Climbing aboard the Arcturus, I was met once more by flashing emergency lighting, and the short, repeating rings of an alarm klaxon.

“Eliza, why are the alarms still going?” While I knew that the ship had taken more than a few shots, I’d been taught that most Enclave ships reset their alert status once whatever skirmish was finished.

“I’m sorry, Captain, but they are still active because one of the shots in the battle managed to damage the spark reactor.” Eliza’s monotone voice carried more than a bit of worry with it as she spoke over the ship’s intercom system. “Tofu and Buck are in the core attempting to resolve the problem, so if you are in need of medical assistance, you will need to seek out Cora in the infirmary.”

“I’ll be fine for now.” I nodded and shrugged. I needed to get to the reactor room and offer up whatever help I could to them. However, as I turned to move, Hispano’s strong grasp wrapped around my foreleg and stopped me.

“Night, you are not okay. You’re bleeding everywhere!” Hispano, while she had a point, I think forgot that if the reactor fails, the whole ship falls out of the sky.

“It’s just shrapnel, it can wait.” I did my best to offer a ‘not the time’ look, and she just rolled her eyes at me. Finally, she let go of me with an annoyed huff. “Now come on, I’m betting they could use the help of the smartest griff I know.”

“Grrr, fine.” Hispano grumbled before pushing me toward the aft bulkhead door.

I did my best to keep up with her as she pushed past the infirmary. While I’m sure my body was screaming at me to go get fixed up, I needed it to hold on just a little bit longer. I mean to be honest, what was a few more scars?

The sad thing is, that’s not even the first time I’ve rationalized away medical care…

We pushed through the next few bulkheads, emerging into the small control room hallway that wrapped around the reactor bay. The barrel high control boards were flashing all sorts of warnings and errors relating to the reactor, but those were only worrying because I knew they weren’t supposed to be flashing like that. What worried me much more, was that through the thick glass barrier that separated us from the reactor chamber itself, I could see a thick mist of water vapor, a non-pegasus pony in an Enclave reactor hazmat suit, and the brightly glowing form of Buck moving around.

Tofu brought her rubber hoof up to wipe at the glass faceplate of her suit, pressing the glass back against her horn as it flashed brightly. The small maintenance terminal inside scrolled lots of code that I couldn’t even see from here, let alone understand. Buck, on the other hoof, was busy attaching some sort of clamps to the leaking pipes that strung out from the reactor itself.

“Ah, Captain!” Tofu called out over the ship intercom. “I’m... a little busy at the moment! But do you want the good news, or the great news?”

“Uh… great news first?” I spoke back, not sure what to really say. As those words left my muzzle however, I felt the familiar sinking feeling in my gut that this situation was not as good as she was about to make it out to be.

“Well, thanks to the damage we took from that flak,” She paused for a moment to wipe away the mist from her visor again before continuing. “when I activated the high pressure emergency cooling system, it burst the welds on the coolant rigging!”

“What? That sounds terrible!” Okay, I knew something bad had to crop up!

“That's where the good news comes in!” She laughed nervously as her horn furiously typed commands into the maintenance system. “The leaks caused the reactor's pressure level to drop enough that I can activate the low pressure coolant system and maybe get an emergency shutdown in place! You know, assuming the patch job we did on the lines holds...”

“That’s bad.” Hispano spoke under her breath, leaning over to me as her eyes wandered over the flashing control boards. “If it's leaked enough of it’s pressure out into the room for the low pressure system to work, then that gear isn't enough to protect her from all the radiation.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her, but she refuses to leave.” Buck’s voice came through my mind with a heavy amount of worry to it. “I’ve already given her twice the recommended dose of rad-X, and with the levels in here, it's not going to be enough. Even I'm going to have to decontaminate after this. You need to order her to stop.”

“Tofu, how long will it take to shut down the reactor?” While I got what he was saying, if she could do this, then I won’t pull her out and risk the whole ship.

“Literally, like, another minute… maybe a couple at most.” She sighed heavily, shifting enough that the unused wing protectors on her back slid down at her sides. With her magic however, she was quick to pick them up and tie them together above her back. “Look, if I don't regulate the rate of magical discharge, then the arcane spark inside could literally melt through the containment unit and destroy the whole spark reactor.”

“And another minute in here could kill you.” Buck’s stern voice came straight through the protective glass this time.

“No!” Tofu snapped back, jabbing a hoof out at him as her magic continued to hammer at the keys on the console. “I've worked on or around this stupid fucking ship for like, literally, half of my life. I know this reactor, I despise this reactor, and…. I can do this. I'll be fine, Captain.”

“Then get it done.” I offered back to her, making her lock up for a moment. She turned, looking through her foggy mask at me like I’d just offered her the keys to the cloudship. “You’ve got this, Tofu.” With a determined look falling across her face, she nodded to me and then got back to it.

“Damn straight I do.” She sighed before her horn gained a layer of overglow to it that showed right through the rubberized fabric of her suit. “Alright, closing off the auxiliary venting, and closing external pressure valves. The system… shows ready status. Buck, get ready to manually start the talismans for the passive containment cooling system.” As she spoke, the mist inside the chamber swirled around, rising up to the top. “Alright, start it up!”

“Starting the passive cooling system.” Buck called out before using his paws to crank over a heavy looking mechanical assembly. As the gears to the mechanism moved, a pair of arms swung together and sparked, sending a humming noise through the walls before the frantically flickering lights on the console slowly started to switch over to a solid green. “The shutdown sequence should be automated from here on out.”

“Reactor levels… falling at nominal rates. Battery backups have taken over.” Hispano spoke with a smile before looking back at me. “She… she forced the reactor into safe mode. She actually did it!”

“Was there ever any doubt?” Tofu snorted with a smile as she turned back to Hispano and I. With a fancy flip of her hoof, she took a bow with a giggle. “Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m literally going to…” She didn’t even finish before she leaned forward, and collapsed onto the floor.

“Shit, Buck, pull her out of there!”

“It may have been in different ways, but…” Cora sighed as I hoofed him back the now half-filled restoration potion. “You two were both reckless.” Looking over at the infirmary bed, he pointed to the still unconscious Tofu as Buck worked on her. “At least she’s got an excuse. What was yours again?”

“We got the job done, didn’t we?” I grumbled back at Cora’s flat and unamused look. The familiar knitting feeling of my healing flank felt odd without the underlying pain of the wound, but… it wasn’t bad. “Buck, how’s she doing?”

“The Rad-away is doing it’s work, but… she’ll need time to recover.” He nodded to me as his tools folded away into his mechanical forearms. “Just need to keep her off her hooves for a while.”

“Hah.” Tofu forced out a weak laugh as she roused from the impromptu deck-nap. “Like this ship would last a day without me.” She tried to push herself up, but gave up after she could only manage to pull her head a few centimeters off of the table. “But like, I get your point. This headache is literally trying to kill me right now...”

“No, that would be the magical radiation in your system.” Eliza chimed up over the intercom. “However, it is good to see that you’re still alive, Tofu.”

“Thanks, Eliza…” Tofu groaned as she scrunched up her muzzle in pain. “Can you… give me an damage report?”

“I can’t believe this.” Buck scoffed and rolled his eye at me. “She nearly died and she’s still asking for work to do?” Rapping his mechanical digits against the infirmary bed, he forced Tofu to offer a squinting look up at him. “Do I have to get the straps out and force you to rest?”

“It’s just a report, Doc.” She groaned out. “Eliza, damage report.”

“Well,” Eliza’s voice paused as if she wasn’t sure if she should actually answer. After a moment though, she made her choice. “There are several catastrophic hull breaches along the forward ventral hull that have cut off electrical power to most of the sensor systems. The forward cloud camouflage system took a direct hit, and has been taken offline until extensive repairs are completed. The damage to the forward wiring systems have capped the emergency solar cells efficiency at twenty two percent, and as such, are not creating a positive charge on the battery talismans.”

“Oh, is that all?” Tofu forced out a soft laugh that turned into a pained groan. “Would it be faster to list anything that wasn’t damaged?”

“The Arcturus’ airframe, while currently extremely stressed, has not been damaged.” Eliza responded promptly. “And the cloud drive systems are functioning at normal efficiency levels. While flight performance has been hindered due to the damage to the hull, we should still arrive at the Spectrum Federation within the next half hour.”

“Which also means that they’re draining the batteries at about six percent an hour. Got it.” Looking back up at Buck, Tofu offered him what I could only call a smug look. “Still want me to sit in bed for the next day or so?”

“Tofu, if I may,” Eliza spoke up before Buck could even retort to that. “While those systems will need to be fixed, most of them can be handled by the Arcturus’ onboard repair talisman functions once we dock at the Spectrum Federation. However, you should focus your efforts for now on resting and recovering.”

“Thank you!” Buck barked out sharply. “Finally, some common sense!”

“No, I won’t just sit here idly.” Tofu whined, making Buck freeze up. We all watched as Tofu whimpered softly before breaking into sobs. “You all have no idea what this job means to me. I left my home for this, my family.” Buck moved his paw up, opening his muzzle to speak, but stopping just short of it. As he looked down at her, he pulled his paw back, as it seemed that not even Buck had the heart to tell her she was out of line this time.

“Like, literally, I wasn’t sure if I could shut the reactor down.” She sniffled, arcing her head over just enough to look directly at me with tears in her eyes. “But you said I could, that I ‘had this’. And like, literally, you don’t know what that meant to me after years of being looked down on for not knowing where I belonged.” Looking back at herself, she shifted slightly under the heavy blanket Buck had tucked her under. “Yeah, being sick sucks, but I’d do it all over again. I left everypony behind because this ship is my home now, it is my family. If I can’t protect it, then you might as well not waste the meds on me!”

There was a flash that filled the room, and all of us, including Tofu, seemed bewildered by it for a moment.

“Tofu…” Eliza offered, “Doctor Buck, please, remove her blanket temporarily.”

Buck looked down at the blanket, shifting his paw under it and grasping it. Carefully, he peeled it up off of her, making her shiver as the cold air hit her exposed coat. There, sitting on her flank, was a simplified image of the Arcturus riding inside of a heart shaped cloud.

“Is that… literally...” Tofu gasped, going wide eyed before sighing and passing out again without warning.

“It’s okay,” Buck was quick to hold a paw up to us. “She’s just fainted is all. The drugs are already taking a heavy toll on her, and she needs to rest.”

“Alright.” I nodded and took a deep breath. At least I wouldn’t be losing a crew member today, and that’s all that matters. “Eliza, what’s the timeframe we’re looking at for repairs if we dock at the Federation?”

“If we were to occupy one of the civilian mooring points, we would be able to maintain power enough for indefinite flight. However, automated maintenance and repair processes would be limited to daytime solar excess until the reactor could be brought back online.” Her monotone voice wasn’t filling me with a ton of confidence, and neither was the fact that she’d skirted right past the question itself.

“He asked for a timeframe, Eliza.” Hispano snorted and seemed just as annoyed at her omission.

“Two weeks, at best.” Eliza finally relented. Two weeks!? We might as well fly back to the Factory for repairs at that rate! “However, that is only if we make use of a civilian dock.”

“Can you elaborate?” Cora grunted and crossed his talons hard enough that he winced and favored his still bandaged sides.

“Civilian power consumption is capped in favor of allowing a higher energy usage rate to the three Enclave raptors that are currently docked.” Eliza’s voice, while it sounded more hopeful than normal, did sound like it held a bit of hesitation to it. “Captain, I’d like permission to prepare the Arcturus for the use of one of those docks. It would bring down the repair time from two weeks, to under two days.”

Bringing it down to even two days would mean that it would at least be more efficient to move forward than to backtrack to the Factory again. Plus, we still needed to negotiate on behalf of the Factory for use of the antenna there, which probably meant they’ll want us to do some side job for them anyway. So all in all, spending a couple of days stuck in the Federation might actually be required anyway, so it should work out well enough.

“Permission granted.” I nodded and watched as Eliza’s smiling mare popped up in the corner of my vision. “Do whatever you need to, Eliza. Just make sure the Arcturus is good to continue south again in two days.”

“Aye aye, Captain.” Eliza’s voice chimed in through the intercom again before disappearing with a pop of static.

“You sure this is a good idea, Captain?” Cora let out a disappointed sigh as he dragged his talons across his exasperated look.

“What? We are an Enclave military ship, we have every right to dock with them anyway.” I rolled my eye at him, only to have it fall on the doubt filled looks of both Hispano and Buck. “What!? I mean, Laika basically owes us a favor anyway. I’m sure things will work out just fine.”

Things were not fine!

“To the approaching cloudship that just locked out our systems; Identify yourself now or be shot out of the skies! You have thirty seconds to respond.”

“Eliza! What the fuck happened!?” I called out as I scrambled up to the bridge.

“It seems that I may have made an error in judgement, Captain.” Eliza’s frowning mare flickered across a few of the bridge screens.

“That’s an understatement.” Double growled as he hoofed at one of the terminals on the bridge. “Upon finding that the raptor skydocks were all still currently in use, instead of radioing an emergency request like a sane pony, she overrode the dock and the Raptor’s guidance computer to shunt it out of the way!”

“You did say I could do whatever I needed to in order to ensure repairs were completed.” Eliza replied promptly with her mare flickering over to an angry version across the screens.

“We both know that this is not what I meant.” I grumbled and watched as her angry mare flickered over to the frowning one with the tear under its eye. “Regardless, what’s done is done. We can talk about it later. Right now, I need you to connect me to the cloudship on the radio before they shoot us down.”

There was a flicker in my augmented vision as a transparent rectangular box appeared to hover just ahead of me. It reminded me of the way that the audiologs looked on terminals, but just... hovering there in the air ahead of me.

“This is Captain Raychaser aboard Raptor Albedo of the Federation Navy. Identify yourself immediately.” The stern and loud voice of a mare boomed inside my mind.

“This is Night Flight, former Enclave citizen, and current Captain of the HMS Arcturus.” Seeing how well being the ‘Survivor’ had just treated us, I decided that maybe for right now, it was best to keep that little fact to myself. “We were severely damaged in a fight and require immediate mooring to conduct repairs. If you need confirmation on my identity, check with Laika.”

“I don’t care if you’re ten seconds from falling apart! You will stand down and prepare to be boarded. Seriously, if I had two bits for every fucking airhead trying to claim that they know the Sky Marshal personally, I’d...”

“Contact Laika and tell her it’s Night Flight, from Filly Crossing.” I cut the mare off. “If she doesn’t know me, then you have my permission to shoot us out of the damned sky.”

“I don’t need your permission to do anything.” The mare snapped back. “But if you hold your position as a gesture of good faith, than I will consider complying with your request.”

“Captain, I have stopped the Arcturus as requested. However, you should be aware that she doesn’t have to ask for Laika at all.” Eliza’s nervous cartoon mare showed up on the screens around me, as well as in the corner of my vision. “Shall I attempt to jam their targeting systems?”

“No, they’d just switch their targeting computers off and use manual guidance.” Double Delta jumped up at that. “However, can we reach out to Laika directly?”

“Negative.” Eliza let off almost what sounded like a sigh. “Any transmission might be intercepted by them and deemed a hostile act.”

“Then we trust the mare.” I nodded and looked over to Delta. “We wait.”

Silence gripped the bridge. Well, relative silence, as the buzzing and whirring of the terminals and ship systems were just as loud as always, but it did little to distract from the lack of an answer. And as one minute turned to two, then to three, I was beginning to hope that the raptor wasn’t sitting there casually aiming it’s complement of anti-dragon cannons at us.

“Captain Night Flight.” The mare’s voice returned with a grumble. “Clearance has been granted by the Sky Marshal for the Arcturus to dock at raptor port three. Federation Raptor Albedo has cleared the dock, and you may proceed at your own discretion. Do you require emergency personnel waiting for you dockside?”

“No, we can handle it from here. Thank you, Captain.” I replied with a heavy sigh of relief. Okay, so that’s one obstacle out of the way…

“Captain, the Sky Marshal is requesting to speak with you.” Eliza’s nervous mare popped onto the screen next to me.

“Put her through.” I nodded to her, watching as the audiobox in my vision flickered for a moment. Immediately, the sound of terminals and ponies in the background filled my head to let me know I was connected. “Hello, Laika, this is Night Flight.”

“Moy drug!” Laika’s voice filled my head. Curiously, under the audiobox, the words ‘Friend of mine!’ popped up. “Your group helps to rescue me, arranges my leave on a vertibuck, and then show up in a ghost ship? I have to say, you are full of surprises. Still, it is good to see that you have made it down to our corner of the wasteland. Much has changed since we last spoke, and we must find time to catch up.”

“That would be great, as we’re actually here to talk with you.” I spoke up, eyeing over at Delta for a moment. He didn’t seem too keen on me keeping half the conversation inside my head, but he didn’t seem interested in speaking up about it.

“Dah, then I will make time to speak. Nothing else will matter for today.” Laika’s tone reminded me more of Delilah’s now than the confused but coping small Diamond Dog we’d seen plummet from space. “I will have a vertibuck sent to pick you up at the dock. One moment… Kto-nibud', idi i naydi leytenanta-komandira! Skazhi yemu, chto Noch' nuzhdayetsya v pikape!” As she spoke, the words under the audiobox changed to ‘Someone, go find the lieutenant commander!’ and ‘Tell him that Night needs a pickup!’. It had taken me a moment to realize that my augment was translating for her, but my muzzle moved faster than the rest of my mind.

“That’s fine, you don’t need to send anypony. We’ve got our own ride down.” I couldn’t help but smirk as my words left a bit of silence to fill the air.

“Ty vsegda mog menya ponyat'?” The translation changed to ‘could you always understand me?’. The Delilah like quality of Laika’s voice was gone, and in its place was the curiousness Buck had told me she normally showed. He had recounted just how curious she could be with things during the war, but it’s good to see that her acclimation into the Wasteland hadn’t dampened her personality. Well, at least not at first glance that is.

“No, but we can talk about it once we’re down there.” I fought back the smile that tried to part my muzzle, still eyeing the very unhappy looking Delta. “Just send up where you’d like us to land our transport, and we’ll be along shortly.”

“Dah. We will be ready to receive you. Sky Marshal, out.” And with that, the audiobox in my vision closed, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“I know that you may think she sounds personable, but trust me, from what little I’ve heard, she’s old world ruthless.” Delta snorted as he brought his hooves up onto the console he stood at. “I’d had some ponies of mine keeping tabs on this ‘federation’ before I fled the Skyraiders, and from what they’d found, she’s not your typical wasteland leader. She’s precise, methodical, and smart.”

“I’d expect no less from a scientist and a scholar.” Buck’s voice from behind me caught us both off guard. Spinning, I could see the nervous blush he hid under the white medical robes he had already draped over himself. “Uh… if you’re okay with it, Night, I’d hoped to come along with you to see her again.”

“Again?” Delta spat as he pushed himself off the console. “What am I missing here? Have you actually met this ‘Laika’ before?”

“You remember that space capsule you helped pull off of the Hauler the first time we were at Galloway? You know, the one marked with Laika’s name on it?” I offered to him with a smirk. “Who exactly do you think pulled her out from inside when it came back down to Equis?”

“Goddesses, I hope she remembers me.” Buck’s words bounced around inside my head as he whimpered to himself. “Maybe she won’t. Maybe she’ll think I’m some monster with all this metal. Oh, what if she does!? What if she thinks I’m not even a dog worth her time and never wants to speak with me again!”

“Buck…” I offered him a nudge and a glance up in the dark interior of the Remora. “It’ll be fine.”

“Sorry… I forgot we’re connected.” He flashed up an incredibly forced smirk that told me that while he wasn’t thinking it at me, he was still in full on panic mode in his mind. “I’ll try to keep our thoughts linked only when we’re in private.” Still, he reached down and ruffled his mechanical paw through my short mane.

“Can you two not do this right now?” Hispano grumbled as Happy was busy trying to squeeze the life out of her. “Because if you two lovebirds want to keep it up, I’ll be happy to throw our mule friend out the door and fly back to our bedroom to give you some alone time.” She huffed as Happy let out a whimper and only tightened his grip even more.

Still, I felt bad. Even after our talk, she hadn’t even had a chance to ask Buck about sharing some time with him before the train incident. Seriously, after all this, I was really going to have to make it up to her. And maybe… maybe it was time for me to move forward with her.

Because while it was a risk, well, she was worth it.

The altimeter in the side of my vision dropped to zero, while the feeling of the Remora’s landing legs compressing softly came up through my hooves. As the whining of the door’s hydraulics system came through the hull, a different kind of whining filled the air. The moment the door cracked open the slightest bit, Happy all but dove for it and forced himself down onto the concrete landing pad below.

“Oh, sweet sweet ground!” He laughed to himself before looking up. As the door opened further, I could see what he could, and found a pair of armed pegasus ponies standing at either side of a sharply dressed diminutive Diamond Dog who was busy marveling at the Remora. Her suit looked well tailored to a dog of her size, and came with a pair of fancy rainbow colored shoulder boards. “Oh hey, it’s what’s-her-muzzle!”

“Laika.” I smiled as I stepped forward, hopping out of the Remora.

“Yeah, her, whatever.” Happy grumbled as he picked himself back up.

“That’s Sky Marshal whatever to you.” Laika barked at him before turning her gaze on me and sharing a jagged smile. “Night! It is good to…” She paused and canted her head as her eyes fell upon the many scars, my prosthetic leg, and of course, the metal augments on the side of my head. “Geeze, you look like shit. But that is some amazing work you’ve gotten done. Do you mind if I look it over later?”

“If not Night’s, then... you may look at mine.” Buck spoke up from still inside the Remora. “That is, if you’d like to.”

Stepping aside, I gave him some room to come out. His steps were slow and hesitant, and I’m sure that his thoughts were racing even more now than before. But Laika’s curious gaze shifted to one of concern as she sized up the white sheet covering Buck as the two ponies at her sides brought up their stubby looking magical energy weapons in their muzzles.

“Niet.” Laika barked at them sternly, holding her small paw out to them. Still, she studied Buck’s robe as despite his offer, he did his best to hide his face from her under the hood. “Doctor Buck, is that you under that?”

“Yes.” Buck sighed. “I’m sorry, this… was a mistake.” He grumbled, pulling one of his robed paws up to paw at his face, but in doing so, it exposed his metal paw. The two ponies with Laika gasped in horror, but Laika herself? She took two steps forward.

“That is… amazing.” She shifted herself, hesitantly reaching a paw out and up to him. “May… I see your paw?”

“Buck.” I tried to keep my voice stern in my head as I thought directly at him. “It’s fine. You can show her, she understands.” From the way he slightly tensed up at it, I was pretty sure it had worked.

Buck shifted his paw, slowly bringing it down toward her. But after only a moment, he hesitantly pulled back, curling his paw into a fist. With another heavy sigh, Buck brought his other paw around, and grasped at his robe.

With a flashy and probably overly dramatic yank, he pulled his robe down, exposing his full form to her, and outright making one of the guardponies faint.

“Neveroyatno!” Laika gasped as her eyes ran up and down his body. Without a single bit of hesitation, she stepped up to him and ran her paws across the various joints in his legs and rear paws. “Nowhere in Equestria did I think such advanced prosthetics exist.” She looked up at him, marveling at the confused look written across his half machine face. “You must tell me all about where you found this amazing tech, and how it works!” Reaching out, her small paws grasped around Buck’s and all but dragged him to follow. “Come, we have much to discuss!”

“Night?” Buck’s voice came through my head with a squeak. “Help?”

“I told you she wouldn’t mind.” I couldn’t do anything but offer a smile to him as he was dragged off by the excitable Diamond Dog. “Besides, you wanted to see her again. Just… don’t talk too much about the Factory yet. At least, not until we get a few other things out of the way.”

“So uh… we going in?” Hispano cooed as she stepped up to my side. “Oh wait, would you look at that.”

She used her talon to point up at the large concrete building in front of us. It seemed to sit along a mountainside, and was a few stories tall, but it didn’t have any windows on the outside of it. On top, it’s roof was some sort of articulating dome with a rusted walkway ringing it. Past the moment I took to take everything in, it had taken me a second to spot what Hispano was pointing at.

Standing up on that walkway, staring down at us with her novasurge rifles still on her Enclave armor, was the same bitch who’d fired on us earlier. Even through the facemask she wore, I could bet she held a smirk on her muzzle. As we stared at each other, she flared out her wings and jumped off, soaring off through the air, and forcing Hispano and I to pivot as she flew away. Which was great, because it gave me a good look at the city that sat below us.

First and foremost, was the skydock. Sticking up through the center of the mountain valley we sat on the side of, was a trussed tower that ran up almost twice as tall as the updraft tower in Cantercross. Mind you, it was nowhere near as impressive as the SPP towers that had controlled the weather for the Enclave, but it was still robust enough to be a home to dozens of medium and small airships docked to it. On top of that, hundreds of sheet metal and makeshift shacks hugged the outside of the stairwell and elevator that ran up the center of the trussing, creating different ‘levels’ to the city.

Near the top, sat a few docks for larger cloudships, only one of which had a ship moored to it. The crimson colored zeppelin was the size of a raptor, and sported a pair of arcane reactors underslung next to a robust and larger than expected main fuselage. At the front of it, the oversized face of an angry dragon had been painted across it’s bow, and the single word Kirov sat just behind it.

Looking up, towards the top of the skyport, revealed a much more impressive, and more comforting sight to me. The heavy trussing of the tower ended with a large metal ring braced to it’s top. Sitting on the far end of said ring from us, was the exposed form of the Arcturus. However, moored closer to us sat a pair of Enclave Raptors, with a third floating just off the port side of the closest one. Not the prettiest gals in the Enclave, being generation one Raptor cloudships, but I'll be damned if they weren't a sight for sore eyes. Er... eye. Nope, eyes again now that I have this thing on my head.

Still getting used to all this...

Tearing myself from the amazing sight above, I managed to catch a glimpse of the enclave pony as she dipped downward. She disappeared over the edge of the Vertibuck landing pad, forcing Hispano and I to step up to follow her flight.

Below the amazing collection of cloudcraft, clusters of old snow-covered shipping containers had been stacked much in the same way that they’d been on the Empirica, only again, ringing around the base of the skydock. Dozens of old concrete buildings and small houses sat dotted around the central valley, with an entire walled-off neighborhood of them clustered at the south end of the town.

The stark blackness of the concrete highway that cut through the center of the snow covered town wound around the secluded neighborhood, before it drove right into a tunnel that laid on the northern face of another mountain. In fact, there was a convoy sitting in the middle of the Highway just outside that tunnel. Some large orange vehicles sat parked in a row, almost looking like a train in the way that they sat so close together. If not for the absolutely enormous rubber tires that stuck out from their sides, I might have actually confused it for a train!

“Goddesses, fuck!” Happy snapped, pulling Hispano and I’s attention back to him. He stood there, shivering and rubbing at his forehooves with a sharp frown sitting across his muzzle. “Can we go inside already? It’s fuckin’ cold out here and I’m freezing my balls off while you two are sight seeing!”

“Alright, alright, Happy.” I rolled my eyes and nodded over towards the doors Buck had been dragged in through. “Let’s go in and get warmed up.”

“Besides, we’ve got a job to do.” Hispano cooed as she flapped a few times and hovered up into the air next to me. “And after the last few days of nothing interesting happening, I could use a bit of action to spice things up.”

“Again, gotta love that optimism.” Happy snorted as he pushed himself into a trot towards the door. “But I can’t say you’re wrong about that, knowing how things with Night normally go.”

“Gee, thanks.” I grunted, yet didn’t offer any objection to that. Delta was right when he’d mentioned that we were still in the Misery range, and things could still go horribly wrong for us.

Still, I had hope that Laika would be flexible enough that things wouldn’t get too bad around here. And outside of the Enclave bitch who’d shot at us, we didn’t really have any enemies this far south. So despite everything more than likely going wrong for us, I pushed through the doors to the building and stepped inside with a mind that things were going to work out alright.

The interior of this place was… interesting. I’d only heard of these ‘observatories’ back in school, and I’d always wondered why they wouldn’t just study the stars from above the clouds. Probably it was just like most things I didn’t understand in the wasteland, the product of somepony in the past who had their own reasonings for it. Though, it’s definitely somewhere I should have expected Laika would set up her office, given her background.

The old and remarkably well maintained telescope hummed away as former Enclave technicians performed maintenance on it. A few ghouls were busy working on the sparkle motors that moved and opened the domed roof, chit chatting loud enough that I could almost make out what they were saying through the window of the conference room tucked away in the corner of the building.

Laika sat behind an almost comically sized desk compared to her stature, sitting on a pile of textbooks that had been placed on an old world leather office chair. Various file folders and an old terminal sat almost brushed aside on the corner of her desk, moved over in favor of a pile of paw written notes on a half a dozen notepads. Even now, as she listened to us recount the last few weeks, she twirled a stubby and worn pencil in her paws.

“So, you are to tell me,” Laika nodded to herself as she tried to absorb what I’d been explaining. “You killed Mister Wizard because her father had been held captive?” She pointed to Hispano with her pencil, pulling a nod from me. “Huh, that is certainly not the way I had heard it.”

“Well, we did it partially because it was the right thing to do.” Buck stepped in to make it sound a little less absurd.

“Supposedly you also mostly destroyed Pentex, helped to deal with the Galloway Steel Rangers, and also helped to ‘restructure’ the Road Crew? I assume it was also not only because it was the ‘right thing to do’?” She asked, scrunching up her muzzle. “And if that weren’t enough, you did this with the help of this mysterious ‘Architect’ you’ve mentioned?” I realized it was a lot to have done, but I don’t think it was until that moment that I’d realized how much of a difference we’d made in just a few weeks time.

“Oh! We also brought down both the Sky Raiders an’ Puritans!” Happy unhelpfully added.

“You must be mistaken.” Laika narrowed her eyes first to Happy, then to me. “I was told that they went to war against each other?”

“It’s… complicated how that played out.” I held up my hoof to her. “Perhaps that’s a story for another time? For now, I wanted to talk to you about why we’re here.”

“Ah yes, your request.” She nodded, sitting back on the textbooks stacked in her chair. “If you’re worried about asking for the use of the service dock, do not worry. It is fair compensation for the help you gave to Lieutenant Commander Tail End and I in getting down here.” Honestly, I’d expected at least that much out of her, but here was the moment of truth.

“Actually, I’m here on behalf of the Architect to ask your permission to modify your broadcast antenna.” I watched as my words gave her pause. “It would be a simple modification, and none of your broadcast capabilities would be affected. However, it would be of great help to him if you were to allow it.”

She dropped her gaze from me onto the notes across her desk as she seemed to think about it. I mean, this was the one caveat of getting all this help from the Factory. If she said no right now, then I was going to have to find another way to get it done.

A knock at the door caught us all off guard.

“Ma’am?” A pegasus mare a few years older than me peeked her head through the door.

Her peach colored coat and blond mane were impeccably clean, and I could see why. She is an Enclave officer, er, had been one. The shoulder boards on the Enclave uniform she wore displayed the rank of lieutenant, which wasn’t all that impressive if I’m being honest. In fact, from the way she broke her concentration and glared at me when I studied her, I had to wonder if she hadn’t just finished officer’s school before the Enclave collapsed.

“Yes, what is it?” Laika’s ears perked to attention as she forced herself to sit up straight on her books.

“Miss Rofia is here to brief you on the missing train.” The mare got a firm nod from Laika, who was about to speak up before the mare continued. “Also, I’m supposed to let you know that the Envoy returned. Again. He wished for an update on those records.”

“Alright, tell them that the search is taking much longer than expected. Also, tell them that if they want it to go faster, then they must provide additional details of what they’re looking for to narrow things down.” Laika scoffed and waved her paw dismissively. “But please, send Rofia in for now. She would do well to meet the heroes of the north.”

“If you say so, Ma’am.” The mare offered me a sideways glare before shutting the door.

Well, that was certainly… interesting. Still, the idea that Rofia was coming up here provided an interesting opportunity given what we know about this ‘missing train’. I wonder if it was at all possible to get what we observed on the Arcturus over here…

“Hey there, Captain!” Eliza’s voice chimed up in my head. “If you want me to send the footage over to the Spectrum authorities, just say the word.”

“Not yet.” I offered to her, freezing up as I realize that I’d just said that out loud. “Eheh, sorry.” I forced out a nervous laugh to Laika, who only perked an eyebrow. “It’s this up here. Still getting used to it.” I gave a tap against my metal head, making her nod.

No, the information on Rofia could be good leverage. I wasn’t about to just put it out there without knowing just who we were dealing with. That, and I’d rather not start a fight with anyone if I didn’t have to.

The door once again opened, saving me from the awkwardness I’d created for the room. However, that was replaced with a low growl from Buck as Rofia stepped inside. She was an odd sight to behold. Her coat was short, and midnight black, while her slit-like cat eyes were bright yellow. She walked about on two legs, swinging her lithe hips and whip-like tail with each step. The delicate and dexterous looking forepaws she had, contained soft pink pawpads under them, and each digit was tipped with a razor sharp claw that looked like it had been dipped in silver.

“Always a pleasure, Rofia.” Laika spoke up as the cat’s gaze swept over each one of us for a moment. She hesitated on me, but instead pulled her gaze away with a toothy smile.

“Yes, it always is, Sky Marshal.” Her voice was as smooth as silk, and held a note of poise to it that made me think like she felt herself above everyone in the room. It alone made a pit form in my stomach, and stuck just one thought into my mind.

Goddesses, I could already guess that she was going to be just like Solomon, wasn’t she?

“Everyone, this is Rofia, the mayor of Terrace.” Laika’s smile was joined by a slight wag of her tiny spiked tail. “She’s been my closest advisor, and has been one of the guiding paws of the Federation as we’ve gotten it set up.”

“Oh, she exaggerates. Times are changing in the wastes, and I’m just trying to make it as smooth a transition for my town as I can.” Rofia forced out a soft laugh as she turned to us and took a bow. “However, should you need anything, and I mean anything during your stay in my fair town, then don’t be afraid to ask.” Yeah, regardless of the fact she presented herself as above us all, at the very least her offer sounded genuine. Still, I’ve been fooled a bit too many times now to buy into any leader at face value. “In fact, if you’re here to stay for a few days, I can provide you with lodging and entertainment, free of charge.”

“I think we’ll pass.” Hispano snorted. Glancing over at her, she rolled her eyes to me, telling me that she wasn’t buying this charade either.

“She’ll pass.” Happy chimed in with a wide smile plastered across his muzzle. “Depending on the ‘entertainment’, I might take you up on that!”

And just like that, the moment we’ve left the Factory, Happy falls into old habits again.

“Yes, but first,” Laika spoke up, pulling Rofia’s attention back to her. “You were here to deliver an update?”

“Yes.” Rofia’s words faltered at that, and her expression cracked for just a single moment to show the anger under her skin. “It seems that an avalanche came down on the train at some point, and it’s been buried. We are unsure if the train and it’s crew are intact and unharmed, but it could take another day or two to dig out.”

“Alright.” Laika nodded before flipping her pencil around in her paw and bringing it down to her notepad. “See if you can have a chat with the local Road Crew. They may be able to lend some digging machines to assist us if we ask. And set up a meeting with their supervisor. I want to see if it would be possible to hire them to help keep the rails clear in the future to prevent any more accidents like this.”

“I’ll see what can be done on such short notice. Though, if you’re looking for avalanche clearing, then might I suggest hiring a Cordite crew? Their howitzers might be a bit better suited for avalanche prevention than any equipment the local Road Crew has.” Rofia offered her another smile and nod before turning to leave. She gave off a soft purring noise as she paused and slowly looked back over her shoulder directly at me. “Actually, on the topic of clearing our buried train, if these are those ‘heroes’ that are so highly spoken of, then maybe they would be interested in helping?”

“Lady, we’re not those kind of heroes.” Hispano muttered as she shot the cat a glare.

“Yeah, we’re the corrupt dictator killing kind of heroes!” Happy gave out a laugh that I’m sure he didn’t realize probably scared the crap out of Rofia. While he probably didn’t know it, he’d just offered up the best window for me to step in and exploit.

“Yes, we haven’t met, but I’m the ‘Survivor’, and this is my crew.” I watched as that caused her pupils to dilate a bit as she stiffened up. “Know that if you need our specific kind of help, then don’t be afraid to ask.”

“Noted.” The nervous tick in her eye, along with the forced smile she plastered across her short muzzle told me that we at least understood each other. Whether or not she’d prove to be a problem in the next couple of days however, would remain to be seen.

“Anyway, in consideration of your proposal, Night, I must think on it.” Laika sighed as she pushed herself off her books and down to the floor. “In the meantime, you are free to visit anywhere in Terrace that you’d like. However…” She walked around the side of her desk, stopping to hold a paw out to Buck. “I would still like to do that examination of you, if you are up for it, Doctor Buck.”

While ever since she’d walked into the room, Buck had his eyes trained on Rofia like he was out for her. However, the moment Laika spoke to him, it was like all was well in the world again. Buck’s gaze softened, and his jagged jaw split with a wide smile that told me everything I needed to know about what was on his mind.

“You do like her quite a lot, don’t you?” I thought at him, forcing him to nearly go white as a sheet for a moment as he shifted his gaze to me. Slowly his color returned, along with a bit of an extra bright blush to boot. “You really are insatiable!” Goddesses, from the way he tensed up, it was almost like he was going to implode with embarrassment! “Woah, easy there, Buck. Go with her, I don’t mind.”

“Are… you sure, Night?” Buck thought back as he pushed himself to stand up again.

“Go. Talk about all that smart stuff you two know and get caught up.” I smirked to him before looking over at Hispano. “Besides, I could use this time to just hang with Hispano. You know, maybe fit in another date somewhere. Anything you want, and I mean anything. Because... I owe you that, Hispano.”

Now it was Hispano who was threatening to implode from the scrunched blush across her face.

“Night, are you sure?” Buck’s voice was surprised as it came through my mind, but it didn’t come across as hesitant at all.

“You know, I wasn’t so sure, but... I think I’m willing to give it a shot.” I nodded, offering him a soft smile.

“Well, I will recall you when I have reached a decision on your proposition.” Laika nodded to me before returning her gaze back to Buck as he stepped forward, practically towering over her. With a soft and ginger touch, he reached down, holding his paw out for her. His jagged jaw threatened to split all the way around the back of his head as she stepped onto his fingers and was lifted up off the floor.

“Well, if you’d like, I can handle the rest of your appointments and issues today, Sky Marshal.” Rofia offered with her own wide smile that felt like it tore open the pit in my stomach even more.

“Dah, spasibo.” Laika’s words were non committal at best as she refused to stop herself from inspecting all of the mechanical parts on Buck’s forearms. Still, she offered an excited wave to Rofia as Buck and her headed for the door. Which was also about the time I felt Hispano’s talon grab around my forehoof.

“Well, if we’ve got time, then let’s make the best of it!” She let out an excited squawk as she pushed around my side and all but pulled me onto my hooves. “Come on, Dum Dum! Time’s a-waistin’!”

As I was all but dragged out of the conference room, Happy got to his hooves, stopping just short of following us. Turning to Rofia, his muzzle split into a grin as well.

“So, about this ‘entertainment’…”

I had expected a date when I’d hoofed Hispano the reigns for the afternoon with pretty much no restrictions. I’d given the one girl in the world who wanted nothing more than to pin me down for as long as she wanted, the chance to do just that. And what does she choose? Sitting, in a cloud, in the cold. Doing a ‘stake out’ as Talons apparently call it.

“It’s just... bugging me.” Hispano cooed softly as she peered through the binoculars tightly gripped in her talons. “You know what doesn’t make sense? Why would a cat like her, be so willing to work with the organization that took over her town?”

“You’ve seen the raptors floating above, right?” I shot her a sideways glance. “Would you fight that?”

“After Operation Cauterize left such a bad taste in the wasteland’s mouth, no one would be stupid enough to try anything like that again. They’d be hunted down to the last, and anyone even associated with a former Enclave pony would be villainized into obscurity.” Hispano grumbled as she passed the binoculars over to me. “Take a look at the building on the corner of the tower, the one with all the radio dishes on it. Tell me what’s wrong with that picture.”

Looking in the direction she pointed me at, I squinted to try to discern where exactly she was talking about. The side of my head vibrated slightly, and everything got fuzzy for a moment as my vision magnified a large sheet metal and scrap wood building in the trussing. It was practically a mansion compared to the structures under it.

Four stories tall and painted mostly black, a pair of bright yellow cat eyes had been painted across the side like they were looking down across the settlement below. Through the various windows of the home, I could see dozens of gold plated items stacked in rows on display. Fancy looking cloths were draped over half the surfaces I could see, and the whole place looked immaculately organized.

“I don’t understand, what’s wrong with that?” I asked, blinking for a moment before turning to Hispano. The moment I did, my head vibrated again, and my vision returned to normal. “Looks like a nice place to me.”

“Yes, and that’s just it!” Hispano groaned. “It’s too nice. Too together.” I must have been looking at her like a fucking moron again, because she let out another groan and planted her face against the cloud. “You’re killing me, Night.”

“What? Somepony in the wasteland can’t have nice things?” I scoffed at her notion before the words came back around on me like a rubberband. Thinking about it, there hadn’t really been all that many nice things I’d seen in the wastes. Most people had only the bare minimum, and the ones that did have an excess of nice things? “Shit… she is hiding something, isn’t she?”

“Thank you, you finally get it.” Hispano groaned. Pulling her face out of the cloud, she spat out the bit of it that got caught on her beak. “Now come on, let’s…” Hispano stopped cold as she looked back in the direction of the observatory. She scrunched up her beak in concern, quickly pulling her binoculars back up to her eyes. “What. The. Fuck.”

“What?” I couldn’t fight the urge not to try to use my augment again to see what she was talking about, and shifted my gaze with her. Squinting, I felt my head vibrate again, and my sight was once more magnified. Wow, it’s so weird to be able to do this… but also pretty fucking neat!

As the image resolved, I realized that we were staring at a group of zebras in full combat gear standing on the edge of the vertibuck landing pad. They were evenly spaced around it, facing outward as if they were trying to protect the Remora. It wasn’t until I’d gotten a good look at one of their vests that something strange happened. My augment highlighted their vest for a moment, pulling up a picture of whatever was scrawled on the patch each of the soldiers wore. As soon as it displayed up in my vision, I couldn’t fucking believe it.

Pentex

“What the fuck!” I nearly flailed myself right through the cloud. “We blew them all up! How are they still around!?”

“That’s what I’m saying!” Hispano groaned as she pulled the binoculars down from her eyes again. “I thought we’d seen the last of them!”

If they had some other chapter, then Ping would need to know. Here’s to hoping that I could still reach out to him...

“I was not ...ware of their continu... survival.” Ping’s voice came back through my head with more than a note of static to it. “Thank… for the update. I… ordite of the remnant…”

“Ping? I can barely hear you.” I spoke sharply. I reached up and gave a tap on the side of my head, getting a bit more static out of the transmission before it cut off completely.

Guess we really were basically out of range of the Factory. Which meant that if I wanted to talk to him normally, I’d need to get that modification made to the tower. The sooner Laika got back to us on her decision, the better. Things were definitely not as they seemed around here, and generally when I was around, that meant that everything was about two steps from spiraling out of control.

“Uh… Night?” Hispano’s talon shot out and tightly grabbed around my hoof. “We’ve got a much bigger problem.”

Glancing over, I found her other talon still held her optics right up to her face. Her beak grit together as she basically emulated Buck’s growl from earlier. Whatever it was that had her almost digging her talon into me, I knew it wasn’t going to be good.

Turning my gaze back up to the observatory, even without my eye helping, I could see a black figure moving around the Remora. Still, I squinted, forcing the image to enhance again to the point where I could see that Rofia was walking and talking to somepony. She ran her claws across the smooth metal skin of the Remora, letting her tail curl and run over it as well.

She was talking to someone just out of sight, laughing as she spoke. You know, from the way she looked relaxed, and seemed to glide across the landing pad, you’d almost have guessed it was a different cat. This cat wasn’t the same haughty and stuck up cunt we’d been privileged to meet in that room. No, she seemed more in her element now that she was free from prying eyes. At least, eyes she knew about.

A glint of copper colored light hit me as another pony walked up to her, breaking my concentration. The bright afternoon sun radiantly shone off of the tubes to a particularly polished brass prosthetic that stepped around the backside of the Remora. My blood came to a boil as I realized that the pony that brass prosthetic was attached to, was the stark white coated form of Rook. And if he was here?

Solomon wasn’t far.

Still, even with as much anger as I felt, and for as shocking as it was to see just a single trace of them around, my lips curled into a smile I couldn’t hide. It’s been so long that I’d thought they’d be long gone. They should have taken the chance to get far far ahead of us when they had it.

“Hispano?” I grunted, glancing over at her to find a cold gaze had fallen across her face. “Get Suiza.”

Author's Notes:

As always, a HUGE thanks to TheFurryRailfan for his help in going over these chapters. Seriously, it's always a load off my mind to know that I've got a second pair of eyes to go over things!

And of course, a thank you to Kkat, who's let us all run around in these colorful equine wastelands!