Far away, in the Farsight Enclaves.
As Nuhkes watched the Earth Caste at work, his mind was very far away. He had taken years to learn about them, taking a position as ambassador to their people and immersing himself in their culture. Nuhkes had cheerfully owned up to the fact that he was studying them, and reciprocated a bit by allowing the Water Caste to study himself and his entourage. Not their technology – although Nuhkes had imparted a few insights to the Earth Caste – but rather, their culture and nature. It might serve the Water Caste well, if they needed to engage in diplomacy with other necrons.
Now, though, Nuhkes felt he had learned all that he could. He understood the life patterns of the Tau, their birth, growth, courtship rituals and death rituals. Was there more to learn? Probably, but you had to stop at some point. Nuhkes felt he had reached that point.
That meant it was time to move onto the true Tau Empire. That was still a touch daunting, because of the issue with the Ethereals, but it was time to dare it. And so Nuhkes started saying his goodbye's. He would be leaving behind an administrator Lord, to take over his duties as ambassador. Before he left, though, the head of the Water Caste came to see him.
"Can I please ask you a favor?" he requested and Nuhkes tilted his head interrogatively. He wished organic races could see glyphs, it was often annoying that he just didn't have the same range of expression and body language to work with. "I come from a large Water Caste family and despite the difficulties, we have kept in touch. Can you deliver this to them?" He offered a datapad. "It's my knowledge of your people and culture. If you don't mind?" Oh!
"No, I don't mind at all," Nuhkes said. He could already see the datapad was unlocked, letting him access the information, a gesture of openness and trust.
"Thank you so much. Despite our differences, and the fact that well, they would likely consider us traitors, we do still care about them and this could be valuable in the future." Yes, it definitely could. Primarily in dealing with the Sautekh Empire, but also other Necron Dynasties. Nuhkes wasn't entirely unwary though… he would run this past several of the other Crypteks and if necessary, they would edit it a bit. He doubted much would be needed, this should be purely cultural information, but you never knew. Feeling a bit sad to be leaving them behind, Nuhkes left later that day to begin his next mission… learning about the Ethereal Caste in particular. Hopefully Manric's feelings on them were all a misunderstanding.
They would just have to see.
Manric deeply enjoyed returning to Egg and most of all, his meeting with Zahndrekh.
Manric had known this was coming and looked forward to it. Zahndrekh would pull him into a meeting where all of his battles could be evaluated and picked apart by the great nemesor. Manric wanted to learn, wanted to grow, and nothing was better for that than the critical eye of someone greater than himself. Also, while his work had flaws, Manric knew that by and large he had done well. If he had known he'd done poorly, Manric might have approached this meeting with dread, but he had confidence that Zahndrekh would find his performance acceptable.
That was precisely how it went. There were many jokes and many stories, as Zahndrekh explained how he could have done things better using tall tales of the past. He agreed with Manric that he'd acted correctly with the pirates, as the lunar base had been a true wild card that would have taken even Zahndrekh by surprise. He also agreed with Manric's assessment of his failure on the Necron fleet, although he had more things to say about that, places where Manric could have tightened his formation. Manric immersed himself in all of it, intending to learn. Even if he was no longer up for promotion to wing commander, he still wanted to be better at such things.
Then, came what Manric had been anticipating. Zahndrekh clasped his hands together with a feeling of deep discomfort and behind him, Obyron had a watchful air. Manric knew exactly why. Now that everyone had been resouled, some – by no means all – of the Overlords beneath Zahndrekh felt a bit badly about their behavior. There had been so many attempts on Zahndrekh's life and Manric was particularly dangerous, with the power block he possessed. Obyron surely knew it was unlikely he would do something like that, but it was his duty to watch for such things.
"Manric, your performance has been more than acceptable. You have truly done well, beyond expectations," the flattery before you delivered bad news, Manric had done it himself plenty of times. "But ah… there is… I mean…" Zahndrekh suddenly floundered, to his surprise, and he sensed a deep and painful distress. He really hadn't thought it would be this hard for him and Manric moved quickly to ease it.
"Nemesor, it is fine, I already know. Xahkephra will be promoted to wing commander above me," Manric said gently and felt surprise from both of them. "She is an excellent commander. For the good of the fleet and the Sautekh Empire, I will step aside." It was the right thing to do. Obyron felt rather shocked at his response, while Zahndrekh was filled with a deep relief but also, surprise and curiosity.
"You foresaw this? I would not have expected it!" Zahndrekh said, tilting his head interrogatively.
"It was the Immortals, the Deathmarks and the Crypteks who saw it coming," Manric said, reflecting on the wisdom of the common ranks. They could sometimes see things the commanders missed. "The rumor mill carried their thoughts to Ahmakeph, who took it to me… after that, I tested her skill in the simulators. She is an excellent nemesor." Manric could only win against Xahkephra perhaps a third of the time. That was very similar to his record against Zahndrekh himself. "I am told her career spanned a great deal of time, during the War in Heaven, and she achieved many great victories. It would be wrong of me, to insist on my promotion above such a luminary." Yes, it was unexpected and disappointing, but stepping aside was still the right thing to do. Obyron's feelings were shifting to a deep and heartfelt relief, that the problem he'd anticipated was not materializing. Zahndrekh clapped his hands together.
"Ah, amazing! Wonderful! You truly are a credit to your Dynasty," Zahndrekh said before following it with a glyph poem praising his dedication to the good of the whole. "Well, now, let us move on to other things. We have received the first recruits from Luminous…" Manric immersed himself in matters of the ground forces, learning about the new pwi-necrons. Zahndrekh had been putting them through their paces down on Phoenix. As he did, he reflected on it for a moment.
While he had enjoyed taking a fleet on a long mission far away, Manric was glad to be home.
Xahkephra was ready for her first command under the Sautekh Empire.
Naszar had welcomed her warmly, and Xahkephra had returned that warmth. She had been mildly shocked to see what had become of his father, but was happy for them both that the Flayer virus was cured, even if the damage was permanent. Sekemekh seemed happy with his life, by his son's side.
When Imotekh's instructions had reached them, Naszar had given the duty to her. Xahkephra took command of a small fleet, including several human vessels, to take care of the problem on the odd world. As she did, she familiarized herself with the commanders. Just as she had with Manric and his forces, she played war games with them, testing their skill and building profiles of them in her mind. They ranged from decent to exceptional, but she would have expected no less from Naszar's forces.
When she came to the planet and began directing the assault, Xahkephra kept Imotekh's instructions in mind. Look for what lies beneath the surface. Search for patterns in the chaos. It was only the Stormlord's feeling, that something was wrong, but Xahkephra trusted his instincts.
The battles were fierce but extremely disorganized. The great cities of the humans had become so strange, twisted and labyrinthian, with floors that were oddly sticky on even necron feet. Lurking in every corner was darkness, hideous monsters waiting to leap out and rend flesh. But they were cold metal and while they could feel fear, few things could inspire it. They went through the cities, purging them room by room, street by street and setting great blackstone spikes at key locations. When they were done, the floors were just floors, albeit dirty and even a bit dangerous, close to failure from many millennia of neglect.
As the great battle continued, though, Xahkephra looked for anything that might lie beneath. It took several weeks – the pattern was subtle – but eventually, she found it. They were being kept away from a particular area. Every time their forces came anywhere near it, they were cleverly led away with attacks. Interestingly enough, though, several scouting Deathmarks had gone directly through that area. Xahkephra summoned them to her for a full report and then she knew something was wrong. She spoke to them each in turn and completely independently, they described the area in the exact same terms, even the same phrases. As if they had been programmed with the words to use.
Fortunately, the Sautekh Empire did have enhanced blackstone protections available. Collars, bracelets and anklets as well as special adornments that could be pressed against the necrodermis and held in place, even within the body. Too expensive in blackstone for everyday use, they could not be recalled and the destruction of a unit wearing them destroyed the set. Xahkephra was vague on why, but that made them precious. Many of their units were already armored that way, particularly the Overlords leading the ground assault, but they had more.
Xahkephra summoned five of her best Deathmarks and included Udjehyt. While she would be deeply saddened to lose him, his skills were meant to be used and she was on the command platform. She was confident in her own skill and her protections, including her new Vargard, Immortal Tajnekh. He was not on Obyron's level but with a returned soul and his mind and creativity returned, he was quite close. He really lacked the same physical upgrades, something Xahkephra planned to have corrected with time. Leaving those thoughts aside, she explained the situation to the Deathmarks, gifted them the sets of blackstone, and asked them to fully investigate.
That done, she could only wait for the reports of her loyal Deathmarks.
Udjehyt picked carefully through the ruins of a relatively young civilization, moving smoothly through space in his dimensional oubliette. He passed by numerous corrupted monsters, but they paid him no mind, unable to even perceive his presence. Deathmarks were a terror on most lesser races. Employing an alternate reality state, a kind of pocket dimension, they were undetectable until they stepped forth. It could also be used for a limited degree of teleportation, the oubliette being quickly moved, although that required knowledge of the terrain and preparation.
They did have weaknesses, though, and Udjehyt was particularly mindful of them now. The Immaterium sneered at mere things like logic and it was not unknown for their oubliette's to be penetrated by Warp entities. Also, nearly as bad, psykers of certain types could detect their mental emanations even within the pocket dimension. A good example of that was Manric… when a Deathmark came to him he would turn his head and acknowledge them before they even exited their oubliette. Udjehyt had observed that, before they had left Manric's fleet, and been mildly awed by the completely casual way he did it. It was not his nemesor authority, either, Udjehyt had checked with the Sautekh Deathmarks. They also found it rather uncanny, that he simply knew they were there.
The worst weakness of the Deathmarks, however, was against the entities of the Ghoul Stars. On the rare occasion breakouts of such creatures occurred, Deathmarks were normally forbidden from the field. Their dimensional oubliette's could be penetrated and even worse, used as entry points. Normally they were safe from that but if the walls of reality were already very weak, they became perilous indeed.
Fortunately, that was not a concern for today, only the powers of the Warp. Udjehyt tilted his head as the terrain changed. This did not match the reports of the earlier scouts… they had reported the usual buildings and remote images of the region showed the same. An illusion? Whatever it was, with his enhanced blackstone protections, Udjehyt was seeing something quite different. The buildings had been torn down to the point that there was no sign of them and the barren land was exposed.
The land itself was very curious, with great indents that seemed to be filled with a strange mineral. Or was it a mineral? The colors and textures varied but right now, Udjehyt was gazing at a light blue and silvery expanse. Growing out of the substance were peculiar things, almost like trees and holding luminous, multicolored 'fruit'. Shuffling beings that might have been human seemed to be harvesting the fruits. As one of them turned, glowing fruit in hand, Udjehyt saw its' face. It appeared to be a mutant, with a pig like face and vacant eyes.
Udjehyt continued, noticing that the grasses growing from the ground had a very strange texture. Long and black, he paused to analyze them and found they were only quasi-organic. A strange amalgamation of minerals, largely silica, and an unknown biological material. Udjehyt had no idea what to make of it, but he was no Cryptek.
I have found something. Come to me. Sel'Yenta, a rare female Deathmark, whispered to them. Udjehyt found her position in his mind and oriented himself onto it, going to her side.
As they all gathered, Udjehyt stared at what Sel'Yenta had found. A great pit, going deep into the earth, it was ringed with great formations jutting high into the sky. Udjehyt analyzed them and found they were made of calcium phosphate, mostly, but again some odd organic material. For the first time, he also paid attention to his sense of smell… Necrons possessed a fine sense of smell, mainly meant to analyze the air composition around them. Yet somehow, the C'Tan had also mimicked the true sense to an astonishing degree, perhaps by accident. The air here was acrid, an unpleasant stench and his analysis indicated decaying organic matter. Looking down into the pit, he saw it was extremely damp, with many pools of water. He could not analyze them from this distance, but they did appear to be true water.
I almost think… one of them started, then stopped. Udjehyt did not know his name. May I say something that might be fanciful?
By all means, Udjehyt responded. They were in an area of low reality density, badly afflicted by the Warp. Fanciful might not be so fanciful at all.
Does this appear to be a mouth? Udjehyt paused, absorbing that idea before glancing around. The formations around them were consistent with teeth. However, the pit was enormous. If that was the case… Udjehyt had already made several reports, transmitting true images of the area, but now he quickly reported again and specifically asked if the Princess wished them to continue. There was a short pause, as she decided.
Please continue a bit farther. Specifically, I wish you to evaluate if this is truly an organic formation, and not some corruption of the stone. Udjehyt nodded to himself. Xahkephra wanted to have enough information to justify her decision to destroy this world.
The Deathmarks circled around the 'mouth' and found that a metal lattice had been erected in one location. It possessed ladders, although they seemed to be old and corroded. They still used it, only lightly touching reality in their pocket dimensions, making their way down into the pit. As they reached the floor, Udjehyt tried to evaluate if the water here was actually saliva. It was difficult, given that saliva was largely water in any case, but he thought the organic components of it might be consistent with such.
The walls of the pit were almost entirely mineral in nature, which did not confirm much. They continued further, and found the pit went deep underground. There were many formations hanging off the ceiling, stalagmites but as Udjehyt analyzed them he found they were largely biological matter. And as they continued, they found this place was not abandoned. More of the mutants were here, odd and sickly, and they were excavating something. Udjehyt slipped close to one, trusting his dimensional oubliette completely, and examined the material. Hm, some form of red stone, the mutant was using a pickaxe around it then very carefully freeing it by hand, treating it as though it was a delicate substance.
What is it? Udjehyt tried to analyze the substance and found it deeply confusing. To his shock and worry, he could definitely detect traces of transpositanium, merely a tiny amount. That was extremely incongruent with the Warp. As far as he knew, the Immaterium did not use transpositanium in any way, it was supposed to be entirely an element of the real world. Although… given how deeply this world had been dragged into the Warp, it really should have become a Chaos planet by now. Was this perhaps part of the reason it hadn't?
His inattention nearly cost him his life. Caught up in the analysis of the material, Udjehyt missed the breaching of his dimensional pocket and the entry of a life form that did not need air to breath and did not have much in the way of senses at all, except a great hunger. A large worm with jagged teeth, he detected the movement just in time to whirl and lift his Synaptic Disintegrator, not to kill the beast – it was too close – but to block the gnashing teeth. Udjehyt swiftly called for assist and one of the other Deathmarks merged in, shooting the creature in the back. As that happened, two others also called for assist.
After a brief but intense struggle within their dimensional oubliette's, the Deathmarks were victorious. The creatures had really been quite weak, counting upon the advantage of surprise. Analysis, though, revealed again trace amounts of transpositanium and Udjehyt called the retreat even as he transmitted their information to Xahkephra.
Return to base. I am consulting with the Stormlord to see what he wants done. Udjehyt found that interesting. Then Sel-Yanta murmured.
The Princess thinks he will perhaps want this world for research. Research these creatures? It was highly unusual. Udjehyt was no Cryptek, but these were creatures of the Immaterium who seemed to have gained physical form. Not entirely unknown but did the transpositanium have something to do with it? The thought would have made a shiver go down his spine, if he were still capable of such things. Transpositanium was so potent in warping the fabric of reality, but the Immaterium was fundamentally not real at all. To combine those two things was frightening.
By the time they had returned, the verdict was handed down. The humans would be evacuated, taken to Egg and Manric Duleth for evaluation, and the world would be destroyed. The necrons began to pull back as the Crypteks began removing the blackstone pillars, so the somewhat precious material could be re-used. The forces of the Warp seemed pleased, constantly harrying their attackers and seemingly thinking they were winning. If they had known much about necrons, they would have known it was quite the opposite.
The human population of the planet only number perhaps ten thousand souls and it was quite easy to evacuate. They were very afraid of the necrons, but the thought of getting off this cursed planet was a great relief to them. Udjehyt overheard one tentatively asking if they would be returned to the Imperium of Man, which made him feel rather sad for their naivete. He was no expert on such things, of course, but without someone as puissant in matters of the soul as Manric Duleth, he thought the Imperium would just kill them. They were potentially a source of infection. Udjehyt hoped, for their sake, that they passed the tests.
When they were all off the planet, Udjehyt was standing next to the Warrior Princess so he was privileged to watch the bombardment commence. Normally, necrons did not engage in this form of Exterminatus. They preferred the more elegant approach of stripping away the atmosphere, sterilizing a planet that way. And when they made war against each other, the goal was to take and claim the enemies' resources and recall facilities so even then, they would not crack a planet.
That did not mean they couldn't do it, though, and Udjehyt watched as green light lashed the planet, over and over. The planet gradually began to break, cracks spreading through it and pieces drifting off. And then, something began to emerge.
It was perhaps a quarter the size of the planet, so it was large indeed and Udjehyt could see it had dozens of tendrils, each one with a mouth. Other than that, it was hard to tell the shape, it was an amorphous blob and while they could not hear anything Udjehyt fancied it was keening in distress as the weapons of the necrons stabbed at it. They slowly and gradually tore it apart, flesh breaking and fracturing. It took a while to complete and by the time they were done, it was in multiple pieces. The Crypteks confirmed the unnatural 'life' of it was done and the fleet departed.
They would not come here again.
A thousand years in the future, there would be a post-script to this story.
A Rogue Trader would fall afoul of the wandering Warp Storm and be driven wildly off course, coming out in the space that held the carcass of the beast. By this time, the remains would be picked over, the flesh devoured by desperate parasites trying to survive. Nothing but bones floating in the void of space, they could still inspire fear in the strongest of men.
This particular Rogue Trader vessel was captained by a noble of Terra, but one who was out of favor and impoverished. His family had fallen on hard times indeed, due to poor investments and he was struggling to bring them out of debt. So despite the terror of his crew and his own fears, he would guide his ship into the bone field, to see if anything of value could be found. Even if they found nothing, the Mechanicus and the Inquisition would pay a finder's fee for records and analysis of such a thing.
But fortune would look with favor upon the bold and in amongst the bones, he would find the remains of what had been the creatures stomach. Nestled against a few bony formations was the bright gleam of what it could not digest, primarily gold. A planets' worth of gold, polished clean by digestive juices, just waiting to be picked up. And while such things could be a trap, in this case it was simply random chance and there was nothing waiting to take the greedy. Just the gold, warm and inviting.
The Rogue Trader would gather all of it and then they would depart. When they were safely away from the boney hulk, the crew would celebrate and the Captain of the vessel would bless the Emperor for smiling upon them. His family debts would be wiped out in an instant and the entire crew of his ship would be able to retire, if they wished, or continue their careers with a fine nest egg.
A fine end for everyone involved.
