The Lost (30k Primarch Quest)

XXXVII. Chaos Erupts

-

Caihong

-

The voices never stopped. They always got louder when Sun-Sin was gone. But they were being particularly loud and annoying today.

Normal stuff for the most part. I'm hungry, imagine what power we offer, turn your friend's skin into living swimwear. That kind of thing. But some of them were panicking, and it was getting on Caihong's nerves. She had enough to be worried about. Xiulan's cultists were all over the city, telling everyone how wonderful and amazing their 'Stormbreaker' was. For all of Xiulan's insanity and zealotry she was one hell of a persuasive speaker, and the people were listening to her extoll his virtues. All two and a half of his virtues.

"-and the Stormbreaker did deliver us from false hope and falser gods! Know this, prodigal children of our wondrous world, there is no safety in false gods! Praise be to the Stormbreaker!"

"Praise be" echoed from the crowd, some more enthusiastic than others.

"Thank you for coming. I will speak here again tomorrow. If you desire further blessings, please give me a moment to confer with my colleague, and then I will give out personal benedictions." Xiulan stepped down from her makeshift pulpit.

Caihong places her hands on her hips and glares at the cult leader, not bothering to hide her annoyance. "Weren't you supposed to give up this whole religion thing?"

"I gave up worship of the three we had come to know in the storm," Xiulan tilts her nose up, letting the shine of her shaved head reflect the sun in the most annoyingly imperious manner Caihong had ever seen outside of a noble party. "Your captain did not preclude me from telling of his exploits."

You'll regret this.

"I don't think he was expecting you to turn him into your new god," Caihong snaps. Gods, something is prickling her skin today. "Where's your son? What's his name?"

"Son," Xiulan shrugs. "He's back on the ship. Doesn't seem to like the city, once the novelty wore off."

"Can't be worse than being a tiny cult on an island."

"It isn't, but I think he prefers the ship." Xiulan muses. "There's surprisingly few children here… or perhaps it's not that surprising with the monks nearby."

Gods… where was this headache coming from?

"Well maybe you should go put your eye back on him before he does something stupid."

Xiulan snorts. "I will not be lectured on how to properly raise a child by your crew, not after that stunt at the city walls. Fan nearly died."

"And you thought it was a good idea to leave your son in the hands of that same crew?"

"… okay fair enough." Xiulan sighs. "Are you going to tell Sun-Sin about this?"

"If you don't, yeah. And trust me, I'll make it sound much worse."

"Do it and I'll tell him what you're doing with that navigator fellow – Jiang Wei, was it?"

"Go right ahead, I'm sure he knows."

A bluff. If Sun-Sin knew she was seeing the navigator he'd never stop teasing her-

Her headache suddenly flared, like an axe cleaving her skull open.

A rumble shakes the ground, and Xiulan stumbles. Caihong falls to her knees as a sudden wave of nausea rushes through her, worse than any bout of seasickness. The voices all began screaming at once, all in some flavor of fear.

RUN

LEAVE

FLEE

"First mate?" Xiulan asks, suddenly concerned. "What-"

IT'S BAD

GET OUT

SHUT UP AND RUN!

Caihong screams and grabs her forehead just as an emerald light erupts from the stupa overlooking the port. Something is pounding in the base of her skull, and she hurls. She scratches at her forehead, trying to tear something out of her mind… something is wrong, she knows it, but-

Her eyepatch burns away, and something forces its way out of her eye socket, screaming all the while.

-

Tech Monks

-

There is a low boom within the hill, and the entire edifice sags downward.

Virtuous Whim and Paradise in Labor stand just outside of what was once an entrance to the tomb complex of the ancient men of Iron – well, no, Whim supposed, their called themselves the Necrons – that was now filled with fallen stones.

"How long will that hold?" Paradise rasps, trying to catch his breath. Both monks are exhausted, having worked as quickly as they could to set up explosives. They's given Ching Sun-Sin and their lay-sister as much time as they could afford, but the moment they'd seen the necrons coming, they'd detonated.

"If we're lucky, the rest of eternity," Whim says in turn, wiping his forehead.

"Bad odds?"

"7.63% percent. Another 68% says they get out within a couple of days," He says, taking a deep breath. "Regardless, we need to enact containment protocols. Inform Lotus immediately and ready our defenses. The real ones, this time."

Paradise nods. The Kuji-Nan kept many secrets from the people of Tabgach. Especially the true extent of their weaponry. After all, most of it would never be used on humans.

"That thing down there. Think it will be able to command our alien artifacts as well?"

Whim hesitates. "… no way of knowing. Assume yes."

"Advanced human weaponry only," Paradise breathes deep, finally seeming to catch his breath. "Okay. Lotus won't like it."

"Lotus is not going to like anything that happens in the next 48 hours but at least we'll live to see it! Now. The rubble buried them. They should be immobilized, if not outright destroyed for now. We'll have some time to prepare -"

There's a low boom, and a flash of emerald light as if from a source deep within the caves.

Whim stares. Paradise stares.

Another boom. The light grows brighter.

The monks bolt as another flash goes off.

They have minutes at best.

-

Thaszar

-

It had been a long and uneventful sleep, and an exile so boring Thaszar almost welcomed the hairless apes poking about his tomb and stealing his artifacts. Almost.

The ape had his hat, but whatever. He could retrieve it later, not like the ape was going to get off-world anyway.

His personal vessel had been toyed with by the apes, of course. Doubtless they had determined he was some sort of god and in their fumbling ignorance attempted to repair it to his pleasure, not realizing the vessel's inability to hold oxygen was no impediment to him or his servants.

That was where the decent news ended, however, and his frustrations began.

For one thing, it seemed the Necron's great sleep had done far more damage to their people than anticipated. The near-mindless warriors should have obeyed his commands instantly (so long as those commands weren't to harm other members of the Sarnekh dynasty) but almost all of them were instead following basic cleansing protocols. Non-friendlies were detected and eliminated one by one, leaving only dust and screams in their wake.

Which, well, fine. It wasn't as useful as they could be right now but at least they were shutting up the stupid apes.

Thaszar's sensors turned towards the primitive settlement and what they told him gave even he pause. There was an immaterial disturbance there?

Such an event had occasionally happened during the ending centuries of the war in heaven, but never to this extent, and… what were those things coming out of the hole? They didn't look like the kind of constructs the Aeldari or the Old Ones preferred… Eurgh, they almost made Krorks look appealing. Almost.

Whatever they were, his warriors' weapons seemed less effective than they should've been… hrm. Time to leave.

He lifted his vessel off of the planet, paying no thought or mind to the apes below, nor the warriors he was about to lose. None of them were thinking machines, after all, and the exiled noble had much greater sources of treasure and servants waiting for him.

Starting with the fools who had exiled him. And then, the stars.

-

Eun

-

For whatever reason, Caihong had put Eun in charge of watching the ship. Maybe she wanted to help her show she was loyal and capable, maybe she wanted to deny her shore leave. Either way, the die was cast, and Eun was outside of the city when… whatever was happening began.

Something was moving through the streets, killing at random, but not looting like a pirate crew might, oh no. More like an extermination. She saw women, men, children, turned to dust with cracks of emerald lightning. Skeletal monstrosities with guns that hunched them over strode silently through the streets. She saw one of the robots, tearing apart a living, screaming man and… was it trying to eat the flesh?

She looked away quickly from that one. What madness was this?

Something bright and shining with witch-light was happening near the center of the city too, though every time Eun tried to look in that direction she couldn't tell what she was seeing. Fan clutched to her side like the scared child she was, but Eun had no words of comfort for her.

She wanted to run. Cast off before those… whatever-they-weres made it to the vessel.

Repairs had been completed ahead of schedule and some of the many modifications the tech-monks had promised applied. The ship had been brought out of drydock to make room for other vessels.

But barely half the crew was on the ship. Caihong was out in the city, tracking down Xiulan. Sun-Sin was being seen to by medics, or maybe visiting Maia, Eun wasn't sure. The important thing was that none of them were on the ship and she had no idea where they were or when they'd show up.

Casting off would be as good as sentencing them to die.

Sun wouldn't forgive her if she betrayed him again… but he'd never forgive her if the crew died, either.

Fan whimpered and clutched closer to her.

Eun turned and shouted. "Cast off."

Han gaped at her. "Eun, we can't leave the captain or Caihong and I am not-"

A bolt of green light flew from the shore and struck one of the cultists. She didn't have time to scream before she became dust, and her disintegrating bones clattered to the ground. The remaining crew looked up, and in the distance they saw skeletons marching towards their ship.

To their credit, the crew moved instantly.

"LAUNCH!!" Eun grabbed Fan in her arms and ran for the cabin. "We'll have to support from the sea!"

Han didn't raise any further objections as he pulled his guns and shot at the skeletons. One of them was struck in the head and stopped walking, but the rest kept coming.

As the ship pulled out of the harbor, the skeletons raised their strange guns and fired, and crew turned to dust with barely enough time to scream. Eun kept Fan close, trying not to hurl from what she was seeing. Fan sobbed.

"Be brave," Eun said quietly to the girl, holding her tight. "Sun-Sin will be here soon. We'll be okay."

She wasn't sure if she was telling Fan or herself.

The Cutting Dagger quickly pulled out of port. Flashes of green energy fired over their heads, occasionally striking a crewmember who would scream and die. Eun hoped the reason that they weren't shooting at the ship because their weapons would be ineffective.

"HARD TO STARBOARD, READY THE CANNONS!" Eun roared. The gunwales opened, and on Eun's command they fired.

She bit her lip. Half the crew was still in the city. So were thousands of people. Eun was a pirate, she could and would kill (and occasionally have fun doing it), but usually with the goal of gathering treasure or staying alive. This was apocalypse.

And to her horror, she saw the robot Han had shot move again, the hole in its skull gone.

Gods save the crew.

And may Sun-Sin be here soon.

-

Voting

Sun-Sin will not be here soon. But what happens in the meantime?

[] – Tech Monks abandon the city

The Tech Monks, seeing that the city is lost, choose to shut themselves off and wait out the storm. An emergency signal has been broadcast, and other temples will bring reinforcements to help them cleanse the city. But for now, the Tech Monks must protect themselves and wait out the storm.

(The Tech Monks seal themselves up, leaving the city to its fate.)

[] – The Cutting Dagger is boarded

The Cutting Dagger thinks itself safe, until once more skeletal hands reach up from beneath the waters and begin climbing their way onto the ship. Floating necrons with massive cannons make their way to the deck and slaughter all who stay.

(The half of the crew you voted to die last round actually end up being the crew on the Cutting Dagger. Fan lives. So does Eun, as a treat.)

[] – A demon appears

A creature from beyond the deepest nightmare of man and woman steps from the void. Many will find the necrons kinder masters.

(A demon appears.)

[] – Chang's Knights arrive

The houses loyal to Lord Chang and against the Empress arrive to rescue their lord. Unfortunately, in the chaos of the city's destruction, they do not discriminate; they don't know what's happening or where the most danger to their lord is.

(Knights arrive at the city, and begin their own purge)

[] – Write in

[] – Write in – All of the above (VETO)

Suggested by @keykingdom
[] Write in: Green Pirates From the Sky?

Suggested by @Tabascoheath
[] Write in: Pretty Space Wizard! (and her *really* angry friends)
- Belathala's back and she brought some of her craft world to stop the warp incursion! or the Necrons. or something else. Whatever the case she and the rest of her buddies look really angry and they don't seem to be in the mood to focus on anything but... whatever it is they're here for.