In the deepest eons of history, before mankind had even emerged from the primordial ooze, the Necrontyr dominated the galaxy. Eons ago,necrontyr's home planet was exposed to the harshness of the universe, at the time lives were short and uncertain, their bodies blighted and consumed at an early age by the terrible cancers and other illnesses linked to the high levels of ionizing radiation given off by their sun. Their civilization was surrounded by the idea of death due to their short natural lives. Even the greatest monuments were never for the living but to celebrate death due to their naturally short life span.
Unable to find peace in their own world, the Necrontyr blindly groped outward into the universe to explore other stars. Using stasis crypts and slow-moving, antimatter-powered torch-ships, the Necrontyr began to colonize distant worlds. Little by little, the Necrontyr dynasties spread ever further, until much of the ancient galaxy answered to their rule. But unity receded, even as the bound of their domain expanded. Fearing the collapse of their civilization the leader of the necrontyr assailed the old ones. Seeking to wrest from them the secret of eternal life.
As they encounter one of the oldest races in the universe 'the old ones' This meeting between a short-lived, dour race and a hopeful, nigh immortal one kindled a burning, jealous rage in the hearts of the Necrontyr. From this moment on, they turned their entire lives to destroying the Old Ones.
When the war was declared, the Necrontyr shortly realized they would never be able to win. They were constantly outmaneuvered by the Old Ones' mastery of the Webway. Eventually, they were pushed back to being merely an annoyance in the outer regions among the Halo Stars.
Until …. "that" day, the leaders of necrontyr: Triarch, were about to announce their defeat to the old ones. Suddenly, the sky darkens, thunderstorms emerge from nowhere. What was left in the air is just the pure harshness of the cold void. The world was silent.
Nobody knows what exactly happened in the process, but all we know is that the Necrontyr managed to overcome this crisis and became one of the few species in the universe that conquered the galaxy.
Sixty million years later, in an era where multiple factions both flourished and deceased. In a star system where the emperor's light cannot reach, subtle changes are changing on the planet of Terren. In fact, it is a star system where nothing reaches and yet the people on the planet lived flourished and built an impressive system where the people relatively speaking lives better than the average imperium world scattered around the galaxy. For them, the word Xeno is just a story of a fairytale as they have never seen a Xeno race ever since the establishment of their imperial central command and that was 500 years ago.
The Terra family was one of the first lords that have ruled over the planet, they were in command of the military sector and that part has eventually developed into the imperial navy over the centuries. And yet ever since fifteen years ago, this family has gradually faded away from the public's eyes. Rumor claims that the family has encountered some mysterious issue that led Maria Terra and Miller Terra to disappear without a trace. However, a rumor is a rumor, Terra family isn't as important as they used to be as every generation are having less control over the sectors, they were taking charge of, in the present days the Terras are merely just an old-time story where people talk about after dinner.
On a starless night, a traveler from the outer realm has entered the star system, at first, he thought this is just another human world that's full of uncivilized animals like other million ones. And yet the special energy reading coming from the different site of the planet have immediately gathered his interest. He goes by many names, a thief, the collector, overlord, and even sometimes God for a few inferior races but out of all of them, he claims himself to be the Archaeovist of the Solemnace Galleries. When he first landed on the planet, as usual, is the flourishment of life on the planet, he personally doesn't really mind too much unlike his other colleagues who are hellbent on destroying all life. However, when he finally arrived at the source of the signal there's nothing but flat plain, and the energy signature are mysteriously gone.
The good thing for a Necron is that the only thing they don't lack at is time. Over a few years' time of cloaking among the human, he eventually found out the strange society this planet is cultivating. First of all is the air quality and then the occupation distribution. When he was reading the records of the battle that has taken place on this planet, he noticed that there is nothing about Xeno activity was reported on this planet. However, there's isn't any interesting installations on this seemingly peaceful world, a large amount of great conquer era artifact was discovered on this planet and was stored in an undisclosed facility. Trazyn kept reading the details about the artifacts over and over again. Finally, a chilling grin came out of his metallic death mask.
Somewhere on the planet, "ARE WE LOST?... ARE WE FUCKING LOST?" then the static noises overwhelm any other voice. This is the last known recording that has been received by the communication center. The young girl with long blond hair and pale skin is replaying it over and over again to make sure that she isn't missing any important details, but eventually, she just closes the audio log and leans back on the seat. From the clear and bright blue eyes, people can tell that she's deeply in thought about the current situation.
"Boss you've been listening to it throughout the whole journey, maybe it's time to focus on the action part of the mission." One of the lieutenants said to Nova:" We already have details about the destination, this is a simple scout and rescue mission."
Nova took a deep breath and laid her back on the helicopter's wall, "I don't think it would be that easy, it's… just that I have a weird hunch that this mission is going to be wrong."
Later the whole cabin of the helicopters shines with red light, they have arrived, but the disruption of random alarms already tells them that this place is not welcomed by the normal. But good thing is that they are not. They are the finest squad of the imperium navy has to offer on this planet and they do their work with efficiency and precision none surpassed by others. When they first landed on the spot they wouldn't notice any difference, except the fact that no one is on there. The only thing they can hear is the metal clunk noise of the oil rig as if the gigantic platform is telling them to leave before it's too late. The whole place is covered in thick fog, with barely any visibility.
As the team kept advancing, suddenly Nova stepped on something squishy and sticky. She signed the team stop advancing and awaits her order, then she checked what's under her boot, she saw a half-broken face of a person. "Everyone, maintain your current formation, this place is seemingly less friendly on every step we go deeper" Nova calmly said.
"What… what do you mean?" a young female officer asked nervously. Instead of responding to her, Nova just kept moving forward, then she heard a short scream from behind her.
"I guess we are going down." Officer Maverick pointed to a door that has a blood trail under it. "Alright people, ready up your weapons. We are going for a deep dive."
They found an elevator that takes them directly to the living area underground. Surprisingly, the elevator looks clean and doesn't have any stains on it. As if the janitor just cleaned it. After a five minutes ride, they finally arrived.
For some reason, the whole area is covered in a light fog, as if someone turned on the fog machine on the stage. The whole area smells like a fish market, which shouldn't happen due to the strict hygiene regulations in the underground facilities.
As they keep advancing, beyond the smoke they see a humanoid figure standing with his hands covering the face. Just before the young female officer about to advance to check on the person. Maverick held her shoulder then put a finger on her lips. He then signed Nova that there's an unusual red glow on the chest of the "person". Nova whispered to the rest of the team telling them to split up and check around the room. Then she slowly approaches the "person" and quietly checks on the condition.
As she gets closer to the person, the proportion is getting stranger. Head as big as a watermelon, even he seems naked, yet there's no appearance of parts that can tell its gender. When she's one meter in front of the person, she can finally see the exact physique. A flower-like head that has teeth on each "pedal", red color glowing from where the heart is supposed to be. Suddenly her speaker had an incoming voice, as Nova quickly turned it off, the monster started to glow rapidly. Heartbeat-like noise echoed across the room, as she turned it off, the monster went back to the "normal" state a few seconds later.
She slowly walked back for a few meters to tell her teammates that she will take the monster down. As she checked in with everyone, she took out her pistol and pointed to the monster's head. After a loud noise, the monster's head got blown off clean. just when she is just able to put her pistol back to the holster, she hears a loud glow from the monster's throat. Then the body of the monster starts to glow with bright red color and starts running towards Nova. Nova tried to shoot again, a tentacle-like whip came out from the monster's throat, all of that happen within a blink of an eye, as rest of the group in the area heard the sudden scream of pain from Nova, they found out that Nova already took down the monster by herself with a combat knife stabbed on the monster's heart.
"Boss, are you ok?" Lieutenant Maverick lowered himself to help Nova get on from the ground. "I think we need to retreat," he said while tending the broken forearm of Nova.
From the outside, Nova seems calm, but at that very moment, she felt ashamed and in immense pain at the same time. Ashamed because she made a horrible error that might cause the whole team to die, also she's not used to being helped by others, because ever since she was a child, she was always the top of the class. She's used to helping others but not the other way around. At this very moment, Nova starts to notice this lieutenant. But it's just beginning to pay attention to him, Nova's rank is too high for her age, this is why she needs to work unimaginably harder to reach her position compared to any other high-ranking officers in the army. As the reason? No one but herself knows. But all we know is that she has too much to focus on her work instead of having personal relationships with anyone except her sister.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
As she was about to move forward to the elevator, she realized that the whole room is a bit too quiet, too quiet even for a room that has sleeping monsters around it. She turns back slowly and sees that everyone in her squad is "frozen". Frozen as frozen in time. Her AR implant in the suit reports that all of them are perfectly alive, it's just none of their body parts is moving, even their metabolism has stopped.
From the shadow a tall figure appeared, eyes dazzling with green light, it made a clunky metal sound while walking on the floor. "Greetings my dear imperial officer, from what I can see is that you are not very amused by what I've done to your loyal…. pets." It spoke with a mechanical tone, yet it is very localized even for an imperial human. 'Before you have any wrong idea like…. You know shooting me in the head like what you did with the sleepers on the ground." he pretends to clear his throat: "Ahem, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Trazyn, Archivist of the solemnance galleries, overlord of the various star system and dynasties, and …" he paused on purposely while gesturing Nova with a perfect high-rank imperial officer's greeting gesture, which took Nova days to get it right. "And …. Your potential friend/ partner."
"Friend?" Nova left out a cold chuckle "from, as far as I know, friends will not freeze his or her subordinate in a time prison." She said it while slowly moving her hand to the pistol.
"Oh, I am very sorry for what I did, because you see…. This is a very private matter; it might be related to your beloved sister at some point." The way he's changing the tone of his voice as if that he's not a mechanical monstrosity but a very skilled businessman: "Isn't she the most important thing for you in your life?"
For an instant, Nova's handshakes when she hears the fact that Trazyn knows that she has a sister, and he also knows that they are close to each other. She starts to think about every connected aspect of what she might have in common with the monster in front of her.
Trazyn left out a chuckle then continued himself:" Interesting, so the rumor is true. The famous cold-hearted Nova Terra was startled by a single word. I don't even know what to say. As if the death of the whole underground facility doesn't even matter compared to her little…." A gunshot fired from Nova's pistol before he could finish his sentence, but it did not hit Trazyn but just perfectly close enough that it flared a small spark from his cheek.
"Already, you know too much about me... now… why don't you tell me something useful that it will trade your life with?" At this moment Nova's eyes shine with the killing intent as if a tiger is going to rip a challenging wolf apart.
Trazyn wiped off the metal dust on his cheek: "I have a proposition for you, as you can see, I am quite… Informed in various subjects, but there's one thing that I cannot get. '' he then pulls out a hologram projector, it projects an artifact sword. A sword that is made of a dark color metal, with the design of a Persian scimitar but way wider on the blade, on the body of the sword there's a line of the unrecognizable hieroglyph that blazes with the green light as Trazyn's eyes.
Nova recognizes this weapon; it is a heritage from the great conquest period but with unknown origin "Why do you need this weapon?" Nova already planned that even though she knows exactly where the weapon is located, she will deny its existence fully and make sure that the threat like Trazyn does not leave this facility.
"Get that for me and I will owe you a favor. If you want my calling card, it's already in the back pocket of your favorite pet." He then disappeared without a trace right before her eyes. Not even a bit of metal dust on the floor.
As Nova put her hand into Maverick's back pocket, they suddenly moved. When they got out everyone pretended that they did not see their boss putting her hand into her subordinate's pants. Or at least this is what all believed to see in a dark room. But soon everyone agreed to not mention anything about today's event, that is if they don't want to lose their head on the next day.
Outside of the imperial navy headquarter, a girl with crimson colored hair and emerald, green eyes is on her way to buy some snacks, she looks stunningly similar to Nova and that's natural because Nova is her twin sister. "Wait! Don't run in the middle of the market!" A desperate mother is chasing her boy, usually, a person who was running in the middle of the market will be held by the guards. Yet even though the boy had passed two guards already, nobody was stopping him. To be honest, nobody would blame them, at least not today. it is an important day for the people of the imperium as it is the day of the ascension of the emperor.
"Ouch!" Suddenly, the boy's butt slammed on the floor, because he wasn't looking straight, and naturally he ran into someone. At his first glance, he saw a pair of nice brown scuffed shoes. He thought he ran into trouble again this time. Then he sees a pair of black leather pants which has a holster wrapped on the thigh. "Are you hurt, little boy?" he heard, but it didn't sound like a local imperial guard nor a police officer, she sounds like that kind big sister living around the street corner, yet in the inner part of her tone, she still has a bit of attitude. He suddenly looks up, he sees a young woman in her middle of the twenties, suddenly his heart starts to pump fast, like a little deer in his chest.
"Ahem." she cleared her throat, "You wouldn't want to be scolded by your mother when she sees you like this…. Here, let me help you up." She gently pulls the boy's arm before he could even respond then let him go when he finds his balance.
"T… thank you, mam," The boy nervously said. "But. but I can stand up by myself you know…. I am already 8 years old."
The young girl playfully tilted her head to the right then crouches to the boy's eye level. She smirks just perfectly to show a bit of her flawless white teeth. "Of Course, you are~, but you know being a man isn't just about age, they also make sure they don't bump into people while having his mom chasing them across the streets~" The boy's face suddenly became red like a matured peach. Not only because of what she said but how stunningly beautiful the girl in front of him is.
"I…. I am sorry." said the boy. The girl then smiles and stands up waves at the desperate mother.
"What…. did you do …. Jack?!" The furious mother spoke loudly to the boy while trying to catch a breath, then she turned to the young lady and said," I am so sorry young lady, I hope he didn't cause any trouble." she said apologetically as if she's another person.
"Nope, it's fine, I guess he's just tired of running and decided to take a break in front of me." Then she winks to the boy while the mother isn't looking at her. The boy's face became more reddish than before. The amount of running didn't help as well.
"Wait! just before you guys leave." She quickly grabbed a green apple and tossed the apple stand owner a coin. "Keep the change," she said. She then gives the apple to the boy, "this might help with the thirst."
The mother of the boy poked him on the back while silently reminding him to say thanks. "Thank you, beautiful lady." the boy nervously said. "Also," the girl said having both of her hands on the back while leaning towards him: "Promise me you wouldn't run too much on the street. Or… there will be real trouble waiting for you~" she said while smiling yet he felt an unnoticeable harsh tone in her voice.
"Y… yes, I promise" "Good boy" "Wait, young beautiful lady." the boy nervously said She turns back "May..may I ask what your name is?"
"Monika Ter-" she then paused, "Just call me Monika, goodbye Jackie" Before he could also say goodbye, Monika already disappeared among the crowd. He looked at his apple, suddenly he smelled something like rose, no, more like the rose tea his mother makes in the afternoon. He then stares at the green apple. All he could remember is the girl's smile and her incredibly beautiful emerald, green eyes.
Later, Monika arrives at the place where she's meeting someone. "When is she gonna come?" Monika shouted across the room towards the secretary. She sounds a bit annoyed because she doesn't really like the people who can't meet up on time.
"Well, well. well. I guess I am on time after all. By the way, why didn't you sign in with your full name when you entered the building? I thought it was the janitor who entered my building." A blond girl with the same age as Monika slowly walked into the room. Then she stops behind Monika's chair. And rubs both of her shoulders, then she leans her mouth next to Monika's ear, whispering:" Dear sister…. You know I'm still confused about why you would not take your family name seriously?"
"Because I don't want people to know that we share the same family name. Nice uniform there, sis." Monika said sarcastically, "you look like a human wearing an eel skin." She's describing the advanced stealth suit her sister was wearing.
"Funny as ever Monika, I can get one for you. So, you can also look decent, in fact, I can tell the tinkers to alter the color into brown, so it would go well with your hair color. "She lays back on the royal-made chair and puts her feet on the desk.
Monika rolls her eyes up for a second. "Is this why you summoned me here? Just to show me your stupid suit?"
"Yes." that was a quick response.
"Alright I'm leaving, goodbye." Monika then stands up walking towards the door.
"Aww, did I hurt your little feeling, dear sis?" Nova reacted with a face like seeing a poor stray dog who's begging for food.
"Nova, this isn't funny," Monika said without looking back. But the door won't open, it seems the secretary has locked the door.
"Well," Nova puts her feet down and stands up from the chair. "I got the thing you wanted but give me a second." She then started to take off her bodysuit.
"Do you really have to change in front of me?" She said it while looking outside the window, the weather was good today. But her sister is being such a pain to her.
"What? We used to do that all the time when we were young." Nova replied calmly. A minute later Nova sitting on the chair while having the exact T-shirt Monika is wearing under her grey leather jacket.
"..." Monika didn't say anything, because Nova bought it just for taunting her. But to be fair, it does look better on Nova. Because it outlines her assets better.
"You don't have to answer it little sis~, I know what you are thinking. It's mandatory for all the ghost units like us. Just so you know my mind-reading ability has reached a new level in the last test. Maybe we can grab dinner later to celebrate it." Nova playfully using her finger twined some of her hair. While giving Monika a look of a lazy cat.
"Ehhh" Monika left out a short, frustrated gasp. She never likes anything that gets into her head.
"Here, is this the mission you wanted? Investigating a bar out of nowhere. To be honest I can't tell if you are purposely adding some workload to me or just clearly has some bad taste on the choice of the mission. With your ability, you can advance further in rank you know?" Nova hands over a folder to Monika.
"I guess we just have different ways of living then." Before Monika leaves the room, she made a small pause: " Thanks a lot, sis."
"Remember I will always be there for you." Nova's playful tone is gone, she knows the content of the mission that Monika just took, a bit insignificant but it is still a dangerous area. As Monika leaves the room, Nova calls a number only she knows:" Keep an eye out on my sister and make sure that she will come back in one piece. I am chipping what you owe me right now. If anything happens to her, I will hunt you down. " She said hatefully to the other end of the call