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The Reaper's Return

2K views 19 replies 11 participants last post by  Sleedon 
#1 ·
Hi.

Iv not been writing very long, so dont be to harsh :)

The Reaper Returns

Captain John Lucas of the Cadian 101st led his armoured tank division up over the crest of yet another partly demolished hill. This planet had seen many years of war; the imperial forces trying to hold back the increasing number of Necron raids.

Captain Lucas was travelling from the main base that the Imperial army had set up to an artillery factory named Falherm that had reported an increased number of attacks in the last few months. Captain Lucas was on of the most decorated members of the Cadian 101st and he had been sent to quell these attacks.

The armoured tank column did not reach Falherm until nightfall but he immediately set his troops about with strengthening the defences, setting up sentries and sending out scouts. It was not until 3:00 in the morning that the village finally fell still, with only a few people moving on the edges of the barricades or scouts returning and bringing news.

“Sir! Come quick!” a scared voice cut through the Captain’s dreams like an knife.
“What is it?” snapped the Captain, irritated “You’d better have a good reason for waking me up!”
“Sir! The scouting party you sent out yesterday have come back.”
“Well, what’s the news? Have they found the source of the attacks?”
“I-I think so.” Stammered the unfortunate Private “You’d better come and see.”
Captain Lucas jumped to his feet and pulled on his uniform. “What time is it?”
“It’s about half past six, sir” replied the Private as they hurried out the entrance to the tent and towards the main gates.

When they reached the gates, a crowd of people were clustered around what remained of the 101st finest scouting squad. Lucas shoved people aside so he could get to the front and question the squad. However, what he saw froze the words in his mouth. There was only one surviving member of the squad. 20 had set out and only one had returned, and this one did not look like he had long before he joined the rest of his team. Both his arms were gone and he had suffered many small, but deep cuts all over his body. Or what was left of it. When he opened his eyes and saw the Captain, he called out for him. Lucas knelt down by the dying soldier and clasped his hands in his own.
“Sir!” he gasped
“Yes Corporal. What is it? What happened? Where are the others?
“Sir!”
“Yes?” Lucas looked into his eyes and saw a mad, insane fear. “Yes?”
“RUN”

End of Part 1







Suddenly the sentry over the main gates gave a cry.
“Captain! There’s something out there. I don’t think it’s human. Sir?”
“Sergeant!” the captain spun round and looked directly at the sergeant. “Tell your man to take up positions on the edges of the barricades and split them into groups of five. Give each group a lascanon between them. They each have their hellfire guns?”
“Yes sir! All my men are ready to go.”
“Good. Position a couple of Leman Russ’s at the main gate and the rest at other main points around the perimeter. The Basilisks are to be positioned in the middle of the town where they have a good line of sight to all sides. Get them up high if you can.”
“Sir.” the sergeant hurried away to carry out his superiors’ orders.
Lucas strode up to the top of the battlements and surveyed the surrounding hills and patches of trees.
Suddenly, the sun peaked the top of the distant mountains and spread her warming light over the valley. But with the light of a new day, came a thrill of fear. In the middle distance, rows of gleaming metallic bodies were marching slowly but steadily down from the hills.
“Sergeant! Bring me my binoculars!”
Lucas took the binoculars from his sergeants shaking hands and surveyed the scene more closely.

From a distance, the mass of bodies looked like a sea of silver, glinting in the early morning sunlight. But up close Captain Lucas could see each individual bodies.
“Necrons!” he hissed with hate, and fear.

Right in the middle of the massive sea of machines, Lucas could see the Necron Lord, surrounded by at least twenty of its elite bodyguard. He gave a small shiver of fear. Pariahs. He had fought them before and knew that the 6 foot long warscythes they carried could cut through the main barrel of a Leman Russ with alarming ease. He could see that the Lord carried one as well, making it even more deadly that usual. This was not good.

On either side of the Lord, and making up the bulk of the Necron force, stood rows upon rows of shimmering Necron warriors. Lucas knew from what he had seen done to his fellow officers that the weapons held in their hands could strip a human down to its individual molecules in seconds, seconds of unimaginable pain.

To the sides of the main phalanx, on both flanks, floated several giant skimmers, each at least ten feet from ground to the top of its head there was at least ten of them.
Directly in front of the Destroyers, for that was what they were, floated six ghostly figures, three on each side. They were Wraiths and were one of the most terrifying things in the Necron armies. They had the ability to pass through solid objects like they weren’t there and could ever survive blows from power weapons or blasts from a Leman Russ’s main canon.

Then Lucas saw some thing that made his blood freeze in his veins. Three colossal Monoliths were cresting the hill. They were at least fifty feet high and supported mammoth amounts of firepower. Lucas has seen just one of these wipe out an entire twenty-man squad of guardsmen with one blast from its main weapon, which the technicians back at base called a Particle Whip. As well as that, each Monolith had four huge weapons, one on each corner. These were called Gauss Flux Arc Projectors or just Flux Arcs. They were capable of dealing out large amounts of destruction in seconds. There were other things flitting in and out of the Monoliths but Lucas couldn’t yet see what they were.
“Sergeant! Radio command and get them to send reinforcements! We are going to need a lot of help here. Oh forget it, give me the radio, fast!”

“Captain Lucas! What is the situation down there?”
“ Major Browne, we have a massive amount of Necrons down here, numbering into the thousands!”
“What! But they never attack in more than about a hundred! This is unheard of!”
“I know sir and we are not equipped to deal with a force this big sir. We need some help!”
“Captain. I’m going to sent the Cadian 101st heavy artillery and several squads of Cadia’s finest and most experienced Necron fighters. Around two thousand troops in all and around one hundred tanks. I may also let you have something else.”
“What sir?”
“I cant tell you at the moment. It’s codenamed Hammer of Thor. All I can say is that you’ll recognise it when you see it.”
“Yes sir. When can I expect them?”
“The reinforcements will arrive within six hours. All you need to do is hold out till then.”
The line went dead.

End of part 2


the next parts will be coming soon (i hope).
 
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#2 ·
pretty good so far
 
#6 ·
OK, next bits here!
(not too sur about the last few lines, could u give me some feedback plz? thx)


For the next hour, Lucas set about rearranging his men and tanks; the Leman Russ’s were now about a hundred yards behind the gates and the Basilisks were set up on the hill in the middle of the town. At least two hundred guardsmen were set up along the northern edge of the barricade, facing the oncoming Necron legions.
The Necrons had, for some reason, stopped. They were just standing there, radiating menace and evil so powerful that everyone on the walls, some half a mile away, shivered.

“What are they doing?” the sergeant whispered to Lucas “Why aren’t they advancing?”
“I don’t know.” snapped the captain “Prepare the Basilisks. Tell the other sergeants to get their men ready.”
Each of the four sergeants was in charge of five men. Two carried hellguns, one had a rocket launcher on his shoulder, and the other two were operating a lascanon. The sergeants carried bolt pistols and power swords. Together, each was a formidable group of men. They had all faced Necrons before, although not in such number admittedly, and Lucas knew they would show no fear. He hoped they could hold back the Necrons until evening.

One of the sentries gave a cry.
“What the hell! Where are they? Where have they gone?”
The captain leapt up the side of the barricade.
“What is it? What’s happened?”
“Sir. The monoliths have gone sir. Just gone!”
Lucas looked out into the gleaming ranks of the metallic figures and realised that the sentry was right. The hulking bodies of the monoliths had disappeared! All that was left was a slight green haze. That was getting nearer.
“Emperor protect us!”
“Sir? What is it?”
“ The monoliths are teleporting closer. It’s part of their battle plan!” the captain whirled round. “Sergeant! Ready your men. It’s time to fight!”

Suddenly the ground shook as the three colossal machines materialised just a hundred yards from the main gate and opened fire. The gates were blasted apart in a whirlwind of gauss flame and the Leman Russ’s opened fire on the monoliths with their main canons. The lascanons were firing repeatedly at the monolith closest to them and the basilisks were pounding the ranks of Necrons behind.
The captain watched all this from the top of the main hall with his bodyguard.
“So, it begins.”

There was a series of explosions as one of the Leman Russ’s was caught in a flash of gauss lighting from one monoliths Particle Whip and catapulted onto another next to it. The remaining tanks renewed their barrage and one of the giant Necron pyramids erupted in a spiral of green fire.
“Yes!” the sergeant next to Lucas punched the air. “We got one!”
“Yes, we got one and there are still two there. Not to mention the rest of the Necron battle force.”
The sergeant fell silent as two more Russ’s fell victim to the monoliths lethal green energies.

There was worse to come. When the first monolith was annihilated, the others began to initiate their secret weapon. They stopped firing and instead turned their ghostly energy towards their own troops. The Necrons were wreathed in a haunting sickly, green fire that clouded them from the Imperials’ view. Within second however, the fog had cleared and half the Necrons were gone.
“What the-“
But before the captain had a chance to finish his question, the answer presented itself.
Unit by unit, the Necron warriors were appearing out of the portal at the front of the monolith.
“ Guardsmen!” Lucas yelled at the surrounding Imperial Guard “Open fire!”

Beams of red light shot from the end of the hellguns towards the Necrons and several went down almost at once. But just as quickly got back up again.
“Dammit! I forgot about that!” grumbled Lucas.
“What happened? We killed them! Why aren’t they dead?” the sergeant was starting to panic.
“Necrons have the ability to rebuild their bodies. Sometimes, not all the time, they are able to pull them selves back together when they are destroyed.”
“But-but how will we win if they can’t die!”
“Didn’t you listen!” Lucas snapped. “I said they sometimes repair themselves. Some times the damage is just to great.”
“But if they-”
“Pull yourself together man! Set an example to your men!”
The sergeant fell silent, apart from the odd mutter or whimper.
The Leman Russ’s had opened fire with their various secondary guns, lascanons and heavy bolters, at the closest groups of Necrons with impressive results; the first to lines of Necrons had been blown away. But no matter how many they destroyed, at least half of them returned to rain gauss fire on the Leman Russ’s. Even the Necrons least powerful weapon, if you could call any of their weapon anything other than powerful, was able to annihilate a Leman Russ. And now the rest of the Necron legions joined the battle, with Pariahs striding into the midst of the tanks and slicing into their chassis, their fearsome warscythes leaving smoking gashes in the armour.

The Wraiths had glided with unnatural speed through the debris clashing with the guardsmen on the top of the walls, letting blows and shots pass through them, and striking back with a surgeons precision. Destroyers were aiding the colossal Monoliths in wiping out the remaining Leman Russ’s and the swarms of tiny silver bodies that looked like metallic insects, shot through every gap in the barricade heading towards to Basilisks.
Lucas watched them with a cautious eye.
“What are they doing?” he whispered “They cannot possibly hope to breach their armour”
His wonderings were cut short, however, when the massed ranks of Necron Warriors broke through the now thin line of tanks had began to fire on him. He dove aside as a blast of green gauss flame shot past him. As he got up, he drew his Las-Pistol and glanced around. His bodyguards had all got to safety and were making their way back to him.
“What now sir?” asked a Kasrkin sergeant.
“Get to some cover and stay there. Do not attempt to engage unless it is absolutely necessary.”

Captain Lucas ducked and rolled towards the cover of a small mound of rubble and glanced through a gap in the lumps of concrete. The Necron Warriors had taken a beating and there was only about fifteen left. But these were still just as deadly and Lucas knew that he would have to fight his way out.

“Open fire!” he yelled as he rolled up and began to pound the front Necrons with rounds from his Las-Pistol. The rest of his Bodyguard followed suit and soon there were four Bolt Pistols, three Las-Pistols and a high-powered Sniper Rifle aimed and firing at the ranks of Necrons. The combined weapons were bringing down Necrons with ease, but almost instantly, they were getting up again. Then the captain sent a hail of las shots in a tight cluster at a Necron head. It was blown off its body and the Necron did not get up. Lucas began to wonder if he had found the Necrons weakness.
“Aim for the heads! They can’t repair themselves if you aim for the head!”

Following his own advise, he sent another burst at one which impacted at the Necrons neck. It fell to its knees, head hanging by just a few cables. Another was dropped by the sniper, its whole body being thrown backwards by the force of the shot.
But the Necrons were getting closer, only five yards between them and Lucas’s men. The captain knew he would have to go hand to hand soon and instructed his men to switch to close-combat weapons. He holstered his Pistol and drew his gleaming power-sword. As the rest of his team switched to various swords and knives, he readied himself for the charge.

Yelling incomprehensibly, he hurled himself at the enemy, his power-sword swinging left and right, decapitating Necrons on either side. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a sergeant, Jonah, go down under the bladed ends of the Necrons fearsome weapons. Lucas leapt into the midst of three of the metallic warriors and sliced through two of them. As he was spinning round to deliver a blow to the final Necron, he heard the unmistakable sound of a gauss weapon firing and saw two more of his faithful bodyguard atomised. There was only five humans left now, and seven Necrons. They were surrounded. But just as the remaining Necrons were advancing for the final blow, and the remaining humans were preparing to sell their lives as dearly as possible, the Necrons stopped. The circle they had made around them was broken and a massive figure stood in the gap.

The fearsome figure, of the Necron Lord. It stood at least nine feet tall, silhouetted against the midday sun. In its right hand, it held a huge warscythe, bigger than the one carried by the Pariahs. In its left hand it held an orb, glowing with a sickly green energy. As Lucas watched, the ferocity of the orbs glow began to increase and it began to give off a shrill whine. Lucas watched in horror as hundreds of destroyed Necrons, ones that had not self-repaired, slowly got up and put themselves back together. At that moment, Lucas knew that the battle was lost. The only remaining things in his army were the Basilisks up on the hill and he could see that they would not last long.

Slowly, the Necron Lord began to execute the remaining members of his team. One by one they fell, each cut down by the Lords invincible weapon. He was next. Lucas looked up into the lifeless metal skull and prayed that the Emperor would avenge his army. The warscythe went up, and began to fall towards his neck. Lucas closed his eyes, and remembered his family.

End of part 3
 
#7 ·
This is getting really interesting
 
#8 · (Edited)
ok, parts 4 and 5. these are possible my best yet!

btw, tell me who you would rather win, IG or Necs' and ill change the ending accordingly.

Suddenly there was a dull thud and a clang; the sound of metal on metal. Captain Lucas glanced up and saw the Necron Lord lying in the dust a few feet away. Rising now to a crouch, Lucas spotted a gap in the circle of Necrons, now slowly closing in on him. From his sprint start position, he hurtled through the gap and into the street.

All around him were Necron Warriors, Wraiths and the odd Destroyer. But none of them noticed him; they were all heading towards the shattered remains of the main gates, where Lucas could hear the sound of hellgun blasts, mixed in with the unmistakable “BOOM” of a Leman Russ Demolisher’s main cannon. He found a set of stairs that had not been too badly damaged and raced up them. Once on the roof, he gazed out at the amazing scene. Just cresting the hill that the Necrons had advanced over only hours before, came the rest of the Cadian 101st armoured division, his own regiment, backed up by some of the planets own defence units. Lucas didn’t even try to count the numbers; it would take longer than he had. He raced down from the roof and to what remained of the wall. As he climbed the barricade, he heard an unmistakable sound that shook him to his core, the earth-splitting roar of a huge battle cannon. The colossal machine that was… The Hammer of Thor. The last of its kind in existence. A Baneblade. The mammoth symbol of the Adeptus Mechanicus. A full one hundred feet long, sixty feet wide and supporting more firepower than an average platoon. It’s main cannon, all twenty feet of it, shook as it delivered another devastating blow the Necron Monoliths guarding the entrance to the town. From Captain Lucas’s position on top of the wall, he was close enough to see the Necrons’ unearthly armour trying to repair itself as a huge shell embedded in its outer plates. Then it exploded, engulfing the Monolith in a whirl of fire and destruction. The Monolith was blasted to pieces and Lucas had to throw himself flat on the top of the barricade to avoid the shrapnel that scythed towards him. As the captain rose unsteadily to his feet he spotted an armoured jeep hurtling down the side of the hill.
Lucas climbed down the other side of the barricade and awaited the occupants.

The jeep slid to a halt and the door was flung open.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Get in!” yelled Major Browne
“Sir! What are you doing here.”
“Not now! Lets get behind our lines first.”

Captain Lucas pulled himself into the vehicle and it sped off, swerving back up the hill. Once behind their own lines, Major Stanley Browne gave Captain Lucas a quick briefing.
“As you can see, I managed to get a lot a support up here once I told the Commanders what was going on. They regret that they could not send more, but there have been several attacks around the surrounding area so they need troops where they are. Oh don’t worry!” said Browne, seeing the concern on Lucas’s face. “They’ve only been small scale raids; nothing serious, apart from here”
“Do you have any idea why the Necrons might be attacking in such huge numbers? What possible reasons could they have for attacking this facility in such numbers? Is there anything you know about this?”
The Major sighed and looked away, out towards the battle between the Imperial Guard and the Necrons.
“Sir?”
“I really shouldn’t be telling you this but…” Browne turned and looked Lucas straight in the eye. “A few months ago when we were conducting a satellite scan of the area, we noticed what appeared to be a huge cave directly below the town. We located the entrance and sent a recon team down there with cameras. We lost contact with them just four hours later. Before we lost contact, we recorded seeing thousands, hundreds of thousands of Necrons. They were in standing like they’d been, I don’t know, switched off or something. But they didn’t stay like that for long. A massive sarcophagus that was standing in the middle of the cavern suddenly gave off a great blast of steam and it started to melt. As it melted, the liquid rose up and formed a huge figure, easily ten or fifteen feet tall, with a cloak as black as night and a skin that looked like it was made out of some kind of metal. As it turned towards the team, the Warriors came to life. The men readied their weapons to fire upon the enemy, but before they could, the figure that had risen out of the sarcophagus raised its hand and one of the team was lifted into the air by an unknown force. What looked like silver rope began to emerge from his chest. The creature seemed to almost drink these things. Then the same thing happened to the one carrying the camera and it went dead.” The Majors voice, that had been growing steadily fainter, retained its usual sharp tone. “Well, we sealed the entrance and caused a landslide to cover up the concrete. However, this attack seems to imply that the entrance has been uncovered and opened, and we can only assume that the monstrous creature that decimated the recon squad will emerge at some point. We need to get to the entrance and re-seal it, this time properly.”
Suddenly, there was a shout from the Lieutenant, and a cry of joy from the troops.
“Sir! The Necrons have retreated! They are teleporting away over to the south.”
“That’s the direction of the entrance. They must be going to reinforce it, or else they have been called back.” The major muttered, almost to himself. “We need to get over there as soon as possible!”
“I shall alert the troops that we will be moving in pursuit of the enemy.”

As captain Lucas surveyed the dead on the battlefield he recalled the major’s words; “thousands, hundreds of thousands of them”, and the mysterious being that had, so carelessly, killed an entire recon squad in seconds. Lucas knew that this last battle would not be an easy one, and that, chances were, he would not survive this final conflict.

End of Part 4

The entrance to the underground catacombs were about five mile away, and it took the convoy just half an hour to reach it.
The colossal gateway lay at the far end of a large valley, surrounded on all sides by steep, high cliffs, topped by what looked like thick foliage. There was evidence of the landslide that Major Browne had created to seal the gateway, but a large hole had been blasted out of the centre, and the roughly circular hole was strangely ominous.

As the armoured column drew closer to the entrance, Lucas could make out a faint, green glow coming from deep within the hole. When they finally stopped, the captain, accompanied by Major Brown, jumped out of their jeep and stood on the crest of the final small mound before he cave.
“By the Emperor, it’s huge!” exclaimed Lucas, gazing up at the circular hole, easily wide enough for two Baneblades to fit comfortably in side by side.

They now stood right in the mouth of the tunnel. It stretched a long way into the cliff, until it rose a small way, then dropped. Lucas could now see what was making the green glow that he could see earlier. Every hundred yards or so there were clusters of large, glowing crystals sprouting out of the walls and floor. They were lit from inside with an eerie green energy that made all who saw them feel very uncomfortable.
“Send in the chimeras and hellhounds to clear the way of any small parties. We will come up behind with the Russ’s and Baneblade.” Major Brown had began issuing orders into his vox caster. “Activate the electro hulls on the chimeras before you go. That should stop any unwanted close calls.”
“Electro hulls?” Lucas had not heard the name before.
“They’re an ancient bit of technology. The only reason we haven’t got rid of them yet is that the techies back at base cant get them off without permanently disabling the vehicle. Besides they come in useful every now and then. They work using the tanks own power supply to electrically energise the tanks hull, which stops anything touching the hull without receiving a nasty shock. We haven't been able to see whether they’ll work on the Necrons yet, but in this closed space, we should see some results.”

The advance team proceeded further into the caves, constantly transmitting live video and audio feed from the cameras positioned on top of one of the chimeras. Looking into the small screen, Lucas was reminded of what happened to the last humans who had ventured into these caves. He hoped they did not meet the same fate.

On the screen, the advance scout group had reached the furthest point they had seen from the cave entrance. Browne ordered them to stay there as the rest of the force made their way into the cliff face.
“Everyone stay together, and keep an eye open for any hostiles.” barked Browne into his vox caster. “And be careful, don’t touch the crystals. They’re deadly.”
One guardsman, who had been examining one of the small crystals, jumped at the sound of his magnified voice and his hand brushed against the crystal. Immediately, a small bolt of green electricity shot out of the tip, striking the man in the centre of the chest. He collapsed on the floor of the cave, shuddering as though he had been plugged into a socket. In seconds, he was dead, his charred corpse smoking gently in the light breeze coming from the entrance to the caves. The rest of his squad passed by in silence.

After a few minutes, the main bulk of the army caught up with the advance party, and they set off again. The tunnel sloped steadily downwards, deeper into the ground. After an hour or so, they realised that the walls, that had been earth and rocks up till now, had become smooth and metallic, interrupted by small holes every few meters. No one wanted to think about what was in there, or what they were for.
As they made their slow, cautious way down the length of the tunnel, they encountered many small, insect like robots, flitting in and out of the holes.
“Sir, shall we fire on them?” asked one lieutenant, gazing at the things in apprehension.
“No,” came the reply from the Major. “just leave them. They aren’t bothering us, and we don’t want to advertise our presence any more than we need to.”
“With all due respect, sir. I think that they probable know we’re coming anyway.”
“You’re probably right lieutenant, but I don’t want to take that risk.”
The lieutenant fell silent, and the army passed by.

Eventually, they reached a large doorway, which lead into a huge cavern. The walls, ceiling and floor were made from the same metallic material, although now it glowed from within with a ghostly green glow. There were hundreds of openings in the three facing walls, each roughly the size of human. From what Lucas could see, there were more halls through so of them. When he strained his eyes, he could just make out humanoid shapes, standing perfectly still.
The Major had removed his vox caster again.
“Everyone stick together. No one is to touch or do anything without me knowing about it first.” He barked, his amplified voice echoing off the smooth walls and ringing in the silence that followed.

A group of scouts were sent to each of the halls off the main one, to get an idea of how many Necrons there were. They had to tread carefully, as there were hundreds of the small, beetle-like robots scuttling to and fro around the bodies of the dormant warriors. Live video feed was coming from all of the scouts, so the Major could follow their every move. In each of the halls, there were ranks upon ranks of gleaming, metal Necron bodies.
“Sir. There are hundreds of them!” the sergeant of one of the squads reported back to Major Browne, where they were setting up defences around the main hall. There were several autocanon turrets set up on either side of the entrances to the hall. The chimeras and hellhounds were positioned in a circle facing outwards, surrounding the Commander and his men. The Guardsman were taking up positions around the fronts of the tanks and near the walls.

“Sir, what are your orders?” the sergeants began to radio back in to the command squad.
“Proceed to the second phase of the plan.” The Major whispered into his radio. “You know what you have to do.”
“Sir”

Each of the scouts took, out of their packs, several large, square blocks of high-powered explosives, and placed them at the feet of a large, pyramidal structures that dominated the lesser halls. Major Browne recognised them. They were Monoliths in their dormant state. Like the many hundreds of Necrons surrounding them, somehow contriving to produce an aura of menace, even whilst they were asleep. The scouts finished placing the explosives, and made their way cautiously back to the main hall. As they returned, one by one, they were sent to their positions by the Major, around the entrances to the main hall. The entrances were then blocked, and the timers on the charges were set for five minutes. This gave the Major time to give his next commands.

“Men! You have all done very well!. In just a few minutes the explosives in the lesser halls will detonate, destroying the Monoliths and many of the Necron scum.” Major Browne gazer around at the ranks of unshakable Imperial might arrayed before him. “Our job will be to eliminate the remainder of the Xenos in this facility. There will be more, many more of them than you have faced before, but their numbers will have been greatly reduced, and, for once, we have the upper hand. We hold the defensible location. We have firepower enough to completely obliterate these foul beings, a hundred times over! And we shall fight until the very last one of them is dead! Do I make my self clear! In the name of our Emperor on his Golden Thrown, we shall not rest until we are the only living creature in these walls!”

The cheer that arose from the hundreds of Imperial Guardsmen would have shook the walls of any other structure, but here it sounded strangely dulled and muffled. However this did not reduce the feeling of invincibility that every men felt when he heard those words, and there was not one man among them who did not feel the glorious truth in his words.
Save one. Captain John Lucas stood at Major Browne’s side, and he felt a terrible cold fall upon him, and he heard the whisperings of the long dead, and now re-awoken sentience that seemed to seep from the very walls that surrounded him, and chilled him to the bone.
“You cannot prevail against me. Nothing can. I am older than Death itself. I have seen the rise and fall of great empires. And now, I shall conduct the fall of yours. Your `mighty` civilisation. You who have barely made an impression upon this universe and shall be swatted like an irritating insect. Because that’s all you are; a tiny fly who would dare face the Gods of a race who triumphed over the all powerful Old Ones. It is inevitable. You will all DIE!
End of part 5
 
#13 ·
well done very good, i think guard should win, they deserve it.
 
#14 ·
Next bit (at last)

Major Browne checked his watch. About half a minute until detonation. He sighed, and glanced at Captain Lucas.
“Something on your mind, captain?”
“No, no sir.” replied the Captain. He hadn’t mentioned the voice to anybody. Hearing things inside your head could turn out to be anything, from a slight madness to the whisperings of the Chaos Gods. No, it was better he waited until he knew what it was that plagued his mind. He had decided to stand with the other men, rather than look for an excuse to leave the frontline. He wanted to witness the destruction of the Alien scum.
“Get ready everyone!” called the Major. “Ten seconds!”
all around the room, various squads of men braced themselves against walls and pillars.
“4….3….2….1….”
The cavern shook with the force of the first blast. It was preceded almost immediately by a second, and a third. There were thirty charges in all. One placed on the under-sides of the monoliths and one in each corner of the halls.
Their combined power shook the caves until lumps of stone fell from the roof of the main hall, and the walls cracked.
Eventually the shuddering stopped, and a small part of each barricade was removed so the sentry could fit a light and his head inside and survey the damage. It was staggering.

Each of the Monoliths had been completely annihilated. Bits of them were lying around the edges of the halls, and one piece had even embedded itself in the outside of one of the barricades.
“Bring that in here.” ordered the Major. “That will be invaluable to those attempting to understand these robots.”

Surrounding what had once been the monoliths was rather spectacular. The Necrons had been blown to pieces, and the floor was littered with the green and gold bodies of the elite Tomb Guards.
It was the same in each of the lesser halls; the aftermath of the blasts strewn across the floor.
But the guardsmen’s rejoicing was short-lived. As the sentries watched, a huge green crystal was lowered from the centre of the ceiling in each room. It throbbed with the sickly green glow that many of the guardsmen now recognised as raw Gausse energy. They began to pulse faster, the glow becoming stronger. Suddenly they released a wave of energy that penetrated the darkest corners of the halls.
Then, just as suddenly as it had began, the light stopped, and the crystals retreated back into their secret chambers above. The men who had witnessed this scene waited with baited breath. A minute passed, and another. Then, when the men had began to relax, the unthinkable happened. Hundreds of the warriors were pulling themselves back together, some of the limbs crawling across half the hall to be with the rest of its body. There were many that stayed down; the extent of their injuries beyond repair. They returned to their original positions, as much as was possible, and began to go back to their dormancy.

Then, without warning, a large portal opened at the opposite end of the largest lesser hall and a truly terrifying figure, wreathed in ghostly Gausse energies. The Necron Lord had woken up. It stood, though hunched, at least 7 feet tall. In one hand, a small, golden orb was just visible, and it carried in its other, a huge, double bladed warscythe, the long green rod showing up against the darkness. The Lord held its right hand, the one holding the mysterious orb, aloft. It began to glow, much like the crystals in the other halls. But this time the light streaked outwards from its hand like lightning, first striking the nearest Warriors, then leaping across to the next, and the next. As the green light touched each Necron , it slowly raised its head and reached behind it, drawing a large weapon that was somehow attached to its back. When the light had finished re-activating each Necron from its timeless slumber, it returned to the Lords orb. The Lord spun round and briefly returned to its chamber. The sentry who had witnessed this, whose name was Corporal Tiresett, now turned to the Major.

“Sir! I think you’d better come and look at this. I think the Warriors are waking up!”
“What!” the Major whirled around and strode towards the unfortunate sentry. “What happened?”
“Well, there was this big Necron sir, really huge! And it came out of a doorway on the other side of the hall sir. It held something up in its hand, I think it was a small ball or something. There was , it looked like lighting, coming out from is hand.”
“Yes?” encouraged the Major. “Go on.”
The sentry took a deep breath and continued. “The lightning, or whatever it was, hit all the Necrons in turn and they, I don’t know, seemed to wake up or something.” He pointed at the small hole in the barricade. “Look sir, see for yourself!”
The Major stepped past Corporal Tiresett and positioned himself so he could look through the hole.

The sight that met his eyes took his breath away. Rank upon rank of fully functioning Necrons, their eyes gleaming with an internal fire. Major Browne quickly leant back from the hole. His face was white, but his eyes were hard and sharp as ever.
“Sir?” the Corporal glanced at the Major. “Sir, what are we going to do?”
Major Browne pressed several buttons on his vox caster. It was now transmitting to every Guardsmen via their earpiece.
“Ok men, this is it. The Xenos scum have awakened and are massing in each of the lesser halls. There are more than was first anticipated as our charges failed to completely destroy them. But that is no matter! We are the invincible Imperial Guard, and we will fight them to our last man! We will stand until the very last of those abominations are ripped to pieces by our holy fire. We are Guardsmen, and we will not surrender!” The majors words were as pure and uplifting as when he had first proclaimed their objectives, but they all caught the slight tremor in his voice. The silence that came from the halls was more unnerving then anything that had previously happened, ever the sound of the huge crystals, or, heard only by the sentries, the smooth, silky sound of hundreds of ancient being pulled together.
Meanwhile, Captain Lucas was patrolling the edge of the ring of Guardsmen, and generally raising the moral of the men. He could still hear a shadow of the voice in his head. He had managed to banish it to the depths of his consciousness, but Lucas could feel it slowly fighting back, making itself heard whenever he lost concentration. He wondered if it was only him who hear it and, if it was him, what it could be. He had heard of extremely high-ranking officers who had begun to act strangely, hearing voices and spending weeks at a time locked in their quarters. Luca knew what lay down that shadowy path. Heresy. Consorting with the False Gods of Chaos. Captain Lucas has fought an incarnation of one of the Chaos Gods, called Slaanesh by the majority of those who spoke of it, and he had no wish do so again. It had spoken to him then, as the foul Abomination faced him on the field of battle, its seductive voice calling to him out of the nether regions of the warp. Whispering for him to cast away his mortal body and join them forever… But Lucas has shut out the voice and his terrified Guardsmen had rallied at his roar of triumph as he smashed its earthly body into oblivion. Lucas shuddered with the memory of the power that he had witnessed.
But this voice had been different; a harsh, violent voice that had chilled him to the bone. A voice dripping with sadistic pleasure. The kind of voice that would wipe out an entire star system, simply because it could.
The majors sharp tones crackled to life on his vox, cutting through his thoughts. Lucas listened to Major Browne’s words, dread filling him. The charges had failed. That had been their “ace in the hole”. If they hadn’t worked then there were untold numbers of the Necrons surrounding them on all sides. He felt the beginnings of panic smothering him, forcing out rational thought. But he quickly suppressed these feelings and was soon striding back to the centre of the ring.
The sentries were double checking the load and sight on their auto- and las-cannons, the Tank Commanders were checking the range and shells of their Leman Russ’s and the rest of the Guardsmen were either checking the sight on their las-guns, watching the doorways or whispering quiet prayers to the Emperor.
Suddenly there was a cry from the sentries.
“Major Browne! Something’s happening. All the Necrons are moving away from the doors!”
The Major hurried over to the nearest barricade and peered through. The Necrons were indeed marching away from the defended doorways, towards the north facing side of the halls. Craning his neck, Browne could see a faint glow emanating from the back of the lesser halls. One by one the ranks of Necrons were disappearing into the light.
 
#15 ·
cliche or what
no kidding, very good can't wait till the next part.
 
#19 ·
im afraid the next 1 or 2 bits will be shorter as i need some advice on them from the more experianced writer.

“Quick! Open fire!” he yelled into his vox caster. His shouts were answered with the searing blast of the las-cannons, followed half a second later by the rapid booming of the huge auto-cannons. The gun crews’ aim was good and several of the Necrons fell, missing arm, legs or huge holes out of their side. Many more fell to the booming auto-cannon but, as before almost all of them got back up again.
“Follow them!” roared Major Browne, climbing over the barricade. The guardsmen followed him and the sentries began to dismantle the barriers so the tanks could get through.
The platoons of guardsmen lined up in the smaller halls and faced the far wall. The glow was still present, but there was no indication as to what was causing it. Major Browne’s command squad, with Captain Lucas trailing along behind, approached the wall. Browne leaned forwards to inspect the wall more closely.
“Hmm. Something's not right.” He reached out to touch one of the many hieroglyphics that covered the wall, and his hand passed straight through! “It’s a hologram!” he shouted, withdrawing his hand as though stung. “Look up there!”
directly above them was another pulsating crystal. But this one seemed to channel its light directly into the “wall”, and therefore did not give off much light.

“Leman Russ battery 2, open fire on that crystal. I want it completely destroyed.”
The four Leman Russ Demolishers slowly railed their barrels to the crystal. It had darkened now, as though it knew what was about to happen to it and was trying to hide in the shadows.
There were four deafening BOOMs as the Demolisher cannons deployed their devastating rounds. A sharp crack tore the air apart as the giant crystal, now in several pieces, broke away from its nest in the roof far above and began its slow fall to the ground.
The thousands of Imperial Guardsmen let out a cheer as the crystal hit the ground, shattering into countless shards. But it was short lived. The holographic wall, now devoid of a source of power, had shimmered once and failed, revealing the truly colossal crypt behind it. Lucas stood on the threshold of the void and simply stared. He was at least half a mile above the floor of the tomb, but there was still a good mile above his head. The walls stretched for miles, disappearing into the gloom several hundred yards away.
In the centre, as far as Lucas could make out, of this enormous room was a huge monolithic structure, about a mile high. It was awe-inspiring. It was terrifying. Looking down, Lucas could see a sea of silver. The bodies of thousands, tens of thousands, of Necrons. Even where there were no Necrons, the floor seemed to be a flowing, seething silver river. Scarabs. They were only about a half a foot long, and had no real weapons, but Lucas knew that they were deadly when they worked together, tens of them to a single man.

Then something happened that drew the Guardsmen’s horrified view away from the floor, and back up to the top of the colossal pyramid. Shafts of green energy were forking down to the ranks of silent Necrons. As each bolt of the lightning stuck, a group of the Necrons awoke. Within a couple of minutes every single Necron Warrior was awake. As one, their advanced weaponry suddenly flared green, illuminating the thousands of emotionless, metal faces that, somehow, still managed to emit a feeling of pure hatred.
The Guardsmen were struck dumb by the sheer terror of it. The fear pouring off them like steam. You could almost see it illuminated against the backdrop of ghostly Gauss energies. Then, without warning, the lightning stopped, pulled back towards the top of the pyramid. A sudden light burst out from the top of the structure, illuminating the crypt. But there was something wrong with the light. It was black.
Captain Lucas shook his head to try and clear the overwhelming fear. That was impossible. Black light was impossible. But there it was, a towering column of light, as dark as the depths of space, yet as blinding as the Sun that gave the Sacred Terra light.
But that was not all. Borne on the rising pillar was a figure. It was humanoid, and not very big, but the sight of it hit them all like a knife to the heart. Captain Lucas knew instinctively that this was what had spoken to him in his head. As it rose higher towards the roof of this vast tomb it stayed perfectly still, surveying the massed army of the Imperial Guard.
When it had almost reached the very top of the cavernous room, it stopped. Its head moved for the first time, looking left, right and back to again to rest on the Guardsmen. Then it spoke. Its voice was soft but, somehow, they could all hear it.


“So, you made it. Well enjoy your last moments in this world. I have been waiting so long for this. I will feed upon your very souls, and they shall make me strong. I will be powerful again! When I have sucked the life from you I shall be free of this prison. This tomb which has held me all these aeons. Almost fifty million years I have had to stay here, using only the smallest amount of food I can to keep me alive. Your scout group saved me from starvation. Now I have enough power to fully manifest myself once more! You shall be the ones to give me the energy to leave this planet. This cold, dead planet and strike out once more into the Galaxy. You shall be first to serve me in my new reign of terror! I will be free once more, and this galaxy will be the first to fall to me. The galaxy will BURN!

The terrifying creature began to move again, a slow arc down towards the waiting guardsmen. All over the floor of the tomb the massed ranks of dormant Necrons awoke at once. Reaching over their backs to their advanced weapons. As one they moved silently to their attack position and faced the half-mile high plateau that the Guardsmen now held.

“Quickly men! Form up! Deploy heavy weapons on the edge.” Major Browne was yelling commands into his vox-caster frenziedly. “This is it everyone! This is our last stand! We can win. We will win. I can feel it in my soul. Today, we fight with the Emperor at our side!”
The Major strode to the edge of the void and stared up at the terrifying visage advancing slowly on them.
“You think you can just swat us aside like some troublesome fly? No, we are the Imperium of Man, and we shall not ho without a fight. We will not bow down to you. We will fight you to our last man and we will send you back into the depths of the warp from which you spawned.”

The thing laughed softly.
“You have no idea to whom you speak do you. I am not from you warp like some small daemon. I existed in a time before the warp even existed. Before the race you have named the Eldar. Before the Ork. We fought them all and more in a war that spanned the Universe. But I am not surprised at you ignorance. You are young and the Eldar share few secrets.”The Major stood for a few moments, gathering his thoughts.
“Then what are you? What race existed before the Eldar? Before the timeless void that is the Warp?”
“I am a master of races. The undisputed lord of the C'tan. I have many names, but I believe there are some humans who know me as The Nightbringer. But my name is unimportant. To you, and the rest of your insignificant race, I am Death.”
 
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