The sand was as cold as the tomb, a fine, crimson grit that tasted of iron. Behind us, the Great Pyramid hummed a low-frequency vibration that suggested the legion below was far from finished with its morning wake-up call.
But the immediate threat was the roar of Chimeras and the harsh, white glare of searchlights cutting through the twilight.
"Hide the machine, Vertin!" Kars hissed, scrambling to his feet and checking the charge on his lasgun. "If they see us on a Xenos construct, we're dead before we can say 'The Emperor Protects!'"
[ INTEGRATION: 44% ]
[ COMMAND RECEIVED: DEACTIVATE UNIT ]
I pulled my hand away from the Wraith's brow. The amethyst light in its eyes flickered and died, replaced by a dull, lifeless grey. The creature collapsed into the sand, looking like nothing more than a heap of ancient, rusted scrap.
"My outfit," I muttered, pulling the heavy, ornate fabric. " Does this look normal for a regular person here?" I ask Kars
" well you like a high-ranking nobility in the imperium" Kars said honestly
"ok then well Kars, tell them I'm a civilian. A survivor you found in the area. Don't mention the tomb. Don't mention the 'magic'."
"I'm a Cadian, lass. I know how to lie to an Inquisitor," Kars said, though his hand was shaking. "Mostly by staying silent and looking miserable. I'm good at the miserable part."
The first transport skidded to a halt twenty yards away, kicking up a cloud of red dust. A squad of Stormtroopers in thick, black carapace armor jumped out, hellguns leveled at our chests. Red laser sights danced across my forehead and Kars's eagle-crested chest.
"Identify yourselves!" a voice boomed through a vox-caster.
"Trooper Kars, 112th Cadian!" Kars shouted, throwing his hands up but keeping his rifle slung. "Escorting a high-priority civilian survivor! We've got Intel on the Xenos movements!"
A figure stepped out from behind the wall of black armor. He wasn't a soldier. He wore a long, fur-lined trench coat and a hat nearly as distinct as mine, though his was adorned with a golden 'I' that seemed to burn with a light of its own. An Interrogator.
He walked toward us, his boots crunching on the crystalline sand. His eyes sharp and predatory swept over the "scrap heap" of the Wraith, then settled on me.
"A civilian?" the Interrogator mused, his voice smooth and dangerous. "In the middle of a Dead Zone, wearing clothes, and a hat that looks suspiciously... elegant for a refugee."
[ ALERT: PSYKER SCAN DETECTED ]
[ COUNTER-MEASURES: 'THE DECEIVER'S VEIL' ]
I felt a cold pressure against the back of my mind, like someone trying to peel back my skull. Before I could panic, the System surged. The pressure vanished, replaced by a false image a "mental projection" of a terrified, simple girl lost in the dark.
The Interrogator blinked, his brow furrowing. He looked at me again, his suspicion momentarily dampened by the "veil."
"She's just a girl, my Lord," Kars pleaded.
"Found her in the wreckage of the North Spire. She's seen things... she's in shock."
"Indeed," the Interrogator whispered. He leaned in closer to me, the smell of incense and old parchment clinging to him. "And you, child. What is your name?"
"Vertin," I said, making my voice small, trembling. "I don't remember much. Just the green lights. The cold."
"The green lights," he repeated, his gaze drifting to the pyramid in the distance.
"The xenos are stirring. This world is a tomb, and we are but the grave-robbers about to be caught."
He turned back to his men. "Search them. Then put them in the transport. We have a ship waiting at the extraction point. If the Necrons are truly rising, we need to leave this rock before the Inquisition decides to subject it to Exterminatus."
Kars let out a breath he'd been holding for a lifetime. But as the Stormtroopers moved in to rough us up and search our pockets, the System pinged a red notification in the corner of my eye.
[ WARNING: ANOMALOUS SIGNATURE DETECTED WITHIN INQUISITION TRANSPORT ]
[ CLASSIFICATION: C'TAN SHARD (CONTAINED) ]
My heart stopped. They weren't just here to rescue survivors or scout the enemy. They had something. A fragment of a god. And it was screaming for me.
"Help me!" a voice echoed in my head not the System's voice, but something raw and starving.
"how did they even get it?" i thought