Chapter 9: Grand Library Part 1

After several minutes of hammering away at the doors to the Forerunner fortress with plasma fire, needle rounds, fuel rod blasts, and everything else the small army of Covenant and Daemons could bring to bear, the doors at last seemed to give way, the once shining silver slabs having become blackened and scorched after suffering so much abuse. Several holes and depressions had been made in the doors as well.

Finally, just as the massive doors threatened to at last give way under the relentless attack from the Covenant forces, they opened, sending out a wave of bright green light that the Covenant and Daemons were all bathed in as out of the fortress came the light's source.

They were vaguely humanoid in shape, but with lanky limbs and a hunched over frame. They resembled human skeletons, but steel gray and with a heavily armored chassis. In their hands they held large cannon-like weapons that glowed a sickly green color and gave off sparks of an identical hue. This same glow also seemed to emanate from the steel skeletons themselves.

Then they aimed these weapons and fired them.

Beams of sickly neon-green colored light burst forth out of the guns with a sound akin to a high-pitched animal shriek. When they hit their targets the unfortunate Covenant and Daemons were consumed in a green aura before disappearing in an instant, a pile of ash on the muddy ground were they had once stood.

"SHOOT THEM DOWN!" Thel ordered, beginning an intense and vicious shootout between the small Covenant army and the Necrons, whose weapons unleashed several more mighty bursts of sickly green light that disintegrated all they touched as meanwhile the Covenant's weaponry struggled to so much as damage or leave dents in the imposing steel skeletons.

"What monsters have the false gods unleashed!?"

-X-

"What are those things supposed to be?" Sergeant Forge asked as inside the fortress the Imperial Fists and Eldar watched the battle via the security feed the Monitor still had up.

"If I had to guess they're some of the "secret weapons" that this facility was meant to store" Ellen Anders said before turning to the Monitor: "That's some army you've got there. They're tearing those Covenant and Daemons apart. With soldiers like that I'm amazed the Forerunners lost"

"Their numbers were too few back then and the enemy's numbers too great" the Monitor explained. "But things have changed. More Necrons have been built since the extinction of my creators, oh yes, many, many more indeed. And now they are more than a match for the Flood and whatever beings they have tricked into serving them, as you can plainly see. They will also be more than match for you".

As the Monitor said this, several of the Necrons suddenly appeared through another door, their weapons aimed menacingly at the Eldar and Imperial Fists.

"What the hell is going on here?" Sergeant Forge demanded.

"I'm sorry reclaimers. But this installation's security has been compromised. As you are all potential facilitators of infestation I am afraid that I have no choice but to have the Necrons terminate you all. My apologies."

"Oh shit"

-X-

"Die abominations!" roared one Elite, Cat'hrl as he pumped the nearest Necron with as much plasma fire as he could before his Plasma Rifle overheated. Unfortunately for him, the Necron managed to weather the attack and retaliated with a shot from it's Gauss Cannon. The blast of green energy tore through the Elites energy shields as thought they were butter and went on to burn through his armor and flesh like fires consumed dry wood. Nothing remained.

"Presumptuous fool" R'tas observed as he, Thel and some of the more intelligent Elites made the wise decision to backpedal as the Necrons continued to advance relatively unhindered, their powerful Gauss Cannons having already made swift work of most of Thel and R'tas' makeshift army. Most of the Daemons had unwisely chosen to attack the Necrons directly like they did all their foes, and had been promptly massacred for their troubles.

A pair of Hunters provided cover for the other survivors, using their powerful arm cannons to douse the Necrons in a sea of eldritch flames, which seemed to succeed where other Covenant weaponry had failed in getting past the Necron's sturdy armor, melting it like a flame to wax. Several of the Necrons collapsed at last, reduced to melted and burnt metal as at last the multi-colored fires consumed them.

But where some of the younger Sangheili breathed a sigh of relief as they witnessed this, R'tas and Thel knew better.

"Anything else would have been completely incinerated by those Eldritch flames. " Thel observed. "Yet these monstrosities were not. Their armor is too thick and their weapons too mighty. We cannot hope to best them like this…"

Indeed, though the Hunter's arm cannons managed to destroy some of the Necrons, others still pushed past the vibrant flames and unleashed a merciless barrage of Gauss Cannon blasts on the Hunters. The behemoths sturdy armor and tough shields seemed to weather the assault at first but then, incredibly, the continued barrage managed to destroy even these sturdy protections, the Hunters soon collapsing dead, their once proud armored forms now scorched and riddled with smoking holes as the ground beneath them became soaked with their orange blood.

Seeing the Hunters be slain caused the remaining Grunts to panic further and they retreated despite Thel's orders to stand firm, and were promptly vaporized by the Necrons for their troubles. Thel was unmoved.

"Such is the fate of insubordinate cowards"

"Fight my brothers! We make our last stand here!"

Though having lost much of their morale, the remaining Covenant nevertheless heeded their commander's orders and opened fire once more with the entirety of their arsenals. One Sangheili servant of Khorne got lucky and managed to stick a plasma grenade onto one Necron's head. Incredibly, the blast did not completely destroy it, but did blow away enough of it's head that it was felled all the same. Another Sangheili in service to Khorne picked up one of the dead Grunt's discarded Fuel Rod Guns and shot several of it's projectiles out at the Necrons. One was reduced to a smoking pile of scrap metal by the attack, followed swiftly by another.

"Blood for the Blood God!" The Elite roared in triumph, "Skulls for the Skull Thr—"

The Elite was cut off when a Gauss Cannon blast struck his Fuel Rod Gun, causing a titanic explosion of green energy that completely obliterated the destroyed weapon's wielder, and killed two other Elites along with it. Even worse, the blast provided enough of a distraction that it allowed the Necrons to finally reach the remaining Sangheili's position.

"Damned machines!" cursed Thel, who drew his energy sword as one of the Necrons closed in on him. Swinging outwards he decapitated the Necron and then spun around and cut another one in two with a downward slash. Another Necron fired at him, but Thel's energy sword managed to deflect the Gauss Cannon blast, creating a blinding flash and causing the energy sword to briefly disintegrate before reforming just in time for Thel to use it to destroy another Necron. As his enemy was sliced in two, all around Thel his brothers were vaporized by the Nercon's deadly Gauss Cannons.

It would seem the machines weapons can temporarily dispel my energy sword Thel mused. That is problematic…

Another Necron attempted to bring the axe-head fixed to it's Gauss Cannon down on Thel's head, who blocked the strike with his energy sword. Forcing the weapon away, Thel sliced the axe-head off the Guass Cannon before then plunging his energy sword into the Necron's head.

"Fight on!" Thel roared. "To the last! Fight on!"

-X-

Meanwhile within the Forerunner fortress itself, the Imperial Fists and Eldar were beginning to feel in full the deadliness of the Monitor's betrayal. Already the Necrons had mercilessly cut down over half a dozen Imperial Fists and Eldar, with not even the Farseer's armor providing much protection against the Necron's powerful Gauss Cannons.

"Follow my lead!" Eldrad shouted to his fellow Farseers as he unleashed a powerful blast of electricity at the nearest Necrons. As Eldrad had hoped, the electricity managed to short-circuit the deadly automatons, though Eldrad also suspected that such a ploy would only serve as a temporary measure. Fortunately, his fellow Farseers followed up with their own blasts of electricity, and between all of them the small army of Necrons were all shut down by the crippling bolts of mystical lightning.

"Ah! Impossible! You actually shut down my Necron soldiers! Unacceptable! Unacceptable! Absolutely unacceptable! Protocol dictates action! I see now that helping you was wrong!"

Then, as all looked on, the Monitor's single "eye" again underwent a change, going from the green of the Necrons to a bold crimson before then unleashing a powerful blast of energy, which he directed at Eldrad himself. Eldrad narrowly evaded the shot, which went on to strike and immediately kill another Farseer. The others all retaliated with a massive lightning storm, but incredibly, the small Monitor seemed to weather this attack for but a moment before the overwhelming amount of electricity finally managed to force him to retreat.

"Damned treacherous little…" Macha swore but Eldrad cut her off. "Ignore him. We must get out of here before the Necrons reactivate"

"So much for this fortress being our best chance at survival huh?" Sergeant Forge said.

"Watch how you speak Mong-Ki or I'll leave you to face the Necrons alone. Now come. The time has come to return to our ships"

-X-

Though Thel and his men had fought as valiantly and viciously as they could, in the end the superior armor and weaponry of the Necrons had taken a heavy toll, and now the jungle nearest to the Forerunner fortress was a graveyard littered with dead Covenant and trees reduced to ash and splinters. Of all of the Covenant now only Thel and R'tas remained, the latter now missing his right mandibles from a Gauss Cannon blast that had been far too close for comfort.

"I am proud to meet my end at your side old friend" R'tas said to Thel as they prepared to meet their fate against the remaining Necrons, who still numbered well over two dozen.

"I feel the same" Thel conceded as the Necrons readied their Gauss Cannons. Only death did not come for the two Zealots that day.

Several mortar blasts rained down on the Necrons, destroying several outright and leaving others badly damaged. Following this were several Banshees, which unleashed a heavy payload of both rapid plasma fire and fuel rod blasts, both of which went a long way toward reducing the remaining Necrons to a smoking ruin. Their morale renewed by the arrival of reinforcements, Thel and R'tas gathered to them what weapons remained and unleashed everything they had left on the surviving Necrons, who continued to press forward with an attack even as they lost more and more of their soldiers. Soon not a single one was left standing.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Thel and R'tas turned to see their saviors arrive in full. To their complete and total surprise it was none other than the Arbiter himself, as well as Lord Bale's top lieutenant Sindri. The two Zealots immediately bowed in respect to the Arbiter as he appeared.

"Get off your knees" the Arbiter growled. "The battle is not over yet" before looking out at the graveyard in front of him. "I can see you did quite well in getting thrashed by those machines" he said condescendingly.

"They were unlike anything we have ever seen before" Thel defended. "Stronger armor, weapons that kill with a touch. They were far mightier adversaries than the Eldar and humans have ever been"

"It matters not" the Arbiter growled. "They will still fall before our might in the end. You should thank the human. It was his idea to send you reinforcements. I'd have left you to burn"

As the Arbiter stormed off, the two Zealots turned to look at Sindri, who smiled underneath his helmet. "Oh don't act so surprised my friends. I do hate to see good soldiers and commanders such as yourselves be needlessly put to the torch. Such a waste of resources. And fortunately our good Lord Bale agreed with me, which is why he gave me permission to come to your rescue"

"I must say I did not take a human for having such clear-mindedness" R'tas admitted. "We are both in your debt"

"Indeed you are my friends" Sindri said. "Indeed you are. But let us not worry about such things now. Much greater and more pressing matters require our attention now no?"

-X-

Escaping from the Forerunner fortress proved to be more difficult than anticipated. The Monitor had put the entire facility on lockdown, and now Necrons were all over the main entrance to the fortress, too many for the now considerably smaller group of Farseers and Imperial Fists to beat.

"Looks like we'll have to find a new exit" Ellen Anders observed.

"Or we could make one" Sergeant Forge suggested.

"Doubtful" Macha said. "This facility was built to withstand the full might of Chaos' armies. I don't think whatever weapons you humans carry will be able to destroy it from the inside"

"Wait" Ellen Anders said. "The Monitor mentioned a place called "The Grand Library. Maybe we could go there?"

"Such a place would likely be heavily guarded" Eldrad cautioned. "Perhaps even more than the entrance currently is."

"I don't think so" Sergeant Forge said. "All of the Necrons seem to have been either sent out to battle the Covenant and Daemons or situated at our only exit out of here to keep us from escaping."

"There could still be more waiting for us though" Macha warned.

"Well a "maybe" sounds better than certain death to me" Ellen Anders said. "And right now those are our options. That or we can wait around here for some Necrons to get sent our way and vaporize us here instead of near the exit. Not a great third option"

"The human makes a valid point" Macha said to Eldrad, who remained unconvinced.

"I haven't lived as long as I have by indulging in foolish risks"

"Do you have a better suggestion?" Ellen Anders challenged. "Because I'd love to hear it"

Surprisingly, Eldrad seemed to consider this for a moment before at last responding: "I cannot believe I am saying this, but I think that both you and your Sergeant have put forth decent suggestions. I think that between all of us and whatever weaponry we can find in this facility we may just be able to force our way out of here. If not then I do agree that retreat to the Grand Library would be a good choice, but only as a last resort"

"So we're going with Sergeant Forge's suggestion first then?" Ellen Anders asked. "But the Monitor said that the armories have been rendered defunct"

"And the Monitor has also proven himself to be a most untrustworthy little machine, as you yourself first suspected"

"How did you…?"

"Psychic remember?" Eldrad allowed a very slight smile underneath his helmet. "Now come. Let us see if we cannot find either the armory or a means of getting to the Grand Library…"

But as Eldrad said this, a loud, deafening noise echoed throughout the cavernous depths of the fortress, this time in the form of the entrance doors being at last blasted down by powerful mortar blasts. The Necrons wasted no time opening fire on whatever was trying to gain entrance to the fortress, but the first Wraith managed to absorb all of their fire long enough for scores of Covenant and Daemons of Chaos to swarm into the fortress, leading to intense fighting between the two sides.

"Looks like the Covenant made it in…" Sergeant Forge observed.

"Your citing the obvious is greatly appreciated" Macha said sarcastically. "Come. Let's use our enemies being at each other's throats to our advantage and get to the Grand Library"

Sergeant Forge nodded and the group of Eldar and Imperial Fists began to race through the winding halls of the Forerunner fortress, mercifully encountering no more Necrons as they continued to look everywhere they could for any sign of the mysterious Grand Library. Finally, their search took them to a large circular door that opened as they neared. Once inside, the group was awed by what they saw.

All around them, in rows that seemed to go on forever, were what to the human's eyes looked an awful lot like displays and cages in a zoo. Each one had a console in front of it as well as a description that was in a language the humans did not recognize. The Eldar however, did.

"This…this place kept our people here. Yours as well human. And it seems the Covenant races as well…all species had members in one of these…"

"Cages" Ellen Anders observed. "Looks like the Forerunners made a zoo out of everyone else's ancestors"

"That does not sound at all like our precursors…" Macha remarked. "How strange"

"Maybe it wasn't a zoo" Sergeant Forge suggested. "Maybe they were studying us, trying to figure out our strengths and weaknesses. In case we ever became a threat to them"

"That sounds more plausible" Eldrad agreed. "The Forerunners would not want their empire to fall to anyone, least of all species that they probably viewed as inferiors"

"I think…I think this may be the Library. Or at least part of it. After all, it's basically the Forerunners cataloguing different species. That's a kind of library"

"Possibly" Eldrad conceded. "But somehow I feel that this "Grand Library" is more than just this. We should move on. There is nothing else to see here"

But as the group got ready to leave, the door locked and an alarm blared out.

"I'm afraid I cannot allow that" the Monitor said, descending along with several other floating machines. It's single "eye" had become an eerie green once more. "The Necrons will handle the intruders. You on the other hand, will be dealt with by the Sentinels" The Monitor turned to them. "Save their heads. Dispose of the rest". And with this, the Monitor vanished without a trace and the Sentinels advanced menacingly on the humans and Eldar. They didn't last long.

"Well that was easy" Sergeant Forge observed as the last Sentinel fell to the ground with a clang, now a flaming and smoking ruin.

"True, but we're still stuck here…"

"Perhaps not" Macha said, catching everyone's attention. "I may be able to interface with this facility's systems enough to at least get us out of this room. Let me see…" and as Macha said this she placed one of her armored hands over the centermost console and began to feverishly work on it, her fingers moving at a blinding fast speed until at last, the door behind them opened, allowing the group to escape. No sooner did they leave that room though did the Monitor's voice ring out: "You are more persistent and clever than I thought reclaimers. But no matter. You will find this facility's defenses to be more than adequate to prevent your escape. Sending in the Deathmark Immortals"

"The what?"

Then, appearing out of the shadows were several more Necrons, only these were larger and more muscular than their peers, also being silver in color and each having a single glowing green eye in their center, much like the Monitor did. They had large black shoulder pauldrons and held in their hands even longer and bigger weapons than the other Necrons.

"Get clear!" Sergeant Forge ordered. All did as instructed just as the Deathmark Immortals fired their weapons. The ensuing effect was nothing short of spectacular as five titanic blasts of bright green light exploded out of the elongated barrels of the Deathmark Immortal's weapons. The blasts struck the door to the "zoo" and utterly disintegrated it. Incredibly, they continued going after this and sent the entire room up in smoke.

"Ack! You have destroyed the indexing room! Unacceptable! Unacceptable! Absolutely unacceptable! You must be terminated at once!"

"There is no way I'm taking those things head-on" Sergeant Forge said.

"Agreed" Macha said. "We need to find a more defensible position"

"I'm thinking we need to get out of here. Immediately"

"I managed to download schematics of this facility when I interfaced with the console" Macha said as they continued to run. "I know how to get to the Grand Library. Follow me"

As the group continued to run, they seemed to outrun their mechanical pursuers, only for more Sentinels to come in to intercept them. Fortunately these proved to be of little danger and were destroyed relatively easily. Turning another corner, the group came upon a long hallway with several large, heavily reinforced steel doors. Going past this, they at last came to a lift.

"This is how we get to the library."

Taking the lift up, the group at last took a moment to catch their breath and take stock of their current loadout. Much of the group's ammunition had been spent, and there was little left to go around. The Eldar Farseers were also beginning to feel drained from so much expending of their power. Even Eldrad Ulthran began to feel a slight headache coming on.

After a short ride, the lift stopped. Stepping off, the group was greeted to a long hallway leading to a cavernous room containing countless rows containing what was quickly determined to be data. Picking out a random one, Macha identified it as being information on her own people.

"Here it is. The Grand Library. Everything this installation had as far as information goes is here"

"There's a lot here" Ellen Anders observed. "I wonder what it's all about…"

"Everything" Eldrad replied bluntly. "The Forerunners were as much scholars as they were conquerors and inventors. Really they excelled in everything. That is why they were the greatest of all races. Mightier than even the Eldar"

As Eldrad said this, a very faint sound could be heard, akin to the scurrying of a centipede, or the slithering of a snake. Soon the sound grew louder, until all could very clearly hear it, and then louder still, like approaching thunder and carrying even more dread. Then out of the shadows came the source.

The thing was clearly mechanical, and resembled a fusion between serpent and spider. The long coiling "body" of the machine was silver-gray and had a blade at the tip of it's "tail". Adorning the sides were glowing green orbs, and over the very front of the serpent was what looked like a massive black spider with a green trim, blades attached to it's frontmost legs, and like the Monitor and Deathmark Immortals a single glowing green eye. And on both it's back and belly were cannons.

"Alert: unauthorized access to Grand Library. Intruders have sufficient biomass and proper physiology to facilitate widespread infestation. Containment must be enforced. Preparing Gauss Cannons"

As the machine said this, more of the same slithering, scurrying sound could be heard, and out of the shadows came two more of the same machines.

"Canoptek Wraiths preparing for attack"

Author's Note: Two Necron-related cliffhangers in a row. What are the odds? Anyway, I feel I should stress something about my take on the Necrons: they ain't as powerful here as they are in actual Warhammer 40k lore. Why? Because they're too darn unstoppable there. Seriously they can self-repair on a molecular level. That's insane. So here the Necrons can't do that. No self-repairing. But to make sure that they're not coming off as too weak I made sure that they were still very tough, being very resistant to harm and having incredibly powerful weapons. How did I do? Be sure to tell me in your reviews!

And thanks to those who have stuck with me this long, even after I went on a crazy long hiatus. I appreciate it.