"Ah... the experimental subjects I have been waiting for have finally delivered themselves to my door. Aeldari, so full of psychic arrogance, and humans who seem equally entwined with the Warp's touch. Splendid. You are excellent raw materials; your primitive sorcery cannot compare to the true power I seek."
"Submit. Become my specimens, and contribute what little worth you have to my research."
The words of the Necron Cryptek left the assembled Blood Ravens and Aeldari with grim expressions. It was a calculated trap. Their incursion had been compromised from the start, and the enemy's goal was their live capture.
On the plaza, the Lychguard turned toward the dais, their voices booming with censuring authority at the Cryptek standing atop the Breath of the Gods pedestal.
"Szeras! The Silent King commanded you to assist in the Dead Zone Project, not to conduct your perilous experiments! This is not the territory of your Dynasty!"
"Lower your voice in my presence, warden!"
The Lychguard hesitated, momentarily stunned by the audacity of a lower-ranked Cryptek.
Illuminor Szeras, the catalyst behind the bio-transference that had traded the Necrontyr's souls for immortal metal. In any Necron Dynasty, Szeras was a name synonymous with infamy. Long before the awakening of Szarekh the Silent King, this creature had prowled the galaxy, conducting ghoulish experiments to unravel the mysteries of the soul in a bid to evolve into a being of pure energy, akin to the C'tan.
Among the Aeldari, his reputation was even more sinister. Though the Blood Ravens did not yet grasp the weight of the name, the pale skin of the Ynnari beside them drained of what little color remained.
"The Mechanical Butcher!"
Even Yvraine of the Ynnari knew the title well. Yet, where some of her kin showed dread, she looked upon Szeras with cold, sharp contempt.
These Lychguard had been dispatched by Phaerakh Krispekh of the Nihilakh Dynasty to protect the renowned Illuminor, and, more importantly, to keep the dangerous eccentric under close watch. This Dead Zone operation was a collaborative effort initiated by Krispekh under the mediation of Trazyn the Infinite.
Trazyn was acutely aware that while his Dynasty's isolationism left them wealthy and pristine, their martial edge had dulled. To survive the coming era of upheaval, alliances were necessary. In his view, Szarekh was the only logical choice; they had worked together in the past, and the Silent King commanded the terrifying military might of multiple dynasties. For the treasure-laden Nihilakh, a powerful army was the only guarantee of keeping their riches.
Yet, the Dynasty remained wary. Their anxiety peaked when the Silent King sent Szeras, a Cryptek as notorious for his "augmentations" as he was for his madness, to bolster the Nihilakh forces. To avoid offending the Silent King while safeguarding their interests, the Nihilakh nobles insisted on a massive security detail to monitor the mad Cryptek.
Szeras, however, cared for none of it. Had the Dead Zone not made souls more "visible" and thus aided his research, he wouldn't have bothered answering Szarekh's summons at all. Since arriving, he had been kidnapping local lifeforms for vivisection while simultaneously "upgrading" the Nihilakh legions, honing their lethality through his twisted technologies.
The insulted Lychguard bristled with mechanical indignation, yet they found themselves powerless against the insufferable Cryptek. Nearby, the three disparate groups of invaders found themselves privy to information that seemed pivotally important, though neither Szeras nor the Lychguard seemed to care. In their cold logic, there was zero probability of any of these "specimens" escaping.
As the Lychguard turned back toward the intruders, one sensed a sudden spike in thermal energy. He snapped his Dispersion Shield upward, but the concentrated volley of atomic pulse beams instantly overloaded the shield's deflection capacity. The massive energy discharge vaporized more than half of his necrodermis torso.
High on the dais, Szeras's ocular sensors flared. The potency of these enemies' weaponry exceeded his initial calculations.
"Activate primary awakening protocols! Mass mobilization!"
The phase gate through which the invaders had entered flickered and died, leaving only a hollow gap in space. Simultaneously, the gates surrounding the plaza began to glow with baleful light. Legions of Necron Warriors, Immortals, Flayed Ones, and Destroyers began to phase into existence.
Axion had no intention of letting the Necrons summon reinforcements at will. His melee-configured Armored Wardens had already drifted toward the perimeter gates while the Necrons were occupied with their bickering. Though Necron architecture was formidable, a phase gate remained a precision instrument. Their arch-like stabilizers were obvious structural weaknesses.
Particle blades swept in silver arcs, shearing through the gate foundations. Deprived of structural integrity, the phase conduits in the center began to flicker and destabilize before winking out entirely.
The Blood Ravens, finally reacting, followed suit. They hammered the remaining gates with melta charges and melta cannons, turning the staging points into molten slag.
Yet, Szeras watched from his vantage point with cold indifference as his gates were forcibly deactivated.
"Your ignorance makes your actions appear profoundly foolish. Necron technology is beyond your primitive comprehension."
With a thunderous groan of reality, a massive rift opened. Necron legions simply stepped out of the void, bypassing the gates entirely.
"Fixed gates are used to minimize energy consumption before dimensional siphoning is complete. Now, energy is in infinite supply. Even without a gate to anchor the coordinates, what does a direct translocation matter?"
The Aeldari and Blood Ravens fought to resist the soul-crushing weakness radiating from the pylons, struggling to direct their fire. Though an Erratana-class Armored Warden had managed to snipe one Lychguard at the start, the survivors were now on high alert. Killing another would not be so simple.
Bolt shells detonated against the thick hyperphase armor of the Lychguard, leaving little more than shallow craters. Whenever a Blood Raven surged forward with a melta cannon, the seemingly ponderous automatons snapped their Dispersion Shields into place with terrifying speed, reflecting the heat back into the surroundings and incinerating several Aeldari warriors attempting to close the distance.
With long-range fire proving ineffective, melee became the only desperate option. Meanwhile, emerging Destroyers began a lethal exchange with the Armored Wardens. Green beams of gauss fire lanced out, narrowly missing the Wardens' hulls as they were diverted by shimmering refraction shields. In return, the unshielded Destroyers were hammered into scrap, one by one.
Skorpekh Destroyers tore into the ranks, shredding the remaining mechanical legion. In this charnel house of high-technology slaughter, the combat servitors proved utterly useless, falling like wheat before the scythe.
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