One Minute to Midnight
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“Alright, I suppose we ought to just pick up where we left off. What do you know about Project Cerberus?” I said, standing in front of the bleeding, bruised captain, who spat a tooth onto the floor before speaking.
“Not much, other than it’s something dangerous. I already told you it’s some kind of megaspell delivery system, like they had pre-war. Least, we're pretty sure it's megaspell - could be balefire bombs, too. Saw zebra writing on some of the bots...” He swallowed, only to cough up a bit more blood a moment later. Even his breathing was ragged; Celestia, did Night Strike break one of his ribs? “I don’t know any details on how it works, we weren’t the ones building it, and the crazy fuck running the place wasn’t letting us peek at the schematics anyway.”
“Who is this ‘crazy fuck’? And what about the actual facility this project is in, I need details on that.” I probed, shifting my weight a bit as the captain took another breath. The soldier behind her remained silent, whether due to a fear of answering or a lack of answers, it was unclear.
“Name’s Haukohl, at least I think that’s his real name. The guy’s over 300 years old, could’ve easily changed it in that time.” I raised an eyebrow at this remark. So, another megalomaniac ghoul bent on Equestria’s destruction? And here I thought my dad took care of the last one... The stallion paused, trying to pick his next words carefully. “He’s uh… not exactly a pony though. He’s a brain. In a jar. Apparently some kind of life prolonging experiment they had at the base beforehand. He’s got himself hooked up direct to the mainframe of the bunker, it basically lets him transmit orders to the bots instantly. If he’s killed or the mainframe is shut down, that’d probably stop more of the bots from flying out of there, if it didn’t make them all go into some kind of standby mode.”
I nodded, making a mental note as she continued. “No idea where it is, though. Captain Slipstream was the one who normally talked with him and, well, your friend shot him out of the sky while we were surrendering.” She glared up at me, a bit of blood still trailing out of her nose. I gave a bit of a sigh, looking down at the floor for a moment. This interrogation really wasn’t being nearly as informative as I was hoping... I looked back to the officer, trying to think of what to say.
Before I could speak, however, Crash Dive stepped up, looming over the captives in her power armor. “Alright, cut the bullshit, I know you know more about the base than this. You’ve been working there at least since you left me for dead back in Bridleshade. I know the Enclave, somepony like you isn’t willing to go about your orders blindly. You know something about the base that you aren’t saying, so - Sergeant - spit it out, before I get to work on the bones Night Strike left unbroken.”
The sergeant looked Crash Dive up and down, weighing the odds. “Alright, let’s say there is something there I know about, and it’s something I want. I know you guys aren’t gonna kill us, we’re too valuable to you, and it’d ruin your whole namby-pamby ‘Vanhoover Five’ image, wouldn’t it? Maybe we stop the talk here, and you make do with what you’ve got.”
As the stallion was talking, I wracked my brains trying to think of what he was hiding. Tech? Did the Enclave really care that much about it like the Steel Rangers did? A weapon? It sounded like Cerberus was the only thing there… Caps? My eyes went wide as I suddenly remembered the gold shipment in the submarine. It was headed towards Cerberus, wasn’t it? And if that was just one shipment…
“I think I know what it is you want, but you’re not getting it.” I spoke up, stepping forward as Crash Dive took a small step to the side. “Once we’ve cleared the base, the Steel Rangers are taking control of the facility, and there’s no way in Tartarus that much gold is going to go unnoticed by them. And that’s assuming you can even get back to get it once they’ve got a Paladin guarding every entrance, exit, hallway, and restroom in the base. So it’s either you tell me the layout of the base, including where the gold is, and I can bring you back any bars I can carry, or you’re left penniless upon your release and at risk of being shot the minute you poke your head up around Cerberus. The Rangers are definitely not going to be as forgiving as we’ve been once they have the base under their control.”
The sergeant’s calm look faltered, and he glanced downwards as he began to think. The other soldier seemed to let off a sigh - probably just thankful he wasn't on the recieving end of all the questioning - but remained silent as always. After a minutes of debating, the officer finally grumbled out, “Alright, fine. We’ll tell you what we know…”
---
I scanned the sky above the air base, trying to spot the Valkyrie as Aerith stood beside me. She twirled her hat lazily around on the muzzle of her rifle, clearly tired of waiting. Ponies were still hurrying back and forth between hangars, moving quickly to repair and refuel planes that had returned from their bombing runs. Several began to taxi out onto the runway, following the signals of a pony waving around a couple flags. On the far side of the runway, even more ponies were loading and launching our own missiles over at Fort Maple, each one leaving a loud buzzing sound in the sky as they sped off to impact. I'll be surprised if there's anything even left of the base after all this...
Not long after the line of planes began to speed down the runway and take off, I spotted a speck speeding in from the south, one that quickly revealed itself to be the Valkyrie coming in for a landing. Aerith and I covered our ears as the Valkyrie slowed, descending down in front of the hangar we were waiting outside. Geez, don’t know how I forgot just how loud those engines are. The door to the cockpit opened, and Aerith and I hurried up the ladder inside, Night Strike not bothering to make a full landing.
“You get all the information out of those Enclave bastards?” Night Strike asked, smirking a bit as we boarded. I strapped myself into the seat behind hers as Aerith was forced to simply find a good place to hold on. The ladder retracting and door sealing shut, the Valkyrie's engines roared once more, the aircraft turning quickly about and beginning to speed back southwards. I nodded, peering through the sights of the tesla cannons to get a good view of what direction we were actually heading.
“Yeah, just about everything we could probably need, save for an actual detailed floor plan. Should be easy enough to piece together their info from the diagrams we downloaded off their computers earlier, though.” I responded, quickly looking back up from the camera, my stomach already queasy from the short glimpse. “So, uh, do we actually have a plan of getting to the base without getting, you know, blown up?” I asked, suddenly remembering the last time we had tried simply flying over.
“Same as before, I’ll pretend to drop some bombs further away, you and Aerith will hop out the bay doors and glide to the base. So long as you’re invisible, I don’t think they’d know you got in,” Night Strike said as she turned the Valkyrie slightly to stay on course. Aerith gave a small grumble, not too keen on trying to fly with me on her back again. Oh, come on, I’m not -that- heavy. At least be glad I’m not wearing power armor…
Night Strike began to lower the Valkyrie, as off in the distance Fort Maple slowly came into view. Aerith and I started to make our way towards the door to the bomb bay, Night Strike flipping a few switches as she slowed a bit. The two megaspells and two conventional bombs rattled in their frames as the Valkyrie shot through the air, Aerith pressing herself up to the wall as I did the same, trying to find a good grip. There was a crackle of static as Night Strike’s voice came in over the intercom. “Alright guys, I’m opening up the door, gonna drop a couple bombs then swing around. Jump out after the first run, and you should be close enough to the main base. And… be careful.” Her voice died off as the bay doors open, the rush of wind whipping and buffeting us as the bombs rattled more.
Two of the clamps suddenly released, dropping one bomb after another down towards what looked like open countryside. Suddenly explosions could be heard around us, the Valkyrie shaking violently and turning sharply to avoid a blast of shrapnel. I stumbled, falling into Aerith who wrapped her hooves around me and dove out of the Valkyrie as it peeled away. Struggling, I managed to climb up onto Aerith’s back, activating my suit as her own horn glowed, and she shimmered before disappearing from view.
We were hovering directly above the large compound, the guns below us spinning around in an attempt to track the Valkyrie as it picked up speed, the autocannons opening up as she sped towards the base. Holy shit, this is a lot closer than Night Strike made it sound! I tightened my grip, only to loosen it a second later upon hearing a soft ‘urk’ from Aerith from my accidental choke-hold. We drifted down towards the base, the explosions eventually dying away as the Valkyrie sped out of the artillery range. With a soft thud, Aerith touched down hard, and I rolled off her back, both of us looking around for some way to enter the base.
We hurried off towards the closest building, several robotic dragons and manticores patrolling the area. Many of the dragons were carrying bombs as they took to the skies, flying southwards towards the bases the tanks had overrun earlier today. Aerith and I circled the building, pausing to wait for a manticore to pass by before we opened the door and slipped inside. We found ourselves standing in an abandoned armory, the guns on the walls covered in dust from years of disuse. At the back of the room was what looked like a freight elevator, likely for carrying power armor up from storage. ‘Suppose this is the best option for now’, Aerith’s magical sign read as she trotted up to the elevator. She gave a cursory glance to the weapons on the racks, but considering their age and condition, deemed it a bad idea to try them out.
I looked at the elevator, grimacing a bit. It barely looked like it was going to run, and who knew how noisy it was going to be. Between riding a rattling, old elevator, and taking my chances with more dragons, though… I stepped onto the elevator beside Aerith, pressing the lowest floor available. There was a buzz, and a computerized voice complained “Fifth floor and below must present pass card for authorization.” Ugh, alright. I pressed the button for the fourth floor, hoping it didn’t need any identification. The doors to the elevator shut surprisingly smoothly, and we were soon descending into the base, a small dial above the buttons indicating the floors as we passed by them.
Soon the doors opened to reveal a long steel corridor, one that was eerily quiet compared to the ruckus on the surface. Aerith and I stepped out into it, our hoofsteps echoing through the facility as we made our way slowly through. We passed by a few open doors that lead into small offices, each one covered in a layer of dust. Alright, there has to be someone around here who has access to the lower floors… We stopped in front of a door labeled ‘Security Office,’ and stepped inside. The room held filing cabinets overflowing with papers, along with a desk that was equally as cluttered. I glanced down the hallway, slowly closing the door behind us and switching the invisibility of my suit off.
Aerith’s own magic faded as she stepped up to the desk, flicking a switch as the terminal resting on it whirred to life. I opened one of the drawers of the cabinet and rummaged through it as Aerith typed away, keys clacking softly. Her horn began to glow as a sign appeared beside her. ‘It looks like I can get us a bit further down to the main security hub. Looks like it’s near the vault too. Suppose that makes sense, you’d want a good eye on the treasure...’ She furrowed her brow, looking closer at the screen. “…huh. Looks like gold wasn’t what all those shipments were for, though. Actually, the submarine we found might've been an exception, usually they'd only get a bi-yearly shipment, never had more than a hundred bars on base at any time. With all the mercs, it's a safe bet that number's pretty low now, too. All the other shipping manifests seem to be about carrying medical equipment from Shady Shores.” Her horn and sign fizzled out as the terminal began to whirr even louder, several loud clacks and clunks filling the room as a bright red pass card slid out of a slot at the bottom.
I looked over her shoulder, a bit disappointed. “Wait, seriously? But I thought the Enclave soldiers said there was more gold in here!” I said, a bit whinier than I had intended. Aerith waved her hoof dismissively, swiping the card up. She stashed it in her coat pocket before she shimmered and turned invisible once again. I activated my suit and followed behind her as the door appeared to open by itself. Still the hallways were quiet, with no sign of any life, normal or robotic, anywhere. “Isn’t this a bit… odd?” I whispered to Aerith as we walked towards the elevator. “I mean… this is the right base, isn’t it? Why isn’t there anypony down here guarding it?”
Aerith’s response was simply a small sign appearing in my visor, showing a small pony shrugging. We stepped back into the elevator, Aerith plugging the card in and pressing the corresponding button. A pleasant-sounding beep came from the speaker and we began to descend once again. It wasn’t too long before the elevator came to a stop again, and we were stepping out onto another floor. This one looked even worse than the ones above. Lights flickered above us, barely getting enough power to sustain their feeble glow, and the floor was coated in a layer of dust even thicker than the one in the security office. “What in Tartarus…?” I mumbled to myself as we began to trot through the halls.
We turned a corner, still hearing nothing beyond our own hoofsteps. Aerith came to a stop, causing me to bump lightly into her. I muttered a quick apology as the keycard appeared out of seemingly nowhere, the alicorn withdrawing it from her pocket. Sliding the card into a reader beside a door, the metal door opened, creaking loudly as we stepped inside. The security office was full of terminals, either sitting on desks or built into huge databanks sitting on each wall of the room. The only area that was devoid of machinery was a section of the wall opposite the door, in front of which sat a chest-high advanced terminal, covered in buttons, levers, and dials.
I wandered up to the terminal as Aerith booted up another, only for all the other terminals to begin their boot up sequences as well. The room was full of the soft whir of cooling fans as terminals lit up, clicks of tickertape being fed through vast machines quickly joining in. “Well, any idea where to head next?” I asked, turning away from the advanced interface and stepping up beside Aerith. She fiddled with the machines, tapping through multiple menus as she searched the various options.
‘Looks like there’s another elevator on the opposite side of the facility, that should take you down to the main command center. Looks a bit like a cross between the databanks at Shady Shores and the control tower up at Vanhoover Air Base,’ Aerith’s sign read. I nodded, my eyes scanning the screens that showed the room she was talking about. As it did, I noticed a small label of the room we were in. ‘Cerberus Construction Center’.
“Hold up, what’s that thing?” I said, pointing out the option. Aerith tapped backwards before selecting the option again. A light began to slowly pulse behind us, drawing our attention to the advanced terminal I had skipped over. The orange bulb below the lever was glowing faintly, beckoning me to step up to it. I glanced back at Aerith, who simply showed the shrugging image yet again. I carefully wrapped my hoof around the lever, and pulled downwards.
Gears ground into motion, and what had appeared to be a wall behind the terminal opened up to reveal a shutter covering a thick glass pane. My eyes went wide as I saw what was beyond it, Aerith letting out a short gasp as well. The window opened up into an enormous silo, where a missile nearly fifty feet across sat. All around the missile clambered robotic dragons, piecing together parts of the body, small jets of flame shooting out of their mouth to act as welding torches. One’s tail sliced through a piece of metal, cutting it to the appropriate size for a new sheet around the main body of the missile. I took several steps backwards, my legs growing weak as I watched the metallic beasts continue their work.
“Holy shit…” Was all I could manage to say, still staring at the enormous weapon. I shook my head, trying to pull myself out of my stupor as I walked back over to Aerith. “…okay, okay, so, uh, that thing's a… lot bigger than I was thinking… and… uh… yeah…” I gulped, looking to her. Even through her shimmering form, I could tell she shared my worry. “Let’s… uh… let’s get down to the control center now,” I said after several more moments of standing in silence. Aerith nodded, but as we turned to leave, we heard a loud clang from the wall behind us.
We turned around to see a robotic dragon staring through the window into the room, its eyes scanning about. They flicked from the door, following a trail along the ground before reaching the spot where Aerith and I stood, staring directly at us. We were both frozen in place with fear, neither daring to move an inch. Suddenly the dragon let out several loud klaxon blares, lights glowing as the terminals around us fizzled out. What?! How’d it know?! The dragon vanished from view, dropping down and scurrying along the sides of the silo towards a large service door.
I rushed out of the room, but the moment I passed through the doors, alarms began to ring around us and the door slammed itself shut. I turned around, punching at the keycard slot. “Aerith?! Aerith, get out of there!” There was a flash, Aerith teleporting herself through the door before cantering off down the hall. I raced after her, looking down as we ran. I noticed Aerith’s hoofsteps appearing in the thick layer of dust on the floor, revealing her movements as she dashed around a corner to the command center elevator. Fuck, fuck, fuck, they’ll see us anywhere we go!
I tried my best to kick up as much dust as I could chasing after Aerith, but it did nothing to hide the trail of steps behind us. Loud clanging and clatters could be heard, along with synthesized roars as the dragon slipped into the corridor, chasing us down. It let out a jet of flame, the flames engulfing the suit as I sprinted away. Gah, fuck, fuck, fuck! The lens of the helmet cracked as it heated up, wires fizzling as the suit’s stealth field began to die.
I tore off the helmet as the flames died away, throwing it behind me, only for the dragon’s talons to smash it into the dust as it clawed its way after us. I panted, racing after Aerith, who threw herself into the elevator and mashed the buttons. Hold that elevator, I swear to fuck if you don’t hold that elevator… I dove into the small room, crashing painfully against the opposite wall as Aerith continued to press the buttons in a frenzy.
I rolled onto my back, watching as the dragon prepared another jet of flame. Before it could fire, Aerith snatched up my umbrella and jammed it into the buttons, sparks flying as the circuits overloaded themselves. The elevator lurched, and we were suddenly sent plummeting down the shaft, the dragon’s fire burning up the cables above us. Aerith grunted and gave several incoherent shouts as she dragged me to my feet, her horn flaring as a bolt of magic blasted a hole in the ceiling. Aerith jumped up, her wings flaring as she hoisted me out of the falling elevator. Deftly dodging the whipping cable, the alicorn began to slowly hover downwards, the elevator finally reaching the bottom of the shaft with a terrible crunch.
I dared to look upwards, spotting the dragon’s head poking through the elevator door. It let out an indignant clack of its sharp beak, unable to squeeze into the small shaft to follow us. Aerith’s wings fluttered as she came to the elevator wreckage, landing gently atop it. I gave a sigh of relief, taking my umbrella back before bending over to attempt to pull open the doors to the lowest level. Aerith’s horn lit up, and with a grunt of effort, we managed to pull the doors open and drop into the hallway.
Unlike the floors above, the hallway leading to the command center appeared to be well maintained, the lights glowing brightly along the practically polished metal surface. Aerith and I cautiously approached the door at the end of the hallway, both glancing towards each other before pushing the door open.
We were greeted by rows upon rows of computers and terminals, all whirring, humming, and beeping as they lined the walls of the room. Thick wires ran from each of the computers, snaking across the floor up onto the desk at the center of the room. And sitting on that desk was a large glass jar connected to several more complex machineries, in which a brain floated calmly. A voice soon crackled in over a speaker connected to the jar that was... unnervingly, just as calm. "My my, so the Vanhoover Five finally have some representatives sent to appear before me. You both certainly did take your sweet time getting here, Static Charge and... Aerith..."
The voice forced Aerith's name out with more than a hint of anger, whether it was well-placed or not being anyone's guess. Honestly, I was just a bit more unnerved that he knew our names - I mean, we weren't exactly keeping a low profile the last few months, but still... Taking a breath, I stepped forwards, eyes focused on the jar. "The game's over, Cerberus, our friends are gonna be blasting open your doors and wrecking that missile any moment now. You've lost."
The brain floated quietly for a moment, before the speakers erupted into a loud bout of laughter, forcing me to cover my ears as Aerith conjured up a pair of magical earmuffs. Egh, are we sure that the real project wasn't something to do with the way this room reverberated sound so loudly? "Eheh, oh, stars above, you've made it all the way to my inner sanctum, discovered my project, and yet you -still- don't know my true name? For as many of my dragons you've taken down, I think I may have given you too much credit. Though, I suppose I may have been a little overzealous about what I did allow you to copy from these databanks all the same..." Both myself and Aerith shared a glance with each other, her eyes as wide as mine. He... he knew about that? How!? "Oh, don't look so surprised, it's unflattering to you. I'm linked to every part of this facility that has some form of electronics in it, do you think I wouldn't have monitored a storage drive getting plugged in on a surface console? And to just rip the poor thing out without properly ejecting it, I'm surprised if you got anything off it at all, even without my own bit of corrupting the data!"
'Hey, we were under a lot of pressure at the time, your damn robots weren't exactly making it a walk in the park for us!' The blue alicorn beside me stepped forth, understandably a little annoyed by that. Her magic flare up, her rifle levitating out beside her. 'How about we see what happens when you aren't properly ejected, ya damned dirty stripe...'
Reaching a hoof up to try and keep her from firing - don't really want to have her somehow accidentally set off the launch circuits while we're still in the base - the brain let off another bout of laughter, catching us both by surprise and forcing Aerith to drop her rifles as she made up an even bigger set of earmuffs. "A-hah, oh, WOW, you -must- be at least as old as I am to remember THAT old insult! And to use it so childishly as well, my gods above... Doctor Haukohl, not my birth name but the closest approximation your offices of citizenship could be bothered to put down. Not that it really matters, anyways, I'm sure my name will live on as Cerberus once the missile takes flight. At least, to those who may survive, anyways..."
"And what makes you so sure your missile will fly?" Taking another step forwards, the brain floated in front of us, silent. "We saw the missile before we got here, it was still being constructed by your dragons. If it does launch, it'd probably tear itself apart before it even breached the atmosphere. Not that we're even going to let it get to launch in the first place." The brain - Haukohl, I guess - only seemed to settle in the jar, my eyes focusing on it as the hum of computer banks filled the air around us. I blinked a few times, looking up around the room for just a moment, a very good point dawning on me, and probably Aerith as well - he didn't have any defenses in here, at all, did he? No roof-turrets, the floor's too cluttered by wires to have any pop-up turrets there, and I kinda doubt the desk would be hiding any, either. It'd just be the dragons, and without the brain controlling them...
"Oh, those utterly incompetent oafs! No wonder they left me to surrender, their utter laziness and inability to do ANYTHING without me babysitting them left me short on construction robots! If only I never let them take those dragons for those stupid recoilless rifle warheads..." I turned my head to grab the handle of my umbrella off my back, before what he'd said sank in. Or, more specifically, the way he had said it - I've done enough sweet-talking in my life to know when someone's putting up a show. Still, I pulled the long taser up, just watching the brain bob silently. "Hmh, unimpressed then? Well, you can't fault me for trying. Though, if you really think killing me will save the day, then perhaps your misguided and mentally unstable marefriend might've gotten into your head too much, Static. The truth of the matter is, whether I'm still in this jar or not when you leave, heh heh... I've already won. And there's nothing that you nor your hopelessly deluded friends can do about it."
I lifted up my umbrella, gripping the handle between my teeth tightly as I approached the tank. Well, if he’s going to make it this easy… I leaned backwards, only to swing my neck around and smash the end of the umbrella into the tank. With a resounding crack, several fissures appearing in the glass before the entire structure gave way. Gel rushed out over the desk, the brain flopping pitifully onto the wood. Lights flickered, shutting off one by one as each of the computers tied to the brain began to shut down, silence falling in the center.
I stepped backwards, glass shards crunching under my hooves as I walked back around to the other side of the desk where Aerith was standing, her horn now the only source of light in the room. “So, what in the name of Celestia and Luna was that all about?” I asked, trying my best to wipe some of the coagulated gel off of my umbrella before stowing it. Aerith just pointed to a skeleton slumped up against the back of the desk, previously hidden from view. Several wires ran from a sickeningly large hole in the back of its skull up to the brain. I bent down, noticing a piece of paper clutched in its grasp.
Pulling the paper free, I held it up closer to Aerith’s horn, trying to read the extremely faded ink. It looked like some kind of print out, important sounding codes and labels running along the top and bottom. ‘Project Cerberus: Supersonic Low Altitude Missile, Balefire Bomb Delivery System. Expected Completion: 2085. Director Haukohl approved for surgery to oversee facility due to death of Senior Officer Zephyr’. I let the note fall back to the floor, unsure of what to think. I… suppose that answers that question, at least…
“Uh… any idea if there’s a way out that doesn’t require climbing up a broken elevator shaft?” I asked, looking around the room. Aerith shook her head, and began to trot back down the hallway we’d entered from. Ugh, getting out of here isn’t going to be fun… She peeked her head out of the gap at the top of the doors above the crashed elevator, looking upwards.
‘It doesn’t sound like anything’s moving around up top anymore… you think killing him actually did shut the whole base down?’ She asked. Looking to her, I let off a quiet sigh, nodding lightly - I sure hope so. Trying to avoid those dragons in the light was bad enough… I squeezed through the gap after her, before climbing up onto her back as she spread her wings and began to fly up the shaft. I lowered my head as we approached the door at the top, wanting to make myself as small of a target as possible. As the hallway came into view, however, we were met by the robotic dragon laying motionless on the ground, its eyes no longer glowing.
Aerith landed, and I slid off her back, stepping slowly up to the dragon. Aerith poked at its claws a bit with her gun, but the robot failed to react. We headed back to the security station, the window revealing the various robots that had been working on the missile to have ceased in their activities too. I let out a sigh of relief, leaning up against one of the computers as I did. Finally… now it’s just a matter of drilling our way out of here…
---
Aerith blasted through the elevator shaft doors with her magic, both of us climbing through into the armory we had entered from. The alicorn gave her wings a healthy shake, clearly exhausted from the effort. We trotted outside, the air no longer filled with the sounds of artillery fire and robots stomping around. I lifted up the flare gun and fired a shot off, the ammunition exploding brightly above us. It wasn’t long before I spotted the familiar shape of the Valkyrie coming into view, Night Strike swiftly bringing it down beside us.
We clambered aboard, Night Strike beaming brightly as she pulled me into a tight hug. “Oh thank Luna, you should’ve seen the way those dragons dropped out of the sky! They sparked and fizzled and dropped like stones! Ha! Best freaking feeling I’ve had since drinking RAD for the first time.” I rolled my eyes, returning the hug before stepping over to my seat as Night Strike did the same. She brought the Valkyrie up and began to fly west, back towards the lighthouse. “Crash Dive and Scouring should already be back, Scouring’s radioing in that it’ll be safe for the Rangers to start picking apart the ruins now that everything’s off.”
I nodded, leaning back in my chair as we sped through the sky. There was a crackle of static, and Crash Dive’s voice came in over the radio. “Uhh… Night Strike? Static? You guys heading back to the lighthouse, right?” She asked, sounding a bit worried. Night Strike flicked a switch before responding as I sat up a bit straighter.
“Yeah, why? Something up?” She pulled the controls around, lowering us as the cliffs of Vanhoover appeared in the distance. There was a moment of silence before Crash Dive responded, now sounding a bit more confused than worried.
“Uhm… yeah, some pegasus in a tank the size of a football field is telling me if I don’t tell him where Night Strike is, he’ll shove a fuel rod so far up my ass my spit will glow in the dark. And some unicorn’s asking about Static too, though he hasn’t threatened me yet, so I’m a little more inclined to cooperate with hi-“ There was the sound of an explosion, Crash Dive shouting loudly “Gah, jeez, fuck, it was a fucking joke, you mad stallion! Fuck, I can see where Night Strike gets it from... asshole!” The radio went silent, Night Strike looking back over her shoulder to me. I shook my head. No. No way they made it all the way down here.
But even as I was thinking it, the lighthouse came into view on the horizon. The tall structure sat in the water as always, but up on the coast was a large rectangular shape. One that looked distinctly familiar. No. Way. Night Strike brought the Valkyrie down right in front of the TOG, nose to nose. We sat in silence for a long moment, a white unicorn with a teal mane and a golden pegasus with a jet black mane both leaning out of either side of the tank. Night Strike's eyes were wide as she undid her belts, jumping out of her seat and nearly tripping over herself diving out of the cockpit door. I followed soon after her, Aerith jumping out as well to see Night Strike jump up into Twintails' forelegs, sending them both falling to the snow. “W-what took you so long?! You find me wandering through Quebuck after an hour but it takes you a few months to make it here?” Her large grin and tight eyes betrayed her words, the pair of them getting back to their hooves.
“Oh my Goddesses, thank Luna you’re alright! We’ve been looking for you for so long, we... Oh, just, never leave me again!” Twintails worked his way through tears, still squeezing Night Strike tightly. As the two fell to their own brand of reunion, I turned my attention to the unicorn standing outside the other side hatch, rushing to his own hooves.
I couldn’t stop myself from grinning as I hurried over to him, being pulled into a tight hug by the old unicorn. Even the cold metal of his leg under his jacket felt welcoming as we sat there, finally together again. “Heh, should I tell Cross Stitch you ditched his shirt for some fancy new armor? I don’t think he’ll take that too well. And Greasy was pretty angry when she found out you swiped her old umbrella without her testing it first, said you’re lucky the thing didn’t blow up in your face.” Minty joked, poking at the stealth suit. I let out a weak chuckle, shaking my head and sitting down next to tank. I took a deep breath, trying to relax - guh, I never was that good at getting over being shot at...
“How the heck did you find us? And, why’d you take the TOG? I get it’s a moving fortress, but I would’ve thought you’d be on the first Vertibuck down here if you knew where we were.” Dad just shrugged and let off a chuckle, the sun glinting off of his shiny metal horn as he shook his head a little bit.
“Oh, you know Twintails. Even when we need to get somewhere fast, he insists we bring as much firepower as possible. And your… flying, thing sent out a distress signal when it crashed, or something. I would’ve thought you’d have noticed that, sure gave Quazar a heart attack, yanno.” After a shall chuckle, he waved his hoof, shaking his head again. “Bah, it doesn’t matter in the end. I'm just glad to finally have you back again, Static...”
I chuckled again as dad pulled me into another hug, shaking my head, only to flick my ear a moment later. There was some kind of… humming, in them. Don’t tell me I’ve finally got Tinnitus after spending so long with Night Strike. The humming grew louder, though, starting to sound much more like rumbling. I noticed Night Strike and Twintails had stopped talking, both of their gazes directed upwards. I turned around, my eyes growing wide as they finally found the source of all the noise.
A thin trail of smoke was rising up in the southeast, topped by a bright white flame.
Project Cerberus... had launched.
-----
"S-Strikey, what's... what's that?" Dad looked to me as my eyes were frozen onto the steadily-climbing missile, watching it start to arc southwards in it's trajectory, slowly but surely. My hooves fell limp, everything going quiet around me, even as I watched my dad rushing over to the TOG and dropping into the top of the turret. The barrel of the 17-pounder gun swung around to aim towards the southeast, then started climbing as fast as the motors would allow, not taking too long before hitting the top of it's elevation.
"No use pulling a Pripytrot silo attempt, Twintails, that thing's at least forty kilometers away! What the hell is it, anyways?" Minty had pulled out his gauss rifle and was tracking the missile with it as well, my eyes meeting Static's as Project Cerberus continued to rocket skywards. But... but... I thought you killed Cerberus... how could he have launched it if he was dead!? Unless...
A loud scream left me as I smashed both forehooves to the ground, eyes screwing up tight as I spoke through clenched teeth. "AAGH, for FUCK'S SAKE! Does every goddess-damned wasteland supervillain have a dead hoof switch for their superweapon or something?! Fuck!" Shuddering breaths escaping me, I went back to watching the missile's ascent, everything gone limp. We... we failed. Static had trotted over beside me, resting a hoof on my shoulder to comfort, my vision turning to him. He let off a sigh, letting his head fall, before pulling me up into a tight hug - at least we'll have each other, in the end.
Blinking my teary eyes a few times, the black, silent shape of the Valkyrie met me, resting as a quiet guardian behind us both. All the flights, all the fights, all the memories... no. There must be something we could still do. That missile isn't flying supersonic yet, we would've heard it as a sonic boom well before the rumble of the engines caught up with us, and if we hurry... I leaned back in the hug, my eyes meeting Static's for a moment, a grin on my muzzle. His eyes hung in confusion for a moment, before going wide, a smile infecting his own face. We broke the hug, and I started rushing over to the Valkyrie's open cockpit door.
As we both reached it, however, a flash and lingering smell of ozone met us, as well as the sound of four hooves landing hard against the grass, our dads standing in front of us. Understandably, they weren't exactly seeing the sanity in what we were rushing over to the plane for. "What do you two think you're doing?! Strikey, we've gotta get back into the TOG, and get Featherweight back here with Buzzy and Cross Stitch, pronto. Who knows where that missile's going to land?!"
"It's not going to land anywhere, it isn't designed to." Static took point, stepping up to the cockpit door while still looking towards Minty and Twintails. "It's kinda like a cruise missile, except instead of only carrying one warhead or a few warheads to a specific target, it just flies around dropping off balefire bombs wherever it pleases, indefinitely. It uses an open arcane reactor design for the main propulsion, too, so even when it isn't dropping bombs, it's still irradiating the countryside. The Valkyrie is the only thing that has a chance of catching and destroying it before it gets to cruise speed, and we're the only ones who can fly the Valkyrie." There was a short pause, before Static stood back, moving forwards to hold Minty in a tight hug. "I'm sorry, but... we're the only ones who can do this. I love you, dad."
Our dads looked between themselves as Static broke the hug, and made his way fully up into the cockpit, myself following behind him. As I placed my hooves on the ladder, though, I felt a hoof grab for my shoulder, turning around to see dad behind me. His eyes were wide, and carried no small hint of worry behind them as he tried to find the words. He looked to Minty, a quiver in his lip as he finally spoke. "C... Come back to us. Please."
Resting a hoof on Twintails' foreleg, I stood back from the ladder as well, moving to embrace him in a hug myself. "We will, I promise. I love you." Getting a quick squeeze in return, I moved back and climed my way up into the Valkyrie's cockpit, dropping into the pilot's seat and shutting the door. A flash erupted from beside the TOG ahead of us as Minty teleported back beside it, Twintails landing beside him as the turbines quickly spooled up to full roar. Throttling up, the Valkyrie was soon rising up vertically, the nose easing around to point towards the large contrail still rising skywards. Lucky this is a pretty slow missile... "Whaddaya think, Static, nice day to save Equestria?"
"Just promise me you're not gonna have this become a regular thing, my heart's pounding enough." With a quick kick of acceleration, we were speeding across the wasteland once more, soon hitting trans-sonic speeds and rattling whatever windows might've been left unshattered in the Bridleshade ruins. The rattling of the aircraft quickly gave way to the quietness of supersonic flight, and as the mountain ranges passed beneath us towards Fort Maple, I started bringing the Valkyrie's nose up, lifting us ever faster towards the missile. One last big show for us...
As my eyes were tracking the missile's trail to bring the Valkyrie's nose pointed at it, however, it started to lower to a flatter angle of ascent, before the plume of flames coming from it changed to an entirely different color and our pip-bucks began clicking in unison. The Valkyrie's canopy tinted to save our eyes from it, my hoof pushing the throttle as wide as she'd go to keep up with the missile. Two large boosters ejected from its sides, falling away from it for a moment before disintegrating from the drag, making me pull back on the yoke quickly to try and avoid them. Well, less time to work it is, then, just have to... oh, crap.
"Static? Bad news. Forward guns are empty." I couldn't look behind myself to see his expression at the time, but I'm willing to bet that it was somewhere between 'are you kidding me!?' and 'you stupid, stupid freaking moron!'. Which, in all honesty, was quite fair. Rapid clacking came from his console, before he let off a few annoyed grunts, hitting his hooves against the hard metal a few times. "What's wrong now?!"
"We're going too fast, the tesla cannon turrets auto-lock facing backwards at supersonic speeds to save them from ripping off due to drag. I can't fire on it either!" ...well, fuck. So, we're chasing down a supersonic megaspell-armed missile that can indefinitely rain radiation and warheads across Equestria while at speed, and we're unable to fire back at it. Yeah, if I'm gonna be honest, I've had better days. Going white-hooved on the throttle, it was opened just about as far as she'd go, and yet through the Valkyrie's canopy I could just about make out the fact that the missile was starting to get away from us - oh, this is really not good...
"We're losing it, Static, we gotta think of something quick! Uh, maybe we still have a thermobaric bomb onboard, we could try throwing that at it, you've got some afterburner activation controls back there, don't you?" Yeah, arcing a conventional bomb at... mach 3 into the tail end of a giant missile powered by an arcane reactor, arguably not the greatest of idas but it's not like we have many options at this point! Static clacked away at his terminal behind me, as I tried to keep the missile in view ahead of us. That damned thing is definitely getting further away...
"You dropped both of them already! All we have left are the... well... fuck..." Out of thermobarics, so all we have are... our own megaspells. Oooohoho, fuck me with a 17-pounder. There was a moment's pause, before Static started working his console again, the HUD on the canopy changing in front of me. The missile was now selected by a square wireframe, and nearly by instinct I found myself guiding the new crosshair about to get it lined up inside the center of the box. Well, I mean, round bomb... round hole... "Alright, brace yourself, Strikey! And get ready to pull back hard!"
The heaviest kick of speed we'd both felt in a long while hit us both hard as Static hit the afterburner, myself working as much as I could to keep the crosshair centered on the box. A thunk was barely heard over the blood pounding in the back of my head, the windscreen soon lighting up with a 'pull up' warning, which I obliged as best I could. With the sound of groaning metal, and the whine of the central turbine starting as I held the yoke tight against my chest, another sudden kick of acceleration hit us, everything starting to go dark once again. Heh, almost felt like the first time we climbed aboard, that glimpse through the clouds as we gained altitude, before...
The sky outside lit up in a brilliant white flash, the windscreen barely having time to compensate for it, before everything went dark again. Fucking aces, Strikey.
---
"You're tuned in to Radio KAOS, and the breaking news due east from Vanhoover is apparently the launch of a missile of some description, out from the base which was being placed under siege earlier today. We haven't got any casualty reports yet, if anyone's been injured by the launch, and we're not sure where the missile is targeted either, but hopefully... Goddesses above..."
The rather unceremonious sound of several consecutive gulps was heard over the airwaves, followed by a bit of gasping for air. "Mmm, gwuh, sorry listeners, just forgive me for this bottle of Wild Pegasus I have in hoof. Today's been... today's been a hell of a day here, I can say that much. We'll keep you all updated as we learn what unfolds, though since our secondary radio sets are still down we're pretty much relying on what you fine folks can tell us... hm?
"Ah, heh, as it turns out, the Vanhoover Five already are aware of the missile - little surprise there - and are en route to destroy it! Heh, these guys just never give up, no matter what the odds, eh? Here's to you five fine mares and stallions, we're all counting on you guys, and we know you can pull it off. Heh, matter of fact, let me see... Hah, so I can, just about can make out the sight of their contrails heading over to meet up with the missile's from here. I'm sure our resident flight coordinator would forgive them for breaking open the sound barrier given the circumstances, eheh...
"We'll be giving as much of a play-by-play as we can see from over here, though it is getting a bit hard to see as their contrails merge up. From the looks of things though, have to wonder how they're planning on managing this. Their plane isn't a slouch in the firepower department, that's a sure thing, though I dunno if auto and tesla cannons would do much versus a missile, or if they'd be more than effective, eheh. Still, I'm sure they've got a-
"U-uh... uh... it.. it's hard to describe what's just happened, stallions and gentlemares, but from the looks of things... there's been... the missile's... I..." The DJ paused, taking another long draw from his bottle of amber liquid. "Stallions and Gentlemares, I think... I think the Vanhoover Five's plane might be gone."
---
I gasped for breath, finding myself staring upwards at a blue sky, the rustling of leaves on the tree behind me meeting my ears as things started to come into focus. This place... it's familiar, but, where is it? The red and white-patterned blanket underneath me shuffled as I moved upon it, the tinkling of magic and clinking of glass bottles meeting my ears beside me. Turning to look, a bottle of Sparkle-Cola RAD met my vision, and past that sat a blue unicorn mare, her lime-green mane falling over her orange eyes as a smile crossed her muzzle. Tenatively, I took the bottle of soda from her magic, as she opened up her own bottle and leaned forwards.
"Had a feeling we'd meet again before this was all over. Nice weather for it, too, a bright, sunny day..." Gamma Ray let off a light chuckle as she gave her head a shake, looking out across the grassy valley below. "Heh, sorry, that joke's getting a bit tired now, isn't it? Ah..."
I blunk a few times, setting my unopened bottle down for the moment. Back again... what was going on before I was here? There was climbing into the Valkyrie... chasing down the missile... then using the megaspells. And then... I looked back up at the mare, and the valley below. Gamma Ray was dad's mom, sorta... and she's... The unicorn mare let off a sigh beside me, giving her head another shake. "You know, you look just like your father did when he started getting worked up over something. Trust me, Strikey, your time's still a long ways off. You were thinking it yourself, you silly goofball, you really need to learn how to pilot that plane of yours so you stop knocking yourself out at the controls."
That at least got a sigh of relief out of me, for the moment, anyways. Not dead... yet. "Heh, yeah, I-I probably should, shouldn't I? But, hey, it's not like I'm going and climbing in a fridge, right?" Letting off a weak chuckle, Gamma joined me in it, taking a sip of her drink afterwards. Heh, yeah, suppose our big wasteland-saving event does work out just a little more on the dignified side of things than our dads' did... I rested back, looking down at the bottle of glowing soda. "So... barring another case of my magnificent piloting skills, this... gonna be the last time I'll get to see you? Or, do you just drop in every now and again when you feel like it?"
The old mare wore a smirk as she leaned back, looking up towards the sky above. "Not sure. I might be able to show up in your dreams like I do with Twinnie, but we might just have to wait and see on that. First things first, though, you've got a plane that's seen some better days needing landing. Don't want you showing up again for keeps, and all." A small chuckle escaped her as I finally uncapped my bottle of RAD, taking a good whiff of the soda. Smells like home already... wait, I still have to land the Valkyrie? And if it's like the first time, I must be passed out, so... how upside-down were we?! Gamma Ray's hoof soon rested on my shoulder, her muzzle still wearing that smile. "Calm down now, you don't need to worry, it's only been a little while this time around, barely a few seconds."
"O-oh... okay, I... I guess." Swirling the glowing blue soda around for a moment, I looked out across the grassy valley, the older unicorn beside me, shuffling over a little closer to pull me over into a light hug. There's that reactor coolant and machine oil aroma again... heh, small wonder why Dad spends so much time in the TOG, almost smells just like it. Bringing the bottle of RAD to my lips, I took a sip of the soda, it tasting just as it always had... maybe with a slight bit more of a metallic twinge, though. Gamma Ray looked about beside me as the wind started to pick up, but it sounded... muffled. And there was a definitive high-pitched whine backing it, too...
Blinking a few times as I tried to work out what it was, the mare beside me only wore a smirk, giving me one last squeeze. "Looks like you're going back, now. Stay safe, and in the name of Luna, please never scare your father like that again. The last thing either of us need is for him to be staying here permanently, least, long before he sould be..." Giving my cheek a slight nuzzle, I felt Gamma Ray's hoof brush against my back as she let me go, my eyes falling on her as everything else started to become fuzzy. She still wore that loving smile... can see why Dad loved her so much. "And just like I told Twinnie, we'll be sure to meet again, some sunny day!"
Gamma's voice faded in my ears as it was replaced with a dull ringing, and the sound of the Valkyrie's engines roaring away behind us, my eyes blinking a few times as they focused back in on reality. We were in a slight left bank, the ground - I'm glad to say - being visible below us with the sky above, rather than the inverse, and the ocean far off past the shore was glinting the sun's light back to us. And, just to put the cherry on top of it all, I could just about also make out Static's panicky screamings. Ah, some things never change... "NIGHT STRIKE, PLEASE WAKE UH-HUH-HUP!!"
Reaching my hooves up, I grabbed hold of the yoke finally and settled us out, Static letting off one last yelp of surprise as the Valkyrie shifted to level flight. My other hoof pulled back on the throttle, myself letting off a small grunt and just quickly hitting the airbrakes as well. Alright... panic over, let's just get back and land now. "Okay, Strikey, you're gonna have to promise me that you'll stop pulling maneuvers that knock us both out, because it's hard to convey just how terrifying it is for me to always end up being the first one awake!"
I couldn't help but let loose a chuckle, bringing the Valkyrie's nose around to head back towards the shore. "Heh, don't worry Sparky, I think that'll be the last time we'll have to do something crazy like that for a long, long while. It, uh, it... -did- work, right?"
Static clacked away at his terminal a few times, the whirr of the top turret motors scanning the sky behind us just about being heard as we continued to slow down, myself swapping us over to hover mode. The earth pony let off a relieved sigh after a moment, and I could almost hear the smile in his voice. "Well, there's a big cooled-off fireball behind us, and I'm not seeing any definite obvious missile contrails coming out of it, so I think we're in the clear. You're not gonna want to try and explore ground zero of that explosion now, are you?"
A small chuckle escaped me as I shook my head, aiming us both towards the lighthouse as we slowly traveled along, over the Vanhoover Reservior and past Hopeville. "Come on, Static, we were at least a few kilometers in the air. A missile going off at that height wouldn't do a damn thing on the ground, except maybe make whoever was under it at the time have to use the bathroom..."
Soon passing over Maple Creek, the flat, grassy lighthouse runway quickly came into view, with the white form of the TOG forming a rather awkward contrast. Heh, leave it to dad to only get down here after the snow's all gone away. Bringing the Valkyrie back in line once more, we touched down smoothly, myself letting off a long sigh and turning the engines off. Undoing my harness and looking back to Static, he stood up out of his chair, sharing my grin. Leaning forwards, my lips met his in a quick kiss, before I rested back on my hooves.
"Let's go home, Static."
---
The TOG trundled smoothly across the railyard around the Tank Ghouls' shed a couple days later, my back hooves lazily dangling over the side of the tank's back as I let my wings catch the airflow around the massive landship. The large collection of vehicles sat outside of the long service shed, all turrets turned to face towards us and barrels raised skywards, Dad slowing the TOG down to a crawl to climb up to the turret and stick his head out the hatch. I could only wear a grin as I stood myself up, trotting along the back to get over to him. "Heh, you really have been busy the last few months, haven't you, Strikey?"
Pulling myself up on top of the turret, I looked over and watched as we trundled along past Deathtrap, unable to keep myself from staring as I was only just able to see the top of the upper turret. The TOG might've been the longer tank, but, somehow, that landship still managed to be a little taller. Honestly... looking over to the pegasus sticking out of the turret, I wasn't too surprised to see him staring, too. "Yeah, you could say that... oh, dad, quick, stop the tank!"
Soon nearing the opened doors of the tank ghouls' shed, dad had just about enough time to duck in and bring us to a halt, the turret just about right between them. The side hatches clattered open as I hopped down from the turret landing right in front of, well, everypony! Or, at least all the tank ghouls, anyways. Dad stuck his head out the side, and a quick cheer went up through the crowd, Mad Jack trotting up with a grin stuck on his muzzle. "Ha-haa, so, finally are gonna have the pleasure of meeting the owner of the great white slug of the north, eh? Must say, you sure know how to raise your kid well! Has been no shortage of excitement since she showed up down here with her friends!"
"Heh, zat's certainly one way to put it, Jack. Sergeant Rheinmetall of Her Majesty's 188th armored vehicle division, pleasure to finally make your acquaintance." The bespectacled unicorn ghoul passed on a nod as Dad finally hopped out of the TOG, a grin clear upon his face. The fluttering of partially degraded wings could just about be heard over the crowd as the ghoulified pegasus commander hopped over, landing beside Rheinmetall with a soft clatter. The unicorn, for his part, only let off an annoyed sigh in response.
"Rhymey, what did I say about dropping the rank and position crap?~ Rangefinder, nice to see someone's still raising fun kids in this day and age. Can definitely see where she gets her, eheh, tanking skills from..." Dad moved to start shaking hooves, myself taking a few steps back to move out of everyone's way. Heh, man, I am gonna miss this place... then again, I will still have the Valkyrie. Suppose some vacations in the future wouldn't be out of the question...
As I leaned up against the side of the TOG, the unmistakable sound of vertibuck rotors cutting up the air caught my ears, myself looking up at the sky just outside the tank ghouls' shed. Spreading wings, I gave a few flaps to get up and over the TOG, listening as the sound of the turbines drew ever closer. The rotor craft was coming in from the west - heh, oh yeah, Static did say he had to tend to something at Fort Maple. Swear to Luna, if it involved extorting just a few more caps from this wasteland... as it roared overhead, though, I couldn't help but notice how... non-vertibuck it looked. Oh boy, what's going on here?...
Leaping off the back of the TOG, conveniently the single-rotor craft seemed to be touching down at the old firing range, my wings easily carrying me over to it to see what was going on. As I came up to it, the sight of a grey and olive-drab gryphon hopping down out of the side door with a suited alicorn pulling a large autocannon out for her caught my attention first, soon followed by a blue earth pony inside rummaging through a trunk. Even from over here, I could see the stupidly wide grin on his face - must be a lotta caps or food in there. Never change, Static...
The helicopter's engine shut off as I landed beside it, Crash Dive being the next one to hop out of it on the opposite side, a rather cheerful-looking Scouring getting up out of the pilot's seat last and dropping down, giving his power armored hooves a happy clap together as he landed on the ground. Guess somepony's clear for flying rotor-wing aircraft again. Hispano rubbed at her eyes with a talon, passing on a soft nod to Aerith with a smile on her beak, the alicorn being first to notice me as I trotted over. 'Oh, glad you finally arrived! I know you said your dad's tank was pretty slow, but I never imagined it being THAT slow...'
"We had to make a couple stops, say our goodbyes to Maple Creek and Hopeville and all. Lucky Pearl was right nearby when Dad introduced himself to Jean, never seen him turn that shade of blue before." Myself, Aerith, and Hispano all shared a short laugh, Crash Dive trotting over with a smile still on her muzzle. Yeah, that still is a bit odd, but... getting more normal to see every day. A dull thud was heard from the helicopter behind them, myself looking up to see that earth pony still rummaging through the chest. A sigh escaped me, as a smirk found it's place on my muzzle. "Oh, and Chauffeur's been making a good recovery since the shelling, too, Static. I know how much you cared about your admirer those few times we stayed over there~"
The earth pony paused for a moment, his umbrella held in his mouth as he turned to look over at me, before he let loose a muffled sigh and shook his head in response. Well, least he isn't all distracted... though, as he dragged a hefty yellow metallic rhomboid bar out of the chest, I suppose I couldn't really blame him for being that way. Tossing his umbrella aside, he carried the bar over to where Hispano stood with her autocannon, the gryphon taking it from him with a small grnt, before depositing it in her own duffel bag. "Hoo, yeah, that'll definitely cover all the expenses your dad made mention of, and then some... I promise, I promise! It's got a cap value of fifteen thousand!"
"Hmh, you better not be shortchanging me, spark-butt, I know where you live. Will have a hell of a time getting there, granted, but still." Hispano patted her duffle bag twice, still wearing a grin as Static shut the trunk back up. Aerith's magic encompassed it, easily lifting it up and off of the helicopter, setting it down on the grassy field for the moment, as the earth pony grabbed his umbrella again and hopped down himself. Hispano leaned back, resting her autocannon on her shoulder. "So, suppose this'll be the last time we'll be seeing each other. Been a hell of a fun time missile-flanks, nice to see this place just as calm as the last time I was here again. Least, without as many robotic dragons in the air, heh."
'And a few more bomb craters that weren't here before, too.' Aerith's screen flashed up as she let off a small snicker, myself and Hispano joining her in it as Static was going through the chest again, this time with Scouring looking over his shoulder. Heh, yeah, suppose we did change geography down here at least a few times... what was that, like, five-ish megaspells we set off? And one sea monster kill, too. And a suitably cathartic number of animatronic kills...
The tinkling of magic could be heard over near the chest, myself looking over to see Scouring levitating out... even more bars of gold. I could only stare on in response, as the power armored unicorn carefully brought them all into a nice clean stack of around fifteen or so. How many gold bars did they manage to get out of Fort Maple?! Hispano was staring along with me, while Aerith brought up a sign, wearing a small grin. 'Don't get too annoyed Hispano, Static promised Scouring at least two bars each for him and his squadmates, and the others are going to the tank ghouls from Cordite. Besides, if you *really* want more gold, I'm sure I know one SMG-toting do-gooder who wouldn't mind sharing her cut with a cute gryphon like you.'
Huh, y'know, I actually don't think I've ever seen Hispano blush before today. Aerith, you sly, sly alicorn... The chest closed with a loud thump, Scouring trotting over to us with the gold levitated beside him, a wide grin still on his muzzle. "Ah, shame this is gotta be a goodbye, been a hell of a laugh the last few months, even if I've been a bit more caught up with all my other ranger duties by the end of it, heh. Looking forwards t' not havin' to fiddle with any more megaspells, at least."
"Aw, c'mon Scouring, you only downed -one- bottle of Wild Pegasus the second time! Admit it, you were getting better at it~" Tapping a hoof against his power armor's chest, I let loose another chuckle, the ranger unicorn joining me in it and giving his head a shake. Hey, at least we managed to only blow up stuff we meant to at the end of the day. Scouring moved eight of the bars he had in his magic over to the helicopter, carrying the other seven along with him still. "And, hey, you ever get bored, I'm sure Static could pull a few strings and get a few favors back at EQUAD, maybe we could set up a ranger exchange program or somethin'."
"Hah, hope that includes some winterization mods for my armor at least, don't want to end up freezin' more of myself off than I have to!" The ranger broke into another small laugh, resting the small pile of bars on his armor's back. Heh, well, suppose he does have a point there... A loud wooshing sound passed over us, drawing all our attention, as well as the sound of a fairly large autocannon being brought to bear. The attack wagon circled about once, myself just about able to pick out a small green pegasus waving down from her bottom turret, twin miniguns having replaced the two machine guns that used to be there. Sheesh, guess we weren't the only ones upgrading our firepower...
Featherweight looped the wagon around to bring it in for a landing, the familiar skids admittedly being a bit less than ideal on the soft ground of the target range, aunt Buzzy pulling herself out of her turret as it retracted in and resting in the back. Before the heavy skycart had even come to a stop, the smaller pegasus had leapt over the side, tackling me to the ground in a hug. "'Bout time I got to see you! You have any idea how worried we've been, havin' to look all over the darn wasteland for you! And then to go and hole up in the TOG with Twintails while ya come back, really Strikey, I thought I raised you to know me an' Featherweight are the funner side of the family!"
A long laugh escaped me as we picked ourselves back up, Featherweight undoing the harness for the wagon and trotting over, both of his own autocannons jangling at his sides. Crash Dive seemed to take a small step back as the large stallion approached, a chuckle of his own leaving his lips. "Ah, come on Buzzy, you know it's hard to compete with the tank. Speaking of it, we've got it loaded on the train, along with the, aheh, VIP. Twinnie's still recovering from that bombshell..."
I let loose a small chuckle as dad gave his large wings a ruffle, seeming to make Crash Dive flinch as he did. Sheesh, c'mon Crash Dive, he's a gentle giant... least, when he's not royally pissed off. The power armored pegasus seemed to be trying to regain herself as I watched Hispano come up alongside Featherweight, along with Aerith. Sheesh, I would've thought at least an alicorn would've been as tall as him... just hope she doesn't poke his eye out by accident. The gryphon took to examining his twin-autocannon battle saddle, occasionally looking to her own gun, and looked to be about ready to ash him something when a very surprising amount of sneezing came from where Crash Dive was stood, the pegasus bracing herself on the helicopter. Ho, boy...
Hispano and Featherweight both looked over to her for a moment, before turning back to their small chat with Buzzy and Aerith moving in as well. Meanwhile, myself and Static started heading over to Crash Dive, watching the power armored pegasus pull a few tissues from a compartment on her armor. I rested a hoof on her shoulder, prompting her to look up, blinking the tears from her eyes as she wiped her muzzle clean. "Egh, fucking, Celestia almighty... your... other dad's not a gardener, by any chance, is he? Fucking allergies..."
I looked between myself and Static for a second, both of us sharing a blink. "Uh... not that I remember. Pretty sure he was more in the business of attack wagon and autocannon-based town defense." Passing on a shrug to the power armored pegasus, she broke into another sneezing fit, myself taking a step back from her. Yeah, much as I do want to comfort her, getting my hoof caught in her amror joints as she's jerking around would really suck to have happen so close to us leaving. Looking through the opened doors of the helicopter, and spotting a few things that were particularly interesting on the far end of the gunnery range, I turned back to face Featherweight, finding him and Hispano partaking in what I could only describe as a... cannon-measurng contest. Yeah, seriously. "Hey dad, did you happen to fly close to any really flowery areas recently?"
The large pegasus broke his attention off from chuckling at Hispano hefting Suiza up to compare long enough to pause for thought, tapping a hoof against his chin. "Hm... well, there were the valleys over to the east, but they didn't look all that flowery to me. Just looked like a whole lot of fresh blood on the ground... then again, it was kinda foggy." ...okay, kinda giving me more questions than answers, dad. There's no way there were enough robo-dragons and manticores around Fort Maple to paint a whole damn valley floor with hydraulic fluid, unless part of what the rangers have been doing is just dumping the reserve fluid tanks, or something. Unless...
The sharp whine of a few turbines broke my train of thought as our attention was pulled to the western sky, and the sight of the Valkyrie. Woah, um, yeah, it sure is a hell of a lot more intimidating seeing that thing flying around when you aren't the one piloting it... The jetwash from the vertical thrusters blew over all of us as Fringe managed to ease the thing down to a nice soft landing, the turbines spooling down as he undid his harness and climbed down out of the cockpit door, reaffixing his hat and pulling a cigar out of his flight uniform's pocket. "That's one hell of a nice bird you two've got, after finding your last attempt at landing a different VTOL back home I'm surprised she's still all in one piece!" He let loose a slightly smoky laugh, giving his two olive-drab wings a ruffle. "Do have a message for you, though, someone over the radio askin' for you two to head over and take a look at the valleys to the east. Don't want to ruin the surprise, though..."
Fringe wore a grin as I looked back to Static and Crash Dive, seeing the earth pony resting a hoof on the power armored pegasus' shoulder. Surprise in the valley... hm... a small smirk formed on my muzzle as something clicked in my head, nodding the both of them over to the Valkyrie. "Maybe the fog's cleared up. C'mon, one last fly-by in the valley before we head home, yeah?" Crash Dive was still wiping at her muzzle a little as the both of them looked between each other, Static passing on a shrug and trotting towards me. Letting loose a small chuckle of my own, I moved over to Crash Dive in return, taking hold of her armored hoof and starting to pull her along too, getting a look of surprise from her. "That means you too... Ah, we'll be back in a bit, just gotta see what's all going on. Probably nothing serious, you guys just go to the train. Promise we wont be long!"
Featherweight, Buzzy, Aerith, Hispano, and Scouring all just watched us as we headed for the Valkyrie, passing on an assortment of nods, smiles, shrugs, and eventual waves as we all settled ourselves back in the cockpit. Static and myself both took our usual seats as Crash Dive shut the door, steadying herself as the turbines all spooled up again from idle. Didn't turn the thing off, ah, c'mon Fringe... "Ehm, while I do appreciate the gesture, just a little confused about all this. And I'm pretty sure it's not just my allergies talking here..."
Bringing the Valkyrie to the sky once more, and letting loose a soft sigh as I looked out through the canopy to the sprawling greenery of the Vanhoover wasteland below, I swung the nose around and eased us up to speed, heading off to the east. The glowing crater by Gemdale still shone out clearly in the afternoon sun, the waters of the Vanhoover reservior glistening brilliantly as we sped along towards the mountains. I wore a small smile as I looked back towards Crash Dive, after making sure we wouldn't run into a mountainside, of course. "Just a hunch, something I think you'll appreciate geting to see. Least of all because the Valkyrie's cockpit is a sealed interior, heh..."
The long valleys that were the home to the sounds of gunfire and explosions not too long ago soon came into view, myself throtting us back and slowing us down for some nice slow passes in them. I let off a small chuckle, bringing us to a stop in the valley that held the Saddlebrook ruins, looking back to Crash Dive and Static. "Now, I'll admit it's been a long, long time since I last listened to one of Minute's history lessons, but there was always this one bit that stuck with me when she explained how the first few years of the war went, or, well, what happened after the battlefields were left to calm down for a while. See, they were using a lot of artillery back then, and that mixed up the earth a whole lot in the process, and come spring, after the shells stopped flying and the magic that flowed through the ground to make it lush and green came... well... something a bit more awe-inspiring came with it."
I'd eased the nose forwards as I spoke, guiding us through the valley slowly, the nose-down position giving us a good view ahead. A few red patches in the earth amongst all the green could be seen along the valley walls, growing over the destroyed turrets and blasted trenches, making that small smile on my muzzle just get the smallest bit bigger. So it was true, after all... "The soil... it bled, in it's own special way. And for a while, both sides saw this as a hope for peace. Let's hope this time, it sticks."
We soon drew near the base of the road to Fort Maple, Crash Dive drawing in a small gasp - and I'm pretty sure I heard Static gasping as well - as they both got a view of the valley below us. What was once a place utterly littered with bomb and shell craters, blasted deep into the ground by everything everyone was throwing about, instead was replaced with an absolute sea of red-petaled flowers, covering damn near every inch of the floor below. The red poppy... such a simple little flower, but it can mean so much.
Finishing the slow pass along the valley and bringing the Valkyrie back up to swing her around, I couldn't help but hear a small sniffle come from Crash Dive. Aw, come on, I thought the cockpit would've been sealed... then again, as I looked over to her, instead of finding her wiping at her nose, she seemed to be doing more wiping at her eyes instead, a few shuddering breaths coming from her smiling muzzle. "I... I never knew... you've no idea how many of those things I've stomped down over the years, always thought they were just such a nuisance when they cropped up around the minefield." She let off a small chuckle, giving her head a shake. "I hope they stay around, too."
Passing on a nod to her, I dipped the nose of the Valkyrie again, starting to speed us back up to head home. The vertical engines switched over to horizontal as the wings started lifting us, Static fiddling with his console a little. A light chuckle came from his muzzle as he tapped the top of his console between us, getting my attention after I pulled us up to a safe altitude. "Just putting something on the radio for them to remember us by. I hope you don't mind me taking your holotape for it, Strikey..."
Looking at him in confusion for a moment, I reached over and grabbed the headset nearby, pressing one of the speakers up to my ear. What I was met with, was that all-too-lovingly familiar eight-note opening. Oh, Static, you know me so well... "...We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again, some sunny day..."
---
"Keep smiling through,
Just like you always do,
Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds, far away.
"So will you please say hello,
To the folks that I know, tell them,
I won't be long.
"They'll be happy to know,
that as you saw me go,
I was sing-ing this song.
"We'll meet again,
Don't know where,
don't know when...
"But I know we'll meet again, some sun-ny, day!"
"That was our wasteland's sweetheart, Dame Vera Lynn, singing a song that goes out from the Vanhoover wasteland to the Vanhoover Five as they leave us on this wonderful, melancholy day. You're listening to Radio KAOS, and it's with a heavy heart that we have to bid a long farewell to three of the five ponies who've been nothing but an amazing group of friends and heroes to all of us down here, from the large feats to the small they've touched hearts all across this great land of ours, and I guarantee you that they'll be one group we'll be hard-pressed to forget anytime soon.
"Our little wasteland down here isn't gonna be going anwhere anytime soon thanks to you guys, so if you ever do get the chance or the urge, please don't hesitate to come back down for a visit. We'll always be here with open hooves - whaddaya think, Vanhoover Five annual reunions, maybe? Heh... Either way, from all of Vanhoover, and myself as well, we all just want to send out one last, heartfelt thanks for all you guys have done for us, and I certainly do hope that we'll-" The broadcast broke for only a moment, a massive bang echoing in the air around. The sounds of an angry sailor cursing at the supersonic aircraft one last time could just barely be heard in the background as it finally faded back in.
"Aw, you guys, couldn't have left us without pissing Fowler off one last time, could ya? Heh heh... either way, as I was saying, from Vanhoover to you, thank you Aerith, Crash Dive, Scouring Charge, Night Strike, and Static Charge, for all that you five have done for us. And, as Vera said, I do hope that we'll all meet again, some sunny day..."
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First off, Congrats on finishing Empty Quiver!
It's always such an odd feeling, getting to the end of a story. The conflicting idea that you're happy that everything's worked out, but that there's nothing left to be told now. Still, thank you two so much for the fun story. It's been one hell of a ride, and I can't wait to see what you guys have planned for your next one. I really want to say more about it, but I'm just kinda... speechless.
It's going to take me some time to even process that it's over in the first place, but even so, I look forward to the epilogue.
Lovely story thanks for finishing it.
Well the story is finished
well, time to get off my lazy rump and finish it
Well the story is finished
well, time to get off my lazy rump and finish it
A SLAM MISSILE!? WERE THEY CRAZY!!!?