Chapter 4 – The Battle Begins

There's something wrong, the orks are quiet, very quiet, the orks attack on the local population has diminished, all the orks ships are sailing towards a single point, a large island covered by vegetation and rock formations, unfortunately we don't have how to see what's happening on the island, all we can do is prepare.

"Haratek?" I said sitting on my throne.

"Yes, my lord?" Haratek answered at the top of the stairs to my throne.

"The orks are planning something, prepare the tomb defenses, Sentry Pylons and Gauss Pylons, Tomb Sentinels and Canoptek Wraiths. Priority for the repairs and activations of these units."

"Yes, my lord. But if I may ask, why use so many resources to fight such primitive creatures?"

"You are making the same mistake many have made in the past, underestimating the orks. Orks are random and illogical creatures, but they are not stupid, underestimate them and you will meet your end. Now do as I commanded."

"Yes, my lord, I will not let you down." Haratek bowed and left the throne room.

I covered my face with the palm of my hand, orks, why orks? Couldn't it be a less complicated enemy to deal with? But I can't ignore it now. I provoked the orks and now they are coming after me. Haratek had the scarabs and spiders repair most of our units, time to activate my warriors.

Concentrate... Give the order...

"Awake!"

In various sections of the tomb where the water had been drained, Necron warriors and war machines awakened, thousands of Necron warriors, dozens of necron Immortals and Doomstalkers marched out of the tomb, these units received a series of orders.

"Doomstalkers assume defensive positions."

"Warriors and Immortals split into squads and patrol the area around the tomb."

And they complied with orders by taking up their positions and starting patrols.

"Now all I can do is wait and prepare, but as the saying goes 'No plan survives contact with orks. ' Rahkikh, Thaszan?"

"Yes, my lord?" My Lychguard responded simultaneously.

"Be prepared, as in the future we will likely be under attack."

"We will allow no harm to come to you, my lord." Rahkikh said.

"My scythe will dismember your enemies my lord." Thaszan replied.

"I'm happy to hear it."

What have I got myself into? I thought as I executed a mental command that several screens appeared in front of my throne, on them were real-time images of different areas around the tomb and a detailed map, I could see my units marching, there were screens indicating the number of activated units, the tomb condition and real-time reporting.

I really need an artificial personality to manage all this information.

Weeks passed and nothing happened, I admit I'm getting paranoid, but the advantage is that the longer the orks go without attacking, the more time I have to repair the tomb, the more units are ready to be sent into battle, I also increased the number of warriors patrolling the tomb, I sent some to take up defensive positions alongside the Doomstalkers.

Everything seemed to be going well until I got a message from one of the Immortals, I think it was Squad 23.

The message was sent straight to my mind.

"My lord here is squadron 23." The Immortal said in a monotone voice.

"Give me the report."

"Something is moving further ahead of us."

"Let me see." I focused and took control of a Necron Warrior from Squad 23.

Something was kicking up clouds of sand and pushing the fish further ahead, I saw a red flash, then an orange glow, then something hit the Necron warrior and I could only see it from his right eye, and what I saw was a horde of orks wearing metallic suits with tanks on their backs, a kind of diving suit.

"Retreat." I commanded the Immortal and his warrior.

"Yes, my lord." The Immortal replied.

The Immortal and his squad started shooting at the orks as they retreated, Gauss Flayers of the warriors were effective against the rustic attire of the orks, their helmets and oxygen tanks were destroyed, exposing them to the bottom of the ocean, forcing them to hold their breath until drowning, their heavy suits preventing them from swimming to the surface.

Despite the technology of the necrons, the orks were in greater numbers, their Big Shootas sending waves of projectiles towards the squadron of necrons, the necrons that fell defeated were teleported back to the tomb.

A Flash Git ork carrying a Snazzgun sent a large hail of bullets towards the squadron damaging most of the squadron's necron warriors, but this ork's joy was short lived as the upper part of his body was turned to ash by a blast from the Gauss Blaster of the Necron Immortal.

Necron Immortal were veteran warriors of the Necrontyrs during their lifetime, even after losing their souls they retained their battlefield experience, so the Immortal started giving orders to the warriors of his squadron, executing tactics and strategies the Immortal and his squadron retreated among the rocks at the bottom of the ocean.

By taking cover behind the rocks, the self-repair of the necrons began to repair the damage done to their bodies, the Immortal was the one that received the least damage due to the higher quality of its armor.

The Immortal analyzed the situation simultaneously sending a report to his Overlord, currently the squadron was retreating through a rocky area, the large rocks forming a maze of stone from under the water, in a few seconds the strategy was made.

The Immortal ordered two Necron warriors to leave their cover at the entrance to the stone labyrinth and shoot the orks, the shots killed two orks and drew the attention of the others, the orks quickened their pace as they shot the warriors retreated again behind the stones, occasionally shooting the orks, the warriors retreated further into the labyrinth and when trying to chase the warriors the orks tried to enter the stone labyrinth all at once.

Just to get everyone trapped in the narrow entrance of the labyrinth, the orks started to hit and push each other, but due to their little fight the orks realized too late the Immortal's Gauss Blaster pointed at them, the Immortal released shots in succession destroying the orks at the molecular level.

"Foolish creatures." The Immortal said in a monotone voice as he walked deeper into the labyrinth.

The Immortal and his warriors moved easily through the labyrinth, this area having been mapped by patrols a long time ago, and the previously executed strategy was repeated, the warriors would attract the orks with fire from Gauss Flayers, the orks would be funneled or wedged in a narrow passageway of the maze to be disintegrated by the Immortal's Gauss Blaster.

Slowly but surely the squadron exited the maze, a few minutes later the orks emerged from the maze screaming and shooting, only to fall silent upon seeing what was in front of them.

Hundreds of warriors and dozens of Doomstalkers formed lines, tight, unyielding and in a defensive position, using the high rocky terrain to gain protection and high ground against the orks, if the orks wanted to advance they would have to fight uphill.

"Open fire." the Immortal commanded through the line of warriors.

Immediately a shower of green lightning fell on the orks, the orks fired back, but orks weren't known for their accuracy, most of the bullets collided with the high rocky terrain, and the few that hit the warriors didn't do enough damage.

The Doomstalkers fired their Doomsday Blasters in an arc reducing all the orks to ash, the surviving orks retreated back into the labyrinth and took cover behind the boulders shooting when they could, meanwhile the Immortal overseeing this line of defense sent reports to their Overlord.

It started, squadron 23 was the first to be attacked, but then other squadrons that were further away from the tomb reported the presence of orks, I ordered the more distant squadrons to retreat and the squadrons that were closer to the tomb formed defensive lines, each defensive line formed by a few hundred warriors, dozens of Doomstalkers with one to two Immortals giving orders.

Several screens around me showed different battlefronts, simultaneously, I received detailed reports from my Immortals, I can only process all of this due to my Necron mind.

"My lord?" Haratek's face appeared on a screen.

"Yes Haratek?"

"I think you should see this." Haratek said as the screen his face was on shrank and a bigger screen appeared on the side and what was on the screen worried me, an ork fleet coming from the north, the place where the ork island was, there should be a hundred ships.

These ships were much larger than the ones I sunk, in addition to the cannons you would see on a pirate ship, there were cannons you would see on 21st century warships, leading the fleet was a gigantic ship and at the front of that ship was an well-dressed ork with a Power Klaw.

"TIN MAN! YER WILL TEEF FOR SINK'N MA SHIPS! YER HOUSE WILL BE A GUD LOOT!"

That must be Warboss. I wonder how he intends to face me, my troops are underwater and the diving orks aren't doing much.

I got my answer by one of the screens that showed the fight under the water, there were half-spheres on the underside of all the ships, in that half-sphere there was a glass window and two metal pipes, cannons, as if that wasn't enough, circular compartments opened in front and side of the ships releasing a series of torpedoes.

The torpedoes started to hit the defenses of the north part of the tomb. I saw a Doomstalker being shot down, so that means the orks attacking underwater are a distraction.

"Haratek, are the scarabs available?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Then I will take control of some."

"As you wish."

I concentrated and when my vision returned I saw from hundreds of thousands of eyes, I had hundreds of thousands of legs, I controlled hundreds of thousands of bodies. I made the scarabs come out of the tomb in a black swarm covered in green lights.

I controlled the shoal by going around the defense line and approaching the ships from the left side, the underwater guns and torpedoes fired towards the scarabs, I did my best to dodge but the shoal was hit in some areas, the explosions created holes in the shoal that were soon filled by more scarabs, either those that were not hit or those that survived the explosions.

Finally I managed to reach the side of the ship, the force of the shoal being enough to push it, I made the scarabs attack the side with their sharp paws covered by a Disruption Field, eventually a hole was opened, the scarabs and water entered, the scarabs ran down the corridor like a black liquid, the orks that were in the way were ripped apart by the scarabs and the few that managed to shoot could not do much against the mass of metal that approached.

I ordered part of the shoal to surround the ship and push it, it took a while, but the ship started to move, it was pushed until it collided with the next ship, I repeated the process from ship to ship, until five ships were stuck together, the remaining ork crew trying to recover, then I had the scarabs retreat except for one, that single scarab entered the part of the ship where the torpedoes, cannonballs and ammunition were stored.

The scarab climbed on one of the torpedoes and raised its leg, immediately an ork entered the room, I waved to him with the scarab, and I lowered the scarab's leg towards the torpedo, the last thing I saw through the scarab's eye was the ork closing the door.

BOOM!

I watched the ships explode from one of the screens, now ninety-five ships to go, this is going to be a long day.

I shifted my attention to the screen showing the Warboss, he was yelling something at the orks.

"RELEASE 'DA CHARGE!"

I could hear the Warboss scream. Charge?

The orks ran across the ships, on the deck of each ship there were levers next to metal structures with several metal barrels inside, when pulling the levers the structure leaned towards the water and dropped the barrels, the barrels sank into the water with a red light shining on them.

One of these barrels landed next to my scarab shoal when one of the scarabs touched the barrel...

BOOM!

A huge explosion came out of the barrel destroying hundreds of scarabs, worst of all, the scarabs thrown by the explosion collided with other barrels generating a chain reaction of explosions, causing the rest of the scarabs to retreat immediately.

"Haratek, activate the defenses!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Outside the tomb some areas opened up to reveal some of the tomb's defenses, Sentinel Pylons and Gauss Pylons, these large structures began to open fire towards the ork ship, the ships that were closest to the tomb were immediately destroyed by bursts of Gauss Exterminator and Gauss Annihilator.

I noticed that the fleet's ships began to move, part going to the left, part to the right and the rest remaining where they were. They're trying to surround the tomb, I won't allow that.

"Haratek, concentrate fire on the ships that broke formation."

"As you wish."

The defenses changed targets, now shooting at the ships that tried to surround us. I ordered the Doomstalkers in the northern area to stop shooting at the orks and focus on the ships to compensate for the currently occupied defenses. The ships were being sunk, but those that were still afloat fired towards the tomb, torpedoes, cannonballs and shells from the guns of the warship collided with the tomb.

I felt the tomb rock a little, but no worrisome damage was done as the defenses sank the ship.

Hm! I wish my troops weren't busy with the orks at the bottom of the sea, so let me try something.

>Command Protocols

Protocol of the Sudden Storm

Protocol of the Vengeful Stars

> Protocol of the Hungry Void

Start Protocol?

Y/N

>Y

Initiating Protocol of the Hungry Void

95%

96%

97%

98%

99%

100%

Protocol Started

In the several lines of defense around the tomb all units received their Overlord's protocol, immediately the protocol went into action. The already absurd accuracy of all units suddenly increased, extremely accurate shots came out of their guns and hit the orks in front of them, headshot after headshot.

There was no time for the orks to scream, there was no time for them to take cover, the orks hiding behind rocks received a Gauss bolt the microsecond they poked their heads out of their hiding places.

With absolute, methodical precision, ork numbers were reduced across all lines of defense, leaving only piles of headless corpses.

But the battle was far from over, the tomb was still standing and the Warboss was not done with his tricks.

END OF THE CHAPTER