Operation 14: The Vault, Part One
Sunset Shimmer; Sister of Battle
By Tundara
Operation 14
Sunset cautiously stepped through the gaping doors and descended into a far more familiar world. The administrative building had been covered in a veneer of presentability and warm hospitality for visitors to the facility. Inside the actual inner workings of the vault all such pretenses towards comfort were cast aside.
At first little could be discerned as only a dull bit of light splashed through the doors. Sunset made out a boot and what looked to be a couple low barricades at the border between the murky shadows and slight glow that spilled past Sunset.
The air inside the complex was moist with a heaviness that lingered in the back of the throat and crawled up into her nose. Thick with decay as if it had seeped from a necropolis, it cloyed in Sunset’s sinuses where it congealed into a ball that couldn’t be expelled. She held back a gag reflex and covered her mouth with her rebreather.
A heavy thud-thud-thud echo grew louder and louder and louder as long dormant illuminators were activated in sequence. Light was cast first in the deepest parts of the tunnels creating a single point that steadily grew as it drew nearer. It was as if the light was fleeing from the mountain’s bowels until it rushed over and past Sunset and the progena.
The light was sharp, whiter than the usual orange tinted glow cast by imperial fixtures, and stung Sunset’s eyes for a brief instant. She blinked a couple times and rubbed the palm of her hand over her eyes before she glanced around the area.
Fully illuminated, it was apparent the barricades were made in desperation, formed as they were of overturned tables and stacked desks. The walls on either side of the doors were pockmarked from high powered ballistics. Thin black lines scoured the outward faces of the tables, and one had been sliced across the middle. Rivulets of cooled melted metal burbled down it to the floor like shoddy welding. A short way down the corridor there was a large black blast mark from a high powered explosive.
With the makeshift defenses were a handful of bodies.
They’d been fused to the wall or floor where they had slumped and slowly mummified over the centuries. A couple had been cut in half along with the table, and there were an assortment of limbs and chunks splattered about in hardened lumps. The mummified remains wore simple flak vests that would have been considered sub-par even by planetary defense forces’ standards, and their kit was often worse than what the girls were using. Some form of standard pattern auto-gun lay scattered about, and there was a spent tube for a rocket system. What really drew Sunset’s eye was the metallic substance bonded between the wall and a couple of the bodies. They reminded her of branches entombing a pony who fell asleep in a magical grove.
Shiny, obsidian tendrils of an unknown nature burrowed through leathery skin and brittle bones. A thick nest crowned the head, and a second set pierced the chest. Visible through bare ribs where flesh and clothes had rotted away, the tendrils formed a bulbous gordian knot in the place of the heart.
To Sunset’s initial concern, this body’s legs hadn’t mummified. It was only as she drew closer that she noted that the legs were inorganic. They lacked the detail of the arm dangling from Applejack’s bag, but were far more sophisticated than the prosthetics of the Imperium. From a distance they appeared very nearly indistinguishable from real legs. It was only on closer inspection the inorganic nature was apparent. In the knees were little motors and articulating actuators. Both ankles were shattered with little bits of wire and jagged metal sticking out of the open joints. Pieces of the shins were warped and bent, and there was a wide crack in the plating of the left thigh that showed the prosthetics to be aesthetically pleasing, but frail as a result.
Twilight started towards the mummy with the artificial legs, only for her collar to be grabbed by Applejack.
“Others will take care of that. We gotta move on, sugarcube.”
“But!”
Sunset cleared her throat and shot Twilight a scathing look. “There a problem?”
Heaving a sigh, Twilight gave a dejected, “No”, and they continued down the passage.
Behind them the other squads of Class Three filtered into the mountain tunnel. They gave the bodies a cursory inspection. Auto-guns were picked up, checked, chambers cleared, and when they were found to be rusted and decayed beyond usefulness, put in a pile next to the doors for later retrieval.
Slowly, cautiously, they moved forward. Bare, unpainted plascrete boxed them in and held back the mountain. Pipes ran across the ceiling and walls. Every so often there would be a letter and number combination imprinted on the walls. They used the Gothic alphabet, or perhaps whatever precursor language that served as a root. A dark, shiny grey line ran down the center of the floor. When Sunset bent down to examine it she found it was warm to the touch. What purpose it served eluded her.
Only a short way into the complex was the first security checkpoint. Placed at a corner, it had a sweeping view not afforded to the defensive position by the heavy doors. A large window looked out on the corridor, with a simple heavy door to one side for access. The door had been ripped off its hinges, and the panes of bulletproof glass shattered. Jagged shards were scattered about broken by a brown stained path where a body had been dragged. The stain curved around the door and led into the back rooms of the checkpoint. A thick layer of shell casings from autoguns gave further testament to a ferocious last stand.
“But, against what?” Sunset murmured to herself.
She scanned around the corner and found the tunnel to be straight without any further deviations. It stretched for several hundred feet. Along the way there could be discerned what could have been alcoves or side passages, but it was hard to make out for certain. Additional barricades had been erected, and there was a point a bit beyond halfway where the roof seemed to have collapsed.
Her eyes narrowed as something black seemed to move in the distance. It could have been a trick of the mind, something disturbed by the rush of air flowing again in the unsealed facility that caused a slight disturbance in the shadows. A flick of her hand signalled for Applejack to take the opposite edge. Rainbow kneeled next to Applejack, while Twilight came up beside Sunset, and Fluttershy hung back a few steps, ready to help whoever needed it.
They held this position while squad Spitfire slipped between them and stacked up in a similar fashion several feet ahead. Squads Fleur and then Kiwi followed suit, each going a little further than the last. Kiwi went so far as to reach the next set of barricades and mummified remains.
Behind Sunset, and a bit to her chagrin, Lyra and Cheerilee squads cleared the security post. From her position Sunset could look through the broken window. A glance showed her that the brown stains led to a body propped up against the far wall. Rotted tourniquets were wrapped around the stumps of the body’s legs just above the knees. Next to the body lay a pistol identical to the one Twilight had taken in the administratum building, only this one was rusted and ruined by time.
The powercell for the pistol had expanded until it burst. A slight bluish-green glow still emanated from the goop that had leaked out of the pistol’s handle and fused it to the body’s artificial hand.
An itch scraped across the back of her teeth. It was there and gone so quick it made her suck in a sharp breath. Her eyes darted left-right and back again in vain. The hairs on the back of her neck began to rise. Slowly she edged backwards to the door where she could get a better look at the deeper rooms of the security post. There was little she could make out from her position, just that the walls were riddled with pockmarks from autogun rounds and that tables had been overturned in a furious battle.
Remains of the defenders were stacked in the back room. A long haired woman, judging from the shapely nature of her armour, complete with rotted ornate shoulder pads, was pinned to the wall. The hilt of a sword clasped by skeletal hands jutted from her chest. Half of this body’s skull shone with silver through the holes in parchment quality skin. Her mouth was pulled back in a grin, and despite thousands upon thousands of years being dead, there was a defiant quality to her features.
At her feet lay an oddly shaped helmet of a shiny brass material that could have been auramite. Canine-like in appearance, the helmet had a long, pointed snout and ruby lensed eyes. Tall, canid ears held auspex devices. It boggled credulity for it to be the legendary material renowned for its durability and reliance. Especially since the left side of the helmet was partially crushed.
Rarity bent down and plucked up the helmet. Over and over she turned it in her hands.
“The armoury is empty,” Fleur reported from a side room. She came out with an ancient autogun pitted by time, but otherwise appearing functional. “A few weapons, but no ammo for any of them. It was all expended.” She cast a glance at the piles of spent shell casings
Rarity gave a curt nod and approached the body pinned to the wall. She stared at the sword for a short moment before she grasped the hilt with both hands and tried to yank it free. A surprised grunt rocked her willowy frame as the sword remained stuck fast in the plascrete wall. With a foot planted against the wall for better leverage, Rarity tried again. She strained with an audible grunt, back arched with effort, arms taught as she fought to free the sword. The wall refused to relinquish its age-old prize from the molten grip that held it in place.
A smirk pricked the corner of Sunset’s mouth as Rarity grunted and shifted her grip in her efforts. There was a faint click beneath the rumble in Rarity’s throat, and with a whoosh a sheen of cherry red energy crackled along the blade. All resistance vanished and with a cry of surprise Rarity stumbled backwards, tripped and fell on her backside.
For a long moment the only sound was the thrumming along the double edges of the sword she held in front of her. Plain and beautiful at the same time, the blade had at the base a thick crosspiece that had been wedged in the body’s ribs. Blocky runes stood out along the brassy metal. A few strips of rotted white and pink cloth dangled between Rarity’s fingers.
Envy clutched Sunset’s chest as she stared at the beautiful sword Rarity held. It had been her squad that opened the blast door into the complex. The prize should have been hers.
Unable to suppress a scowl, Sunset turned away from what was being plundered in the security rooms and instead led her squad deeper into the facility. She had to get to anything else interesting before Rarity…
Just as they’d started moving, a scream reverberated up the corridor from Spitfire Squad. Sunset hesitated momentarily as a slew of possibilities as to the cause of the scream and her best course of action swirled like a mini-tornado in her head. There was no such instant of indecision from Applejack and Rainbow. Both tightened their grips and moved quicker to catch up with Spitfire Squad.
Chastising herself for her brief hesitation, and hoping no one else noticed it, Sunset kept pace with her squadmates. They were hardly alone as the class moved like a single, undulating body down the long tunnel. A dozen meters from the security post were the first of many doors leading off the central passage. Some were fused shut, others locked by ancient magnetic bolts, and one had a mound of debris spilling through it where the rooms beyond had collapsed. The scream had come from the first set of unlocked doors.
Spitfire stood next to them, her face a startling white as she stared bug-eyed into the room.
Sunset’s teeth itched momentarily again.
As she reached Spitfire she swept down onto a knee, auto-gun trained on whatever lay in the adjacent room. At first Sunset was greeted by a simple, large mess hall. In its prime, it would easily have stretched past the confines of the administratum building. A few surviving tables were laid out in a simple grid, and along the far wall were counters separating the dining area from where the food had been prepared. The last occupants of the room had seen a furious firefight. Throughout the rest of the room were the signs of all manner of weapons.
Several of the tables were destroyed, cut in half by a continuous beam, and one was embedded in the wall to the right where it had bisected some unfortunate person. The walls were scoured by an even greater number of shell holes and lazbolt scorch marks. A couple of the pillars that had held the roof up had been shattered, leaving a large part of the room buried, including a door to the backrooms. In the right side of the room was the cause of the screams.
Fleetfoot was on her knees in the middle of a deep rusty red garden. Face in hands and gun dropped to the spongy floor, she trembled and repeated over and over the Benifiction of Saint Celestine. Before her was a pillar of twisted limbs and faces held together by the same thorny metal that had been in the chest cavities of the bodies by the blast doors. Entwined throughout like silvery veins, Arms had been severed or smashed by forces indeterminable. Skulls were caved in, and faces were twisted in howls of torment. Hatred was etched deep onto the leathery faces and rotted flesh. Next to Fleetfoot, Blaze attempted to spur her to retrieve her gun and get a grip. Even through her rebreather the stench of moldering decay was almost overwhelming.
The itch in the back of Sunset’s teeth returned, and then vanished again.
Surprise bent down in the middle of the room and picked up a spent frag launcher canister. She twisted it in her fingers a couple times then tossed it away. With a gentle plop it landed among the scores of bodies that formed the spongy mat underneath her.
“More signs of the Enemy,” Spitfire spat the words, and Sunset could sense they were directed at her.
Slowly Fleetfoot collected herself and staggered out of the battlescarred room, hand raised to her head so her thumb could massage her temple. “Emperor, send us your shield. Emperor, send us your shield,” she mumbled over and over.
“Everyone out, we’re sealing this place,” Spitfire barked at her squad.
Sunset’s eyes darted to the doorway to the food processorium. She could see a skeletal foot just beyond the gap. A tiny part of her wanted to argue with Spitfire. Ideas of treasures that lay just out of sight teased her. The pillar of conjoined, deformed skulls and limbs made her bite back the idea.
Spitfire squad sealing the room gave Sunset the opportunity she hoped to reclaim the lead. With a flick of her hand she signaled for her squad to form up. She hurried them down the straight corridor at an almost reckless pace. Images of Rarity holding the power sword flashed across the back of her thoughts, and a tight knot of envy twisted in her gut.
They came to a set of already sealed doors, a red lamp aglow to signal its locked status. Well worn grooves in the floor showed that it had been a heavily used door when the vault had been active.
Twilight inspected the locks, and one look at her pinched, confused face was all it took for Sunset to realize that they might spend forever trying to decipher a means of opening the doors.
Instead of wasting time, Sunset had them press on.
Right beside the sealed doors was another security post, and this one was in an even worse state than the one they’d first found. The entire interior was black and covered in a thick sooty layer of spent prometheum. In the middle of the first room was a statue of a melted, hulking figure. Twice the height of a man even hunched over it leaned forward with an arm outstretched as if it were trying to grab something.
“A dreadnought?” Rainbow asked as she circled the ‘statue’.
“Ain’t wide enough, sugarcube.” Applejack jabbed her gun against its leg and got a dull clang for her effort.
“It's ruined beyond recovery, whatever it was. I doubt even the cult Mechanicus would be interested in it,” Sunset grumbled. Applejack and Twilight both gave her a look that said, ‘I think you are wrong, but don’t care to argue about it.’
She poked her head into the adjacent rooms, and saw that they’d once been a small storage room and another that had held an auspex suit. The auspex monitors were all destroyed by the same flames that had melted the not-dreadnought, as had been whatever had been stored in the other room.
Sunset suppressed an annoyed growl.
“Let’s keep moving.” She turned around and abandoned the incinerated security post.
A short distance further into the mountain was a patch of deep shadows where the lights were missing. The hairs on the back of Sunset’s neck prickled as she squinted, trying to pierce the deep velvety hole.
“Why is everything in here ruined, but that outside building pristine?” Rainbow asked Twilight. The question grated against Sunset’s ears. It had been slowly building in the back of her own head, and she cocked her ear to listen for the response.
“Being honest; I don’t know. It was strange that the administorum was so untouched. Clearly, something is maintaining it but not these tunnels. And the only Dark Age technology that is even capable of something like that is an abominable intelligence. But why that building and not these tunnels? If there is an abominable intelligence somewhere in this complex, why has it limited itself to just that outside area?”
“Do you think it was responsible for this?” Fluttershy asked as they stepped over another cluster of battle mutilated mummified remains.
“Maybe.”
“Even with all the signs of… um… you know, the archenemy?”
“Well… There is that.”
“What worries me is that we ain’t seen a single body of who these fellows were fighting.”
“C-could they have been fighting themselves?”
“We still would have seen signs of them engaged with each other in that case.”
“Uh, the skull pillar?”
“Throne! Okay, other than the freaky skull pillar. You knew what I meant, Rainbow.”
“I believe Applejack is onto something. The cadavers are laid out in a manner that would indicate that they attempted to repel an insurgent force. Yet, no remains of this force are evident. Either this hypothetical insurgency suffered no casualties or they removed their dead.”
“Thank you, Twilight. That’s what I’m saying. Where are the other bodies? This ain’t right.”
“S-Should it though? Be ‘right’, I mean. Um, this is an ancient vault. And, um, nevermind.”
“It is also possible that they were overcome by a deamon incursion. That would coincide with the other signs of the Archenemy.”
“So, to sum—”
“Throne preserve me, but cut the chatter,” Sunset shot a scathing look over her shoulder at her four squadmates. Irritation bulged in her temple, and her face was darker than a stormfront with a scowl that could melt steel.
Applejack and Rainbow both frowned in return, but held their tongues as they knew they’d been at fault breaking silence. If anything else was in the tunnel and heard them nattering like nervous hens they could have gotten not only themselves, but their classmates killed. They gave curt nods, and the squad moved deeper into the tunnels under a halo of silence.
It was only a couple hundred feet until they reached the edge of the pitch darkness, almost as if a large glob of ink had been smeared across the passage to form a wall. There was almost no blending, no gradual shift as one edged further and further away from the light, just a sheer ledge of absolute nothingness that the illuminators in the corridor were unable to pierce.
Her toe brushed up against a loose piece of broken plascrete. It seemed to rocket away from her foot like a shuttle attempting atmospheric escape. Her heart skipped a beat at the too-loud clatter as it skipped into the pitch dark and fell into a hole hidden within. The echoes reverberated in her skull as if they were acid coated spikes being driven into her ears.
Fingers tightened on the grip of her autogun and she waited for the potential monsters to leap at her throat.
Tense seconds slipped past.
A cool breeze brushed against her cheek as the tunnel breathed.
Nothing emerged out of that inky veil.
Cautiously Sunset slid forward until her toes were at the edge of the dividing line between light and dark.
For a brief instant she thought herself on the edge of a garden vale of thick vines and stout trees surrounded by a bed of plush moss. The instant passed and the truth asserted itself as she swept her light through the shadows. Vines were bent and twisted remnants of pipes, tubing and cables. In place of trees were support columns that held aloft a towering roof for a tunnel much larger than the one Sunset was in. Beneath Sunset in the trough of the tunnel the ground was a cooled bubbly mass of molten stone, metal, and equipment. Only the shadows and fear induced deep-seated yearning for her old home had tricked her.
Upper lip curling in disgust at her own continued weakness, Sunset cast her light around the space again.
The floor dropped away a good ten feet, and the ceiling was another fifty or sixty overhead. To the left and right were raised walking paths. Black ash clung to the walls and in front of Sunset were divots, dangling chains, and a few scraps of a device to extend a bridge that was long destroyed. The walls were covered in rivulets of melted plasteel where some tremendous heat had torn through the tunnel.
Using hand signs she ordered Rainbow down into the trench. She gave a nod, slipped her gun over her shoulder, spun around and lowered herself over the edge. There was a slight crunchy echo as she landed.
Rainbow went down on one knee as she swept her light about and revealed a series of parallel humps. Melted rails, Sunset internally corrected as she let out a breath.
“Why in the Throne’s glow do they need such a big tunnel?” Applejack hissed the question to herself between tight teeth. She didn’t need to be ordered to drop down next to Rainbow. In quick succession Sunset, then Fluttershy, and finally Twilight followed. Not too far behind came Kiwi and Fleur squads to set up in the tunnel mouth.
Class Three made its way deeper into the mountain. In short order Kiwi and Fleur squads were in the enlarged, melted tunnel, and their spots taken by Spitfire and Cheerilee squads. They too would drop down and be replaced, the class moving like the undulations of a caterpillar. The constant pressure on Sunset’s back gave her no time to slow or relax.
She had to be first. She couldn’t let the next discovery slip through her grasp.
Quickly she crossed to the other side of the trough where slagged stairs led to the continuation of the tunnel the girls had been using since entering the vault. Sunset and Applejack cupped their hands to give Rainbow a boost up to the tunnel. She only barely reached the lip of the edge. With a grunt Rainbow was hefted up and over. There was a brief pause, and then Rainbow’s light darted around as she scanned the tunnel.
“See anything?”
“Yeah. All the illuminators have been broken down here, and there are claw marks in the walls, floor, and ceiling.”
“Claw marks?”
“Big ones. Something very big came through here and smashed this place up,” Rainbow reported, her head popping over the edge.
Sunset nodded as she quickly processed which direction they should proceed. A few other squads were already spreading out left and right along the larger tunnel. Their lights fell on a toppled platform, one side scorched from the ancient blast that had consumed the tunnel and the other side embedded in the ground. Down the other way a massive set of ajar doors were just at the edge of the other squads’ lights.
“Secure a rope and we’ll continue down this way,” Sunset said as she indicated that Twilight should go up next with her and Applejack’s assistance. Sunset followed, then Fluttershy, and lastly Applejack. From her pack Sunset brought out a flare, cracked it, and wedged it in the corner where the rope dangled. They retook their original formation, and moved even deeper into the mountain.
Gravel and glass crunched beneath their boots. Rebreathers hissed. Sweat trickled down Sunset’s brow and down the back of her neck. Her undershirt stuck to her skin as the deeper they went the hotter the air grew. At the fringes of her hearing there entered a low, throbbing rumble.
Far into the mountain the corridor at last turned off the perfectly straight course it had burrowed. A slide of plascrete and steel beams spilled into the corner of the corridor out of the mouth of a off-set lift. Very faintly a dull red light glowed from above the obstructed doors. So low was the light that Sunset barely noticed it. Shoulder pressed to the wall, she peered around the corner.
Only a few dozen feet down the tunnel a closed blast door barred any further progress.
Sunset cursed under her breath and then furrowed her brow as her light touched on something curious. In the corridor were a set of the blast doors that had been bent and peeled outwards before being pressed against the walls. From their positioning, it was evident that the destroyed doors belonged in the spot where the closed, pristine closed set stood stoically shut. Sunset’s eyes darted between the sets of doors. They’d been closed, and something very large and powerful had ripped them open and forced its way through, then the doors had been replaced with new ones.
Next to the closed doors was another of the simple security cogitators. It had been pried open, with wires yanked out and spliced. The area around the cogitator was pitted and scarred, and at the base of the wall was a large rust coloured stain. Boot prints lead from the stain past the closed doors.
“Twilight; you’re up,” Sunset flicked a finger towards the cogitator.
Twilight set to work before Sunset had finished speaking. She peered inside, clicked her tongue in something that sounded both approving and highly irritated at the same time, and then reached into the bundle of wires and with a simple flick of her fingers connected a pair.
There was a swift whoosh and hydraulic screech as the blast doors instantly were sucked up into the ceiling. Bright, artificial light slammed into Sunset, annihilated the pitch dark of the corridor, and left the girls momentarily blinded. Through that stinging blindness Sunset imagined all manner of ominous dark figures waiting just beyond the opened blast doors to pounce on unwary intruders. She went stiff, finger on the trigger of her gun. She blinked a couple times, but her sight was slower to adjust than the other members of her squad with their duller senses.
“What in Tarnation?”
Sunset rubbed her eyes, and when the blindness cleared she found herself before a pristine section of the complex. The walls were of a bright off-white, the floors a dull grey broken by a shiny black strip. Illuminators shone pure and strong, their light untarnished by the millenia since the vault’s sealing. Along the walls were a series of stripes in blue, green, purple, yellow, and red. Every thirty or so feet ancient text in the long dead language of Steinsanne informed the purpose of each stripe. Where there had been a looming silence punctuated by the crunch of the progenas’ boots on gravel, now a low hum of working machinery washed over Sunset. She could hear the life coursing through the new section of the complex. Fans rattled, electricity buzzed, motors whirred, and there was an odd distant click that echoed from deeper parts still undisturbed.
“Throne; it’s almost like we have stepped the Emperor knows how far into the past,” Applejack remarked. The tall girl tightened her grip and proceeded to cross the dividing line between what had been left to decay and preserved.
Unlike the area they had just come from, doors and corridors branched off regularly from the main corridor in a grid pattern. At the first junction the yellow and red line dashed off to the left, while the others continued ahead, reinforcing Sunset’s guess about the nature of their purpose as guides.
Fluttershy bent down and ran her fingers over the writing on the red line, a little tilt to her head as she stared at a symbol of a white cross.
“This leads to the medicea,” she declared after a hesitant moment. Fluttershy’s breath latched in her throat, and she quickly added, ‘N-not that we have to go there. Just, this symbol is, um… Sorry.”
Sunset heaved an exasperated sigh but didn’t comment. Why couldn’t she still have the assertive Fluttershy that appeared on Mother?
“What are you thinking, Sunset?” Rainbow asked as she scanned the corridor.
“New section. Kept fully maintained like the administorum. The area we were in was cut off, but by who? More doors, side corridors…” Sunset’s voice trailed off and she approached the nearest door. Next to it was another of the card readers and number pads. It was too much to hope that the card they had would work, and after a quick test it was proved correct. “Locked rooms.”
For the next several minutes they made their way through this pristine portion of the archeotech vault. They tried several doors, but were always met by a red light and threatening buzz of rejection. Trying to force their way through the doors would be pointless, so they didn’t try.
Frustration built in the back of Sunset’s jaw.
They were so close! The secrets and knowledge just beyond those doors, given how well the ancient vault was maintained, had to be monumental! Perhaps enough where they could make the foundations of the Imperium tremble! And what rewards they would be given for being the ones to drag them out of the vault and present them to the Mechanicus and Ecclesiarchy!
Sunset was so lost in her greedy thoughts that she failed to note the building itch in the back of her teeth. Nor the whiff of fermented ozone that floated just beneath the scents of oil and machinery coming from the humming air circulators. Her ears did pick up the tread of boots echoing in the halls and the grinding clatter of a heavy door in the distance as a new way into the deepest parts of the vault was opened.
And among those footfalls, almost hidden, was a rolling clink-clink-clink of metallic feet that sent a shiver up her spine.
She almost focused on these smells and sounds, but her need was too great. Her greed too strong. Her gaze was fixed only on the next door, willing it to open, and when it didn’t she moved on.
Until she found a door that was open.
In the very depths of the gridlike network of corridors and locked doors they found a door propped open by the remains of an ancient enginseer. A heavy lattice of obsidian tendrils entombed the body and bonded it to the wall in such a way as to prevent the doors from being able to close. Mechanical limbs appeared to have been partially melted or consumed by the tendrils. The tendrils had burst from the body out his back and chest in a branchwork spire. There was no head, just a ragged leathery stump.
Icy hesitation was pushed aside and Sunset peaked around the body to look inside the room.
She found a well appointed laboratory and workspace. Auspex scanners, holo displays, and cogitators surrounded a large table. Scattered around the central workstation were pieces of machinery, bits and odds of gears, wires, and other components.
A ruddy stain marked several of the components, and they were scattered around in a disarrayed heap. On the far end of a counter, next to an active holo display, sat the head of the body in the doorway.
Sunset’s tongue peaked out to wet her lips and she slowly, cautiously slipped past the body.
What struck Sunset most of all was the apparent wear of time on the items unavoidable even in a sealed vault. Surfaces were cracked, rough, and yellowed. There was a brittleness to everything she brushed her fingers against as if they could crumble at any greater pressure. The space was clean, well looked after, but not maintained to the same standards as the corridors just outside. It was simply old. Ancient.
Before Sunset could give any orders, Twilight was at the holo-display. Twilight utterly ignored the mummified head. Her fingers hesitated for a half-second over the mechanical command altar before a finger pressed down on one of the larger keys with a gritty ‘clack’.
There was a brief moment of silence, and then a boxy cogitator began to whine as power flowed through its metallic veins. A light brightened on the cogitator, and the holodisplay flickered as it shifted from a stand-by to interactive mode.
Twilight emitted a pleased chirp.
For several seconds a partial circle spun in midair, and then the display resolved into a broad sheet with transparent, bright icons and an already open auspex recording. There was a static chime from hidden voxcasters. Twilight tilted her head, and reached out to tap the holodisplay. There wasn’t even a pause before the recording began to play.
A man in a long white coat shifted uneasily and spoke to someone off screen. His voice held a thick velvet quality that rumbled in Sunset’s chest. She found it a shame she couldn’t understand a single word of what he was saying. The man went from uneasy to a hard certainty as he turned to face whoever was meant to be watching the recording. From the way he found his stride, gesturing to a diagram of some contraption on a simple white board it was evident that he was proud to the point of arrogance and certain about whatever it was he was proposing. It reminded Sunset of the unicorn scholars at Celestia’s school when they were desperate for funding for their pet projects.
Twilight was enraptured by the recording, but Sunset quickly lost interest and returned to poking around the workspace.
The ancient scraps would be of interest to the Mechanicus. Whether there was any practical value to the material Sunset was less certain. To her untrained eye it was merely bits and bobs of wires and metal casings. Hardly a blessed Powersword.
Sunset clicked her tongue and started to tell everyone to gather what they could when Twilight gave a shocked cry and staggered away from the holo recording. Sunset spun on her heel wondering why Twilight would react in such a way to a mere recording.
Sunset’s own voice threw itself into her throat and there it was lodged so that she almost gagged. Her eyes bulged and she couldn’t look away from the holo image.
The video had panned to the side to reveal a four armed woman. Each arm was spidery, long and thin, with a bright silvery sheen. Delicate hands opened and closed as the woman spoke in a demure voice. She gestured to a golden orb on the table in front of her. Her palms had a luminescence as she touched the orb, and returned to normal as she retracted her hand.
The woman wasn’t what caught Sunset’s attention so fully. Nor was it the orb, even as luminescent teal eldritch runes blazed across its golden surface.
Rather, it was the tall creature next to the woman. Shiny and pure black with large aquamarine eyes that seemed too big for her elongated head, perched upon which was a tall crown. Silvery shod hooves clicked on the tile floor as she took a step towards the recorder. Wings shifted in anticipation along the large equinoid’s sides and her starfield mane and tale danced in a soft cloud. In nearly every regard she was Celestia’s dark mirror.
Even through the recording there was an otherworldliness to the image. Some ethereal aspect exuded by the holoimage made Sunset’s teeth… calm. The omnipresent scratchiness was banished. The woollen taste soothed.
And in her chest there was a twang. Like the string of a lute being plucked.
“Impossible,” she breathed and took a step toward the recording even as her squadmates recoiled further.
“Holy Throne; Protect us. A daemon? These idiots consorted with a daemon!”
“Dear members of the Military Council—”
“Turn it off Twilight!”
“I can’t! I don’t know how!”
“As Doctors Cliff and Dora have laid out—”
“Saint’s bones, can’t you do something?!”
“Do what? This is Dark Age technology that turned itself on!”
“As has been shown with the retro-fitted dolls, the early proto-reactor is able to increase efficiency by a five fold factor.”
“You’re the technician, Twilight! You have to have some idea!”
“I-If she s-says she d-d-doesn’t, Applejack…”
“How can I possibly know about ancient Steinanne equipment?”
“the Heavy Extra-Planer Reactor, once operational, will be able to provide unlimited, clean—”
“Just shoot the damn thing!”
“Are you insane, Rainbow?! Who knows how this place will react to autoguns! There could be all sorts of—”
“Shut up! I’m trying to listen!” Sunset roared over the tumultuous argument.
Her squad went deathly quiet, and to Sunset’s satisfaction she could hear the princess clearly.
“energy to fuel Steinsanne’s war machines. From the mark five powered exosuit, to the Jaeggernaut mobile armour, the Zeus Cannon, and for the programmable micro-swarm; the uses of this energy are many and limited only by the imagination. With it, not only will Steinsanne be able to defeat Steinsmar, but will be able to control the entire quadrant of the galaxy. Maybe even Earth herself.”
Nightmare Moon pulled her lips up to reveal the fangs of an equally beautiful and dangerous smile. Dr. Cliff and Dr. Dora gave short little claps.
“Sunset… You can understand that thing?”
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it lives!
11690613
Indeed. The Emperor, Master of Mankind, saw fit to bludgeon me with some inspiration these past few weeks.
Fire and light, SHE's involved? That's not good at all.
My oh my, what are you doing here Nightmare Moon? A lot of questions are being raised and the anticipation is killing me. I eagerly await more, keep up the fantastic work!
Such Greed there Sunset, refusing to accept the enemy probing your mind in preparation for a more in depth attack.
Adagio and Chrysalis?
11690658
I had planned for that reveal to be much, much, much later on. And then the ending of this chapter struck me as I was drifting off to sleep last night, and the reveal got bumped forward considerably.
11690666
Most I can give are some hints with a side of maybe some exposition in the next chapter.
11690667
Nah, I have no plans for either Adagio, her sisters, or Chrysalis at this juncture.
Yess thanks for the update
Oh yeah, Nightmare Moon is either dead. Or in the Dark Cells
Man, the rabbit hole in this place just keeps going deeper and deeper.
It's quite fascinating to passing through a long battle torn tunnel to then end up in a pristine time stopped quarter.
Though at the same time unnerving because of the tension that at any moment something will pounce on them.
I was wondering, are we going to meet surviving Men of Iron? Only for Nightmare Moon to make a surprise appearance.
Also, Sunset better come up with a good excuse as to why she can understand what seems to be a Deamon to her squad.
Ah, here we have it. The old greed for power. Honestly I am not aexactly expected to find chaos involvment here, but Nightmeare herself is a clearly threw me off.
Thought I do hope that they find something incredibly later.
So...Why did Nightmare Moon not get transformed like Sunset did? Guessing it was the mirror, whereas Nightmare Moon got there via the elements.
11690983
Well based on the bits of lore that correlate between the two canons Nightmare Moon would have been the equivalent of a Daemon Host. If her possession of Luna was her first incursion into the Materium then that would heavily influence her appearance from then on despite outside influences unless she chose otherwise. My question is whether this is Nightmare solo or while possessing Luna.
11691132
Way back when I listened to some of Arch's videos on Warhammer's lore. I watched a few of Adeptus Ridiculous' videos, but didn't care as much for the formatting. I might give their Scholla video a shot though. Thanks for the tip.
11690983
Isha transformed Sunset, saving her from Nurgle as Sunset fell through his realm. Before the transformation could be completed one of the Emperor's Saints intercepted Sunset and altered the end result, hence her being half-human and half-aeldari. I wanted to write a story about a half-human-aeldari character, so I worked backwards from that point to find a mostly plausible reason.
Likewise, Nightmare Moon's presence was something I just thought would be neat and made me contemplate reasons about why and how she could be present in Steinsmar and Steinsanne's ancient past, and what connection there are to the present with Sunset. Finding solutions to these questions and then sharing them in an interesting way within the story is one of the reasons I enjoy this sort of cross-over.
11690948
The number of big discoveries that they dashed past because of Sunset's envy and greed... She'd want to throw herself on the pyre if she knew.
11690944
I've been brainstorming all sorts of excuses for her to use today.
Glad to hear that the building of tension of the vault aspect worked.
11690857
Or still on the loose. ...
I mean... it's not impossible? Right?
11690925
Wait till the fecal matter hits the rotary device and the place wakes up!
11691489
True! It is a large galaxy after all!
Well, this place is turbo cursed now.
Also, Sunset better be quick with the lies or she is in serious danger of getting shot for heresy.
I just have to throw my two cents in here, as a few things stand out to me.
The first, this is such a specifically niche story… and it is absolutely rich. The specificity makes me almost balk at the level of attention that you have already garnered and the apparent loyalty of those that are following the story so far. Never let those numbers fool you, it seems as near anyone who has given this story a chance has enjoyed it.
While not perfect, this is a league ahead of many other stories on this site that have reached the highest status. (Perhaps the inclusion of more defined page breaks for shifts in perspective or time skips would be something to consider). The writing and descriptions give me a genuine sense of intrigue and stakes, I don’t doubt for a moment that anyone in the squad or the progena as a whole can die (perhaps our main cast has a touch of plot armor… but something makes me doubt how far that will carry).
I don’t know the most about 40k or MLP, but it is easy enough to follow along with in the same sense that some stories just throw you in and let the reader pick up the threads and weave the more complex parts themselves (thinking… things like Star Wars and Mass Effect).
Now for the story itself! I am loving this far more than I thought I would (I almost passed this by without a thought in the world). I am deeply curious about… almost everything that you have presented so far. It’s like a combination of 40k, Maze Runner, and a sprinkle of Harry Potter but with only the best themes and mysteries.
I want to know more about this facility, Sunset and her squad, Equis Prime, why… well… certain demons are present, the history of the system and the conflicts of ages past, Mother, and much more.
I also want Sunset to get her poor ears back… I’m sure SHE isn’t keen on that but hey (the Mother’s Auto-Docs sound like a damn possible option).
All in all: Well done. Thank you for this so far and I wish you the best in continuing this truly enjoyable story.
The answer to that question is no. With maybe an amendment later, that some words sounded familiar.
11692291
That... wasn't on the list of potential responses I was brainstorming.
11692283
Thank you for this wonderful review. I always get a bit more nervous when I see a longer comment, and its always a relief when it isn't one picking the chapter/story apart or a bombardment of questions. The former for obvious reasons, the latter because I always end up having to hedge my answers, but I just want to share. I hope you continue to enjoy the story.
I was expecting some Men of Iron or some other horror from the Dark Age of Technology to be scuttling around inside the vault, or maybe a lone Drukharri to have set up shop, or possibly a daemon to be imprisoned down there and accidentally set loose by their messing around. By the Emperor's tapdancing gall bladder, I didn't expect Nightmare Moon to have been there for what had to have been at least 15,000, if not longer, ago!
Did these teams accidentally set her free? Or did they wake up some sort of technological horror? Or did they wake up some sort of slumbering warp entity? Some ancient xenos horror?
11693625
No, yes, yes, maybe.
I also think you are the first person to mention the time span involved and how long ago NMM was on the planet.
11694031
Considering that the Age of Strife kicked off towards the end of the 25th millennium and ended in the early-to-mid-30th millennium. The Horus Heresy kicked off in the early-31st millennium and lasted for 9 years, the Age of Apostasy was in the 35th millennium and lasted a century, the opening of the great rift happened in year 999 of the 41st millennium.
I'm going to assume that this story takes place between the 12th Black Crusade(also known as the Gothic War) and the Siege of Cadia(the events that kicked off the 13th Black Crusade) because I don't recall reading anything mentioning the major events that are currently plaguing the 42nd millennium: The 13th Black Crusade ravaging the Imperium, the revival of Primarch Rouboute aguilleman, the Terran Crusade, the Indominitus Crusade, the Plague Wars, Hive Fleet Leviathan invading from above and below the galactic plane, the Devastation of Baal, the return of the Squats, or Chapter Master Dante being declared Lord Commander of Imperium Nihilus. All of that, minus the caos-y stuff and the return of the Squats would very quickly become common knowledge to the average Imperial citizen.
11694054
Sunset of Battle takes place after the Indomidus founding +100 years. Give or take a decade. I was working on the story before 9th edition did its idiotic retconning and I'll be honest, I don't have a flying clue what has been going on in 10th with this Pariah Nexus and Squats and so-on story wise. Since the vast majority of Sunset of Battle is self-contained I don't really see a need to keep up on what has been happening elsewhere.
11694439
The return of the Lion was really good. Vashtorr for me is kinda mid, his look is cool. But a demigod of chaos who controls the Forge of Souls and wants to become the 5th chaos god is kinda meh for me. They could've had the whole Arcs of Omen storyline being Be'lakor playing at one of his many manipulations to become the 5th chaos god, or had Be'lakor and Vashtor get into this massive grudge match that winds destroying several of the arcs setting the whole series of events back but allowing chaos to still advance, or have Malice(because someone owns the rights to Malal) step in and backhand both Be'lakor and Vashtorr showing why he is the real 5th chaos god.
Hive Fleet Leviathan pushing into Segmentum Solar from Segmentum Pacificus gives a real sense of urgency and unless GW completely botches the story(you know they probably will) this will make the 'Nids feel like a true threat. I think it would be cool if they would occasionally make the Emperor rise from the throne, not in a glorious regeneration, but as a mummified skeleton blazing with unleashed and uncontrolled psychic might who burns anybody and everybody to ash, regardless if they are friend or foe, as he trundles across the battlefield. That would make Failbaddon the Armless shit Horus' terminator plate and flee back to the Eye of Terror, leaving twin trails of brown and yellow across the stars behind him.
The Squats(I refuse to call the Leagues of Votann) were introduced over a year ago and they still haven't received a codex.
It's cool now that Khorne is in ascendancy(the angry paraplegic needed some love..not from Slaanesh) and Angron can come back from being banished after 8 days.
Bobby G killed the High Lords of Terra and put new ones in place, all because they thought they could put a cannoness onto the council and manipulate her, and she said, "Fuck this! Imma go out and crusade!". and the Ecclesiarchy gave her a badass suit of terminator plate(size to fit a "normal" mortal) and is now wrecking face in the name of Big E.
Back on topic: So this is after Robert Gorillaglue has been declared Lord Commander of the Imperium and now the events are heading towards the Plague Wars and the events of God Blight.
Will Sunset be the mortal girl who gets possessed by the Emperor and frees Rowboat Girlyman from the chains that Moartaion put him in and stops him from being injected by the God Blight virus? Or will she witness Rainbow Griptape get injected by the God Blight virus and watch him die, only for the GEoM to possess Grandpa Smurf, Sparta kick Morty back into Nurgle's garden, then set fire to Nurgle's rose bushes and send ole Ten Tons of Diseased Blubber fleeing back to his Black Mansion screaming, "Isha, lock all the doors and close all the curtains! Shiny Golden Boi is here and he's pissed", while hiding behind the couch?
Will she witness Khorne become ascendant, which causes an entire battle group of the Indominatus Crusade to stall out and then they all fight each other, which pleases Cornyboi so much that he empowers Angy so much that he can come back from being banished after 8 days?
Will she see Lion the Johnson step out of a mystical, magical dark forest and chop up some chaos boys julienne-style?
I'm not trying to highjack your story or be a lore lawyer(too many 40K fans already do this). You probably got plans to change the events of the 42nd millennium for your narrative, and that would be cool. Sunset becoming a full battle sister who is technically an extra-dimensional xenos horsey who was shaped into a humanoid form from a combination of Isha and (probably, maybe, hopefully) Imperius, who shoots heretics in the face and popping their brains with awesome psyker powers that are really magic that bypasses the warp.
One last question: Is Sunset currently in Imperium Sanctus or Imperium Nihilus?
Sorry for the wall of text, I love 40K lore. It's just chef's kiss when it comes to grimdark, grimderp and utter ridiculousness.
Because nobody has pointed out:
Celestia's name is misspelled here.
11694477
Sanctus. Steinsmar is just a little galactic North by North-West of Ultramar.
Most of those events I probably wouldn't inject Sunset into, tbh. I've got my own plans to muck up first! NMM wasn't supposed to be revealed to have been stomping around the Warhammer verse until a potential interlude between the Scholla arc and what my notes refer to as the Xenos Colony Arc. Another Arc I have planned is a Genestealer Uprising Arc that is very Mad Maxx inspired.
11694487
Thank you, correction made.
So Moony has been in the area
11713960
Doing Moony things.
Oh. Oh. This just got a lot more complicated for Sunset. And the fact that seeing the moonhorse eased her psychic senses raises a number of fascinating questions.
Fantastic ratcheting tension. Very glad I caught up on this story.
Is there an update in the works? I'm loving this story and would consider it HERESEY for it to end early.
Seriously though, is there another chapter coming soon.
11780404
There are two chapters in the works. I'm just... slow. Very slow. So slow. ...
Like.... SLoooooooooooooooooow.
11780861
Soooooooooooooo Verrrrrryyyyyyyyyyy
ssssssssssllllllllllllllllooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwww.......
11781038
Indeed. I did manage a hundred words yesterday. Which may not seem like much, but its an improvement over the previous week! No.. wait... I did 200 the Tuesday before last. >.>....
Joking aside, I'm just not being strict enough with myself on when I write. I got 3 problems; The first and largest is that anxiety paradoxically is what used to drive me to write as my para-social network of 'friends' was this site. I was at my most prolific when I was loneliest. I've since attached myself to a guild in a time-vampire of a game and 'hang' with absolute gaming degenerates. We spend an enormous amount of time in Discord and a huge proportion of my anxieties and mental energies are situated around the terror of losing this group and being alone again. I am well aware that my gaming and lifestyle habits in general are unhealthy, while seeing the alternative as worse.
The second issue is that my desk is in a high traffic area of the house. Pretty much I'm only alone when I am the only one in the house. This is a huge hurdle as once I start writing its easy to get knocked out of the flow and there are often people just going, 'Hey, look at this.' That was a cause of the aforementioned 200 words. I was starting to enter a grove, ideas were coming, and then, 'Hey, look at this cat video.'
The final major hurdle is my anxieties around the quality of my writing and never being confident in what I have written.
11781038
I rediscovered my groove and have been productive today.
11781696
Woo les go!