Fallout: Equestria - Operation Killjoy
Chapter 18: Escalation
Previous ChapterNext Chapter“What we can learn from the war is that eventually ponies and zebras worked together to end it.”
Shibboleth sent the message to the Steel Rangers. Their concerns were about the time and not that they lured Midnight’s brother into a trap. Feather wanted to embark immediately, but Shibboleth disagreed until they were arguing again. Fade didn’t know what they were fighting about and Midnight didn’t care. He was only staring at the memory orb. The dragon’s angry growl eventually made Shibboleth and Feather stop fighting.
At the end, they decided to rest for one more day. The flight to Vanhoover, followed by Quebit and the return to the Smokey Mountains would take less than a day. They needed Fade to be able to fly. Shibboleth, most of all, insisted for her to rest.
When Midnight managed to pull his mind free of the memory orb, he worked on the dragon’s terminal. Key only dared to maintain it when Midnight wasn’t nearby. Feather found solace in harvesting clouds for the Vertibuck’s water reservoir. Shibboleth was listening to the radio, obsessing about what would happen at the foothills of the Smokey Mountains when Everlast’s ponies meet head on with the Steel Rangers.
But Fade wasn’t able to focus on any of it. In her fever stricken dreams she remembered the game of chess she played so long ago with Midnight. In her mind she played it again and again. How Midnight moved the king only for her to promote a pawn to a queen. Each time she played the game, she was facing a different opponent. Midnight, Everlast, Colloquy and Blue Sky. Sometimes she was winning, sometimes they were. Every time her king was defeated or she had to promote the pawn, the figure was always one of her friends. Always.
On the morning of the second day, Shibboleth confirmed that both Everlast and the Rangers would arrive this evening. They got up early, hours before the sun crept above the clouds. They didn’t eat much. Soon they had packed their things and Key wrapped up warm bread in a piece of cloth, baked from the flour Shibboleth was able to save from Everlast’s onslaught on the museum. It would be their only solace during the day. It also meant they had to leave.
Fade’s chest rattled with every breath. The day of rest helped, but only the last remainder of Tomcat’s medicine allowed her to ignore the pain. Fade kept his drugs close to her heart and hoped she wouldn't need them. Six doses. One was enough to make her survive. One was enough to strain her body too much and kill her.
Key grabbed Fade tightly into a hug. Sudden Lost in thought she didn’t notice her sister approaching.
“Promise me to come back.”
“I’ll try.”
“No. You must promise.”
Fade sat down and brushed the unkempt mane out of Key’s face. She struggled to recognize her. In a few months, Key would be seventeen, but in the few weeks they traveled together, she looked like she had aged by years.
“Only if you promise me to always use S.A.T.S.”
Key nodded and Fade embraced her sister for a final hug. Fade didn’t promise and proceeded to the Vertibuck. She tied herself to the harness, not looking out the windshield to see Key holding back tears. Midnight and Feather entered the vehicle as well. Midnight took his place close to the cockpit. Feather sat down at the hatch; The furthest place away from them.
Fade looked back one more time before Shibboleth and Key had to step away from the Vertibuck. In utter silence Fade activated the engine and let the Vertibuck produce the thick clouds to lift the metallic vehicle. She spread her wings in anticipation for the levitation magic to reduce the ship’s weight. When the magic reached its peak and she felt the updrift of the clouds against the harness, she flapped her wings to take off.
Their journey to the burning city began.
What would have usually taken a week by hoof was a frighteningly short flight of not much more than an hour. Down on the ground the wasteland was a cold and desolate place. But from above Fade saw the sickly traces of how and where the balefire had spread over the land. Every crater was a wound, festering with balefire radiation and surrounded by a growth of black ash, crippled trees and skeletal homes.
Her route took them west to the ocean. The dark gray sea water crashed without mercy against the rocky banks and cliffs of Vanhoover’s coastline. Irradiated seafoam was piling up on beaches and left behind mutated algae and sludge on the rocks. Ships were washed ashore, rusting and bleeding fuel and toxic waste. Old coastal villages and towns were reclaimed by the oily sea.
Fade banked north and in the far distance, miles upon miles away, she already saw Vanhoover. Neither buildings nor fire could be seen, but the black plume of smoke was rising up into the air to scratch at the Enclave’s cloud cover. Around the monstrous column was a veil of rain, slowly shifting in the cold winds of the ocean.
With every mile they got closer, Fade asked herself why the zebras hated Vanhoover that much. What did they create in that city, that total destruction was the only answer? And now Fade saw nothing but destruction waiting for them.
“The air is irradiated,” Midnight said.
“Badly?”
“Not yet.” He looked out through the cockpit. The balefire smoke was filling the entire view. The black, wavering clouds above and the green hue of the inferno, spreading out into the ocean below. “It will be very bad down there. I am sure of it.”
“How bad is very bad?” She asked and felt the updrift of the heat tugging at the cloudship.
“The irradiated snowstorm in Stalliongrad was harmless compared to this.”
Fade shook her head. “Then we can’t do this.”
“No. I got medicine.” Feather stood up. She held a blister pack with green pills in her hoof. “We take two now. Two more when we arrive. And then we take whatever we find in the office.”
“Where did you get these?” Fade asked.
“Tomcat.”
“Is that all?”
Feather nodded and Fade couldn’t hide her frustration. “Give the pills and tell me where in this mess is your stupid office.”
“It’s in the harbor district. Look for the Ministry of Arcane Science spire. From there, go east until we find a small building.”
Fade took two pills, biting on them and swallowing them dry. “Hold on tight. I’ll go in.”
The Vertibuck banked to follow Fade’s instinctual flight, it shook and rattled when it hit the first instance of turbulence where hot air collided with the cold ocean winds. Down and down she flew, gliding on the vague thermal updrift and approaching the restless sea.
Another turn and they were heading towards the city. The devastated harbor with its skeletal cranes formed a wall to separate the city and the sea. Ruined buildings were peeking out of the water where the balefire bombs destroyed the foundation and the ocean took the rest. The inferno wasn’t able to take hold here but behind, the city was still convulsing from the fire.
As Fade approached, a dark ooze was raining on the windshield. The water below was thick from the ash that was washed out into the sea. When she passed by rows of destroyed container cranes and halfway sunken ships the ocean was nothing more than black mud. Rivulets of green-glowing water made it boil. Shapes of ponies drifting like maggots in the sea. The fire and radiation killed off anything that could decompose the bodies. Some of the slowly deteriorating carcasses were still moving on their own.
The heat pushed the Vertibuck up and made it shake when Fade had to fight against the updrift. She slowed down when the wall of smoke came closer and closer. The heat of the inferno was radiating out and they felt its stranglehold through the Vertibuck’s hull.
Already sweating, Fade forced the Vertibuck into the smoke. It was impossible to see. Fade slowed down even more, hoping that she had flown higher than the ruins. She tried to feel the wind as it weaved around barely visible buildings. Fade held her breath and tried to listen, but all she heard was the shaking of the Vertibuck as if it was afraid of the city too.
Finally, and to their horror, they broke through the wall. They couldn’t see much further than a few blocks. Wafts of smoke, black and green, were pushed around by the heated winds. Plazas were covered in green fire, greedily reaching for oxygen. Fiery swirls were playing on the streets, indifferent to the charred remains of ponies, sunken deep into the molten asphalt. Sometimes undead eyes were looking up, staring at the intruding Vertibuck. Life was not welcome here; The radiation being the vaccine to ensure that this place would stay forever dead.
“Can you see the Ministry, Feather?” Midnight asked. His voice was raspy but Fade noticed that it sounded somehow stronger. When she glanced at him, she found his posture more vigorous, his eyes more determined… more violent.
“No. But I see one of the city highways. Follow it.”
Fade gently turned the Vertibuck to follow it. Most of the highways collapsed and only concrete pillars remained, like broken ribs protruding from the ground.
“Is there anything else that could help us find the office?” Fade asked.
“It has a tiny yard around it.”
“Very helpful…” Fade wasn’t able to hide her frustration.
Feather joined her in the cockpit and peered out the window to find a familiar sight. Fade and Midnight didn’t recognize anything either. Every structure was charred, the floor a sea of ash and debris and in the fire, the city appeared in constant motion.
The heat inside the vehicle increased and Fade didn’t know if it was the radiation, fever or the fire that heated her body. The instruments in the cockpit warned her that the clouds were dissipating fast and the water reserves were quickly dwindling.
“There!” Feather pressed further into the cockpit. “ Turn left. There’s a highrise.”
Fade banked left. The smoke became denser. They couldn’t see the building Feather pointed out. But then the smoke lifted and they all saw a building piercing upwards, higher than the smoke allowed them to see. Deep pools of irradiated water gathered in the huge courtyard around it. Any detail of the building was long covered up by the wet ash.
“Is this the O.I.A. hub?” Fade asked at the sight of the yard.
“No.” Feather said. “But fly upwards and see if it has an antenna. Big hubs of Arcane Science have emergency broadcast systems.”
Fade flapped her wings, ascending along the walls. They felt as if they were flying up a colossal bone, covered in burned muscles and flesh. The building was covered in such a thick layer of mud and ash that the walls weren’t visible anymore. Neither did they know if anything in there was alive, nor could they imagine it. Rising up made them feel elated, particularly when the building kept tapering. They knew that the antenna must appear any moment now.
Instead, a black tumor was enthroned atop the highest roof. It appeared to mold with the girders of the radio tower. Thick, muddy droplets were hanging from it and gluelike strings had been shaped between the growth and the building.
“What is that?” Fade asked but her mind didn’t want to know what horrific manifestation was creeping out of the Ministry’s building. The growth was easily three or four times bigger than the Vertibuck. Instinctively Fade distanced them from it.
An eye opened; too small, fully green and glowing with mindless rage. The entire growth started to shift and shake; a pair of wings slowly emerging from a cocoon of irradiated mud.
Their hearts stopped when the city gave birth to a creature only balefire could dream up. With every motion of the creature, more of the mud cracked open, revealing claws, teeth and scales. Liquid Balefire was flowing out of its gigantic snout, filled with crooked teeth. The jaw was hanging open, the rotten tongue loosened and slid out.
“Run… Fade Run!” Midnight screamed.
Fade closed her wings and sent the Vertibuck into a dive back to the city’s surface. Fire, ash and radiation were forgotten when the creature above let out a piercing and gurgling shriek no living being could ever produce.
Feather and Midnight held tight on the sharp interior of the vehicle to not stumble during the weightless nosedive. Fade counted in her head. Two… Three… Four! She spread her wings, pain of the sudden stop rushing through her bones and weakened muscles. She flapped her wings, gaining speed to flee in any direction as long as it brought them further away from what they had awoken.
Midnight rushed, stumbled and ran to the hatch. He looked out the tiny window and tried to see anything. Smoke was waving behind them, blocking the sight and yet he saw a wisp of green glow behind them. It grew in size and intensity and Midnight recognized the draconic head, the jawbone gaping open, wider than it was ever supposed to be.
“Fade! Faster!” Midnight warned her.
Fade didn’t know where to fly. All she saw rushing by were buildings. She dodged a few only at the last moment, sending the Vertibuck careening through the air before her wings caught and stabilized it again.
Behind, the creature’s body crashed into the ruins, toppling them over and spilling its liquified organs from its bloated, torn open belly.
A flash of green filled Midnight’s mind with the same fear when balefire rained down on Stalliongrad. “Fade! Down!”
She forced the Vertibuck down. Gravity ceased to exist only to return with greater force when the vehicle crashed into the softened asphalt of the road. The Vertibuck slid through the slimy substance until it came to halt. Feather and Midnight were thrown to the floor and Fade winced when her body was painfully pushed into the flight harness.
Balefire washed over them like a tidal wave and set the ruins along with the road ablaze. Blinding green light filled the interior of the vehicle and even Midnight closed his eyes. When he looked up he saw Feather crawling away from the cockpit. She held her head with a hoof and blood was dripping on the floor. Fade hung motionless in the harness. The only sign she was still alive was her body convulsing from painful coughs.
While his companions struggled with the heat and the impact, Midnight felt how the radiation gave him a similar feeling of when he was truly alive. He stood up and rushed into the cockpit. “Fade. Get up. We—”
Midnight stopped when he saw the massive creature trampling over the ruins. In the blinding light he only saw the silhouette of it. It stumbled over the broken buildings, its head swaying left and right, searching for what disturbed its hibernation.
“Fade… We have to go.” He said and shook her. She groaned, coughing again and again until a thick strand of spittle hung from her mouth. “Fade. You have to get up.”
She groaned and forced her hooves against the floor to regain her balance. Sweat was stinging in her eyes and her thick clothes stuck like tape against her fur. When Midnight saw that she was slowly fighting to get back up, he turned his attention to the cockpit’s instruments. The terminals alerted him that clouds were destroyed by the fire.
He pushed his body next to Fade, his mind racing as he tried to understand the computer system. He navigated through menus, turned off fail safes and locks to make the Vertibuck ignore the heat, damage and immense radiation. He forced the cloud generators into overdrive. “Fade. Can you take off?”
She shook her head. “Where are they?” She searched in her pockets for the drugs. “Midnight. Have you seen the inhalator?”
He didn’t ask. He looked around and found them just out of Fade’s reach. He picked them up and realized the nature of the drugs. “Fade?”
“Not now…” She took the inhalator, tearing the package of one, dropping the rest. Her hooves shook from the rising pain in her chest. She pressed the inhalator against her lips, pressed the button and after a whizz she took a painful breath.
It tasted like betrayal. The drug promised great things for Equestria, great enough to ignore the costs. A shiver ran over her body, amplifying the cold feeling of the sweat to block out the balefire’s heat. Only the burning fever remained and swelled in intensity until she no longer knew the cold. Everything that would hinder her was insignificant!
With strong flaps she forced the Vertibuck to rise as her chariot of war. The vehicle’s vibrations made her body shake in excitement. As the cloudship rose above the smoke the glowing shape of the undead dragon appeared. It was crawling over the ruins, its claws digging deep into the remaining walls. Its body was torn at places, showing the bones like crude cutouts in front of bright, green fire. The leathery skin under the scales was boiling and through a huge gash from the belly to the tail, it dragged what remained of its intestines behind. The dragon was already turning its head back to them.
“Hold tight!” Fade’s wings moved fast, faster than they should. She felt her body protesting, but slowing down was no option. She flew right at the dragon, already banking and tilting the Vertibuck to dodge if it should try to snap after them.
“What are you doing!” Midnight yelled.
“Pissing it off!” Fade replied with glee.
The dragon glared at the approaching Vertibuck, the dislodged jaw hanging wide open. Balefire was oozing out of its throat and nostrils. The head rushed forward and Fade quickly leaned her body into the bearings and forced the Vertibuck to roll. Gravity played with Midnight and Feather as they desperately tried to hold on tight to walls and benches. The few things they stowed away were being hurled around. Vanhoover was swirling in front of Midnight’s eyes and Fade cheered during the entire maneuver.
The beast was spreading its massive wings, whirling up green embers and fire as it prepared to take off.
“Looks like I got its attention.” Fade sounded happy.
“No Fade! We don’t want its attention!”
Fade laughed. “I know. But do you know who else doesn’t want its attention? The fucking Enclave!”
Midnight stared at Fade, scared by the mad expression in her eyes.
“We don’t even have to get to the O.I.A. anymore!” Fade said. “We take the dragon instead of the balefire eggs. Much more effective if you ask me. Midnight, is the dragon following us?”
Midnight shook his head. He had to get Fade back under control. “No! Listen… We have to find the Office.”
“We are not going to search for a building while we are being chased by that thing!”
“We are already here. We have found the Ministry. Don’t you want to know about Blue Sky?” Midnight asked.
“An argument just like Galloping Gorge but with swapped places?”
“This is not what I wanted to say. All I want to say is…” He hesitated. He heard the wet and throaty roar of the dragon echoing through the city as it gave chase. Midnight realized that Fade was right. “Okay. Let’s get out of here.”
“Fuck you Midnight! We stay!” Fade yelled in a sudden anger and the Vertibuck tilted again. “Stupid, fucking cocksucker of an eel! Midnight, you have about thirty seconds to find out how to get past the dragon. If you still have no clue by then, we will go to Quebit with that bitch on our asses!”
“Fade! What’s going on?”
“You have maybe twenty seconds left to prove to me that you are not an idiot!” She forced the Vertibuck past the dragon, dodging another one of its bites at the last moment.
“We… we may be able to sneak past the dragon.” Midnight tried to keep his balance through Fade’s insane maneuvers. “When we crashed, the dragon just walked past us.”
“It wasn’t a crash!” Fade yelled back.
“Can you do that?”
“Well fuck it, of course I can!”
Midnight rushed to the hatch and found Feather struggling to wrap a bandage around her head. Midnight couldn’t give her any attention as a green flare in the distance already warned him. “It’s breathing fire!”
Fade pushed the Vertibuck down. The ground was rushing close but this time Fade’s wings were stronger. The green inferno was rushing past them, missing them only by a few feet. The heat was intense and the air inside the Vertibuck became difficult to breathe.
Fade opened her wings mere feet above the ground. Even under the effect of the drugs, she felt the pain when the Vertibuck’s harness tore at her body. The vehicle landed heavily on the smoldering remnants of a building and sank into the debris.
Fade looked up at the balefire waving back and forth above her. She was sure that amidst all the fire her quick descent was hidden and it gave her an opportunity to admire the beautiful aurora. The fire was swirling when the dragon flew past them.
“Midnight. Look at this.” Fade’s voice was filled with awe.
He turned around, a strange exhaustion building up in his body, when he walked to the cockpit. Not too far away the dragon landed on a building. The damaged floors were breaking from its massive weight. Fade was amazed by the embers and fires being whirled up when the building collapsed but the dragon stood unimpressed. It just shifted its massive body, searching for its prey. When the head stopped turning, Fade and Midnight realized that it found them. Balefire dripped like saliva from its maw.
“Midnight, you said it wouldn’t see us!” Fade yelled and took off. Her eyes widened when the dragon’s body convulsed and its throat began to glow brighter and brighter. Tears and cracks in the dragon’s skin became visible and even the ribcage could be seen when the balefire heated up for another irradiated breath.
Fade pivoted so fast that Midnight and Feather lost their grip and fell back on the floor. Midnight’s body was pushed violently against the bulkhead to the cockpit and he felt his ribs crack. Fade forced the ship up and away from the fire, but she was too slow. A glaring warning tone alerted Fade that the clouds were torn away.
“Midnight! We have a problem!” She shouted and spread her wings, forcing the Vertibuck into a glide. “Something is wrong with the clouds.”
Midnight scrambled up on his hooves and felt the bones shifting in his body, while the immense radiation tried to reknit them back into place. He rushed to the terminal, ordering a diagnostic report.
“What is the problem?”
Midnight had to wait and stared at the loading bar in disbelief. The message appeared. “The water is empty!”
“Empty? Mom! I thought you refilled the tanks?” Feather didn’t answer, wincing from the pain in her head and still trying to stop the bleeding. “Mom!”
Midnight worked on the terminal. “Keep us in the air.”
The dragon shrieked and blind to where it was Fade forced the Vertibuck into a nosedive to gain speed. Midnight clumped against the terminal and had trouble typing while fighting against the vertigo. After mere seconds, Fade opened her wings and forced the vehicle to raise up on thermic updrift and speed alone.
Midnight held tight to the terminal and it began to print the content of the black box onto the display faster than he could read it. But he found the information he was looking for. “Tanks are more than half full,” he shouted.
“Half full? Mom, where is the fucking dragon?” Fade had to turn left and right to find more updrift to keep the Vertibuck not only high enough, but also fast enough.
“The sensor is broken. That happens when you fly such a piece of hobbyist shit into a warzone!”
Fade felt how the Vertibuck got slower with every moment. She scanned the ruins for any patch of fire that could give the Vertibuck a little extra speed. “Where is the dragon?”
A sudden colossal impact sent the Vertibuck spinning. Feather and Midnight were pushed against the hull plating, when Fade lost control over the machine. She tried to stabilize it but even with the drugs she was not able to overcome the forces tearing at her body. Vanhoover turned into a black and green maelstrom. The terminal was blaring collision alerts. The last sensation Fade felt before the impact was the green hue of balefire swallowing them.
Midnight felt the heat in the Vertibuck increasing with every second. Feather was next to him on the floor and groaned. Fade was stirring in the harness and blood was running down her legs where it cut into her.
He jumped up and rushed to the cockpit. “Fade… Fade, are you alright?”
She groaned. “It hurts. Pretty bad.”
“Where is your medicine?” He asked and looked on the floor for them.
“No… It feels quite cool,” Fade said and chuckled. “Where is the dragon? I guess it fucked us up really bad.”
Midnight looked out the cockpit. The glass was cracked but still intact. The bright flames tinted everything in a sick green. Midnight felt the radiation caressing his damaged body. Everything past the flames was black ash and smoke. “No idea. We can’t stay here. Feather! Find the medicine while I repair the sensor.”
Being the only one able to walk, he hurried back and forth to grab the scattered tools. He laid down on the hot floor and removed the panels.
“Midnight?” Fade said weakly. “I see it. It is right above us.”
Midnight ignored her. He found the water reservoir and opened to find it filled with warm water. He remembered the feeling of elation.
“What is the dragon doing?” Midnight asked and dove into the container to search for the sensor.
“It’s looking directly at us,” Fade said.
“That’s bad.” Midnight fished in the tank and he found something. He pulled at the small device and noticed that only a few cables were loose. Midnight pushed the first cable back into the sensor and hesitated with the second. He realized that the moment the Vertibuck would come back to life, the dragon would see them. “Is it gone?”
“No. It’s still there.”
Midnight felt the heat increasing and he also felt the radiation flooding the Vertibuck. “Feather, get the medicine against the radiation. Things are getting really bad.”
“Yes. There are only two pills left,” Feather said.
“Take one each.” Midnight ordered. “And help Fade. She’s bleeding”
“I’m fine. I feel the blood drying up in the heat.”
“Remain still, watch the dragon.”
The crinkling of the package was the only noise aside the dulled roar from the flames outside. Every second Midnight had to wait was like an eternity. The air felt like a sponge drenched in sweat and rot. The heat in the Vertibuck grew more and more. Its metal was heating up and Midnight was sure that Feather would feel the pain under her hooves very soon.
The green flames all around the cockpit were suddenly pushed away for a brief moment only to rapture to even greater heights. “It’s gone!” Fade shouted and a wide smile spread across her face.
Midnight tried pushing the last cable back into the sensor. It took him a few attempts and his hooves began to shake from impatience. The pumps and machinery below him sprang to life. Water was splashing out of the tank. Midnight remained still and didn’t dare to move an inch, afraid that the cables would come loose again.
“It works!” Fade cheered. “It works and it hurts so damn much!”
Fade flapped her wings again and the Vertibuck was moving. Slowly at first but with each second it raised further above the flames until the green light faded away.
“It was the fire.” Midnight realized. The balefire that gave him an extended life when the war ended. And it was the balefire again, that hid them from the dragon and allowed him to live a bit longer.