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Mortimer Balman      The Bar-El System in the Agripinaa Sector is rife with anarchy and low control by the Imperium. Its most important noteworthy attribute is the provision of the Bar-El Penal Legions and some low-tier agri worlds for the Imperium. High over the world of Lelithar- traveling at what seems to be impossible speeds using some sort of inertialess drive- a Cairn-class Tomb Ship appears, flanked by no less than four Scythe-class Harvester ships, and a painfully large number of support craft of varying classes and sizes. This is a fleet of Necrons, of all things.

     And apparently, they are here to.. Conquer, rather than simply exterminate?

     When the deadline given by the Nemesor of the fleet has expired, Lelithar will be inundated with Necron troops. Warrior-class Necrons simply appear on the planet's surface at strategic locations, teleporting down in their thousands. The (mostly) human populace of Lelithar, mired in anarchy and lacking a stable government or military forces to respond, will find themselves being fired upon with massed gauss flayer weapons.

     It is not a pretty sight.
Staren     It's a goddamn fleet of Necrons and noone is answering. Staren scrambles to perform long-range scans from the station in orbit around Amistel Majoris, finally pinpointing them just as the Nemesor's time limit expires. He checks that planet in records recovered from the surface. Some anarchic mess... He starts to tell off the Nemesor on the radio, then has an idea. Normally he would never deal with tyrants, but a tyrant might just be BETTER than what the people of that world are experiencing now.

    It turns out that this necron doesn't *make* deals.

    No one is answering his calls. The other Planetary Governors all seem to be busy, or perhaps they aren't taking him seriously after his terrible performance over the last year. That's understandable. Who knows where the Janitor is, or even if her contract covers this or if she can get here in time. Tiny answers, Tomoe answers, but what can the three of them do? Maybe save some people on the surface, true...

    It's a goddamn fleet of Necrons, and it's more than a handful of elites can possibly fight in its entirety.

    It is time.

    He thought he'd enjoy it, seeing enemies destroyed by the might of science, but now that it's so close, instead of anticipation there's just... a feeling that he has terrible power and responsibility in his hands, and that even the slightest mistake could cause death and destruction on the wrong targets.

    He's dour and serious as he picks up Tomoe and Leyanne, giving them any gear they ask for. Drop ships and drop pods will be sent to help with the fighting on the surface, but Staren's robot army is nowhere near the scale of the Necron invasion force. Still, every life saved...

    The Stranger than Fiction drops out of FTL, looking like a house-sized castle with a mechanical sea serpent wrapped around it and thrusters stuck on. It's towing several simple one-way drop ships, oversized pods really, packed with robot soldiers. "Good luck down there. Try to... try to keep the people down there safe, as best you can." is all Staren has to say as he sees the pair off, and then starts climbing across the surface of the ship to his robot. Once it's detached, the ship goes back into FTL -- it's not meant for combat.
Leyanne Tiny looks around her drop pod and gives a thumbs-up. "Drop me somewhere with some cover but a good line of sight." She tells the Staren targetting the pods. She makes sure that the heavy bolter she's snagged for this is secured, nodding. "That's why I'm here, dude." She confirms.

As the pod screams through the atmosphere, wreathed in plasma, the Martian within lets out a whoop of joy. She's still hollering when the pod slams down, splitting open like a flower. She picks up her heavy bolter, checking the feed chute is still in place. She fixes her attention on the nearest Necron presence and opens fire.
Staren     Staren's fighter detaches and takes off into the void, surrounded by smaller combat robots. It's so quiet. Space is always so quiet... Staren takes a deep breath, and then directs the targeting systems to lock onto the biggest Necron ships. His thumb hovers over the fire button on a constrol stick. It doesn't feel like this should be launched by a mental command.

    Click.

    Eight missiles launch towards the fleet; the robots take off after them, flying in front of them to block attacks with shields or counter-missiles.

    On the side of the missiles are painted nuclear trefoils with skulls in the center, because some things you don't just... not put warnings on. It's not like the targets will have time to see them anyway.

    When the missiles reach their targets, they detonate. There's the expected flashes, the bright lights of miniature suns lighting up the sky brighter than day... but then...

    The nuclear fusion is amplified by something else. Supernatural rock that made impossible technology possible on one world even before electricity was discovered. Supernatural rock that, unbeknownst to Staren, gets its power from trapped, crystalized demonic souls. These weapons once destroyed a world, their original users expecting super-nukes and not knowing the... side effects.

    Staren knows the side-effects, but this is outer space. Even if some random spot in orbit becomes a deadland, or a shadowland, or whatever you want to call it, where the barriers between the worlds of the living and the dead are permanently weakened... there should be nothing there, right? It's SPACE. The chances against even a single ship crew having died in this exact spot in orbit are astronomical!

    Nuclear explosions don't make a mushroom cloud in space. They're spherical. But these... these twist into the shape of gigantic skulls that can be seen from the surface, and despite the airless void they're accompanied by a hellish, demonic SHREIKING.

    Staren shakes as the shrieking fills his cockpit. He didn't EXPECT that, but it's not surprising. Everything is under control. All is going according to plan.

    He just hopes it's enough.
Tomoe Tomoe had become aware of what was going on and had contacted Staren about this, to offer him what help she could. It was the fighting sort of help, but that might just make a difference somewhere? Also, she had no idea it might add to the reputation that Karian had made her dimly aware of she was gaining here. She would do what she could to aid him in this. She didn't beat about the bush or let any possible issues get in the way of things. No there was too much going on she would get a pickup, she'd ask for what gear she could and she knew she didn't have enough firepower to take out the ships. Her plan was to cover people's escape, to a more secure location, aid the local PDF/GUARD/police with fighting the invaders and if she was lucky there could be a warp gate people could be hearded through to another location away from the Necron invaders.

, For now, Tomoe is in a drop pod beside Tiny's and hers ends up bursting before it impacts and Tomoe' flying, wings flared out and she will let lose a barrage of light and fire magic at the nearest Necrons she can locate. Unaware of just what Staren is doing up in orbit.
Mortimer Balman      When Leyanna and Tomoe land, they will see people fleeing. Screaming. Being flayed alive and rendered from people into bloody skeletons. There are several kinds of Necron creature here. Warriors, Immortals, Scarabs, as well as Canoptek Spiders and even some Wraiths. At least, that's what they can see so far. They will pick up a veritable panicked nightmare scenario on their local comm systems. There are PDF, Guardsmen, Arbites- and various flavors of Traitor and Renegade of each type- all screaming at once as they try to make sense of the Necron attack, and try to coordinate SOME kind of defense. There's a mention of Space Wolves somewhere but it isn't clear where, and thee's only a few of them, they will probably not influence the outcome of this.

     There is a horrid sight in space, shortly after Staren's weapons go off and do their dirty trick. A warp rift opens, a hole in Realspace straight into the Immaterium itself, right in front of the Tomb Ship. The Tomb Ship attempts to escape, but tens of thousands of chains made of screaming souls attached to daemon engines that pulse warp fire grab the machine before it can get away. A million daemons can be seen dancing across the chains, even some Greater Daemons are visible- one cheeky looks directly at Staren himself, and gives him a thumbs up and a wink- and they drag the Tomb Ship into the Warp. Where the Necrons have no defenses of any sort.

     The Harvester ships make some token efforts to try and save the Tomb Ship but they cannot stop it from being dragged in. ...After a moment's pause, the remaining Necron ships all go full bore OUT of the Bar-El System, and out of the Agripinaa Sector entirely. They're not dumb enough to stick around, even to save their own ground forces. The Warp Rift slowly starts to close as the Tomb Ship finishes being dragged through..

     Down on the ground, the Necron forces pause. A crucial opportunity has been created, if the Concordians can capitalize on it. They have been abandoned here. Even though they are spread across the planet, and can repair themselves, they're still *spread across the planet* and there are NO reinforcements coming. This represents a problem for the Necrons.
Leyanne Leyanne greatly enjoys her heavy bolter... it's got all sorts of fancy targeting systems which mean she's got a self-ranging pointer that even calculates lead for her. Oh she's gonna have to see what Staren wants to let her keep this thing when it's done she'll clear a shelf and a rack just for this puppy. She's having quite a lot of fun when... Staren's... 'presents' detonate. It takes Leyanne a moment before she 'feels' the EM spike of the nuclear detonations wash over her antennae, causing her to dive into cover and look up as the rainbow spheres of the nuclear detonation turn sepulchural, rancid hues and twist into screaming skulls. That she can hear screaming despite the intervening vacuum.

"..the everloving fuck was *that*, Staren?" She asks, aghast as she watches the light show engulfing the ships. Especially when the demons do their thing and one gives Staren a cheeky look. "I come back to 'put them in the never use again box!' she suggests, flinching as the ground troops continue to fire on her.

She leans back out of cover and opens up again with the heavy bolter, attempting to gun down any Necron within range. "GET CLEAR!" She shouts to the civillians. "Get... anywhere but here, I'll get their attention and give you covering fire!"
Staren     Staren always expected when this moment came he'd feel like the hero, 'haha, take that aliens, eat nuclear fire!' But... well, those weren't ordinary nukes, and he feels like... like he just picked up a gun for the first time, before he learned to shoot for real. That feeling that you hold something in your hand so dangerous, a mistake could KILL someone. You know, someone innocent rather than a terrible enemy it's supposed to kill.

    He doesn't get time to reflect on it though, as in addition to the damage to the ships, a goddamn hole in space opens up -- to the WARP, no less -- and honest-to-chaos DEMONS come out.

    Adrenaline pumps through Staren's system as he almost panics trying to plan on how to take out Necrons AND demons, but... The demons just focus on the tomb ship and Staren can only watch his enemies of the day get dragged to hell. A demon actually gives him a thumbs-up on the way out.

    He wonders if that will haunt him forever.

    The rest of the fleet actually turns tail and runs, which was better than Staren could hope for. Now he 'only' has to deal with the countless Necron hordes on the surface.

    Staren takes a couple of deep breaths, and turns his fighter towards the planet. It begins to shake as it plunges into the atmosphere...

    ...Meanwhile, on the surface, combat robots and golems spread out towards the Necron forces. The constructs ignore the light show in the sky. Some are just quadrupedal missile platforms. Some are humanoid robots in SWAT-looking gear firing bullets made of smart materials or that have built-in ramjets to accelerate to absurd speed before impact. Others are small, or large, hulking humanoids of animated metal and concrete wielding studded metal clubs with which they charge right at the enemy line and smash!
Tomoe What has Staren done? Tomoe has no idea just yet, she will worry about it later. She's got Necrons to worry about right now the Warriors, Immortals and Scarabs do catch her attention along with eh sorts she's never seen before. She doesn't think at this point she acts she will drop upon the Necrons Naginata in hand and working to do as much damage as she can to the machine horrors. She has to keep them tied up to give more people time to flee, or in the case of any PDF or Arbites? More time to gun the alien horrors down.

"Don't worry about it for now take these things down!"

She will join Tiny in assaulting the Necrons with her weapon and the odd spell hacking, slashing and stabbing away.
Mortimer Balman      Leyanne cuts down Warrior after Warrior, their metallic bodies shattering to pieces under the force of her assault. Some of them begin to reassemble themselves automatically. Others.. ...Don't. Gauss fire is returned in her direction, focusing on her rather than on the civilians. The civilians are, of course, fleeing for safety. Some of them cry prayers to their God-Emperor as they flee, begging His protection.

     Staren's fighter is met with the heavy gauss weapons fire of Immortals- several groups of them seem to be trying to shoot him down. They aren't super incredible shots, but they don't need to be- they can just pour fire out until they hit, and each hit takes off armor at a steady rate, molecular layer by molecular layer. Too many shots, he won't have a ship.

     Tomoe will notice something very important as she uses spell hacking- the Necrons don't seem to have *any* defense against it. Whatever magic she uses, they either can't or don't resist it at all. Compared to more conventional weapons, which they actively resist and regularly repair themselves from..
Leyanne Leyanne keeps her face-plate down. "Your Emperor's a little busy, you got us instead." She says. "Just keep running, get the fu- whoops!" Leyanne yelps, ducking back into cover to avoid the Necron fire. She's not sure how much of that fire her armour can take so she's going to stick to the 'don't get hit' rule of thumb, as best she can.

Even then, she catches a hit along the way, scouring paint and metal from her armour.
Tomoe Tomoe seeing how effective her magic is, is not something she expected. She had presumed most things in this universe that were horrors would be well versed in dealing with it. From the looks of it, this isn't the case so she's going to turn up the heat. She starts using her elemental sword arts with her spear, casing bolts of flame, light and even lighting as she dives into the mix as she keeps trying to stem the tide of Necrons alongside Leyanne.
Staren AIR:
    Well, Staren made it into the atmosphere, but now he has a new problem: Massed anti-air fire. It's too much, and he just USED the big missiles. He has more missiles, y'know, regular missiles not nuclear hell missiles, but there's no way they'd make it through massed anti-air fire either. For now he pulls up, trying to get up out of range while looking for another opportunity.

GROUND:
    Staren's ground forces keep working, and once Staren's out of reach of the anti-air he can devote personal attention to commanding and coordinating them. He has missilebots on the ground fire plasma warheads to try and melt groups of fallen necrons in hopes that it will stymie their regeneration!
Mortimer Balman      HOT ROBOT ON ROBOT ACTION! Staren's golems and robot soldiers are not weak by any stretch and indeed, can tear apart a Necron warrior with some work. A few working together can either rip a Canoptek Spyder or a Wraith limb from limb. The problem is how often the damned things put themselves back together.

     Something noteworthy over local comms- the Necrons are falling back across all sectors. They can't seem to leave, but it's probably that they are trying to regroup. This will take no small amount of time, given how big a planet is and how long it takes such creatures to march. But they are falling back, everywhere.

     Tomoe's magic seems to be doing the most damage out of everything thus far. They don't self-fix nearly as often from her spellcraft as they do from the 'normal' weaponry arrayed against them. Casualties are mounting, at least where Tomoe and Leyanne are. They can see the little skittering and low-hovering Scarabs picking up pieces of bodies and flying off with them while Warriors and Immortals provide covering fire- often to no avail against Tomoe's terrible magics- until they can retreat themselves. Their retreat is slow, and plodding. Even at a run, they're slow as Hell.
Tomoe Tomoe sees her magic is ruining the Necrons she'll start using wider effect magic trying to get the little ones recovering bits of those she's cut down, it seems. She doesn't intend to let them getaway. Everyone that falls here for good? Will far be less of a problem for this planet and perhaps more. She doesn't know the whole deal with these things other than they are hard to kill normally. She will keep laying down the magic. Thunder, Wind, Fire and Light spells are the order of the day her push continues against them.

"Back to whatever nightmare that spawned you!"
Leyanne Leyanne nods to Tomoe and changes tactic. With Tomoe as the main hammer, Tiny works on being an anvil - using the heavy bolter to 'herd' the necrons into more advantageous lines of fire for Tomoe. "Need to get some thicker armour..." she mutters. "These guys' weapons flay off my plates..."
Staren     Staren's ground forces have just a fraction of their original numbers left, but... automatons don't have morale, don't care about their fallen brethren. Those that remain keep fighting; As the necrons retreat, Staren has the melee troops focus on any units that have been caught out isolated and can't receive as much covering fire, while the gunners try to shoot retreating necrons in the back and the missilebots try to melt them before they can regenerate or be dragged off. Once they're out of missiles, Staren has the bots focus on supporting Tomoe and Leyanne rather than trying to do mass damage to the Necrons. They'll just regenerate it anyway...
Mortimer Balman      By this point, the Necrons are in full retreat. This does not happen to them often if indeed at all. Tomoe's fanciful light shows are devasting to her nearby dance partners and Tiny's heavy bolter is still cutting them down. They are, howvever, no loneger being fired upon at all- the Necrons are too busy trying to run away to even turn around and give potshots, and judging by some of the remains, they don't look like they even ARE designed for th.

     It might be a bit tentative to say that the day is saved... But at the very least, they have stopped the invasion. The alien forces are moving back to try and secure themselves some form of base or another, it could take days or even weeks for them to regroup. And who knows if they're even going to try and continue pressing the attack so much as try to escape.
Tomoe Tomoe is going to keep pressing knowing that even one of these things to a normal person is a full-on horror movie. Even if it is stopped one of those warriors could put a lot of people in the ground before someone brings it down. So she acts, she purges them as best they can even as they flee. Karian might be impressed to see this.
Leyanne Leyanne keeps up behind Tomoe, making sure that nothing flanks around her. The bolter's down to about 25% ammunition by now, so she's moving a bit quicker, her load lightened as she swings the boltgun from target to target. If it's within Tomone's firing arc she aims for knees and limbs, attempting to disable and make it easier for her to take them out. Otherwise, Tiny just rakes across their centre-mass, and any Necron that looks to be considering standing back up again gets another salvo
Staren     Staren keeps his drones focused on supporting the others, just watching to see if any necrons decide to stick their neck out...
Mortimer Balman      As the Warriors become fewer in number, the smaller and more difficult to hit Scarabs swarm themselves through the civilian crowds, banking perhaps on the idea that Tomoe won't open fire on the humans. Very few of the Warriors are going to escape, if any of them do it will be solely because of the efforts of a remaining Canoptek Spyder which is grabbing several of them in its long, spindly mechanical arms and then flying away as fast as it can. But they're not really that fast, and Tomoe will be able to catch it easily enough. More than anything else, some of the Scarabs will escape, that's largely it.
Staren     Tomoe might not fire on the humans, but Staren's machines attack with mechanical precision! Although the melee golems can't safely follow into the crowds.