I was barely able to register what exactly was happening. A mushroom cloud was rising up in the distance, one that we had absolutely no warning of, let alone were the ones to set off. My mind frantically tried to shift back into working gear, still fixated on the sight of the blackening cloud growing over the tree line. It wasn’t until the shockwave smacked into my chest and the wind was knocked out of me that I regained my senses, stumbling back on my hooves. I coughed, gasping to get my breath back as the Valkyrie shuddered from the sudden force. Standing back up, I watched as the cloud grew higher, the top starting to dissipate as Night Strike and Aerith landed back down beside the rest of us. “What the fuck!? I thought Cerberus didn’t have megaspells! We’re supposed to be the ones with the bombs!” She began to hyperventilate, still spouting only semi-coherent phrases.

Still trying to remain calm myself, I began to pace back and forth, my own mind racing with similar questions. What the hell was Cerberus doing attacking Hopeville? Didn’t they have anti-air defenses? Why the hell didn’t they fire those off at the attackers? It was obvious by my quickened pacing and sharp turns this was doing nothing but sending me into a similar panic to Night Strike’s. Crash Dive immediately marched over to the Clydesdale, pulling her helmet off of the back and slipping it over her head. She grabbed my umbrella, chucking it at my head hard enough to leave a rather sizable lump and leave me clutching the now swelling wound.

“Alright everypony, shut the fuck up and get in the Valkyrie. We’re heading into Hopeville, and seeing the damage, I don’t care what you’re thinking now, if you don’t get in the damn vehicle now I’m tying you to the back and letting you ride behind the jets. I can assure you the burn wounds will greatly help lessen the panic,” Crash Dive barked, the eyes of her helmet almost appearing to glow. “Night Strike, Static, don’t waste time getting your rad suits on, if that was a megaspell you'll probably be safest staying inside the Valkyrie's cockpit anyhow. MOVING, NOW!” She demanded.

The rest of us rushed back towards the Valkyrie, Scouring levitating his own helmet out of the Clydesdale and slipping it on as he rushed over to the small cockpit door, Night Strike close behind. She grimaced for a moment, heading in ahead of him quickly, the bay doors opening a moment later. “Sorry, no room in the cockpit for everypony, get in the bomb bay. Don't think we'll need to be dropping anything before reaching Hopeville... Uh… um, yeah, be careful too, we don’t really have anything good to grab onto back there.” Night Strike said, sliding herself back into the seat as I climbed myself in. Her hooves shook a little as she flicked several switches, the engines of the Valkyrie roaring back to life. “I really would’ve liked a little more time between learning to use this thing and needing it in an actual combat situation... you know how to work the turrets, right, Static?” Night Strike whimpered. I dropped down into the chair behind Night Strike’s, pulling down on the belts to secure myself in as the vehicle shuddered, the bomb bay doors closing back up. Slowly, we began to move forward, the rumble of the engines growing steadily louder.

“Don’t fly too close to Hopeville, last thing we need is this thing shot down by anypony that might still running the aircraft guns, got it?” Crash Dive shouted over the engines, sticking her head through the bomb bay access door. Night Strike gave a nervous nod as the Valkyrie rolled forward, quickly gaining speed. Night Strike pulled up on the controls, the plane shaking as its nose pointed upwards, another loud howl muffledly filling the cockpit. Taking a deep breath, I let out a sigh as we began to race through the sky towards the now slowly drifting off mushroom cloud. The power armored pegasus braced herself in the rear access doorway, staring out through the cockpit with us. “What’s our ETA?”

“We’ve got about six minutes before we’ll be outside the town limits, though I don't know where we could land this thing safely.” I responded, looking down at the controls as I fiddled with the navigation screen. Crash Dive nodded, grabbing ahold of the back of my chair as the plane shook once again. Night Strike flipped a few switches, the cockpit glass alighting with a few displays, most notably an aiming reticle. “Why would anypony attack Hopeville, though? If they were after us, they had a huge chance back at the lighthouse. They’d probably have taken out the Valkyrie too, if they wanted."

“Outdated intel, cowardice, scare tactics, terror bombing, there’s several reasons,” Crash Dive responded, looking at my screens as I switched them to the nose-mounted camera. The trees whizzed by at an alarming rate, before I was able to get it out of the landing setting and into general observation. Crash Dive gave a small grunt of confusion as the empty town of Clearwater passed by, us on approach to the town. “Hm, the landscape isn’t showing any signs of a megaspell detonation. There should be more damage to the trees around here, at least some of them would have been blown over and burnt up by the blast. If it wasn't a megaspell... hm.” She pulled herself back through the door to the bomb bay, Night Strike grabbing ahold of the controls once again. The Valkyrie swerved gently through the air, giving Hopeville a wide berth as we started our descent. I switched the camera back to vertical landing, listening to the small turbine behind me whining to speed.

The vehicle came to a slow stop, the roar of the engines whirring to a soft hum before disappearing completely as we set down in one of the farm fields outside the town. The bomb bay doors opened with a muffled thunk, our friends getting out and trotting over to the front of the aircraft while we hung inside. If it was a megaspell, even a small one or one that was made for more rads than explosions, I don't want to take any chances. Aerith’s eyes scanned the skies for any signs of the attackers as she hovered out over the top of the cockpit, but, oddly, none of the Harriers that had tried to attack us were visible. ‘You think they’re going back for another run?’ Her sign read as it flashed before her. I brought up the radar screen, watching it trace around a few times - no blips. It detected the Seaddler from the lighthouse, surely if they're still around here they'd be showing up... Night Strike grabbed ahold of Thumper, shutting the Valkyrie down fully and unbuckling herself from her seat, looking back towards me. I gave her a small nod as I did the same, taking another deep breath and keeping my umbrella close as she swung open the side hatch to the cockpit.

The air was eerily quiet, the only sound being that of our hoofsteps as we hopped out and onto the soft dirt. Scouring tapped against the side of his helmet for a moment, looking towards the edge of Hopeville. “I’m no' getting any rads yet. If it was a megaspell, couldn’t 'ave been that big... ” We began to trek towards the city, watching the sky for any indication the attackers may be returning. As we grew closer, the actual extent of the destruction became clearer. The crops on the outskirts of the city were blown to the ground, creating a ring that pointed towards the center of the town. One farm shed stood, only barely, with its windows smashed out of their frames and the whole structure leaning dangerously to one side.

The hotel's sign flickered and sparked, loose wires dangling in the breeze, the entire front glass of the lobby blasted inwards and laying shattered. A bit of movement caught my eye, and I turned my head just in time to see somepony duck down behind the smashed-in windows of one of the rooms, cowering in fright. My stomach began to clench as we moved further into town, looking around as buildings were starting to look more like piles of rubble, facades crumbling and broken, thin skeletons of what they once were built from their twisted and burned framework.

We turned a corner, and I had to fight back the urge to vomit. Several bodies lay strewn about the road, crushed under the collapsed buildings, some free, though their coats were charred and speckled by fragments of debris that had been flung by the force of the explosion. A few whimpered, making feeble attempts to free themselves as they struggled against their wounds. A pony in a doctor’s coat came running around the corner, a large bag balanced on her back as she hurried towards one of the injured ponies. She looked over to us as she threw the bag on the ground, digging around inside for a scalpel and a roll of gauze. “You got here fast. Unless you’re dropping your meds off here, get your asses to the Triage. Probably the only building that survived this shit.” She began to pick out the larger chunks of metal from the pony’s chest, his breathing ragged and uneven.

I reached into my saddlebags, pulling out a few healing potions that had still been stashed inside before placing them on the ground beside her. Picking up our pace, we rushed towards the Triage, only barely able to find our way among the ruins of the buildings. The hospital that held the Triage was battered by the blast, several sections of the wall facing the center of town having been pockmarked by the bricks and debris thrown in the explosion. Despite this, it was still one of the more intact structures standing, and a small crowd of ponies had gathered out in front of it. We tried to push through the crowd, a few ponies parting to let us through, others barely able to stand and needing others to help move them aside.

“Oi, soup cans!” A voice called out in the crowd. Crash Dive and Scouring stopped, looking back to see a stallion limping up, a hoof held over his gut. “What the fuck kind of sick prank are you trying to pull? Fucking selling us guns and then just shelling the hell out of us later? What the fuck is wrong with you!? Sitting in the lap of luxury while we get killed!” He spat on the ground, starting to shuffle his way forward. A few members of the crowd murmured among themselves, backing away from the enraged stallion. “YOU FUCKING MURDERERS, YOU KILLED MY WIFE, YO-” He was suddenly cut off by Crash Dive coldly kicking him in the ribs. He fell to the ground, letting out a cry of pain as he clutched his side. Everypony was silent, staring at Crash Dive.

“Let’s get in,” She said bluntly. The few remaining ponies that had been blocking the doorway scurried aside as Crash Dive strode into the Triage lobby. It was almost impossible to see anything through the crowd of ponies crammed into the room. What appeared to be the entire town was either clambering to speak with the receptionist or sitting aside, nursing wounds as doctors rushed people inside. Crash Dive began to force her way through, shoving ponies aside, ignoring their complaints as she headed towards the back hallway.

We managed to escape the crowd, heading down the hall towards the offices. Night Strike stepped up to Crash Dive, her expression a mixture of astonishment and horror. “What the hell was that about, Crash Dive? You wanna make us look like the bad guys! The guns worked, they must have! What’re they gonna start saying after that?” She rambled, trying her best to stay on her hooves and avoid running into strewn-about gurneys.

Before Crash Dive could respond, Pearl suddenly hovered out of one of the side rooms, her display still showing the ever cheerful green-display pony. “Hiya guys! Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many ponies since before the war, I had no clue this place was so populated! Well, it might not be as populated now, but I’ve got plenty of tricks up my sleeves still! We’ll get that new Med-X stuff distributed and the ponies won’t even know what day it is! And, oh, this'll be teh best chance we'll ever get to fully field-test those Healing-Burst grenades, too!” I’m not sure you’re grasping the reality of this situation, Pearl.

“Pearl, what happened with the guns? Somepony outside said they didn’t work, but I swear we tested them!” Night Strike asked frantically. Pearl hovered down the hallway, waving one of her mechanized hands dismissively. I leaned back, not wanting to be jabbed by the needle she was swinging around. Pearl turned into one of the rooms where a nurse was standing over a stallion whose legs were bound up in casts. She carefully aimed the needle, injecting it slowly into the pony’s foreleg as she scanned his body.

“Oh, the guns worked just fine! They just didn’t have anything to hit. Well, I guess they had those huge shells to hit, but the tracking system isn’t quite good enough to track something that small moving at that steep an angle. I suppose that’s kind of the same as the guns not working... Don’t worry, though! Once we install more of those reaction time implants into the gunners I bet we’ll be a-o-good!” Pearl took hold of one of the pony’s legs, giving it a tug, a sickening crack resonating through the room as she popped his bones back into place.

Satisfied with the pony’s condition, Pearl turned around and made to head back out into the hallway. Crash Dive stopped her, speaking quickly. “Pearl, have you heard anything about who might have done the attack? Anything your scanners pick up about where they went?” She asked. Pearl’s screen flipped to her thoughtful expression as the AI searched her memory banks.

“Nope, sorry guys. I’ve been pretty busy looking over all of the ponies here, if I do have anything, it’s buried pretty deep. One of the gunners is upstairs, room 207. Maybe he saw something.” Pearl turned to the nurse, no longer paying us any attention. “You sure he didn’t sign up for any implants? I bet he’d be a much faster farmer with a mechanical hoof. And we could probably fit some pesticide sprayers into it, too!” Leaving the two to argue over forced augmentation, Scouring led us out of the room and towards the stairway.

The stairs, already old and chipped, now had a few tilted and crumbling steps, concrete and shattered glass strewn about the landings between them. “…Yeeeaaah, have fun, guys.” Night Strike said, hovering up to the second level. Tentatively placing my hoof on the first step, I began to slowly walk up, making sure none of the stairs were going to collapse under my weight. Aerith too decided to take to the air, though her large wingspan caused her to bounce against the walls as she tried to maneuver in the cramped stairway. Giving a sigh of relief upon reaching the second floor, we headed inside to find more doctors rushing back and forth between rooms, carts of medical supplies jangling as they rolled along.

We walked down the hallway, stepping out of the way of the doctors as we made our way towards room 207. Pushing open the door, we found a stallion laying in the bed, staring up at the ceiling. He looked over as we entered, carefully pushing himself up in bed to reveal several bandages and burns covering his chest. “Yeah? What d’you guys want?”

I stepped up to the side of his bed. “We were hoping you might have gotten a good look at whoever attacked the town. Any information on who it was, where they went, all that.” The stallion nodded, shifting a little to sit more comfortably as the others filed into the room. The pony scratched his head, closing his eyes as he tried to concentrate.

“I couldn’t spot anything to shoot at, that's the thing. Suddenly things just started going up in flames and splinters, giant rockets or missiles, or shells raining down from somewhere or something, no clue what. Tried to track their location, but they were coming in too fast and high to tell, it was chaos. All you could hear is the whistle from the air around 'em.” He sat still, staring down at his blankets, taking a breath. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help more. It all just happened so fast...” Shells? Not bombs? I turned to Night Strike, a feeling of worry starting to grow stronger in my gut.

“Night Strike… we didn’t strip down that huge mortar back at the Seahoof Armory… did we?” I asked, not entirely sure I wanted the answer. Night Strike’s eyes went wide, her jaw dropping upon the sudden realization. Yep, that was exactly the answer I didn’t want. “We have to go, now!” I exclaimed, turning to hurry out the door, Night Strike hot on my heels. The others rushed out after us, almost colliding with a nurse as they scurried down the hallway. “Fuckfuckfuck, why didn’t we think of this sooner?! I thought we gassed that place out, anyways!” Jumping down several steps at a time, I was suddenly thrown against the wall as a deafening explosion rung out outside, the whole building seeming to rumble from the impact. I wobbled on my hooves a little, regaining my balance before hurrying down the rest of the steps with the others as ponies started screaming and running in panic. Another explosion was heard outside, this one closer, and smaller. Screams filled the air as the ponies waiting outside the Triage began to push and shove, stampeding through in desperate hope of finding shelter.

Scouring charged forward, his large armor pushing aside anypony not fast enough to move out of the way, clearing a small path through the frantic crowd for us to weave through. Speeding out of the building, we all began to sprint back towards the Valkyrie, myself panting as I tried to keep up with the others. A column of smoke could be seen rising up in the distance as several buildings were set ablaze by the first shell, another screaming in and bursting several blocks away. Any ponies that had been standing outside were now rushing in to any shelter they could find, some hunkering underneath rubble from the previous attack.

Gasping for air, a stich forming in my side, I galloped towards the outskirts of town after the others, the Valkyrie coming into sight as we rounded the corner by the Hotel. Yet another explosion sounded behind us, and, glancing back, I saw one of the pubs down the street collapse in on itself, spreading rocks and debris across the street. Our hooves clattered against the metal floor of the Valkyrie as myself and Night Strike leapt inside, the pegasus hardly waiting for the cockpit door to close up before flicking switches and turning the aircraft back on.

Crash Dive pulled the door open again, sticking her head inside. "You guys take off without us, we'll try and coordinate an evacuation of the town, at least keep some ponies from looking south while you wipe that place off the map. Got me?" Night Strike nodded in response as I started going through the systems, looking over the displays as they came up on screen. Bombload, three 500t megaspells, automated bomb aim prediction systems active... alright. The door shut on the cockpit, myself just barely able to look out and see the rest of the Vanhoover Five rushing back to the town as the vertical engine whined to speed behind me again.

The Valkyrie lifted up off the uneven ground, shaking with each hit of the massive mortar shells, some small pieces of shrapnel pinging off of the metal skin. Night Strike fought against the bucking of the machine, pulling back violently once the engines had reached their distinctive roar, a kick of acceleration taking us as we swapped back to horizontal flight. We shot up into the air, swiftly pulling away from Hopeville to avoid any stray fire. “Okay, okay, Seahoof’s about 8 minutes away, be on the lookout for any other defenses. Luna, I hope they don’t have good enough equipment to hit us...” She stared down at the console, carefully turning to line up our path. Racing through the sky, I kept my eyes peeled for any signs of the attackers.

The radio suddenly burst into life, Fowler's voice screaming into our ears. "Valkyire, you will copy me goddess-damn it! What is your explanation for that unauthorized scramble?!" Bracing myself in the chair as Night Strike jerked on the yoke, and the Valkyrie suddenly responded in accordance, I grabbed the headset and fitted it on, switching the in-cockpit speakers off and flipping the radio on.

"Hopeville is under attack, mortar shelling, we're responding. Unless you've got someone else who could get there with a payload and medical supplies in only a few minutes, you're gonna have to forgive us!" The radio fizzled with static as I fiddled with the bomb systems, trying to mark Seahoof as a target. A megaspell should be more than enough to take care of that mortar... right?

To my surprise, Marigold's voice broke through over the radio next, the Seaddler's engines droning in the background. "Seaddler copies you Valkyire, I have a few friends that can help after you take out that mortar. ETA six hours there and back, they're the best group of medics I know, though. Scrambling now, Seaddler over and out." Fowler's voice came over in some angry grunts for a few moments, before the radio fizzed out. Okay, well, some more medics can only help, at least. We just need to take care of the shelling first.

It wasn’t long before the collection of buildings that was the Seahoof Armory appeared over the hills and valleys, growing steadily larger as we flew towards it. “Aw, shit, of course they’ve got the dragons here, why wouldn’t they have the dragons here?” I said, spotting a few figures circling the skies around the base. Looking around the console, I took a hold of the controls to the tesla cannon turrets, getting a feel for them. Forced to stare into a small viewfinder taking a video feed from the top turret, I squinted, trying to track their movements. “Alright, try to do this quickly. The longer we’re up here the more chances they’ll have to hit us.”

“Oh, that’s reassuring!” Night Strike yelled, pushing the throttle oepn as far as it'd go. The dragons spotted us as the Valkyrie let off a small howl, leaving their vulture circles over the armory base to chase after us. One shot out a jet of flame that Night Strike was forced to swerve to avoid, the pair of cannons in the cheeks letting off a loud series of bangs as she tried to hit the dragon with them. My hooves jerked about the turret controls as I tried to keep my eyes on the robots, pulling on the trigger. There was the sudden crackle and boom of thunder as a bolt of lightning shot through the air, followed by another, and another, all in quick succession. The dragons avoided them, beating their wings to maintain their speed as another jet of flame spewed from their mouth. Another circled about, attempting to cut us off as Night Strike dipped lower to dodge a swing of its knife-like tail. The bay doors whirred open, locking open with a thunk behind us. “Any time you wanna actually aim the bomb, Static!”

Firing off another burst, I finally managed to hit one of the robotic beasts, taking it out of the sky. Its eyes flickered off, overloaded by the electricity before it began to plummet towards the earth. I glanced back to the display showing the bomb targeting systems, my mind racing as I tried to make sense of the calculations it was running. Carefully twisting the controls, I saw a sudden flash of heat as one of the Valkyrie’s wings was wreathed in fire. Night Strike pulled on the controls, attempting to move out of the fire as the repair talismans began to glow under the burning metal. My heart pounding in my chest, I focused back in on the bomb view, spotting a few small figures rushing between the large artillery and the ammunition stores. The massive, stumpy gun bucked backwards as it fired another shot towards Hopeville, another cart of the gigantic shells being rolled towards it by pony-shaped figures.

Tracking the base through the view, I had just enough time to notice the gun begin to point further up into the air, only too late realizing that we were flying straight over the thing... oh Celestia help us. “NOWNOWNOWNOW!” I shrieked. Night Strike slammed her hoof down on a button on her control yoke, the plane shaking as the weight of the bomb fell away. Yanking upwards on the controls and going white-jointed on the throttle, Night Strike peeled us away from the base, the bay doors snapping shut as we rocketed westwards. Please tell me those bombing circuits took the plane's proximity to the blast into account...

There was a deafening moment of silence, before a bright flash filled the sky behind us, and we began to ride the shockwave out to the coast.

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