No nukes is good nukes

Major Rocksun and I were working with technicians checking out the nuclear arsenal housed within a bay of the large ship. Hudson was nearby, but he was busy engaging in his third helping of ham and lima from the autochef.

“All of the missiles are still functional, sir,” a tech reported to the officer. “We are now working on their launching mechanisms to ensure that they will work.”

“Good,” the major nodded.

“Looks like the only issue in our plan is the fact that this ship is buried under a mountain,” I commented. “I don’t think there’s any way we can fire those up through the rock without making a big mess of everything.”

“I’ve been putting a lot of thought into that,” the Major replied. “I have a plan for that. Come this way.”

The commando leader led Hudson and I into the hanger bay of the ship. Different types of weapons were strapped down to the deck.

“A lot of this didn’t survive the ship’s crash,” Rocksun pointed at scraps of armor littering the area. “I found the technical specs for some of these weapons and I’ve been working on some of them to get them going. Look at this.”

“Wow,” I said.

“Oh man,” Hudson added.

“Arclite siege tank. She’s slow, she’s cumbersome, but she’s got the armor and these cannons here bring the thunder.”

“OK,” I said. “So we roll this thing out the back and shoot those guns up into the roof? That’s going to bring the whole mountain down on top of us.”

“Negative, Earthman,” Rocksun replied. “We’re going to use it to blast a hole in front of the ship. If the ship can fly out, great. If not, I just want it to get far enough so those missile tubes are out in the open.”

“Well this plan is just too crazy to not work,” I replied.

“Hey check this out!” Hudson called from the other side of the open bay. Rocksun and I looked over towards his direction and saw him sitting on some sort of a hovercycle.

“That’s a Vulture,” Rocksun commented. “It’s fast and it’s got a nice little grenade launcher right on the front. Careful, Private, that one’s ready to go.”

“Aww, this is just like a Harley back home.” Hudson revved the engine. “Check this out, I’m a biker! I’ve got attitude. Yeah? What do you want? I’m goin,’ sir.”

Hudson continued to gun the engine, but then the cycle popped into gear, flew across the bay and slammed sideways into the bulkhead. Hudson tumbled out, reached up and pulled the kill switch, then flopped to the ground as the machine’s engines settled down.

“I really have to start carrying a video camera,” I said while shaking my head.

“Well, you got a demo of the Vulture,” Rocksun said. “Let me show you one more item.”

He led me over to where still more equipment was lined up. I looked at the walking weapon and whistled.

“Yeah, that’s a Goliath,” Rocksun let himself smile just a bit. “It’s got a couple auto cannons plus a nice little air-to-air missile launcher.”

“Can I have the keys, dad?” I asked. “I’ll be real careful.”

“Oh you’ll get your chance,” he replied. “We’ll be heading out there soon enough.”