Iron Hearts: Book 3
Chapter 11
Siege of Canterlot (Part Three)
****
Canterlot - Silver Saddle Bar and Grill
"Inexcusable!"
Numerous ponies jolted to attention as the front door to the establishment burst open, and the equines nervously glanced over to the source of the shout to see whether or not they should be ducking under the tables for cover.
Luckily, the source of the aggravated voice was none other than Prince Blueblood, and while none of the bar's patrons particularly wanted to cross the royal stallion, his lack of any weapons - or functioning magic, for that matter - rendered him mostly harmless. The other ponies quickly relaxed and returned to their drinks or whispered conversations, ignoring the newcomer.
Blueblood, for his part, stomped angrily into the bar. He looked fit to start an angry monologue on the spot, but then the bar tender cleared his throat.
"Prince? You mind shutting the door?" the unicorn bar tender asked.
"Me?" Blueblood asked, sounding honestly perplexed by the request.
"Well, I can't really close it from here right now, and I'd prefer not to leave it open under the circumstances," the unicorn stallion muttered grimly.
The Prince made as if to say something, and then thought the better of it, closing his mouth. Then he backed up half a step and tapped the door closed with his rear leg.
"Damned alien scum," Blueblood seethed as he made his way through the room.
"Prince Blueblood! I say! Over here!"
Blueblood's head shot up, and his eyes narrowed as he spotted Fancy Pants seated in a corner of the lounge. His marefriend Fleur de Lis was seated next to him, practically attached to the stallion's side and looking every bit as anxious as the situation warranted.
"Give me something strong, bar keep," Blueblood growled as he walked toward the stallion beckoning to him, "I don't care what it is."
The Prince sat down across from the couple, his eyes not quite meeting theirs and his scowl etched deep over his face.
"I say, Prince, were you really wandering around outside?" Fancy Pants asked. "It must be terribly dangerous, is it not?"
Blueblood snorted noisily. "Aggravating, mostly. The dunderhead invaders are in a tizzy because of the sun. APPARENTLY it's wreaked havoc with their little 'curfew'."
"You've talked to them?" Fleur asked, placing a hoof against her chest. Her voice was terrified and curious in equal measure. "What are they like?"
"Stupid," Blueblood said simply before he twisted his head around, "and where the hay is my drink?! Or am I to head behind the counter and mix it myself?!"
The bar tender shot the blond unicorn a glare as he fumbled with a bottle. "It will just be a moment longer, Prin-whoops!"
Fleur winced as the sound of shattering glass came from the bar area, and Fancy Pants sighed.
"He's not used to handling the bottles with hooves," Fancy Pants explained with a shrug.
"This day gets better and better," Blueblood growled as he slouched in his chair, "do you know why I'm out right now?" The other unicorns were about to guess, but Blueblood didn't let them. "I was thrown out of my estate! Those barbaric beaked creatures were sniffing around my compound, and then a squad of the ones with guns said my property had to be 'searched for human weapons'! The nerve!"
"Well, you don't have any, do you?" Fancy Pants asked, adjusting his monocle.
"I wish I DID. I would have shown those slimy vermin!" the Prince fumed.
A loud growling noise came from outside, and some of the ponies nearer to the wall leapt from their seats and cowered on the floor. A group of kroot warriors stalked past the building, guiding a pack of snarling kroot hounds. A half-dozen Fire Warriors followed behind them, issuing orders in their native language to the hunters.
Fleur shuddered as she leaned against her lover, and Fancy Pants tenderly ran a hoof down her mane.
"There, there, my dear. Be calm. They won't bother us."
"Unless they deem a herd of ponies resting in a bar as a 'gathering'," Blueblood snorted angrily, "did you know the Tau have humans working for them too? I talked to one! Asked him why he was working for these creatures! He said it was for the 'Greater Good'! Something about sacrifice for the advancement of society as a whole to bring about a better future for all!"
"By Celestia..." Fancy Pants gasped, his monocle falling onto the table, "are you telling me we've been invaded by SOCIALISTS?"
Fleur de Lis glanced from one stallion to the other, looking confused at their horrified expressions. "Wait, is that... worse than being invaded by non-Socialists? Why?"
"Oh. Right. You're from Prance, aren't you?" Prince Blueblood grumbled. "Whatever. In any case, I warned everypony about this."
Fancy Pants snorted as he put his monocle back on. "Oh, you did not. You warned everypony about the humans. That eventually we would become reliant on them, remember?"
"And what do you think is happening?" Blueblood hissed.
"... I think we've been conquered by their enemies," the other stallion said slowly, eyebrow arched, "how is that the same thing?"
"Because now we have no means to stop them except the humans!" Blueblood explained. "How can we possibly recover the city otherwise? Even if we could free our useless guards, they'd be torn apart by the Tau's weapons! Our only choice in this situation is to have this '38th Company' save us, or quietly submit to the blasted Progressives!"
Fleur frowned. "Progressives? Why do you say that like it's an insult?"
Blueblood ignored her. "Except it's not really a choice, because we don't get to decide! Before long the forces of Chaos will be here to 'liberate' our fair city, once and for all cementing their military superiority in the minds of our leaders and elites! They'll think - perhaps correctly! - that we need the humans just to stay safe from now on! After that it's just a question of whether human control comes with the gun pointed at us or held behind their backs!"
Fancy Pants considered the argument at length before responding. "Well, it's plausible, but I have to wonder why the humans would even bother. They haven't shown much of an appetite for controlling our territory up until now. Why would they risk their lives in Canterlot for us?"
Blueblood clicked his tongue and leaned back in his chair as the bar tender finally approached, a short glass of liquor settled unsteadily on one hoof.
Fleur's ears twitched up. "Does anypony else hear that?"
All noise in the bar stopped, and dozens of ears swiveled up. A heavy whistling sound could be heard from above, distant but getting louder.
Suddenly, a much louder and less mysterious noise came from outside as the Tau's anti-air turrets opened up, and the ponies with a good view out the windows gazed up in awe as they saw lances of blue energy stream upward into the sky.
The whistling kept getting louder, however.
Fancy Pants opened his mouth to speculate on the sudden disturbance, but was interrupted by something slamming into the ground just outside the bar, landing hard enough to shake the floor. The windows on that side of the building shattered inward from the concussive force, and the bar keep promptly dropped the glass he was holding to add to the new mess.
The ponies in the bar stared wide-eyed at the plume of dust that had been kicked up by the sudden impact, and within a few seconds the obscuring shroud parted around a large metal cylinder mostly painted black.
On the side of the cylinder, grinning as if taunting the patrons, was the Iron Skull.
"Bucking called it," Blueblood said as he slouched in his chair.
A whirring noise came from the cylinder as its sides split apart, and the top of the device popped off before saucer-shaped machines started spewing out of it.
One such machine was flung into the bar, and the ponies gasped and scrambled away from it as it halted several feet off the ground.
None of the equines present, in their brief experiences with the aliens, had seen a Tau gun drone, but if they had they would have pointed out that these machines looked exactly the same save for their colors and a ring of spikes on the dome circumference. Most of the machine was gunmetal and gold, with the armored dome itself painted in black and yellow warning chevrons.
The riot drone spun about as it hovered unsteadily over the floor, its altered AI scanning the room for targets.
One by one the equines were detected and dismissed, lacking any IFF keys or the Sept colors that it had been programmed to engage. After a few seconds of finding nothing worth shooting at, the drone zipped outside and floated off into an alley after the others of its kind.
Fancy Pants chewed his lip absently as more pounding noises came from further away, heralding the arrival of more drone carriages.
"You know, this establishment has a patio on the roof," the mustachioed unicorn mentioned, "we could watch the liberal mongrels being dispatched from there."
"Really, MUST you bring politics into this? As if the situation isn't ugly enough!" Fleur huffed as she stood up. "Let's hurry. I want to get a good seat."
"Sure, why not?" Prince Blueblood groused as he too rose from his chair, "it doesn't seem like I'll manage to get that drink any time soon."
****
Canterlot Castle - wine cellar
Kibitz flinched at the sound of heavy impacts coming from outside, although the loud thumping only momentarily broke up the cascade of screaming anti-air fire.
"What IS that? What's happening?" the head maid asked, standing in front of several trembling servants.
"I don't know," Kibitz confessed, "but I do believe there's some kind of altercation going on outside."
"Maybe it's the Wonderbolts! They've come to rescue Canterlot!" one of the maids said brightly.
"Oh! I'll bet it's the Elements of Harmony!"
"Wait, weren't they already captured?"
"So? They've managed before!"
Kibitz wiggled his mustache as the maids broke into an excited discussion as to which heroes of ponykind had arrived to deliver brutal justice to the invaders.
"Well, whoever it is, they're making quite the racket," the unicorn stallion mumbled.
The shattering of one of the palace windows came from just outside the door, and the ponies flinched badly.
"What was that? Did the Tau break in?" asked a maid as her legs quivered.
"They're already in the castle! That was something else!" the head maid hissed.
Kibitz frowned toward the short staircase that led up to the exit. "I'll check it out. Maybe get some bearing on what all is happening out there..."
The stallion calmly walked up the steps and, hesitating only long enough to take a deep breath, pulled the door open.
Almost immediately, he was shoved aside by a floating drone striped in yellow and black, and the stallion yelped and jumped aside.
"What is that?! Is that dangerous?!" the maids shouted as they quickly took cover behind wine barrels and crates.
"I... I don't..." Kibitz trailed off as the saucer-shaped device slowly hovered into the middle of the room, ignoring the equines completely.
Celestia's assistant pony didn't know a thing about drones of any sort, but this particular one was conspicuously missing weapons of any kind, and seemed to have several additional fins and antennae mounted on top of its dome.
Kibitz suddenly heard shouting and gunfire from deeper down the hall, and his ears fell flat against his head before he quickly closed the door.
The drone that had already forced its way in floated down to the floor, its antennae slowly blinking red on the tips as it settled down.
"Wait, wait, WAIT!" the head maid suddenly shouted, stepping out from behind her hiding place and slowly approaching the drone. "I know those colors! This thing is from the humans!"
Kibitz and the servants shared a confused glance at that. Partially from wondering what a human machine was doing here, but mostly wondering how the elder mare had recognized such a thing.
"Well, do you know what it's doing?" Kibitz asked.
The maid squinted her eyes as she stared at the blinking lights. "Well, it... hmmm..." she tilted her head to one side of the mysterious object, and then the other. "Well, no. But it doesn't look dangerous to me."
"Then what is it doing here?" Kibitz asked, jabbing a hoof toward it. "From the sounds of things outside, the humans sent plenty of other things that ARE dangerous, so I don't want to take any chances!"
Admitting that the stallion had a point, the head maid gave the machine some distance, but didn't take her eyes off of it. "Ooh! You know who might know? Let's ask Princess Luna!"
"I wouldn't advise going to the throne room right now, actually," Kibitz said, mindful of the noisy pulse volleys coming from just outside the door, "but what makes you think her highness would..." Kibitz wiggled his mustache again, this time in discomfort. "How odd. My gums seem to be quite agitated all of a sudden."
The blinking red light on the end of the drone's antennae started blinking more rapidly, and then the drone beeped.
The crack of air displacement thundered in the ponies' ears right before the scent of ozone filled their nostrils.
The sight that greeted their eyes was the most unsettling thing, however. Fifteen humanoid giants in heavy plate adorned with dark spikes and rusted chains, each one with weapons drawn. There were also three less intimidating figures among them, but in the moments following the teleport they were understandably overlooked.
Tolken scanned the room, his plasma gun already aimed at the wide-eyed unicorn stallion.
"... No hostiles detected. Area secure." The Iron Warrior looked back at his squad. "Lennith, take point. Macintosh, follow him and match his movements and aim. Females, you have the rear."
The Armsmaster pushed past the stunned Kibitz without another word, holding near the door as his squad followed in two rows.
"'Scuse us, folks. Just doin' some gray huntin' 'round the castle property," Applejack tipped her hat to the gaping ponies as Big Macintosh stomped past, "y'all just lay low down here 'til the smoke clears."
The Iron Warrior in the lead cracked the door open, peeking out and tagging targets with his visor.
"I spot twelve xenos. They're at the windows, firing on the riot drones outside. We have their flank."
Tolken nodded. "Destroy them all."
The door burst open with bolters aimed and ready, and not a shred of cover between the Iron Warriors and their targets. Most of the Tau soldiers didn't even notice the new arrivals until they heard the sound of bolter and plasma fire at horrifically close range, and before they knew it half the squad had been ripped apart.
Big Mac strode under the thundering boltguns, his visor lighting up with targets as his heavy bolter shifted into position.
A stitch of heavy bolter fire cut into the stumbling aliens, culling three of them with a single muscle twitch. Unlike the bolter rounds, which cracked against armor and blasted off limbs, the heavy bolter shots blew the Fire Warriors apart entirely, drilling through the polyceramic armor and popping them like gore-filled balloons.
Big Mac hesitated after the first burst as he saw the survivors of the squad start to turn and run, but the Chaos Space Marines showed no such leniency. Another volley of bolter fire either slaughtered the fleeing aliens or knocked them down, with the last Tau standing vanishing in a wash of plasma.
Tolken slapped his plasma gun to his thigh and drew his bolt pistol as his helmet tagged the Fire Warriors that were still technically alive. With dark and wordless efficiency he corrected the oversight, finishing off the five wounded foes in as many seconds.
"We hit them fast enough that they probably didn't manage to alert the leadership," noted an Iron Warrior as he pointed to a shred of armor that bore rank markers.
"A heavy bolter's kill. We'll make a useful gun mount out of you yet, Macintosh," Tolken grunted, "Trixie. Get in here and give us a direction."
Muted grumbles came from the unicorn as she stepped into the hallway, her horn glowing dimly. "Ugh. Trixie can totally feel what Sparkle was talking about in here... give Trixie a moment..." The Shadow was like ice upon her spine, an oppressive feeling around her horn that she found suffocating as she forced herself to feel through the dark cacophony beyond.
The feeling had a direction, though. A pulse that she could see as her eyes looked into a plane of being that no unicorn was meant to see. Which meant that it had an origin.
Applejack followed behind her, and she winced at the sight of the enemy soldiers' remains before poking her head back into the cellar. "Yeah, yer gonna wanna stay down here fer a spell. Maybe get some rest, too. There's gonna be a lot of moppin' to do." She closed the door.
"All right, Trixie's got it! That way! Into the royal gardens!" the showmare hissed as she pointed a foreleg outside. There were numerous tall hedges, and a frankly ridiculous amount of sizzling blue crossfire. A pair of riot drone carriers lay in smoking heaps among the flora, their cargo mostly scattered around them in pieces.
"The drones won't last against the garrisons, nor will our presence be missed for long," Tolken observed, "let's move."
On the other side of the door, Kibitz stroked his mustache with a hoof as his gaze moved from the door to the teleport beacon in the middle of the wine cellar.
"Well, it seems one Element of Harmony came, at least. And brought friends," the unicorn stallion finally said.
"That's... those... things... with her... were humans?" asked a maid breathlessly.
"Well, not all of them. There were definitely a few ponies among those armored lads," Kibitz noted.
"Are they going to save us?" asked the head maid, perplexed.
"I thought they were the forces of Chaos. Wouldn't that mean they work for Discord or something?"
"But doesn't Discord work for us, now?"
Kibitz shook his head. "Well, whoever those fellows were and what they intend to do, I hope it isn't just them. Big and menacing as they are, there are an awful lot of those Tau creatures."
The lights on the beacon's antennae started to blink rapidly again.
"Oh. Well, all right then," the stallion mumbled as he backed away from the next incoming teleport.
****
Canterlot Castle - throne room
*They're OUR drones? Seriously?* Voidsong asked irritably as she looked at a tactical display of Canterlot City.
*Well, they did take Salvation Echo intact, Shas'o. There would have been quite a lot of them in storage there,* a Fireblade mumbled as he read data reports coming from the Fire Warrior teams, *although from some of the descriptions, these devices couldn't have been taken and modified that recently. Even considering the ships they captured. These gue'la have been doing this with our machines for a while.*
He paused to open a few more data packets. *They're not doing very well, though. However the gue'la reprogrammed them, their tactical AI is lacking. They're showing very limited combat mobility and coordination. They might not even be properly networked.*
*Casualties so far?* Voidsong asked as she mulled over the information and looked at the rendition of the anti-air network that was conspicuously failing to shoot down the incoming drop-carriers.
*Very low. Our units have been able to draw them toward defendable positions and take out the enemy drones from relative safety. They've also been able to keep the drones away from the anti-air guns.* The Fireblade nodded confidently to his superior. *If this keeps up, it doesn't matter how many of these machines they throw at us. We won't break.*
*Which is why I don't expect this to keep up,* Voidsong said, her voice a low growl as she searched the sensor readings, *if this assault has no chance of breaking us, the Iron Warriors should know that too. And I doubt they dispatched all those transports just for mop-up duty. This is a diversion. Inform Pandora. They are go for mission.*
The Fireblade looked surprised, but didn't hesitate. *Yes, Shas'o. Right away.*
Voidsong continued searching the sensor pings for any approaching transports or weapons. They hadn't had enough time to set up a proper sensor array in their rush to turn Canterlot into a refueling station and their futile hope that their invasion would remain unnoticed by the Chaos Space Marines. However, in a pinch she could combine and search the passive sensors of the numerous vehicles and battlesuits flying over and around the capital, using them as an improvised sensor net to search for anything that would easily be missed in the pandemonium of having enemy attack bots raining down from the sky.
In a mere two minutes of searching, she found exactly what she was looking for.
*Blast!* Voidsong snapped.
"Is something the matter?" Luna asked.
"The damned gue'la snuck a teleport into the city after they started their attack!" Voidsong replied, reflexively switching to Gothic. "We have enemy soldiers in..."
The High Commander trailed off and turned her sensor head toward Luna, who was seated across from her in front of the hololith display.
"In where? Where art our side's troops in this construction?" Luna asked as she leaned over the hololith. The other Tau officers looked quite put out, but said nothing. "The human forces art in red, correct? They art vanishing at a most prodigious rate."
"You realize there's nothing stopping me from breaking your stupid neck right now, right?" Voidsong said darkly.
"You promised not to hurt anypony!" Celestia reminded her from where she and Cadence were watching the city from one of the shattered windows.
"How far, exactly, do you suppose you can push me before I decide that breaking a deal with absolutely zero possible consequences is no worse than putting up with you?"
Luna recoiled, looking affronted. "We art doing naught but viewing the progress toward thine ultimate defeat, invader. In addition, We would suppose that thou hast more pressing concerns at the moment than our impertinence."
Voidsong quickly remembered that she was right, and set her own sensors to active mode. The teleport was detected in the castle, so it was possible that the targets were-
The back door to the throne room burst open.
"Princess!" Twilight Sparkle galloped into the room, her chest heaving and Rarity hot on her heels.
At least, until two dozen guns were aimed in their direction.
Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, and Rarity made a rather un-ladylike grunt as she almost collided with the purple Princess.
Voidsong was actually quite embarrassed to realize that she had reflexively aimed her own weapon at the two ponies, neither of which were any threat at the moment and were already targeted by numerous energy weapons. She lowered her plasma burst cannon.
"All right, now I'm honestly confused," the Shas'o mumbled.
"Twilight! What are you doing here?!" Celestia gasped as she and Cadence rushed toward her.
"We're here for you, Princess," Twilight said before turning narrowed eyes on Voidsong's battlesuit, "we're here for ALL of Canterlot."
"... Uh huh," Voidsong mumbled, unconvinced.
"Is... Is THIS what they teleported into the castle?" asked a Fireblade, slowly lowering his rail rifle.
Cadence grimaced as she trotted up behind Celestia. "Twilight? Tell me it's not just you two."
"It's not just us two," the purple pony assured her.
The next two figures to enter the room did so at a more cautious pace. Delgan and Gaela stepped inside the throne room and then stepped to either side of the door before they stood at attention. The Tau's weapons shifted aim toward the humans.
Voidsong looked over the new arrivals. "... Yeah, I'm still not seeing it." The humans were armed and dangerous, at least, but besides being totally outnumbered they weren't even brandishing their weapons. A single volley from across the throne room would finish them before they even drew their blades, much less got to a range to use them.
"A moment, please," Delgan said to the invaders, bowing his head, "the Warsmith has come to speak with you, Shas'o. He's just been held up a bit."
"Kibitz kind of had some minor heart palpitations when Solon appeared," Twilight said apologetically, "he had to stop and defibrillate him while we went on ahead."
"Sure. Is there a reason why I shouldn't just kill all of you now and get back to conducting my war?" Voidsong asked. The electronic quality of her voice being transmitted through the battlesuit did little to hide the annoyance in her tone.
"That would definitely spoil the negotiations," Delgan noted, "we wish to offer a cease-fire."
"... While raining combat drones on my forces?" the High Commander asked.
"We thought it would help our case if we provided some fire that you might wish to cease," the Trademaster offered with an apologetic bow.
"I believe we concluded our 'negotiations' in orbit," Voidsong snorted, "your continuing presence on my planet indicates an intent to resolve this matter with force." The ponies shot dirty looks at the battlesuit for referring to the planet as hers.
"You previously indicated a preference for negotiating in person," Gaela said blithely as the sound of heavy, grinding footfalls came from the hall behind them, "we found the prospect... compelling."
The wooden doors were smashed to splinters as Solon's bulk pushed through them, and the Warsmith charged past Delgan and Gaela before he stopped.
The Tau immediately flinched back, and some of the Fire Warriors actually fell over in shock at the sight of the terrifying mesh of corrupted Astartes and daemonic machine.
Solon quickly looked over the enemy. Four Heavy Stealth Suits, a Battlesuit Commander, and two dozen light infantry. All of them looked stunned for the moment, thanks to his fear aura, but that wouldn't last long. Solon turned his head.
"Ah, Warsmith! Thou hast arrived!" Luna greeted the monstrous Iron Warrior happily.
"You! You're-" Voidsong was cut off as Solon suddenly held up his left hand.
"Jusht a moment, pleashe. I'll be right with you."
He turned away from the Tau soldiers, stomping toward a very confused Princess Celestia.
"I have shomething to shay to you," the Warsmith said dangerously as he walked closer, his every step leaving shattered flooring tiles behind him, "I would have mentioned it the firsht time I wash here, but it wash a diplomatic meeting and I didn't want to be rude. But now I'm going to shpeak my mind."
Twilight and Rarity shared an uncertain glance.
Princess Celestia, for her part, stood up straighter, and her eyes narrowed defiantly as she stared up into the glimmering crimson sensors of Solon's helmet. "What is it?"
"Thish fortresh ish a DISHGRACE," Solon snapped, looming over the white Princess menacingly.
Celestia blinked. She had not been expecting that.
"Even by the shtandardsh of Victorian thirteenth century architecture, which apparently govern thish city, the material integrity and shtructural organization of your cashtle is nothing short of SHAMEFUL. Shuch buildingsh are facilitiesh of war, and yoursh ish modeled more ash if it were a child'sh plaything. I've sheen better fortificationsh made on the beach, out of shand!"
Delgan coughed uncomfortably.
Then the Warsmith backed away. "I jusht needed to get that off my chesht. It'sh been bothering me shince I left."
Without further comment, Solon turned again and walked away from the confused Princess back toward the equally confused Tau.
"Shorry about that. Inferior shiege engineering ish a pet peeve of mine. And really, it'sh like they weren't even trying when they built thish place."
The Iron Warrior punched his left arm into a column in demonstration. His fist sunk deep into the stone pillar, cracking it apart around the middle. The ponies and a few of the Tau flinched.
"But I digresh," the Warsmith said as he tore his arm free from the column, ripping it fully in half and displaying a handful of marble, "let'sh talk peace." His gauntlet closed around the ivory stone, slowly grinding it to sand in front of the aliens.
If Voidsong was at all impressed by the display, or particularly affected by Solon's fear aura, none of it showed in her voice.
"Your entrance makes an unconvincing case not to just kill you," the High Commander said blithely, "why, exactly, should I agree to a cease-fire now?"
"Becaushe the 38th Company holdsh enough cardsh to threaten your mission, but no particular reashon to do sho," Solon pointed out, "happy ash I am to shlay you creaturesh and fiddle with your wargear, our shtake in thish planet ish... limited."
Voidsong scowled within her battlesuit. "Then you should have fled when you had the chance, monster."
"We will not run. Not yet, at any rate," Solon's mechatendrils hissed quietly as he scratched at the chin of his helmet with his left hand, "but in a short time, we will leave. After that, well, what you do with the planet hardly mattersh to ush. We've even cut down the time needed to make our Warp enginesh, shince you've deshtroyed the veshelsh we captured from you. We should be done in under two weeksh."
"We wish to voice our objection to this agreement," Luna said as she raised a hoof.
"Go away," Voidsong retorted, shoving the alicorn aside with her shield arm. Luna pouted and walked over to join the other ponies behind Solon.
The Shas'o looked up at Solon for several silent seconds, mindful of the sounds of distant gunfire echoing from within the city. Then she turned her sensor head toward her own soldiers.
*Lower your weapons. But keep them ready,* she mumbled. The other warriors did so gratefully; they had been aiming every gun quite intently at the Warsmith since he had arrived, but none had dared be the first to open fire on him without orders. It was all some of them could do to remain in the room with the stifling sense of fear washing off of the behemoth.
"Even if you are sincere in your intentions - and I don't believe that you are - I'm not going to leave my soldiers under your guns for two weeks."
"Of courshe not," Solon agreed, "if you agree to withdraw from Canterlot and wait for our departure, then I will agree to evacuate your troopsh from your remaining bashe to your fleet."
"Unacceptable," Voidsong replied simply.
"Oh? Then how about I throw in the two hundred and sheventy-one Tau and Kroot prishonersh we shtill hold?" Solon asked, causing the Shas'o to back up a step. "Livesh are of penultimate importance to your empire, and Tau shlavesh fetch mediocre returnsh anyway. Their shafety would be quite a boon, would it not?"
Voidsong clenched her teeth within her battlesuit. She wasn't aware there had been so many Tau captured by the Iron Warriors, although she supposed she should have expected it. Imperial forces weren't much for taking prisoners, but Chaos was an entirely different kind of foe.
"Princess!" Twilight whispered as she scratched at Celestia's leg with her hoof. "We should go. Now, while they're still talking."
Princess Celestia blinked, and Cadence shared a confused glance with Luna.
"Why would we want to leave?" Celestia asked quietly, craning her head down toward the smaller alicorn. "At best, we should be here to ensure that our interests are heard. And even if they won't listen to us, I still want to know the details of their agreement."
Twilight nervously glanced over at the two armored commanders as she chewed her lip, and then looked back up at her mentor. "We should leave because there isn't going to BE an agreement."
Cadence furrowed her brow. "Wait... then why is he bothering to talk to her at all?"
Rarity leaned over to her. "Do you remember how the Tau 'negotiated' with us?"
Celestia and Cadence recoiled, their eyes wide.
Luna smiled. "Let us remain here. We wish to see this reach fruition."
"If we are to agree to a cease fire, my forces must be allowed free movement over the planet's surface," Voidsong demanded, "we will evacuate our own base in our own time."
"Then what exactly ish my fleet getting out of thish? We'll shtill have you xenosh running underfoot, and we don't even get the catharshish of shooting at you anymore," Solon noted.
Voidsong paused a moment to think up an appropriately sarcastic response when the Fireblade behind her interrupted.
*Shas'o! The Stealth Suits in the gardens have engaged a unit of Space Marines! We have Astartes behind our lines!*
"Oh? It took you thish long to find them?" Solon asked, sounding quite pleased. "They musht be doing very well, then!"
Voidsong already had her weapon aimed and warming up again as the Warsmith spoke. "You treacherous slime!"
"Treacheroush? Me? I thought it wash already eshtablished that we were conducting thish deal in the middle of an asshault," the Warsmith reasoned. A pair of drone carriers impacted the ground just outside the throne room, emphasizing his point. "If you wish my sholdiersh to shtand down, and wish to shave your compatriotsh in your bashe and in our minesh, then you will abide by the termsh I have shet. Your choice."
"I will NOT fail in my mission, cultist scum!" Voidsong barked. "I will get to Black Point and my soldiers, even if I have to kill every damn human, post-human, pony, or whatever other imbecile that thinks to get in my way! You can either step aside or die where you stand!" She took a step forward, and Solon leaned back slightly on his chassis. "You think you can stop us?! You have no idea what we've sacrificed to get this far! You selfish, worthless reavers who would cut down your own damn species for the sake of the voices in your head couldn't imagine the aims of a people who would actually think to bring some sanity to this blood-soaked galaxy! No! All you can do is fight, and kill, and burn down every damn thing that won't bow to your lunatic phantasms!"
The ponies and even the two humans in the room shared an uncomfortable glance as the Tau High Commander stopped her shrieking monologue. One of the Fire Warriors coughed awkwardly.
"Well..." Solon said after a few quiet seconds, "it would sheem our negotiationsh have come to an end."
"Yes, they have," Voidsong snarled as her plasma burst cannon started to spin again, "I've had quite enough of this."
"Oh, not becaushe of you," Solon assured her, pointing to the tactical hololith, "it'sh jusht that the train arrived. Ahead of shchedule, too! Kaelith alwaysh comesh through in a pinch!"
The High Commander glanced down at the tactical display next to her, her sensor focus zeroing in on the section of the city that was dedicated to the train station. A long string of red blocks were pulling in to that area, having apparently smashed through the barricade that had been blocking the only decent land route to the city. The cluster of blue markers that were manning the defenses outside the station were starting to disappear at an alarming rate, and numerous new emergency communications signals were lighting up around her visor's strategic display.
Voidsong turned her sensor head back toward Solon, who seemed to be waiting patiently for her to fully come to terms with the situation.
*Kill him,* she snarled.
****
Canterlot - train station, five minutes ago
The riot drones spat volley after volley of pulse carbine fire into the defensive barriers, each wave of energy flares smaller than the last. Pulse fire came back in much smaller, but more precise fusillades, tearing apart the repurposed machines with careful efficiency.
Most of the units defending the train station kept their heads down as the drones splashed pulse fire against the defensive wall. In turns they rose, fired off a volley, and then ducked again before the drones could adjust their aim. It was a careful strategy, but the leaders of the defense garrisons saw no need to be more aggressive; the riot drones weren't adjusting their tactics, and there were still more carriers screaming down from the sky every few minutes. Preserving lives and ammunition was paramount.
Within the train station itself, a group of Pathfinders made their way to the windows and prepared to support. Standing up, they beamed a series of data-feed lasers at the hovering mechanicals.
*We have markerlights, Shas'la!* shouted a squad leader as new targeting data appeared in his helmet display. Even with his head down behind the wall, he now could see the exact location and range of the remaining drones, as well as the aiming angle he'd need to score a hit on his chosen target.
*All units, open fire!*
The ranks of Tau and human auxiliaries stood up at once and fired in a perfectly coordinated volley, sending one cluster of drones to the ground in scorched pieces and ripping apart half of another group.
Those drones, which had been clumsily turning around to engage the Pathfinders, found themselves caught between targets and hesitated as they determined priority.
A crossfire from both the Pathfinders and the defensive garrison shredded the remaining drones, and the Pathfinders quickly made for the roof to search for new targets.
"That's the last of 'em. For the moment," muttered a human soldier as he checked the fallen drones for any remaining signs of function.
"Casualties?" asked a Fire Warrior.
"Just two. Mike and Shescel. Mike'll be alright, though. And for something like forty drones, that's pretty damn good."
"Sure. But they don't seem to be running out," muttered a Tau warily as he turned his head to the skies. Spears of light lanced upward in waves from the numerous anti-air emplacements, only for the carriers to rain down from the sky unhindered. The guns simply couldn't turn and track targets fast enough to hit a relatively small, free-falling object, as opposed to a bulky vehicle trying its best to avoid the ground. They'd be lucky if even one in each twenty drone transports were hit during their descent.
"Still, at this rate it won't matter," the Shas'ui insisted grimly, "there's only so many of those things they can throw at us. The Greater Good will not..."
He trailed off as a communications came from one of the Broadside battlesuits that were covering them from a raised plaza.
*We have incoming. I'm... I'm not sure what it is. It's definitely coming closer, though, and it's using gue'la power sources.*
*Coming from where?* the Shas'ui asked, scanning the skies.
*The rail tunnel!*
The Fire Warrior looked over to the tunnel set in the face of the mountain. It was fairly narrow - much too narrow for any of the humans' bulky, land-bound vehicles to get through - and covered in walls of thick magno-ceramic plating. Not an indestructible barrier by any means, but if an infantry team tried to break through it they'd have time to request reinforcements and ready a devastating firing line.
Unless, perhaps, they used a pair of multi-meltas at point-blank range.
The Lamman troops recoiled in surprise as twin jets of hyper-heated gas blasted a gaping hole in the rail barricade, and they outright gaped as a massive spiked plow broke through the scraps of the barrier that remained. That plow was mounted on the front of a train, which, when they really thought about it, should not have been quite as much of a shock as it was at the time.
The train engine had been replaced by a much more "modern" plasma core, and heavy slats of metal had been bolted onto the flimsy walls of the train cars to provide additional armor to the cargo. Cargo that was aiming rifles out of the windows. Dozens, HUNDREDS, of rifles.
"Down! Down! Get down!" the human Sergeant screamed as a veritable blizzard of lasers and bullets poured into the defensive wall. The train was still moving and the soldiers were packed so tightly in the train that many of them couldn't get a good look outside, but with such volume of fire aiming was a luxury. Some humans and Tau fell to their knees in a panic, others fell on their backs with their bodies ripped apart or cooked alive.
*Reinforcements! We need reinforcements!* screamed a Fire Warrior into his headset. *They're at the train station! We have enemy infantry in-* a fragmentation grenade landed next to the alien soldier, who ended his transmission with a gurgling scream.
Atop the train cars, turreted mortars swiveled about before unleashing a barrage of explosives into the air to land behind the enemy defense wall. As the train reached the station and slowed to a stop, some of the mercenaries carrying heavy weapons muscled their way to the windows, setting their heavy stubbers, bolters, and autocannons against the window sills.
Finally, the train halted completely, and a gout of steam blasted from the engine.
"SURPRISE, motherbuckers!" Smoke Stack shouted as he leaned out the engine car's window and blew the train's whistle. "Take over my station? Disrupt my schedule? Blow up MY TRAIN?! Vengeance is mine!"
Ducking back inside, he bit down on one lever and pulled. All along the passenger trains, doors slid open to allow the infantry an exit, and those mercenaries and cultists who didn't currently have a good firing angle rushed to get out of the stifling crush of bodies.
"And now for the heavy metal!" Smoke Stack shouted before pulling a second lever back with his teeth.
At the rear of the train, three cargo cars that didn't have windows suddenly collapsed open at the sides, turning the reinforced walls of the cars into ramps. Two of them were packed with Iron Warriors, who shouted a brief praise to Khorne before they disembarked into the fray.
The third one carried four Iron Warrior Dreadnoughts, all standing in narrow profile so that they could fit into the train's carriage (and also be carried through the train tunnel).
"At last! Enemies! Targets! VICTIMS!!" howled one of the insane combat walkers as it charged up its plasma cannon and started stomping toward the crumbling defenses.
"Bwa ha ha ha ha!" Smoke Stack laughed as he watched the human infantry rush over the defensive line in waves, jumping onto the suppressed defenders and finishing off the wounded. "How do ya like me now, Tau?!"
Behind the pony engineer, Kaelith was coiled up in a circle and watching over the plasma engine, given that the pony knew absolutely nothing about the device. "Rhetorical interrogative: you realize that your entire contribution to this exercise is pulling mechanical levers with no particular demand for timing, correct?"
Smoke Stack glared back at the Dark Magos. "Oh, just let me have this, would you?"
The sound of shrieking metal alerted both of them to sudden damage on the train, and Kaelith quickly found the source. "Analysis: incoming railgun fire from forty-four-point-one-six meters at twenty-eight-point-nine degrees. Two mortars are off-line. Determining response..."
Smoke Stack leaned out the window. "Yeah, I see 'em. Two bulky ones, up on the garden balcony."
"Conclusive: I may handle this myself." With that perfectly concise explanation, the Dark Magos uncoiled his body and scuttled out of the engine train.
Up on the balcony garden, heavy bolter fire and an autocannon pounded against the heavy shell of the lead Broadside suit, forcing it back as chunks of ablative plating fell into the soft grass below.
*We're falling back! We can't hold this position against this much firepower!* shouted the lead suit as it turned around.
A shimmering ball of plasma streaked by its shoulder, and the suits turned away as the projectile exploded amongst a cluster of planters near the back of the balcony. Everything within the radius of the blast vaporized, leaving only a molten crater behind.
*We need infantry and armor support at the train station!* continued the lead battlesuit as they pulled away from the lip of the balcony. Soon the balcony itself blocked any line of fire from the many guns below, mercifully separating them from the enemy assault force. *We have hostiles moving into the city! Mostly light infantry, but also a number of Astartes and walkers! They've already overrun our defenses!*
*We hear you, Shas'ui. Fall back to your designated rendezvous point and regroup.*
*Got it. We-* the damaged battlesuit was interrupted by a spear of melta gas punching through its back, and its pilot was vaporized in an instant.
The other Broadside whirled around, only to having something dark, long, and disturbingly fast snake through the ruined flower beds and latch onto its torso plating.
The Broadside's assailant loomed up over it, and the Tau pilot looked up to see a dark hood containing nothing but dozens of glimmering red lights and twisted tubing.
*Get off me, you blasted... what?* the pilot tried to punch the Dark Magos, but found as he reared the suit's fist back that the reaction was sluggish, as if the battlesuit itself was resisting him.
His sensor readouts started stuttering, and the pilot began to panic as he spotted the telltale signs of severe program slowdown and corruption.
+Rumination: the machine spirits of Tau devices are always so weak. It is a wonder they function for you at all,+ Kaelith said in binary as thin mechadendrites seeped from under his rubber robes and crept over the battlesuit. Like a predator with a freshly poisoned meal, he began to drag away the armored soldier by the legs, dropping it on its back.
The Broadside pilot didn't understand a single syllable of the crackling Binaric Cant, but he was terrifyingly aware of his suit's systems going into standby or restarting one by one, leaving him all but helpless within the otherwise secure armored shell.
+Another prize for the collection,+ Kaelith hissed as the battlesuit's main reactor finally shut down.
****
5 Kilometers outside Canterlot
"Awwww, YEAH!" Rainbow Dash screamed as she stood atop the cockpit of a Stormraven gunship, the wind whipping through her mane.
The airspace in front of her was an insane mess of lasers, tracers, smoking metal, and flaming explosions. Hellblade Chaos fighters ran dizzying circuits against Tau Barracudas and Sunsharks, dueling furiously with the aliens' interception strike force. The transport gunships stayed in formation behind the aerial melee, contributing as much firepower as possible while keeping a much more consistent pace toward the city. Each time a Tau aircraft would break free of the interceptor screen it would quickly find itself bracketed by overlapping fields of fire and ripped apart, sending it screaming to a fiery grave in the plains below.
A Hellblade interceptor flying above suddenly lost control as an ion cannon hit its engine, and it started spinning like a flaming drill head before slamming directly into the side of a Thunderhawk transport. The gunship lurched to the side from the impact, and then began to descend as it was forced into an emergency landing. A set of the magnetic winches holding up the Rhino transports failed after a few seconds, and one of the transports was dropped to the ground like a boxy, silver bomb.
"Whoa! Sucks to be them!" Rainbow Dash shouted back at her fellow passengers.
Tellis was standing right behind her, his boots mag-locked to the gunship roof and his arms crossed over his chest. The rest of the Steel Reavers were attached to the various gunships around them, clinging to the hulls, wings, or undersides of the aircraft so that they might leap on the enemy at a moment's notice.
"This is taking too damn long!" Tellis snarled, focusing his optics past the air battle toward the distant city. "At this rate, all the good killing will be over with by the time we get there!"
A Raptor crouched on the gunship's wing suppressed a sigh, a reaction he was well-practiced at. "My lord, it is advised that we wait until the enemy's aerial forces are dispatched before continuing on into the city."
Tellis took a moment to appreciate the sight of a Barracuda fighter flipping end-over-end into a lake, and then responded. "And I advise that we get to punching stuff NOW. Guess which plan we're working with?"
"Hey, how about a compromise?" Rainbow Dash shouted back to the post-humans. "We two will go on ahead, while all you slowpokes can catch up once all the best action is over!"
The Raptor hesitated. "That isn't so much a 'compromise' as it is everyone doing whatever they want regardless of orders and planning," he pointed out.
"I LOVE IT!" Tellis screamed as his flight pack spread out behind him. "Let's fly, Rainbabe!"
With a happy chuckle Rainbow Dash spread her wings, instantly lifting off of the gunship as they caught the wind rushing by her. Within moments, she and Tellis had flown straight into the furious dogfight, a trail of smoke and rainbows marking their path.
"My lord," called the Raptor into his vox-link, "do you at least remember our primary mission objective?"
"Hit everything blue and black until it's black and blue!" Tellis answered.
"No, Lord Tellis. Do you remember the briefing notes about the anti-air turrets?" the Raptor asked.
"Why am I still talking to you?" The vox-link to the Raptor Lord went dead.
Another Raptor connected his vox link and spoke up. "Isn't this worse than usual? Normally he waits until we get to the combat zone before he forgets our objectives and goes off on his own."
"I think that blue thing is a bad influence on him," the Raptor champion mumbled, "in any case, our mission remains the same. Wait until the enemy fighter screen is cleared, then we jump into the city and target their guns! Iron within!"
"Iron without!"
****
Below Canterlot City
Fluttershy peeked out from behind a set of ammunition hoppers at the Dark Techpriests, trying to figure out what was happening now.
She knew that they had stopped, and that they were at the base of the mountain that held Canterlot. The constant scream of the Tau's anti-air fire could be heard from high above, and off in the distance she couldn't help but notice a furious aerial battle taking place, with bright explosions and billowing trails of smoke marking the chaos of battle.
But what were the daemon engines supposed to be doing? She could tell they were getting anxious, picking up the sounds of bloodletting but seeing no enemies nearby. If things continued like this for much longer, then Fluttershy supposed she might need to calm the poor monstrosities down herself to keep them from lashing out at the Dark Mechanicus priesthood, and she was still nervous about letting them know she was here.
"Pst! Fluttershy! Is it all clear? What's going on?" Spike asked. He was hidden behind the main body, hanging from some power cables.
"I don't think it's safe yet," Fluttershy whispered back nervously.
A loud whirring noise brought her attention to the Mechanicus transports, which were now aiming large, tethered harpoon guns up at the side of the mountain. That was strange, and for a moment Fluttershy wondered if the Iron Warriors hadn't decided to bring down part of the city after all.
Then the harpoon guns fired, trailing long, thick adamantium cables behind their rocket-assisted projectiles.
Fluttershy narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she watched the harpoons stab into the crags above, each one hitting very close to the point at which the mountain side met the extended platform that held the city. They didn't explode or anything though, which at least put her initial fear to rest.
"What was that? What's happening?" Spike asked.
Fluttershy blinked owlishly as she watched the Techpriests carry mechanized spools over to the daemon engines, each one attached to a harpoon cable.
"I think... we're going up the mountain," Fluttershy mumbled back to the dragon.
Spike looked up at her. "How? Can these things fly or something?"
"No, they're... um, walking, I think."
Spike raised an eyebrow. "Say what?"
A Dark Techpriest approached the Defiler purposefully, her mouth spewing Binaric litanies to reassure the war machine that it would soon be delivered into battle. Fluttershy added her own soothing (and very quiet) whispers of assurance just in case as the Dark Techpriest proceeded to attach and weld the cable spool into place on the chassis.
As the engineer-cultist finished her task, Fluttershy snuck a peek at the other war machines, most of which already had their spools attached. There were six daemon engines in total: the Defiler, two Forgefiends boasting massive guns, and three of their cousins, the Maulerfiends, bearing heavy, powerful mechanical hands.
"Pinkie, did you hear me? I think we're going to be walking up the mountain and into the city," Fluttershy whispered. She wasn't completely sure where to whisper, though; it suddenly occurred to her that she didn't know where their exuberant companion was.
The Defiler lurched forward, and Fluttershy crept down from behind the autocannon.
"Spike, do you know where Pinkie Pie is?"
Spike looked up at her. "Wait, she's not up there with you?"
"YEEEEE-HAAAAAW!!"
Fluttershy, Spike, and every Dark Techpriest flinched as a whooping shout came from one of the Maulerfiends that was scrambling up the side of the mountain with its harpoon tether winding tight.
Pinkie was riding over the daemon engine's neck, flailing a glitter-encrusted top hat about in one foreleg in imitation of a rodeo rider.
"Go on, ya metal varmint!" Pinkie cheered in a giggling imitation of Applejack's accent as the siege crawler pulled itself upward. The Maulerfiend was obviously agitated by its rider, but this particular unit wasn't equipped with lasher tendrils and all it could do was thrash its head wildly from side to side to try to dislodge the pony. Pinkie did seem to be spurring the walker on, however, and it quickly clawed its way past the other daemon engines as its tether spool strained to pull it up faster.
The Dark Techpriests stared at the unusual spectacle from the base of the mountain as the Defiler moved up the first crag on the near-vertical ascent.
+Should we... do something? Like, shoot it off, or... yell at it, maybe?+ buzzed a Dark Acolyte.
+Is that the one that threw the party?+
+The party that nearly got us all killed by Lord Sliver? Yes, I think it is.+
The Dark Techpriest turned around, beckoning to her colleagues and subordinates. +Leave it. I rather like that one. And we wouldn't want to waste any ammunition, would we?+
+... Right. Whatever you say.+
****
Canterlot Castle - throne room
Twilight cringed away from the storm of energy weapon fire, averting her eyes from the heat flash as they practically swallowed Solon's bulk.
She hadn't really been clear on this part of the plan from the beginning; she supposed that Solon had originally been thinking the Princesses might be held somewhere away from a proper garrison, and that the enemy High Commander would be lightly guarded. That was the only explanation she could see for his expecting to roam about the castle with only Delgan and Gaela for escorts, and it seemed that he was now paying the price for his error.
"We have to go!" Twilight said urgently to Celestia, pushing against the stunned white alicorn. "Quick, while they're occupied!"
"Oh, there's no hurry," Delgan assured her, still leaning against the wall, "they'll be occupied for a while, yet."
"This is my favorite part," Gaela said, her tone almost wistful, "the realization, and then... the fear."
Twilight blinked, and then twisted her head back toward the Warsmith.
Streams of plasma and pulse fire washed over a rippling bubble in front of Solon's body, the points of contact turning dark. Even the occasional rail rifle impact plunged into the barrier with little effect, the kinetic energy absorbed with ease.
Solon calmly lifted his left hand toward his right shoulder, pulling a manual safety lever. His right arm had been replaced by a squat, cone-barreled cannon with no apparent ammunition feed and a great number of cylinder-shaped power capacitors surrounding the gun's chamber.
Voidsong's plasma burst cannon continued spewing a veritable river of blazing green flares into the shield, but to the Shas'o's increasing frustration the barrier wouldn't fall. Her soldiers had already started moving about for cover, uncomfortably aware that their target was going to survive long enough to retaliate.
Voidsong quickly looked over her scanner readouts as she let her plasma weapon complete its firing cycle. She was surprised to find that the energy signature of the barrier was quite familiar to her.
"A void shield? You have a void shield that small? Impossible!" the High Commander growled.
"Imposhible?" Solon asked with a chuckle as the barrage finally slowed. "I wash conshtructing the imposhible back when your race wash shtill figuring out fire!" He laughed as he aimed his cannon at the tactical hololith table. "Let me show you more of my imposhible creationsh!"
The singularity pulse cannon fired, spitting a dark gray orb into the projector table.
The table was crushed instantly into a crumpled ball. Floor tiling peeled off the ground and flew toward it like a wave of stone. Every window in the throne room shattered inward, the shards flying toward the impact point in a hail of glass. The columns nearest to that section of the hall cracked and bent inward. The battlesuits that were moving to flank the Warsmith were yanked back out of the air, out of control. They were joined by the Fire Warriors and Fireblades, who were pulled out of cover into a haphazard pile on the floor... mostly along with the cover itself. Even the ponies on the other side of the room staggered as they felt a sudden pull on their bodies, and Twilight rapidly extended her wings in a panic, thinking she might be dragged away.
"All too eashy," Solon murmured as his heavy bolters slid out of their sheaths.
Voidsong's suit activated its jet pack before he could fire, and she blasted to her feet before her suit shimmered and then vanished from sight.
The heavy bolters fired, and half the Tau that didn't have the benefit of battlesuit armor were ripped apart in a matter of seconds. One of the soldiers that DID have a battlesuit didn't fare so well either, and a heavy bolter shell managed to pierce the cockpit hatch and pulverize the pilot within.
As the surviving lighter infantry scrambled away on their hands and knees, the other battlesuits boosted away on their jet packs, spreading out before their stealth fields activated and they vanished from sight.
Solon paused as he focused in on the fallen battlesuit, identifying the fusion blaster on its arm. Good. He had only detected two of the anti-vehicle weapons, which meant there was only one more severe threat to his void shield.
Solon's mechatendrils spread out, and for a second, the Chaos Lord stood perfectly still.
Thermal readings, sonic reverberations, and air currents were all read and analyzed in an instant, creating a sensory snapshot of four invisible armor suits darting about the throne hall. Solon focused on the only one that was moving closer and leapt like a spider in ambush, his front legs scything downward and slamming into his target.
The Heavy Stealth Suit hit the ground hard, and its fusion blaster discharged into the floor to dig a molten trench through the flagstone.
With the battlesuit pinned, Solon lowered the enormous servo claw at his side, its pincers snapping shut like a hungry maw. Plasma and pulse rifle fire battered his void shield from all angles, but the barrier held firm as he crushed the life from his prey and ground apart the advanced ceramic armor of the Tau like a potter's clay.
"You know Princess, while Mister Solon DOES seem to have the upper hoof at the moment, I believe it would be pertinent for us to take Twilight's advice and find someplace safer!" Rarity shouted over the scream of pulse fire and heavy bolter bursts.
Luna pouted. "But dost thou not wish to see the deliverance of hot, explosive justice against the alien?"
"Not while I'm close enough to trip on the ammunition casings, no!" Rarity replied, gesturing to the many short, steaming metal tubes that were rolling across the floor.
"Poor timing, then," Gaela said, her vox unit raising her voice appropriately as she turned her gaze toward the open doorway next to her, "we have incoming."
"Oh? Battlesuits or little ones?" Delgan asked. He raised one arm and then the other, tapping his bracers in a carefully deliberate sequence. Small, curved energy barriers appeared over them as he did so, humming to life with a soft orange glow.
"First one, then the other," Gaela brandished her plasma pistol and power axe as the sound of approaching jet packs rose over the din of Solon crushing his prey.
The first Tau reinforcement to enter the throne room was a Crisis Suit, and it was ready. Having detected Gaela's power armor just as she had detected its approach, the battlesuit twisted out of the path of her axe's swing and spun about to face her, skimming over the floor as its momentum carried it out of melee range.
It did not detect the rather poorly armored Delgan, and as such was completely surprised when two crackling power swords sliced through its back.
The battlesuit lost flight power immediately, and loosed an aimless burst from its plasma gun before it crashed into the floor, sliding to a stop right in front of Rarity. Before it, or she, could do anything else, Delgan dove toward the fallen armor and stabbed both swords into the armor cockpit, skewering the pilot.
Gaela had moved on, blocking the next battlesuit directly as it followed its partner into the room. The Crisis Suit dwarfed the Dark Acolyte, but it was already at an utterly inappropriate range and couldn't adjust its course in time. Gaela's axe bit into the torso plating, and then her servo arm slammed into the heavy armor, crushing the suit's arm and bringing it fully to a stop. Her plasma pistol finished it off, and the dying hulk nearly crushed one of the Fire Warriors rushing into the room as it keeled over.
"Chaos comes for you!" her vox-enhanced battle cry echoed off the walls as she shoulder-checked a Tau and plowed into the rest of the unit, her axe rising and falling in bloody arc as her servo arms struck the aliens in a mechanized frenzy. Delgan was by her side in a moment, his blades lashing out like lightning bolts as he kept the enemy soldiers from surrounding her.
The battle was joined.
****
Canterlot Castle - main gardens
Big Mac's visor blurred away into static briefly as a pulse round struck him in the chest, and he twitched his heavy bolter over as the offending Fire Warrior was highlighted in red.
A stitch of heavy bolts ripped into the gardens, chewing apart trees and shattering vine-covered statues as they sought the targets hiding in the growth.
The hit scored by his enemy stung briefly, but it faded away to nothing as he continued to spew explosions through the green archways where the enemy soldiers were sheltering.
A screaming blast of green plasma flew past him, vaporizing a good part of a statue and the Fire Warrior behind it. Still, Big Mac could see new red marks appearing on his display, and he took a few steps back behind a fountain as he saw a devilfish APC swooping low over the distant garden walls.
"Mac! Big Mac, you all right?!" Applejack called, her voice barely reaching him over the thunder of the boltguns all around her. He didn't bother to answer; his own voice probably would reach as easily, and his focus was better applied toward survival.
The Chaos Space Marines were stretched thin in the garden, but they worked with punishing efficiency and terrifying speed. Each one would move swiftly from cover to cover to get in close to the Tau and expose a unit's flank, which would lead to the Tau soldiers either quickly abandoning their position and getting shot apart, or lead to an Iron Warrior sprinting within arms' reach. As far as Macintosh could tell, once a Chaos Marine got that close, his target was as good as dead; Fire Warriors were crushed or mangled as the armored giants ripped through them, while the gun drones would have their undersides savaged by chainswords or shots from bolt pistols. He had even managed to divert his attention from his own fighting long enough to watch a Heavy Stealth Suit get battered to pieces by Tolken's power maul.
Impressive as the super-soldiers were, however, four had already fallen, and the Tau seemed to be reinforcing the area as fast as they were being killed. If this kept up there was no way they'd find whatever was generating that stupid Shadow.
Also, he was starting to feel a strange... tension in his chest. It was something new, and he was pretty sure it had to do with the new gizmos built into his body, but without knowing exactly what was happening he'd tried to ignore the feeling.
Big Macintosh glanced up at a raised, iron-wrought balcony where a squad of Pathfinders were creeping up to the railing. His servo arm twisted upward, and he fired his magnetic harpoon.
He wasn't totally sure what to expect from the device, but it clamped onto the underside of the platform with a satisfying banging noise, and then the spool engine pulled the harpoon cable tight.
Big Mac surged backward, wrenching the balcony free of its mountings. The platform fell to the ground, landing square on a Stealth Suit and spilling the Pathfinders onto a flower bed. Big Mac lined up the heavy bolter again.
Tolken brought his elbow down on a Fire Warrior squad leader, and then swung his power maul around, taking the alien's entire upper torso off. A shot from his bolt pistol felled the next soldier in line, and the last warrior turned around to run.
Another Iron Warrior intercepted the survivor first, bowling him over and then stomping on the Tau's back.
Tolken quickly turned back behind a savaged unicorn statue, a pulse round scraping his shoulder pad. In a matter of two seconds he had identified the next patch of resistance, armed a fragmentation grenade, and lobbed it behind a thick hedge.
He didn't watch it detonate, instead checking his own unit. "Trixie!" the Armsmaster growled.
The armored unicorn was huddled behind a pair of massive planters, the orange pony right next to her.
"The emitter thingy is that way!" Trixie shouted back, pointing a foreleg and then yelping as a photon grenade bounced nearby.
Tolken took a moment to fire his plasma gun at the newly arrived APC, coring it through its burst cannon assembly and effectively disarming the vehicle. The cover was so dense in the gardens that the Tau vehicles were forced to hover over it to get any sort of firing angle, which left them graciously exposed.
"Not that!" he shouted into his vox as the APC veered away. "You have wargear! Stop hiding and use it!" Tolken demanded, breaking from cover toward a pack of gun drones that were hovering in over the garden wall.
"Oh, for Celestia's sake," Trixie grumbled as the spots gradually faded from her eyes.
"Well, yeah, this IS fer Celestia's sake," Applejack reminded her.
Not deigning to reply to the earth pony, Trixie spotted a group of rather primitive-looking creatures racing through the gardens at the Iron Warrior's flanks, wielding rifles tipped with blades.
"All right, then let's try... THIS!" Trixie mumbled, feeding the proper commands through her nervous uplink.
Half a dozen images of Applejack flickered into being around Trixie, and then in staggered sequence the false ponies reared up and charged toward the oncoming aliens.
Trixie was quite disappointed that, without magic, she couldn't make the hololiths scream some sort of hilariously silly battle cry as they plunged into battle, but to her surprise one of them did.
"FER APPLES, AND EQUESTRIA!!"
It took Trixie a moment to realize that Applejack had actually joined the orange stampede toward the auxiliaries. She hadn't expected that at all.
True to form, the Kroot started opening fire on the oncoming herd, not seeming especially curious as to why none of their shots seemed to connect. In a few moments they crashed into the charging images, quickly stumbling to a confused halt as their blades and kicks went right through the furious equines.
Then one of them went flying into a thorn bush with a pair of hoof prints in its back.
"Behold, Trixie's army of illusions!" the unicorn cackled as she kept the fake Applejacks racing around the aliens' feet and kicking wildly, and then another Carnivore went flying from the melee. "Eenie, meenie, miney, moe! Which pony is your actual foe? When she hits you, then you'll know! Eenie, meenie... hey, wait, get back! Go away!"
Trixie started backing up as the Kroot made a mad dash for her hiding spot, apparently dismissing the herd of (mostly) fake ponies in favor of the noisy armored one. The real Applejack gave chase, and managed to take down one of the aliens by kicking out its shins, but she couldn't possibly prevent the rest from rushing the other equine with guns blazing.
Trixie yelped as a few bullets cracked against her leg and shoulder, and she quickly remembered that she had an actual weapon on her as well. Her horn filled with magic as she recalled Solon's instructions on using the Fireburst Launcher, and her cape swung to the side to unveil the gun. "Stay away from Trixie, you alien mongrels!" Trixie screamed as she fired.
Two darts of flame blasted from the mouth of the gun as she felt the magic suddenly drain out of her horn. The projectiles trailed great, colorful paths of sparks behind them as they twisted and curled through the air, and the nearest Kroot had to look away from the flashing strobes.
Trixie hadn't put much thought into aiming, however, and the firebursts sailed festively over the heads of all the incoming aliens before reaching a copse of sparkling lilies that had been mercifully spared up until now. The firebursts detonated with a considerable blast radius despite their small size, instantly blanketing the magical shrubbery and surrounding planters with fire, but leaving not a single Kroot worse for wear.
The charging savages were instead brought to a halt by a spread of heavy bolter rounds sawing through their unit, followed by the thunder of metal-clad hooves over the ground.
Big Macintosh barreled into the auxiliaries like a wrecking ball, goring one Carnivore on his horns and trampling another as he pushed through the unit and scattered them. Blades scraped noisily against his armor as the aliens battered at him, and Macintosh felt the tension in his chest grow tighter as he kicked and thrashed his head.
He sent a Carnivore flying and knocked over two others with a buck from his augmetic leg, only for one of the creatures to slam its rifle upon his helmet especially hard and stagger him. The other Kroot wasted no time in jumping on the armored draft pony, their blades shrieking against his ceramite shell.
The tension in his chest released.
Big Mac's vision went double, and then triple as his body was flooded with combat stimulants, and every muscle in his body suddenly felt like it was on fire. The moment passed as his vision centered again, and he felt the Kroot grabbing hold of him, ruthlessly digging their weapons into any hinge or seam that they could find.
Applejack flinched back as she heard a very un-Macintosh-like roar fill the gardens, followed by him rearing up and flinging away the aliens that had grabbed hold of him.
The elder Apple sibling moved like a pony possessed, leaping on the Kroot that had been knocked prone and crushing them with startling speed and ruthlessness. A Carnivore that tried to stand up behind him was literally ripped in half by a kick from his bionic leg, and then Mac gored another with his horns before throwing it aside with a twist of his neck.
Another stomp and kick and the unit was finished, every Carnivore dead or dying in the grass around him. Big Mac thought he heard Applejack calling his name, but the sound seemed distant and muffled, as if it were reaching through water. The screams of gunfire and shouting in various languages seemed like distant echoes, and he spotted a pair of Crisis Suits dropping down behind a stone wall, their jet packs burning. Their movements were slower than before, Macintosh noted as he rushed up to the wall where two Iron Warriors were already sheltering. In fact, almost everything seemed to be moving more slowly now.
Swinging around, Big Mac raised his augmetic leg as the hip actuator squealed and sprayed sparks into the air. He slammed the leg into the hefty stone barrier, and the wall exploded outward. The Iron Warriors rushed through the hole in an instant, their chainswords drawn and no words exchanged. Even when moving in slow-motion, like everything else, they were surprisingly quick.
Tolken fired another burst of plasma bolts into a copse of trees that was sheltering some Stealth Suits, and he growled through his vox as he started to feel the heat bleed of his weapon through his gauntlet.
Turning back behind an iron-wrought statue, he took a quick look at his rearguard and noticed that Trixie was actually participating now. She wasn't exposing herself to the enemy much, which was largely a good thing. She hadn't done much damage to the enemy either, which was not a good thing. But she HAD set several flower beds and some vines on fire, which was an irrelevant thing, and gave him an idea.
He peeked out from cover and quickly used his visor to mark several points in the garden where clusters of foliage obscured the enemy or were otherwise densely packed. A plasma blast slashed by his head as he ducked back down and linked to Trixie's vox.
"I'm uploading new targets. Fire upon these points and light them aflame," Tolken ordered before drawing his bolt pistol and blowing apart a gun drone that had strayed out into the open.
"Er... okay, but... you know this is going to end up spreading fire through the entire garden, right?" Trixie answered back.
"That is the point, witch."
"Just checking."
A few seconds later a pair of fireballs crashed into the garden wall, lighting that segment aflame. A few seconds after that, a cluster of thick vines that had already been quite badly shredded by pulse and bolt fire went up. Next came the cluster of trees that sheltered the Stealth Suits, and then another section of garden wall.
The aforementioned battlesuits abandoned their position as the flames quickly spread around them, their jet packs carrying them behind a large stone fountain. One suit was clipped by bolter fire as it moved, and its jet pack was blown off before it staggered to the ground and was finished off a moment later.
*Damn! This whole place is going up in flames!* snarled the Shas'ui, taking note of the spreading fires and their location on the outermost points in the garden. *They're trying to force us closer!*
*Shas'ui, we're barely holding them back as it is! If we can't keep to range then they'll tear us apart!*
The squad leader spat a salvo from his burst cannon, and then ducked back behind the fountain as bolter fire started to chew it apart.
*Fall back to the field projector.*
*Shas'ui?*
*They must be here for that. There's nothing else back here worth attacking. We'll carry it behind the castle and defend it there. Now MOVE!*
****
Canterlot Castle - throne room
Delgan's power swords whipped through the Tau in crackling arcs, slicing burning gashes into the Fire Warriors with unnatural speed. A Crisis Suit tried to hammer a fist into him, only for him to raise an arm almost casually to deflect the blow against his shield bracers. The barrier field sparked as the suit's arm bounced off, and Delgan sliced one blade upward to cut a gash through the limb before turning around and stabbing a Fire Warrior through the back. Turning the rest of the way around while bringing his power swords together, Delgan ripped both of them through the battlesuit, carving a thick gash through its torso plating and then shifting away.
Gaela, to be sure, lacked any shred of Delgan's speed and grace, but she gladly faced the alien warriors with all the unsubtle brutality of her station. Where the Trademaster struck like a viper, his weapons lashing in and out while he evaded and twisted, the Dark Acolyte fought more like a bear. Each swing of her axe brought her target to a shuddering halt, and on the occasions that the first blow didn't finish her foe, her servo arms descended to savage the target. Battlesuit and Fire Warrior both were crushed under her blows, and her heavy armor shuddered but held firm against their retaliations.
Solon, meanwhile, was chasing the remaining Heavy Stealth Suits around the throne room, using his sensory pings to track the hidden enemies before lunging at them. There were still a few Fire Warriors near the front entrance, but he paid them little mind. They could be finished off at his leisure, after he had dealt with the greatest threats.
One of his mechatendrils blasted a jet of fire to one side as Solon fired his heavy bolters in a wide spread, and he was rewarded with a chance impact against the air. The rest of the Heavy Stealth Suit flickered into view for a moment, and the Warsmith lunged.
One front leg hit the battlesuit, digging into the front armor and pinning it against the wall under a shattered window.
"Tag! You're dead!" Solon said cheerfully as he reached his servo claw forward and crushed the struggling armor suit, cockpit and all.
Solon stepped off of the ruined armor, his shield still sizzling against the ceaseless barrage of pulse rifles.
"All right then, who'sh next?" he asked as he turned away from the wall and started a new sensor sweep.
The sound of a nearby anti-gravity engine gave him pause, however, and he turned back around to look out the window.
A Hammerhead gunship was hovering outside the castle hall, its heavy railgun swiveling about to aim at him through the window.
"Oh, no you don't!" the Warsmith yelled, aiming the singularity pulse cannon out at the hover tank.
Both weapons fired, the shriek of their mutual discharge echoing through the hall and bringing a halt to the fusillade uselessly pounding Solon's void shield.
The Hammerhead imploded as the singularity pulse hit home, its hull cracking into thousands of shards and pulped components that simultaneously tried to occupy the same point on the vehicle's armor. A moment later the gravity well vanished, and the pieces of the gunship fell to the ground in a rain of debris.
The effect of the heavy railgun on Solon was far less dramatic. His void shield overloaded instantly and popped like a bubble as sparks blasted out of the emitter arrays on his back.
"... Uh oh," the Warsmith mumbled.
Then a pulse rifle blast struck him in the side of the head, pitching his helmet to the side.
"Solon!" Twilight shouted anxiously as the Warsmith started backing away, shielding his face with left arm.
"No, no, I'm all - OOF! - I'm okay. I've shtill - GAH! - I've got thish!" Pulse fire battered his body and chassis, throwing up blasts of sparks and searing off chunks of metal, but even without a barrier Solon's armor was extremely formidable. A wild spray of his heavy bolters sent the Fire Warriors ducking back behind their cover, and Solon's singularity pulse cannon started to whine as he expedited its firing cycle.
Then Voidsong shimmered into view on the Chaos Lord's right flank.
She unleashed a brutal spray of plasma bolts into the Warsmith's side, cutting apart one leg and melting holes in the singularity pulse cannon near its firing chamber.
"Oh, bloody hell!" Solon cursed as he staggered, dropping one corner of his chassis on the floor and smashing one of his heavy bolters under his weight.
He turned to try to retaliate against the Tau leader, but Voidsong had already vanished from view and he was now receiving several very unsettling system warnings from his augmetic weapon.
"Oh, are you sherioush? I only got to fire the damn thing twice!" Solon complained as he uncoupled the cannon and then ripped it out of its nerve socket with his free hand. Noticing that it was vibrating dangerously, he hurled it toward the nearest cluster of Fire Warriors.
The familiar cracking noise of the singularity discharge came from the damaged weapon as it fired one last time, instantly crushing two Tau soldiers and yanking the remainder onto the floor once again. Without the proper bracing of all six legs, even Solon was dragged a few inches across the ground as the gravity well sprung to life and then vanished without a trace.
Shifting his legs to force his chassis off the floor, the Chaos Lord aimed his remaining heavy bolter toward the staggered aliens and released a punishing burst, turning the hapless soldiers to bloody chunks.
As his gun thundered away, Voidsong appeared yet again, this time with the other remaining Heavy Stealth Suit behind her.
"Hark! To thy rear quarter, Warsmith!"
Luna's warning came to late, although it's debatable whether Solon could have done anything with further warning anyhow. A stream of plasma and missiles crashed into the Iron Warrior from behind, blasting apart another pair of legs and tearing off one of his smokestacks.
The Chaos Lord yelped as his chassis dropped flat onto the floor, crushing his remaining heavy bolter beneath his bulk.
Despite the apparent damage, Voidsong was actually quite frustrated; considering the strength of those munitions and the penetrating power of her plasma burst cannon, they were doing frustratingly little damage to the massive Iron Warrior. His body was stronger than anything she had encountered before from an enemy of his size, even after taking down that blasted void shield.
As the strange metal tentacles rounded on her, she also reflected that he had many more weapons besides the large, obvious ones. She raised her shield arm as she waited for her gun to finish its cooling cycle, watching with contempt as a series of cutting lasers flashed uselessly against her own barrier.
Gaela hacked down another Fire Warrior, splitting his own sword in half before rending the soldier from shoulder to pelvis.
She heard Luna's shout, but was well aware that a moment's inattention could cost her life in a melee. She shouldered aside a Tau that was trying to stab her flank, and then disintegrated another with her plasma pistol.
"Delgan! You deal with this!" she shouted over the sound of explosions behind her.
In a flash the Trademaster had cut down another two Fire Warriors that were trying to break past her, and then the swordsman was alone in front of her.
"The others broke and ran. I've got them," he said through heavy breaths. He didn't wait for answer, sprinting out of the throne room and lancing the first survivor he saw in the back.
Gaela turned, her eyes landing first on the smoldering chassis of the Warsmith before tracking to the warrior primarily responsible.
Her plasma pistol was already venting hot steam around her gauntlet, but she fired into the High Commander anyway.
Voidsong suppressed an angry scream as her plasma burst cannon was ripped apart by an unexpected energy blast from her side, and she risked a glance over.
She was treated to the almost-amusing sight of Gaela's plasma gun falling to the floor in a scorched, flaming mess, having overheated catastrophically. Were the Dark Acolyte any less armored she no doubt would have lost the hand.
Voidsong heard a clicking noise come from her main opponent, and saw that Solon was drawing a boltgun from an armored case on his chassis, taking it up in his remaining arm. The weapon seemed almost comical in the giant's hand, especially after she'd had to systematically destroy his larger guns, but it was still a threat. Voidsong took off to the side with her jet pack as Solon rotated on his chassis and fired at her, trying to draw the Chaos Lord's fire away from her remaining trooper.
She succeeded, and the other Heavy Stealth Suit finished cycling its burst cannon and started shooting again.
Gaela dove for the remaining battlesuit, cleaving through its arm and separating it in a spray of shattered armor.
This soldier managed to dodge the following attack from the servo arm, twisting on one foot with uncommon agility and slamming its remaining arm into Gaela's head.
The helmet of her power armor broke away, the plates of adamantium snapping apart at the seams and tumbling away as she staggered under the sheer force of the blow.
The battlesuit regained its footing, and then tried to hammer its arm down to finish the Acolyte, but Gaela's servo arm grabbed the limb in mid-swing and then crushed it in its grip.
Gaela felt blood trickling across her face, but the throbbing in her head was a distant worry in the midst of combat. Regaining her bearings, she looked up just as the Heavy Stealth Suit activated its jet pack and rammed forward, thinking to simply barrel her over with its greater mass.
Gaela punched her bionic arm forward, and her entire body shuddered as the battlesuit's ablative plating cracked under the impact. The suit's charge was stopped dead even as its jet pack strained to overcome her, and she once again bit into her opponent with her servo arm to hold it fast.
"G-Gaela?" Twilight asked, looking rather disturbed as Gaela grappled with the heavy armor suit.
"What concerns thee, Twilight Sparkle?" Luna asked from where she was seated, quite obviously enjoying herself. "She seems to be prevailing in her duel. More so than the Warsmith, We might add."
"It's not that," Rarity said with a haunted tone in her voice, "it's just..."
Twilight gulped as Gaela found enough room to raise her power axe for a full swing into her enemy's cockpit. "She's... She's smiling..."
****
Canterlot - main plaza (improvised prison yard)
Shining Armor winced as he watched a row of Chaos riot drones come apart under a volley of missiles, and he turned his head away as a wave of heat washed over him and the soldiers he was interred with.
Little was left of the mechanicals other than a few scorched bits of debris, and he glanced over to the depleted drone carrier that was lying in a small crater further back. It was merely one of seven such objects, but for all the equipment the Iron Warriors had launched into this area, it had taken a paltry toll on the Tau defenders.
*Area secure. Prepare for the next wave,* barked a Broadside battlesuit loaded down with missile launchers on both arms and shoulders. Its armor was dotted with scorch marks, but the riot drones had caused no real damage to the hefty soldier.
*Forget that! We need to reinforce the city!* shouted a Tau squad leader. *our garrisons are being overrun! The gue'vesa'la deployments have fallen back to the city edge and we've lost half of our anti-air guns already!*
A pair of Devilfish transports zipped overhead on their way to the city streets, and the Broadside suit spared a glance at the anti-air guns that were positioned behind the electrified cages. The two auto turrets were still blasting a constant stream of ion bolts into the sky in its desperate attempt to intercept the drone carriers, and they were linked to the same ion generator as the ponies' cages.
*What of this turret position, and the prisoners? Are we to leave them unguarded?*
*It's not a matter of 'guarding' anymore! We know where the enemy is! They're not going to get here unless they finish taking the city first, and we can still stop them if we hurry! They didn't bring enough troops to clean us out!*
The battlesuit operator seemed skeptical, even as it zoomed its optics toward the plumes of smoke coming from the city's buildings. *What does Command say?*
*I don't know. Something happened and I can't get through to the Shas'el, but Shas'vre'getal is already rallying the troops in the city to push back the enemy gue'la. He needs reinforcements!*
As the two aliens discussed the tactical situation in a foreign language, Shining Armor felt somepony poke him in the leg.
"Pst! Hey, Captain! Check this out! One of those dish machines is still in one piece!"
Shining Armor turned around, and he saw that there was indeed a drone that had not been obliterated like the others. It was situated behind a cluster of cages, and so was out of sight of the guards, but considering it had a flashing red light attached to it Shining didn't expect it to stay unnoticed for long.
"Hey, Captain," mumbled a pegasus guard next to him, "this might sound kind of weird, but... do your gums itch?"
The Broadside suit whirled about as the teleport flare activated, and the pilot's blood ran cold as it saw large spikes mounted with skulls and rotting fetishes over the tops of the prison cages. Teleporting Astartes usually meant Terminators. They were too close to get away, and their reserves were all moving into the city.
*Incoming! We have incoming!* a Fire Warrior screamed as the light infantry bolted for cover. He was promptly gunned down in the back as the first of the Rusted Brotherhood appeared from behind the cages, combi-weapon blazing.
The Broadside locked on and fired a full salvo into the charging Iron Warrior, and more than a dozen missiles blasted out of its launchers before hammering into the hulking Chaos Marine. The absurdly heavy armor strained under the barrage, and then it finally gave, blowing apart before the last few missiles struck the diseased and corrupted flesh beneath. The ponies in the nearest cage fell flat against the floor, feeling the concussive waves pushing them toward the electrified bars.
The Iron Warrior groaned loudly as he keeled over, smoke pouring from his body and flaming bits of armor tumbling around his feet.
Before the Broadside could even consider its next barrage, the rest of the unit had appeared behind the fallen Terminator, guns pouring bolt shells into the Fire Warriors and a unit of gun drones that had assisted in mopping up the pirated Chaos versions.
One Marine in particular glanced down at the fallen Iron Warrior, and then up at the battlesuit.
The pilot wasn't completely sure how the hulking figure had crossed the distance so fast; it might have teleported, or perhaps it had managed to leap seven meter's distance in the time it took to glance at a loading progress indicator. The battlesuit operator didn't have enough time to think further on the matter before a powered hammer slammed into its torso, crushing the cockpit and tearing it off of the pelvis actuator.
Sliver turned away from the shattered bits of armor and let loose with the Viral Scourge, vomiting a stream of toxins over the resisting Fire Warriors.
One of the Rusted Brothers paused in his assault as the Fire Warriors were driven screaming and gasping from the area, and he glanced over at the guns tearing away at the sky behind them. His eyes followed the power cables to the generator, and his power fist crackled as he flexed his fingers.
The drones were still hammering away with their pulse carbines, but he paid them no mind as he stomped over to the crackling cylinder placed between a pair of cages. The ponies backed up as far as they dared within the cages, some of them sputtering questions or complaining about the smell, but he ignored them, too.
A single punch ripped easily through the generator, and a low-pitched whine came from the auto turrets as they powered down.
Sliver looked up as the last of the gun drones fell to the ground in pieces, and he noticed an enormous shape barreling over the treetops toward them.
"Incoming Riptide," the Chaos Lord growled as the Rusted Brotherhood regrouped, less one member.
"There are assault skimmers approaching as well, Lord," hissed another Terminator.
"I have a lock on the next beacon," Sliver growled, "teleport engaged."
The Iron Warriors were surrounded by a halo of light, and then they vanished.
"Geez, they didn't even let us out!" complained a Royal Guard as he tapped a hoof against the bars of his cage. They were no longer electrified, but they were still strong enough to hold a handful of ponies, to be sure.
Shining Armor winced as a truly massive battlesuit landed in the plaza, its enormous guns searching in vain for a target as Hammerheads swept in to back it up.
"Actually, I'm okay with staying here," the unicorn mumbled, "you know, for now. At least until my magic works again."
A distant explosion came from the city, and the guards all cringed as they watched a tower crumble to the ground in flames.
"Yeah, okay. Good point. I'm cool with that, too," amended the first guard nervously.
****
Canterlot - Silver Saddle roof patio
"And there goes another one," Fancy Pants said approvingly as another stream of anti-air fire suddenly stopped, only to replaced by a plume of smoke.
"The humans are actually making decent progress," Prince Blueblood remarked, tracking the movements of the second set of invaders by how close the explosions were getting, "I hope this is over before morning. I have a meeting at nine with the tax authority."
Fleur gave him an odd look. "Don't you think it would be canceled on account of the invasion?"
"Not if the invasion is over by then. Hateful creatures, those accountants."
Fancy Pants spotted a group of ponies racing down the alley in a panic, and he whistled.
"Hey! You, down there! Mighty dangerous to be out in the streets right about now!" Fancy Pants called out, bringing the herd to a screeching halt.
As if to underline his point, a pair of piranha attack skimmers zoomed over the tops of the buildings, heading for some distant conflict point in the city. A lascannon bolt fired from a rooftop suddenly ripped into the side of one of the craft, and it exploded in the air before its wingman started veering about wildly.
"Nice shot," Blueblood said calmly, really wishing he had a drink or a cigar right now.
Fancy Pants waited for the roar of the explosion to fade, and then he called down again to the fleeing equines.
"The owner of this establishment is sheltering anypony who comes by in the cellar! Unless you already have a destination in mind, you'd best join them!"
"Thank you!" called out one of the ponies as the rest bolted for the shattered windows and scrambled to get inside.
Fleur sighed and leaned onto the stallion, smiling softly. "Oh Fancy, you're such a hero."
Blueblood probably would contested that compliment, but Fancy Pants did it first. "Please, dear. If I was a hero I'd be down there with them. Shouting advice from safety is the least I can do."
A crashing noise from a building below attracted their attention, and the ponies fell silent as they listened for the sounds of conflict. They weren't disappointed.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!"
"Die, cultist scum! The Greater Good shall always prevail!"
The sound of laser and pulse rifles exchanging fire came from within, and Blueblood looked away.
"Much less of those robots coming down from the sky now," Blueblood mumbled, "I imagine that..."
A loud buzzing noise caused him to trail off, and the ponies grimaced as they identified the sound of approaching Stingwings.
The insectoid creatures flew up over the edge of the patio. There were three of them, and each one was carrying a Pathfinder with a rail rifle.
The other ponies on the patio quickly fled inside as the Tau were dropped onto the roof, but Fancy Pants and Blueblood looked less impressed.
"I say! You there!" the former shouted as the Pathfinders took up firing positions at the roof's edge.
One Vespid deigned to acknowledge the unicorn stallion, its wings vibrating irritably.
"Yes, you! This is a private establishment, and what's more it's currently sheltering countless civilians! Have you no conscience?" Fancy Pants demanded, stamping a hoof as Fleur de Lis hid behind him.
The Vespid raised his neutron blaster and aimed it at the complaining unicorn's face.
"... Ah. Touché." Fancy Pants duly turned around and led Fleur to the opposite corner of the patio.
"Yes, definitely not a hero," Blueblood mumbled as he watched the Pathfinders and Stingwings open fire down into the alleys.
Fancy Pants sighed. "Well, what can we do? Without magic, I don't see how anypony can challenge these Tau brutes."
"Hey, Tellis! Found some bugs up here!"
The (somewhat) feminine shout surprised the unicorns, and they looked up in shock.
Rainbow Dash was floating above the building, her tail whipping about anxiously as she hovered behind the Vespids.
The insectoid aliens spared her a glance, and then dismissed her. None of the other ponies had given them any trouble, and aside from this one being loud, she wasn't hindering them in any way.
Or, at least, that was what they thought until she flew into one of the Pathfinders and kicked him off the edge of the roof.
The next Pathfinder over shouted in surprise, and then tried to club Rainbow Dash with his rail rifle. She proved too fast for that, zooming away, but in the next moment the Vespids dove in toward her.
The Stingwings were bigger, faster, and much more agile than the Tau, and Rainbow found that after dodging the first few swipes that she had been surrounded.
She bolted straight up into the air, only to yelp painfully as one of the aliens caught her by the tail and flung her down to the floor.
"Isn't that the Element of Loyalty?" Fancy Pants asked nervously as he watched the pegasus hitting the patio floor painfully.
Blueblood was about to make a sarcastic crack at that - he was leaning toward something with "Element of Failure" - when he noticed something come up rather quickly to the edge of the roof.
The Vespids heard it, certainly - it was making a great deal of noise in the process - and they turned around as soon as they saw that the blue pony they had been fighting wasn't hurrying to get back up.
Tellis stood at the edge of the patio, leaning against the railing as it strained to hold up his weight. He was holding one Pathfinder up off the ground, with one hand gripping the alien's helmet as the Tau soldier kicked and flailed uselessly. The other Pathfinder was on the floor in pieces, having been slashed apart in the time it took for the Vespids to whirl around.
"'Sup?" the Raptor Lord asked, tilting his helmet back.
The Stingwings buzzed their wings noisily as they kept their blasters aimed at Tellis, the sound causing an instant headache in the ponies in the vicinity. He was holding the surviving Pathfinder up in front of him, though, blocking any shot unless they took to the air first; neutron blasters were not very discriminating weapons.
"So, how you wanna do this? One at a time? Group hug? Aerial battle? Don't leave me hanging, we're on a timetable here," Tellis said. The Pathfinder had drawn his knife and was now stabbing frantically at the Chaos Marine's vambrace, but Tellis continued to ignore his struggles.
One Vespid made an angry buzzing noise, but Tellis interrupted it.
"I wasn't talking to you, roach," the Raptor Lord screeched, causing the three unicorns watching the altercation to flinch back again.
"One at a time," Rainbow Dash replied from behind the aliens as she bounced back onto her hooves, "I've got this one!"
Then she slammed both her back legs into one of the Stingwings' shins (or the alien, humanoid-insect equivalent of a shin, at any rate), shattering it.
The other two Vespids took their attention off Tellis for a split second, and that was all he needed.
"Hold this!" the Chaos Lord yelled as he blasted forward, flinging the Pathfinder to one of the Stingwings as he dove for the other.
To his surprise, his target managed to leap away just ahead of his lightning claws, taking to the air and loosing a blast from his neutron blaster as he retreated.
The blast missed as Tellis twisted, and then his afterburners ignited behind him, launching the Iron Warrior into the escaping auxiliary. As good as a Vespid's reflexes were, their wings hardly outpaced jet-assisted acceleration, and Tellis slammed into the Stingwing before tearing the blaster out of its claws.
The Raptor Lord grabbed the Vespid's arm as it tried to scratch at him, and then he gleefully tore that arm from the creature's body, his helmet ringing as it released an agonized screech.
"Blood for the Blood God!" he screamed before bludgeoning the Vespid down into the patio with its own dismembered limb. Then he paused to glance at the greenish ooze coming from the shoulder segment. "Or... Or ichor? Is that ichor? That's like bug blood, right? Pretty sure that counts."
He would have gotten a back full of heavy neutrons from the unharmed Stingwing, but Rainbow Dash kicked its blaster to the side and threw off the shot before darting away through the air again.
"Hey, Tellis! Less gabbing, more jabbing!" the pegasus shouted as she twisted around a pair of high-radiation beams. Even the misses felt hot and made her a bit dizzy (more so than her aerobatics), but the moment passed.
The Tau Pathfinder, who had been shaken but not wounded during his brief stint as a living shield and then projectile, scrambled to the edge of the roof to recover his rail rifle.
He grabbed the weapon near the railing where he had been positioned, and then jerked back before a laser bolt lanced up from the alley below and almost struck him in the face.
Taking a deep breath, and trying to get the horrific screech of the flying Iron Warrior out of his head, he checked his weapon and prepared to re-join the fight.
"Sorry about this, chap. Well, not really."
"Enjoy the flight, you Goddessless Commie scum."
The Pathfinder barely had time to look behind him before Blueblood and Fancy Pants bucked him off the edge of the roof, sending him screaming to the streets below.
"And THAT'S what I think of wealth redistribution!" Blueblood spat, snapping his head to the side and settling his mane. "Bourgeoisie for LIFE."
"I say," added Fancy Pants, "word."
They tapped hooves. Behind them, Fleur de Lis rolled her eyes.
Then she screamed in fright as Tellis smashed into the patio in front of her, wrestling a Stingwing to the floor.
"Fight harder, insect!" Tellis screamed, one hand squeezing around the Vespid's neck as the enemy flyer clawed over his armor in a desperate search for weak points.
The hand didn't really constrict the Vespid's breathing, since his dermal layer was carapace, but it did start to crack the carapace after a few seconds of squeezing.
"Hey, Tellis! The last one's flying off!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
"Can't you kill it?!" Tellis shouted back.
"C'mon man, I already broke its leg and kicked away its gun. Do I have to do ALL the work?"
"Point. Sorry bug, gotta go." Tellis wrenched himself free of the Vespid's grip as he jolted upright, his wings spreading and adding some backwards force to the motion. Then he raised a boot up and stomped the Stingwing's head to paste before he jumped up and took off.
He spotted the survivor right away, although given that he was in a contested battle zone there were a lot of juicier and more tactically valuable targets he could see from up high. Some of which were lining up their weapons to shoot him, too. Still, he reasoned that Rainbow had gone through a lot of trouble to take down this one thing, so he could at least see that her effort didn't go to waste.
The thing was, it was already crippled. That took some of the fun and effort out of a kill. That meant that some extra flair was required in the execution.
A lucky pulse shot hammered into his side and he twisted involuntarily, his visor coming to stare, as if by divine guidance, at a large pony statue.
A large ALICORN pony statue.
The burning pain in his side faded to nothing as he found himself inspired.
Tellis jetted upward, rising high over the buzzing Vespid and high enough that he stood a severe chance of being targeted by the anti-air turrets. Then he curved down, his vox releasing a horrendous screech as he descended on his prey like the predators his units were named after.
Tellis tackled the Stingwing out of the air before it could get to a friendly firing line, and his wings burned hard to the side in order to change course in the air. The Vespid didn't respond right away, possibly due to the shock or perhaps resigned to its fate, but in the last few seconds its wings kicked up again, trying to resist the Raptor Lord's course. It wasn't enough.
Tellis laughed as he slammed the enemy flyer against the head of the statue, his voice amplified to a lunatic howl as his wings swiveled about and sent him careening toward his next victim.
The Vespid was left behind, impaled through the chest by the horn of Princess Celestia's stone effigy.
"Auntie is NOT going to like that," Blueblood murmured as he stared at the act of brutality-slash-vandalism.
"You said that was the Element of Loyalty flying with that raving psychotic?" Fleur asked as she awkwardly cleaned her legs with a napkin. The Vespid that had gotten its face stomped in had splattered some of its fluids on her, and she was finding it difficult to wipe it off while also holding the napkin in her mouth.
"Indeed. She seemed to be doing quite well, too." Then Fancy Pants looked away toward the edge of the city. "I do believe this conflict is about to reach a swift conclusion, however."
The other two unicorns turned to look away from the violent carnage below, and Fleur gasped.
She didn't really know what a gunship was, what they were for, or why their arrival could potentially clinch the battle decisively in favor of the Iron Warriors. But she did see that the large flying machines were painted in the "friendly" colors of gunmetal and gold, and that they were approaching the city fast.
Also, there were quite a lot of them.
****
Canterlot - city parks
The flood of riot drones had completely stopped by now, their role complete and the drop-bays of the Harvest all but depleted.
By the time they had been flushed out, however, they had been replaced by a far more formidable foe: human infantry.
*We have markerlights!*
*Line up your shots, Shas'la! Volley fire!*
Said human infantry died in droves as a veritable wall of pulse weapons poured into the buildings they were sheltering in. Many were killed even as they ducked out of sight, the energy bursts burning through the walls to reached the hapless mercenaries cowering within. A salvo of smart missiles sailed into the windows and then curved into the remaining targets, the micro-warheads blowing apart men with ease.
A Fireblade breathed heavily as he saw the survivors scrambling away through the interior of the gutted buildings, back to the safety of claustrophobic alleyways and billowing smoke.
The Fireblade checked his men, seeing them still lined up behind the defensive walls or sheltering behind trees. His forces were defending the far edge of the city, on the opposite side from the train station. This area held their last garrison that was technically in the city rather than the castle property, and more importantly, had the largest battery of functional anti-aircraft guns left. Six of the auto turrets thundered away behind riflemen and battlesuits, taking their first opening shots at the incoming fighters.
This was the third push by the humans that had been repulsed, and each one had been better organized and armed than the last. Next he was expecting Astartes.
Several of his men raised weapons, but he held up an arm for them to hold fire as a cluster of ponies galloped out of the rising dust out into the open.
The ponies skidded to a stop when they saw his firing line, and the hapless civilians started swirling about in their herd and looking every which way as they panicked.
A nearby crash didn't help their sense of distress, and some of the Canterlot citizens threw themselves flat on the ground as an Iron Warrior Dreadnought smashed through the wall of an adjacent restaurant, throwing debris and Kroot out onto the street with equal contempt.
"SUFFER! SCREAM! BLEED!!" the walker boomed as it unleashed its heavy flamer on the fleeing auxiliaries, roasting half of the survivors as it stomped out into the streets.
A railgun round punched into its arm, and the walker jerked to the side as its armor shrieked and tore. The Dreadnought brought its autocannons to bear on the Tau defensive perimeter, but it didn't line up a single shot before two more railgun shots punched into its sarcophagus and ripped apart the pilot within.
An agonized howl came from the walker as it teetered backward, and the ponies gaped in horror as the metal giant hit the ground. Now it was simply one more smoldering corpse decorating Equestria's prized capital.
The Fireblade snorted as the ponies dashed back into the city streets, apparently deciding that they'd rather face the advancing humans than get caught in crossfire.
*Shas'vre!* his commlink crackled, *are you holding the parks?*
*Yes. May I assume that the push into the city failed? I've been reinforced by several fire teams fleeing from the center plaza.*
*They have. The anti-air matrix is in tatters, and I'm sure you've noticed the gunships incoming.*
The Fireblade looked to the side as a pair of Devilfish APCs floated in, followed by a squadron of gun drones and a Riptide battlesuit. *We can hold this position. I have everything I need, even if we have to fight Space Marines. There isn't enough cover for the enemy to get close, and there aren't enough of them to overrun us. The auto turrets can take out any gunships moving in support.*
*Be that as it may,* the voice on the other end said tightly, *holding the city may soon be untenable. We've already pulled back to the garrisons around the castle, the Shas'o isn't responding to me, and this one blasted unit of Terminators is teleporting about and slaughtering our sniper nests. Even if you're confident in your position, I am going to prepare our forces for withdrawal.*
The Fireblade bristled. *We won't run! Reinforcements are coming! The gue'la will not beat us here!*
*Shas'vre!* barked one of the Broadside suits.
Terminating the commlink, the Fireblade turned around and shifted his outlook back from strategic to tactical. *What is it?* the Broadside battlesuits were in the rear, near the edge of the city platform, and he had to shout to be heard over the pulse rifles and the anti-air batteries that created a constant din all around him.
*We have incoming! Heavy units!* the Broadsides looked confused, even as they gave him warning, and their sensor heads glanced from side to side.
*Could you be more specific? Are you talking about gunships? More walkers? Where are they coming from?* the Fireblade asked. A wave of heavy bolter fire sprayed against the barricade wall, and his men started shouting as they marked priority targets. *We're not exactly short on targets right now!*
The Broadsides either didn't notice the escalating combat at the front, or thought their confused sensor intercepts more important. One of them turned toward the edge of the city platform, stepping up to the railing that separated the lush carpet of grass from the craggy bluffs below them.
*No, I think it's coming from-*
A gigantic metal hand rose over the railing and landed on the suit, crushing it to a pulp.
The Fireblade gaped as a hulking metal body was hauled up over the edge, tearing through the fragile railing as its claws dug deep furrows into the ground. The other Broadside suit started to back away, but the metal monster's other hand slapped the heavy soldier away like an errant insect, knocking it over the edge of the platform.
All the while, a pink pony sat on the horrifying creature's neck and laughed.
"Weeeeeeeeeeeee!" Pinkie laughed as her Maulerfiend mount finished climbing onto the surface and ripped away its harpoon tether. The daemon engine roared as the nearest battlesuits turned to open fire, and she in turn giggled as the siege walker tackled the largest, nearest target, immediately grappling with the defensive line's Riptide defender.
The other Maulerfiends were already hauling themselves up as well onto the grass, jaws snapping hungrily as they finally caught sight of prey. The siege walkers, being made to traverse extremely difficult terrain, had easily made the best time up the mountain side (although only one had been spurred on by a pony kicking it while yelling "Giddyup!"), but as they dove into the cluster of enemies a pair of massive, crab-like claws sunk into the platform edge.
"Easy now, Mister Crabby. Careful!" Fluttershy warned as the Defiler scrambled to get its bulk onto horizontal ground. They had already passed the point where the harpoons had been secured to the mountain, so this part was especially precarious.
The Defiler clambered its front two legs over the edge and onto the grass, and they stabbed deeply into the surface as its claws pulled the rest of its body horizontal.
"Phew! That was a bit scary!" Fluttershy declared.
Then a missile hammered "Mister Crabby" in the side, detonating its heavy flamer tanks.
"Yeep!" Fluttershy ducked behind the daemon engine's body, and then peeked over at the jet of fire that was spewing from the war machine's side. "Oh my! Are you okay?"
The Defiler screeched a response in the affirmative, its battle cannon lobbing a shell into the ranks of the enemy as it started to crawl forward. The fire jet slowed to a trickle and then sealed, and before Fluttershy's eyes the metal surrounding the damaged weapon mount slowly flowed over the tears in the armor, smoothing it out and sealing the hull.
The Defiler rocked back slightly as an ion discharge crackled against its chassis, but now the Forgefiends were dragging themselves over the platform edge as well, bringing their heavy guns to bear. With a half dozen daemon engines happily wading among the fleeing troops and shattering armor of the Tau defensive line, Fluttershy allowed herself a moment to assess the situation and see how she might help.
The first thing she noticed, given her position on the walker's back, was a Hellblade fighter overhead that was struck by a lance of energy and sent careening into the mountain side nearby.
"Whoa!" Spike, who was still holding on for dear life next to the smoke stacks, cringed away from the fiery explosion. Fluttershy frowned.
"Well, that's not very safe. One of those could come crashing down anywhere!" the shy pegasus noted. She pulled herself up next to the Defiler's sensor head, placing a hoof against it's "cheek".
"Mister Crabby, do you think you could do something about those big guns over there? They seem very dangerous," Fluttershy asked tenderly.
The Defiler let out a ferocious screech and then plowed forward, racing toward the anti-aircraft guns as if nothing else mattered. Infantry were simply ignored or trampled in its path, and the daemon engine's guns fell silent as its lurching sprint proved too chaotic for its targeting arrays.
A heavy railgun aimed to put a stop to the walker's progress, and Fluttershy gasped as the Defiler took a round straight through the front of its chassis. The entire machine rocked backward as metal tore apart, and Spike shouted in surprise as a bright crimson energy seemed to seep out of the breach in the front of the daemon engine. After a moment a terrible howl came from the damaged hull, and most of the Tau infantry nearby stumbled to the ground while holding the sides of their helmets in pain.
"Sssssh. It's okay. You're going to be okay," Fluttershy whispered as she stroked the cold metal mask bolted over the walker's sensors. "You don't need to cry. I'm here."
The (literally) infernal howling petered out instantly, and the strange energy stopped flooding from the hole in the Defiler's armor.
"Do you think you can still move, Mister Crabby? This place is still rather dangerous," the gentle pegasus warned.
Suddenly mindful that it was being peppered on all sides by plasma bolts and missile pods, the Defiler lurched back into a run, its claws knocking away troopers and battlesuits in long, careless sweeps.
The Hammerhead gunship that had staggered the engine floated behind the walker as it passed, lining up its heavy railgun for a killing blow.
A giant metal hand grabbed its turret right before it fired, and the shot went up into the air instead.
"Nuh-uh-uh!" Pinkie shouted with a grin as her Maulermount (her new name for it) ripped the heavy railgun off of the tank chassis. "You had your shot! No re-rolls for you!" The Maulermount started hammering the tank into the ground with its fists as Pinkie cackled insanely, and the reinforced heavy plating was smashed apart like it was cheap plastic.
The Defiler paid the struggle no mind, utterly focused on its own mission. The moment it got one body length away from the auto turrets it lunged, its claws snapping shut around the gun barrels and pinching them off.
Then the war walker grabbed hold of the turret body and ripped it out of the ground mounting, flinging it off the edge of the city platform.
The next gun got a battle cannon shot put in its center at inadvisably close range, blasting the turret apart into shrapnel. The Defiler actually trampled and crushed the ion generator powering the turrets on its way to rip apart the third one, thus disabling the remaining turrets and completing its objective. But given that neither it nor Fluttershy understood such machines, neither of them really noticed.
"Oh, that's perfect! Yes, you're doing very good!" Fluttershy cooed as the daemon engine gutted the anti-air cannon. Stepping up to the next one, the Defiler briefly stumbled as a Devilfish raced in front of it, trying to escape the massacre that had engulfed the defensive line.
The Defiler clamped onto the rear of the APC, stopping it dead as the enormously powerful claws dug into the hardened polyceramics. Then the walker started hammering the last gun apart using the Devilfish as a club.
"WOOOOO!!" Pinkie shouted as her Maulermount stomped and whirled about behind the Defiler, crushing infantry underfoot and sweeping them aside with its tail. "This is the best war EVER!" the pink pony whooped louder as her daemon engine started to buck its rear legs and flail its head wildly.
Fluttershy frowned as she carefully stepped to the edge of the Defiler's torso, mindful of the way the walker was lurching back and forth in the throes of its rampage.
"Pinkie, I think that your, uhm, friend there is actually a little distressed by the way you're beating on its neck like that," the pegasus warned, raising her voice as much as she dared.
"Speak up, Fluttershy!" Pinkie shouted as her Maulermount reared up into the air. "I can't hear you over the sound of how much PLOT we are kicking right now!" the Maulerfiend twisted to one side, and then dropped back down to all fours, incidentally flattening a cluster of gun drones.
Fluttershy sighed as the pink pony cackled like a maniac from atop the mechanical horror. "Oh, okay. Never mind."
****
Canterlot Castle - throne room
Twilight, not for the first time since she had arrived, reflected upon the fact that she and the other ponies in the hall really should have gotten out while the getting was good.
Not that they had been hurt, or were even being targeted by the combatants, but they were certainly in plenty of danger. Aside from the gunfire that Solon was spitting uselessly into Voidsong's shield, the Warsmith was also discharging a prodigious amount of exhaust from his smoke stacks. Granted, the hall was very well ventilated now that every window had been destroyed, but she still caught more than her fair share of the pollutants.
They smelled... wrong. Rancid. Like they somehow combined the unpleasantness of vehicle exhaust and rotting meat into one new, excitingly offensive odor.
And then there was Solon himself. The Iron Warrior had taken quite a bit of damage, and he was bleeding from multiple breaks in his armor.
Well, not so much bleeding as "oozing". She had seen human blood before. Far too much, in her opinion. She had even seen post-human blood, and noted its capacity to dry and clot almost instantly.
Solon's blood - or whatever viscous gunk was seeping out of his body, exactly - was a slimy green ooze that glowed unnaturally as it dribbled over his armor and onto the cracked tiles below. If she weren't trying to hold her stomach down she surely would have wondered aloud what it was.
Something wasn't right here. Well, actually, multiple things were extremely wrong right now, most of them quite obvious, but Twilight could feel that things were coming to a head.
Solon's boltgun thundered furiously as it spat burst after burst at Shas'o Voidsong, all with no obvious effect. The High Commander was sweeping from side to side with her jet pack, her shield always raised and ready to intercept the incoming fire. Solon wasn't even a particularly good shot with a hand grip weapon, and despite the fact that he still had a gun and she did not, he got the distinct feeling that the Tau was playing with him.
Which was odd, when he thought about it. By all indications she should have been the one without time to waste.
Then it came. The dark, foreboding "click" of his boltgun hammer failing to find further ammunition. He had already reloaded twice, and after a mechatendril snaked down to the munitions compartment, it released an aggravated hiss.
"Empty. Naturally," Voidsong said as her battlesuit skidded to a stop, "nobody ever packs as much ammunition for their sidearm. Including me, unfortunately."
Solon tsked as he shoved the boltgun back into its holder. He still had his mechatendril weapons, but they were either depleted or too weak to inflict any real damage, even if he could get through the battlesuit's shield. He did have other options, of course. Being a cultist of Nurgle had its advantages.
Wait... did she say...?
"Shidearm? You don't have a shidearm," Solon pointed out, cocking his helmet to one side.
Voidsong reached behind her suit's back with her disarmed hand, grabbing hold of a small, protruding handle. She pulled on it, sliding a short rifle out of its own munitions case that was built into her armor.
"Oh. Well, damn," Solon grumbled as his chassis began to quiver underneath him.
"Are you actually shaking in fear? Before little old me? I'm flattered," Voidsong said as she lined up the ion gun, "this thing is rather inaccurate, and like I said, I don't have too many shots. Best not to turn this into a gun duel when I can just wait for you to run out first, right? After that, you're just a big, immobile target."
The mechatendrils slithered forward to fire another stream of lasers, but Voidsong fired first. The ion bolt cut a sizzling gash into Solon's shoulder and decapitated a few of the snake-like limbs, dropping them to the floor to writhe and hiss in pain.
"You know, it didn't have to be like thish," Solon grunted as his chassis rocked back and forth. He raised his arm to protected his face as another ion bolt was loosed, and the air sizzled as an oozing gouge was blasted through his vambrace. "You could have negotiated. You could have retreated. You could have attacked with your full force. Sho many livesh were losht becaushe you wanted to play the shkulking rogue."
Voidsong actually felt the ion rifle start to shake in her hand as she clenched her teeth. "Don't talk to me about lives lost, you butcher! Don't act like you care!" She loosed another shot, and this one turned a section of Solon's breastplate into a molten, oozing mess.
"Oh, but I do care. Obvioushly I would have liked to avoid thish current embarashment," Solon pointed out, "and you would have liked to avoid what'sh coming next."
"What, your finally keeling over?" Voidsong growled. She briefly checked her sensors, ensuring that she was still alone in her corner of the hall. The Mechanicus woman was leering at her from the other side of the Warsmith, the swordsman was still gone, and the ponies were totally engrossed in the spectacle taking place before them. "You've lost, Warsmith. I've destroyed or outlasted your weapons, I've beaten your admittedly impressive toys, and the hateful corruption that empowers you cultist freaks can't reach you here with the Warp suppressed."
She fired again, and dark, thick fluids started to seep from Solon's wounds and exhaust pipes as she burned another crater in his chest.
"Can't reach me?" Solon asked with a dark, heavy laugh. "My dear Shas'o, you are mishtaken. I carry my corruption with me."
The dark fluid wasn't fluid, Voidsong realized. She wasn't sure why she had initially thought it was. Probably wishful thinking; an assumption to protect her last scraps of understanding of the monster in front of her.
No, those were insects crawling out of the Warsmith.
Rarity and Cadence shrieked and backed away as hundreds of roach-like bugs started to crawl out of Solon's armor breaches and smoke stacks, completely swarming over the armored behemoth before they jumped into the air and took flight.
Twilight was mutely shaking her head, mumbling silently to herself. There were too many. That many creatures couldn't have possibly fit inside the Warsmith's body. Even without accounting for all the things that SHOULD be taking up space within his chassis and armor. And they were still coming, flooding up into the air to hover around the Chaos Lord like a thick, black fog.
Voidsong felt her stomach rise, but forced it down out of long practice. She had been fighting off the persisting sense of terror generated by Solon since he had arrived, and she wasn't about to falter now, when he was at his weakest. "I've seen worse bugs," she snarled, raising her ion gun and firing at the Warsmith's head again.
To her frustration, the swarm of insects converged right in front of her line of fire, causing the bolt to detonate prematurely. Twenty or more Warp-spawned bugs fell to the floor as smoldering ashes, but the Warsmith was unharmed.
The floor underneath Solon cracked, and then the cracks started to grow, curving around in a curiously deliberate way to form three large circles in the hall foundation right under the immobilized Chaos Lord.
More ion bolts screamed toward the Warsmith, but the buzzing swarm intercepted each one with suicidal fervor.
"You're quite clever, grayshkin, but you know nothing about the powersh that infesht the darknesh," Solon lectured as his damaged, mechanical legs fell out of their chassis sockets. "Let me show you."
****
Canterlot Castle - dining hall
Delgan cut low with his first slash, toppling a Fire Warrior, and then blocked a counter-attack on his bracers before slashing across the chest of the second.
Two more sharp sweeps of each of his power swords and each of the alien soldiers were decapitated, smoke wafting from the stumps of their necks.
The Trademaster took another step, still in the midst of his combat poise and his senses electrified by the rush of battle. But there was no more battle to be had.
Delgan panted as his eyes scanned the room. Dropped wargear and butchered Tau decorated the carpeting and laid against the table and chairs in a grisly trail, although there was mercifully little blood; power weapons tended to cauterize the wounds they inflicted. All the better. He would have hated to have ruined the palace decorations with alien gore.
Seeing that he had been granted a brief reprieve, he reached down to his belt and removed a pair of pills. One was a hydrator tablet, to quench his rising thirst until he could address it more properly. The second was another reflex booster capsule to keep himself sharp. Few human warriors had any trouble keeping a step ahead of the Tau in melee, but he preferred five or six steps himself.
Approaching footsteps. His swords were up again, and his mind alert.
A door opened in front of him.
Delgan sprinted forward and slashed high before he actually saw his target. He reasoned that if whatever was coming out was bipedal, he'd get its neck. If it was a pony, he'd miss it with room to spare.
His calculation paid off as he cut deep into the shoulder of a human soldier wearing Lamman Sept armor. Delgan followed up the blind slash with a more precise one as the man screamed and staggered.
There was another human behind the first, and that one had a chainsword, superb reflexes, and the benefit of some warning. Delgan jerked back as the newcomer stabbed the chainblade forward, and a few teeth caught and bit at his coat as the weapon roared furiously not even an inch from his flesh.
A twist of his wrist and the second human had a new gash in his leg. Delgan then punched at the chainsword, catching its whirling edge on his gauntlet barrier. The energy field sparked and flickered, but the chainsword bounced off and gave Delgan every opening he could ask for. The man's head was sent spinning away from his shoulders.
The third human had a laspistol in hand, but as soon as her second bodyguard was dispatched Delgan was already on her, swatting the weapon away before she fired a laser up into the ceiling.
Delgan was about to fillet the last combatant, but he hesitated long enough to remember where he'd seen her before.
It was the fleet officer from the Lamman Sept. He remembered the vid-log from when Solon had briefly contacted the Tau fleet and been brushed off.
His power sword went for her gun rather than her head, and the laspistol was cut into pieces.
"Chaos scum!" Helenis growled as she backed away from the Trademaster. To her surprise, he didn't advance on her, and she took the opportunity to draw her own sword. It was a mono-molecular edged saber, a pitiful weapon in comparison to Delgan's powered blades, but it was leagues better than nothing.
"Why, hello there!" Delgan said, his mustache curving over his smile. "You're that fleet aide to the Tau High Commander, are you not? Fancy meeting you here!"
She stabbed for him. Her form was actually pretty good, and her speed wasn't terrible, either. Delgan's was much better, though, even before taking his combat stimulants into account.
"I'm not sure how tightly you're kept in the loop around here," Delgan said as he dodged out of the way, "but the Lamman Sept is being slowly but surely pushed out of the city." He jumped back from a slash. "Soon your current employers will be, well, dead. Looking for a job? I have openings in my team!"
Helenis growled as she backed away. "I'll never join you, traitor!"
"Oh, come now. Speaking as one traitor to another, there's plenty of common ground between us!" Delgan reasoned, his arms loose at his sides.
"Don't compare me to you, cultist!" Helenis snarled. "I didn't betray the Imperium, I was abandoned by it! And even now, I fight to ensure humanity's survival and prosperity under the benevolence of Tau'va! A better future for everybody!"
"And I too fight for a better future for everybody," Delgan replied, "everybody that matters, that is. Primarily me, but I'm willing to share."
"You haven't just betrayed some distant Emperor," the woman spat, "you've betrayed your soul, your species, and your destiny! Thrown it away for some insane daemon cult!"
Delgan frowned. "Are we really going to have an argument about which of us is a 'bigger' traitor? Because I don't think it's very pertinent right now. You chose aliens to help you survive, I chose cultists. And we've both done very well up until this point. I'm offering you the chance to keep that streak - and yourself - alive."
Helenis clenched her teeth. "I refuse, Chaos filth."
"A shame," Delgan mumbled as he turned on the power fields to his swords, "you seemed to have a good head on your shoulders."
Three steps.
Two sword strokes.
"And now you don't."
****
Canterlot Castle - throne room
"Twilight, what is this?! What's happening?!" Celestia shouted as she crouched next to her student.
"I'm not really sure!" Twilight admitted with a slightly hysterical laugh. "But, speaking abstractly, I believe the clash of technological powers has turned into a struggle of supernatural forces versus natural ones!"
"Did you know he was some sort of evil bee hive?!" Cadence shouted over the infernal buzzing.
"Actually, at a glance, I'd guess that these creatures are from the muscidae family of insects!" Twilight corrected automatically.
"You are SUCH a nerd!"
The buzz of hundreds, maybe thousands of rapidly vibrating wings rumbled in her ears. The Warp-spawned bugs weren't touching any of them, mostly keeping to the swarm around Solon, but there were many that landed on the numerous corpses lying about the throne room, blanketing them in dark carapace and squirming legs. She didn't really know what they were doing to the dead bodies, and she couldn't bring herself to observe them closely enough to find out.
"Are they in my mane?!" Rarity screamed, her body curled up on the floor and her forelegs covering her eyes. "Keep them out of my mane!"
Luna rolled her eyes, being by far the least distressed by the horrifying turn of events. "The vermin art not touching thee. Cool thy jets."
A cracking noise alerted the ponies that something new was happening in the center of the insect maelstrom.
"Urgh... GRAAH!" Solon grunted loudly as something hard and black squirmed out of the hole in his chassis where one of his mechanical legs used to be. With a dull cracking noise, it broke free of the mechanical internals and then unfolded, revealing a large, segmented leg covered in shining black chitin.
"That'sh one," the Warsmith sighed as the leg touched the ground and helped his remaining mechanical limbs hoist his chassis up off the floor. "Give me a minute to grow two more, and then we can wrap thish up."
Voidsong's ion gun trembled in her suit's grip, testament to the wavering nerve of the pilot within. Several of the insects buzzed around her sensor head, as if taunting her for her impotence.
She only had two options left. One was activating her stealth field and getting to the transports that she was pretty sure were gearing up to flee the city by now.
The other was stupid.
So stupid that there was no way the hulking freak in front of her would expect it.
Voidsong lowered her ion rifle, powered up her jet pack, and then blasted forward, straight toward the Chaos Lord.
"SAY HI TO YOUR WRETCHED GODS FOR ME, MONSTER!!" Voidsong howled, diving into the whirling insect cloud and straight toward her foe. Jumping into arm's reach of a Space Marine - much less their leaders, inevitably armed with savage and powerful close combat weapons - was the worst and most desperate tactical move any Tau warrior could make; akin to suicide, really. Judging by the way Solon hesitated, that exact thought was crossing his mind right before his servo claw snapped forward to crush the Tau battlesuit.
A sharp sizzling sound filled the room, piercing the air for one moment and then gone so fast that no one was sure what had made it.
Voidsong landed in front of Gaela, and the Dark Acolyte barely had time to avert her head before the Tau High Commander blasted her with her ion gun. Gaela took the shot in her bionic arm; her robe deflected some of the energy before it melted away to nothing, and the mechanisms within her bionic limb quickly fused under the wave of heat that remained.
Gaela released a muffled scream before she hit the ground, her armor sparking and shutting down all around her as its power relays were cooked from the inside out.
Gaela's power axe hit the ground after her, and then, as if it were the shot from a starting gun at a race, every Warp-spawned insect in the room bolted out the windows in a flurry of dark wings. Within three seconds they were all gone without a trace, like a bad dream. Even the dead ones seemed to have turned into mist and evaporated.
"What... just...?" Cadence looked back and forth between Tau and Iron Warrior, their backs to each other. She hardly needed to finish her question, but none of the other ponies had an answer.
A high-pitched humming noise was coming from Voidsong's suit, which was new. And then Twilight saw it; a thin, narrow wedge of shimmering white sticking out of the Shas'o's shield arm. A power blade.
Solon teetered forward slightly, a deep, tortuous groan coming from his chassis.
"C-Clever... girl..." he choked out before jets of boiling vapor blasted out of the back of his neck. A thick, snaking arc of plasma lashed over his chassis, and one by one his mechatendrils fell slack, like puppets with their strings cut.
"I suppose you thought the 'hidden dagger' descriptor was just a metaphor," Voidsong snorted as she rested her ion gun against her suit's shoulder, "die, monster."
Then, as if on command, Solon's head rolled off of his neck and tumbled to the floor.
****
Canterlot Castle - rear yards
*Move, move, move! Behind the wall, hurry!*
*Don't we have any more back-up?*
*Forget it! It's taking everything we've got to keep the blasted gue'la from overrunning the castle!*
*Here they come!*
Armored ponies and Chaos Space Marines charged around an iron gate, sprinting full tilt at the Stealth Suits that had taken up position behind a stone wall.
Their burst cannons roared to life, spraying a river of blue flares into the onrushing warriors. Their firing angle was perfect, and there was plenty of room between them and their targets; this was a perfect choke point to take down a few over-eager berserkers.
The problem was that all the energy bolts were passing right through their enemies as if they weren't there.
The battlesuit squad leader snarled a curse as he switched his vision modes. His heartbeat was thundering so loudly in his ears that he hadn't even noticed that the enemy charge had been making suspiciously little noise. After a moment of his sensors flickering, he watched the charging figures vanish from sight.
Well, most of them.
The stone wall shattered as Big Macintosh barreled forward, and the draft pony twisted his head to punch one horn through the battlesuit's abdominal armor. Another twist of his head and the shimmering armor suit was sent spiraling through the air, trailing great fans of dark blue blood all the way.
Just off to the side, bolter volleys plunged into the other Stealth Suits as the Iron Warriors took up firing positions at the gate; not only had the illusory charge given them time to get into place, but the Tau's weapon discharges had revealed the hard-to-detect battlesuits' exact location to the Chaos Marines. Within ten seconds three more Stealth Suits were down and the remainder were fleeing the scene with their jet packs.
"Follow! They've carried the damned emitter further back there!" snarled Tolken as he swept an arm forward. The remaining soldiers of the Black Hammers squadron - only six at this point - rushed forward and through the yard.
Big Macintosh was swaying on his legs slightly, feeling dizzy. The brutal high from the combat stimulants was finally wearing off, which not only allowed the stallion to feel his own straining and battered body, but was also returning him to his more sedate and sensible state of mind.
A dozen nagging thoughts came to him to suddenly compete for his attention, none of which had seemed very important a few moments ago when he had been mauling alien warriors. Did he have specific orders right now? Should he be keeping pace with the Iron Warriors? Where was Applejack? Was Applejack okay? Was she using Trixie as a shield, as they discussed? When had he run out of ammunition? Was this a good time to reload? Should he ditch the heavy bolter and stick to kicking Tau from here on out?
Big Macintosh looked behind him, trying to sort out the things that had happened when he had been in a chemical-induced frenzy. He remembered a bunch of hololiths, and didn't remember Trixie running past him, so that meant Trixie was lagging behind. So then-
His thoughts were interrupted by a warning signal on the left side of his visor, and he jerked his head in that direction.
He turned just in time to see the Heavy Stealth Suit de-cloak from where it was standing atop the castle's garbage pile, but not in enough time to do anything about its plasma rifle.
The plasma burst ripped into the left side of the stallion, and Macintosh immediately staggered on that side as both his augmetic legs failed.
He let out a pained grunt as he let his undamaged legs fold as well, landing him on his armored belly as warning signals lit up in front of him and a wire-frame diagram of his body detailed the damage. Apparently most of the plasma salvo had been spent searing through his heavy bolter, which dominated his left side. This not only saved his body a fair amount of damage, but also neatly solved the conundrum about reloading.
That did kind of leave an enemy battlesuit looming over him, though.
The Heavy Stealth Suit turned to glance away at where the Iron Warriors had gone, apparently thinking of its next move, but it nudged its plasma gun over to aim directly at the stallion's head.
All Big Macintosh could perceive, though, was the furious, ear-rending scream coming up behind him. It seemed that Applejack had caught up.
The Stealth Suit quickly turned to face the noisy, incoming threat, but found it rather hard to aim at the screaming orange blur before its brief window of opportunity passed. Applejack slammed her back hooves into the battlesuit with all her might and then some, striking the mechanized armor with a perfect, rolling, mid-air buck.
The ablative armor of the suit cockpit, which incidentally served as its means of camouflage projection, shattered all around the torso as the battlesuit was thrown through the air. It hit a stone pillar and bounced off hard, its jet pack straining to take any sort of control of its flight.
Applejack was already following the suit, apparently intent on kicking the space-age armor to pieces. "GET AWAY FROM MAH BROTHER, YA FILTHY GRAY VARMINT!!" the orange mare snarled as she skidded about in front of the hovering suit and hit it again in its leg.
The leg cracked, but this attack didn't carry the suit nearly as far. Fighting to regain its balance and hopefully get a shot off at the obnoxiously small and disturbingly powerful attacker, its jet pack redoubled its output to keep the suit from sliding backward.
Applejack leapt again and kicked again, but this attack didn't go as well. Pure adrenaline was the only thing keeping her from feeling the strain of her legs striking against armor shielding every bit as tough as standard power armor, and this time a sharp pain jolted through her body as she put a crack in the battlesuit's cockpit covering.
Applejack stumbled as she landed, and that was all the opening the Heavy Stealth Suit needed to club her with its burst cannon, smacking the pony back into the garbage heap where it had launched its ambush.
It was about to follow up its strike with a barrage to finish both Apples off, but was further inconvenienced by a fireball striking it in the front. Heat warnings briefly rose dangerously over the pilot's system display, and the battlesuit shut off its jet pack in order to vent coolant before it dared fire again. The flames weren't strong enough to break through its armor seals, though, so as Trixie galloped onto the scene to help she had merely delayed its firing cycle for a few seconds and added to the number of targets by one.
The plasma bolt that hit the Heavy Stealth Suit in the back proved to be a more permanent hindrance, however.
Tolken's plasma gun spewed gas into the air as the Armsmaster stomped up to the ponies, and he looked over his charges.
Applejack grunted as she got up, but she was in no obvious danger. Trixie was unharmed and already congratulating herself, loudly, for rescuing the pair of earth ponies.
Tolken interrupted her. "Trixie. The enemy got away from us again. Go on ahead and confirm the location of the center of the Shadow with Sereen."
Trixie nodded and galloped forward.
Tolken's visor dropped to regard Big Macintosh. "Are you dying?"
"Nnope," the armored stallion replied, tilting his helmet up to meet the Iron Warrior's gaze.
"Then get up."
Applejack scowled, and a hundred furious tirades crossed her mind in an instant.
She was just sorting out which ones would be least likely to earn her the same fate as the battlesuit when a high-pitched squeal came from the stallion next to her.
Big Mac trembled as he willed his augmetics to action. The living metal was already filling the holes left by the burning plasma, and his actuators shrieked and spat sparks as they fought to lift the stallion's armored bulk.
Big Mac paused, and after a moment of sorting through his equipment selection in his visor display, both his heavy bolter and its depleted ammo case unlocked from his sides and tumbled onto the ground. After another moment he also released the backup ammunition crate carried behind his rear.
Big Macintosh stood up, his augmetics straining but functional. There were large holes in his armor now, but beneath them was more warped metal that seeped back into place to restore its previous form.
"Follow me," Tolken commanded, turning around.
"Eeyup," Big Mac replied, moving into an uncertain canter. As he picked up his sister's grumbling next to him, he leaned his head over her way. "Thanks, Sis."
"Don' mention it," Applejack grunted, looking away, "just try to keep from losin' any more parts, ya hear?"
"Eeyup," Big Macintosh chuckled.
****
Canterlot Castle - throne room
Nopony knew what to say as Solon's chassis collapsed onto the floor. His enormous servo claw went slack a moment later, leaving another large crack in the flagstones among countless others. A few moments after that his one non-mechanical leg started to dissolve away, as if it had decided on its own that it wasn't going to be necessary anymore.
"So... Solon?" that stunned, incredulous mumble had come from Luna, Twilight noted absently. Interesting. But not nearly as pertinent as the Tau battlesuit that was looming over Gaela right now.
"Treacherous xeno!" the Dark Acolyte spat as she struggled to get to her feet. Her right arm was fused into a useless angle, and her armor's full weight now dragged down her frame. Even so, Gaela was determined not to die on her knees.
"Ah. Haven't heard that one from a human in a while. How nostalgic," Voidsong remarked.
The sound of galloping alerted her to a pony incoming, and Voidsong whirled about to face the foe and deflect any potential attacks with her shield.
She needn't have bothered. Twilight bounded between Gaela and Voidsong, spreading her wings to shield the injured human.
"That's... That's enough!" Twilight's voice hitched as her chest heaved for breath. She had been through a lot today, and the physical and emotional toll had long since caught up with her. "You've won! It's over! Just let her live, please!"
Voidsong regarded the purple Princess for a moment, but didn't get much chance to think over the request.
Twilight yelped in shock as a cold, armored hand suddenly shoved her out of the way.
"She hasn't won," Gaela snarled as she leaned down for her power axe, "not so long as I still draw breath!"
Her power axe was heavy in her flesh-arm, her armor wasn't functioning, and half her body was numb from the ion discharge. Even then, pure hate and adrenaline enabled her to lift the weapon into the air, and the blade crackled as the power field engaged.
Voidsong moved first, her own power blade sizzling as it sliced through metal, flesh, and bone.
Both fighters halted after they passed each other, and a contemptuous snort came from the battlesuit.
Gaela staggered forward a step, and her body teetered as she fought to stay upright.
Her left arm hit the floor, smoke seeping from the point where it had been cut from her shoulder. The power axe fell down next to it.
"Now, then," Voidsong began, her power blade retracting, "you're out of spare limbs, cultist. I think I've won, regardless of..."
The High Commander trailed off, and all the ponies turned their heads at the sound of approaching footsteps.
Delgan paused on his way to re-enter the throne room, noticing that the enemy commander was still up.
His eyes moved over to Gaela. One arm was off and her others weren't moving.
His eyes moved over further, to the smoking, decapitated hulk lying in the middle of the hall. One of the remaining legs twitched and blasted a shower of sparks onto the floor.
"Nope," he declared.
Delgan turned around and bolted back out of the throne room. Rarity sighed.
"... And here you Techpriests are supposed to be the smart ones," Voidsong mused.
Gaela probably would have had a sarcastic comment to that, but her body had gone from feeling mostly numb to feeling like it was mostly on fire, and blood was starting to fill her mouth.
"Before I finish you, I have a request," the Tau High Commander said as she walked up behind the Dark Acolyte, her sensor head peering down at the comparatively puny creature, "after seeing that abomination over there in action, I find myself very curious about your little 'religion' and the kind of power it gives you." She raised her ion gun, and then pressed it into the back of Gaela's hairless scalp. "Pray."
"What?" Gaela managed to spit out, unsure whether she should laugh or curse at the alien. "You mean... after all this... you still doubt the... 'reality' of Chaos?"
"Then show me. Pray," Voidsong commanded.
When she got nothing but haggard breathing from the Acolyte, she pushed the muzzle of her weapon forward, almost pushing Gaela over.
"I said PRAY!!" the Shas'o boomed, causing the ponies to flinch back. "In your final moments, after all the suffering you've caused, after all the lives you've taken, I have ONE question for you, cultist filth!" Voidsong's suit leaned forward so that its speaker hovered just behind Gaela's shoulder. "WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?!"
Twilight's voice came out in an incoherent whimper. There was nothing she could do!
Gaela felt equally helpless, if not as emotionally distraught about the circumstances. She swallowed the blood in her mouth, and then forced her paper-dry throat to speak.
"I call upon the spirit of the machine. Spark within shell of steel, electron stream within vein of copper, magnetic sequence within wafer of silicon. I call to thee, in the name of the Omnissiah. The Machine God. The Steel Darkness."
A slight scraping noise came from the ground. Most of the Princesses were too transfixed by the horrors they had just witnessed - and were still witnessing - to pay it any attention, but Cadence managed to divert her eyes away for a few seconds to stare at a severed mechatendril lying beneath a shattered window.
It was moving.
"I invoke the pantheon of Chaos, the true soul of the Omnissiah, to aid me now. Khorne, the beast. Give fire to our weapons and let our blades strike true. When fuel is exhausted and our shattered bodies grow weak, lend the machine your fury, so that it might spill the blood of the flesh once more."
Gaela's power armor started to hum as its systems restored themselves, and her servo arms twitched.
The hand of Voidsong's suit started to tighten around the ion gun.
"Nurgle, the destroyer. Master of entropy, parasites, and cycles. As flesh rots, so does metal rust and circuit degrade. As you foil the machines of the hated foe, so do you protect those of your chosen with your tainted love."
A sharp sparking noise came from the middle of the hall, and Voidsong's sensor head twitched up. The mechatendrils still attached to Solon's body were rising, and small lights started flickering on all around the fallen behemoth's broken body.
"Tzeentch, the antipath. Lies, illusions, and mysticism do you grant us. You are the ghost in the machine, the inexplicable glitch within the system. To those that would serve you, you are the source of all knowledge and secrets, a source of evolution and discovery. To those who would oppose you, you are but a curse."
Voidsong watched as her ion gun's heat readout started to rise for no apparent reason. Then her sensor inputs started going to grayscale and flickering, as if the lenses had been damaged.
"That's enough," the Shas'o said tightly as wisps of smoke started coming from the energizing chamber of her gun.
"Just as well," Gaela mumbled, "next was Slaanesh. I try to avoid that rite."
Voidsong pulled the trigger.
The heat vent of the ion gun exploded outward, and a long ribbon of energy lashed out of the energizing chamber before crawling over the length of the battlesuit's gun arm and cutting it open.
Voidsong leapt back instinctively, crashing into the throne and smashing it apart under the bulk of her armor. The damaged ion gun clattered onto the floor in a smoking heap.
"You wanted to know more about us, grayskin?" Gaela asked, still facing away from the stumbling alien. "Do you want to know why humans turn to Chaos?"
"I..." Voidsong's words got caught in her throat as minor system malfunctions continued to plague her battlesuit.
"Sometimes we convert at gunpoint. Sometimes we trade our souls for petty comforts or advantages. Sometimes we need to think that there's some kind of greater intelligence and will standing behind this cruel, merciless universe, and wish to align ourselves with it."
Gaela turned around. Thick black veins of some sort seemed to be running through her face and over her head, all of them originating from the cranial augment. Her bionic eye pulsed brightly, and Voidsong's sensors seemed to dim in time with its light.
Gaela smiled.
"Sometimes, though, we just need help. And in our fury and desperation, we scream into the darkness, demanding power."
A dull crack came from above, and several loose pieces of stone fell to the floor around Gaela. Voidsong and the ponies looked up at the ceiling.
"And sometimes... the darkness answers."
Princess Celestia cringed, an icy chill running up her spine. The Star of Chaos now decorated the ceiling over her throne, cut into the stone surface by some force unknown.
A deadly pause settled over the throne room as the sound of distant gunfire and detonations came from outside.
"Lunatic rantings of a dead woman walking," Voidsong snapped. Her systems were clear again, free of the apparently mystical interference, and her power blade extended from her shield arm. "I've already slain one monster today, fanatic! You will NOT stop-"
A burst of static came from Gaela's gorget as a vox link was established. Without her helmet, everyone in the room could hear the transmission without difficulty.
"Hey, Trixie here. You're the tech lady, right? Trixie found that Shadow thingy. Do you know how to turn it off?"
"No..." Voidsong mumbled.
"Oh, are we... we're just going to break it? Okay, never mind. Trixie's got this."
"NO!!" Voidsong screamed, vaulting forward toward the Dark Acolyte.
****
Canterlot Castle - rear yards
Big Mac grunted as his augmetic leg smashed into the organ tank of the Shadow field generator. The armorglass folded in an instant, and the gigantic brain within the tank was crushed to a pulp as much of the tank's mechanisms were ripped free from the rest of the device.
Tolken walked over the mutilated bodies of several Fire Warriors to reach a mostly dismembered Heavy Stealth Suit, and then hammered his power maul into the cockpit.
"Mission complete," the Armsmaster growled as he tore the cockpit door off of the suit. He fired two shots of his bolt pistol into the exposed pilot, and then turned away with a snort.
"Was there ever any doubt?" Trixie asked, feeling quite chipper as the suffocating chill of the Shadow in the Warp dissipated.
"Actually, yeah, once'r twice," Applejack mumbled as she walked up to one of the fallen Iron Warriors and tapped a hoof on his scorched armor plating. "Yo, ya alive in there?"
A pained grunt was her reply, which she took as a yes.
The sound of a large engine getting close gave the group pause, and they looked up as an Orca heavy transport craft roared into the sky. It was promptly pursued by a pair of lighter transport craft, and then by a wing of pursuing Hellblade fighters.
"The xeno is in retreat," the Armsmaster declared as he searched the noosphere feeds for tactical information, "the city is ours."
****
Canterlot Castle - throne room
The sizzling sound of a power blade scraping against metal filled Gaela's ears, and she looked down at her chest plate.
The very tip of the battlesuit's power blade was digging into her armor, trembling slightly as it burned away at the outer layer of metal and fought to push deeper.
Voidsong grunted and strained, and her jet pack roared behind her, but she moved no further. Swirling magical energy surrounded every inch of the heavy armor suit, holding her in place in a glowing cocoon of brightly colored power.
"Now then," Luna said darkly, her horn shimmering with magical light, "We believe that thine occupation of our city is to be... renegotiated, alien."
Twilight, Rarity, and Cadence all had their horns aglow, helping to immobilize the alien warrior in the air.
"But first..." Princess Celestia stepped forward, and then her own horn blazed a fierce yellow, "let's do something about all that uncomfortable armor you're wearing."
Slivers of bright yellow light appeared over the battlesuit's arms, and the artificial limbs trembled briefly before shattering into pieces, falling to the floor in a shower of components. The power blade fell away from Gaela's chest, its power field fizzling to nothing.
The legs came next, followed by the sensor head, and then the outer layers of the cockpit. Within seconds there was nothing left of the mighty battlesuit except an egg-shaped vessel trailing wires and broken pieces of machinery.
Gaela snorted and stepped back, and then her servo arms whirled about and started to remove her useless right arm from its shoulder socket.
A pair of yellow lights appeared over the floating battlesuit cockpit, and then they traveled in a circle around the metal shell, cutting it in half.
Voidsong tumbled out of the sundered vessel as the halves parted, only to be caught in mid-air and levitated helplessly before the ponies.
"Miss Voidsong," Celestia said grimly as the Tau officer gave her a rather resigned glare, "I hereby rescind my surrender of Canterlot, and am taking you into custody for your crimes against our nation."
The whine of engines momentarily filled the room as a formation of Devilfish sped by the castle at high speed.
"Considering that my forces don't seem to control your city at the moment, the gesture is meaningless," Voidsong spat, "but sure. I suppose I've earned this. I never did know when to cut and run."
Behind them, Gaela's bionic arm fell and hit the floor, and the ponies winced as they glanced over to the dismembered woman.
"Gaela, darling, do you need some help? Like, maybe... I don't know, a bandage or something?" Rarity asked, walking over to the Dark Acolyte.
"I'll live," Gaela mumbled as she lurched awkwardly toward Solon's body.
"Doesn't your shoulder hurt?" Cadence asked, feeling rather stupid for asking the question.
"The pain is bearable," Gaela answered as she walked up to Solon's head and leaned down onto her knees. Then her servo arm reached down and gently clamped onto the Chaos Lord's helmet.
None of the ponies wished to watch such a grisly scene or reflect upon the fate of the Warsmith, so they turned back to Voidsong.
"So, now that you've lost, do you feel like telling us what you were trying to accomplish?" Twilight asked, her eyes narrowing as she glared up at the Tau.
"Pardon? I thought we covered that," the High Commander replied.
"No, we didn't. Not really, anyway," Twilight insisted, "what did you intend to do with that Warp core?"
"Yesh, I'm quite curioush ash well," Solon asked.
It took a full three seconds for everypony in the room to recognize the very unique speech pattern, recall why that individual shouldn't be speaking, and then commence freaking out about it.
"GYAH!!"
Voidsong dropped to the floor as the levitation keeping her afloat suddenly stopped, and she shouted in pain as she landed on the pile of generally hard and sharp battlesuit pieces.
Gaela was standing up again, Solon's head held tightly in the pincer of her servo arm and facing the others in the throne room.
"What?" the disembodied head asked, taking in the expressions of shock and horror of the ponies.
"Oh, you have GOT to be fucking kidding me!" Voidsong snarled as she pulled herself up. "What does it take to kill you, you bastard?!"
"She shwearsh quite fluently in Gothic, doeshn't she?" Solon asked.
Gaela pursed her lips. "I get the distinct impressions she gets plenty of practice."
Luna recovered first from the sight of a disembodied head talking to them, and she quickly immobilized Voidsong again before speaking. "Warsmith! Thou hast survived thy beheading?"
Solon's helmet was turned away from the ponies as Gaela climbed up onto his chassis. "Oh, yesh. Thish ishn't the firsht time I've been decapitated in a duel."
There was a pause.
"Firsht time againsht a Tau, though." Then he sighed. "Tellish ish going to make fun of me."
Gaela pushed away his hissing mechatendrils, all of which seemed to want to poke at Solon's helmet as she moved it from point to point over the decapitated torso. She was trying to figure out how to make the repairs without hands, Twilight realized.
"Gaela, here! Let me help!" Twilight rushed up to the chassis and lifted Solon's head up with magic, thus freeing Gaela's servo arm. The Dark Acolyte nodded silently.
Princess Celestia frowned, but before she could organize her thoughts or feelings any further the front door of the throne room burst open.
Celestia and Cadence immediately assumed fighting poses as three gigantic Terminators stomped into the room, but the Iron Warriors ignored them. Two of the Rusted Brothers stopped short at the sight of their Warsmith, but Sliver, at the head of the formation, walked all the way up to Solon's body and then plunged his hammer into the floor.
Celestia's eyebrow twitched as yet another hole was created in her throne room, but she decided not to interrupt until she deemed it necessary.
"Warssmith. The city iss ourss. Our unitss are regrouping and ssweeping the area for ssurvivorss and wounded. Combat lossess are sstill being esstimated, but our cassualtiess look to be... tolerable."
Solon laughed awkwardly as Gaela started pulling wires out of his severed neck. "That'sh good! Excellent newsh! Shplendid work, Shliver!"
Sliver slowly turned his helmet to gaze at the Tau female floating in the air near the back of the throne room.
"What?" Voidsong snapped, her arms crossed over her chest.
Sliver's gaze turned back to Solon. "Really? You losst to a graysskin thiss time?"
Solon would have winced if he had been physically capable. "She had a hidden power shword!"
The other Chaos Lord seemed to tremble in fury for a few seconds before he could find his voice. "... You're a dissgrace," Sliver growled before he turned on his heel, incidentally grinding another hole into the flooring before he walked back out of the room.
The other two Terminators waited until Sliver went through the doorway before they turned to follow, although one lingered long enough to rear his helmet back and (somehow) spit a wad of brackish filth onto the floor.
That Terminator grabbed hold of the doors on his way out, and then slammed them closed behind him hard enough to break one of the heavy iron hinges off.
"You're going to want to clean that shpot with fire," Solon advised the ponies behind him.
"Yes... well..." Celestia trailed off uncertainly. She wasn't too proud to admit that she was completely out of her element here, and really wished she could do something about the giant dismembered Chaos Lord in the middle of her throne room before proceeding.
Ideally, she would have liked to fling him into the darkest reaches of Tartarus. But given extremely recent events, that probably wasn't appropriate.
Sensing that her sister was a bit overwhelmed, Luna happily took the reins of the situation.
"So then, We believe next comes the sentencing for this fiend?" the Princess of the Night declared as she walked up to Voidsong. "We believe thou previously expressed a preference for petrification as a sentence?"
"What about that Warp core thing? She still hasn't told us anything about it," Rarity pointed out.
"And I'm not going to do so," Voidsong said calmly before looking back to Luna. "So, do I get to pose first, or what?"
Luna snorted as Celestia's horn flared again. "Do as thou wish, alien."
"But no offensive gestures, please," Cadence added quickly, "foals are going to see you after you're set up in the statue garden, after all."
Celestia's spell consumed the Shas'o, and Voidsong straightened her body to a standing pose as she felt her legs start to get numb. She turned her head up and to the side and raised one hand to her forehead, as if she was scanning the distant skies.
"We must confess, thou art taking this very well," Luna mumbled, looking slightly disturbed as the encroaching stone crawled up over the alien's waist.
"Of course I am," Voidsong said, smiling as she lost feeling in her chest and started to lose her lungs, "I won."
****
Black Point
*Is it okay? Tell me it's undamaged!* the Tau Fio'el begged as he approached the transport parked just within the edge of the base perimeter.
The transport had clearly suffered, with great black craters marking its side over its cargo bay where it had suffered autocannon impacts.
*It was a near thing,* the pilot nodded, gasping for breath as Fire Warriors rushed past him, *neither of my escort fighters came back after they drew away the patrol gunships, but the cargo bay is intact.* He clenched his jaw. *Please tell me it was worth it.*
The Engineer let out a relieved gasp, and then clapped a hand on the pilot's shoulder. *It was worth it,* he promised as he watched a pair of hauler robots withdraw the Warp core from the transport, *although this world may die, it will save a hundred others. And perhaps many more.*
The pilot blew out a long breath. *For the Greater Good, then.*
*Yes. It's time to activate the Warp beacon.*