Chapter 15 Part 3

Chapter 15: Our enemies bring us together

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Part 3

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Victory Bay

Kronus

Facing Lychguard wasn't anything new for Trazyn. However, doing so without proper preparation has been something he usually tried to avoid. Because, really, how could he know that a small horde of them, from two different Dynasties at that, would come after him?! He wasn't liberating unappreciated art or history from Necron vaults!

He was merely trying to recover and preserve a relic, perhaps get some company to the Silent Sister he had on display! From what he knew, knowing humans, the Pariah child would be safer and happier as part of his collection anyway! Who in their right mind wouldn't?!

She even exceeded his expectations, somehow managing to cripple his arm with the relic he came to retrieve! That mace was even more valuable than anticipated, and he had to have it on display!

But first, Trazyn had to deal with a spot of trouble. Teleporting out wasn't working. He tried. There was a powerful interdiction field over the whole area. He lacked the necessary clearance to bypass it, and a quick and dirty attempt to hack the local Necron Network faced unexpectedly stiff resistance.

That much he almost saw coming. A number of the Lychguard doing their admittedly very good best to dismember him, wore heraldry designating them as sworn to the Silent King. That might lead to some uncomfortable questions in the future. Fortunately, that particular bore wasn't around right now so, the Collector could worry about him later. Much later.

Trazyn waved, shot, cut, stabbed, and smashed his way through. He was making a progress, however, it was too slow. Even his specially designed expedition chassis began to suffer unacceptable damage. An irritating amount of Drones floated around, shooting at him, even ramming him, which was simply not the way you did things! It wasn't considerate.

They also provided a powerful jamming field cutting off unauthorized communications. Usually, Trazyn would have had the codes to bypass such a defense, or his assets ready to jump in and deal with those pests.

He had such assets waiting on standby. He couldn't call them, and they were laying low to avoid detection by the local Necrons.

Reluctantly, Trazyn had to admit to himself he had been a tiny bit too eager to get himself some relics. Also, too dismissive by the local Necrons. That wasn't exactly a happy state of affairs.

He blasted the face off a particularly persistent Lychguard and unleashed all available Mind-shackle Scarabs he carried. It was time to get serious and out of here.

The Necrons surrounding him slowed down and spluttered. He broke through, only to notice they rather quickly began to recover. And instead of intercepting the more mundane Necron units going after him, every single one of them staggered in his direction.

Trazyn didn't like the way they glared at him and slurred his name. It was unbefitting and unbecoming!

And getting caught might be hazardous. For some strange reason, they didn't seem to like him, the barbarians!

Trazyn let out a sigh, and his shoulders slumped. It wasn't faked at all! He had to spend one of his precious relics to getaway! That simply didn't happen to him.

Oh, well. It hadn't happened in some time, but that wasn't important! Things like that weren't supposed to happen at all!

More Drones came at him screeching nonsense about thieves. He knew already, the Blood Ravens were disreputable, magnificent hoarders! Why he got himself several new exhibits from their Strike Cruiser!

With the utmost regret, Trazyn placed an arm into one of his pocket dimensions and fished for the right Tesseract Labyrinth. A particle whip struck his shoulder, while a Gauss shot found purchase into cracked platting. Cracked fingers slipped over an artifact. Trazyn's shoulder seized when a Lychguard materialized beside him and struck before his damaged body could properly respond.

"That was bad, and you should feel bad!" The Collector snapped. As he did, a beam lanced from the symbol on his forehead. It burned its way through the head of the Lychguard. Predictably, when he tried that on the next pest, a hyper-phase blade met the energy beam and deflected it into the sky, where it sliced through a few of those irritating Drones. The next time he came here, Trazyn swore he would bring a few holds full of his best tiny machines! Then he would show those uncultured brutes what a real swarm was!

A spluttering and seizing arm managed to get a hold of two Tesseracts. He reflexively threw them out, sending the command to activate as soon as they hit the ground. At the same time, Trazyn pushed as much power into his Chronosphere as possible. It was time to make himself scarce before overwhelming numbers could fully converge on his position.

Next time he would send a fake body or ten! No, better be twenty!

A large Catachan Devil landed upside down, crushing many Lychguards.

Whelp, he should have taken the time to put back the pieces he had been re-arranging when the distress call came, Trazyn decided. On the other hand, this was going to be enough of a distraction. What was in the other Labyrinth?

Trazyn's sensor registered a small group of humans stumbling out among an ever-increasing number of screaming Necron Warriors. He could almost appreciate the irony.

Well, no matter, he would have to come back to return them to their proper place in the gallery. Or perhaps, he would replace them with a fresher group?

But first, he had to outrun the angry mob. That never got old! He made tons of friends that way!

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Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax stumbled from one slice of hell into another. A glance around offered little reassurance. Dozens of abominations surrounded them. Even if she had her loyal bodyguards with her this time as well, they were of little help against that many of the Xenos menaces. As if that wasn't bad enough, a huge insect-like monster thrashed nearby – probably the reason why they found themselves out and about, no matter for how fleeting a moment it might be.

"To me! Kill as many of them as you can!" Katarinya screamed her fury, her throat raw of disuse, and drew Tyrantslayer. The Stormtroopers wasted no time and aimed at the nearest Xeno, and neither did she.

Greyfax's finger caressed the trigger of her Condemnor Bolter. It had served her well against countless traitors and heretics. It was much less useful against these abominations.

Katarinya couldn't press the trigger! Her Stormtroopers shook, held their ground but fired not a single shot. What kind of Xeno sorcery was this?! How could her hand betray her?! She tried again and again, suffering the same result. All Greyfax could do was scream her hatred at the abominations. Perhaps that was the answer? The Xenos were ignoring them, focusing on the beast for now.

The Inquisitor snarled, and caring little for the consequences, something she would no doubt later regret and curse herself over, drew power from the Warp. She was surprised she could reach into the Immaterium and draw on its power. The Xeno abomination was sure to deny her even this!

Greyfax staggered as if struck across the face with a metal gauntlet. The Warp was the calmest she had ever experienced. It was too calm, impossibly calm. And as if that wasn't warning enough, a cage of light surrounded everything she could perceive.

The Immaterium might have been calm, but it wasn't empty. There was an abomination of another kind nearby. It glowed like a beacon with the same energy surrounding her. It suddenly moved, and Katarinya hurriedly cut off her connection just as she felt the Deamon's awareness brush over her.

What insanity did that Xeno menace do this time?! What depravity did it unleash?!

"Move! Let's get out of here!" Useless or not, Greyfax didn't want to spend what little reprieve the illusion of freedom offered surrounded by the Xenos.

"We're with you, Inquisitor!" Her bodyguards croaked. Their voices cracked from disuse just like her own.

The Xenos ignored them, and they soon broke through. For the first time, Katarinya laid her eyes on the surrounded area and blanched. That abomination had taken a piece of Imperial City. There were men, women, and children running away. A small cluster of Guard stood impotently between the citizens and the Xenos. They couldn't fight either, Greyfax concluded. The abomination was taunting and torturing them all with their helplessness, damn it forever to the deepest, most terrible parts of the Warp!

"Halt!" A furious Commissar missing an arm roared.

Katarinya barely heard him over the Xenos screams of rage. She nearly smiled. The man was properly paranoid, for what little good it was going to do any of them. The troopers behind him aimed their weapons at the Inquisitor and her bodyguards, and this once, she couldn't blame them.

She would do the same and more if she was in their shoes.