Chapter 14 Part 5

Chapter 14: Diplomacy is not a dead art

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Part 5

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Victory Bay

Kronus

In the end, Amberley let Veil speak. She was too curious for her own good. The information the Inquisitor might gain could be too useful. Just as useful as finding out how Veil knew it.

"Well, Selene, it's storytime." Veil began, and somehow, his wings curled protectively around the child in his arm. Even if they shouldn't have properly fit in the Chimera in the first place.

It dawned to Amberley that even when holding a Pariah, Veil might still retain a bit of his connection to the Immaterium, which was more than disturbing, yet would explain much.

"A long time ago, in an age that is now little more than myth and legend, a species called the Necrontyr arose. They evolved on a planet too close to its star, one ravaged by radiation. They were clever creatures, curious and creative."

Amberley fought not to snort at the blatant buttering of the Necrons. It was just that, it apparently worked at least on the two physically present. Somehow, the machines stood straighter and perhaps, prouder!

The Pariah child relaxed and looked up at Veil.

"Yet, despite all they would achieve over centuries and millennia, even conquering the stars, they couldn't escape the ill legacy of their origins. Even on colonies far away from their homeworld, their bodies still bore the scars and wounds of the radiation that ravaged them for countless generations."

"Despite the extreme effort and resource allocation, our ancestors couldn't meaningfully extent our life span or cure for good the malignant tumors our flesh and blood bodies developed even among those whose immediate ancestors never went near our homeworld." The closer Necron added with a hint of regret.

"The short and painful nature of their existence shaped the Necrontyr civilization. Lives were short, fleeting things full of agony, loss, and regret. Countless Dynasties rose and fell built upon the anticipation of death. The living, life itself was seen as a temporary state of affairs until you died and joined your countless honored ancestors. The greatest monuments the Necrontyr built were to honor their dead. That didn't change when they spread across the stars, built an empire of their own, and kept searching for salvation, yet it was all in vain." Veil continued in a lower voice. "Until one day, an expeditionary fleet met odd, frog-like creatures. Those were the Old Ones, perhaps the first sentient life to arise in our galaxy. They were immortal, their bodies suffered no disease, no tumors ever ravaged them. They were also the undisputed masters of the Warp, and powerful beyond belief."

"To us, they were the Old Enemy." There was no mistaking the hatred in the Necron's voice. Nor was the emphasis they put on 'were'. The Necrons won the inevitable war. They were still here, weren't they? "We lost everything because of them and our old leaders' folly."

"At first, the Necrontyr rejoiced at their find. They saw in the Old Ones a way to escape the ills plaguing their flesh. And they asked for help." Veil grimaced. "They were denied and ignored. For what use did the Old ones have for such wretched creatures?" He said bitterly, and the Necrons nodded in unison.

"That couldn't have gone down well…" Caractacus pipped in, demonstrating that he wasn't so engulfed in recording everything that he couldn't even offer the odd comment. Knowing him, soon he would be in his own world, happy as one could be.

"It did not." The Necrons chorused again.

"No, it didn't." Veil continued. "At last, the Necrontyr had salvation in sight. They could no longer suffer the protracted death of loved ones. No longer they burn out so quickly and fade away. Their leadership assembled a battle fleet and sent it to the closest known Old One world. They once again requested help, and when ignored, they demanded it." Veil glanced at the Necrons.

"We aren't sure what exactly happened then." One surprisingly admitted. "Who shot first or why. What we know is we lost that fleet with all hands. A brutal war followed one we could not even hope to win. The Old Ones tore every single our colonist from their homes, packed them in our remaining ships, and transported them to our home system. Anyone who attempted to leave was destroyed. They condemned our civilization to a slow, agonizing death."Unmistakable fury dripped from every word, it was really impressive coming from a Necron.

"And then, the Star Gods came, the C'tan." Veil continued the story. "One legend says that the best remaining Necrontyr scientists lured them to their system in an act of desperation. Another claims that one of the C'tan went there through their own devices." He paused. "But I'm getting ahead of myself. What was C'tan? They were as ancient as the Old Ones. They might have been even older, who knows? Initially, they were vast beings who would spread over the surfaces of stars to absorb solar energy to feed themselves. Eventually, they learned to create and use wings to travel to other feeding grounds."

"Make no mistake. The C'tan were parasites, feeding on the stars themselves. They came in our lowest moment and offered the salvation that the Old Enemy denied us." Both Necrons spoke as one, using a different voice. "In their desperation, our leaders made a terrible bargain. Inquisitor, there is one thing we know for sure, for we were there at the end. It took millennia of imprisonment, of our technology failing due to lack of resources, of our people dying preventable deaths, for the last of the Silent Kings to act out in utter desperation. He struck a bargain with the C'tan, saving and condemning us. We don't remember how we first met them. It could have been an accident or deliberate act. We've been studying the stars long before we could reach them in futile attempts to protect ourselves. I can believe we first learned of the C'tan long before making contact with them, long before that fateful bargain."

"In the end, a bargain was struck." Veil nodded. Biotransference, was the price for new bodies, technology to match the Old Ones, who the remaining Necrontyr then hated with unparalleled passion."

"The C'tan were the power of the stars made manifest. With them on our side, we could reclaim our Empire. We could wreak vengeance upon the Old Ones. And thus, our leaders struck the bargain. They offered a body crafted by our best Crypteks to a C'tan. It was a splendid construct of living metal, the then-current generation of necrodermis. The C'tan compressed their inconceivable power and minds into the bodies we provided. It was then, that one of the reforged C'tan asked for an audience with our last King. The Deceiver received it."

At that point, the Necrons trembled in fury. "Little did the Silent King Szarekh know what he faced. He fell to the lies of the Deceiver. Little do we know of the lies spoken, less about how much of them might have been true. The Deceiver's words swayed Szarekh. The bargain was struck. It took a year of debates and deals, yet we took the poisoned pill as you people say."

"The C'tan were masters of the physical universe. No law of it was a secret to them. In a blink of an eye, they helped the Necrontyr upgrade their technology, and abate the chronic thirst of resource the remnant of an Empire suffered. They rebuilt, armed with state of the art weapons and ships. Suddenly, they were peers of the Old Ones, ready to exact vengeance. It had been in the twilight days before the War in Heaven began, that the C'tan offered one last gift to the Necrontyr."

"Biotransference. Our salvation, our doom, our origin." This had to be the Necron Lord speaking through his minions. "They offered to replace our ravaged bodies with the living metal that made their own. We would discard weak flesh, stand strong in our new forms and be free to pursue vengeance without constraints."

The Mechanicus would gleefully approve, Amberley noted in a daze, then a terrible revelation struck her. Right here, before her stood the pinnacle of evolution as far as the Tech-priests were concerned. A whole species that had managed to discard their flesh and replace it with machines. And it was a bargain that had a mixed reception at best.

"The bargain was sealed. We gleefully walked to our doom, rejoicing at the prospect!" The Necrons thundered."The great Biotransference process began." They added in a sober, subdued tone. "Our own Crypteks built the colossal Bio-Furnaces that would reshape us. Countless people eagerly toiled and died for the salvation of all the others. And when it was all ready, when everything was in place, we walked inside those abominations by our own free will. We were stripped of flesh and soul, gaining these bodies in the bargain. Only a handful of us retained a shadow of our who we were. And the only thing left to unite us was the burning fury we had for the Old Enemy. We couldn't even conceive of turning upon our new Gods, on those who betrayed us."

"The Necrontyr died, becoming merely a memory. The price of physical immortality was steep. The C'tan feasted on the souls of the Necrontyr and had an army of soulless servants to throw at the Old Ones. The Star Gods hungered for more souls and unleashed their new army to bring them slaves to consume. Thus, begun the War in Heaven had."

"Covering just the highlights would have us stay here long after you are dead of old age and dust, humans. It was a long war. A war we won. It was a war, where the Old Enemy created the Aeldari and Krork as expendable troops to face us. It was the war, in which the Old Ones crafted those you now know as Khorne, Nurgle, and Tzeentch as a weapon of desperation. It was a war we won, yet left us as pale shadows of what we were, but that is a story for another time. We've arrived."

Amberley stared speechless at the Necrons, busy re-evaluating everything she knew about galactic history. If this was true if the Necrons really fought the ancient Aeldari Empire, Orks, and those who might have created them… Her mind spun, jumping to conclusions based on everything she learned as of late. Then, perhaps everything in the reports was true. Perhaps, the Necrons held the key to bring true death to Daemons and calm down the Warp. And if that was the truth, there was scarcely a price the Imperium wouldn't be willing to pay to gain those secrets. Yet, it might just prove to be a price the Imperium in its current state couldn't afford to pay without grave consequences.