Capítulo 117: Chapter 16 Part 2
Chapter 16: Tenuous pacts
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Part 2
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General Alexader's HQ
Victory Bay
Kronus
The Necron diplomatic party appeared in a flash of dazzling emerald light, which dissipated slower than usual. There was a time and place for pomp and circumstances, and this was it. The Necron Lord had their best regalia on display, awing the Humans. Tonight, they intended to conclude the bulk of the negotiations, and they had to observe proper protocol.
"Greetings Humans!" Zaa of Tomorrow proclaimed grandly. "I present you with Amarkun, the Gatherer, Nemestor of…"
Amarkun tuned out the Cryptek listing all his proper titles. He had to order his friends to act as a proper herald and general aide tonight. Herald of Victory similarly had dragged one of his own Crypteks to serve in the same capacity. Observation of the Human discussion that happened shortly before their arrival, was enlightening and forces some minor changes in the Necron strategy.
If the Humans were too busy killing each other over foolish reasons, they would be too busy to be useful allies. That wouldn't be a good state of affair. Now, finally, Amarkun was beginning to understand why his people preferred to enslave aliens, kill them or disregard them completely. Actually negotiating successfully was a chore at the best of times. Like now – his counterparts were willing to make a deal, even agreed that Amarkun's benevolence was stunning and great indeed! However, if they accepted his generous offer, their people might kill them. It was pure insanity!
Nevertheless, Amarkun was going to make this work. He wasn't a Nemesor just for show!
The exchange of tittles ended, amply demonstrating that the two Humans weren't experienced, diplomats. They were both still in awe and offered only their most basic and relevant titles. Those were the perils of working with primitives. Amarkun decided it was for the best to leave it at that.
"We understand that you will have certain conditions you need to hold onto and certain requests to make. Let us hear them, then we'll explain our lastest offer. As appropriate, we'll offer gifts in light of your service in combat defending this world from hostile incursion." Herald of Victory began.
It was an atypical and particularly bold gambit, not to mention blunt, however, it was one likely to serve them much better here than it might during negotiations between Dynasties.
The Humans looked at each other, and Veil nodded to the female to begin. Was this some odd mating ritual coloring the negotiations? Flesh, blood, and hormones made things needlessly complicated. Let's not forget sticky, Herald wondered briefly.
Amarkun barely paid attention to the expected request from the female Inquisitor. He was running predictions on the feasibility of tampering with an STC if they found one in order to provide the Humans with basic tech that wouldn't get his principal allies among them shot. It might work in theory, however, it wouldn't be feasible for said technology to be easily recognized as Necrons sourced. No modern weaponry, which went without saying. However, a few ancient models, not to mention Pylon tech, would go a long way if accepted. Which was a problem from what the Humans said. Their fanatics had trouble accepting technology not developed by the now lost human civilization to the point they were violent about it. Well, he had time to run more simulations. It wasn't like they had access to such a device to modify right now.
"We can agree without issue on this point. We'll hand over to you any of these STC devices we might stumble upon. However, we'll require a clarification, what exactly is an STC, and how do we recognize it?"
One of the new additions to the Human negotiation team began speaking. He sounded almost like some courtiers Amarkun knew, painting everything with long-winded meaningless words. Long story short, if he translated the rambling right, a Standard Template Constructor was an AI run library core containing the bulk of the Humans technological knowledge. Those were extremely rare and practically priceless these days. Reading between the lines, Amarkun concluded that they were artifacts from a precursor Human civilization, which might have been almost civilized, which had fallen ten to fifteen thousand years ago due to the Aeldari literally fucking and torturing the galaxy into ruin.
The only really useful thing this Scipio-Ro-11 did was sending a data burst containing images of previously recovered STC fragments. Now the Necrons could more easily recognize them.
That was the first point of agreement finished. Progress!
Point two concerned the Pylon anti-Warp technology, which actually sounded better than anti-trans-dimensional technology. It was shorter, to the point, and ensured the primitives knew what you talked about. He designated it so from now on.
For a second time tonight, the Humans didn't tell the Necrons anything they didn't already know. Overhearing their strategic meeting on the topic was useful like that.
"We humbly request more examples of your Pylon technology when they become available. Having access to multiple devices will speed up testing and help demonstrate their usefulness on a larger scale faster." Veil was saying.
It was a reasonable request. Amarkun could see how other humans might look at anything that happened in a world that was a Necron stronghold with justified suspicion. They would need to carry out tests at locations with no Necron influence. In that at least, the primitives were reasonable.
"We can agree. When we have enough Pylons to properly neutralize the Warp influence at the Deimos Peninsula, I will build more mobile Pylons for your study and use." Herald of Victory promised. "As a gesture of goodwill, I'll provide further information about the techniques used in the Pylon construction in order to facilitate your own efforts."
This meant that the Humans either weren't advanced enough to do it by themselves in a feasible amount of time, or they had generally regressed enough that simply relying on them was a moot point anyway. Why couldn't the damn primitives just take the offered technology and Cryptek assistance and build a proper infrastructure, instead of this dancing around? Right, crazy religious fanatics worshiping technology.
Amarkun couldn't even properly blame them on that part. Necron cults were worshiping C'tan still, and that was undeniably worse than any human not entangled with the abominations from another dimension could ever do.
At that point, the negotiators stepped back and left the Crypteks and the part-human, part-machine in red robes get the details straightened out. In fairness, a lot of the negotiations should have happened that way, below the level of the Nemesor and Planetary Overlord, and beyond the direct intervention of the Human Inquisitors. However, the situation was anything but typical, and they couldn't risk their minions without close supervision. And at that point, they might get the important parts done themselves.
While the technical discussion was going on, the four of them could tackle the next part of the negotiations. What to do with the blue aliens.
"I propose that we ask them kindly to pack up and leave while abandoning all industrial facilities and military gear." Veil suggested. "If they agree, it will be for the best. If not, we would have tried talking and can remove them forcefully."
"We can engage their primitive ships in orbit if it comes to that. Their loss might force surrender without the need of ground combat that might damage useful infrastructure." Amarkun suggested.
Such a live-firing exercise would help gauge what the navies of this era were generally capable of. If the Humans had a significant technological advantage in space, they would already neutralize the Tau presence in orbit.
"With their mobile forces crippled, the Tau Ethereals in charge might be more willing to negotiate in good faith than usual. I must warn you, they'll suggest you join their Empire so you can all serve the Greater Good together. Under their wise guidance of course." The female human rolled her eyes as she said that.
Amarkun wasn't sure what to make of that. From what he could gather, the Tau were at best a little less insane than the Humans. Their madness simply manifested differently.
He might send an envoy anyway. He was curious to see if the Tau would really make such a hilarious offer to the Necrons. As if they would willingly serve anyone or anything but themselves ever again!
"Your offer has merit." Amarkun eventually agreed. "We will send an envoy. If the Tau does not follow up on our ultimatum, we'll neutralize their naval assets and demand unconditional surrender. If a ground campaign is necessary, we'll provide military support."
"After discussing the situation with General Lucas Alexander, who is the current Military Governor of Kronus, we can agree with your offer of dividing this continent as we discussed earlier." Veil changed the topic. "However, it must be noted that upholding that part of the deal will be dependent on our potential success in convincing the Imperium at large to honor the bargain."
"That much is understood. While we can respectively speak for the Nepheru Dynasty and the Necron presence on Kronus, you can't necessarily speak for the Human Imperium at large." Amarkun conceded.
"Technically we can. What we can't guarantee is that other Imperial authorities won't declare us traitors and the agreement we are negotiation, void, and null." The female elaborated. "We'll need to get into contact with the Subsector, Sector, and at possibly Segmentum leadership and get their agreement to guarantee that local authorities will follow through."
In some respects, this sounded as bad as the Necrons themselves while the Silent Kind wasn't around. On second thought, it sounded almost the same, which gave Amarkun a new appreciation about what he was dealing with. He would need to prepare envoys to deal with the Humans, perhaps send one or more with Veil to keep him alive and monitor the situation. As a bonus, any such envoys will be able to gather precious information about the galaxy at large, the Human Imperium, and any new threats.
"Next on the agenda is the relationship between Imperial forces and authorities and their Necron counterparts." Inquisitor Vail decided that it was for the best to push through with the negotiations.
"The alliance we're negotiating is between the Necron Lord of Kronus, Herald of Victory, and myself, Amarkun the Gatherer, Nemesor speaking for the Nepheru Dynasty. We can offer codes that will designate you as potential allies to our own allied Dynasties and facilities, thus potentially avoiding unprovoked hostile response. We are in no position to speak about other Necron Dynasties. You should keep in mind that being identified as our allies will force a hostile response from several rival Dynasties." Amarkun explained carefully, trying his best to put it in such a way the primitives would understand.
"Our alliance isn't with all Necrons across the galaxy. It is with your groups in particular." Once again, Veil proved why Herald deemed him almost worthy of friendship. Granted, considering that the Inquisitor was primitive with all that entailed, the bar was much lower than usual, but it was still notable.
"One of the things we will require in exchange is military aid in neutralizing hostile Dynasties or Tomb Word who had been crippled beyond repair by the passage of time. We agree that you can recover any human technology and artifacts found in such locations, while we will take possession of ours."
"That's acceptable, provided that we have adequate forces in the area. And that the rest of the deal is approved by other Imperial authorities." Veil agreed without blinking.
Amarkun had to give the Humans this much, negotiating with them was quick and to the point. If this was a typical affair between two Dynasties, they would still be arguing useless trivia surrounding the first point of discussion and continue doing so for a long time to come.
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