บท 99: Chapter 13 Part 4
Chapter 13: Revelations
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Part 4
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Bridge
Necron Battlecruiser "Reaper"
en route to Kronus
Amarkun the Gatherer, Necron Lord of Phyrrhia, Nemestor of Nepheru Dynasty, found himself in a rare position. Phaeron Kephrekh the Unbroken, the supreme leader of the Nepheru Dynasty was still asleep. There was nothing in the directives left behind that required his premature awakening.
Thus, Amarkun found himself with a rare degree of freedom. He also had an adviser, who helpfully reminded him of the less than stellar record Kephrekh had back in the day. The dry words of Cryptek Zaa of Tomorrow were almost prophetic. Zaa did warn that the planned Long Sleep had been too hastily implemented. That there were too many things that could go wrong in a 'mere' million year, much less the sixty they spent in hibernation. He wasn't alone in issuing those warnings, yet the Necron leaders ignored all such naysayers.
The Nemestor's old advisor, and one-time friend, had been more than right. In the days since Amarkun's awakening, the queries he sent to check the status of Nepheru Dynasty Tomb Worlds brought mixed results. Too many of those were unpleasant.
Theory one, the preferred one, was that their Dynasty had been particularly unfortunate and hit harder than others by the ravages of time and rising primitives.
Theory two, the one Amarkun didn't want to ponder upon, postulated that they were among the lucky ones. If that was the case, the Necrons across the galaxy would be a crippled shadow of their former might. Such a development might require a novel approach if, for no other reason, they would lack the numbers to deal with old and emergent threats.
That was one of the reasons why the Nemestor decided to answer the cry for help in person. He needed to see the status of other Tomb Worlds. He also had to find out why no one else confirmed answering the distress call. Surely, the Nepheru Dynasty couldn't be the only one in a position to receive the call, much less answer it!
Nemestor and Cryptek spent days talking about their past, and the uncertain future they faced. Amarkun might not have been his former self, however, he could notice the direction his one-time friend was trying to push him at. Some statement was borderline treason, even if not quite. Yet, how has he been he to interpret it otherwise, when Zaa used every opportunity to point the Pharaoh's faults in judgment and planning? When during discussions of past campaigns, he kept hinting that alternative options might be better, options favored by the Nemestor?
Was this a test, and if so, of what nature? Was Zaa Kephrekh's creature now? Or did he genuinely want to see a change in leadership, one that would lead to his own ascension from Cryptek to Nemestor and possibly, planetary Lord?
Many questions were plaguing Amarkun. What they discovered during their journey to Kronus, raised more. The Necron gate network was in disrepair. Automated systems that should have kept it fully operational and hidden had malfunctioned more often than not. While this time the Nemestor was fortunate and he could use a gate close to the system in distress, that might not be the case if he wanted to reach other parts of the galaxy.
That alone was a grave portent and perhaps explained why no one else answered. They might be unable to get to Kronus in anything resembling a timely fashion.
Amarkun refused to entertain the possibility that his Dynasty and the Necrons on Kronus might be among the few of their kind left in the galaxy. He refused to accept the possibility of such a grand failure!
The Necron fleet emerged from the gate into an unremarkable system lacking anything useful to draw interested eyes. The galaxy was chock full of such places, giving ample opportunity to hide valuable infrastructure where it would be hard to find.
The first thing Amarkun did after the jump had been to ping all sensor platforms in range and require threat assessment of the nearby systems. They were supposed to be full of useless rocks and dead worlds. That state of affairs hadn't changed during the long sleep. What did change was that only half of the platforms answered? Time had taken its toll upon them because no recorded burst transmissions were indicating hostile action.
The Nemestor patiently waited for the fleet to form up. At the same time, the ships updated their databases with the current state of the local galactic sector, accounting for stellar drift and other phenomena recorded by the platforms.
"What do you plan to do, Nemestor? I ask yet again, and once again, you refuse to offer a clear answer!" Zaa of Tomorrow kept prodding him.
Amarkun shifted perspective from the Necron network to his eyes and turned his head to look at the Cryptek standing beside his command throne.
"I gave you many answers." The Nemestor pointed out.
"And each one was different from the one before." Zaa peered at Amarkun over his staff.
"We lack information on the state of the galaxy. Present threats, the state of the Aeldari, the Abominations, who or what is the dominant species of this day and age, and if they are a threat…" Amarkun deadpanned. "This venture will give us answers."
"And if those answers require a less than typical response?" Zaa prodded in his typical dry manner.
There were brief moments when Amarkun was convinced that if he shut down his eyes when he switched them on, he would see his old friend in the flesh. That he would no longer behold the pale imitation of the real thing both of them had become. He shied away from that way of thinking. Nothing good came from it, ever.
"We'll gather intelligence first." Amarkun's tone left no room for more arguments of that nature. He pushed his awareness back into the network and issued orders. Power built up, the warships' weight shifted until it became a negative number. Their engines came to life, accelerating them to high relativistic speeds, thus cheating the mundane laws of physics.
On the way to Kronus, Amarkun kept pinging his local counterpart for intelligence summary and tactical assessment of the situation. While the distress signal kept its song, no updates came, no answers to the inquiries.
However, while the fleet approached their destination, it's sensors lit up with a warning. The insane dimension that gave the Old Enemy their powers and did the same for the Aeldari was in turmoil. While on the approach, the fleet could detect merely ghosts of the powers involved, there was no mistaking it. The Abominations were involved. They still existed in the far future, and that boded ill. The primary reason behind the Long Sleep was to outlast them.
"Cryptek, I want a beacon network set up in our wake. If we run into more than we can handle, I want the Dynasty warned of what we will face." Amarkun ordered.
This time, Zaa offered no dry quips in response. The Cryptek merely acknowledged the order through the network and went to oversee its execution personally.
A few days later, after detecting the echoes for tremendous disturbances, the Necron fleet finally reached the outskirts of the system. They could detect several active sensor platforms that initially didn't acknowledge their presence.
Amarkun re-arranged his forces in a defensive formation and waited for the passive sensor to gather a rough picture when he finally received a transmission from Kronus. It was through short-range back-up equipment, which might explain the silence.
The Nemestor answered the inquiry and once again repeated his request for information.
This time, he got his wish. He still waited for defensive programs to go over the large data package and give the all-clear, before devouring it.
By the time he was done and sent it to his principal commanders to familiarize himself with the situation, Amarkun had stood at crossroads. He spent the short time Zaa needed to familiarize himself with the catastrophe engulfing the galaxy, and put it to good use. He calculated options, simulated stratagems, and formulated plans.
There was one inescapable conclusion. In hindsight, the Long Sleep had been a grave mistake, if only because the decadent Eldar outdid themselves, perhaps put the Old Enemy's greatest folly to shame too.
"Your thoughts, Cryptek Zaa," Amarkun demanded.
"Amarkun, I hope for all our sakes that you consider my hints. We both know the Pharaoh. He was inflexible and stuck in the past. We know what he'll order when he awakens." Zaa of Tomorrow spoke the hard truths bluntly. "If what we are facing here isn't an aberration, but a picture of the average state of the galaxy…"
"We won't have the numbers to act as in the old days. The human Imperium might be decaying and dying, yet it is supposedly vast. They might have the numbers to cripple us if we try purging them. Their very existence might account for no one answering."
"You believe that Tomb Worlds awoke, tried to exterminate the primitives, and failed?" Zaa didn't sound surprised by such a conclusion.
"They might have succeeded in neutralizing the local human presence, only to be swarmed afterward. It matters little in the end. An Aeldari remnant is still active and undoubtedly they're to blame for some Tombs remaining silent forever. The Abominations appear to be even a greater threat now."
They saw the battle with that unnatural thing through the eyes of their fellow Necron. Superior technology and cunning won the day. But only with the aid of the humans, it had to be said. The mere fact that a single one of those things could outclass a Necron Lord in single combat was more than concerning. It brought memories from the worst days during the War in Heaven.
"What now, Nemestor?" The Cryptek inquired.
"Remind me, Cryptek, do we have a standard procedure for negotiating with useful primitives who hate aliens on general principle?"
"I don't recall anything like that being necessary."
"I don't either. We will lower the shrouds and make a slow approach towards Kronus. We will use the time gained to consult with the local Necron Lord on how best to… talk with the Humans."
"Your foresight and grace are formidable, Nemestor."
"Zaa, you were never particularly good in imitating useless courtiers. Your dry wit ruins it. Just don't."
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