Chapter 9 Part 7

Chapter 9: Storm-front

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Part 7

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Webway Nexus

Craftworld Ulthwé

Ronahn flew past rows upon rows of marching walkers of all stripes, lines of Grav Tanks moving to their assigned areas. Small groups of infantry and civilians swarmed all over the place, appearing tiny beside the neat lines of war-machines, preparing his second home for a siege. Instead of being right beside them, the Ranger headed for a war of his own, and he couldn't chase off the nagging feeling that his mission had something to do with whatever shook the Farseers so much. Details were still not forthcoming, however, everyone who wasn't blind and deaf could figure out that something bad was coming. There was an oppressive feeling of fear and anticipation in the air, the kind he hadn't felt outside of a heavily contested battlefield, usually not even then.

People could make a rather accurate guess about the coming trouble because, for ten thousand years, Craftworld Ulthwé had been stuck on the edge of the Eye of Terror. She-Who-Thirsts and her cohorts would be coming to claim even more Aeldari souls. Who else would dare attack a Carftworld, especially one stuck out here, on the edge where reality clashed with insanity?

This wasn't the first time the Primordial Annihilator assaulted Ulthwé, not even the first time since Ronahn swore himself to his new home's service and protection. However, everything he saw in the past few days indicated that a great calamity was on its way – he certainly hadn't seen such amount of frantic preparation before, neither here, nor back at Biel-Tan.

In the distance, Ronahn could barely perceive colossal war-machines striding, high above the Webway Nexus, Ulthwé's fleets gathered, along with units from friendly Craftworlds.

The Ranger banked left and descended, slowing down so a squadron of accelerating interceptors could fly by, before heading for the designated Webway Gate, where his command gathered, doing one final check on their gear before deployment. Ronahn weaved past a column of empty transports heading for a nearby active gate after delivering their cargo and landed his Jetbike besides a waiting Fire-Prism class Grav Tank.

"Commander!" A Warlock nodded when she noticed his approach. "Assault force assembled and ready for deployment!"

Two thousand Black Guardians, a hundred Grav-Tanks and thirty walkers, all heavy on ranged weaponry. It wasn't the largest of forces, yet if utilized properly, it could tie up and take apart much larger enemy formations, given enough time and the right circumstances. Hopefully, it was going to be enough. In that regard, a large proportion of grav-platform mounted heavy weaponry and Jetbikes for additional firepower and lighting-fast strikes would come useful.

Yet, against what Eldrad suspected awaited them on Kronus, Ronahn's new command might not be enough…

"Good. We're deploying now. The primary objective is to establish a forward operations base, figure out the situation on the ground and if practical, make contact with the Biel-Tan's remaining combat effective units on Kronus." Ronahn spoke, using his armor's communication system to ensure everyone would be on the same page.

Then we should figure out how to disrupt the unmitigated disaster created by those warmongers… That Ronahn didn't say aloud. He did note that except for five Warlocks, one of whom was his second in command, his force was particularly light on psychic support, which wasn't exactly ideal considering what he knew about the opposition on Kronus. At the same time, it wasn't surprising – Ulthwé would need all the help it could get if the preparations he saw were anything to go by.

More concerning were the possible developments at their destination. Ronahn's information about events on Kronus was already out of date and it would take even more time to get there and formulate a proper plan for tackling the disaster in progress in a way that wouldn't blow up in their faces sometime in the future.

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Solemnace Galleries

Necron Tomb World Solemnace

Trazyn, Necron Overlord of Solemnace, and more importantly, Archeovist of the best and most complete galleries in the galaxy, hummed happily while considering how to best display his newest acquisitions - a million years old artifacts from long-vanished species. What made these particular relics particularly interesting wasn't just how unique they were, their creators created them after obviously studying Necron technology and when all was said and done, they were anything but crude knock-offs undeserving his attention. It was a real pity he wasn't aware of their existence back in the day so he could go and visit them in person during their height, oh the things he could have picked up for his collection!

At the same time, having agents scout the Caligari Sector for such delicious morsels was exhilarating and with the disruptions ongoing over there, sooner or later Trazyn would have the opportunity to pick up certain different additions to his collection – there were Aeldari, both the Craftworld sub-type and those who did their best to imitate their ancestors from the collapse of their Empire, who would make a great addition to the galleries dedicated to the Necron's ancient enemies.

There were even some of those fascinating Tyranid beasts running around, ripe for the picking…

Truly, Trazyn would never know how he missed the fact that the Caligari sector of space was so interesting! Even better, preliminary analysis hinted at even greater prize hidden somewhere in that sector, and as every self-respecting Archeovist knew, the best treasures laid at the end of an exhilarating treasure hunt!

While the Necron Overlord was preoccupied with his latest acquisitions, an ancient alarm rang through his mind, irritatingly shattering his revere.

"Now what?!" Trazyn grumbled aloud, decidedly not happy with this utterly uncivilized distraction. It took his systems mere moments to clear up the signal, while sensibly shunting it through a stand-alone system, before carefully decoding and dissecting it. Distress signals from freshly awakened Tomb Worlds were anything but common, even if such events have been occurring more and more frequently as of late.

Trazyn was about to dismiss it as of no consequence compared to his newest interest when a different set of monitoring equipment sent a different message. The first distress call had been received and answered by someone else. Now, that did warrant a quick check, to see if someone else new had awakened and slid under Trazyn's attention if nothing else…

The Archeovist's mind froze for a moment when sensor platforms scattered far away sent more information and he processed it. Arkyn was wide awake and on the move, something that was out of character back in the day, when most Necrons heeded the Silent King's final orders and went into slumber. Arkyn wasn't particularly stable back then, and the irony of that statement was very much lost upon Trazyn. The mere fact that his ancient acquaintance was racing to the rescue of a crippled and unremarkable Tomb World was telling. Either Arkyn was as mad as a Necron could get after all those years, or there was something interesting on Kronus that Trazyn didn't know about, and more importantly, might even deserve a place in his galleries.

It was time for another expedition then. He looked longingly at the ancient shards suspended in stasis fields and called a few of his legions for another acquisition trip.