"Guys? Are you all seeing what I'm seeing?"
"We are. It looks bad."
"Oh. You want me to get closer?"
"No! I didn't mean it looked bad, I meant it looked ugly. The camera's fine Derpy."
"Oh. Ok!"
"Are you sure you're safe up there?"
"No, but they're not shooting at anybody yet. If I stay put I should be fine."
Derpy backed further into the cloud. There wasn't much cover in the sky but at least the clouds behaved enough like clouds for the pegasi to move them over Repentia Point without attracting attention.
Derpy thought for a second and removed the camera screen from over her eye. She held it out in her hoof and pointed it in the general area of the melee. She hoped she was being smart...
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Draigo was a monster.
Unrecorded and thus unrecognized even by higher members of the Inquisition, the Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights registered only as a Space Marine in Terminator armor to Goldwing's data banks.
Through his combat they soon realized they were dealing with something more.
Draigo materialized in the middle of the Daemonette ranks. The daemons were quick, slashing at him with their claws, moving to surround him. To the control room's amazement the Grey Knight matched them, blow for blow.
First he blocked their bodies with his shield. Then he smashed against them with it.
As the crowd of the female demons were smashed and slammed away he swung his blade wide and low.
The Daemonette's claws were quick but like every physical being they had to keep at least one leg on the ground so their footing was balanced and their blows had the power to tear into his armor.
That footing was being hacked apart.
Everything he hit he cleaved in two. It was a change but not every piece of every daemon vanished as they were vanquished into the Warp. Lifeless heads and limbs were strewn on the floor.
He was in the thick of battle when the twin steeds wheeled about and charged past on either side of him.
Draigo turned on the spot and raised his shield against the Hellflayer's threshing blades.
The screech of metal on metal was so loud even Derpy could hear it, and her open vox channel meant it was relayed to the command center in static detail.
The grinding chariot stumbled, one wheel rising high above the ground and while it might be said the daemonic vehicle ran him over the fact was he was unharmed by its passage.
This in contrast to the Daemonette squad: of them and their fallen sisters remains naught was left beyond a fine red mist.
Once the thresher was past him Draigo raised his sword arm and appeared to point the tip at the the rider atop the chariot.
The storm bolter on his wrist roared to life, the projectiles impacted into the back of the Alluress charioteer's head and destroyed it utterly.
With a primal shout the entire Hellflayer burst into flames and disintegrated as surely as the bodies that had been ground to mist beneath it.
No one was left but the Herald. The rest of the army had been ground under his boot or fled at the sight of him.
Ponderous as he was he had as little chance of catching up to the Seekers as they did of overpowering him in a fight.
The Herald charged him. Before the misshapen female with glowing horns and one breast reached him a tongue of energy burst from her mouth and shattered itself against his shield. Impossibly fast she was in close with him, at his side, behind him. Tearing each time with her talons. She gouged great lengths from his armor and sparks flew with each strip of ceramite she tore from him but her foul claws failed to pierce through his protection to his flesh.
He stepped back into her and crushed her cloven hoof under his heel.
He turned on his heel and his sword cut through her arm, her torso, her other arm and her raised claw in that order in one stroke.
Kaldor Draigo looked about him and caught his breath. A daemon world. Hurled back through the Warp into another Daemon world.
Roaming bands of Slaaneshi daemons, he would not have a good time of it.
He focused his will power and telekinetically lifted bolter fragments from the Daemonette remains and spent casings from the ground. Through a gesture of supreme will he drew the explosive materials from the aether, formed them into spheres and sealed them within the fragmenteds. His eyes glowed with fire and the bolts were molten hot, fused whole again.
The silver tip was molded and he inscribed runes upon surface even as he drew back propellant and sealed it within the casing and replaced the miniature warhead.
His spent psybolts restored and reloaded into his Storm Bolter, Draigo turned from the field of battle and advanced towards that which caught his eye: an Imperial bastion inside this hell...
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Inside the central command station the footage from Derpy's eye-cam combined with the general noise that rang through the air just a hill away to create a mood of tension and fear. Where before it had been the exclusive domain of the great and powerful Trixie it was now occupied by no less than six ponies.
Applejack removed her hat from her head, wiped the sweat from her brow, and replaced it.
She needed a few seconds before turning to everypony else in her crew.
"All right, give me your thoughts."
She turned to her technology experts. With Lyra out with Twilight that meant Bon Bon.
"Well..." Bon Bon started in a voice that was too high pitched.
She coughed, cleared her throat and started again.
"Sorry. His armor looks bigger than ours. Different. That shield is easily as strong as the one we found for Big MacIntosh."
Applejack turned to Cheerilee, who was looking after Goldwing for Twilight.
"Anything that machine can tell us?"
The mechanical eagle began:
{Subject is an Astartes equipped with Tactical Dreadnought armor, shorthand Terminator armor, and wields a greatsword and a storm shield. Sensors indicate a 93% probability of psycher potential. Under such circumstances the greatsword is likely to be a force weapon.}
"What in tarnation's the difference?"
{Terminator armor is thicker and denser as a result of the suit's armor incorporation of heavy-duty plasteel. Such suits are less maneuverable than standard Astartes power armor and far more durable. The knowledge to recreate these suits is lost and each suit is an irreplaceable relic.
As your adept has discerned, a power weapon's effectiveness is derived by the energy field. The field allows the weapon to sever mass at a molecular level.
A force weapon allows the bearer to channel the power of the Warp into its victim. The effect on the victim as his body is joined to the warp is debated. For all practical purposes, however, it is destroyed.
Finally, the Astartes demonstrates psychic potential beyond the scope of any previously observed targets. Suspected level is Alpha Plus.}
"And what does that mean?" Applejack asked irritated.
{Omnicron level psychers have mild subconscious potential. One may perhaps light a candle unintentionally or bend an object.
An alpha level psycher can potentially destroy a battle tank or a suit of Terminator armor.
Alpha plus is sufficient power to destroy this facility and a significant piece of this planetoid at once.}
Applejack's eye twitched.
She turned to everypony else in the room. Bon Bon and Cheerilee had nothing to offer while Vinyl was busy going from console to console double-checking failing connections. In a corner, kept in shadows, Octavia loomed.
Standing at attention behind the command throne Blueblood waited.
Applejack had chosen not to sit and his standing there felt like an invitation she was continuously declining.
His presence might have been an attempt to be reassuring or guarding, like a loyal guard or a devoted brother.
AJ was used to Big Mac's presence, however, and found Blueblood's presence as uncomfortable and slightly usurping.
Paranoid that she might be letting herself be influenced by thoughts not her own, Applejack realized she was being unfair.
Blueblood was filling the part of a royal guard the way he did for Twilight since his incident. For Twilight, Trixie, even Cheerilee on occasion depending on who was acting in a leadership role that day.
Today it seemed it was her turn.
Applejack swallowed her feelings and turned to the Prince.
His pristine white armor had undergone changes: he painted the shoulder trim in gold and he had decorated the recesses of the shoulder pads and all four of his hooves with ceramite clippings he'd shaped into ponies. They'd been soldered on perfectly.
His forehooves were conspicuous with a combat shield on his left and the sheathed power claw on the right.
The blue of his eyes peered back at her from the narrowest slits in his metal mask.
"One more thing then. Those monsters, Blueblood?"
"They are the same. The steeds pulling the thresher are exactly like the ones Rainbow Dash and I put down.
I saw nothing like the centaur-abomination Rarity destroyed with her cannon and the... humanoids are new to me as well.
Their claws seem as sharp and their reflexes are just as impressive. Nothing about these demons' appearance suggests they are any weaker that the ones we've already seen. This human is strong, fast and fleet and his weapons and armor are superior to ours."
Applejack read too much into his analysis.
"Are you saying you want to turn tail and run?"
"I say he is death and violence. I see he is coming here. I ask if anything here is of irreplaceable value to us?"
The view screens actively followed Draigo. Applejack turned to Octavia, seeing the way she was measuring his abilities.
"We're outmatched. We can try to ambush him or we cut and run." Octavia said calmly.
Applejack turned back to Bon Bon.
"Bon Bon, anything else from Trixie, Sparkler or Twilight since they engaged whatever it was they found?"
"Nothing. I can't raise Princess Twilight or Amethyst Star at all."
With no other options and nopony else to defer to Applejack made the call.
"Then we go out and look for them on the way. Bon Bon, gimme an open channel to everypony else we've got out there."
Bon Bon nodded at Applejack. "Ready."
"All right y'all, we've got incoming bad news. Derpy, I want you to stay put, switch off the camera but keep telling us where he's headed. As soon as he's lost track of the sky I want you to get out of there."
"Okay Applejack! He's maybe a hundred steps from the west wall. He's not going the long way."
"Darn. We head east then. Most likely he'll just bust on in, lookin' for more to fight.
Golden Harvest I want all our food stocks saddled and on everypony's back. We've got two minutes tops."
"Already on it Applejack. I've got six saddles loaded and Flitter and Cloudchaser are already out."
"Good. Cloudchaser, fly close to the ground and don't do anything that'll get you noticed. I want you out there scouting for a place we can lay low. A tall ridge or a cluster o' hills. Not a cave. I don't want us to gallop into something's maw."
"Count on us!"
"Computer." Octavia began. "Erase all video and vox footage over the last month."
The mainframe's vox responded:
{time frame not recognized}
"All footage from the last five hundred hours. Erase all video footage, vox records, command and archive records, all record of activity within the last five hundred hours and suspend all recording immediately. Once completed depower and go to standby."
{authority acknowledged, awaiting command Inquisitor.}
Octavia turned to Applejack. Applejack nodded back.
"Execute." Octavia said.
{Deletion in progress. Order source unregistered. Memory purged. Shutting down.}
Applejack's vox came to life.
"Applejack? Can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear Rarity."
"I have the shot."
Applejack swallowed hard. She looked to Octavia and Blueblood.
"He destroys the demons. Their focus will be on him." The Prince said.
"He arrived through a rift through the Warp. Others may follow just as easily.
They will notice his body and suspect just as surely as he would if we fire on him and fail.
We have no reason to believe he suspects we exist. Just vanish."
Cheerilee didn't say anything, she was too busy collecting all of Twilight's books and papers and every scroll she ever penned with the aid of Goldwing, going so far as to grab even the rubbish she kept reusing for bedding.
"No can do Rarity. Head east and find cover. If things go bad I want you covering us when we run your way."
"I understand."
Applejack turned from her vox to the team.
"It's settled then. Let's go."
Blueblood took point
Bon Bon and Vinyl were the last to leave, piling tools and doodads into each others' saddlebags as they moved.
The lights went dead and Vinyl's horn provided the last of the light they needed as they made their way out and sealed the bulwarks shut.
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Twilight and Trixie stood their ground against the Chaos Space Marine sorcerer before them.
Immundus had done more than parade before them; his power or the powers he tapped into had created a bubble of shadowy bodies surrounding the earth pony, alicorn, and three unicorns.
"Let me see if I have this straight... You five, sentients and I find that idea in and of itself absurd, aren't horses. You're ponies.
And you did not through a process of circumstance, spite, randomness or reason find yourself altered, part by part or all at once, until you became ponies; You were as you are now since the day you were begotten through whatever means the universe decided to sire creatures such as yourselves.
That is a bit of information I find most curious.
Most, a poor choice of words - it implies the superlative when in reality I find that that question is not the one I find myself most obsessed with.
What I find the maelstrom of my mind turning over again and again is the question 'why you lot would dare to profane Astartes Power Armor, how it is you came by our weapons, and what makes you think one such as I would stomach such an outrage."
Immundus raised his force staff to the air and orbs materialized around its head.
The orbs burst into lightning bolts that struck out at Twilight and all four of her companions.
Lyra, Sparkler and Rose all dove for cover over the dunes, Twilight blinked out from sight and Trixie threw up a force field that took the brunt of the lightning.
The bubble was perfectly insulated and real lightning should have traveled across the outer surface and into the ground.
But Chaos lightning ignored the laws of nature.
"Come little braggart, show me the means through which you 'conquered this pathetic little mudball'."
Immundus was knocked off his feet by a beam of purple energy.
He turned to the source, surprised to see Twilight Sparkle glaring back at him.
"Stay away from her!"
Trixie levitated a chunk of earth she tore from the ground and flung it at him as soon as Immundus turned hi sback on her.
Without shifting his attention Immundus raised his stave and a force blast pulverized the projectile as soon as it left her magic levitation.
"Do that again." he ordered her.
With no other options Twilight levitated her bolter and opened fire.
A strange dance ensured: each time Twilight opened fire with her bolter the Sorceror moved to one location then stood still
Trixie, for all her efforts, couldn't match Twilight's intensity; There was something in her, something besides the horn and the wings that was obvious even to a tainted soul like Immundus. He saw through the ruse.
"You are the leader, you are the one I desire. Your death will grant me great favor in the eyes of the Chaos Gods."
Twilight had heard enough of that particular thought.
"Is that the only thing you people care about?!"
He laughed, a hideous bark that matched a jackal's.
"Whatever the source of your power armor it is clear you were never Astartes, never even human. Consider, xenos: when you have power, infamy, when you're ascended beyond the limitations of ordinary survival and petty wealth what is there beyond savoring it for eternity... and getting more?"
"There's having others to share that eternity."
"The young would do better than to lecture those who are versed in the ancient ways.
You think that I am alone? Countless voices within my head keep me constant company."
"Seeing you and what you did to those men tells me more than you ever could.
You're worse than alone; there isn't a single one of your kind who wouldn't betray you the instant he thought he could get something out of it. You're eternally on your guard with no-one you can talk to and no-one you can trust. You're completely isolated, even when you're surrounded by all these people. How can you believe they follow you when all that binds you together is fear?!
For all your nonsense you're still social animals just like everybody else: How can you worship monsters that would devour you for no more reason than that you exist? You'd all have to be insane!"
"Sanity is for the weak!"
He thrust at her and again Twilight raised a shield. The staff's head punctured through and at the last moment she blinked out of his way.
Immundus looked around him, looking for her with his actual eyes all the while astonished that he couldn't foresee where she was moving. Where or how. Was it an illusion? A personal portal? He recognized her backpack's power plant, it couldn't possibly have an integrated teleportation unit.
"Impressive, most impressive xenos. A psycher of the third level of mastery. You assail, you create telekine domes, you even open gates of infinity with the poise of a lord taking a stroll. Rarely do I find a telekine as skilled as you are."
His reverie was interrupted by a swarm of power swords rising from the earth around him.
He waved the force staff again, knocking some of Trixie's glowing phantasm's out of the way and phasing through the rest.
"Illusions?"
Immundus turned in time to see Trixie sending another wave of swords at him again. His Warp vision opened and he foresaw himself being run through by the second of five swords flowing through the air.
He brought his staff up and knocked the only real blade aside.
"You... a telekine and a telepath."
Inwardly Immundus became afraid. His expertise in Divination gave him no protection against powers of the mind.
He was forced to play regicide against this pony. He foresaw their actions before they happened but if the blue unicorn in the ridiculous hat read his thoughts before he could act on them and fed that information to her champion then they were on equal footing.
The possibility of being trapped in a fair fight was something he had found terrifying.
"Off me fool. I will have your champion's blood first!"
"The Great and Powerful Trixie will not be ignored."
"Back! I'll not suffer you interference in my personal challenge!"
"Challenge? Ha! The Great and Powerful Trixie cares nothing for your silly little show of bravado!"
"Quiet!"
"The Great and Powerful-"
"Stop saying 'great and powerful', annoying gnat!"
Immundus charged Trixie and in fear she thrust her power blade at him with her levitation.
Immundus raised his Force Staff at the last moment and countered the attack.
"Interesting. Everything else... they're just illusions. None of your powers are real. Nothing you can do can hurt me!"
At that second Twilight teleported between them, right in front of him.
"Guess again buster!"
Immundus second guessed himself; unable to do anything he was swept away by a solid wall of levitation energy.
"This is unthinkable. I who have never been struck in a dozen provocations, brought low by a stupid fluorescent-hued sentient equine!"
Immundus gathered his power again.. gathered and then shrieked.
Hands tore at his mind, ghostly tendrils tore at his soul and lapped the energy from his armor.
He'd been in battle too long, used his power too much. The things in the Warp took notice of him and stole an opportunity to feed. As he rebuilt his mental defenses he noticed the two ponies had thus far used far more spells, expended far more psychic power than he.
They were weak and inexperienced, their leader's last attack proved that. An attack that should have been used to crush him merely battered him away. He noticed the way they used their psychic abilities for everything, even the most commonplace minutia like telekinetically aiming and firing their bolters at him and making every swing of their power swords. Such absurd, puerile mistakes...
...and yet they had yet to pay the inevitable price for such lapse in judgement repeatedly.
For all their power and all their unrestrained use of it they yet to suffer as any psycher would.
The were apparently immune to the perils of the Warp.
The only conclusion he could draw-
"You are not psychers..."
"And you're not a man."
Immundus was caught completely off guard when a third voice shouted him down.
Before he could so much as turn a mechadendrite coiled around his neck and pulled him back.
Brusquely turned around the first and last thing he saw was the speeding form of a power fist.
Lyra's harness gave her many advantages over a common Space Marine, even if they weren't a pony. When combined with her levitation it meant Immundus was left to struggle against a multi-limbed beast whose strength rivaled his own.
Lyra was pummeling his helmet's faceplate with her power fist but in her emotional outburst she hadn't toggled the weapon to turn its power field on.
If she had the sorcerer would have a ruin where his skull used to be.
"Get.. me... away." He managed to blurt out through broken jaw and shattered teeth.
Warp fire consumed Immundus and Lyra let his body go. He vanished from the spot before her through some occult means into the Warp. His shadow field vanished instantly: the five were left alone.
Two things assaulted Twilight's senses as soon as the shadow creature dome dispersed.
First was the sight of bands of pink colored demons, rolling in the distance. Here and there their shapes mingled with other strange hues Twilight knew as spawn or other bands of sickly green green Plaguebringers. The pink demons seemed to be fighting both groups equally.
The second thing was a transmission from Repentia Point.
"-ash, take Big MacIntosh and Pinkie and head on to the hills east of the base. We got something nasty starting. Drop to half rations if you still have 'em. We're taking all our food supplies with us, we'll get sorted once we're together.
Ah already sent Flitter and Cloudchaser on ahead. If you run into 'em stick together. Ah'm still trying to raise Twi."
Twilight made eye contact with everypony else, Sparkler in particular.
All at once the five abandoned the cart and every other leftover from their corpse disposal and galloped back to the headquarters.
Sparkler opened the channel on the fly.
"Applejack, this is Twilight. What's going on?!"
"Twi?! Oh thank Celestia. We've been trying to raise you I dunno how long!"
"Twilight what's going on over there!"
Rainbow Dash' brash tone interrupted.
"I've got more of these wierdo pink frilly... wierdoes!"
"Hey!" They all heard Pinkie interrupt.
"No offense! They're not just weird because they're pink, they also... they smell funny! Anyway, they're all over the place!"
"Ah know! They're all headed towards the building and they aren't alone. Something else worse 'n them popped outta nowhere and we're almost ready to high-tail it outta here."
"Applejack that's fine. Great. Just perfect. We'll be there in a second, get everything we can carry."
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Moments later, when Twilight and her group were in sight of the compound they were met by a procession escaping as quietly as they could. Carrot Top, Blueblood and especially Applejack looked overburdened with saddles loaded with supplies.
"Applejack. is everypony ok? Did you get everything? Did you hide our tracks?
"Everypony's alright Twi. Only groups out there were yours and Rainbow's. Everypony else is here. Cheerilee's got all your notes."
Twilight looked relieved but Lyra's ears pricked up. She shot like a bullet toward the compound gates.
Applejack reacted a second too late, biting at Lyra's tail but not fast enough to catch it.
"Doggone it Rainbow... ah mean Lyra!"
"Wait!" Twilight shouted. She tried to make her voice carry but saw her muzzle trapped within a tiny blue sound bubble. She could only yell mutely as Lyra vanished through the door.
Vinyl Scratch sweat nervously as she held the shield over Twilight's muzzle. Next to her Octavia shook her head 'no' while tapping her hoof towards her neck, indicating the vox.
Twilight nodded and Vinyl removed the bubble. Twilight activated her vox and hissed into it.
"Lyra are you cr-azy?!"
Applejack chimed in.
"Lyra, we've got a human Space Marine more powerful 'n any we've seen. He killed a band of monsters like the ones roaming out there single-handed. The facility's shut down."
Lyra wasn't daunted.
"I'm sorry. I have to get in there. The blueprints for the armor, weapons and technology we've made is hidden in my workspace. Goldwing doesn't have these files and nopony else got print outs from the central computer. That and the tune-ups we made for Fluttershy's designs. Without those and the follow-up designs that approximate what we've already done we can't fix anything!"
"Fluttershy?!"
"Easy. She's over with Flitter and Cloudchaser."
Twilight paced her breathing, trying to relax.
Then she turned to Applejack. They exchanged glances that told everything between 'they needed those plans' and 'they couldn't keep Lyra from them now that she was so far.'
"Hurry then."
Twilight turned to Blueblood and Cheerilee and accepted a pair of saddlebags.
"Rarity's over that way Twilight. She's got us covered with her cannon. Something in those hills should be-"
Applejack was interrupted by the sound of a great explosion. Something had torn into the compound's western wall.
"Lyra..."
Applejack caught Twilight by the tail.
"We already told 'er" She grit while keeping the tail in her teeth. "We gotta trust 'er."
Twilight relented then gave in. Applejack let go. At that moment a cloud high above them popped apart and Derpy dove from the sky to land near them.
"Hey Applejack. He's in there. He took his time at the wall, I don't know really what he was doing. Then he stopped like he was thinking real hard and smashed the wall. He went in and that was all I saw of him. You guys were still here so I came down."
Applejack nodded and gave Derpy one of her half-dozen saddlebags.
"Thanks. And the monsters?"
"All over but they're pretty small clumps. Nothing over by Rarity, or Cloudchaser's group or Rainbow Dash's group."
"Ok then. Let's git. Pick up Rarity then-"
"um..." Derpy hesitated.
Twilight noticed and prodded her to speak.
"Rarity's fine but we're exposed if we go straight to her. If we follow a path along the dunes we can catch up to where the pegasi went."
Twilight noded at her. "Lead the way."
A few gestures were made but soon enough everypony was galloping behind her.
As they went Twilight got next to Roseluck. The mare hadn't pointed the nozzle of her fire-breather down yet.
"Rose..."
Roseluck blushed heavily, shut her eyes a bit and turned her head away.
"D-Don't look at me. Please don't look at me right now."
Rose hurried her pace and ended up right next to Derpy.
Twilight let her go. She found herself in step alongside Sparkler. For Rose and more she felt the need to say something.
"Sparkler I-"
"No. I mean, no, Princess. There's no need to apologize. When we used our magic on those charging Marines we didn't hit the others. If Rose hadn't panicked when she did I don't know what would have happened. I don't like it but-"
"And you shouldn't. I want you to never like it. Avoid it as much as you can and push it from your mind as soon as you can. It's not about them; it's about your friends."
Sparkler nodded.
"This isn't easy for me. To me it's no different carrying ammo that somepony else will shoot. I don't have to pull the trigger to be responsible for killing somebody. And if I carry food, or medicine or bandages I'm still enabling you all because each one of those things I carry is one you all don't have to and you all end up carriyng more guns and swords and in the end nothing's changed. Maybe there is a difference but I don't see it. I- I wish I could make what I feel make more sense."
"I understand Sparkler. You just worry about your rations and keeping that Vox going. Everything will be fine."
Sparkler gave Twilight a weak smile. Things weren't well yet, but they'd be getting better.
They had to.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When he entered a range of fifteen paces from the wall Draigo has hesitated. He took a step back, then another one forward.
A laud-hailer, clearly scavenged from some Adepta Sororitas vehicle, had been broadcasting devotional chanting in loop.
It had been years, perhaps decades, since Kaldor Draigo had last heard the song of female voices elevated in praise to the Emperor. The melody warmed his heart and would bring a tear to his eye if indeed anything in this world or any other was still capable of drawing such reaction from him.
Abruptly the sound ended as he stepped beyond the arbitrary bounds and resumed.
There was an interruption. The music was not psychic, the sound simply did not carry past the boundaries.
Draigo could wonder if there was something unusual about the nature of the hailer, the Imperial bastion or even something about the nature of the daemon world itself that affected sound so.
Each possibility was as likely as the last so he put it from his mind, made his way to a wall he tested for structural weakness, called upon his memory for the ideal breaching point for a fortification of this type and caved in the wall with the power of his mind.
Inside the facility there was nothing.
This surprised Draigo because everything about the world led him to believe he should be prepared to encounter corruption and death. Instead he encountered rooms so organized, so carefully looted, so clean he could only conclude that everybody else had escaped.
At length he found something, a room which had its doors smeared in oil. The pattern suggested script that had been covered over. He readied his weapons and over-rode the control panel. Slowly he peered in as the doors opened.
He found palettes and arrangements consisted with makeshift bedding. Again, nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary.
He head noise, heavy, like footsteps. The heavy clang of ceramite over the ferrocrete floor.
Astartes possibly.
He stood where he was and waited for the shape to walk into his line of fire.
It did.
Draigo had found Lyra.
He aimed his Storm Bolter at the pony laced with cybernetics.
The moment before he pulled the trigger Lyra looked into his eyes and said
"This way."
Kaldor Draigo waited.
He kept the weapon aimed at the pony but it walked away slowly, leading him to a hatch.
As a psycher Draigo felt no touch, no taint upon the creature - yet it's strange coloring and obvious powers of speech made him uncertain.
Lyra's mechadendrites punched in a lock code on the recently repaired door systems and the hatch unlocked.
The doors slid open.
It was the Imperium mausoleum. Draigo looked about him and saw the preserved bodies of almost two dozen battle brothers, several sisters, a few guardsmen and a techpriest. The little cyborg had many of his systems cannibalized for parts but such practices were common on battlefields. Draigo examined the bodies: the Space Marines looked preserved and intact, untainted.
Purity testing would be necessary but if it was clear close to fifty Progenoid Glands could be harvested for gene-seed.
For their original chapters, or for the Grey Knights.
The gene-seed of warriors that had been tried within this atmosphere and remained untainted was precious indeed.
As a Chapter Master Draigo could not overlook the importance of the resources that had been preserved.
"Servitor."
Lyra paused.
Draigo had decided she was a machine, build on a biological base like all servitors, and modified extensively to operate within the facility. He suspected the hand of the orangutan-like Jokaero weaponsmiths in its creation: no ordinary servant of the machine-God would consider altering Power Armor for a servitor frame. Draigo knew he was looking for survivors, in particular an Inquisitor, one with ties to the Ordo Malleus. Only that could explain a mission so deep within the Eye and the resources he had found.
"You have done your task well in restoring and honoring the Emperor's loyal servants. Resume your tasks, when my battle brothers arrive your memory core will be processed for relevant information and purged and you will be reassigned to service to the Grey Knights. Inquisitorial override code Omega Delta 4 5 6 9 0 3 2 1 Theta."
Lyra hesitated.
Draigo looked annoyed and spoke again.
"Inquisitorial override code Calix Epsilon 7 4 5 9 0 3 2 1 Omega."
Oh damn. What to do. What did Goldwing always say?
"Code accepted. Gratitude my Lord."
Draigo nodded and approached the pony. He chose an icon, removed a purity seal from his armor and fixed it upon Lyra's armored chest. The word DRAIGO was large on the icon that magnetically fastened the tiny scroll to her armor.
Draigo then turned from Lyra and paid her existence no further mind.
He entered the mausoleum and dropped to his knees.
Lyra made her way from the compound, running out as fast as she could once she was out range of his vision and hopefully his hearing.She was terrified that that human... whatever he was, might see through her ruse.
She was panicked, but she collected herself, breathing calmly.
He was a man. A Space Marine, truly a powerful one, but just a man.
"BEHOLD, MIGHTY EMPEROR, THE VALOR OF YOUR CHILDREN!
GAZE UPON THE SACRIFICE OF THE WORTHY, YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT IMPLORES YOU
GRANT UNTO THESE YOUR MERCY THAT THEIR SACRIFICE BE NOT IN VAIN
YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT RAISES HIS VOICE TO THE HEAVENS
EXALTING IN YOUR GLORY
GRANT UNTO THEM AND ALL WHO SERVE LOYALLY YOUR PEACE!"
"What... the... hay!?"
Lyra could only yell over the roar.
The entire grounds of Repentia Point became alive with fire; a ray of light that rose from the earth itself shattered Lyra's sound field within a microsecond.
Draigo's prayer had turned the site into a psychic beacon of intense luminosity, the souls and bodies of the martyred burnt with the echoes of their life.
"Not a man, he's a bucking god!"
Lyra screamed and turned tail, running for the hills.
Calm yourself Heartstrings!
Discord's voice echoed in her mind.
"You calm yourself! Take one look at that energy pillar and tell me you'd survive that thing!"
It wasn't like the rainbow beam of the Elements of Harmony but as far as sheer power was concerned it might as well be.
No. No I won't. Your friends are over that hill. Turn to the left and hurry!
Lyra crashed to a stop when a shape blinked into existence next to her.
Princess Twilight Sparkle said nothing, looked nowhere and did nothing.
Her horn glowed to life and Lyra was levitated, power armor, harness and all into direct physical contact with her.
Twilight then teleported the two of them away.
They landed in the center of the camp, pegasi, earth ponies and unicorns all looking expectantly at the two of them.
"Explain. Now." Twilight said.
Lyra's mechadendrite reached into her saddlebag.
"Pull up a seat, what I saw will take a while. For everything else..."
The mechadendrite pulled out a full textbook. Every note, hypothesis, speculation and design they had worked over was contained within.
"Got it."
Twilight pulled her into a crushing hug. Everything was right for now.