Landon stared as the ships surrounding his own held it in place, keeping it from at all functioning. It galled him to think that the citizens of the Imperium had allied with the Necrons, but all the evidence supported the fact. He all but admitted that he had been consorting with them when he apologized to the chapter master, something else that Landon was trying to wrap his head around.
Gaz had apologized and said he wished there was another way. That was not the words of a heretic touched by the ruinous powers, nor was it of the mouth of one who had betrayed the Imperium as a whole. He had even uttered the phrase 'the Emperor Protects' as a sign of apology.
Regardless of his reasoning, Landon shoved the thought aside. He had bigger things to worry about at the moment, like how he was going to get himself and his men out of their current predicament. They couldn't just simply fire upon the enemy vessels, as there were three of them and their weapons weren't meant to go after separate targets at once.
"What are the auspex readings on those ships?" he asked the crewmen at the helm.
"Three ships of Necron origin my lord! Shroud Class, they have us caught in a stationary lock! We can't move!"
Landon cursed under his breath, "What of the warp drives? Can we enter the warp?"
"Not without substantial risk," A techpriest at the helm answered, "The Necron technology inhibiting our movement is interfering with the Warp Drive and Gellar field generator, entering the Immaterium would be unwise."
"Can we send an astropathic message to the other companies ships?" he asked.
"Unknown. Attempts are being made now."
Unfortunately, it was too late, as the auspex sighted a warp portal opening up just outside the system. The Venerate Honor and the Gloria Sanctos strike cruisers belonging to the third and fifth companies respectively.
Landon considered his options. The two light cruisers would have to get in close to deal any damage to the cruisers holding his vessel in place due to their lack of lance batteries, but if his own strike cruiser Litany of Vengeance could, perhaps, distract the enemy it would allow the other two ships to get in close and either disable or destroy the three Shroud light cruisers.
His hope was dashed, however, when two of the three ships holding the Litany of Vengeance in place broke off, likely to do the same to the other two ships as they had done to him.
"Send a vox-link to the Venerate Honor and Gloria Sanctos! Warn them!" he ordered.
The crewmen scrambled to obey the order, successfully sending the emergency message. With that finished, Landon turned to the single ship facing him. The two ships were virtually at point-blank range, being only fifty kilometers apart. If he were to order an attack, he wouldn't miss.
"Las-batteries, open fire upon the ship holding us at once!" he ordered, and his crew complied.
The starboard las-batteries opened up, pouring fire upon the Necron vessel. The red beams of light slammed into the vessels shield, forcing it to lose its grip on the Litany of Vengeance in order to retreat to a longer range in hopes of avoiding the oncoming fire. Unfortunately for it, the macro-cannons fired soon after, slamming into the ships quantum shielding and draining its power considerably.
The vessels own weapons began to power up as it too fired upon its opponent, the Lighting Arc turrets sending green spears of energy slamming into the Imperial vessels void shields. The damage was light, but it was enough to disrupt the aim of the Imperials long enough for the Necron ship to get farther away, successfully putting five thousand kilometers between it and its opponent. Still to close for comfort, but it was gaining distance quickly.
"Keep up the fire, but move us within drop range of the planet," Landon ordered, "We have a mission, and we must complete it."
Elsewhere in the system, the two strike cruisers belonging to the Astral Winds received the message from their chapter master and were prepared when their scanners picked up the profiles of both Necron Shrouds. They opened fire with their torpedoes almost immediately, draining the Necron's shields significantly with a single attack. The Necrons responded in kind, their own longer ranged weaponry peppering the Imperials void shields. Little damage was actually done, but it was enough to disrupt the advance of both vessels.
While the battle between the four ships continued, Landon and the space marines first company prepared. The ship that had been following them was trying to repair the damage caused to it courtesy of a dozen macro-cannon rounds and several hundred las-battery shots. While it certainly wasn't enough to destroy the ship, the combat had drained its shields and caused some significant damage to its armor.
While the Litany of Vengeance prepared its drop-ships and drop pods, the other two strike cruisers struggled against their opponents. The Shroud light cruisers were ancient, born from the War in Heaven to fight against the old ones and the Eldar, but even they had their limits. Torpedoes, las-batteries, missiles, macro-cannons, all of it had caused more damage to the two ships. The strike cruisers weren't much better, mind you, as their void shields were almost completely drained, and their armor had been nearly stripped to completion. Ammunition was running low, and it looked as if they might be losing.
Until one of the shrouds exploded. A stray macro-round had hit the joint of its wing, causing the ship to split apart. The wing was teleported away, likely into the bowels of the tomb world, to be repaired, while the rest of it desperately limped away from the fight. The commanders of the Imperial ships would not have this, however, as they diverted fire from the intact ship onto the damaged one, ripping through what little shields it had left and destroyed its armor. Engines and power generators were hit, exploding with a shower of green energy. Again, the husk of the ship was teleported away.
With its partner destroyed, the remaining Shroud retreated, activating its stealth drives and slipping away into the darkness of the void. The strike cruisers rushed towards the planet of Laphon I, just as the first of the Thunderhawks made land…
[-]
Bolters barked, chainswords revved, and grenades explode in a shower of fire and shrapnel. First Captain Gallen led his forces forward, his glowing power sword cutting down Necron Warriors with every strike, his plasma pistol rendering many an Immortal to scrap. Beside him, a dozen squads of space marines fought alongside each other. Librarians, at least one in each squad, brought many of the living metal monstrosities to heal.
Warp-lighting and telekinetic force seemed to be quite useful against the Necrons, with no Psykers of their own to defend themselves or to counter-attack with. While boltguns and chainswords were effective, yes, the ancient Xenos refused to stay down, their reanimation protocols regenerating whatever damage was done to them, and when the damage became severe, they would simply teleport away.
Blue arcs of gauss weaponry flew through the air, disabling and disarming many marines. Fortunately, it seemed the Xenos had been forgoing kill shots for some unknown reason. Only two of his squads had actually taken casualties, and that had been the younger recruits, performing some foolish maneuver in hopes of taking out one of the larger constructs. Gallen recognized several times where a battle brother should have been killed, the shot had been diverted, and he was simply injured. The First Captain scoffed. Their mistake.
Drop pods fell from the sky, breaking through the clouds and rain, slamming into the ground and releasing their cargo of assault marines. The marines cut a swath through the Necron forces, slowly but surely advancing. Chapter Master Landon had given the order to move on the encampment that had been set up by Governor Gaz, in order to capture the man and get answers.
Gallen had expected to be fighting traitor guard, perhaps those touched by the ruinous powers, but he had to admit his surprise when they were pitted against the mechanical might of the Necrons.
The Shrouds had been the biggest of surprises for him, though that was likely due to the reveal they had foretold. He tried to understand why someone would ally with the soulless automatons, but he found his knowledge lacking the ancient Xenos, and decided to simply follow his chapter masters orders and hope Landon's knowledge outstripped his own.
Speaking of the chapter master, Gallen looked across the battlefield in awe of his brother's prowess. His ancient navy blue and gold power armor glistened in the rain that coated the world around them. His own power sword, decorated in high gothic symbols and purity seals shone with blue-white energy, cutting through whatever stood in his path. From his left hand, lighting came forth, the blue electricity chaining between the many opponents that stood before him. His status as a beta-level psyker was not to be underestimated, that was for sure.
They continued to push forward, hoping to get to the Imperial camp in hopes of figuring out what had happened. Eventually, they reached a kind of trench line, a standard tactic of the Imperial guard. This confused Gallen for a moment until the far more precise shots of trained guardsmen came raining down upon them. He almost expected lasfire, which could have just been tanked by him and those under his command. Instead, the same blue gauss energies that came from the Necrons started to tear his battle-brothers apart.
Unlike their Necron allies, the guardsmen were not redirecting their shots. Several of his brothers went down, their armor was torn asunder and their flesh atomized as the man aimed true. The Astartes were certainly faster than the guardsmen to keep up with, but when you had hundreds, if not thousands of men firing at once, some of the shots were bound to hit something.
Gallen surveyed the battlefield, ducking when a stray gauss beam got a little too close for comfort. By his observation, the camp they were sieging was centered around a single, towering spire, pitch black in color and covered in glowing green runes and glyphs. Whatever it was, it seemed to be important.
He was drawn from his thoughts when he witnessed one of Landon's bolts of lighting tear into the guardsmen line, followed by another dozen such attacks from the other psykers in the Astartes force. The unified attack had opened up a hole in the guardsman line, and those without psychic abilities took full advantage of this. The assault marines used their jump packs to get in close, their chainswords roaring as they cut into the flesh and bone they had been crying out for but had been denied thus far.
Gallen himself took the opportunity to charge into the melee alongside them, tearing into the men and women who defied the Imperium. They still wore the Aquilla on their shoulder pads, and it made him sick that such traitors would dare to defile the symbol of the Imperium while they stood in the battle against the Emperor's angels. Still, he remained calm, avoiding needless suffering and pain, killing quickly where he could.
The space marines continued forward, breaking through the guardsman line and into the camp. Acidic rain burned the dead flesh of the men before them, sizzling as the stench started to rise. It was not a pretty sight, and Gallen acknowledged that fact.
Suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, the towering spire lit up, its glyphs glowing an emerald green as it began to hum. He turned when he heard one of his brothers cry out, clutching his head as his bolter fell to the ground. All around him, the Librarians were crying out in agony. Gallen watched helplessly as his chapter master fell to his knees clutching at his head.
Gallen was about to rush to his friend's side when a high pitched whine sounded. He turned to the spire again, seeing that the once green glyphs were now a bright white, and in an instant, a wave washed over everything, and all the First Captain felt was agony.
[-]
A few minutes earlier…
Gaz watched helplessly from inside the tomb complex as his men died by the dozen, the giant space marines tearing into them. Alongside him Nevha was seemingly panicking, barking orders to the Cryptek and to those things she called 'Lychguard'. It seemed she was as distressed about the situation as she was.
"My lady," The Cryptek said, his voice sharing some of her distress, "We cannot simply activate one pylon, it is linked to a network, it would take time to -"
"Set them all off then! It may cause the guardsmen temporary pain, but it is better than having them all slaughtered!" Nevha interrupted.
Had the situation been different, Gaz might have gone wide-eyed at the Phaerekhs' declaration, but as it was, he didn't have the luxury of paying attention to the situation. The guardsmen that had come into the tomb complex with him were cursing up a storm, letting out damnations and curses that made little sense to anyone, not from their own homeworlds.
"As you wish, My Lady." The Cryptek announced, somewhat shaking Gaz from his thoughts. The Cryptek stood at a cogitator - or, the Necron equivalent at least - and seemed to be doing… something.
When he turned back to the screen, he noticed the Pylon that their camp had been built around was now glowing, the Emerald green shifting quickly to a bright white.
"Nevha, what's going on?" he asked.
"We are activating the warp-inhibiting Pylons. Many of your 'space marines' seem to be psykers of some kind or another. Hopefully, this will incapacitate them. Also, I apologize in advance, just know that you and your men will be fine." Nevha explained.
The Cryptek scoffed, "Sure, they will be fine, but what about what this thing is aiming at?"
Before Gaz could ask any questions, everything went white.
[-]
AN: So, a shorter chapter than usual, but I wanted to save what happens with Jarod and Michael for the next chapter. Plus, this was just really fun to write. Truth be told the beginning was a bit troublesome, as I tried to figure out how to get the space marines out of their little predicament. I went through several different scenarios, but this was the one that I felt was the best. In the end, you will see what the consequences of all of this are.