My Little Xeno 2 - Equinox Knights

About five minutes before the scheduled departure, Antonius was standing next to Calgar just outside the Thunderhawk. Luna was already inside and stowing away their luggage. All of the Element Bearers, with the exception of Rarity, had also boarded the dropship a few minutes ago, as had Calgar’s entourage.

“Generosity seems to be a little late,” Calgar mused.

“Well,” Antonius replied,
“she’s still got a few minutes.”

He really hoped that she had not decided to be ‘fashionably late’ or something like that. Ultramarines, being focused on efficiency, generally had no palate for such things. Much to his relief, Rarity came into view just a moment later. Not so much to his relief, she was followed by a teetering mountain of luggage.

“She can’t be serious,” Calgar mumbled.

So, he had spotted her, too.

“Well, she probably is serious, but it won’t be much of a problem to dissuade her from bringing all of that along.”

“I hope you’re right, Antonius. This is a Thunderhawk, not a luxury yacht.”

When Rarity had come closer, Antonius said:

“Rarity… don’t you think you’ve packed a little much?”

“Oh, that?” the unicorn asked, waving at her luggage,
“that’s just the bare minimum for a ‘prolonged’ trip.”

“If that trip takes a year, perhaps,” Calgar deadpanned.

“Well, Lord Calgar,” Rarity said with a disarming smile,
“being a lady, I need a little more luggage than a warrior like you, of course.”

“Is that Spike carrying your stuff?” Antonius inquired.

“Yes!” Spike confirmed from somewhere under the suitcases,
“it is a pleasure to help Rarity bring along her essentials!”

“Her ‘essentials’ will have to be limited to two items,” Calgar stated.

“What?” Rarity cried,
“you cannot be serious! How am I supposed live without even the barest necessities?”

“Just try… unless you want to stay here… and abandon your friends.”

Huh? A not-so-secret test of character?

“Lord Calgar, I would never abandon my friends!” Rarity exclaimed, lit her horn and picked a suitcase and her saddlebags out of the mountain of luggage.
“Provisions, and some warm clothes. I have to remark, though, that this is somewhat uncivilized.”

“Should I bring everything else back to your home?” Spike asked.

“Oh, yes, Spikey-Wickey. Thank you!”

Now that her luggage was sorted out, Rarity entered the Thunderhawk.
Calgar waved Antonius to do the same and followed him immediately.

The ramp closed. The Ultramarines, the tech-priests and the ponies - sans the newcomer - were already buckled up and waiting.

“You made it!” Applejack teased Rarity.

“Of course, darling, even if I had to leave most of my luggage behind.”

“Came with your usual mountain, huh?”

“Just the barest necessities.”

“Those are ‘barest necessities’,” Applejack laughed and pointed at her own luggage,
“apples, and some warm clothes.”

“And a spare hat,” Rainbow Dash interjected.

“Oh, shush,” Applejack hissed.

“Well,” Rarity teased back as Antonius buckled her up,
“the ‘essentials’ of an apple farmer and a fashionista differ a little.”

“You are what?” Cassius suddenly asked.

“A fashionista… you know, I design and make clothes?”

“So, you are driving the arbitrary cycle of frivolous consumerism?”

“No,” Rarity answered without missing a beat,
“I just take care that ponies look as fabulous on the outside as they are on the inside.”

The ponies snickered, and Cassius replied:

“Good answer.”

Well, that was a surprise. Perhaps the chaplain had started to thaw a little… even if it was just a little little.

When everyone and everything was ready to start the flight, the Tunderhawk took off and started ascending.

“What was that?” Rainbow Dash shouted as they broke the sonic barrier.

Luna explained it to her and added:

“At this speed, your rainboom happens. Since the Thunderhawk is powered by technology instead of magic, however, there is no rainbow trail.”

“Nervous, Rainbow?” Applejack asked with a grin.

“Yeah,” the pegasus answered,
“you know, flying without using my wings is… weird.”

“But…” Twilight interjected,
“you’ve been using hot air balloons before. That’s also flying without your wings.”

“Slow, boring flying while I still see the ground and skies around me. This here is different.”

“You’re not getting airsick, darling?” Rarity worried.

“Pfft… no, of course not!”

When the sound of the engines changed some time later, Rainbow Dash repeated her question, and once again, Luna told her what had happened.

“You have a good memory,” Seneca told her.

“Well, Sergeant Seneca,” Luna replied,
“I find your technology to be fascinating. You achieve wonders, entirely without magic.”

“We truly are blessed by the Omissiah,” Gearhart stated,
“I do not even want to think about having to rely on strange powers on a daily basis, even for mundane tasks. It is an unsettling thought.”

“Well, you get used to it. In fact, for us, magic is normal and your technology is the ‘strange power’.”

“A matter of perspective,” Tigurius said.

“Indeed,” Antonius agreed,
“and if we combine the technology of mankind and the magic of ponies, we should be able to drastically increase our effectiveness against the forces of Chaos.”

“While we already are quite effective,” Cassius put in,
“the probable increase you talk about would surely be highly welcome.”

A few minutes later, Rainbow asked:

“How fast are we now?”

“Pilot,” Calgar voxed,
“put our flight data on the hololith.”

A moment later, the hololith generator, mounted to a rail above their heads, rumbled into position and projected the requested data.

“About Mach ten,” Antonius said,
“that’s ten times the speed of you rainboom… are you okay?”

Rainbow certainly did not look okay. She was pale and looked quite nervous.

“That’s… fast,” she mumbled.

“Good thing that you like ‘fast’… but seriously, don’t worry, the Thunderhawk is safe.”

“I’m okay… and I do like ‘fast’… it’s just… unfamiliar to be that fast without using my wings… it’s a pegasus thing.”

“Probably,” Antonius smiled and turned to Fluttershy:
“Fluttershy, how do you feel?”

“I don’t know,” she squeaked,
“I’ve got my eyes closed.”

“We’ll soon arrive at the Sword of Iax,” Calgar told them,
“if you need to ‘stretch your legs’, you will be able to do that there.”

It took a few more minutes, then the Thunderhawk closed in on the strike cruiser. Calgar changed the hololith to an image of the voidship, and watched the ponies gasp in awe at the sight. The dropship slid into the strike cruiser’s hangar and the front ramp opened, revealing the interior of the vessel.

“So, we’re on board your ship now?” Twilight inquired.

“Yes,” Calgar answered,
“if you need to walk a little, you may do so now. In the meantime, the Terminators will board.”

Through the open ramp, he already saw them approaching, three veterans wearing tactical dreadnought armor. Calgar took a quick look at the ponies. They stared at the heavily armored elite warriors with expressions of confused awe. Thinking about the sanctity of those venerated suits of armor, this was actually an appropriate reaction…

“Those are the armors you are so fond of?” Luna suddenly whispered to Antonius.

“Yeah,” he replied equally quiet, but with a grin,
“one of the toughest armors ever developed by mankind… as far as we know.”

This little addendum called the ancient STC database back to Calgar’s mind. Maybe there were even more powerful suits hidden somewhere in those huge amounts of data, but they would be able to check that soon… if the ongoing evaluation of the database and ‘Al’ controlling it - conducted by Gearhart - concluded with a positive result.

“Lord Calgar, we are ready,” brother Octavianus said as he entered the Thunderhawk.

“Good, brother,” Calgar replied, then he turned to the ponies:
“Now, do you need to ‘stretch your legs’ or can we continue?”

“It would be too much to ask for a tour of the ship, I suppose?” Rarity asked.

“On our way back you’ll probably get a chance to take a look at the cruiser,” Calgar answered with a small grin.

As brother Gaius boarded the drop ship, Applejack exclaimed:

“Now what in tarnation is that?”

Calgar followed her gaze, and found brother Gaius’ weapon.

“It’s called an ‘assault cannon’, little pony,” Gaius answered slightly annoyed.

“A heavy, automatic anti-personnel weapon with a high rate of fire,” Gearhart explained curtly.

“I won’t question it,” Applejack said.

Since the ponies opted against talking a walk, and the third Terminator, brother Julius, was onboard, too, the Thunderhawk started again and adopted a course for the moon.

The Sword of Iax already was close to the moon, so the trip did not take long. Antonius looked at the hololithic image of the mountain they were approaching, and the giant door that sealed its top.

“Any idea how to open that thing?” he inquired.

“We will emit signals on various frequencies,” Gearhart told him,
“according to the local AI, they had been used for corresponding purposes in the past.”

“And if that doesn’t work,” Seneca grinned,
“we’ll look for a giant bell to ring.”

The Thunderhawk now started circling the mountain at some distance.

“Start the transmission once you’re ready,” Calgar commanded.

“Transmitting now,” Gearhart answered.

Nothing happened.

“Sequence one: no reaction,” Gearhart stated,
“transmitting sequence two.”

Again, the door did not move. During the following attempts, the result stay the same, until:

“Transmitting sequence 7,” Gearhart said, and a moment later, a jolt went through the dropship and the engines started whining.

“Report,” Calgar demanded.

“My Lord, we’ve been caught by a beam emitted from the rim of the door. We cannot break free,” the pilot voxed.

“Gearhart?”

“According to preliminary analysis, it is some kind of graviton beam. Probably purpose: guiding ships through the door. I suggest we set our thrust to zero.”

“Pilot, make it so.”

The whining stopped, and the Thunderhawk was pulled closer to the door. Then, it started opening with a grinding noise, transmitted by the moon’s atmosphere.

“This thing needs to be lubricated,” Applejack remarked.

“It really is quite an unpleasant noise,” Rarity agreed.

“But probably still less unpleasant than the giant, hungry space worms behind it.”

“There are no giant hungry space worms!” Antonius insisted.

“We’re about to enter the gravimetric anomaly,” the pilot reported.

A few seconds later, all gravity was gone, and Rainbow Dash started screaming.

“What’s wrong?” Antonius asked,
“and don’t dare say something about space worms.”

“I can’t open my wings! Let me out of that stupid belt!”

“What?”

“It’s the feeling of falling that freaks her out,” Twilight explained.

“Rainbow,” Antonius shouted,
“you are not falling! It’s just a zero-g zone. Calm down!”

At first, Rainbow continued panicking, but a slap from Cassius made her calm down again instantly.
She blinked and turned to the chaplain:

“Hey! Oh… umm… I mean… thank you. I felt like falling, you know, and that’s… pretty unsettling for a pegasus. Again, thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Cassius answered flatly.

“Ah, now I finally get it!” Pinkie beamed,
“you’re the grumpy tough love guy!”

Antonius burst out laughing. This was one of the most unusual - and best - descriptions of a chaplain he could think of. Even funnier was the fact that even the Ultramarines had problems keeping straight faces, and he could hear quite some suppressed giggles, despite the potentially dangerous situation the were in.

“Throne on Terra!” the pilot suddenly shouted,
“my Lord, I’ll relay the front view to the hololith.”

For a moment, Antonius wondered what could make an Ultramarine shout out like that, and a moment later, he knew.
The hololith displayed the prow of a massive voidship, lying at anchor inside the moon. There was the prow shield typical for imperial ships, and beneath it, a giant barrel, similar to that of an oversized nova cannon.

“Is that…?” Seneca wondered.

“Measurements,” Calgar demanded,
“how long is that ship?”

The next moment, another jolt went through the Thunderhawk, and the pilot reported:

“We’re free of the beam. Powering up engines.”

“Lord Calgar,” Gearhart said,
“the ship’s length is 22.042 kilometers.”

“Damnit!” Seneca mumbled.

“Incredible!” Tigurius agreed.

“Well, its really big,” Twilight ventured,
“but you seem downright awestruck. What’s the deal with this ship?”

“Well, Twilight,” Antonius told her, equally flabbergasted as his brothers,
“according to its size, this ship is a Gloriana class battleship.”

“And that means?”

“The Gloriana was one of the most powerful battleship designs ever created by mankind. They are incredibly rare, with only about two dozen or so ever built, and even fewer still in active service. During the Great Crusade, they were called ‘the chariots of the Primarchs’. One of those ships can turn the tide of a naval battle.”

“Oh… so… yay?”

“Very much ‘yay’.”

“This must have been the ship of the dead Primarch,” Calgar said.

While they had been waiting for Gentle Breeze’s restoration, he had visited the Inner Sanctum together with his retinue, and had gotten to know the history of the planet as far as the Imperium was concerned.

“Circle the ship,” he ordered,
“look for a hangar, or an accessible docking port.”

The pilot flew them closer to the giant vessel, and the hololith displayed more and more details of the ship - as well as the cave that acted as its dock. The cave itself was made from the same crystal material they had found on the planet, but there were human-made installations clinging to it.

“Looks like the ancient humans have built a dock into this cave,” Seneca said.

“And the Primarch used it for his ship,” Tigurius added.

“This turret,” Aleksa remarked, pointing at a large dorsal turret of the Gloriana,
“is that a lance? It looks somewhat unusual.”

“It deviates from standard lance design,” Gearhart confirmed,
“proper identification requires further examination.”

“Lord Calgar,” the pilot reported,
“there is an open hanger.”

“Bring us in,” Calgar replied.

“Initiating landing approach.”

The Thunderhawk slowed down and closed in on the hangar. Slowly, it traversed the giant doors, then it continued its flight until it was hovering above a spot about two dozen meters from an airlock that lead into the bowels of the battleship.

The dropship just had stopped as gravity gently returned, allowing it to make a soft landing.

“Gravity?” Cassius asked,
“the ship’s machine spirit is still active?”

“And it has apparently recognized us as emissaries of the machine god,” Gearhart added,
“energy levels are still low, though. The ships seems to run on auxiliary power.”

“My Lord,” the pilot voxed,
“the hangar doors are closing… and there is a blue-ish force field sealing off the dwindling opening.”

“Does this ship want to trap us?” Fluttershy asked.

“Negative,” Gearhart stated,
“usually, hangars without airlocks are exposed to the vacuum of space for arrival respectively departure of vessels. They need to be sealed and repressurized before you can enter them without protective gear. In this case, however, I assume the force field is an atmospheric containment field to spare you that process and speed things up. Still, security protocols should state that a closed door is preferable to a force field. Hence, the machine spirit seals the hangar.”

“An atmospheric containment field?” Seneca inquired, baffled.

“This ship is far more advanced than our ships nowadays,” Tigurius opined.

“Another reason to figure out its secrets,” Gearhart said,
“there already is an atmosphere in the hangar, which’s composition is suitable for human - and pony - life, though, by courtesy of this location being inside the moon.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Applejack mumbled.

They unbuckled the ponies and opened the front ramp. The Ultramarines immediately fanned out, followed by Gearhart and his aide, then Antonius and the ponies.

“Sword of Iax,” Calgar voxed,
“do you read me?”

No answer.

“Guess we’re cut off,” he grumbled.

“Maybe the giant door in the mountain has closed again and blocks your vox signals?” Twilight guessed.

“Possible,” Gearhart replied,
“but if the door blocks our vox traffic, there should be a relay system in the dock to enable the use of voxes. We just have to find and activate it.”

“Aleksa,” Calgar said,
“that is your first objective: reenable the vox relay. Brother Julius, accompany her.
Gearhart, you’ll look for the ship’s enginarium. See if you can get the main reactors back online. Brother Octavianus, protect him.
The rest of us will take the bridge.”

So they split up, and started exploring the ancient ship. The air was a little stale, but not harmful, and the doors were kind enough to open if prompted to do so. They also encountered no hostiles, neither lurking xenos nor misguided defensive systems. They still stayed alert, mindful of the fact that this could change in an instant.

They traversed long hallways, and had to ascend countless steps in stairwells big enough to built whole houses into.

After about an hour of carefully wandering through the ship, Antonius, Calgar, Tigurius, Cassius, Seneca and the ponies opened a giant door that lead to a huge room.

“What is that?” Twilight asked in awe.

“A chapel,” Antonius explained,
“here, we spiritually clean ourselves, and renew our oaths to serve the Emperor.”

“A tad gloomy,” Rarity opined,
“but without doubt breathtaking.”

She was certainly right. The room was long and broad, and the ceiling, supported by giant pillars, was high. The walls were richly decorated and adorned with delicately crafted works of art. There was a spacious central aisle with benches to the left and right, interrupted by large fire bowls.

They walked along this aisle until they reached a massive lectern, and a large, open space behind it, where they halted.

“Aleksa, Julius,” Calgar voxed,
“report.”

“Still on our way,” Aleksa answered.

“No contacts,” Julius added,
“neither xenos nor anything else is trying to impede us.”

“Gearhart, Octavianus, report,” Calgar continued.

“We are proceeding towards our objective,” Gearhart replied,
“no signs of any kind of infestation, and the ship’s machine spirit is cooperative. The vessel is in a remarkably good condition.”

“Let us hope the reactor is, too.”

“I will report as soon as we have reached the enginarium. Gearhart, out.”

Calgar deactivated the vox and turned to his companions:

“We seem to be lucky. Usually, there is a decent possibility that there is some kind of infestation onboard an abandoned ship. It being hidden in the moon has probably saved it from such a fate.”

“Infestation?” Applejack asked, peeping at Antonius out of the corner of her eye,
“you mean there usually are…”

“No,” Antonius interrupted,
“there are no giant hungry space worms!”

The ponies snickered, then Pinkie said:

“Well, there may be no hungry space worms, but there is at least one hungry pony. How about a little picnic?”

“A ‘little picnic’?” Cassius inquired,
“you suggest we eat a ‘little picnic’ in such holy halls?”

“Oh… okay… how about a grand, venerable picnic?”

The chaplain just stared at her. He certainly hadn’t expected such an answer.

“We will proceed for now,” Calgar decided,
“while we’d be able to spot any enemy approaching for melee in this open space, we would be sitting ducks for a sniper.”

So, they continued their journey through the ship.
When they entered a room that probably was a workshop of some kind, they were voxed by Aleksa.

“Lord Calgar? We have traversed into the dock. No problems as of yet.”

“Good,” Calgar replied,
“keep us informed.”
Then he looked around and finally turned to the ponies:
“We can rest here. Will 15 minutes suffice for you to take some refreshment?”

“Yes, Lord Calgar,” Twilight answered and the ponies gathered around Antonius.

He had also inspected their current location. Two doors, just one level, no balcony or elevated walkway, and workbenches to take cover behind. All told, pretty easy to defend. So far, Calgar’s decision to rest here had of course been good. He doubted, however, that the ponies would be satisfied with the amount of time that had been given to them.

He had his musings proven correct as he heard Rarity whisper:

“Just 15 minutes? Are we supposed to inhale our food?”

“It surely isn’t enough time for one of your fancy picnics,” Applejack answered,
“but it’s enough for an apple or two.”

“I could eat at least three cakes in that time!” Pinkie proclaimed and produced the first cake out of nowhere.

“Do you want a sandwich, Gentle Breeze?” Twilight asked as she unpacked her saddlebags.

Gentle Breeze tilted her head a little and replied:

“Umm… yes… but can I eat at all?”

“I have no idea. Perhaps we could call magos Gearhart?”

She turned to talk to Calgar, but before she could ask her question, he already answered:

“Yes, we can call him. I will do so and put it on the external speakers.”

Calgar did as he had said. Gearhart answered promptly.

“Gentle Breeze is perfectly capable of ingesting food. She has an integrated bio-chemical reactor that will…”

“Auspex contact!” Octavianus interrupted.

“What is it?” Calgar asked.

“Unclear. It’s a weak sign ahead of our current position.”

“Confirmed,” Gearhart added,
“no further analysis possible at the moment.”

“Proceed with care,” Calgar ordered and grabbed his data slate,
“I’ll tap your vid data.”

So, there was something on this ship. Well, it would have been too easy had it been completely abandoned.

“My Lord, the signal is dispersing into multiple contacts,” Octavianus reported,
“close now, but still weak.”

“We probably have encountered some kind of vermin infestation,” Gearhart inferred.

“We will soon know. Whatever it is, it’s behind that door.”

Through the vox, they heard the door open. Then, Octavianus said:

“Advancing… no visual. According to the auspex, they should be here.”

“They are,” Gearhart said,
“to your right. It just stuck its head out of that vent over there.”

Calgar still looked at his data slate, now raising an eyebrow.

“Visual contact,” Octavianus said,
“it’s… frankly, I have no idea what it is… could be some kind of… worm?”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Antonius mumbled, eyeing Applejack.

“Hey,” she responded,
“that’s not my fault! I was just joking!”

“Are they giant and hungry?” Fluttershy exclaimed.

“No and no idea,” Octavianus replied via vox.

“Have you seen such creatures before?” Calgar now asked, showing his data slate to the ponies and Antonius.

Seriously, the worm was anything but giant… at least the visible part. It had about the diameter of Antonius’ finger, a little snout, two round eyes and was covered in orange fur with black stripes.

“What the…” Antonius mumbled and turned to Fluttershy:
“Fluttershy, you are by far the most experienced here when it comes to animals. Have you any idea what this creature could be?”

“It’s so cute!” the pegasus swooned.

“Anything a little more insightful, perhaps?”

Fluttershy collected herself and answered:

“I’m sorry, but I’ve just seen one of them for the first time. Maybe if I could try and talk to it, we might find out something about them.”

“I could teleport us there,” Twilight offered.

“You want to teleport within the confines of a voidship?” Tigurius asked,
“are your teleportations accurate enough for such a task? It would be a grievous loss if you ended up stuck in a bulkhead.”

“Can that happen?” Fluttershy screamed.

“No, it can’t,” Twilight soothed her,
“a proper teleport spell has multiple failsafe components that automatically adjust your target coordinates should they be blocked by a solid object.
Should you try to teleport into water, it will be displaced by another part of the spell the moment you rematerialize. Even if you just teleport into air, this air will be displaced, too. Really, teleportation spells are very safe. Countless years of careful study went into their development, starting when…”

“Twilight,” Antonius interrupted softly.

“Oh, right,” she answered and turned to the data slate displaying Octavianus’ vid data,
“Octavianus, we’re going to teleport to your location. It would be nice if you didn’t shoot us out of reflex.”

“Don’t worry,” the Space Marine answered.

“Okay. Fluttershy, are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I think,” she answered.

Twilight now went up to her, lit her horn - and they were gone in a flash of light.
A moment later, they could be heard through the vid feed.

“Remarkable,” Tigurius commented.

As they had rematerialized, Twilight took a look around. They were inside a small room - at least compared to the other rooms and halls she had seen in this ship. Octavianus was still surveilling the worm-like creature, that seemed to be content with sniffing in their general direction and being adorable.

“A convenient method of transportation,” Gearhart said,
“even though it requires ‘magic’.”

“It sure is useful,” Twilight just replied, not wanting to start a discussion on the pros and cons of using magic, and turned to her friend:
“Fluttershy, it’s your turn.”

The yellow pegasus nodded and walked up to the wall the worm was looking out of. Octavianus backed up a few steps to give her some space.

“Hello, my little friend,” Fluttershy said sweetly and with a disarming smile,
“I hope you are doing well.”

The worm looked down at her from its slightly elevated position, then it started using its little snout like a trumpet and answered.
Seriously, Twilight never had heard of a species like that. She wondered if they were native to the moon and had somehow entered the ship, or if they had been brought here by the humans.

“Oh, I’m glad to hear that,” Fluttershy smiled.

“She really understood that?” Octavianus wondered.

“My friend Fluttershy has a natural talent for communicating with animals,” Twilight explained,
“this encompasses behavior as well as sounds.”

“Now, I don’t want to be nosy, Mr. Worm,” the pegasus continued,
“but would you mind telling me how you got onto this ship? Are you alone? And do you even find enough food here?”

After some more trumpeting, she turned to Twilight and the humans and said:

“There is a whole society of those worms here. They came from the moon many moons ago.”

“And what do they eat?” Twilight wondered,
“can they digest metal?”

“Oh, no. They have made fields where they grow mushrooms.”

“Fields?” Gearhart inquired,
“Onboard this ship? Where?”

The worm started trumpeting again.

“There is a large room ahead,” Fluttershy translated,
“it contains the fields and the heart of the worm colony.”

“I hope this room is not the enginarium,” Gearhart said,
“it would make our mission unnecessarily complicated if they had defiled it.”

The worm made sounds again, but this time they sounded somewhat angry.

“Oh, no, Mr. Worm,” Fluttershy immediately answered,
“it was not meat to be an insult.”

Ah, great. Humans could be a bit blunt from time to time, and now this bluntness had met the sensitivity the worms apparently called their own.

“Of course,” Twilight confirmed,
“none of us has any intention to insult you. Right?”

She just hoped that Gearhart and Octanianus would get it and be nice. Starting their relations with those worms with a fight would be the last thing she wanted.

“Confirmed,” Gearhard thankfully stated,
“no insult was intended. I must, however, call your attention to the fact that this ship is property of the Imperium of Mankind, and as a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus, it is my sacred duty to ensure its functionality. Thus, I must advise your species not to interfere with this ship’s operational tasks.”

The worm stared at him for a few seconds, prompting Twilight to think that it felt insulted again, then it trumpeted again.

“He says this place is abandoned,” Flutterhy said.

“It was,” Octavianus corrected, his voice a little colder than Twilight was comfortable with,
“but now, mankind has returned to claim what is rightfully ours.”

Not good. Twilight really wished Antonius to be here instead of the Terminator, as he was much more approachable and less aggressive.

The worm, however, communicated again.

“He asks if they may stay here if they agree to help you,” Fluttershy translated,
“well, they can crawl through small pipes and reach places you’re too big to get to.”

“An intriguing proposal,” Gearhart remarked,
“but the machines of mankind must be maintained by sanctified personnel.”

“But they are so fluffy that they clean every pipe they crawl through!” Fluttershy protested.

“I really think we should accept their help,” Twilight said,
“I assume we’re already somewhat understaffed to run a ship of this size, aren’t we? I mean, your ship is much smaller than this one. So, if they want to help us, we should not prevent them from doing so.”

“A valid point,” Antonius, watching the events through the data slate, opined.

“Assuming they are actually benevolent and don’t plan to sabotage us,” Cassius interjected.

“The only alternative is wiping them out. Committing genocide just because we’re worried that they could perhaps be somewhat shady does not seem to be an appropriate course of action.”

“Usually, the Imperium prefers to be on the safe side, especially since we know that xenos can’t be trusted. With the new experiences we’ve made here, however, I’m almost inclined to agree with you, it it weren’t for one circumstance: a Gloriana class battleship is at stake.”

“Varro, your opinion?” Calgar asked.

“I’m unable to read the minds of those worms and tell you if they’re honest or not,” Tigurius answered,
“but I wouldn’t want to eradicate them without being sure that they’re actually enemies.”
With a grin, he added:
“It’s not often that you meet living pipe cleaners.”

“Hmm. Well, if they betray us, we can still make them pay later. We cannot resurrect them, though, so we’ll give them a chance to prove their worth.”
Calgar now turned to the data slate:
“Gearhart, Octavianus, we accept the worms’ proposal. Continue you mission, but stay alert. See if they know anything of value.”

He deactivated the vox link and mumbled:

“We’re really asking worms for information. This system truly is unique.”

“You’ll find that you’re going to stumble over a lot of weird things here,” Antonius grinned,
“but once you get used to it, it’s actually quite enjoyable.”

While Twilight and Fluttershy stayed with the Magos and the Terminator - and the worms - the others continued looking for the ship’s bridge.

Some time later, when they were walking through a hallway close to their destination, the vox suddenly became alive:

“Lord Calgar? Lord Calgar, do you read us? This is the Sword of Iax. Please respond.”

“So, ideally, Aleksa was able to reactivate the relay system,” Seneca noted,
“otherwise, we’d have to find out why the vox suddenly works again.”

“Call her and ask,” Calgar told him,
“in the meantime, I’ll talk to the Sword.”

While Seneca got busy with his own vox, Calgar answered his ship’s attempt at communication:

“Sword of Iax, this is Calgar. We’re receiving your message.”

“Thank the Emperor,” came the answer,
“we’ve tried to reach you for several hours now. We were about to dispatch a second Thunderhawk and a squad of Ultramarines to look for you.”

“Do that, and tell every tech-priest we can spare to accompany them. We have a whole Glorianna class battleship to explore here.”

After a few second of stunned silence, the Sword voxed:

“My Lord, we probably had some sort of interference. It almost sounded like you had said that…”

“There is a Gloriana class battleship inside the moon. Send the marines and tech-priests now. You have overheard the sequence to open the gate?”

“Sequence 7, my Lord. Sending reinforcements.”

“Thank you. Tell them to set their engines’ thrust to zero while they’re being pulled inside. Calgar, out.”

He deactivated his vox, and Seneca told him:

“It was indeed Aleksa’s doing. The relay system is online. The dock’s reactor is stable. She wants to know if she should examine the dock further or head back to support Gearhart.”

“The only one who can properly assess if Gearhart needs help is Gearhart himself. Tell her to clarify that with him directly.”

A short time later, they finally arrived at the ship’s bridge. It was a huge room with a circumferential gallery and giant crystalflex windows.
Through them, they could see the gate outside open.

“Whoa,” Applejack mumbled.

“A nice view, hm?” Seneca grinned.

“It may sound silly, but with all that wandering through hallways and stuff, I had almost forgotten that we’re on a ship… inside the moon… in space.”

Outside, the Thunderhawk now passed the gate and closed in on the Gloriana.

“Let’s see if we can open the hangar door again,” Calgar said and called the Thunderhawk inside the hangar.

The battle brothers guarding it had found the control mechanism of the door, and had no problem opening it for the new arrivals.

Then, Calgar voxed Gearhart, requesting a report.

“We have found the auxiliary fusion reactors,” the magos replied,
“they are still active and powering an as of yet unknown system. Redundantly, even, so this system is probably critical for the ship. After the due benedictions and litanies, I will increase the power output to reactivate all systems.”

“So, the worms didn’t cause any serious damage?”

“No, Lord Calgar. Those mushroom-fields they told us about are positioned around the warp drive and do not impede us at the moment.”

“How long until the power is back up?”

“8.7 minutes. Approximately.”

“Acknowledged.”

Now Antonius and the Ultramarines started examining the bridge. Just like the rest of the ship, it was in a remarkably good condition. The control lectern, however, differed from imperial standards. They looked similar to that input fields and displays the ancient humans had used.

“This ship has been refitted,” Cassius stated.

“With technology from the Dark Age?” Seneca asked.

“Probably,” Calgar answered.

“Have the Space Marines back then done that?” Rarity asked.

“I don’t think so… they had enough other things to worry about, and such a refit takes a lot of time and expertise. Not to mention the fact that this refit meant using technology that has not officially been blessed by the Mechanicum.”

“Then, whose work is this?” Luna wanted to know.

“Good question. See if you can find any hints.”

After some searching, Antonius and Luna left the bridge and walked into an adjacent room. It seemed to be a conference room, according to the large table and the chairs inside.
On the table, there was a piece of technology Antonius was familiar with.

“Look at that!” he exclaimed,
“Al’s second missing memory module!”

“He surely will be glad to have it back,” Luna replied,
“and perhaps, he will be able to tell us what exactly has happened here.”

She hovered the module into her saddlebags and they returned to the bridge. As they entered, the lecterns started displaying various kinds of information, more luminators lit up and a faint hum could be heard.

“I guess the life support system is back to full capacity,” Antonius said.

Now there was a flash of light, and Twilight and Fluttershy were back - together with the worm.

“Magos Gearhart was able to power up the auxiliary reactors,” Twilight told them,
“he said he’s going to take a look at the main reactor now.”

“And we have found Al’s missing memory module!” Luna declared.

“That might answer some of our questions,” Calgar said,
“we should get it back to the planet as soon as we’re done here.”

“Actually,” Twilight suggested,
“Princess Luna and I could teleport to Al. It’s quite a distance, but together we should be able to accomplish it.”

“Negative. I’d like Magos Gearhart or Aleksa to be present when the Module is inserted.”

The second Thunderhawk had landed by now, its passengers swarming out to assist Magos Gearhart or explore the ship. And so, after about ten millennia, humans had once again taken control of this Gloriana class battleship.