Fallout Equestria: Lone Ranger

"So...that explains the talk of SR activity near the Gap..." I replied with a frown, helmet off and feeling rather relaxed. "They're all looking for this place too and the only path in they can take is on this side of the Embers."

"Yep." Garand replied. "Radio transmission was pretty short but it looks like Elder Grigori was getting at least a Platoon-sized force together. Great as the NER might be, I doubt they'd be able to counter that strong a force with the Elder and his Sentinels at the head."

"As somepony tha' has some authority on tha' subject, lemme speak fer th' Republic 'n say naw." Firefly replied to my left, the winding dirt road more than wide enough for the three of us to walk abreast of each other. "Th' Gap is prolly at it's weakest at th' moment. Things been so quiet tha' they apparently started tah redeploy troops, 'specially th' Rangers, tah th' North. Ain't sure what they're up tah but Ah'd bet ya ah solid hundred caps it's prolly somethin' tah do wit' proddin' into th' Duchy 'o Crystal. Command was obsessed wit' scout reports from th' North 'n there were plenty 'o debate about wha' might've survived th' War."

"Perfect time to redeploy then." I sighed, imagining the power sixty to seventy Rangers in Power Armor had to smash though almost any point in the defensive perimeter they chose. "The Order works on their own frequency so I'm surprised you were able to tap into it. Even my equipment struggles to tune into that high of a frequency range."

"Mine used to be able to when I was closer to the radio relay stations under their control out East." He replied with a short laugh. "Only reason we happened on this shit was we were already at a relay station called Black Steel Hill. An NER Bounty target Firefly was after had holed up in there so we just kinda happened to be in the right place at the right time .The station was in SR hooves only a few years ago, and the radio equipment has been locked tight against those dumbasses who moved in so I thought why the hell not? We took advantage of the opportunity and tapped into the radio frequencies with their own equipment and didn't even need to do much of any real hacking. And boom! Soon as the radio tower is raised, we hear all that shit about them headed this way and long story short, here we are trying to cut them off and somehow prevent them from finding and looting this place. Pretty simple plan but somebody has to stop those maniacs from getting tech they don't deserve."

"Right, and that's where we come in, right?" I laughed, grateful I had thought ahead and brought extra armor-penetrating options. "Guess you're lucky I happened to show up when I did. 25x102mm is more than enough to punch a hole in Tin Head armor at most ranges."

"Yeah...lucky..." He grunted with a nervous chuckle. "I'm still not sure if we are postponing our fight for later or...?"

"Yeah...for now, let's just consider it on hold until this is resolved. Everything you've said so far about the inbound hostiles seems to be credible so I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. Plus, Firefly's word holds weight with me and if he says you are a good guy and trustworthy well...like I said. Benefit of the doubt. Best I can offer you right now until I've had more time to think shit through."

"Heh well thanks there, Athena..." Firefly said bashfully. "Nice tah see Ah'm visible from th' top."

"Please..." I laughed in response, grateful he wasn't holding a grudge for the whole meat shield thing. "Hitmares have a vote on who's earned a place in our number and you'd better believe we keep an eye on the Gungho-Guns. Your record speaks for itself and your performance last year at Freeside Hot-Shots was commendable as well."

"Sorry to interrupt or whatever, but you do know the SR aren't gonna pay up, right?"

"What do you mean?" I asked in surprise. "You don't just simply make a Contract through the Syndicate. If you put up a price and create a job, caps will change hooves. Otherwise, they have ways of getting their due that I doubt even the Order is prepared against. Any attempts to resist will be considered an act of war and they have many Combat Sorcerers trained exclusively in Dark Magic. If they start coming out of the shadows to fight...it will be a nightmare for anyone involved. I've only seen them demonstrate their resolve once and the entire caravan company that refused to pay for its Merc guards hired through the Syndicate was completely liquidated. Including every last person running it down to the last mare and stallion. So...unless the SR wants a war unlike any its ever fucking seen, they'll pay up."

"You don't get them like I do, mare..." He growled warningly, striding ahead to stop me in my tracks and pay attention. "I can't prove anything you're saying about these Syndicate people, but I feel like believing you since Firefly has said a lot of the same. Bounty hunting and that sorta shit out East is nowhere near as oiled a machine as it seems to be out here, so if this Syndicate is behind itbthen they're no doubt a huge power player out here. But, I'm telling ya with brutal fucking honesty that the SR think they're the hottest shit on the planet. Even if they did somehow know about this whole spooky scary magic shit, that doesn't mean a goddamn thing to them. They're so far up their fucked assholes they wouldn't even consider it a threat. Their Power Armor gives them a sense of invulnerability since most groups can't punch through 'em save for known groups like the Gunners or the NER. They care a hell of a lot more for that Mrk. IV and PipBuck of yours than your entire fuckin' life and soon as you try to turn me in you'll be dead. Don't care how good your shit is, the T-60s have fuckin' 25mm autocannons which'll put you down nice and easy."

"Ah mean...fucker's gotta point, Crete." Firefly chimed in. "Ah don' see th' SR holdin' up their end 'o th' bargain."

"Ugh! Just...let me fuckin' think about it, alright?" I snapped back at both of them, my ability to see the right option blurred by recent events. "I've got a lot riding on this Contract..."

"What price is worth killing someone you fuckin' know, huh?" Garand huffed indignantly. "Where the fuck else are you gonna get to swap war stories with someone you know worked the Southern Front right with you?"

"I get it!" I whined. "It's more than just the fucking money, damnit! I fucked up royally with Green alright? Sent me to get some cash back from Slavers in Appleloosa and kill his rival Jingle Jangle...I ended up liberating the captives, paying them the cash meant for Green and kinda, sorta adopted a daughter from one of the slaves."

"Yew...wha' Crete?" Firefly breathed in reply.

"I fucked over Green with a sudden change of heart and adopted a filly. Big fucking whoop but now, as a result of all that, Greene has a Contract out on my head for 150k. I've got two teenagers to look after and I don't wanna spend that time looking over my shoulder for someone like Cook Cook or Black Velvet to hurt either of them. Both of them are dead now but they're just the first of many to follow."

"Yer th' one who killed Velvet? Goddamn...explains why th' psycho lost. Heard about tha' fight when we was in Th' Pile."

"So what's your part in this then? How does taking me in clear your name of a price on your head?"

"Because Killer Queen came to me personally with a fucking Broker and offered me a deal. Your sorry ass alive for the 300k and absolution from Green's Contract. Said I was too invaluable to the organization and that was the only reason they were offering it. Perhaps they too are expecting the Order to reneg on its half of the Contract. Hell if I know..."

"You try and turn me in to them and you won't be alive to enjoy that freedom."

"Ugh...so you say..."

It was a terribly hard decision to make and I didn't need both of them on my case trying to use the nostalgia and good guy card to guilt me into leaving him alone. The money was a generous buffer to all the expenses for renovations and the absolution would be such a weight off my mind. But...given his actions against them, it was undoubtable that they would shoot him on the spot and burn the body the moment they had him in their sights. Just like that a living relic of the past just like myself would just be gone...I wasn't ready to go through that again.

For all his attitude, he was easy to talk to and had a surprisingly good memory for the past filling in holes I had forgotten long before. There was no doubt in my mind after a few minutes of talking that he was the real deal as he knew things impossible for anypony to know but those who had lived through it. Much as I was loathe to admit it...I had made a friend; the most unique one to date. Could I really condemn him to a certain death? And...he had a point. The SR had never dealt with the Syndicate before now and they had a habit of lying that even I was aware of. I kept to the West for a reason and rarely found a reason to be anywhere near the Tin Heads meaning things had probably gotten worse with them in the meantime.

As before, I found myself letting my thoughts wander after a few minutes forcing the dilemma to fade out of my mind for the time being. The road continued snaking up and through the tight canyons of the Embers and I was amazed that Garand had been able to spot it on the GIMP. The Global Interactive Mapping Program supposedly had once provided detailed aerial photographs once every half hour and, unsurprisingly, was something only available to the Steel Ranger Corps. How he had managed to find the damn bunker amidst all this rock was absolutely beyond me although considering he said it had taken seven hours to do, I suppose it wasn't too far fetched. All any of us knew was that the damn thing was somewhere nearby up and ahead and we had been after it for more than two hours. Two hours that...honestly went by in the blink of an eye with so much reminiscing to go around.

"Do we know what we're looking for?" I asked after a few minutes of silent walking, Firefly slipping ahead of me slightly as my pace flagged a little from all the thinking.

"Dunno, a big fat door that puts a roadblock on the path ahead? How should I know?" Garand retorted. "All I did was find the big hollow hill its hidden in, I'd assume this road has to lead somewhere there's an entrance; path like this is perfect for half-tracks and shit so the door'll be obvious I'd think."

"Guess that makes sense...still...feels like we've been walking for a longggg fucking time now."

"Ah shut it, Ah'm havin' ah blast hearin' ya two go on 'n on so Ah think it's been ah great fuckin' ti-"

Without any warning he had run face first into...nothing. He reeled back in shock and pain, kicking out at whatever had hit him and hitting something flat, solid and...made of metal?

"Did the air just clang?" Garand asked eagerly while Firefly held his poor muzzle in his hooves.

"Ah dunno, Garand! Why don't ya try headbuttin' th' fucker 'n find out!"

I got closer and more or less in unison with Garand felt an arm out for the mysterious invisible wall. I didn't have to reach far before my hoof stopped in mid-air, held in place by the invisible barrier that Firefly had so graciously introduced his face to. A quick jab of my armored combat boot into the resistance elicited a metallic clang that we had heard earlier.

"Gotta be our door..." I mumbled, standing back and glancing at Garand who was equally at a loss for words. "Any ideas? Never come across something like this before...M.O.W kinda hides their shit in the open so this is a new one to me."

"Hold on...I'm thinkin'..." He replied, putting on his Plague Bird helmet and staring at the empty space in front of us. "No...no...no...no...aha! Put yours on and put on AS filters, you'll see it clear as day."

I followed his instructions and plopped my helmet back on as well. Within a second my worldview changed to a pastel rainbow of colors in the Arcane Signature spectrum and towering above us was a massive fifteen-foot sliding steel door. It had been disguised with some sort of invisibility spell and placed in the middle of a random part of the road, more than likely leading immediately down into the mountain.

"Oh, so now yew two can see it an' not th' guy who smacked his fuckin' nose into it? Common..."

"Oh...right..." I said sheepishly. "Forgot the Mrk. Is are pretty barebones. Just precision optics and low-lights right?"

"Yup, and ah simpler version of tha' fancy friend-er-foe compass thang. Nothin' like wha' yew two are workin' wit' but it works great fer sniper work against mah usual targets."

"Not missing much...just a big steel lookin' door. I think I see the terminal for it over here to the left!"

"Yeah, I see it. I've got the bigger, better PipBuck so lemme handle it. Shouldn't be too hard."

We both stood and watched as he made his way to our left and climbed out of his armor before he started tapping on an invisible computer on an invisible gateway. Within a few moments the thing popped into view looking mighty odd as a floating terminal hanging onto nothing. He pulled out a universal StableTec adapter on a long black cord from the back of his PipBuck and plugged it into an access port changing the text on the screen as both devices communicated and made a connection. While he worked, Firefly and I simply waited quietly for him to do his thing. With any luck, we had at least a few hours to look around before we had to seriously consider planning our ambush and with the opportunity wonderfully presented to me...well, I just couldn't help myself. There was no telling what this place held and large, well hidden doors tended to imply something worth protecting in my experience.

"Annnd...there!" He declared proudly, a soft squeal of metal on metal piercing the ears as the world in front of us parted and a growing void filled the gap.

"Sweet fuck tha' there's ah trip..." Firefly grunted, shaking his head and rubbing his eyes from the optical illusion.

"Tell me about it..." I mumbled in agreement, blinking the weird sight from my vision before drawing my Sequoia and proceeding into the dark room ahead.

A few steps into the darkness and my helmet automatically turned on infrareds giving me view of a large, empty concrete room dotted with ventilation on the ceiling and a massive freight elevator in the center big enough to fit several tanks in a long row. We went in slowly, each of us panning around the room with our weapons drawn looking for any potential danger. While the elevator and room were quite large, there was hardly anything to see when you looked around you. Fans and inactive lights in the ceiling and on the walls with the only other thing of note being a passenger elevator in the far right corner of the room with its own terminal on standby. Not a Soul in sight and not even a blip on E.F.S aside from the two of them likewise scanning the room and finding nothing.

"Well...ah empty house be ah good house in mah book." Firefly said with satisfaction. "Quiet can be ah damned good thang sometimes, 'specially in cases like this here."

"Can't say I disagree..." I laughed, keeping my revolver floating at my side just in case. "What you think? Head down to the top floor and work our way through the sublevels past that or hit the bottom and go up?"

"That's assuming the thing still works of course." Garand commented with a sigh, approaching the next terminal after moving his armor inside with his adapter at the ready. "No clue about anything to do with this base so for all we know it's even more of a relic than most places."

Out of blatant curiosity for the state of the place when not lit in shades of grey, I shut of IRs and turned on my LED headlamp letting my eyes see the world in color. The darkness came in all at once making anything outside my cone of light gloomy and hard to make out but a quick look around showed me everything looked near-pristine. Barely any rust touched any of the metal of the large freight elevator and the concrete walls had minimal chipping or erosion like you'd normally find. Most things military had a way of eroding in very particular ways in the Post-War world, most thanks to ignorant dumbasses who don't have the capacity to appreciate all the benefits that came with such territory. Raiders in particular were just the worst...turning lovely fortresses of concrete, rebar and barbed wire into hellholes for their gore and squalor fetishes. In all fairness, the place looked barely fifty years old and completely untouched.. This was getting interesting...

"I have a feeling it might..." I replied after a brief pause as I looked around. "This place is weirdly intact for a military relic. Especially for one so close to the Badlands..."

"Bingo!" Garand called out again, his voice coming from multiple directions on the concrete walls. "Just a second...lemme see if I can find the lights..."

After a few moments of typing, soft computer beeps and the sound of Garand chewing the damn thing out under his breath, the large floodlights on the walls and ceiling sprang to life. Though the light was muted somewhat from dust and grime, the sudden addition of light rendered my headlamp pointless and made the room feel much more welcoming. There was still nothing to see anywhere in the room but at least that meant it was safe to relax. For now.

"Well damn, you're right! Place looks almost brand spanking new!"

I looked back towards the two of them seeing that Garand had taken his helmet off and was inspecting the metalwork closely before returning his attention to the terminal. Firefly meanwhile was busy fiddling with an odd rifle, even more odd than the foreign-made .50 that he had stored in a broken down state on his back. This comparably smaller rifle was formed from the forward half of an M16 up to the mag well and the lower half of a lever-action which operated the weapon. While I was aware of the so-called Gun Runner Customs line of firearms, mismatched pieces of separate unusable guns hybridized into a functioning one, I had never actually seen one for myself. The fault of course was on me and my admittedly expensive tastes. GRCs were middle-of-the-road in terms of quality and efficiency and were two-steps down from the price range I usually had for myself when shopping. And to be frank...I only really spent money on ammunition and reloading supplies like powder, pre-jacketed projectiles and primers. I had all the weapons I needed for my day-job and didn't have room in my armory for more guns, even if I wanted them. That was something that could change with the new apartment up and running though...

"Gimmie a few guys..." Garand grunted over his shoulder as he hunched in front of the pony-sized computer and fucked around with the keyboard and joystick. "Probably need to manually unlock the elevators since the hello message said something about an unexpected power loss. Had to switch to axillary power which should hold more than enough juice for us to look around for awhile."

"Oh?" I hummed curiously. "Wonder what happened to the power then. Place seems pretty well preserved so I'd be surprised if it was something to do with bad wiring or something related to lack of maintenance."

"Who knows? All that matters is there's more than enough juice to keep the lights on for a couple years in here as far as I can tell. With the main CFRs offline, the backup generators were put into emergency-power mode so only the most important shit got power and even that was as minimal as possible. Plenty leftover for normal operations although there might be some tertiary systems and shit that probably won't be touchable until we can get main power back online. Not like that's a big loss, tertiaries are one of those 'can live without' sorta things."

"Ya mean, 'if' we get it back online." Firefly mumbled over his work adjusting the scope mounting on his rifle. "Don' jump th' gun on anythin' over fifty years old...NER know tha' one better than anypony."

"Eh, I prefer to think optimistically." I replied, pausing to lean in closer to see Firefly's rifle better. "Besides, I'm getting the feeling this place has a lot to hide. It's unusually large and well preserved. That just doesn't happen by accident out here, not in this day and age."

"Heh, takin' ah look at Headsplitter?" He chuckled after he noticed my interest in the bizarre weapon.

"Yes, actually." I said candidly, looking up at him with a smile. "Heard plenty of stories about Runner Customs but never actually seen one until now. Never really ever had a reason to buy one."

"Tha' right?" He chuckled, glancing over my kit before nodding his head. "Eh...yeah, makes sense. Yer shit is too damn pricey fer meh."

"I just happened to be unlucky enough to survive with some terrific gear made from Celestium..." I sighed. "But yes, I definitely shop for the more expensive shit since I can afford the quality."

"Heh, well no offense 'er nuthin' but yer missin' out Crete." He laughed proudly, holding out his rifle for me to look at closely and admire the blend of old and new gun technology. "Get th' penetration 'n mag size tha' comes wit' ah 5.56mm wit' all th' fun 'n nostalgia of ah old lever gun!"

"It's certainly something alright." I laughed, unsure if I liked the blend of weapons or not. "Definitely something my old friend Dark Blaze would adore were he still here to see it."

"Oh yeah? Someone from th' War 'er...?"

"Yeah, before the Great War. Was a hell of an expert in the Engineer Corps of the army and really talented with gunsmithing. Ran a little smithy out of an old wagon he had repurposed with a bunch of tools and shit and was known for weird custom guns like that. Jasper Arms we called them after his first name..."

"Tha' right...? Damn..." He replied with a bit of a frown. "Remember any 'o th' crazy ones?"

"Oh damn...that's a hard one..." I admitted, furrowing my brow as I tried to think wayyyy back. "Um...fuck...oh! There was one really popular design he called the Survivalist which were M16s rechambered for...oh fuck what caliber was it...?"

"Take yer time..." He chuckled, sitting down comfortably. "Ah'm curious about this here 'Survivalist'..."

"Fifty-cal...but not like, Big Mac sized..."

"Like wha' them Desert Falcon Magnums shoot?"

"Yes! Exactly those. But...not the 12.7x32.6mm, the bigger one that's based off that case...something with a Wolf in the name...ah! .50 Werewolf, 12.7x42mm!"

"Goddamn..." He whistled. "Dunno if Ah've ever seen one 'o them but Ah owned ah Desert Falcon fer awhile when I worked fer th' Ursa Company an' thought Ah was really somethin'. Them girls kick like hell so Ah can only guess how much of ah boom ah bigger round'll have."

"Yeah, it's a powerhouse for sure. It was a popular conversion because for one, it wreaked more ass in close quarters which was the Southern Front's bread and butter and for two, Griffinstone was importing Desert Falcon products directly onto our Front. Every member of the Griffinstone Division, who were on loan from their King in lieu of paying money towards the War instead, had one of those Magnums at their sides and had brought mountains of .50 Automag and .50 Werewolf. Desert Falcon was the country's primary military outfitter despite being outside the borders of the Kingdom and Griffins being Griffins...they just adored anything with .50-cal in the title or description. Big booms for big birds...gods they never change."

"Heh, glad Ah'm not th' only one who noticed tha' trend in Griff Mercs." He replied with an amused smirk. "Talons in particular got tha' problem all over. Nothin' under 12 gauge 'er .45-70 fer them hardasses, no sir!"

"Heh...no need to remind me, very aware of that particular habit. Like I said, it's old as time."

"Still...sounds like ah helluva rifle! They work good at all?"

"Terrifically actually. Could only fit a single stack of 15-rounds in modified service rifle mags but they chewed ass, especially once the Griffs started introducing specialty ammos for those calibers. After the first dozen or so, Blaze got the hang of the crafting side of things and could do it in his sleep after fifty. Converted so many that the EAF made a special requisition to Desert Falcon to add the rifle to their catalogue and produce an abundance of mags for all the ones Blaze had already converted. He moved fast too...could outfit a whole Platoon in a day and a Company in three as long as he had the steel. Of course he eventually had to get some metal-printers and robotic assistants to handle the workload but still...the guy was unstoppable and loved funky hybrids like this. Thanks for the happy memory heh."

"Well...mah pleasure!" He grinned, his teeth still surprisingly white and all coming to a point, especially the characteristic Changeling fangs towards the front of his upper jaw like a Batpony. "Bit 'o healthy nostalgia be good fer th' Soul after all. Ay, Garand! Yew gettin' close 'er wha'?"

In response, a klaxon instead went off above our heads making the two of us jump up to our startled hooves while red and yellow lights spun in circles and the elevator we were standing on began to sink. Panicked, I glanced back at the front doors and sighed in relief as I saw them close behind us providing us some protection from the SR. Even if it was at the cost of sealing us inside...well, whatever this place was.

"Ah thought we was gonna use th' otha elevator!" Firefly called out loudly over the noise of the rather smooth elevator descent. "Where we even goin' anyhow?"

"Well since you two were jabbering on about whatever, I decided to get this party started and send us down to Sublevel-1. This elevator only goes down one floor so we'll have to find the one that reaches all the way down to Sublevel-9."

"Nine?!" I exclaimed in surprise, not expecting such an extensive compound like this. "I was expecting like...three! Or like maybe five at an absolute most but...nine fucking floors?? What the hell is this place hiding?"

The large car slowed to a stop at a dimly lit concrete room similar to the one upstairs except several feet smaller and with another closed steel gate ahead of us. Though the room itself was smaller, the gate was still more than large enough to accommodate for a full-sized vehicle with room to spare on either side. Even when lit up, the lack of any sort of color or...really anything interesting on the cold concrete walls was simultaneously unsettling and an assault of pure boring on my eyes. Unlike the last floor however, this floor was littered with wooden crates of various light fixtures and a smattering of scaffolding for an installation that had obviously been cut short. There were still some lights that had been successfully installed, mainly over the security bulkhead, which illuminated the area. While small, it was a notable detail as it heavily implied this place was built just before the Great War and had probably been sealed shut automatically upon detecting the Balefire event. Would it just be a hollow shell still a work-in-progress like Cogsworth's Stable or had it been thankfully put into use even during construction?

"Ah...great. Another fucking computer..." Garand sighed, leaving his armor behind on the elevator as he needed to be out of it anyway in order to access the adapter on his PipBuck. "Thank fuck I have that fucker General Olive's access codes stored...otherwise we'd have a hell of a longer time playing IT with all this shit. I have a feeling it isn't our last locked door in this place..."

"General...Olive?" I asked hesitantly, remembering that name far more than I wanted to. "How...how in the fuck did you get his codes?"

"Easy." He replied with a chuckle, glancing up from the terminal screen to smirk at me. "I took them once General Prickly Pear died of old age in the Stable. He took charge of the Front after Olive was assassinated and thus inherited his old command codes. Took the codes off of every officer who died in there...I've got over twenty to choose from ranging from Captain all the way up to Four-Stars."

"In other words, you have an easy-in into any military property you want?"

"Damn fucking straight!" He laughed proudly, sticking his tongue out of the side of his beak as he maneuvered the joystick meant for hooves while glancing at his PipBuck every now and again. "Helped keep me topped off on .30 Carbine rounds while I was still nearby Manehatten. Didn't have much time to find a better gun after my damn launcher fell apart and the ammo was in decent supply up there so I just snagged it and rolled with it. Worked well enough against anyone not in genuine armor and I had my revolver and shotgun on standby so I couldn't complain. Problem was, could only find the ammo in old bunkers like this and most have already been long ago plundered for every damn thing they were worth over the years. Damn scavvers..."

"Might be hard to get into Ministry of War places though, I know that some things were strictly off limits to all but their own elite employees. Ministry anything really would be a tough nut to crack even on a good day."

"Yeah..." He replied, grinning as the door began to open accompanied by klaxons and lights of its own. "But it's more than enough for this place! Common', let's get to poking around!"

We barely had a moment to think before out of the breach mounds of dry skeletons that had all piled up against the door from the other side scattered across the floor with a hollow, crunching rattling noise. I had been expecting to see them but...not like this. This kind of macabre pileup was for something that had happened deeper inside the complex. The fact there were so many of them that I could see just from spilling out of the door...something had scared them more than the arcane hellfire going on outside the base.

"Goddamn, look at all of 'em! Looks like half the base is in here!" Garand whistled completely nonchalantly, moving towards the pile of bones in his Power Armor and starting to crush and bulldoze his way through them.

We followed behind slowly following in the grizzly wake of his stomping and kicking with a casual eye over all the death around us. Who here actually even cared about seeing another bone-dry corpse in a Pre-War structure? The path ahead of us was an extremely long one, both sides featuring deep recesses that seemed to have been intended for some sort of large-scale maintenance. Immediately to our right, the terminal for this side of the door was pulled apart with wires everywhere as if they had been attempting to hack into it and override the lockdown. With power restored, we were able to glance around at the centuries-old carnage and see the abundance of variety in the faded and tattering clothing worn by the fallen. Tan and desert camo print soldiers, grey jumpsuits for Engineers, bold navy blue for a surprising number of Airborne, an olive green or two which signified some high ranking GA officers, a few dozen orange and red M.O.W uniforms and, most surprisingly, more white lab coats in pristine condition than I had ever seen in one place before.

"Uhhh...Garand?" I called out over the din of his happy rampage. Naturally, he was making too much goddamn noise to hear me. I was about to try again before switching tactics early and trying the same thing over the radio on an emergency military channel. Even if his radio was turned off and muted, this was one frequency his PipBuck couldn't ignore.

"Yo, fatass! You seeing all these M.O.A.S coats everywhere?"

"Hey, if you wanna play ball pit with a bunch of skulls then by all means call me that again, mare."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever, look, do you see all the lab coats around here? I've never seen so many in one place...ever. Never saw a ton of those eggheads before the War to begin with."

"Yeah? Well their skulls crunch just the same as everyone else here. Funny ain't it? Look, I dunno what they're all doing here so don't bother askin'. We know as much as each other so don't ask dumb questions."

"Wasn't asking a dumb question..." I sighed, rolling my eyes. "All I'm saying is this place is getting more interesting the deeper we go."

"Agreed. Let's save the idea and hypothesis making till we have something better to go on. Then we might have a place to start building a working theory, alright? Alright."

I didn't even bother to respond and instead cut the feed, turning my attention to snagging each and every Ministry name badge I could find just in the off-chance we needed that kind of clearance to get into some places. The Ministry of War uniforms made sense given they would have had a lot of say in a bunker like this and it was likely a few of them were actually StableTec employees aiding the effort in some way. With so many of Twilight's lackeys on site however, this potentially made for an interesting cross-Ministry project. It was rare to see such projects given the rather fractured nature of the Ministries but ones between Arcane Science and Wartime Technology had provided the most advanced military projects on the books. With grand works on their official docket like Crystalline Fusion technology, Power Armor and electromagnetic ballistics, this one had to be off the books in a major way for there to be this much diversity in a single installation. With neither I or the pride of the EAF having any knowledge of this place, the only explanation was that it was some sort of Black Site. That or...I just wasn't paying attention to the old tactical reports on the greater War effort like I had thought I was. With how many years had gone by...it was a gamble as to which was the greater culprit to my gap in memory.

The body count only started to stagnate towards the very end of the half-mile long maintenance hallway with none of the over thirty bays having anything other than scaffolding, decrepit building supplies and more bodies. The lights overhead were rather bright and gave the bones an oddly pasty white color that stood out against the monotone grey concrete. Close to the other door on the other side, the bays started to become more and more finished with extensive infrastructure for tools and other equipment. There also started to be painted markings on the walls and floor indicating directions and bay numbers with the last being Bay #40 on our right. These last two actually had hoof tools and automated mechanist rigs dangling from the ceiling like an Auto-Doc. Expensive and very useful for repairing heavy vehicles...interesting.

"I know the drill..." Garand sighed, parking next to the terminal and getting busy with our next roadblock. "Gods fuck how short you ponies are...I miss the Greifenländer sometimes..."

"Yeah, well...shrink or something? What do you want me to do about it?"

"Sit and spin, princess..." He groaned, the door opening to yet another klaxon and spinning warning lights.

"You wish..." I snorted with a smirk, walking ahead of him just so I had the pleasure of seeing the other side first while he was still suiting-up. "Oh...my...GODS!!"

"Th' fuck ya...now wha' in tarnation is tha'?"

"Fuck you two, I wanted to...go...first..."

It was enormous and covered in thick tan canvas roughly...more than a hundred-feet long and had an even longer circular-shaped portion about midway down the main body. The shape was reminiscent of a bird with outstretched wings and covered with blankets, a shape I knew once-upon-a-time. I had my suspicions given the familiar (if larger than I remembered) form but they were enough to cause my heart to jump for joy and start doing cartwheels of giddy delight. I needed to see it! There was nothing else it could be!

"Whoa, hold up mare." Garand grunted as I ran forward and almost dropped my gun in my frantic desire to wrench the canvas off. "We don't even know what the fuck it is yet!"

"But I do!!!" I exclaimed back, unabashedly showing there was a total fucking geek inside this Mrk. IV armor as I yanked on the coverings with every ounce of energy and concentration I could afford.

The first sheet came free without much effort and immediately I was staring at my own reflection in a gold polarized window embedded in a thick armored chassis painted in the Rangers go-to desert camouflage. If they asked anything, I didn't hear it as I furiously attacked the sheets like they were some sort of pest and exposed more of the gorgeous beast. Soon enough I was standing back in amazement gazing upon the massive slick cockpit of a Vertibird, the be-all-end-all technology ever produced by the Hexagon. However, there was something special about this model...

"Wha' in th' hell is tha'?" Firefly gaped, looking at his reflection like I had with a look of wonder. "Some sorta attack buggy 'er somethin'? Fancy as hell, Ah'll give it tha'."

"Yeah, I got nothin' on this one." Garand commented, eying the large and mostly hidden craft with a grin of approval. "Ain't anything I've ever seen before...looks way too advanced. Which...means this might just be that 'Prototype' they mentioned in the message. Since you seem to be the resident expert, mind telling us just what the hell this thing is?"

"It's called a Vertibird!" I proclaimed proudly, kinda glad the glass was tinted enough that I couldn't see inside to save more of the treat. "These babies were just...goddamnit where do I even start with these fucking legends?"

"How about the name and what it means." Replied Garand dryly, back out of armor and eying me with boredom.

"Heh...well, guess it doesn't mean a whole lot on its own...but these were officially called Utility Flying Machines and were made for hauling troops and cargo long distances incredibly quickly. No need for wing power like anything before, just absurd engineering using big old fan things they called...rudders? Fuck, no. Rotors!"

"Troops 'n cargo?" Firefly asked. "Wit' ah machine? Tha's a new one..."

"Yeah, still not ringing a bell." Garand replied. "When did these start being deployed?"

"Uh...only like...six or seven months before the Great War? Why, you never got to work with one of these at all?"

"Hell no!" He retorted with what could have been a bitter chuckle. "Got pulled back South in early March of that year since the King was concerned about the pyrrhic stalemate going on down there and wanted to help shore it up since you ponies weren't. Your capital is not even four-hundred miles North of the Badlands, if the defense failed there, there wouldn't be much keeping the Empire from knocking Equestria outta the War. And, not for nothing, you guys did a damn good job at skirting away a good chunk of the enemy force from attacking the Greifenländer directly. Didn't see anything like this at all the whole damn time I was stuck down there and believe me, I would remember something like this. Where the hell have you seen one then? If you were infected in Maripony that would put you rather close to the Southern Front so how did you interact with one enough to know as much as you do about 'em?"

"Look, what lead to me ending up in Maripony is complicated and too long a story to try and sum up in a few sentences so I can get back to geeking the fuck out." I said with a sigh. "They were first deployed in the Zulu Campaign around like March or so and I just so happened to end up on Olive's shitlist around May. Since you had the liberty of going wherever your King sent you and not some nutbag, I was redeployed there last second as a way to break up my Squad and separate us. Me, our shotgunner and our Griffin heavy were all sent over to the Empire and the rest, including my fiancé, remained in the South being a Designated Marksmare and machine-gunner."

"So...you worked with these things I take it?" He guessed correctly.

"Yup. Much as Olive seemed to loathe me you just can't ignore credentials, especially when you were now under the command of another, more competent General. Soon as we landed in Stormgŭll just outside the Empire, General Steel Hide assigned Penny, Buck and I along with our Engineer whizz Dark Blaze to the still brand-new Mechanized Airborne Division. These things would have room for ten soldiers in full kit plus two pilots and could get you in and out of a warzone faster than any Pegasus can fly. Well...except the Minister of Awesome of course. They also came with as much armor as a Greifenländer war machine but with the added ability to fly like a dancer. I'm telling you, these things were fucking amazing to work with...even learned to fly one around late August or so. Well...sorta."

"Tha' so?" Firefly mumbled, obviously impressed which gave me an odd sensation of pride. "How'd ya do tha'? From wha' Ah've heard about ya, yew were ah heavy sniper wit' yer bigass rifle 'n no wings."

"You've every right to be a bit skeptical seeing as your species has wings but I'll have to assume you've never interacted with a Greifenländer vehicle before." I said sheepishly, hoping they would give me the benefit of the doubt. "These machines are designed to be as universal as possible no matter the operator and make all ponies, and birds, equal. It's a design philosophy replicated in these things and then some. I fell in love with these things from the first second I saw them on the tarmac..."

"I'll be the first to admit I have a fear of heights but there's a weird sense of safety being in one of these things and I went out of my to volunteer for any sortie with them that I could. Admittedly...it was a coping mechanism but it was a good one that worked. I liked to hang out with Blaze and learn about them bit by bit while he was working on them back at base and had his help as a Flight Engineer on many operations. What really did it was an...unfortunate error that led to me having to make an emergency exfil when our primary pilots were killed during a mission. After that, they designated me as a backup pilot and tossed in some formal training in case I ever needed to pull a stunt like that again in a pinch. They primarily had me working with my rifle still, given that was still my specialty, but towards the end of my time there I had at least fifty-hours spent in the pilot's chair. Yeah, I know. A paltry amount and nothing to brag about but it still makes me the expert here out of the three of us."

"Uh-huh..." He nodded. "Well...neat shit but...why didn't we ever see this one? This place is not far from the Badlands and we sure as hell could have used something like this. If you were using them in...what, May? That leaves five entire months until the bombs dropped and we didn't even hear a peep about this thing."

"Now it's my turn to say don't ask dumb questions." I retorted with a smirk. "I don't have any more of an idea than you do as I was too concerned about keeping me and my Squad alive in the most inhospitable battlefront of the War, thank you very much. Let's explore some more before we start making up explanations, alright?"

With nothing more to say, well...nothing more I wanted to say given my excitement, I turned my back on him and resumed excavating the gorgeous beauty from her mummification. After a few moments I saw a sickly green magic join my own as Firefly seemed to be taking part in the unwrapping portion followed up soon after by the grumbling Gryphon. The process took upwards of ten minutes, even with all of us working our damndest, but at last we could see the thing in all her majesty. Every sheet that came off was another shiver of pure glee down my spine and wiggled through my tail. It was very similar in many respects to the Vertibirds I had worked with, having multiple features I recognized but on a significantly larger scale. One that came with a lot of firepower in a wonderful assortment of flavors across the forward half of the vessel.

The main cabin body of the thirteen-foot wide chassis was roughly the length of two city buses from the rear hatch to where the ten-foot cockpit section began. The whole craft was a large, sleek and aerodynamic cylinder with slanted curves, a tapering lower half and a noticeable triangular bulge towards the cockpit of the fuselage on either side. Above us, the massive thirty-foot circular rotor assemblies were attached to large concave metal wings which extended outwards perpendicular to the midsection of the ship. These giants adjusted their angle and pitch on independent bearings allowing the massive ship to maneuver rather nimbly in the skies as well as hover above the ground with more stability than anything wing powered. Just below and ahead of the rotor wings were a set of snub-wings, something I had only seen on the heavy attack variants as transport variants only carried two small Anti-Air missile pods near the cockpit. Attached were a set of two different munitions, both housed within their own respective pod. Closest to the main chassis were the largest pods, which had a set of nineteen missiles poking their heads out from their launch tubes. Along the rest of snug-wing were a set of long, narrow tubes that were capped off on the ends by some sort of covering hiding whatever lay inside. Inferring what I could, I had to assume they were some kinda big missile at least. Comparable to Dart-88 missiles in width although notably longer, somewhere in the four or five foot range. The heavier attack variants, the Vultures, had something similar attached to their pylons which boded well for its destructive potential.

There were two doors to get into the main cabin on either side of the craft. A small, windowed hatch near the back towards the twenty-foot tail with its V-shaped rudders and a wide, sliding door a bit before the midship mark. The armored main door came with a large tinted window in the center while three large rectangular windows separated the forty-ish feet between both doors. In the remaining forty-five feet between the cabin door and the cockpit, there were only two more areas to look out from and both had very different windows. The triangular portions I had noticed earlier that were a little beyond the midship mark were composed of multiple slanted and angled windows with a rounded, armored bottom. Altogether forming something like miniature cockpits on either side of the fuselage. Below them was our second taste of the firepower of this beast, a pair of tri-barreled miniguns with a bore suggesting .50 Big Mac and what seemed to be multiple camera arrays surrounding the ball-turrets the guns rested in.

Within the next few feet, the long, flat second window extended almost ten-feet across until it met the fuselage again; below another set of small pods containing the set of four Anti-Air missiles that I was familiar with. There followed a few blank feet of armored chassis with a forward pair of landing gear directly below; afterward came the twelve triangular cabin windows of varying shape and size that began encompassing an area about seven-feet before ending with a roughly three-foot nose assembly. A nose with a large and highly advanced optics package in a ball-turret of its own and a fucking monster of a chin cannon mounted below, namely an Griffin M198-B. A tri-barreled gatling-cannon chambered in 30x113mm Corvinus which were known for punching holes in even the stronger barrier spells of the Empire.

"Holyyyy Celestia tha' there's ah biiig ass gun!" Firefly whistled in amazement now that we had the time to look at it in detail. "Ah ain't neva seen one this damned huge!"

"Goddamn..." Garand grunted, kneeling next to the massive six-foot long barrels. "I haven't seen one of you in a hot fuckin' minute..."

"Yeah, being a bird I'd expect ya to have seen one of these before." I laughed, much to his muted annoyance. "Only saw these on those medium tank things and the big Sky Freighters that used to long-haul goods and materiel between the Continents for us."

"Same here..." He replied, holding up a clenched fist for comparison to the cluster of three, inch wide barrels. "Bit too big, heavy and expensive for something like Anti-Air work so they made plans to adopt the M197-A, the 20mm Vulpes version. Never saw the new Falke IV ultra-mediums or the Adler I heavies since they never reached the South in time for me to enjoy them but I had heard about them in a dispatch from High Command. Saw plenty of burnt-out IVs around Manehatten and the Eastern Front though...but any that could be salvaged had already been taken by the High Elder and the Salt Lick City SR Chapter since...you know, security and enforcement. Gotta protect the heartland and head leader and all that jazz."

We all just kind of fell into a silent awe over the massive machine and it took a few minutes to rouse myself to my senses and make my way excitedly to the sliding door emblazoned with the crest of the Equestrian Armed Forces. A gold and silver kite shield with the Yin-Yang Sun and Moon of Equestria in it's center, intersecting a cross of black dividing up the shield into four portions. Flanking it in each of the four sections were the crests of the four (official) branches of the Armed Forces. Occupying the two larger portions were a clockwork hoofprint and sword for the Steel Rangers and a literal Pegusi winged spear for the Airborne Corps, a lasting testament to their dominating influence over the whole thing. Meanwhile, in the tiny and cramped upper allotments, the Dragon of the Desert Rangers and a horseshoe with a chevron frog representing the General Army stood proudly. As I reached out for the large latch on the right-facing door, my PipBuck beeped in an unusual way and the door slid open on its own accord as if triggered by my device for our convenience. Likewise a part of the floor and fuselage dropped down and outwards forming a handy step ladder up into the ship. It reminded me of something with a similar stepladder mechanic though I couldn't pair an exact memory up with it.

"Damn, that's nifty!" I squeaked with glee, stepping up and into the spacious cabin before gawking at the interior.

The inside of the main cabin to our left was easily forty-feet long and about fifteen wide before tapering towards the tail. To our immediate right was a break in the wall of seats with an odd downward twisting trough facing outwards; a narrow corridor leading towards the nose of the craft while the rest of the main cabin was rather sparse. Every wall that had space, except for a sizable break on the back wall, was taken up by more of the same padded seating I had seen in Greifenländer vehicles before making for a total of twenty passengers. There was a generous amount of space for cargo in the center area and even for my tall-for-a-pony height, I found more than enough room for me to walk around completely upright. I was a queen in her castle...this was my new home away from home.

"Jeeeeeez look at all that space!" Garand whistled, eying the height of the ceiling and looking uneasy. "Looks a little short in there so I think Imma stay out here where I can stand up straight. Besides...couldn't fit up that corridor if I wanted to, just a bit too skinny to fit through. This thing was built with ponies and Griffins in mind, not Gryphons. Huh...don't remember anyone saying anything about them working on something like this."

"You sure? Lotta neat shit on these, especially something that's like 50% bigger than the ones I'm familiar with. This model is completely new so there's a fuckload to dive into on this thing!"

"Yeah, I'm pretty damn sure I don't wanna get a neck cramp from seeing the most boring part of this thing's insides. Besides, somebody's gotta start searching the rest of the base. Still plenty of places to check out and shit to break into before we set up the ambush and ain't no time like the present!"

"Eh, your loss!" I laughed with a grin, walking the full length of the cabin with ease and plenty of leg-room. "You coming, Firefly?"

"Eh heh..." He laughed nervously. "Ah...don' think so, Crete. 'Fraid Ah'll break somethin' 'er bump into some buttons 'er another. 'Sides....ain't ah fan of enclosed places if ya get wha' Ah mean."

"So I'm to investigate this thing by my lonesome?" I pouted though it was hard to feel mad about having it to myself. "Damn...ah well! You boys enjoy your door-to-door bullshit and lemme know if you find anything interesting. I'll do the same with this big beauty and see what sorta secrets she holds. This one is extra special and is just begging to be poked and prodded for answers!"

"You're a fuckin' nerd, ya know that?" Garand sighed before motioning his head towards the far side of the room where a passenger lift was waiting. "Check in every fifteen-minutes, see ya mare."

***✪***

It had been hard to reign in the impulse to jump from place to place with no rhyme or reason and I set myself to examining everything section by section so I got the full idea in order. Going counter-clockwise, the main cabin was unlit and rather simple being nothing but the wall-to-wall seating with a set of racks overhead. Some of them were filled with bags which turned out to be field packs fully stocked with a few days-worth of food and supplies for one soldier. Scattered around on the dull grey walls, just above the spare fire extinguishers, were creamy yellow M.O.P first-aid boxes. Inside each was a surprisingly diverse assortment of pills, potions, bandages and I.V bags of things like 'Universal Donor' blood, RadAway and saline with their accompanying tubes and needles. Included as well were the Griffin Stim devices which injected concentrated amounts of ES healing potions directly into the body at the site of damage and almost instantly healed all but the most severe of injuries. Why did ponies drink the liquid form of these potions and wait up to three-times as long? It was simple. The rapid healing is incredibly painful and potentially toxic, something Griffins were willing to test their limits with and Gryphons seemed to shrug off like nothing.

The seats were comfortable, even while in armor and with a rifle on my back, and they could fold upwards to make more space in the cabin if necessary. Already I was getting nostalgic pangs for my days spent with the Mauler and the other Bünkerwagens while part of an Armored Division. In the break between seats on the back wall, there was a slim, archway-shaped bulge with a recessed wide-handled latch. Wrapping my fetlock around it and tugging, I felt a click through the handle and the archway thing began to slide out smoothly on ball bearings into the empty cabin space behind me. When I had tugged it open about four-paces, I felt resistance and rounded the side to see the sliding shelf was actually a built-in gunrack. With varying shapes and sizes of clear polymer racks lining both sides of the rounded shelf, there were sections for pistols, rifles, launchers, and even some low shelving for ammunition cans and slots for loaded magazines. Unfortunately, the whole thing was devoid of guns or bullets but it was still a terrific use of the tail assembly and there was a space between the rack and the tail where technicians could cram tools back there for maintenance. I could also spot lines of small dead LEDs embedded in the polymer that would have presumably glowed in low-light conditions to highlight the items on them. A bit superfluous but with an over-the-top monster like this, I was excited to see little useful features like this built into the design. It was exceedingly Gryphon to have numerous alternative uses for the things they produced and my experience thus far with their military equipment had set the bar high.

"Check in, what's it lookin' like in there, mare?"

I startled suddenly at the message over my radio, almost completely forgetting I had arrived with company before getting lost in inspecting my prize.

"Clear of hostiles far as I can tell." I responded with a smirk. "Why?"

"Ha ha...like there would even be hostiles inside something mothballed like that. Anything useful, smartass?"

"Well...only just got done checking out the main cabin which took some time to comb through. Anyways...I've found some Type-3 field packs fully loaded with gear, some hella good first-aid supplies and a really awesome built-in gun rack thing that recesses into the tail assembly. Sadly there's nothing on it but it's got a good five-feet of rifle space and room for ammo cannisters. Also, I call dibs."

"Dibs? Dibs on what? The Vertibird?"

"Yep! I know the most about it, I found it first and I am the most qualified to get this thing running in this group. You said yourself you never got much experience with Greifenländer vehicles and specialized in Power Armor engineering."

"Well...yeah, but...you can't just claim 'dibs' on something Firefly and I technically knew about first, mare. This ain't a Gryphon machine, you said it yourself."

"No, its not. It's 100% Hexagon with Griffin input probably. Besides, you can't even fit in the fucking cockpit fatass." I retorted. "How the fuck are you gonna fly this thing? Gonna push it around on its wheels with your Power Armor?"

"Alright, fuckin' take it then! But I've got dibs on everything else then."

"Hey! This place is more than big enough for the three of us to have an equal share here." I growled, feeling myself leaning more towards leniency now that we had a trump-card against the SR. "I'll take a lesser portion of whatever else you find. How about this, if it has anything to do with my Corps, it's mine. With yours getting the lions-share of the military budget, that should be a decent compromise I think. You can have the base too. Actually...hmmm...let's debate that one later. Since this thing can land in here, I have a use for this place as well so that muddies the water."

There was silence on the line before he sighed in resignation and mumbled, "Yeah. Sure...that sounds fine."

"Awesome! Now, unless you've found anything super interesting yourself, I'd love to get back to what I was doing."

"Eh, nothing much..." He sighed again, this time with a tone of boredom. "Just the main command center, canteen, a bunch of barracks, and locker room. Some neat shit but with everything on emergency power...just not a whole lot to look at so far. We're finishing up our sweep of this level, headed down to Sublevel-2 in a minute or two. Garand, out."

The line went dead after that and I was left alone again. With another long glance over the empty cabin, I shivered in glee and made my way towards the corridor leading towards the front of the Vertibird. Flanking the corridor bulkhead, which seemed to have an independent door that was already ajar, there were a pair of dead terminals set above the backrests of the seats. The hallway ahead was a bit dim with only the light coming from the cabin behind me while the cockpit awaited me on the far end and to either side laid those odd miniature cockpits I had observed on the outside. Using my headlamp, I walked through the bulkhead and to the rather roomy crossroads between hallways; the overall shape of the area being octagonal with doorways nestled in the crook of each arm of the four perpendicular passageways. Two of these independent cabins, those immediately after the bulkhead, were rather small while the other two ahead of me were lengthy, lining the rest of the twenty-something foot of hallway till the bulkhead separating it and the cockpit began.

"Hmmm..." I hummed happily to myself, looking at the bevvy of directions to choose from. "Which one, which one?"

With nothing better to go off of, I decided to tackle this section clockwise starting with the angled doorway into the small cabin to my left. There was another unusual beep from my PipBuck and like the sliding door from earlier the thick bulkhead door opened, split down the middle with large locking lugs and a rubber gasket seal around the internal rim of each half. Although the ship was completely shut down it seemed that they had thought ahead and had some remote sensors that would open doors for PipBuck users. More than likely it was simply to allow access to areas that would otherwise be inaccessible without power to those with some level of security clearance. Neat given I couldn't see any obvious doorlatches and there was still no main power.

Inside the small trapezoidal cabin I found...a...surprisingly large kitchenette? It took a few moments of staring for it to click what I was looking at as I was not even remotely expecting something like this on a Vertibird. But, no matter how unusual and mind boggling it was, I couldn't deny what I saw. A low countertop with a small sink at the end lined the wall to my right accompanied by a row of sliding metal gate wall cabinets above. At the far end of the cabin was a minifridge which I could softly hear rumbling with life indicating not all systems were in complete shutdown. Aside from a slightly cramped area to work at the countertop, all free space was dedicated to more storage cabinets with enough space to turn around in without bumping into anything. I didn't spend a lot of time poking through them but was pleasantly surprised to see dry and canned goods piled up inside the magically extended capacity of each container. The fridge itself was sadly empty but likewise shared in the bigger-on-the-inside enchantment placed on the room itself and had space for three-times as many fresh goods. After I downed a few easy-open cans of mixed vegetables to offset hunger pains from all the exercise and background fatigue, I had seen all I needed to and turned myself around, exiting into the crossroad hub area.

The walk to the portside gunner station was only a few paces behind another bulkhead, the small, blunt arrowhead-shaped turret allowing only enough room for one occupant through a narrow neck. Inside was a cushioned swivel chair surrounded by windows and a wide control panel of buttons and screens forming a crescent around the chair. Coming off the spine of the said chair was a long cable, the adapter for which was compatible with StableTec-micro and macro ports plugging right into any PipBuck model above 2000. Although this was a new use for my device, I was excited to get to the bottom of what it might be. By all appearances it was some sort of direct connection between the user and the turret underneath the chassis outside. Taking a moment to enjoy another comfy seat, I sat back in the swiveled chair and glanced around at the computer screens and lifeless buttons in an almost unbroken circle around me. There was a set of joysticks, the rounded kind similar to those found on mounted guns, embedded in the arm rests which came with wide easy to use triggers even fetlocks could grip on. It was fun to think about how it all worked but, with no main power going, there wasn't much to explore and soon enough I was back in the hub to check out the large portside cabin.

"What's behind mystery door number...Luna fuck me silly...!" I gasped as the door opened and the light from the large window to my left blended with my headlamp showing a small armory as clear as day. "Well hellooooo gorgeous! What do we have here??"

The room, shaped mostly like a rectangle and capped at the lower end by a trapezoid, was roughly eight-feet wide and fifteen deep making it roughly the size of a very narrow one-bedroom apartment. As to be expected, the entire space was optimized with storage cabinets and counters and a low-table built next to the window with a couple of bolted-down chairs. It was subtler than the last room but it was still obvious that this room too was far larger than it should have been. The cabinets here however were wire-mesh steel, and contained shit far more exiting than canned beans and pickled radishes. In fact, the whole room reeked with the smell of fresh-

"Second check in, anything new?"

I was better prepared for this one and quickly responded, "Well...checked out one of the gunnery stations above those side-mounted .50s and they seem to be pretty advanced. Can't say for sure until I get main power up, but I wanna explore everything while everything's off so I don't trip any buttons or switches I haven't accounted for."

"Anything else?" He mumbled, seemingly talking through a mouthful of something.

"Well, believe me or not but there's four smaller cabins in the center and upper fuselage. First one I checked was a tiny ass college apartment sized kitchenette with fuckin' food for days and a working fridge. Even more interesting than that, I just found an onboard armory that looks packed with weapons. Well, as packed as this small space can get. Plenty of space for tools too, has the makings for a terrific little crafting area if you ask me. Probably what it was meant for but I've yet to check any of the cabinets or drawers in here."

"Fair enough I guess…” He replied with a sigh after bothering to swallow whatever was in his mouth. “We just found a buncha living pod things for personnel in a bigass room. Pretty nifty little things with beds and shit, if a bit cramped for space but…everything is with you ponies. Cool to look at but nothing we can make use of right now. Anything interesting in that armory of yours you mentioned?"

"Uh...lemme check..." I mumbled in response, glancing around and starting to peek through the steel mesh to try and identify the weapons behind locked doors. "I'm seeing...some M16s, no shock there. M14s...G3s...oooh, a couple Barnette .50s and M-RADs! A lot of these smaller ones are hard to see clearly... They're all in cages and I don't wanna break them trying to get the locks open. This is a pretty slick little room lemme tell ya, would be a waste to just break shit...I can find someone to get these open properly. He's back up North but if I can get this thing flying, that won't be an issue."

"Take your word for it, mare. Anything else interesting?"

At the far end of the armory, in a space rather clear of surrounding objects, was another bulkhead door. Taking a moment to investigate, I waved my PipBuck in front of it and was surprised to see another extension spell. This time it was obvious as all hell there was too much extra room in such a tiny space.

"Huh...this looks like a Power Armor maintenance station!" I exclaimed softly as I recognized the tall frame of yellow bars, hoists, hooks and chains used to service PoA in Camp Grease hidden inside the 5x10' closet space. "Damn thing is stuffed in a tiny closet thing with an area extension spell and a full workshop of tools. Looks big enough to service even Griffin Power Armors...one at a time of course but still, this is a lot to cram into this bitch..."

"Heh, that's what he said. You'll have to try and show me some of these tools when we meet back up." He replied with an amused snort. "Might have shit in there I've been missing for months. Alright, cool beans...have fun, nerd."

Seeing as I was missing the keys to the cabinets and didn't know much about Power Armor maintenance, I made my way into the opposing large cabin and added another heavy load of surprise to my system. Like the kitchenette, they had managed to squeeze a narrow one-bedroom into 120 square feet of space. It came complete with four bunks, end-to-end with two hanging from higher on the wall which could fold up to make space, and a long, rectangular bench under the large window to the right. Stuffed into the corners as before were more storage cabinets, empty and devoid of anything at all, but seemed to be designed for clothing and M-CAP gear. Next to the door lay the only other thing interesting about the bunkroom, a small empty weapon rack presumably for anyone who might be awoken...unceremoniously.

Curious, I took my collapsed AMR from off my back and set it on the rack, fiddling with the adjustable divots until the wide barrel nestled snugly in place between the rubber nodes. Next...I just couldn't help but try out one of the bunks which proved to be quite comfortable and soft with more than enough room to sprawl out a little in. It was quiet and muted in the small room and yet, as much as I hated silence when at rest, I felt almost as comfortable and safe as I had been with Melody a few days prior. It was so foreign and yet so familiar...I was intoxicated with this vastly superior model and all it had to offer! Space for days, the most advanced systems I had ever seen, thick armor and could fly...I had found a mobile home that catered well to my needs and I couldn't be happier!

******

"Hey! Dumbass! You ignoring me or something now?"

"Huh...?" I mumbled, completely unaware my sleep deprivation had caught up to me when I wasn't expecting it.

"The fuck you been? Been trying to get your fuckin' attention for like ten minutes, mare. You fall asleep or something?"

"...uhhh..."

"Oh for the love of...what, find a bunkroom of some sort I take it? If the thing has a kitchenette but no place to sleep on a fucker that big then I'd find a way to beat some past-tense Engineer asses."

"Mph...yeah, its got a bunkroom. Four of em plus clothing storage, a bench by the window and a small writing table in the corner. Nothing fancy but it's still kinda incredible."

"Bet ya a hundred caps the last one's gonna be a bathroom of some sort, I'm on a bit of a roll with that bet today so far. Either that or like...extra storage. If they could stuff all this shit into tight places everywhere else, then I'm expecting anything at this point."

"Well...lemme find out for sure but I'll take that bet." I replied with a grunt as I rolled off the side of the bunk and got to my hooves. "Wouldn't surprise me either at this point."

Leaving my AMR where it was, I stumbled a bit back into the hub area and shook myself awake before making for the last door left to explore which opened automatically like the all the others.

"Yep, it's a bathroom!" I whistled, looking around at the Griffin-sized shower taking up the back wall with a similarly sized toilet and a tiny sink and mirror close to the door. "A little cramped but it's got a shitter and a pretty decent looking shower. Wonder how this thing does plumbing..."

"Wonder why on your own time. Anything else interesting?"

"Nadda." I replied, stepping back into the hub and pausing. "Just got the cockpit left and figuring out how to turn this sucker on. You?"

"Firefly and I found a nice big maintenance floor packed with a shitload of Kampfwagen! Most seem to have been getting engines installed but they're in awesome condition. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to put them together and get them goin'. Also, downloaded a schematic of this place to a holotape. Only had a chance to look at a bit of it but there's some bigass rooms on the lower floors that might be hiding some PoA and M-CAPs. Let ya know more when I get there."

"Gotcha. Any clue as to when we should start heading out?"

"Uhh...not entirely sure to be honest. Caught sight of the party clear as day just a dozen or so miles from the Gap about a half-hour before you decided to shoot at me. I'd guess we have until late this afternoon or early evening? Why? Think you might be able to get that behemoth up and flying?"

"Not sure yet..." I admitted, looking towards the last place left to inspect. "Gotta hit the cockpit still but long as the controls are similar to the ones I'm used to, I should be able to get it up and running. As for flying...well, I'll have to see."

"Well...do what you can then." He replied simply. "That 30mm would wipe the floor of most of them and make our lives a lot easier, especially if they're Dual Purpose rounds with a penetrator. Garand, out."

The long hallway ahead was lined on the floor and ceiling with recessed lights in the corners while the walls seemed to have large dark screens built into them, their purpose up for debate. Automatically the cockpit bulkhead door hissed open almost silently and at last I was able to see where the real magic was. About the size of middling living room, the spacy area had four independent stations. The pilot and copilot seats faced towards the front windshields as expected, surrounded by eight triangular and rectangular windows on either side providing a 180-degree field of view. The other two seats faced the back corners of the cockpit, most of the L-shaped areas packed with multiple terminals, keyboards and control panels. Both pilot chairs had their own independent control stations with wide-handled control wheels separated in the middle by a long, narrow panel of buttons, switches and small computer readouts. Coming down from the ceiling above were even more controls and readouts, including the large lever which triggered multiple smaller switches at once to initiate the engines and start main power. It was bigger than usual but unmistakable in purpose and function. Yet again, something else to admire in the way Gryphons approached their machines meant for others than themselves.

"Huh...same as everything else..." I commented to myself, sitting down in the pilots chair to the left and getting comfortable. "Similar design, just...bigger and better! Can't say I'm unhappy about that."

The chair automatically raised several inches bringing the main ignition lever within easy reach which pulled smoothly as I dragged it downwards. Within a second there was already the loud hum of life rattling softly through the craft and a faint whine as the engines came to life powered by a large chunk of Nexus Crystal located...somewhere. All lights, screens and buttons that were once dark now sprang to life in a dizzying display of colors and the recessed lighting adjusted its brightness to an appropriate level. There was just so much to look at! I was still gonna need a crash course (or three) just to stand a hope at recapturing any of the technical skill I had once had for that short summer over two-hundred years ago. Of course, the only way to find out was to go ahead and get star-

"Welcome aboard, Lieutenant Colonel! Boy am I glad to finally have someone to talk to again! I am the Artificial Unimatrix Navigational Transport & Intelligence Entity or, AUNTIE for short!"

**********