"Genux, pull out those consoles! Henatrex, light the door up once Genux is done!" Viktur barked as the squad backed in through the doorway leading to what he prayed deeply was the bridge.

Both marines called back in confirmation as Genux rushed over to a computer console the size of a small car and tore it free from the wall it was fastened to with a couple of firm tugs. He threw the metal slab in front of the door as it slid shut, the captain just catching a glimpse of dark figures racing towards them. With time enough, Genux threw down the second console atop the first, its broken wires sparking in protest to its relocation. As soon as metal struck metal, Henatrex fired up his heavy flamer, white-hot fire belching over the clean metal of the unholy creations. The metal of the consoles, the door, ceiling above and walls around the door whined and squealed in agony as it twisted and melted together. Over two thousand degree heat gnawed at the steel and titanium, turning the afflicted area a neon orange waterfall of angry heat and tortured sounds. Viktur turned to see the room he had entered, his brothers having already spread out to take occupational positions, holding their attention towards the entrance points. All eight entry ways had been sealed in the same way the first had, promethium flame sealing them shut tight. Directly ahead of the captain was an observational window display, five individual windows set up in a three-dimensional pattern to offer visuals from both in front of the ship and below. Within the large room were dozens, if not a couple hundred computer consoles, bright orange and red holographics flittering, spinning and scrolling above their birth machines. To any mortal race having just set foot outside their own world, it would appear a pristine and admirable display of wondrous technology. To Viktur, it was as rancid as a heap of shit.

"Carvul, what do you make of this?" Asked Viktur as he strode towards the observational windows.

"Bridge, tier three/two technology, all unsanctioned. I only have three viral chips in my auspex, after that we may need to get out and push." The marine replied with a minor humorous inflection.

"Get to it, the occupants are most likely seeking to undo our efforts."

"At once, Captain." Carvul replied as he marched over to a very significant look console towards the center of the bridge, just in front of a holo-table that had warning signs and hazard markings all over it.

"Sir, once we are on the ground, we'll have a damnable time making our way to the holding point on foot. We'll need to locate dense terrain to ensure that being followed is less of a problem." Ivanhar added.

"Of course, initial scans of the planet revealed a significant forest density that could be used to our advantage. Yet our escape is a lesser concern. Sergeant Thenry, to me!" Called out the captain.

"Yes, my lord." The sergeant replied as he reached his commanders side, leaving his initiates to watch over the molten door.

"Your squad shall play a more significant part in the events to come. Wherever we touch down, you and your squad are to find an immediate holding point. A rock slide, forest or swamp, anything to remain hidden in. When I give the order, you are to double back to this ship and send this." Viktur said as he handed them a data slate, a small slab of digital material that appeared almost crystalline.

"Find the comms relay, it will only transmit upon direct upload to the array itself. It can be done?"

"No matter the cost, we'll make it happen, sire." Thenry relied.

"See that you do. Without it, all this shall be for naught."

"Captain, first chip initiated." Carvul called out.

"What have you got?" Replied the captain.

"A moment...nothing. But now I know what to do. It's a multi-skin firewall setup with a minor VI articulator, should be eliminated momentarily.

"Viktur! Viktur, open this door!" A voice called from over the comm channel, the voice of General Mason.

"I am sorry, General, but I cannot do that. We are making planet-fall momentarily, I suggest your crew get to evacuation vessels." Viktur calmly replied.

"Now you listen fucking here, I cleared that bridge for you so we could talk alone, so you could stand down and this stupid-ass charade can be ended! You open this door, and you hand over control of my ship!" The commander yelled.

"The door is sealed, General. There is nothing more you can do." Viktur replied.

"It's just an old rag, Viktur!"

-----------------------------

"It's just an old FUCKING rag!" Mason hammered his fists against the burnt and broken door frantically.

"We can re-route control through the upper decks." Muhalah said, his lungs fluttering with nerves.

"Sir, they're spitting in some freaky as fuck computing into the bridges' digital access. I think they're uploading some kind of computer virus." A military technician added while scrolling down his wrist computer.

"Just deploy the countermeasures, they won't be in there for long once we leave them nothing to work with." Mason growled.

"I don't think that's going to work, Mason. Second virus just walked over our firewall without lighting up any data, they have control over five hundred square meters of ship systems." Dragovich said as he too peered at his wrist computer.

"You lock down every system on the communication deck, don't let them get to it!" Mason barked as he spun about to look at the officers behind him.

"I don't think they're going for the antennae, General." The technician replied.

Suddenly a quake rocked through the ship followed by the low groan of straining metal.

"The fuck is that?!" Mason yelled.

Another tremor rose through the hull that shook violently at the knees of the officers and troopers around Mason.

"The fuck is this?!" The general roared.

"Engines are fired up! Both primary thrusters are lit and rising to full thrust! Sir, the initiation boosters aren't active, this ship wasn't designed to be flown like a damn torpedo!" The technician cried in panic.

"No! Stop! Be gentle with her!" Muhalah yelled as he pounded on the door behind Mason.

"Mason. Mason, my friend, I am sorry. This is my fault. I pushed this too far and now...now I don't know what to do." Dragovich admitted, his arms falling to his side.

"Not now Sol, let's just get this door open." Mason huffed.

"Cutting team's here, sir." A trooper announced as a three man team jogged up with a tripod mounted cutting arm.

The team set up there tripod just in front of the door while one man was scanning the door with a digital instrument. Just after a couple seconds of scanning, the trooper let his arms fall and turned to Mason.

"Sir, I dunno what they've done, but there's an extra three feet of door behind this. Gonna take over an hour to get through." The trooper said grimly.

"Oh for fuck-.....Right, we blow it open, right?" Mason blurted.

"With reinforcement like that, gonna need a good football sized Semtex block. Gonna blast through to the decks below and maybe above us as well." The trooper added.

"You're only supposed to blow the bloody door off!" Muhalah yelled in frustration.

"Other doors are the same, General. Will need some real ordnance to break through" Another cutting team radioed in from another entrance point.

"No one starts blowing holes in my ship unless I say so!" The captain began to get quite frantic.

"Calm down! Look, we can counter out the engines by forty percent with the emergency reversal engines. We slow them down and have another cruiser knock out our main engines. We can stop our advance and take all the time we need to cut through." Mason ordered.

"General, I'm sorry, but we'll reach full speed in two minutes. By then it'll take forty five minutes to slow us down enough for another cruiser to get a clean shot at us.And we reach Equestria in just short of twenty minutes. I'm sorry, but they have the edge, and we're headed straight for Equestria." The technician added.

"So what? So what, we just give up? What their doing is wrong and we just give up and let them do it? There must be something we can do?" The general said with cold words chilled with fright.

"We can hope they know which pedal's the brake."

-------------------------------------------

"There'll be enough time before the decryption scripture is silenced to see the reversal engines burn long enough to slow us down for a moderately peaceful landing." Carvul said.

"Moderate?" Asked Viktur.

"This vessel will require a new coat of paint." Shrugged the marine.

"How long is our journey?"

"No more than twenty minutes, sir. However, this vessels navigational system is...unfamiliar to me. I am unsure where we will touch down."

"How unsure?" Inquired Viktur.

"I'm not going to land us in the ocean, if that's what you were thinking, sir. However I will not be able to make comfortable adjustments until two kilometers above the planets surface." Carvul replied.

"That's no more than a few seconds." Ivanhar added with concern.

"Enough for me to make one final adjustment, in case we arrive upon difficult terrain." The marine reassured.

"Very well. As soon as we hit the ground and come to a firm stop I want that glass blown out. It's a three hundred meter drop at the most from here to the bottom of the ship, so we should be in a fitting state to manually disembark. After we have boots on the ground, we head for the most obscure terrain we can visually locate. Beyond that, we will trust in our initiates to see the chapter comes to our aid. We shall succeed, the relic will endure, His will ensures these things." Viktur announced to his brethren, a great chorus of hearty approval coming as a reply.

--------------------------------------------

The hull of the Frontier was being rocked by wave after wave of deep quakes and violent tremors. The shields had held for the reentry, but the internal pressure of the ship having been squashed by its own abrupt advance had taken a toll on systematic integrity. Sparks flew and screens flickered as electronic all around the ship felt the pressure the ship was under. It became evident to every Gaian on board that these Astartes that had commandeered the vessel did not have the crafts well being in mind. They were going to crash the ship, how badly was yet to be seen. Another cruiser, the 'Theoretic conclusion' trailed behind the Frontier, trying had to keep pace, but the Frontier had a head start and was well and truly hasting its way too the surface of Epona.

The vessel made itself level with the planets surface as it broke the atmosphere and found itself within clear view of anyone and anything that might have been below it. The ten kilometer vessel became more and more of a significant object in the sky as it descended, the roaring sound of bludgeoned wind growing louder and louder. To an observer below, the vessels destination would have been a mystery, having them making wild guesses at best. However to one who would have had time and equipment to study the crafts speed and descent, they would find its landing zone would bring it to a halt just before the ash ruins of Everfree. Everfree had once been a lush, if somewhat chaotic forest of strange power and even stranger inhabitants, over five and a half kilometers long five kilometers wide, situated right next to Ponyville. No it was a darkened, black blister upon the face of Equestria, a scoured patch of land utterly devoid of life after the federation deemed the forest too dangerous to remain standing. The frontier burped its reverse thrusters to live just as it closed in on two kilometers above the ground, slowing its absurd speed by enough to see it damaged, but not devastated upon impact. All of Equestria felt the impact, most notably the ground settlements of Las Pegasus, along with the hard-light harvester facilities the federation had set up there. Next, Ponyville was entirely shaken by a low, consistent rumble as the ship ground closer to the small town. Appleoosa shook as well, yet no one was around to feel it beside the few ashen husks that had pieces fall off due to the tremors. The debris and dirt the cruisers bow shoveled outwards filled up the western half of Ghastly Gorge, halving its width. The ship growled and whined as it slowed, grinding painfully to a final halt just a quarter way into Everfree ashes, it's crew firmly knocked about within, say for thirty size individuals who decided to make short work of the cruisers bridge observational windows.

--------------------------------------------

It was quite the odd experience, to be sure, having a scout clinging to a battle brothers power pack. However such a strange display was required unless the captain wished to deal with five scouts breaking their legs upon landing from out the federation cruiser bridge. Enough dirt had been ploughed up from the surface of the planet to offer a gigantic cushion for the marines to land on, shortening their drop to under three hundred meters. A convenience, but not enough to save the scouts the need to use their more experienced brethren as landing aids.

"Thenry, move your scouts to the deeper portion of these wastes. Brothers, to me! There is a mountain towards the north, we shall dig into its shelter and keep our faith firmly in our aspiring initiates! Let's move!" Viktur called out as he broke out into a sprint.

"

--------------------------------------

"Did you ponies feel that?"

"Oh for the love of Rosetta! Every window! Every dang window!"

"I'm sorry, I just gotta find my daughter!"

"They're attacking! I knew it! Sooner or later I knew they would!"

Ponies all over Ponyville were distraught, or at the very least wildly confused at the almighty series of earthquakes that had shaken their town. Nopony had been hurt, but there was a fair portion of property damage throughout town. Most ponies were locking themselves away in their homes, yet a handful of Pegasi had decided to attempt a flight to Cloudsdale or even Canterlot. These individual were quickly targeted and grounded by the federation troops after being spotted, shortly afterwards being taken into custody for questioning. Twilight would normally have at least attempted at trying to reason with the gas mask wearing brutes, but her attention was firmly fixed on finding the source of the colossal tremor. The princess ran as fast as she could, which wasn't very fast at all seeing as what terrible things sitting and reading books had done to her legs. Even though she was a newly made Alicorn and her physique had been developing daily, she was still lacking enough to be considered athletic, let alone godly.

The princess of magic had quickly change into a more fitting attire than her pajamas, an attire she had gotten rather used to seeing how she was basically laughed off the street by federation troops whenever she wore anything remotely princess themed. But all such worries she normally held in her mind had to be put firmly aside as she rounded the corner of a closed down tailors store to fix her eye towards the Everfree ruins. Sat upon the ocean of ash was a smoking, belly-buried federation craft, its dark gray mass looming high like an inky tidal wave come to consume the small equestrian town. yet the princesses dread of the imposing creation quickly diminished as her mind began to turn, churning out the situation for firm assessment. The vessel was grounded, much like the Pegasi she's seen earlier, metaphorically cuffed up locked in a prison that was the surface of this world. Which meant someone, or something, had put it here. If there was one thing Twilight knew about the federation it was that they loved themselves and their technology with a feverish intensity, so there was no way they'd ground their own ship in such a reckless manner.

Twilight had heard of the UTFs enemies, terrorists and extremists that defied the federation every day with dire acts of violence. Perhaps they were involved? Had war been brought to Equestria? Had these damnable, arrogant, pale-faced freaks finally ruined this land in every way that they could possibly consider? Was Equestria nothing to this race of space faring barbarians? Twilights' expression grew tense at the thought of the final, fragile remnants of the old Equestria being drowned out in one final sweep of blood and carnage. And would the federation lose any sleep over their crimes? Twilight doubted they'd so much as flinch.

But then again, this had come very abruptly. Surely the UTF would start shuffling their pieces about in preparation of a terrorist attack. Surely they would have made more preparation than just pouring more manpower into Equestrias cities. On closer observation of the alien craft, Twilight took note of how the ship had no external blights beside a chewed up belly. The aliens had excessively displayed their devastating weaponry in shameless displays of intimidation, and no such weapons had been used against this creation. Something must have gone wrong, terribly wrong, inside the craft. Not in their technology, the federation trusted their machines more than they trusted their own people. Not in their crew, their was no chance of mutiny and little chance of such vast series of mistakes to see their craft crash land. So something foreign must have been introduced, like a disease of some kind. No, apparently Gaians couldn't get sick due to their super advanced medicine. So something bigger; something much bigger. Some invading force, something able to stand against the entire defensive force of a UTF cruiser and succeed in crashing in to the ground in a manner as to not destroy the vessel. In deep thought Twilight failed to notice the squad of UTF troops advancing on her until they were just a couple of meters ahead.

"Miss Sparkle, return to your home immediately, the federation demands it!" The squad leader said through his ugly looking gas mask.

Twilight gave a quick grin, finally able to have some verbal leverage over these bullies.

"What's the matter, you seem a little shaken? Somepony steal one of your toys?" Twilight asked with a smirk.

The troops tensed up and gripped their weapons tight, a couple even starting to lift their barrels.

"You will comply or you will be deemed a threat to the federation!" The trooper growled.

"Phew, well, if you consider me a threat," She gestured to the crashed cruiser, "You're going to have a bad time dealing with whoever did that." Twilight turned and took off at a slightly speedy trot back to her library. She thought now would be a good time to start boarding up the windows. But not after she got a hold of her friends.

-----------------------------------------

The Frontier was as good as a wreck. The entire belly of the vast ship had been cheese-grated to oblivion, exposing deck after deck. But the worst of it was the ships substructure, which had been shattered beyond a quick fix and was looking at a full revamp of at least two thirds of the ships internals. The hard fact was that this ship was never designed to be crashed, it required a lengthy procedure just to have it break the atmosphere of a planet. The thing was, the UTF always expected to win the fights it got into, and therefore were confident in having time enough after a conflict to salvage any grounded ships and wrecks. But in the middle of a dire situation or military campaign, little could be salvaged from a broken ship besides aircraft, vehicles and equipment. The federations tech was solid, perhaps too solid so much to make it brittle. When something broke, it was breaking bad.

Mason was beyond fuming, beyond rational thought. The federation wasn't beyond making a point for the sake of making themselves feel better, and Mason planned of embodying that quality in every aspect. Funnily enough, Dragovich had taken Masons place in being the rational thinking, the weight of the events that had transpired sitting heavily atop his conscience.

"We get tags on them, track them down to their destination and crack down on them with heavy armour. We ho,d court against them and make them pay by federal law. The federation solidifies its authority to the people by showing no matter who you are, you are not beyond the law. We hold them custody until their empire stumbles upon us and we offer them back under the promise of a treaty, one that they will owe us. We can still make this fall into the right places!....Mason!" Dragovich yelled as Mason marched into a broken hangar bay, sparks flying from broken and exposed cables.

Mason knew exactly who he needed to speak to, he wasn't proud of it, but he knew they'd get the job done in the exact way he needed it done.

"Skeleton squad." He said as he approached the four dark figures who had been helping themselves to some excessive ordnance from the pile of ammo crates.

"General. I hope you have come to give us our next mission." The leader growled.

"Yeh, and I'm sure you'll like it. Chase down the aliens, get in their heads and throw them off track. Make kills wherever you can, but focus of hindering their efforts in whatever way you can." Mason said sternly.

"Don't worry, sir. They'll get what they give, and then some." The 23rd member who had had his chest sliced open hissed as he loaded his shotgun, now fully healed after a session on a medi-bed.

"These things are tough, and by the looks of it they're well trained, but they use primitive tech and their hard to miss. You have free pick of the armory as usual, just make sure to take anti-vehicle weapons." Mason said with a somber tone upon realizing how much firepower this squad would actually need.

"Sure. But personally, I plan one making things a little more personal." The once injured trooper said while spinning his tactical knife in his hand.

Mason would have corrected the trooper, who was obviously becoming blinded by the idea of revenge, but Mason needed to arrange his forces in other locations. Plus, as far as he was concerned these gun-happy morons could get themselves killed in whatever way they felt was best, just as long as they served as a distraction so he could make sure his troops could get prepared. And if Mason was right in thinking the Astartes methods would only escalate, then they would need to be prepared, excessively so. There were going to be a lot of casualties very soon. Mason turned about and quickly made for the slightly askew blast door he had come from, Dragovich still there waiting for him.

"Mason, this is bad, all bad. We engage them in conflicts and there's no going back. And we're looking at a deep resource plunge once we start loosing guys. And headquarter? They're going to jail us if they fail in ion cannoning us from orbit first." Dragovich stressed.

"This isn't a game of remaining in control, Sol. We lost control, heck, I don't think we ever even had it! They had no consideration for us, our ship, our hospitality! Nothing!...Nothing...And they threw it all aside just for some stupid fucking piece of cloth. I'm sorry Sol, but you were right. They're just barbarians. Some degenerated faction from some dying empire from far away. They're a threat to the federation, and need to be destroyed. There's nothing left to salvage from this. Headquarters will just have to understand that." Mason finished glumly.

"We don't have the manpower here to deal with this well, Mason. We have the manpower to deal with defenseless magic ponies who scare easy, but giant metal super soldiers with artillery canons for carbines? We need to call for reinforcements."

"We can handle thirty of them easily."

"And what if more come?"

"You heard their captain, they needed our comms array to call home, and they don't have it. They're isolated here."

"What if more come anyway? What if they come and we are unprepared for them? You saw how one damaged ship crept up on us like that, what if more come, fully armed and operational?" Dragovich inquired, his tone tense.

"Fine. Fine. We'll send for backup in a few hours once we're set on the ground. But for now all efforts go towards becoming utterly solid in holding key areas. Let the troops know they need to be ready, ready for anything."

----------------------------------------------

A decline presented itself before the marines, a slow and gentle slope sliding away like a welcoming carpet leading to a small settlement. They had not been on the march for long, spending only a couple of hours treading through the swamp of broken charcoal with speed. Such devastation to a specific area forced the captain to ponder on what terrible thing these people could have been facing as to force them to use such excessive force. Yet, such a question was not for the now, nor was it his to ask. Instead his mind took a half a second to absorb the sight before him. Tactical opportunity and tools came apparent before him, ideas of counterattack, defensive resolution and hit and run assault came to him in the form of a deep-seeded instinct. He already knew exactly what to do, but a shame hung over his mind. What needed to be done could not be taken back, it could not be forgiven. An Astarte was bred to be death, devastation and war in all its form, made flesh, made life. Yet the purpose of the space marines was to vanquish those threats that knew not of the meaning of future, life or joy. Space marines slayed the soulless, eradicated them with a righteous fury that knew no bounds and stretched beyond reality itself. Yet before him stood living people, strange, lost and fearful, but still very much alive. Most must have had families, many others lovers and some perhaps even children. To kill in such a way was an obvious crime to even the most bloodthirsty Astarte, yet how they dealt with such a crime within themselves was what defined a space marine in many ways. Some pass such acts off a necessary, a shame, but ultimately no action of the Astartes is without good reason. Others took deep penance in such a tragedy, solemnly hanging their heads low and turning their minds to thoughts of repentance in hopes of the sacred spirits laying a hand of forgiveness upon them.

Yet Viktur stood here, knowing what must be initiated, yet taking no joy in it. He would not weep over these people, but he would not sing songs of today.

"Ivanhar, we must see false deeds done. Tell the brethren to ready themselves for combat. No prayers until we reach our destination."

"Is there no way around it?" The veteran asked.

"They will spot us even if we do, and we can ill afford to be pursued. We must to cripple this settlements defenses and make all haste to the mountain roots immediately after." Viktur stroked at the light grey stubble of his shaven head in thought.

"Understood." The sergeant simply replied.

Viktur noticed something not a second after the sergeant had spoken. The settlement at first simply appeared odd to the captain, not of the dark gray and black of this federation, but instead bright, warming colors. He had known to associate such colors with children, the calming and cheery sight of such colors was good for their smaller minds. Vikturs eyes focused inwards to enhance his vision much like an eagles, picking out the details of the towns architecture. Either these false-humans had a severe identity crisis, or this world was not their own, and another race was its true occupants. Perhaps these two people had a strange symbiotic relationship in one way or another, perhaps they had a trade agreement. Yet something tugged at Vikturs instinct, and it told a darker tale.

A tale of heresy.