Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter twenty, The Whimsical Witch of Even worse: Tanking everything.

Author's Note:

-Fizzle-

“Glitter packets away!” Our gun made little noise compared to the behemoth behind us. “Oops… direct hit, but I got the driver instead of the gunner. I didn’t put enough power into the shot.”

“When’s their next shot?” I looked to mom after she asked that, hasn’t it been about…

“Incoming!” It didn’t take long after Jacky yelled that before I felt a shockwave go throughout the tank and held on for dear life as the world twisted around. I felt something shift and despite being a bit disoriented, I looked through the periscope.

We were now moving backwards and now the other tank was in front of us. How in the world did that happen, weren’t we just hit? Why didn’t we explode? At least mom was on point and immediately reacted to the change in orientation.

“Damage to the rear half of the tanks right side tread armor, it has been mostly sheared off and the hit spun us like a top. I’m surprise we’re still operational or even moving. That shot almost took out our treads.” Jacky just answered my question, we’re lucky we didn’t lose the treads and were just spun around. “I don’t envy mom’s position right now, the treads seem to be holding up well enough despite the loss of armor over them.”

“I’m with you on that.” Given she was the designated driver, driving backwards wasn’t a very productive way to go around corners. I looked for something to put some distance between us. “We’re much slower at going backwards aren’t we?”

“Yes, though the loss of some armor means we’re moving slightly faster, it’s not nearly enough to completely escape the bigger tank. Our backwards is still pretty quick, but not nearly quick enough as that tank is at moving forward. We need to buy some time to turn around.” Thanks for the damage report Blackcap. “Frankly if we take a hit it’ll be either me or mom that dies first now.”

“Not exactly thrilled to hear that Jacky and it’s not a comforting thought that I might be losing my sister or mother.” I was looking for something, anything, to help us out of this situation. I then spotted a building with a huge cracks in its wall behind us, it used to be ahead of us.

“Say Jacky, can you get an entire bottle rocket cluster to hit one spot all at the same time?” I had an idea, but it required enough explosive force.

“Yes, but I’d need something to… oh right I have streamers! Where do you want them?” It sounded like Jacky was quite tense despite having an idea of how to do what I needed of her, I knew the feeling I was tensing up as well given we had about fifteen seconds before the next round came at us. Given how our current situation was going, I was right there with her. “It’s not like I’ve got much to shoot at up here.”

“Upcoming cracked wall on the tanks left side, we’re about to pass it. I need you to shoot it at the right moment to knock a portion of the building down on top of them.” I felt the tank swerve to the left while continuing to move in reverse. I take it we avoided another shot, but it sounded like it came nowhere near us this time.

“Fizzle, I need you to watch our backs, we’re not going to turning any corners blindly like this.” I looked to mom glancing back at me and nodded.

I turned the periscope around and started looking about, it seemed the thestrals were staying clear of our two tanks and were evacuating the areas we were going through.

“No turns at our back yet, but coming up soon.” We weren’t moving that fast, so I was just guessing at how long until we needed to make a turn here. I wasn’t exactly a tank connoisseur, none of us were exactly. “I’d give us two minutes before we hit our next turn, I’ll tell you when we need to start turning.”

Things were silent for a few seconds.

“Preparing to fire, I see what Fizzle wants me to shoot at, next shot incoming in five seconds.” Like Jacky I’m sure we were all on top of this. Another shot grazed deflected off the armor on front of the tank left side and left a small jagged hole near mom. “You okay mom?”

“That shot deflected off the tank, but it caused enough damage to leave a small hole.” As I reported this we passed by the cracked wall.

“Right, that’s enough of that.” Jacky sounded a bit angry. “Firing in three, two… now!”

I went back to looking back into the periscope and made sure to have it turned away from the wall and the bright flash of light coming from behind my view.

-Kuril-

I blinked the spots out of my eyes as the cluster of exploding fireworks tied together with streamers caused just enough damage to the stone wall, I watched as a portion of the building it was supporting collapse on top of the other tank.

I didn’t stop the tank however, I’ve learned enough about making assumptions with Jade as a GM from the various O&O games we’ve played. I was being a little paranoid, but I had reason to be with that war machine being much stronger compared to our tiny party tank that Pinkie would have been ecstatic to own if the upkeep wasn’t a bit troublesome.

“Do you think that stopped them Jacky?” I wasn’t nearly as hopeful as I sounded and veered the tank to the left side of the street, we had been on the right side. I tried to ignore the small hole and the glow moss light flowing in from outside, I was getting quite tired of being in, on or near this mountain and it’s only been about six days since we left home.

“Not a chance, that tank has far more pony power than this one does.” On that we could agree my little chick, that other tank was way too big and powerful. I doubt something like half a building collapsing onto it would really do enough damage.

“Corner coming up, which we way are we going?” Good question Fizzle.

“We’re heading to the left, tell me when to stop and I’ll turn us into the street moving forward.” It wasn’t long after we made the maneuver that the Mega Galvanizer pulled out of the rubble and fired, thankfully it was still aimed down the right side of the street.

That didn’t even come close to hitting us and I’m pretty sure they caught sight of our tank turning left to go to their right around the corner.

“Jacky, Fizzle is that a square I’m seeing up ahead?” We needed to disable the larger tank or at least give them some other problems to worry about, there were also all the thestral homes getting destroyed to be consider. “We need to either take out their cannon or at the very least do something to disable them.”

“What about you’re explosion potions?” It’s about time I explained to Fizzle the problem with that particular mix of potion and why it wasn't that easy.

“It’s called the delayed safe explosion potion and remember that I only have one mix of it ready. I don’t exactly think the other tank will let us stop and break out a cauldron to cook up more.” Now to go into explanation as to why we can’t use the two part explosive potion. “The blast won’t kill anyone, but it’ll definitely destroy the other tank. The problem is, we can’t just pour the chemical on top of the tank and expect them to explode.”

“Why not?” Fizzle was curious and I’m quite sure Jacky is too, my kitten was certainly missing out on the horrible fun we were having.

“For the explosion to happen it requires that one vial absolutely shatter into the other one. It would mean that we’d have to physically plant one vial on the tank and then shoot it with the other half of the mixture from a distance, unless you want to be knocked off the tank from a point blank explosion which would lead to injury from falling off.” That was just a small reminder to my two girls that the tank was bigger than this one. “The magical explosion requires broken glass to be touching the two fluids upon impact with one another. The two fluids won’t go off otherwise and would turn into inert substances if they mix in other conditions, breaking the vials on each other is the catalyst for the explosion.”

“You’re kidding right, please tell me you’re kidding mom?” Well Fizzle, I’d like to say I was kidding, but I’m the one who invented the delayed safe explosion potion. “Are you saying that one of us has to physically get out of the tank and avoid the other one shooting high speed munitions that go faster than cannonballs and can rip this tank in half? At least long enough to climb up onto it to plant one of the vials.”

“Who’s the one that studies Zebra alchemy here?” Yes, it was in fact that complicated and absolutely required two glass vials colliding and breaking to create a safe explosion. Discovering it was a bit of a blast, but both Sekhet and Zecora knew what the magic was doing when I showed it to them. “It’s not exactly time travel magic science, but it could get there eventually. The square will give us some maneuvering room, we’ll need to get right up next to them so I can jump over to them and then you’ll have to drive as Jacky is already best suited where she is.”

“What do you mean you’ll…” I can tell Fizzle already had a complaint about me being the one to plant the vial, but I couldn’t let either of the girls do something like that.

“Gun’s on us again, tank is turning the corner.” Interrupted Jacky. “I repeat tank is turning the corner and it is barely scratched!”

“Hang on!” I immediately swerved sharply to the left after hearing a distant cannon fire, the ground next to our tank erupted in a shower of cobblestone and dirt. That could have hit our exposed treads, I don’t relish the thought of being stuck in one place while that tank shoots at us. “Learn to drive the tank quickly Fizzle because…”

“Squad of armored thestrals diving from on high to the left and in front us.” It sounded like Fizzle caught another problem, I’d be exposed to being attacked by thestrals as soon as I left the tank. “Can we get something of a little break here?”

“I’m on it, loading a confetti bomb and a pack of streamers for good measure.” I hoped Jacky was on it, because we couldn’t fight off an entire swarm of thestrals if they managed to get on or in the tank.

“I don’t think the Order of Dark Dreams take breaks when it comes to destroying their enemies my little Fizzle.” I sure hoped my kitten was doing better than we were, hearing our gun fire I just had to ask. “Did you get them?”

“Multiple Thestrals caught in the streamers, wings lit on fire by flaming confetti and quite a few blinded and deafened. I think my bad luck might be doing us a big favor right now.” Well I hoped your bad luck would keep it up with bothering anyone besides us Jacky. We kind of needed all the luck we can get, whether it be good or bad at the moment.

I saw at least five thestrals falling from the sky wrapped up in streamers either clogging their wings or faces, I even saw one with his streamers somehow all tied together into bow knots.

In fact several thestrals had several different knots, but they were all the same type for every streamer that hit a particular thestral. The thestral covered in bunny knotted streamers was adorable, my little tom cat was never going to believe that one when I told her about it.

I started to swerve the tank to the right and then jerked it to the left. The shot from behind missed, they had been leading us that time expecting me to dodge into their line of fire. It would take a lot longer than that to fool me into… I swerved right again as the tank fired a second shot quicker than usual.

I would tell my crazy kitten about all this, provided I lived long enough to tell her.

“They're probably carrying multiple shells to the cannon to load it faster, do you think we can run them out of ammunition Blackcap?” Good question Fizzle, Blackcap is our mathematician here. She’d have to be with her training on utilizing cannons to their fullest, it requires all kinds of math to not waste shots.

“At that size, they can probably carry enough ammo to keep firing at us for a few hours straight.” Yeah, that’s kind of what was expected at this point Jacky. “We’re almost to the square at least.”

“Jade has got to be having a better time than us, she could just be playing with Sugar and talking to the locals for all we… oh… bull-imic.” What had Fizzle seen? I’m glad she saw me glaring at her, no daughter of mine will be cursing like a sailor unless it’s Jacky… slight double standard issues may apply.

There was no stopping a growing pirate from cursing, but at least I can keep my other girls from doing it. It didn’t take me long to see it too, as they passed by right in front of us.

I immediately stopped the tank for two cloaked figures with a horned rabbit on one of their shoulders and a small flying turtle went by at a swift speed. They had at least ten guards on their tails firing crossbow bolts, I watched as my kitten frantically swatted the crossbow bolts away with blasts of air from a very odd looking fan.

I pushed the tank forward and to the left after they passed us by, narrowly avoiding the next shot and then juked to the right to avoid a second one a few seconds later.

“Jacky...” Fizzled started to say when our gun fired. I looked out the jagged hole and saw a ball of thestrals hitting the ground outside the alleyway my kitten ducked into with Snickers and that stranger.

I wondered how Snickers even ended up here and where she’s been all this time, but that wasn’t exactly important to know at the moment. Dodging tank fire was definitely far more important than everyone's favorite flying turtle appearing, I could feel the tank shudder as a round glanced against the armor along the right side.

“Got some of them! Whatever captain’s doing, it sure seems just as exciting as the fight we’re in the middle of.” No one said we ever did normal Jacky, it’s becoming a fact of life for us to see something strange at least once or twice a month.

“We live and breathe in interesting times Jacky, this just happens to be the day I end up driving a tank and soon Fizzle will have learn quickly to do it too.” I exclaimed and then started quickly explaining the controls to Fizzle rapidly.