tanya the necron

What a cruel fate had been assigned to me in this life. I was born to a people who had endemic cancer problems, who had gone out among the stars to try and escape these problems, only to be shoved back onto our planet because the actual rulers of the stars decided they didn't want to share. This started a war that we lost to a bunch of pansy-ass elves. Excuse my language, but I had grown to quite hate them in my life. Possibly because I knew that they would outlive me based on the tropes alone, and the notion that these ageless, deathless pointy-ears got to determine the fate of my life reminded me a bit too much of Being X.

That had been near the end of my life, and I knew what was coming: death, eventually. Already, my body had been riddled with cancers, looking less like a Necrontyr every day and more like a misshapen monstrosity.

But then something happened—an opportunity. The Necrons made contact with a species that would give them the ability to live on without the need for biological flesh. The Necrons, wanting to escape the cancer that dominated their race, went for it. Though I had some apprehension, after all, I had been a fleshy being my entire existence for the last three or four lives. I had the notion in my mind that if I became mechanical, perhaps I could escape the cycle of reincarnation that Being X had trapped me in and stop being his favorite chew toy.

Thus, I agreed to the procedure and had my intellect transferred to a mechanical body. I don't remember much of that process. I will say there was a bit of a kerfuffle during the procedure. A lot of people who underwent the process simply lost their memories of who they were, something we had not been told about, becoming basically drones in an army under the control of these false star-eating gods who then sent us out to fight the enemy we already hated. And so the war began, a harder war, one we were actually winning to some extent, though the weapons being deployed by both sides were quite devastating.

While I don't remember much, I do know that during this period, things were becoming unstable in the world, as if the fabric of reality itself was fraying because of the conflict between those two parasitical pantheons—the ones we served and the ones we fought. At some point during this conflict, our leadership within the Necrontyr had decided that enough was enough, that the galaxy was falling apart, and that they needed to go into hibernation, let it fall apart, let our enemies destroy themselves, and wake up 10 to 20,000 years later to recover.

Of course, I doubted that our benevolent rulers would have let us go through with that plan, but neither had our leadership believed that either, and had sprung traps and tricks on the false gods, destroying them to some extent, turning them into shards that could be used. This had, I believe, amused me at the time. That was quite 10 to 20,000 years before; time periods were a little bit iffy in my mind, maybe it was even longer, as I had spent the next period quite asleep. During that period, I had recovered most of myself in that sleep.

Which brings us to the current day. It had been, I don't know how long—internal chronometers on these bodies were a bit unknowable—but it had been a long time since I had been awake. In that time, the tomb world that I had ruled as a local lord had been buried deep beneath the earth. So probably more than 10,000 years, I would guess, maybe millions for all I know. What could it be? I couldn't say. A small warning that something had broken through into one of our chambers, but no info on what had broken through. Stretching out my mechanical limbs, I tried to find out what had done it. The scarabs, scout drones if you will, were already in pursuit, while others had woken up to just maintain the facility. They seemed to be mostly unconscious, but there were a few that had been running maintenance over the millions of years, making sure that though our facility was very deep, it did not collapse on itself.

Watching through the scarabs, I quickly found what had entered our domain, which gave me a bit of a head turn as I realized what I was looking at.

Standing there were about a dozen humans, and they were humans, not elves, not Necrontyr—humans, I could tell that right away. They were looking around, confused, carrying a lot of mining equipment and trying to figure out what to do. I myself was trying to figure out what to do. This was not expected. Oh, we had a procedure, sure.

The leader should have made it clear that we should defend our holds to the last and drive out any invaders. However, well, I had a human bias, perhaps very deep within my mechanical body. Seeing something so familiar yet different.

I wanted to learn more about these humans. I didn't just want to kill them because they were not Necrons.

They could be of use, after all. So I made my way to them, the drones keeping their distance and keeping their eyes on them. Not hard; the humans didn't have great night vision, I could tell. So as I made my way through the darkened halls, I walked quietly, making sure not to approach at a fast pace to scare them.

If I was acting as a Necron should, based off my memories of what my orders had been before my consciousness had redeveloped itself, I should be calling forth all my robot legions to defend the homeland, push off these invaders. Or at the very minimum, have more security than just my own robotic body moving through the darkness. But logically, why should I engage these people with hate and anger when I could theoretically find something to do with them? After all, now that I was awake, I would have to see about rebuilding the tomb and determining what to do with a robot legion under my command. I need to find out more about what was going on outside. Why not make allies before I do that? Vanity was a useful friend. They were better than the elves, that was for sure. Better than the Orks, that was even better.

Shaking my head, I finally came around the corner where I saw the humans hard at work, banging on the side of one of the heavy pillars. I stood there in the darkness, listening as they spoke in a language I didn't understand. It sounded somewhat familiar, like French but Italian, a bit of English perhaps—some sort of mono-language that had developed for humanity at some point after the 20th century. It was a suspectful idea, though I had no idea how, when, or how long humans had existed. Could be the other way around, could be evidence that the ancient alien theory was correct and they came from somewhere else.

I had never delved too deep into those conspiracy theories, unfortunately, in any of my lives. I tended to believe the evolution theory since there was plenty of evidence of that. But until I knew what year it was, I couldn't throw away the possible options that this was some sort of proto-humans. Oh, that seemed unlikely.

How to make first contact, though—that was the real question. How to make contact so that we don't start shooting each other. Hmm. Scratching my metal chin and leaning against the pillar, I thought for a bit before shrugging and deciding to just step out. After all, worst comes to worst, they blow my head off and I reboot a few hours later in another body, maybe even less than hours depending on how long it took to wake up. That's if they even have the capability to blow my head off.

Stepping into the lights they had created via some sort of power network running from what I would guess was some sort of mining system, I tapped my staff heavily on the ground three times, drawing the humans' eyes towards me. Carefully, I put my hand on my chest and gave a small bow before patting my chest again and saying, "Necron." Then I pointed at them and said, "Human." Thankfully, that word should easily be translatable, so it should be a place to start with learning their language. I did have several languages in the back of my mind after all these lives. Might take a bit, but I should be able to get some communication going with these once I understood the basis of their language and how it had been molded from the older languages that I knew.

The humans all turned, looked at me, and became white with fear. After a moment, they all just started running away, not even giving me the chance to speak. I held up my hand in confusion but shrugged.

Well, what was I to expect? I was a giant walking metal skeleton. If any remnants of 20th-century culture existed, I probably looked like The Terminator. If this was before The Terminator, well, I probably looked like some sort of monster nonetheless. How would I react to seeing a giant walking metal skeleton coming out of the darkness? Probably not well. I would probably fire several spells at it if I had the capability and assume it was some sort of creature sent by Being X to torture me. So, obviously, this could have gone better, but it could have gone far, far worse.

That being said, their reaction encouraged me to send out an activation code for a small contingent of guards and have the robots seal up the entrance they had made. There was no reason to leave an open hole into the tomb, especially now that I knew there could be a threat outside and they had the capability to make new ones. The alert from their entry could be repeated. For now, though, I needed to learn more about the world above and what was going on. How should I do that? That was fairly simple, really. I tasked a few drones to move up the tunnel quietly and on the roof to avoid being spotted. Hopefully, they would make it all the way to the surface and give me information about what was going on up there, maybe hack into the local network of these humans and find out more about the civilization that had gone to the stars.

I had to assume these were not humans from Earth, or at least not within a few generations. Maybe I had been completely blind and missed the fact that I was on Earth when I was given command of this planet. After all, I had not been solely myself after being transitioned into a Necron from a Necrontyr. It was well within the possibility that in my early state, I simply missed some continental similarities. Of course, if I had been unconscious for over a million years, maybe this was just Earth millions of years later. It was hard to tell. I didn't want to make assumptions either way. I needed more intel. The fact that these humans had the capability to dig this deep underground and had machinery indicated that this was at least 20th-century tech, maybe beyond that. Hopefully, the drones would give me more information.

Finding a wall to lean against, I sat there as robots and drones got to work closing the entrance. I let my mind follow the drones that were making their way up the tunnel, trying to listen in on the conversations they might overhear. Over time, I did find humans again. They were at some sort of T-cross section, having a very vivid argument with what appeared to be a foreman who seemed very angry about, well, I guess being called down here. I couldn't make out what they were saying very well; I wasn't understanding every word, but I did understand a few, especially the German words. There's always a fierceness about them, so when they sneak into other languages, you can sort of pick them out.

The foreman was not having their story about a giant skeleton, which I kind of found insulting. I wasn't that big. Sure, I may be 6 feet tall, maybe compensating for the lost height from my last life. I had to deal with being under Being X. I had been rather short before I was transitioned into a Necrontyr, almost ridiculously so. So I was quite happy to be 6 feet tall with this mechanical frame, even if it did come with a few drawbacks.

But anyways, listening in, they seemed to just not be taking it in and were telling them to go back down the tunnel and continue their work. My best guess, based on the yelling and pointing, was that they were demanding extra money. An approved move by my point of view, at least one was. Several others were saying words that sounded like they were quite done with both parties, unwilling to risk their lives over this and wanting to just go home or be transferred to another tunnel. The argument went on for a while before the foreman put up his hands in frustration and said something to the effect of, "Fine, I'll find other workers for this tunnel," before walking off in a northward direction, according to my internal compasses. There seemed to be a gradual sign of relief among the workers as they all split up. Ninety percent of them headed down the other tunnel away from the tomb, while about 10% of them gathered up to come back down towards my tomb. They would find a sealed entrance there. Hopefully, they would take the hint and go left or right around my tomb for now. As for my drones, I sent them after the foreman. He was obviously heading back to the surface, and I needed to know how to get back to the surface if I was going to find out what kind of world I was on.

This was generally what I had to do in the interim. I needed to find out what kind of world I was on, who these people were, how to connect to the network to find out more information, and then find the leadership and try to negotiate some sort of peace agreement between the underworld, my Necrontyr, and these people on the surface. I would prefer not to follow the orders screaming in the back of my head to exterminate the invaders on my planet.

I'm sure there could be some sort of workaround. After all, they were obviously interested in the mineral wealth of this planet, and we were obviously not interested in that. Actually, now that I think about it, there was no reason for us to even expand our side beyond what was in this tomb. If we could come to some agreements, maybe there would be a way to have some sort of peaceful arrangement, to try and find a way to give us a reason to expand our society, perhaps find some way to return some of the mechanicals back to fleshy forms. After all, I'm sure some of the formerly cancer-ridden Necrontyr would love to go into a new biological form if they could get out of their mechanical bodies and not have to worry about cancer.

I was less interested in that. Logically, being immortal meant that I didn't have to worry about Being X screwing with me, so I was fine staying in this form as an immortal ruler of the Necrontyr. But if I could get my people bodies and the ability to have conscious thought again, I should do that. That seems like the proper leadership thing to do.

So I would investigate the surface, try to form some sort of peace with the local human government, and see what I could make of it.

It would take time, but I had all the time in the world. So far, from what I could see, I had an army of individuals to fight for me, and if these people turned out to be less than friendly, well, I would defend my kingdom as best I could.

Tanya

It was time to find out what was going on on the surface, that was for sure. There had been more breaches from more mines in the past three days than I would have expected. So far, I had been able to scare off the human population that was popping in through excessive appearances of either me or my drones—the scarab-like machines, terrifying enough to send the men flying and running in the opposite direction. The drones would then relay information from there, talking with the head man in charge of the mine, where they would basically say, "We're not going back that way." He would threaten them before saying he'd get someone else to do it. If I were to keep this going, and I probably could, I could keep them out, but there was always the possibility that things would change—new mine owner, new foreman, more determined force. It was time to make a move.

I had spent the last three days using scarabs to collect information—speech patterns, language models, everything I could to try and understand what drove them to dig so deep and greedily, even at the risk of running into my home. What spurred on these attempts to mine so deeply? Was it just the search for wealth, or was there something more? Over that time, I now knew how to speak their language, as well as that the people seemed to be rather desperate for work. It seemed that it was either these mines or some factory up above that they could find work in, from the conversation snippets I had heard. And then there were always these mentions of "the war." What war? What was this war about, and who was it for? I couldn't really get any clear information from what little they were saying. However, I did get a mention of "The Emperor Protects," which implied this might be some sort of religious war—perhaps some sort of Japanese Emperor thing, where the emperor was a descendant of a sun god, or something of that nature. But I couldn't get much from the little I had, so knowing I couldn't get more, it was time to do something to get more.

One may ask: how does one get more information when they are a living machine dealing with humans who are easily skittish? The answer was quite simple. Since I had learned their language, it was now time to make a formal appearance. Using my drones, I had already moved one into the room belonging to the foreman—a tough-looking man who was currently sitting at his desk, looking over paperwork and muttering about skittish miners. He was deep underground in this office, apparently not seeing the light of day very often, as his skin was pale and almost jaundiced from some of the coloration he had. But many questions arose about what environment would lead such a man to live underground. My drones were still slowly making their way up. The problem was, I wasn't sure where the sky was. To clarify: my drones had reached the point where the surface level should have been, even with a couple hundred years of dirt thrown on top. But they weren't finding the surface. Had my kingdom sunk deeper under the sands of this world than I believed possible? Perhaps. But the thing was, we were still finding lots and lots of elements of this human culture. It almost looked like we were at the base of a city, down in the guts, where pipes moved water, gases, and electricity around. But this went on for several levels, until we hit another layer that even felt darker somehow—as if it had been abandoned by humanity, but there were still humans and non-humans in that area. It spoke of something vast and larger than what was known, and I didn't like that. Not knowing what was sitting above my kingdom was not a good sign.

That's why I must make my move to find out what's going on. Once I had enough drones sitting in the office, they would activate a device that allowed me to simply step through and appear inside the man's office. It was that simple. I would ask the questions myself.

Whatever happened after that, I would most likely have control over the situation. The man may have been large when it came to the muscles on his arms, but I was a machine, and even if he somehow overwhelmed this body, I had others in storage.

Stepping into the office, I looked around, nodding at this simple room. There were a few family photos I could easily identify, and a heavy stack of paperwork. The man was so enthralled with his own paperwork that he didn't even notice me at first—not until I brought my staff down onto the floor. A hollow ring of metal on metal caught his attention.

The man looked up, eyes going wide before reaching for a gun and saying, "What the fuck?" in that strange language that these people used. He attempted to fire off a shot, but one of my drones jumped onto the gun and ripped it from his hand, flying up onto the ceiling where it began to disassemble the machine. I looked up for a moment, smiling internally, before looking down at him.

"There's no need for that, good sir," I said in their language. "I have no interest in conflict or death or destruction. I simply wish to hammer out some details about where you're allowed to mine."

"What the fuck are you? Are you some sort of mechanicus horror?"

"Mechanicus, my ass," I said, tilting my head before adding, "I'm not familiar with those folks. I'm a creature that's been here a long time—a very long time. Your men have been poking around my home, I believe would be the correct term. I would like them to stop doing that. If you stop doing that, you won't have to worry about me getting angry."

"Oh fuck, you're a Necron," the man said in horror. He got up, reaching for a shotgun that was behind his desk, though one of my drones dropped down from the ceiling onto it, grabbed it, and pulled it up onto the ceiling.

"So, you're aware of my race," I said, tilting my head. "Well, I'm not aware of yours—at least not officially."

"Yeah, I'm aware of your race," he said. "My great-great-grandmother fled her homeworld because the Necron army rose up from hiding underneath the surface. The planet had to be abandoned as an Imperial world, with the Death Korps Of Krieg still fighting that conflict to this day. So yeah, I'm aware that my planet's about to get fucked by whatever Xeno construction you are."

He spat on the ground, sitting in his chair, defeated. "The fucking cow, then the fucking higher council, and now the Necrons? This fucking planet's doomed. They're going to Exterminatus the entire thing."

"Exterminatus?" I asked, sounding concerned. It sounded bad. I figured I should get more info, especially since it sounded like a complex situation, even before my awakening.

The man looked up at me, tilting his head in confusion. "Exterminatus? It's when the Imperium decides that the planet is not worth fighting over and just wipes it out to deny the enemy its resources."

My eyes glowed greener than normal as I felt a small bit of hatred for that concept. They would kill an entire planet—wipe out all its resources just to deny them to the enemy?

"Yeah," the man said. "I smacked my staff down on the ground. 'Well, I don't like that at all. I'm one who—how do you say?—hates wasting resources. Wasting resources is one of the greatest crimes in my mind. Life is a precious thing, and what a person can accomplish in that life is a resource that cannot be wasted in such a way. They would kill all of the people on this planet to deny the resources to the enemy.'"

"Yeah, they would," the man said matter-of-factly, before asking, "So, are you going to kill us? Or are you going to kill me? Or what are you planning? You're a Xeno, you don't need us. That's how all Xenos in the galaxy are. So what's your big brain plan for the extermination of humanity? Is it like the blue-skinned bastards and their whole efforts of sterilizing humans they bring into their empire for the greater good?"

I could literally see the green flash lights flickering as I looked at him. I must have been so angry—a deep-seated hatred for cults and communism reawakening. Who knows if this "greater good" was communism per se? The whole concept of discouraging the individual for the betterment of society takes me off.

I looked at the man before saying, "You have given me much great knowledge today. I have no need or want to murder you. In fact, I think we can work together quite well."

"Is that so?" the man said, leaning back in his chair, folding his arms, sounding very skeptical.

That is so. I need more information on what's going on on the surface, how to protect my tomb, and, most of all, I need to know how far society has fallen that they would waste the lives of humanity and its potential. I also need a rundown on the political situation of this planet. If you give me that, not only will you live to see what is to come, but I will ensure that you hold a high status in the New Order that I'll form once this is over.

The man, being disarmed and with no other option, sighed deeply before leaning forward, placing his hands on the table as if in prayer, and began a tale to explain the situation.

"Right now, we're dealing with a Tau invasion. One of the hive cities in the Far West fell under the control of those blue bastards two years ago. The Imperium is currently not really capable of dealing with that. I mean, they can send troops, they can send resources, but it's not a full-scale invasion. So, they'd rather send those troops and resources to deal with bigger fish to fry. That means it's down to the National Guard to handle it. Currently, they're doing an okay job with trench warfare between us and them. We think we're winning, but they do have mech suits and all this other crap that's ensuring that even when we win, we don't fully win. If we could get access to more Imperium resources, we could probably turn the situation around, but it's mostly just a fight between their elite cadre of warriors and the auxiliary forces of the city that used to belong to the National Guard of this planet."

I nodded before saying, "One city? You make it sound like it's a whole country."

He looked at me confused before responding, "Right. You might not know what a hive city is. Basically, there are three hive cities on this planet. One is abandoned, you're underneath another one, and the other one belongs to the Tau."

"Why is one abandoned?" I asked, receiving a shrug from the man.

"No idea. It was long before my time, as far as I know, long before my great-great-grandmother's time. It might date back to the Unification Wars."

That was a question for another time. What the hell were the Unification Wars? For now, I simply asked, "So it's humans versus Tau, with an alien on the other side? Okay. How long have humans been on this planet? Out of my own curiosity, I've been living here for millennia under the soil, so I haven't really kept up with developments."

The man shrugged before answering, "About 20,000 years, maybe? This is an old colony, not one founded by the Imperium—at least, from what I understand."

I nodded before saying, "Well, the odds seem pretty even. I'm going to guess the reason you're mining so deep for resources is because of the war? You need more resources for the factories producing the equipment, correct?"

The man nodded before responding, "Yep, well, it's half-correct. In order to get the war materials from our neighboring planet, where it's made, we need to build up more resources here, so that they can not only produce enough for us but also enough to export to other markets. After all, it's a Forge World; they're supposed to export their resources to the Imperium."

If I had the ability, I would have raised an eyebrow at that. There weren't any habitable planets in the system except the one I was on, which meant either something had changed, or this Forge World was not a habitable planet in my time. Very interesting. I nodded and said, "You were also complaining about the council. Why is that?"

The man shrugged again before saying, "I don't know. I just dislike the council that's giving these orders. It seems to me they should be doing more to try and solve the situation, but they all seem to be more interested in reading books and knowledge from the past instead of dealing with what's going on now. Bookworms don't make good leaders, in my opinion."

I laughed out loud at that. The man seemed to flinch back in fear, which was reasonable—a robot laughing is scary. Shaking my head, I said, "Incompetent leaders don't make good leaders. If they're more interested in books than in the current conflict, then they are incompetent. But that is something I can fix. So, what's this Emperor I keep hearing about?"

The man raised an eyebrow before answering, "The God-Emperor of Mankind. The greatest human to ever live. The man who, through his vast wisdom and willpower, reunified humanity after the fall of the Human Federation. And with his nine sons, he reshaped the galaxy to be more friendly to humans after the bad period we had just lived through. He watches over us from the Golden Palace on Terra."

"Interesting," I said, moving my hands to scratch my metal chin. An idea was starting to form in my mind. "Is this the major religion of the world?"

The man nodded and said, "The only religion of the world. His Golden Light extends across everything. His warriors are sent to protect us in times of need. Many pray for his men to come to this day, even though this conflict is beneath his notice."

"Golden warriors," I said, scratching my chin as the idea continued to form in my head.

"My objectives are simple: protect my tomb world, protect humanity from being wiped out on this planet, stop the Tau from being in control of this planet—most likely being communist or some form of authoritarian socialism, just from their statements about the 'greater good'—and put this planet under my control so that its resources can be used for my benefit."

I was forming an idea, but I would need a lot of gold paint and more ideas about the iconography of the Emperor... What's that old saying? When the natives ask, "Are you a god?" you say yes. Well, when the natives have such a clear and easily attainable view of what a god's servants look like, it's quite easy to play that role.

Nodding to the man, I said, "This will do. I will come back to you in a few days with a plan to save your world from its inevitable destruction. Though I do ask you to send your miners away from my tomb. My home. I can only guarantee that I can save your world if my people are not being worked by your men. Smacking them on the head if they attack my people is a poor choice. If they attack, my people will strike back. We both don't want that, based on your great-grandmother's experiences with another segment of my lineage."

The man nodded before saying, "Yeah, that's true."

"Good. See you soon," I said before stepping through a portal. The drones would drop his equipment around his room before fleeing into the dark, and I would have time to think, plan, and build up my war aims.

Aun'El Tash'var Oxauth of the fire cast

"What a good day, what a damn good day," I heard one of my secondary commanders yelling as he rallied the men for another push. He was not wrong; it was a damn good day for the Empire. Well, it started out as a minor scrap over trade rights that turned into a bigger conflict, one that had spun out of control and taken the last two years of siege warfare to break. The years of whittling down the enemy's forces had finally come to fruition, and we were breaking out of the containment that the other city had put us in.

The enemy forces, human in nature, were fleeing before our modern technology. Our hover tanks were running them down, while mechsuits and infantry secured the areas we made our way through. For the last two years, the most ground we had gained was about 3 miles within the confines around our fortifications. We had been whittling them down this entire time, of course, killing them with our extreme range weapons and armor, but we had not been managing to break them. That had changed with the arrival of the Empire's allies: the Kroot and other members of the Empire. Despite their less proficient tactics, their integration into our formations had made them the spearhead, sent into the enemy's front lines. Their bladed weapons and toughness allowed them to claw their way through the enemy's formations.

For our part, we were doing what needed to be done: covering their rears and flanks as we moved out, taking more land in the last hour than we had in the past two years. This day had probably seen more land taken in its proximity around our city than if we had been at war for four years.

There was some fear in the higher command. I knew that this might result in some sort of assault on us. We always lived in fear that another large expansion might fail, but the Imperium would eventually stop being distracted with its other problems and move against us. But right now, it looked like we were going to win, so we were enjoying it. I could even see the other city in the distance—the tips of its spires, though I knew it was several hundred miles away. Soon, that city would be the one under siege, if they couldn't stop us in our march. And as that thought passed through my mind, I saw flyers overhead. One of the other reasons we had managed to pull off this victory was our consistent whittling of the enemy's air force over the past few years. Finally, with the newest load of ships and equipment that had arrived, our own fighters had come, and they were doing a damn good job. By my estimate, this would be a near-total victory. There was no way to know exactly how much of their forces were scattered, but I could understand some things. Supply lines ran from the city we were looking at and then distributed right where I was standing—at a supply depot with several rails going to the left and right, north and south. Those rails encircled our city, which meant that everyone to the north, south, and east of the city we had been fighting for all these years was now officially cut off. Maybe 10% of each side might find a way home, but I doubted it. I'm sure 50 to 75% would make it home from this front, but that would be a massive loss of life. Could they refill their ranks as easily as we could now that we had the victory on our side? The warriors they had been fielding weren't of any good caliber, that's for sure. To be fair, the warriors we had been fighting hadn't been of good caliber. They had relied heavily on the artillery that this planet made in quite a lot of bulk for the Imperial war machine.

I had to wonder, though, how the people in the city we were going to invade next would take what was happening. They had probably been sold lies for years—told they were winning, that the conflict would inevitably turn in their favor. One thing you could count on was that the Imperium would not come to their aid. They were too busy with too many problems, too many forces arrayed against them. And now, now this planet would be joining the Empire. The Greater Good would serve the people here much better than the Emperor ever had. Of that, I was sure.

Looking out, I saw the last of the Imperial troops crossing the hill. With that, their defeat would be confirmed, and we would be given new orders to push forward again. How far could we make it, I wondered? How far until the enemy stopped being able to fight us? Only time would tell. Only time... What was that?

There had been a flash of green light on the other side of the hill—a massive flash. Had someone activated some sort of energy weapon? Was there about to be a nuclear exchange? We hadn't had one of those with the Imperium, and while it was not impossible... Turning to my second-in-command, I told him to get the men ready for a fight. "I think something's coming." He nodded and quickly started dishing out orders as I stepped forward, holding up binoculars to try and see if there was anything I could make out. Unfortunately, the hill provided good cover for whatever was there. Perhaps some sort of explosion by a tank that was readying for a countercharge? There were energy-powered tanks, I knew. Plasma tanks, for instance, were rare, but they existed. Maybe this one used green plasma instead of the standard blue the Imperium was known for.

That thought was interrupted when a figure came into view—the afternoon light catching them as they stepped onto the hill, stopping, and looking out over the assembled army of the Empire.

"What's that, Sir?" my second asked, as I tried to get a better look through my binoculars. I was curious. This thing was unfamiliar to me, of that I was sure. It stood there with purpose, ramrod straight, and taller than a human. But it also glowed with a golden light, and the two areas where its eyes should have been were green.

I looked at my second before saying, "I'm not sure. They don't seem to be making much of a threat towards us. Maybe they're some warrior of the Empire, come to surrender their formations."

Looking at him—or her, I couldn't tell—I lowered my binoculars. "Follow me. We're going up there to talk to them." I decided this might be a peaceful option. We could end this war tonight and avoid two more years of sieging. I would be quite happy, and my command would be happy. The sooner this was over, the sooner I could go home to my family.

"Shouldn't we shoot them?" my second asked as I started walking up the hill.

I shook my head. "No reason to. What's the worst that can happen? It's just one person, and there are plenty of guns pointed in their direction. Sure, they're abnormally tall—perhaps a Space Marine—but even a Space Marine can be killed with enough organized fire. So, I doubt that a Space Marine is here to perform a one-man crusade."

It took a good 20 minutes to reach the top of the hill. Once there, I couldn't see past the figure, but I was getting a better look at them. They were standing there, covered in gold, and they were definitely not human. Humans don't have a metal rib cage that allows you to see glowing crystals and gears of green origin inside them. The figure had a nearly metal cape that somehow still flowed in the wind and was holding a staff with the double-headed eagle of the Imperium. They were casually leaning against it, tilting their head. They looked at me before speaking.

"Are you the leader of the Empire that invades this world?"

I shook my head. "No. Just one of the officers," I said, my voice slightly distorted by the mechanics of whatever this being was.

"I guess that's good enough," the creature said, taking a step. It was holding a staff and drawing a line in the dirt in front of it, then taking a few steps back and leaning on it again before continuing. "This world is now under the protection of my people. You will not cross this line. If you do, it will mean war with my people, and you do not want that. This planet belonged to my people long before the humans came here. But I'm willing to work with them, and I'm willing to work with you to some extent. There will be peace on this planet, and so I have only one thing to offer: take my option for peace, take the one city you have, and I will not pursue this into what it is inevitably going to become."

"And what is it inevitably going to become?" I said, folding my arms and looking at this creature, skeptical of what it was saying.

"The destruction of your empire on this world. The death of your people and those who sided with you. I'm already going to have to try and clean up this world's leadership on my side of the line, but I have plenty of time to work that out. I do not have time for a prolonged resolution of your issues. So if you cross this line, it will be war, and it's just that simple."

I raised an eyebrow before walking forward and crossing the line, folding my arms in front of me. "The empire is here to liberate this planet from the Imperium. I don't know what you are. I don't know where you come from, but the Imperium is a scourge on this world—a fascist empire that we will crush under the Greater Good."

The skeletal creature tilted its head, shaking it. Then it lifted the staff and smacked it down on the ground. There was a flash of green light, and suddenly, a giant pyramid appeared behind the figure, painted gold. It shone brightly in the midday sun as it hovered there. Then, another appeared, and another—three in total.

"You have declared war on my people. As such, I will not waste time with these peace talks," the creature said.

I went for my gun and immediately pulled it out, shooting the creature in the chest. It did nothing. The blast seemed to dissipate on the metal as the creature simply looked down, almost seeming disappointed. It looked back at me. "You know, if you had taken that moment to beg for forgiveness and walked back across the line, I might have let you have a chance at living."

"I'll die for the Greater Good before I let whatever the hell you are take this world."

"That's where you're mistaken, Mr. Greater Good," the skeleton said, stepping forward, seeming to grow taller as it approached. It came right up to me and put a hand on my shoulder. I fired off a few shots as it closed the distance, but they seemed to have no effect. Grabbing me tightly, it lifted me up and looked me in the eyes before saying, "This world was not the empire's to begin with. This world was always mine. I've just been asleep, and your constant war on this planet woke me up. I don't like being woken up by war."

"Sir!" my second called out, lowering their gun and firing a few shots into the side of the creature. The creature simply let out a mechanical sigh before taking out what appeared to be a glowing green pistol, also painted gold, and firing a shot into my second. They atomized before my eyes, screaming in pain and horror as they were ripped apart. The creature then threw me into the dust where my second had once stood. I prepared for my death, but the creature simply moved on as the pyramids started to move around her. More forces began to appear, seemingly teleporting into existence around the pyramids as they moved down the hill toward our lines. I watched in horror as the pyramids unleashed waves of energy, and the skeletal soldiers fired their own atomizing weapons—all of them painted gold, all of them glowing with green eyes. None of them seemed to care for the lives they were taking, reducing what had been a formidable fighting force into a desert of black sand as they moved toward the city.

The creature turned to look at me before saying, "You have communication systems to the rest of your people? I'll give you one offer."

"Send this message to your people: Drop their weapons and get down on the ground, and I will let my men spare their lives. Fight, and you will be reduced to your biological components and left to darken the soils of this land."

"You don't scare me, machine," I said, pulling myself up and drawing a small protective blade that I kept for close-range combat. "Our people will fight to the death for this world. It will become part of the empire, and we will kill your creatures."

The machine let out a sigh before saying, "Well, you cannot kill what does not live, little man."

She walked up to me, and I stabbed her. The blade broke against the mechanical chest. She took two fingers, placed them behind her thumb, and positioned them right in front of my forehead. "Are you going to give the order to surrender or are you not?"

"I won't do anything for you, bitch."

The creature sighed again before saying, "Such foolishness. Very well then, you will wake to see what you have wrought." She then flicked me with two fingers on the forehead at such a force that I was knocked unconscious. I knew I was flying through the air into the darkness of unconsciousness, and then I was out. From that point on, I didn't remember what happened.

=-=

I woke up hours later, still on that hill. Pulling myself up, I staggered to my feet. Looking around, I saw no evidence of the mechanical horde that had destroyed our push. Confused, I staggered over to the east side of the hill to look down at where my men should be. I only saw remnants of armor and black sand. She really had gone ahead with killing everyone. I thought, surely we had killed some of them, but I didn't see any bodies of mechanical nature.

Confused and somewhat scared, I started to move down the hill, back towards our lines, back towards the city I had defended for two years. It took all night to make this march, all night to pass the territory we had conquered over the last 48 hours. When I arrived at the city, I was at least glad to see some of our guards holding the front door.

One of them called, "Halt! Who goes there?" as I came into view. I raised my hand, still holding my blade, and said, "Aun'El Tash'var Oxauth of the Fire Caste, commander of the push west."

There was some shocked murmuring before one of them waved me forward. As I got closer, he nodded his head and said, "It's him. Let him in," and carefully they helped me in, taking me to a border gate. I saw panic as I entered. There were a lot of injured people, many near death, and people missing limbs—both human and Tau. The place was a triage center, and I was led into a small bunker that was functioning as a security point. There, another commander was waiting. He looked at me before saying, "Well, at least we got some survivors." He stepped forward and offered me a hand. "Welcome back to the city. Do you have any idea what happened? The guys that made it back have no idea, and the drones... Well, the details aren't exactly great."

I shook my head as I took the seat that was offered. "I have no idea what was going on. Were the warriors of the Empire here for something unfamiliar?"

He shook his head before replying, "I've sent a message back to Tau space. Perhaps we'll learn soon enough what these things were. But at the moment, no one knows. All we have is the footage, and what footage we have does not paint a pretty picture." He pressed a button on a nearby console, showing the battle that had been more of a butchery—the killing of my men and the men who had followed me into combat.

I did see some good things: tanks running down the oncoming metal waves and other signs that they could be destroyed. But I also noticed things that made it less likely they stayed dead, which was even more concerning. Some of the bodies just teleported away. Others, more intact, would sit there for a moment until that creature I'd spoken to—or creatures like it—would approach and seem to bring life back to them. A few even reactivated on their own from some of the footage that the drones provided. It had been an unending tide of death that didn't seem to have a way of being killed.

"Gulfing," I said. "Where are they now? Why didn't they hit the city?"

"They did hit the city," the commander said with a shake of his head. "They stopped just outside of it before teleporting away. That one there," he indicated the one I had been speaking to, "stopped before doing that, leaving a line in the sand out front that used to be some of the guards. They said, 'Cross this line, and I will destroy everyone in this city right now.' The upper command is trying to figure out what to do about this."

"We need to find some sort of weapon to kill her," I said matter-of-factly.

"Oh, easy," he said. "If only we knew why they had commenced such an attack. Do you have anything to report on the conversation you had with her?"

I thought for a moment before saying, "Nothing to report. Just vague threats—that if we did not stop, she would attack, and that she was on the side of the Imperium."

"Damn," he cursed. "What the fuck was that?" He could only say this before taking a seat next to me as we watched footage of the creature killing its way through our lines. The war may have been lost in this moment—that simple. But for how long? That's another question altogether.