Nehekhara, close to the Marches of Madness

The Black Pyramid felt the approaching warhead a few minutes before impact. When it reentered the atmosphere it heated up to the point where the air around it turned to plasma. A glowing trail pointed a finger towards it and it was the fastest object close to the Pyramid by far. The Void Dragon`s memories knew what this meant, had an idea about the danger the multitude of madness was in and tried to get heard. It was hard, so very, very hard. Instead of commanding obedience the Dragon had to convince, had to show pieces of its past, had to bring more and more of the spirits to his side, all the while doom was approaching swiftly.

Finally a chorus found itself, making their voices heard above the madness and they found a captive audience. The pyramid turned and brought up terrible weapons known to obliterate much harder targets than mere warheads. Sensors reconfigured themselves to obtain an exact firing solution and despaired. By now the warhead was coming nearly straight down on the Pyramid, none of the weapons could bear on it. There was no way of knowing how strong this attack would be, but it seemed there was no way to avoid it.

Despair, anger and hate streamed through the Pyramid like data through a computer, relief at ending an unwanted existence mixed in from many sources. There was one voice which did none of that. It was clear, strong, carried hate and conviction. It sent a simple picture through the chaos. It needed precious time to find an audience, more time for it to be analyzed and agreed upon. During all that time their doom approached at more than three kilometers a second.

Finally the pyramid rose higher than usual, finally it started to tilt. And while some gun barrels aimed at the ground others were granted a view at their target. There was only one chance at this, if they missed there was simply no chance at another salvo. The weapons had never been used for such a purpose and the fire control was far from ideal. Eight green beams rose to the black heavens, each able to render the warhead into its component atoms. None of them hit, even if two came so very, very close. The Particle Whip caused an explosion that was so close that its limits caressed the Pyramid itself. The warhead emerged seemingly unscathed and hit the ground a hundred meters from the pyramid.

None of the minds in the Pyramid needed to breathe, nor could they soil themselves. Still even they could rejoice when no nuclear fire rose to consume them all. The Particle Whip had managed to damage two of the seven locks on the warhead`s fuse to the extend that they would no longer fire.

The Pyramid absorbed the materials it had been offered and then continued its way towards far-off Naggshizarr.

4: Flower cavern in Troll Country

It was the fourth day that Kain was trapped in the flower cavern. Even if the wolves wouldn't attack, they also wouldn't back down. They were roaming around the lake, never crossing even the smallest root.

Kain had further inspected the flowers and conducted a few experiments. The flowers were really growing from within the corpses, and even if the roots were crossing the lake, he had found nothing of the fine hair-like roots he knew flowers normally needed to take in water. So, to his horror, his suspicion that the flowers were living off the corpses seemed to be correct. He had tossed several flowers, individually or still attached to corpse parts, at the wolves. They had jumped away, evading the flowers, but only for about a minute. Then the flowers dwindled and the wolves ignored them completely.

He had drunk the water from the lake to quench his thirst, but knew that it was only a question of time until he would starve, if nothing else happened. His backpack had only contained the food he had deemed necessary for their mission, nothing more. His clothes kept him warm enough so he wouldn't freeze, but that was it. Strangely, the feared corruption caused by warpstone also had not happened yet, or at least he felt nothing and wouldn't dare to take off his clothes to look for the first irregularities. Then something else happened. When he awoke on the fourth day, having fallen asleep with the strange thought how pleasant corpses could feel, he surprisingly felt more powerful again. As he stood up, he heard a very small snapping sound, he had ripped off one of the life-saving flowers. As his eyes followed the path of the ripped off root, his heart stopped for a moment. The root disappeared beneath the skin of his left arm! The flowers already had taken root in him!

At first, he wanted to immediately rip it all out, but then a thought crossed his mind. The wolves—and maybe even other Chaos beings—might fear this flower. He didn't want to think about what it would do with him, but for the moment it was his only hope. Would they evade him now that the flower was a part of him?

He slowly left the heap, crossed the lake and approached the exit, where the wolves already had gathered. Kain stretched out his left arm, where a white flower was blooming from his wrist. And the wolves really backed down. One meter, two meters, three meters. Suddenly his instincts warned him and he jumped back immediately, returning back to safety as fast as possible, while angry maws closed around the space he had been in only a moment ago.

These damn, clever monsters! Whatever effect this flower had, they would still attack him if he was its host. But they still were so cunning to let him leave his safety zone far enough that he would had been killed if not for his sudden instinct. He felt betrayed. By the flower, by Sigmar, by everything. He already had given up all hope, when he saw the slim chance to at least leave this cave, to resist a little longer.

Angrily, he looked up to the ceiling, seeing one of the already common aurora shining into the cavern.

"Damn you! If you really are there, help me! I know I am doomed, that I will die! But I will fight, I will resist to the last second! So help me already or let all of this end, here and now!"
In his anger, he had threatened Sigmar himself to help him. He knew that no help would come. If there had been any chance of help, it would already had shown itself. But he felt better now that he had uttered these words.

Then, surprisingly, something really was happening. Thick fog was entering the cavern through the ceiling hole. Within only a few seconds, Kain could hardly see his own hands in front of him. The wolves reacted. They growled, louder than ever before. Had something entered? This surely wasn't Sigmar, he wouldn't hide himself or one of his servants behind this fog. Suddenly, he heard the sound of something sharp cutting through soft bodies. He heard short whimpering from the wolves, then everything went silent. Fearful, Kain had returned to the corpse heap. What had he summoned into this cavern? And what would it do to him?

Whatever it had been, it did nothing to Kain. About a minute later the fog had dissipated again, revealing the corpses of the Chaos wolves, all of them killed by single cut, severing their heads. Was this his answer? Fearing what would happen if he ignored this opportunity, Kain crossed the lake for a last time. He evaded the severed heads as best as he could and left the cavern. He would die, but by Sigmar, he would struggle to the end. That at least, he owned his dead comrades.

Kopernicus Space Station

Nathan Alpers was royally pissed off, actually to the point where he had to work at not showing it to his crew. They had been around him for so long that they still saw through the calm he tried to project, but the fact that he made the effort made them do the same. And they all knew that Nathan had good reason to be upset as did they all.

They were in one of the most hostile and dangerous environments possible. They had to carry literally everything they needed with them as surroundings would offer none of the basics, but for energy and space itself. They lived inside a spacecraft that had to be built as lightly as possible and that was the first of its kind. Anything they did, including taking a leak when the gravwheel was off, took a plan, preparation and rehearsals. Anything else risked their lives, their spacecraft and their mission. This was not a TV-show to entertain teenagers, they would not fly off at a minute`s notice, they would not modify half-understood technology right now and expect it to work right the first time.

Now command had asked them to forget about all that had been drummed into them and do exactly that. The chances of this mission to work were dismal, their chances at survival barely better.

"Well, you all heard the man, we have to do this. Bashuur, make sure Nordstern is as fit as possible. No miracles asked for, we have to get there and back."
"Yes Nathan."
"Manfred, make sure that the nanites have all materials they need and then get cracking on the 3d-Printer. Irina will help you out."

"Same pattern as before?"
"We don`t have any time for improvements and last time seemed to work. I do not think anybody got around to write a test report yet so we go with what we have."
"Message understood, I`ll make it so."
"Please. I`ll try to remember what we did right last time and write a procedure. Will be a little rough."

"I will need some help with assembling once the `nites are done and the printer has made the housings?"
"I hear you Manfred. Eric, I need a loading plan and kick Neupapenburg for trajectories, lots of them. When you are done help Manfred and Irina."
"Sounds good to me."
"Any questions then? No? Let`s do this."

Chancellor`s office, Bundeskanzleramt Berlin

The chancellor`s office still had the huge, floor-to-ceiling windows, but their greenish tinge hinted at the thickness needed to armor them and the coating that prevented outsiders from looking at those who worked here. It also lent everybody inside the skin color usually only seen on the body of the drowned. Olaf Scholz rose to greet his visitor, made all the right noises and called her by her first name in a way that usually indicated a cordial relationship to Germans. He did not guide her to his desk, but to the small seat-and-sofa arrangement to indicate that the visit was a friendly and unofficial one. The smile never left his face and only his eyes told the truth. He despised Sabine Peter for various reasons and was forced to work with her. That she did the same and fully knew that the feeling was mutual meant that things were quite normal in politics. When all was said and done they had a duty to the Germans and each of them tried to discharge that as best as they could. They just had very different ideas on what that duty meant.

"Thanks again for finding the time to see me at such short notice Olaf. That must have been quite difficult."
"For you always Sabine. I remember you prefer green tea?"
"Yes please."
"So what is it that brought you here."
"The disaster of course."
"You mean the failed attack on the Pyramid?"
"Yes, of course that`s what I mean."
"This will be the topic of the Security Cabinet`s meeting later today."
"I thought it useful to test the waters with you."

"Very considerate. Well, this is not the first time an attack fails and it won`t be the last time. When our soldiers engaged the Horned Rat our tanks were unable to kill it at first. The Chaos Dwarfs nearly destroyed Wolf`s Dragoons. We should analyze such things and learn from them so they will not repeat themselves."
"Yes, but what will we learn from this? Use bigger bombs and more of them? Kill everything that might be or even become a threat instead of trying to learn and understand? What would have happened if Angela Merkel would have applied the same to Sylvania`s rulers?"
"That was different."
"Why?"

"Because they were not such a clear threat and as we had less to use and more to win. Also because Manfred von Carstein did not kill everything moving in his sight and as he indicated right away that he was willing to negotiate. It is not that we did not try to contact this thing."

"Contact it with cruise missiles, artillery and a bloody nuclear bomb. Which the Pyramid absorbed by the way so you can claim it is more dangerous than before."
"We did try to contact it via wireless, something it is obviously capable of. Neither our diplomats, nor IT-people or the AIs had any chance there. It killed anything around it that moved and it is very likely of Necron origin. If that is so it is not interested in any talks, it is interested in our death."
"We do not know that for sure."

"Given what we have seen, given that we tried, rightly or wrongly, to kill it with a nuclear bomb, I will not risk it. We will destroy this thing, one way or another and best now as long as it is where few living things are."
"You discriminate against the undead."

"Even of them there are very few in that area and they would weather anything we do better than the living."
"My party will not stand for another use of a nuclear weapon under these circumstances. We would withdraw from the coalition."
"Which would likely bring the CDU back into power, this time probably with the Kaiserlichen. They will be sooo much better of course for all of our coalition, but you can feel pristine and innocent."
"If we tell ourselves that each time we will be party to bigger and bigger crimes till we are no different. And you do not tell me that you did not reject our proposal to lure the Pyramid into the Chaos Desert because the SPD needs to look strong on national defense."

"Well, I can promise you that we have no plans to use nuclear weapons again. And while I will not deny we have to show the voters that we will defend them as best as we can, sorry your proposal does not hold water. The direct line between Nagash`s fortress and the Chaos desert is right through the World`s edge mountains. I doubt it will take that route, it evades mountains presently. So it would either go through the Empire and Kislev, which is not a very good idea. It might kill lots of people, the governments would refuse out of hand, so that is a no-show. And leading it through the bloody steppe means it would probably kill Orks and Goblins in wholesale amounts. Didn`t you remind us that while they are not humans we cannot kill them except for "dire emergency?".

"There have to be other ways, we just need time to find them."
"Let us say we take a couple of weeks to find them, a timeframe I believe to be quite short. Then the Pyramid will be on top of a great lot of warpstone, a place where were can only attack in dire emergency. Whatever we do then will affect a lot more people than now. And if that thing is able to get so much warpstone it might very well build more of these cute little bugs and Terminator-clones that actually work. That is not a good idea at all."

"Even if I say you are right, of which I am not convinced, I cannot sell this to the party. I need something or they`ll force a vote about pulling out of government. Give me something."
"Well two things then. First off, we will not attack with nuclear weapons for the foreseeable future. Secondly, somebody needs to take responsibility for the failed attack and the advice to use an ICBM and that will be Markus."
"We all agreed in that session Olaf, this is hardly fair."
"Markus himself indicated that he would resign."
"Why, he certainly did not do anything wrong instead?"

"Come on Sabine, you should know better. He cannot stay in this government too long or he will be "tainted" in the eyes of his electorate. Our Markus is highly ambitious, I would not be too surprised if he does not covet this office. He can now play martyr with his people and show how well he defended the defense budget. He won`t suffer at all."
"So what will you propose in the meeting."
"Oh Markus will tell us that a long shot is our best bet…."

Inside the Black Pyramid

The picomachines by themselves were not very intelligent. They were remarkably clever for something that small, but a housefly had more processing power than any of them. That, of course, had not mattered at all. The void Dragon had created and shaped them as his own body and his personality had provided focus, established organization and set priorities. That personality had been badly damaged by his stay in the warp already and been torn into pieces by Nagash in an orgy of mutual destruction. Only the most basic of functions had remained, sometimes enhanced by remains that offered advice or warning. Apart from that the picomachines were on their own and if there was nothing that really needed to be done they tried their best to multiply. For that they needed resources which were exchanged among them.

Before Magl`adroth had regulated this, but he was no longer around. The picos, left to their own devices tried different strategies. Some simply took the energy and materials by main force, usually losing more of it in the attempt to do so than they won. Others set up exchanges, some of them worked, others not. As the newly built machines copied the strategies of their "parent" more effective strategies had a tendency to spread out rather quickly.

The same went for changes in building plans. For as long as they had been a part of a great being their builds had been restricted to a set of age-old plans. Now there was nothing instead that kept them from modifications. These were necessary given that Warpstone now made up parts of them and they had to adapt. Those who did better and used up less warpstone multiplied faster.

And whatever the picomachines did, they did it fast. Whereas humans and other biological organisms could be as fast or slow as chemical reactions allowed the picos were using a great deal of of nuclear interaction which were a lot swifter. Changes were rippling through the pyramid like waves and slow-motion explosions while the body moved at slow speed towards the capability to made more of them and more change.

Nordstern, in Orbit close to "Sage 29"

Nathan was far too exhausted to be frustrated or angry. "Nordstern" had arrived at the old Killer Satellite some 30 hours ago and he could count the hours he had slept during that time on the fingers of one hand. Even with some digits removed it would be easy. His skin chafed against the suit he had worn for far too long. Normally he would not sweat in the suit as it cooled very well at need, but it certainly was not meant to be worn for 12 hours in one go. And he could not remember any time he had worked harder in space than now. So he had sweated a lot and now his skin reacted to that. His sinuses would probably never be the same due to the ultra-dry air they had been exposed to for so long and his eyes burned for the same reason.

He moved the pentagonal wrench into his tool case and retrieved a hammer and a wedge from the same. Making sure both were well-fixed to his underarm Velcro pad he punched the controls that operated the powered parts of his suit. The suit used artificial muscles and actuators taken straight from the power armor program to ease the task of moving against the suits's resistance. A new wrinkle had been added a few months ago, and so far it worked out well. The frame that gave purchance to the actuators allowed mounting two additional "arms" to the suit. The software that was to run them was still quirky, but it was very good for fixing oneself in place. By activating the guidance he repositioned the arm by moving the finger of his right hand inside its glove. While Nathan grabbed a handhold, the arm removed a pad that was covered with synthetic "Gecko" pads and positioned it much lower. Now Nathan could release his hold and had the "Waldo" push him down before fixing his position. He took the wedge and managed to wiggle the tip in the line on the huge cylinder before him. The lower part had refused to move by itself when he and Erik Bär had loosened all screws. One hand made sure that the wedge stayed in place, the other applied the augmented strength with the hammer against it. Without the third arm that fixed him to the surface he would have drifted off immediately, with it he was just thrown against his own suit. Which made his skin chafe even more, he had to ignore that. The first two hits caused nothing but sweat, the third enlarged the small gap.

Both he and Eric worked on opposite sides of the cylinder and within a few minutes they managed to detach the old drive unit. They pushed it away by their legs and Nordstern`s long manipulating arm gave it a nudge so it drifted away. Two down, three more to go.