> In Nomine
>  by Schroedingers_Katze
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> I.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


I.



“The Emperor protects.”



The planet Argus Tertius, third planet of the Helstróm system of the Segementum Obscurus. 
It wasn’t a truly big planet, nor was it a really important one in all points. 

Aside from the regular amounts of fresh recruits for the Imperial Guard or the Imperial Tithe of course.

It was a planet with up until now surprisingly lush forests, clean oceans, some more or less hot desert zones and a population around six billion souls. 

The technological standard was like most planets within the Imperium of Mankind.

Steadily pacing on the spot. Never advancing.  Never taking a step back. Almost never.

Every city had large districts consisting only of manufactories, constantly pumping out a stream of every imaginable product to keep the planet and connected with that, the unmeasurable war machine that was the Empire running. Ranging from standard tech from laser rifles to whole tanks, armor for the guard, food and maintenance supplies. 

The population was loyal to the God-Emperor. In the whole history of the planet, there had only been half a dozen smaller rebellion’s, mostly started by the oppressed mutants that made the main forces of the manufactorum workers. Just once, there had been a governor that thought he could deceive the Adeptus Administatorum by lining his own pockets. Needless to say that the situation was quickly corrected by a force of the Imperial Guard, namely the 301.st Battalion of the Harakoni Warhawks.    

All in all, one would stand correct with the statement that the population of Argus Tertius was used to live by Pax Imperialis, the Imperial Peace. 

Living, working and dying for the God-Emperor.

Untouched by the tainting presence of chaos.

Unscathed from the brutish Orks and their world quaking Waaagh!´s.

To far away for the honeyed lies of the Tau and their “Greater Good”. 

Not connected to the web or hiding artifacts of the treacherous Eldar.

Miraculously unnoticed by the countless tentacles of the hive fleet.

Just a planet of six billion hard working, Emperor-fearing human souls. Only protected by the Planetary Defense Forces and three Sword-class frigates that were constantly stationed around the planet.

An absolutely irresistible target.

"INCOMING!“

The alarming shout made its way through the defense line. Soldiers in black plate armor and red uniforms manned their respective stations behind sand bags, piled up debris and burned out vehicles. Hellguns leveled, the soldiers starred into the no-man’s-land that stretched in front of them. 

Barbed wire stretched between countless small craters which marred the outskirts of Faiths Arrival, the medium sized spaceport the 401.st Inquisitorial task force was using as a foothold right now. On top of all that, thick, black smoke wafted lazily around, obscuring the view. 

Vague shapes appeared in the smoke. Stumbling, constantly moving towards the defense line.      

The soldiers stiffened up visibly.  

A woman in dull metallic power armor stood at an impromptu command post, overseeing the front line. A at the hemline tattered red cape billowed around her figure and likewise did her orange hair. Her gloved right rested on her swords hilt, tightening ever so slightly which each step the shapes took forward.    

“Ready yourself soldiers! Wait until they breach the smoke and then be ready to unleash hell upon them!” a gruff looking sergeant with a scarred face and a buzz cut yelled at the right side of the woman.

“Ready for the dance Drake?” inquired Rayla Nor. 

The sergeant took himself a few second to answer but with a thin yet certain smile “Of course Lady Nor. They will be sorry to ever set a foot onto this world.”

Content with her followers answer Rayla watched Drake check his equipment, giving his heavy saber a few swings and adjusting his HEL-laspistol. Tugging her single, long braid behind her left ear, the Inquisitors eyes wandered to Crux. 

The mutant man was at her side, always a few steps behind her, slightly at her left, clutching his trusty shotgun with his strong hands. Rayla allowed herself a small smile. Despite his hump and his speech defect he had been a loyal servant since their fateful encounter on Kalisto Primus. He would follow her naked into the Eye of Terror if she wanted him to.

“Ready Crux?”

The mutant bowed respectful, causing his more or less ill-fitting armaplast armor to clatter. 
“Yes Mistress. Crux is ready. Emperor protects!”

Heavy footsteps drew Raylas attention. Outside her small commando post, which was nothing more than a higher located piece of terrain surrounded by some more sand bags and barbed wire and covered by an urban style camouflage net, a pair of black armored woman with platinum white hair came to a stop. Rayla recognized both of them immediately. To the right, Sister Pinea, her polished Godwyn-De´az bolter at the ready and to the left Sister Ursula. The later was presenting her perfectly maintained heavy bolter while establishing eye contact to the Inquisitor, a red lens of an auspex gleaming over her right eye. Like Crux, Ralya had recruited both Sisters of Battle on Kalisto Primus.

“Lady Nor?” the Retributor Sister asked. 

“Ah, yes? Do you have something for me?” Rayla answered a tad hastier and less authoritarian then she had intended to. 

The Sister of Battle bowed her head slightly “Indeed. All troops have taken their designated posts and are only waiting for your orders. At your command, we shall clean this planet from the infestation that came upon it!”

“In His light we shall march, armed with His righteous fury and His blessing as our armor.” Pinea chimed in, the fire of fanaticism in her eyes, shifting between Rayla´s armored form and Crux, rankly glaring daggers at the mutant. 

Rayla noticed the fierce glares the younger Sister of Battle gave her follower with an inward sigh. >>That´s an upbringing by the Schola Progenium for you.<< the Inquisitor thought. Then she noticed someone was missing. “Where is Sister Ilene?”


°°°


To her left and her right, black and red clad soldiers inched away slowly.
She did not care.
Thick smoke hid the battlefield and the enemy in front of her.
It did not matter. 
Soon enough the foes of humanity and His divine will would show their wretched face and she would be there to meet them. Head on. Bringing down her blade, unstoppable, passing His judgment among them.
Ilene let out a controlled breath. 
Soon she would be able to repent.
A breeze tugged at the blood red cloth of her mask. With a nearly automated motion, she adjusted it, causing the chains on her body to clatter. The masked woman kneeled down and closed her eyes. Then she started praying, her raspy voice merely louder than a whisper, yet it was strong and unwavering.


“A spiritus dominates. 
Domine, libra nos.
From the lightning and the tempest, 
Our Emperor, deliver us.
From plague, deceit, temptation and war, 
Our Emperor, deliver us.
From the scourge of the Kraken, 
Our Emperor, deliver us.
From the blasphemy of the fallen, 
Our Emperor, deliver us.
From the begetting of daemons, 
Our Emperor, deliver us.
From the curse of the mutant, 
Our Emperor, deliver us.
A morte perpetua,
Domine, libra nos.
May you bring them only death.
May you not spare them.
May you not reprieve them.
We beseech you, destroy them.”


“Truly inspiring, really. I still get Goosebumps whenever I witness you Sisters doing this.” A voice, slightly stretched by a respirator mask, from behind her said.

Reopening her steel gray eyes, Ilene stood up and turned towards the voice. A lone soldier stood there, an Imperial Guard standard issue flame thrower hanging loosely from its strap around his shoulder. 

“Charon.” the Sister Repentia acknowledged the troopers presence.

A stray gleam of light reflected from the blue tinted visor of Charons helmet. 
“Wow, that was almost a hint of emotion in there. And here I thought, all your feeling were reserved for swinging this” he motioned towards the humongous chainsword that was leaning against a nearby wall “and yelling at your pitiful enemies.” He gave a low whistle as the woman lifted the weapon that was used to destroy vehicles, slay monstrous creatures or lesser enemies in droves without much more than a grunt. Again, Charon could not resist giving Ilene a survey. The lithe body of the Repentia was covered in scars, some old, some newer. At least those parts of her body that was not covered by her mask, the sleeveless red tunic or the black, corset like armor protecting her midsection. He would probably never know what drove her to take her vows but again he thought to himself what a shame that was. Then again, he had witnessed what the fallen Sister of Battle was capable of and as sure as all Greenskins were mushrooms, Charon would not want to miss her and her roaring Eviscerator in the front lines. Or find himself on the receiving end for that matter.     

“May I ask you a question?” Ilene asked out of the blue.

“Eh, sure, why not?” Charon replied more than a bit surprised. “Shoot.”

The Repentia Sister did not turn towards the inquisitional trooper, instead fixating her gaze on an unknown spot of the smoke cloaked no-man’s land. “Why is it that you always try to engage me in conversation? All the other members of Lady Nor´s forces are trying to avoid contact with me as much as possible and rightfully so. So answer me trooper, what is your agenda by doing this? What do you hope to achieve?”

“Sheesh, my reasons to talk to you?” the soldier kicked a small piece of debris away “Well, first of, there is no agenda or something like it. You just seemed like you could use some contact, that´s all. Day in, day out you do nothing but hiding away somewhere in the ships bowels, doing the Emperor knows what. Never talking to anyone, except maybe the Lady Inquisitor.  You´re secluding yourself. That’s not healthy. It’s…”

“It is exactly what I am supposed to do! This gown,” Ilene gestured with her free hand alongside her body, her Eviscerator comfortably resting on her shoulder “is the gown of repentance, not the gown of making new social contacts. I am supposed to pray and fight until the Emperor allows me to die. Nothing more, nothing less.”   

Charon was about to respond as a soldier along the defense line yelled out:

“CONTACT!”       

Without any more words, Ilene started walking towards the oncoming battle.

Charon chuckled under his helmet as he ignited the pilot flame of his weapon and followed the Repentia Sister.


°°°


Rayla reached the front line as the first figure broke through the smoke, her bolt pistol and power sword ready. Sergeant Drake, Sister Pinea and Crux stood with her. Sister Ursula had positioned herself on higher grounds, on top of the nearby hull of a burned out Chimera troop transporter to be able to use her heavy weapon with most efficiency.

The figure was a human, a ragged looking man somewhere around his forties. He was more stumbling than walking, several dark stains on his dirty clothing indicating that he was most likely wounded. 

>> A civilian?<< Rayla gazed at the approaching man.

“Praise the Emperor, other humans!” the man yelled out “Don´t shot, don´t shoot for His mercy! I´m unarmed, please don’t shoot!”

More humans came out of the smoke. Man, woman and even children, all in varying ages. Some were heavily wounded, others surprisingly unscathed. 

The presence of the civilians left a foul taste in the Inquisitors mouth. That doesn’t fit her enemy’s usual behavior.

“Halt!” Drake yelled suddenly “Stop right there. Another step closer and we will mow you down were you stand!” To underline his statement every trooper took aim.

The first man stared flabbergasted. “W-what? But we are civilians; we have woman and children with us. Some are badly injured…”

“And even if you were the planetary governor, it would change nothing!” Now Rayla yelled back, having regained her composure “Every city is under siege by the enemy by now and the chance that a bunch of untrained and unarmed civilians could escape them, let alone find a way to reach this landing zone are zero!”

“But you… aren’t you supposed to protect us? You are the Guard for Heaven’s sake!” the man shouted, growing more and more desperate. Some other civilians, mostly man, joined him, pleading for help.

Steeling herself Rayla took a step forward, shouting with every ounce of authority she could muster “No! I am Rayla Nor, Inquisitor of the Ordo Haereticus, leader of the 401.st task force. We are here to confront the xenos that are tarnishing this planet and to learn the reason why. Everything else is secondary. You will stay right where you are until we say otherwise. We will concern ourselves with your predicament later!”

“But we need help… right now… we…” the man yelled desperate.

“We should use him as an example Lady Nor.” Drake suggested. “His dead would… what the frakk is THAT?”

Right before them the body of the man suddenly started to convulse violently. Dark blood started pouring out of his mouth and his eyes, while sharp looking bones began to pierce his skin, all of his muscles shifting under his skin like a nest of snakes. With a long wail of unspeakable agony, the deformed man started running towards the defense line. 

“Bring him down!” Rayla and Drake yelled nearly in unison.

Several hellguns came to life, sending red spears of death towards the target and likewise did Pineas bolter. The laser beams cut into the abused flesh, literally vaporizing big chunks of the man´s body but it didn´t stop him. Rayla watched as a precise volley of bolter rounds hit the former human being square in the chest. 

A weird mixture of rage and relief played over the tormented victims traits. 

Only milliseconds later, the man exploded more violently then the bolter rounds could have caused, sending gore and sharp bone pieces everywhere. 

“Daemon!” hissed Pinea.

“Sorcery!” half yelled, half wailed Crux.

“What in the warp was that?” Drake asked.

Then, every remaining civilian started a mad dash towards the defense line. Most of them were showing the same changes like the man only moments earlier.

Cursing the ones responsible for the unpreventable, Rayla took aim. 
“They are changed. All troops, OPEN FIRE!”

And her men did. The disciplined soldiers met the rush with a massive wall of laser fire, cutting down less of their targets than expected. All along the line, special weapons joined the massacre. Plasma guns unleashing white hot death and grenade launchers covering several targets at once with deadly shrapnel. 

From her higher position, Ursula was pulling the trigger of her heavy bolter, sending methodical volleys of large caliber explosive rounds into their targets. The Retributor Sister’s weapon was cutting a bloody path but the changed civilians kept pressing on. 

Eventually the first breached the last perimeter, close enough for the flamethrowers and melta guns to finally join the song of death and destruction. Hissing tongues of cleansing flames set tortured flesh ablaze and rays of unimaginable heat turned their targets into nothing but ash. Far and between, some troopers even flung a frak grenade into the incoming enemies.    

“Hold the line!” Rayla yelled on top of her lungs, unloading her bolt pistol in rapid succession into the assailants next to her. As the rounds turned her targets into bloody clouds, two men and a woman rushed at her. The three humans were wailing in agony, only the white of their eyes visible. With not enough time to change the clip, the Inquisitor holstered her gun and griped her sword with two hands, bracing herself for close combat. Rayla met the first man with a downward slash of her weapon, cutting the man open from his right shoulder to his left hip, the force field covered blade slicing through muscle tissue and bones without meeting resistance, ending her opponent’s life. Using the momentum of her initial attack, Rayla then brought her blade back up, beheading the woman. It was in that moment she realized her mistake.

The headless body in front of her shivered violently and exploded, coating Rayla in blood, chunks of meat and bone shrapnel. The sudden spray of blood blinded her while most of the bone fragments were stopped dead by the power armor she was wearing. Blinking, she tried to clear her eyes, taking a step back. All around her the fight continued. She heard the sharp hissing of the laser weapons, the yelling of her soldiers and the meaty detonations of the human turned bombs. Squinting Rayla tried to locate the third of her attackers. Through the veil of blood and tear fluid she saw the man as he flung himself at her. In vain she tried to bring up her sword to impale her opponent on it as a shotgun thundered twice at her left, knocking the changed human back and off his feet. A red and black blur then came down on the fallen man, ending his life with a volley of hissing high energetic laser beams.  

Crux was acutely aware of the battle around him. All around him, the soldiers of his Mistress were dishing out ruby colored death. The mutant saw one of his enemies going down after a headshot from a hellgun vaporized half the man’s head and felt a twinge of envy. His own shotgun was far from that level of efficiency or accuracy. Then again, it was simple and trusty, which was all he needed. Crux leveled his weapon at the incoming attackers, ready to contribute his part in lead. 
Just a bit closer.
To his right he saw his Mistress firing her pistol into the rushing bodies, only to engage three of the Imperium´s enemies in close combat. Crux smiled as he witnessed with how much ease the Inquisitor defeated the first two but that smile quickly vanished as the woman Rayla beheaded a moment ago exploded in a shower of gore, maliciously blinding the Inquisitor and opening a path for the third foe. Instantly Crux brought his own weapon to bear, pulling the trigger once and then again for good measure. The first shot stopped the man and at the impact of the second, he was knocked of his feet. The man’s body had not touched the ground properly as Sergeant Drake stepped in front of Rayla, pointing his HEL-laspistol at the man’s stomach, vaporizing it in a hail of laser fire.  

Sergeant Drake watched with satisfaction as the troopers all around him disposed of the last changed civilians. No one had breached the line.
“Good work there Crux.” he told the mutant that was fumbling with spare shells to reload his weapon. At his praise, the hunch bag smiled widely only to somber up rapidly, performing the imperial Aquila gesture over his armored chest as a proper response to the sergeant.

“Ewww, this is disgusting!” Rayla complained, wiping her face clean with the edge of her cape.

The weathered trooper chuckled at the behavior of his leader. “Ah, come on Rayla, it can´t be worse than those Nurgle cultists back on Kasr Volst. Remember all those pits, filled to the brim with rotting corpses, puss and blood?” 

The Inquisitor stuck out her tongue “Bleeegh, don´t remind me.” 

“Milady.” A voice gathered the Inquisitors attention. A trooper with a flamethrower stood at attention a few steps behind Raylas group. Drake recognized the man instantly.

“Charon! Were the frakk have you been?” the sergeant barked, closing the distance to the weapon specialist. “You are designated to Lady Nor´s personal group, which means your sorry ass has to be at her side all the time, not just when you feel like it!” 

The trooper shifted on the spot. “Sorry sarge, I really tried but on my way I got slightly distracted by a bunch of warp-shit crazy human bombs.” he said while pointing to the blackened muzzle of his weapon.

Drake poked his gloved finger against Charon’s torso armor “You´re just one lucky son of a bitch that Lady Nor is not one to have you court marshaled!” 

Rayla sighed before addressing the flamer wielding trooper. “While we’re at it Charon, any casualties I should know of?”

The black armored trooper shock his head “No Milady. Some soldiers suffered minor wounds when bone shrapnel hit a body part not protected by armor but nothing critical. The medics are at it as we speak.” 

Satisfied with the information, Ralya took a com device out of a bag from her belt and activated it. “Attention troopers, this is Rayla Nor speaking. You all did well but we must not dawdle. This planet is still under attack and there are still the ones responsible for what happened with this unfortunate souls hiding out here. Gather the equipment and get into the Rhinos. We´re moving out!”


°°°



Silence filled the streets of the city Aurora. Every HUB block, every manufactorum and every street laid in thick, nearly graspable silence.
The huge twin doors of the local cathedral of the imperial savior were opened wide, showcasing the rich baroque décor of the holy place. Frescos made of fine marble lined the walls and rows after rows of statues depicting countless imperial heroes and saints looked down on the empty wooden benches that filled the large prayer room. A huge altar dominated the head end of the place. It was a huge block of marble, covered with hundreds of candles, thick layers of wax covering its sides, a mute testimonial for centuries of loyal worshipping.

The sound of heavy combat boots interrupted the silence as a lone figure skidded to a halt at the wide open gates. It was a man clad in the typical armor of the Imperial Guard, painted in a grey urban camouflage pattern over a black uniform, identifying him as a member of the local planetary defense forces. Blood trickled from a cut over his left eye. A hounded expression on his face, the soldier more stumbled than run past the benches and towards the mighty altar. Like a child would hide under the kitchen table or under its bed after its parents had caught it with the hand still in the cookie jar, the man cowered behind the solid block of marble. 

He would be safe here.

Those… things… that were lurking outside would not dare to search for him inside this holy place.

No.

This was a place of worshipping the Emperor after all. He would not allow such vile creatures in this sacred place.

Or would he?

Just as the lone soldier felt his pounding heart had started to calm down, he heart a bone chilling sound. 

The sound of bare feet on the polished marble floor. Bare feet with sharp claws instead of nails that scraped over the ground with every step, slowly walking inside the cathedral.

Hunting.

The man’s hand shot to his side, were his autorifle should have been. It was not there. He suddenly remembered dropping it while running for his dear life. 
The soldier felt sweat build up on his forehead as he clenched his fingers around the stairs he was sitting on. They were inside. Oh merciful Emperor, they were inside!

The sound of the steps stopped. Now, instead there was sniffing. 

It was trying to catch his scent!

Hearing the sniffing, a reflex kicked in that was as old as the humanity itself, hailing from a time when humans had been nothing but helpless prey to superior predators.

The soldier hold his breath.

Deep down, he knew that holding his breath was useless when that thing on the other side of the altar was able to detect him by his scent but he could not help it. It was just like back in his childhood, when he and his friends had played hide-and-seek in the city’s outskirts. Back then, he used to hold his breath too, ever time his friends would come close to his hiding spot. 
It had never worked out for him. Every time, he had held his breath until the urge to breath had been overwhelming, causing him to loudly gasp for the life giving element and to finally give away his hiding spot. 
He knew it would end like this too. 
Preventing it was so simple, yet so unmanageable. 
Breath.
Just breath!
These simple words spun around in the guardsman’s tortured mind.

The thing on the other side started moving again. Towards the altar. Towards its prey.

The man’s lunges were burning, screaming for oxygen. Just one little breath, he heard himself thinking. His hands shot up, covering his mouth and pinching his nose shut. He heard the scratching of claws against stone and a low metallic grinding as a razor sharp blade was dragged along the altars surface. A shudder ran down the soldier’s spine, causing his eyes to stray only to be caught by his vambrace. The grey surface was coated with a thin layer of rime. Above him, the soldier heard the thing shift its weight as it was by now surely crouching on top of the altar. A quick glance at the opposite wall confirmed it. A cowering shade had appeared on top of the altars shade against the wall.

Slowly but surely the need to breathe, to deeply inhale no matter what, became unbearable. 

The temperature dropped further, causing the rime to spread over the uniforms sleeves.   

His vision started to get blurry, while his heart hammered against his ribcage. 

Every moment now, the thing would notice him, the man was sure of that.

Every moment.

Now!

The soldier closed his eyes. He did not want to see it coming.

But nothing happened. 

Another second passed and he was still alive. Dizzy but alive. The shade was gone. 
Hesitant the guardsman let go of his mouth and nose, allowing himself a painfully slow and overly controlled breath through the later. 
After listening for a while and not hearing anything, the soldiers inched closer the altars edge. For a second he hesitated to follow his plan but he had to know if the thing was gone for good. He needed to get away from this cathedral, away from this city, away from this planet and away from this sector, just to be sure. 
No, a voice inside his mind told him, only away from this city. Go find another regiment, tell them what happened here! Return with more troops and then blast those things and their friends back to where they came from!
But first things first.
Slowly, the soldier peeked around the corner.

No claws where there to greet him, no blade dug itself into his brain. Just an empty cathedral laid before his eyes. Suppressing a scream of joy, the man pulled himself back into a sitting position behind the altar and froze.

Right in front of him, merely an arm’s reach away sat crouched down a creature born from a nightmare. The things whole skin was like condensed darkness, literally swallowing the light that shone on it, causing it to radiate a chilling cold aura. Weird glyphs shone from within in a ghostly green light, as a heavy contrast to the black skin. Bone white, long and unkempt hair formed an unruly mane atop the creatures head. Around his lower body, it seemed to wear some sort of… skirt? Indeed, some kind of skirt but it was made out of a weird material. 
A familiar symbol catched the guardsman’s eye. An imperial Aquila was emblazoned on the creatures skirt! With that, the horrid truth dawned the man: that things skirt was made out of human skin! Ripping his eyes away from the macabre article of clothing, he noticed a wicked looking blade resting in one of the beast´s hands. It looked similar to a razor, only at the size of a machete. And then, finally the guardsman´s gaze rested on the vile creatures face. Or for that matter, the empty space it had for a face. For some reason, it reminded the lone human of a puddle of oil. The surface was constantly moving, pitch black and abysmal. 
It was bizarrely captivating. 
The creature inched closer. When its face was only inches away from the soldiers, the blank surface of the creatures face suddenly rippled like a disturbed body of water. A portion of the “skin” were the mouth should be located ripped open like a bursting wound, revealing thin yet sharp looking predator teeth and the same ghostly green light like that of the glyphs pouring out of its throat.

Before the creatures jaws reached his throat, the soldier finally opened his mouth and took a long, deep breath.


°°°


[Two hours later]

A convoy of black painted Rhinos with red highlights at the front section and the unmistakable sigil of the Inquisition in bright white on their side hatches crawled towards the city Aurora. 

The tension aboard the Rhino “Reliable” was thick enough to be cut with a knife. Inside the sparsely lightened passenger compartment, a platinum haired woman was glaring daggers at a hunch bag who tried his best to prevent eye contact, while a gruff sergeant was sharpening his combat knife for emergencies; a weapon specialist was maintaining his flamethrower, occasionally swapping tools with another platinum haired woman that was busy cleaning the ejection mechanism of her own weapon and at the rear end of the compartment, a masked woman was kneeling on the floor, silently praying.
Finally, a woman in dull metallic power armor had enough.

“Fine. Spill it.” Rayla leaned herself towards Pinea, giving the Sister of Battle an annoyed glare. 

The addressed woman answered with a part confused, part frustrated look. “P-pardon Lady Inquisitor?”

Inhaling deeply, the orange haired Inquisitor gestured with a gloved hand towards Pinea. “It is obvious that there is something on your mind Sister. And with the success of this operation in mind, it would be better for all of us if you finally say what’s troubling you.” Rayla watched her counterpart squirm in her seat, fiddling with her rosary.

“It is… nothing Inquisitor Nor. Really… nothing.”

Huffing Rayla pinched the bridge of her nose. “Sure. And Khorne is the god of love and tolerance! Do I need to remind you that you have sworn loyalty AND honesty to me Pinea? I could just order you to tell me what troubles you but I would prefer not to. You are part of my retinue. We need to trust each other. If you cannot tell me what´s on your mind, how can I trust you to cover my back on the battlefield?” 

“…”

“Speechless now, aren´t we?” Rayla said casual. Retorting to that kind of psychological trick to handle a member of her own retinue was something she disliked strongly but if she had learned one thing from her late master then it was that sometimes one had to do things one was uncomfortable with in order to reach the goal. Questioning ones oaths and loyalty could work wonders.

In a gesture of defeat, Pinea throw her black armored hands up. “It is… it is him!” she practically hissed, jabbing her finger in Crux direction. 

The mutant suddenly discovered a very intriguing bolt at the compartments floor.

“It is not my place to question your decisions Inquisitor but why do you insist to keep a tainted one around? What do you see in him? What can he do that every able bodied, believing and pure human cannot? His existence alone is a mockery of the natural order. Every fiber of my being demands to purge him!” the Sister of Battle spat with a good portion of venom in her voice.

“You are quite right Sister. It is not yours to question my decisions!” the Inquisitor replied with a cold voice. “But that point of yours is really interesting. So, basically, your opinion is that every mutated being should be killed right?”

“Yes.” Pinea finally said in utter conviction.

Closing her eyes with an understanding smile, Rayla opened her arms in an inviting manner. “Well then Sister, take your weapon and kill me.”

“What?” Pinea was flabbergasted.

Still smiling, Rayla opened her eyes “Well, I am a psyker Sister Pinea. A mutant. A being unworthy to live, judging by your words. So please, take up that weapon of yours and end me. Purge my tainted soul and spare the universe my wretched presence!”

“Rayla, I think…” Drake tried to intervene but Rayla cut him short.

“No no, it´s quite right dear friend. The Sister did have a point. Although it moves my tainted soul that you care for me enough to try to prevent me being rightfully purged.” she said in a mock tone.

“What? I… but… no! Lady Nor, I did not mean to… “ the young Sister of Battle stammered.

“All right then, I make this easy for you.” Reaching for her holster, Rayla pulled out her own bolt pistol, put it in Pineas hand and pointed it at herself. 

Pineas eyes darted from the gun in her hand to Raylas face and back.

“Well? Do it.” The Inquisitor said calmly.

Panic and confusion spread on the female warriors face.

“Milady, I think it’s enough.” Charon spoke up.

“No. It is not. Do it!” Rayla said again.

Pinea started to tremble visibly.

“I agree with him Rayla. You made your point. Stop this now.” Drake said and stood up, attempting to end this madness.

“Stay where you are sergeant!” Rayla hissed as a response, causing the weathered veteran to practically freeze in mid-motion. Then, she turned her attention back to the Sister of Battle in front of her. Rayla could see the conflict raging inside Pineas head.

Ursula watched the unfolding scene attentively. 

“Well?” Raylas gaze bore into Pineas.

Pineas heart raced, she could feel her hand shake. Her trigger finger twitched ever so slightly.

Seconds seemed to stretch into lifetimes.

Everyone inside to passenger department was dead silent.

Finally, Pinea slumped down in defeat, letting go of the pistol which Rayla quickly stowed away in its holster again.

Sergeant Drake let go of a breath he had not noticed he was holding until now. Relieved, he sat back down into his seat, grumbling ‘I´m getting to old for this.’ in his nonexistent beard.

Charon simply stared slack jawed, which was luckily obscured by his helmet and respirator masc.

At Raylas side, Crux displayed his relief with a silent ‘Thank you’ to the Emperor.

Sister Ilene just went back to her prayers after a nearly invisible nod in the Inquisitors general direction.

And Sister Ursula put on a small smile. 

Noticing that, Rayla addressed the Adepta Sororita. “You don’t seem surprised by the outcome Sister Ursula.”

“Because I am not, Lady Nor.”

“How comes?” Rayla inquired with a hint of curiosity.

With a calm smile, the older woman simply responded “Faith.”

Suddenly, a violent explosion shook the whole Rhino. Rayla slammed a hand onto the intercom. “Status!” she barked. 

“We´re under attack!” came the answer after a burst of static “Our right chain took massive damage. We´re effectively disabled. Rhinos “Vengeance”, “Pilgrim” and “Foehammer” destroyed! No survivors! Remaining troops are returning fire.”  

“All right. Open the back hatch and cover us, we´re going out. The Emperor may be with you.” Rayla instructed her driver. Turning around, she found every member of her retinue ready for battle. Ilene and Charon were waiting right by the hatch, the Repentia´s Eviscerator rattling in sync with the hissing pilot flame of the specialist’s flamethrower. Sister Ursula checked her auspex by tapping the scanner slightly, Drake took up his saber and pistol, ready to charge out. Pinea simply took up her bolter, loading it and switching the safety of. Behind her, Rayla heard the characteristic noise of Crux´ shotgun getting readied. 
Taking up her own arms, the Inquisitor watched the large hatch at the back of the transporter open. Instantly the sound of fighting and dying man flooded the small compartment.
Once the hatch had fully opened, Ilene charged out, bellowing a mighty battle cry, Charon close to her heels. Ursula and Drake nodded to Rayla and charged out too. 

The Lady Inquisitor took a deep breath and followed suit.      


°°°


Several hundred kilometers above the shimmering orb of Argus Tertius, Commander  Flavio Johm starred through the thick bridge window of the “Tabula Rasa” which separated him from the frozen darkness of space. 
Under normal circumstances, the seasoned naval officer would take enjoyment in the countless myriads of stars and the busy but quit atmosphere of the Dauntless Class light cruisers bridge. 
But these weren´t normal circumstances by all means.
Just then, the battleship's bridge was bursting with action. Com officers were shouting, trying to supply the gun captains with usable information’s about possible targets, while the gun captains were coordinating their respective crews at the starboard and larboard batteries. 
Klaxons were constantly blaring, adding their own share to the cacophony of battle.
Flavio squinted his eyes or rather his left eye. His right eye was a more functional then aesthetic, green glowing bionic implant thanks to an encounter with Orc freebooterz early in his career. There, out in the dark void, a pair of blurred arrows flashed through his field of vision, followed by a deep rumble that run through the whole ship as a broadside was fired at the nimble star fighters that were constantly zooming around and firing away the cruiser. Turning around the Commander addressed his second-in-command “How´s the situation out there Volstag? Did we hit them? I want some good news!”

Turning away from an ensign he was talking to, Ship Master Boris Volstag faced his superior. The always sour look on the sturdy Valhallan´s face was supported by his eccentric, long moustache. “Nyiet Commander. Those gebrit xenos are fast. The gunners have trouble keeping up with their movements.” the man answered with his heavy, accented voice. 

“Dammit!” the tall Cadian cursed loud, venting his frustration by smashing his fist against the grey steel wall of the bridge. After a moment, he collected himself, straightened up and took a deep breath. “What is with the “Bane´s Redemption” and the “Dawn”? Were they able to take out the corsair frigates they were aligned to hunt down?”

“Well, no confirmation until now. It seems they put up quite a fight.” The second-in-command answered uncomfortable twisting one end of his moustache between his fingers.  

“Are you telling me that two Sword-class frigates were not able to destroy a pair of flimsy xeno frigates Ship Master?”

“Those… flimsy frigates took out the “Secutor” in a couple of minutes Commander.” Volstag offered thoughtful. “What they lack in durability, they make up with speed and some unholy punctual firepower. And do not forget about those diavolsky fighters out there, gnawing at our ships hull.” 

Facing the bridges window again, the Commander rubbed his chin and stared into the endless void. “That’s another thing that leaves a foul taste in my mouth old friend. Those fighters are clearly Ravens. It is impossible that they came from one of the frigates.”

“You think that there´s another ship hiding out there?”

“Probably. A cruiser if I were to guess. Torturer-class most likely, for they are known to carry a small fleet of fighters and boarding vessels.” 

The Ship Master harrumphed. “That would be trouble, da?”    

Turing his head, Commander Flavio Johm gave a small grin “Only if we let them get in our back. Would be a crying shame if Lady Nor would succeed down there, just to find her own ship barley more than drifting grave, lovely decorated with our blood and guts, wouldn´t it?”

Ship Master Boris Volstag returned the smile “Da commander.”

“Then lock on those xenos and blast them out of this galaxy!”

“Aye aye!”


°°°


Rayla was greeted by a volley of projectiles hitting her square on the chest but the power armor deflected every single one. After taking a surprised step backwards, Rayla scanned her suroundings in order to get a picture of her current situation. 
Her convoy had been attacked after reaching the outskirts of Aurora. To her surprise, the three burning Rhinos were the only visible signs of battle. The Inquisitor had suspected to see at least a good dozen corpses of the local PDF´s, some destroyed Chimeras or at least blood stains at the walls and streets but no signs of an armed conflict at all.
It was almost as if each and every human just had disappeared.
Instantly, Raylas gears started to spin at top speed, trying to find possible solutions for this mystery. 

Maybe teleportation? Possible but unlikely.

Some kind of mind control? That was more like it but something about this theory seemed not fully right.

Could the city’s population have surrendered to the invaders? Now that was ridiculous! 

The remains of her troops had left their transporters in order to defeat the enemy. The troopers were using every available cover. Some even had entered the ground and first floor of the surrounding houses or took position in the alleyways between, filling the air with a thick net of red laser beams.
A burst of dark energy ripped open the street in front of the Inquisitor, finally bringing her attention towards her enemies. Up in the sky, two sleek vessels were circling around their prey like hungry predators. The hulls were black with ice blue accents at the egdes, curved spikes protruded from the sides and long rams sparking with deadly energy decorated the prow of the clipper like skimmers. Fin-like Aether sails, open decks filled with xeno warriors in segmented armors, long scythe-like blades attached underneath the vessel and a deadly prow mounted heavy weapon completed the picture.

Raiders. The typical transport vessels of the xeno species known as the Dark Eldar.         

Several salvos from the Rhinos stormbolters found their targets but each time the explosive rounds pinged of the armored hulls or passed right through the Raiders as the whole vehicle seemed to flicker out of existence for a second, only to re-materialize a heartbeat later. 

The lean, dark armored xenos on board of each Raider seemed to enjoy themselves greatly, judging by the way some of them were clinging to the hull of the skimmers, only hold in place by a chain hooked to their armor and some were even holding onto the rails with one hand, firing their long and deadly rifles one-handed into the mass of inquisitorial troopers below them. The gunners of the prow weaponry contributed their part with astonishing accuracy given the high speed the troop transporters were moving at.

Rayla threw herself forward and behind the burning hull of a Rhino, dodging another volley of dark energy. Coming back on her feet, the Inquisitor witnessed several of her troopers break down, clutching parts of their bodies that were only covered by their red uniforms. Some were shaking violently, others lay still and yet others seemed to have lost complete control, thrashing around, screaming on top of their lungs in unspeakable agony. Internally cursing the wretched xenos and their poison coated ammunition, Rayla saw a shot from a plasma gun hitting one of the Dark Eldar in the mid-section, resulting in the mortally wounded enemy falling headfirst from the Raiders open deck and towards its certain death. The vessels gunners retaliated with a volley of dark energy rounds, literally vaporizing not only the trooper with the plasma gun but also half a dozen more in the immediate surroundings.

This was far from good. Rayla looked around to access her situation. She had already lost around forty men and four Rhinos and her enemies were only down one. But she refused to lose here! 

Sergeant Drake rushed up to her. “Rayla, we´re getting minced here! Our hellguns can’t scratch the Raiders and the plasma guns are to slow to be effective. We need something bigger!” the veteran shouted.

Activating her com device to contact Sister Ursula, the Inquisitor smiled “Way ahead of you old friend.”                     


°°°


Archon Kaeris Hellwrath leaned back into her lavishly luxurious throne that was dominating the bridge of her personal cruiser, the “Wraith of Commoragh”. All around her, her loyal kabalites filled the ships bridge with efficient activity. This raid had been far too easy. The clumsy Chem Pan Sey and their even clumsier battleships had been almost too willing to take the bait she had offered them in form of the “Shin´Tach” and the “Malevolent Spirit” after attacking them, leaving the planet without protection. Well, there had been the local defense forces on the surface but they had proven themselves as pathetic as usual.
Together with her allied forces, consisting of Morla Bladebane and her Wyche’s Cult of Quarrel, several mercenary factions, like Hellion gangs and Scourges, her army had swept away any form of measly resistance her prey could offer.

Sipping wine from her chalice, made from the skull of the planetary governor´s daughter she graced the nervous looking kabalite in front of her with her attention. “Yes? Why do you think it would be wise to pester me? Can´t you see that I try to enjoy myself?” Kaeris asked, her voice smooth and casual. 

The warrior, a male she had picked up from the lower levels of Commoragh, like many of her half-born, straightened himself in order not to appear weak, for weakness was only befitting for prey. And prey did not last very long in the Dark Eldar society. “My Archon, you instructed us to inform you once every raid team was back aboard so we could initiate our withdrawal from this system.” 

Pitch black eyes bore into his own over the edge of the bone chalice. “So, I take that every team is back yes?”

“Well, not exactly my Archon.” The warrior admitted with a hint of sweat on his face. “The last two encountered a rather small military convoy in the outskirts of the city the Chem Pan Sey called Aurora and… it seems like they had let their bloodlust get the better of them, resulting in an attack on said convoy…” 

Archon Kaeris Hellwrath put her chalice on the arms rest of her throne, never letting her eyes wander from her subordinate. "How many enemies did this convoy consist of?".

“Roughly one hundred my Archon.” 

Kaeris nodded slowly. “I see. And remind me, what was my last order again?” 

“To return to the “Wraith” without any delay.”

The Archon stood up slowly and made a step towards the warrior. “And instead of doing so, twenty of my men decided to attack one hundred Chem Pan Sey, completely ignoring my orders?” she asked, her melodious voice unwavering. 

“Yes my Archon.”  

“But every other team is back aboard? Including our allies?”

“Yes my Archon.”

Putting her slender hand on her kabalites pauldron, Kaeris circled around the man. “Well, I thank you for your service then.” She whispered in his ear in a low and husky tone. Seconds later, a silver blade protruded from the warrior’s stomach, causing him to collapse in a twitching heap, slowly bleeding to dead at his Archons feet. 

Wiping her blade clean Kaeris addressed her Ship Master “All stations get ready to open a portal to the web. We´re leaving this system, I can´t stand its smell any longer.“ 

“But my Archon, what about the other frigates and the two remaining raid teams?” the Ship Master asked, eyes wandering between his superior and the corpse to her feet. 

“What about them?” Kaeris purred “The first seemed to have failed to destroy their assigned prey and the others ignored my order of withdrawal. Let them rot here. Now set the course!” she snapped with a sudden one hundred eighty turn of her tone.

“As you command my Archon!” the Ship Master rushed to confirm her command.

Draping herself back on her throne, Archon Kaeris Hellwrath took up her chalice again with a smile. The haul from this raid would help her a great deal to cement the position of her cabal amongst her rivals back home in Commoragh. She guided the macabre chalice to her lips and took another sip.     


°°°


Sister Ursula stood calm amidst the raging battle, her heavy bolter secure in her armored hands, shots from splinter weapons ricocheting of her power armor. She followed the course of one of the Raiders and took aim. The weapons of her brothers-in-arms may be too weak or slow to cause real damage to the xeno vessels but her own was a different story. Inquisitor Nor had tasked her with the destruction of the enemies transporters and she would take them down without fail! The Sororita let out a breath, resulting in a small cloud in the suddenly chilly air. Starring puzzled at the condensed breath in front of her, Ursula managed to dodge the jagged, silver blade that was aimed at her throat only by a hairs wide. Regaining her orientation after two quick steps back, Ursula faced her attacker. There, just were she had stood, a creature with bone white hair and a skin like condensed darkness covered in glowing, green runes pulled itself out the shadow of the surrounding buildings. Steeling herself for the coming, the Sister of Battle yelled as loud as she could “Mandrakes!”

The Mandrake literally shot forward, its gleaming blade held high to meet its prey.

Not budging a mere millimeter, the Retributor pulled the trigger of her anti infantry weapon. Roaring the heavy bolter came to life, sending a hailstorm of high explosive rounds towards the rushing monstrosity. But the fist sized rounds passed right through the xenos body like it was made of mist, impacting the ground behind it. 

Ghostly green flames came to life in the Mandrake´s free hand and with a simple gesture, the dark creature lobed it at the Sororita. The flames hit Ursula’s left pauldron and although it did not even pierce the outer layer of the armor, the woman felt a biting cold spreading all over her arm and shoulder. Grunting in defiance, she pulled the trigger anew, sending more bullets towards her assailant but with the same effect like before. Another ball of phantom flames hit her, this time her exposed leg and again Ursula felt the paralyzing cold spreading through her body.

The Mandrake took the final step and closed in to the foolish woman that tried to fight back against her demise. The beast’s lower face ripped open violently, revealing its mouth as the Mandrake let out a soul piercing wail of triumph. Then it brought down its blade, aiming to bury it in Ursula’s forehead. Only to be violently tackled and send sprawled into the dust. Coming back on its feet, in an act of superhuman agility just a second later, the Mandrake hissed, exasperated, trying to identify its new opponent. The last thing the dark being saw was a huge, roaring chain blade coming down and cleanly cutting it in two.

Shaking of the last remains of the crippling cold, the Retributor´s eyes meet those of her savior. In front of Ursula stood Ilene. The Repentia´s body was covered in several dozen cuts from both, blade and claw, her breathing was heavy and the mask that normaly covered the upper half of her head was torn in several places, revealing bushels of her short, platinum colored hair. 

“Are you still able to fight?” Ilene asked, shouldering her massive weapon.

“Yes. My thanks.” Ursula replied “It was a blessing from the Emperor for you to be close to my position, so you were able to defend me.”

“Well, that and it was logical for them to take out the only weapon truly able to take their skimmers down.” A new voice chimed in. 

Turning around, both women saw Rayla and the rest of her retinue jog over to meet them. The Inquisitor and her followers wore visible signs of battle. Dirt and sweat was covering Rayla´s and Drake´s faces, Charons armor and uniform showcased light damage, the muzzle of Pinea´s bolter was black from use and a small trickle of blood was running down Crux´ face.   

Jamming a fresh clip in her bolt pistol, Rayla addressed her followers “Okay, here´s the plan. We´re going to secure a perimeter around Sister Ursula and buy her enough time to take down the Raiders or at least, force them to retreat.” 

“Sounds like a plan.” Drake agreed.

“So shall it be.” Pinea said. “None shall pass our lines!”

“I hate to be that guy but we have company!” Charon half shouted, reading his flamethrower as half a dozen Mandraks climbed out of the shadows all around the small group and indicating by the continuing screams of dying troopers, there were a lot more out of sight.

“Alright, protect Sister Ursula and push back those monstrosities. For the golden throne!” Rayla shouted, starting to fire at the approaching xenos.

“For the Emperor!” every member of her retinue shouted as an answer. 

Ursula took a deep breath. Everyone was depending on her now and by Terra, she would not fail them! One of the Raiders flew a low turn in an attempt to offer the passengers a better line of fire. The Sister Retributor smiled and lined up her heavy bolter, silently praying “Guide my hand Emperor, let my aim be true.” Then she pulled the trigger.


°°°


“Commander! The fighters are retreating!” Ship Master Volstag shouted over the noise of the battleships bridge.  

Commander Johm spun around nearly instantly to face his Ship Master. “Track them! They lead us directly to our mysterious ship!” the higher ranged officer barked.

“Ship Master, the long range scanners have detected a ship! It suddenly appeared in the planets outer atmosphere and it´s leaving!” an nearby ensign shouted, never letting his eyes of his monitor.

Johm rushed to the side of his subordinate, wildly cursing. After a quick check of the glowing monitor, the Commander addressed his crew “Set a course to intercept the enemy. By the Emperors righteous fury, this xeno scum won´t be able sneak away this easily! To all gun crews, ready for ship to ship combat. Full charge on the lance battery. I want to give them hell as soon as we are at maximum range!”

“Aye aye sir!” the whole bridges crew bellowed as one.


°°°


Rayla cursed as another volley of her bolt rounds harmlessly passed through an approaching Mandrake. Abandoning her gun by holstering it, the Inquisitor instead reached out with her mind. She focused, condensing the immense yet flighty power of the Immaterium in her free palm. Her assailant however seemed not willing to wait for the woman to finish, instead the creature jumped forward, swinging its sickle like weapon in silvery arcs at her. Parrying the attack with her own blade, Rayla thrusts her hand towards the Mandrake. “Be gone!” the Inquisitor shouted, white soulfire lighting bursting forth from her armored palm and striking the monstrosity in front of her. The Mandrake wailed in agony as the psionic attack rendered the defenses of its half immaterial body useless, tearing it apart until noting but its blade was left. >>Well, one down and a dozen to go.<< she thought dryly and lunged herself at the next Mandrake, her crackling power sword held high.

Thundering, round after round left the muzzle of Ursulas heavy bolter and most of those rounds detonated, impacting the until then so evasive skimmers hull. The frail transporter swayed in its path as it’s damaged anti grav engines started to spew black smoke. The Sister Retributor allowed herself a grim smile as the Raider lost high rapidly and finally crashed into a building only to explode in an impressive cloud of fire, shrapnel turned pieces of white hot metal and burned body parts. The Sister of Battle was about to repeat the procedure with the other skimmer as a pair of Mandrakes jumped at her from her own shadow. Ursula tried to react but a hissing tongue of fire intercepted the Mandrakes and forced them back, leaving them vulnerable for a precious moment. A bolter barked as rapid fired salvos tore into the pitch black bodies of the xenos, dissolving them into nothing. Turning her head, Ursula found herself facing Pinea and Charon. 

“A masterful shot sister.” complimented the younger Sororita. 

“Yes, think you can repeat that?” the inquisitorial trooper chimed in, pointing in the rough direction of the last Dark Eldar vessel with his thumb.  

Taking aim at the remaining Raider, the older Sister of Battle nodded nearly unnoticeable. 
“Without a doubt!”


°°°


“My Archon! A Chem Pan Sey battleship is approaching us. Should we destroy it?” a female kabalite addressed Kaeris nervously from her seat.

Arching an eyebrow, the Archon sat up straight on her throne. “How far away are they?”

“Out of range for both, us and them.”

“Then ignore them. Their battleships are cumbersome beasts. Before they have reached us, we will long be gone. Proceed with opening the portal!” 

“As you command my Archon.”

With a pleased smile Kaeris watched through the bridges window as a small, shimmering rift started to open in the very fabric of space itself right in front of her ships nose. Jade green phantom flames seemed to flicker around the forced portal as it grew wider in order to allow the Torturer Class cruiser passage to the web way. 


°°°


“Dammit, they are escaping! Are we in reach yet?” Commander Johm snapped impatiently as he gazed out of the bridges window, fixating the small, glistening dot he knew it was the wanted Dark Eldar cruiser.  

“No sir, still a few kilometers for our prow battery.” One of the gun captains answered. 

“Fire it.”

“Excuse me sir?” the gun captain asked confused. 

“I said fire the lance battery! We don’t have to destroy them with the first salvo; we just need to startle them until we are in reach for a broadside. If we are lucky, we can destroy their engines or cripple them otherwise.” the Commander explained, his eyes always fixated on the enemies’ ship.   

“Aye sir!” The gun captain saluted and hurried to execute Johms orders.


°°°


“Emperor damn them! This one had learned!” Ursula yelled angrily as the last remaining Raider danced through the hail of fire she was sending towards it. This time the vessel took barley any hits as the skimmers pilot navigated it closer and closer and those hits it took mostly seemed to pass through it harmlessly. The Sister of Battle could already see the warriors aboard the anti grav transporter swing their weapons triumphantly as the lean vessel zig-zaged forwards in high speed, gliding barley three meters above the ground.

Parrying the slash of a razor-sharp machete with his saber and retailing with a laser volley in his opponent’s face, Sergeant Drake said “Looks like they aim to drop their troops on our heads to get us in close combat after tank shocking us. Probably hope to slice some of us open with the blades underneath the Raider too.” 

“Well, that’s nothing we want hn?” Rayla asked rhetorically, cutting of the arm of a Mandrake that had tried to get in her back by circling her. The creature howled, clutching its wound and retreated into a near shadow. “Drake, try to get the drivers of the Rhinos on the com, they must use their storm bolters to cover us while Sister Ursula takes out the Raider.”

The gruff veteran nodded “At once Lady Nor.”

Aboard the Raider, the gunner of the vessel decided to bring his weapon to bear in order to tenderize the prey before the boarded warriors would be delivering the death blow. With sharp hisses, the disintegrator cannon came to life, sending a volley of dark matter rounds towards the foolish Chem Pan Sey.  


°°°


The “Wraith of Commoragh” shook violently, causing Kearis Hellwrath to jump from her throne as klaxons started to blare. “What in the seventh hell was that? Status?” she screamed.

“It´s.. it’s the Chem Pan Sey my Archon. They… had opened fire on us.” The same female kabalite as before answered the question, her voice heavy with disbelief.  

“What?” the Archon bursts out “But we are clearly out of reach, not even they could be that dumb! Did they hit something at all?”

“No my Archon, the “Wraith” is unharmed.” The kabalite said. 

Suddenly another kabalite screamed “The portal, they had hit the portal!”

Rushing to the bridges window, Kaeris starred into the darkness of space and onto the flaming portal. The dark energy that was forcing open the rift in the fragile fabric of space was wavering violently, gusts of phantom flames sprouting out of it like the hot breath of a gargantuan beast. Her voice unwavering despite the drops of sweat on her forehead, Archon Kaeris simply stated “It is collapsing. The energy from the primitives weaponry must have disturbed the portals own energy flow.” Mere seconds after she had said it, the damaged web way portal shrunk in the blink of an eye to the size of a small dot not bigger than a fighter only to explode a heartbeat after into a rapidly expanding sphere of sickly green flames. Kaeris did not flinch or scream as her ship was swallowed by the unleased energy.


°°°


Commander Johm watched the Dark Eldar cruiser being annihilated by the detonating portal. What a lucky stroke it had been that the salvo from the lance battery had missed the ship but hit the building portal. Up until now, it had been unknown that the portals used by the Dark Eldar to enter and exit the web way could be destroyed by sheer force. This was a new insight that could prove itself very valuable in the future. However, the Commanders cheer was cut short as the explosion not died down but kept on expanding until it was only seconds away from the “Tabula Rasa”. Turning to the next handle, Johm yelled on top of his lungs “Brace for impact!” Seconds later the imperial vessel was swallowed by the explosion.


°°°


On the planet’s surface, the bloody battle between man and monster came to an abrupt and confusing stop. Rayla retreated a few steps from her momentary opponent just to be sure as she noticed that everything around her suddenly had gained a greenish glow. Looking up she saw the reason. The whole sky was filled with an endless sea of green flames that were rapidly coming closer. 

“What´s that? Some kind of new weapon?” Charon asked, fear clearly in his voice.

“Wretched sorcery!” spat Pinea.

Rayla could do nothing but stare and the endless wall of green flames rapidly approaching the planet’s surface. “Emperor have mercy on our souls.” the Inquistor muttered. Then the explosion reached the surface of Argus Tertius, phantom fire washing over continents, oceans and cities, swallowing everything in its path. 


°°°


In the magical land of Equestria, in the small town of Ponyville to be precise Twilight Sparkle sat on her favorite balcony in her new castle and gazed at the upcoming night’s sky with a smile. Dawn court just had ended and Equestrias newest princess finally had time to indulge herself in a hobby of hers she had been forced to neglect way to long, at least in her opinion. 

Stargazing.

From a balcony of her very own castle. The lavender alicorn giggled and rolled the words around in her mouth as if to taste them. “My own castle. My castle. My. Castle. It still feels weird but it is real.” she said to no one in particular. With a heavy sigh she added “Still, it’s a crying shame that the Golden Oaks library ended up as a bunch of charcoal. Just when I finally had figured out the perfect system for all the books.” A solitary tear stole itself from Twilights eye at that thought and at the same time, the hot flame of anger started to burn inside her chest. All those books were now lost forever! Sure, none of them had been nearly as precious as the scriptures stored in the Canterlot archives but nonetheless some of them had been pretty old. At least they had kicked Tirek´s flank back to Tartarus for this unforgivable crime against knowledge! 
A strained grunt brought the ex-librarians attention back to reality. Spike, her reptilian number one assistant and best little brother in the whole wide world had entered the balcony with a small tray wagon in tow.

“Okay, we´ve got some chips, hay fries, dip, crackers, some more dip, a box of cupcakes and a big bottle of carrot juice straight from the fridge. Oh and this assorted bowl of gems for me. Looks like we are good for a nice night of stargazing.” the green and purple drakeling announced, sounding satisfied with his preparations. 

“What would I do without you, Spike?” Twilight asked, amused, eying the mass of unhealthy but delicious treats before her.

Spike plopped down with his bowl of gems next to his big sister figure and shrugged. “Dunno, starve? Or even worse, live healthy?” 

Chuckling Twilight levitated a chip out of its bowl, dipped it in a thick, red dip and took a bite. Her taste buds were instantly assaulted by a sweet and yet spicy aroma. “Wow, this stuff is good. What is that? I think I taste peppers, tomatoes, some spices and yet it is really sweet at the same time.”

Chomping down a claw full of gems, Spike smiled “Good hn? Got that at Sugarcube Corners when I bought the cupcakes. Pinkie said she was sure you would like it. Although she did not want tell me what ingredients she had used.” 

“Pinkie Pie made this? I would have never guessed she would make other food than sweet stuff.” 

“Jupp. Surprised me too but hey, we talk about a mare who combines cupcakes with hot sauce.”

“Don´t remind me. I needed to drink two whole liters of milk to neutralize all this capsaicin after mistaking the hot sauce for punch back then.” Twilight grumbled, memories of her first day in Ponyville livid in her mind. 

Spike softly punched Twilights foreleg. “But you had to admit that was really funny Twilight.”

“Yeah, funny if it’s not your tongue that nearly melted Spike.” Twilight huffed and decided to begin her stargazing instead of bickering around. 

Ah the simple yet highly demanding joy of stargazing, Twilight mused. Hobby and relaxation to some ponies, passion and destiny for others. The bookish alicorns look lingered at the now empty surface of the moon for a while. Princess Luna’s namesake shone with a tranquil yet powerful light. >>To think that everything that had happened in my life along the course of the last years had begun with a legend about the moon. Had I not read this old story about Nightmare Moon and her return, I would probably never had met any of my friends. We would have never ventured into the Everfree to stop Nightmare Moon, never had found the elements and became their bearers.<< Twilights thoughts carried her away from her original plans for tonight >>I wonder if somepony else would have done the things my friends and I had done instead or would we all vegetate in eternal darkness by now?<<

“…that normal Twilight?” a voice from besides her disturbed her musing together with a tug on the equines shoulder from a scaly claw, covered in just a little bit of salvia and a lot of gem crumbs.

“Eh? Sorry Spike, you were saying?” the scholar turned princess answered sheepishly.

The young dragon gave a small grumble and then pointed at the nights sky. “There, right between ‘the Minotaur’ and ‘the Griffins Talon’. One moment everything was normal and in the next, there was… this. Did you, by any chance know if Luna wanted to make a new addition to the nights sky? Cause this is really freaking me out for some reason.” Spike said, shivering from the top of his spines to the tip of his tail for emphasis. 

Following Spikes lead, Twilight soon found the source of her little dragons concern. There, right between the two celestial constellations was something new. It was faint and seemed to flicker like a candles flame in the wind but it was unmistakably there. It looked somewhat like an entirely new star had appeared on the star speckled blanket that was Luna´s domain. Only this star shone in a sick green light which reminded Twilight fatally of the flames changelings produced when dropping their disguise. Maybe this was the reason for Spikes bad feeling? “No Spike, I don´t think this is Princess Lunas doing. I can´t really describe it but I have a weird feeling too. This color reminds me to much of changelings for my liking.” the Princess of Friendship admitted. As she stared at this new and mysterious ‘star’, Twilight felt her fur slowly but surely rise and pressure was building at the root of her horn, sending rouge sparks of magic along the appendance. Shaking her head to let the unwanted pressure deflagrate the bad feeling Spike had mentioned started to make its way in Twilights stomach too. This whole situation felt so… unnatural for some reason the mare could not grasp. 

“Hey, what’s going on? Is it… growing?” Spike asked anxious, huddling up against Twilight to regain his feeling of security. 

Wide eyed the lavender alicorn starred at the green dot. Spike was right! This ‘star’ or whatever it was grew visibly in mere seconds. And then, it vanished. 

Twilight blinked. Once. Twice. The mysterious apparition was gone without a trace. Not even the uncomfortable pressure in her head was left and her fur was likewise back to normal. 

“This was beyond weird.” Spike stated. “Think we should tell Celestia and Luna?”

Twilight nodded slowly, her eyes still glued to the spot where the ball of greenish light had been just seconds before. 

“I have a really bad feeling about this Spike.”                           

> II.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


II.



„Know thine enemy.“



It was seven a clock in the morning as Luna’s moon was gently lowered from its place in the night´s sky to make place for a new day and Celestia´s sun. 

The first rays of day began to crawl over the world of Equus, basking it in soft warmth. Everywhere, life in all forms and shapes would turn around on their respective sleeping spots, hoards, piles of hay, sleeping mats or beds as the first tentative rays of light found their ways into caves, dens or through closed curtains into bedrooms and right into the faces of griffins, diamond dogs, minotaur’s, dragons, ponies and oh so many more.

One of these rays along with its brethren just happened to be sent to an little town more or less located in the very center of Equestria, the land of colorful little equine creatures which called themselves Ponies. A town by the name of Ponyville.  

Said ray flew directly over the matutinal idyll, towards the edge of the great forest that was known to every inhabitant of this land as the great Everfree Forest, one of the last places that could truly be called wild and uncontrolled. 
A place where many headed Hydras, mighty Manticores or packs of cunning Timberwolves roamed free. 
A place where mysterious plants like the unaccountable Poison Joke would prosper. 

Yet there was exactly one building at the very edge of this undoubtedly dangerous place.

Located on a small hill there stood a cottage, although from a good distance one could came to the conclusion that the cottage was the hill itself with its slightly dome like form and grass covered roof. A plethora of small bird houses sat nestled on the cottages roof and in many smaller trees all around this unusual house. A small stream had carved its bed around the habitat, forcing every visitor without other means of transportation to use a frail looking yet sturdy bridge that spanned over the vividly gurgling body of water.

The little ray of light found its way past the thick curtains covering the window in the cottages roof and into the small and cozy bedroom that lay behind. With the uncanny precision that only a ray of light in the early morning could ever hope to possess, it made contact with a creamy yellow snout that peaked out of a mountain of fluffy blankets and pillows. At first, nothing happened, as usually while the ray worked its own magic. Then, the delicate snout started to wiggle. At first nearly unnoticeable but soon an undeniable urge started to well up in the owner of this snout and after a few more seconds, the most diminutive “Ah-choo!” could be heard, at least in close proximity of the small bed. This undeniable cute sound was followed by the face of a Pegasus mare with a light pink mane that suffered a severe case of bed-head that rose from out of the cozy fluffiness which was her bed.

Fluttershy yawned and rubbed the last traces of sleep from her eyes with her hooves. After stretching herself, the Pegasus carefully climbed out of her bed, avoiding to make any unnecessary sounds in order not to wake up all the little animals that had situated themselves in the various dens, holes and nests that lined most of the walls of Fluttershys bedroom. But mostly she did it to not wake up the occupant of a rather large basket close to her bed. Two long white ears stood out against the darker blankets as well as one long, white furred hind leg that dangled over the baskets edge, sporadically kicking the air. The animal caretaker smiled at the slumbering form of Angel Bunny, the closest of all of her animal friends. After that, Fluttershy used her very own combination of hovering just a hairs wide above the creaky wooden floor and tip-toeing to make her way downstairs. Towards her kitchen. Once she arrived, the mare began her morning routine. With practiced ease, Fluttershy placed several dozen food bowls everywhere on the floor of her kitchen and her living room and begun to fill them with nuts, seeds, fruits and varying vegetables. After placing three large bowls filled with fresh water between the food bowls, Fluttershy allowed herself a moment to examine her work and she found it was good. Everything was set for her little woodland friend’s breakfast. Gently opening the curtains in the kitchen and the living room, she caused the first early ups amongst her animals to pop their noses out of their sleeping places.

A red squirrel squeaked drowsily from its nest atop a bookshelf.

It took Fluttershy a moment to register that it has indeed addressed her. “Oh, a good morning to you too Nutsy. I hope you had a nice dream?” she responded finally.

More squeaks.

“Oh that’s so nice to hear. Yes, I slept well too, thank you very much.”

Nutsy the squirrel, now awake, scurried down the bookshelf and stopped at his equine caretakers hooves, squeaking again, this time with a questioning tone.

Fluttershy smiled one of her warm smiles. “Yes of course. Breakfast is prepared and ready. I would be delighted if you would do the honor today.” she said sweetly, encouraging the red rodent with a soft brush of her wing. 

Not losing any time, the squirrel put its thumb and index finger in its snout and blew. The produced whistle was high and rang through every corner of the cottage. Soon after, a miniature stampede made of mice, rabbits, squirrels and even a flock of small birds filled the kitchen and the living room since the breakfast bell had been officially rung. 

Satisfied Fluttershy turned around just in time to see Angel Bunny decent from the upper floor. The white rabbit stopped at the Pegasus hooves, opening its mouth and gesturing with its paw, clearly demanding food. “Oh of course Angel Bunny, momma would never forget about you.” Fluttershy cooed affectionately and placed a plate filled with lettuce and carrots in front of her pet. 

Confusion played over Angel’s face which was soon replaced with discontent. Giving the food in front of him a raspberry, Angel started an angry serious of gestures and to cement his point, stomping his large feet at the end of his little tirade. 

“But look Angel Bunny, those are your favorite carrots. I bought them just yesterday from Carrot Top.” Fluttershy tried to reason with her sometimes thickheaded rabbit “See, they are so~oo crunchy and delicious.” She nudged one of the orange roots closer to the pouting rabbit with her snout. 

With a raised eyebrow, Angel picked up the carrot and gave it a sniff.

Fluttershy´s teal eyes widened with anticipation, only to get the carrot thrown into her face with a resounding ‘thumb’. 

Making a gagging sound, the picky rodent attempted to kick the plate with the unwanted food into his owners face too when something unpredictable happened.

“Angel. Fluffington. Bunny!” 

Instantly every animal inside the cottage, Angel included, froze. It was rare like an ice cube in the Saddle Arabian desert during summer for the yellow Pegasus to use her white rabbit’s full name (she had done it only twice since she got him as an infant) but any animal acquainted with her knew that it meant serious business. Not stare-level business but nonetheless!

Angel gulped audible as his beady black eyes met Fluttershys. The normally pleasant to look at pools of watery teal color now gave a stern aura of authority. This together with the nearly undetectable hint of sharpness in Fluttershys normally hushed voice made Angel drop all plans of childish behavior instantly and instead taking a carrot in each paw, taking big bites out of them while making sure to express the outmost pleasure about it with a more shaky then geniue smile and several ‘hmmm’-sounds.

Giving her little rascal a content nod, Fluttershy trotted back into her kitchen to have a little breakfast herself. For some a reason, she felt like having a sandwich. A really big one. A sandwich made for a winner. 

…

Soon after, the mare found herself sitting on her little kitchens table, munching on a (medium sized) sandwich. She even had found it fitting to open the jar with the rare winter strawberry marmalade from Staliongrad that had been given to her by her mother a while ago. Watching the last of her friends finish their breakfast, Fluttershy took a moment to muse over her morning so far. >>My, I really was a bit harsh on Angel, wasn´t I? I need to find a way to make it up to him and… no, no Fluttershy he had clearly overstepped his bounds and deserved a teensy tiny scolding. A little firmness will do him good on the long run. Still, maybe I could make him this salad he likes so much tomorrow?<< Finishing her sandwich, Fluttershy looked on the calendar on her fridge. Three days from today were marked with two capital M´s connected with a plus and a hoovedrawn baby bottle.

Of course! Manny and Martha the Manticores were excepting their first offspring in three days! And she was supposed to check on Martha every day until then. The thought of cute, clumsy little Manticore kittens alone was enough to make Fluttershys heart soar. She could already picture them making their first shaky steps, mewling in high pitched voices for milk and tussling with each other playfully. A happy “Squeee~” stole itself from the yellow Pegasus lips. Fluttershy had known Manny for two years now, since their faithful encounter during the events of Nightmare Moons return when the demure mare had pulled out an offending thorn from the agitated feline predators sensitive paw. Soon afterwards, Manny had shown up at Fluttershys cottage to express his gratitude. Unfortunately he had decided to do so by gifting the shredded remains of a deer to his savior. Fluttershy could remember vividly the blood caked muzzle of the Manticore, showing a hopeful smile as he nudged the bloody corpse closer to her. It should be needless to say, poor Fluttershy had fainted from sheer shock. 
Of course, everything had played out well in the end. After Angel had been able to wake her up with smelling salts, Fluttershy had mustered every ounce of willpower and politely declined the well-intended gift and instead offered a simple hug as a sufficient gesture of gratitude. After Manny had himself cleaned of all the blood of course. Not long after this ‘incident’ Manny had met his Martha and promptly introduced his new mate to his pony friend which nearly had led to a medium catastrophe as the female Manticore mistook all the smaller critters at Fluttershys cottage for prey but luckily both Fluttershy and Manny had been able to save the situation (and Angel Bunny who had come this close to see Marthas teeth from up close). From that day on, the Manticore couple would occasionally come by for a visit or in some rare cases, Fluttershy would even visit them at their cave which was luckily for the timid Pegasus located not far away from the path to Zecoras hut. 

Placing the now empty food bowls in the kitchens sink, Fluttershy mentally skipped through the checklist she had made with Twilights help after Manny had told her that he would be a father soon. Both Fluttershy and Twilight had learned a surprising amount about Maticores from the books at the lavender Unicorns library. For example, that Manticores had a very high tendency to give birth to twins or in rare cases even triplets which would mean a lot of stress for the mother, so the ever caring Fluttershy had decided to aid her friend and his wife. For almost six months now, Fluttershy had assisted the pair in finding suitable materials to make a comfortable bedding for Martha and her future children and she even persuaded Barry the Bear to provide some of the fish he would sometimes catch for himself to ensure the mother-to-be would get all the nutrition she needed. All she had to do now was to make sure that the oncoming birth would be without complications. For this purpose and much to Fluttershys enormous joy, Zecora the local zebra and shamaness had agreed to cook up a special mixture to ease the labour for Martha. Looking at her calendar again, Fluttershy noticed the drawing of a steaming cauldron and a big exclamation mark on the actual date. Today was the day the brew was complete and ready to be delivered. A task that instantly chased away all the cozy happiness from earlier. As much as Fluttershy loved the thought of fluffy little Manticore kittens and Manny and Martha becoming loving parents, the thought that she not only have to travel all the way to the zebras isolated hut just to venture even deeper into the Everfree to deliver the potion to the Manticores caused her massive nausea. 

“Come on Fluttershy, you can do this. No. You WILL do this!” the Pegasus mare said to herself as she walked over to her front door and picked up her saddle bags, trying to assert herself. “I mean, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Twilight visit Zecora all the time and nothing ever happens to them… except this one time with the Cockatrice that petrified Twilight… or that pack of Timberwolves that nearly chased the Crusaders into a chasm… or…” Fluttershy felt her legs turn into jelly and cold dread formed in her stomach, causing her to break down on the floor. “Oh who am I kidding? I can´t do this, there is no way in the wide world that a measly coward like me could do this! I simply can´t!” Fluttershy buried her face in her forelegs and started weeping until a gentle patting on her shoulder caused her to look up.  Angel Bunny and Nutsy the squirrel sat by her side, comfortingly patting the crying mare. The red squirrel gave a series of squeaks in varying pitches while the rabbit “talked” to his owner in is usual mute way. “R-really? You tw-two would do that for me? You would come with me all the way to Zecora´s?” Fluttershy asked, her voice still trembling and tears matting the fur on her cheeks.

Nutsy gave a confirming nod while Angel didn´t seemed too fond of that idea. At least until the squirrels elbow made rather violent contact with his ribs. That caused Angel to nod too while simultaneously giving Nutsy a side glare that would have almost put ‘the Stare’ to shame.

Fluttershy swept her little friends up with her forelegs and into the gentlest bear hug in the recorded history of Equus “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you. You didn´t know how much that means to me!” she breathed joyfully. 

Angel, still maintaining the strained smile of his, turned his head to his fellow rodent and motioned what could be translated as ‘You owe me buddy. BIG TIME!’

Wiping the last tears away, the now much more self-confident Fluttershy put on her saddle bags, placed her two little companions on her back and left her house, the whole ‘conversation’ between the two luckily eluding her attention. 


°°°


“Argh, my head. By the saints, that was nastier than a pit-fight with a hungry Kroot!” Commander Johm groaned and rubbed his head just to feel sticky wetness. Examining his hand he spotted a small bloodstain. “Well, explains this trickling down my neck.” the naval officer said to no one in particular as he pulled himself up. The bridge of the “Tabula Rasa” looked like a bomb had gone off. Sparks came out of destroyed screens, emergency lights dousing the whole scenery in a ghostly red light, several crew members lay strewn across the floor in slowly growing, dark puddles, some were stumbling around disoriented and only a handful was already feverishly working their consoles, completely ignoring the chaos around them. Leaning against a support beam the Commander yelled “Ship Master! Volstag, are you still alive you crazy son of a snow-stalker?” Ignoring the throb in his head, he listened. Just to be surprised by a powerful hand that grasped his shoulder. 

Ship Master Volstag greeted his superior with a toothy smile. “Still alive? Da, Commander. Unharmed? Nyiet! Look what these warp-damned xenos have done to my moustache!” the robust Valhallan said with a mixture of rage and sadness coloring his voice, while gesturing to his facial hair. The eccentric beard was almost completely singed of. 

“Well, I would believe that right now, we have much more dire problems than your facial hair Ship Master.” a new, calm voice filled the air of the cruiser´s bridge, stealing Johm´s retour to Volstags complaint. Both men turned around as a woman glad in a simple black robe entered the room through an half open door which’s opening mechanism was shooting out more sparks then an shield generator build by an Big Mek. Her platinum white hair was tussled, the little round glasses on her nose were cracked and her right arm was held in a sling. 

“Helia.” Both officers acknowledged the Sister Dialogis´ presence with a nod.

Pushing up her glasses with her left hand, Helia addressed the Commander with a cross expression “What in the holy name of Terra hit us Flavio? Are you trying to get us all killed on purpose?” 

The Cadian gave the Scholar a shrug that he instantly regretted as a sharp pain shot through his whole body. “I´d like to see you evade the shockwave of an exploding xeno portal my dear.” he said through clenched teeth.  

Sister Helia sighed, walked past both men and straight up to the big bridges window, using her good arm to support herself against the glass and gazed into the endless darkness of the empty space behind it. Finally, she beckoned them over with a weak wave. She waited patiently until Commander Johm and Ship Master Volstag came to a stop by her side. The three of them stood there for what felt like hours until the Sister Dialogis finally broke the silence between them. Not averting her gaze from the shimmering planet that was orbited by a small, single moon and against all laws of the universe an enormous bright sun in front of the imperial ship, Helia stated dryly “Well gentleman, I do not think we are in the Segmentum Obscurus anymore.”


°°°


Fluttershy trotted along the small but surprisingly worn out path that led deeper into the Everfree Forest.  The Pegasus had never been truly comfortable with traversing the wild and dark woods, always jumping at the tiniest sound of a creaking branch, a rustling in the bushes, the wind blowing through old, hollowed out trees or the sometimes really strange sound the local birds would make. 
But at least, there were just that. Sounds. 
Today, there was nothing. Just the steady rhythm of crunching hoof steps on the meandering path and her own breathing that sounded as loud as the roaring of an angry dragon to Fluttershy. It was almost as if every living being inside this huge forest had gone into hiding for a reason unknown to her and the Everfree itself was holding its breath. That thought alone was almost enough to make the mare turn tail and gallop back into the cozy safety of her cottage as fast as her legs would carry her.
Almost.
But there were exact three reasons Fluttershy was not running for her dear life right now. Number one was a pair of really nice Manticores with two or possibly even three kittens on the way, waiting for a brew to alleviate the stress of labour for the future mother. 
Reason two was a white rabbit, perched on top of her head like the lookout on a watchtower and number three was a red squirrel riding on her back, watching the surrounding woods with unwavering vigilance.  
The yellow Pegasus could not help herself but to admire her little guardians. As soon as she had crossed the forests border, a switch had been flipped and both Angel and Nutsy had took a post, instantly going into full guardian mode. They had even ‘armed’ themselves with small sticks that they were holding like spears right now. It was almost as if Fluttershy was not a pony anymore but became a walking little castle and they were her guards. With the faintest little giggle elicited by that silly thought, ‘Castle Fluttershy’ proceeded with her trek through the forest that was suddenly not so ominous anymore.

After walking for the better part of an hour Fluttershy decided to take a little break to rest her hooves and maybe refresh herself a bit. It was going to be a beautiful summer’s day and despite the big trees all around her and the shadows they produced; it was quite warm today, even in the deeper parts of the Everfree. Sitting down on a fallen tree near the path she pulled a canteen out of her saddlebags and took a long sip. The water inside was still cool enough to refresh the thirsty mare and after she was done, Fluttershy filled the cap of her canteen with the refreshing liquid and hooved it to the already waiting Angel Bunny and after refilling the cap to Nutsy too. “I can’t let my courageous little guardians go thirsty now, can I?” the mare asked with a sweet smile as she watched her two animal friends down the water. She was about to take out an apple she had brought along as a snack as a faint moaning reached her sensitive ears. Forgetting about the apple nearly instantly, Fluttershy turned around and starred into the woods in an attempt to locate the source of the sound. As her eyes flicked around the underbrush, likewise did her ears and soon she heard it again. Fluttershy was torn. This sounded like some animal that was wounded, lost or even both. Or maybe it was even a pony! A traveler from a faraway land maybe, knowing nothing about the dangers of the Everfree that got lost on his or her travels. Under normal circumstances this would have sufficed to make Fluttershy abandon all fear and gallop to aid whoever needed her help but she still needed to go to Zecoras´ for that labour potion. Again, a moan reached her ears, sounding even more strained and thinner than before. That did it for the compassionate Pegasus. Swooping Angel and Nutsy up and back on her back with her wings, Fluttershy began to make herself a way into the thick underbrush. More than one time, twigs get entangled in her long mane and tail but Fluttershy clenched her teeth together and pulled through, always following the moaning. >>Oh I really, really hope I will be able to reach this poor animal or pony in time.<< she thought as she evaded a large patch of stinging nettles >>Judging after the sound I may be already too late. No Fluttershy! You don´t start thinking like this. You will be there in time and you will help whoever will be in need of help, pony or animal!<< the mare mentally encouraged herself.

Finally she reached a small clearing with a single, mighty tree in its center. The tree however seemed to got hit by a lightning long ago, seeing as only the lower half was still standing while the upper half was lying nearby, devoid of any leaves. Also it looked like that at some point, an animal had decided to hollow out the reaming trunk at ground level, creating a small cave with an entrance barley wide enough for a pony to fit in but twice as high. The source of the moaning clearly was inside this cave. Taking a few tentative steps towards the trunk, Fluttershy asked carefully “H-hello? Is somepony in there? Or are you an animal?” 

Her answer was audible shuffling inside the dark cave.

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Fluttershy took another step towards the old tree. “There, there. No need to be afraid. I´m not going to hurt you or anything, I want to help you. Why don´t you come out and let me see what I can do for you?” she cooed, trying to coerce whoever was hiding in that trunk to come out. Every trace of fear were gone by now. There was a living being in need of help and came Tartarus or high water, Fluttershy was going to help! She was close enough that she could clearly hear labored breathing now, only a hooves length away from the trunk. 

Angel, the whole time perched on Fluttershys head suddenly tensed up as his owner got closer and closer to that old tree. He was not able to put his paw on it but something was foul here, especially now that the normally cowardly Pegasus seemed to start developing an actual spine! In an attempt to steer her away from the trunk, Angel took a hold of Fluttershys ears and tried to use them as steering levers but to no avail. All he got as a reward for trying to save her hide from an obvious trap was a disappointed headshake. 

“Oh Angle, don’t be silly.” Fluttershy said softly to her beloved pet rabbit “There is no dan….” She never got a chance to finish that sentence as suddenly a black appendance, for the lack of a better description, shot out of the darkness and an nearly bench vice like grip closed around the surprised Pegasus´ throat. Panic fuelling her, Fluttershy tried to scream and kick only for the grip to become more intense. Slowly she felt herself get lifted from her hooves, her own bodyweight threatening to strangle her as her hind legs finally lost ground contact. Tears started to well up in her eyes as she began to felt how difficult it had gotten for her to breathe. 

And then, she saw her captor as IT came out of the trunk. It was a creature like none Fluttershy had ever seen before and never ever wanted to see before. The thing was at least twice her high, had a very lean, almost skinny but muscular build as far as she could see through the veil of her own tears and its skin was as pitch black as a moonless night. It also was standing upright on its hind legs and holding her by her throat with its left foreleg. Atop its head, it had a wild mane of bone white hair which was covering its face. 

Fluttershy tried to speak but she only managed to press out a few choppy sounds, weakly pawing with her hooves at the iron like grip around her neck.

The thing brought its prey closer to its face. Close enough for the trembling pony to realize that it literally had no face! There was just more black, smooth skin. At least until a pair of flaming green eyes suddenly opened on the blank surface like skin being ripped open, followed quickly by a gaping maw full of sharp predator teeth, that shone in the same green light from within like its eyes. The monster then let lose a screeching wail that hurt Fluttershys ears before tossing her violently a few meters away.

Coughing Fluttershy lay on the ground as she tried to regain her bearings. A aoen old instinct told her to look up, not to let a threat to her life out of her view for even a second so she looked up and saw the monstrous being reaching behind its back and much to her horror pulling out a silvery blade as long as one of her legs from a chord that held some kind of skirt in place. A voice inside her mind told her to unfold her wings and flee since she would stand no chance if she would try to fight but her feathery appendances were frozen stiff against her sides from pure terror. So all she did at the moment was to gaze at the approaching monster with wide eyes, tears streaming down her face in rivers and trembling like a thin twig in a storm.

A malicious smile formed on the creatures face as it recognized the sweet smell of unadulterated horror. This yellow thing radiated such delicious amounts of fear, it would be a waste to kill it now. No, the dark being would savor every moment of sweet agony it could get out of this sobbing wreck. Slowly it approached its victim, raising its blade. Until something collided with its leg. Looking down, the monster saw two small creatures, a white one and a red one clenching around its legs with their own, without a doubt in a vain attempt to save the crying yellow creature. Without even slowing down, the dark creature kicked both of its legs with surprising force, sending the two pests flying into the underbrush one after another.

Seeing both Angel Bunny and Nutsy heroically trying to slow her dark assailant down just to be kicked away ripped Fluttershy out of her stupor. “Angel, Nutsy, NOOOOO~!” she cried on top of her lungs, finally regaining enough control over her body to stand up again, turn around and to start running. Fluttershys thoughts were doing somersaults. She needed to get Angel and Nutsy and then get to Ponyvile as fast as possible. She needed to tell Twilight about this monster, she needed to warn everypony, she needed to… 

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH~!!!!!!”

Fluttershy screamed like she never had screamed before, searing pain flooded her mind as her left hind leg refused to carry her weight any longer and send her into the dirt. In a reflex, she looked at her leg to see what was wrong with it and went pale. A long cut stood out against her bright coat, dark red blood gushing out of it, drenching her fur and dripping onto the forest floor. An iron like claw clutched into her mane and violently pulled her head back, earning a pained cry from the Pegasus. Slowly, a silvery blade covered in her own blood came into her view, stopping right in front of her throat. Fluttershy could see her own reflection in it as well as the reflection of her torturer. She suddenly knew what would happen next. This monster, this unspeakable cruel monster would let its blade slowly glide over the soft tissue of her throat, the cut would not deep enough to kill her instantly but deep enough to ensure she would die a excruciating death, slowly bleeding out with nopony to help her. Alone with a monster. 
Tears and mucus streaming down her face, Fluttershy sobbed without restraint “Oh Celestia I do-… I don´t want to die… *hick*… please… some-*hick*somepony… anypony… please save *hick* save me… Twilight, Rainbow… *hick, hick* Momma, Daddy… *hick* please… save your little filly… please… oh please…”

Licking its lips, the creature wallowed in its victims fear and misery. It brought the blade closer the tender flesh of the throat, eager to spill more blood, to cause more pain, to…

Whack! With a pained howl the dark monster let go of its victim as a hard and fast object slammed against its skull and forced it to take several steps back. Screeching in disbelief, the beast looked for the fool that had interrupted its meal and found… another weird creature standing protectively in front of the sobbing yellow one. It was a creature similar to the yellow one but this one had no wings. Instead it had a grey and black stripped hide, the hair was done up in a Mohawk and several pieces of golden jewelry adorned its neck and left foreleg. Massive earrings dangled from its ears and its cyan eyes were fixated on its opponent with a glare that showed no fear, only barley contained, boiling anger. Also the new creature was standing on its hind legs, wielding what looked like a long wooden staff in the crook of its right foreleg in some kind of fighting stance.    

“Be gone you hideous beast! On Miss Fluttershy you never will feast!” the newcomer spoke in a low, exotic voice “You made her cry and caused her pain, you showed nothing for her but pure disdain! I don´t know what you are but I know one thing clearly; for every shed tear, I will make you pay dearly!” the stripped one promised.

Fluttershys heart nearly leaped out of her throat as not only the unbudging grip of her mane vanished but also as she heard a rich and exotic voice that could only belong to one zebra in all of Equestria. She managed to turn around, hissing as the burning feeling in her leg intensified but ignoring the pain as far as possible to see her savior standing protectively in front of her. “Zecora!” the distraught Pegasus managed to croak out, her voice on the verge of breaking but at the same time brimming with hope.  

Zecora balanced on her hind legs with her staff ready in her forelegs crook, her gaze never straying from that strange black monster in front of her. Today had been the day her special brew for the pregnant Manticore had been finished and knowing of Fluttershys fear of the wild forest the zebra mare called her home, Zecora had decided to meet her Pegasus friend half the way to ease her burden a bit. Truly it had been a surprise for the herb expert as Fluttershys bunny companion Angel and a red squirrel came flying out of the underbrush, surprising Zecora ever so slightly. Even more surprised Zecora had been as she spotted the strange but without a doubt hostile, black, monster that was attempting to slit open an crying and babbling Fluttershys throat. Not hesitating, the zebra had tossed the flask with the labour brew to the still slightly dazed Angel with the instruction to deliver it as fast as possible to the waiting Manticores in her stead and after that, returing to Fluttershys cottage. Praying to the spirits, Zecora then had entered the clearing and launched herself at Fluttershys attacker, swinging her trusty staff she always took along whenever she would leave her hut to collect herbs, just in case of a feisty predator should cross her path.  She had been able to surprise it and land a lucky blow but just a quick glance told the zebra that this monster would put up quite a fight. Then she heard the nearly breaking voice of her dear friend Fluttershy from behind her, as well as the stirring of the timid Pegasus. “Miss Fluttershy, please don´t move and keep your muzzle shut or else I am afraid you will bleed out from this cut.” The shamaness instructed the quivering mare with as much warmth as possible without turning around “As soon as I am done with my punishment dealing, I will get you quickly to the house of healing.” Zecora promised. But first she had to deal with this beast. It was unlike anything she had encountered so far in all her travels, both in the spiritual and the material realm. At least its body structure was somehow similar to a Diamond Dog, just without the, well, Dog. So she assumed that a good couple of strong hits to the right places should inflict enough pain to drive it off and teach the black thing a lesson. At least she hoped so but the Zecora had no real time to ponder about that as the monster leapt at her, screeching like an evil spirit with its bloodied blade held high. 

Not losing any time, Zecora met her opponent half the way. Dodging a wide swing, she dived through underneath the beasts attack, delivering a blow of her own to the ribs of the black being. Her enemy reacted fast and slashed with its free claw at her which she narrowly avoided by dropping on all four legs. The monster used that opportunity to try and stab the pesky zebra through the neck but again the blade missed its mark as Zecora dropped into a pushup stance, abandoning her staff and instead swinging both her hind legs around herself in a fluid motion. The zebra’s hooves made contact with the monsters shins and a loud cracking could be heard, followed by a pained wail. Crying for blood, the monster slashed madly at its elusive opponent but was not able to land a hit. 

Fluttershy stared with wide eyes as Zecora danced around the beast, spun and dodged attacks with astonishing grace while placing dozens of hits of her own with her staff or even her bare hooves, fluently switching between moving on all four legs or only on her hind legs. In Fluttershys eyes, the shamaness suddenly seemed to have turned into an untouchable warrior, pretty much like the mane character from Spikes “Zena” comics. At least until the monster was finally able to land a hit at the zebra’s cheek, leaving a profusely bleeding gash.

Zecora swayed back and forth like a dancer to keep her up-right stance as she felt the pain and the blood running down from her right cheek, sweat matting her coat. That monster was tough; she had to give it that. She had dished out enough punishment to send a whole pack of Diamond Dogs running back to their mothers with their tails between their legs but this creature was still up and running, albeit it was starting to move more sluggish. >>Well, this is not a Diamond Dog after all.<< she thought before addressing the visibly fuming monster “I will admit you are tough but I have to end this soon or my dear friend may not be able to see her next moon. So come at me and show me what you´ve got or are you afraid of me you big shot?” Zecora sing-songed with a taunting smile. And it worked. With an roar that send every bird in an two kilometer radius around the small clearing flying, the black beast charged at Zecora, its blade gripped with both claws and held ready to perform an horizontal slash with the clear intend to decapitate the striped mare. Predicting this kind of maneuver, Zecora used her staff to jump in the last moment over the silver arc of the deadly weapon and brought down her own attack in form of a devastating kick with both her hind hooves on the monsters vulnerable back.

Fluttershy flinched and quickly closed her eyes as Zecora brought her hooves down on her enemy, the cracking sound of bones getting shattered loud enough to paint a vivid picture for her. As she opened them again, she saw an extremely spent but victorious Zecora trotting over to her, the defeated monster behind her sprawled motionless in the dirt. Before her savior was able to speak, the Pegasus catapulted herself literally onto her, wrapping her trembling legs around Zecora´s neck and began to sob nearly inaudible "Thank you´s" into the shamaness shoulder´s coat.    

Zecora smiled and gently stroked the shaking and crying mares mane, comforting the terrified Fluttershy to the best of her abilities but broke the soothing hug quickly, rummaging through her saddlebags.

Fluttershy watched Zecora taking a small linen pouch from her bags which the wise mare opened and shook it over her leg wound. A brownish powder trickled out of it onto the wounded flesh. The moment the strange concoction made contact, Fluttershy felt an almost icy but pleasant chill numbing the wound and to her huge surprise, melding together into a dirty brown tissue that completely covered the wound and stopped the bleeding. The yellow mare stared in wide eyed wonder, electing a warm chuckle from her counterpart.

“This is medicine made from shed Hydras hide, some of the best first aid one can provide.” Zecora answered Fluttershys unspoken question, putting the empty pouch back in her saddle bags. “Sadly you are bleeding quite strong, so it won´t last very long. All it can do is to stall but you are still in dire need on an hospital. So let us don’t waste time with talk, instead let us walk.” Getting on her hooves, Zecora assisted Fluttershy to shakily join her, offering her shoulder as support and began to lead her away from the clearing, leaving the defeated monster behind.

Even though the powder numbed her wound and eased her pain, Fluttershy still found it difficult to maintain a normal walking rhythm. Every few steps she would stumble, forcing Zecora to catch her. Nonetheless Fluttershy felt indescribable gratitude filling her heart. If it had not been for her striped friend… Softly shaking her head, Fluttershy chased that thought away. Instead she chooses to address her savior. “Erhm…. Ze-zecora?” she mumbled in her hushed tone. The shamaness did not face her but instead signaled her attention with an audible hum. “I… I wa-want to… I want to say thank you…” Fluttershy began, her even under normal circumstances quite voice quickly descending into a mere whisper while a bright blush crept onto her cheeks and her ears folded themselves into her mane. 

Shaking her head slightly with a good natured smile, Zecora gave her timid friend another rich chuckle “You are very welcome dear Fluttershy, I… uh?” 

Confused that Zecora had not finished her sentence, Flutterhsy turned her head towards the zebra. Zecora had stopped walking and was looking down towards her hooves with an utterly baffled expression. Following her line of sight Fluttershy found the reason for Zecoras behavior and it made her stomach turn into an icy pit. Protruding from the zebra’s neck was a silvery blade, now coated in a filigree web of purest crimson. Fluttershy let out a silent scream as the blade retracted and Zecora broke down without making a single sound, her eyes rolling back and bloody foam began to pour from her muzzle. Feeling new tears welling up from her eyes, Fluttershy turned around fully and began to shake uncontrolled, faintly whispering “No…” over and over again. There, right behind her stood the monster, its bloodstained weapon triumphantly hold up. It was visible bruised and battered form the fight with Zecora, a thick, black liquid that evaporated into black mist whenever it dripped onto the ground trickling from several wounds and one of its horrible eyes swollen shut. But nonetheless it stood there, licking the razor-sharp blade clean from Zecoras blood with the dilatoriness of a true gourmet, with a strangely serpentine tongue. And the whole time, its remaining good eye remained fixated on Fluttershy, the promise that she will be the next to taste the sharpness of the deadly blade glimmering in the hellish green orb. 

Suddenly a high pitched whine filled the air, a wave of intense heat washed over Fluttershy and from one second to the next, the head and shoulders of the bloodthirsty monstrosity was encased in a bright ball of bluish-white fire. As the flames died out, Fluttershys eyes nearly popped out of their sockets from sheer horror as she watched the now headless body slump down into a heap and quickly started to dissolve into black mist that was quickly dissipating. Unable to process what just happened Fluttershy did the only thing her blank mind was able to come up with. She laid down, nudging her mortally wounded friend ever so gently with her hoof, muttering “Zecora?” over and over like a broken record.

“That was a great shot my friend.” A new, stretched voice rang out from behind Fluttershy but the near-catatonic Pegasus did not noticed them.  

“Yes, I did not believe you would be able to pull that off. I really expected your gun to blow up in your face.” Another voice chimed it. Like the first, it sounded oddly stretched.      

“Go and suck an Ork´s cock Sorn. You know there is no kill like overkill and no overkill is like a headshot with a plasma gun!” A third voice half yelled, half boasted. 

Would Fluttershy had turned around, she would have witnessed as the thick underbrush of the Everfree Forest divided and made way for a trio of strange, bipedal creatures. They were easily as tall as the black skinned monster but they seemed to posses a bright red hide instead that was covered in thick, black armor plates. A single blue eye with no visible iris or pupil dominated their heads and the faces of the three newcomers were completely obscured by a metallic mask of some kind. Two of them were holding a strange contraption in their claws like upper appendances that seemed to consist of a handle and a short pipe coming out of a long stretched box, with a rope connected to the box near the handle that lead behind their backs. The third however was carrying a different contraption with it. It was similar to the one of its companions but it had a broader muzzle and a long portion of the boxes upper half was glowing in the same eerie blue like the three creatures eyes.

“Well, you iced that damn Mandrak nicely at last. Took us long enough to hunt that frakking xeno down.” The first creature spoke again only to abruptly come to an halt “What in His holy name is that?” It said and pointed at the still cowering and unmoving yellow creature in front of them. 

“Keep your guns hot and ready, I’m going to check this.” the third creature said and began to cautiously approach the strange thing in front of them. 

Finally noticing that there was something behind her as a shadow fell over her, Fluttershy turned her head. She was greeted by a small metal pipe she nearly slammed her muzzle into and as her gaze wandered up, only to be greeted by the view of an cyclopean creature that was at least as frightening as the black monster had been. Fluttershy felt her heart hammering against her ribcage as her breathing rate soared to unknown highs as two more creatures joined the first one, clutching weird contraptions with their claws. They seemed to study her as if they were unsure what to do. Then, they spoke. At least Flutterhy assumed that the three beings did because she could see no visible muzzle or maw movements but still heard three different voices.

“In all my time, I´ve never seen such… things. You think those are some kind of animals?” One said.   

“Could be. Maybe beasts of burden? Look, they have bags strapped on them and they seemed to be marked.” Another one added, pointing at Fluttershsys saddlebags and her cutie mark.

“The striped one is wounded, pretty bad. Looks like our friend had some fun with them before we offed him. Hmm, you think their owner is still around here?” 

A short pause followed as the three creatures seemed to exchange wordless glares, their strange devices constantly trained at Fluttershy and Zecora. Fluttershy tried to comprehend what was just happening. While the most parts of what these creatures were saying sounded like gibberish to her, she recognized some words now and then such as ‘animals’ or ‘mark’. Now was Fluttershy not anywhere as smart as Twilight but even in her panic ridden state of mind, she could puzzle herself together a few things. First, the three creatures had killed the black monster without breaking a sweat. Two, the strange contraptions in their claws were probably some kind of weapon judging by the way they were holding them. Three, those new creatures were at least as dangerous as the black monster.

“Ah damn it, I can´t see this thing suffer. I´m going to deliver it from its pain.” The creature to Fluttershys right suddenly announced, pointing its weapon at the fallen zebra. This seemed to irritate its companions to a degree.

“Why bother? You´re just wasting ammo.” The middle one said.

“Yeah, come on, let´s get back to the others. Can´t you see, it will be dead in minutes. Plus I bet the blood scent will attract every predator in this blasted jungle like Grox shit attracts flies.” The black armored being to the left said. 

“Fuck off you two, I can’t help it. I grew up on an agriculture world, guess that caring for animals somehow stuck with me.” The right creature retorted before stepping closer to the bleeding and twitching Zecora. “Shh, everything will be over soon.” It softly said with its strangely stretched voice. 

Fluttershys pupils turned to pinpricks as she realized what the red and black creature was about to do. The animal caretaker had often enough experienced a similar situation where one of her charges had become too old, too sick or had suffered to severe injuries for anypony to help and had to be put down for its own good. To the blue eyed biped, Zecora was now just that. A mortally wounded animal that needed to be put out of its misery. 

Time itself seemed to slow down as the dull silver muzzle of the alien weapon was lined up with Zecora, aiming at her heart.

Fluttershy felt her limbs turn to lead, a lump big like a wagons wheel forming in her throat. 

The creature took a deep breath in, claws tightening around the contraption.

Deep, deep inside the darkest corners of Fluttershys mind, something clicked and suddenly the  under normal circumstances unnatural timid Pegasus bursts into action, a blurry flash of cream yellow feathers and tear filled eyes. Her outstretched fore hoof made violent contact with the weapon, knocking it away from her friend and causing the bright red flash of light that erupted from of it to harmlessly impact with a patch of forest floor. All while she screamed her loudest “Nooo~!” on top of her lungs. Wings flared open as wide as possible, Fluttershy positioned herself between her fallen savior and the three bipeds, new rivers of tears matting her already damp cheeks.


°°°


Trooper Sorn, specialist Finch and mostly trooper Aleksandr starred with mouths hanging wide open behind their respirator masks, unable to comprehend what just had happened. 

“Did… what… what the trice damned warp just happened? And… are those… wings?” Aleksandr asked, overcoming his stupor first.

“Forget the wings! Did that thing just spoke?” Sorn yelled alarmed, training his hellgun at the winged creature, his trigger finger visibly twitching.

Ironically it was Finch, the specialist with the plasma gun who seemed to be to only one that was left somewhat unfazed. “Okay you two, calm. The frakk. Down. You´re acting like two fresh recruits on their first day of training. Yes Alek, those are wings. And you Sorn,” he placed a hand on his fellow soldiers gun for emphasis “put down that gun before you accidently do something stupid. Again.” Nodding in satisfaction as Sorn lowered his weapon while grumbling something incoherent in his mask, Finch activated the build in short distance com in his helmet. “I bet Lady Nor will be interested in this. This is Delta team, specialist Finch speaking. I have an important message for Lady Inquisitor Nor. I repeat, important message for Lady Nor!”

A burst of static attacked the troopers ears that quickly was replaced by the voice of his leader. “This is Ralya Nor speaking. Your report trooper.” She said, curiosity coloring her voice.

The trooper nodded before continuing although his superior could not see the gesture of respect “At once Milady. After searching for one and a half standard hours, we were able to track down and eliminate one of the Mandrakes your Ladyship had detected earlier. It seemed that the xeno had attacked and wounded what first appeared to be two specimens of the local fauna but now it seems that we encountered two members of the indigenous population instead.”

“What gives you that idea trooper?” the Inquisitor inquired through the com.           

Awkwardly rubbing the back of his helmet, Finch answered “Well, one of the xenos… talked to us I think.”

“You think? Did it talk or did it not?” 

“Ehrm, well, the three of us are very sure it talked as Aleksandr tried to put down the wounded one and…”

“He WHAT?!?” a scream laden with disbelief reverberated through the speakers of Finch´s helmet. “Don´t move even a finger, every one of you! We will meet you at your position ASAP. Just secure the area and make sure that these xenos don’t die on you. That´s an order trooper!”

Finch straightened himself before answering with a firm “As you command Milady!” He was about to pass the orders to his comrades as Raylas voice again could be heard inside his helmet.

“One more thing specialist. Could you describe how these xenos look like? Just in case we encounter some on our way to you.” The Inquisitor asked, unable to hide her awoken curiosity now.

“I´m afraid your Ladyship would never believe me. It is for the best to see for yourself.” The trooper answered with an audible sigh.

“Good. Ehrm yes, this will be all. Inquisitor Nor out.” With that, the com was silent once again.

Shaking his head slightly, specialist Finch prepared himself to deliver the new orders to his fellow troopers.


°°°


Pain. That was the most prominent feeling Fluttershy had at the moment. Pain in her leg from the sudden strain to her wound, pain in her lungs from the overuse when she screamed and pain in her wings for nearly overextending them in the attempt to shield Zecora from the black and red creatures. In fact, pain had seemingly replaced everything in the mares world. Stirring behind her made Fluttershy turn around. A shocked gasp escaped her mouth as she saw her friend laying in a pool of her own blood. Frantic thoughts began to race through Fluttershys mind. She had to do something, Zecora would die for sure if Fluttershy would not help her. >>The healing powder!<< a tiny, hopeful voice inside Fluttershys mind suddenly squeaked, causing the Pegasus to start rummaging through Zecoras saddlebags, filed with new hope. If this medicine had been able to help her it could surely help the zebra too. The ominous three bipeds behind her were shoved far away, to the edge of Fluttershys mind. She had more important things to worry about now! With a silent cry of joy, Fluttershy finally found the object of her desire, pulled it open with her teeth and shook it over one of Zecoras wounds. Only to find the little pouch empty. Hope instantly was replaced by despair now as the linen escaped Fluttershsys grip and she plopped onto her haunches in front of her shallow breathing friend. >Oh no. She had used it all to help me and now there is nothing left for her! Oh Celestia, Zecora will die and it is purely my fault. If I had not been so weak again, if I just had listened to Angel when he tried to warn me, if I just…<< Fluttershy was so absorbed in her grieving that she at first not noticed that two of the creatures where now kneeling by her side, examining Zecora and herself carefully.  

“… that really a good idea?” a voice ripped Fluttershy out of her silent mourning. Her poor heart nearly stopped beating as Fluttershy realized the two big creatures looming over Zecoras body.

“That’s our order. Now quit fussing and start working Sorn. I know you stashed away some meds before we left the ship you damn Salvar.” The biped with the blue glowing weapon said, sounding slightly angry.  

Audibly grumbling, the other rummaged through some little pockets on his waist and produced a tiny, odd shaped syringe. “I can’t believe this, I´m wasting good stuff for a dying xeno…” it grumbled.

“Just be happy that I don´t decide to tell Lady Nor about that little stash of yours.”         

“Could the two of you please stop bickering like a couple of Gretchins already? I swear to all Saints there are, I´m going to kick your asses to the Eye of Terror and beyond if you attract even one single damn animal with your argument!” the third of the trio suddenly yelled. It was facing the forest, body tensed up as it was standing guard.

“Grahh, fine. But I still say it’s a waste!” the one with the syringe said and before Fluttershy was able to react, it had injected Zecora with its contents. 

At first, panic threatened to overwhelm Fluttershy but mere seconds after the injection, Zecoras breathing grew visibly calmer and she stopped twitching. Then she watched as the creatures slapped two big white patches over Zecoras neck wounds. Finally it dawned Fluttershy >>They… they are… helping Zecora!<< the Pegasus concluded while her own pulse slowly started to descend to normal levels again. The strange creatures had administered some kind of first aid on her friend. She was about to let out a relieved sigh as the Everfree Forest behind her began to bustle with motion. Fluttershy saw the two black armored bipeds stand up and face the tree line and so did Fluttershy. The mare let out an audible “Eeep!” as a new biped left the underbrush. It looked similar to the first three but in its claws, it was wielding a large saber which it used to clear a path for itself and what looked like a much smaller version of the light spewing weapons two of the creatures were carrying. The saber wielding creature was soon followed as more and more black and red bipeds left the underbrush left and right, watching their surroundings carefully while their claws were holding a wide array of even weirder contraptions at the ready. Fluttershy felt her mouth run dry as the small clearing was quickly filled with at least fifty of these unknown creatures, some of them starring at her and Zecora with their eerie blue eyes. Then, as if commanded by an unspoken signal, the mass of red and black opened up in front of Fluttershy to form a corridor. The Pegasus´ eyes widened as she saw a new group walking through this corridor, straight towards her. In front of the group was a creature completely covered in a dull metallic armor, with sleeves of black covering its upper arms and a slightly tattered red cape billowing around it. Much to her own horror, Fluttershy came to realize that the cape was decorated with fluffy brown fur around the shoulders. Its blood red eyes the only visible feature of its face seemed to be transfixed on the quivering form of Fluttershy who now noticed the long and deadly looking sword the armored creature was carrying in its right claw. 

Right behind the caped biped followed two similar in looks, except they had red sleeves and red tunics over black armor and no capes. Golden pendants on little chains made of silvery pearls hung from their hips. The one to the right was carrying a boxy contraption of polished metal while the other one was holding onto a grotesquely oversized version of the right ones weapon. It had a chain of short cylinders coming out of it that seemed to come from its bearers back. 

Next was a red and black biped which was holding a contraption with a blackened muzzle and a little, hissing flame at it. 

Then came two creatures that shocked Fluttershy in similar manners. One was a visibly disfigured creature with a hump, clad in olive colored armor around its torso and shin guards in the same color strapped to its hind legs. The rest of its body was covered with tattered clothing, stained with blood and dirt. A metallic mask obscured the lower part of the creatures face so Fluttershy could only see the upper half. It was furless, light tan skin visible behind rouge strands of a messy, black mane. Two vigilant yellow eyes, one seemed to be half closed all the time, watched the leading biped all the time. In its claws it held a thing that looked like long pipe with a handle and a pump. 

Right beside it walked a tall, masked creature with the biggest and strangest sword Fluttershy had ever seen casually placed on its shoulder. It was weirdly boxy and its cutting edge looked more like a saw then a blade. It wore only a ragged red tunic and something that looked like a black corsage around its midsection. Strangely the biped seemed also to wear a set of cuffs, connected by a long chain to a metal choker it was wearing around its neck. With a gasp, Fluttershy also noticed many old and new cuts on this bipeds pale skin but before she could sort out the many impressions bombarding her poor brain, a new voice spoke to her.

“So, you are the xenos my men spoke of yes?” The new voice was definitively a females. Oddly stretched like the voices of the other creature but unmistakable the voice of a female. 

Fluttershy jerked her head up and found herself face to face with the cape wearing creature. It was on one knee directly in front of her, mustering her with those scary red eyes.

“I think I get now why my men told me I would not believe them would they had described you or your friend there via com to me." It said, shaking its head softly. “Tiny horses in screaming colors. But after the meeting with the Jokaero I should be a bit more open minded hm?"      

Fluttershy stared at the creature. It was without a doubt talking to her but she could not understand it, well except for what she thought was the word ‘friend’. 

“Well drat, looks like we have some language barrier here. Argh, what would I give to have Helia here now. She would by now probably talking to you like she was born here!” 

A soft stirring behind Fluttershy brought her zebrican friend back to the Pegasus´ attention. She turned around. Zecora was still lying were she had collapsed, no more bloody foam coming from her mouth but her coat was damp with sweat and her breathing had begun to grow shallow. 

“Your friend doesn’t look really good.” An observational statement rang out from behind.

Turning around, Fluttershy starred into the red eyes of her counterpart. Fidgeting her hooves nervously, the shy mare desperately scratched together each and every ounce of courage her body could muster and then some of her desperation and fear of Zecoras death for good measure. Somehow she had to convince these creatures to let her and Zecora go back to Ponyville if she wanted to save her friends life. Sitting on her haunches, Fluttershy held up her forelegs in a pleading fashion while gazing directly into what she thought was the armored bipeds face. “P-please… Zecora… my friend… she got hurt really bad and it´s all m-my fault… please… I beg you… can I take her to Ponyville please? She needs a doctor o-or else she will… die…” Fluttershy stuttered with a shaky voice but somehow she managed to hold the same volume the whole time. Tears would have formed in her eyes too, would she had some left but the recent events had depleted her reserves. The reaction her plea earned her however was not what Fluttershy expected.


°°°


Rayla was, to put it simple, shocked. This little, frail looking xeno horse in front of her showed so many characteristics of a human, it could drive a lesser human crazy. But Rayla was no lesser human, she was an Inquisitor. Young in every way but nonetheless. Unspeakable happy that her helmet hid her face, she studied the yellow creature in front of her. It looked like a horse or to be precise like a Pegasus, Rayla corrected herself once she discovered the wings folded tightly against its sides. The Inquisitor recalled that she has seen pictures of such creatures in old books, mainly seen as beasts from long forgotten myths but now one was sitting in front of her in the flesh. And given by the way the little thing looked at her one could safely assume it was afraid. How such a creature could survive in such an hostile environment like this forest, with such bright colors was a mystery to Rayla. Likewise how evolution could have led this xeno to have such large, expressive eyes. The way they glistened and wavered reminded her of a child on the verge of crying. Also, its head seemed way to big and out of proportion for its body. 
And then it spoke. It folded its forelegs like a man begging for mercy and spoke.

“P-please… Zecora… my friend… she got hurt really bad and it´s all m-my fault… please… I beg you… can I take her to Ponyville please? She needs a doctor o-or else she will… die…” 

Rayla felt her chin bang against the inside of her helmet as the little Pegasus xeno said that. This xeno just had spoken in what sounded to the Inquisitor like Low Gothic. Laced with some strange words, without a doubt local creations and a weird accent but it was Low Gothic. Again Raylas mind kicked up a gear as she processed all this new information’s. 
How could it be that a completely unknown species was able to talk in Low Gothic?

Maybe an Explorator ship had visited this planet but the crew had fallen victim to some kind of local predators or an illness before they could report. Possible but then the xenos should at least have seen humans before. Those Exploratorii tended to get in touch at least a bit with the population of new planets in order to gauge the value for the Empire. 

Another possibility could be that Renegades used this planet as hideout for a while or were still using.

Or maybe Rouge Traders? This greedy bunch liked to keep sources of steady income a secret as long as possible so only they could exploit them to the fullest.

But these theories could wait for later. If Rayla had understood it correctly, the yellow xeno wanted to take the striped one (at least this one seemed somewhat adapted to this hostile environment) which could only be this “Zecora” to a hospital to get her wounds treated? At a place called “Ponyville”? Rayla felt the urge to snicker at those names for an unknown reason. >>Hmm, this little xeno could be a good source of information. Plus this Ponyville is probably a bigger settlement and if they have a hospital there, which I presume is this world’s equivalent for an Valetudinarium they should have an higher level of tech then I excepted. Not necessary a bad thing though. Also a settlement would prove a good foothold for now. Everything is better than another night in these blasted woods. But first…<< Rayla reached behind her head and fumbled a bit until she found the release mechanism for her helmet. With an audible hissing, the pressure from the power armors inner atmosphere exhausted. Pulling her protective headgear of, Rayla shook her head for the good feeling of being freed from the tightness of the Sabbat scheme helmet, gave the wide eyed starring little Pegasus a smile and said “Now, that’s better. You said your friend needs to be brought to a… hospital was it?”       


°°°


Fluttershy sat ramrod stiff as the biped in front of her reached behind her head and after a loud hiss, took it off, revealing it to be really just a helmet. With an open mouth, the Pegasus stared in the smiling face only a legs length away from her. It was furless with the exception of a messy orange mane that looked a bit compressed right now, with a single long braid on the left side of the face that dangled around as the female shook her head shortly. The rest was only pale skin. The beings mouth was only a thin line, surrounded by slightly darker lips. A small nose sat between two blue eyes. No sign of ears whatsoever but Fluttershy assumed that they had to be hidden underneath the mane somehow. Then it spoke again but this time it was no gibberish, it was Equestrian. A bit bumpy with a strange accent but finally the words made sense to Fluttershy. She felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude wash over her entire body as she nodded unusual eagerly to show confirmation. She even felt her wings fluttering slightly as she pointed a hoof in Zecoras direction “Uhm.. yes… my friend Zecora… she defended me against a black monster but she was hurt. It was my fault… but… but you would let me take her to back to Ponyville? Back to the hospital?” she said, hope filling her voice.

The female stood up slowly which made Fluttershy took a surprised step backwards but the armored biped never stopped looking at her with that calm smile of hers.“Why should I not?” she asked then, sorting her mane with her left claw while her right secured the helmet at her hip. “In fact… oh! My apologies, how rude of me… we have not exchanged names yet, do we?” 

Fluttershy could not help herself but to giggle ever so slightly. This being may have looked scary at first but now all that Fluttershy could see was a mare… female… being that felt genuinely embarrassed over not introducing herself right away. The warm smile she wore helped to ease Fluttershys apprehension too. “Oh, it´s alright. Really, it happens to me too. My name is Fluttershy.” She then said, managing a shy smile of her own without hiding her whole face behind her mane.           

“Fluttershy, it is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Rayla Nor.” The being now known as Rayla Nor said. “Well then, as I was about to say: would you like us to accompany you? This place is swarming with bloodthirsty monsters most strange and I think it would be to our all’s benefit. You could act as our guide and my men and I would protect the two of you along the way. The promise of civilization sounds truly heavenly. As you can guess, we are not really from this planet and a roof over our heads for the next nights and something warm to eat would be most appreciated.” 

Eying the ‘men’ as Rayla called them for a second, then looking at Zecora Fluttershy pondered on what to do. Having somepony to protect her and Zecora on the way to Ponyville sounded more than tempting but bringing a horde of strange, armed creatures to the little town? This could cause a panic, especially if the infamous Flower Trio were to spot them first. Daisy, Rose and Lily always tend to overreact about things. A few days prior, they had caused a massive panic just because a simple ladybug had set down on Daisys nose, startling her in her sleep. 
But then again, Rayla seemed nice enough and Fluttershy could simply not bring herself to let somepony who was a stranger in a strange land to sleep in the wild, especially not the Everfree! Surely Twilight would be able to come up with an idea once Fluttershy had explained everything. And in the worst case, they could always contact Celestia. There was no way the Diarch of the Sun would decline a request for help, pony or not. 
“Well, uhm, I guess it would be really nice to have somepony to protect me. Also I simply can´t let you sleep in the Everfree Forest. No, I think you can come with me to Ponyville. As long as you and your friends behave… if that is not a problem…” Fluttershy finally said.

“I think that would be manageable.” Rayla answered and signaled her men to get ready to go. Then she beckoned the deformed biped over. “Fluttershy, this is Crux. He is one of my most loyal servants. It will be his task to carry your wounded friend. Crux, this is Fluttershy. She will be our guide out of this forest. You will carry and protect her wounded friend Zecora until we can deliver her to an local Valetudinarium. Oh and Crux, Fluttershy can only speak Low Gothic so speak it please as long as you are in her presence.”

After giving a respectful bow to Rayla, Crux was about to lift the limb form of Zecora from the ground as Fluttershy spoke up. “Uh, ehm… Mister Crux, sir… that… I think I can carry Zecora myself… really, it won´t be a problem…”

The man gave the little xeno an irritated grunt before lifting his ordered charge up with his strong arms. Cradling the wounded Zecora carefully he faced Fluttershy. “No. Crux will carry. Mistress gave order, Crux follows order. Little xeno Fluttershy don´t worry about her friend. Crux will keep her safe as long as Mistress says so.” He said with an even stronger accent then Rayla but with outmost determination. 

Rayla gave a good natured chuckle about the behavior of Crux and Flutterhsy. That little xeno sure was interesting. Incredibly timid but also accepting and trusting beyond any reason. No rational thinking human would have trusted a strange creature so quick, if at all. Clapping her hands together for attention, she addressed Fluttershy “Now that we have this problem solved, should we get going?” 

Fluttershy blushed a bit and looked around before pointing in a certain direction with her hoof. “Uhm, of course… sorry… I just don´t want to cause any inconvenience… really, I´m sorry. To reach Ponyville, we have to go in this direction. It should not be more than an hour’s trot… if that does not cause trouble for you.”

Never breaking her smile, Rayla turned to her men “Alright everyone, we´re leaving. Destination Ponyville. Keep your eyes open and your weapons ready, I want us to arrive in one piece.” Soon the sound of heavy combat boots on soft forest floor and the scratching of branches over thick plate armor filled the air of the Everfree. At the front of the procession, Rayla walked side by side with Fluttershy, followed closely by Crux and the unconscious Zecora. The Inquisitor was mentally preparing her next steps for a while now as the new and timid voice of her xeno guide pulled her out of her thoughts.

“R-rayla?”

Without breaking her steady pace, Rayla glanced down to meet Fluttershys own eyes shortly. “Yes?”

Hiding slightly behind her long pink mane, Fluttershy chewed on her lip for a second before finally asking “Would you mind… I mean if it is okay with you, me asking you a few questions? I have never ever heard of beings like you… of course it would be ok if you don’t want me to ask.”

Crossing her arms in front of her chest, Rayla again could not help but snicker about the Pegasus´ personality. “Of course I don´t mind. Ask along. As long as you grant me the same privilege of course.” 

Starting to warm up to Raylas likeable nature, Fluttershy managed to gather enough courage and said, clearly imitating the orange haired female’s statement from earlier “I think that should be manageable.”