Sarcophagus

[NecronLord]

I'm rooting for the Necrontyr in this fic

There's something deeply wrong with anyone who doesn't.

[Xon]

I'm rooting for the Necrontyr in this fic

There's something deeply wrong with anyone who doesn't.

Well who else are you going to root for?

• The biological version of von neumann machines intent on eating everything organic?
• The forces of Chaos which are manifested extreme emotion and need to fuck people up to survive?
• Tau, blink-you-miss-it ultra conformists?
• Eldar/Dark Eldar - They created the Eye of Terror, they all should go extint for crimes against all sentient life.
• IoM, institutionalized crazies with utterly no regard for human life (despite being a human empire) and hamstrung by a machine cult which worships a fucking star vampire who's spieces snorts human minds like crack. And then there is the rest of it.

Still, I would prefer to live in 40k than Xeelee-verse. Lesser of 2 evils.

[technomage]

Still, I would prefer to live in 40k than Xeelee-verse. Lesser of 2 evils.

Damn. Am I missing anything by knowing virtually nothing about the Xeelee? Any universe where 40K is preferable must be Hell unleashed.

[Imperial Overlord]

Still, I would prefer to live in 40k than Xeelee-verse. Lesser of 2 evils.

Damn. Am I missing anything by knowing virtually nothing about the Xeelee? Any universe where 40K is preferable must be Hell unleashed.

For a large chunk of the Xeelee-verse timeline, humanity is a fascist, xenocidal culture that is totally devoted to universal domination and xenocide. All human existence is tied to the expansion of humanities empire. Worlds are systematically stripmined of all their resources over a period of centuries and billions of barrack raised teenage soldiers die each year, having been taught to believe "the light that shines briefly shines brightly."

[technomage]

Yecch. Now I'm uninterested in that universe.

[Imperial Overlord]

Grenades bounced down the corridor, detonating in a fearsome hail of shrapnel. "Go!" screamed Zelko as he pounded down the corridor. His boys followed up right behind.

Haas was almost around the bend when a xeno poked his head out and fired his long barrelled rifle. The blast smashed through the heavily reinforced chest plate of his armoured suit, broke seven of his ribs, and propelled him off his feet and a dozen feet back. Haas was still dazed and trying to raise his head when Vetter collided with the xeno.

The human's bulky armoured space suit added a lot of mass to his frame. The collision bounced the Necrontyr off the far war and they fell to the floor, the human on top. Vetter was reaching for his cutting bar to finish the job when Melerophos blew his brains out the far side of his helmet with his impact lance.

Grelkin retaliated by opening up with his shotcannon. The weapon was loaded with armour piercing slugs. At point blank range Melerophos was thrown back, his suit failing after the impact of the second slug. Blue blood burst out from his shredded chest. Narphoris avenged his friend's death by blowing the human's heart out of the back of his ribs with his impact lance.

Narphonis stumbled back as a human shot him half a dozen times in the chest with a stub gun. They heavy pistol didn't breach his armour, but the impact's hurt. The necrontyr raised his impact lance as they human lashed out with the chain axe in his other hand. The weapon chewed through the barrel of his impact lance. The human pushed forward and swung again. A gyser of blue blood shot up from the breach in the necrontyr's helmet and he fell limply to the floor.

Daved Timon looked at the gore on his axe fondly. "Secured boss," he said over the vox. "These guys have nice guns but can't fight worth shit."

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Alkel touched controls. "The intruders have overrun point one," he said, trying to keep his voice calm. "They are equipped for and skilled at close quarters combat. Their weapons are sufficient to overcome our armour."

"Understood," came a rasp up the channel. "We are holding at the next check point. We'll have something unpleasant waiting for them. Vaselothos out."

"I hope so," Alkel whispered. Gods above, figments of my imagination and my fear, I hate this. His mind drifted toward his wife. Rasphys, beloved, be safe.

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"Rasphys, we're losing people fore." She switched channels and checked the display. Necrontyr physiology was similar to that of human and eldar in more ways than purely superficial humanoid build. Tears welled in her eyes. She remembered dancing at their wedding, whirling as her husband spun her around.

"Check the energy readings," Melephith urged. She did.

"Warp surge." The ship was in real space. "Psyker," she almost spat.

"Yes," came Melephith's reply.

"Send in scarabs," she ordered. "Have two hang back as monitors. If it overcomes the swarm, data readings will become more important than ever." And we can't afford to lose any more people, even if they weren't all our friends and lovers. She indicated a point in the display map. "Melephith, meet me here. In case the scarabs fail."

[Ford Prefect]

Hah hah! Eat monomolecular chainsaw, xeno!

Eeeeeh, I really do enjoy this fic. Though I'm a staunch Imperialist, I really do like the Necrontyr, and hope that, if anyhing, they at least survive.

[Imperial Overlord]

Thanks Ford. I appreciate the feedback.

[Imperial Overlord]

The meat puppet jerked ahead, its limbs stiff and graceless. Krugar Holt followed it at a distance. He was in no hurry. The meat puppet staggered down the corridor coated in flaking paint and stopped at a bulkhead. Holt had it reach out for the door control. The necrontyr's hand never made it. The door in front of the puppet slid open and a swarm of mechanical bugs the size of large cats poured in. The bugs were armed with humming cutters and blazing torches, tools for slicing through even the thick metal of a starship's walls.

The meat puppet blasted a hole through one of them before they closed. It's insides exited through the hole in its carapace in a spray of molten metal. The others swarmed over it withouth pause, their killing tools probing for vulnerable flesh. The meat puppet blew another one apart as they severed her left leg at the knee. The puppet fell and the swarm boiled over it.

Holt swung his hand and bugs were smashed against the wall. He flicked his fingers and others tumbled back. He closed his fist and carapaces crumpled. The corridor became still, a silence broken only by the soft buzzing of wrecked scarabs flailing broken limbs in the air.

He advanced. All the bugs were ruined. His meat puppet was in pieces. No matter, the xenos would supply him with many more before the end. He would save the last few, savouring their pain as he made them slowly destroy each other.

There were alien minds nearby. More prey. More fun. With their psi shields they were just out of reach, but they wouldn't be for much longer.

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Rasphys clutched the shaft of the sheru-heza and looked over at Melephith. "I hope this works," he said.

"It will be bad if it doesn't," she replied. She would have called out for the aid of benevolent gods if she believed that such things existed, but the universe had spent a lifetime teaching her that such things were lies. "My husband," she whispered, "if I don't see you again, don't grieve too long."

"He's coming."

"Do it."

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Krugar Holt stepped over the last of the ruined bugs and noticed two pieces of xenos tech that weren't bugs. They were small metallic ovals that might have been carried by the swarm. Then he realized what they were. Too late.

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Thunder filled Rasphy's ears as the force of the explosion shook the corridor and the shock wave rolled into the cavernous room, causing the necrontyr to sway. "That should have done it," Melephith replied.

"It had better," she answered, "or we'll be joining our ancestors very shortly."

[Ford Prefect]

Damn, he had such a deadly effect on the interlopers too.

[Imperial Overlord]

As the boarding parties moved deeper into the Necrontyr vessel, a green glowing portal opened behind their reserves. Jaspin Anan opened his mouth to shout a warning as he raised his autogun, but an blast from an impact lance smashed his face plate and turned the front of his skull to mush. The human toppled as the first two Necrontyr exited the portal and fired on his comrades.

Bones splintered, organs ruptured, and arteries burst under the awesome power of the Necrontyr weapons. Davin O'ccall heard the sounds of his men dying behind him. He turned and raised his bolt pistol and chunks of Vurnuth's heart and rib cage were splattered over his armour by an impact lance blast. There were six of the xenos, all armed and firing. Behind them hung a doorway of greenlight, suspended in mid air. O'ccall raised his bolt pistol and fired.

Two bolts punched throught he armoured suit of the closest alien and burst within its torso. Cobalt blood splattered the floor and its comrades as it fell. At almost the same time a volley of impact lance fire struck The Trailing Star's Executive Officer. Armour plates cracked, power transfer cables were ruptured, and artificial muscles tore. The force of the impacts toppled O'ccall and his gilded armour backward to the floor. There was more firing, more human screams.

O'ccall tried to rise up. Damaged systems whined, but some of them obeyed. His bolt pistol rose. Three impact bolts struck his helmet in rapid succession, shattering the front and pulping his brain. His corpse fell for the final time.

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As the Necrontyr attacked the boarders from the rear, security doors slammed down ahead of them. The metal resisted cutting and burning, yielding only slowly to the tools of the humans. Beneath the floors on which human boots tread multilegged robots deposited explosive charges and then scuttled away. Behind the doors the Necrontyr positioned themselves.

A chrono counted down. Sensor readings confirmed the positions of both humans and Necrontyr. The explosives detonated, blasting up through the floor and sending lethal metal fragments flying through the corridors. Bodies fell through the gaps in the floor, to be covered in swarms of maintenance robots and sliced by cutting tools. The Necrontyr fired at anything still standing and then advanced. Their magnetized foot gear allowed them to walk on the walls and bypass gaping holes in the floor. The boarders found themselves beset on both sides and their leader slain. Then the scarabs boiled up, rushing forward and protected by the lethal covering fire of impact lances to close with humans and slice and burn.

It did not take long for the last of the boarders to die. In the command room Alkel's fingers touched com controls. "Rasphys," he said. "We have eliminated the intruders. We are now moving on their ships."

"Good news, my husband. We have secured their engineering section, but have endured losses. They still resist us."

"Understood," he replied. "Help will arrive soon."

[LadyTevar]

WOW! Fantastic job, my friend!

[Coalition]

Excellent! It has returned from the dead/non-dead/page2+ where it was, and is back again.

Well, the Necrons might get to use the Imperial ship, if they can take it mostly intact. They don't have the same sensors, they are unfamiliar territory, and the locals are likely told to fight or die.

Still, if they can win, they could use the human ship to repair their own, then try to repair the human ship also. Make a great Trojan Horse, especially if they could get a few humans to be their public faces.

[Ford Prefect]

It's alive! Yes!

[Singular Quartet]

Excellent! It has returned from the dead/non-dead/page2+ where it was, and is back again.

Well, the Necrons might get to use the Imperial ship, if they can take it mostly intact. They don't have the same sensors, they are unfamiliar territory, and the locals are likely told to fight or die.

Still, if they can win, they could use the human ship to repair their own, then try to repair the human ship also. Make a great Trojan Horse, especially if they could get a few humans to be their public faces.

Human tech repairing necrontyr tech? Oh yes, this seems reasonable.

[Coalition]

Still, if they can win, they could use the human ship to repair their own, then try to repair the human ship also. Make a great Trojan Horse, especially if they could get a few humans to be their public faces.

Human tech repairing necrontyr tech? Oh yes, this seems reasonable.

More along the lines of melting down the equipment for raw materials, and tapping into the power supplies to power their systems. They would be essentially salvaging the Imperial ship to make sure their ship is in good shape first.

Even with advanced tech, a basic Imperial machining shop would be used to cut raw material to the proper length, then use the Necron machine shop to 'convert' the material into the necessary equipment. A Necron power supply might fit into the palm of your hand, but if you have a good extension cord, an Imperial power supply the size of a car can work temporarily. Splints and most bandages would work no matter the species, and food might be edible.

It would be like a current pirate ship finding a wooden sailing ship, with no crew onboard. The food would still be in good shape, possible water, see if there are any valuables onboard, etc.

After that, they could mine some materials and get the Imperial ship made into a decent Trojan Horse.

[Singular Quartet]

I suppose. It's still rather silly raiding somebody weaker than you for stuff, without actually being for privateering.

[Academia Nut]

Actually Singular Quartet, the Necrontyr aren't raiding. These are rebel Necrontyr who decided that being a slave to a star god wasn't much fun so 60 million years ago they went off looking for a better place, but unfortunately it seems that they hit the "Sleep" button one time too many. Thus this entire story is something of tragedy in that the Necrontyr have no idea of the current politics and the existance of humans, and how humans aren't the bad guys (relatively speaking, this IS 40k after all). They tried to find out what side the humans exploring their torch ship were on by projecting a hologram of an Eldar, but unfortunately they don't know that the Old Ones are gone and the Eldar usually only show up in the middle of nowhere next to a Rogue Trader for the purposes of killing and looting.

So when Coalition suggested looting the human ship, it was more akin to a modern ship lost at sea suffering from storm damage finding an old sailing vessel stocked with a supplies, a compass, a sextant, star charts, and maps. Normally they wouldn't care much, but they are lost and in need of whatever they can find.

[Imperial Overlord]

They tried to find out what side the humans exploring their torch ship were on by projecting a hologram of an Eldar, but unfortunately they don't know that the Old Ones are gone and the Eldar usually only show up in the middle of nowhere next to a Rogue Trader for the purposes of killing and looting.

It wasn't a hologram of an Eldar. It was one of a Necrontyr. Both of them are humanoids (or Necrontyroids) with large helmet designs. It was mistaken for Eldar by a jumpy human.

[Imperial Overlord]

"Still nothing from Holt, ma'am," said J'vain Screed. "No comms out of engineering at all. The aliens are advancing out of there."

Adrianne Venam cursed softly. "Get every able bodied crewman heading towards engineering with a weapon in his hand. And get us away from that Emperor-cursed bad luck xeno-"

A disc of green light appeared in front of her, ending her sentence. It was nearly three meters tall and about two thirds that wide. An alien stepped through, wearing vacuum armour and carrying a staff-like weapon. She clawed for her side arm.

Blood, brain, and bone splattered over the command throne of The Trailing Star. A crew man fired his side arm, bullets smacking into the armoured xeno. The Necrontyr staggered and raised his impact lance. His shot blew apart a bank of equipment. The xeno advanced and fired again, striking the crewman in the pelvis as another Necrontyr exited the portal. The crewman fell, blood spewing from his mangled hips and screaming in pain. Both Necrontyr continued firing as a third emerged from the portal. And then a fourth.

The slaughter was over in less than a minute. The Necrontyr signalled their ship and proceeded to mercy kill the mortally wounded among their victims. They were a hard people when they had to be, but not cruel. Oh, the Necrontyr as a race were not strangers to cruelty and malice, but those who had rejected the star gods were not ruled by such emotions. These viscious primitives were more to be pitied than hated.

Alkel Nethrazar touched the command panel. "Beloved, the bridge has been taken. The aliens ability to coordinate their actions should lessen."

"Understood, my husband." Rasphys hesitated and then spoke again. "This should all be over soon."

"May your words make it so," Alkel said softly.

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It took the Necrontyr and their robots two hours to find the last human and slay her. It was not a task they relished. Engineers, scientists, and those with technical training then began scouring The Trailing Star under Rasphys's direction. It was not long before they had amassed a preliminary report.

Melephith delivered their report to Alkel and Rasphys in a small room aboard the Nemarken. Full life support had only been extended to part of the Necrontyr vessel and a hint of the chill of deep space remained in the air. "The ship is a mixture of comparatively high and low technology. It travels the Warp-Hell, protected by a null disruption field generator. Plasma reactor provides power for ship's systems and thrusters. Ship's systems are- well a mix. They use crude turbines and fluidics and shielded high capacity power cables connected to motors. Stacked crystal and direct neural interfaces and levers. As best as we can determine, this ship was built at a low technology enclave of a higher technology civilization. Some of the technology was imported or replaced at more developed systems, the others built localy and improvised. The ship works and is quite rugged. I would say the builders may have been primitive, but they know how to get good results despite their limitations."

"Perhaps its design was intended to be within the means of a less developed society to manufacture," mused Alkel. "With such drives crossing the stars would be a slow affair. Equipping potential colonists with the plans to build devices within their means might have been good planning."

"Perhaps my husband. It is certainly consistent with their equipage. Their leaders possessed powered armour, advanced surveyors, and sophisticated projectile weapons. Their rank and file was armed with much more crude weaponry. The important question is, can this ship help us?"

"Nemarken is crippled beyond our ability to restore," said Melephith. "Even stripping this alien ship will not allow us to repair the drive. The damage to our fabrication chamber is too extensive and this alien one is not up to the task. To attempt to repair and upgrade systems to where they can attempt to repair the drive is an extremely difficult and time consuming task with no guarrantee of success. I recommend against it."

"We have time," Rasphys said.

"Perhaps, perhaps not," said her husband. "We are wandering in space that is now inhabited by an aggressive species. We recovered some charts from the human ship. We cannot read the inscriptions, but it appears that this species is widespread throughout the galaxy."

"So we have an idea of where not to go," said Rasphys. "Beyond the fringes of their space."

"Yes, but in what. I take it you have an alternate solution Melephith?"

"Yes sir. The alien ship is usable. We transfer everything of value over to it and take it."

"Control systems?"

"Replacing them and modifying them will take time, but should be managable. The design and interfaces are very straight forward."

"Prepare a formal proposal," said Alkel, "so we may discuss it in council."
Melephith bowed and left. Rasphys undid her helmet catches and put it aside. She walked over to Alkel and touched the catches around his neck and then pulled it off.

He put his hands around her as she moved even closer. "It has been too long, my husband." And then, for a time, there was no more need for words.

[Ford Prefect]

Well, they won. Lucky for them, but are they out of the fire? I wouldn't say so.

[Imperial Overlord]

Well, they won. Lucky for them, but are they out of the fire? I wouldn't say so.

I might write a sequel at some time where they go hunting for home world and encounter the wild, wonderful inhabitants of the 41st Millenium.

[Dominus]

Damn. The xenos filth won.

It was a most excellent fic nonetheless, IO. Very few people have ever done such justice to the Necrontyr. There were times when I almost sympathized with the alien scum -- a testament to the quality of your writing, no doubt.

[Vehrec]

I must say that the Necrontyr are a heck of a lot more sympahetic than any number of hummie boyz in this fic if you would pardon my Orkish. They're still in peril after 60-70 million years, adrift in a universe they do not know, and about to take a voyage into the Warp-hell. And they love each other. How many generals or captains in the Imperium's forces have wives and husbands? Much more sympathetic are the xenos.

[Academia Nut]

Heh... yeah, they're definitely not out of the fire yet considering the fact that if they killed all the crew that means that they also took out the Navigator, which means that if they try to go into the Warp-Hell they may encounter a few difficulties actually getting anywhere safely.

And Vehrec, its not that humans aren't unsympathetic, its just that we rarely ever see the nice side of Imperial citizens what with everyone trying to kill them, including their own people.

Oh, since they have the navigational charts, what do they think about that massive tear in space-time called the Eye of Terror?