The Cryptek's logic core was experiencing an unprecedented storm.
He saw the melta charges stuck to the lid of the sarcophagus.
The countdown on the detonators was still ticking away, its red digits looking exceptionally glaring in the dim tomb chamber.
At this moment, this Cryptek—who had lived for tens of millions of years, witnessed the War in Heaven, and used C'tan fragments as batteries—actually experienced an emotional reaction known as "absurdity."
Wait, what the hell is this?!
Where did these monkeys come from?!
How on earth did these low, filthy, grease-reeking flesh-bags bypass the gravitational wave beacons outside, pass through the phase gate, and walk right into his laboratory like they own the place?!
This makes no scientific sense!
This violates all logic!
Most importantly, lying inside that sarcophagus was his priceless experimental data!
It was the single perfect sample he had spent four thousand years screening, extracting, and analyzing from countless species!
And now, these monkeys were actually trying to stick explosives onto his life's work?
Unpardonable!
"Zzzzt—!!!"
A series of extremely sharp electronic noises, filled with rage and horror, burst from the Cryptek's vocal unit.
Translated, it roughly meant: "Stop! Put down my research paper!!"
Without any hesitation, the Cryptek raised the Staff of Light in his hand.
High-energy green lightning gathered at the head of the staff.
At the same time, through the tomb's local network, he issued the highest-level defense command to the entire research facility.
[ALERT! INTRUSION IN CORE AREA!]
[DEFENSE PROTOCOL: FULL ACTIVATION!]
[TARGET: ELIMINATE ALL ORGANICS!]
[NOTE: DO NOT BLOW UP THAT SARCOPHAGUS! WHOEVER BLOWS UP THAT SARCOPHAGUS GETS DISSECTED BY ME!]
As the order was issued, the entire hall instantly came alive.
On the originally smooth blackstone walls, countless hidden compartments flipped open.
"Clank, clank, clank—"
The dense sound of metal scraping against metal made one's scalp go numb.
Countless Canoptek Scarabs surged out from floor cracks, wall gaps, and ventilation ducts.
The palm-sized metallic insects gathered into a silver-black tide, overwhelming and surging toward Kerber and his men in the center of the hall.
Meanwhile, above the hall's vault, several green light screens flashed.
Five Canoptek Wraiths—massive, with long serpentine tails and phase claws—passed directly through the solid walls and drifted out.
Oh boy, someone's breaking into the house!
The entire home security system had completely gone berserk!
"Fire! Everyone, open fire!"
Kerber's reaction was blazingly fast. The moment the Cryptek raised his staff, Kerber had already pulled the trigger.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The roar of bolters shattered the silence.
Large-caliber bolts whistled through the air, exploding into bursts of fire on the Cryptek's phase shield.
However, attacks of this scale only managed to make the Cryptek sway slightly.
"Buzz-boom!"
The Cryptek struck back.
A thick bolt of green lightning shot from the tip of the staff, heading straight for a demolitions specialist near the sarcophagus.
"Dodge!"
Kerber forcefully shoved that team member out of the way.
The green lightning hit the floor where they had been standing just moments ago.
The moment the hard blackstone floor touched the lightning, it decomposed directly into basic atomic dust, leaving behind a deep crater still smoking with green fumes.
Gauss lightning!
"Servitors, take the front! Clear out the swarm!"
Kerber shouted as he gave the order.
Twenty Mark II Combat Servitors immediately charged toward the incoming tide of scarabs.
They felt no fear and no pain, operating solely on the combat routines programmed into their brains by Andy.
"Buzz—"
Chainswords roared to life.
The servitors charged into the swarm, wildly swinging their chainswords to slice into pieces the metal insects trying to crawl up their bodies.
Sparks flew, and metal fragments scattered everywhere.
However, there were simply too many scarabs; they covered the ground in thick, overlapping layers.
Just as a servitor sliced three scarabs into pieces, ten more climbed onto its legs.
The scarabs' tiny mandibles, capable of disintegrating matter, began gnawing wildly on the servitor's leg armor.
"Zzzzt—"
The armor plates were disintegrated, exposing the hydraulic lines within.
Immediately after, more insects burrowed inside, severing cables and destroying the servo-motors.
Thump.
That servitor collapsed, instantly swallowed by the insect swarm.
In less than ten seconds, it was reduced to a pile of motionless scrap metal.
Yet, this was precisely the role of the Mark II Combat Servitors: high-attack, low-defense expendables.
Pure glass cannons, through and through.
Their sole purpose was to use these suicidal attacks to hold back the swarm's advance, buying firing space for the elites in the rear.
Though the cost was heavy, the effect was remarkable.
Under the wild slaughter of the servitors, the tide of scarabs was forced to a halt at the outer perimeter.
By now, the five Canoptek Wraiths had drifted into close range.
Their ethereal bodies flickered between reality and the Warp, their phase claws flowing with energy capable of ignoring armor entirely.
"Spread out! Kite them!"
Kerber issued the command.
The remaining five vanguard warriors simultaneously activated their jump packs.
"BOOM—"
Air jets blasted.
They decisively chose the "rogue tactics" Andy had specially trained them in.
Seeing a Wraith's claw about to slash him, one warrior abandoned any attempt to parry and fell backward, the thrusters on his back firing in reverse.
He slid backward along the ground for over ten meters in an extremely awkward posture, looking like a fallen drunkard.
Yet this slide narrowly dodged a fatal strike.
Right after, he picked up the CBS high-explosive crossbow on his shoulder and fired a bolt straight into the Wraith's exposed abdomen!
"BOOM!"
The tri-base explosive detonated, blowing away half of the Wraith's body and damaging its phase-shift generator, forcing its body to materialize.
"Focus fire!"
Two nearby warriors immediately provided supporting fire.
A dense hail of bolts turned the materialized Wraith into a sieve.
The entire battlefield descended into utter chaos.
Human warriors rolled on the ground, leaped off walls, and used their jump packs to execute aerial maneuvers completely devoid of aesthetic grace.
They weren't aiming to look cool; they were aiming to survive.
As long as it dodged an attack, even a face-plant was a good move!
These rogue tactics left the Necron constructs—bound by rigid logical programming—completely unable to adapt.
The Canoptek Wraiths' claws swung through empty air time after time, leaving them to emit furious electronic screeches.
And the Cryptek was furious beyond measure!!
He kept casting Gauss lightning from behind, trying to hit those monkeys darting frantically around.
Not only did he hit very few targets, but he also ended up blowing up a lot of his own instruments.
"Damn it! Keep away from my data terminal!"
"Foolish flesh-bags, that's my phase array! Don't hide over there!"
Hesitant to damage his own equipment, the Cryptek grew more flustered the longer they fought!
By this point, the servitors were almost entirely wiped out.
Aside from two broken-legged wrecks still crawling on the floor and firing, the other eighteen had been reduced to spare parts.
But their sacrifice had been worth it.
The scarab swarm had been mostly cleared, and the remainder no longer posed a threat.
Three of the five Canoptek Wraiths were destroyed, and the remaining two were battered and broken, their phase systems failing.
The tables had turned.
Kerber scrambled up from the ground, brushing the dust off his helmet.
He glared at the exasperated Cryptek still hovering in mid-air.
"Old bastard, you're next!"
Kerber raised his bolter and unleashed a burst straight at the anti-gravity platform.
"Clang, clang, clang!"
The shield flickered, visibly dimming.
The Cryptek panicked.
These monkeys' firepower was too fierce, and that leading flesh-bag actually knew to target his anti-gravity engine!
If his shield broke, he'd be finished right here.
However, the charges on the sarcophagus were still there; he didn't dare gamble on whether these madmen would actually detonate them.
"The data... the data is what matters!"
The Cryptek made a decision that went against all his ancestral traditions—he fled!
Forget it!
As long as I escape with the core data drive, so what if this lab gets blown up? I can always repair it later.
"Hum—"
The Cryptek's form suddenly blurred.
Activating his short-range teleportation device, he flashed directly to an archway at the back of the hall.
Then, without looking back, he floated off toward the depths.
"He's running!" shouted one of the team members.
"After him! If we let him get away, we're done for!"
Kerber had gone completely bloodthirsty; there was no way he was letting this boss slip away.
"Two of you stay to guard the sarcophagus! The rest of you, follow me!"
The power armor engines roared.
Kerber led three vanguard warriors past the debris covering the floor and charged into that passage.
The corridor was wide and long.
The Cryptek floated ahead while the humans gave chase behind, pursuing each other while exchanging occasional shots.
A few minutes later.
They burst out of the passage and arrived at an even vast underground plaza.
The space here was immense, easily a hundred meters high.
Standing right in the center of the plaza were two tower-like, motionless machines.
The Cryptek stopped.
Floating between the two structures, he turned around, his single eye glinting with a malicious glow.
"Foolish flesh-bags," the Cryptek sneered in an electronic voice, "Did you really think you had won?"
"Do not forget!"
"This is my domain!"
He raised his staff and slammed it heavily onto the floor.
An awakening pulse rippled along the ground, linking directly to the bases of those two massive machines.
"BUZZ—!!!"
The two steel towers, previously motionless, suddenly shuddered.
Immediately after, the massive single eyes at their tops lit up with blinding green light.
Those were no towers—they were two super-heavy vehicles that only ever appeared in total warfare.
They possessed four long, spider-like, reverse-jointed legs that supported the disc-shaped main torso above.
And mounted on the top of that torso was a giant energy cannon of despairing length.
[Canoptek Doomstalker].
This thing had been designed with the sole intent of hunting Titans within planetary atmospheres and reducing super-heavy tanks to slag.
A single shot from its "Doomsday Blaster" could instantly vaporize the frontal armor of a Titan.
Now, these two harbinger constructs had awoken.
Taking steps with their long legs, they stood up with a heart-stopping roar, reaching heights well over twenty meters.
The massive cannon muzzles slowly tilted downward, locking onto Kerber and his men—who had just rushed into the plaza and now looked as tiny as ants beneath the feet of these colossal beasts.
Green energy surged within the barrels, distorting the surrounding air from the intense heat.
Kerber skidded to a abrupt halt, sparks flying from beneath his boots.
His throat tightened.
This thing...
How the hell are we supposed to fight this?!
Boss Andy, isn't this way beyond our paygrade?!
High-explosive crossbows? Bolters?
That won't even tickle them!
"Spread out!"
Kerber screamed into the comm channel, "Spread out NOW!!"
Before the words could even settle:
"Zzzzt—BOOM!!!"
Two thick beams of green light, carrying an aura of absolute destruction, rained down from above.