"Scheisse," I heard Alberich quietly mutter next to me as we saw Null collapse. No one said anything for a few moments, and the situation became even more perilous when the flashing red light appeared once again. 77-X stood motionless, still carrying the heavy battery, which we definitely needed. At least he hadn't dropped it. The beastman started shaking his head in stunned disbelief. "What happened? What was that voice? What do we do now?"
"I don't know," I replied. "I don't-"
"Perimeter breach, Zeta level. Locking down Hunter's Repose," the mechanical female voice sounded through the bunker. I heard the sounds of doors slamming, and the buzzing of electricity. All doors in the hallway slammed closed. That sounded really bad. Alberich had reached out with Valkyrie and began to cautiously prod at the red-robed pile of metal when Lian appeared around the corner, and began stomping toward us. We could spy that he now had what appeared to be a large sword slung across his back. It was wrapped in a pale gauzy fabric.
"What has happened here? Did you come here with anyone else?" he asked us, his voice raised and tense.
"I don't know. H-he just fell over," I said to Lian as Alberich withdrew his glaive. Surprising all of us, I watched as Null attempted to stand. Sparks were jumping from his metal, and his eyes were dim.
"What did you do down there, tech-priest!?" Lian boomed at us as Null collapsed again.
"We have to get out. We have to g-" Null buzzed miserably, as the crimson light lit his exposed metal, causing it to reflect in a terrifying way across the hallway.
Wait a moment, had he always been that reflective? I backed away from the tech-priest as I saw Lian reach for his boot dagger again.
Before any violence could occur, the tech-priest quickly bolted upright and turned around, fleeing down the hallway, passing us both. 77-X stood motionless, and did not follow.
"Null has gone mad!" Alberich cried out as Lian raced past us to pursue him. Preceding any other action that any of us could take, barriers of humming energy abruptly frizzled into existence, cutting the hallway into three sections, effectively imprisoning us. Alberich and I stood frightened in one area with 77-X, while the Fallen slammed against another energy barrier that prevented him from reaching Null, trapping him in a separate space. He bounced off the barrier and fell to the floor. It would've been comical if the situation had not been so dangerous. The malfunctioning tech-priest was imprisoned in a third area near the opposite end of the hallway.
"Technological interference det-" the female voice said before cutting off with a scrambled crackle. Well, looks like we're screwed, and Glinda wasn't nearby to save me this time, and I wasn't going to start actually praying to Tzeentch for help.
From where Null was imprisoned, I watched as the tech-priest turned around to regard us through the transparent barriers, his eyes blazing a featureless lime green. In an unnatural shrieking voice, he boomed, "Rotten pirates! I have captured you, and now you will pay for your crimes! Did you think I would not notice your invasion into my planet, stealing from me again? And now, building a nest of filthy stinking animals atop my home? The utter audacity of it all! I know who you animals work for! Did you think that I wouldn't notice his fingers in this plot?"
The voice stopped, and Null had frozen again. Lian hastily straightened himself up from slamming into the energy barrier at a run, and was now touching the energy barrier with his gauntleted fingers, desperately trying to find a way out. Null shuddered, his mechadendrites madly moving in the air for a few moments. Once again, he was calm. When the tech-priest spoke again, it was with a different voice, but the same green eyes blazed at us from down the hall. "How terribly gauche. The lord of Nome never was known for his decorum, despite his wealth. One moment please, bit of a problem downstairs. Don't go anywhere, and don't move." Did I just hear a giggle at the end of that sentence?
What was going on, I thought in confused terror. Alberich now had his glaive pointed at 77-X, who had not moved since Null's loss of sanity. If the combat servitor went machine crazy, we were stuck in here with him. While repeatedly using greater psyker abilities drained me and caused pain, I had no idea what was going on; I needed to understand what had happened here.
I took a deep breath, and pulled from my guttering energy reserves. This was going to hurt later.
All over the world, millions of beings were slowly waking up, but two beings were engaged in a heated argument directly below. One lord (who had actually been interrupted from a century long nap) was accusing the other of roguery, and the other was trying to calm him down. There was an impression that one of them thought that mercenaries had been hired by the other for the purpose of theft, and they both argued inside the mind of one of the individuals who was physically here, alone. Many insults were expressed between the two, each swearing that the other was acting in an irrational manner. While their language was unfamiliar, the topics of their arguments were clear, somehow translated and parsable. "You hired them! That is why you suddenly contact me! Once again, you wish to plunder the riches of Nome. I cannot believe this! You hired dirty animals to steal from me again! How else would they know precisely where to go? You are not allowed here, and neither are your proxies! My world now finally wakes, so I will fix this myself. The counsel will hear of your impropriety, Trazyn! I swear on this!"
I gasped as my surprise jogged me out of my psychic viewing.
Trazyn?
As I became fully aware again, a crackle of green lightning danced across the ceiling of the hallway, and I retched in nausea as a piercing headache struck me. Behind us, I heard a strange metallic chittering echoing off the metal hallways. I feebly turned around, and saw something terrible. At the far end of the hall opposite the tech-priest and the imprisoned marine, I saw a thin, skeletally tall humanoid with burning green eyes materialize from nowhere, as if pulling itself out of a pocket of reality. The blinking red lights of the perimeter alarm reflecting off metal its limbs only served to make this scene more terrifying, and I was able to definitely confirm what this creature was.
What is it? Alberich asked me in mind, his psychic words quaking in fear as he also turned around, holding Valkyrie out in front of him in a defensive manner.
"That... would be a Necron," I whispered in a stifled voice to Alberich. The two of us stepped backward, our retreat cut off by the energy barrier behind us.
The Necron moved with sinuous, clinical grace as it regarded us as we stood helplessly trapped. The red light of the perimeter alarm reflected off its elaborate metal body, segmented like some kind of unholy marriage between a skeleton and a crustacean. Its movements were unnaturally smooth, almost like a dancer's, which was something I had not expected to see in a Necron. It held a thin staff in one hand, which it leaned on as it studied us. In some way, this creature was scarier than the daemons we had fought before. I could laugh at what daemons looked like, since they were mostly absurd, but this set off a different sort of instinctual fear in me. The thing began to slink forward as the beastman and I both watched powerlessly. I could hear it growling in anger, making a sound like a wolf made out of metal and hate.
This particular Necron appeared special, and was wearing a sharply elaborate elaborate black headdress reminiscent of a king's crown inlaid with what appeared to be luminous gems. He was bedizened with many fine jewels, most of which were shining emeralds. Various charms and trinkets were fastened to a metal belt around its hip, marking it as some kind of higher status individual. From the shape of his shoulders and head, this one appeared to be a male, and his torso was "unclothed" (although I didn't really think Necrons were naked without clothes) and as he walked to us, I could see his articulated plates of necrodermis, moving with him like a perfectly oiled machine with a dangerous elegance that rivaled a tiger. On his back, he wore a thin cape that fell to behind his knees crafted from a mysterious plated metal. In his hand, his thin staff was topped with a glowing emerald orb the same color as his eyes.
When the Necron approached the barrier ahead of us, he impossibly reached into his own chest, and pulled a strange weapon that resembled some kind of futuristic pistol right out of his body as if it were liquid. At least there was a barrier here, preventing him from directly reaching us, I thought, my back against the energy shield. I felt a hot trickle of blood begin to fall from my ears, reminding me that I had overtaxed my strength. I hoped that doing all this wouldn't cause me to have a stroke.
Despite his fear, Alberich bravely readied his weapon, and I saw his hackles rise as he braced for a fight. His head feathers were nearly completely on end, making him look almost as if he had a colorful mohawk.
The Necron stopped just before the humming barrier of energy that had trapped us. "The impudence! The utter brazenness of this action! You seek to take that which does not belong to you!" he admonished in an accented synthetic voice that was deep and resonant. He raised his hand, and with an easy gesture, Alberichs's weapon was torn from his grasp, sticking to the wall as if heavily magnetized with a clang. Beneath my shirt, I felt the Key react to whatever had effected the Tzaangor's weapon, but it remained on my chest. We couldn't even react as the metal creature then reached to touch the barrier with his finger, and the energy wall vanished before him. The Necron hissed "Thieves! Plunderers! Reprobates! I'll show you personally what happens to those who disrespect my repository of wealth, and I'll send your remains back to your employer as a reminder!" Readying his pistol (or blaster, I had no idea what Necron weapons were called), he proceeded to take two quick steps toward us before he seized, only a pace away, and began to twitch. The beastman and I didn't move, and incredibly, the Necron then stepped jerkily back away from Alberich and I, and the barrier reformed.
What the hell was going on? Behind me I heard a scoffing noise from Null, who began speaking again, but not with his familiar voice.
"There he goes again. Just look at him! He's being so terribly difficult today. Hasn't changed in millions of years, the bothersome old curmudgeon. He forgets that I was the one that helped him when he woke early, and this is how he repays me, by losing his temper immediately when he has guests that I say that I want to meet. He should be thanking you for finally waking the rest of this planet, not having a screaming fit. What a fool."
We were treated to a bizarre sight as the metal skeleton began to convulse and bend. The reflective metal that made up its armature was shifting, changing into something else, and as we watched, the figure grew taller, bent. His torso became thicker, and more substantial, pulling mass from nowhere. His crown began reforming into a cowl, metal swirling like water, his body rearranging itself as if in the hands of a giant sculptor. "Give me a moment please, I'm making myself more comfortable. Pardon the slight delay; currently I am on the other side of the galaxy, so I have to make a double. And fear not, I'm not going to kill you, and you can have your rambunctious little tech-priest back as well!" Null said behind us. I turned around just in time to see the tech-priest collapse into a red-robed metal pile again.
"Ah, that should do it. Just a bit longer," the transfiguring Necron said to us as he molded and reformed, metal limbs curving and shifting into new places as he towered over us, his head nearly touching the ceiling. The thin cape became a long articulated cloak held on his shoulders with two metal fasteners, and his ribcage became broad and brassy. On his chest, the familiar coffin-shaped motif of the Necrons centered itself on his sternum. When it was all finished, the Necron opened his eyes once again, and I saw a smile pull his metal face into an amused expression.
"One of you pilots the resurrected Divine Intervention, I presume? Another Plane Walker has found their way into our fair universe?" he casually asked. "No use in lying. She was spied blazing through the region in the east by some of my eyes, near where she was last seen thousands of your years ago. How coincidental that a new rift has broken open in that region. I've been waiting a long time to see her again, and to find it under such strange circumstances. And now, you all appear. Curious!"
He had apparently expected us to respond, and he shrugged when we remained silent. "Shy are we? Maybe this is your first time seeing something like me? I do so apologize on behalf of Roquat, the Nome King. He has a rather short temper. I assure you that toward worthy subjects, my kind has manners. Which one of you is the Plane Walker, and what is your name? I'm assuming it is the female with the golden eyes. Oh, and let me remove this. The mutant won't think of killing me now." The energy barrier direct ahead of us fell, and with it, so did Alberich's glaive, who did not move to retrieve it, strangely. The energy barriers behind me still stood, and I got a mental image of Lian staring angrily our way behind me. I stood properly face to face with the Necron. Well, more like he stared down at me from his height.
"My name is Erika," I managed to squeak out. The Necron nodded with a small smile, and then, proceeded to bow dramatically, arms out and head bowed. I noticed that while the rest of him had changed, the Nome King's staff was still unaltered in his hands.
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Erika. Such a rare honor it is to meet a living soul of your kind, Plane Walker. Please allow me to introduce myself; perhaps you have already heard of me? My name is Trazyn, famed Archaeovist of Solemnace, and collector of rare antiquities and things historical. I stand now both here, and far from here, as my primary physical body is attending to urgent needs elsewhere. Roquat, the self-proclaimed king of Nome, is graciously letting me borrow his body as he sits in his time out box. With his help, I've been keeping watch on this backwater area for some time, awaiting when the Divine Intervention might fly again."
"Trazyn?" I said, gaping at the confirmation of the famous 40k personality towering before me. This was sort of like meeting Roboute Guilliman, and I was caught between fangirling and terror. He nodded, still smiling. I now wished I had paid more attention to Necron lore instead of exclusively being a Chaos player. All I knew is that this guy enjoyed collecting artifacts, people, and even planets like a gigantic magpie with a nest the size of a system. He was also very sneaky. At the very least, he was being an extremely gracious gentleman here. The name Roquat sounded vaguely familiar, as did his title of the Nome King but I couldn't immediately place it.
Behind me, I heard a familiar groan escape from Null. "You need not worry about him. From what I have observed of his own self-committed craftsmanship, I respect him, so I do not want to hurt him. But, I have stripped all traces of the necrodermis from his form. Using our materials to modify his formerly human body isn't safe, as I'm sure he knows by now. He is more than enough of a tinned man to survive. May this be a lesson to you! No more getting into trouble, you little rascal!" Trazyn playfully scolded Null as if he was a naughty child, even waving a patronizing finger down at him across the hall. The Necron lord then turned to the marine behind me, who wore a mask of cold anger as he pushed against the energy barrier separating us. "This one here, he seems quite upset. A Fallen Dark Angel too. Quite a rarity in the galaxy; they mostly stay hidden. Why do you travel with him if he is so insubordinate? He has the look of a cowardly lion."
"I do not respect the words of an enemy of mankind, xenos. Take your games elsewhere," Lian barked back at Trazyn.
I almost nervously laughed before responding after hearing Lian referred to as a cowardly lion. "Uh, we just met him. This is his bunker. He's not really with us. We met him yesterday when fighting a monster outside," I informed Trazyn, who nodded. The Necron lord then began to observe Alberich, who stood frozen with his glaive laying at his feet. The Tzaangor had neither moved nor spoken since his weapon had been torn from his hands.
"And this one? He is a mutant, I see. An interesting variation on the classic beastman body type. This one has eyes that show intelligence, one who seeks knowledge and brains instead of war and blood. I detected his understandable hostility, and I am amused at his plumage. Like a scared crow, he fluffs his feathers up when in crisis. He is your personal bodyguard, I am presuming, acting on orders to protect you. In order to respect the safety of all, I thought it prudent to utilize mindshackle scarabs on him. Mutants, in my experience, will tend toward acting with instinct in situations they perceive to be dangerous. I do hope you can respect my judgement call on this," the Necron said, watching in amusement as Alberich's eyes widened, but made no move. In this short time, the beastman had been subjected to mindshackle scarabs, completely neutralizing him as a threat.
"Ah, and here is a strong slave to carry plunder. For your information, this acquisition here has both stirred the Nome King from his nap, and triggered a wakening sequence on this world, so, in a way, you did him a favor," Trazyn remarked as he observed 77-X, who remained motionlessly standing in the hall, carrying his pack. The Necron did not seem upset in the least, and examined the servitor, studying both it and the heavy pack he carried. After a short time, Trazyn dryly chuckled. "I see you have taken an energy crystal from one of our spacefaring crafts. I now understand my cousin's extreme reaction. This is actually the second time that one particular vessel as been plundered from. The last time was thousands of years ago, but we have long memories, our kind. The Nome King has been awake and mostly alone for many long years. I happened to be in the area long ago, and aided him when he first woke, all by himself without any company."
"You two know each other?" I asked, and Trazyn responded with a nod.
"I tried to help him, and gave him a purpose to wait out the years before his world woke. He collects valuable technology, artifacts, and has an eye for fine jewels, but he has also grown somewhat unstable over the years. Since he is often either away or napping, this wealthy world and its hoard has become a target for theft. He has now become obsessed with finding those who keep plundering his Tomb of valuables before his subjects can properly wake. Because of this, his temper, you see, it still burns hot, even if he remains cold. Your intrusion was not was not the first by far. I myself had to, well, 'relinquish' a few necessary things from his apoplectic self over the years, so I understand your want to borrow from him specifically. He's honestly half-mad by now, chasing ghosts and madness. He probably couldn't be entrusted with a toy monolith at this point, if I may be so bold in saying that."
"What are you going to do to us?" I asked Trazyn. It dawned on me that while I was probably not going to be killed, that I might actually be collected instead. It was evident that he knew what Travelers were, and had even seen the our ship under a different name before. The situation felt as if our value was being determined, now that I thought about it. It was as if we were being appraised as rare ornaments as he spoke to us, ascertaining our value from our words and history.
"Well, that's up to you, now isn't it?" he answered with a tap of the staff he held. "I've been waiting a very long time for any whisper of a clue as to the location of the Divine Intervention. Over ten thousand years ago, the glorious bird simply flew away from the public eye, never to be seen again. She is a vessel of great beauty and power, integral to greater history of the galaxy. Nearly everyone has forgotten about her, but I certainly haven't!"
"Do you mean the Divine Retribution?" I asked. I really couldn't do anything here other than keep Trazyn talking and hope a solution presented itself somehow. We were ridiculously out of our depth here, and I was too drained from my earlier intimidation of the space marine to really fight back in any capacity. In the ten minutes since I had woken up, my psychic abilities had been pushed way over the limit, Alberich had been mindshackled, Null had been nullified, and Lian wanted someone to punish for ruining his bunker. "I don't know what the Divine Intervention is. Never heard of it," I offered.
Trazyn paused, and an expression of surprise crossed his nearly featureless metal face. "So, not only does it have a new master, but it has been renamed? This changes things." The Necron placed one of his hands near his chin in a contemplative expression, narrowing his green eyes at me.
This was probably not going well, I thought. Behind me, I heard Null begin to speak hoarsely. "Xenos, you shall not have the Divine Retribution."
"Hush now, young one," Trazyn said to Null without looking at him. "Mmm, well, maybe not right now, actually. One knows that wine is not yet drinkable right when it is bottled. Full maturity must caress its bouquet into a proper maturation and value. I would like to see your vessel at least. Is she near? I am ever so looking forward to seeing her once again!" The Necron lord beamed in anticipation.
This whole scenario was really setting me off balance. Aside from the last ten minutes being very chaotic, I had whiplash from the events of the last 24 hours. I had gone from that Screamer monster trying to kill me, to defending myself against Lian, to almost being killed by an angry Necron lord, and finally now, to... having a polite conversation with well known Necron celebrity, Trazyn the Infinite. And last week, I was sitting in my rathole apartment in Newark, New Jersey getting ready for my art show and bitching on the internet that people weren't reading my fanfiction.
"You're not going to kill or collect us?" I asked Trazyn.
Trazyn grinned in puckish amusement when I asked that. "I see my reputation precedes me, but I have no interest in plucking a flower before it comes to bloom," he replied cryptically, still smiling. "I swear this on my honor, dear lady. I could have killed or taken you a thousand times over in the time of three of your frightened heartbeats. For now, my wish is to simply see the legendary ship with her new captain before she causes galactic upheaval. As long as you do not try to hurt me, I will bring you no harm." With a wave of his hand, all the energy barriers fell, and I toppled over backward.
As I stumbled backward, I heard Lian immediately yell behind me, "Foul xenos! You cannot-"
There was a bright flash, and a popping sound, and as I pulled myself up from falling, I realized that the marine was nowhere to be found. In Trazyn's hands, he now held a small metal cube. He tossed it once into the air before placing it inside his chest. "So stubborn, these astartes. He is a Fallen Dark Angel, correct?"
I quietly nodded, realizing what had happened. In that instant, before Lian could even move a step, Trazyn had reacted so quickly that I hadn't even registered a movement. Within a single second, the Fallen had been sealed inside some sort of artifact like a pokemon. He had been collected. "Mmm, pity he didn't have his helmet or the rest of his accessories. Do you know where I could find his possessions? Before you get upset at me, not only was he hostile, you never said he was a part of your crew, only that you had just met him. I am also allowing you to leave with a piece of the Nome King's mismanaged technology, so I believe I am being more than fair. So then, shall we be off? How far away is your vessel?"
As Trazyn eagerly steepled his metal fingers while waiting for my response, I turned to see Null hobbling to us. While he oozed mercurial exuberance 99% of the time I saw him, Null felt like an old battered machine now. With a clatter, I even saw one of his mechadendrites disconnect from his body, and fall to the floor with a smash. He hardly noticed it. "The requests are acceptable to me, Scion," he said. The tech-priests eyes were a dim purple-grey, as if he was low in power. "It is a far walk, but I can manage it, provided we have no more trouble with beasts outside. As long as we have the battery, I am satisfied."
"Wait, you're okay with all of this?" I asked incredulously. Null had been nonstop complaining about Alberich being a mutant since I had met him. He was not known for his tolerant nature. Speaking of the Tzaangor, he had not moved a muscle since Trazyn had begun talking, probably artificially compelled to stay still.
"I don't think we have a choice," Null answered. "If we don't get this battery, then we are marooned on this planet. We have no options."
"Being stuck all the way out here atop my mad cousin's Tomb as he slowly loses what little sanity he has remaining while his world wakes does not sound like a desirable outcome for you, Plane Walker," Trazyn offered helpfully. "My humble wish is to see the great bird up close once again. My interest is purely academic. As long as you do not move to harm me, I will not make a movement to harm you, or to disrupt your plans. I again swear this on my honor."
Another of Null's mechadendrites fell to the floor. The tech-priest looked absolutely miserable when he responded to Trazyn's earlier inquiry. "The Fallen left a power sword and a boltgun in the water outside of this bunker. I also have reason to believe he may have activated a self-destruct sequence since the secrecy of this bunker has been compromised, and to not let it fall into the hands of anyone else."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. What other information was Null just going to vomit up to a Necron he just met? Did his brain get fried earlier?
"Ah, well, that is to be expected. Secrets do need to be kept," the Necron lord said. He paused, perfectly still for a moment. "The mechanism is a thermonuclear bomb that will consume this entire area within three of your hours. I'm going to disable that so the waking ones directly below don't have an explosive surprise later."
"So, you really just want to see the Divine Retribution?" I asked, still confused by Trazyn's bizarre behavior. "And you just want to come with us?" My head hurt from all of this.
"Not come with you, no. I simply wish to gaze upon your vessel's magnificence, dear lady Plane Walker. And I wish to ask you a few questions about where you came from, if you would humor this humble seeker of knowledge. But, if you like, I can relinquish this body back to Roquat once again if you do not wish to be in my presence, but I doubt the Nome King would be particularly accommodating to you. Your choice."
We really didn't have a choice here, I thought. Shaking my head, I reluctantly said, "Fine, let's go." I had sincerely thought that the big problem here would be us running away from evil skeleton robots that Null would find a way to accidentally wake up, not meeting a very genial Trazyn the Infinite who held a very keen suspicious interest in Travelers and the Divine Retribution.
"Then it is settled," Trazyn said, hollow cheer evident in his synthetic voice. "Let us be off then, little creatures! Ah, what an exciting day! Not only do I have many new additions to my galleries, but the physical universe did not cease to be! And now, the great golden bird flies again for the first time in aeons! Why, if I was still enfleshed and properly souled, I'm certain that I would be singing in happiness!"