“So, let’s see, that’ll be ten full medical kits per bomb, plus a couple doctor’s bags for good measure. That’ll come to 4000 caps, then there’s free checkups and upgrades to any and all implants for the next year, add on the clause that if it’s not an emergency, Night Strike gets to be the one pressing the button for the first megaspell detonation, and I think we’ll be even. Well, we'll be even after the standing debt has been fulfilled, of course,” I ran the numbers through my head, making sure to carry the 2’s and add on the percent interest… “Yeah, that seems about right.”

“Eh, yeah, sure…” Jean mumbled, handing over the requisite down payment of caps and medical supplies while the others finished up securing the bombs to their wagon. She scratched her head as she tried to make sense of the calculations, before giving up entirely and turning to trot back to the carts. I jangled the caps about in my hooves for a moment, smiling as I felt the weight to be satisfactory, before slipping them into my saddlebags and returning to the entrance to the sub pen. Night Strike was leaning up against the side, still regaining a bit of her breath after it had been knocked out by Jean’s embrace.

“Jeez, Static, don’t you think we have enough caps by now? I mean, what the heck do we even have to spend them on anymore? We’ve already got free room and board where we need it, medical costs, enough ammo to last us at least a few months, most of which we didn't even buy in the first place… You aren’t seriously planning on spending it all on snack cakes, are you?” She teased, poking me in the side. I passed on a roll of my eyes, heading into the sub pen as she followed behind, Aerith following in past us to retrieve another two of the bombs.

I let off a small sigh, both of us heading through a doorway labeled 'Operations', myself sitting down in one of the office chairs surrounding the large table. “Hey, you never know when there’s some piece of old-world tech you might want to buy, maybe Pearl’s discovered some way to turn ponies into alicorns without destroying their identity. Don’t act like you wouldn’t like being able to throw fireballs around with your head,” I grinned, letting off a small chuckle. Night Strike only raised an eyebrow in response, and I shrugged to answer her. “Well, at the very least we can get more ammo if we need it. Knowing you, the stuff we have is more likely to last a week at most, given your bad aim and tendency to overkill things."

Night Strike simply let out a short laugh, punching my shoulder lightly. “You’re the one calling me a bad shot? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you hit something smaller than the side of a building with Minty’s old pistol. Celestia forbid, if you had a Balefire Egg Launcher you’d probably blow up everything but the Hellhound five feet in front of you!” I grumbled a bit, scrunching my muzzle and avoiding her gaze. Hey, I managed to shoot a bloatsprite... once.

The heavy thuds of Scouring’s hoofsteps met our ears, and we turned to see the power-armor clad unicorn trotting up from the basement area down the hall, a small stack of holotapes hovering in his magic as he entered the room. “Ay, I think I found something you guys’ll want t' see.” He trotted over to us, slipping one of the holotapes into a terminal on the conference room table. The fans began to whirr to life as the terminal booted up, Night Strike wiping some of the dust off the screen as it did. Scouring punched a few commands into the console, bringing up the data on the holotape - the screen flickered for a moment, before a map of the wasteland appeared. Markings indicated each town and military base, detailed information scrolling out on the side of the screen, such as elevations, distances, and several files labeled ‘Troop movements’.

Scouring selected one of the items, several dots appearing on the map, along with pathway markers and estimated travel times. The current one selected detailed the amount of time estimated to move several standard unmotorized ground troops from Seahoof Armory to the areas surrounding Vanhoover. Scouring tapped down to another, now indicating plans of starving out Hopeville and Maple Creek, as well as shutting down the various railways scattered throughout the region. Wearing a grimace, Scouring shut the program down and ejected out the holotape, before sliding another one into the terminal, the computer whirring as it read the data.

Rather than tactical maneuvers, this holotape simply contained several large picture files. Selecting one, the screen froze for a moment before the terminal began to slowly render a set of blueprints, Scouring letting out a small gasp of surprise. It was difficult to tell at first, but as the picture slowly loaded in, it became clear the designs were of some form of massive rocket propulsion system. The details were a mess of complicated measurements and requirements, something only someone well versed in mechanical engineering could even come close to comprehending - oh, where's Greasy when I need her? “Holy shit… I guess we know what they were after, then,” Night Strike muttered, her eyes scanning the screen as she tried to make sense of the information being displayed.

Scouring ejected the tape, starting to scoop up the others and stash them in his saddle-bags. “This is bad, this is really, really bad. If anypony, especially the ones working with Cerberus, got their hooves on these documents, we’d be lookin' at the great war all over again.” He was looking far more stressed than I had ever seen him, moving to rush out of the base. “I gotta get these to the Rangers immediately, they should be able to keep them safe. Out of dangerous hooves, at least.”

“Woah, woah, hold up right there!” A voice echoed from the hallway. As we looked up, Crash Dive was standing at the entrance, stepping up to intercept Scouring’s escape. “You just said if anypony got their hooves on these it would be disastrous. Forgive me if I decide to take that to mean your Rangers wouldn’t be any better equipped to house that information. Honestly, I’d feel better with it in the hands of some random wastelander, they at least don’t have the technological know-how or the raw troop numbers to actually make use of that information.”

Scouring paused, letting out a grunt of frustration as he tried to move around Crash Dive. “We’re a damn sight a better choice than those ex-Enclave bastards, and do you have any idea what the Elder might do to me if he ever found out this kind of information existed and we just let it go? Cerberus might already have this information, this might be the only way we can actually build an actual means to strike back!”

“And what happens if you lose this information on the way back to your base? Or if your Elder decides that he isn’t comfortable with all the towns around here having the amount of ordinance that they do? If those dragons weren’t coming here to destroy this place, that means they thought there was something here worth retrieving that they don’t have. After all we've done, do you think I - anyone - would want another Grand Pegasus Enclave out in the wasteland? We burn those tapes before anypony, and I mean anypony gets their hooves on them.” Crash Dive stood steadfast between Scouring and the exit, glaring the unicorn down.

Scouring glared right back, occasionally glancing to the holotapes still hovering in his magic. The two stood still, waiting for the other to break first. Finally, Scouring turned his head, letting out another grunt as he walked away from Crash Dive. “Gah, fock! Fuck, we cannae jus' burn these tapes, we don’t know what Cerberus is fully capable of, an' this might be our only means out!” He shoved the holotapes towards Crash Dive, several clattering to the floor as his magic faded from around them. He gave a raspy breath, leaning against one of the desks for support as he looked up towards Crash Dive. “You better know what the hell you’re doing.”

The power armored pegasus didn’t say anything, instead gathering up the tapes and beginning to trot back downstairs. I pushed myself up from the chair, Night Strike following closely behind Crash Dive as she exited the room. I paused, glancing over to Scouring, who just watched the pair head downstairs towards the records room. “Scouring… what’s wrong? I've never seen you be so… loyal to the preservation of tech, I guess is the best way to put it…” I asked. He gave a sigh, looking away from the stairwell back to me.

“Crash Dive’s right, lad. Our Elder… he’s gettin' worried. A year ago, and we were the biggest threat to this area, short of a rogue typhoon, anyways. He never planned on launching any sort of invasion, o' course, but... it’s pretty jarring to lose that sense of security so quickly. The tech in there… that might have given us the leg up we needed again. Between Cerberus, the Vanhoover Air Base, every town being equipped with enough firepower to wipe out each other, not to mention that Valkyrie of yours…” He let out another sigh, trying to maintain his composure. “Sorry, I know ye don’t mean harm, you’re not planning on attackin' our Stable, but… Well, it’s going to be a lot harder avoiding conflict now. What’s gonna happen when Cerberus is taken care of? If anypony finds out the location of our base, and all the tech we’ve got… well, power armor and lasers are only so effective. And that’s just assuming all the towns stay on good terms with each other, too. Sometimes things are kept locked up for a good reason.”

I looked down at the floor, unsure of what to say. We simply stood together in silence, the occasional sound of wind whipping in from outside the only thing to break it. There came the hoofsteps of Night Strike and Crash Dive from the basement, the mares stepping back into the conference room again. Night Strike let off a sigh, adjusting her duffel bag slightly as Crash Dive produced a detonator. “Alright, we’ve got the records room rigged to burn, along with the holotapes. We’ll step outside and light it up, shouldn’t take too long for everything to go up.” Scouring nodded solemnly, and we all headed out into the cold air. Aerith was standing beside a neatly-stacked pile of the remaining megaspells, entertaining herself by doodling in the snow with a stick as Pearl and the other Triage doctors worked with them in turn. She looked up as we approached, wearing a grin, as Crash Dive held the detonator for the records room in her hoof. She pressed the button, and a moment later a muffled bang could be heard from inside the sub pen, Scouring letting off a defeated sigh.

Ensuring the Triage and the HMS Mercy crew would be able to handle the hand-off to whoever the Vanhoover Air Base were sending to get the bombs, we began to load up onto the Clydesdale, Crash Dive, Scouring, and Aerith piling into the back seat as Night Strike and I climbed up into the front. The engine rumbled to life as I started it up, tracks digging into the melting snow and pulling us forwards, away from the large concrete structure and the few ponies milling about outside of it. I looked back towards it through the rear-view mirror, letting off a quiet sigh of my own - it's better for everyone like this...

---

Night Strike and myself hopped out of the Clydesdale as I brought us back to the path to the land bridge and shut off the engine, the others hopping out of the back seat and onto the snow below. We all made our way back towards the lighthouse, the beam at the top cutting into the small bit of fog rolling in from the sea. The door to the small house at the base of the lighthouse creaked as Crash Dive pulled it open, the rest of us funneling in to get out of the crisp air. Night Strike and I slid into the table in the kitchen, Crash Dive and Scouring standing a bit further away from each other than they normally did. Aerith opened one of the cupboards to rummage around for a can of Cram.

‘So, what next, then?’ Aerith’s magic sign read as she turned around, sliding into the booth next to Night Strike. She pulled open the can of Cram, chomping down on the preserved hay as Night Strike placed her leg with her Pip-Buck up on the table. She fiddled with the knobs for a minute, before pulling up her map... I think.

“Hey, Crash Dive, you got any paper handy, or something?” Night Strike asked. Crash Dive nodded, leaving the room only to return a moment later with a large sheet of parchment, quill, and ink vial. She rolled out the paper, Night Strike picking the quill up in her mouth. She began to sketch little symbols out onto the parchment, the occasional splotch of ink falling from the tip of the quill onto the paper as she worked. After a few minutes, a crude mockup of her Pip-Buck’s map had been created, albeit one with significantly more lines and numbers than I remember a Pip-buck normally showing... unless... “Alright, it’s probably about time we actually try and come up with some plan of attack.”

“Eheh, well, first of all, we should probably take care of the fact that Vanhoover looks like it just suffered from a tidal wave. It’s half the size it should be!” I remarked, wearing a smirk and pointing out Night Strike’s crude sketch of the location. She let out an exasperated sigh, Crash Dive smacking me upside the head. Ow, geez! Don’t need to get rough at a bad joke… I shook my head, looking at the crude map and noticing a few new marks over by the location of Fort Maple. I lifted a hoof to point at it, only just now noticing Scouring's wide-eyed expression. “Hold on, what're those? I don’t have any of that on my map.”

Crash Dive looked apologetically over to Scouring before speaking, letting off a quiet sigh. “Alright, we didn’t actually burn everything that the sub pen had. A complete topographical map of the region with marked routes is relatively harmless, and not to mention completely invaluable. As for the locations, it looks like the Tobuck turrets all were linked to central command bunkers in the mountains, and there’s a small forward field base near the bottom of the mountain in the Vanhoover floodplains as well. If we were to assault that place early on, it would give us another good jumping off point for the full attack, besides Saddlebrook. The problem will just be taking it without being blown up by whatever guns they might have, or without them notifying the main base for reinforcements. It’d take about 10 minutes at the most for a few dragons or Harriers to swoop in and bomb the place, assuming we can catch them offguard.”

‘There isn’t any kind of Electromagnetic Pulse Megaspell, is there? We wouldn’t need the electronics, and more than likely anything they have running the place would be fried by them.’ Aerith suggested. Scouring rubbed the back of his neck, thinking things over.

“Well, an actual megaspell would fry the circuits of everythin' in there easy, problem is that it would also make the rest of the area pretty much unusable. Not to mention it’d be just as bad as setting up a giant flag above the base sayin' ‘attack here!’.” Scouring looked down at the map, thinking some more. “But… lightning might be able to generate a small EMP, or at the very least overload any circuits they might have. If we can get a strike on some sensitive equipment with the Valkyrie’s tesla cannons, that might shut things down just long enough to make a swift attack before anypony up at the main fort notices. Then, we'd just need to make sure they don’t notice the Valkyrie flying in.”

I leaned back in the chair, mulling things over. “I’d rather not go flying in a thunderstorm if we can avoid it, maybe we can set up a diversion with some of the tank ghouls?” I sat back up, pointing out a small valley near the base of the mountain not very far from the forward base. “We set a couple of the tank ghouls up there, no more than half of them. We don’t want Cerberus firing off their megaspells thinking we’re launching the full assault just yet, but they can probably hold out against any retaliation while we take care of the forward base. If they start to get overwhelmed, we can fly over and offer support. Just have to cross our hooves they don’t fire off their megaspells as a first strategy…” I said, sounding less confident of the plan with every word.

“Unless the HMS Cadence has the reach with her main guns to help out too, I think that’s the best we have right now. Once we have that base set up and take care of the Tobuck turrets in the mountain passes, then we’ll need to get in and sabotage the main Fort before we launch the full-on attack,” Night Strike looked over at me for a lng moment, before releasing a small sigh. “You and Aerith will have to go in again, and get into the lower levels this time. Taking out the power would probably be the best option, but finding the Cerberus guy and killing him would hopefully cause enough chaos for the rest of us to sweep in.”

“…are you absolutely, positively, without a doubt sure we can’t just plainly try blowing the place up? I’d really rather not risk being sliced open by robot dragons again.” Night Strike gave me a slightly worried look, biting at her lip as she turned eyes down to her map. Crash Dive, on the other hand, was quick to pass on a firm glare, causing me to grimace and look back down at the plans once more. Hey, I’m sorry if my self-preservation instincts are kicking in again! “Yeesh, alright... Too bad we don’t have dad down here. Then he could at least teleport us out of there easily once we shut everything down, so then you could bomb it without worry.”

Night Strike chuckled, rolling her eyes. “Sparky, if we had our dads here now, we wouldn't have to be sticking around to see this crazy plan through. Besides, they probably would’ve blown the place up already with the TOG.” I grinned, shaking my head a bit. Twintails probably would be the kind of pony to go charging into the middle of a fortified military base with something that moved barely faster than a brisk jog... Night Strike let off a sigh, pulling her Pip-buck-clad foreleg off of the table. “Well, that’s probably as good of a plan as we’re going to get. At least until we can actually talk with the Rangers and ghouls at the forward base, and the Cadence is fully operational.” Night Strike looked down at the paper, realizing the amount of wasted space. “…I probably didn’t really need to draw this map out, to be honest.”

“Well, you’re jus' practicing your cartography skills fer when we need to display the plans to everyone, lass. Just get your scalin' down right, don’t want to accidentally send 'em ten miles further north than they need to go,” Scouring joked. Night Strike flicked a dab of ink at him, besmudging his bright white coat. Scouring just chuckled, wiping his coat clean as Crash Dive rolled up the parchment.

“Alright, that’s enough planning for now. Next thing you know you two are going to be planning to attack the base by building a giant trebuchet.” She slipped the paper into a compartment on her power armor, picking up the inkwell and trotting to place them back in the closet. Yeah, I could go for some dinner, it isn't smart to plan on an empty stomach, after all... Night Strike began to fiddle with her Pip-buck again, searching for the radio station, as I leaned forward to swipe some of Aerith’s Cram. A large trumpet fanfare began to play, the singer’s voice fading in.

“I was walking along, minding my business,
When love came and hit me in the eye,
Flash! Bam! Alakazam!
Out of an Orange-colored, purple-striped,
Fruity green polka-dot sky!

Flash! Bam!
Alakazam, and Good-bye!”

"That was Nat King Colt, Orange-Colored Sky, and you're listening to K A O S, KAOS in Vanhoover. This fine evening our top story today continues to be in regards to the first taste of actual combat we've seen here on the HMS Cadence, with the flak gunners quite happily having marked down their kills on the insides of their armored turrets, two large robo-dragons gone the way of the cloudshi- a-ahm, eheh, I mean, uh... Mmh, moving on.

"In other news, we've just gotten reports that the Triage and the Vanhoover Air Base are collaborating together on something, though exact details are a little fuzzy at this time. Far as we know, they might be attempting to see if you can run a fixed-wing flying machine on pony power alone, heh. Whatever it is, apparently the Vanhoover Five did have a hoof in it, so chances are high it's gotta be something worthwhile if nothing else.

"Anyways, as we wrap up this block of assorted songs from our record collection before moving on to full albums again, here's a little somethin' upbeat for your dinnertime listening. Keep an eye out in the sky for 99 Red Balloons, everyone, heh. Enjoy."

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