In the endless darkness, Kaidel felt as though someone were calling his name. He forced his eyes open, only to see a bald head looking down at him, saying something he couldn't quite make out.
He shook his head and looked at Thorcyra standing before him. "...I think I lost consciousness for a moment." Kaidel scanned his surroundings; in the dim light, all the surviving Astartes sat silently on the ground.
Most of the Ghosts appeared to still be unconscious. He looked toward the original passage, now completely sealed by a gargantuan slab of rock. Several mangled Tyranid corpses were still twitching beneath the debris.
"We're trapped in this corridor," Thorcyra said, standing up and moving to the boulder. He braced his one intact arm against the stone and pushed with all his might, only to find that even his superhuman strength couldn't budge the massive rock.
"Can you still contact your Governor?" Thorcyra asked, temporarily abandoning his attempt to push the stone.
Kaidel nodded. "I'll try." He closed his eyes, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper. When he finally opened them, he looked concerned. He had reached Lord Alexei, but for some reason, the communication through the Tyranid psionic network had flickered out for a split second just now.
"Well?" Thorcyra asked calmly.
"My Lord says the rescue team is already halfway here. He told us to hold on a bit longer," Kaidel said weakly, propping himself up against the wall.
Seeing his state, Thorcyra said no more. Kaidel closed his eyes to rest; he suspected the communication glitch might have been caused by his own injuries.
High in the air, a large fleet of Medivacs flew toward the Fortress-Monastery on the Pharos mountains.
Inside one of the Medivacs, Alexei sat quietly gazing out the window. The once-continuous Pharos mountain range had been halved; the collapse had buried all life at the foot of the mountain under countless tons of rock.
Fortunately, the Pharos Lighthouse was far enough from the epicenter and constructed sturdily enough that it remained intact. If a C'tan shard had broken loose, things would have become truly "lively."
One could only say that Necron-made goods were of guaranteed, reliable quality.
On the ground below, a crater visible even from low orbit continued to radiate waves of heat that distorted the very space around it. Not a single sign of life remained in its center. The yield of the Apocalypse nuke had utterly annihilated the attacking swarm, including the Swarmlord commanding from the rear.
Having lost a massive amount of biomass, the Tyranids had temporarily retreated to incubate a new swarm. This gave the humans a brief respite, though Alexei knew he wouldn't be able to produce another nuke of that scale anytime soon. His priority now was to recover his strength and secure as much living space as possible.
To that end, he immediately ordered Brand to push their lines forward with a continuous chain of bunkers and Planetary Fortresses, aiming to establish a sufficient buffer zone before the next Tyranid assault.
What worried him most, however, was a sudden pang of unease he had felt moments ago. The Tyranid psionic network had even disconnected for a full second. Alexei hoped it wasn't what he feared—surely those guys didn't have such poor sleep quality...
The fleet of Medivacs roared through the dust clouds kicked up by the explosion. As the transports touched down near the ruined monastery, Sergeant Byron was the first to leap out.
Byron held his auspex, constantly scanning the site for signs of surviving life. Finally, at a section of collapsed ruins, he shouted back to Alexei, "Here!"
Alexei nodded, and a large number of SCVs disembarked from the transports to begin excavating the spot Byron had designated.
After some time, the sound of falling rock reached the ears of those inside the dim tunnel. Kaidel finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Are you all alright?" Alexei asked hurriedy, stepping toward the tunnel entrance as it was cleared.
Thorcyra stood up slowly. "Thank you for the rescue. We are largely intact for the time being."
Looking at the wounded Astartes and Ghosts, Alexei immediately ordered the Medical Corps behind him to step forward and treat them.
As beams of green light washed over them, Thorcyra felt his injuries slowly receding despite the thickness of his power armor. Shattered internal organs and fractured bones began to knit back together.
"Remote-transmission medical nanites?" Byron asked, narrowing his eyes in wonder.
Alexei didn't give a direct answer, instead asking him to check other areas for more survivors. Byron nodded and headed off.
Feeling his body virtually healed, Thorcyra offered Alexei a sincere salute. "Thank you, my brother. Had it not been for your timely reinforcement, we might have been completely lost."
Alexei shook his head at the towering Astartes. "No need for formalities. I still need your help. The Tyranid threat is far from over, and new dangers are likely to emerge."
He informed Thorcyra of the possibility that his nuke might have awakened the Necron Dynasty beneath the surface. "Therefore, I hope you will temporarily abandon these broken defenses and join forces with us to hold a unified line."
Thorcyra fell into silent contemplation for a long time before finally nodding. "Very well. We will need to prepare."
Alexei exhaled in relief. He had expected these "tincans" to be stubbornly insistent on staying at their original post. This worked out well; he might even find an excuse to scan their bodies to acquire the technology he desired most. Even if they weren't Primaris Marines, he could always track down Belisarius Cawl later.
He still needed to figure out a way to ask for a gene-seed, though the chances of them agreeing were low. He would likely need to find another method.
Eventually, all the survivors gathered under Thorcyra's lead.
Alexei took a quick tally: less than ten thousand mortal auxiliaries remained in the entire monastery, and just over three hundred Astartes, many of whom were missing limbs.
The veteran Dreadnought had also fallen heroically in the recent battle, his soul returning to the Golden Throne.
The silver lining was that the Chapter's most precious asset—the gene-seed vault—was unharmed. The Apothecaries were now leading teams to carry every single gene-seed out.
Under Alexei's direction, the SCVs helped load the Chapter's weapons and equipment onto the ships. Everyone boarded the Medivacs.
Under the long-awaited sunset of Sotha, the fleet of Medivacs roared to life, carrying the survivors away from the shattered mountains toward their final line of defense.
Deep beneath the crust of Sotha, countless pyramid-shaped structures—the size of vast cities—began to glow with an eerie, pale light. The Dynasty that had slumbered for untold ages was about to issue its first warning to all organic life on this world.
The masters of old were returning.
INITIALIZING SYSTEM SELF-CHECK.
AWAKENING PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED.