The burning image of the galaxy faded away, tiny yellow embers jumping from the maw of the staff and fizzling out into tiny whips of smoke. The horrid creature on the black throne looked upon the deathless horde, the fleet of necroliers at the ready. They were arranged in front of the Marauder in rows and columns. The soldiers of the chaotic tide fell in line, one at a time in a rhythmic manner that spanned across their ranks. The sounds of their scarred and scratched boots echoed across the wasteland as they filed into their groups.
The deathless wielded their weapons, either holding them in hand or levitating them beside their selves. They were all morphed by reanimation. It was not uncommon to see rifles with parted teeth around the ends of their barrels and gem-like jewels embedded in them that were disturbingly akin to eyes, glowing with the occult energies. Some of them were equipped with terrifying jagged blades, swords that had recurved claws lining their killing edge, hilts that had tendrils worked into the grip like those that wrapped around the chrome staff.
Others had weapons infused into themselves, flesh and muscle bulging up around organic cannons that protruded from the armor they wore, fleshy weapons contracting and expanding like the beating of a heart or like breathing lungs. Spikes and claws lining their limbs were also frequent in the deathless horde.
They all were walking up the ramps into their ships- their spacefaring coffins. Moving corpses of all sizes: big, small, burly and bone thin. Their footsteps resounded across the blackened wastes, echoed underneath the black smoke of the hell forges. Thudding like drums of war to the melody of bloodshed.
The perverse grin slithered on to the pale face of the diabolical abomination. “The time of deliverance has come at long last,” it hissed quietly. The undead below reacted to the words spoken. Operators stood at attention before the terminals as they would have done while they were still living. Others tended to the orbs of energy floating around the chamber, channeled by the undead mages.
The necroliers activated, points of red and orange light appearing from every orifice, every eye and gaping maw glowing with fiery intensity. The dust around them began to shift and blow, compelled by some invisible force. The smoke above swirled like an angry cloud before being pulled apart, the orange skies above visible again after so long. The shattered veil let the light of the distant sun shine upon the force of the deathless tide, the will of the Star Terrors.
And in the light, the tendrils of shadow started to spread out from underneath each one of the necroliers. The inky spots peeled from the ground, forming ethereal wings, dots of white light appearing at their wispy fringes. The black horde lifted from the land as silently as a reaper, rising vertically into the air like wayward balloons, the smaller ones moving faster than the larder classes.
So much was their number that they blotted out the sun, casting the first shade to ever befall the desert graves.
The Marauder’s wings were huge and numerous, moving like black flames as it lifted off from the black sand, restored. Dust spilled from it as it rose into the air behind the horde, clumps of dirt breaking away from the beak. Faster and faster they went, going against the hot air. Their black hulls began to glow as they shot into the sky, burning arrows leaving the charred world behind. When they reached space, the necroliers fell into formation around the enormous flagship, their wings melding with one another.
The pale creature gripped its staff with both hands, the fire whirling itself into a vortex glimmering color and light. Directly ahead of the expansive fleet, space itself rippled and bent. Down the center of the disturbance a glowing seam appeared. Slowly the tear widened, the jagged fabric of reality stubborn to let go of its bonds.
But it flew apart regardless, a wide spiraling portal with energy spilling out from its edges, snaking and undulating from the nether. As they approached the portal, the necroliers distorted, stretching into the vortex before disappearing. Tens of ships disappeared by the second into the warp, with the Marauder accompanying the last of the bunch. With their passing, the rip in space-time was allowed to mend itself, coming together like a rapidly healing wound.
The creature waved the staff in front of it, creating a plane of fire that reformed into a star map, each point of light dyed a sickly tint of green and yellow. “Tell us, lords of infinity, where you would like your bidding done most urgently?” it said to no one, leaning forward to study the map intently.
“…Yes. It will be done,” it said after hearing the voices within the void. It sat back, the star map returning to a canvas of emerald fire burning in the staff’s ornate mouth.
Through the nether the deathless fleet moved, watched by glowing, pupil-less eyes that numbered in the millions. They might as well have been stars, wrapping around the tunnel the horde flew through, traversing parsecs of space in the condensed realm that no mortal mind was destined to understand.
The minions of the Gods went, and the Gods watched on, formless by choice but omnipresent, all encompassing. They were the first, and they would be the last. The eyes came together in front of the deathless ships, spiraling into one point until that point was torn asunder. The tunnel split apart, the eyes replaced with the twinkling lights of distant stars. The fleet coasted through space on its shadowy cloud, rolling in like a storm.
***
“Commander Uolix.”
The Shu’badi looked away from the screen displaying the prototype in action, thrusters firing and Arcane-Manipulators shooting beams and orbs of magical essence into warheads swerving into collision courses with it from all directions. She looked at a reptilian being with a blunt face and large bumpy scales on his cheeks.
“Cadet?” she asked.
“An outlying scout has detected strange energy signatures near the outer regions of the Thymal Republic,” the cadet reported.
Uolix cocked her head and turned her gaze to the super projector. The galactic map scaled down until it was just showing a small star cluster with a pulsating green circle designating where the anomaly was, on the outskirts of the territory.
“Properties of the readings?” Uolix said.
There was a myriad of tapping as console keys were being pressed, analysts all dissecting the information being streamed in from the probes. After a few seconds, the noise came to a sudden stop. Uolix looked around the arrays of computers and asked, “Well?”
“Energy signature is indicative of a… Star Terror, Commander. It’s another hit,” she heard someone from behind say.
She sighed and shook her head. Ever since the monitoring system became operational, readings hinting at Star Terror activity would occasionally appear. This seemed like another one of those occasions. Every time ships were dispatched to run damage control, the hit would just disappear into nothingness, with nothing to show of its presence at all. It was as if they were testing the systems, but to what end no one in the Harmony could discern, not even the leading analysts and technicians. It was part of the reason Tsubar rushed the fitting of Hex-core technology to a majority of the Harmony’s fleet. He wanted a force capable of taking down the mysterious creatures on standby, so there would never again be an event comparable to that of the fate of Earth. He wanted to be able to bring the war to the Star Terrors.
“One has never appeared so close to a sovereign province… is there any other data to be had to suggest any change between this occurrence and previous ones?”
“Negative, Commander,” she heard someone else say off to her right.
Uolix hummed thoughtfully, peering at the projector’s image intently. The encounter appeared mobile, closing in one a single star system. Was this another test? Would the anomaly simply vanish if she brought up the alarm and scrambled ships to the Thymal system?
“Continue to monitor the situation,” Uolix ordered. She looked back to her own display.
“Tsubar, recall the unit now,” she said after opening communications with the pilot.
“What’s happened?” he asked his concern about the urgency of the order clearly evident in his voice.
“We could be possibly facing a class one crisis,” Uolix replied. “A Star Terror may be on a course for the hive worlds in the Thymal Republic.” She could have sworn he heard Tsubar growl on the other side of the comm-link.
“Alright, I’m bringing Tzorvar Prime back in. If this is another one of their false alarms I swear… bastards are truly trying my patience!”
“We’re monitoring the situation from here on in-“ Uolix tried to say before she was interrupted.
“Well it’s about damn time we stopped monitoring their fuckery and started doing something about it!” Tsubar snapped. And just as quickly, he started to apologize.
“… I’m sorry. I don’t even know where that came from. I know... this is all we can do right now. Everyone’s trying to keep this together and make it work.”
“Tsubar, are you feeling alright? These episodes of yours getting more and more-“
“I’m fine, thanks for asking,” he replied before ending the transmission.
“And I guess that’s that…” Uolix thought.