//------------------------------//
// Patient Hunter, Meet Killing Blow 
// Story: Iron Hearts: Book 1 - Planetfall 
// by SFaccountant 
//------------------------------//

Iron Hearts
Chapter 8
Patient Hunter, Meet Killing Blow


****


Everfree Forest - just outside Tau field base defense perimeter


"That was brutal and unnecessary," Fluttershy pointed out meekly.
"And fun!" Tellis announced, hoisting his arms into the air and splashing fresh blood all around him.
Tau Fire Warriors and Earth Caste engineers, or rather the dismembered parts of those individuals, littered the area in a long streak of carnage. Weapons, equipment, and data readers had been scattered long and wide along with body parts, some of which would have been of definite interest to literally any other Iron Warrior other than Tellis.
But Tellis was, unfortunately, Tellis.
"Well, I'm bored now. Next target?" The Chaos Space Marine started scanning the surroundings, searching for any hint of other aliens.
His helmet notified him that there were incoming vox signals on a Company-wide spectrum. Probably combat orders.
Tellis deactivated his vox receiver. He was too busy killing things to listen to tacticians prattle on about HOW and WHERE he should be killing things. And with all the jamming it probably would have been incomprehensible anyway, so he even had an excuse ready!
The sound of a burst cannon discharging attracted his attention, although he immediately noted that the sound was from far enough away that he couldn't see the source.
"Whoa! Hey, watch it jerks!" came Rainbow Dash's voice from about the same area.
Several seconds later, the blue pegasus came swerving around the trees, halting in front of the Raptor Lord and hovering in place.
"Hey, we've got some kind of machine planted over that way! It started shooting at me the moment it saw me!" she pointed a hoof toward the trees.
"Ah. Fixed defenses. We must be getting close to the base," Tellis mumbled, "this might require some teamwork."
Fluttershy squeaked. "D-Does that mean I have to fight too?"
"No, I see you as more of a 'diversion'," Tellis explained, "like, remember how you stalled that Kroot that one time and then I stepped on its head? Hilarious!"
"Eh, she's not really good with plans," Rainbow murmured, "if you need someone to draw their attention, I'm your mare! They'll never catch me!"
"This all sounds really dangerous," Fluttershy pointed out weakly, "and I really feel like we've done more than enough to protect my animals from these creatures. I think we'd be better off if we went back home."
Tellis tapped a knuckle against the chin of his vox grille. "You're right, actually."
The trio stood in silence for several seconds, and Fluttershy cracked a desperate, hopeful smile.
"Well, those turrets aren't going to dismantle themselves," the Raptor Lord finally said, clashing his claws together with a loud, crackling energy discharge, "you cut an arc around them, Rainbabe. Then I'll break from cover and carve them open. Shyfly, you continue acting as our conscience and sense of restraint while we ignore you."
"Got it! I'm off!" Rainbow Dash shouted, eager to take the lead again.
"Okay," Fluttershy said sadly, trying to focus her gaze on those parts of the immediate area not marred by gore.


Rainbow Dash whooped noisily as she zoomed through the air, a stream of wild blue energy flares trailing behind her.
The Tau defense turrets, a pair of man-sized cylinders with rounded tops that each boasted a twin-linked burst cannon, struggled to track the pegasus as they turned at maximum speed. Their rotary guns ran hot as they sprayed a rain of plasma bolts into the trees, always several feet behind their agile target.
Tellis blasted from the brush as the turrets reached the far side of their targeting arcs. The turret sensors marked him as a priority target immediately, but the guns were facing the wrong way.
They were still facing the wrong way when Tellis landed next to the nearest turret and stabbed one set of claws into the side. Then he ran in a full circle around the emplacement, lightning claws shrieking as they were dragged through the armor plating. Once he reached the spot where he began he yanked his blades out, and the top half of the gun turret tumbled over.
Tellis grabbed it before it hit the ground, holding it up as a shield as the other turret opened fire. Flares of blue pounded against the dead emplacement, making little headway in harming the Chaos Space Marine behind it.
A few second later, Tellis was within arm's reach of the other turret. That close to it, evading its firing arc was a matter of ducking or walking around it.
Instead, Tellis decided to smash its gun mount using the other gun mount as a bludgeon. Because it was funnier that way.
"Hah hah! Dash, you seeing this? This is hilarious!" Tellis raised the half-turret up and brought it down again and again, hammering the burst cannons into so much scrap.
After several seconds of this, the Raptor Lord tossed away the dead hulk of metal, having lost interest. Destroying robots and machines, while always fun, was just never the same as killing living, breathing people. Probably because of the whole Blood God thing.
"Hey, Tellis!" Another shout from the Raptor's favorite pony came from further into the forest, beyond this defense line. "There's one of those battlesuits over here!"
Tellis let out a sigh of contentment as his flight pack let out a tongue of flame. "That's my pony!"


*Get off me, you blasted overgrown bird!*
The Crisis Suit barked noisily as it flailed its arms around, trying to knock off the pegasus that was clinging to the back of its head. The battlesuit's arms couldn't reach back that far, though; the arms of the bulky suit existed to hold and aim weapons, and no engineer would think that the combat suit needed to aim at such an awkward angle.
The Fire Warriors escorting the battlesuit moved to help, but their blood chilled as they heard the roar of a flight pack activating nearby.
"Iron within, become the iron without!" Tellis screamed, landing feet-to-face on one of the Fire Warriors and breaking him instantly. An initial sweep of his arms cut down two more, and a quarter of the squad was dead before they had even turned to see their killer. "Blood for the Blood God!"
The Crisis Suit stopped flailing and aimed its plasma rifle, stepping back as it tried to get a clear shot among the carnage of its fellows.
It was hindered significantly when a pair of blue hooves covered the "face" of the suit, which of course held the targeting arrays and sensors.
"Guess who, chump!"
The Crisis Suit released an electronic growl from its transmitters and then levered a poly-ceramic fist into its head. Which, of course, ended with the battlesuit slugging itself in the optics as Rainbow Dash hopped away and into the air.
The Crisis Suit staggered backward as bits of broken metal and sparking circuitry spilled from its sensor head, trying to get its bearings.
It didn't succeed before Tellis rammed his lightning claws through its torso plating.


"Stabby, stabby, stabbity stab-stab!" Tellis cheered as he thrust his blades again and again into the battlesuit.
The suit quickly went dark, and Tellis only punched a dozen more holes into the combat armor before drawing his claws out, the tips sizzling with fresh blood as it was cooked by the destructive energy field.
The Raptor Lord stared down briefly at his most recent kill, and then up at Rainbow Dash who was hovering over him.
"You know, for someone who's naked and unarmed, you're getting pretty good at this combat thing," the Chaos Marine noted approvingly.
Rainbow scoffed. "Please. I'm good at everything!" Then the pegasus turned around in the air, holding a foreleg up above her eyes as if she had any sunlight to shade against.
"Okay, I think I see some buildings up ahead. They'd be black with blue detail, like the armor, right?"
"Sure, I guess," Tellis said with a shrug, his flight pack hissing fumes. "Let's go! Skulls, skulls, skulls!"


****


Everfree Forest - center advance line


Dest walked through the forest at a leisurely pace, his boltgun at his side.
The crack of mass lasgun fire could be heard all around him through the gloomy woods, along with the shouting of men and the occasional staccato of a heavy bolter firing, but the violence was all out of sight, taking place on the flanks of the advance.
It was an unusual combat for the Iron Warrior, to say the least. Never mind that Dest was a driver, but ordinarily a war zone with Iron Warriors on the field was rupturing with artillery strikes and utterly dominated by streams of heavy weapons fire. This was quite serene in comparison.
He turned his head as three Pathfinders fled into his field of fire from around a tree, their heads down and their recon armor peppered with lasburns.
His bolter was up in an instant, and the first two Tau were cut down by an almost casual burst of mass-reactive rounds. The third one stumbled in shock at seeing its companions die so suddenly, and it froze as it realized that it was now trapped.
Dest accelerated forward, dropping his aim. This Tau looked like a sniper; apparently it had been flushed from its hiding place by the flanking forces before it had even realized there were more guns advancing on it.
The Chaos Marine smacked the sniper rifle out of the alien's hand before it had time to so much as fire a round in panic, and then he seized the hapless alien by the arm as it turned to run.
"Got a prisoner," Dest said conversationally, ramming a knee into his catch - lightly, of course - to knock the wind out of the Pathfinder before he tossed it back behind him.
"Gotcha, my lord," Daniels barked, jumping on the alien soldier and holding it down to restrain it.
Dest moved over to take cover behind a tree, slightly more cautious now that he knew they were coming up on sniper nests. "Have I asked yet why you're advancing with me rather than running with the other mortals?"
"No, my lord. You didn't seem interested until just now," Daniels explained as he kicked the Pathfinder and then stripped its helmet off, "huh. Female, eh?"
The mercenary started binding the Tau as a few other Space Marines reached them from behind, moving from tree to tree.
"I just thought that now that we have a history of service together that you might appreciate some familiar company," the mercenary said with a grin. He finishing binding the alien and left her squirming on the ground behind him. She'd be picked up by the reserves advancing behind them.
Dest started climbing up an incline, his boltgun searching for targets. "I can never tell when you're joking or not."
"That's an easy one, Lord. If you're in the mood for jokes, I was joking. If not, I wasn't," Daniels said as he ran up to the next tree, checking either side for fleeing enemies or ambushers.
The real reason he was there, of course, was because he'd rather have Space Marines in front of him than behind him while part of an advance. But said Space Marines were unlikely to appreciate such tactical nuance, so he kept it to himself.
As Dest reached the top of the incline, they heard an angry roar that nearly shook the ground.
"Greater Gnarloc breaking through," the Rhino driver said, switching his vox to a proximity channel as he took a few shots at Kroot who were advancing around the assault beast. The beast and its escort were still a good distance away, and already buffeted from heavy bolter fire, but it was still a formidable threat.
"This is just like old times, eh?" Daniels mumbled, firing his lasgun at the Kroot riding atop the firing platform and forcing them down.
Dest would have argued the point, given that there were numerous other Iron Warriors about and that several were actually equipped to put down a threat like an assault beast. Any further conversation was lost, however, in the heavy gait of a Dreadnought stomping up the incline behind them, its plasma cannon whining as it built up charge.
Dest froze, fixing his gaze on the Greater Gnarloc before the Dreadnought fired its shot, unleashing a miniature sun into the creature's throat.
The Gnarloc screamed in agony as the plasma discharge tore it apart, nearly dissolving the beast's neck entirely and cooking its chest cavity.
It wobbled pitifully for a few seconds and then collapsed onto its side, smoke spewing from the wound while the Dreadnought's electronic voice laughed at the sight.


Dest finally moved again, stepping over to Daniels as his brothers continued to advance around them.
"I got a great pict-capture of the plasma cannon hitting the Gnarloc," the Astartes explained, "precise moment of impact. It's beautiful."
"Nice! AJ'll like that!" Daniels laughed.


****


Everfree Forest - Tau field base


Tellis stared critically at a boxy object lying at his feet, his visor working to identify the xeno device within through the layers of shielding and scanner-befuddling materials.
He was also smashing a Fire Warrior's head into a power station over and over as it shouted and screamed at him. But the box held the majority of the Raptor's attention.
Rainbow Dash hovered above him, on the lookout for enemies or anything else of interest. The Chaos Marine had already carved a vicious swath through the aliens that had been left at the base, and there hadn't even been very many.
The base itself was kind of a let-down, from Rainbow's perspective. She had been expecting a huge alien structure, like maybe a ziggurat or a pyramid hidden deep within the shadows of the forest. Instead the camp mostly looked like, well, a camp. Maybe a futuristic space-man camp, but most of the buildings were some kind of yurts that were obviously temporary, even if they were made of material Rainbow had never seen or heard of before. On one side of the base were tents that seemed to be made of skinned hides and scavenged wood. These enclosures were decorated with bones and bladed weapons rather than crates and guns, so even Rainbow could guess that they belong to the more primitive Kroot that assisted the Tau in their mission.
Aside from a few glowing, cylinder-shaped towers that were just shorter than the treetops, the only structure of an obviously advanced nature was a wide, short one in the middle. It had a larger footprint than Applejack's barn, and there were lots of fins and antennae sticking out of it.
The cracking of a helmet announced that Tellis's latest victim had finally broken under the Marine's twisted attentions.
"Hey, I think this is some kind of bomb," Tellis finally said, "looks like the grayskins were going to rig this place to blow before we showed up."
Rainbow Dash turned around to give the Raptor Lord a look. "Why would they blow up their own stuff?"
"So that we don't get to have the fun of doing it ourselves," Tellis growled, tossing the corpse in his hand aside, "the xeno bastards!"
"Rainbow! Rainbow Dash, come quick!"
The blue pegasus was quite surprised to hear Fluttershy calling for her, and she whirled around to see her meek friend poking her head out from behind one of the munitions crates.
"Fluttershy, there you are! I was wondering where you went!" Rainbow said, hovering over to her.
"W-Well, I was looking for a place to hide when all that screaming started, and..." Fluttershy looked pensive as she glanced back behind her. "Well, please, follow me!"
Rainbow Dash did so, finally landing as Fluttershy led her toward one of the larger yurts.


"So, um, I was searching the buildings to see if there were any animals that had been trapped here by those Kroot people," Fluttershy explained.
"Heh, that does sound like something you'd do," Rainbow reasoned, "and you found one?"
"Well, kind of," Fluttershy admitted, pushing past the flaps that served as the yurt entrance.
Rainbow Dash followed, and her eyes bugged out when she found who was inside. "Zecora?!"
The zebra was lying down at the back of the structure, trapped within a fairly large cage attached to a thick power cable that ran outside through the wall. There was a trough on one side of the cage full of greens and a bowl of water, making it clear that the enclosure was normally used to hold beasts rather than prisoners.
"Ah, Rainbow Dash, I welcome you. I knew Fluttershy's efforts would pull through," the zebra said. She didn't look especially troubled, although she was clearly happy to see the pegasi.
"What happened? Since when do these Tau jerks take pony prisoners?" Rainbow Dash had been arguably the most aggressive pony in attacking the aliens so far, and the soldiers still tended to react with confusion rather than gunfire when she assaulted them.
Zecora stood up with a sigh. "Five moons ago, my home was attacked, and any defense or call for assistance I lacked. Those Kroot, the tall, ferocious sort, have prowled the forest for meat and sport. They took me back here from one such outing, and happened near some other aliens scouting. When they heard my angry calls, they took me away to these hardened walls. A few of them spoke our language, I found, and that saved me from death, but not impound."
Rainbow Dash felt like there was something strange about that story, but it was hard to focus on the details of Zecora's rhyming. Besides, she was observing the cage closely for any apparent lock or lever to open it.
"Be careful not to get too close; the bars shock with lightning in ample dose," Zecora warned while Rainbow and Fluttershy studied the cage, "and now that you have heard my woes, I am wondering how your story goes. This place was full of enemies last I was aware. Have they left me behind, without guards to spare?"
"Well, did you hear any screaming or gunfire just now?" Rainbow Dash asked, having failed to find any sort of apparent door to the cage.
"I did hear some sort of ruckus outside, but in my current state I could do little but bide," Zecora explained.
"Well, uhm, that was just a new... uh... friend of ours," Fluttershy said awkwardly.
Zecora raised an eyebrow. "A friend of yours was the one screaming? Or am I confused about your meaning?"
"It's a long story, but in a nutshell: you don't have to worry about the aliens around here for much longer," Rainbow said, stepping back, "and maybe he can do something about this cage too, because I can't figure it out. HEY! TELLIS! C'MERE!"
A few seconds later the Raptor Lord walked through the door flap, and Zecora recoiled at seeing the blood-splattered Chaos Space Marine.
"Wassup, R-dawg?" Tellis asked. He was holding a Fire Warrior's helmet in one hand, and it was dripping blood on the ground behind him as he approached the cage. None of the ponies could tell at a glance if there was a head still inside the leaking piece of armor, and none of them were willing to observe it more closely.
"Oh, hey, another pony! Cool! What's your deal?" Tellis asked, staring down at Zecora through lenses of blazing crimson.
Zecora glanced over at Rainbow Dash, who smiled back at her reassuringly.
"I'm not sure to what, exactly, you refer, but I suppose in this case I must defer. Your name is Tellis, so I'm led to believe. Mine is Zecora, and I wish to leave."
Tellis stared for a moment longer, and the bloody helmet slipped from his hand to bounce away over the ground.
"Please tell me she does that all the time," Tellis said.
"ALL the time," Rainbow confirmed while Fluttershy nodded timidly.
"You guys are the best xenos ever," Tellis said brightly.
The zebra frowned up at the Khornate Raptor. "Your sentiment is well-received, but as of now I'm quite aggrieved. This cage is harmful to the touch, and I'd like to be free of it, thank you much."
Tellis stared at the bars silently, and scanning markers appeared on his heads-up display.
"I can't see hinges anywhere. How did they get you inside?" Fluttershy asked.
"On that matter, I'm not entirely sure. I wasn't paying much attention, as it were," Zecora admitted, glaring at the cell around her, "the tools of these Tau are very complex. I'd much rather face magic than deal with these 'techs'."
Rainbow Dash looked up at Tellis. "What do you think? Can you get her out?"
Tellis nodded. "Well, according to my scanners, words words words words words."
Then Tellis surged forward, seizing the bars of the cage with his hands. Almost immediately, thick ribbons of electricity started lashing out over his gauntlets, burning long scars of black across his arms and cooking the blood that had stuck to them.
Zecora recoiled in horror as sparks sprayed over her enclosure, shielding herself and getting as far back as she could without touching the similarly electrified rear bars.
"Hrrrrgh! HAH!" With a harsh cracking noise, Tellis broke the bars off of their mountings, and then threw the conductive nano-tube rails to the side.
"Whoa! Are you okay?" Rainbow asked, tapping the Raptor Lord on the leg with a hoof.
"Oh, sure. That level of current is just meant to stun and inflict pain on the captive, not kill them," Tellis explained even as smoke still rose from his gauntlets, "I barely felt it."
Fluttershy beckoned Zecora forward, noting that the zebra was still crouched near the corner of the cage despite the new opening in her prison.
"It's okay," Fluttershy said gently, "I know Mister Terrifying Murderer is very violent and objectively an awful, horrible person, but Rainbow Dash is doing a very good job of keeping him from harming us."
Zecora slowly crept toward the hole, her eyes fixed on the Astartes. "I realize our plight isn't for the meek, but are you certain we can trust this freak?"
"Zecora! Watch it! He's right here!" Rainbow Dash chided the zebra.
"Hey, as long as she does it in rhyme, she can call me whatever she wants," Tellis said with a chuckle.
Zecora grimaced as she finally crossed the threshold to freedom. "I am not greatly enthused that you are so easily amused. You stink of death, hatred and war. And I know full well what those claws are for."
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, everypony wants to get on his case for liking his job too much. But it's thanks to him that we even made it here in one piece! Do you think we would have had a chance on our own? Or that the aliens would have let you go if they were still around to get a say?"
"I know that the possibility was slim. Even so, I'd rather not thank him. Foes of Equestria the Tau certainly are, but to kill them en masse? I'd not go that far!"
Tellis shrugged his shoulder pads, completely undisturbed by the criticism. "Well, you can't please everyone. With murder, I mean. I've heard that sometimes you can please everyone without murder, but that's really not my department."
Rainbow Dash growled lightly, annoyed that Tellis was getting brushed off so easily. Hadn't he risked the most by doing all the fighting? And hadn't it worked? "Whatever. Let's just get out of here."
"I broke the anti-air system, so we can take off over the treetops whenever you guys want," Tellis said, following her toward the yurt's entrance flap.
He pushed it aside for both of them, and then Astartes and pony both paused in surprise at seeing several Fire Warriors and Kroot fighters sprinting by, moving in a mad dash toward the part of the base where they had entered.
"That's weird. Did you miss a few?" Rainbow asked, craning her head up to look at the Iron Warrior.
"I don't think so... hold on."
Tellis could see several more Tau soldiers fleeing in panic, these ones at a slower pace due to exhaustion, injury, or sheer bad luck.
Moving in a reddish blur, he leapt at one who was limping along, punching one set of lightning claws into the front of the Fire Warrior's chest plate and killing him in an instant.
"Ah, I get it," Tellis said, holding the dead alien up into the air as blood ran down his arm, "see those injuries on his leg? That's bolter shrapnel. Apparently my Company is making an assault, and these cowards are fleeing from the front lines."
"So that means it's over, right?" Fluttershy asked hopefully, peeking out of the prison yurt with Zecora at her side. "We can leave and nopony else has to die?"
Tellis was silent for a second, staring at the corpse hanging off his fist. "I don't know... Somehow this seems a little... anticlimactic. Like, shouldn't there be at least ONE moderately challenging battle while attacking an enemy base? Even if we did take them by surprise while most of the army was gone?"
The sound of a plasma rifle discharging reached Tellis a moment before the plasma did, and the Raptor Lord turned just in time for the high-energy bolts to burn into the fleshy body still impaled on his claws.
"Hell-OH dramatic closure!" the Raptor sang, his wings spreading in preparation for another fight.
"Gue'la scum! Your cruel and meaningless predations end today!" the Tau commander snarled in Gothic, his missile pods rising into firing position. He had been covering the general retreat of his forces until he realized that the base hadn't been sabotaged yet, and had returned to see his rearguard butchered.
"Oh, hey! You speak Gothic! Awesome!" Tellis screeched, bursting into the air on a jet of flame as the missile warheads rained down where he had stood. "That makes the combat banter way more fun! I mean, I make do yelling at your subordinates while cutting them down like wheat, but I've been wanting to fight someone again who can actually appreciate how funny I am while I kill them!"
The Tau Commander's battlesuit activated its jet pack, taking to the air as targeting reticules struggled to follow Tellis through the air.
The Raptor was fast, far faster than even a skilled Astartes with a jump pack should have been, but with the thick tree cover being speedy in the air wasn't as useful as it was with open sky. Bursts of plasma and large mini-missile spreads followed the Chaos Space Marine across the length of the base, collapsing tents and blowing open supply crates as he curved and rolled to evade fire.
"Hey, Rainbow? Leave this one to me, okay?" Tellis shouted as he landed behind the central jamming array and ducked behind a field emitter. "You've been a great help so far, but we have this thing about fighting enemy leaders on our own. It's more epic that way."
"Okay, sure!" Rainbow called, standing behind a stack of crates with Fluttershy and Zecora while she watched the Tau flee through the base.
"You'll regret your arrogance, you twisted fool!" growled the Tau commander as he circled wide around Tellis to get a shot past the jamming array. The Space Marine had no ranged weapons - the savage - so as long as he kept enough firepower in front of the possible charging vectors victory was certain.
That was the idea, anyway. As one of the jammer's sensor fins was ripped off and then hurled at him, he was forced to reconsider his tactical assumption.
"Guh!" the Commander shook inside his battlesuit as the sensor fin - easily as large as his suit if not as massive - broke over him, knocking him senseless and throwing him back through the air.
That disturbed his weapons' angles for the moment that Tellis needed. The Raptor Lord made a long leap over the battlesuit, his flight pack and vox screaming in joyous tandem as they rapidly closed with the foe.
Rather than smashing into the Commander, however, Tellis overshot slightly, swiping his claws down as he descended behind the Tau's back.
The Commander tried to turn, but he soon realized that his opponent had just sliced open his jet pack, and his movement through the air started to go out of control as large sections of his damage readouts turned red.
Killing his fuel line, and with his back still facing the enemy, the Commander landed heavily, the thick joints of the battlesuit's legs squeaking from the impact.
There was a dull thud from behind as something hit him in the back, although no fresh damage warnings appeared.
The battlesuit swung a clumsy backhand behind it as it turned around, and Tellis jumped back from the attack with contemptuous ease, gunning his flight pack to float backward over the ground. The Tau Commander was confused as to why his opponent seemed to be breaking from melee range, but barely hesitated before firing another burst from his plasma rifle.
Tellis was chased by the screaming green pulses behind a power station, the energy flares sizzling fiercely as they hit the station's outer casing and burnt through to the core. Tau power generation being inherently stable, however, the station didn't explode, which Tellis honestly had mixed feelings about.
"What's the matter, gue'la? Where's all your bluster and hate now?!" the Commander growled, his auto-loaders preparing another salvo of missiles. There seemed to be a new scanner warning on his readout display, but he ignored it, his attention focused entirely on the enemy.
"Yeah, about that: I changed my mind. I'm done," Tellis explained, sighing as he stretched his arms in an impression of a yawn.
"... What?" that made no sense to the Commander. The humans never stopped until their foes were dead, never showed any pity or remorse, and had an absolutely fanatical hatred of other species.
"Yeah, I was totally giving you too much credit earlier. You're nothing special. Not really worth my time," Tellis went on to say, making a short combat jump over to the stacks of crates where the ponies were huddled, "I've already gutted enough hapless losers for the Blood God today, so I thought of a more creative way to kill you." Tellis could hear the crack of bolter and lasgun fire more clearly now, and the occasional explosion from a defense gun blowing up. The main force was almost here.
The Commander took a step forward, enraged by the enemy's apathy, and then he paused as he recalled the scanner warning from earlier. Looking over the alert, now that he apparently didn't have to worry about being speared through the face while doing so, it seemed as if there was a radio signal pulsing close by, strong enough to be unaffected by the jamming field, yet simple enough that it couldn't be transmitting complex communications.
Actually, was VERY close by.
In fact, it seemed to be coming from his battlesuit.


Rainbow Dash snickered as she watched the heavily armored Tau look around in confusion, unaware of the brightly glowing cylinder wedged into its ruined jet pack. She didn't know what it was, but the sight was funny enough even without comprehension.
Tellis retracted his lightning claws, stepping up to Zecora. "Now boarding flight T, direct service to Ponyville!"
Zecora grimaced, stepping back. "Although this place may be full of danger, I'll be better off on the ground, I'd wager. Please go ahead; I'll make do. I'm not sure those wings of yours can carry two."
"While I'm fine with that, in the interest of full disclosure I must inform you that I just called in a mass artillery strike on this base," Tellis mentioned, "in a few seconds this whole area is going to be a blanket of thunder and flame."
Zecora's eye twitched, but she reluctantly stepped closer to the Raptor Lord as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took to the air. "You are a bad man, and this is a bad plan."
"I know, Zecora. I know," Tellis said as he reached under the zebra and hoisted her up into his arms.


****


Ponyville


"So you've never considered getting married? Really?"
"Eh, it just isn't for me. Maybe it's the commitment, maybe it's the 'settling down' idea, but I've never wanted to give up the rough military life for the peaceful kind."
The Basilisk loader paused to take a bite of wedding cake. He was leaning on the side of the artillery tank, chatting with the bride's mother as most of the other ponies danced to slow music and the flower fillies decorated a Chimera armored transport parked next to the altar with blossoms and ribbons.
"Oh, I'm sure you just haven't found the right girl yet," the mare countered, "you look healthy enough for one of your kind. I guess."
"That could be true," the soldier admitted around another mouthful of cake, "there aren't many women in the Company, and most of them that are available are in the Mechanicus. Bleagh."
"Hey! Niles! Jericho!" a voice barked as the driver of their artillery tank opened up the main hatch and poked his head out. "Back to your posts! We've got a beacon lock!"
"What? Now?" the gun engineer complained as he put down his cup of punch. "The advance has got to have this all pretty much wrapped up by now!"
"Doesn't matter! We've got a target and we've got ordnance! Now get to work sending one to the other!" The other Basilisk tanks in the artillery squadron were already cranking their guns up into firing position to send the first volley of shells skyward.
"'Scuse me, love. Gotta go blow something up," the loader said as he climbed up the side of his tank while putting his helmet back on, "you might want to cover your ears. Things are about to get loud."


****


Ponyville outskirts - Iron Warriors muster point


Gaela hummed to herself as she watched the formations of green shapes slowly crawl along the strategic hololith in a long arc, like a trawling net creeping along the sea floor.
And what a catch they had.
Red marks would frequently flicker into existence in front of the advance as scanners would detect enemy units and relay their location, only to flicker away in an instant. The friendly markers would flicker and fade too, for that matter, given the constant jamming interference and usual haze of warfare, but they almost always came back in a few seconds.
The red markers did not come back.
+Reported casualty count is well within tolerable parameters. You did well to advise Lord Kessler on the Tau's tactical options,+ buzzed Techpriest Diomen, his numerous augmetic arms folded up behind his back. He spoke more casually outside the presence of superior officers, omitting many of the additional designators common in Binaric Cant.
+It wasn't difficult. The Tau's commanding officer didn't make a very convincing feint,+ Gaela explained, +if all the Iron Warriors were as sensitive to casualties as Warsmith Solon, I'm sure they would have arrived at such a conclusion on their own.+
+If all the Iron Warriors were as sensitive to casualties as the Warsmith, we would quit the pursuit of piracy altogether and take to harvesting scrap and mining asteroid fields for resources.+
Gaela looked up from the tactical display. +Why, Dark Techpriest, that almost sounds like a criticism of our mighty leader.+
A chittering hum came from the Techpriest's vocal emitters. +It matters not to me where our materials originate, and we who support the Astartes are always appreciative of a master who does not neglect his tools,+ Diomen said, +but his... unusual command style grates on his brothers. You know this, even if you're still quite young. He was born to be Mechanicus, not Astartes.+
Gaela snorted, deciding to turn the discussion back toward the battle. +I was surprised to see that Lord Sliver wasn't leading the assault. Is this to prevent contamination of the native villages?+
Diomen looked up at her, his glittering green optics whirling. +What?+
+If Lord Sliver were to take to the field, with or without his coterie, there would have been a chance of a plague outbreak among the native xenos,+ Gaela explained.
+Yes, of course. I am aware of that,+ the Techpriest said, +I am confused as to why you would hypothesize that it occurred to the Warsmith, or that it would be a matter of such priority as to affect his selection of commanders.+
After a few seconds of thought, Gaela realized that he was right. Solon had instructed his troops not to attack the ponies, but that didn't imply that he held the ponies' lives as having any sort of importance. If it would have benefited them in any way to massacre the implausibly innocent creatures then he would have ordered it done, and regardless the Warsmith certainly wouldn't go out of his way to protect them.
Why had it occurred to her that he might?
+In any case, I believe Warsmith Solon's choice of assault commander was... political,+ Diomen mused, +since Lord Sliver is charged with the defense of Ferrous Dominus, he may have proposed waiting until the fortifications were complete before committing our defending troops to an assault. The Warsmith wished to begin the assault at once to collect as much data as possible.+
Gaela sighed under her mask. She had never thought of Solon as a weak leader, as so many others in the Company did, but it was hard to defend his decisions to cut his commanders out of the loop rather than argue with or override them.
+Hmm? Odd. An artillery beacon has been lit,+ Diomen buzzed, tilting his head as a blue marker appeared.
Gaela was about to ask why that was odd, but figured it out almost immediately: the beacon was deep in the forest, far ahead of the advancing lines.
+Did one of the armored fist platoons run off on their own?+ Gaela asked, leaning in to check the positions of the nearest transports.
+Negative. The beacon is signaling a purgatus-spread bombardment. It requires a ranking Iron Warrior officer to call in that level of firepower.+
Gaela nodded, confirming Diomen's instructional. The only issue with that assumption was that all the Iron Warrior commanders were clearly visible on her hololith display, advancing with their units in proper formation. So where did this new Iron Warrior come from, then? What Chaos Space Marine of high rank was wandering around, completely disconnected from the assault?
That the answer came to her so quickly only made it more annoying. "Tellis..."
The distant thunder of artillery batteries and the roar of heavy ballistic rockets covered the unpleasant things she was muttering under her breath, and soon the whistle of outgoing ordnance met her autosenses as the explosives sailed over their heads.
+How strange,+ Diomen said, his optics focused on the beacon marker, +the beacon seems to be moving.+
Then the artillery hit, sending crashing echoes throughout the Everfree Forest as the munitions fell like dozens of clustered thunderbolts.
+Ah. Looks like it stopped moving.+
Gaela was too far from the impact point to feel or hear the barrage as anything but a distant hammer blow, but the kind of spread that had been launched over their heads was enough to cover almost a square kilometer of ground.
The damage wasn't captured by the data being fed to the hololith, as they didn't have scanner range on whatever the artillery was hitting, but the blow was hard enough that their data feeds felt it nonetheless. A shock wave of electrostatic interference blew into the advancing line, causing each one of them to flicker out of contact for a few seconds before blinking back, stronger than before.
Much stronger than before, actually.
+Curious. Signal integrity is rising. Electromagnetic interference has dropped considerably and is approaching zero,+ buzzed Diomen, a few subtle shifts in his Binaric Cant suggesting joy.
+Did we... Did we just knock out their primary jamming array?+ Gaela asked, planting her hands on the edge of the hololith emitter.
The indicators were standing strong now, without any flickering, and the scanners attached to the squads and transports were now quickly expanding their effective range. Gaela could see that the enemy was in full retreat, only barely pulling back faster than the Company could advance on them.
Techpriest Diomen looked up at her. +Preliminary analysis would suggest that Lord Tellis is in fact most responsible for the destruction of the array, Acolyte Gaela.+
+Incidental, I'm sure,+ she muttered back as she watched a friendly unit register on the anti-air scanners as it soared over the tree cover, +unless you mean to hypothesize that our Lord Tellis actually went out of his way to strike a crucial tactical blow against the enemy to assist our advance rather than charging in like a lunatic.+
+One possibility does not necessarily exclude the other,+ Diomen noted, +then again, I'm an optimist. Oh! We have orbital vox again. Establishing contact with the Harvest of Steel...+


As the Dark Techpriest started speaking to the flagship to transmit necessary data, Gaela tapped into the vox traffic.
The battle was largely over, the push a crushing success, but then as she looked over some of the field data she had to figure the enemy never stood any kind of chance. Judging by the number of confirmed kills, even allowing for an expanded margin of error, they could have wrapped up the assault just as well with half as many troops.
Even without Tellis somehow sneaking in behind enemy lines and accomplishing a primary object all on his own. She really wasn't sure how that had happened.
+Hmmm... we're getting some... ODD vox traffic,+ Gaela mumbled.
Techpriest Diomen looked up. +Oh? More interference?+
+No, nothing like that. It's the contents that are odd,+ Gaela admitted, switching on the audio transmitter on the tactical unit.


"Manticore! MANTICORE! Fire now! Everything you've got!"
"This is Manticore unit 2, Lambda Squad. Do you have a beacon for us?"
"No, the target is a manticore! Shoot it!"
"Lambda Squad, this is platoon command; confirm presence of Imperial armor in combat zone."
"No, that's not what I-ugh! Never mind. It's dead already."
"Chimera on the right! Heavy bolter fire on its flank, now! First rank, fire, second rank, fire!"
"Diamond Squad, hold your fire! The nearest Chimera transport should be-"
"IT'S NOT THAT KIND OF CHIMERA!"


Diomen turned off the vox link.
+Talking psyker horses, ancient mythical beasts, and a technological pattern of distinctly human civilization almost forty thousand years old.+ He looked up at Gaela. +This is a very strange planet.+
+I almost feel like we should be thanking the Tau,+ Gaela muttered darkly, +if there wasn't a war to make things more familiar, I might have been driven mad by now.+


****


Ponyville - just outside Iron Warriors muster point


Twilight stared out at the line of soldiers still barricaded around Fluttershy's cottage. The human soldiers were cheering now, pumping their fists into the air and shouting happily. The Iron Warriors, by contrast, seemed to be restraining themselves, having a much darker, more serious temperament.
The purple alicorn turned away and back toward her friends.
Spike was wringing his hands, and Rarity and Applejack both looked very uncomfortable, their ears pinned against their heads. Pinkie Pie looked flat-out devastated.
"So, that's our goal. It's up to us to banish the humans and their corrupt power from our planet. For the sake of Equestria and our entire world."
Rarity sighed, but she and Applejack could see the wisdom behind their objective.
Pinkie Pie, not so much.
"But they're our FRIENDS!" Pinkie said, her eyes glistening.
"That's... debatable actually, but in any case we might have chosen our 'friends' poorly in this case," Twilight pointed out, "they're an ARMY, Pinkie. Every one of the humans and post-humans we've met are killers, and it's sheer coincidence that they haven't attacked us. Even... Even Gaela," Twilight cringed as she said it, "she told me how humans normally treat other species. And she also admitted that the Iron Warriors serve Chaos. Whatever that is, exactly."
"True. I suppose we can't really be surprised that they're a threat to Equestria," Rarity said regretfully, "still, I'm a LITTLE surprised that the Princess put us to the task. She does know that these humans are an army, right?"
Twilight nodded solemnly. "Princess Celestia knows what we're up against. She chose us to deal with this corruption because she knows we're the best choice to stop it."


****


Canterlot Castle - observation balcony


Princess Luna turned away from the telescope mounted on the balcony railing as the door behind her opened.
"Ah, Sister, thou hast returned," the younger alicorn said as Celestia walked up to the deck, "the human bastion grows by the hour, like a tumor of metal and smoke. What news dost thou bring?"
Princess Celestia grimaced as she looked up at the thin trail of dark factory exhaust rising in the distance, visible even without a telescope.
"I told Twilight. She'll take care of it."
Luna's expression darkened. "Art thou serious? What is Twilight Sparkle to do about this force of evil from beyond the void?"
"Tut tut, Luna. Don't underestimate her," Celestia said calmly, "have faith in my student. She has triumphed over every challenge set before her. Mostly. And I left her and her friends the Elements of Harmony. She'll be fine."
The dark blue alicorn raised an eyebrow, but eventually relented. "Very well Sister, We must defer to thy judgment. Did thou at least relate to Twilight Sparkle the dark, forbidden knowledge that she will need to defend herself against the insidious enemy?"
"I don't know, Luna. Please remind me: is it called the 'forbidden knowledge' or the 'knowledge you can feel free to tell anypony if you really want to'?" Princess Celestia rolled her eyes as she headed back out the door.
"Thy sarcasm was unwarranted," Luna grumbled.


****


Ponyville - just outside Iron Warriors muster point


"Look Twi, Ah get where yer comin' from. Really, Ah do. Somethin' ain't right about those big fellers in the armor, and Ah ain't gonna stand against Princess Celestia on somethin' like this," Applejack said, pressing a hoof against her chest, "but can ya at least wait until they rebuild mah farm before we send 'em packin'?"
Twilight's eyes narrowed. "This is BIGGER than your farm, Applejack!"
"Ah know that, but Ah don't know if we can last this winter if we hafta rebuild EVERYTHING!" the farmpony protested.
"Do we have to get rid of ALL the humans?" Pinkie asked sadly, tormenting Twilight with her moist eyes and quivering lip. "Can't we keep the ones we've met? They never did anything wrong!"
"That we know about," Rarity muttered.
"Didn't the humans already admit to being pirates and these 'Tau' people their victims?" Spike pointed out, scratching the back of his head. "So, when you think about it, they're kind of in the wrong already."
"Yeah, yer not gonna get much sympathy for those gray-skinned rotten apples," Applejack spat, her forehead furrowing, "killers or pirates or whatever, anything they do to those Tau varmints is all right by me."
"Yeah, actually, that's the other point I wanted to make," Twilight said as her expression hardened, "I know I've brought it up before, but everything the Tau have done to us - shooting Crabapple, destroying your home, assaulting Ponyville, killing a sheep and even shooting at me - are completely coincidental conflicts that arose from their fighting the Iron Warriors."
Applejack snorted stubbornly and turned away, unwilling to concede the point.
"As the Princess said, the Tau may be no friends of ours, but at all costs we need to stay OUT of their war!" Twilight finished, idly aware of the sound of rocket engines growing in volume behind her.
It was probably because she had already gotten used to the sound of gunships hovering overhead, but Twilight didn't actually realize that the noise was approaching her until her friends started backing away in alarm. Even then, she didn't manage to turn around before the approaching object slammed into the ground behind her, almost knocking her over from the shock wave.
"Hey, guys!" Rainbow Dash said brightly, waving her hoof. "You'll never guess where we've been!"
Applejack took one look at Tellis, who was holding on to a clearly shaken Zecora and still covered in blood splatters. "Ah'm gonna guess you were helpin' the Iron Warriors stomp them Tau critters up in the forest."
"Hay, yeah! I got six of them!" Rainbow said as Fluttershy meekly hovered up behind her.
"No, you only get half a kill each for distracting them until I finish them off," Tellis said, "no inflating your score."
Twilight promptly smacked a hoof into her face. "No, no, no, no, no..."
Tellis felt the zebra in his arms squirming, and he cleared his throat before he spoke again. His voice was changed, somehow managing to sound exactly like that of a young woman. "We have now arrived at our destination, and have began unloading. Please use caution when retrieving your senses from the overhead compartment that is your skull, as they may have shifted during flight. We realize that you don't have a choice when flying Tellis Airways, and thank you for not vomiting while in transit, since our aircraft can't just suck that up like it does blood. Goodbye!"
Tellis placed Zecora on the ground, and the zebra took approximately three steps before she had to stop and lie down.
"Zecora? Are you all right? What happened?" Rarity asked.
"Many things, mostly of a violent sort. My escape from the forest I could not abort," Zecora mumbled, glaring up at Tellis, "your large friend here is quite unkind, and the distress of others he does not mind."
"He is NOT our friend," Twilight said sharply. She could countenance being associated with Gaela, Daniels, and maybe even Dest, but she would not allow people to think she was friends with a lunatic like Tellis.
"Yeah, yeah, I hate you too," Tellis said, his voice returning to normal as he brushed off the snub, "Rainbow, I'll catch ya later. I have to spend a few minutes yelling angrily at my squad for not being around when I didn't need them."
"Gotcha. Catch you later, Tellis," the blue pegasus said, holding out a hoof.
Tellis tapped his knuckles against it, and then the Raptor Lord blasted off into the air, his flight pack igniting with such ferocity that Zecora yelped and jumped up as it scorched her rear.


Fluttershy smiled nervously as she noticed that all of their friends seemed quite bemused by the display of camaraderie. Well, except Pinkie, who just looked sad.
"So, Rainbow, why don't you tell us all what you were up to that you ended up fighting MORE aliens," Twilight said, sounding quite annoyed.
Rainbow Dash didn't seem to notice. "Oh, it was awesome! First we and Tellis were tracking those Kroot jerks through the forest, right? And then after we got them, there were a bunch of those Tau soldiers skulking around!"
"I'm not sure all of them were soldiers, actually," Fluttershy said nervously, looking away as she scratched at her leg with a hoof, "some of them had no weapons and were just trying to run away."
"Really? I couldn't even tell, Tellis was on them so fast," Rainbow mumbled. "Oh! And then these gun turrets were shooting at me, so he smashed those up, and then we took out another Tau patrol, and then we attacked the Tau base and rescued Zecora, and then Tellis called in an artillery strike that blew up the whole thing! It was six different kinds of awesome!"
The other ponies glanced at Zecora, who sighed. "Her tale is correct; there is no exaggeration. I must say I fear for what's to become of our nation. Beings from space march on our lands and make war! Miss Dash may be excited, but I want no more."
Zecora got up from where she laid and started walking off. "I now make my exit at this final phase. I need a bath; I haven't had one for days."
"So now we can add kidnappin' zebras to the list o' Tau crimes," Applejack snorted, looking over at Twilight as Zecora wandered away, "or was that 'coincidental' too?"
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Okay Rainbow Dash, thanks for the update. Here's ours: Princess Celestia showed up, and she needs us to get into the Iron Warriors' fortress, defeat their master, and then drive the humans back into space."
Rainbow and Fluttershy froze in slack-jawed shock.
"We... We have to... f-f-fight..." Fluttershy couldn't finish that sentence, but the way she was shaking in terror and pointing a trembling hoof in the general direction Tellis had gone made it clear whom she was afraid of confronting.
"Well, hopefully not HIM, no," Twilight admitted. Gaela had said something about Tellis being resistant to magic, and she was in no hurry to test such an ability, "in fact, technically speaking, we might not need to fight at all. But I don't know if there's much chance of them packing up and leaving if we just ask them nicely."
"Well, ya'd better come up with a plan fer that, sugarcube, 'cuz I don't know if fightin's an option," Applejack mumbled, staring out at the ranks of soldiers.
"Whoa! Hold on one bucking minute!" Rainbow Dash shouted, looking absolutely furious. "What do you mean we have to get rid of the humans?! What did they do?!"
Twilight sighed. "All right, look, girls: I know we've been tip-hoofing around this issue so far, but let's get it right out in the open: the Iron Warriors, if not the entire 38th Company, are evil."
Rarity and Applejack winced, as if the revelation were a physical blow. Pinkie planted her hooves over her ears, not wanting to hear such things. Fluttershy, having been introduced to one of the most violent and brutal soldiers of the Company before building any attachment to him, just looked confused, wondering why the others were hesitant about the subject.
Rainbow Dash was having none of it, however. "Oh, please. They are not."
"Wasn't Tellis trying to kill you at first?" Twilight deadpanned.
"That was totally my fault!" Rainbow protested, rolling her eyes. "Besides, we patched things up! He's really cool once you get to know him! And he has a GREAT sense of humor!"
Behind Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy silently shook her head back and forth, her mane whipping about wildly.
"Well, maybe they're not ALL evil," Applejack allowed, "Daniels don't seem like a bad apple."
"The man is a mercenary, darling. That means he fights and kills for money," Rarity pointed out. As Applejack wilted, the unicorn sighed. "I rather liked these humans too, even if they have absolutely NO taste in clothing, but it would seem Twilight is correct. Princess Celestia has confirmed it."
Rainbow Dash grit her teeth, and then she rose up in the air. "Oh, like hay she is... TELLIS! HEY, TELLIS!! C'MERE!"
The other ponies recoiled in surprise at the shout.
"Rainbow! Stop! What're you doing?" Twilight hissed.
"I NEED TO ASK YOU SOMETHING!"


Tellis stopped slapping his armored hand repeatedly against the face of his subordinate's equally armored helmet, turning his head at the call.
"Sorry, I have to take this," Tellis apologized as he dropped the Raptor onto the ground in a heap, "just pretend that there's someone yelling meaningless abuse and unhelpful criticism at you until I get back to finish."
Tellis turned away from the extremely irritated members of his unit and walked over to the ponies once again. Rainbow Dash had her forelegs crossed over her chest and all the other ponies besides her and the pink one looked terrified, he noticed.
"This is Tellis, the Mad Angel; how can I help you?" the Raptor Lord asked, his otherwise pleasant greeting turned to a hateful shriek by his vox amplifier.
Rainbow Dash took a moment to glance over at her other friends, noting that at some point Fluttershy had moved from hiding behind her to hiding behind Rarity.
"Hey, Tellis, are you evil?"
Twilight smacked her hoof into her face again, and Rarity winced.
"Darling, be careful; you're going to hurt yourself."
To the surprise of the ponies, Tellis went silent. He spent several seconds staring at the blue pegasus through his twisted metal mask before he replied.
"Well, that's a complicated question," Tellis admitted, the screeching feedback effect gone from his voice as he adopted a more serious tone, "after all, what does it mean to be 'evil'? The definition changes depending on who you ask."
His head tilted back, staring at the sky as he waxed philosophical. "We could probably agree that it means something like 'cruel' and 'malicious', but what we label as evil are usually people and things that we don't want to observe and think about, not those things that we've studied and determined to fit the word. We place upon them the shallow and hollow motivation of causing pain for pain's own sake because it's easier; if they had a reason - if there could BE a reason - would we even want to know what it is?"
Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow as she worked her way through that chunk of deep thought, while Twilight reluctantly felt a bit of respect grow for the psychotic Astartes.
Then Tellis looked back at Rainbow Dash again. "Anyway, to answer your question, YES. Of course we're evil."
Twilight felt relieved as she promptly discarded the respect she had developed earlier. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, looked stunned by the admission.
"I'm wearing skulls around my neck and my armor drinks blood. The only way I could be more obvious about it would be a neon sign, but I don't think it would survive a combat jump," the Raptor Lord mused.
"But... I mean... you saved Fluttershy's animals and saved Zecora! You didn't have to do either of those things! How was that evil?" Rainbow demanded.
Tellis sighed, his head tilting over slightly. "Look, I try my best, but I can't make sure that every single one of my actions is motivated by childish sadism or contempt for all life. I don't have the attention span for that, and honestly, when someone is trying that hard to be awful it comes off as a little sad instead. I'm better than that, you know?"
Rainbow Dash looked devastated by the explanation, and Tellis waved a gauntlet as he turned away. "Well, I hope that helped, but I have to get back to abusing the blameless soldiers stupidly placed under my command. See you in the air, Rainbabe."


Twilight silently watched the Chaos Space Marine walk off, and waited until he was definitely out of hearing range before speaking again.
"Well, that was pretty stupid, yet somehow, enlightening," the alicorn admitted, "even if I'd called them evil, I didn't really expect them to identify themselves as such."
"I actually think I see what you mean about his sense of humor, though," Rarity said dryly, "if it wasn't coming from a nine-foot tall monstrosity covered in metal and blades, it might be rather charming."
Rainbow Dash didn't seem to be listening, her head lowered and her ears pinned as she landed next to the equally-depressed Pinkie Pie.
Applejack leaned in toward Fluttershy. "RD looks pretty broken up. Y'all think she's up to help with this?"
"I know this isn't easy for you," Twilight said firmly, "it's not easy for any of us. I like Gaela too, and-"
"Of course you do," Rainbow Dash snapped bitterly, "it must be like talking to yourself in a mirror."
Twilight's eyebrow twitched, but she refused to let herself be dragged off-point. "As I was saying, we might have made some new friends here, but we have a duty to our country, Princess Celestia, and each other to be weighed against that. We're already watching the humans' war machines roll through Ponyville at will, just because we happen to know them better than the other aliens that they're killing. We have to confront this new threat before it goes any further."
Rarity and Applejack nodded sadly, and Fluttershy followed their example nervously.
Rainbow Dash and Pinkie made no physical assent, but the former clicked her tongue.
"This sucks. I'll help, but I want you to know that this REALLY sucks."
Twilight sighed in relief. "Thank you, Rainbow Dash. It means a lot to us."
"Well, now that we've dealt with all the messy emotional conflict of turning on our new friends," Rarity said in a tone unpleasantly lacking in irony, "do you have a plan for how we're going to actually DO it? I hope you don't think we can just put on the Elements of Harmony and gallop up to their front gate."
"Princess Celestia said they had a fortress," Twilight said, glancing in the general direction that the Iron Warriors' vehicles came, "and most of those vehicles were heavy enough that they definitely left tracks all the way back. We'll follow them back to their fort that way."
Applejack glanced uncertainly at Rarity, who made a face at that.
"Of course, we'll need to stay out of sight of any vehicles returning to the fortress, so that might complicate things, but I should have some appropriate spells in the library that I can bring with me."
Applejack started scanning the mustered assault force of the 38th Company, searching for something.
"The fortress is... well, I don't know what we're going to do about that until I get a good look at it. But given that we're not the sort of creatures that the Iron Warriors normally consider a security threat, we might be able to-"
"Hey! Daniels! Over here!" Applejack yelled suddenly, waving a hoof in the air and startling Twilight out of her musing.
"Applejack! Not you too!" the alicorn complained angrily. "Look, it doesn't matter if he's evil or not! That doesn't change our goal!"
Applejack rolled her eyes as the mercenary approached, stepping out of a long, unbroken line of soldiers marching back from the forest.
"Hey AJ, what's up?" the mercenary said. His face and clothes were dirtier than when he had left, and he was carrying some crude talismans around his arm that had almost certainly come from the bodies of dead Kroot. His mask was on his belt though, so they could all see his face.
"Ya headin' back to yer scary doom fortress now that yer done here?" Applejack asked bluntly.
The mercenary nodded. "Yeah. Most of the force is going to stay and sweep the potential escape routes and check the base, but I've earned a debriefing and a reassignment."
"Congrats. Mind if we tag along?" Applejack asked as Twilight's jaw fell open.
"No problem. I think Dest found himself a new ride. I'll clear you in and tell him to wait, so just come find me once you're ready to go."
Daniels turned around and started walking toward a cluster of transports, most of which were being filled with wounded soldiers and packed with Tau and Kroot prisoners.
Applejack turned toward the others, who were sporting expressions ranging from shocked to reluctantly impressed. "It's best not to overthink these things, sugarcube. We know these guys, right?"
There was something unmistakably tragic about that line of thought, so Twilight decided to take Applejack's advice and not think about it any more. "Well, uh... okay then. Everypony, take some time to get ready to go, because we might not be back for a while."
"Or at all, if this goes wrong," Rainbow Dash grumbled.
"Pessimism doesn't suit you, darling," Rarity said as she turned around, "I need to get some things in order and do some packing. I'll meet you back here later."
"Uhm, Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy asked, squirming as she glanced over at her home. Her home that was surrounded by soldiers and giant armored vehicles.
"Yeah, okay, I'll go with you," Rainbow said, perking up just slightly at being to help out one of her friends.
"C'mon Pinkie, let's go pack up some treats fer the trip," Applejack said, tapping the other earth pony in her side.
"Okay," Pinkie mumbled, still looking uncharacteristically morose.


Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, feeling like she'd just crossed a major hurdle. Convincing her friends that an obvious threat to Equestria's peace and security was, in fact, a threat, and that Celestia's orders needed to be carried out was a new kind of challenge for her.
And she couldn't possibly claim that she wasn't bothered by it as well. Twilight didn't know if she could really call Gaela a friend - she certainly didn't think the Dark Acolyte thought of her as one - but if Celestia hadn't directly ordered the human cyborg and her creepy arcane symbols off the planet, then Twilight would have been all too happy to buddy up to her and pry all the secrets of the universe from her brain. Piracy and warfare and happily psychotic Space Marines be damned. And to think about what she might find in the human base...
"Spike, let's head back to the library. I want to have plenty of blank parchment ready for the trip."
The young dragon raised a foreclaw. "Uh, Twilight, you-"
"I KNOW that this is a quest given to me by the Princess, not a field trip!" Twilight said defensively, cutting her assistant off. "Obviously, our mission to get rid of this great evil force takes total priority over studying the humans' amazing technology and accumulated knowledge of the greater part of the entire galaxy! But that doesn't mean I can't take some notes along the way!"
"Yeah. Okay. Fine," Spike grumbled, "I just wanted to let you know that you're drooling."
Twilight rapidly wiped her muzzle with her hoof. "... Thank you, Spike. Let's go."


****


Ponyville - Iron Warriors muster point


Gaela let her mask disengage as she approached the makeshift vehicle pool, the metal sliding away to expose her face to the hot wind whirling around the numerous idling Rhinos and Chimeras.
After she halted to think about it, she wasn't quite sure why she bothered with such a thing so close to a recent combat zone. She'd never felt inclined to expose her face before without an immediate and specific reason. For some reason though, recently she'd felt inclined to keep her mask disengaged whenever there was no immediate and specific reason to have it up. A curious reversal of priorities.
She shifted the load under her arm slightly as she started moving toward the transports again. She probably could have asked for a ride with one of the Dark Mechanicus transports, but all of them were staying behind to entrench the assault force and study the remains of the Tau field base, and she didn't need to interrupt Diomen's operations for a simple trip back to the landing point.
"Hey, Acolyte! Heading back?"
Gaela snapped her head to the side, identifying... well, more like recognizing that one mercenary that had survived her mission.
"I am. I see you've survived yet another operation, Rifleman. Did you need a debriefing?" she asked, annoyance clear in her expression.
"Nah, I just have to head back and get a good nap in, and then they'll probably toss me back out here again." Daniels jabbed a thumb at a Rhino APC idling behind him, its rear access ramp deployed. "Hop in. Lord Dest is at the wheel."
Gaela frowned, although she decided to go ahead and board with the mercenary. "I'm not sure how to feel about developing a sense of familiarity with front-line fighters such that we feel obligated to travel and work together by default. It may discourage me from considering more worthwhile options."
"I know exactly how to feel about fostering an acquaintance with a Dark Mechanicus gal who speaks to me like I'm a casualty figure waiting to happen," Daniels said with sarcastic cheer, "exasperation and dry humor. What a pair we make, eh?"
Gaela didn't deign to answer him, walking up into the empty Rhino and placing her armload on a bench.
Daniels raised an eyebrow as he looked at the bundle. On top was the Tau comms disruption drone that Gaela had never gotten a chance to work on. Folded underneath that...
"Is that the dress Miss Rarity made for you?" Daniels asked, both eyebrows climbing.
"Yes. What of it?" Gaela asked, annoyed that he seemed so intrigued.
"I'm surprised that you're taking it with you. You didn't even seem to like it."
Gaela's expression soured. "In many cultures it's considered rude to refuse a gift, and I have no reason to offend the ponies."
Daniels still looked way too interested as he walked past Gaela and took a seat on a bench nearest to the cab, facing the rear of the transport. "In that case, I'm surprised you care about the ponies' offense versus the negligible effort of bringing it with you."
"Then be surprised. Just keep it to yourself," the Dark Acolyte grumbled. She remained standing as she faced the mercenary; sitting in powered armor wasn't particularly comfortable.
"I don't mean anything by it. It's just not very Dark Mechanicus-like to make nice with local xenos," Daniels said with a slight smirk.
"I hardly think that this qualifies as 'making nice', but frankly it doesn't matter to me what you think of it," Gaela said, her voice rising ever so slightly as she glared down at Daniels with her bionic eye shining, "diplomatic action was required to complete my mission objectives with any success, so I went ahead and 'made nice', as you put it."
She broke the glare, looking up at a control panel near the rear. "Frankly, it will be a joy to get back to work making and repairing things rather than chatting up curious equines. And if I never see Pinkie Pie again, to borrow the nonsensical expression of you dregs, it will be too soon."
Daniels didn't say anything to that, and Gaela looked back down at him to see that the mercenary was staring at something behind her.
"NO. Stop that this instant," Gaela said, her biological eye hardening, "she is NOT behind me. You're a liar."
"You girls ready to go?" Daniels said, clearly not addressing the Dark Acolyte.
"Ready as we'll ever be, sugarcube."
"I wish I had more time to pack. Oh well. Mister Dest, do be careful to avoid bumps; I secured my luggage as best I could with all those hooks and chains, but it doesn't look totally stable up there."
"Uhm, was it okay for you to take off all those bones that used to be attached to them? I think we should have asked first."
"Oh, chill out Fluttershy. The way they're plowing through those Tau jerks they can get more bones whenever they want."
"So, Miss Gaela! I was wondering if you could tell me about this 'Dark Mechanicus' that I keep hearing about. The way I've heard it, it almost seem like it operates as a separate entity from the rest of your army."
Gaela's eye twitched as she stared down at her leg. Pinkie was hugging onto her metal-sheathed calf, looking unusually depressed.
"What have you done?" she demanded of Daniels. "Why are they in our transport?"
"Because it's a long walk to..." Daniels trailed off, then leaned back and banged a fist against the door to the cab. "What's the name of the base again?"
Rather than answering, Dest pressed a button to close the rear access ramp, and the interior lumens flickered on as the light from outside was cut off.
"Next stop, Ferrous Dominus," Dest called as the engine rumbled into gear.


End Book 1


****


Epilogue


*The gue'la attack was successful, I'm afraid. The disruptor array was destroyed and with it, our best chances of evading enemy forces.*
*Damned gue'la! What are they here for? This force is too sophisticated to be mere pirates.*
*Besides hunting us down, their strategic objective is unknown. However, image capture has noted several oddities regarding the enemy force. For one, their heraldry and vehicles seem to have been stripped of the symbol of the gue'la Imperium. In many cases they have been replaced by new symbols.*
*I don't recognize these identifiers. A new faction?*
*Unknown at this time. In addition, the gue'la had assistance from the local aliens, which is frankly unheard of given the Imperial line concerning alien species.*
*Initial assessments placed the local inhabitants' practical military strength near zero. Has this changed?*
*Perhaps. The locals are now known to possess psykers among their population. That can make them highly dangerous in certain circumstances. The conflict with the gue'la has also revealed our presence to the locals.*
*It can't be helped, then. The equine creatures are also our enemy from here on out. Do the gue'la have any inkling as to our mission?*
*We do not believe so. Mission-critical and ranking personnel were killed, not captured. Still, the enemy is taking prisoners, so a leak is possible. What are your orders?*
*This assault force... the numbers are excessive.*
*Shas'el?*
*We may have an opportunity. Gather the cadre. We move.*