//-------------------------------------------------------// A guardsman, a techpriest and a Commissar! -by Commissar Hardwon- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// The Guardsman! //-------------------------------------------------------// The Guardsman! Lance corporal Irons was having the worst time of his life, the sector his regiment had been deployed to was attacked by Tyranids and they had lost their only Baneblade against a Carnifex... a Emperor-damned carnifex. The bloody thing had torn the tanks cockpit apart before murdering the crew, this had demoralized the regiment when they saw it happen, causing many guardsman to retreat. "I'm not payed enough for this frakkin' shit," Irons growled as his Lucius pattern lasgun hissed in his hands, the heat wafting of the barrel could be felt all over the gun. A rumble shook the regiment as a Lemun russ's plasma cannon overheated and exploded, destroying the tank and surrounding guardsman in a flash of blue plasma. This caused another group of guardsman to retreat in fear, a Commissar's Bolt pistol roaring as cowards fell as they ran. "Hold the line damnit!" a sergeant shouted down the line, his voice carrying over the thunder of Heavy Bolters roaring across the line of guardsman,  "We can't let the Xeno's enter the city!" A roar echoed across the crater ridden landscape as a Carnifex charged the line, his carapace covered in holes in scorch marks from various weapons, Several heavy bolters immediately focused fire on the massive beast, tearing it's shell to shreds as large Mass reactive rounds tore into it's body. Luckily the monster collapsed a few meters from the guardsman as a lasgun scored a shot through it's eye, frying the brain to a crisp. Multiple thuds sounded from behind Irons as several tanks fired at the incoming swarm, their explosive shells rending large groups to nothing but blood stains and organs. just as the swarm started to thin out, a large rift swallowed up three of the tanks, dragging them and their crew underground as a large swarm of hormagaunt spilled out of the holes tearing apart any guardsman in their path, another tank's plasma cannon detonated sending molten slag and chunks of wreckage everywhere, most of the wreckage embedded themselves in guardsmen. Irons tried to flee but was knocked on his back by a ripper, its little claws and razor teeth tearing at his flak vest before a shard of steel ripped through the little 'nid. Irons grunted as he shoved the body off him, the dead 'nid's heavy weight trapping him. Before he could call out for help a fleeing guardsman was hit by a acidic spine, the acid melting his chest causing him to drop his weapon on irons face as he ran past, the impact of the weapon knocking him out. (Several hours later) Irons groaned as he woke up, his head throbbed in pain as he sat up, his muscles refusing to cooperate with his pain ridden mind. after several attempts to get up his muscles finally decided to move, as he moved his back cracked, sending several jolts of relief through him. when he finally sat up, he started to think about what happened, several thoughts crossed his mind, chief amongst them was what happened to his regiment. As he thought his headache intensified, his vision blurred as he grabbed his head, feeling a warm liquid running down his hand. Quickly pulling his hand away he brough his hand up to his face, his hand slightly blurred as the lenses of his rebreather fogged up, his hand coated in blood. As he stared at his hand he quickly moved with a burst of urgency, Removing the clip holding his helmet to his head he pulled his helmet off before ripping off his rebreather, his hand's probed the wound. A large gash rested above his eye's, most likely an injury caused the the Lasgun being dropped on his face, as he felt up the wound he muttered litanies and prayers to the emperor,  before he grabbed a bandage from one of his many pockets. He quickly unrapped the band and started to wind it tightly around his head, the white fabric being stained crimson from his blood. As he reached the last of the bandage he clipped the end of the fabric to the rest of the bandage, the fabric staying tightly around his head. Giving a short moment to appreciate his bandaging ability he put his Rebreather on, followed by his helmet before he stood up, his knees joints popping as he stood up. Bending over to pick up a lasgun off the ground, he shouldered it before sighting up with a corpse before pulling the trigger. The weapon let of a crack and hiss as a beam of red light shot out of the end towards the target, the light dispersed on the target without noise as the intense heat of the beam burnt a small hole in the corpse. (Switching POV from 3rd to Irons) Satisfied the weapon work I quickly patted down my body as I searched through my pockets to see if I still had my gear, as I finished the search I took note of what is missing and what is not. Quickly glancing around I slung my weapon over my shoulders to let hang there by its strap as I walked over to a corpse of a guardsman a few meters away. When I arrived I took notice of the corpse, it's arm missing with a huge slash down his stomach, I tried not to gag as I searched over his corpse for anything to salvage when I noticed several Krak grenades and Melta charges, in his hand was a Meltagun, its barrel melted from continuous use, Patting through his pocket I found his ID tags, the iron panel scorched black and the beaded chain snapped. I muttered a prayer for the soldier and continued digging, eventually I found his solar charger and 3 spare power cells for my lasgun. As I continued looking around I came across a soldier in peculiar armor. Instead of the standard flask vests it had large metal plates overlapping each other. Grinning, I quickly removed my torn flak vest and donned the carapace armor, its weight slightly heavier than my flak vest but still light enough for me to wear. just as I stood up I noticed a sheath at his hip, my grin grew larger as I grabbed it, a hilt sticking out of the sheath. I quickly grabbed the hilt before pulling the sword out. The blade, a sabre if my guess is correct, glinted beautifully, it's blade emitted a crackling aura that gave the weapon a mystical shine. I finished admiring the blade and attached the sheath to my waist and put the sword away. Just as I was walking away a thought hit me, 'if I brought back the armor of some of my comrade, maybe the Departmento Munitorum would give me some better gear!' At the possibility of getting better gear entered my mind I was sold. I quickly started hunting down other fallen guardsman and scavenging their gear, Lasguns, powercells, armor? you named it, I had made a makeshift bag out of some shirts of soldiers and had getting pretty overloaded, the combined weight of weapons, ammunition and armor was taking its toll. After a few hours of looking for survivors I took notice of the light, it was getting dark and the lenses of my rebreather didn't help one bit, I quickly resolved to find shelter and stood up. As I stood up I lost my balance as the gear on my back dragged me back, straight into a Purle portal, the portal's colors hurt my eyes and made my brain itch as I fell in before everything went dark. //-------------------------------------------------------// The guardsman Iin Equestria!! //-------------------------------------------------------// The guardsman Iin Equestria!! I groaned as I sat up again, my muscles didn't ache but I had an even bigger migraine than when I first woke up and I could feel... something in my head, as if I had an extra limb, I tried to flex my new limb when my hand started to crackle, lightning arced between my fingers and lanced everywhere but me, scorching everything the lightning struck. I could feel myself being drained though, not physically but mentally, as if I had just done a hard puzzle. I quickly released my new 'limb' and the lightning stopped. I stood up and looked around, my surroundings had changed drastically, the walls were stone and the Aquila was carved into the wall's, all in all it looked like a standard bunker, but with differences, there was a machine in the wall, a large steel door and a ladder going up and down. Putting down my loot which had stayed with me I walked over to the ladder and looked down, the ladder glinted as it went down before ending 3 floors down. I quickly climbed down the ladder to the floor beneath the starting one, inside was several bunks and footlockers, the beds were clean to an extent and the footlockers empty, each footlocker at the imperial two headed eagle stenciled on the front. I turned around and continued down another level, although this level contained several machines, most of which looked like miniature Manufactorum, a large monitor was on the side but was blank. I continued down, the next floor was what looked like an armory, several shelves and Armor stands were lines against the wall with lockers and another monitor. As I stepped back I noticed a flash of white in the corner of my eye, my face quickly swung in it's direction as I started walking towards it, when I reached it I felt relief. It was a piece of paper written in low gothic, I raised the page up to my eyes and started reading what was on it. Status report Sergeant Avitus, 2nd battalion 3rd company 2nd krieg regiment Date: Unknown This is Sergeant avitus, I'm writing this message to report what happened and hope you find a way to get back to imperial space. Several months ago my squad and I were transported here, we have no knowledge of how or why but we know it wasn't our own fault. When we arrived we found we weren't the only ones, several other soldiers had arrived here by unknown means. Several of our rank had become psykers, we don't know why but this discovery leads us to believe we were transported here either by the Emperor... or chaos. The original psyker attached to my squad had attempted to delve into the warp, imagine our surprise when he started crying and screaming that the warp was calm, no chaos, no daemons. We're lucky though, a techpriest was brought with us, he is eccentric but he managed to craft us these small manufactorum's for creation of gear and parts. Our attempts to explore outside have proven fruitful, although many of the men are furious. Our bunker is located on a xenos world, several types of xenos live on this world, reminds me of the T'au, These ponies as far as we can tell from a scout from the Tallarn regiment had managed to eavesdrop on, are the dominant species, not very advanced technology wise and making advanced use of the warp. Our attempt to make first contact went horrible as several of the ponies attacked, they managed to kill a soldier from the cadian regiment, young lad died from a spear to the throat. We of course executed the xenos and burned their village to the ground, they deserved it. Hopefully if you found this note then you are purging the planet as you read this. I let of a sigh as I finished the note, looks like I wasn't the only one here. A large clang echoed throughout the bunker making me spin around quickly, my lasgun at the ready. I waited tensely as shuffling and muttering could be heard above, quickly followed by clanging as something climbed down the ladder. I grimaced as my headache came back in full force, my weapon swaying as a red robe climbed down the ladder, a large mechanical limb was attached to the beings back, my gun lowered slightly as I took notice of the symbol of the adeptus mechanicus imprinted on his robe. "Hello techpriest," I said, making him jump in shock and whip out a laspistol. "Who are you?" he questioned, his voice sounding filtered and mechanical. "Names lance corporal Irons, Was stationed on Satia when tyranids attacked, we were supposed be in a sector without the fraggen bastards and were waiting for reinforcements when they struck," I muttered, my hand clenched in anger, "I'm probably the last survivor of the 3rd Guards Rifles, thats what it looked like when I had woken up," He didn't have time to answer as a large thud echoed upstairs. I glanced at the techpriest, his face hidden by his hood as he turned to the ladder and started to climb. //-------------------------------------------------------// Lady Commissar? //-------------------------------------------------------// Lady Commissar? (Commissar Hardwon) I groaned as I rolled over before falling off whatever I was on and mashing the floor with my face, or was it mashing my face with the floor? I didn't care as I sat up and rubbed my nose, the poor thing hurt like like a bastard. I stood up slowly and looked around, this wasn't the Private quarters I was given aboard the imperial ship, it looked more like a bunker underground, the change in scenery unnerved me. A clanging caught my attention as I grabbed my bolt pistol from my belt and aimed at the ladder. A guardsman appeared, he didn't look like a standard guardsman, looking more like a sergeant as I took note of his Carapace Armor, the colors matched that of the 3rd Guards Rifles from the the deathworld kaspin, a Guard regiment noted for their near destruction at the hands of a tyranid swarm, despite their early successes against the beasts. "Commissar," He stated as he snapped a crisp salute, his salute was ruined by the blood marring his armor, much of it the green blood of tyranids. "Sergeant," I nodded at him as he looked shocked. "I'm no sergeant ma'm," "Then why do you not wear your given equipment soldier," "Destroyed by 'nids" "A pity," I quickly took a good look at him, his Hair was a deep brown of medium length, his eyes were a dull blue and he had a fade of stubble growing around his mouth, I started walking towards the ladder, the guardsman following me. "I can't but notice only three of the beds are in use, where are the rest of your squad?" I asked, my tone laced with curiosity and a hint of humor. He muttered a curse before explaining to me the situation. I clenched my hand, the glove Commissar's wore was tight against my skin. I quickly bolted up the ladder, the guardsman shouting at me from below. I jumped up the first few rungs and wrenched myself up the rest of the way as I dashed to the top, my power-sword slapping against my leg as I climbed. When I reached the top I charged at the steel door just as it opened, a surprised techpriest in the doorway. I couldn't stop myself as I ran full force into him sending us both sprawling over the ground, somehow ending up with me straddling him. I blinked as I looked down at the techpriest that was groaning in pain. I finished standing and looked around. The trees, the snow and the sky was too bright and didn't feel right. I glanced at the snow on the ground, it sparkled in the light as I heard crunching behind me. I turned around to face whoever was behind me, it was the guardsman. "Ma'am, are you ok?" He asked, sadness in his voice as he walked over to me. "I'm fine... just confused and in denial," I let out a small laugh, though anyone could tell it was forced. The techpriest groaned again as he rolled over, his Mechadendrite arm shifted. I laughed a little as he struggled to get up. A rustle caught my attention as a bush moved, all of us aimed our weapons just as a spear flew at me. I ducked underneath the spear as I took aim with my bolt pistol and pulled the trigger sending several rounds into the bush with quite a few wet thuds. Several more spears came at us from different directions as Xenos rushed towards us. Most of the Xenos were what looked like Biped equines, they had the fur, the hooves and the muzzle, but there fur color and hands threw me off for a second. I dived to the side to avoid a spear before drawing my Power Sabre and slashing at the nearest xeno, the blade slashed right through it's armor before emitting a pulse that sent the Xeno flying into a tree. Another xeno came at me with a spear, He thrust his spear forward only to meet air as I danced around the point and stabbed at it's face. The Sabre went right through it's head straight to the hilt. Irons POV I Rolled to the side to avoid a slash from a sword and aimed my Lasgun at the xeno, letting off a sharp crack and his that dropped the victim to the ground. Another xeno came at me with a club raised overhead, I stabbed the bayonet of my weapon forward straight into my enemies chest before pulling the trigger, the smell of scorched flesh scented the air. (Random Ponies POV) Our group had been spying on these apes for a days now after seeing the Red cloaked one stealing scrap iron and steel from several of our quarries in the area. We had followed him back to his cave and had kept watch for several days, on the last day we had heard two large bangs from inside the cave and had decided to investigate. As we were watching the cave from a better vantage point a large amount of yelling came from inside in a language we couldn't understand. As we watched 2 new ones came out. After a few seconds of watching them a private had decided to throw his spear at one of the new ones. We don't know what happened but he was riddles was holes and several ponies had charged at the newcomers before getting slaughtered by the creatures. //-------------------------------------------------------// Xenos? XENOS? PURGE THE XENOS! //-------------------------------------------------------// Xenos? XENOS? PURGE THE XENOS! Sunlight glimmer Smiled as she walked down the village street, her hooves crunching on the snow underhoof. At her hip hung a purse with a small amount of bits, Just barely enough to get a meal from a baker. She waved at a pony down the street as she walked over to a medium sized building, smoke pouring out it's chimney. "Hey Fresh Loaf," Sunlight yelled out as she entered the Bakery, a bell behind her jingling to let the baker know of customers. "Hey hey hey, if It isn't my old friend Sunlight glimmer!" He all but shouted back as he emerged from behind some shelves. Sunlight blushed at the praise before she asked what bread is cheapest. "Well, the cheapest bread we got is the stale stuff from early today, only 4 bits a loaf but it's pretty stale," Fresh loaf said as he walked over to his counter and reached under to grab something, emerging after a few seconds with several loafs of bread, "Since you're running short of bits I might chuck you in some fresher bread but you have to get a job Glimmer, you can't keep living living on the stale bread I give to you, I'l even offer you a job here so I know you're earning some bits," "Fine, I will accept your offer, it's just so hard to get a job when I don't have a useful talent," She muttered as she glanced at the back of her hand, A silver cloud in front of a setting sun, "I mean who needs someone who can make clouds that absorb light... It's a useless talent," She sighed as he handed Loaf the bits for 3 loafs of bread. thanking Loaf profusely she sped out the door, her grey wings spreading as she took to the sky's towards her home, the cloud hovel provided a basic shelter but wasn't that good to look at but it was home. He ears perked up as several bangs echoed from over the forest, sounding like far off thunder. Glimmer quickly took a turn towards the noise. Dashing from cloud to cloud. The roars grew louder the closer to the forest she went before clanging and shouts echoed up to her cloud. Taking a look through the cloud she saw something that made her blood run cold. The local Guards were being butchered by three unknown creatures, each one with a different look but generally the same shape. Biped monkeys with no fur except for one of them and small eyes, a small pointy nose and rounded ears on the sides of their heads. Two of the creatures armor was decorated with a two headed eagle and other symbols. A crack and hiss drew her attention as a guard that had been dive-bombing the creatures was blown to pieces, chunks of his meat raining down upon the strange monsters. One of the monsters wore Blue plated armor over clothing in a splotchy pattern of teal and dark blue, a bandage was wrapped around it's head as it stabbed and slashed with it's metal spear. Another was clad in a crimson trench coat with gold highlights and a large triangular hat on it's head, long blonde hair cascaded down it's face as it swung a glowing blue sword of unknown make. The final creature was clad in a crimson robe, its eyes glowing red as a large metal arm on it's back swung around smashing into ponies faces and stomach while a small metal object in its hand sent red lights at the guards. (Irons POV) I huffed as another equine charged at me, its sword raised overhead for a slash downwards, I let him swing before blocking with my lasgun and kicking his gut, as he stumbled back I took aim and fired straight into face. Another came at me with a dagger. The small blade stabbed into my shoulder as White hot pain racked my body, I let out a shout of pain as lightning coursed from my body, arcing from my wound to the pony who caused it, frying his body before it popped in an explosion of gore. Another arc of lightning struck a pony in the air making him burst into blood that rained upon me and the others. I flexed my hand before punching the air in the direction of a fleeing xenos, a psychic shockwave rippling towards the target. I thought the wave would just kill him or send him flying, I didn't expect what really happened though as the wave ripped the xeno to ribbons, flaying its skin before frying the corpse. (Hardwon's POV) I swung my force Sabre at a xeno that had attempted to gore me on a spear, the blade shredding the xeno scum as I turned to stab another that had strayed too close when a large burst of warp energy rippled from close by, the same direction the Guardsman was in that direction! I took off, slashing at any xeno to get in my way as I fought my way to where the Guardsman was. I finally got a glimpse of Irons as I got close and what I saw shocked me. Lightning arced all over him as his eyes glowed blue, his hair whipping in the wind kicked up by the warp energies permeating the area, an aura of raw power wafted off his form as a xeno was flayed alive, his screams of pain unable to be heard over the roar of warp energy. An arc of lightning flew past my face as I spun around, a large xeno was disintegrated by the power of Irons mind, my respect went up a notch as I saw him attempting to control his power.