The World Spirit
Rainbow looked out over the planet far below, the shimmering shield that protected the hanger bay from the void not interrupting her view in the slightest. She realised with a pang that this was actually the first time she had ever seen Hannibal from any perspective other than ground level, and knew that in its heyday, this planet would have been beautiful. Now though, the planet had been reduced to an ugly lump floating through space, a near airless rock where she had met her first friends in the universe, not to mention learned to kill. This was the one place in the universe that she never expected to return to, and was having mixed feelings about being here.
On one hoof, her heart was leaping at the prospect of coming back here and recovering the World Spirit. With any luck those Exodites who had lost their life on the planet would be able to find rest in the craftworld, as well as all those members of the Wind host who had perished here. On the other hoof however, there were a lot of memories down there, and returning was sure to stir them up. Not that that would stop her though, the clan was riding for her, and so her personal trepidations wouldn’t be factored into this.
Turning around, Rainbow moved next to her Jetbike, retrieving her helmet and sealing the armour together. As always, the coloured lens tinted Rainbows vision, but she was used to it by now. The only difference between this time and the other times she had donned her armour was that she no longer was wearing the war mask. It felt odd, but it didn’t matter.
Throwing her legs over the Jetbike, Rainbow locked her legs into position, making sure that no matter what acrobatics she pulled off in mid-air, she would stay firmly attached to the bike and not plummeting to her death. Then again, she was still wearing her Swooping Hawk armour, the anti-grav generator in the pack humming away, so she would be able to survive the fall, as long as she was high enough off the ground to realise she was falling before she died. Grimacing at the thought, she activated her helmet communicator in time to hear Nar’bok giving his final speech before battle began.
“Listen in. We go in fast and we go in hard. Sensors are picking someone up on the surface so prepare to fight for the node. Now, there are brave men, women or others defending their new base here. Let’s go kill them!”
Instantly, the hanger bay was filled with the roar of hundreds of engines as the Jetbikes of the clan flared into life. Kicking her own bike into life, Rainbow tested the throttle, the engine growling in response.
“Entering upped atmosphere. Shields nominal. Prepping hanger bay for exposure to upper atmosphere in three…two…” The helmsman said, before the hanger was filled with a roar even louder than that of the Jetbike engines as the shields around the hanger shut off, allowing the wind to howl into the space.
Rainbow watched as other Jetbikes shot out of the hanger as nothing more than blurs, before she too revved her engines and shot out of the hanger. She was shocked by the sheer power her bike had, whizzing past the other Jetbikes as if they were standing still and almost being thrown from the saddle before she decided to throttle back, drawing back in line with the rest of the clan. She was still going fast, but it was nowhere near what she now knew this thing was capable of, and was barely having to use a third of the power to keep in line with the others. Maybe the second engine was a bit mu…No. Bad Rainbow, there was no such thing as to much speed.
“Looks like you’re having fun there.” Tar’nek laughed over the helmet communicator.
“Laugh it up.” Rainbow shot back.
“Keep it quiet.” Nar’bok ordered, his own heavily modified Jetbike taking the lead.
His bike hardly resembled the source material, the front being completely cut down, while the rear had been extended out over the engine, tapering off into a scorpion like tail, mounting a large heavy calibre weapon that swung back and forth as it mimicked Nar’bok’s head movements, the two obviously being linked together.
“World Spirit central node located.” Anira reported. “Half a continent away on current bearing, unknown signal present as well. Guess those are our bad guys.”
“Let’s open them up then. Jetbikers, with me, Vypers and Hornets, form up and follow behind. We may need your heavy weapons later.” Nar’bok roared with glee, before his Jetbike shot forward, its engine firing at full capacity, followed swiftly by the rest of the clan.
Rainbow smiled in glee as she zoomed across the planet’s surface, moving at speeds that put even those of the Swooping Hawks to shame and her Sonic Rainboom to shame. Rainbow briefly wondered where the explosion of colour was, but realised that it was probably not going to appear at these speeds due to the added weight she was carrying with her, and the additional drag of the Jetbike. She briefly wondered if she could force it to work at the highest throttle power, but that thought was snatched away by the howling wind.
Suddenly, Rainbow was buffeted by the edges of an explosion, hundreds more erupting around the Jetbikes, shrapnel and fire flying through the air all around her. Rolling her craft to avoid another incoming shot, Rainbow found herself upside down, only being held on by her locked armour, before righting herself and getting a view of the battle that had broken out in front of her.
The air in front of her was filled with aircraft, all of human design, and bearing down on the Eldar, their weapons firing wildly as they tried to hit the speedy Jetbikes, while the Eldar jinked and dodged out of the way, their own weapon fire being deadly accurate, but insufficient to get through the armour of the human aircraft. Rainbow could make out dozens of the smaller ‘Vulture’ class attack ships that she had seen on Verbatim VIII, as well as a few smaller aircraft that matched the pictures of Lightning Fighters. All of them were painted in a bright crimson, and bore the mark of a cog which Rainbow knew she had seen before, but couldn’t properly place.
Speeding forward, Rainbow unleashed a smattering of shots from her own craft, hitting the armour of a Vulture as she sped past, hardly doing anything more than scratching the paint. Grunting, she leant back on her bike, pulling it though a one eighty turn and shooting towards the turning Vulture. Drawing her sword, Rainbow activated the power stud as she banked her bike, passing over the cockpit.
Time seemed to slow as she passed by, the pilot looking at her in shock and amazement as tears filled her eyes. A nanosecond later, the sword bit through the glass canopy like it was nothing, slicing through the woman’s head and passing out the other side of the cockpit.
Instantly, the craft began to spin wildly as the corpse of the pilot slumped forward onto the controls, the craft plummeting towards the ground, before erupting in a fiery ball of death far below. It was a small victory, and one that came about through luck rather than anything else, and Rainbow doubted that they would be able to take down every aircraft here in the same fashion, even the Eldar had their limits. They would need heavy support for that, which should be arriving any second now.
Rainbow whooped in joy as a pair of Hornets streaked past, their starcannons spitting death as they soared past, another Vulture bursting into flames as a shot struck its engine, the machine tumbling from the sky and impacting with an unlucky Lightning Fighter, the pair of vehicles continuing to spiral together until they slammed into the ground.
The battle soon became very one sided as the faster Eldar now had weapons capable of downing the Imperial aircraft, and it looked like the humans knew that as well. Some of the pilots tried to wheel away and break off from the combat, fleeing back the way they came, but none of them got very far, the Eldar easily catching them and adding their wrecks to the growing pile on the ground.
“Mechanicus forces destroyed. The signal from the base has increased and condensed as a distress signal, but we’re blocking it.” An Eldar said over the helmet comm.
“Move in and neutralise.” Nar’bok ordered. “Nothing is to get out alive, we can’t risk them carrying anything about this data away from the planet.”
Nodding more to herself than anybody else, Rainbow plunged her bike into a dive, approaching the Mechanicus base and getting a good look at it. It was large, surrounded by a thick metal wall that would have been a serious obstacle to a land-locked force, but against an air-borne one, the defences became a cage from which no one would escape. The few guns that were still firing were causing some confusion in the Eldar ranks, but it was like throwing pebbles at the sea to stop the tide, and soon they to fell silent as pinpoint accurate weapon blasts reached them, sending them out of the world in a glorious explosion.
Rainbow let out a snarl as she caught sight of a trio of guards, the humans bearing heavy signs of augmentation, and one even having their entire right arm replaced with a heavy bolter. Not giving them time to react to her presence, rainbow unleashed a hail of shots, the shrunken digging into two of the guards, while the last one fell to the blades of Rainbows jetbike.
Pushing her jetbikes down further, Rainbow slid it across the floor, gouging deep grooves into the ground before jumping from it as it skidded to a halt, drawing her las-blaster and unleashing shot after shot into the disoriented guards. The battle was fast descending into chaos as more Windriders swooped in, strafing the enemy with their on board guns or dismounting to get to grips with them as Rainbow was doing. Soldiers were trained to fight as a cohesive unit, each subunit having a clear purpose within the whole. They could have repulsed a force ten times their size with ease had they come from an expected angle of attack, but the Eldar didn’t do the expected, they attacked units that by all accounts shouldn't have been attacked, from angles that shouldn't be possible for a normal force. The result was chaos, the Mechanicus forces unable to form a coherent defence. Here and there, officers were rallying troops to them, putting up a sporadic defence, but it wasn’t enough.
“Aim for the officers first!” Nar’bok roared, his massive chainsword roaring as he showed off his relic from his days in the Striking Scorpions. “Then the sergeants, and after that you can kill any poor bastard you want!”
It was a crude order, but Rainbow couldn’t doubt its effectiveness. The Imperial war machine relied on a rigid chain of command. Officers would give out orders, Sergeants would make sure they were followed, and privates would do what they were told. Privates didn’t know how to give proper orders, they only knew how to fight, and officers couldn’t do all the fighting themselves. One link is broken, and you have a situation fit for Discord.
Diving forward, Rainbow slipped the las-blaster onto her back with practiced ease before drawing the sword. Flapping her wings, she took to the air, bringing the sword into a Sergeants chainsword, the non-powered weapon not holding up to her sword, and another corpse joined the growing number already on the floor. A guardsman, not even out of his teens and almost completely un-augmented, threw himself at Rainbows hooves, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Please…don’t kill me.” He wailed.
Rainbow cocked her head slightly, taking in the man. She must have been a sight to him, a tiny pony easily slaughtering her way through their ranks as if they were nothing, covered from head to hoof in blue armour, obscuring her equinity and leaving nothing more than a warrior behind. She knew that Nar’bok and the other Eldar would have already killed him by now and moved on, and thinking of that, she placed her sword on his neck.
“Make it quick.” He said softly, looking down as tears fell to the burnt earth.
Rainbow looked at her sword, before raising the sword high above her head, slamming the pommel into the back of the man’s skull, knocking him to the floor. He would probably die later after the Imperials got through with him, crushed in the unforgiving gears of the Imperial war machine, but she couldn’t bring herself to end him herself. Killing in combat was one thing, but killing an unarmed and surrendering boy, that was something she would never stoop to.
Looking around, Rainbow saw that the Eldar were now easily in control of the outside of the compound, and even now were beginning to cut their way through the heavy steel blast doors that lead to the underground complex. Walking up to the door, Rainbow exchanged glances with Juhani and Tar’nek, before readying her sword. She could have reloaded her las-blaster, but in the tight corridors of a human compound, the unwieldy weapon would be more of a liability than a help. If she was bipedal like the Eldar then maybe, but as it was, the sword was her best option.
Slowly, the door creaked open, and Rainbow was instantly on the move, diving through the small gap as soon as it appeared and swooping down the corridor, her wings outstretched and her sword at the ready. The few guardsmen that were in the corridor looked up, bringing their weapons to bear on her, but they were already dead, they just didn’t know it yet.
One fell to her sword, another had his head caved in by a four hooved strike to the head, while more fell to the guns of the Eldar as the doors widened enough to allow them entry. By the time they were pushing through the few survivors, Rainbow was already at the end of the corridor, an open room filled with maps and computer banks catching her eyes.
“Rainbow! Slow down!” Tar’nek roared over the radio.
“I’m fine!” She roared back. “I’ve found the command room, clearing it now!”
“Wait for backup!” Tar’nek shouted, but Rainbow wasn’t listening anymore, eager to find out where the data she was looking for was. If it was anywhere, it would be in there.
Sprinting forward, Rainbow caught sight of movement, and suddenly her path was blocked by what looked like a cross between an Ork, a human and a space marine. The things were huge, their massive bulks easily filling the corridors as they leered down at her, one bringing a large bore weapon to bear while the other cycled rounds into a large cannon it mounted in place of its right arm. Both were cybernetically enhanced to the point where it was hard to tell if they were organics with robotic parts or robots with organic parts, and Rainbow knew that these things, these abominations, wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Roaring, Rainbow dropped to the ground, skidding along the floor as she sped through the legs of the first, bringing her sword up, only to find it battered away, doing minimal damage. Rolling to the side, she barely avoided the first ones gun, the massive shotgun type weapon ripping the ground where she had been only seconds before to shreds. Then the canon wielding one fired, and Rainbow was thrown back, the force of the explosion pitching her further into the room.
Skidding on her hooves, Rainbow dug the sword into the ground, stopping her mid-slide, before she launched herself forward again, swinging the sword at the nearest abomination.
Rainbow was caught off guard by how fast it moved, its arm swinging at her quicker than anything that size had a right to, but it seemed to be guided by a being possessing of little intellect, if it had possessed any, she would have already have been gutted. As it was, she avoided the swipe, before plunging her sword through the creature’s eye, the powered blade sliding through the orb, brain, and out the back of its skull.
Instead of dropping like it should have, the creature simply screamed, shaking its head from side to side, and finally managing to dislodge Rainbow, the Pegasus mare being thrown to the floor once more, her sword still stuck in the monsters head. One good thing was coming from the sheer bulk of creature though, and its partner couldn’t get a shot in, not wanting to risk a shot that would endanger its fellow or not able to thanks to programming that restricted its Identify Fried Foe firing patterns.
Rainbow suddenly felt the air being knocked out of her lungs, and was instantly sure that the creature had kicked her in its frenzy, before she looked down, her eye settling on the object that now lay on her chest. The abomination in its pain induced craze had let go of its weapon, the large bore shotgun come rifle now within her reach. It was even bigger than a Space Marines bolter, and Rainbow found out that it was also far too heavy to aim properly as she tried to lift it from the floor.
Relenting on that idea, but not giving up on the possibility of finishing the fight, Rainbow dropped to the floor, avoiding a shot from the cannon wielding monster as it finally pushed past its fellow, bringing its weapon to bear. Letting out a roar, Rainbow snaked her hoof around the huge trigger, needing all her strength to pull it back as massive bullets began to pump out of the gun.
The cannon monster faltered as the first shots struck it, bouncing off the metal armour it wore, before more shots punched through the weakened metal and into the flesh beyond, red puffs erupting across its body as it slowly began to come apart under the repeated impacts. Rainbow let out her own scream as she forced the trigger to stay depressed, even as it felt like her leg was going to be shaken from its socket by the recoil of the weapon, until it finally clicked on an empty clip.
Rolling away, Rainbow allowed herself five seconds to catch her breath, before getting back to her hooves, surveying the carnage the weapon had done. The cannon monster was well and truly dead, its entire front reduced to nothing more than a bloody crater from the shots, while the other creature was now writhing weakly on the floor. Moving over to it, Rainbow grabbed hold of her sword, forcing it to the side and cutting through even more of whatever this creature had as a brain, finally putting it out of its agony.
Pulling her sword out, Rainbow slid it into the scabbard on her back, before quickly moving over to the far wall, a series of computer banks displaying streams of information that meant absolutely nothing to her, save for the data on one screen. Punching a button marked audio, the room was suddenly filled by a voice, the man on the radio struggling to be heard over what Rainbow assumed was the wind and through what must have been some heavy augmentations.
“This is Arch-Magos Gruren to Exploritor fleet. Planet lost, repeat planet lost to Eldar incursion. I require an escort to ensure my package gets back to fleet. High priority telemetry data on Eldar craftworld designated ‘Saim-Hann’. The data must reach segmentum command as soon as possible.”
Her eyes going wide, Rainbow turned on her heels, pushing past Tar’nek as she sprinted for the entrance.
“Rainbow!? What are you doing?!” He shouted, sprinting to catch up with her.
“No time!” She shot back, emerging into the open air again and aiming for her Jetbike. “The Imperials have data on Saim-Hann, it’s about to go off world!”
With that, Rainbow jumped onto her bike, the engines roaring at the presence of their owner as Rainbow shot into the sky, leaving Tar’nek scratching his head in confusion, before he too jumped on his bike, speeding off after Rainbow. All bikes were fast, but Rainbow was faster, and with the knowledge that time was very much a factor here, she no longer was holding back as much, pushing the engines to 95% of their possible output. She was still frightened of the prospect of opening them up fully, but steeled herself in case that is what she had to do.
As she shot forward, the air in front of her began to shimmer slightly, becoming harder to see through, but not obscuring her vision enough that she didn’t make out the small four wheeled vehicle bouncing across the dead ground, nor did she miss the descending Valkyrie that was even now approaching the car.
Rainbow snarled as she realised that she was to far away, even traveling at the speeds she was going at. The Valkyrie would reach the Magos before her, and everything would be fucked, Saim-Hann’s course would be plotted out by the humans, and the craftworld itself would come under attack. She would not let that happen.
Letting out her feral war-cry, Rainbow slammed the throttle forward, the engines matching her scream as they powered her forward, the air condensing in a cone around the front of the craft, before suddenly erupting in a massive explosion of colour, the Sonic Rainboom blossoming out behind her as she shot forward at speeds that should have been impossible even with two engines. More than that though, the war mask burst forth once more, sending lances of pain into Rainbows mind, but she was too far gone to care now.
She hit the Valkyrie like a bullet from a gun, passing through it without slowing, before angling towards the floor, the craft exploding behind her. Still moving at ungodly speeds, Rainbow sped towards the Magos’ vehicle. Slamming a button on the Jetbike, flaps raised as they sought to slow the craft down while simultaneously activating the auto pilot system. With the knowledge her Jetbike was safe, Rainbow dived from her seat, slamming into the car with enough force to crumple the entire front and stop the thing dead in its tracks.
The Magos was thrown forward, slamming into the ground as Rainbow climbed off the vehicle, approaching him as he scrambled to get away from her. A few minutes ago, Rainbow Dash had sworn not to kill defenceless opponents, but that was before the war mask had appeared. Rainbow was fighting against it even now, but there was only so much she could do.
“Should have worn a seatbelt.” She snarled, before stamping down hard with her rear legs, the man’s head offering her little resistance as she reared up again, reducing it to nothing but a bloody pulp.
“Rainbow!” A familiar voice called out, and Rainbow turned to look at Tar’nek.
“Saim-Hann is safe.” Rainbow snarled happily, before reaching down and looking at a small capsule. “Here, data’s in here, could be useful.”
“Are you…have you got your war mask on?” Tar’nek asked slowly, drawing a sword as the pair began to circle each other.
“So what if I do.” She snapped back, drawing her own sword.
“It damages you!” Tar’nek shouted.
“So does fighting.” Rainbow snarled, before leaping forward, intending to get the respect she deserved.
Mid-flight, Rainbow was stopped, hovering in mid-air, before being turned to slowly face Anira.
“I’m sorry for this Rainbow. It’s for your own good.” She said softly, before bringing the pommel of her own sword down onto Rainbows head, knocking the Pegasus out cold.
“Get her back to the ship, we have what we came for.” Tar’nek ordered. “I’ll sort her Jetbike out.”
Nodding, Anira moved back to her own bike, locking her armour, before locking Rainbows in place as well and taking off, speeding back towards the ship that had come into low orbit over the planet.
Standing next to the pair of the Jetbikes, Tar’nek sighed, watching as Anira carried his friend back to safety.
“Oh Rainbow.” He sighed. “What are we going to do with you?”
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Diving forward, rainbow slipped the las-blaster onto her back with practiced ease before drawing the sword. Flapping her wings, she took to the air, bringing the sword into a Sergeants chainsword, the non-powered weapon not holding up to her sword, and another corpse joined the growing number already on the floor. A guardsman, noteven out of his teens and almost completely un-augmented, threw himself at Rainbows hooves, sobbing uncontrollably.
I think there needs to be a space between "not" and "even."
4071983
Thanks for catching that. Correcting now.
Was kinda hoping the imperials would get the data and attack the craft world just to see the look on the eldar faces whenthey realized that they are not as above all races as they think.
That... was... AWESOME!!!
4073186
he he he, sorry.
You got the reference though so you get five moustache points.
Looking forward to the laid-back chapters and sequel. Always interesting to see the reaction of Dashie's friends and the ruling powers. Kinda disappointed for the lack of reaction to the daemons but in the end, it detracts nothing from the overall story so who cares?
Waaaaitwaitwaitwaitwait. You made a freaking group for this type of story?! You sir, are awesome. *Salutes*
those members of the Wind host who had perished here
the coloured lens tinted Rainbows vision
Entering upped atmosphere
rainbow unleashed a hail of shots
the shrunken digging into two of the guards
fell to the blades of Rainbows jetbike
Pushing her jetbikes down further
bringing the sword into a Sergeants chainsword
threw himself at Rainbows hooves
the large bore shotgun come rifle now within her reach
It was even bigger than a Space Marines bolter
sending lances of pain into Rainbows mind
down onto Rainbows head
locking her armour, before locking Rainbows in place as well
1. Forgot to capitalise.
2. Rainbow's.
3. Upper.
4. Forgot to capitalise.
5. Shuriken.
6. Rainbow's.
7. Jetbike.
8. Seargeant's.
9. Rainbow's.
10. Ummm... Not sure if the saying was, bore shotgun cum rifle. Could be regional difference.
11. Marine's.
12. Rainbow's.
13. Rainbow's.
14. Rainbow's.
I hope that all decisions that were made by Rainbow here will somehow influence the sequel at some point. I mean, they don't necessarily have to, but it would be nice. You know, some divine intervention and fate stuff since the gods themselves seem to be interested in Rainbow and her fate?
Maybe her decision of not swapping out the leg saves her at some point when not feeling the pain from a destroyed appendage might be crucial for her? Or if Eldar technology somehow fails at the worst of times but the crude human tech persists?
Or what about all the friends she made? What about the human boy she refused to kill in this chapter? Maybe the boy survives and meets her or another pony in the future and decides to pay back the favor? You know, this kind of stuff would definitely be nice to see :P