Prologue

The orbit above Feridia Prime was choked with the debris of Imperial and Chaos vessels by the time they arrived. Kazarakh, Necron Phaeron of the Solvatakh Dynasty had arrived, bringing his fleet to bear in order to drive back threats to his dominion of the sector. The Necrons phased in amidst a battle of Imperial Naval groups attempting to drive back the Chaos fleet. Kazarakh's ships suddenly fired on both sides with lightning arc batteries and particle whips which tore into both enemy fleets. The heaviest ships of both battle groups had their hulls boil from the Necron attacks while the smaller ships were cracked in half. Kazarakh's Cairn class Tomb ship slammed through a cruiser on its path through the Imperial formation, followed by the rest of the Necron battlegroup. The Necrons continued to smash through both fleets like a torrent from above and now were underneath the Chaos battle group.

The Necron fleet then unleashed concentrated fire into the lead ships of the Chaos vessels. The Chaos ship's undersides ripped apart as arcs of lightning and supercharged particles tore into their hulls. Before the remaining Chaos vessels turned and fired in retaliation the Necron forces in unison suddenly were engulfed in green light and disappeared into the void. Reappearing in the Chaos forces rear, the Necrons unleashed another concentrated barrage of fire crippling several more Grand Cruisers of the Chaos forces. Chaos Lord Turmaris of the Black Legion looked at his view screen in rage as the Necrons outmaneuvered his warband's vessels and crippled them. Turmaris' bridge was a ruin of wiring, broken consoles and crippled servitors. The bridge crew were doing all they could to keep the ship stabilized or face their lord's wrath.

"DAMNABLE XENOS! This was supposed to be MY hour! The Warmaster will have all our heads if we fail!" Shouted Turmaris as he watched the Necrons lay waste to more of his fleet. Suddenly an alert sounded which one of Turmaris' lackeys responded to on his console.

"My Lord, we are receiving communications from our forces on the planet!" said the black clad chaos marine as he continued to work on his console.

"Put it through now!" said Turmaris, clearly not in the mood for any communication that wasted his time. The voice which sounded over the madness was Fhume the Tempestous, one of his Black Legion sorcerers.

"My Lord, our work here is nearly complete. The gods recognize your plight, hold fast and they shall hold true to their promise.." Fhume said, his voice flowed with a calm confidence. Though it only seemed to infuriate Turmaris further.

"They had better sorcerer! If not and I somehow survive this, I will come for your head to make an offering to Khorne!" Threatened Turmaris.

"Patience my Lord, and gaze upon our gods glory! They only require one more sacrifice, one that you must make..." said Fhume, excited at what was to come next. Turmaris realized immediately what the sorcerer intended.

Kazarakh's strategy was tearing the interlopers apart, it wouldn't be long until victory would be theirs. It seemed the Imperials were fine with allowing the Chaos forces to bear the brunt of the assault but their turn would come soon enough. This world and its surroundings were thick with the stench of the Empyrean. Kazarakh deemed that to end the warp storm encroaching on Feridia Prime, the servants of the Empyreal ones would be extinguished. Followed by any other lesser race still trespassing within the Solvatakh Dynasty.

Lord Veronakh had served Kazarakh for millennia, ever since the biotransference. Since the days the C'tan marched their kind to war against the Old Ones. He had always served faithfully and though his master had grown more aggressive due to his addled mind being stirred so suddenly, Veronakh had seen no reason to doubt his liege lord's judgement. Veronakh watched his lord's plan unfold from the throne of his vessel, the Teqyt. While it was a small ship by the standards of the Necrontyr, a Shroud-class light cruiser is still nothing to scoff at. With but a digitized thought he weaved his vessel among his fellow Necron ships as they once more phased into the midst of the Chaos forces. According to the dictates of their lord, transmitted to their mechanical minds, the time had come to sever the head of this snake. The Chaos battleship that led this attack would be finished off and as the Chaos forces broke the Necron formation would spread out and hunt down the fleeing stragglers.

The Teqyt led the charge with several other light cruisers just above the battleship's flanks. The Chaos warship's batteries atop its hull attempted to put as many rounds and missiles into its enemies as possible, but to no avail. Retaliation soon followed as lightning arcs and particle whips focused on the weapon systems. While some of the light cruisers including the Teqyt sustained some damage, they soon broke off after destroying most of the heavy turrets and launchers. Three Necron harvest class vessels brought up the rear and focused on the battleship's engines. The combined fire from the Necron ships caused the rear of the vessel to blossom in a bright green flash followed by an explosion as the maneuvering thrusters were destroyed. Suddenly the Cairn-class tomb ship Ntr'Doma, phased in above the Chaos flagship. It was flipped upside down with all weapon systems priming to deliver the coup de grace. If Veronakh could, he would be smiling with satisfaction at the display, but his Cryptek soon got his attention.

"Vymark, we have an anomaly." said Veronakh's Cryptek, as he managed his sensor readings from a holographic display in front of him.

"It will be irrelevant in a moment Du'Maat, I'm sure." Veronakh replied, confident that the issue was of little consequence. He believed that no matter what these crazed humans attempted it would be too late to save their fleet.

"I am not certain of that vymark, the enemy's remaining escorts are assuming a circular pattern around us." said Du'Maat, as he brought up a readout of the planet showing the position of all nearby ships.

Veronakh focused on his vessel's sensors with his mechanical mind and saw the oddity as well. The enemy vessels were of cruiser weight and not bothering to charge in and save their master. They were merely keeping in a circular formation around the whole Necron force outside of their weapon's range. Then the Ntr'Doma unleashed its fury on the Chaos battleship. Supercharged particle streams and lightning arcs tore into the top of the Chaos vessel, tearing rents into it. The groan of metal straining under the power of the Necrons echoed through the void as the ship was being ripped apart.

"Nemesor, I am reading Empyrean energy readings coming from the planet's surface." said the Cryptek, his holographic display showing the planet's surface.

Veronakh looked to the planet and saw it. A glow the size of a small continent began to grow into some kind of alien symbol surrounded by the symbol of Chaos, a circle with eight arrow points emerging from it. Then the battleship that the Ntr'Doma was tearing apart began to glow into a bright crimson.

"The energy anomaly is occurring in the surrounding ships as well, reading spikes in their drive systems." said Du'Maat, his holographic readout displaying the abnormalities within the readout of a Chaos cruiser.

"What are those madmen attempting to...no...prepare to-!" But Veronakh's order came too late.

The Chaos cruisers surrounding them also began glowing the same crimson color. Within each ship the warp drives began to shine brightly, even through all the armor plate of the vessels before finally detonating. They exploded in a sequence around the Necron fleet ripping holes in reality until finally, the Chaos flagship itself exploded into multiple shades of red. The tears in real-space merged together and when looked at from above the energy formation had become a symbol of chaos around the Necron fleet. The Warp storm in the backdrop of the battle soon surged forth. Tendrils of the Empyrean tore through the violet energy bands and grasped the Necron vessels before a sudden flash of power exploded and consumed the Necron battle group entirely. Where they were, only a swirling maelstrom remained growing ever larger. Soon it would combine with the other growing warp storm and Feridia Prime along with all those who could not escape would be doomed...

As for the Necrons themselves, they suddenly found themselves in the Immaterium. Veronakh had now recovered from the shock of the transference to the hellish reality and wanted answers.

"Cryptek! Situation!?" Veronakh demanded.

"It is as you see vymark! We are in the Empyrean! I'm already reading multiple foldings of space throughout our vessel. Creatures of the formless horror are already being sighted and engaged." replied Dummat, he brought up a display showcasing Necron warriors engaging daemons.

"What of the rest of the fleet!?" said Veronakh, now concerned for his liege lord. Veronakh could only imagine how infuriated he was at the moment. Kazarakh's victory was denied, all due to those mad fleshling wretches. In fact, he was surprised he had heard nothing from his Phaeron on what they should do about their current predicament.

"Our liege lord's vessel is being torn asunder by a storm of Empyrean energies. Our ships are caught in tendrils formed of the Empyrean itself." Du'Maat brought up another holo display showing their ship being caught in red energy tendrils. A second display showed the N'tr'Doma, caught in a red maelstrom with even more tendrils tearing at it.

Veronakh knew that unlike the other races who relied on warp travel they had no gellar fields to defend themselves from the daemonic attacks. His robotic gaze searched through the sensors of his warriors and ship. Daemonic incursions were appearing all over, mainly bloodletters and other lesser daemons of Chaos. While they certainly were vexed at the lack of sustenance from destroying the Necrons, destroying their ships would give the minions of the warp some satisfaction. Veronakh was running out of time and fast, he tried sending communiques to the other Necron ships but all returned as static. As he tried to think of a plan to escape from the madness, he watched in horror as the Warp ripped apart the Ntr'Doma. Necron Phase technology couldn't exactly work as intended in the Warp to escape, meaning that Kazarakh...was likely dead.

Veronakh felt a tinge few seconds of grief at the loss of his liege lord, but it was soon being overridden by the necessity of taking charge of his situation. He thought back to what they had brought on their journey, something they could use in this situation. Soon, a gamble for escape formed in his mind. It was risky and he had no recollection of it being attempted, but either something was tried or no one would escape from this hellish nightmare.

"Du'Maat! Assemble with my Lychguard and proceed to the cargo hold, connect the pylon there to our reactor." said Veronakh, as he grabbed hold of his staff near his throne.

Du'Maat turned from his displays to face his lord and said, "Vymark, while I understand the simplicity of your solution, the likely hood of its success is below fifteen percent. No experiments with pylons have ever been successfully attempted within the Empyrean, much less with our current situation."

Veronakh stood up from his throne, staff in hand, its power generator glowing, "There's no time, either we attempt this and play against the odds or we are destroyed. I will not fall so long as my ship is intact! I will take my warriors and protect the reactor as long as I can. I don't care how accomplish your labor, but you WILL do it!"

"Of course, vymark." said Du'Maat, bowing his head before his lord.

Veronakh motioned to his Lychguard to follow while sending others to escort his Cryptek. Du'Maat and Veronakh then went their seperate ways, each with a dozen bodyguards into the bowels of the Necron ship. The groans of the vessel echoed through the dark green lit halls as Veronakh and his guard moved as quickly as possible to the reactor. En route, bloodletters of Khorne intercepted Veronakh's group and began to assault them head on. Their shrieking and screams for blood and skulls had no effect on the Necrons and Veronakh's guard formed a wall with their dispersion shields ready to meet the daemons. As the bloodletters crashed into their shields, daemon blades hacked and slashed attempting to reach Veronakh, but the Lychguard held strong. Though they were now being pushed back slowly from the sheer amount of daemons pressing against them. Eventually their leader, whom Veronakh recognized as Forbytr, commanded the guard to open a cordon in the ranks. Veronakh recognized his guard's strategy and charged his staff. As the line opened and daemons fought to get through to him they were met by a beam of green light which blasted through the lines of bloodletters. With the sudden loss in their numbers and their momentum stalled, the daemons were assailed upon by the Lychguard. Shields crashed against daemon skulls, hyperphase swords cutting into their bodies and severing their heads, followed by guards with warscythes cutting down small groups. The daemons were contained for now but Veronakh knew while the Necrons were in the Empyrean, the horrors would only return and grow in number. He ordered his guards to reform around him and they continued onward, leaving some in the back to contain the daemons still not yet slain.

When they arrived at the reactor chamber of the ship it was utter madness. The chamber was incredibly large, with a pylon in the shape of a pyramid in the center. It thrummed and glowed green with energy providing a glowing backdrop to the carnage on display. The agents of the formless horror were everywhere, engaged with Veronakh's warriors on various catwalks and on the ground floor. Immortals and warriors unleashed their gauss flayers, atomizing daemons only for more to reappear from their flanks. Though most of the Necron immortals had the quickness to deal with such rapid assaults, many Necro warriors did not. Those too slow were cut to pieces or melted down by acidic attacks sprayed from the orifices of decaying slug beasts. Veronakh took charge of the defense, ordering warriors and immortals into tight formations allowing the immortals to cover the warriors from flank attacks. Veronakh himself and his guards moved to cover gaps in the defense on the ground floor, assaulting any group of daemons too large for his lesser warriors to handle. Du'Maat then communicated via his internal com link to Veronakh as his lord unleashed his staff of light onto more packs of daemons.

"Vymark, I am making progress. It will take three minutes to complete the process of connecting the pylon to our vessel's power source, barring any interruptions of course." Veronoakh heard all this as he swept his staffs beam through a group of slug like daemons, burning into them and dispersing their forms into ether. Several bloodletters suddenly appeared before Veronakh and his guard, screaming bloody murder as the daemons engaged the Necrons with their swords.

"You had best hope there are none! If you take too long or I falter than only destruction awaits us! If you must take a more dangerous approach to quicken your labor, than do so!" said Veronakh, as dodged a strike and then impaled a bloodletter on the end of his staff. The staff then discharged a pulse of energy and blasted the bloodletter into pieces that then dissolved into nothing.

"Understood vymark." Acknowledged Du'Maat , as he left his master to continue the defense.

As the communique finished Veronakh was attacked from above by daemonettes falling on him. Their claws lashed out and attempted to hook into the Necron lord's necrodermis to rip him apart. A counter blow from Veronakh's staff upon the closest monstrosity along with a shockwave of energy from his staff knocked the daemonettes off their feet. His guard quickly fell upon the daemons with merciless efficiency, slicing off their legs and heads causing their bodies to disperse into ether. Then a great bellow was heard, Veronakh looked into the darkened part of the room and noticed Empyreal energies coalescing. Then a surge of light with sparks of excited particles followed. When the light faded Veronakh was beholding a terrible winged giant roaring with a great axe in its hand. It bore a kind of crude bronze armored plate for protection and had a maw similar to a saurian type creature. It roared and began to charge towards Veronakh's main line of defense, enduring the beams of gauss flayers leveled against it. The giant daemon's axe cleaved through several groups of Necrons before Veronakh could order his warriors to disperse. Even with four squads of Necrons unleashing their full power at the beast it didn't break stride, its objective clearly was the reactor. As the red monstrocity strode past the Necrons, its flesh and armor sizzling from constantly firing gauss flayers, Veronakh and his guard made a desperate move. They jumped onto the legs of the red beast, its focus still on the reactor rather than the Necrons grasping onto its legs. Veronakh's guard attempted to cut at sinews and tendons with their weapons in an attempt to slow the daemon down, while the Necron lord himself climbed up the brass chains dangling from its armor.

Upon reaching the top of the daemon's back the Necron lord charged his staff once more, slamming the barrel into the back of its neck. When the daemon was about to reach the reactor it felt an odd sensation. The red giant suddenly began thrashing and kicking its legs out to throw the Necrons off. A few Lychguard were cast aside while their lord grasped the top of the daemon's armored back. With its free hand, the monster grabbed a Lychguard off its huge muscled leg before roaring at it and crushing it in its hand. In the midst of it all, the Necron lord with one hand holding onto the giant's backplate and the other aiming his staff, fired full power into the daemon's neck. The blast was powerful enough to exit out of its throat, a burnt out hole where once roars croaked. The daemon fell to its knees, its throat a smoldering ruin. With a mere thought, Veronakh sent the directive to his nearby warriors to unleash all fire at the creatures neck. With several squads opening fire along with the surviving Lychguard, the Necrons thoroughly severed the daemon's head from its body. Its headless form fell forward as its head hit the floor with a loud crash. Veronakh jumped from the daemon's corpse before it hit the ground and dispersed, he then regrouped with his honor guard before he contacted Du'Maat , " Our foe is intensifying their efforts, how much longer Cryptek?"

"A moment longer, though as you directed, I may have had to make a few rushed calculations and adjustments. The pylon will either perform as designed, or destroy us all." said Du'Maat with slight reservation.

"Do what you must! I care not! Whether I perish here or live to rule once more, I WILL deny the Empyreal Ones satisfaction!" replied Veronakh, his conviction apparent that he would fight to the bitter end.

"Hopefully the latter vymark. Standby, now finishing connections, pylon energy cycling commencing." finished Du'Maat as he began to move to the next phase of his task.

The ship once more groaned under the stress of the warp outside. Power fluctuations caused the green lights of the Necron vessel to flicker and fade. The reactor's thrum also changed pitch as it was forced to endure greater power demands from the pylon. Veronakh moved his warriors into defensive positions in the reactor chamber, but another greater daemon was coming. The stench of decay oozed from a giant pestilent silhouette approaching from the flickering darkness. Time was running out and Veronakh readied himself for what could be his last battle.

Du'Maat stood over the black spire as it rested on its side in the cargo hold. He continued to observe the effects of the pylon on the ship's reactor, making adjustments on an energy display that appeared in front of him. He was using his left hand to manage the display, while his right hand was suturing cabling into the pylon using his staff. He moved along the pylon continuing to cycle more cabling to charge the pylon for what he was attempting to do. While doing this work, the Lychguard continued to protect him, engaging with lesser daemons or acting as part of a shield wall while moving along with the Cryptek. Scarab drones were also assisting Du'Maat , usually gathering and connecting more cabling, or also assisting what warriors and immortals were present. The scarabs harassed and annoyed the daemons, swarming and carving into their bodies. But more often the daemons just shrugged them off and continued forward to attack the Necron forces with blades and claws. Du'Maat however, was able to awaken several Canoptek Spyders to add to the defense. Their twin linked particle beamers unleashed green beams onto the daemon hosts, blasting apart large groups of daemons. A third spyder unleashed a Gloom Prism upon the horrors, generating energy fields that destabilized the warp spawn. Disoriented they were easy prey for Lychguard or other warriors to finish them off.

Still it was taking too much time, at the current rate it would be another minute to finish the cycling. Du'Maat realized either the reactor would begin to destabilize before the cycling finished or the daemons would overwhelm them. As he tried to find another solution to the pylon, a greater daemon showed itself at the other end of the cargo hold. A red giant with black horns and brass armor appeared, roaring with hate. It was armed with a twin bladed axe along with some kind of barbed whip which it pointed at Dummat's location. It charged along with its lesser kin and some of the warp spawn rode in with robotic canine constructs. Dummat was running out of time as the giant daemon smashed through more of his fellow Necrons at the other end of the cargo hold.

He continued his calculations and corrections at a feverish pace as more Necrons fell to the might of the daemon horde quickly approaching. The Necron Spyders opened fire, their particle beamers unleashing more green energy. But out of the smoke of the green explosions, the greater daemon roared, its armor and flesh smoking. While the lesser daemons had been reduced in number the giant daemon had not lost pace. It lashed out with its whip, hitting one of the Canoptek Spyders which sent its next volley off course into the cargo hold. The other couldn't finish charging as the giant daemon leapt upon the spyder and smashed into it with furious hatred with its whip held fist. Other Necron units that were free from fighting daemons attempted to move to assist, pouring fire unto the red winged giant. Despite its wounds it just roared in defiance as it brought its axe down on the other Spyder. The third spyder fired its Gloom Prism, the energy field causing the giant daemon to fall to one knee, its form distorting. Yet it resisted and roared back, its lesser daemons charging forth. They engaged with the Lychguard shield wall and attempted to overwhelm the guard with their sheer numbers. The daemon canines flanked the energy field and slammed into the last Spyder smashing it into one of the other smaller pylons in the cargo hold. Du'Maat at this point had finally found a quick solution worth trying, but as he input the commands a thought crossed his mind, was he too late? The giant red daemon hefted its axe over its head, ready to bring it down onto the pylon. One last input into the display and the pylon began to surge with energy. A pulse shook the room and the daemons found their forms destabilizing back into the Empyrean. The giant red demon faded into a gaseous burst of warp energy as it roared in anger.

"Vymark the pylon is active, I will now attempt to phase shift our vessel!" Du'Maat said, as he brought up another holographic display of the ship.

Du'Maat didn't wait for his lord to respond, he sent the input commands to the display in front of him. According to his readings the ship had been freed from the empyreal tendrils as well as several other smaller escorts nearby. However the field the pylon was creating would have to be disengaged at the same time they activated the phase shift. There was also no telling what would happen if they attempted a shift while in the empyrean, in a storm no less. Still there was no time to speculate, Du'Maat had been given an order to do what it took and he inputted the command. Immediately the lights went out in the cargo hold as the reactor shifted all power from the pylon and cargo hold to the phase shifter. The ship rocked and groaned as the warp storm once again attempted to take hold of the ship. Du'Maat and other Necrons were tossed about as the lighting came back on and then a bright green light suddenly engulfed everything in sight.