Chapter 905 - 904

“The pathetic Stormlord has become so weak that he must rely on the fleets of flesh vermin to hold his lines against the great Szarekh.

“You are a disgrace to the noble Necrons!”

“Those human vermin should be exterminated. They are even more disgusting than buzzing flies.”

Hapthatra the Radiant, acting as the Silent King’s mouthpiece, raged without pause as he denounced the Stormlord.

Who could have imagined that Imotekh would collaborate with the enemy and join forces with the human Imperium?!

Upon the Dais of Dominion, the Silent King remained silent.

Pulse-transmitted battle reports from every front intertwined within his data-logic core.

His expression was calm to a terrifying degree. The Necron nobles around him lowered their heads, not daring to meet his gaze.

The war had not gone well.

With support from humanity and several other species, the Stormlord’s crumbling front had stabilized.

The Silent King’s faction had lost numerous star systems and even entire sectors. Dozens of Necron dynasties had been completely destroyed, along with several newly constructed networks of blackstone pylons.

Of course, this could not truly be called a defeat.

The Silent King still retained the overall advantage. The Stormlord had merely recaptured the systems and defensive positions he had previously lost.

To the supreme ruler of the Necrons, however, this was an intolerable humiliation. It was one of the rare wars in which he had encountered a genuine setback.

“Szarekh, I am the true conqueror and the rightful ruler of the Necrons.

“You are nothing more than a despised and pathetic old king. Sooner or later, you and those two court jesters will be thrown from the throne, and your wretched reign will end!”

The moment the Stormlord recovered from his losses, he broadcast pulse transmissions throughout the Silent Zone to undermine the Silent King’s prestige.

The conqueror openly accepted every fleet of flesh-born species willing to serve him.

After all, they were already calling him the Storm King. Why refuse?

Besides, the Stormlord’s original plan had always been to use the strength of the Necrons and his armies of living metal to conquer and enslave the entire galaxy, followed by every region of the universe within his reach.

The Stormlord’s insults still echoed in the Silent King’s mind.

Szarekh could barely suppress his rage, so he expressed it through his mouthpieces.

“The Stormlord has defiled the nobility of the Necrons by allying himself with creatures of flesh.

“His collaboration with the enemy has disgraced him. He is unworthy of calling himself a noble, much less a ruler.”

“Imotekh, do you not pride yourself upon your noble body of living metal? Why, then, have you allied yourself with those foul-smelling organic creatures and the vermin of humanity?

“I suspect you have betrayed the Infinite Empire and promised the humans even greater rewards. Do you now intend to grovel at their feet?”

“Shameful Stormlord, perhaps you have begun to believe yourself as lowly as a human. What right do you have to stand before the great Silent King Szarekh?”

Hapthatra continued tearing into the Stormlord through pulse transmissions, hurling accusations and slandering him on the Silent King’s behalf.

He invented several crimes out of thin air and relentlessly attacked Imotekh with them.

The propaganda war between the two factions repeatedly became the top-trending topic throughout the Silent Zone’s pulse-communication network. Verbal spittle flew everywhere.

Controlling public opinion remained extremely important. Otherwise, the opposing faction might persuade more Phaerons to change sides.

The Infinite Empire was a confederated state consisting of numerous Phaerons and territorial domains. Anyone incapable of winning arguments or gathering popular support had no chance of claiming supreme power.

Hapthatra the Radiant was unquestionably the Silent King’s foremost professional troll, charging into battle across the field of public opinion.

This allowed Szarekh to preserve his dignity instead of personally entering the argument and throwing a tantrum like the Stormlord.

In truth, only an entity of Hapthatra’s rank, a Phaeron and member of the Triarch, possessed the authority to trade insults directly with the Stormlord.

Anyone of lower rank would simply be blocked through the communication protocols.

They would lose the ability to insult him in public, much less transmit pulse messages into the cortical fields of the Necron nobles and commanders in his faction.

Hapthatra’s relentless propaganda attacks left the Stormlord furious, but there was nothing Imotekh could do.

He could only devote more attention to the battlefield.

If he won the war, none of the accusations would matter.

For now, no matter how lowly and inferior those flesh-born species might be, he needed their strength to secure victory.

“Does that fool Imotekh not realize this is a conspiracy by the flesh-born species?

“They want the Necrons to exhaust themselves in civil war. They want us weakened so they can gain a chance to survive.”

Mesophet the Shadowed Hand spoke coldly.

In his view, the Stormlord’s alliance with other organic species was an incredibly foolish decision, especially when one of those allies was humanity, whose ambitions were far from innocent.

“The human Imperium’s military technology is more advanced than I anticipated,” the Silent King said, clenching his fist. “They have become a potential threat to the Necrons.”

He was deeply dissatisfied with the current situation and with the Stormlord and the other rebellious Phaerons.

Those fools cared only about immediate benefits. They could not perceive the danger behind them.

The Infinite Empire could not afford complacency. The younger species were growing restless, and the Necrons now faced the possibility of being challenged.

The greatest concern was humanity’s Savior, an ambitious ruler who intended to dominate the galaxy.

If the Necrons declined through prolonged civil war, humanity would seize the opportunity to grow stronger and become an even greater threat.

As the supreme ruler of the Necrons, the Silent King had always worked tirelessly for the restoration of his species. He had devoted immense effort to reuniting the increasingly fragmented Infinite Empire.

He wanted the empire to return to its former glory, rule the galaxy once more, and then advance into even more distant regions.

Yet the Stormlord and those like him had never recognized reality.

They remained trapped in the pitiful beliefs of the past while foolishly attempting to challenge the Necrons’ supreme ruler.

How tragic.

The mechanical core within the Silent King’s chest pulsed as he struggled to suppress the fury surging through his data-logic systems.

He turned toward Mesophet.

“We must deal with this, Mesophet. The alliance between Imotekh and humanity must be broken so we can defeat them more quickly.”

The Silent King did not want the Infinite Empire to continue wasting its strength on this battlefield.

Living-metal Tomb Ships and Necron bodies possessed powerful self-repair capabilities, but sustained attrition could still render them permanently inoperable.

They had to act and regain control of the war before they lost their military advantage.

“The Necrons’ greatest strength is also humanity’s weakness,” Mesophet replied.

“Any blow against humanity’s fleets and territories will inflict severe damage. Every death and every act of destruction is an irreversible disaster for them.”

As one of the Triarch and the Silent King’s confidant, Mesophet’s primary responsibility was to devise strategy.

“Humanity has deployed fleets into Necron territory on a massive scale. Its rear territories and worlds must now be poorly defended.

“If we dispatch Tomb Fleets to strike their territory, destroying and burning their major logistical systems and core capital worlds, we can deal them a devastating blow.

“They will be forced to abandon their alliance with the Stormlord and crawl back to their own territory.”

Mesophet’s plan was simple.

They would send elite fleets to destroy humanity’s most important systems and planets, inflict mass casualties, and cripple the Imperium’s logistical support network.

As long as those elite fleets continued spreading slaughter and destruction through Imperial territory, humanity would eventually be forced to withdraw and defend its own worlds.

That was the advantage of the Infinite Empire’s Tomb Fleets.

They required no logistical supply lines. They could continue killing and destroying throughout human territory indefinitely.

No matter how the war unfolded, humanity would suffer far greater losses, especially if the Necrons bombarded its most important worlds.

“Humanity has misjudged the situation,” the Silent King said with a cold snort. He nodded, approving the Shadowed Hand’s strategy. “They believe they can profit from a Necron civil war.

“Very well. Let us show them reality.

“Dispatch a force of Triarch Praetorians to bombard human territory. Spare no effort and accept any cost!”

Humanity had become far too arrogant.

Only a devastating blow would force them to recognize the truth.

Planet-killing weapons, extermination viruses, mass planetary invasions, nothing would be forbidden.

The Silent King was even willing to accept suicidal attacks by Triarch Praetorian Tomb Ships. They could ram directly into humanity’s principal worlds and perish alongside them.

That would be the fastest and most devastating method.

Like gigantic meteors, the Tomb Ships could annihilate most life on a planet and perhaps even crack the world apart.

At worst, the Tomb Ships would be damaged and enter their repair protocols.

Given enough time, they could eventually be restored.

For humanity, however, the losses would be terrible and irreversible.

They could not withstand such a campaign.

Once the Silent King resolved to strike, he showed his enemies no mercy.

After a moment’s thought, he added another order.

“When the Triarch Praetorians launch their attacks, they are to inform every human within the targeted regions why they have been reduced to such a miserable state.

“Their so-called Savior and Emperor of the Imperium attempted to wage war against the Necrons.

“If they wish the destruction to end, they must withdraw every fleet. Then their human emperor must come before me, kneel, and beg for forgiveness!”

Humanity would inevitably be destroyed once the blackstone nexus network was complete.

Before that happened, however, breaking the human emperor’s spirit and forcing him to kneel in repentance before the Silent King would be a satisfying sight.

After Szarekh issued his decree, Mesophet the Shadowed Hand rapidly selected the targets.

The first wave would strike the Sol System and numerous important Imperial industrial and agricultural systems.

Tens of quadrillions of humans would perish together.

That was the price humanity’s emperor would pay for daring to offend the Necrons.

And it would only be the beginning!

One force of Triarch Praetorians after another departed from the Xendu System and advanced toward the human Imperium.

They were the elite fleets of the Necrons, capable of destroying any region.

Upon the Dais of Dominion, the Silent King resumed his customary posture.

The eternal sovereign looked down upon the galaxy he had once ruled and would soon bring under his control again.

The Stormlord’s blazing ambition would be extinguished. He would lose this war that should never have begun.

As for that foolish and ignorant enemy, the human emperor, he would soon crawl at Szarekh’s feet as a slave and beg the great Silent King for mercy!

…

Deep space.

The Tomb Fleet groups of the Silent King’s Triarch Praetorians advanced at a constant velocity, crossing an immense distance every second.

The Necrons possessed faster-than-light travel. Their inertialess drives negated gravitational and frictional forces, allowing them to cross vast distances through the boundary between realspace and the Warp.

It was a faster and more stable means of transit than humanity’s voyages through the Warp.

“This strike will observe no laws or conventions of war. It will demonstrate the terror of the great Szarekh.”

Faint light flowed through the cables extending from the Praetorian commander’s back, feeding data into his data-logic core.

He reviewed star charts of the target regions and selected the worlds they would attack.

This Triarch Praetorian fleet group would quickly reach humanity’s prosperous systems and use overwhelming firepower to destroy every planet inhabited by humans.

This was not a campaign of conquest.

It was an unrestricted extermination strike, far simpler than a conventional offensive.

Even if they encountered heavy resistance, the Triarch Praetorians could simply destroy the system’s star.

That would deprive the humans of light and warmth while triggering catastrophic spatial disturbances, rendering the entire system uninhabitable.

Such was the weakness of organic life.

Humans needed to breathe and eat. They required suitable temperatures and strictly controlled environments. Any fluctuation in cosmic conditions could bring them unimaginable devastation.

They were delicate flowers incapable of enduring the storms of the universe.

The Necrons depended upon no planet and required nothing. Their bodies of living metal allowed them to survive in even the most extreme environments.

That was why humanity could never compete with the Necrons.

It was why humanity could never win this war!

Suddenly, the Tomb Ship flagship appeared to enter some form of spatial turbulence.

The entire vessel shook violently. Hairline fractures spread across the interior space like cracks in a mirror.

“Monitor, report the fleet’s current status!”

The Praetorian commander raised his head sharply, sensing that something was wrong.

A Tomb Fleet traveling at superluminal speed should never experience turbulence unless it had encountered an unnatural obstruction.

“Bzzzt…

“Reconnaissance protocols active. Fleet has encountered a spatial obstruction. Superluminal transit will terminate momentarily.”

The Tomb Ship’s construct intelligence responded in a broken electronic voice and transmitted the relevant data.

“Human interdictor machinery?!”

The Praetorian commander examined the images within the intelligence report.

Large triangular installations floated throughout the depths of space ahead of the fleet.

The Savior’s insignia had been stamped onto their outer structures. They projected strange field fluctuations that disrupted the fleet’s movement.

The scene was deeply familiar to the Praetorian commander, which only made it more unbelievable.

The humans were employing deep-space interdiction technology.

Only an ancient species such as the Necrons should have possessed such technology.

During wars in space, the Necrons often deployed deep-space interdiction devices to prevent enemies from escaping along high-speed transit lanes or to sever reinforcement routes.

Otherwise, both sides could continue racing through high-speed lanes for a century without ever meeting in battle.

Even more astonishingly, the human interdictor installations closely resembled Necron technology and had been deployed at critical deep-space transit nodes.

Their interference fields could sever the high-speed transit route itself and force passing ships out of superluminal travel.

“Imotekh is an absolute traitor!”

The thought flashed through the Necron noble’s mind.

There was only one possible explanation.

The Stormlord had given humanity the Infinite Empire’s core transit-route data.

Damn him!

(End of Chapter)

“Zaelum”]