As the door shut with a guttural creek, the kill teams were plunged into darkness with only their lights cutting through the darkness. They made their way through the unliving realm, cautious of every sound that echoed from just around the corner or just down the long hall. Black structures had been raised from the ground, each another piece in a geometric puzzle carved on the ground by the green lights. Slowly, the teams began to split up to cover more ground, venturing deeper into the basalt labyrinth.
Ephemeral ghostly winds blew in, turning into distant echoing as it bounced off boxes and walls, mixing with the sounds of eldritch machinery that sent shivers up the spines of all but the most hardened. Only the disorganized rhythm of footsteps and stomping brought a new noise to the undying realm. A distant chittering brought everyone to a standstill as they raised their weapons for a tense eternity before continuing forward. Paths turned to corridors and became wider, leading to new chambers and areas as the lights on the ground gently hummed with energy. The hydraulics of the Sentinel and the Ironstrider nearly deafened everyone else in the comparative silence as they stomped forward. Eyes were glued to radars and auspexes as above the Pteraxii soared the open space. Their data-tethers to the Magos providing the tech priest information as they went.
The group came across a large circular chamber, its walls were made entirely of the black stone of the floor and the skeleton of a half-finished dome crowned the chamber's ceiling, like the carcass of a long dead beast trapping them. Altars and half-walls formed a natural cross in the room, all leading to a central stele covered in Necron glyphs where the lines on the floor went into as well. The Tau decided this would be the place where they could establish their fallback point to guard and advocated for each of the other kill teams to take one of the other three hallways to explore. The Eldar warlock simply nodded and gracefully brought their team towards the right-most exit. The Inquisitor had to pry the Magos away from the central stele before heading off to the left-most exit. And taking one last look at the structure, Magos J-1M took the remaining middle hallway, his servo-skulls zipping after him once his team left the chamber.
As the teams delved deeper into the garage, they kept their lights closer and frequently checked their backs, the Tau and the Guardsmen especially. But something was off. Sure, they were coming in here to shut down this tomb before it could fully awake, but it was completely empty. The few members even remotely knowledgeable about the ancient aliens all remarked how there should have been constructs that stalked the halls, maintaining and preparing the tomb. And the garage, how had it been transformed so quickly? Something wasn't right and all of the groups walked a little closer together, just in case.
"Gracious visitor…" a deep mechanical voice echoed across the corridors and from every direction, prompting dozens of guns to suddenly be raised and ready to fire, soldiers on a hair-trigger, "You are not welcomed here. Not yet. Leave now, and upon my honor, you will not be harmed."
"Unliving abomination!" the Eldar Warlock cried out from their position, "The Eldar shall do no such thing! We will remove the head of your ancient taint and your presence from this land!"
"Error: Compliance subroutine not found." The Magos order his Skitarii in front of him while the rest of the team took up position to cover both ends of the hallways, "Addendum: Do not attempt request again."
"Very well… Than I, Tazmun the Guardian… the Royal Warden of Izfret… the Lord High Judicator of Apakht… the Makltan of Ash… and Slayer of the Cursed shall deliver you to your ends…!"
The ground shook as the lines on the ground hummed loudly as a wave of light swept through them. Instantly, communications were shorted out as the Skitarii shook violently and the Magos winced behind his hood in an expression of pain. At the temporary HQ's in the laundry room, chaos erupted as both the Tau and the Imperials lost their connection to the teams inside. Operators attempted to reconnect and find a signal while the tech priests began to recite litanies and hymns to the vox-casters and the signal antenna. The Eldar had a slight idea of what was going on thanks to psychic messaging, but it was faint and heavily distorted, like trying to wade through a sea of TV static to find a fish.
On the other side of the garage door, the tomb began to shift. Walls moved and rose from the ground; barriers shifted and sank into the wall; pylons cracked above the skyline and let loose an alien energy. Wall panels dropped down to reveal row upon row of Necron Warriors who slowly crawled out to defend the tomb. Gunfire erupted across all the teams as they tried to make their retreat back to the original circular chamber and return across the gate. Soldiers began to fall, shrieking in pain as their flesh was stripped away and they crumbled like ash on the floor, not even leaving bones.
"Alpha Prioris Request: Pteraxii direct us a path." The Magos ordered his flying soldiers above to stop firing and direct them through the shifting maze of black and green.
"Come on people, we are moving!" Inquisitor Peratix roared as his team began an orderly withdrawn, laying down fire as they moved, "Wait I have an idea. Anyone here have a melta bomb?"
"Warriors of Belethann! To me!" the Warlock called out to the Eldar under his control, quickly regrouping them to try and find a way out with the (limited) help of the Seers back in the ceiling city.
There was little cover to be found in the shifting black halls. And what could be found either soon moved away of its own accord, or was blasted away by the oncoming Necron tide. The sound of even more machines awakening drove the teams to move faster as Wraiths appeared out of the wall, grabbing at and slicing at the soldiers running by. The Inquisitor was nearly brought low by one, dodging out of the way as the blades carved a line into his armor. Without missing a beat, the Stormtroopers stood still for a second to take aim and snap a shot into the construct, distracting it long enough for the Inquisitor to gut it with his sword.
"Clear the blast zone!" the Space Marine sergeant armed his melta bomb and threw it at the obsidian wall. A bright light followed by a burst that rang out across the entire tomb.
"Go! Go! Everyone into the hole!" The Inquisitor's team trickled through the newly created door, each person to go through either clearing the path forward or laying covering fire for those yet to come through.
With the echoing boom behind them, the Magos's team continued to follow the Pteraxii like sailors following birds. Several guardsmen had been killed and most of the Rangers having been reduced to twitching electronics and machinery crushed under the necrodermis foot of oncoming warriors. The Sentinel was turned into a standing fireball as its cabin was blown apart by a Doomsday Ark before it collapsed on the ground. The Ironstrider rode ahead of the main force, but was also found destroyed as the group rounded the corner.
"Go back! Go back! Take the other hall!" one of the Guardsmen screamed as the entire force faced down a Canoptek Doomstalker, its skeletal legs taller than the high walls and its gaze fixed on the burning wreck of the Ironstrider before shifting to the guardsmen.
"Alpha Prioris Request: Psyker support!" the Magos watched as the fleshy Imperials flooded back into the hall. Clicking and whirring, he brought up his own Plasma Culverin to fire around the corner as the pysker calmly walked up.
Only ever known as "Mask", no one knew who the pysker was under flowing robes they always wore. Some of the more creative guardsmen claimed they were a psyhic servitor or a penitent witch or just pure energy under robes. It didn't help that Mask never spoke either, instead relying on their trademark mask to make a variety of facial expressions that seemed to have grown since Max introduced anime to the Imperial regiments. It was the great shame of Bragana that some of the Imperials enjoyed it more than even the Tau. As the warp bent around the shadowy figure, the guardsmen could see their hands shake, clearly whatever the Necron activated to block their vox was also influencing them. Lightning tore through the air, striking the towering walker and disrupting the charging of its main weapon. Within seconds, a bolt of plasma slammed into the body, fired from Magos J-1M's culverin.
Knowing when a giant evil machine was distracted, the Guardsmen took the opportunity to run out of cover. Some of the closer ones even threw krak grenades at the feet of the thing, hoping to at least cut it down. The remaining Skitarii stood and fired at the giant walker alongside their Magos until they were cut down.
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"Left side! Left side!" The Tau Breacher squad ran across the raised platform in the entry chamber and took cover behind the low cover of the altars and walls. They fired into the darkness, relying entirely upon marker lights. The rapid blasts of the XV-8s shredded through another group of warriors, only for them to start crackling and rise again after only a second of breath.
"Do these things ever die?!" One of the younger Pathfinders cried out as a gauss shot barely missed his head.
A blast sent every Tau spinning their heads and aiming their guns at the newly minted hole in the wall. One of the Shas'ui sergeants had to tackle one of their underlings before they tried to pop a shot at the Marine who came first out of the smoke. Immediately they recognized the figures as one of the Imperial teams. Returning to their overwatch and trying to put down some very stubborn Necrons, the leading battlesuit jumped over to the Inquisitor, "Gue'vesa, what is going on? The ground suddenly shook and these metal beings shot at us."
"They're called Necrons but now's not the time for a history lesson, we need to regroup everyone and get back out. This mission is lost, we aren't equipped to handle an awaken tomb." The Inquisitor looked back at what was left of his battered kill team. Half the Sororitas were dead along with a third of his Stormtroopers. The Marines held up well but one of them had been ripped apart by… something. "Scions! Get to the front and help the xenos hold the line."
"I thought this was a dormant tomb." The battlesuit pilot watched as blue-armored humans rushed to fill in the gaps in the line next to the Tau fire warriors. A pair of Marines were kept at the breaching hole, firing into the mist with their massive rifles.
"Yeah, I thought so too."
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A guardsman looked around the corner with a small mirror he carried specifically for this purpose. Way was all clear. He nodded to the other guardsmen stacked up behind him and rounded the corner, lasgun leveled and pointed down the corridor. The other guardsmen wasted no time in pushing down the hall, some pressing into wall cut outs and aiming their own weapons just in case. With the coast mostly clear, Magos J-1M brought up the last rearguard, Mask the pysker leaning against him as they hobbled along.
"Query: Are you functional?" the Magos's Omnisian Axe thumped the ground with every step, the Pteraxii still flying above.
Mask's face lit up with "x.o"; the Magos took it as a sign of "wounded but functional".
"Inform: We should be close to the main chamber. The path is laid before me."
Just as the Magos spoke those words and took another step forward, a stream of Necron energy beams shot into the air, cutting most the flying troops into charred, crispy ribbons as their remains plummeted to the ground. Only one was spared but they soon disappeared out of the sky.
"Addendum: I have all the information needed to traverse this tomb from the Pteraxii ariel logs."
"Monkeigh!" the voice of the Eldar Warlock caused about a dozen lasguns to be pointed in his direction to which the Wraithguard and Avengers responded by raising their own weapons, "Don't shoot us! Save your primitive arms for the unliving."
"Affirmation: Agreed. The Omnissiah's holy weapons are only to be against the enemies of his divine will." The mild tone of disgust in the Warlock's voice was only matched by the sourness in J-1M's monotone. Neither side lowered their weapons. In fact, more guardsmen raised their weapons and Mask glared at the Eldar with a ":T" on their face.
"How much longer are we going to play this game you metal monk—"
BBRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMM
A wraith began to poke its head out of the wall and it took its ancient mind a second to register what was going on. One second later, it was filled with some hundred odd holes and scorch marks as the top half popped out of the wall and the other half left to die within it.
"Inform: We need to get moving. I have already found the location of the other group." Magos J-1M began to lead the guardsmen and Mask towards the central chamber, not really caring that the Eldar was following them with a minimal amount of distance.
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Inquisitor Peratix was beginning to wish that he paid more attention to his dueling lessons. Lychguard appeared down one of the hallways and to ensure the firing line didn't get overrun, he led a heroic charge against the elite wardens of the Necrons with the Space Marines. However, too many long nights grasping at leads and reliance on his underlings for melee meant that his skills were left lacking. The Lychguard's shield proved a great annoyance and their blades faster than you'd think a metal skeleton would be able to swing it. Locking blades with the warrior, Peratix growled as his foot tried to dig into the hard, black ground.
"Face our fury, xenos!" a Space Marine roared, revving his chainsword as he cut into the distracted Lychguard's side with brutal results, sending sparks and loose metal flying.
The two shared a nod of thanks before the Marine engaged in battle once again. Peratix looked around and saw the multicolored beams of munitions and trails of rockets fly down the two remaining halls. A sister attended to the wounded Pretaxii Alpha who fell out of the sky who was twitching and gurgling some strange oily substance out of his mouth. The Inquisitor silently admitted to himself that it was probably a terrible idea to try and lead something like this. The most he ever commanded was his own retinue and even when he had larger forces, he typically only gave big orders to the commanders and let them do their thing. And now he had wasted the Emperor's currency. It was hard for him not to feel a tinge of shame.
"Guest of honor…" a familiar voice echoed past Peratix, but instead of being all over, it only came from one direction, "The tenacity of your followers is admirable…"
"I don't need compliments from you, xenos." Peratix raised his sword again and looked just beyond the Lychguard, another figure had made his appearance known. His bronze necrodermis was ornate, decorated with etched symbols and glowing glyphs around his collarbone. Pauldrons of turquoise trimmed with silver fastened a scale cloak of tiny coffins, each bearing the symbol of a fallen dynasty. Its eyes glowed a vivid amethyst from within its bone white head and in its armored clutches it carried a glaive of beautifully ancient construction. Tazmun had decided to personally intervene. The Lychguard fought their opponents back, clearing a path for their leader straight to Peratix.
"But surely you appreciate it..." The Royal Warden swung his blade in a swift upward motion, gutting a charging Marine from groin to neck. As the Marine's innards spilled out on the ground, Tazmun levelled his glowing glaive at the Inquisitor, eyes glowing with the fires of battle. "Come, I challenge you to a trial of personal combat…"
A/N: Wooooo! Over 1,000 views! This is the best any of my stories have done here (yes, I had old stories and I ended up deleting all of them a while ago before starting this one). Thanks to everyone whose read, favorited and followed this story! I am especially looking for feedback on this chapter as its the first large scale attempt at writing combat for me in details. As always, thank you so much for reading and doing all that good fav/fol stuff! You guys are what push me to write everyday! The Emperor Protects!