NationStates Jolt Archive

The world, far out on the distant rim of the galaxy from most human settlement, known to modern records as NE-21-21 was a tomb world.

Once, it had been home to people, in ages past. For a brief time (by the standards of the Necrons - a hundred thousand years), its native civilization, the Mordichi-Pilgrims had thrived. They began the long climb from barbarism, to space flight, and more. In that age, so remote now that little but scattered ruins of their race remained, the universe had been torn between two rival powers. The Mordichi pilgrims had fought, from millennium to millennium, on one side and then the other, as their prevailing opinions switched from the rightness of one cause to the other, and covert action manipulated their rulers.

It had been the Necrontyr who had annihilated the denizens of what was then Mordic, though they would not hold themselves responsible. The world’s end had come in the destruction unleashed by their almost casual use of high speed kinetics in the system. The Necrontyr still said had been manipulated by the Enemy into destroying a system they could no longer hold.

The Mordichi-pilgrims survived, for thousands more years, on other worlds. But their homeworld never again bore life, the crust shattered and only the highest mountaintop enclaves surviving the apocalypse.

Yet beings existed there still.

Epochs after its devastation, when the surface had re-formed, and entirely new life had grown up on it from the surviving forms, the Necrontyr now forged into Necrons, had come again to Mordic, and scoured that life almost utterly. For in that time, they had sought places away from the plague of madness that had engulfed their empire, and they sought places away from life.

They had sliced deep into its crust, cooled it, altered its spin and built great pyramids of their strange, living metals on its northern continent, where the last Mordic remains still stood, preserved by those aliens’ sciences.

Then they had buried themselves beneath it.

Again, the lifeforms of the world had re-developed, during the long sleep of the Necrons. This time, a thousand species of aerial predator soared the skies. The world had been colonised, for a time, by the race of the Eldar, though their interest was only fleeting. They had built cities in the same mountains where the remnants of the original inhabitants had been ground down, even their ageless ceramite building style-giving way to time, so that little remained.

They had at whiles watched, and hunted, and domesticated, and encouraged the air-dwellers, though nothing intelligent had ever come of them, the Eldar spread them to many worlds.

Then, that empire too had left, interest over, its buildings sealed and allowed to dissipate into nothingness, save the portals to the then-new webway, which they left there. Perhaps they discovered the pyramids and their inhabitants – no records remain of such a thing, but their policy had always been to leave such horrors to slumber. Or occasionally, ensure that they would never wake.

Later still, the Necrons had awoken, and, finding little of interest to them, been content to leave the world as they found it, just one component and outpost within their domain.

Rich with life, in places, planes of lava reduced by the action of its once more settled atmosphere, to deserts and seas, and forests and savannahs and icecaps, the world of NE-21-21 went on about its business, the creatures that lived there, mutely oblivious to its ancient devastators.


Of course, even an isolated inhabitable world had more visitors down the ages than could easily be counted. Here, a crashed ship, there, a stone raised proclaiming some sovereignty.

An automated signal greeted all who would approach the planet from space, warning in no uncertain terms that this world was claimed by the necrontyr, and that the consequences of trespass upon it were extreme.

This would not affect those who came to it now, though, for they came upon the old ways…

"The Necrons are our most ancient foe, the ones we fought in the War of Heaven, a time of great death and darkness. We fought them back, planet by planet, until the Enslaver plague. As the Necrons retreated to their tomb worlds, we rose to prominence, to power, to dominance over this galaxy. We could destroy stars on a whim, raze planets with a word, and crush nations with a breath. But our arrogance became our downfall, as our race was destroyed by the corruption within and we gave birth to the Great Enemy, She Who Thirsts. Now, our people are scattered and struggling to survive against the various threats we face. The brutality of the Krork, the blindness of the Mon-Keigh, but none compare to the return of the Necrons. Even as weak as we are, we have a duty to ensure the Necrons do not return and plague this galaxy once more."- Farseer Taldeer, prior to entering the Webway to attack the Necrons.


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The Webways of this world, whose name has been forgotten to history, quietly hummed back to life as forms began to appear in blazes of light. Thin forms with black armor, wearing strange masks and holding smooth weapons as they came out the Webway. More and more continued to come out. Warriors wielding great weapons and black armor continued to pour out of the gate. Soon enough, a form wielding a great double-sided spear and powerful runes gently moving about her exited the Webway. Her figure radiated power, authority, wisdom, and mystery. These were the Eldar, remnants of the long-forgotten empire they held that was destroyed by the birth of Slaanesh, the fourth Chaos God they helped to create. The figure with the runes was Farseer Taldeer of Ulthwe. She had undertaken the Path of the Seer and had become lost upon that path, which enabled her to see into the future, amongst its constant twists and turns, and choose actions that would aid her Craftworld of Ulthwe or the Eldar as a whole. She had come after her visions of a great Necron force that had arisen, ready to devour the life of the living. She had worked hard, battling across many worlds, even Kronus where she had defeated six other armies.

Her forces continued their march out of the Webways. Various Aspect Warriors had come with her: The Dark Reapers, masters of death, the Fire Dragons and their mastery of vehicle and hardpoint destruction, the Howling Banshees, perfect warriors of close combat and avatars of Khaine's daughters, the Dire Avengers, the noble warriors of Khaine, the Striking Scorpions, silent and quick death, the Swooping Hawks, mobile warriors who take after the eagle that haunted Khaine, the Warp Spiders, teleporting warriors who could do hit and run attacks, and the Shining Spears, fast warriors who charged in and out of battle. And finally the civilian-warrior troops of the Guardians, specifically the Black Guardians of Ulthwe. Highly trained but the most flexible of Eldar units, they made up most of the armor. With this force came the Vypers, the Jetbikes commanded by the Shining Spears, the Prism and Falcon Grav tanks, along with the Wave Serpents, with the supporting Support Weapons Batteries and Nightweavers.

But this was not the full extent of her forces. As they quietly spread out and prepared for the battle ahead, several squads of Rangers grabbed their long rifles and Camoline cloaks and began to scout ahead of the forces and see what they were up against. Another flash from the Webway gate and a brightly-color Eldar ran up, wearing a mask and wielding a powersword. "Farseer, you are sure this is the world we have been searching for?" Taldeer turned and nodded at the Eldar, acknowledging her presence and answering her question.

"Yes, Harlequin. I have felt in my dreams, for a long time now, the presence of the Necrons in this galaxy. They seem to be....changed from the forces we faced on Kronus and other planets. However, they still need to be stopped and if my dreams are true, they have managed to awaken much of their deathless brethren. We need to move quickly if we are stop them and prevent another War in Heaven."

The Harlequin nodded. "Understood, Farseer. What are your orders?"

"For now we wait until the Rangers report in and see what we are facing. Only then can I divine what our next course of action is. For now, have our warriors ready themselves for combat and wait for my orders."

"Understood, Farseer." The Harlequin ran off, leaving Taldeer to her thoughts. She was confident but she couldn't help but be troubled. Something wasn't right here. The signal she had her forces study was altered in many ways from the signal she normally got from the Necrons and her visions, while they showed her a great Necron force, they seemed...off somehow. She didn't feel the same sense of dread that she did when sensing the Necrons. She shook her head; she couldn't afford any doubt. Whatever was going on here, she didn't have time to fully investigate. The Necrons had been left unchallenged for too long in this galaxy and they had gathered too large of a force. And seeing as her forces appeared to be the only Eldar left, she had to take on the burden of battling Chaos and the servants of the Star Gods.

It was some time before the Rangers reported in but what they reported was disturbing. They had discovered a single complex of buildings, obviously of Necron make, and there were several sunken Monoliths, and large buildings housing row upon row of Necrons. So far, there seemed to be little if any sign of guards protecting the facility. So now was the perfect time to strike. As Taldeer had expected, whoever these Necrons were, they still didn't expect to be attacked on their planet. And it was that which would cause their downfall. She took a look at the forces she had at her disposal and then summoned the Harlequin as well as the Exarchs of the Aspect Warrior squads and began to explain her plan.

'She would have a large part of the Black Guardians she had assault one side of the complex, along with the Shining Spears and their Vypers. This would draw off any defenses the Necrons might have in this place and allow her to make another strike with her other forces. Put into three groups, the remaining forces would have three focuses: Group 1 would have the Striking Scorpions, Howling Banshees, along with several Wave Serpent Transports, who would wait behind and see if any Necrons either didn't take the initial bait, woke up during the attack, or some arrived to attack. Whatever it was, they'd speed up in the transports, disembarking with the covering fire of the Serpents and lay waste to the enemy forces. The Banshees would engage, using their masks to disorient the enemy while the Scorpions quietly snuck upon them as they engaged and attack. Group 2 would have the Warp Spiders and Fire Dragons, serving as the main assault force with the Prism Tanks. The Spiders were to disengage from base destruction and focus on eliminating enemies if this group came under attack. Finally Group 3 would have the remaining Black Guardians, Dark Reapers, and the Dire Avengers, along with the Falcoin Grav tanks. They would assist with the destruction of the complex as best they could, but their primary duty was to defend all of the groups and serve as the primary front if a large force arrived out of nowhere.

All the while, the Rangers would be watching, calling in coordinates for the Support Batteries to lay down fire and the Nightweavers would be in hiding, waiting to be used to slow down the enemy for when they retreated. Taldeer would remain with the batteries and oversee the attack, as the Harlequin led the attack. With her orders given, their forces began to move and get into position.

All of this was a mask, however, for the Warp Spiders, as they worked on destroying the base, would be placing distortion bombs at key locations in the base. Thus, when they left, the base would still be destroyed. the The Rangers kept watching, ready to inform if anything stirred. Nothing did and the three groups soon pronounced they were ready. Taldeer gave the signal and the initial strike group came screaming down onto the west side of the complex, firing into buildings for all their worth. The Shining Spears ran amok, skittering close to buildings and then letting their Laser Lances blast away, cutting deep gouges into the nearby architecture. The Vypers laid down fire, hammering buildings with rocket fire and the Guardians remained watchful, waiting to engage any Necron forces that emerged. Minutes passed as the firing continued with some response, and several buildings began to collapse.Taldeer decided to begin the assault and informed Groups 2 and 3 and start their part. Group Two moved in, and began to blow up everything in sight. Several groups of Scarabs and a couple Tomb Spyders began to come over, charging their lines. The Fire Dragons and Prism Tanks engaged the Spyders as Group 3 engaged the Spyders. It was not long until they had been wiped out and they returned to their duties. The reddish bolts of the Fusion guns blew apart building after building while the Warp Spiders set little bombs to aid in the destruction, and carefully setting up cloaked distortion bombs for the final part of the plan. Still no response. Some strange power readings were detected but the detonation of several buildings then caused them to vanish.

Taldeer frowned. This was going far too easy; she didn't like it. She kept her senses focused on the battlefield and the area she was in, trying to make sure they weren't about to attack her. She then informed the Rangers to begin the shelling. The Support Batteries began to get coordinates and started to fire D-Cannon or Vibro Cannon shots. Buildings were sucked into the Warp or vibrated into pieces. The attack group and Group 3 made great inroads and it was to a shocked Taldeer that the news that all the bombs were planted was given. She hadn't expected such an.....easy operation. It was almost as if the Necrons were too busy or some other factor was occupying their detection. She gave the order to retreated and waited for her troops to leave. She stood on a cliff that gave her a good view of the complex, now filled with burning and destroyed ruins of Monoliths, power stations and other buildings. The Harlequin ran up to her side.

"All of our forces have entered the Webway, Farseer. We are the only ones remaining."

Taldeer nodded. "Very well. Let us finish what we came here to do and then leave. We have other matters to attend to." She raised a device and pressed a button on it. Intense blue light shot from where the city was and for a moment there was no sound. Then a loud crack sliced through the air and a shockwave pulsed outward from the city as the multiple explosions of Warp-driven bombs blasted the city apart and ensured that it would need much rebuilding, not to mention wiping out countless Necrons. Taldeer turned and headed back into the Webway, followed by the Harlequin and they began the journey back to Veleron. She had seen the mission done with nigh perfection but something still bothered her, telling her that this was too easy and she was not done with the Necrons so easily. And the aftermath of this attack would show that her instincts had been right.....

Throughout the galaxy, there stood a set of communications relays. These were used by the necrontyr to bounce hyper-wave broadcasts around that great disk. Oh, their communications technology was advanced enough to reach across unlimited range, however, only as narrow-beams, to a known destination. These allowed a necron to send a signal to all its compatriots within a galaxy.

Many of these relays had been destroyed, early in the Eldar’s history, by the great hero Calanesh, who had spent thousands of years – hundreds of thousands, counting time dialation due to warp travel and relativity – hunting down those stations and surreptitiously destroying or even capturing them. But they had been remade.

From the planet once known as Mordic, such a signal was sent, in the closing minutes of the engagement, not by a necron, but by one of the sapient machines inhabiting the planet. It was caught and relayed, and within moments, all of its compatriots had seen the recordings of black-clad lithe figures searing and burning down pylons and towers, before the core of the Mordic-tomb was plunged into the warp by powerful distort charges.

For a time, there were thoughts of betrayal. There were two known groups with that ability in the galaxy, two chief craftworlds; one was their ally, the other, cautiously neutral. However, neither had been seen acting in that manner. The symbols on the attackers, also, identified them as a different branch of the Eldar race.

This was a curious, worrying fact. Things that the Necrons did not know – much like humans – troubled them.


Within twenty minutes, before the forest fires had even faded, where the Fire Dragons had struck, a vast shape had appeared over the planet, a crescent-shaped vessel, connected to a dual pronged aft section, like the bones of some forearm, its crescent shape and grasping, side-blades superficially resembling a hand. That was its name dead hand: Talastan, in its own language.


It was widely thought that the necrontyr did not use fighters as other races, relying entirely on the swarms of scarabs that accompanied their vessels. Such a swarm clustered around Talastan now, spreading out to the surrounding hundreds of kilometers, ready to intercept slower moving projectiles aimed at it. This was not entirely true, for along with the ship’s trio of escorts came another craft, a sleek ziggurat of dark green metal; a scarab-hive, but grander by far.

The Necrons knew of the webway of course – the greatest achievement of the Eldar, which by far outstripped the design used by their progenitors, the Old Ones – and they knew that as no Eldar vessel had been detected, then there were two options. This world had portals upon it somewhere; or an Eldar ship had approached them under the effects of psychic invisibility. The slim, crescent shaped fighters that shot from their carrier-vessel would search far and wide on the surface, their slim shapes aerodynamic (these crescents flew backwards for hypersonic travel, presenting their strongly built leading edges like scimitars to cut the air).

Meanwhile, the ship teleported monoliths, which would deploy scarabs and destroyers – low flying infantry hover units – to the surface, to search near the site of the tomb for clues. Then the dead hand and its escorts would search the rest of this abandoned system.


Such affrontery, Talastan thought to itself, could not be allowed to go unpunished.

(OOC: Apologies that there’s not really much to respond to! I was going to do more, but I’ve got to head out tonight!)

Talastan’s search lasted a day and a night, its more able trackers eventually hunting out the ancient, ageless web-gates, and cordoning the area around them. The Necrons dared not enter the webway themselves, but instead, summoned the creations.

They were not a product of necrontyr minds, but of a corrupted farseer. Web-walkers, dark-armoured humanoids, mindless – in a conventional sense, but still intelligent – their brains accustomed absolutely to this strange environment. They were not masters of it to the degree that the Harlequins of Cegorach the Laughing God, but they were close. Their slim, dark, angular faces leering into the blue maze before them.

Navigating the webway was a difficult task for its positions were relative to one’s starting point. Tracking one through it was even more difficult, for passengers rarely left convenient breadcrumbs, and its self-maintenance systems purged all unwanted organic traces.

But there were ways; psychic residue, molecular debris not yet cleaned out, exhaust gasses of vehicles.

Hundreds of the creatures – of a stock of only thousands, originally created to monitor Eldar activities – spread out though the webway, armed with scuttling drones, reporting to one another through high powered radio signals. They followed a broad cone of webway terminuses they deemed most likely, eventually, their numbers – initially five hundred and twelve – dividing neatly in two at each branch, as they became less sure of the path.

Soon, however, the Eldar would begin to encounter these foes…

Taldeer led her forces as she sped through the Webway towards their capital world of Veleron. She had seen the destruction of the Eldar facility and she had received a communication that Naeril's mission was going well, as she had the enemy forces on the run, or at least distracted before the transmission cut off abruptly. She would have to wait to see what was going on and continue heading home. The nagging feeling of dread and danger stayed with her, and had been with her ever since they had left the planet. Something didn't feel right. And it didn't help that all, aside from the Harlequin, were feeling the draining, searing kiss of Slaaensh in the form of their souls slowly being drained by their travel in the Webway. It was something they had grown used to bearing, but it was never something one could completely ignore. But it was to no surprise when the Harlequin rushed up and spoke with Taldeer.

"Farseer, we have detected a large force of beings moving our way. They seem to be communicating with radio signals and have to be searching for us. There are over two hundred of them and they are heading straight for us. I can only surmise that they are of Necron origin."

"This soon after our attack, Harlequin? We'd be fools to think anything else. Take the Howling Banshee and Striking Scorpion squads and engage them. Then, when you can, lead them off onto the pathways only you know and let these fools get lost amidst our Webway network. We will continue on to Veleron and hope to meet you there." Taldeer spoke and the Harlequin nodded. The mentioned squads turned at the Harlequins command and rushed back down and held a place at the corner of a Webway. They would rush out and engage the incoming forces, whoever they were and hold them off as long as they could, before running off and vanishing into the vast network. Taldeer continued on, leading the rest of her forces onward to Veleron and to make safe their capital. For someone reason, Taldeer felt she had to get there soon, or risk losing all she had gained in her thousands of years of hiding and building.

The Necrons’ creatures were tall, lithe, almost Eldar like in their stature. From a distance, they could be confused with the dark kin, but there was something unnatural about the way they moved. They didn’t move with the easy grace of Eldar, or the clumsiness (to Eldar eyes) of humans nor the sinister fluidity of the computer-controlled limbs of Necrons. Rather, they jerked, as though their bodies were lagging behind their minds, and every movement was a conscious effort.

When they saw striking scorpions, they fired, their weapons curiously located in their chests, each firing a burst of kinetic energy ahead of them that threw their enemies backward. This was ordinarily an almost useless weapon, but combined, in the smaller, tighter tunnels of the webway, it was powerful, multiple blasts forming a battering wave-front – groups of Eldar wave-serpents were known to use the same technique – of strange field energies.

They had the capacity to shoot sharp, jagged metal shrapnel into these fields, to create a wave-front like a fragmentation grenade, too, but they didn’t bother for the heavily armoured scorpions. Instead, they supplemented their attacks against the enemy with pulses of energy, flying like self contained packets of power that exploded on contact – not much more damaging than a lasgun, all told, but calibrated to work well in the web-way, while not being recognizably Necron or Eldar.

The solitary harlequin was categorized in their minds as a much higher priority, and they issued an alarm sound that almost rivaled the screams of the banshees in volume, as they detected her, directing their shrapnel-burst-weapons at her. They were counting on the weapons’ wide effectiveness to deny her the advantage of swift movement. The same was true to a lesser extent of the Banshees, whose lighter armour was more vulnerable than the scorpions.

The creatures began to break up, even as many of them in the narrower tunnels of the webway grouped together to project their field-weapons ahead of them in reinforced walls, the black, glossy bodies looking almost insectile.

Where the screams of banshees hit them, their nervous systems sometimes seemed to go into overdrive, making them shudder and spin or shoot wildly, even hitting their own. When they were turned away, they seemed to have no armour on their backs, entirely designed to fight an enemy facing them. Other weapons proved less effective; lightweight projectiles of shruiken pistols particularly, were buffeted away, or their aim ruined by the effect of facing the enemy. Of course, once the Eldar came close, it was trivial to expoit the weaknesses of their foes’ armour to slide a chain or power blade under it, and slay them. Even so, they were formidable, well adapted to their environment.

Some followed, jerky, uncoordinated running motions carrying them with lolloping speed after their attackers. But most of them did not; as the attack withdrew, they returned to their original mission, spreading out and searching ahead of them.

A novice to the environment might think to stop, wait and follow the enemy as they returned back the way they had come. But these creatures knew the ways they sought too well, and would not make such an error – the web could, at times, render one traveler intangible to another. If one entered it once more, after shutting a terminal down, then the paths it laid out would be different, and they would never meet.

No, their original plan was still the best option for them.

When the enemies came forth, the Scorpions and Banshee, with Harlequin in the lead, rushed out to attack. The Scorpions were first, using their Mandiblasters to fire at the enemy, and then rushed with their chainswords, but were forced back when their foes used a wave of kinetic force to keep pushing them back, making it hard to get to them and fight. They struggled against it, but were having a hard time making it through. This constant barrage was supplemented by lasgun strength blasts that pinged off their armor, but kept up the fire. At this rate, the weapons fire would wear down their armor and kill them. The Banshees moved in with the Harlequin to aid them, but quickly came under fire from the strange beings. They let loose with the shrapnel burst weapons at them, seeking to deny them their speed advantage. The Harlequin and Banshees dodged as best they could, but even they could not avoid it all. One Banshee caught a burst that vaporized her neck armor and sliced through her neck, causing plenty of bleeding and for her to fall. When they got close enough, the Banshee's unleashed their screaming, pouring their anger at their lost comrade's death into it, and the effect was devastating.

The enemy began to break up into groups as they fired into them, moving into other tunnels and routes. The scream hit them then and they locked up, shuddering and spinning, firing into their own squads even. The Harlequin led the attack, as the waves stopped, by jumping and flicking her spinner weapon into one of their bodies, causing it to explode and send boiling blood all over their allies. The Banshees ran in, their power swords slicing deep into the enemies bodies, seeing that their backs were turned and not as armored as their fronts. The growling noise of chainswords also sounded as the Scorpions leapt into the fray, using their Mandiblasters to fire hails of razor shards into their foes. After the screams effect began to fade and several of their foes lay dead, with the rest retreating. The Harlequin had them retreat and watched the strange beings leave. Something was...wrong with them; she could not place it, but their feel, the movements...all added up to her hurrying her soldiers on after Taldeer, wanting to inform her of what happened.

Thanks to their efforts, the Farseer and her forces exited the Webway to emerge in Ular'ka, the City of Dreams. Taldeer's current capital on their exit world into this universe, named Veleron, for a planet where she first had her dreams of the Necrons. Her forces, upon exiting, immediately went into defensive formations around the webway gate, a similar situation to the others. She wasn't sure if they would come out and attack her, but she had seen a possibility of that happening, so she covered her bets. Every asset she had, aside from the Avatars, Titans and Fleet, were deployed, to ensure that this city would not fall and that these strange invaders would be killed.

The creatures regrouped, and stalked out of the webway; the pair that found its way to Veleron stopped short, as they emerged from the occluding blue mist of the web, holding their arms back, tilting their heads back and uttering triumphant cries before they were shot down. When the Eldar examined the bodies, they would notice something unusual about one of them; he – it? – carried with him the spirit-stone of one of the fallen Eldar. Sure enough, if they ventured back into the web, they would discover that this had happened to all of the bodies.

If they were to analyze the creatures’ corpses, they would find many strange things about them. Inside, certain parts of their armour bore distinctly Eldar shapes and runes. But the creatures themselves seemed to be made of some kind of flexible fluid, that decomposed and drained away on their death, the organic residue remaining seeming like a heart of some kind, and an astonishingly simple digestive tract. The brain was slim, resembling the central lobe of the phenomenally complex Eldar brain structure responsible for touching the warp, but much simpler, and extended with a complex metallic lattice of gold – actual gold – wires.

Other than that, and trapezoidal slivers of plastic embedded in their reeking gelatinous corspes, linked to the wires, there was little more to the creatures, as if all they were was a bundle of warp-sensitivity and some kind of fluidic-muscle.


For Talastan however, the situation was becoming clearer; of the hundreds of web walkers, many had scattered far across the galaxy – the webway was not entirely linear – and were lost. The ship left Mordic, and shot across the galaxy on a wide course, analyzing the transmissions from senseivers within each of the web-walkers. These senseivers were designed in a dead man’s switch, to incinerate themselves, leaving only ash in the armoured compartment where they were held, should the user die. But they had served their purpose.

Between the tasks of retrieving the web-walkers, and discussing what precisely to do in response to the attack, there was almost a day before the Necrons dispatched another ship, this one a shroud light cruiser, to the edge of the enemy system.

The Shroud-class was a stealth ship. It was often said that stealth in space was impossible. That was almost true. For reasons of the lack of much of meaning in the average cubic mile of space, even a passive sensor could see an enemy ship’s drive in the distance, whenever it maneuvered (with time delay as appropriate).

This was a problem the Shroud-class solved by, in normal operation, doing a whole lot of nothing. Ordinary necron ships radiated their waste heat into unfathomable dimensions. The shroud class barely generated energy in its silent0running mode, and absorbed all that fell on it. It transited out of inertialess drive, at the fringes – light-days out – of the Veleron system, resuming the low speed and momentum it had before then. Despite that, it was as ready for action as it could be without betraying its location, – after all, who knew what Eldar might foresee?