For Rahkaak, bad news piled upon bad news.
The first ship to return brought word of a coreworld that had woken, but completely succumbed to the Flayer virus. That was horrifying and Rahkaak immediately marked it on the star maps with the bright red of quarantine, to be avoided forever.
The second ship to return came back dishearteningly quickly, with terrible news: the coreworld it had been tasked to find simply did not exist anymore. Rahkaak had demanded answers, but they were able to provide none, except that the area in space that their star charts clearly marked the system was now empty. That would have to be investigated more thoroughly later.
The third ship returned with word of a coreworld and two fringe worlds. The coreworld was still intact on a cold world full of ruins that were tentatively identified as both unknown and human. The sun it circled was dying but records indicated it was too early, and something was badly wrong with the planet itself. Necrons were immortal constructs and no longer had any use for superstition, but Rahkaak still listened patiently as her Immortals reported a strange unease and sense of cold. Despite nothing obviously wrong, the planetary mind was offline and when they attempted to access any of the functions, nothing worked. So they were unable to lower the protective fields that would have allowed them to attempt awakening. Those fields did function, which was promising and Rahkaak intended to eventually go herself and see if her Phaeron authority would allow her access. As for the fringe worlds, one was looted by the Drukhari but the other was somewhat intact. The ship she'd sent had returned swelled with warriors and a single nemesor, all awoken successfully from their slumber. Unfortunately it was but a tiny fringe world, and there were many awakening failures, so that barely doubled their numbers.
And unfortunately, I could do without this nemesor, Rahkaak thought with resignation. Her great strength as a Phaeron had always been her ability with diplomacy and delegation. Diplomacy had allowed her tiny empire to exist and thrive, even when the necrontyr and then necrons were at each other's throats. Delegation let her pick the best to serve… and who best to exile to an unfortunate little fringe world.
Kototep the Sixth had many, many, many illustrious titles attached to his name. He was the highest of nobility and unfortunately, a genuine moron. Rahkaak's father had taken pity on him and let him command minor troops, leading to far too many casualties. Rahkaak had less patience and had exiled him, although she'd spinned it for him as an "important, strategic command that required his brilliance." Now he was back and preening at how he'd led his fringeworld to survival, despite it having almost nothing to do with him.
At least his warriors will be useful. The common warriors were mindless, regretfully – Rahkaak would never have chosen that, but the work of the Star Gods could not be reversed – but some of the Immortals still had their personality engrams active. Maybe, maybe, she could actually find a useful nemesor from among their number. She had one candidate so far but he was far from ideal.
All of this led her to a very unpleasant conclusion.
Unless I take drastic and bizarre action, my Empire is effectively dead. They had gone from billions of necrons to roughly six thousand. There is only one form this drastic action can take. Rahkaak paused for a moment, before summoning Simokh and Nuhkes. Simokh would not be particularly useful for this but he was still the chief of her Crypteks, despite his mental damage. He deserved to be present.
"Phaeron, how may we assist?" Nuhkes asked and Rahkaak regarded him silently for a moment, wondering how he would take to this suggestion.
"Nuhkes, Simokh, I have given serious thought to how we might salvage the ruins of the Uhnashret Dynasty," Rahkaak said. "I have decided there is only one course of action. We must incorporate the humans into our Dynasty." Nuhkes and Simokh did not look at each other, but she could almost sense them communing silently.
"They are Unclean," Simokh said but to Rahkaak, he seemed to be saying it purely for form's sake. "They will soil our glorious empire with organic filth." And despite her suspicions that he meant none of it, that statement was intensely annoying.
"There are six thousand, three hundred and twenty-six of us, Simokh!" She said in sharp rebuke and he dipped his head in acknowledgement. "We have precisely one nemesor and it is Kototep!" This time, Simokh flashed a sigil of agreement. "I would much rather hand my forces to a human nemesor!" That verged on sacrilege, even referring to that rank and human in the same sentence, but Rahkaak did not much care.
"Yes, that is true but we – that is – how can we possibly trust the humans, Phaeron?" Nuhkes asked, his nodes flaring with refractory distress. Rahkaak deliberately calmed herself before replying.
"That is why you are here. How can we gain the trust of the humans?" With a problem of xenology in front of him, Nuhkes was greatly relieved. For a long moment, he considered the problem.
"As you instructed, I've been using small spying units and scarabs to conduct research into the humans, the nature of their society and command structure," Nuhkes said. "I have a full, in depth analysis of their technology although I was unable to gain access to the "SCT". They seem to keep that deep underground. From conversations, however, I believe it is similar to the crownworld's artificial intelligence and a great repository of knowledge from their original society."
"Interesting, but what of the command structure?" That was really her greatest concern at the moment. When they had the trust of the humans, they could get full access to their technology and understand how to enhance or modify it.
"Do you recall the human with the polearm, who slew the Drukhari raider?" Yes, she most certainly did. "Not to my surprise, he is of very high standing in their society. He is a powerful nemesor, and directly in line for the human equivalent of Phaeron." Poor Simokh was twitching slightly at their repeated use of Necron titles in regards to humans, but Rahkaak thought it was merely practical for understanding. "They follow the same descent rules we did as living beings, with titles preferentially moving through the male line." That no longer really mattered anymore but Rahkaak herself was an exception to that rule, having no brothers in life. "The humans have multiple noble houses…" Rahkaak patiently listened through the list of houses, and their main attributes. It was thankfully short, amounting to only six and three of them were purely agrarian, providing the food, clothes and raw manpower for the war effort. Of the other three, one was essentially exiled for some past misdeed. They were tasked with maintaining and administering the mining operations outside the planet. While very important, it was also an ugly, unpleasant duty. But if they did their work well, every year a member of the family was allowed to return and it was estimated that in twenty more years the entire family would have worked off their punishment. Rahkaak wondered what the Phaeron of the humans would do then.
The last two noble families were far more exalted than their cousins. Considered the "Knight" houses, all males were required to fight in battle, either wearing personal armor and finely made weapons, or manning the "mobile death traps" that were "Knight armor". That was extremely curious but Nuhkes had something of an explanation.
"From what I can determine, some vital component to make the Knight armor is lacking. They are incredibly destructive but also vulnerable TO destruction, and the Drukhari target them preferentially. The situation with them is so poor that the humans have largely given up on them entirely." Nuhkes paused for a moment before continuing in a most serious manner. "They are still sometimes used, when the Drukhari bring certain weapons that require them, but it is considered a death sentence to the human pilot."
"If the Drukhari wanted to, they could have wiped out this wretched colony long ago. Why haven't they?" Simokh wondered aloud and Rahkaak was oddly glad to hear it. He sounded more like himself. Nuhkes made a small glyph of uncertainty, coupled with one of speculation.
"I wonder if it is precisely as the first human we questioned said… they are being hunted purely for sport, as our nobles hunted beasts in the ancient wilds of our homeworld." A brief silence descended then. Rahkaak had no trouble imagining such cruelty… despite her reputation as a gentler sort of Phaeron, even in her realm, there were nobles who indulged in great degeneracy. "Also, I wonder if they are being eaten." What?! "The phrase the Drukhari used when taunted the human specifically referred to consumption." Rahkaak flashed a glyph for disgust and noticed, to her amusement, that Simokh had done the same.
"This will make it easier to recruit the humans to our empire," Simokh observed but Nuhkes made a glyph of uncertainty.
"If there is one thing we must be careful of, it is the pride of the human nobles. They might choose to reject us in favor of self-governance. If that happens, the only practical course of action would be to exterminate the nobles and directly manage the commoner humans as our slaves. That would be far from ideal." Indeed, Rahkaak would likely be forced to detail Nuhkes to manage them, along with a complement of warriors. It would be infinitely preferable for the humans to govern themselves beneath a leader she could trust to do her will.
"Should we approach the human Phaeron directly?" To her surprise, Nuhkes flashed a sigil of negation.
"No, we should approach his son, the human with the spear." Really? "One of my spy scarabs managed to sneak into a family meeting and it was highly illuminating. The Phaeron of the humans is old, cantankerous and in some degree of pain. He wanted to impose a harsh punishment on one of the agricultural houses for some failing I did not fully understand. His son soothed him and patiently explained the reasons for the failings, before easing his father into a gentler, more acceptable punishment that particularly emphasized public shame, rather than real consequences." Nuhkes paused, cocking his head to one side. "I am no expert in diplomacy but I would say the nemesor will likely be more amenable to our proposition. Also, in practical terms, it would be very difficult to spirit the human Phaeron away. His son, however, is often spending time outside of structures and completely alone. It would not be too difficult to arrange an abduction."
"I see." That was a question though. Did she want to bring the human here, or go to meet them? Rahkaak carefully weighed the question. As a Phaeron and wanting to bring the humans into her empire as slaves, she should of course bring them here. But success was very, very important. Should she swallow her pride and go to them? But then she would need to make a grand display to overawe them, her pride would require nothing less, and that would somewhat lose the point. "Nuhkes, should I bring the human here or grace them with my presence?"
"You should bring the human here." The answer was so swift it surprised her. "I have been observing him very closely, since I decided he was the best choice for contact. I believe that if he is contacted in public, before the other Noble houses, he will feel obligated to behave as the son of a Phaeron." Ahhh. Yes, Rahkaak could see that. "If we speak to him in the silence of our own tombs, he will have no need to present a façade for his people."
"Excellent." That was a great relief. She hadn't wanted to leave the Great Tomb anyway, it was wonderful that logic agreed with her desires. "What is this humans name?"
"Manric Duleth."