Harmony and Reason

Roland Darren, Captain of the Knight Inductor's 3rd Company and Master of the Deal, looked upon his troops. He hated having to enter direct combat, preferring the battlefield of diplomacy, but it was out of his hands. In a maneuver that he privately considered planned by Tzeentch himself, dozens of planets in the Imperium simultaneously had outbreaks of Chaos, Chaos Marines, Daemons, the whole shebang. Every chapter of the Space Marines were called to action, as well as the small handful of Primarchs that the Emperor himself, while possessing the body of a Tarrasque, had managed to find. Unfortunately the emperor himself had temporarily left the Materium in order to be reborn in a less heretical form. The fact that these attacks occurred exactly one month after that event also smelled of 'Just as planned' to Captain Darren, but it was too late for such speculation. The 3rd company had been deployed to the agricultural world of Azymorum, along with the Raptor's 5th, the Marine Malevolent's 2nd, the Titan Legion Legio Astorum, and countless guardsmen.

In order to locate bases of operation in the sprawling farmland, they hit upon a simple yet effective strategy. The Knights Inductor and Raptors, being specialists in covert operations, split into scout groups in order to locate Chaos emplacements, command points, ritual sites, etc... Once located, they would call for the heavy hitters of the guard, Marines Malevolent, and Legio Astorum to hit them hard. Once the base was destroyed, the scout group would move on to find the next target.

So far, it was working, current projections indicated that they'd finish sweeping the major settlements by the end of the month. His plan to use the Astropaths aboard their vessels to locate remote encampments was also bearing fruit, albeit requiring a sweep to pinpoint their location. Exterminatus would not be the fate of this planet.

Of course, their latest find was also the most worrying. Chaos Sorcerers of the Thousand Sons were gathered around what appeared to be an ancient Webway Gate. If they managed to restore it, they'd be able to move troops from anywhere to anywhere, even holy Terra itself. As such, they had placed a priority call for support. The question was, would they strike now against an opponent that was twice their number, or wait for backup and risk them getting the gate online in the meantime? As such, he turned towards the Sergeants of each of the units in his group. "Well Brothers, what say you?"

Company Ancient Nisus Conatus adjusted the shaft of his banner in his grip as he considered his response, "They may have the numbers, but most of them are occupied on the Gate. We move quick, we should be able to take enough of them out before they notice to make it a fair fight."

Nigrum Inanus, Sargeant of the Silent Hand Veteran Squad spoke up next. "They look like they're channeling a lot of the Warp in their little project," he said before chambering a round in his massive sniper rifle, "we take out the ones leading the ritual, it should blow up in their faces quite nicely."

"We can follow that up with a salvo from the Vindicators," said Tormen Armis, commander of the tank detachment, "their's a nice building overlooking the Gate, we bring that down on top of them, we'll be in position to give the survivors the Emperor's Peace as soon as they dig themselves out."

"My squad can cover the perimeter to watch for anyone trying to get in or out," said Fieri Clipeum, Sergeant of the Tactical Marine squad, as he touched up the camo paint on his riot shield.

"Unfortunately that still leaves the question of the Sorcerers not involved in the ritual," said Ferox Celsior, Tech Marine and de-facto head of the Innovatus Squad. "The Thousand Sons have quite a few, and we don't have the firepower if they manage to summon a daemon."

"You forget, we're the Knights Inductor," said Darren as he turned towards his second-in-command, who was currently sharpening a rather plain looking sword, "we have a certain advantage in that department."

In response, he sheathed his blade, and flipped open a cover on his rather odd looking helmet, revealing a toggle switch.

Meanwhile, in the quaint little town of Ponyville, although given the fact that 2(or three depending on how you looked at it) of the princesses of the entire country had their personal residences there wouldn't be little much longer, one of said princesses was reading a very interesting book on prophecies. A little to the side was her adoptive daughter Nyx, reading a book of her own while encased in a cute little book fort. Twilight was glad that she was feeling alright, after everything that's happened recently. As if it wasn't enough that she was the reincarnation of Nightmare Moon, over the past year she had to deal with being in the middle of a dragon attack, almost getting killed by an all but incompetent secret society, and that nasty business with the Council of Celestial Stewards had all been very trying experiences for her. For now at least, she was getting the chance to be a (relatively) normal child, and that was all either of them could really hope for.

Just then, a stallion with an incredibly messy mane and a video camera walked in. "Morning Roller, the Cutecinera go alright?"

"Let's just say there are days when filming your experiments seems the safer option," Roller replied as he pulled a cupcake wrapper off of his head. Roller was head of the library's burgeoning film department, and had a side business filming private events. He was also the cinematographer behind a widely well-regarded documentary about the aforementioned dragon attack. "What ya got there boss?"

"Just a little prep-work," Twilight said as she spared a glance at Nyx, "you'd be surprised how often these things come true. Although, they can be incredibly confusing, listen to this. 'There will come a time when the true ruinous face of chaos will reveal itself, and the only defense will be half-heretic knights who bear the light of reason. And Equis will take its full place among the stars, and become a second beacon to light the way of the travelers'. Seriously, would it kill them to make sense? I can't tell if this is referring to Discord suffering a relapse, his brother coming to visit, or whatever this chaos thing might be. And half-heretic knights? Who are they supposed to be?"

"Don't look at me, I'm just the guy who shoots it when you save the world," Roller said as he put his camera away.

Meanwhile, Nyx, who couldn't help but overhear, felt something... odd, when she heard that prophecy. For some odd reason, she felt... comfort when she heard the bit about the knights. The shivers she felt when chaos was mentioned on the other hoof, that was perfectly rational to feel.

Laesaeque Mundi was pleased with his work. As an Exalted Sorcerer, he had been commanded by a Lord of Change sent by Tzeentch himself to take this Webway Gate, and by the Ruinous Powers, he had all but succeeded. Even if the servants of the damned corpse emperor were to show up, he had half a company's worth of Rubric Marines to hold them off while the Thrall Wizards completed their work. And once they were finished, a Silver Tower would transfer it to the Planet of the Sorcerers, and Laesaeque privately hoped that Magnus himself would deign to descend from his tower to inspect this prize. Truly, everything was going just as planned.

Then the heads of the Thrall-Champions started popping like overripe fruit, causing the unholy energies they were channeling to detonate like cyclonic torpedoes.

Laesaeque looked to see a trio of bulky Dreadnoughts of a type he was unfamiliar with, all wearing a strange net with pieces of rubble sewn into it like a cloak. They all had powerfists with built in guns, although the one in the lead had replaced one of them with an autocannon. Although it was the marine in front of them that had him worried. He had no idea why, he appeared to be nothing special, just a single marine with a sword and pistol, although the livery was strange to him, splotches of various shades of grey, although he could see a bit of blue on the pauldrons. Not wanting to take a chance, he called upon the power of the warp to launch a ball of flame at him, only for it to fizzle into nothingness an instant before hitting him. The remaining Thrall Wizards and the additional Sorcerers among them launched a salvo of psychic might, only for it too to fail utterly. Laesaeque then ordered the gather Rubric Marines to fire upon the Marine, only for the Dreadnoughts to generate a barrier to protect him. Before he could determine his next course of action, a rumbling to the side alerted him to a trio of Vindicators, also clad in that strange netting, just before they fired a salvo at a large building nearby, causing it to topple over onto them. Laesaeque could only mutter, "Not as planned", before being crushed by a piece of rubble the size of a Land Raider.

Roland smiled as the Innovatus and Tactical Squads mopped up before turning to his XO, "Sorry for having you play bait Inanus."

"It was the proper tactical decision," Inanus Vicit, the Silencer Primaris replied. He had long since restored his Null-Amp to suppress mode, which meant that his aura as a Blank didn't cause the normal feeling of dread in those in his immediate vicinity. Unfortunately, before they could talk further, a crackling sounded over the Vox.

"ASBS Candela to KI Strike Unit 2-7a, the M&Ms just launched an orbital bombardment at the location of the Webway Gate you reported, get out now if you haven't already."

"By the Throne, don't they know the meaning of holding back," Roland said as he considered his options. Even if they had brought Thunderhawks, there was no way they'd be able to get out before everything in a 5 mile radius exploded, and even less of a chance for the Bulwark Dreadnoughts to be able to protect them. Eventually, his eyes turned towards the Gate, which had been restored to basically working order mere seconds before the assault had begun. Wasting no time, he turned on his Vox, "All units, incoming bombardment, into the Gate now!"

Without hesitation, they all made for the gate, the Silent Hands only being first through by virtue of being in the middle of rigging it to blow. In about a minute, the entire unit had entered, Captain Darren being the last through. 'Hope the Eldar on the other side of this thing don't mind us popping in,' he thought to himself before the Cyclonic Torpedo impacted, obliterating the gate and causing the portion of the Webway on the other side to shatter, causing the Knights Inductor to be flung from its safety to the mercies of the Warp.

Ferrox stirred from unconsciousness before doing a quick diagnostic of his Power Armor. There weren't any major problems that he could determine, although he could tell that the Machine Spirit was both dizzy and grumpy after being shot-put through the Warp. He decided to do a quick observation of his surroundings to try and figure out where exactly he was. 'No airborne pathogens, so not the Garden of Nurgle. The only thing that I can see moving is that tree swaying in the wind, so probably not the Crystal Labyrinth. Ambient volume is pretty low, so I don't think this is the Palace of Slaanesh. Ground feels like grass, not soaked in blood, so not the Realm of Brass and Blood. Sky's nice and blue, so probably not anywhere else in the Warp either. I'm back in the Materium, nice to have something good happen for a change, damn Marines Malevolent.' As he pulled himself up into a sitting position, he heard a quiet 'meep' that he would have missed if not for the fact that one of the many perks of becoming an Astares was enhanced hearing. Turning to look, he noticed what for all intents and purposes appeared to be a yellow Pegasus with a pink mane, and without a doubt the cutest thing he had ever seen. "Greetings little one."

Ferrox expected many things, but for the Pegasus to mutter a quiet "Hello" in return wasn't one of them. He quietly scratched his helmet, silently reappraising his assumption that he was in the Materium.