The World Engine

The World Engine was a narrative campaign pitting the Sentinels of the Forge (played by Dave) against a Necron dynasty (played by Steve).

## Plot

Thousands of years ago, the planet Hadrian (homeworld of the Sentinels of the Forge Space Marine Chapter) was cast into the Warp by unknown means. The Marines could return to realspace for a short time (such as when they rescued the Imperial Guard forces stranded on Ixia), but due to a psychic link between them and Hadrian they would be taken back to the Warp in due time. Unwilling to resign themselves to this fate, the Sentinels began searching for a means to escape the Warp permanently, while also fighting off numerous attacks by daemons and other Warp entities that threatened Hadrian.

While drifting through the Warp, Chief Librarian Matthias detected what appeared to be a massive hole where the Warp simply did not exist. Hoping to use this hole to bring Hadrian back into Realspace, Matthias sent forth two scouting parties to investigate the anomaly. The first party disappeared, but the second was able to report back to Matthias with both good and bad news: the hole was a tear in the Warp that caused whatever entered it to drop out of the Warp, but the cause was from a nearby moon overrun with Necrons. Surprised that the Necrons could project an anti-Warp field of that size, Matthias conferred with the captains of the Sentinels and hatched a plan: a strike force under Master of the Forge Davicus would hit the Necron world with the express purpose of disabling the field so that Matthias and other psykers could move in to assist in taking the whole world and, perhaps, freeing the Chapter from the Warp.

The initial strike would be conducted in two parts; the main force under Davicus would attack as quickly and heavily as possible, utilizing a deadly array of tanks, drop pods, and gunships to smash through the Necron defenses, while a smaller force under First Captain Antarro would seek out an alternate route to slip past the xenos and enter the moon.

Davicus' assault caught the Necron defenses under Overlord Khepri off guard, destroying a Monolith and damaging several other units in the xenos forces. Khepri, however, managed to hold his forces together for a successful counter-attack, his retinue inflicting serious casualties on the Sentinels' tactical and Terminator squads while Scarabs swarmed over Sternguard Veterans. Davicus' Stormraven moved to assist the beleaguered Marines, but was intercepted and shot down by a Necron Nightscythe with many of the passengers dying in the crash. Concentrated fire from Necron Annihilation Barges and Deathmarks forced Davicus to retreat while taking several wounds, while Khepri cut down more of the Space Marines in an unrelenting advance. Davicus' forces attempted a desperate last stand to gain some form of a foothold on the planet, Davicus personally challenging Khepri to single combat. It proved too little too late, as Khepri disarmed Davicus while the rest of his warriors slaughtered the few remaining Space Marines. Oddly enough, Khepri chose to incapacitate and capture Davicus and several other Marines instead of killing them, taking them deep into the Tomb World while the rest of the Necron forces prepared for future assaults.

The infiltration force under Captain Antarro managed to reach a side entrance of the Tomb World more or less undetected. The forces defending this section of the complex were not nearly as organized as the force that had defeated Davicus' strike team, but did contain a vast number of vicious Flayed Ones. Though the Space Marines fought hard against the Tomb World's defenders, the sheer number of Flayed Ones proved to be too much even for the elite Terminators of Antarro's force. Taking severe losses, Antarro was forced to retreat, alerting Matthias that the Necrons appeared far too organized to be merely standing guard.

Davicus awoke to find himself in a Necron stasis chamber, surrounded by other Sentinels who had been captured in the fighting. Also in the room was a strange Cryptek, a more spider-like machine than the usually humanoid Necrons. The Cryptek was in the process of dissecting one of the fallen Space Marines, though it was thrown off by a temporary power failure in the complex and noticing Davicus had awoken. Soon after Overlord Khepri arrived, demanding that the Cryptek (revealed to be Illumiator Szeras) hurry along with his work, as the Phaeron of the Tomb World was growing impatient. Szeras countered that the Phaeron needed to work harder to keep the power of the Tomb World running, otherwise he would consider leaving the world sooner rather than later. Davicus was knocked out again after Khepri departs, but awoke to find that the power surges have deactivated the stasis fields holding him and a few other Marines. Davicus took advantage of this to free more Marines before moving to access a Necron Database. Along with discovering the flaws in the Necron's power grid, he discovers that the cause for the hole in the Warp is a Null Field Matrix, a generator that the xenos use to protect their worlds from psychic invasions (daemonic or otherwise). While unable to find the exact location of the Matrix, Davicus was able to pinpoint several pylons in and on the Tomb World that projected the Null Field. Contacting Captain Antarro, Davicus ordered the other Marines to secure one of the Pylons so he could access more data concerning the World. Davicus would lead those he had recovered, now rearmed after finding where the Necrons had placed their captured weapons, and do whatever they could to further damage the power grip, potentially overloading some of the Necron's defenses and perhaps taking down the Null Field so further reinforcements could be deployed.

## Characters

Davicus (Master of the forge)

Matthias (Chief Librarian)

Overlord Khepri (Necron Overlord)