"We are here to witness the opening of the Necron embassy, here in New York. The monolithic building you see behind me is not only the diplomatic access point for the United States to the Necron Empire but also the headquarters for Necron company, Szarekh Industries. Over the past two months since the invasion of the Imperium, the Necrons have helped the nations of the world rebuild at a dizzying rate, resulting in a global economic boom." It was but one of many news channels talking about the necrons and their remarkable feats of clean-up and construction.
"I am not sure which is scarier, the media's coverage of Cirrikan and his people or that which they do not show." Said John Stewart to Batman.
The Dark Knight merely looked over to other screens showing canoptek spyders using some unseen means to maintain surface tension on the water as they consume mounds of trash that had practically built up on the Pacific. Another showed canoptek scarabs swarming over beaches to break down waste that was left there. Still another demonstrated the groups of scarabs and spyders working to rebuild structures and roads that had been damaged by the alien invasion.
"What is missing from these pictures?" Batman asked the Green Lantern.
The former marine looked at all the images before announcing," Their base of operations. We do not see where they are coming from."
"Exactly. We know they have teleportation technology but as it does not use any form of energy that we recognize, we cannot track them. I spotted one in Gotham and placed a tracer on it."
Batman brought up a hologram of the Earth. A red dot appeared in Gotham. It zipped about as the clock started. It stayed for an hour before disappearing and appearing in Detroit for 30 min before moving to the Middle East. From there it went to China, Australia, Haiti, New York, and…
"The Tower?! It is here in the Tower?!" Said a shocked Green Lantern.
Batman's hands danced over the keyboard as it zoomed in on the cafeteria.
"I'm on it." Said the Green Lantern, who surrounded himself in a green field and soared to the cafeteria.
When he got there he was greeted by an unusual sight. There was no spyder. The first thing he saw was by far the most unusual, the Flash looked exhausted, lounging on a… sofa. Which brought up another point, there was furniture of the nice variation in the cafeteria. The next sight was Hawkgirl and wonder woman talking with the cryptek. Continuing the unusual, the cryptek had changed his attire from the antiquated hooded robes to custom victorian attire, complete with cane, cape coat and top hat with the strange sigil of the necrons on his hat.
"The two of you come from two different schools of thought…" Said the cryptek.
He pointed to Hawkgirl," Considering what you told me about Thanagarian Military, you are a soldier coming from hierarchy, where your decisions are made for you."
He shifted to Wonder Woman," You come from a society of warriors, where your moral code dictates your actions."
"What are you doing here?" John Stewart asked the Cryptek with an accusatory tone.
"We invited him to join us for coffee." Said Diana, lifting up the sweet smelling cup.
"Also to return something…" Said the cryptek reached into his coat and tossed to the Lantern a small device. John Stewart immediately recognized it as one of Batman's tracking devices.
"I certainly hope Mr. Wayne has gathered enough information into the activities of my canoptek spyders. Next time he places one of those on either my canoptek constructs or my people, I will give him a taste of Necron science that he will most assuredly not like." Said the cryptek as he stood.
He tipped his top hat in the direction of the two women," Ladies, until our next meeting."
John Stewart narrowed his eyes as the necron vanished in a flash of green mist.
He turned to Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl," You invited him?"
"He makes for great conversation…" Said Hawkgirl.
"... and he makes a great cup of coffee." Said Wonder Woman
Both of the women smiled as they got up and left the befuddled Green lantern behind.
Cirrikan reappeared, having just used the teleportation grid he had built into the Sol system, into one of the installations he had fashioned inside the asteroids of the asteroid belt. Having been rich in minerals, this particular asteroid became the first of several necrodermis processing and refining centers. Converting raw materials to low-quality necrodermis, though comparatively more complex than the whole of Earth's industrial infrastructure, was a relatively simple thing to the Technomancer. The installation was designed to refine the necrodermis into a higher quality before being utilized.
The cryptek was not so inclined as to simply put his people back into the low-quality bodies they had been cursed with, rather, as he reconstructed them he would grant them bodies of the highest quality regardless of their societal position. As he would soon have the resources to do so, Cirrikan intended to rectify many of the problems that plagued his people. One of the more prominent was the Flayer virus.
The cryptek had quarantined the head and spines of those afflicted with the Flayer virus in a separate asteroid with an isolated Nodal Command Network. In its own way, it was fortunate that the Nodal Command Network was as damaged as it was on Kronus, it had prevented the Flayer Virus from spreading. Plus, when Cirrikan had arrived, he had had the insight to bind them into their own network with Command protocols overriding their individual desires. It was a crude stop-gap measure but it prevented the virus from spreading and was preferable to destroying his people.
The nature of the virus was both mental and physical, meaning the cryptek could not address it directly without risking infection himself. To approach the problem, Cirrikan took another unconventional approach: He allowed certain spyders to gain sentience. This was not a taboo as it was with the Adeptus Mechanicus, it was just generally considered unnecessary as their society worked just fine with the constructs as they were. However, as the virus attacked Necron essences, the constructs were naturally immune, making them ideal for the work he had in mind.
With a certain measure of foresight, the cryptek decided to have the sentient spyders and attached canoptek medical wraiths practice on human diseases with similar degenerative properties such as Alzheimer's and Dementia. While incapable of emotions, the sentient spyders took to their new task with some degree of enthusiasm.
Leaving the cure for the Flayer virus in the hands of his spyders, the cryptek refocused on the damage he could fix; the neurologically damaged, effectively known as the destroyers. The cryptek examined each of the destroyers and developed individualized repair procedures for each including planned upgrades for each unit. The cryptek sent the individual repair procedures to the Nodal Engineering Network, another of his experimental ideas. Cirrikan designed the Nodal Engineering Network to supplement the Nodal Military Network and, if successful, would be added to existing Nodal Command Networks when he returned to his universe. The idea was to create a system that could more adaptively address larger technical problems that plagued Tomb Worlds.
The NEN was designed to arrange all canoptek wraith, spyders, and scarabs into what was generally referred by the humans as a BEOWULF cluster or networking on a process level. The purpose was to give the constructs more flexibility and problem-solving capabilities, while simultaneously avoiding sentience. The cryptek doubted the other cryptek conclaves cared to remember their scientific history when they were necrontyr of when they mapped the path to machine sentience. The map detailed how a machine mind could be balanced between problem-solving capability and restraint. There was little doubt in Cirrikan's mind that it was the further research of this map that Illuminor Szeras developed Biotransference and the attachment to the Nodal Command Networks.
With all tasks readied to be taken up by their charges, Cirrikan teleported to another location that he decided needed an immense overhaul: The city of Chicago in the state of Illinois.
As more necron warriors were rebuilt, upgraded, and became available, they were mostly sent to Chicago to both aid the struggling police force and protect people who wished to be free of the gangs. Naturally, the gangs did not take kindly to the Necron incursion into what they viewed as their territory. Especially, as they pushed their way into rebuilding industries and breathing new life into the city. Rather than taking gauss weaponry to deal with the gangs permanently, Cirrikan opted for a solution that would starve the gangs out of ammo, resources and territory. Being as resilient as they were, Necrons were ideal to be bullet sponges and crime recorders.
This was but one step the cryptek took to dealing with the gangs. To remove their drug user customer base, the cryptek fabricated more canoptek medical wraiths equipped with a variant of the mindshackle scarabs designed to reset the drug user's brain chemistry. From there, the necrons, would turn them over to industries funded by the Necron Empire to get them back on their feet and train them with job skills which they would in turn use. Finally with the permission of the mayor, Cirrikan was given samples of each drug which he used to integrate into scarab swarms which would then hunt down and break down the drugs into more raw materials, short of those needed for evidence when drug busts took place.
Cirrikan teleported next to a teleportation node disguised as a quite-functional fire hydrant. Joining him, was a lychguard or to be accurate, a lychguard potential. The individual, named Neras, had been personally repaired from his former status as a Destroyer. When he was a Necrontyr, he was a candidate in training for the position of a lychguard but when the species-wide biotransference took place his essence had been relegated to that of a low-quality warrior frame. What was more overlapping maintenance had decayed his systems further for the Destroyer condition to come into being.
The cryptek rebuilt him from his very core with much higher quality necrodermis material, reconstructing his mind and memories. This rebuild had left Cirrikan wondering how many other rare gems were hidden in the poor-quality bodies his people had been condemned with. The research of apotheosis had taken a significant leap forwards with the acquisition and analysis of Imperium Biotechnology in addition to the cryptek's exploration into genetics. Cirrikan had developed a custom-tailored necrodermis variation of DNA, which he used to develop Neras present body. As Cirrikan doubted that his people would want to go back to their short-lived agonizing lives, he instead to recreate a new genetic baseline from the ground up, inching their necrodermis bodies back into life.
Neras looked less like the skeletal form of the necrons and more like that of a muscular human, complete with the necron technological equivalent of muscle and skin. The new frame not only retained it's self-repair capabilities but also made it easier to repair. Cirrikan would tinker with it more over time, but the new Lychguard seemed to very much enjoy the sensation of feeling the wind blow across his silvery arms while the rest of his body bore highly advanced circuitry. Also liberating his mind of a significant portion of his hard-locked programming had an unusual side-effect of the Lychguard being very loyal to the Cryptek yet also very inquisitive.
"Why the Great Sleep?" Neras asked the cryptek through their network.
"Numerous reasons. First, our numbers were devastated after we shattered the majority of the remaining C'tan and sealed them away for direst need. We needed to repair our numbers. Second, if we were to reclaim life itself, life needed to return to the barren galaxy." The Cryptek explained as they walked the sidewalk.
"What of your work here? On this planet? Why do we not subject it under Necron rule?" Neras asked with an energy befitting the age he was prior to biotransference.
"Our presence here is unexpected but there are many opportunities to explore with the planet as it is. Also, we are in a separate universe, meaning that our race has no claim here. We are guests here and regardless of how primitive they are, we must behave as such. As for my work, it too can be fostered here. You yourself are a sign of progress. We will claim life once again but not as the short-lived miserable forms we were but rather reborn as living immortals, strong and noble. This is but a taste of the potential of my vision." Said the Technomancer.
"Then if you will have me, I would be your personal lychguard." Said Neras
"Your enthusiasm is palpable however, your lychguard training is incomplete and lacking, as such you need to fill the gap with what this world has to offer." Advised the Cryptek.
"What could the primitive fleshlings possibly teach us?" Asked Neras belligerently.
"Humility for starters. There is no greater obstacle to personal development than the wall of your own pride. Among the many obstacles our people face to moving forwards is our refusal to learn, thinking we have achieved the pinnacle of everything there is to know, yet we pine to live again, we are beset by age and disease even in our metal bodies, our society is stagnated. We must embrace change and seek to learn to new things regardless of source." The cryptek's tone was subtle, yet bore utter conviction.
The lychguard internally was taken aback by this expression of emotion, something that was practically alien to come from such a venerable being yet it evidenced a level of progress in what the cryptek spoke of.
"I will abide by the will of the Technomancer." Said Neras in submission.
The two of them walked to the front of a Necron business building. The cryptek led the lychguard into the structure's laboratories which housed an examination table. Cirrikan gestured for Neras to climb on. While the lychguard-in-training climbed onto the table, the cryptek unleashed the interdimensional shackles on his cane, shifting it back into his Staff of Creation. He placed the staff onto a holder before turning his attention to Neras. He mentally activated the teleportation grid summoning an ingot of high-quality necrodermis to his hand. All four of his arms activated his built-in energy tools, using the exotic energy exclusive to his race's technology.
Ingot began to shift and change as a ball separated from the ingot as he approached Neras. The cryptek extended a hand to Neras face. The glow of former warrior's eyes went out as his systems entered stand-by. The cryptek extended a hand over Neras head as his energy tools began to rework the skull-like head into a more human-shaped skull. Two more spheres of material left the ingot. Two of Cirrikan's hands enclosed around the spheres. His hands opened to reveal two very human-like eyeballs with emerald irises. Synthetic muscle began to form on the head followed by skin.
More ingots appeared in the air near the cryptek as the first reshaped into the familiar form of a canoptek leech to facilitate his research remotely. He placed the leech inside Neras chest cavity as it was reshaped as well. The cryptek brought many a theoretical idea into being as he rebuilt the warrior. When the cryptek was finished, Neras looked like a powerfully built young human male, complete anatomy in every way. The cryptek had completely overhauled Neras nervous system to be as sensitive if not more sensitive than humans were capable of. Eyesight more enhanced, olfactory senses added, hearing improved, taste, and especially all sensation's related to touch.
The cryptek fashioned robes as white hair appeared on Neras' head. The cryptek tied the leech to Neras mind and body. He reached inside, gathered all his memories as a necron and sealed them away along with most of his memories as a necrontyr. He instilled knowledge of every known human language along with an understanding which could have interesting ramifications. Finally, Cirrikan severed Neras from the network and then teleported the necron.
So begins my next experiment… Thought the cryptek as he submitted his latest work to the sentient canoptek spyders in hopes of it benefitting their own work.
The cryptek turned around to retrieve his staff.
It was gone.