Wrote this half a year ago, re-wrote recently and now decided to share...
The Awakening
Sci-fi story from Warhammer 40k universe
Seventy five million years ago...
A lone star flies through the depths of interstellar abyss.
For untold aeons its journey was alone, but soon it will no longer be. From untold depths of space comes a visitor...
A large planetoid, cast into the void by force of some unknown cataclysm billions of years ago, passes nearby. This star is just another of thousands it passed on its eternal journey...
But this time, something is different. The spaceborn rock has lost much of its original speed to the gravity forces of all the stars it has passed by, and this time its speed is not enough to let it escape the star's tremendous gravity.
The planetoid flies towards the star, and by some strange twist of fate the remainders of its momentum allow it to enter a stable orbit around its new sun.
The journey of the new system is undisturbed... for now.
Sixty five million years ago...
A silver point like a gleaming drop of mercury rockets through the black emptiness of space at speed more then a tenfold greater then the speed of light itself...
It is uncrewed, yet its course is being altered by some strange sentience inhabiting the metal shell...
A probe...
It is searching, the object of the search unknown even for the nameless intelligence dwelling within its smooth curves.
Just a millisecond ago, it found exactly what it was searching for. World perfectly matching the requirements of its unknown masters. A lone, lifeless planet orbitting a young star for the last ten million years...
The probe sends an encoded signal towards its world of origin and then continues onwards in its neverending search of next target...
Sixty million years ago...
Space bends and twists as a crescent-shaped vessel emerges seemingly from nowhere into orbit around the planet.
If somebody out there could analyse the titanic crescent of metal, they would quickly find out that it was bereft of life - and yet its passengers are unnumbered. Free from the weaknesses of life, flesh and feelings alike, they have been sent to the world discovered five million years ago to serve the purpose of their masters. To this world.
Soon, great edifices of obsidian-colored metal begin to appear on the sand-covered surface of the planet, each exactly mirrorring the others of its like on this planet and unnumbered other worlds, scattered throughout the universe...
From the onyx desert sprout six pyramids surrounding the monstrous central construction. It is also a pyramid, but several times larger then the others and each of its walls bears a great sigil of unknown purpose.
The giant starship has completed its mission, and is now disappearing inside a huge sphere of asteroid debris. A powerful force pulls the pieces of rock together, enclosing the ship and making it look like a small moon. Almost all systems have deactivated, but a tiny part of its electronic mind remains active and waiting...
On the surface of the planet legions of metal figures march into the pyramids, disappearing in their portals. A command is issued and all machines deactivate in an instant. Only a single system remains powered, little more then a simple receiver.
Then all falls silent. The world seems to be dead again, but it harbours a terrible force now. An army out of time is sleeping there, waiting for the time to awaken. Long aeons will pass until then, but to those for whom thousand of years is like a blink of an eye it means nothing. They can wait for all eternity if needed...
The pyramids sink beneath the sands, only the very top of the greatest construction remaining on the surface.
This world is dormant, and it shall be for sixty million years...
Now...
In last sixty million years, much has changed in the universe... Entire worlds have been destroyed, not all by natural forces...
Many sentient races came and gone, fighting their petty wars, now all forgotten...
But the silent world on the eastern fringe of the galaxy still exists. To many of the civilisations now inhabiting the galaxy, it is just another dead world. But under its black sands, an ancient is waiting for the time to awaken... For the time that soon shall come...
The two receivers are waiting...
From the depths of the universe, the signal comes. A thin beam of energy, coding a simple message...
Originating from a world that the dominant race of this time has called Pavonis, the signal is too insignificant and weak to be detected by anyone... par its destination.
The sensors quickly intercept it and decode the message. It is a short combination of zeros and ones, but for them its meaning is clear. The time has come.
Deep within the central pyramid is a long corridor on both sides supported by long rows of paired columns, and between each of them a door with a symbol of skull upon it. Upon the corridor's end, there is a chamber where a rectangular metal sarcophagus is resting upon a raised platform. There is a sigil on it, an exact copy of those found on the pyramid's walls. Arcs of raw energy begin to course through the chamber as the circuitry executes its ancient purpose.
After a few seconds, the chamber falls silent again, but dead it is no more. A vile, green glow emanates from complex circuitry built into the walls as the arcane machinery begins the revival of its master...
The sigil on the top of the sarcophagus flares to life. The metal cuboid begins to rise from the surface, and soon stands upright on the surface. The symbol flashes with pure energy and then its power vanishes. A vertical crack appears directly through the middle of the lid and the cover slids aside as the being inside is exposed.
A polished metal skeleton stands within the tiny cell, arms crossed over the chest. Its right hand is holding an arcane staff and its head has shape of a stylised skull. On the forehead it bears a smaller version of the sigil that adorned its sarcophagus.
Suddenly, eyes of the mask burst with a green light, and the creature's arms unfold as it steps out of its former resting place. The lord and master of this world has returned. Ancient logical circuitry within the being's head is slowly reactivating to its full potential as the tomb infuses it with knowledge of all transmissions it has intercepted over the aeons.
He needs not to speak to command his charges, and thus he begins to send his orders to them and the tomb. Then a swirling colum of darkness envelops him and when it disappears he is no more there, now standing atop the great construction that juts from the desert. The pyramid begins to rise from the surrounding sands, as do its smaller kin.
<the time has come>
<statis fields deactivated>
<reactivation procedure intiated>
<RISE>
Within the corridor inside the pyramid, the skull-topped doors slid silently into the floor. When they open, they reveal similar corridors, at sides of which stand ranks upon ranks of metal tubes. With a metallic "clank" multiplied thousand times a thousand, they fold and vanish into the ceiling.
Legions of metal warriors spring to life. They were known under many names during the millenia. Necrontyr. Sleeping Ones. Necrons.
First only a few steps of metal feet resound within the smooth walls, but soon more and more join them as hundreds of mechanical creatures reactivate. Then they begin their long march towards the surface. Their number is legion. Their name is Death.
As legions of his underlings march in perfect unison out of the tomb, the Lord is waiting. At his command, millions of lesser warriors begin to exit the smaller pyramids, followed by swarms of diminutive scarab-like constructs. Giant porticulis on the tops of each pyramid open, and large pyramid-like constructs float off of the platforms present there to the ground.
On the walls of the main pyramid openings form from which yet another type of machine emerges, warriors resembling those that came from the main tomb, but mounted on flying devices in place of legs and with their right arms replaced with powerful four-barrelled weapons.
From the sands around the assembled army rise crescent-shaped constructions, cycling their weapon batteries towards the sky, and from the tomb entrances several hundred of giant spider-shaped machines come who assume guard around the portals.
Shortly before that, the dormant starship completed its reactivation. The power that once brought the rocks together now pushes them away, casting all the debris away.
The former moon would normally rise now over the tombs... the silver crescent of Necron starship appears instead.
The Lord gazed upon his massed army and altough the machines are impervious to feelings, his programming made him feel an equivalent of grim satisfaction on the sight of his millions of undying charges standing in perfect ranks on the black sand.
<awakening complete>
<all units awaiting orders>
<loading primary objective...>
<FIND LIFE. LEAVE ONLY DEATH.>
<EXECUTE OBJECTIVE>
<EXECUTION IN PROGRESS>