“Well, I suppose we better get moving, then.” Night Strike said after she brought her hoof down from her face. “I swear this thing is going to be the death of me. And not the gunfire, explosion-y kind of death. You know, the fun kind.” I just rolled my eyes at her banter, shaking my head slightly. The war wasn't a case of everyone suddenly having these fancy machines and missiles either, Strikey, they had to do planning and recon too. Just hope this time it doesn't involve Aerith injuring herself as much, if the need for a hooves-on approach is required... Night Strike let off a sigh, looking around at the tank ghouls around us. “You guys can make sure everyone's all stocked up on ammo, right? We’re not really sure how soon we’re going to need you.”

Sensha gave a quick nod, trotting forwards beside Poppy Gardener and Caution Tape. “I'll get the ammunition replicator cart up and going. Assuming she hasn't been causing too much havoc down in Hopeville, Rangefinder should still be set for ammo from setting up Glowing-Sea, and I hardly use my tank's cannon anyways. Just leaves Porschia, Avery, and Deathtrap to tend to...” The zony trailed off for a moment, looking at the strange boxy-turreted tank parked between the two larger single-turreted ones. She blinked after a moment, letting off a weak chuckle. "O-oh! And, uh, of course your BT-42. Sorry, not used to accounting for six, heh..."

The mustached tank commander gave a small wave of his hoof, letting off a chuckle. "Ah, don't worry yourself my dear, didn't face much on the drive here. We've still got a healthy supply of HEAT and HESH for her gun, though if you know of anywhere that might stock 20mm rounds, I've a feeling Quick Fire would appreciate it. Those robo-dragons you mentioned probably wouldn't fare too well against an anti-tank rifle, right?" Poppy Gardener let off a chuckle that Night Strike joined him in, rubbing at the back of her own head uneasily. Oh, right, Hispano's gun is a 20mm, isn't it?... well, she did manage to kill one of the dragons by herself! I think.

“The guys up at Vanhoover Air Base might have something for ammo, 20mm was a pretty common aircraft round, I think. We have to go there next anyways, might as well see if they can pitch in. They’d probably be able to give us some intel on the valleys and stuff to the south, too.” I suggested. Night Strike nodded in agreement, putting her hoof up to her mouth as she thought, Rheinmetall putting the photographs back into his jacket's pocket. “Alright then, um, until we can get the HMS Cadence staffed and going, uh... I dunno, I guess just stay and wait for our signal, maybe. Unless your guns can point higher than I think, I dunno how effective you'll be against airborne dragons, but having some armor on side can't hurt.”

Mad Jack gave off a small cough, trotting forwards. "Well, having armor's all well and good, but if you're asking us to head somewhere all the way in the southeast from Maple Station that's an order in and of itself. Would be better if we had somewhere closer to the target for staging everything, you know, some sort of FOB. Some of us don't exactly have fast tanks, eheh..." Night Strike gave off another sigh, myself putting a hoof up to rub at my forehead. Well... okay, that is a good point. If Avery can only go as fast as the TOG, then there being some place for it to start from that's closer to the actual base would be better...

"Alright... we'll sort something out. Vanhoover Air Base, Saddlebrook, maybe that golf course B Company mentioned or something, or the ski lodge they got that one not-a-tank thing from..." The hoof rubbing at my forehead moved to my eyes, a soft grunt escaping me. It's already late, my brain can't logistics this time of night... let's just get to the hotel sooner than later. I turned attention back to the group, letting off a small huff. "Okay, we aren't going to be moving on this anytime soon anyways, we need to get the HMS Cadence staffed and... I think your guys' tanks too, if I remember it right. For now, I think some sleep would help us more than anything."

Night Strike looked over to the others, a long yawn escaping herself as well, soft chuckles escaping Rheinmetall and Mad Jack. Poppy Gardener gave a gentle pat on my back with his hoof, getting my attention. "Ah, of course. Don't you worry about sorting crews for us, I've got a few friends heading down to lend hooves myself. Wish you would've told me that we're facing airborne foes earlier, but I can see if we've anything back at Cordite that could get down here in a hurry to help. You all get yourselves a good rest, we won't be going anywhere, heh."

The other tank ghouls gave nods of agreement, and after saying our goodbyes - and making sure they knew where we'd landed and that they wouldn't be heading out to test their guns anytime soon - we headed out into the frigid night air, the light snowfall from earlier having thickened noticeably. I gave a grimace as I moved up close beside Night Strike, the pegasus' breath making faint clouds in the blue-lit air. "For the best, I might be getting to be a decent pilot but I wouldn't risk flying the Valkyrie in a snowstorm that's getting this heavy. Let alone..." She paused to let off a long yawn, giving her head a shake. "Let alone while this tired. You're good for paying for our hotel rooms, right, Sparky?"

She passed on a sly grin as I answered with a roll of my eyes, looking towards the hotel in the distance. Our fault for getting here so late... hopefully we can get through the rest of this without spending all of our caps. Hopefully.

---

Night Strike pulled back on the controls of the Valkyrie as we descended towards the air base, peering ahead over the nose of the plane and towards the snowy runway beyond. I did the same, albeit with the benefit of the forward camera - o-kay, well, a standard horizontal landing isn't as bad as viewing the ground while mid-flight, at least. The landing gear extended and locked into position with a clunk, the rear sets touching down first in the fresh snow before the front one did, Night Strike letting off an audible sigh. A few ponies watched from the sidelines as the Valkyrie slowed down, Night Strike pulling the throttle back as I looked out over the side of the cockpit. A mini-tank appeared alongside from one of the bunker-hangars, driving ahead of us and into Night Strike's vision. After a moment, we began to roll off of the runway and towards one of the open hangars, much unlike the last time alive with several ponies working on constructing more air craft.

Pulling up inside an empty section of the hangar, Night Strike flipped a few switches, the Valkyrie's engines powering down and systems shutting off easily, myself undoing my buckles. Hitting the button for the bomb bay doors, they fixed themselves open with a clunk, allowing Scouring and Crash Dive to disembark as Night Strike opened the cockpit door for both of us to make our own exit. As we stepped down onto the hard, cool concrete of the hangar, we were greeted by a crowd of ponies already swarming about the Valkyrie, all extremely eager to get a look at it. “Eheheh, guess they’re a bit more excited than I thought they’d be...” Night Strike said, trying to squeeze past them as they admired it.
“Nnf, well, seeing how the Dragon Mare is... was, probably the most advanced thing they’d have seen, I’m not really surprised. Let’s just hope one of them doesn’t try and take it out for a joyride.” I said, looking back over my shoulder through the crowd and catching the two ponies in power armor pushing through them as well. Night Strike gave a weak chuckle, also looking back towards the mass of ponies as we finally reached the end, appreciating the breathing space. As we looked about the hangar, a familiar voice echoed over the large group of ponies, and we spotted Sharpwing flying over to us.

“Ay, 's been a while! Wasn’t expectin' you to be stopping by.” She trotted up to us after landing, wearing a grin as her eyes moved from us to looking over the Valkyrie. “Ah, that thing’s a real beauty, innit? I can see why you were so eager to get her runnin' again. What I wouldn’t give to be able to fly like that thing can…” She stared wistfully, letting off a soft sigh before shaking her head and refocusing. “Ah, sorry, just daydreamin’ again. So, what brings you back here?” She began to lead us out of the large hangar and over towards the main complex, the crowd of ponies starting to slowly disperse as each individual got their fill of gawking.

“Oh, you know, just adventures, mass armed conflict, possible fate of Equestria at stake and such.” Night Strike responded somewhat sarcastically. Sharpwing gave her a quizzical look, about to open her mouth to speak. “No, no, I um… look, this is probably something better discussed once we’re with Serene too. It’s kind of a big deal, and we’re going to need the whole base’s help.” Sharpwing didn’t look any less confused, but she continued to head towards the old office complex.

Stepping inside, we were greeted by a guard in a flight jacket, who immediately stood at attention and saluted. Sharpwing returned the salute, speaking up. “At ease, I’m bringing the Vanhoover Five up to talk with Serene. They say it’s urgent business.” The guard stood down, giving a small grin before waving his hoof along.

“Aw, heck, I remember you guys. Beating out Turbine in that race was pretty impressive, that bastard got what was coming to him... Uh, apologies for my language, Air Marshal. Serene is in the command room, you can head on up.” We headed up the stairs he was standing post at, looping back and forth for what felt like ages as we climbed the control tower. Yeesh, I’m not even sure the Lighthouse was this tall... then again, I guess it would be kind of hard to see approaching aircraft from the bottom of a valley. It thankfully wasn’t too long before we finally reached the top room of the control tower, where we found Serene leaning over one of the old radio equipment, polishing his sword.

He looked up as we entered, giving an exasperated sigh. “For goodness sake, Sharpving. Ve agreed on svitching posts at exactly zhirteen-hundred hours and it’s already past two zhirty! I’m going to go mad if I have to stay up here while my Valker lies rusting in the vorkshop for anozher day! Wizout regular maintenance and training all of its gears are going to stick, und I’d be better off piloting a sled into combat!” He stood up, holstering his sword as Sharpwing rolled her eyes.

“Oh, stuff it, ya spoiled prince. Your walker isn’t going to rust just ‘cos you leave it unused for one extra hour. Besides, if you were too busy tendin' to your fancy show-sword to notice, we've got visitors.” She stepped aside, allowing all of us to enter the room. Thank you, standing on the stairway was starting to ache...

Serene’s eyes widened in surprise, and he stepped forward to shake all our hooves, Scouring looking about the well-kept tower and out the high windows overlooking the runways. Well... I guess that is fair, he wasn't here the first time around to see all this. “Vell, it’s good to see you two again. Why are you back here, zhough? I zhought you vould have been heading back to your home vonce you got your Valkyrie vorking again.”

Night Strike rubbed at the back of her head, sucking in some air through her teeth. “Yeah, about that… listen, I don’t know how long it takes for you guys to get info on stuff outside the base, but there’s a big war coming, and soon. You remember those guys that shot down Turbine mid-race? They shelled Hopeville after we got the Valkyrie airborne, and they’ve got some of Crash Dive’s old Enclave squad members helping them out with aircraft of their own, VTOL ones named Harriers. Worst of all, they’re sitting on a pretty massive supply of megaspell warheads, tactical ones that are part of some recoilless gun systems.” Both Serene and Sharpwing were dumbstruck, Serene’s face turning pale as he sat back down in his chair. Yeah, that's a fair reaction, honestly... "We need your help... and maybe a few pilots that would be willing to head over to the HMS Cadence, too."

Sharpwing stared intently between us, trying to comprehend what Night Strike had just said. “W-what? Are you serious? But… why’d they go after that place? What’re they trying to achieve?” Both Night Strike and I looked between ourselves before answering with a shrug, Sharpwing’s brow furrowing at our response. “There has to be bloody somethin'! Ponies don’ just go out an' bomb places 'cause they like the sounds of their kin screamin'. At least, nopony with access to such advanced tech and that knows how to use it. You really don’t have any idea on what they want?”

I lowered my eyes, trying to think about anything… the recording? No, that was just the flight of dragons, the place was hit by the mortar first. Ahm, uh, going after the dam, and the wind blew the shells off course, maybe? Agh, no, probably not... I shook my head, letting out a grunt of frustration. “I’m sorry, but we just don’t know. I’m not sure if they’re even trying to take over Vanhoover, or just want to try and kill out the wasteland. They’ve been pretty destructive if that’s the case.” Serene screwed up his face in concentration.

“Vhell, zat might be somezhing. If zhey vanted to take over ze Vanhoover area, zhey vould have done it already, ja? Zhey can’t be zhat new, not if zhey’re vorking viz ze Enclave. Zhey have to be vaiting for somezhing, or somevone.” Serene leaned down over the consoles, staring at nothing in particular as he wracked his brains to try and think of more clues. “Do you have any other intel on zhem? Some big veapon zhey’re vorking on, maybe? Or somepony zhey’re vaiting for?”

“Maybe... Wasn’t the shouty guy in the recording talking to some kind of robot researcher? Maybe they’re trying to develop some kind of mega death robot that can throw the megaspells around by itself? Or, uh, maybe they're using the railroad cannons to make some sort of super-tank, or something?” Night Strike suggested. I tilted my head in a noncommittal way. Well, I suppose it’s not impossible, though I’m not sure why they wouldn’t just use the dragons as is. Scouring did say that these bombs only weighed thirty-five kilograms or something, and I'm willing to bet that the barrel of a massive cannon weighs more than that.

Sharpwing sighed, flopping into one of the smaller chairs pushed up against the wall. “Well, not really much to go on. You guys got anything more concrete on this place? I think we’d be able to convince some of the ponies here to help out, but only if we can know what we’re up against. Least if they've got planes, we've got 128mm AA guns.” Scouring looked over from one of the windows with a grin, answering with a nod. He brought up the large storage drive from a compartment on his armor, plugging it into a nearby terminal and bringing it up onscreen. After it'd loaded in, he started to transfer some files over, Sharpwing and Serene watching him intently.

“Aye, we’ve got plans of the top level an' a few of the lower ones, along with a few bits an' pieces of juicier intel. Been sifting through the data the last few days to get all I can saved, will give ye copies of the important stuff. Seems like the main place is heavily fortified, but there's smaller stuff that's more freshly built, should be an easier nut to crack with bombs in the right places. Aside from that, well, if you've anything with some large guns on it, can help with shootin' down the dragons, too..." The power armored stallion wore a grin as he rested back in the chair, letting the file transfer complete. Well, they're all clued in now too... good.

I stepped forwards, watching as the transfer finished and Scouring ejected and then removed the drive, seeming to smirk at me as he did it. Oh, come on, I was kind of under a lot of pressure when I did that! Getting out of there alive was more important than getting out of there with every last bit of data uncorrupted. "I think the biggest threat you guys are going to have to worry about are the anti-aircraft guns they have themselves. They almost shot us down in the Valkyrie, I really doubt they’ll have much trouble trying to hit something as slow as Night Strike’s propeller-driven… thing.”

Night Strike gave a small huff. “Hey, that 'thing' won us the race, remember! It’s probably better than half the stuff they've got here still, being flightworthy for one.” I looked back over to her suspiciously, while Sharpwing and Serene were wearing small smirks of their own. She rolled her eyes in response, letting loose a sigh. “Okay, yeah, fair enough, I think I’d rather be flying over that place in the Valkyrie, but the Stork isn’t completely useless, either. Maybe somepony can fly a copy of it to spot for the Cadence's guns, or something. Maybe help with delivering messages or packages to the tanks once we get their forward base set up, or whatever...” Her eyes suddenly went wide as she turned back to Serene, a grin forming on her muzzle. “Heeeeeey, that walker of yours would be pretty good at storming the gates once we get those guns taken care of! It’s like wearing a set of power armor the size of a tank! And with it's own guns, too!”

Serene’s pupils shrank as she spoke, and he started trotting away from the terminal, shaking his head wildly. “Nein nein nein, absolutely not! I vill not let my valker come under such heavy fire! Besides, we need a team of four ponies, minimum, to operate it, and zhat’s not including a backup gunner or engineer! And if ve vere to fall in zhe middle of zhe battle, ve vould be sitting ducks!”

Sharpwing glared at Serene, who stood his ground. “Oh, for Luna’s sake, Serene! You keep moanin' and whinin' about how that big old thing is going to rust up without regular use, and then when you’ve got a chance to actually do something with it, you’re gonna just sit back at home? Barking spiders, and you keep trying to tell me those machines aren’t useless.” Serene returned the glare, Sharpwing letting of a frustrated sigh. “Unless you want to explain to the ponies we send out why you couldn’t bother to give them ground support and led to their inevitable demise, I really think you ought to think long and hard about this idea.”

Serene scowled, looking down at the airbase below through the control tower’s windows, and over towards the hangar where his massive walker was kept. Letting off another sigh, he shook his head, muttering something under his breath. “Scheisse… you’re going to get us boz killed, Sharpving.”

“Well, suppose I better start making funeral arrangements.” The Pegasus quipped. Scouring moved back to looking out the windows at the air base, as Sharpwing let off a sigh and moved over beside Serene, resting a hoof on his shoulder. "Come on, you won't be going it alone in the thing, anyways. You guys mentioned something about seting up a forward base for tanks, right?"

I answered with a nod, pausing to think. Eugh, well, we're probably heading back to Maple Station for something after this, anyways... maybe lunch. "Yeah, as a matter of fact we know somewhere that might be able to send along a few tank crewmen to help you out. If they're already familiar with working in a tank, how different would a walker be? Could you at least train them where it'd be needed?"

The red-coated unicorn let off a long huff, falling back into a nearby chair and starting to think. Well, I mean, tank, walker, they're both armored vehicles with guns, there's gotta be at least some overlap, right? Worst case, Serene just has to pilot the thing rather than being the one commanding it, probably. "Hm... ja, ja, I suppose zat could be a possibility. Ze guns' mechanisims probably aren't too different, und I'd assume zhey'd have experience vith at least some form of internal combustion engine far as vhat zhe engineer's skillset would have to be..." Serene trailed off, staring at the ceiling, as Sharpwing wore a triumphant smirk. "Still, I'm not exactly thrilled about zhis idea. Vhish my old instructor vere here, Clopp vhould be a far better sturmvalker instructor zhan I vould."

Sharpwing trotted over to rest a foreleg over Serene's shoulders, wearing a small smile herself. "Ah, c'mon ya barking prince, they've obviously got some sort of plan in the works already, we oughta trust 'em. If you're so bloody thick-headed about it you won't take her in for the big frontal assault, then maybe you can help them with setting up that base they were talking about, stamp out a few radroaches or bloatsprites for 'em, maybe." The pegasus wore a grin as Serene seemed to glare at her in mild disgust, both of them turning attention towards us. "So, since knowing where exactly Serene's thirty-ton pest extermination machine is needed would be useful, you've an idea of where that base's gonna be set up for us?"

I glanced between Night Strike and the others, the pegasus beside me breaking into some weak laughter as she rubbed at the back of her head, myself putting on a small grin. Oh, right, the other reason we came here... yeah, I wouldn't be looking quite as assured either, Serene and Sharpwing. Crash Dive let off a sigh as she brought a hoof to her forehead, myself clearing my throat and glancing around the control tower.

"Ahm... not exactly. You wouldn't happen to have a map of the area directly south from here, would you?"

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