Chapter Twenty Nine: Revenge for Turned Tyranids
…
My arrival in Bork'an was met with both good news and bad.
As I reached the Tau center for academia and learning, an emergency meeting of several high ranking leaders in the southern part of the Tau Empire met with me.
During the two week journey from the abandoned system of Nihilas to Bork'an, Fal'shia, and almost every Tau held planet in the southern part of the empire had either agreed to join my faction willingly and or were infected with my Nano-Virus.
The bad news was my Tyranid Hive Fleet sent to cause havoc, where I left in the southern end of the Eastern Fringe, wasn't just defeated in battle, it was annihilated down to the last tiny Destroyer bioship.
"What in the world, are Necrons?" I had heard of what they were in the past but didn't know exactly.
The Tau Commander of the Fal'shia system responded calmly, knowing I wasn't technically from this dimension. "The Necrontyr held the galaxy millions of years ago. They placed their consciousness in mechanical soldiers to retake their lost territory."
"So why was my fleet attacked?"
"The Phaerons of most Tomb Worlds aren't known to be merciful, even at random."
These Necrons made a really bad first impression on me. They just blew up my whole Hive Fleet because they felt like it pretty much.
For the first time I could remember, I was angry.
Necrons were so vicious and so annoying, they would just destroy anything they found cause they wanted to. Whether or not it was part of their strategy to conquer lost worlds or not.
"The state of our fleet?" I turned to Tash.
He raised a holo projection of what it looked like.
"We've raised dozens of ships from loyal planets around the south of the homeland. By the time the entire Empire is sworn to you, we can start expanding our borders quicker than ever before."
"Good." I said. "I want every engineer or Tau able to wield a power saw to start crafting war vessels. I admire you all for your diligence, but your new task is simple, to grow my empire as quickly as possible, and destroy the Necrons who bothered me."
"Sir um."
"Yes?"
The Tau general cleared his throat around the holo table in the war room. "There's no tactical reason to attack them. They've already moved on to attack Imperium holdings, it'd be best to come back later and then conquer whatever's left of them."
"And the fleet of mine they destroyed?"
"The Tyranids were your slaves sir." Tash muttered, rubbing his chin. "Meant only to consume and be destroyed by your rivals to the south."
I nodded, thinking.
"These Necrons, are they respected?"
The Tau looked around at each other for a moment.
Tash spoke up calmly. "The Sautekh Dynasty is one of the most powerful and known factions in the entire galaxy."
"Even the Tyranids avoid facing the Necrons, well, out of lack of interest or need as opposed to fear." muttered the Bork'An commander.
I squinted, looking around the room. "You know what I think our issue is? Our image."
They listened quietly.
"Everyone hates the Tau, because we're not feared. And why shouldn't we? I'm not Tau, but I'd be disgusted to even be one before I came along. We're not strong, we're not cool, we're not fierce. It takes the Tau empire a year to even capture a few new worlds."
Tash nodded, listening. "Meanwhile the Sautekh have dozens of new systems conquered a month."
"Exactly. We need to do what these other factions are doing, just going and destroying worlds and fleets for the heck of it. Because they're just that powerful."
They all muttered in agreement.
"Yes." A high ranking officer from Bork'An nodded. "It'd certainly add to our power to get revenge on the Sautekhs. At least from a prestige perspective."
"Right? You might not think respect matters in a galaxy like ours, but it's been a thousand years and you've all barely pushed out of your corner of the Milky Way."
They started nodding, crossing their arms and muttering quietly in agreement.
"I honestly believe that the entire Tau Empire, united under one banner, bent on only expansion, has the potential to conquer the entire galaxy someday. We can be that powerful, we just need the right direction."
I spoke a bit louder. "It's time to start expanding, it's time to start conquering. And that time is now!"
They agreed with me. The Necrons had nothing of real importance to us, but we could prove our strength, show our power, if we'd go after them and make them pay.
After a bit more research, I learned that Tomb Worlds were so well defended that they were seen as wastes of time by every single faction to invade.
What if we changed that perspective? What if I made the Tau Empire, with my upgrades with Pyromancy, Mana Gamer abilities, and biomancy manipulation over the Tyranids, able to absolutely annihilate a faction like the Sautekh Dynasty.
The moment it happened, power wise between each faction, the game would change, everyone would know that something new had made the Tau extraordinarily more powerful.
They all knew they were able to ally with humans, Kroots, and Demiurgs. But with Tyranids strong and fierce enough to help destroy something as strong as multiple Necron Tomb Worlds, and to wipe out the Sautekh Dynasty?
Yes, I'd be feared, even in a reality as cutthroat and fearless as this one.
…
It took well over an entire month of patience and hard work, but I think I had truly made the Tau Empire into a faction I could lead to crush those annoying Necrons, I hated.
I hated them, I actually hated them for just wiping out all my Tyranids just because.
Who did they think they were? Did they know how much MP it cost me to assimilate and grow all of them and how much time it took me to regenerate all that MP?
Twenty minutes.
No one absolutely crushes Tyranid Hive Fleets but me.
The Tau Empire had grown by about a hundred planets dotted in a thick circle around their original holdings in the past thousand years, but now I had used my Gamer powers to tremendously help their strength.
When I was hailed as Supreme Leader of the Tau Empire and the Visionary for the Greater Good on the capital world of T'au, I saw why this planet was seen as the shining hope for a galaxy as dark and warmongering as this one.
The technology here was the stuff I couldn't even dream of. I helped them master fusion energy, finally able to achieve what was before I arrived only an experimental field. Which was to use suns and supernovas for both energy, and to make 'Sun-killer' weapons to create incredibly powerful weapons.
All previous experiments had failed, but with Mana provided to me by the Gamer, I was able to help make their technology stable enough to handle matter as powerful as collapsing stars and dense as star cores.
They weren't physically strong or muscular, they weren't that connected to the Warp at all like other species, but they were smart and ambitious.
These were my subjects, and millions of Tau citizens as far as the eye could see gathered in the center of the glowing and ultra futuristic golden capital of T'au for my coronation.
Mostly through both prestige and my Nano-Virus, the High Tau Priest, the head of the entire Ethereal caste that oversaw all priesthood and royalty, basically handed over control of the entire Empire from his faction to me.
"Not since the days of Farsight, have we seen someone as strong or skilled. He is our illuminator, our Visionary, our protector from the Great Devourer, a human still, that will lead us all into the future."
He went on. "The true embodiment of the Greater Good, he will help Tau bring civilization to this savage galaxy. I now proclaim Robert Julius Pelham, the one and only Supreme Leader of the Tau Empire and all of its peoples. All hail Robert!"
"All hail Robert!" was said for miles around me.
Simultaneously, thousands of soldiers clad in XV8 Crisis Battlesuits on platforms nearby stood to, their metal covered fist clacking on their armored chest in respect.
The Tau Empire was mine, now it was time to get revenge on someone brazen, and admittedly strong enough to wipe out my entire turned Tyranid Hive Fleet.
…
In the month it took for my Nano-Virus as well as the word of my achievements wiping out the Tyranids to spread, I wasn't idle.
I had helped make the Tau navy and army as powerful both the Gamer and myself could possibly allow it to be.
I made the standard Pulse Rifle much stronger and more efficient. While it was always hyper accurate, I made the beam it fired much more potent and with a higher degree of damage. Mana worked inside the rifle to make the rifle fire quicker and stronger.
All manner of Tau Armor, starting from the Crisis Battlesuits, all the way to the gigantic KX139 Ta'unar Supremacy Armour, an experimental Battlesuit so large and powerful that it technically wasn't even needed yet, was upgraded and made better in a similar fashion.
Despite all this, for the first destruction of a Sautekh Tomb World at least, I wouldn't need them.
I was going to capture all of their territories after I wiped them out. The Necrons had enslaved a great number of species during their conquest, and I would be adding the Sautekh territory and resources to my own as the expansion went on.
The navy was primarily made up of standard Tau units I had just improved.
Battleships like the Or'Es El'Leath, and grand cruisers and battle cruisers of all kinds.
I had a few surprises up my sleeve before we engaged battle with the main Sautekh fleet near Medusa VII, which was the first Tomb World I targeted.
All Tau warships possessed great ranged batteries, but lacked good armor and speed, so I mainly worked on making their armor and shields more efficient with Mana and just making their engines stronger to support heavier and bigger versions of the ships we were already using.
…
The war fleet only needed a few days before we caught the first glimpses of the same Necron ships that had the gall to bother me.
"Sautekh ships on approach sir." Tash started touching buttons on a nearby console to prepare the entire fleet, hundreds of battleships escorted by many more smaller ships, for battle.
"Yeah, I see them."
I nodded to an engineer on the bridge of my own personal heavily upgraded Or'Es El'Leath flagship.
When the Necrons approached, in huge green colored ships either shaped like crescent moons or long staffs, my experimental weapons opened up fire first.
The Sun Killer weapons I developed, charged up and released beams of energy powerful enough to cut through giant swaths of Necrons ships in moments. A massive surge of light exploded from the batteries of Tau ships by me.
Ships the size of small parts of a city began to fall as they were cut in half.
I knew they weren't going to hesitate to respond, and before the rest of my fleet could give fire with everything we had, there was a huge responding flash of green light across the battlefield of open space.
A Necron ship had teleported literally right into a nearby heavy battle cruiser Lar'Shi'Vre, one I called the Indomitable, and it did not live up to its name.
The crescent shaped ship had cleaved it right in half, or rather buried itself right into it.
Necrons didn't need to breathe, they were all robots basically, and they began to jump from their ship onto mine to start breaching the bridge to kill the crew.
I already knew what their strategy was, take out this ship and then do the same thing again, hop on over to mine and try to take me on directly.
I turned quickly to Tash. "Push forward! Don't stop firing!" I said before putting on a space helmet made of mana.
"Yes my lord."
…
The Necrons had already taken control of the bridge and the ship was just a husk now, a large empty metal shell full of running soldiers, both Necron and Tau connected to another green crescent shaped one.
Running at full speed as an alarm blared, Tau in personal smaller battlesuits ran by my side carrying Pulse rifles.
"Shouldn't you let Tash help evacuate the boarded ships to lead the entire battle?"
"He can handle the rest of the Sautekh fleet, you two go help the crew escape."
"Yes sir!"
I unsheathed my sword when I saw a trio of Necrons turn and try to open fire.
I moved fast enough to slice through their completely metal bodies in seconds with my sword, blurring down the hall.
I know Necrons had the ability to change the way their minds perceived time but I had made sure to power level my speed stat ahead of time. Also my STR stat to help in melee.
I started cutting through Necron troops with ease as I made my way onto the bridge, my suspicions were correct when I made it onto the bridge.
The commander of the entire Sautekh fleet, the individual responsible for killing all my Tyranids last month, a taller Necron with a huge green halberd type spear with a large diamond shaped blade over the tip, was trying to engage me directly.
The Indomitable's bridge was full of dead Tau pilots and engineers, as well as ruined consoles.
He turned to me, a Tau Fire Warrior sliding off his blade onto the ground beneath him.
"I had to see it with my own eyes." His skull for a face glowed green with each booming and deep word, he had no lips that could move anyway. "A human boy leading a Protection Fleet. I've lived for sixty five million years and never once heard of something so strange."
"Well, you're not gonna live for another few minutes buddy." I gripped my sword with both hands.
"You can't kill what's already dead." The skeleton robot chuckled, almost towering over me. "But killing you will be perfect for my ascension to Phaeron."
He was one battle away from being leader of his faction, now he had to be quite an experienced fighter, I gripped my sword tighter.
I glanced at the box the Gamer had floating above his head.
[Sar'tah, the Conqueror - LV 271 Necron Overlord]
I was level three hundred, but I knew this would still be a very close fight.
"Tell me. What kind of leader avenges Tyranids, or are the Tau foolish enough to think it can withstand the might of the Necrons?"
"Revenge is one thing. But all you did was really piss me off."
I was level three hundred, but I knew this would still be a very close fight.
I launched at him at full speed, trying to sever his head from his metal neck.
Sar spun his spear above his head so fast it formed a block and sent me flying away.
I landed feet first on the glass of the bridge behind me and could see my upgraded Tau fleet engage the Necron one behind me as we battled.
Tash, don't fail me, as soon as I clip this guy I'll help you lead the attack.
The Necron Overlord turned and threw his spear at me.
Green electricity filled the room as I dodged it tearing up multiple consoles in its path. I started firing Mana Arrows in return but Sar summoned his spear back to his hand and formed a light green sphere around his body to block.
When it fell I was almost cut in half by a halberd slash.
Wow.
Now this Necron was fast.
We exchanged blows back and forth, despite being smaller than him, I was not quicker.
Sar could grip dead Tau and Necrons with his feet like claws, launch them at me and follow it up with green lightning attacks or slashes I could barely dodge or even think of countering.
He was as dextrous, powerful, and nimble as General Grevious, except if Grevious had insanely powerful green Egyptian mummy magic.
Sar sent his spear flying at my head again, and after I dodged he made the roof of the bridge shake, spinning in a circle trying to cut me with his blade.
Chuckling as he chased after me around the bridge, I engaged my flame throwers, and they extended from my armor blowing all over him.
Despite being soaked in Protego Diabolica flames, it didn't remotely affect him as there was no flesh to burn off. His metal skeleton was strong enough to even absorb ultra powerful fire magic from another dimension.
Sar flew out from the huge smoke cloud and the tip of his Necron blade skimmed the air an inch from my nose.
I landed on the ground and dodged another sweeping attack tearing up giant consoles into the air like beach balls before trying to cut across his knees with my sword.
The Necron was quick enough to try to stab me in the stomach with his spear but I moved aside at the last second, helped him dig his spear tip into the metal floor of the bridge and then quickly cut off his arm. It took all of my strength to slice through the metal skeleton but I slashed his arm off.
Sar looked at me missing an arm, whispered quietly in a strange language I didn't know, and green clouds formed around his regenerating arm as his blade quickly flew from the ground to his hand.
"Scrappy. But weak!" the Necron roared with laughter.
The fight of my life continued.
The speed at which we exchanged blows convinced me some Necrons slowed time down to a tenth of its actuality in their brain.
If I hadn't augmented my armor and my stats with the Gamer I'd have been cut, blown apart by enough Amps of green lightning to power several planets, and just plain punched or stomped on.
Sar healed any cuts I left on his metal body with more Necron magic and then used his halberd with two arms, using his legs to set up more attacks.
He could kick, slash, and punch, at a speed that was almost overwhelming.
I was about to start countering with a sword thrust of my own before I took a back kick directly to the midsection.
I slumped against the wall of the bridge behind me and had half a second to heal myself as I rolled aside as Sar leaped through the air to try to bury his spear where my head just was.
The Necron Overlord ran across the wall next to me building up speed to a halberd slash.
I blocked, and I could feel myself sliding back across the bridge floor as our blades connected.
Sar cackled, his silver skull glowing green with each chuckle.
I pulled away and dodged the obvious incoming slash, flying to the other end of the bridge leaving Exploding Mana Arrows in my wake.
The remaining consoles left connected to the ground were torn up when Sar tried to run through me with a running spear thrust.
He knew I'd dodge, and we both knew he'd follow it up, so the next few seconds were a giant exploding mess of green Necron summoned lightning and blue exploding Mana arrows colliding mid air.
Sar started to get impatient and constantly aggressive, but still, he was way too fast and physically strong for me to find any opportunities to counter.
I finally found an opening when he augmented his spear with lightning again and tried to both slash and fry me with it.
I dodged by running around it and started cutting my way up him.
The Necron dodged slightly and my sword was only able to pass through his left leg and arm, but just barely missed his leg by less than an inch.
He spun in place on his remaining leg as I began to sail over his head and combined the momentum of his returning halberd to hit me with a hook kick to the sternum.
I blocked, but the power of his skeleton foot hitting my sword protecting my chest was enough to send me flying across the bridge again.
The Necron again regrew his metal limbs back with magic and I panted, using my sword to drag down the speed at which I spun across the ground.
Sar and I continued to exchange blows, but I noticed that he had an incredible advantage.
He was a robot, he didn't feel pain, as long as he had a head connected to his body still, he could regenerate any damage I made to him. He didn't get tired as he had no muscles to speak of.
This was a disadvantage I held that became more and more apparent the more blows we exchanged.
I couldn't disarm him since his spear seemed to be enchanted to always fly back to him no matter how many times I threw it. And he was so strong that I couldn't pin it in place anywhere, and he was so fast he could just punch, kick, or throw me the second I stopped moving to try and grab his halberd.
Sar was absurdly skilled with his blade.
I couldn't land a solid hit because he blocked, dodged, or countered just about everything I did.
Whether it was a sword slash or thrust, or a series of Mana attacks, or even several combinations of both.
I was quick enough to keep up but my reactions began to slow down. I had enough MP regeneration to keep fighting but even with Gamer enhanced metabolism and stat boosts galore, I couldn't get over the fact I was fighting something without the need for blood or muscles like I did.
"Getting tired boy?" The Necron chuckled again, slamming me repeatedly against either side of him on the metal floor of the bridge as I held onto the blade free end of his halberd in an attempt to wrestle it from his robotic hands.
I winced after each blow and again realized that the metal this Necron used was simply too strong to cut through with my sword.
He dodged my sword slash and then hit me with a round kick to the side I blocked with my sword that again sent me flying.
The Necron Overlord began to approach me, holding his spear out from his side calmly. "I can fight for another few million years. What about you?"
I had to ask myself, he didn't seem to very much care what part of him I hit since he regenerated everything so fast. But what was one part of his body that he absolutely did not allow me to cut?
"Can you even comprehend a life longer than a mere thousand years!?" he roared.
His neck. It healed slightly slower than the rest of his body.
If only he kept up the pressure and continued attacking me instead of gloating I would've been forced to keep strategizing maybe.
I attacked him again and he easily parried.
I began targeting Sar's neck and little by little at the end of each exchange I left leaving more and more cuts.
By the time he caught onto it though, I used a stun. Something that I couldn't risk him adapting to so I put everything behind it.
When I began to check a halberd slash to my knee by jumping slightly and letting the direction of the blade slide harmlessly down the armor of my battlesuit, I placed my hand directly onto the metal of the weapon.
I took a deep breath and channeled as much of my MP into the lightning the Gamer let me start developing since I started using Han Jihan's atlas.
Sar's greatest advantage became his greatest weakness, as I conducted electricity all throughout his body constantly as hard as I could for almost fifteen straight seconds. Luckily for me, all Mana attacks I used never damaged me.
The benefits of using the power of video games.
The Necron Overlord stumbled, still stunned for a bit, when I let go of his halberd and then I cut off his head.
I spun multiple times as fast and hard as I could and then connected my sword at the weak point in his neck, severing off his skull for a head.
Sar fell and I collected more EXP for the fight than anything I'd had prior.
Respect to the Necron though, if I hadn't been able to come up with that, he'd likely have dodged any lightning I threw at him.
…
When I returned to my flagship, Tash had been doing a pretty good job.
We had only lost a couple of battlecruisers and a single battleship while the Sautekh fleet had been cut in half and surrounded on several sides.
However, it was very difficult to deal with the ability of Necron ships to suddenly teleport around the battlefield, a skill I had been unable to pass on from myself to my fleet.
It wasn't long before the Sautekh Dynasty began to flee, and we were victorious.
I had leveled up my Naval Command skill significantly as Tash helped me mop up the remaining Necrons. And my melee and ranged combat skills had gone up by over ten levels as well.
The next day after we refueled and recovered back at a naval orbital city we set up about forty hours away from Medusa VII I decided to go alone to send a message to the Necrons. Well, one larger than the one I had sent by taking out someone technically stronger than the Sautekh's faction leader.
My officers all protested but I didn't pay them any mind.
I equipped a Tau Bomber for personal space travel and flew as fast as I could towards Medusa VII.
I reached the planet surface of the Tomb World undetected as I planned, and from there I summoned a spell I had been working on, taking all of my MP, and mastery in Pyromancy and Mana abilities.
Greenish blue fire began to sprout from my hands as I chanted in Parseltongue, and then, almost 90,000 points of mana, damn near all of mine, was used in a single spell.
Enough exploding Protego Diabolica Meteors to flatten the entire planet surface began to rain down from the sky, as I summoned [Mana Fire Storm].
The sky of the entire planet turned into a stormy grey, and I wiped out the tomb world. Necrons of all kinds, some still in their tombs, were turned to ash, metal bodies and all, from how much fire I was sending.
[You have destroyed the Necron planet of Medusa VII! You have gained +150,000 EXP!]
[You have gained +2 LVs!]
[You have gained +15 LVs in Pyromancy, Mana Attacks, and Spellcraft!]
Medusa VII went from being a fully fortified Necron Tomb World, to an ashy empty wasteland.
I was exhausted, all of my MP had been used on the attack, luckily, I hadn't left any enemies nearby to attack me.
Sar had been different than this. Had I used an attack of this scale, would've killed both of us, not to mention he was significantly more powerful than the standard Necron soldiers protecting this planet.
I knew the Phaeron of the entire Necron Sautekh Dynasty was on our next target, and they'd be ready after finding out I torched Medusa VII with pryomancy just on my own.
If they found out that is.
…
After I used the Gamer to start transferring Necron technology, although improving it significantly, to teleport directly to Mandragora, the capital of the Sautekh Dynasty.
I pressed a button on my command console at the bridge of my flagship. "Air Caste Units Eleven through Twenty Six, what's your status?"
The Tau Captain on the other line responded calmly. "All systems are stable and ready to fire my lord."
"Engage."
"Yes sir."
The sight of over a dozen Tau battleships combining Sunkiller laser fire as the Necrons only had about thirty seconds to respond to the appearance of my warfleet was something I could never forget.
Multiple lasers of pure fusion energy spread from multiple ships like a web into a single burst aligned prior with Tau computing. The burst then flew forward, and the faction seat of the Necron Sautekh dynasty cracked in half like an egg and then blasted apart into millions of tiny pieces.
I could only imagine the conversation the Imperium of Man's highest ranking commanders could have the following morning.
"Hey you remember the capital world of the Sautekh Necrons?"
"Sure."
"The Tau just blew it up."
With that, I had cut the head off the snake that was the Sautekh Dynasty. Their best soldiers, their Phaeron, their entire chain of command almost, was wiped out in one strike.
Tash turned to me. "What now my lord?"
"Now we start conquering the entire Eastern Fringe of the galaxy."
…
…
…
A/N:
So, RichardF recently suggested Robert take a quick vacation to Pokemon, and I actually like the idea. So I could turn it into a fun fanservice/beach type of interlude between now and the next few chapters.
Thank you all for reading and stay safe folks.