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The Adeptus Mechanicus explorator fleet exited the Warp right on schedule, its advanced systems and programs having calculated right down to the last decimal where and when to make the transition. Once in real space, the fleet powered down their Geller fields and grimly sailed in the cold, empty vacuum, intent on reaching the planet a few million kilometers away.

The largest of the ships, designated as the flagship, was the Ark Mechanicus Class Battleship, Yamato. Housing Archmagos Explorator Slovan Styrimidon, essentially the Supreme Commander of the Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation, the Alpha Primus Raiji-44 Stroika and a whole Skitarii maniple, and Magos Klein Sigmar, the leader of the Legio Cybernetica and the acting Tech-priest Dominus on the ground, it had assembled all the commanders together in a single ship. I questioned the wisdom of that - for, if under some unforeseen circumstances where we came under attack and lose Yamato, all the commanders in the fleet would be gone.

Then again, the Ark Mechanicus Class Battleship was equipped with dozens of layers of void shields and armed with hundreds of devastating orbital cannons, anti-ship beam cannons and plasma artillery batteries. Styrimidon probably wanted his commanders safe and sheltered inside what he thought was the safest and most defensive ship inside his fleet. If anything else, he wouldn't hesitate the other cruisers and escorts to sacrifice themselves to protect the flagship if necessary.

The other large ship was Emperor Class Battleship Kongou, also similarly but not as well armed as the Ark Mechanicus Class. Obviously the Adeptus Mechanicus liked to keep the best of its technology to itself so the Ark Mechanicus class, exclusive to them, had more firepower, longer range and better shielding. Despite that, Kongou was still a force to reckon with, able to pour down a raging fusillade of plasma fire to melt an entire planet into a chunk of molten rock. I just hope I wasn't on the poor planet when it happened.

This was the ship where the Imperial Knights and the bulk of the Imperial Guard were housed, Houses Yato and their closely allied houses gathering in the massive cargo hold of the ship alongside the countless tanks of the Draconian Armored Defense Force. Even the Doomhammer super-heavy tank was dwarfed by the sheer size of the hold, which resembled an endless cavern that stretched on forever. Fortunately, the Imperial Guard had the numbers to take up the space, their equally endless rows of tanks parked along the shiny metal, Techpriest enginseers running about to maintain them. The Imperial Knights were provided a massive corner of our own, our territory fiercely guarded by our Sacristans and their crews. Kazu might not be that hostile, but the others certainly were, chasing away curious adepts from their precious knight suits.

To my immense relief, Colonel Ikeda was aboard this ship so I could talk to him or use him as a regicide opponent whenever I felt bored.

The two enormous battleships were escorted by a myriad of cruisers and destroyers. The Adeptus Mechanicus Heavy Cruisers Takao, Aoba, Maya, Suzuka, Kumano and Ashigara kept a silent vigil, forming a ring around Yamato and Kongou. They were in turn surrounded by the Adeptus Mechanicus Light Cruisers Tenryuu, Tatsuta, Kuma, Isuzu, Nagara, Yura, Yuubari, Sendai, Katori and Kashima. Rounding the smaller ships were the Destroyers Kaya, Hayate, Aoi, Fuji, Sumire, Shimakaze, Asakaze, Harukaze, Shirayuki and Ayanami.

The Heavy Transport or Heavy Barge, the sole vessel transporting the Titans of the Legio Gojira, Bishamonten, Inugami and Ookami, stayed behind the two battleships, protected by the ring of escorts. Accompanying it was the Goliath class Factory Ship, Kyojin, and the Goliath class Forge Tender, Akashi. Kyojin continued to manufacture imperial navy vessels such as the Vendetta Gunships, ammunition, plasma weapons and Leman Russ Executioners. Akashi performed maintenance repairs on the fleet, particularly the capital ships if necessary, and was arguably the most important ship in the fleet, next to the Yamato. All three non-combat ships were zealously guarded by the capital ships and their smaller but heavily armed escorts. Their contents were considered too valuable to be expendable.

Armed to the teeth and bristling with firepower, the enormous explorator fleet made its way ponderously across the void, heading for Asmodai.

The landing on the relatively empty and barren Asmodai was short and quick. A world caught in the countless conflicts and horrors of the Maelstrom, its surface had been scourged dry, leaving merely rocky terrain and perpetual twilight. Water still flowed, and in many parts of the region, lakes streams and rivers made up an aquatic network that crisscrossed the land and separated it into continents.

Archmagos Styrimidon quickly worked out our landing position, the spot where an Adeptus Mechanicus probe had detected the STCs many years ago. As usual, the Imperial Guard was the first to launch and disembark, clearing the beachhead and securing the landing site for the Mechanicus.

The Imperial Knights were next, ready to lend their formidable power and impenetrable ion shields to the Imperial Guard if they faced any threats that surfaced from within the barren world's rocky crust. The Techpriests enginseers attached to the Armored Defense Force hastily left their armored Chimera APCs and got to work, drilling equipment into the ground and activating machines to begin fabricating a temporary base camp that would serve as the accommodations and a fortress for the Guard during the duration that we would be here.

Once the defensive camp had been built, an imposing fortress with thousands of firepoints for the tanks to shoot out of, the Artisans of the Mechanicus descended from Yamato and began building in the empty center a huge castle-like building that would serve as the operation base for Mechanicus command. No doubt Tech-priest Dominus Sigmar and Alpha Primus Stroika would be housed there, overseeing operations and missions in the safety of the reinforced bunker. As usual, only the Mechanicus got the good stuff while the poor Guardsmen hid under crudely constructed plasteel walls and sentry towers. Well, at least they had their tanks to protect them.

Speaking of which, I had no doubt Stroika would lead his troops on the frontlines instead of cowering inside the operations base. Sigmar, too, was the kind to actively participate in battle instead of overseeing it in safety, trusting in the massive Kastelan robots of his Legio Cybernetica to protect him. Not that he needed them - his heavily augmented body and the Autocaduceus of Arkhan Land ensured that It Will Not Die. I mean he.

Only Archmagos Explorator Styrimidon remained in the safe confines of his Ark Mechanicus battleship, choosing to watch the missions through the eyes and ears of Skitarii while being protected by gunfire, lasgun volleys, plasma blasts and any other threats that might be flung at us. I knew that the archmagos wasn't a coward - far from it - but he was forced by his position to stay aboard the ship in case anything happened on the planet and the fleet was forced to leave. The supreme commander of the Mechanicus fleet was far too important to lose and abandon upon some obscure planet.

I had heard stories in the past where as a Tech-priest Dominous, he led the frontlines in valiant displays of courage that bordered or recklessness and lunacy, taking on Bloodthirsters and Daemon Princes with nothing but his power axe all just so he could retrieve a lost STC. Fortunately, he was armed these days with a Volkite blaster and macrostubber, but against his wishes he was required by Mechanicus protocol to remain aboard Yamato and command the operation from there.

It took a week or so before we finally settled down with free time to spare. The Imperial Guard, having secured the landing zone, could rest in the accommodations and relatively luxurious bunks and recreation factories the Adeptus Mechanicus fabricated for them (more for themselves, actually). We knew we were in here for the long haul so we might as well enjoy ourselves while at it.

Of course, the Guard was sent out on regular forays to sweep the barren wasteland for any sign of STCs. Yeah, leave the grunt work to us (for honor, the Imperial Knights follow the Imperial Guard around as super-heavy escorts) while the Skitarii...well, worked tirelessly to carve an underground complex under our base. Some sort of underground bunker where the servitors and adepts could begin fashioning a super-heavy artillery battery, or so the rumors went. According to a tank driver in a Leman Russ Executioner, they were constructing an Aquila macro-cannon or an Ordinatus machine.

I didn't know whether to believe him or not.

Less than 2 weeks after we set foot on the planet, we finally stumbled into something. The terrain was gray, almost indistinguishable from the perpetual twilight that blackened the skies with thick, heavy clouds. While we were grateful for the cool temperature and comfortable climate, the darkness made it difficult for us to see anything, and we relied heavily on our searchlights and nightvision auspexes to track things down.

So it was with immense relief when we finally came across a huge hole that seemed to lead to a subterranean cavern. We almost missed it - one of the Leman Russ Demolishers' crew found it by accident. When taking a break, the driver lazily sat down, only to have the ground give way under him and sent him tumbling down a slight slope and right in front of the yawning mouth of the cavern. Scrambling excitedly, he quickly ran back to his tank and voxed Colonel Ikeda, leading the rest of the armored force to the massive cavern's entrance with his Demolisher.

"What do you think?" Colonel Ikeda asked me over the vox. I shrugged, but knowing that he couldn't see me, I responded with a verbal reply.

"I think we might have hit the jackpot. The sensors are showing the greatest signals here."

The same type of sensors that the Mechanicus used in their probes, and they were reacting crazily toward the interior of the cavern. No doubt there was something of immense value concealed within.

"Sir, there are plenty of anomalous readings within the cavern. Some sort of exotic energy."

I overheard one of the crew aboard the Doomhammer, Emperor's Wrath, speak up. Colonel Ikeda paused briefly, most likely to nod to acknowledge the guy's statement, and then continued.

"These readings...they seem vaguely familiar. I think we may be walking into a combat zone."

I gulped as I moved the holo-picts around until I found the right auspex. The readings on it matched those of Necrons, and even worse, they seemed recent.

"It's a trap!"

"Even so, we've to walk right into it. Instead of sending in Chimera APCs and infantry to secure and explore the area, I'll test the waters with our tanks. That way, no matter what trap they throw at us, we'll weather them with heavy armor and crush them under sheer firepower."

"Good idea." I nodded. As Colonel Ikeda was the overall commander here I should submit to his judgment. "I'll follow them closely behind to provide long-ranged fire support."

"Yeah, stick with the Leman Russ Executioners and the tank commanders."

The tank commanders in the Leman Russ Punishers. Right. They were probably the most important personnel, but if possible I would like to protect all of them.

The Leman Russ Demolishers slowly rumbled into the cavern, followed closely by the rest of the 74th Battalion, including the Chimera APCs with plasma gun-armed troops. Well, only 3 out of 10 soldiers per squad were equipped with plasma guns, but that was still a high percentage when compared to regiments from other worlds.

As we slowly trekked through the enormous cavern in our armored vehicles, our searchlights dimly illuminating the overwhelming darkness, I caught sight of a eerily glowing structure a kilometer or so ahead. Pulsing with flashing strobes of creepy green light, the structure seemed to hum with living energy. I wanted to turn back and retreat, my mind unable to bear the horrors of such a disturbing visage, but a glance at my auspex made me groan.

"The readings of both the Necrons and the STCs are strongest there," I grumbled. "Well, I hope they haven't woken up yet..."

"I'm afraid they have."

Colonel Ikeda's voice was rife with tension, and through my auspexes I understood. Before my wide, horrified eyes, Canoptek Wraiths were floating through the walls, through the ground and drifting toward us, their whip coils curling around. I hadn't actually fought the Necrons before, but I had heard terrifying tales of these specters rending through metal, phasing through barricades and tearing poor infantry apart with just their claws.

"Kill them! Kill them all!"

I shouted through the vox in panic, inadvertently leaping through the chain of command and bypassing Colonel Ikeda. Later, in retrospect, I was extremely apologetic to him for that rudeness, but he understood my fear and said he would have done the same thing.

For now, everyone opened up, the Demolishers blasting the floating Wraiths apart with sheer firepower, their Demolisher siege cannons obliterating these specters to bits. I was relieved to see that none of them were getting up, and even as their phasing ability allowed them to survive a few of the Demolisher bombardment, the numerous blue-hot plasma blasts from the Executioners at the back ensured that they wouldn't be coming back up. Within minutes, the cavern was silent once again, the Wraiths having been annihilated as suddenly as they appeared.

However, we weren't given time to feel relieved. During the battle, the humming had somehow grew louder and with a brilliant flash of sickly green light, a massive object materialized in front of us. No. It wasn't an object. It was a floating vehicle.

"That's an Obelisk!" I gasped fearfully, recognizing the heavily armored black, cubic vehicle that was around the same size as a Baneblade super-heavy tank and a little bigger than the Doomhammer Colonel Ikeda was riding in. Almost simultaneously, two pyramid-shaped Monoliths teleported right beside it, flanking the enormous floating vehicle-structure, and Necron warriors began pouring out of their Eternity Gates.

"Destroy them!" Colonel Ikeda's enraged voice bellowed over the vox channels, stirring the stunned and shell-shocked tank crews into opening fire on the incoming Necron troops. "In the name of the Emperor, we shall not suffer the presence of these accursed xenos!"

The Leman Russ Demolishers pulverized huge number of advancing Necron warriors, but while only very few numbers succeeded in reanimating, the silver and green tide of skull-faced killers swept toward us, heedless of their comrades' sacrifices. Unfortunately, the Leman Russ Demolishers' Demolisher siege cannons had a very short range so the Necron warriors were able to fire back. With the massed fire of their gauss flayers, even the heavily armored hull of the Leman Russ Demolishers began to buckle and collapse, the once proud tanks turning into scrap metal. The surviving tank crews bailed out a their vehicles shattered and exploded, and tried to make a break for the Chimeras behind them. Not even half of them made it.

"Cover them!" Colonel Ikeda yelled, moving his tanks up to support the fleeing survivors. In a single volley, we had lost our entire column of Leman Russ Demolishers. Fortunately, the Leman Russ Executioners were up to the job, melting hordes of Necron warriors with blinding, hot plasma and ensuring they wouldn't be getting up. The Leman Russ Punishers, manned by tank commanders, applied the concept of an unsubtle bullet hose to great effect, mowing the approaching Necron warriors with rending Punisher rounds. The Executioners had longer range and were able to keep a distance while the Punishers ceased their firing to fall back. "Wipe them out!"

"I'll protect them," I offered as I stepped forward, my Knight Crusader razing the Necron warriors mercilessly with my Avenger Gatling cannon. Raising my rapid-fire battle cannon, I let loose a couple of devastating volleys, the large blasts powerfully pulverizing the Necron warriors, ripping them apart to the extent they could never reanimate. However, the Necron warriors' numbers seemed endless. "Aw, frak it, they just keep coming, don't they?!"

Keeping ahead to cover the survivors, I stepped right in the path of the Gauss flayers. The skeletal killers grimly advanced as they blasted away with their gauss weaponry, confident that they would wreck my Knight the way they did to the poor Leman Russ Demolishers earlier. To their surprise, their gauss flayers were ineffective against my ion shields, the spiked rounds harmlessly deflected off the gleaming protective wall of energy.

I grinned as I responded with a burst of fire that obliterated a whole row of up as I stepped past the running remnants of tank crews, I saw that the Necron warriors were pouring out of the Monoliths' Eternity Gates. Moving my eyes away from my auspexes, I tapped the screen for voxing.

"Colonel Ikeda, it seems the Necrons are reinforcing their numbers by sending troops through the Monoliths' Eternity Gates. I suggest we prioritize their destruction, otherwise we'll run out of ammo and energy."

"Good idea." I watched as the Emperor's Wrath raised its Magma cannon to aim at the super-heavy Obelisk and fired, visiting upon it the wrath of the Emperor. The first blast sent the Obelisk toppling, and the next few blasts rammed gaping holes into the cracking surface. I followed up with a volley of rockets from my Stormspear rocket pods and watched with satisfaction as explosions lit up the interior of the alien vehicle. "Those Monoliths are next."

None of the three floating structures got close enough to deliver vengeance upon us, their Tesla spheres, Gauss Flux Arcs and Particle Whips out of range. Heck, never mind the ridiculously long range of the Magma cannon, even the Leman Russ Executioner's main and sponson plasma cannons outranged them. Before the Monoliths could come within range of their deadly Gauss Flux Arrays, they buckled under the sheer power of the Emperor's Wrath's Magama cannon, the devastating weapon punching holes through their living metal and immolating them. Designed to take down even a Titan, the Emperor's Wrath had no problems with lesser enemies.

With the three massive structure-vehicles down, the numbers of the Necron warriors dwindled, the skeletal soldiers easily taken care of by our heavily armed tanks. Still, the victory was a sour one. We had lost the entirety of the 74th Battalion's Leman Russ Demolishers in this single exchange and we knew the war was far from over.

"Oh, boy." I watched the smoking wrecks of the Demolishers, vaguely aware of the poor survivors pitifully climbing aboard the Chimeras with space to spare. Most of them had, with their 12-men capacity only accommodating 10-men squads. It would be a bit crowded on the return journey, but the remnants of the Demolisher tank crews had no reason to complain, having just escaped barely with their lives. "That was a disaster."

"That it was," Colonel Ikeda agreed as he sighed heavily. "Damn it."

That was an understatement. As if mocking us, the structure burst into life again, its green light crackling and bathing the cavern in eerie illumination. I could see a second Obelisk and more Monoliths materializing in front of the structure and Necron warriors pouring out of the Eternity Gates again.

"Not again," I groaned, reluctant to repeat the whole ordeal. Fortunately, Colonel Ikeda was wise enough not to put his forces through a battle of attrition. Already some of the Leman Russ Executioners were smoking, having overheated from the over-judicious use of their deadly plasma weapons.

"Retreat! Everyone, retreat!"

Thankfully, the Necrons didn't follow us out of the cavern, seemingly contented to stay where they were, as if their utmost priority was to guard that structure. Not caring about their alien motives and relieved of not needing to face them - the front armor of my Knight Crusader was smouldering with craters from the places where my ion shield had failed - I marched out of the cavern, taking the rear and keeping my ion shield to the back just in case the skeletal soldiers decided to take potshots at us.

Fortunately, they didn't and we were on our way back to base before we knew it, weary, demoralized and slipping into shock.

"Report," Archmagos Styrimidon commanded tersely when I returned to the command bunker with Colonel Ikeda at my side. It wasn't a rude or overbearing order, merely stated matter-of-factly because he needed to know what had just transpired.

"I believe we've found the location of the STCs," Colonel Ikeda began sourly. Archmagos Styrimidon nodded, his fuzzy image rippling across the poor quality holo-pict.

"Yes, I saw the readings of your sensors. There is a 98.7% probability that the STCs our probes detected was located in the cavern you uncovered. You engaged in combat with the Necrons, if I recall."

"The Necrons are here in force," Colonel Ikeda confirmed. "At least battalion size, if not larger. They took out an entire column of tanks."

"All of our Leman Russ Demolishers got demolished," I offered helpfully, but neither Colonel Ikeda nor Archmagos Styrimidon was in the mood for jokes. "We executed the first wave with our Leman Russ Executioners and visited the Emperor's wrath on them with the Emperor's Wrath."

"I apologize for your loss, Colonel," Archmagos Styrimidon said, though I could tell he was sorrier about the loss of fighting men and military resources to further his quest than the actual loss of lives. "I think you can pull the 74th Battalion of the Draconian Armored Defense Force back and have your hard-earned rest. Leave the rest to my Skitarii legions and Legio Cybernetica."

Colonel Ikeda's eyes widened. "You mean you're going to send your own Mechanicus forces into that cavern?" He blurted out. Archmagos Styrimidon nodded gravely as he glanced at Magos Sigmar and Alpha Primus Stroika, the mechanically augmented duo saluting and making the sign of the cog to display their compliance.

"As this is the Adeptus Mechanicus's mission, it is only proper that we do the job ourselves. Besides, our infantry and walkers are more suited for a subterranean battle than your tanks, and they can move through any kind of terrain present underground. Your tanks do not have that function. Furthermore, you're unable to utilize your full war potential without the aerial support of your Vendetta gunships. We'll take over from here."

"All right," Colonel Ikeda sighed, both in frustration and in relief. While it pained him to drop a mission halfway, he was clearly relieved that he didn't need to send his men in to die against the cold and ruthless Necrons. That fearful xenos race was notorious for being mercilessly killing machines with advanced weaponry that could disintegrate a man with one shot.

"I would like the Great Houses Yato, Uesugi and Takeda to remain behind with the Guard to man the base's defense," Archmagos Styrimidon continued, surprising me.

"Huh? Really? Don't you need our fire support?"

"No." Archmagos Styrimidon shook his head. "Apparently our fleet has detected a new fleet translating into the system from the Warp. They are definitely not of Imperial design. Actually...their appearance and transmission codes seem to be that of the Archenemy."

That was then I realized the reason why the archmagos wanted the Imperial Knights to back up the Imperial Guard. If the new fleet was indeed that of the Archenemy, there were certain to be Traitor Marines within their forces. If that was the case, the Imperial Guard would be hard-pressed to counter them. Even when twisted by the Warp, these superhuman beings maintained their elite statuses and martial prowess, their skills in combat matched only by the highly revered Adeptus Astartes. Rather, the rampant mutations the Warp cursed them with only served to transform them into even more horrifying monsters. The Imperial Guard was going to need every Imperial Knight on Asmodai to help them fight off this immense threat. I had the feeling Styrimidon would begin deploying the three massive Titans that had remained in orbit for the initial phase of the operation.

As for the Necrons, well, the Skitarii was a good match for them. I could imagine their conflict, the war being a cold, silent and merciless one as two armies of machines, one silver and green, the other red and black, clashed in the darkness with advanced weaponry, mechanical calculations, ruthless efficiency and sophisticated technology. It would be a sight to see and I was sad that I would miss it.

However, I would almost rather fight elite Traitor Marines than the inhuman Necrons. Even if they were the Archenemy, at least I could understand their motives, their fears, their goals, and what drove them. The Necrons, however, even among the xenos they were completely alien, killing without any clear motive or goal in mind. Unlike the Tyranids who scourged the galaxy for biomass or Orks who reveled in the bloodlust of combat, the Necrons killed just because they killed. This time they were killing to protect their precious structure, but in time when they built up a huge enough force I was sure they would emerge from their underground catacombs and purge the system of life.

I could only hope the Mechanicus army succeeded in eliminating them before they did.