‘Lieutenant, detecting some kind of bulk hauler vessel crossing the orbit line of the fourth planet,’ announced Lerok.

The officer passed the detection screen to the main display where Praxa­medes could study it. The enemy ship’s purpose remained unclear. The battleship-class vessel might have been heading for the orbital pala­ces or to support the ground attack but had it been a significant threat it surely would have been deployed in the main attack. There were also half a dozen escort-sized ships in the immediate vicinity, which if allowed to gather might pose some problems for the strike cruiser.

‘Sound general pursuit, gunnery crews to fire at targets of opportunity.’ He used the datapad on the command throne to highlight three enemy ships that were manoeuvring together, trying to interpose themselves between the Ithraca’s Vengeance and the departing capital ship. ‘These ones should provide good target practice.’

Leaving tails of plasma fire, the Ithraca’s Vengeance powered onward, leaving the necron bulk hauler unmolested.

There was nothing Ah-hotep could do while the emergency protocols of Simut controlled everything aboard the Sun of Endings. The portion of energy not coursing through the inertialess engines was powering up the tomb vaults and translocational grid for total evac­uation. Even if she bent her entire mind to the effort, the ship would not respond to her will – the slave-codes prevented it. Secondary signals speared out to the escort fleet, commanding them to protect the speeding tomb ship at any cost. Even the barques escorting the blackstone node responded, curving away from their charge to intercept the lumbering human vessel.

Like a silvery comet, the tomb ship arced across the system plane, plunging down towards the gravity well of the third planet. Sensor readings showed the Barge of the Stormhawk was entering the upper atmosphere. In his desire to be saved, Simut transmitted an all-conditions code, unlocking every single vault interface aboard the Sun of Endings. Stasis chambers powered down in sequence, releasing more and more energy to the engines and translocator.

Paralysed in body, Ah-hotep watched in anticipation as the overlord’s tomb ship fell further and further into the world’s gravitic pull. Fronds of escaping power lashed through the atmosphere, sculpting towering storm clouds from the vapour, their innards lit with an emerald haze. Desperate translocator beams flickered voidward, like grasping hands seeking any purchase on a cliff face as the climber plummeted to their doom.

Ah-hotep did not know what would become of her afterwards, but willed the overlord’s death with every particle of her artificial brain. She longed to reach out with her plasmantic field to siphon just the tiniest portion of energy from the ship’s systems, but even that was beyond her in this imprisoning thrall-state.