Breathing heavily, Jvarn looked around at the carnage that he had caused. The xeno had attempted to help but it had always hesitated at the killing blow, leaving Jvarn to finish it off. The corpses of the black insectoids littered the street. Their vile green ichor, the connection to the color of Chaos and it's irony not lost on the trooper, leaked onto the street.
Yanking his blade from one such corpse, Jvarn walked over to his discarded charge pack. Picking it up, he put it in the empty pouch on his harness. He was sure that he could find a way to charge the things on this xeno world. Even if he couldn't, the metal would make a great bludgeoning tool to bring His will upon the unworthy.
Looking at the winged-horse, he could see it looking around, it's over expressive face displaying awe and fear. When Jvarn's boot had crushed in the head of the insectoid the xeno had failed to kill, the trooper had though of killing the equine. Yet, something had stayed his hand, instead resorting to try to insult the xeno. Whether it understood the insult, Jvarn wasn't able to tell.
The wanting to do penitence for his hesitation to dispose of the xeno crossed the troopers mind. The noise around him shuffled away that wanting. The city still gave the roar of war and Jvarn would be damned if he did not answer it's call.
A sudden movement from the xeno had Jvarn aiming his lasgun at it's head. His finger had the trigger halfway depressed when it saw it indicating a direction with it's hoof. A twitch. That's all it would take to end the xeno's life. The xeno apparently realized this as it's expression turned to one of fear, it's eyes locked on the end of the barrel. The silence between the two was so great that they could hear the drop of green blood that fell from the blade as it hit the ground. At least, they would have been able to. The roar of war was quite loud.
Biting back a curse, Jvarn removed his finger from the trigger and moved his rifle away from the xeno. It continued to stare at his rifle for a couple seconds before it shook it's head. The trooper watched as it motioned again with it's hoof before taking off at a gallop down the street.
“Emperor forgive me for my sins,” Jvarn muttered before taking off after the xeno. He followed it down the road, scanning for any more insectoids. Suddenly, the xeno flared it's wings and darted down a side street. Reaching the street himself, Jvarn turned to see more of the insectoids. This time, however, there were a couple of the xenos engaging the carapaced attackers. Some wore armor like the winged-horse he had followed while others wore nothing at all.
“Vile creatures,” Jvarn muttered again as he raised his rifle and let off a trio of shots at the insectoid group. The new xeno group looked at him in surprise but a few melodic words from the winged-horse he had followed sent their attention back to the insectoids. The Venite paid little attention to the horses as he fired at the insectoids, calmly walking towards the melee as he did.
One of the black creatures fell with a hole in it's carapace, the wound smoking. That was not my round, came Jvarn's thought as he stopped shooting to look around for the shooter. Another insectoid was felled. Looking up, Jvarn spotted the shooter and smiled as he saw the white beret and blue uniform of the Six's Sixth.
The shooter locked eyes with Jvarn and the male trooper immediately recognized Kilm's trademark smirk as she waved at him. Her waving hand then pointed to the battle. Taking the message, Jvarn turned back to the fight. Throwing himself into the melee, he slashed, shot, and kicked any insectoid that came near him. He was vaguely aware of the wounds he was collecting from these fights and of the insectoids falling from Kilm's long-las.
Now he only had to find Hayt. Jvarn knew that all he had to do was find the biggest fire.
“I hate you guys!” Crescent shouted as he flapped his leathery wings hard, trying to stay far in front of the large bipedal pursuing him. They had winded through the streets like this, bipedal chasing Crescent.
“Hey, at least he stopped with the fire right?” Crimson asked as she galloped over the rooftops, slightly behind Crescent and to his right.
“Yeah! Cheer up Crescent!” Barricade shouted as he galloped over the rooftops to Crescent's left.
“Buck you!” he cried as he turned left onto a new road. A flash of light and Crimson was suddenly on the rooftops to his right again. Crescent smirked though as he saw the Changelings at the end of this street. They had been moving in a patrol formation. Crescent expected they were looking for ponies to drain. Too bad for them, the bipedal trailing Crescent had a particular hatred of the insect ponies. Of course, this fact couple with it's confusion of Crescent being a Changeling had gotten the bat pony into this mess.
“Let 'em have it big guy!” shouted the Night Guard as he banked up and into the sky. Stopping a little above roof height, the bat pony looked down and smiled. Below him, the bipedal was sweeping the flames back and forth over the Changeling patrol. Their death cries filled the air as their soft innards were cooked by the searing flames.
“Yeah!” Crescent cried as he gave a hoof pump. He watched as the last of the patrol dropped dead.
“Onto the next one!” Barricade shouted.
“Right!” Crescent shouted back before flying into the bipedal's line of sight. The stallion was a bit surprised when a spear of flame didn't reach out towards him. It looked at him with an almost expectant attitude. The Night Guard wondered if it knew that he would lead it to more Changelings.
“This way!” shouted the bat pony before taking off down the road, glancing back to see the bipedal following.
Hayt was no fool. After he realized that the leather winged xeno was able to stay out of his flamer's reach, he had opted to conserve fuel or else lose his precious baby. After the fire high, as he called it, died down, he was able to spot the two horned xenos galloping on the rooftops on either side of him. The three aliens spoke to each other with melodic voices as they ran.
When the xeno drew his attention before taking off after the first group of insectoids, he realized their plan. They were leading him through the city to where they thought the insectoids were. He found himself briefly insulted by the idea of being used by the xenos. The will to burn overrode that feeling, however, and drove him to follow the xenos.
After decimating three more groups of the insectoids, Hayt wondered where the xenos were dragging him. Did they even know? Were they just taking random courses and hoping to run into the patrols? Would they turn on him?
By now, he had also realized that the two horned xenos were psykers, though they possessed the strange ability to teleport themselves from rooftop to rooftop. At first, he had been alarmed. They were xeno psykers! They had to be purged! Then, another fire high drowned out that feeling and replaced it with another: as long as they continued to fuel his desire to burn, he would not try to burn them.
Rounding a corner, he almost ran into the back of the leathery winged xeno. The heat from his flamer's pilot light startled the xeno and sent it spiraling into the air, revealing the scene on the street. Colorful xenos fought the black insectoids, corpses of each littering the street. That's not what drew his attention, however. It was the Guardsman in the middle of the melee, slashing and stabbing at the insectoids.
With a renewed sense of purpose, Hayt charged into the fray, his flamer discharging righteous fire into the thickest of insectoid groups. Sometimes his flames licked the hides of the colorful xenos but he didn't care about their well-being. Reaching his squad mate, Hayt roasted an insectoid that was behind him before stepping up with his back to Jvarn's.
“Hayt! How nice of you to show up!” Jvarn greeted, a sarcastic tone in his voice as he bayoneted an insectoid.
“Yeah! My alarm went off late!” Hayt replied as he kicked an insectoid to the street before crushing in it's skull, being mindful of it's spiked horn. With his boot still in the green goop, he swept his flamer over a trio of the insectoids, smiling in glee as they screamed in agony. “Is Kilm here?”
“Overwatch,” was Jvarn's simple reply. As if on cue, the head of an insectoid in front of Hayt exploded in a brilliant display of gore.
“So I see,” Hayt replied with a chuckle.
“What do you think of the xenos?” Jvarn asked with barely disguised disgust, clubbing an insectoid with the butt of his rifle as he did.
“Friendly-”
“Heresy.”
“-for xenos.”
“They have psykers amongst them,” Jvarn stated as a pink bolt flew close to the duo before slamming into an insectoid.
“So I've seen.”
“They deserve to be purged in the name of the God-Emperor.”
“Indeed. In His name.”
“You disagree?”
“We are highly outnumbered.”
“They are a primitive race.”
“We only have so many rounds. Then it comes to blades and they have much more than we do,” Hayt explained as he turned and roasted an insectoid that Jvarn had bayoneted. Feeling a presence to his other side, Hayt turned to see Kilm standing with her back to the two. Her long-las was slung across her back and she now held a laspistol in her hands.
“Weren't you on the rooftops?” Jvarn asked, noticing her presence as well. The two men reconfigured their stances to create a triangular effect with the woman. The fighting continued as the insectoids had been reinforced during the Guardsmen's debate.
“I was. The winged xeno with me was kind enough to deliver me to the street,” she explained, firing a pair of las-rounds into an insectoid.
“You let one touch you?” Jvarn asked in disgust.
“It was that or jump down and I like having my bones unbroken, thank you,” she retorted, “Besides, it did save my life.”
“There's three of them now?” Crescent asked as he was joined by Crimson and Barricade in the melee that was occurring in the street.
“They look to be friends,” Barricade stated as he bucked a Changeling away from the trio. Crimson looked at the bipedals and took note of their uniforms. She then rolled her eyes.
“What gave it away?” she asked sarcastically as she used a magical shield to push a Changeling into a wall with enough force to kill it.
“The talking.”
With confusion, Crimson looked back at the bipedals to see that they did seem to be talking amongst themselves. She wondered why they would be talking during a battle. Realizing that was doing just that, Crimson felt the urge to facehoof.
“Any of you two wondering what the Sisters are doing right are?” Crescent asked as he shot a crossbow bolt into a Changeling before hitting another with his free forehoof.
A bright pink flash made the three Guardsponies look in the direction of the castle.
“What the hay?” Crescent asked. A pink wall suddenly passed through them, the magical discharge causing their bodies to tingle. Looking around, they were met with a street devoid of the black demons.
“Weren't there Changelings here a second ago?” Barricade questioned.
“Weren't the bipedals on their hooves as well?” Crescent added before taking off to the three prone, still figures in the street. They appeared to have just passed out. Crescent assumed that the pink whatever it was may have reacted negatively with them. To be sure, the Night Guard gently shook the flame wielding bipedal.
“Hey big guy, you there?” he asked, readying himself to fly away should it awake and wish to burn him. When he got no response, he looked at the other two to see Guardsponies trying to shake them awake as well. Neither got a response. Crescent could see that they were breathing though. That was good right?
“So,” Crescent looked up at the sword wielding pegasus Day Guard that hovered next to the smaller of the three, “anypony know what these things are?”
He was met with numerous shaking heads. He gave a sigh as he looked down at the smaller bipedal, “Didn't think so.”