Ed and Charleston made double-time down a corridor, trying to lose the Necron's they'd just engaged in a close-quarter firefight. Charleston was getting very worried over the way he had to treat his plasma pistol. More Necron's and it would perhaps overheat. He flicked it back to single-shot mode from semi-auto.

They came to a ledge that ended in nothing but a seemingly bottomless pit. They dodged to one side each as the Necron's caught up with them.

The two Necrons that had been following them failed to notice this evident lack of surface under feet and fell through the empty void beyond. Some two hundred metres down, they collided with a metal ridge the snaked along the wall on the other side. It resembled a road, but much to vertical to be one.

Barely a metre from the ridge, the Necron went into electrical spasms, shuddered and went limp. Their eyes dulled and their bodies fell ever downwards.

"Well," Charleston said lightly, "now we know at least how many Volts course through those ridges."

"How many?" Ed asked eagerly.

"At least 10.000 Volts. The Necrons didn't even touch the ridges, so..."

The two power armoured warriors looked around. They saw a gigantic tunnel of sorts; metal ridges interconnected and ran all around them into space. The ridges led downwards and upwards around them in a seemingly endless black abyss.

"Great," Charleston sighed. "I just bet the engine room is somewhere down there." He pointed downwards. "Well, if that's where they are, that's where we're going! Ready to fly, Lieutenant Commander?"

"Yes sir!"

The two activated their jump packs and began to descend, carefully avoiding the ridges that snaked downwards.

As they'd descended for about two hundred metres, a group of Destroyer Necrons appeared just below them. However, instead of using a hover system to suspend them in mid-air, their lower bodies seemed to have been modified to allow them to follow the magnetic traction of the ridges of metal, riding on the electrical current, without touching the ridges even.

The group of Mag-destroyers approached the two power armoured warriors.

Charleston and Ed didn't hesitate. Ed drew his bolter and Charleston his plasma pistol. The fired a volley down at the approaching Destroyers and took out a few of them, but more came to reinforce their comrades immediately from below. Charleston and Ed sped up their descent, continuing to fire at their enemies. They synchronized themselves. Charleston fired when Ed reloaded and Ed fired whilst Charleston waited for his plasma pistol to recharge.

Charleston threw a quick glance to one side as he descended and saw several ridges that veered away from the others, probably to the engine room and came up with a rather interesting idea.

Charleston accelerated and landed himself on one of the Destroyers. He pulled his power sword and slashed off its upper torso. He grabbed the falling torso by one arm and flung it against another Destroyer. The second destroyer was knocked off balance, its gyrocompass disturbed and tumbled into contact with the electrical railing. The two went in a bloom of purple fire.

Ed landed on the lower part of the Destroyer's body just behind Charleston to see the big Marine start to fiddle with the wiring. Charleston connected one of the lose wires to his left wrist armour, through a minimal socket in the armour.

"Bingo," Charleston muttered.

"Huh?"

"I tapped into the sucker's gyro-compass computer, or whatever, and it seems to know where the engines are, so it's gonna take us there."

"How?"

"I drive this with octadecimal equations. Easy. I drive, you shoot!"

Charleston holstered his plasma pistol. He was kneeling over the place where the Destroyer's torso had been, looking like a gothic, cyberpunk version of a skateboarder, whilst Ed stood, albeit a bit unsteadily, right behind him. Charleston fiddled with the wires a bit more and glanced at Ed.

"Hang on."

"To what?" Ed asked with what sounded like incredulity.

"Anything," Charleston replied, not moved by this.

Ed hung on for dear life to Charleston free arm as the Destroyer body moved forward at an alarming speed. It raced along the ridges, sometimes going up, sometimes down, making rapid turns at places so that Ed lost his orientation completely.

From behind, more Mag-destroyers were coming up against them. Ed unloaded his bolter in their heads, dropping several. But a few of them were getting a bit too close.

One managed to grab Charleston's arm, the one that was connected to the Necron's body. Charleston rewarded it with the back of his fist.

The head of the Mag-destroyer came off and bounced on a neighbouring ridge, sparking. Its body soon followed.

Ed had pulled out his power sword and was alternating with firing at the Destroyers one-handed with his bolter and using the crackling power sword on the close ones.

They finally reached a horizontal corridor, still followed by several Necrons. The Mag-destroyers fired their heavy Gauss canons constantly at the two power armoured Heroes of the Imperium. Charleston deftly dodged the salvoes.

"Hah!" Charleston shouted at the iron men. "Nobody outmanoeuvres me!"

The end of the corridor approached them at an alarming speed and a large portal on a ledge came into view.

Suddenly, a swarm of Necrons appeared through the portal in front of them. Charleston dared a glance backwards to see that their pursuers had gained numbers as well.

They were getting boxed in.

"Ed," Charleston said calmly, "get the bag out of my pack by my waist."

Ed removed a large bag from Charleston's waist, opened it and found that it contained a melta bomb. It looked like an oversized krak grenade with a handle.

"Oi! Ed!" Charleston said to call the young man's attention again. "Ever seen a ten car pile up?"

Ed just shook his head.

Charleston fiddled with the wires, made himself loose the, grabbing hold of Ed, jumped off.

The destroyer-body they'd rode with continued its surge forward and rammed into the line of Mag-destroyers ahead of it. The rear line didn't react fast enough and rammed straight into the front line as well.

The two groups of Mag-destroyers smashed into a ball of metal, lost control as their gyrocompasses temporarily went offline and one or two touched the metal ridge.

Electricity surged through them all, destabilized their Gauss weaponry and they went up in a greenish bloom of fire.

Having forgotten his jump pack, Charleston came tumbling down, grabbed the ledge with one hand, and caught Ed with the other, who in turn held the melta bomb in its handle with his free hand.

"Well," Charleston smiled, "that was a fifty car pile up. Emperor, I love this job!"

Charleston hefted up Ed onto the ledge and then climbed up himself.

Down on Arborkar's surface, the battle between Man and Machine raged. The Sphere hung like a cataracted grey eye above them all. Every man and woman knew that they were fighting for the survival of Humanity as a free race. Gauss beams hit flesh and atomised it, whilst bolts hit metal skulls and exploded them like overripe fruit.

Nazz, Lee, May and Marie kept close together. Nazz had her brightly silver-glittering sword out, battling it out against a Flayed One.

One Necron Warrior charged straight at May, but she caught him. She held on, and they got caught in a shoving match. It ended abruptly as May raised her flamer to the Necron's head one-handed, pointed it at its skull and pulled the trigger.

The metal skull melted and trickled down on the ground where it scorched the grass.

Marie was busy covering them all with well-placed shots from her bolt pistol.

Lee pulled out her rapier-like power sword, facing off against an Immortal. Lee was getting frustrated, and she guessed it was the same for the iron man. Neither of them seemed to get anywhere.

Finally, Lee had had enough.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" she shouted and reared back her right hand, bundling it to a fist. She socked the Necron with everything she got fly in the face.

When she pulled her arm back, the face of the Immortal was almost completely caved in. Lee, using the adrenaline kick the punch had given her, picked the heavy droid up and heaved it towards a group of Necrons that had been charging in to assist it, knocking them flat.

She felt a faint throb in her knuckles, but the most of her armoured gauntlet had taken the blow quite well.

Several hundred metres away, amongst the Imperial Guard, Commissar Cadet Jorun went down a Gauss gunshot atomised half of his gut. Masterson was by his side in a flash.

"Jorun!" Masterson panted and tried to grab hold of the youth, but Jorun fought against him. "You'll be fine, boy, I promise you'll be!"

Jorun shook his head. "No! If it's the Emperor's Will that I am to die here and now, so be it, sir."

Masterson looked down on him. Jorun's eyes were already fading.

"Emperor bless you, Jorun," Masterson said softly as Jorun drew his last rasping breath through crisped lungs. Masterson threw a quick salute to the dead boy, took off his dog tags and hung them around his own neck, as a lucky charm.

He pulled out his power axe and, bellowing an Imperial Hymn, Masterson charged straight into the midst of iron men.

Many Imperial Guardsmen rallied around the raging commissar and joined him in his charge and proclamation of Faith.

Back up on the Sphere, McKenzie and Edd were running down another corridor, though not with a Necron in sight. The surroundings slowly went over from fairly well lit corridors to dark, menacing ones. McKenzie made a quick scan of his surroundings and registered a psychic signal. It was powerful, very powerful, and alien.

He took to the right in a crossing, followed by Edd, and came into a corridor lined with cells. McKenzie felt that the cells had no need of bars or force fields when they generated psychic null-zones instead.

They passed several empty cells. McKenzie stopped before the one cell that was occupied. He made a quick scan for other psychic signatures, but none.

There was an aged figure in tattered dark brown robes sitting on the floor. McKenzie peered closer at the frail figure and a look of shock crossed his face. It was partly from the psychic force he registered, even through the null-zone, partly from that the creature was an eldar.

How in the name of the Throne had the Necrons gotten hold of an eldar? A farseer lord, most surely too.

McKenzie didn't know and didn't care.

He'd soon enough managed to crack the code lock to the cell-field. McKenzie walked into the cell and knelt beside the eldar. The creature stirred and looked up, revealing an aged face, so very thin and wrinkled. His thin, white hair was as well very long. But there was a certain twinkle in his dark eyes that said the mind was still very able to do its stuff.

"Oh," the eldar said as it saw McKenzie's features, " hello there, mon-keigh."

"Excuse my rudeness, lord farseer," McKenzie said and bowed his head, "but who are you, and how did you come to be here?"

"My name," the eldar said and straightened himself, "is Farseer Lord Uryanaar of Craftworld Vurupano. And I was on Vurupano until those machines came along, that is. They killed many of my kin, but for some reason, the kept me alive. As their minds are unreadable even for me, I have not the faintest idea why this is."

Edd, who'd been keeping watch, broke in suddenly, "Lord Farseer, can you stand? I have a feeling we should get out of here."

"Of course," Uryanaar replied in his fine flowing Low Gothic. "I should be able to manage."

Slowly, and stiffly, Uryanaar got to his feet and began to walk forward. The two humans were amazed at his actual height. Nigh on two metres fifty, rivalling Charleston. Under his dark brown robes, McKenzie saw the intricate weave of rune armour. The Necrons hadn't even bothered to remove it then? Fool on them, McKenzie thought grimly.

As they made their way down the corridor, McKenzie felt a tingling sensation and drew his bolt pistol. Edd followed lead and pulled his plasma pistol.

"Come," McKenzie said and lead the way, "I can feel we're not far away from Johnny."

"Who?" Uryanaar asked.

"A friend," Edd explained, "he needs our help."

They soon came across a large, circular room. A gigantic device was set up in the middle of it. The device sported thing that made Edd give an involuntary shiver. All around there was metal tables, like those slabs found in a morgue. People were strapped to several of them, odd needles, like spikes, inserted into the backs of their necks.

"Cosy," Edd mumbled, "if you're Hannibal Lecter."

Then he, and McKenzie and Uryanaar, saw who was lying on the slab right in front of the horrible dissection device. Plank was on his right side, and Niire on the left.

"Johnny!" Edd shouted and was about to move forwards when McKenzie's arm stopped him.

"I'll get him," McKenzie said to answer Edd's questioning look. "Try to release the others."

As McKenzie moved towards Johnny, he saw that the boy had a gag over his mouth for some reason. Johnny, awoken by the presence of three alpha-plus level psykers, started and began to mumble at McKenzie through the gag. He seemed very agitated over something. The slight oppressive feeling McKenzie had felt at his mind, but knocked aside, made itself known again. Something was blocking him, but what?

"Johnny, calm down," McKenzie said as he leant down to make Johnny free. "What are you trying to tell me?"

There was a crash just next to him as Edd flew into the wall, back first. Edd slid down on the ground with a thud.

McKenzie wheeled around and drew his force sword instinctively.

Damion stood just inside the entrance, five Pariah bodyguards right behind him. He spoke in a menacing alien tongue that McKenzie couldn't understand for two credits, but the sadistic look on his face told the Master Lexicanum all he needed to know.

"Oh," McKenzie sighed, "that."