A Rock & a Hard Place

## An Unlikely Pair

The first hormagaunt that enters Valgekh's domain is obliterated instantly, without a second thought. The next one comes seven minutes later, and suffers the same fate. After seventeen lone hormagaunts have entered the sights of Necron patrols and been killed, one by one, the Overlord finally takes notice; this is not typical behaviour of Tyranids, the parasites that had taken up root below the planet's surface. The eighteenth hormagaunt is not fired upon, and those assembled watch as it skitters up to the largest spire, runs a circle around it, then returns in the direction from which it came. Valgekh thought the curiosity had passed, until five minutes later another hormagaunt came and did the same thing. Warily, he assembled a troop and mobilized to track down the beast's path. Perhaps the strange behaviour indicated a weakness in the Tyranids' collective mind, and meant wiping out these parasites would be easier than expected...

As they journeyed on, other gaunts joined, though they all seemed to completely ignore the Necrons following them. Finally, the pack stopped near the top of an outcropping, and all turned to look at the assembled Necrons with that distinctive lifeless stare. Lord Valgekh walked up, mere feet away from the unflinching Tyranids, and looked down, finally understanding. Humans, mobilized specks on the road far below. More of them than before, and with Astartes now too. More than his currently awakened forces could handle. He looked at the hormagaunt at his side. More than the nests could handle too. But together...

The only thing worse than a parasite is an usurper. He called for reinforcements, and prepared to spring an ambush.

## Lonesome Road

The road was intact, and the lorries were making excellent time, keeping the escorting Astartes at a jogging pace. These trucks had no chance of carrying more than one or two marines each, on top of their cargo, and the marines were as safe, if not more, out in the open. The engineers had welded on extra armour but the drivers knew it was a purely symbolic gesture; without some serious modification, it wouldn't take much for Necron weaponry to punch right through. Down this section of road, walls made of thicker concrete and steel had melted away, the base here a victim of repeated attack. The electromagnetic pulse came suddenly, though not unexpectedly; this was arguably enemy territory, after all. The lorries were stopped dead, and it would take time to get them moving.

The Skitarii disembarked from their cramped flatbed, while the Astartes assembled portable barricades and prepared for attack. An ambush from the Necrons was not a surprise. The surprise came right after, when spores erupted from the ground like organic balloons, before bursting into fire and acid, obliterating the trucks, drivers and all, and upending their cargo. Lightning fast, a swarm of genestealers flooded from the ruins like roaches under a lamplight, accompanied by Skorpekh Destroyers. There wasn't much time to understand the combined threat before they crashed into the lines, tearing one side of the convoy's defenders to shreds. The marines displayed their training however, falling back and pouring disciplined fire into the swarm, destroying the first wave before too much damage could be done. Volleys of explosive shards came from the other direction, destroying the dunecrawler taking up the rear, as a neurothrope rained psychic fire down on the rest of the rearguard, staying just out of sight from the rangers on their elevated position.

While the initial ambush was mostly Tyranids, the second wave brought the bulk of the Necron forces; immortals fired upon the exposed rangers, while on the opposite flank Overlord Valgekh and Zarototaek appeared with their warrior entourage, wiping out the Serberys Raiders on the flank. A trygon burst from the ground, tilting into the ironstriders at the front of the convoy, but it failed to bring them down before combined fire killed the beast. The rest of the convoy turned their guns upon the warriors, bringing them down faster than they could get up. Zarototaek took the survivors to safety with his veil of darkness, while Lord Valgekh went down to the fists of two Kastelan Robots.

The rear had been decimated, with repeated volleys of hive guard fire now joined by the immortals and warriors, but with the other front having been eliminated, the ambush had lost its teeth. Zarototaek retreated, while the neurothrope was brought down, rendering the remaining Tyranids feral; they melted into the ruins, to lurk until found again.