W40K: The Fringe Fighter

Delicious sat in the Golden Retreat, a bar on the Civilized World of Wraithful. Even though he ordered the most expensive and flavorful alcohol in the establishment, he was still depressed. It had been a month since his last adventure, and he hadn't had a single idea for adventure.

He was wearing a crimson robe that obscured his Apple heritage, along with his bolt pistol. At the table with him was Norse, who was sipping a large recaf, and Redneck, who was conked out after drinking six bottles of whiskey. Third Eye was on board the ship. Antimatter was talking with some of the Tech-Priests at a local factory, and Mane Fire was spending time looking at guns at the cities armory.

As he looked around the bar, he was surprised to see Antimatter walk in.

Delicious stood up. "Serious, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the factory!"

Antimatter shrugged. "Yes, but then I heard about a local legend from some of the Magos."

Delicious instantly perked up. That means possible riches...

Serious noticed his look, and smiled. "Apparently, the Forge World Alexas, full of archeotech artifacts, is a world never set foot on, a forbidden planet to many. And those that do go there, never come back. And, best of all, I've got coordinates."

Delicious lept up. "Well? What are we waiting for!?"

Norse immediately gestured towards Redneck, who was now snoring and her drool was covering the table.

Delicious's smile left his face. A drunk pilot is an uneffective one. Looks like they'd have to call a shuttle.

...

Several hours later.

...

Redneck shook herself awake. Her head was splitting, and she found herself aboard the Fire, in her Quarters with Delicious.

Delicious smiled as he saw her awake. "Well, sleeping beauty awakes."

Redneck shook her head. "What happened?"

"You drank way too much. While you were conked out, we heard some rumors about a lost Forge World. We're en-route now."

Redneck shrugged. "Sorry I drank too much."

With that, the ship lurched out of the warp, and a message came through the vox.

"Captain. You are required on the bridge immediately. We found out why no-pony goes to the planet and lives."\

Delicious looked at Redneck. And so the action begins again.

...

The second Delicious entered the bridge, the ship was shaken by a blast.

"What the hell just hit us!?" Delicious shouted.

"Orks sir. Looks like the greenskins got to the planet first." Serious said.

Indeed, he was right. As Delicious looked out the viewport. he saw dozens of ramshakle ships. He quickly assumed command. "Alright. Prime the lances and prepare to engage. Aim for the enemy Battlecruiser approaching close. Fire on my mark..."

Silence. As the gargantuan ork battlekroozer approached with frightening speed, prepared to ram the far smaller ship, the crew held their breath.

"MARK!" Immediately, lance shot pushed out into the void, nailing the ork ship.

Unfortunately, it was an ork ship. And, though they had a direct hit, it did almost nothing. Ork ships were, if anything, durable.

Delicious shook his head. "All weapons, fire at will! Take that behemoth down!"

Just then, an ork torpedo slammed into one of the two massive lance cannons mounted on the Forever Fire's dorsal ridge, blowing it to smithereens.

Delicious looked at the devistation, and made a quick decision. "Evasive Maneuvers! They'll murder us out here! All repair crew get to work! Get the astropath to send out a distress signal. Say it is on a holy planet of the mechanicus and it is infested with orks! Quickly!"

The bridge flew with activity. And, as though it couldn't get any more interesting, Delicious's informational hologram popped up with something of confusion. Planet-side, something had just landed. It was small, maybe the size of a single pony. However, it was emitting power beyond what Delicious had ever seen. He hadn't even seen that much energy being emitted from a Manufactorium power generator or a battleships fusion reactor, or any other power source he had ever seen.

And weirdest of all, it wasn't glowing with electrical energy, not even psychic energy drawn from the warp.

It was magical energy, the kind you saw only in the most powerful of unicorns or the Empress and Luna.

Something that had not been seen in such vast quantities for Forty-One Millennia.