Captain Fairchild smirked. "If it involves blowing s--- up, I'm in for it!" A ground crewman was repairing the armor that had been corroded by the dip that Gabriel had used. Even though the plates were crudely welded on, they'd eventually fuse seamlessly with his own armor.
"Captain, can you think of something that doesn't involve gratuitous amounts of explosives and ordnance?" Major Lockie asked as he was being refueled.
"Hey! I've got a 30 mm gatling autocannon that spits out a mix of armor piercing incendiary rounds and high explosive incendiary tracers. It's great fun to use it!"
Major Lockie scowled. "Look I'm basically a flying artillery base" - Major Lockie swiveled his rear mounted 105 mm howitzer for emphasis - "but you don't see me aching to blow things up!"
"Bah! You're no fun."
Lt. Martin sighed. "Captain, Major, you both outrank me, but with all due respect, could you please stop arguing about this? Captain Fairchild's infatuation with his gun is his business and his business alone."
The two living planes immediately ceased their argument.
Lt. Martin pivoted to face Stripetail. "Stripetail, how wide is the entrance? Major Lockie has a wingspan of over one hundred feet?" As she spoke, she ran an internal diagnostics on her systems.
-------------------
Gabriel was standing in the rubble of a tower that Captain Fairchild had demolished hours ago.
"You idiots!" she screeched. "You couldn't bring down that plane!?"
"But he was-" a Weasel protested.
"No buts! I want them out the picture the next time you see them!"
Several of the Weasels came back with cash and other valuables pillaged from the surrounding area.
Gabriel looked around. "All right, move out!" She then headed back to her RV and started the engine.