Strange Bedfellows

by BRBrony9

Taken By Surprise

Lord-Admiral Marcos heard another alarm sounding on the bridge. It drew the immediate attention of Chrysalis, as it was a loud and insistent sound. Marcos recognised it as the internal alarm system, signalling some problem aboard the vessel. Whatever it was, it was enough to distract the Queen and draw some angry hisses from her lips. The shuttle carrying General Jahn was supposed to be docking; perhaps some kind of rescue mission was being mounted?

Marcos doubted any such attempt could possibly succeed. A shuttle could only hold so many men, perhaps a few platoons at most. Unless they had dug up some Astartes Terminators from somewhere, then a few dozen men could not hope to take an entire ship. If the Changelings had truly captured the whole ship, or at least the key points, and if they had indeed used the vents and pipes to navigate around the vessel by shrinking down to the size of flies or bugs, then how many drones, similarly sized, could they have fitted onto the landing barges which had docked masquerading as the maintenance teams from the Polaris Maxima? Given that there could be tens of thousands of bees in a single hive, there could be tens of millions of drones, he estimated, potentially aboard the Emperor's judgement, more than enough to overcome the crew, most of whom were untrained and under-equipped, not ideal conditions to attempt to resist a boarding action. If the ship was indeed overrun by drones, then any rescue mission by Imperial troops would be surely doomed to fail.

Marcos knew full well what the alternative was supposed to be. If a ship fell into the hands of the enemy, then it should be scuttled by its crew, by overloading the reactors if possible. If that could not be done because the crew were dead or the reactors were under enemy control, then it fell to the other ships in the fleet to destroy the captured vessel before it could be used against other Imperial assets; before its guns could be turned upon the fleet. The Emperor's Judgement and Polaris Maxima combined could certainly inflict crippling damage to the rest of the fleet, if not destroy it outright, if the Changelings were permitted to launch a surprise attack. The heavy broadsides of the battleship could smash the Indefatigable if it was taken by surprise, and if the Changelings knew how to fly attack craft as well, then the battlecruiser could be in real trouble within moments of any attack being launched. Two other cruisers and a few escorts was all that remained of the combat force of the Crusade, and, caught short-footed, they would be very hard pressed indeed to defend against an attack from within their own ranks.

Queen Chrysalis, however, did not seem best pleased by the development, whatever was happening on board that was causing the alarm. The internal sensors could detect weapons fire, hazardous material leaks, technical issues, or concentrations of the unknown particle, thanks to the tweaks made to the system by the calibration teams. All Marcos could do was hope that, whatever it was, it would continue to cause the Queen great distress.

The guards in Docking Bay 5A opened fire in alarm. At the top of the shuttle's ramp was not General Jahn, as they had been expecting, but rather a pure white figure, surrounded by an ethereal glow. It was most definitely no General, nor even a human, but rather an old foe.

Princess Celestia returned fire with her magic, cutting down several armsmen. As soon as they died, they revealed their true form; not men, but Changeling drones, their weapons clattering to the deck. The real armsmen who had arrived with the shuttle fanned out, shotguns blazing, as more men appeared from the shuttle's interior. Celestia teleported to the other side of the cavernous hanger bay and began attacking the enemy from behind. Some drones reverted to their natural form of their own accord to strike back at the Princess with their magic instead of the human guns. It made little difference, as she deflected their attacks deftly and sliced them open with powerful beams of her own magic, punching through the shields of those drones who had changed and burning away the uniforms of those who remained in human form.

A stray blast of magic struck a stack of containers that held fuel or some other combustible material, and a great ball of flame rose to the rafters like a mushroom, sucking in oxygen from the surrounding area. More drones entered the hangar bay from the companionway outside, and were met by a blast of crackling golden lightning that fried them instantly. Their sizzling bodies fell in all directions as Celestia mopped up the last few drones who tried to put up resistance, being backed into a corner and slaughtered unmercifully by their oldest enemy.

That was the proof that had been needed. With the hangar bay clear, a message was hastily sent by vox over to the Indefatigable, confirming that the Changelings were indeed in command of the flagship. Captain Marsten grimaced at the news, but at least his plan had worked. He had figured that Princess Celestia would likely know the most about the Changelings and how to potentially identify them, hence his surreptitious contact with her using the directed vox beam, in order to avoid alerting the flagship in case it was indeed in enemy hands. She had confirmed that she could, indeed, detect a hidden Changeling with her magic, but that the fleet had been out of range for her to teleport to them. A shuttle could not be sent to her with the Chaos fleet in orbit, and so she had agreed to eliminate it with precision shots of her solar energy, in the hope that, with the enemy ships gone, the Lord-Admiral or whatever Changeling was in command would order the Crusade fleet back into orbit around the planet, bringing them into range of Celestia and allowing her to teleport to the Indefatigable, which had been identified by its position relative to the largest vessel, the Emperor's judgement, in order that Celestia would be able to identify it correctly using her augury spell.

Once aboard, Marsten had quickly briefed her on the latest information they had, and ran through the plan again. Celestia would board with the shuttle that was meant to be delivering the General back into custody. Marsten had reasoned that the Changelings would probably suspect an ambush, and so the shuttle had been loaded with armsmen in case a battle should develop. Celestia had assured him that she could take care of herself in that event, and that, if she detected Changelings in the hangar bay, she would come out fighting to get the drop on them. Sure enough, that was exactly what she had done.

Marsten admired her bravery, being willing to leap into the unknown aboard a vessel she had never set foot on before- but that wasn't true, he reminded himself. She had indeed visited the ship once before, though only once, and only for a brief conference with Lord-Admiral Marcos- the real Lord-Admiral Marcos- and Lord-General Galen. That was certainly not enough to acquaint her with the layout of the ship or how to get about, but then she hardly seemed to need it, given that she could teleport from the planet's surface up to the Indefatigable with no evident trouble whatsoever. Presumably she could also navigate the ship in a similar fashion, and that was indeed the plan.

On board the Emperor's judgement, armsmen beat a steady pace as their boots thundered down the shuttle's ramp, securing the hangar bay and covering the doors and main ventilation ducts. If the Changelings came, they would find a warm reception from their human intruders. Meanwhile, Princess Celestia disappeared with a pop and a flash, materialising once more in the security centre on the same deck, much to the surprise of the drones stationed there. A quick spell showed there were no humans in the room, and Celestia chained her lightning attack together, wiping out almost the entire complement of drones in a heartbeat as the energy crackled and jumped between their bodies in a spectacular light show that set off half a dozen different alarms, for half a dozen different reasons.

Far from being the ones leading the action, the Changelings now found themselves on the back hoof, having to react to something completely unexpected. They had been prepared for a potential human assault from the shuttle, but not for an angry Princess with a definite mission in mind. They were scrambling to deal with the incursion without alerting the ship's crew- for many, indeed most, of the human crew were still alive. Many were completely unaware of anything untoward since the initial alarm for a limited Changeling boarding action in the mid-decks of the vessel, while others had been placated by false messages from the bridge or one of the security centres that suggested the attack had been dealt with. To cleanse the entire ship of its human crew would be a mammoth task, and one that could not be carried out with any degree of alacrity so soon after the actual boarding had taken place. It would take a long time, even with so many drones aboard.

With the security centre cleared, Celestia teleported back to the hangar to quickly inform the armsmen, who left the hangar and headed through the corridors to reach the centre and secure it, with the hope of establishing control over the ship's critical systems. It would be necessary to stop the Changelings from potentially overloading the reactors and destroying the ship, and if they could regain control of the propulsion and internal security systems, they could hopefully take a big step toward recapturing the vessel. If they could take control of the weapons systems and slave control away from the bridge and to the security centre, then it would be safe for more armsmen and Imperial Guard to board and help wrest control back from the drones.

Celestia, meanwhile, had another destination in mind, and once she had passed the word and set the humans on their way, she teleported away once more, moving through the ship with ease, as Marsten had suspected she could. She was heading up.

Twilight had spoken with Princess Luna, and learned that her sister was apparently busy with royal duties. She had been holed up in the Celestial Tower, Luna had said, and so Twilight had returned to the catacombs, or rather she had been heading in that direction when something made her stop.

Overhead, there had been a sudden flash in the sky which had made her look up. She couldn't see the cause at first. The sky was clear, save for a few ragged clouds here and there. But then there was another flash, and she could see that it was not something in the sky, but rather something above it. Way up in the heavens had been the source of the flash, and Twilight knew something had happened to one of the Chaos starships. There could be no other explanation, as nothing else could have caused such a phenomenon. It looked to be an explosion; but what was the cause?

Twilight had rushed up to the Lunar Tower, passing the guards who let her through. The telescope awaited her, and she guided it towards the broad area of sky where she had seen the flash. Even as she swung it around, there was another flash high up above. When she sighted in, she could see one of the Chaos ships, or rather, what was left of it. The craft that was several miles in length was shattered, huge chunks of debris spinning in the void. Something had destroyed it, taken it out, and Twilight suspected she knew the cause. She scanned the sky and found another patch of debris where a ship had been. She left the eyepiece of the telescope and trotted to the balcony, looking up at the slightly higher Celestial Tower, and there she saw what she had expected to see.

Princess Celestia was standing on the balcony, not visible from the ground but certainly in view from the top of the twin tower. Her horn was aglow, sheathed in golden light, her eyes closed as she was clearly concentrating on some great task that required all of her considerable mental faculties. Twilight knew she must be carrying out the destruction of what remained of the Chaos fleet that orbited the planet, an almost casual act that would result in millions of deaths but might just save Equestria and its citizens from destruction. She felt a desire to call out, or to go up and speak to the Princess, but she knew that any distraction from her mission could have disastrous consequences. Wherever extremely powerful magic was in use, any distraction or loss of concentration could lead to a serious mis-step. Twilight knew that Celestia had to be flinging magic or solar energy across the void to destroy the ships in the same way she had wiped out the main portion of the hostile fleet. But these ships were in orbit, and if the energy was coming from the sun, then even a slight miscue could lead to it smashing into the planet instead of the enemy vessels. That perhaps explained why Celestia had retreated to the high tower for privacy, rather than remaining in the throne room with other ponies around, as she had the last time she struck out at enemy vessels. Concentration was paramount if she did not want to inflict some serious damage to Equestria, the very land she was meant to be protecting.

Twilight took another look at the sky through the telescope. There were several more flashes, but she couldn't see anything else. Either the explosions were occurring out of her viewing arc and reflecting off of something, or the ships that were now being destroyed were too small or too far away for her to resolve, even with the telescope. Soon, they stopped altogether. Either the job was done, or the rest of the Chaos fleet had fled from the barrage that Celestia had been unleashing upon them.

With nothing more to see, she left the Lunar Tower and returned to the ground, hoping to speak to Celestia when she returned to the throne room. She headed there, but found only Luna, still directing ponies to various tasks.

'Princess Luna! Has Princess Celestia returned from her duties yet?' Twilight had asked.

'Yes, Twilight,' Luna had replied, 'but she is not here.'

'Oh? Where is she? Can I speak with her?' Twilight had questioned, but Luna merely shook her head.

'She is not on the planet's surface any longer,' Luna had replied somewhat cryptically, before explaining when confronted with Twilight's confused expression. 'She has gone to the aid of the human fleet. Apparently they have suffered from a Changeling attack on their flagship.'

This news had sent a shock of alarm through Twilight's whole body. Changelings, in space? On board one of the Imperial ships? That was exactly what Chrysalis had said her plan was, but Twilight had doubted her ability to actually pull off such a stunt. She wanted to expand the Changeling race across the galaxy, from planet to planet, but surely such a thing was not possible...was it?

Celestia was on her way to find out, Luna explained, and to assist with the recapture of the battleship if indeed it had been taken from right under Imperial noses. It was an audacious plan, and Twilight hoped that it was not actually being carried out; perhaps there had been some mistake. Perhaps it was the forces of Chaos, not of Chrysalis. But if that aspect of the Queen's plan had come to fruition, who was to say that the rest of it might not, ultimately, come to pass as well?

Lord-Admiral Marcos watched on as Queen Chrysalis grew visibly angrier as she looked at the console. He didn't know what she was looking at, but something had clearly upset her, and though she issued no orders verbally, drones on the bridge began to move, covering the turbolift doors. Some drones retained human form so that they could standby with guns, as well as magic. Evidently they were expecting company, and it soon arrived, though, in a classic reversal of fortune, not through the entrance they had been planning on.

Princess Celestia appeared in a flash of white light, a halo surrounding her as she hovered near the ceiling of the bridge. Chrysalis reacted instantly, snarling in anger and lunging toward the Princess, her horn aglow. Marcos and the other prisoners flattened themselves to the deck as the drones scattered, turning to engage the threat which had caught them by surprise. Magic flashed across the bridge, and Marcos began to fear an explosive decompression at any moment. A blast too powerful could penetrate the hull and suck the atmosphere from the bridge, along with anything not nailed down- including him.

'Celestia!' Chrysalis hissed angrily. 'Come to play, have you? Welcome to my new ship...but I do not take kindly to uninvited guests!' She lunged with her horn, but Celestia dodged easily enough, trying to grasp Chrysalis with powerful binding magic. The Queen was just as fast, however, and she teleported away to the other side of the bridge. Several drones charged at Celestia, but were swatted down like the flies they had masqueraded as to gain access to the bridge in the first place. The drones still in human form fired. Shotgun blasts rang out, but to no effect. Celestia's shield of gold protected her The drones moved toward Celestia intently.

She teleported away, and to the side of the prisoners. There was a brief wavy sensation in the air, like looking through a heat haze, as Celestia stood beside them. Then her horn glowed, and they vanished.

Marcos felt a sudden tingling play across his skin, then saw a kaleidoscope of colours in his vision just for a moment, and then he was in a hangar bay. He blinked and looked around. A hangar bay, yes, but where exactly?

Men approached him; armsmen, though wearing the collar insignia of a different ship. They were from the Indefatigable, he realised, and they were helping him to his feet.

'My Lord! Are you hurt?' one of them asked him, but he waved the man away.

'I am uninjured,' he shouted. 'Where am I?'

'Deck two of the Indefatigable, My Lord,' the armsman's officer informed him. 'The Xenos Princess...'

'Yes, she saved us, it seems,' Marcos nodded and grunted. Not for the first time, either, he added subconsciously. The fleet as a whole would most decidedly no longer be there if not for Celestia; there would be no Emperor's judgement for the Changelings to have captured. Then again, if she had not broken the warp storm's grip on the planet, the Changelings would have never made it aboard his ships in the first place.

'Take me to the bridge,' Marcos demanded, receiving instant action from the armsmen.

'At once, My Lord!' the officer replied, quickly leading him out of the hangar bay and into the corridors of the battlecruiser, towards a turbolift.

'Where is the Princess?' he asked. 'Did she return to the Emperor's Judgement?'

'I believe so, My Lord,' the officer replied. 'Though it is possible she returned to the planet. Captain Marsten will know more.'

Marcos hoped so, because things were moving rapidly once again. Whereas the situation had been relatively stable after the main Chaos fleet had been destroyed by Celestia, ever since then things had escalated so quickly that Marcos had hardly had time to comprehend what was going on. The remnants of the Chaos force were gone, and his own ships were now back in orbit around the planet. What else might have been going on, he did not know.

The turbolift took him up to the bridge, where Captain Marsten was waiting for him with a salute and a firm handshake. 'My Lord. it is a great relief to see you unharmed.'

'Thank you, Lukas,' Marcos replied, shaking the Captain's hand. 'I must say I was not expecting such an...efficient rescue.'

'Neither was I, My Lord,' Marsten replied. 'But I thought that the only way we might determine if you were truly alive or not would be with the help of the Princess.'

'How are you certain I am really me?' Marcos questioned. He had overheard the Queen, her voice disguised as himself, speaking to Marsten over the vox, and the Captain had been quite vocal in expressing his lack of certainty over who exactly he was speaking to and precisely what was going on aboard the flagship.

'The Princess, My Lord,' Marsten explained. 'I thought that she might have some method of detecting Changelings; after all, they have been fighting them for who knows how long. I sent a directed signal to the liaison team in the pony capital requesting her aid. Luckily, she informed me that she did indeed have a...spell? A...psychic ability to detect disguised Changelings. We formulated a rescue plan, and she told me that she would only teleport you or any other survivors to safety if she cast the spell and made sure that it was a real human, not a drone, that she had encountered.'

Marcos nodded. He was not entirely surprised to learn that Celestia had some means of detecting drones in disguise, but he couldn't help but feel slight anger that she had not shared it with the Imperials before. Then again, humans could not perform magic- at least, not the precise kind that the ponies possessed. If it was an active spell, that had to be cast, then it would be of use only in certain situations, when purposefully searching for Changelings, or seeking to screen large numbers of ponies or people.

'Captain, you need to make the rest of the fleet aware. The Polaris Maxima has been taken by the Changelings also,' Marcos informed Marsten, drawing a surprised look from him. 'The Changeling Queen took great pleasure in gloating over that fact and proving it to me over the vox link. I am afraid the entire ship may be under their control, or at the very least, the bridge.' Marsten nodded with a grim expression.

'Understood, My Lord. What are your orders?'

'Alert the fleet, but tell them to hold their fire. They are to be alert to any hostile action by either the Polaris Maxima or the Emperor's Judgement. If they come under attack they may defend themselves, but otherwise, do not fire unless I give the command. All ships are to hold their orbit around the planet. Any vessel that attempts to communicate with the Polaris Maxima or the Emperor's Judgement without my express authority will be considered to be hostile and under Changeling control. And Captain?'

'Yes, My Lord?'

'As far as the rest of the fleet knows, I am dead, and you are in command,' Marcos replied. 'If there are other Changelings out there aboard other vessels, then they need to imagine that we are indeed in complete chaos with a loss of leadership.'

'Yes, My Lord.' Marsten nodded, quickly issuing the commands to his vox officer. 'General Jahn is here, also. Do you wish to speak with him?'

'Yes...are you certain he is himself?' Marcos asked, getting a nod in response.

'Yes, My Lord. The Princess cast her spell on him...on the entire bridge crew, I believe. I guess she wasn't taking any chances,' Marsten explained. 'The General is in my ready room. Come, let us speak with him.' Marsten led the way, but their progress was interrupted by a cry from the Auspex officer.

'My Lord! Look!' He drew their attention to the viewscreen. Marcos turned to see what the fuss was about.

A blast of green energy had erupted from the top of the Emperor's Judgement. sending debris tumbling as it lanced out across the void. It was an evident reminder that the battle was far from over. Another blast tore through the dorsal section of the ship, just where the bridge was located. This one was gold in colour. Clearly neither Chrysalis nor Celestia were going to give up the struggle.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Celestia is Seriously annoyed.

Given the ease of loss of the local structure once Celestia got the squishies out the way then dialed up to Bug Splatting, going to be a problem getting the rest of the ship crew to survive, any rescue, transfer ship gets too close, one of those beams will just go through it the same.

[OneAmongOthers]

A battle of the titans has began. We'll see which one triumphs. Though Celestia at any point could simply obliterate the ship with a blast of magic from the sun. Hopefully now this nonsense with the changelings can be put down.

[ShiningBeacon]

10465487

She can’t, she needs the Element of Magic intact.