The wind whipped around me, my heart pounding against my chest as Aerith and I stood over the open bomb bay doors. A few explosions could be seen below, passing over one of the tanks, the ground sweeping by at a nauseating speed. I glanced over to Aerith, her outer suit jacket fluttering wildly in the rush of air. Taking another breath, I looked through the bay doors once again. The ground suddenly dropped out from beneath us as Night Strike went into a dive, the autocannons firing a stream of bullets along the mountainside as she tried to decrease the distance between us and the ground as much as she could. Leaning back, I let out my breath and threw myself out of the plane, Aerith jumping out after me.

The Valkyrie peeled away, the roar of the engines and the explosions drowned out by the air flying past the face of my suit's helmet. Oh sweet Celestia, this was a horrible idea! Fighting against the wind, I pulled a leg down to punch the buttons on the chest plate of the suit, which quickly began to shimmer and turn invisible. Aerith tucked her hooves under her, allowing her to dive until she was below me. Her wings suddenly flared, causing me to thud into her as her horn began to glow. Her own body vanished as I wrapped my forehooves around her neck, Aerith banking to turn us back towards the string of mountain bunkers. We began a steady, slow spiral downwards, and I tried to keep my lunch down as the world spun around me. It was thankfully not very long before Aerith’s hooves hit the ground, and I slid off of her to land in the dirt beside her with a heavy groan. My mind began to come back to me, and I began to register the myriad of explosions once again. Oh, right, big battle on and all...

Getting to my hooves, I looked up, watching as the Valkyrie turned about, the scream of its engines drowning out everything else as it passed overhead. I scanned the area, trying to find some way into the facility. Aerith had dropped us down near the northernmost bunker turret, the large guns moving about on the hilly cliffside above as we ducked in the trenches before it. The turret spun about automatically, attempting to get a shot further down the valley where the tanks still were, while other cannons further along the cliffside sent up tracers at the planes overhead. Okay, okay… what do we do now? I glanced over to Aerith - or at least, where I thought she was still standing - hoping she might have some sort of idea. She gave no indication she was even present, let alone any sign she had a plan as well. Letting out a breath, I began to trot forward along the trench, eventually ducking through an opened steel doorway and into the bunker complex below.

The explosions from the guns and the shells raining down around us thankfully drowned out any noise that Aerith or I were making as we trotted through the first of the bunkers. Several dragons clambered out of another section of the underground complex, each carrying with them several small shells. My gaze followed their movements, metal wings scraping against the concrete walls as they navigated down the other hallways, presumably towards the turrets. A small sign popped up in my vision, hovering just between my eyes and the visor of the suit. ‘So, what exactly was your plan?’ The words scrolled across.

I looked down a little sheepishly, trying to make my next words not sound too idiotic. “I… uh… may not have thought this all the way through. We don’t have anything like explosives to take out these guns, and even if we did, I don’t think either of us would know how to set them without blowing ourselves up. We’re going to have to just go up to each turret individually and try to sabotage them without making it seem too obvious that we’re here.” I muttered as quietly as I could. I could practically feel Aerith smack a hoof into her face and shake her head, forcing me to let out another sigh. “Well, we’re here now, it’s that or run off and force Night Strike to try and pick us up with a rain of shrapnel slicing through the Valkyrie, and tell her that the tank ghouls can't advance without getting shelled, too.” A slight sigh escaped Aerith beside me - well, it's not great, but it's something.

Determined, I began to hurry towards the far side of the bunker, past the heavy doors that led to the artillery turret and up a concrete stairway to the higher terrace of trenches. My gaze turned to the nearest gun, which was now turning to track the flight of the bright-red Icarus, firing off a shot ahead of it. Contrail banked sharply to avoid the explosion, flying headlong into a few clouds before turning back around and firing on a few dragons that began to circle the skies. Moving along the trench and rounding a corner, I found myself in the wider pit that held the gun, several smaller ones all laying broken and destroyed from the Valkyrie's earlier strafing run. Well, at least we did something helpful...

Another shot rang out from the larger cannon, and I was thankful the helmet did at least a little to muffle the noise and prevent me going deaf. After a moment, Aerith leaned up against the corner of the muddy artillery pit with me, the shimmer of her form just barely visible against the rough stone and wooden planks. Myself giving her an invisible nod, we began to creep closer towards the lone artillery cannon. It rotated around, and rather than a robo-dragon running the gun, there was instead what looked like several large computer banks stacked on top of each other, wires running between them and some hastily-added machinery. A small orb rested atop what would've been the gunner's seat in a pivot, rapidly scanning the skies and making a clicking noise as the lights on the machinery below it beeped and whirred. I felt Aerith tap me on the shoulder, drawing my attention to look down over the other side of the gun's base.

Laying on the ground was what looked like a severely mangled corpse of a smaller robotic dragon, one that must've been hit almost directly by one of the shells flying about above. Much of its electronic interior had been stripped, with wires running up from the still intact power core to the device running the gun. Its head lay a few feet away, one of its eyes missing, while the other dangled from a cord lifelessly. Ooookay, so the dragons are breaking each other down into parts to make aim calculators. I can’t really decide if that’s gruesome or not. I leaned backwards, turning to face the machinery again.

The eye spotted another aircraft turning about above, the servos whirring loudly as gears began to grind and turn the gun about. As I looked up to try and spot what it's new target was, the howl of the Valkyrie's engines caught my ears, eyes going wide - Oh no you don’t! Opening the facemask, I reached back and pulled my umbrella off of the back of the suit, squeezing down on the handle as the prongs at the end crackled. Jamming it into the machinery, the eye spun about wildly, the gun's servos spinning about again for a short while before it fired, causing the shell to fly up into the side of the mountain instead. With a dying whirr, the lights on the computer banks grew dark and the glow of the eye dimmed.
“Well… maybe taking care of these things will be easier than I thought.” I said, stowing my umbrella and turning to Aerith, only to find she wasn’t there... at least, I think she wasn’t there. I really wish I brought my magic goggles down here. Looking about, I spotted Aerith’s faint shimmer standing near another stairway leading below ground, on the far side of the anti-aircraft pit. I hurried over to catch up with her, and both of us descended into the second bunker. The explosions were muffled even further as more and more layers of thick stone, concrete, and earth were put between us and the surface, as we descended into the pre-war ruins.

Much like the slaver camp on the coast, this bunker had clearly not been occupied until very recently, as all the lighting was provided by ancient electric lamps, many of which were either burnt out or just plainly missing or shattered. Occasionally the ground would shake as bombs rained down from above, and the centuries-old dirt being shaken loose from the ceiling did nothing to dissuade the thoughts of the bunker collapsing in on itself that were now running through my mind. I shook my head in an attempt to clear it, moving onwards. Another sign appeared in my visor, scrolling along slowly. ‘You think there’s some kind of command area around here? Maybe we can find whoever’s sending the orders out, and stop them.’ Aerith asked.

I tilted my head a little, unsure. “Maybe… but that dragon aiming device didn’t seem to be hooked up to anything down here, it was just running autonomously. If anything, they’re probably receiving programmed orders directly via radio waves or something. If there is a command center here, it’s probably not being used.” I muttered, still trying to keep my voice as low as possible in case anything was creeping around below ground with us.

‘True… maybe there’s at least a map somewhere. It’d make finding our way to the other turrets while inside here easier at least.’ Aerith’s sign read. I nodded in agreement, only to voice it a moment later upon realizing Aerith likely didn’t see that. We continued through the maze-like bunker, the sound of our hoofsteps echoing off the walls as we trotted along. The sounds from above grew only slightly louder as we found ourselves standing at the base of another stairway leading upwards, the booming of artillery cannons being the loudest - this must be the second turret... did we take care of the first? Egh, we'll handle it later. Heading upwards, I peeked up through the doorway at the top of the underground passage to see... what I think was the mechanisms for the turret cannons, maybe. Rather than a compact device running the guns, however, there was an intact, smaller dragon, its talons gripped tightly on the gun’s control mechanisms. Its eyes were focused against a viewport that periscoped up to the turret top, the cannons turning as it searched for targets.

Aerith climbed up the steps after me, spotting the dragon and pulling out her automatic rifle. She began to creep towards it, staying low to the concrete floor as she lifted up her gun. She was just a few feet from where it sat in the turret, when she levitated the gun a bit higher and took a few shots at its head. Sparks flew across the metal as the bullets... harmlessly bounced off of it. Oh, come on, this wasn't even one of the big ones, and she killed those before with a smaller bullet, even! The dragon roared, twitching its head around to search for the source of the undamaging rifle rounds. Aerith stumbled backwards, the dragon hearing her fall over a wooden box as it looked down out of the turret basket-thing. Its jaws opened, a ball of flame building in the back of its throat, Aerith still scrambling for safety... right by me. Oh, Celestia help us.

As the dragon was about to fire, however, an explosion rocked the bunker directly overhead, causing the loading mechanisms to clatter and sending the distracted dragon falling backwards. The fireball engulfed one of the exposed artillery shells as it flew freely, a loud bang going off as the propellant cooked first, the free shell connecting with the point-blank dragon. A deafening explosion rang out in the enclosed concrete space, sending Aerith falling backwards down the steps as the shockwave knocked her down into me.

We fell painfully back down into the bunker, the dragon letting out another roar and several loud error beeps as it was torn asunder by the explosion. I fell onto the cold stone floor a story below, slamming my eyes shut from the pain as Aerith bounced off my chest and knocked the wind out of me, ears ringing. Uggghhh, ouch, yeah, that’s going to hurt for a few days... Taking several breaths to regain myself, I tried to get back to my hooves, as Aerith did the same. My hooves bumped up against some concrete debris from the stairwell, which was now completely blocked by rubble and robotic parts, cracks running along the concrete ceiling. “Oww… okay, I think we both agree to not do anything like that again while we take care of the others. Guh, why would the robots even still have their fire or plasma breath active while in an artillery turret with exposed shells? Whose design idea was that to have the shells exposed in the first place, anyways?”

We both collected ourselves and began to work our way back down the hallway again, wanting to get as far away from the wrecked section as quickly as possible. We continued along the tunnels, my ears still ringing slightly as we pressed forth - guh, I wish I wasn't so used to hearing loud explosions. Damnit, Night Strike... I suddenly stopped in my tracks, only for Aerith to bump up against me accidentally. There was another stairway leading down into a darkened room of the bunker, and what looked like several boxes stacked up against the walls inside. Looking back for a moment, and disabling my suit's stealth field, I carefully stepped down inside, as Aerith’s horn began to glow faintly to illuminate the unlit room.

Once again visible as well, she walked over to one of the crates, peering over into it, as I tried to make out some of the faded writing on another closed one. She let out a soft gasp, as her magic surrounded something and lifted it out of the straw, myself looking back towards where she was. A shell almost as large as my head was being held aloft in her magic, myself stuck staring at it in surprise for a moment. I trotted over to her side of the room, looking down to see the crates stocked to the brim with the huge high explosive shells. Aerith glanced back to me, giving off a small chuckle as a sign appeared beside her. ‘I think we just found our solution.’

I gave her a look, seriously hoping she was just joking. She only grinned wider. Yep, I’m going to get myself blown up today... Aerith began to levitate out more of the shells, motioning for me to follow her. ‘Look, it’s either this or take our chances fighting those dragons one-on-one again, and I don’t think either of us really have the weapons to do that. Just watch my back while we lay these out, in case anything comes down here to restock the guns anywhere else here.' I nodded nervously, following Aerith back up into the main passageway. She began to trot along, and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves at another stairway leading up to a gun turret. Aerith carefully lowered two of the shells onto the floor as another sign appeared in my visor. ‘How much of an explosive load do you think these shells have?’
I scratched my head, looking down at the artillery shell. “Uh… I think it said twenty pounds of explosive filler… maybe. And assuming the explosion is directed by the tunnels, it... -might- be enough to set off another shell? Assuming there’s nothing really in the way, maybe?” Aerith nodded and began to walk down the hall again. After a couple minutes, she stopped, almost causing me to bump into her as she placed another shell on the ground. I looked down at it, only to look back at her shimmering semi-invisible face. “You aren’t seriously thinking about bread-crumbing shells around this entire base, are you? We barely even know how big it is! How would we even set the chain off when we're done?” I asked. Aerith simply held the shell upside down, as if to drop it on it's nose. I dropped my head into a hoof, shaking it as we began to trot back along the hallway to place the remaining shell she had down.

It took several trips back and forth, but setting up the shells took surprisingly less time than I had expected. Despite the explosions still thundering down from above, it was also largely uneventful, though that didn’t stop either Aerith or me from checking every corner before we trotted around. “Okay, I think that’s the last of this sector. Just the newer turrets at the top of the mountain to go, how many shells do we have left?” Aerith levitated out the five remaining shells in her magic, and I gave a small nod. “Alright, let’s hope that’s enough.” We began to hurry back towards a cross in the hallways, turning to head down the one that had not yet been dotted with artillery shells.

Unfortunately, as we reached the end of the hallway, it suddenly came to a stop and just opened up into an immensely tall vertical concrete shaft. I stared straight up it, some very faint light streaming in from up top, just enough to illuminate a ladder placed in one corner - oh, yeah, no, screw that. Looking over to Aerith, she already had her wings spread wide, her magic encompassing me as we both started to fly up the shaft instead. Well, this might make setting up the shells difficult, but we'll work something out... probably.

As we ascended, I heard a faint noise coming from my foreleg, looking down at it. The glow from my pip-buck showed the radio screen - did the explosion knock that on? And, after that, what the heck was that song playing on Radio KAOS, anyways? A mare singing something about eating... snakes? And it was playing at ridiculous speeds, too. What the... Jim's voice broke over the speaker as we neared the top, a weak chuckle escaping him. "Aheh, sorry about that, folks, just a minor recoil-related hiccup here, jarred the player on double-speed. We'll get things sorted-"

Turning the radio off, I was set down on the upper level of the massive mountain shaft, Aerith landing beside me. Choosing to not turn around and look down the huge drop we just came up, I turned on the stealth field for my suit, Aerith going invisible again, and we both headed forwards through the uper levels. Stepping through what used to be the end of the bunker complex, I heard metal scraping against stone, the sound causing both Aerith and me to freeze in place. Up ahead, something was clawing away on the other side of the bunker walls. Suddenly the walls gave way to reveal a newly-cut tunnel, and a large robotic beast. What looked like a lion was stepping out of the makeshift tunnel, a scorpion tail reaching out over its head to blast away rock with a laser embedded in it. It pushed aside some rubble, clearing out a hole to reveal the soft earth behind it. It began to walk through the tunnel, a large case balanced on its back.

I crept forward, Aerith dropping down the last few shells, saving one as we found our way to a stairwell, and headed up to step outside. I almost fell back down the steps as I took a sudden jump back, finding myself standing among a small group of the robotic Manticores, all of them milling around a complicated-looking machine. Aerith and I slowly walked forward, hugging the walls of the dug-out area at the summit as we moved away from the machine, still watching as the manticores gathered around.

Looking back towards the massive mechanical monstrosity, it mounted in it two massive cannons. Each looked to be over twice the size of the ones the dragons were operating below, and had multiple dragons running the whole turret as well. Another two manticores walked past from an earthen bunker dug out on one side of the gun pit, a large crate held up by handles their scorpion tails were slipped through swinging between the both of them. They walked up to the back of the turret, dropping the crate onto the ground as another dragon opened it up. Inside lay a large, gleaming shell - one that looked disturbingly familiar as I studied it.

Aerith looked over to me, and despite neither of us being able to read the other’s expressions, we both knew exactly what the other was thinking. She bent down, spreading her wings to allow me to climb onto her back. I took the large shell in my hooves, clutching it tightly to my chest as she began to flap her wings and slowly ascend. As I watched, the dragon opened a hatch in the back of one of the guns, sliding the megaspell into place. Some powder bags followed, and the dragon screwed the breechblock shut. The loaded gun began to rotate upwards as the dragons and manticores operated it, as another dragon slid a second megaspell shell into the other gun's breech, that one starting to elevate as well. What were they aiming at?...

A few jets flew past, being pursued by dragons - those... don't look like ones I've seen at the Air base before, but i swear I remember them from somewhere... the Cadence, maybe? I looked down to the pair of massive guns below, watching them elevate and point towards the far west. From where they are, they're either aiming at something off the coast... or, maybe even something a bit more City of Vanhoover-shaped, too. “Oh fuck, fuck, Aerith, get higher quick!!” I shouted, not caring if they managed to hear us. Aerith began to flap harder, and I lifted the last shell we had out in my hooves. Wobbling about a bit on the alicorn’s back, I leaned to the right, hoisting the shell above my head. With a grunt, I leaned back towards the gun, chucking the shell before falling down to grab at Aerith’s neck.

The shell fell quickly towards the open rear section of the lagre turret, falling nose-downwards. The mechanisms kept the gun still elevating higher as we both watched on with bated breath, praying to not see any muzzle flashes before the shell hit. Vanishing in the ground clutter below, the shell landed next to two of the manticores that were ferrying the megaspell shells back and forth, and - mercifully - detonated. The resulting explosion sent a shock through us both, making Aerith tumble slightly in the air, starting to fly away from all the explosions. You can thank us later, Vanhoover...
Crackling fizzes and pops could be heard below, and a moment later the megaspells gathered around the guns shimmered and exploded, a faint blue light following the shockwave that pushed us both forward. Down below, nearer the base of the valley, the tunnels could be seen blowing apart, collapsing in on themselves as the shells scattered around the bunkers began to explode. Dragons still running the few surviving anti-aircraft guns were sent flying as the ground beneath them blew out, the three un-bombed turrets erupting in flames as their own ammo stowages went up, sending the heavy cast steel domes rocketing into the air. Dirt and stone erupted from some of the entryways as the ground visibly buckled in to fill the bunkers, burying the last of the dragons.

Aerith eventually stabilized herself, starting to ride the shockwave out down towards the valleys to the east. I let out a sigh as we drifted down to the ground, landing near a clearing a fair distance away from where the planes were running bombing runs. I pushed the button on my suit, flickering back to visibility as Aerith let her own magic fade. I fell off her back, flopping to the dewy mountain grass below as she pulled the flare gun out of her vest pocket. She aimed it up at the sky, pulling the trigger, the bright ball of light flying skywards. It climbed higher and higher before suddenly bursting, the flare drifting slowly back down to the earth. We both let out a sigh of relief as we watched the flare slowly descend, the smoke rising from the destroyed guns just visible over the top of the hill behind us.

“Alright, one base down. One… bigger, scarier one to go.”

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