"Their fucking ships can fly?" Dita screamed at her com while pushing the pedal for the steam boosters to the metal and get out of that mess as fast as possible.
"No!", allen snickered in the network, "but they can definitely jump good"
"Fuck you Allen", Dita was fuming, "wherever that quote is from its not funny", breathing deep, "you should have fucking seen it", exhaling, "it was terrifying"
"Probably looked awesome if they weren't shooting at us", the dragon replied.
"Whatever man", Safema breathed into the com unit, "when are you bringing it out?"
"I'm almost done with Red's pr'jct", swallawing the last word like a sour candy, "then we take off"
"Can't you finish it after the fucking war?" Dita couldn't fathom what was so important about one car to delay their whole plan by three days.
"Emet is begging me to send Red away every two hours", chuckling, "the man is turning his mountain to a junkyard faster than the giants can make new waaghons"
"At least the Kobolds know how to keep a schedule", Safema said remembering the thousands of tiny aircrafts landing in their field two nights ago.
"I hope the guilds aren't too pissed we will be so late to their party", Dita didn't sound convinced, "at least the fireworks are going to be great", she chuckled.
"No", Sefema finally said, "at least we didn't lose any overlord when those fucking dreadnaught shot into the sky"
"Lucky the dazzle patterns make it almost impossible to aim at us", looking backwards, "the ships may be indestructible but the blunt damage I got from the blast almost despawned me"
"Did you see how they all rose together like a pod of giant whales?" Coming from Rakina, "how did they do that?"
"Probably NPC routines", Allen answered.
"NPC what now?" Was the gist of the chorus blasting through the com unit.
"Make your vessel an NPC and you can command it through the direct interface", Allen got into his teacher voice, "like when you fire the cannons on your ships its thanks to NPCs that take your commands and turn them to routines the system interprets as valid actions"
"I thought it was just a pilot skill", Nariza joined the conversation.
"Its a common skill", Allen tried to explain again, "being a pilot just gives you access to special commands for the aircraft NPCs I hired when building your crafts".
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"Coming over to landing", Sefema finally said, "lost my tail so it's going to be bumpy", reading the gauges, "just get some firefighters ready for me"
"Ready and waiting for you pilot", came the gruff answer, "just kiss the ground and we will be hugging you"
"Eww Moller stop with all the touchy phrases" Sefema protested.
"No can do queens of the sky", sounding much happier than anyone driving a twenty ton steam catterpillar monster of metal and wood had any right to be.
"Dude I'm a guy" came the weak protest.
"Wear the threads get the creds", referring to the overlords' carriages looking like skirts when empty of dwagons.
"Ugh Moller", Sefema groaned, "just catch me if I fall"
"What is that thing on runway four" Nariza exclaimed when they got in sight of the airfield.
"Red's car", came the happy announcement from Allen, "it's finally done and I brought it outside to clear some room in the shop for you guys"
"It looks more like an old fasioned truck than a car", Nariza wasn't sure why she cared, it wasn't like she had any choice in whatever Red asked from Allen, it would just be nice to stay informed about resource expenditure when she was accountable for the manpower budget.
"We are all waiting for you guys to get here for the departure ceremony", Allen sounded formal.
"Not much longer" Sefema informed them while proceeding with a perfect landind, though not everyone shared her performance Moller and his other friends had almost no work to do before towing the overlords to the workshops for repairs, towing easily facilitated by the caterpillar inventory cargo that could take in three overlords at a time after the pilots and personnel were safely extracted.
The ceremony on runway four was divided between a welcome home party that embarassed the young pilots and farewell that had Red's face color imitate his name.
"Wh'th'nk'ye" he stuttered with tears in his eyes looking at truck shaped optimus prime towing a blinking delorian on its hauler, "g't'say w'sn't specting an'tng l'k th't when 'frst c'mere", slapping the door gently, "sh's a beauty", turning to Allen his face turned serious, "our other brother called me", indicating where a cranial implant would be in the real world, "so don't be surprised if you see us on his deck", tapping the door again, "but I owe you more than just words so you don't worry about us joining any side in your party", opening the door, "just gonna see what he wants and be gone to our parts o' th'wrld", muddling his last words showed his excitement as he climbed into the cabin.
Horn tooting, smoke blasting, wheels churning up a cloud of dust and after a short drive the truck was in the air.
"Is that really a legacy car?" Meroa asked in wonder.
"Only the delorian is", Allen sounded excited, "we let Koreimim become the truck intead of that dumb old stick"
"You what?" Meroa fumed at losing her favorite living staff of ultimate magic.
"We put a new NPC in the staff so it will be much less controversial when you use it in the future" Allen was surprised at her animosity.
"Why didn't you consult with me?" Meroa almost slapped the stupid dragon.
"As soon as Koreimim saw the truck", Allen breathed the explanation, "he wouldn't stop quoting every transformers chapter ever made", shaking his head, "humming the theme song", sighing deeply, "and used my computers to watch episode after episode", remembering the horror, "some of them on a loop", looking at her with his haunted eyes, "you should thank me for getting rid of him"
"We'll see how my new staff works before I thank you for anything", those damned puppy eyes, lucky she made him pick that stupid 'alluring conjuration' skill or the whole castle would be in a constant riot whenever he left the workshop.