Did I ever tell you why I hate changelings? No? Well let me count the reasons...

One: The bastards shapeshift, which makes detecting them among the common ponies almost fucking impossible without some sort of sample to tell them apart from the rest, fortunately we fixed that problem really quick.

Two: The bastards feed on love... The more they get, the stronger they get, which is easiest when they sneak into a relationship between two ponies and fuck one of them... Not cool, that is cock-blocking to the max, and that's just not at all acceptable for the bro-code, I'm sure that women have a similar code and it violates it just as much. You just don't do that stuff.

Three: There's a LOT of them when they decide to swarm, the only thing that makes them not as effective as Nids is the fact that their spells are bouncing off of us due to the purification tags on our armor, blessed thrice by the empresses themselves.

… But DAMN are they an annoying waste of ammo.

But that's just the Changelings, They are easy to just squish like the bugs they are, the Harpies and Ogres on the other hand, those things are a pain in the ass to take down. I literally just had to stab my sword repeatedly into an Ogre's back just to get the damn thing to stay the hell down, the bastards just don't die!

I was panting hard as I looked to the oncoming wave of enemies that were just barely matched by our own forces in numbers only. I could feel myself just becoming exhausted at the thought of needing to kill more of those damn ogres, Did I mention that they simply refused to die? I did? Well, Allow me to reiterate...

“WHY DON'T YOU FUCKING OGRES JUST LEARN TO STAY DEAD!?” I shout just before I raise my sword again, My suit began to make minor calculations to help the accuracy of my attacks, the elated feeling of slaying in Luna's name filled me, don't get me wrong, but I could only swing my arm so many times before the douche known as exhaustion decided to make himself comfortable. There was a pattern to it, A wave of Changelings to grind down our energy, a wave of harpies to exhaust our ammo, and then those FUCKING OGRES to make me just want to scream in frustration.

Then there it was, just to the left of the battlefield, I could see it coming like a blessing from the sky.

“Marine Drop Pod inbound! Landing behind enemy lines! I'm going in for them!” I call over the vox, each of my team's indicators blink once to let me know they have me covered.

I feel a new strength in my body as I swing my blade with this new elation, tearing through all of the enemies like they were made of paper, a bit of blood splashed on my visor but I didn't care because I was on my way to help out our reinforcements!

With a final fancy spin move that left me in a really cool looking crouched position I sprinted up to the pod and hit the release button, allowing the main door of the pod to fall to the ground.

The first marine, clad in the colors of a chapter I didn't know, walked out with his hand on his head, “Wha-...” I cut him off as I fired a bolter round into the coming crowd.

“No time Brother! We are under siege and your squad may be what we need to turn the tide in our favor!” I shout over the din of battle.

He takes a quick look around and gives me a nod before drawing his weapons, the bolt pistol and his sword shone as only a brand new gun could... I would've teared up at the beauty, but we had a battle to focus on. It seemed that the entire squad were assault marines as they flew into the air, I couldn't help but let out a joyous war cry as they descended into the fray and tore through the ranks of the army of chaos with the speed to make me as proud as a father seeing his son graduate.

Once again, filled with the ecstacy of battle flowing through my veins I could hear myself laughing with joy as I cut down all of the monsters before me; Changelings, Harpies and Ogres alike, Once again I saw the fear in their faces, once again... I felt myself get lost in the sheer joy of battle, Slaying in the name of The Empress... In the name of Luna.

-{DW}-

I felt the exhaustion of a hundred battles bring be to one knee after all of the enemy had fled before our might, only now as the battle began to fade and the adrenaline ended its rush through my veins did I feel the full weight of my exhaustion. I slowly got to my feet as the new recruits made their way over to us, one of them carrying their fallen brother.

“What happened?” I asked as I indicated the fallen marine.

“Entire company of Ogres swarmed him before we could get to him.” The skull-helmeted marine replied. The skull could only mean one thing, he was definitely a Chaplain.

I nod once, “His sacrifice will not be in vain, for it is thanks to him that we shall be able to bring to light a new generation of battle brothers.” I reply. “What are your names?”

The Chaplain speaks first, “I am Brother Alhardir, Of the Soul Drinkers chapter.”

The marine to his left introduces himself as Brother Navarre, and the marine holding the deceased marine introduces himself as Brother Khordel.

“Soul Drinkers... I've not heard much about them, but as you are now, I would be happy to induct you into the Lunar Templars Chapter, we are in dire need of soldiers who can handle themselves as well as you have.”

“How many are your numbers?” Alhardir asked.

“Only four at the moment, Elyas our techmarine, Magron our Apothecary, Cadmus our Devastator, and myself.” I let out a small sigh. “We are still working on many gene-altering processes, but without a gene seed to base our research on, our efforts have been... less than successful.”

He nods, “We will join you... We answer to the call of our battle brothers.” Alhardir says with what I know to be a smirk behind his helmet as we clasp hands in a firm handshake.

“Then welcome to the battle... Brother... For there is much blood to shed in the name of the empresses.”

Author's Notes:

Two Chapters today! A special gift to all of you who love the story.
...but mostly because I didn't get a chance to post last week...

And we have a few new marines this week! Shoutout for the Lunar Templars' new Chaplain Alhardir goes to JT, show that guy some love! If it wasn't for his squad, this chapter may not have gone over as easily.

FOR THE EMPRESSES!