‘Righteous justice shall be mine,’ snarled the Chaplain. ‘Lead the way, brother.’

Chapter Thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Having examined his ship’s data storage for any intelligence on the enemy, Aeschelus had found little more than scattered hearsay. The necrons, a recent threat that seemed to have come from nowhere and yet were now being encountered all across the Imperium, left little evidence of their presence in victory or defeat. They registered no warp presence and their bodies were artificial constructs, yet the psykana adepts maintained that they were somehow alive rather than a remnant of some Abominable Intelligence from the Dark Age of Technology. Their standard weaponry was terrifying, able to strip targets at a molecular level, while their self-repair abilities made them as tough as a Space Marine to disable.

Even less was known about their starships, but simply on size alone, it was clear the Space Marine cruiser was no match for this one in an extended duel. A lightning hit-and-run attack to disable a vital system seemed the most obvious tactic, especially given the crew’s recent experience in such operations.

The captain was surprised by how easy it was to goad the enemy into a boarding position, as though they were ignorant of the threat. Not only had the aliens not responded to the presence of the Ithraca’s Vengeance until it had opened fire, they became so prepossessed by the strike cruiser that they had made no effort to engage the gunships as they sped across the void.

‘Assault force, final approach,’ he announced as the lead gunship, his craft, swung towards the blister-edged crack in the side of the capital ship’s hull. Repair mechanisms were underway, sealing the strange metal carapace as though healing a wound, but there was still a gap some fifty yards wide left by the combined bombardment cannon and gun deck strikes.

Movement sensors detected worker-creatures labouring at the break, easily swept away by heavy bolter and rocket fire from the incoming gunships. Able to set down in unison, the captain’s assault party advanced swiftly from the breach, heading towards the blocky dorsal superstructure that the captain had assumed to be engines and control systems.

The first encounter of the boarding party was with small service creatures, not much bigger than an outstretched hand. Bolts and combat knives made short work of them, but as the Space Marines advanced, the enemy swelled in number, scuttling across the floor, walls and ceilings in waves. Around them, insect-like constructs and fractured wraith-creatures attended to one another. Still-functioning necron automata ignored the intruders in their midst in favour of returning to their repairs, even when targeted by the advancing Space Marines.