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Chapter 13: Revelations

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Part 3

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Inquisitor Vail's quarters
Rogue Trader Vessel Lucre Foedis
The Warp en route to Kronus

Amberley lounged on her bed, nursed one drink too many, and prayed to the Emperor that the universe would begin to make sense again, thank you very much! Nearby, good old, Caractacus sat on the edge of a comfortable wooden armchair, a gift from a minor noble who still held the delusion she might marry him. The savant muttered to himself, and the still flesh and blood parts of his face twitched constantly. The cause was obvious - he watched a certain infernal recording again and again.

It had to be fake, Amberley told herself. All of this had to be some grand deception. She tried to reassure herself. Otherwise, the galaxy had gone even more insane than she thought possible.

The official reports over the events from the past couple of weeks were bad enough. The Inquisitor didn't even have to read between the lines! Doing so was a critical skill when dealing with a large section of the Imperial bureaucracy. The reports were painfully blunt, and the picture they painted, ugly. The Blood Ravens and the Imperial Guard under the command of General Lucas Alexander were on the brink of open warfare. The Astartes had shot up one too many Guard unit for the General to hold back and take the abuse. Inquisitor Requista and his retinue had gone missing investigating rumors of heresy and treason in a region known as the Deimos Peninsula.

That was the same place where Necrons, Eldar, and assorted Imperial forces were supposedly busy securing right now. They were just launching a final assault to destroy a Chaos Warp Gate. That was what the reports claimed.

Reading that message nearly made Amberley giggle at the beginning of a bad, heretical joke. Nevertheless, it was supposed to be true.

At least she now knew who this "Inquisitor" Delkatar Veil was supposed to be – a green behind the ears Acolyte supposed to join Requista's retinue as a Sanctioned Psyker.

That much was reasonable. All the paperwork copies and codes Vail received from the Armageddon appeared genuine. However, what the man did next, painted a very different picture. He managed to get the Blood Ravens and Imperial Guard to step back from the brink of utter foolishness and treason. After that, he convinced them to give him assets to go find Requista so the Inquisitor could officially order them not to kill each other.

The sheer insanity of that statement was galling. It also lined up with the cry for help sent by General Alexander and the request for updated orders from the Blood Raven commander, a Captain Thule.

If that was all, Veil's actions would be commendable and enough for a lot of Inquisitors to snag him into their retinues. Common sense was a rare and dangerous commodity these days. If you were able to make use of it, that was even rarer and better!

Amberley giggled and drank some more amasec. Anything not to think about how the insanity, tragicomedy, and sheer madness on Kronus ended! Because thinking about it made her head hurt, and she wanted to scream in frustration at the practical joke the Emperor had to play on everyone if it was true! Nope, not thinking about that right now!

The blond woman stared at the ceiling, which wasn't spinning yet. She wasn't drunk enough, yet. Obviously!

What did Veil do next? He stumbled upon a massacred settlement! Then he found a bunch of traitors and Inquisitor Requista, who had been tortured to the brink of death and left to rot in the cells of the local Arbiters HQ. If she didn't know any better, Amberley would think that Veil had worse luck than dear Caiphas. Where was Cain when you needed him and his regiment anyway?

The Inquisitor frowned in a moment of clear thought. Requista had been a good man. He didn't deserve what the traitors did to him. He was also a tough bastard to survive the torture and still cling to life when rescue came. Amberly could recall the recording from the Astartes helmet cameras, from multiple sources too. Requista's brutalized form, his desperate last actions, and Veil's field promotion.

That could have been either a genuine stroke of luck, a blessing from the Emperor himself, that Requista lived just enough, that Veil could get to him in time. Or it could have been too neat a coincidence. A stranger just stumbled into Inquisitorial post. He then proceeded to wield the power his new position granted him in ways that many in the Imperium would gleefully call outright treasonous and heretical.

This all could be a long and twisted plot by Chaos. It sounded just like something a certain entity would be very happy to engineer.

But there was that last recording Amberley didn't want to think about! There was a lot of supporting evidence too! However, that evidence might be mighty Chaos effort or the Emperor making a very blunt statement in the hope that it might sink into the thick skulls of his servants.

It was days like this when Amberly hated her life.

Thinking of the source of her problems, she could recall watching Veil's more infamous exploits. Riding a Chimera to charge an Ork Warboss, after volunteering to lead his hastily gathered retinue as a kill team. It was the proper idea from an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos, even if the execution lacked. She saw Veil's stunt, going up at the Ork, even as Blood Ravens in Terminator armor swarmed it.

The brute, unfortunately, survived teleporting away. Multiple recordings confirmed orbital strikes decimating the Ork horde. Even more, evidence collaborated the Tau attack on the weakened Imperial lines, complete with Mechanicus sourced video of a wounded and incoherent Veil engaging Kroot raiding party while Medicaes attempted to evacuate him from a field hospital.

Amberley had the nagging suspicion that she was going to have to decide if these events were of a legend in the making or a grand deception with an unknown aim, and that either choice on her part would earn her far more complaints than praise.

The Necrons came next, and Vail couldn't help but be both excited and terrified. No matter the reason, those recordings were treasure troves for her Ordos. They had to survive and spread, even if people had to watch them with a few buckets of salt.

This was the first time Amberley knew of Necrons deigning to speak with humans. Perhaps, the first time they were capable of. She carefully studied everyone's faces and studied their reactions. Almost no one was happy at the alliance Veil wagered on. But the price of it, what the Necrons had and were willing to offer, that was simply too good to be true. It was an ideal bait, one that called to her like a siren's song. That was a great trap. She had to admit that much. Anyone in their right mind suspecting the presence of such technology on Kronus would be snared by it. It wasn't just the devices, but the schematics needed to build them that made it so enticing. She would risk a great deal to secure them. Any Inquisitor worth their rank would!

Those Pylons could be a game-changer. Veil saw that some of the Mechanicus contingent on-screen agreed, while others were particularly troublesome traditionalists.

In light of this revelation, Amberley merely skipped through the reports covering the clash with the combined Tau-Eldar force. It was a neat trap, one that was feasible to have happened due to the Pylons. If they worked as advertised, she could see how a Farseer might stumble in their divination and let things go astray that much.

Amberley drained her cup and discussed the merits of getting up to refill it. She glanced at a half-empty bottle in disgust and thought better of it. She had drunk enough, no matter if she wanted to be insensate soon or not.

The next group of reports made the situation seem like a tangled ball of yarn. A different group of Eldars appeared then. They warned the local Imperial forces of a Greater Daemon imprisoned on the planet, likely the heretics' primary objective.

Veil allied with them too. Amberley couldn't decide if he showed commendable foresight, or disturbing willingness to work with Xenos. That was saying something, considering her Ordo and how often she had to do precisely that!

Contrary to what anyone sane would expect, Humans, Necron, and Eldar failed to back-stab each other and fought together against the traitors pushing them back.

And it was then, that sheer pure insanity reigned! It made Amberley wonder if she managed to get either poisoned with something exotic or perhaps someone clobbered her upside the head with a power weapon. Either that or one of the Servitors running around the ship dropped a large box on top of her!

Inquisitor Vail watched chosen footage from the battle against Chaos, the Daemon charge, an Emperor damned Herald of Khorne, the most infamous one too, making an appearance. She watched the Necron Lord fight it to a near stand-still, yet losing, Inquisitor Veil's counter-charge that followed. It was the stuff of legends! Acts like this one made people sector-wide famous Champions of the Imperium. Usually, they were very dead heroes too. This would have been the case with Veil too! He faced against the Daemons with a small group of Guardsmen, Ogryn, and a child of all things! What the madman thought, Amberley wouldn't know until she met him.

And she would have to meet with all survivors and interrogate them. Carefully at that. She watched Veil and his Commissar aide face against the Skulltaker, and the Daemon began dismembering them - its preferred method of spreading terror before delivering a killing blow. Blood Ravens intervened, but only their Librarian managed to reach the Skulltaker and engage him. He was losing too, and then the Necron played their card. They teleported a Monolith behind the Daemon horde, and Amberley was sure it contained more of their anti-warp tech. As soon as the tremendous lightning bolt that heralded its arrival dissipated, many daemons fell, some bursting into fire. The Skulltaker faltered and slowed down. It still refused to die, yet it was now on the back-foot.

Amberley watched the next section multiple times, had it examined by Tech-priests again and again for traces of forgery. There were none, just the usual filtering meant to keep people safe when viewing such things.

She saw a child cripple a Herald of Khorne, saw the wounded Inquisitor deliver a mortal blow to the Daemon banishing it. She also read the critical report outlining the point of that suicidal attack. It was a field test of the Necron anti-Warp tech. The test wasn't just about weakening Daemons and Psykers, it was an attempt to kill the Warp spawn outright.

The state of the child as a blank was a part of it, Vail was certain of it. That explained her presence there. It took Amberley reading carefully through the lines to reach that explanation. At that point, she set aside her wine glass, opened her emergency amasec cache, and began drinking in earnest.

The first time Amberley went over the reports, she was ready to believe that this was it. Little did she know, that there would be yet another strike against her sanity.

Amberley glared at Mott. The man was fascinated by Veil's last stunt. Right now, he watched the recording from the Inquisitor's Kasrkin bodyguards for the tenth time at least. He kept counting all the feathers on screen and was convinced there was a divine message to be found in their numbers.

Feathers. Amberley blanched at the thought. She had the privilege of meeting an Imperial Saint once. She would never forget their golden radiance, their beautiful feathered wings. She shook her head and winced as it caused a stab of pain.

If there was even a hint of truth to those recordings, Veil at the very least received divine blessing from the Emperor. At worst, an Imperial Saint on Kronus meant that the Emperor approved of the madness that bastard wrought! Now Amberley couldn't even proclaim everyone on the surface heretics and traitors, even if it turned out it would be for the best! That was supposed to be a good thing but in this case?

How could she explain all those reports and records without appearing compromised? That bastard had to grow a pair of huge glowing wings, didn't he? What was this, a ruin Amberley's day marathon?

The Inquisitor closed her eyes, praying fervently that in the morning the world would begin to make a vague amount of sense.

Amberley would awake too early, with a headache from hell and news that reinforcements just entered the system. Necron reinforcements.


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Part4

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Bridge

Necron Battlecruiser "Reaper"

en route to Kronus

Amarkun the Gatherer, Necron Lord of Phyrrhia, Nemestor of Nepheru Dynasty, found himself in a rare position. Phaeron Kephrekh the Unbroken, the supreme leader of the Nepheru Dynasty was still asleep. There was nothing in the directives left behind that required his premature awakening.

Thus, Amarkun found himself with a rare degree of freedom. He also had an adviser, who helpfully reminded him of the less than stellar record Kephrekh had back in the day. The dry words of Cryptek Zaa of Tomorrow were almost prophetic. Zaa did warn that the planned Long Sleep had been too hastily implemented. That there were too many things that could go wrong in a 'mere' million year, much less the sixty they spent in hibernation. He wasn't alone in issuing those warnings, yet the Necron leaders ignored all such naysayers.

The Nemestor's old advisor, and one-time friend, had been more than right. In the days since Amarkun's awakening, the queries he sent to check the status of Nepheru Dynasty Tomb Worlds brought mixed results. Too many of those were unpleasant.

Theory one, the preferred one, was that their Dynasty had been particularly unfortunate and hit harder than others by the ravages of time and rising primitives.

Theory two, the one Amarkun didn't want to ponder upon, postulated that they were among the lucky ones. If that was the case, the Necrons across the galaxy would be a crippled shadow of their former might. Such a development might require a novel approach if, for no other reason, they would lack the numbers to deal with old and emergent threats.

That was one of the reasons why the Nemestor decided to answer the cry for help in person. He needed to see the status of other Tomb Worlds. He also had to find out why no one else confirmed answering the distress call. Surely, the Nepheru Dynasty couldn't be the only one in a position to receive the call, much less answer it!

Nemestor and Cryptek spent days talking about their past, and the uncertain future they faced. Amarkun might not have been his former self, however, he could notice the direction his one-time friend was trying to push him at. Some statement was borderline treason, even if not quite. Yet, how has he been he to interpret it otherwise, when Zaa used every opportunity to point the Pharaoh's faults in judgment and planning? When during discussions of past campaigns, he kept hinting that alternative options might be better, options favored by the Nemestor?

Was this a test, and if so, of what nature? Was Zaa Kephrekh's creature now? Or did he genuinely want to see a change in leadership, one that would lead to his own ascension from Cryptek to Nemestor and possibly, planetary Lord?

Many questions were plaguing Amarkun. What they discovered during their journey to Kronus, raised more. The Necron gate network was in disrepair. Automated systems that should have kept it fully operational and hidden had malfunctioned more often than not. While this time the Nemestor was fortunate and he could use a gate close to the system in distress, that might not be the case if he wanted to reach other parts of the galaxy.

That alone was a grave portent and perhaps explained why no one else answered. They might be unable to get to Kronus in anything resembling a timely fashion.

Amarkun refused to entertain the possibility that his Dynasty and the Necrons on Kronus might be among the few of their kind left in the galaxy. He refused to accept the possibility of such a grand failure!

The Necron fleet emerged from the gate into an unremarkable system lacking anything useful to draw interested eyes. The galaxy was chock full of such places, giving ample opportunity to hide valuable infrastructure where it would be hard to find.

The first thing Amarkun did after the jump had been to ping all sensor platforms in range and require threat assessment of the nearby systems. They were supposed to be full of useless rocks and dead worlds. That state of affairs hadn't changed during the long sleep. What did change was that only half of the platforms answered? Time had taken its toll upon them because no recorded burst transmissions were indicating hostile action.

The Nemestor patiently waited for the fleet to form up. At the same time, the ships updated their databases with the current state of the local galactic sector, accounting for stellar drift and other phenomena recorded by the platforms.

"What do you plan to do, Nemestor? I ask yet again, and once again, you refuse to offer a clear answer!" Zaa of Tomorrow kept prodding him.

Amarkun shifted perspective from the Necron network to his eyes and turned his head to look at the Cryptek standing beside his command throne.

"I gave you many answers." The Nemestor pointed out.

"And each one was different from the one before." Zaa peered at Amarkun over his staff.

"We lack information on the state of the galaxy. Present threats, the state of the Aeldari, the Abominations, who or what is the dominant species of this day and age, and if they are a threat…" Amarkun deadpanned. "This venture will give us answers."

"And if those answers require a less than typical response?" Zaa prodded in his typical dry manner.

There were brief moments when Amarkun was convinced that if he shut down his eyes when he switched them on, he would see his old friend in the flesh. That he would no longer behold the pale imitation of the real thing both of them had become. He shied away from that way of thinking. Nothing good came from it, ever.

"We'll gather intelligence first." Amarkun's tone left no room for more arguments of that nature. He pushed his awareness back into the network and issued orders. Power built up, the warships' weight shifted until it became a negative number. Their engines came to life, accelerating them to high relativistic speeds, thus cheating the mundane laws of physics.

On the way to Kronus, Amarkun kept pinging his local counterpart for intelligence summary and tactical assessment of the situation. While the distress signal kept its song, no updates came, no answers to the inquiries.

However, while the fleet approached their destination, it's sensors lit up with a warning. The insane dimension that gave the Old Enemy their powers and did the same for the Aeldari was in turmoil. While on the approach, the fleet could detect merely ghosts of the powers involved, there was no mistaking it. The Abominations were involved. They still existed in the far future, and that boded ill. The primary reason behind the Long Sleep was to outlast them.

"Cryptek, I want a beacon network set up in our wake. If we run into more than we can handle, I want the Dynasty warned of what we will face." Amarkun ordered.

This time, Zaa offered no dry quips in response. The Cryptek merely acknowledged the order through the network and went to oversee its execution personally.

A few days later, after detecting the echoes for tremendous disturbances, the Necron fleet finally reached the outskirts of the system. They could detect several active sensor platforms that initially didn't acknowledge their presence.

Amarkun re-arranged his forces in a defensive formation and waited for the passive sensor to gather a rough picture when he finally received a transmission from Kronus. It was through short-range back-up equipment, which might explain the silence.

The Nemestor answered the inquiry and once again repeated his request for information.

This time, he got his wish. He still waited for defensive programs to go over the large data package and give the all-clear, before devouring it.

By the time he was done and sent it to his principal commanders to familiarize himself with the situation, Amarkun had stood at crossroads. He spent the short time Zaa needed to familiarize himself with the catastrophe engulfing the galaxy, and put it to good use. He calculated options, simulated stratagems, and formulated plans.

There was one inescapable conclusion. In hindsight, the Long Sleep had been a grave mistake, if only because the decadent Eldar outdid themselves, perhaps put the Old Enemy's greatest folly to shame too.

"Your thoughts, Cryptek Zaa," Amarkun demanded.

"Amarkun, I hope for all our sakes that you consider my hints. We both know the Pharaoh. He was inflexible and stuck in the past. We know what he'll order when he awakens." Zaa of Tomorrow spoke the hard truths bluntly. "If what we are facing here isn't an aberration, but a picture of the average state of the galaxy…"

"We won't have the numbers to act as in the old days. The human Imperium might be decaying and dying, yet it is supposedly vast. They might have the numbers to cripple us if we try purging them. Their very existence might account for no one answering."

"You believe that Tomb Worlds awoke, tried to exterminate the primitives, and failed?" Zaa didn't sound surprised by such a conclusion.

"They might have succeeded in neutralizing the local human presence, only to be swarmed afterward. It matters little in the end. An Aeldari remnant is still active and undoubtedly they're to blame for some Tombs remaining silent forever. The Abominations appear to be even a greater threat now."

They saw the battle with that unnatural thing through the eyes of their fellow Necron. Superior technology and cunning won the day. But only with the aid of the humans, it had to be said. The mere fact that a single one of those things could outclass a Necron Lord in single combat was more than concerning. It brought memories from the worst days during the War in Heaven.

"What now, Nemestor?" The Cryptek inquired.

"Remind me, Cryptek, do we have a standard procedure for negotiating with useful primitives who hate aliens on general principle?"

"I don't recall anything like that being necessary."

"I don't either. We will lower the shrouds and make a slow approach towards Kronus. We will use the time gained to consult with the local Necron Lord on how best to… talk with the Humans."

"Your foresight and grace are formidable, Nemestor."

"Zaa, you were never particularly good in imitating useless courtiers. Your dry wit ruins it. Just don't."


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