Faith, Fire, Steel, and ...Friendship

If the xenos are found to be beneficial to the Imperium, they will be harnessed.

-Blood Bringers doctrine c. 436M35

Prologue

The citizens of Appleloosa looked up in horror as the enormous chunk of metal and stone fell towards the town, but oblivion never came. When they looked up, they saw that the lump had slowed down and altered its path to slam into the nearby desert. They gave a collective sigh of relief, but it was short lived. Then a distant war cry sounded, quiet at first, but getting louder "WWWAAAAAAUUUGGGHHH"

Five days earlier:

007M42

18:45 Throne time

Battle-Barge wrath of Jericho

Lord Commander Johan was in a jovial mood, he had tracked down three different major foes of the chapter - The chaos horde led by Ku'Gath the Plaguefather, who had killed the previous chapter master, Lord Commander Jericho; The splinter of WAAGH Ghazghkull known as the Angel Hunters; and The Necron tomb world Slaneth devastators of the first company. They were still recovering after two-hundred years of steady recruitment and promotion of various neophytes and battle brothers respectively. As he looked over the large strategium built into the center of the bridge, displaying the solar system, Johan saw the formations move across the large digital screen. He turned to the astropath and said in his deep baritone voice. "Tell niner-echo-delta to adjust course by fifteen degrees to the galactic south."

As he watched the screen, one of the many color-coded deltas on the screen began to adjust slowly, so slowly that it was barely perceptible to an unaugmented eye. Fortunately for the Lord Commander, he was a space marine, with all the perks of such changes. He then looked out at the entirety of his chapters’ fighting force, amassed over the past month to bring the might of the emperor to the warring factions, there were other groups too. From their obscure, dark fortresses came a small contingent of Deathwatch, with two five-man kill teams, and a purgation squad - From a mobile Mechanicus task force came twenty divisions of tech guard and three tactical squads of the Iron Hands chapter - Fresh from a recent engagement, a full million-man legion of Death Corps of Kreig arrived. Finally, an enormous legion of the Cadian Imperial Guard had appeared with Lord Castellan Creed at their head.

Looking away from the numerous symbols and signs that played across the strategium in a slightly intoxicating pattern, he turned his attention to the scans of the system. These initial scans showed that it was a single-star system with a small planet, similar in size to holy Terra, with a large moon. Suddenly there was a single blip on the strategium, coming from a mountain range on the planet, quickly growing, and then sending out a finger of energy to the star as a similar blip did this to the moon. They wrapped around the celestial bodies, rapidly accelerating about fifteen degrees ahead, and then they decelerated to their regular pace and then to their regular speed. "Tech Priest, what in the name of the frakking emperor was that?"

"Attempting to determine cause at current juncture. . .cause found. There was a massive psychic emanation on the surface of the planet, seizing hold of the celestial bodies that are present in the solar system and moved them fifteen degrees ahead in their orbit patterns. Oddly enough, this is a geocentric solar system, highly illogical, considering that the star has 56327 times the mass of the planet." The tech priest said in his grating, metallic tone.

"I don't give a frak about the science. Is it dangerous?" The Chapter master shouted, irritated that he was not getting a good enough answer.

"Unknown, could have potential to bring ships out of orbit and slam them into the surface" responded the Tech Priest.

"Then we must investigate when we are done with this war, for with our naval strength will surely be the victor of this space conflict."

At that moment an agitated High Chaplain Garran Sylvus stepped in: "Lord, why are we not bringing the wrath of the emperor to these foul beings." He shouted in his deep, confidant voice, with rage in every word.

"Garran, you must wait, we will let them des-"The chapter master stated in a condescending tone.

"My lord, multiple bogies are en route, ETA ten minutes, they are showing signs of hostility. Shall we engage with all prejudice necessary?" The Tech Priest interrupted in his grating monotone.

"Define nature of the bogies." The now- concerned chapter master inquired.

"Range from fighter to frigate classes of starship in tonnage." The tech priest replied

"Aye, engage with all necessary force. May thine emperor protect." The chapter master ordered in a much less condescending tone as he switched into his battle mentality.

"Roger...First salvos away, impact in one minute...Impact confirmed, targets annihilated."

The tech priest said in his usual indifference as thousands of beings both artificial and biological were snuffed out in an instant by the high-yield nuclear warheads that had been fired on his command.

"How long until void shields are up?"

"Over the fleet will be a period of about ten minutes, on this ship, thirty seconds...shields up, weapons systems active."

"Take all energy from warp drives and geller fields and divert to the godsmasher."

"Roger, energy switch complete, godsmasher active."

"Sync with all available ships and initiate combat with the primary enemy fleets, give me ranges."

"We are within the twenty million kilometer range of the godsmasher weapon of the necron fleet."

The Lord Commander pointed to a point on the strategium, marked with a runic symbol, marking it with a red circle and commanded,"Fire the godsmasher at the necron battle cruiser, may thine emperors fire burn them."

"01110010 01101111 01100111 01100101 01110010" The Tech Priest said in the chittering language of binary as he then said into the vox for the godsmasher fire control room "01100110 01101001 01110010 01100101 00001101 00001010"

The godsmasher was a massive conversion beamer weapon mounted in the beak of the snarling eagle figurehead of the thirty-kilometer long wrath of Jericho. As the order went through and the keys turned, the weapon began to light up, racks of advanced circuitry activated and calibrated, and it fired.

The thirty-meter wide beam was a bright beam in the vacuum of space in the system dubbed 'callus' by the cogitator when they entered it. It lanced from the imperial fleet and instantly destroyed the necron ship it hit, slicing it in half. The debris was pulled into the gravity field of the lone planet, estimated time to impact, three days.

Ponyville, Equestria - 6:50 P.M - Ten days since the defeat of king Sombra.

It was a young night as Twilight Sparkle walked out onto a large field. Her assistant, Spike, was lugging a telescope out to what could be described as the best stargazing spot in Ponyville.

"Come on Spike, it is a full moon tonight and I don't want to miss it for the world."

"Could you have gotten a heavier telescope?" Spike gasped as he lugged the thirty kilo telescope out into the center of the field.

"Why yes, but it was out of my price range,” said Twilight

"Are you kid-LOOK AT THAT" Spike shouted as he looked up into the sky and saw a bright beam lance across the night sky.

"That is out of the ordinary!" Twilight exclaimed as she used her magic to grab the telescope and look at the beam.

Through the magically enhanced lens of the telescope she saw the strange thing that had caused the beam

"Huh, that's very peculiar" Twilight said in a mildly concerned tone.

"What?" Spike asked in a tone very similar to Twilight's as he looked up at the now-fading beam of light.

"It looked like a golden eagle was breathing the beam into an obsidian blade with glowing green areas."

"Are you joking?" Spike stated in a deadpan tone as he looked at the now-clear sky.

"Not at all, It was very strange, I could put the image into your mind."

"OK, I guess that would be an interesting sight, but are you sure you aren't hallucinating again."

"Perfectly." Twilight said as her horn started to glow.

"Whoa, that was pretty awesome, shouldn't we tell Celestia about this."

"Yes, you are right, Spike take a letter"...