The Imperial dropships rained down, pumping fresh lifeblood into the veins of the defenders of Griffonstone. Dozens of craft landed virtually unopposed in the surrounding snowfields, some coming to rest on the charred corpses of their enemies to disgorge their passengers. Hundreds of fresh, battle-ready guardsmen deployed to meet the threat now bottled up inside the city and caught between a rock and a hard place. With Lightnings on combat air patrol overhead and boots on the ground below, the Imperials tightened the noose, a reverse of the earlier situation, just as the second fleet engagement in orbit had been a reverse of the first. The Chaos troopers and surviving Marines fought, and fought hard.
But yet more Imperial craft were coming down, dropping off more platoons ready to avenge their brothers and sisters who had already fought and died in this strange, windswept place. The survivors of the Archenemy were wiped out to a man, a small cluster of Astartes holed up in a shattered store proving the toughest nut to crack, bringing down nearly two entire Guard companies with bolter and plasma before the area was evacuated and the entire city block was leveled by a volley of precisely-delivered Hellstrike missiles from a newly arrived ground-attack Lightning in a near-vertical dive. Heavy weapons teams were able to go in and finish the job, and a few hours after sunrise, the city was declared clear of enemy forces.
Griffonstone was not the only location where troops were landing. A quick orbital and aerial survey had shown zero Chaos presence on a large sweeping plain located between the fringes of the western desert area and the more populated central belt, and a large force comprising the bulk of the Imperial effort was descending there, landers and dropships swarming across the area. While the beseigers of Griffonstone may have been defeated, the Chaos forces had been able to land an untold number of their troops and equipment elsewhere, presumably intending to wipe out any remaining resistance. Contact had not been established with any other surviving scattered Imperial forces from the first landing, suggesting the few units that had made it planetside before the storm had been annihilated. Now, however, the full-scale landing that had initially been intended could finally take place, though not with the original intention of 'pacifying' the natives, but now to work with them against a greater threat, much to the confusion and disquiet of many of the guardsmen and, no doubt, many of the natives too. But the world had been stained with the taint of Chaos, and that could not be allowed to stand. As a result, many thousands of men were touching down, along with tanks, mobile artillery, scout cars, trucks, ambulances, anti-air vehicles, tank destroyers, mobile Auspex vehicles, and a myriad other pieces of Guard equipment, all the individual pieces in the mighty struggle for the control of this world.
In Griffonstone, the cost was being counted. Hundreds of defenders were dead, their bodies littering the barricades, though they had taken a fearsome toll on the attacking infantry. In the outer districts, search teams found the Griffon civilians who had not made it inside. Some merely lay crumpled in the street, but in several places large piles of bodies had been made by the Chaos troops, possibly with the intention of burning them, possibly for some heretical ritual, or possibly merely as a kind of twisted trophy. The majority of the city's population were dead, and the humans now outnumbered the Griffons. Of the wider Griffon population, or their pony neighbours, there was no word. Pegasi or Griffon messengers could relay information, but none had arrived at the town since the invasion. Any surviving pony military forces would have no means of knowing that their leaders were located at Griffonstone, as to the wider world their whereabouts had been unknown since the fall of Canterlot.
With low orbit clear of any Chaos ships, the landings were all but unopposed, though the remnants of the enemy fleet lurked somewhere out in deep system, there having been no time yet to affect repairs to the Imperial escorts to go and search for them. Such a process would take some time, by when the Chaos craft may have already warped out of the system. One squadron of escorts, all the undamaged craft that could be scraped together, were kept on constant alert, ringing the planet as a picket should the survivors return, though with their warp storm gone and the Imperials in orbit, they must know there was little hope for their ground forces in the long term.
Lord-Admiral Marcos maintained his vigilant watch over his bridge crew as the Emperor's Judgement hung in geosynchronous orbit above the main landing site on the western plains. There would be no repeat of the previous interruption that had condemned so many men to an early death, underequipped and stranded below the roiling warp storm with no hope of support. Marcos was surprised, though pleased, when they had made contact with survivors, but not half as pleased as Lord-General Galen had been to learn at least some of his men had lived through their ordeal, though only, it seemed, with the support of the local creatures. Though command of the Crusade remained with Marcos, Galen could come into his own once more as it was time for his guardsmen to take the helm. The planet needed sweeping clean, and that could only be done from the ground given the garden-world status and their fragile alliances with the natives.
Major Harding had informed them of the presence of the princess and leader of the horse-aliens, and, eventually, the bird-alien's king, once he had finally been located cowering in a particularly dank and dim sub-basement of the palace. Marcos suggested that a meeting should take place between himself, Lord-General Galen, and the Xenos leaders- Harding recommended excluding the King as the Griffons were not the dominant species on the planet, and he. 'seems to possess no redeeming qualities whatsoever.' He spoke remarkably highly of the princess, albeit in an uncertain tone, as if questioning whether even speaking such things might qualify as blasphemy if an Ecclesiarchy Confessor or particularly zealous Commissar happened to be listening in. He explained that she had been crucial in defending the city, that she had been on the frontline all night, unlike the King, and that, according to reports from his men, she had made a point to defend not just her own ponies, not just the native forces, but positions held exclusively by guardsmen, also. While he urged considerable caution in dealing with her due to her abilities, Harding admitted that he felt-almost knew, somehow- that she held no ill will towards them, no desire to harm them. He advised working with her, at least for now, because she seemed to command the respect of other native species, namely the Griffons, and would undoubtedly possess knowledge of the planet that would prove useful in the continuing fight to root out the Archenemy.
As a result, Harding had approached Celestia when she returned from the frontline, her pristine white coat and ethereal mane and tail still immaculate despite the smoke and blood of battle. The grim determination he had seen on her face before still remained, but was tempered now by relief at the end of the direct danger to the city.
'Princess.' Harding greeted her with a nod, giving her a bit more respect than he had done previously, as he now knew at least that she was willing to fight, and that was something he understood better than anything else.'The city is safe. I must thank you for your assistance. I received many reports from my men of your actions. They say you were invaluablein holding the eastern flank.'
'I did what I could, Major. As I said, that is the least I could do,' Celestia replied. 'This may not be my city, but it is my planet. I intend to protect it from any threats to the best of my ability,' she added, her tone friendly enough towards him but leaving the unspoken inference hanging in the air. Harding nodded slowly.
'My commanders wish to meet with you, if you would be willing to do so,' he informed her. 'They desire your input on the continued operations to clear the enemy from this world. I am sure they will be able to tell you more than I can, but I understand that our forces are making a large-scale landing in the west of this continent.'
'Very well.' Celestia gave a small nod. 'I shall meet with them. Are they coming down to Griffonstone?' Harding shook his head.
'No, Your Highness. You'll be going up to them.'
The shuttle's servitor co-pilot rattled off a string of data as the craft used its anti-grav engines to climb into the heavens. Pilot-Lieutenant Barra was at the controls, giving another glance back at the cockpit door that separated him from the main compartment. They had a passenger, but not a human one. Instead, a large white horse-creature occupied much of the space instead. Barra had been confused at the order to transport the Xenos back to the Emperor's Judgement, but the command had been delivered directly from the Lord-Admiral himself. Apparently he wanted to hold a meeting with her, which had surprised the Lieutenant- surely they did not consort with filthy Xenos? But when he had encountered her in person, he saw only beauty, and felt only goodness. Something about her mere presence was enough to mollify his earlier thoughts- though he quickly reminded himself that she was, apparently, a powerful psyker. Unlike other psykers he had encountered, he found that he felt no unease while in her vicinity, much to his surprise. He felt himself almost at ease, which was odd considering he was many thousands of light years from his home.
The climb through the atmosphere took a scant few minutes, and Barra guided the small shuttle towards the hulking mass of the Emperor's Judgement that hung in the void above. In the rear compartment, Princess Celestia peered out from one of the viewports. The ride to orbit had been smooth, and she reminded herself that she had just become only the second pony in history to go into space- the first, of course, being her sister, banished to the moon for a millennium. She had left Luna in charge of the remaining pony forces on the ground as she sojourned high above, entering the Celestial sphere that she controlled, the blazing orb of her Sun shining bright white far across the blackness, unobscured by the planet's atmosphere. Though she had no need to leave the planet in order to control it, it brought a smile to her lips to see such a new perspective on something that she knew intimately- every swirling, boiling inch of that star, every brilliant prominence, every layer, from the farthest wispy reaches of the corona to the fantastic pressure and incandescent heat of the core. It was hers to control, the barely-restrained power hers to direct at will. If she willed it, she could focus a single sunbeam with the precision to ignite a match head and nothing more, or scour the face of the planet clean with a bath of radiation. With the warp storm gone, if she willed it, the human fleet, some of which she could now see coming into view, could be swept aside on a vast solar wind-wave of charged particles, or struck directly by a concentrated blast of superheated plasma flung across the void and held in shape by her magic.
If she willed it.
Lord-Admiral Marcos watched the shuttle's approach on the holotable as it was tracked by Auspex on its docking run. The Emperor's Judgement must have appeared marvelous and terrifying to a creature from such a backwater planet, he reasoned, as indeed it probably would to most humans. He waited for the Princess to be led through the cavernous bowels of the giant battleship to the bridge, and after a few minutes, she arrived.
Every head on the bridge turned to look as the elevator doors opened and a guard of shotgun-wielding armsmen stepped onto the deck, followed by Flag-Captain Bormann and then a most strange creature indeed. None of the deck crew had actually seen one of the Xenos from the planet below. Even Marcos had only viewed the odd scratchy, grainy vid-feed from the initial arrival teams before the storm, but he could immediately tell she was not like the others. She cast a commanding gaze across the bridge, seemingly unfazed by the nature of her surroundings, and her eyes met his.
Marcos returned her look with his steely eyes, though he already felt different. He felt little, if any, of the usual disquiet that one would feel around Xenos, or indeed psykers. He recalled the similar words of Major Harding, and of Captain Soren from the original landing party, of whom there had been no news since the Chaos attack. Since he had not been reported as being with the princess when she arrived at Griffonstone, Marcos could only assume he and the rest of the first-contact party were dead.
Captain Bormann guided the pony princess across the bridge while the command crew gawped openly at her, an alien presence in their inner sanctum. Unheard of! Yet they all knew of the strange circumstances that had led to this alliance, and most, begrudgingly, accepted it, as few would dare to challenge the Lord-Admiral. Even the Fleet Commissar, Aldoric, and the Ecclesiarchy had agreed, though only after a considerable amount of consecration and prayer was performed on the bridge, with various censures being swung, oils being daubed on the bulkheads and purity seals affixed to the threshold. After all, not only was she a Xenos, but she had been exposed to the powers of Chaos, and who could say how such exposure may have corrupted her?
Yet Marcos knew immediately when she entered the bridge, that was not the case. She was not corrupted, her mind not poisoned. Somehow he simply knew it, as surely as he knew his own name. The pony approached him, and bowed her head, her long horn lowered presumably as a sign of respect.
Marcos responded with a crisp salute out of courtesy as Bormann made the introductions. 'Your Highness, Lord-Admiral Marcos, fleet commander. My Lord, Princess Celestia, Sovereign of Equestria.' Marcos held out a hand in greeting, which the princess regarded curiously. It was only then that Marcos reasoned that she had no hands, only hooves, and withdrew his.
'Good morning to you, Your Highness,' Marcos began. 'The circumstances of this meeting are rather unusual, I know.' he glanced at the bridge crew, who were all busy staring. 'Excuse me a moment...' He turned from her to shout. 'What are you all standing there gawping at? Get back to work, all of you! This ship doesn't fly itself.' They bustled to obey, stung back into action by the sharp rebuke from their Lord. He turned back to Celestia. 'My apologies, Princess. We do not often have...other species aboard, you see. Please, come through into my ready room.' He headed through with Bormann and the princess. Lord-General Galen awaited inside, and he contained himself to a salute, not making the same mistake with his hand that Marcos had.
'This is Lord-General Galen,' Marcos introduced him. 'Commander of our ground forces. Lord-General, this is Princess Celestia.' Galen gave a nod and spoke, seemingly unconcerned with her alien nature or the strangeness of their meeting.
'Your Highness. I have been in contact with my men who were at Griffonstone. They speak highly of your actions there along the eastern perimeter. From what they say, it sounds like you saved many of their lives. For that, I thank you.'
'Then I must thank you also, Lord-General, for your soldiers fought and died to protect the cities of my subjects,' Celestia replied. 'They doubtless saved many lives as well.' She did not add that all of those cities had fallen to the enemy with the loss of countless ponies despite their best efforts.
'Firstly, I believe it would be all of our interests to declare this alliance officially,' Marcos spoke. 'Our forces have worked well together thus far, despite our...obvious differences. As you have no doubt been told, the foe we face is the Archenemy, traitors to mankind and to the Emperor and servants of the Dark Powers. They must be hunted down and eradicated at all costs. The Imperium of Man does not often consort or ally with...aliens, but in rare documented cases, it has been known in the past when confronted with a greater threat. I mean no disrespect in saying this, Your Highness, but I do not feel that your people...your species, that is...poses much threat to the Imperium. Your technology is comparatively primitive and you have no spacefaring capability. Therefore I, as fleet commander, am empowered to officially declare an alliance with you, if you wish it, in order to rid this world of the Archenemy and continue the work we have been doing these past few days.'
Celestia nodded slowly. 'And once the enemy is defeated, Lord-Admiral? What then? Will you turn your guns on us?'
The pointed question made even Marcos pause for a moment. He had not expected the Princess to be quite so quick to jump to such difficult topics. 'As I said, Your Highness, your species poses no serious risk to the Imperium. There would be nothing to gain by eliminating your race, or any of the others on the planet we have encountered so far. It would not make the Imperium a safer place. I cannot lie to you on this matter; there will be many, including those aboard this ship, who disagree. The Imperium is not known for its leniency with other species, but with good reason. Almost every alien species we have encountered in our long history has proven to be hostile to us. You are not.'
'We are not, that is correct,' Celestia nodded. 'And we will not be unless you threaten our existence the way this Archenemy has done. I fully accept that the first incident where your craft destroyed one of my airships was a mutual misunderstanding, and I am willing to work with you and to pledge my aid and the aid of my military forces to eradicate this enemy from this place. But your technology is superior to ours, you come from beyond the stars and we know little of your kind except what has been presented to us here. Namely, that your species knows how to fight. An admirable quality, to be sure, but a dangerous one to a peace-loving people such as mine. So a solemn understanding is necessary, that once we have defeated this enemy, you will leave this planet, leave this system, and leave our races alone. We have no quarrel with you, as you know, but nor do we wish to be embroiled in your interstellar war. Despite our wish for peace we have caused enough death and destruction in our own past. We do not need to import yours as well.'
Marcos looked at Galen, and both men nodded. The Admiral spoke up once more in response to Celestia's impassioned plea.
'As fleet commander, you have my solemn oath that this fleet will leave this system once the Archenemy is defeated. We shall never return, I can promise you that, but I cannot speak for others. There are many fleets, many factions within the Imperium. Mankind itself is so vast that it is entirely possible that others may never hear our report on this place and arrive of their own volition. It is equally possible that our superiors or one of these other factions may send ships here for a variety of reasons beyond our control.'
Celestia nodded. A vast and internecine web of conspiracies had once been a common feature of pony society before the unification of the three tribes, and even afterwards to some degree, though all had long since fallen in line beneath her banner. These humans, it seemed, suffered a similar internal struggle, despite this supposed Emperor being their leading light.
'Very well. I accept your word, Lord-Admiral. Equestria shall assist you however we can until the enemy is cleared from the planet. Understand, though, that you will have to do the vast bulk of the fighting yourselves. Our forces cannot stand against theirs in open battle, and we have taken severe casualties.'
'I understand, Your Highness,' Galen replied. 'My men stand ever ready to combat the Dark Powers, and today is no exception. Those that have the strongest compunctions at fighting alongside aliens will be persuaded, disciplined or transferred. In addition I stand with the Lord-Admiral in saying that my forces will leave your planet once the Archenemy is defeated here. We are a long way from home, far enough that we could plausibly deny that this system was inhabited, or declare it too dangerous to enter because of some natural phenomenon, that nobody would bother to come and double-check.'
'The General is correct,' Marcos added. 'As I said, the Imperium is incalculably vast, stretching across the entire galaxy, millions of worlds. One planet tucked away almost at the unknown fringe would not be missed on official records. However, things may not be quite so simple. You see, the enemy followed us here. They followed us here and caught the fleet by surprise, but they did not stop to fight us. Instead they drove straight through us, for the planet below, and threw up a warp storm to keep us at bay. That means that, even if they had been tracking us across space, they did not come here for us. They came here for something on the planet itself, and they must have been aware of it from outside of this system.'
'I fear I know what that may be,' Celestia replied, drawing glances from all three men present.
'What do you think it is, Your Highness?' Galen asked.
'I conceive it could be one of two things,' Celestia explained. The first is a potent weapon possessed by my species, capable of unleashing great power. The second is me.'
The Lords exchanged glances again before Marcos spoke. 'You, Your Highness?' He had an immediate suspicion, if not the outright knowledge, that he had found the 'beacon' that Navigator Pericles had spoken of.
'Yes. Myself and my sister are the two most powerful magical beings on this planet,' she replied. 'It is possible, if their equipment is as advanced as yours, that they somehow were able to detect us from across the stars.'
'Magical?' Marcos cocked his head. What nonsense is this? he thought, before mentally correcting himself that these ponies must refer to psykers as magicians or magical beings or similar, through a lack of scientific understanding. Major Harding and others had reported the princess to be a psyker of some considerable power and it was certainly possible that the forces of Chaos had detected her in the warp- except that Pericles had said the beacon effect was not present in the warp, but rather outside of it. Conceivably Parthax the Infidel may have detected the same kind of shadow imprint that Pericles had seen and the other Navigators had reported, and followed it. The alternative was this weapon of which the princess spoke.
'Our sensor equipment detected unknown particles emanating from the planet,' Marcos continued. 'Their nature is unknown to us, but it could be that the enemy detected these readings as well, although we only picked them up once we were in the system...perhaps this weapon you speak of gives them off?'
'To the best of my knowledge, the weapon does not give off any particles when not in use,' Celestia replied. 'Though admittedly our scientific instruments are likely to be inferior to yours. I am afraid I do not know what you are referring to.'
'No matter. As I said we did not detect these particles until we were in-system, even our specialist scientific survey ship. It is unlikely anyone else could do so either,' Marcos reassured her. 'Now, we should spread the word of our agreement to the other ships and ground forces. We are already landing substantial forces that can begin the clearance operations.'
'Indeed you are, and remember that if this meeting were not taking place, that landing would be considered an invasion,' Celestia reminded them. 'I wonder, Lord-Admiral, if you know exactly what allowed you to break through the storm?' she asked.
'Yes, Your Highness. There was a solar flare and corresponding coronal mass ejection that interacted with the storm,' Marcos explained. Celestia nodded.
'Indeed there was. And it was ejected in just such a way as to graze the storm and carve a hole big enough for your fleet, was it not?' Marcos shared an uneasy glance with Galen.
'Yes, Your Highness, that is so...' It was, somehow, only now that Marcos noticed exactly what the strange marks on the flanks of the princess were supposed to represent. The sun.
'As a friendly reminder, I would say that if there were any lingering doubts in the back of your mind about actually leaving once your task here is completed, My Lords,' she glanced between the two commanders, 'that you consider the nature of that flare very carefully.'
Everything seemed linked, so logically, and yet impossibly, to the Lord-Admiral. The Navigator's beacon, the unknown particles, the convenient solar flare. Surely not a coincidence, and yet...
There is no possible way any psyker could control a star.
'I...am not sure what you mean, Your Highness,' Marcos replied cautiously. 'The flare was a natural occurance, no? No technology or power known to mankind could cause one of that coincidental accuracy and scale.'
'Nothing known to mankind? And yet you have arrived here, to a world hitherto unknown to you,' Celestia replied. 'Do you not find it conceivable that there may be things out here...how did you put it? At the 'unknown fringe?' Things you do not understand?'
There was a lot Marcos didn't understand, but he was beginning to become cognizant of this particular fact, and yet there was no way it could be true. 'Forgive me, Your Highness, but...if I understand your insinuation correctly...' Galen interrupted him.
'Such a claim is preposterous, Arlen! It's impossible.'
'Would you care for another demonstration?' Celestia asked. 'I must stress again, this is merely a cautionary reminder between...allies. But perhaps I should make things explicit.' Her horn began to glow gold, and Captain Bormann instinctively reached for the laspistol at his hip, but Marcos held out a hand.
'Easy, Captain, easy...' If she's bluffing, no harm in playing along. And if she's telling the truth, she could probably cut us all down in an instant if we resist.
Bormann's hand retreated from his holster, but his uneasy gaze remained locked on the princess. After a few moments, the intercomm-vox in the ready room buzzed.
'My Lord! We are picking up strange readings from the system's star! Please come to the bridge at once!' The three officers immediately hurried for the door.
No coincidence. She's telling the truth, somehow...
'Report!' Marcos bellowed, striding onto the bridge. The viewscreen displayed a large vid-feed of the sun, the incandescent orb scarcely dimmed by the camera's photofilters.
'Unknown energy readings within the star, My Lord,' the Auspex officer reported. 'Some kind of surge. Not a coronal mass ejection, this is emanating from the photosphere or below.' Junior officers were scrambling to record data and train extra sensors on the phenomenon.
Even as Marcos and the others watched, a brilliant beam of light erupted from the sun's surface. Not an arcing prominence like the coronal mass ejection, this was directed, a beam as bright as the interior of the fusion reactors of the Emperor's Judgement, but as focused as a Lascannon shot. There were gasps from some of the bridge crew.
'Battle stations! Raise shields!' Marcos barked, shooting an icy glare at Celestia, who responded simply.
'There is no need, Lord-Admiral.' Marcos looked at the viewscreen again.
'What is the target of that...thing?' he asked, getting an immediate reply.
'Outer system, My Lord,' the Auspex officer called out. 'Standby...there is no risk to the fleet, My Lord. It appears to be on a collision course with an asteroid. Our preliminary scans in-system showed it to be a metallic-type asteroid, placeholder designation K-15, diameter fifty one miles, length twelve miles, orbital eccentricity...'
'Stand down from battle stations,' Marcos called, interrupting the string of data. 'Time to impact?'
'Forty seconds, My Lord.'
The bridge crew waited silently as the vid-screen changed to a zoomed-in view of the asteroid in question. Forty seconds later, it ceased to exist as a whole, the beam of concentrated plasma cutting right through it as cleanly as any lance battery would, the forces unleashed shattering it into a hundred pieces of tumbling matter. Marcos turned to Celestia.
'You've made your point, Princess. That could be one of our ships next time. I don't profess to understand the how, but the why is clear to me. Whatever it means to you, you again have my word we will leave your system when the enemy is defeated.'
'Thank you, Lord-Admiral,' Celestia replied. 'That is all I desire. I neither have nor wish any quarrel with you, or indeed with your enemy, and neither does any creature on our planet. I have no desire nor intention to attack you, and I swear I will not unless you give me cause to do so. You have attacked us, and you have aided us. I hope you sense the truth in my words, even as I sense the truth in yours; that you desire only the destruction of your enemies, and that you do not consider us as a foe. I hope you never shall.'
'