"I've seen a lot of things in this galaxy," The uniformed guardsman said. He was in a metal chair in front of a table. The air was cold, and his breath was shuddery as he spoke. "Some that I stood against valiantly, and some that made me tremble in terror, until the Commissar walked up and told me to keep shooting, unless I felt the squad had a lack of morale. But the o-"
A man in front of him sighed. This man's necklace bore the mark of the Inquisition, and he looked at the guardsman meaningfully.
"I did not ask for your personal biography, Sergeant, I asked about the thing from Veros," his voice was sharp, impatient and commanding. His accent was stern, or perhaps that was his tone, but it left the guardsman shaking in his boots.
"The necron, Zarkos?" The guardsman asked, pryingly. The inquisitor stopped for a moment, eyes flashing, before he continued
"Necron? So you know what it's called, then?" The inquisitor asked in counter "How? Information on the necrons is above top secret."
"Isn't that why you called me in?" The sergeant asked, "To hear it straight from somebody who's met one? Heard it's stor-"
"I-" the inquisitor began as he laid his plasma pistol on the table. It landed with a thump. "-Am asking the questions here, Sergeant."
"O-o-of course…" The sergeant squeaked out as he shrunk in fear, sinking in his seat
"However," The inquisitor continued, "you are correct in your assumption. It is rare that a member of the Ordo Xenos meets a man who knows more about a xeno than himself, and rarer still in the case of a necron. Please, continue."
"I-if I may," the sergeant stuttered "m-might I start at the beginning? I feel it will help you to understand why I did what I did, and how Zarkos left on non-hostile terms…"
"Indeed, it might…" The inquisitor replied and stroked his chin. A large and exquisite ring on his middle finger shone in the light. "Very well, Sergeant. I will allow it." The inquisitor's eyes shone with curiosity and a bit of excitement.
It was our third month of warp-travel. We were just in the middle of a training exercise when I felt the familiar sickness of shifting. I don't get it too bad, just a bit of nausea, I remember Connor doubled over, and almost vomited. I went to go-
"Sergeant, is this really relevant? My time is both limited and valuable."
O-of course…Anyway, after the shift, my squad and I readied for deployment. At the time, it was just a genestealer cult uprising, we didn't realize that a splinter fleet was days away,
"Sergeant, is it possible that I could get a short review of the time leading up to the meeting with the xeno? I can read all of this in an account by some atrocious historian."
Right, of course. We landed, established a command base near the outskirts of the capital, We took over for the infected PDF, and ended up having to put a lot of them down. Fortunately the capital had AA guns, although at the time we didn't realize how lucky we were. We had just finished shelling known 'stealer locations when the 'nids showed up. We used the guns to keep them from landing too close to the city, and were able to keep them from getting in. That was when we found the sewer hatches, one of the 'stealer cults was using them, and we were worried that they were a potential weak point, so we sent in several squads, mine included. That's when we found him.
"Very good. Proceed in detail. From here on I want to know everything."
I'll do my best. It was dark, almost too dark to see, but we didn't dare use our luminators, if the 'stealers saw us before we saw them, well, it wouldn't end well. As sergeant, I was in the middle of our five man squad, which unfortunately meant being boots-deep in sewage, and the smell was insufferable. We'd been down there for hours when we saw a small cavern. It couldn't be part of the sewers, because one of the walls seemed to have literally been torn up from inside. Jakob tripped, and landed screaming. 'Well there goes our position' I thought to myself, as I helped him up, I saw that beneath him was a dead tyranid, one of the ones that's...what do you call it, the ones like
"Hormagaunt? Termagaunt? Ravener? Lictor? Genestealer? Oh, maybe a-"
Sir, I don't know what any of those mean. We just call them by what they have. It was one of the stabbity ones. uh, man-sized, with long scything claws.
"Termagaunt."
Right...Not an Ordo Xenos, sorry. Yeah, a Termagaunt. I'd seen ones before while defending the city from siege but...not like this. It was cut up, literally missing whole limbs, which, turned out to be nearby, it was cut cleaner than any chainsword could have done, we started talking.
"It's gotta be a mono" Jenkins said "Nothing cuts like that."
"Could be a power or force sword," Davos chimed in
"You really think there's an Inquisitor or an Astartes down here?" Jenkins shot back.
I had had a frustrating day, I'll admit. My boots were covered in shit, there was a dead xeno that made my subordinate scream so loud every tyranid would hear us for miles around, and now my squad was acting like a bunch of juvies talking during a movie.
"It doesn't matter WHAT did it!" I barked commandingly "Start acting like soldiers and keep quiet. Every xeno for miles knows where we are, so let's check this cavern out and get the frak out!" That shut them up. We entered the cavern. It didn't smell as much like sewage, which pleased me, and as we kept going we found more bodies, all of them slain with the exact same impossibly precise cuts, and all of them stank like you wouldn't believe.
We continued down this passage for a while, and, it must've been going down or something, because soon our ears started to pop a bit. That's when we saw the two red lights. They weren't bright, like luminators, but they made a dull glow, we could faintly see a slight figure, but at the time we thought it was just part of the cave. We approached it.
"What the hell is that?" Davos asked.
"I dunno, someone dropped a pair of maintenance luminators down here and their machine-spirits are dying?" Jenkins chimed in
"I suppose anything's possible, maybe it's what killed those tyranids." he replied
"Could be." Jakob added. Simmon, who had been silent until now, said something I couldn't quite hear while we talked to each other like a bunch of juvies.
"What's that Sim?" I asked
"I-It's gone…." He whimpered
"Wha- Oh shi…" Davos muttered
"Luminators on!" I shrieked, taking my own advice and rewarded with a skeletal figure swinging a staff right at my head. I dived to the side and was narrowly saved a decapitation, thank the Emperor. He was a bit slow now that I think about it, but if he's what killed those 'nids, I didn't want to risk getting hit.
His eyes glowed a deep red, the same as the tiny lights, so that's what they were, I thought, and his Warscythe ignited a brilliant gree-
"I'm sorry, 'Warscythe? I thought it was a staff."
Oh, right...Warscythe is what he called it. Some sort of ancient weapon that cuts through almost anything. He liked it a whole lot, so I didn't try to pry, in case he was protective of it.
"I see...go on. You were at 'ignited a brilliant green'"
Right, like I said, it ignited green, and it swung again at me. I dodged it again and drew my chainsword. Didn't know what help it would be, but it couldn't hurt, I thought. I saw it cut through the rock behind where I was and almost pissed myself
"SHOOT IT! SHOOT THE FRAKKING THING!" We lit it up like a christmas tree, but, the las-rounds just...deflected off of it. some of them managed to chip it's paint-job, I think, and Simmon got lucky and hit it in the inside shoulder, which slowed it down for about two seconds before it...got better. He said it was a repair protocol, which I don't understand, but Ric-
"Is this really relevant, Sergeant?"
I suppose not, anyway, they kept shooting and it stopped, beckoning to me with it's left hand. That's when it spoke. It's voice was deep and sounded like...like…
"Coward. Will you not face me in single combat!?"
"With that staff that cuts through 'nids like butter?! Frak no!" I didn't question that it could talk until after it's staff was no longer swinging at me. I'm not stupid.
"Very well." It said, and the staff's blade stopped glowing. It swung at me again, and I blocked with my chainsword. "Hold fire, men!" I ordered. I didn't want to risk it turning that thing on again. It's staff swung again and I deflected the blow this time, didn't want to risk breaking my arm. He was strong, strong enough that I felt it every time our weapons met.
He started easing, doing a few moves which seemed a bit...theatrical. He was enjoying the fight, and lowering his guard. Well, that would be the frakker's last mistake! I thought, as I slashed quickly at it's head, revving the chainsword up as I swung. It cut into the thing's face, thankfully enough, and he fell to the ground.
"D-did you kill it!?" Simmon asked, shocked. My jaw was a bit slack too
"I...I think so…" I prodded it with my chainsword, and the lights in it's eyes turned back on, the damage to it's head started to fix itself, and it stood once again.
"Very good…" It said, as it ignited the staff "You will make an excellent trophy" I began to take a step back, when we felt the ground start to shake. It turned away from us and towards a wall that appeared to have something trying to break through the stone. I was surprised at how suddenly it seemed to ignore us. That's when the Genestealers broke through the wall. There was at least seven of them, but there was so many and it was so dark I couldn't tell. We hid behind the metal thing as best we could, they looked at it and...they seemed afraid.
"Afraid? It scared the genestealers? Are you certain you're not imagining things?"
No. No I'm not certain. I'm not certain of anything! I know what I saw, and they had the same fear in their eyes that Torvas did before he was killed in front of me, and the same thing happened. He slashed and cut one in half, the others spread out, but it didn't seem to give two fraks how many there were. One by one it butchered them, some of them actually started attacking each other, while another slashed at it, but, it flickered out of existence and then back again, we stood there like baffled juvies in front of a porno-slate, and once they were all deader than a heretic's heart, it turned to us.
"How many more of the…" I'm sorry, I can't pronounce what it said "are there?" it demanded, eyes glowing with authority.
"They're overrunning the planet…" I confessed. If I was going to die, letting it know that the planet was frakked was the least of my worries. But, to my surprise he responded without separating my head from my shoulders "If they overrun the galaxy…" He nodded "There must exist organic life for the biotransferrance to reverse. I will aid you."
"Biotransferrance? What is that?!"
I-I don't know, he never said…
"Right, ah well."
He seemed to know how they work, the whole, biomass thing, and he told us to take him to our Phaeron. I didn't know what that was, so I took him to see the Captain.