//------------------------------//
// Search & Rescue 
// Story: Black Horizons 
// by SFaccountant 
//------------------------------//

Black Horizons
By SFaccountant

Chapter 5
Search & Rescue





Harvest of Steel
Deck E-661 – Strategium Tertius

“What a fascinating tale, Princess. A desperate cry for help, riding upon the tides of the Warp into the land of dreams! A mysterious object, untouched by your light, showing the path to a far-away land bereft of hope! It’s the stuff of heroic legends! How… quaint.”

A hollow laugh came from the suit of power armor standing on the other side of the hololith table. Serith had his arms crossed over his chest as the image of Ghessheim’s orbits hovered above him. The fifth planet stood out the most, of course, and was currently blooming with small red circles on a particular continent. The space station Eschel hovered nearby and next to that was the fleet, holding formation around the flagship.

Further out, far beyond the orbit of the station, was the moon Ulaisse. A lush planetoid evidently not subjected to the harshest methods of Mechanicus resource extraction, much of the sphere was a rich green with patches of blue seas, all partially obscured under a fluffy white cloud cover. A small bud of gray marked the capital city; large enough to be seen from space, as was typical of human construction, but clearly smaller than each of the hives drilled into each continent on Ghessheim V.

On the other side of the table was Twilight Sparkle. She had doffed her helmet for this conversation, certain that she’d be making some snarling expressions that she didn’t want hidden beneath the unblinking glare of her visor. Solon joined them via holoscreen, and the background of his visage was full of servo welders, drills, and other tools working furiously around his gorget.

“I’m sure rescue missions aren’t usually a Chaos priority,” Twilight drawled. “I get it. We’re pirates. But since the invasion seems to be proceeding without a hitch, I thought maybe we could spare a team to explore the source of the signal.”

“Surely you’re aware of the strategic disposition of the moon?” Serith drawled. “The mightiest weapons in all the system protect the Governor’s palace. The facility could cripple fleets greater than ours with its defenses and its armies are the equal of the planet’s hive regiments put together. Perhaps greater.”

“Much greater,” Solon interjected. “The capital hash Titan shupport. Our forcesh will not engage the capital defendersh. But that’sh not what she’sh ashking, Sherith.”

“An infiltration, then? How bold you’ve become, my dear Princess,” Serith said with a chuckle.

“Do you think it’s possible?” Twilight asked.

“I do not,” Serith waved a hand dismissively. “We don’t have the time or manpower to explore the moon right under the enemy aegis searching for these individuals and some mysterious box. Besides…” Here the Sorcerer hesitated, looking up at the hololith of the moon. “… this is probably a trap.”

“You think the Imperialsh WANT ush to attack the capital?” Solon asked.

“No. It would be utterly uncharacteristic of them to provoke invasion using psychic trickery, even if they possess overwhelming superiority and could benefit from the move,” Serith admitted. “If this is a trap, it was laid by more sinister hands.”

“Who would have set it up if not the Imperium?” Twilight asked, looking skeptical.

“Perhaps rivals. Perhaps aliens. Perhaps they’re simple hive gangers or rogue mutants. Or perhaps I’m simply being paranoid,” Serith admitted. “But it is deeply suspicious that Princess Sparkle alone received this vision.”

“Well it couldn’t have gotten to you; you don’t shleep,” Solon pointed out.

Serith gave the holoscreen a stare that Twilight interpreted as “exasperated contempt” despite the unmoving features of his helmet. “In any case, we have no shortage of hapless mortals at the moment. If we are to begin entertaining acts of mercy, then we should surely begin with those fleeing our raider armies. If nothing else, it’s far more convenient.”

“What about the artifact, though?” Trixie asked, standing her front hooves on the hololith projector. “Might the thing that Sparkle touched in the dream be worth looking into?”

“It might. But probably not. The unseen object in her vision could be a physical construct of some sort, or a nexus lying in the Warp, or nothing at all, or anything in-between.” A dusty snort came from his helmet. “Such is the folly of planning missions around strange dreams.”

“Trixie still thinks it’s very interesting. There’s got to be something down there besides desperate refugees!”

Twilight waited patiently for the magician to finish, and then her ears flattened against her head. “Hey, so… Why is Trixie here, anyway?”

“Personal interest!” Trixie chirped. “Trixie’s never been to an alien world before, and this sounds like it will be a perfect opportunity!”

“… Isn’t there an invasion of an alien world happening right now, as we speak?” the alicorn asked.

“Yesh, there ish. In fact, you’re shupposhed to be aboard lander Delta-419 for the shecond wave of the asshault, Missh Trixie,” Solon pointed out.

“Yes, Trixie knows. Trixie is sure the Equiis Sergeant in charge of that assault group can confirm that Trixie boarded the lander, too! Although he probably wonders where Trixie went after that!”

Trixie and Serith laughed, and then Trixie reared up. Serith raised a palm and she kicked a boot against it, and the sound of clashing ceramite rang in Twilight’s ears. Then Trixie dropped back down.

“Anyway, we should instead go to this other planet where there’s a lot more soldiers but Trixie WON’T be expected to fight them. Much more Trixie’s style.”

“I hardly think some mysterious artifact or helpless refugee is worth the risk, but even if we were certain of the rewards we do not know the source,” Serith pointed out. “Without precise coordinates for landing this is a futile errand.”

Twilight jumped into the air, her flight pack humming as it engaged its anti-gravity projectors. She tapped a boot onto the projection of Ulaisse and pushed, and then the rest of the hololith was swept away as the moon expanded to fill the center of the room. Twilight touched the hololith again and flung her leg to the side, and Ulaisse began to spin. Twilight tapped the moon once more while it was in motion, and the hololith froze in place.

“There. Magnify.” The globe expanded beyond the projector’s boundary, leaving a curved patch of forestland standing upright before them. “Keep going. As close as you can get.” The projection zoomed even further, and the landscape image started to lose its definition as the map grew flatter and more detailed.

“There. That’s the source.” Twilight backed away as a targeting cross appeared where she had last touched. A set of global coordinates appeared, tagging the location. The area appeared to be a deep depression carved straight down into the ground. It was stained with the brown-gray of dusty rockcrete and weathered rebar, and fairly overgrown. But with the site magnified it clearly stood out from the surrounding trees.

“What… is that, exactly?” Trixie asked, moving over to Twilight’s side of the hololith and squinting. “It’s like some sort of giant pit in the middle of the forest.”

“A ruin, looksh like,” Solon opined.

“Specifically, it’s an abandoned construction site,” Twilight corrected, smirking to herself. “According to the historical data of Ulaisse – which I’ve already skimmed, naturally – it was due to have several hives built on it before the system was attacked by an Ork raiding fleet and they withdrew construction crews. After the threat passed and a new governor was appointed – the last one apparently coming to decorate a Warboss’s trophy pole – Ulaisse was designated as the system capital and all sites outside of the central city were abandoned to the wilderness while they built up the palace defenses and surrounding habitation centers.”

“The foundationsh of hive citiesh can deshend for kilometersh beneath the shurface,” Solon pointed out. “Twishted mazesh of shewersh, coolant piping, water filtration plantsh, and the odd thermal bore makesh underhivesh veritable citiesh by their own meritsh. It’sh an excellent hiding place for a rogue colony.”

“Or whatever it is we’ll find there,” Serith drawled. “I am still skeptical of the worth of this endeavor.”

“If we know exactly where it is, then we should be able to sneak in and out undetected!” Twilight pressed.

“The moon hash anti-ship batteriesh that we musht avoid, but a dropship can make landing ash long ash it avoidsh the interceptor patrolsh. My Thunderhawk’sh cloaking device will get you to the shurface in one piece and extract you,” Solon said. “But I want Sherith to guide you. If there ish shome artifact or other pshykant device there, he can identify and collect it.”

“A waste of my time.” Serith waved away Twilight with his free hand. “I am certain that the Princess can manage this task unaided. I will stay on the flagship.”

“Trixie wants to go to the moon!” the blue unicorn said brightly.

“Oh, very well. I’ll accompany you,” Serith said, reversing himself immediately.

Twilight glanced between Trixie and Serith, her mouth agape. “Wh-What? Just like that? But-“

“When will we be departing? My understanding was that Equinought Squadron required rest after the last operation,” Serith spoke to Solon, ignoring Twilight’s stuttering.

“We’ll launch in twenty shtandard hoursh,” Solon said. “That will alsho give ush time to shearch the datashtacksh for further data on potential defenshesh. The operation coordinatesh are far from the capital, but shuch a world may not be eashily infiltrated.”

“Should Trixie bring Suuna?” Trixie asked.

“Yes, that would be wise,” Serith said. “We may need someone more expendable than the equines to carry the artifact.”

“Serith, you know Trixie doesn’t like it when you bully her!” The unicorn turned away from the table and started trotting toward the exit. “Don’t make her do anything dangerous! Other than going with us to a mysterious ruin on an enemy planet with a vast army waiting to hunt us down.”

“My apologies, Miss Trixie,” Serith said, not sounding sorry in the least. He turned on his heel and followed her out, chuckling all the way.


Twilight said nothing until the strategium door closed behind them, and then she shuddered. “It’s never going to stop being weird and creepy that those two get along so well.”

“Agreed,” Solon mumbled. “I’ll have the Thunderhawk prepared and Desht given a landing refresher. Would you like another shquad to go with you? We can shpare shome reshervesh and the gunship hash conshiderable transhport capacity. I’m afraid Techpriesht Gaela will not be available thish time, however. Her armor requiresh extenshive repairsh.”

“It’s tempting, but I think we’ll need the space,” Twilight replied. “I expect to be taking back the survivors with us. In fact, it’s possible just one transport won’t be enough. We won’t know until we get there, though.”

“It’sh posshible to shend an extraction fleet and get them out quickly, but they won’t be able to deploy with the initial landing. But you alsho won’t be able to communicate with ush on the planet’sh shurface without compromishing your poshition… Hmmm…”

“I think we just might… I have an idea!” Twilight chirped. “I’ll use Spike! I can alter the link to his teleport breath so that I can exchange messages with him like Princess Celestia does! I’ll test it out before we depart!”

“Huh. That would be eashier than shetting up a shignum booshter and hoping the Imperialsh don’t deploy a regiment to shilence it.” Solon turned his head to the side, and new data began racing across the bottom of the holoscreen. “I think that will be all, Shparkle. The deployment counter is shet.”

“Yes, Warsmith!” Twilight said brightly. “And… if I may say so, Lord… thank you for indulging me in this. I didn’t know if you would allow for anything as unusual as a rescue mission based on a psychic dream, especially when we’re pillaging the rest of the system.”

Solon chuckled, his laughter struggling to get through the obstruction of his vox grille. “Many shecretsh and treashuresh of this galaxy are yet hidden within the dark crevicesh of civilization. There ish no harm in conducting an expedition while our fleet drainsh thish world of itsh resourcesh.” He paused. “Well there may be harm to you, shince you could die. But you’ll probably be fine. This ISH a non-critical misshion, sho you should feel free to retreat if you encounter a sherioush threat.”

“Yes, Warsmith! Thank you! I’m going to go work on that magic fix with Spike and then I’ll brief my friends!” Twilight said brightly. “When we land, I…“

A bright red lumen flashed on the strategium table, and Twilight trailed off. Then another vox link connected, and another holoscreen blinked into view over the projector. Rather than another face however, the screen displayed what Twilight immediately identified as a visor interface looking down a city street. Data-screed scrolled across the bottom of the display, and she quickly picked out several indicator runes that identified the connection as belonging to Sliver.

“Warssmith, the firsst wave hass penetrated the hive perimeter. The outer rampartss have been cleared and the sspearhead is moving on the enemy strongpoints.” The vox feedback made Sliver’s characteristic slur worse than ever, and the sound of Predator attack tanks rumbling by threatened to drown out his voice entirely. “The centerss of ressisstance shall be crushed within ten hourss. By the time the Dark Mechanicuss iss finished with Esschel, we’ll have broken the hive militiass.”

“Good, good! It shoundsh like you have the asshault well in hand!” Solon said. “If you need another divershion, I shtill had sheveral packsh of Black Houndsh to releashe into the city center. I’ve alsho shpoken with Wraithshtar; he’sh ready to lead a shurgical shtrike.”

“Unnecesssary, Warssmith,” Sliver drawled. “Leave the paltry defenderss room to retreat into the underhive with ssome of Nurgle’ss preciouss giftss. That will contain the militia while the mortalss ssack the city.”

Solon seemed to hesitate. “It’sh unushual for you not to push the offenshive into a retreat before they can regroup. Ish there any particular reashon you’re holding back?”

The view screen, which had lumbered along the street at a steady pace up until then, suddenly stopped. Sliver was silent for a few seconds. “… I did-“

An alert rune flashed up near the top, and the view from the holoscreen spun about to look up at one of the towering hive spires. A grenade belt was plummeting toward him, its strap fluttering in the air and its safety pins presumably removed.

“I’ve gotcha! Watch your dome!” shouted a voice from out of view. The grenades were suddenly seized by a deep yellow glow, their descent slowing as if they’d fallen into thick oil. A second later they exploded, and Sliver’s gaze turned away as shards of hot shrapnel clawed against his armor.

His view screen centered on Poison Kiss, who was standing behind the Chaos Lord with the rest of Phage Squadron. A great hammer pointed toward the mares, and then lifted up to point off to the side.

“Find the grenadier. Fill that hab-cell with Nurgle’ss blesssingss and then catch up with uss,” Sliver demanded calmly.

“Yes, Lord!” Breezy Blight chirped, leaping into the air and taking flight. Rot Blossom shook herself like a dog, and several wasps and flies lifted off from her armor before following the pegasus.

The view in the screen swiveled back around, and then once again started the slow, lurching motion of a Terminator on the march. “As I wass ssaying… the ressisstance here iss opportunisstic. Dessperate. There hass been ample time and opportunity for a counter-attack, but we’ve found nothing but fragile checkpointss and entrenched consscriptss. After I collect your newesst pet, I expect thiss hive to be ready for harvessting.”

“Excellent! Keep up the advance, Shliver!” A servo arm shifted something behind Solon’s head, and it twisted sharply to the side. A second servo arm lowered itself and clamped onto his helmet, slowly forcing back the other way. “Once you’ve shecured the Queen, have her return to orbit for resht and redeployment.”

“Redeployment? Are we launching an attack on the 4th planet after all? Or another hive?” Sliver asked.

“Nothing like that, no. We’re shending a reshcue mission to the moon, that’sh all.”

The visor screen lurched to a stop as Sliver missed a step. “A resscue… to the…”

One of the nearby Predator battle tanks suddenly opened fire, and the roar of heavy bolters obscured Sliver’s mumbling. The tempo of gunfire rapidly increased, and alert runes started blinking on the visor display.

“It looksh like you’re very bushy. I’ll contact you later, Shliver. Iron within! Iron without!” Solon cut the link just as an Imperial tank started rolling into view, and the holoscreen blinked away.


“Uh… you’re sending… Chrysalis with us?” Twilight asked, cringing.

“Would that be a problem?”

“Probably, yeah,” Twilight grumbled. “Aside from the tension from having her along, she might escape with the artifact or start feeding on the refugees or something. I’d really rather not.”

“Very well. I’ll accept your deployment parametersh,” Solon agreed. “But I want her on shtandby, at leasht.” If you do need reinforcementsh on short notice we cannot deploy many unitsh to aid you. The Queen can be shent very quickly and ish a shubshtantial force multiplier on her own.”

Twilight spent a moment staring, and then shook her head as if to clear it. “I… I see. Yes, that’s fine. Thank you, Warsmith.”

“Ish shomething elshe wrong?” Solon asked, curious about her reaction.

“No, not at all! I was just… thinking back to all the other missions you’ve sent me on.” She flushed slightly and smiled. “It wasn’t always… obvious that you cared whether we came back or not.”

“I ushually didn’t,” Solon said bluntly. “But shuffice to shay you’ve proven your worth to ush. And in particular, to me.” The Warsmith chuckled. “Alsho, thish deployment doeshn’t sherve a clear shtrategic goal, sho it would be a terrible washte if you were to perish here.”

“Well, erm… thank you! Kind of. I certainly hope we don’t need to call in Chrysalis, though. Aside from the potential destruction she might cause, she’d never let us live it down.” Twilight straightened. “If that will be all, I’m going to go make preparations now.”

Solon offered a nod, and the holoscreen winked off.





Ghessheim V
Hive city Xenith

“Bugger me, ANOTHER bunker? It’s cut off the next street!” Poison Kiss recoiled and ducked behind a barricade, almost tripping on the body of a dead militiaman.

“Heavy bolters?” Rot Blossom asked, galloping up to her.

Before Kiss could answer, a spear of bright red light punched through the ferrocrete wall. The beam was aimed high enough to take the head off of a man or Astartes crouching behind the barricade, but the unicorn was short enough that it cut right over her back, missing the top of her armor by mere inches. Kiss stood stock-still for a moment, and then clicked her tongue.

“No, it looks like the goons have anti-armor kit. Where’re the tanks?”

“Running way behind us! The enemy Sentinels keep trying to pick at the flanks of the advance, so the main column is re-routing to flush ‘em out! We’re pretty far ahead of the main forces!”

Another lascannon blasted above the barricade, stabbing into a hive tower uselessly. Kiss ducked a little lower to the ground, and a flicker of yellow light wrapped around her horn.

“Maybe we should pull back a little, then? I don’t fancy another hole in my flank.” Kiss levitated a hunk of burned rockcrete several feet away and lifted it above the top of the barricade. A second later it was struck by two laser beams and vaporized right before a burst of dozens of smaller lasbolts rained against their cover.

Breezy swooped down, sheltering behind the hive spire at the edge of the street. “There’s gotta be easier targets than that around here. Let’s break into one of these buildings and see if there’s a way through.”

“Peachy! Those doors look fortified, but I think we can…” Kiss trailed off when she spotted something soaring through the air up the street toward them. “Steely! Oi! Get down! It’s a dog’s dinner up there!”

The augmented pegasus swooped down, hovering just above Rot Blossom while she looked over the intersection. “What’s the hold-up?”

“A bunker. And I think there’re some gits keeping watch from the windows. Help us get this door open and-“

“Nah. I’m gonna go punch it,” Steely Lathe flapped her wings harder, gaining altitude. “Breeze, wanna back me up?”

“What? No! We can’t take on a bunker with just the two of us!” the other pegasus warned.

“Well I guess your friends better help us fight rather than sitting around here, huh?” Steely slammed her augmetic forelegs together, and the power fields clashed with the sound of a small thunderclap. “You ready?”

“No!” Breezy said, shaking her head rapidly.

“TOO BAD. Attack!” Steely bellowed, shifting her wings to soar into the line of fire.

“You shirty dunce!” Kiss shouted while her horn flared. An ammunition box jumped off the ground on a shroud of pale yellow energy, lifting high enough to be visible over the barricade. “Go! GO!!”


Breezy screamed as she launched herself into the air, curved sharply around the corner of the hive spire, and followed after Steely. The shriek of laser blasts came from below, slicing over the pavement in long spears and short bursts. As Kiss had predicted, there were also several militiamen firing out of the windows in the adjacent buildings, although they seemed to favor spraying fire at the pegasi rather than adding to the barrage on the intersection barricades.

Warning runes flickered around the edges of her heads-up display, and a dizzying storm of red flew around Breezy from multiple angles at once. This wasn’t, strictly speaking, the first time she had been in the middle of a massive, terrifying fusillade of defensive fire, but on the other occasions it had been against Orks, and as part of a much larger assault force. Hardened defense points were normally approached with heavy armor and siege guns, punishing artillery, or stealthy approaches through blind spots. Launching a berserk charge with a handful of moderately-armored troops was not among the approved tactics.

Steely twisted into a barrel roll, corkscrewing through the air while keeping her wings tight against her body. A moment later a larger beam of hot crimson death sliced through the air just beside her, coming close enough to scorch the feathers of one wing. An Icarus-pattern anti-air lascannon turret on the top of the bunker puffed coolant from its capacitors, and then carefully adjusted its tracking.

“Ah, ponyfeathers! They’ve got anti-air lascannons too! One hit from that thing and we’re toast!” Steely complained.

“WE TRIED TO TELL YOU THERE WERE TOO MANY GUNS WHY DID YOU INSIST ON-“

Steely suddenly banked sharply, slamming into Breezy and throwing both pegasi toward the nearest open window. The militia gunner positioned there barely had time to shout in surprise before the power-armored pony careened into his chest and knocked him flat on his back.

“Emperor save us!” Sputtered another gunman at the adjacent window, stumbling backwards. “The heretics have unleashed winged horrors against us!” 

“Who you calling a horror, chump?” Steely complained as the soldier scrambled away. He swung his lasgun around toward the intruders, only for the augmented mare to jump up and swat it with her power hoof. The weapon snapped in half, the pieces flying across the room. A moment later a second kick punched a hole in the gunman’s torso, blasting him across the room.

The other soldier tried to grapple with Breezy, but a quick puff from her helmet left the man coughing painfully and all but helpless. The one-winged pegasus stepped off of her opponent, and then whirled on the other pony with a huff.

“Okay, so NOW what?” Breezy asked angrily, leaking foul gasses from her helmet respirator. “Any brilliant ideas besides charging straight down the street at the heaviest defensive position in the area?”

Steely wrinkled her snout and pushed her own rebreather more tightly against her muzzle. “Relax, we’ll still get there. Let’s just make our way through the spire until we’re as close as possible, and then jump it from the window.” Steely started trotting toward the hallway door of the hab-unit, kicking aside the corpse of her victim.

“That was our plan to attack the bunker in the first place!” Breezy shouted. “What was the point of leaving the rest of my squad behind?!”

“Well, for starters, we’ll get there a LOT faster than if we waited for them to keep up.” Steely slammed a power hoof into the door, tearing it partially open. Two more kicks ripped a hole large enough for the mares, and then Steely stepped back. “You’ve got the good armor so you should go first.”

“Oh so NOW Khorne cares from whom the blood flows?”

“Less chatting, more kicking!”


With an exasperated groan, Breezy leapt into the hallway. She immediately caught sight of a pair of militia gunmen jogging down the hall, and the soldiers stumbled to a halt in surprise and confusion at the sight of the armored pony.

“One chance to surrender before I turn you into a nesting ground for Grandfather’s plagues!” Breezy warned, raising the boltgun mounted on her foreleg. She didn’t have much of an inhibition toward killing humans in general, but she felt a lot less confident about fighting her way to their objective while separated from the rest of Phage Squadron.

The soldiers didn’t get the chance to speak before Steely leapt into the hall over the other pegasus. With a scream of incoherent and frankly inexplicable rage, the Khornate pony dove into one of the soldiers and took him down.

“Emperor’s light!” shouted the other one, recoiling and swinging his lasgun around. A burst of bolter fire cut into his side first, and by the time Steely finished stamping the other man to death their path was clear.

“This way!” Steely shouted, taking off down the hall again. “Head to the end of the hall and then break into the right doorway! We’ll be right over the bunker!”

“What, now you’re taking point?” Breezy broke into a gallop to try to keep pace with the augmented mare. “I thought I was supposed to lead the way because I had the better armor?”

“It’s fine! From what I saw we’ll probably get more gunfire from behind, anyway!”

“Wait, what do you mea-“

An autogun round struck the floor between Breezy’s legs, ricocheting off the tile and slapping against one of her greaves. She yelped in surprise, and then an outline of her armor flashed in the corner of her heads-up display as a lasblast hit her wing casing. Several gunmen were leaning into the hall from the nearby hab dormitories, firing their weapons while sheltering in the doorways.

“I DON’T LIKE THIS PLAN!!” Breezy cried as a burst of autogun bullets cut across her rear.

“Almost there! HIYAH!!”


Steely slammed a power hoof into the door, breaking the locking seals and denting the metal barrier inward. A second blow tore it open, and with an enraged shout she leapt into the hab.

A shotgun blast struck the wall behind her, coming close enough that the pellets scraped her shoulder plate. Steely’s wings swept forward, ready to lend her an extra burst of propulsion in her charge. But the pegasus hesitated, and the moment of opportunity was lost.

A teenage girl of maybe sixteen years was clumsily trying to load another shotgun shell into her weapon. She quivered in fear as she did so, shaking so badly that she couldn’t manage to fit the munition into the receptacle. She wore no armor and wasn’t taking cover behind any of the sparse furniture or divider walls, evidently lacking the tactical awareness to protect herself. The gun itself looked shabby and poorly maintained, at least as far as Steely could tell; having never bothered with projectile weapons herself, she only had a cursory understanding of what their optimal condition was like.

“What are you standing in the way for?” Breezy griped, suddenly shoving her way past the other mare. “They’re still shooting at me! Move!”

The girl recoiled at the appearance of another, even better-armed pegasus, and she backed into a wall. “S-Stay back! T-The Emp-p-peror will n-not forgive-“

“Oh knock it off, would you?” Steely interrupted sourly, approaching her. “And put that down before you hurt yourself!”

Her wing lashed out in front of her, wrapping around the barrel of the shotgun and wrenching it away from the resident. The girl flinched and slid down onto the floor, meeting Steely’s gaze in terrified silence.

“Tch!” Steely dropped the gun on the floor and then slammed a power hoof onto it, smashing the barrel flat and leaving a smoldering dent in the tiling. Then she trudged toward the window. “Let’s go before more cannon fodder shows up. I wanna crack that bunker before they make us regroup.”

“Erm…” Breezy followed after the other pegasus, but her helmet tilted conspicuously toward the girl crouched on the side of the hab. The resident jumped to her feet and sprinted for the hallway, wailing in fear the entire time.

“Forget about her. Khorne has standards, you know,” Steely sniffed. “We fight WARRIORS. She looked like she barely knew what end of the gun to point at me. There’s no satisfaction in spilling the blood of the weak.” She reached the outer wall of the hab and threw a power hoof into the window, smashing through the paneling.

Breezy’s eyes narrowed. “Then why are you bullying the pony Techpriest all the time?”

“There’s no satisfaction in spilling the blood of the weak unless they’re nerds,” Steely corrected.

A thunderclap coming from the streets below interrupted the mares, and Steely Lathe ducked her head reflexively. Breezy Blight switched her vision modes briefly, detecting several intense heat signatures through the walls before they quickly faded away.

“What was that? That didn’t sound like gunfire,” Steely mumbled, peeking over the window sill. She could still hear a muted buzzing noise, like the sound of a broken electrical transformer. Steely had heard the noise often when fighting Ork war machines.

“I think… the lascannon turret is down? There’s smoke coming from the bunker,” Breezy mumbled, joining her. “But the assault force is still en route to-“

“Dang it, did someone beat us there?!” Steely howled, leaping out the window with a mighty flip and diving straight toward the fortification.

“Wait! Aw, haystacks!” Breezy followed after her, a rising hum coming from her flight pack as the anti-grav boosters kicked in again and lifted her through the shattered window.


Steely’s mane and tail whipped about in the wind behind her as she dove straight for the lascannon mounted atop the bunker. It was an Icarus anti-air pattern, fitted with additional sensoria and fine-control turret servos for swift and easy targeting. The gun wasn’t itself damaged, and were there anyone manning the weapon from within the bunker, a single button press probably would have turned the mare flying straight toward the barrel into a cloud of dissociated atoms and scorched feathers.

A fierce buzz came from her front hooves as the power fields activated, and she drove one foreleg into the mouth of the gun. The barrel bent and split apart from the impact, and Steely swung the other leg into the cannon’s body. The turret shook from the impact, and scraps of smoldering metal flew all around her.

“If it’s not active, then you don’t need to break it,” Breezy opined while she approached her unwanted partner. “We’re here to take their weapons and stuff, y’know? It’s better to leave it alone.”

“Stop whining and get smashing!” Steely shot back, leaping off the top of the bunker.

She landed behind the fortification, did a quick check for any enemy troops, and then spun to face the armored door that led to the bunker’s interior. Steely flapped her wings and reared up, and power fields came alive around her forelegs.

“KNOCK KNOCK!!” Steely shouted.

The door opened with a soft hiss.


“Hello there, Miss Lathe. I’m glad you could join us.” Shifty Sights stood just within the fortification, a cat-like smirk on her muzzle. The unicorn had several lasburns on her cloak and her linen bandage wrappings were stained with blood in more than one spot, but she seemed uninjured.

Steely remained in her rearing pose for several seconds, deliberating whether to attack anyway. Eventually she fell forward, and the disruption fields powered off. Breezy slowly landed next to her, regarding the unicorn with confusion.

“What the hay, Sights?! When did you get here?” Steely demanded.

“Just in time to meet you,” Shifty purred, turning around and walking into the bunker. “The winds whispered that this fortification needed to be removed to aid our advance, so we proceeded to cut the threads of the defenders here. I’m sorry if that was… presumptuous of us.”

While Steely fumed, Breezy stepped forward to look inside the bunker. “We? Do you have a squad with you?”

The interior of the structure was riddled with lightning burns, and a vox transmitter was still sparking and emitting static from an earlier discharge. Bodies of a dozen men and women lay on the floor, some still clutching their weapons. One was slumped against the back end of a lascannon that poked through the bunker’s firing slit, and another lay beneath a cogitator pylon that led up to the turreted cannon on the roof.

Aside from the perished crew, the fortification was occupied by four other unicorns who were standing amongst the dead. Each one of them wore heavy robes decorated with runes and arcane script, as well as other embellishments typical of wizards. Feathers, jewels, and chains decorated their outfits to one degree or another, but like Shifty Sights they all had a silk blindfold on and possessed the Mark of Tzeentch.

“Ah, Sister Blight! Just as foretold,” a stallion said brightly, turning toward the armored mare.

“Sister BREEZY,” she corrected sharply, her vox lacing her voice with harsh static. “… Also, I’m not your sister.”

“All of the Dark Gods’ chosen are our brothers and sisters,” another unicorn chimed in softly. She was clearly responding to Breezy but her facing was just slightly off, speaking several inches to Breezy’s left. “We share a bond deeper than that of citizenship, or even comradery from being part of the same army. We have… understanding,” she purred.

“I’m missing some UNDERSTANDING right now, actually,” Steely groused, entering the bunker. “Specifically, I don’t understand why you nerds jumped ahead of us to kill everyone here before we could! The whole point of recklessly charging ahead of the main force is to get to the victims before anyone else can!”

“Let’s just say there were some messy threads extending to this point in time and space, and we wanted to prevent any unnecessary fraying,” Shifty explained.

“Is that supposed to mean anything to me?” Steely asked.

“Of course not!” giggled another unicorn. “Shall we depart then? Our reluctant royal is in fine hooves now!” She started trotting toward the bunker entrance, passing between the two pegasi.

“Aye, but be careful Shifty. The threads around that one are deeply tangled indeed. Too many possibilities,” the stallion mumbled while he too walked out.

“What? Royal? Where?” Breezy demanded.

“You’ll see!” chirped another unicorn mare trotting past her. “The streams of possibility wind to and fro, but all flow into the delta of-“ her muzzle suddenly collided with the bunker wall, as she had tried to exit nearly a foot to the left of the actual doorway. She fell onto her rear with a yelp, and then a tear dribbled out from under her blindfold.

“Haze! Are you okay?”

“Aaaaaugh! Ah bit muh tong! Ih hurrs! Aau aaagh!”

“Here, I’ve got you. Take my tail and follow me out. Oh, uh, watch the stinger, though. New mutation.”

“Am I the only one worried about her shooting lightning at things when her magic radar is bad?”

“Hush up or I might see a singed tail in your future.”

Breezy and Steely watched the embarrassing withdrawal in irritated silence, and after a few more seconds all the unicorns had left except for Shifty Sights. The bandage-wrapped mare wandered the bunker interior, marveling at some inexplicable vision only her sightless senses could detect. There seemed to be nothing of interest to the other ponies, given that their opponents had been vanquished and they couldn’t use any of the leftover weapons.





Breezy Blight quickly got tired of the silence and tapped the side of her helmet. “Well, whatever. Bunker cleared. Kiss? You read me?”

“We should have just kept flying the whole way rather than diverting into the hab,” Steely grunted, pouting and kicking one of the dead bodies on the floor.

“Don’t you have a squad of your own or something? Do you HAVE to tag along with us?” Breezy snapped.

“She does have to tag along, yes,” Shifty replied before Steely could. “It’s the best path.”

“Nobody asked you!” Steely growled. Then she coughed. “But, uh… actually I’m kinda lost. They still don’t want us to fly too high until the hive is taken, and I don’t have a comms thingy.”

“They wouldn’t give you a headset?”

“Nah, they did, but having another voice shouting at me to hit things wasn’t helpful, so I gave it back.”

“Is being this thick in the head a prerequisite for Khorne worship, or is it a result?” Breezy deadpanned.

“Mostly a result, I think. The cult doesn’t-HEY!” Steely’s legs crackled as she glared at the other pegasus. “Who’re you calling stupid?!”


The pegasi kept glaring at each other until the entry door to the rear of the bunker opened up again. Rot Blossom stuck her head in cautiously, and then brightened when she spotted the other ponies. Poison Kiss followed after a few seconds, her boltgun swinging to and fro on a shimmering cloud of yellow light.

“There you are! Thought you’d two bought the farm when you flew into the crossfire like that!” Kiss said, floating her bolter back onto her back. “What do you lot have to say for yourselves?”

“Don’t talk like I had anything to do with it! It was all her fault!” Breezy shouted, pointing an armored hoof at Steely Lathe.

“I would have made it easily if I didn’t have your bloated butt slowing me down!” Steely shot back. “We didn’t even get here in time to fight anyone!”

“If it’s targets you want, we’re not short of them,” Kiss huffed. “Just bust into a building and have at it. I don’t care anymore.”

“No, we need her with us,” Shifty said suddenly, stepping up next to the pegasi. “There aren’t many good threads without her attached.”

“What in the Plaguefather’s name are you on about?” Kiss replied, her helmet breaking open and lifting off her head. “We don’t need her with us, especially if she’s going to leap at every bobby we see between here and the hive nexus.”

“Our mission has challenges that we are generally… poorly suited to overcome,” Shifty said, giving Steely a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Power hooves are valuable tools, as are those warriors bold enough to use them.”

“What mission? Our mission is to support the vanguard, and we’ve already wandered a bit far already,” Kiss said, narrowing her eyes.

“Yeah, that doesn’t make sense to me, either. I mean, I don’t remember what my mission was supposed to be but it was probably closer to the vanguard thing than whatever you’re talking about,” Steely mumbled.

Shifty Sights smiled, saying nothing. After a few more seconds of frustrated silence, a beeping noise came from Poison Kiss’s gorget. A tiny lumen blinked on as the vox connected, and then a gruff voice filled the room.

“Phage Squadron, what is your status? We’re not tracking you nearby.” The voice sounded like an Astartes, although not one that they could recognize immediately.

“Copy that love; we’ve advanced a wee bit ahead of the main vanguard. We’ve secured a bunker blocking the main boulevard to the command center.” Kiss kept her eyes fixed on Shifty while she spoke, her brow furrowed under her horn. “I don’t think there are any more fortifications in our path, but these hive towers are lousy with militia.”

“The command center?” There was a long pause. “Understood. That’s your new objective.”

Kiss blinked. “The… The command center? You want us to take it? On our own?” She glanced around at the other mares.

“No. The command center is already… compromised. However, a handful of armored vehicles were redirected and are on their way to secure it. I am feeding you nav data now. You will intercept them.”

“Oh. Cheers!” Kiss hesitated. “Uhm, what kind of armored vehicles, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Sentinels, Leman Russ battle tanks, and Chimera APCs.”

“B-Battle tanks?” Kiss sputtered. “Wait, you said a ‘handful,’ so how many-“

“Attack immediately, Phage Squadron! Do not let them destroy the command center before the main assault force arrives! Iron within! Iron without!” A blast of static indicated that the vox channel had closed, leaving the mares in stunned silence.


“I… have additional questions,” Rot Blossom said weakly.

“I don’t!” Steely Lathe turned her neck to give Shifty Steps a dreadful smile. “This was the mission you were going on about, right? Let’s go break stuff!”

“Hold the vox now, we’re not talking an infantry squad or a few scouts here! This sounds like a heavy assault force!” Poison Kiss complained. “The last time I rushed a Leman Russ things went all to pot pretty quickly!”

“Well, they said there’s only a ‘handful’ of targets, right? So maybe there’s only one tank?” Breezy Blight offered.

“There will be two battle tanks,” Shifty interjected. “Three Sentinel scout walkers, and two Chimeras full of troops. Oh! And a Hellhound.”

“Hellhound?! They didn’t mention any Hellhounds! What even is a Hellhound?!” Breezy shouted.

“Well, let’s see…” Shifty stared up silently for several seconds. “Ah. It’s a flamethrower vehicle, apparently.” She turned her eyeless gaze to the other ponies. “Also: Miss Blossom, don’t bother running for cover to hide from it. It doesn’t help, apparently.”

“Isn’t eight vehicles a bit much for a ‘handful?’” Blossom mumbled, lowering her head.

“I dunno. Their hands are pretty big, I guess?”

“Okay, okay, everypony simmer down!” Kiss snapped. “Shifty, you can see the future, right? Exactly how do we do this?”

Shifty tilted her head to the side. “Well it’s more like I can see a distinct array of possibilities, with certainty being clearer the more immediate-“

“We don’t give a whit about the technical claptrap just tell us if we live or not!” Kiss shouted.

Shifty recoiled, and her nose bunched up before her expression shifted into a sour frown. “I can’t say if you’ll survive for sure, but I can say that it becomes a LOT less likely if you’re going to be rude about it,” she huffed.

“Okay, please, calm down,” Blossom said, cringing. “Let’s try and figure this out. When is the enemy going to get here?”

“In like a minute or two,” Steely replied before Shifty could.

“Wha… How would you know? Since when can Khornate blood fanatics see the future?” Breezy asked.

“I can’t see the future, but I can see outside,” Steely said, pointing an augmetic leg behind the armored mares.

Phage Squadron turned around, and then Kiss sucked in a breath through her teeth. A line of armored vehicles was moving up the boulevard toward their bunker, led by a spearhead of Sentinel scout walkers. Two Leman Russ battle tanks rumbled after them, their turrets slowly swiveling back and forth. More vehicles were lined up behind them, but it was difficult to see them through the gunner’s slit of the bunker; presumably they were the APCs and Hellhound, if Shifty’s precognition was accurate.

“Wh-What do we do? Should we shoot them?” Blossom asked in a panic.

“I vote for punching,” Steely said, raising a wing.

“Pipe down! They don’t know we’ve stormed this position, or else they’d have opened fire already. We have a lascannon. We can make this work,” Kiss insisted.

“Two lascannons if you count the top-mounted gun.”

“Can any of you operate it?”

The Nurgle cultists looked over at the cogitator on the wall. The screen was still flickering on and off every few seconds, and sparks blasted from the bundle of cables and wiring running from the top of the device up into the ceiling. A long blackened streak across the keyboard and another on the side still stunk of ozone where the magical lightning had struck.

“See, this is why I said we should be dragging Gear Works along with us on our combat missions,” Breezy sighed. “Having no Techpony support is dangerous way out here.”

“He wasn’t even assigned to the raiding fleet, though.”

“We could have brought him anyway! What is he going to do, refuse?”

“Hey, can we focus?!” Steely snapped. “The chicken walkers are almost here!”

“All right, listen up,” Kiss hissed, lowering her voice. “We’ve got to take these saps by surprise or those main guns will mash this bunker like an old tomahto. We wait until the convoy has mostly passed and then shoot ‘em in the back! Shifty, can you man the las and nail a Russ?”

The other unicorn winced. “Uh, well, I don’t really have time to explain all the specific mechanics of my magic not-vision so let’s just say no, I can’t do that.”

“Gah! Fine! I’ll do it! Steely, you and Breeze jump on the walkers after the first tank goes down, okay?”

“YES!! Finally!!” Steely whooped, much to the chagrin of the other mares.

“Blossom, attack from a safe angle and try to immobilize or pry open those transports so we get some softer targets! Shifty, go with Blossom and help her avoid any unexpectedly fatal decisions!”

Shifty winced again. “Any chance I can go back up the pegasi instead?” Behind her, Rot Blossom whimpered and her knees started shaking.

“NO! Stick with your partner!”

“Can you shoot the Hellhound first then, Kiss?” Blossom asked weakly. “Please?”

“All right, fine! Now get in position!” Poison Kiss rushed over to the gunner slit and pressed her side against the wall. “We’re only going to get one shot at this, ponies!”





The hiss of pistons and the grinding of heavy treads filled the boulevard as the small parade of armor raced toward the bunker.

The Leman Russ battle tank, named for the most savage of the Space Marine Primarchs that did NOT eventually succumb to the corruption of Chaos, had been a mainstay of Imperial armies for over ten thousand years, and for good reason. Boasting a heavy primary cannon, a secondary heavy weapon, two side-mounted gun sponsons, and often a pintle-mounted stubber as well, the tank boasted enough sheer firepower to threaten hordes of infantry or smash alien vehicles powered by unfathomable technologies. Such was the versatility and might of the Leman Russ that the vehicles were prime plunder for those armies that preferred to take their weapons from their victims rather than construct their own. Many such tanks were even now being repaired and towed out of the hive by the 38th Company’s scavengers to bolster their strength on future raids.

These particular tanks were headed directly away from the front lines of the invasion, but as they neared the bunker at the end of the boulevard the head Russ slowed. The Sentinels in the vanguard had all stopped right in front of the fortification in the middle of the intersection, and there seemed to be a conversation happening among the pilots. The rest of the convoy swiftly brought itself to a halt, and the inferno and multilaser turrets turned to cover the rear of the formation.

“No response… Is this pillbox dead?”

“There’s a little smoke, but I don’t see any serious damage. Probably deserted.”

“Filthy cowards. They shame the Emperor with their weakness!”

“Keep it moving! We need the command center leveled! You want the heretics to catch up?!”

Two of the Sentinel walkers swung about to move on. The third one lingered. Its pilot leaned out of the cab of his walker, peering into the vision slit. The barrel of a lascannon still jutted out from the gunnery slit of the bunker, aiming straight down the street the convoy had just traversed.

The armored vehicles started rumbling by behind the scout walker. The pilot finally sat down in his seat with a shrug. Then he swung his Sentinel about and rushed to the tail end of the convoy. The APCs rolled past, and then the Hellhound flame tank started to turn to follow the other vehicles.

An aura of sickly yellow wrapped around the bunker’s lascannon, slowly tilting it upward and to the side.


The ambush began, as such things often do, with an explosion.

The lascannon beam pierced the heavy armored vessel in the rear of the Hellhound, boring into the inferno cannon’s fuel supply. Temperature gauges all jumped into the red as the special promethium mix absorbed the heat of the laser, and light bloomed from the entry wound as oxygen rapidly flooded into the hole. The entire back end of the vehicle detonated, throwing hot shards of metal across the street. The Sentinel nearby lurched to the side, its gyros fighting against the shock wave of the explosion. The other vehicles squealed to a halt, their sponsons and turrets whirling about.

“YO HO HO THE PONY PIRATES ARE HERE!! FIRST WE’LL TAKE YOUR LIFE, THEN YOUR BOOTY!! IRON SOMETHING SOMETHING!!”

Steely Lathe took off like a missile, leaping out from behind the bunker’s top-mounted lascannon and launching toward the nearest Sentinel walker. The cab barely began to swing around before her power hoof struck the passenger cage, shattering the outer plating and knocking the entire walker over onto the ground.

“BLOOD AND FRIENDSHIP!! SKULLS AND TOLERANCE!!” the frenzied pegasus leapt on the pilot, her augmetic hooves crackling with power.

Breezy followed Steely’s flight path, firing her boltgun at the other walkers. Only one Sentinel was at the rear of the convoy, with the other two having moved past the intersection with the tanks. The guns were already swiveling in the ponies’ direction, while the battle cannons seemed to turning the other way, toward the bunker.

“Steely, let’s move! Next target! Go, go, go!” Breezy boosted her speed right before stubber rounds started whipping by her, trying to build her altitude without completely abandoning the other pegasus. The jaw plate of Breezy’s helmet snapped open, and then a cloud of dark, greenish mist blasted into the air ahead of her before ballooning outward and spreading in all directions.

Multilasers from the Chimera APCs began chasing after Breezy, slicing into the shroud of inky vapor. Steely and her initial victim were almost entirely obscured by the wreckage and smoke from the Hellhound, mercifully cutting off their line of sight. The bunker, however, had not been forgotten.

A battle cannon fired, shaking the chassis of the Leman Russ before the side of the bunker exploded into flame and shrapnel. Cracks ran through the rest of the structure, but the frame held.

The bunker’s lascannon fired again, slicing through the side of a Chimera and boring through several wheels at an angle. After a few seconds the tread links on that side came apart, throwing shards of superheated metal into the street.

A second battle cannon fired, and this time the frame didn’t hold. Ferrocrete buckled, and the fortification collapsed inward. A frightened yelp came from within, and then a cloud of dust and flames bloomed over the debris.

“KISS!!” Rot Blossom, who had been rushing into the street, stumbled to a halt as the bunker was destroyed. A heavy bolter round whipped by her head a second later, startling her back into action.

“Cover behind the stopped APC! Keep your head down!” Shifty galloped after the earth pony, and then vanished into a cloud of smoke. She emerged behind the torched Hellhound, and her horn sparked while lasers filled the air and heavy weapons rattled away.

Breezy and Steely soared overhead a moment later, plunging into the smoke column over the wrecked vehicle and diving out the other side. Breezy’s boltgun rattled in the air, raining mass-reactive shells on the convoy, but the weapon seemed to have little effect.

A multilaser blast struck her leg, and then another hit her chest. Heat bloomed through the armor frame, and diagrams flashed red on her visor. She banked left, and stubber rounds whistled by her head while the guns tried to track her.

“Almost… there…” Breezy’s helmet opened up again, and she blew a stream of acrid vapor into the cab of a Sentinel. The walker started flailing back and forth while its pilot choked and wrenched at the controls, and then it slammed a foot into a rockcrete barricade. The Sentinel tripped, throwing it end over end and flinging the dying pilot from his seat.

“That’s one more down!” Breezy shouted, tilting her flight path upward right before a heavy bolter shell crashed into her side. She was flung through the air, trying to regain control, when two more heavy bolts struck her wing. The frame buckled, and a mess of metal and feathers were blown off of her flight pack on trails of smoke and shrapnel.

Spared the pain of having part of her wing blasted off by her infernal blessings, Breezy howled in anger and frustration while she spun out of control, eventually smashing into the bed of a mag-hauler. The Leman Russ that had shot her down rumbled past, following its twin down the street. The remaining Sentinel approached close enough to check the fate of the pilot that had been gassed, and then quickly turned away and raced after the heavier armor.


“Hey! Where do they think they’re going?!” Steely asked, growling at the departing armor. She was currently dismantling the treads of the damaged Chimera with her power hooves, tearing through the links and wheels and kicking away piles of warped metal.

“The other APC is leaving too! And the last Sentinel! They sure are in a hurry!” Shifty complained.

The Chimera they were sheltering behind was also trying to move away, but having much less success. With the lascannon damage on one side and Steely tearing through the treads on the other, the vehicle couldn’t hope to keep up with the rest of the convoy. Its multilaser turret snapped left and right, searching for a target but unable to get an angle on the ponies sheltering behind it.

Rot Blossom slammed a hoof into the rear of the APC, a growl of anger and sorrow echoing from her vox. “Get out here, you stupid mules! There’s still enough of Phage Squadron to turn you all into diseased mulch!”

“Erm, Blossom, you-“ Shifty began, only to be cut off by a furious scream.

Rot Blossom bellowed into the air, and a veritable cloud of insects burst from around her armor. Vents and cracks seethed with dull chitin, and her helmet’s jaw hinge opened to regurgitate a giant centipede onto the ground.

“Sometimes I’m actually glad I can’t really see anymore.” Shifty shuddered in disgust, backing away from the emerging swarm. “Er, also, you need to-“

“COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!!” Blossom raged, rearing up and pounding her front greaves against the embarkation ramp. “IN NURGLE’S NAME, I WILL SEE EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU-“

The embarkation ramp suddenly dropped free of its mag-locks, slamming onto Blossom’s head. The mare yelped in surprise, and then her legs buckled as the impact of metal on ceramite rang in her ears.

Shifty, having seen this coming, lashed out with a lightning bolt as soon as Blossom fell low enough to clear her line of fire. A whip of coruscating electricity drilled into the first soldier emerging, and then lashed out to strike two others following behind him. A man who had been mercifully spared the arcane attack raised his melta gun, but the unicorn had already vanished in a puff of pink smoke. The melta gun blasted through the shroud anyway, carving a molten trench into the street that belched acrid vapor into the air.

Several more soldiers pushed past the twitching bodies that had fallen, lasguns leveled and ready but no target in sight. One spotted something out of the corner of his eye and turned, pointing off to the side. “Look! The xeno flies!”

“This xeno also PUNCHES!” Steely screamed, diving into the squad. A pair of lasblasts burst toward her before impact, two of them streaking past and one burning into her chest plate. Then her foreleg connected, striking the nearest soldiers in the chest.

The power field around her hoof cracked like a thunderbolt, and a tremendous pressure wave threw the soldier into his squad with much of his torso caved in. Steely twisted around and spun a hoof into the melta gunner, crushing his shoulder and hurling him into the street. A bayonet slashed at her, cutting into a thinner fold of her armor over one of her rear legs and into the flesh beneath. This only made her angrier, and her eyes blazed with eldritch fury as she decapitated the culprit.

“Take the beast down! Surround it, you cowards!” shouted the squad Sergeant, drawing a chainsword.

He suddenly stumbled when searing pain flooded his ankle. Glancing down, his eyes widened in shock when he saw a massive centipede biting into his leg, its body curving around the edge of the embarkation ramp. With a furious snarl, he gunned the engine of his weapon, and then slashed down at the revolting creature. The roaring saw teeth tore through the centipede’s carapace with ease, spewing foul ichor across the ramp.

It was not the only arthropod underfoot.

Insects of a striking variety started swarming from under the ramp, clambering up the incline and leaping onto any human legs they could find. Several collected around the soldiers that had already been dispatched, burrowing into their still-warm bodies or between the folds of their clothes. The bugs were large enough to be potentially dangerous, with sharp mandibles and envenomed stingers, but in the presence of Steely Lathe they mostly served as a distraction to keep the soldiers off-balance. The pegasus leapt from man to man in an insane frenzy of popping disruption fields and scorched feathers, sometimes striking faster than her power hooves could recharge between impacts. The soldiers that were sent to the deck with horseshoe-shaped bruises rather than shattered bones didn’t last much longer; Steely rarely let up on a target until she felt the jaw-rattling impact of her power hooves’ disruption fields against flesh and armor.

The embarkation ramp suddenly jolted upward several inches, and the scrape of metal against ceramite came from underneath the melee. Rot Blossom snarled incoherently as she clambered out from under the heavy metal slab, her armor decorated with flattened insects. Once she was free she promptly stood up and whirled around, a curse already on her tongue and a new swarm of bugs emerging from her armor’s nesting receptacles.

She was swiftly met with a lasblast to the face, scoring her helmet right under its visor. Blossom didn’t flinch at the damage, but nor did she react fast enough when she saw the shooter coming at her with his chainsword.

“By the Emperor’s light you xeno fiends will be cast back to the void!” the Sergeant roared while he struck. The chainsword landed on Blossom’s neck above her shoulder pad, chewing into the slightly thinner and more flexible plating there.

Blossom’s legs buckled, and sparks blasted over her back from the saw teeth grinding away at her armor. Several wasps shot forward to sting the Sergeant, but the man’s ferocity was unshakeable and utterly focused. After several seconds he finally pulled the chainblade away, and a victorious grin stretched across his face as a splash of blood crossed his boots. He aimed his laspistol and drew his sword back again.

A lance of coruscating flame suddenly pierced his back, burning through the Sergeant’s torso before emerging from his chest in a puff of azure fire. His face twisted into an expression of shock and disbelief, and the man held the pose for a good two seconds before he collapsed to the ramp. Blossom’s insects leapt at the opportunity, swarming over the man while the smoke was still seeping from his wound.

“Something something something BLOOD GOD!!” Steely spun about in a whirlwind of feathers, and her back leg kicked a lasgun hard enough to split the weapon in two.

Still howling semi-coherently, Steely Lathe slammed a power hoof into the jaw of the disarmed soldier, obliterating everything above his shoulders. A flap of her wings brought her higher just as a bayonet stabbed for her rear, and she twisted about to punch the opponent that had attacked her. Two power hooves struck without the benefit of their disruption fields, smacking the soldier’s chest and throwing him down into the street.

The berserk pegasus lifted up again, only to dive straight down atop the stunned conscript. The impact wave struck with a deafening thunderclap and reduced the soldier and many of the nearby bugs to a paste. Those insects that were far enough away not to be smeared where flung into the air, and a surprised shout came from Shifty Sights when a dead centipede’s body landed over her muzzle.


“Ack! Hey! No! Get off!” the Dark Mage yelped, flailing about comically while numerous beetles and wasps flew around her in a confused swarm.

“RRRRRRAAAAAAAAUGH!!” Steely jumped into the air again from the shattered crater underneath her, her eyes glowing a furious red. She swiveled back and forth, energy crackling around her power hooves, but quickly came to realize that there were no more enemies in sight.

“Oh… okay. Fight’s over.” The blood rage drained from her body quickly, and she dropped down to the street. There were several new laser burns and cuts on her carapace armor, and one of her wings was matted with blood that was at least partially her own.

The pegasus was in obviously better shape than Rot Blossom, however. The earth pony’s helmet was slightly flattened up top, and the lens of one eye was cracked in her visor. She also had a vicious gash torn into the gorget of her armor that had obviously reached the flesh underneath. Steely decided not to observe the wound too closely though; there were already worms visibly squirming into the breach.

“Is… Is that it?” Blossom gasped, seeming rather stunned. “Did we win?”

“In the sense that we are alive and the opponents in our immediate vicinity are not, YES!” Shifty said. A wasp landed on her back leg, and then it was shorn in half in an instant as the unicorn’s tail whipped across her flank. “Sorry about vanishing on you guys, but I had to take out the driver and gunner to make sure they couldn’t bring the multilaser around on us.”

“No prob.” Steely slammed her power hooves together, and a concussive blast threw her hair back as the blood and grime around the weapons was burned away. “We gonna hit the survivors now? Where’d they go, anyway?”

A heavy clanking noise came from down the street as Breezy Blight tumbled from the mag-hauler and landed gracelessly onto the street. Smoke was still pouring from her flight pack, and one of the wings had been badly mangled by heavy bolter impacts. The pegasus seemed quite aggravated by the damage while she stood up and raced toward the other ponies, although they had to assume it was less about the injury and more about the inconvenience of being grounded.

“The Russ tanks took off thataway. I don’t think they ever actually stopped,” Breezy said, nudging her head back toward where she had come from. “What are we going to do?”

“Chase them down and smash them!” Steely snarled.

“OR… we could follow them and wait for an opportune moment for an ambush,” Shifty retorted. “We got lucky that the convoy was in such a hurry. There were many paths rockier than this one.”

An enraged scream suddenly tore through the air.

A huge tendril of yellow energy, glowing and crackling malevolently, erupted from the rubble of the bunker and showered the adjacent street with rubble. It was soon joined by three others, and the magical tentacles wrapped or pushed the heaviest pieces of debris away from the center of the structure’s remains.

A smaller figure started to rise from the rubble, also wreathed in an aura of sickly yellow. “NURGLE… WILL… FEAST… ON-“

“Kiss, they’re already gone,” Breezy interrupted with a sigh.

The tendrils winked out of existence, and nearly a half ton of scorched ferrocrete dropped into the streets with a dry thud. Kiss’s aura faded, and she slumped back down into the debris mostly burying her.

“…… When you’re done with your little break you fancy helping me out of here?” Poison Kiss asked irritably. “No hurry, I might have a concussion but whatever no need to fuss over little old me.”

Rot Blossom quickly rushed to assist, and Steely jumped up to join her.

“So the tanks got away. Does this mean we failed? What happens if we fail?” Breezy asked nervously.

“Oh, we haven’t failed! Not yet,” Shifty said with a giggle. “We’ll fail if the tanks destroy their target before we stop them!”

The thunder of a battle cannon’s report rolled through the streets. The tanks hadn’t gone more than a few blocks from the intersection, and seem to have entered the vehicle lot in front of the command center. It was protected by a high wall and as such most of the building wasn’t visible from the intersection, but given their orders it wasn’t hard to guess what the tanks were shooting at.

“Oh BUGGER ME,” Kiss groaned while she squirmed out from under a chunk of ferrocrete. Once she had stumbled away Steely shoved the debris away and shook herself to remove the dust.

“We’re going to want to go help,” Shifty said, gesturing down the street.

“How?! There are still two battle tanks and an APC! Plus the last Sentinel and probably a squad of ground troops too!” Breezy said. “We gave it our best! Let’s just wait for the Space Marines to catch up!”

“Well I don’t know about you guys but I was planning on punching them some more,” Steely said with a shrug.

Another pair of cannon blasts came from behind the retainer wall.

“We don’t have long. But we’re not alone,” Shifty remarked.

“Nurgle deliver us,” Kiss sighed. “Fine. Phage Squadron, get the lead out and prepare for enemy contact. Lead the way, you spooky git.”

“Quickly! The paths diverge a lot up ahead, but if we delay there can only be one outcome!” Shifty announced, galloping down the street.

“What does that mean?” Breezy grumbled.

“It means MOVE, ponies!” Kiss snarled, racing after the other unicorn. “This is our last chance!”





Ghessheim V
Xenith Municipal Command

Explosions rocked the command center as another pair of cannon shells drilled into the side, tearing apart rockcrete and durasteel in massive, fiery gouges. Cogitators were flattened and corpses burnt away by the blasts, and more of the outer wall of the command center fell away to reveal the blood-stained interior. Metal scraps and flaming rubble rolled across the floor, and damaged cabling spat sparks into the air.

Following the battle cannons came a pair of lascannons slicing into the opening. The lasers speared across the interior and burned through the machinery and debris in their path, leaving tracks of molten orange in their wake. Autocannons offered a more rapid drumbeat of destruction, pouring shell after shell into the command center’s doors and windows.

“If anything comes out of there, you shoot it down!” snarled a Lieutenant, pointing his power saber at the damaged building. “Human, alien, heretic; I don’t care if General Tammael himself comes crawling out of the smoke! Reduce that building and everything in it to dust and ash!”

A squad of troopers with autocannons had set up in the space between the Leman Russ tanks, mounting their weapons on a rockcrete barricade. Their squad mates were crouched next to the wall, lasguns propped up on the top edge and ready to fire. The Sentinel walker stood behind the line, its own lascannon adding the fusillade. The Chimera was parked behind the squad, its multilaser pouring a constant stream of destructive light across the room interior.

Autocannon shells and lasers battered the command center, punctuated by great explosions from the battle cannons. The building was large and sturdy with reinforced walls, but with the firepower arrayed against them it would be a matter of minutes until complete structural collapse, and anything inside would be pulverized long before that point.

One of the soldiers stopped firing and dropped to one knee in order to reload his lasgun. Glancing behind the squad, toward the entry gate in the defensive wall, he thought he glimpsed something shiny next to one of the gate pylons. He stopped and stared for several seconds, but couldn’t see anything there.

“Are you taking a break, Wilhelm?!” barked the officer, his hand resting on the holster of his laspistol. “What did I tell you?! Keep firing!”

The armsman stuttered an affirmation and stood up, adding his own spray of laser blasts to the fusillade pouring into the smoke.


Around the gate pylon, Rot Blossom had her side pressed tightly to its sloped, rockcrete base with her head down. It was impossible to hear if someone was approaching amongst the thunderstorm of gunfire, but she didn’t want to check again. The other mares were clustered to her side, behind the main retainer wall, patiently waiting for her to report.

“… Okay, they’re not shooting back here. I guess he didn’t see me,” Blossom gasped.

“How’s it look?” Breezy asked.

“It looks like there’s tanks blasting away at the command center along with a Sentinel and a squad of troops between them!” Blossom hissed. “Plus a Chimera on standby! We’re not taking those down! What are we even doing here?”

“That’s a lot,” Shifty admitted. “But we have to try.”

“All right, fine. What’s your future sight or whatever see?” Kiss asked.

“Diddly and squat,” Shifty admitted, shrugging. “Too many paths, too many twists and curves. It’s all a hopeless blur right now. But every path after we walk away ends the same: the command center is flattened and the big bosses are VERY unhappy with us.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad compared to staring down two battle cannons,” Breezy admitted.

“Stop being a wimp! We’ve got them flanked and they’re busy shooting at nothing!” Steely insisted. “I wanna punch a tank!”

A rumbling noise came from the command center as a major support buckled. Half of the building started to crumble, with the roof sagging over the collapsing walls.

“We’re out of time,” Shifty said, her horn humming with magic, “It’s now or never.”

“This is completely barmy, but that’s what we signed up for, innit?” Kiss sighed. “Breezy, charge the squad and see if you can gas them. Shifty, cast something to help her make it in one piece. Steely-“

“I’mma punch a tank!” the Reaver snarled.

“Yes, fine, but wait a few seconds after Breezy goes so they don’t pick you off on approach. Blossom, we’re going to split off on either side and plink at the walker with bolters. Savvy?”

“TIME TO MAKE THE IRON WITHIN THE IRON WITHOUT!!” Steely roared, instantly alerting the soldiers on the other side of the wall.


Several militia gunmen whirled around at the shout, and then crouched when an armored pony jumped through the gate and started galloping toward them. Three of them opened fire, and a dozen lasers pierced the grounded pegasus.

Breezy Blight burst into colored smoke, and then two armored ponies erupted from the shroud, galloping at slightly different angles. The confused soldiers kept shooting, and a second Breezy reeled before bursting like a smoke grenade. Again, two more ponies in power armor raced from the cloud, making a mad sprint for the infantry.

“Heretical witchcraft!” sputtered one defender as he turned another illusory pony into pink vapor. “Behind us! The xenos are flanking!”

The multilaser turret on the Chimera swung about, adding a fan of heavy laser blasts to the defensive fire. More Breezy Blights were pierced by high-energy beams, and the heavy bolter sponsons on the sides of the Leman Russ tanks swiveled to join them. Soon a flurry of crossfire tore through the charging ponies, creating so many bursts of smoke that the entire assault became a rolling cloud of colored mist.

“Keep firing! Cleanse the xeno scum!”

“Firing at what? I can’t see anything!”

“Battle cannons! Get the battle cannons over here! Fire into the center of that mess!”

The Leman Russ tanks started swiveling their turrets about, bringing their biggest guns to bear as picking out discrete targets through the smoke became impossible. The laser fire from the infantry slackened, and some of the men jumped the barricade to shelter on the other side.

“Coming through, chumps!” Steely flew out of the smokescreen at high speed, leaping over a stream of heavy bolter shells to reach the back of a Leman Russ. Her power hooves struck the tank with explosive force, caving in the engine block.

At about the same time, a jet of green gas erupted from the shroud, blowing into the soldiers at the barricade. The men scattered, coughing and retching, only for a lightning bolt to leap out at them and slay three of them in as many seconds.

“Keep up the pressure! We’ve got ‘em, ladies!” Kiss shouted, her boltgun rattling ferociously over her head.

“The tank!” Blossom cried while she ran in the opposite direction from her squad leader. “The tank is almost-“

The Leman Russ – the one being savaged by a cybernetic pegasus, specifically – fired its battle cannon into the cloud of obscuring smoke. The explosion blew away the shroud from the center, scattering the strange colored mist around a column of flame. Shifty and Breezy, who were still hiding within the smoke, were knocked off their hooves by the pressure wave and flung to the ground, senseless.

The vehicles paused in their fire, each of the gunners adjusting their targeting now that all the enemies were exposed. The battle cannon that had not yet fired upon the ponies tilted to follow Rot Blossom while heavy bolter fire chased her across the lot.

A shout came from the Sentinel pilot. “No! The command center! It’s-“

The report of another battle cannon boomed through the lot. The shell crashed into the Leman Russ, cracking the front armor and flattening the lascannon mounted on the front of the chassis while bits of armor plating were blasted away into the air. The tank sputtered for a few seconds, its heavy bolter sponsons firing aimlessly and one tread grinding forward, and then a burst of autocannon shells stitched across the tank’s front, stabbing into the broken armor panels. Its ammunition detonated, and the Sentinel was almost knocked off its feet as the battle tank vanished into a cloud of flame and shrapnel.

“That… What was…” Blossom almost tripped over her own hooves as pieces of armor and machinery bounced across the lot, trailing smoke.

Within the command center, through the flames and smoke of the earlier bombardment, something large and metal crawled over the rubble. Pointed, spider-like legs lifted a heavy chassis over the shattered interior, each one protected by gleaming armor plates painted black and trimmed with gold. A massive three-fingered claw reached out for an unbroken section of wall, and with a gentle hiss and a ferocious crunch it tore the impediment away. A battle cannon jutted proudly from the chest of a boxy, swivel-mounted torso, while a twin-linked autocannon and heavy flamer were mounted on either side.

Atop the crab-like monstrosity was a head almost comically small in proportion to the rest of the machine. Eyes of glowing green peered out from behind a mask of beaten gold, and long, rubbery cables ran from the back like a lock of hair. A crooked horn rose from the mask’s forehead; gold, like the mask itself but run through with visible circuitry and wiring. Every one of the ponies recognized that horn and realized what this new war machine was, and a deep terror touched their hearts even as it moved to engage their enemies.


“You’re a cheeky bunch, trying to bring down the entire building on me,” Chrysalis cackled, scrambling out into the lots. Her voice was accompanied by a metallic screech as she laughed, snapping the massive claws of her Defiler form. “Come closer, little ones! I’ve never tried out this body before!”

A lascannon suddenly sliced into one leg, and Chrysalis yelped comically as the servo went slack and her chassis tilted dangerously to one corner. She pushed herself back up and twisted to aim at the Sentinel that had shot her, the eyes in her mask glowing brighter. “HEY! Get back here, you little punk!” she snarled before the reaper autocannon opened up. The enemy walker sped away, sprinting just ahead of the shells tearing apart the ground.

The remaining Russ had finally reloaded its cannon and was swiveling its turret back around to take aim at the newest threat. It’s heavy bolters had already switched targets, spitting dozens of heavy bolts into the Defiler’s Warp-energized armor plating. Its lascannon fired as well, slicing a lance of red through a corner of the Defiler’s torso.

Just as the cannon was in place, Steely leapt over the top of the turret and gave the main gun a solid punch with her power hooves. A loud crack came from the cannon’s barrel as it caved inward, pinching the tube and warping its aim.

“HEY, DON’T IGNORE ME!!” the Khornate pony raged. “COME OUT AND FIGHT YOU SISSY LITTLE-“

The battle cannon fired, which went very poorly for all involved.

The shell detonated halfway through the barrel, absolutely shredding the rest of the cannon and vomiting a tongue of flame and bits of shrapnel across the lot. Steely, who was behind the explosion, was nevertheless flung through the air and knocked senseless. Chrysalis flinched away from the blast and ended up getting hit by a jet of fire and bits of the destroyed gun, although with the benefit of a Defiler’s armor she wasn’t so much harmed as shocked.

Chrysalis clambered over to the tank while lasers splashed against her armor from the Chimera’s main turret. One claw swung into the side of the Leman Russ like a mace, pitching the vehicle sharply to one side, and then the other claw sunk into the Russ’s turret.

“Like a can opener,” the changeling cackled, tearing the turret head off the tank and hurling it away. The hunk of discarded metal slammed into the Chimera, briefly interrupting the stream of fire from its multilaser. Then Chrysalis blasted a jet of fire into the exposed chassis, bathing the interior in flame before slugging the tank yet again.

“We can’t hold them! Fall back!” The squad commander coughed out, stumbled toward the APC. He was nearly blinded and halfway paralyzed from the viral toxins he had inhaled, one hand clutching at his throat. Most of his squad followed in a similar state, leaving their weapons laying on the ground next to the barricade. 

Chrysalis twisted her upper body toward the transport, and spat a single battle cannon shell into it. The Chimera’s hull folded inward and then detonated, pulverizing the nearby soldiers that were struggling to embark. The Queen of the Changelings laughed at the carnage, her voice like a knife drawing across steel.

The final Imperial vehicle – the Sentinel scout walker – zig-zagged toward the gate that exited to the city streets. Autocannon shot chased after it, blowing holes the size of bowling balls in the ground but failing to hit the speedy walker directly. The pilot made a sharp turn and lined up his path with the gate, pushing his speed to the limit. The Sentinel nearly stepped on Breezy as a result, and the pegasus yelped as a heavy metal foot slammed onto the rockcrete right in front of her face before stepping over her.

Then the pilot cried out in pain, and the entire walker swerved to the side. A wasp the size of a man’s hand clung to the pilot’s back, its stinger lodged firmly in his neck. The man’s flailing quickly wiped away the insect, and through the intense pain and toxins flooding his body, he reoriented the walker toward the exit.

He didn’t make it much further, as that was about when a power hoof diving through the air connected with his skull.


“Ha ha… ha… mission complete…” Shifty Sights slowly pushed herself up off the ground, her legs trembling and her head pounding. While the shimmering magic cloak on her back was excellent at absorbing laser fire, it offered much less protection against concussive shock waves.

Breezy enjoyed much more substantial protection from being knocked around by explosions, and she was back on her hooves faster than the unicorn despite being much closer to the blast zone. She whirled around to face Shifty Steps, and then stamped a boot on the ground furiously.

“Mission complete?! MISSION COMPLETE?! We were nearly blown away TWICE and you’re telling me that it was all to rescue HER?!” Breezy aimed her augmetic wing toward the Defiler crouched in the vehicle lot.

“Uh… well, yes.” Shifty grumbled. “I’m not really thrilled about it either.”

“Is that a problem?” Chrysalis was holding up the chassis of a Leman Russ in one claw, observing it like one might a broken toy. “Not that I needed a ‘rescue’ but it was nice to have the cannons aimed somewhere else for a minute.”

“You’re welcome,” Poison Kiss said flatly.

“Considering the tactical situation when I emerged from the command center, I’d say that you should be thanking me,” Chrysalis said, her voice like nails on a chalkboard. “But I’ll let it go this time. We are on the same side… aren’t we?” She suddenly tossed the dismantled tank to the side, and Kiss yelped in fright as the multi-ton hunk of battered armor landed barely a foot away from her.

Shifty grimaced as she sensed the other mares glaring at her. “She IS an ally, though… and quite important to the Iron Warriors. It’s not like I’m the one who gave you your orders.”

“Important enough to the Iron Warriors for them to send help, but not important enough to warrant better than the C-list ponies. I’m a little insulted, frankly.” Chrysalis started to glow as she delivered her quips, the massive body of the Defiler evaporating into a cyclone of sparkling green lights.

“C-list? You should try out a punch from these power hooves before you rate ‘em,” Steely growled.

“Pipe down, you rabid lunatic,” Chrysalis snapped, walking up to Poison Kiss. By now she had completely returned to her true form, although she walked with a slight limp and one of the holes in her hind leg was bigger and more ragged than the others. “Those helmets have communications devices in them, yes? Inform the Iron Warriors that I require a new target. I could just wander around on my own killing humans as I please, of course, but if I accidentally wandered out of the war zone I could get stranded planetside while the army moves on.”

“We’d be positively gutted if something like that were to happen to you,” Kiss deadpanned before opening her vox channel. “This is Phage Squadron to command. I think the command center’s a loss but it wasn’t a complete cock up. The shifter is fine.”

“Excellent,” growled a voice on the other end, “establishing guidance signum now. Escort the Queen to the hive periphery indicated for shuttle exfiltration; we’ve destroyed the anti-air defenses on that side. You may go with her and rejoin the fleet if you wish.”

“Think we’ll take you up on that, guv. Our armor’s a shambles and Breezy can’t even fly anymore,” Kiss said, heaving a sigh.

“What? What are they saying?” Chrysalis demanded, only being able to hear Kiss’s side of the conversation.

“We’re all heading back into orbit, Queenie. And not a moment too soon, thank Nurgle!”

“We are? Why?” Chrysalis asked hotly, slightly surprising the ponies. “I don’t want to leave yet! I’ve only gotten to use a few of the warforms so far and I didn’t get a chance to find any lovers to snack on!”

Kiss grunted in disgust. “You catch that, command? The Queen of the Changelings hasn’t had enough fun yet, apparently.”

“Neither have I, actually. I could go for a few more convoy ambushes,” Steely volunteered.

“The withdrawal order came from Warsmith Solon himself,” barked the voice on Kiss’s vox link. “Inform the Queen that she will be leaving the hive in the hour, or she will not be leaving it at all.” The vox link was cut, and then a directional indicator flickered into place on Kiss’s damaged visor.


“Sorry Queenie: looks like you’re coming with us. If it’s any consolation, I’m right miffed about having to accompany you in order to get off this rock.”

“That IS a small comfort, yes,” Chrysalis admitted.

Then Kiss looked up at Steely Lathe. “As for you, I was given the strong impression that they don’t care what happens to us, so you should feel free to bugger off.”

“Leaving now!” the Khornate shouted exuberantly, already in the air. She soared over the barrier wall and into the streets without so much as a glance back at the others.

“And as for you,” Kiss began, turning around. Then she hesitated and turned some more. Then she kept turning until she was facing Chrysalis again, her head scanning back and forth. “All right, where the hay did Shifty go?”

“She poofed out when you started talking to the Iron Warriors,” Rot Blossom grumbled.

“Keen. Just absolutely bomb. Bloody Tzeentchian freak,” Kiss snarled before trudging toward the street. “Everypony keep your heads down; there are still a lot of militia crawling around these towers. We won’t be safe until we reach the primary assault force. They’re just a few blocks from here.”

“Can’t we just wait until they arrive?” Chrysalis asked, sitting down on her haunches.

“Warsmith’s orders, Queenie. That means it’s important,” Kiss insisted, walking toward the others. “They want you out of the hive in the hour.”

“Tch! Fine, then. Maybe he has some other interesting job for me,” Chrysalis mumbled, moving to follow.

“Sounds like servitude is starting to agree with you,” Breezy quipped. “Good.”

Chrysalis offered her a disdainful stare as the group trotted back out onto the streets. “It… hasn’t been all bad,” she admitted with a sniff. “I suppose there are worse prices for power. Like being turned into a disgusting lump of parasite-riddled fur and tumors.”

“Hey! I don’t have any tumors! Those are egg sacs!” Rot Blossom complained.

Chrysalis winced and took a few steps further away. “That’s not better, you know.”

“Why are you so judgey, anyway? Aren’t you an insect? Or part insect, at least?” Breezy asked.

“Aren’t you all mammals? Why don’t you ponies scurry around eating garbage like rats?” Chrysalis asked sarcastically. “I don’t inject my eggs into people so my larval young can feast on their blood and body fat, and I look down on the revolting creatures who do. It’s as simple as that.” She shuddered at the thought. “Although if you ask me, all material digestion is gross.”

“We didn't ask you,” Blossom griped. Then she almost stumbled into Kiss’s backside when the unicorn stopped.

“Wait... up there! Take cover!” Kiss shouted suddenly, jumping behind a empty munitions crate.


The others scattered, and a string of lasblasts cut across the streets from one of the windows above. The fire was sparse and not particularly accurate, and when Chrysalis glared up at the source the shooters quickly ducked back behind their hab window.

“Well, I DID say I wanted to fight a little more before we left,” the Changeling Queen chuckled as her body began to swell. An aura of green magic surrounded her, growing to more than ten times her usual bulk, and strings of emerald light emerged from her sides and wrapped together to form massive cylinders. Sparks of similar color shot out of her form seemingly at random and curved sharply back into her torso or limbs, leaving behind power cables and wire bundles. Spikes jutted from her back, and the strands of hair that made up her tail thickened into loose tubing.

“Come out, little human! You missed me the first time! Don’t you want another try?” Chrysalis cackled as her massive Forgefiend body stepped out onto the street. The heavy rotary autocannons on each arm aimed at a window on each side of the street, and a ferocious rumble came from the weapons as they started to spin up. “Come with me, ponies! Let’s play a little before we leave for good!”

“Remind me again why we have to escort her,” Breezy said right before a barrage of Warp-fueled shot ripped into the hab towers.

“Don’t let the big guns fool you, Breeze. If I hadn’t said anything earlier, she’d already have some new holes in her face.” Kiss levitated her boltgun off her back and pushed in a new clip of ammunition. “Stay together and keep your distance from the shifter. Besides the explosive radius of most anti-tank munitions, she’ll probably step on you for a chuckle if you wander close. Tally ho!”





Harvest of Steel
Launch hangar Theta
(20 hours later)

“Whoa, Nelly! Ah don’t know if Ah like the sound o’this, Twi.”

“What’s the problem? I think it’s great! We get to go to an alien planet after all! And not the lame hive world where all the regular schmoes live, but the capital world!”

“I think that’s the main concern, darling. At least insofar as this capital world is defended by an army so powerful the Iron Warriors won’t consider fighting it.”

“But, uhm, we don’t have to fight them, right? We don’t need to fight anyone on this mission, I thought.”

“Yeah, but that’s what they said about the LAST mission, too. Ah ain’t buyin’ it. And fer what? Some kinda crazy dream?”

“It wasn’t a… well, all right, I’m not going to contest that description, but I think I’ve more than justified my case that it wasn’t JUST a dream. There’s definitely something down there!”

“Ah believe ya, Twi. Mah problem is that ya don’t rightly know WHAT.”


Equinought Squadron was gathered on a balcony platform overlooking the gunship launch hangar, discussing their upcoming mission in a loose circle. They had all been properly treated and well-rested, but Applejack still had several patches in place over her nano-stitches and Rainbow Dash sported a plated band over her head that was supposed to deflect further impacts to her skull away from that particular point. They all wore their power armor, sans helmets, and Pinkie Pie sat on the shoulder of her Dreadnought while it loomed over the rest of the mares.

“I ran it by Solon and Serith, and Solon thought the mission was completely viable! Serith did too, but he’s convinced it isn’t worth it,” Twilight said, grimacing at the end.

“I’m still surprised that he and Trixie wanted to come along,” Fluttershy admitted.

“Well, actually, he didn’t. But Trixie did, so he agreed anyway,” Twilight sighed. “As for Trixie’s motivations, I think they’re similar to Dash’s. It just seems like a more unique and exotic experience than gunning down militia in heavy urban combat.”

“Although I was totally up for that, too,” Rainbow Dash reminded her.

“Yes darling, we understand. You don’t much like being cooped up in the ship, do you?” Rarity asked wryly.

“It’s pretty boring in here, yeah. You know, for a giant mechanical daemon.”

“Can we focus, ponies?” Applejack asked. “Ah’m still tryin’ to wrap mah head around what we’re doin’. This’s a rescue but also a recovery mission?”

“Yes. Probably. Like we already… discussed, we don’t have a great deal of intelligence from the ground aside from the capital hive itself. Based on the communication – which was a dream, I admit – I expect there to be at least one refugee in somewhat imminent danger and at least one inexplicable space artifact,” Twilight explained. “Obviously, the situation could be worse than that. We could have hundreds of refugees, not one. The artifact could be some sort of… I don’t know, a space bomb or something. But we have a plan for some of these eventualities, and I do expect this will be a safer mission than helping out on Gessheim 4, at least.”

“What’re we rescuing this guy from? Any idea?” Applejack asked.

“The Imperium of Man has an extensive list of crimes, minor and major, that would result in brutal torture or summary execution. They’ll kill people for heresy, protest, or failure. Mostly that first one, as I understand. They take their religion very seriously, and as I understand it that religion demands fervent worship of a bizarrely powerful dead man back on their home planet. This generates a lot of rebels and exiles, which is where the Chaos fleets usually get their people from,” Twilight explained. “I don’t know exactly what this person or people did, of course, but he seemed pretty sure he was in imminent danger.”

“So we’re saving him from the Space Police, are we?” Pinkie asked, rubbing a hoof against her chin. “Some poor sap found himself on the wrong side of the Space Law, and now his only hope is a band of rugged pony bandits to escape the orbital slammer! But is this some unlucky Emperor-doubter who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, or is this a refugee from his just desserts?”

“That… is… probably as good an explanation as any I could come up with,” Twilight admitted. “So, sure. Space Police.”

“I can’t imagine why the Warsmith would want to send us on a mission like this, but I suppose there’s no better team to conduct a mission of mercy in this fleet,” Rarity said. “Speaking of which, let’s NOT bring Tellis along this time.” She cast a meaningful look over at Rainbow Dash.

“Hey, it’s not like I invited him on the boarding mission! I only told him about it before we left so that he wouldn’t spend the entire assault looking for us all over Eschel!” Rainbow retorted. “But yeah, I get it. This really doesn’t seem like his kind of thing.”

“Are you prepared? We are ready for deployment.”


The mares turned to look after a gruff voice addressed them from the hangar entrance. Dest was approaching the platform, and Trixie was following behind him. The magician was wearing her power armor as expected, with her hat placed over her helmet and her cape hanging over the suit’s back and obscuring the cannon mounted on her side. Dest was focused on Equinought Squadron, but Trixie looked distracted, searching the hangar for something. Suuna followed behind them, looking somewhat bewildered; the former slave rarely left the hab deck where Trixie lived, and it was surely a surprise to her that she was being brought along on a mission.

“Yes, I think we’re ready,” Twilight replied, glancing down at the Thunderhawk below their balcony. It was painted in silver and gold like all the Iron Warriors’ vehicles, but rather than the spikes and chains that embellished the other assault craft this one bristled with sensor fins and bowl-shaped protrusions that her augmetic marked out as “refractor arrays.”

“I don’t see Serith. Is he already aboard?” Trixie asked.

“Naw, he ain’t here yet. We’re still runnin’ a little early though,” Applejack explained.

“Once we find an acceptable landing point, I will remain there until your task is complete,” Dest said. “While I would prefer to accompany you further, the Thunderhawk cannot remained cloaked indefinitely and cannot be left alone to be stumbled upon by Imperial strike teams. It is the Warsmith’s personal transport, after all. As well as your primary method of withdrawal.”

“So you’ll be waiting outside while we find this person, and then we simply lead them back out along with this mysterious artifact?” Rarity asked. “It can’t possibly be that simple, can it?”

“Well not with THAT attitude!” Pinkie laughed.

Dest chuckled along with her, and then quickly sobered. “There will likely be complications. It is my understanding that Sparkle has taken some precautions…”

“That’s right! Watch!” Twilight had a pouch strapped to her side, and she quickly opened it up to reveal a pile of scrolls, a quill, and an ink pot.

Her horn shimmering with concentration, she quickly unpacked one such scroll and wrote the word “TEST” in giant, flowing script. Then her horn pulsed brighter, and the message vanished in a puff of violet smoke.

“It’s not the most convenient method of communication, but I suppose it has its advantages,” Dest acknowledged.

“Undetectable and unblockable!” the alicorn said proudly.

“I thought Serith could block them. Didn’t he do that before?” Rainbow asked.

“I meant besides him. Why would he block my communications with the fleet?” Twilight replied, clearly annoyed. “And he never had the nerve to do it while he was in kicking range anyway.”

An ember of green flame suddenly flickered over Twilight’s head, and then her scroll reappeared. With an expression of triumph, she caught the message with her levitation magic and unrolled it.

“Yes, fine, it works. Please don’t use it anymore unless you need it; I think your version of the spell is harder on my lungs,” Twilight read the scroll aloud and then chuckled to herself, abashed.

“Then it looks like it’s time to get this show on the road!” Rainbow jumped into the air, pointing a hoof toward the hangar entrance. “Here comes Serith! Everyone’s here!”

Suuna ducked to the side and bowed her head nervously as the Sorcerer strode up to the group. Serith’s force halberd rested over one shoulder while his free hand was wrapped in the cloak draped over his power armor, partially lifting it to keep it free of his tread. Trixie promptly moved to greet him, stepping conspicuously between the psyker and her assistant.

“Lord Serith! Trixie is pleased you made it! Fashionably late, but we haven’t departed just yet!” the magician said cheerfully.

Serith seemed to regard Trixie for a lingering moment, and then addressed the group. “My apologies, equines. Shall we depart? I am most interested to see where this endeavor takes us.”

“Pie, your Dreadnought shell will be carried in the aft cargo claw. Come with me and we’ll secure it before takeoff,” Dest said, gesturing to the vehicle below. “Everyone else may embark. We leave at once.”

“No, we won’t,” Twilight said evenly. “Not until you tell us where Serith is, Chrysalis.”

The reaction from the other ponies was to stumble to a halt and gape at Twilight in shock. Dest was more subdued, turning slightly to silently stare at the Sorcerer. Suuna straightened, looking surprised and rather relieved.

Serith himself stared down at Twilight blankly. “What game is this, mare?” he asked, and the green lights of his visor pulsed. “You cannot tell the difference between an Astartes and a changeling? Still your tongue if you don’t want it cut out.” Lightning crackled briefly between the fingers of his free hand, wrapping around each knuckle before vanishing into his palm.

Twilight seemed unimpressed, and she took a step forward while the rest of Equinought Squadron continued gawking at the confrontation. “Oh yeah? If you’re really Serith, tell me who THAT is,” she pointed an armored hoof at Suuna, who again looked distressed once everyone focused their attention on her.

Serith regarded the woman for but a moment. “Why do you test me with trifles, pony?” he scoffed. “Why would I care to know the servile rubbish that follows in Tripsy’s wake? You waste our time and my patience. If you will not join us on Ulaisse, you can stay here and explain yourself to the Warsmith. I’ll try to bring SOME of your friends back alive.”

“Wow… that was perfect!” Trixie said breathlessly. Then she added in a deadpan, “Except the name’s Trixie, not Tripsy. Good effort, though.”

“What? Really?” Chrysalis tilted her head to one side and then the other, like she was trying to get a closer view of the visor’s eye lenses. “That’s an ‘X?’ Who designed this visor font?”

Dest stepped up to the shape-shifter, and then clapped one hand onto her shoulder pad. “It is my understanding that certain individuals in the fleet possess a transmission codex that can neutralize you instantly, with no possible defense.” His grip tightened, and the claws of his gauntlet started to dig into the ceramite shielding. “Be advised that we will not need their assistance.”

“All right! All right, you win. You got me,” Chrysalis hissed. She dropped the force halberd onto the deck, and then she held her hands up at chest level. “I just wanted to go with you to the moon.”

“Why would you want that?” Rarity asked, pushing through her surprise.

“Because I don’t want to be sitting around waiting until you need me to bail you out of trouble!” she snarled. “It’s humiliating! If I’m going to babysit you pests, I should at least get to go on the mission from the start!”

“Trixie doesn’t care about your petty selfishness!” the magician shouted, slamming a boot into the floor. “How DARE you hurt someone just to get a deployment you wanted? What did you do to Serith?!”

“The Sorcerer is fine,” Chrysalis sighed. “I stuffed him in a closet just outside the hangar.”

“How could you immobilize a psyker without harming him?” Dest asked.

“I dismembered all the armor parts and stuck them in separate cocoons,” Chrysalis explained. “We can just put him back together again, right? That doesn’t count as harm.”

“RRRRRRRGH!!” Trixie howled in frustration as she galloped away to the exit.

Twilight seemed equally displeased, but Rainbow Dash gingerly tapped her on the back leg to get her attention. “Hey, uh, I know that we’re still upset at Chrysalis for… well, everything basically, but… are we sure we’d rather take Serith along?”

Twilight looked perplexed at the question. “Rainbow Dash, she just tried to infiltrate our deployment!”

“Yeah, that ain’t good, but on the other hoof she took Serith down a peg t’do it. So…” Applejack trailed off, staring at the Changeling Queen in consideration.

Chrysalis tapped a metal finger on Dest’s gauntlet. “Pardon me, my Lord. May I return to my original body? Without you decapitating me, I mean?”

Dest didn’t respond for several seconds, and then released her and stepped back. The elaborately embellished power armor he had been holding seemed to burst into bright green flames, and then fizzled away into glimmering embers. Chrysalis stood in the space within the shroud, and she shook her head to clear it.

“Oof. That one felt… off. You Astartes weirdos have a lot more unique parts than I’m used to. And THAT one is odd even by your standards,” Chrysalis complained. “Even the machines have, you know, internals. It was like turning into a balloon animal.”

“Whatever. We caught you. Go away,” Twilight said, making a shooing gesture with her boot.

“Why? I still want to come along,” the Queen said bluntly.

“Why should we trust you to join our probably-dangerous covert rescue mission?” Rarity asked, eyes narrowed.

“You’re already taking the Sorcerer, aren’t you? Am I REALLY more insidious and obnoxious than HIM?” Chrysalis scoffed.

“Oh wow that’s a pretty good point,” Pinkie mumbled, her Dreadnought twisting to stare down at Twilight.

“No, it’s NOT a good point!” the Princess protested. “She JUST tried to trick us!”

“Okay, but ya caught her right away. And Serith pulls that codswallop all the time,” Applejack pointed out.

“I’m only bringing Serith along because Solon insisted! Come on!” Twilight groaned.

“Do it for friendship, Twilight!” Fluttershy pleaded.

Twilight snapped her head around to glare at her.

Fluttershy flinched, and then green-colored magic flashed around her, leaving Chrysalis behind again. “Right. Sorry.” The real Fluttershy glared fiercely at the Changeling Queen. Quietly. From beneath her helmet. While sheltering behind the leg of Pinkie’s walker.

“I, for one, take no issue with the shape-shifter accompanying us to the landing site,” Dest interjected. “However, if Sparkle does not wish her to deploy with the rest of you, she can remain with me in the Thunderhawk until needed.”

“Ugh. BORING,” Chrysalis huffed. “I want to come along to hurt things, not just take in the alien scenery!”

“If it’s combat you desire I can accommodate you, insect scum.”


Chrysalis only paused for a moment before twisting her neck about to check behind her. Serith was standing in front of the hangar entrance, his armor dirtied extensively with small scorch marks and patches of adhesive slime. Trixie stood next to him, her helmet removed just so Chrysalis could appreciate the scowl on her face.

“Anyway,” Chrysalis continued, turning back to Twilight, “in addition to being better company and much smarter than the Sorcerer, I can also create giant guns at will! At least, I can if I find someone to unlock the seal on my power core. The Boss reset it when I got back.”

The force halberd suddenly jumped off the floor, springing into Serith’s hand. Chrysalis vanished in a cyclone of emerald fire, spinning around even while her body reformed. Serith swung his weapon into the maelstrom, his eyes flashing with eldritch power and an enraged battle cry erupting from his vox grille. The blade of the halberd struck a metal weapon haft and was parried away with such force that Serith almost lost his footing.

“Oh, you were sseriouss? Well then, I accept your offer to entertain me, pesst.” The changeling’s magic vanished, leaving behind Sliver’s hulking, armored body. His siege hammer was held loosely in one hand, while the viral scourge was already aimed at the Sorcerer.

“You mock us as your inferiors even as you steal our bodies and weapons,” Serith snarled, arcs of lightning racing over his arms. Trixie’s horn bloomed with pink light, and the fireburst launcher extended from beneath her cape.

“I mock you as my inferior, sspecifically” Chrysalis rumbled, pulling back her hammer to attack.

“HEY!! KNOCK IT OFF!!” Twilight screamed, jumping between the combatants. They stepped back in surprise, and she swung her glare back and forth from Chrysalis to Serith.

“She started it!” Trixie snapped.

“I don’t care!” Twilight snapped back, surprising the magician.

“I respect your wish to de-escalate this encounter, Lady Sparkle,” Serith said, not dropping his combat pose, “but you do not command-“

A pulse of telekinetic energy struck the Sorcerer in the forehead, pitching Serith’s head right off his neck and blasting it across the room. Trixie yelped and scrambled to chase after it. Chrysalis started laughing, but a second later Twilight whipped back around toward her, the light of her augmetic eye pulsing brightly.

“SHUT IT!! You think you can stroll around the Iron Warriors’ own ship ambushing them as you want and replacing them?! And then when you’re caught you try to FIGHT to get your way?! Do you have ANY IDEA how close you are to being snuffed out like a candle flame right now?!”

Chrysalis took another step back, hesitating. It was an absolutely comical sight to see Sliver, the form that all the ponies identified with absolute authority, nervously falter before the diminutive alicorn. The other mares watched with intense interest, and Pinkie had pulled a bucket of movie popcorn out of the interior of her Dreadnought.

“… Perhaps I was a bit too impetuous,” Chrysalis said, returning to her true body and regular voice.

Twilight waited until the changeling had completely reverted to her natural body, and then she thrust a boot toward the hangar. “Get in the Thunderhawk. You’ll sit with Dest and wait for us until ordered otherwise and you will be on your BEST BEHAVIOR the entire time or Celestia help me I will hurl you into space. IS THAT CLEAR, Chrysalis?”

Chrysalis didn’t answer right away, but eventually gave a small, silent nod. Then she turned and walked up to Dest.

“I guess I’m your co-pilot, then,” the Changeling Queen mumbled.

Dest chuckled lightly and led her to the stairs down from the platform. “It couldn’t make my flying any worse. And it would be nice to have someone to talk to since we must maintain vox silence.” After a few seconds, he suddenly added. “No, you DON’T count,” without looking at anyone in particular.

Twilight turned to face Serith and Trixie. The former was fixing his helmet back in place, silently working at the seals around the gorget. Trixie had found an oil rag and was cleaning more spots of adhesive gunk off of the Sorcerer’s armor, but kept glancing back at Twilight anxiously.

“Are you ready to go?” the young Princess asked.

A clicking noise came from Serith’s armor, and he looked down at the armored alicorn. “… I am. Shall we depart, then?”

“After you,” Twilight insisted.

With a slight bow of his helmet, Serith strode toward the stairs. Trixie followed, and Suuna trailed behind them with a small, inscrutable smile on her face.


"Honestly. It's like foalsitting rowdy colts." Twilight sighed wearily once both Iron Warriors were out of sight, and then a heavy ceramite boot was placed against her shoulder.

“Ya did good, Twilight,” Applejack said with a beaming smile.

“And I must say, your precision telekinetics were delightful! Such fine control and angling!” Rarity chirped.

“You got Chrysalis to back down! That was awesome!” Rainbow Dash laughed.

Twilight flushed and chuckled weakly. “Thanks, girls.”

“You’re welcome! Now let’s go save some heretics! Or whatever!” Rainbow cheered, jumping into the air and diving toward their transport.

“Yes!” Twilight said firmly before slipping her helmet on over head. “Ulaisse awaits!”