Possible Pasts
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I shook my head, trying to recover from the shock of this bombshell dropped on us. Okay, so we've got four aircraft flying around with enough firepower behind them to put Twintails' old TOG to shame... great. I flipped the switch on the back of the terminal off, the screen flickering to black. "So... you think this is just some sort of automated response from blowing up all the security here? Maybe they're just set on some sort of autopilot for base security, or something, right?" Night Strike offered, not sounding particularly confident.
"I don't know... even if it was, there must be something bugging the system up or they wouldn't keep circling the wasteland," I said, standing myself up from the chair and gathering up the vlueprints, stuffing them into my saddlebags. "And if that's true, they're going to run out of fuel eventually or something, right? Who knows where they might land and who'd get them then." Night Strike grimaced, giving a small shake of her head as a reply. Giving one last worried glance at the empty hangar, we trotted over towards a small door, opening it to reveal a dusty workshop. "Well, hey, at least we might find an engine here."
Beginning to dig through the discarded metal and tools, I pushed a skeleton in a tattered jumpsuit off of a work bench it had been leaning on - ech, sorry buddy. I opened a closet, jumping back as various tools fell to the floor with a clatter. You'd think ponies pre-war would've at least organized their stuff better... "Hey, you think this might work?" I glanced over to Night Strike, catching her leaning against an engine half as big as she was, smirking a little.
"I think that'd probably get Trout up to Mach 4 if it didn't sink it to begin with." Myself letting off a small chuckle, we stepped through another door labeled 'storage', Night Strike fiddling with a switch before the overhead lights flickered on, the room filling with a low buzzing. We trotted down the aisles, staring at all the various pieces of machinery placed on the shelves. I picked up a two way radio, looking it over as Night Strike continued to search for an engine. Blowing the dust off of it, a good bit of shaking got the cobwebs loose, myself letting off a small cough. Well, looks to be in good condition, and it wouldn't hurt to have a transciever handy.
I slipped the somewhat bulky device into my saddlebags before continuing to scan the aisle. I slid a bottle of sarsaparilla out of my pack and popped the cap off, taking swig as I caught up to Night Strike. "I think I found something that'll work." She turned to face me, nodding her head towards the engine behind her. "It looks about the same weight as the one inside Trout, and it's a similar enough model we could probably do an overhaul on the old one if we absolutely had to." I nodded, taking another gulp of soda as I grabbed a small trolley to carry the engine on.
Night Strike and myself both carefully lifted the heavy engine onto the trolley before starting to head back towards the others. As we trotted back to Aerith and the mini-tank, we could hear a large clatter, a metal-walled wagon being pulled by the power-armored unicorn, a grin on his face. "Lookit what we found between two o' the hangars, ought to work for haulin' any of the guns here, right?"
"Should be a perfect size, c'mon, we'll show you where the guns we found are." The pegasus mare beside me let the handle of the trolley clatter against the side of the mini-tank, myself grimacing at the small scratch left in it. Come on, Night Strike, I know we live in a wasteland but that doesn't mean you can treat stuff like that... She paused for a moment, thinking. "Oh! Right, ahm... I think it'll be safe until we come back out. Aerith, did find some rifles for you, if you want to do a bit of shopping."
Myself giving a roll of my eyes, we led all of them through into the hangar, making way for the long racks of machine guns. Night Strike and Aerith kept moving on deeper in towards another weapon rack, leaving myself and Scouring to start loading up the wagon - okay, let's try to not get yourself buried again, Static... "Bloody hell, these guns look like they were outdated before the bombs even fell. Same caliber, though, that's useful..." The unicorn began moving a few of the steampipe-guns onto the cart, myself moving over to pick up a few of the smaller, more gun-looking machine guns. Plenty of ammo boxes to go around here, least one per gun, which is nice...
After getting the cart loaded with the assortment of machine guns and .30 caliber ammunition, we moved on to pick up the autocannons, the sun starting to really hide itself behind the far mountains. Stopping inside the bay that once held the mini-tank, myself and Scouring moved inside the little area connecting the two hangars, the unicorn understandably impressed by the sheer size of the guns. Moving them all out one by one, Crash Dive busied herself by securing in the first assortment of guns, and picking up a black toolbox and a few of the same wheels that were on the tracks for the mini-tank - good catch, almost forgot about the extra parts for that thing.
Grunting under the weight of the first few guns, Aerith and Night Strike eventually showed back up, the alicorn wearing a wide smile and a new rifle as her magic helped move the rest out and onto the cart, along with a few more crates of ammo, and eventually the new engine. I let off a heavy sigh as we moved back out through the door, trotting to the seat of the half-track and pretty much collapsing in it, resting my back. Goddess-damn, those cannons are heavy... hopefully they're worth their weight. Or, at least, I'm sure I could convince somepony that they're worth their weight... The back of the wagon clattered as Scouring climbed himself in and secured it, Crash Dive with him, Night Strike and Aerith taking place on the back of the mini-tank. The power armored pegasus cleared her throat, getting settled on the back of the wagon. "Right, so, just for reference, what've we got here?"
"We got an engine for Ripple back at Maple Creek, along with the anti-air guns for Hopeville and whoever else needs them, and a few guns for Trout too. Hopefully it's enough for that blabermouth gunsmith to give me those caps back..." Night Strike grumbled to herself a little as she settled herself on the tank. "And... uh... we think we might've found what those things are that've been flying around the wasteland." The others paused as she said this, passing some uneasy looks. "They're some sort of aircraft like the Valkyrie. It's got mounted tesla cannons and VTOL capability, might have missiles too. No megaspells at least..." Night Strike gave an uneasy chuckle.
"Let's just get these things over to Hopeville for now. It wouldn't hurt to save one or two, though, my lighthouse isn't exactly bomb proof..." Crash Dive let off a small grunt as I nodded and switched on the tank, starting to make way to the road heading out. The mini-tank's small engine complained a little from the extra weight, but managed to keep us moving forward at a steady pace. Alright, let's hope we don't need to kick this into high speed. I turned off the path as it approached the forest, preferring to take the slightly longer route around than worry about trying to manuever the trailer around any tight bends.
Night Strike leaned against Boomer as we trundled across the open field, the guns rattling against each other in the back and daylight fading fast. As we made our way around the forest, I could hear a few shouts from ahead of us. Crash Dive sat up, her harpoon cannon letting off a small thunk as it loaded, myself squinting to try and see what was the cause of the noise. As I did, through, something large suddenly swooped down, causing me to lean back out of fright. Night Strike, Scouring, and Aerith were suddenly sitting at attention, trying to look around the hill where the thing had landed.
As I made to turn away, a jet of flame shot into the sky, its bright blue base tapering off into a deep orange at least thirty feet in air. A silly grin crossed Night Strike's face, her eagerness to blow more things up quickly overcoming any sense of self preservation she might have had. Oh, this can't end well...
The engine rumbled even louder as I twisted the handle, the trailer bumping along behind us. Scouring opened up Sunburst, a small scope sliding out for him to use. The mini-tank struggled up the small hill between us and the fight that was breaking out amongst the raiders and whatever had just landed, the sound of crackling fire and gunshots ringing through the air. The land began to level out as we reached the peak of the small hill, giving us a view of the valley before us. My jaw dropped as my heart jumped to my throat - oh, just our luck.
Down in the valley was a small camp of raiders, several makeshift shelters built out of old scrap metal and wood, some of them aflame and falling apart already. The raiders were all running about in panic, some frantically shooting at what had just landed in the middle of their camp. A silvery dragon stood in the middle, a burst of fire jetting from its jaws, catching several of the huts and the occupants inside. One raider was firing off a minigun, trying to circle around behind the dragon. It whipped it's tail in the raider's direction, slicing into the pony's side, seeming to throw him slightly. The raider stumbled, the bullets from the minigun kicking up dirt as he fell off target.
The dragon reared about, snapping its jaws as a raider swung a sledgehammer into one of its legs. It stood tall, its wings flashing as it did so, and I tried to get a sense of scale from atop the hill. What is that thing, three... two... two and a half ponies tall?... dammit, stop running around! As it flashed its wings, though, I noticed they gleamed much more than a solid sheet of leathery hide should have. I squinted down, noticing a several notches in the wings that seemed to fold over themselvs as the dragon kept them close to its body. As I continued to watch, I noticed the bullets hitting it were leaving small dents rather than wounds. No... this can't be real...
The robotic beast swiveled its head, spotting us on the hill. "Ah, shit." I immediately revved the engine, charging down into the valley to avoid the burst of flames which charred the grass behind us. I felt a bullet whiz by my head, causing me to duck down instinctively. Oh, of course the raiders are going to try and kill us with this thing still around. Night Strike wheeled Boomer around to face the creature, firing off several grenades as she brought it on target. A few managed to strike the dragon's talons, blowing apart one of its feet in a shower of sparks. Myself still hiding inside the tank's armored driver's seat, Aerith fired a barrage of bullets at a few raiders charging us with magnums in their teeth, myself hitting the headlight switch in an attenpt to blind a few of them.
The dragon spread its wings wide, a low hum filling the air before it took to the skies, a few bits of metal falling from its damaged leg. Crash fired off her harpoon cannon, the volley of spears flying over a particulalry large raider weilding a gatling laser. Sweet Celestia, haven't these ponies heard of priorities?! The raider fired off a stream of lasers, the concentrated light scorching the side of the tank. I twisted the handlebars, swinging around to let Aerith have a clear shot. Before she could fire, though, a wall of flame shot up between us and the raider, the dragon belching up flames onto the ground. I spun around, the trailer lagging behind me a bit, jostling Crash Dive and Scouring around.
The steel ranger pointed Sunburst up into the air, firing off a few rockets, tracking the massive beast. The dragon twisted in the air, deftly avoiding the explosive projectiles, Sunburst running on empty soon enough. Crash Dive fired off another harpoon volley, managing to strike another raider squarely through the chest. Night Strike shot a few grenades up at the dragon, but they fell short, arcing instead into one of the blazing huts. I turned to avoid another jet of flame and burst of lasers, keeping my head low as Scouring reloaded and fired off more rockets. The dragon attempted to avoid them again, but one managed to strike it's knife like tail. Hot metal and oil spilled down from the sky, a few raiders crying out as they were hit.
I tried to avoid the deluge, but a few shards of flaming metal managed to embed themselves into my right foreleg. Gaah, fuck fuck fuck! I yelled in pain and clutched at my leg, losing control of the tank for a moment. I suddenly felt another prick of pain in my shoulder, causing me to look over to it. Night Strike had stabbed me with a small needle of Med-X, the pain in my arm quickly dulling. "Keep driving, we can't kill these guys if we crash!" I took a hold of the controls again, muttering a quick thanks before swirving back around.
The dragon spun in the air, it's flight hindered without the weight of its tail for balance. It attempted to correct itself, but instead began to plummet back to the ground. Night Strike and Scouring fired a few more explosives, managing to land a few hits as it landed with a deafening crash, screeching metal covering the sound of the screams of the gatling weilding raider it crushed. The dragon writhed on the ground, releasing a furious mechanical roar, attempting to right itself. It lifted it's head, but before it could fire off another burst of flames, Night Strike lifted Thumper up and let loose a faintly golden glowing grenade. The projectile connected with the back of the robotic dragon's throat, and my vision was filled with a blinding light as the robot's head exploded, sending shards of metal off in all directions as a small mushroom cloud slowly formed above the blast.
We all sat in silence for a moment, catching our breath, staring at the destroyed dragon. Finally, Crash Dive spoke up. "Okay, what the actual FUCK was that!?" She lifted her helmet off to reveal her looking completely dumbfounded. "What the fuck just happened?!" She glanced between the rest of us, but none of us could offer anything more than a shrug. Yeah, we really don't have any more of an idea than you do.
We looked back to the heap of metal, the air still crackling around us as the huts continued to burn. "Ay, was that one o' the things that got out of Seahoof?" Looking back to Scouring as he lifted himself to teh front of the cart, I shook my head, starting to turn the tank around and drive out of the ditch. The treads smothered a few smoldering blades of grass as we headed out, the others still staring at the wreck. "So... we're goin' to try to not speak of this again, right?"
"Speak of what?"
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The somewhat scorched mini-tank trundled to a halt outside the Hopeville gunsmith's shop as the sun finally fully disappeared on the coastline. We hopped out of the tank, Aerith's magic pulling the trailer behind us as we trotted around the side of the building. I knocked on the large garage door, a bit of scuffling being heard from the opposite side before it began to roll upwards. The gunsmith stood at the door winch, the utter mess that was his forge smelling of sulfur and molten metal. "Oh, hey, didn't expect you guys back so soon. Got the guns for me, then?"
I nodded, Scouring lifting a few of the large cannons into view with his magic, placing them inside the garage. "Alright, we figure four of the autocannons and twelve of the machine guns should be more than sufficient to defend the town, so long as you've got reasonable ponies using them, of course." I said, the gunsmith looking them over, eyes wide. "Figuring in the cost of the guns themselves, transportation, and..." I paused, not wanting to reveal the dragon fight, lest he think we were crazy. "...unforseen occupational hazards, the total should come to fourty-five hundred for each of the steampipe guns, five thousand for the other machine guns, one hundred and fifty thousand for each of the automatic cannons, one hundred thousand for ammo, and five thousand for delivery..." I paused, adding it all in my head. "Grand total of seven hundred and sixty three thousand caps."
The gunsmith practically fell to the ground, his jaw following suit. "Seven hun- I don't have that many caps! Nopony has that many caps!" He immediately walked back over to the guns, trying to pick them up and hand them back to us. "Nope, deal's off, I'm just fine getting blown to pieces by whatever those things are!" Crash Dive stepped forward, her glare almost visible through the helmet's red visor, causing the gunsmith to stumble back in fright. I sighed as Night Strike glanced over to me, confused as to what to do.
"We're not expecting it all in caps, at least," I said, trying to calm him down. "We'll take whatever you can give; ammo, guns, scrap metal, so long as the value's the same, we don't care." He paused, looking a little skeptical. "And I doubt you're going to find somepony else who's willing to give up near perfect condition anti-air guns like this too, especially with those machines flying about." He glanced up at the sky, as if expecting the machines that had been all over the news to soar overhead at that moment. Sighing, he stepped back and let us finish unloading the guns.
"Fine, fine. What kind of ammo do you need?" He asked, pulling out a pad of paper and a pencil. Night Strike, Scouring, and Aerith began to list off ammo types ranging from rockets to rifle rounds to shotgun shells and clips, the gunsmith scribbling madly to try and keep up. I leaned up against the tank as Crash Dive fitted the remaining guns to the trailer, reworking the chains a little to better secure Trout's new engine. The gunsmith placed the pencil behind his ear, glancing down at his list, gulping slightly. "A-alright, come back tomorrow around ten o'clock, I should have enough made by then." I nodded and the others hopped back onto the tank. "Oh, and here's a sort of... deposit. For the delivery." He opened a small safe underneath one of this work benches, tossing us a large bag of caps. I thanked him, only for him to turn around, muttering something about protection and extortion rackets under his breath, looking a little weak.
The mini-tank rumbled to life once again as we began to head down the streets, the new five thousand caps jangling satisfyingly in the boxes beside me. "Suppose we should spend the night here, it'll be easier coming back early in the morning for the ammo." Night Strike said, wearing a small grin. I turned and headed towards the hotel, the trailer bouncing on the road. It wasn't long before I was pulling up beside a few other carts in front of the small building, flipping the tank's engine off. We all climbed out, though Night Strike paused, looking back at the guns. "Ahm... I don't think we should just leave these here, out in the open."
Letting of a small huff that seemed like a small laugh, Aerith waved her hoof as her horn began to glow, an aura surrounding the cart. Suddenly, the trailer vanished into the air, making my own eyes go wide. Night Strike looked horrified, but before she could speak up, Aerith leaned against where the trailer had just been, supporting herself by seemingly nothing at all and wearing a smug smirk. Night Strike sighed upon realizing the guns were not destroyed - just, yanno, completely invisible - and we all began to move into the lobby. I need a spell like that!
As we entered the lobby, my stomach clenched a bit upon spotting the pony behind the desk. Oh, yeah, couldn't have been his day off, could it? Chauffeur beamed as we stepped up to the desk, seeming to focus more on me than anypony else. "Uh... two rooms." I said, trying my best not to make eye contact. He slipped a couple keys off of the rack behind him before moving them over to me, making sure to hold a moment upon our hooves touching. I inwardly shuddered as he watched us trot away, a goofy smile across his face. "Euwh. What is with him?"
"Oh, don't be like that, we all saw how you blushed." Night Strike said, poking me in the side. I glared at her, my face growing red as I handed over her room keys and unlocking mine and Scouring's room. I bolted the door behind us, sliding my saddle bags off and letting off an exhausted sigh. Scouring began to slip out of his armor as I flopped onto a chair.
"Dare I ask?" Scouring glanced over to me as he placed his armor on the ground, the bodysuit underneath covering most of his body. I rested my head on my hoof, shaking it as he chuckled a little. I flipped on the radio, hoping to change the subject.
"-anding here waiting mr. Postman
Sooo, so patiently
For just a card, or just a letter
Saying he's returning home to me.
Please mr. Postman"
...Seriously, Radio KAOS?
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I rubbed my eyes as I sat up in bed, Scouring snoring lightly in the bed opposite. I pushed the covers aside and rolled off the mattress, still rather groggy - ewuh, well, it's morning, at least. The door to the bathroom creaked a little as I pushed it open, stepping into the small room. I glanced into the tub, the surface of it a little oddly stained. I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind before shutting the door behind me and slipping my coat off, setting it aside - you don't get to be picky when you've waited so long to shower, Static. I climbed into the tub and turned the water on, gasping as the cold water splashed onto my back.
The shower quickly warmed up as I began to scrub myself, my mind wandering to wonder who had enough excess vegetables to start making soap down here. Though I suppose they aren't really hurting for food with this climate... I could hear Scouring's bed squeak as he got up, the large stallion stepping into the bathroom and turning on the sink. "Hnnh, marnin'." He muttered, splashing his face with water.
"Morning." I replied, a little more awake with the water cascading down on me. I ran my hooves through my mane, stray silvery hairs and bits of debris washing out and down the drain. Ech, I really need to find a comb sometime, too... I proceeded to wash out my tail as well, Scouring levitating up a small razor blade in his magic, carefully shaving off errant hairs on his face. I soon flipped the water off and stepped out, grabbing a towel and beginning to dry myself off. Scouring rinsed his razor before stepping back out into the room and starting to slip his armor back on. I pulled my coat back over me, securing my Pip-Buck to my leg before trotting back to the main room.
Hitching up my saddlebags and sliding my umbrella under the strap, Scouring likewise grabbed Sunburst and his items, and we stepped out into the hallway, Aerith, Night Strike, and Crash Dive already locking the door behind them. "Hey, good timing. Ready to go get our payment?" Night Strike asked, bright-eyed and grinning - Sparkle-Cola in the morning, sheesh. I nodded, and we headed back to the lobby, Aerith levitating our keys to Chauffeur behind the desk, the stallion following my movements, a dreamy look on his face.
I sped up a little as we headed outside, Night Strike chuckling behind me. I stepped up to the tank, shooing away a crow that was perched on the handlebars. Well, at least it didn't decide the seat would be a good place to relieve itself. Aerith's horn flashed, and the trailer became visible again, allowing Scouring and Crash Dive to climb into it as herself and Night Strike hopped on the back of the mini-tank. The engine rumbled to life and I carefully backed up, turning back towards the other side of town.
I made our way slowly down the roads, a few ponies already milling about in the city. It wasn't long before we were pulling back up to the gunsmith's store, the sound of metal clattering about eminating from the garage. I knocked, the garage door sliding up to reveal a very disheveled and visibly exhausted storeowner, and boxes upon boxes of ammunition and clips. "Ah, well, g-glad you're here." He said, his head bobbing a little. "Jus' got finished with them all, you can... take 'em, I guess." He stood still for a moment, as if trying to remember where he was. "Oh! And, uh, these!" He shoved an enormous bag into my chest, the sound of jangling caps reaching my ears. "That'll cover what the ammo doesn't. I'm... I'm gonna go... bed, now..." He stumbled over to a pile of oily rags in the corner, flopping down on top of it. I guess we should've said we didn't need the payment right away, eheh...
We began to load up the trailer, picking up large crates of ammo. Night Strike giggled as she opened one up, revealing a large cache of .50 caliber bullets. Oookay, not going to lie, this much ammo scares the hell outta me. Regardless, I helped carry the boxes over to the trailer and slide them in, Crash Dive and Scouring Charge securing them in. I jangled the large bag of caps a little, trying to guage how many were in there. Had to be around twenty thousand, judging by the weight. I hopped into the driver's seat, Scouring using his magic to lower the garage door as the gunsmith snoozed in the corner. My stomach growled, causing me to blush a little. "Well, we just got plenty of caps. Anywhere in particular you guys want to eat?"
"How about that Gumbo place again?" Night Strike offered, a smile on her muzzle and bottle of Sparkle-Cola in hoof. Scouring made a few noises of worry, but conceided, Crash Dive letting off a small grumble and undoing the rebreather portion of her helmet. I began to slowly trundle down the road towards Gumbo's stand, the town starting to wake up as well, a few ponies staring and some waving as we traveled down the road. I turned a corner and came up to a small food cart, Gumbo preparing some sort of thick stew behind the counter, his eyes lighting up as he caught sight of us. We all hopped out and stepped up to the stand, the chubby earth pony smiling as we sat down.
"Hey, it's the Vanhoover Five!" He said, as he tossed a few spices into the stew, chuckling lightly. "I swear, there's barely a day that goes by where I don't hear from somepony back at the Triage about how much better things have been running after you guys fixed up that dam, even had a few former slaves come through here saying how you took out that coastal gun bunker." I blushed a little at the praise, letting off my own chuckle - well, I don't mean to brag, but it was pretty awesome. "And now you come and donate some aircraft guns to the town? I believe I owe you all a free meal." Eheheh, well, I wouldn't exactly use the word 'donate' when it comes to those guns...
Gumbo turned back around, beginning to slice up some potatoes with surprising finesse. "You three certainly are becoming fast celebrities." Scouring chuckled a little behind his helmet, looking about the town for a moment before dropping his voice. "I, uh, just hope he doesn't remember what the comp'ny did last time we were here..." I shrugged a little, Aerith seeming to melt into her chair from the smells wafting through the stand. Gumbo soon slid a large bowl in front of each of us, every one filled to the brim with chunks of meat and vegetables floating in a creamy liquid. My stomach growled loudly as I realized just how hungry I was and immediately began to wolf down the stew.
As we ate, I heard somepony trot up behind us. "Hey, you three are the guys that helped fix up the dam, right?" Night Strike, Crash Dive and I turned around to be met by a lanky looking mare, curly mane stuck under a trilby. She stuck out her hoof for us to shake, wearing a grin. "Extra Edition with the Hopeville Newsletter. We've been dying to find you guys again, my boss flipped her lid when she heard you guys stopped by the gunsmith's yesterday and we didn't manage to catch you for an interview." Extra pulled up another stool to hop onto as she flipped open a notepad and pulled a quill out from behind her ear. "So, now that we've managed to find you, care to give us the names of these ponies who are working so tirelessly to rebuild Hopeville, and now saving the rest of the wasteland too?" Sheesh, there's flattery and then there's this...
Night Strike swallowed her mouthful of stew before answering. "Ahm, well, for starters, I'm Night Strike, and he's Static Charge." She said, nodding to me. "We're... not really from around here." Boy, how many times have we needed to say that in the last few days? "We, um, just kind of wandered in, and heard that the dam wasn't working, so we figured we could scavange it a little as we fixed it up." Night Strike shrugged a little. "Not really much more than that."
Extra scribbled in her notebook. "So, where exactly are you two from, if you aren't from here? The Hoof? Ponyville? New Appleoosa, maybe?" I froze, suddenly feeling a little worried. I glanced over to Night Strike, who wasn't doing very well at hiding her own nervousness. I blurted out a hasty 'North', only for Extra to look a little more confused. "North? Don't tell me you hiked all the way from the Crystal Empire, the train heading there has been out for more than a year! Or, uh, oh, did you catch a ride with one of the tank ghouls, want to catch some sights in a warmer place?" I bit my lip, inwardly cursing to myself.
Crash Dive suddenly stood herself up, slipping her helmet's rebreather back over her muzzle. "The interview's over." She said through the voicebox. Night Strike and I followed her slowly, Aerith looking disappointed as she was forced to leave the rest of her stew behind. Before we could climb back onto the tank, though, Extra Edition zipped in front of Crash Dive.
"Oh, I almost forgot to catch your name!" She was shoved aside by the power armored pegasus. We all uneasily climbed into the tank, but Extra simply stepped in front of it, suddenly looking very stern. "I suggest you give me a name, ma'am, or I'll be forced to simply go with all I have. And all I have right now, seems to point to the fact that the three responsible for fixing the dam include somepony wearing power armor that happens to resemble the same kind worn by a certain faction that performed a certain military operation a decade ago." A devious grin crossed her face as my stomach dropped. "A name would help in dispelling any rumors that might persist, including a few from Maple Creek about a ghost living in a lighthouse. Sightings of this 'lighthouse ghost' do happen to line up rather well with where that recent crash took place, not to mention your friends' 'not from around here' quote..."
Frozen with a grimace of worry on my face, the power armored pegasus was silent for a moment, before pulling off her helmet and staring down Extra with her own eyes. If anything, I'm surprised she actually started looking more worried than when Crash Dive was wearing her helmet. The mare stepped aside, myself giving the tank's engine a small rev before a power armored hoof came to rest on my shoulder, a chill going down my spine as the black-armored mare moved herself off of the tank and trotted face-to-face with Extra, glaring her down all the while. Crash Dive glanced over at the mare's saddlebags, wearing a stiff look on her face. "Crash Dive. If you value your life, you'll leave what you print about us at that. Got it?"
The press mare let off an audible gulp and weak nod, Crash Dive returning to the back of the mini-tank and reaffixing her helmet as she got settled. Extra Edition seemed all too happy to get herself as far away from us as she could, myself obliging her further by getting the half-track underway back towards Maple Creek, the wagon jostling behind us as we sped onwards. Well... it could've gone worse.
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"Welcome back to Radio K A O S, KAOS in Vanhoover. Our top story today comes out of Hopeville, which is starting to become one of the most well-defended and well-armed little towns in our part of Equestria. Just last night, the Vanhoover Five rolled into town with a cart positively loaded to the brim with an impressive assortment of weaponry, graciously donating a total of four tank-caliber autocannons and twelve machine guns with ammunition for the town to set up as they please. We here at Radio KAOS reached out for comment from the gunsmith, but unfortunately he was unable to be reached - probably busy setting up the new anti-air weapons, heh.
"We did, however, manage to get in contact with a reporter for the Hopeville Newsletter, and in doing so learn the names of three more of the Vanhoover Five - the same three, I might add, that were the ones who restored power to the triage and town just about a week ago. If anypony catches them or their half-track roaming around, send out a thank you to Static Charge, Night Strike, and Crash Dive - those ponies have been working their tails off to make our wasteland just a little better and safer. Ahm, for those still wondering as to who makes up the fifth spot in the five, it seems to be a yet-unnamed Steel Ranger. Do have to say, if I didn't know better it'd sound like one of those old jokes, two ponies in power armor, a pegasus, an earth pony, and an alicorn walk into town, heh...
"Anyways, the reporter said that they were headed back towards the east, which to me sounds like they'll be visiting Maple Creek next. If anyone there's listening, think it'd be a good idea to start figuring out what you're going to do with a couple big autocannons and machine guns, heh. You're listening to Radio KAOS, it's a beautiful Vanhoover day today, and I think it's time to dip into one of the easier soundtracks we've got here. Watch your fire, Hopeville - don't want to shoot down any Spirits in the Sky, heh. Enjoy."
---
"So, uh, besides the obvious way I can use this thing in just hosing down stuff at point-blank, how exactly do I snipe with it?" Aerith blunk at me in mild surprise, us sitting beneath a shaded table along the canal's edge in Clearwater. Stopped over for an early dinner - well, dropping the guns off in Maple Creek shouldn't take too long, and we were making good enough time as is. Static and Scouring had gone off scavenging, leaving us with the mini-tank, and not much to do. The alicorn levitated up her new rifle, setting it on the table between us, myself having done the same with War Crime - well, with Fringe Celestia knows how many miles away, figured the pony who went for a scoped rifle was the next best one to ask about it.
'I'm really amazed that such a rifle exists in that caliber. Ones I've seen all were 5.56mm, not .50 cal. May I?' Moving War Crime over to her, she picked up the gun in her magic, levitating it about and looking it over. Fitting the butt against her shoulder, she leaned her head forwards, one foreleg propping up the grip before the clip and the other grasping it near the trigger, shutting one eye and peering through the scope. Huh, so that's how you're supposed to hold that thing, then... the magical aura that was encompassing the gun vanished, leaving it's full weight on her hooves, the alicorn seeming a little concerned for a moment. 'Gonna tell you now, you're going to want to be prone when you fire this thing.'
"Why's that?" Giving my head a tilt as she steadied herself with War Crime, she looked back towards me, thinking for a moment. Her horn lit up, and I desperately grabbed the bottom of the chair as she moved me behind her, aiming the weapon out at the lake. Okay then, um... oh, muzzle blast, duh. The alicorn giving a small nod towards me, she went back to peering through the scope, concentrating for a few moments. Huh, really didn't think she could get even more silent than she usually is...
With a tug of the trigger, War Crime resounded with a fast two-round burst, Aerith jerking with both shots before having to catch herself with her magic, moving herself back upright and levitating War Crime back to me, and moving myself back to where I was sitting. She shook her head, catching her breath and meeting my eyes. 'That's why. The .50 MG kicks like an apple farmer, laying prone you won't get thrown back as much.' She levitated up her own rifle, holding it in somewhat the same way as she held War Crime, her horn alighting and an aura forming around the mouth trigger. Again, she concentrated, a small click causing her new rifle to retort once, the alicorn releasing a quiet breath afterwards. 'The .308 is more forgiving, why this one has a mouth trigger while yours doesn't. It being semi-auto helps with accuracy, too.'
"Dunno if you've realized, but accuracy isn't really my cup of soda. More of a 'keep hitting it with explosives until it's either dead or not there anymore' kind of pony." Letting off a small chuckle, the alicorn across from me gave a small shake of her head, wearing a small smile and letting off a sigh. Hey, it's worked for me so far, don't see why I should change my ways now! She looked back down at War Crime, nodding towards it with a curious look on her face. "Ah, well, ya see, only real reason I picked War Crime up is because, um... well, lemme put it this way, there's a reason Boomer's in a mounting on the mini-tank rather than being carried in my hooves. War Crime was easier for me to carry, eheh..."
'Doesn't hurt to have something with some range. Just gotta practice with it.' Looking towards me with a soft smile, Aerith turned her gaze out to the lake, pausing for a moment before bringing her rifle back to her shoulder again, following something out on the water. Blinking for a moment, I lifted War Crime up and peered out with her, readjusting it some to fit better with my heavy jacket. Okay, what're you seeing that I'm... that black splotch does not look friendly. Familiar though, yes... hm...
Tracking it alongside Aerith, my trigger hoof pulled on the metal lever before the stock, the action hammering out one round towards the surface of the lake near the black form, a second one towards the other shore, and a third one skywards to Celestia-knows-where as I found myself flailing backwards in the chair and landing with a heavy thud against the stone pavement, the automatic sniper rifle I was holding now being levitated in an aura of magic above me. Thanks for the save on that, Aerith... ow, okay, yeah, only prone fire it is. Though, maybe I could find a stand for it, or something... hang on, headache's catching up with me, ow. Yeesh... 'I hope you don't have to learn everything the hard way.'
"Not everything... just most things. Did I hit it, at least?" Lifting myself up and rubbing at the back of my head, Aerith set War Crime back down against the table, peering through her rifle's scope once more. Letting off a small grunt of pain, I rested against the hard wood, the alicorn across from me moving her rifle back onto the table. A surprised look hung on her face as she scratched at her head, moving her hat slightly.
'I'm not sure. There's a red spot in the water, but a round that size should've killed that thing... whatever it was.' Rubbing at her forehead and looking at War Crime, Aerith's horn lit up, pulling two bottles of Sparkle-Cola RAD from my duffel bag and setting them out between us. Lost in thought, she uncapped hers and took to guzzling it, myself taking a moment of brushing some dirt from my mane before joining her. Ah, now that's making me feel better already... 'Why'd you shoot at it immediately? What was it?' Well, guess that's one upside to being half unicorn, don't have to stop drinking to hold a conversation.
"Mmh, figured it was one of the freaky monster sea ponies we encountered the first time we came through here. Thought we took out their nest when we restarted the dam, we at least sure as hell wiped out a few eggs." Taking another sip of soda, this did get me thinking - okay, those things shrugged off forty mil dragon's breath, but rebar seemed to stick, and a big round like the point-five-oh MG would at least be enough to get through whatever they're made of and make 'em bleed. Explosives sure did the trick for outright killing them, though... "Never seen one during the day... well, alive, at least. If you can stomach the smell, there's a lovely little scene of one that managed to find some destabilized dynamite in the police station here."
Aerith coughed a few times, setting her bottle back down and looking towards myself, giving off a shiver. Yeah, don't blame her for that, it wasn't a pretty sight to see the first time for me, either. Wiping her lips and gasping down a few breaths, she regained herself, picking her bottle back up and passing along a weak smile. 'Ah, no thanks, kinda want to keep lunch down.'
"Suit yourself." Passing along a shrug, and wincing at the bruise forming right where my right foreleg met my body, I took back to downing the bottle of glowing soda. Mmm, oh sweet Strontium-90-laced Sparkle-Cola, you're the best thing for making me forget the results of basic laws of physics... A pair of figures, one with the sun glinting off of his armor and the other with it glinting off of his silvery mane, soon appeared along the waterside, a small red wagon loaded with boxes between them. Ah boy, what'd they find this time?...
"Well, didn't find much left in the way of grocery stores, but this should keep us set for a while yet. Eheh, not that we had to really worry, anyways..." Static passed along a grin as Scouring started moving a few of the crates into the back of the wagon, the blue earth pony opening up one and showing off an impressive number of boxed cereals and other goodies. He chuckled lightly, shutting the lid as Scouring moved it onto the back of the cart last, passing on a grin. Aerith picked herself and her guns up from the table, myself slipping War Crime back into the duffel bag and hefting it onto my back, trotting over to the mini-tank. Dropping himself into the driver's seat, Static paused for a moment, looking around. "Uh... aren't we missing somepony?"
Blinking at him in response, we all looked between each other, myself taking just a moment longer than the rest to realize that we were missing a second pony in power armor. Static started up the mini-tank's engine, the little purr from it matched with the sound of the water in the canal. Giving it a few revs, letting us all hear the pitifully quiet sound it made, he let off a sigh, shutting it off. Alright, old-fashioned way it is... "Crash Dive! We're heading back now!"
Setting the duffel bag on the back, I took to looking around the canalside buildings, trying to catch a glimpse of her black power armor. Okay, she was definitely with us when we got here, me and Aerith went to stretch our legs for a bit while Static and Scouring went scavenging, we sat down at the tables, and... somewhere between when we got here and now she disappeared. Great. Well, she wouldn't just leave us though, right? I mean, it is her lighthouse that we're pretty much living at... Hopping off the back of the mini-tank and spreading my wings wide, I headed along the canal, looking for her. "Crash Dive! C'mon, I know you don't want to have to walk back home by yourself!"
The water's surface bubbled as it flowed along, a faint feeling of worry crossing my mind - that suit of hers lets her breathe underwater, and stuff a meter or two below does kind of turn into murky blackness... those fish things looked to be about as big as she is in her power armor... Oh please please please tell me that that thing I shot at with War Crime earlier wasn't a pony wearing heavy watertight power armor.
Circling back, the form of something breaking the water's surface near one of the docks startled myself momentarily, the red eyes and black, water-covered armor being a little terrifying at first look. Thank Celestia... The power armored pegasus looked about for a moment, heading for the steps leading up to the second level of the town as I set myself down beside her. Her visor's red eyes met mine, and she slowed in her trotting, reaching up to undo her helmet. "There you are! We've been looking all over for you, c'mon, we're heading out now."
"Sorry for giving you a scare like that, I just... I was just thinking, about some things. Nice and calm underwater, you know, lets me be alone with my thoughts." She gave a pause, us both trotting up the stone steps, the pink-maned pegasus letting off a dry chuckle. "Well, more alone than I usually am, anyways..." Passing her a nod, I trotted ahead a few steps, returning a wave Aerith gave me as we approached the bridge closest to the waterfront, where teh mini-tank was. A metal-covered hoof grabbed my shoulder for a moment, myself stopping to turn and look back to Crash Dive.
"Night Strike, um... when we get back to the lighthouse, would you mind making sure Static and yourself both stay up until after Scouring and Aerith go to bed? I... there's something I want to show you two, in private." Uh... okay then. Blinking at her a few times, she let off a small sigh, looking down at the cobblestone road beneath us. "Just... it's something I think you both should know. Only you two. Okay?"
"Ahm, alright, I'll try and make sure he's up. We have to get there first though, heh, right?" Passing on a small smile, Crash Dive returned it, us both making way for the mini-tank once again. Soon reaching it and climbing on, Static gave a nod, the half-track's engine purring to life and us getting underway once more. The black power-armored hoof gently got my attention once more as I set myself up behind Boomer, Crash Dive resting herself near the front of the large wagon behind us. She sniffled lightly - her eyes were red. Well, not helmet visor red, but... huh...
"Thank you."
---
"Hot DAMN, those are some big guns!" The mini-tank and wagon trundled into Maple Creek, the sun already starting to slip behind the forest and over the distant horizon. Sulfur trotted alongside us, a wide grin on her face as she examined the collection of arms that we had in the back of the wagon, Scouring seeming a little uneasy about her - oh, loosen up ya tin can, she's just looking at the guns. I wore a smile, hopping off of Boomer and hovering up alongside the unicorn mare. "These are all for Maple Creek? Goddesses, I... I don't know how we're going to repay you for this!"
"Oh, I'm sure Static'll think of some way for us to break even." Letting off a small chuckle, I watched as the unicorn mare undid the clasps for one of the steampipe guns, looking it over more closely. How to divvy this up, then... hm... "Ah, well, actually, only a few of them are for the town itself. Promised Ripple we'd turn Trout into a gunboat on account of... new developments towards the east. Hope you've got a lot of thirty cal ammo in stock at your store, heh." Setting the gun back on the back of the wagon, Sulfur passed on a slightly confused look, letting off a small cough.
"A-ahm, hmmh, sorry, you said that a few of these would be going to be stuck on that old ship beached on the river? You sure that's a good idea, you know how those saliors can drink..." Okay, well, she had a point. Ah, pff, I'm sure it'll be fine, Ripple doesn't have to work the guns. They're more for ground combat, anyways... Static weaved the mini-tank and trailer around towards the docks, myself and Sulfur following behind close as the wood boards creked beneath the weight, the tracks leaving parallel ruts in the muddy beach as it moved off towards the boat. Sulfur paused for a moment, thinking. "What did you mean by 'developments in the east'? Those flying things, right?"
"Uh... and... something else. A lot of something elses. We don't know what they are either, we just know that you need something with a lot of punch to really kill them... like some destabilized dynamite. Or, yanno, an automatic light tank-caliber anti-air craft gun. Eheh." Rubbing at the back of my head, Sulfur's expression was pretty much the right one to have regarding those freaky fish-things, whatever they were. Monster seaponies seemed to be the right phrase for describing them. There was a small thud from below the deck of the ship, before Ripple appeared through a doorway, rubbing at his head.
"Sonuva yeller-footed frisky sand dog... Ah, ahoy there! Have any luck with finding me an engine?" The large stallion passed on a wide smile from the deck of the ship, Aerith's reveal of the new engine changing it to one of pleasant surprise. The rest of the group started moving the lighter guns onboard, Sulfur watching for a moment before turning herself about, glancing back at the wagon of guns every now and again. A hoof tapped my shoulder as I started trotting over to help, the unicorn mare thinking.
"Be right back, gonna go get some ponies to help with the other guns. You don't mind if I call this in to Radio KAOS, do you? Seems like you guys are making all the headlines nowadays." She gave a little chuckle before trotting off, myself wearing a weak grin. Yeah, did sure seem like things were going that way... screw it, I think we ditched going low profile when we went and blew up a coastal gun bunker. Or, when we blew up that colony of ants at Seahoof. Or, when we fixed what the zebras didn't do and wiped Molly Manticore's off the face of the planet. Or when we crashed here in the first place... one of those times, yeah.
Hovering over to Trout, Ripple had a section of the back of the boat opened up, allowing us to peer down inside and watch as he took to unscrewing the bolts and pipes that held the old engine in place. Aerith had set the new engine down on the deck before the open hatch, sitting off to one side and peering down in, as Static and Scouring maneuvered one of the autocannons into place. Myself looking over the hatch's side with the alicorn, Ripple let off a grunt as he tried to work free a coupling on a pipe, met with a small burst of steam and water that lessened to a dribble soon afterwards. Ewh, really hope that this thing's system isn't actually charged, that wouldn't be good... letting off a sigh and wiping his forehead, the sailor pony moved back to the engine, resting his hooves on the cylinder bank and giving it a shove. It creaked slightly before tilting, Aerith's aura encompassing it and removing it from the ship, soon replacing it with the new one. "Aye, keep the old one on board, might be worthwhile to have it for spare parts. Gonna be brilliant to have the ol' girl riding the water again..."
The new engine sliding into place with a small thunk and slight screech as the new gears meshed with the old, I picked myself up from watching the rest of the installment to check on Static and Scouring. One autocannon was laid up at the bow, the steel ranger setting up one of the support stands we'd picked up from the small shed while Static looked over the ammo in the cart. Hovering myself over to him, he rubbed at his chin, seeming thoughtful. "Something up?"
"Huh? Oh, no, no, just trying to think... he's got to have at least a few caps left over from his tour boat days, right? We could get at least a thousand for each big gun, and a few hundred for each smaller one, right? Ammo at a thousand caps per clip?" Oh, Static, always have to monetize everything, don't you? Myself looking back to the ship, the earth pony picked up one of the drums of 37mm autocannon ammunition, tossing it about in his hooves.
"Eh... I dunno, Static, we kind of promised him that we'd do this for him. He did say that he'd give us lifts wherever Trout could take us that we wanted to go, and I'm sure we could fit the mini-tank on there if we wanted to." He let off a small sigh, holding the clip steady for a moment, still looking it over. Resting a hoof on his shoulder, his eyes met my own - you forgot that bit of the agreement, didn't you, ya caps-for-brains? "C'mon, buck up, you'll still get a chance to drain the town for all they're willing to give. Hey, might even be able to use that silver tongue of yours to convince the ponies at the maple candy place to give us a pallet of free samples, eh?"
"Ah... why must my weakness be my stomach? Alright, but remember, you're the one who suggested it." Picking up a few more of the clips, Static moved back over to the ship, myself gathering a few drums and following him. Let's see, he's got five clips, I can probably carry three, forty rounds per gun is reasonable, yeah... hm... we're going to have to go back to Seahoof to find more ammo for these things. I hope that it wasn't in the same hangar as the ants. Setting the three clips I had on Trout's deck, Scouring hefted the large gun up onto the mounting, giving it a few test movements to make sure it wasn't locked up. Huh, seems a little front-heavy... ah, sure it evens out with the clip on. Things weigh at least a few kilos each.
"Right, eight clips, that's forty per gun, should be enough. Things fine on your side, Crash Dive?" The power armored pegasus let off a small grunt of acknowledgement as one of the steampipe guns clattered on the top deck railing, the support for it clinking a little as she tightened it down. Two autocannons, four machine guns... hell, Trout's just a crew away from a proper gunboat. Oh, cruising around the reservior in her's going to be fun, tossing those solar burst grenades over into the water to take care of any other freaky fish things and shooting up whatever's a threat on the land...
Aerith smiled as she hopped down from Trout's back, levitating over the second autocannon and two more of the machine guns with several clips, a building sound of a crowd forming on the roads leading to the dock. Setting the weapons down on Trout's deck, matching the rest of us Aerith turned to watch as seemingly the whole population of Maple Creek came forth, headed by Sulfur, the town doctor, and another mare who I'm going to guess is the mayor. Oh... boy. "The frak, Sulfur? I thought you said you were just going to get a few ponies to help!"
"Eheh... yeah... about that..." She rubbed at the back of her head, the mare in the center trotting forwards as Scouring hastily fit on his armor's helmet, Crash Dive peering down from the upper deck for a moment before disappearing to the opposite side of the ship. Ripple trotted over to the side with us, scratching his head and looking out over the crowd, more than a little dumbfounded - yeah, we're as confused as you, mate. Clearing her throat, the mayor looked up at us, a smile upon her face.
"The people of Maple Creek welcome this generous act to our town, in light of the recent reports from the east. Let our gratitude be known towards the Vanhoover Five, as well as the knowledge that they will be repaid for their services in full!" Well, at least Static can breathe easy. A couple ponies trotted forth towards the wagon, the glowing of a few horns raising alarm in myself as I heard the chains holding it on rattling slightly. "We will see to setting up the rest of the armament ourselves, and will discuss paymen-" Landing with a heavy thud in the back of the cart, I cut the mayor off, startling the few unicorns who were preparing to make off with all the rest of our guns and ammo.
"Woah, woah, woah, just hold on a second there. We'll be giving you plenty of guns, just not all of them, alright? There's a lot of ammo in here that we need still, won't fit in any of these guns we're giving you, and there are still at least a few other towns in the wasteland that need guns like these." Okay, I wasn't completely sure about that last part, but hey, better safe than sorry... aaaand everypony was looking at me now. Great. I only do crowd control well when it's in the context of controlling a crowd of feral ghouls with 40mm high explosive grenade shells. The mayor blunk a few times, looking between the doctor and Sulfur, the unicorn mare saying something I couldn't hear to the mayor before she cleared her throat and passed on a slight nod.
"Very well, we'll allow the division of weaponry to be handled by your discretion, under supervision of Sulfur, of course. Leave the bill with her, and I will see to it that you will be reimbursed for the full amount on the morrow. As the mayor of our fine town, again, we thank you for your generous donation of such heavy weaponry for our protection from these new threats in the wasteland. Goodnight, and have a pleasant evening." Passing along a nod, the mare trotted off through the crowd, it beginning to disperse somewhat into the buildings and streets along the river, a few ponies hanging around for a few moments longer. I let off a sigh, rubbing at my forehead - oh, boy, why does being a weapons distributor have to be such a headache sometimes?
Lifting myself back up from the wagon, Sulfur trotted around the back, peering into the armored wagon in the fading light of twilight. "So... long as I'm here, if we aren't getting all of it, what are we getting, then?" That... was a very good question. Well, Trout and Ripple live here, so it's a safe bet that at least two big guns will be here most of the time. Might have to supplement the lack with more machine guns, though... oh, they're distant enough from the east that they shouldn't have to worry too much about flying things.
"Uh... two of the autocannons, and... sixteen of the machine guns, eight of the thin-barrel belt-fed and eight of the steampipe pie-tin-clip ones, that sound fair? I mean, Trout there'll be docked here pretty often, so that's basically four autocannons and twenty machine guns for the town at any given time." Sulfur thought for a moment, wearing a small smile and passing on a nod. Okay, payment time... that's Static's job. "Ah, as for the price for everything, you'll want to talk to Static. Hey, Static? Price negotiator time."
The earth pony gave a nod, hopping down from the back of Trout and trotting over while I hovered myself up to where Crash Dive was. catching her setting up the second machine gun at the back of the upper deck. She glanced towards myself, tighteining a bolt on the mounting for it and affixing one of the clips, swiveling it around a bit before charging it with a round. "One more to go. Once he finishes with the negotiations we can head back home, come back in the morning to get paid." Passing her a smile, she returned it, myself lifting up the last gun to help her with fitting it on the railing. Okay, so this bit folds out for the mounting, and these little twiddly-bits bolt on to the railing, alright...
The power armored pegasus troted over beside myself, helping me fit the gun into place on the railing, myself giving the bolts on the latch-bits a spin and tightening them up. A few more turns, and Crash Dive gave the support a tug, patting the mechanism with a smile underneath her visor. The sound of disbelieving sputtering came from below, myself peering over the railing and catching Sulfur stumbling slightly on her hooves, Static holding a foreleg to his cheek. Well... I never said that the price would be pretty.
---
"Celestia above, why can't you let me just go to sleep, Night Strike?" The earth pony sat across from me in the small booth in the kitchen, myself peering outside at the night. Cloudy - kind of smells like rain. Or that could just be ocean. Hard for me to tell. Static had his head propped up on his hooves, looking especially exhausted; oh, come on ya big baby, it's not even midnight yet. The sound of heavy hoofsteps down the hall met our ears, us both looking to the darkness, and catching Crash Dive standing in the doorway. She shut the door leading to the hallway behind her, letting off a sigh.
"Thank you, Night Strike. I have something I want to... need, need to admit to you both. I've been thinking, and, well, I think you both deserve to know the truth, about... about me. Just promise uou won't make a lot of noise, I don't want the others to know." I passed along a nod, Static rubbing at his sleep-weary eyes before blinking a few times, giving a weak nod as well. The power armored pegasus let off a small sigh, sitting herself down on the kitchen floor, thinking for a moment.
"When I said I lost my platoon to a balefire egg, I was being honest. What happened next, was..." She paused, drawing in a breath and scrunching her face up, seeming on the verge of tears. Well, at least Static was giving his full attention now... "After that, when I came to, the battle was pretty much over. I was... flying... around, when... when... sorry..." She let off a few sputtering cries, rubbing at her eyes with her armored hooves. Okay, this is one emotion we've never seen Crash Dive showing, this is pretty surprising to say the least. I started shuffling myself out towards her to comfort her, but she raised a hoof, stopping me, and continued on. "A raider... a goddess-damned bastard of a raider with a flamethrower hit me from below. The armor saved me from most of it, but... the... the wings are only covered on the back."
She didn't have to continue for us to understand, the look on Static's face matching my own as we glanced towards each other. I tightened my wings against myself, just trying to not imagine how it must've felt - suddenly her actions towards that one raider with the fireball gun who attacked us on the way to Seahoof the first time make a whole lot more sense. Tia fuck me with a tank gun... After spending a few moments regaining herself, she looked over towards me, still rubbing at her red eyes. She looked down towards her armor, undoing the parts of her chestplate and wing covers, visibly grimacing as she slipped them off. Oh... oh my Celestia.
Setting one of the covers aside, tears streamed down her face as she gritted her teeth and extended what was left of her wings. They... they almost looked like they'd be more appropriate on a really, really old ghoul, than somepony like her... okay, the Med-X I can really forgive her for, too. Something heavy hit the table beside me - Static fainting at the sight - as the pegasus mare sitting before us re-folded her horrendously-burned wings, fitting the armor back on with heavy gasps of pain inbetween. The chestplate put back together and wings protected once more, she let her head fall forwards, moving to sobs. "I'm-I'm a p-pegasus who can't f-fly... I'm a f-fucking freak..."
Letting her cry for a moment more, I slid myself out of the bench, trotting over to her. Consoling ponies was never my strong suit... but I think I'm getting better at it. Let's hope the hug works again... Sitting down beside her, I rested a hoof on her shoulder, the distressed pegasus gasping and sputtering as she cried herself out, her tear-blurred eyes meeting my own. Leaning myself forwards, my forelegs wrapped about her body, holding her there and gently rubbing the back of her head. Her armored forelegs wrapped around my own body a moment later, us both holding the hug, myself trying to focus and remember how dad used to calm me down. Always sang that song for me... "We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again, some sunny, day..."
Crash Dive had begun swaying gently along with me as I sang, her cries quieting to a stop soon enough. Damn, that song is good... she sniffled lightly as I finished up the soothing melody, rubbing at her eyes with her forehooves as we broke the hug. A smile stuck on her muzzle underneath her tear-stained cheeks, nodding lightly towards myself. "Th-thank you, Night Strike... thank you, so much." Giving her a light nod, I helped her back up onto her hooves, glancing over at Static. Yeah, nope, he was definitely pretty well passed out right now... suppose he's got the right idea.
"Come on. It's pretty late right now, want to get up soon as we can to figure out what we're going to do next, right?" The power armored pegasus gave a light nod, following myself down the hallway, going to our separate bedrooms. She paused in her doorway, looking back at myself, letting off a light sigh.
"Goodnight, Night Strike... I really hope that you won't have to leave, too soon. You're... you're the closest thing to family I've got." She passed on a small smile, myself returning it, watching as she ducked into her bedroom and shut the door, the light going off a moment later. Turning towards my own, I let off a small sigh, moving over to and getting settled on the mattress. We can't bring all our friends with us when we go back home... but... maybe Crash Dive can at least come with us? Yeah, and Greasy could make her her own pair of mechanical wings, so she could fly again. That'd... that'd make her so happy... alright. Somehow, some way, we're going to get a generator and get the Valkyrie fixed as soon as we can... heh, that's funny, we've been to Seahoof twice and still haven't found any generators. Haven't even really looked for them, though, honestly...
"...ah, fuck me with a seventeen-pounder Royal Equestrian Ordinance tank gun."
-----
I snorted awake at the sound of a pan smacking down onto the table, my mane frazzled and my back stiff. Giving my head a shake, I rubbed my eyes as Crash Dive’s kitchen came into focus once again, a large stack of pancakes steaming on a pan in the center of the table. “Glad you could join us.” Night Strike chuckled as I twisted in the chair, my spine cracking. Aerith levitated a few of the pancakes onto her place, Scouring doing the same. I slid over an empty plate as Crash Dive flipped the oven off and began to rinse off another pan. Night Strike drizzled some syrup over her pancakes as I stabbed some off of the stack in the middle.
“So, uh, what’ve we got planned for today?” I asked, still trying to wake up. Crash Dive slid into the seat across from me, back inside her large suit of power armor. I shuddered inwardly at the thought of her disfigured wings, trying not to display my lack of comfort. I began to slowly eat my pancakes as Scouring chased down his mouthful with a swig of some strong smelling whiskey.
“Js plsshnn n gnin t’ gsh mshynon.” Night Strike tried to say around her pancakes. All of us raised our eyebrows, the dark-blue pegasus lifting a hoof and chewing a few more times, swallowing down the dough. “Just planning on getting our money for the guns back in Maple Creek, before we try looking somewhere else for a generator again.” She went back to wolfing down her breakfast.
Chewing on the fluffy pastry, I gave a moment of thought. “I think we really ought to just head down to Vanhoover at this point. Haven’t we pretty much searched all the other military bases around here? I’d rather just drop most of the caps we just got onto a new generator at this point.” I leaned my head onto one of my hooves. “It’s not exactly like we can fool ourselves into thinking this whole thing is still somewhat covert, anyway.”
Crash Dive tilted her head left and right a little, grimacing slightly. “I suppose that’s true. I’d rather not get even more involved with the towns more than we already have though, if we can help it. First the slavers, then everypony in Hopeville… I just hope whoever has those planes isn’t an avid radio listener.” We continued to eat in silence, aside from the occasional clink of cutlery. “Not to mention wherever that robot... dragon… thing… came from.” She looked, her face pulled into a look of half confusion, half denial. “Are you sure you didn’t just stumble across some hallucinogenic weapons or something somepony left lying around back at the base?”
“I thought we agreed that didn’t happen.” I said, giving my head a small shake. Aerith chuckled a little as Scouring took another drink of whiskey at the mention of the dragon. We soon placed our dishes back into the sink and began to gather up our things to head out. I followed Night Strike into her room to gather up my saddlebags as she slipped her large duffel bag onto her back, loading Thumper with a fresh shell.
We trotted out to the small tank, myself climbing into the driver’s seat yet again as Night Strike hopped onto the back, letting off a small whine of frustration. “Am I ever going to get a chance to actually drive this thing?” She asked as the others exited the small cabin connected to the Lighthouse, myself looking back at her. Scouring and Aerith climbed into the trailer as Crash Dive sat beside Night Strike on the back, steadying her harpoon cannon.
“I thought you’d prefer to be the one firing Boomer, you can’t exactly do both.” I said, smirking. Night Strike rolled her eyes as the engine rumbled to life beneath us. The mini tank began to slowly roll forwards, the low tide lapping lazily at the bottom of the cliffs. I leaned back into the seat, the leathery material sticking to my coat slightly. Night Strike fiddled with her Pip-Buck for a moment, a crackle of static preceding the voice of the radio announcer filling the air.
“Good morning, all you beautiful ponies and still probably beautiful to some, not that I'm one to judge. This is Radio KAOS, and we’re here to give you the morning news today. There haven’t been any new sightings of the mysterious flying machines from Saddlebrook, leaving a few ponies relieved, though still anxious to build up their defenses.” I turned down the path towards Maple Creek, Aerith taking a potshot at a small radroach crawling out of the brush. “Up at Maple Station, there’s been a bit of an uproar due to the beloved Ivory Keys retiring. The owners of the Stiff Drink are searching for any new talent to help keep the customers entertained. And speaking of entertainment, here’s a little song to help wake you all up.” There was the sound of a record scratch before a faint crackling filled the airwaves.
"One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock rock
Five, six, seven o’clock, eight o’clock rock
Nine, ten, eleven o’clock, twelve o’clock rock
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight!"
---
I pulled up beside the small town hall, switching off the engine as we all climbed out. A couple newsponies stood at the door with large cameras hanging around their necks and quills poised over notebooks. Sheesh, we could really do without all the publicity... Scouring Charge knocked on the oak doors, which creaked as they opened to reveal the mayor sitting at a small desk with Sulfur standing beside her. “It’s good to see you here again. Sulfur and I were just validating the price for the guns. 500,000 caps, correct? We just want to be sure you get the correct amount returned.”
I nodded, the news ponies stepping into the room with us. I gave a feigned look of pain. “You hurt me, ma’am. I may be a tough salespony, but I’m no crook.” The mayor grimaced a little, clearly not in the mood for jokes - the way Sulfur rubbed a hof against her head at hearing that number again, I couldn't blame her. I coughed a little, regaining my composure. “Uh, right, anyway, yeah, that’s what we said. We’re willing to take any supplies if you don’t have enough caps, though.”
Sulfur trotted over to a couple large crates in the corner, wearing a weak smile. “We’ve actually already got that taken care of. This should cover just about everything.” She opened up the top crate, revealing boxes of low caliber ammunition and several bottles of a faintly glowing red potion. “If there’s anything else you need, we can stop back by my shop.” Sulfur said as Scouring and Aerith lifted up the large metal trunks with their magic. The unicorn mare followed us back out to the mini-tank as one of the newsponies tried to step up and start rattling off questions, only for Crash Dive to push him back and shoot him a glare, his motor of a mouth choking up.
We secured the few trunks to the trailer as Sulfur looked over the miniaturized half-tank. “Where in Equestria did you get this, anyway? Strangest damn thing I've ever seen...” She asked in awe, bending down to get a closer look at the inner workings of the gears on the treads. She fiddled a little with one of the running wheels before standing herself back up, pausing to think for a moment. “I used to know a pretty good mechanic, used to work with the boats, but he moved away a couple years ago. If I can find him again, I’ll let you know, he’ll probably be able to help with any repairs you'd need, maybe bring up the horsepower of that engine a few notches, too.” I grinned widely, giving off a slightly stupid giggle at the thought of tearing across the wasteland in this thing - already is a hell of a lot faster than that old TOG, probably could give Rolling Tracks and War Mare a run for their money too. Oh, now there's an idea, charging people to races...
I came back to my senses when Night Strike gave me a light whap on my head, smirking a little. Oh, like you’ve never been giddy at the prospect of going overboard. “Hopefully you’ll be able to get in contact with him soon, then. Thanks gain for the supplies!” I called as we began to speed out of town, the small engine roaring behind me. Sulfur waved as we departed, the two trunks bouncing in the trailer a little as I turned and began to head south.
---
“Sheesh, aren’t there any good roads to Vanhoover from here?” Night Strike asked, steadying herself as we rolled across the rough terrain. Crash Dive shook her head, leaning against Boomer as I turned, starting to drive over towards a small grassy hill coming into view on the horizon. Water splashed up on our sides as I drove through a small creek flowing down towards the coastline.
“Just keep inland, I don’t want to go charging through those forests again.” Crash Dive said, looking westward. I nodded, doing my best to stay away from the coastal tree line while maneuvering the rocky ground. Scouring Charge leaned against the crates in the trailer, pulling out a small cube of salt and popping it into his mouth to suck on.
We were soon cresting over the top of the hill, the ground beginning to slowly slope downwards as we traveled parallel to the coast. The sun rose higher in the sky as I drove across the fields, the chill of the air blowing in my mane faintly reminding myself of home. Well, this place is at least a more bearable temperature... One of Aerith's magic screens popped into view out of the corner of my eye. 'Anything we should know about Vanhoover, before we head in?' Crash Dive thought for a moment as I turned to avoid a large ditch, everyone holding on as the cart and tank rattled slightly. The ground began to slope upwards again, the cliffs turning inwards.
“Probably won’t be going into Vanhoover proper, that place is almost as bad as an opened reactor with how much it glows still. High-priority target during the war, or something. The rivers around Vanhoover would let some boats in and out, but I don’t know how many ponies have been willing to try going any further out than local fishing spots.” We approached the top of the hill, the land curving steadily more flat. “Just try not to draw any more attention to yourselves than you already have. There are a lot more ponies here than anywhere else we've been, and I'm willing to bet they aren't going to be as nice.” I began to slow as we reached the top of another hill, the land then falling away again to reveal a large city below us.
The city rested atop a large patch of land, disconnected from the mainland by the river flowing from the Vanhoover Reservior splitting into two wide branches, flowing out towards the ocean. The edges of the island were dotted by small buildings, a few boats resting at docks in the river. As my gaze moved towards the center of the island, the buildings grew slightly taller and fancier, until they abruptly met with the edge of a large crater on the opposite side. The hole fell away into such deep blackness, it almost looked as if it had been dug out to the center of the earth, had it not been for the sickly green glow emanating from the large pool of water in the center. How in Equestria did these ponies manage to live to close to such a radioactive sink hole like this?
The tank slowly rolled along the hill as I drove us around towards the inland section of the island where a few bridges still spanned the rivers. As I approached, I could make out a few ponies standing on either side of the first bridge we came to, both wielding large shotguns on saddles. Both of them had their guns aimed at us as I drove up, causing me to slam on the brakes and knock the others around a bit. “State your business.”
“Uh… we were looking to buy some manufacturing parts. We’re running delivery for the gunsmith up in Hopeville.” I said, wishing the two guards would put their weapons back down, and buy the story. One trotted up to the trailer, flipping over the tarp to reveal the large trunks and the remaining guns. The guard waved the other one over, whose horn began to glow as one of the trunks was levitated out of the trailer. “Hey, what’re-” I was cut off as one of the guards swiftly pointed his shotgun at me. Okay, lesson learned, let these guys do what they want if I want to keep my head.
The guards opened the trunk, rifling through the ammunition and potions. They muttered a little to each other, but eventually placed the trunk back inside the trailer. “Alright, you’re free to go in.” They trotted back to their posts and I twisted the handle, driving over the stone bridge into the town. Small houses lined the street as we headed in, a few ponies turning their heads to watch us drive by. I turned a corner, trying to locate any sort of sign pointing towards anywhere that might be considered 'industrial'.
I stopped with a jerk as a few ponies trotted out in front of the mini-tank, carrying a large crate of a foul smelling collection of fish, a few still flopping about in the box. I cringed a little as they passed, but managed to keep myself from gagging before we sped back off down the roads. As I drove further through the town, we came to a break in the buildings, the river curving in with several docks and boats sitting at the edge of the water.
I slowed and stopped the tank, looking over at all the ponies milling about, examining their boats, loading and unloading cargo, along with a few shooing away a few oversized crabs that were attempting to steal their day’s catch. “Oi, grey coat!” Night Strike called out. One of the ponies looked back towards us, pausing in his attempts to scrub off things from the side of a large boat. “You know where we might find the machine shops around here? Any large manufacturers or something?”
The pony leaned against one of the dock’s posts. “Yeah, head away from the docks and turn right around Stone street, there’s a general store there. If you’re looking for work, though, there’s the Flint and Steel Shipping Company. They make a lot of the boats around here, a few carts and stuff too, if you’re good with your hooves.” He returned to cleaning the boat and I spun the tank around, heading back towards the center of town.
We soon came up to a road lined with old buildings, a few shops having put up large planks of wood over their shattered storefront windows. I followed a few ponies trotting down the cobblestone path, looking around for the shops mentioned by the sailor. I slowed to a stop outside a large warehouse, a beaten sign hanging above the door reading “Flint and Steel Shipping Co. No Finer Ships in the Wastes”. We all climbed out of the tank and trotted up the short flight of steps into the building.
A bell rang above our heads as the door swung open into a small office with a few ponies sitting at cluttered desks. One looked up as we entered, her eyes going a little wide at the sight of all of us. I trotted over to her, Scouring scanning the room behind the visor of his helmet, Night Strike and Aerith both seeming a little uneasy, and Crash Dive... being Crash Dive. “Hello, we were wondering if you happen to have a generator for sale. We heard you do a lot of manufacturing, maybe you could build one for us, if you don't?”
The secretary raised an eyebrow. “Erm, well, I could call down one of our engineers, but I don’t think they’re going to be too willing to give up one of the few working generators we have.” She spun in her chair and picked up her phone, punching in a few numbers as she leaned back into it. We stood in silence as she tapped a hoof on the desk impatiently. “Smokey? Yeah, I’ve got some ponies here that want to buy a generator. Yes, I’m serious.” She turned to face us, looking us over. “An earth pony, a pegasus, a couple ponies in power armor and an alicorn.” She put a hoof to her forehead. “No, this is not a prank ca- Yes, I’m perfectly- Look, just get down here, alright?” She hung up the phone, sighing and rubbing her temples a little.
The door behind the two desks swung open, a large dark-grey stallion stepping out, brushing his tar-black mane out of his eyes. He paused upon seeing our group, his pupils shrinking a little before glancing over to the secretary, who gave him an exasperated look. The stallion quickly shifted to a more professional stance, though he still looked rather surprised - honestly, I don't blame him. “So, uh, you five looking for a generator?” He asked. I nodded and he turned back around, leading us through the doors.
We stepped out into a large factory floor, a few ponies trotting back and forth with large pieces of metal and wood on small railcarts between them. The framework of a boat sat upon a large mess of metal beams and walkways, ponies working to fix the pieces of metal together to form the outer hull of the boat. Smokey led us over to several large machines chugging away, one unicorn standing by with a clipboard and making minor adjustments to a few of them. “Well, here’s what we’ve got. Should power just about any large machines you might have, damn thing's a bigger workhorse than me.”
I looked at the machines that stood at least three times my height, and better resembled the reactor back in EQUAD. “Um… you don’t happen to have anything… smaller, do you? More portable, maybe not bolted to the ground?” Smokey looked down at me, clearly not very happy. I recoiled a little, only now really noticing how much larger he was than me - just about Featherweight-sized, now I think of it. “Well, uh, the gunsmith we’re getting it for doesn’t exactly have a warehouse, and we don’t really have any way of moving it other than our cart.”
Smokey sighed and shook his head. “No, this is all we’ve got. If you need a generator, why aren’t you looking around places like the old military bases? I’m sure they probably had a couple for emergencies.” Believe me, we're pretty sure they don’t. I thanked him and we all turned to head back out into the lobby, the doors swinging shut behind us. As we trotted out into the street again, though, we spotted a few ponies digging around in our trailer, one fiddling with the controls of the tank.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing!?” Night Strike yelled, the ponies all looking up at us. One let off a quick curse, twisting the ignition and speeding down the street. Oh, fuck, why didn’t that thing have keys?! We raced after the ponies, several pedestrians leaping out of the way of the speeding mini-tank. One of the ponies in the trailer picked up one of the steampipe guns, firing it unsteadily from the back of the trailer. Aerith leapt out of the fire, her horn flaring up as she shot a few balls of arcane energy at them. One managed to strike the pony firing off the gun, knocking him out of the trailer, the gun falling out of the back. Scouring Charge levitated up the gun as he ran past it, firing off a few errant shots with it, the pedestrians all taking to find whatever cover they could. The pegasus in the driver’s seat ducked to avoid the fire, the other pony in the trailer picking up Aerith’s hunting rifle. He fired off a shot, just barely missing Night Strike’s hooves as the driver wheeled around a corner, the trailer smashing into an old signpost before speeding along down the street.
We followed the tank, my breath becoming ragged as my heart raced. A few more blasts of magic flew through the air, the driver swerving to avoid them. The pony in the back took aim again, the rifle cracking as he fired another shot. The bullet connected with my hind leg, sending me tumbling onto the ground painfully. Gaaah, sweet mother of Celestia! I glanced down, seeing the hole oozing with blood, trying to pick myself up from the street. Oh, fuck, the bullet’s still in there! I tried to stand, shifting my weight off of my injured leg and hobble after the tank, though it was speeding away far too quickly for me to keep up. Night Strike stopped, looking back towards me and setting herself on the ground. Crash Dive paused, looking back with her, but Night Strike waved her on. “Keep going, we’ll need the potions in the trailer!” Crash Dive turned and ran back after the tank as Night Strike rushed up to me.
She rolled me onto my back, grimacing as she saw the open wound. Night Strike glanced around, unsure of what to do, when a grey mare came charging around the corner, two heavy saddlebags strapped to her back. She trotted up to me, dropping her bags to the ground. “What happened?” She asked. Night Strike stood, a little taken aback at the sudden arrival of somepony else. The mare flipped open her saddlebags, taking out a bottle of alcohol and a pair of curved forceps. “Come on, I can’t treat him if I don’t know what he was hit with!”
Night Strike snapped out of her stunned silence, glancing back down at me. “Uh, it was a military-grade infantry rifle, .308 ammunition. I think it was just one shot in the leg." The mare bent down over me, holding the alcohol in her teeth. She tilted her head a little, spilling some of the liquid onto a white cloth. She dabbed the cloth in the wound, causing me to sharply inhale through my teeth at the burning sensation. “Ahm, why exactly are you here?”
The mare shoved the bloody cloth into Night Strike’s hooves, causing her to jump a little from the sight. “Here, keep cleaning the blood away.” She picked up the forceps in her mouth, crouching down to the wound. I cried out a little as I felt her digging around inside my leg for the bullet, Night Strike doing her best to keep the area clear of more blood, her own self seeming a little shocked white. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before she tossed the bloody bullet onto the ground along with the forceps. “You weren’t exactly flying under the radar, chasing after that motorcycle-thing. Don’t you have any sort of city medics where you’re from?” She asked, digging around in her saddle bags again.
“I-I guess not...” The mare produced a roll of gauze, gently lifting my leg up and beginning to wrap the fabric firmly around it. My breathing slowed as she worked, tugging and twisting at the gauze to keep a constant pressure on the bullet hole. She reached back into her saddlebags where a pair of scissors were sticking out, quickly cutting and tying off the cast. I sat up, gently rubbing the aching part of my leg, trying to not think about the fact that there's a seven-millimeter hole in it now.
“T-thanks.” I muttered. Night Strike helped me back to my hooves, the mare beginning to wipe down her tools and place them back into her bag. She scooped up the bullet, tossing into a small orange bag before placing it into her saddlebags and hitching them back up. I took a few tentative steps forward, a small pain shooting through my injured leg as I placed weight on it, causing me to shift back to my other legs. “Nnfh, I hope Crash Dive doesn’t mind me borrowing a few shots of Med-X...” Letting off a small pained gasp, I looked back to the mare. “Thanks again…?”
“Pressure Cooker.” She said, sticking her hoof out to shake it, smiling.
-----
Well, this day could've gone better. I mean, it's not 'robo-dragon coming out of the sky' bad, but it is on par with 'accidental joyriding in a megaspell-armed bomber attack aircraft leaving us stranded' bad. Static shook Pressure Cooker's hoof with a small grimace, myself glancing back nervously and listening for the sounds of gunfire, explosions, and hoping for the unfamiliar screams of those two assholes getting precisely what they deserved. The earth pony mare standing beside us seemed to take notice, myself suddenly feeling my left foreleg being picked up and the sleeve rolled back on my jacket, showing off my legputer. "Hey, what're you-"
"You're the one with a chance to catch back up with your friends, probably should take that. I just need to... there." A small triangle popped up on the compass of my EFS, pointing around to somewhere off towards the northwest. The mare rolled my sleeve back down for me, looking towards Static. "I'll take you back to my place for the time being, you two sure don't look like you're from here. When you get your thingy back, head for the marker, that's where we'll be." Pressure Cooker passed along a small smile, myself looking towards Static, who seemed rightfully dumbfounded. Well, she seems nice, at least... The low rumble of a few familiar thumps met my ears, myslef swinging around wildly to look towards hwere they were coming from. Oooh, those bastards touched Boomer!
"I'll be fine Night Strike, just go. We'll catch up with you later." Giving Static a small nod, my wings snapped back and took me up into the air, beelining down the streets and following along with the path of destruction. Okay, so they turned here very bloody tightly, and-BUILDING! My hooves stumbled me along the side of one of the brick buildings in the city, rounding a corner and soaring along. The blasts became louder before they suddenly stopped, the lack of explosions not doing anything for making me feel better - ooh, what if they bounced one back into the wagon? There's a lot of stuff on there that would not be fun to have cook off...
The streets became wider for this section, a thin crowd of ponies looking in the direction that the mini-tank had gone, myself following along with their gaze. Okay, okay, so it's not the entire town in a panic... but I am willing to bet that those holes in those buildings weren't there before. Least I'm on the right track. Swinging down another road, the welcoming sight of Aerith hovering over Scouring and Crash Dive near an intersection caught my eyes, myself soon catching up. "Oh, thank Celestia you're all alright..."
"Static going to be okay? Dunno if he's the kind for it, but if he wants to give the prick who shot him a pounding, he can." Crash Dive let off a small, exhausted chuckle, myself trotting over to her and catching Aerith land a short ways away, her horn alight. Her .45 auto levitated up out of the wagon - thank Celestia they didn't find it - and she brought it to bear towards the ground, myself trotting about to catch the sight of the two theifs. Magical collars, nice... the two stallions seemed to actually be crying, the pegasus gasping for breath a little harder than the other earth pony, the alicorn wearing a smile and looking over towards myself.
'Forgot I could do this. Sorry I didn't do it sooner, was a little peeved this one picked up my rifle.' She kicked a foreleg against the earth pony, myself looking towards him with a glare. I'm normally not one to be protecting, stating, or administering the law, but between the three counts of weapon theft and misuse, one count of grand theft... half-track, and million or so counts of being complete fucking arseholes, well, I'm sure between myself and Sergeant Thumper we can decide on a proper form of punishment. A rarely heard but more rational portion of my brain did smack me enough to bring to my attention the several witnesses currently around us, though... sorry Sergeant Thumper, no solid slug supporitories today.
The metal mouth grip of a bluish umbrella fit on the back of the half-track behind the driver's chair caught my attention, myself taking my time in retrieving it from it's holding spot. Well, maybe there is some sense to the whole pacifist thing Static does... I mean, in a civilized area, anyways. Wonder if there's any nonlethal rounds I could use with Thumper, for the hell of it. Holding the umbrella under my foreleg for the moment, I trotted over to the incapacitated earth pony's face, kneeling down and looking at him in his eyes. "Oh, sweetie, you and your friend really shouldn't have done that. Don'tcha know who we are?" Taking the umbrella in my mouth, the earth pony flailed as he saw the small arcing of electricity across the metal prongs, moments before I brought it up and promptly jammed it against his shoulder. His body shook wildly before falling limp, Aerith's collar releasing his neck as I turned to look at the other one.
"You-you're fucking insane, that's who you are! Aaagh, you broke my fucking neck!" Well, that does explain why mister joyride wasn't flailing as much as his friend. I looked back to Aerith, who returned a look of surprise, glancing back to the pony she had pinned. Releasing the umbrella and holding it back under my foreleg, a few helmeted ponies came pushing through the crowds, adorned in combat armor and brandishing a variety of weaponry. "Fuck me, this wasn't supposed to go like this..."
The combat-armored ponies started pushing back the crowds, one wearing a duster along with his armor trotting over to us, and the two thieves. "Captain Spec Ops, LVPD. We'll take it from here, safe in supposing you're the same group here that came in from Hopeville?" Answering him with a small nod, he returned a smile, releasing a chuckle and looking back towards Aerith, and the two joyriders. His eyes seemed to light up as he caught sight of the alicorn, turning himself to look about and catching Crash Dive and Scouring Charge in view as well, another small chuckle escaping him. "Usually we don't have ponies as capable as you, catching their own criminals alive. Can't say I'm surprised considering you're the Vanhoover Five... Ahm, there are five of you, right?"
"Uh, yeah, Static was shot in the leg by that prick laying unconscious over there, a medic pony caught sight of it and came to help, Pressure Cooker. It wasn't too bad... disgusting as hell to see her fix it, but not a bad injury." One of the other combat-armored ponies moved back from the crowd, placing a hoof on the back of the uncinscious stallion for a moment before looking down in mild surprise, stepping over him and then placing his hoof on the back of the other stallion, some ropes being pulled from his saddlebags and tied around the pegasus' body and wings. Aerith kept her magic collar on him, seeming a little anxious - well, if he did break his neck, no sense in us being charged with murder... "Oh, uh, right, the pegasus said he might've broken his neck... we won't be charged with anything if he kicks it due to that, will we?"
"Don't worry yourself, we'll make sure he'll stay alive to serve his sentence. Vehicular theft, endangerment of citizens, probably looking at five to ten years, at least." The Captain let out another small chuckle, pulling a radio from his saddlebags and trotting over to the two incapacitated thieves, myself loving to lean up against the mini-tank and replace the umbrella behind the seat. Aerith climbed up onto the back of the mini-tank while Scouring and Crash Dive entered the back, myself looking to the seat. Oooh, might be able to drive it after all... The Captain returned over, looking along the length of the half-track and cart. "Alright, we'll handle these two morons, you four can go back to whatever you were doing. Welcome to Vanhoover." Thunder crackled loud overhead, drawing all of our eyes skywards, myself met with a big fat water droplet to my muzzle. Shaking my head dry, the Captain chuckled, fitting on his helmet's plexiglass face cover. "Hope you can find somewhere to get out of the rain, storms are nasty here."
"We'll keep that in mind. Thanks again!" Hopping myself into the driver's seat of the mini-tank, another few drops of rain started to fall, the crowds moving to clear from the streets before things really started to get wet. Resting my hooves on the handles, I sat there, looking over the controls - okay, um, well, left and right is pretty obvious, then the gear control's on the one handle, and... um... No, no, I can get this. Flicking a switch mounted on the handlebars turned on the headlight, illuminating the street and hopefully serving as a good enough warning for people to get outta our way, myself pressing down a pedal inside and feeling as the mini-tank lurched slightly, slowly starting to trundle forwards.
A sickening grinding sound met my ears, Aerith likewise covering her own as Crash Dive and Scouring both peered over towards the front. Oh, that can't be good... bringing the mini-tank to a halt, the engine let off a small clattering sound, something inside screeching every now and again. Wearing a grimace, I looked back towards the rest, and the engine compartment underneath Boomer. "Okay, we'll pick up Static, then see to getting that looked at by somepony... I hope."
---
Yanno, since we've been down here there really hasn't been too much to complain about. Well, I mean, barring freaky fish-things and bloatsprites with stingers that I'm starting to think aren't bloatsprites after all, it's been pretty alright - but that's not counting the weather. Back home, a bad storm translates to climbing into the TOG and locking down all hatches while settling in for a re-showing of Dr. Strangemare, sit near the reactor to keep warm and you're pretty much good until it blows over. Here though, with just the open-topped half-track to huddle in, and the weather deciding it's a good plan to dump a whole reservior on top of us... well, it's less than ideal. "I really hope that Pressure Cooker has a shed or something we can stick this thing in."
"Least an overhang 'round back should do, keep it away from twitchy hooves." Scouring gave a small shrug in his armor, the rain flowing effortlessly off of his helmet. Nnfh, stupid waterproof power armor... well, at least my jacket covers most of me. What is this thing made out of again? Glancing down for a moment, there was a loud splash as we shot through a puddle, Aerith throwing her wing up to block herself from the spray. Eheh... oops. Shakng her wing free of water droplets, the smaller suburb-like houses of Vanhoover passed by, the marker on my compass leading us over to a relatively modest little house. The motor of the mini-tank whined and groaned as we slowed, big fat rain droplets hitting against us all as we pulled up along a small covered dirt sidepath beside the house that already had a wagon on it. The engine rattled for another moment before I shut it off, Aerith already moving herself over to the covered porch and trying to shake herself down, letting off a small huff.
'I know that a good shower in the wasteland is something few and far between, but even before the Lightbringer weather like this would've been called ludicrous.' Shaking her wide-brim hat out, the alicorn looked about the neighborhood, myself moving to join up with her as Scouring and Crash Dive climbed out of the wagon. The little marker in my vision blinked as it focused in on the house behind us, the heavy downpour clattering against the metal roof of the porch while we stood outside. 'So, this is where Static is?'
"Yeah, least this is where Pressure Cooker set my legputer to point to, anyways. Let's hope she was right." Letting out a weak chuckle, I moved myself over to the door and gave it a few knocks, somepony inside stumbling over what sounded like a pile of scrap metal. Wearing a small grimace, I let out a sigh as the brown-haired mare answered the doorway, wearing a smile.
"Oh, good, you're back! Was worried you'd get stuck when the downpour started, c'mon in." Pressure Cooker bore a smile as she let us inside her home, myself looking about the place and staring down at the metallic mess in the middle of the living room. Shutting the door behind Crash Dive, the earth pon mare finally looked over, letting off a small chuckle and rubbing at the back of her head as she followed my gaze. "Eheh, don't mind the mess, was just doing some tinkering. Medic's my second job, also do repairs on some of the smaller boat engines."
"Boat engine repairs? Oh, thank Celestia... a-ahm, I mean, uh, our half-track was making a noise after we picked it back up from the two joyriders, think you could take a look at it?" Letting off a weak chuckle - probably could've gotten to that better, but hey, not like we have anything else that might be able to get us from A to B quickly while hauling a whole lotta stuff. At least, not until we can fix the Valkyrie, anyways... Pressure Cooker met my eyes with mild surprise and confusion, the sound of a familiar earth pony slowly stepping his way down the stairs drawing our attention.
"What was that about the mini-tank? Nnfh..." Static stumbled lighty as he tried to not put weight on his back hoof, Aerith stepping in and helping him the rest of the way down the stairs courtesy of a bit of magic. Getting back to a standing posture, the silver-maned earth pony gave his head a gentle shake, holding it with a hoof. "Bwuh, I'm starting to regret you talking me into taking those painkillers... anyways, um, yeah, mini-tank, what's the deal?"
"Well, would you rather not be able to walk while the better bandages work or not? You took a rifle bullet to the hoof without losing consciousness, you can suck it up." She stuck her tongue out at Static in a teasing manner for a moment, before looking back to myself. "Speaking of, there is something you could do for me while I look at your tank-thingy's engine. Settled as Vanhoover is, there are still a few buildings that the residents haven't yet, um... looked into, due to whatever reasons. Southeast of here is an old cartoon studio nopony's gone into, might still have some medical supplies inside somewhere, anything'd help. Healing bandages especially."
Looking back behind myself, Aerith bore a weak smile while Scouring loked over to Crash Dive, the power armored mare knocking a forehoof against that panel on her shoulder again. Oh, right... that. Bearing a small grimace towards Crash Dive, I turned back to Pressure Cooker, giving a nod. "We can look into it. Ahm, if you have any Med-X that you could spare for our friend back there in the black power armor, that'd be helpful, too." The earth pony mare peered back behind myself at Crash Dive, her eyes going wide and jaw falling a bit slack. Sheesh, it's like she'd seen a ghost, or something... She stammered lightly, giving a slow nod.
"A-ah, sure, I could probably find some doses around... you, um, you wouldn't mind sticking aorund here while I look for them, would you? Have a few things I want to ask." Pressure Cooker trotted herself over to Crash Dive, looking at the Med-X panel on the shoulder of her armor for a moment before the power armored pegasus cleared her throat, making the earth pony blink in return. Crash Dive looked past Pressure Cooker and towards me, myself glancing around for a moment before shrugging.
"Don't think we'll be too long, and it is just inside the city. The three of us'll be fine, Crash Dive, what's the worst that could happen?"
---
"Welcome back, you're listening to Radio KAOS, and from the looks of things outside I'm very glad that my studio is inside a waterproof ship, heh. Hang in there Vanhoover, it's going to get worse before it gets better. For those planning on getting some fishing done after the storm clouds clear, well, I'm sorry to say that it looks like it's going to be another one of those days. Unless you want your catch to be irradiated, best to give it a week or two for the currents to carry the water north - last I checked, people don't have much of a taste for fish that cause their geiger counter to tick.
"Anyways, in the rest of the wasteland it'd seem a lot more ponies are scanning the skies overhead for signs of unfamiliar flying machines, a select few through the gunsights of machine gun mounts and large-bore autocannons. Maple Creek and Hopeville have officially become North Vanhoover's two most heavily defended little towns courtesy of the Vanhoover Five - people living in Saddlebrook, Maple Station, and Craterton are all hoping to see them come trundling through with their own donations of guns, Saddlebrook especially so. Again guys, if you're listening, feel free to come and take whatever you need as far as anti-air weaponry's concerned off of my hooves here, Celestia knows this hulk of steel doesn't need them anymore. Think we've got, what, forty millimeter autocannons here? Been awhile since I was out there to look, heh...
"You're listening to Radio KAOS, it's another Vanhoover downpour out there, and I'm feeling in the mood for something a little nicer than this weather. Here's hoping a couple of you out there get Hooked on a Feeling like mine, heh - enjoy."
---
"Bloody hell, cannae believe this kind of downpour. It just keeps coming..." Trying my damndest to keep myself hovering out of the street, the rain was likewise doing it's damndest to turn my wings into a soggy mess. My hooves met the blacktop again with a loud splash, Scouring looking across the buildings either side as we pressed on towards the interior of the city. "So, we got any idea what we're looking for, what this place looks like?"
"Ahm... well, we've got a compass marker for it, so there's that. You learn to trust these things." Letting of a small chuckle and knocking my hoof against the side of my legputer, the buildings around us slowly started to get taller, the road opening up into a wide avenue as we turned down it. At the far end it seemed to dip down, the structures all bent over onto each other in a familiar fashion as they drew near the huge flood of water, a sick greenish glow coming up from the basin. No points for guessing what that is... and look where that compass marker is pointing. "...stupid compass marker."
'We're not actually going down there, are we?' Aerith pased on a nervous look, myself meeting her eyes with one of my own. Quebuck is one thing, there's only a little bit of water there and it's frozen over most of the time, but the Vanhoover crater... that thing's a freakin' harbor! Least it was a ground impact, sort of saved us the trouble of navigating a lot of rubble, but, still. There better be Sparkle-Cola in the break room at this place...
"That's where Presure Cooker designated it on my Pip-buck. We go in, grab whatever we can find that's of value, and get back to her, be done with it. Head back to the Lighthouse for the night again. That sound like a plan?" Looking between them, Scouring returned a shrug in his heavy armor, the rocket launcher on his back opening up and readying itself at his side. Aerith let out a small sigh, her magic covering her Chicacolt Typewriter and long rifle from the downpour as we pressed onwards. Well... okay, if the shit hits the fan, I can probably be quick enough on the draw to get Thumper out. Really don't want to know what this rain would do to his wooden stock... stupid weather.
The avenue descended down towards the crater on a small slope, us all constantly trotting in water before long. Ewuh, I prefer cold when it's just cold, not cold and wet... the buildings along the road all showed this wasn't the first time that the water got like this, Aerith bearing a small grimace as we passed by a skeleton laying face-down in the drink. Gonna hope that's not recent. The marker was pointing more towards the left as the water level reached just past the top of my legputer, myself taking long steps to try and keep moving at a half-decent pace. Gimmie snow, gimmie a blizzard, gimmie a Celestia-forsaken nuclear winter, just don't give me a rain storm.
"Well, this ought to be it, 'Studio B'." We came to a stop outside of a stout stone building, the crater about a block or so away from where we were. One of the taller structures that was caught in the initial explosion had collapsed and now rested in the street beyond, acting as a pretty good dam and making us pretty much unable to head any farther - least it wasn't built a few feet further to the west. Aerith stepped over to the doorway, pulling at it with her hooves for a moment, the old rusted hinges protesting loudly as it swung open and caused a small ripple of water. Scouring flicked on his helmet's headlamp, splashing his way inside as we followed suit. Eugh, stagnant water smell.
"I'm not goin' to give this place any praise fer looks, but for bein' so close to that crater it sure don't look that worse off. Far as a two-century-old buildin' goes, anyways." Scanning around in the darkness, both myself and Aerith took this small reprive of the showers to shake our feathers out, myself moving over to a nearby desk to pull out and ready Thumper. Not going to take any chances that there aren't still some ponies living around here... even if 'living' isn't the best term for it. Aerith's horn filled the area with a soft bluish glow as Thumper's break-action snapped shut with a fresh birdshot shell inside, myself refitting my duffel bag and fitting the 40mm shotgun to my back. "So, here for medical supplies, aye?"
"Just grabbing what we can find, no sense in spending more time than we have to here. Rather not be stuck if the storm gets any worse... if that's even physically possible." As if to hammer my point in further, a bolt of lightning struck somewhere close, frazzling all our manes - I think. Hard to tell with Scouring. It coulda been a balefire bomb going off, too, I suppose, they do knda sound similar... nah, what're the chances. The power armored stallion gave his head a shake, trotting over to a doorway and forcing it open, the water splashing as it was moved. "We find a break room or bathroom or something, even if it's just a medical box we'll have to rip off the wall, good enough."
Answering myself with a nod, Scouring moved further inside the building, his helmet lamp illuminating a small office space beyond. Myself and Aerith followed, a faint twang of disappointment greeting me as I saw the state all those consoles were in - aw, stupid water damage... what, if this place is an animation studio it might be worthwhile to at least -try- and find a finished cartoon or something! Myself releasing a quiet sigh, Scouring moved himself through the cubicles to check their contents, Aerith turning to follow along the wall. Every now and again there'd be a faint clatter as the power armored unicorn looked through a desk or two, but otherwise the constant roaring of the downpour filled our ears, almost overpowering the intermittent clicks my legputer was starting to give me.
Letting off a soft curse under my breath, I kept close behind the alicorn, her submachine gun levitated at the ready by her side as we neared a doorway, her hoof beckoning me to stop. Obliging, Aerith's magic encompassed the handle and slowly opened it, leading first with her Chicacolt Typewriter's barrel and then the rest of herself, my own mouth full of Thumper's trigger. The mildly irradiated water splashed loudly as the door rippled the surface, Aerith's horn illuminating the room beyond for a second before she nodded towards myself, us both sliding into what turned out to be a small break room... with a fridge. Score!
Releasing a small chuckle, I gleefully re-stowed Thumper, trotting over and opening up the door of the old fridge. Hm, okay, bag lunch, bag lunch, iced... lukewarm coffee, ah, regular old Sparkle-Cola. I can live with that... Mister M.A.L., you and me would've probably gotten along. Hope you don't mind if I steal these, you probably won't want them anymore, anyways~ Slipping the five unopened bottles of soda into my duffel bag and starting on drinking down the sixth, the door shut with a small slam, myself finally noticing the small noteboard on it. Well, terminals are all busted, but thankfully dry-erase is pretty permanent - oh, lovely little notes. "Wild Fire - remind M.A.L. that publicly announcing he has a copy of EP #100 on his personal Pip-Buck is a REALLY REALLY -REALLY- bad idea. -F" Oooh, that sounds like a recipe for a stolen legputer... or missing leg, now I think about it. Gotta say it, MAL you must've been one crazy bastard... wonder if consumption of Sparkle-Cola has any correlation with general awesomeness. Makes sense to me.
A loud cracking sound from the other side of the room immediately drew my attention, catching Aerith standing next to a fresh gaping hole and levitating a pink and yellow medical supply box beside herself, a grin coming across her face. Well, least we found one. Passing on a weak chuckle, I took another sip of Sparkle-Cola, trotting back out into the offices. "Found the medical supplies, we can head back now, Scouring!" Looking about, the power-armored stallion was nowhere to be found, at least until a familiar cracking sound filled the air on the second level and the heavy hoofsteps resounded back over to the stairwell. Held in an aura of white magic and illuminated by the headlamp, Scouring moved the pink and yellow metal box over to myself, a chuckle coming through his helmet's speakers.
"Sorry about the wait, didn't know there was one in there too. Ah well, two're better'n one, aye?" Giving him a small smile and nod, myself and Aerith turned back towards the exit, the power armored unicorn following behind us and sloshing through the pooled water. Stepping back out into the rain, it at least seemed a little ess angry than it was before, though still making it pretty clear that the area around the crater is a very big flood zone. Not too much of a surprise that this place isn't nearly as scavenged or settled as the rest... I mean, aside from the fact that it's smack on the edge of a huge bloody bomb crater. Tsk tsk, scavengers shouldn't be picky...
---
"You're listening to Radio K A O S, KAOS in Vanhoover, and speaking of that lovely town the local police force got a bit of surprise help from a group of ponies just a few hours ago. Seems like two troublemakers haven't been paying much close attention to my broadcasts, considering they figured it a good idea to hop inside a half-track with a cart loaded with guns attached to it with intent on stealing the whole thing. What they got out of it is a rather nice ten to fifteen rotting away inside one of Little Vanhoover's finest jail cells instead, the unfortunate stallion who hopped in the driver's chair also recieving a broken neck for his troubles. I know you listeners are all only whatever species you are, equine, gryphon, sand dog, whatever, but c'mon, trying to steal from the Vanhoover Five? That's just low.
"What's unfortunate is the Vanhoover Five didn't escapoe it completely unscathed - and I swear I'm telling the truth for this part, because I had to do a double-take when I picked it up on my shortwave, too. Static Charge, the group's driver, got hit in the hoof with a thirty-aught-six rifle round, and was back to walking on it barely a minute after the bullet was pulled out. I don't know exactly what, but that stallion's either the luckiest pony or toughest little pony I've ever heard of. Really want to meet these ponies for myself - oi, you five listening or what? Come and drop by whenever, I'm on the big-ass battleship moored beside Deadstallion's Island, can't miss it if you look from the coast. Dying to have some ponies to put these stories to, heh...
"Anyways, you're tuned in to Radio KAOS, and as we settle down for the night I think I'll put on a nice album for you all out there. From Radio KAOS, goodnight Vanhoover - hope you all have pleasant Post-war Dreams tonight. Enjoy."
---
A stiff breeze blew out towards the sea as I set myself down beside Crash Dive, my legputer's radio tuned back into Radio KAOS. The power-armored mare's eyes moved to catch mine for a moment before they turned back to overlooking the plains leading away from the shore, a quiet sigh coming from her lips. Sitting down beside her, we both watched the grass flowing with the wind in silence, save for the notes over the radio. After a little while, the pink-maned pegasus turned to look over at me, then up at the skies behind us. "Nice night tonight, after that rainstorm."
"Yeah." Glancing about with her, another cold breeze blew in towards the ocean, my wings spreading to wrap about myself a little tighter, the jacket shuffling against itself lightly. Leaning back and looking at my deep blue wings for a moment, I stalled, refocusing to the mare sitting beside myself. "A-ah, sorry..." Biting at my lip, Crash Dive let out a small sigh, her armor's shoulders going slack as she hung her head forwards.
"No... no, I'm the one who ought to be sorry. Sorry for what I've done, sorry for... for what I actually believed as the truth for so long." She gritted her teeth for a moment, myself shuffling a little closer. Somepony need another hug? She let off a sigh, dryly swallowing, before continuing. "Pressure Cooker... she was the one who's been leaving the Med-X in the traps for me, all these years... I don't know if she knew what she was doing, doing that. It's just... in the Enclave, you're taught to fear anypony who lives on the surface, kill on sight. You get fed all these horror stories of ponies who take gifts from surface-dwellers and wind up dead, or mutilated, or worse... I've been using her Med-X for the past decade. I just don't know what to think right now."
"Be glad somepony's actually cared about you for longer than we've been with you?" Passing her a small shrug as she turned her head back to face me, she blunk a few times, another chill breeze coming off the land. Philisoplical crisies weren't really my thing... more of a hugger. It worked for my dad, damnit! Crash Dive sniffled lightly, adjusting herself a little bit, her rebar cannon still strapped to her side. "I mean, she wouldn't have done that if she didn't know you were in pain, or if she didn't care about you. Surface dwellers ain't so bad, are we?"
A soft smile came to her muzzle as she let out a small grunt, passing on a nod. "No, I don't think so. Not anymore, anyways..." Returning her smile, the power armored pegasus looked back up to the stars, letting out a light sigh. "You know, the nights here have always been beautiful. Just something about all those stars and the moon overhead, just... always nice." Gazing upwards with her, it didn't take too long for me to see what she'd meant. All those constellations, those little pinpricks of light, the big, shining moon... could really make a mare forget. Looking about the sky a little more, an odd, black form made itself apparent against the eastern sky, seeming to hover - closer. Watching it for a few moments longer, I picked myself up to my hooves, Crash Dive looking to me for a moment before joining myself. "What's wrong?"
A consistent warm breeze washed over us as the blackish form came to a stop, the grass below it being blown flat as it just hovered there in front of us, myself still trying to figure out what in the name of Celestia and Luna above it was. Crash Dive macthed my look of confusion for a few sparse moments before a light went on inside the thing's cock... pit... oh no. It's one of those Harrier-things. And it's being piloted by somepony I've never seen before.
And they're pointing it's twin tesla cannons right at us.
The sound of both of them charging up prompted me to leap over away from the firing arc, Crash Dive frozen in place with an expression as if she'd just seen a ghost. Glancing between the jet and Crash Dive for a split second before the weapons discharged, I swung myself around and plowed shoulder-first into Crash Dive's side, sending both of us tumbling to the grass as the bit of cliffside we were standing on a moment ago was blasted to smithereens. Oooh, Luna above, feels like I just tried to shoulder-fire a 17-pounder gun... and I'm pretty sure my chest didn't feel that bruised before. Aces, Strikey, fucking aces.
Flopping myself back over, I was able to get a view just as the pony in the Harrier swung it's nose around to aim back at us both, Crash Dive scrambling to her hooves and taking a firm stance. The two tesla cannons mounted on it began charging again, myself trying to get back out of the line of fire and quickly finding that tumbling with somepony wearing power armor is a great way to sprain a lot of sensitive joints, like those found in pegasus wings. Landing with a painful thud a half-meter away, Crash Dive's rebar cannon choomed out a few times, the solid hunks of metal impacting and ricocheting off of other bits of metal before the craft atacking us made a horrible grinding noise, flames jutting from exhaust ports along it's sides. The pony inside the cockpit seemed to fight for control as it began spinning around, a sudden burst of flames from two jets near the wingtips managing to completely flip the whole thing over, it landing with a heavy, metallic impact against the ground before erupting in a large fireball.
Crash Dive took a moment to catch her breath before moving herself over to me, that look of disbelief coming back to her face. Drawing a sharp breath of pain as I tried to pick myself back up - aw, mister adrenaline, why ya gotta wear off on me like that? - I looked back to the burning wreckage, then to Crash Dive, trying to get my eyes to refocus with hers. "Why'd... why'd you freeze up like that, who the hell was that?" She glanced back to the burning wreck, gnawing at her lip and looking back to myself, that wide-eye expression plastered on her face again.
"I think... I think that was one of my old squadron."
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Dun-dun-duuuuun!
Lots of good stuff this chapter. A little lite on the panic that seemed to consume Twin and Minty every chapter of OH, but some good story progression. Also, huzzah for the rainy pacific northwest! If we weren't going through a drought at the moment, I'd feel right at home with this chapter!
I swear with all this mentioning of generators and Seahoof. There's going to be one in the building the ants blew up isnt there