The Sautekh Dynasty fleet, having been fired upon by the Dark Angels, was never going to suffer such an affront passively. The two forces engaged in a fierce void duel almost instantly.
Abaddon, noting the Dark Angels were pinned down by the Necrons, prepared to wheel his fleet around for a treacherous flanking maneuver. However, the arrival of a gargantuan fleet summarily extinguished that ambition.
Countless blinding lances of light arrived from the void, shrieking past the hulls of the Dark Angels' vessels. The Necron fleet, which had been in the process of grinding the Imperial ships into scrap, immediately broke formation to distance themselves from the new threat.
Even so, a vast swarm of Doom Scythes was vaporized in an instant as they struggled to bank away. A cluster of crescent-shaped Cartouche-class light cruisers fell back toward the rear of the Necron formation after delivering one final, punishing salvo to several Dark Angels vessels.
What happened next momentarily caught Axion off guard.
A wide-spectrum broadcast originated from the Necron fleet, and a particularly ornate Necron noble appeared on Axion's vox-screen.
"I am Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty! To conduct yourselves in such a manner this day is a lapse in decorum, it is a display of utter cowardice!"
"Now, state your titles, you base and treacherous ambushers!"
To be lectured by an enemy for a lack of battlefield etiquette was a novel experience for Axion. However, the Iron Man had no intention of engaging in a war of words; his kind were not built for insults.
The only reply Zahndrekh received was a sudden, devastating fleet-wide volley.
Compared to the Necron fleets Axion had encountered previously, the force commanded by Zahndrekh, a high-ranking noble of the Sautekh Dynasty, was formidable. Axion found himself lacking an immediate, decisive countermeasure against such a massive xenos armada.
Due to the constraints of its construction, the Heart of the Forge was relatively slow in realspace; it would be a significant amount of time before it reached the primary theater. Furthermore, it was not equipped with wide-area "Doomsday" weaponry and could not swiftly delete entire swarms of escort craft. The Titan's Spear remained deep within the Imperial Sanctum, light-years beyond reach. The refitting of the Void Sword was incomplete, and Axion doubted whether Warp-based weaponry would even register against the soulless Necrons.
For now, he could only commit his fleet to a brutal, head-on engagement with the metallic xenos.
The sudden volley from the mechanical fleet thoroughly incensed the ancient general. Aboard the largest Cairn-class Tomb Ship, Zahndrekh struck the floor of the bridge with his Staff of Light in a fit of pique.
Vargard Obyron stood stoically before the massive throne.
"Counter-attack with full honors! Annihilate these savage, ill-bred curs!"
Hearing Obyron's words, Zahndrekh added a sharp addendum.
"And break them in a proper line of battle!"
Hearing his master's decree, Obyron gave a weary, silent nod and repeated the command.
"Break these treacherous curs in a head-on engagement."
As a Vargard, Obyron was Zahndrekh's most trusted protector. He was fortunate enough to have suffered no cognitive degradation during the Great Sleep and was acutely aware of the current state of the galaxy. However, his master's condition was... unique.
The Nemesor had suffered a severe mental glitch during his eons of stasis. Zahndrekh still believed he was a flesh-and-blood Necrontyr, and that the current wars were merely a continuation of the Wars of Secession against the Old Ones. Consequently, he viewed threats like the Humans, Orks, and Aeldari as mere rebellious subjects, focusing his obsession on suppressing what he perceived as internal Necron dissent.
Zahndrekh was one of the few Necron Overlords who adhered strictly to the Necron Codes of Honorable Warfare. If an opponent utilized ambushes or what he deemed "shameful" tactics, he would deliver a stern rebuke based on his unwavering commitment to traditional martial etiquette.
Moreover, Zahndrekh possessed peerless tactical genius and a profound sense of honor. He disdained the use of "dishonorable" assets like Deathmarks or Canoptek Wraiths. He preferred the clarity of a fair, frontal assault.
Obyron was fiercely loyal, but the complications arising from Zahndrekh's madness were a perpetual headache. Whether the Nemesor was truly delusional or merely affecting a persona of senility was a mystery, but either way, executing a mission under his command was a monumental challenge.
Watching Zahndrekh begin to meticulously orchestrate the massive fleet against the ambushers, Obyron sighed inwardly. Based on experience, his master would swiftly dismantle the enemy with brilliant maneuvers, then begin clamoring for a ritual duel with the opposing commander.
Such behavior was not unheard of within the Sautekh Dynasty. Imotekh the Stormlord himself was known for similar theatrics. However, Imotekh rarely spoke of the fact that such arrogance had once cost him a Cairn-class Tomb Ship. Imotekh's habit was to duel enemy leaders and leave them alive as a lingering humiliation, as he had once done by severing the arm of a Black Templars High Marshal.
In a later encounter, that same High Marshal had boarded Imotekh's Tomb Ship seeking vengeance, only to find the Stormlord had already teleported to safety. In his fury, the Marshal had hurled the flagship into a sun as retribution.
A series of violent shudders and blaring alarms snapped Obyron out of his reverie.
Unlike the usual one-sided slaughter against Imperial fleets, the battle between the Iron Men's mechanical fleet and the Sautekh Dynasty was an even match. Countless Heavy Combat Drones swarmed the void, weaving through webs of Doom Scythes in a chaotic dogfight. Green Gauss beams and blue plasma bolts collided, creating a staccato of blinding detonations across the stars.
Strike Cruisers, utilizing their prow-mounted lances, slammed into Scythe-class Harvesters that were attempting to utilize their phase-shifters for ramming maneuvers. Both sides suffered casualties.
The heavy-caliber, rapid-fire magnetic railguns of the Strike Cruisers proved devastating at close range. At such proximity, phase-shifting was less effective, and the smaller Necron hulls were at a disadvantage against the sheer kinetic brutality of the Iron Men's "steel-on-steel" combat doctrine.
Necron Shroud-class Light Cruisers unleashed arcs of lightning that spider-webbed across the void. Several Strike Cruisers were overloaded by these tesla-based weapons, drifting into temporary, uncontrolled silence. Countless combat drones were simply slagged into hunks of molten scrap by the surging energy.
In response, heavy Strike Cruisers equipped with massive plasma battery arrays began a frantic saturation of the area. Streaks of blue plasma were interspersed with the orange flares of Nova Cannon shells.
Aboard the Necron Tomb Ships, columns of emerald light flared. This immense power worked ceaselessly to restore the flickering phase shields of the damaged Necron vessels.
The scattered Dark Angels watched from their ships, stunned. The battle unfolding before them was ten times more violent than the one they had just survived. Even Lion El'Jonson, aboard the Invincible Reason, had to quietly command his sons to withdraw from the engagement zone and maintain a wary, defensive vigil.