As the fleet traveled to their next target, Manric meditated over his spear.

He wasn't meditating as often as he had before, something he regretted. But he enjoyed spending time with Sehenna and often felt no need for the peace that meditation offered. Today, though, Manric had sensed that the spirits of the spear wanted him to meditate. There was something waiting for him there, a vision or a presence that demanded his attention.

Peace came easily to him and Manric basked in the golden light of the spear, the afterlife he would someday join. There was no vision but Manric felt a gentle knocking, like something from the Warp was politely indicating it desired his attention. With the support of the aeldari spirits, Manric carefully transitioned to the true Immaterium, as he had when he'd summoned the Angel.

Something was indeed waiting there for him. To Manric's puzzlement, it looked like a Hindu god of ancient Terra. Yet, that wasn't quite right… Manric quickly realized it was just the blue skin giving him that impression. It was actually a strange combination of human and tau features, and seemed to carry a great air of benevolence and peace, a deep serenity. The clothing it chose to wear was a heavy coat of dark green, trimmed with gold and with a very high neckpiece that was open at the front. It was an odd choice, Manric had never seen such a jacket before. Was that a style favored by the Ethereal Caste?

/Manric Duleth. I am the Greater Good. May I ask you for a favor?/ The entity asked and Manric was taken aback, before groaning internally.

Manric knew the nature of the Greater Good and it was fundamentally a philosophy and a way of life. It was not meant to be a religion, because tau were innately areligious… they did not comprehend such things and from what Nuhkes reported, they never had. But they wanted to spread their way of life, which they saw as innately superior so they 'proselytized' relentlessly. And for a naturally religious species like humanity, that would of course be interpreted through a religious lens. Was it any wonder there was confusion?

"Forgive me, you are aware that the Tau would react negatively to this?" Manric asked carefully. After his interactions with them, Manric was sure of that. To his surprise, the non-Chaos aligned Warp entity visibly drooped.

/I am aware./ Oh. He'd already learned then, likely the hard way. /Nevertheless, I am the Greater Good and must act for the good of my children. Please, may I ask for a favor?/ The entity asked and Manric hesitated before nodding.

"As long as it will not harm my own interests, I will do my best to help you." Charity was a virtue and the intrinsically good nature that Manric sensed, made him inclined to help.

/Please ask nemesor Zahndrekh to tell Commander Farsight O'Shovah the legend of Phaeron Drajheth the Traitor King./ Manric tilted his head to one side. A necron legend? This story had to be insanely old. /This story will have great meaning to him./

"Can you tell me why?" Manric asked after a moment. The Greater Good did not smile, but Manric swore he could detect a twinkle in its' eye.

/I could, but it would be complicated. Also, Zahndrekh will enjoy telling you the story/ Hmm… Manric was detecting a strange hint of mischief about the Greater Good. It did not seem to align with the Tau character, although technically it had not been created by the tau. But it didn't make a lot of sense with the ideals of humanity, either. Where had that come from?

(it actually came from the kroot. They had an ancient tribal god and it had effectively merged into the newly created Greater Good and influenced its character)

(that gave the Greater Good a mischievous streak, but it was always kindly meant)

"Very well, I will do so," Manric said, seeing no harm in the request. Although he would have Zahndrekh tell him this story long before they spoke to Farsight. Perhaps that would give him an idea of why a fable from well over sixty million years ago would be important to a modern-day tau. Perhaps it would contain a philosophical lesson of some kind? Surely it could not be something concrete!

/Thank you, I appreciate it,/ the Greater Good said before vanishing back into the Warp. Manric returned himself to the spear and felt the concern of the spirits there… he formed the impression that they thought the Greater Good's request was important indeed. Did they also know this story?

This was very odd and interesting.

Commander Farsight was trying hard to purge the foul orks from the Enclave of Mah'Toshik.

Mah'Toshik was not an important world in the Farsight Enclaves. A largely agricultural world, it hosted a joint settlement of humans and tau, working together in peaceful harmony. The planet itself was extremely average, a temperate climate and multiple landmasses. Not particularly fertile, but suitable enough and with the efforts of the Earth Caste, it had been producing a substantial surplus. Farsight thought it a rather boring world, ordinarily.

Things were not ordinary in the slightest. The orks had made a massive incursion into the Farsight Enclaves and they were fighting tooth and nail to draw them back. The reason for it was the ascension of a new, surprisingly intelligent ork Warboss. Farsight had no idea how he'd gained ascendancy.

(that was where that group of Space Marines came in. They had forced a small band of orks to help them fight some random Chaos forces. After that was done, out of a spirit of honor, the Marines had let the orks go with some gear looted from the Chaos boys. If they'd been able to see that their new Warboss would manage to seize power and become a true menace, they might have thought twice)

(alas, they really couldn't have known)

The intelligence of the Warboss meant he was running a moderately competent campaign. His orks were still falling for many of the tau's baiting and hit and run tactics, but not while he was actually present. Farsight had tried to challenge him to single combat but the Warboss hadn't even let him speak, just sent a Gargant against them. That was smart, because if he didn't let them talk he didn't have to disgrace himself by refusing a challenge he might not win.

Now, for Farsight, the situation was becoming infinitely worse. A powerful force of necrons had zipped in and dropped a force onto the planet. The ships they had come in had also savaged the ork vessels a bit before disengaging and leaving the space battle to the Tau… what were they up to? Farsight knew better than to think the Necrons were an ally. That one incident where they'd saved a tau world from the tyranids, only to genocide it themselves, was well remembered. But there were also records of them randomly helping tau and then just departing. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it, but Farsight was aware he'd had very little contact with the necrons at all. The Tau Empire proper might have more knowledge.

Be that as it may, he needed to assume the necrons were enemy forces and that meant the situation was grim. Farsight had ordered his own forces to pull back and let the necrons take the pounding of the orks, preserving the lives of his own men. They were specifically defending some of the settlements, the largest ones that hadn't been fully evacuated.

Unfortunately, some of the necrons had other ideas.

"Fleeing the battlefield? Cowards," a particularly feral looking necron, wearing a necklace of fangs, taunted him in low Gothic. Farsight noted, however, that he was TALKING to them… a bit unusual for necrons. As he did, Farsight quickly evaluated the tactical situation.

It wasn't very good. In falling back, he'd accidentally fallen into a bit of a trap… they were surrounded and the necrons had the high ground, controlling certain ruins that they had been moving through. Vaguely, Farsight wondered how they had managed it. Surely it hadn't been random chance?

(it had in fact been completely random chance. Zahndrekh had dispatched the Death Seekers in a manner similar to how the Night Lords operated… they were to use terror tactics and harry the orks on the flanks. That had randomly brought them directly into contact with the tau who were exiting the battlefield)

(with permission from Zahndrekh, Diarmuid had taken control of the Death Seekers personally, leaving the rest of his forces under command of the Captain of the Lion Hearts)

"It is called a 'tactical retreat', Markhos. Not something you would know much about, I admit," a surprisingly pleasing tenor voice, despite the mechanical nature, said. Farsight stared as a much larger necron moved smoothly through his fellows to stand in front of him.

This was a Necron Overlord, but not a typical one. Farsight knew they were normally silvery metal and cold green flux, strong and deeply intimidating. This one, though, had painted himself jet black and altered his flux to have a strange tint of red, giving it a particularly unholy look. His chest cartouche also gleamed with the color of that flux and Farsight could easily see that the emblem there was a flaming skull. And, in a jaunty and strange touch, a great axe was slung over his shoulder, held in place with a metal ribbon of green and red. Farsight could see that quite clearly as the Overlord freed his weapon, holding it easily in one hand. It was also jet black and humming, some form of power weapon.

"Abandoning the battlefield so we can take the hard knocks and you can mop up after? A fine move, but we seem to have you dead to rights," he said and Farsight's hand tightened around the hilt of his sword. Although he noticed they were still talking. "However, I will give you a chance to win your freedom… face me in battle and your men shall walk free."

"You wish to duel me? And if I win this trial, you shall let us pass?" Farsight said to clarify. The necron shook his head.

"No, they shall pass if you live or die, as long as you face me. The only question is, will you be with them?" Well. In that case, there was only one answer. Farsight had already lost too many friends, he would willingly risk his life to prevent the loss of more.

Commander, I recommend against this. We have the numbers to defeat them, a new, rather young Fire Caste said. And while technically true, Farsight could see some hardware hidden in the ruins that he did not recognize. All he knew for certain was that he didn't like the look of it at all.

Have faith, young one. Commander Farsight will crush him, Bravestorm said and Farsight was reminded of how thankful he was that Bravestorm had made a full recovery. That, more than anything, decided him.

"I will face you," Farsight said and the necrons moved back. Many of them leapt onto the ruins, perching above to get a better view of the battle. His own forces pulled back to give them plenty of room. "Melee weapons only, I presume?" If they started using anything else, they could hit the audience.

"Indeed, that is most fun," the Overlord agreed. Then he lifted his axe, moving to a ready position, two-handed. It really was too large and heavy to be handled one handed, even for a necron. "I already know your name, O'Shovah, but you should know mine… I am Diarmuid Lynch." Farsight blinked. That was not a necron name at all and while Farsight had little to do with necrons, he knew humans quite well. That very much had the sound of a human name.

He had no time to question it, though, as the battle began in earnest. The Overlord was terrifyingly fast and strong and Farsight's battlesuit was quickly doing good work in protecting him as blows landed. Diarmuid radiated bloodlust, so strongly Farsight could almost smell it. He was tempted to respond in kind but after what had happened on Arthas Moloch, he was wary of that impulse. Farsight was vaguely aware of the necrons, watching intently with an eerie silence and a similar hush from his men, as they feared they were about to finally see his death.

Diarmuid had no shielding, preferring to handle his axe with two hands and that quickly became troublesome for him as O'Shovah's sword slashed through his shoulder, making servos whine. The necron adapted to the damage and then it began to repair. Farsight had heard about that, that you needed to do overwhelming damage to take necrons down, particularly the stronger ones.

Then he would just have to do that. As they moved back and forth, both of them taking damage, Farsight noticed something… his weapon had chipped Diarmuid's axe, just a little. And his sword had many great properties. If he could get this just right…

Farsight pulled it off flawlessly. He caught Diarmuid's weapon in a stunning clash, catching his axe in a way that would normally have made no sense. He had to twist himself, catching the base of Diarmuid's axe head with the back of his sword. It hit the spines there, normally unused in combat and razor sharp as well as containing strange, undefinable energies. There was a scream of tortured metal and the head of the axe parted ways with the body. Diarmuid staggered and Farsight moved like a snake, burying his sword into the Overlord's body. Sickly green light exploded out, gushing like blood.

"What the… do you have any idea how hard that's going to be to fix?" Diarmuid seemed far more upset over the damage to his weapon than his impending demise. Farsight breathed out slowly.

"Not as much as this," he said before tearing the sword out of Diarmuid's chest. Then, not trusting that even that would finish him off, he followed it with a stroke that caught Diarmuid just beneath his chin, sliding into metal vertebra. They fought back for a moment before yielding with a grating sound, the black, mechanical hulk dropping to the ground in two pieces. To Farsight's puzzlement, the body was only present for a few moments before flickering and vanishing. The broken weapon vanished too.

There was a pause as the necrons absorbed that their champion had lost. Then, to Farsight's shock, they erupted in cheers.

"That had style. Nice final line," one of them congratulated him and Farsight wondered if they were insane. Who behaved this way when their commander had just been slain? Even the orks would have more concern!

Then someone made a sound like a whistle and the necrons began to move out, ignoring the tau. Farsight swore to himself that some of them were chatting about the duel and analyzing the techniques used.

Do they not care about the death of their commander at all? Bravestorm sounded slightly amazed by it all. Farsight shook his head before gathering them up.

"The necrons psychopathic tendencies are not our concern, except to note them. Come," Farsight said, getting his men moving. They needed to complete their maneuvers and fall back to the settlement of Ky'hosha. As he did, though, Farsight reflected on the duel… he'd won purely on the strength of his sword. If not for the weakness of Diarmuid's weapon, would he have prevailed? Farsight thought he would have, but he wasn't entirely sure.

Still, to save his men, he would give his life in a heartbeat.

The Tau watched the battle rage for almost a week and were completely in awe of the necrons destructive might.

They managed to dispatch tiny probes to watch the battle and while several of them were destroyed, the rest carried clear images of the carnage. The necrons believed in overkill as a strategy and they had come equipped with monstrous floating monoliths that could fire intense beams, as well as somehow suck orks into a strange portal. They had smaller vehicles that could not fire when moving but when they stopped, the shots they fired were impossible to block except for a Gargant. They also had air support, two different kinds of crafts. Farsight magnified them to analyze them and quickly realized that one was more heavily armored and carried stronger weapons than the other, but was slower and less maneuverable. The second version was lighter and weaker, but highly agile.

All this military overkill was needed because the orks were not weak at all. They responded to all this as a challenge, and they relished such challenges. Flyboyz were skirmishing with the necron crafts, engaging in gleeful dogfights. The sound of dakka was overwhelming as the fearless orks met the equally fearless necrons, clashing madly.

Yet the necrons had much better strategy than the orks and Farsight paid close attention to what was happening on the flanks. Someone was engaging in all kinds of sabotage and he had a very good idea who. In one notable instance, some kind of explosive was introduced into the food supply and orks were going off like rockets. Disgusting, but effective.

Farsight knew exactly what orks could do, so he paid close attention to the necrons. He spotted a combat Cryptek at work and watched the necron seem to manipulate time, causing orks on motorcycles to suddenly slow to a crawl and become easy pickings for the necron Warriors. He saw another Cryptek enveloping a group of warriors in a cloud of darkness and then they all vanished. Farsight could not find where they went, but he saw it was a form of teleportation and they were surely somewhere else on the battlefield. He saw a Cryptek equipped with a glowing lance, who clearly loved combat and was personally taking on Stompas. Although he did have the quiet support of many Warriors and Immortals, guarding his back as he tore apart the smaller mechas.

The strangest thing on the battlefield, though, was definitely the entity with the wings. Farsight had troubles seeing it clearly and it didn't enter the battlefield too many times, but it was always to take on a very great threat. Farsight watched a titanic battle between the thing and a Gargant, where it circled it with blinding speed and slowly and relentlessly slashed it apart. The Gargant had fought back wildly but hit mostly nothing, or other orks. It didn't help that the necron forces were supporting the winged thing and some of their aerial craft got past the Flyboyz and launch their own attacks on the gargant to bring it down.

As all this was happening, the naval battle above the planet was decided in the Tau's favor. That left the tau vessels in an uneasy détente with the necron ones, who had no interest in talking beyond stating that they did not wish conflict with the Farsight Enclaves.. The tau naval commander had mentioned that he had the impression the necron commander was not the overall leader of their forces, which might explain the reticence.

For the orks, the end truly came when they were hard pressed and a voice sang out, amplified by some kind of technological magic.

(actually, that was incorrect, it was real magic… psyker abilities. But Farsight couldn't know that)

That voice challenged the ork warboss to a one-on-one duel. The Warboss surely knew it was death, but he could not refuse that challenge and Farsight was sure that beneath his surprisingly bright intelligence, he didn't even want to. Orks had no fear of death and always enjoyed the best fights, and for the Warboss, one that was worthy of him had come.

The ork Warboss was fearsome indeed. As the leader of a powerful WAAAUGGHH, he was engorged with the energies of his fellow orks. Yet Farsight would not have feared to challenge him and the necrons did not either, as he was met by the creature with the wings. Now Farsight could see it more clearly… it was a necron Overlord? Farsight would have sworn he was glowing and those wings… Farsight had seen things beyond technology, things that defied all reality. He feared he was looking on another.

The battle that followed was titanic, as the ork Warboss laughed and gave it his all. He was fast and agile for his great bulk, employing a Power Klaw and a Shoota with great dexterity. Attack squigs and nobs attacked with him, providing support but the necron annihilated then with a wave of red fire from his gauntlet. The necron was incredibly fast and dexterous and Farsight was puzzled by his style of combat. He seemed almost to be fighting like an aeldari? The spear he used seemed to be a potent weapon indeed, easily equal to Farsight's sword and possibly superior. Any blow he landed did massive damage, but the Warboss had a cyborg body and simply ignored most of it.

Despite the necrons' great skill, the Warboss did more damage to him than the Gargant had… before that battle was over, the Overlord had been shot once in the belly. Fortunately he'd gotten some kind of shield up and not been torn apart by it, but he'd needed to compensate as green flux dripped from the wound. That was the worse of his injuries but there were many more, fairly minor things that were repairing more rapidly.

The way the battle ended was almost a mutual kill. Farsight watched, utterly entranced, as the necron saw an opportunity and took it, running the Warboss through with his spear. But that great Power Klaw closed on him and Farsight could imagine the sound of metal rending, as the Overlord's body compacted and claws punctured deeply. But the blow he'd made was a fatal one and the Warboss teetered for a moment before falling, taking the necron with him. There was a shout from the necron forces and they immediately went on the full offense. The Warboss and necron were quickly behind the necron lines and Farsight could no longer see.

"Now is the time. Bravestorm…" Farsight began issuing orders. They needed to strike now, when the orks were still leaderless. If they were given any time to recover they would select a new Warboss and that could not be allowed. The necrons had done the hard work of breaking them, the tau needed to assist in moping them up.

Farsight just hoped they would not be facing necron forces after that task was done.