays, most notably an aiming reticle. “Why would anypony attack Hopeville, though? If they were after us, they had a huge chance back at the lighthouse. They’d probably have taken out the Valkyrie too, if they wanted."
“Outdated intel, cowardice, scare tactics, terror bombing, there’s several reasons,” Crash Dive responded, looking at my screens as I switched them to the nose-mounted camera. The trees whizzed by at an alarming rate, before I was able to get it out of the landing setting and into general observation. Crash Dive gave a small grunt of confusion as the empty town of Clearwater passed by, us on approach to the town. “Hm, the landscape isn’t showing any signs of a megaspell detonation. There should be more damage to the trees around here, at least some of them would have been blown over and burnt up by the blast. If it wasn't a megaspell... hm.” She pulled herself back through the door to the bomb bay, Night Strike grabbing ahold of the controls once again. The Valkyrie swerved gently through the air, giving Hopeville a wide berth as we started our descent. I switched the camera back to vertical landing, listening to the small turbine behind me whining to speed.
The vehicle came to a slow stop, the roar of the engines whirring to a soft hum before disappearing completely as we set down in one of the farm fields outside the town. The bomb bay doors opened with a muffled thunk, our friends getting out and trotting over to the front of the aircraft while we hung inside. If it was a megaspell, even a small one or one that was made for more rads than explosions, I don't want to take any chances. Aerith’s eyes scanned the skies for any signs of the attackers as she hovered out over the top of the cockpit, but, oddly, none of the Harriers that had tried to attack us were visible. ‘You think they’re going back for another run?’ Her sign read as it flashed before her. I brought up the radar screen, watching it trace around a few times - no blips. It detected the Seaddler from the lighthouse, surely if they're still around here they'd be showing up... Night Strike grabbed ahold of Thumper, shutting the Valkyrie down fully and unbuckling herself from her seat, looking back towards me. I gave her a small nod as I did the same, taking another deep breath and keeping my umbrella close as she swung open the side hatch to the cockpit.
The air was eerily quiet, the only sound being that of our hoofsteps as we hopped out and onto the soft dirt. Scouring tapped against the side of his helmet for a moment, looking towards the edge of Hopeville. “I’m no' getting any rads yet. If it was a megaspell, couldn’t 'ave been that big... ” We began to trek towards the city, watching the sky for any indication the attackers may be returning. As we grew closer, the actual extent of the destruction became clearer. The crops on the outskirts of the city were blown to the ground, creating a ring that pointed towards the center of the town. One farm shed stood, only barely, with its windows smashed out of their frames and the whole structure leaning dangerously to one side.
The hotel's sign flickered and sparked, loose wires dangling in the breeze, the entire front glass of the lobby blasted inwards and laying shattered. A bit of movement caught my eye, and I turned my head just in time to see somepony duck down behind the smashed-in windows of one of the rooms, cowering in fright. My stomach began to clench as we moved further into town, looking around as buildings were starting to look more like piles of rubble, facades crumbling and broken, thin skeletons of what they once were built from their twisted and burned framework.
We turned a corner, and I had to fight back the urge to vomit. Several bodies lay strewn about the road, crushed under the collapsed buildings, some free, though their coats were charred and speckled by fragments of debris that had been flung by the force of the explosion. A few whimpered, making feeble attempts to free themselves as they struggled against their wounds. A pony in a doctor’s coat came running around the corner, a large bag balanced on her back as she hurried towards one of the injured ponies. She looked over to us as she threw the bag on the ground, digging around inside for a scalpel and a roll of gauze. “You got here fast. Unless you’re dropping your meds off here, get your asses to the Triage. Probably the only building that survived this shit.” She began to pick out the larger chunks of metal from the pony’s chest, his breathing ragged and uneven.
I reached into my saddlebags, pulling out a few healing potions that had still been stashed inside before placing them on the ground beside her. Picking up our pace, we rushed towards the Triage, only barely able to find our way among the ruins of the buildings. The hospital that held the Triage was battered by the blast, several sections of the wall facing the center of town having been pockmarked by the bricks and debris thrown in the explosion. Despite this, it was still one of the more intact structures standing, and a small crowd of ponies had gathered out in front of it. We tried to push through the crowd, a few ponies parting to let us through, others barely able to stand and needing others to help move them aside.
“Oi, soup cans!” A voice called out in the crowd. Crash Dive and Scouring stopped, looking back to see a stallion limping up, a hoof held over his gut. “What the fuck kind of sick prank are you trying to pull? Fucking selling us guns and then just shelling the hell out of us later? What the fuck is wrong with you!? Sitting in the lap of luxury while we get killed!” He spat on the ground, starting to shuffle his way forward. A few members of the crowd murmured among themselves, backing away from the enraged stallion. “YOU FUCKING MURDERERS, YOU KILLED MY WIFE, YO-” He was suddenly cut off by Crash Dive coldly kicking him in the ribs. He fell to the ground, letting out a cry of pain as he clutched his side. Everypony was silent, staring at Crash Dive.
“Let’s get in,” She said bluntly. The few remaining ponies that had been blocking the doorway scurried aside as Crash Dive strode into the Triage lobby. It was almost impossible to see anything through the crowd of ponies crammed into the room. What appeared to be the entire town was either clambering to speak with the receptionist or sitting aside, nursing wounds as doctors rushed people inside. Crash Dive began to force her way through, shoving ponies aside, ignoring their complaints as she headed towards the back hallway.
We managed to escape the crowd, heading down the hall towards the offices. Night Strike stepped up to Crash Dive, her expression a mixture of astonishment and horror. “What the hell was that about, Crash Dive? You wanna make us look like the bad guys! The guns worked, they must have! What’re they gonna start saying after that?” She rambled, trying her best to stay on her hooves and avoid running into strewn-about gurneys.
Before Crash Dive could respond, Pearl suddenly hovered out of one of the side rooms, her display still showing the ever cheerful green-display pony. “Hiya guys! Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many ponies since before the war, I had no clue this place was so populated! Well, it might not be as populated now, but I’ve got plenty of tricks up my sleeves still! We’ll get that new Med-X stuff distributed and the ponies won’t even know what day it is! And, oh, this'll be teh best chance we'll ever get to fully field-test those Healing-Burst grenades, too!” I’m not sure you’re grasping the reality of this situation, Pearl.
“Pearl, what happened with the guns? Somepony outside said they didn’t work, but I swear we tested them!” Night Strike asked frantically. Pearl hovered down the hallway, waving one of her mechanized hands dismissively. I leaned back, not wanting to be jabbed by the needle she was swinging around. Pearl turned into one of the rooms where a nurse was standing over a stallion whose legs were bound up in casts. She carefully aimed the needle, injecting it slowly into the pony’s foreleg as she scanned his body.
“Oh, the guns worked just fine! They just didn’t have anything to hit. Well, I guess they had those huge shells to hit, but the tracking system isn’t quite good enough to track something that small moving at that steep an angle. I suppose that’s kind of the same as the guns not working... Don’t worry, though! Once we install more of those reaction time implants into the gunners I bet we’ll be a-o-good!” Pearl took hold of one of the pony’s legs, giving it a tug, a sickening crack resonating through the room as she popped his bones back into place.
Satisfied with the pony’s condition, Pearl turned around and made to head back out into the hallway. Crash Dive stopped her, speaking quickly. “Pearl, have you heard anything about who might have done the attack? Anything your scanners pick up about where they went?” She asked. Pearl’s screen flipped to her thoughtful expression as the AI searched her memory banks.
“Nope, sorry guys. I’ve been pretty busy looking over all of the ponies here, if I do have anything, it’s buried pretty deep. One of the gunners is upstairs, room 207. Maybe he saw something.” Pearl turned to the nurse, no longer paying us any attention. “You sure he didn’t sign up for any implants? I bet he’d be a much faster farmer with a mechanical hoof. And we could probably fit some pesticide sprayers into it, too!” Leaving the two to argue over forced augmentation, Scouring led us out of the room and towards the stairway.
The stairs, already old and chipped, now had a few tilted and crumbling steps, concrete and shattered glass strewn about the landings between them. “…Yeeeaaah, have fun, guys.” Night Strike said, hovering up to the second level. Tentatively placing my hoof on the first step, I began to slowly walk up, making sure none of the stairs were going to collapse under my weight. Aerith too decided to take to the air, though her large wingspan caused her to bounce against the walls as she tried to maneuver in the cramped stairway. Giving a sigh of relief upon reaching the second floor, we headed inside to find more doctors rushing back and forth between rooms, carts of medical supplies jangling as they rolled along.
We walked down the hallway, stepping out of the way of the doctors as we made our way towards room 207. Pushing open the door, we found a stallion laying in the bed, staring up at the ceiling. He looked over as we entered, carefully pushing himself up in bed to reveal several bandages and burns covering his chest. “Yeah? What d’you guys want?”
I stepped up to the side of his bed. “We were hoping you might have gotten a good look at whoever attacked the town. Any information on who it was, where they went, all that.” The stallion nodded, shifting a little to sit more comfortably as the others filed into the room. The pony scratched his head, closing his eyes as he tried to concentrate.
“I couldn’t spot anything to shoot at, that's the thing. Suddenly things just started going up in flames and splinters, giant rockets or missiles, or shells raining down from somewhere or something, no clue what. Tried to track their location, but they were coming in too fast and high to tell, it was chaos. All you could hear is the whistle from the air around 'em.” He sat still, staring down at his blankets, taking a breath. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help more. It all just happened so fast...” Shells? Not bombs? I turned to Night Strike, a feeling of worry starting to grow stronger in my gut.
“Night Strike… we didn’t strip down that huge mortar back at the Seahoof Armory… did we?” I asked, not entirely sure I wanted the answer. Night Strike’s eyes went wide, her jaw dropping upon the sudden realization. Yep, that was exactly the answer I didn’t want. “We have to go, now!” I exclaimed, turning to hurry out the door, Night Strike hot on my heels. The others rushed out after us, almost colliding with a nurse as they scurried down the hallway. “Fuckfuckfuck, why didn’t we think of this sooner?! I thought we gassed that place out, anyways!” Jumping down several steps at a time, I was suddenly thrown against the wall as a deafening explosion rung out outside, the whole building seeming to rumble from the impact. I wobbled on my hooves a little, regaining my balance before hurrying down the rest of the steps with the others as ponies started screaming and running in panic. Another explosion was heard outside, this one closer, and smaller. Screams filled the air as the ponies waiting outside the Triage began to push and shove, stampeding through in desperate hope of finding shelter.
Scouring charged forward, his large armor pushing aside anypony not fast enough to move out of the way, clearing a small path through the frantic crowd for us to weave through. Speeding out of the building, we all began to sprint back towards the Valkyrie, myself panting as I tried to keep up with the others. A column of smoke could be seen rising up in the distance as several buildings were set ablaze by the first shell, another screaming in and bursting several blocks away. Any ponies that had been standing outside were now rushing in to any shelter they could find, some hunkering underneath rubble from the previous attack.
Gasping for air, a stich forming in my side, I galloped towards the outskirts of town after the others, the Valkyrie coming into sight as we rounded the corner by the Hotel. Yet another explosion sounded behind us, and, glancing back, I saw one of the pubs down the street collapse in on itself, spreading rocks and debris across the street. Our hooves clattered against the metal floor of the Valkyrie as myself and Night Strike leapt inside, the pegasus hardly waiting for the cockpit door to close up before flicking switches and turning the aircraft back on.
Crash Dive pulled the door open again, sticking her head inside. "You guys take off without us, we'll try and coordinate an evacuation of the town, at least keep some ponies from looking south while you wipe that place off the map. Got me?" Night Strike nodded in response as I started going through the systems, looking over the displays as they came up on screen. Bombload, three 500t megaspells, automated bomb aim prediction systems active... alright. The door shut on the cockpit, myself just abrely able to look out and see the rest of the Vanhoover Five rushing back to the town as the vertical engine whined to speed behind me again.
The Valkyrie lifted up off the uneven ground, shaking with each hit of the massive mortar shells, some small pieces of shrapnel pinging off of the metal skin. Night Strike fought against the bucking of the machine, pulling back violently once the engines had reached their distinctive roar, a kick of acceleration taking us as we swapped back to horizontal flight. We shot up into the air, swiftly pulling away from Hopeville to avoid any stray fire. “Okay, okay, Seahoof’s about 8 minutes away, be on the lookout for any other defenses. Luna, I hope they don’t have good enough equipment to hit us...” She stared down at the console, carefully turning to line up our path. Racing through the sky, I kept my eyes peeled for any signs of the attackers.
The radio suddenly burst into life, Fowler's voice screaming into our ears. "Valkyire, you will copy me goddess-damn it! What is your explanation for that unauthorized scramble?!" Bracing myself in the chair as Night Strike jerked on the yoke, and the Valkyrie suddenly responded in accordance, I grabbed the headset and fitted it on, switching the in-cockpit speakers off and flipping the radio on.
"Hopeville is under attack, mortar shelling, we're responding. Unless you've got someone else who could get there with a payload and medical supplies in only a few minutes, you're gonna have to forgive us!" The radio fizzled with static as I fiddled with the bomb systems, trying to mark Seahoof as a target. A megaspell should be more than enough to take care of that mortar... right?
To my surprise, Marigold's voice broke through over the radio next, the Seaddler's engines droning in the background. "Seaddler copies you Valkyire, I have a few friends that can help after you take out that mortar. ETA six hours there and back, they're the best group of medics I know, though. Scrambling now, Seaddler over and out." Fowler's voice came over in some angry grunts for a few moments, before the radio fizzed out. Okay, well, some more medics can only help, at least. We just need to take care of the shelling first.
It wasn’t long before the collection of buildings that was the Seahoof Armory appeared over the hills and valleys, growing steadily larger as we flew towards it. “Aw, shit, of course they’ve got the dragons here, why wouldn’t they have the dragons here?” I said, spotting a few figures circling the skies around the base. Looking around the console, I took a hold of the controls to the tesla cannon turrets, getting a feel for them. Forced to stare into a small viewfinder taking a video feed from the top turret, I squinted, trying to track their movements. “Alright, try to do this quickly. The longer we’re up here the more chances they’ll have to hit us.”
“Oh, that’s reassuring!” Night Strike yelled, pushing the throttle oepn as far as it'd go. The dragons spotted us as the Valkyrie let off a small howl, leaving their vulture circles over the armory base to chase after us. One shot out a jet of flame that Night Strike was forced to swerve to avoid, the pair of cannons in the cheeks letting off a loud series of bangs as she tried to hit the dragon with them. My hooves jerked about the turret controls as I tried to keep my eyes on the robots, pulling on the trigger. There was the sudden crackle and boom of thunder as a bolt of lightning shot through the air, followed by another, and another, all in quick succession. The dragons avoided them, beating their wings to maintain their speed as another jet of flame spewed from their mouth. Another circled about, attempting to cut us off as Night Strike dipped lower to dodge a swing of its knife-like tail. The bay doors whirred open, locking open with a thunk behind us. “Any time you wanna actually aim the bomb, Static!”
Firing off another burst, I finally managed to hit one of the robotic beasts, taking it out of the sky. Its eyes flickered off, overloaded by the electricity before it began to plummet towards the earth. I glanced back to the display showing the bomb targeting systems, my mind racing as I tried to make sense of the calculations it was running. Carefully twisting the controls, I saw a sudden flash of heat as one of the Valkyrie’s wings was wreathed in fire. Night Strike pulled on the controls, attempting to move out of the fire as the repair talismans began to glow under the burning metal. My heart pounding in my chest, I focused back in on the bomb view, spotting a few small figures rushing between the large artillery and the ammunition stores. The massive, stumpy gun bucked backwards as it fired another shot towards Hopeville, another cart of the gigantic shells being rolled towards it by pony-shaped figures.
Tracking the base through the view, I had just enough time to notice the gun begin to point further up into the air, only too late realizing that we were flying straight over the thing... oh Celestia help us. “NOWNOWNOWNOW!” I shrieked. Night Strike slammed her hoof down on a button on her control yoke, the plane shaking as the weight of the bomb fell away. Yanking upwards on the controls and going white-jointed on the throttle, Night Strike peeled us away from the base, the bay doors snapping shut as we rockteted westwards. Please tell me those bombing circuits took the plane's proximity to the blast into account...
There was a deafening moment of silence, before a bright flash filled the sky behind us, and we began to ride the shockwave out to the coast.
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The Valkyrie shook for several moments as the blastwave smacked us from behind, myself keeping her on a steady heading as everything calmed. A few seconds of smooth flight later, I eased back on the throttle, the city of Vanhoover shooting past underneath as I nosed down just to get my bearings back. Right... bring her back to Hopeville, see how worse off they are now. Celestia damn us for leaving that huge thing's barrel intact, we should've blown it up when we found the Harriers missing. They had to've dragged it out somehow, the engine was completely rusted through! Guh... it's dead now, at least. "Static? You alright?"
"Nngh, yeah, I think so. Ahm... looks like the robo-dragons were taken out in the blast, so, less things for us to worry about, at least. Slight burn damage on the left wing, talismans are taking care of that, we're... we're keeping together." The earth pony sitting behind me caught his breath for a few moments as I swung us around out at sea, starting to bring us back inland. He fiddled with a few things on his console, the bright orange mushroom cloud rising from the floodplain just about peeking over the top of the cockpit's edge. Bringing the throttle back to a low cruise speed, and flashing the air brakes for a moment, I watched the cloud drawing closer, billowing to the sky.
"Should... should we see the damage from the blast? Uh, there was something about long-range photography in the manual, you can see it from here, right?" Turning my head to look back towards Static, his hooves worked with the console, as I put us in a slight left bank to steer clear of the rising head of the mushroom. Flying through all those radioactive particles, yeah, not gonna risk that... Static let off a small grunt behind me, as the thick, grey stem started to pass to our left.
The cockpit was silent for a few moments more, myself just watching out the side of the canopy as the cloud passed by in the distance. "Well... standard imaging is useless, too much disturbed dust or whatever. Thermal... infrared... can't really make out Seahoof through all the heat of the crater. Looks like total destruction, though..." I gave a nod, more just to myself, breathing the cold air of the cabin. We just... dropped a megaspell. It happened so fast... why aren't I more excited? I mean, Hopeville's not under attack anymore, and once I land back there I can probably still see the cloud from the edge of town. It's no different from the Battered-Sea, we just used the Valkyrie instead of doing it like an old megaspell test... hmh.
Bringing the nose back north, we made way back towards Hopeville, myself keeping largely quiet for most of it. It was a megaspell, I dropped it, had good reason to do so, and did it just like they would've back in the war, in a huge fast bomber designed for delivering megaspells against enemy targets. Just like they -did- back in the war.
Why does that part just not sit right with me?
The shattered, blasted ruins of Hopeville came into view as I brought us back over the empty field outside town we'd landed in earlier, switching over to the VTOL engine and bringing the gear out. We touched down smoothly, the engines whining down as I switched the Valkyrie off, Static undoing his buckles. He trotted up alongside myself, resting a hoof on my shoulder and drawing my attention off of the control yoke. Our eyes met, his widening in surprise for a moment. "Strikey... uh, um... we should see how things are going in Hopeville, with the rest. Right?"
Closing my eyes and looking away from him for a moment, I drew in a breath, releasing it in a quick sigh. I answered with a quick nod, undoing the buckles of the restraints and sliding myself out of the pilot's seat, getting onto my shaking hooves. Well... deployed a full-blown megaspell in definite, delibrate, direct combat... I'm definitely gonna need a while before that settles in. Static opened the cockpit hatch, hopping himself out as I followed close behind. Just... Hopeville, rest of the Vanhoover Five, focus on that for now.
And try to not let it get to you.
---
"This is Wing Commander Fowler, of the HMS Cadence. If you are in range and recieving this transmission, immediately direct this message to the nearest medic, doctor, or field surgeon you know of. The town of Hopeville, located on the southern edge of the Vanhoover Reservior, has been the victim of an attack via a massive siege mortar. The number of casualties are immense. Any and all assistance that can be supplied to the town is required immediately.
"The threat of the mortar has been removed, and able-bodied residents are preparing themselves on the air defenses of the town. To the towns of Vanhoover, Maple Creek, and the Vanhoover Air Base, be on full alert with your own anti-aircraft armaments. Repeat; the threat of the mortar has been removed. All available medical personnell are requested to Hopeville. Travel by way of the city of Vanhoover, DO NOT proceed through the Vanhoover Floodplain. The area is intensely radioactive.
"Normal broadcasting on K-AOS will resume upon further contact with the Vanhoover Five, and confirmation that the situation at Hopeville is uncer control. Until then, this transmission will repeat. Wing Commander Fowler, HMS Cadence, out."
---
The walk back into town was deathly quiet, the radio only carrying a repeated alert from Fowler - other words, not helping us too much. Neither were the clusters of displaced families finding themselves on the outskirts of the town, lined up on the side of the road with only a few sparse blankets or their own clothes for warmth. W-well, bright side, Strikey, they don't have to worry about a giant mortar anymore... just their homes and lives having been destroyed. Of course. Just, look at Static until we get into town...
"I... I just can't really believe this. Hopeville's just... Hmnh..." Static's eyes scanned over the groups that trudged down the roads, looking for places to shelter themselves, or at least some unclaimed patches of ground to rest on. Most faces didn't even turn towards us, and those that did, with their expressions so shattered... I didn't want to look. The earth pony beside me let off a huff, the welcome sign to the town proper coming up towards us. "First Saddlebrook, now here. They've gone too far."
I nodded weakly in response as we pressed onwards, the crowds of evacuating ponies starting to grow thicker, eventually reaching an intersection where a power armored pegasus stood, pointing hooves and barking orders. Fighting our way through, Crash Dive eventually took notice of us, the red eyes of her helmet aglow in the cloud-filled air. "Nice to see you both back in one piece. We had a few flash-blindness victims, and a few more with cases of tinnitus from the blast, but most of the town was already on the way to the roads out by the time you dropped that thing."
"It looked like they managed to get one more shell off before we could hit them, was everyone pretty much clear before it landed?" Another group pressed past us, Crash Dive looking them over for a moment before directing them on the road out of town. She turned back towards us, passing on a somewhat reassuring nod, getting a sigh of relief out of me. Okay, so at least not as many ponies died as there could've been... homes can be rebuilt, Strikey, ponies can't be brought back from the dead. Static glanced around for a moment, before looking back to Crash Dive. "Also, were are the rest?"
"Scouring's handling the evac on the western side of town, and Aerith... I think she was looking for a few grenade rifles for the Triage, so they could get to field-testing their new grenades. You might want to head over there yourself, Night Strike, they could use a helping hoof and you've already got Thumper. Static, you can be with me for the time being. Have to hope that whatever farm houses or standing structures near the town can fit everyone in them, if anypony comes up saying they can help with rebuilding, we'll direct them to the hotel for now." Static gave a concerned look towards me, myself responding to him with a light nod. Using Thumper, to directly save ponies for once, yeah, that sounds... that sounds nice. His eyes followed mine as he trotted over beside Crash Dive, and I took to the sky.
A quick flight saw to me landing on the roof of the entrance to the Triage, the massed crowd of townsponies having been formed into at least some sort of orderly queues now. Hopping down from the awning, I landed in the small passage between the lines, much to the surprise - and apparent anger - of a few of those already in line. A stallion from one line found it necessary to give me a shove into the other line, seeming to growl at me as well... oh, this could get ugly. "Oi, get your fuckin' arse back to the end of the line, feathers, everyone here's tryin' to get fixed up and the fact that you've got two extra limbs don' give you any privledges o'er the rest of us. Frickin' pegasi..." Regaining myself from the few ponies I'd been pushed into, I stumbled into the middle of the walkway, trying to focus. Okay, unruly crowds, this... could be better. "D'you have feathers stuffed in your ears or somethin'? I said-"
The 40mm-bore barrel of Thumper met the stallion's face in response, myself breathing softly as I shared his wide-eyed stare. Get into the Triage, get the mini healing megaspell grenades, get to work, that's all I have to do. Both lines were silent as we had our little standoff, myself keeping the unloaded grenade rifle trained on his face as I started trotting around. "Look, I'm here to help. The Triage has a few experimental things that they need me to help them with testing, so you can either cause a scene and let me shunt you and probably anypony standing behind you into the express lane with this buckshot round I've got in here, or you can let me go in peace, and you can go back to helping the rest of the town out sooner. Everyone got it?"
The stallion in line gave a weak nod, the few ponies that were standing behind him quickly trying to make themselves scarce in the room they had to move. Nodding back to him, I took a few more steps towards the Triage's open doors, before stowing Thumper and galloping the rest of the way in. The receptionist behind the desk was juggling three clipboards and an intercom, going from writing things down on one to another, and making call outs as the patients flowed through. Honestly, I'm really impressed she can speak so well with a pen in her mouth... "Broken limbs, sprains, or other internal wounds to the left, severe bleeding, lost limbs to the right, flash blindness or tinnitus you can find a seat in the waiting area behind me. If it's anything else and isn't immediately life-threatening, we are extremely overtaxed right now, so please leave and follow the evacuation routes."
"I... uh, grenade rifle, you have some healing grenades somewhere, that you were developing?" The recptionist looked up from her papers as I held up Thumper for her to see, pausing for a moment before she scratched another thing down. Setting the pen aside for the moment, she rubbed at her mouth with a hoof, moving for the intercom. "Dr. Pearl said that you had them ready for field testing, I think, and my friend Aerith is looking for other grenade rifles to help with delivering them."
The receptionist nodded, her voice projecting over the speakers for a moment before Pearl and Emerald both pushed through the crowds, the unicorn having to keep a wooden box away from the cheerful-looking AI. She let off a sigh as she reached me, nodding and motioning for the exit, myself following. "Probably know we've got your one friend looking for grenade rifles already, but you being here with yours is a big help as it is. We've made certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that we replaced the spell enchantments in the cores of these things with a standard Ministry of Peace mass healing megaspell, only thing we aren't absolutely sure of is the area that they'll affect."
"Lucky that the Ministry of Peace was keen on sharing that particular megaspell with Shady Shores, all they had to do was pull it from my databanks! Based on the size and theoretical yield of those solar burst grenades, I'm predicting a complete healing of all wounds for all still-living ponies in an area of about, say, twenty meters or so. Wouldn't recommend looking directly at the flash, still, but it'll work through walls and everything! Just hope they aren't, ahem, impaled on rebar or anything, not sure how that'll go over... oh well, learning experience and all!" Emerald and myself both looked at the ever-eager Pearl, the unicorn pulling one of the 40mm grenade rifle rounds out of the box and passing it over to me. Bringing Thumper back out, I opened her breech, taking the round and slipping it in before shutting the rifle back up.
"Head to the south side of town, that's where we got hit with the worst of it all. I'll try and get together a few ponies to help with the rescue parties, just keep an eye out for anypony who's able to be saved." Answering Emerald with a nod and slipping a few more of the spare healing grenades into my jacket pockets, my wings spread and carried me back aloft over the crowds. Looking southwards, the thinning stem and greyish head of the mushroom cloud that was once Seahoof Armory stood in the distance, the ground still hidden by the disturbed snow and dust kicked by the blast... don't start thinking about it again Strikey, you're almost good. Just get where you need to be.
Flying over the streets and buildings, the ruins and craters from the shell impact sites soon were passing underneath me, my breath clouding in the frigid air as I hovered over a destroyed section of the town. Hmmh, only have five shots plus the one in the breech now, how to pick targets... try to listen for the wails of the severely injured and dying, I guess. Let's not think about that too much, either. Dipping low, I started to fly closer to the rooftops, hovering along and trying to pick out any odd sounds. Passing around a partially-collapsed brick storefront, one of the massive shell craters appeared down the road, along with a few pony-shaped forms around it... some of them did seem to still be moving. Probably a few ponies that could've weathered it from inside these houses, maybe... here goes nothing.
Shouldering Thumper, my sights focused down on the middle of the road, watching one of the figures trying to drag itself through the muck and mud. Just hang in there, the medic is here, eheh. Thumper let out his familiar thump, the small payload arcing through the air before landing just behind the battered pony, exploding in a brilliant, familiar flash. A softer bang rang out through the air, myself bringing a foreleg up to cover my eyes as the explosion faded off. Oh, Celestia, please tell me that that thing worked like it was supposed to...
Looking back to the street, the pony-shaped figure that was previously dragging itself down it semed to lay where it was for a short while, before it picked itself up onto it's hooves, albeit shakily. A sigh of relief left my lips, the break action of Thumper opening and allowing me to pull the spent casing out, fanning it off in the air for a little bit before replacing it with one of the unspent rounds, closing Thumper back up. Score one for helpful things to come out of harmful things made from originally helpful things, I guess... however that works. Holding Thumper at the ready, I scanned around the town again, listening for more wails of agony.
What I got instead, however, was heavy automatic cannon fire. My head jerked around for a moment, trying to find the source of it, another spray of the massive bullets whizzing past me instead encouraging me to dive to the ground and try to get out of the line of fire. Okay, autocannon, kind of a familiar sound, too... twenty millimeter, just like Featherweight's. We haven't sold anything in twenty millimeter flavor to Hopeville, so it must be somepony carrying it... but who would be carrying a friggin' twenty mil autocannon?! And, more importantly, why aren't they on our side!?
The beating of heavy wings filled the air as whoever it was drew a little closer, msyelf keeping Thumper held against my chest as I ducked under the undestroyed awning of one of the buildings. Okay, breathe Strikey, if they're bad, well, I guess the AA guns could take care of them, maybe, provided they don't kill you first. If they're good, and this is just a huge misunderstanding, though... oh, fuck it, maybe hitting them in the face with a healing burst grenade would at least give me time to escape, if this doesn't work. "Whoever you are, with the cannon, don't shoot! I'm a medic, I guess! Special grenades!"
The large wings stopped as I heard someone land above me, my heart pounding in my chest and my hooves feeling it through Thumper. They set something heavy down on the roof above, the old, splintered wood creaking as they leaned over the top. I found myself staring into the blue eyes of a gryphon, three of her head feathers poking out from under a flight cap and tipped with brown, a couple large olive-drab green wings accompanying her as she steadied herself with her talons. Her head tilted to one side, seeming to look over myself for a moment. "You're the weirdest medic I've ever seen, and I've seen some weird stuff. How do I -know- you didn't just shoot off a grenade at an old skywagon and detonate it to cause even more damage, huh?"
I blunk a few times in response, still staring up at the gryphon above me. Okay, granted, she did have a point, this whole situation with the healing burst grenades was a little hard to explain in a few seconds... another gryphon, this one with all-white feathers and black combat armor, suddenly landed in the street in front of us both, near the pony who was previously dragging himself away from the crater. He seemed to look them over for a few moments, reaching for his red cross-branded saddlebags, before catching himself. Both myself and the upside-down gryphon seemed to be watching him, the older white-feathered gryphon leading the pony over to where we were. "Hispano, leave the poor mare alone, she's telling the truth. Sorry about her, she's always been a little quick on the draw when it comes to seeing unfamiliar people opening fire on recently destroyed towns... I'm Cora, here about that transmission on the radio. You said you're a medic, right? Can you direct us to where you have your triage set up?"
"U-uh, well, kinda... and, um, yeah, the Triage is the big hospital on the northeast side of town. They're really packed by this, never seen the receptionist having to go and sort casualties before..." The gryphon upstairs disappeared for a moment, before hopping down from the roof with her autocannon in tow. Jeez, that thing really -is- half of Featherweight's light saddle... I think. Looks kinda similar to his cannons... Cora seemed to pass on a look of confusion as I picked myself up to my hooves, fitting Thumper onto my back, the healed pony shrugging and trotting off towards the Triage by himself.
"Ehm... I'm sorry, are you a new medic, or something? That's almost the literal definition of triage... ahm, forget it. How many more of you are out in the town, with... whatever you just fired off?" Blinking at him a few times, I tried to think - well, I mean, Emerald did say she was going to try and get a few groups together to help with rescue, but all the doctors and stuff seemed to just be treating the patients that walked or were carried in. Probably not the best of situations right now, no. I suppose, well, there's probably Aerith trying to find the gunsmith's shop, so there's that.
"I'm the only one with the mini-megaspell healing grenades, only other person in town that I know of for sure is Aerith. She's flying around trying to track down a few more grenade rifles so we can get more people deployed." Cora answered with a nod as I started trotting out into the street, the other gryphon accompanying him - Hispano, he said? - adjusting herself on her back legs as she held her autocannon ready. She stopped herself after taking a few steps to follow behind us, eventually catching up and having her own confused look. Okay, are they just gonna be taking turns, or something?
"Hang on a sec, you said mini-megaspell grenades? As in, like, agh, what were those things called... balefire eggs? Except, y'know... for your grenade rifle?" She hefted her cannon up for a moment, just to scratch at the side of her head, as Cora turned us to start walking more towards the crater, scanning through the shattered storefronts. After a moment, Hispano just shrugged, checking around with Cora. "Eh, if they work, they work. Can't really rightfully call them overkill, eheh..."
"They're probably set up with a Ministry of Peace mass healing megaspell, not the kind that cause destruction..." The gryphon ahead of me looked skywards, myself following his gaze to just about spot the still-present head of the mushroom off in the distance. "...not that ones of that kind aren't still around. Hope that whoever it was in the jet that dropped that thing knew what they were doing, last thing we need is for this town to be downwind of the fallout from that bomb."
"I think we had it fuzed for an air burst, and Seahoof didn't seem to have a central reactor like Shady Shores, so the fallout shouldn't be too bad. Winds seem to flow west-east here, not sure what's due east aside from mountain ranges, but, yeah, Hopeville should be good from the secondary blast effects." Both of them seemed to stop in their tracks as I continued forwards a few steps, before turning around to meet their eyes. Again with the confused faces... "What? Me and Static dropped the thing, and we've already set off a few of them before here and there, we've got a good idea of the effects. Lucky the floodplain is pretty bowl-shaped, helped to contain the explosion a little."
They both stayed silent for a long moment, Hispano setting the back of her autocannon on the groundand steadying it by the barrel, both of their beaks agape. She brought her free claws up to pinch above her beak for a moment, drawing in a breath, before releasing it in a cloudy huff. "Okay, you've got a LOT to explain to us right now, lil' miss missile-flanks. Just for starters, who are you, anyways?"
"Um... Night Strike. Of the Vanhoover Five?" They both glanced between each other, before turning attention back to me. Okay, so they really don't know us, then... how far from out of town are they? "You know, the Vanhoover Five! We've kinda been going all around this wasteland helping ponies for the last two months, getting them air defenses, rescuing tanks, blowing up bio-research stations. Hell, just last week we were helping somepony else fix their flying boat, it took off earlier today! You guys haven't heard of us?"
"We only arrived in Seaddle a couple days ago, that call for help earlier today was the first time we've heard anything about the Vanhoover Five. If you are to blame for that mushroom cloud to the south, forgive us if we're a little skeptical about how much 'good' you guys have actually done." Hasgd- grrt- fghht- it was a justified use of a tactical megaspell warhead! I caught myself after a moment, drawing in a breath before releasing it in a cloudy sigh. Just, calm down Strikey, getting angry won't fix anything. Focus on the important stuff... like the alicorn-shaped figure coming out of the sky. Oh good, Aerith... and she's got her tommy gun out. Oh, not good, Aerith.
"Halt, miscreants! Release your captive now, or face the wrath of... The Silver Shroud!" The alicorn landed with a heavy thud in the snowy muck of the street, both Cora and Hispano seeming plainly too dumbfounded to even react beyond staring at her. She leapt skywards after a moment, landing herself beside me and glancing down at my back, keeping her tommy gun levitated out and aimed between both gryphons. 'I heard the autocannon fire, are you alright? They didn't hurt you, did they?' Huuuugh, the adrenaline from earlier's pretty faded and I don't have enough Sparkle-Cola in me to handle this right now...
"Aerith, I'm fine, we're cool with each other, it was just a momentary misunderstanding. This is Cora and Hispano, they're from out of town and here to help with the casualties here in Hopeville. Cora, Hispano, this is Aerith, she's another of the Vanhoover Five and the one I mentioned earlier." The alicorn lowered her submachine gun for the moment, both of the gryphons glancing between each other before looking back to us. Looking towards Aerith, a small, battered courier bag caught my eyes hanging on her shoulders, the familiar shape of a standard grenade rifle or three getting my attention. Well, they -are- here to help...
Opening my jacket, the four remaining healing burst grenades came out one at a time, Aerith taking notice and pulling out one of the grenade rifles from her bag. Letting her pick up three of the rounds as I took the grenade rifle and loaded the fourth into it, I passed the whole thing over to Cora, plucking a second grenade from her aura and giving it to him as well. "You're here to help out, here's a grenade rifle and two of the grenades I was using earlier. You guys probably have a better grasp on finding where the most casualties would be than I would, so you can get to it while we take the rest to the Triage for them to pass out, or find more." After a moment of thought, I pulled another grenade rifle from her bag, taking the remaining two shells and slipping one in the second rifle's breech before passing it and the other round to Hispano. "That's all they gave me, I don't know how many they have left. They've got an effect area of about twenty meters, so, yeah, we'll leave you two to it and let the Triage know you're here."
Hispano and Cora both looked over the grenade rifles for a second, the older gryphon slipping it under the strap for his saddlebags for the moment while Hispano seemed to examine hers more closely, eyes moving between it and her autocannon. She nodded after a moment of thought, sticking the rifle into an olive-drab duffel bag... huh. "Okay, but you definitely owe us a full explanation later, missile-flanks!" Cora let off a quiet sigh, turning and taking to the air, with Hispano following him behind. I rubbed a hoof against my head, Aerith passing on a concerned look as I let off a groan. After a second, my eyes met hers, before looking to the bag that still held a few grenade rifles yet. Releasing a sigh of my own, my wings spread wide, looking back to Aerith.
"Let's just get those things to the Triage..."
---
You're tuned to Radio KAOS, and if you're just tuning in - which would be a shocker - here's the rundown today. Hopeville came under attack by an unidentified group, that had managed to get a siege mortar located at the Seahoof Armory operational. The Vanhoover Five was first to respond to the attack thanks to their now fully-functional jet bomber, doing what comes naturally to them in these sorts of situations and removing the threat by way of megaspell. They assured us here at Radio KAOS, and I would also assume the whole town of Hopeville, that the fallout from the bomb won't pose a threat to them, due to the explosion occurring in the Vanhoover Floodplain and prevailing winds carrying the majority of it eastwards. Less things these folks have to worry about, the better.
"We don't have official casualty figures yet, but the damage dealt to the town was extensive, and the Triage is overwhelmed with seemingly the entire town's population. Medics from Vanhoover, Maple Station, and... a pair from Seaddle have responded to assist with the injured, and the Triage's own have deployed specially-designed grenades carrying a standard Ministry of Peace mass healing spell, which I would assume is a very good thing for those able to take advantage of it. For those who aren't... Us here at Radio KAOS would like to extend our deepest condolences to those who have lost friends or family in this tragedy, and we can only hope that an attack like this won't be able to come again anytime soon. Vahoover Five, we need you to help assure us of that... huh? Ahm, one moment...
"I've just recieved word that a flight of field medics from a town known as Destruction Bay... Destruction Bay, that's the name of the town, really? Ahem, ahm, right, a flight of field medics from Destruction Bay are about to touch down in the Vanhoover Reservior, so keep eyes peeled and the shore clear for them. We're all with you in this, Hopeville, just keep soldiering on.
"For now until the situation at Hopeville's under control, Radio KAOS will be transmitting songs from the Wasteland's Sweetheart. Up next, There'll Always Be An Equestria."
---
"...alright, these ought to be sufficient for handling the remaining mass casualty areas, the more distant areas surrounding craters, mainly. They use a Ministry of Peace mass healing megaspell, pretty much just a point and shoot affair, but make sure the wounded aren't trapped or impaled first, and also be absolutely sure that the area is clear before you allow the tank to bulldoze the rubble." Emerald stood on the shoreline, explaining the reason that most of the new medics were being given grenade rifles, while I dug through my duffel bag for the other Solar Burst grenades I swear I had on me. Come on, I know I had more, at least I just need to hang onto one or two before we can head back to Maple Station and have more made. "And, really, thank you for coming, we're really in need of all the help we can get."
"Yah, came fast as we could when Marigold explained the situation, we'll cover the town for ya and get as many as we can oop and going again." A truly massive... I don't think she's a pony... moose, I think? That sounds right. A massive moose wearing a metal trench hat adorned with the familiar red cross on white background trotted forwards, the rest of the group of flown-in medics starting to scatter across the town. Emerald nodded as I finally found a few more of the Solar Burst rounds, pulling them out and setting them on the ground. Going back to rifling through the contents of my duffel bag, the heavy clomp of hooves caught my attention, looking just in time to see the medic moose reaching for one of them. "So, you guys actually managed to cram a healing megaspell into these things? Mind if we-"
"No, not those!" Practically jumping forwards to grab the grenade from her larger hoof, it bounced in the air a few times as I fumbled catching it, eventually managing to release a sigh. Okay, note to self, don't leave these things more than a few inches away or out of sight. The moose blunk a few times as she looked down at me... Celestia above, I think she's bigger than Featherweight... setting her hoof down. "Sorry, it's, um, these haven't been imprinted with the right spell yet, right now they have an approximate raw blast yield of about fifty pounds of TNT each. Don't really want more explosions today, heh..."
Emerald trotted over to see the commotion, myself passing the few I'd pulled out already to her as the moose watched on. She gave a nod atfer a moment, wearing a smile on her large muzzle. "Yeah, probably wouldn't be somethin' we'd want to do, eh? Well, was just gonna ask if we could maybe bring some o' those healing ones back to Destruction Bay with us, the scientists on the HMS Mercy would love to get their hooves on something like these. Where'd you manage to find the details of the MoP mass healing spell, anyhow?"
As if that were her cue, the ever-cheerful sound of a science-happy AI's voice came in, carrying a small box and a bag of other grenade-sized objects with her. "Emerald! Night Strike! I've got good news and different, unrelated good news!" The moose turned her attention towards Pearl, myself looking on with her and passing another of the Solar Burst grenades to Emerald. The AI stopped in place for a moment, her screen flickering to the thinking mare for a second, before going back to the smile. "Huh, a moose, I haven't seen one of those in centuries! Well, a full, alive, non-amalgamated one, anyways... Anyways! Got another ten of the healing burst grenades made, and a handful of some special ones, too. Bet you're gonna like 'em, Night Strike!"
Picking myself up to my hooves as Emerald took the rest of the Healing Burst grenades from Pearl, I looked at the other small bag held in the AI's grasp, watching as she opened it. What met my eyes was a small pile of standard Solar burst grenades, except... they were glowing blue? Reaching in, I pulled one of them out, looking it over a little more closely. So... blue. At least Pearl seemed excited. "So I was making up the next batch of healing burst grenades when I got to thinking about the formula, and a few of the things we had on hand. To cut a long and somewhat shouty, yelly, don't-touch-the-vials-of-nitro-for-heart-medicationy story short, I decided to see what happens when you mix the spell inside these things with Sparkle-Cola RAD. I dunno for sure what the isotope of Strontium 90 is in those things, but if my calculations are correct, these should be around 150% as powerful as the standard grenades! I probably won't be able to get away with making more, but I can give you the recipe, of course. Just stop by when you've got a chance!"
Pearl passed me the bag of the new grenades, before giving myself and the moose a nod and taking the solar burst grenades from Emerald, assumedly to make more. Watching her round the corner, the moose-medic cleared her throat, wearing a smile still. "So, pre-war research robot with it in her memory banks or somethin', then? Well, so long as she's on our side, and not doing whatever it was regarding amalgamates that she was talking aboot still. I'll go catch up with the rest in town, just be sure to ask for Jean after all's said and done so we can discuss maybe getting a bit of your info for ourselves, eh." Giving a nod, the moose-medic - Jean, I assume - trotted off, breaking into a bit of a gallop to get to the rest of her group. Emerald took to checking over the new batch of healing burst grenades, while I looked down into the bag of grenades I held in my own hooves.
Even more powerful Solar Burst grenades... at the cost of Sparkle-Cola RAD. Yay.
---
By the time we finally arrived back home at the lighthouse, it was well on into the night, the strain from today evident on all of us. Aerith, Scouring, and Crash Dive all seeked out their rooms in the lighthouse, while both myself and Static dropped into the bed in ours, not even bothering to take our clothes off... but still kicking the heavy comforter up so it covers our back legs, at least. It's a cold winter night, almost like a chilly day back home, and frozen flanks aren't pleasant. Though, to be honest, whether or not my rear would be frozen tomorrow morning wasn't really what was on my mind...
"Hey, um, Static?" Nudging the earth pony beside me, his eyes cracked open, a small grunt escaping him. Oh, come on, don't tell me you were nearly asleep already, Sparky. He lifted himself a little, myself biting at my lip and looking between us. "Look, I... I've just been thinking, since we dropped the megaspell... are we really the good guys? I mean, yeah, we -do- good, but... good guys don't use megaspells in anger like we did, do they?"
The earth pony rubbed at his eyes a little, quiet for a few moments as he rolled onto his back, letting off a small huff. He closed his eyes, thinking... I hope, before adjusting himself again to look towards me. "'Course they do, long's they have good reason. I mean, the, uh, the Lightbringer used one f'r killing the Goddess, and your dad launched that missile and sorta set off the ones that made NEAMO crater, didn't he? Good guys use megaspells. Auh, all the time..."
Static rolled over, pulling the comforter up over himself and falling asleep, myself dragging the blanket up as well. I laid back, staring up at the ceiling, just thinking. Dad launched the missile to destroy the Tsetse and stop the battle at Pripytrot, and then the ones at NEAMO crater... well, probably was NEAMO before it became NEAMO crater, and that was some kind of big megaspell cannon or something, wasn't it? Probably couldn't have destroyed either of them as fast or as easily if they didn't use megaspells... just like with us destroying that siege mortar. I let off a soft sigh, rolling to snuggle up with Static, keeping the blanket snug around both of us.
We're still the good guys.
-----
I awoke to the sound of rain pattering against the window, the room a mass of shadows only occasionally lit by the sudden flash of lightning. Grumbling, I rolled out of bed, blindly reaching for the curtains to shut out the bright flashing as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. My hoof met the cloth and I pulled the curtains shut, though the thin sheets of fabric did little to help. I yawned and wandered over to the dresser, only for my sleep addled mind to click and realize my jacket was still on me. I vaguely wondered about how long it had been since it had actually been washed before stepping out along the hallway and into the main room.
The kitchen was almost as dark as our bedroom was, the only source of light not coming from the storm being the faint glow of Aerith’s horn as she sat munching on tinned hay. ‘Power’s out. Think a surge fried a fuse or something.’ Her sign read simply as my mildly confused expression was illuminated by her magic. She reached over the counter before passing me another tin of hay, which I accepted. Well, cold breakfast’s better than no breakfast. The patter of rain grew louder, the windows shaking a bit in their frames as they were pelted by the large droplets.
“Yeesh, you think a storm this bad would’ve been worth mentioning on the radio. It’s going to be fun trying to get to Maple Creek in this…” I glanced out the window, watching as waves crashed violently against the rocky cliffs along the coast. Aerith grimaced, her screen flashing up the image of a gun pointing to her head before it fired, Aerith pulling an over-the-top ‘dead’ face. I rolled my eyes, Aerith grinning as the screen fizzled away. I chewed at the slightly gristly hay, trying to get a few pieces free from my teeth. The squeaking of a door met my ears, soon followed by the thump of hoofsteps as Crash Dive and Scouring Charge stepped out from the hallway and into the kitchen. A few moments later Night Strike wandered out of our room, rubbing her eyes as she yawned widely.
“I hope you weren’t expecting to spend all day here. No tornados or waterspouts, no excuses.” Crash Dive said bluntly. Night Strike grumbled incoherently, stealing my tin of hay, only for her hoof to hit metal as she reached in for some food. Jeez, you think she’d have learned I don’t leave food out by now. Aerith snatched up a few more tins of hay before standing up, Crash Dive at the door. Wind howled and buffeted her, the door flying open and slamming into the side of the house. Crash Dive and Scouring were able to easily step out into the gale, their armor helping to resist the wind. I tentatively opened my umbrella, trying to shield myself from the onslaught of rain. Rather than remaining dry, I was pulled across the slick grass, the umbrella turning inside out and nearly plunging me into the sea for my trouble.
Shaking the umbrella and trying to close it as my jacket was soaked through in only a few seconds, I could see Night Strike trying desperately to fight the wind. It caught her wings, causing her to tumble in the air for a moment, struggling to stay airborne as she was bounced around by the wind and the rain. She managed to dive towards the top of the cliff, skidding in the mud and icy now as the wind dropped out under her. Trudging up the path, we were forced to slog through a foot of water that had already overtaken the land bridge. Shivering in the cold, I picked up my pace to try and reach the relative safety of the Clydesdale. Aerith clambered into the back, shaking her hat dry and tying up the thick cloth side doors after Crash Dive and Scouring had taken their seats in the back as well.
I hoisted myself up into the driver’s seat, shaking some of the mud off of my hooves onto the ground before pulling the madly flapping door cover shut, as Night Strike did the same on her side. Buckets of frigid rain splashed off of the windscreen as I let off a sigh, just taking in the comfort of the closed cabin. Alright ya big engineering half-truck, don’t fail me now… Flipping a few switches, the engine rumbled to life, the loud crackle of thunder filling the air as if in answer. Easing forward, the treads spun in place for a moment, trying to get a grip in the mix of mud and snow before it managed to push us forward. The headlights cut through the darkness, illuminating ever-growing puddles in the dirt and icing-over snow as we made our way towards the path to take us to Maple Creek. Squinting through the darkness, it was almost impossible to tell we were headed in the right direction along the road. Occasionally a flash of lightning would illuminate the mountains off in the distance, giving a hint of our orientation, but it was gone a moment later and we would be lost in the dark storm once again.
As we continued along, the headlights suddenly lit up the creek flowing out of the town named after it. Now, however, the creek was a roaring river, smashing against the side of the already dilapidated stone bridge. I pulled to a stop, looking up and down the river for any means of crossing it. “Uhhh… anyone else got any ideas, other than trying to ford a possible several meters deep river in a half-sealed half-track?”
“You know, this riverbank makes for a good resting place.” Night Strike said sarcastically. I looked over to her, my eyelids lowered to express my dissatisfaction with her quip. She rolled her eyes, sighing. “Come on, Aerith’s lifted heavier things than the Clydesdale, just have her carry us across. Shouldn’t be a problem.” Yeah, it’s that ‘should’ part that worries me… Night Strike still rapped on the back of the driver’s bench with her hoof, Scouring glancing over as Aerith seemed to be napping. “Can you and Aerith carry this thing over the river? Static doesn’t like the look of trying to drive through it.” Scouring sat up, peering over Night Strike to see the roaring river. He gave a bit of a grimace, but nodded anyway before turning back to Aerith to wake her up.
There was a moment of silence before the Clydesdale shook, Aerith and Scouring’s magical auras surrounding it as it began to slowly rise up into the air. Hovering only a few inches above ground, we slowly drifted forward, the roar of the river growing slightly louder as we passed over it. I tried to avoid looking down out of the window, but my eyes still wandered over to the raging rapids, causing me to lean backwards, my stomach suddenly turning over on itself. Ooookay, don’t do that again. Jeez, somehow flying that Vertibuck was still better than this. The Clydesdale shook again before we were gently settled back down on to the opposite side of the river, and I realized just how hard my heart had been pounding in my chest. Wrapping my still somewhat shaky hooves around the steering wheel, I started the vehicle once again and continued to head towards Maple Creek.
It wasn’t much longer before the headlamps caught the few farms on the outskirts of the town, and the shadows of the buildings that could be made out against the inky blackness beyond. Lightning continued to crackle above, being the only source of light beyond a few lonely candles hanging inside ponies’ windows. We pulled up outside of the humble town hall, the engine dying down as the lights faded away, causing the darkness to surround us once again. Stepping out into the rain, I hurried up the steps to the safety of the building, the others close behind me. Shivering and shaking some of the rain off of me as we stepped into the warm interior, we were met by a mare sitting wreathed in shadows, a candle barely illuminating the tip of her muzzle. “Name?” She said simply.
“Uh… Static Charge? And the Vanhoover five? We need to speak with the mayor urgently. It’s about a recent attack on Hopeville.” I responded. The mare sat still for a moment, the sound of a quill scratching against parchment being the only thing that could be heard. Even the rain had seemed to disappear, leaving the lobby eerily silent. The pony looked up, still only barely visible.
“An attack on Hopeville? That is rather serious. Go right on in.” She spoke, her voice never leaving its strange formal monotone. Uh… Okay then, Miss Creepypants. I slowly began to make my way towards the door to the mayor’s office, not wanting to take my eyes off of the secretary. I could swear I detected the faintest hint of a smile on her muzzle before I walked through the door. While not significantly brighter, the mayor had set up enough candles upon her desk to fully illuminate her body as she leaned over the desk, scribbling away at paperwork. She looked up as we entered, putting aside her quill to give us her full attention.
“Hello, haven’t seen you five in a while. You aren’t here to drop off more guns, are you? As good as they might have been for boosting public morale about safety, we really don’t have enough money in the treasury for another one.” The mayor said, digging around on her desk and retrieving a roll of parchment plastered in numbers and calculations. “I suppose we could afford a few more shells, but even still…” Her voice trailed off as he picked her quill back up to begin scrawling some notes down.
Night Strike stepped forward, stopping her before she could finish her calculations. “Actually, we’re not here to sell stuff. Hopeville was hit hard by an attack from Seahoof Armory yesterday, someone had managed to get one of the massive guns there up and running again. The refugees are looking for someplace to stay, and a lot of them could be coming here for shelter. I know it’s kind of last minute, but whoever runs the hotels around here might need to get ready for a lot of uh… extra business.” The mayor simply stared at her, her mouth agape as she tried to process the information.
“H-Hopeville? All of it? What the- The hotels should be the least of your concern! What the hell are we going to do for food for all these ponies? We only have so much land we can use for crops, and even then the harvest won’t be coming in for at least a month! And medical care? Hopeville has the Triage, we have one town doctor! One! We don’t have the kind of supplies to take care of hundreds of injured ponies! And what if they decide to attack here? Why were they bombing Hopeville in the first place?” The mayor put a hoof up to her temple, rubbing it as she tried to calm herself down. “Okay, okay, we’ll… we’ll try, but that’s all that I can promise. There’s just no way we can take in a whole town’s worth of ponies like that, it’s just not possible. We’ll likely have to send a lot of them back to Vanhoover, maybe I can send a messenger out there to try and redirect them before too many start heading the wrong direction. Think you know anyone that might be able to help with that?” He asked.
“I supposed we could go ask Ripple, he should be able to get to Hopeville pretty quickly in his boat. Assuming the storm lets up soon, though I can’t imagine too many ponies would try hiking here in weather like this anyway. That everything, then?” The mayor nodded and began to rifle though her paperwork again, spreading them out across her desk. We turned around and headed back out of her office, the rain pattering outside and fading in and out. I tried to avoid making eye contact with the secretary as we passed by, but I could practically feel her cold gaze upon the back of my neck. Stepping back out into the rain, Night Strike, Aerith, and I all rushed to climb back into the Clydesdale before we could become too soaked while Scouring and Crash Dive continued at their normal pace.
The engine rumbled to life and we were soon driving through the roads of Maple Creek once again. The bank of the river was flooded, the water having risen above the dock Trout was tied to. Stopping as far away from the river as I could, we all regretfully headed back out into the rain, Night Strike pounding on the door. It opened, but before Ripple could say anything we all rushed inside, water dripping out over his floor. “Aye, just come in. I get it’s rainy, but if you were goin' to at least knock I don’t see how waiting another five seconds would’ve made things worse. Anyway, what’re you guys doing here today? I figured once you had that Velcro-whatever up and running you wouldn’t really be needing boat rides anymore.”
Aerith shook out her hat, trying to avoid sending water all over the house as she did. “It’s actually not about us needing a boat ride. We need you to head over to Hopeville, soon as possible. They’ve been attacked, half the city’s been leveled by mortar shells,” I explained. Ripple’s eyes went wide, a look of shock crossing his face as he reached out to catch himself on the table, stumbling a bit. “They need help moving ponies out of the city, some can go here, but a lot might need to be taken down to Vanhoover itself. We were hoping you might be able to help us out.”
Ripple paused, letting out a long sigh as he thought it over. “Jeez, you tryin’a get me killed? This storm’s been one o' the worst I’ve ever seen. Look, I’ll head out there, I will, but not at least until this clears up. Some of the rivers are bad enough when they’re in their banks, don’t need to be getting caught between some fallen trees and capsized too.” He stood up, walking over to a cupboard and pulling out a bottle of cider. Gripping the cork in this teeth, he yanked it open, spitting the cork into a bin as he drank from the bottle. He gasped for breath after a long gulp, looking back towards us. “You guys have any idea who exactly attacked Hopeville? You sure they aren’t going to be able to attack again?”
“Don't worry, we’ve taken out the base, there’s no way they’re going to be able to use it again. We’re still not really sure who exactly did it. At least, we don’t know where they would've come from or why they did it, that is,” I said, rubbing the back of my head. Ripple took another drink of cider, thinking for a moment.
“Can’t you just fly back over the area in your fancy plane thing? Might be able to spot somethin', some kind of clear trail? They had to be affiliated with somepony, right? Would've thought the stuff there would’ve been too complicated for some plain raiders to operate.” Ripple downed the rest of his cider, sighing again and shaking his head. “Celestia, what the hell’s happened to this wasteland?”
I looked over to Night Strike, unsure of myself. “I mean… I think we could? But considering how fast and high the Valkyrie flies, I don’t exactly think the pictures would come out very clear.” Night Strike thought for a moment, scratching her chin as she did.
“Actually, I think there’s some kind of onboard camera thing. I mean, the Valkyrie was built for espionage, they have to have something to actually record evidence of the enemy’s movements, right? And, you know we do have the ability to hover in place vertically with it too, Sparky.” I shrugged, letting off a small sigh. Ripple tossed his now empty bottle of cider into a bin that was starting to overflow with them. He does know that water is drinkable, right? “We better get going, then. If there is something still there, we need to get to it before it's washed away or buried under mud, or something... or Cerberus gets to it. Oh no.” Eyes going wide, Night Strike spun about and hurried back outside into the pouring rain.
Ripple just gave a bit of a wave, looking a little taken aback with the rest of the group. “Well, bye, then,” he said, flatly. The rest of us turned to follow Night Strike out, who was attempting to switch the Clydesdale back on. As she fiddled with the controls, however, the engine continued to rumble and sputter, but was unable to catch. Dashing between Ripple’s shack and the safety of the Clydesdale, I hoisted myself up into the driver’s seat once again. Taking the controls into my hooves, I tried to start it as well, but the engine refused to budge. Shit, come on baby, don’t tell me we’re stuck now... I motioned to the others to head around the back, and they did so, Aerith looking particularly unhappy as her suit was drenched yet again.
Feeling them pushing into the back of the Clydesdale, I tried once more to start the engine, as the others tried to get the tracks moving. The engine coughed and sputtered, but after a few moments of choking on the rain, it roared once again to life, the whole truck lurching forward. I just managed to hit the brakes, getting the heavy truck to stop for the others to clamber on and seal up the cabin. We were soon heading back through the town, on our way towards the Lighthouse yet again. I leaned forward, resting my chin over the wheel as I stared off into the darkness. Night Strike flipped a few knobs on her Pip-Buck, trying to get a radio signal. “Guh, weather’s too bad, I can’t get KAOS. The heck’re we supposed to listen to now?”
As if on cue, Aerith stuck her head over the back of the seat, a wide grin on her face as she held a holotape in her magic. Plucking it from the air, Night Strike slipped it into her Pip-Buck. There was a soft whirring and crackle before a dramatic tune filled the air, Aerith giggling as it did.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlecolts. When last we met, our intrepid hero, the Silver Shroud, was trapped, tied up in a cart, hurtling towards the edge of a cliff as the dreadful Albatross made off with the money he’d just stolen from the Baaston City Bank! How will our hero get out of this one?”
“Drat. It sure looks like I’m in a bind this time! But wait! If I can just reach my bowie knife, I just might be able to cut the ropes!”
---
“Curse you, Silver Shroud! You haven’t heard the last of me!”
“That’s enough out of you, Albatross. I’d save your voice for singing. Once the police get here, you’ll be nothing more than a jailbird!”
“Tune in next time to hear the next great adventure of the hero of Baaston, the Silver Shroud! Only on Pic-“
Night Strike ejected the holotape from her Pip-Buck, passing it back over to Aerith as we pulled up beside the Valkyrie. The storm had subsided, but only slightly, rumbles of thunder and the occasional flash of lightning still filling the air. “You sure you’re good flyin' this thing in a storm? Seems kind o' like tempting fate, if ye ask me.” Scouring said, looking concerned as he watched the skies.
“I think we should be good. I mean, we first flew in during a storm, didn’t we?” Night Strike said, rather optimistically confidently. Yeah, we did, Strikey, and we crashed. And that storm was maybe half as bad as this. Still, Night Strike strode towards the Valkyrie with as much dignity as she could while simultaneously shielding herself from the rain with her jacket.
I sighed, preparing to follow suit. “Alright, just wait here for us to get back, I guess. And try not to say ‘I’m sure they’re fine’, or ‘They’ve done this before’. I don’t need to be jinxed on top of things.” Rushing between the vehicles, I was soon shaking some of the mud off of my hooves as we climbed up into the cockpit. Night Strike was already busy flipping switches around, the sound of the engines slowly coming to life filling the air. I slid into my seat behind hers, strapping in and looking down at the myriad of controls that were laid out in front of me. Scanning some of the labels and racking my brain for the info from the manuals, I jumped a bit as we were shaken around by the Valkyrie beginning to trundle forward. We slowly began to pick up speed, the roar of the engines mixing with the crackle of thunder as Night Strike pulled up, lifting us into the air.
Lighting jumped around in the clouds above us, every now and then a bolt flying down from the heavens to strike the earth below as I fumbled getting the headset on. “Why couldn’t we have waited on this again?!” I shouted, grabbing onto the sides of the seat as the Valkyrie shook once more. Night Strike didn’t answer, still wrestling with the controls to avoid flying too close to the storm clouds. We raced across the sky, making a beeline towards the remains of the Seahoof Armory.
“Calm down, the Valkyrie’s gotta be at least partially shielded from lighting, or they wouldn’t have but on those giant lightning guns in the turrets, right? Now, has this thing got a camera or not? We’re going to need it ready soon.” Night Strike's voice came in clear over the intercom, the whine of the engines and rumble of thunder quieted by the cockpit and earpieces of the headset. I looked back down at the controls, a hoof moving over the various switches and knobs available beside the screen. Eventually I managed to find the switch for the recon camera, the screen in front of me switching to that of the outside, the ground rushing by at an alarming rate and making my stomach churn. Eugh, this is gonna take some getting used to... “Alright, throttling back and deploying airbrakes... Get ready, we’re taking our first pass over.” Taking a gulp, I gave my head a small shake, focusing back on the screen with one hoof over the 'capture' button and the other bringing the camera to focus forwards.
The ground continued to race by underneath, the armory coming into view at the edge of the screen... only, it was completely unrecognizable. The only way I could tell it was the base was the fact that it was the site to a massive black scorch on the land, the buildings all blasted and warped away from the point where the bomb had detonated. Trying not to focus too much on the barren landscape, I pressed the button. A soft beep accompanied the photo, myself refocusing the camera to look at a different section of the base, more towards the east, as Night Strike worked the controls to keep us airborne. As I clicked the button once again, this time a little more zoomed in, a flash of lightning illuminated the ground far off and made something glint the light up from the charred rubble. Panning the camera down as we banked left, I snapped a few more photos, the few flashes of lightning illuminating the ground causing some of the debris to glint brightly back up at us.
Feeling as Night Strike brought us around for another pass, I started to focus the shots more on the areas that were glinting, a faint sense of worry arising from the odd spread of debris. Taking a few more, I let off a small sigh, leaning back from the controls. "No movement down there, I don't think they're going to be trying anything in this weather. We should be fine to head back now... uh, think I remember reading that the Valkyire's computers can process the images in a higher resolution so we can get a definitive picture of what's down there."
"Copy that, bringing us back to the lighthouse, then. It... it was completely destroyed, right?" Night Strike fell silent as we turned back to the coast, the engines behind us whining back to full throttle and rocketing us forwards. I turned attention back to the screen, trying to remember the instructions. Alright, recall images, most recent, display main screen... Scanning through them, I brought up one illuminated by the lightning, looking it over. Better to just reassure her.
"The only thing that I can recognize down there is the sight of the crater it left behind, I'm pretty sure we got them all, Strikey. Nothing to worry about for right now." A sigh came over the headset as the pegasus in front of me relaxed herself, my eyes still focused on the picture. The glinty rubble on screen held my attention as we raced through the sky, a certain feeling in my stomach making me doubt what I'd said.
All the glinting 'rubble' pointed due east.
-----
"Good afternoon Vanhoover, you're tuned to Radio KAOS, and if you are picking us up, consider yourself some of the lucky ones. This most recent storm sort of slipped past our radar... rather literally, and by the time we knew what it had in store for us, well, it was already bad enough to interfere with the broadcast signal. Thankfully it should be clearing up, or at least lessening in severity later today, but until then the best course of action is to avoid low-lying areas and get to the second floor of buildings if possible, and of course shelter in place. If you are caught within the area between Gemdale and Maple Station, the tank ghouls are making patrols to rescue any and all people that were initially caught out by the blizzard earlier this week, so be on the lookout for their vehicles and have some way of signaling them prepared if possible.
"Moving on to more uplifting news, to the displaced residents of Hopeville seeking shelter, the town of Maple Creek opens it's hooves to you, and will be sending a local fisherman with his sizable upgunned fishing trawler to pick up and transport you and your belongings downriver, as soon as the storm flooding subsides somewhat. If there's anypony left over once Maple Creek is full, you will be rerouted towards Vanhoover. Chin up, this is only going to be temporary arrangements while reconstruction efforts take place.
"Anyways, it's a rainy, cold day out there in the wasteland today, and keeping up with getting everyone in a more cheerful mood Radio KAOS is broadcasting songs from the wasteland's sweetheart exclusively until everything's settled back in. Up next, The Old Homing Waltz, heh. Enjoy."
---
The Valkyrie shuddered slightly as it came to rest back on it's landing gear, the large tail being buffeted around by the winds coming up from the coast making setting her down a difficult venture, to say the least. I let off a long sigh and slumped back in the pilot's seat as the turbines whined down, watching the frigid rain outside pattering across the canopy. Static undid the latches on his seat behind me, the clicking of knobs and buttons filling the air. "Mm. Well, gonna take about a day before all the photos are processed and we can see what's up. Hopefully the news they have isn't too worrying, and this weather clears up if it is..."
"The important thing is they definitely don't have that mortar anymore, so they can't do any more damage to Hopeville without exposing themselves to the AA guns. Just hope that the people who stay behind in Hopeville can still work them..." Undoing my own harness, a burst of rain crashed against the glass, Static grimacing as he stood up into the small walkway. Eugh, I really am not looking forwards to walking through that mess... Standing myself up, I turned about to see Static stalling by the doorway, eyeing it with an uneasy look.
"Yanno, probably would stay drier if we left through the bomb bay instead, all things considered. It's pretty centrally located, and the wings do keep most of the rain off..." I let off a sigh, watching as the earth pony turned himself about in the cramped space to look back at his control station. There was a whine of hydraulics, followed by a thunk, as he pressed the button for opening the bomb bay up, myself bringing a hoof to my head. Celestia's sake, Static, it's just warm snow... sort of.
"Yeah, yeah, you can head out that way if you have to. Just be sure to step out under the wing right afterwards, I'll make sure the doors get closed again, have to keep the megaspells from getting wet." He passed on a mildly confused look as he opened the access door at the back of the cockpit, starting to trot through, the sound of the wind whipping around underneath the bomber coming through loud. I leaned myself up against the central console, watching his cute flanks disappear around the corner, before shutting the door behind him. Come on, Sparky, by this point I'd have thought you'd worked out that tempermental weather and electronics-dependent non-waterproofed half-kiloton explosives don't really mix.
Giving him a few moments to get out and stand clear of the bomb bay doors, I pulled myself forwards to the rear seat, looking it over. Fancy electronics, display screens, knobs, switches, dials, guages... wuh. I'll stick with my engine starters, flight yoke and throttle controls, thanks. Leaning over the seat, a click of the same button had the hydraulics start up again, the bomb bay closing shut with another thunk. Grabbing the umbrella resting on the floor as I pulled back - huh, would think you would've at least remembered to grab that before leaving - I turned myself about, looking back through the canopy for a moment. Sheets of water spilled over the glass, making the grey skies above seem to roll and move unnaturally, a small sense of uneasiness meeting me. Those clouds are looking lower than they should...
The cockpit door swung open readily, buffeted slightly by the wind, my wings wrapping tight against my jacket as I climbed down out into the iced-over snow. Static quickly shuffled himself over to retrieve his umbrella from my back, popping it open for a moment. Well, good to know it still does that... among other things umbrellas do, as evidenced when the wind picked up and turned it inside-out. Static rushed back underneath teh Valkyrie's wing to fix the umbrella, myself joining him for the moment, letting off a sigh. Can we please go back to having snowstorms instead? At least those only get you wet after spending a while out in them... and don't cause massive ice buildup in your mane. Ow.
Letting the latest massive downpour pass by, we both made a mad dash for the landbridge, and the lighthouse on the other side. Or, well, at least we tried to find the landbridge... turns out storm swells make that pretty difficult. After a few moments of standing around getting soaked, I eventually managed to find a break to carry Static over, both of us landing in the frozen, muddy snow on the other side. The bright beacon of the lighthouse cut through the constant torrent of freezing rain as we made way up to the door, both of us fast in getting inside to the dryness and warmth of the small home attached. Perhaps a little too fast, if the heavy thumps of two drenched ponies hitting the wood floor underneath them was any indication. Today's been a long day so far. "Oww..."
---
After a decent lunch and a long while of waiting for the rain to slow down, and being thankful Crash Dive could find which breaker needed to be reset so we had power back for heaters and lights and stuff, we were all convened around the table to get things sorted out. Still had the afternoon to go, even if the sky made it feel like it was already heading for nighttime... "So, this is pretty much where Sulfur figured the house and bunker were at. With Seahoof being, well, completely flattened, and the gunsmith in Hopeville out of commission, Sulfur's the only pony around here with any proper gunsmithing knowledge. We ought to get this out of the way sooner than later."
"If this grandfather of hers had some more powerful weapons that used relatively common ammo, would be for the better if we do track this place down and bring out as much as possible. Like it or not, I can't help but think we might be looking at a war sooner or later, and the more ponies with powerful guns we can get on the field, the better." Crash Dive looked on from the end of the table as I kept my pip-buck out and in full view, map zoomed in to the relevant spot. Just a short ways inland from the Vanhoover Heavy Coastal Defense Battery... well, what's left of that place, anyways. We've really been blowing up a lot of landmarks in our time down here. "I don't know what else they have at their disposal, but better safe than sorry."
Scouring scratched at his chin for a little bit, seeming to be thinking. "Mmh. If things get crazy, B Comp'ny's got our backs for sure, an' if what you snapped of what's left o' Seahoof is seriously bad, could be enough to sway the rest of the rangers on side. We can ensure anypony else heading off t' fight has somethin' better'n a pointy stick or old pistol, all the better." He passed on a nod, leaning back in the booth, as Aerith idly sipped from a botle of Sparkle-Cola beside him.
'Well, not gonna do much just sitting around talking about it, right? Let's get going already.' The alicorn wore a smile as she shuffled out of the booth beside me, the half-empty bottle of Sparkle-Cola levitating along with her as I rolled my jacket sleeve back down. Of course she's eager to get going and get her new rifle... Scouring and Static followed suit, with Crash Dive following behind me. Least we can get something else done before today ends.
The rainclouds overhead had become a slightly lighter shade of grey, Static hefting himself up into the fabric cabin of the Clydesdale and getting it's engine started. Aerith and Scouring both pulled themselves into the rear seat, myself sliding onto the passenger side of the driver's bench, only noticing Crash Dive having stopped to look at something as I went to shut the fabric door. I leaned out of the side of the massive half-track, looking up at the sky where she had her gaze fixed, only seeing the rolling stormclouds above. Okay... gonna admit, not the most welcoming of signs if Crash Dive is worried about something. "Uh, Crash Dive? Something wrong?"
The power armored pegasus looked over towards myself for a moment, trotting slowly towards the rear seat of the Clydesdale, her eyes still scanning the skies. She let off a sigh as she pulled herself onto the rear seat, giving her head a shake. "It... it was nothing. Just didn't like the look of one of those stormclouds, it seemed... out of place. Like it was too big, or too close to the ground." The engine roared in front of us as Static got the half-truck moving, myself pulling the front cloth door shut as Aerith and Scouring handled the rest. Low-hanging storm clouds... hm.
Scouring seemed to have been pondering the same thing I was, clearing his throat and leaning forwards as I adjusted myself in the seat. "Mmh, this stormcloud ye saw, think it was big enough to fit a Harrier 'r dragon? Might be worthwhile t' have someone out on the deck keepin' watch, if that's the case..." Crash Dive let herself lean back in the chair, looking up at the canvas roof and letting off a small huff. She paused to think for a moment, before looking back to us, the half-truck rolling smoothly over the half-frozen ground.
"No, no I don't think we have to worry about that. They wouldn't be that sneaky, especially if they had us on a vulnerable target like this thing, what with it having two reactors and no armor. It was probably just me seeing things, jumping at ghosts..." Scouring and Aerith both looked torwards her for a few moments, the power armored unicorn answering with a small shrug as the alicorn let herself keep looking to the road ahead, leaning on the back of the forward bench. Crash Dive kept a weak smile on her face as she rolled her head to look out through the flexible window in the door, one that faded as she let out a soft sigh, a faint whisper accompanying it. "...I hope..."
---
It didn't take too long before the swamplands to the north of Vanhoover came into view, as well as the large gash in the side of the coast that was once home to several tons' worth of cordite, powder charges and 20-inch shells. And a bunch of slavers, and a tesla cannon, but those I'm not sad about seeing gone. Static brought the half-truck to a slow roll as he looked at his pip-buck, the snow and mud crunching by. "Hm. This place probably had a driveway or something, right? Bring us right up to it without having to trek through too much swamp."
"Probably did before the war, but the decade or so of accelerated plant growth wouldn't have done it any favors. Even less if it wasn't paved." Crash Dive leaned forwards behind me to look out through the front windshield with Static, Scouring and Aerith pulling the cloth doors back. Shuffling over to the edge of the seat, I had Thumper brought out, breech open and free hoof running over the ammo choices. Kay, if we do need to blast a new driveway through... I only have two solar burst grenades left. Well, okay, and five of the RAD-infused Solar Burst... Sparkle-Burst, why not. I guess path-clearing shouldn't be too hard if needed. Pulling one of the blue-glowing boom balls out, Static brought the half-truck to a full stop, looking out at the snowed-over trees in his side.
"I... think this is it. There's something that kinda looks like a path on the map here." He moved his gaze between his pip-buck and the treeline off the road, the scattered trunks and heavy, drooping bare branches making it hard to see more than a hundred meters in. A few laid uprooted, fallen over from the years, though past them... that did seem like it was a wide enough path to get the Clydesdale through. A quick double-check on my own pip-buck pointed us straight down there... ho, boy. "Well... there is a path on the pip-buck!"
The whirring of power armor filled the air on the other side of the half-truck, along with the sound of an unfolding rocket launcher, Scouring leaning out of the side with Sunburst at the ready. "Little roadblock won't hold us back. Freezin' rain must've brought 'em dun, too much weight." The steel ranger took a moment to sight it in, before loosing a full barrage against the fallen trunks. The small rockets scattered across the road and trunk that laid across it, a shower of splinters raining down out of the fireballs. Scouring let off a chuckle, slipping back onto the seat, his armor loading a new barrage into Sunburst. "'ere we go."
"Aw, I wanted to do that..." Static passed me a small glare, one of the Sparkle-Burst grenades halfway inside Thumper's breech already, myself pulling it out and tossing it back into my bag. Fine, no balefire egg-and-a-half roadblock clearing today, guess Thumper'll just have to be on anti-bug duty instead. Stuffing a dragon's breath round into her breech, the half-truck pushed on through the road, the suspension easing us over the cratered dirt path and through the forest edge. I turned my gaze back to the pip-buck map, watching as we traveled along it... still not entirely used to that. "So, we're looking for a concrete foundation and a root cellar... what's a root cellar look like?"
Looking to the three sitting behind me, Aerith just answered with a shrug, Scouring and Crash Dive occupied with scanning the overgrown marshes either side of the road. We continued to press onwards towards the markers, the bare trees hardly offering any canopy but still making things uneasy with their ice-laden branches. The heavy sway of the trees was disconcerting enough, and with everypony somewhat distracted looking for the old house... well, the sudden loud creaking and splintering of wood as we pressed onwards was enough to make us jump. Static slammed on the brakes, the Clydesdale skidding for a little bit and the sound continuing. "W-what was that!?"
The roar of the engine quieted after Static pulled the Clydesdale backwards and shut it off, the rest of us hopping off with weapons drawn. Dragon landing in the forest, could be. Another tree falling over, maybe. Whatever it was, want to be prepared... even if it turned out to be just us running over a buried wagon. Guh. Aerith and I both trotted to the front of the half-truck, the alicorn unburying the wagon some more and picking up the shattered bits of wood, fitting them back together. Huh, the logo seemed to have kept pretty well... 'Back Gunner Firearms... didn't Sulfur mention a great grandpa Gunner?'
Looking at the logo for a moment longer, I took to unburying the wagon a bit further, finding it half-sunken in the mud of the road as the snow was cleared away. Before long, my hoof brushed against something dense and metallic, taking hold of it and pulling it free of the snow, taking a look at it. Okay, so it definitely was a rifle of... some kind. Or, was it a revolver... that loads shotgun-gauge rounds. Revolving long-barrel shotgun, that's a new one. Even if it is quite thoroughly rusted and caked in mud. "Well, we must be close, at least. Looks like these might've been a shipment going out, or coming in for repairs, maybe."
Aerith nodded in agreement, as we both turned back to the half-truck and climbed ourselves on, Scouring joining Aerith and Crash Dive... firing off a length of rebar at the sky. I kept Thumper in my grasp as I jumped off, hovering over beside the power amrored pegasus and matching her gaze. The solid metal flew up a good few hundred meters, losing itself in a small, low-flying cloud... hm. Well, there wasn't an obvious thump of it hitting anything solid, so... Crash Dive looked over to me, letting off a small huff. "I could swear we're being followed, somehow. Clouds don't float this low unless they were made to by pegasi."
I turned eyes back to the sky for a moment, before looking back to Crash Dive. Pegasi making smaller clouds float lower... I really hope she's just being paranoid right now. We both headed back onto the Clydesdale, Static starting the engine back up and getting us moving again, albeit a little slower. He wrestled with the steering wheel to maneuver around the overturned wagon, a bit more wood splintering meeting our ears as he turned back to the road, pressing forth. Well, we're moving again, and we know with a bit more certainty that this bunker is around here... now to just find the darn thing.
---
"...what kind of Stable door is this? It opens backwards!" It might've taken most of the daylight, but eventually we did manage to find the entrance to the old root cellar nearby the remains of the house's foundation. Couple doors on the ground, I thought they were just junk... clever way to hide a bunker, at least. And there was still electricity down here somehow, so that was nice, too. The blast door, on the other hoof, that was the confusing part... Static trotted up to it, tapping his hoof against the rounded front of the steel cog. "Sounds solid, but, yeah, definitely can tell this wasn't Stable-Tec designed. Would this really protect against an explosion?"
Stepping up to it myself, I gave my head a slight tilt, looking at the heavy steel door. You know, that was a good point, now I think of it... "Might do it better than you think, all things considered. This door opens outwards into the track, so it must seal up on the inside. Means that when the blast wave hits, the door presses against the frame evenly. Don't the Stable-Tec doors just sort of sit in the frame?" I turned to look back at the rest of the group, Crash Dive and Aerith just shrugging in response. Scouring, instead, stepped forth, examining the door more closely for himself. "Seems kind of silly for the door to just sit in place if it opens inwards. A close blast, that thing's just gonna flop over. Why didn't Stable-Tec use this design?"
"Aye, Stables designed t' save the population, that's a laugh. Well, the door of the Mountain Springs stable has extra lockin' mechanisms built in, never seen it closed before, though. Suppose this design's better fer a simpler build." The power armored unicorn turned attention to the walls after his examination, his horn flaring up and taking hold of a lever built in the concrete. Pulling on it, the whirr of hydraulic pumps filled the air, accompanied by the loud screech of metal on metal as the door was pushed out from the inside. It stopped after it had cleared the concrete frame, Scouring releasing the lever, silence overtaking the entrance again. Uh... oh, goddesses, don't tell me it has to be manually rolled.
Static seemed to share in my lament, trotting up to the massive steel cog and placing a hoof on the teeth, starting to push against them. The heavy steel cog, rather understandably, didn't really feel much like budging. Scouring and Aerith both seemed to sigh as Static continued trying to push, their horns flaring up and starting to assist the blue earth pony. With a loud groaning of metal on concrete, the door eventually began to move, Static stumbling back as the unicorns and momentum took over. It rolled to clear the doorway, coming to rest with the loud creaking of some massive springs in the concrete frame, allowing us a first look inside... and the beauty that laid within.
On the far wall of the bunker hung a massive variety of various weapons, ranging from the relatively recognizable to the downright bizarre. We all moved into the main area, looking around at the interior for a bit, both myself and Aerith moving over to examine the wall of weapons. As I drew nearer, the little names underneath them came better into focus, giving at least a little insight into exactly what they were. Let's see... 'Leslie Carbine'... huh, that's a pretty big barrel for such a small magazine on that one. Integral suppressor like Cross Stitch's Welrod, maybe? Neat.
Going over the rows of various guns, the next to catch my eye... well, it kinda had the barrel from a Gauss rifle. Even though it was a pistol. I think. Lifting it off the rack, I took to looking it over a bit more closely... Mouth grip, yeah, magazine seems to be at a bit of an odd angle coming out of the reciever, mind, but it looks like it can still take the standard ammo Jolts uses. Huh, might be a good gift for Minty. Looking back to the place where it was hanging as I slipped it into my duffel bag, the label for it read 'PP-12, Gauss, Germane make'... I'mma just call it Pew-Pew, that's a mouthful.
As I went back to perusing, Aerith was looking over the magazine from another rifle with an odd muzzlebrake, pulling a round from one of her own battle rifle's clips and fitting it in to compare. As the small click of a round fitting into the magazine, followed by said magazine fitting into the rifle and the bolt of the rifle accepting the round filled the air... well, guess Sulfur might've guessed right. The alicorn gleefully took hold of my jacket with her magic, dragging me over to where she was with the rifle freely presented before her. 'Lookit this! The magazine fits the .30-06, same as the battle rifle, and the label calls it a 'B.G. Automatic Rifle'. This is exactly what I was looking for!'
I let off a small chuckle as I readjusted my jacket, taking the rifle from Aerith's aura to look it over myself. The alicorn cycled the action manually, pulling out the magazine and unused round, leaving me looking clear through the bolt. As she levitated the magazine away... "Same magazine as a regular Automatic Rifle. Kinda odd to have it behind the trigger, but, hey, if it works... Weird to think this thing is a full-auto, feels like it weighs half as much as Dad's." I tossed it in my hooves a little, before shouldering it and looking down the sights. 'B.G. Automatic Rifle'... Back Gunner. Huh, guess we might find some pretty interesting weapon diagrams here after all, if he made this one. Assuming it works as advertised, anyways.
Passing it back to Aerith, she was busy stuffing the magazine with rounds, two and a half of her rifle's clips spent to fill it - twenty rounds, that sounds right. The alicorn happily took the rifle from my hooves, fitting the magazine in behind the trigger and sitting down to give her new gun a small hug, drawing a chuckle from myself. Whatever makes you happy, girl. Right, back to the wall of guns, then... or, not yet. Why does this gun have a mouth grip on the barrel?...
Trotting over to the workbench that the strange rifle laid on, Static moved to join me, apparently examining a pistol of his own. Okay, so this gun here... mouth grip on the barrel, looks like... unless those weights welded on there are to help with recoil, I doubt they serve much other use. Considering this thing has a long magazine, have to assume that it's automatic. Having the wall cut out of the mag without putting even a simple bit of glass to cover it, though... "So, apparently this thing is supposed to be a concussion gun, or something, nonlethal. Think I should bother giving it a shot?"
"Huh? Oh, uh... well, um, you know I don't know a lot about energy weapons, Static. I mean, if you think it could be useful to you, sure." Looking away from the confusing rifle to meet Static's eyes, I gave him a small shrug, the earth pony taking a last look at the laser pistol-thingy before fitting it into his own saddlebags, turning to look at the rifle with me. Mouth grip on the barrel... "Huh... you don't think this rifle was made to be used like a melee weapon, do you? I mean, that magazine would be horrible, imagine all the dirt you'd get in it, jam up the inner workings."
Static passed on an odd look for a moment, examining the rifle-club himself. He moved it over with his hooves, revealing a worn out, unused label beneath it... with another one directly on the gun reading 'Pile of shit'. Well, that bodes well. "...Chau-bat. It's really just a rifle that this guy turned into a melee weapon?" Considering it for a moment, Static took it by the mouth grip, turning his head to pick the thing up fully. Settling back onto his hooves, he stumbled with it for a moment, before evening out. Stepping out of the way, I watched as he gave it a few swings, before dropping it back onto the table. "Eugh, well, he tried to balance it, at least. Do see what he was going for, if it was really such a bad gun that this was all he could do for it."
Giving a small shrug, I let myself rest back against the workbench, looking back along the wall of guns. So many new, different weapons, so little time... Aerith was still fiddling with her new rifle, as some of the guns began to be levitated off of the wall and into a few courier bags, Scouring examining each one as he moved them. Well... okay, yeah, looking at the time, probably ought to be packing things up now. Plenty of time to look at the fancy new guns later, figure out what to keep and what to sell off... and what to just straight-up scrap. When you make a rifle so bad that a good gunsmith thinks it's more lethal as a club, you really should be ashamed...
---
By the time we finally managed to have the Clydesdale loaded with all the new guns, ammunition, and various paper schematics, thankful that the rain decided it was done for the rest of the day, it had already gotten well on into the night, most of the group more than ready for sleep. Well, barring the two of us who drank Sparkle-Cola... Aerith sat across from me in the booth, tending to her new automatic, as I looked over one of the other guns we'd picked up from the bunker. Bigger than a pistol, but slightly smaller than a rifle, and used some sort of pistol-rifle intermediate cartridge, going by the revolving cylinder's length... Ah, the .45-70. Apparently. That's sort of the same caliber as Dad's Luger and Aerith's tommy gun, wonder if the ammo is interchangeable... 'Thinking of putting that revolver rifle into your arsenal?'
The alicorn passed on a small smile as she brought up the screen in front of me, myself putting the five-round cylinder back into place and letting off a small chuckle. "Eh, it's not really my style. You know I'm all about the big, loud, hard-hitting guns, a semi-automatic like this really can't compare to War Crime or Thumper. Looks pretty slick, though." Shouldering the small rifle and looking down the sights, they seemed to be tuned in line, and I had to admit the overall light weight of the thing was pretty nice. Aerith let out one of her own quiet laughs, myself setting the revolver rifle down on the table and turning eyes towards her.
'Might not be the biggest gun out there, but seeing how it's a revolver chambered for a long cartridge, I can assure you it's probably louder than you might think.' She picked up the rifle for a moment, looking at the cylinder and spinning it slightly, the small grin on her face getting a little wider. 'And before you ask, no, you can't fire the .45 Auto from this carbine. .45-70 has a rim that protrudes around the base of the brass cartridge, keeps it from sliding straight through the cylinder's chamber. I'm pretty sure we picked up a few ammunition boxes' worth of it, though.'
Letting loose a sigh, I answered her with a small shrug, taking the rifle back. Eh, well, suppose I might at least try it out, maybe. I mean, the rounds are longer than the other .45 ones, so they probably have a larger powder load and hit a bit harder. Something to think about... sort of like the knocking at the door just now. Though, being fair, that one's probably more urgent. Looking to Aerith, she seemed just as confused as I was, though she did seem to make reassembling her new rifle a priority now - kind of reassuring. I slid myself off of the bench and trotted over, undoing the deadbolt and opening the door, finding myself staring at light grey feathers and bright blue eyes under a flight cap. Uh... "Oh, don't look surprised, I told you you owed me an explanation. So, you wanna start with the jet, the half-track, or the hundred or so guns I saw you guys walking out of that root cellar with earlier?" A cold breeze came off the sea, carrying a heavy spray up and through the door. "Brrgh... and, uh, can I come in?"
"Uh... oh, sure, sure, yeah, we're not doing much, anyways. Right..." The heavily-armed gryphon stepped into the lighthouse's small kitchen, myself shutting the door behind her. Didn't think she'd really be so adamant about it... eh, maybe I really shouldn't be too surprised, after all. Pulling open the fridge, I grabbed two bottles of Sparkle-Cola RAD and one of regular, passing the normal Sparkle-Cola to Hispano as I slid myself back into the booth and laid back. "So... you want me to start at the beginning, or just give you a run-down of the situation right now? Because, honestly, it's kinda a long story..."
"I got all night if it takes, Dad's still helping in Hopeville and I'm not a doctor. Let's start with how you got your hooves on that big plane out front." The gryphon popped the cap off of the bottle with a small hiss as she stepped forwards, taking a sip and settling herself at the end of the table. I let off a small sigh - beginning it is, then. Gonna need the RAD. As I pulled the cap off of mine and Aerith took hers, looking back up I couldn't help but notice the gryphon looking closely at the alicorn, and the alicorn returning the favor. At least, until Hispano's eyes went wide, coinciding with a gasp. "Can't be... Aerith?"
The suited alicorn sitting across from me didn't even put up a speech screen before I saw her jumping out of the booth, moving to tackle the gryphon mercenary. Okay, wasn't expecting that, I will admit. Before I had time to grab the new automatic rifle and fit the magazine in to help with whatever beef Aerith might've had with Hispano, their... laughter, met my ears. What. "Fuck me silly, I haven't seen you in, god, a decade! Guess you've been doing pretty well for yourself since Bridleshade, huh?" They both picked themselves up, the alicorn giving the gryphon another hug, before they both sat back on either side of the table. I shuffled myself over to make room for Hispano, Aerith's horn alighting.
'Oh, yeah, setting off megaspells, killing raiders, taking after pre-war comic book heroes, just the usual stuff. Dunno why I didn't recognize you before, when you were aiming Suiza at poor Night Strike here.' Aerith pointed a hoof towards me as she let off another chuckle, taking a long gulp from her own bottle of Sparkle-Cola RAD. Hispano, for her part, only seemed to be confused... much like myself.
"Aheh, uh, what's with the text screens? Don't tell me you Royal Canterlot Voice'd yourself so hard you blew out your voicebox." The gryphon let off a small laugh, Aerith finishing her drink and wiping off her muzzle, letting off a small cough. Oh, please don't go there... wait a second, Hispano knew Aerith before she was captured? The alicorn sitting across from us let her head fall forwards for a moment, before she let off a sniffle, Hispano quick to reach over and rest a claw on her shoulder reasuringly, eyes wide and worried. She turned attention to myself, as I gnawed at my lip. "What happened to her?"
"She was in a slaver camp just down the coast when we found her, they, um, they cut out her tongue at some point. The screens are how she's always talked with us." Hispano's eyes went a bit wider for a moment, before she shuffled herself out of the booth, moving to pick up her autocannon and duffel bag. Steadying on her hind... paws, she pulled a massive drum magazine out, fitting it into the gun. Oh, stop her before she does something pointlessly... "A-ah, we blew the place up after rescuing her and the other slaves, though! She even stuffed a balefire egg hoof grenade into the ass of the head guy running the place, completely blew him apart before destroying the camp, eheh..."
That at least made Hispano pause, pulling the magazine free of her autocannon and setting both aside, before moving back to the table and sliding into the booth beside Aerith. She held her in a hug, letting off a sigh, the alicorn's muzzle dampening with tears. Well, tonight could've gone better... After a while, Aerith had gotten herself calmed down enough to take another sip of her bottle, resting her hooves in her lap. Hispano looked up at the clock on the opposite wall, grimacing for a moment, before turning eyes back to me. "Uh, look, it is pretty late, we can postpone your... well, all explanations until tomorrow. I'm gonna stay up and catch up with Aerith, if that's alright. See if I can still work my magic like I did back in Bridleshade."
Aerith let off a small, choked laugh as Hispano held her in another small hug, both of them looking at each other with a smile. Well, long as they're not going to kill each other, or wake anypony up... suppose it's fine. We've got, what, at -least- thirty tons of ordinance stored here anyways, an autocannon isn't gonna do much more harm. I passed them on a nod, taking my bottle of Sparkle-Cola RAD and finishing it off, tossing it over to the bin and heading back down the hallway to mine and Static's bedroom. Some small laughter came from the kitchen as Aerith and Hispano talked, the door shutting quietly behind me muffling it while the covers beckoned me beside the already-sleeping earth pony. Pulling the small, slightly battered plushie from my jacket pocket before tossing it aside and climbing into bed, I held it close to myself, pulling the covers up and releasing a long, relaxed sigh.
Been a long day today... hope tomorrow is at least a little better.
---
"And... here we go." The cloud-spotted sky was changing over to morning as myself and Static rested in the Valkyrie's cockpit, the earth pony running over and working the screens at his back-seat console. Lucky the pictures seemed to process faster than expected, I guess, couldn't have been more than twenty hours. Static brought up a gallery of them on one of the screens, scanning through them idly. "Right... kinda regretting taking so many photos now, this is gonna take some time to search through. Are a few that I think we should look at first, though."
"Just, uh, promise me you won't zoom in on any blast victim corpses on purpose, eheh..." I let off a weak chuckle as I rested against the back of the cockpit, the access door to the bomb bay at my back. Static answered with a small shudder of his own - right, yeah, he's pretty squeamish as it is. Thing is, considering why there'd be megaspell blast victim corpses around in these pictures... yeah, don't really want to think about it. Static eventually found a photo he liked, one that seemed to have been taken during a flash of lightning. "Heh, I know your cutie mark's a lightning bolt, but did you really need to choose that one to start with?"
He passed a glare as I let off a small chuckle, the earth pony eventually sighing and turning back to the console. "Actually, yes, there's just something about this one part of it... kind of worried me." I pushed myself onto my hooves to get a better look at the screen, the picture zooming in on it. Now that he mentioned it, what were those things that the lightning was reflecting off of?... also, damn, that's one high-quality camera on this thing, isn't it? "I don't want to say what I think this might be, but if it is what I think... well, we might at least be pointed in the right direction to where they're coming from."
As the picture zoomed in on the flash points, eventually coming to a stop, the sobering sight of a heat-warped metal dragon wing sticking from the mud, dust, and debris came into focus, pointing away from ground zero. Static pulled the view back a bit and panned it over to the next blasted, destroyed robot, the claw of the half-buried escaping robo-dragon holding on to something in it's grasp. I leaned in a bit closer, trying to make it out. "Uh... do we have any different view modes or filters with this thing? I think I see something... odd. Possibly worrying."
Static answered with a small nod, turning a knob on the side of the screen. The view switched between various modes, each displayed in the upper corner; thermal, IR White, IR Black, high contrast... tuned magic. As the picture caught up with the selected filter, the various talismans and other bits that made the robo-dragon go lit up in a bright bluish color with the thing in it's claw being almost a solid blue-white, and - more concerningly - egg-shaped. Oh, I don't like the look of this.
Stepping back for a moment, I paused for thought, looking to Static's saddlebags. Moving and rummaging around in them, eventually I managed to find his magic-vision goggles, taking them and opening up the door to the rear bomb bay. Please please pleeeeease let my theory be wrong... Stepping into the slightly more spacious area home to the Valkyire's last two megaspells, I let off a small huff, putting the goggles to my eyes and looking towards them. As the magic auras from the bombs filled my vision, I found my breaths slightly shaky, still staring at the bombs. Eventually, I managed to make my way back to the cockpit, setting the goggles down and staring at Static, eyes wide. The dragons weren't escaping, they were... retrieving. Based on the size, too, those could be twice as massive as a balefire egg, maybe even three, or four times. And I'm willing to bet that they weren't at Seahoof to shell Hopeville initially...
"Cerberus has tactical megaspells now."