Chapter 609

Imotekh often lamented the disorder of fate and the chaos of all things.

The rising Necrontyr launched war against the Ancient Ones to divert their internal contradictions, only to ultimately bring themselves to the brink of extinction.

On the verge of collapse, the Necrontyr Empire met the Star Gods at the last moment and were granted the chance of eternal immortality.

But the Star Gods merely treated the Necrontyr as snacks, devouring their souls and injecting their memories into cold machinery to serve as their slaves.

The Ancient Ones, once like gods, perished in the War in Heaven, brought down by the Star Gods and endless legions of the undead.

But what of the Star Gods? They devoured and slaughtered one another, only to be betrayed and shattered into fragments and prisoners when weakened.

Did the Necrons thus gain the sole dominion of the galaxy?

No. After the brutal wars and the destruction of those god-killing weapons, the Necrons were too weak to even confront the rising Eldar, and sank into a long slumber.

The Eldar did indeed perish over the long ages, but when the Necrons awoke, they had not regained their former status—indeed, they had grown even more decayed.

Imotekh still remembered how, upon awakening, he watched the Lords of Sautekh slaughter one another for the throne of the Phaeron—until the seat ultimately fell into his own hands.

And just as Imotekh, full of ambition, sought to reshape the Necrons, the Silent King suddenly returned.

Imotekh had recently studied human history: the Golden Age, the Iron Men Rebellion, the Great Crusade, the Horus Heresy, the Beast Wars, the Age of Apostasy—all equally chaotic, each rising as the other fell, ending only in shattered ruins.

Why was this so?

Imotekh believed it was because the galaxy lacked true order.

He resolved to become that order—to impose his will and logic upon the entire galaxy, eradicating all chaos and disorder.

But he also knew he was not the only one with such intentions.

Every race desired its own order; every life held its own will.

These wills, these orders, would inevitably clash.

Imotekh did not believe his own order was necessarily the best—that defied logic.

But he was determined to prove it was the best through war.

Seated upon the Unrefusable Conquest, he gazed upon the cold stars, watching the faint points of light slowly emerge on the star map.

They were human forces. Imotekh's eyes glowed with faint green light, fixed unblinkingly on the point.

Such rapid advance.

Imotekh had not concealed his route—he intended to exploit the Necrons' inertialess engines, striking straight at the Vorian Vash system, forcing humans to reckon with his swift, brutal assault.

After all, Vorian Vash bordered the Silent King's domain; no matter how they arranged their defenses, they could build at most one line. To thicken it, they would have to launch a preemptive strike—directly into Imotekh's path.

Thus, no matter how many human fronts advanced, Imotekh would meet them all with a single, overwhelming force.

More importantly, humans could never fully encircle and annihilate Imotekh; if he wished, he could instantly retreat into the Tomb Gates using his inertialess engines.

But the point of light on the screen triggered a roar in Imotekh's logic core.

Too fast. Could human forces move this quickly?

The movement speed of this point exceeded even the inertialess engines—it looked less like travel through the material universe and more like repeated high-speed teleportation across ten light-years.

Fuck, how is this possible!!

Imotekh's logic core roared, calculating the energy required for such travel—it was astronomical, technologically impossible!!

Arbitrary star-gates? Imotekh had seen data on such devices.

His Tomb Engineers had always insisted they were merely some form of warp technology—but now it appeared to be an entirely material-universe technology.

This was a serious strategic miscalculation, though not yet enough to alter the overall war.

"Useless fools." Imotekh's face darkened.

This was one of Imotekh's weaknesses—most Phaerons and Lords possessed considerable knowledge of technology and science.

But Imotekh did not.

The Necrontyr were a race obsessed with social hierarchy; Imotekh's origins in the Necrontyr era were barely above the lowest caste. Even with extreme effort, he had only managed to enter the Sautekh Vocational Technical College for Commanders.

That school merely trained slave-officers for the Sautekh Dynasty—it taught Imotekh no real knowledge.

In terms of education, Imotekh couldn't even compare to the old madman Zandrek.

Zandrek was born into the Necrontyr elite aristocracy and attended the most prestigious and renowned military academy in the entire Necrontyr Empire.

Imotekh only revealed his talent on the battlefield, becoming a Crowned General, then seized the Phaeron throne through a coup after the Great Awakening.

Precisely because of this flaw, Imotekh had to rely on his Tomb Engineers for technical judgments—but those engineers were not always reliable. Imotekh began to miss the Astrologer Orykan.

Before the Silent King's return, Orykan had served as the Sautekh Dynasty's court astrologer.

After silently cursing the Silent King, Imotekh summoned the image transmitted by a spy hidden in his pocket dimension, seeking to examine the human force.

He saw a weathered flagship, its hull bearing the image of a weeping heart—though repaired, the scars of past brutal battles remained visible. Behind it came over a dozen brand-new ships, crossing the void in close pursuit.

Imotekh swiftly cross-referenced the database and confirmed the identity of the human force.

The Adeptus Astartes: The Mourning.

Decades ago, to protect human worlds along the Kraken Hive Fleet's path, they launched repeated suicide charges and were nearly annihilated.