Guardsman Aleron watched. The storm continued, as it had been for the last six hours. But then something changed. A single stroke of lightning, luminescent green, fired down from the sky. There was no thunder, only silence.

Silence and terror. The strokes continued, ever downward, striking the ground, but unleashing no thunder. Just silence. Nothing but silence. Before long, they had struck in a complete circle round the outpost. Guardsman Aleron wanted to shout this urgent discovery on the Vox, but it seemed to be out of power. Little did he know what was to come. The strange thunder-less lightning continued, but Aleron was not intrigued – only terrified. Terrified by the doom that he somehow knew was about to come, and the thought of what could possibly create this silent storm.

+++

A thin, almost skeletal figure appeared in the jungle, in a swirling green glow. It was metallic – black, shining, its eyes pure green hell-lights. On its chest was the sculpted image of a rib-cage, cast in gold and indicating its high rank.

Its head and arms were also cast in gold, and upon its back it bore a shroud like that of Death himself. A good likeness, considering that its master was known by many names – Kaelis Ra to the Eldar, the Reaper by the pathetic race of Man, Temnassano by the pernicious K’nib, and many other names besides. But all those names meant one word: Death.

Soon, it would begin.

+++

Aleron watched as a skeletal figure appeared out of the jungle, its eyes green corpse-lights. Then, it barreled its strange weapon, and fired. He vanished, gone in a terrible flash of green bale-light. More figures appeared out of the jungle darkness, their eyes green pin-pricks in the black night. The campfires died, luminas and illuminators flickering into shadow, leaving the outpost in total darkness. And the terrifyingly silent storm continued.

+++

Sergeant Thaddeus was playing poker with his men when the lights died. Suddenly, the barracks was plunged into total darkness, and he felt a stroke of numb terror through his mind. He and his men advanced out, shouldering their las-guns, hoping to the God-Emperor of Man that they would be preserved. That was when something rose from the ground in front of him. Scalpel-like claws stabbed into his chest, methodically, coldly, almost calculatingly flaying him and putting the skin on his chest, the rest of the squad fleeing in terror from the metallic monsters.

+++

Commissar Lekzius watched as the mechanical abominations came upon them, the skeletal, flying thing leading the charge. He fired his bolt-pistol at the thing, but it passed straight through. As it came upon him, for the first time in his life he felt fear. The thing impaled him on its scalpel-like blades, lifting him into the air then tossing him effortlessly aside, dead instantly. The broken body of Commissar Lekzius crashed to the ground, even as all his men were slaughtered around him.

+++

IMPERIAL REPORT – MAGOS ALEXIAN

CONCERNING: MELLISSIA PRIME

PASSWORD : *****

RETINAL SCAN – IDENTITY CONFIRMED

Welcome Inquisitor LeBeau

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: INGRATITUDE IS THE FONT OF HERESY

I did not believe what I saw when our ships arrived at Mellissia Prime. The once-thriving jungle world had become a lifeless desert in less than a hundred days, and definitely long before aid could arrive. Most traces of habitation displayed severe structural damage consistent with +++Crossfile: Necron/Monolith/Particle Whip+++ weaponry, and were devastated by the sands. I can only imagine what ancient technologies were used to perform this act, and I fear greatly whatever species performed this. I have found no bodies, no clues about who or what attacked, and thus I am perplexed about a possible motive or reason, although Xenos structures in the jungle had been recently uncovered by an Exploration team. I will simply have to guess as to Mellissia’s fate and the reasons for it.

+++Crossfile: Fall of Mellissia Tertian/Necron/Aquila Warriors Chapter+++