Chapter 7: The Skinner

They chose the left passage, which appeared smaller and sloped downward.

While the surrounding surfaces remained black, the strange glyphs had now turned a striking silver, emitting a faint glow as the illumination lamps passed over them.

Sotha-N noticed his breath beginning to fog up before his ocular lenses. This was not a good sign; it suggested that his oxygen circulation system might be malfunctioning. The World Engine was an environment where only Necrons could survive—there was neither oxygen nor moisture.

"Contact."

Suddenly, Axer, who was in the lead, stopped in his tracks. The entire squad quickly assumed a combat formation.

Sotha-N scanned the surroundings while looking over Axer’s shoulder toward the front, even as a rustling noise rising from the edge of his hearing began to approach.

"Cease fire."

Occam’s voice sounded over the comms channel.

"Everyone, hold your positions."

Sotha-N obeyed his instructions, as did the other squad members, and they immediately saw what was making the noise.

In that moment, Sotha-N admitted that he was truly stunned.

Countless swarms of mechanical insects emerged from the darkness, passing around them. They moved like liquid mercury, the light from the lamps reflecting off the exoskeletons of tens of thousands of beetle-like creatures.

They quickly flooded the surrounding passage, like a moving tide covering the walls, ceiling, and floor.

The first to make contact with them was Axer, then Sotha-N, and then those behind him.

They parted and then converged, filling every inch of space around them. The friction of their passage sounded like a faint, fragmented whisper.

Judging by their appearance alone, whatever they were, they were certainly not organic. Each was smaller than a Space Marine’s thumb, yet composed entirely of metallic material.

As the tide swept through the passage, every single beetle perfectly mirrored the coordinated movements of its peers.

In just half a minute, the wave turned into a stream. The peak of the bizarre insect surge had passed, and they ignored the motionless Space Marines entirely.

As the rustling sound gradually faded, the insect swarm disappeared into the darkness behind the squad.

Watching millions of clicking, small metal legs pass before him, Axer finally exhaled the breath he had been holding.

"What were those?"

Axer asked.

When Sotha-N remained silent, he turned to Occam, who simply shook his head.

"A form of profane intelligence used by these xenos as maintenance workers. They will attack if startled. Believe me, you do not want to see what they look like when they go berserk."

"Continue forward. Maintain vigilance."

They headed deeper, but the tunnels they followed were no longer uniform; many stone sarcophagi were scattered along the walls.

About twenty minutes later, as they began to descend, Sotha-N noticed an anomaly in the comms channel—a harsh burst of static filled his ears.

More critically, certain data from his power armor began to fail—it seemed to have frozen at the exact moment they reached the surface of the World Engine. The other squad members reported the same thing.

Sotha-N did not expect any answers; he knew there would be none.

Soon, the passage reached its end. Before them lay a hall with two paths leading further into the distance. The markings on the walls had transformed into larger, silver relief carvings, and the ceiling arched like a row of black vertebrae.

"Did the auspex mark this place, Occam?"

"Yes."

The veteran looked down at the auspex.

"It seems the left side leads to a larger hall behind this one."

"Very well. Keep it tight."

They quickly moved into the larger space. Although there were signs of a battle here, there were no corpses—neither Space Marine nor xenos.

In the center of the empty hall stood only a massive pedestal, with clusters of thick cables coiled around its sides like pythons, connecting it to some sort of silver-skinned statue placed on top.

At first glance, Sotha-N felt it resembled some kind of giant, metallic spider, or an enlarged version of the micro-creatures they had encountered earlier.

Its shoulders were fitted with artificial crystal clusters, which shimmered as the beams of light swept over them.

"Do not approach it."

Occam issued a warning, and the squad members quickly occupied positions around the hall, aiming their weapons at the pedestal and the statue above it.

"It is in a dormant state," the veteran added, as if that explained everything.

"We continue forward."

"Enemies approaching from the rear!"

Suddenly, Nard, who was at the back of the formation, issued a warning. With incredible coordination, all the Space Marines turned simultaneously, raising their bolters to cover the archway they had just passed through.

Then they heard a noise—a sound of footsteps.

It sounded very much like a Space Marine walking, the heavy clanking of metal against metal, only these footsteps were limping and erratic.

As the light beams illuminated the dark passage, a moving shimmer appeared, like a patch of deathly pale skin.

"What is—"

Axer tried to speak, but the words stuck in his throat.

At the same time, the figure limping toward the hall revealed itself at the edge of the archway.

It was a tall humanoid creature, but severely hunched. It appeared to be made of metal, yet there was something different about it.

It wore blood-stained human skin like a cloak, with long strips of flesh coiled around its shoulders and draped behind it. Crimson blood soaked most of its silver exoskeleton, and its trophies—still dripping with gore—were also smeared across the wicked, long-clawed hands that served as its limbs.

Even more horrifying was the human face hanging on its skull like a nightmarish mask, with two green eyes burning in the hollow sockets.

But it had not obtained these trophies without a price; looking at the shattered right foot and the wounds all over its body, it was clear how the deceased had fought back. Perhaps it had once been agile, but now it was merely a target.

"Fire! Destroy it!"

The xenos' footsteps were quickly drowned out by the thunder of bolters. The moment the creature limped into the hall, it was engulfed by a tide of fury.

With a sound like a hammer striking an anvil, bolter rounds slammed into its metallic body, tearing through the moist skin and the active metal beneath.

The skeletal, horrific creature disintegrated rapidly under such a violent assault, metal flying everywhere as circuits sparked and smoked.

It ceased its intermittent advance, dropping to one knee as its systems failed and it went into spasms.

Then, a bolter round struck the side of its skull and exploded, exposing a portion of the damaged wiring.

Finally, it collapsed, blood forming a pool around the skin it had stripped from its victim.

"Die, monster."

Sotha-N approached and fired a final shot into its head, blowing it into a shower of sparks.

"What was that?"

Lowering his gun, Sotha-N stared at the wreckage on the ground. He recognized that shattered face—it belonged to a warrior from the Fourth Company.

"A curse. Perhaps that is why these Necrons have become so insane."

Occam walked over, took one look, and his tone revealed a sense of exhaustion.

"A curse?"

"I have heard rumors. It is said that there is a plague-like curse among these xenos that turns them into this state. Perhaps the master of this tomb realized this curse was spreading and went mad because of it..."

"Whatever the reason, they are xenos, and they must die."

Having said that, Sotha-N suddenly noticed an anomaly on his auspex.

"New signal?"