Chapter 4
Twilight and the Apple family were enjoying(trying to survive) the feast that Granny Smith had prepared for Luna's arrival. The younger Princess felt bad that she couldn't join them for the feast just yet, but this simply couldn't wait.
I am ready brother Kareff The tank stated, standing as straight as his boxy frame would allow.
Luna wondered who this Kareff was. Audius had called him a Librarian, but said it as if he were talking to some mystic sage or wise sorcerer. It was odd, but certainly less foreboding than a Reclusiarch.
"Alright, hold still." Luna stated as she channeled her magic and slipped into the Dream Realm.
In her peripheral vision, she could see a few late afternoon nappers, mostly infants or elders, but the only dream that held her attention was the one in front of her.
Dreams usually took the form of crystal clear orbs that she could easily see through, the dream orbs of individuals like this usually had large cracks spider webbing all over them...this dream orb was all but shattered with fragments missing and dark purple smoke emanating menacingly from every hole.
...what have you endured? Luna couldn't help but think as she transformed her ethereal body to a cloud of mist and squeezed herself into the largest hole, making sure not to touch the edges of his shattered psyche.
The mist emerged into a metal room that reminded her of an airship and was greeted with the sight of two large knights with armor bearing the same color scheme and insignia as the tank that Audius piloted.
One wore armor mixed with robes and had an odd headpiece that glowed ominously as he held out an armored talon to the one who wore true armor befitting a royal knight.
Luna immediately realized that the knight was Audius and that the robed being must be Kareff the Librarian.
Her suspicions were confirmed, the Librarian was a sorcerer emitting a wave of magic from his talon to probe Audius' mind. Audius remained stock still, his helm hanging from his hip through a means that Luna couldn't discern at a glance.
His face looked similar to how Twilight described humans, though there were several differences. This creature was a pale bronze color with small grape sized eyes that were sunken into the skull far more than any Pony eyes, but what surprised Luna the most was the stoic expression.
Sure, her sister's guards attempted such a thing, but there were always hints of their boredom or confusion at orders such as the one Audius obeyed now...but the Astartes was treating the order to stand still while the Librarian scanned his mind as if it were the most important order of his life.
The Librarian was no different. Concentrating so greatly on deciphering Audius' thoughts that Luna wondered if he would have noticed her had this been real, but there was no time to sate her curiosity. She had to determine the reason for Audius' trauma and attempt to heal him.
...Tank Luna sent the word into his mind with the upmost subtlety, allowing the broken being to think he had thought of it himself.
The dream shifted as Audius thought of tanks, forcing Luna to try and stay calm as she found herself in a warzone.
A jungle burned around her as knights dashed from cover to cover, wielding small boxy weapons that appeared to function like cannons and strange snarling clubs.
From the other side of the jungle came howling brutes with a similar body type to Diamond Dogs wielding similar cannons but more traditional axes and crude chopping swords and...a tank, a real tank. The treaded battle wagon aimed it's single shot cannon at a squad of knights and blasted them to smithereens as another snuck around the machines flank.
A simple highlighting spell illuminated the flanking knight and revealed him as Audius. Luna was taken aback as to why he wasn't using his...whatever it was, to counter the enemy's tank, and was instead trying to sneak up on it on foot. Yet, her curiosity was soon replaced with shock and horror.
Audius aimed a small one handed cannon at one of the brutes and shot through it's back and sunken head. Whatever these cannons fired was apparently explosive as it pulped the beast's head into a cloud of red mist.
Luna dry heaved and was suddenly a lot more grateful she was missing the feast Granny Smith had prepared for her. She brought her head up to see that Audius had gone unnoticed, the sound of his cannon drowned out by all the others nearby and his slain target being out of eyesight of its enthralled howling kindred.
Audius struck again, pouncing from his hiding spot to bring his club down on the neck of another brute. Luna dry heaved again as she realized that his club apparently had some sort of blade she couldn't see that cut independently. Audius was showered in blood as the snarling weapon chewed through the brute's neck and beheaded him.
Now Audius revealed himself to the last two brutes standing between him and the tank, shooting one and stabbing the other, somehow, before placing his weapons on his hips, making them stick to him, and pulling a device from his thigh and pulling a pin from it before tossing it under the tank and running away.
The device was evidently an explosive, one powerful enough to destroy the tank in a single concussive blast. Causing a shower of metal and stopping the brutes' advance and signaling hidden knights to reveal themselves and reinforce their struggling brethren. Luna watched in awe as the tide turned in an instant and the brutes either charged to their death or fled as their comrades were cut down by the vengeful knights.
Luna watched the slaughter slack jawed before realizing that she was getting distracted. The revelation brought a blush to the Princess's face before she sent out another pulse, this time an image of Audius as she had seen him.
The scene shifted. Audius had his helmet on his hip, and was holding the hand of a gravely injured warrior. "Brother Hieran, can you hear me?"
The warrior twitched and gurgled as he tried to answer. He had lost both legs and one of his arms from the elbow down and his stomach and torso were torn open to reveal damaged organs. By all accounts, Hieran should be dead. "Khgh...The...The Orks..."
"The Orks are dead brother, I destroyed their tank." Audius told him. "...My...squad..." Hieran held out his ruined arm as if reaching for something.
Audius lowered his head. "Forgive me brother, I was not fast enough. Only two survived, Brother Arroc and Brother Dulles. Dulles is receiving a mechanical arm as we speak. Arroc is fine."
Luna's jaw dropped. These were the warriors that were shot by the tank! What armor preserved them!?
Another knight stepped forward, one wearing red armor, but for a single shoulder pad bearing Audius' insignia, with several odd protrusions in his back and an ax shaped like a cog. "Where our forebears in the White Scars forbade the use of the Dreadnought sarcophagus, and other chapters see it's use as an obligation, the Mantis Warriors use it as a choice. We have five sarcophagi, and will receive another soon. The choice is yours brother. Will your duty end here, or will you be reborn?"
SARCOPHAGUS!? Luna thought to herself as Hieran answered without hesitation. "I-ghk...wish to ser-kh-serve...again."
"Then it is so." Stated the red knight.
Machines whirred to life and chains rang out as a green and gold metal box lowed itself and opened. Luna realized with growing horror that the box was the centerpiece of Audius'...they had called it a 'Dreadnought'.
The red knight took Hieran's body and gently placed it in the sarcophagus before his protrusions sprang to life like a nest of serpents. The buzzing of whirring of power tools were succeeded by the clang of metal striking metal as the red knight discarded Hieran's ruined armor.
Luna watched the ordeal in horrified fascination until it's conclusion. The red knight stepped aside, revealing Hieran for a brief moment. The naked human's broken body had several tubes and wires implanted into him, and at last Luna realized the true nature of this sarcophagus: it was a life support system.
The red knight closed the sarcophagus and welded it shut. Luna could hear electronics activating and what sounded like water or some other fluid being filtered into the green and gold box.
There was a pause, and then the chains suspending the sarcophagus rose up and back. Luna realized that there were two other sarcophagi suspended above them, and behind them were the massive arms and cannons of the war machines they were to pilot, and beneath the suspended weapons stood the dormant machines themselves.
"He is braver than I." Luna froze as she realized it was Audius that spoke.
"You would choose death?" The red knight inquired. "Forgive me brother, but I do not share your faith in machines. I share the White Scars belief that such things are damnation. But do not doubt my loyalty, I stand by the Last Resort." Audius explained.
The Last Resort...Luna knew, she had yet to check his ruined memory but she knew...he would allow himself to be entombed, as he was now, if his Chapter were on the brink of extinction. "Oh, you poor poor creature...perhaps your wounds are within our ability to heal...I just need to determine one last thing." Luna spoke to herself before sending one final pulse. Good alien.
"Urg, UURRRP!!" Twilight slapped a hoof to her mouth and blushed in shame. Fortunately, Granny Smith was the only one with the energy to laugh at her. Applejack and her siblings were in the same boat.
"Oh, I don't feel so good." Applebloom groaned, her yellow coat taking a greenish hue.
"Oh, don't you be quitten' on us now! We're only halfway through!" Granny Smith proclaimed.
"You know, you could save this food for later. Save yourselves having to cook dinner tomorrow." Twilight suggested.
"Ha! Nonsense! Everypony knows apple pie is best when it's fresh." Granny Smith proudly proclaimed before grabbing another full pie.
"Yes bu-" Applejack put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Save yer breath Twi...Granny Smith ain't never had leftovers since she was my age. She thinks it offends the appl-oop!" Applejack tried to hold her manners but let out a thunderous belch that Twilight's burp sound cute by comparison.
"HOOOO-WEE!! THERE'S AN APPLE!!!" Granny Smith shouted while throwing the empty pie pan into the air and cackling like a witch.
The festivities(torture) paused when the door to the Apple Family kitchen opened. Luna walked in with a haunted expression and sat down in her reserved seat at Granny Smith's side without a single word.
Everypony watched her stare at the pie in front of her for all of two minutes before Twilight broke the silence. "...Princess...are you okay?"
Luna looked up to regard her, silent as a grave.
Granny Smith sighed. "Ya can't help him, can ya."
Luna looked back at the pie and finally spoke. "...I...I could. I could repair his mind and bring him to his senses...but he would destroy us if I did."
It was Applejack's turn to sigh. "So he's a villain then?"
Luna kept looking at the pie. Examining it as though the glaze upon it's crust were a crystal ball that held the answers. "...not...exactly. Thousands of years ago, his people suffered a great tragedy, and every thinking species in the galaxy took advantage of their vulnerability...even those that had been their allies."
Silence dominated the room. The apple family had completely forgotten their feast and Twilight was on the verge of a heart attack, yet no one spoke.
Luna smacked her lips and continued. "It's possible that there were some who meant their proposals of Friendship, but they had arrived too late...the Imperium of Man was built on panicked paranoia and righteous fury...I cannot say our people wouldn't have done the same in their place."
"...So...we're just gonna leave him like that?" Applebloom asked.
"...I found a way to put him to sleep. His kind can sleep for centuries if they are left undisturbed. We shall move him to a secluded area in Canterlot Castle under armed guard to ensure he never awakens." Luna stated.
"WHAT!?" Twilight shouted. "Forgive my bluntness Princess Luna, but isn't that a little extreme!? We can just take him out of his tank!"
"...No, we can't." Luna explained what she had learned about the tank, the Dreadnought, and by her explanation's end, Granny Smith was the only one who spoke. "...somepony show me how ta store half eaten food...we'll finish this meal tomorrow."
Author's Note:
I'll admit, this story is progressing faster than I thought it would. I went into this thinking I would write 10 chapters, now I'm somewhere between 6 and 8.
An idea is beginning to form for how to rewrite Grimdark 6 Vol. 3, but before I do that, after I finish Scars of War, I want to make a change to Vol.1 that's been bothering me for a while...one that's probably going to have a subtle ripple effect throughout both Volumes that I'll have to edit, but will ultimately make Volume 1 a better experience for new readers.
Beyond that, I must once again apologize for taking so long between chapters. I'm grinding at work, and there's going to be a major upset to my daily schedule in September.
I'm definitely going to be done with Scars of War before then, but I might wait until the boat stops rocking before I start writing again, and I have no idea when that'll be.
That's it for my update, leave your thoughts in the comments below, and I'll see you all next time.
