While everything else in the galaxy was happening, Valdar Toshka and his friends were still wandering through the universe.

Their tiny scout ship required no food and no real refueling. Oh, sometimes they had to pause to gather up some celestial gases to do arcane things in the Necron engines, but that wasn't difficult. They occasionally sent FTL reports back to the Crypteks on Hope, which included precise coordinates and descriptions of the planets they found. They were also using the Necron's old star maps, adjusted for time, and looking to see if they could find planets and stars that should have been there. A lot of the time they did, but with wildly different conditions than what was recorded.

This particular world was exactly where it should be, but definitely wasn't as expected.

"An ocean world? Fwah!" Sisus said with a rough, grating laugh. It was quite funny when what they'd discovered was a desert world. Valdar gazed up into the sky, just basking in the heat. It felt strangely pleasant on his cold, metal body.

"There is some moisture. We should see if this planet is suitable for habitation." Casimir was ever the optimist and Valdar nodded. "Splitting up again?"

"Might as well." Despite the experience with the Eldar, they still split up to cover more ground and get a better overview of the planet. It wasn't like just the three of them could hold off any kind of real assault anyway. "I will take the inland sea." This planet had a great, brackish sea of mineral water that encircled the equator. It looked extremely odd from orbit. "Sisus, you take the mountains. Casimir, you can take that line of oasis we detected." They weren't real oasis, in the sense that there was not much vegetation, but they were places where underground water was closer to the surface. Casimir could survey them to get an exact depth and a general chemical composition. They were a truly expert survey team after so long.

Valdar actually thought this planet had promise. It was not a Death World, not really. Oh, it was hot and dry, but there were no great winds, no raging dust storms. The surface of the planet was not really a sandy desert at all, but rather a hard, stony one. Valdar used a small Necron craft, unarmed but speedy, and flew towards the inland sea. Rocks flashed by beneath him and he fancied they had once been the bottom of a great ocean, millions upon millions of years ago.

Around the inland sea was a great welter of vegetation. The alien plants gave Valdar hope, because they indicated there was fertile soil present, just baked to death in the sun. This planet could probably be claimed, although the population would have to be small to deal with the fragile ecosystem.

There was more testing to be done, of course. Valdar took soil samples. They would be processed on board the ship, to find anything present that might cause humans harm. The sea itself was dead, so intensely salty that nothing could live within it. Despite that, the moisture it carried nurtured the plant life around it, which was adapted to survive in these conditions. Not to Valdar's surprise, a beetle ran through the plants. Beetles seemed to be –

Wait.

That wasn't a beetle.

That was a Canoptek Scarab?

"Sisus, Casimir, come in." Valdar suddenly said, afraid for his fellows.

Yes?

What's up? Valdar almost sagged in relief. Not that he had any reason to think they had been ambushed but after the Eldar, he was a little paranoid.

"Come to my position. We have a Necron Tomb World." There could be no doubt. That wasn't recorded on the star maps of the Uhnashret Dynasty, but Simokh had cautioned them that it might not be. Some very secretive Dynasties had chosen to conceal their location before they went to sleep. And even well known Dynasties had often not shared the locations of all of their resting places. "Given the location, probably Charnovokh but possibly unknown." There were other tiny dynasties like Uhnashret in existence and it was possible they'd found one.

Oh really? Necrons would never put a Tomb World on an ocean planet. They modified it before they settled in. Ahhh. Yes, that made sense. And that meant…

"This place was settled by Necrons specifically for the Great Sleep." Otherwise, the Dynasty's star charts wouldn't have listed it as ocean. "Well, hurry over, we should make contact." There was no reason to think Necrons would be immediately hostile. Uhnashret had always been on good terms with their neighbors. And Valdar, Sisus and Casimir were specifically housed in the bodies of minor Lords, so their intelligence would raise no eyebrows. They would keep their status as pwi-Necrons to themselves.

Once they were together at the mineral ocean, they began searching for the entrance to the Tomb. It had to be reasonably nearby, for a Canoptek Scarab to be wandering about. When they found it, though, they immediately knew that something was wrong.

"That isn't right," Casimir sounded subdued as they surveyed the damage. A great sink hole, it had somehow punched down into the earth and into the Tomb. Sisus knelt be the side of it, gazing downwards.

"Well, we were wrong." What? "They did put the damned thing on an ocean world, the fools. I guess the logic was that no one would look here, but it looks like their protections failed." Ah. "God knows how long it was underwater before the ocean receded." Well… fuck.

"Let's see if there are any survivors." The Scarab gave a hint that there might be. The AI was active, at least. But machines did not do well after being submerged for millions of years.

So it proved. The Tomb world was an absolute wreck, crusted with minerals from all the time spent drying as the waters had withdrawn. Valdar took one look at some of the stasis chambers and just shook his head. The occupants were done. Some others looked a bit more promising, but he had no hopes for anything.

Then they were attacked, but in a weird and pathetic way.

"?!" Valdar whirled, gauss flayer at the ready as Casimir was knocked off his feet by a rush of water? That water was followed by what looked like a gibbering monster and Valdar almost fired but something made him stop. The monster jumped on Casimir's chest and began hitting him with its hands? And it was speaking… wait. Was that the Necron tongue?

It was, but so broken it was barely intelligible.

"F-F-F-Filthy th-th-thieves! G-G-G-Grave rrrrrrr – rrrrr -rrrrr –" Yes, they were getting the idea. Valdar pulled the thing off Casimir, trying to get a good look at it. It started pounding on HIS chest instead, but he ignored that.

It was, or had been, a Cryptek. The poor thing was coated in minerals and old barnacle like things, that were probably from the original ocean. Now it was all dry and should have been cleaned off, but had only been knocked off enough so it could move. A single green ocular blazed erratically, partly hidden with more minerals and Valdar wondered if he could see.

"Why is it always me?" Casimir muttered as he pulled himself to his feet, a bit worse for the wear. He did seem to be the trouble magnet of the team.

"Who are you?" Valdar asked the Cryptek. Something about being addressed directly, in his own language, seemed to shake something lose in his mind and the pounding stopped as it gazed up at him.

"O-O-O… O-O-O…" Oh dear gods. "ORAMOTON!" His eye glowed. "Y-Yes! I am Oramoton!" Oh, that was a sudden improvement. When was the last time this Cryptek had spoke? "N-Now get o-oout!" Well. No.

"We are from the Uhnashret Dynasty, beneath Phaeron Rahkaak. Are you Charnovokh Dynasty?" He really wasn't sure. Valdar knew the basic attributes of the Charnovokh Dynasty and that their color was royal blue, but he couldn't see much necrodermis at all on this Cryptek.

"Y-Yes." The Cryptek seemed to be thinking now. "Uh-nash-ret…" Deep cogitation for a likely broken brain. Valdar suddenly couldn't stand it and began to gently pull the crust from the Cryptek's body. "?"

"We will clean you. Can you order the Scarabs to help?" Valdar asked as gently as he could.

"Clean…?" The Cryptek seemed to understand after a moment, because a dozen or so Scarabs converged and began helping remove the mineral crust from his body. Valdar helped them as Sisus and Casamir watched, and the slender, smooth lines of a high level Cryptek were revealed. Badly corroded from time, but he could see what had once been there. Also, were those time tiles dangling from his shoulders? They were so badly defaced that he couldn't be sure.

How long has this poor thing been awake? Casimir asked via interstitial messaging. And yes, that was Valdar's thought as well. If it was as long as he suspected, it was amazing he was even semi-functional.

With the crust fully removed from his body, what was revealed was surprising. There was not a trace of midnight blue – that was actually a recent change to the Chernovokh color scheme, meant to represent their destroyed worlds – but instead, a rather gorgeous color scheme of silver and malachite green. Once the corroded parts were fixed, he would be a pretty thing and Valdar thought this was a sign of very high status.

"I h-have been taking c-care of the world," Oramoton said, the stuttering of his voice seeming to improve by the moment. That was a relief, it had been hard to listen to. "A-Are you here to steal from u-us?"

"No. Why do you think so?" Sisus asked and surprisingly, Oramoton had a real answer.

"T-Trazyn did. T-that is h-how I woke up." Oh really?

"That one. We've heard of him." The entire planet of Hope had heard of him and all the pwi-Necrons had a 'shoot on sight' order. Not that it would do any good, since he could jump from body to body, but it would be satisfying. "Wait, does that mean the coreworld AI roused you?" That would strongly indicate that some of the equipment was working.

"Y-yes but I w-wasn't f-fully s-submerged lucky a-air bubble." Oh. "I… d-d-d-d-don't th-think they…" the Cryptek was drooping in dejection. Valdar decided not to ask if he'd had any success stopping Trazyn the Infinite from his grave robbing. He was guessing the answer was a resounding "no".

(archaeology, not grave robbing, you plebian!)

"Hmm… you know, we shouldn't be too far from the Chernovokh Dynasty's worlds. Maybe we could take a detour." Casimir said and Valdar wasn't sure how he felt about that. Didn't the Chernovokh Dynasty know about this world? But maybe they didn't. Perhaps a paranoid Overlord hadn't told the rest of his Dynasty what he was up to. Or maybe he just hadn't wanted to be called a moron for putting a Tomb under an ocean.

"We would need permission from Simokh, but sure why not." Valdar said after a moment. Awakening these Necrons, if it could be done at all, would be a delicate operation. It really should be the Chernovokh trying to rescue their relatives.

"I w-will st-stay here." What?

"You really should not. You should be with us, to speak to your kin. They don't know us from a hole in the wall." Sisus said and Valdar winced internally. 'know us from a hole in the wall' was not an expression that really worked in the Necron tongue, but Sisus wasn't entirely fluent. Sure enough, Oramoton flashed glyphs of confusion.

"He means that the Chernovokh Dynasty might not be inclined to believe the word of three random lords they do not know. Uhnashret has not re-established trading relations with them yet." And they might not. Chernovokh was not entirely friendly with Sautekh, due to their dedication to the Silent King. Imotekh seemed to have a bone to pick with his King.

(Imotekh had always disliked Szarekh, but after hearing Ahmakeph's story, his feelings had hardened into hate)

(he knew it was possible Szarekh had also been betrayed, but it didn't matter. It was his job to not lead them into ruin)

"Oh… I… suppose." Why was he so reluctant? "I – I f-f-failed… to…" Oramoton was drooping and Valdar felt badly for him.

"Please don't feel bad about that. You were a single Cryptek against a powerful Overlord, roused because you were the only one left." Valdar gently touched his shoulder. "Come with us." It was for the best and after a moment, Oramoton flashed glyphs of assent.

"I w-will come." He still seemed despondent though and Valdar wasn't sure why.

He didn't know that the Chernovokh Dynasty was notorious for harshness and Oramoton's failure might be judged harshly indeed, no matter how justified it might have been.