Celestia's Finest: The Wasteland Wailers

[Miltonian]

Star chews her lip thoughtfully. “Love, run that through the Bird’s tactical computer. Set the simulation to include only airships, no fighters or pegasi. See what the results would be.”

“Five minutes to arrival.”

[userpay]

"So they retro fit ah salvaged ship with spectacular weaponry but they didn't give ah damn about it's protection?" Brazen shakes his head. "Either they assumed firepower would be enough or they weren't done with it. Or it weren't intended to come down here at all." He grimaces. "Might that mean there be ah base of theirs somewhere spaceward that we can't spot?"

[D.KnightSpider]

Sniper proposed an alternate theory.

"Or we forced their hoof. No pony had seen the Pacification Protocol until a few days ago. There's the possibility that it wasn't ready to launch but our arrival caused them to send it out early before they had weather-proofed it."

[Elbeyon]

"You don't need me to tell you that it's best not let the chips come into direct contact with pony flesh, then." Sniper commented. "Not until we know exactly what they can do."

"Hey, Rose? You need any help researching those chips, or do you have a hoofle on it? I can't say I can help with the magic, but the design aspect might not be beyond me."

Star chews her lip thoughtfully. “Love, run that through the Bird’s tactical computer. Set the simulation to include only airships, no fighters or pegasi. See what the results would be.”

“Five minutes to arrival.”

Love cheers, "Yes, Sunshine! This is so cool. We're so cool!" Love starts plugging the information into the tactical computer.

-------

"It was cheap parts. Maybe, the pony that made the cannons had poor assistants. It's not like it rains out here often. It's interesting to see a super beam cannon, and skimped parts on the rest. Two different hoofs going at the ship?"

[DigoDragon]

"Hey, Rose? You need any help researching those chips, or do you have a hoofle on it? I can't say I can help with the magic, but the design aspect might not be beyond me."

"I've got it, thanks," rose replies. "You do that thing with the computer Star asked."

[Elbeyon]

"I've got it, thanks," rose replies. "You do that thing with the computer Star asked."

Love cheers, "Yes, Sir! Heh."

[Miltonian]

The computer chews on the problem for three minutes, which is a very long time. But then, it returns a very sobering statistic. If the entire Equestrian fleet fought without any support ships or other intervening factors, the best outcome is the loss of three carriers, four battleships, ten cruisers, and countless support vessels. No armor the airfleet has can stand up to the firepower from those guns. Any hit by the Armitage would have killed or disabled whatever it hit. And as for hitting it in return, the Armitage was built for evasive maneuvers. It would dance circles around the larger ships while the smaller ones wouldn’t be able to penetrate its armor except with a lucky direct hit. Plus, the anti-missile defenses and other measures were as effective back then as they are today.

“I see our destination,” Star says, paying attention to her flying instead of the results at the moment, “Coming in for a landing.”

A single radio tower juts high into the air. At the base of it is a small compound made of metal and concrete, like an unearthed bunker. Worn by time, it still remains sturdy.

[Elbeyon]

Love will end the simulation and clear out the data.

Her true job, she operations the sensors not expecting to find anything interesting. The tower is an interest of hers of course, and she takes a moment to look it over as she scans it. She radios for clearance and tells the tower they've arrived.

[Miltonian]

Rose’s examination of the chips yields some disappointing results. There’s nothing super special about why they’re still active except for the fact that the enchantment is still active. However, she is unable to dispel it at this time.

The tower has a few defensive emplacements, light machine guns mostly. Good for repelling unarmored raiders, but not much else. Other than that, the only tech of note is the radio tower itself, which is archaic in terms of tech level but compensates by being massive.

Like Rose (I kid).

[DigoDragon]

Rose’s examination of the chips yields some disappointing results. There’s nothing super special about why they’re still active except for the fact that the enchantment is still active. However, she is unable to dispel it at this time.

Rose frowns at the tiny piece of technology. She packs it away in a little baggie like the others, muttering some swear words that would get her flagged if she wrote them on an online forum. "The enchantment is too strong for me to break. Might have to try something with more force. Maybe an electrical jolt?"

but compensates by being massive.

Hehehe--

Like Rose (I kid).

...

Spoiler

Show

Rose: "You don't like big mares?" :c

[D.KnightSpider]

Sniper responded to Rose: "That's not a bad thing. We know that the enchantment is a powerful spell. Now we can keep an eye on it and see how long it takes to run down in its own. There must be a reason why those chips can refresh the spell on their own.

"Also, perhaps some rather manipulation from the pegasi would even the score on his super airship design? That might be a weakness we could exploit."

Sniper turned his attention to the radio station. Now it was time to think less of tactics and more about making nice. Friendship. Sigh. The one area he was perpetually struggling with.

"Star, Love, you want to take point on negotiations?" He asked. These were Love's people and Star would be doing most of the talking to them. It made sense for him to play window dressing.

[Miltonian]

"We'll discuss that stuff later," Star says, "For now, game-faces everypony."

The radio crackles to life. "Uh, wow. You all did arrive. Huh. Well, land somewhere...on the east side."

[DigoDragon]

Rose buckles in and puts on her serious game face. :|

This lasts for al of about 6 seconds and she relaxes to her usual friendly face.

[D.KnightSpider]

Sniper always wore his blank, deadpan game face. Preparing for this meeting required him to be normal.

[Elbeyon]

That battle simulation was on her mind. It simply didn't seem possible. She must have entered a typo that caused the erroneous end result. There was no reason to give everypony a false report, so she kept quiet about the result. Still, they saw it themselves. That beam. What if the the simulation is even five percent correct... Dang it! She should have spent all night exploring the wreck over messing with that strange radio channel.

At Star's request, Love taps her cheeks with her hoofs and puts a smile on.

Love answers in her normal voice, "Hello, this is Love. We made good time." That morning excursion to go pick up the chips was an unexpected stop. "We'll be landing now. Over."

[Miltonian]

The adventure continues in the next thread...