Her mind wasn't on her work. A pony's mind should always be on the job at hoof she thought. It's what she had always told her team in all of her lectures and briefings. But here she was, Sophic Fortune of the Alicorn Inquisition wondering about that nice little cafe they had dined at earlier. The one with the fantastic outdoor patio dining area that had a breathtaking view of the distant mountains beyond the city. The waiters there had been so polite and swift with the service. She hadn't even mentally gotten to the food yet, it was fantastic, obviously grown on world and not laced with the flavor of preservatives. She had been mildly disappointed when Devoid had contacted her with the most probable location of the cultist cell. He couldn't even wait for them to have concluded lunch, could he?
She sighed. That was hours ago. She realized how their mind really liked to wander in her old age. She really needed to get her mind back on what she was doing. Especially since the cover she had been using seemed to have suddenly erupted into flames. Oh, her cloak seemed to be on fire as well. She dove from behind the pile of packing crates and found a larger and, more importantly, steel cargo container. She quickly unfastened the clasp of the burning hooded garment and threw it away from herself and her new cover. A volley of las fire ripped into the cloak as it flew into the open.
She quickly checked herself for injuries. Her pearly white coat had been untouched by the fire. She was pleasantly surprised to see that the mauve of her tail and mane had also remained unharmed by the flames. She waved a hoof past the edge of the container and was rewarded with another hail of las fire. Great, she was pinned down.
She reached up to hoof her ear-bud but remembered she had tossed it when that stallion had hit her and Radiant with that EMP grenade. Radiant was probably still trying to coax the machine spirits in her armor to reset. She had been so angry when that grenade had gone off that, powered assist or not, she had run through a fusillade of las fire and torn that poor stallion apart with nothing but her bare hooves. The cultist's compatriots had either suffered a similar fates or had gone galloping for their lives.
Instead, Sophic lit her horn and sent out a magical broadcast to the only other pony in range who could likely do anything to bring an end to this pointless wandering around the construction yard. Tracks, I need you to circle around to my position. I'm behind the large red cargo container. Be careful, I'm pinned down. Oh, bring Devoid. She felt Tracks give a magical affirmative and she hunkered down.
She saw Tracks approaching and forced herself to stifle a groan. The young purple unicorn was a new addition to her group and his lack of training showed. He was obviously trying to stick to cover, but it was like watching a foal trying to sneak around. Absolutely no situational awareness. He didn't realize that his own cloak was dragging on the ground behind him making quite a bit of noise. Thank the Sisters that the enemy was blind, deaf, and probably dumb (the stupid kind) or Hypodermic would have his work cut out for him. She cringed as one of the enemy spotted the approach and blew a hole out of Tracks' raven black mane. He shrieked - well "shrieked" insinuates it was a filly sort of sound and... yeah shrieked was the correct word - and he bolted for the cover provided by the cargo container.
She shook her head in uncomfortable embarrassment for him as he made a desperate attempt to smack himself in the mane in a vain attempt to put out the burning follicles. She sighed again. He was doing better than most for his first operation. Most would have taken that las bolt in the brain, so at least he had that going for him. She spared a look from the direction Tracks had sprinted from. "You forget Devoid? Where is he?" She asked.
"Behind you." She only jumped out of her skin in her mind. Devoid was good, very good. She turned to face the lanky jet black stallion. A pair of yellow cat eyes regarded her from under his shock white mane. She really had no idea how he hid so well with that coloration. Or with the five kilogram magical nullifier he had strapped to his left foreleg. She assumed that maybe his gift had something to do with it. She spared a glance at his cutie mark. It appeared to be a series of rays of light coming from behind a circle. Most mistook it for a solar eclipse. She knew better.
"OK, good." She began. "First, Tracks, I'm going to need you to-" The look he gave her was truly pitiful. It was an extremely scared willingness. She sighed. "-use your gift to find out which warehouse the rest of them went to to hole up." She saw him visibly swallow at that.
"But - but - I can't control it when I try to do something that big!" Tracks was pleading, a genuine look of fear in his crimson eyes. She genuinely wished that he had had some more prep time or an easier trial by fire, but these were the breaks in Inquisition life.
She leveled her own aquamarine eyes at his own. "I know you feel you are not ready for this. I just want to let you know something." He looked into her eyes expectantly. Her horn glowed and her thoughts rushed into his head. You are wrong. We need you to do this. He looked away for a moment, but when his gaze returned to her's it was filled with determination.
Tracks' horn began to glow with a reddish light and suddenly there was a loud PING and the magic flowed out in all directions as his spell went to work. There was a sudden increase in the volume of las fire that was pelting their position. The magical fireworks were giving the cultists twitchy trigger hooves. A layer of overglow wrapped around Tracks' horn and he opened his eyes, which shone with white light. An aura the same color as that around his horn formed in a sphere around his body. Another layer of overglow wrappers his horn and his legs began to tremble. "N...n...num...number" Tracks stuttered. "Tw...tw...twelve."
"Excellent. Tell -" she stopped as she saw Tracks twitch. Then his back arched and he groaned in pain. The aura around him was growing larger and the light was pouring from his eyes and horn. "Devoid! Now!" Devoid acted quickly, hoofing the deactivation sequence on his bracer. As the status rune switched from the active color of green to the deactivated color red.
The effect was immediate. The aura around Tracks and his horn was snuffed out like a small candle in a heavy wind. The light retreated back into his eyes, showing that they had somehow become crossed in the casting process. Tracks let out a single exhausted breath and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Sophic knew that one day she would have to write an essay on the phenomenon known as artesians and blanks. One was a type of unicorn that had a magical reserve that flowed completely out of control once tapped for anything greater than the most basic exertions. The other dispelled all magical fields within a certain perimeter. This included not only unicorn magic, but also that of the pegasi and earth ponies as well. She had seen flocks of enemy troops fall from the sky and earth ponies lose their strength when Devoid had unleashed his gift in the past.
At current it was making her horn feel like it had gotten stuck in a vacuum cleaner. She managed to make a gesture to Devoid to reactivate his band despite the pounding headache his gift was bestowing upon her. He quickly complied and the pressure between her eyes abated. Devoid then dropped to his cannons and placed his head against Tracks' side. "Still alive, Sophic. Heart rate and breathing are - off by a lot. But he should make it." She was glad Devoid was an expert in equine anatomy. He was just as good at field triage as he was at field wet work.
Sophic lit her horn and grabbed the comm bead from Tracks' ear. She hoofed it once it was in place in her own ear. "Free Fall, I need you to swing by my current location with the aquila, we're pinned down and Tracks is out of commission, you'll need to have Hypodermic drag him on board."
"Oh no! What happened? Is he OK? How bad-" Sophic heard the worry quite plainly in the mare's voice.
"He's fine, just overtaxed himself using his magic. Don't have a conniption fit." The pegasus tried to stammer some response but Sophic cut her off. "Are you en route?" After hearing the affirmative she continued. "See if you can scatter the cultists that have us pinned down." Another affirmative. Well, all they had to do was wait for-
The high pitched whine of an aircraft engine drowned out her thoughts. The angular design of the aquila passed overhead and the multi-laser attached to the front of the craft began to rain fire down on the enemy positions. The enemy either took cover or were mowed down by the hail of las bolts. Sophic decided to monopolize on the lull in fire on their own position and leaned out to start taking shots at any of the cultists that had dropped out of cover - only to realize she had tossed her las pistol away with her cloak.
She silently apologized to Tracks as she stole another piece of his equipment. She used her magic and slid the bulky plasma pistol from his cloak's holster. The ancient weapon was in pristine condition, obviously well cared for. She had given it to him when they had first met as a gift for risking his life in an attempt to save hers. She would give it back, she wasn't fond of the size, kickback, or the heat the things gave off anyways.
She pushed the activation rune and then leaned back around the corner. Free Fall had been strafing from behind the enemy position and several of the cultists were now taking cover with their flanks to her. For some reason a bipedal analogy about fish and barrels came to mind. She quickly fired off five bolts of white-hot plasma and five cultists were violently reduced to flaming piles of debris.
The pistol floated in the air next to her, the vent coils on the back glowing red hot. She mused on how she could probably cook food with the heat the thing was giving off. Some nice stir fried veggies with... She shook her head again to get her mind back to the situation at hand. Old age was really causing her mind to wander, she realized.
The aquila had ceased firing and had banked around to land a short distance behind the cargo container. An earth pony in red robes and covered almost entirely in cybernetic implants galloped down the ramp as it lowered. He was carrying white saddle bags with red crosses on them and his cutie mark, which was made of machine engraved metal on his cybernetic legs, was a very large syringe. He opened one of the bags and a medical servo skull floated out and began performing the holy rites of medical diagnosis on Tracks. Apparently satisfied with the results the skull spouted out to him in binary, he grabbed and effortlessly hefted Tracks onto his back. "Careful, Hypodermic, I don't need two of you out of commission."
He leveled his own brand of disapproving glare at her. "Says the Inquisitor standing next to her perforated and half incinerated cloak." Came the med tech's reply. "Do you require any medical attention? Or are you going to wait until you're full of holes first?"
"That was only one time -" She started before cutting herself off. Hypodermic and Devoid, the only two of her cadre that could get a rise out of her. She wasn't having that conversation. Again. Ever. And it was just that one time - in Hypodermic's lifetime at any rate. Focus!
Sophic's attempt at focus was broken by the loud clank of ceramite on metal. She turned to see the hulking form of Battle Sister Radiant descending the aquila's boarding ramp. The Space-Mareine was easily head and withers over her in the ornate power barding. The barding's coloration was a light grayish mulberry with moderate sapphire blue borders and moderate violet and brilliant rose highlights. They were the colors of Radiant's chapter, the Twilight Avengers. A massive bolter was affixed to the right side of her armor and stuck out just past her shoulder plate. "Inquisitor." Came the stoic greeting from the armor's vox speaker.
"Radiant!" She was pleasantly surprised to see that the giant warrior had not only gotten her armor working but had managed to hitch a ride to their location as well. "I'm glad to see that the machine spirits of your suit are tougher than we thought!" The mountain of a pony replied with a benediction regarding the invulnerability gained by faith in the Warrior Saint Twilight Sparkle. "As it ever was." Replied Sophic in as reverent a tone as she could manage. It never hurt to appear fervent to the Mareines, it seemed to even put them in good spirits.
Having Radiant along would make breaching the warehouse much easier. "OK everypony, we need to work our way to warehouse number twelve. Tracks said that the rest of the cult is hiding out in there. Free Fall, take Hypodermic and Tracks in the aquila and keep a safe distance from the warehouse. They slapped us with EMP grenades earlier, they might have krak grenades or rockets, and I don't want our ride getting shot down."
Sophic then let Radiant take over the tactical planning for the breach of the warehouse. Devoid had somehow come up with a floor plan of the place. It was only really good for showing where the supports, walls, and stairs were, but it was better than nothing. Radiant's plan lacked subtlety, but Sophic was sure that the Mareine could pull off her own part, as well as probably a few others.
The aquila dusted off and the rest of the team started to work their way through the storage yard towards their goal. They encountered minimal resistance, only a few scattered cultists who either ran or were torn to pieces by sharp bursts from Radiant's bolter. As the warehouse came into view, they noticed that small fortifications that had been set up around the main entrance. As she saw that machinery had been used to make barricades and even gun emplacements, she was glad that Radiant had planned for a different kind of breach.
The side of the warehouse exploded inwards from the force of Radiant's krak grenade. She pushed through the opening and her bolter settled into a steady staccato as she swept the weapon around, laying waste to everything in close proximity to herself. The screams of dying cultists wafted back through the hole created by Radiant's "dynamic" entry. Sophic saw Devoid slip through the hole and she followed close behind.
Somehow in the intervening pony-length between the two of them, she managed to lose Devoid entirely. The inside of the warehouse was dimly lit, a sparking box that probably used to hold the fuses testament to the destructive power of Equestrian bolters. Cultist ponies, and parts thereof, littered the floor like some grotesque carpet. She saw a series of flashes off to her right, punctuated by the distinctive bark of Radiant's weapon. Sophic decided to stay out of the Mareine's death radius and ventured left into the expansive warehouse towards what she remembered were the stairs upwards.
A terrified looking stallion cultist rounded a stack of crates and received received a plasma bolt to the chest for his carelessness. He was incinerated before he knew what had hit him - before she knew what hit him either. She wasn't even sure what color his coat had been before the bolt had reduced it to cinders.
She heard a sound around stack of crates and crept quietly up to it. She burst around the corner and leveled the pistol only to quickly point it towards the ground. Devoid was standing over a pony who's neck was twisted at an unnatural angle. He had a knife in his mouth and looked like he had been ready to pounce at her. His stance loosened a bit and he raised his eyebrows twice and grinned at her around the knife. She rolled her eyes and headed in the opposite direction.
She finally came upon the set of stairs that lead further up into the building. As she started up the stairs, a pink mare charged down them at her, screaming like the lunatic they were. Sophic quickly side-stepped and left a hoof sticking out. The cultist tripped, falling head over fetlock until they hit the ground floor face first with a loud cracking sound. Sophic didn't need to inspect the spreading pool of red any closer to know that the cultist probably wasn't going to be getting up again.
She reached the second floor of the structure and saw that the stairs seemed to continue for another level before going - she assumed - to the roof. She climbed the extra flight. She was willing to wager that whoever was leading these cultists would be on the highest floor next to the roof itself. When she was equal with the landing, she saw that her suspicions were correct. There was a fancy faux wood door with writing in symbols that hurt her eyes to look at. Just looking at them made her feel angry. She turned away and bucked the door as hard as she could and almost sent herself tumbling down the stairs when she unexpectedly rebounded off of the door.
She inspected the door a few moments in an attempt to ascertain exactly how a faux wood door had resisted a solid buck. She saw the glint of metal and cursed herself for being so stupid. Of course the door would be reinforced, it was the big boss' office. "Well-" She said as she leveled the plasma pistol at the door "-I have your key right here." She sighed, it had sounded better in her head. She pulled the trigger and the door was spectacularly destroyed, faux wood burning away and steel melting like hot wax. She stepped through the smoldering portal and was immediately repulsed by what she saw.
The room was extremely large for an office, maybe thirty meters on a side. The contents of the room were what had almost caused her to eject what little lunch she had consumed, what seemed like, eons ago. Stuffed animals, everywhere. Not cute ones for fillies, colts and foals. These were taxidermic creations covering just about every sized animal she had ever seen... Including several dozen ponies. She actively fought her gag reflex as she took in the sight. It would take more than a few tanks of holy promethium to properly cleanse this place.
The room crept her out to no end. She had seen plenty of atrocity in her time but this was something that neared the top of her list. They were so life-like she thought to herself as she approached one of the ponies. Despite the horror of the work, she couldn't help but wonder at the level of skill it would take to craft one of these abominations. Even the eyes looked real. She gave the former pony a tentative poke and almost jumped when it tipped back and then rocked back towards her. This room was making her jumpy. She needed to get ou-
Her train of though was interrupted as somepony jumped onto her back. She swore in a manner unbefitting a mare of her age and the plasma pistol went off, vaporizing one of the stuffed stallions and setting its mare partner ablaze. She felt something bite into the back of her neck and she howled in pain and anger. She swung her head around hard, knocking her assailant to the floor. She felt blood trickling down the side of her neck and was disgusted as she saw her attacker spit out a piece of her white coat.
"Honey-" she said to the scarlet mare that was crouched like a predator before her. "There aren't words for how thoroughly I am going to cleanse you for that." The mare hissed at her, flipped her black mane out of her eyes and started stalking around to Sophic's side, showing off a cutie mark of serrated teeth. Sophic realized that the plasma pistol had gone flying when she had knocked the mare off of her and adopted a combat stance of her own.
They were too close together for her to try magic, the little demon (metaphorical she hoped) would pounce on her again if she tried to get a spell off. The mare feigned to one side and then pounced again. Sophic struggled to move fast enough to block or counter, but the mare was quick and before Sophic knew what had happened, a chunk had been ripped out of her right front cannon. She screamed again, this time in pain and frustration at the ease with which this filly was starting to take her apart. Literally.
This time, the mare chewed and swallowed. Sophic felt herself give in to her gag reflex. The mare took the opportunity to leap forward and take a piece of her left shoulder. Sophic screamed and swung her hooves for all she was worth. She was rewarded with a sickening thunk of hoof hitting meat and the mare rolled away hard, knocking over two of the stuffed ponies.
Sophic was breathing hard. She started to circle around to where the mare had landed. She was starting to favor her right foreleg now that it had a sizable chunk missing from it. She thought about how many shots Hypodermic was going to have to give her and she shuddered. Focus! Her mind chided her. Too late. The mare jumped from between a pair of stuffed cows and tackled her to the ground.
Sophic tried to keep the mare away from her with her hooves but the vicious blood streaked face and razor sharp - dentures or implants she guessed - were snapping less than a hoof's length away from her face. The mare had gravity on her side and she was pushing herself forward, closer and closer...
There was a "shlink" sound and the mare's eyes rolled backwards into her head and her tongue lolled out of her mouth. Her body continued to thrash for a few seconds, but it was uncoordinated and Sophic was able to throw it off of herself. As she struggled to her hooves, she saw Devoid standing next to the corpse of the mare, slowly pulling his knife from the back of her head.
Sophic wasn't feeling so hot. Devoid told her that was how she looked. "Bite me." Devoid gave her a queer look. She didn't care, she was full of holes, she had earned the right to be full of both crass and sass. "How's the rest of it?" Devoid told her he'd cleared out floor and that Radiant had cleared the ground floor. "Good, to Tartarus with this place, call in an Arbiter cleansing team and tell them to burn this whole place to the ground."
Later, as Hypodermic sprayed down the last of her wounds with an incredibly painful antiseptic, she watched the warehouse burn under the tender ministrations of Equestria's finest. Tracks was laying on a bench in the aquila, groaning with a cold pack pressed against his forehead. Free Fall had come out of her cockpit, seen he was fine, and departed in a huff. Devoid was using a las tool to hone his knife. Radiant had gone off to a temple somewhere, to give thanks to Twilight Sparkle and the Royal Pony Sisters for their role in today's victory against the unclean.
She sighed. Finally, after months of work, this loose end of a cult had been wrapped up. They'd be off this rock before their wounds were even healed. Suddenly, a horrible thought entered her mind. Her mind was wandering in her old age, she realized as she took a quick look at herself. She knew that there was no way she would be able to eat at that classy restaurant dressed like a mummy.
She sighed again. Life wasn't fair.