In an instant, hardened ceramite and plasteel was turned into molten slag which continued to fall towards the planet at terminal velocity while the second Windigo fired a brief burst of lasbolts at the spirits before beginning evasive manoeuvres. As the beam dissipated, a dozen more stars began to fall from the sky as someone raised the threat designation of the forces assailing the temple mount.
Meanwhile at the back of said temple, in a room which had been ignored by all the combatants so far, a cogitator sprung to life and printed out a small list of names belonging to those who had been on the Windigo that the Devastatotron had blasted. They would not be the only ones lost this day as in the main area where priest and Dog were locked in bloody combat, Sonorous Pontification roared in righteous fury as he swung the power maul around, splattering the heads of three Diamond Dogs. “Judgment be upon ye, heathens. The Sisters shall see you labour eternally.” He continued to protheylize even as his fellows were set upon with tooth, claw and shell. The senior priests fared slightly better with their own power weapons and armoured cassocks while most of their juniors were quickly torn to shreds by the savagery of their opponent. Zealous Ire barely had time to scream as the hydra bit her in two, her flamer falling to the floor to be quickly grabbed by another of the priests who lit up the inside of the temple.
Underneath, Spitfire willed the heavy limbs of her Trojan towards the opening ramp as dirt and grass fell in. The plasma cannon on her left thrummed softly with great power, contrasting the autocannons attached to her right which racked back a round. The system told her of the Typhoon Missile Launchers adorning her hind and of the additional ammunition she had on her back. The sensors gave her a 360° view of her surroundings which allowed her to see both priests knelt down in prayer by the console as she climbed the ramp.
Rising up out of the pit that had formed behind the only other building on the mountaintop, any witnesses would have remarked on the resemblance to a giant metal zombie but all were focused on the bloody melee in the temple proper. Were she a member of the Dusk Guard, Spitfire might have started shooting from where she was, ambushing the Equestrians but she was of Lightning Strike’s lineage. “Heathens and Xenos, you face againstSpitfire The Last! Know that these are your last moments.” Her declaration boomed from her suit’s speakers as she rushed forth, bodychecking the hydra with 18 tonnes of ceramite and adamantium before she fired off a miniature sun from her plasma cannon, burning a great hole through the creature’s barrel.
The armoured nurse, Soothing Brook, nodded at Firecracker’s answer. “Wonderful, an exceptional will can protect you against a myriad of Chaos’s diseases and curses but one cannot be so boastful and assume that that is all you need.” She draped a wing over his back and pulled him toward another room, the commissar shoving him as he tried drag his heels. “Come with me, varlet. We’ll examine you and ensure that whatever malignancy that hit the rest of your regiment didn’t affect you. You too, Commissar. Your physical is coming up soon anyway so let’s kill two heretics with one shot.” Steel Heart removed his cap as he followed after. “As you say, Sister. Far be it for to gainsay a Hospitaller on health matters.”
The three moved into a smaller room with a bed against one wall and a pile of date slates on the counter along with medical equipment. The pegasus forced Firecracker up onto the bed before looking through the slates. “Hmm, I don’t have you here. Let me just get a fresh slate and we’ll start by filling it in. Don’t go anywhere or the commissar is liable to shoot you.” Soothing warned as she left the two of them alone, Steel Heart moving to stand in the doorway.
The bullets pinged off the Trojan’s chassis as Spitfire’s metallic visage managed to convey a look of disdain. “Worse monsters than you have tried and yet I still stand.” She swept the autocannons across the field before her, the HEAP rounds eviscerating the pegasi as the shells tore through armour and flesh. Then with speed that belied her incredible weight, she came to face the enemy sergeant and hooked her 2-tonne hoof into him, launching him into the air and shattering everything in his body. Another sweep of the autocannons battered against the spider mech’s shields though Spitfire saw the damage quickly heal itself as the final scream of some damned soul being torn apart pushed against Spitfire’s own. Zealous indignation flared within the Trojan as she circled around the Devastotron, a roll of her shoulders ejecting a shell from the twin-linked autocannons and venting the plasma cannon to safer temperatures. “Tell me, Heretic. What daemon did you make a pact with to power your metal monstrosity? It’s far too clean to be one of the Poxbringer’s and not fleshy enough for the Whore. Your words are too learned for the Slaughter so that just leaves the Trickster. How many innocents have you murder in the pursuit of power, how many more will it take before you think you’re satisfied?”
Inside the temple, the priests and the dogs had reduced themselves to just one combatant each with the rest of their dead and wounded covering the floor. Sonorous Pontification panted as he eyed the last of the xenos, the size of it indicating it was probably one of the betas. The dog growled at him, a dozen nicks and scrapes covering him as the near misses piled up, for he had no rosarius-granted invulnerability like those of the cloth who would march out with the armies of the Diarchy. The old stallion managed to give as good as he got though, half the dead dogs had been killed by his power maul with flattened heads and crushed torsos as evidence though something had damaged his maul, the graviton field now took longer to cycle through and maxed out at half strength. Still five-hundred times the force would atomise anything that wasn’t power armour or better. The dog stepped closer, the shotgun in its hands just a club after a deflected strike had crushed the action and made it impossible to fire. “Ye’ll nae walk out of here alive, Xeno, Sisters as my witness.” Sonorous hefted the maul into batting position, daring the hound to try and rush him.
“We’ve faced off against worse threats, heathen but I’ll be sure to put a bolt through your skull before I go down.” Steel Heart made a show of fixing his jacket as the light caught the handle of his pistol. “The Sisters have guided us for over five thousand years and by Their Will, They’ll lead us for five thousand more. I pity you for losing your version of the God Empress and the Eternal Crusader but I despise what you’ve chosen to replace them. Failed racial teachings and soul-twisting occultism, you were always doomed to fall. At least with us fellow Equines, the population will live on while some other foul Xeno species would exterminate all of you.”
Firecracker wouldn’t get a chance to retort as Soothing Brook returned at that moment with the data slate along with a few other tools. “Well, glad to see you haven’t gotten yourself killed in the time I was away.” She directed Steel Heart to stand over by the bed while she filled out Firecracker’s information. “Now then, let’s begin the examination.” She donned an eyepiece and started to poke and prod the red unicorn, typing in additional details as she found them into the slate.
"'HERETIC'? WE MAKE PACTS WITH NOPONY!", Flam's amplified voice replied as the Devastotron sent half a dozen enslaved souls to test the Trojan's defenses. Three of them were cut down by the autocannons before they could reach the cybernetic war machine, the surviving three swirling around Spitfire and probing her defenses for any sing of weakness. "THE NAMES OF THE WEAK SPIRITS YOU SO FEAR ARE MEANINGLESS TO US. WE ARE FOLLOWERS OF THE OLD MASTERS, THOSE OF GREAT POWER WHO CAME BEFORE US AND PAVED THE WAY FOR OUR SUPREMACY. YOU WILL FIND THAT YOUR SUPERSTITIOUS PRAYERS ARE USELESS AGAINST US!"
The spider-walker fired a barrage of incendiary missiles from a rack positioned where its massive aft section met its forward section. The missiles arced upwards before making a syncronized turn towards Spitfire. The Trojan responded by launching a bright miniature sun from its plasma cannon. Only Flim's quick reflexes saved Devastotron from a direct hit as the walker jumped aside just before impact, the plasma projectile striking the ground instead in a bright blue explosion hot enough to turn the soil into glass.
"IMPRESSIVE, BUT THAT WON'T SAVE YOU!" Flam's voice taunted as the Devastotron stabilized itself with its massive hind legs and locked its main cannon on Spitfire. "YOU'VE BEEN AN AMUSING DISTRACTION, BUT WE HAVE A MISSION TO ACCOMPLISH, YOU KNOW. IT'S TIME TO PUT YOU TO SLEEP, COURTESY OF THE FLIM FLAM BROTHERS!"
The main cannon discharged.
*
Inside the temple, the Diamond Dog eyed Sonorous Pontification with aggressive caution, circling him like one of the legendary Wolves of prehistoric of Equestria, before the Equus Sapiens had split into the Three Kinds and subjugated their ancient predators.
"Ssssstupid sstupid Pony!" it snarled. "Its friends are dead, soon it be dead too! Why fight, Pony? The Sisters will not save it! No one will save it! I'll rip its throat soon enough. Heh. Make it watch as I tear out its heart! How does it like that, huh? Huh?!"
Despite its obvious thirst for Equine blood, the Diamond Dog was neither suicidal nor suicidally overconfident. It had seen what Sonorous' power maul had done to its packmates and knew that it was a deadly threat, able to instantly kill practically anything it hit. The Dog would have to either get rid of the maul or find a way to make Sonorous waste a swing, giving the Dog an opening to lunge at the priest... Or it could try to take him out from afar.
The Dog made a few false charges on all fours, stopping just shy of the maul's reach. On the third attempt, it stood up on its hind legs and tossed the useless shotgun away, instead retrieving a pair of throwing knives from the utility belt it wore across its chest. Letting out a sound that was somehwere between a growl and a chuckle, it threw the knives, aiming for Sonorous' throat.
Forcing himself to tear his gaze away from the Steel Heart's pistol, Firecracker complied reluctantly and allowed himself to be examined. There was little else he could do for now other than to play along, hoping for miracle that would allow him to escape.
The examination revealed nothing unusual whatsoever. Firecracker was a Unicorn stallion in his mid-twenties, in excellent physical shape (especially for somepony who'd spent the last six months aboard ESS Twilight Star with only very limited artificial gravity) and with slightly above average magical potential. He had suffered a number of minor injuries over the past couple of days, having been beaten, electrocuted and hit on the head. He had minor frostbite on the tips of his ears, likely acquired during the failed march towards the Crystal Empire. But none of his injuries were serious, and he'd probably be completely healed by a couple of days of good rest.
Most importantly, absolutely nothing explained why he had been unaffected by the mystery wave, unlike the majority of the Penal Legionnaires.
Spitfire watched as the enemy fled, escaping down the mountain with some of the reinforcing Windigos harassing them. The gunships would dart in and out of range of the Devastotron to spray laserfire at the infantry running alongside the spider mech. Elysians landed all around her, treating her with all the reverence due to a Trojan even as she ignored them in lieu of looking to the skies. The stars matched none that she could recall and the databanks of her armour had no answers to give either. “This is not Cloudsdale Secundus. Where am I?” She rumbled as the few surviving priests were carried out of the burnt church to the medicae and the wounded dogs were executed before being dumped to the side.
“In an entirely different universe, Wonderbolt. Much has happened while you slumbered.” Spitfire turned to look at the speaker, a high ranking officer of the Elysians given the Hetairoi escort. “It pains me that we had to wake you to defend our temple, Elysians should have been able to protect it ourselves.” Alula Kicker landed before the interned Diarchal Marine, the Trojan amour being as much a cage as they are life support systems. “I serve the Sisters, I safeguard Their citizens. Where matters not, how matters not. So long as Equines are in need, the Wonderbolts shall aid them.” “We shall gladly welcome the aid of someone as storied as you, Spitfire the Last.” Alula looked past the Trojan at the semi-wrecked temple of her ancestor. “Recent events have emboldened our foe if they dare to strike the priesthood like this.”
The damage to the temple was great but nothing that could not be fixed eventually though New Elysium was greatly incensed by the attack. Were it not for the fact that nearly all of the adult population were already enlisted, surely the indignation of such a thing would have sent all in the city to the training fields. Instead a great many of the previously patrolling Windigos were recalled to secure the area around the city in order to deter further attacks on New Elysium and the mountain graveyard that surrounded Honoured Shadow’s temple.
Soothing Brook cuffed the back of Firecracker’s head. “Open your ears, Heathen. There’s no magic here. Only the power of faith.” She pointed to the soldiers as they recited their prayers, blaming themselves for allowing the injuries to happen before beseeching Luna or rather the Healing Light for aid so that they may continue to fight in Her name. “That water will do nothing for the faithless like yourself. The Sisters are merciful but only to those who are open to Their Glory. Don’t even think of attempting to deceive the Sisters by parroting the words, They know Their own.” The mare spoke with all the zealotry in her voice as expected of one of their nun-nurses which contrasted so greatly with the kind bedside manner that she’d shown Firecracker up til now.
That was all Lady Alabastrine Rune had to say to Flim and Flam after they had returned from their disastrous mission to destroy the Elysian temple. The brothers and their badly damaged war machine had made it back to the safety of the Diamond Dogs' underground tunnels, along with the remnants of their strike force. Almost all of the Pegasus warriors and the Diamond Dog mercenaries had been lost, and during their hasty retreat, enemy air strikes had dwindled the Unicorn mages to a half of their original number.
"B-but Arch-Hierophant!" Flam protested. "We did manage to burn down the temple. That was the main objective, wasn't it?"
"You managed to light its roof on fire and kill a few priests. But the pictures taken by our scouts clearly show that the temple still stands. And you completely failed your secondary objective of taking samples of the mystical pool supposedly housed in the temple. Your mission is a failure."
"We... are sorry, Arch-Hierophant," Flim said sheepishly. "But in our defense, we didn't expect a giant, heavily armed Pony-shaped mech to emerge from underground. The Devastotron was not exactly designed to fight such an enemy, and nopony even knew they had access to such weapons. We should consider this a victory for our intel department!"
"And that is the only thing saving you from execution," Alabastrine said coldly. "But the fact that our interdimensional friends have not used more of such mechs suggests that this is probably the only one they have, most likely deployed to guard an important location but too valuable to risk on the battlefield."
"But wouldn't you say that the Devastotron performed admirably, Arch-Hierophant? It alone inflicted nearly half of enemy casualties during our mission. Do you think it's ready for mass production?" Flam asked, his voice assuming its trademark Excited Salespony tone.
"Mass production? I'm afraid our resources are stretched too thin for that. But it may still have its uses. I will approve of the construction of a few one-off copies for use in future missions with similar requirements... Meanwhile, I expect to have a full report and a copy of all of your battlefield telementry in my office by the morning. Dismissed."
*
Despite the sudden, continent wide boost to magic and the Brotherhood of the Black Horn's bold offensive against the temple hill, overall the war was not going well for the Equestrianic Imperium. On almost all fronts, they were either on the defensive or slowly retreating as both the original Novumequine forces and their locally recruited soldiers kept pushing forward. Following Lady Pearlescent's revelations about the High Nobility, dozens of villages and towns had joined the Novumequine side and were now providing them with troops and resources. The Equestrian government vehemently denied the claims as nothing but vile slander and propaganda, but the seeds of doubt kept bearing fruit. Overall the Equestrian war machine still held, but it was starting to show signs of exhaustion and partial collapse.
On the East Coast, Equestrian forces had fallen back to Baltimare, which was about to come under attack from the West and Southwest. The city had been heavily fortified, and an enemy attack was expected in a matter of days...
Firecracker opened his mouth to protest.
"I..." he began before falling silent again. He knew it was useless to argue about matters like this with religious fanatics. He still firmly believed that the healing was accomplished with magic... Perhaps with some odd, interdimensional type of magic ill understood by Equestrians, but still, ultimately, it had to be nothing but ordinary, mundane magic. Without his damnable magic suppressing collar, he would surely have sensed the arcane energy surrounding the statue.
For now, he resigned himself to observing the healing process.
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