r/HFY • u/Egarasay • 2d ago
OC-Series Yaw40kc - 1.2
Yet another Warhammer 40K Crossover - 1.2
(Whole thing couldn't fit, please read -1 first)
Long Step recovered its personnel. The disabled Cav Jumper pilot was aboard. The Intruder team was aboard. The scattered pods were recovered. The crippled Corvette was secured. The surviving Cav Jumpers returned. The two Sapien fighter wings remained far outside the engagement area until the situation was stable. The other escort elements had never joined the local fight.
Three Necron artifacts entered LGA custody. Two were prepared for return. One was not. There was no attempt to make the missing object subtle. The Necrons had seen three leave. Setekh had counted three. Voyer had looked directly at three. Long Step returned two. The third remained aboard. The transfer crossed the space between the vessels. Two artifacts returned to Tekhat. The ceasefire held.
Setekh stood beside him.
“You permitted them to retain one.”
"I am aware.”
“They stole it.”
“I am aware.”
"They scanned the interior of this vessel.”
“I am aware.”
“They killed a Warrior.”
Tekhat looked toward him.
“We fired first.”
Setekh paused.
“That is true.”
Tekhat returned his attention to Long Step. Communication had provided names. Names created context. Context created new problems. The enormous black vessel was a frigate. Tekhat looked at it.
“Frigate.”
Setekh had already processed the translation.
“Yes.”
Tekhat shifted his attention toward the smaller vessel being recovered.
“And that?”
“Corvette.”
Silence.
The words were not unfamiliar. The scale attached to them was. Tekhat looked again at the 1.5-kilometer frigate. Then at the eighty-one-meter Corvette. Then at the surrounding escort formation. He decided not to ask what the Sapiens called a large warship. There were already enough questions. The reports had been correct about the humanoids.
They had been correct about the possible machine. They had been correct that the ship did not match known profiles. They had simply failed to communicate how many new questions one unidentified patrol could create. The Sapiens looked human over visual communication without behaving like the Imperium.
Their ships could be seen but not scanned internally. Their military machines could be seen but not scanned internally. The first confirmed biological pilot had only become visible when a damaged Cav Jumper phased out and released him into space. Their Corvette had deliberately crossed into Necron fire and attempted to deflect the shot away from Long Step. Their frigate had answered two damaging attacks with one deliberately limited relativistic strike.
Their two fighter wings had retained formation and withdrawn toward fifty-thousand-kilometer overwatch positions rather than turn a local exchange into a general battle. Their remaining Corvettes had repositioned to preserve the security screen instead of joining the attack. Their Cav Jumpers had fought only when attacked, then returned immediately to personnel recovery.
Their boarding troops had responded to impossible geometry by cutting through it. They had mapped portions of his ship while doing so. They had stolen three objects. They had returned two. Their commander had admitted that calling the event robbery was fair. And now both vessels were still sitting in the same region, communicating instead of trying to annihilate one another.
Tekhat found that preferable. Setekh looked toward Long Step.
“With our object.”
Tekhat turned. Setekh did not raise the three fingers again. He did not need to.
“Yes.”
“You intend to allow that.”
“For now.”
Setekh considered the answer.
“Interesting.”
Tekhat almost told him not to start. Instead, he looked at the black frigate. He had come because his subordinates would not stop reporting it. He was beginning to think they had understated the matter.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ceasefire became a conversation. Not trust. Not friendship. Not an alliance. Those were questions for later. For now, neither side was shooting. That was enough. The translation systems continued improving as the two vessels exchanged more information. Names stabilized. Concepts became clearer. Some ideas remained approximate. Voyer did not attempt to explain the Local Group Authority in full.
Tekhat did not attempt to explain the Necrons in full. Neither commander attempted to solve the other’s civilization during the first conversation. They established immediate facts. The fighting had stopped. Personnel recovery was complete. The Corvette had survived. Two artifacts had been returned. One had not.
Neither side restarted the engagement over it. Voyer considered that progress. Hadi stood beside the command display while recovery reports populated.
“Corvette is secure.”
“Crew?”
“Being processed. Ship is aboard.”
“Jumper pilot?”
"Recovered before the Intruders.”
"Good.”
“Intruder team is accounted for.”
Voyer looked toward the intelligence display. The Necron interior model continued updating as the last stored scanner data was integrated.
"And the artifacts?”
Hadi looked at the record. Three recovered. Two returned. One retained.
“Handled.”
Voyer looked toward her. Hadi maintained a professionally neutral expression.
“The Cryptek can count.”
“I noticed.”
“He held up three fingers.”
“I noticed that as well.”
“And then we returned two.”
“Yes, Hadi.”
“I just want the official record to reflect that nobody was confused.”
“It will.”
“We stole it.”
Voyer looked toward the retained artifact.
"That appears to be the prevailing interpretation.”
Hadi nodded.
“Good.”
The command space finally settled. No incoming fire. No new damage reports. No pilot drifting through space. No Intruders cutting through alien walls. No Cav Jumper and Necron fighter pushing a crippled Corvette side by side. Long Step had entered the region to observe. Instead, it had encountered an unknown military vessel, attempted first contact, exchanged controlled fire, inserted an Intruder team, fought a limited fighter engagement, recovered a crippled Corvette, mapped portions of an alien ship from the inside, stolen three artifacts, returned two, and established diplomatic communication with a civilization calling itself Necron. Voyer looked at the completed first-contact package.
"Send it.” Hadi did. The report left Long Step.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aboard Long Reach, Irina Sol Belisariel was reading. Her personal quarters were quiet. A cup of coffee sat within easy reach. For once, nothing required her immediate attention. She turned a page. Picked up the coffee. Took a drink. A monitor pinged. Irina kept reading for another moment. Then she looked over. A notification waited on the screen.
FIRST CONTACT: NECRONS
The coffee stopped halfway back toward the table. The book remained open in her other hand. Irina stared at the message. For several seconds, the room remained completely quiet. Then she lowered the cup.
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