Necron Hordes's Story

Planet: Kauravi

The ground began to shake as the ancient Tomb City rose out of the dunes lights flickered as the long buried technology came to life monoliths and ships rising into the skies.

Legions of warriors and Immortals woke as billions of scarabs scurried about doing thier jobs. Last to awake was Antiochus the overlord.
Antiochus pressed several locations on the star map that appeared before him. Soon a single Shroud class launched to each location.
There has been an awakening and soon the whole universe would feel it.

Nefertari looked down at her comm " well this is interesting...the Emperess just named me ambassador to all nations on Terra." She looked out the transport "are we gonna land soon?"



At the same time a single Necron Shroud cruiser entered high orbit scanning the system.

A Necron Shroud cruiser appeared in orbit of Aberash scanning and sending a Wake up call to the tomb city below. Much like on Kauravi the ground shook as the Necrons rose another tomb world awoken.

A flash of green and a Necron Shroud cruiser appearing scanning the system.

The Necrons had heard of the strange lifeforms here so in came the Shroud cruiser to scan.

The Necron Shroud cruiser sent to the Aschen space soon picked up on the warp storm and moved to examine it.

"'Da lizard 'fing I'z sinside 'da building! Boyz get 'ta 'da hole in 'da wall!" An ork boy shouted as footsteps began to march across the power plant.

Gunfire continued to fire outside but it was noticeably lessoned as orks ran to the breach in the wall. For one Mekboy in particular he was hammering the construction with a shoddy wrech. "Oh zog! 'da gitz are in 'da base!...Oh wait...I'z 'fink I'z remembered somefin'! I'z remember 'ow 'ta finish 'da pad!" The Mekboy suddenly explaimed as he grabed a rather dangerious looking cut fire sparking with electricity and jammed it into the the machine.

The shoddy structure suddenly sparked to life as megaphones bolted on top of it began to suddenly work. "'Oi! 'dis 'fing on? I'z 'fink I'z on!" Another ork yelled through the megaphones as the massive pile of scrap on the platform was zapped away.

Unknown to the Orkz on the ground, an Ork Kruizer that was told to enter the sector of Rulla was busy getting prepared with guitars and arming their own Tellyporta pad. "You'ze boyz ready 'ta rock!?" An ork yelled in the ship and they got lots of rocking guitars ready.

The Mek with his job finished suddenly ran off behind a rather shoddy shack to do some final improvments for some boyz. The Ork Kommando Nob Began to hoof it back to the Tellyporta pad as soon as he heard the megaphones go off. There job was was done, but the rest of the boyz here were either too dumb to run or wanted to continue fighting...wel zog them all then!

Suddenly the sounds of Guitars began to sound as the boyz got ready for an epic WAGHHHH!

"'OI BOYZ! YOU'ZE READY 'TA ROCK! 'DEN GETZ READY 'TA ROCK!"

The instant the energies required to make the warp jump built up within the Armageddon, the three Reverence II's concentrated even more, but stopped the instant the Armageddon jumped, and then immediately jumping away themselves to pre-determined coordinates.

The Highly sophisticated AI Banks within each ship were linked with the wider fleet, using the computational power to calculate all possible variables, and act on them much faster than the human command structure could keep up.

With the tactical plan loaded, the AI's could execute contingencies and changes much faster than the human crew. And now the three Reverences had winked away almost in synchronicity with the Armageddon.

The instant the Armageddon exited the warp into realspace, the three Reverence IIs winked back in danger close, unleashing their torrent of fire once more in a game of cat and mouse with the 20km super-weapon. With only four void shields left, it would be a matter of time before the shields themselves were depleted, and concentrated weapons fire was striking the hull itself.

Nurgle's husk wasn't forgotten about either, in a carefully but speedily executed command from the Reverence's AI systems, a single Punisher class battleship, running in autistic mode to prevent viral intrusions winked in directly below the Armageddon, unleashing every single forward gun battery into the void shields protecting the hulk, and the hulk itself.

Massive 12,000 ton ferric-tungsten slugs the size of school buses were hurled towards the void shields and the hulk in a staggered salvo, along with dozens of concentrated Turbodisruptor batteries opening fire at once, concentrating the staggering firepower of the Aschen battleship on a single point within the Hulk, a jackhammer technique to bring the void shields down, and pummel the ship with everything it had.

"We need to keep up the pressure, keep pace and don't let them breathe, all ships regroup and press the attack on the command ships!" Grayson ordered, and the Aschen fleet regrouped and executed just that. Four new battleships were picked out from the fleet, with six Hastati cruisers, two Gemenon class cruisers, and a handful of Mercury Class Battlestars jumped in, surrounding the Battleships on all sides, with new tactics to surround the largest ships with what Aschen vessels remained, using point defense weaponry and powerful shields to withstand the attacks from the smaller units.

On top of the fighter screen.

Drones that weren't effected by the previous use of the Scrapcode continued to fill the void, along with those piloting Apollo, Raptor Talon, and Viper class starfighters, but there was something else, the AI banks aboard the Reverences were working on data samples from the previous scrap-code, the hyper-intelligent AIs working tirelessly to devise a vaccine, but a Vaccine was several minutes away.

They could only hope to neutralize the husk before the Scrapcode was used again, but even if it was, the effect on the Reverences wouldn't be the desired one, as their AI systems operated on a much different tier than the dumber AI systems on the Drone Carriers and the smaller ships.

These Aiyanna-Platform AIs were capable of isolating and purging hostile data in real time, before it could rend the code to serve it's purposes, as it seemed. The Scrapcode was not unlike Aiyanna-A's intruder program, thus with a common ground formed, these AI's could self-vaccinate against the hostile code.

But despite these small victories; the Aschen had taken losses, with nearly a third of the fleet lost to the onslaught, and the battle effectively at a stalemate with the Aschen holding the line by their eyeteeth, every commander knew at the back of their minds that those on the planet were likely not faring any better.

The reports were coming in that most of the smaller settlements had been overrun, or had fallen with the main defense force retreating to the larger settlements on the planet.

But the closer the Chaos Space Marines, Cultists, and Daemon engines got to the central cities, the fiercer Aschen resistance had become.

Aschen soldiers among the buildings continued to pepper the hoarde with disruptor fire, they began to draw the lines outside the major cities, especially in the capital city of Lyra, where a Thalaron warhead detonated beyond the outskirts, clearing out millions of Chaos troops, giving the Aschen just enough breathing room to push back, aided now by the Adepts of War, whom had begun to mobilize.

Fighting almost on equal footing to the Chaos Space Marines, the Adepts of War were ministers of death praying for war, fighting with the tenacity, and stubbornness of an Aschen Marine, but with the super strength, and powered armor of an Astartes, indeed the Adept's Power Armor functioned on many ways the same way as an Astartes, but offered a few advantages, such as integrated hard light shielding, thicker Kanvium armor, and a somewhat more efficient power system.

The Heavy Magnetron was also comparable to the Bolter, hurling 20mm slugs into the enemy, and when they closed in, they enjoyed intense melee combat, fighting almost on par with the Chaos Space Marines, using plasma swords, Heavy pistols, and hardened trinnium-carbide blades.

It was hopeful these Adepts in Lyra could turn the tide of the battle, but it was unlikely.

In the Warp, the mind games continued, as an Ascended Raphael was closely studying the warp, and the raw psychic energies it seemed to be comprised of.

Any warp born virus, for machine or flesh, wasn’t as easily killed, changing its very nature faster than the A.Is could defeat it, meaning they weren’t minutes away, they were millenia, it beat them at their own game and continued to leave them nought. Once infected, one could not save itself A.I or fleshlife.

“we’ve wasted enough time with the aschen, bring in the rest of the fleet” Sigan nodded and went into a trance, the servitors and daemons that made up much of the crew calmly kept about their duties, and just as the void shields began to regenerate popping back up even under the sustained fire the aschen flagships.

sixty thousand more crimson slaughter ships would begin breaking from the warp engaging directly onto the reverence II ships however slowly from the tears came three massive 100KM diameter stations, the blackstone fortresses were brought to bear, their warp cannons charging up in seconds and firing in up to four directions at any one time, the ancient constructs, a crowning achievement from a bygone age, the warp cannons were on the same grounds as the armageddon cannon but worked in a refined less brutish way.

However the nigh indestructible Blackstones would require the full capabilities of the aschen fleet to bring down one and even then it wouldn’t just die like any other ship. The armageddon on the other hand winked out again reappearing within the safety of the reinforcing fleet, again shields sharing to bring the armageddon’s shields to full power.

The hull smoking from the gunfire that got through, and the warp disturbances grew even more so, throwing off calculations, with the arrival of the rest of the full fleet, the Husk had returned, returning to its guardian position with the armageddon.

Well over a million guns firing on and only on the three Reverence II’s and with the sustained beams of warp energies from the fortresses focusing on the one that was above the crimson capital ship.< Vrosh sat in boredom aboard, he hadn’t engaged in the ground war because it was a show of his power that he didn’t need to and secondly he grew ever cautious, bringing all power away from the main destroyer weapon of the ship and to those of the shield and other systems.
--------------------------------

As for the ground war

The Aschen adepts could only wish they were on the same footing as the crimson slaughter marines, power blades cut through power armour as if it was nothing no matter what material it was made up of or even the barrier surrounding, because the blades phased through, secondly the Crimson slaughter had experienced warfare for six thousand years, some marines just that old, space marines were functionally immortal, the sorcerers on the ground began the chantings and so did the dark apostles, screaming maddened preachings to the dark gods driving all crimson slaughter into zealous frenzies of gore, however it was a grind but the sheer volume of the crimson slaughter began to push against them like a vice.


And from orbit more drop pods and teleportarum’s flared to life bringing down more troops, for the most part the 20mm shots of the aschen adepts would bounce off and ricocheted from the power armour but direct hits into weaker points would have bloody effect, khorne berserkers wielding twin chain axes barreled from the lines and into the ranks of the Adepts bringing the favored weapon of their kind to bare, the chain weapons biting in and ripping limbs off in bloody fountains even in their armour,

Then the scrapcode kicked in, on the Adept’s armour, shields shutting down and the armour locking up to receive killing blows, the gates of the city even opening up, Noise marines had joined the fray, their sonic cannons and blastmasters rendering the Adepts bloody paste inside their armour, the blastmasters even releasing sound based shockwaves so powerful rocks exploded.
----------------------------
And in the warp Tzeentch did the same studying his new acquaintance. The warp was also made up from the emotions of every living being, even more so now it was allowed to weed its way between the realities of the multiverse.

"Don't worry ma'm, procceding with landing sequence in a local Guardsman landing zone." The pilot replied as the Valkaryie transport soon stalled to a halt before carefully putting the ship wreck onboard an open topped Imperial Vehicle before it landed itself. "Alright, welcome to Wing City. Excuse any hateful glares...nothing personal, we just have a bad history with any and all alien races. The deadly history mind you. So keep your manners, and ignore any comments. Once they realize you are not shooting them in the head or eating them alive they should at least treat you like a regular person." The pilot added as the hatch opened up to let its occupants out.

A single Necron Wraith moved though the city its phase shifter rendering it almost invisible to all but the most trained eye. It was here for a simple reason to scout out the city and report back to the tomb. It moved silently hoping to avoid detection as it spied out the city.

Throughout the local region, amidst the detonations of vessels and munitions, the maelstrom of weapons batteries hurling their fury, and the seething energies of the warp, isolated ripples of exotic particles entered realspace in minute amounts. Insufficient on their own to warrant significant attention by those inexperienced with them, these particles marked a looming presence, a breach of a portion of a realm of non-space. Probes slipped through these minor linkages between the material universe and a dimension of alternate physical properties. Readings were taken, imagery was established, and positions marked, before these ruptures ceased.



Within the confines of Tunnel Space, a host nearly unimaginable. Vessels in the hundreds of millions resided within the white void, midnight imperfections hanging among the swirling energies and seething particle storms, the full armada of an entire nation disposed of it's anchoring moors. Trillions of souls resided aboard the armada that was the United Dark Worlds, maintaining a state of existence within a form of security that was nigh impregnable. From cruise liners to agri-ships, manufactorums to virtual flying cities, to the lurking fist within the formations that was the entirety of the UDW's naval arm. A selection of these was now shifting their positioning, responding to a hail across the militarized channels.

Realspace had been probed, in response to the anomalous churning within Tunnel Space. The Aschen were having...difficulties.

A task force was being assembled. 80 Bahamut supercarriers, with their attendant Kraken parasite supercruisers, a core fist of capital vessels numbering 400. Three strike wings of Shrike cruiser and their escorts, Hellkyte destroyers augmented by a formation of Mjolnir missile carriers. Hundreds of Fists, a subformation of Barghast frigates with a pair of Raven corvettes. In total a representative fleet of only 6,000, a number not approaching numerical parity with the forces observed in realspace.

A number that the Aschen's experience with the UDW would enable immediate understanding that the incursion was being treated with deadly seriousness.

Across the taskforce, crew entered heuristic linkage with the AI systems, men and women and machine becoming one mind, solidifying their intervessel communications and synchronizing their translation times down to the nanosecond. One second before departure, a drone was launched ahead, bearing a simple message for a single combatant force in realspace. A single word both offered in the sake of hope, and warning.

Ignis.



Six thousand TD footprints erupted like a barrage of thunder, high energy detonations of extradimensional particles and signals that spoke of an emergence that could not be ignored. Yet in the same breath that rode Taskforce Elient's arrival, targets were sighted, locked, and fired upon.

Tens of thousands of Hellbores spoke as one. The light of a dozen stars erupted through the region as the ravening bolts of encapsulated nuclear reactions tore apart the darkness of space at 0.9c like a shredded veil, each carrying the force of gigatons per second titanic power funneled into focused streams of devastation a mere meter across, at least three targeting every enemy ship larger than 100 meters in length in sight. Such coordination of the alpha strike was appalling, virtually impossible. Yet entirely within the grasp of the UDW fleet, enmeshed into a state of awareness that held human consciousness in synch with supercomputer precision and speed of thought.

The second wave of fire came from the launch of mass drivers, gauss cannons, and missile and torpedo fire, a scourging barrage from the lighter secondary and tertiary weapons platforms across the six thousand warships dispatched into the fray. Supermaterial slugs, armor piercing and mass-reactive explosive cannon shells, anti-fighter fragmentation missiles and multiple warhead fusion torpedoes howled in silence through space on their paths to deliver a reckoning to beggar the Reaper, but scarcely had they launched through space than the lighter Hellbores finished their cycle times, a horrifyingly short six seconds before those monstrous primary armaments of the UDW warships flashed with solar brilliance once again, fire control given free command to fire at will into the enemy.

The formation of the taskforce was disconcertingly tight, yet none of the destruction that flowed from it like a brutal tide came near enough to threaten a friendly hull, each wreathed in its battlescreen. Further defenses flowed within the UDW fleet, the onboard psionics woven into a chorus of psychic might, withholding from the unrelenting offensive as a reserve against the inevitable backlash.

"That will have to do."

"Woooooooah," came Crimson's unsteady reply as the Lugia launched herself forward towards the door at full force. His stomach lurched in response, but he held on tightly as she unleashed her Aeroblast at the doorway, causing it to blast into the Power Plant.

So much for a quiet entry...

He preferred the sneaky approach, truth be told. There was always a secret backdoor solution to every problem and he was fairly decent at exploiting it. He wanted to save strength until it was completely necessary. That and had never measured himself up to be anything strength-wise against his opponents. It was the basis to his way of living and breathing and his method of thought towards anything. How to solve it with as little fighting as possible.

This was not one of those times, however. Fighting had been there since he and the Crimson Guild had arrived. There was no escaping the fighting. So now it was something measurable to quick thinking and strategy that had gotten them this far. All that was left to play to their strength was...well strength. Which they had ample amounts of.

"Little one, I cannot have you on my back any longer."

"Read ya loud and clear!" Crimson shouted over the noise and wind as he left the back of the Legendary, his feet providing the basis for his launch. A back-flip and a corkscrew for stability later and he was landing on his feet, spread apart and sliding across the sand from the force of his launch. He observed as the Lugia smashed her own hole through the Power Plant, scattering many a dead Ork into it's hallways. Crimson followed behind, vaulting the jagged bits of building that remained in her wake as he held onto the Power Bat. It held a tiny charge to it from the bullet he had deflected earlier, but that was nothing substantial.

Man, their weapons were weak, he thought. No wonder we could swarm them so easily.

He'd never been around guns like the weapons these Orks carried. But he'd hear enough through the wildings network that they were quite ineffective against Pokemon. And now that he'd experienced it firsthand, he knew it to be true. If there was a comparison to be made, they were like miniature Bullet Punches against his teams. Hell, he'd only deflected one of those bullets, but he may have been hit by three more. He couldn't tell since it felt more like rocks hitting his skin. He didn't understand their lethal potential outside of Ruula, but he knew they simply didn't carry enough energy in their arms to deal enough damage to Pokemon. It maybe held an advantage against the ones who could quite take Steel-Type attacks very well, but besides that...

"Never knew you to be the explosive type."

Crimson raised a brow with a grin as Tag appeared besides him, "You think I can cause a hole that big?"

"You have before."

"Wait a second..." Crimson's jaw dropped as he noticed the Lugia morphing, growing smaller and smaller as it did so. Her wings' large and graceful span condensed itself to skinny ligaments. Her feet grew smaller and were suddenly covered with six-inch stiletto-like boots that covered her ankles. And her face was morphing as well, taking on some long, wispy white hair that fell in the fullest of volumes to her legs. Her ears were elongated, almost a mirror copy of what her eyes used to be, but her irises were a shimmering gray. However, what caught his attention most was the fact that she had arms, legs, and no tail.

She had a human form.

Tag was in awe besides his best friend, "I didn't know Pokemon could do that!"

Crimson was quick to make an interjection, "Well...I'm human. Or at least I was."

"Yeah, but I'm talking about changing from a human to a Pokemon at will!" Tag explained, "You can't do that...can you?"

"No...at least...I don't think so." Now Crimson was in deep thought. Could he change into a human at his own will? Had he been able to revert to his former self at any point since he'd been a Pokemon? What if he had changed into a Chimchar completely by accident and just assumed he wasn't able to adopt his human form again?

Witnessing this transformation opened so many possibilities for him, opening his mind to so many solutions and scenarios as to how he was turned into a Pokemon to begin with. This could be the key to unlocking his past.

"Crimson! Focus!" Tag cried.

Shaking out of his spell of amazement, he returned to what appeared to be another wave of Orks descending upon them, one of which was aiming a massive fist towards his general body mass. With his years of training and his near perfection of his own fighting style, he leaped right to dodge the blow and retaliated rapidly with a strike from his Power Bat, which ignited into flames upon impact. He was surprised to discover how easily the flame-lit weapon blazed against the Ork's skin, causing the foul creature to erupt in a sizzling glow all around his arm and spreading quickly. He didn't focus on the screaming Ork for too long as he ducked under a wave of bullets aimed towards him and lunged forward. Thought instead of attacking, the blur of motion that was the small Turtwig caught him and the two went whizzing down the hall, beckoning the Orks to follow.

"Dude, we're totally in sync right now," Tag commented on the play, glancing back at the number of Orks coming after them. Since Crimson was the brightest glowing object in the room with his flame-lit tail, the odds were he would be leading most of them his direction. Which was what he wanted. The quicker he could get the enemy's mind off the Lugia, the easier time she'd have looking around and surveying the situation, likely providing a solution of some kind.

And then afterwards, they needed to talk.

---

The slowing of bullets aimed outward would prove to be a saving grace for the members of the Crimson Guild. Almost at once, they heard the reduction in fire as the source of fighting split between those who continued to guard from the outside and those who were battling the newer threats of the Lugia, Chimchar, and Turtwig.

"Their attacks are stopping!" a Buneary shouted from the left side of their group, "They must've found a breach! Let's go!"

"Wait!" a Flygon swooped on front of the masses and held up it's arms at them, "What if it's a trap?!"

"Then the bullet's would've stopped completely," a Snorlax from the back row called out.

"They're distracted!" a hyperactive Lilligant agreed, causing a few Pokemon to voice their favor of charging in.

"We don't know that," the Flygon continued to try to be the voice of reason, "For all we know, they could've been leading us on the entire time. Let's wait for Tag to get back before we do anything that could get us hurt too bad."

A few others in the crowd shouted in agreement to this idea.

But before any move could be made, the Buneary pointed towards the sky where her massive floppy ear was pointed and listening to something. "Guys, look!"

All eyes turned towards the sight in the sky. Flying together was a group of multiple Flying-Types in a super tight and clean V-Formation. These Pokemon also varied in size and shape, except they didn't even seem to notice. In the front of the V were two Pokemon with the same focused gaze. One was a Staraptor with a perky attitude and a strong mind. The other was a younger Honchkrow with a hesitant air around him, but a lust for the former that was noticeable every time he looked away from the ground and gazed at his partner in crime.

Peggy and Edal had arrived, the Sunrise Brigade in tow.

"Edal! Watcha got in your visuals?!" Peggy chirped, her fierce and unrelenting gaze locking onto the Power Plant.

Edal had to break his eyes away from her to examine the Power Plant on his own, "Hmm...looks like a couple breaches have been made in the back two corners of the structure as well as the rear entrance. Not a lot of defenses set up on the outside, but there's a lot of commotion going on within. Looks like we have the advantage in this scenario. Preferred method of approach?"

"Dive bomb."

"Dive bomb?"

"DIVE BOMB!" she suddenly cried as she folded her wings and began plummeting towards the ground at an insane speed, twirling all the way. Edal fell in right behind her and did the same. The other members of the V-Formation began forming the line, one by one, until it was a singular stream of Flying-Types darting towards the ground in one fluid motion. Not a feather was out of place. It would almost look like one bird approaching from the Ork's perspective as they drew closer and closer. Not that many of the Orks would be looking that far up.

That it, until it was too late.

"Sunrise Brigade...Spread 'em and Slice 'em!" Peggy's call was heard over the intense, rushing wind as she opened her wings and swooped up, flinging an Air Slash at a stationed Ork in one of the windows. The slash was so intense, it broke the window in the process of cutting through the Ork and it's weaponry. Edal was next, the same method of attack used as he flung his Air Slash at another Ork. And the next one. And the next one. Like a revolving firing squad, they attacked, flinging Air Slashes left and right at their targets, more than likely hitting and reducing the number of Orks they had by quite a number.

Meanwhile, Peggy kept the revolving door operating. She flew upwards and over, flying on her back above the other Sunrise Brigade crew and began to arc her trajectory down again. From the ground, it would look like a circle was being formed in the sky with a singular sharp corner in it's lower left side, where the sharp pinpoint turn upwards was being taken. The Sunrise Brigade could even perform tricks as they did the serious work.

Now Peggy had completely circled around and was right behind the last in line, ready to issue the next command, "Sunrise Brigade...Spread and Conquer! Take out all forces in the windows!"

And the circle was gone in an instant. The Sunrise Brigade split up in teams of two or three and began forming their own little V-Formations as they flew around the Power Plant, launching every attack they could at the Orks in the windows. Now that the Ork numbers were split, they would have little to no problem or resistance taking care of those who were stubborn enough to guard the outside.

---

And just as there was a breach above ground, there was a breach underground.

The Ground-Types found themselves an access point from below...a part of the Power Plant where the Maintenance crew worked and the repair team resided on standby. At least, when there wasn't a wide-scale Ork invasion threatening the lives of those in the town. No human was inside as a Drillbur began digging through the metal wall that led into the Power Plant from below. With little hesitation, it dropped inside and began to examine it's surroundings. The other Ground-Types filtered in behind him, finding the hole with the guidance of the others around them. Soon, everyone was inside, eyeing the computers and papers and looking for something important...mostly Orks.

A murmur ripped through the group and the Drillbur was suddenly tugged back by a small Cubone, who had alertness in his eyes.

"Careful where you step," the Cubone stated to him and all the Ground-Types around them as she pointed her bone towards the thick cord running at ankle height across the room, two explosives on each end. "They've set traps, it looks like."

Drillbur nodded, whispering a "Thanks" to her before stepping over the cord and moving further into the underground portion of the Power Plant, a greater sense of observance in his eyes. Everyone else followed suit, more keen to their surroundings. The Orks may not have been smart, but they knew how to set traps. Thankfully, the cords were thick and definitely visible to the naked eye, else there might've been a big boom from below.

---

Team Vitality's eyes lit up as they watched the metal scrap vanish before their eyes. They knew instantly what it was.

"A teleporter!" Gambit was the first to say it, looking at Siena for validation, who nodded in agreement.

"I think so. But why do they need one?"

"They're on the defensive right now," Gambit reasoned, "Maybe they're trying to leave."

"Again, it doesn't seem to be in line with how they think," Siena countered, "They're too aggressive to be retreating like that."

Dee's eyes widened as she put the pieces together, grabbing Siena in the process. "You're right. They're not retreating. They're bringing more troops in. We have to shut the Teleporter down!"

And the opportunity arose when the MechBoy disappeared into a shoddy shack set up nearby. If they wanted to take the thing down, now was the time. But how were they going to do it? Team Vitality approached the Teleporter and began looking for a way to shut it off.

"Maybe I have enough electricity in me to overload the Teleporter," Dee suggested and was about to place her hand on the device when Siena stopped her.

"No, wait! That could hurt you!"

Dee shrugged, "I'm an Electric-Type. I resist shocks of this caliber all the time." She readied her paws once more.

"How can you be sure? These guys have been using these devices we've never seen before since we got here. Let's shut down the Power Plant!"

Gambit tried to interject, "Hey guys-"

Dee raised a brow, ignoring the Togetic, "And bring darkness to the Kalos Region?"

"We can't just do nothing!" Siena rationalized, "And it would only be temporary until the Orks are gone from here."

"This is human owned, Siena. We can't just turn off a Power Plant without their consent. It's not right."

"Guys-"

"So you want to let loose hundreds of Orks into Ruula, then?"

"That's not what I said either. Just trust me. I can handle the charge."

"How do you know that what you're doing won't take down the Power Plant for good?"

"GUYS!"

Dee and Siena both turned to Gambit, who had a wide grin on his face. In his hand was the wire he'd watched the Ork jam into the machine earlier. The frayed part continued to spark as he held it a safe distance from his own body so as not to be hurt by it. Dee and Siena just stared in disbelief as they turned to where the wire had been cut with a Magical Leaf.

"I got it!" the Togetic said as he threw the frayed wire onto the floor, now useless. Both Dee and Siena sighed aloud.

"Since when were you one to do things simply?" Siena asked.

"Since I got tired of hearing you guys argue," Gambit replied nonchalant.

Otto stood up as the plane landed tensing one gloved hand his armor now unsullied by scratches. The metal and leather creaked where iridescent threads creaked to the surface extruding thin dollops of white fluid. Otto poked one rolling drop with a finger but it squirmed away from his touch off his arm vanishing in a spasm of smoke when it splattered to metal floor. The smell wasn't acrid that it had any smell at all but for the smooth scent of candles. Eyebrow raised Otto watched the non-adhesive drops emerge from the healed portions then vanish in a puff on the floor. He didn't hurt though it felt like cold sweat and it made his skin itchy. He'd have to ask the Jinhai what the hell's going on.

Duty came first though and he sighed to look back to Nefertari, "*Huff* Ambassador, eh? Well unless the commander has more duties for me I suppose I'll see to your safety in this city."

On the planet below deep under the lost ruins stirred an ancient power another tomb world came to life answering the overlord's call the scarabs turned from thier maintaining to Awakening and soon things started to power up the scarabs and spyders working to get the defense online and wake the first of the raiding parties. A single shroud cruiser sent from Kauvuri hovers above as the eyes of the overlord.

The flagship was abuzz with activity at the emergence of not only the sphere object from nowhere but now the Necron ship that had just appeared out of nowhere as well. Adsiltia remained composed as her fleets began to report in what they were seeing on their Auspexes. She tapped her fingers together as she thought before she spoke up.

"Helm, keep an eye on that Necron ship. If something comes from it, I want to know about it post haste. Open a line of communication with the ship and put out a general message. See if they reply. Captain, raise the Skittarii and tell them to split their forces. Half go to that sphere, the other goes to the ruins. I want constant situation reports and status updates alerting me to their progress. Be prepared to pull them out with the Teleporterum if needs be"

The helm began to do it's work as down below they got the call. 2500 Skittarii went off towards the sphere's crash site while the other began to drop into the ruins and began to scout and search through it. It would take some time but they might find something there.

At the sphere, the Skittarii landed several hundred meters away and held up Plasma Cavaliers, advanced plasma weaponry more efficient then regular plasma rifles and Meltaguns. These guns, only numbering in the dozens were able to superheat the air at a molecular level causing instant disintegration. As they approached, one such Skittarii lowered his rifle and moved ahead of his men. He didnt have his weapons drawn and looked to have more decorations on his armor to signify his rank.

He regarded the figure, noting the armament he carried and ahemmed, speaking in low gothic at first

"Greetings. I am Captain Sidalphios of the Innovation's Result. I have been instructed by my commander to investigate the crash of the orb from the sky. BY chance are you the sole occupant? We do come in peace...the men just have a perimeter set up just incase. This is a first contact scenario after all"

Overhead, several Thunderhawk ships hovers in a circular formation with their weapons pointed at the creature, ready to shoot if he decided that he was going to be hostile. No one shot but they were ready should the worst occur.

Captain Sidalphios held out a hand to shake, a sign of friendship.

Admiral Grayson grit his teeth when the Armageddon seemed to be resisting all of it's firepower, the concentrated firepower of three of the Aschen Empire's most powerful classes of ship.

While it was proving difficult to write a vaccine, the highly sophisticated AI Systems of the Reverence IIs were able to at the very least hold the spread of the Scrapcode at bay, isolating and purging entire key systems in real time before the code could take hold.

Perhaps it was an absolute where Sigan and Vrosh came from, that those subject to the scrapcode were doomed, but Aschen AIs were unlike anything encountered in their part of the Multiverse. The scrapcode was viciously analyzed, and purged from it's systems.

It wasn't the scrap-code that had the Aschen concerned, it was the now Sixty-Thousand Chaos warships that jumped into the system, while Aschen FTL did not in any way interact with the warp, and was thus unaffected by the warp storms, the rest of the Empire was still mobilizing it's counterattack, and Grayson knew that Aschen reinforcements were hours, if not days away. The Aschen did not anticipate the battle moving with such swiftness. But they also didn't anticipate help.

There was a collective gasp as UDW Ships began to jump in, opening fire on the Chaos Warships, but the concentrated fire on the three Reverence IIs quickly silenced that, in the split second they had to make peace with death.


Or did they?

It was Andromeda to the rescue...

The Matokey were known as an ancient, and extremely powerful race, one not to be trifled with by the Andromeda superpowers, a race of gifted mystics in tune with nature. It seemed the incursion of the Crimson Slaughter, and the warp disturbances they brought attracted the attention of one such creature.

And he had decided to intervene.

All the combined power of the Crimson Slaughter, leveled against three lone Aschen ships was halted in an instant by a power far beyond even the mightiest Chaos god, channeling the energy of the Chousin into a physical manifestation of the wings of the Light Hawk, a flowing, shimmering barrier of light between the Crimson Slaughter and the three battered Aschen ships appeared out of nowhere. Blinded by the sheer firepower wrought fourth by the Blackstone Fortresses no doubt likely blinded the Crimson Slaughter to the new alien vessel that seemed to appear from nowhere.

A construct that was roughly 100 kilometers in length, from bow to stern, that appeared grown rather than built stood between the unstoppable Daemons of the Crimson Slaughter, and the battered, beaten Aschen fleet.

There was a psychic calm emanating from the alien ship, a becalming signal that was actually taming the roiling energies of the warp, pushing them out and away from the nearly routed Aschen vessel.

Despite the firepower that should have left nothing, this lone alien vessel remained, the moment the fire died down, the shimmering barrier also slowly vanished, as the massive vessel came about, the becalming signal silencing the warp as it grew. Sigan would be unable to rend the soul of whomever was aboard this vessel like he did Raphael, as the vessel and it's inhabitant were cut off from the influences of the warp, here the immaterium existed separate, like water from air.

That lone ship's inhabitant was 'Taanz 'Velzzmkt, the Mt'kee ship-master dispatched to the Milky way to further peace and prosperity in the Galaxy, and protect AXIS Interests.

The Encompassing threat of Chaos was enough to force him to intervene, while not entirely aligned with Aschen interests, for now they sought similar ends.

A Single psionic transmission was whisker-beamed to the UDW crews on the other side of the system.

"These are the forces of a dimension known as the Immaterium, they are as evil as they are ancient; conventional warfare only serves to worsen the situation, we must stem this tide at it's source, and slam shut the jaws of the warp."

The sudden appearance of the Matokey fleet bought the Aschen mere seconds to retreat, abandoning the Cosmora Archipelago to it's fate, 500 ships down from 3,500.

One by one the fleet began to execute their jumps, winking out through wormholes, bypassing the warp storms entirely.

---

This battle was now in the hands of the remaining Aschen, Matokey, and UDW.

Positioning itself between the advancing Crimson Slaughter, and the planet Cosmora itself, the Matokey Vessel began acquiring targets, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands all simultaneously acquired.

An energy surge that could be described as akin to the big bang itself erupted in the bowels of the Matokey vessel, and searing beams of white light flashed out in every direction, beams that contained enough energy to vaporize entire star systems condensed in a beam the width of a few meters, there were thousands of these individual beams, of which void shields would be powerless to resist.

In an instant, tens of thousands of Crimson Slaughter vessels would likely be impaled, gutted by these beams of light at once. Even the mightiest void shield patterns would be overwhelmed in the first split second of impact, and the beam sustained itself until full contact through the ship was made.

A moment later, thousands of wooden like pods were fired towards the planet, streaking through the atmosphere to visit untold power upon the Crimson Slaughter planet-side.

----

The Aschen defense across hundreds of cities had collapsed, and people were now being evacuated via the planet's Bifrost hub, the Crimson Slaughter had almost total control of all but the cities of Isca, Eger, and Lyra, where the Aschen defenses were barely holding them at bay.

Where the pods landed, they seemed to disintegrate into a primordial goo, before reforming into millions of bio-mechanical insectoid creatures.

They spread like wildfire, balefire, bolter fire, psionics did little to stop them, as the began to consume everything they could reach, cultists, daemon engines, even the Chaos Space marines would be swarmed and consumed as the creatures consumed and replicated, they were completely indiscriminate in their consumption of those on the surface, but they also differentiated between the Aschen humans, and the mutated daemons of the Crimson Slaughter.



Even the power armor was useless, as these creatures swarmed, consumed, and replicated, like a cancer these strange creatures began to spread out in every direction. There was no Helldrake, Transport, or even any frigates that got too low that could escape these creatures, as once an infestation started it spread rapidly.

It would be mere hours before these creatures consumed the whole of the Cosmora Archipelago planet, as they multiplied exponentially.

Roughly a million kilometers from the Innovation's result, and the alien ship, a single construct appeared out of nothingness, distorting the space around it, a massive diamond shaped ship, 800 kilometers across slowly moved into position.

Upon scanning the vessel, one would find that the scans were unable to penetrate the hull, and that there were no minds to corrupt, or rather, the few minds aboard this alien ship had already been enslaved.

Like writhing tentacles, millions of Sentinels moved about this massive diamond, but they did not make any motion of attacking.

"Seized by God, they cry for succour in the dark of the light. Mists of dreams dribble on the nascent echo and love no more."

Gibberish in the eyes of someone who didn't know, phrases beyond human comprehension as a pool of calx noctis rippled and buckled, crackling as the mind's essence took control, the form solidifying into a female framed by short hair, and vivid red eyes.

She looked to her hands for the briefest of moments, as crystalline plates interlocked over her naked form.

"Then shall the maidens rejoice at the dance."

She looked up, at nothingness, though in reality information was coursing through her mind, scans of the planet, artifacts, power sources, even the Necron vessel stirring to life.

She licked her lips, as more interlocking crystalline plates moved across her skin.

"It is here, and the Iron casket closes upon the light once more, the crystal is here, and I shall rise again..."

The lone figure, armoured in the same enigmatic unknowable black metal armour, touched down onto the ground with a gentle thump as feet alighted with the soil. There was the barest disturbance of dust as their metallic feet finally made landfall, only the tiniest of evidence of their presence before they stepped forwards, now kicking up more dust under their feet as the long undisturbed planet finally felt life once more.

They kept their weapon raised as their head slowly scanned from one direction to the next, their arm tracking the slow movements of their visor as it swept across the terrain. There was no glow or sign of readying discharge from the barrel of the strange weapon as it silently moved, though true there was also no clear way from the observer of how it even loaded, fired or was at all operated. The dim red glow of the alien visor acted as though it were a lighthouse in the void as it gently moved in one direction and then the next, seemingly taking in all of the open ground around them.

They sensed rather than heard the approaching aliens. Even before their sensors detected the change in atmospheric pressure they could feel their coming. There was a hint of untapped potential there, but it was muted, watered down and utterly redundant. Whatever these aliens were they were enough of interest to cause the outsider to halt and look upwards towards the sky. Highly tuned sensors swept the open air on countless spectrums and picked up the incoming vessels. Even from this extreme distance they could begin to analyse them in fine detail. These alien craft were small and shockingly primitive. They seemed to be expelling a great deal of heat and were giving off great signs of electricity, not to mention each of them carried a significant number of lifeforms of both biological and mechanical in nature. These aliens seemed to be either highly devolved or highly flawed in their technology, though to be certain would mean simply waiting for them to be present before them in order to conduct a proper scan of them.

So, they waited. There was nothing of any other interest in the immediate vicinity after all, so they lowered their weapon arm and waited. They thankfully did not have to wait long, for though these alien craft were primitive they were fast, certainly fast enough to make landfall and have their occupants approach in good speed. As they approached the outsider was given a better chance to scan them in person. It did not fill them with any great hope, these individuals seemed to be a mismatch of cybernetics and organic material, an amalgamation of flesh and machine that sadly did little to truly compliment each others function, rather it seemed that- judging by the fact some individuals had some internal organs removed whilst others did not judging by x-ray bursts- these individuals had decided to simply replace vital parts with primitive bio-mechanics. These seemed to serve no greater function that their already existing organic matter, judging by the fact that they did not act differently in accordance to their mechanical differences, which made the outsider wonder just what the point of such an operation was. If these creatures were willing to go to the difficulty of replacing their body parts with mechanical, why then would they not improve themselves instead of stunt their own growth needlessly?

The answer could wait however as it seemed one of these aliens were starting to approach them. They took a quick moment to scan across the other gathered aliens, noting the primitive weapons pointed at them not to mention the less than subtle alien landing craft hovering above. In response to their hostility a dim green sheen arced across the visitors armour, coating them in a deceptive light as they kept their own arm down. These aliens would no doubt make the first move, they were primitive creatures who seemed to move in primitive spheres, to act overtly in control of the situation would doubtless provoke them into rash action. Focusing their attention back onto the lone figure they couldn't help but note the obvious size difference between them. This alien was just shy of three feet shorter and near twice as thin as them and seemed entirely frail to behold, even with their bio-mechanical additions. It could be theorised then that such creatures simply needed to replace their organic matter with mechanical processes simply to survive as a race.

This alien seemed to also be making peculiar noises at them, there was a rhythm and a pattern to their noises that might well have meant they were trying to communicate to them, though in an entirely debased and unevolved way. This certainly did not fill them with any great confidence of the creatures, though they were numerous they seemed to have pitifully debased technology that was eons behind anything they had ever encountered and on top of that they seemed to communicate like base animals devoid of higher thought, though clearly they were at least capable of it. They watched silently, unmoving as the creature extended an arm towards them.

There was a heavy pause as they did not move closer to the creature nor react at all, they were too busy trying to figure out just what their purpose was. These aliens certainly did not seem in control of this planet nor were they local to it otherwise they would come the horizon and not the sky... Eventually curiosity beat out the desire to puzzle this out themselves and they stepped closer to the small alien, the weapon upon their arm retracting to allow their left hand freedom of movement. Their right hand reached out and enveloped the thin and frail forearm of the creature, such was the size difference that they were all but entirely enveloped with in the grasp. Their left hand however shot out and perhaps less gently than could be grasped ahold of the creatures head, fingers digging into the top of the aliens skull.

The red light of the visor changed a sudden, warping and wobbling green as there was a short flash of light and energy and then a form a psyonic probe jumped between the two figures. It was however something entirely alien and beyond that of normal psychics, something from a realm where such things were as simple and unnoticed as the beating of ones heart. This probing of mind and strength reached into the mind of the alien, forcing itself in like a parasite through the skin. What it found did not fill it with joy.

It noted as it passed that it was causing pain to the creature, though it was attempting to minimise such a thing, this creature was not able to not feel the pain. For some unknown reason this creature did not possess the higher mental functions to be able to project their will, though it seemed there was something in their genetic code that could have allowed such a formation of data to allow incredibly potential. Casting through this creatures thoughts and memories was a painfully simple process, he did not seem to think in advanced patterns and even those processes replaced by cybernetics were indeed primitive. Their language was one that seemed to have stagnated and devolved from something else, their thoughts were base and dull and lacked the spark of higher potential. These creatures... Humans... Were stunted, detached from something that could have been the next step in their evolution and not to mention there was an odd... Tie, a link to something primitive and vast and utterly beyond these beings that lurked into a realm that seemed all too familiar and yet foreign. They dug through this aliens memories, this 'Captain Sidalphios' and saw a vast realm that stretched from galactic edge to galactic edge. They saw a realm that was devolved and debased, a realm that had been corrupted, they saw this Sidalphios' memories and opinions of their realm, the twisted creatures devotion to the ideas of machine and metal and saw their burning hatred of all things not... Human. The thoughts and ideals of a nation of fools, these beings should not have survived if this was all they were. It seemed this Sidalphios must be something of an outsider, for surely all of Human kind could not be so ill attuned to the whims of the universe.

They retracted from the mind of the creature, though they still attempted to remain as gentle as possible they were aware that to a creature so unattuned to the projections of will and lacking in potential that it would feel as though they were drawing knives across their brain. They released the Captain suddenly, taking a step back as the probe returned to their body, the lights of their armour shifting from green back to a simple steady red.

"Your thoughts are simple and primitive, Captain Sidalphios." The voice came emanating out from somewhere within the armour, speaking now in the Low Gothic that they had taken an understanding of from the Humans brain. "You are unable to understand my name or the name of my kind, but in your language the closest approximation of my name would be Chaubrartedduxumnaehinaghyleolnua, "The one who watches from the void and see's all that passes."" The alien visitor raised their head from where they had been looking down at the Captain to gaze across their men. "I would advise commanding you... Skittari? To stand down. It would be less than desirable to be required to dismantle their offensive capabilities prior to being able to study your kind further."

The planet was getting too busy. The Necron Shroud Cruiser's systems​ became alert it's guns and shields powering up. The ship didn't move but it was clear it was ready to defend itself should anything come too close. It's defensive stance definitely begged the question... What was the ship defending?

On the ground the scarabs and spyders worked quickly sensing a threat coming. They wanted to make sure a defense was ready should the ones in the ruins above prove hostile. To examine the threat two phase cloaked wraiths entered the ruins above.

The two wraiths would watch from the shadows monitoring the actions of the Skittari and report back to the tomb and the ship above.