The Greater Good

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The Greater Good
Chapter 2 – Friendly Xenos?
By Deathstrike666
Thx to Tresviri for proof reading
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Angus was lying on the floor of the command deck, it had been a few minutes since The Righteous Vengeance had its assisted crash landing and everyone was out cold by the force of it. When he woke up the only thing he could see was blinding whiteness and a few blurry lines, he also had a splitting headache and ringing ears.

“Emperor is that you?”, said Angrus, “Have I finally made it to your grace”.

A few second passed and Angrus realized that he wasn't in the emperor’s grace when his eyes finally adjusted to the surprisingly bright sunlight of this world. He slowly picked himself up and noticed that everyone else was either out cold or just waking up.

“Well, I don’t want to go on this ride again”, Angrus said to himself, “But thank the emperor we are alive”.

When everyone finally woke, Angrus debriefed them on what they were going to do next.

“So our primary objective is to set up a base and salvage whatever we can off this junk heap. After that we will try to regain contact with command. Our secondary is to get some Intel about where we are and whether or not the natives are friendly, even if they are filthy xenos. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Sir”, replied everyone.

“Good. If it turns out that they friendly I don’t want any of you killing them because they will probably severely out number us and based on the previous events, it looks like some of them have strong psychic powers”, said Angrus, “Let’s go and find whatever will be useful and get off this wreck”.

“Yes, Sir”, everyone said while saluting and walking off to the storage areas to find any equipment that was still of use to them.

“You two”, said Angrus randomly pointing to two guardsmen, “What are your names?”

“Sergeant Jenkins, Sir”, replied the slightly taller of the two guardsmen.

“Corporal Heston, Sir”, replied the other guardsman.

“Well Jenkins and Heston, I have a different assignment for you two. I need you two to go and find a way of getting off this ship, I doubt we can get off the normal way”, said Angrus

“Yes, Sir we will quickly get on to that”, said Jenkins before they both run off down a dark hallway.

Angrus walked up to the front of the deck and gazed out of a massive hole where the window used to be. ‘Something about this place is wrong’, Angrus thought, ‘It looks... cartoony. Well at least it doesn't smell of pollution and you can at least see further then 500 meters’.

++++++

It took Jenkins and Heston twenty minutes to find a safe pass down to the part of The Righteous Vengeance that was closest to the ground, currently the two were standing in a large misshapen room which use to be the hanger. All around them the room was littered with flipped and destroyed Valkyries, Vendettas, Avengers and Thunderbolts.

“ Couldn't at least one of them be not be damaged beyond repair”, said Heston.

“Yer they would be useful, especially the Valkyries”, said Jenkins, “Better see if we can get the hanger doors open”.
Jenkins walked over to the control board in the corner of the room and started pressing a few buttons. Suddenly the hanger doors sprang to life, slowly parting with each other with a loud screeching noise and letting in the bright light of the new world. When their eyes adjusted to the bright light they quickly pointed their lasguns out into the new world.

“Remember don’t shoot unless they attack”, said Jenkins.

Outside the hanger doors the two guardsmen were aiming their lasguns at a group of about 20 strange looking creatures that looked surprisingly like small horses back home. Each one of them looked as if they were covered in silver armor and also holding medieval looking weaponry, somehow in their hooves, which were all pointed at the two guardsmen but two of them stood out from the others. One of them was twice the height of all the others and was covered in golden armor while the other one was about one and a half times taller than the others and was wearing midnight blue armor.

“Who are you? Why have you come to Equestria?” asked the taller one.

The two guardsmen lowered their lasguns and looked at each other, then back to the creatures.

“You can talk”, said Jenkins with a confused look on his face.

“Of course we can talk”, said the tall one, “But you still haven’t answered my questions”.

“Umm..”, said Jenkins trying to think of what to say, he looked at Heston and whispered, “What should we do? We kind of haven’t trained to talk to xenos instead of shooting them”

“Don’t think any guardsmen has”, whispered Heston, “Just answer the question”

“I’m Sergeant Jenkins and this is Corporal Heston of the Imperial Guard. Who are you?”

“I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, this is my sister Princess Luna”, replied the tall one, “But you still haven’t answered my other question, why are you here?”

“Do you want to speak with our leader”, said Jenkins still trying to comprehend what the fuck was going on in front of him.

“That would be acceptable”, replied Celestia.

“Give us a few minutes”, said Jenkins to the ponies before turning to Heston, “Quickly get a message to the captain, tell him that we have found an exit and what has just happened”.

Heston nodded and quickly removed the Vox caster from his back and put it on the ground.

“Sir we have found an exit point”, said Heston, “It is in hanger bay 4”

“Good”, replied Angrus, “Are any of the aircraft operational”

“No”, said Heston, “But we have encountered a problem”.

“What is this problem?”, asked Angrus.

“Well we have made contact with the native population”, said Heston, “The problem is that they are neither human or xenos, and they speak low Gothic”

“What are they then?”, asked Angrus.

“Ponies, sir. Colorful ponies in armor and carrying primitive human looking weapons”, said Heston, “Two of them said that were the rules of this land they called Equestria and they what to see you, sir”

“Well then”, replied Angrus, “Tell them I am on my way”.

“Will do, sir”, said Heston.

Angrus quickly headed down the hallway with six other guardsmen towards hanger bay 4. ‘Ponies’, he thought to himself, ‘How can ponies slow The Righteous Vengeance down, let alone talk or have psychic powers’. The small group run through the winding corridors, following markers left by Jenkins and Heston to show the safe routes through the wreck. When they arrived everyone suddenly stopped and stared at the ponies, not believing their eyes. ‘Well he wasn't lying when he said that they were colorful and primitively armed’, thought Angrus, ‘I never have really dealt with talking to xenos, just liked blowing them out of the sky’. Angrus broke the stillness and walked up to the two ponies covered in different looking armor to the rest, the one in golden armor stood up to his shoulders while the one in midnight blue armor stood up to the middle of his waist. Angrus got off out of The Righteous Vengeance and walked up to the two taller ponies.

“Greetings xenos”, said Angrus in his most calming voice that he could do, which didn't sound calming, “I am Captain Angrus”

“What did you call us?”, asked Celestia angrily, “Why did you call us xenos?”.

“That is what we call anything that isn't one of us”, replied Angrus nervously, then thinking, ‘Think, Angrus, think. You don’t want to make new enemies, even if they are xenos that should be purged from existence’.

“And what is...us?”, asked Luna.

“We are the Imperial Guard, soldiers of the human race”, replied Angrus, “What about you xenos? I mean some of you have wings, horns, or neither and you two have both?”

“Well the ones with wings are called Pegasus, the ones with horns are call Unicorns and the ones with neither are called Earth Ponies”, said Celestia, “As for Luna and I we are called Alicorns”

“Why did you come here?”, asked Luna.

“Well by accident really”, replied Angrus, “All of us are suppose to be dead”

“Why?”, said Celestia, “What happened?”.

Angrus started telling his story about what had happened above Hyperion IV. The two Princesses stood there, shocked by the amount of violence and destruction that was happening to the alien planet. Angrus was suddenly interrupted.

“Why?, asked Celestia still with her horrified expression, “Why so much death and destruction”

“Because they are the enemies of the Emperor and they are also filthy xenos that should be purged from existence”, replied Angrus, “Also they are much worse than us”

“How much worse?” asked Luna

“Well the Tyranids are a race of bio-engineered killing machines that are all under the control of by a psychic essence called The Hive Mind, which orders them to devour entire planets and galaxies”, replied Angrus, “And the Sons of Midnight were a chapter of superhuman demi-gods that were on our side until they were corrupted by the dark powers of chaos. Now they go around bringing death to those that worship the Holy Emperor”.

Celestia and Luna just stood there staring out Angrus, both looked like they were going to faint from what they had just heard.

“Can I continue my story of how we got here”, said Angrus, both Luna and Celestia just continued to stare at Angrus with their horrified looks on their face, “I will take that as a yes then. Now where was I?. Are yes, getting sucked into the horrors of the Warp”.

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On board The Righteous Vengeance just after being sucked into the Warp.

“Gellar Fields down” said a metallic voice through The Righteous Vengeance, “Multiple daemonic forms detected”.

Outside of The Righteous Vengeance there were thousands of daemons, from small nurglings to gargantuan Lords of Change, all trying to rip their way into The Righteous Vengeance.

“Multiple Breaches”, said the metallic voice again, “Daemons detected of levels 3 to 16. The Emperor Protects”.

Suddenly the most of the control boards on the command deck suddenly exploded or went dead.

“What just happened?”, asked Angrus.

“Daemonic attacks, sir”, replied Astrine, “They appear to have destroyed the Machine Spirit. Everything is basically dead”.

“Ready your lasguns”, ordered Angrus, “It is time to give our lives to the Emperor”

All round The Righteous Vengeance thousands of guardsmen were all doing their best to repel the daemonic invaders but knew that they were all going to die to the daemonic hordes. Currently on deck four a group of two-hundred guardsmen were all in defensive positions in one of the cargo bays, waiting for their inevitable death from the horrors of chaos.

“This is it guardsmen”, said Sergeant Jenkins, “Time to live the main roll of a guardsmen, DIE STANDING!”

There was a short pause before the guardsmen could hear daemonic chanting and the breaking of metal, before too long one of the walls was ripped in half and an endless horde of Pink Horrors started pouring through the gap. Jenkins started firing his lasgun at a group of Pink Horrors that had just ripped their way through the ship’s hull. His shots ripping several holes into one of the horrors but to his surprise the horror didn’t die, instead it split in half and reformed into two smaller versions of itself. All around him every other guardsmen was firing their lasguns at the oncoming Daemons, killing many of them but not doing much to slow down the incoming tide. The Pink Horrors returned fire, using magical blasts of Warp Fire straight out of their many hands, each shot incinerating several guardsmen at once. The sounds of screaming guardsmen and daemonic chanting was suddenly drowned out when the auto-cannon and heavy bolter heavy weapons teams started to open fire. The massive wall of fire from the weapons started ripping through several ranks of Pink Horrors, ripping any Horror in the way to shreds by the massive shells.

“KEEP FIRING MEN!”, yelled Jenkins, “WE MUST KILL AS MANY OF THESE DAEMONS BEFORE WE DIE IN THE SERVICE OF THE EMPEROR”

Suddenly the floor underneath several guardsmen ripped upwards, flinging any guardsmen above it around the area, what came out of the torn floor was a massive creature made of brass being ridden by a red daemon wielding a massive serrated blade surrounded in fire and blood burst through the floor. The new Daemon started charging around the cargo bay crushing several guardsmen underneath its brass hooves and impaling several others on the numerous spikes that covered the Juggernaut. While the Bloodletter on top swung his massive Hellblade cutting several guardsmen, who managed to get out of the way of the juggernaut, in half. When the Bloodcrusher was finished with tearing apart the gunners of the heavy weapons it turned to face Jenkins, with fiery rage in its eyes, and stated to charge. Jenkins stood there and waited for his quickly approaching fate, when all of a sudden, the entire daemon horde started howling in pain and only seconds later all of them vanished in a fiery ball of multi-colored flames.

All the surviving guardsmen looked around the cargo bay confused in what had just happened.

“What... the...fuck... just... happened?”, asked Jenkins with a happy and confused face.

No guardsmen replied but instead cried out in pain and put their hands on their heads, Jenkins was also doing this when the quick and sudden amount of pain rushed into his head. Unable to cope with the pain everyone left on The Righteous Vengeance passed out simultaneously.

++++++

“And then we ended up here”, said Angrus finishing his story, “Probably if we didn't end up here the daemons certainly of finished us off”.

Luna and Celestia were both grateful that the horrific story was over but still stood there shocked at what happened to them.
‘No wonder they want to kill everything that isn't them’, though Celestia, ‘They live is a world that is kill or be killed’.

“We have had chaos spread through our lands before”, said Celestia, “But not as evil and murderous as that”

‘I didn't know that there was another kind of chaos’, thought Angrus before asking, “Can I ask you something?”

“Certainly”, replied Celestia.

“Do any of you have psychic powers?”, asked Angrus.

“What is psychic powers”, said Celestia with a confused look, “Do you mean magical powers”.

“Sure lets go with that”, said Angrus, “I just wanted to know if it was you lot who slowed down our ship with that strange aurora”

“Well all the unicorns and us two have magical powers”, said Celestia, “We really only slowed your ship down because it was about to crash into Canterlot”

“And how many of you are unicorns?”, asked Angrus.

“About one third”, replied Celestia.

“One other question”, said Angrus, “Is there anywhere where we can make a base? We are kind of stuck here now”.

“I know a spot”, said Celestia, “But I will only let you lot make a base after you accept my conditions”.

“Of course”, said Angrus with a concerned look on his face, “What are your conditions"

“Firstly, I want to have some of my guards to keep an eye of you lot. Secondly, I don’t want you killing any creatures unless my guards say it is OK to."

Angrus thought for a couple of seconds before replying, “Those conditions are acceptable"

“Very well then, Luna and I will leave you now”, said Celestia, “Ask my guards when you are ready and they will take you a spot where you can set up a base”.

Angrus walked back onto The Righteous Vengeance with only one thought in his mind, ‘How can one third of the population be Psykers and not have any corrupted by the ruinous powers of chaos’.

++++++

Currently somewhere in the deserts near Applelossa a lone Chaos Marine was sitting on some of the wreckage of The Nighthunter. His armour was the colour of midnight blue and he was wearing a large black cape.

“Lord Erzerum”, said a metallic voice from behind him.

“What is it, brother”, replied Enzerum.

“We have been trying to make a warp portal but something is causing interference”, said the marine, “It is coming from these strange creatures all over the planet”.

“Well then you know what we must do”, said Enzerum, “We must change them with Tzeentch’s gifts of mutation”.

“I will prepare the remaining brothers my lord”, said the marine before turning around a stated to walk off.

“And brother”, said Enzerum, “Next time you interrupt me when I’m listed to the words of Tzeentch, I will not hesitate to kill you”