The Storm Of Guass

[avatar of khaine]

The storm of gauss part 1: The awakening
On the newly colonised and mineral-rich world of Istan II, a mineral surveyor team had found an ancient complex buried beneath an old lava flow near the end of the 41st millennium. This information was passed through the bureaucracy until it reached the adeptus mechanicus on Mars, who quickly sent an explorator team to investigate these ruins, hoping they would provide information on the elusive necrons. By this time Istan II was an enormous colony, with 7 billion inhabitants…

Arch-Techpreist Maragnos held his breath in anticipation as the landing craft neared the lava flow, dreaming of the secrets he would shortly uncover, the mysteries he would unravel. He forced himself to relax. The machine felt no emotion, this made it pure, and he too would feel no emotion. He saw the site, with the excavated entrance to the tomb, and allowed his piloting mind implant to plot a perfect course to it, as he struggled to contain his excitement. He called back to three Techpreists in the passenger section ‘landing in one minute, prepare the servitors and pray to Omassiah we are successful in our exploration.’
On the landing pad were a squad of twenty stormtroopers. As Maragnos descended, the sergeant saluted and barked “Inquisitor Hayadus has ordered us to escort you within the complex, should there be any active defences. He has taught us as much about necrons as possible, so we don’t make any potentially lethal mistakes.” Maragnos nodded curtly and continued to walk into the tomb, followed by his Techpreists, then the many servitors, carrying their equipment, and finally the stormtroops bring up the rear. Maragnos muttered to the Techpreist beside him, Fulerion “Accursed inquisitor. Doubtless his troops will record every moment of our exploration for his benefit. Still, they may prove useful, if other expeditions are anything to go by.”
That night, as Maragnos returned to the prefab camp set up in an inner chamber, he wondered at the ancient civilisation that had created this, and the many puzzles touched upon that day. He entered sleep content, knowing he would certainly receive countless rewards when his work was completed.
Three hours later, he was woken by a scream of agony, and leapt up from sleep, his many cybernetic arms all grabbing weapons of varying description. He ran in confusion to the sergeant and his troops, who were clustered around something, many wide eyed and staring. They parted to allow Maragnos to see the damaged necron, blown into pieces by a grenade launcher. “This came up behind trooper Frederic, ripped him apart with its gun, but we got it with a lucky shot,” said a trooper. Behind him Maragnos could hear the troopers muttering that the tomb was awake, and that the necrons would find them soon. He straightened, and declared “this was merely a guard patrol, a necron that did not enter stasis in order to protect the tomb. We may run into more of these, but the tomb remains inoperational.”
Five days and three patrols later, Maragnos knew he was close to discovering the stasis technology’s secrets, and was leading the group deep down into the catacombs, in the hope of discovering a stasis control device. The pressing dark, and necron skeletons along the walls provided an eerie and terrifying air to the tomb, causing the troopers to jump at shadows. It was on one of these occasions that a trooper fired a grenade launcher at a shadow in the corner, causing Maragnos to whirl around, and lift him high into the air. “You fool! Any necron patrols in the area will be attracted by the blast! I should…” He tailed off, as he heard a rustling, whirring and scraping approaching in the distance. “Scarab swarms! Run!” he yelled, and sprinted down the catacombs, with the team in hot pursuit. He could hear, behind him, terrible screams as the deadly scarabs ran down the guardsmen at the back. He came to a crossroads, and saw scarabs approaching from every direction. Trapped. He glanced behind him, and saw his Techpreists and servitors fighting desperately against the scarabs. He sprinted on, firing wildly towards the approaching scarabs, running into them, and was submerged instantly beneath the stabbing creatures, but ran on, fighting his way clear. He broke through the scarabs, badly injured, and ran down the corridor, passing into a great chamber, large enough to hold a warlord class titan, at which point the scarabs stopped, and Maragnos guessed that they could go no further than the doorway. He noticed the terrible wounds all over his body, and then everything went dark.
Maragnos woke an unknown time later, in terrible pain. He staggered to his feet, and began to walk in a trance down through the levels. After a terran hour, he came to an enormous chamber, stretching beyond sight, with pillars reaching up to the ceiling. In front of him lay a console, with a gigantic necron lord, twice the size of a man lying beyond it, in stasis. Maragnos guessed that this must be the tomb command console, and recognised the stasis controls on a part of the console, and began pressing them, in an attempt to figure out how they were used. Suddenly, the consoles became alive with green energy, and a pulse shot out from the console, activating all the pillars with green energy, which travelled up out of sight. Behind him, the necron lord began to stir, and the tomb was bathed in green light. Maragnos cursed, and fled the room, sprinting and stumbling back the way he had come, passing ranks of necron warriors, slowly being reactivated. As he fled down the passages, Maragnos saw giant repair drones heading for him, flying necrons gradually rising into the air, and power channelling to monoliths in large chambers. He ran blindly, seeing necrons in front of him rising, but knowing he was near the top. He saw strange creatures rising and flickering in and out of existence, scalpel blades on their arms, then-daylight. He was going to make it out, he- he felt blinding pain all over his body, but ran on, his mechanical limbs carrying him out into the air, where he collapsed at the foot of the landing craft, praying to Omassiah for mercy…

This is my first real attempt at a warhammer story, and I’ve probably made some mistakes with the imperial fluff, but I hope you all enjoyed reading it. If people like this, then I’ll post parts II and later III.

[gauss_storm]

: ) awesome story and I love the name ; )

[avatar of khaine]

Originally Posted by gauss_storm

: ) awesome story and I love the name ; )

Thanks guass.
Hmm, i wonder why you like the name?
Incidentally, i 'borrowed' your name on purpose. ( i couldn't think of a better one)