A cold mechanical form sat with just it's head over the canyon wall, surveying the stalemate below. Narekh, the ruler of the once great Nethryst Dynasty, taped his thumb across his fingers in one hand, an old habit from when he was of flesh and bone. The Necron Phaeron watched with mild amusement as a spectacle breaks out in the canyon below.

The Imperial Guard line, consisting of a couple thousand guardsman and two heavy armour divisions, quickly rushed to their positions as a cry was heard from the other side of the blood coated battle line.

"WAAAGH!"

A good three dozen warbikers emerged from the hoard of orks, ridding around in a tight circle in the middle of no man's land, only just in reach of a good sniper. The guardsman trained their weapons on any ork that strayed closer than the rest, but sat still and did no rise to the challenge.

An unusual movement behind the Imperial Guard line catches Narekh's attention, and he turned to catch five ork Kommandos sneaking around, carefully avoiding all the guardsman in the area.

Narekh tilted his head slightly, puzzling over the Ork's unorthodox behaviour.

'These warbikes are a distraction of sorts? This is an unusual amount of intelligence being shown, based on all current data.'

As he turned back from his calculations and data feeds to the front of the Guard's line, he noticed there were red, heavily armoured figures spread out throughout the line. The Blood Angel Space Marines towered over the Guardsman surrounding them, ever so slightly moving where their weapon was aimed, suspecting some sort of trickery.

Their suspicions did not have to wait long to be validated.

Behind the warbikers, ten looted waggons rolled forward, the noise they made completely drowned out by the screaming orks and bikes in front of them. The hastily rebuilt artillery seemed so poorly built that they should have fallen apart from the light breeze, yet they remained completely intact. Once they were in range, the former Leman Russes opened fire.

The first shells fell within the guardsman ranks, killing dozens before they had realized what was happening. Orders and co-ordinates began being barked out by the Sergeants as their own Leman Russ tanks, of which they had fourteen, began training their guns to return the shelling.

Suspecting this must be another part of the distraction, Narekh turns his attention back to where the Kommandos last were, noticing they have advanced throughout the camp, and had made their way to the HQ building at the centre. Within the building, three Commissars and a Company Commander were alternating between listening to and barking orders through their vox's.

One of the Kommandos rolled an explosive towards the front door before rushing back to join his comrades behind the building.

Narekh made an odd mechanical hissing sound, not unlike laughter, as he waited for the real fun to begin.

The stickkbomb exploded, obliterating the bottom half of the door and startling all those inside, who immediately took defensive positions and began rushing their leaders to the back of the building, right where the Kommandos wanted them.

The Orks were positioned peculiarly around the back of the building, one at each side of the door, their crude weapons drawn and ready, with the other three all huddled just around the corner, sluggas drawn in both hands.

The rear door opens, and a guardsman rushes out, rolling down the steps before panning his riffle to the buildings around him, completely oblivious to the orks he just passed.

Narekh shook his head slightly at the man, 'pitiful creature.'

Following him, a Commissar adorned with several medals marched out angrily, his bolt pistol drawn in one hand while he wielded a power sword in the other, triggering the orks to act as he took his first step.

The two Kommando's at the door both struck at a separate target, the one to the right of the door leaping on the back of the guardsman, as the other engaged the Commissar. The first Ork landed and crushed the guardsman beneath him, who managed to let out a yelp before being stabbed with both crude daggers in the neck. The second Ork was not as successful, as the Commissar raised his blade in time to block one of his axes, on their down swing. The second axe managing to dig into the mans shoulder, rendering his bolt pistol arm useless.

The infuriated Commissar screamed in rage as he bashed the Ork in the face with the hilt of his sword, causing the ork to bleed from his nose and be stunned briefly. Lowering his blade, he tried to plunge it into the Orks gut, but was thrown by his dead arm into the middle of the street by the first Ork, who dies an instant later when several las pistol shots fire through the doorway and obliterated his head.

The second Ork laughs briefly at the Commisar's missfortune before shortly meeting his own, as boltor fire rips through the window he was in front of, causing his torso to shatter into dozens of pieces.

The remaining Kommandos, seeing their chance to fulfill their mission, walked out from behind the corner and all emptied their sluggas into the Commisar. Unaware of the further threat, the Commisar had managed to get himself on one knee, and raised his head just in time to see the Orks firing upon him.

Of the six shots fired, two missed outright, three hit the holy power armor, but one got him right in the eye.

As the helpless man started to fall backwards, the Blood Angel's Captain stepped out from the doorway, his boltor springing into life and tore through the chests of two of the Orks before they could do anything else.

The final Ork, either through sheer determination or stupidity, charged at the Commissar with an active stikkbomb in his hand.

Both las-fire and boltor rounds riddled the final Ork during his charge, but it was all too late, the stikkbomb he held was only three feet away from the Commissar when it exploded, and it left no room for doubt he was dead.

Narekh turned to the odd sound of Guardsmen cheering, as he saw the Orks had fallen back to their line.

The Guardsman had foolishly thought they had repelled the Ork strike, when in reality, they had just cheered for the death of one of their own Commissar.

-Writers notes

Ah, I love a good battle to start off a story. With the next chapter, you'll start to be introduced to the characters at play in this, as well as what's going on with the Necron just sitting and watching. Please leave a comment about this so far as it is the first piece I have written in a long time and/or message me if you have a question related to the prologue or the series. I'll try to upload roughly once a week, no promises though.