Koryo carefully made his way towards the end of the ruin and peered out.
”Those are the nodes that fill our scanners with anomalous readings and hide the enemy movements in this area, Autarch,” said the Ranger leader Haranor and indicated two strange looking objects of Necron design further into the ruins in front of them.
”Then those are the targets. We must destroy them, or at least shut them down. Any enemy forces or other things in the area?” Koryo replied.
”This area is as unsettling and still as the previous. There is an unnatural dread here, brought on by the Necrons and their devices. My men are on the edge, but holding so far. We have spotted a large group of Necron Warriors on approach from the opposite woods.”
”This unsettling horror unnerves every one of our warriors,” Exarch Iiloran Mournsong of the Warp spiders added. ”Warlock Daranael still suffers from some kind of suffocating madness and the Guardians are extremely unnerved since our last skirmish.”
”Farseer Embarath does his best to calm and guide them,” Koryo ensured. ”But we may not be able to depend on them as much this time. A strange form of inertia and exhaustion has stalled our advance and our forces are still far behind. But we must strike now, before more Necrons have time to arrive, even if our reinforcements will arrive in stuttering groups. Move out!”
The Rangers had secured a good vantage point from the tall ruins on the left Aeldari flank, as a Cryptek Technomancer lead twenty Necron Warriors on to the battlefield from the other side of a forest.
The Necron Warriors marched steadily forwards intent on holding one of the nodes. The Rangers were out of range and could not fire their sniper rifles.
The Necron Warriors moved relentlessly closer to the first node, as the Necron Overlord made his way through the forest. Exarch Khirigin Blademoon lead the Moonglow Dire Avengers onto the battlefield and advanced to get the Necron Warriors into range of their avenger shuriken catapults. Farseer Embarath Dreamweaver moved up in support and used his psychic powers to guide their aim. With a timely intervention, Autarch Koryo and the Ghostweaver Warp Spiders of Iiloran Mournsong made a sudden assault, materialising onto the central ruins. The Necron Warriors came under intense fire, with a bladestorm of shuriken from the Dire Avengers, sniper fire from the Rangers, and the death spinners from the Warp Spiders wiping them out so completely that they could not reanimate.
The enraged Overlord advanced towards the Warp Spiders, while the Technomancer retreated into the woods to meet up with the delayed Necron Immortals. The Immortals and the Overlord fired on the Warp Spiders and left only Iiloran and Koryo standing. The two moved further back with their sights still on the Overlord, as Daranael and the Guardians arrived and advanced on the second node. The Dire Avengers and Embarath advanced towards the first node. Dire Avengers defensive tactics enabled them to deactivate the node and revoke it’s targeting disruption and still fire on the Overlord, wounding him. Koryo’s dragon fusion gun failed him, as the Overlord phased through the blast. Finally, the Rangers managed a headshot that even the Overlord’s Resurrection Protocols couldn’t bring him back from.
The Immortals moved through the forest to get in range of their weapons, and cut down Iiloran with their gauss blasters and severely wounded Koryo. Koryo teleported back and away from the Immortals, as the Dire Avengers moved up and the Guardians protected by Daranael advanced towards the second node. Embarath guided the Dire Avengers again and their bladestorm cut down a few Immortals, who immediately resurrect and stood back up.
The Immortals took out all of the Dire Avengers, except Exarch Khirigin. The Guardians and Daranael advanced and deactivate the second node, while fire from the scatter laser and Khirigin hammered into the Immortals, but again they rose back up.
Seeing the many Aeldari closing in on them, the Technomancer ordered the remaining Necrons to retreat, leaving the victorious Aeldari time to permanently disable the Necron nodes.
”Well done!” Koryo exclaimed to his gathered troops after the battle. ”Despite this unnatural dread, we managed to destroy the nodes and the Necron’s stillness effect is already diminishing. Now we can more safely bring in more troops and find the main Necron Pylons and destroy them. I would especially congratulate the Ghostweavers, for their well timed ambush and they are now truly battle-tested and, I think, marked for greatness. Exarch Iiloran has showed that he really is an exemplar of the shrine! But the Necrons have surely taken note of our activities now and will gather in greater numbers. We will need to move swift to avoid being caged in by them.”