For Belisarius Cawl, the aftermath of Ahkaros' actions was quite interesting.
On the ground Ahkaros' forces had actually needed to beat off an attack on the Pharos. A few of the necron vessels had managed to send drop pods before disaster had come upon them, and they had come with intent to destroy the ancient technology. The battle had been brief but intense and the Destroyers had deeply enjoyed tearing apart some of their kind.
In time the butterfly had returned and gently re-enfolded the emptied power cell. Blue light returned to it, perhaps half what had been there before, and Ahkaros had resumed his necron form. As he did, he looked at the emptied power cell critically.
"Inefficient… I must do better… A C'Tan would know how to do better…" Ahkaros rasped before shaking his head and putting the power cell away. Then he turned to look at the Pharos and the signs of battle. "Good. You have done well."
"Well enough that we might be freed to exterminate the organic filth from this world?" The Destroyer Lord growled and Ahkaros made a long, rattling sigh.
"You know I will never allow that… I learn all things. Without organics, there would be so much less to learn," Ahkaros said and Cawl wondered. Did that mean he considered himself a xenologist, among his other achievements? "Someday, perhaps, I will have learned all I wish to know and you can go free. Someday… but not today." Then Ahkaros returned his forces to the tesseract. Cawl strongly suspected they would be completely unaware of the passage of time, just coming out to destroy the Technomancer's enemies. "You have questions?" Oh, he most certainly did!
"Did you become an energy being similar to a C'Tan? If you can do that, why are you here now? That conversion seemed to be completely stable," Cawl said. He was no expert on C'Tan, of course, but Ahkaros had seemed to be in complete control of his transformation. His comments about inefficiency and how he'd returned half the energy to the power cell also indicated a great deal of control, although perhaps not as much as he would like.
"Would you want to become a god, Cawl?" Ahkaros asked and Cawl blinked. "A god… trapped in a star… nothing to do but study the star… forever? That is what you would want?" Ahhh.
"No, of course not." He would become horrendously bored. "So to maintain that form, you would have to live within a star?" That did explain everything. Ahkaros would never be happy with that. The ancient Technomancer nodded.
"Yes… after I mastered it, I did do that, for many millions of years," he said and Cawl wondered what it had been like. "How many? I do not know, time became hazy in there… it was warm and safe. I studied the star, learned everything about stars. But then I became bored… there is only so much you can learn in the heart of a star. So I left… I go back sometimes, but only when things are very bad. When I need to be safe and warm." That suddenly made the necron feel surprisingly human to Cawl. What experiences could be so bad, he would need to retreat into a star to recover? "We should go back to the Pharos. That is something you can use… the secrets of stars, you are not ready. You cannot use it," Ahkaros rasped and Cawl nodded. Re-creating the Pharos was difficult but possible. Manipulating stars was truly beyond them, for now at least.
As they worked on the Pharos, Cawl's ship came back into orbit and he began getting quiet updates on what was happening on Verdana.
The entire planet was suffering a religious moment. As he'd suspected, an entire hemisphere had seen the butterfly of pure energy emerge, lighting the sky. Then the ships in orbit had gotten a much better view and actually recorded all of it… Imperium ships always had recording devices, in case something proved to be important and needed to be investigated later. Cawl was sure that would eventually make its' way to the Inquisition, but it would be some time before they could investigate. Right now, the picket around the system was consumed with religious fervor and Drakos had assured him they would protect his holy work.
That holy fervor was sweeping the whole planet and Cawl heard that butterflies were quickly becoming a common and beautiful motif. Some were even adding butterflies to the Imperial shrines, which was really quite daring. Cawl wasn't sure that would fly with the Inquisition, although butterflies were at least not a typical part of Chaos iconography.
As they worked on the Pharos, Cawl felt a depth of understanding for the blackstone that he had only dreamed of before. The diagrams continued to take shape, and in a few more months, Ahkaros deemed their work complete.
"It is beautiful…" Ahkaros said reverently as he looked upon the completed designs. Cawl nodded, looking at the gorgeous schematics, all the secrets of the Pharos revealed. And his own work, the tentative designs that still needed to be perfected, how they could take the concepts of the Pharos and create their own. He was confident he could do it but the conversion would take longer. "Now, I have learned this. Now, I must go," Ahkaros said and Cawl stiffened. Go?
"I will come with you. There is so much still to learn," he said, desperate to follow the great Technomancer. He could learn so much! Ahkaros looked at him for a moment before shaking his head.
"No. Do not make the same mistake I did…" he rasped. "Do not forget what knowledge is for. Knowledge is meant to be used… I sometimes trade my secrets, not because I need anything, but so that they can go into the world. What is knowledge if it is not used…" Ahkaros fell silent for a moment and Cawl just stared. He had not expected this from him. "I made the mistake… the mistake of not thinking… I was gone so long. I traveled, I lived in stars, I learned from organics… I finally came home. And they were gone." Oh. "I could have… I had the skills of a Chronomancer. I could have looked, I could have saved them… but I was so entranced with knowledge. So lost in learning. I did not look, and they were gone." Ahkaros was silent again for a moment and Cawl could sense his quiet grief. Also, he suddenly knew when the Technomancer had felt the need to retreat into a star… after he'd come home to find his home was no longer there. "You have no time to spend with me. Go home, Cawl. Go home."
"…" Belisarius Cawl looked at Ahkaros, then at the Pharos. To the depths of his soul, he wanted to follow the great Technomancer and learn more things. His soul had such a great thirst for knowledge, a desire to know all things. And yet… he knew Ahkaros was right. The Imperium needed him, Guilliman needed him, even the Emperor himself needed the light of his knowledge. "You are right. I will go… but do you need assistance?" They could take the Technomancer somewhere and drop him off, let him lose himself and begin his travels again. But Ahkaros shook his head.
"No… I will go here." And he reached into interdimensional space and pulled out something quite different. Cawl watched in fascination as the great Technomancer took out something that looked like an unholy crossbreed of necron and aeldari technology. He'd already wondered about that… Ahkaros had been awake during the glorious rise of the aedari empire. Had he managed to pretend to be an eldar and learned their technology too? This would suggest the answer was yes. "This is a portal generator… it works partly via the Warp, partly our technology… too hard to explain. But it is limited, it only goes one place. Now…" Ahkaros activated it and Cawl watched as little plaques of metal, inscribed with aeldari runes yet glowing with green necron flux, spooled out. They formed a gate and time and space seemed to ripple before turning into a necron tomb world. Yet even with Cawl's fairly minimal knowledge of Tomb Worlds, this one was not right. It appeared to be in a state of great disrepair and the few Canoptek Scarabs he could see appeared to be malfunctioning, jerking and seizing. "I will go home."
Cawl felt a deep sadness as he watched Ahkaros step through the portal, entering the dead and shattered Tomb that had been his home. When had he made this portal? Cawl suspected it had been when his kin still slumbered. Had he dreamed of coming home when they finally awoke, and showing them the marvels he had learned?
Belisarius Cawl turned away with a sigh and began gathering up his work. He had all his own designs and a copy of Ahkaros blueprints, the perfect designs of the Pharos. Not to mention the instructional works the Technomaner had given him on the workings of blackstone.
He would take all of this back to Terra and the great work of creating new Pharos could begin.
At this point, Valdar had no idea how long he and Casimir had been with the green xenos. He hadn't really been counting the days and the length of a day was considerably shorter here, so it wouldn't be the same in any case.
All he was certain of was that it had been a while. Long enough that they had seen the changing of the seasons. There had been a cold, wet time that Valdar thought was winter. The game was scarce in that time and they ate mostly jerky, taken and prepared during the good, drier times. The rainfall slowly tapered off, leaving behind thick and heavy grasses that attracted migrating herds of beasts. And so the cycle began again.
Valdar felt he had almost mastered the xenos' language. Horosska no longer had to speak slowly, he could follow the speech of multiple xenos, and he knew most of their words. Was his skill still faulty? Undoubtedly, and he needed to remember he might have something wrong, but by and large Valdar felt he had mastered it. Casimir was a bit behind, but getting there.
With their enhanced ability to communicate, Valdar had given a warning to Horosska.
If you see other Silver People, do not just run up to them. Call us first.
Why? Are you not the same tribe?
No. That is exactly it… we have many tribes. We are of the Sautekh tribe, they may be our enemies. Call us first.
I see. Very well.
Fortunately, they heeded that and Valdar felt a great hope as a young hunter came home one day with word of more Silver People. Then she described them and Valdar felt his flux go cold.
"They had many legs! Some were floating in the air," she said, excited, and Valdar glanced at Casimir, meeting his gaze. This sounds like Destroyers. Oh, this could be bad. Although he'd heard Imotekh was trying to reclaim some Destroyers, with the help of souls and 'therapy' from the Psychomancers. Still, it seemed very unlikely he would dispatch them to a backwater like this. "One of them had two faces! It was very strange." Oh gods.
"We must go see. Horosska… we are not used to sneaking up on our own kind, but you managed to get close. Can you help us?" Fortunately she was currently in the camp and if this was what Valdar suspected it was, they had no time to waste. Horosska's hair curled slightly in what Valdar had come to identify as the xenos' equivalent of a frown. The hair fronds were very expressive, twitching and curling to convey emotions.
"Very well," Horosska said with a reserved air before leading them out. When they were safely away from the others, she spoke. "You think they are enemies?" Valdar wished he could reassure her, but then Casimir spoke.
"They sound like it. Very bad enemies… Destroyers of Life." Horosska stopped before turning to them and Valdar sighed internally. Did Casimir have to tell them everything? But Casimir thought it was the best way… tell the little xenos the truth, but also emphasize the dangers.
"Destroyers of Life? What does this mean?" she asked and Valdar glanced at his own hands, the cold metal there, before responding.
"It means they hate all life. You see that we are made of metal, like your dagger?" Horosska nodded a bit impatiently. "Destroyers hate everything that is not metal. They destroy everything that is alive… it is a mind sickness, not how we should be. I am sorry, we should not get ahead of ourselves… we need to see if they might be Sautekh. It is said our great War Leader is trying to heal Destroyers." Casimir shook his head. "I know, it is not likely, but maybe."
Horosska said nothing more, and showed them how to slip through the grasses, staying close to the ground as they approached. Fortunately they did not need to get very close… Valdar and Casamir both had better visual acuity than any organic could own. The landing place for the necron forces would have made Valdar swallow, if he could have… there were multiple drop ships just crawling with necron Warriors and Destroyers. Too many Destroyers… Valdar sharpened his sight and managed to focus on the chest cartouche of one of the Warriors.
Maynarkh, Valdar said silently to Casimir before gesturing silently for them to go back. Horosska and Casimir both obeyed his gesture and they crept away, unnoticed by the horde.
What are they doing here? This place isn't near anything! Casimir sounded utterly dismayed and Valdar wished he had an answer.
It's Maynarkh so who knows. Maybe they got lost. Valdar wasn't entirely joking. The Maynarkh Dynasty was a byword for insanity at this point, among other necrons and often their action just didn't make sense. Or maybe they're striking against Charnovokh and want this world for a staging location. That really could be it. A new tactic to distract the Stormlord? The Charnovokh Dynasty did have forces to defend themselves but they would still have difficulty holding all the worlds they claimed and if Maynarkh started striking at their tiny fringeworlds, they might have to call Imotekh for aide.
(Valdar had no idea that had already happened. He was only a surveyor, why would he know?)
They were a good distance away now and Horosska turned to them.
"They are enemies," she stated, not asking. Valdar nodded. "What shall we do?" Horosska had a good idea how bad this was, Valdar realized. But then, Destroyers looked exactly like what they were… murderous tools of war.
"We will explain for everyone," Valdar said after a moment. He didn't want to repeat himself. Horosska's hair fronds twitched in a way that indicated displeasure, but she nodded.
When they got back to the camp, Valdar had to break the bad news.
"These Silver People are our enemies and Destroyers of Life. You must gather up all your possessions and flee to the mountains," Valdar said. He'd been thinking about it on the way back, and there were mountains here, far to the West. The little aliens knew about them although they had never seen them. There were soft murmurs among the xenos and then Yasska stepped forward, staring at him challengingly.
"If they are here for you, can we give you to them so they will go away?" Horosska twitched beside him at that blunt question. Valdar felt a bit amused, but also saddened by that question. Casimir answered for him.
"If that would make them go away, we would give ourselves to them. But they are not here for us, they do not know we are here. They are here for you. If you gave us to them, they would take us and kill you all. That is what they do," Casimir said and Valdar glanced back the way they had come. There was already smoke starting to drift into the air.
"It is already beginning. We must get started," he said before suddenly wondering. Why had the Maynarkh set down at this location in particular? It was almost exactly the spot he and Casimir had picked for their landing. Then, he realized. The adamantium. It could be detected from orbit and he and Casimir had landed right on top of it. Were the Maynarkh planning to extract it? If so, this was a fairly serious incursion, you had to actually mine out adamantium, it wasn't like transpositanium…
There was soft conversation among the xenos and many of them were looking at the beginning plume of smoke, which was rapidly increasing. Then hunters began trickling in, young xenos who had been out trying to catch game and they all reported that the grasslands were on fire and it was spreading, despite it not being the driest time of year. Thankfully the xenos heeded him and began quickly gathering everything they could carry, particularly all the food, and putting it in leather packs. Valdar and Casimir took some of the heaviest packs, to help bring what they needed.
"We will have to pass through the territory of the Shosspak. They are enemies of Anaut. Be ready with your slings," Horosska said to them and Valdar nodded. "At least…" Horosska fell silent for a moment before continuing. "Shosspak will not listen to us even if we tell them. They will not leave their land… they can distract the Destroyers."
"Not for very long. They are relentless. But they will come to the mountains last," Valdar said confidently. The mountains would be very low on biomass and Destroyers believed in taking out the most fertile places first. Valdar wouldn't be surprised if they headed North and South before finally going West. Also. "We can hide ourselves in caves, for a time." Particularly deep ones would confuse the necrons sensors. It wouldn't last forever and they would run out of food, if nothing else, but they could hide there.
"But what are we doing this for? What help is coming?" Yasska sounded afraid and resentful and Valdar realized they hadn't spelled that out.
"We are hoping that Sautekh will come. We are enemies of Maynarkh and this is…" Casimir stopped and Valdar knew why. They were getting into concepts that were hard to put into this language at all. "This is a place of Charnovokh. They are a friend of Sautekh and also enemies of Maynarkh."
"He means that by coming here, Maynarkh is striking against Sautekh," Valdar simplified. They really didn't need to know all the details. "We need to stay alive as long as we can. If we can just live long enough, Sautekh will come." The adamantium and the fact that this was in Charnovokh's sphere ensured that. But how long would it take? Could they survive long enough? Of that, Valdar was not sure at all.
"I see," Yasska said and Valdar could tell she had deep reservations. Well, they were just hoping. For all they knew, by the time Sautekh noticed this incursion, it would be far too late.
All they had was hope.
Elsewhere in the galaxy, Guilliman was reading one particular report with a feeling of hilarity.
The Callidus assassins had succeeded in stealing an STC fragment from Hive Antioch. It had been an incredibly delicate operation but they had pulled it off flawlessly and made off with the fragment that had been left carelessly lying around. Although in retrospect, perhaps that should have been a warning of the contents.
Alas, the Callidus assassins were not Admechs and could not recognize that they had stolen something extremely worthless. Well, not entirely worthless… the Mechanicus would produce the machines in question and lease them out, to make profits for their coffers. Still, an improved system of meat tenderizers that could turn inferior steaks into something tender and lovely was not really very valuable. The plans for fat injection were rather interesting, though. If they could make that practical, the quality of lower value steaks would be distinctly increased.
(when the theft was noticed in Hive Antioch, the researchers who had been working on making it practical for use on Civilized worlds with lower tech levels were rather puzzled)
(they would just replace it with a new hard copy. As a D rated technical secret, it hardly mattered)
In the rest of the Imperium, the incursion of the Night Lords had done noticeable damage. They were mostly on a raiding expedition, from what Guilliman could determine, conducting their awful form of warfare while they looted and stole. They were particularly taking loyalist geneseed and Guilliman frowned a bit at that. It wasn't for themselves, the Night Lords still largely had stable geneseed. They were probably going to trade it to other Chaos Marine bands for things they needed. Their fun would soon be over, though. The Lion had gone to take care of this personally. Guilliman was confident his brother would soon bring the Night Lords to ruin.
(he actually wouldn't. Decimus would foresee what was coming for them as the patterns of deaths shifted and call a halt to their crusade, pulling them back into the Eye of Terror)
(the Night Lords would herald it as a great victory, that they had struck so deeply and painfully that a Primarch had come to stop them. The Lion would be quite annoyed that they seemed to anticipate his coming)
The best, and most electrifying report, came from Belisarius Cawl. Guilliman took in the details of what he'd been up to with a bit of awe… he truly thought he could replicate the necrons' Pharos technology and create 'lighthouses' all through known space? He thought he could set up a small blackstone forge, to create the materials he needed? And all of this was due to a great Technomancer taking Cawl under his wing and training him in the creation and use of blackstone, specifically?
Incredible, absolutely incredible. Guilliman shared Cawl's concerns about the eventual problems with maintaining the Emperor. Not just that… Guilliman genuinely hated that they were resorting to human sacrifices. Were they Chaos? Yet there was no choice, they had to maintain the Emperor and the astronomican. If the astronomican could only be decommissioned, though, perhaps they could try to figure out how to seal the portal to Chaos behind the Golden Throne and finally free the Emperor from his prison.
It was all a long-term project, though. Cawl thought that building the new Pharos would take hundreds of years and each one would be very intensive, as they harnessed the power of entire planets, the molten cores and anything else that could be used to generate power. One amusing thing was that Ahkaros had either forgotten, or deliberately left them with a single power source in a functioning Pharos. That could also be incorporated into their network, although it was just one.
(that had been deliberate, a gift to his temporary apprentice)
Guilliman read the rest of the report with deep interest. Cawl had located the records on a Mechanicus Tech Priest named Arkos Vallek. They were a bit fragmentary; he had seemed to come out of nowhere, but no one had really questioned it. Probably because he'd never tried to gain rank, never tried to become more… Arkos had just lived a quiet and useful life as a tech priest assigned to the Ultramarines. And some of the Astartes who had known him personally were still alive. One of them was even within reach.
Guilliman decided to summon Captain Cyctus Issorion for a chat. Guilliman knew him, although only slightly… he was a ramrod stiff man with a stern demeanor. One of his eyes was a cybernetic implant, along with a bit of facial reconstruction… it was finely made and molded to his face. Cyctus saluted as he entered his study.
"Father? How may I be of assistance?" he asked.
"Do you remember a tech priest named Arkos Vallek?" Guilliman asked, not really expecting Cyctus to remember. It had been almost two hundred years ago. To his surprise, Cyctus stiffened.
"Has that bastard turned up again? I'll give him an earful!" What? Guilliman tilted his head and Cyctus explained. "He just vanished! Admittedly, he'd been mumbling about needing to leave for a while and I wasn't really paying attention, but he upped and vanished on us one day! Left his room on the ship neat as a pin and just… vanished! I don't even know how he did it." From what Cawl had described, he'd probably used that portal and returned to his home. Guilliman suspected the ruins of the Ammunos Dynasty were a kind of home base for Ahkaros. Quite likely he stored things there, items he did not need or want to carry around.
(Guilliman was correct and amusingly, if Trazyn had encountered Ahkaros in the ruins of Ammunos, the events of the Infinite and the Divine would never have happened. Ahkaros knew perfectly well the nature of the item Trazyn had taken)
(he had noticed Trazyn's thievery but given it a sad kind of approval, as it seemed right to him that what little was left join the treasures of Solemnance)
"He has turned up, in a sense… keep in mind that this is not information that I want spread around. Please utilize utmost discretion," Guilliman instructed his son. "Would it surprise you to know that Akhos was never human at all? He was a necron Technomancer." Cyctus eyes widened.
"A xenos?! Why? What nefarious purpose was behind it?" Cyctus demanded and Guilliman felt a bit amused as he watched his son suddenly trying to puzzle it out. "He was always so good… he made me this…" Cyctus touched the implants on his face. "His work was always such high quality, he was the best tech priest we had. He was with the Ultramarines for over a thousand years… what was his purpose?"
"Apparently, just to learn. That seems to be his only drive in life," Guilliman replied, reflecting on it. Cawl had included everything in his report, even Ahkaros regrets for the Ammunos Dynasty. He really had nothing but his knowledge, now. "He is an 'orphan', so to speak, without a Dynasty to claim his loyalty. But can you tell me what he was like?" That was really why Guilliman had summoned Cyctus. He was interested in learning more about this Technomancer. Cyctus frowned, his eyebrows drawing down as he thought about it.
"He was a strange one, even for a tech priest… always mumbling to himself, usually something like 'bad, bad, bad quality, bad work.' I thought he was just complaining about the other tech priests, at the time." He probably was. From the sounds of it, Mechanicus dogma would probably have made Ahkaros quietly wish for death. Guilliman was surprised he'd managed to keep his thoughts to himself. "He kept mostly to himself, he didn't seem to like the other tech priests much. Honestly, he'd spend time with the men before he'd talk to them!" Probably to avoid telling them what he thought of their work. "He played a mean game of rummy, I remember. Also, he counted the cards, it could be damned annoying," Cyctus sounded miffed and Guilliman chuckled softly. "He wouldn't do anything with dice though. He said it was too easy to cheat, it was all a matter of figuring out how the dice were weighted and throwing them right and you could get any number you wanted. I asked him how that was different from card counting… he said that even we monkeys could figure out how to card count, but we couldn't be expected to match his skill with dice. Although he said it Mon'Keigh, strange pronunciation." HAH!
"That's actually the eldar word for humans. Cawl mentioned he's fond of it… it sounds like he spent a decent amount of time playing games," Guilliman said, probing for a bit more. Cyctus shook his head.
"Not really, it was just the only time we really talked to him. The rest of the time, he was just working or spending time in his room. He was the best tech priest I ever had. No drama, no ego, no maundering about the machine spirits, just getting things done. He could make anything work if you gave him enough time. I guess being a necron explains that," Cyctus said, a bit resigned. Guilliman could sympathize… working with Tech Priests could be an absolute trial, particularly when they insisted on their rituals before conducting repairs when there was no time for that at all. "That's about all I can tell you, sir. Although if you get a chance, tell him I'm peeved he left us like that."
"I'll definitely let him know," Guilliman said with a smile. Cyctus saluted again before making an exit. After he was gone, Guilliman thought about it… unless they could find the location of the Ammunos Dynasty, it was unlikely they would meet Ahkaros again. And there was no point to that right now… at the moment, they needed to make use of the plans for the Pharos. That would be occupying them for quite some time.
Perhaps someday in the future, though, they could try to find Ahkaros again.