Mechanicus: Cognitionis Equuleus

Chapters

Prolog
The Gathering
"Harmless" Primitives
The Reverie's Shackles
The Monsters of Metal and Fire

Prolog

The explorator voidship Voidspear sailed through the the storm that was the imaterium. Only its gelar field keeping the horrors and deamons of the warp at bay. Even still, it was a dangerous process, the deamons wanting at the sight of the mortal crew on board. But to call all of the crew mortal, wasn't an accurate description. For this was a ship belonging to the cult mechanicus and all its occupants were of the same allegiance. Well, not all of them, somwhere in the armory, there was inquisitor Canosius, tasked with keeping the ship loyal to the Emperor, even more loyal than to the Omnissiah.

After a particular incident involving T'au technology, the Inquisition deemed it necessary for this particular ship to be supervised.

It was of course, a futile effort, as the Arch Magos found more than enough ways to keep the inquisitor "busy".

But currently, the inquisitor had more pressing issues, than supposed "stealing" of ammunition.

For the gelar field was failing, and that would allow the deamons of the warp to materialise inside the ship, and if you ware unlucky enough, inside you. But he was trained for these kind of situations, he was an inquisitor after all.

Inquisitor Canosius walked with confidence, he always did, even when he actually felt none. But today he was confident even on the inside and not just outside.

He had finally managed to find evidence of the schemes against him.

During his extensive investigation on the missing ammunition, that had partially took place during the warp incursion. He had discovered that the skitarii that took the ammunition had orders to do so from the arch magos himself.

So, the inquisitor went to confront the arch magos and demand an explanation. And it he didn't get one, or it wasn't to his liking... Well, that's what his master crafted boltpistol was for.

But even as he walked through the doors to the command center that the arch magos resided in, he hoped it wouldn't come to that. He always did. It was the his least favourite part of being an inquisitor by far. More than walking through the many sewers of the hive cities, even more than being tortured by heretics and mutants.

But he was an inquisitor, it was his job to kill. So he never showed his distaint for it. Nor did he act like it.

So, he swallowed his conscience and walked over the many cables that littered the floor to the arch magos.

He was a weird sight to behold to be sure, but so was every tech-priest.

He was sitting on his command throne in the center of the room. Well, sitting wasn't entirely correct to say. For to sit, one would require to have a butt and reasonably amount of legs. But the arch magos had neither.

He had many legs running on the underside of his body that it self stretched on the ground like carpet, it looked almost like a cross between a centipede and a spider. Except a humanoid body sticked out where the head would have been

The shape of his main body was largely human with a head and arms. Only, he had more then two arms. The arch magos had four main arms, only one of them was biological, and in addition many mechadendrites and servo arms. It was hard to tell where one arm began and another ended.

His head was probably the most striking feature, for both his eyes were replaced with several small blue optics and cameras, further intensifying the spider like appearance. His entire mouth and nose were replaced with a astartes rebreather and the back of the head was sunk into a top part of a terminator armor he was partialy in places wearing.

All in all, he almost looked like a smaller version of Belisarius Cawl.

Finally, when Canosius was halfway to the arch magos, had said magos noticed him.

"Ah, it is good to see you inquisitor. I was just about to ask for you." He said in high gothic, the sound being entirely synthetic, due to the arch magos no longer having a mouth.

"I believe there is a heretek hacker on board with my authority and identification." Continued the arch magos. "I also believe that said heretek was the cause of the stolen ammunition."

The inquisitor appeared mildly surprised, he raised an eyebrow and gave the arch magos a questioning look.

But internally, he was shocked. He was used to shock of course, and learned to never show it fully, but he was shocked nonetheless.

Because of this single information and the fact that he said it before he confronted the archmagos, meant that now his evidence wasn't enough. Were it be almost any other person on this ship, or even in the Imperium, his evidence would have been enough for an immediate execution. But the arch magos wasn't every other person. To kill such a high ranking member of the Mechanicus without sufficient evidence, even if he had previous record of not so exceptional behaviour, would surely worsen the relationships between the Inquisition and the Mechanicus beyond what was acceptable.

"I will look into this supposed hacker." Said the inquisitor. "But tell me archmagos, if this hacker is really that skilled to cease your authority, then how did you discover them?"

"I realised his presence when my personnel reported doing orders that I had not issued. Later when I looked more into it, I discovered digital traces in the noosphere. I also discovered the name: Nullus that was attached to the traces, both of which I believe were left intentionally. It should also be noted that there is no tech-priest nor any other personnel with that name on board." Said the archmagos without any emotion, as was typical for magi of his status.

"And why was I not informed of this before?" a
Asked Canosius suspiciously.

"The first verifiable order that Nullus gave was 16.34 hours ago." Replied the archmagos immediately, almost too immediately.

This is going to be a long investigation. The inquisitor though to himself. But it was his duty. And inquisitors always do their duty.

This is going to be a long expedition. The arch magos thought to himself. But he was an explorator of the Mechanicus, it was his jobs to lead expeditions into unexplored or poorly explored corners of the galaxy.

But he didn't expect their emergency exit of the warp would brought them into previously unknown system. And by unknown he didn't meant noone was yet in this system, but that the existence of the system in its entirety wasn't known, even the machine spirit of the ship with all its sensors was surprised at their sudden appearance in this system.

Which while normally still unexpected and unusual, wasn't something that the archmagos hadn't experienced before, there were so many systems in the galaxy that to think humanity would know of them all or even most of them was foolish beyond mere stupidity.

But what made this particular unknown system so unique, was its proximity to inhabited space. Indeed, this system was almost in the middle of a flourishing sub-sector with its own defence fleet and even an astartes home world.

And what was worse, they had lost almost all fuel and raw resources when a Tzeentchian deamon blew up holes in the storage and fuel rooms, venting most of their contents into space.

So now the archmagos had to make a fictional heretek hacker, keep this ship from falling apart because of the gelar field failure, explore this anomalous system, and get enough resources to be able to make it back to Imperial space. Well, he supposed that he already was in Imperial space, so that was one less thing to worry about.

"[Scifionsa, have you managed to contact the governor of this sub-sector?]" The arch magos asked in binary over the noosphere.

"[[Contacted sub-sector governer] = False. [Hypothesis] = Something is blocking all low frequency electromagnetic radiation and psychik communication.]" Answered Scifionsa, also over the noosphere in binary.

"[Do you really think that is the case, or it is some else to us unknown factor?]"

"[Likelihood of [Hypothesis] > 50%. Until more data is gathered, [Hypothesis] is the most probable answer. However, [Hypothesis] has many uncertainties and it shouldn' be thought of as the absolute truth. ]"

"[You sound almost excited about it.]"

"[Opportunity to gather more information about inability to contact outside systems. [Gathering information = learning.] [Learning = sacred duty of the Omnissiah.]]"

"[Do you not find our situation concerning?]"

"[Generating concern.]" Answered Scifionsa almost sarcastically, not that any actual emotion was transferred in binary.

"[Arch magos, I have news that require your attention.]" Said the chief enginseer of the Voidspear, Mechus, over the noosphere.

"[You have my attention chief enginseer. How are the repairs going?]"

"[Not well I am afraid, archmagos. But that could change very soon.]"

"[How so?]"

"[We have scanned the planets of this system and found that the second (2th) planet has extreme amounts of metals, heavy metals, and possibly gemstones. If we were to establish mining operations on that planet, we would gain more than enough resources to completely repair and refuel the ship.]"

"[Scifionsa, I though that all electromagnetic radiation is being blocked.]" Asked the archmagos, this time, both through the noosphere, and the air as sound, as Scifionsa had made his way into the command center by using an elevator.

"[Changing [Hypothesis]. [Hypothesis] = Something is blocking all electromagnetic radiation and psychik communication going outside the system.]"

"[Mechus, you certain that such observations are correct?]"

"[Yes, archmagos.]"

"[I sense a catch]"

"[The system is inhabited by xenos of unknown technological and martial prowess.]"

"[That could prove problematic. Scifionsa, call for the xenobiologist Biomeca.]"

This is going to be even longer than I expected. Thought the archmagos sadly.

Author's Note

Feel free to skip my pointless mumbling of an Author's Notes.

Alright, my first actually finished chapter. I've had many ideas for stories in the past, even started a few of them, but this is my first actually finished chapter. I write very slowly and I am not a native English speaker, not that you could not notice.

So for that reason, I am going to try writing a lot more briefly then I would normally prefer and try skip some parts. If you don't like it, then that's too bad, because this is all you're gonna get.

Also, you are legally obliged to point out any of my mistakes and/or grammatical errors, failure to do so will result in conversion to a servitor. You have been warned.

The Gathering

Twilight Sparkle was enjoying a nice, lazy afternoon. She was currently having lunch spike had prepared for her. It was a tomato salad if she wasn't mistaken. Not that she cared about what she was eating, or that she was eating in general. She was currently set on the future of her friendship school and her busy mind allowed for little else to occupy it.

She had a notebook next to her bowl and periodically wrote some of her ideas about the school, or more specifically, lack of therfore. Her plan for her very own friendship school was denied by the Equestria Education Association. While she had anticipated the possibility of her school being rejected, the reason why it was rejected was something entirely unexpected for her.

On the other side of her bowl laid a letter from the Equestria Education Association. On it was a lengthy explanation that essentially boiled down to: "We reject your school because it provides, nor is able to provide, no classes stated in the Equestrian Minimal Mandatory Lesson Plan."

In all her time thinking about the idea of a friendship school, she never stopped to think if her scho would even be a school. While her school of friendship might have sounded nice on paper and when explaining to her friends, it would be a school about essentially nothing. Sure, it's nice to teach friendship to all those who want to be taught, but if you want to learn friendship so badly you would go to a dedicated school for it, you probably don't need a friendship school. And the problems kept adding up from there.

Her school offered only friendship classes, as such, if someone were to actually want to go to a friendship school as a legitimate part of ones studies, said one would have to sacrifice a year or two that could have been spent on other more academic schools. Additionally, teaching friendship isn't that difficult or time consuming, especially to those who want to listen. It would almost certainly take less than a year of dedicated classes to convert someone to the ways of friendship. And to take it to the letter again, she wouldn't be able to run an EEA school anyways, since her school had none of the recognised classes. All in all, establishing a school solely dedicated to friendship was a stupid idea.

So now she sat there, eating salad and trying to scrap the last parts of her once thought excellent idea. She tried to take a sip from her glass of juice, but to her displeasure she found it empty, again. So she stood up and walked towards the fridge to refill her glass.

"Looking for something?" Asked Spike, standing
next to the fridge with a bottle of orange juice in hand.

"Oh, hi Spike. How long have you been standing there?" Said Twilight, suddenly brought from her trance like state of absolute focus. She did not expect Spike to be waiting there.

"About ten minutes. You don't tend look around much when you're in the zone."

"Ten minutes really? Asked Twilight to wich Spike merely nodded. "And what do you mean in the zone?"

"Seamed like a fitting description for one of your episodes. Also, you probably shouldn't eat any more salad, this is your third bowl if I am not mistaken."

"Realy, I am pretty sure I only had two. Spike, I know you have my well being on your mind but you don't hace to exaggerate."

"Do you even now what kind of juice you've been drinking all this time, Twilight?" Replied Spike with slightly annoyed tone.

"Orange juice. Obviously." Said Twilight, as if it was the simplest thing in the universe.

"Twilight, you've been drinking grape juice. Just look at the glass." Spike pointed with his finger at the glass that was levitating beside Twilight to signify her to look at it.

Twilight brought the glass in front of her and tilted the it so she could look at the bottom. There was a faint purple stain, clearly showing that there was something purple in the glass. "So you been hold a box of orange juice just to trick me?

"No, you just drank all the grape juice, although seeing if you paid attention to what you were drinking was a nice bonus." Spike explained. He held out the box to Twilight. "You want some?"

"No thanks. I think I've had enough juice as it is."

"Your loss." Said Spike as he took the glass from Twilight and poured himself some of the orange juice from the box.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Exclaimed Spike suddenly, nearly spilling his glass. "The princes has sent you a letter." Spike pulled out a a familiar looking scroll fron one the cabinets nearby and showed it to Twilight.

Wait, what! Shouted Twilight. She, rather forcefully, took the scroll fron Spike's hands and breaked the seal.

Before she could open it however, Spike nabbed the scroll back from her. "Because these things come at least once a week. And besides, it's probably another notice to pay rent anyway."

"Spike, besides the fact that taxes are sent by Equestrian Revenue Service and not by the princess, I own this castle, we don't pay rent. Have you been paying someone just because they said it was rent?"

Instead of answering Spike unfolded the scroll and started to read it out loud to Twilight. Whether it was because he didn't hear her, or because he didn't want to answer the question Twilight didn't know, but she strongly suspected the latter.

"Dear princess Twilight Sparkle, I know you have been rather busy with your student, friendship lessons, The Cutie Map and your personal project, the friendship school."

"Busy is an understatement." Interjected Twilight.

"Ehm." Spike cleared his throat. "You know I wouldn't ask you to do something if it wasn't urgent, but I am afraid the situation is guite dire. I need you and the Elements to investigate several disappearances of /size] the ponies of the town ofCobblehoof. Witnesses report tall... Yeah I am not reading that." Said spike before he fully trailed off. "You read that yourself."

"What do you mean, you're not reading that, I barely understood a word. Did you say disappearences?" Asked Twilight worriedly.

"Just read it Twilight. But not out loud, First I am going to the Sugarcube Corner to salvage the last of my good day. I'll see you in 30 minutes." With that Spike turned on his heel and walked away. He thrown the scroll behind himself, leaving Twilight alone with the letter from Celestia.

Twilight thought for a moment why had Spike asked her to not read it out loud if he was leaving anyways, before she decided it was not important and picked up the message from the ground with her magic.

As she rolled it out and prepared to read it, she pondered what could be so disturbing that spike would simply walk away rather then read it to her, but she didn't alow herself much time to wonder, she had a letter to read after all.

Dear princess Twilight Sparkle, I know you have been rather busy with your student, friendship lessons, The Cutie Map and your personal project, the friendship school. You know I wouldn't ask you to do something if it wasn't urgent, but I am afraid the situation is guite dire. I need you and the Elements to investigate several disappearances of the the ponies of the town of Cobblehoof. Witnesses report tall red figures stalking the mountains. I will tell you more once you're in Canterlot. Please, gather the Elements and those you deem necessary for the investigation and move to Canterlot with haste, time is if the essence.

This was rather unusual for Celestia to say, or write really, not that that that was important right now. She usually isn't this vague, nor urgent, but if Celestia thinks it was necessary to do so, it clearly must be, right?

"No! Now is not the time to doubt Celestia!" Said Twilight to herself suddenly. "What I need to do right now is study these figures so I would have a head start." She skimmed over the letter again in search of more clues.

While finding nothing she hadn't remembered, at the end of the letter, there was small print. It read: Ps: Before you indulge yourself in study, you will be pleased to know that the Canterlot scribes did it for you. You can review their work in Canterlot.

While unusual for Celestia, or indeed any noble, to use postscript, the letter looked as if it was made in a hurry. She probably didn't have the time or will to write it any better.

She must pack her things, gather her friends and buy tickets to Canterlot. Not necessarily in that order. If she is fast, maybe she can do that before Spike returns from Sugarcube Corner.

Author's Note

Here we go! Another thing I made. Isn't it awesome I am actually writing something?

Anyway. I know I said I will try to write more briefly and this was not brief at all. But you know how I can be sometimes. Well actually, you don't know how I can be sometimes. At least I hope so. That would be seriously creepy.

Ps: I am starting to get too many servitors. I don't know what to do with them all. If you want one, DM me and I will give you a discount.

"Harmless" Primitives

Twilight Sparkle was afraid. Not afraid of not being able to defeat the mysterious villain that was behind this, she always defeated the villain. No she was afraid of what state are they gonna find the disappeared.

Her worry began when they found the first "crime scene". Although to call it a crime scene would stretch the definition a bit. There was no body, no stolen items, aside from hundreds of little brass tubes with one of their sides filled in, and there were no definite suspects. All they found, was a puddle of dried blood on the stone floor.

An easy analyser spell confirmed it was from missing ponies. They had found three such puddles and identified four ponies. But seven of them went missing. There were still ponies left unaccounted for.

This is what scared Twilight. The blood heavily implied four ponies were killed in some gruesome way and their corpses dragged away to Celestia knows where and why.

But she withheld from giving up hope. Murder was exceptionally rare in Equestria, especially amongst villains.

What scared her even more was that the disappearances kept happening. Even after their arrival, two more ponies disappeared. First right when they arrived. And second just few hours ago.

They were currently searching for Night Shade, a self described night owl with a passion for gardening, who was last seen by her husband going to water some plants in her backyard in the middle of the night. She had reportedly forgot to water them and said her plants were quote on quote too important to wait until morning.

What followed was a head splitting noise that deafened and blinded nearly half the town closest to Night Shade's home, including Twilight and her friends. She could still taste the burnt metal on her tongue.

After a few minutes, when the horrible sound stopped, they immediately rounded up the citizens and determined that Night Shade was indeed missing. Not even a pond of blood was found. Although some of the ponies closest, including her husband reported seeing the mysterious tall red figures running away with a black bag. What followed was a long search for that eventually escalated into Twilight and her friends launching a search party comprised of themselves to look for her.

So here they were, Twilight and her friends, Starlight, and Spike, with the raising sun shining behind them, looking for a disappeared villager. Or, as Twilight internally started to fear, the culprits dragging away her body.

"Maybe we should split up." Said Twilight. "To cover more ground."

Rainbow Dash scoured through the sky, looking for anything that might give them a lead in this too long, and, even for her tastes, too bloody adventure.

She turned her head on the other side and dragged her eyes over the landscape.

"Uh, this is getting us nowhere." Complained Rainbow Dash.

I know, Dash. But we have to keep going." Said Twilight, flying next to her. "If there is even a small chance of..." She was cut off by Rainbow.

"Yeah, I get that. It's just that all I see is just some rocks, diferent rocks, few silhouettes, and maybe a mountain." Replied Rainbow

"Wait, did you just say silhouettes?!" Asked Twilight in schock.

As Rainbow Dash realised what she said, all the weariness from her missing a good half of her sleep was gone in an instant. She hovered in place, looking for those silhouettes she saw not but a moment earlier.

And just as fast as she saw them the first time, she saw them again. Her naturally sharp eyesight deciphering the tall red shapes running to hide behind some rocks. It was apparent that she caught them in the open, without any cover.

"Look, Twilight, they are over there!" Rainbow pointed one of her hooves at the rock the culprits were hiding behind. "Let's go get them!" With a flap of her wings, she rushed out to confront the red figures. Or at least tried to, since Twilight caught her in her magic before she could fly any significant distance.

"Rainbow, we've been over this!" Said Twilight, annoyed. "If we go after them now, then we'll never know where they are taking all those ponies."

"Then I'll beat out where it is out of them!" Cried out Rainbow Dash, struggling against the magical grip.

"Rainbow! All we will do is place a tracker spell on them and fly away as if we didn't saw them. Am I clear?" Asked Twilight.

"Fine." Rainbow Dash was released from the telekinetic grip and gently flew back to Twilight. "But for the record, I am against this."

Twilight and her friends were matching together for the second time that day. This time, the sun wasn't behind them, but right above them.

The tracker she placed on mysterious red figures had more or less stopped moving about one and a half hours ago. After some wait to confirm that they probably weren't just stopping for a rest or something, they set out to go after them.

The tracker itself had run out of magic about half an hour ago. So if the mysterious unknowns sneaked up on them, they wouldn't know. But that wasn't something Twilight was concerned about. They didn't seam particularly stealthy, more relying on the ear piercing noise then skill. And Twilight got that covered. She conjured a barrier that blocks all noise frequencies that are normally inaudible. She also did the same with light frequencies just to be sure.

The search party was just about to cross the peak of a small mountain, afterwards, they should have an unobstructed view of the residence of the mysterious culprits.

Twilight took a few steps forwards, just enough so she could see over the edge, and she saw it.

If you gave it only a glance, it would look just like any other camp, but if you looked more carefully, you would very much not see an ordinary camp.

It was riddled with tall figures, most were red, but a few were pale white with seamingly random parts being metallic. This trend persited amongst most of figures actually, now that she looked at it more carefully. There was even a few monstrously big hulking, red, and boxy things that looked like robots.

Amongst them were stalls with drills and machinery under them. Few even seamed to be operated by the figures. Twilight and her friends had found several holes in the bedrock that made the stony floor of the mountains. That explained why they couldn't find this camp, even tho it was this close to Cobblehoof. They were nomadic and moved their camp around to avoid detection, at least that's a likely theory until Twilight could go find out herselve.

On the outskirt of the camp were barricades, as if they expected an attack to happen any day now. There were even guards stationed on the barricades, wielding long tubes that were horrifyingly similar to muskets.

Twilight took out a pair of binoculars and looked at the camp through them. She moved her field of view to the centre of the camp. There was figure there, slightly bigger then most, flanked from all sides by those giant boxy robots.

It was different from the others, yet followed the same theme. It was wearing a red cloak that loosely hugged his, presumably male, body. His back was bloated, the bulge covered by his cloak, yet his posture was straight. There were several long thin metal tentacles coming out of his back with a variety of tips ranging from claws to spikes.

His face was prehaps the most terrifying part of him. Instead of eyes, there were two big, blue discs that glowed subtlety. Where the mouth was supposed to be, there was only an oversized, grill shaped, triangular mean looking scowl. Pipes were coming from the sided of the grill and went under the creatures hood.

Instead of the more common two legs, the figure had four, metal, spindly, spider like legs. In his mostly fleshy hands was a giant, fully metal axe with a skull emblem in the center of the head and a spike on the top. Next to the creature, suspended in mid air by a metal arm, was a boxy looking contraption. It was rectangulary shaped, with a slighty pointed tip. The middle was a purposeful looking blue coil. While Twilight couldn't possibly fathom what that thing was, it gave off the feeling of a weapon.

He was speaking to another red cloaked creature, but this one stood with its back to her, so she couldn't see much detail. The only notable thing about this creature, was a big machine attached to its back. The machine had several satellites and antennas attached to it. It reminded her of some kind of scanning tool. There was also a drill or two sticking out of the person.

Suddenly, Twilight was extra grateful for the barrier that shielded them from invisible or inaudible frequencies. And with only a slight adjustment, it could block other things too. It was very convenient and reliable.

Twilight shifted her binoculars back to first creature and looked at him more broadly. He radiated a feeling of authority and command. It was obvious he was in charge here, and therefore the most responsible for the disappearances.

She looked him in the eyes, almost hypnotised by their ethereal soft glow. Suddenly, he lifted his head and stared straight at Twilight. Horrified, she lowered her binoculars. She could still feel him staring.

"Let's move, girls. They already noticed us." Said Twilight.

Difindor's mind was in turmoil. In his head, he run over hundreds of diferent scenarios of diferent outcomes. Just as he always did. He briefly even considered shooting at them with his plasma gun, before deciding the xenos were far too away. The galvanic rifles of his skitarii on the other hand.

With a wordless command over the noosphere, the skitarii reoriented themselves to face this xenos threat which was already descending from the hill overlooking their camp. If they were lucky, they might just kill them before they even reach the Mechanicus camp.

But Difindor knew better. Even tho the reports from the test subjects haven't proved the xenos to be particularly strong fighters, it has, however, proven some of them to be psykers. And it is never easy when dealing with psykers.

With another wordless command, the skitarii, now lined up on the barricades facing the xenos, opened fire.

Hellfire of bullets rained down on the xenos as all their potential energy was released violently. At least, that's what was supposed to happen. Instead, all the bullets disappeared in mid air before touching them. as if being absorbed by an invisible barrier. The xenos, now in full sprint, didn't even seam particularly concerned.

Difindor couldn't possibly even start to imagine the strength and extent of this psychic shield. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. Rainbow energies were starting to form around some of the xenos, with the one leading the charge already starting to be engulfed in this multicoloured plasma. It was apparent that the xenos were charging a spell of an even stronger psychic might.

It was at this moment that Difindor realised he had lost. He might not lose everything. He might even escape out of this alive. But the xenos will unleash their spell, regardless of what he does. All that was left for him is to minimise the damage done and try to gain at least something out of this.

With another command, this one voiced not just over the noosphere but also through his voice box as a shout, he ordered two of his kastelan robot bodyguards to stay behind and hold the xenos off for as long as possible, while he, the rest of the kastelan robots, Kamenus and most of the other tech-priests and other high value members of his cohort to retreat to the other side of the camp to hopefully whether whatever the xenos will brought upon the ones who stayed behind.

Difindor did not spare a glance to the xenos nor the skitarii doomed to die. The optical feeds however, did provide him with enough detail.

The xenos had now reached the fringe of the camp and have been lifted into the air by their unnatural abilities. The rainbow plasma now a glowing corona that surrounded them. The skitarii and everyone else left behind desperately fired everything they got, including a few grenades, at them and took cover behind whatever they could as the xenos effortlessly flew over the barricades.

Difindor commanded the side of the camp he was in to take cover behind the stalls and machinery, preparing an ambush. He hoped that after expending themselves on whatever spell the xenos were charging, their shield would be left vulnerable or even completely spent and with a concentrated fire they could be finally put down. Oh how he longed to still have the backup valkyrie with him, but it was currently away coming back from delivering their latest xeno test subject. It would have made surviving much easier.

A rainbow laser emerged from xenos, specifically targeting and engulfing all the members of the Mechanicus on the half of the camp the xenos were in and even the ones on Difindor's side that were too slow to take cover.

A few moments later, they were gone. Both the beam and those hit by it leaving no traces of their existence but a little bit of radiation. The sudden silence was deafening.

The silence was then broken up by the xenos as they started to talk to themselves. It contrasted so much against the silent background that Difindor could actually hear them with his largely unaugmented ears.

"Well that was easy." Said a scratchy voice of one of the xenos in their alien but understandable dialect of Low Gothic.

"Hold your horses, Rainbow. We are not out the woods yet. We still have to find the ponies they foalapped." Said a second voice to the first, seamingly called Rainbow.

Hold horses? Out of the woods? Foalnapped? Thought Difindor to himself. Their dialect is truly nonsensical. This only further proves the insanity and backwardness of xenos.

This, other than increasing Difindor's conviction of xenos inferiority, also allowed Difindor to glean a few key pieces of information.

First, the xenos were unaware of his presence, just as he planned. And second, the xenos will come to him, so he doesn't have fire into a suboptimal position or lure them into it. They will walk into it themselves.

Know thy enemy. Was the only thing Difindor could think to himself as he positioned a stealthy servo-skull to overlook the xenos and readied his prized weapon from the depths of his cloak, the miniaturised multi-laser.

Most multi-lasers were too big and required too much power to be wielded by infantry and could be only wielded on vehicles and servo-turrets. This multi-laser on the other hand, was with its extensive modifications and resizing shrunk to a point were it could be powered, even if only for a time, by the impressive fusion reactor on Difindor's back and even be concealed by his cloak. Along with his plasma gun, it gave him a terrifying burst damage potential.

Difindor listened to the xenos if they were to drop another useful drop of information, but they did not. He recorded them all the same.

The xenos were now in the most ideal position they would likely ever be in. So, with a word of command over the noosphere Difindor commenced the ambush.

As one, the remnants of the camp stepped out of cover and opened fire. The rapid las fire of the multi-laser proving to be especially effective.

Or at least it would have been, had the xenos lost their shield. The only thing it achieved was scaring the xenos and making some of them yelp or sqeak at the sudden loud noises.

Difindor was the first one and the only one fast enough to duck behind cover again before the xenos fired off their spell once more. The rainbow plasma shinned off from the corners of the machine he was hiding behind.

And just as suddenly as before, the rest of his cohort was gone, not event the servo-skull survived. Difindor was alone.

"Hey! Come out of hiding! We know you're there, you won't surprise us again!" Shouted the scratchy voice of the alien from before. Undoubtedly proving Difindor wrong.

Difindor contemplated several diferent ideas and plans in his head that could give him a chance to survive. Yet none were sufficient. So he remained silent for now.

"If you come out of there you will get a fair trial." Said the second xeno also from before. This one was probably the leader of the group, but Difindor couldn't be certain for sure. "Stepping out and surrounding is the logical thing to do in this situation. You had your go at being a villain and it didn't work, but if you step out now and tell us where the ponies you foalnapped are, you will get a reduced sentence. I will make sure if that."

By the time the xeno, who Difindor was sure by now was a female, finished talking, he had already came up with several more ideas for survival, including surrounding. But where lesser being would have been swayed by the xeno's promises, Difindor saw right through their lies. Promising the enemy a trial if they surrounded was a tactic he had used himself, after all.

A thought appeared in Difindor's mind. Do not wait for death, death waits for you. It was told to him by his mentor and predecessor and it was also part of the Imperial truth and was sometimes broadcasted over the ship as an inspirational statement.

With renewed dedication he pondered on diferent ways to lure the xenos closer so could engage them in close quarters combat. A range in which a variety of shields, especially larger ones, weren't effective. If he were to die, then he would make sure that at least some of the xenos would die with him.

"I will not surrender to xeno primitives!" Shouted Difindor in the proper dialect of Low Gothic, not that you could be much proper in Low Gothic. He hoped to convey to them that if they wanted him, they would have to come for him. "Especially not after witnessing you kill everybody else!"

"Darling, we didn't kill anypony, or anybody." Said a third xeno. "We simply teleported them away or reformed them or both. The Elements of Harmony do not kill."

The Elements of Harmony. Difindor had heard of these artefacts before from the reports of interrogations of their xenos prisoners. They were supposedly jewelry of magical nature that could reform or otherwise deal with any 'villains' by shooting a 'rainbow beam' at them. He had thought it a mere propaganda before.

The notion that it doesn't kill, however, was simply absurd and naive. He wasn't sure whether the xenos were delusional and genuinely believed it, or were trying to trick him again.

"Elaborate." Responded Difindor. He could hear them coming closer to him, so if he could keep them in conversation, and therefore distracted, long enough, he would get an advantage in the upcoming melee.

"Well, I mean. The Elements never killed anypony before. Not to mention that they are the manifestation of friendship. Although I do admit that what happened here was quite unusual."

"Quite unusual, indeed." Commented Difindor with malice. He had already made peace with his upcoming death and started preparing several diferent instructions to be executed after his disintegration by the hands of the xenos. Not that the they have hands.

The sicarian infiltrators were the primary target of his plans. They had managed to overcome the xenos before, after all, not to mention that aside from him, they were the only ones planetside. So, he had ordered them to stealthily made their way to the xeno's base of operation and wait. Wait for the, hopefully by then weakened, xenos kill team. And then, eliminate them with one precise strike.

But for now, Difindor had xenos to distract. He waited a few seconds for their reply. When none came, he decided to take the initiative and start talking again before the xenos come up with another lie.

"Your lies do not sway me, xenos scum!" Shouted Difindor with all the disgust he could manage.

"Well, I never!" Yelled back one of the aliens. "Who do you think you are calling scum!? And with that horrible rug for a cloak!"

Before the xenos could continue, their leader Interjected. "Lies? What do you mean lies? We have said nothing but truth."

"Your lies are clear even to the blind. Your argument of friendship is as foolish as it is blasphemous." Said Difindor, certain his logic was sound. He was also certain the xenos would deny it. But such was the arrogance of aliens.

"Are you calling us liars!?" Shouted an angry voice of the scratchy sounding xeno. It was close. Very close. Only a second remained until it was close enough.

"Yes." Replied Difindor dryly. It was now close enough. This was the xeno that would fall first.

With one smooth motion, he moved out of cover and in front of the alien he was speaking to not but a half a second earlier.

The xeno in front of him was a cyan quadruped, clearly of the pegasus subspecies, as indicated by its with wings far too small to keep it in air. He suspected the touch of the warp was involved in some way. It's head and face unnaturally large with the eyes being truly oversized, yet strangely, aside from the red iris, human looking. Its mane was concuction of rainbow colors, it fitted the xono's name. It looked surprisingly similar to horse, with the major differences being a shorter snout, the addition of wings, smaller size, and disturbingly human facial structure. That and the colour of course.

Difindor raised his Omnissian power axe, lightning around the blade cracking with purposeful energy. The face of the xeno contorted and shifted to a look of surprise.

With another smooth motion, he brought his axe down onto the alien. But the xeno was fast. It hurriedly flapped its small wings and jerked backwards.

But Difindor was fast too. While this pegasus had managed to avoid the first strike, an impressive feat by itself, it will not avoid the second one.

Without pause, Difindor thrusted his axe forwards. The spike burrowed into the xenos abdomen effortlessly. He then pulled his Omnissian axe from within the alien and struck at it again. The xenos was too stunned by pain and shock to respond.

Tha same, however, could not be said about the leader. A purple corona of psychic light surrounded Difindor's prey as she was yanked back violently. But the leader was not as fast as the pegasus. While she has managed to push the other xenos quite far, it was not far enough.

A single limb remained within range and Difindor had to only slightly adjust the axe's trajectory. The power weapon cut through the limb as if it was water.

Satisfied with the damage done, Difindor moved to engage the xeno's leader, clearly the most dangerous memeber of their kill team.

But before he could even as much as take a step forwards he was too engulfed in purple light that stained his vision with unnatural colour. Suddenly, Difindor found himself unable to move. By communing with the machine-spirits of his bionics. He found that they did, in fact, received the commands to move, but a force of some kind was keeping them still. It was as if he was inside a block of iron.

The xeno leader was visibly struggling at some unseen exertion. An obvious sign that she was responsible for Difindor's predicament. That fact that she was straining was also an indicator that with enough force, he could overpower the loathsome spell.

With purpose, Difindor pushed with all the might of his bionics, remaining organic parts, and his faith to the Omnissiah.

"Twilight, will you be able hold him?" Asked one of the xenos that was not currently swarming around their wounded kin.

"Yes." Half gasped, half said the leader. Her strainage was significantly bigger then before. "Just need a few more seconds to charge up the total containment spell."

At this, Difindor would have cringed had he still had a mouth to cringe with. He quickly realised that he would not set himself free of the xeno's grip fast enough. That left him with only one last option.

The leader's eyes light up with surprise, as if sensing her upcoming doom. Prehaps such a thought was not too far from the truth.

"Girls! Use the Elements on him, now! He is going to blow up!" Shouted the leader with urgency and desperation. How had she learned that Difindor had set his fusion reactor to self detonate, Difindor did not know. But it mattered little, he would be faster then them.

"But what about Rainbow Dash!?" Shouted back one of the xenos crouched around their bleeding comrade. Not that the xenos appeared to particularly resemble soldiers.

"Just do it!" Shouted the leader back. Only a few seconds were left until the explosion of the fusion reactor.

A corona of Rainbow plasma surrounded the xenos again, stained purple by Difindor's prison. How had they managed to will it into existence so fast was a mystery. Especially considering how long it took them the first time. Maybe the more times they do it the quicker they can do it again, or maybe the more stress they are under the quicker it is. But Difindor could only guess.

He struggled as much his strained body would allow in a desperate attempt to get behind cover again. A futile effort.

With a last scream over the noosphere, Difindor first saw the etheric rainbow, then white.

The Arch Magos was stunned. Scifionsa was stunned. The inquisitor Canosius was stunned. The xenobiologist Biomeca was stunned. Everyone who saw what just happened was stunned. Aside from the odd servitor monitoring the pict-feed for visual hazards that is.

A small group of seamingly harmless xenos had just took down a well armed and equipped camp full to the brim with skitarii and tech-priests, one those being the security chief Difindor.

The startler was so great that the Arch Magos almost didn't register one last message from the now deceased Difindor that was sent aboard Voidspear. Almost.

So the Arch Magos forced himself focus and opened the message. It contained mostly what he expected. Difindor's will, list of his potential potential successors, only one of which was on the ship funnily enough, and few other minor things.

But hiding among the, for now, useless data, was a notification. A declaration even.

It informed the Arch Magos of an order Difindor had issued for the sicarian infiltrators to sneak into the xeno's settlement and eliminate the bearers of weapons the xenos called Elements of Harmony.

"[What are we gonna do about Difindor's last order?]" Aksed Biomeca, ever the meddler. The Arch Magos had strong suspicion this habit was going to get her killed one day.

"[Nothing.]" Answered the Arch Magos. The conversation between them was conducted through a shared channel that all high-ranking people aboard the Voidspear had access to. As such it allowed them to cenverse even when they are in completely diferent rooms."[It is a good plan. One with great risk, but far greater reward. A chance to eliminate the only major alien threat on this planet is not one to be passed. We shall leave the order as it is.]"

"[Permission to offer tactical advice?]" Asked Scifionsa abruptly.

"[Permission granted.]" Replied the Arch Magos.

"[[new_strategy] = Capture xenos bearing [Elements_of_Harmony] and deliver them to [Voidspear] for safe keeping. Interrogations had revealed that if [Element_bearer] == dead: new Element bearer is chosen. Therefore, [new_strategy] >[current_strategy].]"

"[I thought you said we shouldn't trust the Ponies about their Elements. You said the talks of their weapons were mere comfort lies if I remember correctly.]" Reminded Biomeca.

"[Correction: [specific_wording] = "[claims_of_weapons] = likely propaganda or comfort lies."]"

"[Just answer, Scifionsa. Leave your corrections to after we deal with this.]" Scolded the Arch Magos.

"[[previous_results_of_interrogations] = True. Therefore, probability of [interrogation_of_specimen3417] = True is High.]" Said Scifionsa, not seaming offended in the slightest.

"[Your logic routes are sound. I will follow up on your advice.]"

Rainbow Dash was currently sleeping and recovering from her wounds in her room in a local hotel that she and her friends rented out. The hotel was small and basic, as it was only meant for miners and families of miners, but it was sufficient.

Stalking her through the window was the sicarian infiltrator princeps. His enhanced optics allowing him to sea through both the window and the darkness from a surprising distance.

The princeps has already chosen his prey. The five man squad would attempt to capture three of the xenos designated as element bearers. Although the predicted successful captures was only 1.342.

All other infiltrators were in position now, all they waited for was the command to proceed. And they did receive it.

With coordination they leapt from cover and began bombarding the area with overwhelming stimuli via their vox-casters.

The priceps jumped onto a tree that grew close to the window he observed the xeno from. He then jumped again, this time straight through the window and shards of glass landed alongside him on the floor of the hotel.

The xenos he was sent to capture was lying on the ground, moaning in pain and holding her singular front limb around her ear. She received a few more scratches from shards, most stopped by the thick bandages wrapped around her abdomen and what remained of her right front leg. She otherwise seamed stable. Stable enough to not die while being transported to the valkyrie that is.

He could hear shouting from outside the door. He was not aware how the xenos managed to operate through the stimuli bombardment, but he was not gonna wait here long enough to find out.

The princeps mag-locked his weapons to his waist and gripped a nearby wardrobe. It took him only a small amount of effort to tumble the wardrobe in front of the door, forming a makeshift barricade. While the princeps would have loved to stay here and fight the incoming xenos, he also knew that if they wanted to accomplish the mission, they would have to avoid direct confrontation as much as possible.

The princeps took his stubcarbine into one of his arms and tried to take the almost blind xenos in his other hand, but she screamed and kicked at his cold metallic touch. The shouting of the other xenos outside the door got louder and they began to bang at the door. He would have to speed up.

He forcibly gripped her throat and lifted her up, choking her in the process. She kicked with her remaining feet, flapped with her sore wings, and squinted with her tearful red eyes. The princeps ignored all three.

He jumped out of the window, the xeno flapping its wings widely to prevent the doom she thought they were falling towards. That and relatively short distance they were falling made their falling onto the soft grass soft enough to leave the xeno without anymore injuries.

The princeps rapidly rose from the crouch he landed in took off in a sprint. The xeno's exertion was rapidly draining her remaining supply of oxygen.

The sound of the returning valkyrie's engines was starting to become audible now. It is going to preform the touch-and-go maneuver on the outskirt of xeno town.

The xeno in his hand was now almost entirely limp. The princeps loosened his grip just enough to provide the xeno with a single gasp to prevent her from suffering brain damage. Immediately after receiving her lifesaving breath of air, she returned to her pointless struggling

The valkyrie emerged from the darkness of the night sky. It descended down and touched the ground, but kept the engines running.

The princeps fastened his pace. He readied his arm with the still flapping xeno, and threw her into the valkyrie where an already waiting skitarii caught her. Then he jumped into the aircraft himself.

The sicarian infiltrator turned around to provide covering fire to the rapidly diminishing number of his comrades. Three of them were already incapacitated after being ambushed with warp sorcery.

The last infiltrator jumped through a window in the second floor, a xeno in his arm, but before he could land, he was engulfed by a purple corona that kept him in the air.

The princeps raised his stubcarbine aimed at the window his felow infiltrator jumped out of, but unfortunately he and the xeno he was holding were blocking the line of fire.

The sicarian leader briefly considered his options, and then lowered his stubcarbine. The xeno was not worth waiting here any longer and risking losing the one already captured.

The ramp of the valkyrie closed and the engines fired again, making the valkyrie do a vertical ascend for a few meters. Then, it took off into the night sky, leaving the rest of the squad planet side.

Author's Note

Okay, so remember that one time I said I will write briefly? Well, that isn't fricking happening, apparently.

Now it's time to talk about the story a little bit. As you may have noticed already, I made magic a lot more powerful than in cannon (Wait, the alternate universe tag isn't just for show?! I am so shocked! Said hopefully noone ever). This is mostly done so the fight isn't entirely one sided. Also, most of the actually useful magic (aside from telekinesis) is limited to Twilight, the alicorns (don't you dare tell me Twilight is an alicorn, or else you're joining the servitor crew) and maybe Starlight. But whenever those ponies, or the Elements, aren't around, it's gonna be a slaughter.

I've also changed the Elements of Harmony a bit. A pretty big bit actually. Firstly, when one of the Element bearers dies, the Element is transferred to a new suitable host that magicly finds its way to the other Elements. The other thing I changed is that the Elements work even when one of them is missing. They won't work as well, but they'll still work. It will also 'work' with two if the Elements missing, but only barely.

I also also did some changes to the time-line. Basically, season 9 already happened, but Celestia doesn't really trust Twilight to be a good leader as much as she does in cannon. There will also be some other changes, that I will probably bring up when they appear if I remember it.

And when it comes to the servitor issue, they are staring to pile up. So, that's why we decided that the first 500! people that call, will get their very own servitor, for free! But wait, that's not all. For this week only, we're giving away two servitors, for the price of one! Come and get your servitor for this limited offer.

The Reverie's Shackles

Author's Note

Hi, have you missed me? I know you didn't, almost nobody liked this story, I doubt many of you will even read this. To be short, I am cancelling this story because I thought it would get way bigger attention. I know, I know, that's my fault for thinking I was so good, but it doesn't mean it didn't got me demotivated. I'm releasing this last bit of the next chapter that I wrote before I fully gave up.

Btw: if you're wondering on the servitor department, would have exactly 215 servitors, if anybody aside from me found that joke funny apparently. Actually, I would have had less than that, since a big portion of the views was myself when proofreading this.

Also, here is a some of my notes because I don't know why, I thought it wholesome but again, I also thought this story at least decent:

Electronica (future character)
Do not wait for death, death waits for you. (nice quote)
Krios - tank (maybe use this)
glean- learn something small from a question (use this word)
Archmagos Dominique Dominus Augustus Actius Maxmilian the second. (Name of Archmagos)
Cogs and Feathers (name for a possible chapter, thanks GPT)
Iris Rapidus (name for Rainbow Dash given to her by the Mechanicus because they find it silly)
and you, my colorful friend, are aboard the Ark Mechanicus, a vessel dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and the acquisition of technology from across the galaxy. (I like this sentence, use it)

The Reverie's Shackles

Rainbow Dash awoke hard metal floor. She laid on the floor for a few more seconds, as if not wanting to get out if bed, not that the floor had many similarities to a bed. She was surprised at how well she felt considering all that she went through...

With a sudden realisation, Rainbow bolted upright. She was in a dimly lit room with metal walls. There was a table with a chair there, but the dim light lighting of the room didn't illuminate the other side of the table. The only thing she could see from that side of the room was a faint silhouette.

Then another light turned on, and the room was filled in bright, white, almost sterile light. It blinded Rainbow for moment. When her eyes adjusted, she saw that the entirety of the room was made from metal. From the ceiling to the creature sitting on the other side of the table. Well it wasn't all metal.

His undeniably muscular face was mostly flesh, with only his left eye being metal, and a wierd antenna like device built in to the left side of his head, replacing the ear. But even the flesh parts of his face were strange and alien.

His skin was pale, as if he hadn't seen the sun in months if not years. He had a small and an unnaturally pronounced chin, along with his small nose it gave his face very striking image, with lots of small details. He was also hairless. His head was bald and his face clean of all hair. Almost like a hairless cat.

He wore a long, red, draping cloak, with decorative, white jagged trim that reminded her of cogs.

Rainbow Dash looked deep into his comparatively small eye, and he looked back, unblinking. His blue eye stared into her soul, and although it lasted only a couple of seconds, it felt like eternity.

"You may take a seat." Said the strange person suddenly, breaking himself out of the stillness. But he failed to get Rainbow Dash out of her stupifycation. Only when he repeated himself did she shake her head and walked/jumped with her singular front limb to the chair.

"I thought we got rid of you already." Said Rainbows Dash as sat down in the oversized chair. She was once again surprised at how well she was moving so fast after receiving her injuries. She also noticed that her bandages seamed to have been reapplied. Maybe these villains had something to do with fast recovery.

The stranger stayed silent for a while before answering. "We are here to interrogate you." His voice was dry and slightly raspy.

"And who is we?"

"We are the Adeptus Mechanicus."

"The Adeptus mecha-what?"

"The Adeptus Mechanicus. We are the seakers of knowledge, and you, my little xeno, will provide it." Answered the apparent interrogator with confidence.

"And makes you so sure you're-"

"Enough!" He interjected. "It is I who will be asking the questions, not you." His face contorted into a frowl, as if the very idea of Rainbow asking him questions was offensive to him somehow. He didn't make for a very good interrogator in her opinion.

"Whatever you say." Replied Rainbow. The interrogator ignored her.

"Who are you?" He asked dryly.

"How could you not know who I am? Everybody knows me. I even have a fan club!" The interrogator simply stared at her.

"Seriously?" Aksed Rainbow Dash, but still the only response she got was silence. "Fine." She said finally.

"Thank you for your cooperation." Muttered the interrogator, but the words felt forced.

The Monsters of Metal and Fire

It was a quite day in the mining town, Cobblehoof. Until it wasn't. But it didn't start loud and angry. At first, nothing but a small red dott appeared in the sky, without an equally small red tail to match. One would be forgiven for thinking it a mere comet or s meteor. Some inhabitants of Cobblehoof even noticed it and simply thought that they simply missed the warning about comets and meteors in the local newspaper.

But as it grew bigger, someponies thought it weird. Most of them had never seen neither a meteor nor a comet, but even they thought it unusual when two more dots appeared behind the first in a formation keeping close to each other.

"You see those comets?" Asked Pick Axe, local member of the mining guild and one of the leaders of the Miners Union.

"Sure I do." Answered his best friend Rocky Stone. "But never like these. Did somepony order birthday comet and didn't invite me to the party?"

"Nah, I know when everyponies birthday is. And the next one isn't till the next moon."

"Realy? Nopony else has a birthday this moon? That's pretty odd if you'd ask me."

"Not if you'd know the date. There's only two weeks left till the end of the moon."

"Sorry, you know how it's with me and checking the date. Oh look at that, they are going right over us. Looks like they'll crash into Iron Valley. I say we check it out."

"You mean like right now? I know you like to do things on impulse, but don't you have stuff to do?"

"Nah, the only things I have to do on weekends is hang out with you. So you up for it?" Asked Rocky. He, however, entirely forgot that he had yet to buy the groceries as he promised his wife. I'll do it once I get back, he thought once he remembered it, not bothering to inform his friend about it. Iron Valley isn't far, we'll be back before my wife even notices we're gone.

"Yeah, it's not like I have something else to do either." Agreed Pick.

"Alright, let's go!" With that, they set off to investigate the supposed comets, not knowing what it really was.

Tech-priest Difindor exited the modified red painted valkyrie with practised eas. He was, as the head of security, tasked with securing the landing site of the three valkyries and making sure they stayed secured as his geologist colleague did his geological analysis.

Well, to call the valkyries only modified was a bit stretch. The main body was intarealy replaced with much larger chassis, giving it the appearance of being fatter, allowing them to carry more cargo and even some heavy equipment. Because of that, the skitarii often jokingly referred to them as "obesity pattern valkyries". Furthermore, the engines have been replaced by a larger and more powerful model, giving the same speed as a traditional valkyrie, although the same couldn't be said for its mobility and armour. The weapons have all been stripped from the craft aside for a rotatable multi-laser for precision fire. Lightly equipped all things considered.

They had landed about thirty minutes ago, but only now had Difindor decided to step out of the relative safety of the valkyrie. He wasn't afraid, he was just very cautious. He understood the value of his life was too great to senselessly risk like that. Many of his peers would suggest to simply lead the mission from the armored fortress that was Voidspear, but he preferred to lead his low risk and unknown risk missions from the ground, it tended to produce better results. Not that he would ever go on a mission with a significant risk of casualties if there was another way.

So as he walked out of his transport, four kastelan robots surrounded him from all sides, protecting him from potential snipers and, more importantly, making the skitarii believe that they protected someone truly important. Which they were, but it couldn't hurt to remind them a little. It tended to raise morale.

The landing site was a hustle of activity as skitarii, servitors and even few low ranking tech-priests walked around preforming menial tasks like unloading the valkyries, making geological analysis and making sure the site was secured.

In the centre of it all was Kamenus, the most experienced geologist of their expedition. He, along with his fellow tech-priest assistant and several servitors equipped with a variety of scanning and drilling tools, took care of the geological survey and made sure that the organised chaos that was the landing site stayed organised.

"[Kamenus, how is your geological survey going?]" Asked Difindor as he approached his colleague, kastelan robots still surrounding him.

"[Exceptionally well security chief. I must say, the geology of this planet is truly fascinating. The orbital scans alone could be the basis for years of study, but now that we are on the surface, it's even more fascinating. In this sample alone, I found trace amounts of gold, platinum, radium, uranium and even iridium. If this planet were to become a mining world, we could create entire fleets out the minerals found on this planet alone. And that's not even mentioning that I already detected at least two rare gem deposits. Truly, this is the most fascinating and fantastical planet I have ever seen.]"

"[You found all this in the span of thirty minutes?]" Asked Difindor with doubt.

"[That is the fascinating part.]"

"[Anything else I should notified of before I leave you to your work?]"

"[Other than what I already said, not much.]" One of Kamenuses scanners installed on his back suddenly rotated and shifted, as if diverging its attention from the ground to some distant point over the horizon. "[But there is one more thing that I think you would find important.]"

"[And what is it?]" Asked Difindor, already sensing the potential danger that was sure to soon affect them.

"[There are two life signatures which I believe to be the of indigenous xeno pupulace who are walking straight towards us. I am sending their coordinates now.]"

"[I will take care of it. Now, return to your work.]" Ordered Difindor, already sending a squad of sicarian infiltrators to deal with them.

"[Arch Magos, do I have the permission to terminate indigenous xenos that discover the landing site?]" Asked Difindor the Arch Magos over the noosphere.

"[Permission granted.]" Answered the Arch Magos after a small pause.

"[Cease action!]" Interjected Scifionsa. "[Attempt to capture [indigenous xeno name of planet EQ-49100-5 here]. Resume action.]"

"[What is the value of importance of this side objective, Scifionsa?]" Difindor asked, already concerned if it could effect the safety of his mission.

"[[Value of captured xenos] = 43.72]"

"[Decrease value by 10. I will not risk the safety of this mission by being too greedy.]" Amended the Arch Magos.

"[I will take this new objective into account, Arch Magos. Now if you will excuse me, I have a mission to complete.]" With that, Difindor disconnected himself from the noosphere. But he still kept his inbox open to any messages, were the Arch Magos in need of something from him again.

Pick and Rocky walked towards Iron Valley, where they saw the "comets" land. Not caring, nor knowing that by now they would have been considered meteorites.

Meanwhile 5 sicarian infiltrators stalked in the background. Patiently waiting until they were close enough to their xeno prey to ambush them.

They were being cautious, as per Difindors orders, but to call sicarian infiltrators careful was a bit of a stretch. They were brutal, efficient and often cared only about their next kill, very much unlike their cold and methodical skitarii brethren.

The squad stalked closer. Too close even, as one of the xenos noticed the bright red of the bionics and cloak contrasting against the grey of the rocks.

"Did you see that?" Asked Pick Axe and pointed to the five red figures hiding behind a rock.

As Rocky turned to look at the couse of his friends surprise, said surprise raised their weapons, the stubcarbines. The stubcarabines are relatively small pistol like weapons that possess the firepower and ferocity of a heavy stubber packed into a form so small and efficient that it can be wielded in only one hand, provided the hand and arm are sufficiently augmented.

The dome like heads with numerous sensors and antennas glared at Rocky and Rocky glared at them back. In the split second he had to observe them, he already realised the danger he and his friends were in. Perhaps it was a simple gut feeling and intuition, perhaps it was the fact that Rocky could, even if only vaguely, recognise the objects they held as guns thanks to that one time he had been in Griffinstone and saw few in action, or perhaps it was just dumb luck.

Whatever it was, Rocky instantly knew what to do. As the first bullets exited the barrels, Rocky dived in front of his friend to shield him from the hail of lead.

The fire, while wildly inaccurate at such a short notice, still managed to shread Rocky into a colection of meat paste, bone sprinters and chuncks of body parts.

Pick Axe was, thanks to his friends noble sacrifice, spared from most of the damage. He only received few shots in the legs, one in the chest and his right ear was wholy shot off.

Not a moment later, before Pick Axe could even cry out for his friend, a horrible sensation overcome him. His eyes suddenly watered and burned, his now single ear ringed with unimaginably loud noise and his mouth was filled with the taste burned metal. While he was reasonably sure that the dome headed cyborgs had something to do with it, not that he could currently think about anything other than his mind shattering pain and the loss of his best friend, he couldn't possibly even try to understand the intricacies of the various transmittors and the waves they were emitting at him and the corpse of his friend.

The sicarian infiltrators prepared to charge the surviving xeno and finish him of with their power swords, but something stopped them.

"[I ordered you to try and capture the xenos. Why did you opened fire?]" Difindor asked. He sometimes disliked working with sicarian infiltrators, as they often cared only for slaughter. Not that they would directly disobey an order to state their sadistic urge. "[Explain yourself!]"

"[You Ordered us to be cautious and wary of the xenos unknown capabilities. Opening fire was was the surest way to deal with the xenos and eliminated the possibility of of them attacking back.]" Answered the Princeps, the leader of the squad.

Difindor decided not to ask why than they activated pre-charge cognition routes. To save himself the trouble and the half truth explanation he would certainly get. He also decided not to point out that, for all they knew, opening fire on the xenos could have been a death sentence, considering that they knew basically nothing about them.

But that was about to change, since they now had two fresh bodies, perfectly fit for dissection. Only for a quiet sob to come fron the pile of blood, bone and squirming and moaning bodies. Wait, squirming and moaning? Thought Difindor to himself. One of them is still alive!

"[Scan for life signatures!]" Ordered Difindor. Immediately, all of the sicarian infiltrators raised their weapons and pointed them at the pile. The scan had returned positive.

"[Princeps, cease violent actions and examin the alive xeno.]" Just as ordered, the princeps lowered his weapon and walked towards corpse covered xeno, his bionic feet now stained in blood. Not that he minded of course.

The various sensors on the dome head of the princeps focused on the surviving xeno and analysed it. Specifically looking at the health and battle capability, although other data was collected also.

"[Bleeding both external and minor internal, mising left ear and multiple broken bones and ribs detected.]" Muttered the princeps, almost as if disgusted that he would do something so low as to check the vital signs of a xeno.

"[Administer first aid attempt to stabilise the rate of bleeding. Biomeca is gonna get her test subject after all.]" Said Difindor happily, he wasn't happy because Biomeca would be glad to receive a new xenos to dissect, although she more often then not wanted to keep them alive for as long as possible, nor was he happy that he would soon get more information regarding the xenos. He was simply content that he completed his mission without any casualties.

Author's Note

Here we go another chapter! And it only took a couple of months. Although I suspect that once I actually release this story my rate of writing will increase somewhat, well for you I already released this story so just wait and see me fail, I mean succeed.

Also, you may have thought that I was joking about the servitor thing, but be sure that I was not. I already have two brand new servitors and if you continue to not correct me, not nearly as much as you are right now anyways, that number will only grow. Not that I am complaining about all those new servitors I am getting.