Back down in the subway tunnels, McGranth, followed by Eddy and Kevin, was walking down in a corridor. It had been quiet, the grand commander thought, if it hadn't been for Kevin's incessant complaints.

"Y'know what I don't get?" Kevin said to the world in general. "We're supposed to be Imperial Heroes, right? So why do we get this kind of service? Checking old, unused tunnels for Necrons that might not even exist! A waste of resources and not very hero-like, if you ask me!"

McGranth had had enough. He spun round and stared at Kevin with his dark brown eyes. The youngster didn't flinch.

"Enough is frekking enough, you little piece of bethas-turd! You don't have any idea of what a frekk of a chance you've got, right? It's an Emperor-damned HONOUR to wear the power armour of the Death Angels Legion! Hear me? An honour! More so there are a lot of people in the Imperium who've died because they didn't check their backs for 'non-existent' Necrons, see? Here, it's better to be on your guard than being lax in your vigilance against the enemy! Know that!"

McGranth made a short pause for breath and Kevin jumped at his only chance before a new salvo.

"Aight, back off, muscle-monster! I just said that I wanted something else than these cosy tunnels, right? Anything is better than this! It's just not the kind of work I expected an 'Imperial Hero' to perform!"

McGranth had heard the insult and the inverted commas over Imperial Hero. He decided to exercise his superior rank.

Kevin went to the floor with a crash. As Kevin was picking himself up, he saw the faint red glow from McGranth's power axe.

"Emperor knows how I could trust the Terrans that you'd be any different from the Dark Lord," McGranth muttered. The grand commander raised his power axe over his head. It fell towards Kevin's head-

But was deflected by a clash of electrical sparks as Eddy had intercepted the blow with his lightning claw. McGranth glared at him.

"Out of the way, commander," McGranth growled.

"McGranth," Eddy said, cocking an eyebrow. "What the heck do you think you're doing?"

McGranth paused. Yes, what the heck was he doing? The youth on the ground, pale with fear now, looked back at him.

"He's not Kevlinn, despite their physical likeness, you know," Eddy said softly.

McGranth was about to answer when a scream pierced through the dank air of the tunnels. All thoughts on their little skirmish forgotten, the three men set off towards the side tunnel from where the scream had come. The tunnel sloped downwards and they struggled to remain upright and not trip and fall as they ran down it.

As the three came out of the tunnel, they saw Nazz and the Kankers up against a smaller force of Necrontyr Warriors. The leader of the group appeared to be a more human looking Necron. It carried the same kind of war-scythe that the Necron Lords used, but it wasn't a Necron Lord. It was taller, broader.

And there was a terrible presence surrounding it, that McGranth couldn't put his finger on.

The Kankers and Nazz had been engaged in close combat with the Necrons, so McGranth, Eddy and Kevin hurried to assist them. McGranth instinctively took in the surroundings. The chamber was large, probably some old track-switching station. Stalactites were hanging from the roof far above them. On the far end of the room, there was a large, sealed door, probably of adamantium crafting; with the word DANGER in large, stencilled letters in faded red paint on it.

Emerging from another tunnel, McGranth saw the silver-gleaming braids of Commissar Masterson's peaked cap flash slightly in the corner of his eye. The short commissar, having trouble in keeping up with the tall Ed and Charleston, was carried to the scene of battle by Charleston. As soon as they entered the chamber though, Charleston put Masterson down. The group of six now charged into the fray to assist Nazz and the Kankers. Nazz was holding off one with her silver-white sword whilst the hissing of power swords filled the air as the Kankers slashed freely at their enemies. There was no pattern in the Kankers' attacks, and McGranth guessed it to be because these Kankers weren't at home with swords. But they'd learn soon enough.

McGranth squared up against the leader-Necron. Masterson had yelled something about "Pariah" or something. There'd also been something about "phase sword". It didn't matter to McGranth, though. Whatever instructions the commissar had yelled, McGranth had only caught those three words.

McGranth charged it and forced it backwards with the momentum of his massive armoured suit. The Pariah backed against a wall and McGranth sent the power axe through its chest. He was to dish out another blow when another Necron rammed its gun-blade into him.

McGranth turned round and knocked the head of the Necron with a deft backhand blow of his fist.

Kevin saw how McGranth dropped the Necron warrior, pulverized the head of the Necron he was facing himself and began moving towards McGranth. He pulled out his mono-mol short sword.

"McGranth!" he shouted at the top of his voice. He needed the grand commander's attention for this.

McGranth turned, just as Kevin wanted him to. "I knew it!" he hissed. "You lousy little-"

Grand Commander Eddie McGranth never got to finish the insult.

Kevin's sword flew through the air...

And missed McGranth's shoulder pad by a centimetre, only to bury itself in the face of the Pariah, that had come to its feet behind McGranth. As McGranth turned, he saw that the hole he'd caused in the chest was gone. Nimbly, for one wearing Tactical Dreadnought Armour, McGranth brought up his power axe and knocked the Pariah's head from its shoulders, making sure to finish the job by firing his storm bolter at the flying head, blowing it into pieces. Then, he turned to Kevin.

"Kevin, I-" McGranth began.

"Yeah, yeah," Kevin interrupted. "Save the mushy stuff for later, will you? You trust me already, right?"

McGranth smiled softly. It was an expression he used too seldom.

"I hate to break up such a touching moment," Masterson broke in. "Could you two, for the sake of the Emperor, try to focus on the task at hand?"

Somehow, Ed had got his bolt gun ready and he was now busy taking pot shots at a couple of Necrons in front of the large door. One of the bolts went wild and punched straight through the door.

A few seconds later, a loud screeching sound was heard from somewhere. Everyone, human and Necron alike, stopped whatever they were doing and turned their attention towards the door. The screech was followed by a low but powerful growl that shook the room and its inhabitants.

"Ed," Eddy said, trying to hide the terror that shook him, "please tell me that was your stomach."

Ed never replied. He never got the time to.

The door flew out of the crevice it was fixed in. The Kankers dodged quickly out of the way of the flying door, though two Necron warriors weren't as lucky. From inside the doorway, or the cavern, two gleaming red eyes revealed themselves. The eyes were dead, emotionless. Mechanoid.

The heavy tread of metal feet followed as the abomination crawled out of its cavern. Large, well over thirty metres from nose to the tip of its long whipping tail, with long talons on its four-digit feet. Its head was long and reptilian, with long spikes growing out of the back of its head. Silver glittering teeth thirty centimetres long lined the edges of its mouth. To its sides, large bat-like wings with the wingspan of a Boeing B-29 "Superfortress" rested retracted as to not be in the way in the cramped cavern.

Despite its size, the thing was slim, snake-like. But there was no mistaking what kind of mythological creature it resembled: the fire-breathing dragon.

The Necrons got out of their temporary stupor and re-aimed their Gauss guns at the new, much more evident threat. They had sent out a long signal of call signs to see if the dragon would respond to Necrontyr orders.

It hadn't.

The dragon screeched again, stunning the present people and machines with a hypersonic weapon. Whilst the Necrons were still stunned, the dragon opened its maw wide-open and focused energy into a ball of green lightning. Seconds later, it launched the large ball of swirling energy as a beam of greenish lightning. The beam engulfed the Necrons and the metal-men simply dissolved into dust.

With the Necron threat gone, the dragon turned its attention to the humans.

"Uh, Masterson," Eddy whispered, tugging the commissar's sleeve. "Commissars don't flee from an enemy of the Imperium, right?"

"No," Masterson replied, unable to hide the abject fear in his voice, "but we do fall back, at times, to a more strategic position."

Just as Masterson was finishing the sentence, Ed grabbed him and jumped with him out of the way as one of the dragon's large feet came crashing down, as the thing attempted to crush them. It appeared it needed time to recharge from its electrical blast.

Meanwhile, Eddy found himself taking cover behind the same boulder as McGranth.

"Grand Commander," Eddy said with anxiety in his voice, "we could use one of your famous battle-plans right about now."

"Give me a minute, okay?" McGranth replied tartly. "I don't really have the experience of fighting big metal lizards."

Charleston was suddenly beside them. He'd overheard their comments. "It uses similar technology as the Necrontyr, so I think it should be classed big, metal lizard Necron," he said.

Eddy and McGranth stared at him.

"What?" Charleston asked.

Their attention was brought elsewhere, suddenly and very frightingly to the far end of the cavern as Nazz screamed.

"Kevin! NO!"

Kevin had climbed up an outcropping on one end of the room, using his power fist to get a grip where there was none. He took a slight run up and jumped off the outcrop.

He landed on the back of the dragon's neck, right behind its head.

The dragon, infuriated over this flea, turned itself round and round, firing short bursts of its maw-weapon in its desperate attempts to get Kevin off. It was no use. It couldn't reach him.

Finally, out of pure frustration, the dragon charged out of the room and crashed headfirst through a rock wall. This brought down several stalactites from the roof. The others ducked for cover and evaded the falling stalactites to avoid getting impaled on them as they came crashing down.

All they could do was watch helplessly as the dragon disappeared through the tunnels, Kevin clinging on to the dragon's neck for dear life. They were soon out of sight.

Through the tunnels, the dragon ducked and weaved. It took several turns that Kevin thought couldn't possibly take it back to the outskirts of the city. He guessed it was going back towards Vindaree itself.

He was right.

The dragon burst into the air, shooting rubble and rocks about it as it came out from a caved in station entry. It jumped into the air and spread its wings. As it flew over the city, it caught the attention of thousands of people. Those thousands included Tanya, Demontfurt and Rolf, of which the two latter were both sporting several bandages. They had run out of the Administratum building and turned their eyes to the sky as the dragon had let out a screech again.

The dragon did several rolls in the air and Kevin felt he was getting a bit airsick. He pulled himself up, fixing himself firmly to the dragon's neck with him power armoured legs and knees and drew his short sword. Summoning as much power as he could, he rammed the sword as far as its blade would go, straight into the back of the dragon's head. He broke off the hilt in the process, effectively destroying the short sword, but it had served its purpose.

The dragon let out one last, loud screech and started to descend. Kevin hung on for dear life as the silver projectile plummeted towards the ground. This would hurt a bit, he concluded.

The dragon smacked into the ground of Vindaree Central Park. There wasn't much park about it anymore, but the ground was soft enough to make the impact weaker. Nonetheless, Kevin flew off the dragon and hit the ground several metres away, rolling over and over as he hit the ground.

He stopped rolling thanks to a sturdy tree-trunk.

Kevin managed to open his eyes and see Tanya, Rolf and Demontfurt coming towards him.

"Kevin," Rolf asked, "what is this?"

Kevin tried to reply, but his reply was cut off. He'd stopped it himself, because behind the three commissars, he saw how the dragon got back up on its feet and glared at him, a low growl coming from it. Tanya, Demontfurt and Rolf turned and involuntarily took a step backwards, but a sudden jolt of electricity burst out of the dragon's neck. The red glow from its eyes faded and left its eyes and the dragon finally fell to the ground with a crash.

Kevin stared at the dragon for a minute, trying to sit up.

"I gotta be insane," he chuckled lightly to himself, and passed out.

"My regards to you and your crew, Captain," McKenzie said as he ended the communication between his Thunderhawk and the Sword-class escort Ivanov.

"May the Emperor protect you, Master Lexicanum," Captain Britanova's voice crackled back over the link just seconds before the vox-link was cut. The radio gave nothing but static, so he turned it off.

McKenzie knew why there was static. The answer was literally staring at him.

As he looked out the narrow observation port of the Thunderhawk, he more than well saw the Warp-gate. It was actually quite a disgusting thing, he concluded. A swirling torrent of colours, some of which in normal space never met and blended, which hurt the eyes except of the most trained psyker. McKenzie was one. He could watch one for hours. Ordinary men would get a nosebleed. Sensitive people, that was weak-willed psykers, would get headaches. Perhaps even worse.

The Warp-gate, designated Secondus Prime Gate because of its size, was a huge, swollen, eye-hurting rainbow of colours... and worse.

As McKenzie closed his eyes, he saw other things, snapping at the borders of the gate, eager for souls, eager for blood and mortal flesh.

Deamons. Ready to pounce, should he lose concentration. Should his faith waver but a second.

"Are you two ready?" McKenzie asked over his shoulder as he steered the Thunderhawk on a course so they'd be on a safe course, just outside the Warp-gate's border. Just outside the reaches of the deamons.

"Ready as can be, McKenzie," Edd replied. McKenzie took one last glance at the baleful eye of the Warp-gate and joined the two Terrans.

"I take it none of you two have ever performed an auto-seance," McKenzie said as he plucked up a small bag held together by a leather string. He saw the questioning looks on the youngsters' faces. "As I thought. It's not much different from telepathy, and not much different from an ordinary scan. It's just that now we have to tap directly into the Warp to gain access to what we're looking for. Also, we're scanning on an area much larger than this entire sector. A sector full of latent psyker, undoubtly, but also full of Astropaths... and deamons. You both need to be fully concentrated so I can gain backup from you when I need to, okay?"

The two Terrans nodded slowly. Edd glanced at the leather bag McKenzie was opening and gave the Marine a very dark look. The runes were all too familiar to him.

McKenzie felt this. He stopped what he was doing and turned to Johnny. "Johnny, would you go back in the ship and check the gun-servitors?"

Johnny did what he was told without complaint or question. He'd been forced a bit by McKenzie's will too, so there was no use arguing. Edd waited till Johnny was out of earshot, but he whispered anyway.

"I know the Dark Runes when I see them, McKenzie," he hissed. "What the heck do you think you're doing? This is an auto-seance, not a deamon summoning!"

"We need the artefact to ward our souls, Edward, not for anything else," McKenzie replied calmly.

"Really? Give me one good reason not to smear your brains out on the wall behind you! This is heresy of the highest degree!"

McKenzie fixed Edd with a direct stare with his green eyes. Edd didn't flinch. He felt the full force of McKenzie mind and will at him, forcing him to agree to the use of the dark artefact. But Edd resisted.

In the end, McKenzie gave in. "The Eye of Tzeentch is a Sorcerer's artefact; I'm prepared to agree to that. However, Edd, it is a good way to remain alive in the Warp. At least keep your soul unharassed, as you can see things before they happen. Perhaps it's just unfathomable for you to see that you can use the dark artefacts against the Dark?"

"No, it's not," Edd replied. "But they are tainted. You can become tainted too. I don't want you as my adversary, McKenzie, that's all." Edd had to admit it, but if McKenzie hadn't let him go, he would've given in to McKenzie's will just a second later.

"I've been using them for more than three centuries, Edward. That's about the time I've spent as Master Lexicanum of my Legio. I can resist them. The Eye of Tzeentch is a relatively weak artefact and, consider this, it's the strongest one I use."

"Right then," Edd said. "I think we can call back Johnny now, don't you?"

"I'm just glad this intermezzo was solved without bloodshed. If you'd been somebody else, I don't know what the reaction might've been."

"You would've persuaded them into something, I believe," Edd replied with a wry smile. He felt McKenzie's psychic call for Johnny.

Soon enough, the three were sitting together again and McKenzie took out the Eye of Tzeentch from its resting place in the leather bag.

It wasn't impressive. It was an egg-shaped, green jewel, with a black slit in the middle. The black slit-line gave the jewel the look of a green, cat's eye. McKenzie carefully placed it on the table, in the absolute centre of it.

The then grabbed each other's hands, and McKenzie led them through the auto-seance. He'd told them what warding litany to chant, and Johnny followed Edd as McKenzie began in a language much darker. Edd ignored any thoughts he might've had. He knew he had to remain concentrated to the maximum for this to succeed.

McKenzie suddenly altered the litany he was chanting, and his voice went over in the softer tongue of the Eldar. Edd instantly knew why, but he didn't stop his own chanting for that.

McKenzie had found a trace!

In the Ronan system, the dark sphere of the Necrontyr moon rotated around the now derelict hive world.

Deep inside it, in what could be called an astrometrics laboratory, one lone figure was watching the secondary arm of the Galaxy, projected in the air. The room was totally dark, except for the tiny dots that were the stars of the galaxy.

The figure was tall and lanky, almost skeletal. Large, bat-like wings protruded from his back, like a metallic mockery of an angel.

The figure raised a long, thin arm and gestured with a hand with long, skinny fingers that ended in sharp, mono-molecular edged scalpels. The scalpels circled around a peculiarly large and bloated red giant star and zoomed in. Three purple blips appeared just close to the red giant, which changed into a smaller yellow star, just like its neighbour.

The figured narrowed its blood red eyes. It was eyes which long since had lost their soul and now were used only to study and observe the world with.

The bulky shape of Metallix moved up behind the false angel like an avengening shadow.

The false angel turned its head towards Metallix, and in the light from Metallix' bionic eye revealing a face criss-crossed by scars. The original flesh-tone was lost underneath a tight carpet of red scar tissue. Any Terran would've said there was a bit Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street over him. But this wasn't Freddy Krueger. This was a creature that was far worse than Freddy Krueger.

He preferred to be called "Damion, Arch-technologist and Biomancer of the C'tan", though few ever got further than "Damion, Ar-" where the last part was lost in intelligible screams. To most races, he was simply known as Damion.

A smiled cleft Damion's mutilated features.

"It worked, my friend," he purred. "The little trick I played on the Eldar warlock's mind worked. There they are. Ready to pluck. In fact, I expected more. Fairly stupid, these mortal species."

Metallix tried to smile back, but half of his face staunchly refused to. "Congratulations, brother," he said softly. "I take it you want to pluck them yourself."

"I only want the boy..." Damion droned dreamily. "Prepare a Harvester ship and give me a squad of Pariahs. The will make it easy enough. They are after all quite powerful, all of them."

McKenzie threw open his eyes and broke the auto-seance. The glow from the Eye of Tzeentch died away immediately.

"Yes, that's it," he said hurriedly as he tucked down the Eye. "We have to get back."

McKenzie had barely sealed the bag before a blast rocked the entire ship. Over at the tactical helm, a bright red light shone up, showing that the port side was severely damaged.

"What on Earth as that?" Edd yelped, beside himself.

"Rather what unearthly was that?" McKenzie said with a side-glance. He saw the crescent moon blotting out most of the Warp-gate ahead of them. "Necrons!" he hissed.

The Harvester ship came closer and soon enough the Thunderhawk was encircled in the crescent of the Necrontyr ship. A new warning light lit up as a tractor beam locked itself to them. At least McKenzie thought it was a tractor beam until the shields were knocked out.

At the back of the ship, a blue haze became visible and soon enough, the contours of the tall and broad Pariahs were visible. They immediately lowered their war-scythes and fired a fusillade of Gauss beams. McKenzie had presence of mind enough to erect a psychic barrier around himself and the Terrans. The Gauss beams dissipated against the powerful psychics.

McKenzie got up and tried to repel the Pariahs with psychics. He sent out a psychic bolt of electrical energy...

Only to see it disappear just decimetres from the Necrons.

The realisation struck him like a sledgehammer.

They were untouchables!

Edd had understood this too and drew his plasma pistol. Putting it on semi-auto, he fired twice and made to direct hits in two Pariahs' faces. The Necrons collapsed into immobile heaps.

As the plasma pistol was recharging, Edd caught sight of Damion, standing behind the Pariahs, head and shoulders taller than the Necrontyr.

"Who invited Freddy Krueger?" Edd said astonished.

Damion cared not for this comment. He touched the device in his hand. Speaking in Necron, he gave the Pariahs order to advance and so they did. Damion touched the device again, keying a new sequence. The device glowed even more intently than it had before.

The three psykers felt it like they'd been turned inside out and blown dry in the process.

Edd nearly fainted. Fighting the feeling of being hit by an oil tanker, he tried to get his plasma pistol ready for a new shot. A Pariah calmly walked over and smashed him unconscious with the side of its war-scythe.

Johnny recalled from the shock of the psychic implosion and jumped to Edd's defence. Another Pariah had moved up to assist the first one. This second Pariah made a swift backhand with its war-scythe. The butt-end of the blade caught Johnny and sent him flying into a wall, smacking him unconscious. Blood was running from his left shoulder and colouring his robes with a dark stain. His Eldarain rune-armour had offered no protection.

The two Pariahs grabbed Johnny firmly and carried him back to where Damion was standing.

Trying to get rid of the nauseating feeling he had, McKenzie drew his force sword, for what good it would do against an untouchable creature, and charged straight at the psychic abominations.

He swung round the sword in a deadly arc, cleaving one Pariah's head in two, before four more overwhelmed him. They drove him back. McKenzie lost his footing and was wide open. One of the Pariahs smashed its war-scythe into McKenzie's chest plate, lifted him into the air and sent him flying across the control-room.

McKenzie knocked his head in a control panel and one hand touched, by true dumb luck, the activation button for the distress beacon. He slowly sagged down on the floor, unconscious.

Before the Pariahs teleported back, Damion picked up the funny leather bag that McKenzie had been holding in. He would have much fun in finding out what it contained and what it did.