Capítulo 34: Chapter 4 Part 6
Chapter 4: Strange alliances
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Part 6
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Victory Bay
Kronus
The smaller figure had an uncanny similarity to a Human. If I didn't know better, I would have concluded that the Xenos took some poor bastard, stripped the flesh from his bones and replaced it with metal. The other one was much larger, in fact it competed with fully armoured Astartes for size and had to hunch leaning on a staff-spear hybrid, which cracked ominously with sinister green energy, the same one that shone from the "envoys'" eyes.
"Greetings and salutations, Humans!" The smaller figure declared grandly. That was the same voice we spoke with through the insect-like machine, which still floated above the hololith. "I am honoured to present the Necron Lord in charge of this Tomb World. We hope this is the beginning of a long and mutually beneficial friendship!" It bowed with a flourish and I'm sure no one shot it due to the sudden movement only thanks to the Emperor's mercy and the fact we were all too stunned by the display to react as fast as we usually would. If the Xeno were hostile, they just missed a great opportunity to mow down a lot of us while we were too busy gaping at them.
Everything we knew, everything we've been taught and experienced so far went in the face of such a cordial greeting, which naturally meant this was either a trap, there was something we didn't know, or the universe had decided to cease making any sense whatsoever.
The damnest thing was that the alien actually sounded genuine, go figure.
"You requested this meeting, Xeno. Explain your intentions." Captain Thule demanded. As befitting to an Astartes, he was among the first people to recover.
"We're both in an unenviable position. The Aeldari and those Tau upstarts just allied, there is an Abomination incursion upon this world, the Ork threat is merely temporarily diminished. While my Lord has called for reinforcements, we're yet to receive answers and ETA on their arrival, which means we'll have to deal with the local problems with our currently limited means. An alliance of convenience rises the statistical probability that both of our sides will survive long enough to be reinforced if we're unable to win outright."
"Does your Lord have a name and why isn't he speaking for himself?" This question came from one of the senior Mechanicus representatives.
Their whole contingent was divided between making what suspiciously sounded like covetous sounds while watching the Xeno and the technology they had on display, while the rest of them were angry and agitated, presumably at the affront to the Omnissiah the Necrons were. Another division in the ranks was a complication that we didn't need.
"Our tactical position on Kronus is less than ideal, that much is no secret." I said, choosing my words very carefully. If I screwed up now, the absolute best outcome I could look up to in the future would be a nice, clean bolter round through the head. "Nevertheless, why should we even entertain the idea of actually working with aliens? No matter the outcome of this campaign, doing so can see us all shot as traitors or worse depending on what our superiors decide once they turn up with a proper fleet." I pointed out.
The two Xenos looked at me for long, tense moments and the large one gave me a single nod.
"Ah, politics. We really should have seen this coming. In our defense, my Lord has been stuck into stasis for over sixty million years and he's still recovering. The same is true for the bulk of our assets, thus the need of an alliance in the first place." The speaker shrugged in a very disturbing human-like fashion.
"And what would have your Lord done if he had all his assets in fighting shape?"
"Exterminated the Aeldari, Abominations and Orks, given the rest of you squatters a chance to leave. This planet has been a Necron world for longer than your species has existed, no offense meant. We're reasonable people, not like some of our compatriots."
That declaration prompted a litany of curses and incredulous exclamations from our contingent. I knew that the Necrons were old, but that old? Of course, I couldn't take anything they told us at a face value.
"Your Lord still hasn't introduced himself, its only polite to do so." I pointed out. If we lived we would at least have a name of this Xeno in case the Empire ran into it again. Besides, hopefully my question would be enough to stave off the building explosion for a bit longer.
"Apologies, Human. Even the Necron stasis technology isn't perfect. Non-vital data had been highly compressed and sequestered to secondary data-banks. A lot of it has been either corrupted or lost for good. My Lord currently can't recall his proper designation. The good news is that his tactical and strategic combat memories and capabilities were preserved! While my Lord lacks comprehensive memories pertaining politics, and how those might lead to your side shooting you for working with us, perhaps a deal can be struck? My Lord promises to put a good word with the Necron naval units, which will arrive to reinforce this world and do his utmost to convince them not to use you as target practice."
That envoy could have chosen its words better. I swear, he was trying to stir us all up without being too blatant about it! The outrage from our military contingent wasted no time in materializing.
"Enough!" I snapped as loud as I could without using Warp fuckery to enhance my voice, before this mess could comprehensively get out of hand and see us all killed.
"Inquisitor, do you expect us to let such a provocation go unpunished!?" Someone exclaimed boldly from the back of the crowd clumped within the CP.
"I expect you all to carry yourselves with the integrity, discipline and honour the Emperor expects from us all!" I shot back.
If the muttering that followed was anything to go by, I did score a few brownie points with the General and his top advisers, something that could come in useful in the future.
"I couldn't have put it better, Inquisitor!" The Necron Lord's voice continued to be distinctly unhelpful.
"What deal do you have in mind?" I looked at the towering metal figure as I spoke.
"My Lord has observed your technology, and while it is primitive in the extreme, there should be various odds and ends in our vaults that might just be obsolete and old enough your people might find them useful. We have no need of any captured enemy technology, with the exception of what the Aeldari use, its obsolete at best, and we have no need nor use of their toys." As it spoke, I glanced warily at our Martian contingent. The binary chanting, screeching and the mechadendris waving around grew more and more agitated by the minute. Some of it was obviously too happy for comfort, we'll have to keep a close eye on the cog-boys and girls, yet too many were clearly enraged by the insinuations fielded by the Xeno.
The "voice" might have been blithely ignoring what was happening, however his superior apparently didn't. "My Lord will owe you one as well and if at all possible will mediate in a future encounters between you Humans and the Necrons. Hopefully, such mediation will prevent the Human squatter population upon another Tomb World or ten from being exterminated when its rightful owners awake and properly re-take control of it."
"This is preposterous!"
"It's heresy! Why are we even listening to the abominable xeno!?"
"Because all previous encounters I'm vaguely aware of ended up in a disaster or extremely costly victories if you can call them that." I stretched the truth. While what I just said felt right, there wasn't really much I knew for a fact about any previous encounters between the Imperium and the Necrons, except the obvious – they were very old, very powerful, and until now, didn't deign to speak with us.
"The Inquisitor is correct. The few encounters I know of between us and these aliens were extremely bloody affairs. While it galls me to admit it, we are in no position to fight a three front war and win. At best we might not lose for a time, and even that plays in the traitor's hands. We need to purge the Chaos taint from the Deimos Peninsula before its too late." Captain Thule pleasantly surprised me. With him supporting or at least not speaking aloud against an alliance of convenience, this might just work. If it wasn't a trap in the first place anyway…
"And what do you expect in exchange, Necron Lord?" I asked.
"Our forces will not engage each other, we will eliminate the Aeldari and Tau as threats so we could concentrate on the larger danger. In the name of cooperation, I must admit that there are rogue Necron units operating on this planet. They're refusing any and all orders and the only thing they care about is killing everything living that catches their attention. They're to be neutralized with extreme prejudice."
Of course, it had to say something like that just as we were about to take a step back from the prospect of utter disaster, Emperor damn that thing! I was sorely tempted to fry it with my Warp powers, and damn the danger and the consequences!
The envoy blithely ignored the stir its declaration caused and continued to speak on. "Our best guess on the enemy strategy is that the Aeldari would use their abominable powers and mobility to engage critical targets behind your outer defensive lines. We'll have strike teams ready to teleport in the moment we detect them. We'll pin them in place and together with you forces they were meant to target, we will overwhelm and destroy the raiding parties in detail. At the same time, we will deploy what little heavy forces we will be able to make ready to strike at the rear of the Tau assault columns attacking your defenses..."
"That might work, in theory. The odds are great that my boys and girls will shoot first and ask questions never when they see xeno troops in their sights." General Alexander cut in.
"Our forces are nothing like those Aeldari whims and the primitive blue-skins! You can't mistake them!"
"They're nothing like humans and in everyone's experience, aliens were out to get us killed or worse since forever!" Alexander stressed.
"A larger concern, if we actually agree to this, is the possibility of your 'rogue' forces coming in at the worst possible time and causing this potential alliance to fall apart." I added.
"One of my primary objective is going to be to hunt down these renegades. So far, they're in limited numbers, primary the guard forces left under the control of the Command Intelligence, which was meant to take care of this world while we slumbered. However, at this time my Lord can't say for certain that all the forces we'll be putting out of stasis would have retained their sanity. While we will retaliate if fired upon without provocation, we will take no umbrage if your soldiers have to take down rogue units."
This was getting better and better already. At this rate, if I lived long enough to make contact with a proper Inquisitor, I was going to be so fucked Slaneesh would be taking notes. Of course, living that long was a questionable prospect given the state of our Mechanicus contingent and the dirty looks certain officers were throwing my way.
"We'll need more in order to keep to this alliance, especially if it is to survive the arrival of our reinforcements." I cut in. "Like a guarantee that you will be vacating this world once it becomes practical."
"Let's be serious, Inquisitor. What happens after we have dealt with our mutual problems would entirely depends on whose reinforcements arrive first and in what numbers. At that point, the best either of us could do is to plead with our people to honour our alliance. That said, depending on the state of our facilities on this world, it is actually not in the question that we might be forced to ultimately take anything useful, demolish the rest and leave, so you might get your wish."
Those words actually made many of my compatriots relax a fraction.
"Do we have an accord or should we simply leave and watch the Aeldari-Tau alliance have their wicked way with you Humans while we dig in and prepare to hold our stronghold until relieved?"
I looked around. No one was particularly happy with the current development, with the very obvious exception of a group of Martians. "General? Captain Thule?" I asked. "As the ranking representative of the Ordo Xenos, my opinion is that given the circumstances, a tenuous alliance with the Necrons on Kronus is in the Empire's interest for the time being. What say you?"
"Well, we might get shot as traitors for this, however if this is going to give us a better fighting chance against the other aliens and the Chaos, then I'll grudgingly agree." Alexander reluctantly offered his support.
"I'm not looking forward to explaining this to our superiors, much less the Inquisition at large, however I have to agree. The tactical and strategic situation here on Kronus is less than ideal."
"In that case, we do have an alliance, no matter how short lived it might turn out to be." Hopefully, my fellow Inquisitors weren't going to torture me to death as a traitor and a heretic for signing up on this...
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