Disclaimer: I don't own Worm or Warhammer 40K, they belong to their respective creators and/or copyright owners. I don't make any money from this story. It is written with no commercial aim in mind. It is not for sale or rent.

Emerald Dawn

Prologue: Digital Dreams

=ED=

Part 2: An irritated Necron Lord

Third month of the war

Nan Yanoi, "Sword Moon"

Kaurava System

Lithesh Sector

Ultima Segmentum

Green baleful eyes glared at the plain. A hundred thousand pairs of them.

I would have smiled if I could. This was what I existed for after my awakening. To follow the ancient directives hard codded in my now immortal body. To conquer the galaxy for the Necrons.

It was a very good thing that I could no longer feel fear. Because my very presence here would have terrified me. For I knew my fate. Endless war to reclaim what was never mine. If I was lucky. The alternatives were less pleasant. Getting my soul devoured by the remaining C'tan if they ever returned or ending it the Warp to be the plaything of daemons.

Fuck. My only chance laid through victory, which was why I led the Necron forces across Kaurava for the last three months to the best of my ability. It was why I was on this gods forsaken moon, participating in a clusterfuck of a battle.

I sent the signal and fifty thousand Necron warriors and Immortals opened fire. Gauss energies scythed over the plain, flaying the flesh and very souls of Tau, and Human alike. Upgraded Monoliths thundered from behind, providing artillery support. Each blast of their mighty weapons tore chunks of the moon surface and evaporated dozens of my opposition.

I waited until the two enemy forces got out of their initial shock and tried to retaliate. Then I ordered the Flayed Ones to phase in, which they did with aplomb and started tearing the mortals apart.

My forces marched onward, undeterred by the breaking enemy resistance. Good. This part of the battlefield was handled, for now. I returned my attention to the sensor feeds. Over the horizon, beyond effective range of my weapons, was the reason why we were on this moon. The Tau's irritating cannon, which they used to strike at the infrastructure of everyone in this conflict. That explained why every faction was assaulting the base of those uppity mortals.

In the plains below my elevated vantage point, the locals were clashing with element of three human armies. The regulars of the Imperial Guard made the bulk of the Imperials, augmented with a whole company of Space Marines and Sisters of Battle in power armor. Well they were, before we arrived and started cutting them to pieces.

Farther away, a horde of our old enemies was rampaging in the Tau's rear, wrecking and looting everything they could get their hands on. To the west, the twisted brethren of our other elder enemy had set up a camp and raiding everyone. Being an Eldar, no matter how twisted, they were near the top of my kill list.

Who said that immortal machines couldn't keep a grudge? Thanks to my memory banks, I now hated the elfs nearly as much as the rest of the Necrons.

To make everything more interesting, elements of the Alpha Legion were advancing from the east. Those servants of the Warp were as big a concern as the Eldar… Speaking of the pointy ear aggravations, even after driving them off my precious Tomb World, they were far from defeated. The Eldar were striking from hidden bases in the other inhabited worlds of the system, harassing my forces and driving the other enemies in other direction. It was frustrating. If it wasn't for their tricks, this system might have fallen by now.

No matter. We would end them all. It was inevitable.

The battle shifted. My close combat specialists finished the last Tau auxiliaries and phased out. They reappeared amidst the blue skins firing lanes. The additional Flayed ones were the final straw and the enemy broke. They tried to disengage and flee to better positions.

I wasn't going to allow them such a luxury. The destroyers advanced, skimming overhead. They opened fire with their heavy weapons and went in pursuit followed by a hundred thousand drones.

Warning. Warp disruption detected. Theta level and rising. More information scrolled over my HUD.

Fucking warp spawn. I directed a bunch of drones in that direction. A few survived long enough to give me a clear picture. A bunch of Sorcerers were performing some kind of ritual in the middle of the Alpha legion forces.

That was bad. The warp was our only anathema.

What went next was predictable. I left ten thousand warriors to continue harassing the enemies at the plain and marched the rest of my forces straight in the teeth of the Alpha Legion.

=ED=

Interlude: A bored god

Time: Nope

Place: Everywhere

The Warp

"Good!" A titanic green-skinned entity bellowed. Experiment 195513 was starting off great. There was yet a chance to win his eternal war with boredom. "Drink! Brin me a Drink! Goof on'!" He bellowed.

A former, rather successful warboss appeared next to him, holding a barrel that had a handle bolted to the side. The entity sniffed and a fanged smile appeared on its face. "Da goof staff?"

The warboss produced a small cup and sampled the brew. He grinned foolishly before melting, leaving only his tusks behind.

"Da good staff, ideeed!" The entity grabbed the barrel by its handle and took a long gulp of the bubbling liquid.

The Ork god leaned back in his throne and grinned at the tear in the Warp in front of him. It simultaneously showed a battle on the Sword Moon of Kaurava, one of the multi-dimensionall labyrinths containing a C'tan shard as well as the great corpse of a being that had "accidentally" taken the wrong turn and plowed straight in a planet.

A push here, a shove there, a bunch of stolen souls to stuck into two hundred thousand versions of a particular Necron Lord, a bit of time-looping and voila, he had his entertainment. It was time to see how the latest ummie would deal the curve balls he was going to throw him.

Ah, trolling the ummies and their Empror… That was a great pass time!

Besides, in the end, he might even get a new C'tan to fight! That might be a great scrap!

=ED=

Interlude: Contessa's last path

Cauldron's base

Eden's body

Location: &!#$$%!)$ #

Contessa rubbed the bridge of her nose and tried again. Her power chimed and the world exploded with possibilities. Then something twisted and she fell to her knees, panting. Contessa's eyes widened. Something fundamental had changed. The path had shifted.

There were only a handful steps to success.

Her power compelled her to act and she obeyed without thinking. After all, this was what she wanted. A victory at last.

"Door." Contessa muttered. A portal opened and she was deep withing Eden's body. A place that wasn't mapped, yet she knew it. Her power lead her forward, telling her what needed to be done.

It took her a few hours of cutting her way through thin translucent membranes before she reached her destination. It was a small, strange room, which pulsed with life unlike the rest of the corpse. There was a pedestal in the middle, which was surrounded by a rippling field.

Something hovered inside.

This was it. The shard that was going to win them the war.

Contessa smiled and acted. She disregarded how her hands burned as she dismantled the system that kept the shard contained. An insane smile appeared on the face.

"Door to Earth Bet!" Contessa announced gleefully, while staring in the black piece of crystal.

She grabbed the shard and screamed as her very flesh started unraveling and floating into the crystalline structure. She could feel her very soul dissolving. Yet, the shard in her brain demanded a final action.

The path must be followed through the end!

With the last vestiges of her power, Contessa threw the black crystal. It spun lazily, while moths of light danced withing its depths. It drew the last vestiges of her soul within its structure and then it passed through.