Peril 2.4
The Endless Swarm
It is an old saying one can estimate the value of a person by the number and the strength of his or her enemies. Common soldiers of His Most Holy Majesty have generally hundreds of them. Officers have thousands. Heroes of the Imperium and legendary generals have millions of them. But nowhere this proverb was more justified than in Saint Taylor's example.
All her life the most famous Heroine of the Nyx Sector held the line against uncountable enemies.
Yet among these legions of Traitors, Mutants, Heretics and Aliens Lady Weaver erased from the surface of this galaxy, there are foes which stand above the rest of the vermin tides. Some of these beings were so powerful that few but the Emperor's own Angels of the Death had the strength to mount an effective resistance. These abominations and monsters are thankfully long gone, and the souvenir of their heretical and treacherous deeds has faded away.
Then there were the Endbringers, the name by which the eight Great Enemies of the Saint were known. Victories against these entities have been celebrated on millions of worlds and hundreds of thousands awards recompensed the Emperor's Faithful who helped Saint Taylor against these dreadful threats.
By the declassified reports the military authorities and the Inquisition have rendered available today, the first time one of the Endbringers was battled by Saint Taylor took place during the year 289M35 on the world of Wuhan.
The opponent was Iash'uddra, better known as the Endless Swarm. It was to be the first confrontation between the shard the silver life-eater and soldiers of the Imperium. It would not be the last.
Preaching of Cardinal Greyer at the Great Cardinal Council of Weaveria-Syr, 120M41.
"You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea." Victor Hugo, 1845.
"They are those to say that escape is the only good tactic when meeting one of these eternally-cursed 'Star Gods'. But where do you flee when the enemy is able to kill you thousands of kilometres away?" anonymous Imperial officer.
"To fear the C'Tan is simply common sense." Trazyn the Infinite, 605M13.
"One shard is nearly impossible to destroy and has powers the most powerful Trumps of Earth Bet could only dream of. I don't think I want to see what one looks like at full power..." Major Taylor Hebert, 289M35.
Ultima Segmentum
Nyx Sector
Moros Sub-Sector
Wuhan System
Wuhan II
7.252.289M35
Thought for the day: Against the Alien and the Traitor there is no fair way to fight.
Major Taylor Hebert
"This is Iash'uddra. The Endless Swarm."
Trazyn. Die!
And on this sinister command, the silver monster opened fire. Taylor had seen the green blasts of the automaton weapons. They were ridiculous compared to the death ray the C'Tan generated. One second Iash'uddra directed what could pass for an arm towards the machines. The next it was like the End of Times itself had answered the Star God.
It was like someone had decided to use a mini-Death Star in the huge throne room. The infernal ray slammed into the immobile lines of Trazyn's soldiers and turned them into metallic debris, melting the metal constituting them and distorting a minority like a capricious child played with toys.
"Fire! Fire at will!" she shouted in the comm-bead and the insects disseminated across the two companies informed her she wasn't the only officer to suddenly bark orders on all military frequencies. Not a very good coordination, but it was excusable as the saw the C'Tan passing his nerves on the Necrons.
Nine hundred lasguns fired in an interval of two seconds. Given the terrain and the distance, it was not easy to miss and indeed the majority of the laser fire was dead on target...except that moments before impact, the wave of tiny metallic insects surged forwards and projected itself like a rampart of silver liquid. A few dozen fell of these protectors fell when they were hit by the weapons of the Imperial Guard, but otherwise the C'Tan had withstood the attack without problem.
The being turned...his head? Or at least the body part which appeared to fulfil the same role in a human body and it was not difficult to guess the predominating emotion fuelling the materials composing it.
Die.
Desperately, Weaver activated the dorsal reactors in her back and jumped away as fast as she could all the while commanding the Fay men and women to break formation and run away. The 2nd Company reacted fast to her orders but the 4th was too slow.
A second tempest of death came from nowhere and tore apart the Fay first lines. For an instant it was like a rain of blood and body parts had decided to flood the battlefield. Her last remaining huge spiders, right in the path of the attack, ceased to exist and the last images she was able to see told her how an awful manner of dying this was.
Die! Die!
The C'Tan, Star God or not, was completely insane. It was quite mad and too powerful, the worst combination possible...just her luck to fall on something which was this galaxy's equivalent of the Endbringers.
"RETREAT! RETREAT!"
"For the First Legion and for Caliban!" the thunderous war-cry soared in the air and the move was so quick it was like the gigantic Space Marine had teleported itself in front of Iash'uddra. The two-handed sword of the black-armoured colossus struck - it was a weapon which had to be nearly as tall as she was - in a deathly arc and this time the wall of insects exploded under the impact.
And for the first time, Taylor felt her control over some of the metallic objects kick in. Completely weird, her power was supposed to work only on living bugs but parahuman powers always came with a heavy dose of weirdness.
Not that she had the opportunity to explore the mysteries of her abilities. The Space Marine's blade had stopped against the skin or whatever was covering the C'Tan. Judging by the tightening of his grip and the effort he was putting in his strikes, the gigantic soldier was giving all he had...and he wasn't able to pierce the protections of his inhuman adversary.
Said adversary by the way didn't appreciate someone trying to stab him with a large weapon and retaliated by gathering a flow of the metallic wave in a very ugly and sharp blade in the back of the Space Marine. Seconds before it struck, Weaver deflected the fatal blow to the left with the flies and the new metallic bugs she had taken control.
Incomprehension.
The black Space Marine did not let the opportunity pass and the second the C'Tan froze a new attack on the upper body of their enemy where the visage was coming. It had no effect whatsoever. The silver material blocked the great sword without a scratch.
Then the metallic bugs she had hijacked poured from the rest of the metallic torrent to attack the lower parts of the C'Tan and this time, a horrifying shriek resonated, silencing all other noises on the battlefield.
The extremity of something looking like the strange mix of a leg and a tentacle was bleeding in a silver colour but before she could move her swarm inside the creature's body they were literally disintegrated by the fluid pouring out of the wound and the survivors were destroyed by an enraged tide of metallic scarabs – the vision of the things she had borrowed had given her a clear view of what the monster controlled.
Incomprehension. Control failing. Incomprehension.
But just as it was emitting in this curious manner, the silver entity riposted in a frightening halo of green light. The Space Marine tried to avoid the blast but his super-reflexes were not sufficient. For a second, it looked like the gravity had suddenly decided to take a holiday for the Legionary of the Dark Angels.
Illusion shattered the next instant when it slammed in the opposite wall. The shock was so violent pieces of the structure fell and the Space Marine stayed immobile in the hole he had just created.
Satisfaction.
The superhuman warrior out of the fight, Magos Lankovar and she were the only ones left to face the C'Tan. The rest of the Fay regiment had made a hasty withdrawal to the throne room's exit, and the remaining machines were levitated by some incomprehensible green energy and used as entertainment.
"Don't shoot at the C'Tan!" She shouted at the Explorator when she saw the big blue-lighted weapon was directed at the silver being. "We must neutralise the metallic scarabs first!"
Landing near the senior Mechanicus representative, Taylor drew her chainsword and started to hack right and left the waves of small machines focusing on them. And for what seemed to be a minute or two, it worked. Each of the strike or shot was removing a few silver insects from the equation. Next second, they were under her control.
The rapport of force was changing. The C'Tan or whatever truly controlled the metallic waves was really mediocre in its control. Weaver could control the few dozen mechanical constructs tactically and logically after a few more seconds but this thing was all brute force.
Irritation.
Unfortunately, the green rays were really overkill. A new annihilation wave rushed in and Lankovar and she charged on different directions. The bug-controller gave a new command and half of her effectives slammed into the C'Tan, piercing the silver carapace where the chest would have been if it had been a human being. The light silver acid poured out, and she had to withdraw her metallic bugs.
Die! Die!
In hindsight, they should have just run. The monster had just been toying with them until now. From the silver surface of its body began to merge blades and several guns look-alike that couldn't be anything but bad news. A sort of green halo surrounded it and the C'Tan appeared to double in size. The holes and the nearby corridors were suddenly flooded in tens of thousands scarab-machines. Each of the insect under control, metallic or living, alive or dead, was charged by over a hundred of this implacable tide.
"Magos! Retreat!"
Iash'uddra then gave them an idea how furious it was. Five green rays came into existence and blasted away the ceiling and the walls. Entire sections crumbled and were disintegrated.
She avoided the falling rubble the fastest she could, and the red robes on her left proved Lankovar was doing the same thing. And then it stopped.
The C'Tan was still levitating at the same place they had last seen it...except that where she had wounded him the second time, the great sword of the Dark Angel had stabbed him.
The impact on the wall where the Space Marine was supposed to lie mortally wounded was empty and its creator was sprinting again towards the Endless Swarm, trampling more metallic scarabs and giving her back control of a miniscule swarm.
Annoyance.
For the first time, the C'Tan used its members to remove the sword before throwing it like a javelin in her direction. Only a rapid feint allowed her to avoid being impaled on this deadly projectile.
Then it teleported.
Not the impossible race of the Space Marine, or the incredible flooding of the metallic insects. An instant, it was in the middle of the throne room. The next it was in front of the Space Marine, who he had just immobilised by coalescing the sea of metallic insects surrounding his feet.
This time there was no death ray. The C'Tan punched the superhuman in the armoured plate with an impact so powerful Taylor heard the protections crack against the punishment. The shock wave forced her two steps back. And for the second time in less than fifteen minutes, the Space Marine was thrown in the air, the front of his massive armour shattered. The impact with the ground was heart-breaking and this time the Emperor's elite warrior did not try to stand up again.
The C'Tan turned its parody of head in her direction. The blazing green eyes watched her evilly.
The former supervillain threw every single thing she had at the Star God but her bugs were literally drowned under the silver endless wave. The chainsword swirled in a desperate reflex but it was literally cut in half like it was nothing by her enemy.
One second she tried to put the maximum of distance between her and the C'Tan, the next she was seized by the throat and there was pain. It hurt. God, it hurt!
Understanding. Administration. Query?
The entities were immense and complex beyond imagination. They were millions of small shards, all fulfilling different skills and functions. Alone, they had limited data to work with and restricted specialisation. It was together the entities reached their full potential of thoughts and creation.
Data and memories of different dimensions were shared. Amalgamations were directed on new pathways, and new shards were infused to describe something different.
Creation? Addition.
"Iash'uddra."
The metallic voice came out of nowhere. The pressure on her throat disappeared and Taylor fell on the mass of metallic scarabs.
Doing her best to ignore the ache in her head and the pain in her body, Weaver watched who had intervened and stopped the C'Tan from killing her.
It was Trazyn the Infinite Collector. The robot commander's violet cape was full of holes and good for the dustbin, but he looked otherwise remarkably intact. The machine leader still had his sceptre and his well-decorated armour. To his right was a large opened structure built like the hybrid of a pyramid and a tank, taller and larger than the Space Marine lying unconscious on the floor. The technological device was coursing with green energy...and this simple apparition enraged the C'Tan far more than the previous fight had.
Tesseract! Die! Die! Die! Die! Betrayer! Die! Die!
The C'Tan unleashed this fury and this time there was no holding back. Hundreds of green rays were fired at Trazyn. The metallic insects charged in their endless numbers. The air and the very reality seemed to tremble under the power of the attacks.
The Infinite Collector disappeared again and it was then the weird device activated. A vortex of pure darkness opened. Temperature fell in the throne room and Taylor shivered despite her military clothes. The silver waves of mini-robots tried to evade the vortex but whatever gravity attraction this pyramid-tank had, it was stronger than their evasion capacities. The metallic insects were absorbed in the vortex after two seconds of charge. Not by hundreds, but by the thousands and tens of thousands. The shard of the Star God tried to stop its creations from rushing in, but the waves were disappearing at a frightening rate. And the technology used to make this thing was evidently C'Tan-proof. The green lightning and diverse blast of energy hit the black-green metals but the most powerful were barely scratching its paint.
When about nine-tenths of the silver constructs had disappeared from reality, it was Iash'uddra turn to be aspired in this dark whirlpool. The C'Tan resisted of course. The ground shook in monumental earthquakes. Silver pikes were dug in the walls, the ceiling and the ground to serve as improvised anchors. Debris became flaming projectiles to be hammered against the tank-pyramid. But it was a fight lost from the start. Metre by metre, it was attracted in the heart of the vortex. It was about three metres away from the core of the maelstrom when it turned a last time and flashed in a sort of silver brilliance. For a moment, she thought she heard a sort of melody coming from their opponent.
Vengeance. Liberty. Vengeance. Administration.
The young parahuman didn't know if it was an imploration, a demand or a last wish. And she was not sure she wanted to ask precisions in the first place.
Iash'uddra the Endless Swarm was swallowed entirely by the darkness as easily as his metallic scarabs had been and in a series of shrieks and cracks the pyramid-tank closed down, burying the supposed Star God away from prying eyes.
Taylor breathed loudly in relief. About ten metres behind her, Magos Explorator Desmerius Lankovar fell on his knees, whispering endless praises to the Omnissiah and the God-Emperor. Approximately a kilometre away, the surviving soldiers of the two Fay companies were coming back in good formation, although their progression was slow since the perfectly flat ground was now the picture of a World War battlefield. In the crater where he had been projected, the Space Marine was trying to extricate himself from his ruined armour.
They had survived. It didn't feel like a victory – the bright red traces of blood everywhere told her the number of dead was not going to be small – but they had gotten rid of the monster. Well, Trazyn had done it and they had managed to remain alive a few minutes but-
Like the Collector had thought she was thinking about him, he reappeared under their eyes. The Major didn't know if it was a magical invisibility cloak or a super-advanced cloaking device, but she really wanted one.
As he was less than ten metres away, her earlier assessment appeared accurate: only the violet cape appeared to have suffered the onslaught of Iash'uddra.
"Incredible battle!" declared the self-proclaimed 'Infinite Collector' in a joyful manner. "The recordings will make a perfect addition to my Tarivekh branch on Solemnace!" Wait a minute. This trickster had played the cameraman when they were fighting for their lives? "Now, where were we in our conversation before we were so rudely interrupted?"
The Necron commander caressed his sceptre in a meditating manner before turning his eyes slowly on the Space Marine...and her. For the first time, the supervillain in her was ill-at-ease by how similar the artificial eyes of the killing machine and the fake iris of the C'Tan were the same colour.
"Ah, yes. I need new pieces for my collection."
The manner this sentence was formulated suggested Trazyn the Infinite had already made his choice on what, or rather who he wanted.
Sergeant Gavreel Forcas
This was really humiliating. Gavreel had fought for hours in the sewers and the darkness of the underhive without taking a single wound. Granted the opposition had been ridiculous, against madmen and fanatics, supported by some ugly reptilian xenos. But he had been winning. Most of his bolter ammunition had disappeared in these skirmishes, but he had judged this an acceptable price to pay. And the moment he had began to fight against these soulless machines and abominable intelligences, the problems lied more in the lack of competent support than the difficulty of the opposition. A Company of Legionary Astartes would have dealt easily with these metallic creatures. The Legion had faced far more dangerous foes in the Great Crusade than these 'Necrons'.
Or so he had believed ten minutes ago. Until he faced the 'C'Tan' or whatever name the galaxy had for this abomination.
It had taken less than three hundreds seconds for the xenos creature to send him to the four corners of this immense throne room. The Dark Angel Sergeant would like to boast his opponent had been far more injured but honestly he had not managed to scratch him.
It looked like his pride and his Mark IV Maximus Power Armour were going to be written off as total losses. A Major of the Imperial Army or whatever equivalent still existed these days had done better than him. True, she had the minor power of controlling insects and bugs but he was a transhuman warrior and his veins the results of the Emperor's gene-experimentation flowed. He should have done better than this!
On the good sides, he was still alive. The plastron was a total loss, his vambraces, backpack, cables and connectors were truly ruined, and it took him many seconds to activate the procedures to start liberating himself from this ceramite and adamantium prison. First, he removed his helmet, giving him his first view of a truly ravaged battlefield. It was like someone had used a Land Raider to cause the maximum of damage, supported by a few bombers and one or two regiments of light infantry for good measure. The floor, so pristine moments before, was now a succession of craters.
"Ah, yes. I need new pieces for my collection."
Abandoning his efforts to liberate himself from what had been an efficient battle-armour, Gavreel watched the machine clothed in purple and gold. Really he didn't like this machine. And not just because the Emperor himself had decreed the abominable intelligences were major dangers to be eliminated at the first opportunity.
This thing, this 'Trazyn', had let his troops and the human different groups be massacred against the abomination named 'Iash'uddra' the time he activated his own trap. While it was successful, this strategy reeked of dishonesty and manipulation. Gavreel had seen his share of officers like this on both sides of a war. Humans and xenos ready to sacrifice their troops for the slightest nod of approval from a General or one place up the list of promotions.
And the next words were not of a nature destined to contradict him.
"I think you three will do splendidly," said the machine, pointing directly his great sceptre at the chest of Major Taylor Hebert. "You in particular will be one of my collection's greatest prizes."
"I think not," the soldier countered and for the first time the Sergeant of the First Legion realised how young his saviour looked and sounded. In the moments after the C'Tan was vanquished the young woman had removed her fissured helmet, revealing long black hair and a visage of command that hadn't reached yet adulthood.
"The Mechanicus decline your ungrateful offer," added Magos Lankovar, walking to position his buzzing mechadendrites and his ragged red robes next to his ally. If the spider-controller was dusty and had lost all her eight-legged minions, the cogboy-in-chief armament and protections had been severely impacted and crippled. There was a sort of blue coolant dripping from seven or eight different points. Half of his armour had been incinerated and his weapons were utterly broken. In fact, if the Magos was not more metal than flesh, Gavreel was ready to bet he would have been destroyed in the first instants of battle. "We are servants of the Omnissiah and the Emperor, our place is not in a xenos collection!"
The Legionary took laboriously a semi-seated position on the debris his impact and the creature's attacks had created. He wanted to stand up and punch this 'Infinite Collector' in the face but unfortunately his armour had zero percent of power left. Even the multi-sensors and the different interfaces had stopped showing the hundreds of critical damages, multiples system failures and emergency reparations the regulators required. Frankly he didn't know if he could remove his armour alone. The helmet was easy to remove because it had been conceived that way in cases of emergency...for the armour itself he would need a lot of help in the form of servitors or Tech-Priests.
It was not a pleasant sensation at all. The Sword of Perseverance was planted in a wall fifteen metres away, his bolter had a single round in the ammunition clip left. More than ever, he felt vulnerable without the bonds of his fellow Legionaries. They were not supposed to remain alone for weeks in unexplored territories. This was not the way of the First...
"But this is a great honour!" The metallic abomination seemed honesty offended that someone didn't want to join the C'Tan in what was no doubt a prison-collection of the worst sort. Naive or not, this tone brought no result. The Magos drew a small plasma pistol from under his red cloak and the Major took a laspistol out of her holster. "Oh by the curse of Llandu'ghor, I will have to use strongest measures then."
The metallic fingers played a combination on the panel command of the xenos sceptre and in a flash of bright green light, hundreds of new soulless warriors reappeared. Unlike the previous ones however, the weapons the abominations were carrying were not a bright green but shining in a mix of blue and white.
Gavreel's heart skipped a heartbeat and it was not because he was tired and wounded. Enemy reinforcements, just what they didn't need. Of course the xenos soulless abomination had kept some troops in reserve to deal with them.
"Lay down your weapons and let the stasis forces do their collection work," commanded the violet-caped creature. "You are the last...how did you call it? Ah yes, the last parahuman. You are unique, I have never seen another specimen like yourself in this galaxy. Your regiment is dead, there are no Canoptek Scarabs for you to use in the vicinity and my collection awaits."
"Incredible." Far from showing terror or anger, the young Major's face showed a thin smile. "All of these affirmations are false."
By the looks on Trazyn's metallic head, this was not the answer the 'Necron' had expected.
"I am not the last parahuman. I am not unique. There are plenty of men and women with abilities far more powerful from the planet where I came from."
This was interesting information indeed. The Dark Angel Astartes just hoped there weren't too many of them or the Space Marines were going to become second-rate troops. The commander of the automatons also appeared excited by the idea to add more living humans to his collection.
"My regiment is not dead. Your 'Star God' has destroyed two companies but the Fay 20th has suffered far worse losses against the orks. We will recover."
Scratches were heard from every direction and the Infinite Collector took several steps back.
"And I am not going to end in your collection," finished the parahuman. "I am never without bugs!"
The fissured ceiling of the throne room, already ruptured in several places by the previous fight, broke again over the newly arrived metallic warriors' heads. Whoever had created these automatons had gifted them with good reflexes and a healthy sense of danger. The moment the first debris fell, they opened fire with everything they had.
Though it would have been better for them if they had had the 'annihilation guns' of green lights the previous ones had had. The blue-white weapons were in effect stasis weapons – really useful for capture, life preservation and interrogation...but absolutely useless when a torrent of silver insects swarmed you.
"This is not over!" Screamed their leader, who by this point did not bother to hide the fact he was fleeing with all celerity. "I will have my revenge, vermin!"
"Human vermin," Corrected him the Magos.
The best thing one could say about this slaughter was that it was rapid. In a minute, the scarabs targeted the weak points of the machines and in dozens of green explosions the unloving army was destroyed.
The arriving human survivors poured more laser fire for good measure, but Gavreel was sure the bugs could have handed it all on their own. A pity he couldn't move to join this slaughter. The abomination had wanted to capture him for his collection; the Legionary would have dearly loved a little demonstration in private to show him what he thought of his actions.
Too bad that in two cases, the miniature insect wave was too late. The structure having imprisoned the C'Tan volatilised itself like it had never been there. And in a flash of green, the self-proclaimed 'Infinite Collector' disappeared, leaving his last servants get massacred.
When the last machine collapsed in a storm of lasers and green flashes, there was only silence for long seconds. And then the soldiers raised their weapons in the air, cheered and celebrated their victory.
"Some lesser men and women would call this battle a near-apocalypse," commented tranquilly one of the most intimidating soldiers with a black cap, black clothes and an awful amount of prosthetics visible all over his body. "In the Imperial Guard, we call it a normal day."
Magos Desmerius Lankovar
By the Omnissiah and the logical processes of the machine, it was going to be a pain explaining this sequence of events.
Before they had started the assault on the Hive, Desmerius had believed it would be an easy step on his Quest of Knowledge. Blame everything on the Inquisitors, swear to secret the Fay soldiers, make minor promises of material assistance to the authorities, take whatever was in the Vault of Infinity for himself and his Stygies patrons, and of course ensure neither the Inquisitors nor their followers be in the vicinity to explain a contrary chain of events.
None of his simulations had included soulless abominable intelligences, of course. And Inquisitor Steadham had also never mentioned in his private conversations with the Wuhanese nobility incredible swarms of metallic insect, an entity able to teleport, manipulate and explode matter like it was nothing and green weapons flaying men whether they had adequate protections or not. And it was just the highlights of what they had found in this complex below the Underhive.
The losses had been incredibly heavy. None of the Skitarii he had landed with had survived. In a few seconds, the thing the xenos had called a C'Tan had killed the last members of his escort and over four hundred Guard soldiers, nearly annihilating the 4th Company and killing all its leading officers. The 2nd Company had fared better, but Major Hebert and Colonel Larkine undoubtedly would demand reinforcements after they had time to estimate their losses.
These casualties could have been viewed in a good light if they had managed to recover working examples of this 'Necron' race. For the shame of the Machine-God, it had proved impossible. All these fantastic weapons and automatons had self-destroyed, ravaged by the metallic insects, crippled or reduced to splinters. The Magos Explorator in the end had managed to recover several of the 'Canoptek scarabs' thanks to his insect-controller ally – and hadn't it been an interesting discovery to know the control was also effective against xenos-made insects – several kilograms of this silver self-repairing substance and enormous amounts of burnt things and green crystals.
But this was not the source of his current frustration, oh no. No, this lied with the six men and women currently unconscious in front of him. They were the regimental soldiers who had been commanded by Captain Sevrev to evacuate the Inquisitorial prisoners to the surface.
"Where are the Inquisitors and the rest of the prisoners?" Barked the Commissar, distributing slaps right and left in the hope the unconscious soldiers woke up. But the escort stayed in the comatose state they were in. Rapid examinations revealed small marks on their skins, similar to the one the Necron machines had left on the ground and several bodies before. With these clues in hand, it was not hard to guess who was responsible from the Inquisitors disappearance.
"Trazyn," The word came out Major Taylor Hebert's like a curse. "This thief really doesn't lose time enlarging his collection."
Several of the flies, razorbeetles and common insects the young woman had recovered in these corridors buzzed and spread thorough the galleries, but by her disgruntled face there was no trace of the Infinite Collector or any of the missing prisoners. And since the creatures had already revealed their ability to pass through solid walls, there was little chance the Fay 20th could find them again.
"Err, Major...we found something."
The intervention had come from one of the guardswomen handling their knocked-out allies. Half-hidden behind one of the bodies and a rusted pipe, there was what looked like a power sword in scabbard and a large scroll.
"It's addressed to you, Major."
The yellowish scroll was handed directly, the bug-master mumbling a thanks before breaking its seal and reading its contents. After a few seconds where the parahuman got an angrier look in her eyes, Desmerius was handed the letter. Just by the style of writing and the Necron emblem, the Mechanicus representative knew their suppositions on the fate of the missing Inquisitors had just been verified.
My Dear Lady Weaver,
While I was chagrined by your refusal to not be included in my collection, let me thank you profusely for this inestimable gift. It is so very rare to have to have the opportunity of finding a human Inquisitor and his retinue no one will miss, but two are an opportunity of a millennium! You couldn't know of course of the state of my Malcador Inquisitorial Collection, but these two gifts will contribute to its greatness and ultimate completion. I have also taken the liberty of selecting a few of their underlings and servants in the galleries and the camps you organised in the tunnels and the city. Tarellian soldiers will take a good place in my Sur-Hawk Collection and there are one or two archways where Penitents and worshippers of the Emperor of Mankind can be placed. As you were sufficiently gracious to help against Iash'uddra, the forces under your command I was forced to neutralise will wake up in one tenth of a cycle and will have no recollections of these events.
If I might level a minor criticism, the big spiders you used to terrify the subjects are a bit too effective at their task. But this is a minor complaint anyway and your insects-manipulation skills have proven invaluable for this large undertaking. In light of your actions and the numerous exploits you will accomplish in the future, let me repay your gifts with one of my own. Accompanying this message is the Nebula's Shard, a unique sword I obtained at the height of the War in Heaven. It is a mere bauble for me, but I think you will find its capacities illuminating.
May it help you in your attempts to find interesting pieces for my collection!
Trazyn the Infinite Collector
This was not the strangest correspondence Lankovar had ever read – the bureaucrats of the Administratum had a mysterious skill to beat everyone in that domain – but it certainly figured in good place.
There were gasps around him and a quick redirection of his attention informed him Taylor Hebert had drawn the sword. The effect, one had to admit, was unusual. The grip and the guard were in gold or a metal of similar colour. The pommel was decorated with a large bluestone, and while Desmerius had never been an expert in the jewel customs of the Imperium upper classes, this jewel's value was certainly not cheap. The rest of the blade was even more impressive. It didn't look to be made of metal at all, but in crystal. From the point to the blade, the weapon was transparent and deadly; even with his advanced optical sensors, the edge of the sword was so sharp it was blurry.
"Two Inquisitors for a blade like this isn't that bad a price, really," mumbled one of the female soldiers next to him.
Internally, the Magos scoffed. If the archeotech was as old and unique as the message implied, this sword could very well be worth an entire Sector Capital by itself. And if the 'capacities' were valuable, the price would increase in consequence. Truly he had to convince Major Taylor Hebert to let him examine the sword. How could he convince her...for security purposes? Yes, that would do it nicely.
"Well," said someone in the penumbra. "How in the name of the God-Emperor do we explain this?"
Vice-Admiral Vortigern von Drenthe the Eighth
Just to be clear, Vortigern hadn't liked the former Governor of Wuhan. Chen Cao may have held the title of Marshal in the Planetary Defence Force a few decades ago and fancied himself a professional soldier, but this had been one of the many delusions the noble ruling in His Most Holy Majesty's name had enjoyed. Like the majority of his subordinates, Governor Chen's military experience had consisted in breaking the backs of some of the most audacious gangers reigning in the lower levels of Hive Chao-Lai and the man himself had never come close a battlefield in person. But he had been willing to let the myriad of courtiers and advisors do the real job of ruling while he took all the credit. Moreover, his genial appearance of a well-muscled man of one meter and seventy-six centimetres had done marvels for the public-address plates and the rest of the propaganda services.
No one on the other hand was going to mistake Hongfeng Cao for an officer or a soldier of the PDF or the Guard. His height and his corpulence made sure of this. Despite his fanciful ballroom shoes, the new Governor was less than one metre and fifty centimetres tall. In itself, it was not a damning indication. There were plenty of humans and abhumans of small size, serving the God-Emperor in whatever manner was available to them. The problem was Hongfeng Cao was fat. The little bugger had to weigh at least eighty kilos and his golden suit coat – a very expensive set – was useless to hide the obesity problem. Still, he could have coped with it. In all his years of service in the Navy, slim Governors were definitely a rarity.
What he couldn't deal with was Hongfeng Cao venomous behaviour. When he was enraged, the noble dwarf had really little patience, wanting to decide everything on his own and insulting the subordinates who didn't comply fast enough.
"The wait-and-see attitude of my PDF officers in this affair was utterly scandalous!" roared the loud-mouthed Governor. "Twenty million men and not a single one had the courage to protect my planet?"
To signify his huge displeasure, the new Governor was not shy on grand gestures. Hongfeng was standing on his chair and watching the Lord-Magnates assembled in front of him like a killer examines his next victims. A sort of golden carafe which had minutes ago been used for the lunch beverage was thrown against the wall where it shattered.
The Lord-Magnates and the dozens of senior figures listening to refused to answer. They obviously didn't like the vociferous gnome, but answering back was a sure way to lose fortunes and titles. Besides, novices in politics or not, each sentence was more and more looking like a bait.
"We were under Inquisitorial orders." The calm voice of the ageing General-Marshal Shu Han intervened. Under the luminous decorations of the large meeting room they were occupying, his skin was looking pale and sickly. As the commander of the PDF was obviously rich to warrant rejuvenation treatments, he was not looking like he was one hundred and fifty years old but his health was not extraordinary either. "We had conflicting commands. The situation was so confused it was impossible to intervene."
The glare the white-haired old man received from his civilian superior was a firm invitation to put his excuses in a place where the sun of Wuhan would never shine.
"We were under orders you believed to be inquisitorial in nature," amended Hongfeng with an evil smile and enlarging his chest like he deserved a military award. Like thousands of men and women, the man who had succeeded Chen Cao had been unsurprisingly quick to vocalise his doubts once the Fay 20th vox-operators had confirmed the horrible deaths of Steadham and Stradivarik. Whether they had been exploded by the very things they were searching or in a furious cross-fire with the Imperial Guard was not an issue worth debating. The two men had caused tens of thousands deaths, many of them belonging to the nobility. Culprits had to be designated and the two pretenders of the Ordos Nyx were not able to defend their actions. "In my opinion, the crimes and goals of these imposters speak for themselves. Whoever they were, their deeds are not those of servants of the God-Emperor!"
Many signs of the Aquila were made, including one by the obese Governor himself. It was a hypocritical behaviour of course. Hongfeng Cao had gained his current position by eliminating directly the opposition. This was not exactly the conduct of a pious servant of His Most Holy Majesty.
"I think it is time you take your long-delayed retirement, General-Marshal." The tone employed was not one of suggestion.
"In your dreams," replied the elderly officer with a low growl indicating he would have spit on the carpet if not for his respect of the traditional Wuhanese customs. "The Wuhan PDF doors may be closed to me, but the Frateris Templars' are not! Thanks to Pontifex Jasonius, I will have the position I deserve!"
"Your Gathalamorian friends and the xenos were unable to slow down two Guard regiments..." snickered Lord-Magnate Fulei Zhou, ruler of Hive Zhou and a man who had many connections in two other Sectors of the Ultima Segmentum. "But if you believe they deserve you..."
Nobles and officers alike chuckled at this good word and the visage of General-Marshal Shu Hen reddened in humiliation and hate. Making his green cape twirl over his light blue uniform and the bronze insignia of his retired rank, the white-haired man left the room, followed by some of his junior aides and some Ecclesiarchy non-entities.
"Good, I will not have him in my feet anymore," said Hongfeng Cao, a strange affirmation since Shu Hen had to be forty centimetres taller than him minimum. "Now let's speak of the economic situation. There are going to be...adjustments."
On his seat, Lord-Magnate Wu Asao blanched in fear. As his House had been nearly wiped out and his Hive was in severe need of reparations, the 'adjustments' were certainly going to be dolorous and costly in influence.
"Let's begin with the shares of the Hubei Cartel. House Asao owned twenty-six percent of its shares before the incident..."
Beyond the Light of the Astronomican
Eastern Fringe
Solemnace World Engine
Somatek the Patient
When his Overlord and Master had returned a hundredth of a cycle ago, well before all his astrogation predictions, Somatek had known the boredom of the last centuries was about to end. The Infinite Collector, also known as the Honourless Thief by the majority of the dynasties of the Necron, rarely abandoned his 'collection quests' across the entire galaxy for no reason. In general, said reasons varied from capturing something that had to be brought back to Solemnace at faster-than-light speed to one of the current powers dominating this galaxy having found out about his activities and organising a Necron-hunt. Now that he reviewed in his vast memories-banks the last occasions this had happened, the two were not mutually exclusive.
Crypteks and other Necrons had long abandoned their mortal emotions in the cursed process of biotransference. Yet each time the Chief Archaeovist of the Solemnace Galleries came back aboard the Sublime Collection – a massive battleship borrowed to a dynasty long lost in the War in Heaven – Somatek and the rest of the Solemnace court were feeling something between excitation and fear. It was impossible to deny Overlord Trazyn had a peerless skill to find and acquire extremely valuable artefact and specimens. It was also evident that each campaign of exploration added a few thousand alien enemy factions to the endless hyperscroll records of Solemnace. While the minority raged, lived and died without having the slightest clue where to find the World Engine, certain opponents were more problematic. Twelve thousand years ago, one of the travels in the Webway had led to a terrible carnage between the Aeldari decadent empire and the forces of the Infinite Collector. The final result had been a star and its neighbouring planets blown up. Just because Overlord Trazyn had wanted the possessions of an Aeldari Princess for his personal collection.
A rapid series of queries to Nodal Command informed him his superior was moving towards the Vaults of Akharz-Tovekh. The rest of the warriors from the Sublime Collection could be safely dismissed, as they all were located in the levels where humans and low-level reptiles were kept.
This revelation of course didn't reassure him at all. The Vaults of Akharz-Tovekh were some of the most secure gallery in Solemnace...and the collections in the first place were not renowned for being defenceless and easy to escape. Every system of defence the Necrons had invented at one point or another before the Long Sleep had been built there.
A tenth of cycle later he had the full answer. And Somatek didn't like it.
"Was it really necessary to bring another Tesseract Vault here, Chief Archaeovist?"
Somatek didn't even need a sensor sweep to know the prison had a C'Tan shard in it. The connectors were shining in their usual bright green light and there were sign of many energy primordial assaults against the outer structure.
"Iash'uddra," was the curt answer of the Infinite Collector.
The Endless Swarm. Despite being an entity of living-metal and engrams, the Chief Cryptek shivered. There were beings that could not be allowed to be unleashed on this galaxy once again.
"I thought the decrees of the Silent King had demanded the Urthek Dynasty would be the sworn custodians of these shards."
"I did too," grumbled the Lord of the Great Library. "But the Horth Dynasty was never that fond of our great Silent King in the beginning. Worse, I suspect their Cryptek may have conspired with the C'Tan in the first place."
These were horrid news. The capture of the C'Tan had seen great purges of the Necron Royal and Cryptek Circles when the Star Gods broke millions of obedience protocols and entire legions decided to continue the war on the C'Tan's side.
Moreover, Iash'uddra was one of the more dangerous C'Tan around. The Endless Swarm was less powerful than the Nightbringer. It lacked the machine-command power of the Void Dragon. It had not the fire powers of the Burning One. But in a matter of minutes, it was able to command tens of billions of self-repair insects, mind-control nano-machines and other millions of auxiliaries. Tomb-Worlds could offer no resistance as their own systems were disabled or returned against them. Iash'uddra was literally without number and incredibly vicious. There were Star Gods weakening if they were not able to absorb the energy of stars or moral souls during a long fight. Not the Endless Swarm, which became more powerful as it increased the numbers of its mechanic servants.
According to the rumours, it had eaten the soul of the Silent King. But this was unverifiable and of little importance in the end.
"How were you able to transfer it safely to the Tesseract Vault?"
"I had a bit of help," admitted the Overlord, giving him a data-crystal. Somatek activated it. The sound and the image were not the best, but they revealed enough. Humans and Necrons battled against the C'Tan shard for a short amount of time. Completely astounding, one of these humans had fought their former master to a standstill for several waves. It was pleasant to see Iash'uddra be on the receiving side of the swarm tactics for once. When the image dissipated, the Cryptek could safely harbour a large smile on his green-golden mask.
"The human disagreed with your methods, Overlord." It had been a long time the Infinite Collector had not been told 'no' and forced to accept it. Of course, Trazyn was clearly going to 'visit' other Tomb-Worlds to compensate his losses during this incident. "You realise this is the second confirmed victory of a human against a C'Tan?"
Granted, it was a shard this time but this was incredible for a young species.
"Oh, yes." The Chief Archaeovist taped a series of combinations and the Tesseract Vault was frozen in a series of foam-star, stasis-manipulation fields, temporal field-breakers and a dozen other measures halting the laws of physics as lesser species understood them. "I realise it very well. I will keep an eye on Taylor 'Hebert' Weaver. Call it intuition, but I have a feeling she may be even more interesting than my old friend of the Anatolian Mountains."
Somatek chose to leave his superior to his delusions. Stealing unique pieces of technology from someone did not make this being a friend. And given the abominations of the non-material realms feared this human, the Chief Cryptek had been a finger away from emigrating to another galaxy when he had seen the revenge fleets mustered by the furious human.
"How?"
"I gave her the Nebula's Shard."
Yes, it would not be a problem to trace the weapon's location and its owner. There was still a problem rising up in his mind, however. The same why no Necron in his right mind on Solemnace wanted to use this weapon.
"Did you inform this Weaver to not use this weapon against the Aeldari?"
By the way, Trazyn the Infinite's hand tightened around the Empathic Obliterator, the reply was certainly not going to be positive.
"I hope for you this swarm-controller is resourceful..."
Beyond Reality
Somewhere in the Warp
The Immaterium was sometimes called the Great Ocean by the psychic races of the Milky Way. I was an imperfect analogy, but then given the very nature of the Warp, billions had used it constantly before humankind learnt how to make fire.
But if the Empyrean was like a fast flowing stream of energy, with its currents and undertows, the surface of this ocean was the separation between Materium and the Sea of Chaos. The motionless banks around this ocean belonged to real-space. As long as you stayed close to them, the dangers were minimal – by the standard of Warp Travel. But the deepest you went in the abyss, the risks went up at a skyrocketing rate. Every sea had its predators, and those of the Sea of Souls were voracious indeed. Super-predators of Death Worlds were kittens compared to the abominations the Ether was able to conjure.
This dimension had not always been hellish like this. Aeons before, it had been in a state of equilibrium with the Old Ones standing watch over the young races. But the guardians-creators of the Great Ocean had been forced to break their own rules in order to win the war against the C'Tan. At the time, it had been believed the end justified the means – there would be no future if the cruel masters of the Necron race won the War in Heaven. After the destruction of these soul-devourers, the wise defenders of both dimensions would recover and solve all the problems.
But the Old Ones didn't win. And for millions of years, the direct consequence of this defeat was the continued existence of abominations reigning over the Sea of Souls. Below the surface, in places so distant and complex no warship or psyker dared visiting them, were unspeakable entities no reasonable being wanted to attract the attention of.
The one stretching its tendrils was perhaps not the most dangerous, but its very nature had extinguished uncountable civilisations in real-space. It was a horror. Taller than a million skyscrapers, its very appearance was changing second by second, mutating and generating body parts going from the ridiculous to the lethal. At the moment it had nine gigantic heads. It was quite practical, one had to admit, to shout insults, recriminations and complaints at incompetent subordinates in ninety-nine million forgotten languages.
"You were supposed to save the galaxy and prepare the greater victory of Change!"
"Everything is proceeding according to the plan!"
"What were you thinking, placing the Insect Administrator near a C'Tan?"
"The Orks advances in the Nyx Sector have been completely halted!"
"The destinies of many servants, allies and enemies are no more..."
"You hastened the galaxy's destruction!"
"The Queen of Escalation has begun her ascension..."
"Let the Galaxy Change!"
The blazes of lightning thundering over the impossible citadels rising and falling every heartbeat were eye-catching. But for the two bird-headed conglomerates of sorcery and change, the spectacle was not their prime preoccupation. It was not their second, their third or fourth for that matter. Dukes of Change they may be, but they knew their master would not hesitate a micro-second before throwing them into the Well of Eternity if it advanced his myriad of plans. It happened to Kairos Fateweaver, and they were far more expendable than the Vizir.
"But there is still my hope, my Master!" protested one of the two demons, elongating his gold wings. "Weaver lives and so are the other parahumans we brought from across the dimensions!"
"Besides the chaos she is creating in the future threads is inspiring us to greater schemes!" added helpfully the second. "And the other Three have no idea how our plans are going to affect them!"
"There are many pawns still in place," begged the first hybrid of kraken, bird and various abominable combinations as the Empyrean itself seemed to freeze. Where before they had been overlooking a black fortress being dismantled and rebuilt without any logic, they were now surrounded by an ice spectacle of labyrinths and stalactites. "And we have the opportunity to weaken our rivals! Hope and Chaos, Great Changer!"
The nine heads fell silent and fixed the beings which were servants, interlocutors, agents, enemies, followers of his will. Millions of tentacles and feathers clacked in the Realm of Chaos, generating tempests of raw energy, destroying weak souls by the trillions and changing the course of hundreds of thousands Warp-using starships. Finally, the voices spoke the same message.
"The Weaver Option will continue."