//------------------------------// // Chastisement // Story: Of Xenos and War // by Snake Staff //------------------------------// ++Unknown Location, Denton III++ ++3.637.879.M39++ As he waited on his Night Scythe to reach its designated drop zone Trazyn the Infinite watched for a second time the recording his surviving minions had sent to him. From the eye view of a scarab carefully perched on a distant ceiling, the Necron Overlord watched his Immortals, led by his honored Lychguard subordinate, storm the Adeptus Mechanicus facility to claim his prize. With typical efficiency, they set to work eliminating the worthless chaff and advancing to secure his prize. And then, suddenly, when they were almost on top of her, everything had gone to hell. The last alicorn had cast some sort of spell in the center of the Necron formation, and the recording showed the situation immediately devolving. Sensors were going wild, unable to get a coherent grip on precisely what had happened. Even simply visual monitoring seemed to blur out or shift wildly to many spectrums of color in the location where the psychic witchery had landed. Purely from what could be seen, the nature of the anomaly was unknown. What was clear, however, was what had happened next. The Lychguard, the commander of the diversionary assault, had been the one pulled in first. One moment he had been standing there, and the next he was ripped his feet and sucked inside the anomaly, where he vanished. More of Trazyn’s elite soldiers soon followed, even their prodigious weight and strength unable to keep them grounded in the face of such magic. Only the two that had been standing farthest away had survived, and they had opted to flee. All contact with the Necrons that had vanished had been lost. “Such strength,” he commented, running a clawed finger over the frozen image of his target. “To utterly destroy an entire elite squad with a single attack…” It was impressive, he admitted. Very impressive. The nature of what she had done seemed obvious enough to Trazyn – she had flung his men into the Immaterium – but forcing open such wound on reality in the presence of so many devices meant to prevent such a thing from happening… It was well, he decided, that he had not been able to lead that attack personally. But the question remained: what to do now? He could order the rest of the army to move in and attack, but they were mostly warriors, and their head had been effectively cut off. They could certainly overwhelm what Imperial forces remained, but could they be trusted to secure his prize without disintegrating it? Trazyn looked from one monitor to another in silent contemplation for several minutes before reaching a decision. He shook his head. No, the lowly grunts of the Necron army could not be relied on to secure something alive, especially without much in the way of immediate guidance from their leadership. To send them in would be to ruin the value of his future collection piece, if they managed to avoid vaporizing her altogether. They were too simple, too single-minded for anything but the simplest directives. So, that was that. Now he simply had to come up with a new plan to secure the alicorn before she could escape, while not joining his subordinates in whatever hell they had been flung into. “Shouldn’t be too hard. She’s only mortal, after all.” Trazyn mused, staring again down at the prize he coveted. “Sir,” said one of the normally silent Immortals standing protectively around him. “Sensors report incoming craft.” “Imperial?” Trazyn asked, somewhat absentmindedly. “Necrontyr.” If he could have, Trazyn would have frowned at that. “I didn’t order any craft to converge on our location,” he said in a slightly irritated tone. “Send them back to wherever they came from.” “Sir, they are transmitting the authorization codes of Nemesra Ehtekhra.” “What does that wizened old hag want?” the overlord snapped, now feeling genuinely annoyed at this distraction. “Inform her I am in the middle of a delicate operation.” A few moments passed as communications went back and forth between the Necrons. The Immortal spoke up again. “My lord, they report that they are aware of your activities, and have come to demand that you immediately present yourself to the Nemesra and defend your actions in defiance of her strategy.” Trazyn waved a hand dismissively. “Tell them I’ve no time for such things now. There are important matters that require my immediate attention.” “Yes sir,” the subordinate Necron answered, again sending the communication to the incoming aircraft. This time the reply was much more rapid. “Sir, they say you are guilty of insubordination and threaten to open fire if you refuse to accompany them back to the Nemesra.” Trazyn did some quick mental calculations. His force could undoubtedly punch through this sorry lot of Ehtekhra’s aircraft and proceed with his capture attempt but… what then? The vast majority of Necrontyr commanders were frustratingly obstinate about their ridiculous notions of honor and hierarchy. If he ignored her direct summons and attacked her aircraft, her honor would be slighted. And the only way to amend such a slight… It would be very difficult getting off planet with half the Necron army trying to destroy him. Inside, though he raged as much as a soulless can against the inevitable conclusion, his self-preservation instincts won out, as they always did. There was only one real thing he could do now. “Call off the attack,” he said, wishing he could sigh. “I will not have my prize destroyed. And inform the good lady’s minions that I will accompany them back to their Nemesra.” “Yes sir.” “Thantekh” stood before Nemesra Ehtekhra’s command chair, his arms folded behind his back, his posture carefully neutral as the honored leader of all Necrontyr forces on Denton III stared down at him. Behind him stood an honor guard of his own Immortals, and behind them twice that number of Ehtekhra’s own. She was taking no chances that this discipline secession might go wrong. Whether Thantekh was in the slightest bit concerned about being surrounded the Nemesra found she couldn’t say, though she guessed easily that he was far from repentant. “I am informed, Thantekh, that your forces attacked and overran an Imperial facility that I specifically designated as being off limits to even raiding. Can you tell me why you saw fit to defy the orders I gave?” “My dear lady, I sought only to advance the cause of our war effort,” he said, with slight bow at the waist. “By ignoring your commander?” “By destroying an Inquistorial kill-team,” he answered. “The damage done to our forces by these insidious squads can never be underestimated. They serve the most powerful and secretive of all the enemy factions, and as such were designated priority targets by no less a figure than yourself.” “This is true,” she acknowledged. “Go on.” “When I received intelligence that a full squad of Stormtroopers was to make an appearance at that particular facility while I happened to be in the area, I immediately resolved to remove them from the equation.” “And you felt the best way to do that was to attack and destroy the entire Imperial facility rather than simply ambush their aircraft?” “With my aerial assets in the area being somewhat limited, I felt it was the best way to be certain that they would be caught.” “Yes…” the Nemesra said. She didn’t buy that for a second. He had another agenda in assaulting that particular area, this she was sure of. “You do not need to take my word for it, honored lady. Ask your own forces their evaluation of the area. You will note a grounded Inquisitorial Valkyrie and a slain squad of Stormtroopers inside. I accomplished this for minimal casualties, and certainly none that cannot be repaired in time.” Ehtekhra looked to a Necron seated behind a control console, who nodded in confirmation. She returned her attention to Thantekh to deliver her judgment. “Be that as it may, you defied my orders, and as a result of your actions one of my spies is dead.” “My lady, I had no idea-” “Of course you didn’t,” she interrupted. “But you did know that I commanded the entire facility be left alone, and you chose to attack it regardless. That is insubordination of the worst sort.” “Honored Nemesra, I meant no slight on your honor or authority, I only sought-” “Silence!” she snapped, and he reluctantly ceased. “Your actions were in direction opposition to both my expressed will and your oath to obey me in this campaign. I will not permit another such incident to occur, and as such I order you to remain present in my command center until I choose to release you.” All was silence for several seconds, before Thantekh carefully replied. “I will I presume, be allowed to keep a contingent of honor guard?” “No,” she answered. “You have dishonored yourself, and hence have lost that privilege for the time being. My guards will be your guards, and none other.” That was a serious insult to any of the Necron nobility, but especially to one holding the exalted rank of Overlord. Ehtekhra was taking a risk by demanding such a condition, but she was gambling that this one likely valued his own existence more than his honor, and as such would not call for a suicidal attack on her forces in retaliation. But as the minutes ticked by with no response, she began to wonder if she’d made a mistake. Subtly, she began to wordlessly signal for troops outside her command center to begin converging on its location… “Very well,” said the other Necron at last. “I shall do as you ask.”