Chương 16: Negotiations and Counsel Demands

A team of seven Honored Ones walked on the deck of the Necrontyr capital ship, overlooking the Necrontyr homeworld. The Necrontyr empire had been entirely pushed back to their homeworld by the Old Ones and the seven Honored Ones were here to enforce the Great Counsel's demands and apply sanctions on the Necrontyr. Among the Honored Ones present, not one among them hadn't gained war merit on the battlefield.

Lyran; the War Whip, Weklor; the High Counselor, Dartzsi; the Yellow Death, Kovmar; the Tank of Maul, Moruk, the Wind's Champion, Cyormez; the Warp Paragon, and Lonkor; the Wargong.

These Honored Ones shone like gold in the Necrontyr war, owing a significant amount of their victories due to the Webway. Weklor, himself, held a title ranked just underneath his teacher. They were not sitting on their usual anti-gravity thrones but were instead walking towards the command deck of the Necrontyr Cairn-class Tomb Ship surrounded by a squad of Grand Archons. They passed the halls of the Necrontyr ship without any changes in their expressions. The danger posed by the Necrontyr was enough to threaten the Old Ones in the beginning, but this meeting now was of 'peaceful negotiations' and they would not dare to try anything to their delegation.

They reached deck doors and entered into a room with a large negotiation table at its center. Sitting behind the table's center were the 3 Triarch Phareons Weklor had first met during initial greetings between their races. Strangely enough, the three of them didn't look as humiliated as the rest of the Necrontyr with them. The Old One group then took their seats opposite of the Necrontyr rulers as their Grand Archons spread out behind them.

"Mesophet," Weklor said, greeting the troublesome Triarch Phareon with a smile.

Weklor felt funny seeing the three Phareons he once spoke with many years ago. He could not have imagined that the three of these rulers would declare war on the Old Ones shortly after he left. And now that the rules had been defeated, it almost made Weklor want to laugh at how awkward it must be for them. Unfortunately, he wouldn't get to see the Phareons attempt to save their awkwardness, because Rahkoz, the Ruthless interjected.

"You are the Emissary Weklor," Rahkoz said, disapprovingly.

Rahkoz was one of the Phareons who was not a part of the main ruling Triarch but still ruled a separate Dynasty. His exploits during the war were notable enough for the Great Counsel to pay attention to him. During the battles of Gurom and the Tragedy of Antoga, Rahkoz was the general who defeated Old One's forces. He was not to be underestimated, despite this being the first time any of the Great Counsel had seen the general in person.

"And you must be general Rahkoz" Weklor stated, as he looked Rahkoz up and down.

Rahkoz didn't voice his response and only nodded in affirmation to Weklor's statement. The room fell into a short silence after, broken only by the sound of Weklor sliding a smooth metallic disk across the table.

*Sliding metal noise*

"Here are the Great Counsel's demands. Look over it and see if it is agreeable." Weklor ordered.

Weklor was once again pointed as the head emissary of the group of seven honored ones with him. The Great Counsel saw no need to appoint anyone else to the position and to just keep him as the leader in negotiations. He originally represented the Counsel when introducing themselves to the Necrontyr and now he represented them when making demands. It felt orderly and poetic.

Mesophet was the one to reach out and take the disk, projecting a list of demands for the Necrontyr from the Great Counsel. As the Necrontyr read through the demands, they all felt the pain of their damaged pride. The demands were not excessive, but they were humiliating. The Great Counsel demanded that the Necrontyr not leave the Halo Stars Region for the next 3,000 years, to hand over 3 Necrontyr technology details of the Counsel's (Weklor's) choosing, a non-aggression pact, and finally, a commitment to help rebuild the life extinguished by the war in regions outside of their territory through a small amount of reparations.

Without much of a choice, the Necrontyr had to agree to the demands of the Counsel. However, the hatred towards the Old Ones increased in the Phareon's hearts. The Old Ones not only defeated them but would take the technology they were proud of. The negotiation ended quickly, with Hapthatra the Radiant splitting off to take Weklor to their technology database alone.

Hapthatra and Weklor both knew in their hearts that the technology 'available' to choose from would not be the Necrontyr's most vital ones. The Great Counsel wanted to use the opportunity of requesting technologies as a method to foster a comradery of trade with the Necrontyr. They didn't want to strip away the glory of the Necrontyr empire, so they left it up to the Necrontyr Phareons to 'trade' with them.

"High Counselor Weklor, here is the Necrontyr technology base. Choose 3 technologies from here and the Great Counsel's demands will have been met." Hapthatra explained.

Weklor pulled up the long lists of Necrontyr technologies from a computer-like device made of glowing green Necrodermis. There were countless technologies to choose from, but as he and the counsel expected, the war technologies such as the Necrontyr gauze rifles were nowhere to be seen. Despite this, Weklor quickly found two technologies that would be useful for the Old Ones to learn from; Necrodermis-based organics and Micro-fusion. However, while he was about to pick the final technology, he came across a listing that intrigued him; Prototype-energy lifeform container.

The listed technology didn't have any of the usual descriptions and reports that the others had, instead it was only a summary of the technology and its effects that were listed. These effects were exactly what Weklor had been looking for to solve a problem that had been plaguing the Old Ones for millions of years. He chose this prototype as the final technology and confirmed them for Hapthatra to see.